Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm Street, Dobbs Ferry, NY, 7 – 9 PM.
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Thursday, April 6, 2017
CFOW Weekend Update - Rally Saturday! Meeting Sunday!
CFOW Weekend Update
April 6, 2017
Hello Stalwarts – We have another busy weekend ahead of us. On Saturday, instead of our usual vigil in Hastings, the CFOW Healthcare Committee will hold a rally in support of "Improved Medicare for All" or "Single-Payer Health Insurance." – This is part of a "National Day of Action" sponsored by about 20 healthcare-focused organizations that are advocating a "single-payer" healthcare program. NB – the rally starts at 11:00 a.m. at the VFW Plaza. We need the help of many people to pull this off – sign holding, leafleting, literature table, etc. – so please come 15 minutes early if you can.
ALSO, we are short of speakers. In addition to a few real speeches, we plan to have an "open mic" to allow people to speak from their own experience about why "Improved Medicare for All" is important to them. However, medical people seem to be shy about speaking in public; so if you can step up and speak from the heart for a few minutes about this issue, it would be a boost to the rally. Please consider it; and please send a return email if you will speak. Thanks!
And on Sunday we have our CFOW monthly meeting! As usual, we'll be at the Dobbs Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, starting at 7 pm and ending promptly at 9 pm. In addition to a review of our recent and current activity, there are several events coming up for us to discuss.
ALSO, several people have suggested that it would make our meetings more interesting if we had a chance for some good discussion. One topic on my mind (and see below) is the escalation of our several wars, the possibility of serious warfighting in Syria and/or North Korea, and the general lack of interest in opposition to war on the part of the newly mobilized anti-Trump Resistance. How can we change this? What are the barriers that prevent people from thinking/acting about war when they are mobilized to think and act about other parts of the Trump Agenda? Thoughts about this, or suggestions for other topics for discussion at our meeting? Please send a return email. Thanks.
An issue of great concern
With barely a pause for breath, the mainstream media and political/military elite opinion has generated immense pressure on President Trump to "take action" against Syria for their alleged responsibility for the chemical attack against civilians a few days ago. – As the article linked below by V. J. Prashad argues, a thorough investigation re: responsibility should be conducted before Trump takes military action. – We have been here before: in August 2013 a chemical attack was similarly ascribed to Syria's President Assad, and we were within hours of a US bombing campaign against Syria before Russia proposed, and the United States accepted, a deal by which Syria would rid itself "voluntarily" of its chemical weapons stockpiles. Months later, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh published an article in The London Review of Books [publication in the United States proved impossible] that called the official account into question, and provided lots of evidence that the attack was the responsibility of the anti-Assad Islamic rebels. – While the question of responsibility for the 2013 chemical attack remains controversial, the controversy is a reminder that an investigation of responsibility should be completed before any other measures are taken.
As V. J. Prashad points out in his article linked below, for the Syrian government to launch a chemical attack on civilians – an attack with zero military significance – makes no sense, especially at this moment. Just days after leading foreign policy figures in the Trump administration, including the president himself, were announcing that the United States no longer considered regime change in Syria to be its objective – rather, the objective was combating ISIS, etc. – why would Syria take the one step that would snatch great danger from the jaws of (to the Assad government) "victory"? Common sense suggests that the actions of those entities that have a clear interest in continuing the war against Syria/Assad should be thoroughly examined, as well as the actions of Syria itself. But will the US political climate allow this to happen? I am not optimistic.
Enough for today. See you Saturday!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
478-3848
Coming Attractions
Saturday, April 8th – CFOW and its new Healthcare Committee will sponsor a rally in Hastings, at the VFW Plaza, in support of "Improved Medicare for All," or "Single-Payer." The rally will begin at 11 a.m. and will focus on legislation now pending in Albany. Please join us!
Sunday, April 9th – The next CFOW monthly meeting will be held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, for 7 to 9 p.m. Wall-to-wall excitement; don't miss it!
Monday, April 10th – This week's "Justice Monday" will focus on the lack of affordable housing in Westchester. Sponsored by "the Westchester Social Justice Community" (of which CFOW is a member), the rally will be held from 12 to 1 pm at the Renaissance Plaza in White Plains (Main St. and Mamaroneck Ave.). – For more information, go here.
Wednesday, April 12th – The CFOW Election Integrity group will meet at the Hastings Community Center (lower level) starting at 7 p.m. (NB this is a change of date from 4/19 – for more info and to double check on the starting time, contact Allegra Dengler at allegrad@aol.com.)
Thursday, April 13th – The CFOW Healthcare group will meet at the Hastings Community Center (lower level) at 7 p.m. On the agenda will be furthering cause of "Improved Medicare for All," with legislation pending in both Congress and the state legislature in Albany.
Monday, April 17th – CFOW will be the organizing group for this week's "Justice Monday," with a focus on war and the cost of our wars, just two days before people pay their income tax (60% going to war). Justice Monday events take place in White Plains from 12 to 1 pm at the fountain at Renaissance Plaza, at the corner of Mamaroneck Ave. and Main St. If you can help organize this event, and/or if you need a ride or can offer a ride, please send a return email.
Saturday, April 29th – Hundreds of thousands of people will be in Washington, DC for the Peoples Climate March. As the world rockets toward self-destruction and the Trump Agenda eliminates the few feeble protections set up by the Obama administration against global warming and climate change, humanity is on our own to save our civilization. To learn about the Climate March, go here. To get a seat on a Climate March bus leaving Hastings Saturday morning, email Tara Herman (Indivisible CD16) at taraherman@mac.com , and she will send you a reservation link and more information. The cost of the bus is $57.87 per person. There is also a bus from North White Plains. And plans are developing for rallies in both NYC (Washington Square Park) and White Plains (Renaissance Plaza, 11 a.m. to 12 noon).
Saturday, May 6th – The 6th annual "River Sweep" – organized by the Riverkeeper – will include 90 cleanups and tree planting projects from NYC to Albany. Last year, Over 2,200 volunteers removed 49 tons of debris from the Hudson River Estuary. To learn more, and to get hooked up with local projects in Yonkers, Hastings, Dobbs, Irvington, etc., go here.
Saturday, May 20th – CFOW will be one of the organizations participating in the Westchester Social Forum, at the New Rochelle High School, starting at 10 a.m. For more information, go here.
Saturday, June 3rd – CFOW will once again lead off the River Arts Music Tour. As those with working memories will recall, for the last two years we kicked off the Music Tour in Hastings with some peace and justice songs, starting at 12 and going to 1 pm, under the leadership/direction of Jenny Murphy. So we're signed up for this again. Please start vocalizing and get ready to join our Stalwart Chorus.
SOME USEFUL/INTERESTING WEEKEND READING
Is Trump Going to Commit the Next Great American Catastrophe in Syria?
By Vijay Prashad, AlterNet [April 5, 2017]
---- [Recently,] the administration of Donald Trump said plainly what had been clear since the Russian intervention of September 2015: that regime change in Damascus was off the table. This had been the policy of the Obama administration for the past two years, but it did not directly say so. Trump's people acknowledged reality: with Russia and Iran in the picture, removal of Assad would take a fierce international conflict far greater than the tragedy that has befallen Syria. With Turkey now drifting towards the Russian-Iranian narrative and Jordan dragged into chaos by the refugee crisis, easy borders to resupply the rebels are no longer available. The defeat of the armed opposition—including the al-Qaeda proxies and others—in Aleppo was the greatest blow. For the Syrian government—at this time—to use chemical weapons in such a public way would not only have been foolhardy but it would have welcomed a U.S. attack. It seems only an utterly arrogant and blind leadership in Damascus would have committed such a crime. But the leadership in Damascus has shown that it is crafty, using openings of all kinds of ensure its survival. This is not to say that it would not have necessarily done such an attack. Eagerness to end the war before it can impose a political settlement on the rebels could have led to the use of such weapons. But this is not considered likely. [Read More]
(Video) Noam Chomsky on Trump's First 75 Days & Much More
From Democracy Now! [April 4, 2017]
[Q. Could you talk about the—what you're seeing now as the potential in terms of the healthcare system in the country, what they will try to do and what the potential is there?]
Noam Chomsky: Actually, there was a pretty interesting poll about it that came out a couple of days ago, simply asking people what they preferred. The Republican proposal was the lowest of the choices available. I think about 15 percent of the population were willing to accept it. Somewhat higher was the existing system, so-called Obamacare. And on that, it's worth bearing in mind that a lot of people don't know that Obamacare is the Affordable Care Act. So you have negative attitudes towards Obamacare, thanks to lots of propaganda, but more positive attitudes towards the Affordable Care Act, because of what people see. Most popular of all—over half—was the so-called public option, a government-guaranteed healthcare program, which is pretty remarkable because no one publicly advocates that. But it's been a consistent polling result for decades, that when people are asked what they want, they say that's their choice. [See the Program]
Teach-Ins Helped Galvanize Student Activism in the 1960s. They Can Do So Again Today.
By Marshall Sahlins, The Nation [April 6, 2017]
[FB – Marshall Sahlins was one of the initiators of the teach-in movement 62 years ago. This article might contribute to a discussion at our meeting about why antiwar mobilization is not happening now among the newly energized Resistance to the Trump Agenda.]]
---- In February of 1965, just a few months after successfully campaigning for president against Barry Goldwater on a platform that declared "peace is our first concern," Lyndon Johnson dramatically escalated the Vietnam War by ordering a sustained bombing of the North and dispatching the first American combat troops to the South. The effect of the bait-and-switch in dissident university circles was redoubled opposition to American imperial policies, ultimately culminating in a campus-specific mode of political resistance. We were fewer than thirty, the faculty who called a strike against the University of Michigan in mid-March of 1965. … By contrast to the counter-cultural rebels of the 1960s, the university student body in 2017 is in great part a bourgeoisie-in-training. The students acquire business skills in classes and upscale consumption habits in campus amenities—only then to acquire an indebtedness that puts them in precarious dependence on the wage system for many years to come. [Read More]
Monday, April 3, 2017
CFOW Newsletter - "Medicare for All" rally Saturday in Hastings
Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
April 3, 2017
Hello All – We learned a lot about America's healthcare crisis during the foolish and unsuccessful attempt of the Trump administration to end "Obamacare" and replace it with something worse. We learned that there were still millions of people without health insurance, and that the Republicans wanted to add millions more to this number. We learned that "healthcare reform" was basically a backdoor trick to give rich people a massive tax cut. And we learned that the Republicans had spent eight years complaining about "Obamacare" without a clue about what they wanted instead. – Now may be a propitious time to bring up the simple and practical idea of addressing our healthcare crisis by expanding Medicare to include everyone from birth, and to improve Medicare by adding features that it now lacks. – There is now legislation in both the US Congress and the New York State legislature that would do this; and in support of "Improved Medicare for All," the CFOW healthcare committee and many friends will hold a rally next Saturday, April 8th, at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring St.) starting at 11 a.m. – We'll have some good speakers and an open mic to talk about your own healthcare needs or experiences. Please spread the word and join us next Saturday!
It is now clear that President Trump's criticisms of the war policies of the Obama administration do not extend to ending the wars. As several articles linked below show, the Trump Agenda calls for escalating the wars begun or sustained by Obama: Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia. (To which we might add the threats of war with North Korea, Iran, etc.) This is not happening with dramatic headlines, but with incremental troop deployments of 500 here, 1000 there, and by "loosening the rules" that somewhat restricted when and who US military commanders could bomb without White House approval. The result can be seen in the massive civilian casualties suffered by people living in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan in the last few weeks. – It is tragic that, despite all this carnage, the United States has only a miniscule antiwar movement and that none of the developing anti-Trump movements (Indivisible, etc) include antiwar perspectives and activities in their agendas. How can we change this?
Tomorrow, April 4th, is the 49th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is also the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's great speech as the Riverside Church in New York City called "Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break the Silence." In this speech, King not only made a clear statement against the war then raging in Vietnam, but spoke of the importance of demolishing the underpinnings that led the United States to wage this illegal and immoral war. Hear this speech here. And this morning, on Democracy Now!, Rev. William Barber of North Carolina ("Moral Mondays") talks about the speech and what it meant for King and for later generations. [Link].
News Notes
Opponents of the Spectra pipeline in northern Westchester have been holding periodic prayer vigils outside Governor Cuomo's house. Yesterday's vigil was the front-page, main story in today's Journal News. One of the speakers at the vigil, Sr. Bette Ann Jaster, also had an op-ed in The Journal News last week, "Tell Cuomo to ensure smart energy choices, nun says," [Link]
Ninety-eight-year-old Ben Ferencz is the last living prosecutor from the Nuremburg Nazi trials after World War II. In this short but powerful video interview, he tells a BBC audience what he has learned about war and about evil in his long life. [Link].
Westinghouse, once the world's leading manufacturer of nuclear power plants, has filed for bankruptcy. The final straw was its inability to complete several projects underway, most notably in Georgia, which are expected to have cost over-runs of as much as $8 billion. While nuclear power has been held out as an alternative source of electricity that would contribute less than oil or gas to global warming, it seems that they just can't be built economically.
Action Needed
The NY Energy Democracy Alliance will be going to Albany on Thursday to demand that Gov. Cuomo appoint "People's Commissioners" to the NY Public Service Commission to speed the transition to a clean-energy economy. They will bring with them a petition that they hope will have 1,000 signatures; and you can add your name here. To learn more about this issue and why it's important, go here.
Coming Attractions
Saturday, April 8th – CFOW and its new Healthcare Committee will sponsor a rally in Hastings, at the VFW Plaza, in support of "Improved Medicare for All," or "Single-Payer." The rally will begin at 11 a.m. and will focus on legislation now pending in Albany. Please join us!
Sunday, April 9th – The next CFOW monthly meeting will be held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, for 7 to 9 p.m. Wall-to-wall excitement; don't miss it!
Monday, April 17th – CFOW will be the organizing group for this week's "Justice Monday," with a focus on war and the cost of our wars, just two days before people pay their income tax (60% going to war). Justice Monday events take place in White Plains from 12 to 1 pm at the fountain at Renaissance Plaza, at the corner of Mamaroneck Ave. and Main St. If you can help organize this event, and/or if you need a ride or can offer a ride, please send a return email.
Saturday, April 29th – Hundreds of thousands of people will be in Washington, DC for the Peoples Climate March. As the world rockets toward self-destruction and the Trump Agenda eliminates the few feeble protections set up by the Obama administration against global warming and climate change, humanity is on our own to save our civilization. To learn about the Climate March, go here. To get a seat on a Climate March bus leaving Hastings Saturday morning, email Tara Herman (Indivisible CD16) at taraherman@mac.com , and she will send you a reservation link and more information. The cost of the bus is $57.87 per person. There is also a bus from North White Plains.
Saturday, May 6th – The 6th annual "River Sweep" – organized by the Riverkeeper – will include 90 cleanups and tree planting projects from NYC to Albany. Last year, Over 2,200 volunteers removed 49 tons of debris from the Hudson River Estuary. To learn more, and to get hooked up with local projects in Yonkers, Hastings, Dobbs, Irvington, etc., go here.
Saturday, May 20th – CFOW will be one of the organizations participating in the Westchester Social Forum, at the New Rochelle High School, starting at 10 a.m. For more information, go here.
Rewards!
This week stalwart readers get some old favorites in their Xmas stocking. First up is The Real Tuesday Weld with "The Show Must Go On." Next up is the documentary film "Wasn't That A Time," about The Weavers. Most readers of this newsletter know about Pete Seeger, but I suspect fewer know about the group that he sang with in the 1940s and 1950, "The Weavers." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
Noam Chomsky: Trump's First 100 Days Are Undermining Our Prospects for Survival
[March 28, 2017]
---- What is happening before our eyes appears to be a two-pronged operation, I presume planned.
Bannon/Trump (and the pathetic Sean Spicer, who has to defend the latest shenanigans in public) have the task of dominating TV and headlines with one wild performance after another. … Meanwhile, the real work is going on more quietly, spearheaded by Paul Ryan, a different and more malicious kind of posturer, who represents the most brutal fringe of the Republican establishment. … The ideas are quite familiar. They are the standard fare of the component of the Republican establishment dedicated with unusual ferocity to enriching the rich and powerful — bankers, CEOs, and other types who matter — while kicking in the face the vulnerable, the poor and Trump's rural and working-class constituency. All of this abetted by the ultra-right billionaire cabinet and other appointees, selected very carefully to destroy whatever within their domains might be helpful to mere humans, but not to the chosen few of extreme wealth and power. The consistency is impressive, if not breathtaking. [Read More]
Donald Trump's Election Was Part of a Startling Global Trend in 2016
By Alfred McCoy, Tom Dispatch [April 3, 2017
---- In 2016, something extraordinary happened in the politics of diverse countries around the world. With surprising speed and simultaneity, a new generation of populist leaders emerged from the margins of nominally democratic nations to win power. In doing so, they gave voice, often in virulent fashion, to public concerns about the social costs of globalization. Even in societies as disparate as the affluent United States and the impoverished Philippines, similarly violent strains of populist rhetoric carried two unlikely candidates from the political margins to the presidency. On opposite sides of the Pacific, these outsider campaigns were framed by lurid calls for violence and even murder. … The rise of these political soulmates and populist strongmen not only resonated deeply in their political cultures, but also reflected global trends that made their bloodstained rhetoric paradigmatic of our present moment. After a post-Cold War quarter-century of globalization, displaced workers around the world began mobilizing angrily to oppose an economic order that had made life so good for transnational corporations and social elites. [Read More]
From Pink Collars to Pink Hats: Working-Class Feminism and the Resistance
By Lane Windham, The American Prospect [April 3, 2017]
---- The robust working-class feminism bubbling up among women, particularly young women workers and women of color, holds the power to reshape the nation's economic and political landscape. Young women are leading the most exciting and dynamic aspects of the 21st-century progressive movement, and they've been at this for a while now—well before the sea of pink pussy hats riveted the world's attention. Progressives who seek to oust Trump should nurture and support today's intersectional working-class feminism; far from elitist, it speaks for so many Americans that it may provide the key to long-lasting change. [Read More]
---- The robust working-class feminism bubbling up among women, particularly young women workers and women of color, holds the power to reshape the nation's economic and political landscape. Young women are leading the most exciting and dynamic aspects of the 21st-century progressive movement, and they've been at this for a while now—well before the sea of pink pussy hats riveted the world's attention. Progressives who seek to oust Trump should nurture and support today's intersectional working-class feminism; far from elitist, it speaks for so many Americans that it may provide the key to long-lasting change. [Read More]
Feds, states target Southern 'sanctuary cities,' leaving local officials in a bind
March 31, 2017]
---- The Trump administration has continued its crackdown on immigration this week, most recently taking aim at so-called "sanctuary cities." In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order threatening to withhold federal funding from these cities which, to varying degrees, limit their entanglement in federal immigration enforcement to promote local public safety and community trust. The administration has followed up on Trump's directive, with the Department of Homeland Security recently releasing a list of jurisdictions it said didn't comply with the agency's requests to detain undocumented immigrants in local custody beyond their scheduled release. … Nationwide, at least 18 states considered policies prohibiting local measures to limit federal immigration enforcement in 2016, and 29 are considering them in 2017. [Read More]
An American Century of Carnage: Measuring Violence in a Single Superpower World
By John W. Dower, Tom Dispatch [April 1, 2017]
[This essay is adapted from "Measuring Violence," the first chapter of John Dower's new book, The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War Two.]
---- On February 17, 1941, almost 10 months before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Life magazine carried a lengthy essay by its publisher, Henry Luce, entitled "The American Century." The son of Presbyterian missionaries, born in China in 1898 and raised there until the age of 15, Luce essentially transposed the certainty of religious dogma into the certainty of a nationalistic mission couched in the name of internationalism. Luce acknowledged that the United States could not police the whole world or attempt to impose democratic institutions on all of mankind. Nonetheless, "the world of the 20th Century," he wrote, "if it is to come to life in any nobility of health and vigor, must be to a significant degree an American Century." The essay called on all Americans "to accept wholeheartedly our duty and our opportunity as the most powerful and vital nation in the world and in consequence to exert upon the world the full impact of our influence, for such purposes as we see fit and by such measures as we see fit." Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor propelled the United States wholeheartedly onto the international stage Luce believed it was destined to dominate, and the ringing title of his cri de coeur became a staple of patriotic Cold War and post-Cold War rhetoric. [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
With Trump approval, Pentagon expands warfighting authority
---- Week by week, country by country, the Pentagon is quietly seizing more control over warfighting decisions, sending hundreds more troops to war with little public debate and seeking greater authority to battle extremists across the Middle East and Africa. This week it was Somalia, where President Donald Trump gave the U.S. military more authority to conduct offensive airstrikes on al-Qaida-linked militants. Next week it could be Yemen, where military leaders want to provide more help for the United Arab Emirates' battle against Iranian-backed rebels. Key decisions on Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan are looming, from ending troop number limits to loosening rules that guide commanders in the field. The changes in Trump's first two months in office underscore his willingness to let the Pentagon manage its own day-to-day combat. [Read More] Also useful reading is Ben Hubbard and Michael R. Gordon, "U.S. War Footprint Grows in Middle East, With No Endgame in Sight," [Link]. For more on the expanding military fronts, see (video) Phyllis Bennis, "US Escalates Wars in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen," Rising Up With Sonali [March 29, 2017] [Link]; and Nick Cumming-Bruce, "U.N. Urges Iraq and Allies to Rethink Tactics as Airstrikes Kill Civilians," [Link].
The War in Syria
White House Accepts 'Political Reality' of Assad's Grip on Power in Syria
---- President Trump has abandoned the goal of pressing President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to leave power, marking a sharp departure from the Middle East policy that guided the Obama administration for more than five years, the White House said on Friday. "With respect to Assad, there is a political reality that we have to accept," said Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary. "The United States has profound priorities in Syria and Iraq, and we've made it clear that counterterrorism, particularly the defeat of ISIS, is foremost among those priorities," he added, using the acronym for the Islamic State. In a sense, Mr. Spicer's comments — and similar comments on Thursday by Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson and Nikki R. Haley, the United States ambassador to the United Nations — have merely made explicit an assumption that has guided the Trump administration's policy toward the region in recent months. [Read More]
The War in Yemen
(Video) Yemen: Trump Expands U.S. Military Role in Saudi War as Yemenis Brace for Famine
From Democracy Now! [March 30, 2017]
---- The U.S. is also rapidly expanding military operations in Yemen. The U.S. has reportedly launched more than 49 strikes across the country this month—according to The New York Times, that's more strikes than the U.S. has ever carried out in a single year in Yemen. More than 10,000 people have been killed since the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen began two years ago this month. Meanwhile, The New York Times is reporting today that the Trump administration has approved the resumption of sales of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia. President Obama froze some of these weapons sales last year due to concern about civilian casualties in Saudi Arabia's expanding war in Yemen. We speak to Iona Craig, a journalist who was based in Sana'a from 2010 to 2015 as the Yemen correspondent for The Times of London. [See the Program]
The War in Iraq
The Bodies of Mosul
By Robin Wright, The New Yorker [March 30, 2017]
---- The struggle for Mosul is unlike any other battle since ISIS seized a third of Iraq (and a third of Syria) to create its pseudo-caliphate, in 2014. In cities like Fallujah and Ramadi, the vast majority of civilians fled as the Iraqi Army fought to take back territory. In Mosul, however, the Iraqi government appealed to more than a million residents still living under Islamic State rule last fall not to leave, partly because of the challenge of caring for so many displaced people. Iraq was already struggling to accommodate some three million people displaced by the war, plus a quarter of a million refugees from neighboring countries. To cope with the strain on resources, electricity, water, and other services are now limited. [Read More] Also illuminating is the article (part of a series) by Patrick Cockburn, "People in besieged Mosul Old City 'dying of starvation' as Isis shoots anyone who tries to flee," The Independent [UK] [March 30, 2017] [Link]; and a photo essay from The New York Times, "Engulfed in Battle, Mosul Civilians Run for Their Lives," [March 28, 2017] [Link].
CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING
Trump v. the Earth [the EPA]
By Amy Davidson, The New Yorker [April 3, 2017]
---- President Trump said that his order puts "an end to the war on coal." In reality, it is a declaration of war on the basic knowledge of the harm that burning coal, and other fossil fuels, can do. Indeed, it tells the government to ignore information. The Obama Administration assembled a working group to determine the "social cost" of each ton of greenhouse-gas emissions. Trump's executive order disbands that group and tosses out its findings. Scott Pruitt, the new E.P.A. administrator—who, as attorney general of Oklahoma, had joined a lawsuit attempting to undo the endangerment finding—announced that the agency was no longer interested in even collecting data on the quantities of methane that oil and gas companies release. [Read More] And for more about Trump's climate-suicide plan, read Emily Wirzba, "'Energy Independence' Executive Order Dismantles Climate Action," Friends Committee on National Legislation [March 28, 2017] [Link].
THE CAMPAIGN FOR "IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL'
Bernie Sanders Wants to Expand Medicare to Everybody — Exactly What Its Architects Wanted
By Zaid Jilani, The Intercept [
---- Bernie Sanders doesn't just want to play defense on health care — he's introducing a bill that would expand the Medicare program to everybody in America, creating a single-payer health care system. Such a system would wipe out inefficiencies in our current, private insurance-run system, and polls very well — yet it is opposed by the health care industry and the Democratic and Republican establishments that relies on them for campaign cash. But creating a "Medicare-for-all," single-payer health insurance system for all Americans would be fulfilling the dream of those who created the Medicare system in the first place in 1965. Medicare's architects ended up compromising with Congress and establishing a system that offered public-run health insurance just for the elderly, but they never intended for only retirees to benefit from the program. [Read More]
Medicaid saved ObamaCare from repeal, not the Freedom Caucus
By Mark Weisbrot, The Hill [March 31, 2017]
---- A lot of the reporting on Trump's epic failure on the attempted repeal of Obamacare has focused on the Freedom Caucus, a group of libertarian-minded representatives for whom the administration's bill did not go far enough in obliterating the gains from the Obama administration's expansion of health care coverage. But the defeat of Trump's American Health Care Act (AHCA) may have had more to do with the pressure — including grassroots organizing — and risks faced by many Republican representatives who feared taking away insurance that most voters want. And one cannot assume that all members of the Freedom Caucus acted out of ideological concerns; they too have constituents that need health care. [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
"FBI's Comey, not Russia, Tilted the Election Toward Trump:" Interview with Dennis Kucinich
---- Dennis Kucinich: The Director of the FBI is not beyond accountability. President Obama should have demanded Director Comey's resignation immediately after Comey interfered in the 2016 Presidential election with his October 28, 2016 pronouncement of the discovery of new emails in the Clinton case. Comey breached protocol, bypassed channels, and tilted the outcome away from Clinton and toward Trump. If Comey refused a presidential demand that he resign, then President Obama should have dismissed him. There is a precedent. President Clinton dismissed FBI Director Session in 1993. Also The FBI Director can also be subject to impeachment by the House and removal by the Senate. Given his role in upending the 2016 President election, it is astonishing that Director Comey is being given a chance to prove it was 'the Russians what did it.' [Read More] And for more about the Russia/US election conundrum, see this Democracy Now! program, (Video) "Moscow Sees Hypocrisy in Allegations After U.S. Interfered in Russian Elections in 1990s" [March 31, 2017] [Link].
Why Is This Hate Different From All Other Hate?
---- The Israeli bomb threat hoax does force some reassessment. Perhaps we have given Trump-era anti-Semitism more emphasis than it deserves. …For example, while synagogues have been threatened, at least four mosques have been burned. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, there have been 35 attacks on mosques — including vandalism, break-ins and death threats — in the first three months of this year, compared with 19 over the same period in 2016. … The various strands of renascent bigotry in Mr. Trump's America are intertwined, and anti-Semitism is only part of the tapestry. Yet Americans, for good historical reasons, tend to have a particularly heightened sensitivity toward anti-Semitism. All 100 senators signed a letter calling on the Trump administration to take "swift action" against the anti-Semitic bomb threats. There has been no similar political urgency in demanding protection for other harassed minorities. [Read More]
Black Lives Matter Just Launched a Major Campaign for the Age of Trump
By Collier Meyerson, The Nation [April 1, 2017]
---- Welcome to the newest iteration of Black Lives Matter. On Thursday, the Majority, a coalition that includes more than 50 organizations and groups, including the movement's founding organization, Black Lives Matter Network, announced its first national campaign: Beyond the Moment. From April 4th to International Workers Day on May 1, participating organizations will hold a series of actions across the country aimed at raising awareness around issues including white supremacy, economic justice, reproductive justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, indigenous rights and attacks on Muslim communities. It appears to be one of the largest national campaigns to come out of Black Lives Matter, and it's one that focuses on bringing together activists, organizers and groups with different missions—from the Fight for $15 to indigenous land rights. [Read More]. One campaign will start tomorrow in Memphis on the 49th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, with the intention of continuing Dr. King's "Poor People's Campaign" [Link]. The campaign will culminate with nationwide demonstrations on Mayday: read Nadia Prupis, "With Trump As "Final Straw," Immigrant and Workers' Rights Groups Gear Up for May Day Strikes," Common Dreams [April 3, 2017] [Link]
Democrats Should Do Everything They Can To Block Neil Gorsuch
By Ari Berman, The Nation [April 3, 2017
--- Forty-one Senate Democrats have now pledged to oppose Neil Gorsuch's nomination, given them the votes necessary to block him. If Democrats filibuster, Republicans say they'll invoke the nuclear option for Supreme Court nominations and confirm Gorsuch with a simple majority of 51 votes. … There are at least five good reasons to oppose Gorsuch now. … Democrats might not be able to ultimately block Gorsuch but they at least need to try, as my colleague Joshua Holland writes. Put pressure on moderate Republicans like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. Energize the Democratic base. Shine a spotlight on the importance of the courts. Show the public they stand for something. Caving on Gorsuch will make it harder, not easier, to wage future battles. [Read More]. For more about this important issue, read Joshua Holland, "Democrats Need to Call Mitch McConnell's Bluff and Filibuster Neil Gorsuch," The Nation [March 31, 2017 [Link].
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Israel Hits Back Against Boycott
By Marjorie Cohn March 30, 2017
[FB – This article includes a good summary of the many accomplishments of the BDS movement over the past few years.]
---- According to the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, the "inflammatory fabrications" against Omar Barghouti constitute the "latest chapter of repression and intimidation" against him. For years, various arms of the far-right Israeli government have subjected Barghouti to intense threats, intimidation and repression. The investigation of Barghouti is part of Israel's "systematic efforts to criminalize the BDS movement, intimidate activists and stop free speech," the Committee said. "After failing to intimidate them through the threat of revoking Omar's permanent residence in Israel, and after the effective travel ban imposed on him proved futile in stopping his human rights work," the Committee stated, "the Israeli government has resorted to fabricating a case related to Omar's alleged income outside of Israel to tarnish his image and intimidate him." [Read More] And for what Omar Barghouti has to say about his arrest and the BDS movement, go here.
OUR HISTORY
Labor and the Legacies of World War I
By Elizabeth McKillen, Labor and Working Class History [March 20, 2017]
---- April 2017 marks the 100th year anniversary of U.S. entrance into World War I. Most European labor and socialist groups reluctantly chose to support their nations' war efforts in order to avoid government repression and to protect workers' rights during wartime. By contrast, the prolonged period of U.S. neutrality between August 1914 and April 1917 afforded American workers and labor activists a unique opportunity to debate the war and to develop plans for thwarting U.S. intervention in the conflict in venues that ranged from neighborhood union halls and city labor councils, to Socialist street rallies, immigrant fraternal meetings, national trade union conventions, and the pages of the vibrant labor and socialist press. [Read More]
The Red Emigrant [Issac Deutscher]
By Bruce Robbins, The Nation [March 30, 2017]
---- Exile spelled the end of the Eastern European phase of Deutscher's career, but he didn't allow it to define him. In his own eyes, he was rooted—and proudly so—in the tradition of Spinoza, Heine, Marx, Luxemburg, Trotsky, and Freud, the "non-Jewish Jews" he discusses in the title essay of this still-sparkling reprint. He was also rooted in leftist internationalism, a tradition that provided him with a home wherever he happened to live. Deutscher's political commitments and his experiences with the Polish Communist Party also gave him an activist's sense that timing was at least as important as principle, a sense that subtly relativized his judgments and clearly informed everything he went on to write, whether it was his journalism as a Russian-speaking commentator on the Kremlin, his political criticism, or the works of history that subsequently made him famous. [Read More]
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