From r-szoke at illinois.edu Tue Jun 2 00:49:00 2020 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2020 00:49:00 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] U.S. Military Against Americans? Message-ID: Trump Just Threatened to Use the U.S. Military Against Americans Trump?s plan involves invoking a two-century-old law known as the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to deploy troops inside the country. By Greg Walters VICE News Jun 1 2020, 6:27pm WASHINGTON ? President Trump vowed to use the U.S. military to quash the deadly riots that have shaken the country in widespread protests against police violence. Trump is already deploying thousands of soldiers to American cities around the country, he said, and will command them to stop riots in places where mayors and governors fail to stop the civil unrest by themselves, Trump said in a Rose Garden address at the White House on Monday evening. ?As we speak, I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults, and the wanton destruction of property,? Trump said. ?We are ending the riots and lawlessness that are spreading throughout our country. We will end it now.? Trump?s plan involves invoking a two century-old law known as the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to deploy troops inside the country. The move raises that striking image of a sitting president turning the awesome force of the American military against his own citizens, although the details of Trump?s plan weren?t immediately clear. From r-szoke at illinois.edu Tue Jun 2 00:49:00 2020 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2020 00:49:00 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] U.S. Military Against Americans? Message-ID: Trump Just Threatened to Use the U.S. Military Against Americans Trump?s plan involves invoking a two-century-old law known as the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to deploy troops inside the country. By Greg Walters VICE News Jun 1 2020, 6:27pm WASHINGTON ? President Trump vowed to use the U.S. military to quash the deadly riots that have shaken the country in widespread protests against police violence. Trump is already deploying thousands of soldiers to American cities around the country, he said, and will command them to stop riots in places where mayors and governors fail to stop the civil unrest by themselves, Trump said in a Rose Garden address at the White House on Monday evening. ?As we speak, I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults, and the wanton destruction of property,? Trump said. ?We are ending the riots and lawlessness that are spreading throughout our country. We will end it now.? Trump?s plan involves invoking a two century-old law known as the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to deploy troops inside the country. The move raises that striking image of a sitting president turning the awesome force of the American military against his own citizens, although the details of Trump?s plan weren?t immediately clear. From jbn at forestfield.org Tue Jun 2 01:23:31 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2020 20:23:31 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] U.S. Military Against Americans? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <863cb5c7-0f34-0d0a-8b0b-23efa58484a5@forestfield.org> According to https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-considering-move-invoke-insurrection-act-n1221326 > He [Pres. Trump] said he was already dispatching "thousands and thousands of > heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers" to > Washington to stop the violence that has been a feature of the protests here. > > Shortly before he started to speak ? about 20 minutes before Washington's 7 p.m. > ET curfew ? the police and National Guard had started using smoke and flash bangs > to push away the large crowd of peaceful protesters outside. National Guard related stories in cities across the country including: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14jZjagQW5Y -- Los Angeles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnkCCW3Jj4Y -- Minneapolis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhrqSknY4W8 -- Washington, DC including a map of where the National Guard has been activated -- most US states (including Illinois) -- according to the New York Times -J From brussel at illinois.edu Tue Jun 2 04:09:24 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2020 04:09:24 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] One of the most moving of DN's programs. References: <7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a.54627e5a5a.20200601172719.303cfc5f5e.208dace9@mail141.atl61.mcsv.net> Message-ID: Try it! You?ll understand better what?s been happening. Trump is hardly mentioned. Begin forwarded message: From: Democracy Now! > Subject: A Class Rebellion: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on How Racism & Racial Terrorism Fueled Nationwide Anger | Daily Digest 06/01/2020 Date: June 1, 2020 at 12:27:33 PM CDT To: Morton Brussel > Reply-To: Democracy Now! > "America's Moment of Reckoning": Cornel West Says Nationwide Uprising Is Sign of "Empire Imploding" & My Vanishing Country: Mass Protests Rise from 400 Years of Systemic Racism, Says Bakari Sellers & More Not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Democracy Now! Daily Digest A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan Gonz?lez [https://gallery.mailchimp.com/7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a/images/77fcda6c-63b5-4513-99d7-d476d44d5894.png] Monday, June 1, 2020 democracynow.org Stories [https://mcusercontent.com/7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a/images/c332f6a9-3678-46d9-9149-d54cd47b410f.jpg] A Class Rebellion: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on How Racism & Racial Terrorism Fueled Nationwide Anger In the largest nationwide uprising since the 1960s, protesters shut down cities across the United States over the weekend following the police killing of George ... Read More ? [https://mcusercontent.com/7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a/images/5edca0f3-76c1-4842-90fc-d82bdbf04519.jpg] "America's Moment of Reckoning": Cornel West Says Nationwide Uprising Is Sign of "Empire Imploding" As thousands from coast to coast took to the streets this weekend to protest the state-sanctioned killing of Black people, and the nation faces its largest public ... Read More ? [https://mcusercontent.com/7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a/images/6861a95e-4dec-4179-8699-c3629fe47b8b.jpg] My Vanishing Country: Mass Protests Rise from 400 Years of Systemic Racism, Says Bakari Sellers As mass unrest engulfs the U.S., we speak with attorney and political commentator Bakari Sellers, whose new memoir My Vanishing Country was just published. One ... Read More ? [https://mcusercontent.com/7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a/images/a4468975-eb50-4183-9098-da10caa6a045.jpg] "America Has Looted Black People. We Learned It from You" Says Women's March Activist Tamika Mallory In a powerful address among people in Minneapolis protesting the police murder of George Floyd, activist and former Women?s March co-chair Tamika Mallory ... Read More ? [https://mcusercontent.com/7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a/images/8321a381-40be-449f-b130-4dada0a280ee.jpg] Defund Police: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Says Budgets Wrongly Prioritize Cops Over Schools, Hospitals Calls to defund the police mount after police erupted into violence this weekend in response to widespread protests across the nation, arresting more than 4,000 ... Read More ? [https://mcusercontent.com/7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a/images/11affc55-74da-4443-aced-09e912538e98.jpg] "We Still Don't Have Justice": Bakari Sellers on Enduring Systemic Racism & Healthcare Disparities As mass unrest engulfs the U.S., we speak with attorney and political commentator Bakari Sellers, whose new memoir, My Vanishing Country, includes the story of ... Read More ? [https://mcusercontent.com/7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a/images/f07245e3-b57b-45d6-8420-c6f212bbcf51.jpg] From the Archives: Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman Sued Minneapolis Police for 2008 False Arrest?And Won Note from 5/29/20: Following today's arrest of CNN reporter Omar Jimenez in Minneapolis, we are highlighting our past coverage of the 2008 arrest of ... Read More ? Headlines ? Minneapolis Protests at Epicenter of Nationwide Uprising Met with More Police Violence Louisville Police Shoot and Kill Man at Protest New Yorkers Take to Streets Around City, Shut Down Traffic as NYPD Arrests Hundreds, Attacks Peaceful Crowds Rep. Joyce Beatty and Two Columbus City Officials Pepper-Sprayed by Ohio Police Video Shows 9-Year-Old Seattle Child in Distress After Reportedly Being Maced by Police Protesters Rally in Front of Capitol, White House, as Trump Retreats to Presidential Bunker Black Sacramento Teen Recovering After Being Shot in Face with Rubber Bullet Atlanta Police Officers Fired After Tasing Two Students Reporters Targeted, Attacked by Police While Covering Protests Trump Tweets Plan to Designate Antifa a Terrorist Group Black Transgender Man Tony McDade Shot and Killed by Tallahassee Police Trump Pulls U.S. Out of World Health Organization Coronavirus Surges in Brazil, Peru, Chile as Epicenter of Pandemic Shifts to Latin America SCOTUS Says CA Can Restrict Church Services as Coronavirus Cases Mount Journalist and Driver Killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, Bombing Israeli Soldiers Kill Unarmed Autistic Palestinian Man in Occupied East Jerusalem Four More Women Accuse Harvey Weinstein of Rape, Sexual Assault Forward this email ? Donate today ? Follow [Facebook] [Twitter] [RSS & Podcasts] [Google+] COLUMN [https://gallery.mailchimp.com/7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a/images/280f35db-92ec-4978-b2da-16b3cd39da08.jpg] Racism in America, from Police Brutality to COVID-19 FROM THE ARCHIVE [https://mcusercontent.com/7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a/images/f07245e3-b57b-45d6-8420-c6f212bbcf51.jpg] Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman Sued Minneapolis Police for 2008 False Arrest?And Won WEB EXCLUSIVE [https://mcusercontent.com/7c55dbbfa32e541749065a92a/images/11affc55-74da-4443-aced-09e912538e98.jpg] "We Still Don't Have Justice": Bakari Sellers on Enduring Systemic Racism & Healthcare Disparities 207 W 25th St ? 11th Floor ? New York, NY ? 10001 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License You are receiving this email because you signed up at democracynow.org. unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Tue Jun 2 04:22:43 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2020 04:22:43 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: [BoycottIsraeliGoods] World-wide revolution to change the system References: Message-ID: <374C9798-1045-43A9-B666-0A991F852A5E@illinois.edu> Cogent remarks by Qumziyeh, our old American-Palestinian friend. Begin forwarded message: From: "Mazin Qumsiyeh mazin at qumsiyeh.org [BoycottIsraeliGoods]" > Subject: [BoycottIsraeliGoods] World-wide revolution to change the system Date: June 1, 2020 at 11:13:24 PM CDT To: Academics for Justice >, boycottisraeligoods at yahoogroups.com, "eFreePalestine at yahoogroups.com" >, hani almasri > Reply-To: BoycottIsraeliGoods at yahoogroups.com The USA was built by slaves on other people's lands. Looting is a common characteristic of all colonial racist power. Palestine, the Holy Land, was looted by European colonial Ashkenazi Jews who ascribed to the racist idea of Zionism. More and more people increasingly understand the racism that is manifest against African Americans, Native Brazilians, Palestinians, Muslims in Kashmir and so many others. that the racists are a class of elites profiting from this. The 1% (actually 0.01%) against the 99%. This is becoming more and more obvious because racists band together. Modi is a friend of Trump, Bolsenaro and Netanyahu. Increasingly militarized US police forces are trained by Israeli military (in turn funded by US taxpayer money). The elites in government have been exposed as hypocrites; the emperor has no clothes. The elites toppled governments in dozens of countries to have other elite fascists rule those countries. The elites support Israel's ethnic cleansing and apartheid colonial policies, support lunatic dictors in countries like Saudi Arabia (killing his own people and people in Yemen and elsewhere) while hypocritically claiming they care about human rights in Hong Kong!. When some complain about methods of protest they know the spectrum of resistance is wide and that while many of us support popular resistance, we understand the reality of structures of power. No colonial-anti-colonial struggle was free of violence because racism/colonialism is inherently violent. Natives and oppressed people barely register on this scale of violence. And colonialists even use false flag operations to tarnish resistance (here is video showing an outsider destroying property confronted by demonstrators http://youtu.be/OR8zIkbuDEQ ). But again looting is done a million times more by the elites against the common people every single day. George floyd's murder was followed by the murder of Iyad Halaq in Jerusalem by Israeli police. Over 100,000 Palestinians were killed by the racist colonial settlers. Iyad was heading to his special needs school (he suffered from autism and had a mental capacity of a 6 year old according to his family). The killings will continue until we the people put a stop to it and dismantle the structures of racism that makes this possible. Joe Biden and the so-called left Zionists will not dismantle racism, they will entrench it. Trump and Netanyahu are actually better for us since they are more transparent and less "diplomatic." But whatever happens, it is clear that cosmetic changes are not sufficient. It is time for a worldwide revolution. If these protests that ignited in the US will not succeed in dismantling taht system, then the next murder of another George Floyd or another Iyad Al-Halaq would ignite others until the system changes. And no, the system will not "reform" itself. The question for each of us: will we be spectators or activists. LOOTED & HIDDEN - Palestinian Archives in Israel https://vimeo.com/213851191 ] For info on US Police Deadly Exchange with Apartheid Israel military, see http://deadlyexchange.org https://www.mintpressnews.com/deadly-exchange-america-racist-policing-training-roots-israel/268007/ Trevor Noahs honest analysis of the USA https://youtu.be/v4amCfVbA_c A message to the world from Palestine https://youtu.be/PxQQtRospmw This Week in Palestine magazine issue focused on post-Covid-19 and resiliency is available online at https://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/ Talk today (Tuesday) on environmental impact of the occupation/ Register here https://kuminow.com/online or KumiNow.com/PMNH Note in May alone 177 palestinian posts were eliminated by facebook exposing the lie that facebook is not censoring Palestinian voices and facts (from Sada social media watch group). Zukerberg lies about facebook not censoring. Stay Human (revolting against the machine in joint struggle with fellow humans) Mazin Qumsiyeh A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home Professor, Founder, and (volunteer) Director Palestine Museum of Natural History Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability Bethlehem University Occupied Palestine http://qumsiyeh.org http://palestinenature.org facebook pages Personal https://www.facebook.com/mazin.qumsiyeh.9 Museum https://www.facebook.com/Palestine-Museum-of-Natural-History-1454309858180882/ __._,_.___ ________________________________ Posted by: Mazin Qumsiyeh > ________________________________ 2003 Al-Nakba Awareness and Al-Awda Activism Year: See http://Al-Awda.org Contact congress and elected officials often: http://cflweb.org/congress_merge_.htm For other ways to help, see http://BoycottIsraeliGoods.org VISIT YOUR GROUP [Yahoo! Groups] ? Privacy ? Unsubscribe ? Terms of Use __,_._,___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 18:47:15 2020 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2020 13:47:15 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Covid has exposed America as a failed state Message-ID: Very interesting, referred by Michael Tracey (https://twitter.com/mtracey), whom I've followed as of late: https://unherd.com/2020/06/covid-has-exposed-america-as-a-failed-state/ Covid has exposed America as a failed state It's hard to view the US at this point as anything other than a cautionary tale BY ARIS ROUSSINOS June 1, 2020 It is remarkable how the effects of Covid on the international system mirrors its impact on individuals. Its lethality, in the acute phase, may be lower than we feared, yet there is a risk of sudden catastrophic relapse after a seeming period of recovery, and the long-term effects are of a gravity we can only dread. Within states and in the relations between them, as in individuals, the coronavirus searches out and exacerbates the underlying morbidities, exaggerating them until total system failure. When the international system collapses, it will be with Covid, and not of it. The greatest morbidity the virus has latched onto in the global order is the rivalry between the United States and China. This contest is not new ? International Relations scholars have long debated the ?Thucydides Trap,? named after the agonising and destructive struggle between Athens and Sparta chronicled by the Greek historian, wherein a rising power is inexorably drawn into conflict with the hegemon it displaces. When Germany challenged British hegemony at the beginning of the last century, the first wave of globalisation ended in global conflict and then a pandemic; we must hope that this current pandemic, rapidly bringing about the end of the second wave of globalisation, will not similarly end in confrontation between the two great powers. In this coming struggle, America is starting with a great and self-inflicted handicap. Obama?s attempts to reposition US foreign policy away from its destructive and self-defeating entanglement in the Islamic world and towards the coming confrontation with China failed, distracted by the bloody chaos brought about by the Arab Spring and by the Washington foreign policy ?blob?s? unwillingness to wean itself off wars it cannot win. Trump?s much-touted withdrawal from the Middle East has likewise seen the US bolster its forces in the region with tens of thousands more troops than his term began with, and allowed his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to pursue a burning fixation with regime change in Iran that is unlikely to end in America?s favour. America has frittered away 5 trillion dollars on its Middle Eastern adventures, indebting itself to China in the process, and burned its domestic and international political capital to an unimaginable degree ?with nothing at all to show for it. Now that the architects of this self-inflicted catastrophe wish us to join them in their next global adventure, we must think carefully. Let?s remember how we got here. Only a couple of months ago, warning about dependence on China and the fragility of our supply chains, and urging decoupling from the aspiring hegemon, was viewed as the preserve of cranks of Right and Left, considered romantic at best and xenophobic at worst. When Trump urged the same thing for the United States, China?s autocrat Xi was treated to a standing ovation at Davos, and hailed as the new champion of the global liberal order. But now Larry Summers, the high priest of globalisation and of America?s offshoring to China, is warning us against fragile supply chains and the urgency of decoupling with no reference at all his long and glittering career midwifing this catastrophe. Here is the global system, finally stripped of all illusions. The result is the total discrediting of the US-led order, an order of which China?s rise is as much a direct product as it is a challenge. The truth is that globalisation, the central political dream of Clinton and Blair, Obama and Cameron, was never real. It was a process by which advanced Western economies unilaterally surrendered their manufacturing capacity to a rival, growing power, China, which instead of reciprocating according to the Panglossian calculations of the neoliberal theorists, practiced a traditional and ruthless mercantilism in pursuit of its own interests. As the American political theorist Michael Lind recently wrote in Tablet: ?Politicians pushing globalization like Clinton may have told the public that the purpose of NAFTA and of China?s admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) was to open the closed markets of Mexico and China to ?American products made on American soil, everything from corn to chemicals to computers.? But U.S. multinationals and their lobbyists 20 years ago knew that was not true. Their goal from the beginning was to transfer the production of many products from American soil to Mexican soil or Chinese soil, to take advantage of foreign low-wage, nonunion labor, and in some cases foreign government subsidies and other favors.? The idea that a global liberal order could, like an iPhone, be designed in America and made in China was the product, where it was sincerely held, of pure ideological delusion. In its entire 5,000 year history, China has not spent one single day as a liberal democracy. The belief that a repressive autocratic regime would suddenly transform into a liberal democracy by being handed more wealth and power was patently absurd. Yet it is the people who held and promoted this claim for decades who intend to lead the world into a great power confrontation ? against the China for whose rise they are directly responsible. Globalisation was always the grand illusion of naive liberalism, taken advantage of by illiberal and non-liberal actors to pursue their own ends. It is the liberals, the TINA bluechecks, who are the artless rubes in this story. Indeed, it is they who deserve much of the blame now being directed at China. In Lind?s words: ?The United States has not been the naive victim of cunning Chinese masterminds. On the contrary, in the last generation many members of America?s elite have sought to get rich personally by selling or renting out America?s crown jewels?intellectual property, manufacturing capacity, high-end real estate, even university resources?to the elite of another country. When asked whether the rapid dismantling, in a few decades, of much of an industrial base built up painstakingly over two centuries has been bad for the United States, the typical reply by members of the U.S. establishment is an incoherent word salad of messianic liberal ideology and neoclassical economics. We are fighting global poverty by employing Chinese factory workers for a pittance! Don?t you understand Ricardo?s theory of comparative advantage?? For a brief few decades, the shift in production to China made a handful of Western individuals unimaginably rich, while lowering the living standards of the middle and working class. It began to turn the First World into a Third World society of stratified, vastly uneven wealth even as it raised China into a First World superpower. For the benefit of a few billionaires, Western societies have immiserated their voter base, dramatically weakened themselves, and helped shorten the lives of hundreds of thousands of their own people. These events didn?t just happen. Factories didn?t just uproot themselves and migrate to China like flocks of concrete geese. These were conscious, willed acts presented to us as faits accomplis ? which we must now consciously and painfully undo, in full historical awareness of how this all took place. It was in winning the first Cold War that the United States set the stage for its own eclipse, though our own entanglement in this mess is the product of the Second World War. In 1945, the United States found itself the victor through its possession of a vast industrial base, sheltered by geography from the destruction we European powers had wrought upon ourselves. The Soviet Union could not keep up with America?s industrial power, able to churn out both weapons and consumer goods with dizzying speed and sophistication. Yet when the rival superpower collapsed, exhausted, the United States took the wrong lessons from the fall of communism. American policymakers convinced themselves their global dominance was due to the success of their liberal ideology rather than of their industrial might, and that the sudden, unexpected disintegration of the Soviet Union was due to the vindication of liberalism rather than of the awakened nationalism of Russia?s subject peoples. Drunk on victory, and searching for a new project, American policymakers decided to remake the world in their own image. In 1993, the National Security Strategy of US National Security Adviser Anthony Lake and Secretary of State Warren Christopher melded the doctrine of imperial hegemony with the free market orthodoxies that had taken root in the Reagan era. As the realist International Relations scholar Patrick Porter notes: ?Christopher?s version assumed that the United States ?must maintain its military strength?, ?stem the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction?, and ?knock down barriers to global trade?. Lake?s premise was that ?America?s power, authority, and example provide unparalleled opportunities to lead,? that its security rested on the rise of market democracy abroad.? Our present moment, in all its dangers, results from this fusion of the two strands of liberalism at the very apogee of American power: the belief that the unfettered free movement of goods, capital, services and people would raise global living standards to endless new heights, and that it was America?s manifest destiny to oversee a worldwide liberal order of free trade and unchallenged US hegemony. Distractedly giving away the industrial base that won them the first Cold War to their rival in the second, American administrations of both parties plunged headfirst into the post-historical future. It took less than a decade for reality to crash into the World Trade Center, but by then it was too late. America?s policymakers had been captured by their grand delusion, and they refused to let it go even as the empire found itself over-extended in war after war, entered into with noble liberal aims utterly divorced from reality, and from which it was unable to extricate itself. Just one decade after 9/11, despite America?s mauling in Iraq, pious liberals saw in the Arab Spring a chance to spread their creed to oppressed masses crying out for liberal democracy, and watched with confused horror as the armed factions of the Middle East turned instead to the older and more powerful forces of religious fervour, ethnic conflict and sectarian hatred. Lost in a fantasy world of their own imagining, Americans could not begin to understand the world they dreamed of changing. America?s rapid rise to global hegemony and equally rapid decline is a grand historical tragedy of the highest order, and as in classical tragedy, the root cause is the protagonist?s central character flaw. Born of 18th-century liberal ideals, and centred on a sacred set of texts, a constitution and declaration of independence debated with rabbinical exactitude and religious fervour, for the United States, that flaw is its civic religion of liberalism. While we at least, like our neighbours in Europe, have older traditions on which to draw, and with which we can temper liberalism?s zealous certainties, America was liberal from the start and will remain so until the end; with no countervailing influence, in America liberalism mutated into a fundamentalist religion. It is only through this zealot?s devotion to liberalism that American policymakers sincerely believed they could bomb Afghan shepherds and bribe the Chinese politburo into becoming fellow acolytes. Their certainty in liberalism?s manifest destiny to spread itself over every corner of the earth goes beyond reasonable analysis: it is a purely religious faith. Despite the failure of its devotees to achieve success wherever they have tried it, they will not stop, and cannot. It is a compulsion, a religious duty impossible for them to abandon, shared by both factions. America?s crusading zeal is not just for export: through some magical process, all manner of political thought is in the United States transmuted into religion. Trump?s opponents on the liberal and radical left have mangled French postmodernist theory into a dour and millenarian Calvinism. On the populist right, the QAnon conspiracy theory is rapidly evolving into a widespread religious cult, a Manichaen heresy with Trump as its central vengeful deity. Now the two opposing sects of American liberalism, conventionally characterised as political parties, are at war with each other, in a so far relatively bloodless battle for the nation?s soul. What the Reformation did tragically for Christianity in Europe, America?s political culture war is repeating farcically with liberalism. If we observe the American war on Covid, we see it is America?s Chernobyl moment as much as China?s. The United States is by far the world?s worst-affected country in terms of total numbers, and its outbreak is still far from over. The symbolism of American states forming regional blocs to counteract the incompetence and total incapacity of its central government to save lives or arrest the virus?s progress lends weight to The Atlantic?s charge that the US now resembles a failed state. The image of the Surgeon General of the richest and most powerful empire that has ever existed instructing Americans in a Twitter video how to improvise a mask out of a T-shirt ? a T-shirt prominently advertising an opioid overdose antidote ? is a potent symbol of deep and existential rot. It is a country embroiled in political conflict over even the basic facts of science, from biology to medicine: because the American President promoted one potential Covid cure, half the country became devoted to its efficacy, and the other to its harmfulness. Had Trump condemned hydroxychloroquine, no doubt the same war would have taken place in reverse, with liberal commentators ostentatiously guzzling the drug on video to widespread approval. Trump is a morbid symptom of this chaos, rather than its cause. The forthcoming election, which pits two gerontocrats of dubious mental acuity against each other, resembles the late Soviet era, before the regime collapsed under its own absurdities. America indeed represents a strange inversion of the Soviet collapse: the economy dwarfs that of any other nation, save China; its empire is still intact, and its military spans the globe more powerfully than any single challenger. Yet at its centre the US echoes post-Soviet Russia in its epidemics of death by drug overdose, in its collapsing middle class, its worsening health outcomes and declining life expectancies, the capture of the state and economy by rapacious oligarchs, and in the occasional bouts of interethnic violence leading to demonstrations, riots and broader political dysfunction. As the veteran American diplomat Richard Haass sadly observes: ?Long before COVID-19 ravaged the earth, there had already been a precipitous decline in the appeal of the American model. Thanks to persistent political gridlock, gun violence, the mismanagement that led to the 2008 global financial crisis, the opioid epidemic, and more, what America represented grew increasingly unattractive to many. The federal government?s slow, incoherent, and all too often ineffective response to the pandemic will reinforce the already widespread view that the United States has lost its way.? What, then, is the appeal of this model to wavering allies in a new Cold War? The idea it can be considered a viable model of governance to follow is now patently absurd. As I sit typing this, troops are deployed on the streets of cities across the country, their Humvees still painted desert tan, as looters smash and burn and ransack shops, and protestors march against rubber bullets and tear gas; the tools of imperial policing are now brought to bear on the metropole. It is surely impossible to view the US at this point as anything other than a cautionary tale, a burning city on a hill, which evokes only the desire for our own society to avoid its fate. In his Tablet essay, Lind glumly muses about a near-future United States withering into a ?deindustrialized, English-speaking version of a Latin American republic, specializing in commodities, real estate, tourism, and perhaps transnational tax evasion, with decayed factories scattered across the continent and a nepotistic rentier oligarchy clustered in a few big coastal cities?. While an America in decline may throw up a more competent caudillo than Trump in time, it is difficult to reasonably conclude that it possesses the societal solidarity to wage a decades-long, global struggle against a near-competitor. It is hard to imagine an American governing class scandalised at calling Covid a Chinese virus waging an existential conflict against China to a successful conclusion. The country?s politics were torn apart, for four years, by a handful of Russian Facebook posts promoting Trump; how then will it cope with China?s far greater penetration of social media, of American commerce and industry, of universities and politics, of all the institutions of 21st century American life? We do not know, yet, who will win this year?s election, nor whether the losing party, will, as in the previous election, attempt to overturn the result and further delegitimise the entire political process. Perhaps the era of losing parties accepting election results has gone for good in America, now both sides view their opponents as a Schmittian enemy to be vanquished for eternity. America is too lost in its own internal conflict to contemplate a grander, global struggle with any confidence. In any case, America?s foreign policy is disastrous in its own terms, even before Covid started coursing through its system. As the International Relations scholar Philip Cunliffe observes, America is that curious paradox, a revisionist hegemon, restlessly driven by ideology to overturn the very global order it charges itself with maintaining, producing what he terms a ?cosmopolitan dystopia? that undermines America?s own position. American attempts to overturn regimes which offend its liberal values have produced overwhelmingly negative results for the global system, spreading chaos and enhancing the reach and power of its geopolitical rivals. America?s record in these endless wars has not been one of success. Defeated, outflanked by Iran in Iraq, and clutching defeat from the jaws of victory in eastern Syria, America?s hegemonic military power and tactical skill has been relentlessly undermined by the total detachment from reality displayed by the Washington blob which determines the goals and course of the nation?s wars. In a manner we can safely assume is not replicated in China, the architects of America?s endless policy failures, like the Iraq War, are not punished by the system, but awarded further sinecures and promotions by an establishment which rewards failure and hobbles success. Defeat is baked in from the outset: the rot is now so widespread it will likely become terminal. American decline is starkly measurable in outcomes, even as its ballooning defence budgets sap the country?s economy. The United States can no longer keep its client states from each other?s throats, causing wars to break out even within the US alliance system: Qatar and Turkey?s attempts to establish Muslim Brotherhood governance projects across the Middle East and North Africa are directly challenged by the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia?s support for notionally secular strongmen, in a proxy conflict dragging in France and Russia and threatening Europe?s security. Even a recent coup attempt in a bankrupt and unstable South American country failed despite Pompeo?s loudly-voiced support, which should have been America playing in easy mode. As in any horror movie, the threat?s coming from inside the building: all America?s rivals need do, like Russia in Syria, is exploit the contradictions and weaknesses of US policy, and turn the superpower?s weight and power against it at minimal cost and risk to themselves. Unlike Iraq, or the Taliban emirate, however, there is fortunately little prospect of the United States engaging in open conflict with China. As Pentagon planners warn, it is unlikely that America will win even a limited naval engagement in China?s Pacific sphere of influence, let alone attempt a ground war against a billion-strong nuclear power. Instead, we can expect a hybrid war that stops short of open confrontation, involving information warfare on social media, the hacking and sabotage of key infrastructure, the economic blackmail and extortion of allies through sanctions and tariffs and a dangerous jockeying for position as Covid accelerates the collapse of weak states across the ME and Africa, already teetering on the edge of failure. The internet will surely emerge as a central battleground, and one which poses a far greater risk to America?s open, divided, and already-penetrated system than to China?s hermetically-sealed national internet: indeed, it is doubtful the worldwide web as we currently understand it will long survive a great power confrontation. As hacked power grids and water treatment plants fail, and passenger planes mysteriously fall out of the sky, and top secret documents are released on social media, the rest of the world will find itself in the uncomfortable position of deciding which side presents the safest bet: and Covid has begun this process sooner than anyone expected. Born in 1945, the American Empire was the global boomer, sitting astride the earth like it was a ride-on lawnmower, frittering away his children?s inheritance on cheap Chinese gewgaws and blaming everyone else for his poor decisions and for the decline of his powers. It is natural then, that it will be laid low by what is cruelly termed the Boomer plague, and we will do well to escape the hardship and bloodshed that attends the collapse of empires with as little harm to ourselves as possible. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Wed Jun 3 15:25:04 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2020 11:25:04 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Majoritarian_Left_Should_Work_to_Margi?= =?utf-8?q?nalize_=E2=80=9CAntifa=E2=80=9D_Ideology?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: https://www.facebook.com/robert.naiman/posts/10159607471852656 The Majoritarian American Left Should Work to Isolate and Marginalize ?Antifa? Ideology from Majoritarian Left Political Spaces Like Al Qaeda and ISIS, ?Antifa? isn?t so much an organization as an ideology - an ideology that promotes a certain kind of political violence. In the case of Al Qaeda and ISIS, they promote violence by purportedly ?religiously-motivated? Sunni Muslims against the West, and also against Muslims who are not Sunni. In the case of ?Antifa,? they promote violence by purported ?leftists? against the police in the context of mass demonstrations. Unlike Al Qaeda and ISIS, it is beyond reasonable dispute that Americans have a First Amendment right to subscribe to and advocate for ?Antifa? ideology, so long as they do not promote imminent criminal acts. This is a completely separate question from whether it is good for people associated with the majoritarian American left to support, advocate, or be associated with ?Antifa? ideology. An analogous example known to all peace and anti-war activists: it is beyond dispute than an American has a Constitutional right to burn an American flag in the context of an anti-war demonstration. It is a completely separate question whether it is a good idea politically to burn an American flag in the context of an anti-war demonstration if the goal is to end and prevent wars by moving public opinion and institutions, which is of course what the goal of any anti-war demonstration should be. Advocating for a certain kind of political violence as an end in itself is completely different from advocating for a certain kind of political violence as a means to achieve some other political goal. Consider the Afghan Taliban. Whatever one thinks of their goals or tactics, it is beyond dispute that they have goals beyond the promotion of a certain kind of political violence as an end in itself. For example, they want to drive foreign military forces from Afghanistan; this is a top political goal for them. So one can easily imagine a political deal between the U.S. government and the Afghan Taliban in which the U.S. agrees to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and the Afghan Taliban agree to stop their violence against U.S. forces, and indeed, the U.S. government has been trying to achieve just such a deal. Achieving such a deal isn?t simple because there are other issues and interests at stake. But in principle such a deal is possible and most observers think this is a key component of how the U.S. war in Afghanistan will end. With Al Qaeda and ISIS, on the other hand, it?s hard to imagine what a political deal with the U.S. would be, because attacking the U.S. and the necessity of political violence are intrinsic components of their ideology and they have no overarching political goal which they hold more dearly. When the democratically-elected Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt was overthrown by a military coup, Al Qaeda ideologists were ecstatic. See, they said, we told you so. We told you that nonviolent, democratic politics would never work. ?Antifa? ideology is more like Al Qaeda or ISIS than it is like the Afghan Taliban, because there is no overarching political goal. For ?Antifa? ideology, physically attacking the police at mass demonstrations is an end in itself. Indeed, just as Al Qaeda welcomed the military coup in Egypt against the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood government as a validation of Al Qaeda ideology, so ?Antifa? ideologists welcome police abuses against nonviolent protesters - often deliberately provoked by ?Antifa? ideology adherents - as a validation of ?Antifa? ideology. See, the ?Antifa? ideologists say, we told you so. You were nonviolent, what good did it do you? The police attacked you anyway. During the civil war triggered by the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Al Qaeda blew up a very prominent Shia mosque. It was clear to observers at the time that provoking the retaliation of Shia militias against Sunnis was an explicit goal of Al Qaeda in the bombing. Al Qaeda was trying to destabilize the Iraqi government by deliberately promoting sectarian civil war. Similarly, provoking police attacks on nonviolent protesters is often a goal of ?Antifa? ideology adherents, since they believe that such police attacks on nonviolent protesters validate ?Antifa? ideology and increase the political space for violence. Association with ?Antifa? ideology is a threat to the majoritarian American left because the majoritarian American left has specific political goals that it wants to achieve in the political system by moving public opinion and institutions. Such specific political goals include ?Medicare for All,? tuition-free public college, ending private prisons, and ending unconstitutional U.S. participation in the Saudi war in Yemen. An ideology of promoting physical attacks on the police is generally repellent to the majority of Americans, because the police are public employees whose job includes risking their lives to protect the public. Remember the citizens of New York City going onto their balconies to applaud the ?first responders? to the Virus, not so long ago? Those ?first responders? included the police. This commonsense political observation does not of course excuse, justify, rationalize, or mitigate any act of abuse committed by any police officer in America at any time. Ending such abuses is a separate, obviously urgent, question. But the existence and urgency of police brutality in America is no excuse or justification for anyone associated with the majoritarian American left to make any choice that would help our political adversaries associate us with ?Antifa? ideology, any more than any American Muslim political actor associated with the majoritarian political project to protect American Muslims from discrimination and abuse would make any choice that would make it easier for bigots to associate American Muslims with Al Qaeda. Of course we have to defend the First Amendment rights of ?Antifa? ideology advocates regardless of our opposition to their ideology, just as we have to defend the First Amendment rights of anyone else, regardless of whether we like their views or not. But for majoritarian American leftists to concede any political space on the American Left to advocates of ?Antifa? ideology would be a grave political mistake. ?Antifa? ideology is not a majoritarian left ideology; it is a ?strategic competitor? to majoritarian left ideology. The more political space ?Antifa? ideology is able to grab on the American left, the less political space majoritarian left ideology will have, and the less effective the majoritarian left will be. Of course, saying that the majoritarian American left should work to resist contamination or association with ?Antifa? ideology doesn?t tell us how we should do that. Bad faith political actors will try to tar the majoritarian American left with association with ?Antifa? ideology no matter what we do, just as bad faith political actors will try to tar American Muslim political actors with association with Al Qaeda no matter what they do. But knowing this is true is no excuse for throwing up our hands and ceasing to care about the consequences of the choices we make in terms of making it easier or harder for our political adversaries to do this. We don?t throw up our hands and shrug our shoulders about other political things; why would we do it here? We should work to isolate and marginalize from majoritarian left political spaces the promotion of an ideology that physical attacks on the police are exemplary. We can do this; people who claim that we can?t do this are being dishonest. It?s a question of organizing and political will. Just now young African-American organizers did it in Newark, according to the New York TImes, protecting their protest against police brutality and their town against people who wanted to take advantage of their protest to destroy things. This isolation and marginalization of ?Antifa? ideology from majoritarian left political spaces doesn?t need to be 100% effective everywhere all the time to be effective good enough. But we should get as close to 100% as we can, as often as we can. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Thu Jun 4 02:59:31 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2020 02:59:31 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] US-Russia A Message-ID: <5AC8F17E-94A7-4CE6-9965-4B5194770B33@illinois.edu> Informative article by Ray McGovern: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/55174.htm From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Jun 5 05:27:44 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2020 00:27:44 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] AOTA & NFN timeslot recommended videos Message-ID: <7604b808-ae51-18e9-e6ef-7293665af259@forestfield.org> Recommended videos for News from Neptune and AWARE on the Air timeslots: Jimmy Dore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F94MMb0w6o -- (43m 32s) Jimmy Dore interview with Chris Hedges on the ongoing protests against police brutality (undoubtedly sparked by police killing George Floyd), the lack of Medicare for All, and general immiseration during the Coronavirus pandemic. The article this interview refers to (and expands on) is https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/06/02/treason-ruling-class teleSUR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wg4ZaZL38I -- (11m 57s) interview with Ajamu Baraka on George Floyd protests. RT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BZtvkF-fZk -- (27m 41s) Chris Hedges interview with John Ralston Saul, on COVID-19 & criticism of globalization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zpSM-BCcn0 -- (24m 34s) Another Failed US Coup in Venezuela -J From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Fri Jun 5 16:01:02 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2020 12:01:02 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] PDA: Help Elect Progressive Jamaal Bowman To Congress In-Reply-To: <5ed92f139bb3e_13c652ef5432734@asgworker-qmb3-10.nbuild.prd.useast1.3dna.io.mail> References: <5ed92f139bb3e_13c652ef5432734@asgworker-qmb3-10.nbuild.prd.useast1.3dna.io.mail> Message-ID: This is far and away the most plausible progressive Dem insurgency against Pelosi-Hoyer right now. Justice Democrats and Working Families Party just dropped 500 K on Bowman. The NY primary is June 23. Eliot Engel is the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He voted for the Iraq War. He opposed the Iran nuclear deal. In June 2016, he was one of only 16 House Democrats who voted to keep sending cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia after Obama had already blocked it. He's a big recipient of funding from the Pentagon-industrial complex. And he's a big recipient of "pro-Israel" money, and one of the most "pro-Israel" Democrats in the House, which as we all know, is a high bar to clear. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Alan Minsky, Progressive Democrats of America Date: Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 1:27 PM Subject: Help Elect Progressive Jamaal Bowman To Congress To: Robert Naiman *Help Jamaal Bowman win with a donation and / or phone calls * Dear Robert ? Progressive Democrats of America (PDA)-endorsed candidate Jammal Bowman received some great news this week. One of his top rivals decided to step aside and endorse him in his challenge against U.S. Representative Eliot Engel in New York's 16th district. *Help Jamaal Bowman win with a donation and / or phone calls * Jamaal is running against 16-term incumbent Engel, one of the staunchest foreign policy hawks in the Democratic caucus. Jamaal is as progressive on foreign policy matters as he is on domestic issues. He champions PDA?s priorities. *Please join with us supporting Jamaal Bowman with a donation and / or make phone calls .* *Pitch In Generously Now!* [image: Jamaal Bowman for Congress] *Make Election-Winning Calls With Mike ?Phone Guy? Fox* Andom Ghebreghiorgis was also running as a progressive and proved himself to be a true progressive champion this week when he acknowledged that Jamaal has a better chance of unseating Engel and selflessly stepped aside to unify the progressive cause. This is great news. Jamaal Bowman is truly a model progressive candidate?and now he has clear path to beat Eliot Engel and join the Squad in the next Congress. *Help Jamaal Bowman win with a donation and / or phone calls * New York City produced a magic moment for progressives two years ago when AOC defeated a longterm incumbent. With your help, we can win with Jamaal on June 23rd! In solidarity, Alan Minsky for Mike F., Mike H., Donna, Deb, Kimberly, Bryan, Dr. Bill, Dan, and Janis?your PDA national team. P.S.: We need your sustained, monthly donations to *elect Progressive Democrats to Congress. * [image: blue-donate-now.png] *Click on these icons to follow PDA on social media:* [image: Facebook.jpg] [image: Twitter.jpg] [image: Logo-Flickr.jpg] [image: YouTube.jpg] [image: pinterest3.jpg] Paid for by Progressive Democrats of America (http://www.pdamerica.org ) Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee ------------------------------ Progressive Democrats of America ? Grand Rapids, MI 49515, United States -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Jun 5 22:40:40 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2020 17:40:40 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] PDA: Help Elect Progressive Jamaal Bowman To Congress In-Reply-To: References: <5ed92f139bb3e_13c652ef5432734@asgworker-qmb3-10.nbuild.prd.useast1.3dna.io.mail> Message-ID: Robert Naiman wrote: > This is far and away the most plausible progressive Dem insurgency against > Pelosi-Hoyer right now. Justice Democrats and Working Families Party just > dropped 500 K on Bowman. The NY primary is June 23. The Justice Democrats congressional reps added $5T to the economy in overwhelming (if not unanimous) support for the CARES Act which was basically a big business bailout bill that contributed highly to the wealthiest individuals and businesses and did not include repeating cash payments to individuals (a UBI), did not include Medicare for All, and did not include a national jobs program -- three things that could have helped most Americans in the midst of a pandemic where many have lost their jobs (and thus whatever healthcare was tied to their employment). It's not clear how they'll pay rent and other bills. It only would have taken one Senator to put a hold on the CARES bill and use that time to inform the public about the ramifications of that bill, but no Senator did that, not even Justice Democrats-endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders later joined the rest of the Senate voting for the CARES bill. Generally, Sanders' latest run for POTUS seems to be a repeat of his sheepdogging 2016 run (see https://blackagendareport.com/bernie-sanders-sheepdog-4-hillaryfor more on that) in that both times he talked up some interesting points (not including his foreign policy) and then abandoned all of that talk and endorsed the DNC's preferred neocon/neolib candidate (then Hillary Clinton, now Joe Biden). Biden has announced that he'd veto any Medicare for All bill that cross his desk as President. The House Democrats even supported a voice vote to better hide a clearer indicator of how they voted. Some, like Ilhan Omar (D-MN) admit they voted for that bill even after listing so many reasons why that bill was known to be inadequate for the public, others like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) say vague things like how she doesn't 'support' that bill. But if you listen to the voice audio recording of the voice vote in the House, it's clear that the 'no' votes came from men (perhaps 2 men). None of the Justice Democrats apparently have the strength to go up against Nancy Pelosi. AOC, for instance, voted for making Pelosi Speaker of the House despite that Pelosi is a known opponent of Medicare for All. AOC's choice helps AOC keep her Congressional appointments and make arm-waving speeches vaguely 'supporting' Medicare for All but never bringing a Medicare for All bill to the floor of the House for a vote. AOC and the other Justice Democrats have a big problem in that they are Democrats. It's not at all clear that Bowman will do anything differently or that that party is worth supporting at all. Recently Justice Democrat AOC said that "the Green New Deal does leave the door open for nuclear" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRU8K402OK8) and that she's backing Joe Biden thus putting to rest any notion that she's anti-war or standing behind what she said in a previously delivered (well prior to endorsing Joe Biden in his 2020 POTUS race) speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZM_AxFH7bQ): > Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Sexual assault is not a crime of passion. It is about > the abuse of power. And that is precisely why it is one of the most serious, > serious allegations anyone who cares to be a public servant can be accused of. > Sexual assault is about the abuse of power. It is always women who are > marginalized, it is the young, it is the interns, it is the immigrant, it is the > trans. They are always most at risk, because society listens to them the least. > And that is why a man believes that an elite education, a high income and his > rich friends can get away with sexual assaults. That is why I want to thank every > survivor that is here today that is allowing themselves and everyone in this > country to be re-traumatized over and over, because people and people like Dr. > Anita Hill, I mean people like Anita Hill and Dr. Ford have to sit there in front > of panels of eleven men. Could you imagine if Brett Kavanaugh had to sit in front > of a panel of eleven women of color, deciding his fate? Could you imagine? Could > you imagine? Here are some relevant critiques of AOC & other Justice Democrats from Jimmy Dore who has done a good job pointing out how the system works and the Democrats & Republicans have the same funders, so are effectively one party: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4P4YLxzXwk -- "AOC's Subservience To Pelosi & Party Exposed" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhO4p5BoDjM -- "AOC Defends Party & Ignores Voter Suppression" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLo8GtAjIFo -- "AOC's Theatrics Hide Her Obedience to Pelosi & Party" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRU8K402OK8 -- "AOC Now Open to NUCLEAR Green New Deal?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lwiP6JT3mQ -- "AOC Fails to Challenge Pelosi on New Stimulus Bill" David Johnson pointed to https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/us/politics/joe-biden-democrats-2020.html which said: > The New York Times reported that Biden was paid $200,000 to speak at a rally in > Benton Harbor, and he and the GOP were successful in their efforts, as incumbent > Fred Upton edged Democrat Matt Longjohn by four points. Jimmy Dore's reaction to that (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGeKIf8Sojc) also adds credence to why we ought not take any Democrats seriously. From the aforementioned New York Times article: > But Mr. Biden's appearance in Michigan plainly set his lucrative personal > activities at odds with what some Democrats saw as his duty to the party, linking > him with a civic group seen as tilting to the right and undermining Democrats' > effort to defeat Mr. Upton, a powerful lawmaker who in 2017 helped craft a bill > to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Which means Joe Biden was helping someone work against legislation passed in Biden's administration when Biden was Vice President; legislation liberals would have us celebrate even though it did nothing to prevent 30 million people from receiving the healthcare they needed and does not get us closer to Medicare for All. This should quell any notion that the public should vote Biden into the presidency and then wait to pressure him on better legislation such as Medicare for All. Biden apparently goes where the money goes which means supporting HMOs when they draft legislation (such as the Affordable Care Act aka "ObamaCare") and when HMOs don't make enough money under the ACA Biden makes money working with those who want to repeal the ACA. Making Biden the "standards bearer" of the Democrats (to quote DNC lawyer Bruce Spiva) gives one clear reason to not trust the entire party. There's more discussion of Democrats' fecklessness and unresponsiveness to public needs in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_8BM7o1crI which is the latest CrossTalk in which Margaret Kimberley (from BlackAgendaReport.com), particularly at the end of the discussion (last 10 minutes). -J From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Sat Jun 6 13:02:24 2020 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2020 08:02:24 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] PDA: Help Elect Progressive Jamaal Bowman To Congress In-Reply-To: References: <5ed92f139bb3e_13c652ef5432734@asgworker-qmb3-10.nbuild.prd.useast1.3dna.io.mail> Message-ID: AOC is an identitarian neoliberal confection, for sure. I will be very careful about Justice Democrats, for many reasons, moving forward. On Fri, Jun 5, 2020, 5:41 PM J.B. Nicholson via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > Robert Naiman wrote: > > This is far and away the most plausible progressive Dem insurgency > against > > Pelosi-Hoyer right now. Justice Democrats and Working Families Party just > > dropped 500 K on Bowman. The NY primary is June 23. > > The Justice Democrats congressional reps added $5T to the economy in > overwhelming (if > not unanimous) support for the CARES Act which was basically a big > business bailout > bill that contributed highly to the wealthiest individuals and businesses > and did not > include repeating cash payments to individuals (a UBI), did not include > Medicare for > All, and did not include a national jobs program -- three things that > could have > helped most Americans in the midst of a pandemic where many have lost > their jobs (and > thus whatever healthcare was tied to their employment). It's not clear how > they'll > pay rent and other bills. > > It only would have taken one Senator to put a hold on the CARES bill and > use that > time to inform the public about the ramifications of that bill, but no > Senator did > that, not even Justice Democrats-endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders > later joined > the rest of the Senate voting for the CARES bill. Generally, Sanders' > latest run for > POTUS seems to be a repeat of his sheepdogging 2016 run (see > https://blackagendareport.com/bernie-sanders-sheepdog-4-hillaryfor more > on that) in > that both times he talked up some interesting points (not including his > foreign > policy) and then abandoned all of that talk and endorsed the DNC's > preferred > neocon/neolib candidate (then Hillary Clinton, now Joe Biden). Biden has > announced > that he'd veto any Medicare for All bill that cross his desk as President. > > The House Democrats even supported a voice vote to better hide a clearer > indicator of > how they voted. Some, like Ilhan Omar (D-MN) admit they voted for that > bill even > after listing so many reasons why that bill was known to be inadequate for > the > public, others like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) say vague things like > how she > doesn't 'support' that bill. But if you listen to the voice audio > recording of the > voice vote in the House, it's clear that the 'no' votes came from men > (perhaps 2 > men). None of the Justice Democrats apparently have the strength to go up > against > Nancy Pelosi. AOC, for instance, voted for making Pelosi Speaker of the > House despite > that Pelosi is a known opponent of Medicare for All. AOC's choice helps > AOC keep her > Congressional appointments and make arm-waving speeches vaguely > 'supporting' Medicare > for All but never bringing a Medicare for All bill to the floor of the > House for a > vote. AOC and the other Justice Democrats have a big problem in that they > are > Democrats. It's not at all clear that Bowman will do anything differently > or that > that party is worth supporting at all. > > Recently Justice Democrat AOC said that "the Green New Deal does leave the > door open > for nuclear" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRU8K402OK8) and that she's > backing Joe > Biden thus putting to rest any notion that she's anti-war or standing > behind what she > said in a previously delivered (well prior to endorsing Joe Biden in his > 2020 POTUS > race) speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZM_AxFH7bQ): > > > Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Sexual assault is not a crime of passion. It > is about > > the abuse of power. And that is precisely why it is one of the most > serious, > > serious allegations anyone who cares to be a public servant can be > accused of. > > Sexual assault is about the abuse of power. It is always women who are > > marginalized, it is the young, it is the interns, it is the immigrant, > it is the > > trans. They are always most at risk, because society listens to them the > least. > > And that is why a man believes that an elite education, a high income > and his > > rich friends can get away with sexual assaults. That is why I want to > thank every > > survivor that is here today that is allowing themselves and everyone in > this > > country to be re-traumatized over and over, because people and people > like Dr. > > Anita Hill, I mean people like Anita Hill and Dr. Ford have to sit there > in front > > of panels of eleven men. Could you imagine if Brett Kavanaugh had to sit > in front > > of a panel of eleven women of color, deciding his fate? Could you > imagine? Could > > you imagine? > > Here are some relevant critiques of AOC & other Justice Democrats from > Jimmy Dore who > has done a good job pointing out how the system works and the Democrats & > Republicans > have the same funders, so are effectively one party: > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4P4YLxzXwk -- "AOC's Subservience To > Pelosi & Party > Exposed" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhO4p5BoDjM -- "AOC Defends Party & > Ignores Voter > Suppression" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLo8GtAjIFo -- "AOC's Theatrics Hide Her > Obedience to > Pelosi & Party" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRU8K402OK8 -- "AOC Now Open to NUCLEAR > Green New Deal?" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lwiP6JT3mQ -- "AOC Fails to Challenge > Pelosi on New > Stimulus Bill" > > David Johnson pointed to > > https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/us/politics/joe-biden-democrats-2020.html > which said: > > > The New York Times reported that Biden was paid $200,000 to speak at a > rally in > > Benton Harbor, and he and the GOP were successful in their efforts, as > incumbent > > Fred Upton edged Democrat Matt Longjohn by four points. > Jimmy Dore's reaction to that (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGeKIf8Sojc) > also adds > credence to why we ought not take any Democrats seriously. > > From the aforementioned New York Times article: > > > But Mr. Biden's appearance in Michigan plainly set his lucrative > personal > > activities at odds with what some Democrats saw as his duty to the > party, linking > > him with a civic group seen as tilting to the right and undermining > Democrats' > > effort to defeat Mr. Upton, a powerful lawmaker who in 2017 helped craft > a bill > > to repeal the Affordable Care Act. > Which means Joe Biden was helping someone work against legislation passed > in Biden's > administration when Biden was Vice President; legislation liberals would > have us > celebrate even though it did nothing to prevent 30 million people from > receiving the > healthcare they needed and does not get us closer to Medicare for All. > > This should quell any notion that the public should vote Biden into the > presidency > and then wait to pressure him on better legislation such as Medicare for > All. Biden > apparently goes where the money goes which means supporting HMOs when they > draft > legislation (such as the Affordable Care Act aka "ObamaCare") and when > HMOs don't > make enough money under the ACA Biden makes money working with those who > want to > repeal the ACA. Making Biden the "standards bearer" of the Democrats (to > quote DNC > lawyer Bruce Spiva) gives one clear reason to not trust the entire party. > > There's more discussion of Democrats' fecklessness and unresponsiveness to > public > needs in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_8BM7o1crI which is the latest > CrossTalk in > which Margaret Kimberley (from BlackAgendaReport.com), particularly at the > end of the > discussion (last 10 minutes). > > -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 naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Mon Jun 8 22:30:39 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2020 18:30:39 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] OR: Eliot Engel is a disgrace, and we're going all out to beat him In-Reply-To: <022f37d269293055a6ead25cb6e975f9@bounce.bluestatedigital.com> References: <022f37d269293055a6ead25cb6e975f9@bounce.bluestatedigital.com> Message-ID: What a subject line! ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Our Revolution Date: Mon, Jun 8, 2020 at 6:17 PM Subject: Eliot Engel is a disgrace, and we're going all out to beat him To: Robert Naiman <#m_-2903971513494951252_> Corporate Democrat Eliot Engel has done a great job recently proving why he deserves to lose to *Our Revolution-backed progressive Jamaal Bowman* in New York?s 16th congressional district primary on June 23rd. Last week, Engel was caught on a hot mic saying that if he didn?t have a primary challenger, he ?wouldn?t care? about speaking to his district about the uprisings over police killings. And just yesterday, Engel responded to *Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?s *endorsement of Bowman by implying that she was a ?dictator? and falsely claimed to be endorsed by the New York State Nurses Association ? *even though the union endorsed Bowman instead.* *Pitch in here to help Our Revolution ensure that Jamaal Bowman defeats corporate Democrat Eliot Engel this month. We need to send a strong message that it?s unacceptable to dismiss the importance of addressing police violence.* *If you?ve stored your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will process immediately.* CHIP IN $10 IMMEDIATELY ? CHIP IN $27 IMMEDIATELY ? CHIP IN $50 IMMEDIATELY ? CHIP IN $100 IMMEDIATELY ? CHIP IN ANOTHER AMOUNT ? Thank you for all that you do, The whole team at Our Revolution ------------------------------ Support Our Revolution ? Our Revolution is a national grassroots network of local groups dedicated to organizing a political revolution powerful enough to challenge the structural forces that threaten our survival as a society. From city halls to the halls of Congress, our movement is fighting to win progressive issue fights, elect progressive champions, transform the Democratic party and get big money out of politics. *Help us achieve these goals by donating today. * Join our movement by *following us on Facebook * and *signing up here to volunteer. * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Tue Jun 9 02:58:59 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2020 02:58:59 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Bolivia and the NYT Message-ID: <7CED2F05-08F4-4825-A578-FD439C722780@illinois.edu> How the coup was managed in Bolivia by the OAS and its minions, now admitted, belatedly and tragically, by The New York Times: https://theintercept.com/2020/06/08/the-nyt-admits-key-falsehoods-that-drove-last-years-coup-in-bolivia-falsehoods-peddled-by-the-u-s-its-media-and-the-nyt/ ?mkb -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbw292002 at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 08:28:17 2020 From: jbw292002 at gmail.com (John W.) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2020 03:28:17 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] a better solution for excess geese In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I'll just mention, since the protests regarding the geese in Crystal Lake Park are still ongoing, that I was driving yesterday in extreme north Champaign, on that road that runs just north of the Aldi and the Wal Mart out there, and then turns right onto Neil St. north of the mall. There are quite a number of condos or apartments out there, and one at the juncture of that road and Neil St. had a large retention pond. The banks around that pond were planted with all sorts of wild-looking vegetation, not at all manicured down to the water's edge. And yet there were the geese, quite a number of them, sauntering across the road toward the pond.. So maybe that bank vegetation does not work to dissuade the geese from living there. On Tue, May 12, 2020 at 1:37 PM Debra Schrishuhn via Peace < peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: Folks, > > I just talked to a city planner and she confirmed what has been stated > here--that the geese are attracted to man-made ponds with manicured > bluegrass lawns down to the water's edge. Apparently a fair amount of > research exists on plants and the height of bank vegetation that geese do > not like. She suggests an ordinance be brought before both city councils to > end the practice of making retention pond and to plant their banks with > vegetation known to be unpalatable to geese. Although this solution may > not be acceptable all over the Twin Cities, at the very least Crystal Lake > Park could rethink their bank vegetation and overall landscaping. > > Deb > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From deb.pdamerica at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 09:55:15 2020 From: deb.pdamerica at gmail.com (Debra Schrishuhn) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2020 04:55:15 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] a better solution for excess geese In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I believe the type of vegetation, not just the height, makes the difference, as does the degree of sope to the water's edge. A sharp drop-off with brambles is less attractive, for example, than a gentle slope , even planted with tall grasses. As an aside, the new Crystal Lake landscaping replaces a good deal of the drop-off/bramble shoreline with evenly graded surfaces, resulting in geese nesting in places where they had not done so in previous years. Go figure. On Tue, Jun 9, 2020 at 3:28 AM John W. wrote: > > I'll just mention, since the protests regarding the geese in Crystal Lake > Park are still ongoing, that I was driving yesterday in extreme north > Champaign, on that road that runs just north of the Aldi and the Wal Mart > out there, and then turns right onto Neil St. north of the mall. There are > quite a number of condos or apartments out there, and one at the juncture > of that road and Neil St. had a large retention pond. The banks > around that pond were planted with all sorts of wild-looking vegetation, > not at all manicured down to the water's edge. And yet there were the > geese, quite a number of them, sauntering across the road toward the > pond.. So maybe that bank vegetation does not work to dissuade the geese > from living there. > > > On Tue, May 12, 2020 at 1:37 PM Debra Schrishuhn via Peace < > peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > Folks, >> >> I just talked to a city planner and she confirmed what has been stated >> here--that the geese are attracted to man-made ponds with manicured >> bluegrass lawns down to the water's edge. Apparently a fair amount of >> research exists on plants and the height of bank vegetation that geese do >> not like. She suggests an ordinance be brought before both city councils to >> end the practice of making retention pond and to plant their banks with >> vegetation known to be unpalatable to geese. Although this solution may >> not be acceptable all over the Twin Cities, at the very least Crystal Lake >> Park could rethink their bank vegetation and overall landscaping. >> >> Deb >> _______________________________________________ >> Peace mailing list >> Peace at lists.chambana.net >> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace >> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 15:30:06 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2020 11:30:06 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] breaking: Bernie to endorse Jamaal Bowman against Eliot Engel Message-ID: "Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him." https://twitter.com/IsaacDovere/status/1270366526357594119 [image: image.png] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.png Type: image/png Size: 125514 bytes Desc: not available URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Wed Jun 10 20:39:38 2020 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2020 15:39:38 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] Excellent letter to the NG, by David Green In-Reply-To: <5F531417-26CF-4098-85AB-4DBCCE01B15B@illinois.edu> References: <5F531417-26CF-4098-85AB-4DBCCE01B15B@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Mort, you should have majored in physics. On Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 2:20 PM Brussel, Morton K via Peace < peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > It is good that David keeps writing, but just how many people will > understand his sentence: > > But that $.45 trillion can/will be debt-leveraged by 10 times, meaning > that $4.5 trillion dollars has been/will be printed for corporations and > banks. > > I didn?t. > > ? Mort > > > On Jun 10, 2020, at 8:00 AM, Karen Aram via Peace < > peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > > Market reflects wealth inequity > > Local wealth manager Paul Ruedi (May 24) asks: ?So why isn?t the stock > market much lower? Is there a disconnect between economic realities and > stock market performance? Economist Dr. Fred Giertz has said the stock > market is a leading indicator for the overall economy, and is not > interested in what has happened, but only what is going to happen.? > > Nevertheless, the stock market has already responded to what has indeed > happened. I refer to the CARES Act, by which $1.5 trillion was given to > households, small businesses, state/local governments and public health, > with $.45 trillion to ?big corporations.? But that $.45 trillion can/will > be debt-leveraged by 10 times, meaning that $4.5 trillion dollars has > been/will be printed for corporations and banks. > > This ensured that their coffers would be artificially inflated regardless > of profit during the pandemic and regardless of small business failures, > family immiseration and death. > > Investors, thus reassured, bid back up stock indexes 20 percent from their > low on the day of CARES passage (March 23) to May 22. Thus continues four > decades of consolidation of stock wealth among the top 10 percent (80 > percent), and the top 1 percent (40) percent, and the nonpartisan political > subservience that goes with it. > > There was a time when modestly rising stock values meant modestly rising > general prosperity. Under globalized/financialized neoliberalism, rising > stock values mean increased inequality and stagnating wages during the > ?best? of times. During the pandemic, the hammer is being brought down in > even more shameless ways on the working class ? wealth manager crassness > notwithstanding. > > DAVID GREEN > > Champaign > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kmedina67 at gmail.com Wed Jun 10 21:09:05 2020 From: kmedina67 at gmail.com (Karen Medina) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2020 16:09:05 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] Excellent letter to the NG, by David Green In-Reply-To: References: <5F531417-26CF-4098-85AB-4DBCCE01B15B@illinois.edu> Message-ID: David, Thanks for putting all the US$ into the same terms. That does help. Could you explain the debt leverage? This is what I found : What is debt leverage? "Leverage, in business terminology, really just means debt. It's the borrowing of funds to finance the purchase of inventory, equipment, and other company assets. ... Using debt increases the company's risk of bankruptcy but can also increase the company's profits and returns; specifically its return on equity. " On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 3:40 PM David Green via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > Mort, you should have majored in physics. > > On Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 2:20 PM Brussel, Morton K via Peace < > peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > >> It is good that David keeps writing, but just how many people will >> understand his sentence: >> >> But that $.45 trillion can/will be debt-leveraged by 10 times, meaning >> that $4.5 trillion dollars has been/will be printed for corporations and >> banks. >> >> I didn?t. >> >> ? Mort >> >> >> On Jun 10, 2020, at 8:00 AM, Karen Aram via Peace < >> peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: >> >> >> Market reflects wealth inequity >> >> Local wealth manager Paul Ruedi (May 24) asks: ?So why isn?t the stock >> market much lower? Is there a disconnect between economic realities and >> stock market performance? Economist Dr. Fred Giertz has said the stock >> market is a leading indicator for the overall economy, and is not >> interested in what has happened, but only what is going to happen.? >> >> Nevertheless, the stock market has already responded to what has indeed >> happened. I refer to the CARES Act, by which $1.5 trillion was given to >> households, small businesses, state/local governments and public health, >> with $.45 trillion to ?big corporations.? But that $.45 trillion can/will >> be debt-leveraged by 10 times, meaning that $4.5 trillion dollars has >> been/will be printed for corporations and banks. >> >> This ensured that their coffers would be artificially inflated regardless >> of profit during the pandemic and regardless of small business failures, >> family immiseration and death. >> >> Investors, thus reassured, bid back up stock indexes 20 percent from >> their low on the day of CARES passage (March 23) to May 22. Thus continues >> four decades of consolidation of stock wealth among the top 10 percent (80 >> percent), and the top 1 percent (40) percent, and the nonpartisan political >> subservience that goes with it. >> >> There was a time when modestly rising stock values meant modestly rising >> general prosperity. Under globalized/financialized neoliberalism, rising >> stock values mean increased inequality and stagnating wages during the >> ?best? of times. During the pandemic, the hammer is being brought down in >> even more shameless ways on the working class ? wealth manager crassness >> notwithstanding. >> >> DAVID GREEN >> >> Champaign >> _______________________________________________ >> Peace mailing list >> Peace at lists.chambana.net >> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Peace mailing list >> Peace at lists.chambana.net >> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace >> > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > -- -- karen medina "The really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Wed Jun 10 22:58:44 2020 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2020 17:58:44 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] Excellent letter to the NG, by David Green In-Reply-To: References: <5F531417-26CF-4098-85AB-4DBCCE01B15B@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Yes, it just means that the .45 T that the Fed gave to banks & corporations is collateral for them to borrow 10 times that, 4.5 T. That will be used not in productive investment, but to maintain the appearance of fiscal health. The cute Ruedi family is concerned that our 1% neighbors might get the jitters and put their money into gold or mattresses, not good for the wealth management business. Thus they have been buying a page in the Sunday paper as an advertisement for the stock market, although it's not labelled as such. Blatant but not surprising. There's a chance it will come crashing down anyway, in which case the News-Gazette will have to sell the space to Prairie Fruit Farm, because everyone south of Windsor will be going there to live off the land. Just a heads up. On Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 4:09 PM Karen Medina via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > David, Thanks for putting all the US$ into the same terms. That does help. > > Could you explain the debt leverage? > This is what I found : > What is debt leverage? > "Leverage, in business terminology, really just means debt. It's the > borrowing of funds to finance the purchase of inventory, equipment, and > other company assets. ... Using debt increases the company's risk of > bankruptcy but can also increase the company's profits and returns; > specifically its return on equity. " > > On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 3:40 PM David Green via Peace-discuss < > peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > >> Mort, you should have majored in physics. >> >> On Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 2:20 PM Brussel, Morton K via Peace < >> peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: >> >>> It is good that David keeps writing, but just how many people will >>> understand his sentence: >>> >>> But that $.45 trillion can/will be debt-leveraged by 10 times, meaning >>> that $4.5 trillion dollars has been/will be printed for corporations and >>> banks. >>> >>> I didn?t. >>> >>> ? Mort >>> >>> >>> On Jun 10, 2020, at 8:00 AM, Karen Aram via Peace < >>> peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: >>> >>> >>> Market reflects wealth inequity >>> >>> Local wealth manager Paul Ruedi (May 24) asks: ?So why isn?t the stock >>> market much lower? Is there a disconnect between economic realities and >>> stock market performance? Economist Dr. Fred Giertz has said the stock >>> market is a leading indicator for the overall economy, and is not >>> interested in what has happened, but only what is going to happen.? >>> >>> Nevertheless, the stock market has already responded to what has indeed >>> happened. I refer to the CARES Act, by which $1.5 trillion was given to >>> households, small businesses, state/local governments and public health, >>> with $.45 trillion to ?big corporations.? But that $.45 trillion can/will >>> be debt-leveraged by 10 times, meaning that $4.5 trillion dollars has >>> been/will be printed for corporations and banks. >>> >>> This ensured that their coffers would be artificially inflated >>> regardless of profit during the pandemic and regardless of small business >>> failures, family immiseration and death. >>> >>> Investors, thus reassured, bid back up stock indexes 20 percent from >>> their low on the day of CARES passage (March 23) to May 22. Thus continues >>> four decades of consolidation of stock wealth among the top 10 percent (80 >>> percent), and the top 1 percent (40) percent, and the nonpartisan political >>> subservience that goes with it. >>> >>> There was a time when modestly rising stock values meant modestly rising >>> general prosperity. Under globalized/financialized neoliberalism, rising >>> stock values mean increased inequality and stagnating wages during the >>> ?best? of times. During the pandemic, the hammer is being brought down in >>> even more shameless ways on the working class ? wealth manager crassness >>> notwithstanding. >>> >>> DAVID GREEN >>> >>> Champaign >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Peace mailing list >>> Peace at lists.chambana.net >>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Peace mailing list >>> Peace at lists.chambana.net >>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> Peace-discuss mailing list >> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net >> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss >> > > > -- > -- karen medina > "The really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark > Twain > _______________________________________________ > 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.uiuc at gmail.com Thu Jun 11 15:07:41 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2020 11:07:41 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] JTA: Iran deal foe Ted Deutch = "likely fit" for HFAC Chair if Engel loses primary In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Let's check in on the DC Conventional Wisdom about the House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Dem leadership's #EndlessWar Habitrail. 1. It's been openly reported in the press that a key reason that Justice Democrats made defeating Eliot Engel a priority was foreign policy. Now, Engel-Bowman on June 23 has become the marquee showdown between the Bernie-AOC forces and the Pelosi-Hoyer forces. Justice Dems and WFP are dropping half a million dollars on Bowman. AOC is in, Bernie is in, PCCC is in. The Atlantic is in, NYT's Michelle Goldberg is in. Mainstream observers think Engel is in trouble. See the JTA headline below. "There's blood in the water." 2. But the DC Conventional Wisdom is that if Engel loses his primary, it's the Eleventh Commandment that the new chair of HFAC must be an Engel clone. In which meeting room was this decided? Who was present? Were the Bernie-AOC forces consulted? I bet you a dollar that the Bernie-AOC forces were not in the meeting. What happened to "elections matter"? What happened to "*vae victis"?* Someone, somewhere, must have a strategy for dealing with this. I can't imagine that the Bernie-AOC forces would go to all this trouble of defeating Engel in NY-16 and not have a strategy for having some say about who the next chair of HFAC is when Engel is defeated. ==== https://www.jta.org/2020/06/09/politics/eliot-engels-bid-to-stay-in-congress-grows-more-troubled-as-bernie-sanders-endorses-jamaal-bowman Eliot Engel?s bid to stay in Congress grows more troubled as Bernie Sanders endorses Jamaal Bowman BY GABE FRIEDMAN JUNE 9, 2020 12:48 PM [...] If Engel is unseated, the Foreign Affairs Committee would get a new chair responsible for steering its direction, likely drawn from the moderates who still occupy leadership positions in the House because of their seniority. One person considered a *likely fit* for the role is Rep. *Ted Deutch*, a Democrat from Florida who chairs the committee?s Middle East subcommittee and is staunchly pro-Israel. [...] Gee, what salient things do we know about Ted Deutch and his views on war and peace? You'll Never Guess what I found in a five second internet search. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/sfl-ted-deutch-iran-deal-20150804-story.html U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch: I can't support Iran nuclear deal By BY TED DEUTCH AUG 04, 2015 | 3:34 PM [...] Think this is obscure? Not to some people, apparently. It's still proudly displayed on Deutch's Congressional website. https://teddeutch.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398471 Press Releases BREAKING: Rep. Ted Deutch Announces Opposition to Iran Deal in South Florida Sun Sentinel f t # e *Boca Raton, FL, August 4, 2015* | Ashley Mushnick (202-225-3001) In an op-ed that will run tomorrow in his hometown paper, *The S**outh Florida Sun Sentinel, *Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-21) writes about his ten years in public office and his decision to oppose the recently announced P5+1 nuclear agreement with Iran. The piece by Deutch, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Ranking Democrat on the influential Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, is included below: Sun Sentinel: U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch: Ten years in public life and the Iran deal By Ted Deutch -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Thu Jun 11 23:17:06 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2020 18:17:06 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Jesse Ventura on why he can't run for POTUS, Killer cops Message-ID: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99DumiDDOVM -- (41m 14s) Jimmy Dore interview from yesterday. In short: Jesse Ventura co-hosts "The World According to Jesse" with Brigida Santos on RT (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLagVUKF7CUTR4fIiDHxGpe38eAJWgzVQ8). * Jesse Ventura said at 2m 3s into that recording: > I thought about running this year and I inquired in, I thought my best way in was > the Green Party, but unfortunately they couldn't give me a clear path to the > nomination even though, I don't know if you heard, there was a poll done by one of > the major poll companies and it was played on Fox News listing Biden, Trump, and > me and without even being a candidate I polled 18%. * Chris Hedges wanted to run for Congress in the upcoming elections. Hedges hosts RT's "On Contact with Chris Hedges" (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLagVUKF7CUTRiG64CklL1AN0mbmNaETfp). Hedges said he couldn't run his RT show and run for US Congress at the same time. Ventura also notes that he "would have immediately lost his job and I would have immediately lost my health care" (5m 3s). Just so you know: Jimmy Dore occasionally substitute hosts Ventura's show when Ventura is on leave. Therefore: 1. Everything is connected as the SDS told us. 2. We pay another price for HMOs which we can't easily translate into money -- healthcare costs (particularly for people in need of such care, as Ventura said that he is, he said he's "in the middle of a medical in his family") are too high to lose one's path to getting said healthcare. Medicare for All is how we properly liberate ourselves from this, even if Medicare for All means HMOs go out of business and their workers need to be retrained to do something else (because Medicare is far more efficient than private HMOs and apparently we won't need all of those private HMO workers to do their current jobs). But Ventura will reconsider running in July depending on how some medical tests come out. Plus on https://www.youtube.com/user/TYTComedy/videos (Jimmy Dore's YouTube channel) there are plenty of videos of cops beating people, pushing people down (including footage of a 75-year-old activist who was pushed down by a copy and hit his head on the pavement so loudly you could hear it across the street). It's not clear to me precisely what "defund the police" means. Linda Sarsour's recent interview with Democracy Now -- https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/8/bill_de_blasio_nypd_police_funding -- ostensibly discussed this but ended up raising more questions than it answered (and Amy Goodman didn't require anything difficult of Sarsour to get her to elucidate what she claimed to define). -J From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Fri Jun 12 15:20:42 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2020 11:20:42 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] #JewsForJamaal is a thing In-Reply-To: <5ee38fa7c6ee_bd0a3fb082546b3c3641725@ip-10-0-0-212.mail> References: <5ee38fa7c6ee_bd0a3fb082546b3c3641725@ip-10-0-0-212.mail> Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Elon Glickman Date: Fri, Jun 12, 2020 at 10:22 AM Subject: IfNotNow Just Endorsed Jamaal + Alex To: Jamaal and Alex are 2 Congressional candidates who could be our progressive, anti-occupation champions in Congress Robert, Our world is in the throws of an uprising, in the streets and soon in Congress. *IfNotNow Movement has endorsed its first slate of progressive, anti-occupation champions for Congress ? Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) and Alex Morse (MA-1) who are fighting for the freedom and dignity for every American, Israeli, and Palestinian. * In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest wave of police brutality against African Americans, and in anticipation of the Israeli government?s plan to formally annex the West Bank, *IfNotNow Movement is joining other progressive organizations to support champions who will **fight for transformative policies* ? from the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, to ensuring that the US does everything in its power to live up to its values, abroad and at home. *Jamaal?s race is just a week and a half away; now is the time to do everything we can to get him elected. * *Join us and The Jewish Vote for the biggest #JewsforJamaal phonebank yet this Monday June 15th from 6-8:30 pm EST. * *Jamaal Bowman *is a black working-class teacher in the Bronx challenging Rep. Eliot Engel, who has spent the last 30 years on the wrong side of history -- from mass incarceration, to deregulating Wall Street, to supporting the Iraq war and opposing President Obama?s Iran Deal. While the Coronavirus pandemic has hit the district harder than almost anywhere else in the US, Rep. Engel has been missing . Jamaal, on the other hand, founded an award winning public middle-school and has fought for teachers, students, and families in the district for twenty years. With recent endorsements from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, Jamaal is committed to fighting to invest in jobs and education, and to pushing back against endless wars and violent policing. *New York's 16th District goes to the polls June 23rd, so supporting Jamaal Bowman for Congress now is critical. We?re teaming up with The Jewish Vote to do the biggest #JewsforJamaal event and phonebank yet on Monday June 15th from 6-8:30pm ET. * *Alex Mors**e*, the youngest and first openly gay mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts is running against Richie Neal. Neal is one of the top recipients of corporate money in the House and was one of the only members of the MA congressional delegation to co-sponsor unconstitutional anti-BDS legislation . As mayor, Alex has closed the state's last coal power plant, opened a needle exchange program to fight the opioid epidemic, and declared Holyoke one of the first American Sanctuary Cities. As a Jewish progressive, Morse is part of a rising generation of leaders ready to fight to ensure that the United States does everything in its power to stop annexation and pursue freedom and dignity for Palestinians and Israelis. In my conversations with Jewish friends over the past few weeks, the same question keeps popping up: *How does our government have seemingly unlimited funds for militarized police and endless wars but not enough to support our basic health and safety* ? especially throughout this pandemic? The old leadership got us here, and *we need new leadership to move us forward.* *We need to fundamentally reevaluate our priorities, abroad and at home. *A humane foreign policy is a necessary part of the America we are trying to win, and we know that ending the occupation and ensuring freedom and dignity for all Israelis and Palestinians is part of that fight. I?m not going to lie, everyone will need to work hard and fast to help us win*.* Our opponents are well-funded and have the party establishment?s support. But, we have people power. *Here?s the plan:* *organize and mobilize hundreds of young progressive Jews to volunteer with the campaigns, phonebank, and get out the vote online*. *Can we count on you to hit the ground running with us to elect progressive and anti-occupation members of Congress? * After the past few weeks, there is no going ?back to normal.? We have to transform our country. We have to win the fight against Trump, white nationalism, and corporate greed, against oppression at home and abroad. *We need an America and a world in which human life is treated as sacred. * I?m not sitting this one out. Are you? Forward, Elon Glickman *Volunteer for End the Occupation PAC* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Fri Jun 12 18:48:18 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2020 14:48:18 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] JNS editor-in-chief: Eliot Engel is "more Likud than D or R" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Look how the editor-in-chief of the *Jewish News Syndicate* describes Eliot Engel. Such a person is the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the principal spokesperson for House Democrats on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, wielding decisive influence over what measures pertaining to U.S. policy in the Middle East reach the House floor? And a member of the "Congressional Progressive Caucus"? Really? [...] Nor is Engel like many Democrats who oppose Israeli policies while still avowing their support of the country. Indeed, his positions resemble more those of the Likud Party than the Democrats or Republicans, making his continued tenure at Foreign Affairs a crucial matter for friends of the Jewish state. [...] - Can pro-Israel Democrats hold off an AOC clone? The Left's effort to take down New York Rep. Eliot Engel will be a test case for the ability of the party establishment to keep a pro-Israel veteran in a majority minority district. By Jonathan S. Tobin Published on 06-11-2020 09:20 Last modified: 06-11-2020 14:43 *Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS ? Jewish News Syndicate.* https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/can-pro-israel-democrats-hold-off-an-aoc-clone/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Fri Jun 12 19:12:23 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2020 15:12:23 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] correction Re: JNS editor-in-chief: Eliot Engel is "more Likud than D or R" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Eliot Engel is not a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Apparently he asked to join but that did not occur. I apologize for the error. On Fri, Jun 12, 2020 at 2:48 PM Robert Naiman wrote: > > Look how the editor-in-chief of the *Jewish News Syndicate* describes > Eliot Engel. > > Such a person is the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the > principal spokesperson for House Democrats on U.S. foreign policy in the > Middle East, wielding decisive influence over what measures pertaining to > U.S. policy in the Middle East reach the House floor? And a member of the > "Congressional Progressive Caucus"? Really? > > [...] > Nor is Engel like many Democrats who oppose Israeli policies while still > avowing their support of the country. Indeed, his positions resemble more > those of the Likud Party than the Democrats or Republicans, making his > continued tenure at Foreign Affairs a crucial matter for friends of the > Jewish state. > [...] > > - Can pro-Israel Democrats hold off an AOC clone? > The Left's effort to take down New York Rep. Eliot Engel will be a test > case for the ability of the party establishment to keep a pro-Israel > veteran in a majority minority district. > > By Jonathan S. Tobin Published on 06-11-2020 09:20 Last modified: > 06-11-2020 14:43 > *Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS ? Jewish News Syndicate.* > > https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/can-pro-israel-democrats-hold-off-an-aoc-clone/ > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Fri Jun 12 19:29:57 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2020 19:29:57 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Astore article Message-ID: <2E427343-81D0-4F2B-8B7B-F5F914EBD833@illinois.edu> This guy sees it as it is; I recommend it as reflecting much of what I think, but not all. He doesn?t talk about corporate capitalism, or even empire, except obliquely. I understand that some may think this gratuitous on my part to relay this on email. I would like to know what you all disagree with here, if you do. http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176711/tomgram%3A_william_astore%2C_america%27s_forever_wars_have_come_home/#more Also, considering Paul?s suggestion regarding the South?s secession in 1860. I recommended Eric Foner as a historian who has made it his preoccupation to understand that war and its consequences. https://history.columbia.edu/faculty/foner-eric/ http://www.ericfoner.com/ This last gives links to utube lectures by Foner. Part I discusses ?The Coming of the Civil War. Remember ?E Pluribus Unem? (sp?) And here?s an article which argues for Paul?s conjecture. https://ilsr.org/lincoln-should-have-allowed-south-secede/ Lot?s of speculation hereof what the future might have been. Mort -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Fri Jun 12 19:32:33 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2020 19:32:33 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Erase my just sent email; it was not intended for peace-discuss. Message-ID: But it did recommend the article by Astore. From carl at newsfromneptune.com Sat Jun 13 15:18:25 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2020 10:18:25 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Hours-old baby girl left safely by mother at Texas fire station, thanks to Safe Haven law References: <1592060738512.f85efda8-4906-4cf4-a869-dce553b80aaa@bf10x.hubspotemail.net> Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Live Action News > Subject: Hours-old baby girl left safely by mother at Texas fire station, thanks to Safe Haven law > Date: June 13, 2020 at 10:09:23 AM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: info at liveaction.org > > > > > Hours-old baby girl left safely by mother at Texas fire station, thanks to Safe Haven law > Parents of a baby girl born just a few hours prior left her safely at a fire station in Crosby, Texas, thanks to a law that allows parents to surrender infants with first responders within a designated period of time after birth. Read more > A NOTE FROM LIVE ACTION > > Hi C. G., > > Abortion is the leading killer of Black lives in America. The targeting of the Black community for extinction is not history. It is happening right here. Right now. By Planned Parenthood and wealthy elites. > > ?Maafa21 - Black Genocide in 21st Century America? is a groundbreaking film by Life Dynamics that exposes the racist roots of abortion. > > Join us tonight at 6 PM ET/3 PM PT as we stream this film LIVE on Live Action's Facebook page: > > > We hope you can tune in tonight! > > For life, > The Live Action Team > > MORE PRO-LIFE NEWS > > My son, conceived in rape, is my life's greatest blessing > It didn?t matter that he was well beyond the age of viability. It didn?t matter that I made it clear from the beginning that I did NOT want to have an abortion. It didn?t matter that I loved him with every fiber of my being. He was conceived in rape, and to them, that meant he wasn?t worthy enough to draw a single breath of air. By that standard, neither was I. Read more > > Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper to appear on 'Millionaire' to win money for Planned Parenthood > Bravo host Andy Cohen will appear alongside CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper on ?Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?? Thursday night as they team up for charity. While Cooper chose to raise money for Spike?s K9 Fund, a non-profit dedicated to helping take care of working dogs, Cohen decided to raise money for America?s largest abortion business ? Planned Parenthood. Read more > > Federal appeals court rules Kentucky dismemberment abortion ban unconstitutional > A federal appeals court has upheld a district court?s ruling that a Kentucky ban on dismemberment abortion is unconstitutional. The Sixth Circuit?s three-judge panel voted 2-1 refusing to reinstate the law which protects preborn children from the violent abortion procedure. Read more > > > 'The Daily Show' founder comedian Lizz Winstead likens babies in the womb to cancer > Notoriously pro-abortion comedians Margaret Cho and Lizz Winstead just released a podcast, featuring the two of them joking about their favorite abortion, comparing preborn babies to cancer, and complaining that women are expected to have emotions over their abortions. Read more > > Planned Parenthood-supporting Christian college chaplain slams pro-life group: 'We value choice' > Despite its position as a Christian college, Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, has made it clear that it does not value the life of the preborn. In a letter from university chaplain Rev. Kelly Stone to Students for Life Action National Field Director Katie Lodjic, Stone refused to take down university endorsements for Planned Parenthood, instead showing support for the abortion corporation. Read more > > Woman diagnosed with cancer during pregnancy says preborn son 'saved my life' > ?If we hadn?t decided to have a child at that time in our lives, the cancer could have been found too late and it would be a completely different story,? Palmer said. ?In my eyes, being pregnant with my son saved my life.? Read more > > Undercover Planned Parenthood investigator David Daleiden: 'No one is going to be able to say anymore that they didn't know' > ?No one is going to be able to say anymore after watching those videos ? and after those videos being so heavily publicized so much ? that they didn?t know,? Daleiden said. ?That they didn?t know how brutally Planned Parenthood was dismembering, sometimes even killing living infants through organ harvesting after they?re born alive.? Read more > > 'Miracle' micro-preemie born at 22 weeks discharged from the hospital > Though abortion is legal for any reason in the United States at 22 weeks gestation and beyond, babies born at 22 weeks have a chance of surviving if active medical care is provided. Multiple families have shared stories of doctors refusing to help their babies born at 22 weeks, but Giselle ? and other children born as young as 21 weeks ? prove that there is always hope. Read more > > 'AKA Jane Roe' filmmakers falsely accused pro-lifers of paying off Norma McCorvey > Schenck?s own non-profit 990 tax forms do not confirm that Schenck legally contributed to McCorvey?s charity ? something FX filmmakers failed to clarify. Live Action News spoke to Peggy Nienaber, who worked with Schenck for 15 years. She described McCorvey as a woman who ?lived a life that was complex, full of twists and turns? and who regularly spoke about her guilt over Roe v. Wade. ?The Pro-Life Movement did not use Norma. They respected her and supported her through her trials and were joyful of her conversion to Christ,? Nienaber told Live Action News. Read more > > Live Action News is the publishing arm of Live Action > > Live Action is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Gifts are tax-deductible in the United States. > No goods or services are offered or given in exchange for contributions > > 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 jbn at forestfield.org Sun Jun 14 02:32:26 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2020 21:32:26 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Virtue signaling is such a convenient distraction and substitute for policy changes Message-ID: <8b74046d-6611-35c9-b999-7f7031fef827@forestfield.org> According to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UoZvKDRZp8 - HBO is removing "Gone With the Wind" from its streaming system for fear of offending someone with the depiction of black people. The segment host says it'll be back later with a new introduction about racial history. - The BBC "Little Britain" is also being removed from the BBC's streaming system for depicting someone in blackface. - Some streets in New York City will be given an additional name of "Black Lives Matters" and this slogan will be painted on the pavement. Mayor Bill de Blasio says "What will be clear is the street name and on the streets of our city is that message that now this city must fully, fully deeply feel, and this nation must as well, that black lives matter." - And more including statues being taken down, Merriam-Webster revising their dictionary's definition of "racism", and Apple's Siri iPhone voice-controlled auto-responder apparently responds to the question "Siri, do all lives matter?" with "All Lives Matter is often used in response to the phrase Black Lives Matter, but it does not represent the same concerns. To learn more about the Black Lives Matter human rights movement visit blacklivesmatter.com". What's most interesting about all of this to me is: - no policies are being changed that would actually help people's lives (not even the black people all of this virtue signaling ostensibly aims to benefit). This seems to me to be a victory for the establishment. - 'Black Lives Matters' started as little more than sloganeering and rightly received criticism from BlackAgendaReport.com's Glen Ford for being only that. If Black Lives Matters is being adopted by the establishment that's a clear sign that it's probably useless to anyone seeking genuine reform. What constitutes genuine reform? Here are some specific actionable ideas: a national jobs program (if you're 18+ and an American citizen the government will give you a living wage infrastructure job doing work our country needs domestically like building/maintaining roads & bridges, laying high-speed Internet fibre cable, building houses for the homeless, and such); Medicare for All; and a Universal Basic Income. Each of these helps shave some rough edges off of capitalism (which is probably why we see none of them being enacted). There's not even serious police incentives change coming. We can see the co-optation taking place as we notice what's not being discussed. The changes listed in that RT segment are all happening and they all aim to serve the establishment's interests to look better than they are. -J From jbn at forestfield.org Sun Jun 14 02:36:13 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2020 21:36:13 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Virtue signaling is such a convenient distraction and substitute for policy changes In-Reply-To: <8b74046d-6611-35c9-b999-7f7031fef827@forestfield.org> References: <8b74046d-6611-35c9-b999-7f7031fef827@forestfield.org> Message-ID: <4ce850a9-a059-b22c-b09d-6161503463ce@forestfield.org> I wrote: > - 'Black Lives Matters' started as little more than sloganeering and rightly > received criticism from BlackAgendaReport.com's Glen Ford for being only that. You can hear what he has to say about the events of the day in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVv__4EIS4M which is an interview with Chris Hedges. You can expect a transcript of this episode to be linked to https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/ soon. From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Sun Jun 14 03:41:33 2020 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2020 22:41:33 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Virtue signaling is such a convenient distraction and substitute for policy changes In-Reply-To: <8b74046d-6611-35c9-b999-7f7031fef827@forestfield.org> References: <8b74046d-6611-35c9-b999-7f7031fef827@forestfield.org> Message-ID: https://nonsite.org/editorial/the-triumph-of-black-lives-matter-and-neoliberal-redemption Cedric Johnson explains why On Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 9:32 PM J.B. Nicholson via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > According to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UoZvKDRZp8 > > - HBO is removing "Gone With the Wind" from its streaming system for fear > of > offending someone with the depiction of black people. The segment host > says it'll be > back later with a new introduction about racial history. > > - The BBC "Little Britain" is also being removed from the BBC's streaming > system for > depicting someone in blackface. > > - Some streets in New York City will be given an additional name of "Black > Lives > Matters" and this slogan will be painted on the pavement. Mayor Bill de > Blasio says > "What will be clear is the street name and on the streets of our city is > that message > that now this city must fully, fully deeply feel, and this nation must as > well, that > black lives matter." > > - And more including statues being taken down, Merriam-Webster revising > their > dictionary's definition of "racism", and Apple's Siri iPhone > voice-controlled > auto-responder apparently responds to the question "Siri, do all lives > matter?" with > "All Lives Matter is often used in response to the phrase Black Lives > Matter, but it > does not represent the same concerns. To learn more about the Black Lives > Matter > human rights movement visit blacklivesmatter.com". > > What's most interesting about all of this to me is: > > - no policies are being changed that would actually help people's lives > (not even the > black people all of this virtue signaling ostensibly aims to benefit). > This seems to > me to be a victory for the establishment. > > - 'Black Lives Matters' started as little more than sloganeering and > rightly received > criticism from BlackAgendaReport.com's Glen Ford for being only that. If > Black Lives > Matters is being adopted by the establishment that's a clear sign that > it's probably > useless to anyone seeking genuine reform. What constitutes genuine reform? > Here are > some specific actionable ideas: a national jobs program (if you're 18+ and > an > American citizen the government will give you a living wage infrastructure > job doing > work our country needs domestically like building/maintaining roads & > bridges, laying > high-speed Internet fibre cable, building houses for the homeless, and > such); > Medicare for All; and a Universal Basic Income. Each of these helps shave > some rough > edges off of capitalism (which is probably why we see none of them being > enacted). > There's not even serious police incentives change coming. We can see the > co-optation > taking place as we notice what's not being discussed. The changes listed > in that RT > segment are all happening and they all aim to serve the establishment's > interests to > look better than they are. > > -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 carl at newsfromneptune.com Sun Jun 14 19:50:13 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 14 Jun 2020 14:50:13 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Former Abortionist: Abortion is Barbaric References: Message-ID: <76429EBD-780C-4413-A895-2BC3291EB4DD@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Martin Fox" > Subject: Former Abortionist: Abortion is Barbaric > Date: June 14, 2020 at 2:34:30 PM CDT > To: C.G. ESTABROOK > Reply-To: martin.fox at prolifealliance.org > > > > Dear C.G., > > ?Abortion is intolerable, irrational, and it has no place in civilized society.? > > Those are the words of former abortionist Dr. Vansen Wong. > > Dr. Wong performed abortions for more than seven years. > > But over time he found that the reasons often given by abortion seekers were appalling. > > After coming to have faith in God, Dr. Wong had a change of heart and now speaks out in defense of the unborn. > > Doctor Wong speaks mostly on college campuses to our young people about how their generation can be the one to reverse the course of abortion. > > Every time Dr. Wong speaks, he closes by asking something profound; ?What can we do as individuals to help change the approach in our society to abortion?? > > As for Wong, he seems to have taken this to heart. > > He is now the medical director for a pregnancy health center and has testified before lawmakers in California in support of pro-life legislation that would protect the unborn. > > Dr. Wong is doing his part to help end the slaughter of unborn babies through abortion-on-demand. > > And as for what you and I are doing to end the scourge of abortion-on-demand? > > Thanks to your support, your National Pro-Life Alliance has gathered over two million petitions in favor of the Life at Conception Act to legislatively overturn Roe v. Wade and ultimately end abortion-on-demand. > > That activism continues to build new record levels of support in Congress for that bill. > > For Life, > > Martin Fox, President > National Pro-Life Alliance > > P.S. If you can, please chip in with a contribution by clicking here . Your National Pro-Life Alliance is entirely dependent on voluntary contributions to keep our vital programs running. We receive no government funding. > > > The National Pro-Life Alliance's address is 5211 Port Royal Road, Suite 500, Springfield, VA 22151. > > Not produced or e-mailed at taxpayer expense. > > Because of NPLA's tax-exempt status under IRC Sec. 501(c)(4) and its state and federal legislative activities, contributions are not tax-deductible as charitable contributions (IRC ? 170) or as business deductions (IRC ? 162(e)(1)). Privacy Policy . > > > This message was intended for: cgestabrook at gmail.com > You were added to the system February 20, 2020. For more information > click here . > Update your preferences | Remove your email from the mailing list. > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Mon Jun 15 15:57:56 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2020 10:57:56 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: The shocking video Nancy Pelosi hates References: Message-ID: <10BE10C0-C2DA-4CC1-8FBE-7495E27E30E6@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "U.S. Senator Rand Paul" > Subject: The shocking video Nancy Pelosi hates > Date: June 15, 2020 at 9:35:02 AM CDT > To: C.G. ESTABROOK > Reply-To: rand.paul at prolifealliance.org > > Dear C.G., > > Senator Rand Paul has prepared a video detailing what you and I need to do in the crucial months ahead. > > You may have seen it already, but if you haven't, I hope you will take just a moment to watch it by clicking here . > > And if you have, could you help spread the word by forwarding this email to your friends and family? > > Every view will help build support for the Life at Conception Act, a simple bill that effectively bypasses Roe v. Wade to ultimately end abortion-on-demand in our nation. > > Click here to watch the short video now . > > For Life, > > Jenni > > From: U.S. Senator Rand Paul [rand.paul at prolifealliance.org] > To: C.G. ESTABROOK [cgestabrook at gmail.com] > Subject: The shocking video the Supreme Court doesn't want you to see > > > > Dear C.G., > > I've prepared a brief but urgent video regarding breaking news in the fight to overturn Roe v. Wade in our nation. > > Please take a moment to listen to my urgent message by clicking here . > > After you listen, please sign the petition to finally end abortion-on-demand. > > Sincerely, > > Rand Paul, > United States Senator (R-KY) > > > The National Pro-Life Alliance's address is 5211 Port Royal Road, Suite 500, Springfield, VA 22151. > > Not produced or e-mailed at taxpayer expense. > > Because of NPLA's tax-exempt status under IRC Sec. 501(c)(4) and its state and federal legislative activities, contributions are not tax-deductible as charitable contributions (IRC ? 170) or as business deductions (IRC ? 162(e)(1)). Privacy Policy . > > This message was intended for: cgestabrook at gmail.com > You were added to the system February 20, 2020. For more information > click here . > Update your preferences | Remove your email from the mailing list. > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Mon Jun 15 23:05:04 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2020 18:05:04 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Recommended videos and notes Message-ID: <7b7baad2-2747-42cd-b9b9-c8f75b804961@forestfield.org> [My earlier post of this same material was blocked a few minutes ago. I'll see if this repost goes through.] Here are some more recommended videos: Consortium News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwbuZot33e0 -- (1h 45m 46s) Spying on Assange: CIA vs Assange. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQJkOl92sbw -- (1h 6m 36s) CN Live: America in Revolt. Grayzone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea1E9-eoNkc -- (25m 15s) Busting copaganda: the truth behind police "taking a knee" & "joining protests". RT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVv__4EIS4M -- (28m 15s) Chris Hedges interviews Glen Ford on the George Floyd protests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIqKz-AEblg -- (27m 56s) Episode of "Renegade Inc" interview with Ajamu Baraka on "The language of the unheard" and what the rioting is really about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lytq1S410eI -- (26m 34s) 2020-06-14 episode of CrossTalk with Joti Brar and another guest. Good discussion of the hollow theatrics we see from establishment media (taking a knee, wearing kinte cloth, propaganda instead of policy change, and so on) RT's Caleb Maupin interviews Joti Brar https://thecommunists.org/2019/11/03/tv/joti-brar-interview-caleb-maupin/ -- (55m 54s) the interview URL can be extracted and downloaded from this webpage with a program such as youtube-dl (http://rg3.github.com/youtube-dl/). If you need a copy, let me know and I'll see about getting you a copy (it's a 411MB Matroska file). The interview is from (roughly) 2019-11-03 so it predates the current goings-on but is still relevant (and far more relevant than the identity politics that passes for analysis now). -J From carl at newsfromneptune.com Tue Jun 16 16:32:26 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2020 11:32:26 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: SOA grad on trial for the 1989 murders of the Jesuits in El Salvador References: <4496559028.-1631423507@org.orgDB.reply.salsalabs.com> Message-ID: <1EBC322F-242F-4E48-A161-1BFD2F3030AA@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: SOA Watch > Subject: SOA grad on trial for the 1989 murders of the Jesuits in El Salvador > Date: June 16, 2020 at 9:31:07 AM CDT > To: carl at newsfromneptune.com > Reply-To: Brigitte at soawatch.org > > > > > > > In Spain last week, a trial began for the November 16, 1989 murders in El Salvador of Jesuit priests Ignacio Ellacur?a, Amando L?pez, Joaqu?n L?pez y L?pez, Ignacio Mart?n-Bar?, Segundo Montes, and Juan Ram?n Moreno as well as their housekeeper Elba Ramos and her daughter Celina Ramos. > > SOA graduate and former Vice Minister of Public Security Colonel Inocente Montano is the defendant currently facing trial. During the first day of the trial, charges were extinguished against former Lieutenant Yusshy Mendoza, who was part of the group that went to the University of the Central America to carry out the massacre. Former Lt. Mendoza has previously confessed and will be a witness in the trial; he is expected to testify in July. > > Former Vice Minister Col. Montano is accused of being part of the group of high ranking military officials that ordered the murders. The United Nations' Truth Commission on El Salvador's civil war found: > > ?There is substantial evidence that on the night of 15 November 1989, then (head of the Armed Forces) Colonel Ren? Emilio Ponce, in the presence of and in collusion with General Juan Rafael Bustillo, then Colonel Juan Orlando Zepeda, Colonel Inocente Orlando Montano and Colonel Francisco Elena Fuentes, gave Colonel Guillermo Alfredo Benavides the order to kill Father Ignacio Ellacur?a and to leave no witnesses. For that purpose, Colonel Benavides was given the use of a unit from the Atlacatl Battalion, which two days previously had been sent to search the priests residence.? > > Fr. Ignacio Ellacur?a, rector of the University of Central America (UCA) was an important proponent of peace negotiations to end El Salvador?s civil war. When the massacre was committed, the military attempted to blame it on the FMLN guerrillas in an attempt to further derail peace talks. > > Col. Montano was just one of several high ranking military officers indicted by the Spanish court, however, El Salvador has refused to extradite the others to Spain to face trial. Montano was only extradited because he was found living in the United States. He was extradited to Spain after serving time for immigration fraud, a result of extensive work by the Center for Justice and Accountability. Thus, he is currently the only high ranking officer facing trial. For a detailed analysis of Col. Montano's role in the massacre at the UCA, read the expert witness report submitted by Stanford Professor Terry Lynn Karl to a U.S. court in the immigration fraud case against Montano. > > SOA Watch stands with the Salvadoran people in their struggle for justice and against impunity after so many years. The trial in Spain is also a result of years and years of work by organizations that have sought justice in the courts, including the Center of Justice and Accountability, the Spanish Association for Human Rights, and Guernica Group. After beginning this week, it is scheduled to continue from July 8-16, 2020. > > We know that the United States must also be held accountable for financing the military in El Salvador and training many of those involved in the planning and execution of the UCA massacre at the School of the Americas. And we recommit ourselves to honoring the memory of those killed by U.S.-backed state violence, both in the past and today, both at home and around the globe. > > Celina Ramos, ?Presente! > Elba Ramos, ?Presente! > Ignacio Ellacur?a, ?Presente! > Ignacio Mart?n-Bar?, ?Presente! > Amando L?pez, ?Presente! > Joaqu?n L?pez y L?pez, ?Presente! > Segundo Montes, ?Presente! > Juan Ram?n Moreno, ?Presente! > > SOA Watch > > SOA Watch > > > We appreciate your interest! You are subscribed to the SOA Watch list as carl at newsfromneptune.com . > Click here if you'd like to unsubscribe from these messages, or change your email address. > The movement to close the SOA is a community, and all ideas are welcome. > SOA Watch, 225 E 26th St, Suite 7, Tucson, AZ 85713 > > If you like the work of SOA Watch, you can donate here . > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Interested in more? Read this expert witness report on Col. Montano and the massacre at the UCA. > > --- > > Support CISPES' call to cut U.S. military aid to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. > > Send a message to your Representatives, Senators, and sign the petition here . > > ---- > > > FOR Peace Presence Webinar about Colombia: > > Cracks in the Concrete: Solidarity as Resistance. > > > > > > > > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Tue Jun 16 17:06:37 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2020 12:06:37 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Will you be with us June 20th? References: <5ee8fa9e8b7e7_ea493fad6676fbf811323ee@ip-10-0-0-147.mail> Message-ID: <12F8CD52-C15B-4997-9DB3-2E3E24DC8EAE@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Illinois Poor People's Campaign via ActionNetwork.org" > Subject: Will you be with us June 20th? > Date: June 16, 2020 at 12:00:15 PM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: illinois at poorpeoplescampaign.org > > Dear C.G., > > Are you ready? > > > The Mass Digital Poor People's Assembly and Moral March on Washington is almost here. People across the nation are joining the Campaign to confront the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, climate change/ecological devastation, militarism/war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. > > We need you to spread the word and to join us on June 20th for this historic digital event. > > Here are some things you can do right now. > > RSVP here to let us know that you will be with us. > Ask your networks of family, friends, and fellow activists to participate. > Use this social media digital toolkit to uplift and amplify our message. > Then on Saturday, continue to amplify our demands and join us for one or more of the of these broadcast events, on Facebook , Youtube or at june2020.org : > > on Sat, June 20th at 9-11am CST > on Sat, June 20th at 5-7pm CST > on Sun, June 21st at 5-7pm CST > We will also stream these events on our Illinois PPC Facebook page . > > We demand that the 140 million poor and low-income people in our nation (before Covid-19!!)? from every race, creed, gender, sexual identity and place ? are no longer ignored, dismissed or pushed to the margins of our political, economic and social agenda. > > WE WON'T BE SILENT ANYMORE! > > And, sign up for the Online Statewide Meeting on July 1st at 8pm CST > > We will reflect on June 20 and plan the next steps in building our Campaign. Rev Dr Liz Theoharis, Co-chair of the Poor People?s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will be speaking. Register for July 1st meeting > Forward Together, Not One Step Back! > > Illinois Poor People?s Campaign > > > > > > > > > Sent via Action Network, a free online toolset anyone can use to organize. Click here to sign up and get started building an email list and creating online actions today. > Action Network is an open platform that empowers individuals and groups to organize for progressive causes. We encourage responsible activism, and do not support using the platform to take unlawful or other improper action. We do not control or endorse the conduct of users and make no representations of any kind about them. > You can unsubscribe or update your email address or change your name and address by changing your subscription preferences here . > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Tue Jun 16 20:09:29 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2020 15:09:29 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: National Moral March on Washington: A Digital Gathering References: <5ee9243e973c1_36363fb484fe1988408347@ip-10-0-0-214.mail> Message-ID: <33B43C7D-7AAC-4850-AB6E-7B1CC19B20A3@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "John Sellers, The Other 98%" > Subject: National Moral March on Washington: A Digital Gathering > Date: June 16, 2020 at 2:57:50 PM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: info at other98.com > > > > C.G., > > The COVID-19 pandemic and the recent wave of police brutality and racist murders have forced this country into an unprecedented time of crisis and action. But this emergency results from deeper crises: systemic racism, inequality, and a society that ignores the needs of 140 million people who are poor (or are a $400 emergency away from being poor). > > Over the last two years, the Poor People?s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, has worked to lay the groundwork for a broad movement that could unite poor and impacted communities across the country. > > Other98 is proud to join the Poor People?s Campaign as a mobilizing partner for the Mass Poor People?s Assembly and Moral March on Washington Digital Justice Gathering. The digital gathering will be broadcast live at June2020.org on June 20, 2020 at 10 AM EST and on June 21 at 6 PM EST. > > Register today for Moral March on Washington Digital Justice Gathering on June 20, 2020 . > > Other98 is dedicated to fighting for the humanity and dignity of all people. Another world is possible?but we need to fight for it. > > History teaches us that it is exactly in moments like these that a movement of the many is necessary to force the nation into action. Join the movement by registering for June 20, 2020 . > > In solidarity, > > John Sellers > Other98 > > > > > > Other 98% Action is fighting the stranglehold that corporations have on our democracy. Like what we do? Chip in $5 to support us here. > Sent via ActionNetwork.org . To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Other98, please click here . > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Wed Jun 17 16:37:19 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2020 12:37:19 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Politico=3A_=E2=80=98We_just_need_a_wi?= =?utf-8?q?n=E2=80=99=3A_The_left_unites_to_take_down_Eliot_Engel?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: What a headline! https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/16/eliot-engel-progressives-election-324102 ?We just need a win?: The left unites to take down Eliot Engel Progressives are channeling their grief, volunteer muscle and small-dollar donations into the effort to oust the longtime Democratic incumbent. By HOLLY OTTERBEIN 06/16/2020 07:13 PM EDT Updated: 06/16/2020 08:45 PM EDT Desperate for victory after watching the presidential nomination slip through their fingers, progressives have found a new cause to rally around. Across the country, they?re channeling their grief, volunteer muscle and small-dollar donations into Jamaal Bowman, a left-wing candidate in New York trying to oust decades-long incumbent Congressman Eliot Engel. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, all of whom have shown caution in the past about backing primary challengers to incumbent Democrats, have endorsed Bowman. Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party, two left-wing groups that took different paths during the presidential race, announced they are coming together to spend more than a half-million dollars to elect Bowman. Former aides to Sanders and Warren have also publicly lined up behind Bowman. The all-hands-on-deck strategy is a striking show of unity after the presidential campaign ended with deep rifts on the left ? and it?s had a catalytic effect on Bowman?s bid in the run-up to the June 23 primary. But their efforts have also exposed party fissures, spurring Democratic establishment powerhouses such as Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Jim Clyburn to throw their support behind Engel. ?What is that left phrase? We just need a win,? said Andom Ghebreghiorgis, another progressive candidate who challenged Engel this year but recently dropped out and endorsed Bowman. ?People are investing a lot emotionally in this race because they see it as a down-ballot race where the policies of a Bernie, for example, which weren?t able to achieve victory on a national level, can at least be achieved on a congressional level.? The clash between heavyweights like Clinton and Sanders has made New York?s 16th District race one of the most-watched primaries of the cycle ? and one of the most telling. If Bowman, a 44-year-old middle-school principal, beats Engel, the 73-year-old chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, it will mark the second time in two years that a senior House Democrat from New York was taken down in a primary. In 2018, Ocasio-Cortez knocked out Rep. Joe Crowley in a massive upset. Should Engel hold onto his seat, it will mark yet another bitter intra-party defeat for progressives. ?If all of this super lefty firepower turns out not to be enough and Bowman comes up short, that?s going to be added to the list,? said Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist based in New York. ?There?s a lot of examples over the last two years since Ocasio-Cortez, like Our Revolution?s slate of endorsed candidates in 2018 or most recently the Henry Cuellar challenge down in Texas, where time and again these challengers, no matter the energy of these groups, have come up short.? The protests in the wake of George Floyd?s death, as well as the coronavirus ? which has disproportionately impacted black and Latino Americans ? have increased the urgency among progressives to oust Engel. Bowman has criticized Engel for voting for the 1994 crime bill, which contributed to a rise in incarceration. Bowman champions the idea of defunding the police, whereas Engel said he opposes fully cutting their budgets, though he supports reallocating some resources. ?If you?re someone who wants to translate the energy in the street into elected office, Jamaal is one candidate among many that you can be supporting,? said Waleed Shahid, the communications director for Justice Democrats. ?Jamaal might be the first candidate elected to Congress from this movement.? Bowman has also talked about his first experience with police brutality at age 11 on the campaign trail and been a regular presence at Black Lives Matter protests. ?That was murder by law enforcement that is supposed to serve and protect us. It robs you to your core and shakes your soul to see something like that happen,? Bowman told POLITICO of watching the video of Floyd?s death. ?I couldn?t contain myself and I did a direct-to-camera video about my reaction and I was sobbing. I was crying.? "If all of this super lefty firepower turns out not to be enough and Bowman comes up short, that?s going to be added to the list." Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist based in New York Bowman?s campaign got a boost when Engel was caught on a hot mic at an event amid the civil unrest saying, ?If I didn?t have a primary, I wouldn?t care.? At the time, Engel said that ?in the context of running for reelection, I thought it was important for people to know where I stand, that's why I asked to speak." Engel has touted his support of the Justice in Policing Act and endorsements from black lawmakers such as civil rights icon John Lewis, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, and the Congressional Black Caucus? political arm. He has also said that his incumbency has allowed him to ?bring home the bacon? to the district, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus. ?Unlike our opponent, the congressman?s response to the pandemic was going out and fighting for $6 [billion] in additional aid for New York hospitals, including many in the district,? said Tom Watson, Engel?s communications director. ?It was getting funding for community health centers, and fighting to keep Mount Vernon Hospital open.? Foreign policy has also roiled the primary, with Bowman bashing Engel for voting for the Iraq War and being ?completely funded by corporate PACs and large donors, and many of those are weapons manufacturers." The Democratic Majority for Israel, a super PAC, has aired ads supporting Engel, a top pro-Israel voice in the House, and knocking Bowman, who has criticized the Israeli government?s treatment of Palestinians. The group reserved an additional $250,000 in spots Tuesday, according to Advertising Analytics. A Bowman victory would make him the fourth candidate supported by the anti-establishment Justice Democrats to unseat an incumbent Democrat since 2018. The organization, which developed a strategy after 2018 of going all in on one candidate at a time instead of endorsing dozens like many groups, backed Bowman after a public education activist nominated him for its recruitment program. Shahid said the organization honed in on Bowman because of ?his record of leadership in the district, his commitment to racial and economic justice throughout his career, and the fact that his opponent is particularly vulnerable.? Engel?s role in Democratic House leadership was also a factor. ?Someone with that much power should be someone who is paying attention to the needs of their district,? said Shahid. Two weeks after Sanders dropped out of the presidential race, Justice Democrats held an event featuring former Sanders and Warren aides who supported Bowman. The group has seen an influx of interest in the New York primary since Super Tuesday, when Joe Biden built a delegate lead that proved impossible for Sanders to surmount and which prompted Warren to drop out. There have been other attempts at fostering progressive unity in the Bronx and Westchester County-based 16th District. The Working Families Party helped broker the departure of Ghebreghiorgis from the race and his endorsement of Bowman, with New York director Sochie Nnaemeka playing a key role, according to multiple people familiar with the moves. That helped prevent the progressive vote from splitting. Engel, on the other hand, has two additional moderate challengers, Sammy Ravelo and Chris Fink. The consolidation is such an achievement for the left, which is known for splintering, that Ghebreghiorgis said activists from the Democratic Socialists of America and other progressives asked him, in reference to him dropping out and creating a united progressive front behind Bowman, ?How can we make this scalable ... in any race where we see any issue like this?? Leftists across the country recognize the Bowman candidacy is likely to be one of their last, best opportunities to take out an entrenched Democratic incumbent because of the realities of the primary election calendar. ?If you?re a progressive who supported Bernie or Warren, Jamaal is really one of the last shots we have at any victory this year,? said Shahid. ?He?s the main one who can pull off an AOC-style victory.? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Wed Jun 17 17:19:41 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2020 13:19:41 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] OR: Hillary Clinton's only primary endorsement is corporate democrat Eliot Engel In-Reply-To: <565ce4918623c87e5e70c41b57ffed36@bounce.bluestatedigital.com> References: <565ce4918623c87e5e70c41b57ffed36@bounce.bluestatedigital.com> Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Our Revolution Date: Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 1:13 PM Subject: Hillary Clinton's only primary endorsement is corporate democrat Eliot Engel To: Robert Naiman <#m_-1178824850980557206_> After a series of bizarre gaffes, corporate democrat Eliot Engel is in danger of losing to Our Revolution-backed progressive Jamaal Bowman in New York's 16th Congressional District. *That?s why Hillary Clinton endorsed Engel in a last-ditch effort to bail him out.* The corporate establishment isn?t going to let their 30-year incumbent lose without a fight because they don?t want Jamaal Bowman in that seat standing up against the power of big money. *With one week to go until the primary, this race is neck-and-neck. Donate here to help Our Revolution push back against Hillary Clinton and other corporate establishment politicians doing everything in their power to stop our Revolution-backed progressives like Jamaal Bowman!* *If you?ve stored your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will process immediately.* CHIP IN $10 IMMEDIATELY ? CHIP IN $27 IMMEDIATELY ? CHIP IN $50 IMMEDIATELY ? CHIP IN $100 IMMEDIATELY ? CHIP IN ANOTHER AMOUNT ? Thank you for all that you do, The whole team at Our Revolution ------------------------------ Support Our Revolution ? Our Revolution is a national grassroots network of local groups dedicated to organizing a political revolution powerful enough to challenge the structural forces that threaten our survival as a society. From city halls to the halls of Congress, our movement is fighting to win progressive issue fights, elect progressive champions, transform the Democratic party and get big money out of politics. *Help us achieve these goals by donating today. * Join our movement by *following us on Facebook * and *signing up here to volunteer. * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Thu Jun 18 12:52:31 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2020 08:52:31 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] OR: UPDATE: Jamaal Bowman is up by 10% against Eliot Engel after Hillary's endorsement! In-Reply-To: <0e686e51521c5e9545e7e0a5ca0f5532@bounce.bluestatedigital.com> References: <0e686e51521c5e9545e7e0a5ca0f5532@bounce.bluestatedigital.com> Message-ID: What a subject line! You love to see it! ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Our Revolution Date: Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 8:09 PM Subject: UPDATE: Jamaal Bowman is up by 10% against Eliot Engel after Hillary's endorsement! To: Robert Naiman <#m_-5244774091786029229_> Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo are backing their fellow corporate Democrat Eliot Engel in a desperate attempt to save his seat in Congress against surging progressive educator and Our Revolution endorsed candidate, Jamaal Bowman. *New polling from Data for Progress has Jamaal Bowman up by 10 points!* Now, with less than a week to go before the New York primary, Our Revolution is going all-out to help Jamaal Bowman finish strong and fend off Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, and the other big money special interests that are rallying to stop him. *Pitch in here to help Our Revolution stand up to Hillary Clinton?s desperate attempt to save big money establishment favorite Eliot Engel from defeat. With so much money against Jamaal Bowman, every bit counts in these final six days!* *If you?ve stored your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will process immediately.* CHIP IN $10 IMMEDIATELY ? CHIP IN $27 IMMEDIATELY ? CHIP IN $50 IMMEDIATELY ? CHIP IN $100 IMMEDIATELY ? CHIP IN ANOTHER AMOUNT ? In solidarity, The whole team at Our Revolution ------------------------------ Support Our Revolution ? Our Revolution is a national grassroots network of local groups dedicated to organizing a political revolution powerful enough to challenge the structural forces that threaten our survival as a society. From city halls to the halls of Congress, our movement is fighting to win progressive issue fights, elect progressive champions, transform the Democratic party and get big money out of politics. *Help us achieve these goals by donating today. * Join our movement by *following us on Facebook * and *signing up here to volunteer. * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Jun 18 17:54:46 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2020 12:54:46 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_Join_the_Poor_People=E2=80=99s_?= =?utf-8?q?Campaign=E2=80=99s_Virtual_March_on_Washington?= References: <7C.DE.22561.7C2ABEE5@asv11mtam002.ngpweb.com> Message-ID: <48D5914A-C148-417F-9FD9-5282FF7D6273@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Institute for Policy Studies" > Subject: Join the Poor People?s Campaign?s Virtual March on Washington > Date: June 18, 2020 at 12:22:14 PM CDT > To: cge at shout.net > Reply-To: info at ips-dc.org > > > > > > This Saturday, June 20th and Sunday, June 21st, the Poor People?s Campaign is holding a virtual Mass March on Washington . It?s going to be the largest digital gathering of poor and low-income people, moral and religious leaders, advocates, and people of conscience in U.S. history. > > > > Events will be streamed at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. EST on Saturday, and again on Sunday at 6 p.m. EST. > > The Institute for Policy Studies is proud to serve as the research arm of the Poor People?s Campaign, which continues the vital work that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others began to create a moral movement against poverty. > > > Together, we assembled a groundbreaking audit showing that over 140 million Americans are poor or low-income. And we developed a Moral Budget showing how the U.S. can invest in human dignity while divesting from systemic injustice. > > > > As a global pandemic further exposes our interlocking crises of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, and militarism, we invite our supporters to join this digital march and the movement to unite those 140 million people in pursuit of justice. > > Click here to pledge your attendance , and find resources here? for helping to spread the word. > > We've challenged corporate power, inequality & militarism since 1963. Join us: become a monthly sustainer today. > Donate > Institute for Policy Studies > 1301 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 600 | Washington, DC, 20036 > 202-234-9382 | info at ips-dc.org | www.ips-dc.org > Unsubscribe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From james.manrique at gmail.com Thu Jun 18 18:37:13 2020 From: james.manrique at gmail.com (James M) Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2020 13:37:13 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] 42 CU Elected Officials on Police Reform Message-ID: >From Urbana to Champaign City Councils, Both Mayors (& City Managers), the entire County Board, and the County Executive. Where does your favorite local official stand on police reform? Perhaps it's time to give them a call and let your voice be heard. http://smilepolitely.com/opinion/we_asked_our_elected_officials_about_defunding_the_police/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Fri Jun 19 03:08:22 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2020 03:08:22 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Podcast with Lawrence Wilkerson and Dany Sjursen, dissident military men of peace. Message-ID: It?s long but interesting, powerful and enlightening. Two ex military officers whose voices don?t get into our major media. https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2020/06/10/maj-danny-sjursen-interviews-col-lawrence-wilkerson-former-chief-of-staff-to-colin-powell/ From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Jun 19 17:44:19 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2020 12:44:19 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_Join_the_Poor_People=E2=80=99s_?= =?utf-8?q?Campaign_virtual_march_on_Washington=2C_tomorrow_at_10am_and_6p?= =?utf-8?q?m_ET?= References: <5eecf56e5bc8f_25223fe219f820d81784528@ip-10-0-0-212.mail> Message-ID: <8FE19461-164E-4436-8631-09DA6ACBE3EB@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Andrea Haverdink > Subject: Join the Poor People?s Campaign virtual march on Washington, tomorrow at 10am and 6pm ET > Date: June 19, 2020 at 12:27:10 PM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: info at americansfortaxfairness.org > > Friends, > > This pandemic and economic collapse, along with the recent wave of police brutality and racist murders, have forced this nation into an unprecedented season of crisis and action. > > But the current crises didn?t happen overnight. They?re a result of generations of policies meant to enrich those on top while marginalizing Black and brown and poor communities of all races across the country. > > Americans for Tax Fairness is fighting alongside our allies to create an economy that works for all of us by making massive new investments in our communities?paid for by making the rich and corporations pay their fair share in taxes. > > Over the last two years, the Poor People?s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has worked to lay the groundwork for a broad movement that could unite poor and impacted communities across the country. People across the nation are joining the Campaign to confront the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, climate change and ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. > > We are coming together to demand that the 140 million poor and low-income people in our nation are no longer ignored, dismissed or pushed to the margins of our political and social agenda. > > That?s why ATF is proud to join the Poor People?s Campaign as a mobilizing partner for the Mass Poor People?s Assembly and Moral March on Washington Digital Justice Gathering, broadcast tomorrow, June 20th at 10 AM EST & 6 PM EST and on Sunday, June 21st at 6 PM EST. Together, through collective action, we can refocus our country?s priorities to invest in and uplift poor and low-income families. Click here to register for tomorrow?s virtual Mass Poor People?s Assembly and Moral March on Washington . > > Across the internet and the airwaves we will drive the vision and agenda of our communities into the heart of the national narrative. > > In this unprecedented moment, we must tell the truth about the dire failures of our political and economic systems that have led to record levels of income and wealth inequality. We must also demonstrate that it is the leadership emerging from our communities that is paving a different way forward. > > History teaches us that it is exactly in moments like these that a movement of the many is necessary to force the nation into action and that the key to real and lasting change lies in our ability to come together in new and bold ways. Rise with us by registering for tomorrow?s virtual march on Washington and join the broadcast at 10 AM EST & 6 PM EST (and on Sunday, June 21 at 6 PM EST) at June2020.org. We hope you?ll join ATF and our allies for this historic event. > > In Solidarity, > > Andrea Haverdink > Digital Director > Americans for Tax Fairness > > Paid for and authorized by Americans for Tax Fairness > > Sent via ActionNetwork.org . To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund, please click here . > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Sat Jun 20 13:43:23 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2020 08:43:23 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Today is the day. References: <5eee09424e041_3a123fc507a9a79815394da@ip-10-0-0-212.mail> Message-ID: <11611644-BB45-493A-A0D1-7BE0F70F761E@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis" > Subject: Today is the day. > Date: June 20, 2020 at 8:04:02 AM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: info at poorpeoplescampaign.org > > > Dear C.G., > > Today is the day to reimagine what America could become if ?We the People? meant all of us. > > Tune in for the Mass Poor People's Assembly and Moral March on Washington Digital Justice broadcasts today at 10am and 6pm ET, and tomorrow at 6pm ET. > TUNE IN AT JUNE2020.ORG > > Broadcast times: Saturday June 20 at 10am and 6pm ET and Sunday June 21 at 6pm ET. > > A reminder that the entire program will be open captioned with ASL interpretation and the Spanish-language broadcast will be available at june2020.org/es > > If you or someone you know does not have internet access, please share this dial-in number to call-in to the assembly: Dial-in number: (425) 436-6277 Participant Code: 521837 > > Forward together, not one step back! > > Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis > Co-Chairs, Poor People?s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival > > DONATE > > Follow the Poor People's Campaign on Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram ! > Sent Via ActionNetwork.org . To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from A Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, please click here . > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Sat Jun 20 17:04:26 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2020 12:04:26 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Planned Parenthood officially endorses Joe Biden for president References: <1592665596289.e09d3a13-2bf2-492b-8d0d-fc12130391f1@bf10x.hubspotemail.net> Message-ID: <69B21448-56E6-4AF3-9740-0C5529249DFE@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Live Action News > Subject: Planned Parenthood officially endorses Joe Biden for president > Date: June 20, 2020 at 10:09:25 AM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: info at liveaction.org > > > > > Planned Parenthood officially endorses Joe Biden for president > In a statement, acting president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson made the election out to be a life-and-death issue. ?This election is a fight for our country?s very survival,? she said, while touting Biden?s extensive pro-abortion positions. ?Joe Biden is the only candidate in this race who will stand up for our health and our rights.? Read more > A SPECIAL NOTE FROM LILA ROSE > > Hi C. G., > > Father's Day is tomorrow! > > It's not too late to show your dad - or grandfather, or a friend with kids, or a dad you admire - how special he is to you. You can let an amazing dad in your life know that he gives you a love for LIFE this Father's Day! > > C. G., you can make the gift of life and fatherhood possible - will you make a donation in honor of a dad or man who inspires you this Father?s Day weekend? > > When you make your gift, we will send an e-card on your behalf to the man you donate in honor of. You can make your special Father?s Day gift here: > > > Thank you for standing with us in defense of the preborn! Enjoy your Father's Day weekend! > > For life, > Lila Rose > President & Founder > Live Action > > MORE PRO-LIFE NEWS > > > 'Jesus made you perfect': Evelyn, who had Trisomy 18, has died after three years of life and love > When Hannah Sudlow was pregnant with her first child, Evelyn, a doctor scheduled an abortion without her consent after Evelyn was diagnosed with Trisomy 18. Considered ?incompatible with life,? the diagnosis of Trisomy 18 scares a lot of parents into abortion, but Sudlow and her husband Craig refused to give in. Instead, they welcomed their daughter for exactly who she was and accepted her and her medical needs with unconditional love. Read more > > Man with Down syndrome celebrates 76th birthday as family confirms opposition to abortion > George McCullagh is thought to be the oldest person living with Down syndrome in Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. His parents were told he would not live to survive his teenage years, but he celebrated his 76th birthday on June 1st ? social distance style ? and his family showed support of a pro-life motion to reject an extreme abortion law allowing abortion up until birth for preborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome. Read more > > Man accused of raping his young daughters allegedly forced abortions to hide crimes > Pennsylvania State Police have arrested Jason Daniel Goodwill, 51, with 20 charges related to rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child ? his daughter and stepdaughter. The alleged abuse was exposed when Goodwill?s 12-year-old daughter confided in his 20-year-old stepdaughter that Goodwill had been sexually assaulting her. Read more > > > New CBS poll: Majority of Americans want abortion restricted or outlawed > A recent poll from CBS News has found that the majority of Americans feel a change in abortion law in the U.S. is needed. Fifty-five (55) percent of the 1,309 individuals surveyed ? including 331 of whom identified as Republicans and 454 of whom identified as Democrats ? want to see greater abortion restrictions, or to see it entirely outlawed, in the United States. Read more > > WIN: Three Christian universities stop promoting Planned Parenthood > Lubbock Christian University, affiliated with Churches of Christ in Texas; Clarks Summit University, a Baptist college in Pennsylvania; and Pepperdine University, affiliated with the Churches of Christ in California, were three of over 70 Christian schools that received a letter of concern from Students for Life Action regarding their promotion of the abortion industry to students. Each of those schools listened to what Students for Life had to say and decided to remove Planned Parenthood from their student resources page on their websites. Read more > > Austin City Council uses taxpayer dollars to fund group helping minors get secret abortions > Today, the Austin City Council in Austin, Texas, unanimously passed a measure to provide taxpayer funding to an organization that circumvents state law to allow abortionists to commit abortions on teenage girls without parental consent. Read more > > Formerly conjoined twins whose parents refused abortion just graduated preschool > Formerly conjoined twins, who survived a 15-hour separation surgery, have just graduated from preschool, and are heading to kindergarten. It?s another exciting update for the boys who beat the odds, starting with when their parents refused abortion. Read more > > New Trump HHS rule affirms that abortion is not a civil right > The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized a rule on June 12 clarifying that abortion is not a civil right, rolling back language adopted during the Obama administration. Read more > > Abortion led to a lifetime of regret for Duck Dynasty's Lisa Robertson > In 2015, Lisa Robertson and her husband Alan, both of ?Duck Dynasty? fame, published a book that included information about an abortion Robertson had when she was a teenager. In her new book, ?Desperate Forgiveness,? she is now revealing more details about that abortion which she says she now regrets. Read more > > Live Action News is the publishing arm of Live Action > > Live Action is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Gifts are tax-deductible in the United States. > No goods or services are offered or given in exchange for contributions > > 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 jbn at forestfield.org Sat Jun 20 21:37:27 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:37:27 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Recommended videos for AOTA/NfN timeslots Message-ID: War: illegal annexation, sanctions Glenn Greenwald https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2_0lnM_96s -- (55m 33s) Is Israel poised to admit it annexed the West Bank? Guest: Omar Barghouti, Human rights activist, co Grayzone: "Push Back with Aaron Mat?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDu4vX2AKM4 -- (27m 11s) Crippling new sanctions punish Syrian civilians for US defeat in proxy war -J From carl at newsfromneptune.com Sun Jun 21 22:26:33 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2020 17:26:33 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Tulsa massacre References: <20200621215227.1.u1rg3zia3a@mg2.substack.com> Message-ID: <9CE362F3-3E2A-4773-B8E8-453BA762FF5E@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Ryan Grim > Subject: Tulsa massacre > Date: June 21, 2020 at 4:52:42 PM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: "Ryan Grim" > > Tulsa massacre > Ryan Grim > Jun 21 > Donald Trump is reportedly ?furious? at the embarrassingly low attendance at his Tulsa, Oklahoma rally, initially scheduled for Juneteenth but moved to the next day in response to the obvious criticism. Tulsa, of course, is the site of one of the most violent pogroms against a blossoming local black community, part of a wave of violence kicked off after the movie Birth of a Nation marked (and also inspired) the resurrection of the Klan. > > Teenagers across the country strategically RSVP?d? for the rally, leading the campaign to boast of the massive expected numbers. That, in turn, probably dissuaded some people from attending. Why stand in the heat with 200,000 people, many of them infected with the plague, just to get turned away from a packed arena? Trump is said to be livid with his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, who is already on thin ice, blamed for Tump?s poor polling. That?s good for Democrats, because, this snafu aside, Parscale is dangerously good at his job. The more he?s marginalized, the better for Biden. > > New York and Kentucky have primaries on Tuesday, with a whole slew of progressives challenging incumbents up and down the ballot in New York. Here?s a rundown of the most interesting races. Jamaal Bowman is angling to knock off Eliot Engel (who is getting help from Republicans ), and Yvette Clarke and Carolyn Maloney might lose to challengers too. And Mondaire Jones, heavily backed by the institutional progressive world, might win an open primary just outside the city. > In Kentucky, Amy McGrath has spent $30 million to find herself trailing in the primary to Charles Booker, who had raised less than a million until the last few weeks. Mail in voting has been going on for some time, so if she somehow survives, it?s because he surged just a bit too late. But his campaign is confident there are enough votes outstanding to eclipse her. Much of it, sadly, will come down to the mechanics of voting on Election Day. There is only one polling location in all of Louisville. If there?s chaos, it helps McGrath. Booker?s closing add -- ?From the Hood to the Holler? -- is a contemporary version of Jesse Jackson?s Rainbow Coalition,?and it?s quite something, one of the most effective closing ads I?ve seen . > > A couple pieces from earlier you might like: > > One of the nation?s top federal judges sent a bizarre, court-wide email mangling the history of the Civil War to give it a ?both sides? kind of feel, and a clerk responded to him, also replying-all. Very, very much worth the read . > > And with Matthew Cunningham-Cook, I have a piece on the legacy of Juneteenth , and the importance of understanding the central role the enslaved people themselves played in their emancipation. > > This piece in Foreign Affairs (which I did not write), The Rise of Strategic Corruption , is quite important, and awfully frightening. > > You?re on the free list for Bad News . For the full experience, become a paying subscriber. > Subscribe > ? 2020 Ryan Grim Unsubscribe > 1701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW/Washington, DC 20016 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net Mon Jun 22 15:20:40 2020 From: davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net (David Johnson) Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2020 10:20:40 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] FW: [New post] Biden And His Ventriloquists Keep Out-Hawking Trump In-Reply-To: <139971992.8462.0@wordpress.com> References: <139971992.8462.0@wordpress.com> Message-ID: <002801d648a8$b0df5420$129dfc60$@comcast.net> Caitlin Johnstone posted: "Joe Biden keeps trying to out-warmonger Donald Trump, and by Joe Biden I of course mean the team of handlers who are animating the dementia-ravaged corpse of the Biden campaign like a ventriloquist operating a wooden dummy. In response to Trump suggest" New post on Caitlin Johnstone Image removed by sender. Image removed by sender. Biden And His Ventriloquists Keep Out-Hawking Trump by Caitlin Johnstone Joe Biden keeps trying to out-warmonger Donald Trump, and by Joe Biden I of course mean the team of handlers who are animating the dementia-ravaged corpse of the Biden campaign like a ventriloquist operating a wooden dummy. In response to Trump suggesting an openness to scaling back his administration's murderous Venezuela policy and meeting with President Nicol?s Maduro, whoever runs Biden's Twitter account for him seized upon the moment to assert that the former vice president will be doing no such thing if elected commander-in-chief. "Trump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro," tweeted Biden Incorporated. "As President, I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy." "Translation: if Trump retreats from his current policy of trying to sanction and suffocate Venezuelan into submission, Biden will make sure to revive it," journalist Aaron Mat? said in response. "To be clear, Joe Biden is now attacking Donald Trump from the right on Venezuela," said journalist Walker Bragman. Trump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro. As President, I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy. https://t.co/eUt28UxyXS ? Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 22, 2020 As FAIR.org's Alan MacLeod accurately observed last year, this phrase "the Venezuelan people" is only ever invoked by the political/media class of the US-centralized empire for sloganeering purposes in support of US-led regime change interventionism in that nation, despite an overwhelming majority of Venezuelans opposing all US interventionism including sanctions. This tactic of attacking Donald Trump for being insufficiently warlike is nothing new for Biden Inc, nor is it limited to Venezuela. During the primary debates Biden attacked Trump for being insufficiently hawkish toward North Korea, claiming the president was wrong to meet with Kim Jong Un because it gives the leader "legitimacy", whatever that means. An April Biden campaign ad accused the president of being too soft on China by failing to force Beijing to allow US government officials into Wuhan to monitor the governing of a sovereign nation during a pandemic outbreak. ?Trump praised the Chinese 15 times in January and February as the coronavirus spread across the world,? says the ad?s narrator in an ominous voice. ?Trump never got a CDC team on the ground in China. And the travel ban he brags about? Trump let in 40,000 travelers from China into America after he signed it. Not exactly airtight.? I wouldn?t meet with Kim Jong Un without pre-conditions. By meeting with him, Donald Trump gave Kim Jong Un what he was looking for: legitimacy. I will work closely with our allies and hold China accountable for its lack of pressure on the Kim regime?s bad behavior. #DemDebate ? Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 15, 2020 Biden has attacked Trump's partial troop withdrawal from Syria, using talking points from the so-called war on terror to absurdly claim during a primary debate that the president is putting America at risk of a terrorist strike from ISIS. "We have ISIS that?s going to come here,? Biden said. ?They are going to damage the United States of America. That?s why we got involved in the first place.? And of course Biden & Co have been attacking Trump for being too soft on Russia, despite this administration's many, many dangerously hawkish new cold war escalations against Moscow. "We need a President who will stand up to the Kremlin, push back against Putin, and take immediate steps to ensure the security of our elections," Biden's Twitter account said last year. This line of attack is so ubiquitous in the Biden campaign that it sometimes just takes the form of a vague, general swipe at Trump's unwillingness to be more warlike, with an April tweet reading simply "Donald Trump says he?s a wartime president ? it?s time for him to act like one." Donald Trump says he?s a wartime president ? it?s time for him to act like one. ? Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 18, 2020 Again, this is Donald Trump these people are talking about. The same president who imprisoned Julian Assange for exposing US war crimes, killed tens of thousands of Venezuelans with starvation sanctions, vetoed attempts to save Yemen from US-backed genocide, is working to foment civil war in Iran using starvation sanctions and CIA ops with the stated goal of effecting regime change, nearly started a full-scale war with Iran by assassinating its top general, occupied Syrian oil fields and implemented devastating sanctions with the goal of preventing Syria?s reconstruction, greatly increased the number of troops in the Middle East and elsewhere, greatly increased the number of bombs dropped per day from the previous administration, killing record numbers of civilians, and reduced military accountability for those airstrikes. The second-to-last thing the world needs is political pressure placed on Donald fucking Trump to be more warlike. The very last thing the world needs is a US president who ends up being even more warlike than Trump. America is a war machine on top of a police state on top of a mass media psyop. Only people who are willing to keep these psychopathic mechanisms in place are permitted to ascend to presidential candidacy. While all the news cameras focus on the relatively minor differences between presidents and presidential candidates, you can learn a lot more about America and what drives it by looking at their similarities. ___________________ Thanks for reading! 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, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and 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, use or translate 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 | June 22, 2020 at 12:44 pm | Tags: #Trump, biden, election, Maduro, Politics, war | Categories: Article, News | URL: https://wp.me/p9tj6M-2cu 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/2020/06/22/biden-and-his-ventriloquists-keep-out-hawking-trump/ Image removed by sender.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... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 344 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 368 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 332 bytes Desc: not available URL: From deb.pdamerica at gmail.com Tue Jun 23 10:20:47 2020 From: deb.pdamerica at gmail.com (Debra Schrishuhn) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2020 05:20:47 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Crystal Lake Park geese slaughtered Message-ID: As you all know by now, at 5:30 Monday morning, the Urbana Park District had USDA round up and gas to death over 100 Canada geese and goslings for their crimes of being messy, inconveniencing park visitors who apparently want a goose-free experience, and being attracted to habitat that UPD created and continues to maintain. Some birders supported the slaughter to restore "ecological balance" to an urban park that is inherently unbalanced as the result of a partially dammed stream surrounded by gently sloped banks cleared of brush and planted with non-native lawn grasses mowed weekly. Some birders didn't like the noise of the gregarious goose voices competing with the vehicular traffic, hospital emergency campus, and mini-malls surrounding the park. Some birders are, well, just snobs, valuing their serious pseudo-pristine bird walks looking for avian rarities and occasional visitors to the middle of a bustling college town, over the easy-to-spot and easy-to-identify Canada geese, ever present and reliable denizens of Crystal Lake Park. Just as conservationist Aldo Leopold bemoaned that Illinois had been made safe for soybeans, Crystal Lake Park has been temporarily ridded of its (by some) unwanted geese. Geese will return, as nature abhors a vacuum. The twin cities of Champaign-Urbana have over 50 retention ponds with gently sloping banks surrounded by manicured lawns, relatively free of predators. Geese will return because UPD has not reduced attractive habitat or done anything to manage the goose population outside the park bounds. Geese will return and the cycle of human violence--variously euphemized as a "charity harvest" and "mercy killing"-- will repeat unless UPD is held accountable for its irresponsible management of city public spaces. Debra Schrishuhn, birder and advocate for the unrepresented P.S. Thanks and condolences to all who stood up for the geese and opposed UPD's deceptive and ill-considered violence -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbw292002 at gmail.com Tue Jun 23 14:11:56 2020 From: jbw292002 at gmail.com (John W.) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2020 09:11:56 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] Crystal Lake Park geese slaughtered In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: It strikes me that this "goose harvest" to maintain "ecological balance" in an inherently unbalanced and fragmented ecosystem is a microcosm of pretty much everything that humans have been doing throughout most of the world for the past couple hundred years or so. Cf. the killing of bees by the billions, to be then replaced by "mechanical bees" of some Frankensteinian sort. The mind boggles. John Wason On Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 5:21 AM Debra Schrishuhn via Peace < peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: As you all know by now, at 5:30 Monday morning, the Urbana Park District > had USDA round up and gas to death over 100 Canada geese and goslings for > their crimes of being messy, inconveniencing park visitors who apparently > want a goose-free experience, and being attracted to habitat that UPD > created and continues to maintain. > > Some birders supported the slaughter to restore "ecological balance" to an > urban park that is inherently unbalanced as the result of a partially > dammed stream surrounded by gently sloped banks cleared of brush and > planted with non-native lawn grasses mowed weekly. Some birders didn't like > the noise of the gregarious goose voices competing with the vehicular > traffic, hospital emergency campus, and mini-malls surrounding the park. > Some birders are, well, just snobs, valuing their serious pseudo-pristine > bird walks looking for avian rarities and occasional visitors to the middle > of a bustling college town, over the easy-to-spot and easy-to-identify > Canada geese, ever present and reliable denizens of Crystal Lake Park. > > Just as conservationist Aldo Leopold bemoaned that Illinois had been made > safe for soybeans, Crystal Lake Park has been temporarily ridded of its (by > some) unwanted geese. Geese will return, as nature abhors a vacuum. The > twin cities of Champaign-Urbana have over 50 retention ponds with gently > sloping banks surrounded by manicured lawns, relatively free of predators. > Geese will return because UPD has not reduced attractive habitat or done > anything to manage the goose population outside the park bounds. Geese will > return and the cycle of human violence--variously euphemized as a "charity > harvest" and "mercy killing"-- will repeat unless UPD is held accountable > for its irresponsible management of city public spaces. > > Debra Schrishuhn, birder and advocate for the unrepresented > > > P.S. Thanks and condolences to all who stood up for the geese and opposed > UPD's deceptive and ill-considered violence > > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From deb.pdamerica at gmail.com Tue Jun 23 14:27:46 2020 From: deb.pdamerica at gmail.com (Debra Schrishuhn) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2020 09:27:46 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] Crystal Lake Park geese slaughtered In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <21EF9C7D-7C04-47E3-86A2-7A179FDF0DC4@gmail.com> It does indeed. As special as Crystal Lake Park is in many ways, it is artificial, degraded, and as you say, fragmented habitat. Sent from my iPhone > On Jun 23, 2020, at 9:11 AM, John W. wrote: > > > It strikes me that this "goose harvest" to maintain "ecological balance" in an inherently unbalanced and fragmented ecosystem is a microcosm of pretty much everything that humans have been doing throughout most of the world for the past couple hundred years or so. Cf. the killing of bees by the billions, to be then replaced by "mechanical bees" of some Frankensteinian sort. The mind boggles. > > John Wason > > > >> On Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 5:21 AM Debra Schrishuhn via Peace wrote: >> >> As you all know by now, at 5:30 Monday morning, the Urbana Park District had USDA round up and gas to death over 100 Canada geese and goslings for their crimes of being messy, inconveniencing park visitors who apparently want a goose-free experience, and being attracted to habitat that UPD created and continues to maintain. >> >> Some birders supported the slaughter to restore "ecological balance" to an urban park that is inherently unbalanced as the result of a partially dammed stream surrounded by gently sloped banks cleared of brush and planted with non-native lawn grasses mowed weekly. Some birders didn't like the noise of the gregarious goose voices competing with the vehicular traffic, hospital emergency campus, and mini-malls surrounding the park. Some birders are, well, just snobs, valuing their serious pseudo-pristine bird walks looking for avian rarities and occasional visitors to the middle of a bustling college town, over the easy-to-spot and easy-to-identify Canada geese, ever present and reliable denizens of Crystal Lake Park. >> >> Just as conservationist Aldo Leopold bemoaned that Illinois had been made safe for soybeans, Crystal Lake Park has been temporarily ridded of its (by some) unwanted geese. Geese will return, as nature abhors a vacuum. The twin cities of Champaign-Urbana have over 50 retention ponds with gently sloping banks surrounded by manicured lawns, relatively free of predators. Geese will return because UPD has not reduced attractive habitat or done anything to manage the goose population outside the park bounds. Geese will return and the cycle of human violence--variously euphemized as a "charity harvest" and "mercy killing"-- will repeat unless UPD is held accountable for its irresponsible management of city public spaces. >> >> Debra Schrishuhn, birder and advocate for the unrepresented >> >> P.S. Thanks and condolences to all who stood up for the geese and opposed UPD's deceptive and ill-considered violence >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 Tue Jun 23 16:09:25 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2020 09:09:25 -0700 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] Crystal Lake Park geese slaughtered In-Reply-To: <21EF9C7D-7C04-47E3-86A2-7A179FDF0DC4@gmail.com> References: <21EF9C7D-7C04-47E3-86A2-7A179FDF0DC4@gmail.com> Message-ID: I see profits to be made, by developers, and I think my suspicions are borne out by the article in the NG, (?The park district is also in the middle of a multimillion-dollar project to improve Crystal Lake Park, including planting taller natural grasses that are less attractive to geese.?) Multi-million dollar project, to plant grass? It?s like US interventions for "humanitarian purposes,? based on lies in order to control the resources of other nations. On Jun 23, 2020, at 07:27, Debra Schrishuhn via Peace wrote: > > It does indeed. > > As special as Crystal Lake Park is in many ways, it is artificial, degraded, and as you say, fragmented habitat. > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Jun 23, 2020, at 9:11 AM, John W. > wrote: > >> >> It strikes me that this "goose harvest" to maintain "ecological balance" in an inherently unbalanced and fragmented ecosystem is a microcosm of pretty much everything that humans have been doing throughout most of the world for the past couple hundred years or so. Cf. the killing of bees by the billions, to be then replaced by "mechanical bees" of some Frankensteinian sort. The mind boggles. >> >> John Wason >> >> >> >> On Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 5:21 AM Debra Schrishuhn via Peace > wrote: >> >> As you all know by now, at 5:30 Monday morning, the Urbana Park District had USDA round up and gas to death over 100 Canada geese and goslings for their crimes of being messy, inconveniencing park visitors who apparently want a goose-free experience, and being attracted to habitat that UPD created and continues to maintain. >> >> Some birders supported the slaughter to restore "ecological balance" to an urban park that is inherently unbalanced as the result of a partially dammed stream surrounded by gently sloped banks cleared of brush and planted with non-native lawn grasses mowed weekly. Some birders didn't like the noise of the gregarious goose voices competing with the vehicular traffic, hospital emergency campus, and mini-malls surrounding the park. Some birders are, well, just snobs, valuing their serious pseudo-pristine bird walks looking for avian rarities and occasional visitors to the middle of a bustling college town, over the easy-to-spot and easy-to-identify Canada geese, ever present and reliable denizens of Crystal Lake Park. >> >> Just as conservationist Aldo Leopold bemoaned that Illinois had been made safe for soybeans, Crystal Lake Park has been temporarily ridded of its (by some) unwanted geese. Geese will return, as nature abhors a vacuum. The twin cities of Champaign-Urbana have over 50 retention ponds with gently sloping banks surrounded by manicured lawns, relatively free of predators. Geese will return because UPD has not reduced attractive habitat or done anything to manage the goose population outside the park bounds. Geese will return and the cycle of human violence--variously euphemized as a "charity harvest" and "mercy killing"-- will repeat unless UPD is held accountable for its irresponsible management of city public spaces. >> >> Debra Schrishuhn, birder and advocate for the unrepresented >> >> P.S. Thanks and condolences to all who stood up for the geese and opposed UPD's deceptive and ill-considered violence >> _______________________________________________ >> Peace mailing list >> Peace at lists.chambana.net >> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Tue Jun 23 16:39:00 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:39:00 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] Crystal Lake Park geese slaughtered In-Reply-To: <21EF9C7D-7C04-47E3-86A2-7A179FDF0DC4@gmail.com> References: <21EF9C7D-7C04-47E3-86A2-7A179FDF0DC4@gmail.com> Message-ID: <14363D05-880D-41AF-8530-AD5E4086C462@illinois.edu> Thanks for your sympathetic and informative report about our geese, Debra Isn?t all this just a reflection of what the development and evolution of human society/civilization has wrought. Where have all the animals gone? Which alive creatures are thriving?cockroaches? What has been the transformation of originally pristine(?) continents as human populations have in their expansion sought more space and safety for themselves? From birds to bisons to bees, to the loss of the fauna of Africa, in Europe, the western hemisphere, Asia. Yes, some of us struggle to keep what remains, ?wilderness?, but it is a losing battle it seems; we can only slow the process down. How will it all end? Do we ever look beyond our own short lifetimes? ?mkb On Jun 23, 2020, at 9:27 AM, Debra Schrishuhn via Peace-discuss > wrote: It does indeed. As special as Crystal Lake Park is in many ways, it is artificial, degraded, and as you say, fragmented habitat. Sent from my iPhone On Jun 23, 2020, at 9:11 AM, John W. > wrote: It strikes me that this "goose harvest" to maintain "ecological balance" in an inherently unbalanced and fragmented ecosystem is a microcosm of pretty much everything that humans have been doing throughout most of the world for the past couple hundred years or so. Cf. the killing of bees by the billions, to be then replaced by "mechanical bees" of some Frankensteinian sort. The mind boggles. John Wason On Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 5:21 AM Debra Schrishuhn via Peace > wrote: As you all know by now, at 5:30 Monday morning, the Urbana Park District had USDA round up and gas to death over 100 Canada geese and goslings for their crimes of being messy, inconveniencing park visitors who apparently want a goose-free experience, and being attracted to habitat that UPD created and continues to maintain. Some birders supported the slaughter to restore "ecological balance" to an urban park that is inherently unbalanced as the result of a partially dammed stream surrounded by gently sloped banks cleared of brush and planted with non-native lawn grasses mowed weekly. Some birders didn't like the noise of the gregarious goose voices competing with the vehicular traffic, hospital emergency campus, and mini-malls surrounding the park. Some birders are, well, just snobs, valuing their serious pseudo-pristine bird walks looking for avian rarities and occasional visitors to the middle of a bustling college town, over the easy-to-spot and easy-to-identify Canada geese, ever present and reliable denizens of Crystal Lake Park. Just as conservationist Aldo Leopold bemoaned that Illinois had been made safe for soybeans, Crystal Lake Park has been temporarily ridded of its (by some) unwanted geese. Geese will return, as nature abhors a vacuum. The twin cities of Champaign-Urbana have over 50 retention ponds with gently sloping banks surrounded by manicured lawns, relatively free of predators. Geese will return because UPD has not reduced attractive habitat or done anything to manage the goose population outside the park bounds. Geese will return and the cycle of human violence--variously euphemized as a "charity harvest" and "mercy killing"-- will repeat unless UPD is held accountable for its irresponsible management of city public spaces. Debra Schrishuhn, birder and advocate for the unrepresented P.S. Thanks and condolences to all who stood up for the geese and opposed UPD's deceptive and ill-considered violence _______________________________________________ Peace mailing list Peace at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace _______________________________________________ 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 Jun 24 04:33:58 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2020 23:33:58 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Foundation's David Goyer shilled for Apple while Apple is being sued for exploiting children Message-ID: <158b0c38-175f-4a65-e8a7-edf51cfb517c@forestfield.org> Apple recently announced a new sci-fi series ("Foundation") based on and named after Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" book series. One of the new series authors, David Goyer, was quoted in the ad for the series which was posted to YouTube. In https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgbPSA94Rqg David Goyer took some time to shill for Apple: > David Goyer: If ever there were a company that was hoping to, sort of, better > people's lives through technology, through connectivity, it's Apple. Tim Cook, Apple CEO, as quoted in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISJLvwDjxvU : > Tim Cook: Things must change. And Apple's committed to being a force for that > change. [...] Today, I'm proud to announce Apple's Racial Justice and Equity > Initiative with a $100 million commitment. RT's Jacqueline Vouga focuses on proper priorities in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISJLvwDjxvU : > Jacqueline Vouga: Thanks for the equivalent of your spare change, Tim. But let's > not forget that your company is one of a number accused of benefiting from child > labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Apple, Tesla, Dell, Alphabet (parent company of Google & YouTube), and Microsoft are among the firms being sued over forced child labor in Congo by Congolese families. Quoting from their lawsuit: > Defendants Apple, Alphabet... Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla are knowingly benefiting > from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children in the > Democratic Republic of Congo to mine cobalt, a key component of every > rechargeable lithium-ion battery used in the electronic devices these companies > manufacture. Apple has made horrific management decisions for years; from suicidal assembly lines in China -- remember the Foxconn suicide nets? -- to this. So it seems that what Goyer claimed Apple "was hoping to, sort of" achieve comes down to the reality of a virtue signaling donation instead of practical things that would help improve people's lives such as finding non-exploitative means of obtaining needed rare earths, ongoing policy changes to prevent exploiting workers, ensuring a living wage for all of their workers, and making cash payments to the families adversely affected by Apple's ongoing exploitative labor practices. Speaking of Apple's "spare change": Not that exploitation would be any more acceptable if Apple were poor and struggling to make ends meet, but they're clearly not. This is particularly striking given how much money Apple has to spend on making all of their workers' lives better (whether directly hired into Apple or working under subcontract, whether they're located close to the head office or far away). From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.#Finance > As of August 3, 2018, Apple was the largest publicly traded corporation in the > world by market capitalization. On August 2, 2018, Apple became the first > publicly traded U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market value. Apple was ranked > No. 4 on the 2018 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations > by total revenue. From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Wed Jun 24 13:16:44 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2020 09:16:44 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Tidings of comfort and joy from NY-16 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: God rest ye merry BernieBros may nothing you dismay, Remember Eliot Engel fell to earth Election Day! To pay him back for AIPAC's crimes, Iraq to present day O, tidings of comfort and joy, *Comfort and Joy!!!* O, tidings of comfort and joy! [image: image.png] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.png Type: image/png Size: 106736 bytes Desc: not available URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Thu Jun 25 15:56:18 2020 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2020 10:56:18 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Racial-communalist politics and the second assassination of Abraham Lincoln Message-ID: Racial-communalist politics and the second assassination of Abraham Lincoln25 June 2020 One month after the killing of George Floyd, the mass multi-racial demonstrations against police violence are in danger of being hijacked and misdirected by reactionary political forces who are attempting to promote racial divisions, sabotage the unity of working people and youth, and undermine the development of the class struggle against capitalism. This campaign is now concentrated on desecrating and destroying the statues of figures who led the American Revolution and the Civil War. It is difficult to find words that adequately express the sense of revulsion produced by the monstrous attacks on memorials that honor the memory of Abraham Lincoln, the United States? greatest president, who led the country during the Second American Revolution that destroyed the Slave Power and emancipated millions of enslaved African Americans. On the evening of April 14, 1865, less than a week after the surrender of the main Confederate army, which brought the four-year Civil War to an end, Lincoln was shot in the head by the pro-slavery actor John Wilkes Booth. Nine hours later, at 7:22 on the morning of April 15, Lincoln died of the wound inflicted by the assassin. Standing beside Lincoln?s death bed, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton famously declared: ?Now he belongs to the ages.? Lincoln?s martyrdom produced an outpouring of grief throughout the United States and the world. The working class recognized that it had lost a great champion of democracy and human equality. Karl Marx, writing on behalf of the International Working Men?s Association, wrote in the days after Lincoln?s assassination that he was ?one of the rare men who succeed in becoming great, without ceasing to be good.? Abraham Lincoln was an extraordinarily complex man, whose life and politics reflected the contradictions of his time. He could not, as he once stated, ?escape history.? Determined to save the Union, he was driven by the logic of the bloody civil war to resort to revolutionary measures. In the course of the brutal struggle, Lincoln gave expression to the revolutionary-democratic aspirations that inspired hundreds of thousands of Americans to fight and sacrifice their lives for a ?new birth of freedom.? Every period of political upsurge in the United States has drawn inspiration from Lincoln?s life. Since its opening in 1922, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC has been the site of some of the most important moments in the struggle against racial oppression and for equality. In 1939, when Hitler?s Nazis were on the march in Europe and fascism had many sympathizers among the American ruling elite, the famous African American contralto Marian Anderson was denied the right to sing at Constitution Hall. So instead she sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before a crowd of 75,000. In 1963, at the March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood at the same location as he delivered his ?I Have a Dream? speech, calling for equality and racial integration before a crowd of 250,000. Later in that decade, tens of thousands of youth protesting the Vietnam War assembled at the monument. It is not coincidental that the working-class upsurge of the 1930s was associated with many great artistic depictions of Lincoln, including the films *Young Mr. Lincoln* (1939) and *Abe Lincoln in Illinois* (1940). Aaron Copland?s beloved orchestral-narrative masterpiece, *Lincoln Portrait* (1942), concludes with the declaration that the sixteenth president of the United States ?is ever-lasting in the memory of his countrymen.? But now, 155 years after the tragedy at Ford?s Theater, Lincoln is the subject of a second assassination. This one must not succeed. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington DC?s nonvoting delegate to Congress, said she will introduce a bill to remove the famous Emancipation Monument from the Lincoln Park in Washington, DC. The race-fixated protesters have declared their intention to tear down the monument, which was paid for by former slaves and movingly dedicated by black abolitionist Frederick Douglass in 1876. ?The designers of the Emancipation Statue in Lincoln Park in DC didn?t take into account the views of African Americans,? Norton stated in a Tweet. Democrats assert that the statue demeans ?the black community? because it depicts Lincoln freeing a slave crouched in a runner?s pose, which the sculptor intended to symbolize the liberation of the Civil War. Norton?s reactionary effort is being supported by Democratic Party officials in Boston, who will hold hearings in the coming weeks to entertain demands for the removal of a replica of the Emancipation Memorial in that city. Lincoln is not the only leader of the anti-Confederate forces to be targeted. In Seattle last week, a statue of Ulysses S. Grant, the great general of the victorious Union army and later president of the United States, was torn down. An even filthier example of the racialist campaign is the desecration of the Boston monument honoring the legendary 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The 54th Massachusetts, led by abolitionist Robert Gould Shaw, was the second all-black regiment organized in the Civil War. Protesters object to the fact that the 54th, famously depicted in the film *Glory* (1989), was commanded by a white officer, Shaw. Holland Cotter, the *New York Times?* co-chief art critic, slandered the monument as a ?white supremacist? visual for its depiction of Shaw leading his African American battalion. Another Union monument, a statue of abolitionist Hans Christian Heg (1829?1863), was pulled down Tuesday night in Madison, Wisconsin. The statue was beheaded before being thrown into the river. A Norwegian immigrant, Heg led the 15th Wisconsin regiment, known as the Scandinavian Regiment, against the Confederacy. Prior to the war, Heg, a member of the Free Soil Party, fiercely opposed slavery and headed an anti-slave catcher militia in Wisconsin. He was killed at the age of 33 at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863. The Socialist Equality Party rejects all the lame liberal excuses and justifications that are offered to legitimize the desecration of these memorials. Actions, whatever the motivations ascribed to them, have objective significance and very real political consequences. The assault on Lincoln monuments and other memorials honoring the leaders of the American Revolution and Civil War are political provocations aimed at whipping up racial animosities. Such provocations are well-known forms of communalist politics, which resemble the burning down of Muslim mosques by Hindu fanatics or Hindu temples by Muslim fanatics. Here in the United States, the statues are being attacked as examples of ?white? rule. The attacks on the statues are the outcome of a campaign by the two capitalist parties and various reactionary elements in the upper-middle class to racialize and communalize American politics. The growing intensity of this campaign is a response to the upsurge of working-class militancy, which is seen as a threat to capitalism. Far from welcoming the interracial unity displayed in the demonstrations against police brutality, the ruling elites and most affluent sections of the middle class are terrified by its political implications. In the promotion of racial politics, there is a division of labor between the Democratic and Republican parties. Trump and the Republicans pitch their appeal to the most politically disoriented elements in American society, manipulating their economic insecurities in a manner intended to incite racial antagonism and deflect social anger away from the capitalist system. The Democratic Party employs another variant of communalist politics, evaluating and explaining all social problems and conflicts in racial terms. Whatever the particular issue may be?poverty, police brutality, unemployment, low wages, deaths caused by the pandemic?it is almost exclusively defined in racial terms. In this racialized fantasy world, ?whites? are endowed with an innate ?privilege? that exempts them from all hardship. This grotesque distortion of present-day reality requires a no less grotesque distortion of the past. For contemporary America to be portrayed as a land of relentless racial warfare, it is necessary to create a historical narrative in the same terms. In place of the class struggle, the entire history of the United States is presented as the story of perpetual racial conflict. Even before the outbreak of the pandemic, efforts to create racial foundations for contemporary communalist politics were well underway. The *New York Times*, the principal voice of corporate and financial patrons of the Democratic Party, concocted the insidious 1619 Project, the central purpose of which was to promote a racial narrative. The main argument of this project, which was unveiled in August 2019, was that the American Revolution was undertaken to protect North American slavery and that the Civil War, led by the racist Abraham Lincoln, had nothing to do with the ending of slavery. The slaves, so the new story went, liberated themselves. The purpose of lies about history, as Trotsky explained, is to conceal real social contradictions. In this case, the contradictions are those embedded in the staggering levels of social inequality produced by capitalism. These contradictions can be resolved on a progressive basis only through the methods of class struggle, in which the working class fights consciously to put an end to capitalism and replaces it with socialism. Efforts to divert and sabotage that struggle by dissolving class identity into the miasma of racial identity lead inexorably in the direction of fascism. Through the promotion of a racial version of communalism, all factions of the ruling class seek to divide the working class so as to better exploit it and ward off the threat of revolution. It is no coincidence that when American society is straining under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 120,000 people and sparked an economic crisis on the scale of the Great Depression, the Democrats are ever-more ferociously seeking to make race the fundamental issue. The alternative to the politics of racial communalism is the socialist politics of working-class unity. This is the program of the Socialist Equality Party, and those who agree with this perspective should join our party. Niles Niemuth and David North https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/06/25/pers-j24.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Jun 25 18:24:23 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2020 13:24:23 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_Why_a_Threatened_Teacher_Walkou?= =?utf-8?q?t_Points_the_Way_to_Reverse_America=E2=80=99s_Underfunded_Publi?= =?utf-8?q?c_Services?= References: <26595127-2394-4d4f-9733-19a95e463602@dfw1s10mta53.xt.local> Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Our Schools > Subject: Why a Threatened Teacher Walkout Points the Way to Reverse America?s Underfunded Public Services > Date: March 2, 2020 at 12:28:59 PM CST > To: carl at newsfromneptune.com > Reply-To: info at ind.media > > > > Can't see this email? Read Online > > > Please support our work. > We can?t do it without you. > Why a Threatened Teacher Walkout Points the Way to Reverse America?s Underfunded Public Services > Teachers in St. Paul, Minnesota, are raising the stakes this March to shift the politics of what the public funds. > > By Sarah Lahm > > In the early morning of February 26, a chill hung in the air as a line of teachers and school support staffers clad in bright red union hats, jackets or some combination thereof stood on a busy street corner outside of Highland Park Middle School in St. Paul, Minnesota. > > As cars sped past, some with horns blaring in support, the teachers and school workers?who are members of the St. Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE)?hoisted signs proclaiming their willingness to fight on behalf of students. > > SPFE represents more than 3,500 teachers, education assistants and school and community support staff members. Minnesota state law requires districts to negotiate with their unionized employees every two years, and the current round of contract talks between SPFE and the St. Paul Public Schools, under the leadership of Superintendent Joe Gothard, has been going on since last May. > > Now, SPFE President Nick Faber says the union and the students and families they serve can no longer wait for Gothard and his team to step up and negotiate in good faith. On February 20, a majority of SPFE members voted to authorize a strike against the St. Paul Public Schools. > > If an agreement between the union and the school district is not reached by March 10, thousands of SPFE members will walk off the job for the first time since 1946. > > The key contract items SPFE is pushing for include fully staffed mental health teams in all schools, a greater investment in special education staffing and programming, and an increase in the number of multilingual staff members. > > This puts the union squarely in line with other social justice-oriented labor movements that have been revived in recent years, as seen in events such as the teacher strikes in Chicago and Los Angeles in 2019. Like SPFE, the Chicago and Los Angeles unions also advocated for more than the typical bread-and-butter issues of union contracts, such as salary increases and seniority rights, and additionally pushed for better living and learning conditions for students. > > All of this is taking place against the backdrop of the recent wave of Red for Ed teacher strikes and wildcat actions that have roiled school districts and state capitals from California to Oklahoma, West Virginia, Puerto Rico, and beyond. > > These teacher-led movements for greater pay, smaller class sizes, and more respect and stability for public education overall have been credited with inspiring worker strikes in other fields too, including auto workers and Amazon employees. Along the way, organized labor?s profile has risen, making it a sought-after voting bloc in today?s political landscape. > > This is likely a main reason why Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar sent out tweets in support of SPFE?s potential strike, although all three also have established track records of support for union workers. > > SPFE?s emphasis on the needs of students has also earned the union crucial support from community members. > > Kirinda Anderson is the parent of a seventh-grader at St. Paul?s Highland Middle School, and she joined the teachers as they rallied in front of the school on February 26. As she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with those holding picket signs and chanting slogans, Anderson said she came out to implore the St. Paul schools to act with urgency on behalf of all students. > > ?I attended a budget meeting held by the district in January,? Anderson recalled. ?There, the district said they have a three-to-five-year plan to address the need for more mental health support in schools, but our students can?t wait that long.? > > They need help as soon as possible, she noted, citing the high levels of trauma many students have to contend with both inside and outside of school. > > ?If the district is serious about educating all of St. Paul?s children,? Anderson said, ?they should settle the contract with SPFE now.? > > As chants of ?Get up, get down/St. Paul is a union town? and ?S? se puede ? rang out around her, Highland Park Middle School music teacher Beth Swanberg struggled to hold back tears when explaining why she was rallying on the street corner before the school day started. > > ?I have heard that one out of four students, overall, has an undiagnosed mental health issue, and they need so much more support,? she said. They are simply dealing with what?s going on around them, Swanberg stated, from the effects of institutionalized racism to the trauma of gun violence. > > It adds up to everyday stress, she said, and that stress is impacting students? ability to learn and stay focused on school. > > Swanberg also drew attention to some of the more global factors that make it hard for teachers and support staff to reach every student they work with. For one thing, she pointed out, special education mandates are woefully underfunded at the federal level, leaving states and school districts to make up the difference by increasing caseloads for teachers, for example, or by pulling money out of general education funds. > > Another factor looming in the background, Swanberg believes, is a decades-long disinvestment in public services across the United States. ?There has been a starving of public entities?from health care to public schools and public housing,? she argued, to the detriment of the students and families who are most in need of such services. > > As if on cue, a new report shows that a large number of Minnesota?s public schools are facing serious budget deficits even though lawmakers authorized a $540 million funding increase in 2019. School districts in the Twin Cities metro area alone are staring down $93 million in funding gaps, according to a local news outlet. > > In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio, Scott Croonquist of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts put the blame for this gap on the ?rising cost of educating students with a growing number of special needs.? It?s a problem Croonquist says won?t be fixed until the state reckons with the chronic underfunding of the special education services districts are legally required to provide. > > Teacher salaries in the state?which fall near the middle of average teacher salaries nationally?are also rising just slightly faster than the annual 2 percent bump in education funding authorized by the Minnesota legislature. > > On top of this, public education in the state, as well as across the country, has been largely underfunded since at least the early 2000s?right as the standardized test-based accountability movement arose, demanding that ?no child be left behind.? > > These factors have helped put the squeeze on school districts like St. Paul?s, where two-thirds of students live in poverty, according to federal guidelines, and hundreds lack a permanent home. The city?s schools are also some of the most racially and linguistically diverse in the United States. > > The question for many St. Paul teachers and school staffers is what to do about this. Should the narrative of failing public schools be allowed to continue to flourish, with little public discussion of the threat posed by privatization, underfunding, and rising poverty rates for students and families? > > Or should SPFE insist on striking in order to fight for the schools and the support systems they believe all kids need and deserve? > > ?Educators have pushed the district to settle the contract since we started bargaining in May,? Faber said in a statement. If that settlement doesn?t come by March 10, expect to see a wave of union red filling St. Paul?s streets in response. > > Sarah Lahm is a Minneapolis-based writer and researcher. Her work has appeared in outlets such as the Progressive and In These Times. Follow her on Twitter @sarahrlahm . > > Corporate media won?t cover stories > like the one you just read.? > Support our work. > > Update Your Preferences | Unsubscribe | Support IMI > Our Schools is a project of the Independent Media Institute. > To find out more about Our Schools and its latest work, click here . > > 18 West 21st Street, Suite 901, New York, NY 10010 > ? 2020 Independent Media Institute. All Rights Reserved. > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From r-szoke at illinois.edu Thu Jun 25 21:12:47 2020 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2020 21:12:47 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Trump the Autocrat Message-ID: ?The word fascist is perfectly accurate when applied to Donald Trump? The writer Masha Gessen sees parallels between the US and Russia under Putin ? Hugh Linehan, The Irish Times, Thu, Jun 25, 2020 As we hurtle towards one of the most divisive, ugly and consequential elections in American history, the flow of books about what?s happening in the United States right now is on a similar upward trajectory. Masha Gessen brings a very particular perspective to the task. The author, activist and New Yorker magazine journalist first came to the US as a teenager, in the 1980s, from what was then the USSR, before returning to Russia a decade later as an investigative reporter, getting a ringside view of the country?s transition from post-Soviet chaos to a new model of undemocratic, autocratic government. It was the Putin regime?s assault on LGBT+ rights that finally forced Gessen and their family to leave again for the US, seven years ago. (Gessen, who identifies as nonbinary, has said they were ?probably the only publicly out gay person in the whole country?.) Gessen was one of the foremost chroniclers of Russia?s descent under Vladimir Putin into a kleptocratic ?mafia state?, and that perspective informs their new book, Surviving Autocracy. The title has its origin in a piece they wrote for the New York Review of Books in the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump?s 2016 election victory, laying out a set of rules for maintaining sanity in a bewildering time. . . . ? Donald Trump would like to be a totalitarian leader if he could. He really wants the whole country to be one giant Trump rally ? ? ? From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Jun 25 22:40:47 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2020 17:40:47 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Tell the U.S. Senate: People must be able to feed their families References: <5ef513ee3230b_85223fd4c2a72610502571e@ip-10-0-0-214.mail> Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Deborah Weinstein, Coalition on Human Needs" > Subject: Tell the U.S. Senate: People must be able to feed their families > Date: June 25, 2020 at 4:15:26 PM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: info at chn.org > > > Tell the U.S. Senate: > > "Take immediate action to ensure struggling families, and vulnerable people have enough food to eat during the pandemic. Not only will increasing SNAP and child nutrition assistance benefits help address food insecurity, but increasing funds to these programs will give the economy a much-needed boost." > > ADD YOUR NAME > CG, > > The COVID-19 pandemic has created a daunting series of challenges for our country: not only are people facing a national public health emergency, but they are struggling to feed their families, as the economy hemorrhages millions of jobs. > > Because of the pandemic, we are seeing an unprecedented surge in Americans going without enough food. The lack of food and the struggle to eat a healthy meal is placing the hardest burdens on racial minorities and frontline workers, whose jobs tend to be low-paying. In the early weeks of the pandemic, one in five adults in the U.S. didn't have enough food to eat, according to the Urban Institute. > > Not only are we facing a public health crisis, but about half of all households have lost income from work and millions have lost their jobs during the pandemic, creating a massive recession. The official May unemployment rate hit 13.3 percent, but errors acknowledged by the Bureau of Labor Statistics would raise that to over 16 percent; and the combined unemployed and underemployed rate spiked to more than 20 percent. Increasing SNAP and child nutrition assistance benefits is an effective way to not only ensure everyone has access to healthy foods, but these programs are a proven way to quickly and effectively stimulate the economy. > > Add your name! Join CHN and our national coalition to demand the U.S. Senate take immediate action to increase SNAP and child nutrition assistance benefits. We are living in a dual crisis: near depression level jobless rates and millions of Americans without enough food to eat. > Essential workers are almost twice as likely as non-essential workers to use SNAP benefits because health, agriculture, food, and transportation workers earn disproportionately low wages. > > Black and brown communities throughout the United States are several times as likely to face an even greater need. As the nation wrestles with our difficult history of racial injustice, we must also consider these facts: 23.5 percent of Black households with children said they "sometimes or often" did not have enough food to eat during the past week; 18.4 percent of Latinx people said the same; compared to 9 percent of white people. > > Together, we must fight for racial equality and social justice. Making sure everyone, regardless of race or ethnicity, has enough food to feed their families, is a critical first step. > > Sign if you agree! The Senate must immediately pass legislation to boost funding for SNAP and child nutrition assistance and other essential programs to fight food insecurity throughout our country. > The positive economic impacts of increased SNAP, WIC and school meals funding are well known. These programs provide an effective boost to the economy because recipients spend benefits quickly, with positive impacts felt up and down the food chain?from farmers and food producers, to grocery retailers, stock clerks and local economies. > > Each $1 of SNAP benefits during a downturn, for example, generates between $1.50 and $1.80 in economic activity. > > We have all seen the pictures of people waiting hours for food at emergency food sites throughout the country. That is unacceptable. We must unite our voices to compel change. > > Add your name! Tell your Senators to act immediately to fight food insecurity. > Let's demand Congress and the White House act now to increase the SNAP maximum benefit by 15 percent; suspend rules that reduce SNAP eligibility and benefits; extend and expand the programs to reach all children missing out on meals they used to receive at school or child care; and strengthen the ability of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to respond to the COVID crisis. > > People in our country, regardless of income, must be able to eat. It is that simple. > > Thank you for your support during this challenging time, > > Deborah Weinstein > Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs > > DONATE NOW > > https://chn.org/ > Coalition on Human Needs > 1825 K Street NW, Suite 411 > Washington, DC 20006 > PAID FOR BY THE COALITION ON HUMAN NEEDS > Sent via ActionNetwork.org . To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Coalition On Human Needs, please click here . > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Jun 25 22:55:20 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2020 17:55:20 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: nearing 125,000 COVID-19 deaths References: Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Climate Power 2020" > Subject: nearing 125,000 COVID-19 deaths > Date: June 25, 2020 at 2:42:18 PM CDT > To: galliher at uiuc.edu > Reply-To: info at climatepower2020.org > > > Friends, > > Yesterday, the Trump administration announced it will end all federal funding for COVID-19 testing by the end of this month. Just hours later, we hit a record for the most new coronavirus cases reported in a day. > > Seriously. Cases are spiking nationwide and states can?t even keep up with testing demands. Dr. Fauci says we need more testing, but Trump insists less testing means fewer cases. (For the record, that?s not how that works.) > > Meanwhile, Trump is back to holding indoor campaign rallies and events, including two happening today in Wisconsin. > > Coronavirus is far from ?going away,? despite what he says at these events. And Trump?s refusal to acknowledge this global pandemic as a real threat is putting millions of American lives at risk. > > Do your part. Speak Out. > > SHARE ON FACEBOOK > SHARE ON TWITTER > We?re nearing 125,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United States. Still, Trump claims not to know what the ?19? in the virus?s name even stands for, and the European Union is considering restricting American travel because he?s denied the science and handled the pandemic so disastrously. > > Trump hasn?t held a formal press briefing on America?s response to the coronavirus pandemic in 41 days because he?s too busy hitting the campaign trail, slowing testing, and spreading blatant lies. > > How bad does it have to get before he starts listening? > > Thank you for sharing, > > Climate Power 2020 > > > > Home About > > Climate Power 2020 > 815 Black Lives Matter Plaza NW > Washington, DC 20005 > United States > > If you wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe . > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Jun 25 23:23:36 2020 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2020 18:23:36 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: The police that murdered Breonna Taylor are still free References: <5eebcac9d1680_4b7c3f91d216e1f04742d1@ip-10-0-0-147.mail> Message-ID: <2A96B8E1-868E-44E7-AE8B-F564ED1BAAB6@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "WomensMarch.com" > Subject: The police that murdered Breonna Taylor are still free > Date: June 18, 2020 at 3:12:58 PM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: info at womensmarch.com > > > Content Warning: this email discusses murder and police brutality. > > C.G., > > It?s been 97 days since three police officers barged into Breonna Taylor?s apartment in the middle of the night and fired more than 20 bullets taking her life. > > The three officers have yet to be fired or arrested, and are still being paid ?on leave.? We will not rest. We must go harder for Breonna, and all of the Black women and Black trans lives that have been lost whether or not their names are trending on Twitter. > > We need you to make a call to Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer TODAY demanding that the three police officers: Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove are fired and charged for murder. > To call Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer: > > ? Dial (844) 298-2731 ? > > You can use this sample script when you call: > > ?Hi, my name is C.G. and I?m calling from CHAMPAIGN. I am outraged and horrified that more than three months after three cops murdered Breonna Taylor, they have faced no consequences and despite being responsible, they are still employed by the LMPD. > > The LMPD officers, Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove took Breonna?s life as she was just resting in her home. No warrant, no announcement, and no need to be in her home in the first place. These officers must immediately be fired for illegally entering her home, their egregious misconduct, and taking Breonna?s young life. I am calling on you to fire and charge them now!? > > Tell us how it went ? > > We?ve seen that progress towards justice is possible. Under pressure from across the country, Louisville voted to ban "no-knock" warrants ? the warrant that was used the morning Breonna Taylor was murdered while in bed. We applaud all the folks in Louisville who fought so hard to make this possible. > > But that?s not enough, C.G.. A recent lawsuit filed against the officers reveals that police were actually searching for another person more than 10 miles away, who had already been arrested that morning. This is an affront to Black people, our communities, and Breonna?s family. > > Far too often, Black women and Black trans women face police harassment and violence at the hands of bloodthirsty racist cops who see no value in Black lives. It stops now. > > Demanding #JusticeforBreonna is a crucial step towards justice for all, and part of the broader call to defund the police across the country. > We need everyone reading this email to make calls today and to show up this weekend for the Juneteeth weekend of action. > > We will remember and commit to fight for: > > Breonna Taylor > George Floyd > Ahmaud Arbery > Rem'mie Fells > Riah Milton > Tony McDade > Rayshard Brooks > > And the countless other Black lives lost to police brutality and biased violence. > > Let?s show up for Breonna and demand justice for all of our sisters, > > Women?s March Team > > Call now ? > > > Women?s March is a 501c(4) organization. Your generous support helps us prepare for fights we see coming and those we don?t. Donations are not tax deductible. If you prefer to make a tax-deductible gift, we encourage you to support the Women?s March Network. Gifts to the Network support our organizing, communications, advocacy and public education efforts. > > To receive fewer emails, please click here . > Sent via ActionNetwork.org . To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Women's March National, please click here . > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Fri Jun 26 20:42:11 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2020 20:42:11 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Diana Johnstone's memoir Message-ID: <94998A30-991A-44E4-9740-70EC58C42D46@illinois.edu> Here?s the review I submitted to Amazon, from whom I bought the book: Customer Review [https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amazon-avatars-global/default._CR0,0,1024,1024_SX48_.png] Morton K. Brussel 4.0 out of 5 stars The world since WWII, the Left and the Right. Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2020 Verified Purchase I've always admired the insightful reports of Diana Johnstone, and looked forward to her presently published Memoirs. However, although I think her Memoirs are intersting and well worth reading, I have some quibles about what she says there. I list them below: Most importantly, Diana Johnstone is skeptical about the effects of CO2 and the human causes of the increase of CO2, that which results in well established and consequential global heating of the earth system. She implies we should respect the "deniers" of this phenomenon, and even implies that perhaps it is changes in the sun which could be the cause of the heating. That is an ignorant position, and I was stunned to read it in her memoir. She evidently knows little about the science involved. This is a rude blemish originating, perhaps, in her wish not to ignore those who deny what is published in most of our media in general. At the end of the Memoir, she berates the left as representative of Antifa, but never quite defines Antifa, except that someone, or a group(?), has attacked her (and others') positions on Russia, wars and China. But so far as I can tell, there is no organized Antifa that represents the Left, at least in the USA, even as Mr. Trump castigates them as being behind the current protests. I wish she had named names, been specific. I also have a problem with her treatment of Yugoslavia and the NATO Yugoslav war, more specifically the attack on Sarajevo by the Serbs. Chris Hedges has affirmed that that was a slaughter by murderous Serbs on a vulnerable population, for no legitimate reason. It was just evil. Hedges was there at the time of the bombardments. But Diane Johnstone greatly underplays that, and I don't know, now, whom to believe. Certainly the western press said it was an atrocity, but one can't trust them, in general. Then there is the question of Srebenica. Here again, it is difficult to get the truth. Johnstone says that it was not genocidal, as the west claimed, because women and children were spared. Does that condone the Serbs? Johnstone's reflections on other matters are detailed and well worth reading, personal or political. Her opinions on the morass/corruption of western propaganda and policies, are positions staunchly antiwar and invariably in favor of the wellbeing of the common people, not of the corporate wealthy and power elites. She has particular insight about affairs in France, where she's become a citizen, and she gives a sympathetic analysis of the Gilets Jaunes protests. She stands up for nationalism as pride of culture, and chastises the globalization of leaders such as Macron. She outlines how the Greens in Europe have become compromised in their politics and policies. Her initial hopes for them as an influential movement, when she worked for them, were gradually dashed. I found the prose of her Memoir to be sometimes uneven, but it gets better as the book proceeds. I enjoyed reading it. Her voice is unique, and should be better known. Helpful Comment Report abuse Permalink Product Details [https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51x9Az91l9L._AC_US120_SCLZZZZZZZ__.jpg] Circle in the Darkness: Memoir of a World Watcher byDiana Johnstone 4.7 out of 5 stars 4.7 out of 5 8 customer ratings 5 star 70% 4 star 30% 3 star 0% (0%) 0% 2 star 0% (0%) 0% 1 star 0% (0%) 0% See All Buying Options ________________________________ Add to Wish List -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Fri Jun 26 21:58:15 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2020 21:58:15 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Your support for my amendment will send a powerful message to Mitch McConnell References: <91db-1f9c-5ef66c83@berniesanders.com> Message-ID: <692EFBA6-BDB3-4052-84F3-70604DD2BE0C@illinois.edu> A reasonable, and unusual statement by Bernie. Even if the military budget should be cut by far more than 10% ?mkb Begin forwarded message: From: "Bernie Sanders" > Subject: Your support for my amendment will send a powerful message to Mitch McConnell Date: June 26, 2020 at 4:45:47 PM CDT To: "Morton K. Brussel" > Reply-To: info at berniesanders.com [https://s3.amazonaws.com/ak-fbs/images/Bernie-Main-Logo-191202-600px.png] Morton K. - At this unprecedented moment in American history ? a terrible pandemic, an economic meltdown, people marching across the country to end systemic racism and police brutality, growing income and wealth inequality and an unstable president in the White House ? now is the time to bring people together to fundamentally alter our national priorities and rethink the very structure of American society. In that regard, I have been disturbed that for too long Democrats and Republicans have joined together in passing outrageously high military budgets while ignoring the needs of the poorest people in our society. If we are serious about altering our national priorities, then there is no better place to begin with than taking a hard look at the bloated, record-breaking $740 billion military budget that is coming up for a vote in the Senate next week. Incredibly, after adjusting for inflation, we are now spending more on the military than we did during the height of the Cold War or during the wars in Vietnam and Korea. This extraordinary level of military spending comes at a time when the Department of Defense is the only agency of our federal government that has not been able to pass an independent audit, when defense contractors are making enormous profits while paying their CEOs exorbitant compensation packages, and when the so-called "War on Terror" will end up costing us some $6 trillion. I believe this is a moment in history when it would be a good idea for all of my colleagues, and the American people, to remember what former Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower said in 1953: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children." What Eisenhower said was true 67 years ago, and it is true today. Will we be a nation that spends more money on nuclear weapons, or will we be one that invests in jobs, affordable housing, health care and childcare for those who need it most? In order to begin the process of transforming our national priorities, I will be introducing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to reduce the military budget by 10 percent and use the $74 billion in savings to invest in distressed communities around the country that are experiencing extreme poverty, mass incarceration, deindustrialization and decades of neglect. Next week, the Senate will begin consideration of this legislation which amounts to more than half of the discretionary spending of the U.S. government. That is why it is vitally important for you to join me now in supporting this amendment. Let us send a powerful message to Mitch McConnell and the Democratic leadership. We need to change national priorities and we need to do it now! Add your name to say you support a 10 percent cut in annual Pentagon spending to allow for investments in jobs, education, health care and poverty reduction in America?s most vulnerable communities. Here is what the amendment would do: * Create jobs by building affordable housing, schools, childcare centers, community health centers, public hospitals, libraries, sustainable energy projects, and clean drinking water facilities. * Improve education by hiring more public school teachers to reduce class sizes, ensuring teachers receive adequate pay, providing nutritious meals to children and parents, and offering free tuition for public colleges, universities, and trade schools. * Make housing more affordable by providing rental assistance and bringing an end to homelessness. These funds would not be used for police departments, prisons or jails. It is time to invest in jobs and education, not more jails and incarceration. If this horrific coronavirus pandemic has shown us anything, it is that national security involves a lot more than bombs, missiles, tanks, submarines, nuclear warheads and other weapons of mass destruction. National security also means doing all we can to improve the lives of the American people, many of whom have been abandoned by our government for decades. In my view, the time is long overdue for us to take a hard look not only at the size of the Pentagon budget, but at the incredible amount of waste, fraud, and financial mismanagement that has taken place at the Department of Defense for many, many years. Let?s be clear: About half of the Pentagon?s budget goes directly into the hands of private contractors, not our troops. Those same contractors have paid millions in fines and settlements for misconduct, all while making huge profits off of their government contracts. Furthermore, Congress has appropriated so much money for the Department of Defense that the Pentagon literally does not know what to do with it. According to the Government Accountability Office, between 2013 and 2018 the Pentagon returned more than $80 billion of its funds back to the Treasury. We cannot keep providing excessive funds to the Pentagon when millions of children in this country are going hungry and 140 million Americans struggle to pay for the basic necessities of life without worrying about going broke. Now is the time for us to truly focus on what we value as a society and to fundamentally transform our national priorities. Cutting the military budget by 10 percent and investing that money into communities across the country is a modest way to begin that process. That is why I am asking you directly: Please add your name: Say you support my amendment to reduce the Pentagon budget by 10 percent and invest that money in health care, education, and housing. We must never stop fighting for the kind of country we know we can become. Thank you for adding your name to our petition today. In solidarity, Bernie Sanders ADD YOUR NAME [https://act.berniesanders.com/o.gif?akid=8092.37339.vqcy4o] Paid for by Friends of Bernie Sanders [(not the billionaires)] PO BOX 391, Burlington, VT 05402 This email was sent to mkb3 at mac.com. If you need to, unsubscribe here. You can also sign up to receive fewer emails. We hope you'll stay, because emails are such an important part of how we organize and how we raise money. In fact, there is no single greater source for our campaign's fundraising than emails like this one. And that's important, because no one person, not even Bernie Sanders, can take on the billionaire class alone. Before you go about the rest of your day, help power our fight against the billionaire class by making a contribution today. Submit this form to update your contact information. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Sat Jun 27 00:33:36 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2020 19:33:36 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Supporting Bernie Sanders risks sending a message that he is on our side or at all useful In-Reply-To: <692EFBA6-BDB3-4052-84F3-70604DD2BE0C@illinois.edu> References: <91db-1f9c-5ef66c83@berniesanders.com> <692EFBA6-BDB3-4052-84F3-70604DD2BE0C@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <9f5652c6-1039-ce0b-5d83-b464176a8bec@forestfield.org> Brussel, Morton K wrote: > A reasonable, and unusual statement by Bernie. Even if the military budget should > be cut by far more than 10% Don't worry, if history is any guide, Bernie Sanders will abandon any statement which is even mildly critical of the establishment. He said reasonable (and unusual, for establishment media) things about universalizing healthcare for Americans including writing a Medicare for All bill which sits in the Senate today. In the midst of a pandemic, when people are losing their jobs (and thus the way so many Americans get their healthcare), Sanders ended his 2020 campaign saying "Let me be clear: I am not proposing that we pass Medicare for All in this moment. That fight continues into the future.". It's not clear when "the future" is in this context. And in his video statement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uQV83U5Dk) around 41m44s he said "This is not Medicare for All, we can?t pass that right now." doing what he can to quell any uprising which demands a sane medical rollout. Not long after that he voted for the "CARES" Act which help put trillions into the economy mostly routed toward the wealthiest businesses and individuals instead of into a national jobs program or repeated direct cash payments to individuals (a one-time $1200 payment is quickly spent to pay a few bills). Sanders is continuing the fecklessness he demonstrated in 2016 when he was rightly called a sheep herder for the Democratic Party. Fortunately for Sanders there seems to be nobody protesting today who routinely pushes for Medicare for All or other social policy that could benefit the 99% in a time of crisis. There's plenty of virtue signaling[1] but no policy changes. As I've said before, when establishment figures are echoing your slogans (#BLM #BlackLivesMatters), you're losing. Perhaps after more months pass, rent delays have expired, and more Coronavirus has spread this too will change. [1] A few examples: https://archive.md/3qyno https://archive.md/KvOPq -- recent entertainment industry articles (from establishment media) about white actors quitting voicing roles for not-strictly-white characters. https://archive.md/blT3n -- Uncle Ben's, Aunt Jemima, and Mrs. Butterworth's are being redesigned to reflect modern 'woke' sensibilities. Managers are hosting time-consuming talks on how we can become more mindful of "micro-aggressions" and discuss how horrible we feel about recent police murders. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/51088/alternative-term-to-blacklist-and-whitelist -- technical terminology being rewritten to avoid saying 'whitelist' and 'blacklist' but instead say 'allow-list' and 'deny-list', or change 'master/slave' into 'server/client' and so on. But in none of these cases can I point to policy changes that improve people's lives such as people's wages being increased from a sub-living wage to a living wage, or setting up universal services that enjoy wide public support. Instead I see the status quo continuing: The so-called "gig" economy (part-time workers without healthcare, without paid leave, etc.) means making a business out of exploiting consultants or contractors. High-tech contract workers are exploited even to death (child laborers in the DRC who mine materials used to build computers, for example). From jbn at forestfield.org Sat Jun 27 05:10:23 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2020 00:10:23 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] RT versus Apple on the origins of New York City's Central Park Message-ID: Apple's new cartoon musical series "Central Park" on the origin of Central Park: > Birdie (narrator): [singing] > Central Park! > Built in 1857. > Central Park! > Where all rats go to heaven. > It used to be a village, > But no one talks about that part. > > Background crowd: [singing] > Dark chapter! RT's Redacted Tonight offers a far more informative and (dare I say) entertaining segment on the origin of Central Park is in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9clyMwe-uaQ (and will probably be uploaded to YouTube again as a separate video soon). I recommend it (and, coincidentally, the rest of this episode). From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Mon Jun 29 16:36:54 2020 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2020 11:36:54 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?b?T24g4oCcV2hpdGUgRnJhZ2lsaXR54oCd?= Message-ID: On ?White Fragility?A few thoughts on America?s smash-hit #1 guide to egghead racialism Matt Taibbi 18 hr 695 466 *This is part of a larger piece that will be made available to subscribers later this week:* A core principle of the academic movement that shot through elite schools in America since the early nineties was the view that individual rights, humanism, and the democratic process are all just stalking-horses for white supremacy. The concept, as articulated in books like former corporate consultant Robin DiAngelo?s *White Fragility* (Amazon?s #1 seller !) reduces everything, even the smallest and most innocent human interactions, to racial power contests. It?s been mind-boggling to watch *White Fragility *celebrated in recent weeks. When it surged past a *Hunger Games *book on bestseller lists, *USA Today *cheered , ?American readers are more interested in combatting racism than in literary escapism.? When DiAngelo appeared on *The Tonight Show, *Jimmy Fallon gushed , ?I know? everyone wants to talk to you right now!? *White Fragility* has been pitched as an uncontroversial road-map for fighting racism, at a time when after the murder of George Floyd Americans are suddenly (and appropriately) interested in doing just that. Except this isn?t a straightforward book about examining one?s own prejudices. Have the people hyping this impressively crazy book actually read it? DiAngelo isn?t the first person to make a buck pushing tricked-up pseudo-intellectual horseshit as corporate wisdom, but she might be the first to do it selling Hitlerian race theory. *White Fragility *has a simple message: there is no such thing as a universal human experience, and we are defined not by our individual personalities or moral choices, but only by our racial category. If your category is ?white,? bad news: you have no identity apart from your participation in white supremacy (?Anti-blackness is foundational to our very identities? Whiteness has always been predicated on blackness?), which naturally means ?a positive white identity is an impossible goal.? DiAngelo instructs us there is nothing to be done here, except ?strive to be less white.? To deny this theory, or to have the effrontery to sneak away from the tedium of DiAngelo?s lecturing ? what she describes as ?leaving the stress-inducing situation? ? is to affirm her conception of white supremacy. This intellectual equivalent of the ?ordeal by water? (if you float, you?re a witch) is orthodoxy across much of academia. DiAngelo?s writing style is pure pain. The lexicon favored by intersectional theorists of this type is built around the same principles as Orwell?s *Newspeak*: it banishes ambiguity, nuance, and feeling and structures itself around sterile word pairs, like *racist *and *antiracist, platform *and *deplatform*, *center *and *silence, *that reduce all thinking to a series of binary choices*. *Ironically, Donald Trump does something similar, only with words like ?AMAZING !? and ?SAD !? that are simultaneously more childish and livelier. Writers like DiAngelo like to make ugly verbs out of ugly nouns and ugly nouns out of ugly verbs (there are countless permutations on *centering* and *privileging *alone). In a world where only a few ideas are considered important, redundancy is encouraged, e.g. ?To be less white is to break with white silence and white solidarity, to stop privileging the comfort of white people,? or ?Ruth Frankenberg, a premier white scholar in the field of whiteness, describes whiteness as multidimensional?? DiAngelo writes like a person who was put in timeout as a child for speaking clearly. ?When there is disequilibrium in the habitus ? when social cues are unfamiliar and/or when they challenge our capital ? we use strategies to regain our balance,? she says (?People taken out of their comfort zones find ways to deal,? according to Google Translate). Ideas that go through the English-DiAngelo translator usually end up significantly altered, as in this key part of the book when she addresses Dr. Martin Luther King?s ?I have a dream,? speech: *One line of King?s speech in particular?that one day he might be judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin?was seized upon by the white public because the words were seen to provide a simple and immediate solution to racial tensions: pretend that we don?t see race, and racism will end. Color blindness was now promoted as the remedy for racism, with white people insisting that they didn?t see race or, if they did, that it had no meaning to them.* That this speech was held up as the framework for American race relations for more than half a century precisely because people of all races understood King to be referring to a difficult and beautiful long-term goal worth pursuing is discounted, of course. *White Fragility *is based upon the idea that human beings are incapable of judging each other by the content of their character, and if people of different races think they are getting along or even loving one another, they probably need immediate antiracism training. This is an important passage because rejection of King?s ?dream? of racial harmony ? not even as a description of the obviously flawed present, but as the aspirational goal of a better future ? has become a central tenet of this brand of antiracist doctrine mainstream press outlets are rushing to embrace. The book?s most amazing passage concerns the story of Jackie Robinson: *The story of Jackie Robinson is a classic example of how whiteness obscures racism by rendering whites, white privilege, and racist institutions invisible. Robinson is often celebrated as the first African American to break the color line?* *While Robinson was certainly an amazing baseball player, this story line depicts him as racially special, a black man who broke the color line himself. The subtext is that Robinson finally had what it took to play with whites, as if no black athlete before him was strong enough to compete at that level. Imagine if instead, the story went something like this: ?Jackie Robinson, the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.?* There is not a single baseball fan anywhere ? literally not one, except perhaps Robin DiAngelo, I guess ? who believes Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier because he ?finally had what it took to play with whites.? Everyone familiar with this story understands that Robinson had to be exceptional, both as a player and as a human being, to confront the racist institution known as Major League Baseball. His story has always been understood as a complex, long-developing political tale about overcoming violent systemic oppression. For DiAngelo to suggest history should re-cast Robinson as ?the first black man whites allowed to play major league baseball? is grotesque and profoundly belittling. Robinson?s story moreover did not render ?whites, white privilege, and racist institutions invisible.? It did the opposite. Robinson uncovered a generation of job inflation for mediocre white ballplayers in a dramatic example of ?privilege? that was keenly understood by baseball fans of all races fifty years before *White Fragility. *Baseball statistics nerds have long been arguing about whether to put asterisks next to the records of white stars who never had to pitch to Josh Gibson, or hit against prime Satchel Paige or Webster McDonald. Robinson?s story, on every level, exposed and evangelized the truth about the very forces DiAngelo argues it rendered ?invisible.? It takes a special kind of ignorant for an author to choose an example that illustrates the mathematical opposite of one?s intended point, but this isn?t uncommon in *White Fragility, *which may be the dumbest book ever written. It makes *The Art of the Deal *read like *Anna Karenina.* Yet these ideas are taking America by storm. The movement that calls itself ?antiracism? ? I think it deserves that name a lot less than ?pro-lifers? deserve theirs and am amazed journalists parrot it without question ? is complete in its pessimism about race relations. It sees the human being as locked into one of three categories: members of oppressed groups, allies, and white oppressors. Where we reside on the spectrum of righteousness is, they say, almost entirely determined by birth, a view probably shared by a lot of *4chan* readers. With a full commitment to the program of psychological ablutions outlined in the book, one may strive for a ?less white identity,? but again, DiAngelo explicitly rejects the Kingian goal of just trying to love one another as impossible, for two people born with different skin colors. This dingbat racialist cult, which has no art, music, literature, and certainly no comedy, is the vision of ?progress? institutional America has chosen to endorse in the Trump era. Why? Maybe because it fits. It won?t hurt the business model of the news media, which for decades now has been monetizing division and has known how to profit from moral panics and witch hunts since before Fleet street discovered the Mod/Rocker wars. Democratic Party leaders, pioneers of the costless gesture, have already embraced this performative race politics as a useful tool for disciplining apostates like Bernie Sanders. Bernie took off in presidential politics as a hard-charging crusader against a Wall Street-fattened political establishment, and exited four years later a self-flagellating, defeated old white man who seemed to regret not apologizing more for his third house. Clad in kente cloth scarves, the Democrats who crushed him will burn up CSPAN with homilies on privilege even as they reassure donors they?ll stay away from Medicare for All or the carried interest tax break. For corporate America the calculation is simple. What?s easier, giving up business models based on war, slave labor, and regulatory arbitrage, or benching Aunt Jemima? There?s a deal to be made here, greased by the fact that the ?antiracism? prophets promoted in books like *White Fragility* share corporate Americas instinctive hostility to privacy, individual rights, freedom of speech, etc. Corporate America doubtless views the current protest movement as something that can be addressed as an H.R. matter, among other things by hiring thousands of DiAngelos to institute codes for the proper mode of Black-white workplace interaction. If you?re wondering what that might look like, here?s DiAngelo explaining how she handled the fallout from making a bad joke while she was ?facilitating antiracism training? at the office of one of her clients. When one employee responds negatively to the training, DiAngelo quips the person must have been put off by one of her Black female team members: ?The white people,? she says, ?were scared by Deborah?s hair.? (White priests of antiracism like DiAngelo seem universally to be more awkward and clueless around minorities than your average Trump-supporting construction worker). DiAngelo doesn?t grasp the joke flopped and has to be told two days later that one of her web developer clients was offended. In despair, she writes, ?I seek out a friend who is white and has a solid understanding of cross-racial dynamics.? After DiAngelo confesses her feelings of embarrassment, shame and guilt to the enlightened white cross-racial dynamics expert (everyone should have such a person on speed-dial), she approaches the offended web developer. She asks, ?Would you be willing to grant me the opportunity to repair the racism I perpetrated toward you in that meeting?? At which point the web developer agrees, leading to a conversation establishing the parameters of problematic joke resolution. This dialogue straight out of *South Park ? *?Is it okay if I touch your penis? No, you may not touch my penis at this time!? ? has a good shot of becoming standard at every transnational corporation, law firm, university, newsroom, etc. Of course the upside such consultants can offer is an important one. Under pressure from people like this, companies might address long-overdue inequities in boardroom diversity. The downside, which we?re already seeing, is that organizations everywhere will embrace powerful new tools for solving professional disputes, through a never-ending purge. One of the central tenets of DiAngelo?s book (and others like it) is that racism cannot be eradicated and can only be managed through constant, ?lifelong? vigilance, much like the battle with addiction . A useful theory, if your business is selling teams of high-priced toxicity-hunters to corporations as next-generation versions of efficiency experts ? in the fight against this disease, companies will need the help forever and ever. Cancelations already are happening too fast to track. In a phenomenon that will be familiar to students of Russian history, accusers are beginning to appear alongside the accused. Three years ago a popular Canadian writer named Hal Niedzviecki was denounced for expressing the opinion that ?anyone, anywhere, should be encouraged to imagine other peoples, other cultures, other identities." He reportedly was forced out of the Writer?s Union of Canada for the crime of ?cultural appropriation,? and denounced as a racist by many, including a poet named Gwen Benaway. The latter said Niedzviecki ?doesn?t see the humanity of indigenous peoples.? Last week, Benaway herself was denounced on Twitter for failing to provide proof that she was Indigenous. Michael Korenberg, the chair of the board at the University of British Columbia, was forced to resign for liking tweets by Dinesh D?Souza and Donald Trump, which you might think is fine ? but what about Latino electrical worker Emmanuel Cafferty, fired after a white activist took a photo of him making an OK symbol (it was described online as a ?white power? sign)? How about Sue Schafer, the heretofore unknown graphic designer the *Washington Post *decided to out in a 3000-word article for attending a Halloween party two years ago in blackface (a failed parody of a *different* blackface incident involving Megyn Kelly)? She was fired, of course. How was this news? Why was ruining this person?s life necessary? People everywhere today are being encouraged to snitch out schoolmates, parents, and colleagues for thoughtcrime. The *New York Times* wrote a salutary piece about high schoolers scanning social media accounts of peers for evidence of ?anti-black racism? to make public, because what can go wrong with encouraging teenagers to start submarining each other?s careers before they?ve even finished growing? ?People who go to college end up becoming racist lawyers and doctors. I don?t want people like that to keep getting jobs,? one 16 year-old said. ?Someone rly started a Google doc of racists and their info for us to ruin their lives? I love twitter,? wrote a different person, adding cheery emojis. A bizarre echo of North Korea?s ?three generations of punishment ? doctrine could be seen in the boycotts of Holy Land grocery , a well-known hummus maker in Minneapolis. In recent weeks it?s been abandoned by clients and seen its lease pulled because of racist tweets made by the CEO?s 14 year-old daughter *eight years ago.* Parents calling out their kids is also in vogue. In *Slate, *?Making a Mountain Out of a Molehill? wrote to advice columnist Michelle Herman in a letter headlined, ?I think I?ve screwed up the way my kids think about race .? The problem, the aggrieved parent noted, was that his/her sons had gone to a diverse school, and their ?closest friends are still a mix of black, Hispanic, and white kids,? which to them was natural. The parent worried when one son was asked to fill out an application for a potential college roommate and expressed annoyance at having to specify race, because ?I don?t care about race.? Clearly, a situation needing fixing! The parent asked if someone who didn?t care about race was ?just as racist as someone who only has white friends? and asked if it was ?too late? to do anything. No fear, Herman wrote: it?s never too late for kids like yours to educate themselves. To help, she linked to a program of materials designed for just that purpose, a ?Lesson Plan for Being An Ally ,? that included a month of readings of? *White Fragility. *Hopefully that kid with the Black and Hispanic friends can be cured! This notion that color-blindness is itself racist, one of the main themes of *White Fragility*, could have amazing consequences. In researching *I Can?t Breathe, *I met civil rights activists who recounted decades of struggle to remove race from the law. I heard stories of lawyers who were physically threatened for years in places like rural Arkansas just for trying to end explicit hiring and housing discrimination and other remnants of Jim Crow. Last week, an Oregon County casually exempted ?people of color who have heightened concerns about racial profiling? from a Covid-19 related mask order. Who thinks creating different laws for different racial categories is going to end well? When has it ever? At a time of catastrophe and national despair, when conservative nationalism is on the rise and violent confrontation on the streets is becoming commonplace, it?s extremely suspicious that the books politicians, the press, university administrators, and corporate consultants alike are asking us to read are urging us to put race even more at the center of our identities, and fetishize the unbridgeable nature of our differences. Meanwhile books like *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn *and *To Kill a Mockingbird, *which are both beautiful and actually anti-racist, have been banned, for containing the ?N-word .? (*White Fragility *contains it too, by the way). It?s almost like someone thinks there?s a benefit to keeping people divided. https://taibbi.substack.com/p/on-white-fragility -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From r-szoke at illinois.edu Mon Jun 29 18:08:52 2020 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2020 18:08:52 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Inequality correlated with virus deaths Message-ID: Project Syndicate & WSJ Opinion: Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. has fueled COVID-19 deaths Published: June 29, 2020 By Jeffrey D. Sachs Three countries ? the United States, Brazil and Mexico ? account for nearly half (46%) of the world?s reported COVID-19 deaths, yet they contain only 8.6% of the world?s population. Some 60% of Europe?s deaths are concentrated in just three countries ? Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom ? which account for 38% of Europe?s population. There were many fewer deaths and lower death rates in most of Northern and Central Europe. Several factors determine a country?s COVID-19 death rate: the quality of political leadership, the coherence of the government?s response, the availability of hospital beds, the extent of international travel and the population?s age structure. Yet one deep structural characteristic seems to be shaping the role of these factors: countries? income and wealth distribution. ?Gini? coefficients The U.S., Brazil, and Mexico have very high income and wealth inequality. The World Bank reports the respective Gini coefficients for recent years (2016-18) at 41.4 in the U.S., 53.5 in Brazil and 45.9 in Mexico. (On a 100-point scale, a value of 100 signifies absolute inequality, with one person controlling all income or wealth, and zero means a completely equal distribution per person or household). The U.S. has the highest Gini coefficient among the advanced economies, while Brazil and Mexico are among the world?s most unequal countries. In Europe, Italy, Spain, and the UK ? with Gini scores of 35.6, 35.3, and 34.8, respectively ? are more unequal than their northern and eastern counterparts, such as Finland (27.3), Norway (28.5), Denmark (28.5), Austria (30.3), Poland (30.5) and Hungary (30.5). The correlation of death rates per million and income inequality is far from perfect; other factors matter a lot. France?s inequality is on par with Germany?s, but its COVID-19 death rate is significantly higher. The death rate in relatively egalitarian Sweden is significantly higher than in its neighbors, because Sweden decided to keep its social distancing policies voluntary rather than mandatory. Relatively egalitarian Belgium was battered with very high reported death rates, owing partly to the authorities? decision to report probable as well as confirmed COVID-19 deaths. High-income inequality is a social scourge in many ways. As Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson convincingly reported in two important books, ?The Spirit Level? and ?The Inner Level,? higher inequality leads to worse overall health conditions, which significantly increases vulnerability to COVID-19 deaths. Moreover, higher inequality leads to lower social cohesion, less social trust and more political polarization, all of which negatively affect governments? ability and readiness to adopt strong control measures. Higher inequality means a larger proportion of low-income workers ? from cleaners, cashiers, guards, and delivery persons to sanitation, construction, and factory workers ? must continue their daily lives, even at the risk of infection. More inequality also means more people living in crowded living conditions and therefore unable to shelter safely. Populist leaders Populist leaders exacerbate the enormous costs of inequality. U.S. President Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson were elected by unequal and socially divided societies with the support of many disgruntled working-class voters (typically white, less-educated men who resent their declining social and economic status). But the politics of resentment is almost the opposite of the politics of epidemic control. The politics of resentment shuns experts, derides scientific evidence, and resents elites who work online telling workers who can?t to stay home. The U.S. is so unequal, politically divided, and badly governed under Trump that it has actually given up on any coherent national strategy to control the outbreak. All responsibilities have been shifted to state and local governments, which have been left to fend for themselves. Heavily armed right-wing protesters have, on occasion, mobbed state capitals to oppose restrictions on business activity and personal mobility. Even face masks have become politicized: Trump refuses to wear one, and he recently said that some people do so only to express their disapproval of him. The result is that his followers gleefully reject wearing them, and the virus, which started in the ?blue? (Democratic) coastal states, is now hitting Trump?s base in ?red? (Republican) states hard. Brazil and Mexico are mimicking U.S. politics. Bolsonaro and Mexico?s President Andr?s Manuel L?pez Obrador are quintessential populists in the Trump mold, mocking the virus, disdaining expert advice, making light of the risks, and flamboyantly rejecting personal protection. They are also guiding their countries into a Trumpian disaster. Legacy of mass inequality With the exception of Canada and all too few other places, the countries of North and South America are being ravaged by the virus, because almost the entire Western hemisphere shares a legacy of mass inequality and pervasive racial discrimination. Even well-governed Chile fell prey to violence and instability last year, owing to high and chronic inequality. This year, Chile (along with Brazil, Ecuador and Peru) has suffered one the world?s highest COVID-19 death rates. Inequality is certainly not a death sentence. China is rather unequal (with a Gini score of 38.5), but its national and provincial governments adopted rigorous control measures after the initial Wuhan outbreak, essentially suppressing the virus. The recent outbreak in Beijing, after weeks of zero confirmed new cases, resulted in renewed lockdowns and massive testing. In most other countries, however, we are witnessing once again the enormous costs of mass inequality: inept governance, social distrust, and a huge population of vulnerable people unable to protect themselves from encroaching harms. Alarmingly, the epidemic itself is widening inequalities even further. The rich now work and thrive online (Amazon AMZN, -0.29% founder Jeff Bezos? wealth has risen by $49 billion since the start of the year, thanks to the decisive shift to e-commerce), while the poor are losing their jobs and often their health and lives. And the costs of inequality are sure to rise further, as revenue-starved governments slash budgets and public services vital for the poor. But a reckoning is coming. In the absence of coherent, capable, and trustworthy governments that can implement an equitable and sustainable pandemic response and strategy for economic recovery, the world will succumb to further waves of instability generated by a growing array of global crises. # ?? Jeffrey D. Sachs, professor of sustainable development and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University, is director of Columbia?s Center for Sustainable Development and the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network. From r-szoke at illinois.edu Mon Jun 29 18:08:52 2020 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2020 18:08:52 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Inequality correlated with virus deaths Message-ID: Project Syndicate & WSJ Opinion: Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. has fueled COVID-19 deaths Published: June 29, 2020 By Jeffrey D. Sachs Three countries ? the United States, Brazil and Mexico ? account for nearly half (46%) of the world?s reported COVID-19 deaths, yet they contain only 8.6% of the world?s population. Some 60% of Europe?s deaths are concentrated in just three countries ? Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom ? which account for 38% of Europe?s population. There were many fewer deaths and lower death rates in most of Northern and Central Europe. Several factors determine a country?s COVID-19 death rate: the quality of political leadership, the coherence of the government?s response, the availability of hospital beds, the extent of international travel and the population?s age structure. Yet one deep structural characteristic seems to be shaping the role of these factors: countries? income and wealth distribution. ?Gini? coefficients The U.S., Brazil, and Mexico have very high income and wealth inequality. The World Bank reports the respective Gini coefficients for recent years (2016-18) at 41.4 in the U.S., 53.5 in Brazil and 45.9 in Mexico. (On a 100-point scale, a value of 100 signifies absolute inequality, with one person controlling all income or wealth, and zero means a completely equal distribution per person or household). The U.S. has the highest Gini coefficient among the advanced economies, while Brazil and Mexico are among the world?s most unequal countries. In Europe, Italy, Spain, and the UK ? with Gini scores of 35.6, 35.3, and 34.8, respectively ? are more unequal than their northern and eastern counterparts, such as Finland (27.3), Norway (28.5), Denmark (28.5), Austria (30.3), Poland (30.5) and Hungary (30.5). The correlation of death rates per million and income inequality is far from perfect; other factors matter a lot. France?s inequality is on par with Germany?s, but its COVID-19 death rate is significantly higher. The death rate in relatively egalitarian Sweden is significantly higher than in its neighbors, because Sweden decided to keep its social distancing policies voluntary rather than mandatory. Relatively egalitarian Belgium was battered with very high reported death rates, owing partly to the authorities? decision to report probable as well as confirmed COVID-19 deaths. High-income inequality is a social scourge in many ways. As Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson convincingly reported in two important books, ?The Spirit Level? and ?The Inner Level,? higher inequality leads to worse overall health conditions, which significantly increases vulnerability to COVID-19 deaths. Moreover, higher inequality leads to lower social cohesion, less social trust and more political polarization, all of which negatively affect governments? ability and readiness to adopt strong control measures. Higher inequality means a larger proportion of low-income workers ? from cleaners, cashiers, guards, and delivery persons to sanitation, construction, and factory workers ? must continue their daily lives, even at the risk of infection. More inequality also means more people living in crowded living conditions and therefore unable to shelter safely. Populist leaders Populist leaders exacerbate the enormous costs of inequality. U.S. President Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson were elected by unequal and socially divided societies with the support of many disgruntled working-class voters (typically white, less-educated men who resent their declining social and economic status). But the politics of resentment is almost the opposite of the politics of epidemic control. The politics of resentment shuns experts, derides scientific evidence, and resents elites who work online telling workers who can?t to stay home. The U.S. is so unequal, politically divided, and badly governed under Trump that it has actually given up on any coherent national strategy to control the outbreak. All responsibilities have been shifted to state and local governments, which have been left to fend for themselves. Heavily armed right-wing protesters have, on occasion, mobbed state capitals to oppose restrictions on business activity and personal mobility. Even face masks have become politicized: Trump refuses to wear one, and he recently said that some people do so only to express their disapproval of him. The result is that his followers gleefully reject wearing them, and the virus, which started in the ?blue? (Democratic) coastal states, is now hitting Trump?s base in ?red? (Republican) states hard. Brazil and Mexico are mimicking U.S. politics. Bolsonaro and Mexico?s President Andr?s Manuel L?pez Obrador are quintessential populists in the Trump mold, mocking the virus, disdaining expert advice, making light of the risks, and flamboyantly rejecting personal protection. They are also guiding their countries into a Trumpian disaster. Legacy of mass inequality With the exception of Canada and all too few other places, the countries of North and South America are being ravaged by the virus, because almost the entire Western hemisphere shares a legacy of mass inequality and pervasive racial discrimination. Even well-governed Chile fell prey to violence and instability last year, owing to high and chronic inequality. This year, Chile (along with Brazil, Ecuador and Peru) has suffered one the world?s highest COVID-19 death rates. Inequality is certainly not a death sentence. China is rather unequal (with a Gini score of 38.5), but its national and provincial governments adopted rigorous control measures after the initial Wuhan outbreak, essentially suppressing the virus. The recent outbreak in Beijing, after weeks of zero confirmed new cases, resulted in renewed lockdowns and massive testing. In most other countries, however, we are witnessing once again the enormous costs of mass inequality: inept governance, social distrust, and a huge population of vulnerable people unable to protect themselves from encroaching harms. Alarmingly, the epidemic itself is widening inequalities even further. The rich now work and thrive online (Amazon AMZN, -0.29% founder Jeff Bezos? wealth has risen by $49 billion since the start of the year, thanks to the decisive shift to e-commerce), while the poor are losing their jobs and often their health and lives. And the costs of inequality are sure to rise further, as revenue-starved governments slash budgets and public services vital for the poor. But a reckoning is coming. In the absence of coherent, capable, and trustworthy governments that can implement an equitable and sustainable pandemic response and strategy for economic recovery, the world will succumb to further waves of instability generated by a growing array of global crises. # ?? Jeffrey D. Sachs, professor of sustainable development and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University, is director of Columbia?s Center for Sustainable Development and the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network. From brussel at illinois.edu Mon Jun 29 23:48:59 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2020 23:48:59 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Jay and Wlkerson podcast Message-ID: An intelligent and fearful discussion. https://theanalysis.news/interviews/what-if-trump-wont-go-col-lawrence-wilkerson/ Apocalyptic in its conclusions. ?mkb