Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
November 22, 2020
Hello All – We are still not rid of Donald Trump. Whether his efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election can be successful, led as they are by a gang of Keystone Lawyers headed by Rudy Giuliani, seems doubtful. Yet in key states the leadership of the Republican Party remains True Believers, and we can't take our eyes away from possible dangers that would disrupt to presidential transition. Concerned Families of Westchester has maintained a weekly/Saturday vigil/rally around the theme of "Protect the Results" of the Biden-Harris victory (6 million votes); if you would like to join us, go to www.protecttheresults.com and type in your Zip Code.
While keeping one eye on the Trump shenanigans, however, we are also scrutinizing the possibilities for progress under the in-coming Biden presidency. We share in the collective sigh of relief breathed by tens of millions; but we are also aware of pitfalls and problems, as well as opportunities for progressives. Especially in the area of War & Peace, we know that Biden's record is not so good, and in his appointments to his Transition Team and in rumors about his Cabinet appointments (due Tuesday), hawks from the Obama administration and centrist think-tanks prevail (here and here). Progressives are pushing back; and at a rally at the Democratic National Headquarters this week, the Rivertowns' new congressional representatives Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones joined AOC and the Sunrise Movement in calling for a Green New Deal and a 'Corporate Free Cabinet."
Looming ahead is the possibility that the Republicans will continue to control the Senate, and that Biden's legislative program will be thwarted. This will certainly be very damaging, but there are many things that the Biden administration can accomplish through Executive Action. Based on the agreements struck between the Biden and Sanders teams last summer, one effort compiled a list of "The 277 Policies for Which Biden Need Not Ask Permission" [Link]. Indeed, there is a progressive website called "The Day One Agenda" with lots of good info. In the area of War & Peace, Code Pink's Medea Benjamin writes about "Ten Foreign Policy Fiascos Joe Biden Can Fix on Day One" [Link]. A member of the post-Occupy "Debt Collective" told Democracy Now! this week how "Biden Can Cancel Student Debt on Day One" (more than a trillion dollars), though cautioning that "Movements Must Make Him Do It" [Link]. Biden can also raise wages of federal workers, improve conditions for union organizing, roll back the hundred-plus environmental regulations from the Trump era, and reignite the economy (Link] and [Link]. None of this will happen without us putting our shoulders to the wheel, but We Can Do It!
Helping out in Georgia
Both Democrats and Republicans are raising zillions of dollars and phoning Georgia residents on the hour to win the two run-off races for Senate, which will be held on January 5th. The ability of the national Democrats to enact their legislative program depends on winning both elections, and it is for this reason that the Republicans want to stop them. To help out, you can send money directly to the candidates, Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. The organization Reclaim Our Vote uses phone-banking and postcards to contact low-income voters of color who may have been removed from the voting rolls. After she was cheated out of the Georgia governorship a few years ago, Stacey Abrams formed "Fair Fight," now a leading force in taking the Senate for the Georgia Democrats. And at CFOW, some of us are donating to the Southwest Georgia Project, a 60-year-old community-based project with roots in the Civil Rights era. In a conference call with black community organizers last week, the project's director, Shirley Sherrod, stressed the importance of voter mobilization in poor, rural parts of southwest Georgia, generally neglected by Atlanta-based organizations and the Democratic Party leadership, but now a target of GOP big money.
News Notes
Georgia's audit of its presidential-election vote last week dramatized important issues about the integrity of our elections. For several years, CFOW has advocated for the end of electronic voting machines and the use of hand-marked, hand-counted ballots instead. Though the outcome of Georgia's audit seemed to confirm that all was well with their election, experts were skeptical and pointed to many flaws. To learn more, read "Why Georgia's Unscientific Recount 'Horrified' Experts" by Timothy Pratt, The Nation [November 20, 2020] [Link].
On Thursday the US Dept. of Justice executed Orlando Hall, an African-American man convicted of murder by an all-white jury in 1994. This was the eighth federal inmate murdered since Trump resumed federal executions in July after a 17-year pause, and it was the first time since 1889 that the federal government had executed someone during the lame-duck period after a presidential election. Two more federal executions are scheduled before the end of Trump's term. To read about some of the issues in the cases, including the Supreme Court's rejection of a stay-of-execution just hours before Orlando Hall was murdered, go here.
The extradition trial (in the UK) of Julian Assange has disappeared from the news. This is curious, in that the issues in Assange's case strike at the heart of investigative journalism. In this excellent review of the failures of the mainstream media's coverage of the case, Joshua Cho writes, "when it came to the substance of what was actually argued by both the defense and prosecution, and the case's evolving implications for the future of journalism," the US media engaged in "an atrocious media blackout." Only the dissenting media took the issues in the case seriously. To read about the media coverage of the Assange case, go here.
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, at 12 noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Another vigil takes place on Mondays, from 5 to 5:30 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 5 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. 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!
Writing about Georgia this week, it's a natural step to start off this week's Rewards with Ray Charles and "Georgia on My Mind." And it's only another short step to Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington with "Sweet Georgia Brown." And finally, here's "Rainy Night in Georgia," with Conway Twitty and Sam Moore. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
(Video) Dead Before Christmas: As U.S. Passes 250K COVID Deaths, Healthcare Workers Brace for Holiday Surge
From Democracy Now! ]November 19, 2020]
---- As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll breaks worldwide records and passes 250,000, hospitals are at capacity, and overwhelmed healthcare workers still lack personal protective equipment. Health officials say conditions will worsen further with holiday travel and family gatherings for Thanksgiving. "I can't really overemphasize how important the next few days are," says Ed Yong, science writer at The Atlantic. "The people who get infected at Thanksgiving, they are going to slam into those hospitals in the two weeks after that, and some of those people are going to be dead before Christmas." [See the Program]
Also highly recommended are two articles from The Atlantic. The first is by Ed Yong, "''No One Is Listening to Us': More people than ever are hospitalized with COVID-19. Health-care workers can't go on like this" [November 13, 2020] [Link]; and by Sarah Zhang, "The End of the Pandemic Is Now in Sight: A year of scientific uncertainty is over. Two vaccines look like they will work, and more should follow" [November 18, 2020] [Link].
We Still Live In 2 Americas, Not 1
By Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, The Nation [November 19, 2020]
[FB –Rev. Theoharis is the national co-director of the Poor People's Campaign.]
---- If nothing else, the 2020 election revealed a deeply divided nation—two Americas, not one—though that dividing line marked anything but an even or obvious split. A startling number of Americans are trapped in wretched conditions and hungry for a clean break with the status quo. On the other hand, the rampant voter suppression and racialized gerrymandering of the last decade of American politics suggests that extremists from the wealthier America will go to remarkable lengths to undercut the power of those at the bottom of this society…. Across the South and the Midwest, there are voter-suppression states still to win, not for a party but for a fusion movement of the many. The same could be true for the coasts and the Southwest, where there remains a sleeping giant of poor and low-income people yet to be pulled into political action. If this country is ever going to be built back better, to borrow Joe Biden's campaign pledge, it's time to turn to its abandoned corners; to, that is, the other America of Martin Luther King that still haunts us, whether we know it or not. … The first 100 days of the Biden administration should then be focused, at least in part, on launching a historic investment to secure permanent protections for the poor, including expanded voting rights, universal health care, affordable housing, a living wage, and a guaranteed adequate annual income, not to speak of divestment from the war economy and a swift transition to a green economy. [Read More]
Representative Ilhan Omar: 'I Hope President Biden Seizes This Opportunity.'
By Representative Ilhan Omar, The Nation [November 20, 2020]
---- This month, we begin the transition away from a Trump era and toward a new presidency based on peace and cooperation. There is no area where this renewed vision is needed more than foreign policy. Trump has taunted, mocked, and burned bridges with our allies, while simultaneously cozying up to some of the most brutal dictatorial regimes around the world—especially those in the oil-rich Middle East. The damage done by the Trump administration runs deep, and it will take hard work and a clear understanding of the extent of the damage to fix it. With foreign policy primarily driven by the Executive Branch, President Biden has a tremendous opportunity to reorient our foreign policy in the region. … Instead of siding with one group of dictators over another, we should position ourselves at an equal distance from both, allowing ourselves to be honest brokers, protecting our national security and interests while promoting human rights and democracy. We can hold Iran accountable for its human rights violations while also holding Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the UAE accountable. This applies to the occupation as well. Ignoring the suffering of the Palestinians runs counter to our most basic values. Moreover, it threatens our national security. [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
Introduction
By Frank Brodhead
---- In this transition period between the Trump presidency and the new regime of Joe Biden, US foreign policy moves have become unhinged from the rules governing the Washington Consensus. This week President Trump the Pentagon reduce US troops in Aghanistan and Iraq by January 15th, leaving 2,500 in each country. The recent purge of the top leaders in the Defense Department is believed to be the necessary prerequisite to do this. As this leaves the number of US troops too small to do more than defend themselves, the Pentagon opposes this move. A common interpretation of Trump's move is that he is seemingly fulfilling his 2016 campaign promise to "End Endless Wars," while at the same time laying a trap for Biden, giving him the responsibility/onus for withdrawal, or the stigma of "escalation" in both countries.
At the same time, Trump is making aggressive moves towards both Iran and China, perhaps hoping for last-minute war with Iran, but in both cases attempting to lock-in the Biden administration to even worse relations with both countries. Recently Trump asked his advisors about a military attack on Iran, and he and Secretary of State Pompeo have issued yet another round of sanctions against Iran, intending to further damage its economy and perhaps to embitter the country further against the United States, with the goal of promoting the election of "hard-liners" in Iran's forthcoming election, thus ending the possibility of restoring the Iran nuclear deal and normalizing relations between the Iran and the USA. Last week Democracy Now! broadcast an excellent program detailing the dangers of Trump's end-game diplomacy. As for China, the Trump team plans to issue another round of economic sanctions against China, hoping to lock the Biden people in the jaws of a growing conflict.
Despite Trump's efforts, progressives and antiwar people will have opportunities to attempt to push the Biden people towards peaceful resolutions of some of the dangerous conflicts. From Day One, a front-burner issue will be the War in Yemen. Last Thursday a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives, with bi-partisan sponsorship, calling for an end to the war, using the War Powers Act. During his campaign, Biden called for an end to the war, and expressed opposition to selling more weapons to Saudi Arabia. Biden can do these things on his own, without consent from the Senate.
For more on War & Peace – "Joe Biden's Silence on Ending the Drone Wars" by Elise Swain, The Intercept [[Link]; "Merchants of Arms: Who wants a Conflict with China? by Cassandra Stimpson and Holly Zhang, Tom Dispatch [November 20, 2020] [Link]; and (Video) "Ceasefire Ends in Occupied Western Sahara After U.S.-Backed Moroccan Military Launches Operation," from Democracy Now! [November 16, 2020] [Link].
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Biden Treasury Pick Could Defund the Fossil Fuel Industry, Climate Organizers Say
By Alleen Brown, The Intercept [
---- Though former Vice President Joe Biden made climate a priority in his campaign and reportedly plans to make it a centerpiece of his administration, who the president-elect chooses to fill his Cabinet over the coming weeks will determine how his White House actually addresses the climate crisis. Climate activists are, of course, focusing on the potential leaders of the Energy and Interior Departments and the Environmental Protection Agency, but they are also pushing for a wider vision of what climate-conscious national leadership should look like.
Seriously addressing the crisis will require more than sound pollution and public lands policy, and organizers are moving fast to push for climate-serious appointments to an array of positions not traditionally associated with environmental action. They are casting a spotlight on the position of treasury secretary, which holds significant untapped power to address the climate emergency. [Read More]
STATE OF THE UNION
With federal assistance programs in doubt, millions of Americans face financial hardship.
By Nelson D. Schwartz, et al., New York Times [November 20, 2020]
---- As the United States confronts an outbreak of the coronavirus that shows no sign of slowing and local governments move to reimpose restrictions on businesses in an attempt to get some control over the epidemic, millions of Americans face the prospect of losing federal funds that had been providing a lifeline. More than 12 million unemployed workers will see their jobless benefits disappear by the end of the year as two federal programs created in March under the CARES Act are set to expire unless Congress extends them. It is a development that also threatens the larger economy. Congressional action is unlikely before Joseph R. Biden Jr. becomes president on Jan. 20, and there are no guarantees it will happen even then: If Republicans retain control of the Senate after two runoff elections in Georgia in early January, the odds of passing a major stimulus package will lengthen. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
The Israeli Army's Soft Sadism
By Amira Hass, Haaretz [Israel] [November 22, 2020]
---- The IDF trains its soldiers in soft and effective sadism too, not the physical type but the psychological. Every day the mission of dozens of 18- to 20-year-old soldiers is to steal the time of hundreds of Palestinians of all ages, to grind it into a batter of frayed nerves, missed meetings, uncertainty, canceled doctor's appointments, being late for dinner with the children. This order is carried out through the use of internal checkpoints in the West Bank – those with a permanent infrastructure and those movable, flying checkpoints. (Theft of time at the exit checkpoints from the West Bank is sadism of a slightly different form.) The checkpoints are an intentional, armed operation whose direct result is shortening the active, creative lives of the Palestinians by, say, half an hour or an hour every day. The stolen time is invisible. It is impossible to touch and it does not bleed. The lost time is not that of Jews in a traffic jam, so the stopping of life is not "news." Even more so when it is a routine activity, the very opposite of new. After all, aside from blood, the press loves "exceptions" and anything that is out of the ordinary. [Read More]
Also interesting/useful – "Tomorrow My Family and Neighbors May Be Forced From Our Homes by Israeli Settlers" by Mohammed El-Kurd, The Nation [November 20, 2020]
[Link]; "In Slight to Biden, Israel sends Squatters to cut Palestinian East Jerusalem off from Palestinian Bethelehem, West Bank: by [Link]; and "'Proudly Pro-BDS'" by Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams [November 21, 2020] [Link].
