Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
April 17, 2023
Hello All – Once again, the Tax Man Cometh. Each year on Tax Day, CFOW encourages supporters and others to give some thought to how the federal government raises its revenue, and how it spends it. In a nutshell, in recent decades the well-to-do have ceased to pay their fair share, and about half of what Congress calls "discretionary spending" – i.e. not social security or Medicare or interest payments on the national debt – goes to the Pentagon for past, present, and future wars.
Last month the Biden administration sent its draft 2024 budget to Congress. It included a request for $842 billion in military spending. (As Congress usually appropriates some tens of billions more than the Executive asks for, we could be looking at a final budget with military spending at $900 billion.) This year's military spending is augmented by payments for the War in Ukraine. As of early March, the USA had allocated aid to Ukraine on 33 separate occasions, amounting to more than $113 billion worth of humanitarian, military, and financial assistance. As the Pentagon/Biden are assuming that the Ukraine War will continue into 2024, presumably this rate of additional military spending will continue. Additionally, as Michael Klare points out in a recent article, the Pentagon is planning now for the weapons needed for anticipated conflicts with Russia and/or China a decade or more into the future. Congress has discussed little or none of this, and the news media provide little useful information.
As for where the money funding the government comes from, the politics of the last decade have highlighted the extreme income and wealth inequality in the USA, and the shrinking portion of the income and wealth of the Very Rich that is subject to taxation. As Warren Buffet famously observed, it is Not Right when his tax rate is lower than that of his secretary. People are generally aware of this injustice, but what can be done? Leaving the "in-the-weeds" wonkiness of tax reform to others, I refer you to a useful article by Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, who conclude that "Taxing the superrich involves three essential and complementary ingredients: a progressive income tax, a corporate tax, and a progressive wealth tax. The corporate tax ensures that all profits are taxed, whether distributed or not: it acts as a de facto minimum tax on the affluent. The progressive income tax ensures high earners pay more. And a progressive wealth tax gets the ultrarich to contribute to the public coffers even when they, including Buffett, manage to realize little taxable income."
Indian Point Update
Last week's CFOW newsletter included the shocking news that the corporation managing the "decommissioning" of the Indian Point nuclear plant intended to begin dumping one million gallons of radioactive water into the Hudson River as soon as May 4th. This plan has now been postponed until "the summer." In addition to widespread opposition from local officials, county executives, and almost 500,000 citizens signing petitions, the postponement was undoubtedly motivated by a strong letter by our Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to the (federal) Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on April 6th. The letter asked the NRC to respond to more than a dozen concerns raised by the dumping plan, mostly regarding the safety of dumping water containing radioactive tritium into a river used for drinking water, food supply (fish), and recreation. According to the Decommissioning Oversight Board, "the decision to pause the May 2023 releases from the Indian Point spent fuel pools will allow the State to independently analyze the spent fuel pool water before it is released. Holtec's pause will also allow time for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has jurisdiction over these discharges, to answer the important questions Senators Schumer and Gillibrand recently raised and to directly address concerned members of the public and local elected officials at an upcoming meeting of the Decommissioning Oversight Board." This is good news for opponents of the dumping plan, but as the dumping is only "paused," we must remain alert and continue our educational efforts to inform our communities about this danger. Useful further reading includes "Plan for Dumping Nuclear Wastewater Into Hudson River Is Paused," from The New York Times; and this link takes you to the letter sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by Senators Schumer and Gillibrand.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. Weather permitting, we meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, at 12 noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) A "Black Lives Matter/Say Their Names" vigil is held in Yonkers on Monday from 5:30 to 6:00 pm at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. Our newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. Another Facebook page focuses on the climate crisis. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email for the link. If you would like to support our work by making a contribution, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
Rewards!
The jazz pianist Ahmed Jamal died on Sunday at the age of 92. His career in music, starting as a child, is quite amazing. He usually played/performed as part of a trio; one of his most popular recordings is "Poinciana." To listen to some more of his music, here is his album, ""Ahmad's Blues," recorded in 1958. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW Weekly Reader
Featured Essays
AOC: The Biden Administration's Rightward Turn Is "a Profound Miscalculation"
An interview with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jacobin Magazine [April 2023]
---- I think it is extremely risky and very perilous should the Biden administration forget who it was that put him over the top. When you look at the places — not just abstract levels of turnout, not just where numbers came from, but these swing places that gave Joe Biden the edge on an [Electoral College] victory — it was young people that that won him this election, communities of color, high turnout areas. This lurch to the right at a time when the Right is scrambling and lost in the desert on how to even win an election after these stunning losses — I think it's a profound miscalculation. And it is quite dangerous. … So what we really need right now is having that continued, outside vocal organizing that allows us, when we are approaching the administration, to say, "This is why this is happening," so we can pull and point to grassroots movements that are telling that story as our evidence. [Read More] Also of interest is this short (video) from a recent AOC appearance on Late Night wth Seth Meyers.
A Conservative Christian Judge Rules Against Medication Abortion. How Hard Will Democrats Fight Back?
By Amy Littlefield, The Nation [April 11, 2023]
---- Now a debate has erupted over how the Biden administration, blue states, and the abortion-rights movement should respond to this unprecedented decision. Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have called on the Biden administration to ignore Kacsmaryk's ideological ruling. … The most encouraging change since the Dobbs decision is the growth of the grassroots abortion rights movement shown in the rising number of young people voting and in the momentum around campaigns like the abortion referendum in Kansas. "The only way to win durable and full and free access to abortion is through a mass movement for abortion justice," McGuire said. That's true no matter what the courts do next. [Read More] Also of interest is author Amy Littlefield's appearance on Democracy Now! - (Video) "DeSantis Signs Six-Week Abortion Ban in Florida; Legal Fight Intensifies over Abortion Pill" [April 14, 2023] [Link]; also important is "The GOP's Fanatical Judges Are Putting Our Lives in Danger," by Gregg Gonsalves, The Nation [April 15, 2023] [Link].
Why We Are Called Hammer & Hope
By Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer & Hope [April 2023]
[FB – Robin Kelley is an historian whom I admire very much. He and some colleagues have launched a new magazine, which looks interesting and useful. Here is what he has to say about this new project.]
---- Our Hammer & Hope aims to expose the system of racial capitalism tearing up neighborhoods, filling the state's cages, and extracting value from working people while leaving them in a state of insecurity and precarity. Our hammer will smash myths and illusions. It will tear down the master's house, as Audre Lorde would say. And our hope? It is not the false optimism of liberals or the fatalism of armchair revolutionaries or the pessimism of pundits waiting for the end of the world. James Baldwin understood hope as determination in the face of catastrophe: "I can't be a pessimist because I'm alive. To be a pessimist means that you have agreed that human life is an academic matter, so I'm forced to be an optimist. I'm forced to believe that we can survive whatever we must survive." [Read More]Can You Fight for Climate Justice Without Being Antiwar?
By
---- Can organizations sincerely say they are leading the climate justice fight without also being unapologetically antiwar? Short answer – no. Here's why. We cannot end climate change without ending war. The United States military is the planet's largest single emitter of greenhouse gasses and consumer of oil. The US military and its weapons, consistently deployed to secure economic dominance for the few while ensuring suffering for the many, has no place on a just and livable planet. The corporate interests and fascist, militarist tendencies that lead humanity into conflict are the very same that view our Earth, its atmosphere, and its abundant life as a resource to be exploited for profit. Ending war means ending the war economy – the colonial system of extraction and exploitation that got us into this mess in the first place. That a more peaceful world could be a result of the broad system change climate activists are calling for is no coincidence. But the theoretical intersection alone isn't enough! Environmentalists and climate change activists must make a commitment to peace explicitly. Our planet depends on it. [Read More]
War & Peace
Will it Never Stop? From Forever War to Eternal War
---- "It is time," President Biden announced in April 2021, "to end the forever war" that started with the invasion of Afghanistan soon after the tragic terror attacks on this country on September 11, 2001. Indeed, that August, amid chaos and disaster, the president did finally pull the last remaining U.S. forces out of that country. A year and a half later, it's worth reflecting on where the United States stands when it comes to both that forever war against terrorism and war generally. As it happens, the war on terror is anything but ended, even if it's been overshadowed by the war in Ukraine and simmering conflicts around the globe, all too often involving the United States. In fact, it now seems as if this country is moving at breakneck speed out of the era of Forever War and into what might be thought of as the era of Eternal War. Granted, it's hard even to keep track of the potential powder kegs that seem all too ready to explode across the globe and are likely to involve the U.S. military in some fashion. Still, at this moment, perhaps it's worth running through the most likely spots for future conflict. [Read More]
Crimea Has Become a Frankenstein's Monster
By Anatol Lieven, Responsible Statecraft [April 11, 2023]
---- Clear differences are emerging within the Ukrainian government as to whether Ukraine should make the reconquest of Crimea a nonnegotiable goal of its war effort or be prepared to trade at least provisional Russian control of the peninsula for Russian concessions elsewhere. This issue also has the potential to create a deep split between Kyiv and Western governments, which fear that Crimea and control of the strategically vital military base of Sevastopol might be the point on which Moscow would be willing to escalate toward nuclear war. The question is becoming more urgent as Ukraine prepares for an offensive that could potentially allow it to cut the land route between Russia and Crimea. My own research in Ukraine last month suggests that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would have very great domestic difficulty in supporting a cease-fire leaving Crimea in Russian hands. Not only would this face strong opposition from hard-line nationalists and the Ukrainian military, but the Ukrainian government has helped foster a general public mood that Crimea must be recovered at all costs. [Read More]
More useful reading about the Ukraine War – "Why the Media Don't Want to Know the Truth About the Nord Stream Blasts," by Jonathan Cook, Mint Press News [April 11, 2023] [Link]; "Miscommunication Nearly Led to Russian Jet Shooting Down British Spy Plane, U.S. Officials Say" New York Times [April 12, 2023] [Link]; and "Joe Biden Can't Seek Peace in Ukraine Without a Robust Antiwar Movement," by Branko Marcetic, Jacobin Magazine [April 2023] [Link].
Losing Wars and Losing Recruits
By Nan Levinson, Tom Dispatch [April 13, 2023]
---- After more than 20 years of losing wars, recruiting for the U.S. Army is now officially a mess. Last year, that service fell short of its goal by 15,000 recruits, or a quarter of its target. … Despite ever-decreasing reportage on military and veterans' issues, young civilians seem all too aware of the downsides of enlisting. Gen Zers, who until recently never lived in a country not openly at war, have gobs of information at their fingertips: videos, memoirs, movies, novels, along with alarming statistics on sexual assault and racism in the military and the ongoing health problems of soldiers, including exposure to toxic waste, rising cancer rates, and post-traumatic stress disorder. And that's not even to mention the disproportionate rates of suicide and homelessness among veterans, not to speak of the direct contact many young people have had with those who returned home ready to attest to the grim consequences of more than 20 years of remarkably pointless warfare in Afghanistan, Iraq, and across all too much of the rest of the planet. [Read More]. Also of interest re: veterans' treatment by the VA is "PACT Act Problems,"
by Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early," The Progressive [April 6 2023] [Link].
The Climate Crisis
Getting real: what would serious climate action look like?
By Prof. Kevin Anderson, Responsible Science Journal [March 19, 2023]
---- In signing the Paris Climate Agreement, governments have committed to hold the global temperature rise to no more than 1.5 to 2°C. However, as we understand more about the scale of impacts of rising temperatures, the emphasis has increasingly shifted towards 1.5°C as our primary commitment; and even 1.5°C is far from a safe threshold for many communities around the globe. People are already suffering and dying from the impacts associated with a rise of just 1.1°C, a situation we need to keep in the forefront of our thinking when deciding on what is and isn't feasible. … We've left it so late that technology will never deliver in isolation. It is a prerequisite condition, but not enough. We also need profound changes in the socio-economic structure of modern society. That is to say a rapid shift in the labour and resources that disproportionately furnish the luxuries of the relative few - not just the billionaires, but also people like me. Such resources and labour are urgently needed to rapidly decarbonise our physical infrastructure, from housing to transport and industry to energy supply. So it's not the old adage of 'take from the rich to give to the poor', it's mobilising society's productive capacity, its labour and resources, to deliver a public good for all - a stable climate with minimum detrimental impacts. This is a huge challenge! [Read More]
AOC, Bowman Call for Biden Administration to Reverse Willow Oil Project Approval
By April 13, 2023]
---- A group of 33 House Democrats is urging Biden administration officials to heed calls from numerous climate and Indigenous groups to suspend a permit that would allow fossil fuel giant ConocoPhillips to construct a massive drilling operation on pristine Alaskan land. The lawmakers, led by Representatives Jamaal Bowman (D-New York), Jared Huffman (D-California) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), said that the administration should suspend the permit while the $8 billion project is in litigation, and reject future permits that the company may file to pursue the project.… Democrats, along with hundreds of climate and Indigenous groups, have been urging Biden to stop the Willow project for months, pointing out that moving forward goes against Biden's campaign promise for "no more drilling on federal lands, period, period, period." [Read More]
Civil Liberties
The Julian Assange Test Facing Every Member of the House
By John Nichols, The Nation [April 14, 2023]
---- There is a growing consensus in journalistic circles that the efforts by the US Department of Justice to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act for obtaining and revealing information regarding alleged atrocities committed during the US occupation of Iraq pose a serious threat to the freedom of the press. … With the executive branch refusing to budge, it falls to Congress to defend the First Amendment. And this week, a number of progressive House members did just that. In an open letter organized by US Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a group of lawmakers—Tlaib and US Representatives Cori Bush (D-Miss.), Greg Casar (D-Tex.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.)—are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to stop going after Assange. The letter calls on Garland to "uphold the First Amendment's protections for the freedom of the press by dropping the criminal charges against Australian publisher Julian Assange and withdrawing the American extradition request currently pending with the British government." [Read More] Also of interest is "Dozens of Australian politicians urge US to abandon Julian Assange extradition," by Daniel Hurst The Guardian [UK] [April 10. 2-23] [Read More]
The State of the Union
The Threats to Our Democracy Have Gone Local
By Camille Squires, New York Times [April 15, 2023]
---- American democracy didn't crumble in one fell swoop under the administration of a president with disregard for rule of law or under the weight of a mob storming the Capitol or under a wave of candidates who claimed the 2020 election was rigged. Though some election deniers did win critical midterm races, the most prominent — Republicans like Kari Lake and Mark Finchem in Arizona and Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania — lost their 2022 campaigns. As a result, some voters might have concluded that the movement died beyond Donald Trump's continued claims. That would be a serious mistake, because though it has receded from the headlines, election denialism has not died. It has just gone down ballot. In some state and local offices across the country, election denialism is still recasting how elections are conducted, in ways big and small. [Read More]
Israel/Palestine
(Video) Barely Anyone in Washington Supports the Two State Solution
By Peter Beinart [April 17, 2023]
[FB – In this short video, Beinart talks about the political shift going on in USA discussions about one-state and two-state "solutions" to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Very useful, imo.] [See the Program]
Bowman, Sanders and 12 reps demand Biden 'shift policy' over Israel's 'systemic violence against Palestinians'
By
---- Yesterday 14 Congresspeople, led by Bernie Sanders and Jamaal Bowman, sent a historic letter to President Biden and his secretary of state calling on them to "undertake a shift in U.S. policy" in recognition of the "systemic violence against Palestinians" and begin to condition aid to Israel: to assure that all future foreign assistance "is not used in support of gross violations of human rights." You say, Only 14. But the letter signed by the 14 (first circulated last month) establishes a firm address for Palestinian human rights inside the Congress. It includes the Squad and more traditional progressives, but also new reps, Summer Lee of Pittsburgh and Delia Ramirez of Chicago. The 14 are part of the "sea change" in U.S. attitudes towards Israel its own advocates acknowledge. [Read More]
