Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
June 4, 2023
Hello All – After much drama, the debt ceiling bill has passed and the world economy has been saved. Clearly, things could have been worse. But the debate around the debt ceiling and the decisions about which programs to cut (food, student debt) and which to save (the military) serve as a temperature check for where we are at as a democracy.
In explaining his reasons for voting against the bill, Senator Bernie Sanders had this to say:
The original debt ceiling legislation that Republicans passed in the House would have, over a 10-year period, decimated the already inadequate social safety net of our country and made savage cuts to programs that working families, the children, the sick, the elderly and the poor desperately needed. The best thing to be said about the current deal on the debt ceiling is that it could have been much worse. Instead of making massive cuts to healthcare, housing, education, childcare, nutrition assistance and other vital programs over the next decade, this bill proposes to make modest cuts to these programs over a 2-year period. This bill will also prevent a global economic catastrophe by extending the debt ceiling until January 1, 2025 – when we will have to go through with this absurd process once again.
The astronomical numbers involved in the US budget debates obscure the fact that, as a proportion of the nation's wealth and annual spending, the government's debt is actually quite small. As economist Mark Weisbrot explains, "The relevant measure of our debt burden is how much we pay annually in net interest on the debt, as a share of our national income (or roughly, GDP). That number was 1.9% for 2022. That is not big, by any comparison. We averaged about 3% in the 1990s, while experiencing America's then longest-running economic expansion." Yet "cutting the debt," rather than "expanding the economy," has been the mantra of Presidents Obama and Biden, one of the core elements, along with an aggressive military policy, that cements the faux vision of "bi-partisanship." A reduction of government spending, of course, depresses economic activity and typically leads to the loss of jobs. According to one estimate, the new legislation means that there will be 120,000 fewer jobs at the end of 2024 than there would be without it.
Why did the Republicans create this crisis? In part, it was because the party leadership in the House was beholden to the lunatic ideas of the far-right fringe, intent on doing away with any government services useful to low-income people or (God forbid!) people of color. But mainstream Republicans were willing collaborators in this attack on the poor. By saddling the Democrat's 2024 election campaigns with the onus of a serious attack on the well-being of millions of potential Democratic voters (the poor, students, etc.), the Republicans gain ground in their class war against potential threats to their true base, Corporate America. Some fight-back, not "bi-partisanship," is what we need.
Some useful reading on the debt-ceiling controversy
(Video) "Debt Deal Raises Military Spending & OKs WV Pipeline While Introducing New Work Rules for Food Stamps," from Democracy Now! [May 30, 2023] [Link]
"I could not, in good conscience, vote for the debt ceiling bill," by Bernie Sanders, The Guardian [UK] [June 2, 2023] [Link].
(Video) "Rep. Ro Khanna: Avoiding Default Was Necessary, But Debt Deal Was Passed at Expense of 'Most Vulnerable,'" from Democracy Now! [June 2, 2023] [Link].
"The debt ceiling fight was never about debt. It was about Republican power," by Mark Weisbrot, The Guardian [UK] [June 1, 2023] [Link].
Please take some action – voting rights
As the New York State legislature moves towards the end of this session, an important bill needs some action, and thus some serious action by us/grassroots to make our legislators do what they should. The bill in question is the Voting Integrity and Verification Act of New York (VIVA NY). In the Assembly, it's bill # A5934-A; in the Senate, it's # S6169-A. From the promo:
"Voter-marked paper ballots enable each voter to cast the votes he or she intends. They also allow election boards to perform manual recounts and audits to confirm final tallies….Several new voting systems on the market, however, require voters to use a touchscreen to enter their choices on a displayed image of the ballot. We should contact Speaker of the Assembly Carl Heastie at Speaker@nyassembly.gov
or (718) 654-6539. We must also contact Latrice Walker, chair of the Assembly Committee on Election Law, at WalkerL@nyassembly.gov or (718) 342-1256, as well as Zellnor Myrie, chair of the Senate Elections Committee, at myrie@nysenate.gov or (718) 284-4700."
To learn more about this issue and legislation, read "Secret ballots and voting machines: Keep New York elections verifiable to voters," by Teresa Hommel, New York Daily News [June 4, 2023] [Link]; and for some background, "These Activists Distrust Voting Machines. Just Don't Call Them Election Deniers." By Stuart Thompson, New York Times [June 4, 2023] [Link].
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!
This week's Rewards for stalwart readers focus on some music from the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus, a local group of many years standing that opened the RiverArts program at the VFW Plaza in Hastings. They have lots of their music on-line; I think you will like this musical introduction to the group, and this reminiscence by Pete Seeger. Here they sing two hammer songs in support of last year's Poor People's March. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW Weekly Reader
Featured Essays
Ukraine in the New World Disorder - The Rest's Rebellion Against the United States
By Fiona Hill, a lecture given in May 2023
[FB – Fiona Hill is, among many other things, the former Senior Director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council. In addition to learning of Dr. Hill's many observations about the dramatic re-framing of the US role in the world during the last few years, this lecture is interesting imo because she is very establishment person who is responding to the Ukraine war in a way sharply different from the Biden people.] ---- More than a year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the brutal war Vladimir Putin ignited has transformed, as major regional conflicts often do, into a war with global ramifications. This has not, as Vladimir Putin and others claim, become a proxy war between the United States or the "collective West" (the U.S. and its European and other allies) against Russia. In the current geopolitical arena, the war is now effectively the reverse—a proxy for a rebellion by Russia and the "Rest" against the United States. The war in Ukraine is perhaps the event that makes the passing of pax Americana apparent to everyone. [Read More]
Fatima Mohammed, CUNY School of Law, Commencement Speech
FB – Graduating law student Fatima Mohammed was chosen by her classmates to give a commencement address. Ms. Mohammed is an immigrant from Yemen. In her speech, and among several other threads, she criticized Israel and Zionism for the suppression of Palestinians and their rights. Two weeks later, she was attacked by the tabloids and the mayor, and the school disavowed her speech. The New York Times describes the ensuing public brouhaha.
The Serbian Movement Against Violence
, Counterpunch [June 2, 2023]
---- On May 3, 2023, a 13-year-old boy entered his school in central Belgrade with a gun and opened fire. He is currently in a psychiatric clinic, and his father is in custody, accused of training the teenager to handle weapons and failing to adequately secure the pistol. Only a day later, a young man of 20 randomly fired at people in a rural area south of the capital. What followed were three protests: silent marches of more than 50.000 people each. The third, the largest one on May 19, lasted long into the night, without serious incidents. … Protestors from the democratic opposition in Serbia often call their actions "walks." Like the Australian aborigines, they are performing a sort of "walkabout" in search of the soul of their country, which the Western media so often portrays as barbaric and brutal. The current "walks" in Belgrade continue a ritual journey started a long time ago. [Read More]
On the Migrant Trail: A Reflection on Border Deaths, Policy, and Transformation
---- It was in March 2004 when, after many conversations, longtime solidarity activist Richard Boren, BorderLinks organizer Holly Hilburn, and I committed to walking from the border to Tucson. At this time, humanitarian aid organizations—such as Humane Borders, Samaritans, and No More Deaths, were just coming into existence. George W. Bush was president of the United States, and the Department of Homeland Security had been established just the year before. Agencies such as Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were in their infancy—created out of the now-expired Immigration and Naturalization Service. … We wanted to call attention to the deaths and spur a change in the policy that was ratcheting up enforcement in border cities and forcing people to take dangerous and desolate routes; we committed to do the walk until the deaths ended. [Read More]
War & Peace
The Wars We Don't (Care to) See - Aggression Made Easy
Norman Solomon: Unless we have a single standard of human rights, a single standard of international conduct and war, we end up with an Orwellian exercise at which government leaders are always quite adept but one that's still intellectually, morally, and spiritually corrupt. Here we are, so long after the Nuremberg trials, and the supreme crime of aggression, the launching of a war, is not only widespread but has been sanitized, even glorified. We've had this experience in one decade after another in which the United States has attacked a country in violation of international law, committing (according to the Nuremberg Tribunal) "the supreme international crime," and yet not only has there been a lack of remorse, but such acts have continued to be glorified. [Read More]
Why There Should Be A Treaty Against The Use Of Weaponized Drones
By Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance [June 1, 2023]
----Citizen activism to bring about changes in how brutal wars are conducted is extremely difficult, but not impossible. Citizens have successfully pushed through the United Nations General Assembly treaties to abolish nuclear weapons and to ban the use of landmines and cluster munitions. Of course, countries that want to continue to use these weapons will not follow the lead of the vast majority of countries in the world and sign those treaties. … Up against these odds, the latest citizen initiative for banning a specific weapon of war will be launched on June 10, 2023 in Vienna, Austria at the International Summit for Peace in Ukraine. … Please join us in the International Campaign to Ban Weaponized Drones and sign the petition/statement which we will present in Vienna in June and ultimately take to the United Nations. [Read More]
(Video) Chomsky on Ellsberg and the Danger of Nuclear War
[June 2, 2023]
---- Noam Chomsky discusses the heroic contributions Daniel Ellsberg made by releasing the Pentagon Papers and revealing the madness of American nuclear war plans. Ellsberg uncovered shocking information about the planning for nuclear war in the 1950s, during his time within the system and with high-level access. He revealed details about the planning documents and the existence of a "Doomsday Machine," a system designed by both the United States and Russia that would ensure total destruction in the event of communication failure. He also discovered the delegation of authority to launch nuclear wars, with lower-level military officials interpreting instructions in a way that allowed them to initiate nuclear bombings. [See the Program]
The War in Ukraine
When Will US Join Global Call to End Ukraine War?
By
---- When Japan invited the leaders of Brazil, India and Indonesia to attend the G7 summit in Hiroshima, there were glimmers of hope that it might be a forum for these rising economic powers from the Global South to discuss their advocacy for peace in Ukraine with the wealthy Western G7 countries that are militarily allied with Ukraine and have so far remained deaf to pleas for peace. But it was not to be. Instead, the Global South leaders were forced to sit and listen as their hosts announced their latest plans to tighten sanctions against Russia and further escalate the war by sending U.S.-built F-16 warplanes to Ukraine. The G7 summit stands in stark contrast to efforts of leaders from around the world who are trying to end the conflict. [Read More]
(Video) Noam Chomsky: On the Russia – Ukraine war
By
[FB – In addition to what Chomsky has to say, this video/interview is of interest because it took place on the Russian-exiled TV platform "TV Rain," driven out of Russia, and then out of Latvia, because of its opposition to the war in Ukraine. Not surprisingly, the interviewer is quite combative towards Chomsky. – 35 minutes – To learn more about the Russian-exiled platform, "TV Rain" ("Dozhd"), go here.
Also of interest – "Blinken Dismisses Calls for a Ceasefire, Says US Must Build Up Ukraine's Military," by Kyle Anzalone, Antiwar.com [June 2, 2023] [Link]; and from Glenn Greenwald, "Drone Strikes on Moscow Signal Dangerous New Phase of Ukraine War," [May 30, 2023] [Link].
The Climate Crisis
A Just World on a Safe Planet
"First study quantifying Earth System Boundaries live"
From the Earth Commission [May 31, 2023] [h/t MB]
---- Humans are taking colossal risks with the future of civilization and everything that lives on Earth, a new Earth Commission study published today in the journal Nature shows. Developed by more than 40 researchers from across the globe, the scientists deliver the first quantification of safe and just Earth system boundaries on a global and local level for several biophysical processes and systems that regulate the state of the Earth system. For the first time, safety and justice for humanity on Earth is assessed and quantified for the same control variables regulating life support and Earth stability. Justice, assessed based on avoiding significant harm to people across the world, tightens the Earth system boundaries, providing even less available space for humans on Earth. This is extremely challenging, as the Earth Commission concludes that numerous of the safe boundaries are already crossed. [Read More] For a useful explainer of this somewhat wonkish report, read "Earth is 'really quite sick now' and in danger zone in nearly all ecological ways, study says," by Seth Borenstein, APNews [May 31, 2023] [Link].
The State of the Union
This Is Not the End of the Supreme Court's War on Labor
By Elie Mystal, The Nation [June 3, 2023]
---- Nobody should be surprised that this Supreme Court, controlled as it is by Republicans, is viciously anti-labor. We'd have to go back more than 100 years, to before the New Deal, to find a collection of justices whose antipathy toward workers and their rights matched that of the current Roberts court. In a decision released yesterday, the Supreme Court merged its disregard for workers' rights with its hatred of the administrative state to produce a ruling that undermines the most powerful tool labor has to defend itself from unfair or unsafe working conditions: the strike. The case is called Glacier Northwest Inc v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters. At issue was a 2017 strike organized by Teamsters Local 174 against Glacier Northwest, a cement company in Seattle. [Read More]
Israel/Palestine
The Israeli government enters its most dangerous phase yet
By Haggai Matar, +972 Magazine [Israel] [June 3, 2023]
---- Since coming to power five months ago, the sixth government to be led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone through three main phases. The first was the judicial overhaul, which dominated Israeli political life from January to April. The unprecedented resistance from the so-called "pro-democracy" protest movement, which culminated with strikes that brought the country to a complete standstill, forced Netanyahu to press pause and enter negotiations with the opposition, and it remains unclear where exactly these will lead. The second phase lasted from April into most of May and focused on passing the two-year budget, which — by giving both settlers and the Haredi parties significantly increased funding — has all but guaranteed the government's stability for the coming two years. Over the past two weeks, we have been seeing the beginning of phase three: the focus on deepening annexation, increased violence against Palestinians, and putting down all resistance — issues that make up this government's raison d'être. [Read More]
Our History
(Video) Stonewall Uprising: The Year That Changed America
From PBS "The American Experience" [airs June 10, 2023]
---- When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world. [See the Program]
(Video) "King: A Life": New Bio Details Extensive FBI Spying & How MLK's Criticism of Malcolm X Was Fabricated
From Democracy Now! [May 30, 2023]
---- We speak in depth with journalist Jonathan Eig about his new book, King: A Life, the first major biography of the civil rights leader in more than 35 years, which draws on unredacted FBI files, as well as the files of the personal aide to President Lyndon Baines Johnson, to show how Johnson and others partnered in the FBI's surveillance of King and efforts to destroy him, led by director J. Edgar Hoover. Eig also interviewed more than 200 people, including many who knew King closely, like the singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte. The book has also drawn attention for its revelation that King was less critical of Malcolm X than previously thought. [See the Program] Also of interest is "Lyndon Johnson Was No Friend of Martin Luther King Jr.," by Jonathan Eig and Jeanne Theoharis, New York Times [April 12, 2023] [Link].
