Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
October 18, 2020
Hello All – There appears to be no chance that the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court can be stopped. Predicted to be the the most right-wing judge on the Court, Barrett will give the Court a 5-4 or 6-3 conservative majority for the foreseeable future. On the chopping block are not only the Affordable Care Act, voting rights, regulations on business, Roe v. Wade, and much more, but perhaps the 2020 presidential election as well.
The capture of the Supreme Court by the right wing is only the tip of the iceberg, as over the past two decades Republicans have also succeeded in turning the federal appeals courts into a power base of conservatism and big business. Most recently, when Trump took office, there were 103 vacant court seats, in part because Sen. Mitch McConnell took little action on President Obama's nominees. And so during his first three years in office, President Trump made 200 appointments to the federal courts, all of whom are conservative and most of whom will serve for decades..
Not surprisingly, the wave of conservative judges installed in the federal courts has had a significant impact on the outcome of cases. For example, a study reported on by The New York Times last Friday found that, in cases affecting voting rights, "Republican appointees interpreted the law in a way that impeded ballot access 80 percent of the time, versus 37 percent for Democratic ones." More generally, especially since (2005) the tenure of Chief Justice Roberts, in cases involving business interests the Supreme Court has sided with business in 70 percent of its decisions. The appointment of Justice Barrett will consolidate this trend.
The Republicans have installed hundreds of right-wing, pro-business judges through a focused strategy of using whatever court appointment opportunities that came their way to nominate uniformly conservative candidates. Here Republican political strength, and the work of conservative legal groups such as the Federalist Society, has been bolstered by hundreds of billions of dollars of "dark money" from rightwing funders and conservative foundations, as the 30-minute testimony by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse last week so clearly laid out. "Dark" money also played a role in generating public support for Judge Barrett's nomination, with big investments coming from conservative groups like the Judicial Crisis Network, the Charles Koch network, and the US Chamber of Commerce.
If Trump wins re-election, of course, the judicial landscape will remain a nightmare and get worse. But what if Biden wins, what can he do? If the Democrats also control the Senate, now a serious possibility, the Democrats could add several/many judges to the Supreme Court, righting the imbalance that Republican appointments have created over the last 20 years. Called "packing the court" by its critics, defenders of appointing more judges, such as Elie Mystal of The Nation, have described such a step as necessary if democracy is to survive. Of interest, Mystal proposes adding 20 or more judges to the court, so that epoch-making changes in constitutional law are less likely to be made by a one-vote majority. But first, the election; indeed, we live in Interesting Times.
News Notes
This week a UN agency issued a report concluding that natural disasters caused by the human impact on Earth's climate have doubled in the last 20 years. Using a comprehensive database, the UN agency found that from 2000 through 2019 there have been 7,348 huge disasters. That's about one per day for 20 years. [Link].
Last month the Trump administration took action to sanction leaders of the International Criminal Court – freeze their bank accounts, etc. – because the ICC dared to consider bringing war crimes cases involving military forces (including the USA) in Afghanistan and against Israeli forces in Gaza. Neither the US nor Israel is a member of the court, but Afghanistan and the Palestinian Authority are, giving the ICC the authority to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity and genocide in these states. This New York Times story gives us insights into how the US has become such an outlier re: international law, and also the perniciousness of US sanctions that can seek to control alleged adversaries wherever they are. [Link].
On Tuesday, in Hastings, the Westchester UN Association and the Village of Hastings will honor the 75th anniversary of the United Nations by raising the UN flag in front of village hall. The ceremony will take place at 10 AM, and Mayor Armacost will read a Village proclamation. Let's have a good show of support for the UN!
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. Taking the Covid Crisis into account, we meet (with safe distancing) for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 11 to 11:30 a.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Another vigil takes place on Mondays, from 5:30 to 6 pm, in Yonkers at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. In this time of coronavirus, we are meeting by Zoom conference; if you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, Tuesday and Thursday at noon and/or Saturday at 2 pm, please send a return email. 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!
This week's Rewards for stalwart readers celebrate the music of Rhiannon Giddens. Earlier this week Democracy Now! premiered her great rendering, with the Resistance Revival Chorus, of Woody Guthrie's "All You Fascists Bound to Lose," with some inspiring video. (And here is some back story on the production.) Later I found this haunting song "Julie," capturing the moment when a slave and her "mistress" see the Union soldiers approaching the plantation. And finally, I think you will like this amazing tribute/memorial to Breonna Taylor, "Cry No More." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
ELECTION 2020
The Election That Could Break America
By Barton Gellman, The Atlantic [November 2020 Issue]
[FB – This is a lengthy and in-depth analysis of all the ways in which our presidential election could go off the rails, by one of the USA's leading journalists. Please read this.]
---- There is a cohort of close observers of our presidential elections, scholars and lawyers and political strategists, who find themselves in the uneasy position of intelligence analysts in the months before 9/11. As November 3 approaches, their screens are blinking red, alight with warnings that the political system does not know how to absorb. They see the obvious signs that we all see, but they also know subtle things that most of us do not. Something dangerous has hove into view, and the nation is lurching into its path. Something has to give, and many things will, when the time comes for casting, canvassing, and certifying the ballots. Anything is possible, including a landslide that leaves no doubt on Election Night. But even if one side takes a commanding early lead, tabulation and litigation of the "overtime count"—millions of mail-in and provisional ballots—could keep the outcome unsettled for days or weeks. … The worst case, however, is not that Trump rejects the election outcome. The worst case is that he uses his power to prevent a decisive outcome against him. If Trump sheds all restraint, and if his Republican allies play the parts he assigns them, he could obstruct the emergence of a legally unambiguous victory for Biden in the Electoral College and then in Congress. He could prevent the formation of consensus about whether there is any outcome at all. He could seize on that uncertainty to hold on to power. [Read More] Another good summary of what might happen and what we can do is "The Count: A practical guide to defending the Constitution in a contested 2020 election" [Link].
End Our National Crisis: The Case Against Donald Trump
By The Editorial Board, New York Times [October 16, 2020]
[FB – I can't remember when/if ever the "newspaper of record" published such a diatribe against an incumbent president. The editorial illustrates the extent of the panic among much of the US elite at the prospect of another four years of Trump.]
---- Donald Trump's re-election campaign poses the greatest threat to American democracy since World War II. … Nov. 3 can be a turning point. This is an election about the country's future, and what path its citizens wish to choose. The resilience of American democracy has been sorely tested by Mr. Trump's first term. Four more years, the damage may be irreversible. But even as Americans wait to vote in lines that stretch for blocks through their towns and cities, Mr. Trump is engaged in a full-throated assault on the integrity of that essential democratic process. Breaking with all of his modern predecessors, he has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, suggesting that his victory is the only legitimate outcome, and that if he does not win, he is ready to contest the judgment of the American people in the courts or even on the streets. [Read More]
Also of interest for the coming election – "These Are the States to Focus on to Flip the Senate," by Steve Phillips, The Nation [October 16, 2020] [Link]; "Election 2020 sees record $11 billion in campaign spending, mostly from a handful of super-rich donors," by Richard Briffault, The Conversation [October 14, 2020] [Link]; "5.2 million Americans with convictions can't vote this year, and Black people are disproportionately affected," New York Times [October 14, 2020] [Link]; "The Socialists and Progressives Working Outside of the Biden Campaign to Oust Trump," by Nuala Bishari, In These Times [October 13, 2020] [Link]; and "New York WFP Organizes to Thwart Existential Threat to Its Ballot Line," by Akela Lacy, The Intercept [[Link].
Election Protection and "The Day After"
As indicated by the alarms raised by the Barton Gellman article above (and many other places), there are serious concerns about voter intimidation, disrupted vote-counting, and protracted legal and other challenges from the Trump people if it appears that Biden has won the election. The latter prospect is likely in part because the Covid pandemic has created a scenario what the majority of votes by Democrats will be by mail, while the majority of Republican votes will be in-person. Thus on election night Trump may appear to be ahead in an election that may result in a landslide for Biden, once the mail-in and absentee ballots are counted. The legal and street conflicts that are predicted are likely to be in the swing states, where voting margins are close and the ability to stop counting or to disqualify mailed-in ballots could be significant. Nevertheless, people in New York have been organizing to prevent voter intimidation and to take action if need be to make sure that all the votes are counted. To learn more, an excellent source of information on what can be done are the training seminars presented by Choose Democracy, featuring veteran non-violence activist George Lakey. The next presentation is on October 21st. For protecting the election, and especially to learn about preventing voter intimidation, I think the place to go the Election Defenders Training Series. The next on-line presentation is Tuesday, October 20th, at 7:30 pm. And for what to do if Trump et al. try to stop the vote count or dispute the vote-count, the major effort (nation) is directed by Protect the Results. So far, they have scheduled 170 events starting on Wednesday, November 4th. The big one will be in New York City, starting in Times Square. In Westchester, so far there are events only in Sleepy Hollow and in Pelham. WESPAC has initiated a coalition of organizations in Westchester to plan more events here. Some details should be available next week, and late news and updates will be reported in this Newsletter.
FEATURED ESSAYS
The President, the Pandemic & the Election [Noam Chomsky]
An interview by David Barsamian, Alternative Radio [October 17, 2020]
---- We are still in the grips of capitalist logic and savage neoliberalism. We are still in the hands of leadership of extreme malevolence. The three worst, perhaps, are those I mentioned, Trump in the lead; his clone, Bolsonaro, in Brazil,the second largest country in the hemisphere; the world's largest democracy, or perhaps I should say former democracy, India, in the hands of Modi, a monster who is trying to destroy the relics of Indian democracy, meanwhile killing huge numbers of Indians, turning India into a Hindu national religious ethnocracy and crushing the rights of Muslims, destroying Kashmir. These are the three leaders. No one is even close in cases and deaths. I should say this is slightly misleading, because I'm not counting deaths per capita. When you look at that, you get a slightly different picture. It's worth looking at. But these figures are very striking. And the malevolence is striking. We are now in a situation where further pandemics are very likely, with habitat destruction even more likely, with heating the atmosphere even more likely. They might be worse than this one, as I mentioned. We know what has to be done. We don't have a lot of time to do it. The same impediments to dealing with this one still exist. It's within our reach to overcome them, but if you we don't work in a dedicated, committed way on it, it will happen. This is the course we're on, just as we are on a course towards environmental destruction unless we sharply change direction. [Read More]
America is Complicit, as Yemen Spirals toward Mass Starvation
---- Mark Lowcock of the United Nations gave an impassioned and apocalyptic speech on Thursday warning that 4 million Yemenis who had been receiving aid no longer are, because of a shortfall in donor contributions, and the country could be on the cusp of mass starvation. There already is widespread malnutrition in Yemen, fueled by the war and more recently by the economic downturn of the coronavirus pandemic. The humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen largely stems from the war on that country launched in 2015 by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which is backed to the hilt by the Trump administration. This is an American war, and Americans have Yemeni blood on their hands. A third of Yemen's infrastructure has been destroyed, mostly by Saudi and UAE air strikes, and over 100,000 have been killed. The United Arab Emirates, led by Mohammed Bin Zayed, is giving nothing to aid Yemen this year, despite its invasion having caused many of the problems the country is facing. The Saudis and Kuwaitis were also called out by Lowcock, and they did proffer new donations, with Kuwait offering $20 million. But the aid effort has fallen from being funded at over 60% of requested contributions to only 42%. [Read More]
The Tenants Who Evicted Their Landlord
By Matthew Desmond, New York Times Magazine [October 14, 2020]
---- Today, in the pandemic economy, millions of renters are at risk of eviction. Even the expanded provisions supplied by the CARES Act — the $600-a-week supplements to states' stingy unemployment insurance — weren't doing enough to shield many renting families from homelessness. In May, Houston approved $15 million in rental assistance; it ran out in less than two hours. In June, cities like Cleveland and Milwaukee saw evictions spike well above average levels when local eviction moratoriums and other protections expired. The next month, the United States experienced the largest economic downturn on record and unemployment levels unseen since the Great Depression. Congress allowed federal moratoriums on eviction and unemployment benefits to lapse anyway. … Watching this looming eviction crisis take shape, I've often thought of those Minneapolis tenants, whom I followed over the last year and a half. I went to report on them — the security guards, store clerks and night-shift custodians — because I wanted to see what happened when a group of tenants organized against a pair of landlords who owned hundreds of apartments generating, as of 2016, a net operating income of approximately $300,000 a month (or $3.6 million annually). Over the course of my reporting, I saw the tenants reimagine — and then reinvent — what stable, affordable housing could look like in their community. I saw them fight, and I saw them win. [Read More]
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Journalists Must Demystify the Green New Deal
By Mark Hertsgaard, The Nation [October 14, 2020]
---- In the first presidential debate, in September, Donald Trump was eager to attack his opponent's $2 trillion plan to address the climate crisis. "He's talking about a Green New Deal," the president said, talking over Joe Biden. In the vice presidential debate, Mike Pence likewise assailed the Green New Deal, invoking the term 11 times as a threat that "literally would crush American jobs." While the Biden climate plan is indeed informed by Green New Deal principles—Biden calls it a "crucial framework"—its goals and methods are narrower in scope. Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, have stated repeatedly that they do not support a Green New Deal. … Nevertheless, Republicans' efforts to demonize Biden's climate plan as a Green New Deal inadvertently highlight how superficially many mainstream news outlets have covered that foundational proposal to date. … Some post-debate commentary, for instance, focused on whether Trump and Pence's attacks on a Green New Deal could cost Biden votes in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, the public has been left largely in the dark about the basic, underlying questions of what a Green New Deal actually is and what it would aim to achieve. … This moment—arguably America's last to get the climate issue right—demands that the press do a much better job of explaining these scientific and economic realities to their audiences. Trump, according to his own words and actions, has no plan on climate. Biden does have a plan, one that is informed by, but ultimately different from, the Green New Deal. Rather than contributing to an environment in which the words "Green New Deal" are treated as a political liability, good journalism should assess both candidates' plans on their merits and inform the public accordingly. That means also finally telling audiences the truth about the Green New Deal. https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/green-new-deal-media/
OUR HISTORY
The United States of Paranoia — From the Salem Witch Hunt to Conspirator-in-Chief Donald Trump
By Steve Fraser, Tomdispatch [October 16, 2020]
---- Conspiracy thinking has always been an American pastime, incubating what the novelist Phillip Roth once called "the indigenous American berserk." Most of the time, it's cropped up on the margins of American life and stayed there. Under certain circumstances, however, it's gone mainstream. We're obviously now living in just such a moment. What might ordinarily seem utterly bizarre and nutty gains traction and is ever more widely embraced. It's customary and perhaps provides cold comfort for some to think of this warped way of looking at the world as the peculiar mental aberration of the sadly deluded, the uneducated, the left-behind, those losing their tenuous hold on social position and esteem, in a word (Hillary Clinton's, to be exact), the "deplorables." Actually, however, conspiracy mongering, as in the case of Trump, has often originated and been propagated by elites with fatal effect. Sometimes, this has been the work of true believers, however well educated and invested with social authority. At other times, those at the top have cynically retailed what they knew to be nonsense. At yet other moments, elites have themselves authored conspiracies that were all too real. But one thing is certain: whenever such a conspiratorial confection has been absorbed by multitudes, it's arisen as a by-product of some deeper misalignment and fracturing of the social and spiritual order. More often than not, those threatened by such upheavals have resorted to conspiracy mongering as a form of self-defense. [Read More]
