From galliher at illinois.edu Sat Jul 1 01:56:46 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 20:56:46 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Anti-war Demonstration In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4EF0A8D4-37CB-4773-A740-7E04DDE4F772@illinois.edu> Attached please find the flyer we’ll be distributing: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: flyer2017.04.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 125455 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- > On Jun 30, 2017, at 6:26 PM, Karen Aram via Peace wrote: > > For those who hate war, and want to do “something” to protest the killing: > > Please join AWARE for our monthly demonstration downtown Champaign, > > Saturday July 1st. at (2:00pm - 4:00pm) on the corners of Church and Neil Streets. > > We have signs available, or bring your own. > > All are welcome. > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Jul 1 12:43:27 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2017 12:43:27 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Yingyang's kidnapper arrested Message-ID: She is presumed dead. See the NG for full details. The kidnapper, little doubt he is given the evidence, is "exceptionally bright and well educated." Makes one wonder, many of the Nazi's were also, they thought themselves superior, US leaders and many Americans think of ourselves as superior or "exceptional," is it this lack of humility that creates murderers, people with no sense of consciousness or empathy for others? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Jul 2 14:01:28 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2017 14:01:28 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Caitlin Johnstone puts it in perspective Message-ID: [Go to the profile of Caitlin Johnstone] Caitlin JohnstoneFollow Rogue Journalist Jul 1 Want To Resist Trump Without Being A Corporate Tool? Focus On War Crimes [https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*OddgvdR-wGu3rEisZftaYQ.png] The bold warriors of the McResistance are bound and determined to get Trump impeached at any cost, come what may. I mean, so long as it doesn’t inconvenience America’s oligarchs or interfere with the profit margins of the military-industrial complex. According to Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, Trump has already committed impeachable war crimes in Syria. Boyle calls the case for impeachment due to war crimes a “slam dunk”. If Democrats were serious about their determination to give the world President Pence at all costs, they wouldn’t be banging on about the crumbling Russiagate conspiracy theory or Trump’s obnoxious tweets, they’d be focusing on the actual, tangible, provable things that this administration has done in Syria. They will not do this, though. Trump has dropped his right hand and is currently circling into an opening for a crushing left hook knockout, but Democrats will not throw that punch. Ever. You will never see congressional Russiagate queen Maxine “I’m out to impeach this president” Waters attempt to get Trump impeached with the impeachment case that he has gift wrapped and handed to her by committing war crimes in Syria. You will never see Rep. Jamie “remove Trump from office because of obnoxious tweets” Raskin put together a case for impeachment based on the Trump administration’s unilateral decision to attack the Syrian military, its use of white phosphorus or its relentless slaughter of civilians across the Middle East. You will never see Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann rallying the Resistance troops into protest marches over Trump’s bloodbaths in Yemen or Syria. These things will never, ever happen. You will see them focusing on nonsense like Russiagate and mean tweets about Zbigniew Brzezinski’s daughter. These things will never happen because the Democratic party, as we have discussed before, has become an overwhelmingly neoconservative party, and because the corporate media never misses an opportunity to advocate in favor of US military aggression. We saw this in their shamelessly orgiastic celebration of Trump’s deadly missile strike on a Syrian airfield in April, and we continue to see it in their refusal to unequivocally condemn the senseless military aggression in nations that America never had any business involving itself with in the first place. This is precisely why I’ve been writing with such venom about the so-called “Resistance”, a title not organically arising from the people but one manufactured in a DC think tank to harness and exploit the healthy inclination toward progressive activism which arose on an organic grassroots level in the Occupy and Bernie Sanders movements. People with more or less healthy impulses, people who claim to want peace, economic justice and social justice, have had those good intentions harnessed by America’s unelected power establishment and geared toward manufacturing support for escalations with Russia and unforgivable corporatist bloodbaths in the Middle East. These deep state parasites have taken something good and healthy in their fellow humans and used the deceit and manipulations of their corporate media propaganda arm to twist those healthy impulses in on themselves and turn them into something sick and evil. If you are reading this under the mistaken impression that resisting Trump has something to do with the 25th Amendment or investigations into Russian connections, I strongly advise you to begin insistently urging the pundits and politicians you trust and respect to oppose the Trump administration on the basis of war crimes. Push them to put together a case for Trump’s impeachment based on his violations of the Nuremberg charter, the UN charter, and the War Powers Resolution of 1973. Then watch what they do. Not what they say, but what they do. Ignore their words about this and watch their actions. Pay attention when they ignore you or brush you off with a few supportive-sounding words without taking any action. I promise you this is exactly what will happen. You will never, ever see anything remotely like the full-scale mobilization you’ve seen in the Russiagate movement and #TheResistance protests over Trump’s war crimes. If you try these things and find what I am saying to be true (and you will), please consider the possibility that these people are not your friends. Please consider the possibility that the media you consume which tells you how to perceive world affairs is full of lies and propaganda. Please consider the possibility that a coalition of powerful elites controls your government and uses your country’s immense military might to manipulate world affairs for the purpose of amassing more power. Please consider the possibility of a real resistance replacing the fake one they’ve given you. — — — Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, please consider helping me out by sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following me on Twitter, or even tossing me some money on Patreon so I can keep this gig up. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Jul 2 15:13:30 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2017 15:13:30 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Chris Hedges interview with Christian Parenti for anyone who thinks climate change is just higher temps. Message-ID: https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/392886-global-climate-change-geopolitical/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cge at shout.net Sun Jul 2 19:34:57 2017 From: cge at shout.net (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2017 14:34:57 -0500 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?Why_I_won=E2=80=99t_be_marching_in_the_July_4th?= =?utf-8?q?_parade?= In-Reply-To: References: <5880c407a1db5_222964d980682c3@asgworker-qmb2-1.nbuild.prd.useast1.3dna.io.mail> <3014b58c3080570ba473a4b2bdcb0659@shout.net> <1f26ef3688b593a338a8fbc7cd45b7a6@shout.net> <38dd9634ddb6d642a9e18e34d02ee607@shout.net> <11a3e6f7cbc9fa68332a0079c6684e49@shout.net> Message-ID: “Champaign County. Freedom Celebration, ‘Salute To Education,’ includes a morning Youth Race and a 5K Race/walk, a parade at 11:05 a.m. begins near First and Florida, continues East on Florida to Lincoln Avenue then proceeds North on Lincoln Avenue to California. Evening entertainment at 7 p.m., corner of Kirby Avenue and First Street. Fireworks at 9:15 p.m., lunched [sic] from UI parking lot E14, west of State Farm Center.” [C-U News-Gazette] ====================================== AWARE has in years past been a notable presence in the July 4th parade in Champaign-Urbana. Talented AWAREists have presented anti-war floats and displays, often mocking the official patriotic themes of the event. (One AWARE entry under a ‘war heroes’ theme featured huge photos of courageous war resisters.) But I’ve been convinced by Doug, long-time friend of AWARE, that any participation in the celebration of the shockingly misnamed “war of independence” lends support to the heavily mythologized tradition of America’s ‘good wars.’ None of them was good, including the ‘war against fascism,’ used by US propaganda to justify imperialist war from 1945 to the present day. The poets often get there first: see Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle” (1962) - a literary meditation, as in a distorting mirror, of how war can be used to justify further war. More directly, in “Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization” (2008), Nicholson Baker provides the history of the coming of WWII: Americans born since then have been systematically deprived of an historically accurate account - and not innocently, but to support Americas' subsequent wars. We miseducated Americans have allowed US presidents to kill between 20 and 30 million people since 1945, for the profits of the US 1%. In a lecture more than 40 years ago, just as the repressive policies of neoliberalism began to be adopted by all subsequent administrations (criticizing it made Trump president), the late Howard Zinn exposed the Fourth of July mythology. See the appended article, “Rethinking the Fourth of July,” with references to the important observations of historians Ray Raphael and Gerald Horne. I don’t now see how I can oppose the propaganda of the Fourth of July celebrations and still participate, even in a critical way. I’ll stay home and watch the Red Sox play. --CGE http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-bigelow/rethinking-the-fourth-of-july_b_5552378.html ### From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Jul 2 20:24:37 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2017 20:24:37 +0000 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?Why_I_won=E2=80=99t_be_marching_in_the_July_4th?= =?utf-8?q?_parade?= In-Reply-To: References: <5880c407a1db5_222964d980682c3@asgworker-qmb2-1.nbuild.prd.useast1.3dna.io.mail> <3014b58c3080570ba473a4b2bdcb0659@shout.net> <1f26ef3688b593a338a8fbc7cd45b7a6@shout.net> <38dd9634ddb6d642a9e18e34d02ee607@shout.net> <11a3e6f7cbc9fa68332a0079c6684e49@shout.net> Message-ID: I won’t be going either, and its not just due to the heat, and my asthma There is little to celebrate with the continued injustice towards the working class, with the lack of healthcare, murder of people of color by our militarized police, continuing austerity and most of all the continuation of murders and destruction of millions around the globe, being perpetuated by the USG. We should be protesting, and some of us did yesterday. On Jul 2, 2017, at 12:34, C. G. Estabrook via Peace > wrote: “Champaign County. Freedom Celebration, ‘Salute To Education,’ includes a morning Youth Race and a 5K Race/walk, a parade at 11:05 a.m. begins near First and Florida, continues East on Florida to Lincoln Avenue then proceeds North on Lincoln Avenue to California. Evening entertainment at 7 p.m., corner of Kirby Avenue and First Street. Fireworks at 9:15 p.m., lunched [sic] from UI parking lot E14, west of State Farm Center.” [C-U News-Gazette] ====================================== AWARE has in years past been a notable presence in the July 4th parade in Champaign-Urbana. Talented AWAREists have presented anti-war floats and displays, often mocking the official patriotic themes of the event. (One AWARE entry under a ‘war heroes’ theme featured huge photos of courageous war resisters.) But I’ve been convinced by Doug, long-time friend of AWARE, that any participation in the celebration of the shockingly misnamed “war of independence” lends support to the heavily mythologized tradition of America’s ‘good wars.’ None of them was good, including the ‘war against fascism,’ used by US propaganda to justify imperialist war from 1945 to the present day. The poets often get there first: see Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle” (1962) - a literary meditation, as in a distorting mirror, of how war can be used to justify further war. More directly, in “Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization” (2008), Nicholson Baker provides the history of the coming of WWII: Americans born since then have been systematically deprived of an historically accurate account - and not innocently, but to support Americas' subsequent wars. We miseducated Americans have allowed US presidents to kill between 20 and 30 million people since 1945, for the profits of the US 1%. In a lecture more than 40 years ago, just as the repressive policies of neoliberalism began to be adopted by all subsequent administrations (criticizing it made Trump president), the late Howard Zinn exposed the Fourth of July mythology. See the appended article, “Rethinking the Fourth of July,” with references to the important observations of historians Ray Raphael and Gerald Horne. I don’t now see how I can oppose the propaganda of the Fourth of July celebrations and still participate, even in a critical way. I’ll stay home and watch the Red Sox play. --CGE http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-bigelow/rethinking-the-fourth-of-july_b_5552378.html ### _______________________________________________ Peace mailing list Peace at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Mon Jul 3 03:34:17 2017 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2017 22:34:17 -0500 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?=5BPeace-discuss=5D__Why_I_won=E2=80=99t_be_mar?= =?utf-8?q?ching_in_the_July_4th_parade?= In-Reply-To: References: <92g921gee6jeu1nvpjeq360l.1499040393942@email.lge.com> Message-ID: <9E9546FF-8480-4377-8669-D15209FC3140@gmail.com> Satirizing - or railing at - something like the 4th of July parade risks pointlessness. The greatest American satirist of his generation was Tom Lehrer (who was a TA for the math course I took first year in college). ================= Lehrer is of the opinion that while satire may attract attention to an issue, it doesn’t achieve a lot else. “The audience usually has to be with you, I’m afraid. I always regarded myself as not even preaching to the converted; I was titillating the converted.” “The audiences like to think that satire is doing something. But, in fact, it is mostly to leave themselves satisfied. Satisfied rather than angry, which is what they should be.” His favourite quote on the subject is from British comedian Peter Cook, who, in founding the Establishment Club in 1961, said it was to be a satirical venue modelled on “those wonderful Berlin cabarets which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the outbreak of the Second World War”. [Sydney Morning Herald, March 1, 2003] ================= On Jul 2, 2017, at 13:59, David Johnson wrote: I understand Karen and Carl, but it is a shame, considering the past years AWARE presence in the parade and it’s creative and powerful anti-war ; float / procession / theme. Out of sight, out of mind ! David J. From: Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Karen Aram via Peace-discuss Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2017 3:25 PM To: C. G. Estabrook Cc: peace at lists.chambana.net; Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net; prairiegreens at lists.chambana.net Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] Why I won’t be marching in the July 4th parade I won’t be going either, and its not just due to the heat, and my asthma There is little to celebrate with the continued injustice towards the working class, with the lack of healthcare, murder of people of color by our militarized police, continuing austerity and most of all the continuation of murders and destruction of millions around the globe, being perpetuated by the USG. We should be protesting, and some of us did yesterday. On Jul 2, 2017, at 12:34, C. G. Estabrook via Peace wrote: “Champaign County. Freedom Celebration, ‘Salute To Education,’ includes a morning Youth Race and a 5K Race/walk, a parade at 11:05 a.m. begins near First and Florida, continues East on Florida to Lincoln Avenue then proceeds North on Lincoln Avenue to California. Evening entertainment at 7 p.m., corner of Kirby Avenue and First Street. Fireworks at 9:15 p.m., lunched [sic] from UI parking lot E14, west of State Farm Center.” [C-U News-Gazette] ====================================== AWARE has in years past been a notable presence in the July 4th parade in Champaign-Urbana. Talented AWAREists have presented anti-war floats and displays, often mocking the official patriotic themes of the event. (One AWARE entry under a ‘war heroes’ theme featured huge photos of courageous war resisters.) But I’ve been convinced by Doug, long-time friend of AWARE, that any participation in the celebration of the shockingly misnamed “war of independence” lends support to the heavily mythologized tradition of America’s ‘good wars.’ None of them was good, including the ‘war against fascism,’ used by US propaganda to justify imperialist war from 1945 to the present day. The poets often get there first: see Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle” (1962) - a literary meditation, as in a distorting mirror, of how war can be used to justify further war. More directly, in “Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization” (2008), Nicholson Baker provides the history of the coming of WWII: Americans born since then have been systematically deprived of an historically accurate account - and not innocently, but to support Americas' subsequent wars. We miseducated Americans have allowed US presidents to kill between 20 and 30 million people since 1945, for the profits of the US 1%. In a lecture more than 40 years ago, just as the repressive policies of neoliberalism began to be adopted by all subsequent administrations (criticizing it made Trump president), the late Howard Zinn exposed the Fourth of July mythology. See the appended article, “Rethinking the Fourth of July,” with references to the important observations of historians Ray Raphael and Gerald Horne. I don’t now see how I can oppose the propaganda of the Fourth of July celebrations and still participate, even in a critical way. I’ll stay home and watch the Red Sox play. --CGE http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-bigelow/rethinking-the-fourth-of-july_b_5552378.html ### From kmedina67 at gmail.com Tue Jul 4 14:59:49 2017 From: kmedina67 at gmail.com (Karen Medina) Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2017 09:59:49 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Why I will be marching in the July 4th parade Message-ID: A friend wrote: I’ll stay home and watch the Red Sox play Sitting on one's couch is always an option. The 4th of July commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It is true that some have co-opted it as a celebration of wars that the United States have fought. The theme of the Champaign County celebration is, ‘Salute To Education,’ This theme is particularly important, especially because we as a country fail miserably at education. We, miseducated Americans, continue to allow US presidents to kill between 20 and 30 million people since 1945, for the profits of the US 1%. Let us join together to improve education and help people develop critical thinking in our country. Or we could sit on our couches. As for me and my house, we will join the parade which begins at 11:05 a.m. near First and Florida, continues East on Florida to Lincoln Avenue then proceeds North on Lincoln Avenue to California. I will be walking with the Immigration Forum. Sincerely, Karen Medina -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From martin.wolske at gmail.com Tue Jul 4 17:24:21 2017 From: martin.wolske at gmail.com (Martin Wolske) Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2017 12:24:21 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Why I will be marching in the July 4th parade In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Thank you so much for this important insight, and for the response of you and your family! Martin On Jul 4, 2017 10:00 AM, "Karen Medina via Peace" wrote: > A friend wrote: I’ll stay home and watch the Red Sox play > Sitting on one's couch is always an option. > > The 4th of July commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of > Independence. It is true that some have co-opted it as a celebration of > wars that the United States have fought. > > The theme of the Champaign County celebration is, ‘Salute To Education,’ > This theme is particularly important, especially because we as a country > fail miserably at education. We, miseducated Americans, continue to allow > US presidents to kill between 20 and 30 million people since 1945, for the > profits of the US 1%. Let us join together to improve education and help > people develop critical thinking in our country. > > Or we could sit on our couches. > > As for me and my house, we will join the parade which begins at 11:05 a.m. > near First and Florida, continues East on Florida to Lincoln Avenue then > proceeds North on Lincoln Avenue to California. I will be walking with the > Immigration Forum. > > Sincerely, > Karen Medina > > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Tue Jul 4 17:54:17 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2017 12:54:17 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Why I will be marching in the July 4th parade In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <67211C16-4CDC-493E-A306-2F85ECB564F6@illinois.edu> > What are you celebrating when you “commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence”? The Declaration was made necessary in the eyes of the ruling class of the 18th-century settler-colonial states in N. America because Britain was threatening to interfere with the institution that produced that class’ prosperity, North and South: chattel slavery. The war was fought to prevent the abolition of slavery in America by the British government. (See now Gerald Horne, "The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America,” 2014). I feel a perhaps quixotic familial responsibility in this matter. The first American militia member wounded in the war - on Lexington Green, the morning of 19 April 1775 - was Prince Estabrook, a black man who belonged to the family (He carried a gun in the militia and went on to be member of Washington’s army - to Washington’s dismay - until the end of the war, when he received a pension from the new national government - and his manumission from the state of Massachusetts; there’s a plaque to him today on the battle site: see below.) But half my family - ‘Loyalists’ - refused to take up arms against the British government and decamped to Nova Scotia (where I have many distant cousins to this day). I now think they chose the better part - even though I’m descended from the branch that stayed in Massachusetts. So I think that it’s a mistake to honor the misunderstood ‘tradition’ of the Declaration of Independence - perhaps even more “Education” about it, which has had such deleterious effects, as you point out. (Even Jefferson’s epigoni can hardly fail to note the Declaration's racist character: e.g., the king of England "has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions…”) We should instead be doing penance for the suffering and death that that tradition has brought about, instead of celebrating it. Much better to stay home and watch baseball. —CGE > On Jul 4, 2017, at 9:59 AM, Karen Medina via Peace wrote: > > A friend wrote: I’ll stay home and watch the Red Sox play > Sitting on one's couch is always an option. > > The 4th of July commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It is true that some have co-opted it as a celebration of wars that the United States have fought. > > The theme of the Champaign County celebration is, ‘Salute To Education,’ > This theme is particularly important, especially because we as a country fail miserably at education. We, miseducated Americans, continue to allow US presidents to kill between 20 and 30 million people since 1945, for the profits of the US 1%. Let us join together to improve education and help people develop critical thinking in our country. > > Or we could sit on our couches. > > As for me and my house, we will join the parade which begins at 11:05 a.m. near First and Florida, continues East on Florida to Lincoln Avenue then proceeds North on Lincoln Avenue to California. I will be walking with the Immigration Forum. > > Sincerely, > Karen Medina > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: A monument on Lexington Green, in Massachusetts, t.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 17225 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Tue Jul 4 18:48:01 2017 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2017 13:48:01 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Why I will be marching in the July 4th parade In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <6FA7EF02-5459-453D-89C2-F277F36A6E25@illinois.edu> Martin— Here’s the note Karen was responding to. Regards, Carl ================================ Why I won’t be marching in the July 4 parade AWARE [Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort of C-U] has in years past been a notable presence in the July 4th parade in Champaign-Urbana. Talented AWAREists have presented anti-war floats and displays, often mocking the official patriotic themes of the event. (One AWARE entry under a ‘war heroes’ theme featured huge photos of courageous war resisters.) But I’ve been convinced by Doug, long-time friend of AWARE, that any participation in the celebration of the shockingly misnamed “war of independence” lends support to the heavily mythologized tradition of America’s ‘good wars.’ None of them was good, including the ‘war against fascism,’ used by US propaganda to justify imperialist war from 1945 to the present day. The poets often get there first: see Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle” (1962) - a literary meditation, as in a distorting mirror, of how war can be used to justify further war. More directly, in “Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization” (2008), Nicholson Baker provides the history of the coming of WWII: Americans born since then have been systematically deprived of an historically accurate account - and not innocently, but to support Americas' subsequent wars. We miseducated Americans have allowed US presidents to kill between 20 and 30 million people since 1945, for the profits of the US 1%. In a lecture more than 40 years ago, just as the repressive policies of neoliberalism began to be adopted by all subsequent administrations (criticizing it made Trump president), the late Howard Zinn exposed the Fourth of July mythology. See the appended article, “Rethinking the Fourth of July,” with references to the important observations of historians Ray Raphael and Gerald Horne. I don’t now see how I can oppose the propaganda of the Fourth of July celebrations and still participate, even in a critical way. I’ll stay home and watch the Red Sox play. --CGE > ### > On Jul 4, 2017, at 12:24 PM, Martin Wolske via Peace > wrote: > > Thank you so much for this important insight, and for the response of you and your family! > > Martin > > On Jul 4, 2017 10:00 AM, "Karen Medina via Peace" > wrote: > A friend wrote: I’ll stay home and watch the Red Sox play > Sitting on one's couch is always an option. > > The 4th of July commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It is true that some have co-opted it as a celebration of wars that the United States have fought. > > The theme of the Champaign County celebration is, ‘Salute To Education,’ > This theme is particularly important, especially because we as a country fail miserably at education. We, miseducated Americans, continue to allow US presidents to kill between 20 and 30 million people since 1945, for the profits of the US 1%. Let us join together to improve education and help people develop critical thinking in our country. > > Or we could sit on our couches. > > As for me and my house, we will join the parade which begins at 11:05 a.m. near First and Florida, continues East on Florida to Lincoln Avenue then proceeds North on Lincoln Avenue to California. I will be walking with the Immigration Forum. > > Sincerely, > Karen Medina > > _______________________________________________ > 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 deb.pdamerica at gmail.com Tue Jul 4 19:42:04 2017 From: deb.pdamerica at gmail.com (Debra Schrishuhn) Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2017 14:42:04 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Why I will be marching in the July 4th parade In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Good for you, Karen! PDA was in the parade as well, and this year we had a single message: Healthcare not Warfare. We were well received by spectators, ranging from waving and thumbs up to clapping and cheering. By engaging we keep the subjects we care about in the public sphere and we have the chance to foster serious discussion and education. We save what we love, we love what we understand, we understand what we learn--the reason education is so vital. Deb Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 4, 2017, at 9:59 AM, Karen Medina via Peace wrote: > > A friend wrote: I’ll stay home and watch the Red Sox play > Sitting on one's couch is always an option. > > The 4th of July commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It is true that some have co-opted it as a celebration of wars that the United States have fought. > > The theme of the Champaign County celebration is, ‘Salute To Education,’ > This theme is particularly important, especially because we as a country fail miserably at education. We, miseducated Americans, continue to allow US presidents to kill between 20 and 30 million people since 1945, for the profits of the US 1%. Let us join together to improve education and help people develop critical thinking in our country. > > Or we could sit on our couches. > > As for me and my house, we will join the parade which begins at 11:05 a.m. near First and Florida, continues East on Florida to Lincoln Avenue then proceeds North on Lincoln Avenue to California. I will be walking with the Immigration Forum. > > Sincerely, > Karen Medina > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace From galliher at illinois.edu Tue Jul 4 20:03:12 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2017 15:03:12 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Why I will be marching in the July 4th parade In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <5DE2450B-E047-464A-9694-2904F72DB0CB@illinois.edu> https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/07/03/what-does-war-generate Does PDA’s “single message … not Warfare” include calling for bringing all US troops (and weapons) home from the Mideast and North Africa? Regards, CGE > On Jul 4, 2017, at 2:42 PM, Debra Schrishuhn via Peace wrote: > > Good for you, Karen! > > PDA was in the parade as well, and this year we had a single message: Healthcare not Warfare. We were well received by spectators, ranging from waving and thumbs up to clapping and cheering. By engaging we keep the subjects we care about in the public sphere and we have the chance to foster serious discussion and education. > > We save what we love, we love what we understand, we understand what we learn--the reason education is so vital. > > Deb > > Sent from my iPhone > >> On Jul 4, 2017, at 9:59 AM, Karen Medina via Peace wrote: >> >> A friend wrote: I’ll stay home and watch the Red Sox play >> Sitting on one's couch is always an option. >> >> The 4th of July commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It is true that some have co-opted it as a celebration of wars that the United States have fought. >> >> The theme of the Champaign County celebration is, ‘Salute To Education,’ >> This theme is particularly important, especially because we as a country fail miserably at education. We, miseducated Americans, continue to allow US presidents to kill between 20 and 30 million people since 1945, for the profits of the US 1%. Let us join together to improve education and help people develop critical thinking in our country. >> >> Or we could sit on our couches. >> >> As for me and my house, we will join the parade which begins at 11:05 a.m. near First and Florida, continues East on Florida to Lincoln Avenue then proceeds North on Lincoln Avenue to California. I will be walking with the Immigration Forum. >> >> Sincerely, >> Karen Medina >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 moboct1 at aim.com Wed Jul 5 11:33:32 2017 From: moboct1 at aim.com (Mildred O'brien) Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2017 07:33:32 -0400 Subject: [Peace] Why I will be marching in the July 4th parade In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <15d1286d551-2e8d-145b7@webprd-a41.mail.aol.com> -----Original Message-----From: Karen Medina via Peace To: Peace List Sent: Tue, 4 Jul 2017 10:00Subject: [Peace] Why I will be marching in the July 4th parade A friend wrote: I’ll stay home and watch the Red Sox playSitting on one's couch is always an option. The 4th of July commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It is true that some have co-opted it as a celebration of wars that the United States have fought.  The theme of the Champaign County celebration is, ‘Salute To Education,’This theme is particularly important, especially because we as a country fail miserably at education. We, miseducated Americans, continue to allow US presidents to kill between 20 and 30 million people since 1945, for the profits of the US 1%. Let us join together to improve education and help people develop critical thinking in our country.  Or we could sit on our couches. As for me and my house, we will join the parade which begins at 11:05 a.m. near First and Florida, continues East on Florida to Lincoln Avenue then proceeds North on Lincoln Avenue to California. I will be walking with the Immigration Forum. Sincerely, Karen Medina _______________________________________________ Peace mailing list Peace at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From martin.wolske at gmail.com Wed Jul 5 15:07:30 2017 From: martin.wolske at gmail.com (Martin Wolske) Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2017 10:07:30 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Why I will be marching in the July 4th parade In-Reply-To: <6FA7EF02-5459-453D-89C2-F277F36A6E25@illinois.edu> References: <6FA7EF02-5459-453D-89C2-F277F36A6E25@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Thanks for this as well, Carl. Both of you bring forward critical insights. As for me and my family, we have stayed at home for some years now in significant part because of the repressive policies of neoliberalism. But in putting this forward, I do not refute Karen and her insights, nor Debra's that followed, as they and others work to bring forward valuable alternative approaches. Cheers, -- Martin On Tue, Jul 4, 2017 at 1:48 PM, Carl G. Estabrook wrote: > Martin— Here’s the note Karen was responding to. Regards, Carl > > ================================ > Why I won’t be marching in the July 4 parade > > AWARE [Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort of C-U] has in years past been a > notable presence in the July 4th parade in Champaign-Urbana. Talented > AWAREists have presented anti-war floats and displays, often mocking the > official patriotic themes of the event. (One AWARE entry under a ‘war > heroes’ theme featured huge photos of courageous war resisters.) > > But I’ve been convinced by Doug, long-time friend of AWARE, that any > participation in the celebration of the shockingly misnamed “war of > independence” lends support to the heavily mythologized tradition of > America’s ‘good wars.’ > > None of them was good, including the ‘war against fascism,’ used by US > propaganda to justify imperialist war from 1945 to the present day. > > The poets often get there first: see Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High > Castle” (1962) - a literary meditation, as in a distorting mirror, of how > war can be used to justify further war. More directly, in “Human Smoke: The > Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization” (2008), Nicholson > Baker provides the history of the coming of WWII: Americans born since then > have been systematically deprived of an historically accurate account - and > not innocently, but to support Americas' subsequent wars. > > We miseducated Americans have allowed US presidents to kill between 20 and > 30 million people since 1945, for the profits of the US 1%. > > In a lecture more than 40 years ago, just as the repressive policies of > neoliberalism began to be adopted by all subsequent administrations > (criticizing it made Trump president), the late Howard Zinn exposed the > Fourth of July mythology. See the appended article, “Rethinking the Fourth > of July,” with references to the important observations of historians Ray > Raphael and Gerald Horne. > > I don’t now see how I can oppose the propaganda of the Fourth of July > celebrations and still participate, even in a critical way. I’ll stay home > and watch the Red Sox play. --CGE > > the-fourth-of-july_b_5552378.html> > > ### > > On Jul 4, 2017, at 12:24 PM, Martin Wolske via Peace < > peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > Thank you so much for this important insight, and for the response of you > and your family! > > Martin > > On Jul 4, 2017 10:00 AM, "Karen Medina via Peace" < > peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > >> A friend wrote: I’ll stay home and watch the Red Sox play >> Sitting on one's couch is always an option. >> >> The 4th of July commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of >> Independence. It is true that some have co-opted it as a celebration of >> wars that the United States have fought. >> >> The theme of the Champaign County celebration is, ‘Salute To Education,’ >> This theme is particularly important, especially because we as a country >> fail miserably at education. We, miseducated Americans, continue to >> allow US presidents to kill between 20 and 30 million people since 1945, >> for the profits of the US 1%. Let us join together to improve education and >> help people develop critical thinking in our country. >> >> Or we could sit on our couches. >> >> As for me and my house, we will join the parade which begins at 11:05 >> a.m. near First and Florida, continues East on Florida to Lincoln Avenue >> then proceeds North on Lincoln Avenue to California. I will be walking with >> the Immigration Forum. >> >> Sincerely, >> Karen Medina >> >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 cge at shout.net Thu Jul 6 16:31:26 2017 From: cge at shout.net (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2017 11:31:26 -0500 Subject: [Peace] The anti-war movement hasn't gone away In-Reply-To: References: <5880c407a1db5_222964d980682c3@asgworker-qmb2-1.nbuild.prd.useast1.3dna.io.mail> <3014b58c3080570ba473a4b2bdcb0659@shout.net> <1f26ef3688b593a338a8fbc7cd45b7a6@shout.net> <38dd9634ddb6d642a9e18e34d02ee607@shout.net> <11a3e6f7cbc9fa68332a0079c6684e49@shout.net> Message-ID: http://mondoweiss.net/2017/07/clinton-because-communities/ Clinton lost because war-ravaged communities in PA, WI, and MI saw her as pro-war, study says From stuartnlevy at gmail.com Fri Jul 7 15:32:38 2017 From: stuartnlevy at gmail.com (Stuart Levy) Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2017 10:32:38 -0500 Subject: [Peace] AWARE at the Farmer's Market tomorrow, 8am-noon Message-ID: <315adb07-81cd-8643-9453-1a2c4ee5c99f@gmail.com> Hello all, AWARE will be back at the Urbana Farmer's Market tomorrow, from 8AM until noon. Come by and talk with us! The forecast calls for sunny mild weather, in the high 70s. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Fri Jul 7 16:47:53 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2017 11:47:53 -0500 Subject: [Peace] AWARE at the Farmer's Market tomorrow, 8am-noon In-Reply-To: <315adb07-81cd-8643-9453-1a2c4ee5c99f@gmail.com> References: <315adb07-81cd-8643-9453-1a2c4ee5c99f@gmail.com> Message-ID: Here’s the flyer we’ll be distributing: The U.S. is Illegally Making War in the Mideast Pres. Trump: Bring U.S. Troops and Weapons Home The U.S. military is today killing people in seven Mideast and African countries - Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan. Thousands of U.S. troops are fighting in these countries, although most Americans don’t know that. In addition, the 70,000-member U.S. ‘Special Operations Command’ - American death squads - are active in three-quarters of the countries of the world. Their activities include kidnapping (‘rendition’), torture, and murder. {Flags mark U.S. troop presence} The U.S. government says that we’re fighting terrorism, but we are in fact creating terrorists - in response particularly to the drone assassinations, “the most extreme terrorist campaign of modern times” - which have killed more than 5,000 people, including U.S. citizens and hundreds of children. Since World War II ended in 1945, the U.S. has attempted to exercise military control over the Mideast and its energy resources. The U.S. doesn’t need oil from the Mideast, but Mideast gas and oil are needed by America’s economic competitors in Europe and Asia, and so control over them gives the U.S. a major advantage over China, Germany, and other countries - a chokehold which benefits only the American economic elite, the one percent. In 2003 the US illegally invaded Iraq - and killed perhaps a million people for that purpose - and now has thousands of troops and mercenaries throughout the Mideast. Those of us in AWARE, like other anti-war groups in the United States and around the world, call upon President Trump to ~ (1) establish a foreign policy based on diplomacy, international law, and human rights; ~ (2) end U.S. wars in the Mideast and war provocations against Russia (in Eastern Europe) and China (in the South China Sea), and stop the drone assassinations; ~ (3) cut military spending by at least 50% and close the more than 700 foreign military bases (neither Russia nor China has more than twelve); bring U.S. troops (and weapons) home; ~ (4) stop U.S. support for human rights abusers, notably Israel and Saudi Arabia; and ~ (5) lead on global nuclear disarmament. ANTI-WAR ANTI-RACISM EFFORT - on Facebook at ~ U.S. troops & weapons out of the Mideast ~ Medicare for all ~ Universal basic income ~ > On Jul 7, 2017, at 10:32 AM, Stuart Levy via Peace wrote: > > Hello all, > > AWARE will be back at the Urbana Farmer's Market tomorrow, from 8AM until noon. Come by and talk with us! > > The forecast calls for sunny mild weather, in the high 70s. > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: flyer2017.04.rtfd.zip Type: application/zip Size: 101206 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Pasted Graphic 2.tiff Type: image/tiff Size: 98832 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cge at shout.net Sat Jul 8 13:50:27 2017 From: cge at shout.net (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sat, 08 Jul 2017 08:50:27 -0500 Subject: [Peace] The importance of the Putin-Trump meeting In-Reply-To: References: <5880c407a1db5_222964d980682c3@asgworker-qmb2-1.nbuild.prd.useast1.3dna.io.mail> <3014b58c3080570ba473a4b2bdcb0659@shout.net> <1f26ef3688b593a338a8fbc7cd45b7a6@shout.net> <38dd9634ddb6d642a9e18e34d02ee607@shout.net> <11a3e6f7cbc9fa68332a0079c6684e49@shout.net> Message-ID: http://www.atimes.com/article/putin-trump-stage-manage-win-win-meeting/ ============================= That's the best account I've seen of this important meeting. The US press all lead with the earth-shaking question, "Did Putin admit to 'hacking' the US election?" Where 'hacking' = revealing lies from the Clinton campaign. I would not have believed it. ============================= "...Putin and Lavrov faced Trump and Tillerson knowing full well that political factions in the US won’t waiver in their mission to keep the tension with 'peer competitors' Russia and China at a very dangerous level. "At the same time, they knew Trump and Tillerson really aim for a reset – incipient as it may be at the start. "Syria is an ultra-complex case where the sphere of influence is mostly Iranian but the hard, cold facts on the ground and in the skies are mostly Russian. With this ceasefire deal, it’s as if Putin and Lavrov are inviting a losing Washington to be part of a solution that satisfies – sort of – all parties, including Israel and Turkey..." ============================= --CGE From galliher at illinois.edu Sun Jul 9 16:02:42 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2017 11:02:42 -0500 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?=5Bsf-core=5D_Article=3A_The_Book_That_Predicte?= =?utf-8?q?d_Trump=E2=80=99s_Rise_Offers_the_Left_a_Roadmap_for_Defeating_?= =?utf-8?q?Him?= In-Reply-To: <65BDECCF-03E5-4DCA-B8A7-32D186C6548B@illinois.edu> References: <65BDECCF-03E5-4DCA-B8A7-32D186C6548B@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Which of Rorty’s views do you not endorse, Belden? Do you endorse the political establishment’s denigration of the ‘populist demagogue’s’ agreements with the Russian president in Hamburg? Do you support the establishment (and media) call for the renewal of the Obama-Clinton administration’s war provocations against Russia, from Ukraine to Syria? —CGE > On Jul 7, 2017, at 8:28 PM, 'Fields, A Belden' a-fields at illinois.edu [sf-core] wrote: > > While I not endorsing all of Rorty's views, I think it' interesting coming from one of the most prominent American philosophers. I do share his critique of Foucault and have made a similar one in Nelson and Grossberg (eds) Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, > Belden > > Begin forwarded message: > >> From: "Mohraz, Jane E" >> Date: July 6, 2017 at 10:24:57 PM CDT >> To: "Fields, A Belden" >> Subject: Article: The Book That Predicted Trump’s Rise Offers the Left a Roadmap for Defeating Him >> >> Twenty years ago, Richard Rorty warned that “a spectatorial, disgusted, mocking Left” would give rise to a populist demagogue. Is it ready now to take his advice? Twenty years ago, in a series of lectures on the history of American civilization, the philosopher Richard Rorty offered a prediction.... >> >> http://flip.it/kOvPkb From galliher at illinois.edu Sun Jul 9 17:32:44 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2017 12:32:44 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Maureen, the Sycophantic Mouthpiece In-Reply-To: <40CF69C5-6000-4269-B826-66BE0B239E50@illinois.edu> References: <40CF69C5-6000-4269-B826-66BE0B239E50@illinois.edu> Message-ID: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/opinion/sunday/putin-trump-bannon-taxes.html?_r=0 The US political establishment, with the NYT as one of its multiple loudspeakers, continues their hysterical campaign against Trump, for fear he might actually mean some of his 'economic nationalist' criticisms of the neolib and neocon policies ('corporate globalization') that characterized the Bush and Obama administrations. The propaganda cover of the establishment's campaign is the desperate and fantastical 'Russiagate'; their principal weapon for winning the support of the US populace is their control of the US media. The leading critic within the administration of the more war (neocon) and more inequality (neolib) policies of the establishment is Steve Bannon, whom MSM must make a villain (along with Putin), as in the outrageous nonsense above. —CGE From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Jul 10 13:05:18 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:05:18 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Good News: Trump-Putin Talks Mark First Step in Defusing Tensions Over Syria, Ukraine Message-ID: Tillerson said he named Volker as a representative upon Putin’s request. University of Illinois Professor of International Law Francis Boyle told Sputnik the initial meeting delivered key outcomes on Syria and Ukraine. “I am encouraged. The meeting ... The meet was initially scheduled for 30 minutes, but lasted for over two hours, during which the leaders addressed some of the most pressing issues in US-Russia relations including sanctions and cyber warfare along with the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. SYRIA, UKRAINE TENSIONS Trump and Putin agreed on Friday to enforce a new ceasefire across southern Syria that will come into effect within two days at noon Damascus time on Sunday. And for the first time ever, Trump committed the United States to active involvement in implementing the Minsk Accord on Ukraine. As for the crisis on Russia’s border, the US State Department announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appointed former Permanent Representative to NATO Kurt Volker as special representative for Ukraine negotiations. Tillerson said he named Volker as a representative upon Putin’s request. University of Illinois Professor of International Law Francis Boyle told Sputnik the initial meeting delivered key outcomes on Syria and Ukraine. “I am encouraged. The meeting produced substantial progress on two of the most important and dangerous issues that had separated Russia and the United States during the Obama administration: Syria and Ukraine,” Boyle said. Syria especially was developing into a serious potential flashpoint between the Russian and US armed forces but Trump and Putin in their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg had both recognized the danger, Boyle pointed out. “This was an existentially dangerous situation because at any time Russian and American military forces could have struck each other with unpredictable and catastrophic consequences,” he said. Trump’s decision to appoint veteran US diplomat and former Washington ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker as the new first US envoy to Ukraine to help implement the Minsk agreement was also a historic step forward, Boyle explained. “For the first time ever, the United States government has bought into the Minsk accord, which is the only way forward on dealing with the situation in Ukraine,” Boyle said. Volker served as US permanent representative to NATO for presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He refused to sign a 2016 open letter from scores of foreign policy experts associated with the Republican Party denouncing Trump during his successful election campaign. “Of course the anti-Russian Factions here in the United States in the news media, the Deep State, punditry and academia will fight back ferociously,” Boyle warned. However, Trump and Putin had succeeded in laying the potential foundation for an improved relationship between the superpowers that could end the poisonous legacy of the Obama years, Boyle suggested. “Their G20 Meeting will hopefully commence a new and constructive relationship between the US and Russia instead of the anti-Russian warmongering by Obama, Clinton, Brzezinski,” he said. Obama while president continued to use former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, known for his lifelong hostility to Russia, according to many reports. Relations also deteriorated markedly when Hillary Clinton served as Obama’s first secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. BOOST TO US-RUSSIA RELATIONS Historian and retired US Army Major Todd Pierce told Sputnik he welcomed the emerging reports of Trump’s talks with Putin, showing that the US president’s focus on improving ties with Moscow is paying dividends. “If true, these headlines are very good news,” he said. “Of the many reasons to complain of about Trump, avoiding war with Russia should not be one of them.” Pierce praised Trump for his repeated efforts to improve relations with Russia, often in the face of scurrilous and unproven personal allegations against him in the US media. Trump had outraged warmongering elements in the United States, Pierce pointed out. “Unfortunately, many of his American opponents oppose him because he has talked rationally of the need to maintain peace with Russia,” he said. Pierce also acknowledged the value of the ceasefire agreement on Syria that Trump had reached with Putin. The US leader had agreed “to work with Russia in reducing violence in hotspots, such as Syria,” he said. However, such moves flew in the face of the long-running campaign by other groups in the United States to stir up hatred and suspicion against Russia in order to justify massively bloated arms expenditures and aggressive international policies, Pierce noted. Trump’s attempt to reduce the danger of clashes over Syria, therefore, “goes against US militarist’s constant incitement of war with Russia that we’ve now seen for many years,” he remarked. Featured image from REUTERS/ Steffen Kugler/Courtesy of Bundesregierung The original source of this article is Sputnik Copyright © Sputnik, Sputnik, 2017 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Mon Jul 10 13:13:22 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 08:13:22 -0500 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Good News: Trump-Putin Talks Mark First Step in Defusing Tensions Over Syria, Ukraine In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <3A192411-E02F-41E1-AA3E-3D9A96857911@illinois.edu> And the US media, incredibly enough, lead with the question of ‘Russian hacking’ of the US election! Small wonder that Americans are unaware if the crimes of their government abroad. > On Jul 10, 2017, at 8:05 AM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss wrote: > >> >> Tillerson said he named Volker as a representative upon Putin’s request. University of Illinois Professor of International Law Francis Boyle told Sputnik the initial meeting delivered key outcomes on Syria and Ukraine. “I am encouraged. The meeting ... > > The meet was initially scheduled for 30 minutes, but lasted for over two hours, during which the leaders addressed some of the most pressing issues in US-Russia relations including sanctions and cyber warfare along with the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. > > SYRIA, UKRAINE TENSIONS > > Trump and Putin agreed on Friday to enforce a new ceasefire across southern Syria that will come into effect within two days at noon Damascus time on Sunday. And for the first time ever, Trump committed the United States to active involvement in implementing the Minsk Accord on Ukraine. > > As for the crisis on Russia’s border, the US State Department announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appointed former Permanent Representative to NATO Kurt Volker as special representative for Ukraine negotiations. Tillerson said he named Volker as a representative upon Putin’s request. > > University of Illinois Professor of International Law Francis Boyle told Sputnik the initial meeting delivered key outcomes on Syria and Ukraine. > > “I am encouraged. The meeting produced substantial progress on two of the most important and dangerous issues that had separated Russia and the United States during the Obama administration: Syria and Ukraine,” Boyle said. > > Syria especially was developing into a serious potential flashpoint between the Russian and US armed forces but Trump and Putin in their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg had both recognized the danger, Boyle pointed out. > > “This was an existentially dangerous situation because at any time Russian and American military forces could have struck each other with unpredictable and catastrophic consequences,” he said. > > Trump’s decision to appoint veteran US diplomat and former Washington ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker as the new first US envoy to Ukraine to help implement the Minsk agreement was also a historic step forward, Boyle explained. > > “For the first time ever, the United States government has bought into the Minsk accord, which is the only way forward on dealing with the situation in Ukraine,” Boyle said. > > Volker served as US permanent representative to NATO for presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He refused to sign a 2016 open letter from scores of foreign policy experts associated with the Republican Party denouncing Trump during his successful election campaign. > > “Of course the anti-Russian Factions here in the United States in the news media, the Deep State, punditry and academia will fight back ferociously,” Boyle warned. > > However, Trump and Putin had succeeded in laying the potential foundation for an improved relationship between the superpowers that could end the poisonous legacy of the Obama years, Boyle suggested. > > “Their G20 Meeting will hopefully commence a new and constructive relationship between the US and Russia instead of the anti-Russian warmongering by Obama, Clinton, Brzezinski,” he said. > > Obama while president continued to use former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, known for his lifelong hostility to Russia, according to many reports. > > Relations also deteriorated markedly when Hillary Clinton served as Obama’s first secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. > > BOOST TO US-RUSSIA RELATIONS > > Historian and retired US Army Major Todd Pierce told Sputnik he welcomed the emerging reports of Trump’s talks with Putin, showing that the US president’s focus on improving ties with Moscow is paying dividends. > > “If true, these headlines are very good news,” he said. “Of the many reasons to complain of about Trump, avoiding war with Russia should not be one of them.” > > Pierce praised Trump for his repeated efforts to improve relations with Russia, often in the face of scurrilous and unproven personal allegations against him in the US media. > > Trump had outraged warmongering elements in the United States, Pierce pointed out. > > “Unfortunately, many of his American opponents oppose him because he has talked rationally of the need to maintain peace with Russia,” he said. > > Pierce also acknowledged the value of the ceasefire agreement on Syria that Trump had reached with Putin. > > The US leader had agreed “to work with Russia in reducing violence in hotspots, such as Syria,” he said. > > However, such moves flew in the face of the long-running campaign by other groups in the United States to stir up hatred and suspicion against Russia in order to justify massively bloated arms expenditures and aggressive international policies, Pierce noted. > > Trump’s attempt to reduce the danger of clashes over Syria, therefore, “goes against US militarist’s constant incitement of war with Russia that we’ve now seen for many years,” he remarked. > > Featured image from REUTERS/ Steffen Kugler/Courtesy of Bundesregierung > > The original source of this article is Sputnik > Copyright © Sputnik, Sputnik, 2017 > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Jul 10 14:21:03 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 14:21:03 +0000 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Good News: Trump-Putin Talks Mark First Step in Defusing Tensions Over Syria, Ukraine In-Reply-To: <3A192411-E02F-41E1-AA3E-3D9A96857911@illinois.edu> References: <3A192411-E02F-41E1-AA3E-3D9A96857911@illinois.edu> Message-ID: I was under the impression that the Russian hacking, or “Russiagate” was laid to rest, as a dead issue, given the lack of evidence, the hearings proving the lies of Comey and others, as well as CNN pundits being overheard to say, Russiagate is all “baloney” or something to that effect. Why has mainstream media not reported this yet? I say with sarcasm. > On Jul 10, 2017, at 06:13, Carl G. Estabrook wrote: > > And the US media, incredibly enough, lead with the question of ‘Russian hacking’ of the US election! > > Small wonder that Americans are unaware if the crimes of their government abroad. > > >> On Jul 10, 2017, at 8:05 AM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss wrote: >> >>> >>> Tillerson said he named Volker as a representative upon Putin’s request. University of Illinois Professor of International Law Francis Boyle told Sputnik the initial meeting delivered key outcomes on Syria and Ukraine. “I am encouraged. The meeting ... >> >> The meet was initially scheduled for 30 minutes, but lasted for over two hours, during which the leaders addressed some of the most pressing issues in US-Russia relations including sanctions and cyber warfare along with the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. >> >> SYRIA, UKRAINE TENSIONS >> >> Trump and Putin agreed on Friday to enforce a new ceasefire across southern Syria that will come into effect within two days at noon Damascus time on Sunday. And for the first time ever, Trump committed the United States to active involvement in implementing the Minsk Accord on Ukraine. >> >> As for the crisis on Russia’s border, the US State Department announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appointed former Permanent Representative to NATO Kurt Volker as special representative for Ukraine negotiations. Tillerson said he named Volker as a representative upon Putin’s request. >> >> University of Illinois Professor of International Law Francis Boyle told Sputnik the initial meeting delivered key outcomes on Syria and Ukraine. >> >> “I am encouraged. The meeting produced substantial progress on two of the most important and dangerous issues that had separated Russia and the United States during the Obama administration: Syria and Ukraine,” Boyle said. >> >> Syria especially was developing into a serious potential flashpoint between the Russian and US armed forces but Trump and Putin in their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg had both recognized the danger, Boyle pointed out. >> >> “This was an existentially dangerous situation because at any time Russian and American military forces could have struck each other with unpredictable and catastrophic consequences,” he said. >> >> Trump’s decision to appoint veteran US diplomat and former Washington ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker as the new first US envoy to Ukraine to help implement the Minsk agreement was also a historic step forward, Boyle explained. >> >> “For the first time ever, the United States government has bought into the Minsk accord, which is the only way forward on dealing with the situation in Ukraine,” Boyle said. >> >> Volker served as US permanent representative to NATO for presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He refused to sign a 2016 open letter from scores of foreign policy experts associated with the Republican Party denouncing Trump during his successful election campaign. >> >> “Of course the anti-Russian Factions here in the United States in the news media, the Deep State, punditry and academia will fight back ferociously,” Boyle warned. >> >> However, Trump and Putin had succeeded in laying the potential foundation for an improved relationship between the superpowers that could end the poisonous legacy of the Obama years, Boyle suggested. >> >> “Their G20 Meeting will hopefully commence a new and constructive relationship between the US and Russia instead of the anti-Russian warmongering by Obama, Clinton, Brzezinski,” he said. >> >> Obama while president continued to use former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, known for his lifelong hostility to Russia, according to many reports. >> >> Relations also deteriorated markedly when Hillary Clinton served as Obama’s first secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. >> >> BOOST TO US-RUSSIA RELATIONS >> >> Historian and retired US Army Major Todd Pierce told Sputnik he welcomed the emerging reports of Trump’s talks with Putin, showing that the US president’s focus on improving ties with Moscow is paying dividends. >> >> “If true, these headlines are very good news,” he said. “Of the many reasons to complain of about Trump, avoiding war with Russia should not be one of them.” >> >> Pierce praised Trump for his repeated efforts to improve relations with Russia, often in the face of scurrilous and unproven personal allegations against him in the US media. >> >> Trump had outraged warmongering elements in the United States, Pierce pointed out. >> >> “Unfortunately, many of his American opponents oppose him because he has talked rationally of the need to maintain peace with Russia,” he said. >> >> Pierce also acknowledged the value of the ceasefire agreement on Syria that Trump had reached with Putin. >> >> The US leader had agreed “to work with Russia in reducing violence in hotspots, such as Syria,” he said. >> >> However, such moves flew in the face of the long-running campaign by other groups in the United States to stir up hatred and suspicion against Russia in order to justify massively bloated arms expenditures and aggressive international policies, Pierce noted. >> >> Trump’s attempt to reduce the danger of clashes over Syria, therefore, “goes against US militarist’s constant incitement of war with Russia that we’ve now seen for many years,” he remarked. >> >> Featured image from REUTERS/ Steffen Kugler/Courtesy of Bundesregierung >> >> The original source of this article is Sputnik >> Copyright © Sputnik, Sputnik, 2017 >> _______________________________________________ >> Peace-discuss mailing list >> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net >> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Jul 10 15:28:52 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 15:28:52 +0000 Subject: [Peace] North Korea Message-ID: N. Korea has over 24,000 US troops on it's border with S. Korea. The only thing preventing them from an attack by the US is their nuclear weapons, especially with the US now insisting on THAAD implementation in S. Korea, THAAD is an affront to China and Russia, as well as N. Korea. If attacked by the US, N. Korea has enough military artillery to incinerate Soule and the US troops stationed there, so they don't fear a US nuclear attack. S. Korea fears the US provoking an attack. Freezing their nuclear program is supported by China, but any suggestions by the US that China should be doing US bidding to bring N. Korea to heel, is ridiculous and not in China's interests. The N. Korean "regime maybe unreasonable," but their "demands are reasonable." Both China and Russia have been urging the US to hold "talks" with the use of diplomacy as a means of settling issues. An end to the Korean war, decades old, bringing our troops home, would be a start. See: RT's Bullhorns: Handshakeology for indepth analysis. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Jul 10 15:37:59 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 15:37:59 +0000 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Good News: Trump-Putin Talks Mark First Step in Defusing Tensions Over Syria, Ukraine In-Reply-To: References: <3A192411-E02F-41E1-AA3E-3D9A96857911@illinois.edu> Message-ID: I fear Professor Boyle’s warnings “Of course the anti-Russian Factions here in the United States in the news media, the Deep State, punditry and academia will fight back ferociously,” a likely outcome, so in spite of the “good news” and progressive steps taken at the G-20 Summit, by Trump and Putin, I’m not holding my breath for peace. > On Jul 10, 2017, at 06:15, Boyle, Francis A wrote: > > “Of course the anti-Russian Factions here in the United States in the news media, the Deep State, punditry and academia will fight back ferociously,” Boyle warned. > ----------------------------------------------- > > > Francis A. Boyle > Law Building > 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave. > Champaign, IL 61820 USA > 217-333-7954 (phone) > 217-244-1478 (fax) > (personal comments only) > > -----Original Message----- > From: Peace [mailto:peace-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Carl G. Estabrook via Peace > Sent: Monday, July 10, 2017 8:13 AM > To: Karen Aram > Cc: peace ; Peace-discuss List > Subject: Re: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Good News: Trump-Putin Talks Mark First Step in Defusing Tensions Over Syria, Ukraine > > And the US media, incredibly enough, lead with the question of ‘Russian hacking’ of the US election! > > Small wonder that Americans are unaware if the crimes of their government abroad. > > >> On Jul 10, 2017, at 8:05 AM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss wrote: >> >>> >>> Tillerson said he named Volker as a representative upon Putin’s request. University of Illinois Professor of International Law Francis Boyle told Sputnik the initial meeting delivered key outcomes on Syria and Ukraine. “I am encouraged. The meeting ... >> >> The meet was initially scheduled for 30 minutes, but lasted for over two hours, during which the leaders addressed some of the most pressing issues in US-Russia relations including sanctions and cyber warfare along with the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. >> >> SYRIA, UKRAINE TENSIONS >> >> Trump and Putin agreed on Friday to enforce a new ceasefire across southern Syria that will come into effect within two days at noon Damascus time on Sunday. And for the first time ever, Trump committed the United States to active involvement in implementing the Minsk Accord on Ukraine. >> >> As for the crisis on Russia’s border, the US State Department announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appointed former Permanent Representative to NATO Kurt Volker as special representative for Ukraine negotiations. Tillerson said he named Volker as a representative upon Putin’s request. >> >> University of Illinois Professor of International Law Francis Boyle told Sputnik the initial meeting delivered key outcomes on Syria and Ukraine. >> >> “I am encouraged. The meeting produced substantial progress on two of the most important and dangerous issues that had separated Russia and the United States during the Obama administration: Syria and Ukraine,” Boyle said. >> >> Syria especially was developing into a serious potential flashpoint between the Russian and US armed forces but Trump and Putin in their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg had both recognized the danger, Boyle pointed out. >> >> “This was an existentially dangerous situation because at any time Russian and American military forces could have struck each other with unpredictable and catastrophic consequences,” he said. >> >> Trump’s decision to appoint veteran US diplomat and former Washington ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker as the new first US envoy to Ukraine to help implement the Minsk agreement was also a historic step forward, Boyle explained. >> >> “For the first time ever, the United States government has bought into the Minsk accord, which is the only way forward on dealing with the situation in Ukraine,” Boyle said. >> >> Volker served as US permanent representative to NATO for presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He refused to sign a 2016 open letter from scores of foreign policy experts associated with the Republican Party denouncing Trump during his successful election campaign. >> >> “Of course the anti-Russian Factions here in the United States in the news media, the Deep State, punditry and academia will fight back ferociously,” Boyle warned. >> >> However, Trump and Putin had succeeded in laying the potential foundation for an improved relationship between the superpowers that could end the poisonous legacy of the Obama years, Boyle suggested. >> >> “Their G20 Meeting will hopefully commence a new and constructive relationship between the US and Russia instead of the anti-Russian warmongering by Obama, Clinton, Brzezinski,” he said. >> >> Obama while president continued to use former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, known for his lifelong hostility to Russia, according to many reports. >> >> Relations also deteriorated markedly when Hillary Clinton served as Obama’s first secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. >> >> BOOST TO US-RUSSIA RELATIONS >> >> Historian and retired US Army Major Todd Pierce told Sputnik he welcomed the emerging reports of Trump’s talks with Putin, showing that the US president’s focus on improving ties with Moscow is paying dividends. >> >> “If true, these headlines are very good news,” he said. “Of the many reasons to complain of about Trump, avoiding war with Russia should not be one of them.” >> >> Pierce praised Trump for his repeated efforts to improve relations with Russia, often in the face of scurrilous and unproven personal allegations against him in the US media. >> >> Trump had outraged warmongering elements in the United States, Pierce pointed out. >> >> “Unfortunately, many of his American opponents oppose him because he has talked rationally of the need to maintain peace with Russia,” he said. >> >> Pierce also acknowledged the value of the ceasefire agreement on Syria that Trump had reached with Putin. >> >> The US leader had agreed “to work with Russia in reducing violence in hotspots, such as Syria,” he said. >> >> However, such moves flew in the face of the long-running campaign by other groups in the United States to stir up hatred and suspicion against Russia in order to justify massively bloated arms expenditures and aggressive international policies, Pierce noted. >> >> Trump’s attempt to reduce the danger of clashes over Syria, therefore, “goes against US militarist’s constant incitement of war with Russia that we’ve now seen for many years,” he remarked. >> >> Featured image from REUTERS/ Steffen Kugler/Courtesy of >> Bundesregierung >> >> The original source of this article is Sputnik Copyright © Sputnik, >> Sputnik, 2017 _______________________________________________ >> Peace-discuss mailing list >> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net >> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Mon Jul 10 15:44:36 2017 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 10:44:36 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Urge Rodney Davis to ban sending cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia Message-ID: I believe that even Rodney Davis could do this. I have talked to him about this issue personally. He expressed a willingness to co-sponsor legislation on this issue that is sponsored by Justin Amash. 202-225-2371 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Just Foreign Policy Date: Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 10:40 AM Subject: Urge Rodney Davis to ban sending cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia To: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org [image: Just Foreign Policy] Dear Robert, With the exception of his opposition to isolating Cuba, Rodney Davis hasn't been much of a champion on peace issues, to say the least. However, he has an opportunity now to do something useful that should be easy for him to do: co-sponsor Republican Justin Amash's NDAA amendment prohibiting the transfer of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia. [1] This should be no-brainer because: - this amendment almost passed the House a year ago, with 40 Republicans and 164 Democrats voting for it; - the Saudi war in Yemen has gotten more controversial in Washington since then; - last year this amendment was led only by Democrats, this year it's bipartisan, with Republican Justin Amash being the lead sponsor; - Textron, the sole U.S. company that made cluster bombs and which had the Saudi cluster bomb contract, got out of the business last fall, citing Congressional opposition. Rodney Davis' co-sponsorship of the Amash amendment would be very useful because the amendment is more likely to get through the Rules Committee the more Republican co-sponsors it has. *Call Rodney Davis now at 202-225-2371 <(202)%20225-2371>.* When you reach a staffer or leave a message, you can say something like: "I urge Rep. Davis to co-sponsor Justin Amash's amendment to ban the transfer of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia." When you've made your call, please report it *here* . And if you haven't signed our petition urging the Rules Committee to allow amendments against Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen to be voted on the floor, *you can do that here *. Thanks for all you do to help make U.S. foreign policy more just, Robert Naiman, Avram Reisman, and Sarah Burns Just Foreign Policy *If you think our work is important, support us with a $17 donation*. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate References: 1. http://www.rules.house.gov/amendments/AMASH_011_xml77171056555655.pdf [image: Please support our work. Donate for a Just Foreign Policy] © 2016 Just Foreign Policy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Jul 10 17:24:44 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 17:24:44 +0000 Subject: [Peace] =?iso-8859-1?q?A_must_listen=3A_=22Max=A0Blumenthal=A0on?= =?iso-8859-1?q?=A0How=A0the=A0Media=A0Covers=A0Syria=22?= Message-ID: Watch this video from The Real News Network: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=19506 From galliher at illinois.edu Mon Jul 10 19:45:08 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 14:45:08 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Letter to the editor In-Reply-To: References: <40CF69C5-6000-4269-B826-66BE0B239E50@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Editor, Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette: We must demand that our government remove all our troops and weapons from the Mideast. The recent discussion between presidents Putin and Trump has begun a partial ceasefire in Syria, which should be extended to all of the country. Russian troops are there at the invitation of a legitimate government, while the US had no legal right to invade Syria. More than two generations ago, the Kennedy administration illegally invaded South Vietnam and carried on a war in Southeast Asia - Vietnam and environs - and eventually killed perhaps four million people, including more than 50,000 Americans. If American leaders from those days were tried as German leaders were at Nuremberg after WWII, many would have been hanged. By 1969, polls showed that 70% of Americans had come to regard the war as “fundamentally wrong and immoral,” not “a mistake.” American public opinion, the brave resistance of the Vietnamese people, and the revolt of the US conscript army in Vietnam, led to the American withdrawal. As in Southeast Asia long ago, so in Southwest Asia today: the US must withdraw from what the Pentagon calls ‘MENA’ - the Mideast and North Africa - where we have long been killing people to guarantee control of the energy wealth of the region. Control - not just access - is what the US government demands, because it’s a choke-hold over economies like those of Germany and China that are dependent on Mideast gas and oil; the US in contrast imports very little of either from MENA. C. G. Estabrook Visiting professor (ret.) UIUC From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Jul 10 20:27:39 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 20:27:39 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Black Agenda Radio - 07.10.17 - Progressive Radio Network References: Message-ID: Another must listen……… Subject: FW: Black Agenda Radio - 07.10.17 - Progressive Radio Network Date: July 10, 2017 at 11:28:38 PDT http://prn.fm/black-agenda-radio-07-10-17/ Black Agenda Radio - 07.10.17 Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. The United States has embedded itself in Syrian territory, after six years of arming Islamic jihadist fighters to overthrow that government. Russia is also in Syria, but that's at the request of the recognized Syrian government. There is no legal justification for the U.S. presence in Syria, according to Dr. Francis Boyle, the professor of international law at the University of Illinois. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Jul 10 22:37:51 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 22:37:51 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Now for the bad news on Syria Message-ID: Preserving ISIL: Despite Ceasefire Talk, Tradition Dictates US Will Move Towards Regime Change in Syria JULY 8, 2017 BY 21WIRE 7 COMMENTS Despite recent reports out of the G20 that the US and Russia have agreed to a provisional ceasefire agreement in southern Syria, evidence on the ground, along with noises coming out of Washington and the OPCW on supposed ‘chemical weapons’ and underpinned by the well-established behavioral patterns of Washington – point to a bellicose US who is gradually nudging its way towards regime change in Syria… [1 Trump-Putin Regime Change]By Martin Jay America’s naked lust for regime change in Syria is plain to see now, following the folly of weapons inspectors and a State Department comedy moment. But history has shown us it is likely to push Muslims to slaughter their own, once again. When Donald Trump ordered Tomahawk missile strikes on the Syrian military airbase of Shayrat in April this year, the world should have woken up. Everything we needed to know about Trump which was previously lost in the smoke and mirrors of his buffoonery was there to see. We are seeing it now more than ever in Syria, although remarkably it is still confusing many Western journalists who are struggling to see the wood for the trees. Although the strike itself missed many of the intended targets, it did destroy three key myths about Trump’s Middle East objectives and the rhetoric which he had espoused leading up to his election victory in November. Firstly, he is disingenuous about destroying ISIL; secondly his objective with Syria is a carbon copy of Obama’s (regime change); and lastly, despite so much Russia-smooching, he is in fact not remotely serious about keeping good relations with Moscow. Remarkably, the strike was an immediate reaction to what his experts in the White House and the Pentagon had concluded to be a chemical attack at Khan Sheikhun, in Idlib province – a hotbed of Al-Qaeda groups fighting Assad’s army. In fact, as investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed in a recent piece for Die Welt, Trump ignored the intelligence community when it said they had found no evidence that the Syrians had used chemical weapons. The truth is that it is entirely inconsequential and serves as just one more distraction for analysts and journalists who are not focusing on the real picture: Trump is preparing for war with the regime. Tradition dictates that Trump should bomb Assad And there is a pattern to this which is carved out by US presidents and their diplomatic envoys. When the late Richard Colburn met with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in July of 1998, the UN ambassador diplomatically sketched out the options for the nationalist leader. They all boiled down to playing ball with the US over Kosovo or expect airstrikes. For the second time. Milosevic’s neck was already in the noose as for at least six years the US had been doing the most it could to isolate him as Russia’s rogue leader in the former Yugoslavia. The Americans had supported from the off, another nationalist leader in neighboring pro-west Croatia – Franjo Tudman – and Clinton had secretly backed arms shipments to him, despite publicly claiming to support a UN arms embargo on former Yugoslavia republics. But it wasn’t just arms. The Americans went the full nine yards in backing Tudman and Croatia – a country that Hitler didn’t need to send his own SS henchmen to, as one Croat extermination camp alone did such a formidable job of killing 50,000 Serbs in the ethnic ‘clean up’ which the Nazis required in the region. On Madeleine Albright’s watch as UN Permanent Representative, Croatia was secretly given a league of retired US generals to work with Tudman and special satellite intelligence of the battlefield in Bosnia, not to mention a sterling PR campaign which succeeded in planting a number of Op-eds in American broadsheets about Croatia being the ‘good guys’ in the war with Milosevic. Unsurprisingly, later in 2015, Croatia gave her an award for her support and presumably not for dubious articles in US media in the 90s claiming she was “getting tough” on the Croatian government. Follow [https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/875388705258831872/H4_uLagc_normal.jpg]RT ✔@RT_com OPCW discredits itself by dodging proper Syria chemical attack probe – Moscow https://on.rt.com/8cqt 12:40 AM - 26 May 2017 [Photo published for OPCW discredits itself by dodging proper Syria chemical attack probe – Moscow — RT News] OPCW discredits itself by dodging proper Syria chemical attack probe – Moscow — RT News Russia has demanded the immediate dispatch of an independent fact-finding mission to the site of last month’s chemical incident in Idlib and the airbase from where the attack was allegedly launched,... rt.com * * 5252 Retweets * 5454 likes Twitter Ads info and privacy But a number of key events are important to remember and chime with what is happening in Syria today. In 1992, and later in 1994 and 1995, three events shook the world when Muslims were killed in a bread queue explosion and then two market bombings – where the West immediately accused Serbs of the atrocities. Albright was too quick to make the conclusion even though UN inspectors could not establish if the craters could be made from Serb positions. There were many Western critics, like Lord Owen, who were dubious of the US conclusion (particularly about the two market bombings). Yet Albright’s zeal to point the finger at Milosevic was all it took for NATO airstrikes to follow. Years later, however, the evidence indicates that the swift conclusions by Albright and Clinton were, in fact, incorrect. The bread queue massacre was certainly a bomb planted by the Bosnian Muslim army, and the two market massacres similarly indicate the same. Muslims attacked their own people to garner more Western support to hit Milosevic. Any of this sound familiar? It should do as this is part of a well-honed craft, a pattern which the US carries out against its perceived enemies around the world, when diplomacy and joined-up-thinking flounder. In the former Yugoslavia, Milosevic was isolated from the start and then demonized for no real reason other than he wouldn’t forlorn the West and had his views and agenda. Grin by ex-Fox anchor speak volumes Assad in Syria has more or less become the fall guy, like Milosevic. It’s not that he has an appalling track record on human rights, torture, executions or destroying any inklings of journalism emerging. It’s that he has not buckled to Washington’s demands and therefore has defined his destiny as a target, like Milosevic or Saddam Hussein. And the pattern is identical. The UN now will attempt to identify who was behind the sarin attack in Idlib, but the indications from the OPCW are not good. Its findings are, at best, tainted as most of its research is based on interviewing people who have already done the joined-up-thinking: if the attack can be blamed on Assad, then the West will bomb the Syrian leader into the next century. Humble Sunnis in rebel-held areas of Syria know this, even if they don’t support the al-Qaeda groups which control them. But we shouldn’t think of these extremists groups anyway as enemies of the West. What can we make of the idiotic grin of ex-Fox anchor turned State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, when asked by an RT journalist if this immediate rush to military aggression against so-called chemical attacks would merely encourage ISIL to stage an attack. The Tomahawk attack was a starter’s pistol for many like me who saw with their own eyes in the former Yugoslavia – and from afar in Iraq – that the die has been set in Syria. It is only a matter of time now before a new chemical attack will be staged. Who could blame Assad for even carrying it out when he knows that any such attack carried out by rebels will be attributed to him regardless? Recent events in Syria have made my view much simpler and clearer, despite the war there being so complicated that it even confuses those on the ground. America will secure Raqqa and create a military base there and therefore take air superiority in at least part of Northern Syria. Israel’s proxy in the south – Al-Nusra – needs to keep a southern flank so as to buffer Assad from encroaching on the Golan Heights. It will not be apocalyptic, but more salami slice by salami slice as we see more focus each day on Assad forces and less and less on ISIL – which is to be an army in waiting spread nicely across a huge expanse of the country thanks to US strategy. History really is repeating itself. When I think of Assad and the West, I recall a cable sent to a senior US intelligence officer from his British counterpart in the 1960s who asked why Washington had installed Joseph Mobutu in Congo, in preference to the communist intellectual Patrice Lumumba, who the CIA had assassinated in 1961. His response to the naive Brit was, “Mobutu may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.” This article was originally published at RT OpEdge -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From deb.pdamerica at gmail.com Wed Jul 12 10:23:52 2017 From: deb.pdamerica at gmail.com (Debra Schrishuhn) Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2017 05:23:52 -0500 Subject: [Peace] RAPID RESPONSE needed Message-ID: Good morning, Everyone. Please call and spread the word: The U.S. House Rules Committee meets at 3 pm Eastern today to consider amendments to the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act). Please call and ask the Rules Committee members to approve the bipartisan Amash amendment (#227) to the NDAA, blocking funds used to transfer or authorize transfer of cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia. Pete Sessions, Chair (R-TX) (202) 225-2231 Tom Cole, Vice-Chair (R-OK) (202) 225-6165 Rob Woodall (R-GA) (202) 225-4272 Michael Burgess (R-TX) (202) 225-7772 Doug Collins (R-GA) (202) 225-9893 Bradley Byrne (R-AL) (202) 225-4931 Dan Newhouse (R-WA) (202) 225-5816 Ken Buck (R-CO) (202) 225-4676 Liz Cheney (R-WY) (202) 225-2311 Louise Slaughter, Ranking Minority Member (D-NY) (202) 225-3615 James McGovern (D-MA (202) 225-6101 Alcee Hastings (D-FL) (202) 225-1313 Jared Polis (D-CO) (202) 225-2161 Thanks, Deb From karenaram at hotmail.com Wed Jul 12 13:24:39 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2017 13:24:39 +0000 Subject: [Peace] A critique of US war crimes, that is not at all, too harsh. The "liberation" of Mosul: Message-ID: * Print * Leaflet * Feedback * Share » The “liberation” of Mosul: Washington’s latest war crime in the Middle East 12 July 2017 President Donald Trump issued a statement on Monday celebrating the “liberation of Mosul” as a “victory over terrorists who are the enemies of all civilized people.” The fate of Iraq’s second-largest city and that of the country as a whole, however, has proven that when it comes to enemies of humanity, ISIS is a bit player compared to US imperialism. This city, which three years ago had a population of nearly two million, has been subjected to a murderous siege that dragged on for nearly nine months. The scenes of destruction in Mosul are comparable only to the kind of devastation that was wrought upon European cities in the Second World War. The Old Town of western Mosul, the heart of this ancient city, has been largely flattened by US missiles, bombs and shells, with hardly a single residential or commercial building left intact. The crimes carried out against the civilian population are on a Hitlerian scale. Close to one million people have been driven from their homes. Those trapped in the city were subjected to a continuous bombardment by US warplanes, attack helicopters and heavy artillery. Early on in the siege, the destruction of basic infrastructure and the cutting off of all supply routes deprived hundreds of thousands of men, women and children of electricity, clean drinking water and access to adequate food and medical care. The total number of dead and wounded may never be known. Buried in the reports of the victory celebrations by the US-backed Iraqi forces is the grim fact that these troops were dancing on rubble amid the unmistakable stench of rotting corpses. The monitoring group Airwars has documented the deaths of 5,805 civilians as a result of attacks launched by the US-led “coalition” between February and June of 2017. There is no doubt that this figure, which excludes casualties during the first four months of the siege as well as those resulting from the intense bombardment of the past three weeks, is a serious underestimate. Tens of thousands more have been wounded. Among those escaping from the besieged city, boys and men were treated as ISIS suspects, in many cases subjected to interrogation, brutal torture and summary execution, all under the approving eyes of American Special Forces “advisers.” Amnesty International issued a report Tuesday titled “At Any Price: The Civilian Catastrophe in West Mosul,” in which it recounted that civilians were subjected “to a terrifying barrage of fire from weapons that should never be used in densely populated civilian areas.” In Amnesty’s typically cautious fashion in dealing with the US government, the report stated that “US-led coalition forces appear to have committed repeated violations of international law, some of which may amount to war crimes.” The organization is calling for the convening of “independent and transparent investigations where there is credible information that violations of international humanitarian law have taken place,” in order to “prosecute those reasonably suspected of responsibility for war crimes.” While Amnesty indicts ISIS with far greater conviction than it does the US military, it raises no questions as to who is responsible for ISIS in the first place, much less the historical roots of the human catastrophe inflicted upon Mosul. When it swept across Iraq three years ago, seizing Mosul and roughly one-third of the country’s territory and exposing the rotten foundations of the US-trained Iraqi security forces, ISIS had been well-armed, funded and trained for use as a proxy force in the wars for regime change orchestrated by the CIA and Washington’s regional allies, first in Libya and then in Syria. The roots of the emergence of Al Qaeda-linked Sunni militias in Iraq, however, lie in the quarter-century of war, sanctions, invasion and occupation inflicted by US imperialism on the oil-rich country, resulting in the decimation of an entire society, the loss of well over a million lives, and the turning of millions more into homeless refugees. In pursuit of a divide-and-rule strategy, the US occupation stoked sectarian divisions in Iraq, with particularly bloody results in Mosul, with its broad intermingling of ethnic and religious groups. Subsequently, the Shia-dominated government installed in Baghdad persecuted the Sunni majority of Mosul and Anbar province, creating fertile soil for ISIS. The overriding source of the disasters that have befallen the people of Mosul, Iraq and the broader Middle East is the unprovoked war of aggression launched by the US in 2003 on the basis of lies about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. At the time, apologists for US imperialism promoted the war with the charge that “Saddam Hussein kills his own people.” The late Iraqi ruler, however, would be amazed at the scale of death and destruction Washington has been able to inflict upon his country over the course of the past 14 years. If the legal principles and criteria employed by the prosecutors at Nuremberg were applied today, there would be many in Washington facing life in prison, if not execution. These include George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and the rest of the US administration that launched an unprovoked war of aggression, the main charge for which the surviving leaders of the Third Reich were tried. In addition, there is Barack Obama and the leading figures in his administration and military-intelligence apparatus. Elected largely on the basis of misplaced hope that he would put an end to US wars, Obama continued them in both Iraq and Afghanistan and expanded US interventions into Libya and Syria. It was under his administration that the siege of Mosul was launched. Finally, there are the criminals within the Trump administration, from the president to his defense secretary, Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis, who proclaimed a policy of “annihilation” in Iraq and Syria, to the generals and CIA chiefs who have implemented this policy of mass slaughter. Both major political parties, a media that has become a shameless instrument of war propaganda, the corporations and banks seeking to counter American capitalism’s decline by means of militarism and war, and every other major American institution are responsible for the war crimes in Mosul and those that have been carried out throughout Iraq and the rest of the region over the past decade-and-a-half. Complicit as well are the US academics who have maintained a discreet silence on the crimes and lies that pervade US policy, not to mention the various pseudo-left organizations that have enlisted themselves in support of imperialism under the disreputable banner of “human rights.” If action were taken on Amnesty’s proposal to “prosecute those reasonably suspected of responsibility for war crimes,” the defendants’ dock in Washington would be crowded indeed. Yet no one has been held accountable for these crimes. Settling accounts with Washington’s war criminals is the task of the American working class, united in struggle with the working people of Iraq, the rest of the Middle East and the entire planet. Under conditions in which escalating militarism in the Middle East and around the globe threaten to coalesce into another world war, the fight to build a new mass antiwar movement based on the working class and the youth and directed against the capitalist system assumes ever greater urgency. Bill Van Auken wows.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Wed Jul 12 22:50:42 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2017 22:50:42 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Mosul SOS Message-ID: Amnesty calls for special Mosul commission to probe potential war crimes by coalition & ISIS MosulSOS 86714 SSS 11 Jul 2017 | 04:33 GMT Amnesty calls for special Mosul commission to probe potential war crimes by coalition & ISIS Amnesty International has scolded the US-led coalition in Mosul for misplaced and excessive airstrikes, urging it to publicly admit its failure to protect civilian lives. The NGO is proposing to establish a commission to look into reported violations. Read more [© Alaa Al-Marjani]‘The liberation of Mosul has come at an incredibly high cost’ - Human Rights Watch In a new 50-page report published Tuesday, the human rights group sheds light on the scale of the loss of civilian life and suffering that the people of Mosul have had to endure during the offensive to recapture the city from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL) terrorists. At least 426 civilians died and over 100 were wounded by either terrorists or international coalition bombings result of 45 attacks spanning from January to mid-May, the group said in a summary of the report, titled: “At any cost: The civilian catastrophe in West Mosul.” The report draws on expert data and information provided by local residents. At least 105 of the victims died in a US airstrike on western Mosul’s al-Jadida district on March 17, which the coalition mounted “to neutralize two IS snipers,” the report said. The often disproportionate and imprecise use of deadly force by the international coalition fighting terrorists in Mosul has prompted major criticism from Amnesty. View image on Twitter [View image on Twitter] Follow [https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/875388705258831872/H4_uLagc_normal.jpg]RT ✔@RT_com ‘Trying to give civilians justice’: Artist captures brutality of #Mosul in poignant drawings https://on.rt.com/8hij 7:45 PM - 10 Jul 2017 * * 2525 Retweets * 3333 likes Twitter Ads info and privacy “Iraqi and coalition forces failed to take adequate measures to protect civilians, instead subjecting them to a terrifying barrage of fire from weapons that should never be used in densely populated civilian areas,”Lynn Maalouf, Director of Research for the Middle East at Amnesty International, said in a statement on Tuesday. Maalouf went on to note that some of the reported violations of international law by the coalition jets and Iraqi troops that used “imprecise, explosive weapons, killing thousands of civilians…may constitute [a] war crime.” Referring to an array of violations of international law, committed by IS, such as forceful displacements, indiscriminate mass killings and using civilians as human shields, Maalouf argued that the terrorist atrocities do not excuse the Iraqi and US military from their part of obligations under the law. Read more [Smoke rises from an air strike during fighting with Islamic State militants in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq July 6, 2017 © Ahmed Saad]Civilian death toll rises to over 600 in US-led coalition airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq & Syria “IS’s use of people as human shields does not lessen the legal obligation of pro-government forces to protect civilians. Military planners should have taken extra care in the manner in which they used their weapons to ensure that these attacks were not unlawful,” Maloof said. Speaking about the bombing of al-Jadida, she pointed out that many civilian deaths inflicted by the coalition was a consequence of a poor planning that or carelessness that led to “inappropriate” choice of weaponry or “failure to take necessary precautions to verify the target was a military objective.” To uncover the truth about the scale of the killings and those responsible for the loss civilian life, “an independent commission must immediately be established, tasked with ensuring that any instances where there is credible evidence that violations of international law took place, effective investigations are carried out, and the findings made public,” Maalouf said. In the meantime, the authorities of the states involved in the battle for Mosul must publicly acknowledge their responsibility for the heavy civilian death toll, she said, adding that Mosul citizens are entitled to know “that there will be justice and reparation so that the harrowing impact of this operation is duly addressed.” Amnesty International’s UK division cast doubt on the UK’s Ministry of Defense claims that its Air Force has not incurred any civilian casualties while conducting over 700 airstrikes in and around Mosul. READ MORE: Up to 20,000 Mosul civilians facing ‘extreme danger’ as battle against ISIS continues – UN official “The MoD’s claim that hundreds of RAF airstrikes in and around densely-populated Mosul have resulted in absolutely no civilian casualties is at best implausible,” Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK Director, said on Tuesday, describing the UK’s official military stance on the issue of civilian casualties as “wishful thinking.” Read more [© Alaa Al-Marjani]Iraqi PM congratulates military on ‘victory’ over ISIS in Mosul She urged the British military to abide the law and embark on a thorough investigation into the potential loss of civilian life “instead of repeating its mantra about having ‘no evidence’ of civilian casualties.” The scathing report and the recommendations to be introduced come in the wake of Iraqi Prime Minister Minister Haider al-Abadi’s arrival in Mosul on Sunday to congratulate the troops there with a “great victory” over the ISIS militants. While Iraqi forces continue to clear out pockets in the western part of the city where small groups of jihadists are holing up, the Iraqi government expects the liberation to be a matter of time. In the course of the lingering offensive to take the city from terrorists, launched in October last year, over 8,000 civilians are estimated by the United Nations to have been killed or wounded. Around 915,000 people have been displaced with the majority unable to return any time soon as their homes were completely destroyed or severely damaged. It is estimated that 16 out of 44 Mosul’s residential districts sustained heavy damage and 22 were moderately damaged. ‘ISIS seized my home’ Mosul resident Abu Akhmad, a jeweler, told RT Arabic how IS put civilians in extreme peril. Akhmad said that as soon as IS militants put down roots in the city, they confiscated his home and used his and other civilians’ families as human shields. “Imagine, they come to you and tell you: “You, give us your car!” And you have to give it to them. Not to mention women and everything else. There were about nine to eleven terrorists there. They would enter houses, come and go,” Akhmad told RT, adding the majority of those who would engage in violence toward civilians appeared to be foreign fighters. “Sometimes Iraqi ISIS fighters also came. But they did not touch us. Lately, only ISIS fighters from foreign countries talked to us.” Akhmad said that his house was part of a network of tunnels used by jihadists to escape Iraqi forces on the ground. As a result, his house was severely damaged and he is now trying to repair it. “They ordered us to leave all the doors open. They also made three gaps in the walls... I did them all up. Imagine such a big house. They entered one end of the house and came out of the other. Then they sat here and there, and we stayed outside.” -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Jul 13 14:07:01 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2017 14:07:01 +0000 Subject: [Peace] David Swanson on The Real News today. Message-ID: http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19529:House-Panel-Votes-to-Debate-Post-911-Blank-Check-for-War -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Thu Jul 13 15:30:26 2017 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2017 10:30:26 -0500 Subject: [Peace] CALL RODNEY DAVIS: House Votes Today on Saudi war in Yemen Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Just Foreign Policy Date: Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 10:07 AM Subject: CALL YOUR REP!: House Votes Today on Saudi war in Yemen To: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com [image: Just Foreign Policy] Dear Robert, Tell your Rep to vote against U.S. aid to the Saudi war in Yemen. Take Action Last night the House Rules Committee approved two amendments for votes today that *fundamentally challenge U.S. participation in the Saudi war in Yemen*. [1] The *Davidson* [R-OH] amendment *prohibits U.S. military action not authorized by the 2001 AUMF*. U.S. participation in the Saudi war in Yemen is *not authorized* by the 2001 AUMF. That would *block the U.S. refueling of Saudi warplanes bombing Yemen*. The *Nolan* [D-MN] amendment *prohibits the deployment of U.S. troops to participation in Yemen's civil war*. That would *block the U.S. refueling of Saudi warplanes bombing Yemen*. This devastating war, which was *never authorized by Congress*, has been going on for more than two years and has pushed Yemen to the brink of famine, with the worst cholera outbreak in the world, with the UN on the verge of giving up on vaccination against cholera in Yemen because of the war. *We've never had votes like this before in either chamber.* We have no idea how it will go. *Every Rep. needs to be called*, whether they are Democrat or Republican, pro-Trump or anti-Trump. *Call Rodney Davis now at **202-225-2371.* When you reach a staffer or leave a message, you can say something like: *"I urge you to vote YES on the Davidson and Nolan amendments to prohibit U.S. participation in the unauthorized Saudi war in Yemen."* When you've made your call, please report it *here *. *Please forward this note to any contacts who might take action.* Thanks for all you do to help make U.S. foreign policy more just, Robert Naiman, Avram Reisman, and Sarah Burns Just Foreign Policy *If you think our work is important, support us with a $17 donation*. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate References: 1. https://rules.house.gov/bill/115/hr-2810 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Jul 13 16:10:04 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2017 16:10:04 +0000 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] the House is voting today on the Saudi war in Yemen In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Same here, so calling the DC office of Rodney Davis as suggested by Stuart is probably the best way to make your views known. On Jul 13, 2017, at 09:03, Stuart Levy via Peace-discuss > wrote: I got an answ. mach. at the Champaign office too, but reached a live person at the DC office: 202-225-2371. On 7/13/17 10:09 AM, bjornsona--- via Peace-discuss wrote: I called Rep. Robot Davis' Champaign office at 10:05 a.m. Got the Republican answering machine treatment. Left a message. Thank you for the heads up. Anne Bjornson Parkinson. (Sick of corporate & government wars) Sent from my LG Phoenix 2, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone ------ Original message------ From: Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss Date: Thu, Jul 13, 2017 9:42 AM To: Peace Discuss; Cc: Subject:[Peace-discuss] the House is voting today on the Saudi wa r in Yemen Voting on NDAA amendments is expected to start around 1:30. Best chance for Rodney Davis yes is Davidson R-OH amendment prohibiting any US military action in Yemen outside the scope of 2001 AUMF. This would prohibit the US refueling of Saudi warplanes bombing Yemen. Our alert is forthcoming. But if you want you can call Rodney Davis right now and ask him to support the Davidson amendment to prohibit US military action in Yemen that has not been authorized by Congress. 202-225-2371 Robert Naiman Po licy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (202) 448-2898 x1 Amend NDAA to End U.S. Aid to Saudi War in Yemen https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/to-stop-cholera-famine?r_by=1135580 _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Thu Jul 13 18:26:45 2017 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2017 13:26:45 -0500 Subject: [Peace] FCNL: Hours before votes on war and peace Message-ID: Their amendment list includes the Davidson amendment against US participation in the Saudi war in Yemen ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jim Cason, FCNL Date: Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 1:14 PM Subject: Hours before votes on war and peace To: "Mr. Robert Naiman" In just a few hours, every representative in the U.S. House will go on the record on war and peace. They’ll vote on amendments to a military policy bill that could rein in Pentagon spending, put the brakes on a new nuclear arms race, stop an accidental war with Iran. | View online › [image: Friends Committee on National Legislation] Dear Robert, In just a few hours, every representative in the U.S. House will go on the record on war and peace. They’ll vote on amendments to a military policy bill that could rein in Pentagon spending, put the brakes on a new nuclear arms race, and prevent an accidental war with Iran. This bill is moving fast, and your representative needs to make decisions on dozens of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act. Call now and urge Representative Rodney Davis to vote for peace. *Call Rep. Davis at (202) 225-2371 <(202)%20225-2371>.* *Then click here let us know how your call went so we can show members of Congress that there’s grassroots support across the country for peace. * It’s not often that members of Congress have to take a stand on foreign policy, and many representatives are likely still undecided on some of the *key amendments we’re following* . We have an opportunity to shape their votes – and our country’s foreign policy. *Even if your representative has consistently voted one way, it’s important for him to hear from you at this critical time.* *Tell Rep. Davis to rein in U.S. wars around the world. **Call him at (202) 225-2371 <(202)%20225-2371>.* *Send us a note so we can count your call in our nationwide total. **(Not in Rep. Davis’s district? Get the phone number for your representative. )* Thank you for all you do for peace. [image: Jim Cason] Sincerely, Jim Cason Legislative Director for Foreign Policy Associate Executive Secretary for Strategic Advocacy [image: Friends Committee on National Legislation] We are Quakers and friends changing public policy. Find Events | Make a Donation | More About FCNL Follow us on: [image: Twitter] [image: Facebook] [image: Instagram] [image: YouTube] 245 2nd Street NE Washington, DC 20002 | 800-630-1330 <(800)%20630-1330> © Friends Committee on National Legislation | Powered by ActionKit | Design by Threespot -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Fri Jul 14 02:02:14 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 02:02:14 +0000 Subject: [Peace] THE NEW SILK ROAD WILL GO THROUGH SYRIA. Message-ID: I’m not a fan of the Asia Times, but every now and then an article by Pepe makes it worthwhile. [Road to Aleppo: The Chinese don't forget that Syria controlled overland access to both Europe and Africa in ancient Silk Road times. Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad monitor traffic on the road to Aleppo in Syria on July 10, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Omar Sanadiki.] Road to Aleppo: The Chinese don't forget that Syria controlled overland access to both Europe and Africa in ancient Silk Road times. Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad monitor traffic on the road to Aleppo in Syria on July 10, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Omar Sanadiki. MIDDLE EASTSYRIA The New Silk Road will go through Syria China and Syria have already begun discussing post-war infrastructure investment; with a 'Matchmaking Fair for Syria Reconstruction' held in Beijing By PEPE ESCOBAR JULY 13, 2017 7:12 PM (UTC+8) * * * * * * 282 * 11 Amid the proverbial doom and gloom pervading all things Syria, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune sometimes yield, well, good fortune. Take what happened this past Sunday in Beijing. The China-Arab Exchange Association and the Syrian Embassy organized a Syria Day Expo crammed with hundreds of Chinese specialists in infrastructure investment. It was a sort of mini-gathering of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), billed as “The First Project Matchmaking Fair for Syria Reconstruction”. THE DAILYBrief Must-reads from across Asia - directly to your inbox And there will be serious follow-ups: a Syria Reconstruction Expo; the 59th Damascus International Fair next month, where around 30 Arab and foreign nations will be represented; and the China-Arab States Expo in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui province, in September. Qin Yong, deputy chairman of the China-Arab Exchange Association, announced that Beijing plans to invest $2 billion in an industrial park in Syria for 150 Chinese companies. Nothing would make more sense. Before the tragic Syrian proxy war, Syrian merchants were already incredibly active in the small-goods Silk Road between Yiwu and the Levant. The Chinese don’t forget that Syria controlled overland access to both Europe and Africa in ancient Silk Road times when, after the desert crossing via Palmyra, goods reached the Mediterranean on their way to Rome. After the demise of Palmyra, a secondary road followed the Euphrates upstream and then through Aleppo and Antioch. Beijing always plans years ahead. And the government in Damascus is implicated at the highest levels. So, it’s not an accident that Syrian Ambassador to China Imad Moustapha had to come up with the clincher: China, Russia and Iran will have priority over anyone else for all infrastructure investment and reconstruction projects when the war is over. The New Silk Roads, or One Belt, One Road Initiative (Obor), will inevitably feature a Syrian hub – complete with the requisite legal support for Chinese companies involved in investment, construction and banking via a special commission created by the Syrian embassy, the China-Arab Exchange Association and the Beijing-based Shijing law firm. Get me on that Shanghai-Latakia cargo Few remember that before the war China had already invested tens of billions of US dollars in Syria’s oil and gas industry. Naturally the priority for Damascus, once the war is over, will be massive reconstruction of widely destroyed infrastructure. China could be part of that via the AIIB. Then comes investment in agriculture, industry and connectivity – transportation corridors in the Levant and connecting Syria to Iraq and Iran (other two Obor hubs). What matters most of all is that Beijing has already taken the crucial step of being directly involved in the final settlement of the Syrian war – geopolitically and geo-economically. Beijing has had a special representative for Syria since last year – and has already been providing humanitarian aid. Needless to add, all those elaborate plans depend on no more war. And there’s the rub. With the demise of Daesh (ISIS), or at least its imminent loss of any significant urban center, no one knows in what manner a fragmented, phony Caliphate “Sunnistan” might be manipulated into cutting Syria from its New Silk Road future. Qatar has already provided a game-changer; Doha has gotten closer to Tehran (common interests in South Pars/North Dome gas-field oblige), as well as Damascus – much to the despair of the House of Saud. So, unlike the recent past, Qatar is not engaged in regime change anymore. But still there are the diverging interests of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel and, of course, Washington, to accommodate. A possible scenario out of what Putin and Trump negotiated in Hamburg – that was not relayed by either Lavrov or Tillerson – is that the ceasefire in southwestern Syria, assuming it holds, could mean US peacekeeping forces in effect sanctioning the creation of a demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the Syrian Golan and the rest of the country. Translation: the Golan de facto annexed by Israel. And the “carrot” for Moscow would be Washington accepting Crimea de facto re-incorporated into the Russian Federation. That may sound less far-fetched than it seems. The next few months will tell if this is indeed a plausible scenario. The other big sticking point is Ankara against the YPG Kurds. Contrary to the ominous and quite possible Balkanization scenario, Washington and Moscow might well decide, in tandem, to let them sort things out by themselves. Then we will inevitably have the Turkish army occupying al-Bab for the foreseeable future. The bottom line: that Saudi Arabia gets nothing. And Israel and Turkey get political/military “wins”. It’s hard to imagine how Moscow could possibly sell this arrangement to Iran as a victory. Still, Tehran may not have a free flow Iran-Iraq-Syria-Hezbollah route totally back in action, but it will maintain close relations with Damascus and be engaged in the expansion of the New Silk Roads. The key question from now on seems to be whether Washington will follow the deep state “Syraq” policy – as in “Assad must go” mixed with support or weaponizing of non-existent “moderate rebels”; or whether Trump’s priority – to eliminate Daesh/ISIS for good – will prevail. Beijing, anyway, has made up its mind. It will work non-stop for the Iran-Iraq-Syria triumvirate to become a key hub in Obor. Any bets against a future, booming Shanghai-Latakia container route? * * * * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Fri Jul 14 12:08:40 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 12:08:40 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Yemen, the worse humanitarian crisis, comprehensive explanation by Ben Norton. Message-ID: http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19549:War-%26-Cholera-Decimate-Yemen%2C-But-Saudi-Bombing-Gets-More-US-Help -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Fri Jul 14 19:15:32 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 14:15:32 -0500 Subject: [Peace] "What happened to the anti-war movement?" In-Reply-To: References: <40CF69C5-6000-4269-B826-66BE0B239E50@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Obama’s AWOL Anti-War Protest | by James Bovard | July 14, 2017 Barack Obama campaigned for the presidency in 2008 as a peace candidate. He signaled that he would fundamentally change America’s course after the reckless carnage unleashed by the George W. Bush administration. However, by the end of Obama’s presidency, the United States was bombing seven different foreign nations. But Obama’s warring rarely evoked the protests or opposition that the Bush administration generated. Why did so many Bush-era anti-war activists abandon the cause after Obama took office? One explanation is that the news media downplayed Obama’s killings abroad. Shortly after he took office, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize — not because of anything that he had achieved, but because of the sentiments he had expressed. Shortly after he accepted the Peace Prize, he announced that he would sharply increase the number of American troops in Afghanistan. Much of the media treated Obama’s surge as if it were simply a military campaign designed to ensure that the rights of Afghan women were respected. The fact that more than 2,000 American troops died in Afghanistan on Obama’s watch received far less attention in the press than did the casualties from Bush’s Iraq war. In early 2011, popular uprisings in several Arab nations spurred a hope that democracy would soon flourish across North Africa and much of the Middle East. Violent protests in Libya soon threatened the long-term regime of dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who had become a U.S. ally and supporter in recent years. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other advisors persuaded Obama to forcibly intervene in what appeared to be a civil war. In March 2011, Obama told Americans that “the democratic values that we stand for would be overrun” if the United States did not join the French and British assault on the Libyan government. Obama declared that one goal of the U.S. attack was “the transition to a legitimate government that is responsive to the Libyan people.” Qaddafi, who was dealing with uprisings across the nation, sent Obama a personal message: “As you know too well, democracy and building of civil society cannot be achieved by means of missiles and aircraft, or by backing armed members of al-Qaeda in Benghazi.” Even before the United States began bombing Libya, there was no sober reason to expect that toppling Qaddafi would result in a triumph of popular sovereignty. Some of the rebel groups had been slaughtering civilians; black Africans whom Qaddafi had brought into Libya as guest workers were especially targeted to be massacred. Some of Qaddafi’s most dangerous opponents were groups that the United States had officially labeled as terrorists. Obama decided that bringing democracy to Libya was more important than obeying U.S. law. The War Powers Act, passed by Congress in 1973 in the waning days of the Vietnam War, requires presidents to terminate military attacks abroad after 60 days unless Congress specifically approves the intervention. Immediately after the bombing commenced, Secretary of State Clinton declared during a classified briefing for members of Congress that “the White House would forge ahead with military action in Libya even if Congress passed a resolution constraining the mission.” Echoing the Bush administration the Obama administration indicated that congressional restraints would be “an unconstitutional encroachment on executive power.” According to the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, Obama “had the constitutional authority” to attack Libya “because he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest.” Apparently, as long as presidential advisors concluded that attacking foreigners is in the U.S. “national interest,” the president’s warring passes muster — at least according to his lawyers. Yale professors Bruce Ackerman and Oona Hathaway lamented that “history will say that the War Powers Act was condemned to a quiet death by a president who had solemnly pledged, on the campaign trail, to put an end to indiscriminate warmaking.” The U.S. attack on Libya evoked almost no protests across the nation. After Qaddafi was killed, Secretary Clinton laughed during a television interview celebrating his demise: “We came, we saw, he died.” But U.S. missiles and bombs begat chaos, not freedom. Five years later, when asked what was the worst mistake of his presidency, Obama replied, “Probably failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya.” Syria In 2013, Obama decided to attack the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. The Obama team alleged that the Assad regime had carried out a chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians. A front-page Washington Post headline blared, “Proof Against Assad at Hand.” But that hand remained hidden. On a Sunday talk show, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough admitted that the administration lacked evidence “beyond a reasonable doubt” proving that the Syrian regime had carried out the gas attack. But McDonough asserted, “The common-sense test says [Assad] is responsible for this. He should be held to account.” Obama administration officials also insisted that attacking Syria would boost American “credibility.” But unless “credibility” is defined solely as assuring the world that the president of the United States can kill foreigners on a whim, that is a poor bet. This type of credibility is more appropriate for a drunken brawl in a bar than for international relations. The administration never provided solid evidence to back up its claim. Even Obama ally Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) characterized the evidence presented in a Capitol Hill classified briefing as “circumstantial.” Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) commented, “The evidence is not as strong as the public statements that the president and the administration have been making. There are some things that are being embellished in the public statements. The [classified] briefings have actually made me more skeptical about the situation.” Seeking to rally the nation behind the cause, Obama called on Congress to authorize bombing Syria. But the American people had little stomach for another adventure abroad. There were a few protests — including one outside the White House on the Saturday when Obama was expected to announce that he had commenced bombing. I was there that day, along with a smattering of conservative and libertarian opponents to another war. The protest was a bit anemic until a couple busloads of ANSWER Coalition activists arrived from Baltimore. They had great signs — “Bombing Syria Doesn’t Protect People — It Kills Them” —and they marched and chanted in unison better than most high-school bands. The U.S. Park Police were unhappy with the protest and rode their horses into the middle of the group. Federal officials came up and threatened to arrest anyone who did not clear away from the street behind the White House. A handful of arrests were made and the crowd simmered down. But when Obama made his a radio speech to the nation that afternoon, the chanting from the protest could be heard in the background. Obama announced that he was postponing a decision on bombing. However, in the summer of 2014, the ISIS terrorist group released videos of the beheading of hostages. That provided sufficient cover for Obama to commence bombing that group — and other targets in Syria. The media played its usual lapdog role. A Washington Post headline proclaimed, “Obama the reluctant warrior, cautiously selling a new fight.” So we’re supposed to think the president is a victim of cruel necessity, or what? A New York Times headline announced, “In Airstrikes, U.S. Targets Militant Cell Said to Plot an Attack Against the West.” “Said to” is the perfect term — perhaps sufficient to alert non-brain-dead readers that something may be missing (e.g., evidence). By mid 2016, the Obama administration had dropped almost 50,000 bombs on ISIS forces (or civilians wrongly suspected to be ISIS fighters) in Syria and Iraq. A September 2016 Daily Beast article noted, “In January, the Pentagon admitted to bombing civilians on at least 14 different occasions. In July, an off-target airstrike in northern Syria killed more than 60 people.” Obama acted as if he was doing God’s work by again bombing the Middle East. But the supposed beneficiaries were not persuaded. On the eve of the 2016 U.S. November election, independent journalist Rania Khalek (who was visiting Syria) tweeted, “I’ve been asking Syrians who they want to win for president. The vast majority say Trump because they feel he’s less likely to bomb them.” Presidential rhetoric was not sufficient compensation for the lives and homes that would be destroyed by the increased onslaughts that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton seemed to promise. Anti-war or anti-Republican? Thousands of innocent foreigners were killed by U.S. bombings and drone attacks during the Obama administration. In his 2016 State of the Union address, Obama scoffed at “calls to carpet bomb civilians.” Perhaps he considered it far more prudent to blow up wedding parties instead (as happened during his reign in Yemen and Afghanistan). As long as White House or Pentagon spokesmen announced that the United States was using “precision bombing,” media controversy over innocent victims was blunted, if not completely avoided. Why did Obama suffer far less backlash than George W. Bush? Salon columnist David Sirota summarized an academic study released in 2013: “Evaluating surveys of more than 5,300 anti-war protestors from 2007 to 2009, the researchers discovered that the many protestors who self-identified as Democrats ‘withdrew from anti-war protests when the Democratic Party achieved electoral success’ in the 2008 presidential election.” Sirota noted that the researchers concluded that “during the Bush years, many Democrats were not necessarily motivated to participate in the anti-war movement because they oppose militarism and war — they were instead ‘motivated to participate by anti-Republican sentiments.’” There have been plenty of stout critics of U.S. warring in recent years — including Antiwar.com, The Future of Freedom Foundation, Ron Paul, the Mises Institute, and some principled liberals and leftists such as Counterpunch and Glenn Greenwald and The Intercept. But overall, the media spotlight rarely shone on U.S. carnage abroad, as it did in earlier times. Perhaps the anti-war movement will revive if Donald Trump commences bombing new foreign nations. But it is clear that too many Americans have not yet learned the folly of “kill foreigners first, ask questions later.” *** {James Bovard serves as policy adviser to The Future of Freedom Foundation. He has written for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, New Republic, Reader's Digest, Playboy, American Spectator, Investors Business Daily, and many other publications. He is the author of a new e-book memoir, Public Policy Hooligan. His other books include: Attention Deficit Democracy (2006); The Bush Betrayal (2004); Terrorism and Tyranny (2003); Feeling Your Pain (2000); Freedom in Chains (1999); Shakedown (1995); Lost Rights (1994); The Fair Trade Fraud (1991); and The Farm Fiasco (1989). He was the 1995 co-recipient of the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought, and the recipient of the 1996 Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. His book Lost Rights received the Mencken Award as Book of the Year from the Free Press Association. His Terrorism and Tyranny won Laissez Faire Book's Lysander Spooner award for the Best Book on Liberty in 2003.} https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/obamas-awol-anti-war-protest/ ### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Sun Jul 16 06:05:47 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2017 01:05:47 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Why Trump must go: he threatens not to continue US war provocations v. Russia and China In-Reply-To: References: <40CF69C5-6000-4269-B826-66BE0B239E50@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Pepe Escobar, July 14: "Fascinating Macron/Trump presser at the Elysee ... Trump had very warm words for Xi - and Macron stressed the importance of being in synch with Putin in Syria…” The US political establishment’s hair stands on end in fright… The hysterical campaign to remove Trump from the presidency arises from the establishment’s fear that he will not continue the Obama-Clinton administration's war provocations against Russia and China. John Pilger wrote before the US election, "The CIA has demanded Trump is not elected. Pentagon generals have demanded he is not elected. The pro-war New York Times - taking a breather from its relentless low-rent Putin smears - demands that he is not elected. Something is up. These tribunes of 'perpetual war' are terrified that the multi-billion-dollar business of war by which the United States maintains its dominance will be undermined if Trump does a deal with Putin, then with China’s Xi Jinping. Their panic at the possibility of the world’s great power talking peace – however unlikely – would be the blackest farce were the issues not so dire." It is the bedrock principle of US foreign policy - stretching back into the 19th century (see “The Open Door”) - to oppose the economic integration of Eurasia, under whatever auspices, domestic or foreign - because that would be a challenge to the US elite's world economic hegemony. Some things don’t change. —CGE From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Jul 17 13:15:02 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2017 13:15:02 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Join Us Saturday 7/22 - Defeat TrumpCare, Win Medicare for All! References: Message-ID: Join us this Saturday, July 22nd at 2pm at the Champaign Public Library Robeson Room C to discuss strategies to defeat TrumpCare and build a movement that wins health care as a human right! RSVP on the Facebook event here! [Inline image 1] TrumpCare is a savage attack on working people and the poor. If passed, it will deny tens of millions access to health care and represent one of the greatest transfers of wealth from the working class to the 1% in U.S. history through massive tax cuts for the super-rich and corporations. We need a full mobilization of the opposition to TrumpCare through rallies, protests, and occupations of Republican Senators’ offices. The Republicans are struggling to overcome internal divisions, but we need to keep the pressure up to ensure the defeat of TrumpCare. A victory on this issue could help give confidence to the fight for Medicare for all! In Solidarity, Socialist Alternative Champaign-Urbana Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialistAlternativeCU/ National Website: https://www.socialistalternative.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: HealthCare Event.001.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 363576 bytes Desc: HealthCare Event.001.jpeg URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Jul 17 13:29:33 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2017 13:29:33 +0000 Subject: [Peace] MOST IMPORTANT ANALYSIS IN RESPECT TO SYRIA, ETC BY BEN NORTON. Message-ID: http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19551:How-US-Russia-Ceasefire-in-Syria-Impacts-Iran -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Jul 17 22:06:57 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2017 22:06:57 +0000 Subject: [Peace] "Eugene Debs and the Kingdom of Evil" by Chris Hedges Message-ID: Monday, July 17, 2017 * Home * World * War & Peace * Economy * Climate * Rights * Solutions * U.S. * Canada Eugene Debs and the Kingdom of Evil Published on Monday, July 17, 2017 by Common Dreams Eugene Debs and the Kingdom of Evil by Chris Hedges * * * * * * * 7 Comments [https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/views-article/eugenedebs_590.jpg?itok=B83jvi0e] "Eugene Victor Debs, whose home is an infrequently visited museum on the campus of Indiana State University, was the most important political figure of the 20th century." (Photo: Mr. Fish / Truthdig) TERRE HAUTE, Ind.—Eugene Victor Debs, whose home is an infrequently visited museum on the campus of Indiana State University, was the most important political figure of the 20th century. He built the socialist movement in America and was eventually crucified by the capitalist class when he and hundreds of thousands of followers became a potent political threat. Debs burst onto the national stage when he organized a railroad strike in 1894 after the Pullman Co. cut wages by up to one-third but did not lower rents in company housing or reduce dividend payments to its stockholders. Over a hundred thousand workers staged what became the biggest strike in U.S. history on trains carrying Pullman cars. The response was swift and brutal. “Mobilizing all the powers of capital, the owners, representing twenty-four railroads with combined capital of $818,000,00, fought back with the courts and the armed forces of the Federal government behind them,” Barbara W. Tuchman writes in “The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914.” “Three thousand police in the Chicago area were mobilized against the strikers, five thousand professional strikebreakers were sworn in as Federal deputy marshals and given firearms; ultimately six thousand Federal and State troops were brought in, less for the protection of property and the public than to break the strike and crush the union.” Attorney General Richard Olney, who as Tuchman writes “had been a lawyer for railroads before entering the Cabinet and was still a director of several lines involved in the strike,” issued an injunction rendering the strike illegal. The conflict, as Debs would write, was a battle between “the producing classes and the money power of the country.” Debs and the union leaders defied the injunction. They were arrested, denied bail and sent to jail for six months. The strike was broken. Thirty workers had been killed. Sixty had been injured. Over 700 had been arrested. The Pullman Co. hired new workers under “yellow dog contracts,” agreements that forbade them to unionize. When he was in jail, Debs read the works of socialist writers Edward Bellamy and Karl Kautsky as well as Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital.” The books, especially Marx’s three volumes, set the “wires humming in my system.” “I was to be baptized in Socialism in the roar of the conflict. … [I]n the gleam of every bayonet and the flash of every rifle the class struggle was revealed,” he writes. “This was my first practical lesson in Socialism.” Debs came to the conclusion that no strike or labor movement could ultimately be successful as long as the government was controlled by the capitalist class. Any advances made by an organized working class would be reversed once the capitalists regained absolute power, often by temporarily mollifying workers with a few reforms. Working men and women had to achieve political power, a goal of Britain’s Labour Party for workers at the time, or they would forever be at the mercy of the bosses. Debs feared the rise of the monolithic corporate state. He foresaw that corporations, unchecked, would expand to “continental proportions and swallow up the national resources and the means of production and distribution.” If that happened, he warned, the long “night of capitalism will be dark.” This was a period in U.S. history when many American Christians were socialists. Walter Rauschenbusch, a Christian theologian, Baptist minister and leader of the Social Gospel movement, thundered against capitalism. He defined the six pillars of the “kingdom of evil” as “religious bigotry, the combination of graft and political power, the corruption of justice, the mob spirit (being ‘the social group gone mad’) and mob action, militarism[,] and class contempt.” Debs turned to the Bible as often to Marx, arguing “Cain was the author of the competitive theory” and the “cross of Jesus stands as its eternal denial.” Debs’ fiery speeches, replete with words like “sin” and “redemption,” were often thinly disguised sermons. He equated the crucified Christ with the abolitionist John Brown. He insisted that Jesus came “to destroy class rule and set up the common people as the sole and rightful inheritors of the earth.” “What is Socialism?” he once asked. “Merely Christianity in action.” He was fond of quoting the poet James Russell Lowell, who writes: He’s true to God who’s true to man; Whenever wrong is done. To the humblest and the weakest, ’neath the all-beholding sun. That wrong is also done to us, And they are slaves most base, Whose love of right is for themselves And not for all the race. It was also a period beset with violence, including anarchist bombings and assassinations. An anarchist killed President William McKinley in 1901, unleashing a wave of state repression against social and radical movements. Striking workers engaged in periodic gun battles, especially in the coalfields of southern West Virginia, with heavily armed company goons, National Guard units, paramilitary groups such as the Coal and Iron Police, and the U.S. Army. Debs, although a sworn enemy of the capitalist elites, was adamantly opposed to violence and sabotage, arguing that these actions allowed the state to demonize the socialist movement and enabled the destructive efforts of agents provocateurs. The conflict with the capitalist class, Debs argued, was at its core about competing values. In an interview conducted while he was in jail after the Pullman strike, he stressed the importance of “education, industry, frugality, integrity, veracity, fidelity, sobriety and charity.” A life of moral probity was vital as an example in the face of capitalist exploitation, but that was not enough to defeat the “kingdom of evil.” The owners and managers of corporations, driven by greed and a lust for power, would never play fair. They would always seek to use the law as an instrument of oppression and increase profits through machines, a reduction in wages, a denial of benefits and union busting. They would sacrifice anyone and anything—including democracy and the natural world—to achieve their goals. Debs, if he could hear today’s proponents of the “free market,” self-help gurus, positive psychologists, talk show hosts and the political class as they exhort Americans to work harder, get an education, follow their dreams, remain positive and believe in themselves and American exceptionalism, would have scoffed in derision. He knew that corporate power is countered only through organized and collective resistance by workers forced to fight a bitter class war. Debs turned to politics when he was released from jail in 1895. He was one of the founders of the Socialist Party of America and, in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or “Wobblies.” He was the Socialist Party candidate for the U.S. presidency five times in the period 1900 through 1920—once when he was in prison—and he ran for Congress in 1916. Debs was a powerful orator and drew huge crowds across the country. Fifteen thousand people once paid 15 cents to a dollar each to hear him in New York City’s Madison Square Garden. In his speeches and writings he demanded an end to child labor and denounced Jim Crow and lynching. He called for the vote for women, a graduated income tax, unemployment compensation, the direct election of senators, employer liability laws, national departments of education and health, guaranteed pensions for the elderly, nationalization of the banking and transport systems, and replacing “wage slavery” with cooperative industries. As a presidential campaigner he traveled from New York to California on a train, called the Red Special, speaking to tens of thousands. He helped elect socialist mayors in some 70 cities, including Milwaukee, as well as numerous legislators and city council members. He propelled two socialists into Congress. In the elections of 1912 he received nearly a million votes, 6 percent of the electorate. Eighteen thousand people went to see him in Philadelphia and 22,000 in New York City. He terrified the ruling elites, who began to institute tepid reforms to attempt to stanch the growing support for the socialists. Debs after the 1912 election was a marked man. On June 18, 1918, in Canton, Ohio, he denounced, as he had often done in the past, the unholy alliance between capitalism and war, the use of the working class by the capitalists as cannon fodder in World War I and the Wilson administration’s persecution of anti-war activists, unionists, anarchists, socialists and communists. President Woodrow Wilson, who had a deep animus toward Debs, had him arrested under the Sedition Act, which made it a crime to “willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of the Government of the United States” or to “willfully urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of the production” of anything “necessary or essential to the prosecution of [a U.S. war, in this case against Germany and its allies].” Debs did not contest the charges. At his trial, he declared: “Washington, Paine, Adams—these were the rebels of their day. At first they were opposed by the people and denounced by the press. … And if the Revolution had failed, the revolutionary fathers would have been executed as felons. But it did not fail. Revolutions have a habit of succeeding when the time comes for them.” On Sept. 18, 1918, minutes before he was sentenced to a 10-year prison term and stripped of his citizenship, the 62-year-old Debs rose and told the court: Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. I listened to all that was said in this court in support and justification of this prosecution, but my mind remains unchanged. I look upon the Espionage Law as a despotic enactment in flagrant conflict with democratic principles and with the spirit of free institutions. … Your Honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in a fundamental change—but if possible by peaceable and orderly means. … Standing here this morning, I recall my boyhood. At fourteen I went to work in a railroad shop; at sixteen I was firing a freight engine on a railroad. I remember all the hardships and privations of that earlier day, and from that time until now my heart has been with the working class. I could have been in Congress long ago. I have preferred to go to prison. … I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and the factories; of the men in the mines and on the railroads. I am thinking of the women who for a paltry wage are compelled to work out their barren lives; of the little children who in this system are robbed of their childhood and in their tender years are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the monster machines while they themselves are being starved and stunted, body and soul. I see them dwarfed and diseased and their little lives broken and blasted because in this high noon of Christian civilization money is still so much more important than the flesh and blood of childhood. In very truth gold is god today and rules with pitiless sway in the affairs of men. In this country—the most favored beneath the bending skies—we have vast areas of the richest and most fertile soil, material resources in inexhaustible abundance, the most marvelous productive machinery on earth, and millions of eager workers ready to apply their labor to that machinery to produce in abundance for every man, woman, and child—and if there are still vast numbers of our people who are the victims of poverty and whose lives are an unceasing struggle all the way from youth to old age, until at last death comes to their rescue and lulls these hapless victims to dreamless sleep, it is not the fault of the Almighty: it cannot be charged to nature, but it is due entirely to the outgrown social system in which we live that ought to be abolished not only in the interest of the toiling masses but in the higher interest of all humanity. … I believe, Your Honor, in common with all Socialists, that this nation ought to own and control its own industries. I believe, as all Socialists do, that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned—that industry, the basis of our social life, instead of being the private property of a few and operated for their enrichment, ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all. … I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence. This order of things cannot always endure. I have registered my protest against it. I recognize the feebleness of my effort, but, fortunately, I am not alone. There are multiplied thousands of others who, like myself, have come to realize that before we may truly enjoy the blessings of civilized life, we must reorganize society upon a mutual and cooperative basis; and to this end we have organized a great economic and political movement that spreads over the face of all the earth. There are today upwards of sixty millions of Socialists, loyal, devoted adherents to this cause, regardless of nationality, race, creed, color, or sex. They are all making common cause. They are spreading with tireless energy the propaganda of the new social order. They are waiting, watching, and working hopefully through all the hours of the day and the night. They are still in a minority. But they have learned how to be patient and to bide their time. The feel—they know, indeed—that the time is coming, in spite of all opposition, all persecution, when this emancipating gospel will spread among all the peoples, and when this minority will become the triumphant majority and, sweeping into power, inaugurate the greatest social and economic change in history. In that day we shall have the universal commonwealth—the harmonious cooperation of every nation with every other nation on earth. … Your Honor, I ask no mercy and I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never so clearly comprehended as now the great struggle between the powers of greed and exploitation on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of industrial freedom and social justice. I can see the dawn of the better day for humanity. The people are awakening. In due time they will and must come to their own. When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the southern cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches, the southern cross begins to bend, the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of time upon the dial of the universe, and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the lookout knows that the midnight is passing and that relief and rest are close at hand. Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning. Three years later, Debs’ sentence was commuted by President Warren Harding to time served, and, in broken health, he was released from prison in December of 1921. His citizenship was not restored until five decades after his 1926 death. The labor movement and socialist party he had struggled to build had been ruthlessly crushed, often through violent attacks orchestrated by the state and corporations and mass arrests and deportations carried out during the Palmer Raids in November 1919 and January 1920. The government had shut down socialist publications, such as Appeal to Reason and The Masses. The “Red Scare” was used as an ideological weapon by the state, and especially the FBI after it was established in 1908, to discredit, persecute and silence dissent. The breakdown of capitalism saw a short-lived revival of organized labor during the 1930s, often led by the Communist Party, and during a short period after World War II, and this resurgence triggered yet another prolonged assault by the capitalist class. We have returned to an oligarchic purgatory. Wall Street and the global corporations, including the fossil fuel industry and the war industry, have iron control over the government. The social, political and civil rights won by workers in long and bloody struggles have been stripped away. Government regulations have been rolled back to permit capitalists to engage in abuse and fraud. The political elites, along with their courtiers in the media and academia, are hapless corporate stooges. Social and economic inequality replicates the worst excesses of the robber barons. And the great civic, labor and political organizations that fought for working men and women are moribund or dead. We have to begin all over again. And we must do so understanding, as Debs did, that any accommodation with members of the capitalist class is futile and self-defeating. They are the enemy. They will degrade and destroy everything, including the ecosystem, to get richer. They are not capable of reform. I walked through the Debs home in Terre Haute with its curator, Allison Duerk. It has about 700 visitors a year. Rarely do these visits include school groups. The valiant struggle by radical socialists and workers, hundreds of whom were murdered in labor struggles, has been consciously erased from our history and replaced with the vacuity of celebrity culture and the cult of the self. “Teaching this kind of people’s history puts a lot of power in working-class people’s hands,” Duerk said. “We all know what that threatens.” The walls of the two-story frame house, built by Debs and his wife in 1890, are covered with photos and posters, including pictures of Debs’ funeral on the porch and 5,000 mourners in the front yard. There is the key to the cell in which he was held when he was jailed the first time. There is a photo of Convict No. 9653 holding a bouquet at the entrance to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta as he accepts the nomination from leaders of the Socialist Party to be their 1920 presidential candidate. There are gifts including an intricately inlaid wooden table and an ornately carved cane that prisoners sent to Debs, a tireless advocate for prisoner rights. I opened the glass panel of a cherry wood bookshelf and pulled out one of Debs’ books, running my fingers lightly over his signature on the front inside flap. I read a passage from a speech he gave in 1905 in Chicago: The capitalist who does no useful work has the economic power to take from a thousand or ten thousand workingmen all they produce, over and above what is required to keep them in working and producing order, and he becomes a millionaire, perhaps a multi-millionaire. He lives in a palace in which there is music and singing and dancing and the luxuries of all climes. He sails the high seas in his private yacht. He is the reputed “captain of industry” who privately owns a social utility, has great economic power, and commands the political power of the nation to protect his economic interests. He is the gentleman who furnishes the “political boss” and his swarm of mercenaries with the funds with which the politics of the nation are corrupted and debauched. He is the economic master and the political ruler and you workingmen are almost as completely at his mercy as if you were his property under the law. I leafed through copies of Appeal to Reason, the Socialist party newspaper Debs edited, which once had almost 800,000 readers and the fourth highest circulation in the country. Debs, like many of his generation, was literate. He read and reread “Les Misérables” in French. It was his father’s bible. It became his own. His parents, émigrés from Alsace, named him after the French novelists Eugene Sue and Victor Hugo. His father read Sue, Hugo, Voltaire, Rousseau, Dumas and other authors to his six children. Debs found in Hugo’s majestic novel the pathos of the struggle by the wretched of the earth for dignity and freedom. He was well aware, like Hugo, that the good were usually relentlessly persecuted, that they were not rewarded for virtue and that those who held fast to truth and justice often found their way to their own cross. But there was no other choice for him: The kingdom of evil had to be fought. It was a moral imperative. It was what made us human. “Intellectual and moral growth is no less indispensable than material improvement,” Hugo writes in an appendix to “Les Misérables.” “Knowledge is a viaticum; thought is a prime necessity; truth is nourishment, like wheat. A reasoning faculty, deprived of knowledge and wisdom, pines away. We should feel the same pity for minds that do not eat as for stomachs. If there be anything sadder than a body perishing for want of bread, it is a mind dying of hunger for lack of light.” -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Wed Jul 19 18:29:35 2017 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2017 13:29:35 -0500 Subject: [Peace] ACLU vs. Rodney Davis on criminalizing speech against the Israeli government Message-ID: The ACLU has come out foursquare against the bipartisan, bicameral, AIPAC-supported "anti-Israel boycott bill," that would impose criminal penalties for advocating for a "boycott of Israel," on Constitutional, free speech grounds. Consistent with past AIPAC-supported Congressional efforts along this line, "boycott Israel" is defined to mean, "including settlements in the West Bank," i.e. this bill is expressly aimed at European policies that distinguish between "Israel" and "the settlements." Here's a write-up in the Intercept. They interview bill sponsors and ask them, did you know the ACLU is against this bill? And the sponsors are like, really? I had no idea there were free speech issues with this bill. I just signed up to "support Israel." I mean, don't expect me to actually know what's in the bills I co-sponsor if that's what AIPAC told me to do. https://theintercept.com/2017/07/19/u-s-lawmakers-seek-to-cr iminally-outlaw-support-for-boycott-campaign-against-israel/ Rodney Davis is a co-sponsor of the House bill. If you don't agree with that, why not give Rodney Davis a piece of your mind? Please note the opposition of the ACLU to the bill in your phone call. *202-225-2371* === Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (202) 448-2898 x1 Force Roll Calls on Davidson-Nolan Bars to U.S. Role in Saudi War in Yemen https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/force-roll-calls-on-davidson?r_by=1135580 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Wed Jul 19 20:31:29 2017 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2017 15:31:29 -0500 Subject: [Peace] MoveOn piles in behind the ACLU against "anti-Israel-boycott" [sic] bills Message-ID: *Presente.* https://twitter.com/MoveOn/status/887766165497405440 === Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (202) 448-2898 x1 Force Roll Calls on Davidson-Nolan Bars to U.S. Role in Saudi War in Yemen https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/force-roll-calls-on-davidson?r_by=1135580 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Wed Jul 19 22:44:24 2017 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2017 17:44:24 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Davis tele-town hall tonight - ask him about "anti-boycott bill" or whatever ya want Message-ID: I think it said on WILL that it was at 6:30, but I'm not sure. http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-02-13/davis-sets-telephone-town-hall-wednesday.html The way it works, if you haven't done it before, is that you fill out the form, which is very quick, and then you get called. As I assume everyone here knows, Davis has gotten a lot of criticism for only doing these instead of in-person town halls; criticism that has been echoed, even, by the News-Gazette. I have no dispute with that criticism. On the other hand, this exists, it's an opening, some critical questions do get through; you don't have to leave your house, and you can multi-task while you wait to ask your question; listen to the radio, eat your dinner, check your email, do whatever else you want to do. Here's the form: https://rodneydavis.house.gov/tele-town-hall-survey/ === Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (202) 448-2898 x1 Force Roll Calls on Davidson-Nolan Bars to U.S. Role in Saudi War in Yemen https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/force-roll-calls-on-davidson?r_by=1135580 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Wed Jul 19 23:19:27 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2017 18:19:27 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Davis tele-town hall tonight - ask him about "anti-boycott bill" or whatever ya want In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: What are the chances of a recording of the whole thing being available, for those of us otherwise engaged? > On Jul 19, 2017, at 5:44 PM, Robert Naiman via Peace wrote: > > I think it said on WILL that it was at 6:30, but I'm not sure. > > http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-02-13/davis-sets-telephone-town-hall-wednesday.html > > The way it works, if you haven't done it before, is that you fill out the form, which is very quick, and then you get called. > > As I assume everyone here knows, Davis has gotten a lot of criticism for only doing these instead of in-person town halls; criticism that has been echoed, even, by the News-Gazette. I have no dispute with that criticism. > > On the other hand, this exists, it's an opening, some critical questions do get through; you don't have to leave your house, and you can multi-task while you wait to ask your question; listen to the radio, eat your dinner, check your email, do whatever else you want to do. > > Here's the form: > > https://rodneydavis.house.gov/tele-town-hall-survey/ > > === > > Robert Naiman > Policy Director > Just Foreign Policy > www.justforeignpolicy.org > naiman at justforeignpolicy.org > (202) 448-2898 x1 > > Force Roll Calls on Davidson-Nolan Bars to U.S. Role in Saudi War in Yemen > https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/force-roll-calls-on-davidson?r_by=1135580 > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 Thu Jul 20 09:24:12 2017 From: deb.pdamerica at gmail.com (Debra Schrishuhn) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 04:24:12 -0500 Subject: [Peace] please sign and spread the word Message-ID: Please sign and spread the word. Peace and prosperity start at home. Thanks, Deb Please sign this petition for the People’s Platform, to be presented to the Democratic National Committee next week. Together we can change the direction of the Democratic Party and present a bold vision for the future. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda The eight pieces of legislation that make up the core of the People's Platform each embody an important part of the Democratic Party's platform: Health Care for All: H.R. 676 Medicare for All Act Education for All: H.R. 1880 College for All Act of 2017 Workers' Rights: H.R. 15 Raise the Wage Act Women's Rights: H.R. 771 Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2017 Voting Rights: H.R. 2840 Automatic Voter Registration Act Environmental Justice: Climate Change Bill (yet to be introduced) Criminal Justice and Immigrant Rights: H.R. 3543 Justice Is Not for Sale Act of 2017 Tax on Wall Street: H.R. 1144 Inclusive Prosperity Act Progressive Democrats of America is partnering with other progressive organizations to make 2017 a Summer of Progress. Be part of it. Sign the petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Jul 20 12:11:12 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 12:11:12 +0000 Subject: [Peace] please sign and spread the word In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Deb All due respect, as I know you mean well, as do many others…….. Any suggestion that peace begins at home is nonsense. We will only have peace when we stop our perpetual wars oversea’s. Destroying others homes, lives to steal their resources is most egregious. The focus on prosperity here, as long as we continue killing others, only brings continued prosperity to the 1%, and poverty to everyone else. > On Jul 20, 2017, at 02:24, Debra Schrishuhn via Peace wrote: > > Please sign and spread the word. Peace and prosperity start at home. > Thanks, > Deb > > > Please sign this petition for the People’s Platform, to be presented > to the Democratic National Committee next week. Together we can change > the direction of the Democratic Party and present a bold vision for > the future. > > https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda > > The eight pieces of legislation that make up the core of the People's > Platform each embody an important part of the Democratic Party's > platform: > > Health Care for All: H.R. 676 Medicare for All Act > > Education for All: H.R. 1880 College for All Act of 2017 > > Workers' Rights: H.R. 15 Raise the Wage Act > > Women's Rights: H.R. 771 Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in > Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2017 > > Voting Rights: H.R. 2840 Automatic Voter Registration Act > > Environmental Justice: Climate Change Bill (yet to be introduced) > > Criminal Justice and Immigrant Rights: H.R. 3543 Justice Is Not > for Sale Act of 2017 > > Tax on Wall Street: H.R. 1144 Inclusive Prosperity Act > > Progressive Democrats of America is partnering with other progressive > organizations to make 2017 a Summer of Progress. Be part of it. Sign > the petition: > > https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace From deb.pdamerica at gmail.com Thu Jul 20 12:20:25 2017 From: deb.pdamerica at gmail.com (Debra Schrishuhn) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 07:20:25 -0500 Subject: [Peace] please sign and spread the word In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <590CBC4F-8ABA-4B03-AE3C-A38DCAD02AD8@gmail.com> Karen I understand your position, and truly we need action both in domestic and foreign policy. This petition addresses the domestic side, and none of these bills would increase prosperity of the 1% at the expense of the rest of us. One would hope that a healthier, better educated, fair-minded electorate would make wiser choices in elected officials than our current electeds. Deb Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 20, 2017, at 7:11 AM, Karen Aram wrote: > > Deb > > All due respect, as I know you mean well, as do many others…….. > > Any suggestion that peace begins at home is nonsense. We will only have peace when we stop our perpetual wars oversea’s. Destroying others homes, lives to steal their resources is most egregious. The focus on prosperity here, as long as we continue killing others, only brings continued prosperity to the 1%, and poverty to everyone else. > > >> On Jul 20, 2017, at 02:24, Debra Schrishuhn via Peace wrote: >> >> Please sign and spread the word. Peace and prosperity start at home. >> Thanks, >> Deb >> >> >> Please sign this petition for the People’s Platform, to be presented >> to the Democratic National Committee next week. Together we can change >> the direction of the Democratic Party and present a bold vision for >> the future. >> >> https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda >> >> The eight pieces of legislation that make up the core of the People's >> Platform each embody an important part of the Democratic Party's >> platform: >> >> Health Care for All: H.R. 676 Medicare for All Act >> >> Education for All: H.R. 1880 College for All Act of 2017 >> >> Workers' Rights: H.R. 15 Raise the Wage Act >> >> Women's Rights: H.R. 771 Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in >> Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2017 >> >> Voting Rights: H.R. 2840 Automatic Voter Registration Act >> >> Environmental Justice: Climate Change Bill (yet to be introduced) >> >> Criminal Justice and Immigrant Rights: H.R. 3543 Justice Is Not >> for Sale Act of 2017 >> >> Tax on Wall Street: H.R. 1144 Inclusive Prosperity Act >> >> Progressive Democrats of America is partnering with other progressive >> organizations to make 2017 a Summer of Progress. Be part of it. Sign >> the petition: >> >> https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda >> _______________________________________________ >> Peace mailing list >> Peace at lists.chambana.net >> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Jul 20 12:56:23 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 12:56:23 +0000 Subject: [Peace] please sign and spread the word In-Reply-To: <590CBC4F-8ABA-4B03-AE3C-A38DCAD02AD8@gmail.com> References: <590CBC4F-8ABA-4B03-AE3C-A38DCAD02AD8@gmail.com> Message-ID: Deb As was pointed out in the recent panel discussion “Costs of War,” one cannot hope to achieve success on domestic issues if we separate or neglect to mention "foreign policy. " I support all of the issues below and will sign the petition, if I circulate it, there will be a caveat stating “ the intention of leaving off the most important goal of any progressive movement, that being to end US interventions and perpetual war, is evidence that “The Peoples Agenda” is clearly acting on behalf of the Democrat Party when they fail to recognize the most critical issue facing humanity, next to climate change, perpetual war. Nina Turner made that clear when asked by Paul Jay, why the People’s Agenda Summit ,never mentioned foreign policy, and she replied “maybe next year.” When one smells smoke and sees fire, we don’t say “maybe I’ll call the fire dept., tomorrow.” > On Jul 20, 2017, at 05:20, Debra Schrishuhn wrote: > > Karen > I understand your position, and truly we need action both in domestic and foreign policy. This petition addresses the domestic side, and none of these bills would increase prosperity of the 1% at the expense of the rest of us. One would hope that a healthier, better educated, fair-minded electorate would make wiser choices in elected officials than our current electeds. > Deb > > Sent from my iPhone > >> On Jul 20, 2017, at 7:11 AM, Karen Aram wrote: >> >> Deb >> >> All due respect, as I know you mean well, as do many others…….. >> >> Any suggestion that peace begins at home is nonsense. We will only have peace when we stop our perpetual wars oversea’s. Destroying others homes, lives to steal their resources is most egregious. The focus on prosperity here, as long as we continue killing others, only brings continued prosperity to the 1%, and poverty to everyone else. >> >> >>> On Jul 20, 2017, at 02:24, Debra Schrishuhn via Peace wrote: >>> >>> Please sign and spread the word. Peace and prosperity start at home. >>> Thanks, >>> Deb >>> >>> >>> Please sign this petition for the People’s Platform, to be presented >>> to the Democratic National Committee next week. Together we can change >>> the direction of the Democratic Party and present a bold vision for >>> the future. >>> >>> https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda >>> >>> The eight pieces of legislation that make up the core of the People's >>> Platform each embody an important part of the Democratic Party's >>> platform: >>> >>> Health Care for All: H.R. 676 Medicare for All Act >>> >>> Education for All: H.R. 1880 College for All Act of 2017 >>> >>> Workers' Rights: H.R. 15 Raise the Wage Act >>> >>> Women's Rights: H.R. 771 Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in >>> Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2017 >>> >>> Voting Rights: H.R. 2840 Automatic Voter Registration Act >>> >>> Environmental Justice: Climate Change Bill (yet to be introduced) >>> >>> Criminal Justice and Immigrant Rights: H.R. 3543 Justice Is Not >>> for Sale Act of 2017 >>> >>> Tax on Wall Street: H.R. 1144 Inclusive Prosperity Act >>> >>> Progressive Democrats of America is partnering with other progressive >>> organizations to make 2017 a Summer of Progress. Be part of it. Sign >>> the petition: >>> >>> https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Peace mailing list >>> Peace at lists.chambana.net >>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace >> From galliher at illinois.edu Thu Jul 20 13:22:31 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 08:22:31 -0500 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] please sign and spread the word In-Reply-To: References: <590CBC4F-8ABA-4B03-AE3C-A38DCAD02AD8@gmail.com> Message-ID: Karen's answer is brilliant, especially as the national Democrats disingenuously continue to push ‘Russiagate’ - and ally with the neocons to kill more people in MENA! > > —CGE > On Jul 20, 2017, at 7:56 AM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss wrote: > > Deb > > As was pointed out in the recent panel discussion “Costs of War,” one cannot hope to achieve success on domestic issues if we separate or neglect to mention "foreign policy. " > > I support all of the issues below and will sign the petition, if I circulate it, there will be a caveat stating “ the intention of leaving off the most important goal of any progressive movement, that being to end US interventions and perpetual war, is evidence that “The Peoples Agenda” is clearly acting on behalf of the Democrat Party when they fail to recognize the most critical issue facing humanity, next to climate change, perpetual war. > > Nina Turner made that clear when asked by Paul Jay, why the People’s Agenda Summit ,never mentioned foreign policy, and she replied “maybe next year.” > > When one smells smoke and sees fire, we don’t say “maybe I’ll call the fire dept., tomorrow.” > > >> On Jul 20, 2017, at 05:20, Debra Schrishuhn wrote: >> >> Karen >> I understand your position, and truly we need action both in domestic and foreign policy. This petition addresses the domestic side, and none of these bills would increase prosperity of the 1% at the expense of the rest of us. One would hope that a healthier, better educated, fair-minded electorate would make wiser choices in elected officials than our current electeds. >> Deb >> >> Sent from my iPhone >> >>> On Jul 20, 2017, at 7:11 AM, Karen Aram wrote: >>> >>> Deb >>> >>> All due respect, as I know you mean well, as do many others…….. >>> >>> Any suggestion that peace begins at home is nonsense. We will only have peace when we stop our perpetual wars oversea’s. Destroying others homes, lives to steal their resources is most egregious. The focus on prosperity here, as long as we continue killing others, only brings continued prosperity to the 1%, and poverty to everyone else. >>> >>> >>>> On Jul 20, 2017, at 02:24, Debra Schrishuhn via Peace wrote: >>>> >>>> Please sign and spread the word. Peace and prosperity start at home. >>>> Thanks, >>>> Deb >>>> >>>> >>>> Please sign this petition for the People’s Platform, to be presented >>>> to the Democratic National Committee next week. Together we can change >>>> the direction of the Democratic Party and present a bold vision for >>>> the future. >>>> >>>> https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda >>>> >>>> The eight pieces of legislation that make up the core of the People's >>>> Platform each embody an important part of the Democratic Party's >>>> platform: >>>> >>>> Health Care for All: H.R. 676 Medicare for All Act >>>> >>>> Education for All: H.R. 1880 College for All Act of 2017 >>>> >>>> Workers' Rights: H.R. 15 Raise the Wage Act >>>> >>>> Women's Rights: H.R. 771 Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in >>>> Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2017 >>>> >>>> Voting Rights: H.R. 2840 Automatic Voter Registration Act >>>> >>>> Environmental Justice: Climate Change Bill (yet to be introduced) >>>> >>>> Criminal Justice and Immigrant Rights: H.R. 3543 Justice Is Not >>>> for Sale Act of 2017 >>>> >>>> Tax on Wall Street: H.R. 1144 Inclusive Prosperity Act >>>> >>>> Progressive Democrats of America is partnering with other progressive >>>> organizations to make 2017 a Summer of Progress. Be part of it. Sign >>>> the petition: >>>> >>>> https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> 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 deb.pdamerica at gmail.com Thu Jul 20 13:26:13 2017 From: deb.pdamerica at gmail.com (Debra Schrishuhn) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 08:26:13 -0500 Subject: [Peace] please sign and spread the word In-Reply-To: References: <590CBC4F-8ABA-4B03-AE3C-A38DCAD02AD8@gmail.com> Message-ID: <4E82B46F-BC4F-46B9-AE02-2F276973F4DE@gmail.com> This petition, as I wrote, tackles domestic issues, and has been dubbed the "People's Platform," referring to progressive domestic issues that were successfully incorporated into the 2016 Democratic Party platform. As you may recall, various members of the platform committee tried and failed to get stronger language in various areas of foreign policy. As a matter of record--and I know the names get confusing--it is separate from The People's Agenda (local progressive umbrella org), The People's Summit(recurring event in Chicago), and the People's Budget (actual budget proposal submitted to Congress by members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus). This particular initiative is aimed at making House members of the Democratic Party adhere to principles already put forth in the Party's own platform, and so of course it is aimed at modifying the current policy positions of the Democratic Party. Thanks for signing and sharing the petition--always appreciate your thoughtful critiques Deb Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 20, 2017, at 7:56 AM, Karen Aram wrote: > > Deb > > As was pointed out in the recent panel discussion “Costs of War,” one cannot hope to achieve success on domestic issues if we separate or neglect to mention "foreign policy. " > > I support all of the issues below and will sign the petition, if I circulate it, there will be a caveat stating “ the intention of leaving off the most important goal of any progressive movement, that being to end US interventions and perpetual war, is evidence that “The Peoples Agenda” is clearly acting on behalf of the Democrat Party when they fail to recognize the most critical issue facing humanity, next to climate change, perpetual war. > > Nina Turner made that clear when asked by Paul Jay, why the People’s Agenda Summit ,never mentioned foreign policy, and she replied “maybe next year.” > > When one smells smoke and sees fire, we don’t say “maybe I’ll call the fire dept., tomorrow.” > > >> On Jul 20, 2017, at 05:20, Debra Schrishuhn wrote: >> >> Karen >> I understand your position, and truly we need action both in domestic and foreign policy. This petition addresses the domestic side, and none of these bills would increase prosperity of the 1% at the expense of the rest of us. One would hope that a healthier, better educated, fair-minded electorate would make wiser choices in elected officials than our current electeds. >> Deb >> >> Sent from my iPhone >> >>> On Jul 20, 2017, at 7:11 AM, Karen Aram wrote: >>> >>> Deb >>> >>> All due respect, as I know you mean well, as do many others…….. >>> >>> Any suggestion that peace begins at home is nonsense. We will only have peace when we stop our perpetual wars oversea’s. Destroying others homes, lives to steal their resources is most egregious. The focus on prosperity here, as long as we continue killing others, only brings continued prosperity to the 1%, and poverty to everyone else. >>> >>> >>>> On Jul 20, 2017, at 02:24, Debra Schrishuhn via Peace wrote: >>>> >>>> Please sign and spread the word. Peace and prosperity start at home. >>>> Thanks, >>>> Deb >>>> >>>> >>>> Please sign this petition for the People’s Platform, to be presented >>>> to the Democratic National Committee next week. Together we can change >>>> the direction of the Democratic Party and present a bold vision for >>>> the future. >>>> >>>> https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda >>>> >>>> The eight pieces of legislation that make up the core of the People's >>>> Platform each embody an important part of the Democratic Party's >>>> platform: >>>> >>>> Health Care for All: H.R. 676 Medicare for All Act >>>> >>>> Education for All: H.R. 1880 College for All Act of 2017 >>>> >>>> Workers' Rights: H.R. 15 Raise the Wage Act >>>> >>>> Women's Rights: H.R. 771 Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in >>>> Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2017 >>>> >>>> Voting Rights: H.R. 2840 Automatic Voter Registration Act >>>> >>>> Environmental Justice: Climate Change Bill (yet to be introduced) >>>> >>>> Criminal Justice and Immigrant Rights: H.R. 3543 Justice Is Not >>>> for Sale Act of 2017 >>>> >>>> Tax on Wall Street: H.R. 1144 Inclusive Prosperity Act >>>> >>>> Progressive Democrats of America is partnering with other progressive >>>> organizations to make 2017 a Summer of Progress. Be part of it. Sign >>>> the petition: >>>> >>>> https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Peace mailing list >>>> Peace at lists.chambana.net >>>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Thu Jul 20 14:10:49 2017 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 09:10:49 -0500 Subject: [Peace] JTA: Moveon.org Calls On Progressives To KIll Anti-BDS Bill Message-ID: http://forward.com/fast-forward/377452/moveonorg- calls-on-progressives-to-kill-anti-bds-bill/ Moveon.org Calls On Progressives To KIll Anti-BDS Bill July 20, 2017 By JTA (JTA ) — An influential progressive political action committee denounced a bipartisan measure targeting boycotts of Israel and its settlements. MoveOn.org, an influential liberal public policy advocacy group and PAC that raises money for progressive political candidates, criticized the Israel Anti-Boycott Act on Twitter. “Regardless how you feel about BDS, Congress must reject action to criminalize free speech and peaceful protest. The Democrats in House and Senate must say no to H.R. 1697/S. 720,” MoveOn.org tweeted , referring to the House and Senate versions of the bill. “Free speech and peaceful protest are integral to democracy,” the group added. Regardless how you feel about BDS, Congress must reject action to criminalize free speech & peaceful protest (1/3) — MoveOn.org (@MoveOn) July 19, 2017 The bill, introduced in March in both the House and the Senate, would expand 1970s-era laws that make illegal compliance with boycotts of Israel sponsored by governments — laws inspired at the time by the Arab League boycott of Israel, to include boycotts backed by international organizations. Those adhering to boycotts would be subject to fines. It also targets efforts by the United Nations and the European Union to distinguish between products manufactured in Israel and West Bank settlements. === Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (202) 448-2898 x1 <(202)%20448-2898> Force Roll Calls on Davidson-Nolan Bars to U.S. Role in Saudi War in Yemen https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/force-roll-calls-on-davidson?r_by=1135580 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Jul 20 14:24:41 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 14:24:41 +0000 Subject: [Peace] The script of a very important issue related to freedom of speech and a bipartisan bill targeting supporters of BDS. Message-ID: [Boycott Israel, Go to Jail?]AARON MATE: It's The Real News. I'm Aaron Mate. Could boycotting Israel land you in prison? Well, in the US, that's now a possibility. A bipartisan bill targets supporters of the global boycott movement against Israel. The so-called Israel Anti-Boycott Act would make support of the boycott a felony. Violators would face a minimum penalty of $250,000, a maximum of $1 million, and up to 20 years in prison. The measure has the support of dozens of Democrats, even some known as being progressive. It was drafted with the help of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union released a letter urging lawmakers to oppose it, saying the bill "would punish individuals for no reason other than their political beliefs." Josh Ruebner is policy director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and he's the author of the forthcoming book, Israel: Democracy or Apartheid State. Josh, welcome. JOSH RUEBNER: Thanks so much for having me. AARON MATE: Let's start with this bill. Now it was unveiled a few months ago, but the fact that the ACLU is weighing in now has gotten it a new round of attention. Talk about what the bill contains. JOSH RUEBNER: It's the most draconian of the dozens of anti-boycott, divestment, and sanctions bills that had been introduced both at the federal level and the state level. It's the most serious and has the most real ramifications, because as you mentioned at the outset, theoretically a corporate executive could wind up being jailed for 20 years for not wanting to do business with an Israeli settlement. The notion that you can put in prison somebody for making a moral decision to boycott in the United States of America is just fundamentally at odds and a contradiction to the founding values upon which this country was based. I mean, let's not forget that this country was founded in large part upon an act of civil disobedience, an act of boycott, of course, the Tea Party and dumping the British tea into the ocean to protest taxation without representation. Throughout the history of this country, boycotts have been used to advance all types of causes from abolishing slavery to gaining women's enfranchisement to promoting civil rights to promoting farm workers' rights, et cetera. Of course, boycott is not a tactic of the left or of the right. It's used by both to pursue their political goals, and it's a fundamental First Amendment guaranteed right that we enjoy. AARON MATE: What is the mechanism that the bill attempts to use for imposing this penalty? There's some amendments inside it to laws that are decades old? JOSH RUEBNER: Very cleverly written bill. As you mentioned at the outset, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee not only had a role in bringing this bill forward, but also made it a centerpiece of this lobbying effort earlier this spring when it sent thousands of its grassroots supporters to Capitol Hill. It's very clever, because nowhere in the actual text of the bill does it say, "You might go to jail for 20 years if you boycott Israel or an Israeli settlement product," but you have to look at underlying language which leads to more underlying language that brings up these criminal penalties. AARON MATE: Josh, you mentioned Israeli settlement products, which raises a very interesting feature of this bill. You know, there's been some debate inside left-wing movements about whether boycotting should extend to all of Israel or to just the occupied territories. Some people favor just boycotting the territories. What's interesting in this bill is that it also seeks to target people who want to focus the boycott just on the territories, which Israel, as we all know, is illegally occupying. It refers to that as Israeli-controlled territories. Can you talk about that? JOSH RUEBNER: That's correct, and that's another problematic part of this bill. Senator Cardin from Maryland, who's the lead sponsor of this bill, says that he's for a two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. He says that he opposes the expansion of Israeli settlements, but he's actually been quite a leader in Congress in trying to conflate Israel and say that it is the same thing as the, quote-unquote, "territories" that it controls. He passed language that went into a trade bill in the last Congress which makes it a priority in US trade negotiations to insist that foreign countries not engage in BDS campaigns against Israel or Israeli-controlled territories. What his bill does in essence, in addition to criminalizing BDS in this country, is trying to legitimize the existence of Israeli settlements. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called upon foreign governments and multinational corporations not to do any business with Israeli settlements or their products. Amnesty International right now is actually running a campaign to ban the importation of Israeli settlement goods. What Senator Cardin's bill is trying to do is counteract this momentum that's building to try to force grassroots change through these BDS campaigns. AARON MATE: Josh, speaking of Senator Cardin, there was a piece today in The Intercept by Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Grim. They write that many of the bill's co-sponsors don't appear to have a firm grasp of what's actually inside of it. That actually might include the lead sponsor himself, Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland. The Intercept interviews Senator Cardin about his bill, and this is what he said. SEN. BEN CARDIN: I think I know the bill fairly well. I don't believe we have criminalized. I think our issue is US participation in international organizations speaking out against the UN actions. I think that's the bill. Now there are other bills that are out there, but I think the bill that Senator Portman and I had are aimed in that direction. [inaudible 00:06:34]. AARON MATE: That's Senator Ben Cardin. Josh, Cardin says there, "I don't think we have criminalized," inside his bill. JOSH RUEBNER: Well, either Senator Cardin is being incredibly disingenuous with The Intercept, or it tells you quite a bit how legislation is made on Capitol Hill where senators don't even understand bills that are introduced in their name. In either case, whether he's being disingenuous or whether he really doesn't know what's in the bill introduced in his name, the implications are clear. According to the ACLU, this absolutely does criminalize the act of boycotting Israel or its settlements, and could land someone in jail for up to 20 years for doing so. AARON MATE: The ACLU weighing in on this, that is a pretty rare action for them to come out so forcefully against an issue like this. There are many people in media and in civil society who just avoid the issue of Israel, because for some people, it's so politically explosive. Can you talk about their move here to come out against this bill? JOSH RUEBNER: It's actually not something new for the ACLU. In the last Congress, they also opposed anti-BDS legislation in Congress, and they've been fundamental in defeating some anti-BDS bills at the state level as well. They've been very firm in their conviction all along that attempts to legislate against boycott, divestment, and sanctions, and to try to deny state contracts to people in institutions that are engaging in BDS campaigns, is a direct violation of the First Amendment. AARON MATE: I mentioned The Intercept pointing out that some lawmakers appear to not know what's in the bill that they're sponsoring. Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Grim write that that might have something to do with the fact that you have this dynamic in Congress where many lawmakers just reflexively support whatever AIPAC puts in front of them. Can you talk about the role that AIPAC played in this and the influence they have more broadly over lawmakers on matters pertaining to Israel and Palestine? JOSH RUEBNER: Well, sure. They had their annual policy conference in March where this legislation was unveiled, and then they had thousands of their grassroots supporters go up to lobby their members of Congress. We know for a fact that AIPAC has not been pitching this to members of Congress as saying, "Hey, help us jail supporters of BDS for 20 years." They're going in there and obfuscating what the real ramifications of this legislation are. When we're raising this with members of Congress and their staff, they're quite concerned, because as I mentioned earlier, it's not at all clear from the plain text reading of the bill that these are the implications, but in fact, this is what the bill would accomplish by amending underlying law. AARON MATE: I just want to mention a few names. I mentioned that Democrats are behind this as well. It's mostly Republicans, but there's a lot of Democrats. They include Adam Schiff, who's been really vocal especially on the Trump-Russia issue, and also Ted Lieu, who stood up against the US-backed Saudi campaign in Yemen. He's been very vocal on that, but here he is lending his name to this measure against people who want to support a boycott of Israel. JOSH RUEBNER: Well, there's been a phenomenon for a long time in American politics of PEP, Progressive Except for Palestine, but we're seeing that, with the growth of support for Palestinian rights within the Democratic Party, it's becoming more and more difficult for members of Congress to credibly claim that they're representing the progressive wing of the party while supporting legislation that enables Israel's ongoing oppression and domination over the Palestinians. You see many, many more progressive members of Congress now stepping out on the right side of history, getting in step with the base of the Democratic Party, which now according to a Brookings Institution poll support sanctioning Israel at a 60% rate. AARON MATE: Josh, a big part of the effort to boycott Israel includes pressuring companies that do business with Israel. What implications would this measure have on that? JOSH RUEBNER: Well, this measure is quite broad, so even if a company requests information about a boycott or furnishes information about a boycott, they could be criminalized as well. To make this concrete and less abstract, let's say you have a department store that gets in touch with an Israeli corporation that is based in a settlement, wanting to verify whether they're based in an illegal settlement or if they're based in Israel. They could conceivably be criminalized and fined under this bill as well if it becomes law. AARON MATE: All right, Josh. Finally, we mentioned AIPAC and the influential role that they played in this. You've also talked about the activism though that is pushing back against efforts to silence people who support boycotts. As we wrap, can you talk about the momentum you're seeing against this bill, especially now in light of the ACLU coming out against it? JOSH RUEBNER: Well, I think what we're seeing is the fact that many members of Congress who signed on to this legislation really did not understand the draconian nature of it. It seems that many of them are backpedaling off of their support. Hopefully, by the ACLU raising the red flag about its constitutionality concerns about this bill, hopefully it won't receive a vote and certainly does not deserve to receive a vote. AARON MATE: Josh, go answer your phone and we'll leave it there. Josh Ruebner, policy director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, author of the forthcoming book, Israel: Democracy or Apartheid State. Josh, thank you. JOSH RUEBNER: Thank you very much. AARON MATE: And thank you for joining us on The Real News. ________________________________ ________________________________ Comments -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Jul 20 16:49:44 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 16:49:44 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Pentagon admits to the US Empire demise plus CIA released......... Message-ID: https://www.rt.com/shows/watching-the-hawks/396890-pentagon-cia-affinity-us/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Thu Jul 20 22:42:46 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 17:42:46 -0500 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] please sign and spread the word In-Reply-To: <590CBC4F-8ABA-4B03-AE3C-A38DCAD02AD8@gmail.com> References: <590CBC4F-8ABA-4B03-AE3C-A38DCAD02AD8@gmail.com> Message-ID: And would never have elected warmongers like Obama to the presidency or Clinton to the Senate? https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/obamas-awol-anti-war-protest/ —CGE > On Jul 20, 2017, at 7:20 AM, Debra Schrishuhn via Peace-discuss wrote: > > Karen > I understand your position, and truly we need action both in domestic and foreign policy. This petition addresses the domestic side, and none of these bills would increase prosperity of the 1% at the expense of the rest of us. One would hope that a healthier, better educated, fair-minded electorate would make wiser choices in elected officials than our current electeds. > Deb > > Sent from my iPhone > >> On Jul 20, 2017, at 7:11 AM, Karen Aram wrote: >> >> Deb >> >> All due respect, as I know you mean well, as do many others…….. >> >> Any suggestion that peace begins at home is nonsense. We will only have peace when we stop our perpetual wars oversea’s. Destroying others homes, lives to steal their resources is most egregious. The focus on prosperity here, as long as we continue killing others, only brings continued prosperity to the 1%, and poverty to everyone else. >> >> >>> On Jul 20, 2017, at 02:24, Debra Schrishuhn via Peace wrote: >>> >>> Please sign and spread the word. Peace and prosperity start at home. >>> Thanks, >>> Deb >>> >>> >>> Please sign this petition for the People’s Platform, to be presented >>> to the Democratic National Committee next week. Together we can change >>> the direction of the Democratic Party and present a bold vision for >>> the future. >>> >>> https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda >>> >>> The eight pieces of legislation that make up the core of the People's >>> Platform each embody an important part of the Democratic Party's >>> platform: >>> >>> Health Care for All: H.R. 676 Medicare for All Act >>> >>> Education for All: H.R. 1880 College for All Act of 2017 >>> >>> Workers' Rights: H.R. 15 Raise the Wage Act >>> >>> Women's Rights: H.R. 771 Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in >>> Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2017 >>> >>> Voting Rights: H.R. 2840 Automatic Voter Registration Act >>> >>> Environmental Justice: Climate Change Bill (yet to be introduced) >>> >>> Criminal Justice and Immigrant Rights: H.R. 3543 Justice Is Not >>> for Sale Act of 2017 >>> >>> Tax on Wall Street: H.R. 1144 Inclusive Prosperity Act >>> >>> Progressive Democrats of America is partnering with other progressive >>> organizations to make 2017 a Summer of Progress. Be part of it. Sign >>> the petition: >>> >>> https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s4p?source=pda >>> _______________________________________________ >>> 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 naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Fri Jul 21 00:27:12 2017 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 19:27:12 -0500 Subject: [Peace] JFP alert: With ACLU, MoveOn: Oppose Bills Criminalizing Free Speech Against Settlements Message-ID: here's our alert on the "anti-boycott" [sic] bills ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Just Foreign Policy Date: Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 3:30 PM Subject: With ACLU, MoveOn: Oppose Bills Criminalizing Free Speech Against Settlements To: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org [image: Just Foreign Policy] Dear Robert, Urge your reps to join ACLU & MoveOn in opposing S.720 & H.R.1697. Take Action The *ACLU* has written to Congress urging opposition to pending bills that seek to *criminalize* advocacy of boycotts against Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The ACLU warned that proponents of the bills are "seeking additional co-sponsors," and explained that the bills would *"punish individuals for no reason other than their political beliefs."* [1] *MoveOn* has joined the ACLU's opposition to the bills. "Regardless how you feel about BDS, *Congress must reject action to criminalize free speech* and peaceful protest. The *Democrats in House and Senate must say no to H.R. 1697/S. 720*," MoveOn said. “Free speech and peaceful protest are integral to democracy." [2] S.720 & H.R.1697 would *erase the distinction in U.S. law* between Israel and Israeli settlements in the West Bank and *make it illegal* for U.S. companies to boycott or otherwise discriminate against Israeli settlements in the West Bank based on calls by the United Nations or the European Union. [3] *Urge your Senators & Representative to join the ACLU & MoveOn in opposing these unconstitutional bills by signing our petition .* Thanks for all you do to help make U.S. foreign policy more just, Robert Naiman, Avram Reisman, and Sarah Burns Just Foreign Policy *If you think our work is important, support us with a $17 donation*. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate References: 1. https://theintercept.com/2017/07/19/u-s-lawmakers-seek-to-cr iminally-outlaw-support-for-boycott-campaign-against-israel/ 2. http://forward.com/fast-forward/377452/moveonorg-calls-on- progressives-to-kill-anti-bds-bill/ 3. https://peacenow.org/WP/wp-content/uploads/pending-BDS-Confl ation-bills-in-Congress.pdf [image: Please support our work. Donate for a Just Foreign Policy] © 2016 Just Foreign Policy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davegreen84 at yahoo.com Fri Jul 21 22:40:21 2017 From: davegreen84 at yahoo.com (David Green) Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2017 22:40:21 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Peace] No AWARE at Market tomorrow References: <167761996.2912214.1500676821374.ref@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <167761996.2912214.1500676821374@mail.yahoo.com> Given the weather, including heat, humidity, and a chance to T-storms; and the prospects for better weather next Saturday, let's take tomorrow off and hope that we can get a table next week to make up for it. David Green -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Jul 22 00:30:48 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 00:30:48 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Solidarity Peace Delegation to South Korea Message-ID: http://stopthaad.org/solidarity-peace-delegation-to-south-…/ [https://external.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQBNVRt4jG5t2nxs&w=526&h=296&url=http%3A%2F%2Fstopthaad.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F10%2Fcropped-STIK_BANNER_004.jpg&cfs=1&upscale=1&sx=770&sy=0&sw=617&sh=347&_nc_hash=AQBEb-zHHka5Fdxa] Solidarity Peace Delegation to South Korea – No to U.S. Missile Defense in Korea Solidarity Peace Delegation to South Korea Dear Supporters of the Task Force to Stop THAAD in Korea, The Stop THAAD in Korea and Militarism in Asia and the… STOPTHAAD.ORG Like CommentShare Comments [Karen Aram] Write a comment... -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From r-szoke at illinois.edu Sat Jul 22 05:01:01 2017 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 05:01:01 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Korea today In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: The best thing I’ve seen recently on the Korean situation ~~ Ron -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Korea 2017.rtfd.zip Type: application/zip Size: 2547880 bytes Desc: Korea 2017.rtfd.zip URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Sat Jul 22 11:09:24 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 06:09:24 -0500 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] Korea today In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: The blog Ron recommends seems quite good, not just on Korea but on other matters - mainly economic - as well. Here it is online: >. > On Jul 22, 2017, at 12:01 AM, Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss wrote: > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Sat Jul 22 11:15:49 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 06:15:49 -0500 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] Korea today In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: The blog Ron recommends seems quite good, not just on Korea but on other matters - mainly economic - as well. Here it is online: >. —CGE > On Jul 22, 2017, at 12:01 AM, Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss wrote: > > The best thing I’ve seen recently on the Korean situation > ~~ Ron > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Jul 22 12:11:56 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 12:11:56 +0000 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] Korea today In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I think this one when it comes to Korea is better: NO TO U.S. MISSILE DEFENSE IN KOREA TASK FORCE TO STOP THAAD IN KOREA AND MILITARISM IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC * HOME * ABOUT * LIST OF ENDORSERS * ARTICLES * RESOURCES AND LINKS * GALLERY * CONTACT US * ACTION Solidarity Peace Delegation to South Korea No to THAAD in Korea, Yes to Peace through Dialogue ______________________________________________________ Solidarity Peace Delegation of the Task Force to Stop THAAD in Korea and Militarism in Asia and the Pacific and the Channing and Popai Liem Education Foundation, July 2017 Under cover of darkness a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system was installed in Seongju City, ROK in April 26 this year, in spite of daily and growing opposition from local villagers and their nation-wide supporters and without official deliberation by South Korea’s governing bodies. Protesters correctly fear that its deployment will strain their country’s already delicate relationship with China, embolden militaristic and anti-democratic political forces in their own country, and exacerbate tensions between North and South Korea. They also worry about potential negative health and environmental effects associated with the operation of the THAAD radar system, and defilement of sacred lands like the nearby pilgrimage site of the Won Buddhist community. U.S. and some ROK officials claim the THAAD system will protect South Korea from the threat of North Korean missiles. However, because it is stationed 135 miles south of Seoul, virtually all observers agree that the 25 million Koreans living in the capital city area fall outside THAAD’s protective shield. Even more damning, missile defense expert, MIT physicist Ted Postol, adds there is no demonstrable evidence that THAAD is effective under live fire conditions with multiple incoming missiles and decoys. On the other hand, THAAD radar in South Korea has the capacity to monitor missile systems in China, which many suspect is a chief U.S. objective in insisting on stationing it in Korea. China has voiced its opposition to THAAD in Korea in no uncertain terms, enacted economic retributions against South Korea, and threatened an accelerated arms race. The U.S. THAAD deployment in South Korea is part of the U.S. “pivot” to the Asia Pacific. It expands the already significant network of U.S. missile defense systems encircling China and Russia. This effort to boost declining U.S. political and economic influence in the region comes at a high cost, however, to the American people. It diverts billions of dollars away from critical domestic needs at a time of decaying infrastructure, unprecedented economic inequality, and limited access to basic human services. It also compromises the principles as well as safety of peace-loving Americans by intensifying regional military tensions, fuelling a new arms race, and threatening a renewed outbreak of fighting on the Korean peninsula, this time involving nuclear weapons with unimaginable consequences for human life. The U.S. deployment of THAAD also complicates North/South Korean relations at a time when North Korea has offered to freeze its nuclear weapons program in exchange for an end to or significant reduction in annual U.S.-South Korea war games. This proposal was routinely rejected by the Obama administration. But today a growing number of respected U.S. officials and policy analysts such as Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Jane Harman, former congresswoman and head of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and William Perry, Secretary of Defense during the first Clinton administration, have expressed support for considering a freeze and halting war games as a first step toward addressing North Korea’s security concerns as well as those of the U.S, its allies, and China and Russia in light of North Korea’s progress in producing nuclear capable ICBMs. Most Americans know nothing about THAAD, the opposition of South Koreans to its deployment, or recent diplomatic overtures by North Korea to reduce tensions on the peninsula. Even fewer remember the Korean War, are aware that the U.S. retains war time control over South Korea’s armed forces, or understand the desire of the Korean people to achieve the peaceful reunification of their country. Yet, these unknowns should be of vital concern to people in the United States. Should the fragile armistice agreement that halted the fighting but did not end the Korean War give way to renewed fighting, we, along with Koreans in the North and South and countless others in the region will suffer untold losses. In the words of U.S. Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, “…if this goes to a military solution, it is going to be tragic on an unbelievable scale…” At this critical moment, the U.S. and South Korean governments can continue to fuel the fires of war in Korea by further militarizing South Korea or take steps to create international conditions for a lasting peace in Korea. Whichever path the U.S. adopts will be done in the name of the American people. It is, therefore, incumbent upon citizens of the U.S. to engage and work with the people of Korea to arrive at mutually agreeable, peaceful means to resolve hostilities in the region. Beginning this collective work is a primary goal of our delegation. The Solidarity Peace Delegation travels to South Korea to express the solidarity of peace-loving Americans to those in Korea fighting the THAAD deployment and seeking a fundamental resolution to conflict on the peninsula and in the region. We aim to strengthen mutual understanding about how to achieve these objectives with the goal of aligning U.S. policy with the desire of the Korean people to achieve a lasting peace on the peninsula and, ultimately, the peaceful and independent reunification of Korea. Recognizing the immense social and economic costs of increased militarization of Korea for both the American and Korean people, the Solidarity Peace Delegation calls upon the governments of the United States and the Republic of Korea to: 1. Remove THAAD from South Korea. 2. Halt the arms race on the Korea peninsula by ending the U.S.-South Korea war games in favor of an agreement by North Korea to freeze its production of nuclear weapons and missile testing. 3. Engage in diplomacy with North Korea to end the Korean War with a peace treaty, normalize relations with North Korea and support all efforts by the Korea people to achieve the peaceful reunification of their country. Finally, we state our intention to build solidarity in the U.S. for the struggle against the stationing of THAAD in South Korea and the expansion of U.S. militarism in Asia. We also call on peace-loving people in the United States and globally to join us in this effort. SPONSORS Task Force to Stop THAAD in Korea and Militarism in Asia and the Pacific Channing and Popai Liem Education Foundation DELEGATES Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK Reece Chenault, U.S. Labor Against the War Will Griffin, Veterans for Peace, Task Force to Stop THAAD in Korea and Militarism in Asia and the Pacific Juyeon Rhee, Task Force to Stop THAAD in Korea and Militarism in Asia and the Pacific Jill Stein, 2016 presidential candidate, Green Party U.S.A. On Jul 22, 2017, at 04:15, Carl G. Estabrook > wrote: The blog Ron recommends seems quite good, not just on Korea but on other matters - mainly economic - as well. Here it is online: . —CGE On Jul 22, 2017, at 12:01 AM, Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss > wrote: The best thing I’ve seen recently on the Korean situation ~~ Ron _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Jul 22 14:27:14 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 14:27:14 +0000 Subject: [Peace] If one reads nothing else this week, this month, one must read this: It covers Syria, Iran and allies....... Message-ID: [http://www.wsws.org/img/title.png] [http://www.wsws.org/img/logo.png] Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) Click here for advanced search » * Home * Perspectives * World News * World Economy * Arts Review * History * Science * Philosophy * Workers Struggles * ICFI/Marxist Library * Chronology * Full Archive * Print * Leaflet * Feedback * Share » Trump pulls plug on CIA’s Syrian “revolution” 22 July 2017 The news first reported by the Washington Post on July 19—that the Trump administration is winding up a five-year-old, formally covert CIA operation to train, arm and even pay the salaries of Islamist militias in Syria—has further fueled the ferocious political war in Washington over allegations of “collusion” between Trump and Moscow. Senator John McCain, the Republican chair of the Armed Services Committee, issued a statement from Arizona, where he is recovering from surgery related to brain cancer, that “any concession to Russia, absent a broader strategy for Syria, is irresponsible and short-sighted.” A more hysterical denunciation came from Washington Postcolumnist and former chief speechwriter for George W. Bush, Michael Gerson, who accused Trump of carrying out a “complete surrender to Russian interests in Syria” and acting “precisely as though he has been bought and sold by a strategic rival” with his “ignoble cutoff of aid to American proxies.” The claims that cutting off the spigot of arms and money to the so-called “rebels” in Syria represents some kind of a strategic capitulation to Russia are ludicrous. The decision, reportedly taken by Trump together with his national security advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster and CIA Director Mike Pompeo in advance of the G20 summit in Hamburg, was a foregone conclusion. What used to be referred to as the “Free Syrian Army” has ceased to play any major role in Syria. Syrian government forces, backed by Iranian-aligned militias and, since September 2015, Russian air support, have driven the “rebels” out of every major urban center and into the rural areas of Idlib province, where they have been engaged in bitter internecine combat against each other. The government’s retaking of eastern Aleppo in December 2016 spelled the final debacle for the US strategy of carrying out a war for regime change using CIA-backed Sunni Islamist militias as Washington’s proxies. This criminal strategy was initiated in the wake of the 2011 US war for regime change that toppled the government of Libya and ended in the lynch-mob murder of its leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Islamist fighters and huge quantities of weapons were funneled from the eastern Libyan port city of Benghazi into Syria. By 2013, this had turned into what one US official described to the New York Times as a “cataract of weaponry,” poured into Syria by the CIA, working with Saudi Arabia and the other right-wing Gulf oil monarchies and Turkey. Tens of thousands of Islamist foreign fighters were also funneled in to wage a bloody sectarian civil war whose victims now number in the hundreds of thousands of dead and millions of displaced refugees. Some of these same elements, whose crossing of international borders was facilitated by Western intelligence agencies, returned to carry out terrorist attacks in Europe. The CIA claimed to have “vetted” some 40 “moderate rebel” militias deserving of US arms and money. In reality, most of these groups were largely indistinguishable from elements like the Al-Nusra Front, and either ended up in alliance with this Syrian Al Qaeda affiliate or surrendered their American weapons to it. The defeat of the CIA-backed “rebels” was a function not merely of the increased firepower supplied by Russia and Iran, but of the hostility toward these militias on the part of broad layers of the Syrian population, which viewed the Assad regime, despite its repression and corruption, as the lesser evil. Contrary to the propaganda put out by the US State Department and its pseudo-left apologists, the rebels were not the champions of some struggle for democracy or “revolution,” but rather right-wing, sectarian gangsters, who systematically looted the areas under their control and beheaded those who expressed any opposition to their obscurantist ideology. The ending of the CIA’s arming and funding of the largely spent Al Qaeda-linked “rebels” signals not an end to the conflict in Syria or any significant rapprochement with Moscow, but is rather part of the preparations for a wider war. The Pentagon is continuing to train and arm its own proxy forces, both the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces—comprised primarily of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia—in the north, and Sunni militias in the southeast, near the US special forces base established at al-Tanf near a strategic Syrian border crossing with Iraq and Jordan. This is only one of a string of bases set up by the US military in what amounts to a stealth invasion and occupation of Syria. The Turkish state-run news agency, reflecting the hostility of the regime in Ankara to the US alliance with the Syrian Kurds, published an article pinpointing the location of 10 secret US bases in the north of Syria along with detailed information about the number of troops and type of weaponry and equipment deployed at each of them. Earlier this month, the Trump administration asked Congress to vote its approval for the building of new “temporary” bases in both Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile, the Pentagon continues to carry out deadly airstrikes against Syrian targets, with the independent monitoring group Airwars reporting at least 415 civilians killed by US bombs and missiles last month alone. This estimate undoubtedly leaves many of the dead uncounted, and the numbers will rise dramatically as the US escalates its siege of Raqqa. While the Reuters news agency quoted one US official as saying that the scrapping of the CIA program was a “signal” to Russia that Washington wants to improve ties, the real aim is to drive a wedge between Moscow and Iran in order to better prepare for war against the latter. This is the central purpose of the US military buildup in Syria and Iraq, where Iranian influence has steadily grown. Those setting policy in the Trump administration, largely the cabal of retired and active duty generals who hold all the key security posts, see Iran as the principal obstacle to the bloody and protracted US campaign to establish its hegemony over the Middle East and Central Asia. The American military brass is particularly bitter over the fact that Washington’s war of aggression in Iraq served largely to strengthen Iranian influence in the region. Two days before the report in the Washington Post on the ending of aid to the “rebels,” the Trump administration provided formal certification that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear agreement it negotiated with the US and five other powers. The move came only after hours of wrangling in the White House, with Trump agreeing reluctantly to certify only on the basis of a decision to impose a new set of unilateral US sanctions against Tehran that are themselves in violation of the accord and designed to provoke a confrontation. Washington is also reportedly mounting a campaign to pressure the European powers to toe the US line by adopting a punitive policy toward Tehran. But the other signatories to the agreement—Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia—are all looking to conclude major trade and investment deals in Iran, with the French energy conglomerate Total leading the way with a $1 billion agreement to develop gas production. Such tensions with Europe will only fuel Washington’s drive toward a wider war. Faced with the decline of its economic and political global dominance, the parasitic and criminal American ruling class, personified in the figure of Trump, increasingly sees war as the only way out of economic and social crises for which it can offer no progressive solution. A US war against Iran, a nation of over 77 million people, would eclipse even the bloodbaths carried out by the Pentagon and the CIA in Iraq and Syria, while posing the real threat of a nuclear third world war. Bill Van Auken -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mytwords at yahoo.com Sat Jul 22 15:35:37 2017 From: mytwords at yahoo.com (Matt Murrey) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 15:35:37 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Peace] events? References: <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844.ref@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844@mail.yahoo.com> It would be helpful for people to stop posting discussion pieces, opinions, articles, etc on this list.  This list is for peace-related EVENTS and calls to action happening in the CU community.  If you think an event is not politically-ideologically contributing to peace and social justice, send a note to the manager of this list or move your concerns to the PEACE DISCUSS list. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From illyes at illinois.edu Sat Jul 22 16:25:37 2017 From: illyes at illinois.edu (Illyes, Robert Frank) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 16:25:37 +0000 Subject: [Peace] events? In-Reply-To: <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844@mail.yahoo.com> References: <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844.ref@mail.yahoo.com>, <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <5B3B2E033E8AA24EA3A5F1C497F1809E4543F499@CITESMBX5.ad.uillinois.edu> I'm with Matt on this. I stopped delivery of peace-discuss because it is dominated by conspiracy theorists, who wouldn't recognize Occam's Razor if it bit them in the leg. Or to put it more simply, are gaming the rest of us who would actually like to make the world better and ask nothing for our service- not importance, not recognition, but just peace itself. Sorry for my editorializing, I'll do no more. But I must say that it is a pleasure to hear from Matt. I hope that one of the announcements that I will be seeing will be an invitation to a reading of his poetry. Bob ________________________________________ From: Peace [peace-bounces at lists.chambana.net] on behalf of Matt Murrey via Peace [peace at lists.chambana.net] Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2017 10:35 AM To: peace at lists.chambana.net Subject: [Peace] events? It would be helpful for people to stop posting discussion pieces, opinions, articles, etc on this list. This list is for peace-related EVENTS and calls to action happening in the CU community. If you think an event is not politically-ideologically contributing to peace and social justice, send a note to the manager of this list or move your concerns to the PEACE DISCUSS list. From galliher at illinois.edu Sat Jul 22 17:00:35 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 12:00:35 -0500 Subject: [Peace] events? In-Reply-To: <5B3B2E033E8AA24EA3A5F1C497F1809E4543F499@CITESMBX5.ad.uillinois.edu> References: <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844.ref@mail.yahoo.com> <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844@mail.yahoo.com> <5B3B2E033E8AA24EA3A5F1C497F1809E4543F499@CITESMBX5.ad.uillinois.edu> Message-ID: <982BA436-672F-4839-BF47-7558D2288B6B@illinois.edu> Can you give us an example of conspiracy theory on peace-discuss, Bob? As to that leg-biting razor, I presume you refer to the 'law of parsimony,' the principle attributed to William of Ockham (d. 1347), “entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem,” which Wikipedia interprets "as stating that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.” And I assume the assumption you object to is that the Obama-Clinton administration (like their predecessors) were war-mongers, killing people in the Mideast and provoking Russia and China from Ukraine to the South China Sea, in order to retard Eurasian economic integration, seen as a threat to the economic dominance of the US 1%, established by WWII and declining relatively today? It’s to promote discussion of that important assumption and related matters - which the last administration did so much to hide - that AWARE (and its mailing lists) were established. Regards, CGE > > On Jul 22, 2017, at 11:25 AM, Illyes, Robert Frank via Peace wrote: > > I'm with Matt on this. I stopped delivery of peace-discuss because it is dominated by conspiracy theorists, who wouldn't recognize Occam's Razor if it bit them in the leg. Or to put it more simply, are gaming the rest of us who would actually like to make the world better and ask nothing for our service- not importance, not recognition, but just peace itself. Sorry for my editorializing, I'll do no more. But I must say that it is a pleasure to hear from Matt. I hope that one of the announcements that I will be seeing will be an invitation to a reading of his poetry. > > Bob > ________________________________________ > From: Peace [peace-bounces at lists.chambana.net] on behalf of Matt Murrey via Peace [peace at lists.chambana.net] > Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2017 10:35 AM > To: peace at lists.chambana.net > Subject: [Peace] events? > > It would be helpful for people to stop posting discussion pieces, opinions, articles, etc on this list. This list is for peace-related EVENTS and calls to action happening in the CU community. If you think an event is not politically-ideologically contributing to peace and social justice, send a note to the manager of this list or move your concerns to the PEACE DISCUSS list. > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Sat Jul 22 18:07:08 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 13:07:08 -0500 Subject: [Peace] News from Neptune on UPTV for 21 July 2017 In-Reply-To: <103E5690-D789-4362-B5AA-926142CB27FA@illinois.edu> References: <40CF69C5-6000-4269-B826-66BE0B239E50@illinois.edu> <7836545C-D9A4-40A1-A93B-D739B42F7E8A@illinois.edu> <78DE88EC-F271-449B-857A-FAB868A72329@illinois.edu> <9B3BDD44-731A-4672-B4B6-3A26F144BA54@illinois.edu> <6EA01ECF-FD55-4EED-9040-45A2A2D761B2@illinois.edu> <86694548-B73E-4398-88FE-B93E033141F5@illinois.edu> <103E5690-D789-4362-B5AA-926142CB27FA@illinois.edu> Message-ID: News From Neptune - Episode #346 C. G. Estabrook and David Green discuss the news of the week and its coverage by the media; A BEYOND LEFT AND RIGHT edition, recorded at Urbana (IL) Public Television on Friday 21 July 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwx5HBrLSLw&feature=em-subs_digest-vrecs ### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bill.strutz at gmail.com Sat Jul 22 21:26:50 2017 From: bill.strutz at gmail.com (Bill Strutz) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 16:26:50 -0500 Subject: [Peace] events? In-Reply-To: <982BA436-672F-4839-BF47-7558D2288B6B@illinois.edu> References: <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844.ref@mail.yahoo.com> <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844@mail.yahoo.com> <5B3B2E033E8AA24EA3A5F1C497F1809E4543F499@CITESMBX5.ad.uillinois.edu> <982BA436-672F-4839-BF47-7558D2288B6B@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Yes, let's stop posting opinion pieces to "peace." The other list (peace-discuss) is the proper venue for conspiring against Carl. As for Ockham: Don't knock 'im. -- Bill On Sat, Jul 22, 2017 at 12:00 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace < peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > Can you give us an example of conspiracy theory on peace-discuss, Bob? > > As to that leg-biting razor, I presume you refer to the 'law of > parsimony,' the principle attributed to William of Ockham (d. 1347), “entia > non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem,” which Wikipedia interprets > "as stating that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest > assumptions should be selected.” > > And I assume the assumption you object to is that the Obama-Clinton > administration (like their predecessors) were war-mongers, killing people > in the Mideast and provoking Russia and China from Ukraine to the South > China Sea, in order to retard Eurasian economic integration, seen as a > threat to the economic dominance of the US 1%, established by WWII and > declining relatively today? > > It’s to promote discussion of that important assumption and related > matters - which the last administration did so much to hide - that AWARE > (and its mailing lists) were established. > > Regards, CGE > > > > > > > > On Jul 22, 2017, at 11:25 AM, Illyes, Robert Frank via Peace < > peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > I'm with Matt on this. I stopped delivery of peace-discuss because it is > dominated by conspiracy theorists, who wouldn't recognize Occam's Razor if > it bit them in the leg. Or to put it more simply, are gaming the rest of us > who would actually like to make the world better and ask nothing for our > service- not importance, not recognition, but just peace itself. Sorry for > my editorializing, I'll do no more. But I must say that it is a pleasure to > hear from Matt. I hope that one of the announcements that I will be seeing > will be an invitation to a reading of his poetry. > > Bob > ________________________________________ > From: Peace [peace-bounces at lists.chambana.net] on behalf of Matt Murrey > via Peace [peace at lists.chambana.net] > Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2017 10:35 AM > To: peace at lists.chambana.net > Subject: [Peace] events? > > It would be helpful for people to stop posting discussion pieces, > opinions, articles, etc on this list. This list is for peace-related > EVENTS and calls to action happening in the CU community. If you think an > event is not politically-ideologically contributing to peace and social > justice, send a note to the manager of this list or move your concerns to > the PEACE DISCUSS list. > _______________________________________________ > 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 > > -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *My name is a complete sentence* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Sat Jul 22 22:04:40 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 17:04:40 -0500 Subject: [Peace] events? In-Reply-To: References: <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844.ref@mail.yahoo.com> <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844@mail.yahoo.com> <5B3B2E033E8AA24EA3A5F1C497F1809E4543F499@CITESMBX5.ad.uillinois.edu> <982BA436-672F-4839-BF47-7558D2288B6B@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <2BABA044-F87B-4BAF-9CEA-D7B513826F84@illinois.edu> (And as for De Vere, be clear…) • CGE THE POET. Directly, I am going to Caesar's funeral. • FIRST CITIZEN. As a friend or an enemy? • CGE THE POET. As a friend. • SECOND CITIZEN. That matter is answered directly. • FOURTH CITIZEN. For your dwelling,—briefly. • CGE THE POET. Briefly, I dwell by the Capitol. • THIRD CITIZEN. Your name, sir, truly. • CGE THE POET. Truly, my name is CGE. • FIRST CITIZEN. Tear him to pieces; he's a conspirator. • CGE THE POET. I am CGE the poet, I am CGE the poet. • FOURTH CITIZEN. Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses. • CGE THE POET. I am not CGE the conspirator… --‘The Tragedy of Julius Caesar,’ 3.3 (perhaps misremembered) > On Jul 22, 2017, at 4:26 PM, Bill Strutz wrote: > > Yes, let's stop posting opinion pieces to "peace." > The other list (peace-discuss) is the proper venue for conspiring against Carl. > > As for Ockham: Don't knock 'im. > -- Bill > > On Sat, Jul 22, 2017 at 12:00 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace > wrote: > Can you give us an example of conspiracy theory on peace-discuss, Bob? > > As to that leg-biting razor, I presume you refer to the 'law of parsimony,' the principle attributed to William of Ockham (d. 1347), “entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem,” which Wikipedia interprets "as stating that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.” > > And I assume the assumption you object to is that the Obama-Clinton administration (like their predecessors) were war-mongers, killing people in the Mideast and provoking Russia and China from Ukraine to the South China Sea, in order to retard Eurasian economic integration, seen as a threat to the economic dominance of the US 1%, established by WWII and declining relatively today? > > It’s to promote discussion of that important assumption and related matters - which the last administration did so much to hide - that AWARE (and its mailing lists) were established. > > Regards, CGE > > > > > > >> On Jul 22, 2017, at 11:25 AM, Illyes, Robert Frank via Peace > wrote: >> >> I'm with Matt on this. I stopped delivery of peace-discuss because it is dominated by conspiracy theorists, who wouldn't recognize Occam's Razor if it bit them in the leg. Or to put it more simply, are gaming the rest of us who would actually like to make the world better and ask nothing for our service- not importance, not recognition, but just peace itself. Sorry for my editorializing, I'll do no more. But I must say that it is a pleasure to hear from Matt. I hope that one of the announcements that I will be seeing will be an invitation to a reading of his poetry. >> >> Bob >> ________________________________________ >> From: Peace [peace-bounces at lists.chambana.net ] on behalf of Matt Murrey via Peace [peace at lists.chambana.net ] >> Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2017 10:35 AM >> To: peace at lists.chambana.net >> Subject: [Peace] events? >> >> It would be helpful for people to stop posting discussion pieces, opinions, articles, etc on this list. This list is for peace-related EVENTS and calls to action happening in the CU community. If you think an event is not politically-ideologically contributing to peace and social justice, send a note to the manager of this list or move your concerns to the PEACE DISCUSS list. >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 > > > > > -- > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > My name is a complete sentence -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Jul 23 00:08:29 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2017 00:08:29 +0000 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] events? In-Reply-To: References: <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844.ref@mail.yahoo.com> <1625771000.2643136.1500737737844@mail.yahoo.com> <5B3B2E033E8AA24EA3A5F1C497F1809E4543F499@CITESMBX5.ad.uillinois.edu> <982BA436-672F-4839-BF47-7558D2288B6B@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Sorry folks, for ruining your day. I know its so much pleasanter to think of peace, poetry, flowers, the beauty of nature, and love. Information related to the “anti-peace,” we as Americans bring to others in the rest of the world, is disturbing, with images of the carnage and destruction we bring to people of color. Native Americans, African Americans, Asians, and Muslims. Hearing about all those poor people being slaughtered, it just ruins our day. Does it never end? No, not until we recognize it, understand it, and stop it. On Jul 22, 2017, at 14:26, Bill Strutz via Peace-discuss > wrote: Yes, let's stop posting opinion pieces to "peace." The other list (peace-discuss) is the proper venue for conspiring against Carl. As for Ockham: Don't knock 'im. -- Bill On Sat, Jul 22, 2017 at 12:00 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace > wrote: Can you give us an example of conspiracy theory on peace-discuss, Bob? As to that leg-biting razor, I presume you refer to the 'law of parsimony,' the principle attributed to William of Ockham (d. 1347), “entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem,” which Wikipedia interprets "as stating that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.” And I assume the assumption you object to is that the Obama-Clinton administration (like their predecessors) were war-mongers, killing people in the Mideast and provoking Russia and China from Ukraine to the South China Sea, in order to retard Eurasian economic integration, seen as a threat to the economic dominance of the US 1%, established by WWII and declining relatively today? It’s to promote discussion of that important assumption and related matters - which the last administration did so much to hide - that AWARE (and its mailing lists) were established. Regards, CGE On Jul 22, 2017, at 11:25 AM, Illyes, Robert Frank via Peace > wrote: I'm with Matt on this. I stopped delivery of peace-discuss because it is dominated by conspiracy theorists, who wouldn't recognize Occam's Razor if it bit them in the leg. Or to put it more simply, are gaming the rest of us who would actually like to make the world better and ask nothing for our service- not importance, not recognition, but just peace itself. Sorry for my editorializing, I'll do no more. But I must say that it is a pleasure to hear from Matt. I hope that one of the announcements that I will be seeing will be an invitation to a reading of his poetry. Bob ________________________________________ From: Peace [peace-bounces at lists.chambana.net] on behalf of Matt Murrey via Peace [peace at lists.chambana.net] Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2017 10:35 AM To: peace at lists.chambana.net Subject: [Peace] events? It would be helpful for people to stop posting discussion pieces, opinions, articles, etc on this list. This list is for peace-related EVENTS and calls to action happening in the CU community. If you think an event is not politically-ideologically contributing to peace and social justice, send a note to the manager of this list or move your concerns to the PEACE DISCUSS list. _______________________________________________ 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 -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My name is a complete sentence _______________________________________________ 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 galliher at illinois.edu Sun Jul 23 00:19:49 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 19:19:49 -0500 Subject: [Peace] AWARE ON THE AIR for Tuesday 18 July In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <05DFFC44-9BDD-476C-AAC4-BA22A1FA8743@illinois.edu> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8xLon7ST0U AWARE on the Air - Episode #416 Produced by the Anti-War, Anti-Racism Effort of Champaign-Urbana War news and the following articles are discussed by Karen Aram & C. G. Estabrook: “Mali war spilling into Burkina Faso, Niger” | By Thomas Gaist | 18 July 2017 | wsws.org “With New D.C. Policy Group, Dems Continue to Rehabilitate and Unify With Bush-Era Neocons” | By Glenn Greenwald | 17b July 2017 | theintercept.com | ### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Wed Jul 26 01:28:15 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2017 01:28:15 +0000 Subject: [Peace] World Court Likely to Rule Against Legality of US Military Presence in Syria Message-ID: Not just good news, but great news…….. Shared from sputniknews.com World Court Likely to Rule Against Legality of US Military Presence in Syria https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201707251055845224-world-court-against-usa-syria-presence/ From karenaram at hotmail.com Wed Jul 26 11:52:17 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2017 11:52:17 +0000 Subject: [Peace] New sanctions on Russia, Iran and N. Korea Message-ID: * Print * Leaflet * Feedback * Share » US Congress overwhelmingly passes sanctions bill targeting Russia 26 July 2017 The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Tuesday that places new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, and limits the Trump administration’s ability to overturn them. The vote was 419–3 on a measure that will significantly increase geopolitical conflicts between the United States and its major rivals—not only Russia, but also the imperialist powers in Europe. The bill will now move to the Senate, where an earlier version (without the North Korea sanctions) was approved by a similar margin, 97–2, in June. Trump has given mixed signals about whether he will sign the bill, but the veto-proof majorities in both houses of Congress mean that it is almost certain to be adopted into law. The new sanctions expose the essential issues behind the “election hacking” campaign of the US media and political establishment, spearheaded by the intelligence agencies that are opposed to any shift away from the anti-Russia policy developed under the Obama administration. The near-unanimous vote in both houses of Congress (all “no” votes in the House were from Republicans) testifies to the degree to which the CIA, NSA and other spy agencies directly control the institutions of the state and the personnel that compose them. The real issues at stake in the bitter internecine conflict within the ruling class were spelled out in a Washington Post editorial Monday (“Congress’s drastic—but necessary—rebuke to Trump”). The Post, which along with the New York Times has been a leading media voice in the anti-Russia campaign, hailed the bill as necessary to protect the “vital interests” of the US. The sanctions agreement, the Post wrote, placed “Trump’s policy toward the regime of Vladimir Putin in receivership, preventing him from lifting sanctions without congressional agreement.” Trump has displayed an “inexplicable affinity” toward Russia, the newspaper wrote, and has cast doubt on Russia’s intervention in the US election campaign. “For the US intelligence community,” the Post asserted, “there is no such doubt… Mr. Trump’s refusal to accept those conclusions, and the possibility that he might reverse sanctions imposed on Russia for that interference and for its military invasion of Ukraine, has generated an extraordinary consensus in an otherwise polarized Congress.” None of the allegations made by the Post about Russia’s involvement in the election can be proven, and the declarations of the “US intelligence community” are no more believable than the claims that the government of Saddam Hussein possessed “weapons of mass destruction” prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Even if one were to accept the conclusions as true, there is no doubt that Clinton was working with all manner of governments to advance her election campaign. The real issue is not Russian “hacking,” but the geostrategic interests of American imperialism. As the Post makes clear, its main concern is that Russia has obstructed the operations of US intelligence agencies and the military in Ukraine and Syria. The reference to the “military invasion of Ukraine” refers to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the internal civil war that followed the 2014 regime-change operation organized by the US, and spearheaded by fascistic organizations, to unseat a pro-Russian government. The editorial later complains that Trump’s actions are handing Russia “major concessions for nothing,” including “the withdrawal of US support for rebel forces in Syria.” This refers to Trump’s decision to end CIA support for Syrian opposition forces, dominated by Al Qaeda, who have been waging a US-backed civil war to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The editorial acknowledges that the sanctions bill “could have some unintended consequences,” including on “US-European coordination on Russia.” It is “nevertheless essential” because “Trump cannot be trusted to protect vital US interests against persistent Russian aggression.” What are these “vital US interests”? They do not involve the Trump administration’s assault on health care, its brutal assault on immigrant workers, or its militarist agenda. Rather they refer to the interests of the ruling class in dominating the Middle East and its vast energy resources and expanding US power in Eastern Europe. For the factions of the ruling class for which the Post speaks, moreover, US aggression against Russia is seen as essential for keeping the European powers in line and for taking on China. The new bill will be adopted under conditions of explosive geopolitical tensions that can very rapidly escalate into a direct military conflict involving nuclear-armed powers. Within just the past 24 hours, the US fired warning shots at an Iranian vessel; the Chinese military intercepted a US aircraft; the Wall Street Journal reported on preparations by China for a US war against North Korea; and China staged joint military operations with Russia in the Baltic Sea. The various countries affected by the bill will take it as a clear sign that the US intends to sharply pursue its economic and military confrontation with them. A leaked European Union memo reported the statements from European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker that the EU “should stand ready to act within days” of the bill’s passage, and that the sanctions “could impact a potentially large number of European companies doing legitimate business under EU measures with Russian entities.” The Trump administration, increasingly embattled and isolated, could decide that the best way to resolve its internal crisis is to start a war—perhaps with Iran or North Korea. And if Trump’s opponents are successful in forcing a change in his policy or in removing him, it will mean a shift toward an even more aggressive policy in the Middle East and, above all, against Russia. However bitter the divisions within the state, the American ruling class is driven by a relentless logic. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought with it not an “end of history,” but a quarter century of unending and expanding war, in which the ruling class has sought to reverse the decline of American capitalism and maintain its global economic position through the use of military force. This mad and reckless policy is now bringing the entire world to the brink of a Third World War. Joseph Kishore wows.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Wed Jul 26 21:39:17 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2017 21:39:17 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: The Promise: download to donate References: Message-ID: This is a film worth watching. Filmed primarily in Turkey, it covers the genocide of the Armenians. It wasn’t made for profit, but to send a message. No genocide should go unpunished, or certainly unacknowledged. If nothing else, we need to encourage the conversation. Please see the below: Begin forwarded message: [https://gallery.mailchimp.com/e6b0aa5ff6e7e3580a9a6dede/images/e6fb2970-e584-4059-bbef-e68e34b45b94.png] [https://gallery.mailchimp.com/e6b0aa5ff6e7e3580a9a6dede/images/9d685303-8775-48ab-9131-58c826281ae7.jpg] Dear Karen, The feature film The Promise is the origin story of modern genocide, and shows the costly consequences when wrongs are not righted and when injustice gets buried in history. Now it’s being released to the widest audience possible, on DVD and digital download. The production company behind the film is donating ALL of its proceeds to charitable organizations like ours. Our partner organization the Enough Projectwill generously be directing its proceeds to Little Ripples, our early childhood education program for refugee children from Darfur. We’re asking you to buy The Promise and support the film not just because it’s crucial to human rights that we don’t let atrocities of the past be erased, but also because your purchase will help us support the educational aspirations of the survivors of the atrocities being committed right now. Share this powerful film with your friends and family, and help support work to end genocide: Download on iTunes Download on Amazon Thank you! Gabriel Stauring Founding Executive Director iACT Share this with a friend [https://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/icons/social-block-v2/outline-dark-facebook-48.png] Share [https://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/icons/social-block-v2/outline-dark-twitter-48.png] Tweet [https://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/icons/social-block-v2/outline-dark-forwardtofriend-48.png] Forward SUPPORT iACT [Twitter] [Facebook] [Instagram] iactivism.org You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website. 1732 Aviation Blvd. #138, Redondo Beach, CA 90278 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Thu Jul 27 02:02:09 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2017 21:02:09 -0500 Subject: [Peace] AWARE ON THE AIR for Tuesday 25 July In-Reply-To: <05DFFC44-9BDD-476C-AAC4-BA22A1FA8743@illinois.edu> References: <05DFFC44-9BDD-476C-AAC4-BA22A1FA8743@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <2A685611-01FA-4322-A232-9DA00E443CAA@illinois.edu> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Thu Jul 27 16:58:29 2017 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2017 16:58:29 +0000 Subject: [Peace] AWARE ON THE AIR for Tuesday 25 July In-Reply-To: <2A685611-01FA-4322-A232-9DA00E443CAA@illinois.edu> References: <05DFFC44-9BDD-476C-AAC4-BA22A1FA8743@illinois.edu> <2A685611-01FA-4322-A232-9DA00E443CAA@illinois.edu> Message-ID: There is some useful information and some nutty information here: In particular, what ever Caldicott says should be discounted. She is a nut on nuclear issues! And has been for a long time, conpletely discredited. —mkb On Jul 26, 2017, at 9:02 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace > wrote: (AWARE ON THE AIR didn't air this week, owing to indisposition; in its place we offer the following links and announcements.) Dr. Know’s Research Notes for Week 30 of 2017 | J. B. Nicholson | ================================================ -- Glenn Greenwald sits in for Jeremy Scahill and provides a much-needed analysis of 'Russiagate', the 2003 Iraq invasion/occupation, and how we see the same 'with us or against us' tactic used to separate those who go along (Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Daily Show, all of the other comedy news and latenight programs except RT's Redacted Tonight) and those who are to be viciously described (anyone who demands evidence). Ignore the edited intro piece and skip to Greenwald's talk, that intro is so blindly anti-Trump it doesn't convey anything of what Greenwald gets into -- he wants evidence to stand behind the allegations -- I'm pretty sure Greenwald didn't edit the intro piece. The second interview is better than the first. -- Looks like Stein is coming back into the news in some small degree. The article doesn't mention the Stein-led recount effort (and it should have) but the Democrats still added her to a list of 40 other people and groups Trump Jr. was told to detail communications with by the Senate Judiciary Committee. As the article put it: Every other person, business or organization on the list is a Russian government official, played some role on the Trump campaign, or are or are mentioned in stories about election hacking. There is no legitimate reason for Stein’s name to be on this list. She makes clear that she has had no contact with the Trump family or campaign. She is being thrown under the bus in a classic smear tactic. Russiagate has no evidence to back it up and never did, but it will have some added value for the Democrats in smearing Jill Stein and serving as a fake reason to justify hostility against Russia. -- 6 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a small robot ("Little Sunfish") with a camera has footage showing melted nuclear fuel rods in reactor #3. This is a big deal because: - Teppco has a history of delaying pertinent news, lying about the scope of this disaster. - 1600+ people died of Fukushima-related causes. Cancers attributable to Fukushima are now coming up. We won't know the tally for years to come, but there's no way this will be good. Maybe in 40 years these reactors will be decommissioned. I'll bet that in time we'll learn that tainted water dumping has been going on throughout and it's wise to reconsider getting goods made in or near that water. - This is why nuclear activists like Dr. Helen Caldicott do their work and argue, convincingly, that we simply can't afford nuclear power. Caldicott is the author of many books including one of my favorites, "The New Nuclear Danger". At one talk she said "It seems that nearly a million people have already died as a result of Chernobyl despite what WHO says and the IAEA. This is one of the most monstrous cover-ups in the history of medicine because everybody should know about this." ( around 24s into the 9m recording which is worth watching), and the Fukushima disaster of Japan "many times worse than Chernobyl". She concisely covers the Fukushima reactors disaster and explains what happened, then points out that "Turkish food is extremely radioactive: Do not buy Turkish dried apricots, do not buy Turkish hazelnuts... The Turks were so cross with the Russians that they sent all their radioactive tea over to Russia after Chernobyl. 40% of Europe is still radioactive; farms in Britain, their land is so full of cesium they can't sell them." (5m59s). In another recording on YouTube she advises avoiding Japanese food for similar reasons: radioactive damage is cumulative over one's lifetime and the risk gets worse as you go through the seafood food chain (algae, crustaceans, little fish, big fish, humans) because each step concentrates more radioactive matter which seafood eaters end up consuming. Date Tue 20:44 I wrote: I'm listening to Nick Brana (draftbernie.org representative) interview (Ralph Nader Radio Hour with a DraftBernie.org representative) and Nader is nailing it on 3rd parties ("they can't win, the system is not responsive" and people "don't want to waste their vote"). [...] Speaking of Bernie Sanders and why I don't think much of him: is Paul Street's latest which goes into more on this topic. Worth reading. Russiagate -- Ray McGovern says DNC "hack" was inside job: speed of copying was too great to have been done over a network. Finally -- mention of a detail that not only makes sense but helps narrow down the set of people who know how the data was obtained. McGovern also says that someone on the inside could have had "some inside help of quite professional people" due to the obfuscation involved in trying to make this look like a foreign attack ('Russian hack') which is consistent with the CIA work WikiLeaks told us about as part of their "Vault 7" series of leaks. Why were no forensics done until recently, previously done only by private industry, and why were the servers involved not immediately seized for review? We were told this alleged foreign attack constitutes 'an act of war'. Is this behavior really consistent with something important enough to be called 'an act of war'? It's looking more likely that this: - was an inside job, - by Seth Rich (possibly working with someone else) who was later killed for his part in this, - the Russian govt. and Russian so-called "hackers" are a distraction, - and this could go quite high up: James Comey not getting the servers involved (even by force) suggests something else is going on. Do you honestly believe that if you or I had anything to do with this, we'd be free and have our computers intact now? Russian, Iran, and North Korean sanctions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMoawJ3xAAc -- Republicans are complicit with Dems on blocking Russia. The 2015 documentary "The Propaganda Game" shows how ineffective the past NK sanctions were: NK computer lab had all-new Hewlett-Packard computers snuck into NK. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHGUsD42190 -- If Trump doesn't veto sanctions bill, "he's given up on his presidency" says Ron Paul Institute Exec. Dir. Daniel McAdams. Media - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT0hL92xlrs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czrvklLsW0Y -- Joy Reid tweets xenophobic false line, somehow keeps her job at MSNBC (nicknamed "MSDNC" due to its one-sided reportage favoring the Dems). Also, in light of how the Dems reacted to Trump's xenophobic and false remarks, MSNBC ends up vindicating Trump's horrible language. Now others can complain about Trump's xenophobic wrong language but not Joy Reid and MSNBC would be wise to make some distance from her. I'm listening to Nick Brana (draftbernie.org representative) interview http://traffic.libsyn.com/ral…/NADER_174_podcast_version.mp3 (Ralph Nader Radio Hour with a DraftBernie.org representative) and Nader is nailing it on 3rd parties ("they can't win, the system is not responsive" and people "don't want to waste their vote"). https://draftbernie.org is the site intending to "Draft Bernie for a People's Party Seeks to Recruit Sanders to Start a New Political Party, Not to Run for President in 2020" (https://draftbernie.org/…/press-release-draft-bernie-peopl…/). They want this because "[d]espite Bernie Sanders’ monumental efforts to reform the Democratic Party, it remains firmly in neoliberal control". I have no problems with a new party starting, or with independent candidates running. But I don't see how running with a former candidate who is worse on major issues than Nader was is any start for a new party. Parties are known for candidates, not celebrities who aren't running. I'm not convinced Sanders is 'progressive' on major issues of the day, and that this isn't just another effort to drum up support for the Democratic Party (an issue the interview reveals is still being considered!). Sanders was (as BlackAgendaReport.com rightly put it) a shepherd for Hillary Clinton and lost all legitimacy in critiquing the Dems when he did that (and he did that without reservation, by the way). Today Sen. Sanders puts forth no Senate version of HR676 (Medicare for All) and mainly seems to give speeches instead of having his staff write bills for the Senate to implement his majoritarian values which make him seem like a good idea for being a POTUS candidate again. Sanders won't point out the Dems' weaknesses because he's working for them. Sanders is unwilling to object to war (his ought-to-be-seen-as-shameful 2016 "Meet the Press" interview is most revealing how go-along he is on this preeminent issue). Therefore I see no reason to take his endorsement as a pointer of someone I should vote for or give money to. I'd take such an endorsement as a warning. "War" seems absent from the draftbernie.org website in my searches so far (one mention is of a rally against war sponsored by an organization that is not draftbernie.org -- https://draftbernie.org/event/pittsburgh-march-war/ -- sponsored by Pittsburghers in Solidarity Against War). Branah says in the interview: - 3rd parties are not attacked "largely and most viciously at the takeoff stage to prevent them from taking off into something major in the first place". They're attacked throughout their existence. "Debate" denials by the CPD, ballot access restrictions are ongoing. And debatebernie.org has no real answer to do this. Ralph Nader's name was very well known when he ran in 2000 and the CPD kept him out. - people "feeling trapped" by the Democrats; yes, but that was also true in 2000 when Nader ran. It's not clear what changed that results in candidates in this new party to win elections. -J Hi Carl (or should I say Hey-Hey Ralphie boy!) I'm young enough to have seen all of those episodes in repeats, back when it was still beyond mainstream criticism to air a show that featured a running joke about a husband threatening to beat his wife ("To the Moon, Alice!"). By the way, the fellow who played Ed Norton in the Honeymooners was also in the "Star Wars Holiday Special" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3a5j8PgQxg which aired exactly once and was disowned by George Lucas afterwards. It was horrible from start to finish. The guys at RedLetterMedia.com reviewed it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW4m0oYK0WQ (and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtUd0yuYN4 ). There are no legally available copies of the SW Holiday Special. The same recording (including ads that aired at the time) have been passed around for years, and copies distributed at fan conventions. Nobody even sues to claim the rights to this thing, as far as I know. TheRealNews.com: I do like Aaron Mate's interviews; he seems to be the one who will ask about the changes in things I won't find many other places (including DN and sometimes RT's Ed show and certainly Larry King show which I find largely useless but I understand to be reliably popular ratings-wise). Media recommendation: In addition to anti-war.com, I do suggest RT for anti-war news in that they do a good job of showing the photos of decimated homes, interviewing victims, and laying out the financial costs which we could put elsewhere. They've also brought up the contradictions in what (I believe) will be a leading lie for an upcoming war with Russia: look at how those awful Russians "hacked our election" with that RT spreading their propaganda! I've seen some perfectly bad documentaries from RT (the "Wi-Fi refugees" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWMNTuIZqKo is a recent example; this takes only one side of the issue and conducts no double-blind tests to see if the claim of human sensitivity to Wi-Fi signals is at all valid, and fails to acknowledge the contradictions in some of the shots the doc shows like a "refugee" claiming to be feeling fine despite sitting in a modern vehicle with a sizable electronic camera sitting next to her shooting her) but I've also seen plenty of good coverage from them on important issues of the day (including some of the only DLC lawsuit coverage you'll find anywhere). Single-payer healthcare: my impression is that the only people opposed to Medicare for All (HR676 as a bill or the concept) are HMOs and people paid to take their side (shills on chat websites, lawyers, lobbyists). The public overwhelmingly supports this and it stands as more popular than the ACA/ObamaCare (neé RomneyCare). Business-wise, the only opposition I am aware of from big businesses is theoretical and described by Doug Henwood -- business owners see Medicare for All as taking away HMO's business and fear that their business can be taken away too if the state so desires. Therefore business owners side with the HMOs even if Medicare for All would save the business money and hassle of dealing with healthcare-related paperwork. I read this somewhere online, and I think I'm getting the jist of Henwood's argument here. Apologies: If the NYT can go back on the '17 intelligence agencies' lie they were pushing is indeed not true (as it was immediately known to be untrue by RT, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald, and plenty of others) then shouldn't HRC admit she was lying to us all during her most recent failed POTUS campaign? More on Israeli involvement with Syrian war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzg99i-mhAA -- Israel "colludes with groups that are part of chaos in Syria", activist says. -J Media: War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIeP4YDq1KY -- Corporate media silence helps Syrian war persist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i8i9Ra1NyE -- Boycott Israel, go to jail for 20 years and face a heavy fine. This sounds unconstitutional to me, more likely congress members who want to look good for AIPAC support. Media: Russiagate...the endless march toward "a nothing burger" (to quote a CNN host) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3XHKyTr4o - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTTo20JsVEY - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ktz6miC9c Russiagate plods on and as RT's "Resident" (third link above) points out: if you believe ABC polls (despite having missed the POTUS prediction), then you should know the same poll that says Trump is looking at the lowest approval rate in 70 years also says only 37% of those polled (which they claim is a national poll) think the Democratic Party stands for anything. Instead they believe the Democratic Party only stands against the Republicans. While the fruitless Russiagate stories keep coming and the Dems are throwing away their chance to take up better legislation (like a Senate version of HR676, as the feckless Bernie Sanders said he'd do and hasn't done), they come off as standing for nothing. Meanwhile domestic problems worsen: many American cities have unpotable water (not just Flint, MI), healthcare delivery is going to go up in cost (regardless of which HMO-centric plan wins out), and worst of all: the Bush-Obama-Trump wars continue apace. No help for those suffering and dying from the equally craven Democrats. The first link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3XHKyTr4o) also has a very good point Aaron Maté makes (around 16m50s) regarding Clintonian hypocrisy where WJC made a $500k speaking gig in Russia while Sec. State HRC objected to Magnitsky restrictions which would have created a problem for WJC to make that speech for money. Wikileaks' leaked emails coming in handy again here too ("With the help of the research team, we killed a Bloomberg story trying to link HRC's opposition to the Magnitsky bill to a $500,000 speech that WJC gave in Moscow." from Jesse Lehrich jlehrich at hillaryclinton.com sent on 2015-05-21 at 20:49 -- https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/303 ). And in so doing taking down another less reliable source: Bloomberg News. Add it to the pile: NYT (war lies), WaPo (CIA outlet), MSNBC (DNC outlet, particularly Rachel Maddow show), CNN ("Russiagate" sans proof), and so much of the corporate mainstream for silence on closely examining HRC's campaign while endlessly critiquing ("Russiagate") without proof and being so far wrong without apology or explanation/reflection on predicting POTUS. It's no wonder the public distrusts MSM. Healthcare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2G8CWDMSG8 -- 'Trump can't vote down Obamacare so he "strangling" it instead' according to TheRealNews.com. But if Trump merely lets Obamacare continue as-is it will become increasingly unaffordable and useless to the public (this interview says this is happening now in Republican governor states because there are over 1300 counties with only 1 insurer on the plan and there are some counties with 0 insurers on the plan). But the interviewee still supports the idea that Democrats are more likely to get the US to a single-payer system. There's no evidence offered for this bold assertion given that both Republicans and Democrats get HMO campaign money which I believe is why HR676 makes no real progress year after year. A small portion of the war budget would let us buy out the only organized opposition to universalizing Medicare. WikiLeaks Vault 7 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_hMxBFnuO0 - https://wikileaks.org/vault7/#UCL%20/%20Raytheon The WikiLeaks "Vault 7" releases continue and show more ties between private industry and government: Raytheon analyzed malware and gave information to the CIA, "by analyzing malware attacks in the wild and giving recommendations to the CIA development teams for further investigation and PoC [point of contact] development for their own malware projects.". War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-twd05sLtBw -- new Iranian sanctions mean carrying out more Obama-era war-fomenting policy against Iran. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unvOoE_I8bM -- 9-11 victims families push for British report to be released because they believe the report will name Saudi Arabia as source for 'terrorism funding' and 'complicity in terrorism'. Not much of a revelation but this would put Brits in a tough spot to object to being friendly with SA. Healthcare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Z4iMulrYc -- John McCain's healthcare exposes sham of national debate on healthcare: we need the plan we pay for him to have. McCain's brain tumor (cancerous) is going to require even more care. The one big dodge of this interview: no mention that HR676 (Medicare for all) is more popular than ObamaCare and (as Trump said) ObamaCare will become unaffordable as it goes along. All HMO-based plans are designed to be more expensive over time. So there will come a time when even those who support ObamaCare now wouldn't be able to afford it if they had to rely on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vot4VgROlJ4 -- USPS labor union under fire as pressure to privatize USPS mounts; better discussion of healthcare debate nationally here than in previous piece ostensibly centered on healthcare(!), and wise warning about USPS going private: privatization means not every house will get postal service and that helps kill e-commerce. I bet he's right in this. https://www.democracynow.org/…/trump_to_let_obamacare_fail_… I'm guessing DN intended this as some kind of dig at Trump but the story tacitly reveals what a ridiculous choice pro-ObamaCare protesters are making when they should be pushing for Medicare for All (HR676) and highlighting what a fraud Sanders is for not bringing a Senate version of that bill to the Senate. Media https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXJIhmB6YwU -- Donna Brazile, 2-time DNC higher-up, Democratic Party Superdelegate, "debate" cheater is writing a book. I might read this at the Library just for laughs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrPG1fXhG3s -- one of the few places you'll hear even a mention of the ongoing DNC lawsuit (around 6m) in which the DNC has already admitted voting in its elections are a sham. MSM isn't covering it but neither is DN. If the Democrats really are a powerful group in the US, and American politics are worth following, this lawsuit has to be worth some ink/time as it has the power to enlighten people about how much the DNC doesn't care about its supporters' votes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzhExLtRbAw -- RT is in the cross-hairs in "Russiagate", repeatedly mentioned as Russian propaganda source. I guess we're supposed to not see MSM as pro-war/pro-bank/Democratic Party propaganda. C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote: Why did Obama suffer far less backlash than George W. Bush? Salon columnist David Sirota summarized an academic study released in 2013: “Evaluating surveys of more than 5,300 anti-war protestors from 2007 to 2009, the researchers discovered that the many protestors who self-identified as Democrats ‘withdrew from anti-war protests when the Democratic Party achieved electoral success’ in the 2008 presidential election.” I've long noticed this and pointed out how this is what separates AWARE from other so-called anti-war groups: AWARE protestors (certainly including you) rightly kept protesting during Obama's administration. The groups that organized the marches against the 2003 invasion of Iraq largely fell silent during the Obama administration in terms of street presence. I'm sure those groups' reps would tell us they're anti-war and they don't care who is in charge. But that is indefensible. Their choices to be silent against the drone war, for example, makes their choices indistinguishable from how you'd expect them to react out of partisanship. Now, should one see a huge ostensibly anti-war crowd, it will be right and proper to ask "How many of them are just anti-Republican versus being anti-war?". Being anti-Republican means the bodies aren't there in the streets during the next Democratic Party administration (if they haven't sunk themselves too far) and it means the next war is just 1 or 2 terms away: if the Republicans can't get away with executing the war, they'll leave it to the Democrats to initiate and then inherit on the next cycle. ### _______________________________________________ Peace mailing list Peace at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Thu Jul 27 17:05:05 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2017 12:05:05 -0500 Subject: [Peace] AWARE ON THE AIR for Tuesday 25 July In-Reply-To: References: <05DFFC44-9BDD-476C-AAC4-BA22A1FA8743@illinois.edu> <2A685611-01FA-4322-A232-9DA00E443CAA@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <6E9DD81A-7E1B-438A-B619-0E62BE565519@illinois.edu> Even after Fukushima? She doesn’t sound very nutty… > —CGE > On Jul 27, 2017, at 11:58 AM, Brussel, Morton K wrote: > > There is some useful information and some nutty information here: In particular, what ever Caldicott says should be discounted. She is a nut on nuclear issues! And has been for a long time, conpletely discredited. > > —mkb >> On Jul 26, 2017, at 9:02 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace > wrote: >> >> (AWARE ON THE AIR didn't air this week, owing to indisposition; in its place we offer the following links and announcements.) >> >> Dr. Know’s Research Notes for Week 30 of 2017 | J. B. Nicholson | >> ================================================ >> >> > -- Glenn Greenwald sits in for Jeremy Scahill and provides a much-needed analysis of 'Russiagate', the 2003 Iraq invasion/occupation, and how we see the same 'with us or against us' tactic used to separate those who go along (Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Daily Show, all of the other comedy news and latenight programs except RT's Redacted Tonight) and those who are to be viciously described (anyone who demands evidence). Ignore the edited intro piece and skip to Greenwald's talk, that intro is so blindly anti-Trump it doesn't convey anything of what Greenwald gets into -- he wants evidence to stand behind the allegations -- I'm pretty sure Greenwald didn't edit the intro piece. The second interview is better than the first. >> >> > -- Looks like Stein is coming back into the news in some small degree. The article doesn't mention the Stein-led recount effort (and it should have) but the Democrats still added her to a list of 40 other people and groups Trump Jr. was told to detail communications with by the Senate Judiciary Committee. >> >> As the article put it: >> >> Every other person, business or organization on the list is a Russian >> government official, played some role on the Trump campaign, or are or >> are mentioned in stories about election hacking. There is no legitimate >> reason for Stein’s name to be on this list. She makes clear that she has >> had no contact with the Trump family or campaign. She is being thrown >> under the bus in a classic smear tactic. >> >> Russiagate has no evidence to back it up and never did, but it will have some added value for the Democrats in smearing Jill Stein and serving as a fake reason to justify hostility against Russia. >> >> > -- 6 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a small robot ("Little Sunfish") with a camera has footage showing melted nuclear fuel rods in reactor #3. This is a big deal because: >> >> - Teppco has a history of delaying pertinent news, lying about the scope of this disaster. >> >> - 1600+ people died of Fukushima-related causes. Cancers attributable to Fukushima are now coming up. We won't know the tally for years to come, but there's no way this will be good. Maybe in 40 years these reactors will be decommissioned. I'll bet that in time we'll learn that tainted water dumping has been going on throughout and it's wise to reconsider getting goods made in or near that water. >> >> - This is why nuclear activists like Dr. Helen Caldicott do their work and argue, convincingly, that we simply can't afford nuclear power. Caldicott is the author of many books including one of my favorites, "The New Nuclear Danger". At one talk she said "It seems that nearly a million people have already died as a result of Chernobyl despite what WHO says and the IAEA. This is one of the most monstrous cover-ups in the history of medicine because everybody should know about this." (> around 24s into the 9m recording which is worth watching), and the Fukushima disaster of Japan "many times worse than Chernobyl". She concisely covers the Fukushima reactors disaster and explains what happened, then points out that "Turkish food is extremely radioactive: Do not buy Turkish dried apricots, do not buy Turkish hazelnuts... The Turks were so cross with the Russians that they sent all their radioactive tea over to Russia after Chernobyl. 40% of Europe is still radioactive; farms in Britain, their land is so full of cesium they can't sell them." (5m59s). In another recording on YouTube she advises avoiding Japanese food for similar reasons: radioactive damage is cumulative over one's lifetime and the risk gets worse as you go through the seafood food chain (algae, crustaceans, little fish, big fish, humans) because each step concentrates more radioactive matter which seafood eaters end up consuming. >> >> Date Tue 20:44 >> I wrote: >> >> I'm listening to Nick Brana (draftbernie.org representative) interview > (Ralph Nader Radio Hour with a DraftBernie.org representative) and Nader is nailing it on 3rd parties ("they can't win, the system is not responsive" and people "don't want to waste their vote"). [...] >> >> Speaking of Bernie Sanders and why I don't think much of him: >> > is Paul Street's latest which goes into more on this topic. Worth reading. >> >> Russiagate >> > -- Ray McGovern says DNC "hack" was inside job: speed of copying was too great to have been done over a network. Finally -- mention of a detail that not only makes sense but helps narrow down the set of people who know how the data was obtained. McGovern also says that someone on the inside could have had "some inside help of quite professional people" due to the obfuscation involved in trying to make this look like a foreign attack ('Russian hack') which is consistent with the CIA work WikiLeaks told us about as part of their "Vault 7" series of leaks. >> >> Why were no forensics done until recently, previously done only by private industry, and why were the servers involved not immediately seized for review? We were told this alleged foreign attack constitutes 'an act of war'. Is this behavior really consistent with something important enough to be called 'an act of war'? >> >> It's looking more likely that this: >> >> - was an inside job, >> - by Seth Rich (possibly working with someone else) who was later killed for his part in this, >> - the Russian govt. and Russian so-called "hackers" are a distraction, >> - and this could go quite high up: James Comey not getting the servers involved (even by force) suggests something else is going on. >> >> Do you honestly believe that if you or I had anything to do with this, we'd be free and have our computers intact now? >> >> Russian, Iran, and North Korean sanctions >> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMoawJ3xAAc -- Republicans are complicit with Dems on blocking Russia. The 2015 documentary "The Propaganda Game" shows how ineffective the past NK sanctions were: NK computer lab had all-new Hewlett-Packard computers snuck into NK. >> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHGUsD42190 -- If Trump doesn't veto sanctions bill, "he's given up on his presidency" says Ron Paul Institute Exec. Dir. Daniel McAdams. >> >> Media >> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT0hL92xlrs >> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czrvklLsW0Y -- Joy Reid tweets xenophobic false line, somehow keeps her job at MSNBC (nicknamed "MSDNC" due to its one-sided reportage favoring the Dems). Also, in light of how the Dems reacted to Trump's xenophobic and false remarks, MSNBC ends up vindicating Trump's horrible language. Now others can complain about Trump's xenophobic wrong language but not Joy Reid and MSNBC would be wise to make some distance from her. >> >> I'm listening to Nick Brana (draftbernie.org representative) interview http://traffic.libsyn.com/ral…/NADER_174_podcast_version.mp3 (Ralph Nader Radio Hour with a DraftBernie.org representative) and Nader is nailing it on 3rd parties ("they can't win, the system is not responsive" and people "don't want to waste their vote"). >> >> https://draftbernie.org is the site intending to "Draft Bernie for a People's Party Seeks to Recruit Sanders to Start a New Political Party, Not to Run for President in 2020" (https://draftbernie.org/…/press-release-draft-bernie-peopl…/ ). They want this because "[d]espite Bernie Sanders’ monumental efforts to reform the Democratic Party, it remains firmly in neoliberal control". >> >> I have no problems with a new party starting, or with independent candidates running. But I don't see how running with a former candidate who is worse on major issues than Nader was is any start for a new party. >> >> Parties are known for candidates, not celebrities who aren't running. >> >> I'm not convinced Sanders is 'progressive' on major issues of the day, and that this isn't just another effort to drum up support for the Democratic Party (an issue the interview reveals is still being considered!). >> >> Sanders was (as BlackAgendaReport.com rightly put it) a shepherd for Hillary Clinton and lost all legitimacy in critiquing the Dems when he did that (and he did that without reservation, by the way). >> >> Today Sen. Sanders puts forth no Senate version of HR676 (Medicare for All) and mainly seems to give speeches instead of having his staff write bills for the Senate to implement his majoritarian values which make him seem like a good idea for being a POTUS candidate again. >> >> Sanders won't point out the Dems' weaknesses because he's working for them. >> >> Sanders is unwilling to object to war (his ought-to-be-seen-as-shameful 2016 "Meet the Press" interview is most revealing how go-along he is on this preeminent issue). Therefore I see no reason to take his endorsement as a pointer of someone I should vote for or give money to. I'd take such an endorsement as a warning. >> >> "War" seems absent from the draftbernie.org website in my searches so far (one mention is of a rally against war sponsored by an organization that is not draftbernie.org --https://draftbernie.org/event/pittsburgh-march-war/ -- sponsored by Pittsburghers in Solidarity Against War). >> >> Branah says in the interview: >> >> - 3rd parties are not attacked "largely and most viciously at the takeoff stage to prevent them from taking off into something major in the first place". They're attacked throughout their existence. "Debate" denials by the CPD, ballot access restrictions are ongoing. And debatebernie.org has no real answer to do this. Ralph Nader's name was very well known when he ran in 2000 and the CPD kept him out. >> >> - people "feeling trapped" by the Democrats; yes, but that was also true in 2000 when Nader ran. It's not clear what changed that results in candidates in this new party to win elections. >> >> -J >> >> Hi Carl (or should I say Hey-Hey Ralphie boy!) >> >> I'm young enough to have seen all of those episodes in repeats, back when it was still beyond mainstream criticism to air a show that featured a running joke about a husband threatening to beat his wife ("To the Moon, Alice!"). By the way, the fellow who played Ed Norton in the Honeymooners was also in the "Star Wars Holiday Special" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3a5j8PgQxg which aired exactly once and was disowned by George Lucas afterwards. It was horrible from start to finish. The guys at RedLetterMedia.com reviewed ithttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW4m0oYK0WQ (and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtUd0yuYN4 ). There are no legally available copies of the SW Holiday Special. The same recording (including ads that aired at the time) have been passed around for years, and copies distributed at fan conventions. Nobody even sues to claim the rights to this thing, as far as I know. >> >> TheRealNews.com : I do like Aaron Mate's interviews; he seems to be the one who will ask about the changes in things I won't find many other places (including DN and sometimes RT's Ed show and certainly Larry King show which I find largely useless but I understand to be reliably popular ratings-wise). >> >> Media recommendation: In addition to anti-war.com , I do suggest RT for anti-war news in that they do a good job of showing the photos of decimated homes, interviewing victims, and laying out the financial costs which we could put elsewhere. They've also brought up the contradictions in what (I believe) will be a leading lie for an upcoming war with Russia: look at how those awful Russians "hacked our election" with that RT spreading their propaganda! I've seen some perfectly bad documentaries from RT (the "Wi-Fi refugees"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWMNTuIZqKo is a recent example; this takes only one side of the issue and conducts no double-blind tests to see if the claim of human sensitivity to Wi-Fi signals is at all valid, and fails to acknowledge the contradictions in some of the shots the doc shows like a "refugee" claiming to be feeling fine despite sitting in a modern vehicle with a sizable electronic camera sitting next to her shooting her) but I've also seen plenty of good coverage from them on important issues of the day (including some of the only DLC lawsuit coverage you'll find anywhere). >> >> Single-payer healthcare: my impression is that the only people opposed to Medicare for All (HR676 as a bill or the concept) are HMOs and people paid to take their side (shills on chat websites, lawyers, lobbyists). The public overwhelmingly supports this and it stands as more popular than the ACA/ObamaCare (neé RomneyCare). Business-wise, the only opposition I am aware of from big businesses is theoretical and described by Doug Henwood -- business owners see Medicare for All as taking away HMO's business and fear that their business can be taken away too if the state so desires. Therefore business owners side with the HMOs even if Medicare for All would save the business money and hassle of dealing with healthcare-related paperwork. I read this somewhere online, and I think I'm getting the jist of Henwood's argument here. >> >> Apologies: If the NYT can go back on the '17 intelligence agencies' lie they were pushing is indeed not true (as it was immediately known to be untrue by RT, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald, and plenty of others) then shouldn't HRC admit she was lying to us all during her most recent failed POTUS campaign? >> >> More on Israeli involvement with Syrian war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzg99i-mhAA -- Israel "colludes with groups that are part of chaos in Syria", activist says. >> >> -J >> >> Media: War >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIeP4YDq1KY -- Corporate media silence helps Syrian war persist. >> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i8i9Ra1NyE -- Boycott Israel, go to jail for 20 years and face a heavy fine. This sounds unconstitutional to me, more likely congress members who want to look good for AIPAC support. >> >> Media: Russiagate...the endless march toward "a nothing burger" (to quote a CNN host) >> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3XHKyTr4o >> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTTo20JsVEY >> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ktz6miC9c >> Russiagate plods on and as RT's "Resident" (third link above) points out: if you believe ABC polls (despite having missed the POTUS prediction), then you should know the same poll that says Trump is looking at the lowest approval rate in 70 years also says only 37% of those polled (which they claim is a national poll) think the Democratic Party stands for anything. Instead they believe the Democratic Party only stands against the Republicans. While the fruitless Russiagate stories keep coming and the Dems are throwing away their chance to take up better legislation (like a Senate version of HR676, as the feckless Bernie Sanders said he'd do and hasn't done), they come off as standing for nothing. Meanwhile domestic problems worsen: many American cities have unpotable water (not just Flint, MI), healthcare delivery is going to go up in cost (regardless of which HMO-centric plan wins out), and worst of all: the Bush-Obama-Trump wars continue apace. No help for those suffering and dying from the equally craven Democrats. >> >> The first link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3XHKyTr4o ) also has a very good point Aaron Maté makes (around 16m50s) regarding Clintonian hypocrisy where WJC made a $500k speaking gig in Russia while Sec. State HRC objected to Magnitsky restrictions which would have created a problem for WJC to make that speech for money. Wikileaks' leaked emails coming in handy again here too ("With the help of the research team, we killed a Bloomberg story trying to link HRC's opposition to the Magnitsky bill to a $500,000 speech that WJC gave in Moscow." from Jesse Lehrich jlehrich at hillaryclinton.com sent on 2015-05-21 at 20:49 -- https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/303 ). And in so doing taking down another less reliable source: Bloomberg News. Add it to the pile: NYT (war lies), WaPo (CIA outlet), MSNBC (DNC outlet, particularly Rachel Maddow show), CNN ("Russiagate" sans proof), and so much of the corporate mainstream for silence on closely examining HRC's campaign while endlessly critiquing ("Russiagate") without proof and being so far wrong without apology or explanation/reflection on predicting POTUS. It's no wonder the public distrusts MSM. >> >> Healthcare >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2G8CWDMSG8 -- 'Trump can't vote down Obamacare so he "strangling" it instead' according to TheRealNews.com . But if Trump merely lets Obamacare continue as-is it will become increasingly unaffordable and useless to the public (this interview says this is happening now in Republican governor states because there are over 1300 counties with only 1 insurer on the plan and there are some counties with 0 insurers on the plan). But the interviewee still supports the idea that Democrats are more likely to get the US to a single-payer system. There's no evidence offered for this bold assertion given that both Republicans and Democrats get HMO campaign money which I believe is why HR676 makes no real progress year after year. A small portion of the war budget would let us buy out the only organized opposition to universalizing Medicare. >> >> WikiLeaks Vault 7 >> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_hMxBFnuO0 >> - https://wikileaks.org/vault7/#UCL%20/%20Raytheon >> The WikiLeaks "Vault 7" releases continue and show more ties between private industry and government: Raytheon analyzed malware and gave information to the CIA, "by analyzing malware attacks in the wild and giving recommendations to the CIA development teams for further investigation and PoC [point of contact] development for their own malware projects.". >> >> War >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-twd05sLtBw -- new Iranian sanctions mean carrying out more Obama-era war-fomenting policy against Iran. >> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unvOoE_I8bM -- 9-11 victims families push for British report to be released because they believe the report will name Saudi Arabia as source for 'terrorism funding' and 'complicity in terrorism'. Not much of a revelation but this would put Brits in a tough spot to object to being friendly with SA. >> >> Healthcare >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Z4iMulrYc -- John McCain's healthcare exposes sham of national debate on healthcare: we need the plan we pay for him to have. McCain's brain tumor (cancerous) is going to require even more care. The one big dodge of this interview: no mention that HR676 (Medicare for all) is more popular than ObamaCare and (as Trump said) ObamaCare will become unaffordable as it goes along. All HMO-based plans are designed to be more expensive over time. So there will come a time when even those who support ObamaCare now wouldn't be able to afford it if they had to rely on it. >> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vot4VgROlJ4 -- USPS labor union under fire as pressure to privatize USPS mounts; better discussion of healthcare debate nationally here than in previous piece ostensibly centered on healthcare(!), and wise warning about USPS going private: privatization means not every house will get postal service and that helps kill e-commerce. I bet he's right in this. >> >> https://www.democracynow.org/…/trump_to_let_obamacare_fail_ … >> I'm guessing DN intended this as some kind of dig at Trump but the story tacitly reveals what a ridiculous choice pro-ObamaCare protesters are making when they should be pushing for Medicare for All (HR676) and highlighting what a fraud Sanders is for not bringing a Senate version of that bill to the Senate. >> >> Media >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXJIhmB6YwU -- Donna Brazile, 2-time DNC higher-up, Democratic Party Superdelegate, "debate" cheater is writing a book. I might read this at the Library just for laughs. >> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrPG1fXhG3s -- one of the few places you'll hear even a mention of the ongoing DNC lawsuit (around 6m) in which the DNC has already admitted voting in its elections are a sham. MSM isn't covering it but neither is DN. If the Democrats really are a powerful group in the US, and American politics are worth following, this lawsuit has to be worth some ink/time as it has the power to enlighten people about how much the DNC doesn't care about its supporters' votes. >> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzhExLtRbAw -- RT is in the cross-hairs in "Russiagate", repeatedly mentioned as Russian propaganda source. I guess we're supposed to not see MSM as pro-war/pro-bank/Democratic Party propaganda. >> >> C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote: >> >> Why did Obama suffer far less backlash than George W. Bush? Salon >> columnist David Sirota summarized an academic study released in 2013: >> “Evaluating surveys of more than 5,300 anti-war protestors from 2007 to >> 2009, the researchers discovered that the many protestors who >> self-identified as Democrats ‘withdrew from anti-war protests when the >> Democratic Party achieved electoral success’ in the 2008 presidential >> election.” >> >> I've long noticed this and pointed out how this is what separates AWARE from other so-called anti-war groups: AWARE protestors (certainly including you) rightly kept protesting during Obama's administration. >> >> The groups that organized the marches against the 2003 invasion of Iraq largely fell silent during the Obama administration in terms of street presence. I'm sure those groups' reps would tell us they're anti-war and they don't care who is in charge. But that is indefensible. Their choices to be silent against the drone war, for example, makes their choices indistinguishable from how you'd expect them to react out of partisanship. >> >> Now, should one see a huge ostensibly anti-war crowd, it will be right and proper to ask "How many of them are just anti-Republican versus being anti-war?". Being anti-Republican means the bodies aren't there in the streets during the next Democratic Party administration (if they haven't sunk themselves too far) and it means the next war is just 1 or 2 terms away: if the Republicans can't get away with executing the war, they'll leave it to the Democrats to initiate and then inherit on the next cycle. >> >> ### >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 Thu Jul 27 17:34:38 2017 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2017 17:34:38 +0000 Subject: [Peace] AWARE ON THE AIR for Tuesday 25 July In-Reply-To: <6E9DD81A-7E1B-438A-B619-0E62BE565519@illinois.edu> References: <05DFFC44-9BDD-476C-AAC4-BA22A1FA8743@illinois.edu> <2A685611-01FA-4322-A232-9DA00E443CAA@illinois.edu> <6E9DD81A-7E1B-438A-B619-0E62BE565519@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <5FB0E29A-F618-492D-A32F-D7372FD9F371@illinois.edu> …And Hunsicker(sp?) is akin to Caldicott on the dangers emanating from Fukushima and other nuclear radiation sources. I have read his pieces and been disgusted with Counterpunch from exposing them. Fukushima was indeed a disaster, from the Tsunami mostly, and the economical consequences of the reactor wipe-outs. But the radiation effects on people have been minimal except perhaps for those trying to deal with those destroyed power plants. The psychological effects on the population have also been malign, and reported. Many will now return to areas which received contamination. They will be monitored carefully for their health. —mkb On Jul 27, 2017, at 12:05 PM, Carl G. Estabrook > wrote: Even after Fukushima? She doesn’t sound very nutty… > —CGE On Jul 27, 2017, at 11:58 AM, Brussel, Morton K > wrote: There is some useful information and some nutty information here: In particular, what ever Caldicott says should be discounted. She is a nut on nuclear issues! And has been for a long time, conpletely discredited. —mkb On Jul 26, 2017, at 9:02 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace > wrote: (AWARE ON THE AIR didn't air this week, owing to indisposition; in its place we offer the following links and announcements.) Dr. Know’s Research Notes for Week 30 of 2017 | J. B. Nicholson | ================================================ > -- Glenn Greenwald sits in for Jeremy Scahill and provides a much-needed analysis of 'Russiagate', the 2003 Iraq invasion/occupation, and how we see the same 'with us or against us' tactic used to separate those who go along (Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Daily Show, all of the other comedy news and latenight programs except RT's Redacted Tonight) and those who are to be viciously described (anyone who demands evidence). Ignore the edited intro piece and skip to Greenwald's talk, that intro is so blindly anti-Trump it doesn't convey anything of what Greenwald gets into -- he wants evidence to stand behind the allegations -- I'm pretty sure Greenwald didn't edit the intro piece. The second interview is better than the first. > -- Looks like Stein is coming back into the news in some small degree. The article doesn't mention the Stein-led recount effort (and it should have) but the Democrats still added her to a list of 40 other people and groups Trump Jr. was told to detail communications with by the Senate Judiciary Committee. As the article put it: Every other person, business or organization on the list is a Russian government official, played some role on the Trump campaign, or are or are mentioned in stories about election hacking. There is no legitimate reason for Stein’s name to be on this list. She makes clear that she has had no contact with the Trump family or campaign. She is being thrown under the bus in a classic smear tactic. Russiagate has no evidence to back it up and never did, but it will have some added value for the Democrats in smearing Jill Stein and serving as a fake reason to justify hostility against Russia. > -- 6 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a small robot ("Little Sunfish") with a camera has footage showing melted nuclear fuel rods in reactor #3. This is a big deal because: - Teppco has a history of delaying pertinent news, lying about the scope of this disaster. - 1600+ people died of Fukushima-related causes. Cancers attributable to Fukushima are now coming up. We won't know the tally for years to come, but there's no way this will be good. Maybe in 40 years these reactors will be decommissioned. I'll bet that in time we'll learn that tainted water dumping has been going on throughout and it's wise to reconsider getting goods made in or near that water. - This is why nuclear activists like Dr. Helen Caldicott do their work and argue, convincingly, that we simply can't afford nuclear power. Caldicott is the author of many books including one of my favorites, "The New Nuclear Danger". At one talk she said "It seems that nearly a million people have already died as a result of Chernobyl despite what WHO says and the IAEA. This is one of the most monstrous cover-ups in the history of medicine because everybody should know about this." (> around 24s into the 9m recording which is worth watching), and the Fukushima disaster of Japan "many times worse than Chernobyl". She concisely covers the Fukushima reactors disaster and explains what happened, then points out that "Turkish food is extremely radioactive: Do not buy Turkish dried apricots, do not buy Turkish hazelnuts... The Turks were so cross with the Russians that they sent all their radioactive tea over to Russia after Chernobyl. 40% of Europe is still radioactive; farms in Britain, their land is so full of cesium they can't sell them." (5m59s). In another recording on YouTube she advises avoiding Japanese food for similar reasons: radioactive damage is cumulative over one's lifetime and the risk gets worse as you go through the seafood food chain (algae, crustaceans, little fish, big fish, humans) because each step concentrates more radioactive matter which seafood eaters end up consuming. Date Tue 20:44 I wrote: I'm listening to Nick Brana (draftbernie.org representative) interview > (Ralph Nader Radio Hour with a DraftBernie.org representative) and Nader is nailing it on 3rd parties ("they can't win, the system is not responsive" and people "don't want to waste their vote"). [...] Speaking of Bernie Sanders and why I don't think much of him: > is Paul Street's latest which goes into more on this topic. Worth reading. Russiagate > -- Ray McGovern says DNC "hack" was inside job: speed of copying was too great to have been done over a network. Finally -- mention of a detail that not only makes sense but helps narrow down the set of people who know how the data was obtained. McGovern also says that someone on the inside could have had "some inside help of quite professional people" due to the obfuscation involved in trying to make this look like a foreign attack ('Russian hack') which is consistent with the CIA work WikiLeaks told us about as part of their "Vault 7" series of leaks. Why were no forensics done until recently, previously done only by private industry, and why were the servers involved not immediately seized for review? We were told this alleged foreign attack constitutes 'an act of war'. Is this behavior really consistent with something important enough to be called 'an act of war'? It's looking more likely that this: - was an inside job, - by Seth Rich (possibly working with someone else) who was later killed for his part in this, - the Russian govt. and Russian so-called "hackers" are a distraction, - and this could go quite high up: James Comey not getting the servers involved (even by force) suggests something else is going on. Do you honestly believe that if you or I had anything to do with this, we'd be free and have our computers intact now? Russian, Iran, and North Korean sanctions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMoawJ3xAAc -- Republicans are complicit with Dems on blocking Russia. The 2015 documentary "The Propaganda Game" shows how ineffective the past NK sanctions were: NK computer lab had all-new Hewlett-Packard computers snuck into NK. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHGUsD42190 -- If Trump doesn't veto sanctions bill, "he's given up on his presidency" says Ron Paul Institute Exec. Dir. Daniel McAdams. Media - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT0hL92xlrs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czrvklLsW0Y -- Joy Reid tweets xenophobic false line, somehow keeps her job at MSNBC (nicknamed "MSDNC" due to its one-sided reportage favoring the Dems). Also, in light of how the Dems reacted to Trump's xenophobic and false remarks, MSNBC ends up vindicating Trump's horrible language. Now others can complain about Trump's xenophobic wrong language but not Joy Reid and MSNBC would be wise to make some distance from her. I'm listening to Nick Brana (draftbernie.org representative) interview http://traffic.libsyn.com/ral…/NADER_174_podcast_version.mp3 (Ralph Nader Radio Hour with a DraftBernie.org representative) and Nader is nailing it on 3rd parties ("they can't win, the system is not responsive" and people "don't want to waste their vote"). https://draftbernie.org is the site intending to "Draft Bernie for a People's Party Seeks to Recruit Sanders to Start a New Political Party, Not to Run for President in 2020" (https://draftbernie.org/…/press-release-draft-bernie-peopl…/). They want this because "[d]espite Bernie Sanders’ monumental efforts to reform the Democratic Party, it remains firmly in neoliberal control". I have no problems with a new party starting, or with independent candidates running. But I don't see how running with a former candidate who is worse on major issues than Nader was is any start for a new party. Parties are known for candidates, not celebrities who aren't running. I'm not convinced Sanders is 'progressive' on major issues of the day, and that this isn't just another effort to drum up support for the Democratic Party (an issue the interview reveals is still being considered!). Sanders was (as BlackAgendaReport.com rightly put it) a shepherd for Hillary Clinton and lost all legitimacy in critiquing the Dems when he did that (and he did that without reservation, by the way). Today Sen. Sanders puts forth no Senate version of HR676 (Medicare for All) and mainly seems to give speeches instead of having his staff write bills for the Senate to implement his majoritarian values which make him seem like a good idea for being a POTUS candidate again. Sanders won't point out the Dems' weaknesses because he's working for them. Sanders is unwilling to object to war (his ought-to-be-seen-as-shameful 2016 "Meet the Press" interview is most revealing how go-along he is on this preeminent issue). Therefore I see no reason to take his endorsement as a pointer of someone I should vote for or give money to. I'd take such an endorsement as a warning. "War" seems absent from the draftbernie.org website in my searches so far (one mention is of a rally against war sponsored by an organization that is not draftbernie.org -- https://draftbernie.org/event/pittsburgh-march-war/ -- sponsored by Pittsburghers in Solidarity Against War). Branah says in the interview: - 3rd parties are not attacked "largely and most viciously at the takeoff stage to prevent them from taking off into something major in the first place". They're attacked throughout their existence. "Debate" denials by the CPD, ballot access restrictions are ongoing. And debatebernie.org has no real answer to do this. Ralph Nader's name was very well known when he ran in 2000 and the CPD kept him out. - people "feeling trapped" by the Democrats; yes, but that was also true in 2000 when Nader ran. It's not clear what changed that results in candidates in this new party to win elections. -J Hi Carl (or should I say Hey-Hey Ralphie boy!) I'm young enough to have seen all of those episodes in repeats, back when it was still beyond mainstream criticism to air a show that featured a running joke about a husband threatening to beat his wife ("To the Moon, Alice!"). By the way, the fellow who played Ed Norton in the Honeymooners was also in the "Star Wars Holiday Special" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3a5j8PgQxg which aired exactly once and was disowned by George Lucas afterwards. It was horrible from start to finish. The guys at RedLetterMedia.com reviewed it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW4m0oYK0WQ (and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtUd0yuYN4 ). There are no legally available copies of the SW Holiday Special. The same recording (including ads that aired at the time) have been passed around for years, and copies distributed at fan conventions. Nobody even sues to claim the rights to this thing, as far as I know. TheRealNews.com: I do like Aaron Mate's interviews; he seems to be the one who will ask about the changes in things I won't find many other places (including DN and sometimes RT's Ed show and certainly Larry King show which I find largely useless but I understand to be reliably popular ratings-wise). Media recommendation: In addition to anti-war.com, I do suggest RT for anti-war news in that they do a good job of showing the photos of decimated homes, interviewing victims, and laying out the financial costs which we could put elsewhere. They've also brought up the contradictions in what (I believe) will be a leading lie for an upcoming war with Russia: look at how those awful Russians "hacked our election" with that RT spreading their propaganda! I've seen some perfectly bad documentaries from RT (the "Wi-Fi refugees" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWMNTuIZqKo is a recent example; this takes only one side of the issue and conducts no double-blind tests to see if the claim of human sensitivity to Wi-Fi signals is at all valid, and fails to acknowledge the contradictions in some of the shots the doc shows like a "refugee" claiming to be feeling fine despite sitting in a modern vehicle with a sizable electronic camera sitting next to her shooting her) but I've also seen plenty of good coverage from them on important issues of the day (including some of the only DLC lawsuit coverage you'll find anywhere). Single-payer healthcare: my impression is that the only people opposed to Medicare for All (HR676 as a bill or the concept) are HMOs and people paid to take their side (shills on chat websites, lawyers, lobbyists). The public overwhelmingly supports this and it stands as more popular than the ACA/ObamaCare (neé RomneyCare). Business-wise, the only opposition I am aware of from big businesses is theoretical and described by Doug Henwood -- business owners see Medicare for All as taking away HMO's business and fear that their business can be taken away too if the state so desires. Therefore business owners side with the HMOs even if Medicare for All would save the business money and hassle of dealing with healthcare-related paperwork. I read this somewhere online, and I think I'm getting the jist of Henwood's argument here. Apologies: If the NYT can go back on the '17 intelligence agencies' lie they were pushing is indeed not true (as it was immediately known to be untrue by RT, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald, and plenty of others) then shouldn't HRC admit she was lying to us all during her most recent failed POTUS campaign? More on Israeli involvement with Syrian war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzg99i-mhAA -- Israel "colludes with groups that are part of chaos in Syria", activist says. -J Media: War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIeP4YDq1KY -- Corporate media silence helps Syrian war persist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i8i9Ra1NyE -- Boycott Israel, go to jail for 20 years and face a heavy fine. This sounds unconstitutional to me, more likely congress members who want to look good for AIPAC support. Media: Russiagate...the endless march toward "a nothing burger" (to quote a CNN host) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3XHKyTr4o - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTTo20JsVEY - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ktz6miC9c Russiagate plods on and as RT's "Resident" (third link above) points out: if you believe ABC polls (despite having missed the POTUS prediction), then you should know the same poll that says Trump is looking at the lowest approval rate in 70 years also says only 37% of those polled (which they claim is a national poll) think the Democratic Party stands for anything. Instead they believe the Democratic Party only stands against the Republicans. While the fruitless Russiagate stories keep coming and the Dems are throwing away their chance to take up better legislation (like a Senate version of HR676, as the feckless Bernie Sanders said he'd do and hasn't done), they come off as standing for nothing. Meanwhile domestic problems worsen: many American cities have unpotable water (not just Flint, MI), healthcare delivery is going to go up in cost (regardless of which HMO-centric plan wins out), and worst of all: the Bush-Obama-Trump wars continue apace. No help for those suffering and dying from the equally craven Democrats. The first link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3XHKyTr4o) also has a very good point Aaron Maté makes (around 16m50s) regarding Clintonian hypocrisy where WJC made a $500k speaking gig in Russia while Sec. State HRC objected to Magnitsky restrictions which would have created a problem for WJC to make that speech for money. Wikileaks' leaked emails coming in handy again here too ("With the help of the research team, we killed a Bloomberg story trying to link HRC's opposition to the Magnitsky bill to a $500,000 speech that WJC gave in Moscow." from Jesse Lehrich jlehrich at hillaryclinton.com sent on 2015-05-21 at 20:49 -- https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/303 ). And in so doing taking down another less reliable source: Bloomberg News. Add it to the pile: NYT (war lies), WaPo (CIA outlet), MSNBC (DNC outlet, particularly Rachel Maddow show), CNN ("Russiagate" sans proof), and so much of the corporate mainstream for silence on closely examining HRC's campaign while endlessly critiquing ("Russiagate") without proof and being so far wrong without apology or explanation/reflection on predicting POTUS. It's no wonder the public distrusts MSM. Healthcare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2G8CWDMSG8 -- 'Trump can't vote down Obamacare so he "strangling" it instead' according to TheRealNews.com. But if Trump merely lets Obamacare continue as-is it will become increasingly unaffordable and useless to the public (this interview says this is happening now in Republican governor states because there are over 1300 counties with only 1 insurer on the plan and there are some counties with 0 insurers on the plan). But the interviewee still supports the idea that Democrats are more likely to get the US to a single-payer system. There's no evidence offered for this bold assertion given that both Republicans and Democrats get HMO campaign money which I believe is why HR676 makes no real progress year after year. A small portion of the war budget would let us buy out the only organized opposition to universalizing Medicare. WikiLeaks Vault 7 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_hMxBFnuO0 - https://wikileaks.org/vault7/#UCL%20/%20Raytheon The WikiLeaks "Vault 7" releases continue and show more ties between private industry and government: Raytheon analyzed malware and gave information to the CIA, "by analyzing malware attacks in the wild and giving recommendations to the CIA development teams for further investigation and PoC [point of contact] development for their own malware projects.". War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-twd05sLtBw -- new Iranian sanctions mean carrying out more Obama-era war-fomenting policy against Iran. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unvOoE_I8bM -- 9-11 victims families push for British report to be released because they believe the report will name Saudi Arabia as source for 'terrorism funding' and 'complicity in terrorism'. Not much of a revelation but this would put Brits in a tough spot to object to being friendly with SA. Healthcare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Z4iMulrYc -- John McCain's healthcare exposes sham of national debate on healthcare: we need the plan we pay for him to have. McCain's brain tumor (cancerous) is going to require even more care. The one big dodge of this interview: no mention that HR676 (Medicare for all) is more popular than ObamaCare and (as Trump said) ObamaCare will become unaffordable as it goes along. All HMO-based plans are designed to be more expensive over time. So there will come a time when even those who support ObamaCare now wouldn't be able to afford it if they had to rely on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vot4VgROlJ4 -- USPS labor union under fire as pressure to privatize USPS mounts; better discussion of healthcare debate nationally here than in previous piece ostensibly centered on healthcare(!), and wise warning about USPS going private: privatization means not every house will get postal service and that helps kill e-commerce. I bet he's right in this. https://www.democracynow.org/…/trump_to_let_obamacare_fail_… I'm guessing DN intended this as some kind of dig at Trump but the story tacitly reveals what a ridiculous choice pro-ObamaCare protesters are making when they should be pushing for Medicare for All (HR676) and highlighting what a fraud Sanders is for not bringing a Senate version of that bill to the Senate. Media https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXJIhmB6YwU -- Donna Brazile, 2-time DNC higher-up, Democratic Party Superdelegate, "debate" cheater is writing a book. I might read this at the Library just for laughs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrPG1fXhG3s -- one of the few places you'll hear even a mention of the ongoing DNC lawsuit (around 6m) in which the DNC has already admitted voting in its elections are a sham. MSM isn't covering it but neither is DN. If the Democrats really are a powerful group in the US, and American politics are worth following, this lawsuit has to be worth some ink/time as it has the power to enlighten people about how much the DNC doesn't care about its supporters' votes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzhExLtRbAw -- RT is in the cross-hairs in "Russiagate", repeatedly mentioned as Russian propaganda source. I guess we're supposed to not see MSM as pro-war/pro-bank/Democratic Party propaganda. C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote: Why did Obama suffer far less backlash than George W. Bush? Salon columnist David Sirota summarized an academic study released in 2013: “Evaluating surveys of more than 5,300 anti-war protestors from 2007 to 2009, the researchers discovered that the many protestors who self-identified as Democrats ‘withdrew from anti-war protests when the Democratic Party achieved electoral success’ in the 2008 presidential election.” I've long noticed this and pointed out how this is what separates AWARE from other so-called anti-war groups: AWARE protestors (certainly including you) rightly kept protesting during Obama's administration. The groups that organized the marches against the 2003 invasion of Iraq largely fell silent during the Obama administration in terms of street presence. I'm sure those groups' reps would tell us they're anti-war and they don't care who is in charge. But that is indefensible. Their choices to be silent against the drone war, for example, makes their choices indistinguishable from how you'd expect them to react out of partisanship. Now, should one see a huge ostensibly anti-war crowd, it will be right and proper to ask "How many of them are just anti-Republican versus being anti-war?". Being anti-Republican means the bodies aren't there in the streets during the next Democratic Party administration (if they haven't sunk themselves too far) and it means the next war is just 1 or 2 terms away: if the Republicans can't get away with executing the war, they'll leave it to the Democrats to initiate and then inherit on the next cycle. ### _______________________________________________ Peace mailing list Peace at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From galliher at illinois.edu Thu Jul 27 17:41:53 2017 From: galliher at illinois.edu (Carl G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2017 12:41:53 -0500 Subject: [Peace] AWARE ON THE AIR for Tuesday 25 July In-Reply-To: <5FB0E29A-F618-492D-A32F-D7372FD9F371@illinois.edu> References: <05DFFC44-9BDD-476C-AAC4-BA22A1FA8743@illinois.edu> <2A685611-01FA-4322-A232-9DA00E443CAA@illinois.edu> <6E9DD81A-7E1B-438A-B619-0E62BE565519@illinois.edu> <5FB0E29A-F618-492D-A32F-D7372FD9F371@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <8906EB6D-C4C2-4310-AD9C-A65E94AD1395@illinois.edu> Jeffrey St. Clair, editor of CounterPunch, has been called the country’s leading environmental reporter. He’s a friend, and doesn’t seem to me to be an alarmist, but he also doesn’t endorse everything he publishes. But I don’t think he publishes things he doesn’t think worth discussing. —CGE > On Jul 27, 2017, at 12:34 PM, Brussel, Morton K wrote: > > …And Hunsicker(sp?) is akin to Caldicott on the dangers emanating from Fukushima and other nuclear radiation sources. I have read his pieces and been disgusted with Counterpunch from exposing them. Fukushima was indeed a disaster, from the Tsunami mostly, and the economical consequences of the reactor wipe-outs. But the radiation effects on people have been minimal except perhaps for those trying to deal with those destroyed power plants. The psychological effects on the population have also been malign, and reported. Many will now return to areas which received contamination. They will be monitored carefully for their health. > > —mkb > >> On Jul 27, 2017, at 12:05 PM, Carl G. Estabrook > wrote: >> >> Even after Fukushima? She doesn’t sound very nutty… >> >> > >> >> —CGE >> >> >>> On Jul 27, 2017, at 11:58 AM, Brussel, Morton K > wrote: >>> >>> There is some useful information and some nutty information here: In particular, what ever Caldicott says should be discounted. She is a nut on nuclear issues! And has been for a long time, conpletely discredited. >>> >>> —mkb >>>> On Jul 26, 2017, at 9:02 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace > wrote: >>>> >>>> (AWARE ON THE AIR didn't air this week, owing to indisposition; in its place we offer the following links and announcements.) >>>> >>>> Dr. Know’s Research Notes for Week 30 of 2017 | J. B. Nicholson | >>>> ================================================ >>>> >>>> > -- Glenn Greenwald sits in for Jeremy Scahill and provides a much-needed analysis of 'Russiagate', the 2003 Iraq invasion/occupation, and how we see the same 'with us or against us' tactic used to separate those who go along (Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Daily Show, all of the other comedy news and latenight programs except RT's Redacted Tonight) and those who are to be viciously described (anyone who demands evidence). Ignore the edited intro piece and skip to Greenwald's talk, that intro is so blindly anti-Trump it doesn't convey anything of what Greenwald gets into -- he wants evidence to stand behind the allegations -- I'm pretty sure Greenwald didn't edit the intro piece. The second interview is better than the first. >>>> >>>> > -- Looks like Stein is coming back into the news in some small degree. The article doesn't mention the Stein-led recount effort (and it should have) but the Democrats still added her to a list of 40 other people and groups Trump Jr. was told to detail communications with by the Senate Judiciary Committee. >>>> >>>> As the article put it: >>>> >>>> Every other person, business or organization on the list is a Russian >>>> government official, played some role on the Trump campaign, or are or >>>> are mentioned in stories about election hacking. There is no legitimate >>>> reason for Stein’s name to be on this list. She makes clear that she has >>>> had no contact with the Trump family or campaign. She is being thrown >>>> under the bus in a classic smear tactic. >>>> >>>> Russiagate has no evidence to back it up and never did, but it will have some added value for the Democrats in smearing Jill Stein and serving as a fake reason to justify hostility against Russia. >>>> >>>> > -- 6 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a small robot ("Little Sunfish") with a camera has footage showing melted nuclear fuel rods in reactor #3. This is a big deal because: >>>> >>>> - Teppco has a history of delaying pertinent news, lying about the scope of this disaster. >>>> >>>> - 1600+ people died of Fukushima-related causes. Cancers attributable to Fukushima are now coming up. We won't know the tally for years to come, but there's no way this will be good. Maybe in 40 years these reactors will be decommissioned. I'll bet that in time we'll learn that tainted water dumping has been going on throughout and it's wise to reconsider getting goods made in or near that water. >>>> >>>> - This is why nuclear activists like Dr. Helen Caldicott do their work and argue, convincingly, that we simply can't afford nuclear power. Caldicott is the author of many books including one of my favorites, "The New Nuclear Danger". At one talk she said "It seems that nearly a million people have already died as a result of Chernobyl despite what WHO says and the IAEA. This is one of the most monstrous cover-ups in the history of medicine because everybody should know about this." (> around 24s into the 9m recording which is worth watching), and the Fukushima disaster of Japan "many times worse than Chernobyl". She concisely covers the Fukushima reactors disaster and explains what happened, then points out that "Turkish food is extremely radioactive: Do not buy Turkish dried apricots, do not buy Turkish hazelnuts... The Turks were so cross with the Russians that they sent all their radioactive tea over to Russia after Chernobyl. 40% of Europe is still radioactive; farms in Britain, their land is so full of cesium they can't sell them." (5m59s). In another recording on YouTube she advises avoiding Japanese food for similar reasons: radioactive damage is cumulative over one's lifetime and the risk gets worse as you go through the seafood food chain (algae, crustaceans, little fish, big fish, humans) because each step concentrates more radioactive matter which seafood eaters end up consuming. >>>> >>>> Date Tue 20:44 >>>> I wrote: >>>> >>>> I'm listening to Nick Brana (draftbernie.org representative) interview > (Ralph Nader Radio Hour with aDraftBernie.org representative) and Nader is nailing it on 3rd parties ("they can't win, the system is not responsive" and people "don't want to waste their vote"). [...] >>>> >>>> Speaking of Bernie Sanders and why I don't think much of him: >>>> > is Paul Street's latest which goes into more on this topic. Worth reading. >>>> >>>> Russiagate >>>> > -- Ray McGovern says DNC "hack" was inside job: speed of copying was too great to have been done over a network. Finally -- mention of a detail that not only makes sense but helps narrow down the set of people who know how the data was obtained. McGovern also says that someone on the inside could have had "some inside help of quite professional people" due to the obfuscation involved in trying to make this look like a foreign attack ('Russian hack') which is consistent with the CIA work WikiLeaks told us about as part of their "Vault 7" series of leaks. >>>> >>>> Why were no forensics done until recently, previously done only by private industry, and why were the servers involved not immediately seized for review? We were told this alleged foreign attack constitutes 'an act of war'. Is this behavior really consistent with something important enough to be called 'an act of war'? >>>> >>>> It's looking more likely that this: >>>> >>>> - was an inside job, >>>> - by Seth Rich (possibly working with someone else) who was later killed for his part in this, >>>> - the Russian govt. and Russian so-called "hackers" are a distraction, >>>> - and this could go quite high up: James Comey not getting the servers involved (even by force) suggests something else is going on. >>>> >>>> Do you honestly believe that if you or I had anything to do with this, we'd be free and have our computers intact now? >>>> >>>> Russian, Iran, and North Korean sanctions >>>> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMoawJ3xAAc -- Republicans are complicit with Dems on blocking Russia. The 2015 documentary "The Propaganda Game" shows how ineffective the past NK sanctions were: NK computer lab had all-new Hewlett-Packard computers snuck into NK. >>>> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHGUsD42190 -- If Trump doesn't veto sanctions bill, "he's given up on his presidency" says Ron Paul Institute Exec. Dir. Daniel McAdams. >>>> >>>> Media >>>> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT0hL92xlrs >>>> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czrvklLsW0Y -- Joy Reid tweets xenophobic false line, somehow keeps her job at MSNBC (nicknamed "MSDNC" due to its one-sided reportage favoring the Dems). Also, in light of how the Dems reacted to Trump's xenophobic and false remarks, MSNBC ends up vindicating Trump's horrible language. Now others can complain about Trump's xenophobic wrong language but not Joy Reid and MSNBC would be wise to make some distance from her. >>>> >>>> I'm listening to Nick Brana (draftbernie.org representative) interview http://traffic.libsyn.com/ral…/NADER_174_podcast_version.mp3 (Ralph Nader Radio Hour with a DraftBernie.org representative) and Nader is nailing it on 3rd parties ("they can't win, the system is not responsive" and people "don't want to waste their vote"). >>>> >>>> https://draftbernie.org is the site intending to "Draft Bernie for a People's Party Seeks to Recruit Sanders to Start a New Political Party, Not to Run for President in 2020" (https://draftbernie.org/…/press-release-draft-bernie-peopl…/ ). They want this because "[d]espite Bernie Sanders’ monumental efforts to reform the Democratic Party, it remains firmly in neoliberal control". >>>> >>>> I have no problems with a new party starting, or with independent candidates running. But I don't see how running with a former candidate who is worse on major issues than Nader was is any start for a new party. >>>> >>>> Parties are known for candidates, not celebrities who aren't running. >>>> >>>> I'm not convinced Sanders is 'progressive' on major issues of the day, and that this isn't just another effort to drum up support for the Democratic Party (an issue the interview reveals is still being considered!). >>>> >>>> Sanders was (as BlackAgendaReport.com rightly put it) a shepherd for Hillary Clinton and lost all legitimacy in critiquing the Dems when he did that (and he did that without reservation, by the way). >>>> >>>> Today Sen. Sanders puts forth no Senate version of HR676 (Medicare for All) and mainly seems to give speeches instead of having his staff write bills for the Senate to implement his majoritarian values which make him seem like a good idea for being a POTUS candidate again. >>>> >>>> Sanders won't point out the Dems' weaknesses because he's working for them. >>>> >>>> Sanders is unwilling to object to war (his ought-to-be-seen-as-shameful 2016 "Meet the Press" interview is most revealing how go-along he is on this preeminent issue). Therefore I see no reason to take his endorsement as a pointer of someone I should vote for or give money to. I'd take such an endorsement as a warning. >>>> >>>> "War" seems absent from the draftbernie.org website in my searches so far (one mention is of a rally against war sponsored by an organization that is not draftbernie.org --https://draftbernie.org/event/pittsburgh-march-war/ -- sponsored by Pittsburghers in Solidarity Against War). >>>> >>>> Branah says in the interview: >>>> >>>> - 3rd parties are not attacked "largely and most viciously at the takeoff stage to prevent them from taking off into something major in the first place". They're attacked throughout their existence. "Debate" denials by the CPD, ballot access restrictions are ongoing. And debatebernie.org has no real answer to do this. Ralph Nader's name was very well known when he ran in 2000 and the CPD kept him out. >>>> >>>> - people "feeling trapped" by the Democrats; yes, but that was also true in 2000 when Nader ran. It's not clear what changed that results in candidates in this new party to win elections. >>>> >>>> -J >>>> >>>> Hi Carl (or should I say Hey-Hey Ralphie boy!) >>>> >>>> I'm young enough to have seen all of those episodes in repeats, back when it was still beyond mainstream criticism to air a show that featured a running joke about a husband threatening to beat his wife ("To the Moon, Alice!"). By the way, the fellow who played Ed Norton in the Honeymooners was also in the "Star Wars Holiday Special"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3a5j8PgQxg which aired exactly once and was disowned by George Lucas afterwards. It was horrible from start to finish. The guys atRedLetterMedia.com reviewed it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW4m0oYK0WQ (and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtUd0yuYN4 ). There are no legally available copies of the SW Holiday Special. The same recording (including ads that aired at the time) have been passed around for years, and copies distributed at fan conventions. Nobody even sues to claim the rights to this thing, as far as I know. >>>> >>>> TheRealNews.com : I do like Aaron Mate's interviews; he seems to be the one who will ask about the changes in things I won't find many other places (including DN and sometimes RT's Ed show and certainly Larry King show which I find largely useless but I understand to be reliably popular ratings-wise). >>>> >>>> Media recommendation: In addition to anti-war.com , I do suggest RT for anti-war news in that they do a good job of showing the photos of decimated homes, interviewing victims, and laying out the financial costs which we could put elsewhere. They've also brought up the contradictions in what (I believe) will be a leading lie for an upcoming war with Russia: look at how those awful Russians "hacked our election" with that RT spreading their propaganda! I've seen some perfectly bad documentaries from RT (the "Wi-Fi refugees"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWMNTuIZqKo is a recent example; this takes only one side of the issue and conducts no double-blind tests to see if the claim of human sensitivity to Wi-Fi signals is at all valid, and fails to acknowledge the contradictions in some of the shots the doc shows like a "refugee" claiming to be feeling fine despite sitting in a modern vehicle with a sizable electronic camera sitting next to her shooting her) but I've also seen plenty of good coverage from them on important issues of the day (including some of the only DLC lawsuit coverage you'll find anywhere). >>>> >>>> Single-payer healthcare: my impression is that the only people opposed to Medicare for All (HR676 as a bill or the concept) are HMOs and people paid to take their side (shills on chat websites, lawyers, lobbyists). The public overwhelmingly supports this and it stands as more popular than the ACA/ObamaCare (neé RomneyCare). Business-wise, the only opposition I am aware of from big businesses is theoretical and described by Doug Henwood -- business owners see Medicare for All as taking away HMO's business and fear that their business can be taken away too if the state so desires. Therefore business owners side with the HMOs even if Medicare for All would save the business money and hassle of dealing with healthcare-related paperwork. I read this somewhere online, and I think I'm getting the jist of Henwood's argument here. >>>> >>>> Apologies: If the NYT can go back on the '17 intelligence agencies' lie they were pushing is indeed not true (as it was immediately known to be untrue by RT, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald, and plenty of others) then shouldn't HRC admit she was lying to us all during her most recent failed POTUS campaign? >>>> >>>> More on Israeli involvement with Syrian war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzg99i-mhAA -- Israel "colludes with groups that are part of chaos in Syria", activist says. >>>> >>>> -J >>>> >>>> Media: War >>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIeP4YDq1KY -- Corporate media silence helps Syrian war persist. >>>> >>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i8i9Ra1NyE -- Boycott Israel, go to jail for 20 years and face a heavy fine. This sounds unconstitutional to me, more likely congress members who want to look good for AIPAC support. >>>> >>>> Media: Russiagate...the endless march toward "a nothing burger" (to quote a CNN host) >>>> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3XHKyTr4o >>>> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTTo20JsVEY >>>> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ktz6miC9c >>>> Russiagate plods on and as RT's "Resident" (third link above) points out: if you believe ABC polls (despite having missed the POTUS prediction), then you should know the same poll that says Trump is looking at the lowest approval rate in 70 years also says only 37% of those polled (which they claim is a national poll) think the Democratic Party stands for anything. Instead they believe the Democratic Party only stands against the Republicans. While the fruitless Russiagate stories keep coming and the Dems are throwing away their chance to take up better legislation (like a Senate version of HR676, as the feckless Bernie Sanders said he'd do and hasn't done), they come off as standing for nothing. Meanwhile domestic problems worsen: many American cities have unpotable water (not just Flint, MI), healthcare delivery is going to go up in cost (regardless of which HMO-centric plan wins out), and worst of all: the Bush-Obama-Trump wars continue apace. No help for those suffering and dying from the equally craven Democrats. >>>> >>>> The first link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3XHKyTr4o ) also has a very good point Aaron Maté makes (around 16m50s) regarding Clintonian hypocrisy where WJC made a $500k speaking gig in Russia while Sec. State HRC objected to Magnitsky restrictions which would have created a problem for WJC to make that speech for money. Wikileaks' leaked emails coming in handy again here too ("With the help of the research team, we killed a Bloomberg story trying to link HRC's opposition to the Magnitsky bill to a $500,000 speech that WJC gave in Moscow." from Jesse Lehrich jlehrich at hillaryclinton.com sent on 2015-05-21 at 20:49 -- https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/303 ). And in so doing taking down another less reliable source: Bloomberg News. Add it to the pile: NYT (war lies), WaPo (CIA outlet), MSNBC (DNC outlet, particularly Rachel Maddow show), CNN ("Russiagate" sans proof), and so much of the corporate mainstream for silence on closely examining HRC's campaign while endlessly critiquing ("Russiagate") without proof and being so far wrong without apology or explanation/reflection on predicting POTUS. It's no wonder the public distrusts MSM. >>>> >>>> Healthcare >>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2G8CWDMSG8 -- 'Trump can't vote down Obamacare so he "strangling" it instead' according to TheRealNews.com . But if Trump merely lets Obamacare continue as-is it will become increasingly unaffordable and useless to the public (this interview says this is happening now in Republican governor states because there are over 1300 counties with only 1 insurer on the plan and there are some counties with 0 insurers on the plan). But the interviewee still supports the idea that Democrats are more likely to get the US to a single-payer system. There's no evidence offered for this bold assertion given that both Republicans and Democrats get HMO campaign money which I believe is why HR676 makes no real progress year after year. A small portion of the war budget would let us buy out the only organized opposition to universalizing Medicare. >>>> >>>> WikiLeaks Vault 7 >>>> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_hMxBFnuO0 >>>> - https://wikileaks.org/vault7/#UCL%20/%20Raytheon >>>> The WikiLeaks "Vault 7" releases continue and show more ties between private industry and government: Raytheon analyzed malware and gave information to the CIA, "by analyzing malware attacks in the wild and giving recommendations to the CIA development teams for further investigation and PoC [point of contact] development for their own malware projects.". >>>> >>>> War >>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-twd05sLtBw -- new Iranian sanctions mean carrying out more Obama-era war-fomenting policy against Iran. >>>> >>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unvOoE_I8bM -- 9-11 victims families push for British report to be released because they believe the report will name Saudi Arabia as source for 'terrorism funding' and 'complicity in terrorism'. Not much of a revelation but this would put Brits in a tough spot to object to being friendly with SA. >>>> >>>> Healthcare >>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Z4iMulrYc -- John McCain's healthcare exposes sham of national debate on healthcare: we need the plan we pay for him to have. McCain's brain tumor (cancerous) is going to require even more care. The one big dodge of this interview: no mention that HR676 (Medicare for all) is more popular than ObamaCare and (as Trump said) ObamaCare will become unaffordable as it goes along. All HMO-based plans are designed to be more expensive over time. So there will come a time when even those who support ObamaCare now wouldn't be able to afford it if they had to rely on it. >>>> >>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vot4VgROlJ4 -- USPS labor union under fire as pressure to privatize USPS mounts; better discussion of healthcare debate nationally here than in previous piece ostensibly centered on healthcare(!), and wise warning about USPS going private: privatization means not every house will get postal service and that helps kill e-commerce. I bet he's right in this. >>>> >>>> https://www.democracynow.org/…/trump_to_let_obamacare_fail_ … >>>> I'm guessing DN intended this as some kind of dig at Trump but the story tacitly reveals what a ridiculous choice pro-ObamaCare protesters are making when they should be pushing for Medicare for All (HR676) and highlighting what a fraud Sanders is for not bringing a Senate version of that bill to the Senate. >>>> >>>> Media >>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXJIhmB6YwU -- Donna Brazile, 2-time DNC higher-up, Democratic Party Superdelegate, "debate" cheater is writing a book. I might read this at the Library just for laughs. >>>> >>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrPG1fXhG3s -- one of the few places you'll hear even a mention of the ongoing DNC lawsuit (around 6m) in which the DNC has already admitted voting in its elections are a sham. MSM isn't covering it but neither is DN. If the Democrats really are a powerful group in the US, and American politics are worth following, this lawsuit has to be worth some ink/time as it has the power to enlighten people about how much the DNC doesn't care about its supporters' votes. >>>> >>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzhExLtRbAw -- RT is in the cross-hairs in "Russiagate", repeatedly mentioned as Russian propaganda source. I guess we're supposed to not see MSM as pro-war/pro-bank/Democratic Party propaganda. >>>> >>>> C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote: >>>> >>>> Why did Obama suffer far less backlash than George W. Bush? Salon >>>> columnist David Sirota summarized an academic study released in 2013: >>>> “Evaluating surveys of more than 5,300 anti-war protestors from 2007 to >>>> 2009, the researchers discovered that the many protestors who >>>> self-identified as Democrats ‘withdrew from anti-war protests when the >>>> Democratic Party achieved electoral success’ in the 2008 presidential >>>> election.” >>>> >>>> I've long noticed this and pointed out how this is what separates AWARE from other so-called anti-war groups: AWARE protestors (certainly including you) rightly kept protesting during Obama's administration. >>>> >>>> The groups that organized the marches against the 2003 invasion of Iraq largely fell silent during the Obama administration in terms of street presence. I'm sure those groups' reps would tell us they're anti-war and they don't care who is in charge. But that is indefensible. Their choices to be silent against the drone war, for example, makes their choices indistinguishable from how you'd expect them to react out of partisanship. >>>> >>>> Now, should one see a huge ostensibly anti-war crowd, it will be right and proper to ask "How many of them are just anti-Republican versus being anti-war?". Being anti-Republican means the bodies aren't there in the streets during the next Democratic Party administration (if they haven't sunk themselves too far) and it means the next war is just 1 or 2 terms away: if the Republicans can't get away with executing the war, they'll leave it to the Democrats to initiate and then inherit on the next cycle. >>>> >>>> ### >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> 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 Fri Jul 28 11:25:52 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2017 11:25:52 +0000 Subject: [Peace] Google rigging and blocking websites....... Message-ID: * Print * Leaflet * Feedback * Share » Google rigs searches to block access to World Socialist Web Site 28 July 2017 An examination of web traffic data clearly shows that Internet giant Google is manipulating search results to block access to the World Socialist Web Site. In April, under the guise of combatting “fake news,” Google introduced new procedures that give extraordinary powers to unnamed “evaluators” to demote web pages and websites. These procedures have been used to exclude the WSWS and other anti-war and oppositional sites. Over the past three months, traffic originating from Google to the WSWS has fallen by approximately 70 percent. In key searches relevant to a wide range of topics the WSWS regularly covers—including US military operations and the threat of war, social conditions, inequality, and even socialism—the number of search impressions referencing the World Socialist Web Site has fallen drastically. An “impression” is a technical term referring to a link shown by Google in response to a search result. If a search for “socialism” leads a user’s computer to show one link to the WSWS, that counts as an impression. By manipulating the “search ranking” assigned to the pages of the WSWS, Google can drive its content lower down on the list of results. This reduces the total number of impressions, which, in turn, leads to a very low number of “clicks,” or visits to the site. According to Google’s Webmaster Tools Service, the number of daily impressions for the World Socialist Web Site fell from 467,890 to 138,275 over the past three months. The WSWS has analyzed data related to the results of specific searches between May and July, that is, the period after Google implemented its new website exclusion policies. During the month of May, Google searches including the word “war” produced 61,795 WSWS impressions. In July, WSWS impressions fell by approximately 90 percent, to 6,613. Searches for the term “Korean war” produced 20,392 impressions in May. In July, searches using the same words produced zero WSWS impressions. Searches for “North Korea war” produced 4,626 impressions in May. In July, the result of the same search produced zero WSWS impressions. “India Pakistan war” produced 4,394 impressions in May. In July, the result, again, was zero. And “Nuclear war 2017” produced 2,319 impressions in May, and zero in July. To cite some other searches: “WikiLeaks,” fell from 6,576 impressions to zero, “Julian Assange” fell from 3,701 impressions to zero, and “Laura Poitras” fell from 4,499 impressions to zero. A search for “Michael Hastings”—the reporter who died in 2013 under suspicious circumstances—produced 33,464 impressions in May, but only 5,227 impressions in July. In addition to geopolitics, the WSWS regularly covers a broad range of social issues, many of which have seen precipitous drops in search results. Searches for “food stamps,” “Ford layoffs,” “Amazon warehouse,” and “secretary of education” all went down from more than 5,000 impressions in May to zero impressions in July. The number of search impressions for WSWS articles in searches including the term “strike” fell by 85 percent between May and July, from 19,395 to 2,964. Many people who conduct Google searches for these terms do so because they are critical of establishment politics and would be interested in hearing what socialists have to say. However, as a result of Google’s actions, they will not find material published by the World Socialist Web Site. But what about those directly looking for socialist politics? In May, the search term “socialism” generated 31,696 impressions, and the WSWS was ranked between 5th and 6th in search results. In June, the WSWS was removed from the top 100 search results for the term. Thus searches for “socialism” produced zero impressions for the World Socialist Web Site, the most widely read online socialist publication. What about those who are already committed socialists, and want to find out more about Leon Trotsky? Here, too, the WSWS, published by the Trotskyist movement, is being blocked. While a query for “Leon Trotsky” resulted in 5,893 impressions in May, that number fell to zero in July. When the WSWS contacted Robert Epstein with our findings, the noted psychologist and Google critic concluded, “I have little doubt that Google demoted you.” Epstein said research that he and his colleagues conducted showed “the evidence is rock solid” that “Google is manipulating people through search suggestions.” The policy guiding these actions is made absolutely clear in the April 25, 2017 blog post by Google’s Vice President for Engineering, Ben Gomes, and the updated “Search Quality Rater Guidelines” published at the same time. The post refers to the need to flag and demote “unexpected offensive results, hoaxes and conspiracy theories”—broad and amorphous language used to exclude any oppositional content. The rater guidelines are even more explicit. The unnamed “evaluators” are instructed to flag as the “lowest” rating sites that have “factually inaccurate information to manipulate users in order to benefit a person, business, government, or other organization politically, monetarily, or otherwise.” The “lowest” rating is also to be given to a website that “presents unsubstantiated conspiracy theories or hoaxes as if the information were factual.” It is impossible to formulate a more explicit policy of suppression of free speech. These guidelines are written in a way to allow Google to demote or block a massive array of websites that are critical of the government and expose its lies. Who precisely is to determine what is “factually inaccurate information” or what constitutes an “unsubstantiated conspiracy theory”? It in effect bars all expression of opinions, other than those that are acceptable to Google and its allies in the state, particularly the Democratic Party. There is not a publication or journal worth reading that would not fall afoul of these “guidelines.” Adding to the cynicism of the new procedures is the fact that numerous sources have documented Google’s active involvement in supporting political candidates, specifically Hillary Clinton, by manipulating search results. In his recently published book, Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google, and Amazon cornered culture and undermined democracy, Jonathan Taplin documents the role of Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, in founding a firm called The Groundwork to directly assist the Clinton campaign. Moreover, earlier this year, the European Commission exposed Google’s widespread, deliberate, and criminal manipulation of its search results to promote its own comparison shopping service to the detriment of its competitors. The company was fined $2.7 billion. In the name of combating “fake news,” Google is providing fake searches. It has been transformed from a search engine into an instrument of censorship. The WSWS will continue to expose Google’s unconstitutional attack on democratic rights. We demand that Google give a full accounting of its procedures, and that it identify who has been given the power to “evaluate” websites. All of Google’s algorithms must be placed in the public domain. Ultimately, the actions of Google provide yet another demonstration of the need to take the dissemination of information out of private control. Powerful search engines cannot be run by monopolies controlled by billionaire oligarchs. They must be placed under democratic control by the working population of the world. There is no question that Google’s action has blocked tens of thousands of people that normally would have found the WSWS from accessing the site. This is the aim. However, a very substantial portion of WSWS readers access the site directly, via social media, or through other search engines, which at least up to this point have not implemented rules that go as far as Google. The WSWS has a loyal and large base of readers and continues to record hundreds of thousands of individual visits a month. We will oppose Google’s political censorship, but we need your support. We are calling on our readers to become actively involved, to fight for the WSWS. Assist the distribution of WSWS articles. Post our content on social media. Email our articles to your friends and co-workers. Make Google’s actions as widely known as possible. Send us your email address so that you can receive daily updates of material from the WSWS. Leave a statement of opposition to the actions of Google. Finally, we are fighting one of the most powerful corporations, with the closest links to the government and vast resources. We need financial support to continue and expand our counteroffensive against censorship and the suppression of free speech. WSWS Editorial Board -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Fri Jul 28 13:51:40 2017 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2017 13:51:40 +0000 Subject: [Peace] AWARE ON THE AIR for Tuesday 25 July In-Reply-To: <2A685611-01FA-4322-A232-9DA00E443CAA@illinois.edu> References: <05DFFC44-9BDD-476C-AAC4-BA22A1FA8743@illinois.edu> <2A685611-01FA-4322-A232-9DA00E443CAA@illinois.edu> Message-ID: There is some really good information here. Worth plowing through. I have one suggestion in relation to the media. Unless DN has Stephen Cohen, Noam Chomsky, Alan Nairn, or a few other notables, don’t bother. They will have a few good things, specifically related to domestic, but geopolitical is little different from mainstream media. The Real News with Aron Mate, or Paul Jay is worthwhile, online. RT.Com: Online but often a lot of interference. If one has a roku, which I recommend, one can download the ap “Pluto” and from there download RT, with Crosstalk three days a week, and Chris Hedges weekly “On Contact” Lee Camp is on Redacted Tonight offers humor with news, but after he is finished don’t waste time on his colleagues. With roku, and Pluto, one can access any of the shows any time, or just have streaming non stop. They have other programs as well, and one can avoid Larry King’s pandering to celebrity. On Jul 26, 2017, at 19:02, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace > wrote: (AWARE ON THE AIR didn't air this week, owing to indisposition; in its place we offer the following links and announcements.) Dr. Know’s Research Notes for Week 30 of 2017 | J. B. Nicholson | ================================================ -- Glenn Greenwald sits in for Jeremy Scahill and provides a much-needed analysis of 'Russiagate', the 2003 Iraq invasion/occupation, and how we see the same 'with us or against us' tactic used to separate those who go along (Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Daily Show, all of the other comedy news and latenight programs except RT's Redacted Tonight) and those who are to be viciously described (anyone who demands evidence). Ignore the edited intro piece and skip to Greenwald's talk, that intro is so blindly anti-Trump it doesn't convey anything of what Greenwald gets into -- he wants evidence to stand behind the allegations -- I'm pretty sure Greenwald didn't edit the intro piece. The second interview is better than the first. -- Looks like Stein is coming back into the news in some small degree. The article doesn't mention the Stein-led recount effort (and it should have) but the Democrats still added her to a list of 40 other people and groups Trump Jr. was told to detail communications with by the Senate Judiciary Committee. As the article put it: Every other person, business or organization on the list is a Russian government official, played some role on the Trump campaign, or are or are mentioned in stories about election hacking. There is no legitimate reason for Stein’s name to be on this list. She makes clear that she has had no contact with the Trump family or campaign. She is being thrown under the bus in a classic smear tactic. Russiagate has no evidence to back it up and never did, but it will have some added value for the Democrats in smearing Jill Stein and serving as a fake reason to justify hostility against Russia. -- 6 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a small robot ("Little Sunfish") with a camera has footage showing melted nuclear fuel rods in reactor #3. This is a big deal because: - Teppco has a history of delaying pertinent news, lying about the scope of this disaster. - 1600+ people died of Fukushima-related causes. Cancers attributable to Fukushima are now coming up. We won't know the tally for years to come, but there's no way this will be good. Maybe in 40 years these reactors will be decommissioned. I'll bet that in time we'll learn that tainted water dumping has been going on throughout and it's wise to reconsider getting goods made in or near that water. - This is why nuclear activists like Dr. Helen Caldicott do their work and argue, convincingly, that we simply can't afford nuclear power. Caldicott is the author of many books including one of my favorites, "The New Nuclear Danger". At one talk she said "It seems that nearly a million people have already died as a result of Chernobyl despite what WHO says and the IAEA. This is one of the most monstrous cover-ups in the history of medicine because everybody should know about this." ( around 24s into the 9m recording which is worth watching), and the Fukushima disaster of Japan "many times worse than Chernobyl". She concisely covers the Fukushima reactors disaster and explains what happened, then points out that "Turkish food is extremely radioactive: Do not buy Turkish dried apricots, do not buy Turkish hazelnuts... The Turks were so cross with the Russians that they sent all their radioactive tea over to Russia after Chernobyl. 40% of Europe is still radioactive; farms in Britain, their land is so full of cesium they can't sell them." (5m59s). In another recording on YouTube she advises avoiding Japanese food for similar reasons: radioactive damage is cumulative over one's lifetime and the risk gets worse as you go through the seafood food chain (algae, crustaceans, little fish, big fish, humans) because each step concentrates more radioactive matter which seafood eaters end up consuming. Date Tue 20:44 I wrote: I'm listening to Nick Brana (draftbernie.org representative) interview (Ralph Nader Radio Hour with a DraftBernie.org representative) and Nader is nailing it on 3rd parties ("they can't win, the system is not responsive" and people "don't want to waste their vote"). [...] Speaking of Bernie Sanders and why I don't think much of him: is Paul Street's latest which goes into more on this topic. Worth reading. Russiagate -- Ray McGovern says DNC "hack" was inside job: speed of copying was too great to have been done over a network. Finally -- mention of a detail that not only makes sense but helps narrow down the set of people who know how the data was obtained. McGovern also says that someone on the inside could have had "some inside help of quite professional people" due to the obfuscation involved in trying to make this look like a foreign attack ('Russian hack') which is consistent with the CIA work WikiLeaks told us about as part of their "Vault 7" series of leaks. Why were no forensics done until recently, previously done only by private industry, and why were the servers involved not immediately seized for review? We were told this alleged foreign attack constitutes 'an act of war'. Is this behavior really consistent with something important enough to be called 'an act of war'? It's looking more likely that this: - was an inside job, - by Seth Rich (possibly working with someone else) who was later killed for his part in this, - the Russian govt. and Russian so-called "hackers" are a distraction, - and this could go quite high up: James Comey not getting the servers involved (even by force) suggests something else is going on. Do you honestly believe that if you or I had anything to do with this, we'd be free and have our computers intact now? Russian, Iran, and North Korean sanctions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMoawJ3xAAc -- Republicans are complicit with Dems on blocking Russia. The 2015 documentary "The Propaganda Game" shows how ineffective the past NK sanctions were: NK computer lab had all-new Hewlett-Packard computers snuck into NK. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHGUsD42190 -- If Trump doesn't veto sanctions bill, "he's given up on his presidency" says Ron Paul Institute Exec. Dir. Daniel McAdams. Media - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT0hL92xlrs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czrvklLsW0Y -- Joy Reid tweets xenophobic false line, somehow keeps her job at MSNBC (nicknamed "MSDNC" due to its one-sided reportage favoring the Dems). Also, in light of how the Dems reacted to Trump's xenophobic and false remarks, MSNBC ends up vindicating Trump's horrible language. Now others can complain about Trump's xenophobic wrong language but not Joy Reid and MSNBC would be wise to make some distance from her. I'm listening to Nick Brana (draftbernie.org representative) interview http://traffic.libsyn.com/ral…/NADER_174_podcast_version.mp3 (Ralph Nader Radio Hour with a DraftBernie.org representative) and Nader is nailing it on 3rd parties ("they can't win, the system is not responsive" and people "don't want to waste their vote"). https://draftbernie.org is the site intending to "Draft Bernie for a People's Party Seeks to Recruit Sanders to Start a New Political Party, Not to Run for President in 2020" (https://draftbernie.org/…/press-release-draft-bernie-peopl…/). They want this because "[d]espite Bernie Sanders’ monumental efforts to reform the Democratic Party, it remains firmly in neoliberal control". I have no problems with a new party starting, or with independent candidates running. But I don't see how running with a former candidate who is worse on major issues than Nader was is any start for a new party. Parties are known for candidates, not celebrities who aren't running. I'm not convinced Sanders is 'progressive' on major issues of the day, and that this isn't just another effort to drum up support for the Democratic Party (an issue the interview reveals is still being considered!). Sanders was (as BlackAgendaReport.com rightly put it) a shepherd for Hillary Clinton and lost all legitimacy in critiquing the Dems when he did that (and he did that without reservation, by the way). Today Sen. Sanders puts forth no Senate version of HR676 (Medicare for All) and mainly seems to give speeches instead of having his staff write bills for the Senate to implement his majoritarian values which make him seem like a good idea for being a POTUS candidate again. Sanders won't point out the Dems' weaknesses because he's working for them. Sanders is unwilling to object to war (his ought-to-be-seen-as-shameful 2016 "Meet the Press" interview is most revealing how go-along he is on this preeminent issue). Therefore I see no reason to take his endorsement as a pointer of someone I should vote for or give money to. I'd take such an endorsement as a warning. "War" seems absent from the draftbernie.org website in my searches so far (one mention is of a rally against war sponsored by an organization that is not draftbernie.org -- https://draftbernie.org/event/pittsburgh-march-war/ -- sponsored by Pittsburghers in Solidarity Against War). Branah says in the interview: - 3rd parties are not attacked "largely and most viciously at the takeoff stage to prevent them from taking off into something major in the first place". They're attacked throughout their existence. "Debate" denials by the CPD, ballot access restrictions are ongoing. And debatebernie.org has no real answer to do this. Ralph Nader's name was very well known when he ran in 2000 and the CPD kept him out. - people "feeling trapped" by the Democrats; yes, but that was also true in 2000 when Nader ran. It's not clear what changed that results in candidates in this new party to win elections. -J Hi Carl (or should I say Hey-Hey Ralphie boy!) I'm young enough to have seen all of those episodes in repeats, back when it was still beyond mainstream criticism to air a show that featured a running joke about a husband threatening to beat his wife ("To the Moon, Alice!"). By the way, the fellow who played Ed Norton in the Honeymooners was also in the "Star Wars Holiday Special" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3a5j8PgQxg which aired exactly once and was disowned by George Lucas afterwards. It was horrible from start to finish. The guys at RedLetterMedia.com reviewed it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW4m0oYK0WQ (and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtUd0yuYN4 ). There are no legally available copies of the SW Holiday Special. The same recording (including ads that aired at the time) have been passed around for years, and copies distributed at fan conventions. Nobody even sues to claim the rights to this thing, as far as I know. TheRealNews.com: I do like Aaron Mate's interviews; he seems to be the one who will ask about the changes in things I won't find many other places (including DN and sometimes RT's Ed show and certainly Larry King show which I find largely useless but I understand to be reliably popular ratings-wise). Media recommendation: In addition to anti-war.com, I do suggest RT for anti-war news in that they do a good job of showing the photos of decimated homes, interviewing victims, and laying out the financial costs which we could put elsewhere. They've also brought up the contradictions in what (I believe) will be a leading lie for an upcoming war with Russia: look at how those awful Russians "hacked our election" with that RT spreading their propaganda! I've seen some perfectly bad documentaries from RT (the "Wi-Fi refugees" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWMNTuIZqKo is a recent example; this takes only one side of the issue and conducts no double-blind tests to see if the claim of human sensitivity to Wi-Fi signals is at all valid, and fails to acknowledge the contradictions in some of the shots the doc shows like a "refugee" claiming to be feeling fine despite sitting in a modern vehicle with a sizable electronic camera sitting next to her shooting her) but I've also seen plenty of good coverage from them on important issues of the day (including some of the only DLC lawsuit coverage you'll find anywhere). Single-payer healthcare: my impression is that the only people opposed to Medicare for All (HR676 as a bill or the concept) are HMOs and people paid to take their side (shills on chat websites, lawyers, lobbyists). The public overwhelmingly supports this and it stands as more popular than the ACA/ObamaCare (neé RomneyCare). Business-wise, the only opposition I am aware of from big businesses is theoretical and described by Doug Henwood -- business owners see Medicare for All as taking away HMO's business and fear that their business can be taken away too if the state so desires. Therefore business owners side with the HMOs even if Medicare for All would save the business money and hassle of dealing with healthcare-related paperwork. I read this somewhere online, and I think I'm getting the jist of Henwood's argument here. Apologies: If the NYT can go back on the '17 intelligence agencies' lie they were pushing is indeed not true (as it was immediately known to be untrue by RT, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald, and plenty of others) then shouldn't HRC admit she was lying to us all during her most recent failed POTUS campaign? More on Israeli involvement with Syrian war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzg99i-mhAA -- Israel "colludes with groups that are part of chaos in Syria", activist says. -J Media: War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIeP4YDq1KY -- Corporate media silence helps Syrian war persist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i8i9Ra1NyE -- Boycott Israel, go to jail for 20 years and face a heavy fine. This sounds unconstitutional to me, more likely congress members who want to look good for AIPAC support. Media: Russiagate...the endless march toward "a nothing burger" (to quote a CNN host) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3XHKyTr4o - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTTo20JsVEY - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ktz6miC9c Russiagate plods on and as RT's "Resident" (third link above) points out: if you believe ABC polls (despite having missed the POTUS prediction), then you should know the same poll that says Trump is looking at the lowest approval rate in 70 years also says only 37% of those polled (which they claim is a national poll) think the Democratic Party stands for anything. Instead they believe the Democratic Party only stands against the Republicans. While the fruitless Russiagate stories keep coming and the Dems are throwing away their chance to take up better legislation (like a Senate version of HR676, as the feckless Bernie Sanders said he'd do and hasn't done), they come off as standing for nothing. Meanwhile domestic problems worsen: many American cities have unpotable water (not just Flint, MI), healthcare delivery is going to go up in cost (regardless of which HMO-centric plan wins out), and worst of all: the Bush-Obama-Trump wars continue apace. No help for those suffering and dying from the equally craven Democrats. The first link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3XHKyTr4o) also has a very good point Aaron Maté makes (around 16m50s) regarding Clintonian hypocrisy where WJC made a $500k speaking gig in Russia while Sec. State HRC objected to Magnitsky restrictions which would have created a problem for WJC to make that speech for money. Wikileaks' leaked emails coming in handy again here too ("With the help of the research team, we killed a Bloomberg story trying to link HRC's opposition to the Magnitsky bill to a $500,000 speech that WJC gave in Moscow." from Jesse Lehrich jlehrich at hillaryclinton.com sent on 2015-05-21 at 20:49 -- https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/303 ). And in so doing taking down another less reliable source: Bloomberg News. Add it to the pile: NYT (war lies), WaPo (CIA outlet), MSNBC (DNC outlet, particularly Rachel Maddow show), CNN ("Russiagate" sans proof), and so much of the corporate mainstream for silence on closely examining HRC's campaign while endlessly critiquing ("Russiagate") without proof and being so far wrong without apology or explanation/reflection on predicting POTUS. It's no wonder the public distrusts MSM. Healthcare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2G8CWDMSG8 -- 'Trump can't vote down Obamacare so he "strangling" it instead' according to TheRealNews.com. But if Trump merely lets Obamacare continue as-is it will become increasingly unaffordable and useless to the public (this interview says this is happening now in Republican governor states because there are over 1300 counties with only 1 insurer on the plan and there are some counties with 0 insurers on the plan). But the interviewee still supports the idea that Democrats are more likely to get the US to a single-payer system. There's no evidence offered for this bold assertion given that both Republicans and Democrats get HMO campaign money which I believe is why HR676 makes no real progress year after year. A small portion of the war budget would let us buy out the only organized opposition to universalizing Medicare. WikiLeaks Vault 7 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_hMxBFnuO0 - https://wikileaks.org/vault7/#UCL%20/%20Raytheon The WikiLeaks "Vault 7" releases continue and show more ties between private industry and government: Raytheon analyzed malware and gave information to the CIA, "by analyzing malware attacks in the wild and giving recommendations to the CIA development teams for further investigation and PoC [point of contact] development for their own malware projects.". War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-twd05sLtBw -- new Iranian sanctions mean carrying out more Obama-era war-fomenting policy against Iran. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unvOoE_I8bM -- 9-11 victims families push for British report to be released because they believe the report will name Saudi Arabia as source for 'terrorism funding' and 'complicity in terrorism'. Not much of a revelation but this would put Brits in a tough spot to object to being friendly with SA. Healthcare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Z4iMulrYc -- John McCain's healthcare exposes sham of national debate on healthcare: we need the plan we pay for him to have. McCain's brain tumor (cancerous) is going to require even more care. The one big dodge of this interview: no mention that HR676 (Medicare for all) is more popular than ObamaCare and (as Trump said) ObamaCare will become unaffordable as it goes along. All HMO-based plans are designed to be more expensive over time. So there will come a time when even those who support ObamaCare now wouldn't be able to afford it if they had to rely on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vot4VgROlJ4 -- USPS labor union under fire as pressure to privatize USPS mounts; better discussion of healthcare debate nationally here than in previous piece ostensibly centered on healthcare(!), and wise warning about USPS going private: privatization means not every house will get postal service and that helps kill e-commerce. I bet he's right in this. https://www.democracynow.org/…/trump_to_let_obamacare_fail_… I'm guessing DN intended this as some kind of dig at Trump but the story tacitly reveals what a ridiculous choice pro-ObamaCare protesters are making when they should be pushing for Medicare for All (HR676) and highlighting what a fraud Sanders is for not bringing a Senate version of that bill to the Senate. Media https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXJIhmB6YwU -- Donna Brazile, 2-time DNC higher-up, Democratic Party Superdelegate, "debate" cheater is writing a book. I might read this at the Library just for laughs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrPG1fXhG3s -- one of the few places you'll hear even a mention of the ongoing DNC lawsuit (around 6m) in which the DNC has already admitted voting in its elections are a sham. MSM isn't covering it but neither is DN. If the Democrats really are a powerful group in the US, and American politics are worth following, this lawsuit has to be worth some ink/time as it has the power to enlighten people about how much the DNC doesn't care about its supporters' votes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzhExLtRbAw -- RT is in the cross-hairs in "Russiagate", repeatedly mentioned as Russian propaganda source. I guess we're supposed to not see MSM as pro-war/pro-bank/Democratic Party propaganda. C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote: Why did Obama suffer far less backlash than George W. Bush? Salon columnist David Sirota summarized an academic study released in 2013: “Evaluating surveys of more than 5,300 anti-war protestors from 2007 to 2009, the researchers discovered that the many protestors who self-identified as Democrats ‘withdrew from anti-war protests when the Democratic Party achieved electoral success’ in the 2008 presidential election.” I've long noticed this and pointed out how this is what separates AWARE from other so-called anti-war groups: AWARE protestors (certainly including you) rightly kept protesting during Obama's administration. The groups that organized the marches against the 2003 invasion of Iraq largely fell silent during the Obama administration in terms of street presence. I'm sure those groups' reps would tell us they're anti-war and they don't care who is in charge. But that is indefensible. Their choices to be silent against the drone war, for example, makes their choices indistinguishable from how you'd expect them to react out of partisanship. Now, should one see a huge ostensibly anti-war crowd, it will be right and proper to ask "How many of them are just anti-Republican versus being anti-war?". Being anti-Republican means the bodies aren't there in the streets during the next Democratic Party administration (if they haven't sunk themselves too far) and it means the next war is just 1 or 2 terms away: if the Republicans can't get away with executing the war, they'll leave it to the Democrats to initiate and then inherit on the next cycle. ### _______________________________________________ Peace mailing list Peace at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From susanroseparenti at gmail.com Fri Jul 28 15:05:10 2017 From: susanroseparenti at gmail.com (Susan Parenti) Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2017 10:05:10 -0500 Subject: [Peace] One Large Sunny Bedroom to Rent in Crystal Lake Park Message-ID: Hi friends—We have one large bedroom to rent in Crystal lake Park, right across from School for Designing a Society. The room is available as early as August 1, 2017. See the description and photo down below. Please spread the word! Looking for progressive, friendly, arts-and-community oriented house mates! *If interested, please contact Derek Busby at darwinthebold at gmail.com .* Description: One large bedroom available on the 2nd floor of a sunny house in Crystal Lake Park. The room is fully furnished with new hardwood floors, hand-made curtains, freshly painted--room dimensions are 16'8" x 11'4", with new queen bed.This 2nd floor room has west and south exposure, with a large closet, plenty of storage space, AC. The house itself has a porch in the front and in the back, with a fruit and flower garden in back. The house is 5 blocks away from Down Town Urbana, 2 blocks from the Urbana Aquatic Center, and is located a half a block from the Gold Line bus for easy access. The home is a cat-friendly space with two indoor cats currently living there. Unfortunately, no other pets would be allowed at this time. This home is also a non-smoking home. Rental price—$600 per month--- includes all utilities (heat, AC, water, sewage, internet, trash, recycle, gardener susan) *Photo is dark, but the room isn’t! We’ll try to post a better one. * *Susan Parenti* *Educational Coordinator * *The School for Designing a Society *www.designingasociety.net *Like us on Facebook !* -- *Susan Parenti* *Educational Coordinator * *The School for Designing a Society *www.designingasociety.net *Like us on Facebook !* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Room 3 (6).jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 175742 bytes Desc: not available URL: From jbw292002 at gmail.com Fri Jul 28 19:26:18 2017 From: jbw292002 at gmail.com (John W.) Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2017 14:26:18 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Google rigging and blocking websites....... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: There are other search engines you can use, though they're not nearly as popular as Google. I use Goodsearch, which has the added advantage of donating money to my favorite charity each time I do a web search. John Wason On Fri, Jul 28, 2017 at 6:25 AM, Karen Aram via Peace < peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > > > - Print > > - Leaflet > > - Feedback > > - Share » > > Google rigs searches to block access to World Socialist Web Site 28 July > 2017 > > An examination of web traffic data clearly shows that Internet giant > Google is manipulating search results to block access to the *World > Socialist Web Site.* > > In April, under the guise of combatting “fake news,” Google introduced new > procedures that give extraordinary powers to unnamed “evaluators” to demote > web pages and websites. These procedures have been used to exclude the WSWS > and other anti-war and oppositional sites. > > Over the past three months, traffic originating from Google to the WSWS > has fallen by approximately 70 percent. In key searches relevant to a wide > range of topics the WSWS regularly covers—including US military operations > and the threat of war, social conditions, inequality, and even > socialism—the number of search impressions referencing the *World > Socialist Web Site* has fallen drastically. > > An “impression” is a technical term referring to a link shown by Google in > response to a search result. If a search for “socialism” leads a user’s > computer to show one link to the WSWS, that counts as an impression. > > By manipulating the “search ranking” assigned to the pages of the WSWS, > Google can drive its content lower down on the list of results. This > reduces the total number of impressions, which, in turn, leads to a very > low number of “clicks,” or visits to the site. > > According to Google’s Webmaster Tools Service, the number of daily > impressions for the *World Socialist Web Site* fell from 467,890 to > 138,275 over the past three months. > > The WSWS has analyzed data related to the results of specific searches > between May and July, that is, the period after Google implemented its new > website exclusion policies. > > During the month of May, Google searches including the word “war” produced > 61,795 WSWS impressions. In July, WSWS impressions fell by approximately 90 > percent, to 6,613. > > Searches for the term “Korean war” produced 20,392 impressions in May. In > July, searches using the same words produced *zero* WSWS impressions. > Searches for “North Korea war” produced 4,626 impressions in May. In July, > the result of the same search produced *zero* WSWS impressions. “India > Pakistan war” produced 4,394 impressions in May. In July, the result, > again, was *zero*. And “Nuclear war 2017” produced 2,319 impressions in > May, and zero in July. > > To cite some other searches: “WikiLeaks,” fell from 6,576 impressions to > zero, “Julian Assange” fell from 3,701 impressions to zero, and “Laura > Poitras” fell from 4,499 impressions to zero. A search for “Michael > Hastings”—the reporter who died in 2013 under suspicious > circumstances—produced 33,464 impressions in May, but only 5,227 > impressions in July. > > In addition to geopolitics, the WSWS regularly covers a broad range of > social issues, many of which have seen precipitous drops in search results. > Searches for “food stamps,” “Ford layoffs,” “Amazon warehouse,” and > “secretary of education” all went down from more than 5,000 impressions in > May to zero impressions in July. > > The number of search impressions for WSWS articles in searches including > the term “strike” fell by 85 percent between May and July, from 19,395 to > 2,964. > > Many people who conduct Google searches for these terms do so because they > are critical of establishment politics and would be interested in hearing > what socialists have to say. However, as a result of Google’s actions, they > will not find material published by the *World Socialist Web Site*. > > But what about those directly looking for socialist politics? In May, the > search term “socialism” generated 31,696 impressions, and the WSWS was > ranked between 5th and 6th in search results. In June, the WSWS was removed > from the top 100 search results for the term. Thus searches for “socialism” > produced *zero* impressions for the *World Socialist Web Site*, the most > widely read online socialist publication. > > What about those who are already committed socialists, and want to find > out more about Leon Trotsky? Here, too, the WSWS, published by the > Trotskyist movement, is being blocked. While a query for “Leon Trotsky” > resulted in 5,893 impressions in May, that number fell to *zero* in July. > > When the WSWS contacted Robert Epstein with our findings, the noted > psychologist and Google critic concluded, “I have little doubt that Google > demoted you.” Epstein said research that he and his colleagues conducted > showed “the evidence is rock solid” that “Google is manipulating people > through search suggestions.” > > The policy guiding these actions is made absolutely clear in the April 25, > 2017 blog post by Google’s Vice President for Engineering, Ben Gomes, and > the updated “Search Quality Rater Guidelines” published at the same time. > The post refers to the need to flag and demote “unexpected offensive > results, hoaxes and conspiracy theories”—broad and amorphous language used > to exclude any oppositional content. > > The rater guidelines are even more explicit. The unnamed “evaluators” are > instructed to flag as the “lowest” rating sites that have “factually > inaccurate information to manipulate users in order to benefit a person, > business, government, or other organization politically, monetarily, or > otherwise.” The “lowest” rating is also to be given to a website that > “presents unsubstantiated conspiracy theories or hoaxes as if the > information were factual.” > > It is impossible to formulate a more explicit policy of suppression of > free speech. These guidelines are written in a way to allow Google to > demote or block a massive array of websites that are critical of the > government and expose its lies. > > Who precisely is to determine what is “factually inaccurate information” > or what constitutes an “unsubstantiated conspiracy theory”? It in effect > bars all expression of opinions, other than those that are acceptable to > Google and its allies in the state, particularly the Democratic Party. > There is not a publication or journal worth reading that would not fall > afoul of these “guidelines.” > > Adding to the cynicism of the new procedures is the fact that numerous > sources have documented Google’s active involvement in supporting political > candidates, specifically Hillary Clinton, by manipulating search results. > In his recently published book, *Move Fast and Break Things: How > Facebook, Google, and Amazon cornered culture and undermined democracy*, > Jonathan Taplin documents the role of Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google’s > parent company Alphabet, in founding a firm called The Groundwork to > directly assist the Clinton campaign. > > Moreover, earlier this year, the European Commission exposed Google’s > widespread, deliberate, and criminal manipulation of its search results to > promote its own comparison shopping service to the detriment of its > competitors. The company was fined $2.7 billion. > > In the name of combating “fake news,” Google is providing fake searches. > It has been transformed from a search engine into an instrument of > censorship. > > The WSWS will continue to expose Google’s unconstitutional attack on > democratic rights. We demand that Google give a full accounting of its > procedures, and that it identify who has been given the power to “evaluate” > websites. All of Google’s algorithms must be placed in the public domain. > > Ultimately, the actions of Google provide yet another demonstration of the > need to take the dissemination of information out of private control. > Powerful search engines cannot be run by monopolies controlled by > billionaire oligarchs. They must be placed under democratic control by the > working population of the world. > > There is no question that Google’s action has blocked tens of thousands of > people that normally would have found the WSWS from accessing the site. > This is the aim. However, a very substantial portion of WSWS readers access > the site directly, via social media, or through other search engines, which > at least up to this point have not implemented rules that go as far as > Google. > > The WSWS has a loyal and large base of readers and continues to record > hundreds of thousands of individual visits a month. We will oppose Google’s > political censorship, but we need your support. > > We are calling on our readers to become actively involved, to fight for > the WSWS. Assist the distribution of WSWS articles. Post our content on > social media. Email our articles to your friends and co-workers. Make > Google’s actions as widely known as possible. > > Send us your email address > so that you can > receive daily updates of material from the WSWS. Leave a statement of > opposition to the actions of Google. Finally, we are fighting one of the > most powerful corporations, with the closest links to the government and > vast resources. We need financial support > to continue and expand our > counteroffensive against censorship and the suppression of free speech. > > WSWS Editorial Board > > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cge at shout.net Sun Jul 30 15:54:38 2017 From: cge at shout.net (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2017 10:54:38 -0500 Subject: [Peace] AWARE weekly meeting, Sunday 30 July, 5pm In-Reply-To: <2A685611-01FA-4322-A232-9DA00E443CAA@illinois.edu> References: <05DFFC44-9BDD-476C-AAC4-BA22A1FA8743@illinois.edu> <2A685611-01FA-4322-A232-9DA00E443CAA@illinois.edu> Message-ID: (I regret I'll be unable to attend tonight's meeting.) The following events will take place this week inshallah: ~ AWARE ON THE AIR will be recorded at noon on Tuesday 1 August in the Urbana Public Television studios, 400 S. Vine St., Urbana; members and friends of AWARE are invited to participate in this hour of unrehearsed discussion of US war-making; the program is seen on local cable TV and YouTube. ~ MONTHLY ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATION at the corner of Main and Neil streets in Champaign (we used to call it 'the Main event'); an informational flyer on US war-making will be prepared for distribution; suggestions are welcome. ### From cge at shout.net Sun Jul 30 16:14:41 2017 From: cge at shout.net (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2017 11:14:41 -0500 Subject: [Peace] [Prairiegreens] AWARE weekly meeting, Sunday 30 July, 5pm In-Reply-To: References: <05DFFC44-9BDD-476C-AAC4-BA22A1FA8743@illinois.edu> <2A685611-01FA-4322-A232-9DA00E443CAA@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <483cc8ccebc96fef814df582f4cefa01@shout.net> The demonstration is Saturday 5 August 2-4pm. > The following events will take place this week inshallah: > > ~ AWARE ON THE AIR will be recorded at noon on Tuesday 1 August in the > Urbana Public Television studios, 400 S. Vine St., Urbana; members and > friends of AWARE are invited to participate in this hour of > unrehearsed discussion of US war-making; the program is seen on local > cable TV and YouTube. > > ~ MONTHLY ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATION at the corner of Main and Neil > streets in Champaign (we used to call it 'the Main event'); an > informational flyer on US war-making will be prepared for > distribution; suggestions are welcome. > > ###