Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
May 20, 2019
Hello All – Our media-savvy president nailed it last weekend when he said that the Iranians must be "totally confused" if they are relying on US news reports to figure out what our government plans to do about Iran. And we share the pain. After a week of rhetorically taking us to the brink of war, the end of the week brought us Official Rollback, as Trump met with his military team to declare that he did not a war with Iran. (And neither did Iran want a war with us.) Yet Sunday brought another threatening tweet from the Godfather; while there was lots of punditry that National Security Adviser John Bolton had gone too far (N. Korea, Venezuela, and now Iran), and may be on the way out. Yes, total confusion!
The fundamental problem for the Trump-Bolton-Pompeo team is that the US project for a war on Iran is almost universally rejected. Unlike the build-up for the war in Iraq, when President Bush had the support of several members of the UN Security Council, many European nations, most of the mainstream media, and about half of the Democrats in Congress, President Trump has zilch. Despite Secretary of State Pompeo's two trips to Europe, only Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE support war against Iran. Domestic propaganda efforts have generated little enthusiasm for war, and inner-circle diplomatic players (here,
here, and here) reject the US claims that Iran poses a threat to the United States. Indeed, if war against Venezuela or Iran appeared to have "Wag the Dog" usefulness, this moment may have passed.
The war scares re: Venezuela and now Iran are pointed reminders that the USA lacks and desperately needs an antiwar movement. Our mainstream media is no more equipped to deal with manufactured intelligence and war propaganda than it was back in the days of the run-up to the Iraq war. The leadership of the Democratic Party presents only tepid demurs to the war advocacy of the Trump team, and only a minority of the Party's presidential candidates has spoken out against war on Iran. A Bill in the Senate (S. 1039 - the "Prevention of Unconstitutional War with Iran Act of 2019.") now has 17 co-sponsors; but New York's Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer are missing from the list. Congressman Eliot Engel, whose Foreign Affairs Committee could hold televised hearings on the threat of war, has issued only an ambiguous statement of "concern"; while Congresswoman Nita Lowey, who, like Engel, supported the Iraq War and opposed the Iran Nuclear Agreement, has been silent. Peace advocates may be able to make a difference by calling our elected representatives and letting them know that War on Iran has no support in Westchester: Senator Gillibrand – (202) 224-4451; Senator Schumer – (202) 224-6542; Rep. Engel – (202) 225-2464; Rep. Lowey – (202) 225-6506. Thanks!
News Notes
Supporters of the Venezuelan government who had occupied the Embassy in Washington, DC to protect it from a takeover by supporters of the faux "interim president" Juan Guaido were arrested Thursday morning by DC police. The five-week occupation was organized by Code Pink and others, who claimed the police entry into the Embassy and the arrests of people who were there with the permission of the legitimate government of Venezuela, was illegal. Code Pink statement on the arrests can be read here; useful news articles about the Embassy occupation and the arrests can be read here and here.
An interesting report by Public Citizen, "Plutocrat Politics: How Financial Sector Wealth Fuels Political Ad Spending" shows that the Democrats raised more money from outside groups than did the Republicans for the 2018 mid-term elections. The most significant source of this largesse came from "wealthy individuals who earn their livings as hedge fund founders, bank executives, and other key positions in the financial industry." The finance industry donors in the top 100 gave $264 million to Democrat-supporting outside groups in 2017-18, according to the report. …"The influence of ultra-wealthy donors makes it harder to advance popular policies such as addressing inequality, imposing wealth taxes, strengthening worker protections, raising the minimum wage, ensuring health care for all and strengthening white collar law enforcement," writes Public Citizen.
French journalists could face up to five years in prison and be fined up to $83,000 for using secret documents to reveal that country's involvement in the war in Yemen. The series of reports can be read here. According to a useful news story, "the documents, authored by France's Directorate of Military Intelligence (DSGI), showed that senior French officials had lied about the role of French weapons in the Yemen War." This is/will become a French version of the WikiLeaks controversies re: freedom of the press, etc.
Natasha Lennard, who writes interesting articles for The Intercept, has a new book out called On Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life. In an interview published this week in The Nation, she "considers the meaning and the fearful reception of anti-fascist organizing today." Check it out!
Election Integrity
The CFOW Election Integrity team invites us to join them in Albany on Thursday, June 6th, for a rally organized by Smart Elections. The rally will demand that the NY State Board of Election Commissioners say YES to hand-marked paper ballots and secure, well-maintained ballot-marking devices for voters with disabilities; and NO to risky "hybrid" voting machines, NO to touch-screen voting machines, and NO to counting votes with barcodes. The rally will take place at the NY State Board of Elections meeting at 40 North Pearl St. in Albany at 11 AM. For more information and to RSVP, go here..
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – Weather permitting, the CFOW stalwarts gather every Saturday from 12 to 1 PM at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring St.) to protest war and other evils. Please join us!
Sunday, May 26 – Our friends at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society invite everyone to the Historical Society's 3rd Community Picnic, next Sunday from 1 to 4 PM at the Mead House, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs Ferry. Hot dogs, baked beans, and drinks provided; a side dish or dessert will be appreciated. A 50-year-old tradition, let's keep it up! Please rsvp to Maria Harris - mharrisdf@yahoo.com.
Sunday, June 2nd - CFOW's next monthly meeting will be held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 p.m. At these meetings we review our work/the happenings of the past month and make plans for the month to come. Everyone is welcome at these meetings.
Thursday, June 6th – Rally at the NY State Board of Elections in Albany. For info, go here..
CFOW Nut & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/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 rallies are usually about war or climate change, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's immigration policies are often targeted, depending on current events. We (usually) 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. And if you would like to support our work by making a contribution, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
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. As always, we have some excellent "Featured Essays." including a selection of articles on the attack on abortion rights. The editorial remarks on the Iran war are bolstered ("War & Peace") by links to several good/useful articles about this crisis. I also like the several articles about our climate crisis, some horrifying reading about the attacks on immigrants and their supporters at our southern border, and some trenchant remarks about Joe Biden. Israeli correspondent Amira Hass has a powerful essay on Germany, Israel, and the BDS movement ("Israel/Palestine"). Finally, the end of publication for the French journal "Les Temps Modernes" marks the end of an intellectual era, one that implanted the existentialist concept of "commitment" and the activist role of the intellectual into the heads of a generation, more than a half century ago. Read on!
Rewards!
The newsletter's Rewards are for stalwart readers who need a brief rest before proceeding to the heavy news and analysis. This week's Rewards come from the jazz-pop group Dave's True Story. Back in the early days of CFOW (and the Iraq war), co-founder Melissa Rosen put together many concerts that drew substantial crowds and raised money for groups such as September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. Dave's True Story was one of my personal favorites, and perhaps you will like them also. Here are "Crazy Eyes" and "Marissa." There are more on YouTube. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
On Hostile Coexistence with China
[FB - Former ambassador Charles W. Freeman gave this speech at Stanford University on May 3, 2019]
---- President Trump's trade war with China has quickly metastasized into every other domain of Sino-American relations. Washington is now trying to dismantle China's interdependence with the American economy, curb its role in global governance, counter its foreign investments, cripple its companies, block its technological advance, punish its many deviations from liberal ideology, contest its borders, map its defenses, and sustain the ability to penetrate those defenses at will. The message of hostility to China these efforts send is consistent and apparently comprehensive. Most Chinese believe it reflects an integrated U.S. view or strategy. It does not. There is no longer an orderly policy process in Washington to coordinate, moderate, or control policy formulation or implementation. Instead, a populist president has effectively declared open season on China. …We are now entering not just a post-American but post-Western era. In many ways the contours of the emerging world order are unclear. But one aspect of them is certain: China will play a larger and the U.S. a lesser role than before in global and regional governance. The Trump administration's response to China's increasing wealth and power does not bode well for this future. [Read More]
The "Yellow Vests Movement," Six Months Later
By Richard Greeman, ZNet [May 19, 2019]
---- I am writing you from France, where I am a participant-observer in the Yellow Vest movement, which is still going strong after six months, despite a dearth of information in the international media. … This unique, original social movement has enormous international significance. It has already succeeded in shattering the capitalist myth of "representative democracy" by unmasking the lies and violence of government and media, as well as the duplicity of representative institutions like political parties, bureaucratic unions and the mainstream media. Moreover, the Yellow Vests represent the first time in history that a spontaneous, self-organized social movement has ever held out for half a year in spite of repression while retaining its autonomy, resisting cooptation, bureaucratization and sectarian splits. All the while, standing up to full-scale government repression and targeted propaganda. … The immediate cause of this spontaneous mass rising was to protest an unfair tax on fuel (fiscal justice) but the Yellow Vests' demands quickly expanded to include restoration of public services (transport, hospitals, schools); higher wages, retirement benefits, healthcare for the poor, peasant agriculture, media free of billionaire and government control, and, most remarkably, participatory democracy. Despite their disruptive tactics, the Yellow Vests were from the beginning wildly popular with average French people (73% approval), and they are still more popular than the Macron government after six months of exhausting, dangerous occupations of public space, violent weekly protests and slanderous propaganda against them. [Read More]
It's Never Really about the Bread
By Eleanor Goldfield, Roar Magazine [May 17, 2019]
---- The tip of the iceberg is not what sank the Titanic. The US is not an empire in decline just because of Trump's presidency. Our environment is not collapsing because of one particular megafarm or one particular oil company. The tea tax was not what the American Revolution was about, just as the rise in the cost of bread after a long, harsh winter was not the cornerstone of the impending French Revolution. Like the top of the iceberg, these are the visible, overt and easy culprits to problems, rather than the deep and manifold causes. We can easily regard them and neatly write them into history books where jagged French peasants hold angry baguettes over their head as they march toward Versailles. The reality, of course, is that they were carrying so much more than just baguettes — they were carrying decades of oppression, rage and resentment. Fast forward to the 21st century and the echoes of history are apparent. Kings and baguettes may not be the talk of the town, but we still have top-heavy governments fomenting revolutionary ire. Yet, it is just as easy to fall into the same singular and lazy mindset with current events as with historical ones. … Talking about these issues as singular, flat and shallow not only removes context to understanding them, but removes our own experiences from the larger picture. It blinds us to our solidarity, the similarities between our fights to build something better. It places issues in silos that ignore the overarching realities of living in the age of late-stage capitalism and climate change. It erases the intersections of issues like racism, poverty, sexism, imperialism and more. It paints citizens as extremists, casts our fellow sick and tired as fanatics. After all, it seems like quite an overreaction to demand an entire regime be toppled simply for the price of bread. On that deeper level where we find the ties that connect movements, that build real solidarity and support, we must remember: it is never really about the bread. [Read More]
A Different Kind of Emergency [Militarizing our southern border]
By Jonathan Stevenson, New York Review of Books [May 23, 2019 issue]
---- President Trump appears to be testing the American political system's tolerance for soft dictatorship through the cavalier—and potentially illegal—use of presidential emergency powers. On February 15, after months of blustery threats, he declared a national emergency on the southern US border and dispatched the Army Corps of Engineers to administer the construction of a wall by private contractors in order to stop the flow of migrants and drugs into the country from Mexico. …Trump's transformation of the immigration enforcement agencies may affect very few ordinary Americans, but opposing immigration has become one of the main elements of his calls to "Make America Great Again." His prime motivation for building the wall is to fulfill a campaign promise he made to his political base to improve border security. While that base may not exceed 40 percent of voters, Trump's actions have not merely reinforced its support; they have also harnessed the zeal of civil servants with similar anti-immigration views in ICE and the US Border Patrol, the uniformed enforcement arm of US Customs and Border Protection. [Read More]
The Attack on Abortion Rights
Post-Roe America Won't Be Like Pre-Roe America. It Will Be Worse.
By Michelle Goldberg, New York Times [May 16, 2019]
---- This week, Alabama's governor signed legislation banning most abortions without exceptions for rape or incest, with sentences of up to 99 years in prison for abortion providers. … Georgia's governor…. Missouri's Senate … Louisiana … You can see, in the anti-abortion movement, a mood of triumphant anticipation. Decades of right-wing politics have all led up to this moment, when an anti-abortion majority on the Supreme Court could end women's constitutional protection against being forced to carry a pregnancy and give birth against their will. … As we watch Donald Trump remake this country in ways that once seemed unimaginable, it's tempting to reach for historical analogies to grapple with what's happening. It's why, as people struggle to understand how his abuses of power might be constrained, there's been renewed interest in Watergate. Yet, as in the comparison between Richard Nixon and Trump, the past can prove inadequate to understanding the depredations of the present. Rather than moving backward, we're charting awful new frontiers. [Read More]
(Video) What Does a Post-Roe America Look Like?
From Democracy Now! [May 19, 2019]
---- Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer issued what many considered a dire warning from the bench this week, implying that Roe v. Wade — the landmark ruling that recognizes the constitutional right to an abortion — is in danger. He wrote the comments in a dissent for an unrelated case in which the court voted to overturn a 40 year-old precedent. Breyer wrote "Today's decision can only cause one to wonder which cases the Court will overrule next." We speak to journalist Robin Marty about what a post-Roe America would look like, and how many people are already cut off from abortion access across the country. [See the Program]
For more on the attack on abortion rights - (Video) "Millions of Women Already Live in a Post-Roe America: A Journey Through the Anti-Abortion South," by Jordan Smith, The Intercept [January 18, 2019] [10 minutes] [See the program]; "Trump takes war on abortion worldwide as policy cuts off funds," by Sarah Boseley, The Guardian [UK] [May 17, 2019] [Link]; and this cartoon from The Nation hits the nail pretty hard.
WAR & PEACE
Trump and the Middle East: a Long Record of Personal Failure
---- Many American presidents have blundered in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, but Donald Trump's personal involvement in the region has been particularly disastrous. President Eisenhower introduced the CIA to the world of covert action, when he ordered the overthrow of the legitimate government of Iran in 1953. President Reagan endorsed a U.S. troop presence in Lebanon in 1982 in order to pull Israeli chestnuts out of the fire there due to their war crimes in Beirut, offering proof to the Arab nations of Washington's one-sided support for Israel. President George H.W. Bush went ahead with Desert Storm in 1991 although Soviet President Gorbachev had gained a commitment from Saddam Hussein to withdraw his forces from Kuwait. Worst of all, President George W. Bush used phony intelligence to justify an invasion of Iraq in 2003 that has created sixteen years of disarray throughout the region. But Trump has made numerous decisions that have compromised U.S. interests in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. [Read More]
The War in Yemen
The Death Lobby in Washington and the Yemen War from Hell
By Mashal Hashem and James Allen, Tom Dispatch [May 17, 2019]
---- Reports indicate that, at the sites of many Saudi-UAE coalition airstrikes in Yemen, evidence of munitions produced by the big four American defense contractors — Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and Raytheon — can be found. These four companies represent the largest suppliers of weapons to the Saudi and UAE coalition and have spent millions of dollars on lobbying efforts to retain political support in Washington. Their arsenal of lobbyists works tenaciously on the Hill, securing meetings with top officials on key congressional committees to advocate and push for increased arms sales. …oday, with the President's veto and Congress's failure to override it, the Saudi-UAE coalition, U.S. defense contractors, and their American lobbyists have, in essence, been given a green light to proceed with a business model that counts innocent Yemenis' deaths as the cost of doing business. Still, though yet another battle has been lost in that war at home, opposition to it may not yet be relegated to the dustbin of history. Certain members of Congress are still looking for new ways of tackling the issue, including the possibility of defunding American involvement in the war and the human rights violations that go with it. [Read More]
War Against Iran?
(Video) Will John Bolton's Dream to Bomb Iran Come True?
An interview with ex-Iranian Ambassador, Who Warns About U.S. Escalation [
From Democracy Now! [May 14, 2019]
----- The Pentagon has reportedly drawn up a plan to send as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East if President Trump decides to take military action against Iran. The New York Times reports the Pentagon presented the proposal on Thursday after National Security Advisor John Bolton requested a revision to an earlier plan. Bolton has long advocated for attacking Iran. …The U.S. has attempted to cut Iran off from the global economy, even though Iran has remained in compliance with the nuclear deal. We speak with Ambassador Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a Middle East Security and Nuclear Policy Specialist at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He served as spokesperson for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the European Union from 2003 to 2005. [See the Program] Also useful is this podcast from The Intercept, "Will John Bolton Finally Get His War With Iran?" [May 16, 2019] [Hear/read the program]
Iran Notes
"Boys go to Baghdad, but real men go to Tehran" – Bush official, 2003
Gibbon in his The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire writes of the Romans, "They endeavored to convince mankind that their motive was not the temptation of conquest but was actuated by the love of order and justice." West Asia, the Middle East is probably the most unstable part of the world – thanks largely to U.S. policy. And because of the region's importance to U.S. hegemony people here are saturated with propaganda. Today, the drumbeats of war are getting louder and louder. … Iran is accused by the U.S. of many things but far and away the most absurd charge is that Iran is somehow allied with Al-Qaida and the Taliban. Both these fundamentalist fanatical groups, and let's include ISIS, detest Iran and regard its Shia Islamic faith as heresy. This is what negotiations look like. It's right out of the Mafia playbook. The U.S. is holding a gun to Iran's head. Tehran must concede all of Washington's demands in advance then and only then will we sit down and talk. Obey the Godfather or else. [Read More]
More useful reading on "War against Iran?" – "Four Simple Steps the U.S. Media Could Take to Prevent a Trump War With Iran," by Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept i[[Link]; "Democrats Running for President Are Waking Up to the Danger of War With Iran," by Alex Emmons, et al., The Intercept [May 17, 2019] [Link]; and "Congress Must Deny Trump a Blank Check for War With Iran," by John Nichols, The Nation [May 15, 2019] [Link].
HUMAN-CAUSED CLIMATE CHAOS
Are ExxonMobil Executives the most evil people in the 200K-yr-long History of Humanity?
---- Internal ExxonMobil documents show that the company's scientists predicted in 1982 that by 2020, parts per million of carbon dioxide in earth's atmosphere would reach 410-420 ppm. For the first time this spring ppm of CO2 exceeded 415. They understood that the full effect of this vast increase in heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere would cause enormous changes, though much of the damage would occur centuries down the line. The company covered up these memos and staged a multi-million-dollar disinformation campaign to throw doubt on the reality of human-made climate change, to ensure that ExxonMobil could go on making billions in profits each year from selling gasoline. The scientists nailed it. ExxonMobil nailed it. They can be proud of their scientific prowess and predictive abilities, right? Wrong. They are evil. They are the most evil human beings to walk the earth since Homo Sapiens emerged in southern Africa around 200,000 years ago. CEOs of ExxonMobil such as Lee Raymond or Rex Tillerson or currently Darren Woods are banal in their evil, as Hannah Arendt would lead us to expect. They probably aren't even interesting to talk to. They are like wind-up toys, their springs being profit, that can't change direction, driving toward extinction. But they are much worse in the practical effect of their evil than Hitler or Pol Pot or any of the other genocidal maniacs we've seen in the past century. … Their names will be vilified for as long as human beings live. [Read More]
Does the Climate Movement Really Mean What It Says?
---- Why do so many in the climate movement invoke climate science to demand a target of 350 ppm carbon in the atmosphere—and then turn around and support legislation and candidates that fall far short of that demand? That's what is happening in New York. A bill that says right in its text that its target is 450 ppm may be enacted in the current legislative session that ends on June 19 with the support of much of the climate movement… The New York debate among climate activists over the last few years has been between two bills: the stronger New York Off Fossil Fuels Act (NY OFF) introduced in 2015 and the weaker Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA) introduced in 2016. … The political momentum in the legislature is with CCPA. Nearly every Democratic Senator and more than 50 of 150 Assemblymembers are co-sponsors. The new Democratic majority in the state Senate made the new chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee the new lead sponsor of CCPA. He is pushing to get the Senate to adopt the CCPA, which the Assembly is expected to also pass again. Climate legislation this year will likely be the CCPA. The question now is whether in can be strengthened by amendments. [Read More]
Also useful/insightful on the climate crisis – "The Political Power of the Green New Deal," by Zoë Carpenter, The Nation [May 17, 2019] [Link]; and "A Major Coal Company Went Bust. Its Bankruptcy Filing Shows That It Was Funding Climate Change Denialism," by Lee Fang, The Intercept [May 16, 2019] [Link]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
No More Deaths Trial Opens as More Bodies Discovered Along Arizona-Mexico Border
By Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept [May 14, 2019]
---- Dozens of people turned out in support for Scott Warren at the federal courthouse in Tucson, Arizona, last week. But as friends and family filled the benches, there was a noteworthy absence: A team of Warren's fellow humanitarian aid volunteers were out in the field. They were searching for a man reported missing on the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge — the same remote desert area where Warren was accused of leaving jugs of water, food, and medical supplies for migrants in distress. … The grim work provided an apt backdrop for the court proceedings in Tucson, where Warren's defense team argued that deeply held spiritual beliefs compel the 36-year-old geographer to confront the death and disappearance that encircle Ajo, Arizona, the tiny, unincorporated community where Warren lives and concentrates his humanitarian efforts — and where the remains of hundreds of migrants have been discovered in recent years. To prosecute Warren for those efforts would violate his religious freedom rights, the lawyers argued. Facing six months in prison on federal littering and trespassing charges, the misdemeanor trial was the first of two for Warren this month. The stakes are even higher in the second case, set to begin on May 29, with Warren fighting multiple felony smuggling and conspiracy charges and facing up to 20 years in prison for allowing two undocumented men access to food, water, and a place to sleep for two nights last year. [Read More] Also useful is "Border Official Admits Targeting Journalists and Human Rights Advocates With Smuggling Investigations," by Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept [[Link]; and (from last week's newsletter) (Video) "Let Them Have Water" [Link].
THE DEMOCRATS AND THE 2020 ELECTION
Does Anyone Actually Want Joe Biden to Be President?
By Jill Filipovic, New York Times [May 17, 2019]
---- The most important requirement for the Democratic Party's presidential nominee? Electability. It matters more, we keep hearing, than nominating a candidate who has good policies. It matters more than nominating a candidate with a track record of passing progressive legislation. It certainly matters more than nominating a candidate who could be the first female president. Unfortunately, very few people who say they are putting electability first seem to understand what "electability" means, or what today's electorate actually looks like. Case in point: In a field crowded with nearly two dozen candidates, no answer to the electability question is offered more regularly and with more conviction than "Joe Biden." … But getting elected is not about appealing to the bland median. It's about appealing to the people who actually feel motivated to turn out and vote. The Democratic Party of 2019 does not look much like Joe Biden. Women, African-American, Latino and Asian voters are all much more likely to say they support Democratic candidates than Republican ones. White voters, male voters and especially white male voters generally support Republicans. Statistics on who votes Democratic also suggest that the Democratic Party is more diverse than the experts deciding who is electable. [Read More] For more of this wonkish stuff, read "Analysis of Undecideds Suggests Biden's Support May be Exaggerated," b [Link].
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Israel Claims Victory After Germany's BDS Ban at the Expense of Minimizing the Holocaust
---- The resolution passed last week by the German parliament defining the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as anti-Semitic is nauseating. As the daughter of survivors of the cargo trains, who only by chance did not reach the end planned for them by the Third Reich, this resolution above all reeks of minimization of the objectives and results of Nazi anti-Semitism. Any comparison between the Jews in Germany during the 1930s and today's Israel is an act of minimization in its concern for the agenda of the state that was established in 1948 through the expulsion of the nation that lived here, and that is now a military power that rules over 5 million Palestinians without rights. … The decision is also a source of despair. If there was a slight chance of saving Israelis from themselves and from the job with which they identify so strongly – that of prison wardens belonging to the master race – it was only by means of boycotts, divestment and sanctions. Not against some performance by an artist, but against international corporations, against Israeli tourism abroad, against smiling receptions for racist Israeli politicians in world capitals, against commercial ties with Israeli arms developers who sell their wares to the most murderous regimes in the world today. [Read More] For more on Germany and the BDS Resolution, read "Germany, Shame on You and Your anti-BDS Resolution," bMay 19, 2019] [Link]. The New York Times version is here.
OUR HISTORY
The Truth-Teller: From the Pentagon Papers to the Doomsday Machine
An interview with Daniel Ellsberg, Tellus Institute [May 18, 2019]
---- Your recent book, The Doomsday Machine, describes "a very expensive system of men, machines, electronics, communications, institutions, plans, training, discipline, practices and doctrine designed to obliterate the Soviet Union under various circumstances, with most of the rest of humanity as collateral damage." How did this system come about?
Ellsberg: World War II created a highly profitable aerospace sector upon which the U.S. military relied for strategic bombing of cities, thereby setting the stage for the idea of bombers as a delivery mechanism for nuclear weapons. As orders precipitously declined by the end of the war, the industry was in dire financial straits, facing bankruptcy within a year or two. Accustomed to the guaranteed profits of the war years, they found themselves unable to compete with corporations experienced in building non-military products for the market, and demand for civilian aircraft on the part of commercial airlines was insufficient to replace the wartime military business. With the benefit of hindsight, I now see the Cold War as, in part, a marketing campaign for the continual, massive subsidies to the aerospace industry. That's what it became after the war, and that's what we are seeing again today. The contemporary analog is the idea of China as an existential enemy, which, I believe, is the dream and expectation of the U.S. Defense Department. [Read More]
'Les Temps Modernes': End of an Epoch
By Mitchell Abidor, New York Review of Books [May 17, 2019]
---- Reading old issues is to reexperience the intellectual life of the postwar world, when France set the tone and Les Temps Modernes set the terms for every debate of any importance, not just in France, but around the world. Until its death, the review remained stubbornly faithful to the project Sartre elaborated in his "presentation" in the review's first issue in October 1945. He wrote that though "all writers of bourgeois origin have known the temptation of irresponsibility… our intention is to assist in producing certain changes in the society around us." On the political issues of the day, the review, he promised, would "take a position in every case." Few publications remained as true to their initial goals as Les Temps Modernes, and few demonstrated the rigor and openness and bravery it did in fulfilling it. Fewer still could boast of contributors of the caliber of those who wrote for the journal, especially in its early days, and the quality and durability of their contributions. It was in the pages of Les Temps Modernes that we first find Sartre's "Portrait of the Anti-Semite," his "What is Literature," and political writings like his fellow-traveling "The Communists and Peace," and his post-Hungarian invasion rethinking of communism, "The Ghost of Stalin." His co-director Simone de Beauvoir was of course also a regular contributor, and in May 1948 we find "Women and Myths," described in a note as an "excerpt from a work to appear on the situation of the woman"—what would be The Second Sex. [Read More]
