From davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net Thu Aug 1 15:26:53 2019 From: davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net (David Johnson) Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2019 10:26:53 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?FW=3A_=5BNew_post=5D_Propagandists_Are_?= =?utf-8?q?Freaking_Out_Over_Gabbard=E2=80=99s_Destruction_Of_Harri?= =?utf-8?q?s?= In-Reply-To: <139971992.6947.0@wordpress.com> References: <139971992.6947.0@wordpress.com> Message-ID: <007d01d5487d$901ed7f0$b05c87d0$@comcast.net> Caitlin Johnstone posted: "In the race to determine who will serve as Commander in Chief of the most powerful military force in the history of civilization, night two of the CNN Democratic presidential debates saw less than six minutes dedicated to discussing US military policy dur" New post on Caitlin Johnstone Image removed by sender. Image removed by sender. Propagandists Are Freaking Out Over Gabbard’s Destruction Of Harris by Caitlin Johnstone In the race to determine who will serve as Commander in Chief of the most powerful military force in the history of civilization, night two of the CNN Democratic presidential debates saw less than six minutes dedicated to discussing US military policy during the 180-minute event. That's six, as in the number before seven. Not sixty. Not sixteen. Six. >From the moment Jake Tapper said "I want to turn to foreign policy" to the moment Don Lemon interrupted Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard just as she was preparing to correctly explain how President Trump is supporting Al-Qaeda in Idlib, approximately five minutes and fifty seconds had elapsed. The questions then turned toward the Mueller report and impeachment proceedings. Night one of the CNN debates saw almost twice as much time, with a whole eleven minutes by my count dedicated to questions of war and peace for the leadership of the most warlike nation on the planet. This discrepancy could very well be due to the fact that night two was the slot allotted to Gabbard, whose campaign largely revolves around the platform of ending US warmongering. CNN is a virulent establishment propaganda firm with an extensive history of promoting lies and brazen psyops in facilitation of US imperialism, so it would make sense that they would try to avoid a subject which would inevitably lead to unauthorized truth-telling on the matter. Image removed by sender. But the near-absence of foreign policy discussion didn't stop the Hawaii congresswoman from getting in some unauthorized truth-telling anyway. Attacking the authoritarian prosecutorial record of Senator Kamala Harris to thunderous applause from the audience, Gabbard criticized the way her opponent "put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana," "blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the court’s forced her to do so," "kept people in prisons beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California," and "fought to keep the cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way." Harris, who it turns out fights very well when advancing but folds under pressure, had no answer for Gabbard's attack, preferring to focus on attacking Joe Biden instead. Later, when she was a nice safe distance out of Gabbard's earshot, she uncorked a long-debunked but still effective smear which establishment narrative managers have been dying for an excuse to run wild with. "This, coming from someone who has been an apologist for an individual, Assad, who has murdered the people of his country like cockroaches," Harris told Anderson Cooper after the debate. "She who has embraced and been an apologist for him in a way that she refuses to call him a war criminal. I can only take what she says and her opinion so seriously and so I'm prepared to move on." That was all it took. Harris' press secretary Ian Sams unleashed a string of tweets about Gabbard being an "Assad apologist", which was followed by a deluge of establishment narrative managers who sent the word "Assad" trending on Twitter, at times when Gabbard's name somehow failed to trend despite being the top-searched candidate on Google after the debate. As of this writing, "Assad" is showing on the #5 trending list on the side bar of Twitter's new layout, while Gabbard's name is nowhere to be seen. This discrepancy has drawn criticism from numerous Gabbard defenders on the platform. "Somehow I have a hard time believing that 'Assad' is the top trending item in the United States but 'Tulsi' is nowhere to be found," tweeted journalist Michael Tracey. Image removed by sender. It really is interesting how aggressively the narrative managers thrust this line into mainstream consciousness all at the same time. The Washington Post's Josh Rogin went on a frantic, lie-filled Twitter storm as soon as he saw an opportunity, claiming with no evidence whatsoever that Gabbard lied when she said she met with Assad for purposes of diplomacy and that she "helped Assad whitewash a mass atrocity", and falsely claiming that " she praised Russian bombing of Syrian civilians". In reality all Gabbard did was meet with Assad to discuss the possibility of peace, and, more importantly, said the US shouldn't be involved in regime change interventionism in Syria. This latter bit of business is the real reason professional war propagandists like Rogin are targeting her; not because they honestly believe that a longtime US service member and sitting House Representative is an "Assad apologist", but because she commits the unforgivable heresy of resisting the mechanics of America's forever war. MSNBC's Joy Reid gleefully leapt into the smearing frenzy, falsely claiming that "Gabbard will not criticize Assad, no matter what." Gabbard has publicly and unequivocally both decried Assad as a "brutal dictator" and claimed he's guilty of war crimes, much to the irritation of anti-imperialists like myself who hold a far more skeptical eye to the war propaganda narratives about what's going on in Syria. At no time has Gabbard ever claimed that Assad is a nice person or that he isn't a brutal leader; all she's done is say the US shouldn't get involved in another regime change war there because US regime change interventionism is consistently and predictably disastrous. That's not being an "Assad apologist", that's having basic common sense. "Beware the Russian bots and their promotion of Tulsi Gabbard and sowing racial dischord [sic], especially around Kamala Harris," tweeted New York Times and CNN contributor Wajahat Ali. All the usual war cheerleaders from Lindsey Graham to Caroline Orr to Jennifer Rubin piled on, because this feeding frenzy had nothing to do with concern that Gabbard adores Bashar al-Assad and everything to do with wanting more war. Add that to the fact that Gabbard just publicly eviscerated a charming, ambitious and completely amoral centrist who would excel at putting a friendly humanitarian face on future wars if elected, and it's easy to understand why the narrative managers are flipping out so hard right now. To repeat: There is no quote in which Tulsi praises, supports, or otherwise "apologies for" Assad. I checked the record a long time ago, and it doesn't exist. This is just a smear intended to delegitimize diplomatic engagement https://t.co/Iyww1C5Ew0 — Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 1, 2019 War is the glue that holds the empire together. A politician can get away with opposing some aspects of the status quo when it comes to healthcare or education, but war as a strategy for maintaining global dominance is strictly off limits. This is how you tell the difference between someone who actually wants to change things and someone who's just going through the motions for show; the real rebels forcefully oppose the actual pillars of empire by calling for an end to military bloodshed, while the performers just stick to the safe subjects. The shrill, hysterical pushback that Gabbard received last night was very encouraging, because it means she's forcing them to fight back. In a media environment where the war propaganda machine normally coasts along almost entirely unhindered in mainstream attention, the fact that someone has positioned themselves to move the needle like this says good things for our future. If our society is to have any chance of ever throwing off the omnicidal, ecocidal power establishment which keeps us in a state of endless war and soul-crushing oppression, the first step is punching a hole in the narrative matrix which keeps us hypnotized into believing that this is all normal and acceptable. Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. Whoever disrupts that narrative control is doing the real work. ____________________ The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone, or my previous book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I'm trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. Image removed by sender. Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 Caitlin Johnstone | August 1, 2019 at 2:50 pm | Tags: assad, CNN, debate, Gabbard, Harris, Kamala, smear, Tulsi | Categories: Article, News | URL: https://wp.me/p9tj6M-1O3 Comment See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Caitlin Johnstone. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/08/01/propagandists-are-freaking-out-over-gabbards-destruction-of-harris/ Image removed by sender.Image removed by sender. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: image004.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 332 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Thu Aug 1 16:37:38 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2019 11:37:38 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: The Duran Daily References: <1f7f9dd650f6b74a59e7ce57c570e7af@mlsend.com> Message-ID: > > > View in browser > > > News Videos Shop > > The Duran Daily > > Trump puts John Ratcliffe in position to bring down Russiagate cabal (Video) > > > The Duran Quick Take: Episode 262. The post Trump puts John Ratcliffe in position to bring down Russiagate cabal (Video) appeared first on The Duran. > > READ MORE > The Upside of Protectionism > > > We constantly hear the mainstream bang in our heads the importance of trade, international trade in particular – bilateral agreements being seen as out of fashion. But we rarely hear the domestic market being brought up at all. The post The Upside of Protectionism appeared first on The Duran. > > READ MORE > Identity politics make rational discourse impossible [Video] > > One of the saying commonly attributed to statements like this above headline is to say “Captain Obvious” is speaking. We all already know this – that debate becomes absurd when dealing with identity politics. But do we really stop to consider just how widely destructive the use of identity politics actually is to running a representative republic?… The post Identity politics make rational discourse impossible [Video] appeared first on The Duran. > > READ MORE > Dems attack Obama legacy, Tulsi DEMOLISHES Kamala (Video) > > > The Duran Quick Take: Episode 261. The post Dems attack Obama legacy, Tulsi DEMOLISHES Kamala (Video) appeared first on The Duran. > > READ MORE > Epstein defense focuses on double jeopardy, will it succeed? (Video) > > > The Duran Quick Take: Episode 260. The post Epstein defense focuses on double jeopardy, will it succeed? (Video) appeared first on The Duran. > > READ MORE > Too funny to ignore: MSM calls McConnell a Russian agent [Video] > > Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes a video is worth a thousand pictures. But when it comes to the activity of Trump-enraged Democrats, put the two together and you get something really, really special. Just watch: Sometimes, there is not much need to write or analyze. Just watch and… there, you have… The post Too funny to ignore: MSM calls McConnell a Russian agent [Video] appeared first on The Duran. > > READ MORE > US’ false narrative prevents a sane relationship with Russia [Video] > > US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave a speech Monday in which he defended his record of “standing up to Russia” as an attempt to show his toughness compared with Democrats. However, in his statements, he also cast several “poison arrows” that are all but guaranteed to prevent the normalization of relations between the US and… The post US’ false narrative prevents a sane relationship with Russia [Video] appeared first on The Duran. > > READ MORE > CNN hosts Democrat debate which Andrew Yang described as “boring football game” (Video) > > > The Duran Quick Take: Episode 259. The post CNN hosts Democrat debate which Andrew Yang described as “boring football game” (Video) appeared first on The Duran. > > READ MORE > NYT wants Trump to sweet talk Russia away from China (Video) > > > The Duran Quick Take: Episode 258. The post NYT wants Trump to sweet talk Russia away from China (Video) appeared first on The Duran. > > READ MORE > Nigel Farage Offers Boris Johnson A Chance To Work Together To “Smash Labour” > > > Nigel Farage wants to help Boris Johnson deliver Brexit. Boris should accept the offer gratefully. 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URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Thu Aug 1 19:22:18 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2019 14:22:18 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Propagandists_Are_Freaking_Out_Over_Gab?= =?utf-8?q?bard=E2=80=99s_Destruction_Of_Harris?= Message-ID: Propagandists Are Freaking Out Over Gabbard’s Destruction Of Harris ARTICLE, NEWS AUGUST 1, 2019AUTHOR: CAITLIN JOHNSTONE Propagandists Are Freaking Out Over Gabbard’s Destruction Of Harris In the race to determine who will serve as Commander in Chief of the most powerful military force in the history of civilization, night two of the CNN Democratic presidential debates saw less than six minutes dedicated to discussing US military policy during the 180-minute event. That’s six, as in the number before seven. Not sixty. Not sixteen. Six. From the moment Jake Tapper said “I want to turn to foreign policy” to the moment Don Lemon interrupted Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard just as she was preparing to correctly explain how President Trump is supporting Al-Qaedain Idlib, approximately five minutes and fifty seconds had elapsed. The questions then turned toward the Mueller report and impeachment proceedings. Night one of the CNN debates saw almost twice as much time, with a whole eleven minutes by my count dedicated to questions of war and peace for the leadership of the most warlike nation on the planet. This discrepancy could very well be due to the fact that night two was the slot allotted to Gabbard, whose campaign largely revolves around the platform of ending US warmongering. CNN is a virulent establishment propaganda firm with an extensive history of promoting lies and brazen psyops in facilitation of US imperialism, so it would make sense that they would try to avoid a subject which would inevitably lead to unauthorized truth-telling on the matter. But the near-absence of foreign policy discussion didn’t stop the Hawaii congresswoman from getting in some unauthorized truth-telling anyway. Attacking the authoritarian prosecutorial record of Senator Kamala Harris to thunderous applause from the audience, Gabbard criticized the way her opponent “put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” “blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the court’s forced her to do so,” “kept people in prisons beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California,” and “fought to keep the cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way.” Harris, who it turns out fights very well when advancing but folds under pressure, had no answer for Gabbard’s attack, preferring to focus on attacking Joe Biden instead. Later, when she was a nice safe distance out of Gabbard’s earshot, she uncorked a long-debunked but still effective smear which establishment narrative managers have been dying for an excuse to run wild with. “This, coming from someone who has been an apologist for an individual, Assad, who has murdered the people of his country like cockroaches,” Harris told Anderson Cooper after the debate. “She who has embraced and been an apologist for him in a way that she refuses to call him a war criminal. I can only take what she says and her opinion so seriously and so I’m prepared to move on.” That was all it took. Harris’ press secretary Ian Sams unleashed a string of tweets about Gabbard being an “Assad apologist”, which was followed by a deluge of establishment narrative managers who sent the word “Assad” trending on Twitter, at times when Gabbard’s name somehow failed to trend despite being the top-searched candidate on Google after the debate. As of this writing, “Assad” is showing on the #5 trending list on the side bar of Twitter’s new layout, while Gabbard’s name is nowhere to be seen. This discrepancy has drawn criticism from numerous Gabbard defenders on the platform. “Somehow I have a hard time believing that ‘Assad’ is the top trending item in the United States but ‘Tulsi’ is nowhere to be found,” tweeted journalist Michael Tracey. It really is interesting how aggressively the narrative managers thrust this line into mainstream consciousness all at the same time. The Washington Post‘s Josh Rogin went on a frantic, lie-filled Twitter storm as soon as he saw an opportunity, claiming with no evidence whatsoever that Gabbard lied when she said she met with Assad for purposes of diplomacy and that she “helped Assad whitewash a mass atrocity”, and falsely claiming that “she praised Russian bombing of Syrian civilians“. In reality all Gabbard did was meet with Assad to discuss the possibility of peace, and, more importantly, she said the US shouldn’t be involved in regime change interventionism in Syria. This latter bit of business is the real reason professional war propagandists like Rogin are targeting her; not because they honestly believe that a longtime US service member and sitting House Representative is an “Assad apologist”, but because she commits the unforgivable heresy of resisting the mechanics of America’s forever war. MSNBC’s Joy Reid gleefully leapt into the smearing frenzy, falsely claiming that “Gabbard will not criticize Assad, no matter what.” Gabbard has publicly and unequivocally both decried Assad as a “brutal dictator” and claimed he’s guilty of war crimes, much to the irritation of anti-imperialists like myself who hold a far more skeptical eye to the war propaganda narratives about what’s going on in Syria. At no time has Gabbard ever claimed that Assad is a nice person or that he isn’t a brutal leader; all she’s done is say the US shouldn’t get involved in another regime change war there because US regime change interventionism is consistently and predictably disastrous. That’s not being an “Assad apologist”, that’s having basic common sense. “Beware the Russian bots and their promotion of Tulsi Gabbard and sowing racial dischord [sic], especially around Kamala Harris,” tweeted New York Times and CNN contributor Wajahat Ali. All the usual war cheerleaders from Lindsey Graham to Caroline Orr to Jennifer Rubin piled on, because this feeding frenzy had nothing to do with concern that Gabbard adores Bashar al-Assad and everything to do with wanting more war. Add that to the fact that Gabbard just publicly eviscerated a charming, ambitious and completely amoral centrist who would excel at putting a friendly humanitarian face on future wars if elected, and it’s easy to understand why the narrative managers are flipping out so hard right now. Michael Tracey ✔ @mtracey To repeat: There is no quote in which Tulsi praises, supports, or otherwise "apologies for" Assad. I checked the record a long time ago, and it doesn't exist. This is just a smear intended to delegitimize diplomatic engagement https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-the-baseless-vilification-of-tulsi-gabbard-20190117-story.html … The baseless vilification of Tulsi Gabbard: She's not an Assad apologist; she simply believes in... The knives came swiftly out for Tulsi Gabbard, the four-term Congresswoman from Hawaii, immediately after she announced last week that she intends to run for President. Gabbard inspires a particula... nydailynews.com 2,404 8:55 AM - Aug 1, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 917 people are talking about this War is the glue that holds the empire together. A politician can get away with opposing some aspects of the status quo when it comes to healthcare or education, but war as a strategy for maintaining global dominance is strictly off limits. This is how you tell the difference between someone who actually wants to change things and someone who’s just going through the motions for show; the real rebels forcefully oppose the actual pillars of empire by calling for an end to military bloodshed, while the performers just stick to the safe subjects. The shrill, hysterical pushback that Gabbard received last night was very encouraging, because it means she’s forcing them to fight back. In a media environment where the war propaganda machine normally coasts along almost entirely unhindered in mainstream attention, the fact that someone has positioned themselves to move the needle like this says good things for our future. If our society is to have any chance of ever throwing off the omnicidal, ecocidal power establishment which keeps us in a state of endless war and soul-crushing oppression, the first step is punching a hole in the narrative matrix which keeps us hypnotized into believing that this is all normal and acceptable. Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. Whoever disrupts that narrative control is doing the real work. ____________________ The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone, or my previous book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 Liked it? Take a second to support Caitlin Johnstone on Patreon! TagsASSADCNNDEBATEGABBARDHARRISKAMALASMEARTULSI Share Conventional Politicians Are Infinitely Weirder Than Marianne Williamson Latest Comments • NIELSON / AUGUST 1, 2019 In other news, Forbes reports that Rachael Maddow has dropped from being the #1 most watched cable news show (March ’18) to the #5 most watch cable news show. She now trails even Laura Ingraham. Maddow has lost over half a million estimated viewers, or about 16% of her previous leading total. As Lincoln once said, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Not even brain-dead, American Democrats. REPLY • COCOA / AUGUST 1, 2019 I love how talking to Assad about the ruinous policy and murder of his people by US-backed ISIS rebels and bombings is some sort of traitorous event. Big Defense and Big Media have been cutting Gabbard off by the knees as she is the biggest threat to their gravy train in decades. Lying, pitching that Assad crap, ignoring her in the news, cutting off her search Google Buys…the Deep State and media are pulling out all the stops on Gabbard because they know she is coming for them. Would you rather be alive and under Assad, or rejoicing in the rubble of “American Democracy” by Drone REPLY • NJH / AUGUST 1, 2019 Tulsi has restored my faith in a democratic anti-war candidate. I have switched to the Green Party, but sadly, its outstanding platform is silenced in every meaningful way due to our war-loving/promoting derelict 1%. Tulsi fights like a Kennedy. She’s incredibly honest–a no-no for those who live, breathe and eat plunder for regime change. I pray for her safety…she walks on delicate ground. She is real leader-well above any other candidate right or left… and that sets her up for geopolitical target practice. REPLY • BAHMI / AUGUST 1, 2019 Tulsi is a one trick pony. However, she’s just your typical Israel loving groveler worshiping the ground the jews tread on. She’s puke, on the whole. REPLY • JOSEPH OLSON / AUGUST 1, 2019 CIA Operation Zero Footprint, the Obombie & Reptillary plan to arm the big Mo hood and overthrow Tunisian, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Syria was only stopped by brave humanitarian Putin. White Helmet staged fake chemical attacks prompted PDJT missile attacks. Russians killed thousands of CIA/ISIS terrorists…. “We killed hundreds of Russians” ~ madman Pompeo REPLY • LEONARD MICHAEL ROSS / AUGUST 1, 2019 Joy Reid on NBC attacked Tulsi mercilessly, along with her fellow clones, on Assad and even had the chutzpah to mention her (repudiated by Tulsi) anti-LGBTQ views which is hillarious considering her own homophobic tweets. But when MSM venom against Tulsi drips, there is no gutter regime-change apologists are not willing to deep dive. But Andersen Cooper interviewed her in his post-debate show and Tulsi defends herself brilliantly, making scion Cooper squirm uncomfortably as she eviscerated his “Assad is a mass-murderer” gotcha attempts. But, to his credit, he was reasonably fair otherwise and gave her a more substantial platform to express her views than the debate did. MSM, previously, was touting Harris as the fierce debate contender that would bring Trump down, based on her prosecutor skills, failing to realize that grilling a literally sitting target defendent is a lot different than dealing with someone who can fire back. When Harris tried to deflect with all the good she has done in California Tulsi riposted with a counterattack that sealed Harris’ debate doom. Harris had her ass handed to her on a platter festooned with an aloha lei, compliments of TG. Karma kickback kicked back and Harris and her campaign pulled out all the lamestream stops citing Russian support of Tulsi, regurgitating a bogus report, to staunch the bleeding. But Tulsi is a soldier, combat veteran, strategist and martial artist as she pulled off the bushido “one strike, one kill” manuever in a crowded field of debate opponents. Perhaps Kamala can commiserate with Tim Ryan and whine that Tulsi is unfair because she did give out a trigger warning beforehand. Sometimes good guys do wear white. REPLY • CUTTHECORD / AUGUST 1, 2019 BDS Israhell and everyone / everything that sustains the evil, in every possible way, everyday. REPLY • GLIDER / AUGUST 1, 2019 Great article. This is a perfect example of blatant organized MSM propaganda to support their donor class bosses. The phrase “Assad Apologist” is repeated dutifully by these well paid servants. Like other phrases such as “They Hate Us for our Freedoms” from their “greatist hits list” these are an organized media conspiracy to control public opinion. This article is great at pointing out the very dangerous development that this election cycle will reveal extreme donor class interference in our corporate social media. Not Russiagate BS, but real systematic heavy duty interference and thought control. This huge danger is not apparent to the average voter and IMO will absolutely occur. The censorship mechanisms have already been installed at FB and Twitter. They will not just sit on this capability. It is going to be used. REPLY • CHUCKNOBOMB / AUGUST 1, 2019 I thank all who put a cog in the wheel. Wage Peace and Justice. Keep On… REPLY • CHUCKNOBOMB / AUGUST 1, 2019 I thank all who put a cog in the wheel. Wage Peace and Justice. REPLY • TOM WELSH / AUGUST 1, 2019 ” I suppose Tulsi’s attack on The Great Brown Hope…” I was wondering about that. Judging by the photograph provided with the article, Tulsi is just as brown. Ha ha, Virtue Points!! REPLY • CLEMENTINE / AUGUST 1, 2019 If those who oppose invading another country, bombing its civilians, and overthrowing its government are always called “Assad Apologists”, then it only seems to be fair and just to return the serve by calling those who support the radical jihadists a bunch of “Al Qaida Apologists”. Lets try it out, Al-Qaida Apologist Harris was challenged on her disgusting record as a prosecutor during last night’s debate. Yeah, seems about right. REPLY • TOM WELSH / AUGUST 1, 2019 It should also be pointed out – unfailingly – that Al-Qaeda apologists are obviously in favour of burning people alive, drowning them in cages which are thrown into swimming pools, cutting their heads off with penknives, and cutting out their hearts and livers and eating them raw. To mention only some of the less horrible acts. Since a week is a long time in politics and (as Gore Vidal remarked) “USA” actually stands for “United States of Amnesia”, it may not be worth noting that the US government itself blames Al-Qaeda for 9/11. But what they hey… they are Christians, aren’t they, and so what is more natural than that they should forgive what was done to other people 18 years ago. REPLY • TOM WELSH / AUGUST 1, 2019 Oh, I forgot “crucifying Christian civilians, including children”. My bad. REPLY • CUTTHECORD / AUGUST 1, 2019 the “al-qaida apologists” created al-qaida. apology is justified. REPLY • TOM WELSH / AUGUST 1, 2019 “At no time has Gabbard ever claimed that Assad is a nice person or that he isn’t a brutal leader…” Although one might reasonably ask (if one wasn’t a demented, amoral armaments warmonger) how many important political leaders – anywhere in the world – are “nice people” or incapable of brutality when the situation requires it. Indeed, while – like the vicar who was asked his opinion of sin – I am in general against brutality, surely a person who is incapable of it cannot be qualified to lead a country. Certainly if, like Mr Assad, he sees his country invaded by hundreds of thousands of heavily-armed, murderous, fundamentalist mercenaries for whose beliefs and behaviour the word “brutal” is shockingly inadequate. Mercenaries recruited, armed, supplied, advised, protected and paid by the very people who criticize the forces of law and order as “brutal” and “not nice”. REPLY • CLEMENTINE / AUGUST 1, 2019 The only leader in my lifetime that I can think of that might possibly be called A Nice Person is Jimmy Carter. Carter is routinely vilified and derided in America as a weak and ineffectual leader and as the worst President. And I suspect he wasn’t really all that nice or else he wouldn’t have risen to the top of the dogpile to be first a governor and then President. To do either usually requires some acts that are ‘not nice’. REPLY • TOM WELSH / AUGUST 1, 2019 Yes, that theme runs right through history. A famous example from English history is King Stephen, who – as I was taught at school – was A Weak King and therefore a VERY Bad Thing. On the other hand, he showed exceptional mercy and kindness – unlike more famous and “Good” kings like Richard I “The Lionheart” who, after capturing Jerusalem, had over 2,000 Muslim prisoners slaughtered like sheep for no particular reason. Or Henry I, who arranged the death of his brother King William II Rufus in a “hunting accident”, then had his other elder bother Robert imprisoned for the rest of his life so he could be king. The list goes on… REPLY • CLEMENTINE / AUGUST 1, 2019 I saw a poll the other day which said that 70% of Americans view Drug Addiction as, I forget the exact wording, but something like “A Very Serious Problem” in America. It was the highest issue on the list. The Opioid Crisis apparently was not mentioned at all in this debate. I’m not as brave as Caitlin, so I haven’t watched these things, but I don’t recall any discussion of it being mentioned so far in the debates. I suppose Tulsi’s attack on The Great Brown Hope for her record of imprisoning people on offenses concerning a non-addicting substance which has since been legalized in CA (Harris opposed the first attempt and was quiet on the 2nd which succeeded.), is as close as we get. Why didn’t Jack Trap ask a question about the biggest problem facing America? How much advertising money does CNN collect in a year from the Big Pharma industry that was at the core of the crisis? Cui Bono. REPLY • MISS MARGARET / AUGUST 1, 2019 Keep in mind, tho, the big push to legalize pot, and then other drugs, everywhere, and further cloud people’s brains against study, the development of a better world for themselves & others by learning, organizing and participating, and avoiding the culture of self interest and pleasure seeking over interest in the condition of the many, is mainly coming from people like pro legalize king George Soros, former Speaker of the House, now DC pot lobbyist John Boehner, Wall Street and other investors. Pot stocks are selling like mad, and if legalized, online WS trade mag Motley Fool suggests potentially a trillion dollar business, at our expense in many ways, including thinking there’s ‘nothing wrong’ with a little pot smoking. Just look at some of our youth, many are stoned on any given day and some have very low school scores. It’s MANY things, but pot does NOT motivate, it does the opposite; who put pot & other drugs into our neighborhoods? We should want everyone to be clear-headed and sharp so they can develop to their full potentialities, and also figure out ‘who, what, why’, and fight against those who use every trick in the book to dumb them down, demoralize them and control them. Drug use is an old trick of Empires, as the British Empire (still alive & well in tandem with U.S. partners) Opium wars proved. And I do know of what I speak on the subject, not just anti-drug for no reason. REPLY Leave A Comment Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. SUBSCRIBE! Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Support Caitlin Johnstone on Patreon! RECENT ARTICLES ARTICLE, NEWS Propagandists Are Freaking Out Over Gabbard’s Destruction Of Harris AUGUST 1, 2019 ARTICLE Conventional Politicians Are Infinitely Weirder Than Marianne Williamson JULY 31, 2019 ARTICLE How The Question “Who Benefits From This?” Can Change Your Life JULY 30, 2019 TWEETS Caitlin Johnstone ⏳Follow Retweet on TwitterCaitlin Johnstone ⏳ RetweetedThe Alternative World3h "As of this writing, 'Assad' is showing on the #5 trending list on the side bar of Twitter’s new layout, while Gabbard’s name is nowhere to be seen." @caitoz #DemocraticDebate2020 #TulsiGabbard#KamalaHarris https://t.co/KLzRy7iiry Reply on Twitter 1156962527311474688Retweet on Twitter 115696252731147468828Like on Twitter 115696252731147468853Twitter 1156962527311474688 Caitlin Johnstone ⏳3h "In the race to determine who will serve as Commander in Chief of the most powerful military force in the history of civilization, night two of the CNN Democratic presidential debates saw less than 6 minutes dedicated to discussing US military policy during the 180-minute event." Caitlin Johnstone ⏳@caitoz Propagandists Are Freaking Out Over Gabbard’s Destruction Of Harris "As of this writing, 'Assad' is showing on the #5 trending list on the side bar of Twitter’s new layout, while Gabbard’s name is nowhere to be seen." https://t.co/KiJJSONcKl Reply on Twitter 1156957649943945216Retweet on Twitter 115695764994394521624Like on Twitter 115695764994394521678Twitter 1156957649943945216 Retweet on TwitterCaitlin Johnstone ⏳ RetweetedHRivera3h This is incredible and substantive writing by @caitoz on the war machine and @TulsiGabbard's groundbreaking performance in last night debate. A must read. #KamalaHarrisDestroyed #Tulsi2020 https://t.co/NHm21qJp6K Reply on Twitter 1156954739747147781Retweet on Twitter 115695473974714778115Like on Twitter 115695473974714778148Twitter 1156954739747147781 Retweet on TwitterCaitlin Johnstone ⏳ Retweeted🚷4h "this feeding frenzy had nothing to do with concern that Gabbard adores Bashar al-Assad and everything to do with wanting more war. Add that to the fact that Gabbard just publicly eviscerated a charming, ambitious and completely amoral centrist. . ." https://t.co/vjE3xf8UOj Reply on Twitter 1156950957961428999Retweet on Twitter 115695095796142899911Like on Twitter 115695095796142899930Twitter 1156950957961428999 Retweet on TwitterCaitlin Johnstone ⏳ RetweetedJosh the Pagan4h "War is the glue that holds the empire together." More truth by @caitoz. War propagandists are in a frenzy this morning trying to take down @TulsiGabbard. It shows you that they believe @KamalaHarris would perpetuate our wars and serve the MIC. #KamalaHarrisDestroyedhttps://t.co/PhaHRkpACJ Reply on Twitter 1156946297317928960Retweet on Twitter 115694629731792896037Like on Twitter 115694629731792896071Twitter 1156946297317928960 Load More... FACEBOOK FEED Caitlin Johnstone shared a link. 2 weeks ago Johnstone: Mainstream "Centrists" Pose The Greatest Ideological Threat To Us All "A Bernie supporter and a Trump supporter are arguing about left versus right while trapped in a room with a tiger who’s eating them both alive..." 9 View on facebook Caitlin Johnstone shared a link. 2 weeks ago Johnstone: Mainstream "Centrists" Pose The Greatest Ideological Threat To Us All "A Bernie supporter and a Trump supporter are arguing about left versus right while trapped in a room with a tiger who’s eating them both alive..." 9 View on facebook Caitlin Johnstone shared a link. 2 weeks ago Johnstone: Mainstream "Centrists" Pose The Greatest Ideological Threat To Us All "A Bernie supporter and a Trump supporter are arguing about left versus right while trapped in a room with a tiger who’s eating them both alive..." 9 View on facebook Caitlin Johnstone 2 weeks ago Mainstream “Centrists” Pose The Greatest Ideological Threat To Us All Excerpt from "Mainstream 'Centrists' Pose The Greatest Ideological Threat To Us All": People like Ashton Kutcher imagine that the so-called “center” is called that because it sits smack dab in ... See more Ashton Kutcher, a stupid person who got famous playing the role of a stupid person, tweeted the following the other day: “Where has the middle gone? Middle class? Politicians who don’t need t… 85 View on facebook « ‹ 1 of 702 › » ARCHIVES • AUGUST 2019 • JULY 2019 • JUNE 2019 • MAY 2019 • APRIL 2019 • MARCH 2019 • FEBRUARY 2019 • JANUARY 2019 • DECEMBER 2018 • NOVEMBER 2018 • OCTOBER 2018 • SEPTEMBER 2018 • AUGUST 2018 • JULY 2018 • JUNE 2018 • MAY 2018 • APRIL 2018 • MARCH 2018 • FEBRUARY 2018 • JANUARY 2018 • DECEMBER 2017 RELATED POSTS ARTICLE Conventional Politicians Are Infinitely Weirder Than Marianne Williamson JULY 31, 2019 ARTICLE Eight Thoughts On Marianne Williamson JULY 24, 2019 ARTICLE, NEWS ‘Anti-Trump’ CNN Presstitute Defends Trump’s Persecution Of Assange JULY 20, 2019 ARTICLE, NEWS New CNN Assange Smear Piece Is Amazingly Dishonest, Even For CNN JULY 16, 2019 ARTICLE Kamala Harris Is An Oligarch’s Wet Dream JUNE 28, 2019 ARTICLE First Democratic Debate, Summarized: JUNE 27, 2019 Support Caitlin Johnstone on Patreon! Copyright © 2017 by Caitlin Johnstone Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email! Join 8,312 other subscribers Email Address Site design by Mary Vogt Digital Design Save From cgestabrook at gmail.com Thu Aug 1 19:25:45 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2019 14:25:45 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: The end is near (for Democrats and Israel) References: <8d38ef747c2061bb9c6137961.3ee9067898.20190801122454.f421dfb870.5e56bd76@mail101.atl71.mcdlv.net> Message-ID: <39D1A80F-4996-4A3D-AD19-0C46E438965D@gmail.com> > > > Can't view this email? Click here. > > August 1, 2019 > > Cge, > > Here are the latest stories from Mondoweiss: > > The end is near (for Democrats and Israel) > Palestinian professor hits back at Israel lobby attacks > Snapshots of humanity that add up to one great truth — Help us meet our goal with just hours left > What does the UK’s new cabinet mean for Israel and Palestine? > US officials are capitalizing off ethics report accusing UNRWA leadership of abuse of power > With criticism crushed in the west, Israel can enjoy its impunity > Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here > > Read More: > > <> <> <>The end is near (for Democrats and Israel) By Philip Weiss > > White progressives in the Democratic Party are turning against Israel. They snapped during the 2014 assault on Gaza, and they are joining what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls a "generational" shift for progressives to criticize Israel. "Young Jews are sick of this." > > Join the conversation  > > > <> <> <>Palestinian professor hits back at Israel lobby attacks By David Spero > > Aiming to expose and loosen the influence of the Israel lobby on U.S. campuses, Palestinian-born professor Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi has sued San Francisco State University (SFSU) in federal court for illegal retaliation for her political speech, and in state court for breach of contract and employment discrimination. Her supporters have issued a call for donations to a fund to cover necessary expenses of the litigation. > > Join the conversation  > > > <> <> <>Snapshots of humanity that add up to one great truth — Help us meet our goal with just hours left By Allison Deger > > Mondoweiss reports on the important, under-reported aspects of Palestinian life that the mainstream media won't touch. We have just hours to meet our fundraising challenge, and need your support to keep bringing you these kinds of stories — can you make a contribution today? > > Join the conversation  > > > <> <> <>What does the UK’s new cabinet mean for Israel and Palestine? By Anna Duff > > What does Boris Johnson's new cabinet mean for Israel, Palestine, and the region as a whole? Anna Duff says the new PM, and his choice for Cabinet, could spell disaster for hopes for stability and peace in the near future. > > Join the conversation  > > > <> <> <>US officials are capitalizing off ethics report accusing UNRWA leadership of abuse of power By Yumna Patel > > US officials are capitalizing off of a scandal surrounding the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees after an ethics report accusing organizational leadership of abuse of power and creating a toxic work environment was leaked to the media. “This is exactly why we stopped their funding,” Trump’s former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said over Twitter. > > Join the conversation  > > > <> <> <>With criticism crushed in the west, Israel can enjoy its impunity By Jonathan Cook > > Recent events have shone a spotlight not only on how Israel is intensifying its abuse of Palestinians under its rule, but the utterly depraved complicity of western governments in its actions. > > Join the conversation  > > > Share This Newsletter on Facebook > Forward This Newsletter To a Friend > > Facebook > > Twitter > > Instagram > > Website > Advertising > > Copyright © 2019 Mondoweiss, All rights reserved. > You are receiving this email because you signed up for it on our website Mondoweiss.net . > > Our mailing address is: > Mondoweiss > P.O. Box 442380 > Detroit, MI 48244 > > Add us to your address book > > If you were sent this newsletter you can sign up here . > > unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences > > We handle your data responsibly. Learn More. > > Gifts to Mondoweiss are tax-deductible as allowed by U.S. law due to our status as a project of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change (CERSC), a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Thu Aug 1 23:02:47 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2019 18:02:47 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Fw: [Discuss] Kentucky coal miners ( Harlan County) In-Reply-To: <1078158274.1081463.1564700457329@mail.yahoo.com> References: <1078158274.1081463.1564700457329@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: David Green Date: Thu, Aug 1, 2019, 6:01 PM Subject: Fw: [Discuss] Kentucky coal miners ( Harlan County) To: David Green Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android ----- Forwarded Message ----- *From:* "Lynn Stuckey via Discuss-CommunityCourtwatch" < discuss-communitycourtwatch at lists.chambana.net> *To:* "discuss list" , "discuss list" < discuss-communitycourtwatch at lists.chambana.net> *Cc:* *Sent:* Thu, Aug 1, 2019 at 5:48 PM *Subject:* [Discuss] Kentucky coal miners ( Harlan County) Dear friends, I'm operating on the assumption folks have heard about the coal miners of Harlan County, Kentucky, who are blocking a coal train from leaving their county. The miners worked for a company that abruptly declared bankruptcy, and that company issued stop payment orders on the last paychecks the miners got. Basically, the miners were not paid for their last few weeks of work. Does anyone on this list have any contacts with organizations that may be assisting the miners? I can't drive down to Harlan, and I would prefer to see any assistance I might be able to offer get routed through a good organization. Thanks for your help. Lynn Stuckey _______________________________________________ Discuss-CommunityCourtwatch mailing list Discuss-CommunityCourtwatch at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss-communitycourtwatch -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Fri Aug 2 02:51:16 2019 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2019 02:51:16 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] What is at stake in the coming electoral processes Message-ID: A podcast from Michael Albert, whci I found rather persuasive: https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJwIjoxfQ%3D%3D/patreon-media/p/post/28830407/bf2d307abd86462990e21b70c97bf36e/1.mp3?token-time=1565913600&token-hash=MyRfBlKO3QK6EpApFdC2FCjB4dee8KgBprgXlNDB-XY%3D&ext=.mp3 I hope this link connects. If not, go to www.patreon.com to get the podcast. —mkb From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Aug 2 04:11:09 2019 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2019 23:11:09 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Notes Message-ID: Here are some topics for discussion for tomorrow's show or AOTA. Have a good show, guys! -J Privacy/exploitation: Apple's "voice assistant" Siri also records its users at times when the user isn't making a request (in other words, spying). There's a large market for spying on people and people are bringing the devices of their own exploitation into their lives in exchange for a minor bit of convenience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJdvkg_sVG0 -- RT's report. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/07/siri-records-fights-doctors-appointments-and-sex-and-contractors-hear-it/ -- Condé Nast's report. > One of the contract workers told The Guardian that Siri did sometimes > record audio after mistaken activations. The wake word is the phrase > “hey Siri,” but the anonymous source said that it could be activated by > similar-sounding words or with the noise of a zipper. They also said > that when an Apple Watch is raised and speech is detected, Siri will > automatically activate. > > “There have been countless instances of recordings featuring private > discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, seemingly > criminal dealings, sexual encounters and so on,” the source said. “These > recordings are accompanied by user data showing location, contact > details, and app data.” > > Apple has said that it takes steps to protect users from being connected > with the recordings sent to contractors. The audio is not linked to an > Apple ID and less than 1% of daily Siri activations are reviewed. It > also sets confidentiality requirements for those contract workers. We > reached out to Apple for further comment and will update the story if we > receive it. > > Apple, along with Google and Amazon, all have similar policies for the > contract workers it hires to review those audio snippets. But all three > voice AI makers have also been the subject of similar privacy breaches, > either by whistleblowers going to the press or through errors that give > users access to incorrect audio files. Right in line with being the corporate-compatible source of "journalism" they always were, Condé Nast and Anna Washenko concludes this story with: > Voice assistants appear to be yet another instance where a technology > has been developed and adopted faster than its consequences have been > fully thought-out. Another way of looking at this which explains all of the available evidence says that voice assistants were "fully thought-out" and that's why they're all delivered to the user as proprietary software driven applications which report far more than they should to the proprietor. Therefore stories like these come as no surprise to anyone who looks at this structurally -- whose interests are being served with proprietary software -- rather than taking a proprietor's word for things. Condé Nast wants to continue to be of service to the companies it publishes about, and it knows that framing the issue in the way I framed it above encourages the reader to understand that these privacy violations are no accident, nor is the consistency of such stories across so many voice-driven products a surprise. The cure for this remains the same: software freedom. With a free software voice activated system, the user would get to choose how the system works, when the data is uploaded, where to upload the data, and which data to upload for further processing. A free software system would let the user review things, or only trigger voice activation after pressing a button; essentially putting in a delay before using the speech to cause something to happen. This would help prevent a service from getting "countless instances of recordings featuring private discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, seemingly criminal dealings, sexual encounters and so on" in the first place which is critically necessary in order to avoid being exploited by these proprietors and their contractors. Poverty/The Rent Is Too Damn High: Millions of people are struggling to put food on the table. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBfe6CTWQEc -- RT's report: > 4 million people in "deep poverty" in the UK (meaning their income is > below the poverty line). > > 7 million people in "persistent poverty" (they've been destitute for at > least 2 of the last 3 years) and this includes 2.3 million children. This piece includes an interview with Rev. Paul Nicolson, founder "Taxpayers Against Poverty": > Well, I think those figures are shaming but even those figures don't go > to the root of the problem. The life that has been led by people who are > renters are paying high rents and low incomes [...are why] those people > are here in demonstration here today. Because what they've been doing in > London for so long is simply grabbing every bit of public land and > taking it out from underneath the council tenants. In 2005 and 2009 Jimmy McMillan founded and ran for New York City mayor in The Rent Is Too Damn High Party. "The Rent Is Too Damn High" was his catchphrase and, quite frankly, he was correct. We're seeing this sentiment expressed more around the world. The name of the party was cause for trying to deny that party ballot access: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_rent_is_too_damn_high#In_the_District_of_Columbia > Former District of Columbia shadow representative John Capozzi and a > group of incumbents used the name Rent Is Too Darn High for their slate > while running for the District of Columbia Democratic State Committee > in 2014. McMillan endorsed the group. On the ballot, the slate used the > word darn rather than damn because District rules prohibit expletives on > the ballot. > > McMillan sued the District of Columbia Board of Elections in federal > court, saying the ban on expletives violated his right to free speech. > In December 2014, Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for > the District of Columbia dismissed the suit, determining that McMillan > lacked standing because he was not a candidate or registered voter in > the District of Columbia, and determining that the matter was moot in > any case because the slate had disbanded and "demonstrated no intent to > use the plaintiff's party's name in a future election." War: War funding, arms will move, and the status quo continues without any serious obstacles from the so-called "resistance" and the Democrats including the so-called "anti-war" Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RexyXGNyJo -- (estimated value) $1 billion arms block fails in the Senate, so the arms sales to Saudi Arabia & UAE (which will kill more Yemeni) continue. http://www.ye.undp.org/content/dam/yemen/General/Docs/ImpactOfWarOnDevelopmentInYemen.pdf https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/ImpactOfWarOnDevelopmentInYemen.pdf -- UN report "Assessing the Impact of War on Development in Yemen" which concludes: > If the conflict were to end in 2019, it would account for: > > 233,000 deaths -- (0.8 per cent of the 2019 population) with 102,000 > combat deaths and 131,000 indirect deaths due to lack of food, health > services and infrastructure > > 1 child death every 11 minutes and 54 seconds in 2019 > > 140,000 deaths of children under the age of five > > If conflict continues, the cost in mortality, especially the lives of > children, will grow. In a scenario that assumes reduced conflict > intensity relative to 2018, but continued large-scale violence through > 2022, we estimate that fighting will account for: > > (1.5 per cent of the 2022 population) with 166,000 combat deaths and > 316,000 indirect deaths due to lack of food, health services, and > infrastructure > > 1 child death every 7 minutes in 2022 > > If the conflict continues through 2030, it will increasingly > and disproportionately impact the lives of the youngest: > > 1.8M deaths (4.6 per cent of the 2030 population) with 296,000 people > dying directly in conflict and an additional 1.48 million people dying > indirectly due to lack of food, health services and infrastructure > > 1 child death every 2 minutes and 24 seconds in 2019 > > 1.5M deaths of children under the age of five Russiagate/Maria Butina: Butina's lawyer says that there is enough evidence of federal misconduct for an appeal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G420VKs2Xk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoRNy189gCM -- RT interview with Robert Driscoll. Robert Driscoll is Maria Butina's lawyer. Driscoll has done a number of exclusive pieces for RT. The interviews end up being exclusive in part because other outlets don't want to talk to anyone knowledgeable about Butina's case. Other news outlets want to propagandize and frame Butina as having used sex to do some "spying" for Russia. This is not true. Even though the US government had to admit that Butina wasn't using sex at all in this case. If you read the US government's indictment of Butina it doesn't involve spying. Butina was convicted of failing to register under FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act), the same act RT was pressured into registering under in order to keep broadcasting. The same act that was used as the means for denying RT its Capitol credentials, and why Lee Camp, host of RT's "Redacted Tonight" opens every show with "Welcome to Redacted Tonight, the comedy show where Americans covering American news are called 'foreign agents'.". The same act that explains why some RT shows produced in the US ("Redacted Tonight" and "On Contact with Chris Hedges") have a credit which reads "Additional material is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, DC". Driscoll says that Patrick Byrne, philanthropist and CEO of an online retail chain, had a sporadic relationship with Butina and was an informant for the FBI the entire time beginning in 2015 through Butina's arrest: > Mr. Byrne has now contacted me and has confirmed that he, indeed, had a > 'non-standard arrangement' with the FBI for many years and that > beginning in 2015 through Maria's arrest, he communicated and assisted > government agents with their investigation of Maria. He also told me > that [...] he reported to the government that Maria's behavior and > interaction with him was inconsistent with her being a foreign agent and > more likely an idealist and age-appropriate peace activist. She used her connections with the National Rifle Association and National Prayer Breakfast to try to lobby for gun rights in Russia because she was a gun enthusiast. Under US law, foreign lobbyists are required to register with the US Dept. of Justice and she did not register and has been serving her 18 month jail sentence. War funding: Democrats support war despite their rhetoric putting such rhetoric into context. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4_wgBE1v8M -- RT: "'Endless costly war' FTW! [For the win!] Dems & Reps unite in passing new $732bn military budget" (referring to HR3877 which is titled the "Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019"). Who is part of that supportive House majority from the Democrats (ostensibly resisting Pres. Trump)? Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI) -- who is repeatedly referred to as "anti-war" Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) But don't worry, they all still talk tough. The President thanked the House for their support of the funding: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1154533077986603008 > I am pleased to announce the House has passed our budget deal 284-149. > Great for our Military and our Vets. A big thank you! Free speech: Democrats support Israel-backed bill against BDS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSi3hqnY2u8 -- Progressive Democrats vote against Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS), Palestinian rights in passing HR246. https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/progressive-democrats-vote-against-palestinian-rights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSi3hqnY2u8 -- Ali Abunimah interviewed by Aaron Maté's on Maté's new show "Push Back". Abunimah from his article: > Many were disappointed that among the 398 representatives who backed the > bill were several prominent Democratic progressives and antiwar figures, > including Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, California’s Ro Khanna and > Tulsi Gabbard, the Hawaii congresswoman who is running for president. > > On Monday, I wrote about how Gabbard and Pressley have tried, amid > outrage at their votes, to defend their decisions. > > In the interview, Maté and I talk about these developments as well as > why the Democratic Party leadership is so eager to attack and smear > Palestinians. > > The resolution condemning BDS had the full backing of top Democrat Nancy > Pelosi, the speaker of the House. Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XTBBrTs3e8 -- Rep. Tulsi Gabbard on why she supported HR246. Here's a transcript of what she said in this video: > Tulsi Gabbard: Some of you have sent me messages and posted on social > media asking for more information about why I voted the way I did on a > recent resolution talking about BDS. So I wanted to give you some > background and talk to you about my commitment to defending our first > amendment rights. Nothing is more fundamental to the identity of our > country then the rights and freedoms that are enshrined in our > constitution. Now I've fought to defend these freedoms both as a soldier > and as a Congresswoman. It's why we'll continue to oppose > unconstitutional legislation like S1 -- a bill that does seek to > restrict freedom of speech by imposing legal penalties against those who > participate in the BDS movement. That's why I cosponsored HRes496 -- to > affirm our freedom of speech and right to protest or boycott for any > cause as well as stating opposition to any legislative efforts that seek > to restrict these fundamental first amendment rights. Now I voted for > HRes246 because I support a two-state solution that provides for the > rights of both Israel and Palestine to exist and for their people to > live in peace with security in their homes. I don't believe BDS is the > way to accomplish that. However, I will continue to defend those who > choose to exercise their right to free speech without any threat of > legal action. Now HRes246 does not in any way limit or hinder our first > amendment rights. In fact, it affirms every American's right to exercise > free speech for or against US foreign policy as well as the right of > Israeli and Palestinian people to live in safe and sovereign states free > from fear and violence and with mutual recognition. The right to protest > the actions of our government is essential if America is to truly be a > free society. So no matter what our disagreements are about various > political positions or choices that our government makes, we can all > agree that every American should have the freedom to make those > disagreements known and to protest peacefully in support of their > views. Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeVaVcyrR_E -- Jimmy Dore on how disappointed he is in who supported this bill (including Rep. Tulsi Gabbard). Dore also includes playing back Rep. Gabbard's explanation (above) defending her vote for the non-binding referendum. He calls her explanation "not clear" and points out that "She seems to say a lot of things in support of free speech and people, although this thing [HR 246] kind of smeared people who were doing that. So that seems contradictory. In the future, if I ever get a chance to interview her again I will ask her: 'What is your clear position on Israel?' [...] Also, 'What is your position on AIPAC's lobbying?' because this bill is proof of the power of AIPAC. And 'What is your view on Israel's policies, its human rights abuses, and what would be the alternative peaceful way to pressure Israel to STOP murdering Palestinians?'". Dore is scheduled to do a live show in Hawaii in December, perhaps he'll speak with Rep. Gabbard then. I'd also like him to ask her why she's okay with drone warfare (and the concomitant extrajudicial assassinations of innocent civilians) and how that squares with being called "anti-war" by both supporters and critics alike. See my blog article https://digitalcitizen.info/2019/02/13/is-tulsi-gabbard-really-anti-war-no-shes-pro-drone-and-for-surgical-strikes/ for more on this. Related: https://www.democracynow.org/2019/3/8/its_time_to_tell_the_truth -- Amy Goodman interviews Israeli journalist Gideon Levy who supports Ilhan Omar's critique of Israel: > Gideon Levy: It’s wonderful that the House deals with anti-Semitism. > It’s wonderful that the House condemns anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism > should be condemned. But the context is very suspicious and very > troubling. Let me be very frank with you, Amy. We have to say the truth: > The Israeli lobby, the Jewish lobby, are, by far, too strong and too > aggressive. It’s not good for the Jewish community. It’s not good for > Israel. > > What is happening now is that some kind of fresh air, some kind of new > voices are emerging from Capitol Hill, raising legitimate questions > about Israel, about America’s foreign policy toward Israel and about the > Israeli lobby in the States. Those are very legitimate questions, and it > is more than needed to raise them. But the Israeli propaganda and the > Jewish propaganda in recent years made it as a systematic method, > whenever anybody dares to raise questions or to criticize Israel, he is > immediately and automatically labeled as anti-Semite, and then he has to > shut his mouth, because after this, what can he say? > > This vicious circle should be broken. And I really hope that great, > great politicians, like Mrs. Omar and others, will be courageous enough > to stand in front those accusations and to say, “Yes, it is legitimate > to criticize Israel. Yes, it is legitimate to raise questions. And this > does not mean that we are anti-Semites. We are not ready to play this > game anymore, in which they shut our mouths with those accusations, > which, in most of the cases, are hollow.” Free speech and private publishing power: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard sues Google for $50 million after Google suspends her ad campaign for 6 hours after the first Democratic Party debate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8A2kzeEqGA -- Jimmy Dore and company discuss this, including a clip of Rep. Gabbard on Tucker Carlson's show. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/technology/tulsi-gabbard-sues-google.html https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/25/8930373/google-tulsi-gabbard-democratic-candidate-lawsuit-ad-search-ban-political-bias-debates et al. -- coverage of the lawsuit. https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/1510-complaint-tulsi-now-v-google/7394d92b6540191c57c5/optimized/full.pdf#page=1 -- Gabbard's filing Tulsi Gabbard's campaign is suing Google because their campaign ads were purposefully not distributed for 6 hours after the first Democratic Party campaign. Google's Jose Castaneda, a spokesman for the company, said: > In this case, our system triggered a suspension and the account was > reinstated shortly thereafter. We are proud to offer ad products that > help campaigns connect directly with voters, and we do so without bias > toward any party or political ideology. I think this lawsuit is likely to go nowhere for virtually everyone involved because: - my understanding is that most lawsuits are settled out of court and therefore this one is likely to be settled out of court too. - this case comes down not to freedom of speech (as Rep. Gabbard has been talking about with the press, basically throwing red meat to people who say they like free speech in the abstract) but to a contract dispute centered on terms listed in the agreement between Google and Gabbard's campaign. I can't address any of the contract terms because I haven't read that agreement. - The repeated references to the US 1st Amendment misunderstand that that amendment doesn't apply to private organizations. That amendment is to keep the government from stopping an American's freedom of speech, it doesn't compel Google to reorder search results in a particular (ostensibly more amenable) way, or compel Google to run Gabbard's campaign ads. The previous Gabbard support for HR246 speaks more to Gabbard's view of freedom of speech and a genuine freedom of speech issue than her campaign's lawsuit against Google. But the press around her support for HR246 is embarrassing to her supporters, so perhaps there's good reason for her to try and conflate freedom of speech with her campaign's lawsuit against Google. - Dore's show engages in some very shoddy arguments in his defense of Gabbard's lawsuit. Dore lumps in unfair search results in his complaints against Google but it's not clear that unfair search results have anything to do with Gabbard's issue against Google -- her complaint is due to her ads not running at a time when people were most interested in her campaign. And Dore repeats the refrain of "break up Google" as a simple answer to a complex question. While it's true that Google is currently dominant in web searches and therefore has the power to help steer people to read certain webpages instead of others, breaking up Google is both inactionably vague (break Google up along what lines?) and unlikely to produce the results supporters want. Bell telephone was broken up and we ended up with multiple ostensibly competing telephone companies. Some of them effectively merged through various buyouts and made the modern-day AT&T. Consider the introduction paragraphs from the Wikipedia entry on AT&T: From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At%26t > AT&T began its history as Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, a > subsidiary of the Bell Telephone Company, founded by Alexander Graham > Bell in 1880. The Bell Telephone Company evolved into American Telephone > and Telegraph Company in 1885, which later rebranded as AT&T > Corporation. The 1982 United States v. AT&T antitrust lawsuit resulted > in the divestiture of AT&T Corporation's ("Ma Bell") subsidiaries or > Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), commonly referred to as "Baby > Bells", resulting in several independent companies, including > Southwestern Bell Corporation; the latter changed its name to SBC > Communications Inc. in 1995. In 2005, SBC purchased its former parent > AT&T Corporation and took on its branding, with the merged entity naming > itself AT&T Inc. and using its iconic logo and stock-trading symbol. In > 2006, AT&T Inc. acquired BellSouth, the last independent Baby Bell > company, making their formerly joint venture Cingular Wireless (which > had acquired AT&T Wireless in 2004) wholly owned and rebranding it as > AT&T Mobility. > > The current AT&T reconstitutes much of the former Bell System, and > includes ten of the original 22 Bell Operating Companies along with the > original long distance division. Services are also quite fungible (freely exchangeable or replaceable) when everything becomes data. Services we used to think of as separate (telephone, cable TV, and Internet access to name a few) were merged in many areas. Cable TV is currently a primary source of getting online, and online access can subsume TV and telephony. Services took on new functionality -- modern-day telephony (meaning anything to do with what we used to call a "telephone"), for example, means outsourcing one's answering machine functionality to the place one gets their telephone service. This choice implicitly means allowing a third-party to decide if a user gets a particular message at all and whether they get to hear the message or keep the message. Adding callers to a call used to require considerable setup and so-called "party-line" functionality that cost extra. Now voice over Internet protocol ("VOIP") renders that function as standard and costs nothing extra. Video calls aren't handled by telephone companies at all, for most people. Video calls are routed completely over the Internet. People expect the devices they call a "phone" to show them videos (TV episodes, movies, other videos from everyday computer users) with some people using these devices full-time as their only computer. There will come a day when people have no use for a phone number. Google, Amazon, Apple, and any other organization selling those spying robots (which listen all the time and obey any voice commands) stand to do well if they let users make calls to one another's spybots via something that looks like an email address (known as a "SIP address"). Breaking up tech companies can be quickly and effectively undone by companies merging and taking on new functionality. These qualities allow the firms to recapitulate their old arrangement, challenging the reasons why they were broken up in the first place. The call to break up Google (or any other tech firm) is likely an inchoate call borne of frustration made by people who don't understand how computers, the Internet, or recent tech firm decisions work. Law enforcer overreach posing as helpful: More reason to host your own services and run exclusively free software. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1ZOteqX9ls -- Five Eyes intelligence services (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States) want access to user's data so that they can fight crime. Privacy advocates argue that this is morally wrong and the only way to comply with this request (even when there's a court order for said user data) is to keep in-the-clear (unencrypted) copies of user data to hand over in the event of a request. That retention of data is itself a reason to reject any service that would be implemented in such a way. This request is not new. What Five Eyes now says they want is indistinguishable from spying, despite the crime-fighting rationale for their request. What Five Eyes is after remains the same -- user activity data to let others see what user said over some service: 1993: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip -- The Clinton administration implements shoddy encryption in hardware (called a Clipper Chip) in their attempt at getting technologists to use services with a built-in backdoor. Consumers rejected this encryption and the technology was obsolete by 1996. 2018: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/us/politics/government-access-encrypted-data.html -- David E. Sanger and Sheera Frenkel's September 2018 article about Five Eyes repeated requests of US government for access to user data: > The Trump administration and its closest intelligence partners have > quietly warned technology firms that they will demand “lawful access” to > all encrypted emails, text messages and voice communications, > threatening to compel compliance if the private companies refuse to > voluntarily provide the information to the governments. > > The threat was issued last week by the United States, Britain, > Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that > broadly share intelligence. Collectively, they have been frustrated by > the spread of encrypted apps on cellphones and the ability to send > encrypted messages through social media and, most prominently, on > Apple’s iPhones. > > The issue flared repeatedly during the Obama administration, with the > former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, warning that law enforcement > officials were “going dark” as nefarious actors relied on encrypted > channels to discuss or plan criminal activity or terrorist plots. But > the Trump administration has said little about the subject, even after > the meeting in Australia where the demand was issued in a joint > statement by the five nations. > > “Should governments continue to encounter impediments to lawful access > to information necessary to aid the protection of the citizens of our > countries,” the joint statement said, “we may pursue technological, > enforcement, legislative or other measures to achieve lawful access > solutions.” 2019: Now the UK government is joining with the US in carrying the Five Eyes demand to the public. Here's the UK Home Office's variant of this request: > We need to ensure that our law enforcement and security and intelligence > agencies are able to gain lawful and exceptional access to the > information they need. There is some reason to believe service providers will comply with Five Eyes request. Many companies secretly joined the NSA's PRISM program, in which companies supplied user activity data to the NSA, this data is the backbone of mass surveillance (indiscriminate widespread spying). You can see the slide from an NSA presentation Edward Snowden liberated (hosted in many places including https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Prism_slide_5.jpg) which has a chart indicating which organization joined the PRISM program: Microsoft on 9/11/2007, Yahoo on 3/12/2008, Google on 1/14/2009, Apple in October 2012, and many other organizations you've heard of. Snowden also told us (with evidence) that Five Eyes countries had been spying on each others citizens to avoid their own domestic regulations. These are some of the reasons why Snowden is internationally widely seen as a hero. Five Eyes issued a "Statement of Principles on Access to Evidence and Encryption" (https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/national-security/five-country-ministerial-2018/access-evidence-encryption) which threatens the language we saw in 2018: Five Eyes will take "technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures to achieve lawful access solutions" if service providers don't comply with their request for access to data. Russiagate: Rachel Maddow loses over 800,000 viewers in 6 months. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6cOtsZmuyE -- Rachel Maddow's undying support for the Russiagate conspiracy theory is a losing bet for her. It was the source for her high MSNBC-leading ratings pre-Muller report. Post-Muller report she's been hemorrhaging viewers: her show fell to 6th place, below Fox News' Sean Hannity whose show has nearly double her ratings. As Aaron Maté pointed out in https://theintercept.com/2017/04/12/msnbcs-rachel-maddow-sees-a-russia-connection-lurking-around-every-corner/ -- a story that simultaneously helped form his reputation as a leading debunker of Russiagate and a reason for his break with The Intercept which supports Russiagate: > The Intercept conducted a quantitative study of all 28 TRMS episodes in > the six-week period between February 20 and March 31. Russia-focused > segments accounted for 53 percent of these broadcasts. > > That figure is conservative, excluding segments where Russia was > discussed, but was not the overarching topic. > > Maddow’s Russia coverage has dwarfed the time devoted to other top > issues, including Trump’s escalating crackdown on undocumented > immigrants (1.3 percent of coverage); Obamacare repeal (3.8 percent); > the legal battle over Trump’s Muslim ban (5.6 percent), a surge of > anti-GOP activism and town halls since Trump took office (5.8 percent), > and Trump administration scandals and stumbles (11 percent). Maté also found support for Russiagate on Democracy Now and left that show as well. Now you can find Maté on The Grayzone hosting his own show called "Push Back with Aaron Maté" -- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAZrqdbdGGQyeZmHn7ypybTcm1qPsBRUB From cgestabrook at gmail.com Fri Aug 2 12:06:00 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2019 07:06:00 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] MSM & Dem party are worried by populism Message-ID: <5A67FAA2-D9E8-4A72-B25C-455DEB6A5EBD@gmail.com> https://theintercept.com/2019/02/03/nbc-news-to-claim-russia-supports-tulsi-gabbard-relies-on-firm-just-caught-fabricating-russia-data-for-the-democratic-party/ GLENN GREENWALD: "NBC News, to Claim Russia Supports Tulsi Gabbard, Relies on Firm Just Caught Fabricating Russia Data for the Democratic Party” From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Fri Aug 2 22:21:35 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2019 17:21:35 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] Excellent letter to the NG, just saw it this morning. In-Reply-To: References: <002701d54933$62364060$26a2c120$@comcast.net> Message-ID: Today's edition of news from Neptune elaborates on my critique so I highly recommend it. On Fri, Aug 2, 2019, 11:10 AM John W. wrote: > > On Fri, Aug 2, 2019 at 8:08 AM David Johnson via Peace < > peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > Great letter David ! >> >> >> >> David J. >> > > Yes, it really is. Thank you for passing it on, Karen, to those of us who > don't get the News-Gazette. > > John W. > > > >> >> >> *From:* Peace [mailto:peace-bounces at lists.chambana.net] *On Behalf Of *Karen >> Aram via Peace >> *Sent:* Friday, August 02, 2019 6:53 AM >> *To:* David Green >> *Cc:* Peace >> *Subject:* [Peace] Excellent letter to the NG, just saw it this morning. >> >> >> >> Over four decades, the globalized, financialized, high-tech economy has >> stagnated the incomes of over half of Americans, immiserating many, while >> making a mockery of social mobility amidst obscene accumulations of private >> wealth. >> >> Consistent with this have been perpetual and ongoing “low-intensity” wars >> for economic domination, increased threat of nuclear war and >> species-threatening carbon-driven climate change, the latter exacerbated by >> all the above. >> >> But these issues are too big to worry about, no less seriously address, >> and they might damage our fragile patriotic self-esteem, while distracting >> us from sports. >> >> Moreover, these problems can’t be laid at the doorsteps of Illinois state >> government, youthful local thugs or “Chicago pols.” >> >> That’s no fun for News-Gazette editors as they lay out the next chapter >> in our local morality play, in which good must inevitably triumph over >> evil, unless it’s a football Saturday. >> >> But never fear, the STEM academic community has got this; that is, >> they’ve got the game-changing Discovery Partners Institute to lead us into >> the digital, artificially intelligent promised land. >> >> Who needs a decent health care delivery system when we’ve got gadgets in >> an imaginary research pipeline? Who needs a decent standard of living and >> adequate housing when we’ve got visualization and “big data”? And what >> self-respecting University of Illinois professor or administrator doesn’t >> want to be hyped to high-tech heaven by ever-ebullient >> journalist/publicist/stenographer Julie Wurth? >> >> Surely, the Golden Age is within us and upon us, if we just clap for >> Tinkerbell, charge our smartphones and refuse to grow old. >> >> DAVID GREEN >> >> Champaign >> _______________________________________________ >> Peace mailing list >> Peace at lists.chambana.net >> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace >> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Sat Aug 3 09:30:52 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2019 04:30:52 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: [New post] WaPo Publishes Gabbard Smear Piece Filled With Blatant Lies References: <139971992.6953.0@wordpress.com> Message-ID: <9EB85CDE-F976-4626-870B-FAE15D1BEF87@gmail.com> > New post on Caitlin Johnstone > > > WaPo Publishes Gabbard Smear Piece Filled With Blatant Lies by Caitlin Johnstone > The Washington Post, which is wholly owned by a CIA contractor who is reportedly working to control the underlying infrastructure of the global economy , has published a shockingly deceitful smear piece about Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard in the wake of her criticisms of her opponent Kamala Harris' prosecutorial record during the last Democratic debate. > > The article's author, Josh Rogin, has been a cheerleader for US regime change interventionism in Syria since the very beginning of the conflict in that nation. It is unsurprising, then, that he reacted with orgasmic exuberance when Harris retaliated against Gabbard's devastating attack by smearing the Hawaii congresswoman as an "Assad apologist", since Gabbard has been arguably the most consistent and high-profile critic of Rogin's pet war agenda. His article, titled "Tulsi Gabbard’s Syria record shows why she can’t be president", is one of the most dishonest articles that I have ever read in a mainstream publication, and the fact that it made it through The Washington Post's editors is enough to fully discredit that outlet. > > You can read Rogin's smear piece without giving Jeff Bezos more money by clicking here for an archive . There's so much dishonesty packed into this one that all I can do is go through it lie-by-lie until I either finish or get tired, so let's begin: > > "Gabbard asserts that the United States (not Assad) is responsible for the death and destruction in Syria, that the Russian airstrikes on civilians are to be praised " > > This is just a complete, brazen, whole-cloth lie from Rogin. If you click the hyperlink he alleges supports his claim that Gabbard asserts "Russian airstrikes on civilians are to be praised," you come to a 2015 tweet by the congresswoman which reads, "Bad enough US has not been bombing al-Qaeda/al-Nusra in Syria. But it’s mind-boggling that we protest Russia’s bombing of these terrorists." > > Bad enough US has not been bombing al-Qaeda/al-Nusra in Syria. But it’s mind-boggling that we protest Russia’s bombing of these terrorists. > > — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) October 1, 2015 > Now, you can agree or disagree with Gabbard's position that the US should be participating in airstrikes against al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria, but there's no way you can possibly interpret her acceptance of Russia doing so to be anywhere remotely like "praise" for "airstrikes on civilians". There is simply no way to represent the content her tweet that way without knowingly lying about what you think it says. The only way Rogin's claim could be anything resembling truthful would be if "al-Qaeda" and "civilians" meant the same thing. Obviously this is not the case, so Rogin can only be knowingly lying. > > "That bias, combined with her long record of defending the Assad regime and parroting its propaganda, form the basis for the assertion Gabbard has 'embraced and been an apologist for' Assad, as Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) said Wednesday post-debate on CNN." > > Gabbard has no record whatsoever of "defending the Assad regime". This is a lie. There exist copious amounts of quotes by Gabbard opposing US regime change interventionism in Syria and voicing skepticism of the narratives used to promote said interventionism, but there are no quotes anywhere in which she claims Assad is a nice person or that he hasn't done bad things. If such quotes existed, Rogin would have included them in his smear piece. He did not. All he can do is lie about their existence. > > "To repeat: There is no quote in which Tulsi praises, supports, or otherwise 'apologies for' Assad," journalist Michael Tracey recently tweeted with a link to his January article on the subject. "I checked the record a long time ago, and it doesn't exist. This is just a smear intended to delegitimize diplomatic engagement" > > "Claiming that politicians are 'defending' objectionable rulers they meet with, in pursuit of achieving some alternative to war, is a tired trope that has been frequently used throughout history to discredit diplomatic engagement," Tracey wrote. "As Gabbard told me in an interview shortly after returning from Syria: 'The reason why I decided to take this meeting on this trip was because if we profess to care about the Syrian people — if we really truly care about ending their suffering and ending this war — then we should be ready to meet with anyone if there is a chance that that meeting and that conversation could help to bring about an end to this war.'" > > Gabbard has been remarkably consistent in explaining her position that she opposes US regime change interventionism in Syria because US regime change interventionism is reliably disastrous. This isn't "defending" anyone, nor is it "parroting propaganda". It's an indisputable, thoroughly established fact. > > To repeat: There is no quote in which Tulsi praises, supports, or otherwise "apologies for" Assad. I checked the record a long time ago, and it doesn't exist. This is just a smear intended to delegitimize diplomatic engagement https://t.co/Iyww1C5Ew0 > — Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 1, 2019 > "Other Democratic candidates have promised to end U.S. military adventurism without making excuses for a mass murderer. It’s neither progressive nor liberal to defend Assad, a fascist, totalitarian psychopath who can never peacefully preside over Syria after what he has done." > > Again, claiming that Gabbard has done anything at all to "defend Assad" is a lie. If anything Gabbard has been too uncritical of establishment war propaganda narratives, calling Assad "a brutal dictator" who has "used chemical weapons and other weapons against his people." Gabbard's sole arguments on the matter have been in opposition to US military interventionism and skepticism of narratives used to support such interventionism, which only an idiot would object to in a post-Iraq invasion world. > > Rogin argues that it's possible to end US military adventurism without defending and making excuses for Assad, yet this is exactly the thing that Tulsi Gabbard has been doing since day one. Which means Rogin doesn't actually believe it's ever okay for any presidential candidate to want to end US military adventurism under any circumstances. Which is of course the real driving motivation behind his deceitful smear piece against Gabbard. > > "Gabbard never talks about her other trip — to the Turkish-Syrian border with a group of lawmakers in June 2015, when she met with authentic opposition leaders, victims of Assad’s barrel bombs and members of the volunteer rescue brigade known as the White Helmets . Their stories, which don’t support Assad’s narrative, never make it into Gabbard’s speeches on the campaign trail." > > This one is bizarre. Rogin says this as though Gabbard's meeting with Assad is something that she brings up "on the campaign trail" rather than something war propagandists like himself bring up and force her to respond to. The fact that those propagandists never bring up Gabbard's meetings with the Syrian opposition is an indictment of their bias, not hers. The mental gymnastics required to make Gabbard's meetings with all sides of the Syrian conflict feel more pro-Assad rather than less deserve an Olympic gold medal. > > Obviously Gabbard having met with all sides is indicative of an absence of favoritism, not the presence of it. The fact that she didn't come away from her meetings with empire-allied opposition forces with the opinion that the US should help storm Damascus doesn't mean she supports any particular side. > > "Gabbard’s candidacy should be taken very seriously — not because she has a significant chance of being president, but because her narrative on Syria is deeply incorrect, immoral and un-American. If it were adopted by her party and the country, it would lead the United States down a perilous moral and strategic path." > > Saying a "narrative" can be "un-American" is a fairly straightforward admission that you are authoring propaganda. Unless you believe your nation has one authorized set of narratives, a narrative can't be "un-American". This is as close as you'll ever get to an admission from Rogin that US power structures work to control the dominant narratives about world events, and that he helps them do it. To such a person, opposition to your narrative control agendas would be seen as the antithesis of the group you identify with. > > The US empire has an extensive and well-documented history of using lies, propaganda and false flags to initiate military conflicts which advantage it. To continue to deny this after Iraq is either willful ignorance or propaganda. > > The fact that Rogin adds "strategic path" to his argument nullifies his claim that his position has anything to do with morality. If your foreign policy concern is with strategic leverage, you will naturally try to interpret anything which advances that strategic path as the moral choice. > > Friendly reminder that we know for 100% certain the US and its allies plotted to create a violent uprising in Syria exactly as it unfolded in 2011.https://t.co/OOknOXMvDk > — Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) September 4, 2018 > "Listening to Gabbard, one might think the United States initiated the Syrian conflict by arming terrorists for a regime-change war that has resulted in untold suffering." > > This is exactly what happened. The US armed extremist militants with the goal of effecting regime change, and before Russia intervened they almost succeeded . According to the former Prime Minister of Qatar , the US and its allies were involved in this behavior from the very beginning of the conflict in 2011. Here is a link to an article full of primary source documents showing that the US and its allies had been scheming since well before 2011 to provoke a civil war in Syria with the goal of regime change. They did exactly what they planned to do, which is exactly the thing Rogin claims they did not do. > > But Gabbard never even takes her analysis this far. She simply says the US should not get involved in another US regime change war, because it shouldn't. > > "Responding to Harris, Gabbard called Assad’s atrocities 'detractions,' [sic] before eventually saying she doesn’t dispute that he’s guilty of torture and murder. That’s a slight improvement from her previous protestations that there was not enough evidence ." > > Rogin falsely implies here that Gabbard only just began accusing Assad of war crimes, and that she only did so in response to new pressure resulting from Harris' criticism. As noted earlier, this is false; Gabbard has been harshly critical of Assad. > > "Gabbard then quickly accused President Trump of aiding al-Qaeda in Idlib. 'That does sound like a talking point of the Assad regime,' CNN’s Anderson Cooper said. He could have just said she is wrong." > > Even the US State Department has acknowledged that Idlib is an al-Qaeda stronghold, and the Trump administration has taken aggressive moves to prevent the Assad coalition from launching a full-scale campaign to reclaim the territory. Claiming that this did not happen is a lie per even the accepted narratives of the US political/media class. > > What @TulsiGabbard says here is true. Trump insists on keeping al-Qaeda (what CNN calls “rebels”) in power in Idlib province in northern Syria. If you believe Trump says so for humanitarian reasons, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. https://t.co/HrhZIoDjpx pic.twitter.com/0sm4V3PCo6 > — Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) August 1, 2019 > "Gabbard’s 2017 trip was financed and run by members of a Lebanese socialist-nationalist party that works closely with the Assad regime." > > Former US Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who accompanied Gabbard on this trip, dismissed this accusation as "so much horseshit I can't believe it." All parties involved have denied this narrative, which Rogin has played a pivotal role in promoting from the very beginning and to which he has been forced to make multiple embarrassing corrections . > > "Gabbard’s plan to overtly side with Assad and Russia while they commit crimes against humanity would be a strategic disaster, a gift to the extremists and a betrayal of decades of U.S. commitments to stand up to mass atrocities. Democratic voters who believe in liberalism and truth must reject not only her candidacy but also her attempt to disguise moral bankruptcy as a progressive value." > > Another lie; Gabbard has no such plan. Opposing US regime change interventionism isn't "siding" with anybody, it's just not supporting a thing that is literally always disastrous and literally never helpful. > > Rogin's closing admonishment to reject not just Gabbard but her skepticism of US war narratives is yet another admission that he's concerned with narrative control here, not with truth and not even really with a US presidential candidate. > > Whoever controls the narrative controls the world, and shameless war propagandists like Josh Rogin are the attack dogs of establishment narrative control. > > ____________________ > > The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website , which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook , following my antics on Twitter , throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal , purchasing some of my sweet merchandise , buying my new book Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone , or my previous book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers . For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I'm trying to do with this platform, click here . Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. > > > > Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 > > Caitlin Johnstone | August 3, 2019 at 1:02 am | Tags: assad , Josh Rogin , journalism , propaganda , Syria , Tulsi Gabbard , washington post | Categories: Article , News | URL: https://wp.me/p9tj6M-1O9 > Comment See all comments > Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Caitlin Johnstone. > Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions . > > Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: > https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/08/03/wapo-publishes-gabbard-smear-piece-filled-with-blatant-lies/ > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Sat Aug 3 16:14:56 2019 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2019 11:14:56 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] News from Neptune #431 notes Message-ID: <83cbf729-fd75-c0fa-d3e6-4b8ed8fca8c9@forestfield.org> News from Neptune #431 A "Democrat Party's Over" edition Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTIO_VkQPqM Glen Ford on "Sanders, Biden and the Electability Scam" https://www.blackagendareport.com/sanders-biden-and-electability-scam David Green's recent letter to the News-Gazette https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-serious-issues-just-fall-by-the/article_9b1f0f67-bb31-5462-914a-123dfa4c58f3.html Marshall Sahlins on "The Opioid and Trump Addictions: Symptoms of the Same Malaise" https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/02/the-opioid-and-trump-addictions-symptoms-of-the-same-malaise/ Julie Wurth on "UI's Blue Waters supercomputer gets $11.1M grant to create high-res topographical maps of world" https://www.news-gazette.com/news/ui-s-blue-waters-supercomputer-gets-m-grant-to-create/article_2a390805-9457-5717-ab35-4d9c2892a580.html Julie Wurth's News-Gazette articles https://www.news-gazette.com/users/profile/Julie%20Wurth Wikipedia's entry on National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geospatial-Intelligence_Agency Wikipedia's entry on Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Building_and_International_Trade_Center Kyle Rempfer on "Army identifies two soldiers killed in Afghanistan" https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/07/31/army-identifies-two-soldiers-killed-in-afghanistan/ Kamala Harris' AIPAC Policy Conference speech from 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McK8bPR8pzU Democracy Now on "“You’re Gonna Kill Me”: Bodycam Video Shows Dallas Officers Mocking Man as He Died Pinned to Ground" https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/2/tony_timpa_family_lawsuit_bodycam_footage Jeffrey St. Clair on "Roaming Charges: Measure for Half-Measure" https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/02/roaming-charges-measure-for-half-measure/ Matt Bruenig on "People Lose Their Employer-Sponsored Insurance Constantly" https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/04/04/people-lose-their-employer-sponsored-insurance-constantly/ J.B. Nicholson's notes https://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/2019-August/051096.html -J From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Sun Aug 4 17:42:28 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2019 12:42:28 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Good NYT article Message-ID: *Yes, America Is Rigged Against Workers* *No other industrial country treats its working class so badly. And there’s one big reason for that.* By Steven Greenhouse Mr. Greenhouse writes about labor. Aug. 3, 2019 The United States is the only advanced industrial nation that doesn’t have national laws guaranteeing paid maternity leave. It is also the only advanced economy that doesn’t guarantee workers any vacation, paid or unpaid, and the only highly developed country (other than South Korea) that doesn’t guarantee paid sick days. In contrast, the European Union’s 28 nations guarantee workers at least four weeks’ paid vacation. Among the three dozen industrial countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States has the lowest minimum wage as a percentage of the median wage — just 34 percent of the typical wage, compared with 62 percent in France and 54 percent in Britain. It also has the second-highest percentage of low-wage workers among that group, exceeded only by Latvia. All this means the United States suffers from what I call “anti-worker exceptionalism.” Academics debate why American workers are in many ways worse off than their counterparts elsewhere, but there is overriding agreement on one reason: Labor unions are weaker in the United States than in other industrial nations. Just one in 16 private-sector American workers is in a union, largely because corporations are so adept and aggressive at beating back unionization. In no other industrial nation do corporations fight so hard to keep out unions. The consequences are enormous, not only for wages and income inequality, but also for our politics and policymaking and for the many Americans who are mistreated at work. Sign up for David Leonhardt's newsletter David Leonhardt helps you make sense of the news — and offers reading suggestions from around the web — with commentary every weekday morning. To be sure, unions have their flaws, from corruption to their history of racial and sex discrimination. Still, Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson write of an important, unappreciated feature of unions in “Winner-Take-All Politics”: “While there are many ‘progressive’ groups in the American universe of organized interests, labor is the only major one focused on the broad economic concerns of those with modest incomes.” As workers’ power has waned, many corporations have adopted practices that were far rarer — if not unheard-of — decades ago: hiring hordes of unpaid interns, expecting workers to toil 60 or 70 hours a week, prohibiting employees from suing and instead forcing them into arbitration (which usually favors employers), and hamstringing employees’ mobility by making them sign noncompete clauses. America’s workers have for decades been losing out: year after year of wage stagnation, increased insecurity on the job, waves of downsizing and offshoring, and labor’s share of national income declining to its lowest level in seven decades. Numerous studies have found that an important cause of America’s soaring income inequality is the decline of labor unions — and the concomitant decline in workers’ ability to extract more of the profit and prosperity from the corporations they work for. The only time during the past century when income inequality narrowed substantially was the 1940s through 1970s, when unions were at their peak of power and prominence. Many Americans are understandably frustrated. That’s one reason the percentage who say they want to join a union has risen markedly. According to a 2018 M.I.T. study, 46 percent of nonunion workers say they would like to be in a union, up from 32 percent in 1995. Nonetheless, just 10.5 percent of all American workers, and only 6.4 percent of private-sector workers, are in unions. But this desire to unionize faces some daunting challenges. In many corporations, the mentality is that any supervisor, whether a factory manager or retail manager, who fails to keep out a union is an utter failure. That means managers fight hard to quash unions. One study found that 57 percent of employers threatened to close operations when workers sought to unionize, while 47 percent threatened to cut wages or benefits and 34 percent fired union supporters during unionization drives. Corporate executives’ frequent failure to listen to workers’ concerns — along with the intimidation of employees — can have deadly results. On April 5, 2010, a coal dust explosion killed 29 miners at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia. A federal investigation found that the mine’s ventilation system was inadequate and that explosive gases were allowed to build up. Workers at the nonunion mine knew about these dangers. “No one felt they could go to management and express their fears,” Stanley Stewart, an Upper Big Branch miner, told a congressional committee. “We knew we’d be marked men and the management would look for ways to fire us.” The diminished power of unions and workers has skewed American politics, helping give billionaires and corporations inordinate sway over America’s politics and policymaking. In the 2015-16 election cycle, business outspent labor $3.4 billion to $213 million, a ratio of 16 to 1, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. All of the nation’s unions, taken together, spend about $48 million a year for lobbying in Washington, while corporate America spends $3 billion. Little wonder that many lawmakers seem vastly more interested in cutting taxes on corporations than in raising the minimum wage. There were undoubtedly many reasons for Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, but a key one was that many Americans seemed to view him as a protest candidate, promising to shake up “the system” and “drain the swamp.” Many voters embraced Mr. Trump because they believed his statements that the system is rigged — and in many ways it is. When it comes to workers’ power in the workplace and in politics, the pendulum has swung far toward corporations. Reversing that won’t be easy, but it is vital we do so. There are myriad proposals to restore some balance, from having workers elect representatives to corporate boards to making it easier for workers to unionize to expanding public financing of political campaigns to prevent wealthy and corporate donors from often dominating. America’s workers won’t stop thinking the system is rigged until they feel they have an effective voice in the workplace and in policymaking so that they can share in more of the economy’s prosperity to help improve their — and their loved ones’ — lives. Steven Greenhouse, who was the labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times for 19 years, is the author of the forthcoming “Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor,” from which this essay is adapted. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Sun Aug 4 18:13:50 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2019 13:13:50 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Joe Bauers letter in today's NG Message-ID: If you have teenagers romping around your house, most of them have never known a day when the United States was not at war in Afghanistan. Think about that. This war was allegedly waged in response to the 9/11 attacks of 2001, even though 14 of the 19 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. The initial target of that effort, Osama bin Laden, is long since dead. Recently, I read that 400 Illinois National Guard troops are being deployed to Afghanistan. This war has already consumed the lives of more than 2,300 U.S. service personnel and more than 1,700 U.S. contractors. It has resulted in more than 20,000 U.S. troop injuries and has cost over a trillion dollars. Hundreds of thousands of Afghan citizens have been killed, wounded or displaced. Their country is in rubble. Meanwhile, should a natural disaster occur here, Illinois National Guard service people will be depleted by their numbers sent to Afghanistan and other countries. We have normalized American wars of aggression around the world, despite polls that show that most Americans are sick of it. Yet the political class continues them, feeding at the trough of the war profiteers whom they serve. And so we are still in Afghanistan, “where empires go to die.” From my point of view, we ought to hold to account all public figures who have been a party to this abomination, from Congress to the White House. JOSEPH BAUERS Champaign JOSEPH BAUERS Champaign -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Sun Aug 4 19:35:37 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2019 14:35:37 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Joe Bauers letter in today's NG In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <2A675E86-4AAC-48AC-907D-9B6653BD3993@gmail.com> Write your congressional representatives and demand US troops (and weapons) be removed from Afghanistan: ~ Senator Dick Durbin: ~ Sen. Tammy Duckworth: ~ Representative Rodney Davis: Trump’s continuation of Obama’s war-making constitutes “high crimes and misdemeanors” for which he should be impeached. Nothing else. The political establishment continues to threaten impeachment (on other grounds) precisely to see that Trump doesn’t abandon Obama’s war-making (as Trump threatened to do in the campaign). War and war provocations are the bedrock of the political establishment’s foreign policy. Trump is the first major party presidential candidate in 40 years to come into office as a critic of neoliberal and neoconservative policies ( = more war and more inequality). The establishment has worked assiduously (and largely successfully) to see that he maintains those policies. But the threat remains. —CGE > On Aug 4, 2019, at 1:13 PM, David Green via Peace-discuss wrote: > > If you have teenagers romping around your house, most of them have never known a day when the United States was not at war in Afghanistan. Think about that. > This war was allegedly waged in response to the 9/11 attacks of 2001, even though 14 of the 19 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. The initial target of that effort, Osama bin Laden, is long since dead. > Recently, I read that 400 Illinois National Guard troops are being deployed to Afghanistan. This war has already consumed the lives of more than 2,300 U.S. service personnel and more than 1,700 U.S. contractors. It has resulted in more than 20,000 U.S. troop injuries and has cost over a trillion dollars. > Hundreds of thousands of Afghan citizens have been killed, wounded or displaced. Their country is in rubble. > Meanwhile, should a natural disaster occur here, Illinois National Guard service people will be depleted by their numbers sent to Afghanistan and other countries. > We have normalized American wars of aggression around the world, despite polls that show that most Americans are sick of it. Yet the political class continues them, feeding at the trough of the war profiteers whom they serve. > And so we are still in Afghanistan, “where empires go to die.” From my point of view, we ought to hold to account all public figures who have been a party to this abomination, from Congress to the White House. > JOSEPH BAUERS Champaign > JOSEPH BAUERS Champaign > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Aug 4 20:28:22 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2019 20:28:22 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Joe Bauers letter in today's NG In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: He sure as hell, is right. Posting to FB, a lot of Europeans, Asians, and Middle Eastern folks, the ones still alive, like to know that not all Americans are concerned with entertainment such as the electoral debates, and do not support US wars of aggression. On Aug 4, 2019, at 11:13, David Green > wrote: If you have teenagers romping around your house, most of them have never known a day when the United States was not at war in Afghanistan. Think about that. This war was allegedly waged in response to the 9/11 attacks of 2001, even though 14 of the 19 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. The initial target of that effort, Osama bin Laden, is long since dead. Recently, I read that 400 Illinois National Guard troops are being deployed to Afghanistan. This war has already consumed the lives of more than 2,300 U.S. service personnel and more than 1,700 U.S. contractors. It has resulted in more than 20,000 U.S. troop injuries and has cost over a trillion dollars. Hundreds of thousands of Afghan citizens have been killed, wounded or displaced. Their country is in rubble. Meanwhile, should a natural disaster occur here, Illinois National Guard service people will be depleted by their numbers sent to Afghanistan and other countries. We have normalized American wars of aggression around the world, despite polls that show that most Americans are sick of it. Yet the political class continues them, feeding at the trough of the war profiteers whom they serve. And so we are still in Afghanistan, “where empires go to die.” From my point of view, we ought to hold to account all public figures who have been a party to this abomination, from Congress to the White House. JOSEPH BAUERS Champaign JOSEPH BAUERS Champaign -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbw292002 at gmail.com Sun Aug 4 20:58:41 2019 From: jbw292002 at gmail.com (John W.) Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2019 15:58:41 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] Joe Bauers letter in today's NG In-Reply-To: <2A675E86-4AAC-48AC-907D-9B6653BD3993@gmail.com> References: <2A675E86-4AAC-48AC-907D-9B6653BD3993@gmail.com> Message-ID: Right now I'm reading "Fear" by Robert Woodward. It's about the tRump administration, but it really sheds light on how ALL American administrations have operated during my entire lifetime, at least. Some "crisis" looms somewhere in the world - North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, you name it. All of our elected officials, all of our thousands of "intelligence" experts, immediately begin to discuss and compute and strategize how to counter the perceived threat. Do we bomb the entire country, or just selectively bomb a few key sites, or try to take out the leader of the country ("leadership bombing", it's called), or what? NO ONE, and I repeat NOT A SOUL, EVER questions the basic premises behind our entire foreign policy. No one ever says, "Hey, I know! Why don't we just bring all the troops home from everywhere? We can keep monitoring the world situation, of course, with our satellites and nuclear subs and spies and so forth, but why don't we just wait until someone actually attacks our shores before making war in all of these different countries?" And no one ever will, until America is humbled and brought to the level of, say, England after World War II or after its own ultimately failed attempts at global empire. When I read about our absurd "war" in Afghanistan, I think, "This is just exactly like Viet Nam. They learned absolutely NOTHING from Viet Nam." And so it goes..... On Sun, Aug 4, 2019 at 3:00 PM C G Estabrook via Peace < peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: Write your congressional representatives and demand US troops (and weapons) > be removed from Afghanistan: > > ~ Senator Dick Durbin: > ~ Sen. Tammy Duckworth: < > https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/content/contact-senator> > ~ Representative Rodney Davis: > > Trump’s continuation of Obama’s war-making constitutes “high crimes and > misdemeanors” for which he should be impeached. Nothing else. > > The political establishment continues to threaten impeachment (on other > grounds) precisely to see that Trump doesn’t abandon Obama’s war-making (as > Trump threatened to do in the campaign). > > War and war provocations are the bedrock of the political establishment’s > foreign policy. Trump is the first major party presidential candidate in 40 > years to come into office as a critic of neoliberal and neoconservative > policies ( = more war and more inequality). The establishment has worked > assiduously (and largely successfully) to see that he maintains those > policies. But the threat remains. > > —CGE > > > > On Aug 4, 2019, at 1:13 PM, David Green via Peace-discuss < > peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > > > If you have teenagers romping around your house, most of them have never > known a day when the United States was not at war in Afghanistan. Think > about that. > > This war was allegedly waged in response to the 9/11 attacks of 2001, > even though 14 of the 19 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. The initial > target of that effort, Osama bin Laden, is long since dead. > > Recently, I read that 400 Illinois National Guard troops are being > deployed to Afghanistan. This war has already consumed the lives of more > than 2,300 U.S. service personnel and more than 1,700 U.S. contractors. It > has resulted in more than 20,000 U.S. troop injuries and has cost over a > trillion dollars. > > Hundreds of thousands of Afghan citizens have been killed, wounded or > displaced. Their country is in rubble. > > Meanwhile, should a natural disaster occur here, Illinois National Guard > service people will be depleted by their numbers sent to Afghanistan and > other countries. > > We have normalized American wars of aggression around the world, despite > polls that show that most Americans are sick of it. Yet the political class > continues them, feeding at the trough of the war profiteers whom they serve. > > And so we are still in Afghanistan, “where empires go to die.” From my > point of view, we ought to hold to account all public figures who have been > a party to this abomination, from Congress to the White House. > > JOSEPH BAUERS Champaign > > JOSEPH BAUERS Champaign > > _______________________________________________ > > Peace-discuss mailing list > > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Mon Aug 5 16:00:50 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2019 11:00:50 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] NYT op-ed on shootings etc. Message-ID: I read this historian's book a couple of times earlier this year, perplexed by her recognition that "the war comes home" but her lack of clear recognition that our warmaking and USFP are problematic for that reason. Thus, it's all about white nationalism. Her description of Ruby Ridge places no responsibility on our government's (FBI) aggressive policies. She had no particular critique of the FBI's criminal behavior at Waco, where many non-whites were killed by the government. Thus, her understanding of Timothy McVeigh is lacking; not that such an understanding serves in any way to excuse his crime. I fear that the foundational emphasis on white nationalism betrays a lack of analytical integrity, similar to the manner in which anti-semitism is used. While U.S. warmaking and general gun culture provide the context for mass shootings, not to mention the entire neoliberal disaster, our mainstream media and historians such as Belew seem much more fascinated by the perversities of ideology. That's how you make a name for yourself as an establishment historian in this political context, and get yourself published in the NYT. *The Right Way to Understand White Nationalist Terrorism* Attacks like that in El Paso are not an end in themselves. They are a call to arms, toward something much more frightening. By Kathleen Belew Dr. Belew is the author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.” Aug. 4, 2019 Like a number of recent mass shootings, the one in El Paso on Saturday came with a manifesto. While authorities are still working to verify that this document explicitly was indeed written by the attacker, the evidence seems clear: It was posted to 8Chan minutes before the attack, by someone with the same name. By manifesto, I mean a document laying out political and ideological reasons for the violence and connecting it to other acts of violence. We’re familiar with those. We can recite them. And yet our society still lacks a fundamental understanding of the nature of this violence and what it means. Too many people still think of these attacks as single events, rather than interconnected actions carried out by domestic terrorists. We spend too much ink dividing them into anti-immigrant, racist, anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic attacks. True, they are these things. But they are also connected with one another through a broader white power ideology. Likewise, too many people think that such shootings are the goal of fringe activism. They aren’t. They are planned to incite a much larger slaughter by “awakening” other people to join the movement. The El Paso manifesto, if it is verified, ties the attacker into the mainstream of the white power movement, which came together after the Vietnam War and united Klan, neo-Nazi, skinhead and other activists. That movement, comparable in size to the much better known John Birch Society, never faced a major prosecution or crackdown that hobbled its activity. As a result, it was able to sink deep roots into society, largely under the radar of most Americans. This movement is often called white nationalist, but too many people misunderstand that moniker as simply overzealous patriotism, or as promoting whiteness within the nation. But the nation at the heart of white nationalism is not the United States. It is the Aryan nation, imagined as a transnational white polity with interests fundamentally opposed to the United States and, for many activists, bent on the overthrow of the federal government. The white power movement imagines race war, incited by mass violence among other strategies. The core texts of this movement, like “The Turner Diaries” or “Camp of the Saints,” aren’t just quaint novels, but rather provide a road map to how such violence could succeed. To call them manuals is too simplistic: They provide the collective ideas and vision by which a fringe movement can attempt a violent confrontation that could lead to race war. These ideas run from the earlier period directly into today’s manifestos. Dylann Roof’s document discussed his desire to provoke race war. The Christchurch manifesto used images and phrases from the earlier movement. In the El Paso manifesto, the anti-immigrant rhetoric is thoroughly ensconced in other white power ideas. To be sure, mass attackers today have a new set of coded phrases, such as “replacement,” as a code for racial annihilation through intermarriage, immigration and demographic change. But the idea of that threat has been central to white power activism for decades. To people in this movement, the impending demographic change understood by many commentators as a soft transformation — the moment when a town, a county, or a nation will no longer be majority-white — isn’t soft at all, but rather represents an apocalyptic threat. In a decade of studying white power movement activism, I have learned that much of this follows a strategy. First, it claims a state of emergency and gives a rationale for the act of violence. But critically, it also issues a call to action for others. The El Paso manifesto does so overtly, and offers tactical details about the attacker’s weapons, meant to instruct others. It has specific advice about how to choose targets. It has paragraphs that give rote gesture to not being white supremacist, even as the document invokes phrase after phrase, ideological marker after ideological marker, of the white power movement. These are all markers of the genre. As horrible as the El Paso attack was, this movement is capable of even larger-scale violence. The Oklahoma City bombing, its most horrific act to date, was the largest mass murder on American soil between Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Not only do we still lack a widespread understanding of that bombing as an act of political violence, but we fail to reckon with the many activists that create shrines to Timothy McVeigh and hope to follow in his footsteps. The history of the white power movement shows us that what seems new in El Paso is not new at all. This movement is not newly dangerous because of social media; it has been using the internet and its precursors in precisely this way since 1984. Neither is this movement newly anti-immigrant, despite the current politics that have inflamed anti-immigrant fervor. White power activists have been mapping white homelands and attempting migrations to and defense of those spaces for decades. What is new here is the widespread effectiveness of these actions, the technologies of killing that increase the body count and the frequency of mass violence. It is not enough to dismiss mass shootings as horror beyond our comprehension. It is our duty to understand their meaning and confront the movement that relies upon them. Kathleen Belew is a professor of history at the University of Chicago and the author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.” -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Mon Aug 5 17:19:11 2019 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2019 17:19:11 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] NYT op-ed on shootings etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: This is a complex issue. Belew is not all wrong. incidentally, she never alluded to Ruby Ridge or Waco in this piece. There certainly seems to be a thread of fear among some of our (white) population that people of color are displacing the purity of “our” stock. Then there is the gun worshipping culture amongst our population. The domestic, seemingly mad violence, of the recent horrible events may be linked not only to our militarism and foreign policy, and from the noxious behavior of federal and state agencies, and even from notions of male toughness, but also from our myths of “cowboys and Indians” and the thrust for new frontiers. It seems to me that there is no single truth here. The reasons for why the U.S. is so exceptional in these matters relative other developed countries/populations needs to connect many “dots”. On Aug 5, 2019, at 11:00 AM, David Green via Peace-discuss > wrote: I read this historian's book a couple of times earlier this year, perplexed by her recognition that "the war comes home" but her lack of clear recognition that our warmaking and USFP are problematic for that reason. Thus, it's all about white nationalism. Her description of Ruby Ridge places no responsibility on our government's (FBI) aggressive policies. She had no particular critique of the FBI's criminal behavior at Waco, where many non-whites were killed by the government. Thus, her understanding of Timothy McVeigh is lacking; not that such an understanding serves in any way to excuse his crime. I fear that the foundational emphasis on white nationalism betrays a lack of analytical integrity, similar to the manner in which anti-semitism is used. While U.S. warmaking and general gun culture provide the context for mass shootings, not to mention the entire neoliberal disaster, our mainstream media and historians such as Belew seem much more fascinated by the perversities of ideology. That's how you make a name for yourself as an establishment historian in this political context, and get yourself published in the NYT. The Right Way to Understand White Nationalist Terrorism Attacks like that in El Paso are not an end in themselves. They are a call to arms, toward something much more frightening. By Kathleen Belew Dr. Belew is the author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.” Aug. 4, 2019 Like a number of recent mass shootings, the one in El Paso on Saturday came with a manifesto. While authorities are still working to verify that this document explicitly was indeed written by the attacker, the evidence seems clear: It was posted to 8Chan minutes before the attack, by someone with the same name. By manifesto, I mean a document laying out political and ideological reasons for the violence and connecting it to other acts of violence. We’re familiar with those. We can recite them. And yet our society still lacks a fundamental understanding of the nature of this violence and what it means. Too many people still think of these attacks as single events, rather than interconnected actions carried out by domestic terrorists. We spend too much ink dividing them into anti-immigrant, racist, anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic attacks. True, they are these things. But they are also connected with one another through a broader white power ideology. Likewise, too many people think that such shootings are the goal of fringe activism. They aren’t. They are planned to incite a much larger slaughter by “awakening” other people to join the movement. The El Paso manifesto, if it is verified, ties the attacker into the mainstream of the white power movement, which came together after the Vietnam War and united Klan, neo-Nazi, skinhead and other activists. That movement, comparable in size to the much better known John Birch Society, never faced a major prosecution or crackdown that hobbled its activity. As a result, it was able to sink deep roots into society, largely under the radar of most Americans. This movement is often called white nationalist, but too many people misunderstand that moniker as simply overzealous patriotism, or as promoting whiteness within the nation. But the nation at the heart of white nationalism is not the United States. It is the Aryan nation, imagined as a transnational white polity with interests fundamentally opposed to the United States and, for many activists, bent on the overthrow of the federal government. The white power movement imagines race war, incited by mass violence among other strategies. The core texts of this movement, like “The Turner Diaries” or “Camp of the Saints,” aren’t just quaint novels, but rather provide a road map to how such violence could succeed. To call them manuals is too simplistic: They provide the collective ideas and vision by which a fringe movement can attempt a violent confrontation that could lead to race war. These ideas run from the earlier period directly into today’s manifestos. Dylann Roof’s document discussed his desire to provoke race war. The Christchurch manifesto used images and phrases from the earlier movement. In the El Paso manifesto, the anti-immigrant rhetoric is thoroughly ensconced in other white power ideas. To be sure, mass attackers today have a new set of coded phrases, such as “replacement,” as a code for racial annihilation through intermarriage, immigration and demographic change. But the idea of that threat has been central to white power activism for decades. To people in this movement, the impending demographic change understood by many commentators as a soft transformation — the moment when a town, a county, or a nation will no longer be majority-white — isn’t soft at all, but rather represents an apocalyptic threat. In a decade of studying white power movement activism, I have learned that much of this follows a strategy. First, it claims a state of emergency and gives a rationale for the act of violence. But critically, it also issues a call to action for others. The El Paso manifesto does so overtly, and offers tactical details about the attacker’s weapons, meant to instruct others. It has specific advice about how to choose targets. It has paragraphs that give rote gesture to not being white supremacist, even as the document invokes phrase after phrase, ideological marker after ideological marker, of the white power movement. These are all markers of the genre. As horrible as the El Paso attack was, this movement is capable of even larger-scale violence. The Oklahoma City bombing, its most horrific act to date, was the largest mass murder on American soil between Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Not only do we still lack a widespread understanding of that bombing as an act of political violence, but we fail to reckon with the many activists that create shrines to Timothy McVeigh and hope to follow in his footsteps. The history of the white power movement shows us that what seems new in El Paso is not new at all. This movement is not newly dangerous because of social media; it has been using the internet and its precursors in precisely this way since 1984. Neither is this movement newly anti-immigrant, despite the current politics that have inflamed anti-immigrant fervor. White power activists have been mapping white homelands and attempting migrations to and defense of those spaces for decades. What is new here is the widespread effectiveness of these actions, the technologies of killing that increase the body count and the frequency of mass violence. It is not enough to dismiss mass shootings as horror beyond our comprehension. It is our duty to understand their meaning and confront the movement that relies upon them. Kathleen Belew is a professor of history at the University of Chicago and the author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.” _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Mon Aug 5 17:37:07 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2019 12:37:07 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] NYT op-ed on shootings etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I do consider the gun culture and the easy availability of guns to be a relatively primary cause, co-terminus with USFP and the culture of militarism that goes along with it (many shooters got their training in the U.S. military. On Mon, Aug 5, 2019 at 12:19 PM Brussel, Morton K wrote: > This is a complex issue. Belew is not all wrong. incidentally, she never > alluded to Ruby Ridge or Waco in this piece. There certainly seems to be a > thread of fear among some of our (white) population that people of color > are displacing the purity of “our” stock. Then there is the gun worshipping > culture amongst our population. The domestic, seemingly mad violence, of > the recent horrible events may be linked not only to our militarism and > foreign policy, and from the noxious behavior of federal and state > agencies, and even from notions of male toughness, but also from our myths > of “cowboys and Indians” and the thrust for new frontiers. It seems to me > that there is no single truth here. The reasons for why the U.S. is so > exceptional in these matters relative other developed countries/populations > needs to connect many “dots”. > > On Aug 5, 2019, at 11:00 AM, David Green via Peace-discuss < > peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > I read this historian's book a couple of times earlier this year, > perplexed by her recognition that "the war comes home" but her lack of > clear recognition that our warmaking and USFP are problematic for that > reason. Thus, it's all about white nationalism. Her description of Ruby > Ridge places no responsibility on our government's (FBI) aggressive > policies. She had no particular critique of the FBI's criminal behavior at > Waco, where many non-whites were killed by the government. Thus, her > understanding of Timothy McVeigh is lacking; not that such an understanding > serves in any way to excuse his crime. I fear that the foundational > emphasis on white nationalism betrays a lack of analytical integrity, > similar to the manner in which anti-semitism is used. While U.S. warmaking > and general gun culture provide the context for mass shootings, not to > mention the entire neoliberal disaster, our mainstream media and historians > such as Belew seem much more fascinated by the perversities of ideology. > That's how you make a name for yourself as an establishment historian in > this political context, and get yourself published in the NYT. > > > *The Right Way to Understand White Nationalist Terrorism* > > Attacks like that in El Paso are not an end in themselves. They are a call > to arms, toward something much more frightening. > > By Kathleen Belew > > Dr. Belew is the author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement > and Paramilitary America.” > > Aug. 4, 2019 > > Like a number of recent mass shootings, the one in El Paso on Saturday > came with a manifesto. While authorities are still working to verify that > this document explicitly was indeed written by the attacker, the evidence > seems clear: It was posted to 8Chan minutes before the attack, by someone > with the same name. > > By manifesto, I mean a document laying out political and ideological > reasons for the violence and connecting it to other acts of violence. We’re > familiar with those. We can recite them. And yet our society still lacks a > fundamental understanding of the nature of this violence and what it means. > > Too many people still think of these attacks as single events, rather than > interconnected actions carried out by domestic terrorists. We spend too > much ink dividing them into anti-immigrant, racist, anti-Muslim or > anti-Semitic attacks. True, they are these things. But they are also > connected with one another through a broader white power ideology. > > Likewise, too many people think that such shootings are the goal of fringe > activism. They aren’t. They are planned to incite a much larger slaughter > by “awakening” other people to join the movement. > > The El Paso manifesto, if it is verified, ties the attacker into the > mainstream of the white power movement, which came together after the > Vietnam War and united Klan, neo-Nazi, skinhead and other activists. That > movement, comparable in size to the much better known John Birch Society, > never faced a major prosecution or crackdown that hobbled its activity. As > a result, it was able to sink deep roots into society, largely under the > radar of most Americans. > > This movement is often called white nationalist, but too many people > misunderstand that moniker as simply overzealous patriotism, or as > promoting whiteness within the nation. But the nation at the heart of white > nationalism is not the United States. It is the Aryan nation, imagined as a > transnational white polity with interests fundamentally opposed to the > United States and, for many activists, bent on the overthrow of the federal > government. > > The white power movement imagines race war, incited by mass violence among > other strategies. The core texts of this movement, like “The Turner > Diaries” or “Camp of the Saints,” aren’t just quaint novels, but rather > provide a road map to how such violence could succeed. To call them manuals > is too simplistic: They provide the collective ideas and vision by which a > fringe movement can attempt a violent confrontation that could lead to race > war. > > These ideas run from the earlier period directly into today’s manifestos. > Dylann Roof’s document discussed his desire to provoke race war. The > Christchurch manifesto used images and phrases from the earlier movement. > In the El Paso manifesto, the anti-immigrant rhetoric is thoroughly > ensconced in other white power ideas. > > To be sure, mass attackers today have a new set of coded phrases, such as > “replacement,” as a code for racial annihilation through intermarriage, > immigration and demographic change. But the idea of that threat has been > central to white power activism for decades. > > To people in this movement, the impending demographic change understood by > many commentators as a soft transformation — the moment when a town, a > county, or a nation will no longer be majority-white — isn’t soft at all, > but rather represents an apocalyptic threat. > > In a decade of studying white power movement activism, I have learned that > much of this follows a strategy. First, it claims a state of emergency and > gives a rationale for the act of violence. > > But critically, it also issues a call to action for others. The El Paso > manifesto does so overtly, and offers tactical details about the attacker’s > weapons, meant to instruct others. It has specific advice about how to > choose targets. It has paragraphs that give rote gesture to not being white > supremacist, even as the document invokes phrase after phrase, ideological > marker after ideological marker, of the white power movement. These are all > markers of the genre. > > As horrible as the El Paso attack was, this movement is capable of even > larger-scale violence. The Oklahoma City bombing, its most horrific act to > date, was the largest mass murder on American soil between Pearl Harbor and > 9/11. Not only do we still lack a widespread understanding of that bombing > as an act of political violence, but we fail to reckon with the many > activists that create shrines to Timothy McVeigh and hope to follow in his > footsteps. > > The history of the white power movement shows us that what seems new in El > Paso is not new at all. This movement is not newly dangerous because of > social media; it has been using the internet and its precursors in > precisely this way since 1984. > > Neither is this movement newly anti-immigrant, despite the current > politics that have inflamed anti-immigrant fervor. White power activists > have been mapping white homelands and attempting migrations to and defense > of those spaces for decades. > > What is new here is the widespread effectiveness of these actions, the > technologies of killing that increase the body count and the frequency of > mass violence. > > It is not enough to dismiss mass shootings as horror beyond our > comprehension. It is our duty to understand their meaning and confront the > movement that relies upon them. > > Kathleen Belew is a professor of history at the University of Chicago and > the author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and > Paramilitary America.” > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Aug 5 19:16:33 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2019 19:16:33 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] NYT op-ed on shootings etc. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: An article from an Officer of the Green Party in Austen, Texas: Adrian Boutureira Sansberro 1 hr Guns, Racism, Violence and the Consequences of Maintaining Empire (Based on a piece I wrote at the time of the senseless mass killing of school children in Connecticut in 2012-I believe the essence of what I wrote is as true today as it was then). By Adrian Boutureira Sansberro We live in a society that glorifies and celebrates violence, It is justified and accepted in every aspect of our lives and it is exported to the rest of the world. We all weep today for the racist atrocity carried out in EL Paso, others have been weeping for years as our tax dollar funded guns and bombs kill thousands of children in Palestine, and others still weep remembering when thirteen cops put over 100 bullets into an unarmed black couple on a freeway overpass in Cleveland. How could one not weep for such atrocities?Yet, we are a society, a nation, an economy, an Empire built and sustained by the atrocities perpetrated by racism, brutality and violence. The minds of our people are ill and poisoned far beyond our gun culture... We are ill because our illness is needed to sustain the madness of Empire. It always has depended on it, and as our civilization declines further and further into the pits of cultural self-deception, political corruption, economic demise and social decadence the consequences of having to maintain this permanent state of violent illness are bound to become more and more dire and closer and closer to home. More than ever, we are today a culture where the line between imaginary and real death and destruction is intentionally being continuously linked, and made more and more blurred, not just by the media and entertainment industries, but by our government as well....Reality shows which are not real, video games which emulate war crimes, war crimes emulate video games, beautiful dead people walking, sexy FBI agents, death penalty prisoners given their death injections with sterilized needles, the deaths of countless thousands of innocent people a news blurb about collateral damage…real corpses or the suffering of surviving relatives ever seldom shown…Death is pretty, death does not exist, killing is sexy for the killers and the dead … What is fighting for democracy and liberation and what is genocidal madness? What is reality and what is a pathetic spectacle of mass deception? We are all ill because we've allowed the madness of Empire to go on, we fuel its global racist barbarities and its pathetic home-theatre spectacles so that we can continue to not think, or see, or feel and instead just enjoy the ride of the unsustainable, destructive and selfish life style they've sold us as happiness... Or did we sell it to ourselves? Who is Empire? Who are Trump, Obama, Reagan, or who was Andrew Jackson, the racist mass murdered, if not mere top tier exponents of the same sick and putrid racist imperialist culture and values we have too helped visualize, maintain and build? The man who shot those people in El Paso was as ill as he needed to be, as a man growing up in this culture. If instead of crossing that now quickly disappearing social taboo and committing an act of criminal racist madness at home, he had instead been ordered to commit the same crime in some village in Iraq to protect the interests of global capital, he would have been called a soldier following orders to protect democracy and perhaps been even given a medal, not been called a racist and mad mass murderer... He is, in a way, nothing more than a product. Popping up here as a civilian or there in uniform. He has to be prepared when prompted to appear and act at home and abroad. To embrace murderous violence as a viable option to solve personal or national conflicts, be it social, political, economic or otherwise... We've known all along this business of maintaining our youth always prepared to commit violence as a very dangerous game, and we've not just accepted that, but exploited it to benefit the violent and repressive state and for profiteering from it. I therefore don't get the sense of shock or of surprise of so many.What surprises me, and something which I consider a huge sign of hope and credit to our remaining collective humanity, is that it doesn't happen more often. We live in a country and a culture where people are intentionally being driven to madness, desensitized, humiliated, exploited...and given ready access to fire arms. That is an intentional high risk game the state is more than willing to play . Clearly, the roots of the cultural and social illness behind this and other similar acts, transcend the issues of gun control, or whatever one can fit on a liberal and politically opportunistic reductionist meme. Guns remain killing objects, without a doubt. Yet, to avoid addressing the root social, cultural and political causes for how we’ve become such a psychopathic, racist, homophobic,misogynist violent society, and instead choosing to focus solely on the question of gun control every time we go through something like this, simply seems like adding insult to injury to our intelligence, on top of the already egregious injury upon our shared humanity of the act itself. On Aug 5, 2019, at 10:37, David Green > wrote: I do consider the gun culture and the easy availability of guns to be a relatively primary cause, co-terminus with USFP and the culture of militarism that goes along with it (many shooters got their training in the U.S. military. On Mon, Aug 5, 2019 at 12:19 PM Brussel, Morton K > wrote: This is a complex issue. Belew is not all wrong. incidentally, she never alluded to Ruby Ridge or Waco in this piece. There certainly seems to be a thread of fear among some of our (white) population that people of color are displacing the purity of “our” stock. Then there is the gun worshipping culture amongst our population. The domestic, seemingly mad violence, of the recent horrible events may be linked not only to our militarism and foreign policy, and from the noxious behavior of federal and state agencies, and even from notions of male toughness, but also from our myths of “cowboys and Indians” and the thrust for new frontiers. It seems to me that there is no single truth here. The reasons for why the U.S. is so exceptional in these matters relative other developed countries/populations needs to connect many “dots”. On Aug 5, 2019, at 11:00 AM, David Green via Peace-discuss > wrote: I read this historian's book a couple of times earlier this year, perplexed by her recognition that "the war comes home" but her lack of clear recognition that our warmaking and USFP are problematic for that reason. Thus, it's all about white nationalism. Her description of Ruby Ridge places no responsibility on our government's (FBI) aggressive policies. She had no particular critique of the FBI's criminal behavior at Waco, where many non-whites were killed by the government. Thus, her understanding of Timothy McVeigh is lacking; not that such an understanding serves in any way to excuse his crime. I fear that the foundational emphasis on white nationalism betrays a lack of analytical integrity, similar to the manner in which anti-semitism is used. While U.S. warmaking and general gun culture provide the context for mass shootings, not to mention the entire neoliberal disaster, our mainstream media and historians such as Belew seem much more fascinated by the perversities of ideology. That's how you make a name for yourself as an establishment historian in this political context, and get yourself published in the NYT. The Right Way to Understand White Nationalist Terrorism Attacks like that in El Paso are not an end in themselves. They are a call to arms, toward something much more frightening. By Kathleen Belew Dr. Belew is the author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.” Aug. 4, 2019 Like a number of recent mass shootings, the one in El Paso on Saturday came with a manifesto. While authorities are still working to verify that this document explicitly was indeed written by the attacker, the evidence seems clear: It was posted to 8Chan minutes before the attack, by someone with the same name. By manifesto, I mean a document laying out political and ideological reasons for the violence and connecting it to other acts of violence. We’re familiar with those. We can recite them. And yet our society still lacks a fundamental understanding of the nature of this violence and what it means. Too many people still think of these attacks as single events, rather than interconnected actions carried out by domestic terrorists. We spend too much ink dividing them into anti-immigrant, racist, anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic attacks. True, they are these things. But they are also connected with one another through a broader white power ideology. Likewise, too many people think that such shootings are the goal of fringe activism. They aren’t. They are planned to incite a much larger slaughter by “awakening” other people to join the movement. The El Paso manifesto, if it is verified, ties the attacker into the mainstream of the white power movement, which came together after the Vietnam War and united Klan, neo-Nazi, skinhead and other activists. That movement, comparable in size to the much better known John Birch Society, never faced a major prosecution or crackdown that hobbled its activity. As a result, it was able to sink deep roots into society, largely under the radar of most Americans. This movement is often called white nationalist, but too many people misunderstand that moniker as simply overzealous patriotism, or as promoting whiteness within the nation. But the nation at the heart of white nationalism is not the United States. It is the Aryan nation, imagined as a transnational white polity with interests fundamentally opposed to the United States and, for many activists, bent on the overthrow of the federal government. The white power movement imagines race war, incited by mass violence among other strategies. The core texts of this movement, like “The Turner Diaries” or “Camp of the Saints,” aren’t just quaint novels, but rather provide a road map to how such violence could succeed. To call them manuals is too simplistic: They provide the collective ideas and vision by which a fringe movement can attempt a violent confrontation that could lead to race war. These ideas run from the earlier period directly into today’s manifestos. Dylann Roof’s document discussed his desire to provoke race war. The Christchurch manifesto used images and phrases from the earlier movement. In the El Paso manifesto, the anti-immigrant rhetoric is thoroughly ensconced in other white power ideas. To be sure, mass attackers today have a new set of coded phrases, such as “replacement,” as a code for racial annihilation through intermarriage, immigration and demographic change. But the idea of that threat has been central to white power activism for decades. To people in this movement, the impending demographic change understood by many commentators as a soft transformation — the moment when a town, a county, or a nation will no longer be majority-white — isn’t soft at all, but rather represents an apocalyptic threat. In a decade of studying white power movement activism, I have learned that much of this follows a strategy. First, it claims a state of emergency and gives a rationale for the act of violence. But critically, it also issues a call to action for others. The El Paso manifesto does so overtly, and offers tactical details about the attacker’s weapons, meant to instruct others. It has specific advice about how to choose targets. It has paragraphs that give rote gesture to not being white supremacist, even as the document invokes phrase after phrase, ideological marker after ideological marker, of the white power movement. These are all markers of the genre. As horrible as the El Paso attack was, this movement is capable of even larger-scale violence. The Oklahoma City bombing, its most horrific act to date, was the largest mass murder on American soil between Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Not only do we still lack a widespread understanding of that bombing as an act of political violence, but we fail to reckon with the many activists that create shrines to Timothy McVeigh and hope to follow in his footsteps. The history of the white power movement shows us that what seems new in El Paso is not new at all. This movement is not newly dangerous because of social media; it has been using the internet and its precursors in precisely this way since 1984. Neither is this movement newly anti-immigrant, despite the current politics that have inflamed anti-immigrant fervor. White power activists have been mapping white homelands and attempting migrations to and defense of those spaces for decades. What is new here is the widespread effectiveness of these actions, the technologies of killing that increase the body count and the frequency of mass violence. It is not enough to dismiss mass shootings as horror beyond our comprehension. It is our duty to understand their meaning and confront the movement that relies upon them. Kathleen Belew is a professor of history at the University of Chicago and the author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.” _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Mon Aug 5 21:12:09 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2019 16:12:09 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Gabbard and US war provocations Message-ID: <1F62CE26-1B7D-4B6E-8A53-F81699D64B38@gmail.com> https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/08/05/tulsi-gabbard-r-i-p/ ...Donald Trump is a strong personality, but he has been cowed by the Israel Lobby and the military/security complex. As reigning president, Trump sat there Twittering while an attack orchestrated by the military/security complex and the Democratic Party, with 100% cooperation from the American media, tried to portray him as a Russian agent as grounds for his impeachment. A strong personality in what is allegedly the most powerful office in the world who allows his entire first term to be wasted by his opponents in an attempt to frame him and drive him from office is all we need to know about the likely fate of Tulsi Gabbard. ### From moboct1 at aim.com Tue Aug 6 13:16:31 2019 From: moboct1 at aim.com (Mildred O'brien) Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2019 13:16:31 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Peace-discuss] NYT op-ed on shootings etc. References: <1639289194.1754618.1565097391626.ref@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1639289194.1754618.1565097391626@mail.yahoo.com> Neither did Belew mention the obsessive focus on these tragedies by MSM, which profit from their fascination with sensational news. Midge    -----Original Message----- From: Brussel, Morton K via Peace-discuss To: David Green Cc: Brussel, Morton K ; Peace-discuss ; Karen Aram Sent: Mon, Aug 5, 2019 12:19 pm Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] NYT op-ed on shootings etc. This is a complex issue. Belew is not all wrong. incidentally, she never alluded to Ruby Ridge or Waco in this piece. There certainly seems to be a thread of fear among some of our  (white) population that people of color are displacing the purity of “our” stock. Then there is the gun worshipping culture amongst our population. The domestic, seemingly mad violence, of the recent horrible events may be linked not only to our militarism and foreign policy, and from the noxious behavior of federal and state agencies, and even from notions of male toughness, but also from our myths of “cowboys and Indians” and the thrust for new frontiers. It seems to me that there is no single truth here. The reasons for why the U.S. is so exceptional in these matters relative other developed countries/populations needs to connect many “dots”.  On Aug 5, 2019, at 11:00 AM, David Green via Peace-discuss wrote: I read this historian's book a couple of times earlier this year, perplexed by her recognition that "the war comes home" but her lack of clear recognition that our warmaking and USFP are problematic for that reason. Thus, it's all about white nationalism. Her description of Ruby Ridge places no responsibility on our government's (FBI) aggressive policies. She had no particular critique of the FBI's criminal behavior at Waco, where many non-whites were killed by the government. Thus, her understanding of Timothy McVeigh is lacking; not that such an understanding serves in any way to excuse his crime. I fear that the foundational emphasis on white nationalism betrays a lack of analytical integrity, similar to the manner in which anti-semitism is used. While U.S. warmaking and general gun culture provide the context for mass shootings, not to mention the entire neoliberal disaster, our mainstream media and historians such as Belew seem much more fascinated by the perversities of ideology. That's how you make a name for yourself as an establishment historian in this political context, and get yourself published in the NYT. The Right Way to Understand White Nationalist TerrorismAttacks like that in El Paso are not an end in themselves. They are a call to arms, toward something much more frightening.By Kathleen BelewDr. Belew is the author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.”Aug. 4, 2019Like a number of recent mass shootings, the one in El Paso on Saturday came with a manifesto. While authorities are still working to verify that this document explicitly was indeed written by the attacker, the evidence seems clear: It was posted to 8Chan minutes before the attack, by someone with the same name.By manifesto, I mean a document laying out political and ideological reasons for the violence and connecting it to other acts of violence. We’re familiar with those. We can recite them. And yet our society still lacks a fundamental understanding of the nature of this violence and what it means.Too many people still think of these attacks as single events, rather than interconnected actions carried out by domestic terrorists. We spend too much ink dividing them into anti-immigrant, racist, anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic attacks. True, they are these things. But they are also connected with one another through a broader white power ideology.Likewise, too many people think that such shootings are the goal of fringe activism. They aren’t. They are planned to incite a much larger slaughter by “awakening” other people to join the movement.The El Paso manifesto, if it is verified, ties the attacker into the mainstream of the white power movement, which came together after the Vietnam War and united Klan, neo-Nazi, skinhead and other activists. That movement, comparable in size to the much better known John Birch Society, never faced a major prosecution or crackdown that hobbled its activity. As a result, it was able to sink deep roots into society, largely under the radar of most Americans. This movement is often called white nationalist, but too many people misunderstand that moniker as simply overzealous patriotism, or as promoting whiteness within the nation. But the nation at the heart of white nationalism is not the United States. It is the Aryan nation, imagined as a transnational white polity with interests fundamentally opposed to the United States and, for many activists, bent on the overthrow of the federal government. The white power movement imagines race war, incited by mass violence among other strategies. The core texts of this movement, like “The Turner Diaries” or “Camp of the Saints,” aren’t just quaint novels, but rather provide a road map to how such violence could succeed. To call them manuals is too simplistic: They provide the collective ideas and vision by which a fringe movement can attempt a violent confrontation that could lead to race war.These ideas run from the earlier period directly into today’s manifestos. Dylann Roof’s document discussed his desire to provoke race war. The Christchurch manifesto used images and phrases from the earlier movement. In the El Paso manifesto, the anti-immigrant rhetoric is thoroughly ensconced in other white power ideas.To be sure, mass attackers today have a new set of coded phrases, such as “replacement,” as a code for racial annihilation through intermarriage, immigration and demographic change. But the idea of that threat has been central to white power activism for decades. To people in this movement, the impending demographic change understood by many commentators as a soft transformation — the moment when a town, a county, or a nation will no longer be majority-white — isn’t soft at all, but rather represents an apocalyptic threat. In a decade of studying white power movement activism, I have learned that much of this follows a strategy. First, it claims a state of emergency and gives a rationale for the act of violence.But critically, it also issues a call to action for others. The El Paso manifesto does so overtly, and offers tactical details about the attacker’s weapons, meant to instruct others. It has specific advice about how to choose targets. It has paragraphs that give rote gesture to not being white supremacist, even as the document invokes phrase after phrase, ideological marker after ideological marker, of the white power movement. These are all markers of the genre.As horrible as the El Paso attack was, this movement is capable of even larger-scale violence. The Oklahoma City bombing, its most horrific act to date, was the largest mass murder on American soil between Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Not only do we still lack a widespread understanding of that bombing as an act of political violence, but we fail to reckon with the many activists that create shrines to Timothy McVeigh and hope to follow in his footsteps.The history of the white power movement shows us that what seems new in El Paso is not new at all. This movement is not newly dangerous because of social media; it has been using the internet and its precursors in precisely this way since 1984.Neither is this movement newly anti-immigrant, despite the current politics that have inflamed anti-immigrant fervor. White power activists have been mapping white homelands and attempting migrations to and defense of those spaces for decades.What is new here is the widespread effectiveness of these actions, the technologies of killing that increase the body count and the frequency of mass violence.It is not enough to dismiss mass shootings as horror beyond our comprehension. It is our duty to understand their meaning and confront the movement that relies upon them.Kathleen Belew is a professor of history at the University of Chicago and the author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.”_______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Tue Aug 6 18:16:08 2019 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2019 13:16:08 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) In-Reply-To: References: <53032f60-67f8-27ac-c3f0-ccb977056cef@gmail.com> Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: John V. Whitbeck Date: Mon, Aug 5, 2019 at 4:29 PM Subject: "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) To: TO: Distinguished Recipients FM: John Whitbeck Transmitted below is a brief MONDOWEISS posting regarding a "full spread hit piece" against Tulsi Gabbard published by the *New York Time**s*. That the *Times* would go to the trouble of trying to discredit a "minor" candidate flirting with a meager 2% support in the polls is an effective if back-handed compliment to Tulsi and her message and campaign consciously focused on opposition to the mad pursuit of full-spectrum global domination and the hugely expensive, destructive and seemingly never-ending wars of choice which it has produced. It suggests that perpetual war advocates are seriously worried that even 2% support might be enough to qualify Tulsi for the next round of Democratic Party presidential debates and permit her eloquent voice for sanity, while highly unlikely to win her the nomination, to receive greater exposure and traction. Words matter -- and have always been used and abused to shape public opinion. The word "isolationist" has had a profoundly negative resonance in the United States since World War II. Accordingly, those who are financially and/or professionally invested in perpetual war and are petrified at the slim threat of a world at peace, who might be appropriately labeled the "Industrial Fear and Hate Promoting and Profiting Complex", tend to label any American opposed to the pursuit of full-spectrum global dominance by military means an "isolationist", as if there were no non-violent and non-kinetic way to interact with the world and as the *Times* has chosen to characterize Tulsi and her message. NOTE: While, disappointingly, Tulsi voted in favor of the recent House of Representatives resolution condemning the BDS movement for justice in Palestine, she has now become the 15th House member to co-sponsor H. Res. 496, the resolution introduced by Ilhan Omar affirming that Americans have the right to boycott foreign countries to advance the cause of human rights (https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/gabbard-condemn-cosponsor/). *MONDOWEISS * https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/unpardonable-criticized-hegemony/ *Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony* David Bromwich August 3, 2019 The Times full spread hit piece on Tulsi Gabbard is a new low, even for the Times. It is yellow journalism half disguised as human interest, with a few random points of political information. Headline: “Unorthodox Campaign Shows Isolationism May Have a Hold.” Opening sentence: “Tulsi Gabbard is running for president of a country that she believes has wrought horror on the world.” Their initial strategy was simply to starve her out – no coverage, no candidacy. Now, because she’s still in and lately told a truth that weakened the Times' choice Kamala Harris, they are giving her the Bernie 2016 treatment: i.e. this candidate is outlandish, absurd, unaccountably heartless (her sister fell off a horse while the story was being written and her reaction was lacking in warmth), mystical (she spoke at a solar panel dedication event), a tool of the wicked (she points out that Syria never went to war against the US) – and possibly a Russian agent. Among Times readers, fewer than one in 50 is likely to be a supporter of Gabbard, but turning off voters is the secondary purpose of such an article. The primary purpose is to shape attitudes at CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, NPR, the Washington Post, and the Times sister publication The New Yorker. Legitimize flat-out condescension and contempt in the influential outlets and you keep her numbers down, since people won’t hear her voice at all. A war veteran, an experienced and respected lawmaker, and a woman of color, but she commits the unpardonable error of criticizing worldwide US hegemony and so they follow the corporate reflex: make her a laughingstock. Postscript. Gabbard stands up to an MSNBC hack who tries to overwhelm her with pro-war talking points. MSNBC is part of the perpetual war machine, as is the Times; they backed the Iraq war, and they’ll do the same for the next war, whether it’s in North Africa, east Asia, or Ukraine. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Tue Aug 6 21:16:47 2019 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2019 21:16:47 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) In-Reply-To: References: <53032f60-67f8-27ac-c3f0-ccb977056cef@gmail.com> Message-ID: <18F9A36F-FD34-418D-9F40-90F4E489B4E8@illinois.edu> I find it a shame that we cannot support Tulsi Gabard more, so that she could participate in the coming debates. Her antiwar remarks hit so many right notes. I didn’t know, but should have, that The New Yorker was a "sister publication" of the NYT, and plays the same games politically—à la the DNC. Thanks for forwarding… —mkb On Aug 6, 2019, at 1:16 PM, Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss > wrote: ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: John V. Whitbeck > Date: Mon, Aug 5, 2019 at 4:29 PM Subject: "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) To: > TO: Distinguished Recipients FM: John Whitbeck Transmitted below is a brief MONDOWEISS posting regarding a "full spread hit piece" against Tulsi Gabbard published by the New York Times. That the Times would go to the trouble of trying to discredit a "minor" candidate flirting with a meager 2% support in the polls is an effective if back-handed compliment to Tulsi and her message and campaign consciously focused on opposition to the mad pursuit of full-spectrum global domination and the hugely expensive, destructive and seemingly never-ending wars of choice which it has produced. It suggests that perpetual war advocates are seriously worried that even 2% support might be enough to qualify Tulsi for the next round of Democratic Party presidential debates and permit her eloquent voice for sanity, while highly unlikely to win her the nomination, to receive greater exposure and traction. Words matter -- and have always been used and abused to shape public opinion. The word "isolationist" has had a profoundly negative resonance in the United States since World War II. Accordingly, those who are financially and/or professionally invested in perpetual war and are petrified at the slim threat of a world at peace, who might be appropriately labeled the "Industrial Fear and Hate Promoting and Profiting Complex", tend to label any American opposed to the pursuit of full-spectrum global dominance by military means an "isolationist", as if there were no non-violent and non-kinetic way to interact with the world and as the Times has chosen to characterize Tulsi and her message. NOTE: While, disappointingly, Tulsi voted in favor of the recent House of Representatives resolution condemning the BDS movement for justice in Palestine, she has now become the 15th House member to co-sponsor H. Res. 496, the resolution introduced by Ilhan Omar affirming that Americans have the right to boycott foreign countries to advance the cause of human rights (https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/gabbard-condemn-cosponsor/). MONDOWEISS https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/unpardonable-criticized-hegemony/ Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony David Bromwich August 3, 2019 [X] The Times full spread hit piece on Tulsi Gabbard is a new low, even for the Times. It is yellow journalism half disguised as human interest, with a few random points of political information. Headline: “Unorthodox Campaign Shows Isolationism May Have a Hold.” Opening sentence: “Tulsi Gabbard is running for president of a country that she believes has wrought horror on the world.” Their initial strategy was simply to starve her out – no coverage, no candidacy. Now, because she’s still in and lately told a truth that weakened the Times' choice Kamala Harris, they are giving her the Bernie 2016 treatment: i.e. this candidate is outlandish, absurd, unaccountably heartless (her sister fell off a horse while the story was being written and her reaction was lacking in warmth), mystical (she spoke at a solar panel dedication event), a tool of the wicked (she points out that Syria never went to war against the US) – and possibly a Russian agent. Among Times readers, fewer than one in 50 is likely to be a supporter of Gabbard, but turning off voters is the secondary purpose of such an article. The primary purpose is to shape attitudes at CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, NPR, the Washington Post, and the Times sister publication The New Yorker. Legitimize flat-out condescension and contempt in the influential outlets and you keep her numbers down, since people won’t hear her voice at all. A war veteran, an experienced and respected lawmaker, and a woman of color, but she commits the unpardonable error of criticizing worldwide US hegemony and so they follow the corporate reflex: make her a laughingstock. Postscript. Gabbard stands up to an MSNBC hack who tries to overwhelm her with pro-war talking points. MSNBC is part of the perpetual war machine, as is the Times; they backed the Iraq war, and they’ll do the same for the next war, whether it’s in North Africa, east Asia, or Ukraine. _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net Tue Aug 6 22:47:35 2019 From: davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net (David Johnson) Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2019 17:47:35 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) In-Reply-To: <18F9A36F-FD34-418D-9F40-90F4E489B4E8@illinois.edu> References: <53032f60-67f8-27ac-c3f0-ccb977056cef@gmail.com> <18F9A36F-FD34-418D-9F40-90F4E489B4E8@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <003301d54ca8$f66c0a30$e3441e90$@comcast.net> I donated to her campaign back several months ago and thus I receive regular updates / donation requests and the one I received today indicates that she has met 80 % of the individual unique donations totaling $ 600,000 requirement so far and is well on her way to qualifying to be in the September debates. Unless of course the DNC comes up with some new obstacle between now and then. David J. From: Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Brussel, Morton K via Peace-discuss Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2019 4:17 PM To: Robert Naiman Cc: Brussel, Morton K; Peace-discuss List Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) I find it a shame that we cannot support Tulsi Gabard more, so that she could participate in the coming debates. Her antiwar remarks hit so many right notes. I didn’t know, but should have, that The New Yorker was a "sister publication" of the NYT, and plays the same games politically—à la the DNC. Thanks for forwarding… —mkb On Aug 6, 2019, at 1:16 PM, Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss wrote: ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: John V. Whitbeck Date: Mon, Aug 5, 2019 at 4:29 PM Subject: "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) To: TO: Distinguished Recipients FM: John Whitbeck Transmitted below is a brief MONDOWEISS posting regarding a "full spread hit piece" against Tulsi Gabbard published by the New York Times. That the Times would go to the trouble of trying to discredit a "minor" candidate flirting with a meager 2% support in the polls is an effective if back-handed compliment to Tulsi and her message and campaign consciously focused on opposition to the mad pursuit of full-spectrum global domination and the hugely expensive, destructive and seemingly never-ending wars of choice which it has produced. It suggests that perpetual war advocates are seriously worried that even 2% support might be enough to qualify Tulsi for the next round of Democratic Party presidential debates and permit her eloquent voice for sanity, while highly unlikely to win her the nomination, to receive greater exposure and traction. Words matter -- and have always been used and abused to shape public opinion. The word "isolationist" has had a profoundly negative resonance in the United States since World War II. Accordingly, those who are financially and/or professionally invested in perpetual war and are petrified at the slim threat of a world at peace, who might be appropriately labeled the "Industrial Fear and Hate Promoting and Profiting Complex", tend to label any American opposed to the pursuit of full-spectrum global dominance by military means an "isolationist", as if there were no non-violent and non-kinetic way to interact with the world and as the Times has chosen to characterize Tulsi and her message. NOTE: While, disappointingly, Tulsi voted in favor of the recent House of Representatives resolution condemning the BDS movement for justice in Palestine, she has now become the 15th House member to co-sponsor H. Res. 496, the resolution introduced by Ilhan Omar affirming that Americans have the right to boycott foreign countries to advance the cause of human rights (https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/gabbard-condemn-cosponsor/). MONDOWEISS https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/unpardonable-criticized-hegemony/ Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony David Bromwich August 3, 2019 Error! Filename not specified. The Times full spread hit piece on Tulsi Gabbard is a new low, even for the Times. It is yellow journalism half disguised as human interest, with a few random points of political information. Headline: “Unorthodox Campaign Shows Isolationism May Have a Hold.” Opening sentence: “Tulsi Gabbard is running for president of a country that she believes has wrought horror on the world.” Their initial strategy was simply to starve her out – no coverage, no candidacy. Now, because she’s still in and lately told a truth that weakened the Times' choice Kamala Harris, they are giving her the Bernie 2016 treatment: i.e. this candidate is outlandish, absurd, unaccountably heartless (her sister fell off a horse while the story was being written and her reaction was lacking in warmth), mystical (she spoke at a solar panel dedication event), a tool of the wicked (she points out that Syria never went to war against the US) – and possibly a Russian agent. Among Times readers, fewer than one in 50 is likely to be a supporter of Gabbard, but turning off voters is the secondary purpose of such an article. The primary purpose is to shape attitudes at CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, NPR, the Washington Post, and the Times sister publication The New Yorker. Legitimize flat-out condescension and contempt in the influential outlets and you keep her numbers down, since people won’t hear her voice at all. A war veteran, an experienced and respected lawmaker, and a woman of color, but she commits the unpardonable error of criticizing worldwide US hegemony and so they follow the corporate reflex: make her a laughingstock. Postscript. Gabbard stands up to an MSNBC hack who tries to overwhelm her with pro-war talking points. MSNBC is part of the perpetual war machine, as is the Times; they backed the Iraq war, and they’ll do the same for the next war, whether it’s in North Africa, east Asia, or Ukraine. _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Wed Aug 7 00:59:48 2019 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2019 19:59:48 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] AWARE on the Air #489 notes Message-ID: <39a46f2e-74c5-24e1-b2e6-f6a0b76b276b@forestfield.org> AWARE on the Air #489 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5X4YwPPnZU Joseph Bauers on "Why are we still in Afghanistan?" https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-why-are-we-still-in-afghanistan/article_27334e6a-e7d2-58ed-ad47-3e67b457c02e.html Jonathan Swan on "Lindsey Graham tries to talk Trump out of Afghanistan pullout by 2020" https://www.axios.com/afghanistan-lindsey-graham-donald-trump-2020-election-5092323e-b8e1-4527-8808-a8125392dadf.html Paul Craig Roberts on "Tulsi Gabbard: R.I.P." https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/08/05/tulsi-gabbard-r-i-p/ Gary Brecher (pseudonym of John Dolan) on "Tanker Games" This article might be available on a subscription basis (such as a magazine or part of Brecher's Patreon-published work), but I couldn't find a pointer to a copy of this article available gratis to all. Related: Radio War Nerd https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6qV1M0aujeZ582k4gaD9wA/videos Related: The War Nerd articles across multiple archives http://pando.com/author/garybrecher/ -- PandoDaily (November 2013 - November 2015) https://www.nsfwcorp.com/desk/war-nerd/ -- NSFWCorp (September 2012-November 2013) http://www.exile.ru/articles/list.php?IBLOCK_ID=35&SECTION_ID=156 -- The Exile (April 2002 - May 2008) http://exiledonline.com/cat/war-nerd/ -- The Exiled Online (April 2011-September 2012) teleSUR interview with Janna Jihad, a 13-year-old Palestinian activist and journalist on tour of the US in Washington, DC, talking about what life is like for children under occupation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTZUDAODuYI Aaron Maté's new show "Push Back with Aaron Maté" interviewing co-founder of Electronic Intifada Ali Abunimah about the recent Congressional support for an anti-BDS bill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSi3hqnY2u8 -J From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Wed Aug 7 02:13:36 2019 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2019 21:13:36 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) In-Reply-To: <003301d54ca8$f66c0a30$e3441e90$@comcast.net> References: <53032f60-67f8-27ac-c3f0-ccb977056cef@gmail.com> <18F9A36F-FD34-418D-9F40-90F4E489B4E8@illinois.edu> <003301d54ca8$f66c0a30$e3441e90$@comcast.net> Message-ID: There is also a polling requirement, I think she needs to hit 2% in a number of qualified polls. We should do what we can to encourage people who want to end the wars to tell pollsters that they support Tulsi in order to get her into the September debate, even if they think they will eventually vote for someone else. On Tue, Aug 6, 2019 at 5:48 PM David Johnson via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > I donated to her campaign back several months ago and thus I receive > regular updates / donation requests and the one I received today indicates > that she has met 80 % of the individual unique donations totaling $ 600,000 > requirement so far and is well on her way to qualifying to be in the > September debates. > > Unless of course the DNC comes up with some new obstacle between now and > then. > > > > David J. > > > > *From:* Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] *On > Behalf Of *Brussel, Morton K via Peace-discuss > *Sent:* Tuesday, August 06, 2019 4:17 PM > *To:* Robert Naiman > *Cc:* Brussel, Morton K; Peace-discuss List > *Subject:* Re: [Peace-discuss] "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: > criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) > > > > I find it a shame that we cannot support Tulsi Gabard more, so that she > could participate in the coming debates. Her antiwar remarks hit so many > right notes. > > > > I didn’t know, but should have, that The New Yorker was a "sister > publication" of the NYT, and plays the same games politically—à la the DNC. > > > > Thanks for forwarding… > > > > —mkb > > > > On Aug 6, 2019, at 1:16 PM, Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss < > peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > > > > > ---------- Forwarded message --------- > From: *John V. Whitbeck* > Date: Mon, Aug 5, 2019 at 4:29 PM > Subject: "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global > hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) > To: > > > > > > > TO: Distinguished Recipients > FM: John Whitbeck > > Transmitted below is a brief MONDOWEISS posting regarding a "full spread > hit piece" against Tulsi Gabbard published by the *New York Times*. > > That the *Times* would go to the trouble of trying to discredit a "minor" > candidate flirting with a meager 2% support in the polls is an effective if > back-handed compliment to Tulsi and her message and campaign consciously > focused on opposition to the mad pursuit of full-spectrum global domination > and the hugely expensive, destructive and seemingly never-ending wars of > choice which it has produced. > > It suggests that perpetual war advocates are seriously worried that even > 2% support might be enough to qualify Tulsi for the next round of > Democratic Party presidential debates and permit her eloquent voice for > sanity, while highly unlikely to win her the nomination, to receive greater > exposure and traction. > > Words matter -- and have always been used and abused to shape public > opinion. The word "isolationist" has had a profoundly negative resonance in > the United States since World War II. Accordingly, those who are > financially and/or professionally invested in perpetual war and are > petrified at the slim threat of a world at peace, who might be > appropriately labeled the "Industrial Fear and Hate Promoting and Profiting > Complex", tend to label any American opposed to the pursuit of > full-spectrum global dominance by military means an "isolationist", as if > there were no non-violent and non-kinetic way to interact with the world > and as the *Times* has chosen to characterize Tulsi and her message. > > NOTE: While, disappointingly, Tulsi voted in favor of the recent House of > Representatives resolution condemning the BDS movement for justice in > Palestine, she has now become the 15th House member to co-sponsor H. Res. > 496, the resolution introduced by Ilhan Omar affirming that Americans have > the right to boycott foreign countries to advance the cause of human rights > (https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/gabbard-condemn-cosponsor/). > > *MONDOWEISS* > > > https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/unpardonable-criticized-hegemony/ > > > > > *Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony* > > > > David Bromwich > > > > August 3, 2019 > > > > *Error! Filename not specified.* > > > The Times full spread hit piece on Tulsi Gabbard is a new low, even for > the Times. It is yellow journalism half disguised as human interest, with a > few random points of political information. > > Headline: “Unorthodox Campaign Shows Isolationism May Have a Hold.” > > Opening sentence: “Tulsi Gabbard is running for president of a country > that she believes has wrought horror on the world.” > > Their initial strategy was simply to starve her out – no coverage, no > candidacy. Now, because she’s still in and lately told a truth that > weakened the Times' choice Kamala Harris, they are giving her the Bernie > 2016 treatment: i.e. this candidate is outlandish, absurd, unaccountably > heartless (her sister fell off a horse while the story was being written > and her reaction was lacking in warmth), mystical (she spoke at a solar > panel dedication event), a tool of the wicked (she points out that Syria > never went to war against the US) – and possibly a Russian agent. > > Among Times readers, fewer than one in 50 is likely to be a supporter of > Gabbard, but turning off voters is the secondary purpose of such an > article. The primary purpose is to shape attitudes at CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, > ABC, NPR, the Washington Post, and the Times sister publication The New > Yorker. Legitimize flat-out condescension and contempt in the influential > outlets and you keep her numbers down, since people won’t hear her voice at > all. > > A war veteran, an experienced and respected lawmaker, and a woman of > color, but she commits the unpardonable error of criticizing worldwide US > hegemony and so they follow the corporate reflex: make her a laughingstock. > > Postscript. Gabbard stands up to an MSNBC hack who tries to overwhelm her > with pro-war talking points. MSNBC is part of the perpetual war machine, as > is the Times; they backed the Iraq war, and they’ll do the same for the > next war, whether it’s in North Africa, east Asia, or Ukraine. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > -- Robert Reuel Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (202) 448-2898 x1 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From moboct1 at aim.com Wed Aug 7 12:18:38 2019 From: moboct1 at aim.com (Mildred O'brien) Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2019 12:18:38 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) References: <439704426.2314271.1565180318968.ref@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <439704426.2314271.1565180318968@mail.yahoo.com> To those who don't watch NPR I would add (coming across it accidently) that NPR's revived late Wm. F.Buckley's political program, Firing Line (Heritage Foundation) correspondent, Margaret Cooper, has done several hatchet-job interviews with Tulsi (or are they repeats?  NPR making a political point? surely not!) in which Tulsi replied in her composed and cogent manner to Cooper's provocative questioning, obviously frustrating her. Midge    -----Original Message----- From: Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss To: Peace-discuss List Sent: Tue, Aug 6, 2019 1:16 pm Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: John V. Whitbeck Date: Mon, Aug 5, 2019 at 4:29 PM Subject: "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) To: TO: Distinguished Recipients FM: John Whitbeck Transmitted below is a brief MONDOWEISS posting regarding a "full spread hit piece" against Tulsi Gabbard published by the New York Times. That the Times would go to the trouble of trying to discredit a "minor" candidate flirting with a meager 2% support in the polls is an effective if back-handed compliment to Tulsi and her message and campaign consciously focused on opposition to the mad pursuit of full-spectrum global domination and the hugely expensive, destructive and seemingly never-ending wars of choice which it has produced. It suggests that perpetual war advocates are seriously worried that even 2% support might be enough to qualify Tulsi for the next round of Democratic Party presidential debates and permit her eloquent voice for sanity, while highly unlikely to win her the nomination, to receive greater exposure and traction. Words matter -- and have always been used and abused to shape public opinion. The word "isolationist" has had a profoundly negative resonance in the United States since World War II. Accordingly, those who are financially and/or professionally invested in perpetual war and are petrified at the slim threat of a world at peace, who might be appropriately labeled the "Industrial Fear and Hate Promoting and Profiting Complex", tend to label any American opposed to the pursuit of full-spectrum global dominance by military means an "isolationist", as if there were no non-violent and non-kinetic way to interact with the world and as the Times has chosen to characterize Tulsi and her message. NOTE: While, disappointingly, Tulsi voted in favor of the recent House of Representatives resolution condemning the BDS movement for justice in Palestine, she has now become the 15th House member to co-sponsor H. Res. 496, the resolution introduced by Ilhan Omar affirming that Americans have the right to boycott foreign countries to advance the cause of human rights (https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/gabbard-condemn-cosponsor/). | | | | | | | | | | | | MONDOWEISS https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/unpardonable-criticized-hegemony/ Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony David Bromwich August 3, 2019 The Times full spread hit piece on Tulsi Gabbard is a new low, even for the Times. It is yellow journalism half disguised as human interest, with a few random points of political information. Headline: “Unorthodox Campaign Shows Isolationism May Have a Hold.” Opening sentence: “Tulsi Gabbard is running for president of a country that she believes has wrought horror on the world.” Their initial strategy was simply to starve her out – no coverage, no candidacy. Now, because she’s still in and lately told a truth that weakened the Times' choice Kamala Harris, they are giving her the Bernie 2016 treatment: i.e. this candidate is outlandish, absurd, unaccountably heartless (her sister fell off a horse while the story was being written and her reaction was lacking in warmth), mystical (she spoke at a solar panel dedication event), a tool of the wicked (she points out that Syria never went to war against the US) – and possibly a Russian agent. Among Times readers, fewer than one in 50 is likely to be a supporter of Gabbard, but turning off voters is the secondary purpose of such an article. The primary purpose is to shape attitudes at CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, NPR, the Washington Post, and the Times sister publication The New Yorker. Legitimize flat-out condescension and contempt in the influential outlets and you keep her numbers down, since people won’t hear her voice at all. A war veteran, an experienced and respected lawmaker, and a woman of color, but she commits the unpardonable error of criticizing worldwide US hegemony and so they follow the corporate reflex: make her a laughingstock. Postscript. Gabbard stands up to an MSNBC hack who tries to overwhelm her with pro-war talking points. MSNBC is part of the perpetual war machine, as is the Times; they backed the Iraq war, and they’ll do the same for the next war, whether it’s in North Africa, east Asia, or Ukraine. _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From moboct1 at aim.com Wed Aug 7 12:25:14 2019 From: moboct1 at aim.com (Mildred O'brien) Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2019 12:25:14 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) In-Reply-To: <439704426.2314271.1565180318968@mail.yahoo.com> References: <439704426.2314271.1565180318968.ref@mail.yahoo.com> <439704426.2314271.1565180318968@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1881834520.2315876.1565180714317@mail.yahoo.com> I should have said PBS instead of NPR.   Midge  -----Original Message----- From: Mildred O'brien via Peace-discuss To: naiman ; peace-discuss Sent: Wed, Aug 7, 2019 7:19 am Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) To those who don't watch NPR I would add (coming across it accidently) that NPR's revived late Wm. F.Buckley's political program, Firing Line (Heritage Foundation) correspondent, Margaret Cooper, has done several hatchet-job interviews with Tulsi (or are they repeats?  NPR making a political point? surely not!) in which Tulsi replied in her composed and cogent manner to Cooper's provocative questioning, obviously frustrating her. Midge    -----Original Message----- From: Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss To: Peace-discuss List Sent: Tue, Aug 6, 2019 1:16 pm Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: John V. Whitbeck Date: Mon, Aug 5, 2019 at 4:29 PM Subject: "Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony" (MONDOWEISS) To: TO: Distinguished Recipients FM: John Whitbeck Transmitted below is a brief MONDOWEISS posting regarding a "full spread hit piece" against Tulsi Gabbard published by the New York Times. That the Times would go to the trouble of trying to discredit a "minor" candidate flirting with a meager 2% support in the polls is an effective if back-handed compliment to Tulsi and her message and campaign consciously focused on opposition to the mad pursuit of full-spectrum global domination and the hugely expensive, destructive and seemingly never-ending wars of choice which it has produced. It suggests that perpetual war advocates are seriously worried that even 2% support might be enough to qualify Tulsi for the next round of Democratic Party presidential debates and permit her eloquent voice for sanity, while highly unlikely to win her the nomination, to receive greater exposure and traction. Words matter -- and have always been used and abused to shape public opinion. The word "isolationist" has had a profoundly negative resonance in the United States since World War II. Accordingly, those who are financially and/or professionally invested in perpetual war and are petrified at the slim threat of a world at peace, who might be appropriately labeled the "Industrial Fear and Hate Promoting and Profiting Complex", tend to label any American opposed to the pursuit of full-spectrum global dominance by military means an "isolationist", as if there were no non-violent and non-kinetic way to interact with the world and as the Times has chosen to characterize Tulsi and her message. NOTE: While, disappointingly, Tulsi voted in favor of the recent House of Representatives resolution condemning the BDS movement for justice in Palestine, she has now become the 15th House member to co-sponsor H. Res. 496, the resolution introduced by Ilhan Omar affirming that Americans have the right to boycott foreign countries to advance the cause of human rights (https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/gabbard-condemn-cosponsor/). | | | | | | | | | | | | MONDOWEISS https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/unpardonable-criticized-hegemony/ Tulsi Gabbard has done the unpardonable: criticized US global hegemony David Bromwich August 3, 2019 The Times full spread hit piece on Tulsi Gabbard is a new low, even for the Times. It is yellow journalism half disguised as human interest, with a few random points of political information. Headline: “Unorthodox Campaign Shows Isolationism May Have a Hold.” Opening sentence: “Tulsi Gabbard is running for president of a country that she believes has wrought horror on the world.” Their initial strategy was simply to starve her out – no coverage, no candidacy. Now, because she’s still in and lately told a truth that weakened the Times' choice Kamala Harris, they are giving her the Bernie 2016 treatment: i.e. this candidate is outlandish, absurd, unaccountably heartless (her sister fell off a horse while the story was being written and her reaction was lacking in warmth), mystical (she spoke at a solar panel dedication event), a tool of the wicked (she points out that Syria never went to war against the US) – and possibly a Russian agent. Among Times readers, fewer than one in 50 is likely to be a supporter of Gabbard, but turning off voters is the secondary purpose of such an article. The primary purpose is to shape attitudes at CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, NPR, the Washington Post, and the Times sister publication The New Yorker. Legitimize flat-out condescension and contempt in the influential outlets and you keep her numbers down, since people won’t hear her voice at all. A war veteran, an experienced and respected lawmaker, and a woman of color, but she commits the unpardonable error of criticizing worldwide US hegemony and so they follow the corporate reflex: make her a laughingstock. Postscript. Gabbard stands up to an MSNBC hack who tries to overwhelm her with pro-war talking points. MSNBC is part of the perpetual war machine, as is the Times; they backed the Iraq war, and they’ll do the same for the next war, whether it’s in North Africa, east Asia, or Ukraine. _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Aug 8 15:53:01 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2019 15:53:01 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] News from Neptune #431 notes In-Reply-To: <83cbf729-fd75-c0fa-d3e6-4b8ed8fca8c9@forestfield.org> References: <83cbf729-fd75-c0fa-d3e6-4b8ed8fca8c9@forestfield.org> Message-ID: Carl: I have nothing but respect for your long term anti-war stand, focusing on history, based upon knowledge, and reality, connecting the dots as very few are able. Nonetheless I find your focus on electoral politics, defense of Trump, and now support for Tulsi Gabbard disturbing. I don't like to get personal, but the very fact, that you have always blamed the Democrat Party for US wars, but now support a Democrat, Tulsi because she talks the talk, though walk the walk, she will never do, given the power of the DNC. No different than the GOP, they both prevent any candidate/President within the two Party system, from doing anything other than that which they are told, tells me your sudden support for a Democrat, is because she divides the Democratic Party, thus ensuring a Republican wins the next election. Global warming is a very serious issue, and with a Republican in office, we have no hope. Chomsky makes this very clear. One who truly supports anti-war supports a third Party candidate and focuses on uniting groups rather than dividing. True anti-imperialists won’t support a Democrat or Republican candidate no matter what they say, because foreign policy will continue unabated under either administration. I say this in reference to the fact that your public condemnation of Carol Ammons, when she abstained from supporting BDS, was non stop, requiring Carol visit the local Green Party to explain her situation, thus staining the local Green Party and AWARE. Carol’s abstention had little impact, while Tulsi’s voting against BDS has severe ramifications and provides us with a glimpse of what she would likely do if elected. Your reference to Carol on the AWARE FB website, as “whining,” in defending her actions, is trivial and personal. On Aug 3, 2019, at 09:14, J.B. Nicholson via Peace > wrote: News from Neptune #431 A "Democrat Party's Over" edition Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTIO_VkQPqM Glen Ford on "Sanders, Biden and the Electability Scam" https://www.blackagendareport.com/sanders-biden-and-electability-scam David Green's recent letter to the News-Gazette https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-serious-issues-just-fall-by-the/article_9b1f0f67-bb31-5462-914a-123dfa4c58f3.html Marshall Sahlins on "The Opioid and Trump Addictions: Symptoms of the Same Malaise" https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/02/the-opioid-and-trump-addictions-symptoms-of-the-same-malaise/ Julie Wurth on "UI's Blue Waters supercomputer gets $11.1M grant to create high-res topographical maps of world" https://www.news-gazette.com/news/ui-s-blue-waters-supercomputer-gets-m-grant-to-create/article_2a390805-9457-5717-ab35-4d9c2892a580.html Julie Wurth's News-Gazette articles https://www.news-gazette.com/users/profile/Julie%20Wurth Wikipedia's entry on National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geospatial-Intelligence_Agency Wikipedia's entry on Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Building_and_International_Trade_Center Kyle Rempfer on "Army identifies two soldiers killed in Afghanistan" https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/07/31/army-identifies-two-soldiers-killed-in-afghanistan/ Kamala Harris' AIPAC Policy Conference speech from 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McK8bPR8pzU Democracy Now on "“You’re Gonna Kill Me”: Bodycam Video Shows Dallas Officers Mocking Man as He Died Pinned to Ground" https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/2/tony_timpa_family_lawsuit_bodycam_footage Jeffrey St. Clair on "Roaming Charges: Measure for Half-Measure" https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/02/roaming-charges-measure-for-half-measure/ Matt Bruenig on "People Lose Their Employer-Sponsored Insurance Constantly" https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/04/04/people-lose-their-employer-sponsored-insurance-constantly/ J.B. Nicholson's notes https://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/2019-August/051096.html -J _______________________________________________ Peace mailing list Peace at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Aug 8 16:26:16 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2019 16:26:16 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] News from Neptune #431 notes In-Reply-To: <83cbf729-fd75-c0fa-d3e6-4b8ed8fca8c9@forestfield.org> References: <83cbf729-fd75-c0fa-d3e6-4b8ed8fca8c9@forestfield.org> Message-ID: Carl and David In respect to my previous email, I do think the discussion initially taking place in respect to the political situation, on NFN, to be right on target by both of you. Unfortunately, many white working class of a “conservative nature,” or rather those who don’t read, work hard with little to show for it, and or simply take their news from FOX, still believe they have been left out of the “American promise,” blaming the government for favoring people of color. Thus many will only listen to what is said, without looking at what is done, and support Trump again. Only Sanders can win the race, but if what was done in the last election is any measure of what to expect in the next, we may again have Trump for four more years. > On Aug 3, 2019, at 09:14, J.B. Nicholson via Peace wrote: > > News from Neptune #431 > A "Democrat Party's Over" edition > Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTIO_VkQPqM > > Glen Ford on "Sanders, Biden and the Electability Scam" > https://www.blackagendareport.com/sanders-biden-and-electability-scam > > David Green's recent letter to the News-Gazette > https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-serious-issues-just-fall-by-the/article_9b1f0f67-bb31-5462-914a-123dfa4c58f3.html > > Marshall Sahlins on "The Opioid and Trump Addictions: Symptoms of the Same Malaise" > https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/02/the-opioid-and-trump-addictions-symptoms-of-the-same-malaise/ > > Julie Wurth on "UI's Blue Waters supercomputer gets $11.1M grant to create high-res topographical maps of world" > https://www.news-gazette.com/news/ui-s-blue-waters-supercomputer-gets-m-grant-to-create/article_2a390805-9457-5717-ab35-4d9c2892a580.html > > Julie Wurth's News-Gazette articles > https://www.news-gazette.com/users/profile/Julie%20Wurth > > Wikipedia's entry on National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geospatial-Intelligence_Agency > > Wikipedia's entry on Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Building_and_International_Trade_Center > > Kyle Rempfer on "Army identifies two soldiers killed in Afghanistan" > https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/07/31/army-identifies-two-soldiers-killed-in-afghanistan/ > > Kamala Harris' AIPAC Policy Conference speech from 2017 > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McK8bPR8pzU > > Democracy Now on "“You’re Gonna Kill Me”: Bodycam Video Shows Dallas Officers Mocking Man as He Died Pinned to Ground" > https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/2/tony_timpa_family_lawsuit_bodycam_footage > > Jeffrey St. Clair on "Roaming Charges: Measure for Half-Measure" > https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/02/roaming-charges-measure-for-half-measure/ > > Matt Bruenig on "People Lose Their Employer-Sponsored Insurance Constantly" > https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/04/04/people-lose-their-employer-sponsored-insurance-constantly/ > > J.B. Nicholson's notes > https://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/2019-August/051096.html > > -J > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace From cgestabrook at gmail.com Thu Aug 8 18:09:16 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2019 13:09:16 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] News from Neptune #431 notes In-Reply-To: References: <83cbf729-fd75-c0fa-d3e6-4b8ed8fca8c9@forestfield.org> Message-ID: <818D6029-7F36-48C8-A756-3E4B22E10D76@gmail.com> Karen-- In the 20th century, major US wars began in Democratic administrations (and ended in Republican ones), but that's not a matter of virtue - both parties were responsible for war crimes. World War I (1914-1918) - Wilson World War II (1939-1945) - Roosevelt Korean War (1950-1953) - Truman Vietnam War (1962-1975) - Kennedy I want a real anti-war candidate (an ‘isolationist,’ in the current political establishment slur) to win the next election. I don't care what party they belong to. Not by accident, it's hard to tell. It's clear now that Trump was more an anti-war candidate than Obama ever was. Obama could have withdrawn from Afghanistan (and Syria) any time in eight years: Trump looks like doing so now, to the consternation (and fevered opposition) of the US political establishment, including the Democrats. [See e.g. today’s WaPo: “Pentagon watchdog warns that ISIS is ‘resurging in Syria’ after Trump’s drawdown of U.S. troops”] —CGE (P.S. - As I recall, far from “requiring Carol visit the local Green Party,” I sat in a Green party meeting she’d requested, and - like a kid caught out being naughty - she brought along a ‘big brother,’ Belden Fields, to help her defend her non-vote on using state & university funds to support Israeli apartheid. Her principal defense was, “You didn’t call me [before the vote]!” When asked if she would have done the same, had South African apartheid rather than Israeli apartheid been the issue, her answer was, “I’m against racism!” - a shocking revelation, but non-germane…) See [1] [2] Illinois lists 11 companies banned from doing business with state due to BDS WASHINGTON (JTA) 20 Mar — An Illinois state agency named 11 companies barred from doing business with the state for boycotting Israel or its settlements, the first such designation by an official US body. A number of the entities on the list approved Friday by the Illinois Investment Policy board have pulled money from Israeli businesses that operate in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, but have not boycotted Israel within its 1967 lines. At least two of the entities have said their disinvestment from Israel in recent years was based on commercial, not political, calculations. The Illinois law passed last year explicitly bars dealing with companies that boycott Israeli operations in territories controlled by Israel . . . More than 20 states are considering bills or have passed laws targeting companies that comply with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Most of these penalize only companies that boycott Israel, although nine states, like Illinois, have passed or are considering passing laws that extend the penalties to entities that boycott Israeli businesses operating in the West Bank ### > On Aug 8, 2019, at 10:53 AM, Karen Aram wrote: > > > I have nothing but respect for your long term anti-war stand, focusing on history, based upon knowledge, and reality, connecting the dots as very few are able. Nonetheless I find your focus on electoral politics, defense of Trump, and now support for Tulsi Gabbard disturbing. > > I don't like to get personal, but the very fact, that you have always blamed the Democrat Party for US wars, but now support a Democrat, Tulsi because she talks the talk, though walk the walk, she will never do, given the power of the DNC. No different than the GOP, they both prevent any candidate/President within the two Party system, from doing anything other than that which they are told, tells me your sudden support for a Democrat, is because she divides the Democratic Party, thus ensuring a Republican wins the next election. Global warming is a very serious issue, and with a Republican in office, we have no hope. Chomsky makes this very clear. > > One who truly supports anti-war supports a third Party candidate and focuses on uniting groups rather than dividing. > > True anti-imperialists won’t support a Democrat or Republican candidate no matter what they say, because foreign policy will continue unabated under either administration. > > I say this in reference to the fact that your public condemnation of Carol Ammons, when she abstained from supporting BDS, was non stop, requiring Carol visit the local Green Party to explain her situation, thus staining the local Green Party and AWARE. Carol’s abstention had little impact, while Tulsi’s voting against BDS has severe ramifications and provides us with a glimpse of what she would likely do if elected. Your reference to Carol on the AWARE FB website, as “whining,” in defending her actions, is trivial and personal. > From r-szoke at illinois.edu Thu Aug 8 23:04:37 2019 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2019 23:04:37 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] R U More D or R ? Message-ID: A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: R U More D or R?.rtfd.zip Type: application/zip Size: 7032 bytes Desc: R U More D or R?.rtfd.zip URL: From davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net Thu Aug 8 23:37:13 2019 From: davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net (David Johnson) Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2019 18:37:13 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] FW: I've made my endorsement decision In-Reply-To: <4840f01d672bb468321c6d3b8.b9759730f4.20190808155636.fe24db5230.0896d52b@mail189.atl21.rsgsv.net> References: <4840f01d672bb468321c6d3b8.b9759730f4.20190808155636.fe24db5230.0896d52b@mail189.atl21.rsgsv.net> Message-ID: <008f01d54e42$3628f6c0$a27ae440$@comcast.net> ACTUALLY, Gravel did a DUAL endorsement of BOTH Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard, and gave each campaign the maximum allowed under federal law equal to $ 40,000, and will dispense his remaining campaign funds equal to about $ 132,000 in independent campaign / issue ads equally to both campaigns between now and the Dem primary elections. I find it curious that all of the “ progressive “ and even some allegedly “ Left “ organizations and news outlets are only reporting that Gravel endorsed Sanders without mentioning gravel’s actual endorsement of both Sanders and Gabbard. It never ceases to amaze me of the power and influence of the corporate media in its many manifestations and actual influence over supposed so called “ progressive “ and “ Left “ organizations, media, and individuals. This is a perfect example. David Johnson Mike Gravel Makes 2020 Endorsement Decision Click here to listen to Mike make an endorsement in the 2020 race. We're pleased to share that Mike has made an endorsement in the 2020 race. "I could not be more honored to officially announce that Bernie Sanders has my endorsement for President of the United States in 2020," Senator Gravel wrote in a letter of endorsement. "Only Bernie can build the movement that will bring sweeping change to this country and bring an end to rule by the military-industrial complex and the elites." He stated: "The Senator is the most qualified and determined candidate to serve as President, and the only candidate who can actually win the primary, defeat Donald Trump, and vanquish the billionaire class." In a video recorded Sunday, Mike said that "Bernie has a program that benefits all Americans, not just the one percent. He will be a great president for all Americans." "Only Bernie can build the movement that will bring sweeping change to this country and bring an end to rule by the military-industrial complex and the elites. Only Bernie can transform our country in the way we need," Senator Gravel wrote in his letter. "I encourage everyone who, like me, wants to build a country that works for working people, to donate to Bernie’s campaign at www.BernieSanders.com." Questions can be directed to Marlon Ettinger at marlon at mikegravel.org. Paid for by the Committee for Peace, Justice, and Mike Gravel, a grassroots committee centered on Senator Mike Gravel. Contributions to the Committee for Peace, Justice, and Mike Gravel are not tax-deductible. This email was sent to davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences Gravel 2020 · 15 Park Ave · Ardsley, NY 10502-1621 · USA Image removed by sender. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 332 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Thu Aug 8 23:50:27 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2019 18:50:27 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] FW: I've made my endorsement decision In-Reply-To: <008f01d54e42$3628f6c0$a27ae440$@comcast.net> References: <4840f01d672bb468321c6d3b8.b9759730f4.20190808155636.fe24db5230.0896d52b@mail189.atl21.rsgsv.net> <008f01d54e42$3628f6c0$a27ae440$@comcast.net> Message-ID: Amen. > On Aug 8, 2019, at 6:37 PM, David Johnson via Peace-discuss wrote: > > > > ACTUALLY, Gravel did a DUAL endorsement of BOTH Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard, and gave each campaign the maximum allowed under federal law equal to $ 40,000, and will dispense his remaining campaign funds equal to about $ 132,000 in independent campaign / issue ads equally to both campaigns between now and the Dem primary elections. > > I find it curious that all of the “ progressive “ and even some allegedly “ Left “ organizations and news outlets are only reporting that Gravel endorsed Sanders without mentioning gravel’s actual endorsement of both Sanders and Gabbard. > > It never ceases to amaze me of the power and influence of the corporate media in its many manifestations and actual influence over supposed so called “ progressive “ and “ Left “ organizations, media, and individuals. This is a perfect example. > > David Johnson > Mike Gravel Makes 2020 Endorsement Decision > > > Click here to listen to Mike make an endorsement in the 2020 race. > > We're pleased to share that Mike has made an endorsement in the 2020 race. > > "I could not be more honored to officially announce that Bernie Sanders has my endorsement for President of the United States in 2020," Senator Gravel wrote in a letter of endorsement. "Only Bernie can build the movement that will bring sweeping change to this country and bring an end to rule by the military-industrial complex and the elites." > > He stated: "The Senator is the most qualified and determined candidate to serve as President, and the only candidate who can actually win the primary, defeat Donald Trump, and vanquish the billionaire class." > > In a video recorded Sunday, Mike said that "Bernie has a program that benefits all Americans, not just the one percent. He will be a great president for all Americans." > > "Only Bernie can build the movement that will bring sweeping change to this country and bring an end to rule by the military-industrial complex and the elites. Only Bernie can transform our country in the way we need," Senator Gravel wrote in his letter. > > "I encourage everyone who, like me, wants to build a country that works for working people, to donate to Bernie’s campaign at www.BernieSanders.com." > > Questions can be directed to Marlon Ettinger at marlon at mikegravel.org. > > Paid for by the Committee for Peace, Justice, and Mike Gravel, a grassroots committee centered on Senator Mike Gravel. > > Contributions to the Committee for Peace, Justice, and Mike Gravel are not tax-deductible. > > > > > > > This email was sent to davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net > why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences > Gravel 2020 · 15 Park Ave · Ardsley, NY 10502-1621 · USA > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss From cgestabrook at gmail.com Thu Aug 8 23:50:27 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2019 18:50:27 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] FW: I've made my endorsement decision In-Reply-To: <008f01d54e42$3628f6c0$a27ae440$@comcast.net> References: <4840f01d672bb468321c6d3b8.b9759730f4.20190808155636.fe24db5230.0896d52b@mail189.atl21.rsgsv.net> <008f01d54e42$3628f6c0$a27ae440$@comcast.net> Message-ID: Amen. > On Aug 8, 2019, at 6:37 PM, David Johnson via Peace-discuss wrote: > > > > ACTUALLY, Gravel did a DUAL endorsement of BOTH Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard, and gave each campaign the maximum allowed under federal law equal to $ 40,000, and will dispense his remaining campaign funds equal to about $ 132,000 in independent campaign / issue ads equally to both campaigns between now and the Dem primary elections. > > I find it curious that all of the “ progressive “ and even some allegedly “ Left “ organizations and news outlets are only reporting that Gravel endorsed Sanders without mentioning gravel’s actual endorsement of both Sanders and Gabbard. > > It never ceases to amaze me of the power and influence of the corporate media in its many manifestations and actual influence over supposed so called “ progressive “ and “ Left “ organizations, media, and individuals. This is a perfect example. > > David Johnson > Mike Gravel Makes 2020 Endorsement Decision > > > Click here to listen to Mike make an endorsement in the 2020 race. > > We're pleased to share that Mike has made an endorsement in the 2020 race. > > "I could not be more honored to officially announce that Bernie Sanders has my endorsement for President of the United States in 2020," Senator Gravel wrote in a letter of endorsement. "Only Bernie can build the movement that will bring sweeping change to this country and bring an end to rule by the military-industrial complex and the elites." > > He stated: "The Senator is the most qualified and determined candidate to serve as President, and the only candidate who can actually win the primary, defeat Donald Trump, and vanquish the billionaire class." > > In a video recorded Sunday, Mike said that "Bernie has a program that benefits all Americans, not just the one percent. He will be a great president for all Americans." > > "Only Bernie can build the movement that will bring sweeping change to this country and bring an end to rule by the military-industrial complex and the elites. Only Bernie can transform our country in the way we need," Senator Gravel wrote in his letter. > > "I encourage everyone who, like me, wants to build a country that works for working people, to donate to Bernie’s campaign at www.BernieSanders.com." > > Questions can be directed to Marlon Ettinger at marlon at mikegravel.org. > > Paid for by the Committee for Peace, Justice, and Mike Gravel, a grassroots committee centered on Senator Mike Gravel. > > Contributions to the Committee for Peace, Justice, and Mike Gravel are not tax-deductible. > > > > > > > This email was sent to davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net > why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences > Gravel 2020 · 15 Park Ave · Ardsley, NY 10502-1621 · USA > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss From davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net Thu Aug 8 23:59:19 2019 From: davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net (David Johnson) Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2019 18:59:19 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] FW: FW: I've made my endorsement decision In-Reply-To: <008f01d54e42$3628f6c0$a27ae440$@comcast.net> References: <4840f01d672bb468321c6d3b8.b9759730f4.20190808155636.fe24db5230.0896d52b@mail189.atl21.rsgsv.net> <008f01d54e42$3628f6c0$a27ae440$@comcast.net> Message-ID: <00b901d54e45$4c7650f0$e562f2d0$@comcast.net> Sorry – TYPO – I meant to type $ 4,000.00 NOT $ 40,000.00. David J. From: Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of David Johnson via Peace-discuss Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2019 6:37 PM To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net Subject: [Peace-discuss] FW: I've made my endorsement decision ACTUALLY, Gravel did a DUAL endorsement of BOTH Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard, and gave each campaign the maximum allowed under federal law equal to $ 40,000, and will dispense his remaining campaign funds equal to about $ 132,000 in independent campaign / issue ads equally to both campaigns between now and the Dem primary elections. I find it curious that all of the “ progressive “ and even some allegedly “ Left “ organizations and news outlets are only reporting that Gravel endorsed Sanders without mentioning gravel’s actual endorsement of both Sanders and Gabbard. It never ceases to amaze me of the power and influence of the corporate media in its many manifestations and actual influence over supposed so called “ progressive “ and “ Left “ organizations, media, and individuals. This is a perfect example. David Johnson Mike Gravel Makes 2020 Endorsement Decision Click here to listen to Mike make an endorsement in the 2020 race. We're pleased to share that Mike has made an endorsement in the 2020 race. "I could not be more honored to officially announce that Bernie Sanders has my endorsement for President of the United States in 2020," Senator Gravel wrote in a letter of endorsement. "Only Bernie can build the movement that will bring sweeping change to this country and bring an end to rule by the military-industrial complex and the elites." He stated: "The Senator is the most qualified and determined candidate to serve as President, and the only candidate who can actually win the primary, defeat Donald Trump, and vanquish the billionaire class." In a video recorded Sunday, Mike said that "Bernie has a program that benefits all Americans, not just the one percent. He will be a great president for all Americans." "Only Bernie can build the movement that will bring sweeping change to this country and bring an end to rule by the military-industrial complex and the elites. Only Bernie can transform our country in the way we need," Senator Gravel wrote in his letter. "I encourage everyone who, like me, wants to build a country that works for working people, to donate to Bernie’s campaign at www.BernieSanders.com." Questions can be directed to Marlon Ettinger at marlon at mikegravel.org. Paid for by the Committee for Peace, Justice, and Mike Gravel, a grassroots committee centered on Senator Mike Gravel. Contributions to the Committee for Peace, Justice, and Mike Gravel are not tax-deductible. This email was sent to davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences Gravel 2020 · 15 Park Ave · Ardsley, NY 10502-1621 · USA Image removed by sender. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 332 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: Untitled attachment 00177.txt URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Aug 9 02:39:37 2019 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2019 21:39:37 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Notes Message-ID: Notes for discussion topics on AOTA and NFN. Have a great show guys. Surveillance: Surveillance balloons as the Pentagon tests airborne mass surveillance. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest -- Guardian: "Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US" Add balloons to the vehicles by which we will be increasingly surveilled. > The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six > midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents[1] > filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal. > > Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural > South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of > Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central > Illinois. > > Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the > balloons are intended to “provide a persistent surveillance system to > locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats”, > according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, > an aerospace and defence company. > > The balloons are carrying hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously > track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of > weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an > FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar > flights licensed last year. > > Arthur Holland Michel, the co-director of the Center for the Study of > the Drone at Bard College in New York, said, “What this new technology > proposes is to watch everything at once. Sometimes it’s referred to as > ‘combat TiVo’ because when an event happens somewhere in the surveilled > area, you can potentially rewind the tape to see exactly what occurred, > and rewind even further to see who was involved and where they came > from.” [1] https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=233815&x=. Russiagate: More people saying that the DNC email disclosure to WikiLeaks before the 2016 US presidential election was an inside job -- a leak not a "hack" (obtained over the Internet as Hillary Clinton and so many Russiagate supporters say sans evidence). https://www.blackagendareport.com/russiagate-fanatic-michael-isikoffs-curious-project -- San Francisco bay area independent journalist Ann Garrison's article on a 20 minute discussion between Seymour Hersch and Ed Butowsky which was recorded and posted to YouTube in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VaQcglmZvY . Ed Butowsky is suing a number of parties: From the complaint at http://lawflog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2019.07.15-Amended-complaint-stamped.pdf : > Michael Gottlieb, Meryl Governski, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, Brad > Bauman, The Pastorum Group, Leonard A. Gail, Eli J. Kay-Oliphant, > Suyash Agrawal, Massey & Gail LLP, Gregory Y. Porter, Michael L. Murphy, > Bailey & Glasser LLP, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., Anderson Cooper, > Gary Tuchman, Oliver Darcy, Tom Kludt, The New York Times Company, Alan > Feuer, Vox Media, Inc., and Jane Coaston Butowsky claims that the negative press about Seth Rich's involvement (al 'Seth Rich is not involved, Russia did it!') hurt Butowsky's business. Butowsky's lawyer is Ty Clevenger who has written about this case on his blog at http://lawflog.com/?p=2210 . Very few news outlets are carrying any word of this lawsuit (as I've written before). RT is still one of the best sources for straight talk on this issue (and a number of other issues): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGac4K4KuPo -- RT's report on Butowsky's lawsuit. https://www.blackagendareport.com/russiagate-fanatic-michael-isikoffs-curious-project -- Black Agenda Report article which also talks about a project Russiagate-supporter Michael Isikoff started trying to distract people from paying attention to any news which says Seth Rich had anything to do with the DNC emails, or that those emails were leaked and not illicitly obtained by Russians via the Internet. Garrison transcribed and summarized some part of that conversation between Hersh and Butowsky: > Seymour Hersh: I'll tell you what I know. What I know comes off an FBI > report. Don’t ask me how. You can figure out I’ve been around long > enough. This is according to the FBI report. What they find is he [Rich] > makes con[tact]. First of all, you have to know, you have to know some > basic facts. One of the basic facts, is there’s no DNC or Podesta email > that exists beyond May 22nd, May 21st, 22nd, the last emails from either > one of those groups. And so what the report says is that sometime in > late spring—we're talking about June, you know, summer and June 21st, > late spring would be after, I presume . . . I don't know. I just say > late spring, early summer, he [Rich] makes contact with Wikileaks. > That's in his computer and he makes contact. They [FBI investigators] > found what he had done. He had submitted a series of documents, of > emails, some juicy emails from the DNC. He offered a sample, an > extensive sample—y’know I'm sure dozens of email—and said, “I want > money.” > > Later Wikileaks did get the password. He had a Dropbox, a protected > Dropbox, which isn’t hard to do. I mean you don't have to be a wizard, IT > wizard. Y’know he was certainly not a dumb kid, and they got access to > the Dropbox. He [Rich] also, and this is also in the FBI report, he’d > also let people know with whom he was dealing, and I don’t know how he > dealt—I’ll tell you about Wikileaks in a second. I don’t know how he > dealt with Wikileaks—the mechanism. But he also, the word was passed, > according to the FBI report, “I also shared this box with a couple of > friends, so if anything happens to me, you’re not, it’s not going to > solve your [their?] problem.” OK? I don’t know what that means, I don’t > know what he was … anyway, but Wikileaks got access and before he was > killed. > > Ed Butowsky: But what you’re saying is that he uploaded stuff into the > Wikileaks dropbox and they pulled it down and that’s where the Podesta > and DNC emails came from. > > SH: It doesn’t preclude Russians also hacking them! I just don’t think > that. Y’know it’s always Occam's Razor. Wikileaks got ‘em. > > EB: Yeah, I know. I understand. But I wanta stay focused on one thing > just for a moment. You saw the FBI report? > > SH: No. I have somebody on the inside. Y’know I’ve been around a long > time and I write a lot of stuff. I have somebody on the inside who will > go and read a file for me. And I know this person is unbelievably > accurate and careful. He’s a very high-level guy and he’ll do a favor. > > EB: And is there any way we can get our hands on the report? > > Hersh responded that he could not risk exposing his high-level FBI > source by sharing a document even if he could get one. He then asked > Butowsky to tell him what he knew: > > SH: My pen is down. I’m not quoting you about anything. I know that. > What do you know? > > EB: I know that Julian Assange told a friend of mine who met with him > that he got the emails from Seth Rich. > > SH: Whoa! > > EB: And they’re very personal friends. > > Hersh said that he had been working on the story since August 2016 > because he foresaw that Russia would be blamed for the email leaks. > > SH: I’ve been doing this story since the late summer because I smelled > it, I smelled it in August. OK? That the fallback was going to be > Russia. What's odd is that nowhere in Garrison's (otherwise interesting) article do you find any mention of Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan (2002-2004). There is reason to believe Murray played a pivotal role in explaining how the DNC emails got from the DNC leaker to WikiLeaks. John Kiriakou (former CIA agent, the only man who went to prison for the US government torture program because he revealed that program) spoke with Redacted Tonight's Lee Camp in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrVWeA2QmWk. Kiriakou said that Murray was the courier for the leaked DNC emails, physically obtaining a USB key containing those emails from Seth Rich on the night of the 2016 Sam Adams award ceremony and later conveying those emails to WikiLeaks. Consider this exchange between Kiriakou and Camp during a discussion of the Robert Muller report and Muller's investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. [starting at 3m55s into https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrVWeA2QmWk ] > Lee Camp: And this is one of the many holes in the Muller report, which > still found no collusion, but they [the FBI] didn't even talk to Julian > Assange. > > John Kiriakou: They never even /asked/ to talk to Julian Assange. > > Lee Camp: It's amazing. > > John Kiriakou: And I'll tell you who else they didn't talk to was > Ambassador Craig Murray. Craig's the former ambassador to Uzbekistan. He > came here [to the US] right around that time in 2016 to participate in a > Sam Adams award ceremony. Sam Adams is a group of retired CIA, NSA, > other intelligence officers and we were giving an award. Well, Craig > loves to go out drinking after these award ceremonies. That night he > didn't. That night he said he had an important meeting. As it turned out > his important meeting was to meet someone who he's never named who gave > him a thumb drive with all of the information on it -- all of the DNC > emails-- > > Lee Camp: Wow. > > John Kiriakou: --which he then took to WikiLeaks. > > Lee Camp: Wow. > > John Kiriakou: So if he has come out to confess that it was not a hack, > not a Russian hack, 'I physically carried the documents to WikiLeaks', > why did the FBI never want to interview him? > > Lee Camp: That's incredible, I didn't even know that detail. But > there's been a lot of other evidence brought forward that this was not a > hack, it was a leak. It was from the inside. > > John Kiriakou: It was; Bill Binney, the former Technical Director at > the NSA has said repeatedly -- including in the Oval Office -- that the > rate of speed with the information was uploaded shows -- proves -- that > it could not possibly have been done remotely. It had to have been done > on-site on a thumb drive. > > Lee Camp: Yeah, but that upends the whole 'Russia did it' idea so we > can't have that. If this is correct, Hersh's story and Kiriakou's story are compatible: Hersh describes Rich getting WikiLeaks' attention and arranging to be paid by WikiLeaks. This part happens electronically, using "some juicy emails from the DNC" (as Hersh said to Butowsky) so Rich can prove his legitimacy to WikiLeaks. Neither conversation above makes it clear how WikiLeaks got the passphrase to decrypt this initial set of emails. If (as Hersh said) Seth Rich "let people know with whom he was dealing" this could also help explain how the DNC knew it was Rich was conveying DNC emails to WikiLeaks. This helps explain how someone at the DNC knew whom to kill either to prevent the release of those emails, or whom to punish for having released copies of emails. Once the deal between Rich and WikiLeaks is made, Rich now has to provide the full copy of the DNC emails to WikiLeaks. No computer network is needed for this -- Seth Rich used his IT skill and server access to copy the emails to a USB thumb drive. Rich arranged to meet Murray on the night of the 2016 Sam Adams ceremony, Rich gave Murray that thumb drive which had the DNC emails, and Murray later conveyed those emails to WikiLeaks (possibly also done in person by simply handing a WikiLeaks representative the same USB drive). So, contrary to Butowsky's claim that Hersh's version of events "doesn’t preclude Russians also hacking them [the DNC emails]", it pretty much does, particularly for someone who observes Occam's Razor -- the simplest explanation is usually the correct explanation. Russian involvement requires a different set of explanations than an insider leaking the DNC emails to WikiLeaks and being murdered for his leak. Russian involvement over the Internet (as Russiagate-supporters claim) has been debunked by Bill Binney and his group in experiments transferring data over the Internet. That group couldn't come anywhere close to transferring the amount of data needed in the timespan that matches information gleaned from the email data (see Abby Martin's interview of Bill Binney in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjHs-E2e2V4 for more on this[1]). But the transfer speed matches a USB data copy quite well. In the Hersh conversation: > Ed Butowsky: I know that Julian Assange told a friend of mine who met > with him that he got the emails from Seth Rich. > > Seymour Hersh: Whoa! > > Ed Butowsky: And they’re very personal friends. This "very personal friend" could have been Craig Murray, the man Kiriakou said was the courier of the USB key containing the DNC emails. [1] 20m34s into https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjHs-E2e2V4 Abby Martin talks with Bill Binney about how we know the DNC emails were leaked from the inside and not obtained remotely over the Internet: > Abby Martin: Let's move on to the allegations of Russian hacking into > Podesta's email account in the DNC. Can you first go over the evidence > that Muller claims to have that proves that it's Russia? > > Bill Binney: Well you see, I really don't know of any evidence that > Mueller has because he's never made it public. So, the only evidence I > have is what's made public. And from that it went into the Rosenstein > indictment, you know the Guccifer 2 and the DC Leaks data. And they > talked about that as the evidence for the indictments and so on. You > know they claimed that Guccifer 2 is a Russian, but the timestamps that > we have on the programming inside the data that was published by > Guccifer 2 shows timestamps that are consistently inside the United > States. But that's not the real issue, the real issue was with the data > itself and how quickly it was downloaded, it was incompatible with a > transfer across the net to anywhere or any distance. If it went beyond > the high-speed line that you had dedicated to you, then it slowed down. > > Abby Martin: Explain that in laymen's terms -- why you think this was > an inside leak as opposed to a hack? > > Bill Binney: Okay, well, the fastest download speed we had was a 49.1 > megabyte rate. Which meant that the hacker was taking the data out at > that rate across the network, where ever they were. You know they could > be local, they could be anywhere. Well, we said okay, what is the > capacity of the lines going across to Europe? And at that point > everything failed -- you couldn't get it across that fast. But you > could to a thumb drive or something local. Some of our people disagreed > with that, they said they thought it could. So we said, okay we'll try > it. So we've got hacker friends in Europe trying to -- and a friend in > the US to put up a gigabyte of data and say 'Here, try to pull it > across, see how fast you can get it.'. And the fastest they could get > was from a data center in New Jersey to the UK in London. And that was > 12.0 megabytes per second -- less than one-fourth the necessary capacity > to transmit the data alone. > > Abby Martin: Well, what about the timestamps: do you think that Russia > could have been throwing off analysts by planting false timestamps? > > Bill Binney: First off, to understand the massive surveillance that is > involved: everything is captured by NSA. So, NSA should have some of > that evidence somewhere. And they have failed to come forward, even the > ICA -- the Intelligence Community Assessment -- that Russia "hacked > it", you know? NSA had "moderate confidence". > > Abby Martin: Right, what does that mean? > > Bill Binney: That means we have no evidence. > > Abby Martin: Because the other intelligence agencies said they had > confidence but the NSA said they had "moderate confidence". > > Bill Binney: You see, they aren't relevant. When it comes to > communication, NSA is the only one that matters. The rest of them > don't. > > Abby Martin: And did they explain what the "moderate confidence" that > they had meant? > > Bill Binney: No. I mean, to me, that's language for 'I have no > evidence.'. > > Abby Martin: I wanted to get this out of the way because it's always > interested me because you claim that British diplomat Craig Murray > corroborates this-- > > Bill Binney: Yep. > > Abby Martin: --he claims that he handed over a drive to someone. > > Bill Binney: Well, he talked to somebody who was involved in > transferring the data, yeah. > > Abby Martin: So he, himself, talked to someone. > > Bill Binney: But even from the forensic evidence based on the WikiLeaks > exposure of data that they published there were multiple ways that they > got it. > > Abby Martin: Then who else has corroborated your findings? > > Bill Binney: A number of technical people, people in the Veteran > Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and others around the world, by > the way. Russiagate: Craig Murray explains Russiagate lies by examining DNC's logic in their lawsuit. https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/08/in-the-world-of-truth-and-fact-russiagate-is-dead-in-the-world-of-the-political-establishment-it-is-still-the-new-42/ The DNC started a lawsuit against Russia, WikiLeaks, Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Julian Assange. This means the DNC "Russia did it" claims must be scrutinized by a court as part of the normal procedure for determining if the case should proceed. Craig Murray (who likely knows precisely how the DNC emails got from the DNC to WikiLeaks because it was likely he who carried them there on the USB thumb drive Seth Rich gave him on the night of the 2016 Sam Adams Ceremony) writes: > Douglas Adams famously suggested that the answer to life, the universe > and everything is 42. In the world of the political elite, the answer > is Russiagate. What has caused the electorate to turn on the political > elite, to defeat Hillary and to rush to Brexit? Why, the evil Russians, > of course, are behind it all. > > It was the Russians who hacked the DNC and published Hillary’s emails, > thus causing her to lose the election because… the Russians, dammit, > who cares what was in the emails? It was the Russians. It is the > Russians who are behind Wikileaks, and Julian Assange is a Putin agent > (as is that evil Craig Murray). It was the Russians who swayed the > 1,300,000,000 dollar Presidential election campaign result with 100,000 > dollars worth of Facebook advertising. It was the evil Russians who > once did a dodgy trade deal with Aaron Banks then did something > improbable with Cambridge Analytica that hypnotised people en masse via > Facebook into supporting Brexit. > > All of this is known to be true by every Blairite, every Clintonite, by > the BBC, by CNN, by the Guardian, the New York Times and the Washington > Post. “The Russians did it” is the article of faith for the political > elite who cannot understand why the electorate rejected the > triangulated “consensus” the elite constructed and sold to us, where the > filthy rich get ever richer and the rest of us have falling incomes, low > employment rights and scanty welfare benefits. You don’t like that > system? You have been hypnotised and misled by evil Russian trolls and > hackers. > > Except virtually none of this is true. Mueller’s inability to defend[1] > in person his deeply flawed report took a certain amount of steam out > of the blame Russia campaign. But what should have killed off > “Russiagate” forever is the judgement of Judge John G Koeltl of the > Federal District Court of New York. > > In a lawsuit brought by the Democratic National Committee against > Russia and against Wikileaks, and against inter alia Donald Trump Jr, > Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Julian Assange, for the first time the > claims of collusion between Trump and Russia were subjected to actual > scrutiny in a court of law. And Judge Koeltl concluded that, quite > simply, the claims made as the basis of Russiagate are insufficient to > even warrant a hearing. > > The judgement is 81 pages long, but if you want to understand the truth > about the entire “Russiagate” spin it is well worth reading it in full. [1] https://thehill.com/homenews/house/454823-democrats-express-private-disappointment-with-mueller-testimony [2] https://www.scribd.com/document/420269577/DNC-lawsuit-ORDER-Granting-Motion-to-Dismiss-073019 Russiagate: Skripal case falls apart some more, UK Counterterrorism Chief says there's not enough evidence to build a case against Moscow. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/07/salisbury-attack-metropolitan-police-examine-role-vladimir-putin-russia -- Guardian report repeating government allegations (sans evidence). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDV74Wb84s4 -- The Russian embassy in the UK has accused the British government of manipulating public opinion after news of Scotland Yard conducting an investigation into the Skripal poisoning. On March 4, 2018, 67-year-old Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia (both Russian citizens, Sergei is also a British citizen with dual citizenship), who was visiting him from Moscow, were poisoned with what the UK claims is a Novichok nerve agent. There has been no confirmed proof of this. On March 15, 2018 they were in a critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital. Yulia was said to be "conscious and talking" and out of critical condition on March 29, 2018. Sergei was no longer in a critical state on April 6, and released on May 18. On March 12, 2018, Prime Minister Theresa May identified the substance used in the attack as a Russian-developed Novichok nerve agent. She demanded an explanation from the Russian government. Two days later, May said that Russia was responsible for the incident and announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation. But there has never been any outside confirmation of the substance used, and it's not clear where the substance came from. There are many so-called "Novichok" (Russian for 'newcomer') substances, all have been published publicly for years. The substance said to be involved is very strong (a tiny amount would kill many grown men) and has a short potency once exposed to air. One requires a chemical lab to manufacture the substance at all. Logically, although this is rarely discussed in corporate media, that suggests someone at the UK's Porton Down lab (one of the UK's most secretive and controversial military research facilities) may have been involved in creating the substance used in the attacks as this lab is very near Salisbury where the Skripals were found slumped over on a park bench post-attack. The Skripals were (allegedly coincidentally) first found by a military nurse and her daughter, though news about this wasn't released until many weeks after the initial news that the Skripals and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey (who attended to the Skripals, presumably after being called by the military nurse and her daughter) were poisoned. The UK government purchased Skripal's UK home and everything in it, and destroyed Skripal's pets, leaving no opportunity for a third party to do an independent investigation as to how the Skripals were poisoned in the first place. The Skripals have been kept incommunicado since they were poisoned. On June 30, 2018 another chemical substance attack befell two others in Amesbury: Dawn Sturgess (who died on July 8 and may have been a heroin abuser according to one RT report, which is relevant because that may have played a role in her dying), and her partner Charlie Rowley. Sturgess and Rowley were admitted to Salisbury District Hospital. Rowley awoke on July 10. Two Russian nationals "Alexander Petrov" (alleged alias of Dr. Alexander Mishkin) and "Ruslan Boshirov" (alleged alias of Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga) are said to be involved in this, but again no clear evidence connects them to these events. A third GRU officer present in the UK during the time Sergey and Yulia Skripal fell into a coma has been identified as Denis Vyacheslavovich Sergeev, but again no evidence released so far clearly ties him to these events either. UK media insists that Vladimir Putin himself ordered this attack, again despite any evidence to back up such a claim. It's not clear how Russia or Putin would benefit from making such a choice. Seymour Hersh, whom investigative reporter John Pilger has called "Probably the greatest investigative reporter in the world", told Afshin Rattansi (host of RT's "Going Underground") that the Russian mafia is more likely to be involved in the Skripal attack than the Russian government. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJgTiP6WBss > Seymour Hersh: Those two [Mishkin & Chepiga] were helping the British > intelligence services with information about the Russian mafia. That's > what they were doing here [in the UK]. In other words, the people that > were high on the list of people who would want to hurt him [Sergey > Skripal] would be the Russian mafia. Russians, but not the Russian > government. > > Afshin Rattansi, RT host: Do you mean the Skripals? > > Seymour Hersh: Yeah, I mean that was the understanding. There was also > > some reporting out of Europe about that that's been pretty much > widespread. Russiagate: Guardian wrongly accuses Sputnik of editing a photo of two bearded, smiling men walking away from the Notre Dame cathedral as it burned (possibly smearing the men and Russia to fuel anti-Muslim sentiment). The Guardian https://sputniknews.com/europe/201908061076478237-the-guardian-apologises-to-sputnik-for-fake-news-accusations-over-notre-dame-fire-photo/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD3f-PBwqZk -- The Guardian apologized to Sputnik France after wrongly accusing Sputnik of doctoring a photo and claiming "Muslims celebrated the destruction of Notre Dame". The Guardian zoomed into the picture of one of the men's cheeks and claimed "If you zoom into the picture you'll see obvious editing on this man's cheek" but there was no such obviousness because there was no such editing. The men (who were actually only two local architecture students who went to see the fire for themselves) weren't grinning because they were glad to see Notre Dame burn, they were grinning because one of the men had inadvertently walked into some cordoning tape instead of walking under the tape. Pulitzer prize-winning Politifact (a so-called "fact checker" whose service is used as the basis for justifying censorship on some social media outlets) was among the first to claim that Sputnik had edited the photo, claiming "experts" called the photo's authenticity into question. Politifact also claimed: > [This photo] has been used to support claims that the cathedral fire was > a terrorist attack and fuelled anti-Muslim rhetoric. https://www.politifact.com/facebook-fact-checks/statements/2019/apr/16/viral-image/photo-muslims-laughing-front-notre-dame/ -- Politifact corrected their statement on May 28. The Guardian's "Fake or Real" Instagram series piled on in the same vein. The Guardian just released their apology. War: Get ready for more war with Iran (remember that sanctions are war) as sanctions ramp up and provoking Iran by getting Britain to seize an oil tanker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GZFI0GR018 -- Afshin Rattansi interviews Aaron Maté on the chance that a regime change war is being ramped up for right now, the connection to Israel, and the difference between Iran's relatively small military spending versus the great threat Iran is said (by the US and US allies) to pose. War/economy: Venezuelan sanctions (sanctions are war) are being done "for the good of the Venezuelan people" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ20MSFXX_8 -- Aaron Maté from "Push Back with Aaron Maté" on how: > Aaron Maté: [...] if [the US] can't use force, it makes people suffer. > They tried the same thing in Iraq under Clinton in the '90s, they're > trying the same thing now in Iran, they've tried the same thing to > Nicaragua going back many decades. And this is what the savage mentality > of Washington that tries to destroy any country that is defiant leads > to. And it's striking to see that, for all the talk we hear about a > 'resistance' to Donald Trump, the response amongst Democrats is either > this silence or even support. Some of the biggest so-called 'resistance > figures' -- Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff -- all of them have > actually supported the Trump administration's efforts to impose its will > on Venezuela through murderous sanctions. Consider what others have said about how crippling sanctions really are: > Alfred de Zayas, former UN Human Rights Council Secretary: Sanctions > kill... Modern-day economic sanctions and blockades are comparable with > medieval sieges of towns. Cuban harm from sanctions: > U.S. State Dept. memo from 1960: Every possible means should be > undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba...denying money > and supples to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about > hunger, desperation and overthrow of government. It's worth mentioning that even under these sanctions, Cuba's universal housing and universal healthcare programs put the shame to the US' healthcare cost and outcome, and the US has no universal housing program to speak of. And of course, there's always what Madeleine Albright said to "60 Minutes" about the Iraqi sanctions imposed under her watch: > Lesley Stahl, interviewer: We have heard that half a million children > have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you > know, is the price worth it? > > Madeleine Albright: We think the price is worth it. Albright would later go on to support Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign for Mrs. Clinton's strongly neoliberal and neoconservative record (a proven record of belligerency around the world) and because Mrs. Clinton is a woman (Albright repeated her often-used catchphrase "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other" in support of Clinton's New Hampshire primary). Health: "Report: ‘No Evidence That Fracking Can Operate Without Threatening Public Health’" https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/08/05/report-fracking-threatening-public-health -- "More than 1,500 scientific studies on the health and climate impacts of fracking prove its dangerous effect on communities, wildlife and nature." > In June the nonprofits Physicians for Social Responsibility and > Concerned Health Professionals of New York released the sixth edition of > a compendium that summarizes more than 1,700 scientific reports, > peer-reviewed studies and investigative journalism reports about the > threats to the climate and public health from fracking. > > The research has been piling up for years, and the verdict is clear, the > authors conclude: Fracking isn’t safe, and heaps of regulations won’t > help (not that they’re coming, anyway). > > “Across a wide range of parameters, from air and water pollution to > radioactivity to social disruption to greenhouse gas emissions, the data > continue to reveal a plethora of recurring problems and harms that > cannot be sufficiently averted through regulatory frameworks,” write the > eight public health professionals, mostly doctors and scientists, who > compiled the compendium. “There is no evidence that fracking can operate > without threatening public health directly and without imperiling > climate stability upon which public health depends.” > > The research collected and summarized is wide-ranging and includes the > harms not just from drilling and fracking, but the long tail of the > process, including compressor stations and pipelines, silica sand > mining, natural-gas storage, natural-gas power plants, and the > manufacturing and transport of liquefied natural gas. > > Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a biologist, author and distinguished scholar in > residence at Ithaca College, is one of the compendium’s co-authors. She > helped lead an independent investigation into the scientific research on > the health risks from fracking that was a precursor to the current > compendium. Those efforts drove public engagement on the issue and > eventually led to a ban on fracking in her home state of New York in > 2014. > > She says this latest collection of research reveals some significant and > noteworthy trends. > > “There’s really definitive evidence now that methane leaks at every > stage of the fracking process” from drilling to storage, she says. And > that’s contributing to a surge in methane, a potent greenhouse gas, in > the atmosphere. > > But methane isn’t just a climate danger. It’s also a contributor to > smog, otherwise known as ground-level ozone, which is linked to strokes, > heart attacks, asthma and preterm births. > > “Methane is a source of air pollution that’s deadly — and that’s become > clearer and clearer,” says Steingraber. -J From galliher at illinois.edu Fri Aug 9 15:44:55 2019 From: galliher at illinois.edu (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2019 10:44:55 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_Kissinger_Told_Soviet_Envoy_duri?= =?utf-8?q?ng_1973_Arab-Israeli_War=3A_=22My_Nightmare_is_a_Victory_for_Ei?= =?utf-8?q?ther_Side=22_=E2=80=93_The_Soviet_Agreed?= References: <2094269335.-843603447@salsa4.salsa4DB.mail.salsalabs.com> Message-ID: Begin forwarded message: > From: The National Security Archive > Date: August 9, 2019 at 10:16:04 AM CDT > To: galliher at illinois.edu > Subject: Kissinger Told Soviet Envoy during 1973 Arab-Israeli War: "My Nightmare is a Victory for Either Side" – The Soviet Agreed > Reply-To: nsarchiv at gwu.edu > > > > Kissinger Told Soviet Envoy during 1973 Arab-Israeli War: “My Nightmare is a Victory for Either Side” – The Soviet Agreed > > New Kissinger Telcons Shed Light on U.S. Policy during the War as Well as Nixon's Nomination of Gerald Ford for Vice President > > Nixon Described Ford to HAK as a “Bright Truman” > > Posting Comes on Anniversary of Nixon's Resignation in 1974 > > National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 680 > > View the posting > > > Washington, D.C., August 9, 2019 – Several previously unknown Henry Kissinger memoranda of telephone conversations – or telcons – from October 1973, uncovered by the National Security Archive, provide blunt and fascinating vignettes from a significant moment during the Nixon presidency. > > In one record about the Yom Kippur War, the secretary of state candidly tells Soviet envoy Anatoly Dobrynin it would be a “nightmare” if either side won. In another, the president comments that Gerald Ford, who would soon be named vice president, was a “safe” choice, reminding Nixon of a “bright Truman.” That telcon consisted of a somewhat disjointed conversation with the president that prompted Kissinger to confide in his deputy later that the “President was loaded.” > > The telcons posted today, on the anniversary of Nixon's resignation as president, were included in the National Archives' response to a declassification request by the National Security Archive 19 years ago, in 2000. It is not clear why they were not part of the previously known major collections released since 2004 by the National Archives and the State Department largely in response to the threat of legal action. > > > > Check out today's posting at the National Security Archive > > Find us on Facebook > Read Unredacted, the Archive blog > THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals. > > PRIVACY NOTICE The National Security Archive does not and will never share the names or e-mail addresses of its subscribers with any other organization. Once a year, we will write you and ask for your financial support. We may also ask you for your ideas for Freedom of Information requests, documentation projects, or other issues that the Archive should take on. We would welcome your input, and any information you care to share with us about your special interests. But we do not sell or rent any information about subscribers to any other party. > > > > Connect with us > > > National Security Archive, Suite 701 > Gelman Library > The George Washington University > 2130 H Street, NW > Washington, D.C., 20037 > Phone: 202/994-7000< > Fax: 202/994-7005 > nsarchiv at gwu.edu > > Click here to unsubscribe > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Aug 9 22:42:44 2019 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2019 17:42:44 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] News from Neptune #432 notes Message-ID: <9c67b22c-9d1c-1651-9f1a-0fed053904b6@forestfield.org> News from Neptune #432 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trphIyYt1Ko A "Nagasaki Holocaust" edition Dwight Eisenhower's view on using the Atomic Bomb http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/pre-cold-war/hiroshima-nagasaki/opinion-eisenhower-bomb.htm Source: The White House Years: Mandate for Change: 1953-1956: A Personal Account (New York: Doubleday, 1963), pp. 312-313. Timothy P. Carney on "‘It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing’ --- Why dropping the A-Bombs was wrong" https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/it-wasnt-necessary-to-hit-them-with-that-awful-thing-why-dropping-the-a-bombs-was-wrong On Curtis LeMay being a hawk https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Curtis_LeMay Dennis Kucinich on "We Didn't Have to Drop the Bomb" https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/08/08/we_didnt_have_to_drop_the_bomb_127709.html Stephen Schwartz on "The Costs of U.S. Nuclear Weapons" https://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/costs-us-nuclear-weapons/ Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9EzA0QnSF4 -- RT on "Nuclear threat looms, even years after Hiroshima & Nagasaki nuclear attacks." Adolph Reed, Jr. on "Oats for Breakfast" show https://soundcloud.com/user-108536943/episode-12-race-class-and-the-left-w-adolph-reed-jr -- initially published interview https://soundcloud.com/user-108536943/unlocked-extended-interview-w-adolph-reed-jr -- extended interview Oats for Breakfast https://socialistproject.ca/podcast/ Glen Ford on "The Validity and Usefulness of the Term “Black Misleadership Class”" https://www.blackagendareport.com/validity-and-usefulness-term-black-misleadership-class Jennifer Schuessler on "Ibram X. Kendi Has a Cure for America’s ‘Metastatic Racism’" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/arts/ibram-x-kendi-antiracism.html Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a9lRHfKaCc -- RT on "How corporate media covered mass shootings." Democracy Now! on "“Toni Morrison Will Always Be with Us”: Angela Davis, Nikki Giovanni & Sonia Sanchez Pay Tribute" https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/7/remembering_toni_morrison Kathleen Belew on "The Right Way to Understand White Nationalist Terrorism" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/04/opinion/el-paso-terrorism.html Kathleen Belew's "Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America" ISBN-10: 9780674286078 ISBN-13: 978-0674286078 Julie Wurth on "UI's Blue Waters supercomputer gets $11.1M grant to create high-res topographical maps of world" https://www.news-gazette.com/news/ui-s-blue-waters-supercomputer-gets-m-grant-to-create/article_2a390805-9457-5717-ab35-4d9c2892a580.html Wikipedia's entry on National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geospatial-Intelligence_Agency David Price on "Militarized Observers: Institutional Daydreams of Ethics End Runs to Weaponize Culture" https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/09/militarized-observers-institutional-daydreams-of-ethics-end-runs-to-weaponize-culture/ Gary Brecher's (pseudonym of John Dolan) Radio War Nerd https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6qV1M0aujeZ582k4gaD9wA/videos Related: The War Nerd articles across multiple archives http://pando.com/author/garybrecher/ -- PandoDaily (November 2013 - November 2015) https://www.nsfwcorp.com/desk/war-nerd/ -- NSFWCorp (September 2012-November 2013) http://www.exile.ru/articles/list.php?IBLOCK_ID=35&SECTION_ID=156 -- The Exile (April 2002 - May 2008) http://exiledonline.com/cat/war-nerd/ -- The Exiled Online (April 2011-September 2012) Craig Murray on "In the World of Truth and Fact, Russiagate is Dead. In the World of the Political Establishment, it is Still the New 42" https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/08/in-the-world-of-truth-and-fact-russiagate-is-dead-in-the-world-of-the-political-establishment-it-is-still-the-new-42/ Judge Koeltl's 81-page long judgment explaining why "the basis of Russiagate are insufficient to even warrant a hearing" https://www.scribd.com/document/420269577/DNC-lawsuit-ORDER-Granting-Motion-to-Dismiss-073019 J.B. Nicholson's notes https://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/2019-August/051127.html -J From cgestabrook at gmail.com Sat Aug 10 08:28:01 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C. G. Estabrook ) Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2019 03:28:01 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_Hickenlooper_Quits_Radio_Intervi?= =?utf-8?q?ew_After_He=E2=80=99s_Asked_About_Abortion?= References: <43d75a21bb9bfafcbd472bee2.5ec10f097b.20190809232938.6895fc8327.81625960@mail78.suw131.mcsv.net> Message-ID: <56B5DFDE-349E-47A5-83B5-109128B021BA@gmail.com> Begin forwarded message: > From: Washington Free Beacon > Date: August 9, 2019 at 6:30:08 PM CDT > To: > Subject: Hickenlooper Quits Radio Interview After He’s Asked About Abortion > Reply-To: Washington Free Beacon > > > > Hickenlooper Quits Radio Interview After He’s Asked About Abortion > By Brent Scher > > Biden Takes Trump’s Comments on MS-13 Out of Context > By Cameron Cawthorne > > Kentucky Radio Host Doubles Down on Attacks on Black Republican > By Graham Piro > > Elizabeth Warren Calls on Walmart to Cease Gun Sales > By Graham Piro > > IfNotNow Suggests Israeli Teen Partly to Blame for Own Murder > By David Rutz > > > > > > You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website. > Copyright © 2019 Free Beacon, LLC, All rights reserved. > To reject freedom, click here. > Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Sat Aug 10 18:40:31 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2019 13:40:31 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] News from Neptune #432 notes In-Reply-To: <9c67b22c-9d1c-1651-9f1a-0fed053904b6@forestfield.org> References: <9c67b22c-9d1c-1651-9f1a-0fed053904b6@forestfield.org> Message-ID: Here is the discourse that I was referring to regarding Timothy McViegh: http://www.marxmail.org/msg160148.html Which refers back to Richard Seymour's patreon blog post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fascist-28942843 Here is the comment by *Amith Gupta *that I read on the program: I disagree with Michael's reading of McVeigh. There was very little indication that he was motivated by the same factors as the El Paso shooter or other neo-Nazi terrorists (i.e. belief in a conspiratorial genocide against white people). The only indications that I could find were the fact that he had the Turner Diaries in his possession; that is unsurprising, given the plot of the book is about citizens carrying out an armed insurgency against the government, albeit they are all racists. I recall reading (though I can't find it for the life of me) how McVeigh thought of the book as a useful guide for carrying out terrorist plots against the government but rejected its race-related messaging. Likewise, he apparently bought a "White Power" shirt from the KKK during a protest and counter-protest when he was in the military, but from what I could find it is little more than shirt that says "Sic Semper Tyrannis" which a photo of Lincoln (as I'm sure you all know, those were the words that Booth stated before assassinating Lincoln). Given the lack of involvement with active Nazi militias at any point in his life and complete lack of any "race war"-related commentary in any statements he made prior to or after the bombing, I find it a stretch to throw him in with these other guys, though he clearly had some sort of flirtations with other people who had those views. The letters he wrote prior to his execution and other statements he made during his life would indicate that while he was very much a right-winger, the primary factors behind his violence were being desensitized to mass killings during his military service in Iraq and watching the heavily militarized response of the U.S. government to various groups in the United States, including Randy Weaver and the Branch Davidians. Those responses involved killing many people and, at least in the Weaver case, involved an ultimately successful entrapment defense (i.e. Weaver was acquitted). Weaver and his family were actually white nationalists but the outrage about the attack on that family was hardly limited to people who share their ideological views; indeed, it was an absolutely ridiculous use of force against a guy they had tried to get on a manufactured gun charge knowing that he had small children and a wife (who was killed) in the home. There is no evidence that the Branch Davidians practiced white supremacy at all (they were just a batshit crazy religious cult led by a maniacal abuser). IOW McVeigh realized that the U.S. government did not mind when he killed people under their orders and decided that the same ethical rules should apply when fighting the U.S. government, which was a fight that he justified by pointing to the police killings mentioned above. Beyond that there is nothing to suggest that he wanted to kill people because of their race, drive non-whites out of the country, etc. Given the quickness of people on the Left to jump at a neo-Nazi/racist angle whenever there is some kind of large attack (including Dayton, which, as I pointed out, was carried out by someone who identified as a Leftist) we should be careful not to sweep with a broad brush. *The bigger issue that McVeigh brings out is not white supremacy;* it is the dehumanizing and desensitizing effect of U.S. wars and the resultant effects when those aspects of war (including militarization of police) are launched domestically. Amith R. Gupta Again, as stated on the program and in a previous post, this relates to my concern with the approach taken by historian Kathleen Belew in her book The War Comes Home, and in her op-ed piece in the NYT, which elides the issues surrounding Ruby Ridge and Waco: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/04/opinion/el-paso-terrorism.html On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 5:43 PM J.B. Nicholson via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > News from Neptune #432 > Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trphIyYt1Ko > A "Nagasaki Holocaust" edition > > > Dwight Eisenhower's view on using the Atomic Bomb > > http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/pre-cold-war/hiroshima-nagasaki/opinion-eisenhower-bomb.htm > Source: The White House Years: Mandate for Change: 1953-1956: A Personal > Account (New York: Doubleday, 1963), pp. 312-313. > > Timothy P. Carney on "‘It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful > thing’ --- Why dropping the A-Bombs was wrong" > > https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/it-wasnt-necessary-to-hit-them-with-that-awful-thing-why-dropping-the-a-bombs-was-wrong > > On Curtis LeMay being a hawk > https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Curtis_LeMay > > Dennis Kucinich on "We Didn't Have to Drop the Bomb" > > https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/08/08/we_didnt_have_to_drop_the_bomb_127709.html > > Stephen Schwartz on "The Costs of U.S. Nuclear Weapons" > https://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/costs-us-nuclear-weapons/ > > Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9EzA0QnSF4 -- RT on "Nuclear > threat looms, even years after Hiroshima & Nagasaki nuclear attacks." > > > > > Adolph Reed, Jr. on "Oats for Breakfast" show > > https://soundcloud.com/user-108536943/episode-12-race-class-and-the-left-w-adolph-reed-jr > -- initially published interview > > https://soundcloud.com/user-108536943/unlocked-extended-interview-w-adolph-reed-jr > -- extended interview > > Oats for Breakfast > https://socialistproject.ca/podcast/ > > Glen Ford on "The Validity and Usefulness of the Term “Black Misleadership > Class”" > > https://www.blackagendareport.com/validity-and-usefulness-term-black-misleadership-class > > Jennifer Schuessler on "Ibram X. Kendi Has a Cure for America’s > ‘Metastatic > Racism’" > https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/arts/ibram-x-kendi-antiracism.html > > Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a9lRHfKaCc -- RT on "How > corporate media covered mass shootings." > > Democracy Now! on "“Toni Morrison Will Always Be with Us”: Angela Davis, > Nikki Giovanni & Sonia Sanchez Pay Tribute" > https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/7/remembering_toni_morrison > > Kathleen Belew on "The Right Way to Understand White Nationalist Terrorism" > https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/04/opinion/el-paso-terrorism.html > > Kathleen Belew's "Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and > Paramilitary America" > ISBN-10: 9780674286078 > ISBN-13: 978-0674286078 > > > > > Julie Wurth on "UI's Blue Waters supercomputer gets $11.1M grant to create > high-res topographical maps of world" > > https://www.news-gazette.com/news/ui-s-blue-waters-supercomputer-gets-m-grant-to-create/article_2a390805-9457-5717-ab35-4d9c2892a580.html > > Wikipedia's entry on National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geospatial-Intelligence_Agency > > David Price on "Militarized Observers: Institutional Daydreams of Ethics > End Runs to Weaponize Culture" > > https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/09/militarized-observers-institutional-daydreams-of-ethics-end-runs-to-weaponize-culture/ > > Gary Brecher's (pseudonym of John Dolan) Radio War Nerd > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6qV1M0aujeZ582k4gaD9wA/videos > > Related: The War Nerd articles across multiple archives > http://pando.com/author/garybrecher/ -- PandoDaily (November 2013 - > November 2015) > https://www.nsfwcorp.com/desk/war-nerd/ -- NSFWCorp (September > 2012-November 2013) > http://www.exile.ru/articles/list.php?IBLOCK_ID=35&SECTION_ID=156 -- The > Exile (April 2002 - May 2008) > http://exiledonline.com/cat/war-nerd/ -- The Exiled Online (April > 2011-September 2012) > > > > > Craig Murray on "In the World of Truth and Fact, Russiagate is Dead. In > the > World of the Political Establishment, it is Still the New 42" > > https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/08/in-the-world-of-truth-and-fact-russiagate-is-dead-in-the-world-of-the-political-establishment-it-is-still-the-new-42/ > > Judge Koeltl's 81-page long judgment explaining why "the basis of > Russiagate are insufficient to even warrant a hearing" > > https://www.scribd.com/document/420269577/DNC-lawsuit-ORDER-Granting-Motion-to-Dismiss-073019 > > > > > J.B. Nicholson's notes > https://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/2019-August/051127.html > > -J > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Sat Aug 10 23:24:01 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2019 18:24:01 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] RS on TG Message-ID: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/podcast-tulsi-gabbard-kamala-harris-syria-iraq-870003/ From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Sun Aug 11 16:31:13 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2019 11:31:13 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] NYT front page article on Sweden (5,000 words) Message-ID: I think it's important to understand how the immigrant issue is being weaponized by liberals, with Putin playing the same role that Communism in general did during the Cold War. These people were not worried about the scurrilous things that Daniel Pipes and Judith Miller etc. were saying about Muslims in the 1990s; now they can't get enough of neo-fascism. The agenda of this article is, to me, very transparent: scare people into voting for any Democrat who is put forward. It would be interesting to know whether the local pro-immigrant groups and members, like "Bend the Arc," accept this analysis. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/world/europe/sweden-immigration-nationalism.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage *The New Nativists* *The Global Machine Behind the Rise of Far-Right Nationalism* *Sweden was long seen as a progressive utopia. Then came waves of immigrants — and the forces of populism at home and abroad.* *The square where witnesses said Russian journalists were trying to bribe immigrants into violence.* By Jo Becker Aug. 10, 2019 RINKEBY, Sweden — Johnny Castillo, a Peruvian-born neighborhood watchman in this district of Stockholm, still puzzles over the strange events that two years ago turned the central square of this predominantly immigrant community into a symbol of multiculturalism run amok. First came a now-infamous comment by President Trump, suggesting that Sweden’s history of welcoming refugees was at the root of a violent attack in Rinkeby the previous evening, even though nothing had actually happened. “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden! Who would believe this? Sweden!” Mr. Trump told supporters at a rally on Feb. 18, 2017. “They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.” But two days later, as Swedish officials were heaping bemused derision on Mr. Trump, something did in fact happen in Rinkeby: Several dozen masked men attacked police officers making a drug arrest, throwing rocks and setting cars ablaze. And it was right around that time, according to Mr. Castillo and four other witnesses, that Russian television crews showed up, offering to pay immigrant youths “to make trouble” in front of the cameras. “They wanted to show that President Trump is right about Sweden,” Mr. Castillo said, “that people That nativist rhetoric — that immigrants are invading the homeland — has gained ever-greater traction, and political acceptance, across the West amid dislocations wrought by vast waves of migration from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. In its most extreme form, it is echoed in the online manifesto of the man accused of gunning down 22 people last weekend in El Paso. In the nationalists’ message-making, Sweden has become a prime cautionary tale, dripping with schadenfreude. What is even more striking is how many people in Sweden — progressive, egalitarian, welcoming Sweden — seem to be warming to the nationalists’ view: that immigration has brought crime, chaos and a fraying of the cherished social safety net, not to mention a withering away of national culture and tradition. Fueled by an immigration backlash — Sweden has accepted more refugees per capita than any other European country — right-wing populism has taken hold, reflected most prominently in the steady ascent of a political party with neo-Nazi roots, the Sweden Democrats. In elections last year, they captured nearly 18 percent of the vote. To dig beneath the surface of what is happening in Sweden, though, is to uncover the workings of an international disinformation machine, devoted to the cultivation, provocation and amplication of far-right, anti-immigrant passions and political forces. Indeed, that machine, most influentially rooted in Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia and the American far right, underscores a fundamental irony of this political moment: the globalization of nationalism. The central target of these manipulations from abroad — and the chief instrument of the Swedish nationalists’ success — is the country’s increasingly popular, and virulently anti-immigrant, digital echo chamber. A New York Times examination of its content, personnel and traffic patterns illustrates how foreign state and nonstate actors have helped to give viral momentum to a clutch of Swedish far-right web sites. Russian and Western entities that traffic in disinformation, including an Islamaphobic think tank whose former chairman is now Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, have been crucial linkers to the Swedish sites, helping to spread their message to susceptible Swedes. At least six Swedish sites have received financial backing through advertising revenue from a Russian- and Ukrainian-owned auto-parts business based in Berlin, whose online sales network oddly contains buried digital links to a range of far-right and other socially divisive content. Writers and editors for the Swedish sites have been befriended by the Kremlin. And in one strange Rube Goldbergian chain of events, a frequent German contributor to one Swedish site has been implicated in the financing of a bombing in Ukraine, in a suspected Russian false-flag operation. The distorted view of Sweden pumped out by this disinformation machine has been used, in turn, by anti-immigrant parties in Britain, Germany, Italy and elsewhere to stir xenophobia and gin up votes, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based nonprofit that tracks the online spread of far-right extremism. “I’d put Sweden up there with the anti-Soros campaign,” said Chloe Colliver, a researcher for the institute, referring to anti-Semitic attacks on George Soros, the billionaire benefactor of liberal causes. “It’s become an enduring centerpiece of the far-right conversation.” >From Margins to Mainstream Mattias Karlsson, the Sweden Democrats’ international secretary and chief ideologist, likes to tell the story of how he became a soldier in what he has described as the “existential battle for our culture’s and our nation’s survival.” It was the mid-1990s and Mr. Karlsson, now 41, was attending high school in the southern city of Vaxjo. Sweden was accepting a record number of refugees from the Balkan War and other conflicts. In Vaxjo and elsewhere, young immigrant men began joining brawling “kicker” gangs, radicalizing Mr. Karlsson and drawing him toward the local skinhead scene. He took to wearing a leather jacket with a Swedish flag on the back and was soon introduced to Mats Nilsson, a Swedish National Socialist leader who gave him a copy of “Mein Kampf.” They began to debate: Mr. Nilsson argued that the goal should be ethnic purity — the preservation of “Swedish DNA.” Mr. Karlsson countered that the focus should be on preserving national culture and identity. That, he said, was when Mr. Nilsson conferred on him an epithet of insufficient commitment to the cause — “meatball patriot,” meaning that “I thought that every African or Arab can come to this country as long as they assimilate and eat meatballs.” It is an account that offers the most benign explanation for an odious association. Whatever the case, in 1999, he joined the Sweden Democrats, a party undeniably rooted in Sweden’s neo-Nazi movement. Indeed, scholars of the far right say that is what sets it apart from most anti-immigration parties in Europe and makes its rise from marginalized to mainstream so remarkable. The party was founded in 1988 by several Nazi ideologues, including a former member of the Waffen SS. Early on, it sought international alliances with the likes of the White Aryan Resistance, a white supremacist group founded by a former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Some Sweden Democrats wore Nazi uniforms to party functions. Its platform included the forced repatriation of all immigrants since 1970. That was not, however, a winning formula in a country where social democrats have dominated every election for more than a century. While attending university, Mr. Karlsson had met Jimmie Akesson, who took over the Sweden Democrats’ youth party in 2000 and became party leader in 2005. Mr. Akesson was outspoken in his belief that Muslim refugees posed “the biggest foreign threat to Sweden since the Second World War.” But to make that case effectively, he and Mr. Karlsson agreed, they needed to remake the party’s image. “We needed to really address our past,” Mr. Karlsson said. They purged neo-Nazis who had been exposed by the press. They announced a “zero tolerance” policy toward extreme xenophobia and racism, emphasized their youthful leadership and urged members to dress presentably. And while immigration remained at the center of their platform, they moderated the way they talked about it. No longer was the issue framed in terms of keeping certain ethnic groups out, or deporting those already in. Rather it was about how unassimilated migrants were eviscerating not just the nation’s cultural identity but also the social-welfare heart of the Swedish state. Under the grand, egalitarian idea of the “folkhemmet,” or people’s home, in which the country is a family and its citizens take care of one another, Swedes pay among the world’s highest effective tax rates, in return for benefits like child care, health care, free college education and assistance when they grow old. The safety net has come under strain for a host of economic and demographic reasons, many of which predate the latest refugee flood. But in the Sweden Democrats’ telling, the blame lies squarely at the feet of the foreigners, many of whom lag far behind native Swedes in education and economic accomplishment. One party advertisement depicted a white woman trying to collect benefits while being pursued by niqab-wearing immigrants pushing strollers. To what extent the party’s makeover is just window dressing is an open question. The doubts were highlighted in what became known as “the Iron Pipe Scandal” in 2012. Leaked video showed two Sweden Democrat MPs and the party’s candidate for attorney general hurling racist slurs at a comedian of Kurdish descent, then threatening a drunken witness with iron pipes. Under Mr. Akesson and Mr. Karlsson, the party has hosted the American white nationalist Richard Spencer. High-ranking party officials have bounced between Sweden and Hungary, ruled by the authoritarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Mr. Karlsson himself has come under fire for calling out an extremist site as neo-fascist while using an alias to recommend posts as “worth reading” to party members. “There’s a public face and the face they wear behind closed doors,” said Daniel Poohl, who heads Expo, a Stockholm-based foundation that tracks far-right extremism. Still, even detractors admit that strategy has worked. In 2010, the Sweden Democrats captured 5.7 percent of the vote, enough for the party, and Mr. Karlsson, to enter Parliament for the first time. That share has steadily increased along with the growing population of refugees. (Today, roughly 20 percent of Sweden’s population is foreign born.) At its peak in 2015, Sweden accepted 163,000 asylum-seekers, mostly from Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria. Though border controls and tighter rules have eased that flow, Ardalan Shekarabi, the country’s public administration minister, acknowledged that his government had been slow to act. Mr. Shekarabi, an immigrant from Iran, said the sheer number of refugees had overwhelmed the government’s efforts to integrate them. “I absolutely don’t think that the majority of Swedes have racist or xenophobic views, but they had questions about this migration policy and the other parties didn’t have any answers,” he said. “Which is one of the reasons why Sweden Democrats had a case.” A Right-Wing Echo Chamber As the 2018 elections approached, Swedish counterintelligence was on high alert for foreign interference. Russia, the hulking neighbor to the east, was seen as the main threat. After the Kremlin’s meddling in the 2016 American election, Sweden had reason to fear it could be next. “Russia’s goal is to weaken Western countries by polarizing the debate,” said Daniel Stenling, the Swedish Security Service’s counterintelligence chief. “For the last five years, we have seen more and more aggressive intelligence work against our nation.” But as it turned out, there was no hacking and dumping of internal campaign documents, as in the United States. Nor was there an overt effort to swing the election to the Sweden Democrats, perhaps because the party, in keeping with Swedish popular opinion, has become more critical of the Kremlin than some of its far-right European counterparts. Instead, security officials say, the foreign influence campaign took a different, more subtle form: helping nurture Sweden’s rapidly evolving far-right digital ecosystem. For years, the Sweden Democrats had struggled to make their case to the public. Many mainstream media outlets declined their ads. The party even had difficulty getting the postal service to deliver its mailers. So it built a network of closed Facebook pages whose reach would ultimately exceed that of any other party. But to thrive in the viral sense, that network required fresh, alluring content. It drew on a clutch of relatively new websites whose popularity was exploding. Members of the Sweden Democrats helped create two of them: Samhallsnytt (News in Society) and Nyheter Idag (News Today). By the 2018 election year, they, along with a site called Fria Tider (Free Times), were among Sweden’s 10 most shared news sites. A number of news sites with anti-immigrant messages helped propel Sweden Democrats to popularity. These sites each reached one-tenth of all Swedish internet users a week and, according to an Oxford University study, accounted for 85 percent of the election-related “junk news” — deemed deliberately distorted or misleading — shared online. There were other sites, too, all injecting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic messaging into the Swedish political bloodstream. “Immigration Behind Shortage of Drinking Water in Northern Stockholm,” read one recent headline. “Refugee Minor Raped Host Family’s Daughter; Thought It Was Legal,” read another. “Performed Female Genital Mutilation on Her Children — Given Asylum in Sweden,” read a third. Russia’s hand in all of this is largely hidden from view. But fingerprints abound. For instance, one writer for Samhallsnytt, who previously worked for the Sweden Democrats, was recently declined parliamentary press accreditation after the security police determined he had been in contact with Russian intelligence. Fria Tider is considered not only one of the most extreme sites, but also among the most Kremlin-friendly. It frequently swaps material with the Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik. The site is linked, via domain ownership records, to Granskning Sverige, called the Swedish “troll factory” for its efforts to entrap and embarrass mainstream journalists. Among its frequent targets: journalists who write negatively about Russia. “We’ve had death threats, spam attacks, emails — this year has been totally crazy,” said Eva Burman, the editor of Eskilstuna-Kuriren, a newspaper that found itself in the cross hairs after criticizing the Russian annexation of Crimea and investigating Granskning Sverige itself. At the magazine Nya Tider, the editor, Vavra Suk, has traveled to Moscow as an election observer and to Syria, where he produced Kremlin-friendly accounts of the civil war. Nya Tider has published work by Alexander Dugin, an ultranationalist Russian philosopher who has been called “Putin’s Rasputin”; Mr. Suk’s writings for Mr. Dugin’s think tank include one titled “Donald Trump Can Make Europe Great Again.” Nya Tider’s contributors include Manuel Ochsenreiter, editor of Zuerst!, a German far-right newspaper. Mr. Ochsenreiter — who has appeared regularly on RT, the Kremlin propaganda channel — worked until recently for Markus Frohnmaier, a member of the German Bundestag representing the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Documents leaked to a consortium of European media outlets — documents that Mr. Frohnmaier has called fake — have suggested that Moscow aided his election campaign in order to have an “absolutely controlled MP.” Mr. Ochsenreiter, for his part, has been implicated in Polish court in the financing of a 2018 firebombing attack on a Hungarian cultural center in Ukraine. The plot, according to testimony from a Polish extremist charged with carrying it out, was designed to pin responsibility on Ukrainian nationalists and stoke ethnic tensions, to Russia’s benefit. Mr. Ochsenreiter has not been charged in Poland, but prosecutors in Berlin said they had begun a preliminary investigation. He has denied involvement. Mr. Suk declined to comment. Then there is Nyheter Idag. Its founder, Chang Frick — a former Sweden Democrat official who takes a maverick’s glee in his defiance of orthodoxy — readily admits to being a paid contributor to RT. At a pizza shop near his home one afternoon, he pointedly noted that his girlfriend was Russian and, with a flourish, pulled out a wad of rubles from a recent trip. “Here is my real boss! It’s Putin!” he laughed. But Mr. Frick, the son of a Swedish Roma and a Polish Jew, said Nyheter Idag answered to no one, neither the Sweden Democrats nor the Kremlin, though he added that his relentless reporting about the problems posed by immigrants dovetailed with both their agendas. “People can see what’s happening in the streets,” he said, adding, “I’ve been accused of being a racist — I’m being ‘paid by the Sweden Democrats,’ I’m ‘a spy for Russia.’ That just tells me I’m kicking where it hurts.” Still, he said he had reason to believe that “there is a little bit of collusion between Russia and some Swedish right-wing media.” One of his early scoops involved exposing the drinking and womanizing shenanigans of a Sweden Democrat member of Parliament who had been invited to Moscow. During that reporting trip, he said, he was invited to serve as an independent observer in Russia’s presidential election and to meet Mr. Putin. He declined the invitation. There is another curious Russian common denominator: Six of Sweden’s alt-right sites have drawn advertising revenue from a network of online auto-parts stores based in Germany and owned by four businessmen from Russia and Ukraine, three of whom have adopted German-sounding surnames. The ads were first noticed by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, which discovered that while they appeared to be for a variety of outlets, all traced back to the same Berlin address and were owned by a parent company, Autodoc GmbH. The Times found that the company had also placed ads on anti-Semitic and other extremist sites in Germany, Hungary, Austria and elsewhere in Europe. Which raised a question: Was the auto-parts dealer simply trying to drum up business, or was it also trying to support the far-right cause? Rikard Lindholm, co-founder of a data-driven marketing firm who has worked with Swedish authorities to combat disinformation, dug deeper into the Autodoc network. Hidden beneath the user-friendly interface of some of the earliest Autodoc sites lay what Mr. Lindholm, an expert in the forensic analysis of online traffic, described as “icebergs” of blog-like content completely unrelated to auto parts, translated into a variety of languages. A visitor to one of the car-parts sites could not simply access this content from the home page; instead, one had to know and type in the full URL. “It’s like they have a back door and it’s open and you can have a look around, but to do that you have to know that the door is there,” Mr. Lindholm said. Much of the content was not political. But there were links to posts about a range of divisive social issues, some of them translated into other languages. One hidden link — about female genital mutilation in Muslim countries — had been translated from English to Polish before being posted. Yet another post, from a site called AnsweringIslam.net, concluded, “Islam hates you.” Thomas Casper, a spokesman for Autodoc, said the company had no “interest at all in supporting alt-right media,” and added, “We vehemently oppose racism and far-right principles.” He said the company’s digital advertising team worked with third parties to place ads on “trusted websites with substantial traffic.” Autodoc, he said, had instituted controls to try to ensure that it no longer advertised on far-right sites. Autodocs has advertised on far-right sites in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe, including this Hungarian site which has a section devoted to Holocaust denialism. As for the icebergs, after receiving The Times’s inquiry, the company removed what Mr. Casper called the “obviously dubious and outdated content.” It had originally been placed there, he said, to improve search engine optimization. But Mr. Lindholm said that made no sense. “By linking to irrelevant content, it actually hurts their business because Google frowns on that,” he said. Links Abroad Another way to look inside the explosive growth of Sweden’s alt-right outlets is to see who is linking to them. The more links, especially from well-trafficked outlets, the more likely Google is to rank the sites as authoritative. That, in turn, means that Swedes are more likely to see them when they search for, say, immigration and crime. The Times analyzed more than 12 million available links from over 18,000 domains to four prominent far-right sites — Nyheter Idag, Samhallsnytt, Fria Tider and Nya Tider. The data was culled by Mr. Lindholm from two search engine optimization tools and represents a snapshot of all known links through July 2. As expected, given the relative paucity of Swedish speakers worldwide, most of the links came from Swedish-language sites. But the analysis turned up a surprising number of links from well-trafficked foreign-language sites — which suggests that the Swedish sites’ rapid growth has been driven to a significant degree from abroad. “It has the makings, the characteristics, of an operation whose purpose or goal is to help these sites become relevant by getting them to be seen as widely as possible,” Mr. Lindholm said. Over all, more than one in five links were from non-Swedish language sites. English-language sites, along with Norwegian ones, linked the most, nearly a million times. But other European-language far-right sites — Russian but also Czech, Danish, German, Finnish and Polish — were also frequent linkers. The Times identified 356 domains that linked to all four Swedish sites. Many are well known in American far-right circles. Among them is the Gatestone Institute, a think tank whose site regularly stokes fears about Muslims in the United States and Europe. Its chairman until last year was John R. Bolton, now Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, and its funders have included Rebekah Mercer, a prominent wealthy Trump supporter. Other domains that linked to all four Swedish sites included Stormfront, one of the oldest and largest American white supremacist sites; Voice of Europe, a Kremlin-friendly right-wing site; a Russian-language blog called Sweden4Rus.nu; and FreieWelt.net, a site supportive of the AfD in Germany. This loosely knit global network does not just help increase readership in Sweden; researchers have tracked how Russian state outlets like RT and Sputnik, along with Western platforms like Infowars and Breitbart, have picked up and amplified Swedish immigration-related stories to galvanize xenophobia among their audiences. Bjorn Palmertz, a disinformation specialist at the Swedish Defense University, said this “information laundry” had resulted in globally viral stories like the one about the Swedish town that allowed a mosque to issue calls to prayer while denying a church’s application to ring its bells — never mind that the church had not applied. “Sweden is portrayed either as a heaven or a hell,” said Annika Rembe, Sweden’s consul general in New York. “But conservative value-based politicians in Hungary, Poland, the United States and elsewhere would use Sweden as an example of a failed state: If you follow this path, your society will look like Sweden’s.” The auditorium at Rinkebyskolan, a middle school across the street from Rinkeby’s town square, filled rapidly. Women wearing hijabs and burqas spilled in, taking their seats on the left. Men sat to the right. From the speakers came the voice of an imam reading from the Quran. Developed as part of a 1960s-era government initiative to build a million affordable dwellings, Rinkeby was originally home to a mix of Swedes and laborers from southern Europe. Over time it became known as Sweden’s “Village of the World,” with people from more than 100 countries living in drab, low-slung apartment blocks. Today, more than 91 percent of Rinkeby’s roughly 16,400 residents are immigrants and their children. At a long table in front of the auditorium sat Niclas Andersson, a towering man who serves as Rinkeby’s police chief. Once prayers concluded, the audience began peppering him with questions. Some worried about drug trafficking inside the apartment complexes, others about the prevalence of guns. Could the police install more cameras? To be sure, Mr. Andersson said in an interview afterward, there were problems in Rinkeby, his posting for 18 years. But it is hardly the hellscape that nationalists bent on painting Sweden as a failed state hold it out to be. Many newcomers still struggle to get a foothold in the job market, so unemployment is relatively high, at 8.8 percent. And in the larger Rinkeby-Kista borough, there were 825 reported episodes of violent crime last year, a rate 36 percent higher per capita than Stockholm as a whole. But Mr. Andersson does not recognize the Rinkeby portrayed in the movie — directed by a filmmaker who has shot political ads for Republicans in Congress — that led Mr. Trump to make his “last night in Sweden” remarks. Rinkeby is not a no-go zone, Mr. Andersson said, an assertion supported by the film’s chief cameraman, who has acknowledged that officers who seemed to suggest otherwise had been edited out of context. In fact, the number of police officers in Rinkeby has more than quadrupled since 2015. Assaults and robberies are down, Mr. Andersson said. Fatal shootings are down, too — of 11 in Stockholm last year, one was in Rinkeby. Nationally, the violent crime rate is one-fifth that of the United States. “It was a heavily slanted picture,” Mr. Andersson said. “You zero in on a couple of incidents, then use that to describe the whole area.” By the time Mr. Trump zeroed in on Rinkeby, “the government was tackling the problems,” said Amela Mahovic, a local reporter for Swedish public television. When the actual clash broke out soon after, she said, community elders spread the word to local youths: “You need to stop this.” But soon, they said, they found that outside forces wanted the world to see a different picture. Guleed Mohamed, then a researcher for public television, said he had spoken to a reporting team from Russia and Ukraine in Rinkeby Square that week and had tried to ask about Russia. “They changed the subject to how multiculturalism doesn’t work,” he recalled. “And then they quickly connected that to the clash — ‘I want to talk about the riot. Don’t you think this is connected to the influx of migrants?’” Hani Al Saleh, a Syrian who came to Sweden as a teenager, was working as a guard in Rinkeby. Tall and muscular with a sculpted beard, Mr. Saleh is known as “Amo,” or uncle, by the local youth. He said three young immigrants he knew told him that Russian journalists had tried to bribe them with 400 kronor (about $43) apiece. “Boys, do you want to do some action in front of the camera?” they said the Russian journalists asked them. Mr. Saleh later took a Danish journalist to meet two of the young men. After searching online, they recognized the logo of the Russian state-owned news channel NTV, along with the Russians who had made the offer. The journalist contacted NTV, which denied the whole thing. But besides Mr. Castillo, the night watchman, The Times found other witnesses who backed up Mr. Saleh’s account. Elvir Kazinic and Mustafa Zatara said they were in the square a couple of days after the clash when they overheard another group of young men talking about Russian journalists and a 400 krona bribe to fight. “To stoop to that level and offer kids money,” said Mr. Kazinic, a Bosnian émigré who serves on Rinkeby’s district council, “that is low.” Mr. Zatara, a poet, knows well the consequences of stirring up anti-immigrant racism. His father, Hasan Zatara, a Palestinian, came to Sweden in 1969, earned a high school diploma and opened a convenience store. Standing behind the cash register on a January afternoon 27 years ago, he became the final victim of John Ausonius, a serial shooter who terrorized immigrant communities, killing one person and wounding 10 others. Hasan Zatara was paralyzed. Mr. Ausonius later said he was inspired by the anti-immigrant party of the day, New Democracy. “When my father was shot in 1992, we had New Democracy,” Mustafa Zatara said. “Today we have the Sweden Democrats. Then, they wore bomber jackets and boots. Today, they wear bow ties and suits. It’s normalized now in the Swedish political corridor.” Building a Coalition After the commotion in Rinkeby died down, Russian news agencies kept calling the police, fruitlessly asking permission to ride with officers patrolling the district. “This went on week in and week out,” said Varg Gyllander, the department’s press officer. Last September, right after the Swedish elections, the requests abruptly stopped. The Sweden Democrats had their best showing yet. Their nearly 18 percent share of the vote hamstrung Swedish politics, with the mainstream parties unable to form a government for more than four months. The Social Democrats finally formed a shaky coalition that excluded the Sweden Democrats. But it came at a price: some prominent center-right politicians are now expressing a willingness to work with the Sweden Democrats, portending a new political alignment. In February, the Sweden Democrats’ Mr. Karlsson strode into a Washington-area hotel where leaders of the American and European right were gathering for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. As he settled in at the lobby bar, straightening his navy three-piece suit, he was clearly very much at home. At the conference — where political boot-camp training mixed with speeches by luminaries like Mr. Trump and the British populist leader Nigel Farage — Mr. Karlsson hoped to learn about the infrastructure of the American conservative movement, particularly its funding and use of the media and think tanks to broaden its appeal. But in a measure of how nationalism and conservatism have merged in Mr. Trump’s Washington, many of the Americans with whom he wanted to network were just as eager to network with him. Mr. Karlsson had flown in from Colorado, where he had given a speech at the Steamboat Institute, a conservative think tank. That morning, Tobias Andersson, 23, the Sweden Democrats’ youngest member of Parliament and a contributor to Breitbart, had spoken to Americans for Tax Reform, a bastion of tax-cut orthodoxy. Now, they found themselves encircled by admirers like Matthew Hurtt, the director for external relationships at Americans for Prosperity, part of the billionaire Koch brothers’ political operation, and Matthew Tyrmand, a board member of Project Veritas, a conservative group that uses undercover filming to sting its targets. Mr. Tyrmand, who is also an adviser to a senator from Poland’s anti-immigration ruling Law and Justice party, was particularly eager. “You are taking your country back!” he exclaimed. Mr. Karlsson smiled. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Sun Aug 11 18:01:04 2019 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2019 18:01:04 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] NYT front page article on Sweden (5,000 words) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <83AA23C3-DA76-4B53-BDFC-ABA514A748BE@illinois.edu> This is typical of NYT’s articles/propaganda: Anti-Russia. Sweden has been an ardent supporter of NATO’s actions relative to Russia, and has a history of blaming Russia on various grounds—mysterious submarines in the Baltic sea, overflights, etc... There’s much to be skeptical about in this article. On Aug 11, 2019, at 11:31 AM, David Green via Peace-discuss > wrote: I think it's important to understand how the immigrant issue is being weaponized by liberals, with Putin playing the same role that Communism in general did during the Cold War. These people were not worried about the scurrilous things that Daniel Pipes and Judith Miller etc. were saying about Muslims in the 1990s; now they can't get enough of neo-fascism. The agenda of this article is, to me, very transparent: scare people into voting for any Democrat who is put forward. It would be interesting to know whether the local pro-immigrant groups and members, like "Bend the Arc," accept this analysis. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/world/europe/sweden-immigration-nationalism.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage The New Nativists The Global Machine Behind the Rise of Far-Right Nationalism Sweden was long seen as a progressive utopia. Then came waves of immigrants — and the forces of populism at home and abroad. The square where witnesses said Russian journalists were trying to bribe immigrants into violence. By Jo Becker Aug. 10, 2019 RINKEBY, Sweden — Johnny Castillo, a Peruvian-born neighborhood watchman in this district of Stockholm, still puzzles over the strange events that two years ago turned the central square of this predominantly immigrant community into a symbol of multiculturalism run amok. First came a now-infamous comment by President Trump, suggesting that Sweden’s history of welcoming refugees was at the root of a violent attack in Rinkeby the previous evening, even though nothing had actually happened. “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden! Who would believe this? Sweden!” Mr. Trump told supporters at a rally on Feb. 18, 2017. “They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.” But two days later, as Swedish officials were heaping bemused derision on Mr. Trump, something did in fact happen in Rinkeby: Several dozen masked men attacked police officers making a drug arrest, throwing rocks and setting cars ablaze. And it was right around that time, according to Mr. Castillo and four other witnesses, that Russian television crews showed up, offering to pay immigrant youths “to make trouble” in front of the cameras. “They wanted to show that President Trump is right about Sweden,” Mr. Castillo said, “that people That nativist rhetoric — that immigrants are invading the homeland — has gained ever-greater traction, and political acceptance, across the West amid dislocations wrought by vast waves of migration from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. In its most extreme form, it is echoed in the online manifesto of the man accused of gunning down 22 people last weekend in El Paso. In the nationalists’ message-making, Sweden has become a prime cautionary tale, dripping with schadenfreude. What is even more striking is how many people in Sweden — progressive, egalitarian, welcoming Sweden — seem to be warming to the nationalists’ view: that immigration has brought crime, chaos and a fraying of the cherished social safety net, not to mention a withering away of national culture and tradition. Fueled by an immigration backlash — Sweden has accepted more refugees per capita than any other European country — right-wing populism has taken hold, reflected most prominently in the steady ascent of a political party with neo-Nazi roots, the Sweden Democrats. In elections last year, they captured nearly 18 percent of the vote. To dig beneath the surface of what is happening in Sweden, though, is to uncover the workings of an international disinformation machine, devoted to the cultivation, provocation and amplication of far-right, anti-immigrant passions and political forces. Indeed, that machine, most influentially rooted in Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia and the American far right, underscores a fundamental irony of this political moment: the globalization of nationalism. The central target of these manipulations from abroad — and the chief instrument of the Swedish nationalists’ success — is the country’s increasingly popular, and virulently anti-immigrant, digital echo chamber. A New York Times examination of its content, personnel and traffic patterns illustrates how foreign state and nonstate actors have helped to give viral momentum to a clutch of Swedish far-right web sites. Russian and Western entities that traffic in disinformation, including an Islamaphobic think tank whose former chairman is now Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, have been crucial linkers to the Swedish sites, helping to spread their message to susceptible Swedes. At least six Swedish sites have received financial backing through advertising revenue from a Russian- and Ukrainian-owned auto-parts business based in Berlin, whose online sales network oddly contains buried digital links to a range of far-right and other socially divisive content. Writers and editors for the Swedish sites have been befriended by the Kremlin. And in one strange Rube Goldbergian chain of events, a frequent German contributor to one Swedish site has been implicated in the financing of a bombing in Ukraine, in a suspected Russian false-flag operation. The distorted view of Sweden pumped out by this disinformation machine has been used, in turn, by anti-immigrant parties in Britain, Germany, Italy and elsewhere to stir xenophobia and gin up votes, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based nonprofit that tracks the online spread of far-right extremism. “I’d put Sweden up there with the anti-Soros campaign,” said Chloe Colliver, a researcher for the institute, referring to anti-Semitic attacks on George Soros, the billionaire benefactor of liberal causes. “It’s become an enduring centerpiece of the far-right conversation.” From Margins to Mainstream Mattias Karlsson, the Sweden Democrats’ international secretary and chief ideologist, likes to tell the story of how he became a soldier in what he has described as the “existential battle for our culture’s and our nation’s survival.” It was the mid-1990s and Mr. Karlsson, now 41, was attending high school in the southern city of Vaxjo. Sweden was accepting a record number of refugees from the Balkan War and other conflicts. In Vaxjo and elsewhere, young immigrant men began joining brawling “kicker” gangs, radicalizing Mr. Karlsson and drawing him toward the local skinhead scene. He took to wearing a leather jacket with a Swedish flag on the back and was soon introduced to Mats Nilsson, a Swedish National Socialist leader who gave him a copy of “Mein Kampf.” They began to debate: Mr. Nilsson argued that the goal should be ethnic purity — the preservation of “Swedish DNA.” Mr. Karlsson countered that the focus should be on preserving national culture and identity. That, he said, was when Mr. Nilsson conferred on him an epithet of insufficient commitment to the cause — “meatball patriot,” meaning that “I thought that every African or Arab can come to this country as long as they assimilate and eat meatballs.” It is an account that offers the most benign explanation for an odious association. Whatever the case, in 1999, he joined the Sweden Democrats, a party undeniably rooted in Sweden’s neo-Nazi movement. Indeed, scholars of the far right say that is what sets it apart from most anti-immigration parties in Europe and makes its rise from marginalized to mainstream so remarkable. The party was founded in 1988 by several Nazi ideologues, including a former member of the Waffen SS. Early on, it sought international alliances with the likes of the White Aryan Resistance, a white supremacist group founded by a former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Some Sweden Democrats wore Nazi uniforms to party functions. Its platform included the forced repatriation of all immigrants since 1970. That was not, however, a winning formula in a country where social democrats have dominated every election for more than a century. While attending university, Mr. Karlsson had met Jimmie Akesson, who took over the Sweden Democrats’ youth party in 2000 and became party leader in 2005. Mr. Akesson was outspoken in his belief that Muslim refugees posed “the biggest foreign threat to Sweden since the Second World War.” But to make that case effectively, he and Mr. Karlsson agreed, they needed to remake the party’s image. “We needed to really address our past,” Mr. Karlsson said. They purged neo-Nazis who had been exposed by the press. They announced a “zero tolerance” policy toward extreme xenophobia and racism, emphasized their youthful leadership and urged members to dress presentably. And while immigration remained at the center of their platform, they moderated the way they talked about it. No longer was the issue framed in terms of keeping certain ethnic groups out, or deporting those already in. Rather it was about how unassimilated migrants were eviscerating not just the nation’s cultural identity but also the social-welfare heart of the Swedish state. Under the grand, egalitarian idea of the “folkhemmet,” or people’s home, in which the country is a family and its citizens take care of one another, Swedes pay among the world’s highest effective tax rates, in return for benefits like child care, health care, free college education and assistance when they grow old. The safety net has come under strain for a host of economic and demographic reasons, many of which predate the latest refugee flood. But in the Sweden Democrats’ telling, the blame lies squarely at the feet of the foreigners, many of whom lag far behind native Swedes in education and economic accomplishment. One party advertisement depicted a white woman trying to collect benefits while being pursued by niqab-wearing immigrants pushing strollers. To what extent the party’s makeover is just window dressing is an open question. The doubts were highlighted in what became known as “the Iron Pipe Scandal” in 2012. Leaked video showed two Sweden Democrat MPs and the party’s candidate for attorney general hurling racist slurs at a comedian of Kurdish descent, then threatening a drunken witness with iron pipes. Under Mr. Akesson and Mr. Karlsson, the party has hosted the American white nationalist Richard Spencer. High-ranking party officials have bounced between Sweden and Hungary, ruled by the authoritarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Mr. Karlsson himself has come under fire for calling out an extremist site as neo-fascist while using an alias to recommend posts as “worth reading” to party members. “There’s a public face and the face they wear behind closed doors,” said Daniel Poohl, who heads Expo, a Stockholm-based foundation that tracks far-right extremism. Still, even detractors admit that strategy has worked. In 2010, the Sweden Democrats captured 5.7 percent of the vote, enough for the party, and Mr. Karlsson, to enter Parliament for the first time. That share has steadily increased along with the growing population of refugees. (Today, roughly 20 percent of Sweden’s population is foreign born.) At its peak in 2015, Sweden accepted 163,000 asylum-seekers, mostly from Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria. Though border controls and tighter rules have eased that flow, Ardalan Shekarabi, the country’s public administration minister, acknowledged that his government had been slow to act. Mr. Shekarabi, an immigrant from Iran, said the sheer number of refugees had overwhelmed the government’s efforts to integrate them. “I absolutely don’t think that the majority of Swedes have racist or xenophobic views, but they had questions about this migration policy and the other parties didn’t have any answers,” he said. “Which is one of the reasons why Sweden Democrats had a case.” A Right-Wing Echo Chamber As the 2018 elections approached, Swedish counterintelligence was on high alert for foreign interference. Russia, the hulking neighbor to the east, was seen as the main threat. After the Kremlin’s meddling in the 2016 American election, Sweden had reason to fear it could be next. “Russia’s goal is to weaken Western countries by polarizing the debate,” said Daniel Stenling, the Swedish Security Service’s counterintelligence chief. “For the last five years, we have seen more and more aggressive intelligence work against our nation.” But as it turned out, there was no hacking and dumping of internal campaign documents, as in the United States. Nor was there an overt effort to swing the election to the Sweden Democrats, perhaps because the party, in keeping with Swedish popular opinion, has become more critical of the Kremlin than some of its far-right European counterparts. Instead, security officials say, the foreign influence campaign took a different, more subtle form: helping nurture Sweden’s rapidly evolving far-right digital ecosystem. For years, the Sweden Democrats had struggled to make their case to the public. Many mainstream media outlets declined their ads. The party even had difficulty getting the postal service to deliver its mailers. So it built a network of closed Facebook pages whose reach would ultimately exceed that of any other party. But to thrive in the viral sense, that network required fresh, alluring content. It drew on a clutch of relatively new websites whose popularity was exploding. Members of the Sweden Democrats helped create two of them: Samhallsnytt (News in Society) and Nyheter Idag (News Today). By the 2018 election year, they, along with a site called Fria Tider (Free Times), were among Sweden’s 10 most shared news sites. A number of news sites with anti-immigrant messages helped propel Sweden Democrats to popularity. These sites each reached one-tenth of all Swedish internet users a week and, according to an Oxford University study, accounted for 85 percent of the election-related “junk news” — deemed deliberately distorted or misleading — shared online. There were other sites, too, all injecting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic messaging into the Swedish political bloodstream. “Immigration Behind Shortage of Drinking Water in Northern Stockholm,” read one recent headline. “Refugee Minor Raped Host Family’s Daughter; Thought It Was Legal,” read another. “Performed Female Genital Mutilation on Her Children — Given Asylum in Sweden,” read a third. Russia’s hand in all of this is largely hidden from view. But fingerprints abound. For instance, one writer for Samhallsnytt, who previously worked for the Sweden Democrats, was recently declined parliamentary press accreditation after the security police determined he had been in contact with Russian intelligence. Fria Tider is considered not only one of the most extreme sites, but also among the most Kremlin-friendly. It frequently swaps material with the Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik. The site is linked, via domain ownership records, to Granskning Sverige, called the Swedish “troll factory” for its efforts to entrap and embarrass mainstream journalists. Among its frequent targets: journalists who write negatively about Russia. “We’ve had death threats, spam attacks, emails — this year has been totally crazy,” said Eva Burman, the editor of Eskilstuna-Kuriren, a newspaper that found itself in the cross hairs after criticizing the Russian annexation of Crimea and investigating Granskning Sverige itself. At the magazine Nya Tider, the editor, Vavra Suk, has traveled to Moscow as an election observer and to Syria, where he produced Kremlin-friendly accounts of the civil war. Nya Tider has published work by Alexander Dugin, an ultranationalist Russian philosopher who has been called “Putin’s Rasputin”; Mr. Suk’s writings for Mr. Dugin’s think tank include one titled “Donald Trump Can Make Europe Great Again.” Nya Tider’s contributors include Manuel Ochsenreiter, editor of Zuerst!, a German far-right newspaper. Mr. Ochsenreiter — who has appeared regularly on RT, the Kremlin propaganda channel — worked until recently for Markus Frohnmaier, a member of the German Bundestag representing the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Documents leaked to a consortium of European media outlets — documents that Mr. Frohnmaier has called fake — have suggested that Moscow aided his election campaign in order to have an “absolutely controlled MP.” Mr. Ochsenreiter, for his part, has been implicated in Polish court in the financing of a 2018 firebombing attack on a Hungarian cultural center in Ukraine. The plot, according to testimony from a Polish extremist charged with carrying it out, was designed to pin responsibility on Ukrainian nationalists and stoke ethnic tensions, to Russia’s benefit. Mr. Ochsenreiter has not been charged in Poland, but prosecutors in Berlin said they had begun a preliminary investigation. He has denied involvement. Mr. Suk declined to comment. Then there is Nyheter Idag. Its founder, Chang Frick — a former Sweden Democrat official who takes a maverick’s glee in his defiance of orthodoxy — readily admits to being a paid contributor to RT. At a pizza shop near his home one afternoon, he pointedly noted that his girlfriend was Russian and, with a flourish, pulled out a wad of rubles from a recent trip. “Here is my real boss! It’s Putin!” he laughed. But Mr. Frick, the son of a Swedish Roma and a Polish Jew, said Nyheter Idag answered to no one, neither the Sweden Democrats nor the Kremlin, though he added that his relentless reporting about the problems posed by immigrants dovetailed with both their agendas. “People can see what’s happening in the streets,” he said, adding, “I’ve been accused of being a racist — I’m being ‘paid by the Sweden Democrats,’ I’m ‘a spy for Russia.’ That just tells me I’m kicking where it hurts.” Still, he said he had reason to believe that “there is a little bit of collusion between Russia and some Swedish right-wing media.” One of his early scoops involved exposing the drinking and womanizing shenanigans of a Sweden Democrat member of Parliament who had been invited to Moscow. During that reporting trip, he said, he was invited to serve as an independent observer in Russia’s presidential election and to meet Mr. Putin. He declined the invitation. There is another curious Russian common denominator: Six of Sweden’s alt-right sites have drawn advertising revenue from a network of online auto-parts stores based in Germany and owned by four businessmen from Russia and Ukraine, three of whom have adopted German-sounding surnames. The ads were first noticed by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, which discovered that while they appeared to be for a variety of outlets, all traced back to the same Berlin address and were owned by a parent company, Autodoc GmbH. The Times found that the company had also placed ads on anti-Semitic and other extremist sites in Germany, Hungary, Austria and elsewhere in Europe. Which raised a question: Was the auto-parts dealer simply trying to drum up business, or was it also trying to support the far-right cause? Rikard Lindholm, co-founder of a data-driven marketing firm who has worked with Swedish authorities to combat disinformation, dug deeper into the Autodoc network. Hidden beneath the user-friendly interface of some of the earliest Autodoc sites lay what Mr. Lindholm, an expert in the forensic analysis of online traffic, described as “icebergs” of blog-like content completely unrelated to auto parts, translated into a variety of languages. A visitor to one of the car-parts sites could not simply access this content from the home page; instead, one had to know and type in the full URL. “It’s like they have a back door and it’s open and you can have a look around, but to do that you have to know that the door is there,” Mr. Lindholm said. Much of the content was not political. But there were links to posts about a range of divisive social issues, some of them translated into other languages. One hidden link — about female genital mutilation in Muslim countries — had been translated from English to Polish before being posted. Yet another post, from a site called AnsweringIslam.net, concluded, “Islam hates you.” Thomas Casper, a spokesman for Autodoc, said the company had no “interest at all in supporting alt-right media,” and added, “We vehemently oppose racism and far-right principles.” He said the company’s digital advertising team worked with third parties to place ads on “trusted websites with substantial traffic.” Autodoc, he said, had instituted controls to try to ensure that it no longer advertised on far-right sites. Autodocs has advertised on far-right sites in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe, including this Hungarian site which has a section devoted to Holocaust denialism. As for the icebergs, after receiving The Times’s inquiry, the company removed what Mr. Casper called the “obviously dubious and outdated content.” It had originally been placed there, he said, to improve search engine optimization. But Mr. Lindholm said that made no sense. “By linking to irrelevant content, it actually hurts their business because Google frowns on that,” he said. Links Abroad Another way to look inside the explosive growth of Sweden’s alt-right outlets is to see who is linking to them. The more links, especially from well-trafficked outlets, the more likely Google is to rank the sites as authoritative. That, in turn, means that Swedes are more likely to see them when they search for, say, immigration and crime. The Times analyzed more than 12 million available links from over 18,000 domains to four prominent far-right sites — Nyheter Idag, Samhallsnytt, Fria Tider and Nya Tider. The data was culled by Mr. Lindholm from two search engine optimization tools and represents a snapshot of all known links through July 2. As expected, given the relative paucity of Swedish speakers worldwide, most of the links came from Swedish-language sites. But the analysis turned up a surprising number of links from well-trafficked foreign-language sites — which suggests that the Swedish sites’ rapid growth has been driven to a significant degree from abroad. “It has the makings, the characteristics, of an operation whose purpose or goal is to help these sites become relevant by getting them to be seen as widely as possible,” Mr. Lindholm said. Over all, more than one in five links were from non-Swedish language sites. English-language sites, along with Norwegian ones, linked the most, nearly a million times. But other European-language far-right sites — Russian but also Czech, Danish, German, Finnish and Polish — were also frequent linkers. The Times identified 356 domains that linked to all four Swedish sites. Many are well known in American far-right circles. Among them is the Gatestone Institute, a think tank whose site regularly stokes fears about Muslims in the United States and Europe. Its chairman until last year was John R. Bolton, now Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, and its funders have included Rebekah Mercer, a prominent wealthy Trump supporter. Other domains that linked to all four Swedish sites included Stormfront, one of the oldest and largest American white supremacist sites; Voice of Europe, a Kremlin-friendly right-wing site; a Russian-language blog called Sweden4Rus.nu; and FreieWelt.net, a site supportive of the AfD in Germany. This loosely knit global network does not just help increase readership in Sweden; researchers have tracked how Russian state outlets like RT and Sputnik, along with Western platforms like Infowars and Breitbart, have picked up and amplified Swedish immigration-related stories to galvanize xenophobia among their audiences. Bjorn Palmertz, a disinformation specialist at the Swedish Defense University, said this “information laundry” had resulted in globally viral stories like the one about the Swedish town that allowed a mosque to issue calls to prayer while denying a church’s application to ring its bells — never mind that the church had not applied. “Sweden is portrayed either as a heaven or a hell,” said Annika Rembe, Sweden’s consul general in New York. “But conservative value-based politicians in Hungary, Poland, the United States and elsewhere would use Sweden as an example of a failed state: If you follow this path, your society will look like Sweden’s.” The auditorium at Rinkebyskolan, a middle school across the street from Rinkeby’s town square, filled rapidly. Women wearing hijabs and burqas spilled in, taking their seats on the left. Men sat to the right. From the speakers came the voice of an imam reading from the Quran. Developed as part of a 1960s-era government initiative to build a million affordable dwellings, Rinkeby was originally home to a mix of Swedes and laborers from southern Europe. Over time it became known as Sweden’s “Village of the World,” with people from more than 100 countries living in drab, low-slung apartment blocks. Today, more than 91 percent of Rinkeby’s roughly 16,400 residents are immigrants and their children. At a long table in front of the auditorium sat Niclas Andersson, a towering man who serves as Rinkeby’s police chief. Once prayers concluded, the audience began peppering him with questions. Some worried about drug trafficking inside the apartment complexes, others about the prevalence of guns. Could the police install more cameras? To be sure, Mr. Andersson said in an interview afterward, there were problems in Rinkeby, his posting for 18 years. But it is hardly the hellscape that nationalists bent on painting Sweden as a failed state hold it out to be. Many newcomers still struggle to get a foothold in the job market, so unemployment is relatively high, at 8.8 percent. And in the larger Rinkeby-Kista borough, there were 825 reported episodes of violent crime last year, a rate 36 percent higher per capita than Stockholm as a whole. But Mr. Andersson does not recognize the Rinkeby portrayed in the movie — directed by a filmmaker who has shot political ads for Republicans in Congress — that led Mr. Trump to make his “last night in Sweden” remarks. Rinkeby is not a no-go zone, Mr. Andersson said, an assertion supported by the film’s chief cameraman, who has acknowledged that officers who seemed to suggest otherwise had been edited out of context. In fact, the number of police officers in Rinkeby has more than quadrupled since 2015. Assaults and robberies are down, Mr. Andersson said. Fatal shootings are down, too — of 11 in Stockholm last year, one was in Rinkeby. Nationally, the violent crime rate is one-fifth that of the United States. “It was a heavily slanted picture,” Mr. Andersson said. “You zero in on a couple of incidents, then use that to describe the whole area.” By the time Mr. Trump zeroed in on Rinkeby, “the government was tackling the problems,” said Amela Mahovic, a local reporter for Swedish public television. When the actual clash broke out soon after, she said, community elders spread the word to local youths: “You need to stop this.” But soon, they said, they found that outside forces wanted the world to see a different picture. Guleed Mohamed, then a researcher for public television, said he had spoken to a reporting team from Russia and Ukraine in Rinkeby Square that week and had tried to ask about Russia. “They changed the subject to how multiculturalism doesn’t work,” he recalled. “And then they quickly connected that to the clash — ‘I want to talk about the riot. Don’t you think this is connected to the influx of migrants?’” Hani Al Saleh, a Syrian who came to Sweden as a teenager, was working as a guard in Rinkeby. Tall and muscular with a sculpted beard, Mr. Saleh is known as “Amo,” or uncle, by the local youth. He said three young immigrants he knew told him that Russian journalists had tried to bribe them with 400 kronor (about $43) apiece. “Boys, do you want to do some action in front of the camera?” they said the Russian journalists asked them. Mr. Saleh later took a Danish journalist to meet two of the young men. After searching online, they recognized the logo of the Russian state-owned news channel NTV, along with the Russians who had made the offer. The journalist contacted NTV, which denied the whole thing. But besides Mr. Castillo, the night watchman, The Times found other witnesses who backed up Mr. Saleh’s account. Elvir Kazinic and Mustafa Zatara said they were in the square a couple of days after the clash when they overheard another group of young men talking about Russian journalists and a 400 krona bribe to fight. “To stoop to that level and offer kids money,” said Mr. Kazinic, a Bosnian émigré who serves on Rinkeby’s district council, “that is low.” Mr. Zatara, a poet, knows well the consequences of stirring up anti-immigrant racism. His father, Hasan Zatara, a Palestinian, came to Sweden in 1969, earned a high school diploma and opened a convenience store. Standing behind the cash register on a January afternoon 27 years ago, he became the final victim of John Ausonius, a serial shooter who terrorized immigrant communities, killing one person and wounding 10 others. Hasan Zatara was paralyzed. Mr. Ausonius later said he was inspired by the anti-immigrant party of the day, New Democracy. “When my father was shot in 1992, we had New Democracy,” Mustafa Zatara said. “Today we have the Sweden Democrats. Then, they wore bomber jackets and boots. Today, they wear bow ties and suits. It’s normalized now in the Swedish political corridor.” Building a Coalition After the commotion in Rinkeby died down, Russian news agencies kept calling the police, fruitlessly asking permission to ride with officers patrolling the district. “This went on week in and week out,” said Varg Gyllander, the department’s press officer. Last September, right after the Swedish elections, the requests abruptly stopped. The Sweden Democrats had their best showing yet. Their nearly 18 percent share of the vote hamstrung Swedish politics, with the mainstream parties unable to form a government for more than four months. The Social Democrats finally formed a shaky coalition that excluded the Sweden Democrats. But it came at a price: some prominent center-right politicians are now expressing a willingness to work with the Sweden Democrats, portending a new political alignment. In February, the Sweden Democrats’ Mr. Karlsson strode into a Washington-area hotel where leaders of the American and European right were gathering for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. As he settled in at the lobby bar, straightening his navy three-piece suit, he was clearly very much at home. At the conference — where political boot-camp training mixed with speeches by luminaries like Mr. Trump and the British populist leader Nigel Farage — Mr. Karlsson hoped to learn about the infrastructure of the American conservative movement, particularly its funding and use of the media and think tanks to broaden its appeal. But in a measure of how nationalism and conservatism have merged in Mr. Trump’s Washington, many of the Americans with whom he wanted to network were just as eager to network with him. Mr. Karlsson had flown in from Colorado, where he had given a speech at the Steamboat Institute, a conservative think tank. That morning, Tobias Andersson, 23, the Sweden Democrats’ youngest member of Parliament and a contributor to Breitbart, had spoken to Americans for Tax Reform, a bastion of tax-cut orthodoxy. Now, they found themselves encircled by admirers like Matthew Hurtt, the director for external relationships at Americans for Prosperity, part of the billionaire Koch brothers’ political operation, and Matthew Tyrmand, a board member of Project Veritas, a conservative group that uses undercover filming to sting its targets. Mr. Tyrmand, who is also an adviser to a senator from Poland’s anti-immigration ruling Law and Justice party, was particularly eager. “You are taking your country back!” he exclaimed. Mr. Karlsson smiled. _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Sun Aug 11 18:11:42 2019 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2019 18:11:42 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] The NPR and Venezuela Message-ID: <01D7BAF9-1CB7-4AC1-9805-E4B9196F2C9D@illinois.edu> Just to be reminded of the dreadful NPR “news", see https://fair.org/home/npr-shreds-ethics-handbook-to-normalize-regime-change-in-venezuela/?awt_l=MhEdm&awt_m=hT9b2HTPh0OI_TQ —mkb -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net Sun Aug 11 21:08:32 2019 From: davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net (David Johnson) Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2019 16:08:32 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] The NPR and Venezuela In-Reply-To: <01D7BAF9-1CB7-4AC1-9805-E4B9196F2C9D@illinois.edu> References: <01D7BAF9-1CB7-4AC1-9805-E4B9196F2C9D@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <007201d55088$fa9a53d0$efcefb70$@comcast.net> Indeed Mort, Which Is why I stopped listening to NPR back in the late 1990’s. This is what happens when supposedly PUBLIC media outlets like NPR and PBS ( which I use to love to consume ) are for the most part de-funded of OUR taxpayer monies ( thank you Jessie Helms of South Carolina, may you rot in hell ) during the late 1980’s and instead have to go begging for corporate underwriting monies. AND have assholes like the Koch Brothers on the national Board of Directors of NPR / PBS. David J. From: Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Brussel, Morton K via Peace-discuss Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2019 1:12 PM To: Peace Discuss Cc: Brussel, Morton K Subject: [Peace-discuss] The NPR and Venezuela Just to be reminded of the dreadful NPR “news", see https://fair.org/home/npr-shreds-ethics-handbook-to-normalize-regime-change-in-venezuela/?awt_l=MhEdm &awt_m=hT9b2HTPh0OI_TQ —mkb -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net Sun Aug 11 21:08:56 2019 From: davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net (David Johnson) Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2019 16:08:56 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] FW: NYT front page article on Sweden (5, 000 words) References: <83AA23C3-DA76-4B53-BDFC-ABA514A748BE@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <007f01d55088$fd4ca290$f7e5e7b0$@comcast.net> From: David Johnson [mailto:davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net] Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2019 4:04 PM To: 'Brussel, Morton K' Subject: RE: [Peace-discuss] NYT front page article on Sweden (5,000 words) Indeed Mort, Sweden has never been the same since the murder of the popular and independent foreign policy assertive Olaf Palme. After his murder, which the assassin had some very questionable connections to the CIA, the Swedish capitalist class went on a neo-liberal offensive, and by the late 1990’s had not only began an austerity program against working people and the welfare state, but also had re-aligned and re-oriented the Swedish police into a more brutal oppressive apparatus. Before, Sweden was the largest independent critic of U.S. foreign policy ( along with Pierre Trudeau in Canada ) and now the government of Sweden are even worse U.S. boot lickers than the German government ( as opposed to the vast majority of the German people ). In terms of Unions and the standard of living of Swedish workers, a Swedish school teacher who is a trade Union activist who I somewhat know, posted a series of reports on a U.K. Socialist list-serve I am on, about the phenomena in Sweden in recent years, about how currently most Workers in Sweden are temp workers ( both native and immigrant ) who work for international temp placement corporations who are based in the Republic of Ireland. Therefore they are exempt from Swedish Labor laws. He stated that less than 20 % of Swedish workers are organized in Unions ( compared to close to 90 % prior to the 1990’s ) and that most of the immigrant temp workers are from Eastern Europe and Russia. David J. From: Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Brussel, Morton K via Peace-discuss Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2019 1:01 PM To: David Green Cc: Brussel, Morton K; Peace-discuss; Karen Aram Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] NYT front page article on Sweden (5,000 words) This is typical of NYT’s articles/propaganda: Anti-Russia. Sweden has been an ardent supporter of NATO’s actions relative to Russia, and has a history of blaming Russia on various grounds—mysterious submarines in the Baltic sea, overflights, etc... There’s much to be skeptical about in this article. On Aug 11, 2019, at 11:31 AM, David Green via Peace-discuss wrote: I think it's important to understand how the immigrant issue is being weaponized by liberals, with Putin playing the same role that Communism in general did during the Cold War. These people were not worried about the scurrilous things that Daniel Pipes and Judith Miller etc. were saying about Muslims in the 1990s; now they can't get enough of neo-fascism. The agenda of this article is, to me, very transparent: scare people into voting for any Democrat who is put forward. It would be interesting to know whether the local pro-immigrant groups and members, like "Bend the Arc," accept this analysis. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/world/europe/sweden-immigration-nationalism.html?action=click &module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage The New Nativists The Global Machine Behind the Rise of Far-Right Nationalism Sweden was long seen as a progressive utopia. Then came waves of immigrants — and the forces of populism at home and abroad. The square where witnesses said Russian journalists were trying to bribe immigrants into violence. By Jo Becker Aug. 10, 2019 RINKEBY, Sweden — Johnny Castillo, a Peruvian-born neighborhood watchman in this district of Stockholm, still puzzles over the strange events that two years ago turned the central square of this predominantly immigrant community into a symbol of multiculturalism run amok. First came a now-infamous comment by President Trump, suggesting that Sweden’s history of welcoming refugees was at the root of a violent attack in Rinkeby the previous evening, even though nothing had actually happened. “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden! Who would believe this? Sweden!” Mr. Trump told supporters at a rally on Feb. 18, 2017. “They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.” But two days later, as Swedish officials were heaping bemused derision on Mr. Trump, something did in fact happen in Rinkeby: Several dozen masked men attacked police officers making a drug arrest, throwing rocks and setting cars ablaze. And it was right around that time, according to Mr. Castillo and four other witnesses, that Russian television crews showed up, offering to pay immigrant youths “to make trouble” in front of the cameras. “They wanted to show that President Trump is right about Sweden,” Mr. Castillo said, “that people That nativist rhetoric — that immigrants are invading the homeland — has gained ever-greater traction, and political acceptance, across the West amid dislocations wrought by vast waves of migration from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. In its most extreme form, it is echoed in the online manifesto of the man accused of gunning down 22 people last weekend in El Paso. In the nationalists’ message-making, Sweden has become a prime cautionary tale, dripping with schadenfreude. What is even more striking is how many people in Sweden — progressive, egalitarian, welcoming Sweden — seem to be warming to the nationalists’ view: that immigration has brought crime, chaos and a fraying of the cherished social safety net, not to mention a withering away of national culture and tradition. Fueled by an immigration backlash — Sweden has accepted more refugees per capita than any other European country — right-wing populism has taken hold, reflected most prominently in the steady ascent of a political party with neo-Nazi roots, the Sweden Democrats. In elections last year, they captured nearly 18 percent of the vote. To dig beneath the surface of what is happening in Sweden, though, is to uncover the workings of an international disinformation machine, devoted to the cultivation, provocation and amplication of far-right, anti-immigrant passions and political forces. Indeed, that machine, most influentially rooted in Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia and the American far right, underscores a fundamental irony of this political moment: the globalization of nationalism. The central target of these manipulations from abroad — and the chief instrument of the Swedish nationalists’ success — is the country’s increasingly popular, and virulently anti-immigrant, digital echo chamber. A New York Times examination of its content, personnel and traffic patterns illustrates how foreign state and nonstate actors have helped to give viral momentum to a clutch of Swedish far-right web sites. Russian and Western entities that traffic in disinformation, including an Islamaphobic think tank whose former chairman is now Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, have been crucial linkers to the Swedish sites, helping to spread their message to susceptible Swedes. At least six Swedish sites have received financial backing through advertising revenue from a Russian- and Ukrainian-owned auto-parts business based in Berlin, whose online sales network oddly contains buried digital links to a range of far-right and other socially divisive content. Writers and editors for the Swedish sites have been befriended by the Kremlin. And in one strange Rube Goldbergian chain of events, a frequent German contributor to one Swedish site has been implicated in the financing of a bombing in Ukraine, in a suspected Russian false-flag operation. The distorted view of Sweden pumped out by this disinformation machine has been used, in turn, by anti-immigrant parties in Britain, Germany, Italy and elsewhere to stir xenophobia and gin up votes, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based nonprofit that tracks the online spread of far-right extremism. “I’d put Sweden up there with the anti-Soros campaign,” said Chloe Colliver, a researcher for the institute, referring to anti-Semitic attacks on George Soros, the billionaire benefactor of liberal causes. “It’s become an enduring centerpiece of the far-right conversation.” >From Margins to Mainstream Mattias Karlsson, the Sweden Democrats’ international secretary and chief ideologist, likes to tell the story of how he became a soldier in what he has described as the “existential battle for our culture’s and our nation’s survival.” It was the mid-1990s and Mr. Karlsson, now 41, was attending high school in the southern city of Vaxjo. Sweden was accepting a record number of refugees from the Balkan War and other conflicts. In Vaxjo and elsewhere, young immigrant men began joining brawling “kicker” gangs, radicalizing Mr. Karlsson and drawing him toward the local skinhead scene. He took to wearing a leather jacket with a Swedish flag on the back and was soon introduced to Mats Nilsson, a Swedish National Socialist leader who gave him a copy of “Mein Kampf.” They began to debate: Mr. Nilsson argued that the goal should be ethnic purity — the preservation of “Swedish DNA.” Mr. Karlsson countered that the focus should be on preserving national culture and identity. That, he said, was when Mr. Nilsson conferred on him an epithet of insufficient commitment to the cause — “meatball patriot,” meaning that “I thought that every African or Arab can come to this country as long as they assimilate and eat meatballs.” It is an account that offers the most benign explanation for an odious association. Whatever the case, in 1999, he joined the Sweden Democrats, a party undeniably rooted in Sweden’s neo-Nazi movement. Indeed, scholars of the far right say that is what sets it apart from most anti-immigration parties in Europe and makes its rise from marginalized to mainstream so remarkable. The party was founded in 1988 by several Nazi ideologues, including a former member of the Waffen SS. Early on, it sought international alliances with the likes of the White Aryan Resistance, a white supremacist group founded by a former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Some Sweden Democrats wore Nazi uniforms to party functions. Its platform included the forced repatriation of all immigrants since 1970. That was not, however, a winning formula in a country where social democrats have dominated every election for more than a century. While attending university, Mr. Karlsson had met Jimmie Akesson, who took over the Sweden Democrats’ youth party in 2000 and became party leader in 2005. Mr. Akesson was outspoken in his belief that Muslim refugees posed “the biggest foreign threat to Sweden since the Second World War.” But to make that case effectively, he and Mr. Karlsson agreed, they needed to remake the party’s image. “We needed to really address our past,” Mr. Karlsson said. They purged neo-Nazis who had been exposed by the press. They announced a “zero tolerance” policy toward extreme xenophobia and racism, emphasized their youthful leadership and urged members to dress presentably. And while immigration remained at the center of their platform, they moderated the way they talked about it. No longer was the issue framed in terms of keeping certain ethnic groups out, or deporting those already in. Rather it was about how unassimilated migrants were eviscerating not just the nation’s cultural identity but also the social-welfare heart of the Swedish state. Under the grand, egalitarian idea of the “folkhemmet,” or people’s home, in which the country is a family and its citizens take care of one another, Swedes pay among the world’s highest effective tax rates, in return for benefits like child care, health care, free college education and assistance when they grow old. The safety net has come under strain for a host of economic and demographic reasons, many of which predate the latest refugee flood. But in the Sweden Democrats’ telling, the blame lies squarely at the feet of the foreigners, many of whom lag far behind native Swedes in education and economic accomplishment. One party advertisement depicted a white woman trying to collect benefits while being pursued by niqab-wearing immigrants pushing strollers. To what extent the party’s makeover is just window dressing is an open question. The doubts were highlighted in what became known as “the Iron Pipe Scandal” in 2012. Leaked video showed two Sweden Democrat MPs and the party’s candidate for attorney general hurling racist slurs at a comedian of Kurdish descent, then threatening a drunken witness with iron pipes. Under Mr. Akesson and Mr. Karlsson, the party has hosted the American white nationalist Richard Spencer. High-ranking party officials have bounced between Sweden and Hungary, ruled by the authoritarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Mr. Karlsson himself has come under fire for calling out an extremist site as neo-fascist while using an alias to recommend posts as “worth reading” to party members. “There’s a public face and the face they wear behind closed doors,” said Daniel Poohl, who heads Expo, a Stockholm-based foundation that tracks far-right extremism. Still, even detractors admit that strategy has worked. In 2010, the Sweden Democrats captured 5.7 percent of the vote, enough for the party, and Mr. Karlsson, to enter Parliament for the first time. That share has steadily increased along with the growing population of refugees. (Today, roughly 20 percent of Sweden’s population is foreign born.) At its peak in 2015, Sweden accepted 163,000 asylum-seekers, mostly from Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria. Though border controls and tighter rules have eased that flow, Ardalan Shekarabi, the country’s public administration minister, acknowledged that his government had been slow to act. Mr. Shekarabi, an immigrant from Iran, said the sheer number of refugees had overwhelmed the government’s efforts to integrate them. “I absolutely don’t think that the majority of Swedes have racist or xenophobic views, but they had questions about this migration policy and the other parties didn’t have any answers,” he said. “Which is one of the reasons why Sweden Democrats had a case.” A Right-Wing Echo Chamber As the 2018 elections approached, Swedish counterintelligence was on high alert for foreign interference. Russia, the hulking neighbor to the east, was seen as the main threat. After the Kremlin’s meddling in the 2016 American election, Sweden had reason to fear it could be next. “Russia’s goal is to weaken Western countries by polarizing the debate,” said Daniel Stenling, the Swedish Security Service’s counterintelligence chief. “For the last five years, we have seen more and more aggressive intelligence work against our nation.” But as it turned out, there was no hacking and dumping of internal campaign documents, as in the United States. Nor was there an overt effort to swing the election to the Sweden Democrats, perhaps because the party, in keeping with Swedish popular opinion, has become more critical of the Kremlin than some of its far-right European counterparts. Instead, security officials say, the foreign influence campaign took a different, more subtle form: helping nurture Sweden’s rapidly evolving far-right digital ecosystem. For years, the Sweden Democrats had struggled to make their case to the public. Many mainstream media outlets declined their ads. The party even had difficulty getting the postal service to deliver its mailers. So it built a network of closed Facebook pages whose reach would ultimately exceed that of any other party. But to thrive in the viral sense, that network required fresh, alluring content. It drew on a clutch of relatively new websites whose popularity was exploding. Members of the Sweden Democrats helped create two of them: Samhallsnytt (News in Society) and Nyheter Idag (News Today). By the 2018 election year, they, along with a site called Fria Tider (Free Times), were among Sweden’s 10 most shared news sites. A number of news sites with anti-immigrant messages helped propel Sweden Democrats to popularity. These sites each reached one-tenth of all Swedish internet users a week and, according to an Oxford University study, accounted for 85 percent of the election-related “junk news” — deemed deliberately distorted or misleading — shared online. There were other sites, too, all injecting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic messaging into the Swedish political bloodstream. “Immigration Behind Shortage of Drinking Water in Northern Stockholm,” read one recent headline. “Refugee Minor Raped Host Family’s Daughter; Thought It Was Legal,” read another. “Performed Female Genital Mutilation on Her Children — Given Asylum in Sweden,” read a third. Russia’s hand in all of this is largely hidden from view. But fingerprints abound. For instance, one writer for Samhallsnytt, who previously worked for the Sweden Democrats, was recently declined parliamentary press accreditation after the security police determined he had been in contact with Russian intelligence. Fria Tider is considered not only one of the most extreme sites, but also among the most Kremlin-friendly. It frequently swaps material with the Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik. The site is linked, via domain ownership records, to Granskning Sverige, called the Swedish “troll factory” for its efforts to entrap and embarrass mainstream journalists. Among its frequent targets: journalists who write negatively about Russia. “We’ve had death threats, spam attacks, emails — this year has been totally crazy,” said Eva Burman, the editor of Eskilstuna-Kuriren, a newspaper that found itself in the cross hairs after criticizing the Russian annexation of Crimea and investigating Granskning Sverige itself. At the magazine Nya Tider, the editor, Vavra Suk, has traveled to Moscow as an election observer and to Syria, where he produced Kremlin-friendly accounts of the civil war. Nya Tider has published work by Alexander Dugin, an ultranationalist Russian philosopher who has been called “Putin’s Rasputin”; Mr. Suk’s writings for Mr. Dugin’s think tank include one titled “Donald Trump Can Make Europe Great Again.” Nya Tider’s contributors include Manuel Ochsenreiter, editor of Zuerst!, a German far-right newspaper. Mr. Ochsenreiter — who has appeared regularly on RT, the Kremlin propaganda channel — worked until recently for Markus Frohnmaier, a member of the German Bundestag representing the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Documents leaked to a consortium of European media outlets — documents that Mr. Frohnmaier has called fake — have suggested that Moscow aided his election campaign in order to have an “absolutely controlled MP.” Mr. Ochsenreiter, for his part, has been implicated in Polish court in the financing of a 2018 firebombing attack on a Hungarian cultural center in Ukraine. The plot, according to testimony from a Polish extremist charged with carrying it out, was designed to pin responsibility on Ukrainian nationalists and stoke ethnic tensions, to Russia’s benefit. Mr. Ochsenreiter has not been charged in Poland, but prosecutors in Berlin said they had begun a preliminary investigation. He has denied involvement. Mr. Suk declined to comment. Then there is Nyheter Idag. Its founder, Chang Frick — a former Sweden Democrat official who takes a maverick’s glee in his defiance of orthodoxy — readily admits to being a paid contributor to RT. At a pizza shop near his home one afternoon, he pointedly noted that his girlfriend was Russian and, with a flourish, pulled out a wad of rubles from a recent trip. “Here is my real boss! It’s Putin!” he laughed. But Mr. Frick, the son of a Swedish Roma and a Polish Jew, said Nyheter Idag answered to no one, neither the Sweden Democrats nor the Kremlin, though he added that his relentless reporting about the problems posed by immigrants dovetailed with both their agendas. “People can see what’s happening in the streets,” he said, adding, “I’ve been accused of being a racist — I’m being ‘paid by the Sweden Democrats,’ I’m ‘a spy for Russia.’ That just tells me I’m kicking where it hurts.” Still, he said he had reason to believe that “there is a little bit of collusion between Russia and some Swedish right-wing media.” One of his early scoops involved exposing the drinking and womanizing shenanigans of a Sweden Democrat member of Parliament who had been invited to Moscow. During that reporting trip, he said, he was invited to serve as an independent observer in Russia’s presidential election and to meet Mr. Putin. He declined the invitation. There is another curious Russian common denominator: Six of Sweden’s alt-right sites have drawn advertising revenue from a network of online auto-parts stores based in Germany and owned by four businessmen from Russia and Ukraine, three of whom have adopted German-sounding surnames. The ads were first noticed by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, which discovered that while they appeared to be for a variety of outlets, all traced back to the same Berlin address and were owned by a parent company, Autodoc GmbH. The Times found that the company had also placed ads on anti-Semitic and other extremist sites in Germany, Hungary, Austria and elsewhere in Europe. Which raised a question: Was the auto-parts dealer simply trying to drum up business, or was it also trying to support the far-right cause? Rikard Lindholm, co-founder of a data-driven marketing firm who has worked with Swedish authorities to combat disinformation, dug deeper into the Autodoc network. Hidden beneath the user-friendly interface of some of the earliest Autodoc sites lay what Mr. Lindholm, an expert in the forensic analysis of online traffic, described as “icebergs” of blog-like content completely unrelated to auto parts, translated into a variety of languages. A visitor to one of the car-parts sites could not simply access this content from the home page; instead, one had to know and type in the full URL. “It’s like they have a back door and it’s open and you can have a look around, but to do that you have to know that the door is there,” Mr. Lindholm said. Much of the content was not political. But there were links to posts about a range of divisive social issues, some of them translated into other languages. One hidden link — about female genital mutilation in Muslim countries — had been translated from English to Polish before being posted. Yet another post, from a site called AnsweringIslam.net, concluded, “Islam hates you.” Thomas Casper, a spokesman for Autodoc, said the company had no “interest at all in supporting alt-right media,” and added, “We vehemently oppose racism and far-right principles.” He said the company’s digital advertising team worked with third parties to place ads on “trusted websites with substantial traffic.” Autodoc, he said, had instituted controls to try to ensure that it no longer advertised on far-right sites. Autodocs has advertised on far-right sites in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe, including this Hungarian site which has a section devoted to Holocaust denialism. As for the icebergs, after receiving The Times’s inquiry, the company removed what Mr. Casper called the “obviously dubious and outdated content.” It had originally been placed there, he said, to improve search engine optimization. But Mr. Lindholm said that made no sense. “By linking to irrelevant content, it actually hurts their business because Google frowns on that,” he said. Links Abroad Another way to look inside the explosive growth of Sweden’s alt-right outlets is to see who is linking to them. The more links, especially from well-trafficked outlets, the more likely Google is to rank the sites as authoritative. That, in turn, means that Swedes are more likely to see them when they search for, say, immigration and crime. The Times analyzed more than 12 million available links from over 18,000 domains to four prominent far-right sites — Nyheter Idag, Samhallsnytt, Fria Tider and Nya Tider. The data was culled by Mr. Lindholm from two search engine optimization tools and represents a snapshot of all known links through July 2. As expected, given the relative paucity of Swedish speakers worldwide, most of the links came from Swedish-language sites. But the analysis turned up a surprising number of links from well-trafficked foreign-language sites — which suggests that the Swedish sites’ rapid growth has been driven to a significant degree from abroad. “It has the makings, the characteristics, of an operation whose purpose or goal is to help these sites become relevant by getting them to be seen as widely as possible,” Mr. Lindholm said. Over all, more than one in five links were from non-Swedish language sites. English-language sites, along with Norwegian ones, linked the most, nearly a million times. But other European-language far-right sites — Russian but also Czech, Danish, German, Finnish and Polish — were also frequent linkers. The Times identified 356 domains that linked to all four Swedish sites. Many are well known in American far-right circles. Among them is the Gatestone Institute, a think tank whose site regularly stokes fears about Muslims in the United States and Europe. Its chairman until last year was John R. Bolton, now Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, and its funders have included Rebekah Mercer, a prominent wealthy Trump supporter. Other domains that linked to all four Swedish sites included Stormfront, one of the oldest and largest American white supremacist sites; Voice of Europe, a Kremlin-friendly right-wing site; a Russian-language blog called Sweden4Rus.nu; and FreieWelt.net, a site supportive of the AfD in Germany. This loosely knit global network does not just help increase readership in Sweden; researchers have tracked how Russian state outlets like RT and Sputnik, along with Western platforms like Infowars and Breitbart, have picked up and amplified Swedish immigration-related stories to galvanize xenophobia among their audiences. Bjorn Palmertz, a disinformation specialist at the Swedish Defense University, said this “information laundry” had resulted in globally viral stories like the one about the Swedish town that allowed a mosque to issue calls to prayer while denying a church’s application to ring its bells — never mind that the church had not applied. “Sweden is portrayed either as a heaven or a hell,” said Annika Rembe, Sweden’s consul general in New York. “But conservative value-based politicians in Hungary, Poland, the United States and elsewhere would use Sweden as an example of a failed state: If you follow this path, your society will look like Sweden’s.” The auditorium at Rinkebyskolan, a middle school across the street from Rinkeby’s town square, filled rapidly. Women wearing hijabs and burqas spilled in, taking their seats on the left. Men sat to the right. >From the speakers came the voice of an imam reading from the Quran. Developed as part of a 1960s-era government initiative to build a million affordable dwellings, Rinkeby was originally home to a mix of Swedes and laborers from southern Europe. Over time it became known as Sweden’s “Village of the World,” with people from more than 100 countries living in drab, low-slung apartment blocks. Today, more than 91 percent of Rinkeby’s roughly 16,400 residents are immigrants and their children. At a long table in front of the auditorium sat Niclas Andersson, a towering man who serves as Rinkeby’s police chief. Once prayers concluded, the audience began peppering him with questions. Some worried about drug trafficking inside the apartment complexes, others about the prevalence of guns. Could the police install more cameras? To be sure, Mr. Andersson said in an interview afterward, there were problems in Rinkeby, his posting for 18 years. But it is hardly the hellscape that nationalists bent on painting Sweden as a failed state hold it out to be. Many newcomers still struggle to get a foothold in the job market, so unemployment is relatively high, at 8.8 percent. And in the larger Rinkeby-Kista borough, there were 825 reported episodes of violent crime last year, a rate 36 percent higher per capita than Stockholm as a whole. But Mr. Andersson does not recognize the Rinkeby portrayed in the movie — directed by a filmmaker who has shot political ads for Republicans in Congress — that led Mr. Trump to make his “last night in Sweden” remarks. Rinkeby is not a no-go zone, Mr. Andersson said, an assertion supported by the film’s chief cameraman, who has acknowledged that officers who seemed to suggest otherwise had been edited out of context. In fact, the number of police officers in Rinkeby has more than quadrupled since 2015. Assaults and robberies are down, Mr. Andersson said. Fatal shootings are down, too — of 11 in Stockholm last year, one was in Rinkeby. Nationally, the violent crime rate is one-fifth that of the United States. “It was a heavily slanted picture,” Mr. Andersson said. “You zero in on a couple of incidents, then use that to describe the whole area.” By the time Mr. Trump zeroed in on Rinkeby, “the government was tackling the problems,” said Amela Mahovic, a local reporter for Swedish public television. When the actual clash broke out soon after, she said, community elders spread the word to local youths: “You need to stop this.” But soon, they said, they found that outside forces wanted the world to see a different picture. Guleed Mohamed, then a researcher for public television, said he had spoken to a reporting team from Russia and Ukraine in Rinkeby Square that week and had tried to ask about Russia. “They changed the subject to how multiculturalism doesn’t work,” he recalled. “And then they quickly connected that to the clash — ‘I want to talk about the riot. Don’t you think this is connected to the influx of migrants?’” Hani Al Saleh, a Syrian who came to Sweden as a teenager, was working as a guard in Rinkeby. Tall and muscular with a sculpted beard, Mr. Saleh is known as “Amo,” or uncle, by the local youth. He said three young immigrants he knew told him that Russian journalists had tried to bribe them with 400 kronor (about $43) apiece. “Boys, do you want to do some action in front of the camera?” they said the Russian journalists asked them. Mr. Saleh later took a Danish journalist to meet two of the young men. After searching online, they recognized the logo of the Russian state-owned news channel NTV, along with the Russians who had made the offer. The journalist contacted NTV, which denied the whole thing. But besides Mr. Castillo, the night watchman, The Times found other witnesses who backed up Mr. Saleh’s account. Elvir Kazinic and Mustafa Zatara said they were in the square a couple of days after the clash when they overheard another group of young men talking about Russian journalists and a 400 krona bribe to fight. “To stoop to that level and offer kids money,” said Mr. Kazinic, a Bosnian émigré who serves on Rinkeby’s district council, “that is low.” Mr. Zatara, a poet, knows well the consequences of stirring up anti-immigrant racism. His father, Hasan Zatara, a Palestinian, came to Sweden in 1969, earned a high school diploma and opened a convenience store. Standing behind the cash register on a January afternoon 27 years ago, he became the final victim of John Ausonius, a serial shooter who terrorized immigrant communities, killing one person and wounding 10 others. Hasan Zatara was paralyzed. Mr. Ausonius later said he was inspired by the anti-immigrant party of the day, New Democracy. “When my father was shot in 1992, we had New Democracy,” Mustafa Zatara said. “Today we have the Sweden Democrats. Then, they wore bomber jackets and boots. Today, they wear bow ties and suits. It’s normalized now in the Swedish political corridor.” Building a Coalition After the commotion in Rinkeby died down, Russian news agencies kept calling the police, fruitlessly asking permission to ride with officers patrolling the district. “This went on week in and week out,” said Varg Gyllander, the department’s press officer. Last September, right after the Swedish elections, the requests abruptly stopped. The Sweden Democrats had their best showing yet. Their nearly 18 percent share of the vote hamstrung Swedish politics, with the mainstream parties unable to form a government for more than four months. The Social Democrats finally formed a shaky coalition that excluded the Sweden Democrats. But it came at a price: some prominent center-right politicians are now expressing a willingness to work with the Sweden Democrats, portending a new political alignment. In February, the Sweden Democrats’ Mr. Karlsson strode into a Washington-area hotel where leaders of the American and European right were gathering for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. As he settled in at the lobby bar, straightening his navy three-piece suit, he was clearly very much at home. At the conference — where political boot-camp training mixed with speeches by luminaries like Mr. Trump and the British populist leader Nigel Farage — Mr. Karlsson hoped to learn about the infrastructure of the American conservative movement, particularly its funding and use of the media and think tanks to broaden its appeal. But in a measure of how nationalism and conservatism have merged in Mr. Trump’s Washington, many of the Americans with whom he wanted to network were just as eager to network with him. Mr. Karlsson had flown in from Colorado, where he had given a speech at the Steamboat Institute, a conservative think tank. That morning, Tobias Andersson, 23, the Sweden Democrats’ youngest member of Parliament and a contributor to Breitbart, had spoken to Americans for Tax Reform, a bastion of tax-cut orthodoxy. Now, they found themselves encircled by admirers like Matthew Hurtt, the director for external relationships at Americans for Prosperity, part of the billionaire Koch brothers’ political operation, and Matthew Tyrmand, a board member of Project Veritas, a conservative group that uses undercover filming to sting its targets. Mr. Tyrmand, who is also an adviser to a senator from Poland’s anti-immigration ruling Law and Justice party, was particularly eager. “You are taking your country back!” he exclaimed. Mr. Karlsson smiled. _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Mon Aug 12 23:03:31 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2019 18:03:31 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: BREAKING: U.S.-backed forces in Yemen rout U.S.-backed forces in Yemen References: <4410233357.1805619250@org.orgDB.reply.salsalabs.com> Message-ID: > > > U.S.-backed forces in Yemen attacked U.S.-backed forces in Yemen. What was the role of the U.S. in the attack? > > Ask HASC Chair Adam Smith to investigate > > Urge Pelosi to end the war > > Dear C. G., > > I hope you saw the important news over the weekend that U.S.-backed forces in Aden, the former and possibly future capital of South Yemen, routed U.S.-backed forces in Aden, the former and possibly future capital of South Yemen. > > More specifically, South Yemen [re-]independence activists of the Southern Transitional Council, backed by purportedU.S. “ally” the United Arab Emirates, routed forces loyal to the purported “government” of Yemen recognized by purported U.S. “ally” Saudi Arabia. Then the U.S.-armed and “trained” Saudi “air force” bombed Aden and threatened to bomb Aden more if the U.S.-backed forces associated with the UAE didn’t withdraw from Aden in favor of the “legitimate” U.S.-backed forces that had occupied Aden previously. > > Got it? > > This raises several questions. > > First: what more can happen now to illustrate how spectacularly stupid, evil and corrupt this whole war has been since the Barack Obama-Joe Biden Administration unconstitutionally started it without Congressional authorization in March 2015? > > > Second: what exactly was the role of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the State Department in helping the Saudi regime bomb forces in Aden that are opposed to Al Qaeda? Congress never authorized that, did they? Surely these forces “associated” with supposed U.S. “ally” the Emiratis couldn’t possibly be on the double-secret classified list of “associated forces” to Al Qaeda that the Trump Administration claims it has Congressional authorization under the 2001 AUMF to bomb, could they? > > Third: these South Yemen independence activists claim that if the Pentagon, the CIA and the State Department would just leave them alone in South Yemen, they’d have better ability to deal with the problem of Al Qaeda in South Yemen than the Pentagon, the CIA, and the State Department policies. It seems like an arrogant claim, doesn’t it? How could these South Yemenis possibly know more about dealing with the problem of Al Qaeda in South Yemen than the Smart and Serious People in the Pentagon, the CIA, and the State Department? > > On the other hand: these people live in South Yemen, they were born in South Yemen, they grew up in South Yemen. Would it kill us to hear them outwhen they say they have a better idea about how to deal with Al Qaeda in South Yemen than the Pentagon, the CIA, and the State Department, whose policies have apparently been captured by the Saudi regime? > > Here’s an idea for Making America Great Again by getting more use out of our U.S. tax dollars. There’s a committee in the House called the House Armed Services Committee [“HASC.”] The staffers of this committee are paid with our tax dollars to investigate questions like this [this used to be called “oversight.”] Why don’t we ask their boss, Adam Smith of Seattle, the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, to direct the committee staff to look into these questions and report back to us? > > Share my tweet to Adam Smith and HASC Democrats, urging them to investigate the U.S. role in the U.S.-assisted Saudi bombing of U.S.-backed forces in Aden. > > Tell Nancy Pelosi to shut down U.S. participation in the Saudi war in Yemen in the “veto proof” bill that “funds the troops” in August. > > Thanks for all you do to help mitigate the corruption and evil of U.S. foreign policy, > Robert Naiman > Just Foreign Policy > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From moboct1 at aim.com Tue Aug 13 12:57:23 2019 From: moboct1 at aim.com (Mildred O'brien) Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2019 12:57:23 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Peace-discuss] Argentine Primary References: <942572808.4920325.1565701043177.ref@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <942572808.4920325.1565701043177@mail.yahoo.com> Ha!  Alberto Fernandez, former law professor and head Cabinet Minister in the Kirchner administrations, had defeated by a large majority the austerity candidate and current President Mauricio Macri, in the Argentine primary.  Lamented by BBC and NPR as a "leftist likely to default on their $56 billion IMF loan as in 2001" (like that was a bad thing) Fernandez won the popular vote by a large margin over Macri, center-right and former student at Columbia Business School and favored in the U.S. business circles, as the stock market immediately fell by 15%.  You can be sure that The Establishment in  Argentina, United States, U.K., Brazil and every other capitalist concern in the world will do everything in their power to prevent a Fernadez victory in the final vote on October 27, making the "Russiagate" fiction look amateur.  The populace of Argentina who endured the economic collapse of 2001 and recovery by their own bootstraps have observed what's happening to their neighbors in Brazil. Midge -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Tue Aug 13 13:32:50 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2019 08:32:50 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] RIP Paul Findley Message-ID: <57AD28BC-B7A7-488A-8B3C-CE5D225B6A64@gmail.com> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Findley From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Tue Aug 13 16:45:09 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2019 11:45:09 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] News-Gazette on Bend the Arc Message-ID: The lack of a functioning anti-war/peace movement in CU, and the lack of a functioning movement for Palestinian rights in CU, have created the moral vacuum which can be filled by liberal Jews of this sort (Terry Maher). They identify with the ADL and the SPLC; they don't talk about foreign policy; they don't grapple with the relationship between Zionism and Islamophobia in American political culture; they promote "Jewish values" without seriously addressing Jewish institutional behavior vis a vis Israel, USFP, etc. Alan Dershowitz can come and go from this community without comment, or with approval from these people; as can Steven Salaita, with active or passive disapproval. It's disgusting. By the way, there is for all practical purposes *zero *white nationalism in our schools or community that goes beyond being classified as a "thought crime." But there's plenty of Zionism, including among the people who host this event. Beyond that, there's plenty of bourgeois self-righteousness and ignorance. *BEND THE ARC* *Expert in hate groups gets call* *Teacher to lead event on white nationalism* By LYNDSAY JONES ljones at news-gazette.com CHAMPAIGN — High school English teacher Nora Flanagan is aware that being a “Nazi expert” is a “weird thing to be an expert on.” But that’s what will bring her to Champaign’s Sinai Temple Thursday evening, where she’s slated to lead a workshop titled “ Confronting White Nationalism in Schools.” It’s the second in a series of local Bend the Arc events aimed at fostering “safety through solidarity, meaning an attack on a targeted group is an attack on all of us,” said the organization’s Terry Maher. “As we were doing our research on the problem of white nationalism nationally, we realized students as young as 11 were being targeted,” she said. “We thought that before Champaign- Urbana becomes the next in line, we ought to do something about white nationalism in the schools.” They invited Flanagan to come down from Chicago to lead the workshop, aimed at helping school staff, family members and community members identify and respond to signs of white nationalism or white supremacist recruitment or support in young adults. Flanagan grew up in a part of Chicago that had “a lot of intense race issues in the late 1980s and early 1990s,” when she observed hate-group recruitment efforts early on. She also grew up in “the Chicago punk scene,” where she observed and echoed anti-racist politics in action, then carried those principles into her teaching education at the University of Illinois-Chicago. But it wasn’t until she began work with an organization “researching how hate groups use music to recruit young people” that her work went to another level. “I spent a lot of time in the ugliest parts of the internet,” she said. “That was when I saw there were suggestions for kids on how to bring their politics to school — there were literally articles like ‘Here are five ways to be visible as white nationalist at your school.’” Eventually, she would co-author a guide to preventing such recruitment — the same one being presented Thursday — but at first, she was quiet about the knowledge she’d been accumulating. When things happened in her school, she observed administrators choose one of two options: “They either under-reacted or over-reacted,” she said. “They would either dismiss it as an issue, or when it was irrefutable, become excessively punitive. Neither addresses what is going on.” The toolkit she’ll discuss Thursday is designed to prevent either option and help users engage everyone involved — not just a child or student. “Everybody needs to be talking to everybody else because it’s a community issue,” she said. “One of the most dangerous things right now is these seemingly- minor incidents — like throwing up the sieg heil sign in the cafeteria and then dealing with the student who did it — but unless every kid who saw it knows that it was handled thoughtfully, then it wasn’t handled. “The goal is to help people respond more holistically in a way that’s going to help not just the community, but the kid in question.” After mass shootings in Gilroy, Calif., and El Paso, Texas — in which both gunmen espoused white supremacist ideology — Flanagan said she’s received more calls from people hoping to book speeches. “I keep forgetting school is in three weeks,” she said. “This could be my full-time job now: there is enough of a need for people to have these conversations that I could do this full-time.” Local members of Bend the Arc weren’t necessarily planning to have Flanagan be the featured speaker for their second series, but they, too, were motivated by the most recent string of mass shootings and the racist ideology behind them. “It’s domestic terrorism,” Maher said. “It’s horrifying. That is why we want to educate people: so they recognize the signs. We don’t want Champaign-Urbana to be next on the list. We can arm ourselves with knowledge and this is the way to do it.” -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Wed Aug 14 00:25:18 2019 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2019 19:25:18 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] AWARE on the Air #490 notes Message-ID: <21aa1d5f-1615-9b7a-8b04-3f44a3ce34c2@forestfield.org> AWARE on the Air #490 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2qn48iVQKY Matt Taibbi on "Who’s Afraid of Tulsi Gabbard?" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/podcast-tulsi-gabbard-kamala-harris-syria-iraq-870003/ Quint Forgey on "Gabbard will take two-week break from 2020 campaign for National Guard duty" https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/12/tulsi-gabbard-campaign-break-active-duty-1458155 Jeffrey St. Clair on "Roaming Charges: Measure for Half-Measure" https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/02/roaming-charges-measure-for-half-measure/ Related: https://71republic.com/tag/tulsi-gabbard-drone-strikes/ -- Ryan Lau on "Tulsi Gabbard Is a Hawk in Dove’s Clothing" https://digitalcitizen.info/2019/02/13/is-tulsi-gabbard-really-anti-war-no-shes-pro-drone-and-for-surgical-strikes/ -- J.B. Nicholson on "Is Tulsi Gabbard really anti-war? No, she’s pro-drone and for “surgical strikes”." Robbie Jaeger on "Tulsi Gabbard Has Enemies In High Places" https://medium.com/@RobletoFire/tulsi-gabbard-has-enemies-in-high-places-6fa7da05284 Lee Camp post to his Twitter account https://twitter.com/LeeCamp/status/1161046040881111040 Video Lee Camp linked to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emalZZJ-Stc Redacted Tonight shows: https://www.youtube.com/user/redactedtonight/videos Aaron Maté on the program “Going Underground" talks about the US war against Iran (sanctions are war) and the regime change war the US seeks to bring against Iran, as well as the connection to Israel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GZFI0GR018 Aaron Maté on his new program "Push Back" talking about how Russian fearmongering continues even though the Mueller report didn't prove any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians. In this episode, Aaron Maté interviews Stephen Cohen about Russiagate. Stephen Cohen is a member of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8T6qlXu7bU From brussel at illinois.edu Wed Aug 14 01:00:10 2019 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2019 01:00:10 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Feelings of Inertia and Dread Message-ID: A short commentary: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/july/feelings-of-inertia-and-dread?utm_source=LRB+blog+email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190813+blog&utm_content=usca_subs_blog -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Aug 16 01:06:09 2019 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2019 20:06:09 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Notes Message-ID: Here are some topics to consider discussing on NfN. Have a good show guys. Labor/Exploitation: How we get the devices some of us have -- "Schoolchildren in China work overnight to produce Amazon Alexa devices" https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/aug/08/schoolchildren-in-china-work-overnight-to-produce-amazon-alexa-devices So now we have more high-tech products that are abusing people from design, through manufacturing, all the way into intended ordinary use: Amazon's spybots (Alexa devices) are designed to listen to whatever is within microphone range and (judging by what Amazon contractors have access to) relay that to Amazon for storage and review (more on this below). The Guardian wrote: > Leaked documents show children as young as 16 recruited by Amazon > supplier Foxconn work gruelling and illegal hours > > Hundreds of schoolchildren have been drafted in to make Amazon’s Alexa > devices in China as part of a controversial and often illegal attempt to > meet production targets, documents seen by the Guardian reveal. > > Interviews with workers and leaked documents from Amazon’s supplier > Foxconn show that many of the children have been required to work nights > and overtime to produce the smart-speaker devices, in breach of Chinese > labour laws. > > According to the documents, the teenagers – drafted in from schools and > technical colleges in and around the central southern city of Hengyang – > are classified as “interns”, and their teachers are paid by the factory > to accompany them. Teachers are asked to encourage uncooperative pupils > to accept overtime work on top of regular shifts. Amazon supplier in > China ‘will tackle illegal work practices’ Read more > > Some of the pupils making Amazon’s Alexa-enabled Echo and Echo Dot > devices along with Kindles have been required to work for more than two > months to supplement staffing levels at the factory during peak > production periods, researchers found. More than 1,000 pupils are > employed, aged from 16 to 18. > > Chinese factories are allowed to employ students aged 16 and older, but > these schoolchildren are not allowed to work nights or overtime. > > Foxconn, which also makes iPhones for Apple, admitted that students had > been employed illegally and said it was taking immediate action to fix > the situation. > > The company said in a statement: “We have doubled the oversight and > monitoring of the internship program with each relevant partner school > to ensure that, under no circumstances, will interns [be] allowed to > work overtime or nights. > > “There have been instances in the past where lax oversight on the part > of the local management team has allowed this to happen and, while the > impacted interns were paid the additional wages associated with these > shifts, this is not acceptable and we have taken immediate steps to > ensure it will not be repeated.” It is worth noting that Apple and Foxconn said similar things years ago when word got out that Foxconn's Chinese workers were manufacturing Apple's devices (such as iPhones) under grueling, inhumane, and illegal working conditions sometimes resulting in suicides. Apple later contracted manufacturing from Pegatron and reports were comparable. See the Wikipedia article on "Foxconn suicides" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn_suicides) for more on this including many entries where the description field reads "Threw himself from building" dating 2010-2013. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/steve-jobs/7796546/Foxconn-suicide-rate-is-lower-than-in-the-US-says-Apples-Steve-Jobs.html Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs' famous response to the Foxconn suicides in June 2010: > "We are all over this," he told delegates at the D8 technology > conference in California. "We look at everything at these companies, and > I can tell you a few things that we know: Foxconn is not a sweatshop. > > "It's a factory, but they have restaurants and movie theatres. They've > had some suicides and attempted suicides. They have 400,000 people > there. The rate is under what the US rate is, but it's still troubling." One of the changes made in Foxconn factories: Foxconn's famed "suicide nets". Suicide nets are nets mounted on the outside of a factory building to slow a worker's descent after they fling themselves out of the building's windows in order to commit suicide. Spying: "The cloud" is just someone else's computer. What does that mean for you when data describing you or data with recordings of you is "in the cloud"? It means you should expect more spying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6S9RAtnzPE -- Facebook had human contractors "reviewing users Messenger voice chats" https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/qvgpkv/microsoft-updates-privacy-policy-admits-humans-listen-to-cortana-skype -- "Microsoft Admits Humans Listen to Skype and Cortana in Privacy Policy Update" https://www.cnet.com/how-to/amazon-and-google-are-listening-to-your-voice-recordings-heres-what-we-know/ -- "[Apple,] Amazon and Google are listening to your voice recordings." Service providers spy on you. If you hand your data over to another party, they'll spy on you. What they do with the data they glean is up to them. They don't owe you a report of what they collect, who collected it, how long they keep records, or what they do with those records. If you want to avoid being spied upon, don't hand over data to others. This could mean that you will have to have the spine to reject a product or service precisely because you want to avoid the spying that comes with that product or service. No matter how many interviews an organization's reps do, no matter what details they divulge you're still in the dark about what really happens because: * they could be lying (by comission or omission). Example from one the CNet article above: > Amazon, Apple and Google have each now suspended human review of user > audio recordings. This is CNet speaking beyond their knowledge and the available evidence. It would have been better for CNet to have written "have each now claimed to suspend human review..." because that's what Amazon, Apple, and Google are claiming. The tech press is mostly corporate media; corporate media who are used to writing advertisements for the organizations they talk about, not encouraging the reader to think critically and skeptically based on available evidence. * nothing they say is verifiable; no matter how willing and technically skilled you are, you lack the kind of access to their systems which you need in order to verify their claims, therefore all of their claims are unverifiable by you. * their service could run on proprietary software that they can't fully control (such as a service running on Windows, MacOS, or any other proprietary software). This means service providers can't stand behind claims of how secure their service is because they can't fully control their own computers. These reasons are also why we can only speculate when asked "why are they spying on us?" and why responses along the line of "I'm not doing anything interesting" fail to address the issue -- YOU don't determine what is interesting about you. Others determine this based on their needs in the moment. The NSA's slogan expresses the spies intention very well: "collect it all". You can work around this to some degree by encrypting the data you send but that will only hide the data from intermediaries (your ISP, your phone company, etc.) if the receiver handles the data correctly, and even then only for a while. If the receiver leaks the data (on purpose or on accident), the unencrypted data (known as "the plaintext") gets out, becomes indexed, and becomes part of what others claim is true about you. Eventually someone figures out a way to decrypt strong encryption, so the goal of encryption is to keep the plaintext out of the wrong hands while the people described in the plaintext are alive. Also, one has to be careful of proprietary software encryption because, for all we know, proprietary encryption is weaker than we need, or encrypting the data in a way where the proprietor can decrypt it without the user's knowledge or consent. Proprietary software is always untrustworthy. No matter how technical or willing you are to review the program, you have no source code to work with, if you somehow discover the program does something bad you aren't allowed to improve the program (aka helping yourself), and you're not allowed to share an improved version with others (aka helping your community) even if you make an improved version. The solution is to use software that respects your freedom to run, share, inspect, and modify the software known as free software (the word 'free' is a reference to freedom not price). Proprietary programs have backdoors in them that allow access before the data is encrypted; so even if a proprietary program has provably strong encryption which is used well to guard against third parties seeing the data, the data can still be read in full by leaking it before it is encrypted. War: Aaron Maté: "Trump starves Venezuela, Democrats are silent" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37-PILH78Ys -- Aaron Maté on how compliant the Democratic Party is (including those who back the so-called "resistance" to Pres. Trump) as the Trump administration intensifies its anti-Venezuela sanctions via a new Executive Order. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-blocking-property-government-venezuela/ -- the latest published XO. Economist Francisco Rodríguez claims that US sanctions against Venezuela will likely cause a famine in Venezuela and hundreds of thousands of deaths. Francisco Rodríguez: At this moment, given the information that we have, the most reasonable conclusion based on the data is that a famine is going to occur in Venezuela over the course of the next 12 months. John Bolton wants Venezuelan President Maduro to withdraw allowing the US to launch new elections (which ostensibly would put the American stooge Juan Guaido in power). For now, continued increasing sanctions mean continued increasing suffering which will weaken the Venezuelan people: > John Bolton: It worked in Panama, it worked in Nicaragua once[1], and it > will work there again, and it will work in Venezuela and Cuba. United > States has used similar and even more aggressive tools like these in > Iran, North Korea, and Syria. Now Venezuela is part of this very > exclusive club of rogue states. [1] A reference to the 1980s terror war waged until the Nicaraguan people voted out the leftist Sandinista government. Here's the overall tactic as described by former CIA agent John Stockwell in 1989: > John Stockwell: The point is to put pressure on the targeted government > by ripping apart the social and economic fabric of the country. Now > that's words, you know, "social and economic fabric" -- that means > making the people suffer as much as you can until the country plunges > into chaos until at some point you can step in and impose your choice of > governments on that country. What do the Democrats have to do with this? > Aaron Maté: Democrats Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Eliot Engel, Joe Biden, > Bill Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and Dick Durbin and many more have all come > out to endorse the Trump administration's coup attempt in Venezuela. One could add to that list: Bernie Sanders who caucuses with Democrats. His tweet repeats CIA pro-coup language and views: https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1099380342018912257 > The people of Venezuela are enduring a serious humanitarian crisis. The > Maduro government must put the needs of its people first, allow > humanitarian aid into the country, and refrain from violence against > protesters. Sanders claims to oppose a regime change war in Venezuela. Aaron Maté reminds us that the Democrats are supporting the coup under Trump perhaps because that coup began under Obama -- continuing policy. > Aaron Maté: A handful of Democrats including Ilhan Omar, Bernie Sanders, > Tulsi Gabbard, and Ro Khanna, have opposed regime change in Venezuela. > But even then, their opposition is tepid, qualified, and pretty rare. > Just imagine if things were different: imagine how much harder it would > be for Trump, Bolton, and Mike Pompeo to deny food and medicine to > millions of Venezuelans if any of their critics in Congress or in the > media would make this an issue. But that hasn't happened. Since this > embargo was announced, Trump's critics in Congress and in the media have > not even mentioned it. So really, the Trump administration is not just > relying on a strategy here of making the Venezuelan people suffer, it is > also reliant on the assumption that it won't face any domestic > resistance for starving and besieging Venezuela. And so far that plan is > working. Climate: "Earth Stopped Getting Greener 20 Years Ago: Declining plant growth is linked toward decreasing air moisture tied to global warming" https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-stopped-getting-greener-20-years-ago/ > The world is gradually becoming less green, scientists have found. Plant > growth is declining all over the planet, and new research links the > phenomenon to decreasing moisture in the air—a consequence of climate > change. > > The study published yesterday in Science Advances points to satellite > observations that revealed expanding vegetation worldwide during much of > the 1980s and 1990s. But then, about 20 years ago, the trend stopped. > > Since then, more than half of the world’s vegetated landscapes have been > experiencing a “browning” trend, or decrease in plant growth, according > to the authors. > > Climate records suggest the declines are associated with a metric known > as vapor pressure deficit—that’s the difference between the amount of > moisture the air actually holds versus the maximum amount of moisture it > could be holding. A high deficit is sometimes referred to as an > atmospheric drought. > > Since the late 1990s, more than half of the world’s vegetated landscapes > have experienced a growing deficit, or drying pattern. > > Climate models indicate that vapor pressure deficit is likely to > continue increasing as the world warms—a pattern that “might have a > substantially negative impact on vegetation,” the authors write. > > It’s not the first study to document the global decline in vegetation. A > 2010 study in Science was among the first to demonstrate that the > greening increases of the 1990s had stalled or reversed. That study also > suggested that the declines were probably water-related. > > That’s not to say every last corner of Earth is losing its vegetation. > Some recent studies have revealed that parts of the Arctic are > “greening” as the chilly landscape warms. And there’s increasing plant > growth still happening in other regions of the world, as well. > > But on a global scale, averaged across the entire planet, the trend is > pointing downward. Economy: CEO/worker pay gap widens, evidence of neoliberalism continues apace -- "CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978. Typical worker compensation has risen only 12% during that time." https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-2018/ > What this report finds: The increased focus on growing inequality has > led to an increased focus on CEO pay. Corporate boards running America’s > largest public firms are giving top executives outsize compensation > packages. Average pay of CEOs at the top 350 firms in 2018 was $17.2 > million—or $14.0 million using a more conservative measure. (Stock > options make up a big part of CEO pay packages, and the conservative > measure values the options when granted, versus when cashed in, or > “realized.”) CEO compensation is very high relative to typical worker > compensation (by a ratio of 278-to-1 or 221-to-1). In contrast, the > CEO-to-typical-worker compensation ratio (options realized) was 20-to-1 > in 1965 and 58-to-1 in 1989. CEOs are even making a lot more—about five > times as much—as other earners in the top 0.1%. From 1978 to 2018, CEO > compensation grew by 1,007.5% (940.3% under the options-realized > measure), far outstripping S&P stock market growth (706.7%) and the wage > growth of very high earners (339.2%). In contrast, wages for the typical > worker grew by just 11.9%. > > Why it matters: Exorbitant CEO pay is a major contributor to rising > inequality that we could safely do away with. CEOs are getting more > because of their power to set pay, not because they are increasing > productivity or possess specific, high-demand skills. This escalation of > CEO compensation, and of executive compensation more generally, has > fueled the growth of top 1.0% and top 0.1% incomes, leaving less of the > fruits of economic growth for ordinary workers and widening the gap > between very high earners and the bottom 90%. The economy would suffer > no harm if CEOs were paid less (or taxed more). > > How we can solve the problem: We need to enact policy solutions that > would both reduce incentives for CEOs to extract economic concessions > and limit their ability to do so. Such policies could include > reinstating higher marginal income tax rates at the very top; setting > corporate tax rates higher for firms that have higher ratios of > CEO-to-worker compensation; establishing a luxury tax on compensation > such that for every dollar in compensation over a set cap, a firm must > pay a dollar in taxes; reforming corporate governance to give other > stakeholders better tools to exercise countervailing power against CEOs’ > pay demands; and allowing greater use of “say on pay,” which allows a > firm’s shareholders to vote on top executives’ compensation. Lead poisoning sur la table: Notre Dame's fire put a lot of lead in the air. That lead is now settling around Paris. Lawsuits have ensued accusing the government of not warning citizens about the dangers of lead exposure early enough to take effective action to protect citizens (particularly children). There is no safe amount of lead to ingest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6By828w5yo -- RT's report on the lead problem Paris now faces, footage of a few young locals denying that this is an issue, and test results of the area contradicting the Paris Mayor's claim that Paris is safe from lead. Maybe former President Obama should visit Paris and give a speech like he did in Flint, Michigan. His speech and fake drinking a glass of Flint's poisoned water certainly cleared up that problem, right? -J From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Aug 16 23:38:36 2019 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2019 18:38:36 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] News from Neptune #433 notes Message-ID: <65a12fe6-c8ae-5a36-34a1-80e390e765b3@forestfield.org> News from Neptune #433 A "Ferragosto" edition Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-gPghwla-M Ferragosto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferragosto Peterloo Massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre Michael Roberts on "The political economy of Peterloo" https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2019/08/16/the-political-economy-of-peterloo/ Michael Roberts' blog: The Next Recession https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/ Kurt Hackbarth on "An $8 Billion Murder Industry" https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/08/el-paso-shooting-us-mexico-weapons-arms Lyndsay Jones on "Chicago teacher, 'Nazi expert' to lead Bend the Arc event on white nationalism in schools" https://www.news-gazette.com/news/chicago-teacher-nazi-expert-to-lead-bend-the-arc-event/article_5772a027-b6cf-574c-b078-83919e382c7d.html https://www.news-gazette.com/news/expert-in-hate-groups-gets-call/article_5772a027-b6cf-574c-b078-83919e382c7d.html The Great Replacement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Replacement Bat Ye'or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Ye%27or Rebecca Kheel on "Trump to meet with national security team on Afghanistan peace plan" https://thehill.com/policy/defense/457703-trump-to-meet-with-national-security-team-on-afghanistan-peace-plan "No More Cages" coverage https://www.wcvb.com/article/no-ice-no-prisons-no-more-cages-banner-unfurled-over-fenway-park-green-monster/28583049 https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/no-ice-no-prisons-no-more-cages-banner-unfurled-over-green-monster/ar-AAFdT5w Jean-Yves Camus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Yves_Camus Zealots for Zion: Inside Israel's West Bank Settlement Movement by Robert I. Friedman ISBN-10: 0394580532 ISBN-13: 978-0394580531 Yoram Hazony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoram_Hazony The Virtue of Nationalism by Yoram Hazony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virtue_of_Nationalism ISBN-10: 9781541645370 ISBN-13: 978-1541645370 Related: https://theintercept.com/2019/05/05/israel-virture-of-nationalism-book/ -- Murtaza Hussain on "Why Yoram Hazony Book “Virtue of Nationalism” Gets It Wrong" Gun buyback program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_buyback_program Beto O'Rourke on gun buyback https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/16/beto-orourke-buyback-gun-1466128 https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/mandatory-buy-back-means-confiscation/ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/beto-orourke-gun-control_n_5d556fc8e4b0d8840fef8cea https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/456445-orourke-open-to-mandatory-gun-buyback-program Aaron Maté: "Trump starves Venezuela, Democrats are silent" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37-PILH78Ys Anatoly Kurmanaev and Isayen Herrera on "Venezuela’s Maduro Cracks Down on His Own Military in Bid to Retain Power" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/world/americas/venezuela-military-maduro.html Jennifer Matsui on "La Danse Mossad: Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein" https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/16/la-danse-mossad-robert-maxwell-and-jeffrey-epstein/ "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalissimo_Francisco_Franco_is_still_dead J.B. Nicholson's notes https://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/2019-August/051144.html -J From mkb3 at icloud.com Sat Aug 17 02:11:54 2019 From: mkb3 at icloud.com (Morton K. Brussel) Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2019 21:11:54 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Sanders and the Mainline press Message-ID: Sanders of the mainline press: https://fair.org/home/heres-the-evidence-corporate-media-say-is-missing-of-wapo-bias-against-sanders/?awt_l=MhEdm&awt_m=iqfFjh5fl0OI_TQ A fair analysis… -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Sat Aug 17 16:54:14 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2019 11:54:14 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] News from Neptune #433 notes In-Reply-To: <65a12fe6-c8ae-5a36-34a1-80e390e765b3@forestfield.org> References: <65a12fe6-c8ae-5a36-34a1-80e390e765b3@forestfield.org> Message-ID: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/08/patrick-crusius-texas-el-paso-massacre-shooting-gun-laws The World That Made the El Paso Mass Shooter After the August 3 mass shooting in El Paso that left twenty-two dead and twenty-four injured, Dan Patrick , the right-wing-radio-host-turned-Texas-lieutenant-governor, offered a glib explanation for what turned Patrick Crusius, the twenty-one-year-old who drove ten hours from his home in the Dallas–Fort Worth area to an El Paso Walmart in hopes of slaughtering the highest number of Mexican immigrants possible, into a mass murderer. It was the lack of school prayer and the popularity of violent video games, Patrick insisted. “We’ve always had guns, always had evil, but I see a video game industry that teaches young people to kill,” he said on Fox and Friends the next day, as the nation reeled from massacres not just in El Paso, but also in Dayton, Ohio. For self-styled “pro–Second Amendment” politicians like Patrick, who in 2018 received an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association, the focus on Call of Duty and other shoot-’em-up entertainment certainly diverted attention from the state’s Wild West–like gun laws. In Texas, handguns can be carried openly or concealed in most public places. The AK-47-style weapon Crusius used in his spree is legal in the state. And Texas’s lax gun regulations will become even looser on September 1, when gun owners will be able to carry concealed weapons into churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship, and without a license for up to forty-eight hours anywhere under a mandatory evacuation order following a natural disaster. (In spite of all that legally permitted firepower, Texas recorded 434.4 violent crimes per 100,000 persons in 2017, seventeenth-highest in the country and outranked only by states with similar gun laws.) ....... On Fri, Aug 16, 2019 at 6:39 PM J.B. Nicholson via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > News from Neptune #433 > A "Ferragosto" edition > Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-gPghwla-M > > Ferragosto > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferragosto > > Peterloo Massacre > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre > > Michael Roberts on "The political economy of Peterloo" > > https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2019/08/16/the-political-economy-of-peterloo/ > > Michael Roberts' blog: The Next Recession > https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/ > > Kurt Hackbarth on "An $8 Billion Murder Industry" > https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/08/el-paso-shooting-us-mexico-weapons-arms > > Lyndsay Jones on "Chicago teacher, 'Nazi expert' to lead Bend the Arc > event > on white nationalism in schools" > > https://www.news-gazette.com/news/chicago-teacher-nazi-expert-to-lead-bend-the-arc-event/article_5772a027-b6cf-574c-b078-83919e382c7d.html > > https://www.news-gazette.com/news/expert-in-hate-groups-gets-call/article_5772a027-b6cf-574c-b078-83919e382c7d.html > > The Great Replacement > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Replacement > > Bat Ye'or > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Ye%27or > > Rebecca Kheel on "Trump to meet with national security team on Afghanistan > peace plan" > > https://thehill.com/policy/defense/457703-trump-to-meet-with-national-security-team-on-afghanistan-peace-plan > > "No More Cages" coverage > > https://www.wcvb.com/article/no-ice-no-prisons-no-more-cages-banner-unfurled-over-fenway-park-green-monster/28583049 > > https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/no-ice-no-prisons-no-more-cages-banner-unfurled-over-green-monster/ar-AAFdT5w > > Jean-Yves Camus > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Yves_Camus > > Zealots for Zion: Inside Israel's West Bank Settlement Movement by Robert > I. Friedman > ISBN-10: 0394580532 > ISBN-13: 978-0394580531 > > Yoram Hazony > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoram_Hazony > > The Virtue of Nationalism by Yoram Hazony > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virtue_of_Nationalism > ISBN-10: 9781541645370 > ISBN-13: 978-1541645370 > > Related: > https://theintercept.com/2019/05/05/israel-virture-of-nationalism-book/ > -- > Murtaza Hussain on "Why Yoram Hazony Book “Virtue of Nationalism” Gets It > Wrong" > > Gun buyback program > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_buyback_program > > Beto O'Rourke on gun buyback > https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/16/beto-orourke-buyback-gun-1466128 > > https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/mandatory-buy-back-means-confiscation/ > > https://www.huffpost.com/entry/beto-orourke-gun-control_n_5d556fc8e4b0d8840fef8cea > > https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/456445-orourke-open-to-mandatory-gun-buyback-program > > Aaron Maté: "Trump starves Venezuela, Democrats are silent" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37-PILH78Ys > > Anatoly Kurmanaev and Isayen Herrera on "Venezuela’s Maduro Cracks Down on > His Own Military in Bid to Retain Power" > > https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/world/americas/venezuela-military-maduro.html > > Jennifer Matsui on "La Danse Mossad: Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein" > > https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/16/la-danse-mossad-robert-maxwell-and-jeffrey-epstein/ > > "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead" > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalissimo_Francisco_Franco_is_still_dead > > J.B. Nicholson's notes > https://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/2019-August/051144.html > > -J > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Sat Aug 17 16:56:47 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2019 11:56:47 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] The political economy of Peterloo Message-ID: https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2019/08/16/the-political-economy-of-peterloo/ The political economy of Peterloo Today is the 200th anniversary of what has come to be called the Peterloo massacre. On 16 August 1819, 60,000 working people gathered at St Peter’s Field in Manchester England to demonstrate for the right to vote, against the terrible conditions and pay of factory workers and for the right to organise at the workplace, among a host of other injustices. Peterloo has become a marker in the labour history of Britain. The peaceful demonstration was brutally attacked and dispersed by a private militia of thugs on horseback funded and directed by the local landlords and authorities with the tacit backing of the then Tory government under Lord Liverpool. An estimated 18 people, including a woman and a child, died from sabre cuts and trampling. Over 700 received serious injuries. I am not going to discuss the event or the politics behind it as there are many thorough and better accounts to be had elsewhere. Indeed, there is a film by leading British filmmaker, Mike Leigh on the day. Instead, I want to comment on the economics of Peterloo: the state of the British economy and capitalism at the time – to provide some context to the event and also perhaps draw out some wide generalisations. Peterloo took place a few years after the end of so-called Napoleonic wars in which the aristocratic monarchies of Britain, Austria, Russia and Germany finally defeated the French republic. The end of the war heralded a period of deep depression in European economies, as soldiers returned home without work and bad harvests and weather led to a sharp downturn in agricultural production – still the dominant form of economic activity in early 19th century Europe. This period of depression started before the end of war in 1812 and continued for ten years to 1822. It is reckoned that England suffered more economically, socially and politically, than during the French wars when at least there were good harvests and armaments production provided work. During the wars, Britain’s export and re-export trade increased. British ships carried the world’s trade and also captured French colonies which further increased Britain’s trade potential. After 1815 this virtual monopoly ended and trade declined The depression brought discontent and distress and a response from the growing layers of industrial workers in the ‘dark satanic mills’ of the new big cities of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham that had no parliamentary representation or civic rights. The 18th century constitution remained, with the landlord class in control and forming the government. In 1815 parliament passed the Corn Laws, enforcing higher prices for grain to protect landlord profits from cheaper foreign imports, squeezing the wages of workers and the profits of the industrial capitalists. Classical bourgeois economist, David Ricardo wrote his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation in 1817 that presented a theoretical argument against agricultural rents and the corn laws. Indeed, Ricardo led the demand in parliament for an inquiry into the Peterloo massacre. Wages were held down by the so-called Speenhamland system, which subsidised wages from the public purse somewhat like the Universal Basic Income proposed now. At the same time, the demobilisation of 300,000 soldiers, the influx of 100,000 Irish labourers and the use of children and women in the factories meant that the ‘reserve army of labour’ (to use Marx’s phrase) was huge. Indeed, the population in the industrial areas was rocketing (up 50% in the first 30 years of the 19th century). At the same time, any attempt by rural workers to feed themselves off the land was blocked and curtailed by the landowners. The 1816 Game Laws allowed landowners to hunt for game; but not their workers. The penalty for poaching was seven years transportation to Australia. Common land had been wiped out by the enclosure measures decades before. *Decade* *Enclosures* 1780-90 287 1790-1800 506 1800-1810 906 The war had driven up the public debt to £834 million. Interest on this was a heavy burden to taxpayers. But the answer of the government was to end income tax, thus shifting the burden of servicing the debt onto the poorest through various sales and customs taxes. The interest paid on the debt went to the rich war bond holders now no longer paying income tax. The government tried to inflate away the debt burden by staying off the gold standard and letting the pound devalue, driving up inflation and hitting the poor again. Radical poet Lord Byron protested in the House of Lords about the situation in 1812 *“I have been in some of the most oppressed provinces of Turkey ; but never, under the most despotic of infidel governments, did I behold such squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return, in the very heart of a Christian country”.* All this was compounded by the weather. The year 1816 is now known as the ‘Year Without a Summer’ because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4–0.7 °C. This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia ). This eruption was the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years. The Year Without a Summer was an agricultural disaster. Low temperatures and heavy rains resulted in failed harvests in Britain and Ireland. Families in Wales travelled long distances begging for food. Famine was prevalent in north and southwest Ireland, following the failure of wheat, oat , and potato harvests. In Germany, the crisis was severe; food prices rose sharply. With the cause of the problems unknown, people demonstrated in front of grain markets and bakeries, and later riots, arson, and looting took place in many European cities. It was the worst famine of 19th-century Europe. Indeed, The Year Without a Summer is a misnomer; it was Years Without a Summer given the weather of 1816, 1817, and 1818. Lord Byron, now in permanent exile, was moved to write an apocalyptic poem, The death of the sun, while staying by the banks of Lake Geneva in July 1816 as Europe and North America were gripped by one of the coldest summers on record. *“I had a dream, which was not all a dream. The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars Did wander darkling in the eternal space, Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth, Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air; Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day, And men forgot their passions in the dread Of this their desolation.”* It is also no accident that Mary Shelley, the partner of Percy Shelley, went on to write Frankenstein in 1818. Shelley’s miserable Creature is usually portrayed as the terrible result of uncontrolled technology. But in the context of the climate shock, it is also a figure representing the desperate refugees crowding Switzerland’s market towns in that year. Eyewitness accounts frequently refer to how hunger and persecution “turned men into beasts”, how fear of famine and disease-carrying refugees drove middle-class citizens to demonize these suffering masses as subhuman parasites and turn them away in horror and disgust. Peterloo happened because the British government in this depression was the most reactionary. There was a fear of the democratic ideas of the French Revolution spreading. There was a lasting fear of popular movements , which reflected the fear of revolution. There was a determination to protect and defend the landed interest – the basis of the government’s political power. There was a general dislike of an organised police-force , so a consequent heavy reliance on the military and private militias meant that in any confrontation, made violence the preferred option. The government kept the Combination Acts on Statute Books until 1824, which suppressed all reform movements. This was a government of the landed few for the landed few. The 18th century economist Adam Smith noted the imbalance in the rights of workers in regards to owners (or “masters”). In The Wealth of Nations , Book I, chapter 8 , Smith wrote: “*We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combination of masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labor above their actual rate[.] **When workers combine, masters … never cease to call aloud for the assistance of the civil magistrate, and the rigorous execution of those laws which have been enacted with so much severity against the combination of servants, labourers and journeymen.”* This was also the period of the so-called Luddites, a radical group of weavers who reacted to the introduction of machinery and their loss of jobs with attacks on the machines themselves. In this light, the Peterloo massacre was the inevitable waiting to happen. After the event, the great radical romantic poet, Percy Shelley graphically attacked the government and its ruling class in his famous poem, Masque of Anarchy, the final verse of which is echoed in the current campaign slogan of the British leftist Labour party : ‘Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number – Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you – Ye are many – they are few.’ At a more general level, Peterloo took place in the same year as the very first capitalist-style crisis and financial crash. The Panic of 1819 started in the US and was triggered by the post-Napoleonic depression in Europe which led to the collapse of US export markets and the bankruptcy of several banks that had made export loans. The ensuing recession lasted until 1821. The boom and bust cycle that has characterised capitalist accumulation to this day had begun. This was the first capitalist slump – and also the first recognisable period of depression in modern industrial capitalism. In my book, The Long Depression , I suggest that capitalist accumulation takes place in cycles of profitability. There are periods of rising profitability and then periods of falling profitability (within the longer-term context of a secular fall as capitalist economies mature). There are four seasons each of approximately 10-14 years in the 19th century (they are longer in the 20th century).The first season (Spring) sees a rise in profitability as new technology and an expanding workforce is applied. In the second season (Summer), profitability falls and because labour has got stronger during the spring season, the class battle intensifies. Then comes Autumn, a new period of rising profitability built on the defeat of previous labour struggles and the weakening of labour through slumps. Finally, profitability falls again in the Winter season and there is a depression that can only be broken either by war or by successive slumps that eventually restore profitability for a new Spring. 1819 was a year right in the middle of such a Winter. The weakening of labour in the previous Autumn of the war economy from 1800-1812 had seen profitability rise for both landowners and rising industrial capitalists. But the post-war depression was one of falling profitability (as noted by Ricardo) in which the dominant landowning class tried to preserve its profits and hegemony at the expense of industry and labour through repression and taxation. Peterloo was the marker for this. After 1822, England entered a new Spring based on industrial expansion and the revival of export markets in Europe. The industrial bourgeois mobilised its workers to fight for the vote in the cities and parliamentary representation (for property owners). The Reform Act was passed in 1832. SPRING 1776-86: profitability up; industrialisation begins, labour strengthens, first trade unions SUMMER 1786-1800: profitability down; Marx’s law operates, labour fights AUTUMN 1800-12: profitability up; war economy; labour weakened and overseas WINTER 1812-22: profitability down; post-war depression, labour repressed -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Aug 17 18:00:00 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] News from Neptune #433 notes In-Reply-To: <65a12fe6-c8ae-5a36-34a1-80e390e765b3@forestfield.org> References: <65a12fe6-c8ae-5a36-34a1-80e390e765b3@forestfield.org> Message-ID: Glad to see David challenging Carl in relation to Trump. Carl is very good at saying “Trump is not the problem,” and making whatever excuses available for Trump doing what he does, or not doing, what he said he would do as a candidate. The duality/duplicity in relation to Carl’s blaming Obama for everything, is blatantly obvious and kills the credibility of NFN and AWARE, so it does need to be addressed. David, again challenges the organizations “proud of being focused on only domestic issues,” which excuses their support for US imperialism, thus supporting US crimes of imperialism, which includes the genocide being perpetrated against the Palestinians. Again, a socialist focuses on class, but one doesn’t need to be a socialist to recognize that a people should be more concerned with killing and destroying of others, and to turn away from such violence, to ignore is being complicit. What is it they say, ‘when good men turn away from evil, evil reigns?” No comment on gun control, given that is one of those issues I focused on strongly for many years, and have now given up. I see little being accomplished with piecemeal activities, I support overthrowing our system of capitalism, but have little hope of that happening until people are dying of starvation in the streets, not just being shot by police in the streets, but by then it will be too late. > On Aug 16, 2019, at 16:38, J.B. Nicholson via Peace wrote: > > News from Neptune #433 > A "Ferragosto" edition > Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-gPghwla-M > > Ferragosto > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferragosto > > Peterloo Massacre > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre > > Michael Roberts on "The political economy of Peterloo" > https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2019/08/16/the-political-economy-of-peterloo/ > > Michael Roberts' blog: The Next Recession > https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/ > > Kurt Hackbarth on "An $8 Billion Murder Industry" > https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/08/el-paso-shooting-us-mexico-weapons-arms > > Lyndsay Jones on "Chicago teacher, 'Nazi expert' to lead Bend the Arc event on white nationalism in schools" > https://www.news-gazette.com/news/chicago-teacher-nazi-expert-to-lead-bend-the-arc-event/article_5772a027-b6cf-574c-b078-83919e382c7d.html > https://www.news-gazette.com/news/expert-in-hate-groups-gets-call/article_5772a027-b6cf-574c-b078-83919e382c7d.html > > The Great Replacement > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Replacement > > Bat Ye'or > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Ye%27or > > Rebecca Kheel on "Trump to meet with national security team on Afghanistan peace plan" > https://thehill.com/policy/defense/457703-trump-to-meet-with-national-security-team-on-afghanistan-peace-plan > > "No More Cages" coverage > https://www.wcvb.com/article/no-ice-no-prisons-no-more-cages-banner-unfurled-over-fenway-park-green-monster/28583049 > https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/no-ice-no-prisons-no-more-cages-banner-unfurled-over-green-monster/ar-AAFdT5w > > Jean-Yves Camus > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Yves_Camus > > Zealots for Zion: Inside Israel's West Bank Settlement Movement by Robert I. Friedman > ISBN-10: 0394580532 > ISBN-13: 978-0394580531 > > Yoram Hazony > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoram_Hazony > > The Virtue of Nationalism by Yoram Hazony > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virtue_of_Nationalism > ISBN-10: 9781541645370 > ISBN-13: 978-1541645370 > > Related: > https://theintercept.com/2019/05/05/israel-virture-of-nationalism-book/ -- Murtaza Hussain on "Why Yoram Hazony Book “Virtue of Nationalism” Gets It Wrong" > > Gun buyback program > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_buyback_program > > Beto O'Rourke on gun buyback > https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/16/beto-orourke-buyback-gun-1466128 > https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/mandatory-buy-back-means-confiscation/ > https://www.huffpost.com/entry/beto-orourke-gun-control_n_5d556fc8e4b0d8840fef8cea > https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/456445-orourke-open-to-mandatory-gun-buyback-program > > Aaron Maté: "Trump starves Venezuela, Democrats are silent" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37-PILH78Ys > > Anatoly Kurmanaev and Isayen Herrera on "Venezuela’s Maduro Cracks Down on His Own Military in Bid to Retain Power" > https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/world/americas/venezuela-military-maduro.html > > Jennifer Matsui on "La Danse Mossad: Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein" > https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/16/la-danse-mossad-robert-maxwell-and-jeffrey-epstein/ > > "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead" > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalissimo_Francisco_Franco_is_still_dead > > J.B. Nicholson's notes > https://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/2019-August/051144.html > > -J > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace From r-szoke at illinois.edu Sat Aug 17 19:50:47 2019 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2019 19:50:47 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] You are BIASED ! Message-ID: The following is a list of the more commonly studied cognitive biases: Name / Description Fundamental attribution error (FAE) Also known as the correspondence bias (Baumeister & Bushman, 2010) is the tendency for people to over-emphasize personality-based explanations for behaviours observed in others. At the same time, individuals under-emphasize the role and power of situational influences on the same behaviour. Jones and Harris’ (1967)[28] classic study illustrates the FAE. Despite being made aware that the target’s speech direction (pro-Castro/anti-Castro) was assigned to the writer, participants ignored the situational pressures and attributed pro-Castro attitudes to the writer when the speech represented such attitudes. Confirmation bias The tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions. In addition, individuals may discredit information that does not support their views.[29] The confirmation bias is related to the concept of cognitive dissonance. Whereby, individuals may reduce inconsistency by searching for information which re-confirms their views (Jermias, 2001, p. 146).[30] Self-serving bias The tendency to claim more responsibility for successes than failures. It may also manifest itself as a tendency for people to evaluate ambiguous information in a way beneficial to their interests. Belief bias When one's evaluation of the logical strength of an argument is biased by their belief in the truth or falsity of the conclusion. Framing Using a too-narrow approach and description of the situation or issue. Hindsight bias Sometimes called the "I-knew-it-all-along" effect, is the inclination to see past events as being predictable. From cgestabrook at gmail.com Mon Aug 19 23:51:14 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2019 18:51:14 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] News from Neptune #433 notes In-Reply-To: References: <65a12fe6-c8ae-5a36-34a1-80e390e765b3@forestfield.org> Message-ID: <751BB3B3-61FA-43D4-9D28-EC95E2FB6C49@gmail.com> Karen-- In spite of the fact that you’re probably my most attentive audience on UPTV, I’ve apparently failed to make my view of the US political situation clear to you. I think it does not diverge substantially from that of Pepe Escobar, Aaron Mate, or Noam Chomsky. The problem is the consistent policies followed by all US administrations since the collapse of the USSR (and before) - war and war provocations abroad ( = neoconservatism), and austerity and market fundamentalism at home ( = neoliberalism). Neoconservatism and neoliberalism are complementary, not contradictory. Those policies have produced 40 years of growing (and accelerating) concentration of wealth in the US. But that’s experienced by a majority of Americans as the confiscation of the life styles taken for granted in their parents’ generation. The response is an inchoate but growing populism - a popular view that "pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous ‘others’ who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice.” That view is not easily expressed by our usual left/right distinctions, but it produced the Trump presidency. The abandonment of class politics by American liberals in the 1970s - for fear of where it would lead (i.e., some form of socialism) - led them to substitute identity politics as the content of the liberal/left position. The proliferation of identies masked the bankruptcy of liberalism. That was recognized by many Americans (however obscurely) as the ‘mendacity of hope’ in the Obama administration - the only one in history to be at war throughout two presidential terms, with ever-increasing austerity. Trump was the first major party presidential candidate in 40 years to attack neoliberalism and neoconservatism - and his tapping into inchoate populism (however intuitive) made him president. But the history of his administration is a history of acquiescence to those very policies. It’s been suggested that Trump is in fact the weakest US president since Calvin Coolidge, making up in bluster what he lacks in effectiveness: witness his attempts this month to withdraw US troops from Syria and Afghanistan - attempts frustrated by his own administration (notably Bolton and Pompeo) and the ‘political establishment’ (including the Democrats and main-stream media). The disingenuous “Resistance” is an attempt to highlight Trump’s obvious personal failings in order to restore the neolib and neocon status quo ante - not to change it - by threatening Trump with replacement: in responce, he fans insofar as he is able those populist flames - and their less attractive features. The problem is that the populists are correct - the majority of Americans are in fact oppressed by "a set of elites [who are depriving] the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice” - which the American people came to expect in the generation after World War II. The populist movement is a fact and Trump is its temporary beneficiary - (and perhaps only partly aware of what it is). To many Americans, to “Make America Great Again” means to restore their confiscated life chances. But the American elite is in fact confiscating their chances (and those of others around the word) for its own profit: it’s the program of the American political establishment, who are bothered by the fear that the administration may actually abandon aspects of neoliberalism and neoconservatism, under pressure of the rising populist wave - even if they now show few signs of doing so. Regards, CGE > On Aug 17, 2019, at 1:00 PM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss wrote: > > Glad to see David challenging Carl in relation to Trump. Carl is very good at saying “Trump is not the problem,” and making whatever excuses available for Trump doing what he does, or not doing, what he said he would do as a candidate. > The duality/duplicity in relation to Carl’s blaming Obama for everything, is blatantly obvious and kills the credibility of NFN and AWARE, so it does need to be addressed.,, > From karenaram at hotmail.com Tue Aug 20 15:56:56 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2019 15:56:56 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] News from Neptune #433 notes In-Reply-To: <751BB3B3-61FA-43D4-9D28-EC95E2FB6C49@gmail.com> References: <65a12fe6-c8ae-5a36-34a1-80e390e765b3@forestfield.org> <751BB3B3-61FA-43D4-9D28-EC95E2FB6C49@gmail.com> Message-ID: Carl I am an avid fan of NFN, finding it interesting and informative. I also agree with most of what you say below, and suggest you focus on it as much as possible, as opposed to defending Trump. However, I do believe there is a substantial difference in what you say, from that of Noam Chomsky, who clearly never saw Trump as anything but a disaster, primarily in respect to climate change, favoring Clinton over Trump. Aaron Mate is not a fan of Trump but as a journalist has made it a mission to unveil russiagate for the lie it is, as much as to halt the vilification of Russia, as to defend Trump. I disagree as to what got Trump elected, I don’t believe as many liberals do, that it was due primarily to racism, on the part of his base, but I believe that for the many disenfranchised across the rust belt, he was a counter to the Democrat Party who did nothing to alleviate their suffering due to loss of jobs, low wages, high cost of healthcare and education, and the expanding inequality within our nation. The majority of people supported Bernie Sanders, and were so disaffected by the DNC betrayal, they refused to vote for Clinton. Very few, other than a few Republicans took him seriously as a peace candidate, as foreign policy is not the number one issue for most people, Bernies popularity is evidence of that. I do agree that focus on personality, is not the issue. It’s what they do, and the policy’s they implement that matter. Though Trumps racist comments is further fuel for the fire of distraction and division. My basic complaint is that you never considered defending Obama, and while that is to your credit, it contrasts significantly with how you refer to Trump. By simply adding the word “ Administration,” when referring to Obama, it would have clarified, it’s not just one person when criticizing him for implementing the policy’s he did. By beginning statements with “Trump is not the problem,” you are letting him off the hook, and losing your readers, whether flyers, or FB, or your conversations on NFN. We know the Pentagon wasn’t happy with Obama’s pivot to Asia, given they saw it as premature, given they were immersed in the Middle East, and setting up bases across Africa, the region of the Sahel now, as opposed to the Magreb. Wm. Blum predicted the neocons, if Trump was elected, would push for war with Iran. Trumps appointments of Bolton, Pompeo, and Navarro, two war hawks and a China hater, give lie to his speeches as a candidate, when criticizing Obama’s foreign policy. It’s important that people recognize our Presidents aren’t kings, what they say as candidates means little given the power of the Party and corporate elites supporting them. Once President, they will do as they are told, and they know that very well. Trump may have been more defiant given his arrogance, or coming from the private sector with little political experience, he does not want to be a “President going to war,” which is good for some businesses but bad for others. War with small vulnerable nations is okay. If Russia wasn’t in Venezuela it’s likely we would have been at war with them already given our intervention, in the meantime our sanctions will have to do. The message to be delivered is the one you make below beginning with: "The problem is the consistent policies followed by all US administrations since the collapse of the USSR (and before) - war and war provocations abroad ( = neoconservatism), and austerity and market fundamentalism at home ( = neoliberalism). Neoconservatism and neoliberalism are complementary, not contradictory.” On Aug 19, 2019, at 16:51, C G Estabrook > wrote: Karen-- In spite of the fact that you’re probably my most attentive audience on UPTV, I’ve apparently failed to make my view of the US political situation clear to you. I think it does not diverge substantially from that of Pepe Escobar, Aaron Mate, or Noam Chomsky. The problem is the consistent policies followed by all US administrations since the collapse of the USSR (and before) - war and war provocations abroad ( = neoconservatism), and austerity and market fundamentalism at home ( = neoliberalism). Neoconservatism and neoliberalism are complementary, not contradictory. Those policies have produced 40 years of growing (and accelerating) concentration of wealth in the US. But that’s experienced by a majority of Americans as the confiscation of the life styles taken for granted in their parents’ generation. The response is an inchoate but growing populism - a popular view that "pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous ‘others’ who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice.” That view is not easily expressed by our usual left/right distinctions, but it produced the Trump presidency. The abandonment of class politics by American liberals in the 1970s - for fear of where it would lead (i.e., some form of socialism) - led them to substitute identity politics as the content of the liberal/left position. The proliferation of identies masked the bankruptcy of liberalism. That was recognized by many Americans (however obscurely) as the ‘mendacity of hope’ in the Obama administration - the only one in history to be at war throughout two presidential terms, with ever-increasing austerity. Trump was the first major party presidential candidate in 40 years to attack neoliberalism and neoconservatism - and his tapping into inchoate populism (however intuitive) made him president. But the history of his administration is a history of acquiescence to those very policies. It’s been suggested that Trump is in fact the weakest US president since Calvin Coolidge, making up in bluster what he lacks in effectiveness: witness his attempts this month to withdraw US troops from Syria and Afghanistan - attempts frustrated by his own administration (notably Bolton and Pompeo) and the ‘political establishment’ (including the Democrats and main-stream media). The disingenuous “Resistance” is an attempt to highlight Trump’s obvious personal failings in order to restore the neolib and neocon status quo ante - not to change it - by threatening Trump with replacement: in responce, he fans insofar as he is able those populist flames - and their less attractive features. The problem is that the populists are correct - the majority of Americans are in fact oppressed by "a set of elites [who are depriving] the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice” - which the American people came to expect in the generation after World War II. The populist movement is a fact and Trump is its temporary beneficiary - (and perhaps only partly aware of what it is). To many Americans, to “Make America Great Again” means to restore their confiscated life chances. But the American elite is in fact confiscating their chances (and those of others around the word) for its own profit: it’s the program of the American political establishment, who are bothered by the fear that the administration may actually abandon aspects of neoliberalism and neoconservatism, under pressure of the rising populist wave - even if they now show few signs of doing so. Regards, CGE On Aug 17, 2019, at 1:00 PM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss > wrote: Glad to see David challenging Carl in relation to Trump. Carl is very good at saying “Trump is not the problem,” and making whatever excuses available for Trump doing what he does, or not doing, what he said he would do as a candidate. The duality/duplicity in relation to Carl’s blaming Obama for everything, is blatantly obvious and kills the credibility of NFN and AWARE, so it does need to be addressed.,, -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Tue Aug 20 16:25:40 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2019 11:25:40 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] News from Neptune #433 notes In-Reply-To: References: <65a12fe6-c8ae-5a36-34a1-80e390e765b3@forestfield.org> <751BB3B3-61FA-43D4-9D28-EC95E2FB6C49@gmail.com> Message-ID: <9A960661-EB04-4232-A60F-9CDEC582CC39@gmail.com> https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-don-t-be-fooled-by-the/article_38040da5-6429-5c53-9ab7-89e4b840b40e.html > On Aug 20, 2019, at 10:56 AM, Karen Aram wrote: > > Carl > >> I am an avid fan of NFN, finding it interesting and informative. I also agree with most of what you say below, and suggest you focus on it as much as possible, as opposed to defending Trump. However, I do believe there is a substantial difference in what you say, from that of Noam Chomsky, who clearly never saw Trump as anything but a disaster, primarily in respect to climate change, favoring Clinton over Trump. Aaron Mate is not a fan of Trump but as a journalist has made it a mission to unveil russiagate for the lie it is, as much as to halt the vilification of Russia, as to defend Trump. > > I disagree as to what got Trump elected, I don’t believe as many liberals do, that it was due primarily to racism, on the part of his base, but I believe that for the many disenfranchised across the rust belt, he was a counter to the Democrat Party who did nothing to alleviate their suffering due to loss of jobs, low wages, high cost of healthcare and education, and the expanding inequality within our nation. The majority of people supported Bernie Sanders, and were so disaffected by the DNC betrayal, they refused to vote for Clinton. Very few, other than a few Republicans took him seriously as a peace candidate, as foreign policy is not the number one issue for most people, Bernies popularity is evidence of that. > > I do agree that focus on personality, is not the issue. It’s what they do, and the policy’s they implement that matter. > Though Trumps racist comments is further fuel for the fire of distraction and division. > >> My basic complaint is that you never considered defending Obama, and while that is to your credit, it contrasts significantly with how you refer to Trump. >> By simply adding the word “ Administration,” when referring to Obama, it would have clarified, it’s not just one person when criticizing him for implementing the policy’s he did. By beginning statements with “Trump is not the problem,” you are letting him off the hook, and losing your readers, whether flyers, or FB, or your conversations on NFN. > > We know the Pentagon wasn’t happy with Obama’s pivot to Asia, given they saw it as premature, given they were immersed in the Middle East, and setting up bases across Africa, the region of the Sahel now, as opposed to the Magreb. Wm. Blum predicted the neocons, if Trump was elected, would push for war with Iran. Trumps appointments of Bolton, Pompeo, and Navarro, two war hawks and a China hater, give lie to his speeches as a candidate, when criticizing Obama’s foreign policy. > >> It’s important that people recognize our Presidents aren’t kings, what they say as candidates means little given the power of the Party and corporate elites supporting them. Once President, they will do as they are told, and they know that very well. Trump may have been more defiant given his arrogance, or coming from the private sector with little political experience, he does not want to be a “President going to war,” which is good for some businesses but bad for others. War with small vulnerable nations is okay. If Russia wasn’t in Venezuela it’s likely we would have been at war with them already given our intervention, in the meantime our sanctions will have to do. > > The message to be delivered is the one you make below beginning with: >> >> "The problem is the consistent policies followed by all US administrations since the collapse of the USSR (and before) - war and war provocations abroad ( = neoconservatism), and austerity and market fundamentalism at home ( = neoliberalism). Neoconservatism and neoliberalism are complementary, not contradictory.” > > > > > > > > > > > > > >> On Aug 19, 2019, at 16:51, C G Estabrook wrote: >> >> Karen-- >> >> In spite of the fact that you’re probably my most attentive audience on UPTV, I’ve apparently failed to make my view of the US political situation clear to you. I think it does not diverge substantially from that of Pepe Escobar, Aaron Mate, or Noam Chomsky. >> >> The problem is the consistent policies followed by all US administrations since the collapse of the USSR (and before) - war and war provocations abroad ( = neoconservatism), and austerity and market fundamentalism at home ( = neoliberalism). Neoconservatism and neoliberalism are complementary, not contradictory. >> >> Those policies have produced 40 years of growing (and accelerating) concentration of wealth in the US. But that’s experienced by a majority of Americans as the confiscation of the life styles taken for granted in their parents’ generation. The response is an inchoate but growing populism - a popular view that "pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous ‘others’ who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice.” That view is not easily expressed by our usual left/right distinctions, but it produced the Trump presidency. >> >> The abandonment of class politics by American liberals in the 1970s - for fear of where it would lead (i.e., some form of socialism) - led them to substitute identity politics as the content of the liberal/left position. The proliferation of identies masked the bankruptcy of liberalism. That was recognized by many Americans (however obscurely) as the ‘mendacity of hope’ in the Obama administration - the only one in history to be at war throughout two presidential terms, with ever-increasing austerity. >> >> Trump was the first major party presidential candidate in 40 years to attack neoliberalism and neoconservatism - and his tapping into inchoate populism (however intuitive) made him president. But the history of his administration is a history of acquiescence to those very policies. It’s been suggested that Trump is in fact the weakest US president since Calvin Coolidge, making up in bluster what he lacks in effectiveness: witness his attempts this month to withdraw US troops from Syria and Afghanistan - attempts frustrated by his own administration (notably Bolton and Pompeo) and the ‘political establishment’ (including the Democrats and main-stream media). >> >> The disingenuous “Resistance” is an attempt to highlight Trump’s obvious personal failings in order to restore the neolib and neocon status quo ante - not to change it - by threatening Trump with replacement: in responce, he fans insofar as he is able those populist flames - and their less attractive features. >> >> The problem is that the populists are correct - the majority of Americans are in fact oppressed by "a set of elites [who are depriving] the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice” - which the American people came to expect in the generation after World War II. >> >> The populist movement is a fact and Trump is its temporary beneficiary - (and perhaps only partly aware of what it is). To many Americans, to “Make America Great Again” means to restore their confiscated life chances. >> >> But the American elite is in fact confiscating their chances (and those of others around the word) for its own profit: it’s the program of the American political establishment, who are bothered by the fear that the administration may actually abandon aspects of neoliberalism and neoconservatism, under pressure of the rising populist wave - even if they now show few signs of doing so. >> >> Regards, CGE >> >> >>> On Aug 17, 2019, at 1:00 PM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss wrote: >>> >>> Glad to see David challenging Carl in relation to Trump. Carl is very good at saying “Trump is not the problem,” and making whatever excuses available for Trump doing what he does, or not doing, what he said he would do as a candidate. >>> The duality/duplicity in relation to Carl’s blaming Obama for everything, is blatantly obvious and kills the credibility of NFN and AWARE, so it does need to be addressed.,, >>> >> > From karenaram at hotmail.com Tue Aug 20 18:23:08 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2019 18:23:08 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] News from Neptune #433 notes In-Reply-To: <9A960661-EB04-4232-A60F-9CDEC582CC39@gmail.com> References: <65a12fe6-c8ae-5a36-34a1-80e390e765b3@forestfield.org> <751BB3B3-61FA-43D4-9D28-EC95E2FB6C49@gmail.com> <9A960661-EB04-4232-A60F-9CDEC582CC39@gmail.com> Message-ID: Good one Carl. > On Aug 20, 2019, at 09:25, C G Estabrook wrote: > > https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-don-t-be-fooled-by-the/article_38040da5-6429-5c53-9ab7-89e4b840b40e.html > > >> On Aug 20, 2019, at 10:56 AM, Karen Aram wrote: >> >> Carl >> >>> I am an avid fan of NFN, finding it interesting and informative. I also agree with most of what you say below, and suggest you focus on it as much as possible, as opposed to defending Trump. However, I do believe there is a substantial difference in what you say, from that of Noam Chomsky, who clearly never saw Trump as anything but a disaster, primarily in respect to climate change, favoring Clinton over Trump. Aaron Mate is not a fan of Trump but as a journalist has made it a mission to unveil russiagate for the lie it is, as much as to halt the vilification of Russia, as to defend Trump. >> >> I disagree as to what got Trump elected, I don’t believe as many liberals do, that it was due primarily to racism, on the part of his base, but I believe that for the many disenfranchised across the rust belt, he was a counter to the Democrat Party who did nothing to alleviate their suffering due to loss of jobs, low wages, high cost of healthcare and education, and the expanding inequality within our nation. The majority of people supported Bernie Sanders, and were so disaffected by the DNC betrayal, they refused to vote for Clinton. Very few, other than a few Republicans took him seriously as a peace candidate, as foreign policy is not the number one issue for most people, Bernies popularity is evidence of that. >> >> I do agree that focus on personality, is not the issue. It’s what they do, and the policy’s they implement that matter. >> Though Trumps racist comments is further fuel for the fire of distraction and division. >> >>> My basic complaint is that you never considered defending Obama, and while that is to your credit, it contrasts significantly with how you refer to Trump. >>> By simply adding the word “ Administration,” when referring to Obama, it would have clarified, it’s not just one person when criticizing him for implementing the policy’s he did. By beginning statements with “Trump is not the problem,” you are letting him off the hook, and losing your readers, whether flyers, or FB, or your conversations on NFN. >> >> We know the Pentagon wasn’t happy with Obama’s pivot to Asia, given they saw it as premature, given they were immersed in the Middle East, and setting up bases across Africa, the region of the Sahel now, as opposed to the Magreb. Wm. Blum predicted the neocons, if Trump was elected, would push for war with Iran. Trumps appointments of Bolton, Pompeo, and Navarro, two war hawks and a China hater, give lie to his speeches as a candidate, when criticizing Obama’s foreign policy. >> >>> It’s important that people recognize our Presidents aren’t kings, what they say as candidates means little given the power of the Party and corporate elites supporting them. Once President, they will do as they are told, and they know that very well. Trump may have been more defiant given his arrogance, or coming from the private sector with little political experience, he does not want to be a “President going to war,” which is good for some businesses but bad for others. War with small vulnerable nations is okay. If Russia wasn’t in Venezuela it’s likely we would have been at war with them already given our intervention, in the meantime our sanctions will have to do. >> >> The message to be delivered is the one you make below beginning with: >>> >>> "The problem is the consistent policies followed by all US administrations since the collapse of the USSR (and before) - war and war provocations abroad ( = neoconservatism), and austerity and market fundamentalism at home ( = neoliberalism). Neoconservatism and neoliberalism are complementary, not contradictory.” >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >>> On Aug 19, 2019, at 16:51, C G Estabrook wrote: >>> >>> Karen-- >>> >>> In spite of the fact that you’re probably my most attentive audience on UPTV, I’ve apparently failed to make my view of the US political situation clear to you. I think it does not diverge substantially from that of Pepe Escobar, Aaron Mate, or Noam Chomsky. >>> >>> The problem is the consistent policies followed by all US administrations since the collapse of the USSR (and before) - war and war provocations abroad ( = neoconservatism), and austerity and market fundamentalism at home ( = neoliberalism). Neoconservatism and neoliberalism are complementary, not contradictory. >>> >>> Those policies have produced 40 years of growing (and accelerating) concentration of wealth in the US. But that’s experienced by a majority of Americans as the confiscation of the life styles taken for granted in their parents’ generation. The response is an inchoate but growing populism - a popular view that "pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous ‘others’ who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice.” That view is not easily expressed by our usual left/right distinctions, but it produced the Trump presidency. >>> >>> The abandonment of class politics by American liberals in the 1970s - for fear of where it would lead (i.e., some form of socialism) - led them to substitute identity politics as the content of the liberal/left position. The proliferation of identies masked the bankruptcy of liberalism. That was recognized by many Americans (however obscurely) as the ‘mendacity of hope’ in the Obama administration - the only one in history to be at war throughout two presidential terms, with ever-increasing austerity. >>> >>> Trump was the first major party presidential candidate in 40 years to attack neoliberalism and neoconservatism - and his tapping into inchoate populism (however intuitive) made him president. But the history of his administration is a history of acquiescence to those very policies. It’s been suggested that Trump is in fact the weakest US president since Calvin Coolidge, making up in bluster what he lacks in effectiveness: witness his attempts this month to withdraw US troops from Syria and Afghanistan - attempts frustrated by his own administration (notably Bolton and Pompeo) and the ‘political establishment’ (including the Democrats and main-stream media). >>> >>> The disingenuous “Resistance” is an attempt to highlight Trump’s obvious personal failings in order to restore the neolib and neocon status quo ante - not to change it - by threatening Trump with replacement: in responce, he fans insofar as he is able those populist flames - and their less attractive features. >>> >>> The problem is that the populists are correct - the majority of Americans are in fact oppressed by "a set of elites [who are depriving] the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice” - which the American people came to expect in the generation after World War II. >>> >>> The populist movement is a fact and Trump is its temporary beneficiary - (and perhaps only partly aware of what it is). To many Americans, to “Make America Great Again” means to restore their confiscated life chances. >>> >>> But the American elite is in fact confiscating their chances (and those of others around the word) for its own profit: it’s the program of the American political establishment, who are bothered by the fear that the administration may actually abandon aspects of neoliberalism and neoconservatism, under pressure of the rising populist wave - even if they now show few signs of doing so. >>> >>> Regards, CGE >>> >>> >>>> On Aug 17, 2019, at 1:00 PM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss wrote: >>>> >>>> Glad to see David challenging Carl in relation to Trump. Carl is very good at saying “Trump is not the problem,” and making whatever excuses available for Trump doing what he does, or not doing, what he said he would do as a candidate. >>>> The duality/duplicity in relation to Carl’s blaming Obama for everything, is blatantly obvious and kills the credibility of NFN and AWARE, so it does need to be addressed.,, >>>> >>> >> > From karenaram at hotmail.com Wed Aug 21 13:29:15 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2019 13:29:15 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Compare to the 30's Message-ID: https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/08/21/proud-boys-vs-antifa-portlands-pantomime-street-theater/?fbclid=IwAR2MThf-CYq4dr2emGpUvUozzdSHdd0mFusa87pZ5GSsd_lI5eu69U_JceI -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Wed Aug 21 17:27:15 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2019 17:27:15 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] A completely different perspective on the rally in Portland Message-ID: If all they say here is true, see the vdo, then I stand corrected in criticizing antifa or groups in large numbers coming out to counter racists in large numbers with speech, preventing violence. Unlike Charlotte, the Mayor took action and the police did everything right, avoiding conflict. https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/20/portland_far_right_rally_antifa_counterprotest -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Wed Aug 21 21:56:30 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2019 16:56:30 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] From an interview with Chomsky Message-ID: From an interview with Noam Chomsky by David Barsamian, published in Truthout, August 21, 2019 David Barsamian: Talk about the present occupant of the White House. In some ways, his boorish and grotesque behavior is a pretty easy target. People can feel very virtuous about denouncing Trump. But Public Citizen warns, “Every day we witness a further slide toward authoritarianism under Trump.” Are you concerned about that? Noam Chomsky: I’m less concerned than they are. I think the system is resilient enough to withstand a figure who is defying subpoenas, defying congressional orders and so on. I think Trump is in many ways underestimated. He’s a highly skilled politician who is very successful in what he’s doing. He’s got two major constituencies. One is the actual, standard constituency, the Republican Party — both parties, but much more the Republicans — private wealth, corporate power. You’ve got to keep them satisfied. Then there is the voting base. Here, what’s happened to the Republicans over the years is pretty interesting. During the neoliberal period, both parties have shifted to the right. By the 1970s, the Democrats had pretty much abandoned the working class. The last gesture of support for the working class was the Humphrey-Hawkins bill in 1978, a full employment bill that former President Jimmy Carter watered down so it didn’t really mean anything. But since then, the Democrats have simply handed the working class over to their main class enemy: the Republicans. Some little changes here and there, but it’s pretty substantial. The Democrats have become what used to be called moderate Republicans. The Republicans, meanwhile, have just gone off the edge…. They’ve just become “a radical insurgency.” You see it almost daily. Recently, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that if Republicans have a chance to appoint someone else to the Supreme Court in an election year, “Fine, we’ll do it.” When it was Obama, he said, “No, in an election year you can’t do it.” They have simply abandoned any pretense of being a parliamentary party, and upped it to the jugular. But meanwhile, we’re going to support private wealth, corporate power with utter dedication. You can’t get votes that way. There are not enough people that are going to say, “Fine, let’s do that.” What the Republicans have had to do since the 1970s is to try to kind of cobble together a voting constituency on some grounds other than their actual policies. It’s been very interesting to watch it. It started with former President Richard Nixon and his Southern strategy. The civil rights movement alienated Southern racists. The Nixon team pretty openly said, “We can pick up votes by being racist.” They didn’t use the word, but essentially did by catering to the racist elements of the South that are opposed to the civil rights movement... For example, forget immigrants — that’s so transparent we don’t have to talk about it. There’s almost 100 percent agreement that China is taking our jobs. But how is China taking our jobs? Does China have a gun to the heads of the CEOs of Apple and GM and Microsoft, and says, “You’ve got to send jobs here?” It’s the corporate managers who are deciding to do it. So if you don’t want the jobs to go to China, you should be saying, “Well, the corporate managers shouldn’t have the right to make that decision.” So, who should have the right? If you believe in democracy, it should be the people who work in the enterprise. But where are we now? Back to the gentleman named Karl Marx in the mid-19th century. We should have worker control of enterprises. So the logical argument about China stealing our jobs goes straight to workers’ control of enterprises, the main theme of the American working class in the early Industrial Revolution. Somehow you don’t read about that... What’s happened in the past roughly 15 years, when you take a look at every Republican primary, when somebody came up from the popular base, they are so “crazy” that the Republican establishment wasn’t able to tolerate them and was able to beat them down — people like Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and others. The difference in 2016 is they couldn’t beat them down. Trump is a skillful politician, and he managed not only to win the nomination, but to put the entire party in his pocket to a remarkable extent. Amazingly, he’s been able to maintain the support of people that he is shafting at every turn with his pretense of being the guy who is standing up for you. It’s very interesting to watch it. There was an interesting article in The New York Times, a long study of Midwest farmers. These are not poor farmers with a garden in their backyard; these are pretty affluent farmers. But they’re suffering from the trade war. They’re losing their market for soybeans. But they’re still supporting Trump. And the reason is, “We’ve got to stop the Chinese practices. It’s unfair to us. And Trump says he supports us.” In fact, the main person they quote in the article says, “Trump says, ‘farmers are marvelous people, I love you,’ and I’m going to vote for him.” So, a little sweet-talk. And also, a little bit of cash doesn’t hurt. So there’s now $16 billion sent to farmers in the Midwest to try to compensate for their trade losses. Where does that $16 billion come from? It comes from the trade war. Tariffs are simply a tax on consumers. That’s what a tariff is: A tariff, the way it spells itself out, it ends up with higher prices for consumers. And it’s not small. The New York Fed just estimated the annual tax bite as about $800 per family. That’s a big tax increase under Trump, which helps pay off his constituency. It’s a pretty nice scam, when you look at it, and they’re carrying it off very effectively. Trump and Steve Bannon and the rest are pretending to be the tribunes of the people, defending the American worker from all these attacks. By now, there are a few Democrats who are starting to talk about it, but as a party, the Democrats have pretty much abandoned the working class. In fact, many working people voted for Obama believing his nice rhetoric about hope and change. But within about two years that was shattered. By the 2010 midterm elections, it was gone. Trump comes along and says, “I’m your defender. I’m going to protect you from not only foreign enemies but the people who are stealing your jobs.” He’s carrying it off, and the Democrats are helping him. Take this laser-like focus on the Robert Mueller report, Russiagate. It was obvious from the beginning that they were not going to find very much. They’ll find that Trump’s a crook. OK, we knew that already — but they’re not going to find any real collusion with the Russians, and they didn’t. They’re not going to find any real significant Russian impact on the election. There couldn’t be. You want to talk about interference with the election? Campaign funding by the wealthy and the corporate sector utterly overwhelms the effect of any imaginable foreign interference. That’s the real interference with elections. Whatever the Russians might have tried to do, it’s a piece of straw in a haystack. And, of course, it’s nothing compared with U.S. interference with Russian elections, let alone other countries, where we just overthrow the government. But the Democrats focused all their hopes on somehow “Mueller is going to save us,” and “Let’s not look at Trump’s policies.” But these policies are murderous. Trump’s climate policy may literally be a virtual death knell for the species. It’s not a small thing. There’s almost no talk about it. The Nuclear Strategy Review, which escalates the threat of nuclear war significantly, that’s not under discussion. The tax scam, which was just a gift to the rich and the corporations, a double gift. For one thing, it poured a lot of money into their pockets. Secondly, it created a huge deficit which can be used as a justification for cutting social spending. We can go on and on. None of this is being discussed. Let’s instead talk about the fact that maybe somebody in the Trump campaign talked to a Russian oligarch who placed an ad somewhere. It’s as if the Democrats are working for him, like paid agents of the Trump campaign. David Barsamian: Maureen Dowd, a columnist for The New York Times, writes, “My head hurts, puzzling over whether Trump is just a big blowhard who’s flailing around, or a sinister genius laying traps to get himself impeached to animate the base ahead of the election.” Noam Chomsky: Trump … understands nothing about the economy; he doesn’t care about the world. But he is extremely skillful in carrying off the primary tasks that a “narcissistic megalomaniac” has to achieve. One is maintaining the support of wealth and corporate power, which he is doing. That’s handed over to McConnell and the rest. They make sure that that works. And it’s working brilliantly. Corporate profits are going through the roof. It’s fantastic. Wages are pretty much stagnating. What more can he ask? But the other thing is: He has to keep his voting base energized, and he’s doing it, very well. Impeachment is another case. If the Democrats move to impeachment, I think they’re going to shoot themselves in the foot. You can see exactly what’s going to happen. Suppose the House impeaches Trump. It goes to the Senate. The Senate is in Trump’s pocket. They’ll exonerate him. Then what happens? Trump starts making speeches about how, “I’m exonerated, the Deep State and the treacherous Democrats are trying to destroy the guy who is standing up for you against your enemies.” Just like what happened with the Mueller report. They were just walking into a trap. If you want to be concerned, you want to overturn Trump on the basis of his actual crimes, the thing to look at is not Congress, it’s the New York State Attorney General’s office, which is carrying out, apparently, careful investigations of Trump’s fraudulent dealings over decades, which I’m sure are going to pile up crime after crime, maybe enough to send him to prison after he’s out of office. That’s probably where it’s all going to come out. But in general terms, that’s a minor issue. He’s not my favorite person, as you can see, but as compared with the crimes he may have committed, the fraud in New York with his hotels and so on, that’s very minor as compared with the fact that he’s escalating the race to disaster. This is the most important decision in human history. We’ve got a couple of years to try to deal somehow with the environmental crisis. It can be controlled. It’s not easy, but it can be done. If you waste a couple of years by trying to escalate the crisis, you might just push us over the edge. I don’t know if you’ve looked at this, one of the most amazing documents in human history that came out of the Trump administration, from a part of the bureaucracy, naturally. It was a 500-page environmental assessment study done by the Transportation Administration, the point of which was to argue that we should not impose new emissions controls on cars and trucks. And they had a very sound argument. The argument is, “Look, we’re going off the cliff anyway, and car emissions don’t make that much of a difference. So who cares?” Their estimate was that by the end of this century, global temperatures will have risen 4 degrees Centigrade. That’s way beyond what the scientific consensus says will make life unlivable. So, what they’re saying is, “We’re finished, it’s all done anyhow, by the end of the century, everything will be destroyed. So why stop driving?” Can you think of anything like this in human history, ever? Hitler wasn’t saying. “Let’s destroy the world.” Of course, they’re assuming that … nobody is going to do anything about it. But all of this passes without anybody paying attention. Let’s worry about whether Russia had some minor influence on the election. David Barsamian: Talk about the young people in Congress like Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and others, and teen activist students like Greta Thunberg of Sweden, Haven Coleman of Denver, and other young people involved in Extinction Rebellion and the Sunrise Movement. That’s very exciting. That’s really the hope for the future. These are very impressive people. Extinction Rebellion are great people. The Sunrise Movement — which is, after all, a small group of young people — succeeded partly just through their activism, like sitting-in in congressional offices, got some support from especially Representative Ocasio-Cortez, who is doing a wonderful job. They managed to put on the agenda the Green New Deal. Now, of course, it immediately got denounced as a “crazy” this, that, and the other thing. But it’s a great achievement. There has to be some kind of Green New Deal if we’re going to survive. And they managed to move it from obscurity to the legislative agenda, along with Ed Markey, the senator from Massachusetts. That’s a real achievement. And there are very solid, substantive proposals as to how you could implement these proposals. One of the most detailed and persuasive I know of is by Robert Pollin, an economist at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. It can be done. These groups have broken through the silence and apathy on it. That’s a remarkable achievement. In fact, it’s the hope for survival of any kind of civilized life. This is not a small thing. The human species is facing questions that have never arisen before: Is organized human life going to survive in any recognizable form? We’re approaching the level of global warming of roughly 125,000 years ago, when sea levels were about 25 feet higher than they are now. You don’t have to have much of an imagination to know what that means. Shall we race toward it the way the Trump administration and the Republican Party wants us to do? Or shall we do something about it, the way Sunrise Movement and Extinction Rebellion and Ocasio-Cortez want to do? That’s the decision that has to be made. It’s good that you bring that up, because that’s of extraordinary importance. ### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Thu Aug 22 01:54:12 2019 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2019 20:54:12 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] AWARE on the Air #491 notes Message-ID: <38590ef6-507c-3937-8094-f0cc9767b34a@forestfield.org> AWARE on the Air #491 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23fS5y0Aikw Karen Aram in a post to the peace-discuss mailing list https://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/2019-August/051149.html Follow-up from C. G. Estabrook posted to the News-Gazette https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-don-t-be-fooled-by-the/article_38040da5-6429-5c53-9ab7-89e4b840b40e.html Noam Chomsky on "Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change & the Undermining of Democracy Threaten Future of Planet" on Democracy Now! https://www.democracynow.org/2019/4/12/chomsky_nuclear_weapons_climate_change_the Theodore A. Postol on "Russia may have violated the INF Treaty. Here’s how the United States appears to have done the same." https://thebulletin.org/2019/02/russia-may-have-violated-the-inf-treaty-heres-how-the-united-states-appears-to-have-done-the-same/ Other Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles by Theodore A. Postol https://thebulletin.org/biography/theodore-a-postol/ New START https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_START https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/avc/trty/126118.htm -- about the treaty https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2010/04/08/new-start-treaty-and-protocol -- contains pointer to the Treaty & Protocol http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/140035.pdf -- the Treaty http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/140047.pdf -- the Protocol Doomsday Clock https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/ Chelsea Harvey on "Earth Stopped Getting Greener 20 Years Ago: Declining plant growth is linked toward decreasing air moisture tied to global warming" https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-stopped-getting-greener-20-years-ago/ Lawrence Mishel and Julia Wolfe on "CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978" https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-2018/ "Capital in the Twenty-first Century" by Thomas Piketty ISBN-10: 0674979850 ISBN-13: 978-0674979857 Complete book: https://dowbor.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/14Thomas-Piketty.pdf Additional segments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37-PILH78Ys -- Aaron Maté on how compliant the Democratic Party is (including those who back the so-called "resistance" to Pres. Trump) as the Trump administration intensifies its anti-Venezuela sanctions via a new Executive Order. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pXQMtrrdag -- "On Contact with Chris Hedges"; Chris Hedges interviews Max Blumenthal (The Grayzone Project) regarding his new book "The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump". This wide-ranging discussion covers how Donald Trump to be elected US President, the scam rescue group that is the White Helmets, the origins of Russiagate, and corporate media replete with contributors from the CIA as they transition from the so-called "War on Terror" to (what Blumenthal calls) "something much bigger". The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump by Max Blumenthal ISBN-10: 1788732294 ISBN-13: 978-1788732291 -J From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Aug 22 13:52:26 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 13:52:26 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Heartbreaking account of US history by Paul Street Message-ID: Donald Trump is indeed a neofascist, but the US was built on a mass murderous white supremacism that, until recently, was unapologetically genocidal. For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. – Frederick Douglass, July 4, 1852 One of the occupational and intellectual hazards of being a historian is that current events often seem far less new to oneself than they do to others. Recently a leftish liberal friend told me that the United States under the Donald Trump had “become a lethal society.” My friend cited the neofascist Trump’s: horrible family separations and concentration camps on the border; openly white-nationalist assaults on four progressive nonwhite and female Congresswomen; real and threatened roundups of undocumented immigrants; fascist-style and hate-filled “Make America Great Again” rallies; encouragement of white supremacist terrorism; alliance with right-wing evangelical Christian fascists. Another friend received news of the recent mass-shooting of mostly Latinx Wal-Mart shoppers by racist and nativist white male Trump fan in El Paso, Texas by denouncing Trump’s “fascism” and linking to an essay he’d published about the white-nationalist president’s racist and authoritarian behavior. I agree with my friends about the lethality of the contemporary United States. I largely share their description of Trump and much of his base as fascist or at least fascistic . “Durable fascist tendencies,” the prolific left political scientist Carl Boggs warns in his important book Fascism Old New: American Politics at the Crossroads , “run deep throughout present-day American society…In the absence of powerful counterforces and a thriving democracy, …those tendencies could morph over into something more expansive and menacing – and Donald Trump could serve, wittingly or unwittingly, as a great historical accelerator.” “Durable fascist tendencies run deep throughout present-day American society.” It’s nothing to sneeze at. The institutional forms and technologies of militarized surveillance and policing and thought control that are available to fascism-prone elites in the United States are daunting indeed. The United States enjoys historically unprecedented global power on a scale the fascist Third Reich’s leaders dreamed of achieving but never remotely approached. Still, I sometimes worry about reaching beyond American history to label horrors of its own making. Longstanding foundational aristo-republican U.S. white-settler nationalism and its state-military-capitalist, imperialist, and corporatist evolution has long been disastrous and dystopian enough without “charismatic” dictators, Baretta-toting squadristis, single party states, the suspension of elections, the end of bourgeois law, jackbooted brown-shirts, death squads, state propaganda, political executions, shuttered media, and the rest of the full-on fascist nightmare. Savagely and Mercilessly Exterminating “the Common Enemy of the Country” How new is racist lethality and white nationalism to the U.S.-American experience, after all? The white European “settlers” of North America wiped out millions of the continent’s original inhabitants. They populated their southern colonies and states with Black slaves they mercilessly tortured, raped, maimed, and murdered in forced labor camps that provided the critical raw material for the rise of American capitalism long before Mussolini, Franco, and Hitler rose to power. Trump’s favorite president prior to himself, Andrew Jackson, first rose to prominence in the early 19th century as the head of the Tennessee militia who exterminated the Creek Nation by, in the words of the Yale historian Greg Grandin , “burning houses, killing warriors, mutilating their bodies (he ordered his men to cut off the noses of the Indian corpses, so as to more easily tally the dead), and enslaving their women and children…[thereby] previewing the misery he would later, as president, nationalize” (with the 1830 Indian Removal Act). Jackson later ordered the “Trail of Tears,” a giant and sadistic death march that finalized the ethnic cleansing of the Cherokee Nation from the nation’s Southeastern seaboard. Consider the conclusion of the one-sided “Black Hawk War” – just one of many examples of a ferocious white history of North American extermination. The Sauk and Fox Indians lost 600 people, including hundreds of woman and children. Just 70 soldiers and settlers were killed. The conflict culminated in the so-called Battle of Bad Axe, on the eastern shore of the Mississippi River, near the present-day community of Victory in southwest Wisconsin. Better described as a massacre than a battle, this American military triumph involved U.S. General Henry Atkinson killing every Indian who tried to run for cover or flee across the Mississippi River. On August 1, 1832, Black Hawk’s band reached the Mississippi at its confluence with the Bad Axe River. What followed was an atrocity, committed despite the Indians’ repeated attempts at surrender: “While the Sauk refugees were preparing rafts and canoes,” writes historian Kerry Trask , “the armed [U.S.] steamboat Warrior arrived, whereupon Black Hawk tried to negotiate with its troops under a flag of truce. The Americans opened fire, killing twenty-three warriors.” “As we neared them,” one US officer who “served” in the U.S. assault recalled, “they raised a white flag and endeavored to decoy us, but we were a little too old for them.” Hundreds of Sauk and Fox men, women and children were shot, clubbed, and bayoneted to death. US soldiers scalped most of the dead. They cut long strips of flesh from dead and wounded Indians for use as razor strops. The slaughter was supported by cannon and rifle fire from the aptly named US military ship Warrior, which picked off tribal members swimming for their lives. The United States suffered 5 dead and 19 wounded in the “Battle of Bad Axe.” “They cut long strips of flesh from dead and wounded Indians for use as razor strops.” In a popular account of the “battle” published two years later, US Major John Allen Wakefield offered some interesting reflections. “It was a horrid sight,” Wakefield wrote: to witness little children, wounded and suffering the most excruciating pain, although they were of the savage enemy, and the common enemy of the country…It was enough to make the heart of the most hardened being on earth to ache. [But, Wakefield wrote]…I must confess, that it filled my heart with gratitude and joy, to think that I had been instrumental, with many others, in delivering my country of those merciless savages, and restoring those [invading white] people again to their peaceful homes and firesides”. “Our Great Father,” a government agent told the Sauk Indians, “will forbear no longer. He has tried to reclaim [Native Americans] and they grow worse. He is resolved to sweep them from the face of the earth. … If they cannot be made good they must be killed.” By Wakefield’s account, the US troops at Bad Axe “shrank not from their duty. They all joined in the work of death for death it was. We were by this time fast getting rid of those demons in human shape… the Ruler of the Universe, He who takes vengeance on the guilty, did not design those guilty wretches to escape His vengeance…” Such sentiments were common among American army and militia members, who reveled in the mass murder of indigenous people. This was just one of many such genocidal moments in the rapacious white settlement of North America – the abject annihilation and ethnic cleansing of native people. This terrible history is pock-marked with such horrid and genocidal atrocities as the razing of 20 Cherokee towns in 1776, the forced removal of the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Seminole nations to Oklahoma (1828-1840), the savage clearance of the Sauk nation from their ancestral home in northern Illinois (1832-1833), the massacre of at least 75 Pomo Indians trapped on an island in the Russian River area of California (1850), the mass hanging of 38 Lakotas in 1862, the brutal murder of as many as 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians at Sand Creek, Colorado (1864)), the slaughter of more than 100 Cheyenne, including women and children, by Lieutenant George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh U.S. Cavalry at Washita (in Oklahoma in 1868), the openly extermination-ist clearance of Lakota Sioux from the Black Hills (1876-1877), and the Seventh Cavalry’s massacre of 350 unarmed Lakota at Wounded Knee (1890). The nation’s first president, George Washington, was known to the Iroquois as “Town Destroyer.” “Teutonic Conquest” This genocidal history received hearty approval in future US President and Spanish-American War instigator Theodore Roosevelt’s four-volume 1899 study The Winning of the West . Penned by a heralded symbol of “the American soul,” The Winning of the West was a white-supremacist paean to Anglo-America’s near- eradication of North America’s original civilizations. “During the past three centuries,” Roosevelt opined, “the spread of English-speaking people over the world’s waste spaces” (meaning spaces not occupied by “progressive” capitalist-developmental Caucasians) was a great and welcome “feat of power,” for which the “English-speaking race” could justly feel proud. No “feat” of “race power” was more laudable for the “Bull Moose” than “the vast movement by which this continent [North America] was conquered and peopled” – the “crowning and greatest achievement of a series of mighty movements.” The Anglo-American pioneers conducted what Roosevelt called the noble civilizing “work” of “overcoming the original inhabitants.” The North American settlers performed the most heroic “work” of all, for they “confronted the most formidable savage foes ever encountered by colonists of European stock.” No 20th century fascist had anything on Roosevelt’s Winning of the West when it came to the heralding of white supremacist violence. ”The settler and pioneer,” the future war president wrote, “have at bottom had justice on their side; this great continent could not have been kept as nothing but a game preserve for squalid savages….The most ultimately righteous of all wars is a war with savages, though it is apt to be also the most terrible and inhuman.” “The Anglo-American pioneers conducted what Roosevelt called the noble civilizing ‘work’ of ‘overcoming the original inhabitants.’” Roosevelt considered the destruction of the continent’s original civilizations to be part of Teutonic Saxons’ long and noble crusade to master inferior races. “Let the sentimentalist say what they will,” Roosevelt wrote, “the man who puts the soil to use must of right dispossess the man who does not,” with “put the soil to use” understood to mean enclosing the earthly commons, fencing it off as private property and exploiting natural resources and human labor power. “American and Indian, Boer and Zulu, Cossack and Tartar, New Zealander and Maori, – in each case the victor,” The Winning of the West instructed, “horrible though many of his deeds are, has laid deep the foundations for the future greatness of a mighty people.” “It is of incalculable importance,” Roosevelt opined, “that America, Australia, and Siberia should pass out of the hands of their red, black, and yellow aboriginal owners, and become the heritage of the dominant world races…The world would have halted had it not been for the Teutonic conquests in alien lands; but the victories of Moslem over Christian have always proved a curse in the end. Nothing but sheer evil has come from the victories of Turk and Tartar.” Destroying the Indian “savages,” Roosevelt claimed, was white North America’s third greatest work to date, exceeded only by “the preservation of the Union itself and the emancipation of the blacks” – this as African-Americans suffered under terrorist Jim Crow regime in the former slave states and faced countless indignities throughout the U.S. (more on that below). Raping and Screaming Like Fiends The “wining of the West” also included savage racist and sexist war crimes against Mexico, which lost the land that makes up current day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming and Utah to the United States in one sided 1846-48 Mexican American War. Ulysses S. Grant would later call it “one of the most unjust [wars] ever won by a stronger against a weaker nation.” He would have known a thing or two about that since he was an officer in the U.S- white-Protestant assault on brown-skinned and Catholic Mexico, which had committed the unpardonable sin of abolishing slavery years before. Here is Grandin’s account of just two of many atrocities that U.S.-American soldiers committed during that conflict, long before the No Gun Ris , Operation Tiger Forces , My Lais, Bola Boluks, and Abu Ghraibs of future centuries: “On February 9, 1847, for one example, a member of the Arkansas volunteer regiment raped a Mexican woman near the regiment’s camp at Agua Nueva, in the state of Coahuila, and Mexicans retaliated by killing a U.S. soldier. Afterwards, over one hundred Arkansans cornered a group of war refugees in a cave. According to one eyewitness, the volunteers screamed ‘like fiends’ as they raped and slaughtered their victims, with women and children ‘shrieking for mercy.’ By the time the killing had ended, scores of Mexicans lay dead or dying on the cave floor, which was covered with clotted blood. Many of the dead had been scalped (more than a few volunteers in the U.S. Army had, before the war, made their living on the borderlands scalping Apaches for bounty money, or ‘barbering,’ as one infamous Texas scalp-hunter called his trade.)” The march of “Saxon civilization” in its glorious campaign against “savagery” was something to behold. Because God: “The Sword of the Lord” Evangelical Christian barbarism wedded to lethal American white nationalism? American evangelicals have been terrorizing their fellow Americans and others around the world for as long as the United States has existed – and indeed before that. The historically astute left political scientist Carl Boggs reminds us that contemporary American right-wing Christianity is “an extension of traditional, homespun, God-fearing Protestantism that historically intersected with racist, colonial, and exceptionalist currents of Manifest Destiny.” Further : “We know that slavery, along with every step toward extermination of Native Americans, was justified and even celebrated as part of God’s will. Did not President William McKinley, as the U.S. was preparing for a war in the Philippines that would slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians, inform Americans that this was a Christian duty?…Replete with images of great violence, hatred, and repression, [the Christians’ ancient holy text] the Bible in fact justifies all forms of mass murder, torture, warfare, and slavery. We have a text, as Michael Parenti notes, that takes enormous gratification in the mass slaughter of humans and animals, with few limits. In the Bible we find executions for taking God’s name in vain, death to practitioners of ‘idolatry,’ and horrific punishment for adulterers not to mention genocidal military attacks on heathen nations and culture. Such fundamentalist views, resonant of the Dark Ages, Parenti correctly likens to a modern fascist outlook.” Seventeen years ago, the evangelical Christian George W. Bush, neo-fascistically turbo-charged by the Reichstag Fire-like gift of the Islamist 9/11 attacks, concluded that God had told him to invade Mesopotamia. The invasion led to more than a million Iraqi deaths accompanied by countless explicitly racist and often evangelically infused acts of torture and murder committed by feral U.S. military forces. “In the Bible we find executions for taking God’s name in vain, death to practitioners of ‘idolatry,’ and horrific punishment for adulterers.” The use of messianic Christianity to justify murdering and maiming people of color en-masse goes back to the original British invasion of what would be called New England. The U.S. Declaration of Independence’s description of North America’s original inhabitants as “merciless Indian savages” anticipated Orwell by projecting onto Native Americans the genocidal practices that white “settlers” exhibited from day one. Consider the celebrated left historian Eric Foner’s textbook description of the grisly and religiously infused Mystic River Massacre of 1637: “A force of Connecticut and Massachusetts soldiers, augmented by Narraganset allies, surrounded the main Pequot fortified village at Mystic and set it ablaze, killing those who tried to escape. Over 500 men, women, and children lost their lives in the massacre. By the end of the war [of New England settlers on the once powerful Pequot tribe], most of the Pequots had been exterminated or sold into Caribbean slavery. The treat that restored peace decreed that their name should be wiped from the historical record.” “…The colonists’ ferocity shocked their Indian allies, who considered European military practices barbaric. A few Puritans agreed. ‘It was a fearful sight to see them frying in the fire,’ the Pilgrim leaders William Bradford wrote of the raid on Mystic. But to most Puritans, including Bradford, the defeat of a ‘barbarous nation’ by ‘the sword of the Lord’ offered further proof that they were on a sacred mission and that Indians were unworthy of sharing New England with the visible saints of the church.” The Puritans wept with joy and thanked “God” for helping them flame-broil Indian women and children who stood on ground they would turn into a heavenly “City on the Hill.” After a cruel campaign of ethnic cleansing (at the conclusion of “King Phillips’ War”) in which the white (un-) settlers pushed most of the last Indians they had not killed out of New England in the mid-1670s, “the image of Indians as bloodthirsty savages,” Foner writes, “became firmly entrenched in the New England mind.” “America” (the U.S.) was born lethal, merciless, and savage. “Crimes Which Would Disgrace a Nation of Savages” Even worse than killing Native-Americans en-masse was the torture and exploitation of millions upon of millions of African-Americans as slaves – the highly profitable and hidden secret to America’s rise to prominence in the world of nations by the mid-19th century. Racialized chattel slavery found regular Christian “justification” on the part of the white “settlers.” From the nearly 800,000 words that make up the Bible, American Christian slaveholders, particularly loved two texts. They adored this from Genesis IX of the period’s King James Bible, the one they cited to show how Jehovah had made Blacks lifelong servants in the image of “Ham”; “And the sons of Noah that went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole world overspread. And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.” It was a ridiculous passage for pro-slavery polemicists to cite. How was it a transgression to see Noah drunk and naked? Why did Noah curse Canaan rather than Ham? Why would Ham have been of a different color than his brothers? But so what? In its popularized southern version, labelled “The Curse of Ham,” Canaan was deleted, Ham was turned Black, and Ham’s descendants were turned into Africans. Slaver Simon said so! The Christian slaveowners’ second favorite text came from Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, VI, 5-7: “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.” “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters…as unto Christ.” Translation: Black slaves served God and Christ, not white people, by being slaves “with fear and trembling” to white “masters.” These masters tortured slaves to extract the last ounce of profit from them in cotton fields built on blood-soaked land stolen from Native Americans. They stood atop a vicious chattel system whose polemicists justified the regular rape of Black females as a “safety valve” that protected the virtue of white “southern womanhood.” “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass asked in 1852. “A day,” Douglass answered, “that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.” Further: “To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour…Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.” Red Hot Iron Brands and Kerosene Do Americans really need to look overseas or to European-born fascism to learn historical lessons about the horrors of racist barbarism? Consider another among countless horrendous U.S. racist atrocities that occurred on U.S. soil long before Mussolini invented fascism and the demonic Hitler rose to power in the Old World. In 1893, a Black man falsely accused of molesting a white child was burned at the stake before 10,000 cheering white people in Paris, Texas. A New York reporter described the Hellish sight : “The negro was placed upon a carnival float in mockery of a king upon his throne, and, followed by an immense crowd, was escorted through the city so that all might see the…inhuman monster…Smith was placed upon a scaffold, six feet square and ten feet high, securely bound, within the view of all beholders. Here the victim was tortured for fifty minutes by red-hot iron brands thrust against his quivering body. Commencing at the feet the brands were placed against him inch by inch until they were thrust against the face. Then, being apparently dead, kerosene was poured upon him, cottonseed hulls placed beneath him and set on fire. In less time than it takes to relate it, the tortured man was wafted beyond the grave to another fire, hotter and more terrible than the one just experienced.” After this grisly spectacle, many crowd members took away pieces of “Smith’s” body as souvenirs. Many such grisly occurrences took place across the U.S. South during the late and early 20th centuries – a time when images of Blacks who were lynched and burned to death before large and smiling white crowds were popular on American postcards. Between 1889 and 1918, 3,224 Americans were lynched within the United States, mostly in the South. Seventy-eight percent of these atrocity victims were black. In most cases the victims were hung or burned to death by mobs of soulful white “vigilantes,” commonly in front of thousands of gleeful spectators. Lynching continued in the South through 1968, the year in which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was executed in Memphis, Tennessee. In November 1898, Grandin reports, “thousands of white men” in Wilmington, North Carolina, celebrated news of Lisbon’s surrender to Washington in the Spanish-American War by “stag[ing] a coup against the elected, multi-racial coalition governing [Wilmington]. The white mob, many of them veterans of the Cuban campaign {the U.S. seizure of Cuba from Spain] just returned from the war, killed between sixty and three hundred African Americans, ransacked African American businesses, and set fire to African American homes.” “Fascism Has Happened Before in America” Another example of lethal racist (and classist) Americanism took place in the rural Arkansas town of Elaine in September of 1919 when hundreds of Blacks were massacred after Black sharecroppers had tried to organize a union. As Smithsonian.com reported last year: “The sharecroppers who gathered at a small church in Elaine, Arkansas, in the late hours of September 30, 1919, knew the risk they were taking. Upset about unfair low wages, they enlisted the help of a prominent white attorney from Little Rock, Ulysses Bratton, to come to Elaine to press for a fairer share in the profits of their labor. Each season, landowners came around demanding obscene percentages of the profits, without ever presenting the sharecroppers detailed accounting and trapping them with supposed debts…Aware of the dangers – the atmosphere was tense after racially motivated violence in the area – some of the farmers were armed with rifles…At around 11 p.m. that night, a group of local white men, some of whom may have been affiliated with local law enforcement, fired shots into the church. The shots were returned, and in the chaos, one white man was killed. Word spread rapidly about the death. Rumors arose that the sharecroppers, who had formally joined a union known as the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America (PFHUA) were leading an organized ‘insurrection’ against the white residents of Phillips County…Governor Charles Brough called for 500 soldiers from nearby Camp Pike to, as the Arkansas Democrat reported on Oct 2, ‘round up’ the ‘heavily armed negroes.’ The troops were ‘under order to shoot to kill any negro who refused to surrender immediately.’ They went well beyond that, banding together with local vigilantes and killing at least 200 African-Americans (estimates run much higher but there was never a full accounting). And the killing was indiscriminate—men, women and children unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity were slaughtered.” “The troops banded together with local vigilantes and killed at least 200 African-Americans.” These extra-legal and ritualistic executions enforced an American version of something very much like fascism. As Ezekiel Kweku and Jane Coastan noted two months after Trump was inaugurated: “If full-throated fascism should rise in the United States, it will be an American fascism, animated by American concerns and with antecedents in American history. Fascism has happened before in America…For generations of black Americans, the United States between the end of Reconstruction, around 1876, and the triumphs of the civil rights movement in the early 1960s was a fascist state. Local and federal governments enforced an authoritarian regime that curtailed the movements and advancement of black Americans, and black Americans only. America has been governed by the heavy hand of white nationalism before. The lessons learned by black Americans living under a restrictive and domineering regime a century ago are ones we can take now, too. If we want to know what it looks like when the worst happens, we don’t have to look to the old world; we have a rich history of horror in the new.” It wasn’t just about the former Confederacy. Mass-murderous white mob violence against Black Americans arose in Chicago , Omaha , East St. Louis , and numerous other northern locations during and after World War One. Racial terrorism, discrimination and apartheid was imposed on ghettoized urban black northerners and the thousands of all-white northern “Sundown Towns” were formed with the threat and reality of violence between 1890 and 1968. Kweku and Coaston might have added that the United States’ Indian Removal and reservation policies and Jim Crow terror regimes were inspirations and role models for Adolph Hitler and other European fascists, who also admired American mass production methods and the potent means of thought- and feeling-control developed by American advertisers and Hollywood. European fascism was Americanism to no small degree. Crushing “Anti-American Subversives” American lethality hasn’t just been about race, of course. Fascism was above all an organized assault on working class resistance and the Left. European fascists could find much to draw models and inspiration in that regard from America, home to the bloodiest industrial relations in the capitalist world in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries – and to a long history of violently repressing working-class activists and radicals. The grisly highlights included the execution of ten Irish-American “Molly Maguire” union militants at the behest of the Pennsylvania employer class on June 21, 1877 (the activists were hanged in two separate prisons surrounded by state militia with fixed bayonets) and the grotesquely inhumane short-rope hanging of four leftist Eight Hour Day activists (the “Haymarket Martyrs”) at the behest of the Chicago bourgeoisie (after a rigged trial followed the legendary merchandiser Marshal Field ordering the Governor of Illinois not to commute the death sentence) on November 11, 1887. Just a month after the ten Molly Maguires were murdered by the state as punishment for organizing coal miners and railroad workers, the one-sided “Battle of the Viaduct” took place on Halsted Street on the Near Southwest Side of Chicago. Federal troops called in from fighting (slaughtering) Sioux Indians (“red savages”) in the Dakota Territory joined local police and state militia in repressing striking workers (“white savages”). After two days, 30 workers lay dead; the gendarmes experienced no fatalities. In April of 1914, you can learn from Wikipedia, “The Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel and Iron (CFI) Company guards attacked a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914, with the National Guard using machine guns to fire into the colony. Approximately twenty-one people, including miners’ wives and children, were killed.” The ruthless massacre was ordered by the legendary American capitalist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the chief owner of the CFI mine. Three years later came the great “Bisbee Deportation.” Here again one need look no further than good old Wikipedia for a useful introduction: “The Bisbee Deportation was the illegal kidnapping and deportation of about 1,300 striking mine workers, their supporters, and citizen bystanders by 2,000 members of a deputized posse, who arrested these people beginning on July 12, 1917. The action was orchestrated by Phelps Dodge, the major mining company in the area, which provided lists of workers and others who were to be arrested in Bisbee, Arizona, to the Cochise County sheriff, Harry C. Wheeler. These workers were arrested and held at a local baseball park before being loaded onto cattle cars and deported 200 miles (320 km) to Tres Hermanas in New Mexico. The 16-hour journey was through desert without food and with little water. Once unloaded, the deportees, most without money or transportation, were warned against returning to Bisbee…As Phelps Dodge, in collusion with the sheriff, had closed down access to outside communications, it was some time before the story was reported….no individual, company, or agency was ever convicted in connection with the deportations.” The end of the “Great War” (during which the eloquent U.S. Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs was held in federal prison for the sin of opposing mass-murderous inter-imperialist slaughter ) was followed by the nation’s “First Red Scare.” A massive government and employer class crackdown on the Left including the capture and deportation of hundreds of suspected anarchists and communists. While it called its foreign enemies racist names (see below), lethal American white-nationalism in the opening decades of the last century called its “domestic enemies – labor, farmer, and civil rights organizers, both people of color and their white allies – subversives and anti-American.” (Grandin). Slaughtering “Niggers,” “Apaches,” and “Gooks” Abroad As the nineteenth century ended, America’s racist-classist-sexist soul-force was increasingly directed at victims beyond the North American continent. New predominantly non-white victims were searched out and destroyed overseas, always in the name of the United States’ higher morality and commitment to the benevolent ideals of democracy and rule of law. Between 1898 and 1905, for example, the U.S. Army, frequently led by “old Indian fighters,” seized the Philippines from its prior colonial master (Spain) and crushed a Filipino independence movement. The new American Empire’s first overseas counter-insurgency campaign killed perhaps as many as one million in the newly US-acquired Philippine islands. Few prisoners were taken and the Red Cross reported an extremely high ratio of dead to wounded, indicating a U.S. “determination to kill every native in sight.” “You never hear of any disturbances in Northern Luzon,” an anonymous U.S. Congressman reported , “because there isn’t anybody there to rebel….The good Lord in heaven only knows the number of Filipinos that were put under ground. Our soldiers took no prisoners, they kept no records; they simply swept the country and wherever and whenever they could get hold of a Filipino they killed him.” Throughout the “pacification” of the Philippines, the United States’ armed forces soulfully referred to the Filipinos as “niggers,” “barbarians,” and “savages.” America’s racist and Social-Darwinist President (1901-08) Theodore Roosevelt vilified Filipino resisters as “Apaches.” The phrase “gook” made its first appearance as a U.S. military term to describe angry and frightened Asians who inhabit lands invaded by “freedom-loving” Americans when George Custer’s legendary Seventh Cavalry arrived in the Philippines to help suppress “gook Apaches” in 1905. “Wherever and whenever they could get hold of a Filipino they killed him.” The hideous term “gook” would figure prominently in the United States’ crucifixion of Southeast Asia, which mercilessly and savagely exterminated as many as 5 million Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians between 1962 and 1975. The criminal and unnecessary atom-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were great acts of racially tinged exterminism as well as the first atomic shots in the Cold War . We can be certain that “the N-word” was used freely by U.S. soldiers when racist U.S. president Woodrow Wilson sent U.S. troops to Black Haiti in 1915. “Wilson‘s troops,” Noam Chomsky has noted , “murdered, destroyed, reinstituted virtual slavery and demolished the constitutional system in Haiti.” These actions followed in accord with Wilson’s Secretary of State Robert Lansing’s belief that “the African races are devoid of any capacity for political organization” and possessed “an inherent tendency to revert to savagery and to cast aside the shackles of civilization which are irksome to their physical nature.” That was a testament that Hitler certainly would have appreciated. The U.S. military’s murderous, and extremely racially infused “body count in the Caribbean and Pacific was high” during the first four decades of the last century, by Grandin’s account: “U.S. troops killed about fifteen thousand Haitians…between 1915 and 1935; tens of thousands of Dominicans between 1916 and 1924 fifty thousand Nicaraguans between 1912 and 1933; and thousands upon thousands of Filipinos between 1898 and 1946. Many more hundreds of thousands from these countries died from disease, famine, and exposure….Letters from [U.S.] soldiers, first in the 1898 campaign and then later, in Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, are notably similar, lightheartedly narrating to family and friends how they would shoot ‘niggers,’ lynch ‘niggers,’ release ‘niggers’ into the swamp to die, and use ‘niggers for target practice.’” How lethally fascistic was that? The racist American Empire’s racist lethality got worse after it belatedly helped the Soviet Union (the main target of Hitler’s Third Reich) prevail in the great global war against, well, fascism – and then graduated to the status of global hegemon. It is difficult, sometimes, to wrap one’s mind around the extent of the merciless savagery that Superpower Uncle Sam unleashed on the world to advance and maintain its global supremacy. In the early 1950s, the “liberal” Democratic Harry Truman administration responded to an early challenge to U.S. power in Northern Korea with a practically genocidal three-year bombing campaign that was described in soul-numbing terms by the Washington Post years ago: “The bombing was long, leisurely and merciless, even by the assessment of America’s own leaders. ‘Over a period of three years or so, we killed off—what—20 percent of the population,’ Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, told the Office of Air Force History in 1984. Dean Rusk, a supporter of the war and later Secretary of State, said the United States bombed ‘everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.’ After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the later stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops … [T]he U.S. dropped 635,000 tons of explosives on North Korea, including 32,557 tons of napalm, an incendiary liquid that can clear forested areas and cause devastating burns to human skin.” This ferocious bombardment, which killed 2 million or more civilians, began five years after Truman arch-criminally and unnecessarily ordered the atom bombing of hundreds of thousands pf civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to warn the Soviet Union to stay out of Japan and Western Europe. Indirect Massacre The merciless savagery of U.S. foreign policy in “America Era” did not always require direct U.S. military intervention. Take Indonesia and Chile, for two examples from the “Golden Age” height of the “American Century.” In Indonesia, the U.S.-backed dictator Suharto killed millions of his subjects, targeting communist sympathizers, ethnic Chinese and alleged leftists. A senior CIA operations officer in the 1960s later described Suharto’s 1965-66 U.S.-assisted coup as s “the model operation” for the U.S.-backed coup that eliminated the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, seven years later. “The CIA forged a document purporting to reveal a leftist plot to murder Chilean military leaders,” the officer wrote, “[just like] what happened in Indonesia in 1965.” As John Pilger noted 10 years ago , “the U.S. embassy in Jakarta supplied Suharto with a ‘zap list’ of Indonesian Communist party members and crossed off the names when they were killed or captured. … The deal was that Indonesia under Suharto would offer up what Richard Nixon had called ‘the richest hoard of natural resources, the greatest prize in south-east Asia.’ ” “No single American action in the period after 1945,” wrote the historian Gabriel Kolko, “was as bloodthirsty as its role in Indonesia.” Two years and three months after the Chilean coup, Suharto received a green light from Kissinger and the Gerald Ford White House to invade the small island nation of East Timor. With Washington’s approval and backing, Indonesia carried out genocidal massacres and mass rapes and killed at least 100,000 of the island’s residents. “Spiritual Death”: From “Great Society” and Vietnam to Mass Incarceration and the Destruction of Iraq and Libya By that time, Uncle Sam had just finished killing as many as 5 million Southeast Asians over the previous thirteen years in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia . The slaughter was drastically escalated at the precise moment when the domestic civil rights movement had compelled the liberal “Great Society” Lyndon Johnson administration to expand the welfare state like never before. The enormous taxpayer expense of the “crucifixion of Southeast Asia” (as Noam Chomsky aptly described the so-called Vietnam War at the time) meant that Johnson’s much-ballyhooed “war on poverty” at home was stillborn. Beyond murdering millions in Southeast Asia, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. noted in New York City’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 (one year to the day before his assassination or execution in Memphis, Tennessee), the deadly imperial expenditures crushed “hope for the [U.S.] poor – both black and white.” The anti-poverty program was “broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle plaything of a society gone mad” on a militarism that drew “men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube…A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift,” King added, “is approaching spiritual death.” America has become lethal under Trump? More openly and soul-numbingly racist, nativist, stupid, eco-cidal and sexist in the time of the textbook malignant narcissist and neofascist Trump-Pence-Bannon-Miller-McConnell regime, surely, but not lethal for the first time. Study North American and U.S. history with clear eyes: it’s a record loaded with vicious white-nationalist exterminist and lethal Americanism. Ask older Black Americans about the Jim Crow and “Sundown Town” eras. Born into a virulently racist society at the tail end of the fading McCarthy era (which absurdly cost my New Dealer grandfather – a future “Vietnam War” enthusiast – a teaching position in the 1950s), I am old enough to harbor early childhood through young-adult memories of Civil Rights activists being murdered in the South, the executions of Malcolm X and King, Chicago’s Mayor Richard J. Daley telling police to “shoot to kill” Black rioters protesting King’s murder, the openly white-supremacist 1968 presidential campaign of George Wallace, the racist 1968 “law and order” presidential campaign of Richard Nixon, the racist Chicago police-state execution of the young Black Panther leader Fred Hampton , the imperial state murders of student protesters at Kent State and Jackson State universities in May of 1970, the beginnings of the racist mass-incarcerationist “War on Drugs” under Nixon , the election of the malevolent racist Ronald Reagan in 1980, and much more terrible to contemplate. I’ve experienced the United States as lethal both domestically and globally lethal from my earliest moments of political consciousness. “U.S. history is loaded with vicious white-nationalist exterminist and lethal Americanism.” Speaking of merciless racist savagery in a time still within the living memory of tens of millions of Americans, consider Grandin’s account of how the mass-murderer and war criminal William Calley became a political folk-hero to Confederate flag-waving southerners while being embraced by Nixon during Tricky Dick’s noxious re-election campaign. As Grandin writes in his recent book The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America (2019): “The Confederate flag stopped flying as the pennant of reconciliation, the joining of the southern military tradition to northern establishment might to spread Americanism abroad [by the early 1970s]. It now was the banner of those who felt that the establishment had sacrificed that tradition, ‘stabbed it in the back.’ The battle flag became the banner not of of a specific Lost Cause but of all of white supremacy’s lost causes.” “The working-class Floridian lieutenant William Calley, for instance, the only solider convicted for taking part in the March 1968 My Lai Massacre [one of dozens if not hundreds of village massacres carried out by U.S. imperial troops in Vietnam – P.S.] became the representational bearer of this aggrieved standard. He was popular throughout the country,especially in the South; his supporters rallied under the Confederate Flag and Richard Nixon embraced Calley in his reelection campaign. As a result, the massacre of over five hundred Vietnamese civilians was transformed from a war crime into a cultural wedge issue, used to nationalize southern grievance and weaponize the wartime coarsening of sentiment for electoral advantage. ‘Most people,’ said Nixon of Calley’s actions at My Lai, ‘don’t give a shit whether he killed them or not.’ ‘The villagers got what they deserved,’ agreed Louisiana senator Allen Ellender” (emphasis added). How fascistic and lethal was that? Worried about racism in the White House? Consider the following, recently released 1971 telephone exchange between then President Nixon and future president Ronald Reagan insulting African United Nations delegates who defied Washington by voting to recognize the People’s Republic of China: Reagan: “Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did.” Nixon: “Yeah.” Reagan: “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries — damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!” Nixon: laughter. It is clear from recently released tapes that “Nixon believed in a ‘hierarchy of races’ with white people at the top and people of African and Latin American descent towards the bottom.” After a brief interlude of Democratic rule (the one-term presidency of the transitional neoliberal Jimmy Carter) produced by Watergate, Reagan doubled down on Nixon’s liberal- and red-baiting and racist “southern strategy” and mass-incarcerationist “war on drugs” and promised (in classic palingenetic fascist-style) national regeneration (a “new morning in America”) to serve two terms of a presidency that justifiably won the title of “friendly fascism” from the political journalist Bertram Gross. Reagan was the standard bearer of a lethal white nationalist and evangelical Americanism as old as the nation’s bloody “settlement.” “Reagan doubled down on Nixon’s liberal- and red-baiting and racist ‘southern strategy’ and mass-incarcerationist ‘war on drugs.’” The arch-neoliberal de facto Republican presidency of racist mass incarcerator Bill “Three Strikes” Clinton , the vicious war presidencies of the two Bushes and the noxious neoliberal imperialism of Wall Street Barry Obomber (the nations silver-tongued “deporter-in-chief” and wrecker of Libya and Honduras) all followed in the same institutionally and ideologically lethal grooves, just with different styles tailored to different partisan/regional constituencies and funding bases. The sick and neofascistic Trump, whose rallies are reminiscent of Mussolini and Hitler, whose hateful rhetoric triggers lone-wolf white-nationalist jihadists to conduct NRA-outfitted assault-weapon pogroms against people of color, is, like Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and the two Bushes. the product of a longstanding racial barbarism that is (like guns and violence) as American as cherry pie. Terrible as he is, Trump has yet to order anything on the scale of Bush41’s Operation Desert Storm (1991), Bush 43’s invasion and occupation of Iraq, or Obama’s destruction of Libya (2011). Concerned about racist barbarism? Among the countless episodes of mass-murderous U.S. savagery in the oil-rich Middle East over the last generation, few can match for the barbarous ferocity of the “Highway of Death,” where the “global policeman’s” forces massacred tens of thousands of surrendered Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait on Feb. 26 and 27, 1991. Journalist Joyce Chediac testified that: U.S. planes trapped the long convoys by disabling vehicles in the front, and at the rear, and then pounded the resulting traffic jams for hours. ‘It was like shooting fish in a barrel,’said one U.S. pilot. On the sixty miles of coastal highway, Iraqi military units sit in gruesome repose, scorched skeletons of vehicles and men alike, black and awful under the sun … for 60 miles every vehicle was strafed or bombed, every windshield is shattered, every tank is burned, every truck is riddled with shell fragments. No survivors are known or likely. … ‘Even in Vietnam I didn’t see anything like this. It’s pathetic,’ said Major Bob Nugent, an Army intelligence officer. … U.S. pilots took whatever bombs happened to be close to the flight deck, from cluster bombs to 500-pound bombs. … U.S. forces continued to drop bombs on the convoys until all humans were killed. So many jets swarmed over the inland road that it created an aerial traffic jam, and combat air controllers feared midair collisions. … The victims were not offering resistance. … [I]t was simply a one-sided massacre of tens of thousands of people who had no ability to fight back or defend. “U.S. forces continued to drop bombs on the convoys until all humans were killed.” Talk about merciless savagery! The victims’ crime was having been conscripted into an army controlled by a dictator perceived as a threat to U.S. control of Middle Eastern oil. President George H.W. Bush welcomed the so-called Persian Gulf War as an opportunity to demonstrate America’s unrivaled power and new freedom of action in the post-Cold War world, where the Soviet Union could no longer deter Washington. Bush also heralded the “war” (really a one-sided imperial assault) as marking the end of the “Vietnam Syndrome,” the reigning political culture’s curious term for U.S. citizens’ reluctance to commit U.S. troops to murderous imperial mayhem. As Noam Chomsky observed in 1992, reflecting on U.S. efforts to maximize suffering in Vietnam by blocking economic and humanitarian assistance to the nation it had devastated: “No degree of cruelty is too great for Washington sadists.” Bush Junior’s invasion killed at least a million Iraqis. In a poignant 2015 memoir from “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” the former U.S. Marine and brilliant antiwar activist Vince Emanuel recalled “the hundreds of prisoners we took captive and tortured in makeshift detention facilities staffed by teenagers from Tennessee, New York and Oregon.” By Emanuel’s account: “I never had the misfortune of working in the detention facility, but I remember the stories. I vividly remember the marines telling me about punching, slapping, kicking, elbowing, kneeing and head-butting Iraqis. I remember the tales of sexual torture: forcing Iraqi men to perform sexual acts on each other while marines held knives against their testicles, sometimes sodomizing them with batons.” “However, before those abominations could take place, those of us in infantry units had the pleasure of rounding up Iraqis during night raids, zip-tying their hands, black-bagging their heads and throwing them in the back of HUMVEEs and trucks while their wives and kids collapsed to their knees and wailed. Sometimes, we would pick them up during the day. Most of the time they wouldn’t resist. Some of them would hold hands while marines would butt-stroke the prisoners in the face. Once they arrived at the detention facility, they would be held for days, weeks, and even months at a time. Their families were never notified. And when they were released, we would drive them from the FOB (Forward Operating Base) to the middle of the desert and release them several miles from their homes.” “After we cut their zip-ties and took the black bags off their heads, several of our more deranged marines would fire rounds from their AR-15s into their air or ground, scaring the recently released captives. Always for laughs. Most Iraqis would run, still crying from their long ordeal at the detention facility, hoping some level of freedom awaited them on the outside. Who knows how long they survived. After all, no one cared…” “Amazingly, the ability to dehumanize the Iraqi people reached a crescendo after the bullets and explosions concluded, as many marines spent their spare time taking pictures of the dead, often mutilating their corpses for fun or poking their bloated bodies with sticks for some cheap laughs. Because iPhones weren’t available at the time, several marines came to Iraq with digital cameras. Those cameras contain an untold history of the war in Iraq, a history the West hopes the world forgets. That history and those cameras also contain footage of wanton massacres and numerous other war crimes, realities the Iraqis don’t have the pleasure of forgetting.” “Unfortunately…Innocent people were not only routinely rounded-up, tortured and imprisoned, they were also incinerated by the hundreds of thousands, some studies suggest by the millions.” How lethal and fascist was that? “Many marines spent their spare time taking pictures of the dead, often mutilating their corpses for fun.” Is Trumpism fascism? It is interesting that the word does not appear once in Grandin’s superb End of the Myth, one of the most important books ever written by a left (or any other kind) of American historian. “The 2016 election of Donald Trump as president of the United States – and all the vitriol his campaign and presidency have unleased – has,” writes Grandin, “been presented by commentators as one of two opposing possibilities. Trumpism either represents a rupture, a wholly un-American movement that has captured the institutions of government; or he is the realization of a deep-rooted American form of extremism. Does Trump’s crass and cruel appeal to nativism represent a break from tradition, from a fitful but persistent commitment to tolerance and equality…? Or is it but the ‘dark side,’ to use Dick Cheney’s resonant phrase, of U.S. history coming into the light?” Grandin sees the “dark side” coming back to the fore with a vengeance under Obama and Trump because new limits on American capitalist and imperial expansion have brought an end to the nation’s ability to displace its internal class and racial disparities on to the “frontier,” broadly understood: “When fascism comes to America,” someone (possibly Huey Long, but not Sinclair Lewis) is supposed to have said or written in the 1930s, “it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” That is certainly true – every variant of national fascism will bear the imprint of the specific nation in which it arises – but it would have been better to say that “When American develops its own breed of fascism, it will be wrapped in the Star-Spangled Banner and carrying a cross.” Fascism won’t come to America. It will emerge out of American history. Yes, “it could happen here,” to paraphrase Sinclair Lewis 84 years ago, with “it” meaning an fascism. But let us not turn away from how terrible and dangerous what had already happened here and what is happening now, richly consistent with a savagely racist, patriarchal, eco-cidal, authoritarian, and classist Americanism that is as old as this criminal, savagely merciless and “exceptional” nation itself. Postscript: This essay was completed in the South Loop of Chicago, beneath the intermittent roar of deadly U.S. fighter jets doing practice flights over and around the Midwestern Metropolis’s downtown lakefront. The pilots are practicing for this weekend’s annual Chicago Air and Water Show, when a disproportionately white crowd of one million metropolitan area residents gather along the Chicago shoreline to ooh and ahh over some of the global American Empire’s most awe-inspiring weapons of air-borne mass destruction. The swoosh of the military planes can he heard in 95% Black ghetto South and West Side neighborhoods where a third and more of children are living at less than half the federal government’s hopelessly inadequate poverty level. The cost of just a single U.S. F-35 B Fighter Jet is $250 million (in 2014 dollars) a sum that could be used to vastly improve Chicago’s poorly funded and hyper-segregated inner-city public schools. Many parts of the U.S. military’s airborne arsenal bear Native-American names: the Blackhawk, Apache, and Chinook helicopters are three examples. The city’s National Hockey League team is named after the Sauk warrior who led the battle against white invaders in 1832, only to see his nation devastated and removed from the fertile planes of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Many Chicagoland residents wear “chief” Black Hawk’s profile on t-shirts and jerseys. When you ask them who Black Hawk was and what happened to his people, their responses range from embarrassed ignorance to bemused indifference, mild irritation, and overt hostility. One of the very top U.S. military aviation manufacturers, Boeing, is headquartered in downtown Chicago. Its overseas body count over the decades is incalculable but surely ranks in the millions. Help Street keep writing here . Paul Street’s latest book is They Rule: The 1% v. Democracy (Paradigm, 2014) This article previously appeared in Counterpunch . COMMENTS? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net Thu Aug 22 17:56:52 2019 From: davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net (David Johnson) Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 12:56:52 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Belfast Man 'Kneecapped', Violence Grows Amid Irish Border Dispute Message-ID: <00d501d55912$ff04b680$fd0e2380$@comcast.net> Telesur Belfast Man 'Kneecapped', Violence Grows Amid Irish Border Dispute * According to UK government figures, 81 people have been victims of paramilitary attacks in the north of Ireland between July 2018 and June 2019. Police in the north of Ireland report that a "paramilitary-style shooting" took place in "broad daylight" on Thursday. The police warn that there have been a number of such attacks as tensions grow over uncertainty about a possible post-Brexit Irish border separating the north and the republic. Some are calling for Irish unification as a solution. RELATED: British Ex-Soldiers Could Face Murder Charges for Bloody Sunday Police say that the man is in his forties and is in a stable condition in hospital after being shot in both of his legs in Ardoyne, Belfast. Police are alarmed at the rise in such attacks, the previous month saw a man in his twenties who was shot repeatedly in the middle of Belfast's busy High St, also in broad daylight. The perpetrators are not known. According to UK government figures, 87 people have been victims of paramilitary attacks in the north of Ireland between July 2018 and June 2019, within that, 2 victims were shot and 65 assaulted. In June alone there has been 12 paramilitary assaults, the highest since April 2009. The increases in violence come amid nervousness about the future of Ireland post-Brexit. In the event of a 'no-deal' Brexit, then a border would have to be erected separated the Republic of Ireland from the British occupied Northern Ireland. This would be a violation of the Good Friday peace agreement that stipulated that there must be frictionless movement across all of Ireland, it was a key condition in getting Republican guerillas to lay down arms. Sinn Fein, the pro-independence party, has called for an all-Ireland referendum on re-unification and independence in the event of a no-deal Brexit, they say it would be the only way to avoid a hard border, symbol of British occupation during the armed conflict. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 997 bytes Desc: not available URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Fri Aug 23 01:02:37 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 20:02:37 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Jeffrey Epstein in context Message-ID: This Village Voice exposé from 2011 might be placed in the context of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, as documented in the Miami Herald by Julie K. Brown, whose three articles are well worth reading. https://www.villagevoice.com/2011/06/29/real-men-get-their-facts-straight/ Note the sharp contrast between moral panics promoted by Hollywood celebrities, and the money that flows as a result, versus the treatment Epstein received, including from prosecutors who undermined police efforts to convict Epstein in a manner commensurate with his crimes. Given the more reliable and realistic estimates (toward the bottom) in the Village Voice article, it would appear that in a given year, say circa 2005, Epstein may have been responsible for over 10% of all known child prostitute victims in the entire country, given that in any given year he would have victimized at least 100 children, probably a conservative estimate. That's of course setting aside the fact that his victims were being raped. Yes, it doesn't seem possible, and perhaps there's a flaw in the basic reasoning. But then again, who ever thought that .1% (1/1000) of the population would have 20% (1/5) of the wealth. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Fri Aug 23 15:47:45 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C. G. Estabrook ) Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2019 08:47:45 -0700 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Sun-Times Op-ed: Put public money to work for the people References: <0b7c27886135487781e804ed61cd7052@bounce.bluestatedigital.com> Message-ID: Begin forwarded message: > From: Daniel Biss > Date: August 23, 2019 at 7:38:34 AM PDT > To: "C. G. Estabrook" > Subject: Sun-Times Op-ed: Put public money to work for the people > Reply-To: info at danielbiss.com > > > Dear C. G., > > My friend Ameya Pawar and I wrote an op-ed that appears in today's Chicago Sun-Times -- I hope you'll check it out here. > > We begin by discussing a genuinely outrageous recent news item about the hedge fund Warlander Management. Warlander placed a bet that Illinois would default on its debt and has also gone to court to force Illinois to do just that. As Ameya and I write in the piece, it's as though they took out an insurance policy on someone else's house and then went to court asking a judge to burn that house down. (The bad news is that in this metaphor, the rest of us live in the house in question.) > > These folks aren't only market manipulators who are trying to harm Illinois and line their own pockets. They're also hypocrites. They're the very same people who pretend that it's a violation of the laws of economics for government to enact regulations to protect workers or the environment, or for businesses to forgo some short-term profits in order to advance those goals. In other words, they're more than happy to go to court and interfere with the market when it makes them rich, and then they turn around and claim that government shouldn't try to establish economic ground rules in the public interest. > > Here's the good news: the public sector invests tens of trillions of dollars, representing a tremendous opportunity to allocate capital in the public interest. Ameya and I wrote this op-ed as an introduction to a series of articles about different strategies for doing just that. I'm excited about this project and I hope you find it interesting too -- please let me know if you have any suggestions or questions on this topic. > > Thanks so much. > > Onward, > > Daniel > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Paid for by Biss for Illinois. > > This email was sent to cgestabrook at gmail.com. Daniel is not funded by billionaires or backed by Illinois' political machine. That's why we believe that emails are a crucial way for the campaign to stay connected with supporters like you. If you'd prefer to receive fewer emails, you can click here. Click here if you would like to unsubscribe from Biss for Illinois email. > > A copy of our report filed with the State Board of Elections is (or will be) available on the Board's official website (www.elections.il.gov) or for purchase from the State Board of Elections, Springfield, Illinois. > P.O. BOX 7026, EVANSTON, IL 60204 > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Fri Aug 23 15:51:49 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2019 15:51:49 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] US escalates preparations for nuclear war with Russia and China Message-ID: * Print * Leaflet * Feedback * Share » US escalates preparations for nuclear war with Russia and China By Andre Damon 23 August 2019 After withdrawing from the landmark Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, the United States has been barreling ahead with its preparations to fight a nuclear war with China, Russia, or both, by testing and stockpiling dangerous new weapons in a nuclear arms race. In an interview with Fox News, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the United States military is changing its focus from “low-intensity conflict,” such as the war in Afghanistan, to “high-intensity conflicts against competitors such as Russia and China.” [https://www.wsws.org/asset/461e0b7e-0df2-42cc-914a-3237e6a5cacF/image.png?rendition=image480]The US tests a ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missile that was banned under the INF treaty Key to fighting such “high-intensity conflicts” is the United States’ arsenal of nuclear weapons, which Esper called “strategic forces.” “Our strategic forces are a key deterrent to nuclear war. I think a strong, reliable, capable, ready deterrent is really what prevents nuclear war from happening in the first place,” he said. In the Orwellian language of the “Defense” department, preserving “peace” is accomplished by expanding America’s “deterrent,” another name for the hellish nuclear weapons that can kill billions of people within an hour. Esper made no secret of who he is seeking to “deter,” saying “China is the number one priority for this department.” He claimed China is trying to “push the United States out” of the “Indo-Pacific theater.” [https://www.wsws.org/asset/6bbe627b-6cef-4267-83be-e21f4f20799G/image.png?rendition=image480]Air Force Airmen perform seal checks on their gas masks during a chemical, biological, and nuclear defense class [Credit: US Air Force] The term “theater” was defined by military theorist Carl Clausewitz as “a portion of the space over which war prevails.” Esper thinks the Indo-Pacific region—home to more than half of the world’s people—is, to the surprise of its inhabitants, a military “theater,” and one over which the United States supposedly has claim, despite being located on the other side of the world. But to secure this supposedly God-given right to dominance over Asia, the United States—the only country to use nuclear weapons in World War II—is making active preparations to ring the entire Chinese mainland with nuclear-capable missiles. Missiles that could reach the Chinese mainland from places like Japan and South Korea were banned under the INF treaty, which the United States pulled out of earlier this year. The United States, Esper said, now needs “to be able to strike at intermediate ranges” to “deter Chinese bad behavior,’ as if he were talking about disciplining a child, not annihilating a country of nearly 1.4 billion people. The United States is moving full-speed ahead with the deployment of new missiles. The Pentagon said Monday it had tested a ground-launched, Tomahawk missile, which would have been banned under the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces treaty. Earlier this month, Esper said that he would like to begin deploying medium-range missiles near China within a matter of “months.” Once conventional missiles are deployed, those with nuclear warheads will inevitably follow. The INF treaty was signed on December 8, 1987, between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, after protracted arms control negotiations. It prohibited the deployment of land-based ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. The treaty mandated the elimination of intermediate range missiles for the United States, the Soviet Union, and its successor states. [https://www.wsws.org/asset/7786ad04-9d53-41fa-bb3b-317e497d243H/image.png?rendition=image480]Donald Trump smiles with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi [Credit: US Air Force] The United States said that it was withdrawing from the INF in response to Russia’s development of the Novator 9M729 missile, which is based on the earlier SSC-X-4 ground launched cruise missile that the US claimed violated the treaty. Despite the fact that Russia invited the United States to inspect its missile production facilities, the US was unable to seriously substantiate the charges that nominally led it to repudiate the treaty. Article continues below the form Even as the United States ramps up its plans to develop new nuclear weapons, the US military is stockpiling masses of conventional weapons. “The Pentagon has boosted spending to significantly increase the quantity of purchases of high-end weapons that would be used in a war against a peer competitor,” wrote Roman Schweizer, in a research note cited by Defense One. He noted that the Defense Department added $20 billion in spending for “high-end weapons: $12.7B for Lockheed, $6.2B for Raytheon and $1.2B for Boeing.” The Pentagon’s free spending was made possible by congressional Democrats, who voted overwhelmingly for the $738 billion military budget demanded by the Trump administration—the largest Pentagon budget in US history. In fact, the foundations of Trump’s nuclear build-up were laid by the Obama administration, which initiated a multi-trillion dollar nuclear “modernization” program. Trump has only expanded this basic program, developing it within the framework of the Pentagon’s doctrine of “strategic competition,” and pushing for smaller, more “usable” nuclear weapons. The Washington Post and New York Times, the newspapers of Trump’s supposed political opposition, are cheerleaders for the US military buildup. Earlier this month, Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote an op-ed titled “The U.S. Needs More Nukes,” that managed to denounce Ronald Regan as being soft on Russia for passing the INF treaty in the first place. The Times subsequently carried a letter to the editor rebuking Stephens’s warmongering, by Robert Dodge, the resident of Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles. “No, the United States does not need new nukes,” Dodge wrote. “New scientific studies have shown that the old paradigm of mutually assured destruction, or MAD, has morphed into SAD, self-assured destruction, inviting global famine from catastrophic climate changes after a small regional nuclear war. Even without a retaliatory strike, our own fate is sealed. There are no winners.” Dodge’s comments came amid the publication this month of a new study that found that a nuclear war between the United States and a peer nuclear power—in this case Russia—would result in nuclear winter. The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres concluded: “The planet would grow colder due to the huge amount of smoke generated by fires ignited by the atomic blasts—the smoke would cover the entire planet for years, blocking the sun.” The actions of the United States are precipitating a global arms race with potentially incalculable consequences. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin, who said last year that anyone who launches a nuclear attack against Russia would go to “hell,” are responding to the American threats with a military build-up of their own. Earlier this month, seven people were killed when a Russian nuclear-powered cruise missile malfunctioned and exploded, in the second Russian nuclear disaster in the span of one month. WSWS.ORG -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Aug 24 15:55:43 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2019 15:55:43 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Trump=E2=80=99s_Concentration_Camps_for?= =?utf-8?q?_Children?= Message-ID: JACQUELINE LUQMAN: This is Jacqueline Luqman with The Real News Network. This week, the Trump administration declared that immigrant children can be detained separate from their families indefinitely. And this comes after the administration argued in court to be able to detain children in conditions that can arguably be described as concentration camps, destroying the tenants of the two decades old Flores decision. Here to talk with me today about what this means for the families and children of asylum seekers and immigrants, and what this means for this country is Sasha Abramsky. Sasha is a regular contributor to The Nation magazine where his article on this proposed rule change was recently published. He is the author of eight books, and the most recent one is called Jumping at Shadows: The Triumph of Fear and the End of the American Dream. Welcome, Sasha. Thank you so much for joining me. SASHA ABRAMSKY: Thanks for having me on. JACQUELINE LUQMAN: So really quickly for people who don’t understand what this means and what this change is, what is the Flores decision and why is what the Trump administration did this week important in the history of immigration policy in the US? SASHA ABRAMSKY: Okay. So the Flores decision came out of a lawsuit more than 30 years ago in California when children fleeing from Central America, from armed conflict at the time, were being kept in really atrocious conditions and a number of immigration attorneys filed suit. A decade later at the end of the 1990s there was an agreement reached with the federal government, which basically set in place a few things. It set in place the kinds of conditions that kids could be kept in, so it mandated certain standards— access to education, to food, to safe bedding, and so on and so forth, but it also set time limits. It basically said, “Look, you want to hold these kids in the least restrictive environment for the least amount of time possible,” because there was an understanding that the longer you hold kids essentially in prison, the more you damage them. You damage them physically, you damaged them psychologically, and you actually can do long-term damage to that child, which is going to follow them for the rest of their life. So the settlement agreement basically said, “All right, if you’re going to hold immigrant families in detention, you can only do it for a certain amount of time. Then you have to release them, you have to process them through the courts, and while they’re waiting for their asylum cases, they have to be in the community.” Trump’s administration right from the get-go has waged a war on immigrants— whether it’s DACA recipients, Temporary Protected Status recipients, whether it’s Muslims seeking visa’s to come into the country, whether it’s legal immigrants seeking access to public benefits. And now what they’re doing is trying to unilaterally rip up that Flora settlement and say, “Well look, we don’t believe that we should have to adhere to standards, and nor do we believe that there are time limits.” If they get away with it, what they’re going to be able to do is basically set up this archipelago of immigration detention camps. You can call them internment camps, you can call them concentration camps, you can call them prisons. But the end result is that thousands upon thousands of kids will be able to be held indefinitely in these appalling conditions, while their asylum cases, while their immigration cases run their way through the courts. It’s extraordinary. What it means is America, which prides itself on being this open pluralist society, which has the Statue of Liberty as it’s national emblem, is now in the business of internment camps for children. I think anybody who cares morally about where this country’s going should just take a look at this and just be absolutely stunned by what is now being done in our names. JACQUELINE LUQMAN: So didn’t the Trump administration declare a few weeks ago, or just a few days ago actually, that it would not issue flu vaccines to detained immigrants? SASHA ABRAMSKY: That’s right. And that is dangerous for so many reasons. It’s dangerous because kids are particularly susceptible to a very deadly flu. It’s also dangerous because these camps, these prisons, are so overcrowded that they’re absolute petri dishes for disease. So when I was in Arizona reporting a story for The Nation Magazine before the summer, I was interviewing people who had been held in these facilities for days, sometimes weeks on end. And what they were telling me was that in some of these rooms that are 75 to 100, in some rooms even 150 people crowded together. They have no access to bedding. They sleep on concrete floors. Sometimes when there’s particular overcrowding, families have been moved outside to sleep outside in the desert, and they were doing that in winter. They’re doing it without access to clean and safe drinking water. They’re doing it without access to an adequate number of bathrooms. I was told stories where 75 to 100 people had access to two bathrooms. And I was told stories where the only drinking water available was from dirty faucets right next to the toilets. There’s almost no medical care in these facilities. And the idea that you would cram human beings into these camps that resembled cattle cars, and that you would then make it even more likely that they would fall prey to whether it’s flu or any other infectious disease, and would then deny preventable vaccinations to stop them getting those illnesses— to me, that’s a crime. I don’t know if it meets the legal definition of crime, but it’s doing something deliberately intended to put already poor, already scared, already vulnerable immigrants into harm’s way. And it could only be done by an administration which has spent three years dehumanizing immigrants, calling them invaders, calling them pests, calling them criminals, calling them rapists. And when you dehumanize entire groups of people, you make it that much easier to put them into conditions in which they are treated in a subhuman manner. And that’s what we’re witnessing today. The United States government is now in the business of denying children vaccines for preventable diseases. JACQUELINE LUQMAN: And not only is this administration denying vaccines to children for preventable diseases, but didn’t the administration go to court earlier this year to argue that basic necessities that we take for granted— like soap, toothbrushes, and toothpaste— were not necessary or were not legally considered necessary in detention facilities? SASHA ABRAMSKY: They did. And this was, again, part of the Flores legislation. There was a case, there was a legal suit brought because they were depriving kids of adequate access to food. They were providing inedible food. They were providing dirty drinking water. They were denying them access to toothpaste, to soap, and to shampoo, and even to showers. And then, the DOJ attorneys somehow decided it was okay to go to court and argue that all of that was somehow acceptable under Flores. And not surprisingly, the judge said, “Absolutely not. You’re not meeting any legal standards if you’re denying kids food, you’re denying kids toothpaste, you’re denying kids soap, and so on.” But I would say that any judge who comes up and listens to an attorney for the Department of Justice spouting this nonsense, any judge is going to be looking at this and thinking what on Earth is going on? When did the Department of Justice become so Orwellian? When did the attorneys who work for the Department of Justice decide that it was morally acceptable to go to court to argue that children didn’t need adequate supplies of food, didn’t need access to education, didn’t need access to outside exercise facilities, didn’t need access to personal hygiene? What kind of a country would send its top legal employees to argue that on behalf of the state? JACQUELINE LUQMAN: Now let’s – to be fair, and to draw a comparison, detention facilities existed in the United States in regard to immigration policy to hold people who were across the border “illegally” in the previous administration. What is the major difference between the way family and child detention was handled in previous administrations, and what’s the big difference in the way this administration is handling the situation? SASHA ABRAMSKY: It’s a good question, and there are a few key differences. It’s absolutely true that previous administrations have had detention at the border, and previous administrations have argued against the Flores settlement. That’s absolutely true. The difference is that the previous administration tried to use detention sparingly. So the default understanding was— for families in particular, and for children in particular— there was something of an incentive to get those kids out of a confined incarceration setting because there was a recognition of the harm that was caused. The difference here is, this administration seems to revel in the harm that’s caused. They’re using it as this very, very crude deterrent. They’re trying to terrorize families. They made it abundantly clear. They made it abundantly clear with the family separation policy they tried to implement last year, that they were using the taking of children, that they were using the incarceration of children, that they were using up the breaking up of families not as a last resort immigration policy, but as a first resort deterrent. They’ve essentially concluded that any and every impoverished immigrant, any and every impoverished asylum seeker, any and every would be refugee who is coming to this country because they believe in Emma Lazarus’s words on the Statue of Liberty, that all of those people are dangerous, that all of those people are enemies, and that all of those people are invaders. And they’re using the language of white nationalists. They’re using the exact same language that neo-Nazi groups, that white nationalist groups, that white supremacist groups, that Identitarian groups are using on their websites. And we saw this absolutely scandalous event earlier this week when the Department of Justice sent out a daily news bulletin to immigration judges around the country quoting from a white nationalist website. Imagine that. The Department of Justice of the country that prides itself on being the greatest democracy on Earth, is sending immigration judges links to white nationalist websites. And I think this is the fundamental difference, that we now have a president who goes to campaign rallies and he insights crowds into nativist, racist, bigoted language that can only reverberate and hurt immigrants. That can only shred our sense of community and our sense of society. And he’s doing it quite deliberately. He’s not doing it incidentally. So you asked the difference, and the difference is that this administration has made a decision that the more it demagogues on immigration, the more it demagogues on this idea that our borders are being besieged and that we’re being invaded, the more it demagogues on this, the more it can drive its base to the polls. And it’s a disgraceful policy decision because the impact is now being felt by hundreds of thousands, and probably millions of immigrants all around the country who on a daily basis now feel scared, feel terrorized, feel that the government no longer have their back. And that’s a horrifying situation that the United States government is making it abundantly clear that it doesn’t represent all Americans, that it only represents certain Americans. JACQUELINE LUQMAN: So perhaps the question about whether we should call these detention centers concentration camps are not now – isn’t really a question in the minds of the people who are establishing these new rules to create these conditions, which under the technical definition of a concentration camp, that’s exactly what these are. The only question it seems to be in whether the American people and the rest of the world are, whether we are willing to call these places and these actions what they are, and what we’re going to do about them. So what do you have to say about that, Sasha? SASHA ABRAMSKY: Well, I think whether we call them concentration camps—And they clearly are. They meet the definition of the original concentration camps that the British used against the Boer’s in South Africa in the late 19th and early 20th century. They were camps designed to bring families into contained, controlled incarceration environments. Whether we call them concentration camps like that, or whether we call them internment camps like the camps that we used against Japanese Americans during World War II, whatever label we choose to affix on them, we’re clearly now in a moment where the top bureaucracies of the United States immigration system— the Customs Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and so on and so forth— are responding to essentially a policy agenda set by the nationalist Steve Miller. And they’re responding to a policy agenda which views all immigration as bad, that increasingly fails to distinguish between legal and undocumented immigrants, that penalizes all immigrants financially for daring to come to this country. We see this with the new public chart regulations, that there’s this assumption that anybody who tries to come into this country to remake themselves, remake their families, give themselves a better future— that in doing so, they’re transgressing. That they are crossing some kind of boundary and therefore deserve punishment. So to me it’s slightly irrelevant whether we call them concentration camps, internment camps, detention centers, prisons, cages for children. The end results the same. We’re doing things that we know are going to hurt young children who have come to America to escape poverty, to escape violence, to escaping [inaudible] gangs, into armed gangs in places like Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador. And they’ve come to America because America historically has been a land of welcome – been one of our proudest accomplishments as a nation, that we are strong enough to welcome and absorb immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees. And since World War II we have admitted millions of refugees, and they have started businesses, they have made scientific discoveries and inventions. They have contributed immensely to this society. We are now locking out refugees, we’re locking out asylum seekers, and we’re putting people who do make it to the United States border to claim asylum, into these absolutely awful camps. And I think that anybody in the administration who participates in this, should be shamed for the rest of their lives for the action they are doing now. And it should be made abundantly clear that when this awful administration’s over, they’re not going to get public service jobs again. And they’re not going to be welcomed in think tanks, and they’re not going to be welcomed in universities because the idea that they’re just doing politics as normal is absolutely wrong. There’s nothing normal about putting children into concentration camps. And I think that we as a society, you asked what’s at stake. What’s at stake is a battle for our soul – what kind of a people we are and what kind of actions we’re willing or not willing to stomach when carried out by this administration. JACQUELINE LUQMAN: Well, Sasha Abramsky, thank you so much for your reporting. And we will absolutely continue to see just what kind of nation we will be in regard to this issue. Thank you for coming on today and speaking with me, clarifying what is really going on in these detention centers with these children. SASHA ABRAMSKY: You’re very welcome. Thank you so much. JACQUELINE LUQMAN: And thank you for watching. This is Jacqueline Luqman with The Real News Network in Baltimore -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Sat Aug 24 18:17:49 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2019 13:17:49 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Bend the Arc articles & my letter Message-ID: The News-Gazette recently published an article about *Bend the Arc vs. "white nationalism:* https://www.news-gazette.com/news/chicago-teacher-nazi-expert-to-lead-bend-the-arc-event/article_5772a027-b6cf-574c-b078-83919e382c7d.html *This morning the News-Gazette published this: * ANTI-SEMITISM Jewish group pushes Davis to condemn Trump By PAUL WOOD pwood at news-gazette.com CHAMPAIGN — A progressive Jewish organization rallied outside U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis’s office Friday to demand that the Taylorville Republican speak out about the president’s statement that Jews who vote for Democrats are disloyal to the country. Later, Davis did, through a spokesman. Main speaker Diane Ore of Champaign said the group Bend the Arc asked Davis to denounce Donald Trump for the statement that says such voting “shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” Please see GROUP, B-3 Linda Yoakum, congressional aide to U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, left, speaks with Marci Adelston-Schafer of Bend the Arc outside the Taylorville Republican’s Champaign office Friday. Paul Wood/The News-Gazette ------------------------------ GROUP Continued from B-*1* “Well, I’m a proud Jew and here’s what I know,” said Ore, the chairwoman of Bend The Arc CU. “Claiming Jews are disloyal — that we are not full Americans — is a centuries-old anti-Semitic trope designed to isolate and endanger Jewish people.” Hours later, Davis’ spokeswoman Ashley Phelps responded to the protesters. “Congressman Davis has urged the president to tone down the rhetoric, tweet less and govern more,” she said. “At the same time, this is the same group who organized a protest outside our Open Government Night, where one person had a sign that mocked the congressman being shot at, and inside many shouted that they agree with Bernie Sanders that Republican policies kill people. Congressman Davis continues to encourage both sides to tone down the rhetoric.” A dozen demonstrators were at the noon rally speaking out at the president’s words. “In my opinion, you vote for a Democrat, you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people, and you’re being very disloyal to Israel,” Trump told reporters in a different statement Wednesday, “and only weak people would say anything other than that.” Ore said she’s concerned that repeating such comments motivates mass shootings. “Beginning with Charlottesville, when Donald Trump said there were very fine people on both sides, Rodney Davis kept silent,” she said. She said Davis should speak out about Trump, “not for his tweeting practice, but for making our democratic home feel more like Nazi Germany than the United States of America, to which we have always pledged and will always pledge our allegiance, regardless of its leadership.” “We demand that you support common sense gun laws that will remove the murder weapons from the hands of our assailants,” she added. She said that Jews in his district deserve all the rights of his constituents. Bend The Arc member Terry Maher agreed with Ore that white nationalists are a particular concern. Anti-Semitism “has been going on since Biblical times. White nationalists are part of this history, and the danger is all over the country, including here.” As an example, she referred to an outdoors menorah statue on the University of Illinois campus that was vandalized three times in 10 months in recent years. “This isn’t hijinks,” Maher said *Below is my submitted response to the first article, but could include the second article as well:* This responds to the recent article regarding the local chapter of the Jewish “progressive” group Bend the Arc, which claims, in its efforts to support migrants, to be opposing alleged “white nationalism” in our community. Regrettably, I find Bend the Arc, at national and local levels, politically repellent on any number of counts that go beyond self-righteous proclamations claiming to represent the moral legacy of Judaism and Jews. At a general level, they wash their hands of concerns about U.S. imperialism, which represents the basis for the migrant crisis they claim to address. They pointedly avoid addressing the convolutedly perverse relationships among “white nationalism” and Jewish nationalism (Zionism), the racist manifestations of which have pervaded Jewish-American institutions (and academia) for over a half-century. Concretely, they demonize Donald Trump while avoiding criticism of his (and their own) rabid support for Israeli occupation and apartheid, support shared by the leadership of both parties. Indeed, they are unaware that the notion of a “great replacement” of white people is partly rooted in the Islamophobic views of a Jewish-European woman, Bat Ye’or: a fake historian, rabid conspiracy theorist, and author of *Eurabia *(2005). They are unaware that her views are rooted in her previous Zionist propaganda regarding the historical status of Jews in the Arab and Muslim worlds, propaganda weaponized to retroactively justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The transparent agenda of Bend the Arc is to support whomever the Democratic Party nominates, however Zionist, militarist, or imperialist. As “progress,” that simply won’t do. David Green -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Sun Aug 25 15:57:13 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C. G. Estabrook ) Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2019 08:57:13 -0700 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_Infamous_abortionist_stuns_BBC_r?= =?utf-8?q?eporter_by_admitting_he_=E2=80=98kills_babies=E2=80=99?= References: <1566745970925.b4047bba-6d77-4e73-a083-84b6fef5aaf8@bf10a.hubspotemail.net> Message-ID: <4E471169-5F59-4981-866D-34D10DA87078@gmail.com> Begin forwarded message: > From: Live Action News > Date: August 25, 2019 at 8:35:01 AM PDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Subject: Infamous abortionist stuns BBC reporter by admitting he ‘kills babies’ > Reply-To: info at liveaction.org > > > > > > Infamous abortionist stuns BBC reporter by admitting he 'kills babies' > Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who commits late-term abortions, used no euphemisms in an interview with British reporter Hilary Andersson for the BBC. Read more > > A SPECIAL NOTE FROM LILA ROSE > > Hi C. G., > > Live Action will be hosting our Inaugural Life Awards Gala in Los Angeles, California on November 16, 2019! > > We will be honoring Daily Wire Editor in Chief Ben Shapiro, NFL Family Ben and Kirsten Watson, and abortion survivor Gianna Jessen with Live Action’s first “Life Awards”! > > C. G., I want to give you the opportunity to take part in what promises to be a very special evening. Tickets and sponsorship opportunities are available now - get them while they last by clicking here or on the image below! > > > > I hope you will join me and the Live Action team for this beautiful and moving evening as we celebrate the future of the pro-life movement and the beauty of every human life! > > For life, > > Lila Rose > President & Founder > Live Action > > MORE PRO-LIFE NEWS > > > > Planned Parenthood rejects Title X funds, chooses abortion instead > Abortion organizations had until August 19th to show that they were attempting to comply with the new rules; instead, Planned Parenthood has chosen to withdraw from Title X, forfeiting its usual $60 million annually in taxpayer funding. Read more > > > > Court orders Planned Parenthood to pay $3M to whistleblower > Former Planned Parenthood workers have been reporting what happens behind closed doors at Planned Parenthood for years, but major media outlets continue to ignore them. Now, a jury has unanimously awarded a Planned Parenthood whistleblower $3 million in damages two years after she sued the organization for wrongful termination. Read more > > > > Live Action responds to slanderous Newsweek article: 'Cease and desist' > Live Action has long been a target of ongoing Big Tech suppression, with its pro-life content facing increasing hostility. An opinion piece at Newsweek written by Sharon Kann recently attempted to paint Live Action and its founder and president Lila Rose as liars on the subject of suppression. Read more > > > > Two sets of twin boys with Down syndrome show the world it's nothing to fear > What do Charlie and Milo of Boise, Idaho, and Ollie and Cameron of Dundee, Scotland, have in common? The two sets of twins boys have Down syndrome, and… they’re all social media stars! Read more > > > > Pro-abortion actress Alyssa Milano: I'm 'not sorry' for having two abortions in a year > Milano is an ardent, outspoken abortion supporter, even calling for boycotts against pro-life states. In the latest episode of her podcast, titled “Sorry Not Sorry,” Milano opened up about her own past, admitting that she herself had two abortions in one year when she was 20 years old and in a serious relationship. Read more > > > > Newborn baby rescued after being abandoned in the woods in Maryland > A newborn baby girl was found abandoned in Silver Spring, Maryland, leading authorities to remind residents of the state’s Safe Haven laws. Read more > > > > Former abortionist horrified to learn that in Israel, abortions are virtually unrestricted > Karkowsky explained that abortion is widely available in Israel, right up until the woman delivers her baby. “A subtle abnormality, such as the one I saw in that ultrasound room outside Tel Aviv, can prompt a discussion of pregnancy termination,” she said. “Even at 35 weeks.” Read more > > > Live Action News is the publishing arm of Live Action > > Live Action 2200 Wilson Blvd. Suite 102 PMB 111 Arlington VA 22201 > > You received this email because you are subscribed to Live Action News Weekly Updates from Live Action. > > Update your email preferences to choose the types of emails you receive. > > Unsubscribe from all future emails > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Sun Aug 25 18:35:38 2019 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2019 14:35:38 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_Infamous_abortionist_stuns_BBC_?= =?utf-8?q?reporter_by_admitting_he_=E2=80=98kills_babies=E2=80=99?= In-Reply-To: <4E471169-5F59-4981-866D-34D10DA87078@gmail.com> References: <1566745970925.b4047bba-6d77-4e73-a083-84b6fef5aaf8@bf10a.hubspotemail.net> <4E471169-5F59-4981-866D-34D10DA87078@gmail.com> Message-ID: At this point, I would trade overturning Roe v, Wade for ending U.S. participation in the Saudi regime's war in Yemen. At this point, there is no real dispute that the Trump Administration is knowingly helping the Saudi regime kill babies in Yemen. Aid groups say that more than 85,000 Yemeni children have starved to death as a result of the Saudi regime's war and blockade which the U.S. is backing with targeting intelligence, weapons, and diplomatic cover at the UN Security Council. And the situation is getting worse, not better. Just because the U.S. media isn't covering it, doesn't mean that Yemeni babies have stopped starving to death. Congress could stop this right now. All Congress has to do to stop this right now is include the amendments to end the war that passed the House in the House-Senate version of the "veto proof" NDAA that is sent to Trump. Four Democrats are holding the lives of thousands of Yemeni babies in the palms of their hands: Jack Reed [ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee] [Rhode Island] Adam Smith [chair of the House Armed Services Committee] [Seattle] Chuck Schumer [Senate Minority Leader] [New York] Nancy Pelosi [Speaker of the House] [San Francisco] === Robert Reuel Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (202) 448-2898 x1 On Sun, Aug 25, 2019 at 11:57 AM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > > > Begin forwarded message: > > *From:* Live Action News > *Date:* August 25, 2019 at 8:35:01 AM PDT > *To:* cgestabrook at gmail.com > *Subject:* *Infamous abortionist stuns BBC reporter by admitting he > ‘kills babies’* > *Reply-To:* info at liveaction.org > > Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who commits late-term abortions, used no euphemisms in > an interview with British reporter Hilary Andersson for the BBC. > [image: carhart] > > > *Infamous abortionist stuns BBC reporter by admitting he 'kills babies'* > > > Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who commits late-term abortions, used no euphemisms in > an interview with British reporter Hilary Andersson for the BBC. *Read > more* > > ------------------------------ > > *A SPECIAL NOTE FROM LILA ROSE* > > Hi C. G., > > Live Action will be hosting our Inaugural Life Awards Gala in Los Angeles, > California on November 16, 2019! > > We will be honoring Daily Wire Editor in Chief Ben Shapiro, NFL Family Ben > and Kirsten Watson, and abortion survivor Gianna Jessen with Live Action’s > first “Life Awards”! > > C. G., I want to give you the opportunity to take part in what promises to > be a very special evening. Tickets and sponsorship opportunities are > available now - get them while they last by clicking here > > or on the image below! > > [image: Screen Shot 2019-08-05 at 9.49.25 PM] > > > I hope you will join me and the Live Action team for this beautiful and > moving evening as we celebrate the future of the pro-life movement and the > beauty of every human life! > > For life, > > *Lila Rose* > President & Founder > Live Action > ------------------------------ > > *MORE PRO-LIFE NEWS* > [image: shutterstock_322860554] > > > *Planned Parenthood rejects Title X funds, chooses abortion instead* > > > Abortion organizations had until August 19th to show that they were > attempting to comply with the new rules; instead, Planned Parenthood has > chosen to withdraw from Title X, forfeiting its usual $60 million annually > in taxpayer funding. *Read more* > > ------------------------------ > [image: shutterstock_443810188-pro-life-signs-protest] > > > *Court orders Planned Parenthood to pay $3M to whistleblower* > > > Former Planned Parenthood workers have been reporting what happens behind > closed doors at Planned Parenthood for years, but major media outlets > continue to ignore them. Now, a jury has unanimously awarded a Planned > Parenthood whistleblower $3 million in damages two years after she sued the > organization for wrongful termination. *Read more* > > ------------------------------ > [image: shutterstock_1113550688-newsweek-live-action] > > > *Live Action responds to slanderous Newsweek article: 'Cease and desist'* > > > Live Action has long been a target of ongoing Big Tech suppression, with > its pro-life content facing increasing hostility. An opinion piece at > Newsweek written by Sharon Kann recently attempted to paint Live Action and > its founder and president Lila Rose as liars on the subject of suppression. *Read > more* > > ------------------------------ > [image: chuckles-and-meatloaf-down-syndrome-twins] > > > *Two sets of twin boys with Down syndrome show the world it's nothing to > fear* > > > What do Charlie and Milo of Boise, Idaho, and Ollie and Cameron of Dundee, > Scotland, have in common? The two sets of twins boys have Down syndrome, > and… they’re all social media stars! *Read more* > > ------------------------------ > [image: alyssa-milano-instagram-kids] > > > *Pro-abortion actress Alyssa Milano: I'm 'not sorry' for having two > abortions in a year* > > > Milano is an ardent, outspoken abortion supporter, even calling for > boycotts against pro-life states. In the latest episode of her podcast, > titled “Sorry Not Sorry,” Milano opened up about her own past, admitting > that she herself had two abortions in one year when she was 20 years old > and in a serious relationship. *Read more* > > ------------------------------ > [image: Untitled-design-6] > > > *Newborn baby rescued after being abandoned in the woods in Maryland* > > > A newborn baby girl was found abandoned in Silver Spring, Maryland, > leading authorities to remind residents of the state’s Safe Haven laws. *Read > more* > > ------------------------------ > [image: sander-crombach-CqO5-lq-xR0-unsplash-edit] > > > *Former abortionist horrified to learn that in Israel, abortions are > virtually unrestricted* > > > Karkowsky explained that abortion is widely available in Israel, right up > until the woman delivers her baby. “A subtle abnormality, such as the one I > saw in that ultrasound room outside Tel Aviv, can prompt a discussion of > pregnancy termination,” she said. “Even at 35 weeks.” *Read more* > > > ------------------------------ > > Live Action News is the publishing arm of Live Action > > Live Action 2200 Wilson Blvd. Suite 102 PMB 111 Arlington VA 22201 > > > You received this email because you are subscribed to Live Action News > Weekly Updates from Live Action. > > Update your email preferences > > to choose the types of emails you receive. > > Unsubscribe from all future emails > > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Sun Aug 25 20:51:32 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2019 13:51:32 -0700 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_Infamous_abortionist_stuns_BBC_?= =?utf-8?q?reporter_by_admitting_he_=E2=80=98kills_babies=E2=80=99?= In-Reply-To: References: <1566745970925.b4047bba-6d77-4e73-a083-84b6fef5aaf8@bf10a.hubspotemail.net> <4E471169-5F59-4981-866D-34D10DA87078@gmail.com> Message-ID: Anti-war and anti-abortion efforts belong together. The contemporary anti-war movement grows out of the appalling fact that the US government has killed more than 20 million people in almost 40 nations since World War II - and has done so to maintain the economic control of the world that the US inherited as the only largely undamaged major country after that war. Abortion is the leading cause of death in the US today. An abortion obviously ends a human life; it ought to be opposed by all of us who say that our political views are that we’re “against anything that kills people or destroys the planet we live on." But most of my friends who’ve had an abortion or seriously considered it have done so for economic reasons. Most of them privileged people, they have been unable to countenance the burdens, financial and personal, that would come with a(nother) child. That’s clearly even more the case for those who lack their privileges. Those of us opposed to the destruction of human life - at home or abroad, before or after birth - must also be opposed to the circumstances that lead people to end unborn human lives. Medicare for all, child supports, free education, and a universal basic income must be insisted upon by those of us who are opposed to abortion and war. > On Aug 25, 2019, at 11:35 AM, Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss wrote: > > > At this point, I would trade overturning Roe v, Wade for ending U.S. participation in the Saudi regime's war in Yemen. > > At this point, there is no real dispute that the Trump Administration is knowingly helping the Saudi regime kill babies in Yemen. Aid groups say that more than 85,000 Yemeni children have starved to death as a result of the Saudi regime's war and blockade which the U.S. is backing with targeting intelligence, weapons, and diplomatic cover at the UN Security Council. And the situation is getting worse, not better. Just because the U.S. media isn't covering it, doesn't mean that Yemeni babies have stopped starving to death. > > Congress could stop this right now. All Congress has to do to stop this right now is include the amendments to end the war that passed the House in the House-Senate version of the "veto proof" NDAA that is sent to Trump. > > Four Democrats are holding the lives of thousands of Yemeni babies in the palms of their hands: > > Jack Reed [ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee] [Rhode Island] > Adam Smith [chair of the House Armed Services Committee] [Seattle] > Chuck Schumer [Senate Minority Leader] [New York] > Nancy Pelosi [Speaker of the House] [San Francisco] > > === > > Robert Reuel Naiman > Policy Director > Just Foreign Policy > www.justforeignpolicy.org > naiman at justforeignpolicy.org > (202) 448-2898 x1 > > > > > > On Sun, Aug 25, 2019 at 11:57 AM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote: > > > > Begin forwarded message: > >> From: Live Action News >> Date: August 25, 2019 at 8:35:01 AM PDT >> To: cgestabrook at gmail.com >> Subject: Infamous abortionist stuns BBC reporter by admitting he ‘kills babies’ >> Reply-To: info at liveaction.org >> >> >> >> >> Infamous abortionist stuns BBC reporter by admitting he 'kills babies' >> Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who commits late-term abortions, used no euphemisms in an interview with British reporter Hilary Andersson for the BBC. Read more >> >> A SPECIAL NOTE FROM LILA ROSE >> >> Hi C. G., >> >> Live Action will be hosting our Inaugural Life Awards Gala in Los Angeles, California on November 16, 2019! >> >> We will be honoring Daily Wire Editor in Chief Ben Shapiro, NFL Family Ben and Kirsten Watson, and abortion survivor Gianna Jessen with Live Action’s first “Life Awards”! >> >> C. G., I want to give you the opportunity to take part in what promises to be a very special evening. Tickets and sponsorship opportunities are available now - get them while they last by clicking here or on the image below! >> >> >> I hope you will join me and the Live Action team for this beautiful and moving evening as we celebrate the future of the pro-life movement and the beauty of every human life! >> >> For life, >> >> Lila Rose >> President & Founder >> Live Action >> >> MORE PRO-LIFE NEWS >> >> >> >> Planned Parenthood rejects Title X funds, chooses abortion instead >> Abortion organizations had until August 19th to show that they were attempting to comply with the new rules; instead, Planned Parenthood has chosen to withdraw from Title X, forfeiting its usual $60 million annually in taxpayer funding. Read more >> >> >> >> Court orders Planned Parenthood to pay $3M to whistleblower >> Former Planned Parenthood workers have been reporting what happens behind closed doors at Planned Parenthood for years, but major media outlets continue to ignore them. Now, a jury has unanimously awarded a Planned Parenthood whistleblower $3 million in damages two years after she sued the organization for wrongful termination. Read more >> >> >> >> Live Action responds to slanderous Newsweek article: 'Cease and desist' >> Live Action has long been a target of ongoing Big Tech suppression, with its pro-life content facing increasing hostility. An opinion piece at Newsweek written by Sharon Kann recently attempted to paint Live Action and its founder and president Lila Rose as liars on the subject of suppression. Read more >> >> >> >> Two sets of twin boys with Down syndrome show the world it's nothing to fear >> What do Charlie and Milo of Boise, Idaho, and Ollie and Cameron of Dundee, Scotland, have in common? The two sets of twins boys have Down syndrome, and… they’re all social media stars! Read more >> >> >> >> Pro-abortion actress Alyssa Milano: I'm 'not sorry' for having two abortions in a year >> Milano is an ardent, outspoken abortion supporter, even calling for boycotts against pro-life states. In the latest episode of her podcast, titled “Sorry Not Sorry,” Milano opened up about her own past, admitting that she herself had two abortions in one year when she was 20 years old and in a serious relationship. Read more >> >> >> >> Newborn baby rescued after being abandoned in the woods in Maryland >> A newborn baby girl was found abandoned in Silver Spring, Maryland, leading authorities to remind residents of the state’s Safe Haven laws. Read more >> >> >> >> Former abortionist horrified to learn that in Israel, abortions are virtually unrestricted >> Karkowsky explained that abortion is widely available in Israel, right up until the woman delivers her baby. “A subtle abnormality, such as the one I saw in that ultrasound room outside Tel Aviv, can prompt a discussion of pregnancy termination,” she said. “Even at 35 weeks.” Read more >> >> >> Live Action News is the publishing arm of Live Action >> >> Live Action 2200 Wilson Blvd. Suite 102 PMB 111 Arlington VA 22201 >> >> You received this email because you are subscribed to Live Action News Weekly Updates from Live Action. >> >> Update your email preferences to choose the types of emails you receive. >> >> Unsubscribe from all future emails >> > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss From mkb3 at icloud.com Tue Aug 27 01:10:26 2019 From: mkb3 at icloud.com (Morton K. Brussel) Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2019 20:10:26 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?b?SG9uZyBLb25n4oCm?= Message-ID: Informative, clarifying: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52166.htm -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Tue Aug 27 18:25:54 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2019 13:25:54 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Robert Jones presents a plan to transform the entire universe Message-ID: CHANCELLOR’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL Group proposes strategies for growth in C-U By JULIE WURTH jwurth at news-gazette.com CHAMPAIGN— A community that keeps startup companies in town, boasts national expertise in agricultural technology and “med tech,” and offers living costs and amenities to attract suburban Chicago retirees to Champaign-Urbana. Those are some of the strategies envisioned by an economic development group advising Chancellor Robert Jones on how to promote development in one of the state’s fastest-growing communities. “We’re all in this together. We need to be very thoughtful about how that growth takes place,” Jones told a campus Academic Senate group Monday. Jones convened the Chancellor’s Economic Development Council in spring 2018 and said it meets regularly, most recently last week. It’s led by Susan Martinis, vice chancellor for Please see GROWTH, A-6 ------------------------------ GROWTH Continued from A-*1* research, who oversees the UI Research Park, along with park Director Laura Frerichs and Pradeep Khanna, associate vice chancellor for corporate relations and economic development. Community regulars include executives from both Carle Health System and OSF Health Care, Parkland College, local economic development agencies, and representatives from the business and minority communities, he said. They in turn have created subcommittees to work with broader groups on specific issues. Jones said the council will continue working through this academic year but is already developing plans to make Champaign- Urbana “the epicenter of ag tech.” That effort will focus on leveraging the assets of the UI Research Park, with tenants such as San Francisco-based Granular, an agricultural software firm, and Cargill, which opened an innovation lab there last week to move digital ideas to “test mode.” Jones, a crop scientist in his earlier life, personally visited Cargill to help seal that deal. The Chancellor’s Economic Development Council is also looking at how to support new startups so they stay in the community; develop a “transformative” medical technology sector, building on the new UI medical school and cancer center; and leverage the UI’s data analytics expertise, he said. It will also involve “thinking about what is the built environment that we’d need to support all of that big-idea growth,” he said, from housing to school systems. The C-U pitch Jones said the council will be coming out with a “pretty aggressive plan that addresses everything from working with community development agencies, working on issues of K-12 education, and trying to create more opportunities to get our young people interested in STEM careers, and ways to really talk about and brand this community in a different way.” It’s working with the UI’s new chief marketing officer, Eric Minor, about how to make Champaign- Urbana attractive not only to students but also retirees, and overcome outdated notions that “there’s nothing to do here.” “How do we turn that around to talk about the positives, in terms of a safe place to raise a family, you can get anywhere within 15 minutes, the assets of the university providing seamless entertainment, and engagement opportunities with the university,” Jones said. “People that may be tired of the traffic in one of the outlying suburbs of Chicago can come here and have a quality of life that they haven’t even imagined,” he said. Jones sees the effort as part of the UI’s land-grant mission, which also extends to Chicago and statewide, especially in “this urban age,” he said. He cited the campus’ role in the new Discovery Partners Institute in Chicago and a strategic plan to revamp UI Extension. He told members of the Senate Executive Committee they will be hearing more this year about how the campus can be more visible in Chicago and how Extension can be used “to think differently about how to deliver health care,” though he offered no details. Chicago hope The largest concentration of Illinois alumni — more than 200,000 strong — is in the Chicago area, he said. And the campus has always had a presence there, led mostly by individual faculty members or colleges. But Jones said he’d like to coordinate existing connections through the College of Law, School of Social Work, College of Education and others and strengthen partnerships with “key leaders” in the city. The campus already partners with the University of Chicago on several research efforts, “everything from quantum to community,” Jones said, and they will be working together to address issues identified by residents of Chicago’s south side. The UI also rolled out a new event this year to boost its presence in the Windy City — the firstever “Illini Fest” on July 18. The outdoor festival at Millennium Park, featuring representatives from 40 academic units as well as top UI athletes and head coaches, drew at least 5,000 people on a stormy Chicago day, he said. “We saw a different type of alum showing up at this event that doesn’t show up at some of our other long-standing alumni events,” Jones said, adding that it likely will become an annual event. Despite the interest in Chicago, he told the senate group, “I don’t want you to think for one moment that we have forgotten about our long-standing and core commitment to serve every part of this state. We’re a land-grant university. That’s our mission. We’re not giving that up to anybody else. “I can assure you that this institution is anchored here in this great community,” he said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Wed Aug 28 11:02:39 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2019 11:02:39 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Lebanon/Israel- strikes by Andre Vltchek Message-ID: https://www.rt.com/op-ed/467390-lebanon-israel-strikes-war/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From r-szoke at illinois.edu Wed Aug 28 16:38:44 2019 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2019 16:38:44 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated Message-ID: A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Edsall 0828.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 144769 bytes Desc: Edsall 0828.pdf URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Aug 29 12:58:20 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 12:58:20 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Michael Parenti 1986 Message-ID: Clear, concise and precise. One of the best …….. https://youtu.be/t1ld-1K-yJ0 From davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net Thu Aug 29 15:08:42 2019 From: davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net (David Johnson) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 10:08:42 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <000001d55e7b$a90dcd20$fb296760$@comcast.net> Interesting article Ron, However the last paragraph states that the Democrat's best hope to defeat Trump and the Republicans is to appeal to the 7 % of the electorate who are uncertain about the issue of race. That is nonsense ! The best chance for the Democrats to defeat Trump is to appeal to the 46 % of eligible voters who refused to vote for either Clinton or Trump in 2016. 3 % voted for third parties ( Greens and Libertarians ) and the other 43 % didn't vote at all. The best way for the Democrats to get a large percentage of this 46 % of the electorate is to advocate and campaign on issues that will improve their lives - Medicare for All, Free post high school education, $ 15.00 per hour minimum wage, and an end to regime change wars . These are all issues that have the support of the majority of Americans as indicated by many polls. In particular Medicare for All where 52 % of Republican voters support it. This is just one more typical neo-liberal article to try and ignore the ECONOMIC reasons -issues, of how an orange haired reality TV host buffoon was able to beat Clinton. The neo-liberal articles try to say again and again that it was racism that got Trump elected, since they no longer have a leg to stand on with the discredited and ridiculous evidence free conspiracy theory that the Russians stole the election. Denial, Denial, Denial ! The reason of course the majority of Democratic party candidates will not attempt to advocate for issues that would improve the lives of the vast majority of the American people is because their CORPORATE DONORS don't want it. And the DNC / DCCC will try and destroy any Dem candidate that does advocate for these issues. Like Sanders, AOC, Omar, Talibi , and Gabbard. " It's all about the Benjamins baby " - Ihlan Omar. David J. From: Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2019 11:39 AM To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net Cc: peace-discuss Subject: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net Thu Aug 29 15:14:47 2019 From: davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net (David Johnson) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 10:14:47 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] FW: Affection for the poorly educated References: Message-ID: <001801d55e7c$8398ea10$8acabe30$@comcast.net> Interesting article Ron, However the last paragraph states that the Democrat's best hope to defeat Trump and the Republicans is to appeal to the 7 % of the electorate who are uncertain about the issue of race. That is nonsense ! The best chance for the Democrats to defeat Trump is to appeal to the 46 % of eligible voters who refused to vote for either Clinton or Trump in 2016. 3 % voted for third parties ( Greens and Libertarians ) and the other 43 % didn't vote at all. The best way for the Democrats to get a large percentage of this 46 % of the electorate is to advocate and campaign on issues that will improve their lives - Medicare for All, Free post high school education, $ 15.00 per hour minimum wage, and an end to regime change wars . These are all issues that have the support of the majority of Americans as indicated by many polls. In particular Medicare for All where 52 % of Republican voters support it. This is just one more typical neo-liberal article to try and ignore the ECONOMIC reasons -issues, of how an orange haired reality TV host buffoon was able to beat Clinton. The neo-liberal articles try to say again and again that it was racism that got Trump elected, since they no longer have a leg to stand on with the discredited and ridiculous evidence free conspiracy theory that the Russians stole the election. Denial, Denial, Denial ! The reason of course the majority of Democratic party candidates will not attempt to advocate for issues that would improve the lives of the vast majority of the American people is because their CORPORATE DONORS don't want it. And the DNC / DCCC will try and destroy any Dem candidate that does advocate for these issues. Like Sanders, AOC, Omar, Talibi , and Gabbard. " It's all about the Benjamins baby " - Ihlan Omar. David J. From: Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2019 11:39 AM To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net Cc: peace-discuss Subject: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Thu Aug 29 15:44:13 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 10:44:13 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: If we could only get more white people into college, we could knock those silly populist ideas out of their heads! (Otherwise, we’ll just have to pretend they’re all inveterate racists, so they won’t interfere with neolib/neocon policies.) > On Aug 28, 2019, at 11:38 AM, Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss wrote: > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss From cgestabrook at gmail.com Thu Aug 29 16:21:06 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 11:21:06 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] FW: Affection for the poorly educated In-Reply-To: <001801d55e7c$8398ea10$8acabe30$@comcast.net> References: <001801d55e7c$8398ea10$8acabe30$@comcast.net> Message-ID: <56B1ACAE-C0D9-4917-9F52-EDDAC7F02249@gmail.com> The Democrats’ best hope to defeat Trump is to abandon the pro-war (neocon) and pro-austerity (neolib) policies that they have consistently championed (and lied about) in the last administration and this one. The Democrats have covered their real programs by insisting that those who oppose them are racists, when race is not the major impetus of American voting patterns - economics is. Trump was the first major party candidate in 40 years who attacked his predecessors’ neolib & neocon policies, and that made him president. But in office he reverted to those policies, under whatever pressures from the US political establishment. Offered no choice on these policies, Americans’ grasp at straw men (and women - identity poetics does much to confuse the neolib/neocon issues). —CGE > On Aug 29, 2019, at 10:14 AM, David Johnson via Peace-discuss wrote: > > > > Interesting article Ron, > > However the last paragraph states that the Democrat’s best hope to defeat Trump and the Republicans is to appeal to the 7 % of the electorate who are uncertain about the issue of race. > That is nonsense ! > > The best chance for the Democrats to defeat Trump is to appeal to the 46 % of eligible voters who refused to vote for either Clinton or Trump in 2016. 3 % voted for third parties ( Greens and Libertarians ) and the other 43 % didn’t vote at all. > > The best way for the Democrats to get a large percentage of this 46 % of the electorate is to advocate and campaign on issues that will improve their lives – Medicare for All, Free post high school education, $ 15.00 per hour minimum wage, and an end to regime change wars . These are all issues that have the support of the majority of Americans as indicated by many polls. In particular Medicare for All where 52 % of Republican voters support it. > > This is just one more typical neo-liberal article to try and ignore the ECONOMIC reasons –issues, of how an orange haired reality TV host buffoon was able to beat Clinton. > The neo-liberal articles try to say again and again that it was racism that got Trump elected, since they no longer have a leg to stand on with the discredited and ridiculous evidence free conspiracy theory that the Russians stole the election. > > Denial, Denial, Denial ! > > The reason of course the majority of Democratic party candidates will not attempt to advocate for issues that would improve the lives of the vast majority of the American people is because their CORPORATE DONORS don’t want it. And the DNC / DCCC will try and destroy any Dem candidate that does advocate for these issues. Like Sanders, AOC, Omar, Talibi , and Gabbard. > “ It’s all about the Benjamins baby “ – Ihlan Omar. > > David J. > > > From: Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss > Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2019 11:39 AM > To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net > Cc: peace-discuss > Subject: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss From cgestabrook at gmail.com Thu Aug 29 16:32:32 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 11:32:32 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated In-Reply-To: <000001d55e7b$a90dcd20$fb296760$@comcast.net> References: <000001d55e7b$a90dcd20$fb296760$@comcast.net> Message-ID: David is quite right. And an honest appeal like that would resonate with many of those eligible voters (54%?) who did vote. People are not fools, in spite of the efforts of the greatest propaganda system in history. —CGE > On Aug 29, 2019, at 10:08 AM, David Johnson via Peace-discuss wrote: > > Interesting article Ron, > > However the last paragraph states that the Democrat’s best hope to defeat Trump and the Republicans is to appeal to the 7 % of the electorate who are uncertain about the issue of race. > That is nonsense ! > > The best chance for the Democrats to defeat Trump is to appeal to the 46 % of eligible voters who refused to vote for either Clinton or Trump in 2016. 3 % voted for third parties ( Greens and Libertarians ) and the other 43 % didn’t vote at all. > > The best way for the Democrats to get a large percentage of this 46 % of the electorate is to advocate and campaign on issues that will improve their lives – Medicare for All, Free post high school education, $ 15.00 per hour minimum wage, and an end to regime change wars . These are all issues that have the support of the majority of Americans as indicated by many polls. In particular Medicare for All where 52 % of Republican voters support it. > > This is just one more typical neo-liberal article to try and ignore the ECONOMIC reasons –issues, of how an orange haired reality TV host buffoon was able to beat Clinton. > The neo-liberal articles try to say again and again that it was racism that got Trump elected, since they no longer have a leg to stand on with the discredited and ridiculous evidence free conspiracy theory that the Russians stole the election. > > Denial, Denial, Denial ! > > The reason of course the majority of Democratic party candidates will not attempt to advocate for issues that would improve the lives of the vast majority of the American people is because their CORPORATE DONORS don’t want it. And the DNC / DCCC will try and destroy any Dem candidate that does advocate for these issues. Like Sanders, AOC, Omar, Talibi , and Gabbard. > “ It’s all about the Benjamins baby “ – Ihlan Omar. > > David J. > > > From: Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss > Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2019 11:39 AM > To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net > Cc: peace-discuss > Subject: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Thu Aug 29 17:32:52 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 12:32:52 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Bend the Arc Pity Party on pages of News-Gazette Message-ID: Articles and letters from the past couple of weeks, concluding with my own from today. *BEND THE ARC* *Expert in hate groups gets call: Teacher to lead event on white nationalism* By LYNDSAY JONES CHAMPAIGN — High school English teacher Nora Flanagan is aware that being a “Nazi expert” is a “weird thing to be an expert on.” But that’s what will bring her to Champaign’s Sinai Temple Thursday evening, where she’s slated to lead a workshop titled “ Confronting White Nationalism in Schools.” It’s the second in a series of local Bend the Arc events aimed at fostering “safety through solidarity, meaning an attack on a targeted group is an attack on all of us,” said the organization’s Terry Maher. “As we were doing our research on the problem of white nationalism nationally, we realized students as young as 11 were being targeted,” she said. “We thought that before Champaign- Urbana becomes the next in line, we ought to do something about white nationalism in the schools.” *They invited Flanagan to come down from Chicago to lead the workshop, aimed at helping school staff, family members and community members identify and respond to signs of white nationalism or white supremacist recruitment or support in young adults.* Flanagan grew up in a part of Chicago that had “a lot of intense race issues in the late 1980s and early 1990s,” when she observed hate-group recruitment efforts early on. She also grew up in “the Chicago punk scene,” where she observed and echoed anti-racist politics in action, then carried those principles into her teaching education at the University of Illinois-Chicago. But it wasn’t until she began work with an organization “researching how hate groups use music to recruit young people” that her work went to another level. “I spent a lot of time in the ugliest parts of the internet,” she said. “That was when I saw there were suggestions for kids on how to bring their politics to school — there were literally articles like ‘Here are five ways to be visible as white nationalist at your school.’” Eventually, she would co-author a guide to preventing such recruitment — the same one being presented Thursday — but at first, she was quiet about the knowledge she’d been accumulating. When things happened in her school, she observed administrators choose one of two options: “They either under-reacted or over-reacted,” she said. “They would either dismiss it as an issue, or when it was irrefutable, become excessively punitive. Neither addresses what is going on.” The toolkit she’ll discuss Thursday is designed to prevent either option and help users engage everyone involved — not just a child or student. “Everybody needs to be talking to everybody else because it’s a community issue,” she said. “One of the most dangerous things right now is these seemingly- minor incidents — like throwing up the sieg heil sign in the cafeteria and then dealing with the student who did it — but unless every kid who saw it knows that it was handled thoughtfully, then it wasn’t handled. “The goal is to help people respond more holistically in a way that’s going to help not just the community, but the kid in question.” After mass shootings in Gilroy, Calif., and El Paso, Texas — in which both gunmen espoused white supremacist ideology — Flanagan said she’s received more calls from people hoping to book speeches. “I keep forgetting school is in three weeks,” she said. “This could be my full-time job now: there is enough of a need for people to have these conversations that I could do this full-time.” Local members of Bend the Arc weren’t necessarily planning to have Flanagan be the featured speaker for their second series, but they, too, were motivated by the most recent string of mass shootings and the racist ideology behind them. “It’s domestic terrorism,” Maher said. “It’s horrifying. That is why we want to educate people: so they recognize the signs. We don’t want Champaign-Urbana to be next on the list. We can arm ourselves with knowledge and this is the way to do it.” *ANTI-SEMITISM: Jewish group pushes Davis to condemn Trump* By PAUL WOOD CHAMPAIGN — A progressive Jewish organization rallied outside U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis’s office Friday to demand that the Taylorville Republican speak out about the president’s statement that Jews who vote for Democrats are disloyal to the country. Later, Davis did, through a spokesman. Main speaker Diane Ore of Champaign said the group Bend the Arc asked Davis to denounce Donald Trump for the statement that says such voting “shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” Linda Yoakum, congressional aide to U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, left, speaks with Marci Adelston-Schafer of Bend the Arc outside the Taylorville Republican’s Champaign office Friday. “Well, I’m a proud Jew and here’s what I know,” said Ore, the chairwoman of Bend The Arc CU. “Claiming Jews are disloyal — that we are not full Americans — is a centuries-old anti-Semitic trope designed to isolate and endanger Jewish people.” Hours later, Davis’ spokeswoman Ashley Phelps responded to the protesters. “Congressman Davis has urged the president to tone down the rhetoric, tweet less and govern more,” she said. “At the same time, this is the same group who organized a protest outside our Open Government Night, where one person had a sign that mocked the congressman being shot at, and inside many shouted that they agree with Bernie Sanders that Republican policies kill people. Congressman Davis continues to encourage both sides to tone down the rhetoric.” A dozen demonstrators were at the noon rally speaking out at the president’s words. “In my opinion, you vote for a Democrat, you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people, and you’re being very disloyal to Israel,” Trump told reporters in a different statement Wednesday, “and only weak people would say anything other than that.” Ore said she’s concerned that repeating such comments motivates mass shootings. “Beginning with Charlottesville, when Donald Trump said there were very fine people on both sides, Rodney Davis kept silent,” she said. She said Davis should speak out about Trump, “not for his tweeting practice, but for making our democratic home feel more like Nazi Germany than the United States of America, to which we have always pledged and will always pledge our allegiance, regardless of its leadership.” “We demand that you support common sense gun laws that will remove the murder weapons from the hands of our assailants,” she added. She said that Jews in his district deserve all the rights of his constituents. Bend The Arc member Terry Maher agreed with Ore that white nationalists are a particular concern. Anti-Semitism “has been going on since Biblical times. White nationalists are part of this history, and the danger is all over the country, including here.” As an example, she referred to an outdoors menorah statue on the University of Illinois campus that was vandalized three times in 10 months in recent years. “This isn’t hijinks,” Maher said. *GOP needs to put end to hate speech* I am Jewish. I grew up in New York City, where I lived in a Jewish neighborhood and almost everyone I knew was also a Jew. After I married, I lived for 40 years in northern Delaware, and have now lived in Champaign-Urbana for 12 years, and in both places, most of the people I’ve known aren’t Jewish. I’ve never felt afraid in any of these places, until recently — and especially in the last few days when Donald Trump made, and continues to make, his remarks about Jewish loyalty. Now I am very afraid and would feel the same way in both of the places I have lived before. Hate speech did not originate with Donald Trump, but he adds to it and doesn’t condemn it in others, which encourages more of it. We have seen in El Paso and other places that his words filter down to people and increase their motivation for their violent actions. Rodney Davis and all the other Republicans who don’t speak up about the president’s remarks are complicit in the violence that follows. Since shortly after the Holocaust, Jews have been saying Never Again, and some groups have recently adopted the statement Never Again is Now. It is now, Champaign-Urbana; it is now America. Republicans need to stop pretending this is not happening and take measures to put an end to hate speech, all the way to the top, or we might find that Champaign- Urbana is the new Poway or the new Pittsburgh. JOYCE FRANSCISO Champaign *Trump’s words no laughing matter* I had the occasion today to call Congressman Rodney Davis’ Decatur office (no one answered in Champaign). I wanted to voice my concern about the president’s recent tweets questioning in the most extreme ways the loyalty of American Jews. I wanted to know if Davis had made any statements about the tweets or, at least, in support of his Jewish constituents. After the part-time staffer told me any statement would have been in the newspaper (there have been none), I explained that my concern as a Jewish American was that Trump’s words were dangerous and were the very words used for millenia to incite violence and murder upon Jews. She laughed at me. She told me African Americans, Muslims, all sorts of groups say the same thing. She kept chuckling as she took down my concerns. This is no laughing matter. When the president of the United States uses the same antisemitic tropes used throughout the 19th and 20th century (France, Germany, Russia, etc.) and all the way back to the time of the Pharaohs (read the Book of Exodus), then yes, Jewish Americans have good reason to fear that Trump’s words will be heard and acted upon by the same white nationalists who killed Jews in Pittsburgh and Poway. It is no laughing matter. Therefore, I eagerly hope a statement of total support for the Jewish Americans in his district will be forthcoming from Davis. So far, his silence has been deafening. To be silent is to be complicit. TERRY MAHER Champaign *Trump continues reckless behavior * Donald Trump’s conflation of the words “Jew” and “disloyal,” however intended, is the latest outrage that we have, unfortunately, come to expect from our reckless president. The president’s comment that for a Jew to vote for a Democrat is an act of “disloyalty” to the state of Israel suggests that Jews are, by definition, “loyal” to the state of Israel and not to America. If that were simply a careless remark made by a deeply ignorant person, it would be bad enough. The fact that that man is the president of the United States is more evidence that he is the most irresponsible president ever to occupy the Oval Office. Is the president aware of how many rivers of Jewish blood have been spilled from time immemorial on the basis of the libel that Jews are fundamentally “disloyal” to whatever country they reside in because of their religion and their support of Jews everywhere? Finally, our punditry class is fond of endlessly debating the questions: “Is Trump an anti-Semite?” “Is Trump a racist?” “Is Trump a white nationalist?” My answer to these questions is clearly “no.” To ascribe a coherent belief system, beyond the impulse “will this accrue to my bottom line?”, to the president, assumes a certain level of thought that he is clearly not capable of. The key question should be, do his words and actions encourage the anti-Semites, the racists and the white nationalists in our midst? The answer to that question is clearly “yes!” PAUL WEICHSEL Champaign *Concerns voiced about Bend the Arc * This responds to the recent article regarding the local chapter of the Jewish “progressive” group Bend the Arc, which claims, in its efforts to support migrants, to be opposing alleged “white nationalism” in our community. Regrettably, I find Bend the Arc, at national and local levels, politically repellent on any number of counts that go beyond self-righteous proclamations claiming to represent the moral legacy of Judaism and Jews. At a general level, they wash their hands of concerns about U.S. imperialism, which represents the basis for the migrant crisis they claim to address. They pointedly avoid addressing the convolutedly perverse relationships among “white nationalism” and Jewish nationalism (Zionism), the racist manifestations of which have pervaded Jewish-American institutions (and academia) for over a half-century. Concretely, they demonize Donald Trump while avoiding criticism of his (and their own) rabid support for Israeli occupation and apartheid, support shared by the leadership of both parties. Indeed, they are unaware that the notion of a “great replacement” of white people is partly rooted in the Islamophobic views of a Jewish-European woman, Bat Ye’or: a fake historian, rabid conspiracy theorist and author of “Eurabia” (2005). They are unaware that her views are rooted in her previous Zionist propaganda regarding the historical status of Jews in the Arab and Muslim worlds, propaganda weaponized to retroactively justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The transparent agenda of Bend the Arc is to support whomever the Democratic Party nominates, however Zionist, militarist or imperialist. As “progress,” that simply won’t do. DAVID GREEN Champaign -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Thu Aug 29 17:43:34 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 12:43:34 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated In-Reply-To: References: <000001d55e7b$a90dcd20$fb296760$@comcast.net> Message-ID: As I've pointed out on numerous occasion on News from Neptune, the goal of NYT writers like Edsall and David Leonhardt is to employ as much "social science" analysis as they can in order to support the establishment neoliberal Democrats (Biden; if he doesn't work then Harris; if she doesn't work, then Buttigeg). Their arguments, as in this case from Edsall, feature stereotypical caricatures of allegedly racist white voters, and elitist assumptions about "the value of a higher education ("anti-racist" training) for allegedly non-racist white voters. Interestingly, this tactic is also employed by Anthony DiMaggio on Counterpunch, as he has done since Trump's election: https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/21/fascist-nation-the-alt-right-menace-persists-despite-setbacks-2/ On Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 11:32 AM C G Estabrook via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > David is quite right. And an honest appeal like that would resonate with > many of those eligible voters (54%?) who did vote. > > People are not fools, in spite of the efforts of the greatest propaganda > system in history. —CGE > > > > On Aug 29, 2019, at 10:08 AM, David Johnson via Peace-discuss < > peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > > > Interesting article Ron, > > > > However the last paragraph states that the Democrat’s best hope to > defeat Trump and the Republicans is to appeal to the 7 % of the electorate > who are uncertain about the issue of race. > > That is nonsense ! > > > > The best chance for the Democrats to defeat Trump is to appeal to the 46 > % of eligible voters who refused to vote for either Clinton or Trump in > 2016. 3 % voted for third parties ( Greens and Libertarians ) and the other > 43 % didn’t vote at all. > > > > The best way for the Democrats to get a large percentage of this 46 % of > the electorate is to advocate and campaign on issues that will improve > their lives – Medicare for All, Free post high school education, $ 15.00 > per hour minimum wage, and an end to regime change wars . These are all > issues that have the support of the majority of Americans as indicated by > many polls. In particular Medicare for All where 52 % of Republican voters > support it. > > > > This is just one more typical neo-liberal article to try and ignore the > ECONOMIC reasons –issues, of how an orange haired reality TV host buffoon > was able to beat Clinton. > > The neo-liberal articles try to say again and again that it was racism > that got Trump elected, since they no longer have a leg to stand on with > the discredited and ridiculous evidence free conspiracy theory that the > Russians stole the election. > > > > Denial, Denial, Denial ! > > > > The reason of course the majority of Democratic party candidates will > not attempt to advocate for issues that would improve the lives of the > vast majority of the American people is because their CORPORATE DONORS > don’t want it. And the DNC / DCCC will try and destroy any Dem candidate > that does advocate for these issues. Like Sanders, AOC, Omar, Talibi , and > Gabbard. > > “ It’s all about the Benjamins baby “ – Ihlan Omar. > > > > David J. > > > > > > From: Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] > On Behalf Of Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss > > Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2019 11:39 AM > > To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net > > Cc: peace-discuss > > Subject: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Peace-discuss mailing list > > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Aug 29 19:16:27 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 19:16:27 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Nationwide Tour: New Film 'Gaza Fights for Freedom' with Abby Martin! References: <5d6814cb6f778_8e0a6baf6c483de@asgworker-qmb3-15.nbuild.prd.useast1.3dna.io.mail> Message-ID: [ANSWER Coalition] Nationwide Tour: New Film 'Gaza Fights for Freedom' with Abby Martin! [https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/answercoalition/mailings/2948/attachments/original/BANNER-GAZA-FINAL.jpg?1566944782] We are excited to announce The Empire Files & ANSWER Coalition are partnering for a U.S./Canada screening tour for the new feature documentary, "Gaza Fights For Freedom". Filmmakers Abby Martin and Mike Prysner will be present at most events to introduce the film and hold a Q&A after the screening. Tickets will go on sale soon. Click here to be the first to be notified when they do. If you are interested in organizing a screening or watch party in a city that is not listed —or would like to volunteer to build an existing event in your city — click here. About the film This collaboration between Martin’s The Empire Files and a team of Gaza journalists shows you Gaza and the ongoing Great March of Return protests as you have never seen them before. The imagery and voices of Palestinian resistance illuminates the heroism of the people of Gaza and provides undeniable documentation of Israeli war crimes. It includes exclusive interviews with civilians shot at during the Great March, as well as its lead organizer, and the family and colleagues of beloved slain medic Razan Al-Najjar. It also shows the untold history that is essential to understanding the situation today but is always ignored by the corporate media. This includes rare archival footage dating back to mass expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 known as the Nakba. Click here to watch the official movie trailer! Nationwide Tour Gaza Fights For Freedom is available to stream online, but nothing can compare to seeing it in theaters, experiencing on the big screen the impressive cinematography and 5.1 Digital Surround Sound. You do not want to miss this opportunity to hear directly from Abby Martin and connect in-person with The Empire Files team! While many additional tour dates will be announced in the coming weeks, this is an initial list of cities that you can count on hosting a screening with Q&A: Albuquerque, NM; Ashville, NC; Boston, MA; Champaign-Urbana, IL; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO; Indianapolis, IN; New York City, NY; New Haven, CT; Philadelphia, PA; Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; Sacramento, CA; Seattle, WA; Washington D.C., as well as Montreal, Toronto and more! Donate to the tour via paypal (preferred), or through Patreon and GoFundMe [https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/answercoalition/mailings/2948/attachments/original/donatebutton.png?1566946854] ANSWER Coalition · United States This email was sent to karenaram at hotmail.com. To stop receiving emails, click here. You can also keep up with ANSWER Coalition on Facebook. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net Thu Aug 29 19:51:41 2019 From: davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net (David Johnson) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 14:51:41 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] FW: NYT Steers Dems Away From the Obvious Formula for Defeating Trump In-Reply-To: <93.88.23325.A2C286D5@momentum-soi-01-mta1.prod.aweberint.com> References: <93.88.23325.A2C286D5@momentum-soi-01-mta1.prod.aweberint.com> Message-ID: <00a801d55ea3$305dee00$9119ca00$@comcast.net> What a coincidence ! This just arrived in my e-mail from F.A.I.R ( Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting ) about the article Ron posted today. Image removed by sender. FAIR NYT Steers Dems Away From the Obvious Formula for Defeating Trump view post on FAIR.org by Jim Naureckas Image removed by sender. Election Focus 2020Thomas Edsall’s demographic analysis is almost always misleading (FAIR.org, 2/10/15 , 10/9/15 , 6/5/16 , 3/30/18 , 7/24/19 )—and his latest column for the New York Times (8/28/19 ) is no exception. “We Aren’t Seeing White Support for Trump for What It Is,” the headline complains—with the subhead explaining, “A crucial part of his coalition is made up of better-off white people who did not graduate from college.” Image removed by sender. NYT: We Aren’t Seeing White Support for Trump for What It Is If “crucial” means it explains why he won, the New York Times (8/28/19 ) has it backwards. Why does this matter? Edsall’s column is largely a write-up of a paper by two political scientists, Herbert Kitschelt and Philipp Rehm, who note that better-off whites without college degrees “tend to endorse authoritarian noneconomic policies and tend to oppose progressive economic policies,” and are therefore “a constituency that is now decisively committed to the Republican Party.” (By “authoritarian policies,” the researchers are mainly talking about racism and xenophobia.) Low-income, low-education whites, by contrast, “tend to support progressive economic policies and tend to endorse authoritarian policies on the noneconomic dimension,” and are therefore “conflicted in their partisan allegiance.” What’s at stake in presenting one of these constituencies as “crucial” is how you approach the task of defeating Trump: If he’s turning out his key supporters through race-baiting and immigrant-bashing, the argument goes, then Democrats need to take care not to be too outspoken on issues of race and immigration. And so Edsall confidently concludes: The 2020 election will be fought over the current loss of certainty—the absolute lack of consensus—on the issue of “race.”… Democrats are convinced of the justness of the liberal, humanistic, enlightenment tradition of expanding rights for racial and ethnic minorities. Republicans, less so…. If Democrats want to give themselves the best shot of getting Trump out of the White House…they must make concerted efforts at pragmatic diplomacy and persuasion—and show a new level of empathy. (This is an argument Edsall has made before—see “What’s a Non-Racist Way to Appeal to Working-Class Whites? NYT’s Edsall Can’t Think of Any,” FAIR.org, 3/30/18 .) But there’s an entirely different conclusion that one can draw from the 21st century political terrain—one that is better supported by the data presented in Edsall’s column. Take a close look at the graphic he presents depicting “the shifting voting patterns of whites”: Image removed by sender. New York Times: Education and Income Predict How Whites Vote Bear in mind that these are not equal slices of the electorate: As Edsall notes, the low-income, low-education voters are about 40% of white voters; the high-income, low-education voters are 22%; the low-income, high-education group is 14%; and the high-income, high-education make up 26% of the white vote. So the supposedly “crucial” better-off white non–college grads are about half as plentiful as their poorer counterparts—and they have been voting Republican fairly consistently since 1972, through good years for Republicans and bad. What was actually crucial to Trump’s 2016 success is that the larger group of poorer less-educated whites, which traditionally leans Democratic or splits its vote, went decisively Republican. And while this group was susceptible to Trump’s racist appeals, equally important (according to Edsall’s political scientist sources) was his “repeated campaign promise to protect Medicare and Social Security.” The false impression that Trump was a moderate Republican on economic issues “removed cognitive dissonance and inhibitions” that might deter such voters from supporting an economic conservative, leaving them free to be swayed by Trump’s appeal to a white racial identity. Image removed by sender. 2016 Electorate--social and economic dimensions Where the votes are: sorting Trump and Clinton supporters by views on economic and social issues (New York, 6/18/17 ; see FAIR.org, 10/28/17 ). If that’s the truly crucial group, then Democrats will not win the 2020 election by embracing, as Edsall seems to suggest, an agnosticism on the issue of race (or “the issue of ‘race,'” as he puts it), but rather by advancing a strongly progressive, redistributionist economic message. It’s political common sense that if the voters who are up for grabs are those who are socially conservative and economically progressive, then Democrats should emphasize left-wing economics and Republicans should stress right-wing social policies—while crucially reassuring their bases that they maintain their commitments to a progressive social agenda or a conservative economic program, respectively. (See FAIR.org, 6/20/17 .) But this common sense runs against the New York Times‘ historic role of guiding the Democratic Party away from positions that threaten the wealthy. This is why Adolph Ochs, great-great-grandfather of the current Times publisher, was bankrolled by bankers to buy the paper in 1896 (FAIR.org, 10/28/17 ), and it’s why the paper today has an editorial page editor who proudly declares, “The New York Times is in favor of capitalism” (FAIR.org, 3/1/18 ). Edsall, it seems, has the task of providing the intellectual arguments for why the Democrats should not adopt the progressive economic agenda that would benefit them electorally—a job that necessarily involves a great deal of doubletalk and hand-waving. _____ You can send a message to the New York Times at letters at nytimes.com (Twitter:@NYTOpinion ). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your message in the comment thread of this post. _____ FAIR/Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting 124 W. 30th Street, Suite 201 New York NY 10001 USA Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options Image removed by sender. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ~WRD000.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 823 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: image005.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 332 bytes Desc: not available URL: From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Thu Aug 29 20:40:06 2019 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 15:40:06 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Demand Progress vs. Jack Reed on Yemen: please weigh in In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Please RT: https://twitter.com/demandprogress/status/1167160184009043970 [image: image.png] === Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (202) 448-2898 x1 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.png Type: image/png Size: 68627 bytes Desc: not available URL: From mkb3 at icloud.com Thu Aug 29 20:42:36 2019 From: mkb3 at icloud.com (Morton K. Brussel) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 15:42:36 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Rodney Davis quote Message-ID: <5AF2C5B8-EBBD-4AF1-B40C-38F601879539@icloud.com> Sent to me, as a faithful Republican, by Rodney Davis: “…Policies like the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and others would give the federal government near total power over our economy, give massive taxpayer-funded entitlements to people who don’t want to work, and enact a single-payer, government-run health care system that would destroy quality of care in this country.” Astonishing? —mkb -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Thu Aug 29 21:39:38 2019 From: galliher at illinois.edu (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 16:39:38 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Rodney Davis quote In-Reply-To: <5AF2C5B8-EBBD-4AF1-B40C-38F601879539@icloud.com> References: <5AF2C5B8-EBBD-4AF1-B40C-38F601879539@icloud.com> Message-ID: <9F0D8065-38EC-4C2A-969E-C0E0076CFF45@illinois.edu> A good idea from Rodney. > On Aug 29, 2019, at 3:42 PM, Morton K. Brussel via Peace-discuss wrote: > > Sent to me, as a faithful Republican, by Rodney Davis: > > “…Policies like the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and others would give the federal government near total power over our economy, give massive taxpayer-funded entitlements to people who don’t want to work, and enact a single-payer, government-run health care system that would destroy quality of care in this country.” > > Astonishing? > > —mkb > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Fri Aug 30 01:23:04 2019 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 20:23:04 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] FW: NYT Steers Dems Away From the Obvious Formula for Defeating Trump In-Reply-To: <00a801d55ea3$305dee00$9119ca00$@comcast.net> References: <93.88.23325.A2C286D5@momentum-soi-01-mta1.prod.aweberint.com> <00a801d55ea3$305dee00$9119ca00$@comcast.net> Message-ID: Once again, the rule holds; if the NYT promotes it, it’s probably a bad idea. > On Aug 29, 2019, at 2:51 PM, David Johnson via Peace-discuss wrote: > > > > What a coincidence ! This just arrived in my e-mail from F.A.I.R ( Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting ) about the article Ron posted today. > > <~WRD000.jpg> > NYT Steers Dems Away From the Obvious Formula for Defeating Trump > > view post on FAIR.org > > by Jim Naureckas > > Thomas Edsall’s demographic analysis is almost always misleading (FAIR.org, 2/10/15, 10/9/15, 6/5/16, 3/30/18, 7/24/19)—and his latest column for the New York Times (8/28/19) is no exception. > > “We Aren’t Seeing White Support for Trump for What It Is,” the headline complains—with the subhead explaining, “A crucial part of his coalition is made up of better-off white people who did not graduate from college.” > > > If “crucial” means it explains why he won, the New York Times (8/28/19) has it backwards. > > Why does this matter? Edsall’s column is largely a write-up of a paper by two political scientists, Herbert Kitschelt and Philipp Rehm, who note that better-off whites without college degrees “tend to endorse authoritarian noneconomic policies and tend to oppose progressive economic policies,” and are therefore “a constituency that is now decisively committed to the Republican Party.” (By “authoritarian policies,” the researchers are mainly talking about racism and xenophobia.) Low-income, low-education whites, by contrast, “tend to support progressive economic policies and tend to endorse authoritarian policies on the noneconomic dimension,” and are therefore “conflicted in their partisan allegiance.” > > What’s at stake in presenting one of these constituencies as “crucial” is how you approach the task of defeating Trump: If he’s turning out his key supporters through race-baiting and immigrant-bashing, the argument goes, then Democrats need to take care not to be too outspoken on issues of race and immigration. And so Edsall confidently concludes: > >> The 2020 election will be fought over the current loss of certainty—the absolute lack of consensus—on the issue of “race.”… Democrats are convinced of the justness of the liberal, humanistic, enlightenment tradition of expanding rights for racial and ethnic minorities. Republicans, less so…. If Democrats want to give themselves the best shot of getting Trump out of the White House…they must make concerted efforts at pragmatic diplomacy and persuasion—and show a new level of empathy. >> > (This is an argument Edsall has made before—see “What’s a Non-Racist Way to Appeal to Working-Class Whites? NYT’s Edsall Can’t Think of Any,” FAIR.org, 3/30/18.) > > But there’s an entirely different conclusion that one can draw from the 21st century political terrain—one that is better supported by the data presented in Edsall’s column. Take a close look at the graphic he presents depicting “the shifting voting patterns of whites”: > > > > Bear in mind that these are not equal slices of the electorate: As Edsall notes, the low-income, low-education voters are about 40% of white voters; the high-income, low-education voters are 22%; the low-income, high-education group is 14%; and the high-income, high-education make up 26% of the white vote. > > So the supposedly “crucial” better-off white non–college grads are about half as plentiful as their poorer counterparts—and they have been voting Republican fairly consistently since 1972, through good years for Republicans and bad. What was actually crucial to Trump’s 2016 success is that the larger group of poorer less-educated whites, which traditionally leans Democratic or splits its vote, went decisively Republican. > > And while this group was susceptible to Trump’s racist appeals, equally important (according to Edsall’s political scientist sources) was his “repeated campaign promise to protect Medicare and Social Security.” The false impression that Trump was a moderate Republican on economic issues “removed cognitive dissonance and inhibitions” that might deter such voters from supporting an economic conservative, leaving them free to be swayed by Trump’s appeal to a white racial identity. > > > Where the votes are: sorting Trump and Clinton supporters by views on economic and social issues (New York, 6/18/17; see FAIR.org, 10/28/17). > > If that’s the truly crucial group, then Democrats will not win the 2020 election by embracing, as Edsall seems to suggest, an agnosticism on the issue of race (or “the issue of ‘race,'” as he puts it), but rather by advancing a strongly progressive, redistributionist economic message. It’s political common sense that if the voters who are up for grabs are those who are socially conservative and economically progressive, then Democrats should emphasize left-wing economics and Republicans should stress right-wing social policies—while crucially reassuring their bases that they maintain their commitments to a progressive social agenda or a conservative economic program, respectively. (See FAIR.org, 6/20/17.) > > But this common sense runs against the New York Times‘ historic role of guiding the Democratic Party away from positions that threaten the wealthy. This is why Adolph Ochs, great-great-grandfather of the current Times publisher, was bankrolled by bankers to buy the paper in 1896 (FAIR.org, 10/28/17), and it’s why the paper today has an editorial page editor who proudly declares, “The New York Times is in favor of capitalism” (FAIR.org, 3/1/18 ). Edsall, it seems, has the task of providing the intellectual arguments for why the Democrats should not adopt the progressive economic agenda that would benefit them electorally—a job that necessarily involves a great deal of doubletalk and hand-waving. > > You can send a message to the New York Times at letters at nytimes.com (Twitter:@NYTOpinion). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your message in the comment thread of this post. > > > > > FAIR/Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting > 124 W. 30th Street, Suite 201 > New York NY 10001 > USA > > Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss From moboct1 at aim.com Fri Aug 30 13:34:19 2019 From: moboct1 at aim.com (Mildred O'brien) Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2019 13:34:19 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated References: <481954780.315297.1567172059549.ref@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <481954780.315297.1567172059549@mail.yahoo.com> I don't equate anti-intellectualism with the "uneducated" (sans university diploma), as some of the worst offenders in the former rank among uneducated PhDs. Midge -----Original Message----- From: David Green via Peace-discuss To: C G Estabrook Cc: Ron Szoke ; Peace Discuss ; peace-discuss Sent: Thu, Aug 29, 2019 12:44 pm Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated As I've pointed out on numerous occasion on News from Neptune, the goal of NYT writers like Edsall and David Leonhardt is to employ as much "social science" analysis as they can in order to support the establishment neoliberal Democrats (Biden; if he doesn't work then Harris; if she doesn't work, then Buttigeg). Their arguments, as in this case from Edsall, feature stereotypical caricatures of allegedly racist white voters, and elitist assumptions about "the value of a higher education ("anti-racist" training) for allegedly non-racist white voters. Interestingly, this tactic is also employed by Anthony DiMaggio on Counterpunch, as he has done since Trump's election: https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/21/fascist-nation-the-alt-right-menace-persists-despite-setbacks-2/   On Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 11:32 AM C G Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote: David is quite right. And an honest appeal like that would resonate with many of those eligible voters (54%?) who did vote. People are not fools, in spite of the efforts of the greatest propaganda system in history.   —CGE > On Aug 29, 2019, at 10:08 AM, David Johnson via Peace-discuss wrote: > > Interesting article Ron, > > However the last paragraph states that the Democrat’s best hope to defeat Trump and the Republicans is to appeal to the 7 % of the electorate who are uncertain about the issue of race. > That is nonsense ! > > The best chance for the Democrats to defeat Trump is to appeal to the 46 %  of eligible voters who refused to vote for either Clinton or Trump in 2016. 3 % voted for third parties ( Greens and Libertarians ) and the other 43 % didn’t vote at all. > > The best way for the Democrats to get a large percentage of this 46 % of the electorate is to advocate and campaign on issues that will improve their lives – Medicare for All, Free post high school education, $ 15.00 per hour minimum wage, and an end to regime change wars . These are all issues that have the support of the majority of Americans as indicated by many polls. In particular Medicare for All where 52 % of Republican voters support it. > > This is just one more typical neo-liberal article to try and ignore the ECONOMIC reasons –issues, of how an orange haired reality TV host buffoon was able to beat Clinton. > The neo-liberal articles try to say again and again that it was racism that got Trump elected, since they no longer have a leg to stand on with the discredited and ridiculous evidence free conspiracy theory that the Russians stole the election. > > Denial, Denial, Denial ! > > The reason of course the majority of Democratic party candidates will not attempt to advocate for issues that would improve the lives of the  vast majority of the American people is because their CORPORATE DONORS don’t want it. And the DNC / DCCC will try and destroy any Dem candidate that does advocate for these issues. Like Sanders, AOC, Omar, Talibi , and Gabbard. > “ It’s all about the Benjamins baby “ – Ihlan Omar. > > David J.  > > > From: Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss > Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2019 11:39 AM > To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net > Cc: peace-discuss > Subject: [Peace-discuss] Affection for the poorly educated > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From moboct1 at aim.com Fri Aug 30 13:39:20 2019 From: moboct1 at aim.com (Mildred O'brien) Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2019 13:39:20 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] Fwd: Nationwide Tour: New Film 'Gaza Fights for Freedom' with Abby Martin! In-Reply-To: References: <5d6814cb6f778_8e0a6baf6c483de@asgworker-qmb3-15.nbuild.prd.useast1.3dna.io.mail> Message-ID: <687220404.357721.1567172360477@mail.yahoo.com> Maybe Bend the Arc could bring this film to C-U?   -----Original Message----- From: Karen Aram via Peace To: Peace ; Peace Discuss Sent: Thu, Aug 29, 2019 2:17 pm Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Nationwide Tour: New Film 'Gaza Fights for Freedom' with Abby Martin! | | | | | | Nationwide Tour: New Film  'Gaza Fights for Freedom'  with Abby Martin! We are excited to announce The Empire Files & ANSWER Coalition are partnering for a U.S./Canada screening tour for the new feature documentary, "Gaza Fights For Freedom". Filmmakers Abby Martin and Mike Prysner will be present at most events to introduce the film and hold a Q&A after the screening.Tickets will go on sale soon. Click here to be the first to be notified when they do.If you are interested in organizing a screening or watch party in a city that is not listed —or would like to volunteer to build an existing event in your city — click here. About the filmThis collaboration between Martin’s The Empire Files and a team of Gaza journalists shows you Gaza and the ongoing Great March of Return protests as you have never seen them before. The imagery and voices of Palestinian resistance illuminates the heroism of the people of Gaza and provides undeniable documentation of Israeli war crimes. It includes exclusive interviews with civilians shot at during the Great March, as well as its lead organizer, and the family and colleagues of beloved slain medic Razan Al-Najjar. It also shows the untold history that is essential to understanding the situation today but is always ignored by the corporate media. This includes rare archival footage dating back to mass expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 known as the Nakba.Click here to watch the official movie trailer! Nationwide TourGaza Fights For Freedom is available to stream online, but nothing can compare to seeing it in theaters, experiencing on the big screen the impressive cinematography and 5.1 Digital Surround Sound. You do not want to miss this opportunity to hear directly from Abby Martin and connect in-person with The Empire Files team!While many additional tour dates will be announced in the coming weeks, this is an initial list of cities that you can count on hosting a screening with Q&A: Albuquerque, NM; Ashville, NC; Boston, MA; Champaign-Urbana, IL; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO;  Indianapolis, IN; New York City, NY;  New Haven, CT; Philadelphia, PA; Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; Sacramento, CA; Seattle, WA; Washington D.C., as well as Montreal, Toronto and more!  Donate to the tour via paypal (preferred), or through Patreon and GoFundMe  | | | ANSWER Coalition · United States  This email was sent to karenaram at hotmail.com. To stop receiving emails, click here.  You can also keep up with ANSWER Coalition on Facebook. | | |   _______________________________________________ Peace mailing list Peace at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From divisek at yahoo.com Fri Aug 30 15:23:57 2019 From: divisek at yahoo.com (Dianna Visek) Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2019 15:23:57 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Fw=3A_SAVE_THE_DATE=3A=C2=A0Taken_in_th?= =?utf-8?q?e_Heartland=3A_A_Conversation_about_Civil_Asset_Forfeiture?= In-Reply-To: <2501014a07b984a4122577a30.b869de6edb.20190830145948.6d7281619b.3ef5cc50@mail92.suw15.mcsv.net> References: <2501014a07b984a4122577a30.b869de6edb.20190830145948.6d7281619b.3ef5cc50@mail92.suw15.mcsv.net> Message-ID: <227361134.406698.1567178637381@mail.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Pam Dempsey To: "divisek at yahoo.com" Sent: Friday, August 30, 2019, 9:59:56 AM CDTSubject: SAVE THE DATE: Taken in the Heartland: A Conversation about Civil Asset Forfeiture Put the evening of Monday, September 16, 2019 on your calendar | | | | | | | | | | | | | SAVE THE DATE: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 AT 6:30 PM   Taken in the Heartland: A Conversation about Civil Asset Forfeiture | | | | | | | | | | | | Under civil forfeiture laws, the government is able to take cash, cars, homes and other property suspected of being involved in criminal activity, without charging the property owner with a crime. Getting it back? Well, that's a whole different story. | | | | | | Pontoon Beach Police Department on June 2, 2019.  Darrell Hoemann/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | | | | | | | | Taken in the Heartland: A Conversation about Civil Asset Forfeiture Monday, September 16, 2019 6:30 - 9:00 pm Champaign Public Library Join us for a panel discussion to delve into the issues that arose with civil asset forfeiture, and hear directly from journalists, attorneys, and experts. There will be time after the moderated panel for an audience Q & A session. Tickets are free, but RSVP is requested through Eventbrite Light refreshments provided.  Panelists  Ben Rudell, attorney, ACLU of Illinois  Stephen Komie, attorney, Komie and Associates  Bill Frievogel, professor, School of Journalism of Southern Illinois University  Moderator  Brant Houston, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois  | | | | | | | | Find Out More | | | | | Check out  previous coverage of this issue  TAKEN: Despite reforms, burden still heavy on owners of seized property By Karen Liu and Pam Dempsey/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting; June 10, 2019 Taken: Reforms to state civil forfeiture laws still lag, critics say By Karen Liu and Pam Dempsey/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting June 10, 2019 See all coverage by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting   | | | | | Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting Illinois Humanities CU Citizen Access Knight Chair Of Investigative Reporting, Journalism Department At The College Of Media, University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Copyright © 2019 Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, All rights reserved. You are receving this email because you like our news coverage, data tools, events and workshops. Thanks! Our mailing address is: Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting701 Devonshire DrChampaign, IL 61820 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. | | | | | -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Aug 30 23:45:11 2019 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2019 18:45:11 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] News from Neptune #434 notes Message-ID: News from Neptune #434 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFdeGjETKXE A "What the 2020 Election Is About" edition A list of links to items referenced on the show. Recent Joe Biden talk (and talk of those speaking on his behalf) courtesy of the Jimmy Dore program https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5xb4llOhgU -- Biden's Press Secretary's "word salad" on how climate change debate is a bad idea and the time for it was in the past (when the Democrats also said it was a bad idea to have that debate) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbV3l5j3S4E -- Jill Biden admitting her husband is a horrible choice but somehow 'electable' and ultimately we must give up everything to "defeat Trump", right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYbE2E9dvGg -- Biden attacking Mexicans in secret video. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard interviewed by CBS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzVSYBNgOeI -- "Defeating Trump" is Rep. Gabbard's goal even if it means supporting whatever Democrat gets the nomination. https://www.cbsnews.com/video/tulsi-gabbard-on-her-political-future/ -- a brief video ending with Rep. Gabbard conceding that she'll endorse any Democrat, even one who holds values ostensibly opposite to hers. Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaH2rSgQzLE -- Bernie Sanders said he'll vote for Biden in 2020 if Biden is the nominee. J.B. Nicholson on "Is Tulsi Gabbard really anti-war? No, she’s pro-drone and for “surgical strikes”" https://digitalcitizen.info/2019/02/13/is-tulsi-gabbard-really-anti-war-no-shes-pro-drone-and-for-surgical-strikes/ B.B. King https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.B._King B.B. King's "The Thrill is Gone" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oica5jG7FpU Tulsi Gabbard with The Intercept in January 2018 https://theintercept.com/2018/01/17/intercepted-podcast-white-mirror/ Primo Nutmeg interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0GyqD0t2t8 -- video http://audio.voxnest.com/stream/9417a19f73964ff599a9cb7b84a5d268/www.buzzsprout.com/205226/1016930-171-tulsi-gabbard.mp3?blob_id=2161843 -- audio David Green on "Concerns voiced about Bend the Arc" letter to the News-Gazette https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-concerns-voiced-about-bend-the-arc/article_99b2ac36-4279-5cad-8b60-892ca30dde6e.html Donald Trump on Jewish "great disloyalty" for voting Democrat https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/us/politics/trump-jewish-voters.html -- Julie Hirschfeld Davis on "Trump Accuses Jewish Democrats of ‘Great Disloyalty’" https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/459219-most-voters-disapprove-of-trumps-jewish-loyalty-comment-poll -- Rachel Frazin on "Most voters disapprove of Trump's Jewish 'loyalty' comment: poll" Long Stephen Miller articles from The New York Times Rasputin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin Jason DeParle on "How Stephen Miller Seized the Moment to Battle Immigration" (from 2019-08-17) https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/17/us/politics/stephen-miller-immigration-trump.html Michelle Cottle on "Stephen Miller Can’t Act Alone" (from 2019-04-09) https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/opinion/stephen-miller-trump-immigration.html Matt Flegenheimer on "Stephen Miller, the Powerful Survivor on the President’s Right Flank" (from 2017-10-09) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/us/politics/stephen-miller-trump-white-house.html Norman Finkelstein on Israel being an "alt-right country" https://www.youtube.com/embed/8e2uhX4QfJw -- Norman Finkelstein Q&A Peter Bolton on "Norman Finkelstein tells The Canary that anti-Corbyn smears have ‘nothing whatever to do with antisemitism’" https://www.thecanary.co/exclusive/2019/08/15/norman-finkelstein-tells-the-canary-that-anti-corbyn-smears-have-nothing-whatever-to-do-with-antisemitism/ DaysOfPalestine.com on "Jewish scholar Norman Finkelstein says ‘Israel is a nation of murderers’ loved by the far right" https://daysofpalestine.com/post/12616/jewish-scholar-norman-finkelstein-says-%E2%80%98israel-is-a-nation-of-murderers%E2%80%99-loved-by-the-far-right Patrick Cockburn articles on independent.co.uk https://www.independent.co.uk/author/patrick-cockburn "Patrick Cockburn is an award-winning Independent columnist who specialises in analysis of Iraq, Syria and wars in the Middle East. He has been with The Independent since 1990." Lily Puckett on "Trump administration considering blocking $250m in military assistance to Ukraine" https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-ukraine-military-funding-john-bolton-russia-pentagon-latest-a9084291.html Continuity of policy: US administrations supporting Nazis https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/us/14nazis.html -- contains pointer to a 600-page Justice Department report (http://documents.nytimes.com/confidential-report-provides-new-evidence-of-notorious-nazi-cases?ref=us#p=1) about how Nazis were given "safe haven" in US https://www.stpete4peace.org/Ukraine -- including criticism of "Progressive media provides cover for US intentions in Ukraine" https://www.rt.com/news/450740-ukraine-radio-nazi-article/ -- "US-funded Ukrainian radio defends neo-Nazi group, deletes article when called out" Jimmy Dore on New York Times editorial board's "pathetic apology for Russiagate coverage failure" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BivCPmU3tjo David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles https://anticapitalistchronicles.libsyn.com/ RSS feed: https://anticapitalistchronicles.libsyn.com/rss David Harvey interview in Jacobin https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/david-harvey-neoliberalism-capitalism-labor-crisis-resistance/ "A Brief History of Neoliberalism" by David Harvey ISBN-13: 978-0199283279 ISBN-10: 0199283273 "Capital in the Twenty-first Century" by Thomas Piketty ISBN-10: 0674979850 ISBN-13: 978-0674979857 Complete book: https://dowbor.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/14Thomas-Piketty.pdf Michael Roberts' blog "The Next Recession" https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/ Recent Dean Baker articles on Trump's trade war with China https://fair.org/home/dean-baker-on-trumps-trade-war-leo-fitzpatrick-on-wireless-merger/ https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-trade-war-with-china-is-waged-to-make-the-rich-richer/ Moderate Rebels (Max Blumenthal & Ben Norton) on "Hong Kong's real colonial history, and the protests' anti-China right-wing nativism - with Carl Zha" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a38bOtUEXcc -- video https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/moderaterebels/Moderate_Rebels_Hong_Kong_Carl_Zha_part_1.mp3?dest-id=553365 -- audio Doug Henwood interviews Brian Hioe on Hong Kong protests http://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/RadioArchive/2019/19_08_22.mp3 Noam Chomsky on reading business press https://www.ft.com/content/bcdefd38-3beb-3506-b24c-82285ac87f6c "My impression in general is that the business press is more open, ... get the facts right..." (used as part of an ad for Financial Times) https://chomsky.info/20081010/ http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,583454,00.html -- October 10, 2008 Der Spiegel interview of Chomsky includes: > SPIEGEL: How does it benefit politicians when the populace drives a lot, > eats a lot and goes shopping a lot? > > Chomsky: Consumption distracts people. You cannot control your own > population by force, but it can be distracted by consumption. The > business press has been quite explicit about this goal. https://chomsky.info/20101101/ http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?267553 -- November 1, 2010 Outlook magazine (from India) interview of Chomsky includes: > What has to be done is not really specific to the media. It is to > develop a more functional democratic society, a more democratic culture. > As far as the elites are concerned they want the public to be > disciplined, passive, obedient and directed to other things. Take a look > at the history of the huge public relations and advertising industry > that we have today. It developed in the freest countries in the world — > England and the US — around the time of the First World War. > Incidentally, that was the time Lippmann was writing. It was developed > very consciously, out of the understanding that enough freedom had been > won by popular struggle and the population could not be controlled by > force. Therefore, it was thought necessary to control attitudes and > beliefs. In the business press of the 1920s, you can read very openly > about the need to divert people to what they call the superficial thing > in life like fashionable consumption. If we can direct people to that, > they will keep out of our hair, we can run things. You see that in > India, certainly. Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/ Sonam Sheth on "US spies say Trump's G7 performance suggests he's either a 'Russian asset' or a 'useful idiot' for Putin" https://www.businessinsider.com/spies-react-trump-g7-summit-russian-asset-2019-8 -J From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Aug 31 00:05:58 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2019 00:05:58 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] News from Neptune #434 notes In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Other than listening to B.B. King, my favorite, is there anything other than Biden, and Gabbard being discussed in relation to the upcoming elections, worth viewing on NFN tonight? I have a lot of Michael Parenti podcasts I prefer to focus on, given we know all the candidates will support whatever Democrats their masters choose, by what is known as “delegate votes,” though I prefer referring to them as the “mythology of elections.” > On Aug 30, 2019, at 16:45, J.B. Nicholson via Peace wrote: > > News from Neptune #434 > Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFdeGjETKXE > A "What the 2020 Election Is About" edition > > A list of links to items referenced on the show. > > > > Recent Joe Biden talk (and talk of those speaking on his behalf) courtesy of the Jimmy Dore program > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5xb4llOhgU -- Biden's Press Secretary's "word salad" on how climate change debate is a bad idea and the time for it was in the past (when the Democrats also said it was a bad idea to have that debate) > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbV3l5j3S4E -- Jill Biden admitting her husband is a horrible choice but somehow 'electable' and ultimately we must give up everything to "defeat Trump", right? > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYbE2E9dvGg -- Biden attacking Mexicans in secret video. > > Rep. Tulsi Gabbard interviewed by CBS > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzVSYBNgOeI -- "Defeating Trump" is Rep. Gabbard's goal even if it means supporting whatever Democrat gets the nomination. > https://www.cbsnews.com/video/tulsi-gabbard-on-her-political-future/ -- a brief video ending with Rep. Gabbard conceding that she'll endorse any Democrat, even one who holds values ostensibly opposite to hers. > > Related: > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaH2rSgQzLE -- Bernie Sanders said he'll vote for Biden in 2020 if Biden is the nominee. > > J.B. Nicholson on "Is Tulsi Gabbard really anti-war? No, she’s pro-drone and for “surgical strikes”" > https://digitalcitizen.info/2019/02/13/is-tulsi-gabbard-really-anti-war-no-shes-pro-drone-and-for-surgical-strikes/ > > B.B. King > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.B._King > > B.B. King's "The Thrill is Gone" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oica5jG7FpU > > Tulsi Gabbard with The Intercept in January 2018 > https://theintercept.com/2018/01/17/intercepted-podcast-white-mirror/ > > Primo Nutmeg interview > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0GyqD0t2t8 -- video > http://audio.voxnest.com/stream/9417a19f73964ff599a9cb7b84a5d268/www.buzzsprout.com/205226/1016930-171-tulsi-gabbard.mp3?blob_id=2161843 -- audio > > David Green on "Concerns voiced about Bend the Arc" letter to the News-Gazette > https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-concerns-voiced-about-bend-the-arc/article_99b2ac36-4279-5cad-8b60-892ca30dde6e.html > > Donald Trump on Jewish "great disloyalty" for voting Democrat > https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/us/politics/trump-jewish-voters.html -- Julie Hirschfeld Davis on "Trump Accuses Jewish Democrats of ‘Great Disloyalty’" > https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/459219-most-voters-disapprove-of-trumps-jewish-loyalty-comment-poll -- Rachel Frazin on "Most voters disapprove of Trump's Jewish 'loyalty' comment: poll" > > > Long Stephen Miller articles from The New York Times > > Rasputin > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin > > Jason DeParle on "How Stephen Miller Seized the Moment to Battle Immigration" (from 2019-08-17) > https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/17/us/politics/stephen-miller-immigration-trump.html > > Michelle Cottle on "Stephen Miller Can’t Act Alone" (from 2019-04-09) > https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/opinion/stephen-miller-trump-immigration.html > > Matt Flegenheimer on "Stephen Miller, the Powerful Survivor on the President’s Right Flank" (from 2017-10-09) > https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/us/politics/stephen-miller-trump-white-house.html > > > > > Norman Finkelstein on Israel being an "alt-right country" > > https://www.youtube.com/embed/8e2uhX4QfJw -- Norman Finkelstein Q&A > > Peter Bolton on "Norman Finkelstein tells The Canary that anti-Corbyn smears have ‘nothing whatever to do with antisemitism’" > https://www.thecanary.co/exclusive/2019/08/15/norman-finkelstein-tells-the-canary-that-anti-corbyn-smears-have-nothing-whatever-to-do-with-antisemitism/ > > DaysOfPalestine.com on "Jewish scholar Norman Finkelstein says ‘Israel is a nation of murderers’ loved by the far right" > https://daysofpalestine.com/post/12616/jewish-scholar-norman-finkelstein-says-%E2%80%98israel-is-a-nation-of-murderers%E2%80%99-loved-by-the-far-right > > > > Patrick Cockburn articles on independent.co.uk > https://www.independent.co.uk/author/patrick-cockburn > "Patrick Cockburn is an award-winning Independent columnist who specialises in analysis of Iraq, Syria and wars in the Middle East. He has been with The Independent since 1990." > > Lily Puckett on "Trump administration considering blocking $250m in military assistance to Ukraine" > https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-ukraine-military-funding-john-bolton-russia-pentagon-latest-a9084291.html > > Continuity of policy: US administrations supporting Nazis > https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/us/14nazis.html -- contains pointer to a 600-page Justice Department report (http://documents.nytimes.com/confidential-report-provides-new-evidence-of-notorious-nazi-cases?ref=us#p=1) about how Nazis were given "safe haven" in US > https://www.stpete4peace.org/Ukraine -- including criticism of "Progressive media provides cover for US intentions in Ukraine" > https://www.rt.com/news/450740-ukraine-radio-nazi-article/ -- "US-funded Ukrainian radio defends neo-Nazi group, deletes article when called out" > > > > Jimmy Dore on New York Times editorial board's "pathetic apology for Russiagate coverage failure" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BivCPmU3tjo > > > > David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles > https://anticapitalistchronicles.libsyn.com/ > RSS feed: https://anticapitalistchronicles.libsyn.com/rss > > David Harvey interview in Jacobin > https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/david-harvey-neoliberalism-capitalism-labor-crisis-resistance/ > > "A Brief History of Neoliberalism" by David Harvey > ISBN-13: 978-0199283279 > ISBN-10: 0199283273 > > "Capital in the Twenty-first Century" by Thomas Piketty > ISBN-10: 0674979850 > ISBN-13: 978-0674979857 > Complete book: https://dowbor.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/14Thomas-Piketty.pdf > > Michael Roberts' blog "The Next Recession" > https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/ > > Recent Dean Baker articles on Trump's trade war with China > https://fair.org/home/dean-baker-on-trumps-trade-war-leo-fitzpatrick-on-wireless-merger/ > https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-trade-war-with-china-is-waged-to-make-the-rich-richer/ > > > > Moderate Rebels (Max Blumenthal & Ben Norton) on "Hong Kong's real colonial history, and the protests' anti-China right-wing nativism - with Carl Zha" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a38bOtUEXcc -- video > https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/moderaterebels/Moderate_Rebels_Hong_Kong_Carl_Zha_part_1.mp3?dest-id=553365 -- audio > > Doug Henwood interviews Brian Hioe on Hong Kong protests > http://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/RadioArchive/2019/19_08_22.mp3 > > > > > > Noam Chomsky on reading business press > > https://www.ft.com/content/bcdefd38-3beb-3506-b24c-82285ac87f6c > "My impression in general is that the business press is more open, ... get the facts right..." (used as part of an ad for Financial Times) > > https://chomsky.info/20081010/ > http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,583454,00.html -- October 10, 2008 Der Spiegel interview of Chomsky includes: >> SPIEGEL: How does it benefit politicians when the populace drives a lot, >> eats a lot and goes shopping a lot? > >> Chomsky: Consumption distracts people. You cannot control your own >> population by force, but it can be distracted by consumption. The >> business press has been quite explicit about this goal. > https://chomsky.info/20101101/ > http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?267553 -- November 1, 2010 Outlook magazine (from India) interview of Chomsky includes: >> What has to be done is not really specific to the media. It is to >> develop a more functional democratic society, a more democratic culture. >> As far as the elites are concerned they want the public to be >> disciplined, passive, obedient and directed to other things. Take a look >> at the history of the huge public relations and advertising industry >> that we have today. It developed in the freest countries in the world — >> England and the US — around the time of the First World War. >> Incidentally, that was the time Lippmann was writing. It was developed >> very consciously, out of the understanding that enough freedom had been >> won by popular struggle and the population could not be controlled by >> force. Therefore, it was thought necessary to control attitudes and >> beliefs. In the business press of the 1920s, you can read very openly >> about the need to divert people to what they call the superficial thing >> in life like fashionable consumption. If we can direct people to that, >> they will keep out of our hair, we can run things. You see that in >> India, certainly. > > Business Insider > https://www.businessinsider.com/ > > Sonam Sheth on "US spies say Trump's G7 performance suggests he's either a 'Russian asset' or a 'useful idiot' for Putin" > https://www.businessinsider.com/spies-react-trump-g7-summit-russian-asset-2019-8 > > -J > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Aug 31 12:43:58 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2019 12:43:58 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Chris Hedges Message-ID: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-silencing-of-dissent/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Sat Aug 31 19:05:11 2019 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2019 14:05:11 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Rob Urie appeals to my confirmation bias Message-ID: The Rise of the ‘Rise of the Global Right’Posted By Rob Urie On August 30, 2019 @ 1:59 am In articles 2015 | Comments Disabled Photograph Source: Palácio do Planalto – CC BY 2.0 *While I'm generally critical of SPLC data, I think in this context it works to prove an important point. - DG* In the U.S., Donald Trump remains among the least popular presidents in modern history. Given the buoyant state of the U.S. economy, at least relative to the widespread misery of the prior decade, this unpopularity reinforces the political disillusion reflected in the 2016 election results. Only Jimmy Carter, who engineered a vicious recession in the midst of a colonial rebellion in Iran, was less popular than Mr. Trump at this point in his tenure. This makes ongoing assurances that the U.S. is in the midst of a fascist insurgency led by Mr. Trump perplexing. There seems little doubt that he (Trump) would be comfortable were such an insurgency to arise. But the available evidence only supports that conclusion when it is parsed using dubious methods. In fact, the establishment data supports conclusions decidedly inconvenient for the neoliberal left. The other major players in the ‘rise of a global right’ storyline— Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines and Viktor Orban in Hungary, have mixed results in terms of their ongoing political support. Only Mr. Duterte has anything approaching majority popular approval for his policies. Left widely unconsidered is how this political consolidation by ‘strongmen’ mirrors economic consolidation in Western economies. In the U.S., neoliberal framing of the rise of Mr. Trump— that his election represents a reactionary response to Barack Obama’s liberalism and race, follows a similar argument used to explain the rise of a reactionary right during Bill Clinton’s first term. As argued below, in both instances ideology was put forward by political reporters to describe events that more closely fit social responses to economic dispossession. Graph: To the extent that GDP represents economic wellbeing, cyclical variation has hidden a long-term trend lower in world GDP. In the U.S., economic recessions led to electoral losses by Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, generally considered to have represented differing ideological perspectives. Presidents Clinton and Obama entered office during recessions. This was coincident with the rise of a reactionary right in both cases. The GDP decline that started in the mid-2000s preceded the ascendance of global right-wing politics, if not necessarily broader political movements that support them. The data is annual, inflation-adjusted, GDP to which a five-year moving average was applied as a noise filter to help make trends visible. Source: worldbank.org. The recently merged worldviews of American liberals, the radical left, the establishment press and the CIA, NSA and FBI vis-à-vis the ideological roots of current political discontent, emerged from the neoliberal project launched shortly after WWII. A central goal then was to dissociate American capitalism and the Great Depression from the rise of European fascism. In fact, the rise of European fascism ties directly to American history, capitalism and the Great Depression. In the U.S., the early-mid 1990s saw a rapid rise in the number of right-wing militia groups (graph below). This is claimed by political reporters to share cause with the rise in racist hate groups that began with the election of Barack Obama in 2008. The movement in the 1990s culminated with the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City in 1995. The perpetrator, Timothy McVeigh, killed 168 people and injured around 700 more. The popular explanation for the rise in militias was of a reactionary response to then president Bill Clinton’s liberalism. In fact, Mr. Clinton won election on a liberal platform. But like Barack Obama, he governed from the neoliberal right from the day he entered office. Nevertheless, the ideological dividing line posed by political reporters was Mr. Clinton’s liberalism versus the conservatism of the Reagan / (George H.W.) Bush years. Graph: apparently unconsidered by establishment political reporters is that the rise and fall of militia and explicitly racist groups follows the state of labor markets fairly well. The U.S. labor market recession of 1989 – 1995 was quite brutal by post-WWII standards, It persisted much longer than the Federal Reserve engineered recessions on which unemployment compensation was based. At any rate, it isn’t clear why ideological and / or racial loathing would fall, as illustrated by the decline in militia groups, as economic recovery takes hold. (1996 is the start date of the available data). Source: Washington Post / Southern Poverty Law Center. The data only superficially supports the hypothesis of a reactionary response to presidential politics. In both cases the number of white supremacist and / or militia groups rose in the first term, and then followed economic recovery lower in the second. Were ideological opposition the motivating factor for the rise, there is no obvious reason why it would reverse in both men’s second terms. What did change was the state of the economy. Although Mr. Clinton remained president until 2000, the militia groups experienced a rapid decline from 1995 forward. In fact, in 1995 the U.S. job market began to recover, with finance and finance-dependent companies boosting hiring for the first time since 1989. The dot-com bust of the early 2000s was brutal for stock issuing corporations, but it didn’t result in mass layoffs that persisted. The next recession that did, the so-called Great Recession, began in 2007. To flog the proverbial dead horse here, the labor market recession that led to Mr. Clinton’s electoral victory in 1992 was caused by the S&L crisis— by bank looting and over-leverage. It was the first ‘modern’ recession in the sense that 1) it was caused by finance and 2) it led to a very long period of labor market weakness. The next recession of this type was the Great Recession. With the election of Barack Obama in 2008, the number of militia groups once again began to rise. When Mr. Obama entered office, unemployment was increasing, and millions of people were losing their homes to foreclosure. Mr. Obama made his primary focus restoring banker bonuses and ‘smoothing the runway ’ with foreclosure prevention programs whose purpose was to slow home foreclosures to manageable levels for the benefit of bankers. Following a milquetoast stimulus bill loaded with Republican devices like tax cuts, Mr. Obama quickly shifted his political energy to cutting public spending. As unemployment reached a bit over 17% , Mr. Obama was working with Republicans to cut Social Security and Medicare . The first hint of popular rebellion was the 2010 mid-term election when Republicans took control of the House and Senate away from Democrats. During this back-and-forth the number of militia groups (graph above) grew rapidly. When economic decline slowed and then began to reverse, so did the number of militia groups. When economic growth slowed again in 2015 – 2016 , the number of militia groups again rose. In fact, in the two modern labor market recessions caused by excessive growth in private debt—1989–1995 and 2007–2016, the growth and decline of militia and racist groups closely followed the state of the overall economy. Enter Donald Trump, who launched his 2016 presidential as a caricature of the European fascist leaders of the early-mid twentieth century. His racist and xenophobic slanders combined with a populist critique of neoliberal economic policies 1) would have put Democrats on the defensive if they had knowledge of what he was talking about and 2) enticed liberals and an erstwhile political left to recreate neoliberal explanations of the rise of European fascism. In fact, the logic of the rise of militias and racist groups in response to the Clinton and Obama presidencies seems weak. If true, why did they begin to dissipate during the second terms of both men— and coincident with economic recovery? In other words, why would reactionaries become less reactionary the longer that liberal governments are in office rather than more reactionary? Next, and related, why weren’t these movements ascendant when being so was conducive to achieving political goals, rather than when it wasn’t? The NOW (New World Order) crowd of the early 1990s hated George H.W. Bush as much as they did Bill Clinton. Why did the militias wait until Mr. Clinton took office— in the midst of a vicious recession, to form? This gets to the thesis of an ascendant right following Donald Trump’s election. According to establishment news sources and radical left rhetoric, neo-Nazis, racists and assorted and sundry hate mongers are ascendant. Never mind that the primary sources for this thesis are Democratic Party operatives and the CIA, FBI and NSA. Why did the reactionary right choose the administrations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to amass in numbers? Given Mr. Trump’s rhetoric, the thesis of white nationalist ascendance makes intuitive sense. But amongst the racist groups identified by the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) — the official source for establishment reporting on the matter, most of the growth has come from Black Nationalist groups, who now outnumber White Nationalist groups by about two to one. I detail problems with the official reports here . Graph: the neoliberal explanation of the rise of German fascism is that mysticism— theories of ‘blood and soil,’ combined with centuries old racial animosities, were used by devious and opportunistic leaders to create an irrational and destructive political movement. That the Nazis came to power through perceptions of unfinished business from WWII, based much of their program on American political relations, and that Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the very pit of the Great Depression, suggest that truth may be more complicated than ideological explanations allow for. Source for original graph: Wikipedia. Following WWII, the problem that neoliberals faced was explaining the rise of European fascism while avoiding mention of American slavery, genocide and the Great Depression. Neoliberal economists— Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig on Mises, already worked with psychic desires (‘utility’) to explain the human motivation behind their economics. The shift from lived history to psychic speculation helped shed the unpleasant details of history. Ideology, e.g. psychic conceptions of freedom and slavery, were put forward in support of capitalism. As was at least partially understood at the time, the Nazis based their racial theories on American eugenics, Jim Crow laws and the systematic extermination of the indigenous population. And they studied the managed capitalism of the New Deal as a model for the Nazi economy. In contrast to modern perceptions, Jim Crow and the American genocide were still underway in the years immediately prior to, and during, the ascendance of the Nazis. Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, at the very pit of the Great Depression. The Great Depression itself was the last of a seemingly interminable series of crises of capitalism that preceded the New Deal. The role of Wall Street lending to finance the expansion of American capitalism joined with war debts from WWI to exacerbate the economic tensions that were a subtext of WWII. See Charles Kindleberger’s The World in Depression . As it relates to current circumstances, the idea that racist ideology was the motivating factor behind the rise of Nazism is a self-serving explanation developed after the fact by capitalist ideologues. Not only were American atrocities and ideology every bit as destructive and vile as those of the Nazis, but the Americans were several centuries into it when the Nazis were getting started. As if to prove itself unbowed by moral considerations, the American leadership went on to commit new genocides after WWII in Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In the 1980s the Reagan administration committed atrocities across Central America and armed both sides in the Iran-Iraq war. In the first Gulf War, George H. W. Bush buried upwards of one hundred thousand Iraqi conscripts (troops) in the desert after they had surrendered — an atrocity by any standard. The Clinton administration used economic sanctions to starve and deny medical supplies to ultimately kill half a million Iraqi women and children while spending the decade of the 1990s bombing civilian populations in Iraq on a daily and weekly basis. This was the run-up to George W. Bush’s illegal war of aggression against Iraq which led to the deaths of a million or more Iraqis— overwhelmingly civilians, as it lit the wider Middle East on fire with displaced Iraqi refugees. The conceit that liberal practice is morally defensible— the position of liberals, much of the American left, the establishment press, the CIA, NSA and FBI— in other words, the alliance that formed following the election of Donald Trump, requires parsing internal from external history while ignoring the human consequences of both. Does this coalition not know American history? Or does it know the history and justify its conclusions by drawing careful distinctions between differing slaveries, genocides, atrocities and war crimes? Bill Clinton’s former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, herself the architect of policies that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths , is currently warning that fascism is ascendant . Hillary Clinton, who as Secretary of State convinced Barack Obama to bomb Libya into oblivion, causing one hundred thousand plus civilian deaths and a revival of open-air slave markets , argues that white supremacy is the cause of racism, if not her and her husband’s racist policies. The point here isn’t guilt by association— to link particular political views to atrocities. But it is that the greater monsters of liberal modernity see themselves as the answer to imagined atrocities. Elie Wiesel, the author of Night and lucid moral critic of the Third Reich, supported the American war against Iraq as a moral crusade led by moral people . At the time he did so, both Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld has their names on every substantial mass grave in the Middle East. Through what filter of the universe do those who have factually murdered, killed, caused the deaths of— choose your descriptor, hundreds of thousands of human beings, get to offer moral opprobrium? And by what filter is it granted? The history of the twentieth century suggests that the stakes are high indeed. But aren’t the stakes high *because* of these people, rather than in spite of them? The great dangers of the moment— aggregating environmental crises, nuclear weapons that serve as an ever-present threat of extinction, militarism whose moral calculation is based on the profits to be earned, and the incapacity to recover government in the public interest, are consequences of liberalism, not the problems it exists to solve. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Aug 31 20:15:33 2019 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2019 20:15:33 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] News from Neptune #434 notes In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I take it back, a worthwhile listen, if only to hear Carl say he was wrong about Tulsi Gabbard and JB Nicholson has been right. Which by extension includes me, as I have been saying for some time, Tulsi is a sheepherder for the DNC focusing on anti-war activists. The discussion was good because it was broad, with coverage of the Ukraine. David uncloaked as did his letter in the NG, the duplicity of the group Bend the Arc, using we only focus on domestic issues, as their excuse. Hong Kong: I liked the Moderate Rebels, David refers to, though I don’t believe naming the names of individuals is necessary. What’s important is the names of the groups or organizations and who they are being funded by. It then becomes obvious that the US and Hong Kong billionaires and there are many, are supporting the demonstrations, and the US NGO’s such as the NED “National Endowment for Democracy,” “Freedom House Foundation,” along with others in the business of intervention are supporting the uprisings. That is not to say the people don’t have legitimate grievances in relation to the high cost of living, low wages, lack of jobs, poor housing etc., the people are angry and rightfully so, but there focus on Beijing is misdirected. I along with many others saw the handwriting on the wall twenty years ago, when working there, as foreign company’s, and corporations were moving to Shanghai, since then Hong Kong’s main business is finance and tourism. Twenty years ago, Hong Kong people looked down on the mainlanders coming there for work, menial jobs. Today, its the reverse with wealthy mainlanders going to Hong Kong to shop. For a deeper, broader analysis please see below the article by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers of Popular Resistance in “Global Research” which has many articles related to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is one of the most extreme examples of big finance, neoliberal capitalism in the world. As a result, many people in Hong Kong are suffering from great economic insecurity in a city with 93 billionaires, second-most of any city. Hong Kong is suffering the effects of being colonized by Britain for more than 150 years following the Opium Wars. The British put in place a capitalist economic system and Hong Kong has had no history of self-rule. When Britain left, it negotiated an agreement that prevents China from changing Hong Kong’s political and economic systems for 50 years by making Hong Kong a Special Administrative Region (SAR). China cannot solve the suffering of the people of Hong Kong. This ‘One Country, Two Systems’ approach means the extreme capitalism of Hong Kong exists alongside, but separate from, China’s socialized system. Hong Kong has an unusual political system. For example, half the seats in the legislature are required to represent business interests meaning corporate interests vote on legislation. Hong Kong is a center for big finance and also a center of financial crimes . Between 2013 and 2017, the number of suspicious transactions reported to law enforcement agencies rocketed from 32,907 to 92,115. There has been a small number of prosecutions , which dropped from a high of 167 in 2014 to 103 in 2017. Convictions dropped to only one person sentenced to more than six years behind bars in 2017. The problem is neither the extradition bill that was used to ignite protests nor China, the problems are Hong Kong’s economy and governance. The Extradition Bill The stated cause of the recent protests is an extradition bill proposed because there is no legal way to prevent criminals from escaping charges when they flee to Hong Kong. The bill was proposed by the Hong Kong government in February 2019 to establish a mechanism to transfer fugitives in Hong Kong to Taiwan, Macau or Mainland China. Extradition laws are a legal norm between countries and within countries (e.g. between states), and since Hong Kong is part of China, it is pretty basic. In fact, in 1998, a pro-democracy legislator, Martin Lee , proposed a law similar to the one he now opposes to ensure a person is prosecuted and tried at the place of the offense. The push for the bill came in 2018 when a Hong Kong resident Chan Tong-kai allegedly killed his pregnant girlfriend, Poon Hiu-wing, in Taiwan, then returned to Hong Kong. Chan admitted he killed Poon to Hong Kong police, but the police were unable to charge him for murder or extradite him to Taiwan because no agreement was in place. The proposed law covered 46 types of crimes that are recognized as serious offenses across the globe. These include murder, rape, and sexual offenses, assaults, kidnapping, immigration violations, and drug offenses as well as property offenses like robbery, burglary and arson and other traditional criminal offenses. It also included business and financial crimes. Months before the street protests, the business community expressed opposition to the law. Hong Kong’s two pro-business parties urged the government to exempt white-collar crimes from the list of offenses covered by any future extradition agreement. There was escalating pressure from the city’s business heavyweights . The American Chamber of Commerce, AmCham, a fifty-year-old organization that represents over 1,200 US companies doing business in Hong Kong, opposed the proposal. AmCham said it would damage the city’s reputation: “Any change in extradition arrangements that substantially expands the possibility of arrest and rendition … of international business executives residing in or transiting through Hong Kong as a result of allegations of economic crime made by the mainland government … would undermine perceptions of Hong Kong as a safe and secure haven for international business operations.” Kurt Tong, the top US diplomat in Hong Kong, said in March that the proposal could complicate relations between Washington and Hong Kong. Indeed, the Center for International Private Enterprise,  a n arm of NED said the proposed law would undermine economic freedom, cause capital flight and threaten Hong Kong’s status as a hub for global commerce. They pointed to a bipartisan letter signed by eight members of Congress, including Senators Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, and Steve Daines and Members of the House of Representatives, Jim McGovern, Ben McAdams, Chris Smith, Tom Suozzi, and Brian Mast opposing the bill. Proponents of the bill responded by  exempting nine of the economic crimes and made extradition only for crimes punishable by at least seven years in prison. These changes did not satisfy big business advocates. The Mass Protests and US Role From this attention to the law, opposition grew with the formation of a coalition to organize protests. As Alexander Rubinstein reports , “the coalition cited by Hong Kong media, including the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Free Press , as organizers of the anti-extradition law demonstrations is called the Civil Human Rights Front. That organization’s website lists the NED-funded HKHRM [Human Rights Monitor], Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, the Hong Kong Journalists Association, the Civic Party, the Labour Party, and the Democratic Party as members of the coalition.” HKHRM alone received more than $1.9 million in funds from the NED between 1995 and 2013. Major protests began in June. Building the anti-China movement in Hong Kong has been a long-term, NED project since 1996 . In 2012, NED invested $460,000 through its National Democratic Institute , to build the anti-China movement (aka pro-democracy movement), particularly among university students. Two years later, the mass protests of Occupy Central occurred. In a 2016 Open Letter to Kurt Tong , these NED grants and others were pointed out and Tong was asked if the US was funding a Hong Kong independence movement. During the current protests, organizers were photographed meeting with Julie Eadeh, the political unit chief of US Consulate General, in a Hong Kong hotel. They also met with China Hawks in Washington, DC including Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, Senator Marco Rubio and Rep. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Larry Diamond, a co-editor of the NED’s publication and a co-chair of research , has been openly encouraging the protesters. He delivered a video message of support during their rally this weekend. Protests have included many elements of US color revolutions with tactics such as violence — attacks on bystanders, media, police and emergency personnel. Similar tactics were used in Ukraine , Nicaragua , and Venezuela , e.g. violent street barricades. US officials and media criticized the government’s response to the violent protests, even though they have been silent on the extreme police violence against the Yellow Vests in France . Demonstrators also use swarming techniques and sophisticated social media messaging targeting people in the US. Mass protests have continued. On July 9, Chief Executive Carrie Lam pronounced the bill dead and suspended it. Protesters are now calling for the bill to be withdrawn, Lam to resign and police to be investigated. For more on the protests and US involvement, listen to our interview with K. J. Noh on Clearing the FOG (available on Monday). What Is Driving Discontent in Hong Kong? Image on the right: Makeshift shelters at Tung Chau Street Temporary Market in Sham Shui Po. Photo: Nora Tam The source of unrest in Hong Kong is the economic insecurity stemming from capitalism. In 1997, Britain and China agreed to leave “the previous capitalist system” in place for 50 years. Hong Kong has been ranked as the world’s freest economy in the Heritage’s Index of Economic Freedom since 1995 when the index began. In 1990, Milton Friedman  described Hong Kong as the best example of a free-market economy. Its ranking is based on low taxes, light regulations, strong property rights, business freedom, and openness to global commerce. Graeme Maxton writes in the South China Morning Post : “The only way to restore order is through a radical change in Hong Kong’s economic policies. After decades of doing almost nothing, and letting the free market rule, it is time for the Hong Kong government to do what it is there for; to govern in the interests of the majority .” The issue is not the extradition proposal, Carrie Lam or China. What we are witnessing is an unrestricted neo-liberal economy, described as a free market on steroids . Hong Kong’s economy relative to China’s gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen from a peak of 27 percent in 1993 to less than 3 percent in 2017. During this time, China has had tremendous growth, including in nearby market-friendly Shenzen, while Hong Kong has not. As Sara Flounders writes, “For the last 10 years wages have been stagnant in Hong Kong while rents have increased 300 percent; it is the most expensive city in the world. In Shenzhen, wages have increased 8 percent every year, and more than 1 million new, public, green housing units at low rates are nearing completion.” Hong Kong has the world’s highest rents , a widening wealth gap and a poverty rate of 20 percent . In China, the poverty rate fell from 88 percent in 1981 to 0.7 percent in 2015, according to the World Bank . Hong Kong In The Chinese Context Ellen Brown writes in “Neoliberalism Has Met Its Match in China ,” that the Chinese government owns 80 percent of banks, which make favorable loans to businesses, and subsidizes worker costs. The US views China subsidizing its economy as an unfair trade advantage, while China sees long-term, planned growth as smarter than short-term profits for shareholders. The Chinese model of state-controlled capitalism (some call it a form of socialism) has lifted 800 million people out of poverty and built a middle class of over 420 million people, growing from four percent in 2002, to 31 percent . The top twelve Chinese companies on the Fortune 500 are all state-owned and state-subsidized including oil, solar energy, telecommunications, engineering, construction companies, banks, and the auto industry. China has the second-largest GDP, and the largest economy based on Purchasing Power Parity GDP, according to the CIA , IMF and World Bank . China does have significant problems. There are thousands of documented demonstrations, strikes and labor actions in China annually,  serious environmental challenges , inequality and social control through the use of surveillance technology. How China responds to these challenges is a test for their governance. China describes itself as having an intraparty democracy. The eight other legal “democratic parties” that are allowed to participate in the political system cooperate with but do not compete with the Communist Party. There are also local elections for candidates focused on grassroots issues. China views western democracy and economics as flawed and does not try to emulate them but is creating its own system. China is led by engineers and scientists, not by lawyers and business people. It approaches policy decisions through research and experimentation. Every city and every district is involved in some sort of experimentation including free trade zones, poverty reduction, and education reform. “There are pilot schools, pilot cities, pilot hospitals, pilot markets, pilot everything under the sun, the whole China is basically a giant portfolio of experiments, with mayors and provincial governors as Primary Investigators.” In this system, Hong Kong could be viewed as an experiment in neoliberal capitalism. The Communist Party knows that to keep its hold on power, it must combat inequalities and shift the economy towards a more efficient and more ecological model. Beijing has set a date of 2050 to become a “socialist society” and to achieve that, it seeks improvements in social , labor and environmental fields. Where does Hong Kong fit into these long-term plans? With 2047 as the year for the end of the agreement with the UK, US and western powers are working toward preserving their capitalist dystopia of Hong Kong and manufacturing consensus for long-term conflict with China. How this conflict of economic and political systems turns out depends on whether China can confront its contradictions, whether Hong Kongers can address the source of their problems and whether US empire can continue its dollar, political and military dominance. Today’s conflicts in Hong Kong are rooted in all of these realities. * Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers co-direct Popular Resistance where this article was originally published. Featured image is from Sky News Hong Kong: Can Two Million Marchers Be Wrong? The original source of this article is Global Research Copyright © Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers , Global Research, 2019 Comment on Global Research Articles on our Facebook page Become a Member of Global Research > On Aug 30, 2019, at 16:45, J.B. Nicholson via Peace wrote: > > News from Neptune #434 > Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFdeGjETKXE > A "What the 2020 Election Is About" edition > > A list of links to items referenced on the show. > > > > Recent Joe Biden talk (and talk of those speaking on his behalf) courtesy of the Jimmy Dore program > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5xb4llOhgU -- Biden's Press Secretary's "word salad" on how climate change debate is a bad idea and the time for it was in the past (when the Democrats also said it was a bad idea to have that debate) > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbV3l5j3S4E -- Jill Biden admitting her husband is a horrible choice but somehow 'electable' and ultimately we must give up everything to "defeat Trump", right? > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYbE2E9dvGg -- Biden attacking Mexicans in secret video. > > Rep. Tulsi Gabbard interviewed by CBS > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzVSYBNgOeI -- "Defeating Trump" is Rep. Gabbard's goal even if it means supporting whatever Democrat gets the nomination. > https://www.cbsnews.com/video/tulsi-gabbard-on-her-political-future/ -- a brief video ending with Rep. Gabbard conceding that she'll endorse any Democrat, even one who holds values ostensibly opposite to hers. > > Related: > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaH2rSgQzLE -- Bernie Sanders said he'll vote for Biden in 2020 if Biden is the nominee. > > J.B. Nicholson on "Is Tulsi Gabbard really anti-war? No, she’s pro-drone and for “surgical strikes”" > https://digitalcitizen.info/2019/02/13/is-tulsi-gabbard-really-anti-war-no-shes-pro-drone-and-for-surgical-strikes/ > > B.B. King > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.B._King > > B.B. King's "The Thrill is Gone" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oica5jG7FpU > > Tulsi Gabbard with The Intercept in January 2018 > https://theintercept.com/2018/01/17/intercepted-podcast-white-mirror/ > > Primo Nutmeg interview > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0GyqD0t2t8 -- video > http://audio.voxnest.com/stream/9417a19f73964ff599a9cb7b84a5d268/www.buzzsprout.com/205226/1016930-171-tulsi-gabbard.mp3?blob_id=2161843 -- audio > > David Green on "Concerns voiced about Bend the Arc" letter to the News-Gazette > https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-concerns-voiced-about-bend-the-arc/article_99b2ac36-4279-5cad-8b60-892ca30dde6e.html > > Donald Trump on Jewish "great disloyalty" for voting Democrat > https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/us/politics/trump-jewish-voters.html -- Julie Hirschfeld Davis on "Trump Accuses Jewish Democrats of ‘Great Disloyalty’" > https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/459219-most-voters-disapprove-of-trumps-jewish-loyalty-comment-poll -- Rachel Frazin on "Most voters disapprove of Trump's Jewish 'loyalty' comment: poll" > > > Long Stephen Miller articles from The New York Times > > Rasputin > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin > > Jason DeParle on "How Stephen Miller Seized the Moment to Battle Immigration" (from 2019-08-17) > https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/17/us/politics/stephen-miller-immigration-trump.html > > Michelle Cottle on "Stephen Miller Can’t Act Alone" (from 2019-04-09) > https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/opinion/stephen-miller-trump-immigration.html > > Matt Flegenheimer on "Stephen Miller, the Powerful Survivor on the President’s Right Flank" (from 2017-10-09) > https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/us/politics/stephen-miller-trump-white-house.html > > > > > Norman Finkelstein on Israel being an "alt-right country" > > https://www.youtube.com/embed/8e2uhX4QfJw -- Norman Finkelstein Q&A > > Peter Bolton on "Norman Finkelstein tells The Canary that anti-Corbyn smears have ‘nothing whatever to do with antisemitism’" > https://www.thecanary.co/exclusive/2019/08/15/norman-finkelstein-tells-the-canary-that-anti-corbyn-smears-have-nothing-whatever-to-do-with-antisemitism/ > > DaysOfPalestine.com on "Jewish scholar Norman Finkelstein says ‘Israel is a nation of murderers’ loved by the far right" > https://daysofpalestine.com/post/12616/jewish-scholar-norman-finkelstein-says-%E2%80%98israel-is-a-nation-of-murderers%E2%80%99-loved-by-the-far-right > > > > Patrick Cockburn articles on independent.co.uk > https://www.independent.co.uk/author/patrick-cockburn > "Patrick Cockburn is an award-winning Independent columnist who specialises in analysis of Iraq, Syria and wars in the Middle East. He has been with The Independent since 1990." > > Lily Puckett on "Trump administration considering blocking $250m in military assistance to Ukraine" > https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-ukraine-military-funding-john-bolton-russia-pentagon-latest-a9084291.html > > Continuity of policy: US administrations supporting Nazis > https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/us/14nazis.html -- contains pointer to a 600-page Justice Department report (http://documents.nytimes.com/confidential-report-provides-new-evidence-of-notorious-nazi-cases?ref=us#p=1) about how Nazis were given "safe haven" in US > https://www.stpete4peace.org/Ukraine -- including criticism of "Progressive media provides cover for US intentions in Ukraine" > https://www.rt.com/news/450740-ukraine-radio-nazi-article/ -- "US-funded Ukrainian radio defends neo-Nazi group, deletes article when called out" > > > > Jimmy Dore on New York Times editorial board's "pathetic apology for Russiagate coverage failure" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BivCPmU3tjo > > > > David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles > https://anticapitalistchronicles.libsyn.com/ > RSS feed: https://anticapitalistchronicles.libsyn.com/rss > > David Harvey interview in Jacobin > https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/david-harvey-neoliberalism-capitalism-labor-crisis-resistance/ > > "A Brief History of Neoliberalism" by David Harvey > ISBN-13: 978-0199283279 > ISBN-10: 0199283273 > > "Capital in the Twenty-first Century" by Thomas Piketty > ISBN-10: 0674979850 > ISBN-13: 978-0674979857 > Complete book: https://dowbor.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/14Thomas-Piketty.pdf > > Michael Roberts' blog "The Next Recession" > https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/ > > Recent Dean Baker articles on Trump's trade war with China > https://fair.org/home/dean-baker-on-trumps-trade-war-leo-fitzpatrick-on-wireless-merger/ > https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-trade-war-with-china-is-waged-to-make-the-rich-richer/ > > > > Moderate Rebels (Max Blumenthal & Ben Norton) on "Hong Kong's real colonial history, and the protests' anti-China right-wing nativism - with Carl Zha" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a38bOtUEXcc -- video > https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/moderaterebels/Moderate_Rebels_Hong_Kong_Carl_Zha_part_1.mp3?dest-id=553365 -- audio > > Doug Henwood interviews Brian Hioe on Hong Kong protests > http://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/RadioArchive/2019/19_08_22.mp3 > > > > > > Noam Chomsky on reading business press > > https://www.ft.com/content/bcdefd38-3beb-3506-b24c-82285ac87f6c > "My impression in general is that the business press is more open, ... get the facts right..." (used as part of an ad for Financial Times) > > https://chomsky.info/20081010/ > http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,583454,00.html -- October 10, 2008 Der Spiegel interview of Chomsky includes: >> SPIEGEL: How does it benefit politicians when the populace drives a lot, >> eats a lot and goes shopping a lot? > >> Chomsky: Consumption distracts people. You cannot control your own >> population by force, but it can be distracted by consumption. The >> business press has been quite explicit about this goal. > https://chomsky.info/20101101/ > http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?267553 -- November 1, 2010 Outlook magazine (from India) interview of Chomsky includes: >> What has to be done is not really specific to the media. It is to >> develop a more functional democratic society, a more democratic culture. >> As far as the elites are concerned they want the public to be >> disciplined, passive, obedient and directed to other things. Take a look >> at the history of the huge public relations and advertising industry >> that we have today. It developed in the freest countries in the world — >> England and the US — around the time of the First World War. >> Incidentally, that was the time Lippmann was writing. It was developed >> very consciously, out of the understanding that enough freedom had been >> won by popular struggle and the population could not be controlled by >> force. Therefore, it was thought necessary to control attitudes and >> beliefs. In the business press of the 1920s, you can read very openly >> about the need to divert people to what they call the superficial thing >> in life like fashionable consumption. If we can direct people to that, >> they will keep out of our hair, we can run things. You see that in >> India, certainly. > > Business Insider > https://www.businessinsider.com/ > > Sonam Sheth on "US spies say Trump's G7 performance suggests he's either a 'Russian asset' or a 'useful idiot' for Putin" > https://www.businessinsider.com/spies-react-trump-g7-summit-russian-asset-2019-8 > > -J > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace