CFOW Newsletter - California Burning

Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter

November 3, 2019

 

Hello All – For the last three years, fires have destroyed tens of thousands of acres of California woodlands.  Fire laps at the edges of towns and major cities.  San Francisco's newspaper wonders whether parts of California "have become too dangerous to inhabit." A decade of drought has killed 100 million trees. The drought has alternated with record downpours that have turned burned-over stretches into massive house-burying mudslides.

 

When our mainstream media (occasionally) mention "climate change," this is the reality.  It's a climate crisis. How long will it be before it's OK to mention this to the children?

 

An unexpected turn in California's fire season is that the electricity has been cut off to more than a million people, because the antiquated system is causing fires when a line is blown down in the high winds. Rebeca Solnit writes: "Ordinary life has vanished in fire-ravaged California":

 

"Everything has changed; everything must change to respond to it, with global action to limit the extent of climate chaos that is already so destructive, with local action to reinvent how we power our homes and communities and to shift whose interests are served from shareholders to citizens, and from corporations to the web of life. Right now in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, we are paying the price for relying on old systems in a new climate."

 

System breakdown is the new normal. The most amazing part of our climate crisis is that our political leaders and mainstream media largely ignore it.  "Climate change" is rarely mentioned. Fires and flooding are treated like traffic jams or street crime.  Stuff happens.  And our political leaders can do little.

 

The student-led Sunrise Movement, advocates of a Green New Deal, keep up their chant that we have only 12 years before Business as Usual threatens to make the climate crisis no longer controllable.  The young people, who will live their lives in a climate emergency, feel the heat and see the rising oceans.  Their political leaders, people charged with protecting them, will be long gone before the worst effects of the climate crisis are felt. Can a "modern," advanced industrial society respond to an existential crisis in time? Has evolution "selected" our species for survival?  It's not looking good.

 

Another Rising Cost of Climate Change: PG&E's Blackouts to Prevent Wildfires

By Georgina Gustin, Inside Climate News [October 30, 2019]

---- With wildfires forcing evacuations in the Los Angeles hills and Sonoma County, and parts of California under an "extreme red flag warning" from the winds, the state's largest electric utility triggered another preemptive blackout on Tuesday that left half a million customers in the dark. Shutting down the power has become PG&E's primary defense to keep its troubled power lines from sparking wildfires in the dry landscape, as happened in 2017 and 2018 to deadly effect. It also vividly illustrates how the costs of failing to address climate change reach far wider than just property lost to the flames. The blackouts, while likely saving homes and lives, mean many businesses and industries can't operate, schools can't open, and gas stations remain shuttered. For small businesses, several days without power or customers could be devastating. Just the blackouts alone could cost the state billions. [Read More]

 

Has the climate crisis made California too dangerous to live in?

By Bill McKibben, The Guardian [UK[ [October 29, 2019]

---- It wasn't the first time this had happened – indeed, it's happened every year for the last three – and this time the flames were licking against communities destroyed in 2017. Three years in a row feels like – well, it starts to feel like the new, and impossible, normal. That's what the local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, implied this morning when, in the middle of its account of the inferno, it included the following sentence: the fires had "intensified fears that parts of California had become almost too dangerous to inhabit". Read that again: the local paper is on record stating that part of the state is now so risky that its citizens might have to leave. On the one hand, this comes as no real surprise. … But California? California was always the world's idea of paradise (until perhaps the city of that name burned last summer). Hollywood shaped our fantasies of the last century, and many of its movies were set in the Golden state. California is the Golden state, the land of ease. [Read More]

 

News Notes

Two good interviews with Noam Chomsky were posted online this week.  At The Intercept, Chomsky says "The current moment, not just political, is the most grim moment in human history. We are now in a situation where this generation, in fact, in the next few years, is going to have to make a decision of cosmic significance which has never arisen before: Will organized human society survive?" [Link].  And at Truthout, Chomsky addressed President Trump's "foreign policy of a con man," with a focus on the latest events in Syria. [Link].

 

Today's New York Times has a must-read article on "How Trump Reshaped the Presidency in Over 11,000 Tweets" [Link]. That's about 10 tweets a day over 33 months. The article breaks down (with charts & graphs!) when he tweets, what he tweets about, etc. More importantly, the article shows the influence of far-right media platforms on Trump's thinking and re-tweeting.

 

The fossil-fuel giant Exxon is on trial in NYC, charged with misleading its investors (and thus the public) about the expected costs to its bottom line from climate change.  Last year we learned that Exxon scientists knew in the 1970s that burning fossil fuels would affect our climate, predicting quite accurately where we would be today.  But Exxon can't be sued for crimes against humanity, only for misleading investors.  To follow this important case, read about the testimony this week of former CEO Rex Tillerson [Link], and for some history of "what did the company know and when did it know it?" go here.

 

Things to Do/Coming Attractions

Tuesday, November 12^th – The New York Immigration Coalition writes: "On November 12th, the Supreme Court will hear the case on "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" also known as DACA, and begin proceedings to determine the fate of the program. This court decision will determine the future of 700,000 recipients. To build national support and call attention to this issue, we are mobilizing to DC to have a presence outside of the court. … We will be leaving the White Plains area at 2am on Tuesday, Nov. 12th (the day after Veteran's Day) to arrive in DC around 7:30am where we will convene to eat breakfast (provided by NYIC) and head to the rally."  For more information about the program and transportation/bus, go here.

 

Tuesday, November 12^th - The International Sanctuary Declaration Campaign "has called together outstanding migrant rights activists from around the world to speak to the conditions they are facing, how they are responding, and what it will take to turn fortresses into sanctuaries."  The event will take place at the Ethical Culture Society of Westchester, 7 Saxon Woods Rd. in White Plains, from 5 to 9:30 pm.  For tickets ($10) and more information, go here.

 

Thursday, November 14^th – Bronx Climate Justice North will show the film, "Fire in Paradise" (a PBS Frontline documentary), about the fires in California (and discussion to follow) at the Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture, 4450 Fieldstone Road, in Riverdale, starting at 7 pm.  For more information, go here.

 

Sunday, December 1^st – CFOW meets (usually) on the first Sunday of the month at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 pm.  We review our work of the previous months and make plans for the month to come.  Everyone is welcome at these meetings.

 

CFOW Nuts & 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 the climate crisis, 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!

 

Best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

 

This Week's Featured Essays

 

Convicted Anti-Nuclear Activists Speak Out: "Pentagon Has Brainwashed People"

By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout [October 28, 2019]

---- The seven Catholic peace activists who were convicted on October 24 for their symbolic protest against nuclear weapons at the Kings Bay Naval Base are now facing a two-to-three-month wait to hear their prison sentences. They could face more than 20 years in prison.. … The jury that convicted the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 activists was self-avowedly apathetic about the risks posed to humanity by nuclear weapons, and the judge and prosecution worked together to prevent the defendants from sharing information or arguments to raise jurors' consciousness on the issue. … Defendant Patrick O'Neill shared an anecdote that further highlights the degree to which the jury reflected the widespread ignorance about nuclear risks that exists in the U.S. now.  "When Judge Lisa Wood asked the entire jury pool: 'Do any of you have a strong opinion about nuclear weapons — pro or con, would you raise your hand?' Of 73 people, not one raised a hand," O'Neill told Truthout. [Read More]

 

The Lynching of the Charismatic Geek [Julian Assange]

By Diana Johnstone, Antiwar.com [November 2, 2019]

---- The original sin of Julian Assange was the same as that of Galileo Galilei. Galileo sinned by revealing to the people things the elite already knew or at least surmised, but wished to keep secret from the masses, in order not to shake the people's faith in the official truth. Assange did the same thing with the formation of WikiLeaks The official version of reality was challenged. All lies should be exposed. By far the most sensitive targets of his wide-ranging reality revelations were the lies, the hypocrisy, the inhuman brutality of the United States in its wars of global hegemony. To Assange, these things were simply wrong. … He did not know how to compromise; he was a geek after all, less and less charismatic as he faded in the shadows of the embassy of Ecuador. It's all very well to denounce lies and tell the truth, but one mustn't overdo it. It's delightful to have a cause when you have a solid social and financial background to fall back on, and when you know how to play the game so as to be in and out at the same time. Julian had none of those social graces. He was honest, intent, stubborn. He was incapable of hypocrisy, even in his own interest. He would not abjure, as Galileo did. [Read More]

 

Elizabeth Warren's Plan Is a Massive Win for the Medicare for All Movement

By Ady Barkan, The Intercept [November 1 2019]

---- The movement for single-payer health care has taken some big strides forward in recent years. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., put the issue at the center of the Democratic Party's debate with his run for president in 2016. In partnership with the nurses union and other champions, he then got 19 senators to co-sponsor his bill in 2017. After Democrats took back the House of Representatives, we demanded and got hearings in multiple powerful committees on the fantastic bill spearheaded by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. (The successor to that of the progressive hero and former Michigan Rep. John Conyers, who died this week.) These were our victories, earned by a movement that has been fighting for many decades. The plan that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren just released is another enormous win for us. It will help persuade our friends and families and neighbors to support Medicare for All, and in the not-too-distant future, to convince Congress too. Here's why. [Read More]

 

J Street conference confronts America's 'blank check' to Israel

By Mairav Zonszein, +972 Magazine [Israel] [November 1, 2019]

---- By making U.S. aid to Israel the central theme of its 2019 conference, J Street is challenging bipartisan support for Israel ahead of 2020. Now that the organization is starting to talk the talk, will it walk the walk? Sanders, a conference favorite who received by far the most exuberant applause when he came on stage, was the only one to call explicitly for conditioning and even redirecting aid; the Vermont senator suggested some of the $3.8 billion Israel receives annually should be redirected toward alleviating conditions in Gaza, which he described as "inhumane, unacceptable and unsustainable." The J Street conference marked a significant shift in the discourse around the U.S.-Israel relationship in general, and J Street's role in particular. [Read More] For more commentary on these significant developments, read "Democratic Party Split Over Military Aid To Israel" by Peter Beinart, The Forward [October 30, 2019] [Link].

 

Our History

(Video) Who Burned the Bronx? PBS Film "Decade of Fire" Investigates 1970s Fires That Displaced Thousands

From Democracy Now! [October 30, 2019]

---- The new documentary "Decade of Fire" looks back at the history of a crisis that unfolded in New York City in the 1970s, when the South Bronx faced a near-constant barrage of fires that displaced almost a quarter million people and devastated an entire community. Co-directors and producers Vivian Vázquez Irizarry and Gretchen Hildebran tell the story of the government mismanagement, landlord corruption, and redlining that lit the Bronx ablaze. They also describe how the community fought back to save their neighborhoods. The film airs next week on PBS. [See the Program]  And for Part Two of this program, "How Policymakers Tried to Clear the Bronx of Its Original Residents By Letting It Burn," go here.

 

 

CFOW Newsletter - Catholic Peace Activists Confront the Nuclaer Threat

Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter

October 28, 2019

 

Hello All – In Georgia, a federal grand jury on Thursday found seven Catholic peace activists guilty on three felony counts and a misdemeanor charge for breaking into the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base on April 4, 2018.  They face more than 20 years in prison. The activists, known as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, entered the base armed with hammers, crime scene tape, baby bottles containing their own blood, and an indictment charging the U.S. government with crimes against peace.

 

Kings Bay is home to at least six nuclear ballistic missile submarines, each of which carries 20 Trident thermonuclear weapons. Along with intercontinental missiles and nuclear bombers, the Trident subs are part of the US "strategic triad," the nuclear force that, in case of war, would send nuclear bombs to an enemy's homeland, targeting military and civilian targets.

 

The Trident submarines are the mainstay of the US nuclear program, in that they are invulnerable to attack, being deep under water and always moving. There are 18 of these subs in the US arsenal. The six subs located at Kings Bay, Georgia have 3,800 times as much destructive power as the weapon used at Hiroshima.  If they were ever used, the explosions would destroy life on Earth as we know it.  In addition to those killed immediately, a "nuclear winter" of dust and smoke would blot out the sun for years, adding famine to the horror of war and destruction.

 

For years, Catholic peace activists have challenged this insanity be taking "direct action," refusing to submit quietly to the threat to human extinction.  At Kings Bay in April 2018, following the commands of the prophet Isaiah, they symbolically "beat swords into plowshares." Over the past four decades activists in the Plowshares movement have taken part in about 100 similar actions at nuclear arms facilities, beginning in 1980 at the General Electric nuclear missile plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.  For their action at Kings Bay, the Ploughshares 7 chose the date of April 28, 2018, the 50^th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

What is the point of these symbolic actions?  What do they accomplish?  For the Catholic activists themselves, it is a refusal to live in complicity with the consummate evil of our times – nuclear war.  They express the intolerable existential outrage of being expected to obey a society's law that legitimate the existence, and potential use, of weapons that are so powerful that they would end organized life on Earth.  And then one wonders why everyone doesn't do this, how anyone could be a bystander in this situation. 

 

Part of citizen passivity, of course, is the blackout customarily employed by the mainstream media when it comes to citizen activism.  Dissent in the "proper channels" is regarded as part of the "democratic process" that gives our war machine its legitimacy; but citizen activism not expressed in elections or petitions, but through direct action by the outraged populous, is a danger to be quarantined with silence.  This is especially damaging to democracy at a time when the Trump administration, following on the initiatives of the Obama administration, is in the early stages of a trillion-dollar nuclear "modernization" program, one of whose purposes is to make nuclear weapons "more useable" by concentrating the blast area. That such heinous thoughts could even be entertained should constitute an Impeachable Offense in itself.

 

To learn more about the Ploughshares 7 and the Trident missile program, check out below:

 

Catholic Activists Stand Trial for Protesting Nuclear Weapons

By Sam Husseini, The Nation [October 21, 2019]

---- It's a mark of many Catholic Worker activists that they expect to, at some point, be taken before "rulers and authorities." As Grady and six others—a group of Catholic activists calling themselves the Kings Bay Plowshares 7—entered the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in St. Marys, Georgia, on April 4, 2018, the loudspeakers blared: "Use of deadly force is authorized." But they were there exactly because they view the facility as an epicenter of lethal force. The Plowshares 7 brought hammers, small bottles of blood, spray paint, and crime scene tape, which they strung across the facility. The base houses the Trident nuclear missile system; the group hoisted a sign that read "The Ultimate Logic of Trident: Omnicide," poured the blood on the ground, and spray painted "Love One Another" on the pavement. [Read More]

 

Trident Is the Crime

By Kathy Kelly, Waging Nonviolence [October 26, 2019]
---- On October 24, following a three-day trial in Brunswick, GA, seven Catholic Workers who acted to disarm a nuclear submarine base were convicted on three felony counts and one misdemeanor. The defendants face 20 years in prison, yet they emerged from their trial seeming quite ready for next steps in their ongoing witness. …On that day, April 4, 2018, the group had entered a U.S. Navy Submarine base which is a home port for the Trident nuclear missile fleet. Just one of those nuclear missiles, if launched, would cause 1,825 times more damage than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The Plowshares activists aimed to expose illegal and immoral weapons that threaten all life on earth. [Read More]

 

News Notes

Hastings' Nick Mottern recently published an article titled "US Drone Program May Have Helped Turkey Kill Kurds for Over a Decade." The Kurds in question are those living in southeastern Turkey, who have been attacked by the Turkish government for decades.  Nick writes: "It is a campaign that from time to time seems to have subjected whole communities to attack, particularly in cases in which Kurdish fighters were believed to be in the communities, with U.S. drone video, heat-sensing and other surveillance equipment spotting targets for Turkish conventional aircraft, drones and ground forces."  Drone technology enables the USA to assist "allies" in genocide, without any US casualties. For much more on drone warfare, check out Nick's website, https://www.knowdrones.com/.

 

Alan Bigelow, CFOW friend and formerly of Hastings but now living in Nyack, was recently featured in The New Yorker for his role in the "solar cooking revolution." Solar cookers burn no fossil fuels, and Alan has brought his story of how the cookers can be built and used efficiently to many audiences, including the United Nations. "About three billion people around the world cook on open fires," says Alan.  Using solar cookers can reduce deforestation, save the planet, and make cooking more pleasant.  Give it a try!

 

The Methodist Church of Southern Africa, Nelson Mandela's church, has endorsed Palestine's Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS). At a recent conference in Cape Town, the church denounced "Israel's ongoing ill-treatment and oppression of Palestinian people, and the historic prophetic role played by the church and international community in fighting Apartheid, and any form of discrimination and injustice." Read More

 

Things to Do/Coming Attractions

Sunday, November 3^rd – The next CFOW meeting is on Sunday, November 3, from 7 to 9 pm. at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St.  We will have lots to discuss, as the impeachment saga will be over the top, with many collateral impacts on foreign and domestic policy. Everyone is welcome at these meetings

 

Tuesday, November 12^th - The International Sanctuary Declaration Campaign "has called together outstanding migrant rights activists from around the world to speak to the conditions they are facing, how they are responding, and what it will take to turn fortresses into sanctuaries."  The event will take place at the Ethical Culture Society of Westchester, 7 Saxon Woods Rd. in White Plains, from 5 to 9:30 pm.  For tickets ($10) and more information, go here.

 

CFOW Nuts & 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 the climate crisis, 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!

 

Best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

 

SOME INTERESTING/ILLUMINATING READING AND VIEWING

 

The Betrayal of the Kurds

By Peter W. Galbraith, New York Review of Books [October 24, 2019]

---- The full consequences of President Trump's decision on October 6 to withdraw American troops and give Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a green light to invade northeast Syria are not yet clear. Erdoğan claimed that he wanted to create a twenty-mile buffer zone in which perhaps one million Syrian refugees living in Turkey could be resettled, but he may have had the ambition of turning all of northeast Syria over to the Islamists whom Turkey had sponsored in western Syria during the country's civil war and who were largely defeated there. Thanks to deft Russian diplomacy, that ambition—which could have reignited the Syrian civil war just as it was winding down—appears to have been largely thwarted. But it is hard to imagine a more calamitous outcome for the United States, the Kurds, NATO, and possibly Turkey itself. … The SDF was, of course, not a party to either the Putin-Erdoğan or the Pence-Erdoğan agreements. While it has no choice but to accept the protection of Russia and the Syrian government, this does not mean that it will abandon the places right along the border where almost all Syrian Kurds live. If Erdoğan resumes his war, the ethnic cleansing could be enormous. [Read More]

 

America's Military Mania Is Hurting Democracy

By William Astore, The Nation [October 24, 2019]

---- When Americans think of militarism, they may imagine jackbooted soldiers goose-stepping through the streets as flag-waving crowds exult; or, like our president, they may think of enormous parades featuring troops and missiles and tanks, with warplanes soaring overhead. Or nationalist dictators wearing military uniforms encrusted with medals, ribbons, and badges like so many barnacles on a sinking ship of state. (Was Donald Trump only joking recently when he said he'd like to award himself a Medal of Honor?) And what they may also think is: That's not us. That's not America. After all, Lady Liberty used to welcome newcomers with a torch, not an AR-15. We don't wall ourselves in while bombing others in distant parts of the world, right? But militarism is more than thuggish dictators, predatory weaponry, and steely-eyed troops. There are softer forms of it that are no less significant than the "hard" ones. In fact, in a self-avowed democracy like the United States, such softer forms are often more effective because they seem so much less insidious, so much less dangerous. [Read More]

 

(Video) "State of Emergency" [Housing and Homelessness]

From Democracy Now! [October 26, 2019]
---- We turn now to the crisis of homelessness in the United States, which is on the rise in many major cities. California has become the poster child for this economic and humanitarian disaster, with growing encampments in Los Angeles and the Bay Area as more people are forced onto the streets. The state is home to 12% of the U.S. population, but half the country's unsheltered people. As the crisis deepens, so has the criminalization of homelessness, with increasing efforts by city and state officials to crack down on unhoused people occupying public space. [See the Program]

 

The Miseducation of Samantha Power

By John Carl Baker, Jacobin Magazine [October 2019]

---- Samantha Power's new memoir, The Education of an Idealist, is an important and engaging work that should be widely read — especially by those of us who disagree with her. It deftly conveys the linkage between personal biography and political belief, showing Power not as a wily imperialist villain but a committed liberal whose consistent focus on human rights has nonetheless led her to embrace perpetual empire. This distinction matters because Power's political causes — atrocity prevention, support for subjugated minorities, international human rights — should be championed by all decent people. Yet her flawed prescriptions — particularly "humanitarian intervention" by the world's most powerful military — help maintain US dominance in the world and often undermine the very principles they profess to defend. With its adoration of the military and praise for the neutrality of "public service," the memoir raises serious questions about contemporary liberalism's ability to check antidemocratic trends.. [Read More]

 

Our History

The FBI Has a Long History of Treating Political Dissent as Terrorism

By Alice Speri, The Intercept [October 22 2019]

---- While terrorism in the U.S. is relatively rare, over the last decade most politically motivated violence has come at the hands of far-right extremists. Despite that reality, the FBI has devoted disproportionate resources to the surveillance of nonviolent civil society groups and protest movements, particularly on the left, using its mandate to protect national security to target scores of individuals posing no threat but opposing government policies and practices. Since 2010, the FBI has surveilled black activists and Muslim Americans, Palestinian solidarity and peace activists, Abolish ICE protesters, Occupy Wall Street, environmentalists, Cuba and Iran normalization proponents, and protesters at the Republican National Convention. And that is just the surveillance we know of — as the civil liberties group Defending Rights & Dissent documents in a report published today. … But the targeting of political dissent is nothing new for the FBI. In fact, one of the bureau's first campaigns, which began a hundred years ago next month, was an abusive crackdown of politically active immigrants it viewed as disloyal potential terrorists. [Read More]

CFOW Newsletter - Yes to impeachment; yes to US troops out of Syria

Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter

October 20, 2019

 

Hello All – The withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria, the Turkish invasion, the re-alignment of the (Kurdish) Syrian Democratic Forces with the Assad government, and the insertion of Russian forces between the Turkish invasion and the Syrian military forces in northern Syria – all this amounts to a military and political revolution.

 

President Trump's withdrawal of troops from northern Syria, and his "green-lighting" of the Turkish invasion, has generated bi-partisan outrage in Congress and among the US political and media elite. A very lopsided vote in the House of Representatives condemning Trump's actions in Syria, and Sen. Mitch McConnell's op-ed in the Washington Post similarly critical of Trump's actions, are the first signs that Republican support for Trump may be wobbling.

 

Liberal Democrats, such as Ro Khanna speaking on Democracy Now!, have rightly criticized Trump for the abrupt and irresponsible way that US troops are being withdrawn, especially in putting the Syrian Democratic Forces (Kurds) and the Kurdish communities of northern Syria in danger.  But what do Democrats and antiwar stalwarts suggest instead?  Somehow we must thread the needle between criticizing what Trump has done and supporting the removal of US troops from Syria and the greater Middle East.

 

In considering the Democrats' critique of Trump's Syria/Turkish move, we note that along with strong criticism there is a loud silence concerning what they propose, because the party is divided between advocates of peace and supporters of endless war. US war policy in Syria has always been a bi-partisan affair.  President Obama began it, with the CIA arming and training Syrian "moderate jihadis" to overthrow President Assad's regime in Syria.  But the rebels were anything but "moderate," and they now compose the Turkish-backed force. It is also worth noting that the Kurds in the Middle East have been betrayed by the USA many times before, by both Republican and Democratic presidents. Whatever Trump's faults in the way that he removed US troops and opened the door for the Turkish invasion, the disasters following on the bi-partisan post-9/11 wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan justify the antiwar movement's demands that these wars should be ended immediately.

 

Second, we must be clear that President Trump is not ending the wars in the Middle East.  He is NOT "bringing the troops home." Since May 2019 Trump has raised the number of US troops in the Middle East from 60,000 to 74,000.  When Congress passed the War Powers Act to end US support for the war on Yemen, Trump vetoed it. Trump has also escalated the bombing of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.  The number of attacks using drones has also increased, as has the number of civilian casualties. And at the same time that he withdrew US troops from northern Syria, he sent 2,800 troops and fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. And Trump's attacks on the "military industrial complex" are also phony, as he has stuffed his cabinet and the Pentagon leadership with lobbyists from arms companies like Raytheon. And did we mention that the US military budget is now more than a trillion dollars a year?

 

Concerned Families of Westchester supports the impeachment of President Trump.  But we reject the bi-partisan idea that to fight Trump we should somehow keep US troops in Syria and double-down on maintaining the "security" of an over-expanded Empire.

 

News Notes

Saturday's rally in Queens for Bernie Sanders for President had a big turnout and lots of enthusiasm.  Last week Sanders was endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.  A highlight (imo) was AOC's terrific speech.  Check it out!

 

Foreign countries "meddling" in US politics should be strongly condemned. This week the (UK) Guardian published documents showing "Israel's rightwing push to ban criticism of Israel on US campuses." Also useful: "Are Israel Lobbies Primary Threat to First Amendment? Report Exposes Right-Wing Effort to Ban Criticism of Israel in US Schools." [Link}.

 

While the thinking people of the world try to fight climate crisis by reducing/ending the use of fossil fuels, the US government gives billions of dollars to the industry. "Last year, the biggest fossil fuel companies paid zero dollars in taxes — and actually received billions in rebates."  Read more here.

 

The New York Times published an excellent article showing how "Medicare for All" could be paid for simply by reducing the military budget.  Read this comprehensive analysis/explanation from the National Priorities Project of the Institute for Policy Studies.

 

Things to Do/Coming Attractions

Sunday, October 20^th – The United Nations Association of Westchester invites us – and especially "motivated students" – to join them for a county-wide showcase of student projects and campaigns that respond to the climate crisis.  The event will be held at the Community Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 468 Rosedale Ave in White Plains, from 3 to 5 pm.  To register, and for more information, go here.

 

Sunday, October 27^th – Action Corps has been the leading advocate in our area to end US support for the Saudi war in Yemen.  They will hold their annual "community meal" at 4 pm at Riverdale Temple to "celebrate our work championing justice for people most affected by climate disasters and violent conflict." Among the guests will be Rep. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who has advocated for an end to the war in Yemen. For more information, go here.

 

Sunday, November 3^rd – The next CFOW meeting is on Sunday, November 3, from 7 to 9 pm.  We will have lots to discuss, as the impeachment saga will be over the top, with many collateral impacts on foreign and domestic policy.

 

Tuesday, November 12^th - The International Sanctuary Declaration Campaign "has called together outstanding migrant rights activists from around the world to speak to the conditions they are facing, how they are responding, and what it will take to turn fortresses into sanctuaries."  The event will take place at the Ethical Culture Society of Westchester, 7 Saxon Woods Rd. in White Plains, from 5 to 9:30 pm.  For tickets ($10) and more information, go here.

 

CFOW Nuts & 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 the climate crisis, 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!

 

Rewards!

I only learned recently that the late John Berger's classic book, Ways of Seeing, was originally a BBC television program.  Berger was one of our most creative interpreters of the artistic/visual world.  Check out the program here.  Enjoy!

 

Best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

 

 

SOME INTERESTING/ILLUMINATING THINGS TO READ AND WATCH

 

Death, Misery and Bloodshed in Yemen

By Kathy Kelly, Counterpunch [October 18, 2019]

---- Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Saudi-led coalition bombarding and blockading Yemen have killed tens of thousands, wrecking the country's already enfeebled infrastructure and bringing Yemen to the brink of a famine that may kill millions. President Trump signaled additional support for Saudi Arabia on October 11 when the U.S. military announced it would send thousands more troops to the kingdom, bringing the number of U.S. troops there to 14,000. Just as Greta Thunberg insists adults must become intensely aware of details and possible solutions regarding the climate catastrophe, people in the U.S. should learn about ways to end economic as well as military war waged against Yemen. For us to understand why Yemenis would link together in the loose coalition of fighters called Huthis requires deepening awareness of how financial institutions, in attempting to gain control of valuable resources, have pushed farmers and villagers across Yemen into debt and desperation. Isa Blumi writes about this sordid history in his 2018 book, Destroying Yemen: What Chaos in Arabia Tells Us about the World. [Read More]

 

Chicago's Teachers Are Making History. Again.

By Jane McAlevey, The Nation [October 15, 2019]

---- The strikes that spread from Chicago across the nation are happening because energetic, smart rank-and-file workers are finally taking back their own organizations—their unions—after too many years of risk-averse leaders whose unwillingness to use the strike weapon contributed to the downfall of the working class. Many teachers in Chicago are stellar educators: After an eight-year stint as a full-time leader of the union, Potter has returned to the high school classroom to teach eleventh-grade classes on "the theory of knowledge, civics and modern world history." But it's not just students at his school in the Back of the Yards neighborhood who benefit. Perhaps the most important lesson Chicago's educators have taught us is that to build a country where policy makers favor the supermajority rather than the 1 percent means a return to massive, supermajority strikes. It is only through such strikes that we can rebuild the solidarity desperately needed among workers—and between workers and the broader society. Strikes are to democracy what water is to life: not a distraction or a disturbance but the foundation. [Read More]

 

How Climate Crises and New Technologies Will Change What It Means to Be Human

An interview with Bill McKibben, The Intercept [October 19, 2019]

----- Is the human race approaching its demise? The question itself may sound hyperbolic — or like a throwback to the rapture and apocalypse. Yet there is reason to believe that such fears are no longer so overblown. The threat of climate change is forcing millions around the world to realistically confront a future in which their lives, at a minimum, look radically worse than they are today. At the same time, emerging technologies of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence are giving a small, technocratic elite the power to radically alter homo sapiens to the point where the species no longer resembles itself. Whether through ecological collapse or technological change, human beings are fast approaching a dangerous precipice. The threats that we face today are not exaggerated. They are real, visible, and potentially imminent. They are also the subject of a recent book by Bill McKibben, entitled "Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?" McKibben is an environmentalist and author, as well as the founder of 350.org, a campaign group working to reduce carbon emissions. His book provides a sober, empirical analysis of the reasons why the human race may be reaching its final stages. [Read More]

The Greening of the New Deal

By Steve Fraser, Tomdispatch [October 18, 2019]

…. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, would launch a "New Deal," a wide-ranging set of programs to promote economic recovery that would recreate the American political universe. From that moment to this one, it has served as ground zero for the country's political imagination, the Rosetta Stone for understanding every enduring political development of the last 75 years. President Harry Truman's "Fair Deal" (including proposals for universal health insurance and federal aid to education) and Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" were conceived as elaborations and extensions of what the New Deal had wrought in the 1930s. "Neo-liberalism" and the "new conservatism" were invented to undo what their creators considered its damage. Today, the "Green New Deal" — a 10-year plan introduced by New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey to transition to 100% renewable energy, while embarking on major social reforms — marks the far horizon of the left-liberal imagination. For those opposed to it, the Green New Deal, like the original one, is already considered little but camouflage for a program to introduce socialism to America. Like its predecessor, it arrives on the scene at a fateful moment. There is no way to exaggerate the gravity of the Great Depression in its time or the looming prospect of climate catastrophe in ours. The question is: Could the Green New Deal do what the first one did to stave off the worst — or even do more? [Read More]

 

Our History

Singing the Back Streets [Nelson Algren]

By Andrew O'Hagan, New York Review of Books [November 7, 2019 issue]

[FB – This is a review of Never a Lovely So Real: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren, by Colin Asher.]

---- Algren's conscience was trailed by the FBI. The reasons weren't very complicated. He was a writer out of the Depression who felt that America should be judged by how it treated its poorest citizens. As an artist, he had a special vision and a singular prose, and he used them to see behind the billboards and the newsreels, beyond the lipstick, beyond the fear, into the lives of people left stranded by the American dream. He offers a lesson in what it means to be a writer in a society that believes commerce is virtue. More than Walt Whitman or John Steinbeck, more than F. Scott Fitzgerald or Dorothy Parker, he reveals the essential loneliness of the serious writer, never fooling himself with baubles and status, but staying with his subjects, the forgotten in society and his own alien self. [Read More]

 

 

CFOW Newsletter - Focus on Impeaching Mad King Donald

Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter

October 13, 2019

 

Hello All – It was inevitable that the mere initiation of impeachment proceedings against President Trump would generate a torrent of irrational and potentially dangerous acts on his part, some of which would amount to impeachable offenses themselves. (See Marjorie Cohn's essay, "Trump's Stonewalling of Impeachment Inquiry Is an Impeachable Offense.")  And this week Trump's incoherent stance toward Turkey's invasion of northeast Syria has generated protests from previously durable allies in the Republican Senate.  The arrest while trying to flee the country of two of Mayor Giuliani's henchmen, and the unraveling of the Trump team's prohibition on current and former administration officials testifying to Democrat-controlled investigating committees is a further sign of Trump Besieged.

 

It is clear that the wheels are falling off the Trump presidency.  The loose screws in our president are on full display.  The pressures coming from congressional investigations and the rising dissent from Trump's former staff and supporters are causing the president to act more irrationally. As Rebecca Solnit wrote in the article linked below: "President Trump and the upper echelons of the executive branch are at war with the legislative branch, the rule of law, the constitution, federal civil servants and the American people. Tuesday's White House refusal to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry only escalates their defiance and their chaos."

 

Where will this lead? It is increasingly clear (at least to me) that Trump's refusal to cooperate with whatever remains of an "impeachment process" has moved the power struggle among the US political elite to a new level.  Even the Watergate impeachment of President Nixon did not seem to hold the same promise of high-intensity sword fighting among the main players.  Below I've linked good/useful essays that address the widening conflict.  Interesting Times!

 

President Trump is at war with the rule of law. This won't end well

By Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian [UK] [October 9, 2019]

---- Do Americans still have a government? I do not know. What I do know is that President Trump and the upper echelons of the executive branch are at war with the legislative branch, the rule of law, the constitution, federal civil servants and the American people. It's a conflict that pulls in many directions, and if the president threatened civil war the other day as something that could happen if he doesn't get his way, we can regard the ordinary state of things as a low-intensity civil war or a slo-mo coup that's been going on from the beginning. Tuesday's White House refusal to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry only escalates their defiance and their chaos. The chaos takes so many forms. Innumerable stories have made it clear that even the president's own aides and cabinet members treat him like a captive bear or a person having a psychotic breakdown – like someone unstable who must be kept from harming himself and others. They have done that by heaping on the flattery, and by warping and limiting the information he receives, and often by doing their best to prevent his directives from being realized. [Read More]

 

Trump Is Mentally Unfit, No Exam Needed

[FB - Three mental health professionals who contributed to "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" cite recent actions that confirm their worries.] [October 11, 2019]

To the Editor: Re "Trump Flies Into the Cuckoo's Nest" [Link] [Gail Collins, October 10, 2019]

---- Gail Collins makes a point that we have been articulating seriously since the publication of our book, "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," two years ago: President Trump is mentally unfit for office. Our publications have been derided as violations of the Goldwater Rule, "armchair psychiatry" and political bias dressed up as professional opinions. But, as mental health professionals, we have felt a duty to address a public health crisis: a mentally unfit person in charge of the world's most powerful military and its nuclear weapons. We have found ample evidence of his instability and grandiosity in the president's own words and public statements, most recently confirmed in his referring to "my great and unmatched wisdom," coupled with yet another threat to "totally destroy and obliterate" a foreign country. [Read More]

 

News Notes

When we were younger, October 12^th was Columbus Day. Today 8 states and more than 130 cities in 34 states observe Indigenous Peoples Day as an alternative to Columbus Day. For an interesting guide re: how this came about, read "Indigenous Peoples' Day: Rethinking How We Celebrate American History," Smithsonian Magazine [October 11, 2019] [Link].  And if another example is needed of how racism lurks in every corner of American history, recommended is "How Italians Became 'White'," by Brent Staples, New York Times [October 12, 2019] [Link].

 

In the UK, a slanderous campaign vilifies the Labour Party and its leader Jeremy Corbyn.  Led primarily by rightwing interests, the campaign alleges both the party and the leader are guilty of anti-Semitism.  In a letter to the UK's leader liberal newspaper The Guardian, Noam Chomsky and many UK intellectuals and political leaders claim "Flawed reporting on antisemitism claims against the Labour party." [October 11, 2019] [Link]

 

The "School Strike for Climate," pioneered by Sweden's Greta Thunberg, has come to Hastings. For the second Friday in a row, a Hastings middle school student has taken her spot in front of Village Hall from 12:30 to 3:15.  If you see her, give her some love and join the strike.

 

Things to Do/Coming Attractions

Saturday, October 19^th – World Can't Wait will hold a rally demanding "Remove Trump/Pence" at Union Square, NYC, starting at 5 pm.  For more information, go here.

 

Sunday, October 20^th – The United Nations Association of Westchester invites us – and especially "motivated students" – to join them for a county-wide showcase of student projects and campaigns that respond to the climate crisis.  The event will be held at the Community Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 468 Rosedale Ave in White Plains, from 3 to 5 pm.  To register, and for more information, go here.

 

Sunday, November 3^rd – The next CFOW meeting is on Sunday, November 3, from 7 to 9 pm.  We will have lots to discuss, as the impeachment saga will be over the top, with many collateral impacts on foreign and domestic policy.  I'm thinking about asking another speaker, as the last two meetings w/a speaker were successful.  Any thoughts or suggestions?

That's it for this week.

 

Best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

 

Some Interesting/Useful Reading

 

Non-violently hitting our stride

From Extinction Rebellion [October 13, 2019]

---- As we approached the first weekend of the October Rebellion, it was humbling and inspiring to see that rebels showed no sign of slowing down. In fact, day 5 was marked by a series of exciting milestones: XR Dublin had their first arrests; XR Israel reached a new level of direct action, as rebels glued themselves to the National Stock Exchange in Tel Aviv; and Aussie rebels pioneered the delightful new concept of 'Civil Disco-bedience'. While some sites have been cleared of permanent roadblocks, rebels stayed resilient everywhere: hunger strikers in Italy entered their fifth day, and declared their intent to continue until the Italian prime minister agreed to meet them. … In the words of a rebel in France: 'each in our own way, but ultimately together.' That is how we will win. [Read More] Also very useful is "Can Extinction Rebellion Build a U.S. Climate Movement Big Enough to Save the Earth?" by Alleen Brown, The Intercept [October 12 2019] [Link]. Justin Gillis is a former environmental reporter for the New York Times.  Recommended is his op-ed, "Fire, Floods and Power Outages: Our Climate Future Has Arrived," [October 12, 2019] [Link]

 

Inside the Deportation Courts

By Madeleine Schwartz, New York Review of Books [October 10, 2019 issue]

---- Because immigration courts are under the control of the attorney general, the executive branch can issue new rules that send lawyers scrambling for new ways to represent their clients. Both Sessions and Barr have done this, limiting the meaning of asylum by redefining who counts as a legitimate victim. Immigrants who fear for their lives because of domestic violence find it much more difficult to obtain asylum, as do immigrants whose lives are threatened because their relatives were threatened or killed. One immigration official I talked to compared the attorney general's role to that of the appeals courts, whose decisions bind judges in lower courts. But appeals courts are meant to act independently of the executive branch, not to further its interests. Trump has often called the idea of asylum a "loophole" in the immigration system. … Trump's attempts to close possible paths to immigration have meant ramping up activity in court. Some immigration judges operate out of courthouses, others work out of detention centers, and some have been transferred—both in person and virtually—to courts along the border. Over the course of a week in the Rio Grande Valley, I visited four courts: two immigration courts, one federal court, and new tents set up for immigration hearings. It was common to see people be forced to leave the US after hearings lasting minutes. [Read More]

 

Pathways to Peace

By Mairead Maguire, Counterpunch [October 11, 2019]

[FB – Mairead Maguire is the co-founder of Peace People and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her work in organizing nonviolent action to end the fighting in Northern Ireland. She gave this speech on October 4^th at NoWar2019 in Limerick, Ireland.]

---- I am very happy to be with you all at this conference. I would like to thank David Swanson and World Beyond War for organizing this important event and also all those attending for their work for peace. I have long been inspired by the American Peace activists and it is a joy to be with some of you at this conference. A long time ago, as a teenager living in Belfast, and social activist, I was inspired by the life of Dorothy Day, of the Catholic Worker. Dorothy, a nonviolent Prophet, called for an end to war and the money from militarism, to be used to help alleviate poverty.   Alas, if today Dorothy (RIP) knew that one in six individuals in the USA is in the Military-Media-Industrial-Complex and armament costs continue to rise daily, how disappointed she would be. Indeed, one third of the USA military budget would eliminate the entire poverty in the USA. We need to offer new hope to a humanity suffering under the scourge of militarism and war. … We are also challenged to build structures through which we can co-operate and which reflect our interconnected and inter-dependent relationships. .. I believe if we are to survive as the human family, we must end Militarism and War and have a policy of general and complete disarmament. In order to do so, we have to look at what is sold to us as the driving forces for militarism and war. [Read More]

 

Rojava: Millions of civilians in northern Syria threatened

By Bülent Gökay and Lily Hamourtziadou, Links [October 11, 2019]
---- On October 6, the White House declared US troops would be withdrawn from northern Syria and no longer be in the immediate area ahead of a Turkish military operation. It also added the US would not support or be involved in the operations, and that Turkey would now be responsible for the fate of all Islamic State (IS) fighters captured during the last two years (totalling 12,000 men and 70,000 women and children) and currently held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias. … Trump announced his intention of withdrawing US troops from the region in December, claiming there was no reason for US troops to stay there since IS was on the verge of complete defeat. Following this, the US administration came to an agreement with Turkey to establish a 10-15-kilometre-wide safe zone, referred to as a peace corridor, along the Turkey-Syria border in northern Syria. As a result, in August some of the Kurdish forces removed their posts and left this zone under the joint control of US and Turkish troops. It seems that this was not enough to satisfy Turkey's security concerns. … This area is not just a military zone occupied by fighters; it is home to between 500,000 and 1 million Kurds and approximately 1.5 million Arabs, Assyrians and Yezidis, many of whom are refugees who have escaped from war zones in Syria and Iraq. The 2014 population estimate of Rojava was 4.6 million. Sandwiched between the Turkish army, the Turkey-supported Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish-Arab SDF militias, these civilians face the risk of losing their homes, lands and lives. This is the unfortunate fate of millions who happen to have been born in this geographic region; in Middle Eastern countries that, in the recent past, have experienced foreign occupation, violent wars and civil wars. [Read More]  Also insightful: "Kurdish Fighters Always Feared Trump Would be a Treacherous Ally," by Patrick Cockburn, The Independent [UK] [October 11, 2019] [Link]

 

Our History

WBAI Signs Off. Its Future Remains Uncertain.

By Arthur Schwartz, The Nation [October 11, 2019]

---- For 59 years, in the center of the FM dial in New York City, WBAI has been a beacon of unabashedly leftist "community-based" radio. On Monday, October 7, at around 7 am, WBAI-NY essentially went off the air. … The Pacifica radio network remains, after 46 years, one of the more fascinating institutions of the postwar counterculture. The first successful experiment in listener-sponsored radio, Berkeley's KPFA began as an idea of Lewis Hill and his allies in 1946 who envisioned a radio station that would promote pacifist awareness in the face of the looming Cold War. … KPFA's iconoclastic programming led New York philanthropist Louis Schweitzer to donate the license of his commercial FM station, WBAI, to the Pacifica Foundation in 1959. In the late '50s and early '60s, the radicalism of Pacifica's broadcasts was exemplified by its eclectic musical programming and educational and political series on issues rarely dealt with by the mainstream media—such as the Kennedy administration's subterfuge in pursuing a nuclear arms buildup. While these elements remain vital aspects of broadcasts now, the Vietnam War and the upsurge of protest against it had an immense impact on the role played by the network's then-three stations during the '60s. WBAI's changing moniker indicates the course of its transformations from the '60s until today: "Free speech radio" evolved into "free radio," finally "community radio."  https://www.thenation.com/article/radio-pacifica-wbai/