Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
October 17, 2021
Hello All – As the last US troops were leaving Afghanistan, a missile from a drone crashed into the Kabul home of the Ahmadi family, killing 3 adults and 7 children. The Pentagon first claimed that the victims were "collateral damage," from a legitimate attack on an "Isis bomber." Only after an investigation by The New York Times showed that the intended target worked for a US-based humanitarian organization, did the Pentagon admit "a tragic mistake."
But what came next? The remaining Ahmadi family members were without a bread-winner, and in shock from the loss of so many loved ones. They began to speak up, telling Western media that they were destitute, but had received no reply from the USA for their request for help. They needed money and would like help to emigrate from Afghanistan. On Friday, after 6 weeks of silence, a Pentagon official met with a representative of the Ahmadis and promised financial help and visas. Let us hope that these promises are kept. But is this the end of the story? What can we learn from this?
The deaths in Kabul are ten more reasons, if more are needed, for banning killer drones. The Pentagon will not provide accurate information about civilian casualties, but one responsible agency estimates that up to 48,000 Afghanistan civilians were killed by air strikes, some portion of these by drones. Drone whistle blower Daniel Hale, now serving a 45-month sentence for leaking classified documents about the drone program to The Intercept, estimates that 90 percent of the drone casualties are civilians.
What kind of "compensation" will the Pentagon give the Ahmadi family? Yesterday's New York Times links a Pentagon chart showing that in 2019 the USA made 71 "condolence" payments to Afghanis civilian victims, mostly between $1000 and $5000. Will this sum, or even 10 times this sum, make the Ahmadi family whole and give it a new start in life? Clearly not; but what amount of money – if any – will be enough to compensate for so many ruined lives?
News Notes
Socialist India Walton's victory in the Democratic primary for the mayor of Buffalo virtually guarantees her victory in the November election. Or does it? The state Democratic Party refuses to endorse her, as does Governor Kathy Hochul, a product of the Buffalo power structure. Can grassroots mobilization defeat a write-in campaign for the Good Ol' Boy that Walton defeated in the primary, who is now backed by Republicans? Check out this article from The Nation by John Nichols.
Highly recommended is The Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In his most recent broadcast, Ralph interviews two recent military veterans. First, Erik Edstrom, author of "Un-American: A Soldier's Reckoning of Our Longest War" tells us about his awakening from West Point Army Ranger to peace advocate. Then, Garett Reppenhagen, a former sniper and now director of Veterans for Peace, tells us how that organization helps veterans put down their weapons and work for peace.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. 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 takes place every Monday from 5:30 to 6:00 pm in Yonkers at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email. Our 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!
Last week's Rewards for stalwart readers revisited the great New Orleans sound of Tuba Skinny. Looking for any new music from this week, I found their new album "Let's Get Happy Together," with singing legend Maria Muldaur. I have fond memories of hearing Maria Muldaur when she sang with Jim Kweskin's Jug Band 50+ years ago at Harvard Square's Club 47. You can hear her here on a Jug Band favorite, "Somebody Stole My Gal." Later, Maria Muldaur went solo: here she sings "Any Old Time" from her 1973 album "Midnight at the Oasis." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW Weekly Reader
The GOP Is a "Gang of Radical Sadists"
An interview with Noam Chomsky, Jacobin Magazine [October 2021]
---- A former political organization now calling itself the Republican Party is dedicated to accelerating the race to catastrophe. Take a look at the Republican states. Republican legislators aren't even trying to hide it. They've got to race to catastrophe to enrich the energy corporations as much as possible before we reach apocalypse. That's one part of the fading American democracy. Take a look at the one party that's still functioning, the Democratic Party. There's a major split within it that offers the opportunity, at least, to push forward on the programs that are well-known, feasible — to not only mitigate the crisis but lead to a much better world. They are on the table. There's a Green New Deal resolution by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ed Markey, senior senator from Massachusetts. … It's all within range and can be done. It's on paper. The Republicans are going to kill it. That's a given. They don't care what happens to the planet; they don't give a damn. They have other commitments: their own power and the superrich. [Read More]
War & Peace
Ban the Use of Drones as Weapons
By October 15, 2021]
[FB – At 95 years old, Peter Weiss has been working international law in support of peace and justice for decades. A founder of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Weiss speaks out in support of an international ban on military drones.]
---- Everyone who followed the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan was horrified by the drone attack, called a "tragic mistake" by the Pentagon, which killed ten members of a single family, including 7 children. Zemari Ahmadi, who worked for Nutrition and Education International, a U.S.-based aid organization, became the target because he drove a white Toyota, went to his office, and stopped to pick up containers of clean water for his extended family. .. It would be comforting to think that the Ahmadi killing was one of those one-in-a-thousand tragic affairs from which no conclusion could be drawn, but such a belief would itself be a mistake. In fact, as many as one-third of people killed by drone strikes have been found to be civilians. … The use of certain weapons determined to be grossly inhumane, or that fail to distinguish between military and civilian targets, has already been banned under international law. The use of drones as lethal weapons also should be prohibited. [Read More]
The Climate Crisis
Key to Biden's Climate Agenda Likely to Be Cut Because of Manchin Opposition
---- The most powerful part of President Biden's climate agenda — a program to rapidly replace the nation's coal- and gas-fired power plants with wind, solar and nuclear energy — will likely be dropped from the massive budget bill pending in Congress, according to congressional staffers and lobbyists familiar with the matter. Senator Joe Manchin III, the Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia whose vote is crucial to passage of the bill, has told the White House that he strongly opposes the clean electricity program, according to three of those people. As a result, White House staffers are now rewriting the legislation without that climate provision, and are trying to cobble together a mix of other policies that could also cut emissions. … The $150 billion clean electricity program was the muscle behind Mr. Biden's ambitious climate agenda. It would reward utilities that switched from burning fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, and penalize those that do not. Experts have said that the policy over the next decade would drastically reduce the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet and that it would be the strongest climate change policy ever enacted by the United States. [Read More]
Gutted: Thanks to Joe Manchin, we're on the edge of a devastating climate loss
By Bill McKibben [October 16, 2021]
---- Last night's scoop from the New York Times was devastating: the paper reported that Joe Manchin had exercised a firm veto over the Clean Energy Performance Plan (CEPP) at the heart of the Biden administration's climate efforts. "As a result," the Times story said, "White House staffers are now rewriting the legislation without that climate provision, and are trying to cobble together a mix of other policies that could also cut emissions." As Saturday dawned the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post appeared to support the reporting: indeed there had been intimations bad news was coming earlier in the week, when America's chief climate negotiator started downplaying the chances for real success at next month's Glasgow climate talks, by walking back expectations of American action. Congress, he said, would eventually "act responsibly," but "I don't know what shape it'll take ... or which piece of legislation, it'll be in." It increasingly looks like it won't have the CEPP at its center. This proposal—worked out in painstaking detail over recent months—"would reward utilities that increase their clean energy supply by 4 percent a year." And it would penalize those that do not, which is why it's so important: it's really the only thing in the Biden plan with any teeth. … [Read More]
For more on the Climate Crisis – (Video) "EXACTLY How Much Money Joe Manchin Made Off Dirty Coal INVESTMENTS," from The Young Turks [Link[; and "The Fossil Fuel Industry Is Holding Up the Democratic Agenda" by Aída Chávez, The Nation [October 14, 2021] [Link]. Is that it? Are humans going to roll over and die because of these sadist clowns? At least some people are fighting back: here's Extinction Rebellion's "Global Newsletter #56 – Preparing for the Worst" [Link].
The USA & China
Imagine a World with U.S.-China Cooperation
---- On September 10, 2021, during an important diplomatic meeting that occurred by telephone, U.S. President Joseph Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping affirmed the necessity of a better relationship between their two nations. According to the official Chinese summary, Xi said that "when China and the United States cooperate, the two countries and the world will benefit; when China and the United States are in confrontation, the two countries and the world will suffer." He added: "Getting the relationship right is . . . something we must do and must do well." At the moment, however, the governments of the two nations seem far from a cooperative relationship. Indeed, intensely suspicious of one another, the United States and China are increasing their military spending, developing new nuclear weapons, engaging in heated quarrels over territorial issues, and sharpening their economic competition. Disputes over the status of Taiwan and the South China Sea are particularly likely flashpoints for war.
But imagine the possibilities if the United States and China did cooperate. After all, these countries possess the world's two largest military budgets and the two biggest economies, are the two leading consumers of energy, and have a combined population of nearly 1.8 billion people. Working together, they could exercise enormous influence in world affairs. [Read More]
How to Save the World (from a Climate Armageddon)
By Michael T. Klare, Tom Dispatch [October 15, 2021]
---- This summer we witnessed, with brutal clarity, the Beginning of the End: the end of Earth as we know it — a world of lush forests, bountiful croplands, livable cities, and survivable coastlines. In its place, we saw the early manifestations of a climate-damaged planet, with scorched forests, parched fields, scalding cities, and storm-wracked coastlines. In a desperate bid to prevent far worse, leaders from around the world will soon gather in Glasgow, Scotland, for a U.N. Climate Summit. You can count on one thing, though: all their plans will fall far short of what's needed unless backed by the only strategy that can save the planet: a U.S.-China Climate Survival Alliance. [Read More]
---- This summer we witnessed, with brutal clarity, the Beginning of the End: the end of Earth as we know it — a world of lush forests, bountiful croplands, livable cities, and survivable coastlines. In its place, we saw the early manifestations of a climate-damaged planet, with scorched forests, parched fields, scalding cities, and storm-wracked coastlines. In a desperate bid to prevent far worse, leaders from around the world will soon gather in Glasgow, Scotland, for a U.N. Climate Summit. You can count on one thing, though: all their plans will fall far short of what's needed unless backed by the only strategy that can save the planet: a U.S.-China Climate Survival Alliance. [Read More]
The State of the Union(s)
'Striketober' in Full Swing as Nearly 100,000 Workers Authorize Work Stoppages
By Julia Conley, Common Dreams [October 13, 2021]
----- Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich observed Wednesday that with employees in industries across the spectrum set to strike in the coming days following corporate leaders' failure to meet their demands for fair pay and working conditions, the U.S. is closer than it has been in decades to experiencing a general strike. … Labor advocates are calling the nationwide show of union power and worker solidarity "Striketober," as work stoppages across numerous industries are expected in the coming hours and days if unions' demands aren't met. … Unite Here, which represents 300,000 hospitality employees, expressed solidarity with the workers taking part in Striketober and urged them to see themselves as in a position of power. "It is clear that we are in a significant moment for union organizing," said the union. "What we cannot do is lose this moment. The so-called 'labor shortage'—which we know is really just a shortage of jobs that pay us enough to live on—is a powerful bit of leverage workers have over employers right now." "You know what scares bosses?" added Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants. "Worker solidarity. Striketober is terrifying the bosses." [Read More]
For more on "the general strike" – The website of "Labor Notes" is my first stop to check in on the world of rank-and-file unionism and strikes. Also from this week's news: "Hollywood's Behind-the-Scenes Workers Reach Deal on New Contract," New York Times [Link]; "Kellogg's strike: Cereal plant workers fight to raise the floor for all employees as sales soar," from The Real News [Link]; "10,000 John Deere Workers Walk Off Job as Strike Wave Sweeps US" from Truthout [Link]; and "Teamster Insurgents Plan for a Win—And What Comes After" from Labor Notes [Link].
Israel/Palestine
Lies Are Being Told About Sally Rooney Because She Refuses to Ignore Israeli Apartheid
By
---- Because there is no way to deny that Israel refuses to grant basic civil rights to millions of Palestinians in the territories it has occupied since 1967, the Israeli government and its supporters in the West reflexively smear anyone who refuses to ignore or excuse this injustice using a familiar set of lies. That's why the attacks on Sally Rooney this week, for refusing an Israeli publishing firm's request to produce a Hebrew translation of her new novel, "Beautiful World, Where Are You," to honor the Palestinian-led cultural boycott of Israel, were so predictable. Rooney explained in a written statement that she was convinced that Israel's unequal treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied territories was akin to the former apartheid regime in South Africa, justifying an international campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions like the successful one against that state. "Earlier this year, the international campaign group Human Rights Watch published a report entitled 'A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution'. That report, coming on the heels of a similarly damning report by Israel's most prominent human rights organization B'Tselem, confirmed what Palestinian human rights groups have long been saying: Israel's system of racial domination and segregation against Palestinians meets the definition of apartheid under international law," Rooney wrote. [Read More] Also interesting/useful is "Why AFSC uses the term 'Israeli apartheid'," from the American Friends Service Committee [Quakers] [Link].
Our History
(Video) The Hospital Occupation That Changed Public Health Care
[FB – This is a documentary film about the takeover of Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx by The Young Lords in July 14, 1970. It is the work of Emma Francis-Snyder, originally from Hastings. The New York Times has posted it as one of the "op-docs." 37 minutes. Democracy Now! last June. Very interesting & timely, given the close attention paid to public health and healthcare today.
