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<p>Lia Tarachansky is an Israeli-Russian journalist and documentary filmmaker who previously reported for The Real News Network on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Born in the Soviet Union, Tarachansky grew up in a settlement in the occupied West Bank. She is the director of <a href="http://www.naretivproductions.com" type="external">On the Side of the Road</a>, a documentary on Israel's biggest taboo - the events of 1948 when the state was created. Tarachansky previously worked as a Newsroom Producer in The Real News' Washington D.C. and Toronto Headquarters, and her work appeared on BBC, Al Jazeera, USA Today, Canadian Dimension Magazine and others.</p>
<p>Just as the Hunger Strike led by Palestinian political prisoners ended last week, African refugees in Israel's desert detention centers began their own. On Friday afternoon, nearly a thousand asylum seekers and refugees left Israel's so-called "open prison" in the Negev Desert. Following months, and in some cases years, of imprisonment under Israel's newly amended anti-infiltration law the refugees decided to protest the prison conditions and the very fact that while seeking asylum they were imprisoned indefinitely. After leaving the jail, the refugees headed to the border with Egypt, which they were violently stopped from reaching by the Israeli army. They then decided to camp out in a nearby grove, urging the UN to intervene and allow them passage out of Israel. But on Sunday night, massive forces of Israeli special police units removed them and transferred them back jail, where they went on hunger strike. Special thanks to journalists David Sheen, Simone Wilson, and Oren Ziv of ActiveStills.org</p>
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<p /> LIA TARACHANSKY, PRODUCER: Just as the hunger strike led by Palestinian political prisoners ended last week, African refugees in Israel's desert detention centers began their own.
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<p />The strike came as a response to the violent removal of refugees from the border with Egypt on Sunday. Their statement to the press said, we call on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to find an urgent solution for the situation and to protect our rights as people who have come to Israel to seek asylum and shelter.
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<p />On Friday afternoon, nearly 1,000 asylum seekers left Israel's so-called open prison in the Negev desert. Following months--and in some cases years--of imprisonment under Israel's newly amended anti-infiltration law, the refugees decided to protest the present conditions and the very fact that while seeking asylum, they were imprisoned indefinitely. So, on Friday, hundreds simply left the open prison, where, according to the new law, they must sign in three times a day and walked to the border with Egypt.
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<p />PHILEMON REZENE, ERITREAN REFUGEE: Every time when they were in Hulot, in the prison, they had a very miserable life. They had always shortage of food, shortage of sanitation, shortage of medication. And they're always under strict control. And they won't be free at least [incompr.] in the open air. That was their choice.
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<p />It's better to die than to live in asylum.
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<p />JACK ZAIDAN, SUDANESE REFUGEE: I am asking the government of Israel [on behalf of] everyone in Hulot jail, and in the desert, and in Saharonim prison, who were transferred there a week ago, from Hulot [open] jail to Saharonim [closed] jail. Secondly, we're asking the responsibility over refugees, regardless where they came from, to be transferred to the UN. Third, Israel has treated us as though we're not human. We are human beings. We have our countries and everything, but we fled because of war in our countries. We came here because you were in a [similar] situation. [The Jewish people] have also undergone genocide, and we came here because you are our brothers. We believe that there will be peace in our countries, and we will return then. But we're asking Israel to transfer responsibility over us to the UN.
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<p />TARACHANSKY: Indefinite imprisonment is only the latest tactic the Israeli government has used against them. All the refugees from African countries, except Sudan and Eritrea, were deported by 2012. The remaining asylum-seekers were forbidden to work, denied health care, saw their businesses confiscated and closed, and were often harassed by the racial-profiling Oz police unit, which frequently arbitrarily arrested them. Last December, the government began mass imprisonment campaigns, sending thousands to jail. As The Real News previously reported, while jailed, prison officials coerced hundreds to agree to be relocated to Uganda or, against international law, back to their home countries. After leaving the jail, the refugees headed to the border with Egypt, which they were violently prevented from reaching by the Israeli army.
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<p />VIDEO PLAYS
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<p />They then decided to camp out in a nearby growth, urging the UN to intervene and allow them passage out of Israel. But on Sunday night, massive forces of Israeli special police units removed them and transferred them back to jail, where they went on hunger strike.
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<p />VIDEO PLAYS
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<p />Considering the government has clearly stated its policies aimed at ridding Israel of African refugees, it's baffling why the Israeli army would prevent them from actually leaving of their own accord and return them to jail. A spokeswoman from the Israeli Interior Ministry, whose head, Gideon Sa'ar, has often attacked the refugees in the press, gave the following vague statement to Simon Wilson of The Jewish Journal. We will use all we can by law, and it means that anyone who broke the law can be sent to Saharonim jail.
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<p />I haven't seen my family in seven years! Because you put me in jail!
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<p />TARACHANSKY: Why do you think?
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<p />I don't know. Maybe--I don't know exactly, but even the army or the government doesn't want the black people to be here, and they should open the way and let them go [wherever they would suggest (?)]. Maybe they think that they would be shameful because of the situation, but I cannot analyze or guess something.
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<p />TARACHANSKY: For The Real News, I'm Lia Tarachansky, by Hulot Prison, Negev Desert.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | true | 4 | lia tarachansky israelirussian journalist documentary filmmaker previously reported real news network israel occupied palestinian territories born soviet union tarachansky grew settlement occupied west bank director side road documentary israels biggest taboo events 1948 state created tarachansky previously worked newsroom producer real news washington dc toronto headquarters work appeared bbc al jazeera usa today canadian dimension magazine others hunger strike led palestinian political prisoners ended last week african refugees israels desert detention centers began friday afternoon nearly thousand asylum seekers refugees left israels socalled open prison negev desert following months cases years imprisonment israels newly amended antiinfiltration law refugees decided protest prison conditions fact seeking asylum imprisoned indefinitely leaving jail refugees headed border egypt violently stopped reaching israeli army decided camp nearby grove urging un intervene allow passage israel sunday night massive forces israeli special police units removed transferred back jail went hunger strike special thanks journalists david sheen simone wilson oren ziv activestillsorg lia tarachansky producer hunger strike led palestinian political prisoners ended last week african refugees israels desert detention centers began strike came response violent removal refugees border egypt sunday statement press said call united nations high commissioner refugees find urgent solution situation protect rights people come israel seek asylum shelter friday afternoon nearly 1000 asylum seekers left israels socalled open prison negev desert following monthsand cases yearsof imprisonment israels newly amended antiinfiltration law refugees decided protest present conditions fact seeking asylum imprisoned indefinitely friday hundreds simply left open prison according new law must sign three times day walked border egypt philemon rezene eritrean refugee every time hulot prison miserable life always shortage food shortage sanitation shortage medication theyre always strict control wont free least incompr open air choice better die live asylum jack zaidan sudanese refugee asking government israel behalf everyone hulot jail desert saharonim prison transferred week ago hulot open jail saharonim closed jail secondly asking responsibility refugees regardless came transferred un third israel treated us though human human beings countries everything fled war countries came similar situation jewish people also undergone genocide came brothers believe peace countries return asking israel transfer responsibility us un tarachansky indefinite imprisonment latest tactic israeli government used refugees african countries except sudan eritrea deported 2012 remaining asylumseekers forbidden work denied health care saw businesses confiscated closed often harassed racialprofiling oz police unit frequently arbitrarily arrested last december government began mass imprisonment campaigns sending thousands jail real news previously reported jailed prison officials coerced hundreds agree relocated uganda international law back home countries leaving jail refugees headed border egypt violently prevented reaching israeli army video plays decided camp nearby growth urging un intervene allow passage israel sunday night massive forces israeli special police units removed transferred back jail went hunger strike video plays considering government clearly stated policies aimed ridding israel african refugees baffling israeli army would prevent actually leaving accord return jail spokeswoman israeli interior ministry whose head gideon saar often attacked refugees press gave following vague statement simon wilson jewish journal use law means anyone broke law sent saharonim jail havent seen family seven years put jail tarachansky think dont know maybei dont know exactly even army government doesnt want black people open way let go wherever would suggest maybe think would shameful situation analyze guess something tarachansky real news im lia tarachansky hulot prison negev desert end disclaimer please note transcripts real news network typed recording program trnn guarantee complete accuracy | 562 |
<p>Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Government and Public Policy Lawrence Wilkerson's last positions in government were as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff (2002-05), Associate Director of the State Department's Policy Planning staff under the directorship of Ambassador Richard N. Haass, and member of that staff responsible for East Asia and the Pacific, political-military and legislative affairs (2001-02). Before serving at the State Department, Wilkerson served 31 years in the U.S. Army. During that time, he was a member of the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College (1987 to 1989), Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-93), and Director and Deputy Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia (1993-97). Wilkerson retired from active service in 1997 as a colonel, and began work as an advisor to General Powell. He has also taught national security affairs in the Honors Program at the George Washington University. He is currently working on a book about the first George W. Bush administration.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay.
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<p />On Monday, the North Korean internet went down, apparently completely. Of course there's a lot of speculation this is retribution or such from the United States, but it's not clear if it's that or hackers, or even whether the North Koreans took it down themselves for some kind of maintenance.
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<p />And there's a lot of stuff that isn't very clear about just who is responsible for the hack of Sony as well. A lot of technology magazines are rather dubious at President Obama's accusations that it was the North Koreans that that it. Wired magazine, which is pretty well known for covering technology, says that it's akin to saying Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction to say the North Koreans had the capability to pull something like this off. Other technologists are being quoted as saying that it's not possible to pin this on North Korea, the fact that there's some code generated that has some kind of North Korean finger footprints on could easily be replicated by someone else and had--similar things have happened in the past with American code that was picked up by the Russians and used for such purposes. So if in fact, as quoted in the article by one of the leading security experts on all of this, none of the evidence presented by the FBI would hold up in court, why such aggressive powerful statements from the president seeking retribution had a time and place we choose, why heating all this up and why pinning it on North Korea apparently prematurely?
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<p />So now joining us to talk about all of this in the studio is Larry Wilkerson.
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<p />Thanks for joining us, Larry.
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<p />COL. LAWRENCE WILKERSON, FMR. CHIEF OF STAFF TO COLIN POWELL: Thanks for having me, Paul.
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<p />JAY: And as everybody knows, Larry is a regular on The Real News and was Colin Powell's chief of staff for many years and now teach at William &amp; Mary College. Right?
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<p />WILKERSON: Right.
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<p />JAY: So I know you're still kind of thinking through this, 'cause it's not obvious, but why do you think President Obama is so out front on this when the evidence seems so flimsy?
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<p />WILKERSON: I'm confused about it myself. I think the media have made a mountain out of a mole hill. I'm not discounting the fact that Sony may be suffering majorly in the long-term from this, monetarily and otherwise, but that's certainly no reason to contemplate the kind of action that I've heard people talking about with regard to U.S.-North Korean relations. And there are probably some reasons here, too, that I can speculate about. Sony let a lot of stuff get out, a lot of stuff other than this film that everyone's talking about, and I suspect Sony would be subject to some law suits.
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<p />JAY: Yeah, there are apparently some class-action suits already beginning from Sony employees who are saying that Sony didn't take enough precautions.
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<p />WILKERSON: Right. So how does Sony get out of that, almost with a wave of the magic wand have the president declare that it was a state that did it to them, and then the lawsuits probably lose effect?
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<p />JAY: Yeah, it'd be pretty hard to win a class-action lawsuit of it's considered a national security or a state terrorist attack, 'cause then Sony could say, well, no precautions could defeat a state.
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<p />But what about the heating up once again of this sort of rhetoric? And is there another agenda with North Korea here? Or is this mostly a PR exercise by the president?
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<p />WILKERSON: I certainly hope there's not another agenda, but I smell one, because in the summer of 2001, as the Bush administration was laboring over who in the axis of evil it was going to take on, Korea was first and foremost in many people's eyes. Once they were sobered up by the military and others, including yours truly, about what it would mean to have a war on the peninsula--100,000 casualties minimum; the almost total destruction of Seoul, the beautiful capital city of South Korea; at least 70-80,000 noncombatants, mostly Americans, who would have to be evacuated, probably the most complex, difficult noncombatant evacuation there would be in any scenario in the world, they sobered up quickly. They didn't want anything to do with that. And, of course, we know where they turned. They turned to the low-hanging fruit of Iraq.
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<p />JAY: I mean, the timing is interesting. You have this opening up, as they're calling it, with Cuba, and, of course, the neocons are all saying, oh, Obama's soft on communism and Obama's doing this and that in terms of Cuba. So maybe he needs a really aggressive posture on North Korea just to kind of partly cover his flank on Cuba. But maybe he wants more than just some posturing.
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<p />WILKERSON: I think you're attributing--and this is going to sound like I'm really down on the Obama administration, and I hate to be so with his great opening to Cuba (which I've been working for for years) accomplished, but I think you're attributing too much competence to the Obama foreign policy team. They don't seem to be all that competent. I think they're reacting. And in this case I think they overreacted.
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<p />JAY: And why does the United States care what goes on in North Korea? I mean, how does it have any significant importance to U.S. policy?
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<p />WILKERSON: I think the only reason we care that seems to matter to people from time to time is a humanitarian reason. And that's a genuine reason. There are a lot of people in North Korea who were treated quite badly, if not as badly as any other people in the world, we saw that during the famines, for example, earlier, where hundreds of thousands of them died.
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<p />I think the security reason has to do with South Korea, of course, South Korea's position opposite the Demilitarized Zone and the fact that the North has deployed major artillery forces and other forces next to the DMZ and could in effect start a war that they would ultimately, I think, lose, and most military people do think they would lose ultimately, but in the process they would destroy the capital city, which is just kilometers away from those artillery pieces, and do major damage to South Korea, one of the most successful countries in the world today, a country that in a generation has gone from being a debtor nation to being a creditor nation, which is unheard of in history. I mean, incredible what South Korea's done. So to see all that put in jeopardy or majorly set back by attack from the North is a horrible thing to contemplate for South Koreans and for their patron state.
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<p />JAY: Well, then, it makes even less sense to raise the level of--to inflame the rhetoric.
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<p />WILKERSON: Absolutely. Absolutely. And you've got the bigger strategic picture, too, of China, Japan, and Korea and the balance of power there. This would do nothing for that except negative.
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<p />JAY: Well, it's good for Sony.
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<p />WILKERSON: Yeah, great for Sony, I guess.
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<p />JAY: Alright. Thanks for joining us.
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<p />WILKERSON: Surely.
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<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network. Please, there's a donate button up here. We're in our matching-grant final campaign for the year end. Every dollar you donate gets matched until we hit $200,000. And if you don't do that, well, we can't do this.
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | true | 4 | distinguished adjunct professor government public policy lawrence wilkersons last positions government secretary state colin powells chief staff 200205 associate director state departments policy planning staff directorship ambassador richard n haass member staff responsible east asia pacific politicalmilitary legislative affairs 200102 serving state department wilkerson served 31 years us army time member faculty us naval war college 1987 1989 special assistant general powell chairman joint chiefs staff 198993 director deputy director us marine corps war college quantico virginia 199397 wilkerson retired active service 1997 colonel began work advisor general powell also taught national security affairs honors program george washington university currently working book first george w bush administration paul jay senior editor trnn welcome real news network im paul jay monday north korean internet went apparently completely course theres lot speculation retribution united states clear hackers even whether north koreans took kind maintenance theres lot stuff isnt clear responsible hack sony well lot technology magazines rather dubious president obamas accusations north koreans wired magazine pretty well known covering technology says akin saying saddam hussein weapons mass destruction say north koreans capability pull something like technologists quoted saying possible pin north korea fact theres code generated kind north korean finger footprints could easily replicated someone else hadsimilar things happened past american code picked russians used purposes fact quoted article one leading security experts none evidence presented fbi would hold court aggressive powerful statements president seeking retribution time place choose heating pinning north korea apparently prematurely joining us talk studio larry wilkerson thanks joining us larry col lawrence wilkerson fmr chief staff colin powell thanks paul jay everybody knows larry regular real news colin powells chief staff many years teach william amp mary college right wilkerson right jay know youre still kind thinking cause obvious think president obama front evidence seems flimsy wilkerson im confused think media made mountain mole hill im discounting fact sony may suffering majorly longterm monetarily otherwise thats certainly reason contemplate kind action ive heard people talking regard usnorth korean relations probably reasons speculate sony let lot stuff get lot stuff film everyones talking suspect sony would subject law suits jay yeah apparently classaction suits already beginning sony employees saying sony didnt take enough precautions wilkerson right sony get almost wave magic wand president declare state lawsuits probably lose effect jay yeah itd pretty hard win classaction lawsuit considered national security state terrorist attack cause sony could say well precautions could defeat state heating sort rhetoric another agenda north korea mostly pr exercise president wilkerson certainly hope theres another agenda smell one summer 2001 bush administration laboring axis evil going take korea first foremost many peoples eyes sobered military others including truly would mean war peninsula100000 casualties minimum almost total destruction seoul beautiful capital city south korea least 7080000 noncombatants mostly americans would evacuated probably complex difficult noncombatant evacuation would scenario world sobered quickly didnt want anything course know turned turned lowhanging fruit iraq jay mean timing interesting opening theyre calling cuba course neocons saying oh obamas soft communism obamas terms cuba maybe needs really aggressive posture north korea kind partly cover flank cuba maybe wants posturing wilkerson think youre attributingand going sound like im really obama administration hate great opening cuba ive working years accomplished think youre attributing much competence obama foreign policy team dont seem competent think theyre reacting case think overreacted jay united states care goes north korea mean significant importance us policy wilkerson think reason care seems matter people time time humanitarian reason thats genuine reason lot people north korea treated quite badly badly people world saw famines example earlier hundreds thousands died think security reason south korea course south koreas position opposite demilitarized zone fact north deployed major artillery forces forces next dmz could effect start war would ultimately think lose military people think would lose ultimately process would destroy capital city kilometers away artillery pieces major damage south korea one successful countries world today country generation gone debtor nation creditor nation unheard history mean incredible south koreas done see put jeopardy majorly set back attack north horrible thing contemplate south koreans patron state jay well makes even less sense raise level ofto inflame rhetoric wilkerson absolutely absolutely youve got bigger strategic picture china japan korea balance power would nothing except negative jay well good sony wilkerson yeah great sony guess jay alright thanks joining us wilkerson surely jay thank joining us real news network please theres donate button matchinggrant final campaign year end every dollar donate gets matched hit 200000 dont well cant end disclaimer please note transcripts real news network typed recording program trnn guarantee complete accuracy | 765 |
<p>A major atrocity was narrowly averted yesterday after a large nail bomb exploded outside a mosque just two hours after the funeral of terror victim Lee Rigby.&#160;A West Midlands Police spokesperson confirmed counter-terrorism officers had been dispatched to the scene…</p>
<p>The homemade device exploded near the Kanz Ul Iman Masjid mosque in Tipton, West Midlands, shortly after 1pm – when up to 200 worshippers would normally have been in the area for Friday prayers.</p>
<p>However, the prayers had been moved back an hour because of Ramadan and no one was injured in the blast.</p>
<p>The bomb, which was left on a disused railway line behind the mosque, showered the area with nails and other debris.</p>
<p>Police were last night treating the explosion as a terrorist incident and were investigating whether there are any links to a small explosion near a mosque in nearby Walsall last month.</p>
<p>Officers were also examining whether there is any connection to right wing extremists.</p>
<p>It was being treated as a suspected terror attack because of the size of the explosion, the fact nails were included and it appeared to have been timed to coincide with the Friday prayers.</p>
<p>One police source said such factors “appear to indicate at this stage intent to cause serious injury or damage”.</p>
<p>Residents in Tipton believed the attack had also been timed to coincide with the day of the funeral of Drummer Rigby in Bury.</p>
<p>The soldier died in an alleged Islamic terror attack in Woolwich, east London, in May.</p>
<p>Police in Tipton cordoned off an area of up to half a mile around Binfield Street while forensic experts, bomb specialists and counter-terrorism officers examined the scene.</p>
<p>Residents reported finding nails in gardens several hundred yards away.</p>
<p>Adrian Bailey, the local MP, said: “Given that it is Drummer Lee Rigby’s funeral today, and previous attacks at mosques across the country, it certainly seems that this may have been connected in some way.</p>
<p>“A nail bomb had exploded shortly after 1pm, when the mosque is usually at full capacity, but fortunately, as it is Ramadan, prayer times have changed and the devastation and potential loss of life that may have been suffered was avoided.</p>
<p>“At the early stages, everything points towards this being a premeditated attack.”</p>
<p>The attack came just two weeks after police arrested a 75-year-old man in connection with another explosion outside a mosque in nearby Walsall.</p>
<p>Mushtaq Hussain, chairman of the Kanzul Iman Mosque was inside the building at the time of the explosion.</p>
<p>He said: “There was huge disruption and somebody told me that there had been an explosion.</p>
<p>“We immediately investigated and alerted police. We tried to remain calm as we weren’t sure what was going on.</p>
<p>“It happened just after one o’clock which on a Friday is the busiest time of the day for our mosque usually.</p>
<p>“If it wasn’t Ramadan there would be at least 200 people here but thankfully at the time there were only a handful of people and everybody escaped without injury.</p>
<p>“If what I’m hearing is correct and it was a targeted attack you can’t help but feel unsafe, worried for your friends, family and your own life.”</p>
<p>Ahmadul Haque, councillor for Tipton, said: “I think it may be a retaliation to Lee Rigby’s funeral today. It seems like it was planned to go off at the busiest time of the day and if that’s the case, we can only be thankful that the timings were wrong.”</p>
<p>Razmullah Khan, 27, a local resident who lives next to the mosque, said: “It’s terrifying to be around, this is a place of worship not a war zone and with what happened in Walsall things are becoming terrifying people are starting to not feel safe about walking down the streets.”</p>
<p>Hartahn Hussain, 23, who prays up to five times a day at the mosque added: “This is a multicultural and cohesive community, there is never any trouble here.</p>
<p>“What’s happened today is completely out of the blue and it’s taken us all by surprise.</p>
<p>“We’re all completely shocked and each time I’ll be going to pray in future I’ll be worried and looking over my shoulder.”</p>
<p>In a joint statement, the board of trustees and management committee of the Kanz Ul Iman Masjid mosque said: “We express our deep shock and utter dismay regarding the incident that has occurred this afternoon. We jointly on behalf of the local community condemn this senseless and mindless act. It’s a blessing from God that thankfully no one was injured in the blast.</p>
<p>Speaking at a press conference, Assistant Chief Constable Gareth Cann said: “Just after 1pm today a member of the public phoned 999 and reported a loud bang close to the mosque.</p>
<p>“As a result of this, officers initiated a search of the area, and people started to report finding debris and nails in the area.</p>
<p>“People were evacuated and a cordon was put in place while officers worked with the army bomb disposal experts and specialist officers.</p>
<p>“There was minor damage to a nearby home, and the army are still searching the area and I believe that it is ready to be declared safe soon, and we can get people to return home.</p>
<p>“It’s likely that this is an attack given the factors and evidence found already. This includes the loud bang, reports of smoke, the finding of nails and the location of a mosque. From this, we can draw the most likely conclusion that there was a serious explosion and that somebody sought to create a devastating amount of damage.</p>
<p>“We are treating this as a terror attack, but we are still working to establish if this is connected to any other incidents that have occurred.”</p>
<p>READ MORE &gt;&gt;</p> | true | 4 | major atrocity narrowly averted yesterday large nail bomb exploded outside mosque two hours funeral terror victim lee rigby160a west midlands police spokesperson confirmed counterterrorism officers dispatched scene homemade device exploded near kanz ul iman masjid mosque tipton west midlands shortly 1pm 200 worshippers would normally area friday prayers however prayers moved back hour ramadan one injured blast bomb left disused railway line behind mosque showered area nails debris police last night treating explosion terrorist incident investigating whether links small explosion near mosque nearby walsall last month officers also examining whether connection right wing extremists treated suspected terror attack size explosion fact nails included appeared timed coincide friday prayers one police source said factors appear indicate stage intent cause serious injury damage residents tipton believed attack also timed coincide day funeral drummer rigby bury soldier died alleged islamic terror attack woolwich east london may police tipton cordoned area half mile around binfield street forensic experts bomb specialists counterterrorism officers examined scene residents reported finding nails gardens several hundred yards away adrian bailey local mp said given drummer lee rigbys funeral today previous attacks mosques across country certainly seems may connected way nail bomb exploded shortly 1pm mosque usually full capacity fortunately ramadan prayer times changed devastation potential loss life may suffered avoided early stages everything points towards premeditated attack attack came two weeks police arrested 75yearold man connection another explosion outside mosque nearby walsall mushtaq hussain chairman kanzul iman mosque inside building time explosion said huge disruption somebody told explosion immediately investigated alerted police tried remain calm werent sure going happened one oclock friday busiest time day mosque usually wasnt ramadan would least 200 people thankfully time handful people everybody escaped without injury im hearing correct targeted attack cant help feel unsafe worried friends family life ahmadul haque councillor tipton said think may retaliation lee rigbys funeral today seems like planned go busiest time day thats case thankful timings wrong razmullah khan 27 local resident lives next mosque said terrifying around place worship war zone happened walsall things becoming terrifying people starting feel safe walking streets hartahn hussain 23 prays five times day mosque added multicultural cohesive community never trouble whats happened today completely blue taken us surprise completely shocked time ill going pray future ill worried looking shoulder joint statement board trustees management committee kanz ul iman masjid mosque said express deep shock utter dismay regarding incident occurred afternoon jointly behalf local community condemn senseless mindless act blessing god thankfully one injured blast speaking press conference assistant chief constable gareth cann said 1pm today member public phoned 999 reported loud bang close mosque result officers initiated search area people started report finding debris nails area people evacuated cordon put place officers worked army bomb disposal experts specialist officers minor damage nearby home army still searching area believe ready declared safe soon get people return home likely attack given factors evidence found already includes loud bang reports smoke finding nails location mosque draw likely conclusion serious explosion somebody sought create devastating amount damage treating terror attack still working establish connected incidents occurred read gtgt | 513 |
<p>On a day when both a Supreme Court judge, and a controversial Democratic congressman announced their retirement, another major announcement largely slipped through the cracks. The President’s pick to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, Dawn Johnsen, withdrew her bid for confirmation under pressure from Senate Republicans.</p>
<p>But, who is Dawn Johnsen, and why was she forced to step down?</p>
<p>Ms. Johnsen is not only a lawyer, but a distinguished professor of constitutional law who worked at the Office of Legal Council from 1993 through 1998, and in the capacity of Assistant Attorney General from 1997 to 1998. She was twice nominated by Obama to head the OLC.</p>
<p>Now comes the why part. Apart from her vocal opposition to the Bush administration’s policy of defying international treaties by enabling torture and in violation of the Eighth Amendment injunction against cruel and unusual punishment, she also denounced the Bush gang for what she called the “outlandish” overreach of their executive branch.</p>
<p>Moreover, Ms. Johnson is a strong, and committed proponent of a woman’s right to choose.</p>
<p>Her strident opposition of so-called “enhanced alternative interrogation methods,” as well as the sociopathic attempts by past White House counsel Jay Bybee and John Yoo to legally sanction what amount to war crimes were more than Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee could bear. Indeed, that was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back, and resulted in the Obama administration rescinding its nomination.</p>
<p>Sadly, both the White House and the Justice Department have caved in to what they call “politically motivated pressure” by allowing an eminently qualified, and highly principled, candidate for the Office of Legal Counsel nominee to quietly remove herself from the running. Johnsen’s decision to withdraw her bid is especially ironic in light of the ruling of a D.C. federal judge, also on Friday,ordering the release of another Gitmo detainee, Mohamedon Salahi.</p>
<p>While some of the federal court’s decision remain classified, much of what is known speaks to the concerns of egregious extra-constitutionality Ms. Johnsen’s tenure would doubtless have addressed. Mr. Salahi was reportedly held by the U.S. for eight years on “suspicion” of having ties to al Qaeda.</p>
<p>He was illegally rendered from his birth country of Mauritania to Afghanistan, and then on to Gitmo where he has spent the last six years of his life subjected to a host of various and sundry tortures that include being shackled to the floor, awakened every few hours, and kept in complete isolation in the equivalent of a freezer for several months at a time. Now why in God’s name would anyone, Democrat or Republican, on the Senate Judiciary Committee, or anywhere else, object to the confirmation of someone to head the Office of Legal Counsel who abjures this egregious misconduct on the part of the U.S.? Arguably, because the offenses ushered in during the Cheney years, until explicitly disavowed, have now become legal precedent. This concession to the “war on terror” hawks of the Republican party cannot, and must not, go unacknowledged.</p>
<p>Importantly, the judge in the Salahi case, Judge James Robertson said he was convinced “there is ample evidence” Mr. Salahi was severely mistreated according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Notably, the Department of Justice is appealing Judge Robertson’s decision. Is Justice now as firmly entrenched, and invested in denying justice in this administration as it was in that of its predecessor?</p>
<p>The facts speak for themselves. Consider this: Salahi is the 34th Gitmo detainee who was deemed to have been detained illegally and released, so why would Dawn Johnsen, the President’s preferred nominee to head OLC, be forced to capitulate? Surely, her voice is not that of a lone wolf in the desert, but one that is being heard more and more both in federal, and district courts nationwide.</p>
<p>In the past few months alone, courts have ruled that the Bush administration’s broke the law when it defied FISA by having the NSA engage in electronic eavesdropping. Nobody, not even the former vice president, Dick Cheney, has argued that waterboarding is legal, and Cheney himself admits to green lighting the practice.</p>
<p>But, what’s a few laws between friends? The executive branch, in the Bush administration, also deleted millions of White House e-mails in violation of the Presidential Records Act, and the Obama White House appears to be just as eager to hide behind the shield of “state secrets” to protect their contents.</p>
<p>Understood that Obama speaks often of striving for bipartisanship, but is it in the interest of “bipartisanship” that a decade of wanton lawlessness, and extra-constitutional precedent be sanctioned by those in the Republican party who think that breaking the law is in the interest of national security? To paraphrase Richard Nixon–it’s not illegal if the president does it. Is it also not illegal if the president orders it?</p>
<p>The Obama administration has taken its blueprint for health reform from another Republican, Mitt Romney. Will it accept the Nixon mantra now, too?</p>
<p>Not only is the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay still open, but DOJ is appearing in court to oppose those who would like to see Gitmo closed, and the heinous practices of extraordinary rendition, and torture stopped. This is unacceptable.</p>
<p>Keith Olbermann once rightly said there’s a difference between compromising, and being compromised. By giving way on the confirmation of Dawn Johnsen, the White House is signalling that it is not compromising, but is in fact compromised. Yielding to those forces that would sabotage constitutional protections this country has enjoyed for over two hundred years is unacceptable.</p>
<p>If this confirmation battle is a harbinger of what is to come when Congress confirms Justice Steven’s replacement on the Supreme Court, then it’s high time for those who condemn torture, illegal surveillance, as well as those who are in favor of choice and affirmative action to stand up not step down.</p>
<p>It is only by distinguishing their policies from those of the opposing party, instead of simulating them, that Democrats can expect to survive what is perilously close to a religious revival from the right.</p>
<p>JAYNE LYN STAHL is a widely published poet, essayist, playwright, and screenwriter, member of PEN American Center, and PEN USA.</p>
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p /> | true | 4 | day supreme court judge controversial democratic congressman announced retirement another major announcement largely slipped cracks presidents pick head justice departments office legal counsel dawn johnsen withdrew bid confirmation pressure senate republicans dawn johnsen forced step ms johnsen lawyer distinguished professor constitutional law worked office legal council 1993 1998 capacity assistant attorney general 1997 1998 twice nominated obama head olc comes part apart vocal opposition bush administrations policy defying international treaties enabling torture violation eighth amendment injunction cruel unusual punishment also denounced bush gang called outlandish overreach executive branch moreover ms johnson strong committed proponent womans right choose strident opposition socalled enhanced alternative interrogation methods well sociopathic attempts past white house counsel jay bybee john yoo legally sanction amount war crimes republican members senate judiciary committee could bear indeed straw broke proverbial camels back resulted obama administration rescinding nomination sadly white house justice department caved call politically motivated pressure allowing eminently qualified highly principled candidate office legal counsel nominee quietly remove running johnsens decision withdraw bid especially ironic light ruling dc federal judge also fridayordering release another gitmo detainee mohamedon salahi federal courts decision remain classified much known speaks concerns egregious extraconstitutionality ms johnsens tenure would doubtless addressed mr salahi reportedly held us eight years suspicion ties al qaeda illegally rendered birth country mauritania afghanistan gitmo spent last six years life subjected host various sundry tortures include shackled floor awakened every hours kept complete isolation equivalent freezer several months time gods name would anyone democrat republican senate judiciary committee anywhere else object confirmation someone head office legal counsel abjures egregious misconduct part us arguably offenses ushered cheney years explicitly disavowed become legal precedent concession war terror hawks republican party must go unacknowledged importantly judge salahi case judge james robertson said convinced ample evidence mr salahi severely mistreated according american civil liberties union notably department justice appealing judge robertsons decision justice firmly entrenched invested denying justice administration predecessor facts speak consider salahi 34th gitmo detainee deemed detained illegally released would dawn johnsen presidents preferred nominee head olc forced capitulate surely voice lone wolf desert one heard federal district courts nationwide past months alone courts ruled bush administrations broke law defied fisa nsa engage electronic eavesdropping nobody even former vice president dick cheney argued waterboarding legal cheney admits green lighting practice whats laws friends executive branch bush administration also deleted millions white house emails violation presidential records act obama white house appears eager hide behind shield state secrets protect contents understood obama speaks often striving bipartisanship interest bipartisanship decade wanton lawlessness extraconstitutional precedent sanctioned republican party think breaking law interest national security paraphrase richard nixonits illegal president also illegal president orders obama administration taken blueprint health reform another republican mitt romney accept nixon mantra detention camp guantanamo bay still open doj appearing court oppose would like see gitmo closed heinous practices extraordinary rendition torture stopped unacceptable keith olbermann rightly said theres difference compromising compromised giving way confirmation dawn johnsen white house signalling compromising fact compromised yielding forces would sabotage constitutional protections country enjoyed two hundred years unacceptable confirmation battle harbinger come congress confirms justice stevens replacement supreme court high time condemn torture illegal surveillance well favor choice affirmative action stand step distinguishing policies opposing party instead simulating democrats expect survive perilously close religious revival right jayne lyn stahl widely published poet essayist playwright screenwriter member pen american center pen usa words stick | 559 |
<p>Iran, even in the most fanciful flights of rhetoric of some of its leaders, is not threatening to kill Jews, as Goldberg intimates. It is threatening to dismantle a system (the Zionist regime) that it regards as brutal and illegitimate.</p>
<p>Jeffery Goldberg of The Atlantic is a respected and well-connected American commentator on U.S.-Israel affairs and regional issues such as the nuclear deal with Iran. His access to top Administration officials like President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry is among the best in the business.</p>
<p>When he wrote a few months ago that a senior Administration official had described Benjamin Netanyahu as “chickenshit,” it caused gigantic waves in both Washington and Jerusalem. People in the know take Goldberg seriously.</p>
<p>So what is one to make of his&#160; <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/08/iran-israel-obama-kerry-jews/400895/" type="external">latest effort</a>, which propels the Iranian regime’s attitudes to Jews and Israel into the forefront of the ongoing debate (or virtual war) over getting the nuclear deal through Congress?</p>
<p>Goldberg’s confusion is evident from the start. The article is headlined “Why Iran’s Anti-Semitism Matters,” while the sub-headline is “A close read of Obama and Kerry’s comments on whether Iranian leaders seek Israel’s destruction.”</p>
<p>In other words, seeking Israel’s destruction—if that indeed is what the Iranian regime is after—is synonymous with anti-Semitism. But is it? And is there a consequential difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism (or anti-Israelism,) or is it OK to conflate the two, as Goldberg does?</p>
<p>(Being a journalist I know that writers are very often not responsible for the headlines attached to their article and are at the mercy of less-stringent copy editors. But that’s not the case here. Anti-Semitism and anti-Israel are used interchangeable by Goldberg throughout the piece, as in “Does the Iranian leadership seek the elimination of Israel? I had already discussed the nature of Iranian-regime anti-Semitism with Obama in a May interview.”)</p>
<p>Merriam-Webster defines anti-Semitism as “hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic or racial group.” Oxford defines it as “hostility to or prejudice against Jews.”</p>
<p>The Anti-Defamation League defines it as: “The belief or behavior hostile toward Jews just because they are Jewish. It may take the form of religious teachings that proclaim the inferiority of Jews, for instance, or political efforts to isolate, oppress, or otherwise injure them. It may also include prejudiced or stereotyped views about Jews.”</p>
<p>The only reasonable conclusion is that, to be defined as anti-Semitism, a statement would, at the very least, need to refer to Jews. Is that the case with the Iranian leadership as quoted by Goldberg in his article?</p>
<p>The answer is no. The only statement quoted by Goldberg—Iran’s Supreme Leader saying “This barbaric, wolflike, and infanticidal regime of Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated,”—does not mention Jews. But he is thoughtful enough to link to&#160; <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/03/Iranian-View-of-Israel/387085/" type="external">another piece</a>&#160;from March this year which is full of quotes.</p>
<p>I counted 17 quotes in the second article, only one of which makes any mention of Jews—and that was from Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon and not an Iranian at all. Hezbollah may be an ally and client of Iran, but I doubt whether the proud Persians would have him speak for them.</p>
<p>The other quotes—from Iran’s Supreme Leader, previous presidents, military leaders and so on—make abundant mention of Israel and the “Zionist regime” and are replete with words such as “destroy” and “eliminate,” but they include not a single mention of Jews. Nothing.</p>
<p>Goldberg, it turns out, is deploying a new, extra-dictionary definition of anti-Semitism which goes something like this: In addition to hostility and prejudice against Jews, anti-Semitism also covers any statement or action against Israel that could be regarded as anti-Semitism if it were targeted at Jews. He anchors that by regularly referring to Israel as “the sovereign Jewish state in the Middle East,” thus creating the Israel-Jew symbiosis.</p>
<p>It’s a sub-set of Netanyahu’s definition of anti-Semitism, which covers any and all criticism of his government. In 2014, Netanyahu denounced all supporters of boycotts against Israel as “classical anti-Semites in modern garb”—a definition that includes many Jews and Israelis, myself included, who believe that only concerted pressure on Israel from outside will compel Israel to end the occupation.</p>
<p>Goldberg doesn’t go quite as far as Netanyahu, but his definition is still highly problematic.</p>
<p>The accepted view of classical anti-Semitism is that it cannot be attributed to any Jewish action or mechanism. In other words, whatever Jews may have said or done over the years—killing Jesus, usury and so on—they are not a valid basis or justification for anti-Semitism. Anti-Jewish prejudice is a pathology, abstracted from the actions of individual Jews or any groups they may comprise.</p>
<p>Using the term anti-Semitism with regard to Israel means, therefore, that Israel is above criticism. It means that, whatever its policies or its actions, Israel cannot be held accountable—and that all those who try to hold it to account are beyond the pale. Sick, perverted human beings.</p>
<p>But history says otherwise. In the two or three decades following its foundation, Israel was the darling of the world (with the exclusion of the Arab and Muslim states,) including of many Western progressives. That slowly changed as Israel cemented it grip on the occupied territories, undertook wide-scale settlement, employed brutal and often-fatal measures against Palestinian civilians and made it quite clear to anyone who was prepared to listen that it had no intention of ever relinquishing the land it conquered.</p>
<p>Israeli action alone turned the world-wide admiration of the Fifties and Sixties into the antipathy and even hatred that we saw on the streets of Europe during last year’s Gaza war and the burgeoning activism of the boycott movement. The same goes for the increasing calls for recognition of Palestine in European parliaments and the evident exasperation of most European governments after almost 50 years of occupation.</p>
<p>It is disingenuous and deeply mistaken to equate anti-Israel sentiment with anti-Semitism. The latter is a pathology, a deformity, while the former is a legitimate political position stemming from the repeated actions of successive Israeli governments over the past half-century.</p>
<p>It suits Netanyahu’s purposes to reduce all criticism to pogroms and the Holocaust, but what’s Goldberg’s excuse?</p>
<p>I imagine he would say that there’s a difference between garden-variety anti-Zionism and the exterminatory rhetoric of members of the Iranian regime. Or, as he put it in his article, “If, in the post-Holocaust world, a group of people express a desire to hurt Jews, it is, for safety’s sake, best to believe them.”</p>
<p>It takes an extraordinary degree of geo-political obliviousness (not to mention cognitive dissonance) to distill Israel, a powerful country with a large non-Jewish minority, into Goldberg’s “Jews,” evocative as they are of the imperiled and defenseless victims of the Holocaust. His starting point is the “post-Holocaust world,” but his Jews are the same, old, pre-Holocaust Jews.</p>
<p>Goldberg’s Jews are a threadbare stereotype. They are not Israel and Israel is not them. Not everyone in Israel is Jewish and not all Jews are Zionist. In the early days of the state, as&#160; <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.670543" type="external">Uri Avnery wrote</a>&#160;recently, Jewishness was barely mentioned. ‘Everything pertaining to the Jewish community in the Land of Israel was ‘Hebrew.’” That has changed in recent decades, as the state mutated into a Jewish alien under the influence of the settlement enterprise. But there remains a world of difference between Israel and global Jewry.</p>
<p>Iran, even in the most fanciful flights of rhetoric of some of its leaders, is not threatening to kill Jews, as Goldberg intimates. It is threatening to dismantle a system (the Zionist regime) that it regards as brutal and illegitimate. There are many others around the world who aspire to the same goal.</p>
<p>And that’s OK. The United States and the Soviet Union spent decades threatening to dismantle each other’s regime. The Republicans in Congress still threaten to dismantle the Cuban regime. In fact, the U.S. has a glorious history of regime dismantlement (think Mosaddegh in 1953.) And Israel itself has not been shy to support insurrectionists when it suited its purposes. Ask the Christians in Lebanon or the Kurds in Iraq.</p>
<p>Israel and Iran are ideological enemies and regional rivals. Behind the bluster from both sides is a struggle for hegemony and influence. Being the sole regional superpower is a strategic imperative for both. Neither truly believes it can eliminate the other, but the lack of nuclear balance—currently very much in Israel’s favor—is dangerously destabilizing.</p>
<p>The purpose of the nuclear agreement is to reduce tensions in the regime by averting a nuclear arms race (or preventing it from reaching a tipping-point.) That’s a good start, but for it to have true long-term benefit, it needs to be accompanied by regional nuclear disarmament.</p>
<p>Instead of peddling the worn anti-Semitism shibboleth, Goldberg should look beyond Netanyahu’s fear-mongering and Holocaust obsession. He could start by calling out Obama and Kerry whenever they talk of Iranian anti-Semitism, as they are wont to do. The water is heavy enough without being muddied by disinformation.</p>
<p>This post first appeared at <a href="http://www.roywrite.com/wordpress/?p=465" type="external">The Kibbitzer</a>.</p>
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<p>Roy Isacowitz is a journalist and writer living in Tel Aviv.</p> | true | 4 | iran even fanciful flights rhetoric leaders threatening kill jews goldberg intimates threatening dismantle system zionist regime regards brutal illegitimate jeffery goldberg atlantic respected wellconnected american commentator usisrael affairs regional issues nuclear deal iran access top administration officials like president obama secretary state kerry among best business wrote months ago senior administration official described benjamin netanyahu chickenshit caused gigantic waves washington jerusalem people know take goldberg seriously one make his160 latest effort propels iranian regimes attitudes jews israel forefront ongoing debate virtual war getting nuclear deal congress goldbergs confusion evident start article headlined irans antisemitism matters subheadline close read obama kerrys comments whether iranian leaders seek israels destruction words seeking israels destructionif indeed iranian regime afteris synonymous antisemitism consequential difference antisemitism antizionism antiisraelism ok conflate two goldberg journalist know writers often responsible headlines attached article mercy lessstringent copy editors thats case antisemitism antiisrael used interchangeable goldberg throughout piece iranian leadership seek elimination israel already discussed nature iranianregime antisemitism obama may interview merriamwebster defines antisemitism hostility toward discrimination jews religious ethnic racial group oxford defines hostility prejudice jews antidefamation league defines belief behavior hostile toward jews jewish may take form religious teachings proclaim inferiority jews instance political efforts isolate oppress otherwise injure may also include prejudiced stereotyped views jews reasonable conclusion defined antisemitism statement would least need refer jews case iranian leadership quoted goldberg article answer statement quoted goldbergirans supreme leader saying barbaric wolflike infanticidal regime israel spares crime cure annihilateddoes mention jews thoughtful enough link to160 another piece160from march year full quotes counted 17 quotes second article one makes mention jewsand hassan nasrallah leader hezbollah lebanon iranian hezbollah may ally client iran doubt whether proud persians would speak quotesfrom irans supreme leader previous presidents military leaders onmake abundant mention israel zionist regime replete words destroy eliminate include single mention jews nothing goldberg turns deploying new extradictionary definition antisemitism goes something like addition hostility prejudice jews antisemitism also covers statement action israel could regarded antisemitism targeted jews anchors regularly referring israel sovereign jewish state middle east thus creating israeljew symbiosis subset netanyahus definition antisemitism covers criticism government 2014 netanyahu denounced supporters boycotts israel classical antisemites modern garba definition includes many jews israelis included believe concerted pressure israel outside compel israel end occupation goldberg doesnt go quite far netanyahu definition still highly problematic accepted view classical antisemitism attributed jewish action mechanism words whatever jews may said done yearskilling jesus usury onthey valid basis justification antisemitism antijewish prejudice pathology abstracted actions individual jews groups may comprise using term antisemitism regard israel means therefore israel criticism means whatever policies actions israel held accountableand try hold account beyond pale sick perverted human beings history says otherwise two three decades following foundation israel darling world exclusion arab muslim states including many western progressives slowly changed israel cemented grip occupied territories undertook widescale settlement employed brutal oftenfatal measures palestinian civilians made quite clear anyone prepared listen intention ever relinquishing land conquered israeli action alone turned worldwide admiration fifties sixties antipathy even hatred saw streets europe last years gaza war burgeoning activism boycott movement goes increasing calls recognition palestine european parliaments evident exasperation european governments almost 50 years occupation disingenuous deeply mistaken equate antiisrael sentiment antisemitism latter pathology deformity former legitimate political position stemming repeated actions successive israeli governments past halfcentury suits netanyahus purposes reduce criticism pogroms holocaust whats goldbergs excuse imagine would say theres difference gardenvariety antizionism exterminatory rhetoric members iranian regime put article postholocaust world group people express desire hurt jews safetys sake best believe takes extraordinary degree geopolitical obliviousness mention cognitive dissonance distill israel powerful country large nonjewish minority goldbergs jews evocative imperiled defenseless victims holocaust starting point postholocaust world jews old preholocaust jews goldbergs jews threadbare stereotype israel israel everyone israel jewish jews zionist early days state as160 uri avnery wrote160recently jewishness barely mentioned everything pertaining jewish community land israel hebrew changed recent decades state mutated jewish alien influence settlement enterprise remains world difference israel global jewry iran even fanciful flights rhetoric leaders threatening kill jews goldberg intimates threatening dismantle system zionist regime regards brutal illegitimate many others around world aspire goal thats ok united states soviet union spent decades threatening dismantle others regime republicans congress still threaten dismantle cuban regime fact us glorious history regime dismantlement think mosaddegh 1953 israel shy support insurrectionists suited purposes ask christians lebanon kurds iraq israel iran ideological enemies regional rivals behind bluster sides struggle hegemony influence sole regional superpower strategic imperative neither truly believes eliminate lack nuclear balancecurrently much israels favoris dangerously destabilizing purpose nuclear agreement reduce tensions regime averting nuclear arms race preventing reaching tippingpoint thats good start true longterm benefit needs accompanied regional nuclear disarmament instead peddling worn antisemitism shibboleth goldberg look beyond netanyahus fearmongering holocaust obsession could start calling obama kerry whenever talk iranian antisemitism wont water heavy enough without muddied disinformation post first appeared kibbitzer like youve read subscribe times magazine make taxdeductible donation fund reporting roy isacowitz journalist writer living tel aviv | 819 |
<p>In Germany, at the age of nine, I saw something on television that horrified me. It was a table lamp with a shade that looked like parchment. It had been made from the skin of a Jewish person. Disturbed by the sight of the lamp I began to wonder: what is it that makes people rob human beings of their skin? Where were the others that could have prevented this? In later years I learned that the German government had done countless other despicable things, and like many members of my age cohort I asked myself what the Nazi experience had to do with my grandparents and what it meant for me. The conclusion I reached was this: A democratic government draws its power from the population it governs, and even a tyrannical government acts in the name of that population. For this reason citizens have a moral obligation to watch their government at all times and ensure that its power remains checked. If they fail to do so, they become tainted by its deeds. To avoid becoming implicated, citizens must inform themselves. There is no right not to know.</p>
<p>Years passed, and I moved to the United States. On September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were hit, I was a doctoral student at American University in Washington, DC. I was there when the university’s population of Arab students realized that they were unwelcome and decided to continue their studies in their home countries or in Europe. I shared their fear when my Arabic name led to the shut-down of ticketing computers at Ronald Reagan Airport. When the Afghanistan war began I reminded students that many civilians would die. Some responded with hate mail. This silenced me, and when the Iraq war started, I decided to ignore it.</p>
<p>Four years later I teach college students the politics of the Middle East. By now most Americans are convinced that the idea to invade Iraq was a bad one. Analysts point to strategic miscalculations that have taken place: the threat posed by Saddam Hussein was exaggerated, because he did not have weapons of mass destruction. Usama Bin Laden, who had long been banned from Iraq by a jealous tyrant, is now establishing a foothold in Mesopotamia. The plan of establishing a model democracy in the heart of the Middle East is doomed, because the country’s religious and ethnic groups are sliding into civil war. As Iraq disintegrates, Iran is turning into a regional hegemon, threatening U.S. interests in the region.</p>
<p>Washington’s pundits, politicians, and bureaucrats, point fingers at each other, deflecting responsibility for the invasion from themselves towards their counterparts. As they do so, the various mistakes that were committed prior to the war are coming to light. The government and its neoconservative allies were war hungry. The CIA did poor research. Journalists that supplied the Washington, DC, “beltway bubble” with news swallowed information that came from the White House without checking alternative sources. Members of Congress forgot the lessons of the Gulf of Tonkin and yielded decisions over war and peace to the president. Citizens failed to demand of their leaders and their media that they provide good analysis.</p>
<p>Despite the fact that the Iraq debate brings mistakes to light, it leaves me with the impression that I am stuck in a bad movie, one that never gets at the real storyline. This impression is based on two observations. First, even though Americans debate the negative consequences of the war, their overriding concerns are largely self-serving. While average Americans are troubled by the cost of war, professional analysts are worried what this war will do to America’s status as the world’s superpower. The burden which the invasion has imposed on Iraqi civilians is a non-issue. Second, public discussion is marked by the latent claim that Iraqis are to blame for the failure of America’s military ambitions. It appears that this nation is mocking Iraqis twice ­ by failing to see the misery which it has inflicted on them and by attributing guilt for this misery to them.</p>
<p>Let me elaborate on these two points, starting with the idea, at home in numerous Internet blogs, that Iraqis are to blame for their fate. The logic of the argument goes as follows: The U.S. launched Operation Iraqi Freedom in a well-intentioned effort to liberate the country from a tyrannical oppressor, enabling the people to take charge of their own fate and create a democracy. But Iraqis are refusing to do so. Instead of shaking the hands of those who came to save them, they are slapping their wrists. Thus, the liberation of the country “went wrong” because Iraqis do not want freedom.</p>
<p>When I discuss this claim with students, I bring up the following counterfactual. Assume that some benign power had concluded that Los Angeles was sitting on a large oilfield and that the L.A. municipal government was crudely suppressing its residents. The benign power invades, obliterates the government, the police force, the domestic infrastructure, and then waits for people to lead a better life. Only, that does not happen, because L.A.’s street gangs realize that amidst the institutional breakdown power can be grabbed by those who are willing to fight for it long enough. Chaos engulfs the city, and residents are murdered on a regular basis. What is the problem here? Is it that the citizens of Los Angeles don’t like freedom? Most who hear this example would answer in the negative. But if we concede that desire for freedom has nothing to do with what is happening in L.A., then why do we believe that Iraqis are to blame if their society goes up in flames?</p>
<p>Since 2003 inhabitants of Baghdad have been facing daily explosions and the killing of relatives. Gradually they are developing a historical record of injuries their families have suffered at the hands of their religious others. This record creates anger at Sunnis, Shiites, and perhaps even the foreign country that came and brought pandemonium. As the murders continue, even those who are usually quite apolitical will be drawn into the vortex of civil war. This, however, does not change a simple fact. Iraqis did not choose to have their government institutions overthrown. It was America that made this choice for them, and if anybody is to be blamed for the failure of this invasion it is America.</p>
<p>Let me now move to my claim that in their evaluation of the invasion, analysts and politicians fail to acknowledge the cost this war is imposing on Iraqis. For that I would like to look at the statements of those politicians who openly express the view that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. One such individual is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who voted against the 2002 Iraq war resolution. On March 19, 2007, she spoke in support of a bill that would tie spending increases for the war effort to a time table for troop withdrawal. According to her, what are the constituencies to whom this nation is indebted? For starters, Pelosi points to the high cost of the war, recognizing the burden that has been imposed on the country’s tax payers. Indeed, the burden is high. According to the National Priorities Project, the cost of war amounts to over $420 billion thus far. This is money which will not be spent on education or health care.</p>
<p>Pelosi also acknowledges the country’s debt to the troops. She recognizes that the armed forces have borne the brunt of the military campaign, and that 3,400 troops have lost their lives. And Pelosi is right. The women and men who are stationed in Iraq are paying a high price for the government’s poor decisions. They are left to sort out a mess that is hard to bring under control. Many of those who survive the war will not do so intact, suffering either physical injuries or emotional trauma. To these individuals Pelosi expresses her gratitude. She salutes them for their courage, their patriotism, and their sacrifice. Then she goes on to say: “The debt which can never be repaid is to those whose lives have been lost in the war, and as a nation, we mourn them.”</p>
<p>Well, the number of those whose lives have been lost is far greater than 3,200. It includes more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians who were either killed by coalition military action or by local insurgents. To put this tragedy in perspective, imagine two thousand shootings of the kind Virginia Tech experienced. But even though Iraqis bear an enormous burden, Pelosi does not refer to them when she says that the nation mourns those whose lives have been lost. Why is this? I believe the reason lies in the fact that Iraqis cannot vote in federal elections.</p>
<p>It is hard to accept that Americans mourn only Americans. All those who die deserve recognition, because they are human beings and have the right to live. A nation that views itself as a role model for the rest of the world must do better than inflicting suffering on others and then either blaming them for their misfortune or ignoring it entirely. It is time that members of this nation become aware of their moral obligations and take responsibility for what their government does in their name. As a first step in that direction we should stop viewing the war as a costly experiment that has gone wrong. Let’s treat it as the catastrophe that it really is.</p>
<p>NIVIEN SALEH is a visiting professor at Northern Arizona University</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | germany age nine saw something television horrified table lamp shade looked like parchment made skin jewish person disturbed sight lamp began wonder makes people rob human beings skin others could prevented later years learned german government done countless despicable things like many members age cohort asked nazi experience grandparents meant conclusion reached democratic government draws power population governs even tyrannical government acts name population reason citizens moral obligation watch government times ensure power remains checked fail become tainted deeds avoid becoming implicated citizens must inform right know years passed moved united states september 11 2001 world trade center pentagon hit doctoral student american university washington dc universitys population arab students realized unwelcome decided continue studies home countries europe shared fear arabic name led shutdown ticketing computers ronald reagan airport afghanistan war began reminded students many civilians would die responded hate mail silenced iraq war started decided ignore four years later teach college students politics middle east americans convinced idea invade iraq bad one analysts point strategic miscalculations taken place threat posed saddam hussein exaggerated weapons mass destruction usama bin laden long banned iraq jealous tyrant establishing foothold mesopotamia plan establishing model democracy heart middle east doomed countrys religious ethnic groups sliding civil war iraq disintegrates iran turning regional hegemon threatening us interests region washingtons pundits politicians bureaucrats point fingers deflecting responsibility invasion towards counterparts various mistakes committed prior war coming light government neoconservative allies war hungry cia poor research journalists supplied washington dc beltway bubble news swallowed information came white house without checking alternative sources members congress forgot lessons gulf tonkin yielded decisions war peace president citizens failed demand leaders media provide good analysis despite fact iraq debate brings mistakes light leaves impression stuck bad movie one never gets real storyline impression based two observations first even though americans debate negative consequences war overriding concerns largely selfserving average americans troubled cost war professional analysts worried war americas status worlds superpower burden invasion imposed iraqi civilians nonissue second public discussion marked latent claim iraqis blame failure americas military ambitions appears nation mocking iraqis twice failing see misery inflicted attributing guilt misery let elaborate two points starting idea home numerous internet blogs iraqis blame fate logic argument goes follows us launched operation iraqi freedom wellintentioned effort liberate country tyrannical oppressor enabling people take charge fate create democracy iraqis refusing instead shaking hands came save slapping wrists thus liberation country went wrong iraqis want freedom discuss claim students bring following counterfactual assume benign power concluded los angeles sitting large oilfield la municipal government crudely suppressing residents benign power invades obliterates government police force domestic infrastructure waits people lead better life happen las street gangs realize amidst institutional breakdown power grabbed willing fight long enough chaos engulfs city residents murdered regular basis problem citizens los angeles dont like freedom hear example would answer negative concede desire freedom nothing happening la believe iraqis blame society goes flames since 2003 inhabitants baghdad facing daily explosions killing relatives gradually developing historical record injuries families suffered hands religious others record creates anger sunnis shiites perhaps even foreign country came brought pandemonium murders continue even usually quite apolitical drawn vortex civil war however change simple fact iraqis choose government institutions overthrown america made choice anybody blamed failure invasion america let move claim evaluation invasion analysts politicians fail acknowledge cost war imposing iraqis would like look statements politicians openly express view invasion iraq mistake one individual house speaker nancy pelosi voted 2002 iraq war resolution march 19 2007 spoke support bill would tie spending increases war effort time table troop withdrawal according constituencies nation indebted starters pelosi points high cost war recognizing burden imposed countrys tax payers indeed burden high according national priorities project cost war amounts 420 billion thus far money spent education health care pelosi also acknowledges countrys debt troops recognizes armed forces borne brunt military campaign 3400 troops lost lives pelosi right women men stationed iraq paying high price governments poor decisions left sort mess hard bring control many survive war intact suffering either physical injuries emotional trauma individuals pelosi expresses gratitude salutes courage patriotism sacrifice goes say debt never repaid whose lives lost war nation mourn well number whose lives lost far greater 3200 includes 100000 iraqi civilians either killed coalition military action local insurgents put tragedy perspective imagine two thousand shootings kind virginia tech experienced even though iraqis bear enormous burden pelosi refer says nation mourns whose lives lost believe reason lies fact iraqis vote federal elections hard accept americans mourn americans die deserve recognition human beings right live nation views role model rest world must better inflicting suffering others either blaming misfortune ignoring entirely time members nation become aware moral obligations take responsibility government name first step direction stop viewing war costly experiment gone wrong lets treat catastrophe really nivien saleh visiting professor northern arizona university 160 160 | 804 |
<p>Miami.</p>
<p>We were loading our video equipment into the trunk of our car when a fleet of bicycle cops sped up and formed a semi-circle around us. The lead cop was none other than Miami Police Chief John Timoney. The former Police Commissioner of Philadelphia Timoney has a reputation for brutality and hatred of protesters of any kind. He calls them “punks,” “knuckleheads” and a whole slew of expletives. He coordinated the brutal police response to the mass-protests at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in 2000. After a brief stint in the private sector, Timoney took the post of Miami police chief as part of Mayor Manny Diaz’s efforts to “clean up the department.”</p>
<p>We had watched him the night before on the local news in Miami praising his men for the restraint they had shown in the face of violent anarchists intent on destroying the city. In reality, the tens of thousands who gathered in Miami to protest the ministerial meetings of the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit were seeking to peacefully demonstrate against what they consider to be a deadly expansion of NAFTA and US-led policies of free trade. There were environmental groups, labor unions, indigenous activists from across the hemisphere, church groups, grassroots organizations, students and many others in the streets. What they encountered as they assembled outside the gates to the building housing the FTAA talks was nothing short of a police riot. It only took a few hours last Thursday before downtown Miami looked like a city under martial law.</p>
<p>On the news, Chief Timoney spoke in sober tones about the tear gas that demonstrators fired at his officers. No, that is not a typo. Timoney said the protesters were the ones launching the tear gas. He also said the demonstrators had hurled “missiles” at the police. “I got a lot of tear gas,” Timoney said. “We all got gassed. They were loaded to the hilt. A lot of missiles, bottles, rocks, tear gas from the radicals.”</p>
<p>Seeing Timoney up close and personal evokes this image of Mayor Daley at the ’68 Democratic Convention ordering his men to shoot protesters on sight. He is that kind of guy.</p>
<p>Back at our car, Timoney hopped off his bike as a police cameraman recorded his every move. It all had the feel of being on an episode of COPS. He demanded the license and registration for the car. Our colleague Norm Stockwell of community radio station WORT in Madison, Wisconsin gave him his license. We informed him we were journalists. One of his men grabbed Norm’s press pass, looking it over as though it was a fake. They looked at all of us with nasty snares before getting back on their bikes and preparing to continue on to further protect Miami. Timoney gave us this look that said, you got away this time but I’ll be back. You could tell he was pissed off that we weren’t anarchists (as far as he knew).</p>
<p>As Timoney was talking with his men, one of the guys on the bikes approached us with a notepad. “Can I have your names?” he asked.</p>
<p>I thought he was a police officer preparing a report. He had on a Miami police polo shirt, just like Timoney’s. He had a Miami police bike helmet, just like Timoney’s. He had a bike, just like Timoney’s. In fact there was only one small detail that separated him from Timoney-a small badge around his neck identifying him as a reporter with the Miami Herald. He was embedded with Chief Timoney.</p>
<p>That reporter was one of dozens who were embedded with the Miami forces (it’s hard to call them police), deployed to protect the FTAA ministerial meetings from thousands of unarmed protesters. In another incident, we saw a Miami Herald photographer who had somehow gotten pushed onto the “protesters side” of a standoff with the police. He was behind a line of young kids who had locked arms to try and prevent the police from advancing and attacking the crowds outside of the Inter-Continental Hotel. He was shouting at the kids to move so he could get back to the safe side. The protesters ignored him and continued with their blockade.</p>
<p>The photographer grew angrier and angrier before he began hitting one of the young kids on the line. He punched him in the back of the head before other journalists grabbed him and calmed him down. His colleagues seemed shocked at the conduct. He was a big, big guy and was wearing a bulletproof vest and a police issued riot helmet, but I really think he was scared of the skinny, dreadlocked bandana clad protesters. He had this look of panic on his face, like he had been in a scuffle with the Viet Cong.</p>
<p>Watching the embedded journalists on Miami TV was quite entertaining. They spoke of venturing into Protesterland as though they were entering a secret al Qaeda headquarters in the mountains of Afghanistan. Interviews with protest leaders were sort of like the secret bin Laden tapes. There was something risqué, even sexy about having the courage to venture over to the convergence space (the epicenter of protest organizing at the FTAA) and the Independent Media Center. Several reporters told of brushes they had with “the protesters.” One reporter was quite shaken after a group of “anarchists” slashed her news van’s tires and wrote the word “propaganda” across the side door. She feared for the life of her cameraman, she somberly told the anchor back in the studio. The anchor warned her to be careful out there.</p>
<p>So dangerous was the scene that the overwhelming majority of the images of the protests on TV were from helicopter shots, where very little could be seen except that there was a confrontation between police and “the protesters.” This gave cover for Timoney and other officials to make their outrageous and false statements over and over.</p>
<p>Timoney spun his tales of “hard-core anarchists” rampaging through the streets of Miami; “outsiders coming to terrorize and vandalize our city.” He painted a picture of friendly restrained police enduring constant attacks from rocks, paint, gas canisters, smoke bombs and fruit. “We are very proud of the police officers and their restraint. Lots of objects were thrown at the police officers,” Timoney said. “If we didn’t act when we did, it would have been much worse.”</p>
<p>It was much worse.</p>
<p>Timoney’s Paramilitaries</p>
<p>After last week, no one should call what Timoney runs in Miami a police force. It’s a paramilitary group. Thousands of soldiers, dressed in khaki uniforms with full black body armor and gas masks, marching in unison through the streets, banging batons against their shields, chanting, “back back back.” There were armored personnel carriers and helicopters.</p>
<p>The forces fired indiscriminately into crowds of unarmed protesters. Scores of people were hit with skin-piercing rubber bullets; thousands were gassed with an array of chemicals. On several occasions, police fired loud concussion grenades into the crowds. Police shocked people with electric tazers. Demonstrators were shot in the back as they retreated. One young guy’s apparent crime was holding his fingers in a peace sign in front of the troops. They shot him multiple times, including once in the stomach at point blank range.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I spent several days in the streets, going from conflict to conflict. We saw no attempts by any protesters to attack a business or corporation. With the exception of some graffiti and an occasional garbage can set on fire, there was very little in the way of action not aimed directly at the site of the FTAA meetings. Even the Black Bloc kids, who generally have a rep for wanting to smash everything up, were incredibly restrained and focused.</p>
<p>There was no need for any demonstrator to hurl anything at the forces to spark police violence. It was clear from the jump that Timoney’s men came prepared to crack heads. And they did that over and over. After receiving $8.5 million in federal funds from the $87 billion Iraq spending bill, Miami needed to have a major combat operation. It didn’t matter if it was warranted.</p>
<p>Miami Mayor Manny Diaz called the police actions last week a model for homeland security. FTAA officials called it extraordinary. Several cities sent law enforcement observers to the protests to study what some are now referring to as the “Miami Model.”</p>
<p>This model also included the embedding of undercover police with the protesters. At one point during a standoff with police, it appeared as though a group of protesters had gotten into a brawl amongst themselves. But as others moved in to break up the melee, two of the guys pulled out electric tazers and shocked protesters, before being liberated back behind police lines. These guys, clearly undercover agents, were dressed like any other protester. One had a sticker on his backpack that read: “FTAA No Way.”</p>
<p>The IMC has since published pictures of people dressed like Black Bloc kids-ski masks and all-walking with uniformed police behind police lines.</p>
<p>The only pause in the heavy police violence in Miami came on Thursday afternoon when the major labor unions held their mass-rally and march. Led by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, the march had a legal permit and was carefully coordinated with the police. Many of the union guys applauded the police as they marched past columns of the body-armored officers on break from gassing and shooting unarmed demonstrators.</p>
<p>But as soon as the unions and their permits began to disperse, the police seized the moment to escalate the violence against the other protesters. Fresh from their break during the union rally, Timoney’s forces ordered the protesters to clear the area in front of the Inter-Continental. Some of the demonstrators shouted back that they had a right to peaceably protest the FTAA.</p>
<p>Boom. The concussion grenades started flying.</p>
<p>Hiss. The tear gas was sprayed.</p>
<p>Rat-a-tat-tat. The rubber bullets were fired.</p>
<p>Bam, bam. The batons were swinging.</p>
<p>The police methodically marched in a long column directly at the several hundred protesters who believed they had a right to protest, even without John Sweeney at their side. They fired indiscriminately at the crowds. One woman had part of her ear blown off. Another was shot in the forehead. I got shot twice, once in the back, another time in the leg. My colleague, John Hamilton from the Workers Independent News Service was shot in the neck by a pepper-spray pellet-a small ball that explodes into a white powder. After a few moments, John began complaining that his neck was burning from the powder. We doused him in water, but the burning continued. When I tried to ask the police what the powder was, they told me to “mind myself.”</p>
<p>I’ve been in enough police riots to know that when the number of demonstrators dwindles and the sun sets, that’s when the real violence begins. Eventually, the police forced the dissipating group of protesters into one of the poorest sections of Miami, surrounding them on 4 sides. We stood there in the streets with the eerie feeling of a high-noon showdown. Except there were hundreds of them with guns and dozens of us with cameras and banners. They fired gas and rubber bullets at us as they moved in. All of us realized we had nothing to do but run. We scattered down side streets and alleys, ducking as we fled. Eventually, we made it out.</p>
<p>After nearly an hour, we managed to find a taxi. We got in and the driver started choking from our pepper-sprayed clothes. She wanted us to get out of the taxi. We apologized for our smell and offered her more money just to get us to the hotel. She agreed.</p>
<p>The Real Crime: Failure to Embed</p>
<p>The next day, we went to a midday rally outside the Dade County Jail where more than 150 people were being held prisoner. It was a peaceful assembly of about 300 people. They sang “We all live in a failed democracy,” to the tune of “We all live in a yellow submarine.” They chanted, “Free the Prisoners, Not Free Trade,” and “Take off your riot gear, there ain’t no riot here.”</p>
<p>Representatives of the protesters met with police officials at the scene. The activists said they would agree to remain in a parking lot across the street from the jail if the police would call off the swelling presence of the riot police. They reached an agreementor so the police said.</p>
<p>As the demonstration continued, the numbers of fully armed troops grew and grew. And they moved in from all four sides. They announced that people had 3 minutes to disperse from the “unlawful assembly.” Even though the police violated their agreement, the protesters complied. A group of 5 activists led by Puppetista David Solnit informed the police they would not leave. The police said fine and began arresting them.</p>
<p>But that was not enough. The police then attacked the dispersing crowd, chasing about 30 people into a corner. They shoved them to the ground and beat them. They gassed them at close range. My colleague from Democracy Now!, Ana Nogueira, and I got separated in the mayhem. I was lucky to end up on the “safe” side of the street. Ana was in the melee. As she did her job-videotaping the action-Ana was wearing her press credentials in plain sight. As the police began handcuffing people, Ana told them she was a journalist. One of the officers said, “She’s not with us, she’s not with us,” meaning that although Ana was clearly a journalist, she was not the friendly type. She was not embedded with the police and therefore had to be arrested.</p>
<p>In police custody, the authorities made Ana remove her clothes because they were soaked with pepper spray. The police forced her to strip naked in front of male officers. Despite calls from Democracy Now!, the ACLU, lawyers and others protesting Ana’s arrest and detention, she was held in a cockroach-filled jail cell until 3:30 am. She was only released after I posted a $500 bond. Other independent journalists remained locked up for much longer and face serious charges, some of them felonies. In the end, Ana was charged with “failure to disperse.”</p>
<p>The real crime seems to be “failure to embed.”</p>
<p>In the times in which we live, this is what democracy looks like. Thousands of soldiers, calling themselves police, deployed in US cities to protect the power brokers from the masses. /Posse Comitatus/ is just a Latin phrase. Vigilantes like John Timoney roam from city to city, organizing militias to hunt the dangerous radicals who threaten the good order. And damned be the journalist who dares to say it-or film it-like it is.</p>
<p>JEREMY SCAHILL is a producer and correspondent for the nationally syndicated radio and TV program Democracy Now! He can be reached at <a href="mailto:jeremy@democracynow.org" type="external">jeremy@democracynow.org</a>.</p>
<p>For more reports on the FTAA protests, go to: <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/" type="external">www.democracynow.org</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | miami loading video equipment trunk car fleet bicycle cops sped formed semicircle around us lead cop none miami police chief john timoney former police commissioner philadelphia timoney reputation brutality hatred protesters kind calls punks knuckleheads whole slew expletives coordinated brutal police response massprotests republican national convention philadelphia 2000 brief stint private sector timoney took post miami police chief part mayor manny diazs efforts clean department watched night local news miami praising men restraint shown face violent anarchists intent destroying city reality tens thousands gathered miami protest ministerial meetings free trade area americas summit seeking peacefully demonstrate consider deadly expansion nafta usled policies free trade environmental groups labor unions indigenous activists across hemisphere church groups grassroots organizations students many others streets encountered assembled outside gates building housing ftaa talks nothing short police riot took hours last thursday downtown miami looked like city martial law news chief timoney spoke sober tones tear gas demonstrators fired officers typo timoney said protesters ones launching tear gas also said demonstrators hurled missiles police got lot tear gas timoney said got gassed loaded hilt lot missiles bottles rocks tear gas radicals seeing timoney close personal evokes image mayor daley 68 democratic convention ordering men shoot protesters sight kind guy back car timoney hopped bike police cameraman recorded every move feel episode cops demanded license registration car colleague norm stockwell community radio station wort madison wisconsin gave license informed journalists one men grabbed norms press pass looking though fake looked us nasty snares getting back bikes preparing continue protect miami timoney gave us look said got away time ill back could tell pissed werent anarchists far knew timoney talking men one guys bikes approached us notepad names asked thought police officer preparing report miami police polo shirt like timoneys miami police bike helmet like timoneys bike like timoneys fact one small detail separated timoneya small badge around neck identifying reporter miami herald embedded chief timoney reporter one dozens embedded miami forces hard call police deployed protect ftaa ministerial meetings thousands unarmed protesters another incident saw miami herald photographer somehow gotten pushed onto protesters side standoff police behind line young kids locked arms try prevent police advancing attacking crowds outside intercontinental hotel shouting kids move could get back safe side protesters ignored continued blockade photographer grew angrier angrier began hitting one young kids line punched back head journalists grabbed calmed colleagues seemed shocked conduct big big guy wearing bulletproof vest police issued riot helmet really think scared skinny dreadlocked bandana clad protesters look panic face like scuffle viet cong watching embedded journalists miami tv quite entertaining spoke venturing protesterland though entering secret al qaeda headquarters mountains afghanistan interviews protest leaders sort like secret bin laden tapes something risqué even sexy courage venture convergence space epicenter protest organizing ftaa independent media center several reporters told brushes protesters one reporter quite shaken group anarchists slashed news vans tires wrote word propaganda across side door feared life cameraman somberly told anchor back studio anchor warned careful dangerous scene overwhelming majority images protests tv helicopter shots little could seen except confrontation police protesters gave cover timoney officials make outrageous false statements timoney spun tales hardcore anarchists rampaging streets miami outsiders coming terrorize vandalize city painted picture friendly restrained police enduring constant attacks rocks paint gas canisters smoke bombs fruit proud police officers restraint lots objects thrown police officers timoney said didnt act would much worse much worse timoneys paramilitaries last week one call timoney runs miami police force paramilitary group thousands soldiers dressed khaki uniforms full black body armor gas masks marching unison streets banging batons shields chanting back back back armored personnel carriers helicopters forces fired indiscriminately crowds unarmed protesters scores people hit skinpiercing rubber bullets thousands gassed array chemicals several occasions police fired loud concussion grenades crowds police shocked people electric tazers demonstrators shot back retreated one young guys apparent crime holding fingers peace sign front troops shot multiple times including stomach point blank range colleagues spent several days streets going conflict conflict saw attempts protesters attack business corporation exception graffiti occasional garbage set fire little way action aimed directly site ftaa meetings even black bloc kids generally rep wanting smash everything incredibly restrained focused need demonstrator hurl anything forces spark police violence clear jump timoneys men came prepared crack heads receiving 85 million federal funds 87 billion iraq spending bill miami needed major combat operation didnt matter warranted miami mayor manny diaz called police actions last week model homeland security ftaa officials called extraordinary several cities sent law enforcement observers protests study referring miami model model also included embedding undercover police protesters one point standoff police appeared though group protesters gotten brawl amongst others moved break melee two guys pulled electric tazers shocked protesters liberated back behind police lines guys clearly undercover agents dressed like protester one sticker backpack read ftaa way imc since published pictures people dressed like black bloc kidsski masks allwalking uniformed police behind police lines pause heavy police violence miami came thursday afternoon major labor unions held massrally march led aflcio president john sweeney march legal permit carefully coordinated police many union guys applauded police marched past columns bodyarmored officers break gassing shooting unarmed demonstrators soon unions permits began disperse police seized moment escalate violence protesters fresh break union rally timoneys forces ordered protesters clear area front intercontinental demonstrators shouted back right peaceably protest ftaa boom concussion grenades started flying hiss tear gas sprayed ratatattat rubber bullets fired bam bam batons swinging police methodically marched long column directly several hundred protesters believed right protest even without john sweeney side fired indiscriminately crowds one woman part ear blown another shot forehead got shot twice back another time leg colleague john hamilton workers independent news service shot neck pepperspray pelleta small ball explodes white powder moments john began complaining neck burning powder doused water burning continued tried ask police powder told mind ive enough police riots know number demonstrators dwindles sun sets thats real violence begins eventually police forced dissipating group protesters one poorest sections miami surrounding 4 sides stood streets eerie feeling highnoon showdown except hundreds guns dozens us cameras banners fired gas rubber bullets us moved us realized nothing run scattered side streets alleys ducking fled eventually made nearly hour managed find taxi got driver started choking peppersprayed clothes wanted us get taxi apologized smell offered money get us hotel agreed real crime failure embed next day went midday rally outside dade county jail 150 people held prisoner peaceful assembly 300 people sang live failed democracy tune live yellow submarine chanted free prisoners free trade take riot gear aint riot representatives protesters met police officials scene activists said would agree remain parking lot across street jail police would call swelling presence riot police reached agreementor police said demonstration continued numbers fully armed troops grew grew moved four sides announced people 3 minutes disperse unlawful assembly even though police violated agreement protesters complied group 5 activists led puppetista david solnit informed police would leave police said fine began arresting enough police attacked dispersing crowd chasing 30 people corner shoved ground beat gassed close range colleague democracy ana nogueira got separated mayhem lucky end safe side street ana melee jobvideotaping actionana wearing press credentials plain sight police began handcuffing people ana told journalist one officers said shes us shes us meaning although ana clearly journalist friendly type embedded police therefore arrested police custody authorities made ana remove clothes soaked pepper spray police forced strip naked front male officers despite calls democracy aclu lawyers others protesting anas arrest detention held cockroachfilled jail cell 330 released posted 500 bond independent journalists remained locked much longer face serious charges felonies end ana charged failure disperse real crime seems failure embed times live democracy looks like thousands soldiers calling police deployed us cities protect power brokers masses posse comitatus latin phrase vigilantes like john timoney roam city city organizing militias hunt dangerous radicals threaten good order damned journalist dares say itor film itlike jeremy scahill producer correspondent nationally syndicated radio tv program democracy reached jeremydemocracynoworg reports ftaa protests go wwwdemocracynoworg 160 | 1,340 |
<p>Solutions, for the zealots of the Bush administration, are not achieved by negotiation: they are to be imposed. So the Kurds will continue to suffer, like everyone else in Iraq.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Ten years ago, when I lived in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, my evening walk took me past the office of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which has since been relocated far from the residential section of town. The move was made so that the office could be more easily guarded from would-be petitioners such as Kurdish refugees, some of whom at that time had erected a neat and tidy tent hamlet on the opposite side of the road. As I walked briskly past of an evening, one of them, a particularly villainous-seeming fellow, greeted me with a charming smile. His flinty blue eyes softened as he bade me Hello, and after a few days of mutual greeting we began to chat.</p>
<p>The story of his group was of unrelieved persecution and privation. Having fled the savage reprisals of Saddam Hussein, following the encouragement by Bush senior for Kurds and Shias to rise against their oppressor (after which Bush did exactly nothing to help either of them), they made their way from Iraq across Iran to Pakistan’s province of Balochistan, and then north to Islamabad, a trek of about two thousand miles. There, they hoped, the UNHCR would look kindly upon them and relocate them to a land of milk and honey, or at least to a country in which they could live like human beings, which to them, as to the countless millions of despairing displaced persons round the world, would be Paradise enough.</p>
<p>The UNHCR is a particularly saintly, harassed and unforgivably underfunded organisation. Its entire 2004 budget is USD 1.8 billion (almost the cost of a B-2 bomber, at 2.2 bn), of which the US contribution is 130 million. Little wonder its dedicated officials are at their wits’ end about what to do with the millions of refugees who beg their assistance.</p>
<p>Where on earth could they go, these Kurdish orphans of Desert Storm? Who would take them? Answer came there none, except from the benevolent administration of the then prime minister of Pakistan, a corrupt and oily knave called Nawaz Sharif, whose solution was to gather up the Kurds in dead of night and transport the lot of them back to the deserts of Balochistan, hundreds of miles away. In fact, not quite all of them ; for left behind in one of the tents was a tiny baby, discovered at dawn by the scavengers who quickly gathered to see what the Kurds, the poorest of the poor, might have left behind after they were once again hounded from one hell to another. Horrified local Pakistanis and some of us foreign do-gooding busybodies inquired about the fate of the child. But in spite of our efforts we came up against the usual brick wall of bureaucratic nonchalance. “There is no problem” we were told. No ; of course not. For the baby was only one of millions of anonymous and helpless mites born into a world grown only too accustomed to hideous inhumanity.</p>
<p>It’s Boring</p>
<p>It’s all boring. So flick to Channel 101 : it’s got the Simpsons. Or look at NASCAR’s Long Pond Pennsylvania qualifying race for Sunday’s 500. Or what’s happening to Kobe . . . Anything’s better than uncomfortable pictures of dirty raghead refugees.</p>
<p>But what if they had been Jews?</p>
<p>This band of despairing, hopeless, helpless, hounded Kurds was but a microcosm of the Kurdish problem as a whole. There are over 20 million Kurds in the Middle East, which is an enormous ethnic group to lack a country. (Imagine what would have happened if they had had the good fortune to be born as Jews.) Kurdish Human Rights Watch, which tries to publicize the Kurdish cause, states “The international community has never effectively addressed the Kurdish issue in Iran, Iraq and Turkey to account for their crimes against the Kurds.”</p>
<p>That is so. But I go further : the rich countries of the world have done nothing atall to try to find a solution to the appalling plight of the Kurds. They are truly the world’s forgotten people, and we should be ashamed of our total lack of concern about their plight. (Switch to the Simpsons, willya?)</p>
<p>Ironically, the 1970 Constitution of Iraq specified that their region in the north should be officially recognized as Iraqi Kurdistan, but Saddam Hussein’s evil “”resettlement program’, which was a simple Israeli-style ethnic purging of Kurds from their ancestral lands, made nonsense of this. They were persecuted, and their lands taken by Arabs who were moved there by the Iraqi regime, just as Arabs in Palestine have been booted-out and their land stolen by Israelis. But the 1970 Constitution was terminated by the Bush administration’s foolish and disastrous representative in Baghdad, and the Kurds have no specific rights under the new Iraqi regime.</p>
<p>The treatment of Kurds has been horrific. As noted by Reggie Rivers in the Denver Post of September 6, 2001:</p>
<p>“There’s no doubt the Kurds lead a tough life. They’ve basically been told to assimilate or die. They don’t have political rights, freedom of speech or even the right to speak their own language. Nearly 2,000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed, forcing more than 2 million Kurds to flee into the mountains. Even there they are not safe, because the army pursues them for miles and miles and weeks at a time. The Kurds have been shot, bombed, gassed, raped, tortured, burned and dismembered, and tens of thousands have been killed.</p>
<p>And that’s just what Turkey has done during the past decade.”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>The US/UK bilaterally and illegally imposed a “”No-fly Zone’ in northern Iraq in 1991 which was supposedly to protect Kurds, but this was at best a secondary motive. The vast areas of north and south Iraq (more than two thirds of the country) were declared “”No-Fly’ by Washington and London because they intended to destroy Iraq’s military capabilities before invading the country. US and British strike aircraft flew thousands of yippee patrols over Iraq, during most of which they indulged in rocket and bombing attacks that increased in number and ferocity in the seven months before the Bush/Blair war on Iraq in 2003. (There was no threat of effective ground fire or aerial interception. On occasions, Iraqi radars tracked the incursions, many of which went well over the US/UK-imposed boundaries of the “”No-Fly’ zones. The radar sites were promptly bombed and rocketed without a single US/UK aircraft being in the slightest danger throughout the best free-fire training area in the world.)</p>
<p>It was coincidental that the psychotic and genocidal Saddam Hussein was thus unable to get at the Kurds, but the allegedly protected area in the north was violated countless times by Turkish air and ground strikes against Turkish (and Iraqi) Kurds within Iraq. There was never a word of protest from Washington or London to Ankara concerning these atrocities, about which the American and British governments were well aware from their own pilots’ reports.</p>
<p>During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s the United States supported Iraq against Iran, which was was obvious from Rumsfeld’s cordial handshake with Saddam Hussain in the course of that conflict, as shown many times on Fox News. (It hasn’t been? Well, goodness me ; I am so surprised.) But in these years various Kurdish factions misjudged the political and military situation and made the error of helping Iran against Iraq and also Iraq against Iran. Consequently, all Kurds in both countries paid a heavy price, with Iraq’s 4 million being as foully treated as their brethren across the eastern border.</p>
<p>In Iran there are said to be 5 million Kurds. (There are probably many more, but Iranian census figures are as credible as a Tom Ridge media briefing.) Because they are Sunni Muslims, and relaxed Muslims at that, with civilized ideas about women’s rights and education, just as espoused by the Prophet Mohammad and recommended in the Qu’ran (Koran), they are deeply distrusted by Iran’s bigoted Shia bossmen and persecuted accordingly. They are subject to organised state oppression involving disgusting brutality, including extra-judicial killings and prison conditions even worse than those in US-run hellholes in Iraq and elsewhere. (Although, to be fair, there are no recorded incidents, even by the most critical observers, of Iranian cigarette-drooping, rubber-gloved, leash-wielding, grinning female guards prodding the genitals of helpless Kurdish captives ; that sort of thing is left to the military representatives of Christian Bush, the God-appointed super-Fuhrer of the world.)</p>
<p>Syria has some 1.5 million Kurds who are treated in similar fashion to other unfortunate citizens of that unpleasant land. The worst-off are in the north: a community of about 200,000 Kurds who were declared “alien infiltrators” over forty years ago. They have no rights whatever, and cannot marry a Syrian citizen; they cannot even be admitted to a public hospital. The west has lifted not a finger to help them.</p>
<p>Do you think there will be “”No-fly Zones’ to protect Kurds in Iran and Syria from their dictatorial governments, just as there were imposed by Washington and London on Iraq? Or might there be US/UK-dictated No-fly Zones in Turkey’s border regions to protect Kurds from the atrocities of the Ankara government’s brutal military? In our dreams.</p>
<p>Turkey’s 12 million Kurds have suffered as grievously as those elsewhere, with their villages being destroyed on the orders of Turkey’s generals who are determined to eradicate the Kurdish “”problem’. Language is a powerful determinant of nationalism, so until 1991 the Kurdish language was forbidden by Turkey in a failed attempt at what might be called linguicide. This failed, so, recently, permission was given for government-controlled radio broadcasts to be made in some dialects of Kurdish in order to gain favor with the European Union which Turkey hopes to join.</p>
<p>(Unfortunately for Turkey its aspirations were dealt the kiss of death a month ago when Bush arrogantly told the countries of the European Union that they should permit Turkey to join their number. If there was one thing guaranteed to set back Turkey’s application for EU membership it was a demand by Bush that it be favorably regarded. Bush cannot understand that quiet discussion and courteous negotiation work better than belligerent confrontation when dealing with other nations. He and his zealots imagine that solutions to the world’s complexities are achievable only through their hubristic imposition of non-negotiable terms.)</p>
<p>In other efforts by Turkey to persuade the EU that there is nobody in Ankara but human-rights-loving pussy cats, there have been other gestures towards the persecuted Kurdish minority that constitutes a fifth of Turkey’s population. It is doubtful these are genuine, although, as the Kurdish writer Abdullah Kiran noted, “The Turkish government is putting on a show, but for us this marks the start of a new process, a new return for the Kurdish people to the Kurdish language, to Kurdish traditions and to Kurdish culture. We will have to make an effort to broaden the scope of this process.”</p>
<p>The Kurdish search for justice in Turkey was frustrated by the European Union’s ban on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, just at the time when the EU was insisting that the Ankara government enter into dialogue with Kurdish groups. One can always count on the EU to move any complex problem closer to impossibility of solution, but the most vigorous blow against Kurdish aspirations was struck by the Bush administration. The US-sponsored UN Security Council resolution passed in June that provided for post-war planning in Iraq made not a mention of Kurdish rights in the new “”democratic’ Iraq. The matter was too difficult for a decision to be made, so Bush ignored the whole subject and thus gave a signal to religious thugs in Iraq and elsewhere that the Kurds don’t matter. Nobody knows what the policy of the present US-imposed Iraqi regime will be concerning the Kurds ; and if democratic elections are ever permitted in Iraq the Shias will win and promptly continue marginalization of Kurds on the lines of Turkey, Syria and Iran. It might be just like Old Times for Iraq’s Kurds, and it would be strange were they not to take up arms to counter persecution, just like Palestinians.</p>
<p>There are many experts on the Kurdish question in the US State Department, but their erudition and sage advice was ignored and continues to be so by those who are immensely less qualified to make recommendations and decisions about the region. The State Department had prepared a post-conflict set of options that would have been at least a starting-point of negotiation for all concerned, following Bush’s war on Iraq. But US foreign policy is directed by Cheney and the Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz Pentagon, so the counsel of State Department professionals was contemptuously ignored.</p>
<p>Solutions, for the zealots of the Bush administration, cannot be achieved by negotiation : they must be imposed. When they are too difficult to decide upon, as dictated by domestic considerations (switch to the Simpsons, I keep tellin’ ya) , the problem is ignored ; and in few cases is this potentially more devastating than in the plight of the Kurdish nation.</p>
<p>So : who would be a Kurd? Persecuted by all, supported by none, their lot is vile. If Bush and Blair of the US and Britain devoted some of their energy and seemingly limitless war-making cash to bringing pressure to bear on Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran to create an autonomous “”Kurdistan’ from areas of these countries that actually belong to Kurds, the world would be a better place.</p>
<p>But there’s no chance of that. Neither glamour nor domestic votes can be obtained by solving terrible international humanitarian problems.</p>
<p>It’s much more exciting to go to war.</p>
<p>BRIAN CLOUGHLEY writes on military and political affairs. He can be reached through his website <a href="http://www.briancloughley.com/" type="external">www.briancloughley.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | solutions zealots bush administration achieved negotiation imposed kurds continue suffer like everyone else iraq ten years ago lived pakistans capital islamabad evening walk took past office un high commission refugees unhcr since relocated far residential section town move made office could easily guarded wouldbe petitioners kurdish refugees time erected neat tidy tent hamlet opposite side road walked briskly past evening one particularly villainousseeming fellow greeted charming smile flinty blue eyes softened bade hello days mutual greeting began chat story group unrelieved persecution privation fled savage reprisals saddam hussein following encouragement bush senior kurds shias rise oppressor bush exactly nothing help either made way iraq across iran pakistans province balochistan north islamabad trek two thousand miles hoped unhcr would look kindly upon relocate land milk honey least country could live like human beings countless millions despairing displaced persons round world would paradise enough unhcr particularly saintly harassed unforgivably underfunded organisation entire 2004 budget usd 18 billion almost cost b2 bomber 22 bn us contribution 130 million little wonder dedicated officials wits end millions refugees beg assistance earth could go kurdish orphans desert storm would take answer came none except benevolent administration prime minister pakistan corrupt oily knave called nawaz sharif whose solution gather kurds dead night transport lot back deserts balochistan hundreds miles away fact quite left behind one tents tiny baby discovered dawn scavengers quickly gathered see kurds poorest poor might left behind hounded one hell another horrified local pakistanis us foreign dogooding busybodies inquired fate child spite efforts came usual brick wall bureaucratic nonchalance problem told course baby one millions anonymous helpless mites born world grown accustomed hideous inhumanity boring boring flick channel 101 got simpsons look nascars long pond pennsylvania qualifying race sundays 500 whats happening kobe anythings better uncomfortable pictures dirty raghead refugees jews band despairing hopeless helpless hounded kurds microcosm kurdish problem whole 20 million kurds middle east enormous ethnic group lack country imagine would happened good fortune born jews kurdish human rights watch tries publicize kurdish cause states international community never effectively addressed kurdish issue iran iraq turkey account crimes kurds go rich countries world done nothing atall try find solution appalling plight kurds truly worlds forgotten people ashamed total lack concern plight switch simpsons willya ironically 1970 constitution iraq specified region north officially recognized iraqi kurdistan saddam husseins evil resettlement program simple israelistyle ethnic purging kurds ancestral lands made nonsense persecuted lands taken arabs moved iraqi regime arabs palestine bootedout land stolen israelis 1970 constitution terminated bush administrations foolish disastrous representative baghdad kurds specific rights new iraqi regime treatment kurds horrific noted reggie rivers denver post september 6 2001 theres doubt kurds lead tough life theyve basically told assimilate die dont political rights freedom speech even right speak language nearly 2000 kurdish villages destroyed forcing 2 million kurds flee mountains even safe army pursues miles miles weeks time kurds shot bombed gassed raped tortured burned dismembered tens thousands killed thats turkey done past decade usuk bilaterally illegally imposed nofly zone northern iraq 1991 supposedly protect kurds best secondary motive vast areas north south iraq two thirds country declared nofly washington london intended destroy iraqs military capabilities invading country us british strike aircraft flew thousands yippee patrols iraq indulged rocket bombing attacks increased number ferocity seven months bushblair war iraq 2003 threat effective ground fire aerial interception occasions iraqi radars tracked incursions many went well usukimposed boundaries nofly zones radar sites promptly bombed rocketed without single usuk aircraft slightest danger throughout best freefire training area world coincidental psychotic genocidal saddam hussein thus unable get kurds allegedly protected area north violated countless times turkish air ground strikes turkish iraqi kurds within iraq never word protest washington london ankara concerning atrocities american british governments well aware pilots reports iraniraq war 1980s united states supported iraq iran obvious rumsfelds cordial handshake saddam hussain course conflict shown many times fox news hasnt well goodness surprised years various kurdish factions misjudged political military situation made error helping iran iraq also iraq iran consequently kurds countries paid heavy price iraqs 4 million foully treated brethren across eastern border iran said 5 million kurds probably many iranian census figures credible tom ridge media briefing sunni muslims relaxed muslims civilized ideas womens rights education espoused prophet mohammad recommended quran koran deeply distrusted irans bigoted shia bossmen persecuted accordingly subject organised state oppression involving disgusting brutality including extrajudicial killings prison conditions even worse usrun hellholes iraq elsewhere although fair recorded incidents even critical observers iranian cigarettedrooping rubbergloved leashwielding grinning female guards prodding genitals helpless kurdish captives sort thing left military representatives christian bush godappointed superfuhrer world syria 15 million kurds treated similar fashion unfortunate citizens unpleasant land worstoff north community 200000 kurds declared alien infiltrators forty years ago rights whatever marry syrian citizen even admitted public hospital west lifted finger help think nofly zones protect kurds iran syria dictatorial governments imposed washington london iraq might usukdictated nofly zones turkeys border regions protect kurds atrocities ankara governments brutal military dreams turkeys 12 million kurds suffered grievously elsewhere villages destroyed orders turkeys generals determined eradicate kurdish problem language powerful determinant nationalism 1991 kurdish language forbidden turkey failed attempt might called linguicide failed recently permission given governmentcontrolled radio broadcasts made dialects kurdish order gain favor european union turkey hopes join unfortunately turkey aspirations dealt kiss death month ago bush arrogantly told countries european union permit turkey join number one thing guaranteed set back turkeys application eu membership demand bush favorably regarded bush understand quiet discussion courteous negotiation work better belligerent confrontation dealing nations zealots imagine solutions worlds complexities achievable hubristic imposition nonnegotiable terms efforts turkey persuade eu nobody ankara humanrightsloving pussy cats gestures towards persecuted kurdish minority constitutes fifth turkeys population doubtful genuine although kurdish writer abdullah kiran noted turkish government putting show us marks start new process new return kurdish people kurdish language kurdish traditions kurdish culture make effort broaden scope process kurdish search justice turkey frustrated european unions ban kurdistan workers party pkk time eu insisting ankara government enter dialogue kurdish groups one always count eu move complex problem closer impossibility solution vigorous blow kurdish aspirations struck bush administration ussponsored un security council resolution passed june provided postwar planning iraq made mention kurdish rights new democratic iraq matter difficult decision made bush ignored whole subject thus gave signal religious thugs iraq elsewhere kurds dont matter nobody knows policy present usimposed iraqi regime concerning kurds democratic elections ever permitted iraq shias win promptly continue marginalization kurds lines turkey syria iran might like old times iraqs kurds would strange take arms counter persecution like palestinians many experts kurdish question us state department erudition sage advice ignored continues immensely less qualified make recommendations decisions region state department prepared postconflict set options would least startingpoint negotiation concerned following bushs war iraq us foreign policy directed cheney rumsfeldwolfowitz pentagon counsel state department professionals contemptuously ignored solutions zealots bush administration achieved negotiation must imposed difficult decide upon dictated domestic considerations switch simpsons keep tellin ya problem ignored cases potentially devastating plight kurdish nation would kurd persecuted supported none lot vile bush blair us britain devoted energy seemingly limitless warmaking cash bringing pressure bear turkey syria iraq iran create autonomous kurdistan areas countries actually belong kurds world would better place theres chance neither glamour domestic votes obtained solving terrible international humanitarian problems much exciting go war brian cloughley writes military political affairs reached website wwwbriancloughleycom 160 | 1,224 |
<p>&lt;a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/abuaiman/5488015099/in/photolist-9mXvFZ-9JZGTs-9jH9sE-agce8p-9uwYgk-awXmPE-ageYHW-4V3zn5-9sHwPZ-5Exy7e-9srSVz-9srSS6-9oVjZr-93PUEe-4ytDYD-eKJnt5-bjcdZP-9JGXDy-b5uHzz-9oVpVM-bjcdpe-9oVtzr-bqma3F-9oVmQ8-9oYxjJ-93Q9vg-9Kdy7e-9ttDQf-fLoavn-8R12qy-64DUwg-9sb39R-9suRS3-9sLwpG-9oVfB8-9oYwTf-9ounXk-afoKW8-9ouohz-ahpe8k-nPQye-4kAiTz-cRaT7-ayAPSB-9oYrA7-9sbmvr-9oVmXX-9oXHD1-9jKdF6-9oYGp1"&gt;Frank M. Rafik&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175831/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>Is the US secretly training Libyan militiamen in the Canary Islands? And if not, are they planning to?</p>
<p>That’s what I asked a spokesman for US Africa Command (AFRICOM). “I am surprised by your mentioning the Canary Islands,” he responded by email. “I have not heard this before, and wonder where you heard this.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" />As it happens, mention of this shadowy mission on the Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa was revealed in an official briefing prepared for AFRICOM chief General David Rodriguez in the fall of 2013. In the months since, the plan may have been permanently shelved in favor of a training mission carried out entirely in Bulgaria. The document nonetheless highlights the US military’s penchant for simple solutions to complex problems—with a well-documented potential for <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/" type="external">blowback</a> in Africa and beyond. It also raises serious questions about the recurring methods employed by the US to stop the violence its actions helped spark in the first place.</p>
<p>Ever since the US helped oust dictator Muammar Qaddafi, with air and missile strikes against regime targets and major logistical and surveillance support to coalition partners, Libya has been sliding into increasing chaos. Militias, some of them jihadist, have sprung up across the country, carving out fiefdoms while carrying out increasing numbers of assassinations and other types of attacks. The solution seized upon by the US and its allies in response to the devolving situation there: introduce yet another armed group into a country already rife with them.</p>
<p>The Rise of the Militias</p>
<p>After Qaddafi’s fall in 2011, a wide range of militias came to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/world/middleeast/militias-flee-libyas-cities-leaving-chaos.html" type="external">dominate</a> Libya’s largest cities, filling a security vacuum left by the collapse of the old regime and providing a <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/30/uk-libya-militias-insight-idUKBREA2T05L20140330" type="external">challenge</a> to the new central government. In <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/world/africa/attack-in-libya-was-major-blow-to-cia-efforts.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">Benghazi</a> alone, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/benghazi/#/?chapt=2" type="external">an array</a> of these <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/world/africa/attack-in-libya-was-major-blow-to-cia-efforts.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">armed groups</a> arose. And on September 11, 2012, that city, considered the cradle of the Libyan revolution, experienced <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/world/africa/attack-in-libya-was-major-blow-to-cia-efforts.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">attacks</a> by members of the anti-Western Ansar al-Sharia, as well as other <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/benghazi/#/?chapt=0" type="external">militias</a> on the American mission and a nearby CIA facility. During those assaults, which killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, local armed groups <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/benghazi/#/?chapt=0" type="external">called on</a> for help or which might have intervened to save lives reportedly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/benghazi/#/?chapt=4" type="external">stood aside</a>.</p>
<p>Over the year that followed, the influence of the militias only continued to grow nationwide, as did the chaos that accompanied them. In late 2013, following deadly <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/15/world/africa/libya-fighting/" type="external">attacks</a> on civilians, some of these forces were chased from Libyan cities by protesters and armed bands, ceding power to what the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/world/middleeast/militias-flee-libyas-cities-leaving-chaos.html" type="external">called</a> “an even more fractious collection of armed groups, including militias representing tribal and clan allegiances that tear at the tenuous [Libyan] sense of common citizenship.” With the situation deteriorating, the humanitarian group Human Rights Watch documented dozens of assassinations of judges, prosecutors, and members of the state’s already weakened security forces by unidentified assailants.</p>
<p>The American solution to all of this violence: more armed men.</p>
<p>Fighting Fire with Fire</p>
<p>In November 2013, US Special Operations Command chief Admiral William McRaven <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/17/world/africa/libya-unrest/" type="external">told</a> an audience at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library that the United States would aid Libya by training 5,000 to 7,000 conventional troops as well as counterterrorism forces there. “As we go forward to try and find a good way to build up the Libyan security forces so they are not run by militias, we are going to have to assume some risks,” he said.</p>
<p>Not long after, the Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-plan-for-new-libyan-force-faces-obstacles/2013/12/01/2160c2fa-5694-11e3-bdbf-097ab2a3dc2b_story.html" type="external">reported</a> a request by <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/12/world/africa/libya-pm/" type="external">recently ousted</a> Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan that the US train his country’s security forces. In January, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which <a href="http://www.dsca.mil/" type="external">coordinates</a> sales and transfers of military equipment abroad, formally <a href="http://www.dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/libya-general-purpose-force-training" type="external">notified</a> Congress of a Libyan request for a $600 million training package. Its goal: to create a 6,000 to 8,000-man “general purpose force,” or GPF.</p>
<p>The deal would, according to an official statement, involve “services for up to 8 years for training, facilities sustainment and improvements, personnel training and training equipment, 637 M4A4 carbines and small arms ammunition, US Government and contractor technical and logistics support services, Organizational Clothing and Individual Equipment (OCIE), and other related elements of logistical and program support.”</p>
<p>In addition to the GPF effort, thousands of Libya troops are to be trained by the militaries of <a href="http://www.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=5412&amp;utm_source=April+9+2014+EN&amp;utm_campaign=4%2F09%2F2014&amp;utm_medium=email" type="external">Morocco</a>, <a href="http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/12/07/libyan-soldiers-start-military-training-in-turkey/" type="external">Turkey</a>, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/libyan-armed-forces-to-be-trained-in-uk" type="external">United Kingdom</a>, and <a href="http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/en/blogs/natosource/two-thousand-libyan-troops-to-receive-training-in-italy" type="external">Italy</a>. The Libyan Army also hopes to <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/02/26/282594241/outmanned-and-outgunned-libya-struggles-to-fix-its-broken-army" type="external">graduate</a> 10,000 new troops at home annually.</p>
<p>While Admiral McRaven has emphasized the importance of building up “the Libyan security forces so they are not run by militias,” many recruits for the GPF will, in fact, be <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-plan-for-new-libyan-force-faces-obstacles/2013/12/01/2160c2fa-5694-11e3-bdbf-097ab2a3dc2b_story.html" type="external">drawn</a> from these very groups. It has also been widely reported that the new force will be <a href="http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=33343:libya-seeks-600-million-training-package-from-us&amp;catid=50:Land&amp;Itemid=105" type="external">trained</a> at Novo Selo, a recently refurbished facility in Bulgaria.</p>
<p>The US has said little else of substance on the future force. “We are coordinating this training mission closely with our European partners and the U.N. Support Mission in Libya, who have also offered substantial security sector assistance to the Government of Libya,”a State Department official told TomDispatch by email. “We expect this training will begin in 2014 in Bulgaria and continue over a number of years.”</p>
<p>There have been no reports or confirmation of the plan to also train Libyan militiamen at a facility in Spain’s Canary Islands mentioned along with Novo Selo in that Fall 2013 briefing document prepared for AFRICOM chief Rodriguez, which was obtained by TomDispatch.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/gpftraining_large.jpg" type="external">Click here to see a larger version</a>Official briefing slide mentioning a US military training effort in the Canary Islands.</p>
<p>Officials at the State Department say that they know nothing about this part of the program. “I’m still looking into this, but my colleagues are not familiar with a Canary Islands component to this issue,” I was told by a State Department press officer. AFRICOM spokesman Benjamin Benson said much the same. “[W]e have no information regarding training of Libyan troops to be provided in the Canary Islands,” he emailed me. After I sent him the briefing slide that mentioned the mission, however, he had a different response. The Canary Islands training mission was, he wrote, part of an “initial concept” never actually shared with General Rodriguez, but instead “briefed to a few senior leaders in the Pentagon.”</p>
<p>“The information has been changed, numerous times, since the slide was drafted, and is expected to change further before any training commences,” he added, and warned me against relying on it. He did not, however, rule out the possibility that further changes might revive the Canary Islands option and demurred from answering further questions on the subject. A separate US Army Africa document does mention that “recon” of a second training site was slated to begin last December.</p>
<p>Neither the State Department nor AFRICOM explained why plans to conduct training in the Canary Islands were shelved or when that decision was made or by whom. Benson also failed to facilitate interviews with personnel involved in the Libyan GPF training effort or with top AFRICOM commanders. “Given the continuing developing nature of this effort, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time, and we have not been giving interviews on the topic,” he told me. Multiple requests to the Libyan government for information on the locations of training sites also went unanswered.</p>
<p>Training Day</p>
<p>Wherever the training takes place, the US has developed a four-phase process to “build a complete Libya security sector.” The Army’s 1st Infantry Division will serve as the “mission command element for the Libyan GPF training effort” as part of a State Department-led collaboration with the Department of Defense, according to official documents obtained by TomDispatch.</p>
<p>Agreements with partner nations are to be finalized and Libyans selected for leadership positions as part of an initial stage of the process. Then the US military will begin training not only the GPF troops, but a border security force and specialized counter-terror troops. (Recently, AFRICOM Commander David Rodriguez told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the US was also helping to build up what he termed Libyan “Special Operations Forces.”) A third phase of the program will involve developing the capacities of the Libyan ministries of justice, defense, and the interior, and strengthening Libya’s homegrown security training apparatus, before pulling back during a fourth phase that will focus on monitoring and sustaining the forces the US and its allies have trained.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/securitysector_large.jpg" type="external">Click here to see a larger version</a>US Army Africa document details four-phase plan for US training of Libyan forces.</p>
<p>Despite reports that training at Novo Selo will begin this spring, a State Department official told TomDispatch that detailed plans are still being finalized. After inspecting a briefing slide titled “Libya Security Sector Phasing,” AFRICOM’S Benson told me, “I do not see us in any phase as indicated on the slide… the planning and coordination is still ongoing.” Since then, Lolita Baldor of the Associated Press <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-army-team-heads-libya-begin-training-prep" type="external">reported</a> that, according to an unnamed Army official, a small team of US soldiers has now headed for Libya to make preparations for the Bulgarian portion of the training.</p>
<p>A timeline produced by US Army Africa as part of a December 2013 briefing indicates that the Novo Selo site would be ready for trainers sometime last month. After communications systems and security sensors are set up, that training range will be ready to accept its first Libyan recruits. The timeline suggests that this could occur by early May.</p>
<p>While this may have been an early version of the schedule, there’s little doubt the program will begin soon. Baldor notes that formal Libyan <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-army-team-heads-libya-begin-training-prep" type="external">approval</a> for the training may come this month, although AFRICOM Commander David Rodriguez <a href="http://www.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=5412&amp;utm_source=April+9+2014+EN&amp;utm_campaign=4%2F09%2F2014&amp;utm_medium=email" type="external">pointed out</a> at a Pentagon press briefing that the Libyan government still has to ante up the funds for the program, and a Libyan official confirmed to TomDispatch that the training had yet to commence.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/gpftimeline_large.jpg" type="external">Click here to see a larger version</a>US Army Africa timeline of US training of Libyan “General Purpose Force”.</p>
<p>Experts have, however, already expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of the program. In late 2013, for instance, <a href="http://africacenter.org/security/experts/dr-benjamin-p-nickels/" type="external">Benjamin Nickels</a>, the academic chair for transnational threats and counterterrorism at the Department of Defense’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies, <a href="http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/2013/10/10/pitfalls-for-libya-s-general-purpose-force/gpnp" type="external">raised</a> a number of problematic issues. These included the challenge of screening and vetting applicants from existing Libyan militias, the difficulty of incorporating various regional and tribal groups into such a force without politicizing the trainee pool; and the daunting task of then devising a way to integrate the GPF into Libya’s existing military in a situation already verging on the chaotic.</p>
<p>“For all their seriousness,” wrote Nickels, “these implementation difficulties pale in comparison to more serious pitfalls haunting the GPF at a conceptual level. So far, plans for the GPF appear virtually unrelated to projects of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) and security sector reform (SSR) that are vital to Libya’s future.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250045061/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />Berny Sebe, an expert on North and West Africa at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, noted that, while incorporating militiamen into a “mainstream security system” could help diminish the power of existing militias, it posed serious dangers as well. “The drawback is, of course, that it can infiltrate factious elements into the very heart of the Libyan state apparatus, which could further undermine its power,” he told TomDispatch by email. “The use of force is unavoidable to enforce the rule of law, which is regularly under threat in Libya. However, all efforts placed in the development of a security force should go hand in hand with a clear political vision. Failure to do so might solve the problem temporarily, but will not bring long-term peace and stability.”</p>
<p>In November 2013, Frederic Wehrey, a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an expert on Libya, <a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/140240/frederic-wehrey/modest-mission" type="external">pointed out</a> that the project seemed reasonable in the abstract, but that reality might be another matter entirely: “[T]he force’s composition, the details of its training, the extent to which Libyan civilians will oversee it, and its ability to deal with the range of threats that the country faces are all unclear.” He suggested that an underreported 2013 mission to train one Libyan unit that ended in abject failure should be viewed as a cautionary tale.</p>
<p>Last summer, a small contingent of US Special Operations Forces set up a training camp outside of Libya’s capital, Tripoli, for an elite 100-man Libyan counter-terror force whose recruits were personally <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-plan-for-new-libyan-force-faces-obstacles/2013/12/01/2160c2fa-5694-11e3-bdbf-097ab2a3dc2b_story.html" type="external">chosen</a> by former Prime Minister Ali Zeidan. While the Americans were holed up in their nighttime safe house, unidentified militia or “terrorist” forces twice raided the camp, guarded by the Libyan military, and <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/25/theft-us-weapons-in-libya-involved-hundreds-guns-sources-say/" type="external">looted</a> large quantities of high-tech American equipment. Their haul included <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/25/theft-us-weapons-in-libya-involved-hundreds-guns-sources-say/" type="external">hundreds</a> of weapons, Glock pistols and <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/11/us-military-weapons-equipment-stolen-in-libya-raids/" type="external">M4 rifles</a> among them, as well as night-vision devices and specialized lasers that can only be seen with such equipment. As a result, the training effort was <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/11/us-military-weapons-equipment-stolen-in-libya-raids/" type="external">shut down</a> and the abandoned camp was reportedly <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/25/theft-us-weapons-in-libya-involved-hundreds-guns-sources-say/" type="external">taken over</a> by a militia.</p>
<p>This represented only the latest in a <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1993886,00.html" type="external">series</a> of <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175128/tomgram%3A_ann_jones%2C_us_or_them_in_afghanistan" type="external">troubled</a> US assistance and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/02/afghanistan-police-training-green-on-blue_n_1850065.html" type="external">training efforts</a> in the Greater Middle East and Africa. These include <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092702134.html" type="external">scandal-plagued</a> endeavors in <a href="http://www.armytimes.com/article/20120730/NEWS/207300301/U-S-audit-200M-wasted-training-Iraqi-police" type="external">Iraq</a> and <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/28/after-200-million-afghan-soldiers-still-can-t-read.html" type="external">Afghanistan</a>, as well as a program that produced an officer who led the coup that overthrew Mali’s elected government, and an eight-month <a href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/7727/750-congolese-soldiers-graduate-from-us-led-milita" type="external">training effort</a> in the Democratic Republic of Congo by US Special Operations forces that yielded an elite commando battalion that took part in mass rapes and other atrocities, according to a United Nations report. And these are just the tip of the iceberg <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/29/kenya-police-abuse-nairobi-s-refugees" type="external">among</a> <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/07/22/indonesia-us-resumes-military-assistance-abusive-force" type="external">many</a> <a href="http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/fighting-terrorism-in-mauritania-even-it-means-torture/?src=recg" type="external">other</a> <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/178453/how-us-aid-fosters-human-rights-violations-philippines" type="external">sordid</a> <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2030767,00.html" type="external">examples</a> from around the world.</p>
<p>The Answer?</p>
<p>The US may never train a single Libyan militiaman in the Canary Islands, but the plan to create yet one more armed group to inject into Libya’s already fractious sea of <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/02/26/282594241/outmanned-and-outgunned-libya-struggles-to-fix-its-broken-army" type="external">competing militias</a> is going forward—and is fraught with peril.</p>
<p>For more than half a year, a <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/east-libyan-rebels-agree-end-oil-port-blockage-201341924.html" type="external">militia</a> <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-11/a-libyan-militia-tries-and-fails-to-sell-crude-oil-to-north-korea" type="external">controlled</a> the three largest ports in Libya. Other militiamen have <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/11/17/libya-militias-kill-unarmed-protesters" type="external">killed</a> unarmed protesters. Some have <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/11/17/libya-militias-kill-unarmed-protesters" type="external">emptied</a> whole towns of their residents. Others <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/01/03/libya-militias/1802523/" type="external">work</a> with criminal gangs, smuggling drugs, carrying out kidnappings for ransom, and engaging in human trafficking. Still others have carried out arbitrary arrests, conducted torture, and been responsible for deaths in detention. Armed men have also <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/03/03/libya-relocates-parliament-after-attack/5968663/" type="external">murdered</a> foreigners, targeted Christian migrants, and fought pro-government forces. Many have <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/06/18/libya-end-violence-it-needs-shut-down-militias" type="external">attacked</a> other nascent state institutions. Last month, for instance, militiamen <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201403040059.html" type="external">stormed</a> the country’s national assembly, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/03/03/libya-relocates-parliament-after-attack/5968663/" type="external">forcing</a> its relocation to a hotel. (That assault was apparently triggered by a separate unidentified group, which <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/03/03/libya-relocates-parliament-after-attack/5968663/" type="external">attacked</a> an anti-parliament sit-in, kidnapping some of the protesters.)</p>
<p>Some militias have quasi-official status or are <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/02/26/282594241/outmanned-and-outgunned-libya-struggles-to-fix-its-broken-army" type="external">beholden</a> to individual parliamentarians. Others are <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/30/uk-libya-militias-insight-idUKBREA2T05L20140330" type="external">paid by</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/02/26/282594241/outmanned-and-outgunned-libya-struggles-to-fix-its-broken-army" type="external">support</a> the rickety Libyan government. That government is also reportedly engaging in widespread abuses, including <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/03/07/libya-government-institutions-risk-collapse" type="external">detentions</a> without due process and <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/01/21/libya-end-impunity-reform-repressive-laws" type="external">prosecutions</a> to stifle free speech, while failing to repeal Qaddafi-era laws that, as Human Rights Watch has <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/01/21/libya-end-impunity-reform-repressive-laws" type="external">noted</a>, “prescribe corporal punishment, including lashing for extramarital intercourse and slander, and amputation of limbs.”</p>
<p>Most experts <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/12/16/libya-training-africa-command-/4043043/" type="external">agree</a> that Libya needs assistance in strengthening its central government and the rule of law. “Unless the international community focuses on the need for urgent assistance to the justice and security systems, Libya risks the collapse of its already weak state institutions and further deterioration of human rights in the country,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/03/07/libya-government-institutions-risk-collapse" type="external">said</a> recently. How to go about this remains, however, at best unclear.</p>
<p>“Our Defense Department colleagues plan to train 5,000 to 8,000 general purpose forces,” Anne Patterson, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, <a href="http://docs.house.gov/meetings/AS/AS00/20140211/101730/HHRG-113-AS00-Wstate-PattersonA-20140211.pdf" type="external">told</a> the House Armed Services Committee earlier this year, noting that the US would “conduct an unprecedented vetting and screening of trainees that participate in the program.” But Admiral William McRaven, her “Defense Department colleague,” has already <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/17/world/africa/libya-unrest/" type="external">admitted</a> that some of the troops to be trained will likely not have “the most clean record.”</p>
<p>In the wake of failed full-scale conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military has <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175557" type="external">embraced</a> a light-footprint model of warfare, emphasizing drone technology, Special Operations forces, and above all the training of proxy troops to fight battles for America’s national security interests from <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_american_proxy_wars_in_africa" type="external">Mali</a> to <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/syria-deraa-USA-Jordan-FSA-regime-CIA" type="external">Syria</a>—and soon enough, Libya as well.</p>
<p>There are, of course, no easy answers. As Berny Sebe notes, the United States “is among the few countries in the world which have the resources necessary to undertake such a gigantic task as training the new security force of a country on the brink of civil war like Libya.” Yet the US has repeatedly suffered from poor intelligence, an inability to deal effectively with the local and regional dynamics involved in operations in the Middle East and North Africa, and massive doses of wishful thinking and poor planning. “It is indeed a dangerous decision,” Sebe observes, “which may add further confusion to an already volatile situation.”</p>
<p>A failure to imagine the consequences of the last major US intervention in Libya has, perhaps irreparably, fractured the country and sent it into a spiral of violence leading to the deaths of Americans, among others, while helping to <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/" type="external">destabilize</a> neighboring nations, enhance the reach of local terror groups, and aid in the proliferation of weapons that have fueled existing regional conflicts. Even Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs Amanda Dory <a href="http://www.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=5412&amp;utm_source=April+9+2014+EN&amp;utm_campaign=4%2F09%2F2014&amp;utm_medium=email" type="external">admitted</a> at a recent Pentagon press briefing that the fallout from ousting Qaddafi has been “worse than would have been anticipated at the time.” Perhaps it should be sobering as well that the initial smaller scale effort to help strengthen Libyan security forces was an abject failure that ended up enhancing, not diminishing, the power of the militias.</p>
<p>There may be no nation that can get things entirely right when it comes to Libya but one nation has shown an unnerving ability to get things wrong. Whether outside of Tripoli, in Bulgaria, the Canary Islands, or elsewhere, should that country really be the one in charge of the delicate process of building a cohesive security force to combat violent, fractious armed groups? Should it really be creating a separate force, trained far from home by foreigners, and drawn from the very militias that have destabilized Libya in the first place?</p>
<p>Nick Turse is the managing editor of <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> and a fellow at the Nation Institute. A 2014 <a href="http://www.ithaca.edu/news/releases/journalists-glenn-greenwald-and-jeremy-scahill-named-to-i.f.-stone-hall-of-fame:-john-carlos-frey-and-nick-turse-share-annual-izzy-award-36968/#.UxyUHYVl7Kf" type="external">Izzy Award</a> winner, his pieces have appeared in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/opinion/for-america-life-was-cheap-in-vietnam.html?_r=0" type="external">New York Times</a>, the <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/24/opinion/la-oe-turse-afghanistan-and-vietnam-20120424" type="external">Los Angeles Times</a>, and <a href="http://www.thenation.com/afghanistan" type="external">the Nation</a>, at the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23427726" type="external">BBC</a>, and <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175635/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_a_war_victim%27s_question_only_you_can_answer/" type="external">regularly</a> at TomDispatch. He is the author most recently of the New York Times bestseller <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250045061/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam</a> (now in paperback).</p>
<p>Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://tomdispatch.tumblr.com/" type="external">Tumblr</a>. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Ann Jones’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608463710/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return From America’s Wars—The Untold Story</a>.To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>.</p> | true | 4 | lta hrefhttpswwwflickrcomphotosabuaiman5488015099inphotolist9mxvfz9jzgts9jh9seagce8p9uwygkawxmpeageyhw4v3zn59shwpz5exy7e9srsvz9srss69ovjzr93puee4ytdydekjnt5bjcdzp9jgxdyb5uhzz9ovpvmbjcdpe9ovtzrbqma3f9ovmq89oyxjj93q9vg9kdy7e9ttdqffloavn8r12qy64duwg9sb39r9surs39slwpg9ovfb89oywtf9ounxkafokw89ouohzahpe8knpqye4kaitzcrat7ayapsb9oyra79sbmvr9ovmxx9oxhd19jkdf69oygp1gtfrank rafikltagtflickr story first appeared tomdispatch website us secretly training libyan militiamen canary islands planning thats asked spokesman us africa command africom surprised mentioning canary islands responded email heard wonder heard happens mention shadowy mission spanish archipelago northwest coast africa revealed official briefing prepared africom chief general david rodriguez fall 2013 months since plan may permanently shelved favor training mission carried entirely bulgaria document nonetheless highlights us militarys penchant simple solutions complex problemswith welldocumented potential blowback africa beyond also raises serious questions recurring methods employed us stop violence actions helped spark first place ever since us helped oust dictator muammar qaddafi air missile strikes regime targets major logistical surveillance support coalition partners libya sliding increasing chaos militias jihadist sprung across country carving fiefdoms carrying increasing numbers assassinations types attacks solution seized upon us allies response devolving situation introduce yet another armed group country already rife rise militias qaddafis fall 2011 wide range militias came dominate libyas largest cities filling security vacuum left collapse old regime providing challenge new central government benghazi alone array armed groups arose september 11 2012 city considered cradle libyan revolution experienced attacks members antiwestern ansar alsharia well militias american mission nearby cia facility assaults killed ambassador j christopher stevens three americans local armed groups called help might intervened save lives reportedly stood aside year followed influence militias continued grow nationwide chaos accompanied late 2013 following deadly attacks civilians forces chased libyan cities protesters armed bands ceding power new york times called even fractious collection armed groups including militias representing tribal clan allegiances tear tenuous libyan sense common citizenship situation deteriorating humanitarian group human rights watch documented dozens assassinations judges prosecutors members states already weakened security forces unidentified assailants american solution violence armed men fighting fire fire november 2013 us special operations command chief admiral william mcraven told audience ronald reagan presidential library united states would aid libya training 5000 7000 conventional troops well counterterrorism forces go forward try find good way build libyan security forces run militias going assume risks said long washington post reported request recently ousted libyan prime minister ali zeidan us train countrys security forces january pentagons defense security cooperation agency coordinates sales transfers military equipment abroad formally notified congress libyan request 600 million training package goal create 6000 8000man general purpose force gpf deal would according official statement involve services 8 years training facilities sustainment improvements personnel training training equipment 637 m4a4 carbines small arms ammunition us government contractor technical logistics support services organizational clothing individual equipment ocie related elements logistical program support addition gpf effort thousands libya troops trained militaries morocco turkey united kingdom italy libyan army also hopes graduate 10000 new troops home annually admiral mcraven emphasized importance building libyan security forces run militias many recruits gpf fact drawn groups also widely reported new force trained novo selo recently refurbished facility bulgaria us said little else substance future force coordinating training mission closely european partners un support mission libya also offered substantial security sector assistance government libyaa state department official told tomdispatch email expect training begin 2014 bulgaria continue number years reports confirmation plan also train libyan militiamen facility spains canary islands mentioned along novo selo fall 2013 briefing document prepared africom chief rodriguez obtained tomdispatch click see larger versionofficial briefing slide mentioning us military training effort canary islands officials state department say know nothing part program im still looking colleagues familiar canary islands component issue told state department press officer africom spokesman benjamin benson said much information regarding training libyan troops provided canary islands emailed sent briefing slide mentioned mission however different response canary islands training mission wrote part initial concept never actually shared general rodriguez instead briefed senior leaders pentagon information changed numerous times since slide drafted expected change training commences added warned relying however rule possibility changes might revive canary islands option demurred answering questions subject separate us army africa document mention recon second training site slated begin last december neither state department africom explained plans conduct training canary islands shelved decision made benson also failed facilitate interviews personnel involved libyan gpf training effort top africom commanders given continuing developing nature effort would inappropriate comment time giving interviews topic told multiple requests libyan government information locations training sites also went unanswered training day wherever training takes place us developed fourphase process build complete libya security sector armys 1st infantry division serve mission command element libyan gpf training effort part state departmentled collaboration department defense according official documents obtained tomdispatch agreements partner nations finalized libyans selected leadership positions part initial stage process us military begin training gpf troops border security force specialized counterterror troops recently africom commander david rodriguez told senate armed services committee us also helping build termed libyan special operations forces third phase program involve developing capacities libyan ministries justice defense interior strengthening libyas homegrown security training apparatus pulling back fourth phase focus monitoring sustaining forces us allies trained click see larger versionus army africa document details fourphase plan us training libyan forces despite reports training novo selo begin spring state department official told tomdispatch detailed plans still finalized inspecting briefing slide titled libya security sector phasing africoms benson told see us phase indicated slide planning coordination still ongoing since lolita baldor associated press reported according unnamed army official small team us soldiers headed libya make preparations bulgarian portion training timeline produced us army africa part december 2013 briefing indicates novo selo site would ready trainers sometime last month communications systems security sensors set training range ready accept first libyan recruits timeline suggests could occur early may may early version schedule theres little doubt program begin soon baldor notes formal libyan approval training may come month although africom commander david rodriguez pointed pentagon press briefing libyan government still ante funds program libyan official confirmed tomdispatch training yet commence click see larger versionus army africa timeline us training libyan general purpose force experts however already expressed skepticism effectiveness program late 2013 instance benjamin nickels academic chair transnational threats counterterrorism department defenses africa center strategic studies raised number problematic issues included challenge screening vetting applicants existing libyan militias difficulty incorporating various regional tribal groups force without politicizing trainee pool daunting task devising way integrate gpf libyas existing military situation already verging chaotic seriousness wrote nickels implementation difficulties pale comparison serious pitfalls haunting gpf conceptual level far plans gpf appear virtually unrelated projects disarmament demobilization reintegration ddr security sector reform ssr vital libyas future berny sebe expert north west africa university birmingham united kingdom noted incorporating militiamen mainstream security system could help diminish power existing militias posed serious dangers well drawback course infiltrate factious elements heart libyan state apparatus could undermine power told tomdispatch email use force unavoidable enforce rule law regularly threat libya however efforts placed development security force go hand hand clear political vision failure might solve problem temporarily bring longterm peace stability november 2013 frederic wehrey senior associate carnegie endowment international peace expert libya pointed project seemed reasonable abstract reality might another matter entirely forces composition details training extent libyan civilians oversee ability deal range threats country faces unclear suggested underreported 2013 mission train one libyan unit ended abject failure viewed cautionary tale last summer small contingent us special operations forces set training camp outside libyas capital tripoli elite 100man libyan counterterror force whose recruits personally chosen former prime minister ali zeidan americans holed nighttime safe house unidentified militia terrorist forces twice raided camp guarded libyan military looted large quantities hightech american equipment haul included hundreds weapons glock pistols m4 rifles among well nightvision devices specialized lasers seen equipment result training effort shut abandoned camp reportedly taken militia represented latest series troubled us assistance training efforts greater middle east africa include scandalplagued endeavors iraq afghanistan well program produced officer led coup overthrew malis elected government eightmonth training effort democratic republic congo us special operations forces yielded elite commando battalion took part mass rapes atrocities according united nations report tip iceberg among many sordid examples around world answer us may never train single libyan militiaman canary islands plan create yet one armed group inject libyas already fractious sea competing militias going forwardand fraught peril half year militia controlled three largest ports libya militiamen killed unarmed protesters emptied whole towns residents others work criminal gangs smuggling drugs carrying kidnappings ransom engaging human trafficking still others carried arbitrary arrests conducted torture responsible deaths detention armed men also murdered foreigners targeted christian migrants fought progovernment forces many attacked nascent state institutions last month instance militiamen stormed countrys national assembly forcing relocation hotel assault apparently triggered separate unidentified group attacked antiparliament sitin kidnapping protesters militias quasiofficial status beholden individual parliamentarians others paid support rickety libyan government government also reportedly engaging widespread abuses including detentions without due process prosecutions stifle free speech failing repeal qaddafiera laws human rights watch noted prescribe corporal punishment including lashing extramarital intercourse slander amputation limbs experts agree libya needs assistance strengthening central government rule law unless international community focuses need urgent assistance justice security systems libya risks collapse already weak state institutions deterioration human rights country sarah leah whitson middle east north africa director human rights watch said recently go remains however best unclear defense department colleagues plan train 5000 8000 general purpose forces anne patterson assistant secretary state near eastern affairs told house armed services committee earlier year noting us would conduct unprecedented vetting screening trainees participate program admiral william mcraven defense department colleague already admitted troops trained likely clean record wake failed fullscale conflicts iraq afghanistan us military embraced lightfootprint model warfare emphasizing drone technology special operations forces training proxy troops fight battles americas national security interests mali syriaand soon enough libya well course easy answers berny sebe notes united states among countries world resources necessary undertake gigantic task training new security force country brink civil war like libya yet us repeatedly suffered poor intelligence inability deal effectively local regional dynamics involved operations middle east north africa massive doses wishful thinking poor planning indeed dangerous decision sebe observes may add confusion already volatile situation failure imagine consequences last major us intervention libya perhaps irreparably fractured country sent spiral violence leading deaths americans among others helping destabilize neighboring nations enhance reach local terror groups aid proliferation weapons fueled existing regional conflicts even deputy assistant secretary defense african affairs amanda dory admitted recent pentagon press briefing fallout ousting qaddafi worse would anticipated time perhaps sobering well initial smaller scale effort help strengthen libyan security forces abject failure ended enhancing diminishing power militias may nation get things entirely right comes libya one nation shown unnerving ability get things wrong whether outside tripoli bulgaria canary islands elsewhere country really one charge delicate process building cohesive security force combat violent fractious armed groups really creating separate force trained far home foreigners drawn militias destabilized libya first place nick turse managing editor tomdispatch fellow nation institute 2014 izzy award winner pieces appeared new york times los angeles times nation bbc regularly tomdispatch author recently new york times bestseller kill anything moves real american war vietnam paperback follow tomdispatch twitter join us facebook tumblr check newest dispatch book ann joness soldiers wounded return americas warsthe untold storyto stay top important articles like sign receive latest updates tomdispatchcom | 1,856 |
<p>Stephanie Mencimer</p>
<p />
<p>Van Irion, a GOP congressional candidate from Tennessee, is walking through the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, in search of Sen. Harry Reid’s office. “Wow,” he says, passing the 75-foot Alexander Calder sculpture, Mountains and Clouds, that dominates the lobby. “That looks like a big piece of taxpayer money.” Notwithstanding that the sculpture was actually donated, Irion is a fiscal conservative if there ever was one. Endorsed by none other than Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), Irion is a serious tea party candidate in a crowded primary field of aspirants looking to fill a seat vacated by GOP Rep. Zach Wamp, who is running for governor. He first distinguished himself from the 11-candidate field by campaigning with a pitchfork on which he had impaled a “Don’t Tread on Me” poster.</p>
<p>He didn’t bring the pitchfork today, recognizing that it might have presented a bit of a problem with security. So instead, he has a replica of the pitchfork/poster combo pinned to his lapel. He has flown in from Tennessee on a plane piloted by a doctor/supporter so that he can serve Senate Majority Leader Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other Obama administration officials with a copy of the class action he recently filed in federal court. Like many small-government conservatives, Irion hopes to overturn the recently passed health care reform bill. But his lawsuit goes beyond simply challenging the legislation.</p>
<p>Irion is a “tenther,” someone who has pledged fealty to the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution—a small but powerful sentence that supporters say vests the states and individuals, not the federal government, with any powers that aren’t specifically spelled out in the Constitution. Irion sees the amendment as a strict constraint on federal power—and one entirely disregarded by Congress and the Supreme Court over the past few decades. As such, he hopes that his class action, which more than 30,000 Americans have joined as plaintiffs, will not just kill off “Obamacare” but drive a stake into the heart of the jurisprudence that has allowed Congress to subvert states’ rights in the name of regulating interstate commerce.</p>
<p>Irion didn’t actually need to come to DC to file his lawsuit—he could serve all of the defendants through certified mail—but as he says of the trip, “It’s fun, though, isn’t it?” Accompanied by an entourage that includes his doctor/pilot friend, his wife Dawn, and his campaign manager—the Tennessee tea party organizer Tony Shreeve—Irion has just dropped the 341-page document on the desk of a Pelosi staffer. Next up: Reid’s office.</p>
<p>The DC process-serving expedition is slightly disorganized. One of Irion’s campaign volunteers, Gregg Juster, even asked me how to get to Reid’s office. Initially unaware that people can’t just waltz into Reid’s suite in the Capitol without an appointment, Irion settles on serving Reid’s district office in the Hart building instead. Irion approaches the first desk inside the door and delivers his spiel and an envelope containing the lawsuit. He has just served Reid’s summer intern. No matter. “Served!” he says, triumphantly.</p>
<p>I ask the intern, Ben Symons, whether this is the first lawsuit he’s been served with this summer. “No comment,” he responds. And when I try to double-check his name, he says, “You can stop talking to me now. And that’s off the record.” Needless to say, the merry band of Tennessee tea partiers left unimpressed with the majority leader they were already inclined to dislike.</p>
<p>In the hallway outside Reid’s office, I ask Irion, a patent lawyer, whether he actually has standing to bring this lawsuit. Obamacare, as he calls it, hasn’t harmed him, at least not yet, and that’s usually a requirement for such suits—especially these days, when the Supreme Court has taken a dim view of these kind of preemptory challenges. Irion insists that he does. “Individual citizens have more standing than the states because the states don’t have any individual mandate,” he says. “Because of that, our lawsuit is really unique.”</p>
<p>Irion was inspired to bring the suit after Tennessee’s attorney general refused to represent the state in a lawsuit challenging health care reform the way Ken Cuccinelli has in Virginia. Irion also finds the lawsuits filed by Virginia, Florida, and other states lacking, because they don’t get at the constitutional issues that he thinks have been a problem ever since the 1942 Supreme Court decision against Ohio farmer Roscoe Filburn. In that case, the court sided with the federal government, which had ordered Filburn to destroy some of his crops and pay a fine because he grew some extra wheat to feed his own chickens—a violation of federal wheat production limits that had been imposed to help raise prices during the Great Depression.</p>
<p>Even though Filburn was using the wheat for his own use and had no intention of selling it, the court said the government was acting within its right to regulate interstate commerce. The decision, much hated by Tenthers, has endured; in Irion’s view, it’s paved the way for a vast and unconstitutional expansion of federal power into everything from health care to gun laws. He hopes the Supreme Court eventually finds in his lawsuit the basis to drive a pitchfork through Filburn and to restore some reasonable limits to federal power.</p>
<p>Pitchfork aside, Irion is an earnest guy. He is such a firm believer in term limits—and is so disillusioned by politicians who have violated their promises to adhere to them—that he has signed a bonded term-limit agreement. Under it he will have to pay the Anderson County, Tennessee, volunteer fire department a million bucks if he files for a fourth term.</p>
<p>First, though, he has to get elected.</p>
<p>The GOP primary is on Thursday, and Irion’s staff estimates that he has a good shot at being in the top three, maybe four, though recent polls show him garnering only 3 percent of the vote. But his staff is devoted. Juster, a cigar-chomping silver haired businessman who essentially quit working to volunteer full-time for Irion’s campaign is a true believer: “The difference between Van Irion’s message and the other Republicans in our race is that their message is just against Obama, against Pelosi, against spending. It’s no message. Van’s message [about the Constitution] resonates regardless of who’s in power.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Irion walks the halls of Congress with a purpose, even if he has no idea where he’s going. At one point, as the group is trying to hook up with Juster, who is the designated driver, they get so turned around that Dawn laughs, “We’re not Washington insiders, are we?” To which someone else mutters, “Thank God.”</p>
<p>Finally free of the Hart building, the group moves on to visit the office of Attorney General Eric Holder. Outside the Department of Justice, Irion points out the words carved on the building: “No free government can survive that is not based on the supremacy of law.” He suggests DOJ employees “need to come out here and read their own building.” As it is, he can’t get those people to give him the time of day. DOJ staffers leave him cooling his heels in the lobby for half an hour waiting for someone from the mailroom to retrieve his complaint.</p>
<p>Undaunted, Irion finally hands his complaint to Roosevelt from the mailroom and moves on in search of the White House mailroom, which is rumored to be at 1800 G Street NW. When he arrives, though, the security guard at the building has no idea what he’s talking about, so Irion decides to head directly for 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., under the notion that service can be achieved at a “residence or office.” On this brutally hot afternoon, he approaches some Secret Service agents outside the White House. They immediately shut down his friends who are trying to video the incident and tell him they can’t take his complaint. It looks like Irion will have to serve Obama by mail, after all.&#160;</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | stephanie mencimer van irion gop congressional candidate tennessee walking hart senate office building capitol hill search sen harry reids office wow says passing 75foot alexander calder sculpture mountains clouds dominates lobby looks like big piece taxpayer money notwithstanding sculpture actually donated irion fiscal conservative ever one endorsed none rep ron paul rtexas irion serious tea party candidate crowded primary field aspirants looking fill seat vacated gop rep zach wamp running governor first distinguished 11candidate field campaigning pitchfork impaled dont tread poster didnt bring pitchfork today recognizing might presented bit problem security instead replica pitchforkposter combo pinned lapel flown tennessee plane piloted doctorsupporter serve senate majority leader reid house speaker nancy pelosi obama administration officials copy class action recently filed federal court like many smallgovernment conservatives irion hopes overturn recently passed health care reform bill lawsuit goes beyond simply challenging legislation irion tenther someone pledged fealty tenth amendment constitutiona small powerful sentence supporters say vests states individuals federal government powers arent specifically spelled constitution irion sees amendment strict constraint federal powerand one entirely disregarded congress supreme court past decades hopes class action 30000 americans joined plaintiffs kill obamacare drive stake heart jurisprudence allowed congress subvert states rights name regulating interstate commerce irion didnt actually need come dc file lawsuithe could serve defendants certified mailbut says trip fun though isnt accompanied entourage includes doctorpilot friend wife dawn campaign managerthe tennessee tea party organizer tony shreeveirion dropped 341page document desk pelosi staffer next reids office dc processserving expedition slightly disorganized one irions campaign volunteers gregg juster even asked get reids office initially unaware people cant waltz reids suite capitol without appointment irion settles serving reids district office hart building instead irion approaches first desk inside door delivers spiel envelope containing lawsuit served reids summer intern matter served says triumphantly ask intern ben symons whether first lawsuit hes served summer comment responds try doublecheck name says stop talking thats record needless say merry band tennessee tea partiers left unimpressed majority leader already inclined dislike hallway outside reids office ask irion patent lawyer whether actually standing bring lawsuit obamacare calls hasnt harmed least yet thats usually requirement suitsespecially days supreme court taken dim view kind preemptory challenges irion insists individual citizens standing states states dont individual mandate says lawsuit really unique irion inspired bring suit tennessees attorney general refused represent state lawsuit challenging health care reform way ken cuccinelli virginia irion also finds lawsuits filed virginia florida states lacking dont get constitutional issues thinks problem ever since 1942 supreme court decision ohio farmer roscoe filburn case court sided federal government ordered filburn destroy crops pay fine grew extra wheat feed chickensa violation federal wheat production limits imposed help raise prices great depression even though filburn using wheat use intention selling court said government acting within right regulate interstate commerce decision much hated tenthers endured irions view paved way vast unconstitutional expansion federal power everything health care gun laws hopes supreme court eventually finds lawsuit basis drive pitchfork filburn restore reasonable limits federal power pitchfork aside irion earnest guy firm believer term limitsand disillusioned politicians violated promises adhere themthat signed bonded termlimit agreement pay anderson county tennessee volunteer fire department million bucks files fourth term first though get elected gop primary thursday irions staff estimates good shot top three maybe four though recent polls show garnering 3 percent vote staff devoted juster cigarchomping silver haired businessman essentially quit working volunteer fulltime irions campaign true believer difference van irions message republicans race message obama pelosi spending message vans message constitution resonates regardless whos power meanwhile irion walks halls congress purpose even idea hes going one point group trying hook juster designated driver get turned around dawn laughs washington insiders someone else mutters thank god finally free hart building group moves visit office attorney general eric holder outside department justice irion points words carved building free government survive based supremacy law suggests doj employees need come read building cant get people give time day doj staffers leave cooling heels lobby half hour waiting someone mailroom retrieve complaint undaunted irion finally hands complaint roosevelt mailroom moves search white house mailroom rumored 1800 g street nw arrives though security guard building idea hes talking irion decides head directly 1600 pennsylvania ave notion service achieved residence office brutally hot afternoon approaches secret service agents outside white house immediately shut friends trying video incident tell cant take complaint looks like irion serve obama mail all160 | 733 |
<p>Jon Stewart, less than one month ago, I marched in the Socialist Contingent at the October 2 March for Jobs and Justice. (Yes, I am one of those Marxists “undermining the Constitution,” but we’ll get to that in a minute.) We demanded good jobs for all and an end to racism, but in the end, the entire march—liberal and radical elements included—got almost no media coverage, even though we were demanding things that would seem to be incredibly “sane” policy goals for any government with real interest in promoting “national security.”</p>
<p>After all, poverty—which is the complete absence of all human rights—at home and around the world, undermines any chance we have at achieving real security. Poverty—and the neoliberal policies used to perpetuate it—are the real roots of “terrorism” and working class “insanity.” You tell us that “we live in hard times, not end times,” but to working people who are under constant attack from Republicans and Democrats, hard times are end times.</p>
<p>Jon Stewart, are you seriously suggesting that humans subjected to these conditions in order to expand corporate profits and imperial power structures don’t have the right to voice or demonstrate their opposition to these policies and practices—and loudly if necessary?</p>
<p>Jon Stewart, you often offer a left wing critique of American policy and political culture—something I look forward to after along day of living in a place still littered with Confederate flags. To say I was disappointed in your rally and your closing speech would be, to say the least, an understatement.</p>
<p>In fact, I was sickened at drastic swing to the right:</p>
<p>“There are terrorists and racists and Stalinist and theocrats but those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers or real bigots and Juan Williams and Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate.”</p>
<p>Well, Jon: the Tea Party is racist and Juan Williams is a bigot. When the Tea Party scapegoats Latino immigrants, they are being racist. Sharron Angle, the Tea Party candidate running for Senate in Nevada, tried to win the Latino vote by suggesting that many Latinos “looked Asian”—Asian of course, being the almost-good-enough-to-be-white-since-we’re-not-interring-the-Japanese-anymore model minority. In other words, something to which every person of color should aspire.</p>
<p>Juan Williams is also a bigot, which Merriam-Webster defines as “a person intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions or prejudices, especially one who regards or treats the members of a group with hatred and intolerance.” Williams, by stating that people in “Muslim garb” make him feel nervous, equated “Muslim” with “terrorist.” By “admitting his nervousness,” Williams legitimized state racism on national television, so how on earth do you separate his actions from bigotry?</p>
<p>This turn of affairs was worse than I could have imagined. I knew your rally would be a run to center, but I didn’t know you were going to go diving for a warmonger’s foul ball in right field.</p>
<p>Your attack on the left is old and tired. Perhaps we Marxists are “undermining the Constitution.” I’m all for it. It’s not a holy document. It’s a racist treatise that divides American society into the have and have-nots. Even the rights we are granted are politically moderated. Attacking the injustices embedded in the Constitution is not an attack on the American people; it is an attack on the ruling class.</p>
<p>I refuse to buy into the American liberal notion of bipartisanship: that somehow “reaching across the aisle” is somehow better for everyone and is the only avenue to “change.” Call me insane if you will, but the right wing is my enemy. I have no interest in working with them, or compromising away my rights for war funding. The Democrats are not even the other side of the same coin. If the Republicans are the raised edges that cut into the skin of the working class, the Democrats are the pits that give the edges definition. It is not in my interest to murder my brothers and sisters in Afghanistan, to continue the occupation of their country in order to pass the DREAM Act or to repeal DADT. That is an unacceptable compromise. If that is sanity, then sanity is inadequate and unacceptable.</p>
<p>By claiming that “the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the promised land, it’s just New Jersey,” you are telling the people to settle for health care “reform” that increased insurance profits but neglected to establish access to health care across the board. We cannot all rest in your quiet sphere of middle class liberalism—some of us must do more than casually hope for things to get better. Our lives depend on it. We aren’t “amplifying” our voices just to add to the corporate media din. We have to scream so loudly because the ruling class tries so hard to ignore, works so vigorously to evade our power and dismiss our demands.</p>
<p>Your rally was a mockery of the process of protest; it was intended to be, but it was clear in the lead-up to the event that attendees wanted the event to be steeped in progressive politics. What happened to the Jon Stewart who presented clear analysis on the imperial motives that might be behind the “discovery” of trillions of dollars in mineral resources? Perhaps those people now feel disillusioned, but we will not let you deter us from our fight for real progressive reform and for revolutionary change.</p>
<p>We will hold you accountable for your rightward swing. Taking turns driving through a tunnel is not anywhere close to the dynamic of two capitalist parties running a country. You know that. You know these parties aren’t moving forward together towards “the light.” Instead, they’re holding us in the tunnel. They’re robbing, raping, and murdering us in that tunnel without any sense of conscience and we’re going to fight back. You better believe it.</p>
<p>TRISH KAHLE blogs at “ <a href="http://stillhavetoprotest.blogspot.com/" type="external">I Still Can’t Believe We Have to Protest This Shit.</a>“</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | jon stewart less one month ago marched socialist contingent october 2 march jobs justice yes one marxists undermining constitution well get minute demanded good jobs end racism end entire marchliberal radical elements includedgot almost media coverage even though demanding things would seem incredibly sane policy goals government real interest promoting national security povertywhich complete absence human rightsat home around world undermines chance achieving real security povertyand neoliberal policies used perpetuate itare real roots terrorism working class insanity tell us live hard times end times working people constant attack republicans democrats hard times end times jon stewart seriously suggesting humans subjected conditions order expand corporate profits imperial power structures dont right voice demonstrate opposition policies practicesand loudly necessary jon stewart often offer left wing critique american policy political culturesomething look forward along day living place still littered confederate flags say disappointed rally closing speech would say least understatement fact sickened drastic swing right terrorists racists stalinist theocrats titles must earned must resume able distinguish real racists tea partiers real bigots juan williams rick sanchez insult people racists put exhausting effort takes hate well jon tea party racist juan williams bigot tea party scapegoats latino immigrants racist sharron angle tea party candidate running senate nevada tried win latino vote suggesting many latinos looked asianasian course almostgoodenoughtobewhitesincewerenotinterringthejapaneseanymore model minority words something every person color aspire juan williams also bigot merriamwebster defines person intolerantly devoted opinions prejudices especially one regards treats members group hatred intolerance williams stating people muslim garb make feel nervous equated muslim terrorist admitting nervousness williams legitimized state racism national television earth separate actions bigotry turn affairs worse could imagined knew rally would run center didnt know going go diving warmongers foul ball right field attack left old tired perhaps marxists undermining constitution im holy document racist treatise divides american society havenots even rights granted politically moderated attacking injustices embedded constitution attack american people attack ruling class refuse buy american liberal notion bipartisanship somehow reaching across aisle somehow better everyone avenue change call insane right wing enemy interest working compromising away rights war funding democrats even side coin republicans raised edges cut skin working class democrats pits give edges definition interest murder brothers sisters afghanistan continue occupation country order pass dream act repeal dadt unacceptable compromise sanity sanity inadequate unacceptable claiming light end tunnel isnt promised land new jersey telling people settle health care reform increased insurance profits neglected establish access health care across board rest quiet sphere middle class liberalismsome us must casually hope things get better lives depend arent amplifying voices add corporate media din scream loudly ruling class tries hard ignore works vigorously evade power dismiss demands rally mockery process protest intended clear leadup event attendees wanted event steeped progressive politics happened jon stewart presented clear analysis imperial motives might behind discovery trillions dollars mineral resources perhaps people feel disillusioned let deter us fight real progressive reform revolutionary change hold accountable rightward swing taking turns driving tunnel anywhere close dynamic two capitalist parties running country know know parties arent moving forward together towards light instead theyre holding us tunnel theyre robbing raping murdering us tunnel without sense conscience going fight back better believe trish kahle blogs still cant believe protest shit 160 | 534 |
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<p>For three decades now, the world has become more and more concerned about the interlaced problems of rapid population growth, diminishing resources, and environmental degradation. Yet, even though birthrates have fallen significantly in most countries, demographers project further massive increases in the global population, now numbering 5.7 billion people and expanding by some 90 million annually. The United Nations’ midrange population projection, which is considered the most likely, indicates another doubling in the next century.</p>
<p>The U.N.’s high projection, by contrast, shows the population passing 28 billion in 2150 and continuing to climb afterwards. As biologists, we find this projection utterly unrealistic. It makes no allowance for rising death rates due to problems connected with rapid population growth, including the need to supply food to ever-more people; the appearance of novel viruses and resistant strains of old microbial enemies; and general environmental deterioration. To our minds, a likelier outcome would be population limitation resulting from some combination of plague, famine, or war.</p>
<p>The U.N.’s low projection is considerably more interesting. It shows the world population peaking at about 8 billion around 2050 and thereafter slowly declining, dropping below 5 billion by 2150. This assumes that fertility can soon be reduced globally to below replacement level. (Replacement level is when couples just replace themselves in the next generation–at today’s mortality rates that means an average of slightly more than two children per family–leading eventually to zero population growth.)</p>
<p>We believe the world can attain below replacement level fertility with a concerted international effort. After all, the industrialized world’s average fertility is already well below replacement, and China’s is not far behind. If average fertility elsewhere in the developing world could be reduced by half by about 2015, the population surely could be held well below the U.N.’s best-guess 11.2 billion peak.</p>
<p>WEALTH DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN SMALLER FAMILIES</p>
<p>But how should a concerted international effort be framed? The answer isn’t simple because the factors that determine fertility rates are extremely complex and sometimes contradictory, and they vary from culture to culture.</p>
<p>Several decades ago, experts had little understanding of what motivates people to have smaller families, although most agreed that a major prerequisite was ensuring that more infants survived to adulthood. They also thought that, once children were no longer income-producers, but instead cost money to feed, clothe, and educate, couples would find smaller families advantageous. But experts disagreed about the value of programs specifically oriented toward birth control. Some development specialists believed such programs were unnecessary because people would naturally desire smaller families in the wake of modernization and industrialization–in short, development itself would be the best contraceptive.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, family planning programs were established in many developing countries, and by the mid-1970s several showed striking success (among them: Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Trinidad, Tobago, and Barbados). By 1980, the most remarkable turnaround was in China, where an indigenous program had cut the average family size by half in only 10 years, to 2.3 children per couple, just above replacement level fertility.</p>
<p>But these successes showed no clear correlation with development, as measured by the growth of a country’s gross national product. Some countries, such as South Korea and Taiwan, showed the expected fertility declines associated with rising GNPs, but others, such as Mexico and Brazil, underwent considerable development with little or no reduction in birthrates. And in many developing nations, birthrates remained high despite substantial drops in infant and child mortality, the existence of family planning programs, and development assistance.</p>
<p>By 1980, it had become apparent that, although industrial development might raise the GNP, it had no consistent relationship to the number of children women bore. But certain kinds of development–improving basic health and nutritional conditions, providing for security in old age, and educating women and granting them a measure of independence and economic opportunity–did make a difference, sometimes a dramatic one. The more that improved living conditions and social security were widely distributed, the more effectively they seemed to influence the entire population to have smaller families.</p>
<p>It is essential to distinguish between the different kinds of development because one thing is certain: The world cannot afford the sort of industrial development that has occurred in rich nations since 1950. The planet’s life-support systems can’t maintain 5.7 billion people living the overconsumptive lifestyle of the average American–a lifestyle that already causes substantial and possibly irreversible damage to the environment.</p>
<p>OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN HELP EVERYONE</p>
<p>Despite the complexity of the factors that affect reproductive choices, some common threads can guide our actions as understanding evolves. It now seems clear that the kinds of development efforts that do work have to do with people’s–especially women’s–basic living conditions: health, education, and equality of opportunity.</p>
<p>In nearly all developing regions, there is a strong connection between education of women and lower fertility. Even with a few years of schooling, a young woman may apply her education to better manage her family’s health and well-being. She learns to obtain pure water, use sanitary practices, and choose more nutritious foods; as more children survive, the mother becomes more receptive to birth control. Education also often opens opportunities for activities besides motherhood.</p>
<p>In Kerala state in southern India, women traditionally have been treated relatively equitably, and education and health care have long been a priority. Because it is a highly literate society, once a few women began using contraception in the 1960s, knowledge and use soon spread. The average family size, already small by Indian standards, fell from 3.0 children in 1979 to 1.8 in 1991, even though the state remained very poor and there was little or no structural change in the society.</p>
<p>Sadly, prospects for similar declines elsewhere in India may not be as bright. India’s average family size is still 3.4 children, one in every eight children dies before age 5, and barely a third of adult women are literate.</p>
<p>Several other Asian nations, however, have succeeded in reducing birthrates. In Thailand, the population has tripled from 20 million in 1950 to 59 million in 1995. To stop this expansion, the government began a family planning program in 1970, which has had dramatic results: In 1970 the average woman bore five children; by 1995 that number has fallen to 2.2. While much credit goes to a vigorous and imaginative public education program, it might not have been so successful without the high literacy rate among Thai women, which during that period rose from 72 to 90 percent.</p>
<p>The benefits of educating women extend far beyond fertility reduction. Closing the gender gap in education (two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people are women) turns out to be an important factor in a nation’s overall social and economic status. Countries in which women have greater access to education have higher GNPs per capita, and a high level of female literacy is also associated with improvements in health and nutrition, independent of income levels.</p>
<p>Societies in which women have substantial rights also have relatively low fertility rates, as illustrated by most developed nations. In particular, women who work outside the home and earn some income of their own, however small, consistently tend to have fewer children. By contrast, where women have low status, they usually have little or no choice about when or how many children they bear, even though they are responsible for the children’s upbringing. If the women do work outside the home, they often do so in family-oriented “informal enterprises,” and men retain power over them through culturally ingrained arrangements within families. Thus these women achieve no true economic independence. Since they do not directly reap the benefits, employment may not lower their fertility rates.</p>
<p>WE STILL NEED FAMILY PLANNING</p>
<p>Whatever the basic motivations for family-size decisions may be, there is little question that access to modern contraception and safe abortions can help families stay within their goals. Half of all pregnancies are unplanned and a quarter are “certainly unwanted,” according to the World Health Organization; this means that even if other social conditions are not favorable for population reduction, a strong family planning program can reduce fertility.</p>
<p>The most effective programs are bolstered by comprehensive maternal and child health programs. And, increasingly, men are included in family planning services. Support is also offered through social policies that regulate the minimum age for marriage, offer education and work opportunities for women, and provide social security arrangements. Some countries have reinforced the family planning message through housing assignments and tax policies that penalize parents with too many children. India has had vasectomy carnivals, and Indonesian youths who promise not to marry before a certain age and to limit the size of their families are given special recognition.</p>
<p>In the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the array of tactics now being used is truly impressive, as are the results: Last year, an average family size was down to 2.2 children, close behind Kerala’s rate. The backbone of the effort is a network of clinics–some private, some government supported–that provide comprehensive contraceptive and mother-child health services. Family planning counseling is offered–even to mothers-in-law, formidable powers in Indian families.</p>
<p>The ideal family size (illustrated by a logo showing a father, mother, and one child) is displayed on billboards, banners, leaflets, and television. Goals that support smaller families, such as recommended ages for marriage and first childbirth, a target average birth weight, and a minimum pregnancy weight gain are also widely promoted.</p>
<p>Nor are Indian men neglected. One ingenious device is to organize hairdressing salons (frequented more by men than women in Tamil Nadu) as centers of education and contraceptive delivery. Workshops train hairdressers to pass the message, and large jars of condoms are located in salons so men can pick them up free and without embarrassment.</p>
<p>But even without such education efforts, there already exists an enormous unmet need for contraceptives. Although more than half of the world’s married women are using birth control, the number of women who wish to avoid pregnancy-, but lack access to contraception, was conservatively estimated to be 120 million in 1990. By the year 2000, the number of people in their reproductive years (ages 15-49) will have increased by 23 percent. So, to achieve even a moderate increase in the rate of contraceptive use, the number of people using modern contraceptives in developing nations will have to double.</p>
<p>To meet this rising need, delegates to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo recommended increasing the annual funding for reproductive health services almost fourfold to $17 billion by 2000. About a third of the funds will go to improving reproductive health programs, and the rest to family planning. The developing countries themselves will supply two-thirds of the money. The balance amounts to only about 10 percent of the total official development aid provided by rich countries in 1991–and barely 0.029 percent of their combined 1993 GNPs. The world cannot afford to do less.</p>
<p>CHANGE BEGINS AT HOME</p>
<p>But runaway population growth is only one component pressuring our life-support systems. The other is overconsumption, which has scarcely been addressed. Those who promote population policies for poor nations should also press for them in rich nations, where each person accounts for so much more environmental damage and resource depletion. Further, rich countries should institute strong consumption reduction policies. This would balance poor nations’ needed industrial growth while minimizing the environmental impact of additional development.</p>
<p>The United States should take the lead in both endeavors, although it currently shows little interest in either. American fertility is a shocking exception to the very low rates in most industrialized nations. Although American fertility was below replacement for 20 years, it returned to replacement by 1993 and is still rising. Americans are also the most excessive consumers in the world, and our energy profligacy is exceeded in the developed nations only by the former Soviet bloc. This is shameful in an era when global warming, mainly from burning fossil fuels, poses huge health threats for the next century.</p>
<p>The world is too diverse for any one measure to solve the human dilemma. But one generality is so obvious that failure to see it can only reflect willful blindness: Increasing socioeconomic equity at all levels–between the sexes and among families, social classes, regions, and nations–has great potential for improving the human condition. But rich nations perpetuate poverty in the developing world in a million subtle but powerful ways. Improving the behavior of the wealthy would ultimately be much more effective than simply telling the poor how to change theirs.</p>
<p>Paul R. Ehrlich, Bing professor of population biology, and Anne H. Ehrlich, a senior research associate, work in the department of biological sciences at Stanford University; Gretchen C. Daily is Bing interdisciplinary research scientist at the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford. This article is adapted from a forthcoming book, The Stork and the Plow (Putnam, 1995).</p>
<p>See <a href="/news/feature/1995/09/ehrlich_backlash.html" type="external">“Backlash in Beijing?”</a> (in this issue) and <a href="/arts/books/1995/09/hotmedia.html#population" type="external">Hot Media</a> for resources.</p>
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<p /> | true | 4 | three decades world become concerned interlaced problems rapid population growth diminishing resources environmental degradation yet even though birthrates fallen significantly countries demographers project massive increases global population numbering 57 billion people expanding 90 million annually united nations midrange population projection considered likely indicates another doubling next century uns high projection contrast shows population passing 28 billion 2150 continuing climb afterwards biologists find projection utterly unrealistic makes allowance rising death rates due problems connected rapid population growth including need supply food evermore people appearance novel viruses resistant strains old microbial enemies general environmental deterioration minds likelier outcome would population limitation resulting combination plague famine war uns low projection considerably interesting shows world population peaking 8 billion around 2050 thereafter slowly declining dropping 5 billion 2150 assumes fertility soon reduced globally replacement level replacement level couples replace next generationat todays mortality rates means average slightly two children per familyleading eventually zero population growth believe world attain replacement level fertility concerted international effort industrialized worlds average fertility already well replacement chinas far behind average fertility elsewhere developing world could reduced half 2015 population surely could held well uns bestguess 112 billion peak wealth doesnt always mean smaller families concerted international effort framed answer isnt simple factors determine fertility rates extremely complex sometimes contradictory vary culture culture several decades ago experts little understanding motivates people smaller families although agreed major prerequisite ensuring infants survived adulthood also thought children longer incomeproducers instead cost money feed clothe educate couples would find smaller families advantageous experts disagreed value programs specifically oriented toward birth control development specialists believed programs unnecessary people would naturally desire smaller families wake modernization industrializationin short development would best contraceptive nonetheless family planning programs established many developing countries mid1970s several showed striking success among taiwan south korea singapore hong kong sri lanka costa rica trinidad tobago barbados 1980 remarkable turnaround china indigenous program cut average family size half 10 years 23 children per couple replacement level fertility successes showed clear correlation development measured growth countrys gross national product countries south korea taiwan showed expected fertility declines associated rising gnps others mexico brazil underwent considerable development little reduction birthrates many developing nations birthrates remained high despite substantial drops infant child mortality existence family planning programs development assistance 1980 become apparent although industrial development might raise gnp consistent relationship number children women bore certain kinds developmentimproving basic health nutritional conditions providing security old age educating women granting measure independence economic opportunitydid make difference sometimes dramatic one improved living conditions social security widely distributed effectively seemed influence entire population smaller families essential distinguish different kinds development one thing certain world afford sort industrial development occurred rich nations since 1950 planets lifesupport systems cant maintain 57 billion people living overconsumptive lifestyle average americana lifestyle already causes substantial possibly irreversible damage environment opportunities women help everyone despite complexity factors affect reproductive choices common threads guide actions understanding evolves seems clear kinds development efforts work peoplesespecially womensbasic living conditions health education equality opportunity nearly developing regions strong connection education women lower fertility even years schooling young woman may apply education better manage familys health wellbeing learns obtain pure water use sanitary practices choose nutritious foods children survive mother becomes receptive birth control education also often opens opportunities activities besides motherhood kerala state southern india women traditionally treated relatively equitably education health care long priority highly literate society women began using contraception 1960s knowledge use soon spread average family size already small indian standards fell 30 children 1979 18 1991 even though state remained poor little structural change society sadly prospects similar declines elsewhere india may bright indias average family size still 34 children one every eight children dies age 5 barely third adult women literate several asian nations however succeeded reducing birthrates thailand population tripled 20 million 1950 59 million 1995 stop expansion government began family planning program 1970 dramatic results 1970 average woman bore five children 1995 number fallen 22 much credit goes vigorous imaginative public education program might successful without high literacy rate among thai women period rose 72 90 percent benefits educating women extend far beyond fertility reduction closing gender gap education twothirds worlds illiterate people women turns important factor nations overall social economic status countries women greater access education higher gnps per capita high level female literacy also associated improvements health nutrition independent income levels societies women substantial rights also relatively low fertility rates illustrated developed nations particular women work outside home earn income however small consistently tend fewer children contrast women low status usually little choice many children bear even though responsible childrens upbringing women work outside home often familyoriented informal enterprises men retain power culturally ingrained arrangements within families thus women achieve true economic independence since directly reap benefits employment may lower fertility rates still need family planning whatever basic motivations familysize decisions may little question access modern contraception safe abortions help families stay within goals half pregnancies unplanned quarter certainly unwanted according world health organization means even social conditions favorable population reduction strong family planning program reduce fertility effective programs bolstered comprehensive maternal child health programs increasingly men included family planning services support also offered social policies regulate minimum age marriage offer education work opportunities women provide social security arrangements countries reinforced family planning message housing assignments tax policies penalize parents many children india vasectomy carnivals indonesian youths promise marry certain age limit size families given special recognition indian state tamil nadu array tactics used truly impressive results last year average family size 22 children close behind keralas rate backbone effort network clinicssome private government supportedthat provide comprehensive contraceptive motherchild health services family planning counseling offeredeven mothersinlaw formidable powers indian families ideal family size illustrated logo showing father mother one child displayed billboards banners leaflets television goals support smaller families recommended ages marriage first childbirth target average birth weight minimum pregnancy weight gain also widely promoted indian men neglected one ingenious device organize hairdressing salons frequented men women tamil nadu centers education contraceptive delivery workshops train hairdressers pass message large jars condoms located salons men pick free without embarrassment even without education efforts already exists enormous unmet need contraceptives although half worlds married women using birth control number women wish avoid pregnancy lack access contraception conservatively estimated 120 million 1990 year 2000 number people reproductive years ages 1549 increased 23 percent achieve even moderate increase rate contraceptive use number people using modern contraceptives developing nations double meet rising need delegates 1994 international conference population development cairo recommended increasing annual funding reproductive health services almost fourfold 17 billion 2000 third funds go improving reproductive health programs rest family planning developing countries supply twothirds money balance amounts 10 percent total official development aid provided rich countries 1991and barely 0029 percent combined 1993 gnps world afford less change begins home runaway population growth one component pressuring lifesupport systems overconsumption scarcely addressed promote population policies poor nations also press rich nations person accounts much environmental damage resource depletion rich countries institute strong consumption reduction policies would balance poor nations needed industrial growth minimizing environmental impact additional development united states take lead endeavors although currently shows little interest either american fertility shocking exception low rates industrialized nations although american fertility replacement 20 years returned replacement 1993 still rising americans also excessive consumers world energy profligacy exceeded developed nations former soviet bloc shameful era global warming mainly burning fossil fuels poses huge health threats next century world diverse one measure solve human dilemma one generality obvious failure see reflect willful blindness increasing socioeconomic equity levelsbetween sexes among families social classes regions nationshas great potential improving human condition rich nations perpetuate poverty developing world million subtle powerful ways improving behavior wealthy would ultimately much effective simply telling poor change paul r ehrlich bing professor population biology anne h ehrlich senior research associate work department biological sciences stanford university gretchen c daily bing interdisciplinary research scientist center conservation biology stanford article adapted forthcoming book stork plow putnam 1995 see backlash beijing issue hot media resources | 1,324 |
<p>Nobody expected these results. Across the country, the hundreds of millions of Indian voters rejected the economic “reforms” associated with IMFundamentalism. The most dramatic repudiation of these “reforms” came in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, where the Chief Minister and leader of the Telugu Desam Party, Chandrababu Naidu, fashioned himself as the state’s CEO. The people refused to allow the TDP any representation in the lower house of the Parliament, the Lok Sabha. The international media, by which we mean everything owned by Fox mogul Rupert Murdoch, anointed Naidu as the favored child of the new world order, being ruthless against small farmers and generous toward information technology. He thought he had renamed Andhra Pradesh’s capital, Hyderabad, to Cyberabad. Nothing of the sort.</p>
<p>The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which led the coalition government (in which Naidu’s party played a crucial role), also felt the wrath of the voters. The BJP had relied upon its politics of cruel cultural nationalism against Christians, Muslims and the Left. This did not play well with voters who denied victories to the BJP’s most virulently cruel cultural ideologues, including the former Minister for Human Resource Development Murli Manohar Joshi. In Gujarat, where the BJP’s Sangh/Jang Parivar had engineered a pogrom against Muslims in 2002 (in retaliation for the murder of fifty-eight of its activists), the BJP could only win half the seats. In Uttar Pradesh, where it played its strongest chauvinist card, all its heavyweights could not win.</p>
<p>But did the people reject the BJP mainly for its cruel cultural nationalism? That might have been the case in some regions, but as far as exit polls and other evidence suggests, what was most on the minds of the voters across the country was the BJP’s enthusiastic embrace of IMFundamentalism, the rights of global corporations and the arrogance of the new middle class in the metropolitan areas. Its campaign slogan, India Shining, reflected its craven disregard for the suicides of farmers, the decrease in wages for day workers, the sufferings of the survivors of the Gujarat pogrom, the hardship of the millions who have been put out of work by the “disinvestment” policy to sell the public sector to the most corrupt bidder, and much else. The slogan irked the voter, who saw the reality of their lives mocked by the shallowness of the PR blitz.</p>
<p>The Congress Party is not immune to criticism for these economic “reforms.” Indeed, it was the Congress that initiated them, first in the late 1970s and again, with the collusion of the IMF, in 1991. The man who leads the Congress, Manmohan Singh, was the Finance Minister when the Indian government turned to the IMF to conduct the structural adjustment of its relatively self-reliant economy. But, people also remember that the Congress once came to the voters, even if cynically, with the slogan, Garibi Hatao – Remove Poverty. In the main, however, the voters did not so much vote for the Congress as they voted against the BJP and its allies.</p>
<p>That is clear across the country. The Congress benefited from a vote against the last six years of economic harshness. Despite this transparent fact, Manmohan Singh quickly announced that as far as economic policy is concerned, the United Progressive Alliance led by the Congress would alter nothing. Such words portend the suicide of the Congress Party. Even after these reassurances, the gangster brokers at Dalal Street scuttled the stock market so that it registered an incredible decline, and terrified the middle class. This was Big Money’s undemocratic way to tell the Congress not to mess with the “reforms” which benefit it, even as it runs the country into the ground.</p>
<p>The main beneficiary of the elections has been the Left. The major Communist Parties won more seats than ever before and will play an important role in the next period. They have decided not to join the government because the Congress has failed to learn the lesson of this election. The Left will support the government from outside, which means that it will be able to offer opposition to the economic policies that the Congress will pursue, give support to the liberal cultural policy that the Congress alliance will most likely implement (given its allies, such as the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal), and continue to fight against any tacit agreements that opportunists within the Congress might make with the BJP and it allies.</p>
<p>The real lesson of this election is that the BJP faced defeat not just because of its policies, but crucially because the Communists and the social movements generated mass struggles across the country on a number of issues. In Andhra Pradesh, the Communist Parties fought the rise in electricity rates and the starvation of farmers since 2000. In late August 2000, the parties organized a massive demonstration against the Naidu government, put the issues of inequity on the table and faced a barrage of bullets from the police. Two activists lost their lives. Then, the Communists set up gruel centers in the areas where the farmers had been hardest hit by the entry of global agro-businesses, as well as by the rise in prices of fertilizer, water and power. At these centers, the left provided free food as well as analysis of the situation in the state. Such actions pushed the generally turgid Congress Party to get into the act, and because they have a much broader organization, they were able to capitalize on the Left’s efforts.</p>
<p>Much the same thing will have to be reproduced across the country. There is no substitute for sustained political struggle to build mass movements. Only a politicized population that backs a progressive government with a genuine program written in the people’s interest can make Indian shine. Not the glibness of a PR firm hired to rewrite the ghastly reality of the BJP’s six years in office.</p>
<p>2004 is a historic year for the ballot box. Up to May, thirty-three countries have held elections, including El Salvador, Georgia, Greece, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, South Africa, Spain, and Taiwan. The right has been defeated in many of these countries, but for Russia, which has an electoral system that is the envy of most authoritarian politicians. India joined Spain in rejecting a political party that slavishly wanted to follow George Bush into the valley of Armageddon. One can only hope that when we go to the polls in 2004, we’ll learn from the Indian voters, and we’ll landscape the White House and get rid of the Bushes.</p>
<p>VIJAY PRASHAD teaches at Trinity College, Hartford, CT. His latest book is Keeping Up with the <a href="" type="internal">Dow Joneses: Debt, Prison, Workfare</a> (Boston: South End Press).</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | nobody expected results across country hundreds millions indian voters rejected economic reforms associated imfundamentalism dramatic repudiation reforms came southern state andhra pradesh chief minister leader telugu desam party chandrababu naidu fashioned states ceo people refused allow tdp representation lower house parliament lok sabha international media mean everything owned fox mogul rupert murdoch anointed naidu favored child new world order ruthless small farmers generous toward information technology thought renamed andhra pradeshs capital hyderabad cyberabad nothing sort rightwing bharatiya janata party bjp led coalition government naidus party played crucial role also felt wrath voters bjp relied upon politics cruel cultural nationalism christians muslims left play well voters denied victories bjps virulently cruel cultural ideologues including former minister human resource development murli manohar joshi gujarat bjps sanghjang parivar engineered pogrom muslims 2002 retaliation murder fiftyeight activists bjp could win half seats uttar pradesh played strongest chauvinist card heavyweights could win people reject bjp mainly cruel cultural nationalism might case regions far exit polls evidence suggests minds voters across country bjps enthusiastic embrace imfundamentalism rights global corporations arrogance new middle class metropolitan areas campaign slogan india shining reflected craven disregard suicides farmers decrease wages day workers sufferings survivors gujarat pogrom hardship millions put work disinvestment policy sell public sector corrupt bidder much else slogan irked voter saw reality lives mocked shallowness pr blitz congress party immune criticism economic reforms indeed congress initiated first late 1970s collusion imf 1991 man leads congress manmohan singh finance minister indian government turned imf conduct structural adjustment relatively selfreliant economy people also remember congress came voters even cynically slogan garibi hatao remove poverty main however voters much vote congress voted bjp allies clear across country congress benefited vote last six years economic harshness despite transparent fact manmohan singh quickly announced far economic policy concerned united progressive alliance led congress would alter nothing words portend suicide congress party even reassurances gangster brokers dalal street scuttled stock market registered incredible decline terrified middle class big moneys undemocratic way tell congress mess reforms benefit even runs country ground main beneficiary elections left major communist parties seats ever play important role next period decided join government congress failed learn lesson election left support government outside means able offer opposition economic policies congress pursue give support liberal cultural policy congress alliance likely implement given allies samajwadi party rashtriya janata dal continue fight tacit agreements opportunists within congress might make bjp allies real lesson election bjp faced defeat policies crucially communists social movements generated mass struggles across country number issues andhra pradesh communist parties fought rise electricity rates starvation farmers since 2000 late august 2000 parties organized massive demonstration naidu government put issues inequity table faced barrage bullets police two activists lost lives communists set gruel centers areas farmers hardest hit entry global agrobusinesses well rise prices fertilizer water power centers left provided free food well analysis situation state actions pushed generally turgid congress party get act much broader organization able capitalize lefts efforts much thing reproduced across country substitute sustained political struggle build mass movements politicized population backs progressive government genuine program written peoples interest make indian shine glibness pr firm hired rewrite ghastly reality bjps six years office 2004 historic year ballot box may thirtythree countries held elections including el salvador georgia greece india indonesia malaysia russia south africa spain taiwan right defeated many countries russia electoral system envy authoritarian politicians india joined spain rejecting political party slavishly wanted follow george bush valley armageddon one hope go polls 2004 well learn indian voters well landscape white house get rid bushes vijay prashad teaches trinity college hartford ct latest book keeping dow joneses debt prison workfare boston south end press 160 | 607 |
<p>Driving through the city with the sun beating down and the smoke and dust blurring my vision, I am soaked in sweat and still the goosebumps rise over my skin. It is as if the souls of those still buried under the rubble are coursing through my veins, reaching for the sun, yearning to be free. I carry them with me as I ride through this broken city, but I can’t let them out, I am so afraid that they will take me with them to a place where I will no longer be able to serve, my mind is numb but my skin is crawling with loss.</p>
<p>This morning I returned to Mon Nazar for the third time, the place where Rea Dol’s school SOPUDEP is, the place where I first fell in love with this country, the place that was once a bustling mountain full of hope and promise. Now the pages from children’s notebooks float in the breeze, while neighbors pour gas into the crumbled houses, burning the bodies of their lost loved ones, wailing as the bulldozers move in, 20 days too late, when all that is left to recover are body parts and the dust of shattered dreams.</p>
<p>And still it is the resilience and not the destruction that threatens to break through the numbness, the children jumping rope and laughing in the middle of the burning garbage, the stranger who gently takes my hand and leads me through the rubble watching to make sure that the glass will never pierce through my faded sandals, the songs of love and solidarity that echo through the camps at night, the outpouring of support from friends around the world.</p>
<p>Haiti has always been a country of extremes, and never more so than now. Haiti will bend but she will never break. Instead of bringing Haiti to its knees, the majority of people who survived have risen to their feet, ready to march forward. People who never would have thought that they would have the strength to stand up following a tragedy of this magnitude, have done so much more than stand, they have found an inner fortitude, a reserve of compassion and dedication that was released by the quake, a river of courage that spills from their hearts and every day people traumatized by loss are engaging in extraordinary acts of kindness.</p>
<p>Last night as Jess Lozier and I were returning to the guest house around 7 pm, we saw a truck run over a motorcycle with two passengers down by the airport. We pulled back to see what had happened and found a crowd gathered around the two bodies on the ground. Everyone helped to lift the injured man and woman into the back of our pickup. Two passerbys came with us as we rushed the patients to the nearest hospital where they were turned away for lack of space. We then had to transport them to the general hospital over the bumpy roads. These two brave men who had never met the victims came with us, holding the bleeding patients as they cried in pain. When we arrived at the hospital Jess and I stayed with the patients and Romiel (our incredible driver who had already been working since 6 am) rode off with the two strangers in search of the families of the two victims. Around 10 pm Romiel returned with the two men and the families. Both of the injured patients had severely fractured pelvises and would have died without medical treatment. Without any question of compensation these ordinary people rose to the occasion and became agents of salvation, I cannot find the words to thank them.</p>
<p>The other day we went to St. Claire’s church in the community of Ti Plaz Kazo, the church where Father Jean Juste inspired thousands. Father Gerry would have been so proud to see the line of 3000 people calmly waiting to receive a hot meal. Amidst the wreckage of Port au Prince this church is still a sanctuary and I could feel Father Gerry all around, his spirit holding up the walls of the rectory, his love cradling the souls of the hungry.</p>
<p>Rea and Dodo Dol spend each day driving through the city looking for the 540 kids from the SOPUDEP school. So far they have information about 265 of the students, including 26 who did not survive. We have been using some of the generous donations that SOIL has received over the past month to help Dodo and Rea to purchase food for the families of the surviving students. Every day the dedicated teachers and staff for the school prepare bags of food for the families and bring them out into the camps.</p>
<p>Jean Ristil, a dear friend and brave journalist from Cite Soleil, spends his days delivering water to the tent camps around his community. Nick Preneta, SOIL’s new water specialist, accompanies him most days and together they have delivered over 40,000 gallons of treated water to Cite Soliel. Jean Ristil broke his leg in a motorcycle accident 1 week after the earthquake, but undaunted he hops around the water tanker on his crutches helping to organize the community, often late into the evening.</p>
<p>In Cap Haitien the SOL team has been providing relief to the refugees flowing into the city. Setting up tents and distributing food and money to the victims who have filled the local hospitals. Everyone is working 7 days a week, throwing their hearts and souls into the relief effort, discovering their hidden talents and strengths, and breathing and dreaming in solidarity with their injured brothers and sisters.</p>
<p>Everyone has lost so much, but it is incredible to see the emptiness of loss transformed into the fire of action. Please know that your donations and solidarity are the fuel that helps us keep the fire lit, the fire that light our paths as we walk through the crumbling walls of this proud city, the fire that will eventually burn away the loss and destruction and from the ashes Haiti will rise again, as she always does.</p>
<p>So thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who have supported the relief effort in Haiti, your contributions are helping and we are so grateful. All of the money that has been sent flows directly into the hands of these courageous community organizers giving them the means to serve those they love. Please continue to give at <a href="http://www.oursoil.org" type="external">www.oursoil.org</a> and pass this message along to others who are holding Haiti in their hearts and prayers.</p>
<p>With love from Port au Prince, Sasha</p>
<p>SASHA KRAMER, Ph.D. is an ecologist and human rights advocate and co-founder of <a href="http://www.oursoil.org" type="external">Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods</a> (SOIL). She is an Adjunct Professor of International Studies at the University of Miami. She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:sashakramer@gmail.com" type="external">sashakramer@gmail.com</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | driving city sun beating smoke dust blurring vision soaked sweat still goosebumps rise skin souls still buried rubble coursing veins reaching sun yearning free carry ride broken city cant let afraid take place longer able serve mind numb skin crawling loss morning returned mon nazar third time place rea dols school sopudep place first fell love country place bustling mountain full hope promise pages childrens notebooks float breeze neighbors pour gas crumbled houses burning bodies lost loved ones wailing bulldozers move 20 days late left recover body parts dust shattered dreams still resilience destruction threatens break numbness children jumping rope laughing middle burning garbage stranger gently takes hand leads rubble watching make sure glass never pierce faded sandals songs love solidarity echo camps night outpouring support friends around world haiti always country extremes never haiti bend never break instead bringing haiti knees majority people survived risen feet ready march forward people never would thought would strength stand following tragedy magnitude done much stand found inner fortitude reserve compassion dedication released quake river courage spills hearts every day people traumatized loss engaging extraordinary acts kindness last night jess lozier returning guest house around 7 pm saw truck run motorcycle two passengers airport pulled back see happened found crowd gathered around two bodies ground everyone helped lift injured man woman back pickup two passerbys came us rushed patients nearest hospital turned away lack space transport general hospital bumpy roads two brave men never met victims came us holding bleeding patients cried pain arrived hospital jess stayed patients romiel incredible driver already working since 6 rode two strangers search families two victims around 10 pm romiel returned two men families injured patients severely fractured pelvises would died without medical treatment without question compensation ordinary people rose occasion became agents salvation find words thank day went st claires church community ti plaz kazo church father jean juste inspired thousands father gerry would proud see line 3000 people calmly waiting receive hot meal amidst wreckage port au prince church still sanctuary could feel father gerry around spirit holding walls rectory love cradling souls hungry rea dodo dol spend day driving city looking 540 kids sopudep school far information 265 students including 26 survive using generous donations soil received past month help dodo rea purchase food families surviving students every day dedicated teachers staff school prepare bags food families bring camps jean ristil dear friend brave journalist cite soleil spends days delivering water tent camps around community nick preneta soils new water specialist accompanies days together delivered 40000 gallons treated water cite soliel jean ristil broke leg motorcycle accident 1 week earthquake undaunted hops around water tanker crutches helping organize community often late evening cap haitien sol team providing relief refugees flowing city setting tents distributing food money victims filled local hospitals everyone working 7 days week throwing hearts souls relief effort discovering hidden talents strengths breathing dreaming solidarity injured brothers sisters everyone lost much incredible see emptiness loss transformed fire action please know donations solidarity fuel helps us keep fire lit fire light paths walk crumbling walls proud city fire eventually burn away loss destruction ashes haiti rise always thank thank thank supported relief effort haiti contributions helping grateful money sent flows directly hands courageous community organizers giving means serve love please continue give wwwoursoilorg pass message along others holding haiti hearts prayers love port au prince sasha sasha kramer phd ecologist human rights advocate cofounder sustainable organic integrated livelihoods soil adjunct professor international studies university miami reached sashakramergmailcom 160 160 160 | 587 |
<p>Photo by Todd Blaisdell | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>A major chapter in American history – rarely taught in our schools – is how ever larger corporations have moved to game, neutralize and undermine the people’s continual efforts to protect our touted democratic society. It is a fascinating story of the relentless exercise of power conceived or seized by corporations, with the strategic guidance of corporate lawyers.</p>
<p>Start with their birth certificate – the state charters that bring these corporate entities into existence, with limited liability for their investors. In the early 1800s, the Massachusetts legislature chartered many of the textile manufacturing companies. These charters could be renewed on good behavior, because lawmakers then viewed charters as privileges contingent on meeting the broad interests of society.</p>
<p>Fast forward to now. The charter can be granted online in a matter of hours; there are no renewal periods and the job is often given over to a state commission. Over the decades, corporate lobbyists have had either the legislatures or the courts grant them more privileges, immunities and concentration of power in management, rendering shareholders – their owners – increasingly powerless. The same corporate fixers work for corporations and their subsidiaries abroad to help them avoid US laws, taxes and escape disclosures.</p>
<p>Remarkably, the artificial creation called the “corporation” has now achieved almost all of the rights of real people under our “We the People” Constitution that never mentions the words “corporation” or “company.”</p>
<p>Corporations cannot vote, at least not yet; only people can. That was seen as a major lever of democratic power over corporations. So what has happened? Commercial money to politicians started weakening the influence of voters because the politicians became increasingly dependent on the corporate interests that bankrolled their campaigns. The politicians use their ever-increasing corporate cash to saturate voters with deceptive political ads, and intimidate any competitors who have far less money, but may be far better representative of the public good.</p>
<p>To further shatter the principle of voter sovereignty, corporations have rewarded those politicians who construct restrictive political party rules, gerrymander electoral districts and obstruct third party candidate ballot access. By concentrating political power in fewer and fewer hands, corporate influence becomes more deeply entrenched in our democratic society. Politicians quickly learn that political favors will attract more corporate campaign cash and other goodies.</p>
<p>Institutions that are supposed to represent democratic values, such as Congress and state legislatures are meticulously gamed with the daily presence of corporate lawyers and lobbyists to shape the granular performance of these bodies and make sure little is done to defend civic values. These pitchmen are in the daily know about the inner workings of legislative bodies long before the general public. They often know who is going to be nominated for judicial and executive branch positions that interpret and administer the law and whether the nominee will do the bidding of the corporate bosses.</p>
<p>Then there is the press. Thomas Jefferson put great responsibility on the newspapers of his day to safeguard our democracy from excessive commercial power and their runaway political toadies. Certainly, our history has some great examples of the press fulfilling Jefferson’s wish. For the most part, however, any media that is heavily reliant on advertisements will clip its own wings or decide to go with light-hearted entertainment or fluff, rather than dig in the pits of corruption and wrongdoing.</p>
<p>What of the educational institutions that purport to convey facts, the lessons of history and not be beholden to special interests? The corporate state – the autocratic joining of business and government – exerts its influence all the way down to the state and local levels, not just in Washington. It works through boards of education and trustees of colleges and universities, drawing heavily from the business world and its professional servants in such disciplines as law, accounting and engineering.</p>
<p>Moreover, the most influential alumni, in terms of donations, endowments and engagements, come from the business community. They know the kind of alma mater they want to preserve. The law and business schools are of particular interest, if only because they are the recruiting grounds for their companies and firms.</p>
<p>Their subversion even extends to the sacrosanct notion of academic freedom – that these institutions must be independent centers of knowledge. For example, Monsanto, General Motors, Exxon and Eli Lilly are only a few of the companies that have pushed corporate, commercial science over academic, independent science through lucrative consultantships and partnerships with professors.</p>
<p>The unfortunate reality is that the wealthy and powerful are driven to spend the necessary time and energy to accomplish their raison d’etre, which are profits and the relentless pursuit of self-interest. Citizens, on the other hand, have so much else on their minds, just to get through the day and raise their families.</p>
<p>The path forward is to learn from history how citizens, when driven by injustice, organized, raised the banners of change and concentrated on the ways and means to victory. These initiatives require civic self-respect and an understanding that the status quo is demeaning and intolerable.</p>
<p>The requisite to such an awakening is the awareness that our two precious pillars of democracy – freedom of contract and freedom to use the courts – are being destroyed or seriously undermined by corporate influence. The contract servitude of fine-print contracts, signed or clicked on, is the basis of so many of the abuses and rip-offs that Americans are subjected to with such regularity. Add this modern peonage to the corporate campaign to obstruct the people’s full day in court and right of trial by jury guaranteed by our Constitution. The plutocrats have succeeded in gravely doing just that. Tight court budgets, the frequency of jury trials and the number of filed wrongful injury lawsuits keep going down to case levels well under five percent of what the needs for justice require.</p>
<p>Some fundamental questions are: Will we as citizens use our Constitutional authority to reclaim and redirect the power we’ve too broadly delegated to elected officials? Will we hold these officials accountable through a reformed campaign finance system that serves the people over the plutocrats? Will we realize that a better society starts with just a few people in each electoral district and never requires more than one percent of the voters, organized and reflecting public opinion, to make the corporations our servants, not our masters?</p>
<p>See my recent paperback, Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think.</p> | true | 4 | photo todd blaisdell cc 20 major chapter american history rarely taught schools ever larger corporations moved game neutralize undermine peoples continual efforts protect touted democratic society fascinating story relentless exercise power conceived seized corporations strategic guidance corporate lawyers start birth certificate state charters bring corporate entities existence limited liability investors early 1800s massachusetts legislature chartered many textile manufacturing companies charters could renewed good behavior lawmakers viewed charters privileges contingent meeting broad interests society fast forward charter granted online matter hours renewal periods job often given state commission decades corporate lobbyists either legislatures courts grant privileges immunities concentration power management rendering shareholders owners increasingly powerless corporate fixers work corporations subsidiaries abroad help avoid us laws taxes escape disclosures remarkably artificial creation called corporation achieved almost rights real people people constitution never mentions words corporation company corporations vote least yet people seen major lever democratic power corporations happened commercial money politicians started weakening influence voters politicians became increasingly dependent corporate interests bankrolled campaigns politicians use everincreasing corporate cash saturate voters deceptive political ads intimidate competitors far less money may far better representative public good shatter principle voter sovereignty corporations rewarded politicians construct restrictive political party rules gerrymander electoral districts obstruct third party candidate ballot access concentrating political power fewer fewer hands corporate influence becomes deeply entrenched democratic society politicians quickly learn political favors attract corporate campaign cash goodies institutions supposed represent democratic values congress state legislatures meticulously gamed daily presence corporate lawyers lobbyists shape granular performance bodies make sure little done defend civic values pitchmen daily know inner workings legislative bodies long general public often know going nominated judicial executive branch positions interpret administer law whether nominee bidding corporate bosses press thomas jefferson put great responsibility newspapers day safeguard democracy excessive commercial power runaway political toadies certainly history great examples press fulfilling jeffersons wish part however media heavily reliant advertisements clip wings decide go lighthearted entertainment fluff rather dig pits corruption wrongdoing educational institutions purport convey facts lessons history beholden special interests corporate state autocratic joining business government exerts influence way state local levels washington works boards education trustees colleges universities drawing heavily business world professional servants disciplines law accounting engineering moreover influential alumni terms donations endowments engagements come business community know kind alma mater want preserve law business schools particular interest recruiting grounds companies firms subversion even extends sacrosanct notion academic freedom institutions must independent centers knowledge example monsanto general motors exxon eli lilly companies pushed corporate commercial science academic independent science lucrative consultantships partnerships professors unfortunate reality wealthy powerful driven spend necessary time energy accomplish raison detre profits relentless pursuit selfinterest citizens hand much else minds get day raise families path forward learn history citizens driven injustice organized raised banners change concentrated ways means victory initiatives require civic selfrespect understanding status quo demeaning intolerable requisite awakening awareness two precious pillars democracy freedom contract freedom use courts destroyed seriously undermined corporate influence contract servitude fineprint contracts signed clicked basis many abuses ripoffs americans subjected regularity add modern peonage corporate campaign obstruct peoples full day court right trial jury guaranteed constitution plutocrats succeeded gravely tight court budgets frequency jury trials number filed wrongful injury lawsuits keep going case levels well five percent needs justice require fundamental questions citizens use constitutional authority reclaim redirect power weve broadly delegated elected officials hold officials accountable reformed campaign finance system serves people plutocrats realize better society starts people electoral district never requires one percent voters organized reflecting public opinion make corporations servants masters see recent paperback breaking power easier think | 584 |
<p>Something bad is happening to the election campaign of Amir Peretz. It is just shuffling around.</p>
<p>The surge that started with his election as leader of Labor has petered out. Events in the country are chasing each other: the “big bang” of the new Kadima party, the acts of prostitution of Shimon Peres and Shaul Mofaz, Ariel Sharon’s minor stroke, the Likud primaries, the Qassam rocket hitting Ashkelon. Peretz has been pushed to the margins.</p>
<p>Of course, the real election campaign has not yet started. In 1999, it was said about Barak, at this stage, “Ehud is not taking off!” and still he soared to victory. Nevertheless, the situation does give cause for concern.</p>
<p>These days, no exciting initiatives are coming out of the Peretz camp. On TV and the radio, the same tired old Labor politicians are churning out the same tired old Labor messages. At the moment, the polls give Peretz 22 seats, compared to 39 for Sharon and 12 for Netanyahu.</p>
<p>There is not much time left. Peretz must make bold strategic decisions. Now. At once. This is a test of leadership. A fateful test, because a defeat would not only spell disaster for the Labor Party, but for the peace camp at large and, indeed, for Israel.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>IN THIS battle, as we have said before, the advantage lies with the side that determines where the battle will be fought. It is in the interest of Peretz that the campaign be about social and economic issues, while both Sharon and Netanyahu want to fight it out in the national security arena. The polls show that the majority believes that Peretz is the best candidate to solve the social problems, but a large majority sees in Sharon the only one able to provide security.</p>
<p>The experts surrounding Peretz tell him: speak only about social matters. Don’t speak at all about war and peace, and, if you can’t avoid it, be vague. You must garner votes from the center, and the people there don’t believe in peace.</p>
<p>Sounds logical. But it’s bad advice, nevertheless.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>FIRST OF ALL, the question arises whether Peretz is in a position to put the social problem at the center of the campaign and impose it on his opponents. That is almost impossible.</p>
<p>In Israel, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense , with the help of the army commanders, can create tension at any time and at any place. It works like this: the army kills a Palestinian militant in a “targeted elimination” and declares that he was a ticking bomb who was planning a suicide attack. His comrades respond with a salvo of Qassam rockets and mortar shells, in the cause of revenge. The army reacts to this “criminal terrorist outbreak” with more assassinations, as well as artillery fire and attacks from the air. And voila, we have our “security tension”.</p>
<p>There are several variations on this theme. Hizballah is always ready to do its bit and “warm up” the northern border, if the Israeli army provides even the slightest provocation. And if nothing happens on the ground, there is always an army intelligence officer ready to sound the alarm: Iran will any minute now have an atom bomb and transport us straight to Alaska.</p>
<p>Sharon and Mofaz have no moral or practical problem with creating bloody headlines. As a matter of fact, one of Peretz’s advisors said so on TV, but was immediately silenced by his colleagues. How can you slander the army in this way? In an election campaign, that will backfire on us! And, as usual, when the national flag goes up the pole, we must all stand at attention and salute. (It was Vladimir Jabotinsky, the spiritual father of the Likud, of all people, who once said: “I shall not stand at attention while somebody sings the national anthem and empties my pockets!”)</p>
<p>If the impression gets around that Peretz has no convincing solution to our existential problems, or – even worse – that he has a solution but is afraid to voice it, his credibility as a candidate for Prime Minister will be zero.</p>
<p>There is no choice. He must speak up. And there is nothing to be afraid of.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>LET’S TAKE the Jerusalem question.</p>
<p>For decades now all Israeli governments have been repeating the mantra: “United Jerusalem, capital of Israel for all eternity.” Netanyahu has a bad habit of accusing all his opponents – from Shimon Peres in 1996 to Sylvan Shalom a week ago – of a sinister design to “divide Jerusalem”.</p>
<p>Two weeks ago, Amir Peretz gave in to his advisors and repeated the sacred mantra: he, too, is for the United Jerusalem, Capital of Israel for all Eternity. Amen.</p>
<p>This is a mendacious statement. Every child knows that there will be no peace without East Jerusalem becoming the capital of the Palestinian state. Peretz knows this better than most. Worse, it is a politically stupid statement.</p>
<p>That became clear on the morrow, when Israel’s largest mass-circulation daily, Yediot Ahronoth, published a poll that shocked the politicians: 49% of the Israeli public is ready to accept the division of Jerusalem, with another 49% opposed. Since an ordinary person is reluctant to give an answer that runs counter to the perceived consensus, it appears that a majority is now ready for the partition of the city.</p>
<p>I, for one, was not surprised at all. Eight years ago, after Gush Shalom had published a revolutionary manifesto that coined the phrase “United Jerusalem, Capital of the Two States”, I talked about it with a taxi driver. Most of our taxi drivers are super-patriots, so I was not surprised when he cried out: “No! Never!” But his explanation did surprise me: “I don’t want a united Jerusalem! I want the Arabs to get out of my sight! Let them take their neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the devil or to a Palestinian state, I don’t give a damn!”</p>
<p>At that time, already, we broke the taboo surrounding Jerusalem. Within a few weeks, 800 artists, writers, poets and academics signed the manifesto, and thousands of citizens from all walks of life added their signatures. In 2000, when it was (mistakenly) assumed that Ehud Barak at Camp David was about to “give up” East Jerusalem, there was no outcry in the country. Bill Clinton’s Jerusalem formula of January 2001 – “What is Arab should be Palestinian, what is Jewish should be Israeli” – is accepted by many. It is also included in the Geneva Initiative. If Peretz had openly and loudly supported this, he would have gained points.</p>
<p>That is true for the other peace issues, too. Vagueness is good for Sharon, it is bad for Peretz. His strength lies in the fact that his social-economic message is well integrated with his national-security message. They are the two sides of the same coin. That is a refreshing and new message for most of the public. A message that is accurate, moral and also good election tactics.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>A PERSONAL note: Lest I be suspected of voicing an opinion as one of the inexperienced commentators who have never borne actual responsibility, I would like to point out that I have myself directed five election campaigns for the Knesset and succeeded in four of them. True, it was always for small parties, devoid of money and an apparatus, but as far as the problems and pressures are concerned, the difference is not so big.</p>
<p>One feels that the public is fed up with deceitful campaigns. Voters are becoming more and more suspicious. This time, more than ever, they expect straight talking. And, indeed, after all the upheavals of the last few weeks, the picture that emerges presents the voter with a clear choice between three different options:</p>
<p>– On the right, the Likud, under the leadership of Netanyahu, has clearly shifted to the radical fringe. Netanyahu will now try to don a “moderate” mask, but to no avail. Not only does the party include openly fascist groups, but it is apparent that the entire Likud opposes “giving up” any part of Eretz Yisrael, thus striking peace from the agenda.</p>
<p>– In the middle, the new Kadima party, under the leadership of Sharon, has given up the idea of a Greater Israel in the whole of the historical country, but opposes a real compromise with the Palestinians, arrived at by negotiation and agreement. Sharon wants to impose by force new permanent borders for Israel, by annexing most of the West Bank and all of East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>– On the left, Labor, under the leadership of Peretz, proposes negotiations with the Palestinians with the aim of achieving peace by compromise.</p>
<p>Peretz will have no chance, if the impression arises that there is no real difference between him and Sharon. He must convince the Labor Party refugees who are attracted by Sharon, that there is a profound difference between his program (negotiations and agreement) and that of Sharon (unilateral diktat). Sharon is interested in downplaying this difference, and by the same logic, Peretz must be interested in emphasizing it.</p>
<p>People in love with ambiguity will vote for Sharon. But a large part of the public, especially in the center, is longing for bold leadership with a clear message. Here – and only here! – lies Peretz’s big chance.</p>
<p>As Rabbi Nachman of Braslav said many years ago: “All the world is a narrow bridge, and the main thing is to have no fear at all!”</p>
<p>URI AVNERY is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He is one of the writers featured in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/156584789X/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Other Israel: Voices of Dissent and Refusal</a>. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch’s hot new book <a href="" type="internal">The Politics of Anti-Semitism</a>. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:avnery@counterpunch.org" type="external">avnery@counterpunch.org</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | something bad happening election campaign amir peretz shuffling around surge started election leader labor petered events country chasing big bang new kadima party acts prostitution shimon peres shaul mofaz ariel sharons minor stroke likud primaries qassam rocket hitting ashkelon peretz pushed margins course real election campaign yet started 1999 said barak stage ehud taking still soared victory nevertheless situation give cause concern days exciting initiatives coming peretz camp tv radio tired old labor politicians churning tired old labor messages moment polls give peretz 22 seats compared 39 sharon 12 netanyahu much time left peretz must make bold strategic decisions test leadership fateful test defeat would spell disaster labor party peace camp large indeed israel battle said advantage lies side determines battle fought interest peretz campaign social economic issues sharon netanyahu want fight national security arena polls show majority believes peretz best candidate solve social problems large majority sees sharon one able provide security experts surrounding peretz tell speak social matters dont speak war peace cant avoid vague must garner votes center people dont believe peace sounds logical bad advice nevertheless first question arises whether peretz position put social problem center campaign impose opponents almost impossible israel prime minister minister defense help army commanders create tension time place works like army kills palestinian militant targeted elimination declares ticking bomb planning suicide attack comrades respond salvo qassam rockets mortar shells cause revenge army reacts criminal terrorist outbreak assassinations well artillery fire attacks air voila security tension several variations theme hizballah always ready bit warm northern border israeli army provides even slightest provocation nothing happens ground always army intelligence officer ready sound alarm iran minute atom bomb transport us straight alaska sharon mofaz moral practical problem creating bloody headlines matter fact one peretzs advisors said tv immediately silenced colleagues slander army way election campaign backfire us usual national flag goes pole must stand attention salute vladimir jabotinsky spiritual father likud people said shall stand attention somebody sings national anthem empties pockets impression gets around peretz convincing solution existential problems even worse solution afraid voice credibility candidate prime minister zero choice must speak nothing afraid lets take jerusalem question decades israeli governments repeating mantra united jerusalem capital israel eternity netanyahu bad habit accusing opponents shimon peres 1996 sylvan shalom week ago sinister design divide jerusalem two weeks ago amir peretz gave advisors repeated sacred mantra united jerusalem capital israel eternity amen mendacious statement every child knows peace without east jerusalem becoming capital palestinian state peretz knows better worse politically stupid statement became clear morrow israels largest masscirculation daily yediot ahronoth published poll shocked politicians 49 israeli public ready accept division jerusalem another 49 opposed since ordinary person reluctant give answer runs counter perceived consensus appears majority ready partition city one surprised eight years ago gush shalom published revolutionary manifesto coined phrase united jerusalem capital two states talked taxi driver taxi drivers superpatriots surprised cried never explanation surprise dont want united jerusalem want arabs get sight let take neighborhoods jerusalem devil palestinian state dont give damn time already broke taboo surrounding jerusalem within weeks 800 artists writers poets academics signed manifesto thousands citizens walks life added signatures 2000 mistakenly assumed ehud barak camp david give east jerusalem outcry country bill clintons jerusalem formula january 2001 arab palestinian jewish israeli accepted many also included geneva initiative peretz openly loudly supported would gained points true peace issues vagueness good sharon bad peretz strength lies fact socialeconomic message well integrated nationalsecurity message two sides coin refreshing new message public message accurate moral also good election tactics personal note lest suspected voicing opinion one inexperienced commentators never borne actual responsibility would like point directed five election campaigns knesset succeeded four true always small parties devoid money apparatus far problems pressures concerned difference big one feels public fed deceitful campaigns voters becoming suspicious time ever expect straight talking indeed upheavals last weeks picture emerges presents voter clear choice three different options right likud leadership netanyahu clearly shifted radical fringe netanyahu try moderate mask avail party include openly fascist groups apparent entire likud opposes giving part eretz yisrael thus striking peace agenda middle new kadima party leadership sharon given idea greater israel whole historical country opposes real compromise palestinians arrived negotiation agreement sharon wants impose force new permanent borders israel annexing west bank east jerusalem left labor leadership peretz proposes negotiations palestinians aim achieving peace compromise peretz chance impression arises real difference sharon must convince labor party refugees attracted sharon profound difference program negotiations agreement sharon unilateral diktat sharon interested downplaying difference logic peretz must interested emphasizing people love ambiguity vote sharon large part public especially center longing bold leadership clear message lies peretzs big chance rabbi nachman braslav said many years ago world narrow bridge main thing fear uri avnery israeli writer peace activist gush shalom one writers featured israel voices dissent refusal also contributor counterpunchs hot new book politics antisemitism reached avnerycounterpunchorg 160 | 814 |
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<p>Founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg delivers his keynote conference on the opening day of the World Mobile Congress at the Fira Gran Via Complex on February 22, 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images) &#160;</p>
<p>Earlier this month, the administration of Donald Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/10/technology/in-blow-to-tech-industry-trump-shelves-start-up-immigrant-rule.html" type="external">postponed</a> the enactment of the International Entrepreneur Rule, a program that would grant foreign businesspeople the temporary ability to found companies in the United States. The ultimate goal, the administration announced, is to rescind the rule.</p>
<p>The move rankled the tech industry, which owes much of its plenitude to the work of enterprising immigrants. “ <a href="http://seattlebusinessmag.com/blog/under-todays-immigration-policies-steve-jobs-might-never-have-been-born" type="external">Steve Jobs might never have been born</a>,” many doting technocrats have ruminated, if his father hadn’t been able to come to the United States from Syria. AOL co-founder Steve Case lambasted the decision as a “big mistake,” and venture capitalist Bobby Franklin told the Los Angeles Times the development stems from “a fundamental misunderstanding of the critical role immigrant entrepreneurs play in growing the next generation of American companies.”</p>
<p>This sentiment is hardly new. Silicon Valley has a history of lobbying for immigration rights, which has culminated in a number of technocratic Obama-era bills, including the <a href="https://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/eeb5aaa5-fb8d-4d29-ba4a-a6652f4f2d58/I-Squared%20Act%20of%202015.pdf" type="external">Immigration Innovation Act</a> and the <a href="https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=75c06654-ae4c-4d39-b9bd-b8bf3bbc399e" type="external">Startup Act</a>.</p>
<p>Since Trump’s xenophobic ascent, however, the industry’s efforts to preserve its workforce have grown more visible, galvanized by the shock of such unprecedented threats to its talent as the travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries. Tech titans condemn Trump while lauding immigrant technologists, parading their own potential to maintain the country’s diversity, boost its productivity and ensure opportunities for industrious immigrants in what have proven to be trying times.</p>
<p>Yet, when sifted through the Silicon Valley filter, immigration reform takes a disingenuous turn.</p>
<p>Among the tech industry’s chief targets is the H-1B visa, which allows U.S. companies to temporarily employ foreign workers in “specialty occupations,” such as engineering, medicine or accounting. Tech lobbyists have long implored authorities to ease H-1B restrictions, claiming concern over a dearth of domestic engineers.</p>
<p>It’s a hollow narrative. Valley elites aren’t so concerned with the aforementioned shortages, which <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0019793914564961" type="external">are</a> <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0019793914564962" type="external">apocryphal</a>, and—if anything— <a href="http://www.kaporcenter.org/tech-leavers/" type="external">the result</a> of the industry’s racism and sexism. They are more concerned with the opportunity to harvest the talents of young, STEM-educated people in Asian countries willing to work for significantly less than their U.S. counterparts. A <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/9830/building-a-workforce-for-the-information-economy" type="external">study</a> from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine noted that H-1B workers received “lower wages, less [sic] senior job titles, smaller signing bonuses, and smaller pay and compensation increases than would be typical for the work they actually did.” Additionally, the <a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/h-1b-visa-needs-reform-to-make-it-fairer-to-migrant-and-american-workers/" type="external">Economics Policy Institute</a> reported earlier this year that the average Silicon Valley software developer earns $147,000 per year, while an H-1B software developer earning the entry-level wage is paid $102,000.</p>
<p>The conditions of H-1B visas often tether immigrant workers to their employers, furnishing technology companies with labor that’s not only cheap, but also immobile. Employers own and control H-1B visas, with many sponsoring their workers for U.S. permanent residency. The H-1B program, then, effectively sentences these workers to indentured servitude. Those who lose their jobs are instantly susceptible to deportation. As computer science professor Norm Matloff has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-h-1b_us_5890d86ce4b0522c7d3d84af" type="external">argued</a>, “though [foreign workers] have the right to move to another employer, they do not dare do so, as it would mean starting the lengthy green card process all over again.”</p>
<p>The consequences of Silicon Valley’s efforts extend far beyond working conditions, betraying a discriminatory, nakedly capitalist value system for immigrants. As techno-capitalists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mark-zuckerberg-immigrants-are-the-key-to-a-knowledge-economy/2013/04/10/aba05554-a20b-11e2-82bc-511538ae90a4_story.html" type="external">sing the praises</a> of the <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/327633-america-and-the-tech-sector-needs-the-worlds-best-and" type="external">“best and brightest”</a> STEM-educated talent, they ultimately seek to protect only those immigrants who are trained to augment their own profits. In other words, they seek to support those with the wherewithal to not only earn a college degree, but also to parlay it into a revenue-generating, white-collar job.</p>
<p>In the eyes of the tech magnate, seeking refuge from war, poverty, or other imperialist abuses inflicted in one’s mother country is all well and good, but it alone won’t justify efforts to make a new home in the United States. To be deemed worthy, immigrants must show an ability and commitment to buttress a billion-dollar technology business—and to accept slashed wages in the process.</p>
<p>This conditional acceptance is linked to a principle that has long undergirded the tech industry: American exceptionalism. Couched within Silicon Valley’s reformist clarion calls is an exhortation to compete with other countries: Canada, Germany, South Africa, and China, all of which have sought to lure engineers from abroad in recent years. <a href="https://www.fwd.us/" type="external">FWD.us</a>, an immigration-reform group founded by such Valley fixtures as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, seeks to “keep the U.S. competitive in a global economy.” Tech and business pundit Vivek Wadhwa <a href="https://qz.com/780982/china-and-india-are-competing-with-silicon-valley-for-the-worlds-smartest-start-up-founders/" type="external">warns</a>, “The country’s competitiveness is at stake now more than ever...we need economic growth and job creation and we need to welcome those who would bring about both.”</p>
<p>These calls-to-action again affix immigrants’ value to their ability to stimulate “economic growth” for a country and industry all too eager to exploit them.</p>
<p>Silicon Valley is right to oppose Trump, but its efforts are mere subterfuge. As the Democratic Party toys with a new slogan leading with the phrase “better skills,” the true fight for immigrants’ rights must reject the obsession with evaluating people on schooling and market contribution. Above all, we must recognize the rights of every person—regardless of place of origin or resumé—to live comfortably and safely and be accepted and valued—without fear of reproach for not knowing how to code.</p> | true | 4 | email name recipients email comma separated message captcha founder ceo facebook mark zuckerberg delivers keynote conference opening day world mobile congress fira gran via complex february 22 2016 barcelona spain photo david ramosgetty images 160 earlier month administration donald trump postponed enactment international entrepreneur rule program would grant foreign businesspeople temporary ability found companies united states ultimate goal administration announced rescind rule move rankled tech industry owes much plenitude work enterprising immigrants steve jobs might never born many doting technocrats ruminated father hadnt able come united states syria aol cofounder steve case lambasted decision big mistake venture capitalist bobby franklin told los angeles times development stems fundamental misunderstanding critical role immigrant entrepreneurs play growing next generation american companies sentiment hardly new silicon valley history lobbying immigration rights culminated number technocratic obamaera bills including immigration innovation act startup act since trumps xenophobic ascent however industrys efforts preserve workforce grown visible galvanized shock unprecedented threats talent travel ban targeting muslimmajority countries tech titans condemn trump lauding immigrant technologists parading potential maintain countrys diversity boost productivity ensure opportunities industrious immigrants proven trying times yet sifted silicon valley filter immigration reform takes disingenuous turn among tech industrys chief targets h1b visa allows us companies temporarily employ foreign workers specialty occupations engineering medicine accounting tech lobbyists long implored authorities ease h1b restrictions claiming concern dearth domestic engineers hollow narrative valley elites arent concerned aforementioned shortages apocryphal andif anything result industrys racism sexism concerned opportunity harvest talents young stemeducated people asian countries willing work significantly less us counterparts study national academies sciences engineering medicine noted h1b workers received lower wages less sic senior job titles smaller signing bonuses smaller pay compensation increases would typical work actually additionally economics policy institute reported earlier year average silicon valley software developer earns 147000 per year h1b software developer earning entrylevel wage paid 102000 conditions h1b visas often tether immigrant workers employers furnishing technology companies labor thats cheap also immobile employers control h1b visas many sponsoring workers us permanent residency h1b program effectively sentences workers indentured servitude lose jobs instantly susceptible deportation computer science professor norm matloff argued though foreign workers right move another employer dare would mean starting lengthy green card process consequences silicon valleys efforts extend far beyond working conditions betraying discriminatory nakedly capitalist value system immigrants technocapitalists sing praises best brightest stemeducated talent ultimately seek protect immigrants trained augment profits words seek support wherewithal earn college degree also parlay revenuegenerating whitecollar job eyes tech magnate seeking refuge war poverty imperialist abuses inflicted ones mother country well good alone wont justify efforts make new home united states deemed worthy immigrants must show ability commitment buttress billiondollar technology businessand accept slashed wages process conditional acceptance linked principle long undergirded tech industry american exceptionalism couched within silicon valleys reformist clarion calls exhortation compete countries canada germany south africa china sought lure engineers abroad recent years fwdus immigrationreform group founded valley fixtures mark zuckerberg bill gates linkedin cofounder reid hoffman seeks keep us competitive global economy tech business pundit vivek wadhwa warns countrys competitiveness stake everwe need economic growth job creation need welcome would bring callstoaction affix immigrants value ability stimulate economic growth country industry eager exploit silicon valley right oppose trump efforts mere subterfuge democratic party toys new slogan leading phrase better skills true fight immigrants rights must reject obsession evaluating people schooling market contribution must recognize rights every personregardless place origin resuméto live comfortably safely accepted valuedwithout fear reproach knowing code | 572 |
<p>Why do we have this thing called a “financial crisis”? Why have we had such a crisis periodically ever since the United States was created? What changes occur or what happens each time to bring on the crisis? Do we forget how to make things that people need? Do the factories burn down? Are our tools lost? Do the blueprints disappear? Do we run out of people to work in the factories and offices? Are all the services that people need for a happy life so well taken care of that there’s hardly any more need for the services? In other words: What changes take place in the real world to cause the crisis? Nothing, necessarily. The crisis is usually caused by changes in the make-believe world of finance capitalism.</p>
<p>All these grown men playing their boys’ games. They create an assortment of financial entities, documents, and packages that go by names like hedge funds, derivatives, collateralized debt obligations, index funds, credit default swaps, structured investment vehicles, subprime mortgages, and dozens of other exotic monetary vehicles. They create all manner of commercial pieces of paper, of no known real or inherent value, backed up by few if any standards. Then they sell these various pieces of paper to the public and to each other. They slice and dice mortgages into arcane and risky instruments, then bundle them together, and sell the packages to those higher up in the pyramid scheme. And some of those engaged in this Wild West buying and selling become millionaires. Some become billionaires. They get Christmas bonuses greater than what most Americans earn the entire year. Is all this not remarkable?</p>
<p>And much of the buying is not done with the buyer’s own money, but with borrowed funds; “leveraged”, they call it. The pieces of paper sometimes represent commodities, but the actual commodities are not seen, may not even exist; if the seller demanded the buyer’s own funds, or the buyer wanted to see the goods, the whole transaction would freeze. They sell “long”, expecting the price to rise; they sell “short”, expecting the price to fall; they sell “naked short”, which means they neither possess nor own what they’re selling; a name for each gimmick. They take ever-greater risks buying and selling increasingly-esoteric pieces of paper. It’s a glorified Las Vegas, casino capitalism.</p>
<p>These pieces of paper can be so complex that many of those buying and selling them do not fully understand them; no problem, they just resell the pieces of paper to someone else at a higher price, even when one or both parties know that the paper, while pretending to be payable debt, is virtually worthless. The government, even when it tries to moderately regulate this Monopoly board, can at times also be confused by the complexities of the pieces of paper, compounded by the less-than-transparent practices that envelop the transactions; a potpourri including speculation, manipulation, fraud. Billionaire financier Warren Buffett has called the pieces of paper “weapons of mass financial destruction.”</p>
<p>The boys of finance have been playing their games for years, and so at each stage of the process there are insurance policies allowing the players to hedge their bets; they insure, and they re-insure; hopefully covering themselves against the many risks of the game, often knowing that they’re trading in questionable debts; the giant corporation AIG, a major player in the insurance game, has just been taken over by the federal government. And with each transaction, at each level, someone earns a commission or a fee. There are also other firms whose purpose in life is to go around rating various players and their pieces of paper and their credit worthiness and giving seals of approval which are relied upon by investors. Some of these rating firms, we’re now learning, have been surprisingly incompetent, when not simply dishonest</p>
<p>President Roosevelt, confronted in the 1930s with similar players, called them “banksters”.</p>
<p>It’s all built on faith, as fragile as the religious kind, the belief that something is worth something because it comes with a piece of paper with reassuring words and numbers written on it, because it’s traded, rated, and insured, because someone will sell it and someone will buy it. The same market psychology, the same herd mentality, that went into constructing this house of cards built on pillars of greed can cause the house to collapse in a heap. But the Monopoly players keep their bonuses, and bow out with multimillion-dollar golden parachutes; while tent cities are springing up all over America.</p>
<p>Is this any way to run a society of human beings?</p>
<p>And the government is in the process of trying to bail out these reckless traders, rescuing them and their system from their own nonsense. With our money; without a major restructuring of the Alice-in-Wonderland rules of the financial games, without instituting the toughest of regulations, oversight, and transparency, and with no guarantee that the spoiled-little-brat Masters of the Universe will act in any way other than their own narrow self interest, the rest of us be damned.</p>
<p>Capitalism is the theory that the worst people, acting from their worst motives, will somehow produce the most good.</p>
<p>There is perhaps some consolation. The libertarian and neo-conservative true believers will have a harder time selling their snake oil of privatization of Social Security or any other social program. Government regulation of matters vital to the public’s welfare may be taken more seriously. We may hear less of that old bromide that markets are inherently self-correcting. It may even give a boost to the idea of national health insurance.</p>
<p>And the libertarians and neo-conservatives are hurting and defensive, albeit not yet admitting to any new-found wisdom. A Washington Post interview with some true believers at the Cato Institute, where Ayn Rand’s picture prominently hangs, produced these quotations: “Too much regulation got us where we are” … “The biggest emotion we’re feeling right now is frustration that the media narrative is that this is a crisis of the free market, a crisis of capitalism, a crisis of under-regulation. In fact it’s a crisis of subsidization and intervention.” … “Capitalism without losses is like religion without hell.”</p>
<p>And just think: Cuba has been tormented without mercy for 50 years because it refuses to live under such a financial system.</p>
<p>WILLIAM BLUM is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512526/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567511945/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Rogue State: a guide to the World’s Only Super Power</a>. and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1887128727/counterpunchmaga" type="external">West-Bloc Dissident: a Cold War Political Memoir</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567511945/counterpunchmaga" type="external">.</a></p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:BBlum6@aol.com" type="external">BBlum6@aol.com</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | thing called financial crisis crisis periodically ever since united states created changes occur happens time bring crisis forget make things people need factories burn tools lost blueprints disappear run people work factories offices services people need happy life well taken care theres hardly need services words changes take place real world cause crisis nothing necessarily crisis usually caused changes makebelieve world finance capitalism grown men playing boys games create assortment financial entities documents packages go names like hedge funds derivatives collateralized debt obligations index funds credit default swaps structured investment vehicles subprime mortgages dozens exotic monetary vehicles create manner commercial pieces paper known real inherent value backed standards sell various pieces paper public slice dice mortgages arcane risky instruments bundle together sell packages higher pyramid scheme engaged wild west buying selling become millionaires become billionaires get christmas bonuses greater americans earn entire year remarkable much buying done buyers money borrowed funds leveraged call pieces paper sometimes represent commodities actual commodities seen may even exist seller demanded buyers funds buyer wanted see goods whole transaction would freeze sell long expecting price rise sell short expecting price fall sell naked short means neither possess theyre selling name gimmick take evergreater risks buying selling increasinglyesoteric pieces paper glorified las vegas casino capitalism pieces paper complex many buying selling fully understand problem resell pieces paper someone else higher price even one parties know paper pretending payable debt virtually worthless government even tries moderately regulate monopoly board times also confused complexities pieces paper compounded lessthantransparent practices envelop transactions potpourri including speculation manipulation fraud billionaire financier warren buffett called pieces paper weapons mass financial destruction boys finance playing games years stage process insurance policies allowing players hedge bets insure reinsure hopefully covering many risks game often knowing theyre trading questionable debts giant corporation aig major player insurance game taken federal government transaction level someone earns commission fee also firms whose purpose life go around rating various players pieces paper credit worthiness giving seals approval relied upon investors rating firms learning surprisingly incompetent simply dishonest president roosevelt confronted 1930s similar players called banksters built faith fragile religious kind belief something worth something comes piece paper reassuring words numbers written traded rated insured someone sell someone buy market psychology herd mentality went constructing house cards built pillars greed cause house collapse heap monopoly players keep bonuses bow multimilliondollar golden parachutes tent cities springing america way run society human beings government process trying bail reckless traders rescuing system nonsense money without major restructuring aliceinwonderland rules financial games without instituting toughest regulations oversight transparency guarantee spoiledlittlebrat masters universe act way narrow self interest rest us damned capitalism theory worst people acting worst motives somehow produce good perhaps consolation libertarian neoconservative true believers harder time selling snake oil privatization social security social program government regulation matters vital publics welfare may taken seriously may hear less old bromide markets inherently selfcorrecting may even give boost idea national health insurance libertarians neoconservatives hurting defensive albeit yet admitting newfound wisdom washington post interview true believers cato institute ayn rands picture prominently hangs produced quotations much regulation got us biggest emotion feeling right frustration media narrative crisis free market crisis capitalism crisis underregulation fact crisis subsidization intervention capitalism without losses like religion without hell think cuba tormented without mercy 50 years refuses live financial system william blum author killing hope us military cia interventions since world war ii rogue state guide worlds super power westbloc dissident cold war political memoir reached bblum6aolcom 160 ad 160 160 160 160 | 583 |
<p>Photo Credit: Andrew F. Kazmierski / Shutterstock.com</p>
<p>Sean Hannity’s prominence as a national pundit is a testament to the persistence of racism in America. With his own impressive record of racist episodes (One People’s Project,&#160; <a href="//www.onepeoplesproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=858%3Asean-hannity&amp;catid=8%3Ah&amp;Itemid=3&amp;lang=en" type="external">9/24/11</a>), Hannity also plays an important role as a&#160;champion&#160;of racists.</p>
<p>His television and radio shows feature a parade of pundit grotesques who join the host in condemning African-Americans, the group that receives the brunt of his bigotry. In this capacity, Hannity also acts as a sort of one-man fire brigade, rushing to extinguish accusations of anti-black racism, and defending, exonerating or rehabilitating the racists behind the words and deeds.</p>
<p>Routinely casting black people as villains, even in stories in which they are obviously victims, Hannity just as regularly casts people who have victimized African-Americans as hapless, persecuted victims themselves. Black people who have been clearly wronged are virtually nonexistent in Hannity’s world.</p>
<p>Sean Hannity seems unconcerned about being shot by neighborhood vigilantes, despite wearing a hoodie.&#160;</p>
<p>Hannity has been&#160;all in for George Zimmerman since the story of his killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin broke. Before Zimmerman had even been arrested, Hannity oddly claimed that there had been a “rush to judgment” in the case (Hannity, 3/27/12).</p>
<p>Hannity’s&#160;Fox News&#160;show has featured more than 50 segments on the story, including extended, separate and friendly interviews with George Zimmerman and his father. Hannity has hosted Zimmerman’s lawyer Mark O’Mara several times, even allowing him to pitch for contributions to his client’s defense fund (Hannity, 2/5/13).</p>
<p>“There is a mountain of evidence supporting George Zimmerman not being a racist,” Hannity declared (7/23/13) of the man who once called 911 to report the “suspicious activity” of a black child under the age of 10 (Daily Beast, <a href="//www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/22/george-zimmerman-s-history-of-911-calls-a-complete-log.html" type="external">3/22/13</a>). As a sample of this mountain, Hannity (NewsHounds,&#160; <a href="//www.newshounds.us/hannity_didn_t_george_zimmerman_take_one_to_the_prom_07152013" type="external">7/15/13</a>) has offered, “Didn’t George Zimmerman date a black woman, take one to the prom?”</p>
<p>Perennial Hannity guest Ann Coulter—who has called the president “Flavor Flav” (Huffington Post,&#160; <a href="//3.bp.blogspot.com/-8UpSXTav1sg/UDo19wl-oKI/AAAAAAAAMto/kLhLVdEzUvU/s400/Hannity812.jpg" type="external">2/10/12</a>) and argued that Martin was killed because he attempted to mug Zimmerman ( <a href="//www.anncoulter.com/columns/2013-07-17.html" type="external">7/17/13</a>)—joined Hannity ( <a href="//foxnewsinsider.com/2013/07/12/ann-coulter-hannity-media-using-zimmerman-coverage-show-racist-america-trying-rape-murder" type="external">7/11/13</a>) in agreeing that George Zimmerman’s mistreatment was analogous to the three white Duke University students falsely accused of rape by a black woman in 2006. Neither let the little problem of the actual dead teenager spoil their analogy.</p>
<p>Nor, despite the fact that they were in a studio 11 blocks from Central Park at the time, did either mention the Central Park Five: five black and Latino teens who served prison time for a rape and assault they didn’t commit.</p>
<p>Hannity and company’s&#160;concern for the “wronged” virtually never extends to black people.&#160;Extra!&#160;couldn’t find a single segment in which Hannity addressed the growing number of inmates freed from prison, in many cases from death row, because of emerging exculpatory evidence, including DNA analysis—a disproportionate number of whom are men of color. It’s a pattern that puts the lie to Hannity’s concern-trolling over murder victims in Chicago, a talking point raised by the host in six of his last 10 segments about the Martin killing (e.g.,&#160;Hannity, 7/22/13, 7/19/13).</p>
<p>During several segments about Martin’s killing, Hannity has maintained that his death was a sort of tragic accident (e.g., 7/19/12, 7/17/13), even if he generally refrained from calling Martin a victim. But on his radio show (Huffington Post,&#160; <a href="//www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/19/sean-hannity-obama-trayvon-martin_n_3625495.html" type="external">7/19/13</a>) after Barack Obama remarked that “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” Hannity went off, dropping all pretense and ignoring Obama’s obvious point about the profiling of black males to indulge in racist stereotypes:</p>
<p>Now the president’s saying, “Trayvon could’ve been me 35 years ago.” This is a particularly helpful comment. Is the president admitting that, I guess because he was part of the Choom Gang and he smoked pot and he did a little blow—I’m not sure how to interpret, because we know that Trayvon had been smoking pot that night.</p>
<p>Actually, “we” do not know that Martin had been smoking marijuana the night he died. Traces of THC were found in his blood, but at levels so low they indicated that Martin had probably not been smoking marijuana in the previous 24 hours (New York Times,&#160; <a href="//www.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/opinion/reefer-madness-an-unfortunate-redux.html?_r=3&amp;" type="external">7/11/13</a>).</p>
<p>Racism has been&#160;an enduring theme on Hannity’s shows because the host surrounds himself with racists. Take ’70s rocker Ted Nugent, whom Hannity calls a “friend and frequent guest on the program.” When Nugent said on&#160;Hannity&#160;( <a href="//www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF5H-9D8KgA" type="external">10/13/08</a>) that he’d like to kill undocumented immigrants he claims are armed and “invading” the U.S.—“I’d like to shoot them dead”—Hannity never blinked.</p>
<p>Nugent describes “real” Americans as “working-hard, playing-hard, white motherfucking shit-kickers who are independent” (Media Matters, <a href="//mediamatters.org/research/2012/10/01/viewer-discretion-advised-discovery-channel-to/190235" type="external">10/1/12</a>); denounces Obama voters as “pimps, whores and welfare brats” (Rolling Stone, <a href="//www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ted-nugent-calls-obama-voters-pimps-whores-and-welfare-brats-20121107" type="external">11/7/12</a>); and says Trayvon Martin was a “17-year-old dope-smoking, racist gangsta wannabe” (Huffington Post,&#160; <a href="//www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/ted-nugent-trayvon-martin_n_3599437.html" type="external">7/15/13</a>). Nugent wrote in a column (Rare,&#160; <a href="//rare.us/story/nugent-zimmerman-verdict-vindicates-citizen-patrols-self-defense/" type="external">7/18/13</a>) that “the only racism perpetrated that night was by Trayvon Martin, and everyone knows it.”</p>
<p>In 2007, Nugent took machine guns on stage, ranting that Barack Obama was “a piece of shit” who should suck on his gun and that Hillary Clinton was a “worthless bitch” who should ride his gun “into the sunset” (Rolling Stone, <a href="//www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ted-nugent-threatens-to-kill-barack-obama-and-hillary-clinton-during-vicious-onstage-rant-20070824" type="external">8/24/07</a>). When&#160;Fox News&#160;liberal Bob Beckel pressed Hannity to distance himself from Nugent, he responded: “No, I like Ted Nugent. He’s a friend of mine.”</p>
<p>A few years later, when the rapper Common was invited to the Obama White House for a poetry event, Hannity ( <a href="//www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/transcript/should-controversial-rapper-common-have-been-invited-white-house" type="external">5/10/11</a>) played the prig, expressing outrage that Common’s violent and profane lyrics might sully White House decorum and be heard by children: “This is not a good message for our kids. This is not the guy that you invite to the White House for poetry reading. This is the guy that we don’t want our kids to listen to.”</p>
<p>Hannity was also shocked at Common’s use of the word “nigger” in lyrics—which is odd, because another Hannity friend and frequent guest is Mark Fuhrman, who gained notoriety because of his profligate use of the same word (Philadelphia Inquirer,&#160; <a href="//articles.philly.com/1996-10-14/news/25664466_1_mark-fuhrman-sawyer-police-group" type="external">10/14/96</a>). Fuhrman, a former detective, was convicted of felony perjury for lying under oath during the O.J. Simpson trial about his routine use of the word “nigger.”</p>
<p>Hannity had Fuhrman on shortly before the Zimmerman verdict (Hannity, 7/16/13) to discuss whether black people would riot in the case of a not guilty verdict (Extra!, 8/13, p. 4). “Mark, it seems to me like it’s going to be a dangerous scenario for the cities where this is going to occur,” said Hannity. Fuhrman replied, “I think you’re right, Sean,” and discussed how protesters might misbehave, concluding, “You know, assaulting people, assaulting officers, so when you cross that line, it’s pretty obvious, and, you know, this is completely drawn on racial lines now.”</p>
<p>Hannity’s most bizarre&#160;go-to guest on racism is Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a reactionary black minister from Southern California who has said that “one of the greatest mistakes America made was to allow women the opportunity to vote”; he says he is thankful for slavery, particularly to “the white man, for going there and getting us and bringing us here” (NewsHounds,&#160;&#160; <a href="//www.newshounds.us/why_is_hannity_associated_with_a_charity_run_by_a_slavery_apologist_who_thinks_most_women_are_little_whores_03152012" type="external">3/11/12</a>,&#160; <a href="//www.newshounds.us/why_is_hannity_associated_with_a_charity_run_by_a_slavery_apologist_who_thinks_most_women_are_little_whores_03152012" type="external">3/15/12</a>). Peterson maintains that “most black people today are racist” (Media Matters, <a href="//mediamatters.org/research/2008/10/21/cunningham-guest-rev-jesse-lee-peterson-most-bl/145784" type="external">10/21/08</a>).</p>
<p>In a 2005&#160;World Net Daily&#160;column ( <a href="//www.wnd.com/2005/09/32454/" type="external">9/21/05</a>), Peterson blamed Katrina deaths on black people, and boasted how he’d once told a National Association of Black Journalists convention that “if whites were to just leave the United States and let blacks run the country, they would turn America into a ghetto within 10 years.” But, Peterson wrote, “I gave blacks too much credit, it took a mere three days for blacks to turn the Superdome and the convention center into ghettos, rampant with theft, rape and murder.” (Besides the racism, Peterson’s description of the Superdome as rampant with violent crime has been soundly debunked—Extra!,&#160; <a href="//fair.org/extra-online-articles/demonizing-the-victims-of-katrina/" type="external">11/05</a>.)</p>
<p>In one&#160;Hannity&#160;appearance (10/21/09), Peterson called Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson “racist poverty pimps.” In another (8/6/08), discussing a 2009 Tennessee Democratic primary race, he told Hannity that most African-Americans in Tennessee, particularly in the Memphis area, “are still living in the ’50s and ’60s. They are so racist that they don’t even realize that white Americans have moved on.” On Barack Obama’s election, Peterson told Hannity (2/3/09) that “Obama was elected mostly by black racists and white guilty people.” Hannity is “a proud board member” of&#160; <a href="//www.bondinfo.org/content/endorsements" type="external">BOND</a>, Peterson’s not-for-profit group (Hannity, 10/21/10).</p>
<p>It’s easy to understand the value Hannity sees in being able to turn to Peterson and a larger stable of only slightly less demented black reactionaries when he needs someone to trash African-Americans. But if Hannity thinks these guests inoculate him against charges of racism, he may be underestimating the intelligence of those living outside his&#160;Fox News&#160;bubble.</p>
<p>Regular viewers of&#160;Fox&#160;can lose perspective on just how off-kilter the channel is, as a recent&#160;CNN&#160;appearance by Peterson helped demonstrate. On Piers Morgan’s show ( <a href="//piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/18/debating-racial-profiling-arguments-for-overcoming-understanding-changing-and-challenging-american-perceptions/" type="external">7/18/13</a>), Peterson recklessly attacked Trayvon Martin:</p>
<p>This notion that Trayvon Martin was some little innocent kid tiptoeing through the tulips.... It’s an absolute lie.... Trayvon Martin was a thug. His parents know that. You know that. I know that.</p>
<p>When Morgan demanded Peterson produce evidence of Martin’s thuggery, Peterson pointed to pictures on Martin’s Facebook page where Martin was “holding on to a gun” and had “pot in front of him.” This seemed to pique Morgan’s anger:</p>
<p>How do you know what he was like? How do you know? I mean, you’re saying everyone in America that has ever taken cannabis or ever been pictured with a gun is a thug—is that your conclusion?... Well, the problem is, Reverend Peterson, that you’re basically reacting the same way that George Zimmerman did. We don’t know that he was racially motivated. We do know that he looked at Trayvon Martin and started talking about A-holes and f-ing punks getting away with it. That’s how he saw Trayvon Martin. That’s exactly how you see Trayvon Martin. You saw him as a horrible nasty thug who got what was coming to him. There is no evidence that that is the case.</p>
<p>Though&#160;CNN&#160;has had its own bigoted moments (Extra!,&#160; <a href="//fair.org/home/a-media-microscope-on-islam-linked-violence/" type="external">8/13</a>,&#160; <a href="//fair.org/extra-online-articles/making-islamophobia-mainstream/" type="external">11/08</a>), Morgan’s response would have seemed out of place on Fox News. The segment concluded with the two other guests, Central Park Five member Raymond Santana and Rev. Liz Walker, a black pastor from Boston, shaking their heads in puzzlement over Peterson, with Rev. Walker wondering: “Who is this man? Where did you get this man from?”</p>
<p>It’s impossible to know&#160;George Zimmerman’s state of mind the night he killed Trayvon Martin. But there are several clear cases in which Hannity has come to the aid of flagrant racists and those who have attacked and slurred black people.</p>
<p>In 1997, when Haitian immigrant Abner Louima accused NYPD officers of sodomizing and badly injuring him with a wooden rod after falsely accusing him of assaulting a white police officer Hannity brought the full power of his radio show to the defense of the accused officers and mounted a vicious counter-offensive. The father of chief defendant Justin Volpe appeared on Hannity’s show throughout the 1999 trial, where the host and guests aired rumors that Louima’s injuries resulted, not from police brutality, but from a “gay sex act.”</p>
<p>Playing on the homosexual rumor and inconsistencies in Louima’s story, Hannity and his producer sang a parody of Lionel Richie’s song “Three Times a Lady,” changing the words to “you’re once, twice, three times a liar.” Hannity only stopped calling the victim “Lying Louima” after Volpe confessed to sodomizing Louima with the help of another officer (Extra!,&#160; <a href="//fair.org/extra-online-articles/an-aggressive-conservative-vs-a-quotliberal-to-be-determinedquot/" type="external">11/03</a>).</p>
<p>Hannity’s “friend” Don Imus (Hannity, 4/16/10) made a radio career of racist remarks (FAIR Action Alert,&#160; <a href="//fair.org/take-action/action-alerts/howard-kurtzs-imus-amnesia/" type="external">4/19/07</a>). Imus once told&#160;60 Minutes&#160;he’d hired sidekick Bernard McGuirk to write “nigger jokes” for his show. (McGuirk is currently a regular panelist on&#160;Hannity.) But Imus didn’t get in real trouble until he called the Rutgers’ women’s basketball team “nappy headed hos,” at which point&#160;CBS&#160;dropped him (Imus in the Morning, 4/4/07; Media Matters,&#160; <a href="//mediamatters.org/research/2007/04/04/imus-called-womens-basketball-team-nappy-headed/138497" type="external">4/4/07</a>).</p>
<p>Hannity came to his friend’s rescue, painting Imus as a free speech martyr (Hannity &amp; Colmes, 4/13/07), wondering if he might “only be the first victim of a new movement to control what broadcasters say on the airwaves.” Next, Hannity trained his sights on Imus critics, changing the subject to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton: “The people that are leading the charge to get him fired...have controversial backgrounds.... They really are not the people with the moral authority to be leading the charge.”</p>
<p>Indeed, when a prominent white person is in trouble for racist remarks, particularly if they are a friend of Hannity’s—a disturbingly common occurrence—one of the host’s key tactics is changing the subject to black racism. This usually means resurrecting years- or even decades-old remarks, long since apologized for, by civil rights activists, including Sharpton and Jackson. In Hannity’s world, as Nugent and Peterson attest, the racists are black people.</p>
<p>Take the case&#160;of Duane “Dog” Chapman, the star of the&#160;A&amp;E’s now-defunct&#160;Dog the Bounty Hunter, who got in trouble for a phone message in which he demanded his son break up with his black girlfriend (National Enquirer,&#160; <a href="//www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/dog-bounty-hunters-racist-rant-caught-tape" type="external">6/6/07</a>):</p>
<p>I don’t care if she’s a Mexican, a whore or whatever. It’s not because she’s black, it’s because we use the word “nigger” sometimes here. I’m not gonna take a chance ever in life of losing everything I’ve worked for for 30 years because some fucking nigger heard us say nigger and turned us in to the&#160;Enquirer&#160;magazine.</p>
<p>Chapman’s pathetic effort to say that he and his co-workers weren’t racists—later in the message, he said, “We don’t mean you fucking scum niggers without a soul”—was enough for Hannity. “He’s on the street. He uses salty language,” said Hannity (11/2/07;&#160;NewsHounds, 11/4/07). “He admits it. And this is part of that language, and he wanted everybody to know, it is the equivalent to him of cursing, not an insult to people based on race.”</p>
<p>A few days later (11/6/07), Hannity devoted his entire show to an interview with Chapman; a week later (12/14/07), with Chapman on the show again, Hannity provided his guest with a leading question:</p>
<p>Is there context and texture to people that are in a street environment where they use the A-, B-, C-, D-, E-, F-, G-, all the way down to the N-word? Is this context and texture in terms of somebody using that word but doesn’t mean it in a racial context?</p>
<p>Among the prerogatives of white privilege is apparently the right to determine who is and isn’t a racist, and when and if they are to be penalized or redeemed. When the news broke that&#160;Food Network&#160;star Paula Deen had admitted to routinely using the word “nigger” and fantasizing about hosting a slavery-themed wedding for her brother, Hannity (6/24/13) introduced a segment about her firing like this: “Chef Paula Deen is fired after admitting that she used a racial slur. Many of her fans are outraged and believed the Food Network overreacted. We’ll debate that controversial topic.”</p>
<p>Deen may have lost her job, but the story is not over. With one workplace discrimination lawsuit in the pipeline and several other black former Deen employees pondering suits, bets are open for how many segments Hannity will devote to the trial, if it comes to that, and which Deen family members will join the&#160;Fox News&#160;host to talk about who the real racists are.</p>
<p>Steve Rendall is FAIR's senior analyst. He is co-host of&#160; <a href="http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=5" type="external">CounterSpin</a>, FAIR's national radio show.</p> | true | 4 | photo credit andrew f kazmierski shutterstockcom sean hannitys prominence national pundit testament persistence racism america impressive record racist episodes one peoples project160 92411 hannity also plays important role a160champion160of racists television radio shows feature parade pundit grotesques join host condemning africanamericans group receives brunt bigotry capacity hannity also acts sort oneman fire brigade rushing extinguish accusations antiblack racism defending exonerating rehabilitating racists behind words deeds routinely casting black people villains even stories obviously victims hannity regularly casts people victimized africanamericans hapless persecuted victims black people clearly wronged virtually nonexistent hannitys world sean hannity seems unconcerned shot neighborhood vigilantes despite wearing hoodie160 hannity been160all george zimmerman since story killing 17yearold trayvon martin broke zimmerman even arrested hannity oddly claimed rush judgment case hannity 32712 hannitys160fox news160show featured 50 segments story including extended separate friendly interviews george zimmerman father hannity hosted zimmermans lawyer mark omara several times even allowing pitch contributions clients defense fund hannity 2513 mountain evidence supporting george zimmerman racist hannity declared 72313 man called 911 report suspicious activity black child age 10 daily beast 32213 sample mountain hannity newshounds160 71513 offered didnt george zimmerman date black woman take one prom perennial hannity guest ann coulterwho called president flavor flav huffington post160 21012 argued martin killed attempted mug zimmerman 71713joined hannity 71113 agreeing george zimmermans mistreatment analogous three white duke university students falsely accused rape black woman 2006 neither let little problem actual dead teenager spoil analogy despite fact studio 11 blocks central park time either mention central park five five black latino teens served prison time rape assault didnt commit hannity companys160concern wronged virtually never extends black people160extra160couldnt find single segment hannity addressed growing number inmates freed prison many cases death row emerging exculpatory evidence including dna analysisa disproportionate number men color pattern puts lie hannitys concerntrolling murder victims chicago talking point raised host six last 10 segments martin killing eg160hannity 72213 71913 several segments martins killing hannity maintained death sort tragic accident eg 71912 71713 even generally refrained calling martin victim radio show huffington post160 71913 barack obama remarked trayvon martin could 35 years ago hannity went dropping pretense ignoring obamas obvious point profiling black males indulge racist stereotypes presidents saying trayvon couldve 35 years ago particularly helpful comment president admitting guess part choom gang smoked pot little blowim sure interpret know trayvon smoking pot night actually know martin smoking marijuana night died traces thc found blood levels low indicated martin probably smoking marijuana previous 24 hours new york times160 71113 racism been160an enduring theme hannitys shows host surrounds racists take 70s rocker ted nugent hannity calls friend frequent guest program nugent said on160hannity160 101308 hed like kill undocumented immigrants claims armed invading usid like shoot deadhannity never blinked nugent describes real americans workinghard playinghard white motherfucking shitkickers independent media matters 10112 denounces obama voters pimps whores welfare brats rolling stone 11712 says trayvon martin 17yearold dopesmoking racist gangsta wannabe huffington post160 71513 nugent wrote column rare160 71813 racism perpetrated night trayvon martin everyone knows 2007 nugent took machine guns stage ranting barack obama piece shit suck gun hillary clinton worthless bitch ride gun sunset rolling stone 82407 when160fox news160liberal bob beckel pressed hannity distance nugent responded like ted nugent hes friend mine years later rapper common invited obama white house poetry event hannity 51011 played prig expressing outrage commons violent profane lyrics might sully white house decorum heard children good message kids guy invite white house poetry reading guy dont want kids listen hannity also shocked commons use word nigger lyricswhich odd another hannity friend frequent guest mark fuhrman gained notoriety profligate use word philadelphia inquirer160 101496 fuhrman former detective convicted felony perjury lying oath oj simpson trial routine use word nigger hannity fuhrman shortly zimmerman verdict hannity 71613 discuss whether black people would riot case guilty verdict extra 813 p 4 mark seems like going dangerous scenario cities going occur said hannity fuhrman replied think youre right sean discussed protesters might misbehave concluding know assaulting people assaulting officers cross line pretty obvious know completely drawn racial lines hannitys bizarre160goto guest racism rev jesse lee peterson reactionary black minister southern california said one greatest mistakes america made allow women opportunity vote says thankful slavery particularly white man going getting us bringing us newshounds160160 31112160 31512 peterson maintains black people today racist media matters 102108 2005160world net daily160column 92105 peterson blamed katrina deaths black people boasted hed told national association black journalists convention whites leave united states let blacks run country would turn america ghetto within 10 years peterson wrote gave blacks much credit took mere three days blacks turn superdome convention center ghettos rampant theft rape murder besides racism petersons description superdome rampant violent crime soundly debunkedextra160 1105 one160hannity160appearance 102109 peterson called al sharpton jesse jackson racist poverty pimps another 8608 discussing 2009 tennessee democratic primary race told hannity africanamericans tennessee particularly memphis area still living 50s 60s racist dont even realize white americans moved barack obamas election peterson told hannity 2309 obama elected mostly black racists white guilty people hannity proud board member of160 bond petersons notforprofit group hannity 102110 easy understand value hannity sees able turn peterson larger stable slightly less demented black reactionaries needs someone trash africanamericans hannity thinks guests inoculate charges racism may underestimating intelligence living outside his160fox news160bubble regular viewers of160fox160can lose perspective offkilter channel recent160cnn160appearance peterson helped demonstrate piers morgans show 71813 peterson recklessly attacked trayvon martin notion trayvon martin little innocent kid tiptoeing tulips absolute lie trayvon martin thug parents know know know morgan demanded peterson produce evidence martins thuggery peterson pointed pictures martins facebook page martin holding gun pot front seemed pique morgans anger know like know mean youre saying everyone america ever taken cannabis ever pictured gun thugis conclusion well problem reverend peterson youre basically reacting way george zimmerman dont know racially motivated know looked trayvon martin started talking aholes fing punks getting away thats saw trayvon martin thats exactly see trayvon martin saw horrible nasty thug got coming evidence case though160cnn160has bigoted moments extra160 813160 1108 morgans response would seemed place fox news segment concluded two guests central park five member raymond santana rev liz walker black pastor boston shaking heads puzzlement peterson rev walker wondering man get man impossible know160george zimmermans state mind night killed trayvon martin several clear cases hannity come aid flagrant racists attacked slurred black people 1997 haitian immigrant abner louima accused nypd officers sodomizing badly injuring wooden rod falsely accusing assaulting white police officer hannity brought full power radio show defense accused officers mounted vicious counteroffensive father chief defendant justin volpe appeared hannitys show throughout 1999 trial host guests aired rumors louimas injuries resulted police brutality gay sex act playing homosexual rumor inconsistencies louimas story hannity producer sang parody lionel richies song three times lady changing words youre twice three times liar hannity stopped calling victim lying louima volpe confessed sodomizing louima help another officer extra160 1103 hannitys friend imus hannity 41610 made radio career racist remarks fair action alert160 41907 imus told16060 minutes160hed hired sidekick bernard mcguirk write nigger jokes show mcguirk currently regular panelist on160hannity imus didnt get real trouble called rutgers womens basketball team nappy headed hos point160cbs160dropped imus morning 4407 media matters160 4407 hannity came friends rescue painting imus free speech martyr hannity amp colmes 41307 wondering might first victim new movement control broadcasters say airwaves next hannity trained sights imus critics changing subject jesse jackson al sharpton people leading charge get firedhave controversial backgrounds really people moral authority leading charge indeed prominent white person trouble racist remarks particularly friend hannitysa disturbingly common occurrenceone hosts key tactics changing subject black racism usually means resurrecting years even decadesold remarks long since apologized civil rights activists including sharpton jackson hannitys world nugent peterson attest racists black people take case160of duane dog chapman star the160aampes nowdefunct160dog bounty hunter got trouble phone message demanded son break black girlfriend national enquirer160 6607 dont care shes mexican whore whatever shes black use word nigger sometimes im gon na take chance ever life losing everything ive worked 30 years fucking nigger heard us say nigger turned us the160enquirer160magazine chapmans pathetic effort say coworkers werent racistslater message said dont mean fucking scum niggers without soulwas enough hannity hes street uses salty language said hannity 11207160newshounds 11407 admits part language wanted everybody know equivalent cursing insult people based race days later 11607 hannity devoted entire show interview chapman week later 121407 chapman show hannity provided guest leading question context texture people street environment use b c e f g way nword context texture terms somebody using word doesnt mean racial context among prerogatives white privilege apparently right determine isnt racist penalized redeemed news broke that160food network160star paula deen admitted routinely using word nigger fantasizing hosting slaverythemed wedding brother hannity 62413 introduced segment firing like chef paula deen fired admitting used racial slur many fans outraged believed food network overreacted well debate controversial topic deen may lost job story one workplace discrimination lawsuit pipeline several black former deen employees pondering suits bets open many segments hannity devote trial comes deen family members join the160fox news160host talk real racists steve rendall fairs senior analyst cohost of160 counterspin fairs national radio show | 1,522 |
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<p>Huh? According to Condi Rice, the US attempt to put missile shields in Poland and the Czech Republic is to counter some future Iranian missile threat? What would that be? Does Tehran want to conquer Poland? For its strategic position, perhaps? Or maybe to set up an outpost of the Revolutionary Guard? This tale of Ms. Rice’s proves that she not only thinks the US public is gullible, she thinks they are stupid. In addition, she doesn’t have much of an opinion of the Russians either, who are pretty upset about the US attempt to extend its missile shield to Russian borders. To those Russians, Rice dismissed their concern, stating “Anyone who knows anything about this will tell you there is no way that 10 interceptors in Poland and radar sites in the Czech Republic are a threat to Russia, that they are somehow going to diminish Russia’s deterrent of thousands of warheads.”</p>
<p>If that is the case, than it must certainly be true for anyone who knows anything about this will tell you there is no way that 10 interceptors in Poland and radar sites in the Czech Republic need to be constructed since the US has the ability to take care of any imaginary threat from Iran with its existing arsenal and defense system. Now, I’m sure some missile shield proponent would tell me that placing missiles to protect the US on lands thousands of miles await from both the US and Iran is necessary, but they would be hard put to make a convincing case. It sounds to me kind of like putting your alarm system and pit bull in that guy’s house two streets over to prevent anybody from burglarizing your house. Or maybe it’s like a drug dealer keeping his stash at a friend’s so that they’ll get robbed instead of him. Either way, it doesn’t make a lick of sense.</p>
<p>If I were Russian I would be concerned. After all, those shields would be right on my borders. If I were Czech or Polish, I would be even more concerned, since those shields would be in my backyard. Talk about inviting trouble. Especially when the whole threat exists primarily in the paranoid brains of Washington and the hopeful bank accounts of the war industry.</p>
<p>Anyone with a memory capable of stretching back to the 1980s must of course remember the placement of cruise missiles around Europe during the Reagan years. These placements took place amidst massive public protest throughout the continent and in the United States. Encampments were erected around the US bases involved in the project; blockades of sites occurred and millions of people attended protests in the countries that the missiles were sited for. Despite this, the European governments assented to the missile placements and they were installed. In the current situation, there has been some opposition expressed by citizens groups, and the Polish deputy Prime Minister suggested that the country hold a referendum on the question. This suggestion was immediately dismissed by his superior, who probably remembers the aforementioned cruise missile opposition as well and hopes to avoid a similar scenario in his country. The only official opposition in Poland has come from the pro-business Civic Platform Party which has brought up safety concerns. In the Czech Republic, the Social Democrats have also expressed opposition, but only because the shields are not scheduled to be incorporated into the NATO missile shield. The European Greens, who were major players in the organizing against the cruise missiles and rose to prominence based on their role, issued a statement that read in part: “Fundamentally, the missile defense scheme promoted by the US weakens the security of the people ­ it is neither a fail-safe technology nor a deterrent to aggression. History has shown us that building walls ­ on land, at sea or in space ­ is not the way to achieve sustainable peace. Furthermore a reversion to the ‘old system’ of ignoring public opinion and local communities, is not the behaviour expected of a democratically elected European government.” Whether or not the 2007 version of the European Greens can mobilize a wave of protest comparable to that unleashed in the 1980s remains to be seen. The party itself is a much different beast than it was then, thanks in part to its successes in the parliamentary arena.</p>
<p>Getting back to Russia. The announcement by the US has caused some in Moscow to suggest that if the plans go ahead it could give the Kremlin a reason to pull out of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. As Yury Baluyevsky, the Chief of the Russian General Staff put it, “What they (the Americans) are doing at present, building a third missile defense ring in Europe, is impossible to justify.” The INF treaty has been the cornerstone of peace and detente in Europe for almost twenty years. A Russian withdrawal could mean a new arms race with Moscow. Of course, this would certainly make the US war industry happy and would certainly please its Russian counterpart. As for the rest of the world, well, it would only move that doomsday clock a few seconds closer to midnight.</p>
<p>There are those (myself among them) who consider the entire idea of a missile shield to be something contrived of, by and for the war industry. In fact, the early cost estimates (made in 2000 under Clinton) for the shield discussed here that the Polish and Czech bases would be part of came in at around $60 billion and that was almost seven years ago. The entire project assumes many things, foremost among them is that there will be a need for missiles to intercept other missiles coming from a hostile source. Another assumption is that, if such a war does occur, the interceptor missiles can actually intercept the incoming projectiles. Yet another is that if the missiles do collide and esp lode in midair the explosions and debris will not be as destructive as if the hostile missiles had hit their intended targets. Then, of course there is the more general assumption that any battle involving nuclear armed weaponry will have an aftermath that even matters. The aforementioned practical matters may matter to the individuals involved in the project, but it is apparent from their involvement that the moral ones do not. Those politicians that support its continuation and expansion, whether they are US, Polish, Czech or from some other country, should be ashamed to be involved. The fact that this project continues to be funded and promoted proves that they are not. Then again, if the citizens of their respective countries do not call them to task, then perhaps they can continue to convince themselves that they are just doing the people’s will.</p>
<p>UPDATE: As this was being considered, Tony Blair’s spokesperson told the press that Blair wants part of the US missile shield built in Britain.</p>
<p>RON JACOBS is author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841678/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground</a>, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs’ essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch’s collection on music, art and sex, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Serpents in the Garden</a>. His first novel, Short Order Frame Up, is forthcoming from Mainstay Press. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:rjacobs3625@charter.net" type="external">rjacobs3625@charter.net</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | 160 huh according condi rice us attempt put missile shields poland czech republic counter future iranian missile threat would tehran want conquer poland strategic position perhaps maybe set outpost revolutionary guard tale ms rices proves thinks us public gullible thinks stupid addition doesnt much opinion russians either pretty upset us attempt extend missile shield russian borders russians rice dismissed concern stating anyone knows anything tell way 10 interceptors poland radar sites czech republic threat russia somehow going diminish russias deterrent thousands warheads case must certainly true anyone knows anything tell way 10 interceptors poland radar sites czech republic need constructed since us ability take care imaginary threat iran existing arsenal defense system im sure missile shield proponent would tell placing missiles protect us lands thousands miles await us iran necessary would hard put make convincing case sounds kind like putting alarm system pit bull guys house two streets prevent anybody burglarizing house maybe like drug dealer keeping stash friends theyll get robbed instead either way doesnt make lick sense russian would concerned shields would right borders czech polish would even concerned since shields would backyard talk inviting trouble especially whole threat exists primarily paranoid brains washington hopeful bank accounts war industry anyone memory capable stretching back 1980s must course remember placement cruise missiles around europe reagan years placements took place amidst massive public protest throughout continent united states encampments erected around us bases involved project blockades sites occurred millions people attended protests countries missiles sited despite european governments assented missile placements installed current situation opposition expressed citizens groups polish deputy prime minister suggested country hold referendum question suggestion immediately dismissed superior probably remembers aforementioned cruise missile opposition well hopes avoid similar scenario country official opposition poland come probusiness civic platform party brought safety concerns czech republic social democrats also expressed opposition shields scheduled incorporated nato missile shield european greens major players organizing cruise missiles rose prominence based role issued statement read part fundamentally missile defense scheme promoted us weakens security people neither failsafe technology deterrent aggression history shown us building walls land sea space way achieve sustainable peace furthermore reversion old system ignoring public opinion local communities behaviour expected democratically elected european government whether 2007 version european greens mobilize wave protest comparable unleashed 1980s remains seen party much different beast thanks part successes parliamentary arena getting back russia announcement us caused moscow suggest plans go ahead could give kremlin reason pull intermediate nuclear forces inf treaty yury baluyevsky chief russian general staff put americans present building third missile defense ring europe impossible justify inf treaty cornerstone peace detente europe almost twenty years russian withdrawal could mean new arms race moscow course would certainly make us war industry happy would certainly please russian counterpart rest world well would move doomsday clock seconds closer midnight among consider entire idea missile shield something contrived war industry fact early cost estimates made 2000 clinton shield discussed polish czech bases would part came around 60 billion almost seven years ago entire project assumes many things foremost among need missiles intercept missiles coming hostile source another assumption war occur interceptor missiles actually intercept incoming projectiles yet another missiles collide esp lode midair explosions debris destructive hostile missiles hit intended targets course general assumption battle involving nuclear armed weaponry aftermath even matters aforementioned practical matters may matter individuals involved project apparent involvement moral ones politicians support continuation expansion whether us polish czech country ashamed involved fact project continues funded promoted proves citizens respective countries call task perhaps continue convince peoples update considered tony blairs spokesperson told press blair wants part us missile shield built britain ron jacobs author way wind blew history weather underground republished verso jacobs essay big bill broonzy featured counterpunchs collection music art sex serpents garden first novel short order frame forthcoming mainstay press reached rjacobs3625charternet 160 160 | 634 |
<p>Sometimes a journalist just has to go with the story, even if it’s going all wrong.</p>
<p>I had set out to stand up for the rights of hitchhikers everywhere, and against abusive policing, when I left the house yesterday afternoon and walked up the road to an intersection where I could stand on the grass and stick out my thumb and try to snag a ride to the supermarket four miles off.</p>
<p>The location and the time — 6 pm — were both important. Three days before, I had tried the same thing at the same spot, same time. Every so often I like to do a local hitchhike, just to test the national zeitgeist and the level of empathy of my fellow Americans. Last winter I tried it, and after over a hundred cars had left me standing in a brutal cold wind, finally got a ride from an immigrant Indian couple and their teenage son. (My fellow Americans didn’t come off so well in <a href="" type="internal">that story</a>.)</p>
<p>But three days ago, after nearly 60 cars had passed me — most often one or two men in a car who would look away from me in what appeared to be a kind of embarrassment — a black police SUV from the town of Horsham started pulling towards me through the parking lot of the local bank, on whose lawn I was standing. The cop in the vehicle was shaking his head at me with a stern, disapproving expression. He pulled to a stop, rolled down his window, and as I walked up to his car, said, “You can’t hitchhike. It’s illegal.”</p>
<p>“Illegal?” I said, “Where? I’m not standing on the road?</p>
<p>The officer said, “It’s illegal in town, in the county, and all over Pennsylvania, on the road or not. If you hitchhike, I’ll have to lock you up.”</p>
<p>“Lock me up? For hitchhiking?” Now I was shocked. I have hitchhiked since I was 15, all over the US, up to Alaska when I was 16, several times across the country and back, and down to Florida, and while I had been ordered off of highway onramps, yelled at, and even taken for rides and dumped far away from the highway by cops who didn’t like long-haired hippie types back in the ‘60s, I had never been arrested. Hitchhiking is not a criminal offense as far as I know.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” said the Horsham officer, looking like he would be happy to do it.</p>
<p>“Okay, I guess I’m not hitching today,” I said, and walked home.</p>
<p>When I got back to the house, I looked up the state law. It said it was illegal to “stand on a roadway for the purpose of soliciting a ride.” But the only other restriction was that it was illegal to “stand on or in the proximity of a highway for the purpose of soliciting the watching or guarding of any vehicle which isparked or about to be parked on a street or highway.” I have no idea what activity that language is aimed at prohibiting, but it sure has nothing to do with hitching a ride! So I called the Horsham Police Department and asked to speak to a supervisor. I was passed by the dispatcher to a sergeant, who was kind enough to look up the law himself. After reading it, he assured me that it would be legal for me to hitchhike, as long as I stood off the pavement. I then told him about his officer threatening to “lock me up.”</p>
<p>“That was just cop talk,” he laughed. “He can’t lock you up for hitchhiking even if you are standing on the side of the road. It’s a cititation, like a speeding ticket. It carries a $35 fine.”</p>
<p>I said, “Well, what you’re calling ‘cop talk,’ I would call abuse of power. He’s abusing his badge to make threats.”</p>
<p>The sergeant laughed and agreed it was not right to threaten me with arrest.</p>
<p>Just to make sure, I called Terry Thompson, the chief of police of my own town, Upper Dublin, which is adjacent to Horsham. I told him I was about to do some hitching locally and wanted to check on its legality in Pennsylvania, just so I knew where I stood.</p>
<p>“A fellow hippie!” the chief said, to my surprise. “I’m 65, and I used to hitchhike all over back in the ‘60s he said. “Also when I was in the service.”</p>
<p>He asked why I wanted to hitch now, at 63 years of age, and I explained that I liked to periodically check on the mood of the country, at least when it came to a willingness to help people out on the road. I told him I was a journalist and would be writing an article about my experience.</p>
<p>I then recounted my experience with the Horsham patrolman, and he laughed, saying hitching in Pennsylvania was not illegal unless you stood in the roadway. “If I were on patrol and saw you hitchhiking, I’d just pull over and warn you to be careful about who you get into a car with,” he laughed.</p>
<p>Chief Thompson and I discussed why hitchhiking, after decades of being a part of American culture, had gone into decline, with few people attempting it, and even fewer drivers being willing to stop for those who do. “I think it’s how the media hypes up all the violence that happens around the country,” he said. “Every time something bad happens to somebody, anywhere in the country, it gets played up on the national media.” He added that all the crime shows on television just further stoke the general level of fear. In fact, he confirmed my suspicion that the crime statistics had actually improved since period of the 1960s and 1970s. “People haven’t gotten crazier out there,” he said, “but people think they have.”</p>
<p>So I made a plan to go back and hitch at the same spot at the same time, with a printout of the state law on hitchhiking in my shirt pocket, hoping to get busted by the same cop. My plan, when he drove up this time, was to hand him the copy of the law, and basically to dare him at that point to give me a ticket (or to “lock me up”), promising that if he did, knowing that I had not violated the law, I would file a complaint against him with his department.</p>
<p>I never got the chance, though. To my astonishment, the third car to drive past me pulled over and stopped. It was a ride!</p>
<p>I hopped in the back of the white SUV waiting for me. The driver, Stuart Weinstein, said he was a yoga instructor in the nearby town of Ambler. He told me he didn’t normally pick up hitchhikers, but said he was “a good judge of character” and had decided to stop for me, even though his girlfriend had been saying “No, No! Don’t stop!” (She laughed).</p>
<p>They drove me four miles to the intersection where my supermarket was located, and let me out. I thanked them and urged them to keep offering people rides. They laughed and drove off, hopefully feeling better about themselves for their gesture.</p>
<p>I figured it wasn’t much to write about, getting a ride so easily, but then, I still would have to get back home, with two bags of groceries, and at an intersection that had a lot of police patrolling around because of the frequency of accidents there. Besides it was getting towards dusk, which would make it that much harder to get a ride.</p>
<p>So after finishing my shop, I went back out to the road and took my position on the grass, thumb out, heading back for home.</p>
<p>The tenth car to pass was a beat-up looking modern-style VW Beetle, full of stuff, the ceiling fabric falling down. It pulled over! I walked up with my bags and was doubly surprised to find a young woman at the wheel. I stuffed myself into the seat next to her, with my two bags on my lap.</p>
<p>The young driver, Janine, told me she often offered rides to hitchhikers “as long as they don’t look creepy.” I passed the test, I guess, so she gave me a ride back to within a few blocks of my driveway, where she turned to head to her destination.</p>
<p>So what can I say? I had just had the easiest time hitchhiking I’ve had in 15 years! One wait of just two minutes, and another of less than five minutes.</p>
<p>Now I know that one hitchhiking road test is not a big enough sample to conclude that this nation’s miasma of fear and mutual distrust is lifting, but hey, this is journalism, not science, and I want to think this was a good sign. Maybe all these hard times we are going through in the US are starting to have an impact, making at least some people more sympathetic towards those who look like they need help — or in this case who need a lift.</p>
<p>I should get a chance to find out: My son Jed says I have to keep heading over to the same spot on the lawn outside the bank at 6 pm to hitchhike until the same Horsham cop comes by on patrol and tries to bust me.</p>
<p>Dave Lindorff&#160;is a &#160;founder of This Can’t Be Happening and a contributor&#160;to&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion</a>, published by AK Press.&#160;Hopeless is also available in a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Kindle edition</a>.&#160;He lives in Philadelphia.</p>
<p>COMING IN SEPTEMBER</p>
<p>A Special Memorial Issue of CounterPunch</p>
<p>Featuring recollections of Alexander Cockburn from Jeffrey St. Clair, Peter Linebaugh, Paul Craig Roberts, Noam Chomsky, Mike Whitney, Doug Peacock, Perry Anderson, Becky Grant, Dennis Kucinich, Michael Neumann, Susannah Hecht, P. Sainath, Ben Tripp, Alison Weir, James Ridgeway, JoAnn Wypijewski, John Strausbaugh, Pierre Sprey, Carolyn Cooke, Conn Hallinan, James Wolcott, Laura Flanders, Ken Silverstein, Tariq Ali and many others …</p>
<p><a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/Annual_Subscriptions.html" type="external">Subscribe to CounterPunch Today to Reserve Your Copy</a></p> | true | 4 | sometimes journalist go story even going wrong set stand rights hitchhikers everywhere abusive policing left house yesterday afternoon walked road intersection could stand grass stick thumb try snag ride supermarket four miles location time 6 pm important three days tried thing spot time every often like local hitchhike test national zeitgeist level empathy fellow americans last winter tried hundred cars left standing brutal cold wind finally got ride immigrant indian couple teenage son fellow americans didnt come well story three days ago nearly 60 cars passed often one two men car would look away appeared kind embarrassment black police suv town horsham started pulling towards parking lot local bank whose lawn standing cop vehicle shaking head stern disapproving expression pulled stop rolled window walked car said cant hitchhike illegal illegal said im standing road officer said illegal town county pennsylvania road hitchhike ill lock lock hitchhiking shocked hitchhiked since 15 us alaska 16 several times across country back florida ordered highway onramps yelled even taken rides dumped far away highway cops didnt like longhaired hippie types back 60s never arrested hitchhiking criminal offense far know yeah said horsham officer looking like would happy okay guess im hitching today said walked home got back house looked state law said illegal stand roadway purpose soliciting ride restriction illegal stand proximity highway purpose soliciting watching guarding vehicle isparked parked street highway idea activity language aimed prohibiting sure nothing hitching ride called horsham police department asked speak supervisor passed dispatcher sergeant kind enough look law reading assured would legal hitchhike long stood pavement told officer threatening lock cop talk laughed cant lock hitchhiking even standing side road cititation like speeding ticket carries 35 fine said well youre calling cop talk would call abuse power hes abusing badge make threats sergeant laughed agreed right threaten arrest make sure called terry thompson chief police town upper dublin adjacent horsham told hitching locally wanted check legality pennsylvania knew stood fellow hippie chief said surprise im 65 used hitchhike back 60s said also service asked wanted hitch 63 years age explained liked periodically check mood country least came willingness help people road told journalist would writing article experience recounted experience horsham patrolman laughed saying hitching pennsylvania illegal unless stood roadway patrol saw hitchhiking id pull warn careful get car laughed chief thompson discussed hitchhiking decades part american culture gone decline people attempting even fewer drivers willing stop think media hypes violence happens around country said every time something bad happens somebody anywhere country gets played national media added crime shows television stoke general level fear fact confirmed suspicion crime statistics actually improved since period 1960s 1970s people havent gotten crazier said people think made plan go back hitch spot time printout state law hitchhiking shirt pocket hoping get busted cop plan drove time hand copy law basically dare point give ticket lock promising knowing violated law would file complaint department never got chance though astonishment third car drive past pulled stopped ride hopped back white suv waiting driver stuart weinstein said yoga instructor nearby town ambler told didnt normally pick hitchhikers said good judge character decided stop even though girlfriend saying dont stop laughed drove four miles intersection supermarket located let thanked urged keep offering people rides laughed drove hopefully feeling better gesture figured wasnt much write getting ride easily still would get back home two bags groceries intersection lot police patrolling around frequency accidents besides getting towards dusk would make much harder get ride finishing shop went back road took position grass thumb heading back home tenth car pass beatup looking modernstyle vw beetle full stuff ceiling fabric falling pulled walked bags doubly surprised find young woman wheel stuffed seat next two bags lap young driver janine told often offered rides hitchhikers long dont look creepy passed test guess gave ride back within blocks driveway turned head destination say easiest time hitchhiking ive 15 years one wait two minutes another less five minutes know one hitchhiking road test big enough sample conclude nations miasma fear mutual distrust lifting hey journalism science want think good sign maybe hard times going us starting impact making least people sympathetic towards look like need help case need lift get chance find son jed says keep heading spot lawn outside bank 6 pm hitchhike horsham cop comes patrol tries bust dave lindorff160is 160founder cant happening contributor160to160 hopeless barack obama politics illusion published ak press160hopeless also available a160 kindle edition160he lives philadelphia coming september special memorial issue counterpunch featuring recollections alexander cockburn jeffrey st clair peter linebaugh paul craig roberts noam chomsky mike whitney doug peacock perry anderson becky grant dennis kucinich michael neumann susannah hecht p sainath ben tripp alison weir james ridgeway joann wypijewski john strausbaugh pierre sprey carolyn cooke conn hallinan james wolcott laura flanders ken silverstein tariq ali many others subscribe counterpunch today reserve copy | 806 |
<p>Addressing an academic group assembled at his former university at Regensburg in his native Germany, Pope Benedict XVI launched into a mystifying homily against Islam. At the height of the diatribe, Pope Benedict quoted a medieval monarch who insulted Islam by stating that Islam was both “evil and inhuman.”</p>
<p>Predictably, the pope’s ill-conceived outburst triggered outrage and protest throughout the world. Public demonstrations have called for a formal papal apology, and in Somalia, an aged nun became the victim of what is being portrayed as a reprisal.</p>
<p>In the midst of the emerging crisis, the pope issued yet another statement designed to quell the outrage and stem the violence. Strangely, in his new statement the pope chose to insult the Jews by quoting a biblical passage blaming them for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The pope must have had an unfortunate lapse of memory, for it would appear that he may have forgotten that the disciples were all Jews and so, too, were many of Jesus’s myriads of followers who did not support the crucifixion.</p>
<p>This latest insult was not the first time that Pope Benedict has enraged the Jews. When he appeared at Auschwitz earlier this year, the pope had forgotten (deliberately, of course) to mention that the Holocaust was the product of Anti-Semitism. Instead, Benedict air-brushed the Anti-Semitism of Nazism and its collaborators out of history altogether in his clumsy attempt to revise the Holocaust.</p>
<p>Almost immediately following the outrage at the pope’s Islamophobia, Angela Merkel, the right-wing Prime Minister of Germany, leapt to his defence. Following swiftly on her statement defending the Pope, election results from Merkel’s home constituency confirmed the political resurgence of the far right in Germany.</p>
<p>The National Democratic Party ­ an extraordinary political euphemism for a party that espouses xenophobia, anti-semitism, Islamophobia, racial superiority of Nordic and Germanic races and Aryan supremacy – swept to victories that will allow them to send representatives to the German Parliament, the Bundestag. With this latest triumph of racial extremism, three radical parties will now be represented in the Bundestag. Merkel and her pope must be pleased.</p>
<p>Pope Benedict’s statements about Islam have been shameful. While no monotheistic religion is blameless ­ and each has committed atrocities in the name of their divinity ­ Christianity and Judaism have long and atrocious records of war crimes extending back to the time of Joshua who led the Hebrews in the massacre of the people of Ai slaughtering twelve thousand men, women and children (Joshua 8:25). King David was a brutal warrior. Not only did he slay Goliath; he gruesomely desecrated the corpse by severing the head and brandished it about ghoulishly. In his poetic Book of Psalms, David addressed the Babylonians by writing a macabre curse, “A blessing on him who takes and dashes your babies against the rock!” (Psalm 137).</p>
<p>Neither was Jesus totally non-violent. “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34) More. Jesus advocates the execution of rebellious children (Mark 7:9-10) and the amputation of limbs as punishment (Matthew 5:29-30).</p>
<p>In recent Islamophobic diatribes, the Pope and others have castigated the Muslims for their resort to the sword to spread their religion. This tactic is outrageous for it airbrushes the crusades, the Inquistion and the Holocaust out of history. All of these atrocities were perpetrated by Christians against millions of victims among the unfortunate non-believers, pagans, Jews and Muslims who lost their lives in wars, in courts of Inquistion or in the Nazi extermination camps arrayed across Germany and Poland that are coincidentally the sites of the birthplaces of the present pope and his immediate predecessor, John Paul II.</p>
<p>Worse than outrageous, these statements are lies, outright lies. The word “sword” does not occur in the Qu’ran ­ not even in the so-called “Sword Verse,” (at-taubah 9:5) – but it certainly does occur in the Judaeo-Christian Bible where it appears at least 424 times. In fact, in the Bible the word “sword” appears more than one hundred times more frequently than the word for “peace.”</p>
<p>In the Mosaic book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 20, the Lord God of Israel commands Moses to sack all cities in his wake, but ­ in those cities in the promised land ­ the Lord commands Moses to kill all of the inhabitants utterly ­ i.e. commit genocide. According to the writers of Deuteronomy, the Lord God of Israel ordered the Israelites to commit genocide by mass-murdering and massacring all of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites ­ a massive conglomeration of humanity equivalent to the populations of the Middle Eastern nations currently occupying Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Iraq.</p>
<p>In the final book of the Christian Bible, the Revelations of St John the Divine, after the Rapture, Jesus Christ will return to commit genocide on all the inhabitants of the earth. Men, women, children, animals and plants will be convulsed, exploded, lacerated or incinerated in a global holocaust that will eradicate every last vestige of life on our planet.</p>
<p>The current Pope is not the only holder of his office to foment wars against members of other religions. The crusades were papal onslaughts against Jews and Muslims. The Jewish populations in the German provinces of Europe were the first victims of the first crusade. A long line of papal diatribes led the way for the Nazi genocide of the Jews in the same anti-semitic region of Europe.</p>
<p>In the nineteenth century, Pope Leo XIII explicitly stated,</p>
<p>“The death sentence is a necessary and efficacious means for the Church to attain its end when rebels act against it and disturbers of the ecclesiastical unity, especially obstinate heretics and heresiarchs, cannot be restrained by any other penalty from continuing to derange the ecclesiastical order and impelling others to all sorts of crime … When the perversity of one or several is calculated to bring about the ruin of many of its children it is bound effectively to remove it, in such wise that if there be no other remedy for saving its people it can and must put these wicked men to death.”</p>
<p>Pope Leo XIII’s statement stands as a clear and blatant call to genocide of Jews, Muslims and non-believers. It is worth noting that in recent decades, the number of conversions from Christianity to Islam and Buddhism has been gaining momentum throughout the world ­ a phenomenon well known to the Vatican and its chief lieutenants including Josef Ratzinger, the former Hitler Youth.</p>
<p>Prior to becoming pope, Josef Ratzinger led a controversial career. Known as “God’s Rottweiler,” Ratzinger delivered numerous Islamophobic and Buddhaphobic harangues, and he excommunicated leading reformist theologians while crushing liberation theology and covering up the sex crimes of thousands of Catholic pirests. Ratzinger’s ecclesiastical career is predicated on the radical reform of Roman Catholicism by returning it to medieval levels of absolutistic-totalitarian authority.</p>
<p>While his predecessor made explicit statements condemning the war in Iraq, Pope Benedict has done no such thing. Worse. During the American presidential election in 2004, when he was still a Cardinal, Josef Ratzinger sent a controversial letter to America’s bishops threatening to excommunicate every Catholic who voted for Bush’s opponent, Senator John Kerry. In doing so, Ratzinger became openly and willfully complicit in Bush’s explicitly Islamophobic wars.</p>
<p>This pope has a well-established record of inciting wars against Islamic peoples. To date, Benedict’s highly politicized statements have fomented wars between the Christian West and the Islamic Middle East. Neither before nor since assuming his papal throne has Benedict done anything worthy of note to increase genuine understanding between the major religions. For this reason alone, Benedict’s is a failed papacy. For other reasons ­ especially his personal bigotry and his obstinate preference for political prejudice ­ Benedict’s pontificate will be remembered as a disaster for Roman Catholicism.</p>
<p>Writing the greatest Christian literature of the medieval period, the Divina Comedia, Dante Aligheri boldly attacked the treacherous political machinations of the papacy in the fourteenth century. Seven centuries later, the situation is no different. The papacy is in the hands of a neoconservative political extremist, who views his personal role as that of a religious tyrant. There can be little serious doubt that the world will pay an extremely high price for his outrageous vanities.</p>
<p>MICHAEL CARMICHAEL has been a professional public affairs consultant, author and broadcaster since 1968. In 2003, he founded The Planetary Movement Limited, a global public affairs organization based in the United Kingdom. He has appeared as a public affairs expert on the BBC’s Today Programme, Hardtalk, PM, as well as numerous appearances on ITN, NPR and many European broadcasts examining politics and culture. He can be reached through his website: <a href="http://www.planetarymovement.org/" type="external">www.planetarymovement.org</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | addressing academic group assembled former university regensburg native germany pope benedict xvi launched mystifying homily islam height diatribe pope benedict quoted medieval monarch insulted islam stating islam evil inhuman predictably popes illconceived outburst triggered outrage protest throughout world public demonstrations called formal papal apology somalia aged nun became victim portrayed reprisal midst emerging crisis pope issued yet another statement designed quell outrage stem violence strangely new statement pope chose insult jews quoting biblical passage blaming crucifixion jesus christ pope must unfortunate lapse memory would appear may forgotten disciples jews many jesuss myriads followers support crucifixion latest insult first time pope benedict enraged jews appeared auschwitz earlier year pope forgotten deliberately course mention holocaust product antisemitism instead benedict airbrushed antisemitism nazism collaborators history altogether clumsy attempt revise holocaust almost immediately following outrage popes islamophobia angela merkel rightwing prime minister germany leapt defence following swiftly statement defending pope election results merkels home constituency confirmed political resurgence far right germany national democratic party extraordinary political euphemism party espouses xenophobia antisemitism islamophobia racial superiority nordic germanic races aryan supremacy swept victories allow send representatives german parliament bundestag latest triumph racial extremism three radical parties represented bundestag merkel pope must pleased pope benedicts statements islam shameful monotheistic religion blameless committed atrocities name divinity christianity judaism long atrocious records war crimes extending back time joshua led hebrews massacre people ai slaughtering twelve thousand men women children joshua 825 king david brutal warrior slay goliath gruesomely desecrated corpse severing head brandished ghoulishly poetic book psalms david addressed babylonians writing macabre curse blessing takes dashes babies rock psalm 137 neither jesus totally nonviolent think come send peace earth came send peace sword matthew 1034 jesus advocates execution rebellious children mark 7910 amputation limbs punishment matthew 52930 recent islamophobic diatribes pope others castigated muslims resort sword spread religion tactic outrageous airbrushes crusades inquistion holocaust history atrocities perpetrated christians millions victims among unfortunate nonbelievers pagans jews muslims lost lives wars courts inquistion nazi extermination camps arrayed across germany poland coincidentally sites birthplaces present pope immediate predecessor john paul ii worse outrageous statements lies outright lies word sword occur quran even socalled sword verse attaubah 95 certainly occur judaeochristian bible appears least 424 times fact bible word sword appears one hundred times frequently word peace mosaic book deuteronomy chapter 20 lord god israel commands moses sack cities wake cities promised land lord commands moses kill inhabitants utterly ie commit genocide according writers deuteronomy lord god israel ordered israelites commit genocide massmurdering massacring hittites amorites canaanites perizzites hivites jebusites massive conglomeration humanity equivalent populations middle eastern nations currently occupying turkey syria lebanon jordan palestinian territories iraq final book christian bible revelations st john divine rapture jesus christ return commit genocide inhabitants earth men women children animals plants convulsed exploded lacerated incinerated global holocaust eradicate every last vestige life planet current pope holder office foment wars members religions crusades papal onslaughts jews muslims jewish populations german provinces europe first victims first crusade long line papal diatribes led way nazi genocide jews antisemitic region europe nineteenth century pope leo xiii explicitly stated death sentence necessary efficacious means church attain end rebels act disturbers ecclesiastical unity especially obstinate heretics heresiarchs restrained penalty continuing derange ecclesiastical order impelling others sorts crime perversity one several calculated bring ruin many children bound effectively remove wise remedy saving people must put wicked men death pope leo xiiis statement stands clear blatant call genocide jews muslims nonbelievers worth noting recent decades number conversions christianity islam buddhism gaining momentum throughout world phenomenon well known vatican chief lieutenants including josef ratzinger former hitler youth prior becoming pope josef ratzinger led controversial career known gods rottweiler ratzinger delivered numerous islamophobic buddhaphobic harangues excommunicated leading reformist theologians crushing liberation theology covering sex crimes thousands catholic pirests ratzingers ecclesiastical career predicated radical reform roman catholicism returning medieval levels absolutistictotalitarian authority predecessor made explicit statements condemning war iraq pope benedict done thing worse american presidential election 2004 still cardinal josef ratzinger sent controversial letter americas bishops threatening excommunicate every catholic voted bushs opponent senator john kerry ratzinger became openly willfully complicit bushs explicitly islamophobic wars pope wellestablished record inciting wars islamic peoples date benedicts highly politicized statements fomented wars christian west islamic middle east neither since assuming papal throne benedict done anything worthy note increase genuine understanding major religions reason alone benedicts failed papacy reasons especially personal bigotry obstinate preference political prejudice benedicts pontificate remembered disaster roman catholicism writing greatest christian literature medieval period divina comedia dante aligheri boldly attacked treacherous political machinations papacy fourteenth century seven centuries later situation different papacy hands neoconservative political extremist views personal role religious tyrant little serious doubt world pay extremely high price outrageous vanities michael carmichael professional public affairs consultant author broadcaster since 1968 2003 founded planetary movement limited global public affairs organization based united kingdom appeared public affairs expert bbcs today programme hardtalk pm well numerous appearances itn npr many european broadcasts examining politics culture reached website wwwplanetarymovementorg 160 160 | 822 |
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<p>I’ve pulled out some highlights from a conference call press briefing today by Council on Foreign Relations South Asia expert Daniel Markey. Markey <a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070701faessay86407/daniel-markey/a-false-choice-in-pakistan.html" type="external">served</a> on the State Department’s Policy Planning staff from 2003 to 2007.</p>
<p>It’s a bad day for Pakistan, a bad day for the U.S., and I think we’ll be paying the price for it for a while.</p>
<p>Who Did It: With regard to who did this: all indications from any kind of intelligence and semi intelligence would be it’s al Qaeda – it’s one of the militant groups operating or based in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Baitullah Mehsud, one of the militant leaders in conflict with the state of Pakistan has expressed the desire to hit various political candidates including Bhutto, he is a potential candidate. You can’t rule anybody out.</p>
<p>Most Pakistanis who have been watching Pakistani politics unfold believe [President Pervez] Musharraf has great enough animosity that someone affiliated or within the Pakistani government might have perpetrated that. That doesn’t strike me as a realistic assessment of what really happened. [But whatever the reality], the widespread belief has its own political ramifications. Domestically within Pakistan, it is likely to throw off the election process. …</p>
<p>Domestic Political Dynamics: In terms of winners and losers, within [Bhutto’s] Pakistan People’s Party, who is likely to emerge with the mantle of party leadership at this stage?</p>
<p>One of the problems of having a dynastic leadership in Benazir [Bhutto] and before that her father, is there is no obvious candidates for who takes over. She has not anointed a successor and has not made clear who takes over despite the fact that she has obviously been in danger for some time [Bhutto survived an earlier attack in October in which some 140 of her supporters were killed]. At best, we’ll see jockeying within the party and at worst we could see the destruction of the party.</p>
<p>The life’s blood [of the party] is money; you need that to run candidates around the country, to maintain the organization, and Bhutto’s husband who may have now reached Karachi from Dubai, has been the money man. That puts him in an important position to decide who her successor might be.</p>
<p>If the PPP goes down, other parties go up: the PLMN of Nawaz Sharif continues to be an important power player. How this influences Musharraf and the perception of his party, many people hold him accountable or at least negligent for allowing this to happen. [So this hurts him].</p>
<p>Blow to U.S. Policy : With regard to the US and India and other players, it is a significant blow. A blow in the immediate term, in that it raises the stakes in terms of street protests and violence.</p>
<p>One way Pakistan could melt down, in a worst case scenario, is if the street violence gets out of hand and the army is unable to control it. But I don’t think that is likely to happen. This sort of tragic event however makes that really bad outcome more likely to materialize.</p>
<p>More broadly, this is a major loss for Washington: elections scheduled for early January had the potential to take the country forward towards more manageable civilian partnership towards ruling the country. Benazir would have been a significant part of that, despite all her flaws. She was a significant civilian leader who could have worked in part with Musharraf and the army to have manageable political process.</p>
<p>It is the path where the U.S. has essentially put a lot of its bets, and now [the Bush] administration is going to have to reassess that strategy and pick up the pieces.</p>
<p>Possible Successors … Her husband is incredibly corrupt. He is not a legitimate leader but influential. Others within her family: her brothers have been killed, eliminated from the scene. The Bhutto family children are not able to claim positions of leadership.</p>
<p>Others second tier leaders: what is interesting and tragic about the way Bhutto ran her party, the most charismatic of those second tier leaders, she sidelined because she found them to threaten her.</p>
<p>One would be: [Aftab Khan] Sherpao, the former Interior minister, who was just last week <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&amp;sid=akNUtSNBkQLE&amp;refer=home" type="external">attacked</a> in his hometown mosque. Sherpao, the leader of the PPPS, used to be a member of Bhutto’s party, the PPP. Now that she’s gone he may find himself in position to bring back old relationships and assume a party leadership position.</p>
<p>Another alternative possible leader of the PPP: the widely acclaimed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitzaz_Ahsan" type="external">Aitzaz Ahsan</a>, the lawyer for Supreme Court chief justice Chaudhry, who has been kicked out and reinstated and removed again from the Judiciary. I believe Atzaz is under house arrest in Lahore.</p>
<p>Impact on Musharraf: The new [Pakistani] Army Chief [Lt. Gen. Ashfaq] <a href="http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hTk_HgkMo9gRVKMBNlbqKT7Nxnpg" type="external">Kiyani</a> is very much of a loyalist at this stage to Musharraf. He does not want to impose himself politically on the situation. They work in cooperation. If you did see a real break between Musharraf and Kiyani, it’s a conceivable fact that Musharraf no longer being the army chief really hurt him. But I think they are both on the same page at this point and don’t have too many reasons to break apart.</p>
<p>Street Violence and the Prospects for Further Destabilization in Pakistan: [Musharraf has learned that militant] groups once seen as helpful to Pakistani security are now recognized as the greatest threat to him, national security and Pakistan in general. So he has become prone to take more robust steps to attack the threat [from extremists and militants]. That is partially why violence has gone up in past year or so. The groups have seen themselves become the target and struck back.</p>
<p>The tragedy is that Pakistan may have waited too long [to strike militant groups]. And those groups may have become too strong to rein in. That may be what we are seeing now. […]</p>
<p>The big question is street violence and if the government can control it. We will begin to the see the response on the street as early as tomorrow.</p>
<p>Tomorrow morning Pakistani time, we’ll have a better sense of whether the PPP foot soldiers are being egged on by their leadership, who is pushing the PPP party agenda, and whether they are pushing loudly for a return to the streets or … if they are not saying anything. These are all things that need to be watched very seriously.</p>
<p>The cell phone lines between top PPP leaders will be burning up all through the night to determine who is likely to be the spokeperson and who is likely to get out in front. It is not obvious who will play that role. … There is likely to be a great deal of disagreement. It could lead to confusion within the party ranks and may compound the problem of street violence because nobody will be in charge, and nobody can turn it on or off to serve their goals.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | ive pulled highlights conference call press briefing today council foreign relations south asia expert daniel markey markey served state departments policy planning staff 2003 2007 bad day pakistan bad day us think well paying price regard indications kind intelligence semi intelligence would al qaeda one militant groups operating based pakistans tribal areas baitullah mehsud one militant leaders conflict state pakistan expressed desire hit various political candidates including bhutto potential candidate cant rule anybody pakistanis watching pakistani politics unfold believe president pervez musharraf great enough animosity someone affiliated within pakistani government might perpetrated doesnt strike realistic assessment really happened whatever reality widespread belief political ramifications domestically within pakistan likely throw election process domestic political dynamics terms winners losers within bhuttos pakistan peoples party likely emerge mantle party leadership stage one problems dynastic leadership benazir bhutto father obvious candidates takes anointed successor made clear takes despite fact obviously danger time bhutto survived earlier attack october 140 supporters killed best well see jockeying within party worst could see destruction party lifes blood party money need run candidates around country maintain organization bhuttos husband may reached karachi dubai money man puts important position decide successor might ppp goes parties go plmn nawaz sharif continues important power player influences musharraf perception party many people hold accountable least negligent allowing happen hurts blow us policy regard us india players significant blow blow immediate term raises stakes terms street protests violence one way pakistan could melt worst case scenario street violence gets hand army unable control dont think likely happen sort tragic event however makes really bad outcome likely materialize broadly major loss washington elections scheduled early january potential take country forward towards manageable civilian partnership towards ruling country benazir would significant part despite flaws significant civilian leader could worked part musharraf army manageable political process path us essentially put lot bets bush administration going reassess strategy pick pieces possible successors husband incredibly corrupt legitimate leader influential others within family brothers killed eliminated scene bhutto family children able claim positions leadership others second tier leaders interesting tragic way bhutto ran party charismatic second tier leaders sidelined found threaten one would aftab khan sherpao former interior minister last week attacked hometown mosque sherpao leader ppps used member bhuttos party ppp shes gone may find position bring back old relationships assume party leadership position another alternative possible leader ppp widely acclaimed aitzaz ahsan lawyer supreme court chief justice chaudhry kicked reinstated removed judiciary believe atzaz house arrest lahore impact musharraf new pakistani army chief lt gen ashfaq kiyani much loyalist stage musharraf want impose politically situation work cooperation see real break musharraf kiyani conceivable fact musharraf longer army chief really hurt think page point dont many reasons break apart street violence prospects destabilization pakistan musharraf learned militant groups seen helpful pakistani security recognized greatest threat national security pakistan general become prone take robust steps attack threat extremists militants partially violence gone past year groups seen become target struck back tragedy pakistan may waited long strike militant groups groups may become strong rein may seeing big question street violence government control begin see response street early tomorrow tomorrow morning pakistani time well better sense whether ppp foot soldiers egged leadership pushing ppp party agenda whether pushing loudly return streets saying anything things need watched seriously cell phone lines top ppp leaders burning night determine likely spokeperson likely get front obvious play role likely great deal disagreement could lead confusion within party ranks may compound problem street violence nobody charge nobody turn serve goals | 583 |
<p>On July 4, 1863, Robert E Lee retreated from Gettysburg back to Virginia after a devastating three day battle with Northern forces, leaving 7,000 dead and over 30,000 wounded on a Pennsylvania field. Only two years earlier, prominent Alabama politician Leroy Pope Walker had confidently predicted that all the blood shed as a result of secession could be wiped up with a handkerchief.</p>
<p>Will the United States have another civil war? Even with the deepening political chaos and crisis in Washington DC and around the country, it seems unthinkable. And yet we seem to be living in an era where the unthinkable has happened, and continues to happen with alarming frequency. As of now, much of the public is holding its breath that our established institutions will hold the country together, that things will go back to normal. We hope that the judiciary will restrain Trump from his attempts to make Muslims second class citizens. We hope James Comey, the FBI, and the CIA will step up to the plate to make Trump’s impeachment possible when they provide the ‘smoking gun’ about his corrupt ties to Russia. We hope the Republican Congressional leadership will finally come to its senses. We hope the Democrats will take back Congress in 2018. We hope the white nationalist Steve Bannon will be ousted from highest circles of power, and the ugly ‘alt right’ fascists&#160; will recede into the background after their 15 minutes of fame.</p>
<p>What if none of this happens, though? What if there is no grand compromise that saves the nation from splintering? There are disturbing parallels between our own times and the 1850’s United States, when compromise failed and the union’s institutions collapsed:</p>
<p>A test run for the upcoming civil war may have already begun.</p>
<p>Last month’s events in Portland and other places indicate what an unpleasant future of civil strife looks like. Three men stabbed, two killed, when they attempted to defend two black Muslim girls from harassment by a neo-Nazi thug. Masses of hooded leftists and anarchists congregated in the streets in the days afterward, fighting street battles with uniformed white nationalists. Most alarmingly, in Portland and other places there is video footage of the police simply abandoning public spaces and pulling back to give the warring factions control of the streets(although they did occasionally intervene to arrest anti-fascist protesters). This could be a sign of things to come: the disintegration of the state, giving way to openly partisan armed groups dueling for control. Is the United States so used to plunging other countries like Iraq, Syria, and Libya into similar chaos that it somehow thinks it’s own society is immune?</p>
<p>Perhaps what has happened in Portland is an isolated incident. Yet the American Civil War was also preceded by a small-scale armed conflict in the West. In Kansas from 1855 to 1858, bands of supporters and opponents of slavery engaged in vicious tit for tat in a contest for the new territories status as a free or slave state. In an attempt to rig local elections, pro slavery settlers streamed into Kansas from neighboring Missouri(Similarly, many of the ‘alt right’ fascists have been descending into overwhelmingly progressive Portland from outside rural areas). It was in Kansas that John Brown first gained national renown as an abolitionist who did not believe in turning the other cheek, hacking pro slavery settlers to death with broadswords. Was there a future John Brown marching amongst the antifascist protesters in Portland?</p>
<p>The emergence of a dispute that carves vast areas of the country into distinct, hostile territories.</p>
<p>In the mid 19th century, this dispute was over slavery. In the 21st century, it could very well be immigration. Mass roundups of immigrants is not new–the Obama administration rounded up up to 4 million undocumented people according to a recent Intercept investigation–but Trump’s confrontational tactic of threatening to starve federal funds from so called ‘sanctuary cities’ and even states (like California), is forcing the issue for many millions who previously did not have to take a position on the huge undocumented immigrant population that exists in their midst. This is similar to how the Fugitive Slave Act brought the ugly reality of slavery into the cities and neighborhoods of Northerners. Before then, most (white) Northerners had tolerated slavery as long as it was out of sight, out of mind.</p>
<p>Prior to 1850, the abolitionists were about as influential in the United States as anarchists and Maoists are now. But the practical necessity of resistance to a clear injustice radicalizes many. As Amos Lawrence, a philanthropist who witnessed the recapture of fugitive slave Anthony Burns in the streets of Boston put it: “We went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad Abolitionists”. Despite the finger wagging from the establishment media at leftists willing to fight fascists, as conditions grow more dire many erstwhile non politicized citizens could join the ranks of the anarchists, communists and other radicals defending immigrants and their communities from ICE, Homeland Security, and their fascist paramilitary auxiliaries.</p>
<p>Two deeply dysfunctional parties being strained to a breaking point.</p>
<p>The current Republicans most resemble the Jacksonian Democrats (rather fitting given Donald Trump’s conspicuous idolization of Andrew Jackson). In the 19th century, the Democratic Party was controlled by Southern slave owning oligarchs. These oligarchs spouted off populist rhetoric to attract the votes of mostly Catholic immigrant workers, small farmers and artisans in the North who resented getting the short end of the stick in the emerging Northern industrial capitalist order. Likewise, the current Republican Party is an alliance between some of the most reactionary sections of the capitalist oligarchy, particularly ‘traditional’ industries such as oil and gas, with masses of middle class, working class and poor whites mobilized against ‘free trade’ neo liberal agreements.</p>
<p>On the other end, the current Democrats most resemble the Whigs, which were the party of the banking and industrial capitalist ruling elite in New England/NorthEast, as well as prosperous middling farmers in the Midwest who benefited from the railway and canal projects the Whigs championed. The Whigs also attracted reformers and progressives, including many abolitionists, and had a loyal following amongst Northern free blacks who were appalled by the vile racism of the Jacksonian Democrats.</p>
<p>As the historian James McPherson put it, the Whigs represented the ‘winners’ of the young emerging industrial capitalist system in North America, while the Democrats represented the ‘losers’. The United States has undergone an economic revolution since the 1970’s that is as transformative as the one in the first half of the 19th century, except that neo-liberalism has DE-industrialized vast parts of the United States, instead of industrialized them. The Democrats are controlled by finance capital, the winners in this New World Order, the Republicans although controlled by oil and energy capitalists draw on the mass discontent of the (mostly white) losers of this order to win power.</p>
<p>The two major parties are attempting to hold themselves together by focusing on issues that do not create divisions within the party.</p>
<p>The Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs could only hold their respective parties together as long as they concentrated on issues that did not threaten to divide their own parties-and slavery was that issue. In 1836 a ‘gag rule’ was passed in Congress prohibiting debating slavery. Likewise, the Republican and Democratic parties are in a bind on immigration- the white nationalist populists who have gained a foothold in the GOP are earnest in their desire to ‘save’ white America from the menace of mongrelization through mass deportations, but the corporate interests that dominate the GOP know that the low-wage police state they desire requires a large undocumented population. On the other side, the growing progressive, multiracial working class base of the Democratic Party sincerely wishes for there to be mass resistance to Trump’s attacks on immigrants, for ‘sanctuary cities’ and states to live up to their name.</p>
<p>But the leadership of the Democratic Party can only go so far beyond posturing and symbolic gestures, since the root causes of mass migration from Latin America and the Middle East are the result of the very policies the neo-liberal establishment of the Democratic Party champions: neo-liberal trade agreements like NAFTA, imperialist wars in the Middle East, US backed coup d’etats against socialist and populist governments in Latin America, and the increasing pressure on resources brought about by global climate change. It was Hillary Clinton, after all, who bears a large responsibility for the 2009 coup in Honduras which threw much of Central America into chaos and prompted mass migration to the north. Unable to truly ‘resist’ the attacks on immigrants despite its rhetoric, it is likely that the Democrats will make one compromise too many to the far right that will drive a permanent wedge between the progressive multiracial working class base and the corporate leadership, leading to the creation of two different parties altogether. This is very similar to the way in which the constant capitulations of the ‘Compromise’ Whigs to the slaveocracy led to the ‘Conscience’(anti slavery) Whigs splitting from the party in 1854, forming the Republican Party.</p>
<p>Ruling oligarchs see a rising threat to their power, and are acting based on that fear.</p>
<p>The reason why the oligarchs that Trump represents are so focused on immigration is because like the Southern slave owners, they sense a gathering revolutionary threat. Micheal Anton, Trump’s director of Strategic Communications for the US National Security Council put it quite bluntly: “the ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners with no tradition of, taste for, or experience in liberty means that the electorate grows more left, more Democratic, less Republican, less republican, and less traditionally American with every cycle”.</p>
<p>Just as the rise of Northern industrial capitalism portended the destruction of Southern chattel slavery, for many Republicans close to Trump the waves of working class immigrants from south of the border are particularly jarring because it comes from a region(Latin America) where socialist and leftist politics have mass appeal. Of great significance is the upcoming election in Mexico in 2018, where socialist candidate Lopez Obrador is running a strong campaign for President against the discredited neo-liberal president Enrique Pena Niento. Obrador recently made a tour in the United States, visiting El Paso, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other cities, where he was met by enthusiastic crowds. Although ignored by much of the English-speaking US media, one doubts that the importance of this event was missed by Steve Bannon and others. A Venezuela-style socialist government right on the USA’s southern border could shake the foundations of the entire US capitalist system even more than the Russian or Cuban Revolutions did. Like every ruling class in its death throes, the oligarchs Trump represents must resort to increasingly barbaric measures to stop the progressive tide of history. They will be no more successful than the Southern planters were.</p>
<p>The house is divided and cannot stand</p>
<p>As Abraham Lincoln once eloquently stated ‘a nation cannot exist half slave and half free’. In the globalized, decaying neo-liberal order that exists, we cannot have a WORLD where (far, far more than half) of the world’s population lives in dire poverty and misery, at the mercy of imperialist wars and the disastrous onslaught of climate change, while a privileged minority cloisters itself behind walls and legions of armed men to shield them. In the neo-liberal global world order, capital is free to go wherever it pleases, but labor is restricted, walled in, terrorized and constricted. The contradiction is now coming to a head. The Anglo-American capitalist order which has more or less held firm since World War II is beginning to wobble at its foundations. We are in an era where the only predictability is unpredictability, and the decaying, out of touch, political ‘center’ cannot hold.</p>
<p>Marius Trotter is an artist and political cartoonist in the US Midwest. His work can be viewed on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/trottermarius/" type="external">his website</a>.&#160;</p> | true | 4 | july 4 1863 robert e lee retreated gettysburg back virginia devastating three day battle northern forces leaving 7000 dead 30000 wounded pennsylvania field two years earlier prominent alabama politician leroy pope walker confidently predicted blood shed result secession could wiped handkerchief united states another civil war even deepening political chaos crisis washington dc around country seems unthinkable yet seem living era unthinkable happened continues happen alarming frequency much public holding breath established institutions hold country together things go back normal hope judiciary restrain trump attempts make muslims second class citizens hope james comey fbi cia step plate make trumps impeachment possible provide smoking gun corrupt ties russia hope republican congressional leadership finally come senses hope democrats take back congress 2018 hope white nationalist steve bannon ousted highest circles power ugly alt right fascists160 recede background 15 minutes fame none happens though grand compromise saves nation splintering disturbing parallels times 1850s united states compromise failed unions institutions collapsed test run upcoming civil war may already begun last months events portland places indicate unpleasant future civil strife looks like three men stabbed two killed attempted defend two black muslim girls harassment neonazi thug masses hooded leftists anarchists congregated streets days afterward fighting street battles uniformed white nationalists alarmingly portland places video footage police simply abandoning public spaces pulling back give warring factions control streetsalthough occasionally intervene arrest antifascist protesters could sign things come disintegration state giving way openly partisan armed groups dueling control united states used plunging countries like iraq syria libya similar chaos somehow thinks society immune perhaps happened portland isolated incident yet american civil war also preceded smallscale armed conflict west kansas 1855 1858 bands supporters opponents slavery engaged vicious tit tat contest new territories status free slave state attempt rig local elections pro slavery settlers streamed kansas neighboring missourisimilarly many alt right fascists descending overwhelmingly progressive portland outside rural areas kansas john brown first gained national renown abolitionist believe turning cheek hacking pro slavery settlers death broadswords future john brown marching amongst antifascist protesters portland emergence dispute carves vast areas country distinct hostile territories mid 19th century dispute slavery 21st century could well immigration mass roundups immigrants newthe obama administration rounded 4 million undocumented people according recent intercept investigationbut trumps confrontational tactic threatening starve federal funds called sanctuary cities even states like california forcing issue many millions previously take position huge undocumented immigrant population exists midst similar fugitive slave act brought ugly reality slavery cities neighborhoods northerners white northerners tolerated slavery long sight mind prior 1850 abolitionists influential united states anarchists maoists practical necessity resistance clear injustice radicalizes many amos lawrence philanthropist witnessed recapture fugitive slave anthony burns streets boston put went bed one night oldfashioned conservative compromise union whigs waked stark mad abolitionists despite finger wagging establishment media leftists willing fight fascists conditions grow dire many erstwhile non politicized citizens could join ranks anarchists communists radicals defending immigrants communities ice homeland security fascist paramilitary auxiliaries two deeply dysfunctional parties strained breaking point current republicans resemble jacksonian democrats rather fitting given donald trumps conspicuous idolization andrew jackson 19th century democratic party controlled southern slave owning oligarchs oligarchs spouted populist rhetoric attract votes mostly catholic immigrant workers small farmers artisans north resented getting short end stick emerging northern industrial capitalist order likewise current republican party alliance reactionary sections capitalist oligarchy particularly traditional industries oil gas masses middle class working class poor whites mobilized free trade neo liberal agreements end current democrats resemble whigs party banking industrial capitalist ruling elite new englandnortheast well prosperous middling farmers midwest benefited railway canal projects whigs championed whigs also attracted reformers progressives including many abolitionists loyal following amongst northern free blacks appalled vile racism jacksonian democrats historian james mcpherson put whigs represented winners young emerging industrial capitalist system north america democrats represented losers united states undergone economic revolution since 1970s transformative one first half 19th century except neoliberalism deindustrialized vast parts united states instead industrialized democrats controlled finance capital winners new world order republicans although controlled oil energy capitalists draw mass discontent mostly white losers order win power two major parties attempting hold together focusing issues create divisions within party jacksonian democrats whigs could hold respective parties together long concentrated issues threaten divide partiesand slavery issue 1836 gag rule passed congress prohibiting debating slavery likewise republican democratic parties bind immigration white nationalist populists gained foothold gop earnest desire save white america menace mongrelization mass deportations corporate interests dominate gop know lowwage police state desire requires large undocumented population side growing progressive multiracial working class base democratic party sincerely wishes mass resistance trumps attacks immigrants sanctuary cities states live name leadership democratic party go far beyond posturing symbolic gestures since root causes mass migration latin america middle east result policies neoliberal establishment democratic party champions neoliberal trade agreements like nafta imperialist wars middle east us backed coup detats socialist populist governments latin america increasing pressure resources brought global climate change hillary clinton bears large responsibility 2009 coup honduras threw much central america chaos prompted mass migration north unable truly resist attacks immigrants despite rhetoric likely democrats make one compromise many far right drive permanent wedge progressive multiracial working class base corporate leadership leading creation two different parties altogether similar way constant capitulations compromise whigs slaveocracy led conscienceanti slavery whigs splitting party 1854 forming republican party ruling oligarchs see rising threat power acting based fear reason oligarchs trump represents focused immigration like southern slave owners sense gathering revolutionary threat micheal anton trumps director strategic communications us national security council put quite bluntly ceaseless importation third world foreigners tradition taste experience liberty means electorate grows left democratic less republican less republican less traditionally american every cycle rise northern industrial capitalism portended destruction southern chattel slavery many republicans close trump waves working class immigrants south border particularly jarring comes regionlatin america socialist leftist politics mass appeal great significance upcoming election mexico 2018 socialist candidate lopez obrador running strong campaign president discredited neoliberal president enrique pena niento obrador recently made tour united states visiting el paso los angeles chicago cities met enthusiastic crowds although ignored much englishspeaking us media one doubts importance event missed steve bannon others venezuelastyle socialist government right usas southern border could shake foundations entire us capitalist system even russian cuban revolutions like every ruling class death throes oligarchs trump represents must resort increasingly barbaric measures stop progressive tide history successful southern planters house divided stand abraham lincoln eloquently stated nation exist half slave half free globalized decaying neoliberal order exists world far far half worlds population lives dire poverty misery mercy imperialist wars disastrous onslaught climate change privileged minority cloisters behind walls legions armed men shield neoliberal global world order capital free go wherever pleases labor restricted walled terrorized constricted contradiction coming head angloamerican capitalist order less held firm since world war ii beginning wobble foundations era predictability unpredictability decaying touch political center hold marius trotter artist political cartoonist us midwest work viewed website160 | 1,148 |
<p>Dayvon Love is the director of research and public policy for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle out of Baltimore Maryland. He's a champion debater and has considerable experience with grassroots activism in the Baltimore community.</p>
<p>Makayla Gilliam-Price is a Baltimore activist. Makayla founded the youth justice organization, City Bloc, and also organizes with Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, a youth led, grassroots think-tank which advances the public policy interest of Black people in Baltimore. She is a rising senior at Baltimore City College High School.</p>
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<p /> JARED BALL, PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome back to the Real News. I'm Jared Ball here in Baltimore.
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<p />August 6 marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act. And to consider its impact and current value among younger activists, we've decided to convene a small panel here at the Real News. We have Mr. Dayvon Love, director of public policy for the Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. We have student activist Makayla Gillian-Price. And DeJuan Patterson, a student of public policy, a community activist focused on civil engagement, mental health, and education. Welcome, all of you, to the Real News.
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<p />So Makayla, let's start with you. We again have seen the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act passed, 50 years of civic engagement at new levels for African America. How do you feel its value is measured in today's climate, as a young activist? The power of the vote, the use of the vote, the focus on the vote as a method of, mechanism of change. How do you respond to that, what do you think about that?
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<p />MAKAYLA GILLIAM-PRICE, BALTIMORE ALGEBRA PROJECT: Well, as a high school student activist I represent a large constituency which can not yet vote. So voting is a sort of abstract thing for us. It's something that we're working towards, but not something that we can actively engage in as a--.
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<p />BALL: Are you excited to get to that point?
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<p />GILLIAM-PRICE: Oh, absolutely. I'll be voting next year for my first time. But I think that coming from that standpoint we have an important perspective, because we know we cannot essentialize our political agency to just being voting. So we're forced to look to different alternatives instead of just voting to activate that same political agency. So while it might not hold the same significance for our age group, it's something that we look forward to engaging in in the future. But as of right now, it's really just a stasis point for how we can work around it.
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<p />BALL: Dayvon, same question. I mean, and even as Makayla talks about the excitement of being able to vote for the same time next year, part of my concern at least is for whom will she be able to vote? And what value will it bring? What do you think?
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<p />DAYVON LOVE: Well, reflecting on the fight to get the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed, I think about the fact that what inspired it was the importance of black political power. And I think sometimes the vote is reduced to just this abstract, ethical obligation to participate in the political process instead of using the vote strategically to build power in the fixtures that exist in the larger political structure.
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<p />And so I think given that, particularly here in Baltimore, we have local elections coming up which have a dramatically more direct impact on lives of people in Baltimore, for me the vote is one of many tools that one should use in order to develop the kind of political power necessary to organize communities effectively.
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<p />BALL: You ran not too long ago for local office. How did you situate that campaign, given your broader political perspective on things? How did you, how did you engage that?
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<p />LOVE: I mean, our general idea was around representing a view that it's important to shift the dynamics of power in society, and kind of saw the campaign as just giving an alternative, like you said, to those who traditionally had to vote for the lesser of a few evils. And one of the things I was able to learn from that is that there's a tremendous amount of money, resources, and institutions behind making sure certain candidates are made more available to the public than others.
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<p />And so a part of our work since the campaign has really been around cultivating a culture around civic and political engagement that can help to break up some of the institutional monopoly over what candidates are made available in the mainstream to the general public.
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<p />BALL: What do you think about all this?
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<p />DEJUAN PATTERSON, COMMUNITY ACTIVIST: Well, Dayvon said a lot of things that I would agree with. And I think the Voting Rights Act is important right now because we have to look at things from a grassroots level.
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<p />Too often times we get caught up in the federal and the national level, and we forget about the lower level, within the localized level. That level is one of the most, if not the important level that we can participate in as far as the political arena. That's the arena where we begin to see more immediate results. So we begin to get people more engaged in that arena first, because within a certain community that's impacted by the Voting Rights Act, they perceive that the only time they should be politically engaged is during the federal elections and the presidential candidates, and these things and these discussions.
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<p />However, if we begin to start looking in the local level, we can have more immediate impact and influence. And if we look at Baltimore City, we have a 64 percent African-American population. But however, when we look at the distribution of wealth it does not reflect that. So voting rights, and political engagement, it transpires over into the economical distribution of wealth as well.
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<p />BALL: But that even goes back to the quote I mentioned to all of you off-air, one of my favorite quotes on this issue, from George Jackson. What good is the vote after the fact of monopoly capital? If the idea among some is that we can use the vote to more equitably distribute wealth, how does that, or doesn't that stand in contradiction to the way voting is often dependent upon, or who we have to vote for is dependent upon how much money they have and can use to promote themselves? In other words, the wealth that we're looking to redistribute works against us in terms of developing campaigns and candidates, and even parties that would be of any value to the rest of us. I hope that made sense, and I'd love to hear your response to that point.
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<p />LOVE: I think when we look at the things made available to us, because I think it's important that we think about building economic infrastructure in our communities as a way, as a basis for launching different political and social endeavors. And I see moments of strategic engagement in the political process as a part of a potential strategy in terms of seizing some of the wealth and creating the kind of infrastructure we need in order to advance our interests.
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<p />And so I think sometimes that gets confused with an interest in participating in the capitalist system. But I think it's important that we use the strategic things we have at our disposal. So if you think about local, city government, you're talking about access to contracts, access to monies and resources to do certain programs, that will help to create a culture around revolutionary and political thinking, and so forth.
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<p />So I think it's important for us when we think about the vote in the context of the quote you just mentioned, that we see them as strategic ways to take advantage of the fissures in the system, as opposed to wanting to participate in the system as it exists.
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<p />BALL: Anybody else want to respond to that?
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<p />PATTERSON: I would like to bring up a good point. We look at current Baltimore City State's Attorney Mosby, she was outspent. She was outspent and out-earned, as far as raising financial capital. However, the process she took was a grassroots approach and focused on the social capital that Baltimore had to offer.
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<p />If we begin to galvanize the community and think of the importance of social capital, because we have the numbers here, if you have the numbers and you begin to pique their interest, and you go in against some of the corporate interests that have the economical support to push certain institutions and figures [inside a place]. But if you go ahead and talk on the social capital, you have more boots on the ground, they have more time.
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<p />See, that's the thing that with the economical piece of the political process, they had that money to push somebody in front of you because they've given them more money and more time. But if you've got some people here, like in Baltimore you've got a lot of people disengaged, unemployed, uneducated, but they still have interests. And they are bodies [social record].
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<p />BALL: But even the point you raise kind of speaks to one of my concerns. Because Ms. Mosby is not a revolutionary. And at the end of the day, she may have been able to pose herself progressively in the Freddie Gray incident. But even right now she's turned right back to a regular state's attorney and started to prosecute mainly black, poor people who are going to spend a lot of time in jail. So your point is well taken, but I don't want to confuse her with a true radical break from what's been going on.
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<p />Makayla, do you want to add to that?
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<p />GILLIAM-PRICE: Absolutely. I think that the capital that's used to, like what you were saying earlier, push certain candidates in front of you and push certain parties in front of you, I think that's extremely problematic because it instills a sort of complacency in black communities, especially. Just looking at the dichotomy between the Democratic party and the Republican party in Maryland, especially I think a lot of people find comfort in being Democrats. It seems comfortable, it seems like the most progressive option. But instead we should be shifting to a model that Dayvon's talking about where we're redirecting that capital, creating independently black-owned institutions to advocate for our own personal needs and our own personal interests, and we don't currently have that.
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<p />BALL: Is there any discussion in your circles of the Ujima People's Party, and what, can you--this is the independent black party here in Maryland that is looking to do, or address some of the concerns you all are--what are folks in your spaces saying about that? Is it inspiring, are you like, I'm not sure if that's worth our time, should we stay with the Democratic party?
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<p />LOVE: Most people I think see it as a pipe dream. I think it's--.
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<p />BALL: But isn't voting for Democrats? Like, only--.
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<p />LOVE: But I think that is a good long-term project in terms of what the endgame should be. Because I think too many times we create objectives around limited possibilities. And so I think creating objectives around an endgame that seems outside of the current political imagination, I think it's important to start to plant the seeds so that eventually--.
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<p />It's actually, in a state like Maryland where a third of its population is African-descended people, you have a large size of Latino, Latina population. So just thinking about the endgame in terms of the acquisition of power to actually influence state legislation, the government in general, to me seems like an endgame that is more worthwhile than some of the short-term benefits that one may think that we get from going Democratic.
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<p />BALL: Any quick concluding comments from either of you?
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<p />PATTERSON: I would say, speaking back on to something you said earlier, not taking away from Mosby. But I was speaking on the social capital piece, the approach. And we're talking about something, he was talking about just a few minutes ago, we have to go in this way of civically engaging them, but it comes on awareness. If we go ahead and go to the alternative parties outside of the two-party system that we have been accustomed to, a lot of times now culture in that community is history and tradition that they've been exposed to. And that conditioning predisposed them and propelled them to go ahead and go into a particular arena when it's a two-party system.
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<p />So we begin--to deviate away from that we have to begin educating more on the reasons why we need to go to an alternative. And the alternative, we're taking our social capital somewhere else. That will make the other parties more [progressive] to our interests.
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<p />GILLIAM-PRICE: Just the portion on the Ujima Party, I think in order for black institutions and black political parties like those to work, we have to be mindful of two things. One, that it's not a short narrative, right. It's a long-term goal, like what Dayvon was saying. But also we have to be mindful of black political leaders who don't necessarily have the best interest of the community at heart. And just like, pop-up politicians who aren't really looking for the long-term goal, maybe just to name--they play a large part in delegitimizing black institutions like the Ujima Party and like Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, right, because people don't know what's to be seen as genuine.
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<p />So we have to be extremely mindful of that in order for black institutions to be successful.
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<p />BALL: Makayla, Dayvon, DeJuan, thank you for joining us.
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<p />PANEL: Thank you.
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<p />BALL: And thank you for joining us here at the Real News. For all involved, I'm Jared Ball. And as always, as Fred Hampton used to say, to you we say peace if you're willing to fight for it. So peace, everybody, and we'll catch you in the whirlwind.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | true | 4 | dayvon love director research public policy leaders beautiful struggle baltimore maryland hes champion debater considerable experience grassroots activism baltimore community makayla gilliamprice baltimore activist makayla founded youth justice organization city bloc also organizes leaders beautiful struggle youth led grassroots thinktank advances public policy interest black people baltimore rising senior baltimore city college high school jared ball producer trnn welcome back real news im jared ball baltimore august 6 marks 50th anniversary signing voting rights act consider impact current value among younger activists weve decided convene small panel real news mr dayvon love director public policy leaders beautiful struggle student activist makayla gillianprice dejuan patterson student public policy community activist focused civil engagement mental health education welcome real news makayla lets start seen 50th anniversary voting rights act passed 50 years civic engagement new levels african america feel value measured todays climate young activist power vote use vote focus vote method mechanism change respond think makayla gilliamprice baltimore algebra project well high school student activist represent large constituency yet vote voting sort abstract thing us something working towards something actively engage ball excited get point gilliamprice oh absolutely ill voting next year first time think coming standpoint important perspective know essentialize political agency voting forced look different alternatives instead voting activate political agency might hold significance age group something look forward engaging future right really stasis point work around ball dayvon question mean even makayla talks excitement able vote time next year part concern least able vote value bring think dayvon love well reflecting fight get voting rights act 1965 passed think fact inspired importance black political power think sometimes vote reduced abstract ethical obligation participate political process instead using vote strategically build power fixtures exist larger political structure think given particularly baltimore local elections coming dramatically direct impact lives people baltimore vote one many tools one use order develop kind political power necessary organize communities effectively ball ran long ago local office situate campaign given broader political perspective things engage love mean general idea around representing view important shift dynamics power society kind saw campaign giving alternative like said traditionally vote lesser evils one things able learn theres tremendous amount money resources institutions behind making sure certain candidates made available public others part work since campaign really around cultivating culture around civic political engagement help break institutional monopoly candidates made available mainstream general public ball think dejuan patterson community activist well dayvon said lot things would agree think voting rights act important right look things grassroots level often times get caught federal national level forget lower level within localized level level one important level participate far political arena thats arena begin see immediate results begin get people engaged arena first within certain community thats impacted voting rights act perceive time politically engaged federal elections presidential candidates things discussions however begin start looking local level immediate impact influence look baltimore city 64 percent africanamerican population however look distribution wealth reflect voting rights political engagement transpires economical distribution wealth well ball even goes back quote mentioned offair one favorite quotes issue george jackson good vote fact monopoly capital idea among use vote equitably distribute wealth doesnt stand contradiction way voting often dependent upon vote dependent upon much money use promote words wealth looking redistribute works us terms developing campaigns candidates even parties would value rest us hope made sense id love hear response point love think look things made available us think important think building economic infrastructure communities way basis launching different political social endeavors see moments strategic engagement political process part potential strategy terms seizing wealth creating kind infrastructure need order advance interests think sometimes gets confused interest participating capitalist system think important use strategic things disposal think local city government youre talking access contracts access monies resources certain programs help create culture around revolutionary political thinking forth think important us think vote context quote mentioned see strategic ways take advantage fissures system opposed wanting participate system exists ball anybody else want respond patterson would like bring good point look current baltimore city states attorney mosby outspent outspent outearned far raising financial capital however process took grassroots approach focused social capital baltimore offer begin galvanize community think importance social capital numbers numbers begin pique interest go corporate interests economical support push certain institutions figures inside place go ahead talk social capital boots ground time see thats thing economical piece political process money push somebody front theyve given money time youve got people like baltimore youve got lot people disengaged unemployed uneducated still interests bodies social record ball even point raise kind speaks one concerns ms mosby revolutionary end day may able pose progressively freddie gray incident even right shes turned right back regular states attorney started prosecute mainly black poor people going spend lot time jail point well taken dont want confuse true radical break whats going makayla want add gilliamprice absolutely think capital thats used like saying earlier push certain candidates front push certain parties front think thats extremely problematic instills sort complacency black communities especially looking dichotomy democratic party republican party maryland especially think lot people find comfort democrats seems comfortable seems like progressive option instead shifting model dayvons talking redirecting capital creating independently blackowned institutions advocate personal needs personal interests dont currently ball discussion circles ujima peoples party youthis independent black party maryland looking address concerns arewhat folks spaces saying inspiring like im sure thats worth time stay democratic party love people think see pipe dream think ball isnt voting democrats like love think good longterm project terms endgame think many times create objectives around limited possibilities think creating objectives around endgame seems outside current political imagination think important start plant seeds eventually actually state like maryland third population africandescended people large size latino latina population thinking endgame terms acquisition power actually influence state legislation government general seems like endgame worthwhile shortterm benefits one may think get going democratic ball quick concluding comments either patterson would say speaking back something said earlier taking away mosby speaking social capital piece approach talking something talking minutes ago go way civically engaging comes awareness go ahead go alternative parties outside twoparty system accustomed lot times culture community history tradition theyve exposed conditioning predisposed propelled go ahead go particular arena twoparty system beginto deviate away begin educating reasons need go alternative alternative taking social capital somewhere else make parties progressive interests gilliamprice portion ujima party think order black institutions black political parties like work mindful two things one short narrative right longterm goal like dayvon saying also mindful black political leaders dont necessarily best interest community heart like popup politicians arent really looking longterm goal maybe namethey play large part delegitimizing black institutions like ujima party like leaders beautiful struggle right people dont know whats seen genuine extremely mindful order black institutions successful ball makayla dayvon dejuan thank joining us panel thank ball thank joining us real news involved im jared ball always fred hampton used say say peace youre willing fight peace everybody well catch whirlwind end disclaimer please note transcripts real news network typed recording program trnn guarantee complete accuracy | 1,180 |
<p>Albuquerque Journal/ ZUMA</p>
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<p>Since 2015, California has issued about 800,000 licenses to drivers who lack proof of legal residence. In Illinois, more than 212,000 people have received what are known as temporary visitor driver’s licenses. Connecticut has approved around 26,000 drive-only licenses for undocumented immigrants, and nine more states plus the District of Columbia have similar programs.</p>
<p>To date, these initiatives have been widely hailed as a reasonable way to try to improve public safety, by helping make sure that everyone behind the wheel was a competent driver. But now, with the incoming Trump administration seemingly committed to deporting undocumented individuals, there is worry among immigration advocates that the identifying data collected as part of these programs—names, addresses, copies of foreign passports—could be used by federal authorities looking to send people back to their home countries.</p>
<p>Last month, Trump <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-elect-trump-says-how-many-immigrants-hell-deport/" type="external">said</a> he would deport or incarcerate as many as 3 million undocumented immigrants who have criminal records. A 10-point immigration plan on Trump’s transition <a href="https://www.greatagain.gov/policy/immigration.html" type="external">website</a> lists “zero tolerance for criminal aliens,” along with a promise to “ensure that other countries take their people back when we order them deported.” The plan also calls for blocking funding for so-called “ <a href="" type="internal">sanctuary cities</a>” that historically have limited their cooperation with federal immigration agents.</p>
<p>“The discussion up to this point has been hypothetical or theoretical, and now it’s feeling very real,” said Jonathan Blazer, advocacy and policy counsel for the ACLU. “People start to think, ‘Are things going to look completely different than they’ve ever looked before, in terms of what the federal government might try to do?'”</p>
<p>Nothing in federal law specifically entitles immigration agents access to state data on drivers who may be in the country illegally, according to Blazer. To get states to produce a list of these drivers, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement—which includes the federal government’s deportation arm—might have to rely on its administrative subpoena power. Even then, states could refuse to provide the information, thereby forcing the federal government to sue for the driver data or narrow its request, Blazer and other legal experts said. &#160;&#160; &#160; “If ICE just came and said, ‘Hey, give me all your driving privilege card holders, ‘I would say, ‘No,’ and they would have to take some sort of different legal action that is beyond my control,” said Scott Vien, the director of Delaware’s Division of Motor Vehicles, which has so far issued about 3,500 driving credentials to undocumented immigrants. Some of the records they maintain include copies of birth certificates, foreign passports and consular identification cards.</p>
<p>Uncertainty already surrounds the fate of more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants who first arrived in the United States as children, and who obtained temporary reprieves from deportation through a 2012 executive action of President Barack Obama. In applying to the <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/consideration-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca" type="external">program</a>, these individuals submitted all sorts of personal information to the federal government, including home addresses and the names of family members. Immigrants and their advocates now fear that this information could be turned over to federal immigration officials after Obama leaves office, for use in tracking down undocumented individuals.</p>
<p>Driving records, it is now clear, constitute another vast store of data on US residents who may not be residing in the country legally. In all, more than 1 million licenses meant for people without proof of legal immigration status have been issued across the country.</p>
<p>There have already been some instances of ICE seeking to get and use driver’s license information in bulk from states that do not have the special programs for the undocumented—New Jersey among them. In 2012, ICE’s Newark field office obtained from the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission a list of people who had applied for restricted licenses using valid but temporary immigration documents. An initial review “resulted in the identification of numerous foreign-born individuals who fall under ICE priorities,” according to an April 2012 letter from the field office director, who also requested that New Jersey continue to supply updated lists. &#160;</p>
<p>That same year, the Atlanta field office proposed gaining access to the names of foreign-born residents with temporary driver’s licenses, as well as lists of rejected license applications, as part of its efforts to achieve that year’s “ <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/603861-ice-documents.html" type="external">criminal-alien removal target</a>.” That DMV project was not implemented, according to an ICE official’s email from 2014, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act <a href="https://www.nilc.org/issues/drivers-licenses/ice-dmvs-share-information/" type="external">request</a> by the National Immigration Law Center.</p>
<p>The Illinois secretary of state’s office has said it cannot guarantee the safety of temporary license applicants’ information from federal immigration authorities. If the office receives a “legally valid request” for information on license applicants who lack proof of legal residence, it will comply, according to an <a href="http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/publications/pdf_publications/dsd_tvdl4.pdf" type="external">FAQ</a> published by the state earlier this year.</p>
<p>“If ICE did come to us with a subpoena, we’d probably have to go and get a legal opinion, from the attorney general,” said Dave Druker, a spokesman for the Illinois secretary of state’s office. “It hasn’t happened yet.”</p>
<p>The state has had a problem with protecting applicant information before. About three years ago, an employee of the secretary of state’s office alerted ICE about an undocumented immigrant who had applied for a temporary license. The applicant was then apprehended upon showing up at a state office for an appointment in February 2014. Due in part to outcry from immigrant rights advocates following the incident, the state has said it will no longer proactively volunteer information to ICE about temporary license seekers, as long as they do not have any records of felony criminal activity or appear on any terrorism watch list.</p>
<p>“In order to find out the legality, someone needs to be willing to sue, and because of data sharing and how it operates, a lot of times it’s going to require a political actor to do that—a state, a locality,” said Mark Fleming, the national litigation coordinator for the National Immigrant Justice Center. “That’s often a political decision for a lot of elected officials.”</p>
<p>ICE already enjoys limited access to basic state driver’s license information through a law enforcement data exchange network called <a href="http://www.nlets.org/" type="external">Nlets</a>. However, the information ICE can see wouldn’t necessarily give away someone’s immigration status.</p>
<p>In California, any driver’s license information that the state makes available to law enforcement agencies through data-sharing systems does not indicate whether the driver provided evidence of legal immigration status, according to Artemio Armenta, a spokesman for the California Department of Motor Vehicles.</p>
<p>In the Illinois system, however, there’s a potential giveaway: Driver data for a regular license includes a Social Security number, whereas temporary license records will list a consular card or foreign passport number instead.</p>
<p>Other states that offer driving privileges to undocumented individuals include Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Vermont. In Washington state, no resident has to provide evidence of legal presence or citizenship to obtain a standard license. Even so, many immigrants who lack proof of legal residence face a dilemma in deciding whether or not to take advantage of these programs and apply for driving credentials. &#160;</p>
<p>“People can’t be afraid to get the license that would enable them to learn the rules of the road and hold them accountable for driving,” said Tanya Broder, a senior staff attorney with the National Immigration Law Center. At the same time, “we’ve told people that if they’re at high risk, if they don’t want to be seen or found, that the DMV database makes them easier to find.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | albuquerque journal zuma since 2015 california issued 800000 licenses drivers lack proof legal residence illinois 212000 people received known temporary visitor drivers licenses connecticut approved around 26000 driveonly licenses undocumented immigrants nine states plus district columbia similar programs date initiatives widely hailed reasonable way try improve public safety helping make sure everyone behind wheel competent driver incoming trump administration seemingly committed deporting undocumented individuals worry among immigration advocates identifying data collected part programsnames addresses copies foreign passportscould used federal authorities looking send people back home countries last month trump said would deport incarcerate many 3 million undocumented immigrants criminal records 10point immigration plan trumps transition website lists zero tolerance criminal aliens along promise ensure countries take people back order deported plan also calls blocking funding socalled sanctuary cities historically limited cooperation federal immigration agents discussion point hypothetical theoretical feeling real said jonathan blazer advocacy policy counsel aclu people start think things going look completely different theyve ever looked terms federal government might try nothing federal law specifically entitles immigration agents access state data drivers may country illegally according blazer get states produce list drivers us immigration customs enforcementwhich includes federal governments deportation armmight rely administrative subpoena power even states could refuse provide information thereby forcing federal government sue driver data narrow request blazer legal experts said 160160 160 ice came said hey give driving privilege card holders would say would take sort different legal action beyond control said scott vien director delawares division motor vehicles far issued 3500 driving credentials undocumented immigrants records maintain include copies birth certificates foreign passports consular identification cards uncertainty already surrounds fate 700000 undocumented immigrants first arrived united states children obtained temporary reprieves deportation 2012 executive action president barack obama applying program individuals submitted sorts personal information federal government including home addresses names family members immigrants advocates fear information could turned federal immigration officials obama leaves office use tracking undocumented individuals driving records clear constitute another vast store data us residents may residing country legally 1 million licenses meant people without proof legal immigration status issued across country already instances ice seeking get use drivers license information bulk states special programs undocumentednew jersey among 2012 ices newark field office obtained new jersey motor vehicle commission list people applied restricted licenses using valid temporary immigration documents initial review resulted identification numerous foreignborn individuals fall ice priorities according april 2012 letter field office director also requested new jersey continue supply updated lists 160 year atlanta field office proposed gaining access names foreignborn residents temporary drivers licenses well lists rejected license applications part efforts achieve years criminalalien removal target dmv project implemented according ice officials email 2014 obtained freedom information act request national immigration law center illinois secretary states office said guarantee safety temporary license applicants information federal immigration authorities office receives legally valid request information license applicants lack proof legal residence comply according faq published state earlier year ice come us subpoena wed probably go get legal opinion attorney general said dave druker spokesman illinois secretary states office hasnt happened yet state problem protecting applicant information three years ago employee secretary states office alerted ice undocumented immigrant applied temporary license applicant apprehended upon showing state office appointment february 2014 due part outcry immigrant rights advocates following incident state said longer proactively volunteer information ice temporary license seekers long records felony criminal activity appear terrorism watch list order find legality someone needs willing sue data sharing operates lot times going require political actor thata state locality said mark fleming national litigation coordinator national immigrant justice center thats often political decision lot elected officials ice already enjoys limited access basic state drivers license information law enforcement data exchange network called nlets however information ice see wouldnt necessarily give away someones immigration status california drivers license information state makes available law enforcement agencies datasharing systems indicate whether driver provided evidence legal immigration status according artemio armenta spokesman california department motor vehicles illinois system however theres potential giveaway driver data regular license includes social security number whereas temporary license records list consular card foreign passport number instead states offer driving privileges undocumented individuals include colorado connecticut delaware hawaii maryland new mexico nevada utah vermont washington state resident provide evidence legal presence citizenship obtain standard license even many immigrants lack proof legal residence face dilemma deciding whether take advantage programs apply driving credentials 160 people cant afraid get license would enable learn rules road hold accountable driving said tanya broder senior staff attorney national immigration law center time weve told people theyre high risk dont want seen found dmv database makes easier find | 761 |
<p>By Henry A. Giroux, TruthoutThis piece originally appeared at <a href="http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/10301-from-penn-state-to-jpmorgan-chase-and-barclay-destroying-higher-education-savaging-children-and-extinguishing-democracy" type="external">Truthout</a>.</p>
<p>The Freeh report makes clear that there was a concerted attempt to cover-up the acts of a serial predator, Jerry Sandusky, while willfully disregarding the welfare of the children he abused. Given the reporting of the last year, much of this is not news, though the report makes clear the nature and depth of the cover-up, while providing some important new details. While the Freeh report reveals that the cover-up at the top of the Penn State administration “was an active agreement to conceal,” it raises further questions about how the justice system works in this country when it comes to prosecuting the rich and powerful who sink more and more into a bottomless pit of corruption and moral irresponsibility. At his press conference, Louis J. Freeh, when asked if criminal charges should be brought against a number of people, including former President Spanier, replied that “it’s up to others to decide whether that’s criminal.” While Freeh’s reply suggests he is acting cautiously given that some of the people who hired him may be indicted, he unknowingly touches on another related and important issue. That is, justice in America works primarily for the rich and powerful and against the poor and marginalized. And that Freeh’s response or equivocation reveals what is well known — the rich and powerful rarely get prosecuted for their crimes or what The Economist has called “the rotten heart of finance.” Just ask the CEOs who run Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, GlaxoSmithKline, and so it goes.</p>
<p>Let’s be clear, what is on trial here is not simply those who colluded to protect the reputation of a storied football program and the reputation of Penn State University, but a society governed by radicalized market-driven values, a survival of the “fittest” (or most ruthless) ethic and an unregulated drive for profit-making regardless of the human and social costs. This is an ethic that now renders many children and young people as disposable, refusing to acknowledge its responsibility to future generations while creating the social, economic and political conditions in which the pain and suffering of young people simply disappears. As a number of recent banking scandals reveal, big money and the institutions it creates now engage unapologetically in massive criminal behavior and corruption, but the individuals who head these corporations extending from JPMorgan Chase Bank to Barclays are rarely prosecuted.</p>
<p>The message is clear. Once again, crime pays for the rich and powerful. We can only understand what happened to the young victims at Penn State if we also acknowledge what recently was revealed about the criminal actions against children exhibited by GlaxoSmithKline. In this instance, Glaxo illegally marketed Paxil to children, gave kickbacks to doctors and made false claims about the drug even though <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/05/breaking-down-glaxosmithklines-billion-dollar-wrongdoing/" type="external">one major clinical trial found</a> “that teens who took the drug for depression were more likely to attempt suicide than those receiving placebo pills.” Penn State and Glaxo are symptomatic of a much larger shift in the culture and the relations of power that shape it.</p>
<p />
<p>Rather than representing a society’s dreams and hope for the future, young people, especially poor white and minority children, have become commodities to be mined for profit and/or pleasure and disposable after they have served those purposes in the age of casino capitalism and big money. It is crucial that the American public combine the kind of institutional abuse we see at Penn State, GlaxoSmithKline and Barclays with the values and relations of power that are responsible for a society in which 53 percent of college graduates are jobless, social provisions for young people are being slashed, corporations get tax deductions while state governments eliminate vital public services and students assume a massive debt because it is easier for the federal government to fund wars and invest in prisons rather than in public and higher education.</p>
<p>Connect these dots and Penn State becomes only one shameful and corrupt marker in a much larger scandal that reveals an ongoing and aggressive war on youth. Everywhere we look, young people are under siege. Twenty percent of young people live in poverty and over 42 percent live in low-income homes. Young people now find themselves in debt, jobless, incarcerated or unemployed. Stories about young people being denied the right to vote, being abused in juvenile detention centers, taking on jobs that pay the minimum wage or worse living at home with their parents while unemployed and facing a bleak future rarely seem to arouse the concerns of the American public or its governing politicians. All the while, the ruling corporate and financial elite use their power to punish those marginalized by class, race and ethnicity – slashing social benefits, increasing tuition, refusing to abolish punitive bankruptcy laws, denigrating young people as lazy and refusing overall to invest in their future. The Penn State scandal has to be understood within a broader political, economic, and cultural landscape. Not only is it symptomatic of a growing culture of cruelty, hyper-masculinity, big money, big sports empires, corporate power, academic illiteracy, and the unchecked power of the privileged elite, but also as part of a larger war on youth, public values, and the democratic mission of the university and any other non-commodified public sphere.</p>
<p>Until we understand how the larger culture of political, institutional and economic corruption abuses young people, rewards the rich and destroys democracy, Penn State will become a side show that will simply distract from the real issue of what constitutes child abuse in America. The scandal of Penn State has become the scandal of America.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | henry giroux truthoutthis piece originally appeared truthout freeh report makes clear concerted attempt coverup acts serial predator jerry sandusky willfully disregarding welfare children abused given reporting last year much news though report makes clear nature depth coverup providing important new details freeh report reveals coverup top penn state administration active agreement conceal raises questions justice system works country comes prosecuting rich powerful sink bottomless pit corruption moral irresponsibility press conference louis j freeh asked criminal charges brought number people including former president spanier replied others decide whether thats criminal freehs reply suggests acting cautiously given people hired may indicted unknowingly touches another related important issue justice america works primarily rich powerful poor marginalized freehs response equivocation reveals well known rich powerful rarely get prosecuted crimes economist called rotten heart finance ask ceos run barclays jpmorgan chase citibank glaxosmithkline goes lets clear trial simply colluded protect reputation storied football program reputation penn state university society governed radicalized marketdriven values survival fittest ruthless ethic unregulated drive profitmaking regardless human social costs ethic renders many children young people disposable refusing acknowledge responsibility future generations creating social economic political conditions pain suffering young people simply disappears number recent banking scandals reveal big money institutions creates engage unapologetically massive criminal behavior corruption individuals head corporations extending jpmorgan chase bank barclays rarely prosecuted message clear crime pays rich powerful understand happened young victims penn state also acknowledge recently revealed criminal actions children exhibited glaxosmithkline instance glaxo illegally marketed paxil children gave kickbacks doctors made false claims drug even though one major clinical trial found teens took drug depression likely attempt suicide receiving placebo pills penn state glaxo symptomatic much larger shift culture relations power shape rather representing societys dreams hope future young people especially poor white minority children become commodities mined profit andor pleasure disposable served purposes age casino capitalism big money crucial american public combine kind institutional abuse see penn state glaxosmithkline barclays values relations power responsible society 53 percent college graduates jobless social provisions young people slashed corporations get tax deductions state governments eliminate vital public services students assume massive debt easier federal government fund wars invest prisons rather public higher education connect dots penn state becomes one shameful corrupt marker much larger scandal reveals ongoing aggressive war youth everywhere look young people siege twenty percent young people live poverty 42 percent live lowincome homes young people find debt jobless incarcerated unemployed stories young people denied right vote abused juvenile detention centers taking jobs pay minimum wage worse living home parents unemployed facing bleak future rarely seem arouse concerns american public governing politicians ruling corporate financial elite use power punish marginalized class race ethnicity slashing social benefits increasing tuition refusing abolish punitive bankruptcy laws denigrating young people lazy refusing overall invest future penn state scandal understood within broader political economic cultural landscape symptomatic growing culture cruelty hypermasculinity big money big sports empires corporate power academic illiteracy unchecked power privileged elite also part larger war youth public values democratic mission university noncommodified public sphere understand larger culture political institutional economic corruption abuses young people rewards rich destroys democracy penn state become side show simply distract real issue constitutes child abuse america scandal penn state become scandal america | 532 |
<p>your email</p>
<p>your name</p>
<p>recipient(s) email (comma separated)</p>
<p />
<p>message</p>
<p>captcha</p>
<p />
<p>Professor Rachel Slocum was surprised to find herself in the middle of a blow-up about progressivism in the academy. (Rachel Slocum) &#160;</p>
<p>Rachel Slocum was, until recently, not the kind of high-profile academic who typically turns up in news articles. As an assistant professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, her solid career path of teaching and research on urban food systems had a progressive bent that did not stand out too much in the relatively liberal climate of the University of Wisconsin system. And then she sent out an email to a class of online students complaining about how the government shutdown was holding up an assignment requiring access to the then-shuttered Census Bureau website. Folded into the brief memo was a flip negative comment about the Republican Party and the Tea Party.</p>
<p>Within days, the email was seen round the world, ricocheting through the conservative social media sphere as a case study of what <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/18/professors-afforded-few-guarantees-privacy-internet-age" type="external">commentators perceived as academia’s pervasive liberal bias</a>. National political fallout rained down on the La Crosse campus. Students barraged Chancellor Joe Gow with angry complaints about Slocum's alleged political polemicism, and Gow responded with an announcement to students that sternly disavowed Slocum's “highly partisan” message.</p>
<p>The media frenzy has since died down, but the brouhaha is hardly an isolated one. When a surreptitiously recorded video of snarky anti-GOP comments by Michigan State creative writing professor William Penn was aired on YouTube, <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/09/06/michigan-state-suspends-professor-teaching-following-anti-republican-remarks" type="external">administrators suspended him from teaching duties</a> on the grounds that his screed had “negatively affected the learning environment." And earlier this year in New York, a public talk at the City University of New York about the pro-Palestinian boycott against Israel sparked a massive outcry from pro-Israeli activists both on campus and off, which led to faculty being vilified and denounced by local officials, and even threats from <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2013/04/investigation-brooklyn-semitism.html" type="external">one City Councilman to cut the university's funding.</a> (Full disclosure: This author attends CUNY).</p>
<p>Working In These Times&#160;asked Slocum about her experience and how ethical and professional lines are being redrawn—and arguably blurred—in an age of instantaneous communication and volatile partisan tensions.</p>
<p>What was your initial reaction when you realized that you were getting repercussions for your statements to students—particularly statements that were not exactly part of your field of study? Did you originally think you were doing anything unusual in speaking about the census data access--or were you more surprised by the backlash?</p>
<p>Nothing like this had happened before, so I was quite surprised that my email to students was on the loose. I should have realized writing something about the shutdown and the Tea Party’s culpability would be controversial for some, but you don’t always think of these things. The assignment I had wanted them to do using Census data—gathering and analyzing stats on racial inequality—was, for me, the most important in the class, which is why some frustration got into my email.&#160; Even though the email was brief, I did do some research to make sure what I was saying was accurate and considered how to explain what was happening. After all, there were students who might have been unaware of the shutdown or why it was happening.&#160;</p>
<p>As a human geographer interested in the social relations of race, class and gender, it’s my responsibility to know something about the political context that affects people’s lives and to let my students know what’s going on.&#160;</p>
<p>Do you think this could have happened if you had just been expressing a political opinion not related to such a hot-button issue like the federal shutdown, or not directed at Republicans per se? Or do you feel like you were just caught up in a very fraught political moment?</p>
<p>Yes, this could have happened on other issues. Apparently any comment perceived as political or seen as contrary to what ‘ought’ to be taught in university could be grounds for the sort of outrage that greeted my email.</p>
<p>I think the reason there is heightened visibility for professors is because of the increased power of a militant right that is lurking in the shadows of the Internet waiting to pounce on anything that can be used to discredit left-leaning academics. The fact that the student’s Tweet about my email was picked up immediately by <a href="http://mediatrackers.org/tag/rachel-slocum" type="external">MediaTrackers</a> and <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/08/homework-excuses-wisconsin-professor-tells-students-that-govt-shutdown-is-to/" type="external">Fox News</a> supports this point. Their efforts are part of a concerted attack on universities, which they view as bastions of left wing ideas.</p>
<p>In my case, the Chancellor was probably worried that my email, if unaddressed, would provide more fuel for those who would like to reduce university funding and autonomy.&#160; But it is in these times of greater scrutiny aimed at undermining academic freedom and the academy itself that administrators, faculty and university advocates have to stand firm in their support for academic freedom. Without that freedom, the university does not exist.</p>
<p>It seems there are two sides of the free speech issue at play here—one being the professor's protection from harassment or career repercussions for being politically outspoken, another being how information given to students makes it into the public sphere. What do you think of the issue of students publicizing their professors' statements?</p>
<p>I think you’re right that there are two free speech issues. … [Of] course students should be able to comment on what happens in class.&#160; It would be wonderful, in fact, if more actually did comment in class on the subject matter. But ... for my particular case, this was much more about policing professors’ speech.</p>
<p>Untenured faculty in general—and specifically untenured women and people of color—face multiple barriers and threats to job security. One of these is how they are perceived by students and supported as teachers. As students become customers or clients, standardized student evaluations have come to count very highly in the retention and tenure process even though research has shown that women and of color faculty are held to a higher standard than the “typical” (\white, male) professor. Students annoyed at a grade, an email, a discussion topic and so forth have formal evaluations and a direct line to the Chancellor at UW-L, in addition to sites like Rate my Professors, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. That an angry student could potentially undermine a career by posting something online is unconscionable, but it is the reality. Given this new reality, professors will self-censor or be censored.</p>
<p>And concerning the question of how to deal with the many ways that lectures, emails and so forth can become visible to everyone, Inside Higher Ed quotes Chancellor Gow, <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/18/professors-afforded-few-guarantees-privacy-internet-age" type="external">who suggests that professors could make up their own rules</a>. But that ad hoc approach to policy avoids confronting the hard questions of how to protect professors’ right to privacy and academic freedom, support university employees and ensure students’ free speech.&#160;It is up to faculty decision-making bodies, like the Faculty Senate, to address the issue, particularly in this time when it appears that some university administrators see serving students’ needs, as opposed to those of the faculty, as their primary responsibility. &#160;</p>
<p>Do you think the incident has had any long-term ramifications for you or other professors in terms of how faculty members interact with students, express their opinions on politics or even teach their own subjects? Has it influenced you personally?</p>
<p>I felt terrible for a week—I felt I couldn’t trust my students and I was very worried they wouldn’t respect me after I was scolded by the Chancellor.&#160; I tried to figure out how I could engage with an online class in a way that would protect me from more of the same. Apart from being careful, there wasn’t much I could come up with. But after I publicly circulated a letter in response to the Chancellor’s remarks, I received a very nice note from a student telling me not to change how I engage with students because of this incident and not to fear that my students would not respect me. After that week, I went back to my typical emails to students offering guidance on the ideas we discuss. That’s my job. &#160;</p>
<p>Until a short while ago, your academic career was generally focused around social analysis and research on geography. How does it feel now that you've been placed in the spotlight in an academic freedom dispute?</p>
<p>Bizarre. I am the last person to want such attention. Though it’s an extremely important issue, academic freedom has never been something I thought much about except when cases came up where such freedom was at stake, like [the controversial activism of former University of Colorado Professor] Ward Churchill. Academic freedom is the basis for everything that we do as scholars and teachers— it’s the foundation of the university. I suppose it’s a luxury that I’ve taken for granted—and now I realize I shouldn’t have. As an untenured faculty member, it wasn’t something I could rely on, at least for teaching. As my superiors told me, academic freedom in the case of teaching doesn’t apply before tenure.</p>
<p>Chancellor Gow refused to remove me from my position, but the idea that he could have is frightening. Rather than tenure, we need labor law that protects faculty by providing permanent contracts after some minimal probationary period (like I believe is the case in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/may/28/ucu-conference-professorships" type="external">Britain</a>).</p>
<p>It's interesting that the spat over your message about the shutdown comes at a time when professors/academics are increasingly treated as public figures or media figures, even when the opinions expressed don't directly pertain to their work.&#160;How do you feel about the incident in light of what it represents about the way political speech is treated in the academy today?</p>
<p>On the one hand, some do make academics into public figures when they say the “wrong” thing, like in my case. Academics become lightning rods for the bolts of anger that people want to throw towards those they see as powerful, whose knowledge they don’t understand and whose work lives don’t conform to the same 9-to-5 restrictions that most live with.&#160; We’re suspected of not working hard enough, or of having unreasonable benefits.</p>
<p>But on the other hand, in this country I don’t think academics in the social sciences and humanities are sufficiently respected as public figures with important insights as to how the world works. There’s an NPR-listening, PBS-watching public that hears us occasionally. But apart from those, I don’t see much engagement by the mainstream media with academics. The roots of this are obviously complicated, and it would take someone who’s studied the media and the history of the American relationship to intellectuals to adequately discuss the subject. But to my mind, a lack of public understanding and engagement with academics comes from pervasive anti-intellectualism in the United States and concentration of media ownership.&#160;</p>
<p>It seems like this incident coincides with a trend toward commercialization of educational institutions. Does it trouble you that education, media and politics are so intertwined in this way? &#160;</p>
<p>The twin forces of inadequate funding and the commercialization of public higher education divide university administration from the faculty, making the former more attuned to (potentially unsympathetic) state-level politicians and a vocal conservative minority. In Wisconsin, the political climate is dangerous for higher education; naturally, administrators would be concerned about speech that draws negative attention.</p>
<p>Overall, do you think that professors should be okay with their private speech in the classroom becoming more public (in the media), as long as they were protected from ad hominem personal or professional attacks?&#160;</p>
<p>I don’t feel I know enough about the legal arguments for free speech and privacy to be able to draw that line to protect professors’ privacy, but this should be taken up by those who do.&#160; It would be important not to sweep this context under the rug.&#160; Going after [Pulitzer Prize nominee] Bill Cronon is not the same as humiliating an untenured professor.</p>
<p>Universities increasingly rely on adjunct labor that is paid unlivable wages with zero job security. They pay administrators and finance sports well, while humanities departments are eliminated. Those lucky enough to have the opportunity to pursue tenure live in insecurity for six or more years, working nonstop and trying to satisfy all the powers that will decide whether or not they keep their jobs.</p>
<p>Privacy, labor rights and the university as a place to learn from all disciplines in ways that allow professors to challenge students beyond their comfort zone are all related. One can’t be addressed without the other.&#160;&#160;</p> | true | 4 | email name recipients email comma separated message captcha professor rachel slocum surprised find middle blowup progressivism academy rachel slocum 160 rachel slocum recently kind highprofile academic typically turns news articles assistant professor geography university wisconsinla crosse solid career path teaching research urban food systems progressive bent stand much relatively liberal climate university wisconsin system sent email class online students complaining government shutdown holding assignment requiring access thenshuttered census bureau website folded brief memo flip negative comment republican party tea party within days email seen round world ricocheting conservative social media sphere case study commentators perceived academias pervasive liberal bias national political fallout rained la crosse campus students barraged chancellor joe gow angry complaints slocums alleged political polemicism gow responded announcement students sternly disavowed slocums highly partisan message media frenzy since died brouhaha hardly isolated one surreptitiously recorded video snarky antigop comments michigan state creative writing professor william penn aired youtube administrators suspended teaching duties grounds screed negatively affected learning environment earlier year new york public talk city university new york propalestinian boycott israel sparked massive outcry proisraeli activists campus led faculty vilified denounced local officials even threats one city councilman cut universitys funding full disclosure author attends cuny working times160asked slocum experience ethical professional lines redrawnand arguably blurredin age instantaneous communication volatile partisan tensions initial reaction realized getting repercussions statements studentsparticularly statements exactly part field study originally think anything unusual speaking census data accessor surprised backlash nothing like happened quite surprised email students loose realized writing something shutdown tea partys culpability would controversial dont always think things assignment wanted using census datagathering analyzing stats racial inequalitywas important class frustration got email160 even though email brief research make sure saying accurate considered explain happening students might unaware shutdown happening160 human geographer interested social relations race class gender responsibility know something political context affects peoples lives let students know whats going on160 think could happened expressing political opinion related hotbutton issue like federal shutdown directed republicans per se feel like caught fraught political moment yes could happened issues apparently comment perceived political seen contrary ought taught university could grounds sort outrage greeted email think reason heightened visibility professors increased power militant right lurking shadows internet waiting pounce anything used discredit leftleaning academics fact students tweet email picked immediately mediatrackers fox news supports point efforts part concerted attack universities view bastions left wing ideas case chancellor probably worried email unaddressed would provide fuel would like reduce university funding autonomy160 times greater scrutiny aimed undermining academic freedom academy administrators faculty university advocates stand firm support academic freedom without freedom university exist seems two sides free speech issue play hereone professors protection harassment career repercussions politically outspoken another information given students makes public sphere think issue students publicizing professors statements think youre right two free speech issues course students able comment happens class160 would wonderful fact actually comment class subject matter particular case much policing professors speech untenured faculty generaland specifically untenured women people colorface multiple barriers threats job security one perceived students supported teachers students become customers clients standardized student evaluations come count highly retention tenure process even though research shown women color faculty held higher standard typical white male professor students annoyed grade email discussion topic forth formal evaluations direct line chancellor uwl addition sites like rate professors twitter facebook youtube angry student could potentially undermine career posting something online unconscionable reality given new reality professors selfcensor censored concerning question deal many ways lectures emails forth become visible everyone inside higher ed quotes chancellor gow suggests professors could make rules ad hoc approach policy avoids confronting hard questions protect professors right privacy academic freedom support university employees ensure students free speech160it faculty decisionmaking bodies like faculty senate address issue particularly time appears university administrators see serving students needs opposed faculty primary responsibility 160 think incident longterm ramifications professors terms faculty members interact students express opinions politics even teach subjects influenced personally felt terrible weeki felt couldnt trust students worried wouldnt respect scolded chancellor160 tried figure could engage online class way would protect apart careful wasnt much could come publicly circulated letter response chancellors remarks received nice note student telling change engage students incident fear students would respect week went back typical emails students offering guidance ideas discuss thats job 160 short ago academic career generally focused around social analysis research geography feel youve placed spotlight academic freedom dispute bizarre last person want attention though extremely important issue academic freedom never something thought much except cases came freedom stake like controversial activism former university colorado professor ward churchill academic freedom basis everything scholars teachers foundation university suppose luxury ive taken grantedand realize shouldnt untenured faculty member wasnt something could rely least teaching superiors told academic freedom case teaching doesnt apply tenure chancellor gow refused remove position idea could frightening rather tenure need labor law protects faculty providing permanent contracts minimal probationary period like believe case britain interesting spat message shutdown comes time professorsacademics increasingly treated public figures media figures even opinions expressed dont directly pertain work160how feel incident light represents way political speech treated academy today one hand make academics public figures say wrong thing like case academics become lightning rods bolts anger people want throw towards see powerful whose knowledge dont understand whose work lives dont conform 9to5 restrictions live with160 suspected working hard enough unreasonable benefits hand country dont think academics social sciences humanities sufficiently respected public figures important insights world works theres nprlistening pbswatching public hears us occasionally apart dont see much engagement mainstream media academics roots obviously complicated would take someone whos studied media history american relationship intellectuals adequately discuss subject mind lack public understanding engagement academics comes pervasive antiintellectualism united states concentration media ownership160 seems like incident coincides trend toward commercialization educational institutions trouble education media politics intertwined way 160 twin forces inadequate funding commercialization public higher education divide university administration faculty making former attuned potentially unsympathetic statelevel politicians vocal conservative minority wisconsin political climate dangerous higher education naturally administrators would concerned speech draws negative attention overall think professors okay private speech classroom becoming public media long protected ad hominem personal professional attacks160 dont feel know enough legal arguments free speech privacy able draw line protect professors privacy taken do160 would important sweep context rug160 going pulitzer prize nominee bill cronon humiliating untenured professor universities increasingly rely adjunct labor paid unlivable wages zero job security pay administrators finance sports well humanities departments eliminated lucky enough opportunity pursue tenure live insecurity six years working nonstop trying satisfy powers decide whether keep jobs privacy labor rights university place learn disciplines ways allow professors challenge students beyond comfort zone related one cant addressed without other160160 | 1,103 |
<p>Photo by Rob Oo | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>Six months after Oscar López Rivera was released from prison having spent 35 years inside, he traveled to Cuba.&#160; “ <a href="" type="internal">I feel at home</a>, this is a dream come true; for many, many years, I have wanted to come to Cuba and today for the first time I have arrived,” Oscar told Fernando Llort González, the President of ICAP (Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples), who greeted him when he stepped off the plane.</p>
<p>The last time Oscar had seen Fernando was in the cell he shared with him for four years in Terre Haute prison where they became good friends. Their friendship wasn’t surprising. Oscar was in prison because of his participation in the struggle to win Puerto Rican independence from the U.S. while <a href="http://www.radiorebelde.cu/english/cuban-five/fernando-gonzalez-llort-ruben-campa-biography/" type="external">Fernando</a>, one of the Cuban 5, was in prison for his efforts to protect a sovereign Cuban nation from U.S. aggressive interventions.&#160;&#160; A Puerto Rican and a Cuban freedom fighter sharing a cell was a twenty-first century manifestation of the historical bonds between the two islands, eloquently expressed in the lines that Puerto Rican poet <a href="http://ciudadseva.com/texto/a-cuba/" type="external">Lola Rodriguez de Tió &#160;wrote</a> in 1893:</p>
<p>Cuba and Puerto Rico are as two wings of the same bird, they receive flowers and bullets into the same heart.</p>
<p>When Oscar arrived in Cuba on November 13, 2017, both Cuba and Puerto Rico had recently received bullets into the geographical hearts of their islands. Cuba was hit by Hurricane Irma, a category 5 hurricane, on September 8, 2017. Two weeks weeks later, on September 20th, Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria, a category 4 hurricane.&#160; In Cuba, the electricity was restored to the entire island <a href="" type="internal">within a few weeks</a>.&#160; In Puerto Rico, over four months after Maria <a href="" type="internal">nearly 40% of the island</a> is still without power. The scandal-plagued response to the hurricane on the part of the U.S. and Puerto Rican governments exposes the operation of disaster capitalism at its worst.</p>
<p>In Cuba, Oscar summed up the situation. “ <a href="" type="internal">After Hurricane Maria</a>, Puerto Rico was left devastated and is now showing the world the poverty that existed and was hidden; the world is being shown what colonialism is, because it is perhaps the best example of what becomes of a country that has been colonized for 119 years by the U.S. government.”</p>
<p>I recently spoke with Oscar to find out what he had learned during his trip to Cuba and how he saw the current Puerto Rican reality.&#160; He started by telling me how he had toured Villa Clara, the Cuban province hardest hit by Irma, with the Director of Civil Defense.&#160; &#160;All electricity in the province had been restored in little over two weeks.&#160; The rebuilding of thousands of structures that had been damaged by Irma was rapidly occurring with many houses already repaired, all with government support.</p>
<p>The Cuban government put all available resources into action before and after the hurricane, prioritizing <a href="" type="internal">the preservation of life</a> above all else.&#160; Days before Irma hit, the Trump administration renewed the embargo against Cuba, which has been in place since 1960.&#160; This meant Cuba couldn’t access vital supplies needed for reconstruction from the U.S. or &#160;assistance from many international financial organizations that are impacted by the embargo’s sanctions. Fortunately, many other countries, including Venezuela, China and Bolivia, provided assistance immediately.</p>
<p>I asked Oscar what he thought was key to Cuba’s capacity to respond so rapidly and effectively. “It is their commitment to developing the human resource,” he answered unequivocally. “They continue to fortify and strengthen the people and it gave me the most amazing emotion to see how this was being done on all levels. Everyone is organized into neighborhood and civic organizations that get the information out to everyone very quickly. “</p>
<p>He went on to explain how all parts of the society were mobilized&#160; – &#160;neighborhood organizations helped to coordinate the evacuation of almost one million people in Havana, civic brigades conducted search-and-rescue operations across the island, electric workers began repairing the electrical infrastructure as soon as the hurricane dissipated, and medical brigades fanned out through the country to help with health emergencies.</p>
<p>“What’s needed in Puerto Rico is to organize the people,” Oscar asserted when I asked him about the failure of the governmental response to Maria.&#160; Oscar described how he was shocked when he returned to Puerto Rico, after decades of being in prison, by the level of poverty, the intensifying gentrification, the takeover of land, buildings and infrastructure by private U.S. corporations and the strangling dictatorship of the <a href="" type="internal">PROMESA fiscal control board</a> over all areas of Puerto Rican economic life. These were the conditions which contributed to the breakdown of recovery efforts. &#160;When Oscar testified to the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization in June 2017, even before the hurricane, he told them that in spite of the deteriorating conditions <a href="" type="internal">“many Puerto Ricans believe this is the best moment to wage an effective decolonizing process.”</a></p>
<p>As soon as he could after he was free, Oscar jumped into organizing in Puerto Rico. “I love to figure out communities and organize at the community level,” he explained.&#160; With Maria, the focus has necessarily shifted to supporting self-determined survival efforts of the community. As one example, Oscar described how the people of San Sebastián in the rural western part of Puerto Rico were still without electricity two months after Maria hit. Through the initiative of the town’s mayor, retired electrical workers formed volunteer brigades to restore electricity to the town.&#160; PREPA (the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority <a href="" type="internal">) accused the town of illegally circumventing its monopoly</a> but the town refused to stop its work to turn the power back on.&#160; Based upon San Sebastián’s example, other municipalities began to pressure the Puerto Rican government to allow them to legally restore their own power. &#160;As a result of the widespread pressure, a bill has been introduced in the legislature to allow cities to hire their own contractors.</p>
<p>For Oscar, this type of grassroots action is a core part of the decolonization project in Puerto Rico at this moment in time. &#160;He has been involved in organizing town hall meetings in various communities to get input from the people on how they see conditions and to support them in developing their own solutions to the many problems they face.&#160;&#160; Puerto Rico’s Governor Rosselló has begun the privatization of PREPA, &#160;marketing&#160; privatization as the solution to the corrupt practices of the agency – a false solution that the Fiscal Control Board has been promoting.&#160; In contrast, a main focus of the town halls has been alternative energy projects using renewable energy from the sun, air and water – real solutions that channel Puerto Rico’s natural resources towards sustainable self-sufficiency.</p>
<p><a href="http://casapueblo.org/" type="external">Casa Pueblo</a> is an example of a Puerto Rican community-based organization that has a long history of organizing to protect and develop Puerto Rico’s natural resources dating back to 1980 when it started as part of the <a href="" type="internal">struggle against open-pit mining</a>.&#160; I spoke with <a href="http://biology.uprm.edu/facultad/?prof=74" type="external">Arturo Massol- Deyá,</a> Professor of Microbiology and Ecology at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and Associate Director of Casa Pueblo.&#160; According to Arturo, the Puerto Rican and U.S. governments set up false expectations that they would be able to manage the crisis catalyzed&#160; by Maria.&#160; In fact, there was a total collapse of governmental response so that not even tarps were available for people to protect themselves from the elements.</p>
<p>To support the people immediately after the hurricane, Casa Pueblo, which is based in Adjuntas in a mountainous part of the island, reached out to the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States to get tarps and solar-powered lamps which were flown to Puerto Rico on charter flights.&#160; Casa Pueblo was able to distribute over 10,000 solar lamps across Adjuntas which helped to alleviate the crisis of darkness in that area. This emergency lighting project was rooted in Casa Pueblo’s long standing commitment to solar power.&#160; The organization’s headquarters has been run on solar power since 1999.&#160; In 2017, ten houses in Adjuntas were converted to solar and the plan is to create an entire solar-based community in 2018 which can become a model for other municipalities around Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>Speaking about the impact of Maria on Puerto Rico, Arturo explained, “When one system fails, you have to create another.&#160; The new reality means that solar power is not an alternative but a necessity. Energy is a clear example of how the colonial model has failed to provide for the Puerto Rican people….We have to redefine the energy agenda from the bottom up because from the top down clearly doesn’t work.”&#160;&#160; According to Arturo, Maria has also led to a strengthening of relationships between Puerto Ricans on the island and those in the diaspora who have stepped forward to help on an unprecedented level.&#160; “The commitment of the people in Puerto Rico and on the mainland is from their heart. That makes all the difference.”</p>
<p>Cuba has also been pushed by the impact of Irma to accelerate its 100-year plan, <a href="" type="internal">Tarea Vida</a> , for responding to climate change. According to Dalia Salabarría Fernández, a marine biologist at Cuba’s National Center for Protected Areas (CNAP), <a href="" type="internal">“The overarching idea is to increase the resilience of vulnerable communities.”</a> The plan bans construction of new homes in threatened coastal areas, mandates relocating people from communities doomed by rising sea levels, calls for an overhaul of the country’s agricultural system to shift crop production away from saltwater-contaminated areas, and spells out the need to shore up coastal habitat defenses. Arturo sees the value of this Cuban initiative for Puerto Rico. “We might be in different political realities, but regarding climate change, we are islands in the Caribbean facing the same environmental challenge…We [Puerto Rico] have the science, but lack of political will (or power) to act on climate change is compromising the security of many communities and critical infrastructure. Taking a closer look at our neighbors could be a good reference for our people.&#160;“</p>
<p>For Oscar, his visit to Cuba reaffirmed his sense of the indelible solidarity between the two nations.&#160; During the three decades of Oscar’s imprisonment, Cuba repeatedly <a href="" type="internal">introduced a resolution</a> before the United Nations Decolonization Committee that recognized Puerto Rico’s right to independence and self-determination and demanded Oscar’s release as a political prisoner.&#160; This year for the first time <a href="" type="internal">, Oscar himself was able to testify</a> on behalf of the decolonization resolution.&#160; As part of his speech, he spoke in support of &#160; <a href="" type="internal">Ana Belén Montes</a> a Puerto Rican who is currently serving a twenty-five year prison term for relaying U.S. intelligence information to Cuba, one more example of the complex political links between the islands. &#160;Oscar has also continually denounced the United States’ economic embargo of Cuba whose goal is to undermine the right of the Cuban people to determine their own political system and destiny.</p>
<p>When they were cellmates at Terre Haute prison, Oscar and Fernando had imagined celebrating their freedom together many times.&#160; Even though there were few indications that this could ever happen, they both trusted that the persistent struggles of their peoples would at some point win their release.&#160; On November 14, 2017, Cuba presented Oscar with the Order of Solidarity in a ceremony held at the José Martí Memorial at the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana. &#160;At the ceremony, Fernando praised Oscar as a <a href="" type="internal">“brave, modest, educated man</a> with a great artistic sensibility” and “a concerned father, caring grandfather, and committed lover of his island and people.” &#160;The flower of shared struggle between Puerto Rico and Cuba will continue to bloom.</p> | true | 4 | photo rob oo cc 20 six months oscar lópez rivera released prison spent 35 years inside traveled cuba160 feel home dream come true many many years wanted come cuba today first time arrived oscar told fernando llort gonzález president icap cuban institute friendship peoples greeted stepped plane last time oscar seen fernando cell shared four years terre haute prison became good friends friendship wasnt surprising oscar prison participation struggle win puerto rican independence us fernando one cuban 5 prison efforts protect sovereign cuban nation us aggressive interventions160160 puerto rican cuban freedom fighter sharing cell twentyfirst century manifestation historical bonds two islands eloquently expressed lines puerto rican poet lola rodriguez de tió 160wrote 1893 cuba puerto rico two wings bird receive flowers bullets heart oscar arrived cuba november 13 2017 cuba puerto rico recently received bullets geographical hearts islands cuba hit hurricane irma category 5 hurricane september 8 2017 two weeks weeks later september 20th puerto rico devastated hurricane maria category 4 hurricane160 cuba electricity restored entire island within weeks160 puerto rico four months maria nearly 40 island still without power scandalplagued response hurricane part us puerto rican governments exposes operation disaster capitalism worst cuba oscar summed situation hurricane maria puerto rico left devastated showing world poverty existed hidden world shown colonialism perhaps best example becomes country colonized 119 years us government recently spoke oscar find learned trip cuba saw current puerto rican reality160 started telling toured villa clara cuban province hardest hit irma director civil defense160 160all electricity province restored little two weeks160 rebuilding thousands structures damaged irma rapidly occurring many houses already repaired government support cuban government put available resources action hurricane prioritizing preservation life else160 days irma hit trump administration renewed embargo cuba place since 1960160 meant cuba couldnt access vital supplies needed reconstruction us 160assistance many international financial organizations impacted embargos sanctions fortunately many countries including venezuela china bolivia provided assistance immediately asked oscar thought key cubas capacity respond rapidly effectively commitment developing human resource answered unequivocally continue fortify strengthen people gave amazing emotion see done levels everyone organized neighborhood civic organizations get information everyone quickly went explain parts society mobilized160 160neighborhood organizations helped coordinate evacuation almost one million people havana civic brigades conducted searchandrescue operations across island electric workers began repairing electrical infrastructure soon hurricane dissipated medical brigades fanned country help health emergencies whats needed puerto rico organize people oscar asserted asked failure governmental response maria160 oscar described shocked returned puerto rico decades prison level poverty intensifying gentrification takeover land buildings infrastructure private us corporations strangling dictatorship promesa fiscal control board areas puerto rican economic life conditions contributed breakdown recovery efforts 160when oscar testified united nations special committee decolonization june 2017 even hurricane told spite deteriorating conditions many puerto ricans believe best moment wage effective decolonizing process soon could free oscar jumped organizing puerto rico love figure communities organize community level explained160 maria focus necessarily shifted supporting selfdetermined survival efforts community one example oscar described people san sebastián rural western part puerto rico still without electricity two months maria hit initiative towns mayor retired electrical workers formed volunteer brigades restore electricity town160 prepa puerto rico electric power authority accused town illegally circumventing monopoly town refused stop work turn power back on160 based upon san sebastiáns example municipalities began pressure puerto rican government allow legally restore power 160as result widespread pressure bill introduced legislature allow cities hire contractors oscar type grassroots action core part decolonization project puerto rico moment time 160he involved organizing town hall meetings various communities get input people see conditions support developing solutions many problems face160160 puerto ricos governor rosselló begun privatization prepa 160marketing160 privatization solution corrupt practices agency false solution fiscal control board promoting160 contrast main focus town halls alternative energy projects using renewable energy sun air water real solutions channel puerto ricos natural resources towards sustainable selfsufficiency casa pueblo example puerto rican communitybased organization long history organizing protect develop puerto ricos natural resources dating back 1980 started part struggle openpit mining160 spoke arturo massol deyá professor microbiology ecology university puerto rico mayaguez associate director casa pueblo160 according arturo puerto rican us governments set false expectations would able manage crisis catalyzed160 maria160 fact total collapse governmental response even tarps available people protect elements support people immediately hurricane casa pueblo based adjuntas mountainous part island reached puerto rican diaspora united states get tarps solarpowered lamps flown puerto rico charter flights160 casa pueblo able distribute 10000 solar lamps across adjuntas helped alleviate crisis darkness area emergency lighting project rooted casa pueblos long standing commitment solar power160 organizations headquarters run solar power since 1999160 2017 ten houses adjuntas converted solar plan create entire solarbased community 2018 become model municipalities around puerto rico speaking impact maria puerto rico arturo explained one system fails create another160 new reality means solar power alternative necessity energy clear example colonial model failed provide puerto rican peoplewe redefine energy agenda bottom top clearly doesnt work160160 according arturo maria also led strengthening relationships puerto ricans island diaspora stepped forward help unprecedented level160 commitment people puerto rico mainland heart makes difference cuba also pushed impact irma accelerate 100year plan tarea vida responding climate change according dalia salabarría fernández marine biologist cubas national center protected areas cnap overarching idea increase resilience vulnerable communities plan bans construction new homes threatened coastal areas mandates relocating people communities doomed rising sea levels calls overhaul countrys agricultural system shift crop production away saltwatercontaminated areas spells need shore coastal habitat defenses arturo sees value cuban initiative puerto rico might different political realities regarding climate change islands caribbean facing environmental challengewe puerto rico science lack political power act climate change compromising security many communities critical infrastructure taking closer look neighbors could good reference people160 oscar visit cuba reaffirmed sense indelible solidarity two nations160 three decades oscars imprisonment cuba repeatedly introduced resolution united nations decolonization committee recognized puerto ricos right independence selfdetermination demanded oscars release political prisoner160 year first time oscar able testify behalf decolonization resolution160 part speech spoke support 160 ana belén montes puerto rican currently serving twentyfive year prison term relaying us intelligence information cuba one example complex political links islands 160oscar also continually denounced united states economic embargo cuba whose goal undermine right cuban people determine political system destiny cellmates terre haute prison oscar fernando imagined celebrating freedom together many times160 even though indications could ever happen trusted persistent struggles peoples would point win release160 november 14 2017 cuba presented oscar order solidarity ceremony held josé martí memorial plaza de la revolución havana 160at ceremony fernando praised oscar brave modest educated man great artistic sensibility concerned father caring grandfather committed lover island people 160the flower shared struggle puerto rico cuba continue bloom | 1,103 |
<p>Israel is in ferment. The pathways along Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv are packed with Israelis furious at their government for its refusal to engage with their real lives. It is not enough to bash the Palestinians on the head and call that governance. Inflation and a housing crisis dog the lives of Israelis, and following the example of Egypt, they have convened in their squares, refusing to leave. Netanyahu had bragged during the high point of the Arab Spring that such events could not take place in Israel, the “only democracy in the Middle East.” Noy Alooshe’s&#160; <a href="" type="internal">new video</a>&#160;takes that line about the world shaking and remixed it with images of crowds in Tel Aviv shouting with the spirit of the Spanish&#160;indignados, “The People Want Social Justice.” Shake Bibi Shake, goes the video, a sort of Ibiza on the Rothschild Blvd.</p>
<p>The United States Congress is on holiday. Its members hastily voted for an austerity program and turned tail to their districts. A fifth of the Congress is now ready for a trip to Israel, the 51st State. The bill will be paid by the American Israel Educational Foundation (a front of AIPAC). When Bibi came to Washington, he received twenty-nine standing ovations from these members of Congress, the longest one by my count for these lines, “Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights. I want you to stop for a second and think about that. Of those 300 million Arabs, less than one-half of one-percent are truly free, and they’re all citizens of Israel!” Obama got only twenty-five standing ovations for his 2011 state of the union address, and Azmi Bishara and Haneen Zoabi will contest Bibi’s views on Israeli Arabs (both elected to the Knesset, hounded out by the establishment for their honesty). Nonetheless, the reception to Bibi’s speech revealed the servility of the U. S. politicians toward their 51st state. No wonder they hastily fled to Tel Aviv rather than face the smoldering anger of their own constituents.</p>
<p>Wrath at the neo-liberal consensus overflows into the central squares of the world’s cities, with London burning in anticipation of more fires across Eurasia and Africa (North America has to be content with Wall Street fluctuations as a marker of its political discontent, at least for now). To fly into Tel Aviv’s inferno, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565847857/counterpunchmaga" type="external" /> the members of Congress will have to refuel in London or Madrid or Paris, cities where the tinder glows. Austerities combined with police brutality absent any cultural project to stifle dissent make matters predictable. As Nina Power put it in&#160;The Guardian&#160;Monday morning, “Decades of individualism, competition and state-encouraged selfishness – combined with a systematic crushing of unions and the ever-increasing criminalization of dissent – have made Britain one of the most unequal countries in the developed world.” Substitute Spain or Israel for Britain and the story line is the same.</p>
<p>Into this cauldron arrive the 81 U. S. Congress members (55 Republicans, 26 Democrats). They are led by the hoary Democratic whip Steny Hoyer and the Steerpike of the Tea Party, Eric Cantor. Half of the Republicans are freshmen, or, in other words, members of the Tea Party brigade. Among the Democratic contingent, startlingly, is Jesse Jackson, Jr.</p>
<p>Congressman Jackson is not unaware of the politics of the region. After all, his father, Jesse Senior, has taken an active role in Middle East affairs, and had once made his own affinity for the Palestinian cause public (in 1988 he made his support for Palestinian statehood a plank of his campaign, for which I happily worked in Los Angeles). When Candidate Obama was building momentum in the primaries, Jesse Senior remarkably said, “Decades of putting Israel’s interest first will end. Zionists have controlled American policy for decades and will lose their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House” (this was at the World Policy Forum in Evian, France). Obama’s campaign responded hastily saying that Jackson was not an advisor and so could not know what they were thinking. Events provided Obama spokesperson Wendy Morigi right, as Obama has tilted to the Israeli wind even as Bibi has treated his presidency with the greatest disrespect (this should come as no surprise: in the settlement of Ofra in 2010, Bibi, on camera, comments on how absurd it is that Americans continue to support Israel regardless of what it does). Jackson Senior’s remark is an indication of how sensible people transferred their own hopes onto Obama, an empty signifier for liberal dreams.</p>
<p>It is perhaps this family history that has moved Congressman Jackson to seek meetings with both Israelis and Palestinians, something that the others are loath to do. But that is window dressing. The real task, Congressman Jackson tells AP, is that he wants to learn about “Israel’s business and commercial sectors” and about its “latest tools and technology in its fight against terror.” Rather than drink the ambrosia from Dan Senor and Saul Singer’s&#160;Start-Up Nation, Congressman Jackson might learn more about Israel’s economic myth from the protestors on the streets of Tel Aviv, and from commentators such as Yagil Weinberg, who points to the economy’s reliance upon private sector cartels which are integrated into the state sector. And to learn about this “fight against terror,” he might want to take a walk in Gaza City, or else to talk to the activists at the Palestine Center for Human Rights and B’Tselem. While he’s at it, Congressman Jackson might want to investigate the ongoing (and under-reported) airstrikes on Gaza. Israel’s most remarkable achievement has been to sell its failure to attain peace as a counter-terrorist success story.</p>
<p>But Congressman Jackson will do none of these things. He will meet a few establishment Palestinians and pretend that he has learnt new things, that his map is now clearer and his pro-Israeli positions are well founded. He will not honor the wisdom of the African Heritage Delegation to Israel-Palestine, whose statement (August 2), makes five claims:</p>
<p>Call Congressman Jackson and let him know that his trip to Israel is&#160;hasbarafor the Bibi agenda (202-225-0773 and 773-734-9660). It spits in the face of the Palestinians and of the Israelis crowded into Tel Aviv’s promenades. Before you go to the 51st State, Congressman Jackson, consider what this means on its periphery, where bare life shudders with each day, fear of bombs and distended bellies; what this means to those who gather in the squares of Tel Aviv and Gaza City, eager for something that Bibi’s crowd cannot deliver.</p>
<p>Vijay Prashad&#160;is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT His most recent book,&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565847857/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World,</a>&#160;won the Muzaffar Ahmad Book Prize for 2009. The Swedish and French editions are just out. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:vijay.prashad@trincoll.edu" type="external">vijay.prashad@trincoll.edu</a>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | israel ferment pathways along rothschild boulevard tel aviv packed israelis furious government refusal engage real lives enough bash palestinians head call governance inflation housing crisis dog lives israelis following example egypt convened squares refusing leave netanyahu bragged high point arab spring events could take place israel democracy middle east noy alooshes160 new video160takes line world shaking remixed images crowds tel aviv shouting spirit spanish160indignados people want social justice shake bibi shake goes video sort ibiza rothschild blvd united states congress holiday members hastily voted austerity program turned tail districts fifth congress ready trip israel 51st state bill paid american israel educational foundation front aipac bibi came washington received twentynine standing ovations members congress longest one count lines 300 million arabs middle east north africa israels arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights want stop second think 300 million arabs less onehalf onepercent truly free theyre citizens israel obama got twentyfive standing ovations 2011 state union address azmi bishara haneen zoabi contest bibis views israeli arabs elected knesset hounded establishment honesty nonetheless reception bibis speech revealed servility u politicians toward 51st state wonder hastily fled tel aviv rather face smoldering anger constituents wrath neoliberal consensus overflows central squares worlds cities london burning anticipation fires across eurasia africa north america content wall street fluctuations marker political discontent least fly tel avivs inferno members congress refuel london madrid paris cities tinder glows austerities combined police brutality absent cultural project stifle dissent make matters predictable nina power put in160the guardian160monday morning decades individualism competition stateencouraged selfishness combined systematic crushing unions everincreasing criminalization dissent made britain one unequal countries developed world substitute spain israel britain story line cauldron arrive 81 u congress members 55 republicans 26 democrats led hoary democratic whip steny hoyer steerpike tea party eric cantor half republicans freshmen words members tea party brigade among democratic contingent startlingly jesse jackson jr congressman jackson unaware politics region father jesse senior taken active role middle east affairs made affinity palestinian cause public 1988 made support palestinian statehood plank campaign happily worked los angeles candidate obama building momentum primaries jesse senior remarkably said decades putting israels interest first end zionists controlled american policy decades lose clout barack obama enters white house world policy forum evian france obamas campaign responded hastily saying jackson advisor could know thinking events provided obama spokesperson wendy morigi right obama tilted israeli wind even bibi treated presidency greatest disrespect come surprise settlement ofra 2010 bibi camera comments absurd americans continue support israel regardless jackson seniors remark indication sensible people transferred hopes onto obama empty signifier liberal dreams perhaps family history moved congressman jackson seek meetings israelis palestinians something others loath window dressing real task congressman jackson tells ap wants learn israels business commercial sectors latest tools technology fight terror rather drink ambrosia dan senor saul singers160startup nation congressman jackson might learn israels economic myth protestors streets tel aviv commentators yagil weinberg points economys reliance upon private sector cartels integrated state sector learn fight terror might want take walk gaza city else talk activists palestine center human rights btselem hes congressman jackson might want investigate ongoing underreported airstrikes gaza israels remarkable achievement sell failure attain peace counterterrorist success story congressman jackson none things meet establishment palestinians pretend learnt new things map clearer proisraeli positions well founded honor wisdom african heritage delegation israelpalestine whose statement august 2 makes five claims call congressman jackson let know trip israel is160hasbarafor bibi agenda 2022250773 7737349660 spits face palestinians israelis crowded tel avivs promenades go 51st state congressman jackson consider means periphery bare life shudders day fear bombs distended bellies means gather squares tel aviv gaza city eager something bibis crowd deliver vijay prashad160is george martha kellner chair south asian history director international studies trinity college hartford ct recent book160 darker nations peoples history third world160won muzaffar ahmad book prize 2009 swedish french editions reached vijayprashadtrincolledu160 | 637 |
<p>Syria has become dangerous. Syrians get killed and wounded almost daily. Their neighbors have also felt the impacts of violence: refuges in Turkey and outbreaks of fighting in Tripoli’s streets in Lebanon where peace depends on a nuanced arrangement between Christians and Sunni and Shia Muslims.</p>
<p>Northern Iraqi Kurds share with Syrian Kurds the “statehood” ideal that has periodically shaken the region and provoked Turkey to use heavy military force.</p>
<p>Jordan and Israel watch uneasily as scores of armed rebel units do urban guerrilla warfare. Patrick Seale reports “jihadis, armed Islamic extremists, have crossed into Syria from neighboring countries — and also from Kuwait, Tunisia, Algeria and Pakistan. …Rebel groups conduct ambushes, attack check-points, destroy public property, kill government troops — about 250 were killed in ten days in late May and early June. They also kidnap, rape and slaughter pro-regime civilians,” and easily sell&#160; the “Asad did it” line to US media.</p>
<p>To stop the rebels from holding territory, Seale continues, Assad’s forces have shelled neighborhoods “when rebels hole up in them.” The rebels hope to provoke “Western military intervention… The rebels know they cannot defeat the Syrian army without outside help.”</p>
<p>Indeed, Syrian violence has begun to loom like a potential, political cholera in the region, which anti-Assad promoters will not easily contain.</p>
<p>The United States continues to try to “knock off the rogues.” Disobedient, undemocratic regimes like Syria and Iran — not obedient Saudi Arabia and Yemen — beget Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s and President Barack Obama’s threats and feel the pain of their sanctions — even though neither country has done anything to America.&#160;&#160; Indeed, over the past decade, Syria tortured “suspects” for Washington, and warned US agencies of terrorist plots, which then were thwarted. President Asad has become a recipient of the “no good deed goes unpunished” law.</p>
<p>The White House responds to Syria’s efforts phrases resonating with war tones. But one active member of the US armed forces attempts suicide almost twice a day, not an indicator of readiness to fight yet another Middle East war.</p>
<p>The Syrian uprising with clandestine funding from Saudi and Qatari royalties and anti-Assad Syrian millionaires abroad, and support from Washington and its allies, aims to weaken Syria, Iran’s ally. The conflict, however, also raises a fear of yet another western venture into the Middle East—with a possible wider clash as well.</p>
<p>In early June, Secretary Clinton accused Russia of supplying attack helicopters to Asad, an act that “prolongs the violence.” Russia denied her charge, showing it had repaired older Syrian helicopters. &#160;Russia then called on Clinton to stop Saudi and Qatari financing arms and mercenaries going into Syria.</p>
<p>Paying lip service to the UN plan forged by former Secretary General Kofi Annan, Clinton then told Russia to stay out of Syria – some distant region, you know, like Cuba is to the United States.</p>
<p>Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia resisted western intervention “because we know Syria is a complicated multi-confessional state, and because we know that some of those calling for military intervention want to ruin this and turn Syria into a battleground for domination in the Islamic world.”</p>
<p>“Butchers,” shout US politicians and media at Syria’s rulers, accepting on faith reports from the Syrian opposition — including al-Qaeda members — that Asad’s forces massacred civilians at Houla and al-Qubair. But who really did these ugly acts? The media have until recently accepted opposition claims uncritically.</p>
<p>Syria’s 20.5 million are not governed by a nut like Qadaffi. Asad maintain strong support in Damascus and Aleppo, Syria’s largest cities, as well as in Alawite areas. A February poll conducted by a Qatari agency, backed by anti-Asad money, concluded Assad’s regime enjoyed 55% popular support – not for its virtues, but because people worried a subsequent government would be worse.</p>
<p>Amidst US and European recessions, why provoke tensions in Syria where western intervention could provoke a new Cold War? China and Russia fearing a big-power conflict have refused to abide the West’s anti-Asad moves. Syria’s conflict could also ignite a regional and religious war: Saudi Arabia and Qatar versus Iran; Sunnis versus Shias.</p>
<p>What should the West do to stop ongoing violence to civilians? The Independent’s Mary Dejevsky called it “utterly disingenuous for the US and Britain to call for action in Syria and blame Russia for being obstructive.” Kofi Annan’s UN plan to end violence between Assad’s forces and opposition fighters, she observed, did not stop massacres. But who did the dirty deeds? Assad blames “terrorists”; his enemies blame Assad.</p>
<p>The Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung (FAZ), blamed anti-Asad Sunnis because the victims were almost all “from the Alawi and Shia communities.” The German newspaper said “perpetrators then filmed their victims and, in internet videos presented them as Sunni victims of the regime.”</p>
<p>Patrick Seale suggests the West should “unite with Russia and China” to pressure “both sides” to stop fighting “and come to the table. “Diplomacy, rather than war, is the only way to preserve what is left of Syria for its hard-pressed citizens.”</p>
<p>Maybe after the US elections?</p>
<p>Saul Landau’s WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP is available on dvd from cinemalibrestore.com. He’s an Institute for Policy Studies Fellow.</p> | true | 4 | syria become dangerous syrians get killed wounded almost daily neighbors also felt impacts violence refuges turkey outbreaks fighting tripolis streets lebanon peace depends nuanced arrangement christians sunni shia muslims northern iraqi kurds share syrian kurds statehood ideal periodically shaken region provoked turkey use heavy military force jordan israel watch uneasily scores armed rebel units urban guerrilla warfare patrick seale reports jihadis armed islamic extremists crossed syria neighboring countries also kuwait tunisia algeria pakistan rebel groups conduct ambushes attack checkpoints destroy public property kill government troops 250 killed ten days late may early june also kidnap rape slaughter proregime civilians easily sell160 asad line us media stop rebels holding territory seale continues assads forces shelled neighborhoods rebels hole rebels hope provoke western military intervention rebels know defeat syrian army without outside help indeed syrian violence begun loom like potential political cholera region antiassad promoters easily contain united states continues try knock rogues disobedient undemocratic regimes like syria iran obedient saudi arabia yemen beget secretary state hillary clintons president barack obamas threats feel pain sanctions even though neither country done anything america160160 indeed past decade syria tortured suspects washington warned us agencies terrorist plots thwarted president asad become recipient good deed goes unpunished law white house responds syrias efforts phrases resonating war tones one active member us armed forces attempts suicide almost twice day indicator readiness fight yet another middle east war syrian uprising clandestine funding saudi qatari royalties antiassad syrian millionaires abroad support washington allies aims weaken syria irans ally conflict however also raises fear yet another western venture middle eastwith possible wider clash well early june secretary clinton accused russia supplying attack helicopters asad act prolongs violence russia denied charge showing repaired older syrian helicopters 160russia called clinton stop saudi qatari financing arms mercenaries going syria paying lip service un plan forged former secretary general kofi annan clinton told russia stay syria distant region know like cuba united states russian foreign minister sergei lavrov said russia resisted western intervention know syria complicated multiconfessional state know calling military intervention want ruin turn syria battleground domination islamic world butchers shout us politicians media syrias rulers accepting faith reports syrian opposition including alqaeda members asads forces massacred civilians houla alqubair really ugly acts media recently accepted opposition claims uncritically syrias 205 million governed nut like qadaffi asad maintain strong support damascus aleppo syrias largest cities well alawite areas february poll conducted qatari agency backed antiasad money concluded assads regime enjoyed 55 popular support virtues people worried subsequent government would worse amidst us european recessions provoke tensions syria western intervention could provoke new cold war china russia fearing bigpower conflict refused abide wests antiasad moves syrias conflict could also ignite regional religious war saudi arabia qatar versus iran sunnis versus shias west stop ongoing violence civilians independents mary dejevsky called utterly disingenuous us britain call action syria blame russia obstructive kofi annans un plan end violence assads forces opposition fighters observed stop massacres dirty deeds assad blames terrorists enemies blame assad frankfurter allegemeine zeitung faz blamed antiasad sunnis victims almost alawi shia communities german newspaper said perpetrators filmed victims internet videos presented sunni victims regime patrick seale suggests west unite russia china pressure sides stop fighting come table diplomacy rather war way preserve left syria hardpressed citizens maybe us elections saul landaus real terrorist please stand available dvd cinemalibrestorecom hes institute policy studies fellow | 560 |
<p>“Karma” is a Sanskrit term meaning “action” or “deed,” and in its&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma" type="external">classical religious (Hindu or Buddhist) rendering</a>, it predicts that the behavior of an individual, past or present, influences their future fate. Leaving aside the spiritual dimension of this outlook, one can see that, just from a behavioral point of view, there is a logic to such a causal prediction. For instance, if you are an arrogant or angry person, you will create a different type of environment around you than will a kind-hearted and thoughtful person. Your environment will attract others who, for whatever reason, feel comfortable being close to your sort of person. The nature of this entourage will, in turn, reinforce your surrounding environment. Taken as a whole, that environment defines your world as you go forward.</p>
<p>Of course, plenty of things might intervene to change this equation. Both nice people and bullies do, on occasion, get into serious accidents or die from sudden illnesses. Of the massive numbers of refugees spilling out of places like Syria and Libya, many were and are quite decent folk whose lives have been overtaken for the worse by events utterly beyond their control – and utterly independent of the “karma” that might have produced for them a different fate.</p>
<p>An Example</p>
<p>Let’s take an example that most people will recognize – President Donald Trump. Judging from his public behavior, we see Trump is shallow, opinionated, self-centered and arrogant. Such a person’s behavior should produce a life that is equally shallow and populated by some pretty distasteful companions. As we shall see, this is generally the case. However, random events have also intervened. Trump was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, which has allowed him to buy his way to fame, all the way to the presidency, while maintaining a battery of lawyers whose job it is to fend off the negative legal consequences of his behavior. Here money serves as a lucky random variable, the negative equivalent of which would be being hit by a bus or being diagnosed with some fatal disease.</p>
<p>The semi-biographical tale told in&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump:_The_Art_of_the_Deal" type="external">Trump’s 1987 book</a>,&#160;The Art of the Deal,&#160;reads like a Horatio Alger&#160; <a href="" type="internal">“morality play”</a>&#160;and makes the good fortune of birth seem like a personal achievement. The book hit the&#160;New York Times&#160;best-seller list, and many Americans took to Trump’s story, seeing it as a guide to how they too could get rich. Thus,&#160;The Art of the Deal’s popularity helped make an idealized Trump a well-known person. It therefore can be seen as a step in the direction of the White House.</p>
<p>Trump has claimed&#160;The Art of the Deal&#160;as one of his “proudest achievements.” Actually, it wasn’t exactly his achievement.&#160; The book was ghostwritten by someone else, the professional writer Tony Schwartz. By the time of Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign, Schwartz regretted his having been Trump’s ghostwriter. He said he had&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump:_The_Art_of_the_Deal" type="external">“put lipstick on a pig.”</a>&#160;On the other hand, Trump’s claim to authorship is what he (Trump) would call “an innocent form of exaggeration” for the sake of “effective promotion.” But there is something both distasteful, and in character, about this&#160; fabrication/exaggeration. It reflects someone who is probably unable to tell the difference between truth and his own opinion. The result is almost certainly “bad karma.”</p>
<p>Telltale Friendships</p>
<p>One’s personality also broadly defines one’s friendship circle. This is another factor which, if paid attention to, can shed light on who someone really is. So who is Donald Trump drawn to and who is drawn to him? Domestically we know who these companions are (e.g.,&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Bannon" type="external">Stephen Bannon</a>), so here we shall focus on some of the foreign leaders that Trump finds compatible.</p>
<p>Much has been said of Donald Trump’s affinity for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is a pugnacious personality, a strong nationalist who cares much more about the ethno-religious purity of Israel than its alleged democratic heritage. He is at the forefront of Israel’s illegal expansion into Palestinian territory and has given full rein to the bellicose, racist settlers who lead the way in this endeavor.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, <a href="" type="internal">&#160;according to Trump</a>, Netanyahu is “my friend” and the leader of “our cherished ally Israel” with which we have “an unbreakable bound.” Trump goes on to repeat the standard mythology that both he and Netanyahu hold “shared values” such as “advancing the cause of human freedom, dignity and peace.”</p>
<p>This latter bit is propaganda – a longtime, standing example of “false news.” The Israelis have spent the last 70 years destroying the cause of Palestinian freedom and dignity at the price of regional peace. And the U.S.?&#160;&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Last week Trump’s Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson</a>, said that the U.S. “no longer would condition its foreign relationships on countries adopting American values such as human rights.” Of course, it can be argued that such a condition has rarely existed in the practice of American foreign policy and that, like Israel, values such as human rights are not among those Americans themselves&#160; practice domestically with a lot of consistency. Nonetheless, Tillerson’s confession made nonsense out of the American part of Trump’s declaration.</p>
<p>Next we come to&#160; <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/visiting-sissi-says-trump-can-solve-israeli-palestinian-conflict/" type="external">another of Trump’s “friends”&#160;</a>– Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the “President” of Egypt, who paid a visit to the White House on 3 April 2017. According to President Trump, al-Sisi is “my great friend and ally; he is “very close to me.” Trump finished up by telling the world that al-Sisi is “doing … a fantastic job in a very difficult situation.”</p>
<p>And&#160; <a href="http://www.tothepointanalyses.com/3331" type="external">who is this man</a>, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whom Trump so admires and to whom he feels so close?</p>
<p>Al-Sisi is a criminal.&#160; He is the “Field Marshal” who pulled off a coup in 2013 against his country’s first honestly elected government and followed that up with a rigged election that made him “president” of Egypt.</p>
<p>Al-Sisi is a megalomaniac. He and his subordinates have constructed a cult of personality by instructing the Egyptian media to describe al-Sisi&#160; as a heroic figure,&#160; a “brave, special, free and patriotic Egyptian.”&#160; To criticize him is to “slander this beautiful thing we have found in our lives.”</p>
<p>Al-Sisi is corrupt. He and his subordinates have been funneling both public and foreign aid monies into special accounts controlled by the military.</p>
<p>Al-Sisi is a hooligan. He has been busy destroying any person or group opposing him, including the largely pacifist Muslim Brotherhood, which has been declared “a terrorist organization.” Those who have protested against all this in the streets of Egypt have been beat up, arrested or simply shot down.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, al-Sisi is President Trump’s kind of guy, and the U.S. president stands with him. ”I just want to let everybody know, in case there was any doubt, that we are very much behind President Sisi.”</p>
<p>Finally, we take up the appreciative&#160; <a href="" type="internal">attitude Trump has taken toward Rodrigo Duterte</a>, the President of the Philippines. In early May Trump extended an invitation to Duterte to visit the White House, remarking at the same time that the two presidents had engaged in “a very friendly conversation.” Duterte, like al-Sisi, seems to be just the sort of “get things done” kind of guy Trump is drawn to.&#160; And it is equally clear that, in both cases, Trump is sufficiently devoid of ethics so that he doesn’t care how things actually get done.</p>
<p>Thus, President Duterte gets things done in his “war on drugs” by extrajudicial killings (that is, murders) of both “suspected drug dealers and users.” The resulting death toll has climbed into the thousands. If Duterte gets it into his head that you are corrupt,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">he may arrange&#160;</a>to take you for a ride in his presidential helicopter and throw you out in mid-flight. It is reported that “in a brief call in December [2016] about the drug war,” then president-elect Trump told Duterte that he was waging his “war against drugs” in the “right way.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/trumps-troubling-courting-of-authoritarian-friends/" type="external">There are others,</a>&#160;of course, but this is a representative sample of the sort of people Trump likes – the type he “feels close to.” They seem to like him too.&#160; Perhaps they are brothers under the skin.</p>
<p>The Larger Problem</p>
<p>Here is the larger problem. The U.S. president stands at the head of a government, the policies of which also have impact at home and abroad. These policies stand in for behaviors that shape the nation’s present and future by creating a sort of “national karma.” And, all too often, for ideological reasons or because of plain stupidity and ignorance, that “karma” is bad. The various “blowback” episodes of the last twenty-five years, including the 9/11 attacks, are testimony to this fact. In many ways Washington created the context for those attacks by its own violent policies and behavior.</p>
<p>Presidents, who stand at the apex of this process, can’t do much about the country’s historic capitalist and imperialist worldview and ambitions.&#160; Most U.S. leaders don’t think a change at this level is even needed. Yet presidents can and do tinker around the edges, putting limits on the militarism or giving it encouragement.</p>
<p>There seems little doubt as to the nature of Donald Trump’s tinkering. He seems to have a special affinity for the brutal and the barbaric. And, as he gathers to his side many of the thugs presently masquerading as foreign leaders, he helps define America’s present and near future – racking up an&#160;ever-growing list of aggrieved victims who will continue to see the United States as an active ally of their persecutors. Behavior, as an individual and as a nation, defines the human world. The forecast for Trump’s contribution?&#160; Bad karma.</p> | true | 4 | karma sanskrit term meaning action deed its160 classical religious hindu buddhist rendering predicts behavior individual past present influences future fate leaving aside spiritual dimension outlook one see behavioral point view logic causal prediction instance arrogant angry person create different type environment around kindhearted thoughtful person environment attract others whatever reason feel comfortable close sort person nature entourage turn reinforce surrounding environment taken whole environment defines world go forward course plenty things might intervene change equation nice people bullies occasion get serious accidents die sudden illnesses massive numbers refugees spilling places like syria libya many quite decent folk whose lives overtaken worse events utterly beyond control utterly independent karma might produced different fate example lets take example people recognize president donald trump judging public behavior see trump shallow opinionated selfcentered arrogant persons behavior produce life equally shallow populated pretty distasteful companions shall see generally case however random events also intervened trump born proverbial silver spoon mouth allowed buy way fame way presidency maintaining battery lawyers whose job fend negative legal consequences behavior money serves lucky random variable negative equivalent would hit bus diagnosed fatal disease semibiographical tale told in160 trumps 1987 book160the art deal160reads like horatio alger160 morality play160and makes good fortune birth seem like personal achievement book hit the160new york times160bestseller list many americans took trumps story seeing guide could get rich thus160the art deals popularity helped make idealized trump wellknown person therefore seen step direction white house trump claimed160the art deal160as one proudest achievements actually wasnt exactly achievement160 book ghostwritten someone else professional writer tony schwartz time trumps 2016 presidential election campaign schwartz regretted trumps ghostwriter said had160 put lipstick pig160on hand trumps claim authorship trump would call innocent form exaggeration sake effective promotion something distasteful character this160 fabricationexaggeration reflects someone probably unable tell difference truth opinion result almost certainly bad karma telltale friendships ones personality also broadly defines ones friendship circle another factor paid attention shed light someone really donald trump drawn drawn domestically know companions eg160 stephen bannon shall focus foreign leaders trump finds compatible much said donald trumps affinity israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu netanyahu pugnacious personality strong nationalist cares much ethnoreligious purity israel alleged democratic heritage forefront israels illegal expansion palestinian territory given full rein bellicose racist settlers lead way endeavor nonetheless 160according trump netanyahu friend leader cherished ally israel unbreakable bound trump goes repeat standard mythology netanyahu hold shared values advancing cause human freedom dignity peace latter bit propaganda longtime standing example false news israelis spent last 70 years destroying cause palestinian freedom dignity price regional peace us160160 last week trumps secretary state rex tillerson said us longer would condition foreign relationships countries adopting american values human rights course argued condition rarely existed practice american foreign policy like israel values human rights among americans themselves160 practice domestically lot consistency nonetheless tillersons confession made nonsense american part trumps declaration next come to160 another trumps friends160 abdel fattah alsisi president egypt paid visit white house 3 april 2017 according president trump alsisi great friend ally close trump finished telling world alsisi fantastic job difficult situation and160 man abdel fattah alsisi trump admires feels close alsisi criminal160 field marshal pulled coup 2013 countrys first honestly elected government followed rigged election made president egypt alsisi megalomaniac subordinates constructed cult personality instructing egyptian media describe alsisi160 heroic figure160 brave special free patriotic egyptian160 criticize slander beautiful thing found lives alsisi corrupt subordinates funneling public foreign aid monies special accounts controlled military alsisi hooligan busy destroying person group opposing including largely pacifist muslim brotherhood declared terrorist organization protested streets egypt beat arrested simply shot nonetheless alsisi president trumps kind guy us president stands want let everybody know case doubt much behind president sisi finally take appreciative160 attitude trump taken toward rodrigo duterte president philippines early may trump extended invitation duterte visit white house remarking time two presidents engaged friendly conversation duterte like alsisi seems sort get things done kind guy trump drawn to160 equally clear cases trump sufficiently devoid ethics doesnt care things actually get done thus president duterte gets things done war drugs extrajudicial killings murders suspected drug dealers users resulting death toll climbed thousands duterte gets head corrupt160 may arrange160to take ride presidential helicopter throw midflight reported brief call december 2016 drug war presidentelect trump told duterte waging war drugs right way others160of course representative sample sort people trump likes type feels close seem like too160 perhaps brothers skin larger problem larger problem us president stands head government policies also impact home abroad policies stand behaviors shape nations present future creating sort national karma often ideological reasons plain stupidity ignorance karma bad various blowback episodes last twentyfive years including 911 attacks testimony fact many ways washington created context attacks violent policies behavior presidents stand apex process cant much countrys historic capitalist imperialist worldview ambitions160 us leaders dont think change level even needed yet presidents tinker around edges putting limits militarism giving encouragement seems little doubt nature donald trumps tinkering seems special affinity brutal barbaric gathers side many thugs presently masquerading foreign leaders helps define americas present near future racking an160evergrowing list aggrieved victims continue see united states active ally persecutors behavior individual nation defines human world forecast trumps contribution160 bad karma | 863 |
<p>It’s not difficult to feel sorry for Pfc. Keith Maupin, 20, shown today as a captive of the Iraqi resistance on al-Jazeera TV. It’s not difficult to feel sorry for him as a frightened human who may soon lose his life or suffer years as a captive in the hell-hole the US government has made of Iraq.</p>
<p>If you want to blame somebody, blame Donald Rumsfeld or George Bush. Certainly blame the traitorous neocons and their criminal institutions. Blame them for conspiring to ruin a country and kill thousands of innocent people. Blame them for throwing Keith Maupin in harm’s way.</p>
<p>“Most of the recent kidnappings appear to have been carried out by Sunni militant groups, though a few foreigners have been taken by Shiites in the south,” reports the Bush Ministry of Disinformation, Fox News division. “U.S. officials are struggling to determine whether there is a central hand behind the various hostage-takers.”</p>
<p>We are informed by various corporate ministries calling themselves the free press there is a “central hand” in the Iraqi uprising against occupation. But there is no “central hand.” It is a collective hand, the hand of an ever-increasing number of Iraqis suffering under a brutal and illegal occupation. Sure, the military aspect of the resistance most assuredly has a “central hand” — as do all military operations — but the resistance itself is not centrally organized. It is a predictable human response to tyranny and the devastation inflicted by the United States government and the corporations that own Bush and Congress and tell them what to do.</p>
<p>Muqtada al-Sadr is ready to become a martyr and the US is eager to make him one. Like an quick-tempered cowboy who believes he has an outlaw cornered, Rumsfeld and his generals are itching to enter the holy city of Najaf and do a repeat of Fallujah where a still undetermined number of civilians were slaughtered last week for the crime of resisting the occupation and killing four hapless mercenaries.</p>
<p>If not for the warnings of the marjaiya — the four top Shia clerics, including Grand Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani — the US would have likely crossed the “red line” and gone after al-Sadr with predictable and terrible loss of innocent life. “But if they pursue this option, then this will have very grave consequences because these two cities [Najaf and Karbala] are red lines that can’t be crossed,” warned Abd Mahdi al-Karbala’i, al-Sistani’s representative in Karbala, in his weekly prayer sermon at the Imam Husayn shrine. “We are calling for peaceful solutions, but if the coalition forces are to cross the red line, then will take a different stronger position.”</p>
<p>For now the US is stalled outside of Najaf, mulling its options.</p>
<p>The Pentagon understands well that if it attacks either city this will incite the whole of the Shi’ite community against the occupation. As it now stands, only al-Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army militia, numbering a few thousand at the most, are attacking the US along with the Sunnis to the north. If the US violates the holiest cities of Shia Islam — and as the invasion of Fallujah has demonstrated, such an invasion will not only result in a large number of dead civilians put the bombing of mosques as well — there will be no turning back for the United States: it will be compelled to either leave Iraq or, more likely with perfidious neocons at Pentagon’s helm, it will unleash massive and relentless firepower on the people of Iraq.</p>
<p>The Iranians have offered to mediate the crisis but General Richard Myers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, has declared their involvement “unacceptable,” even though Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi has stated that Washington made a formal request for Iran’s help through the Swiss embassy in Tehran. Myers’ unwillingness to have the Iranians negotiate a settlement is understandable considering the neocons want to do to Iran what the US military did to Fallujah. For its offer to mediate the crisis, an Iranian diplomat, Khalil Naimi, was assassinated in central Baghdad on Thursday, an event the Iranian delegation said was “most certainly related to this visit.” Is it possible Naimi’s assassination was accomplished by the Israeli-trained death squads tutored at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the headquarters of the US Special Forces?</p>
<p>Meanwhile, according to al-Jazeera, 150 kilometers of roadway from Baghdad and Fallujah are under the control of the resistance.</p>
<p>“Resistance fighters have set up check points along the route as they take on security functions in the area west of the Iraqi capital,” reports Muhammad Abu Nasr. “On the road that follows a branch of the Tigris River, dozens of heavily armed Resistance fighters backed by still others were deployed behind earthen barricades in a permanent state of readiness… [Mujahideen] have set up the check points because they hope to take captive every foreigner of any nationality participating in the war who passes along the road… Taxi drivers report that the road from Baghdad to Amman [Jordan] is now a road for foreigners as other countries and companies are responding to the hostage taking phenomenon by calling on their citizens and employees to leave occupied Iraq in short order.”</p>
<p>Feel sorry for Keith Maupin. Thanks to Bush, Maupin is yet another victim, as are all the other captives and, especially, the innocent dead of Fallujah, Baghdad, and other besieged cities of Iraq. Feel sorry for the more than 10,000 civilians killed since Bush told his lies and invaded, violating international law and the Geneva Conventions. Blame not only Bush and the neocons. Blame as well, and possibly primarily, the American people for supporting Bush. 50 percent of Americans, according to a recent Gallup poll, believe “all in all” the invasion was worth it. Blame them for Bush’s Sabra and Shatilla massacre.</p>
<p>Of course, early next year, as Bush or Kerry urge Congress to reactivate the draft and “stay the course” in Iraq and more and more soldiers arrive home in “transport tubes” (coffins) at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the American people may change their minds.</p>
<p>In the meantime, more Iraqis will die and the “central hand” of the resistance will continue to fight until Bush and the Pentagon are forced to leave.</p>
<p>Let us hope it will be sooner before later.</p>
<p>KURT NIMMO is a photographer and multimedia developer in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Visit his excellent no holds barred blog at <a href="http://www.kurtnimmo.com/" type="external">www.kurtnimmo.com/blogger.html</a>. Nimmo is a contributor to Cockburn and St. Clair’s, <a href="" type="internal">The Politics of Anti-Semitism</a>. A collection of his essays for CounterPunch, <a href="" type="internal">Another Day in the Empire</a>, is now available from Dandelion Books.</p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:nimmo@zianet.com" type="external">nimmo@zianet.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | difficult feel sorry pfc keith maupin 20 shown today captive iraqi resistance aljazeera tv difficult feel sorry frightened human may soon lose life suffer years captive hellhole us government made iraq want blame somebody blame donald rumsfeld george bush certainly blame traitorous neocons criminal institutions blame conspiring ruin country kill thousands innocent people blame throwing keith maupin harms way recent kidnappings appear carried sunni militant groups though foreigners taken shiites south reports bush ministry disinformation fox news division us officials struggling determine whether central hand behind various hostagetakers informed various corporate ministries calling free press central hand iraqi uprising occupation central hand collective hand hand everincreasing number iraqis suffering brutal illegal occupation sure military aspect resistance assuredly central hand military operations resistance centrally organized predictable human response tyranny devastation inflicted united states government corporations bush congress tell muqtada alsadr ready become martyr us eager make one like quicktempered cowboy believes outlaw cornered rumsfeld generals itching enter holy city najaf repeat fallujah still undetermined number civilians slaughtered last week crime resisting occupation killing four hapless mercenaries warnings marjaiya four top shia clerics including grand ayat allah ali alsistani us would likely crossed red line gone alsadr predictable terrible loss innocent life pursue option grave consequences two cities najaf karbala red lines cant crossed warned abd mahdi alkarbalai alsistanis representative karbala weekly prayer sermon imam husayn shrine calling peaceful solutions coalition forces cross red line take different stronger position us stalled outside najaf mulling options pentagon understands well attacks either city incite whole shiite community occupation stands alsadrs almahdi army militia numbering thousand attacking us along sunnis north us violates holiest cities shia islam invasion fallujah demonstrated invasion result large number dead civilians put bombing mosques well turning back united states compelled either leave iraq likely perfidious neocons pentagons helm unleash massive relentless firepower people iraq iranians offered mediate crisis general richard myers chairman us joint chiefs staff declared involvement unacceptable even though iranian foreign minister kamal kharazi stated washington made formal request irans help swiss embassy tehran myers unwillingness iranians negotiate settlement understandable considering neocons want iran us military fallujah offer mediate crisis iranian diplomat khalil naimi assassinated central baghdad thursday event iranian delegation said certainly related visit possible naimis assassination accomplished israelitrained death squads tutored fort bragg north carolina headquarters us special forces meanwhile according aljazeera 150 kilometers roadway baghdad fallujah control resistance resistance fighters set check points along route take security functions area west iraqi capital reports muhammad abu nasr road follows branch tigris river dozens heavily armed resistance fighters backed still others deployed behind earthen barricades permanent state readiness mujahideen set check points hope take captive every foreigner nationality participating war passes along road taxi drivers report road baghdad amman jordan road foreigners countries companies responding hostage taking phenomenon calling citizens employees leave occupied iraq short order feel sorry keith maupin thanks bush maupin yet another victim captives especially innocent dead fallujah baghdad besieged cities iraq feel sorry 10000 civilians killed since bush told lies invaded violating international law geneva conventions blame bush neocons blame well possibly primarily american people supporting bush 50 percent americans according recent gallup poll believe invasion worth blame bushs sabra shatilla massacre course early next year bush kerry urge congress reactivate draft stay course iraq soldiers arrive home transport tubes coffins dover air force base delaware american people may change minds meantime iraqis die central hand resistance continue fight bush pentagon forced leave let us hope sooner later kurt nimmo photographer multimedia developer las cruces new mexico visit excellent holds barred blog wwwkurtnimmocombloggerhtml nimmo contributor cockburn st clairs politics antisemitism collection essays counterpunch another day empire available dandelion books reached nimmozianetcom 160 | 609 |
<p>In the gymnasium of an elementary school in Blair, South Carolina, staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) gathered to listen to public comment on the potential environmental impact of two new nuclear reactors proposed for construction V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in nearby Jenkinsville.</p>
<p>“You have insight and knowledge that we don’t,” NRC Project Manager William Burton told the crowd of around 100 people. “We want you to participate in this decision. An educated consumer is our best customer.”</p>
<p>After a short presentation by NRC staff, Jenkinsville Mayor Gregory Ginyard was not impressed. “I live a mile and a half from the plant,” he stated. “I’m the mayor. They want me to represent them. And I don’t know what you want. Where I live we don’t have environmentalists. You guys need to educate us. The people of Jenkinsville, we are on the front lines.”</p>
<p>Ginyard, 52, grew up in Jenkinsville and has lived in this small, predominately African-American town all of his life, half of which he has spent in the shadow of V.C. Summer’s nuclear reactor, which was built in the late 1970s and came on line in 1982. At that time, South Carolina Electric and Gas (SCE&amp;G) confiscated 60 acres from his father’s property for the plant, compensating the family $1,000 per an acre. Now as the first mayor of the newly incorporated town of Jenkinsville, he is caught in the middle of a battle between two utility companies and South Carolina’s small but energetic community of anti-nuclear activists, in a battle of national importance. If the plans of the privately operated SCE&amp;G and unregulated state utility Santee-Cooper go forward, V.C. Summer Reactors 2 and 3 will likely be the first new commercial reactors in the United States to begin construction in almost 30 years.</p>
<p>Ginyard is not the only Jenkinsville politician concerned about the proposed expansion. Kamau Marcharia is a community activist on the Fairfield County Council. He is wary about how two new reactors will affect his community. “It’s a ten billion dollar contract,” explains Marcharia. “Out of 10 billion dollars I want to know how many minority contracts they’re going to give. I want to know how people are going to help this community with its infrastructure. Right now we have no health center and no modern fire station. I want to know how they’re going to help us with this. I want to know how they are going to improve the roads when four to six thousand people work here on construction for seven years. I want to know how they are going to make this community safer.”</p>
<p>These are reasonable concerns for this poor, aging community. The town’s average annual household income is only $24,000 and the average resident of Jenkinsville is almost forty years old. The first reactor at V.C. Summer has failed to produce prosperity for the town. “Thirty years ago when the plant came, Jenkinsville was pretty rural and people were pretty much uninformed. It was just like today, but we had more in this community back then. There were three stores and other things that were closed down and boarded up. Jenkinsville is worse off today than when the plant moved in.”</p>
<p>Marcharia doesn’t blame the plant for the town’s decline: most small rural towns in South Carolina were better off thirty years ago. Still, he thinks that SCE&amp;G should do more to support the community in which their plant is based. 90% of the jobs at the nuclear power plant go to people outside of Fairfield County. He agrees with Mayor Guinyard that SCE&amp;G has made little effort to inform the community about issues related to the plant, a sentiment echoed by several residents speaking before the NRC. “I worry about evacuations,” says Marcharia. “The town of Dawkins has one way in and one way out – what’s the evacuation plan in case of an accident? There are signs here from 15, 20 years ago about evacuation that don’t even show you in what direction you should go.”</p>
<p>Many Jenkinsville residents are anxious about cancer. Worldwide, there is intense debate over the relationship between nuclear power and cancer rates. Although it is impossible to pin any one cancer case to a nuclear reactor, there is growing evidence that certain cancers such as breast cancer, leukemia and thyroid cancer increase among people who have lived for years near a reactor. Many in Jenkinsville, including Marcharia, feel that cancer rates have increased in the area.</p>
<p>Other residents worry about the plant’s effect on animals and vegetation. Local farmer Barbara Mann, who lives two miles from the plant, tells of strange occurrences happening on her property. “I’ve been finding many dead birds,” Mann says. “Old trees will start dying for no reason. Our rye fields that we have for horses aren’t growing. We planted fifteen collards and only got one pot, when usually we can get several. We’ve spotted deer with growths hanging from the side of its face. In our pond our bass won’t grow. We came here twenty years ago and back then SCE&amp;G used to come to check our vegetables, but they haven’t been for a year or two. If they build two more of those reactors, it’s going to cause us to have to leave.”</p>
<p>Marcharia doubts that there is enough money or organization to stop the construction of the two plants, but opponents are not letting the reactors go through without a fight. The South Carolina Sierra Club has filed with the NRC to request that they deny approval of the plant on grounds of negative environmental impact. In addition, Friends of the Earth and other citizen interveners spent half of December in a hearing before South Carolina’s Public Service Commission (PSC) arguing against SCE&amp;G’s application for permission to build and for the right to raise their rates.</p>
<p>SCE&amp;G wants to raise rates 37% above ordinary increases over the next ten years in order to obtain capital to pay for the project. SCE&amp;G and Santee-Cooper have already contracted with the Westinghouse and Shaw corporations to build the two AP1000 reactors at an estimated cost of $9.8 billion.</p>
<p>Friends of the Earth argues that it isn’t right to shift the risks of a private company from their shareholders to the South Carolina ratepayer. Although they are relatively cheap to operate, nuclear plants are costly to build. They are also a risky venture, as Sierra Club member Susan Corbett pointed out at the NRC hearing, when she presented a document five pages long listing nuclear reactor sites in America where construction began but was never completed. If construction begins and is stopped before completion, the South Carolina utility ratepayers will lose money from increased rates and will gain nothing.</p>
<p>Assuming the reactors are completed, the final price tag remains a matter of dispute. Friends of the Earth claims that the $9.8 billion estimate greatly underestimates construction costs. It cites a Department of Energy figure from October 2, 2008 that estimates the costs of two new nuclear reactors to be $18 billion. Whatever the true cost, SCE&amp;G is hoping to get access to federal government loan guarantees authorized to support the nuclear industry’s attempted revival. $18.5 billion was authorized in 2007 and a possible $50 billion more will come out of the pending economic stimulus package. The company testified during the PSC hearing that the Department of Energy rated it number two on the list of utilities qualifying for the underwriting against default. Without federal loan guarantees, it may be difficult for SCE&amp;G to obtain financing for its project on reasonable terms</p>
<p>Another point of contention is whether energy conservation, increased energy efficiencies, wind power and solar power are minor issues or the wave of the future. SCE&amp;G and Santee-Cooper project around 260,000 new customers in the next ten years, which necessitates more power plants. They claim that they have exhaustively looked into all the alternatives for meeting South Carolina’s future energy needs, and have determined that this project is the safest, most cost effective, least environmentally damaging way to meet both residential and industrial needs.</p>
<p>Opponents see SCE&amp;G’s search for alternatives as anything but exhaustive. In testimony before the PSC, the company admitted that it had never completed a thorough analysis of possible gains from increased energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.</p>
<p>For Larry Newton, a certified “Green Realtor”, SCE&amp;G’s plan to build multiple generators in America’s 3rd most energy wasteful state is a mater of misplaced priorities. “South Carolina is one of the few states looking at energy production,” says Newton. “Most states are looking at how they can reduce use, so you can do more for less.” Newton sees increasing efficiency and conserving more energy, a process known as Demand Side Management (DSM), as a cheaper, faster and safer alternative to building new plants. Because so much of South Carolina’s energy use goes into heating and cooling homes, using modern techniques to insulate homes could yield impressive results quickly. “It is widely recognized that a $.03/kwhr investment in energy efficiency is far quicker and more cost effective than adding expensive capacity,” says Newton. “New York is spending $2.3 billion on a statewide energy efficiency program to reduce electrical demand by 15% by 2015. The expected payback expected is $4.1 billion by 2015. Imagine what South Carolina could accomplish with $10 billion.”</p>
<p>SCE&amp;G spokesman Robert Yanity claims that the company does not oppose Demand Side Management or renewable energy. The SCE&amp;G recently hired a DSM program manager and has programs to promote conservation as well as a program called Palmetto Clean Energy where people can donate money to the development of alternative fuel sources. He states that there needs to be a mix of approaches, which includes DSM as well as new nuclear reactors.</p>
<p>For Tom Clement, Friends of the Earth’s Southeast Region Nuclear Coordinator, this argument fails to account for the reality of scarce resources. “Investing billions into nuclear power will essentially eliminate any pursuit of efficiency, conservation and renewable energy by the company in South Carolina,” says Clement. “Proponents talk about a mix, but money isn’t unlimited. In South Carolina right now it is cheaper and safer to save energy than to produce energy. Unfortunately SCE&amp;G is in the business of generating and selling power, not saving power.”</p>
<p>Newton agrees, adding that SCE&amp;G’s conservation and efficiency programs are good community service projects but not a serious investment in large scale change. He does not blame the company for their present strategy, citing a lack of economic incentives for it to change course. “It takes three to tango in this case,” says Newton. “It takes the utility, your Public Service Commission and your state government to create effective regulatory changes that would make it more desirable for a utility company to become not only a source of power but also a distributor of power which can make a profit from increasing energy efficiency at the residential and commercial level.” Another issue brought up by opponents is the large amount of water that the nuclear reactors will consume. This is the primary concern of Joseph Wojciki, a retired math professor who intervened in the PSC case. Wojciki, who refers to himself as “Joe the Intervener”, believes if there are to be new nuclear reactors, they should be built near the ocean where they will have access to abundant water. SCE&amp;G defends the location of its project by pointing out that the V.C. Summer Nuclear station is located on the Monticello Reservoir, which is 17 square miles with an average depth of almost 60 feet. The Reservoir is connected to the Broad River through the Parr Reservoir. In 26 years, the present reactor at V.C. Summer has never faced a water shortage.</p>
<p>Still, even this large body of water might not be sufficient if South Carolina’s drought continues and Duke Power goes through with its proposal to build one new coal-fired and two new nuclear plants upriver on the Broad River, in addition to three reactors in Jenkinsville. According to Clement, the Broad River is the river most threatened nationwide by new coal and nuclear power plants. In total, the five plants would evaporate around 80 million gallons a day. A depletion of the Broad River would affect the water supply for Columbia, South Carolina’s capital located 25 miles from Jenkinsville.</p>
<p>Another major problem is the high level nuclear waste the plant will produce. SCE&amp;G and Santee Cooper officials express confidence that Yucca Mountain in Nevada will soon open as America’s high level nuclear waste depository, but both political and technical issues continue to plague the proposed project. Presently there is nowhere to take the waste and it must be safely stored and guarded with on site. If released from storage, high level waste poses severe health risks to the public, and if a terrorist got hold of the waste he could create a dirty bomb. A sophisticated terrorist could further process the material to create a nuclear weapon. While VC Summer has safely contained its high level waste for 26 years, the prospect of storing and protecting three times as much waste for the next 300,000 years is a heavy burden for the facility to take on.</p>
<p>V.C. Summer’s safety record has generally been good, but not perfect. There have been several leaks throughout its history, the most serious occurring in 2000. In that year the reactor suffered from a leaking hot leg pipe, which cools the reactor. According the Union of Concerned Scientists, “Luck, not skill, seemed to prevent the hot leg piping from cracking completely.” While a core reactor meltdown is unlikely, if it did happen it could have a catastrophic effect on the people of central South Carolina.</p>
<p>Even with the support of increased utility rates and federal loan guarantees, SCE&amp;G may run into a difficult issue facing nuclear plants nationwide: a lack of trained staff. Forty percent of those presently working in nuclear power plants are eligible to retire in the next five years, and only 8% are under the age of 32. Santee Cooper spokesperson Mollie Gore says the utility companies are cognizant of this shortage, and that is why they are working with technical colleges in both Charleston and Columbia to offer degrees in order to make sure that there are enough South Carolinians trained to work at these plants by 2016. It remains to be seen how successful these programs will be and how many people will enroll.</p>
<p>Will the reactors be built? It’s a definite possibility. South Carolina is the perfect state for the nuclear industry to begin its hoped for revival. The nuclear power industry is very powerful in South Carolina. South Carolina already generates around half of its energy needs with nuclear reactors. All six of South Carolina’s House members and both Senators support the construction of more nuclear reactors in the state. So far, not a single elected official in the South Carolina state government has spoken out against reactor constructions, nor is there widespread opposition to nuclear power among South Carolinians. The PSC most likely will approve the project and allow SCE&amp;G to go forward with a rate increase, and the NRC’s environmental review will likely have little effect on the process.</p>
<p>For SCE&amp;G, a more serious regulatory hurdle is the NRC’s design approval for the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor, the type that SCE&amp;G wants to build at V.C. Summer. This type of plant has never been built before, and after the 17th iteration of design modification it still has yet to be approved.</p>
<p>An even more daunting task for SCE&amp;G is to obtain the funds it needs to begin this massive project in the midst of an economic meltdown. South Carolina unemployment now approaches 10% and is rising every day. It might not be the best time to raise utility rates, an action which could drive users to seek other methods to obtain electricity or get off the grid altogether, thus driving up rates for remaining customers. Higher utility rates will likely slow economic growth and lead to public resentment. Even with the United States government subsidizing uranium enrichment, liability insurance and financing, the project may be too costly. So far, no financial backers have stepped forward. Whether or not Jenkinsville is the site of a new nuclear power revival in America or the last gasp of a dying industry remains to be seen.</p>
<p>MICHAEL J. BERG lives in South Carolina. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:mistermichaelberg@yahoo.com" type="external">mistermichaelberg@yahoo.com</a></p> | true | 4 | gymnasium elementary school blair south carolina staff nuclear regulatory commission nrc gathered listen public comment potential environmental impact two new nuclear reactors proposed construction vc summer nuclear station nearby jenkinsville insight knowledge dont nrc project manager william burton told crowd around 100 people want participate decision educated consumer best customer short presentation nrc staff jenkinsville mayor gregory ginyard impressed live mile half plant stated im mayor want represent dont know want live dont environmentalists guys need educate us people jenkinsville front lines ginyard 52 grew jenkinsville lived small predominately africanamerican town life half spent shadow vc summers nuclear reactor built late 1970s came line 1982 time south carolina electric gas sceampg confiscated 60 acres fathers property plant compensating family 1000 per acre first mayor newly incorporated town jenkinsville caught middle battle two utility companies south carolinas small energetic community antinuclear activists battle national importance plans privately operated sceampg unregulated state utility santeecooper go forward vc summer reactors 2 3 likely first new commercial reactors united states begin construction almost 30 years ginyard jenkinsville politician concerned proposed expansion kamau marcharia community activist fairfield county council wary two new reactors affect community ten billion dollar contract explains marcharia 10 billion dollars want know many minority contracts theyre going give want know people going help community infrastructure right health center modern fire station want know theyre going help us want know going improve roads four six thousand people work construction seven years want know going make community safer reasonable concerns poor aging community towns average annual household income 24000 average resident jenkinsville almost forty years old first reactor vc summer failed produce prosperity town thirty years ago plant came jenkinsville pretty rural people pretty much uninformed like today community back three stores things closed boarded jenkinsville worse today plant moved marcharia doesnt blame plant towns decline small rural towns south carolina better thirty years ago still thinks sceampg support community plant based 90 jobs nuclear power plant go people outside fairfield county agrees mayor guinyard sceampg made little effort inform community issues related plant sentiment echoed several residents speaking nrc worry evacuations says marcharia town dawkins one way one way whats evacuation plan case accident signs 15 20 years ago evacuation dont even show direction go many jenkinsville residents anxious cancer worldwide intense debate relationship nuclear power cancer rates although impossible pin one cancer case nuclear reactor growing evidence certain cancers breast cancer leukemia thyroid cancer increase among people lived years near reactor many jenkinsville including marcharia feel cancer rates increased area residents worry plants effect animals vegetation local farmer barbara mann lives two miles plant tells strange occurrences happening property ive finding many dead birds mann says old trees start dying reason rye fields horses arent growing planted fifteen collards got one pot usually get several weve spotted deer growths hanging side face pond bass wont grow came twenty years ago back sceampg used come check vegetables havent year two build two reactors going cause us leave marcharia doubts enough money organization stop construction two plants opponents letting reactors go without fight south carolina sierra club filed nrc request deny approval plant grounds negative environmental impact addition friends earth citizen interveners spent half december hearing south carolinas public service commission psc arguing sceampgs application permission build right raise rates sceampg wants raise rates 37 ordinary increases next ten years order obtain capital pay project sceampg santeecooper already contracted westinghouse shaw corporations build two ap1000 reactors estimated cost 98 billion friends earth argues isnt right shift risks private company shareholders south carolina ratepayer although relatively cheap operate nuclear plants costly build also risky venture sierra club member susan corbett pointed nrc hearing presented document five pages long listing nuclear reactor sites america construction began never completed construction begins stopped completion south carolina utility ratepayers lose money increased rates gain nothing assuming reactors completed final price tag remains matter dispute friends earth claims 98 billion estimate greatly underestimates construction costs cites department energy figure october 2 2008 estimates costs two new nuclear reactors 18 billion whatever true cost sceampg hoping get access federal government loan guarantees authorized support nuclear industrys attempted revival 185 billion authorized 2007 possible 50 billion come pending economic stimulus package company testified psc hearing department energy rated number two list utilities qualifying underwriting default without federal loan guarantees may difficult sceampg obtain financing project reasonable terms another point contention whether energy conservation increased energy efficiencies wind power solar power minor issues wave future sceampg santeecooper project around 260000 new customers next ten years necessitates power plants claim exhaustively looked alternatives meeting south carolinas future energy needs determined project safest cost effective least environmentally damaging way meet residential industrial needs opponents see sceampgs search alternatives anything exhaustive testimony psc company admitted never completed thorough analysis possible gains increased energy efficiency conservation renewable energy sources wind solar power larry newton certified green realtor sceampgs plan build multiple generators americas 3rd energy wasteful state mater misplaced priorities south carolina one states looking energy production says newton states looking reduce use less newton sees increasing efficiency conserving energy process known demand side management dsm cheaper faster safer alternative building new plants much south carolinas energy use goes heating cooling homes using modern techniques insulate homes could yield impressive results quickly widely recognized 03kwhr investment energy efficiency far quicker cost effective adding expensive capacity says newton new york spending 23 billion statewide energy efficiency program reduce electrical demand 15 2015 expected payback expected 41 billion 2015 imagine south carolina could accomplish 10 billion sceampg spokesman robert yanity claims company oppose demand side management renewable energy sceampg recently hired dsm program manager programs promote conservation well program called palmetto clean energy people donate money development alternative fuel sources states needs mix approaches includes dsm well new nuclear reactors tom clement friends earths southeast region nuclear coordinator argument fails account reality scarce resources investing billions nuclear power essentially eliminate pursuit efficiency conservation renewable energy company south carolina says clement proponents talk mix money isnt unlimited south carolina right cheaper safer save energy produce energy unfortunately sceampg business generating selling power saving power newton agrees adding sceampgs conservation efficiency programs good community service projects serious investment large scale change blame company present strategy citing lack economic incentives change course takes three tango case says newton takes utility public service commission state government create effective regulatory changes would make desirable utility company become source power also distributor power make profit increasing energy efficiency residential commercial level another issue brought opponents large amount water nuclear reactors consume primary concern joseph wojciki retired math professor intervened psc case wojciki refers joe intervener believes new nuclear reactors built near ocean access abundant water sceampg defends location project pointing vc summer nuclear station located monticello reservoir 17 square miles average depth almost 60 feet reservoir connected broad river parr reservoir 26 years present reactor vc summer never faced water shortage still even large body water might sufficient south carolinas drought continues duke power goes proposal build one new coalfired two new nuclear plants upriver broad river addition three reactors jenkinsville according clement broad river river threatened nationwide new coal nuclear power plants total five plants would evaporate around 80 million gallons day depletion broad river would affect water supply columbia south carolinas capital located 25 miles jenkinsville another major problem high level nuclear waste plant produce sceampg santee cooper officials express confidence yucca mountain nevada soon open americas high level nuclear waste depository political technical issues continue plague proposed project presently nowhere take waste must safely stored guarded site released storage high level waste poses severe health risks public terrorist got hold waste could create dirty bomb sophisticated terrorist could process material create nuclear weapon vc summer safely contained high level waste 26 years prospect storing protecting three times much waste next 300000 years heavy burden facility take vc summers safety record generally good perfect several leaks throughout history serious occurring 2000 year reactor suffered leaking hot leg pipe cools reactor according union concerned scientists luck skill seemed prevent hot leg piping cracking completely core reactor meltdown unlikely happen could catastrophic effect people central south carolina even support increased utility rates federal loan guarantees sceampg may run difficult issue facing nuclear plants nationwide lack trained staff forty percent presently working nuclear power plants eligible retire next five years 8 age 32 santee cooper spokesperson mollie gore says utility companies cognizant shortage working technical colleges charleston columbia offer degrees order make sure enough south carolinians trained work plants 2016 remains seen successful programs many people enroll reactors built definite possibility south carolina perfect state nuclear industry begin hoped revival nuclear power industry powerful south carolina south carolina already generates around half energy needs nuclear reactors six south carolinas house members senators support construction nuclear reactors state far single elected official south carolina state government spoken reactor constructions widespread opposition nuclear power among south carolinians psc likely approve project allow sceampg go forward rate increase nrcs environmental review likely little effect process sceampg serious regulatory hurdle nrcs design approval westinghouse ap1000 reactor type sceampg wants build vc summer type plant never built 17th iteration design modification still yet approved even daunting task sceampg obtain funds needs begin massive project midst economic meltdown south carolina unemployment approaches 10 rising every day might best time raise utility rates action could drive users seek methods obtain electricity get grid altogether thus driving rates remaining customers higher utility rates likely slow economic growth lead public resentment even united states government subsidizing uranium enrichment liability insurance financing project may costly far financial backers stepped forward whether jenkinsville site new nuclear power revival america last gasp dying industry remains seen michael j berg lives south carolina reached mistermichaelbergyahoocom | 1,617 |
<p>In 1990, I hosted an anti-censorship war council of sorts over dinner at my home in Los Angeles. Present were James Bernard, then an editor at The Source; Jesse Ballinger of local anti-censorship group SLAM, and Mary Morello of Parents for Rock &amp; Rap. Oh yeah, there was also a guy who sat there quietly all night—Tom Morello. Tom is, of course, Mary’s son and he was then in the band Lock Up, whose album on Geffen Records had been released the year before.</p>
<p>Tom Morello hasn’t been very quiet since then, either as a prime mover in Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave or as a political activist on a global scale. On March 31, Morello had a lot to say as the latest in a series of interview guests (Brian Wilson, Nas, Charlie Haden, Annie Lennox, Damien Marley) at the brand new Grammy Museum in downtown LA.</p>
<p>The Museum’s intimate auditorium was packed with what looked to be typical Rage fans, despite the fact that tickets to the event were selling on-line for over $300 (Ticketmaster handles ticketing for the museum). Museum director Robert Santelli was the interviewer and he did a good job of guiding Morello through a description of his life and career that was often hilarious (e.g. when he called out former Geffen exec Robert Smith for breaking Lock Up’s contract).</p>
<p>Morello said his political involvement began when he was four years old and kids in his day care center in otherwise all-white Libertyville, Illinois hurled racial slurs at him (as an interracial family, Tom and Mary had to get permission from the neighbors to move into an apartment building there). Musically, he was a typical suburban metalhead with an incurable addiction to major riffage. Once in high school, he had a political defining moment when Bobby Sands and other IRA prisoners in Ireland were dying as hunger strikers while the Libertyville High School wrestling team was fasting to make weight. At about the same time he had a musical revelation when he saw the Clash play in Chicago. “Joe Strummer was playing through the same brand of crappy amp I was playing through in my mom’s basement. I realized that what the Clash did wasn’t something that I might be able to do someday, but that I was already doing it!”</p>
<p>He was doing it in the band Electric Sheep with Adam Jones, now with Tool, also on guitar. While in that band Tom wrote his first song, “Salvador Death Squad Blues.” Then he went to Harvard to “learn how to get my hand on the levers and be an effective revolutionary.” In those hallowed halls, he was the weird guy who practiced guitar up to eight hours a day under the thrall of a Randy Rhoads obsession (he came to Woody Guthrie and Bob Marley much later in life). Tom studied “social science” and participated in the movement to force Harvard to divest itself of ties to apartheid in South Africa. Degree in hand from one of the world’s most prestigious universities, he moved to Los Angeles to try to become a rock star.</p>
<p>After several years, he suddenly succeeded. “Rage was lucky. We got a record deal after our second gig. We were a great band but we argued intensely from the beginning. The success we had just widened the cracks in the band.” After that experience, Morello noted, being in Audioslave was a necessary “period of healing.”</p>
<p>Tom Morello seeks to heal more than himself. Throughout March, he went up and down the west coast on The Justice Tour, designed to call attention to homelessness and to raise money for groups which help the homeless. At the Seattle stop, Morello was joined by Steve Earle, Wayne Kramer, Boots Riley, Mark Arm of Mudhoney, and all of Soundgarden except Chris Cornell (Tom played rhythm guitar). Yet at the Grammy Museum he didn’t mention any of this when he spoke of the tour’s Seattle visit. Instead, he described hanging out at a drop-in center for homeless teens, shooting pool and asking questions such as “Where will you sleep tonight?” He spoke of sixteen-year-olds named Spider and Manson, invoking their plight throughout the evening as symbolic of the crisis in America.</p>
<p>Does this mean that Tom Morello subscribes to the cliché that the music is less important than the issues it often reflects? No way. He spoke with great passion about his musical heroes and about his new band Street Sweeper, co-led by Boots Riley of the Coup and soon to go out on tour with Jane’s Addiction and Nine Inch Nails. Morello doesn’t seek a proper balance between music and politics—they both just pour out of him like sweat does from Shaquille O’Neal..</p>
<p>When asked about President Obama, Morello took a deep breath. He knew that question was coming. “Well, in his first week as President, he said several things that I agreed with. That’s never happened before….And there’s that personal connection. We both have Kenyan fathers and he was at Harvard when I was there. But tonight in Los Angeles there are 75,000 homeless people living in the streets. Ten thousand of them are children. This isn’t about who is President. This is about a system, a system that is fundamentally flawed… Change doesn’t come from an administration, it comes from the people, the people like those who are here in the Grammy Museum tonight, people like Spider and Manson.”</p>
<p>The best audience question of the night was “Do you ever encounter racism from blacks because of the type of music you play?” Tom’s answer was indirect: “People underestimate the impact of Living Colour, a black hard rock band that had success which led directly to faces of color being seen in bands everywhere. As for urban radio, that’s another story.” Then he stopped and thought for a moment. “But you know, with Lil Wayne out there sportin’ a guitar, maybe even urban radio can change.”</p>
<p>As for the future, Morello said that the guys in Rage Against the Machine now get along “famously” and will almost certainly continue to perform together live. When asked if there would be a new Rage album, he said no emphatically. Instead, he urged fans to focus on the music he’s making now. To that end, he concluded the evening by performing five songs in his acoustic persona of The Nightwatchman. It was raw, rhythmic, precise and powerful. The closer was Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” which ended with the crowd singing “the verses they didn’t tell you about in third grade” and pogoing up and down like a mosh pit was about to break out.</p>
<p>LEE BALLINGER is co-editor of <a href="http://www.rockrap.com/" type="external">Rock &amp; Rap Confidential</a>, one of CounterPunch’s favorite newsletters, now available for free by emailing: <a href="mailto:rockrap@aol.com" type="external">rockrap@aol.com</a>..</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | 1990 hosted anticensorship war council sorts dinner home los angeles present james bernard editor source jesse ballinger local anticensorship group slam mary morello parents rock amp rap oh yeah also guy sat quietly nighttom morello tom course marys son band lock whose album geffen records released year tom morello hasnt quiet since either prime mover rage machine audioslave political activist global scale march 31 morello lot say latest series interview guests brian wilson nas charlie haden annie lennox damien marley brand new grammy museum downtown la museums intimate auditorium packed looked typical rage fans despite fact tickets event selling online 300 ticketmaster handles ticketing museum museum director robert santelli interviewer good job guiding morello description life career often hilarious eg called former geffen exec robert smith breaking lock ups contract morello said political involvement began four years old kids day care center otherwise allwhite libertyville illinois hurled racial slurs interracial family tom mary get permission neighbors move apartment building musically typical suburban metalhead incurable addiction major riffage high school political defining moment bobby sands ira prisoners ireland dying hunger strikers libertyville high school wrestling team fasting make weight time musical revelation saw clash play chicago joe strummer playing brand crappy amp playing moms basement realized clash wasnt something might able someday already band electric sheep adam jones tool also guitar band tom wrote first song salvador death squad blues went harvard learn get hand levers effective revolutionary hallowed halls weird guy practiced guitar eight hours day thrall randy rhoads obsession came woody guthrie bob marley much later life tom studied social science participated movement force harvard divest ties apartheid south africa degree hand one worlds prestigious universities moved los angeles try become rock star several years suddenly succeeded rage lucky got record deal second gig great band argued intensely beginning success widened cracks band experience morello noted audioslave necessary period healing tom morello seeks heal throughout march went west coast justice tour designed call attention homelessness raise money groups help homeless seattle stop morello joined steve earle wayne kramer boots riley mark arm mudhoney soundgarden except chris cornell tom played rhythm guitar yet grammy museum didnt mention spoke tours seattle visit instead described hanging dropin center homeless teens shooting pool asking questions sleep tonight spoke sixteenyearolds named spider manson invoking plight throughout evening symbolic crisis america mean tom morello subscribes cliché music less important issues often reflects way spoke great passion musical heroes new band street sweeper coled boots riley coup soon go tour janes addiction nine inch nails morello doesnt seek proper balance music politicsthey pour like sweat shaquille oneal asked president obama morello took deep breath knew question coming well first week president said several things agreed thats never happened beforeand theres personal connection kenyan fathers harvard tonight los angeles 75000 homeless people living streets ten thousand children isnt president system system fundamentally flawed change doesnt come administration comes people people like grammy museum tonight people like spider manson best audience question night ever encounter racism blacks type music play toms answer indirect people underestimate impact living colour black hard rock band success led directly faces color seen bands everywhere urban radio thats another story stopped thought moment know lil wayne sportin guitar maybe even urban radio change future morello said guys rage machine get along famously almost certainly continue perform together live asked would new rage album said emphatically instead urged fans focus music hes making end concluded evening performing five songs acoustic persona nightwatchman raw rhythmic precise powerful closer woody guthries land land ended crowd singing verses didnt tell third grade pogoing like mosh pit break lee ballinger coeditor rock amp rap confidential one counterpunchs favorite newsletters available free emailing rockrapaolcom 160 | 616 |
<p>SPOILER WARNING: Do not read this until you have watched Sons of Anarchy’s Season 6 premiere, “Straw.”</p>
<p>For much of its five seasons, Sons of Anarchy has functioned as a moral litmus test for viewers: how much demented darkness can we stomach before turning off our TVs? Brutal rapes, severed heads, burned bodies, gnawed-off tongues ... these horrific moments have come and gone over the years, and we paused, gagged, averted our gaze for a few seconds, and then turned back and kept watching.</p>
<p>Tuesday night, however, the show finally went too far.</p>
<p>First, some backstory: I initially watched the Season 6 premiere a month ago, during the annual Television Critics Association summer press tour, and was puzzled why director Paris Barclay (who does his usual skillful work in this episode) kept cutting back to this clean-cut, 11-year-old boy we had never met before. Clad in a Catholic-school standard-issue jacket and tie, the boy wrote in his journal, sweetly kissed his sleeping mother, walked to school, and suddenly pulled out a KG-9 machine gun from his backpack. While the camera lingered outside as he calmly carried it in, what happened next was unmistakable and unforgettable: he opened fire as kids and teachers screamed in terror.</p>
<p>When I got to that profoundly disturbing moment, my initial reaction—perhaps the one you’re having right now—was that I’d had enough, and creator Kurt Sutter had finally overreached in his never-ending quest to shock viewers. But the following day, Sutter spoke to the assembled TCA press and insisted that “this is a story that is not being done to be sensational. It is truly the catalyst for the final act of our morality play. It sets everything in motion for this season that will ultimately lead to the end ... and what I see as the ultimate comeuppance of everything in terms of the series.”</p>
<p>So a few weeks later, when FX sent out the season’s first three episodes, I watched them with Sutter’s words in mind. Judging the first three episodes as a whole, he’s right: the school shooting isn’t just a gratuitous jolt, as it seems to be in the premiere. Instead, it’s far more damaging to the series and its characters.</p>
<p>Without giving specific spoilers, I will say that the fallout from the premiere’s shooting looms large over the next two episodes, but much in the same way as every other mess that SAMCRO (the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club) is dragged into: as a problem they need to distance themselves from, no matter what. The gun used in the massacre, and the shooter’s mother, have a SAMCRO connection, and that must be dealt with in the usual Sons fashion before authorities (including the county district attorney, played by the terrific CCH Pounder) piece together their involvement.</p>
<p>By having SAMCRO president Jax ( <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2013/09/04/charlie-hunnam-cast-in-50-shades-of-grey-a-history-of-his-sex-scenes-video.html" type="external">Charlie Hunnam</a>) and his club tackle the issue in such a callous way—with no remorse for what happened or their role in it, thinking only of how they can deflect blame, the victims (and the shooter’s mother) be damned—Sutter has crossed a line. Rooting for SAMCRO to get the better of other gang bangers, white supremacists, drug dealers, and other assorted lowlifes is one thing (sure, our guys are bad, but these other people are so much worse!) but we’re now being asked to cheer for a group that not only helped enable a school shooting to happen, but also has zero guilt over its involvement in the deaths of multiple children.</p>
<p>That is something I refuse to do. Several of TV’s greatest dramas feature horrible antiheroes who routinely do unspeakable things—Tony Soprano, Walter White, Vic Mackey, Don Draper—but each one of these men also had their own moral code, skewed as it may be. There were certain acts too heinous for even them to commit, at least, not without some grave moral cost.</p>
<p>Once you contribute to a school shooting and then heartlessly try to cover it up, you’ve passed the point of no return. As a parent, this is a horror that crosses my mind every time I drop my kids off at school, set foot inside the building, or hear about the latest “security lockdown drill” that is now tragically commonplace at schools around the country. So, yes, watching that scene made me physically ill, more than any other in Sons history. (Those children’s screams continue to haunt me, weeks later.) If you’re going to travel down such a ghastly path, you’d better have a magnificent storyline to justify it. And so far, Sons doesn’t.</p>
<p>That wasn’t always the case. Back in Season 2 (the show’s finest, in which it seemed ready to claim its place in the pantheon of TV dramas), Sutter took a hideous act—Gemma’s brutal rape by a group of white supremacists—and movingly mined it for emotional and dramatic depths (in this case both <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2012/11/28/badass-tv-women-or-just-bad-homeland-sons-of-anarchy-more.html" type="external">Katey Sagal’s devastating reaction</a> and our agonizing wait for the retribution whenever SAMCRO inevitably discovered what had occurred), propelling the series to new heights. He also did this much less successfully in the Season 3, by far its weakest, where the kidnapping of Jax’s son played out over an entire season.</p>
<p>But increasingly since then, Sutter seems content on shocking for shock’s sake: Opie’s sacrificial death in jail. Tig watching his daughter, bound and gagged but still conscious, burnt to a crisp in front of him. Otto (played by Sutter himself) gleefully biting off his own tongue in jail. These game-changing moments should resonate for months if not years, but instead their impact largely fades after a few episodes.</p>
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<p>These days, the show more frequently goes the route of Chekov’s Bathtub of Urine in the season premiere. When that disgusting prop popped up in the background as SAMCRO met the “torture porn” producer Iranian brothers, we knew it was only a matter of time before someone would end up dunked in it (or drowned, as it turned out). It’s what Sons does, for better or worse.</p>
<p>And if it’s no longer possible to redeem SAMCRO, who is left to root for on this show? Not the imprisoned Clay (Ron Perlman), whose miles-long list of reprehensible transgressions include violently beating wife Gemma (Katey Segal) and killing SAMCRO co-founder Piney (acts which, realistically in the world of Sons and SAMCRO, should have cost him his life back in Season 4). Not Lee Toric (Donal Logue), a retired marshal who was introduced last season and is now doubling-down (if not tripling-down) on his efforts to bring down Jax and SAMCRO, whom Sutter unfairly stacks the deck against in an upcoming episode where he progresses from the premiere’s Apocalypse Now–like drug-fueled hotel room freakout into something much more sinister and off the reservation. And sadly, not Opie, the longtime soul of SAMCRO who was killed in prison last year after sacrificing himself for Jax. That leaves Bobby (Mark Boone Junior), who became disillusioned with the club last season and spends the early episodes making plans to “patch out” and start a new chapter. Which, given Sons’ history, probably means he’s the next one to be killed.</p>
<p>I’m not suggesting that Sons should have a “very special episode” about school shootings. That’s not what the show is, nor should it be. But if Sutter really wanted to delve into this issue, why not do so in a large arc about how this tragedy would wreck a victim’s family from the inside? Or have Jax realize that his own children could have been put in danger and make that his final rationalization for taking SAMCRO out of the gun-running business? Instead, it’s mostly business as usual.</p>
<p>I hope that future episodes prove me wrong and that Sutter can somehow salvage SAMCRO, and the series, in the face of these events. Until that happens, I’m going to look back on the premiere as the moment that Sons finally went too far, and I largely stopped caring about its characters. Bobby, you have the right idea.</p> | true | 4 | spoiler warning read watched sons anarchys season 6 premiere straw much five seasons sons anarchy functioned moral litmus test viewers much demented darkness stomach turning tvs brutal rapes severed heads burned bodies gnawedoff tongues horrific moments come gone years paused gagged averted gaze seconds turned back kept watching tuesday night however show finally went far first backstory initially watched season 6 premiere month ago annual television critics association summer press tour puzzled director paris barclay usual skillful work episode kept cutting back cleancut 11yearold boy never met clad catholicschool standardissue jacket tie boy wrote journal sweetly kissed sleeping mother walked school suddenly pulled kg9 machine gun backpack camera lingered outside calmly carried happened next unmistakable unforgettable opened fire kids teachers screamed terror got profoundly disturbing moment initial reactionperhaps one youre right nowwas id enough creator kurt sutter finally overreached neverending quest shock viewers following day sutter spoke assembled tca press insisted story done sensational truly catalyst final act morality play sets everything motion season ultimately lead end see ultimate comeuppance everything terms series weeks later fx sent seasons first three episodes watched sutters words mind judging first three episodes whole hes right school shooting isnt gratuitous jolt seems premiere instead far damaging series characters without giving specific spoilers say fallout premieres shooting looms large next two episodes much way every mess samcro sons anarchy motorcycle club dragged problem need distance matter gun used massacre shooters mother samcro connection must dealt usual sons fashion authorities including county district attorney played terrific cch pounder piece together involvement samcro president jax charlie hunnam club tackle issue callous waywith remorse happened role thinking deflect blame victims shooters mother damnedsutter crossed line rooting samcro get better gang bangers white supremacists drug dealers assorted lowlifes one thing sure guys bad people much worse asked cheer group helped enable school shooting happen also zero guilt involvement deaths multiple children something refuse several tvs greatest dramas feature horrible antiheroes routinely unspeakable thingstony soprano walter white vic mackey draperbut one men also moral code skewed may certain acts heinous even commit least without grave moral cost contribute school shooting heartlessly try cover youve passed point return parent horror crosses mind every time drop kids school set foot inside building hear latest security lockdown drill tragically commonplace schools around country yes watching scene made physically ill sons history childrens screams continue haunt weeks later youre going travel ghastly path youd better magnificent storyline justify far sons doesnt wasnt always case back season 2 shows finest seemed ready claim place pantheon tv dramas sutter took hideous actgemmas brutal rape group white supremacistsand movingly mined emotional dramatic depths case katey sagals devastating reaction agonizing wait retribution whenever samcro inevitably discovered occurred propelling series new heights also much less successfully season 3 far weakest kidnapping jaxs son played entire season increasingly since sutter seems content shocking shocks sake opies sacrificial death jail tig watching daughter bound gagged still conscious burnt crisp front otto played sutter gleefully biting tongue jail gamechanging moments resonate months years instead impact largely fades episodes start finish day top stories daily beast speedy smart summary news need know nothing dont days show frequently goes route chekovs bathtub urine season premiere disgusting prop popped background samcro met torture porn producer iranian brothers knew matter time someone would end dunked drowned turned sons better worse longer possible redeem samcro left root show imprisoned clay ron perlman whose mileslong list reprehensible transgressions include violently beating wife gemma katey segal killing samcro cofounder piney acts realistically world sons samcro cost life back season 4 lee toric donal logue retired marshal introduced last season doublingdown triplingdown efforts bring jax samcro sutter unfairly stacks deck upcoming episode progresses premieres apocalypse nowlike drugfueled hotel room freakout something much sinister reservation sadly opie longtime soul samcro killed prison last year sacrificing jax leaves bobby mark boone junior became disillusioned club last season spends early episodes making plans patch start new chapter given sons history probably means hes next one killed im suggesting sons special episode school shootings thats show sutter really wanted delve issue large arc tragedy would wreck victims family inside jax realize children could put danger make final rationalization taking samcro gunrunning business instead mostly business usual hope future episodes prove wrong sutter somehow salvage samcro series face events happens im going look back premiere moment sons finally went far largely stopped caring characters bobby right idea | 732 |
<p>An introductory note from Assaf Khoury</p>
<p>The little country is exposed more than ever to the political storms east of the Mediterranean. In the following article, historian and long-time political commentator Fawwaz Traboulsi explains that the dangers faced by Lebanon today are, in part, the result of its “confessional system”. This system did not always exist and Lebanese were not ordained to live in it. Historically, given that Lebanese and other communities of the Levant existed for hundreds of years before, confessionalism is a relatively recent invention as an institutional form of government. It is a peculiarly factious power-sharing formula based on religious denominations, first introduced in the second half of the 19th Century, partly dictated by the balance in the contest between a declining Ottoman empire and encroaching European colonial powers. It was then adjusted and re-adjusted but never abandoned, after every political upheaval ever since, always at the prodding if not behest of external actors. By tying the fate of the country to external interests, different for different confessional parties, the confessional system belies lofty proclamations by Lebanese politicians about “national independence” and voids the term of its meaning, as pointed out by Traboulsi.</p>
<p>The most recent version of the confessional setup, in place since the Taif Accord of October 1989 that ended the civil war, is a variation of a formula adopted in 1943 when France was forced to grant Lebanon its formal independence: the president of the republic is a Maronite Christian, the speaker of the parliament a Shia Muslim, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and parliament seats are equally divided between Christians and Muslims, with each of the two blocks proportionally divided among various Christian denominations and Muslim denominations. This effectively excludes all political parties that are organized on platforms other than confessional. Thus, for example, the Communist Party has never been represented in government in any capacity, even though it is the oldest political party in Lebanon (founded in 1924) and has had a strong presence in labor unions throughout its history.</p>
<p>The article below is translated from the Arabic and first appeared in the Lebanese daily as-Safir on Novembe 24,r 2006. Three days earlier, the minister of industry Pierre Amin Gemayel was assassinated in broad daylight in Beirut. The traditional parades on Lebanese Independence Day, which falls on 22 November, were canceled and a state funeral was held for Gemayel on November 23 instead, which turned into a massive anti-Syrian demonstration by several hundreds of thousands in downtown Beirut.</p>
<p>Who killed Gemayel? Walid Jumblat, a leader of the pro-government coalition, accuses the Syrian secret services. Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hizbullah and a main party in the anti-government coalition, points his finger in the opposite direction, observing that the main beneficiaries this time are Israel and the US, not Syria. Political assassinations have been far too common in Lebanon in recent years and usually carried out on orders from the outside. Jumblat and Nasrallah may be short on the whole truth, but both have valid reasons to suspect their external enemies. Jumblat is publicly reported to be on the assassination list of the Syrian government and his own father, Kamal Jumblat, was murdered on Syrian directives. Nasrallah is openly declared to be an assassination target by the Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and his predecessor at the head of Hizbullah, Abbas Musawi, was murdered in a raid by Israeli helicopter gunships. In these two cases, as with all other assassinations, the local victim came to represent an obstacle or the “fall guy” for the interests of powerful regional and international state actors. And the Lebanese body politic, instead of rallying to unite and defend itself in times of increased external dangers, is made to expose all its cleavages by the confessional system.</p>
<p>When a majority of the Lebanese unite, as when they overwhelmingly embraced resistance to the Israeli onslaught in July-August 2006, they do so at a spontaneous popular level and across confessional lines, largely ignoring confessional parties and their external sponsors that claim to represent their interests; that is, they do so despite the confessional system and against it. — Assaf Kfoury</p>
<p>CAUGHT BETWEEN FALSE NOTIONS OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE</p>
<p>by Fawwaz Traboulsi</p>
<p>In 1867, at another time of civil strife in Lebanon, a prominent Lebanese leader regretfully observed about the state of his own society that “tribes that are engaged in killing their own members for sectarian reasons deserve to be subjugated by foreign powers that come to the rescue of one faction against another” (Youssif Bey Karam addressing the Algerian emir Abdel Kader, then in exile in Damascus after his defeat by colonial France).</p>
<p>Today, as we watch confessional leaders in Lebanon holding forth on the meaning of national independence, we cannot but smile with sadness and hope for mercy, for ourselves and for those who believe these leaders and vote for them. They hold forth as if there is no connection between independence, or lack thereof, and the confessional system, the latter remaining the main factor in creating conditions of subservience to external factors in Lebanese political life.</p>
<p>From the time when Youssif Bey Karam took notice of the golden rule connecting internal sectarian divisions and external domination, the Lebanese have yet to come to their senses and desist from this odious practice. Confessional leaders keep looking to the outside, for protection against impending marginalization, for maintaining a dominant position, or for keeping a monopoly of wealth and power against other confessional leaders. Seeking external support usually results in blunting internal dialogues and concessions to domestic opponents, which often exacerbates civil conflicts and in turn facilitates further external interference.</p>
<p>We must recognize that Lebanese parties have sought arms or external help, or both, in order to impose themselves on a rigid and factious political (and socio-economic) system that treats citizens differently, with different rights and privileges. In recent decades, major components of Lebanese society have thus achieved political and socio-economic ascendancy by force of arms and reliance on outside powers. In this way, for example, we can view the bloody events of 1958, pitting the Christian-dominated government of the Lebanese president Camille Shamoun against a coalition of parties mostly representing Sunni (and, to a certain extent, Druze) elites, which resulted in the empowerment of the latter within the confessional power-sharing system. Similarly, we can view the civil war of 1975-1990 as the means by which Shia elites acquired greater participation in the system, leading to a more equitable overall balance between Christians and Muslims in government institutions.</p>
<p>The question of Lebanese independence can never be separated from the three-way interaction of regional and international forces in which Lebanon has been caught since the colonial fragmentation of the Levant in 1920. Time and again in this history, two main regional actors reach an understanding of sorts, usually facilitated by a third international actor, which in turn imposes a settlement on the Lebanese. An accord between two major regional parties, coupled with international sanction, then allows for finalizing a new local arrangement and providing it with guarantees.</p>
<p>Thus, in 1943, Egypt under prime minister Mustafa Nahas Pasha, supported by Britain eager to evict France regionally, reached an understanding with the Syrian national movement which had sought independence from France and union with Lebanon. In this context, an agreement was reached between Lebanon and Syria, and also between Beshara al-Khoury and Riad al-Solh — soon to be the president and the prime minister of Lebanon, respectively, after independence from France — which came to be known as the Lebanese National Pact. And again, in 1958, an understanding between the United States and the United Arab Republic under Gamal Abdel Nasser permitted for an end to the civil war in Lebanon and the selection of general Fuad Shehab as president in succession to Camille Shamoun, together with a renewal of the National Pact and an adjusted confessional setup.</p>
<p>So long as the logic of the confessional system prevails, only when conditions are lacking for an agreement between regional and international actors, as was the case after the October 1973 war, do the Lebanese proxies fail to reach a settlement among themselves and then resort to armed confrontation. Such was the explosion of 1975-1990. They then failed because some of their leaders continued to rely on the outside to extricate their parties from the internal stalemate or because they were under the illusion that the external party to which they were connected would likely prevail in the regional or international balance of forces.</p>
<p>There is no need to dwell long on the different discourses on national independence emanating from different Lebanese parties, all couched in the absolute and expressing inflexible ultimate goals. In an increasingly interdependent world where far larger countries, such as the Russian Federation for example with its enormous natural resources and industrial potential, still struggle to achieve a margin of independence via-a-vis the American empire, there are politicians in tiny Lebanon that will not accept anything short of an absolute notion of independence. They talk about complete independence in a country whose economy is almost entirely dependent on the outside, engaged as it is in exporting most of its labor force and importing virtually all material goods, whose national debt is nearly three times its annual gross domestic product (the highest ratio for any country in the world), and where confessional parties are increasingly made to rely on, and do the bidding for, their respective external allies.</p>
<p>Let us, more concretely, consider the question of Lebanon’s independence in the context of current regional circumstances. The United States, now bogged down in a bloody occupation in Iraq, is scrambling for new options to realign its policies in the region and cut its losses, especially after the setbacks of the Republican Party in the most recent midterm elections. American policies are now less predictable and will continue to shift in coming months. Some in Washington still suggest a more aggressive approach to Iran, including bombing of its nuclear installations, but others counsel engaging Iran and prodding it to play a special regional role that will help extricate US troops from the Iraqi quagmire. Simultaneously, we are witnessing a complex diplomatic dance between Washington and Damascus, at times aiming at distancing Syria from Iran and encouraging it to play a “positive” role in Iraq, but at other times accusing Syria of terrorism and threatening to bring it to accounts in the International Tribunal set up to pursue Rafiq Hariri’s killers.</p>
<p>In such circumstances, which are bound to affect the entire region in ways that are difficult to foresee, should Lebanese parties not call for a truce in their internal show of force and take note of the surrounding storms? Should they not take pause and stop betting on illusory victories against each other? Should the little wounded country that is Lebanon not be navigated cautiously through these regional storms? Is it not utter foolishness on the part of some Lebanese players to presume there are two sides — one American-Israeli and one Iranian-Syrian — and one of the two must be joined? Should they not recognize that, in order to prepare themselves for external dangers, there is only one thing that they can truly control: their own internal affairs?</p>
<p>Till now we have lost the battle for independence twice, or more precisely, we have lost two battles for independence in a little more than a year. On the one hand, the leaders of the 2005 independence movement against Syrian domination have forgotten the continuing Israeli threat and decided to put their trust in what appears to them the juggernaut of the American empire after September 11. On the other hand, the leaders of the May 2000 liberation of the South from Israeli occupation and the July 2006 resistance to Israeli aggression have failed to convince the rest of the Lebanese that they can act independently of Syrian priorities. The negotiations for a government of national unity broke down because each of the two camps sought to block the dictates of the other camp’s external ally. The two camps thus acted as if Lebanese policy and decision are fated to follow external dictates. And both camps demonstrated that their “independence” is a total sham.</p>
<p>I would like to think that the murder of Pierre Amin Gemayel was the result of the failure to recognize this sham independence. “In times of political turmoil, save your head,” the saying goes. This is not just a benevolent wise saying for the little wounded country, but the ultimate wisdom. Lebanon did not succeed in saving the head of Pierre Amin Gemayel. Will his murder contribute to saving Lebanon’s head?</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | introductory note assaf khoury little country exposed ever political storms east mediterranean following article historian longtime political commentator fawwaz traboulsi explains dangers faced lebanon today part result confessional system system always exist lebanese ordained live historically given lebanese communities levant existed hundreds years confessionalism relatively recent invention institutional form government peculiarly factious powersharing formula based religious denominations first introduced second half 19th century partly dictated balance contest declining ottoman empire encroaching european colonial powers adjusted readjusted never abandoned every political upheaval ever since always prodding behest external actors tying fate country external interests different different confessional parties confessional system belies lofty proclamations lebanese politicians national independence voids term meaning pointed traboulsi recent version confessional setup place since taif accord october 1989 ended civil war variation formula adopted 1943 france forced grant lebanon formal independence president republic maronite christian speaker parliament shia muslim prime minister sunni muslim parliament seats equally divided christians muslims two blocks proportionally divided among various christian denominations muslim denominations effectively excludes political parties organized platforms confessional thus example communist party never represented government capacity even though oldest political party lebanon founded 1924 strong presence labor unions throughout history article translated arabic first appeared lebanese daily assafir novembe 24r 2006 three days earlier minister industry pierre amin gemayel assassinated broad daylight beirut traditional parades lebanese independence day falls 22 november canceled state funeral held gemayel november 23 instead turned massive antisyrian demonstration several hundreds thousands downtown beirut killed gemayel walid jumblat leader progovernment coalition accuses syrian secret services hassan nasrallah head hizbullah main party antigovernment coalition points finger opposite direction observing main beneficiaries time israel us syria political assassinations far common lebanon recent years usually carried orders outside jumblat nasrallah may short whole truth valid reasons suspect external enemies jumblat publicly reported assassination list syrian government father kamal jumblat murdered syrian directives nasrallah openly declared assassination target israeli prime minister ehud olmert predecessor head hizbullah abbas musawi murdered raid israeli helicopter gunships two cases assassinations local victim came represent obstacle fall guy interests powerful regional international state actors lebanese body politic instead rallying unite defend times increased external dangers made expose cleavages confessional system majority lebanese unite overwhelmingly embraced resistance israeli onslaught julyaugust 2006 spontaneous popular level across confessional lines largely ignoring confessional parties external sponsors claim represent interests despite confessional system assaf kfoury caught false notions national independence fawwaz traboulsi 1867 another time civil strife lebanon prominent lebanese leader regretfully observed state society tribes engaged killing members sectarian reasons deserve subjugated foreign powers come rescue one faction another youssif bey karam addressing algerian emir abdel kader exile damascus defeat colonial france today watch confessional leaders lebanon holding forth meaning national independence smile sadness hope mercy believe leaders vote hold forth connection independence lack thereof confessional system latter remaining main factor creating conditions subservience external factors lebanese political life time youssif bey karam took notice golden rule connecting internal sectarian divisions external domination lebanese yet come senses desist odious practice confessional leaders keep looking outside protection impending marginalization maintaining dominant position keeping monopoly wealth power confessional leaders seeking external support usually results blunting internal dialogues concessions domestic opponents often exacerbates civil conflicts turn facilitates external interference must recognize lebanese parties sought arms external help order impose rigid factious political socioeconomic system treats citizens differently different rights privileges recent decades major components lebanese society thus achieved political socioeconomic ascendancy force arms reliance outside powers way example view bloody events 1958 pitting christiandominated government lebanese president camille shamoun coalition parties mostly representing sunni certain extent druze elites resulted empowerment latter within confessional powersharing system similarly view civil war 19751990 means shia elites acquired greater participation system leading equitable overall balance christians muslims government institutions question lebanese independence never separated threeway interaction regional international forces lebanon caught since colonial fragmentation levant 1920 time history two main regional actors reach understanding sorts usually facilitated third international actor turn imposes settlement lebanese accord two major regional parties coupled international sanction allows finalizing new local arrangement providing guarantees thus 1943 egypt prime minister mustafa nahas pasha supported britain eager evict france regionally reached understanding syrian national movement sought independence france union lebanon context agreement reached lebanon syria also beshara alkhoury riad alsolh soon president prime minister lebanon respectively independence france came known lebanese national pact 1958 understanding united states united arab republic gamal abdel nasser permitted end civil war lebanon selection general fuad shehab president succession camille shamoun together renewal national pact adjusted confessional setup long logic confessional system prevails conditions lacking agreement regional international actors case october 1973 war lebanese proxies fail reach settlement among resort armed confrontation explosion 19751990 failed leaders continued rely outside extricate parties internal stalemate illusion external party connected would likely prevail regional international balance forces need dwell long different discourses national independence emanating different lebanese parties couched absolute expressing inflexible ultimate goals increasingly interdependent world far larger countries russian federation example enormous natural resources industrial potential still struggle achieve margin independence viaavis american empire politicians tiny lebanon accept anything short absolute notion independence talk complete independence country whose economy almost entirely dependent outside engaged exporting labor force importing virtually material goods whose national debt nearly three times annual gross domestic product highest ratio country world confessional parties increasingly made rely bidding respective external allies let us concretely consider question lebanons independence context current regional circumstances united states bogged bloody occupation iraq scrambling new options realign policies region cut losses especially setbacks republican party recent midterm elections american policies less predictable continue shift coming months washington still suggest aggressive approach iran including bombing nuclear installations others counsel engaging iran prodding play special regional role help extricate us troops iraqi quagmire simultaneously witnessing complex diplomatic dance washington damascus times aiming distancing syria iran encouraging play positive role iraq times accusing syria terrorism threatening bring accounts international tribunal set pursue rafiq hariris killers circumstances bound affect entire region ways difficult foresee lebanese parties call truce internal show force take note surrounding storms take pause stop betting illusory victories little wounded country lebanon navigated cautiously regional storms utter foolishness part lebanese players presume two sides one americanisraeli one iraniansyrian one two must joined recognize order prepare external dangers one thing truly control internal affairs till lost battle independence twice precisely lost two battles independence little year one hand leaders 2005 independence movement syrian domination forgotten continuing israeli threat decided put trust appears juggernaut american empire september 11 hand leaders may 2000 liberation south israeli occupation july 2006 resistance israeli aggression failed convince rest lebanese act independently syrian priorities negotiations government national unity broke two camps sought block dictates camps external ally two camps thus acted lebanese policy decision fated follow external dictates camps demonstrated independence total sham would like think murder pierre amin gemayel result failure recognize sham independence times political turmoil save head saying goes benevolent wise saying little wounded country ultimate wisdom lebanon succeed saving head pierre amin gemayel murder contribute saving lebanons head 160 160 160 160 | 1,158 |
<p>Reza Marashi is the Research Director at the National Iranian American Council and previously served in the Office of Iranian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.</p>
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<p /> AARON MATÉ: It's the Real News. I'm Aaron Maté.
<p /> President Trump has made it official: He's decertifying the Iran nuclear deal to Congress.
<p />President Trump: We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror, and the very real threat of Iran's nuclear breakout. That is why I am directing my administration to work closely with Congress and our allies to address the deal's many serious flaws so that the Iranian regime can never threaten the world with nuclear weapons. In the event we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated. It is under continuous review and our participation can be canceled by me, as President, at any time.
<p />AARON MATÉ: Now, this means Trump isn't directly killing the Iran nuclear deal, but he's giving Congress the opportunity to do so, and that isn't all. Trump also announced actions targeting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a move with far-reaching implications.
<p /> Joining me now is Reza Marashi, Research Director at the National Iranian American Council. Reza, welcome. I guess I'd like to hear first what you thought was most important about Trump's comments today and your thoughts on them.
<p />REZA MARASHI: There was so many ... It was hard to keep up with all the fibs and deceptions that he weaved into his remarks with such speed and tenacity, but I think two things stood out to me above all else. One, he's, in effect, trying to kill the Iran nuclear deal; and, two, he's eliminating all possibility of taking the U.S. and Iran off of a collision course. There's no channels for dialogue and communication. He's clearly demonstrated that he's not interested in dialogue and communication, and that really only leaves one potential alternative.
<p />AARON MATÉ: And that is?
<p />REZA MARASHI: That's a military confrontation imposed by the United States.
<p />AARON MATÉ: Right. So, in terms of that clip where we just heard from him, he said that, essentially, unless the deal is reworked to my liking, I have the power to kill it. What does he mean there, and what is the implication of that?
<p />REZA MARASHI: Well, the implication is a total erosion of American credibility because the deal was crafted and constructed by seven different countries in addition to the United Nations and the European Union. As a result, if the Trump administration tries to strong arm all other signatories to this deal into accepting its version of it with no consultation, no feedback, no prior approval, then all it's doing is isolating the United States at the end of the day, and the longer term impact of that, as I alluded to when I first started making these remarks to your question, is who in their right mind would enter into any kind of diplomatic agreement with the United States when they see this can be the end result with a snap of a finger, or at any whim?
<p />AARON MATÉ: Right. On this point about the only path this leading towards being war, I want to be clear it's not as if this is a mutual thing, right? It's often said that unless the Iran nuclear deal was made, that the inevitable result would've been military conflict, but it's not as if this was both sides saying that. Iran has been calling for talks with the U.S. long before the nuclear deal started, and they made overtures that were rejected under both Bush and Obama. So, when you say that this could lead to military conflict, you're referring to basically one side imposing that conflict, right?
<p />REZA MARASHI: Yeah, and I think I actually used the words "imposed by the United States" when I answered your original question. Iran has no appetite or interest for a war with the United States. The U.S. and Iran have very real differences, very real disagreements on a variety of different issues, but this nuclear deal was supposed to be the foundation from which dialogue on those additional issues, the additional points of contention, could grow in an attempt to resolve them over time.
<p /> Now, the clock ran out on the Obama administration, and they weren't able to resolve the multitude of problems, but the foundation, being the nuclear deal, still existed. It was inherited by the Trump administration, and from the very outset, they've disregarded it as this invaluable tool, this gift to Iran. And as much as they tried to say that, the rest of the world, including our closest allies in Europe, continued to make points to the contrary, emphasizing the value of the deal and the fact that it wasn't a deal just between Iran and the United States. It was, in fact, a deal between Iran and the international community.
<p />AARON MATÉ: You know, when Trump was speaking about the deal, one of those point of contention was that if not for the nuclear deal, he said, then the Iranian regime would've collapsed. That it was basically nearing its end, but he suggested that Obama's deal with it saved it from collapse. But it's actually quite the opposite. The great book by your colleague at the National Iranian American Council, Trita Parsi, called 'Losing an Enemy.' He reveals, actually, that part of the reason that the Obama administration made this nuclear deal is that they calculated that their sanctions, the harsh sanctions that they were imposing on Iran, weren't going to be able to break the Iranian regime's will fast enough before Iran could potentially have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons. So that's why they went ahead and made a deal with them.
<p />REZA MARASHI: That's absolutely right, and those assessments, by the way, that the Obama administration utilized to make the decision, "Well, maybe we should negotiate now before our leverage evaporates," [inaudible 00:06:05] those weren't political assessments made by Obama administration official political appointees. Those were assessments that were being provided by the intelligence community, the military, the Treasury Department, the State Department ... Basically career government officials that don't cycle in and out depending on which political party is in power.
<p /> So, not only was it a dishonest, disingenuous remark on the part of the Trump administration, it also highlights the hyper-aggressive, unrealistic nature of Trump administration policy.
<p /> If I can be afforded to just give you one quick example, we are sitting here saying we need to be aggressive and have a military-oriented posture towards Iran because diplomacy hasn't worked. Diplomacy was tried in earnest for a handful of years that can be counted on one hand, and yet we've been fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for over a decade, and nobody's making the argument that because we haven't reached an inflection point where military power has produced success in these two countries, we need to pull out. They're saying, in fact, we need more military confrontation in these countries.
<p /> So, it just kind of goes to show how this administration, not only on the issue of Iran, but really across the board, has abandoned diplomacy as a valued tool in the American national security toolkit.
<p />AARON MATÉ: Right. And speaking of national security, in the service of confronting Iran, they also appear to be softening their stance on two of the biggest threats to Americans around the world, and to everyone basically in general, which is Al Qaeda and ISIS. The reason I say that is because there was a stunning passage inside this release last night by the White House of Trump's strategy ahead of the speech today. He didn't say this in the speech today, but this was in a White House strategy document that they released last night to preview Trump's speech today. This is what they say:
<p /> "Over the last decade and a half, U.S. policy has also consistently prioritized the immediate threat of Sunni extremist organizations over the longer term threat of Iranian backed militancy."
<p /> And they go on to call that a mistake, saying they won't repeat these mistakes any longer. So, they don't identify who these Sunni groups are, but it's very obvious who they're talking about. They're talking about groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS, who Iran, in fact, has been fighting. And the suggestion there is that Iranian backed groups are more of a threat than Al Qaeda and ISIS.
<p />REZA MARASHI: Yeah, and it couldn't be further from the truth. I remember right towards the end of the Obama administration, John Kerry was secretly, inappropriately recording. He was talking to a variety of Syrian opposition groups, and they asked him why we weren't going after Hezbollah more vigorously inside of Syria the same way that we were going after ISIS, for example. John Kerry said very plainly, "Hezbollah's not plotting attacks on the United States, and Hezbollah's not actively trying to kill Americans." And you can't say the same about Al Qaeda and ISIS.
<p /> So, I would argue that it's a dereliction of duty on the part of Donald Trump and his closest advisors to prioritize the threat that Iran's militias and allies in the region pose. That's a geopolitical threat. That's not a threat on the homeland. That's not putting American lives at risk the same kind of way that ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other Sunni-backed terrorist groups, who are actively plotting against the United States ... It boggles the mind.
<p />AARON MATÉ: Yeah, and the double irony of the fact that in Iran, it's been Iranian-backed militias that have helped the U.S. defeat some of the Sunni extremist groups that the U.S. has been trying to fight over these many years of occupation.
<p /> Finally, if this isn't about actually fighting terrorism, what, then, to you is this about? Someone like Noam Chomsky makes the argument that the reason the U.S. and, of course, Israel want to confront Iran in this way is because they don't want a deterrent to their use of force in the Middle East.
<p />REZA MARASHI: I think Professor Chomsky's definitely onto something. I don't disagree with him at all. I think I would perhaps just frame it a little bit differently.
<p /> I think the issue ... What Professor Chomsky outlined is a critical issue, but I would say that the issue is since the end of World War II, the United States has filled a power vacuum in the Middle East, and we've set up these rules of the game. And if you play by our rules of the game ... If you're a Saudi Arabia, a Jordan, an Israel ... We kind of turn a blind eye to the way you treat your own people. Human rights abuses, sponsorship of terrorism, you name it. But if you oppose American hegemony in the Middle East, if you're the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Assad's Syria, Gaddafi's Libya ... What do all of these countries have in common? These are the countries that we consistently talk about war and regime change with. These are the countries that are constantly in the penalty box.
<p /> Short of, it would appear now, according to Donald Trump's policy ... Short Iran capitulating to the United States and completely reorienting the way that its foreign policy and national security works, with no negotiation, no diplomacy, no compromise, no dialogue ... Just outright capitulation, then the United States and Iran are on track towards a military confrontation. And it's the responsibility of the American president to explain to the American people why he's putting us on the warpath, and we didn't hear anything along those lines in his speech today.
<p />AARON MATÉ: We have to leave it there. Reza Marashi is Research Director at the National Iranian American Council. Reza, thank you.
<p />REZA MARASHI: Thank you.
<p />AARON MATÉ: And thank you for joining us on The Real News. | true | 4 | reza marashi research director national iranian american council previously served office iranian affairs us department state aaron matÉ real news im aaron maté president trump made official hes decertifying iran nuclear deal congress president trump continue path whose predictable conclusion violence terror real threat irans nuclear breakout directing administration work closely congress allies address deals many serious flaws iranian regime never threaten world nuclear weapons event able reach solution working congress allies agreement terminated continuous review participation canceled president time aaron matÉ means trump isnt directly killing iran nuclear deal hes giving congress opportunity isnt trump also announced actions targeting irans islamic revolutionary guard corps move farreaching implications joining reza marashi research director national iranian american council reza welcome guess id like hear first thought important trumps comments today thoughts reza marashi many hard keep fibs deceptions weaved remarks speed tenacity think two things stood else one hes effect trying kill iran nuclear deal two hes eliminating possibility taking us iran collision course theres channels dialogue communication hes clearly demonstrated hes interested dialogue communication really leaves one potential alternative aaron matÉ reza marashi thats military confrontation imposed united states aaron matÉ right terms clip heard said essentially unless deal reworked liking power kill mean implication reza marashi well implication total erosion american credibility deal crafted constructed seven different countries addition united nations european union result trump administration tries strong arm signatories deal accepting version consultation feedback prior approval isolating united states end day longer term impact alluded first started making remarks question right mind would enter kind diplomatic agreement united states see end result snap finger whim aaron matÉ right point path leading towards war want clear mutual thing right often said unless iran nuclear deal made inevitable result wouldve military conflict sides saying iran calling talks us long nuclear deal started made overtures rejected bush obama say could lead military conflict youre referring basically one side imposing conflict right reza marashi yeah think actually used words imposed united states answered original question iran appetite interest war united states us iran real differences real disagreements variety different issues nuclear deal supposed foundation dialogue additional issues additional points contention could grow attempt resolve time clock ran obama administration werent able resolve multitude problems foundation nuclear deal still existed inherited trump administration outset theyve disregarded invaluable tool gift iran much tried say rest world including closest allies europe continued make points contrary emphasizing value deal fact wasnt deal iran united states fact deal iran international community aaron matÉ know trump speaking deal one point contention nuclear deal said iranian regime wouldve collapsed basically nearing end suggested obamas deal saved collapse actually quite opposite great book colleague national iranian american council trita parsi called losing enemy reveals actually part reason obama administration made nuclear deal calculated sanctions harsh sanctions imposing iran werent going able break iranian regimes fast enough iran could potentially capacity develop nuclear weapons thats went ahead made deal reza marashi thats absolutely right assessments way obama administration utilized make decision well maybe negotiate leverage evaporates inaudible 000605 werent political assessments made obama administration official political appointees assessments provided intelligence community military treasury department state department basically career government officials dont cycle depending political party power dishonest disingenuous remark part trump administration also highlights hyperaggressive unrealistic nature trump administration policy afforded give one quick example sitting saying need aggressive militaryoriented posture towards iran diplomacy hasnt worked diplomacy tried earnest handful years counted one hand yet weve fighting wars iraq afghanistan decade nobodys making argument havent reached inflection point military power produced success two countries need pull theyre saying fact need military confrontation countries kind goes show administration issue iran really across board abandoned diplomacy valued tool american national security toolkit aaron matÉ right speaking national security service confronting iran also appear softening stance two biggest threats americans around world everyone basically general al qaeda isis reason say stunning passage inside release last night white house trumps strategy ahead speech today didnt say speech today white house strategy document released last night preview trumps speech today say last decade half us policy also consistently prioritized immediate threat sunni extremist organizations longer term threat iranian backed militancy go call mistake saying wont repeat mistakes longer dont identify sunni groups obvious theyre talking theyre talking groups like al qaeda isis iran fact fighting suggestion iranian backed groups threat al qaeda isis reza marashi yeah couldnt truth remember right towards end obama administration john kerry secretly inappropriately recording talking variety syrian opposition groups asked werent going hezbollah vigorously inside syria way going isis example john kerry said plainly hezbollahs plotting attacks united states hezbollahs actively trying kill americans cant say al qaeda isis would argue dereliction duty part donald trump closest advisors prioritize threat irans militias allies region pose thats geopolitical threat thats threat homeland thats putting american lives risk kind way isis al qaeda sunnibacked terrorist groups actively plotting united states boggles mind aaron matÉ yeah double irony fact iran iranianbacked militias helped us defeat sunni extremist groups us trying fight many years occupation finally isnt actually fighting terrorism someone like noam chomsky makes argument reason us course israel want confront iran way dont want deterrent use force middle east reza marashi think professor chomskys definitely onto something dont disagree think would perhaps frame little bit differently think issue professor chomsky outlined critical issue would say issue since end world war ii united states filled power vacuum middle east weve set rules game play rules game youre saudi arabia jordan israel kind turn blind eye way treat people human rights abuses sponsorship terrorism name oppose american hegemony middle east youre islamic republic iran saddam husseins iraq assads syria gaddafis libya countries common countries consistently talk war regime change countries constantly penalty box short would appear according donald trumps policy short iran capitulating united states completely reorienting way foreign policy national security works negotiation diplomacy compromise dialogue outright capitulation united states iran track towards military confrontation responsibility american president explain american people hes putting us warpath didnt hear anything along lines speech today aaron matÉ leave reza marashi research director national iranian american council reza thank reza marashi thank aaron matÉ thank joining us real news | 1,031 |
<p>“I am living proof of what happens when biotech buys a university. The first thing that goes is independent research. The university is a delicate organism. When its mission and orientation are compromised, it dies. Corporate biotechnology is killing this university.”</p>
<p>Ignacio Chapela, interview by John Ross Feb. 2004</p>
<p>Tenure, a reward of permanent employment given to exceptional university professors, is an essential aspect of academia. The American Association of University Professors defines tenure as “a means to certain ends; specifically: (1) freedom of teaching and research and of extramural activities, and (2) a sufficient degree of economic security to make the profession attractive to men and women of ability. Freedom and economic security, hence, tenure, are indispensable to the success of an institution in fulfilling its obligations to its students and to society.”</p>
<p>This status allows researchers to ask controversial questions without fear of losing their livelihood or academic opportunities. Tenure is meant to encourage free thought and critical thinking, but the case of Ignacio Chapela, an assistant professor in the Environmental Science Department at the University of California-Berkeley, it was used as a weapon. According to those who question the increasingly cozy relationships between supposedly public universities and corporations, this was not an isolated case, but a warning to other professors not to oppose private funders and an indication of a growing trend.</p>
<p>In 1998, pharmaceutical giant Novartis signed a $25,000,000 deal with Berkeley’s College of Natural Sciences, without the consultation of the faculty. In exchange for the funding, Novartis gained exclusive patent rights to one-third of all of CNS’s research. Among other perks, the contract explicitly grants Novartis direct influence over the specific areas of the college’s research. Ignacio Chapela, along with several other colleagues, criticized the deal, warning that the influence of the world’s second largest pharmaceutical corporation would dictate priorities. The legitimacy of this concern was quickly justified.</p>
<p>Illicit Exposure</p>
<p>Chapela’s long-standing relationship with the agricultural community of Oaxaca, Mexico began when he helped set up a laboratory that facilitated the export of profitable Shitake mushrooms to Japan. While examining the native maize population in Oaxaca in October of 2000, one of Chapela’s graduate students, David Quist, made a shocking discovery. Despite a ban imposed by the Mexican government upon genetically-engineered(GE) corn in the birth place of modern maize domestication, there was clear evidence of genetic contamination.</p>
<p>DNA, the fundamental genetic unit found in every living organism, is a biological fingerprint. The DNA of every organism holds a unique genetic code, making it useful in criminology and other legal matters, such as determining parenthood. In Mexico alone there are 59 distinct races of corn, each with large numbers of sub-varieties. The presence of DNA from genetically modified corn revealed by Quist’s discovery presented a serious threat to the biodiversity of the native species, because genetically-modified crops have the potential to cross-breed with native crops, altering the evolution of the entire population.</p>
<p>While indigenous farmers rushed to preserve their heritage by saving seeds and plants, Chapela and Quist began to investigate the source of the contamination. Since the Monsanto Corporation was the first company to incorporate biotechnology into agri-business, the researchers examined the Oaxacan maize for the presence of a particular, Monsanto-patented genetic sequence. In five out of seven samples, this turned out to be the case. Further tests indicated a match with synthetically-created DNA constructs manufactured by several corporations, including Berkeley’s funder, Novartis.</p>
<p>Genetically modified pollen can travel great distances via wind and water currents. It’s not uncommon for genes to cross between species through vectors such as viruses and bacteria. The factors contributing to gene flow are numerous and, at this point, non-computable. While the origins of Oaxaca’s maize contamination remain unclear, it is obvious that the ban on GE corn cultivation by the Mexican Department of Agriculture in 1998 had not been enough.</p>
<p>Retribution</p>
<p>Fearing that this discovery would not be taken lightly by the millions who eat corn tortillas 3 times a day, Ignacio Chapela was contacted by the director of Mexico’s bio-security commission, Dr. Fernando Ortiz Monasterio. Monasterio met Chapela in an abandoned building. In a scene reminiscent of a mafia movie, a furious Monasterio berated Chapela for exposing the biotech industry to a potentially disastrous backlash. “‘You have gotten yourself into some serious shit this time,” Monasterio reportedly shouted. “But you will not stop us — no one will stop us!”</p>
<p>In an attempt to save face, Monsanto hired the Bivings Group, a Washington PR firm. To discredit Chapela and Quist’s research, an e-mail criticizing their methods and findings was sent to the mailing list of AgBioWorld?, a major portal for the biotech industry. The supposed author of this e-mail, “Mary Murphy”, was soon revealed to be a fictional character created by someone “working for Bivings” or “clients using our services,” as Todd Zeigler, head of the PR firm’s online department, admitted in a BBC interview. This confession came as a result of an investigation by a British anti-GMO campaigner, Jonathan Matthews of the Norfolk Genetic Information Network, who traced the origin of the e-mail to a computer operated by Bivings.</p>
<p>Despite this revelation, serious damage had already been inflicted upon the legitimacy of Chapela and Quist’s research by “Murphy”’s critique. In response to the controversy created by this e-mail, Nature, a leading scientific journal, published the following notice in April 2002: “In light of these discussions and the diverse advice received, Nature has concluded that the evidence available is not sufficient to justify the publication of the (Chapela and Quist’s) paper. As the authors nevertheless wish to stand by the available evidence for their conclusions, we feel it best simply to make these circumstances clear, to publish the criticisms, the authors’ response and new data, and to allow our readers to judge the science for themselves.” Nature may have been reluctant to support the Berkeley scientists’ conclusions, but subsequent studies conducted by the Mexican Government (National Institute of Ecology, INE, and National Commission of Biodiversity) confirmed the presence of genes from transgenic maize within native crop populations.</p>
<p>The Tenure Battle</p>
<p>The process to grant Chapela tenure began promisingly with a favorable 32 to 1 vote within his department. Despite the merit of his work and the affirmation of his colleagues, his tenure approval stalled once it reached top-level administrators. With no feedback from the closed-door tenure committee, Chapela was convinced that “there is another set of criteria that counterweigh the strength of the case,” clearly implying the influence of biotech, the industry that had showered Berkeley with $25,000,000.</p>
<p>Last summer, Chapela protested the kowtowing of University administrators to private entities by moving his office, piece by piece, onto the lawn. In <a href="" type="internal">an online article published in CounterPunch</a> he explained his motivation for this action: “Beginning at 6 o’clock this morning, as I enter the final days of my contract as a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley, I intend to mark and celebrate them, by doing what I believe a professor in a public university must do: to further reason and understanding. For the brief time that remains of my terminal contract at Berkeley, I shall sit holding office hours, day and night, outside the doors of California Hall. This is the building housing the Budget Committee of the Academic Senate, and the office of the Chancellor, the two arms of our university governance in charge of my file.”</p>
<p>Chapela’s tenure decision remained in limbo for another 6 months, but eventually, last fall, a rejection was delivered by Chancellor Robert Berdahl. An uproar ensued as hundreds of letters supporting Chapela poured in to the Chancellor’s office. Many academics wrote to Berdahl, questioning his decision and demanding greater transparency in the tenure process. Recently, the Graduate Assembly of the University voted unanimously to further pressure Berdahl into exposing the factors contributing to his rejection. “We’re just being supportive of the transparency of the process,” Jessica Quindel, president of the Graduate Assembly, told The Daily Cal. “There’s been a lot of secrecy about this—we just want to know why he was denied tenure.”</p>
<p>This fall Berdahl’s term as Chancellor comes to an end. This change of administration has encouraged Chapela to fight for his tenure at Berkeley. The new Chancellor will have the power to reverse Berdahl’s decision, so there is still hope, but if Novartis has it’s way, Igancio Chapela’s days of unveiling biotech fallacies at Berkeley will soon be history.</p>
<p>Genetic engineering has taken place for hundreds of years by the farmers of the world. A fruit that tasted better then another was selected to be planted year after year increasing its abundance.</p>
<p>Others were artificially mated with each other to produce tastes and odors pleasant to our senses. The problem arises when profit coupled with irresponsible science dictates these choices rather than the producers and their particular needs. The giants of Biotech have no concern in the preservation of the biodiversity for future generations of animals and plants; they are looking to maximize their shareholder values next month or next year. The tenure system has also historically preserved the integrity of research conducted in the university, selecting the ripe minds and nurturing them over the years. Today both UC Berkeley and the global population have reached a critical turning point where the decisions concerning tenure and nourishment are dictated by capital.</p>
<p>If you are disturbed by corporate influence on a public university, especially concerning the safety GMOs, visit <a href="http://www.tenurejustice.org" type="external">www.tenurejustice.org</a> and take action now.</p>
<p>ALI TONAK is a volunteer with the <a href="http://www.indybay.org" type="external">San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center</a>and it’s monthly publication <a href="www.indybay.org/faultlines" type="external">Fault Lines.</a></p>
<p /> | true | 4 | living proof happens biotech buys university first thing goes independent research university delicate organism mission orientation compromised dies corporate biotechnology killing university ignacio chapela interview john ross feb 2004 tenure reward permanent employment given exceptional university professors essential aspect academia american association university professors defines tenure means certain ends specifically 1 freedom teaching research extramural activities 2 sufficient degree economic security make profession attractive men women ability freedom economic security hence tenure indispensable success institution fulfilling obligations students society status allows researchers ask controversial questions without fear losing livelihood academic opportunities tenure meant encourage free thought critical thinking case ignacio chapela assistant professor environmental science department university californiaberkeley used weapon according question increasingly cozy relationships supposedly public universities corporations isolated case warning professors oppose private funders indication growing trend 1998 pharmaceutical giant novartis signed 25000000 deal berkeleys college natural sciences without consultation faculty exchange funding novartis gained exclusive patent rights onethird cnss research among perks contract explicitly grants novartis direct influence specific areas colleges research ignacio chapela along several colleagues criticized deal warning influence worlds second largest pharmaceutical corporation would dictate priorities legitimacy concern quickly justified illicit exposure chapelas longstanding relationship agricultural community oaxaca mexico began helped set laboratory facilitated export profitable shitake mushrooms japan examining native maize population oaxaca october 2000 one chapelas graduate students david quist made shocking discovery despite ban imposed mexican government upon geneticallyengineeredge corn birth place modern maize domestication clear evidence genetic contamination dna fundamental genetic unit found every living organism biological fingerprint dna every organism holds unique genetic code making useful criminology legal matters determining parenthood mexico alone 59 distinct races corn large numbers subvarieties presence dna genetically modified corn revealed quists discovery presented serious threat biodiversity native species geneticallymodified crops potential crossbreed native crops altering evolution entire population indigenous farmers rushed preserve heritage saving seeds plants chapela quist began investigate source contamination since monsanto corporation first company incorporate biotechnology agribusiness researchers examined oaxacan maize presence particular monsantopatented genetic sequence five seven samples turned case tests indicated match syntheticallycreated dna constructs manufactured several corporations including berkeleys funder novartis genetically modified pollen travel great distances via wind water currents uncommon genes cross species vectors viruses bacteria factors contributing gene flow numerous point noncomputable origins oaxacas maize contamination remain unclear obvious ban ge corn cultivation mexican department agriculture 1998 enough retribution fearing discovery would taken lightly millions eat corn tortillas 3 times day ignacio chapela contacted director mexicos biosecurity commission dr fernando ortiz monasterio monasterio met chapela abandoned building scene reminiscent mafia movie furious monasterio berated chapela exposing biotech industry potentially disastrous backlash gotten serious shit time monasterio reportedly shouted stop us one stop us attempt save face monsanto hired bivings group washington pr firm discredit chapela quists research email criticizing methods findings sent mailing list agbioworld major portal biotech industry supposed author email mary murphy soon revealed fictional character created someone working bivings clients using services todd zeigler head pr firms online department admitted bbc interview confession came result investigation british antigmo campaigner jonathan matthews norfolk genetic information network traced origin email computer operated bivings despite revelation serious damage already inflicted upon legitimacy chapela quists research murphys critique response controversy created email nature leading scientific journal published following notice april 2002 light discussions diverse advice received nature concluded evidence available sufficient justify publication chapela quists paper authors nevertheless wish stand available evidence conclusions feel best simply make circumstances clear publish criticisms authors response new data allow readers judge science nature may reluctant support berkeley scientists conclusions subsequent studies conducted mexican government national institute ecology ine national commission biodiversity confirmed presence genes transgenic maize within native crop populations tenure battle process grant chapela tenure began promisingly favorable 32 1 vote within department despite merit work affirmation colleagues tenure approval stalled reached toplevel administrators feedback closeddoor tenure committee chapela convinced another set criteria counterweigh strength case clearly implying influence biotech industry showered berkeley 25000000 last summer chapela protested kowtowing university administrators private entities moving office piece piece onto lawn online article published counterpunch explained motivation action beginning 6 oclock morning enter final days contract faculty member university california berkeley intend mark celebrate believe professor public university must reason understanding brief time remains terminal contract berkeley shall sit holding office hours day night outside doors california hall building housing budget committee academic senate office chancellor two arms university governance charge file chapelas tenure decision remained limbo another 6 months eventually last fall rejection delivered chancellor robert berdahl uproar ensued hundreds letters supporting chapela poured chancellors office many academics wrote berdahl questioning decision demanding greater transparency tenure process recently graduate assembly university voted unanimously pressure berdahl exposing factors contributing rejection supportive transparency process jessica quindel president graduate assembly told daily cal theres lot secrecy thiswe want know denied tenure fall berdahls term chancellor comes end change administration encouraged chapela fight tenure berkeley new chancellor power reverse berdahls decision still hope novartis way igancio chapelas days unveiling biotech fallacies berkeley soon history genetic engineering taken place hundreds years farmers world fruit tasted better another selected planted year year increasing abundance others artificially mated produce tastes odors pleasant senses problem arises profit coupled irresponsible science dictates choices rather producers particular needs giants biotech concern preservation biodiversity future generations animals plants looking maximize shareholder values next month next year tenure system also historically preserved integrity research conducted university selecting ripe minds nurturing years today uc berkeley global population reached critical turning point decisions concerning tenure nourishment dictated capital disturbed corporate influence public university especially concerning safety gmos visit wwwtenurejusticeorg take action ali tonak volunteer san francisco bay area independent media centerand monthly publication fault lines | 933 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Campaign donations pay for more than political ads and should not be protected as free speech, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens told a Senate panel Wednesday in urging them to rein in the billions of dollars shaping elections.</p>
<p>The retired justice reminded lawmakers that political donations funded the burglary at the Watergate office complex under President Richard Nixon. That break-in at the Democratic National Committee is not speech, Stevens argued in a rare appearance of a former justice in the Senate.</p>
<p>“While money is used to finance speech, money is not speech. Speech is only one of the activities that are financed by campaign contributions and expenditures. Those financial activities should not receive precisely the same constitutional protections as speech itself,” Stevens said. “After all, campaign funds were used to finance the Watergate burglary, actions that clearly were not protected by the First Amendment.”</p>
<p>Stevens has been a critic of his former colleagues’ decisions that have opened the floodgates for unlimited donations and super PACs.</p>
<p>At issue are the millions of dollars that influence elections — if not determine their outcome — with various degrees of openness. Recent Supreme Court rulings have permitted individuals and corporations to write unlimited checks to independent political committees, while other groups can accept cash and disclose the donors’ identities months or years later, if ever.</p>
<p>“These tactics have no apparent purpose other than to conceal the sources of funds,” Federal Election Commission vice chairwoman Ann Ravel said.</p>
<p>Ravel was not testifying in her FEC role but in her capacity as a former chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the state’s version of the FEC that leveled a record $1 million fine against the Center to Protect Patient Rights and Americans for Responsible Leadership. Their recipient, the Small Business Action Committee PAC, also had to return millions of dollars in donations from those groups.</p>
<p>Democrats have criticized the new rules and those who take advantage of them, including some of their allies. Republicans, meanwhile, have embraced the system and used the rules to power well-funded groups such as Americans for Prosperity.</p>
<p>That group operates under rules that allow it to keep donors’ identities secret, unlike those who give to groups like the Republican National Committee. The conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch have backed Americans for Prosperity with millions, but understanding their impact in real time is impossible because they technically do not operate as political groups.</p>
<p>“Our democracy is at risk. That’s the problem here,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat who chairs the Senate Rules Committee that hosted the hearing.</p>
<p>But Republicans did not share that concern, especially as it relates to the Koch brothers.</p>
<p>“Let’s stop demonizing citizens who exercise their First Amendment rights,” said Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, the top Republican on the panel. “The First Amendment does not allow us to silence those who oppose us.”</p>
<p>Countered Democratic Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico: “Money and speech are the same thing? This is tortured logic.”</p>
<p>Schumer said the Senate this year would schedule a vote on Udall’s proposed constitutional amendment that would limit federal candidates’ ability to raise and spend money. The measure also would regulate and limit the ability of super PACs to impact elections.</p>
<p>Changes to the Constitution are difficult and the vote was more political than practical. The vote, however, would force Republicans to either defend unlimited money in campaigns or put them in the awkward position of condemning their allies.</p>
<p>Wednesday’s Senate Rules Committee hearing was the first since the Supreme Court’s ruling that lifted limits on how much total money individual donors can give to candidates. The court left in place a limit on how much individual candidates can take from each donor, but the justices cleared the way for donors to give the maximum amount to every candidate on the grounds that restrictions limit free speech rights.</p>
<p>Campaign donations pay for ads, of course. But that money also pays for polling, operatives’ salaries and offices — the nuts and bolts of a campaign operation that aren’t necessarily speech.</p>
<p>The Karl Rove-supported American Crossroads super PAC raised almost $5.2 million last month from three organizations and 21 individuals. The average donation was more than $218,000. The largest donation — $2 million — came from former Univision owner Jerry Perenchio. A trust tied to Oklahoma coal executive Joseph Craft III gave $500,000, as did Arkansas-based investment manager Warren Stephens and Kentucky-based self-storage mogul B. Wayne Hughes.</p>
<p>Fred Eychaner, the founder of Chicago-based Newsweb Corp., wrote a $4 million check to the Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic group with ties to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The group raised $11 million during the first three months of the year, including $2 million from James Simons, founder and chairman of investment firm Renaissance Technologies.</p>
<p>Copyright 2014 The Associated Press</p>
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<p>When thinking of the history of sports, the fan and non-fan alike usually think in terms of things like the home run records of Babe Ruth, Roger Maris and Barry Bonds; the multiple comeback victories of boxer Muhammad Ali; and the the legacy of football coaches Vince Lombardi and Bear Bryant.&#160; War, economics and racism rarely enter this thought process, primarily because those who write the histories either don’t think about these phenomena and their potential relevance or because they don’t think sports should be sullied with these more earthly matters.</p>
<p>Fortunately, sportswriter and activist Dave Zirin has written a book that could change this situation.&#160; Sports, argues Zirin in his soon to be released&#160; <a href="" type="internal">A People’s History of Sports in the United States</a>, does not stand outside of politics and its history.&#160; Indeed, it is often where the political conflicts of the day are most dramatically played out. &#160;And, conversely, it is often the wars resulting from these political conflicts that precipitate the spread of certain games.&#160; For example, baseball was popularized during the civil war as soldiers played it during lulls in the fighting and its popularity in the Caribbean and Japan can be traced to US servicemen teaching the conquered locals the game.</p>
<p>Of course, when the history of anything in the United States is discussed, the topic of race and racism will be present.&#160; Sports is not only no different, it is arguably the greatest element of that history.&#160; From the story of the boxer Jack Johnson, a black man who beat white men with regularity and without regret (and incurred the wrath of the legal system for his efforts), to the heroic pose of 1968 Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos, sports in the US is in large part the story of black men and women overcoming athletic competitors and societal racism.&#160; Most of us are familiar with the tale of Jackie Robinson’s entry into the previously all-white Major Leagues.&#160; We know about Branch Rickey choosing him not only for his athletic abilities but also because of his inner fortitude.&#160; It was a fortitude that enabled him to keep quiet in the face of racist players, fans and towns.&#160; What we don’t hear so much about is the anger he could barely contain and the fact that what he went through during his Major League career might very well have caused his death at 53.&#160; There are may stories similar to Robinson’s in US sports.&#160; Olympic runner Wilma Rudolph is an inspiration to many girls nowadays, but her road to Olympic glory was not easy.&#160; Besides overcoming polio, she had to overcome the racist institutions of the US south and the prejudices of Olympic officials.</p>
<p>Appropriately, a good deal of the history Zirin relates occurred during the 1960s.&#160; This decade saw sports in the United States begin to take on the role it plays in today’s culture.&#160; In other words, the 1960s saw the rise of sports as a multibillion dollar entertainment venue.&#160; Those years were also the most contentious US historical period since the period before, during and immediately after the Civil War.&#160; Like the Civil War, the primary reason for the fissures split open in the 1960s was the racist treatment of African-Americans.&#160; The conflagration of sports’ rise to the top of the entertainment heap and the struggle for black liberation and equal rights created a situation where sports figures became political figures as well.&#160; Perhaps none is as well-known as Muhammad Ali.&#160; Naturally, Zirin spends a few pages on the boxer and freedom fighter’s story.&#160; After all, Ali’s story is not only about sport.&#160; It is also about racism, dignity, the nature of imperial war, and the struggle of colonized peoples against their oppressor.</p>
<p>Speaking of the latter, there is no sports photo I can think of that represents that struggle better than the photo of the aforementioned stand by US Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos, their fists raised in defiance and pride.&#160; I still recall watching that moment on television back in 1968.&#160; My adolescent mind felt a combination of shock and awe.&#160; Shock that these men were actually defying the racist powers of Avery Brundage’s International Olympic Committee and awe in the face of their certainty and strength.&#160; After seeing that awards ceremony, I knew that I had to do more than just be against racism and the war in Vietnam.&#160; I had to do something about it.&#160; Zirin’s telling of the circumstances and planning that went into the movement which convinced Smith and Carlos to take the stand in such a way does justice to the men, the history and the action itself.</p>
<p>Writing a history is a complex endeavor.&#160; One debates what to include and what to leave out while simultaneously attempting to write something that will reach the largest possible audience.&#160; The people’s history is no different.&#160; Naturally, there is an acceptance by the author and the reader that any history titled a people’s history is not pretending to be objective like so many standard histories.&#160; All history is, after all, partisan.&#160; Zirin has composed a wonderfully written, well-researched, and very readable story of US sport and its meaning to the oppressed and those who fight with them against the rulers.&#160; Like any sports book, there are stories of glory and prowess.&#160; Unlike the standard sports tale, however, these tales of glory are not only about individual struggles but also about the struggles of those individuals on the court and track; in the ball park and in the ring and their meaning to the people from whence the athletes come.&#160;&#160; <a href="" type="internal">A People’s History of Sports in the United States</a> is about the playing field and its role in the struggle for freedom and equal rights.&#160; It is about the rulers attempts to keep sport safely in the realm of nationalism and the status quo and the struggle of some athletes to make their efforts much more than that.&#160; Zirin makes it clear that it is a also a history that continues to be written.</p>
<p>RON JACOBS is author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841678/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground</a>, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs’ essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch’s collection on music, art and sex, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Serpents in the Garden</a>. His first novel, <a href="" type="internal">Short Order Frame Up,</a> is published by Mainstay Press. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:rjacobs3625@charter.net" type="external">rjacobs3625@charter.net</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | thinking history sports fan nonfan alike usually think terms things like home run records babe ruth roger maris barry bonds multiple comeback victories boxer muhammad ali legacy football coaches vince lombardi bear bryant160 war economics racism rarely enter thought process primarily write histories either dont think phenomena potential relevance dont think sports sullied earthly matters fortunately sportswriter activist dave zirin written book could change situation160 sports argues zirin soon released160 peoples history sports united states stand outside politics history160 indeed often political conflicts day dramatically played 160and conversely often wars resulting political conflicts precipitate spread certain games160 example baseball popularized civil war soldiers played lulls fighting popularity caribbean japan traced us servicemen teaching conquered locals game course history anything united states discussed topic race racism present160 sports different arguably greatest element history160 story boxer jack johnson black man beat white men regularity without regret incurred wrath legal system efforts heroic pose 1968 olympians tommie smith john carlos sports us large part story black men women overcoming athletic competitors societal racism160 us familiar tale jackie robinsons entry previously allwhite major leagues160 know branch rickey choosing athletic abilities also inner fortitude160 fortitude enabled keep quiet face racist players fans towns160 dont hear much anger could barely contain fact went major league career might well caused death 53160 may stories similar robinsons us sports160 olympic runner wilma rudolph inspiration many girls nowadays road olympic glory easy160 besides overcoming polio overcome racist institutions us south prejudices olympic officials appropriately good deal history zirin relates occurred 1960s160 decade saw sports united states begin take role plays todays culture160 words 1960s saw rise sports multibillion dollar entertainment venue160 years also contentious us historical period since period immediately civil war160 like civil war primary reason fissures split open 1960s racist treatment africanamericans160 conflagration sports rise top entertainment heap struggle black liberation equal rights created situation sports figures became political figures well160 perhaps none wellknown muhammad ali160 naturally zirin spends pages boxer freedom fighters story160 alis story sport160 also racism dignity nature imperial war struggle colonized peoples oppressor speaking latter sports photo think represents struggle better photo aforementioned stand us olympians tommie smith john carlos fists raised defiance pride160 still recall watching moment television back 1968160 adolescent mind felt combination shock awe160 shock men actually defying racist powers avery brundages international olympic committee awe face certainty strength160 seeing awards ceremony knew racism war vietnam160 something it160 zirins telling circumstances planning went movement convinced smith carlos take stand way justice men history action writing history complex endeavor160 one debates include leave simultaneously attempting write something reach largest possible audience160 peoples history different160 naturally acceptance author reader history titled peoples history pretending objective like many standard histories160 history partisan160 zirin composed wonderfully written wellresearched readable story us sport meaning oppressed fight rulers160 like sports book stories glory prowess160 unlike standard sports tale however tales glory individual struggles also struggles individuals court track ball park ring meaning people whence athletes come160160 peoples history sports united states playing field role struggle freedom equal rights160 rulers attempts keep sport safely realm nationalism status quo struggle athletes make efforts much that160 zirin makes clear also history continues written ron jacobs author way wind blew history weather underground republished verso jacobs essay big bill broonzy featured counterpunchs collection music art sex serpents garden first novel short order frame published mainstay press reached rjacobs3625charternet 160 160 160 160 ad 160 160 160 160 160 | 568 |
<p>I have come to the conclusion that capitalism is successful primarily because it can impose the majority of the costs associated with its economic activities on outside parties and on the environment. In other words, capitalists make profits because their costs are externalized and born by others. In the US, society and the environment have to pick up the tab produced by capitalist activity.</p>
<p>In the past when critics raised the question about external costs, that is, costs that are external to the company although produced by the company’s activities, economists answered that it was not really a problem, because those harmed by the activity could be compensated for the damages that they suffered. This statement was intended to reinforce the claim that capitalism served the general welfare. However, the extremely primitive nature of American property rights meant that rarely would those suffering harm be compensated. The apologists for capitalism saved the system in the abstract, but not in reality.</p>
<p>My recent article, “ <a href="" type="internal">The Destruction of Inlet Beach</a>,” made it clear to me that very little, if any, of the real estate development underway would be profitable if the external costs imposed on existing property holders had to be compensated.</p>
<p>Consider just a few examples. When a taller house is constructed in front of one of less height, the Gulf view of the latter is preempted. The damage to the property value of the house whose view has been blocked is immense. Would the developer build such a tall structure if the disadvantaged existing property had to be compensated for the decline in its value?</p>
<p>When a house is built that can sleep 20 or 30 people next to a family’s vacation home or residence, the noise and congestion destroys the family’s ability to enjoy their own property. If they had to be compensated for their loss, would the hotel, disquised as a “single family dwelling” have been built?</p>
<p>Walton County, Florida, is so unconcerned about these vital issues that it has permitted construction of structures that can accommodate 30 people, but provide only three parking spaces. Where do the rental guests park? How many residents will find themselves blocked in their own driveways or with cars parked on their lawns?</p>
<p>As real estate developers build up congestion, travel times are extended. What formerly was a 5 minute drive from Inlet Beach to Seaside along 30-A can now take 45 minutes during summer and holidays, possibly longer. Residents and visitors pay the price of the developers’ profits in lost time. The road is a two-lane road that cannot be widened. Yet Walton County’s planning department took no account of the gridlock that would emerge.</p>
<p>As the state and federal highways serving the area were two lanes, over-development made hurricane evacuation impossible. Florida and US taxpayers had to pay for turning two lane highways into four lane highways in order to provide some semblance of hurricane evacuation. After a decade, the widening of highway 79, which runs North-South is still not completed to its connection to Interstate 10. Luckily, there have been no hurricanes.</p>
<p>If developers had to pay these costs instead of passing them on to taxpayers, would their projects still be profitable?</p>
<p>Now consider the external costs of offshoring the production of goods and services that US corporations, such as Apple and Nike, market to Americans. When production facilities in the US are closed and the jobs are moved to China, for example, the American workers lose their jobs, medical coverage, careers, pension provision, and often their self-respect when they are unable to find comparable employment or any employment. Some fall behind in their mortgage and car payments and lose their homes and cars. The cities, states, and federal governments lose the tax base as personal income and sales taxes decline and as depressed housing and commercial real estate prices in the abandoned communities depress property taxes. Social security and Medicare funding is harmed as payroll tax deposits fall. State and local infrastructure declines. Possibly crime rises. Safety net needs rise, but expenditures are cut as tax revenues decline. Municipal and state workers find their pensions at risk. Education suffers. All of these costs greatly exceed Apple’s and Nike’s profits from substituting cheaper foreign labor for American labor. Contradicting the neoliberal claims, Apple’s and Nike’s prices do not drop despite the collapse in labor costs that the corporations experience.</p>
<p>A country that was intelligently governed would not permit this. As the US is so poorly governed, the executives and shareholders of global corporations are greatly enriched because they can impose the costs associated with their profits on external third parties.</p>
<p>The unambigious fact is that US capitalism is a mechanism for looting the many for the benefit of the few. Neoliberal economics was constructed in order to support this looting. In other words, neoliberal economists are whores just like the Western print and TV media.</p>
<p>Yet, Americans are so insouciant that you will hear those who are being looted praise the merits of “free market capitalism.”</p>
<p>So far we have barely scratched the surface of the external costs that capitalism imposes. Now consider the polution of the air, soil, waterways, and oceans that result from profit-making activities. Consider the radioactive wastes pouring out of Fukushima since March 2011 into the Pacific Ocean. Consider the dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico from agricultural chemical fertilizer run-off. Consider the destruction of the Apalachicola, Florida, oyster beds from the restricted river water that feeds the bay due to overdevelopment upstream. Examples such as these are endless. The corporations responsible for this destruction bear none of the costs.</p>
<p>If it turns out that global warming and ocean acidification are consequences of capitalism’s carbon-based energy system, the entire world could end up dead from the external costs of capitalism.</p>
<p>Free market advocates love to ridicule economic planning, and Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers actually said that “markets are self-regulating.” There is no sign anywhere of this self-regulation. Instead, there are external costs piled upon external costs. The absence of planning is why over-development has made 30-A dysfunctional, and it is why over-development has made metropolitan areas, such as Atlanta, Georgia, dysfunctional. Planning does not mean the replacement of markets. It means the provision of rules that produce rational results instead of shifting costs of development onto third parties.</p>
<p>If capitalism had to cover the cost of its activities, how many of the activities would pay?</p>
<p>As capitalists do not have to cover their external costs, what limits the costs?</p>
<p>Once the external costs exceed the biosphere’s ability to process the waste products associated with external costs, life ends.</p>
<p>We cannot survive an unregulated capitalism with a system of primitive property rights. Ecological economists such as Herman Daly understand this, but neoliberal economists are apologists for capitalist looting. In days gone by when mankind’s footprint on the planet was light, what Daly calls an “empty world,” productive activities did not produce more wastes than the planet could cleanse. But the heavy foot of our time, what Daly calls a “full world,” requires extensive regulation. The Trump administration’s program of rolling back environmental protection, for example, will multiply external costs. To claim that this will increase economic growth is idiotic. As Daly (and Michael Hudson) emphasize, the measure known as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is so flawed that we do not know whether the increased output costs more to produce than it is worth. GDP is really a measure of what has been looted without reference to the cost of the looting. Environmental deregulation means that capitalists can treat the environment as a garbage dump. The planet can become so toxic that it cannot recover.</p>
<p>In the United States and generally across the Western world, property rights exist only in a narrow, truncated form. A developer can steal your view forever and your solitude for the period his construction requires. If the Japanese can have property rights in views, in quiet which requires noise abatement, and in sun fall on their property, why can’t Americans? After all, we are alleged to be the “exceptional people.”</p>
<p>But in actual fact, Americans are the least exceptional people in human history. Americans have no rights at all. We hapless insignificant beings have to accept whatever capitalists and their puppet government impose on us. And we are so stupid we call it “Freedom and Democracy America.”</p> | true | 4 | come conclusion capitalism successful primarily impose majority costs associated economic activities outside parties environment words capitalists make profits costs externalized born others us society environment pick tab produced capitalist activity past critics raised question external costs costs external company although produced companys activities economists answered really problem harmed activity could compensated damages suffered statement intended reinforce claim capitalism served general welfare however extremely primitive nature american property rights meant rarely would suffering harm compensated apologists capitalism saved system abstract reality recent article destruction inlet beach made clear little real estate development underway would profitable external costs imposed existing property holders compensated consider examples taller house constructed front one less height gulf view latter preempted damage property value house whose view blocked immense would developer build tall structure disadvantaged existing property compensated decline value house built sleep 20 30 people next familys vacation home residence noise congestion destroys familys ability enjoy property compensated loss would hotel disquised single family dwelling built walton county florida unconcerned vital issues permitted construction structures accommodate 30 people provide three parking spaces rental guests park many residents find blocked driveways cars parked lawns real estate developers build congestion travel times extended formerly 5 minute drive inlet beach seaside along 30a take 45 minutes summer holidays possibly longer residents visitors pay price developers profits lost time road twolane road widened yet walton countys planning department took account gridlock would emerge state federal highways serving area two lanes overdevelopment made hurricane evacuation impossible florida us taxpayers pay turning two lane highways four lane highways order provide semblance hurricane evacuation decade widening highway 79 runs northsouth still completed connection interstate 10 luckily hurricanes developers pay costs instead passing taxpayers would projects still profitable consider external costs offshoring production goods services us corporations apple nike market americans production facilities us closed jobs moved china example american workers lose jobs medical coverage careers pension provision often selfrespect unable find comparable employment employment fall behind mortgage car payments lose homes cars cities states federal governments lose tax base personal income sales taxes decline depressed housing commercial real estate prices abandoned communities depress property taxes social security medicare funding harmed payroll tax deposits fall state local infrastructure declines possibly crime rises safety net needs rise expenditures cut tax revenues decline municipal state workers find pensions risk education suffers costs greatly exceed apples nikes profits substituting cheaper foreign labor american labor contradicting neoliberal claims apples nikes prices drop despite collapse labor costs corporations experience country intelligently governed would permit us poorly governed executives shareholders global corporations greatly enriched impose costs associated profits external third parties unambigious fact us capitalism mechanism looting many benefit neoliberal economics constructed order support looting words neoliberal economists whores like western print tv media yet americans insouciant hear looted praise merits free market capitalism far barely scratched surface external costs capitalism imposes consider polution air soil waterways oceans result profitmaking activities consider radioactive wastes pouring fukushima since march 2011 pacific ocean consider dead zones gulf mexico agricultural chemical fertilizer runoff consider destruction apalachicola florida oyster beds restricted river water feeds bay due overdevelopment upstream examples endless corporations responsible destruction bear none costs turns global warming ocean acidification consequences capitalisms carbonbased energy system entire world could end dead external costs capitalism free market advocates love ridicule economic planning alan greenspan larry summers actually said markets selfregulating sign anywhere selfregulation instead external costs piled upon external costs absence planning overdevelopment made 30a dysfunctional overdevelopment made metropolitan areas atlanta georgia dysfunctional planning mean replacement markets means provision rules produce rational results instead shifting costs development onto third parties capitalism cover cost activities many activities would pay capitalists cover external costs limits costs external costs exceed biospheres ability process waste products associated external costs life ends survive unregulated capitalism system primitive property rights ecological economists herman daly understand neoliberal economists apologists capitalist looting days gone mankinds footprint planet light daly calls empty world productive activities produce wastes planet could cleanse heavy foot time daly calls full world requires extensive regulation trump administrations program rolling back environmental protection example multiply external costs claim increase economic growth idiotic daly michael hudson emphasize measure known gross domestic product gdp flawed know whether increased output costs produce worth gdp really measure looted without reference cost looting environmental deregulation means capitalists treat environment garbage dump planet become toxic recover united states generally across western world property rights exist narrow truncated form developer steal view forever solitude period construction requires japanese property rights views quiet requires noise abatement sun fall property cant americans alleged exceptional people actual fact americans least exceptional people human history americans rights hapless insignificant beings accept whatever capitalists puppet government impose us stupid call freedom democracy america | 781 |
<p>By Leonid Bershidsky / Bloomberg View</p>
<p>During a news conference Wednesday, Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking member of the House intelligence committee, stands next to a photograph of President Donald Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. (Alex Brandon / AP)</p>
<p>President Donald Trump was only half wrong when he tweeted last week that “Russia must be laughing up their sleeves watching as the U.S. tears itself apart.” Russian officials are laughing quite openly.</p>
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<p>Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s trolling of FBI Director James Comey’s firing was relatively benign; ostensibly, Lavrov’s mock surprise at being told of the firing could be taken for a diplomat’s polite refusal to discuss the host country’s domestic politics.</p>
<p>This week, however, the Russian jokes at the expense of the U.S. got positively unpleasant. First, President Vladimir Putin offered to provide the U.S. Congress with a recording of Lavrov’s conversation with Trump, in which the U.S. president allegedly revealed highly classified information (the word Putin used, zapis, cannot really be translated as “transcript”, as the Kremlin later claimed). The suggestion, of course, was sheer mockery — it’s impossible to imagine the Congress making such a request of Putin, and U.S. legislators tried to answer Putin in kind, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, suggesting that if Putin sent the information by email, he “wouldn’t click on the attachment.”</p>
<p>Then, on Thursday, the Russian foreign ministry posted a short clip from Lavrov’s meeting with Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe. As the two sat for photographers, the Norwegian politician quipped, “These pictures won’t cause any problems for you?” To this clear reference to the U.S. uproar following the Russian publication of pictures showing Trump and Lavrov acting friendly, the Russian foreign minister replies: “Depends on what kind of secrets you pass on to me.” There’s general laughter around the table. Clearly, this is the kind of Russian humor that travels well in Europe.</p>
<p>It’s clear why Putin and his underlings are amused. The mess of intersecting investigations, leaks, pained howls and invective from pro-Trump and anti-Trump politicians is, to Putin and Lavrov, something right out of 1990s Moscow, in which President Boris Yeltsin — a big, clumsy populist not unlike Trump — battled the Soviet “deep state” as his family lined its pockets and tried to influence his decisions. Yeltsin, by the way, was nearly impeached for alleged “crimes” that included the Soviet Union’s breakup.</p>
<p>Putin, of course, is uncomfortable with the messiness of democracy. He has made sure since his rise in 2000 it never resurfaces in Russia. His take last week on what’s happening in the U.S. was especially revealing:</p>
<p>“You know what surprises me? They rock the domestic political situation in the U.S. under anti-Russian slogans, and they don’t understand that they’re harming their own country. Then they’re just dumb. Or they understand everything, and then they’re dangerous, dishonest people.”</p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean he’s entirely wrong about the effect the scandals are having on the ability of the U.S. to maintain its special place in the world. Headlines in the U.S. media scream that the Trump administration is falling apart; to Americans, this is Trump’s mess. But to outsiders, and not just to Russians, it’s an all-American mess; it’s about America’s weakness.</p>
<p>Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger wrote in a commentary in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:</p>
<p>“Vladimir Putin can only laugh at the political chaos in Washington. One can see why. But damage to democratic institutions and the trivialization of the presidential office is not a laughing matter at all.”</p>
<p>The current media circus, which amplifies every Trump misstep and forces him to stumble again and again, is different from a previous global spectacle of similarly epic proportions — President Bill Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky scandal. That one had to do with sexual indiscretions, something the world outside the U.S. doesn’t take as seriously as the American public. The current scandal is about constantly repeated allegations concerning U.S. politicians and officials doing the bidding of foreign powers. Trump’s enemies aren’t accusing him of being unfaithful to his wife — they’re calling him mentally impaired, unfit to govern, easily influenced by foreign masterminds such as Putin. Even though there’s still not a shred of public evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia last year, the constant airing of that accusation makes it look as though U.S. institutions have failed to stop a foreign incursion — and are still failing, because the noise around the investigations greatly exceeds anything they have unearthed. To outsiders, it looks as though people who are supposed to be stewarding the Western world are bickering among themselves instead, trying to create major problems for each other out of thin air.</p>
<p>As Trump prepares for its first foreign trip, that’s not the kind of advance publicity the U.S. — not Trump, but his country — really needs. On a visit to Washington on Thursday, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel made the point gently, in a far friendlier way than Russians have done.</p>
<p>“You are citizens of a real superpower, and if America is too much engaged with its interior problems, there will be a vacuum in the international sphere,” Gabriel said. A report in The Washington Post offers a range of similar worries under a headline that, perhaps unsurprisingly, blames Trump and not the other powers involved: “European leaders fear Trump’s political chaos is undermining U.S. power”.</p>
<p>The U.S. midterm elections are still 17 months away. It’s too early for the campaign-like heat that’s being generated in Washington. Trump will be around for a while in any case. He needs a breathing space so his visible panic doesn’t damage U.S. interests any more than it has already done. Trump’s political enemies, too, must understand that they are hardly doing the country any favors by harping on yet-unproven but extremely serious accusations. Investigators need some quiet if they are to get anywhere. And the world needs the U.S. as something more reassuring than a soap opera that’s getting increasingly harder for outsiders to follow because of its descent into domestic political and legal trivia. More seriousness, more common sense and less screaming from all quarters is urgently required.</p> | true | 4 | leonid bershidsky bloomberg view news conference wednesday rep adam schiff ranking member house intelligence committee stands next photograph president donald trump russian foreign minister sergey lavrov alex brandon ap president donald trump half wrong tweeted last week russia must laughing sleeves watching us tears apart russian officials laughing quite openly foreign minister sergei lavrovs trolling fbi director james comeys firing relatively benign ostensibly lavrovs mock surprise told firing could taken diplomats polite refusal discuss host countrys domestic politics week however russian jokes expense us got positively unpleasant first president vladimir putin offered provide us congress recording lavrovs conversation trump us president allegedly revealed highly classified information word putin used zapis really translated transcript kremlin later claimed suggestion course sheer mockery impossible imagine congress making request putin us legislators tried answer putin kind sen marco rubio rflorida suggesting putin sent information email wouldnt click attachment thursday russian foreign ministry posted short clip lavrovs meeting thorbjorn jagland secretary general council europe two sat photographers norwegian politician quipped pictures wont cause problems clear reference us uproar following russian publication pictures showing trump lavrov acting friendly russian foreign minister replies depends kind secrets pass theres general laughter around table clearly kind russian humor travels well europe clear putin underlings amused mess intersecting investigations leaks pained howls invective protrump antitrump politicians putin lavrov something right 1990s moscow president boris yeltsin big clumsy populist unlike trump battled soviet deep state family lined pockets tried influence decisions yeltsin way nearly impeached alleged crimes included soviet unions breakup putin course uncomfortable messiness democracy made sure since rise 2000 never resurfaces russia take last week whats happening us especially revealing know surprises rock domestic political situation us antirussian slogans dont understand theyre harming country theyre dumb understand everything theyre dangerous dishonest people doesnt mean hes entirely wrong effect scandals ability us maintain special place world headlines us media scream trump administration falling apart americans trumps mess outsiders russians allamerican mess americas weakness klausdieter frankenberger wrote commentary frankfurter allgemeine zeitung vladimir putin laugh political chaos washington one see damage democratic institutions trivialization presidential office laughing matter current media circus amplifies every trump misstep forces stumble different previous global spectacle similarly epic proportions president bill clintons monica lewinsky scandal one sexual indiscretions something world outside us doesnt take seriously american public current scandal constantly repeated allegations concerning us politicians officials bidding foreign powers trumps enemies arent accusing unfaithful wife theyre calling mentally impaired unfit govern easily influenced foreign masterminds putin even though theres still shred public evidence trump campaign colluded russia last year constant airing accusation makes look though us institutions failed stop foreign incursion still failing noise around investigations greatly exceeds anything unearthed outsiders looks though people supposed stewarding western world bickering among instead trying create major problems thin air trump prepares first foreign trip thats kind advance publicity us trump country really needs visit washington thursday german foreign minister sigmar gabriel made point gently far friendlier way russians done citizens real superpower america much engaged interior problems vacuum international sphere gabriel said report washington post offers range similar worries headline perhaps unsurprisingly blames trump powers involved european leaders fear trumps political chaos undermining us power us midterm elections still 17 months away early campaignlike heat thats generated washington trump around case needs breathing space visible panic doesnt damage us interests already done trumps political enemies must understand hardly country favors harping yetunproven extremely serious accusations investigators need quiet get anywhere world needs us something reassuring soap opera thats getting increasingly harder outsiders follow descent domestic political legal trivia seriousness common sense less screaming quarters urgently required | 597 |
<p>Imagine the following: you and your family decide to remodel your kitchen. Your neighbor, also the principal at your children’s elementary school, hears of the plan and immediately states his opposition. He argues that the remodeling project is not the sort of investment your family needs and hints that carrying it out would jeopardize his friendship. Deciding to move ahead with the remodeling anyway, you and your family begin removing the kitchen cabinets one day, but are interrupted by a knock at the door. Your neighbor enters and grimly announces to the entire family that if the remodeling is carried out as planned, he will see to it that your children do not pass another grade in his elementary school.</p>
<p>Your neighbor’s behavior, however far-fetched it may seem, is no more ridiculous or offensive than the treatment U.S. political figures have been giving their neighboring Nicaraguans in the last several days. Nicaragua is currently gearing up for its national elections on Sunday, November 5. For the last year, Nicaragua’s complicated electoral panorama has been further convoluted by a string of U.S. representatives endeavoring to ward off an electoral victory by Sandinista (FSLN) leader and former president Daniel Ortega. U.S. officials have publicly censured Ortega, attempted to unify his opposition, and threatened that an Ortega win would endanger U.S. financial support. The continuous intervention, however, has failed to unite Nicaragua’s divided right or significantly detract from Ortega’s base. Now U.S. meddlers are flustered and desperate in the face of recent polls revealing that Ortega is within a few percentage points of clinching the presidential office.</p>
<p>In a last-ditch effort to undermine Ortega, U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, chairman of the House’s International Relations Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, sent a letter on Friday, October 27, to Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security. Rohrabacher enjoined Chertoff “to prepare in accordance with U.S. law, contingency plans to block any further money remittances from being sent to Nicaragua in the event that the FSLN enters government.” The nearly half million Nicaraguans currently living in the U.S. send around $500 million each year to their family members in Nicaragua, according to Nicaraguan economist Nestor Avendaño.</p>
<p>Nicaraguans have reason to believe Rohrabacher may not be bluffing. In the buildup to Nicaragua’s 1990 elections, the United States promised Nicaraguan voters that it would continue fueling the decade-old contra war and maintain its economic embargo on Nicaragua, both of which were wreaking havoc on Nicaragua’s economy, if Daniel Ortega were reelected as President. Beleaguered by a crippling war, food rationing, and empty supermarket shelves, Nicaraguans opted for U.S.-backed Violeta Chamorro over Ortega. Satisfied, the U.S. then released its stranglehold on the Nicaraguan economy.</p>
<p>Seeing that the FSLN now has a chance to return to power, Rohrabacher seems eager to once again target Nicaraguans’ stomachs with callous pressure. Thousands of Nicaraguan families depend on remittances to augment the meager wages paid for picking coffee, sewing jeans in assembly factories, or selling water at intersections. In an economy sacked with underemployment, stagnant salaries, and rising costs, remittances keep Nicaragua afloat by generating an income equivalent to 70% of the country’s total annual exports, according to the most recent estimates. Avendaño projects that a U.S. embargo on remittances would prove as disastrous for Nicaraguans as the U.S.-imposed trade embargo of the 1980’s. Once again, the hardest hit would be the impoverished majority.</p>
<p>Nicaraguan voters are not unaware of this reality. Nor is Rohrabacher, no doubt. Nicaraguans’ direct dependence on remittances is what makes his open threat particularly potent. In the face of a potential Ortega victory, Rohrabacher is striving to make longstanding U.S. interference more personal by pushing Nicaraguans to see a vote for Ortega as a vote against their own pocketbooks.</p>
<p>Rohrabacher’s letter is but one voice in a recent cacophony of U.S. meddling. Headlines of the last week have been laden with unsolicited U.S. opinions on Daniel Ortega and the sort of President Nicaraguans should want. The day after Rohrabacher sent his letter, Florida governor Jeb Bush authored a letter published in a La Prensa paid ad. Bush’s letter declares that Nicaraguans must choose between a “tragic step towards the past,” which he identifies as the “totalitarianism” of the Sandinistas, and “a vision towards the future.” Jeb Bush’s own vision for Nicaragua’s future is revealed at the bottom of the ad, where the Alianza Liberal Nicaraguense party, which is running the U.S.-preferred presidential candidate Eduardo Montealegre, is named as the ad’s sponsor.</p>
<p>Just a few pages away from Bush’s ad appears an article in which Adolfo Franco, USAID’s Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean, warns that a FSLN victory next week could limit USAID support for Nicaragua, citing worries that Daniel Ortega might significantly alter Nicaragua’s current economic model. USAID’s admonition piggybacks on US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez’s more explicit pressure in an interview publicized one week earlier. Gutierrez threatened that an Ortega win could preclude a $230 million combined investment from three foreign companies that would generate 123,000 jobs, a $220 million aid package promised through the Millenium Challenge Account, and implementation of CAFTA in Nicaragua.</p>
<p>On October 29, the day after printing Jeb Bush’s letter, La Prensa published an editorial by Otto Reich, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, in which he accuses the FSLN of maintaining ties with terrorist groups, a claim that Reich does not attempt to substantiate. Though Reich does not currently hold a position in the U.S. government, he writes as if he does, stating, “If the Sandinistas control the government of Nicaragua, there will be strong pressure in Washington to review all aspects of the bilateral relationship, including remittances.” Reich equates a Sandinista victory with “a return to a past of poverty and international isolation.” Such a dismal outcome indeed seems likely if the U.S., as the party responsible for the isolation of the past, would implement Reich’s thinly cloaked threat of aid and remittance cutoffs.</p>
<p>Ironically, Reich precedes all the above statements with the disclaimer, “No one can tell [Nicaraguans] who to vote for.” Jeb Bush, Adolfo Franco, and other outspoken U.S. figures have similarly acknowledged Nicaraguans’ sovereign right to pick their own leaders. Unfortunately, such statements come across as meaningless niceties when subsequently contradicted with threats and admonishments against choosing a president not to the U.S.’s liking. As Nicaraguans make their way to the polls on Sunday, they must not only consider “What will this candidate do for my country if elected?” but also “What will the U.S. do to my country if this candidate is elected?” The product of relentless outside interference, this sad reality is profoundly undemocratic.</p>
<p>With numerous internal challenges posed by this election, Nicaraguans do not need to be further encumbered by fears of U.S. reprisal. If U.S. representatives truly wish to see free, unfettered elections in Nicaragua on November 5, they would do well to keep their mouths shut.</p>
<p>BEN BEACHY is an educator with Witness for Peace in Nicaragua. Witness for Peace is a politically independent, grassroots organization that educates U.S. citizens on the impacts of U.S. policies and corporate practices in Latin America and the Caribbean. www.witnessforpeace.org</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | imagine following family decide remodel kitchen neighbor also principal childrens elementary school hears plan immediately states opposition argues remodeling project sort investment family needs hints carrying would jeopardize friendship deciding move ahead remodeling anyway family begin removing kitchen cabinets one day interrupted knock door neighbor enters grimly announces entire family remodeling carried planned see children pass another grade elementary school neighbors behavior however farfetched may seem ridiculous offensive treatment us political figures giving neighboring nicaraguans last several days nicaragua currently gearing national elections sunday november 5 last year nicaraguas complicated electoral panorama convoluted string us representatives endeavoring ward electoral victory sandinista fsln leader former president daniel ortega us officials publicly censured ortega attempted unify opposition threatened ortega win would endanger us financial support continuous intervention however failed unite nicaraguas divided right significantly detract ortegas base us meddlers flustered desperate face recent polls revealing ortega within percentage points clinching presidential office lastditch effort undermine ortega us congressman dana rohrabacher chairman houses international relations subcommittee oversight investigation sent letter friday october 27 michael chertoff secretary homeland security rohrabacher enjoined chertoff prepare accordance us law contingency plans block money remittances sent nicaragua event fsln enters government nearly half million nicaraguans currently living us send around 500 million year family members nicaragua according nicaraguan economist nestor avendaño nicaraguans reason believe rohrabacher may bluffing buildup nicaraguas 1990 elections united states promised nicaraguan voters would continue fueling decadeold contra war maintain economic embargo nicaragua wreaking havoc nicaraguas economy daniel ortega reelected president beleaguered crippling war food rationing empty supermarket shelves nicaraguans opted usbacked violeta chamorro ortega satisfied us released stranglehold nicaraguan economy seeing fsln chance return power rohrabacher seems eager target nicaraguans stomachs callous pressure thousands nicaraguan families depend remittances augment meager wages paid picking coffee sewing jeans assembly factories selling water intersections economy sacked underemployment stagnant salaries rising costs remittances keep nicaragua afloat generating income equivalent 70 countrys total annual exports according recent estimates avendaño projects us embargo remittances would prove disastrous nicaraguans usimposed trade embargo 1980s hardest hit would impoverished majority nicaraguan voters unaware reality rohrabacher doubt nicaraguans direct dependence remittances makes open threat particularly potent face potential ortega victory rohrabacher striving make longstanding us interference personal pushing nicaraguans see vote ortega vote pocketbooks rohrabachers letter one voice recent cacophony us meddling headlines last week laden unsolicited us opinions daniel ortega sort president nicaraguans want day rohrabacher sent letter florida governor jeb bush authored letter published la prensa paid ad bushs letter declares nicaraguans must choose tragic step towards past identifies totalitarianism sandinistas vision towards future jeb bushs vision nicaraguas future revealed bottom ad alianza liberal nicaraguense party running uspreferred presidential candidate eduardo montealegre named ads sponsor pages away bushs ad appears article adolfo franco usaids assistant administrator latin america caribbean warns fsln victory next week could limit usaid support nicaragua citing worries daniel ortega might significantly alter nicaraguas current economic model usaids admonition piggybacks us secretary commerce carlos gutierrezs explicit pressure interview publicized one week earlier gutierrez threatened ortega win could preclude 230 million combined investment three foreign companies would generate 123000 jobs 220 million aid package promised millenium challenge account implementation cafta nicaragua october 29 day printing jeb bushs letter la prensa published editorial otto reich former assistant secretary state western hemisphere affairs accuses fsln maintaining ties terrorist groups claim reich attempt substantiate though reich currently hold position us government writes stating sandinistas control government nicaragua strong pressure washington review aspects bilateral relationship including remittances reich equates sandinista victory return past poverty international isolation dismal outcome indeed seems likely us party responsible isolation past would implement reichs thinly cloaked threat aid remittance cutoffs ironically reich precedes statements disclaimer one tell nicaraguans vote jeb bush adolfo franco outspoken us figures similarly acknowledged nicaraguans sovereign right pick leaders unfortunately statements come across meaningless niceties subsequently contradicted threats admonishments choosing president uss liking nicaraguans make way polls sunday must consider candidate country elected also us country candidate elected product relentless outside interference sad reality profoundly undemocratic numerous internal challenges posed election nicaraguans need encumbered fears us reprisal us representatives truly wish see free unfettered elections nicaragua november 5 would well keep mouths shut ben beachy educator witness peace nicaragua witness peace politically independent grassroots organization educates us citizens impacts us policies corporate practices latin america caribbean wwwwitnessforpeaceorg 160 160 | 714 |
<p>“I’ve come up with my own numbers. And I will stand by these numbers. The annual gross cost to U.S. taxpayers to provide schooling, hospitalization, and whatever plethoric benefits are out there for the 30 million illegal aliens is approximately $400 billion per year funded by bona fide U.S. taxpayers. That’s $400 billion per year and going up.”</p>
<p>— Jim Gilchrist, co-founder, the Minuteman Project, quoted in David Horowitz’s Frontpagemag.com</p>
<p>“They now live in America, so it’s time for all nationalities to learn to live like Americans. This means learn how to speak English; learn how to have good hygiene; learn how to use appliances in their homes correctly. And then the pride will come to them.”</p>
<p>— A woman in Herndon, Virginia speaking at a public meeting against a proposed day-labor center, as recorded by NPR.</p>
<p>“The labor’s very cheap. It’s the materials that get expensive.”</p>
<p>— A US retiree with a new home under construction near Lake Chapala, Mexico</p>
<p>Hysterical claims like Gilchrist’s above are a staple of the anti-immigrant movement. But after spending a couple of weeks in the gringo retirement belt along Mexico’s largest lake, I’m ready to argue that most of the standard anti-Mexican-immigration arguments — or mirror images of them — can be applied just as well to the small but swelling tide of immigration by US and Canadian citizens into Mexico.</p>
<p>Around 50,000 or so US citizens reside in the Lake Chapala – Guadalajara area. They come to live, in the mangled syntax of an AARP Magazine article on retirement in Mexico, “La Vida Cheapo”. Many are enjoying something approximating the standard of living they always had in, say, Illinois or California, but on a much lower budget. Others are spending at the same or an increased rate, but living the life they never could have had back home.</p>
<p>In either case, the expatriate community is plopping down its characteristically massive ecological footprint alongside Lake Chapala, and letting the locals pay the tab.</p>
<p>Bigfoot spotted in Mexico</p>
<p>The Oakland-based think tank Redefining Progress regularly compiles the per-capita resource consumption, waste generation, and ecosystem destruction of people in each country of the world, and converts it all into a single measure of land area – an ecological ‘footprint’. By their reckoning, that footprint for the average human being worldwide is a little over 5 acres — an unsustainable burden over the long term. Mexico’s per capita footprint is slightly above the world average, at a little over 6 acres; in the United States, it’s almost 25.</p>
<p>Despite needing little or no air conditioning or heating in Lake Chapala’s delightful climate, immigrants from up north appear to be having a per-person ecological impact approaching that of their stay-at-home compatriots, which, by Redefining Progress’ figures, is as heavy as that of about 4 average Mexicans.</p>
<p>A flood of immigrants with a high-consumption lifestyle flocking to its shores is the last thing that the already ecologically devastated lake needs. According to NASA, water volume has dropped perhaps 75% from its historic level, with two-thirds of that loss coming since 1986. Enough dry ground has been laid bare to accomodate the entire city of Washington, DC. And because of pollution, to quote the AARP article, “The lake is now a view, nothing more.” Even the lake’s aesthetic appeal is waning, choked as it is with water hyacinth.</p>
<p>Lake Chapala would be threatened whether or not the gringos had shown up, but piling even more big houses onto the slopes above the north shore, with their acres of pavement, and swimming pools (always filled despite growing water shortages), and septic systems that wouldn’t pass code in the US, and bright green, well-watered, monocultural lawns, and heavy monthly spraying for insects, spiders, and scorpions, and washers and dryers running full blast, and no clothes lines in sight, despite the bright sun and low humidity (if there’s one thing we gringos know how to do, it’s “use appliances in our homes correctly”!), it’s kind of hard to argue that immigration is having a positive impact around the lake.</p>
<p>And that’s just in one small region. Each winter finds at least 700,000 North Americans residing in Mexico, and many of them stay year-round.</p>
<p>Another kind of immigrant freeloader</p>
<p>Back here in the US, battles over Mexican immigration are breaking out all along the political spectrum. All factions point to extensive cost-benefit analyses to support their case. Few if any of those tallies take into account the huge subsidy immigrants provide to business by working long, hard days for cut-rate paychecks. And the folks who don’t emigrate, who stay back to manufacture goods for export to the States at even lower wages, are chipping in with their own subsidy.</p>
<p>Now, with the golden years looking less and less economically secure for many Americans, our economy is turning to Mexican working people once again, as we outsource the support structure for an increasing number of retirees. For example:</p>
<p>* The Mexican highway system is excellent these days; some of the more hardy immigrants claim they can drive the 700 or so miles from the border to Chapala in a single, if long, day. And gas sells at familiar prices.</p>
<p>* Flush with cash from the sale of a house in the States, immigrants can either buy a bigger, better one or have a dream home virtually hand-built. A favorite topic of cafe conversation is the high skill, the lack of need for power tools, and above all, the low cost, of the local construction workers. One hears complaints that housing costs have increased since the 2004 publication of the AARP article (which, despite the lake’s condition, gave the area a good plug), and prices are expected to climb further if, as expected, Time magazine runs a piece on the Lake Chapala scene sometime this year.</p>
<p>* More than anything else, those who are immigrating from the US are fleeing our nation’s chaotic, outrageously costly, and often incompetent medical and insurance systems. In the Guadalajara-Chapala area, they can obtain excellent health care at a fraction of the cost, thanks largely to low Mexican salaries and wages. And health insurance is cheap, too.</p>
<p>* Whether or not an immigrant couple could afford domestic workers back in the States, they can hire as many as they want in Mexico — with no worries about their employees’ immigration status and no Social Security tax to pay!</p>
<p>* New immigrants can choose between gated and ungated communities.</p>
<p>* Imported food and other goods are obtainable around the lake area, but at a price that doesn’t appeal to most retirees. Thus, a regular part of the immigrants’ monthly or weekly routine is a 20-mile run up Highway 23 to Wal-Mart, Sam’s, Home Depot, and Costco in Guadalajara. The merchandise is from all over, the wages — such as they are — go to the local employees, but most of the wealth goes abroad to the stores’ shareholders.</p>
<p>* Nothing astonishes immigrants so much as the low taxes. Everyone talks about them; I was told of annual property tax figures ranging from $40 to $150, for houses valued in the low to mid six figures. No worries about sales taxes, either. But if there’s any grumbling by the locals about immigrant freeloaders, I didn’t hear it.</p>
<p>A real immigration debate?</p>
<p>I realize that the spectacle of American expatriates living off the lean of the land is nothing new. I lived in India off and on between 1980 and 2000, and there the exploitation of cheap labor by local and foreign elites was truly extraordinary. But if we’re going to debate the immigration “crisis” in this country, let’s take seriously the impact of American emigration as well.</p>
<p>If we wave aside the dust and fog of the current debate, what we see all around us in the US are immigrants from Mexico and other nations working very hard in tough jobs for low pay, making do with limited resources. What Mexicans see in places like Lake Chapala are immigrants who do little or no work but whose upkeep requires vast amounts of resources.</p>
<p>But, turning over what they see as their ace, anti-immigration crusaders will point out that the gringos are down there legally. These Mexicans are up here illegally! The question to ask, though, is, Why? What’s the source of those labels, “legal” and “illegal”? They arise, of course, from that deep divide in power and wealth that occurs at the Rio Grande. Add to that our nation’s determination to reserve a fourth of the planet’s resources for our own 4.5% of its population while maintaining access to the cheapest possible labor for any particular job that needs to be done.</p>
<p>If the sample I encountered was representative, the expatriates in Mexico don’t tend to be of the Ugly American variety. Most of those I met value open-mindedness and cultural sensitivity, and many seem delighted to be no longer living in territory under the direct control of the Bush regime (Well, there was that one Texas couple with a signed picture of George W. on their mantle … and the perhaps overly sensitive columnist for the English-language Lake Chapala Review who defends the Aztec practice of human sacrifice …)</p>
<p>Most every immigrant I met down around Lake Chapala was pleasant and friendly and well-intentioned. As the face of our country abroad, they were several cuts above some of the dubious types who fan out from the United States and across the borders of other nations every year, whether invited or uninvited — like troops in robo-warrior gear, or economic hit men, or covert operatives, or Benny Hinn-style megavangelists, or puking students on spring break, or corporate buyers seeking out the cheapest sweatshop goods. But, however good our intentions, whether we like it or not, when we Americans head for economically or ecologically impoverished parts of the world we usually end up embodying what our nation has become – a bottomless resource sink.</p>
<p>STAN COX is a plant breeder and writer in Salina, Kansas. Contact him at <a href="mailto:t.stan@cox.net" type="external">t.stan@cox.net</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | ive come numbers stand numbers annual gross cost us taxpayers provide schooling hospitalization whatever plethoric benefits 30 million illegal aliens approximately 400 billion per year funded bona fide us taxpayers thats 400 billion per year going jim gilchrist cofounder minuteman project quoted david horowitzs frontpagemagcom live america time nationalities learn live like americans means learn speak english learn good hygiene learn use appliances homes correctly pride come woman herndon virginia speaking public meeting proposed daylabor center recorded npr labors cheap materials get expensive us retiree new home construction near lake chapala mexico hysterical claims like gilchrists staple antiimmigrant movement spending couple weeks gringo retirement belt along mexicos largest lake im ready argue standard antimexicanimmigration arguments mirror images applied well small swelling tide immigration us canadian citizens mexico around 50000 us citizens reside lake chapala guadalajara area come live mangled syntax aarp magazine article retirement mexico la vida cheapo many enjoying something approximating standard living always say illinois california much lower budget others spending increased rate living life never could back home either case expatriate community plopping characteristically massive ecological footprint alongside lake chapala letting locals pay tab bigfoot spotted mexico oaklandbased think tank redefining progress regularly compiles percapita resource consumption waste generation ecosystem destruction people country world converts single measure land area ecological footprint reckoning footprint average human worldwide little 5 acres unsustainable burden long term mexicos per capita footprint slightly world average little 6 acres united states almost 25 despite needing little air conditioning heating lake chapalas delightful climate immigrants north appear perperson ecological impact approaching stayathome compatriots redefining progress figures heavy 4 average mexicans flood immigrants highconsumption lifestyle flocking shores last thing already ecologically devastated lake needs according nasa water volume dropped perhaps 75 historic level twothirds loss coming since 1986 enough dry ground laid bare accomodate entire city washington dc pollution quote aarp article lake view nothing even lakes aesthetic appeal waning choked water hyacinth lake chapala would threatened whether gringos shown piling even big houses onto slopes north shore acres pavement swimming pools always filled despite growing water shortages septic systems wouldnt pass code us bright green wellwatered monocultural lawns heavy monthly spraying insects spiders scorpions washers dryers running full blast clothes lines sight despite bright sun low humidity theres one thing gringos know use appliances homes correctly kind hard argue immigration positive impact around lake thats one small region winter finds least 700000 north americans residing mexico many stay yearround another kind immigrant freeloader back us battles mexican immigration breaking along political spectrum factions point extensive costbenefit analyses support case tallies take account huge subsidy immigrants provide business working long hard days cutrate paychecks folks dont emigrate stay back manufacture goods export states even lower wages chipping subsidy golden years looking less less economically secure many americans economy turning mexican working people outsource support structure increasing number retirees example mexican highway system excellent days hardy immigrants claim drive 700 miles border chapala single long day gas sells familiar prices flush cash sale house states immigrants either buy bigger better one dream home virtually handbuilt favorite topic cafe conversation high skill lack need power tools low cost local construction workers one hears complaints housing costs increased since 2004 publication aarp article despite lakes condition gave area good plug prices expected climb expected time magazine runs piece lake chapala scene sometime year anything else immigrating us fleeing nations chaotic outrageously costly often incompetent medical insurance systems guadalajarachapala area obtain excellent health care fraction cost thanks largely low mexican salaries wages health insurance cheap whether immigrant couple could afford domestic workers back states hire many want mexico worries employees immigration status social security tax pay new immigrants choose gated ungated communities imported food goods obtainable around lake area price doesnt appeal retirees thus regular part immigrants monthly weekly routine 20mile run highway 23 walmart sams home depot costco guadalajara merchandise wages go local employees wealth goes abroad stores shareholders nothing astonishes immigrants much low taxes everyone talks told annual property tax figures ranging 40 150 houses valued low mid six figures worries sales taxes either theres grumbling locals immigrant freeloaders didnt hear real immigration debate realize spectacle american expatriates living lean land nothing new lived india 1980 2000 exploitation cheap labor local foreign elites truly extraordinary going debate immigration crisis country lets take seriously impact american emigration well wave aside dust fog current debate see around us us immigrants mexico nations working hard tough jobs low pay making limited resources mexicans see places like lake chapala immigrants little work whose upkeep requires vast amounts resources turning see ace antiimmigration crusaders point gringos legally mexicans illegally question ask though whats source labels legal illegal arise course deep divide power wealth occurs rio grande add nations determination reserve fourth planets resources 45 population maintaining access cheapest possible labor particular job needs done sample encountered representative expatriates mexico dont tend ugly american variety met value openmindedness cultural sensitivity many seem delighted longer living territory direct control bush regime well one texas couple signed picture george w mantle perhaps overly sensitive columnist englishlanguage lake chapala review defends aztec practice human sacrifice every immigrant met around lake chapala pleasant friendly wellintentioned face country abroad several cuts dubious types fan united states across borders nations every year whether invited uninvited like troops robowarrior gear economic hit men covert operatives benny hinnstyle megavangelists puking students spring break corporate buyers seeking cheapest sweatshop goods however good intentions whether like americans head economically ecologically impoverished parts world usually end embodying nation become bottomless resource sink stan cox plant breeder writer salina kansas contact tstancoxnet 160 | 928 |
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547" type="external">Hillbilly&#160;Elegy</a>&#160;by J.D. Vance • Harper • 2016 • 272 pages&#160;• $27.99</p>
<p>The best-selling <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547" type="external">Hillbilly Elegy</a>, by J.D. Vance, released in June to mostly positive reviews, was praised for treating lower-income white communities with sympathy—something reviewers believed had been in short supply in our literature. The conservative writer Rod Dreher said that the book “does for poor white people what Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book did for poor black people: give them voice and presence in the public square.” (Though it’s hard to see how poor black people were ever well-represented, or how working-class whites have ever been neglected as a group.)</p>
<p>The book bills itself as a “memoir of a family and a culture in crisis.” Poor and working-class white Americans have been the subject of many alarming reports over the past few years, from the rise of the heroin epidemic across rural, white America to the numerous studies detailing early deaths from suicides and drug overdoses in middle age; the least educated whites are dying at younger ages than the same group of people did a generation ago. (Although African Americans as a whole still have higher mortality rates.) It’s the white working class, especially men, who drove the candidacy and election of the Republican nominee, President-elect Donald Trump. So elites have turned their focus on what they assess to be a bewildering population, regarded alternately with empathy and scorn, that they were previously happy to ignore.</p>
<p>Vance’s book is, for the most part, a simple, straightforward recounting of his life. His maternal grandparents were economic refugees from Jackson, Kentucky, in the mountainous southeastern part of the state, who traveled the Hillbilly Highway north to the industrial town of Middletown, Ohio, soon after they were married as teenagers in 1947. Lots of other hillbillies made that same journey, creating satellite communities throughout the industrial Midwest. His grandfather worked there at a steel factory called Armco until he retired. Vance’s grandparents had a relationship that involved redneck rows, a divorce, and separate houses. They raised three children in Ohio, one of whom was Vance’s mother, Bev. Bev had several marriages throughout the 1980s and ’90s, and though she was a nurse, her economic security crumbled under the weight of drug addiction. Vance’s Mamaw stepped into the breach to serve as a mother figure to Vance and his older sister. But after graduating from high school in 2003, Vance escaped by joining the Marines, serving in Iraq and then enrolling at Ohio State University and, a coup for any country boy, Yale Law School.</p>
<p>As an author, Vance doesn’t spend much time in Jackson. He talks about his summertime trips to Kentucky to visit beloved uncles or to attend family funerals. He also describes a recent visit, where, during a walking tour, he notices that the town seems to have fallen on hard times. He describes passing a neighbor’s house: “Several ferocious, malnourished, chained-up dogs protected the furniture strewn about the barren front yard. When I asked [his second cousin] what the young father did for a living, he told me the man had no job and was proud of it.”</p>
<p>Vance is not a journalist, and he doesn’t conduct any actual interviews in Jackson. He doesn’t dwell much either on its demographics or character. He simply tells us that it is “a small town of about six thousand in the heart of southeastern Kentucky’s coal country. Calling it a town is a bit charitable.” I, myself, only know Jackson because, for two-and-a-half months, I lived as a reporter in Owsley County, right next door. My own experience with Jackson was that it was, first of all, the biggest town for miles. I interacted with it the way all the people of Owsley County did—when I needed to go to a Wal-Mart, I drove the 35 minutes down country highways to the one in Jackson, and when I had a minor medical emergency, the hospital there was where I sought care. Small as it is, Jackson really is big next to its neighbors, and is also a locus of political power in that tiny spot of southeastern Kentucky. Everything is relative.</p>
<p>Even when it comes to describing his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, a small city of just under 50,000 smack between Cincinnati and Dayton on Interstate 75, where his grandparents moved to raise his mom and her two siblings, he mostly leaves the landscape itself out of the story. Vance described a town that in the 1980s and ’90s was fueled by the factory’s middle-class jobs, company picnics, and well-kept parks that fell into disrepair over the years. Armco merged with a Japanese company in 1989, and so employment at the Middletown plant began to decline.</p>
<p>Vance touches on this and on other big events but without actually delving into them. And, except for a few asides on the occasional relevant study, he doesn’t do much to properly connect his own life to larger contexts and trends. The book is pinned to his mother’s drug addiction to painkillers and then to heroin, but it’s not really about her, and, in fact, we don’t actually hear from her at all. He tosses off observations about neighbors and former friends torn apart by drugs and poverty, but he doesn’t introduce them or interview them, so these asides don’t truly reveal all that much. Vance describes a few harrowing incidents from his childhood, but even then he leaves out important details, and he doesn’t do much investigating to find out more about them from the vantage point of adulthood.</p>
<p>The result is a book that’s broadly personal without being deeply so, and though it’s allegedly the story of a culture in crisis, it’s written from the point of view of a man who now seems far removed from any crisis at all. It provides the briefest window into the life of a hillbilly who made good. (He now works at an investment firm in Silicon Valley.) When he does make some broader observations about the white working class—which, in this instance, refers more to a rural cultural identity than to an economic one—they sound like clichés. He talks a lot about the hillbilly sense of “honor,” which requires him to go after a guy who breaks his sister’s heart. (What brother, though, wouldn’t pick a fight with someone who was mean to his sister?) As a grocery store clerk, he notices people who he claims “game the system.” And of food stamp recipients, he writes:</p>
<p>They’d buy two dozen packs of soda with food stamps and then sell them at a discount for cash. They’d ring up their orders separately, buying food with them&#160;food stamps, and beer, wine, and cigarettes with cash. They’d regularly go through the checkout line speaking on their cell phones. I could never understand why our lives felt like a struggle while those living off of government largesse enjoyed trinkets that I only dreamed about.</p>
<p>These are observations that are undoubtedly true in the micro sense, and we read and hear them often from conservative commentators. But what do any of these observations reveal? Like many right-leaning writers, Vance makes these broad assertions without spending much time defining them, or considering what, exactly, the alternatives are for someone in a place like southeastern Kentucky or deindustrialized Ohio. These aren’t just small areas with small economies. They’re areas that are losing their populations rapidly as the young and able flood into cities everywhere around the country. Many hillbillies come from the extremely rural areas that had subsistence economies well past the middle of the last century, and never fully transitioned into manufacturing before those well-paying jobs fled the country. They are the people who stayed behind while Vance’s grandparents left and built a middle-class life elsewhere. Even the bigger towns and smaller cities, like Middletown, were dependent on one large employer, and getting those jobs depended on knowing someone who could get you one, leaving out large swaths of the least well-off.</p>
<p>And, even in their best days, jobs in these areas were often limited to the ones only men could get, and white men at that. Working at a steel company, or mining coal, or logging trees, or putting together cars was always back-breaking labor, too, and aging baby boomers and their creaky, blue-collar bodies are a big driver of the increase in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, which is another “dole” conservatives like to complain about.</p>
<p>It is obvious that life in these areas presents important challenges, and that many things aren’t going well for too many people. This brings up several relevant questions about what progressives should do for people in these areas. But there are also considerations about what we shouldn’t do that this election has thrown into sharp relief.</p>
<p>I grew up in a town that is actually smaller than Jackson: Clinton, Arkansas, at the southern edge of the Ozark Mountain range. It now has a population of about 2,600, but was a bit smaller when I was growing up in the 1980s and ’90s, a few years earlier than Vance. During my childhood, Clinton had two factories: a plant that made electrical cords, and a chicken-processing plant, where my grandparents worked. When I was in high school, the cord plant moved to a shiny new building on the hopefully named Quality Drive, which had been newly paved through the woods. And a small boat factory took its old place, for a brief while.</p>
<p>It should be noted that only about 12 percent of the population in the county has a bachelor’s degree. The people I knew when I was growing up who had gone to college were the town’s handful of doctors, lawyers, dentists, one vet, and, of course, teachers, who were overwhelmingly women. Clinton has a small hospital, where my mother works, and a nursing home owned by the same company; both serve the smaller towns around Clinton, too, but the hospital struggles financially and previous owners have come close to closing it and the nursing home in the past.</p>
<p>Jobs are heavily segregated by gender. A handful of women, who usually have some college education, but not necessarily bachelor’s degrees, work as nurses at varying qualification levels. But many of the jobs held by women are the new factory jobs—dangerous, back-breaking, and relatively low-paying for the skills and education they require.</p>
<p>Almost everyone else who works either works at Wal-Mart, in fast food, or owns their own small business. For men, it’s in construction or related supply businesses—my dad was a plumber. Auto shops line the highway. Women, for their part, own beauty salons. There are a couple of clothing stores, one non-Wal-Mart grocery store that has struggled to compete and changed hands at least three times in the past few years, a couple of accountants, a dance school, and a local radio station. No one makes very much money—the county’s median annual income is $31,030, and the poverty rate is 26.5 percent.</p>
<p>Clinton is perhaps an extreme example of small-town life, but the pattern and experience is repeated in southeastern Kentucky, in small-town Ohio, and across the country. The rural population is depleting rapidly nationwide, and 81 percent of the country’s people now live in metro areas. By 2019, the rural population will reach its global peak, and will then start to drop in absolute terms. This is a trend that is clear even in Arkansas, as people my age drain to the urban areas around the state. Cities are thriving, diverse, and provide varied opportunities for jobs and education. They’re also expensive, and getting more so. The poor and the elderly can’t afford to access them, and are trapped in outer-ring suburbs and rural areas where the good jobs are gone. Cities are also where employers want to be.</p>
<p>So growth in jobs and in wages is unevenly distributed, and it’s broken up by geography, as it always has been. There are two economies, and the country’s least educated and poorest are in the worse one. They’re disproportionately African-American and Latino, but in raw numbers they include plenty of whites, too. These people aren’t just missing out because they have less education and training. They’re also missing out because they live in the wrong places. A recent study conducted by economists Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren found that a child’s chance of moving out of poverty was based strongly on where he or she grew up.</p>
<p>I’m sure that people in rural areas and small cities across the country would like to bring back jobs. But why would an employer locate itself in a city like Middletown, or a place like Kentucky? What kinds of jobs will stay there? The benefits of locating one’s self near a larger city—with an educated populace and the kinds of civic landscapes, vibrant downtowns, and public infrastructure that people want to live in—simply outweigh the costs. So what Trump did for these communities was turn their resentment, their panicked and justified feelings that their way of life was disappearing thanks to an urban, educated, better-off America, into a weaponized hate. As Rembert Browne wrote in New York magazine, he made hate intersectional, and he helped rural Americans direct it at everyone who wasn’t them.</p>
<p>Throughout the 2016 election season, contrary to Dreher, we’ve actually seen no end to the portraits of rural white America, Trump voters, or to the handwringing about their economic angst. This has only accelerated since Donald Trump was elected, in large part thanks to rural America, including a few former Democratic enclaves: states like Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Democrats, their allies, and various progressives are also obsessed with the white working class, what should be done for them, and how they might win them back to the Democratic coalition. “Donald J. Trump won the White House because his campaign rhetoric successfully tapped into a very real and justified anger, an anger that many traditional Democrats feel,” wrote Bernie Sanders in The New York Times on November 10.</p>
<p>Both he and Elizabeth Warren have pledged to work with Trump if the President-elect really does want to create jobs to help the suffering working- class. This may just be political posturing. So far, Trump’s only plan that would achieve that in any way is an infrastructure plan. The details are hazy, but it will cost $1 trillion and leverage public-private partnerships for rebuilding crumbling infrastructure like roads and bridges. This is a twist of the knife to any liberals that paid attention during the Obama Administration; $1 trillion is around the size of the stimulus plan that some in the Obama Administration wanted for their stimulus package after taking office, when the economy was truly in free fall. Republican lawmakers, howling about the deficit, were determined not to let this pass. The package was, in the end, smaller. So will the Republicans pass something like that now, and then take all of the credit?</p>
<p>On the surface, such a plan would be a no-brainer. Spending money on infrastructure would address the real problems our roads and bridges have, create well-paying jobs, and address rural America’s plight, especially if it included better and easier to navigate roads and newer types of infrastructure, like broadband access. Yet the warnings are already coming. To begin with, as David Dayen wrote in The New Republic, the financing scheme relies on private money in such a way that it would be designed “to funnel money to big investors and contractors by essentially letting them purchase public assets.”</p>
<p>And this is hardly the only concern. Not least among them, what are the real aims behind these plans? What kinds of jobs would be created, and for whom? As Democrats and progressives move to urge cooperation with his Administration on common-ground issues like infrastructure, especially when it comes to helping the rural white working class they apparently feel so tender toward, it’s important to keep in mind the totality of Trump’s proposals, and the totality of his rhetoric. It’s also important to ask why he inspired votes, what truly inspired them, and how he’ll actually be working to satisfy them.</p>
<p>All we know about the electorate, as of this writing, is what the exit polls tell us, and these always come with a lot of caveats. But, according to these polls, voters who made less than $50,000 a year made up 36 percent of the electorate, and 52 percent of these people voted for Hillary Clinton. Overall, turnout among the poorest Americans is never high: Fewer than half of voters in the lowest income brackets turned out in previous elections. Non-college-educated whites who voted this year voted for Trump, but overall, his support came from wealthier white people, especially white men. In fact, Jeff Guo, in The Washington Post, found that Trump improved on Mitt Romney’s 2012 margins most in places where unemployment had also dropped the most. So, truth be told, we don’t really know what the white voters who are suffering the most actually wanted. As is often the case, it was the wealthiest who really made their voices heard.</p>
<p>So why did all of these folks vote for Trump? When asked what they care about most, many voters will say the economy. (Though, according to exit polls, Hillary Clinton won the majority of voters who ranked the economy first among their concerns.) When you drill down further with Trump voters, however, another pattern emerges. Guo quotes Kathy Cramer, a political scientist who wrote a book about rural voters in Wisconsin and found that:</p>
<p>The economic woes people communicated to me. . . . were interlaced with their sense of who they are, who is a part of their community, what their values are, who works hard in society, who is deserving of reward and public support, and how power is distributed in the world. This complex set of ideas is the product&#160;of many years of political debate at the national level as well as generations of community members teaching these ideas to each other. This entwined set of beliefs was not something that any one politician instilled in people overnight—or even over a few months.</p>
<p>In Elegy, when Vance speaks to folks about the government, it is clear that he, and the people he talks with, think of it as something that creates dependency where it wasn’t previously, and that compounds poverty rather than reduces it. Of a friend who quit his job because he was tired of waking up so early—and later took to Facebook to complain about Obama’s economy—Vance writes:</p>
<p>[F]or him to make better choices, he needs to live in an environment that forces him to ask tough questions about himself. There is a cultural movement in the white working class to blame problems on society or the government, and that movement gains adherents by the day. . . . What separates the successful from the unsuccessful are the expectations that they had for their own lives. Yet the message of the right is increasingly: It’s not your fault that you’re a loser; it’s the government’s fault.</p>
<p>Government becomes a shorthand way for many people to refer to those who receive any sort of assistance from it. This includes many of these folks’ supposedly lazy neighbors. But it also includes, and has for at least 40 years, people in faraway cities they also characterize as lazy, largely African Americans and new immigrants. Trump made that clear when he said African Americans are “living in hell” and claimed, wrongly, that the black youth unemployment rate was at 58 percent. Talk of the “government” also denotes single moms in rural, conservative communities who, it is believed, should have gotten married or not had children. “Government” and “the dole” become, also, a shorthand for the kind of polyglot, humanitarian democracy that may have inspired many Clinton voters. When Donald Trump spewed hate, he threw it, indiscriminately, at all of these groups. And that is also what his voters voted for.</p>
<p>Even Warren—progressive champion Elizabeth Warren!—has come to the defense of Trump voters when, in a speech to the AFL-CIO, she said: “There are many millions of people who voted for Donald Trump not because of the bigotry and hate that fueled his campaign rallies. They voted for him despite the hate.” What cold solace is that? If voters didn’t embrace his bile, a claim I think some are accepting a bit too credulously, either these voters did not understand that what he said was racist—along with all of the other –ists and -ics that can be attributed to his public statements—or they didn’t care about it. Either way, the result is effectively the same.</p>
<p>Warren is far from the only person on the left to call for people not to vilify Trump supporters, suggesting that we try to understand them instead. But many have also asked: Are we really vilifying someone when we plainly state what they have actually done? Well, to that I would answer: If you comb the rural counties across the country and see how they voted, you would see that there are rare cases in which Trump won nearly 100 percent of the vote. Across deep red states that bent heavily Republican, like West Virginia and Mississippi, he won about 80 percent of votes in some counties, but only in those places where he had the biggest margins.</p>
<p>Even in my little home county, 21.7 percent voted against Trump. But that’s still something. My county is around 96 percent white, and so the 1,547 voters who cast their votes against hate almost certainly include white voters. They are certainly witnessing the same level of economic devastation as their neighbors. And yet they did not compromise their morals to “send a message to Washington.” Add up the voters like this in each town across the country just like Clinton, and they must total hundreds of thousands of people. They are a minority in these places, but their votes count no less than those cast against Trump in New York or California. I think we would be doing a disservice to them if we were to sugarcoat the gravity of what their neighbors did.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting that Vance himself basically elides race entirely. About the only time he touches on it is to dismiss it. “Many of my new friends blame racism for this perception of the president,” he writes about hillbilly distrust of Obama. “But the president feels like an alien to many Middletonians for reasons that have nothing to do with skin color.” He describes Obama as part of an urbane elite: exactly what rural America has come to loathe. But nearly every sociologist and political scientist who’s researched the voting habits of working-class whites in rural and depressed parts of the country has found that their views on race, elitism, class, and their own financial well-being are so tightly intertwined that they are hard to separate.</p>
<p>That is to say that all of the tender portraits of these workers shouldn’t shade what happened in November. With any effort to alleviate real suffering in these communities, progressives must also bear in mind that Trump’s election has made life tangibly worse for Muslim and Latino communities, for African Americans, for LGBT communities, and for women, whether they voted for Trump or not.</p>
<p>If progressives compromise on any plan that sounds good in theory, like an infrastructure plan, which would undoubtedly help rural America, they should be obligated to keep the big picture in mind. They should ask themselves how various communities will experience the benefits of better roads, or good jobs, if they’re being arrested and sent to jail after Trump doubles down on the worst policing practices his advisor, Rudy Giuliani, practiced in New York City. Or how much good jobs will help Latino and Muslim communities if their families are being harassed, deported, or investigated. Or whether women will benefit from any of it if protections against workplace harassment are diminished and reproductive rights come under assault.</p>
<p>The Southern Poverty Law Center counted more than 200 hate crimes in the three days after the election, and more have occurred since. After Trump is sworn in in January, we will continue to hear calls from those who tell us he is our President and we have to work with him. We will see Democratic lawmakers and their progressive allies trying to seek common ground. Many will do so in the name of the working-class whites experiencing economic anxiety, and in a cynical bid to try to bring those voters back into the fold. They may offer up numbers and theories to justify this bipartisan cooperation. The numbers and theories may be technically correct. But until all Americans, especially the historically disenfranchised, can feel safe, any such compromise will also be morally untenable.</p> | true | 4 | hillbilly160elegy160by jd vance harper 2016 272 pages160 2799 bestselling hillbilly elegy jd vance released june mostly positive reviews praised treating lowerincome white communities sympathysomething reviewers believed short supply literature conservative writer rod dreher said book poor white people tanehisi coatess book poor black people give voice presence public square though hard see poor black people ever wellrepresented workingclass whites ever neglected group book bills memoir family culture crisis poor workingclass white americans subject many alarming reports past years rise heroin epidemic across rural white america numerous studies detailing early deaths suicides drug overdoses middle age least educated whites dying younger ages group people generation ago although african americans whole still higher mortality rates white working class especially men drove candidacy election republican nominee presidentelect donald trump elites turned focus assess bewildering population regarded alternately empathy scorn previously happy ignore vances book part simple straightforward recounting life maternal grandparents economic refugees jackson kentucky mountainous southeastern part state traveled hillbilly highway north industrial town middletown ohio soon married teenagers 1947 lots hillbillies made journey creating satellite communities throughout industrial midwest grandfather worked steel factory called armco retired vances grandparents relationship involved redneck rows divorce separate houses raised three children ohio one vances mother bev bev several marriages throughout 1980s 90s though nurse economic security crumbled weight drug addiction vances mamaw stepped breach serve mother figure vance older sister graduating high school 2003 vance escaped joining marines serving iraq enrolling ohio state university coup country boy yale law school author vance doesnt spend much time jackson talks summertime trips kentucky visit beloved uncles attend family funerals also describes recent visit walking tour notices town seems fallen hard times describes passing neighbors house several ferocious malnourished chainedup dogs protected furniture strewn barren front yard asked second cousin young father living told man job proud vance journalist doesnt conduct actual interviews jackson doesnt dwell much either demographics character simply tells us small town six thousand heart southeastern kentuckys coal country calling town bit charitable know jackson twoandahalf months lived reporter owsley county right next door experience jackson first biggest town miles interacted way people owsley county didwhen needed go walmart drove 35 minutes country highways one jackson minor medical emergency hospital sought care small jackson really big next neighbors also locus political power tiny spot southeastern kentucky everything relative even comes describing hometown middletown ohio small city 50000 smack cincinnati dayton interstate 75 grandparents moved raise mom two siblings mostly leaves landscape story vance described town 1980s 90s fueled factorys middleclass jobs company picnics wellkept parks fell disrepair years armco merged japanese company 1989 employment middletown plant began decline vance touches big events without actually delving except asides occasional relevant study doesnt much properly connect life larger contexts trends book pinned mothers drug addiction painkillers heroin really fact dont actually hear tosses observations neighbors former friends torn apart drugs poverty doesnt introduce interview asides dont truly reveal much vance describes harrowing incidents childhood even leaves important details doesnt much investigating find vantage point adulthood result book thats broadly personal without deeply though allegedly story culture crisis written point view man seems far removed crisis provides briefest window life hillbilly made good works investment firm silicon valley make broader observations white working classwhich instance refers rural cultural identity economic onethey sound like clichés talks lot hillbilly sense honor requires go guy breaks sisters heart brother though wouldnt pick fight someone mean sister grocery store clerk notices people claims game system food stamp recipients writes theyd buy two dozen packs soda food stamps sell discount cash theyd ring orders separately buying food them160food stamps beer wine cigarettes cash theyd regularly go checkout line speaking cell phones could never understand lives felt like struggle living government largesse enjoyed trinkets dreamed observations undoubtedly true micro sense read hear often conservative commentators observations reveal like many rightleaning writers vance makes broad assertions without spending much time defining considering exactly alternatives someone place like southeastern kentucky deindustrialized ohio arent small areas small economies theyre areas losing populations rapidly young able flood cities everywhere around country many hillbillies come extremely rural areas subsistence economies well past middle last century never fully transitioned manufacturing wellpaying jobs fled country people stayed behind vances grandparents left built middleclass life elsewhere even bigger towns smaller cities like middletown dependent one large employer getting jobs depended knowing someone could get one leaving large swaths least welloff even best days jobs areas often limited ones men could get white men working steel company mining coal logging trees putting together cars always backbreaking labor aging baby boomers creaky bluecollar bodies big driver increase social security disability insurance program another dole conservatives like complain obvious life areas presents important challenges many things arent going well many people brings several relevant questions progressives people areas also considerations shouldnt election thrown sharp relief grew town actually smaller jackson clinton arkansas southern edge ozark mountain range population 2600 bit smaller growing 1980s 90s years earlier vance childhood clinton two factories plant made electrical cords chickenprocessing plant grandparents worked high school cord plant moved shiny new building hopefully named quality drive newly paved woods small boat factory took old place brief noted 12 percent population county bachelors degree people knew growing gone college towns handful doctors lawyers dentists one vet course teachers overwhelmingly women clinton small hospital mother works nursing home owned company serve smaller towns around clinton hospital struggles financially previous owners come close closing nursing home past jobs heavily segregated gender handful women usually college education necessarily bachelors degrees work nurses varying qualification levels many jobs held women new factory jobsdangerous backbreaking relatively lowpaying skills education require almost everyone else works either works walmart fast food owns small business men construction related supply businessesmy dad plumber auto shops line highway women part beauty salons couple clothing stores one nonwalmart grocery store struggled compete changed hands least three times past years couple accountants dance school local radio station one makes much moneythe countys median annual income 31030 poverty rate 265 percent clinton perhaps extreme example smalltown life pattern experience repeated southeastern kentucky smalltown ohio across country rural population depleting rapidly nationwide 81 percent countrys people live metro areas 2019 rural population reach global peak start drop absolute terms trend clear even arkansas people age drain urban areas around state cities thriving diverse provide varied opportunities jobs education theyre also expensive getting poor elderly cant afford access trapped outerring suburbs rural areas good jobs gone cities also employers want growth jobs wages unevenly distributed broken geography always two economies countrys least educated poorest worse one theyre disproportionately africanamerican latino raw numbers include plenty whites people arent missing less education training theyre also missing live wrong places recent study conducted economists raj chetty nathaniel hendren found childs chance moving poverty based strongly grew im sure people rural areas small cities across country would like bring back jobs would employer locate city like middletown place like kentucky kinds jobs stay benefits locating ones self near larger citywith educated populace kinds civic landscapes vibrant downtowns public infrastructure people want live insimply outweigh costs trump communities turn resentment panicked justified feelings way life disappearing thanks urban educated betteroff america weaponized hate rembert browne wrote new york magazine made hate intersectional helped rural americans direct everyone wasnt throughout 2016 election season contrary dreher weve actually seen end portraits rural white america trump voters handwringing economic angst accelerated since donald trump elected large part thanks rural america including former democratic enclaves states like wisconsin ohio pennsylvania democrats allies various progressives also obsessed white working class done might win back democratic coalition donald j trump white house campaign rhetoric successfully tapped real justified anger anger many traditional democrats feel wrote bernie sanders new york times november 10 elizabeth warren pledged work trump presidentelect really want create jobs help suffering working class may political posturing far trumps plan would achieve way infrastructure plan details hazy cost 1 trillion leverage publicprivate partnerships rebuilding crumbling infrastructure like roads bridges twist knife liberals paid attention obama administration 1 trillion around size stimulus plan obama administration wanted stimulus package taking office economy truly free fall republican lawmakers howling deficit determined let pass package end smaller republicans pass something like take credit surface plan would nobrainer spending money infrastructure would address real problems roads bridges create wellpaying jobs address rural americas plight especially included better easier navigate roads newer types infrastructure like broadband access yet warnings already coming begin david dayen wrote new republic financing scheme relies private money way would designed funnel money big investors contractors essentially letting purchase public assets hardly concern least among real aims behind plans kinds jobs would created democrats progressives move urge cooperation administration commonground issues like infrastructure especially comes helping rural white working class apparently feel tender toward important keep mind totality trumps proposals totality rhetoric also important ask inspired votes truly inspired hell actually working satisfy know electorate writing exit polls tell us always come lot caveats according polls voters made less 50000 year made 36 percent electorate 52 percent people voted hillary clinton overall turnout among poorest americans never high fewer half voters lowest income brackets turned previous elections noncollegeeducated whites voted year voted trump overall support came wealthier white people especially white men fact jeff guo washington post found trump improved mitt romneys 2012 margins places unemployment also dropped truth told dont really know white voters suffering actually wanted often case wealthiest really made voices heard folks vote trump asked care many voters say economy though according exit polls hillary clinton majority voters ranked economy first among concerns drill trump voters however another pattern emerges guo quotes kathy cramer political scientist wrote book rural voters wisconsin found economic woes people communicated interlaced sense part community values works hard society deserving reward public support power distributed world complex set ideas product160of many years political debate national level well generations community members teaching ideas entwined set beliefs something one politician instilled people overnightor even months elegy vance speaks folks government clear people talks think something creates dependency wasnt previously compounds poverty rather reduces friend quit job tired waking earlyand later took facebook complain obamas economyvance writes make better choices needs live environment forces ask tough questions cultural movement white working class blame problems society government movement gains adherents day separates successful unsuccessful expectations lives yet message right increasingly fault youre loser governments fault government becomes shorthand way many people refer receive sort assistance includes many folks supposedly lazy neighbors also includes least 40 years people faraway cities also characterize lazy largely african americans new immigrants trump made clear said african americans living hell claimed wrongly black youth unemployment rate 58 percent talk government also denotes single moms rural conservative communities believed gotten married children government dole become also shorthand kind polyglot humanitarian democracy may inspired many clinton voters donald trump spewed hate threw indiscriminately groups also voters voted even warrenprogressive champion elizabeth warrenhas come defense trump voters speech aflcio said many millions people voted donald trump bigotry hate fueled campaign rallies voted despite hate cold solace voters didnt embrace bile claim think accepting bit credulously either voters understand said racistalong ists ics attributed public statementsor didnt care either way result effectively warren far person left call people vilify trump supporters suggesting try understand instead many also asked really vilifying someone plainly state actually done well would answer comb rural counties across country see voted would see rare cases trump nearly 100 percent vote across deep red states bent heavily republican like west virginia mississippi 80 percent votes counties places biggest margins even little home county 217 percent voted trump thats still something county around 96 percent white 1547 voters cast votes hate almost certainly include white voters certainly witnessing level economic devastation neighbors yet compromise morals send message washington add voters like town across country like clinton must total hundreds thousands people minority places votes count less cast trump new york california think would disservice sugarcoat gravity neighbors worth noting vance basically elides race entirely time touches dismiss many new friends blame racism perception president writes hillbilly distrust obama president feels like alien many middletonians reasons nothing skin color describes obama part urbane elite exactly rural america come loathe nearly every sociologist political scientist whos researched voting habits workingclass whites rural depressed parts country found views race elitism class financial wellbeing tightly intertwined hard separate say tender portraits workers shouldnt shade happened november effort alleviate real suffering communities progressives must also bear mind trumps election made life tangibly worse muslim latino communities african americans lgbt communities women whether voted trump progressives compromise plan sounds good theory like infrastructure plan would undoubtedly help rural america obligated keep big picture mind ask various communities experience benefits better roads good jobs theyre arrested sent jail trump doubles worst policing practices advisor rudy giuliani practiced new york city much good jobs help latino muslim communities families harassed deported investigated whether women benefit protections workplace harassment diminished reproductive rights come assault southern poverty law center counted 200 hate crimes three days election occurred since trump sworn january continue hear calls tell us president work see democratic lawmakers progressive allies trying seek common ground many name workingclass whites experiencing economic anxiety cynical bid try bring voters back fold may offer numbers theories justify bipartisan cooperation numbers theories may technically correct americans especially historically disenfranchised feel safe compromise also morally untenable | 2,225 |
<p>Poverty blights the lives of billions of people throughout the world: in developing countries, where it is acute, and industrialised nations, where it’s hidden but growing. It rises out of social injustice, makes exploitation and abuse inevitable, brings death and disease, robs people of opportunity and dignity, feeds anger and resentment.</p>
<p>Much like the rubbish that litters the streets of our cities, the poor, destitute and hungry are swept out of sight. Their existence is an embarrassment to politicians and sits uncomfortably within the shiny materialistic image promoted by cities and countries eager to attract ‘inward investment’.</p>
<p>As more jobs become obsolete due to new technology and the closure of traditional industries, unemployment is set to rise, incomes disappear, and, unless there is a radical reappraisal of the economic environment, poverty levels will rise, perhaps exponentially. In fact, with wages stagnant many of those now living in poverty are actually in work – the ‘working poor’ – trying to survive on a pittance, many of whom cannot feed themselves without the support of food banks.</p>
<p>The Poverty Line</p>
<p>The World Bank claims that in 2013 almost 767 million people (11% of the global population) were living in extreme poverty – defined as income of $1.90 a day. However, a study by the UK’s Overseas Development Institute (ODI) found that more than 2.5 billion people are living “on less than $2 per day.” That’s $2 a day for all living costs; it’s not ‘spending money’. Raise the ‘poverty’ bar to a more realistic $5 a day (the cost of two cups of coffee in a developed country), and over four billion people (two thirds of humanity) slide into the net.</p>
<p>Poverty equals illness and hunger, lack of self-worth and abuse. It is the single greatest cause of death and condemns people to live hopeless lives of relentless hardship. At the same time those born into wealthy families are blessed with opportunities, security and comfort: Simple gifts – rights in fact – that should be the inheritance of every child no matter where or to whom they are born.</p>
<p>Countries may be rich or poor, but the world is bountiful. People starve because they’re poor not because of a shortage of food: there is an abundance of food. The continuing existence of poverty in a world of plenty, a world connected and interdependent as never before, is a crime against our collective humanity. Poverty, together with extreme inequality, should be ended completely and consigned to the past.</p>
<p>Re-designing how we live</p>
<p>The coming Age of the Machine is part of a new time, and offers unprecedented possibilities to re-design the way we live.</p>
<p>Technological innovation will we are told, destroy more jobs than it creates; a development that within the existing economic system engenders fear, but it should be welcomed. Human beings will be liberated from lives of drudgery, allowing time and space to explore life, to examine what it means to be human, to be creative and to collectively redefine what civilization can be. But, as Yanis Varoufakis, Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Athens (former finance minister of Greece) makes clear, in order for everyone to benefit from these opportunities, “every citizen must be granted property rights over part of the wealth that the machines produce.” This requires a completely new approach to how we think about the economy and the way it operates.</p>
<p>The present model – whilst it can boast of successes – is ill equipped to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the time and must go. Materialistic values are built into the system; selfishness, desire and excess promoted, and (speaking generally throughout) whilst philanthropy is part of some corporate strategies, presented with the choice of saving lives but losing money, administrators side with the money. Such is the inherent cynicism and inhumanity that exists within and is promoted by the pervasive paradigm.</p>
<p>Fundamental change has been needed for some time; the Advance of Automation adds one more imperative to the process. A new, sustainable, humane economic model is required worthy of the 21st Century and beyond. A new system charged with meeting human need and safeguarding the environment, and as Yanis Varoufakis says that “conceives of investment in people’s communities; we also need to establish the right to a Universal Basic Income.”</p>
<p>A basic right to life’s requirements</p>
<p>The Revolution in Work requires an Evolution in Living: a new approach, in which the acknowledgment that humanity is one is primary. We are Brothers and Sisters of One Humanity, and the systems that govern our lives should be based on and encourage the realization of this fact. Sharing as a principle that animates human affairs naturally follows such an understanding and when pragmatically applied will allow everyone to live dignified lives free from the fear of poverty. Everyone is entitled to the means required to meet their needs, irrespective of whether they have a job and income or are unable to secure either; quality homes, good health care and inspiring education.</p>
<p>Within the existing paradigm the Imminent Revolution presents us with what Varoufakis describes as a “major dilemma”. Either a world in which the concentration of ownership over the new means of production becomes even more intense, leading “to a stagnating capitalism with [more] extreme inequality and huge incomes for a shrinking percentage of the population, that live behind electrified barriers in privately policed communities, whilst the rest exist in a cesspool of volatility, uncertainty and social misery.”</p>
<p>Or we can move in another direction, “post democracy – post social democracy”, – post ideology per-se. A society in which the means of living – presently money – is freely, unconditionally available to everyone, machines are the servants of humanity and all reap the rewards of their labour.</p>
<p>For the good to be made manifest, a new model is required that redistributes – shares – the “ownership of the means of production”, or at least [ensures] the means of production is redistributed in such a way as to effectively guarantee freedom…this requires a basic income, which is essential.” A Universal Basic Income (UBI) made up either of regular payments or some form of Inheritance Trust – currently only available in wealthy families –, set up to cover the needs of everyone from birth.</p>
<p>The recognition that everyone has a Right to the basic requirements for living goes back to the 18th century. And towards the end of the First World War Bertrand Russell outlined a plan which contained the embryonic idea of UBI and included the suggestion that the amount be varied depending on work “which the community recognizes as useful…when education is finished, no one should be compelled to work, and those who choose not to work should receive a bare livelihood and be left completely free.”</p>
<p>The link with community work is important and should be incorporated into any new system. However, ‘payments’, whether monetary or a sophisticated credit scheme, should not be conditional on such activities. Social engagement will naturally grow from a just economic system that recognizes humanity’s underlying unity.</p>
<p>In the decades since Russell’s proposals, UBI in some form has been attracting increasing interest. Currently various countries are considering UBI: Finland has initiated a two-year trial to pay 2,000 randomly chosen unemployed citizens a basic monthly income, irrespective of whether they find work or not; Scotland is about to pilot a “radical” UBI scheme in two of its local authorities. Glasgow (where it’s estimated a third of children live in poverty) and Fife, because, Councilors say, “it is the best way to tackle poverty”. And perhaps surprisingly, India, where over a third of the poorest people on Earth live, is looking at UBI. Payments would be made to every child and adult, and would guarantee “all citizens enough income to cover their basic needs [and] would promote social justice.”</p>
<p>Changing values</p>
<p>In its current form UBI is not the answer, but it could form an important part of a new progressive economic-social model, and the fact that it is being widely discussed is positive.</p>
<p>Whether ‘payments’ are made in monetary terms or through a new ‘social market,’ as Varoufakis calls it, in which throughout life, everyone is “endowed with capital from society,” UBI would liberate the poor from “vicious welfare-state means testing and the trap of inter-generational poverty”; it would offer “the economic stability that most people are losing” and create a “platform on which they could stand before reaching out for something better.”</p>
<p>In addition to establishing financial security, endowing everyone with the means to meet their needs would have a range of additional benefits. It would demonstrate that the collective society is a compassionate and just one and show that all people are valued equally. Inequality would fade, as would the consequential social ills. Competition would lose its hold, replaced by cooperation, which would become the norm, as would tolerance and trust.</p>
<p>Fear of destitution, exploitation and hunger would be driven from the Earth and the value system under which we live would radically change.</p>
<p>This is not an unattainable utopian vision. It is the realistic picture of a world in which humanity responds creatively and pragmatically to the changes that technology presents us with. It is a positive image, predicated on the recognition of humanity’s essential unity. This realization is crucial if we are to bring about lasting change, and create the conditions for peace; as Yanis Varoufakis states, the question is “do we consider our community to be an extended family of humanity not?”</p> | true | 4 | poverty blights lives billions people throughout world developing countries acute industrialised nations hidden growing rises social injustice makes exploitation abuse inevitable brings death disease robs people opportunity dignity feeds anger resentment much like rubbish litters streets cities poor destitute hungry swept sight existence embarrassment politicians sits uncomfortably within shiny materialistic image promoted cities countries eager attract inward investment jobs become obsolete due new technology closure traditional industries unemployment set rise incomes disappear unless radical reappraisal economic environment poverty levels rise perhaps exponentially fact wages stagnant many living poverty actually work working poor trying survive pittance many feed without support food banks poverty line world bank claims 2013 almost 767 million people 11 global population living extreme poverty defined income 190 day however study uks overseas development institute odi found 25 billion people living less 2 per day thats 2 day living costs spending money raise poverty bar realistic 5 day cost two cups coffee developed country four billion people two thirds humanity slide net poverty equals illness hunger lack selfworth abuse single greatest cause death condemns people live hopeless lives relentless hardship time born wealthy families blessed opportunities security comfort simple gifts rights fact inheritance every child matter born countries may rich poor world bountiful people starve theyre poor shortage food abundance food continuing existence poverty world plenty world connected interdependent never crime collective humanity poverty together extreme inequality ended completely consigned past redesigning live coming age machine part new time offers unprecedented possibilities redesign way live technological innovation told destroy jobs creates development within existing economic system engenders fear welcomed human beings liberated lives drudgery allowing time space explore life examine means human creative collectively redefine civilization yanis varoufakis professor economic theory university athens former finance minister greece makes clear order everyone benefit opportunities every citizen must granted property rights part wealth machines produce requires completely new approach think economy way operates present model whilst boast successes ill equipped respond challenges opportunities time must go materialistic values built system selfishness desire excess promoted speaking generally throughout whilst philanthropy part corporate strategies presented choice saving lives losing money administrators side money inherent cynicism inhumanity exists within promoted pervasive paradigm fundamental change needed time advance automation adds one imperative process new sustainable humane economic model required worthy 21st century beyond new system charged meeting human need safeguarding environment yanis varoufakis says conceives investment peoples communities also need establish right universal basic income basic right lifes requirements revolution work requires evolution living new approach acknowledgment humanity one primary brothers sisters one humanity systems govern lives based encourage realization fact sharing principle animates human affairs naturally follows understanding pragmatically applied allow everyone live dignified lives free fear poverty everyone entitled means required meet needs irrespective whether job income unable secure either quality homes good health care inspiring education within existing paradigm imminent revolution presents us varoufakis describes major dilemma either world concentration ownership new means production becomes even intense leading stagnating capitalism extreme inequality huge incomes shrinking percentage population live behind electrified barriers privately policed communities whilst rest exist cesspool volatility uncertainty social misery move another direction post democracy post social democracy post ideology perse society means living presently money freely unconditionally available everyone machines servants humanity reap rewards labour good made manifest new model required redistributes shares ownership means production least ensures means production redistributed way effectively guarantee freedomthis requires basic income essential universal basic income ubi made either regular payments form inheritance trust currently available wealthy families set cover needs everyone birth recognition everyone right basic requirements living goes back 18th century towards end first world war bertrand russell outlined plan contained embryonic idea ubi included suggestion amount varied depending work community recognizes usefulwhen education finished one compelled work choose work receive bare livelihood left completely free link community work important incorporated new system however payments whether monetary sophisticated credit scheme conditional activities social engagement naturally grow economic system recognizes humanitys underlying unity decades since russells proposals ubi form attracting increasing interest currently various countries considering ubi finland initiated twoyear trial pay 2000 randomly chosen unemployed citizens basic monthly income irrespective whether find work scotland pilot radical ubi scheme two local authorities glasgow estimated third children live poverty fife councilors say best way tackle poverty perhaps surprisingly india third poorest people earth live looking ubi payments would made every child adult would guarantee citizens enough income cover basic needs would promote social justice changing values current form ubi answer could form important part new progressive economicsocial model fact widely discussed positive whether payments made monetary terms new social market varoufakis calls throughout life everyone endowed capital society ubi would liberate poor vicious welfarestate means testing trap intergenerational poverty would offer economic stability people losing create platform could stand reaching something better addition establishing financial security endowing everyone means meet needs would range additional benefits would demonstrate collective society compassionate one show people valued equally inequality would fade would consequential social ills competition would lose hold replaced cooperation would become norm would tolerance trust fear destitution exploitation hunger would driven earth value system live would radically change unattainable utopian vision realistic picture world humanity responds creatively pragmatically changes technology presents us positive image predicated recognition humanitys essential unity realization crucial bring lasting change create conditions peace yanis varoufakis states question consider community extended family humanity | 883 |
<p>For good reason, there has been serious hand-wringing over what to do about the ethical lapses of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The fact that Supreme Court justices are exempt from the code of ethical conduct which applies to the rest of the federal judiciary; the problem of bringing a sitting justice before the Congress to question the conduct of a constitutional co-equal; the reality that justices cannot easily defend themselves against news media charges; the defiant, in-your-face posture of Thomas — the list goes on but it need not. There is clear precedent for how to deal with the justice. Thomas could be forced off the bench.</p>
<p>As the associate deputy attorney general in President Richard M. Nixon’s Department of Justice, I was there when Assistant Attorney General William Rehnquist outlined how to remove a Supreme Court justice who had engaged in conduct not quite as troublesome as that of Thomas. Rehnquist, of course, would later become chief justice of the United States. His memorandum providing the process for the Department of Justice to proceed against then Supreme Court Justice <a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKfortasA.htm" type="external">Abe Fortas</a> remains solid precedent and the way to deal with Clarence Thomas. But before looking at the solution, I should explain the problem.</p>
<p>To begin with, there is absolutely no question in my mind that Thomas lied his way onto the Supreme Court in 1991 when he denied <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39758243/ns/politics-more_politics/t/anita-hill-no-reason-apologize-thomas/%20" type="external">Anita Hill’s charges</a> that he had sexually harassed her and some of his other subordinates. If anyone needs proof, please examine the reporting of Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, authors of <a href="http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,304651,00.html" type="external">“Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas,”</a> which sets forth the case against Thomas with an abundance of clear and convincing evidence (not to mention the evidence corroborating Hill that Joe Biden, then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, withheld).</p>
<p>The way Thomas reached the court is important for two reasons. First, there was once a time when those sitting on our highest bench would never do anything to tarnish the court, and this factors into both his conduct and the chances of his removal. Secondly, Thomas’ deceit during his confirmation hearing has overshadowed all of his behavior since he arrived on the court.</p>
<p />
<p>Thomas fooled no one when he dissembled in 1991. Those who embrace his consistently radical conservative voting record often overlook how he arrived on the high court, and a few supporters and admirers even defend him by diminishing the significance of his persistently questionable behavior. Those who are unhappy with Thomas as a justice, not to mention his aggressive polarization of the court, find that he has simply lived down to his standards as a scoundrel and fabulist. No one is particularly surprised that his behavior as a justice just keeps sinking lower and lower, constantly reaching new bottoms. (For a catalog that samples Thomas’ failings, see <a href="http://blog.reidreport.com/2011/06/the-weinergate-clarence-thomas-convergence/" type="external">The Reid Report</a>.)</p>
<p>Many Supreme Court justices enjoy the company of well-off social friends. Few justices have significant wealth, and since their pay is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States#Salary" type="external">so low</a> relative to their stature, almost all live quite modestly. There is nothing wrong with justices having a few friends who can occasionally provide an especially pleasant social interlude while seeking nothing other than making life a bit more pleasant for these dedicated public servants. In fact, I have friends who socialize with justices. I can assure you they are all extremely sensitive to the nature of these relationships and would never exploit the friendships.</p>
<p>Thomas and his friends have no such compunctions. Maybe the way Thomas arrived on the court explains why he operates at the outer edges of court propriety, if not beyond. Maybe because he is held in such low esteem by so many on the bench and at the bar he simply does not care. As his book showed, he is a bitter man. The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/28/AR2007092801634.html%20" type="external">Washington Post noted</a> that he used his 2007 memoir, “My Grandfather’s Son,” to “settle scores,” while “scathingly condemning the media, the Democratic senators who opposed his nomination to the Supreme Court, and the ‘mob’ of liberal elites and activist groups that he says desecrated his life.” In short, he sees himself as a victim, so his actions may be his own private revenge. However, for those who have followed his career, as I have, it was not surprising to see the latest revelation in The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/us/politics/19thomas.html?_r=2" type="external">New York Times</a>, which reports again about Thomas’ “friendship” with Harlan Crow, a Dallas real estate magnate and big-time benefactor of conservative causes.</p>
<p>This relationship is deeply conflicted because Crow’s financial and political interests are frequently before the Supreme Court. Nonetheless, Crow continues to bestow endless gifts and favors on Thomas or fund matters of serious interest to the justice, such as giving Thomas a $19,000 Bible that once belonged to Frederick Douglass, donating $175,000 to finance a library project dedicated to Thomas in Savannah, Ga., and, as was recently revealed, providing not less than $2.8 million to acquire and preserve a crab and oyster cannery near Thomas’ childhood home in Pinpoint, Ga., a project that is operating under Thomas’ supervision.</p>
<p>One suspects this is but the tip of the iceberg because Thomas’ wife, Virginia (known as Ginni), is a Crow-funded conflict of interest with whom the justice literally sleeps. Ginni is not merely a foot-stomping, full-throated tea party activist, but she is a highly paid lobbyist. According to congressional information, in the past few years she has earned some $700,000 for her tea party work. In addition, Crow reportedly provided Ginni Thomas some $500,000 to start her tea party group, Liberty Central, which pays her so well. Ginni Thomas openly lobbies issues that have or will come before the Supreme Court, such as health care reform. When 74 Democratic members of Congress requested that Justice Thomas disqualify himself from any ruling on the new health care reform law, which is making its way toward the Supreme Court thanks in part to the efforts of the tea party and Ginni Thomas to have that law ruled unconstitutional, he ignored the request. This is his standard operating procedure. Thomas simply is not troubled by those who are concerned that a justice and his wife directly and indirectly receive financial benefits from “a friend” with both financial and political interests before the court.</p>
<p>The question is what can be done about this problem. Early this year, U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, introduced the proposed Supreme Court Transparency and Disclosure Act of 2011 (H.R. 862). When introducing this legislation, which would extend to Supreme Court justices the code of professional conduct that applies to all other federal judges, Murphy cited the conflict of interest and political actions of Justice Clarence Thomas. Recently, the bill received a glimmer of press attention as a result of Thomas’ latest reported shenanigans, and the website <a href="http://www.chrismurphy.com/page/s/supremecourt?source=kos" type="external">Daily Kos</a> is collecting signatures for a petition supporting Murphy’s proposal. In fact, the proposal in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives is the proverbial snowball in hell. Nothing is going to come of it, even if Daily Kos collects 100 million signatures. Plus, the proposal is <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/0321_justices_ethics_wheeler.aspx" type="external">laden with serious</a> constitutional questions and problems. At the top of that list is the likelihood that the Supreme Court would declare it unconstitutional if it were adopted.</p>
<p>There is a way, nonetheless. As a young official in Nixon’s Department of Justice — and, I must admit, with some amazement — I watched a Republican Justice Department and a conservative attorney general go after a liberal Supreme Court justice with remarkable success. Robert Shogan, a former Los Angeles Times and Newsweek reporter, recounted much of the story in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Question-Judgment-Fortas-Struggle-Supreme/dp/0672512688" type="external">“A Question of Judgment: The Fortas Case and the Struggle for the Supreme Court.”</a> I filled in a few missing pieces when I wrote <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rehnquist-Choice-Appointment-Redefined-Supreme/dp/0743233204/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1308694524&amp;sr=1-1" type="external">“The Rehnquist Choice.”</a> Rehnquist in those days was the head of the Office of Legal Counsel and prepared a detailed memorandum for Attorney General John Mitchell explaining how to undertake an action that had never before been done, namely for the Justice Department to start a criminal investigation of a sitting justice, not based on hard information but rather based mainly on speculation of a worst-case scenario, i.e., assuming gifts and favors were bribes.</p>
<p>With the Rehnquist memo in hand, Mitchell arranged a secret meeting with then Chief Justice Earl Warren, and told Warren that if Fortas did not resign from the court the Justice Department was going to launch an investigation of Fortas’ dealing with a financier, Louis Wolfson, then recently convicted of securities violations, because of Wolfson’s earlier gifts to his friend Fortas and Fortas’ wife. The case against Fortas was weak, yet Mitchell was more than bluffing. He was prepared to have a grand jury determine whether there was a fire amid the smell of smoke. When Fortas, a formidable legal mind, tested the bluff, Mitchell upped the stakes. He passed the word that he was going after Fortas’ wife, Carol Agger, a highly successful tax law specialist, as well as Fortas’ former law partner, Paul Porter. Mitchell said that he was considering reopening a grand jury proceeding that had cleared both Agger and Porter regarding a case disposed of years earlier. This, too, bordered on being a trumped-up charge, but an attorney general can make good on a bluff and actually convene a grand jury. That was not necessary. Rather than put his wife and former partner through the agony, or tarnish the court by the very fact of such a proceeding, Fortas resigned.</p>
<p>The parallels of the Thomas and Fortas behavior is striking. The recent New York Times article strongly suggests that Thomas has failed to file required annual financial statements. He has failed to do this in the past, claiming it an oversight. The line between gifts and bribes in these circumstances is as fine as a hair on a frog’s back. One suspects Thomas and his wife would not do well with close scrutiny. The Rehnquist memo, sitting in the files of the Office of Legal Counsel, provides the precedent to undertake such a federal investigation of both Clarence and Ginni Thomas. Does anyone who follows politics not believe that if the situations were reversed and Republicans found one of the Democrats on the Supreme Court engaging in similar behavior they would not employ the Fortas option? Of course they would.</p>
<p>There are two problems with this strategy. First, the Democrats would never do to Thomas what Republicans did to Fortas. For the Republicans, seats on the Supreme Court are worth whatever it takes to get them. They play hardball. For Democrats, well, they play beanbag over judicial appointments. Democrats are willing to toss a few stingers, but never do they truly want to hurt anyone. They cannot help it that they are nice people, and ruthlessness does not work for them. This is why a minority of Republicans in the United States can control the overwhelming majority of Democrats and independents who lean left.</p>
<p>Second problem, Thomas would fight to his last breath to keep his seat. He would claim the Fortas option was an attack on the court — for he already makes a similar claim when anyone is critical of his conduct. If Harlan Crow’s gifts and favors were given with a wink and nod, and in fact turned out to be bribes, and this could be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, and Thomas were convicted, I believe that rather than resign he would demand an impeachment proceeding to remove him from the court. Unlike in the case of Abe Fortas, who had deep concern for the court, it is not difficult to believe that Clarence Thomas cares only about Clarence Thomas. There is also the reality that as long as Republicans control the House of Representatives there will never be an impeachment of Thomas. Should Democrats regain control of the House, well, Democrats don’t play hardball.</p>
<p>In short, nothing is going to happen to Clarence Thomas. No one is going to truly challenge his conduct, and he will sit on the Supreme Court until he feels like leaving.</p>
<p>I’d be interested in your thoughts. Share them on Twitter: @johnwdean.</p>
<p>John Dean served as Richard M. Nixon’s White House lawyer for 1,000 days and is the author of several books, including “Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush” and “Conservatives Without Conscience.”</p> | true | 4 | good reason serious handwringing ethical lapses us supreme court justice clarence thomas fact supreme court justices exempt code ethical conduct applies rest federal judiciary problem bringing sitting justice congress question conduct constitutional coequal reality justices easily defend news media charges defiant inyourface posture thomas list goes need clear precedent deal justice thomas could forced bench associate deputy attorney general president richard nixons department justice assistant attorney general william rehnquist outlined remove supreme court justice engaged conduct quite troublesome thomas rehnquist course would later become chief justice united states memorandum providing process department justice proceed supreme court justice abe fortas remains solid precedent way deal clarence thomas looking solution explain problem begin absolutely question mind thomas lied way onto supreme court 1991 denied anita hills charges sexually harassed subordinates anyone needs proof please examine reporting jane mayer jill abramson authors strange justice selling clarence thomas sets forth case thomas abundance clear convincing evidence mention evidence corroborating hill joe biden chairman senate judiciary committee withheld way thomas reached court important two reasons first time sitting highest bench would never anything tarnish court factors conduct chances removal secondly thomas deceit confirmation hearing overshadowed behavior since arrived court thomas fooled one dissembled 1991 embrace consistently radical conservative voting record often overlook arrived high court supporters admirers even defend diminishing significance persistently questionable behavior unhappy thomas justice mention aggressive polarization court find simply lived standards scoundrel fabulist one particularly surprised behavior justice keeps sinking lower lower constantly reaching new bottoms catalog samples thomas failings see reid report many supreme court justices enjoy company welloff social friends justices significant wealth since pay low relative stature almost live quite modestly nothing wrong justices friends occasionally provide especially pleasant social interlude seeking nothing making life bit pleasant dedicated public servants fact friends socialize justices assure extremely sensitive nature relationships would never exploit friendships thomas friends compunctions maybe way thomas arrived court explains operates outer edges court propriety beyond maybe held low esteem many bench bar simply care book showed bitter man washington post noted used 2007 memoir grandfathers son settle scores scathingly condemning media democratic senators opposed nomination supreme court mob liberal elites activist groups says desecrated life short sees victim actions may private revenge however followed career surprising see latest revelation new york times reports thomas friendship harlan crow dallas real estate magnate bigtime benefactor conservative causes relationship deeply conflicted crows financial political interests frequently supreme court nonetheless crow continues bestow endless gifts favors thomas fund matters serious interest justice giving thomas 19000 bible belonged frederick douglass donating 175000 finance library project dedicated thomas savannah ga recently revealed providing less 28 million acquire preserve crab oyster cannery near thomas childhood home pinpoint ga project operating thomas supervision one suspects tip iceberg thomas wife virginia known ginni crowfunded conflict interest justice literally sleeps ginni merely footstomping fullthroated tea party activist highly paid lobbyist according congressional information past years earned 700000 tea party work addition crow reportedly provided ginni thomas 500000 start tea party group liberty central pays well ginni thomas openly lobbies issues come supreme court health care reform 74 democratic members congress requested justice thomas disqualify ruling new health care reform law making way toward supreme court thanks part efforts tea party ginni thomas law ruled unconstitutional ignored request standard operating procedure thomas simply troubled concerned justice wife directly indirectly receive financial benefits friend financial political interests court question done problem early year us rep christopher murphy connecticut democrat introduced proposed supreme court transparency disclosure act 2011 hr 862 introducing legislation would extend supreme court justices code professional conduct applies federal judges murphy cited conflict interest political actions justice clarence thomas recently bill received glimmer press attention result thomas latest reported shenanigans website daily kos collecting signatures petition supporting murphys proposal fact proposal gopcontrolled house representatives proverbial snowball hell nothing going come even daily kos collects 100 million signatures plus proposal laden serious constitutional questions problems top list likelihood supreme court would declare unconstitutional adopted way nonetheless young official nixons department justice must admit amazement watched republican justice department conservative attorney general go liberal supreme court justice remarkable success robert shogan former los angeles times newsweek reporter recounted much story question judgment fortas case struggle supreme court filled missing pieces wrote rehnquist choice rehnquist days head office legal counsel prepared detailed memorandum attorney general john mitchell explaining undertake action never done namely justice department start criminal investigation sitting justice based hard information rather based mainly speculation worstcase scenario ie assuming gifts favors bribes rehnquist memo hand mitchell arranged secret meeting chief justice earl warren told warren fortas resign court justice department going launch investigation fortas dealing financier louis wolfson recently convicted securities violations wolfsons earlier gifts friend fortas fortas wife case fortas weak yet mitchell bluffing prepared grand jury determine whether fire amid smell smoke fortas formidable legal mind tested bluff mitchell upped stakes passed word going fortas wife carol agger highly successful tax law specialist well fortas former law partner paul porter mitchell said considering reopening grand jury proceeding cleared agger porter regarding case disposed years earlier bordered trumpedup charge attorney general make good bluff actually convene grand jury necessary rather put wife former partner agony tarnish court fact proceeding fortas resigned parallels thomas fortas behavior striking recent new york times article strongly suggests thomas failed file required annual financial statements failed past claiming oversight line gifts bribes circumstances fine hair frogs back one suspects thomas wife would well close scrutiny rehnquist memo sitting files office legal counsel provides precedent undertake federal investigation clarence ginni thomas anyone follows politics believe situations reversed republicans found one democrats supreme court engaging similar behavior would employ fortas option course would two problems strategy first democrats would never thomas republicans fortas republicans seats supreme court worth whatever takes get play hardball democrats well play beanbag judicial appointments democrats willing toss stingers never truly want hurt anyone help nice people ruthlessness work minority republicans united states control overwhelming majority democrats independents lean left second problem thomas would fight last breath keep seat would claim fortas option attack court already makes similar claim anyone critical conduct harlan crows gifts favors given wink nod fact turned bribes could proved jury beyond reasonable doubt thomas convicted believe rather resign would demand impeachment proceeding remove court unlike case abe fortas deep concern court difficult believe clarence thomas cares clarence thomas also reality long republicans control house representatives never impeachment thomas democrats regain control house well democrats dont play hardball short nothing going happen clarence thomas one going truly challenge conduct sit supreme court feels like leaving id interested thoughts share twitter johnwdean john dean served richard nixons white house lawyer 1000 days author several books including worse watergate secret presidency george w bush conservatives without conscience | 1,121 |
<p>My office is cluttered with over 20,000 pages of FBI files chronicling the damage inflicted on academic freedom in America by McCarthyism. These hundreds of different files tell divergent stories with various twists, turns and morals, but most of them are bound together by a simple feature: the names of these individuals who’s lives were invaded and altered appeared somewhere, sometime on a list of subversives, and the FBI read these lists and opened investigatory files (or added to existing files) on these individuals. There were countless lists of suspect academics printed in publications such as the American Mercury, Readers Digest, newsletters of the American Legion or various religious denominations. Most often these individuals had taken public stands on unpopular issues such as peace, racial, economic or gender equality.</p>
<p>These lists are making a comeback, as once again intellectuals with minority views are being identified and tracked by censorial groups. One such group is the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). The ACTA is a Washington, D.C. based organization with the proclaimed mission of being “dedicated to academic freedom, quality and accountability.” Oddly enough its primary means of reaching this stated goal is by intimidating scholars who assert these principles of academic freedom in ways that run counter to the ACTA’s narrow views of the past and present.</p>
<p>The ACTA recently produced a 38 page pamphlet that in many ways reads like a prototype of a neo-McCarthyist blacklist for our new hot war (see: <a href="http://www.goacta.org/Reports/defciv.pdf" type="external">http://www.goacta.org/Reports/defciv.pdf</a>). The pamphlet, “Defending Civilization: How our Universities Are Failing America and What Can Be Done About It” compiles 117 quotes from respected American academicians critical of current US policies. These quotes range from gentle questions concerning the propriety of specific actions, to radical critiques of American policies and practices, but theses quotes lead the ACTA to make the charge that “college and university faculty have been the weak link in America’s response to the attack” of September 11th.</p>
<p>ACTA Chairwoman Emeritus and national “Second Lady”, Lynne Cheney, is quoted on the pamphlet’s cover endorsing the need for Americans to study the past-though the envisioned past she’d have us study is clearly compartmentalized in ways that serve hegemonic interpretations of the current crisis. Cheney tells us that “living in liberty is such a precious thing” as the pamphlet compiles a list of Americans whose liberties the ACTA would like to see reduced. But Republicans like Cheney are not alone to blame for this pamphlet designed to threaten those who would actually practice academic freedom. Besides Cheney the remaining members of the ACTA governing board are two of Cheney’s NEH colleagues (Jerry Martin &amp; Anne Neal) and two conservative Democrats Joseph Lieberman and Richard Lamm.</p>
<p>The pamphlet has a few tantalizingly strident quotes such as the widely publicized (and later apologized for) quote by University of New Mexico historian, Richard Berthold that “anyone who can blow up the Pentagon gets my vote”, but most of the quotes are moderate in their view and tenor. In fact, one of the remarkable things about this pamphlet is how relatively tame or even common-sensical many of the quotes are. For example CCNY sophomore Nuriel Heckler’s observation that “we don’t feel military action will stop terrorism, but it will lead to racism and hate,” or Jesse Jackson’s statement that we should “build bridges and relationships, not simply bombs and walls.” To the ACTA such moderate suggestions are too much, and must be shouted down.</p>
<p>This pamphlet title’s use of the term “civilization” is significant. As anthropologist Thomas Patterson recognizes, traditionally “civilization’s champions have claimed that the institutions and practices of the ruling classes and the state are desirable and necessary in that they maintain order and underwrite the conquest of nature.” That academics are not choosing to engage in supporting this modern conquest is indeed disappointing to the ACTA.</p>
<p>That American intellectuals would raise the ire of censor-prone conservatives like those at the ACTA is natural. The refusal of academics to reduce the current war to simplistic analyses of good versus evil, or civilization versus tribalism should be upsetting to those who view intellectuals’ chief duty as rationalizing the actions of state. The ACTA is opposed to independent thought during this time of war and it seems to sense no danger in their wish to muzzle and intimidate knowledgeable individuals who are trying to add more information to an ill informed public during a time a crisis.</p>
<p>The American Association of University Professors (an organization who abandoned many professors during the days of McCarthyism) has thus far come out with strong support for the principles of academic freedom. Last month Mary Burgan, the AAUP General Secretary noted “a distrust of intellectuals has always lurked beneath the surface of American popular opinion. Now it has begun to leak out again-either through the frontal assault in the partial reporting by the New York Post of a forum at the City University of New York, or the sidewipes at “campus teach-ins” by a respected columnist like Tom Friedman or others such as John Leo.” So far the AAUP is standing on the side of academic freedom, but this is a fight in which we must remain ever vigilant.</p>
<p>There is no criticism too strong for those who would intimidate and stifle free thought and expression-especially during times such as these when knowledgeable scholars’ access to the public via the media is being curtailed. That members of the ACTA’s board are among those who can bend the ear of our new Home Security Office should cause us all grave concern, and we must be doubly vigilant in protecting the rights of those of us who exercise our rights of descent. CP</p>
<p>David Price is Associate Professor of Anthropology at St. Martin’s College. His forthcoming book is Cold War Witch Hunts: The FBI’s Surveillance and Repression of Activist Anthropologists. <a href="mailto:dprice@stmartin.edu" type="external">dprice@stmartin.edu</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | office cluttered 20000 pages fbi files chronicling damage inflicted academic freedom america mccarthyism hundreds different files tell divergent stories various twists turns morals bound together simple feature names individuals whos lives invaded altered appeared somewhere sometime list subversives fbi read lists opened investigatory files added existing files individuals countless lists suspect academics printed publications american mercury readers digest newsletters american legion various religious denominations often individuals taken public stands unpopular issues peace racial economic gender equality lists making comeback intellectuals minority views identified tracked censorial groups one group american council trustees alumni acta acta washington dc based organization proclaimed mission dedicated academic freedom quality accountability oddly enough primary means reaching stated goal intimidating scholars assert principles academic freedom ways run counter actas narrow views past present acta recently produced 38 page pamphlet many ways reads like prototype neomccarthyist blacklist new hot war see httpwwwgoactaorgreportsdefcivpdf pamphlet defending civilization universities failing america done compiles 117 quotes respected american academicians critical current us policies quotes range gentle questions concerning propriety specific actions radical critiques american policies practices theses quotes lead acta make charge college university faculty weak link americas response attack september 11th acta chairwoman emeritus national second lady lynne cheney quoted pamphlets cover endorsing need americans study pastthough envisioned past shed us study clearly compartmentalized ways serve hegemonic interpretations current crisis cheney tells us living liberty precious thing pamphlet compiles list americans whose liberties acta would like see reduced republicans like cheney alone blame pamphlet designed threaten would actually practice academic freedom besides cheney remaining members acta governing board two cheneys neh colleagues jerry martin amp anne neal two conservative democrats joseph lieberman richard lamm pamphlet tantalizingly strident quotes widely publicized later apologized quote university new mexico historian richard berthold anyone blow pentagon gets vote quotes moderate view tenor fact one remarkable things pamphlet relatively tame even commonsensical many quotes example ccny sophomore nuriel hecklers observation dont feel military action stop terrorism lead racism hate jesse jacksons statement build bridges relationships simply bombs walls acta moderate suggestions much must shouted pamphlet titles use term civilization significant anthropologist thomas patterson recognizes traditionally civilizations champions claimed institutions practices ruling classes state desirable necessary maintain order underwrite conquest nature academics choosing engage supporting modern conquest indeed disappointing acta american intellectuals would raise ire censorprone conservatives like acta natural refusal academics reduce current war simplistic analyses good versus evil civilization versus tribalism upsetting view intellectuals chief duty rationalizing actions state acta opposed independent thought time war seems sense danger wish muzzle intimidate knowledgeable individuals trying add information ill informed public time crisis american association university professors organization abandoned many professors days mccarthyism thus far come strong support principles academic freedom last month mary burgan aaup general secretary noted distrust intellectuals always lurked beneath surface american popular opinion begun leak againeither frontal assault partial reporting new york post forum city university new york sidewipes campus teachins respected columnist like tom friedman others john leo far aaup standing side academic freedom fight must remain ever vigilant criticism strong would intimidate stifle free thought expressionespecially times knowledgeable scholars access public via media curtailed members actas board among bend ear new home security office cause us grave concern must doubly vigilant protecting rights us exercise rights descent cp david price associate professor anthropology st martins college forthcoming book cold war witch hunts fbis surveillance repression activist anthropologists dpricestmartinedu 160 | 559 |
<p>Photo by erick hrz aguirre | <a href="" type="internal">CC by 2.0</a></p>
<p>The “better angels of our nature” that Abraham Lincoln talked about have always been in short supply on the American right.&#160; However, that problem sometimes goes into remission, and people forget.</p>
<p>It became hard to forget with the rise of the Tea Party after the election of an African American president; and, from the moment it became clear that Donald Trump had to be taken seriously, it became impossible. &#160;Under Trump, vileness reigns.</p>
<p>In conjunction with developments in ostensibly liberal quarters that have been percolating for years, the Tea Party and then the Trump phenomenon have made “free speech” issues problematic in ways that they have not been since the days when the United States was devastating Vietnam.</p>
<p>Back then, and now again, militants identified with leftwing ideological perspectives would sometimes violate liberal norms by disrupting or preventing public expressions of views they oppose.</p>
<p>The disrupters then were mostly students at elite colleges and universities; and their fields of operation seldom extended beyond the borders of their campuses.&#160; With few exceptions, they were white and from upper-middle or upper class positions.</p>
<p>Some of today’s disrupters are students too.&#160; To the best of my knowledge, they have never been studied systematically except at an anecdotal and impressionistic level.&#160; Therefore, not much is known about them.</p>
<p>It would be fair to say, however, that, before they were radicalized, fewer of them than their counterparts sixty years ago were being educated to assume high-level positions in the American power structure. &#160;It is even likely that some of them come from humble class positions, and that faith in the so-called “American dream” was rare in the world from which they came.</p>
<p>Their disruptions, like those in the preceding dispensation, raise philosophical questions of some moment, though, in their case, unlike before, those questions are seldom discussed, and the discussions that do take place are generally muddled.</p>
<p>This is unfortunate because, in today’s world, efforts to disrupt the marketplace of ideas are politically consequential; and, for assessing those consequences, having some purchase on the philosophical issues involved is indispensible.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Liberal political philosophy began as and has always been a philosophy of tolerance.&#160; It emerged in the course of the wars of religion that followed the Protestant Reformation, as the contending sides, having fought to exhaustion, sought to justify the sentiment famously articulated by Rodney King, “can’t we all get along?”</p>
<p>What began as an effort to justify an inevitable and grudging acceptance of religious diversity became, in time, a full-fledged celebration of diversity – in beliefs and ways of living – that has always accorded pride of place to freedom of expression.&#160; As much or more even than freedom of religion, support for free speech defines the liberal worldview.</p>
<p>Theoretical accounts of that worldview are tantamount to theories of limited sovereignty.&#160; They hold that there are areas of individuals’ lives and behaviors into which political authorities cannot rightfully intrude; that, in those areas, individuals enjoy immunities from coercive interference.</p>
<p>In time, liberals argued that those immunities extend beyond relations between individuals and governments into the broader sphere of civil society.&#160; Thus the greatest of the classical liberal philosophers, John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), called for shielding individuals not just from state interference, but also from “the moral coercion of public opinion.”</p>
<p>In the liberal view, what individuals do ought to be their own business – unless, there is some compelling reason for the state or the broader civil society to interfere.&#160; The only kind of reason Mill and other classical liberals countenanced was the prevention of&#160; (significant) harm to (identifiable) others.</p>
<p>Paternalistic reasons (making persons better off or preventing them from doing harm to themselves) are ruled out.&#160;&#160; Interferences intended to shield people from feeling offended or disrespected are also ruled out, as are efforts to enforce morality or any particular vision, religious or secular, of the good life.&#160; Even interferences intended to prevent harm to society generally, as distinct from harm to particular individuals, are proscribed.</p>
<p>It is therefore all but impossible, from a liberal point of view, to justify interfering with the free expression of opinions.&#160; &#160;Opinions, like all matters of conscience, fall within what should be thought of as a private sphere, in which everyone is, so to speak, sovereign over him or herself.</p>
<p>This is not just an undefended stipulation.&#160; It is a principled conviction, backed by arguments.&#160; Those arguments fall into two broad categories: those that appeal to fundamental rights, and those that maintain that tolerance makes outcomes better.</p>
<p>A general and arguably fatal problem with rights based justifications is justifying those rights themselves.</p>
<p>In American politics, that problem is typically avoided — or evaded – by shifting the discussion away from rights claims in general to rights claims rooted in the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<p>Where rights come from is profoundly, perhaps fatally, mysterious.&#160; But there is no mystery about where the First Amendment came from.&#160; It came from Philadelphia – specifically, from discussions held there at Constitution Hall in the late 1780s.</p>
<p>Because, like other Constitutionally prescribed rights, the Second Amendment is worded in ways that make its implications unclear, it could be said too that it, or rather, its elaborations and embellishments, also come from the chambers of the Supreme Court in Washington DC.</p>
<p>There is therefore nothing arbitrary or groundless about it.&#160; This is small consolation, however, for anyone seeking guidance when free speech issues arise.</p>
<p>For as long as there has been a Constitution, the complexities of First Amendment casuistry have commanded the attention of judges, legal theorists and ordinary citizens.</p>
<p>As their contributions to free speech issues have unfolded, it has become increasingly clear that most, if not all, positions that could be defended or criticized straightforwardly can just as well, be teased out of the words of the Constitution itself and the jurisprudence that has grown up around it.&#160; All that is needed is sufficient ingenuity (or disingenuousness).</p>
<p>Legal traditions and Constitutional jurisprudence affect how issues must be addressed and how arguments must be made.&#160; But substantively, they change little or nothing at all.</p>
<p>And neither do they suggest a way to defend liberal immunities generally.&#160; Among other things, the U.S. Constitution does not address all matters of liberal concern.</p>
<p>This is a particular problem for the kinds of libertarians who, when they set out to justify their views, draw, as Thomas Jefferson and many other “founding fathers” did, on the philosophy of John Locke (1632-1704).&#160;&#160; Locke thought that rights came from God.</p>
<p>As a deist, Jefferson was loath to follow Locke down that road.&#160; Deists believe that an omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly good Being did indeed create all that is, but that, beyond that, this Being had no further involvement in human affairs. The God of the deists was simply not hands on enough as to establish fundamental political or civil rights.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, when it seemed rhetorically appropriate, Jefferson was not beyond talking as if that was precisely what God did.</p>
<p>Nowadays, appeals to God of the kind Locke made centuries ago seem outlandish on their face, except perhaps in benighted regions still mired in antiquated modes of thought. &#160;But notwithstanding Jefferson’s expectations, many such places survive in the Land of the Free. &#160;And even in academic precincts, there are libertarians and others, neo-Lockeans, who justify individuals’ rights to own (control and gain revenue from) productive assets, and to exchange them as they please, in roughly the way Locke did.&#160; They seldom invoke God directly, but they might as well.</p>
<p>More satisfactory justifications for at least some liberal immunities, especially ones pertinent to freedom of expression, eschew rights talk – Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) famously called it “nonsense on stilts” – in favor of justifications that depend on the purportedly beneficial consequences of freedom from political and moral coercion.</p>
<p>Bentham, a founder of “utilitarian” theory, influenced Mill, the author of On Liberty (1859). &#160;Utilitarianism is mainly an ethical theory, but it also provides a way to assess social practices and institutions.&#160; The general idea is that the best institutional arrangements are those that have the best effects on the wellbeing of individuals.</p>
<p>Mill took a version of that idea on board, defending tolerance generally and freedom of expression in particular on the grounds that, compared to any and all alternative practices, it is most conducive to promoting individual wellbeing – not always on a case-by-case basis, but as a general rule.</p>
<p>Mill never spoke of a “marketplace of ideas”; the expression was a concoction of &#160;&#160;&#160;Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935).&#160; But that was the idea he had in mind.</p>
<p>Decades after the thought behind Holmes’ expression began to resonate in American jurisprudence, it was demonstrated that, in ideal cases, markets do indeed produce the best of all possible outcomes in a well-defined sense of “best.”&#160; However, the connections between what we now know to be demonstrable and the intuitions behind marketplace of ideas talk are attenuated at best.</p>
<p>What Mill thought, with regard to speech, was that the best ideas – the truest and most morally decent – are more likely to emerge when there are no restrictions on what can be said or otherwise expressed than when restrictions are in place.&#160; Mill also maintained that, in addition to improving the level of public discourse, pure or unrestricted tolerance –tolerance of views as such, regardless of their content — also gives rise to a virtuous circle in which individuals become, as it were, more competent consumers in the marketplace of ideas.</p>
<p>This is not the place to evaluate Mill’s arguments – they certainly have their problems — except to point out the irony in the fact that, for many liberals, the general soundness of Mill’s defense of pure tolerance is, for all practical purposes, an article of faith, a tenet of a prevailing (liberal) orthodoxy.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>This is also not the place to examine connections between liberal political philosophy, as it has developed over the centuries, and what “liberalism” has come to mean in American politics.</p>
<p>Suffice it to say that, while the connections are complicated, they exist.&#160;&#160; Between <a href="" type="internal">On Liberty</a>and other classical and contemporary articulations of liberal political philosophy and, say, the New Deal – Great Society political settlement, there are more than enough historical continuities and conceptual affinities to justify using the same name for both.</p>
<p>The two are not the same, but there are seldom reasons to be fastidious in shifting from one sense to the other.&#160; This point is germane inasmuch as efforts to block or disrupt speech are always, on the face of it, illiberal; and because “first dispensation” speech disrupters were motivated by opposition to a war that was, and was perceived at the time to be, a war waged by liberals.</p>
<p>That perception waned even before Richard Nixon became president, and the still unindicted war criminal Henry Kissinger joined with Nixon to intensify the level of pointless and wanton destruction in Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.&#160; At the time, Nixon was considered the very antithesis of a liberal, an understanding that carried over to Kissinger as well.</p>
<p>It is relevant, though, that insofar as the operative standard is fidelity to the spirit and letter of the New Deal – Great Society settlement, Nixon was more of a liberal than, say, Barack Obama, much less Clinton or her husband or anybody else currently leading the Democratic Party.&#160; It also bears mention that, even in his present state of decrepitude, Kissinger served as an advisor to Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>In any case, it is understandable that students and others, fresh from the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley and related civil rights struggles in the South, would let their horror at the death and destruction America was raining down upon Vietnam and its neighbors, and their hostility towards the liberals behind it, diminish their commitment to sacrosanct liberal protections of free expression.</p>
<p>It would be a mistake, however, to think that first dispensation speech disrupters were merely acting out.&#160; They thought that insofar as they were destroying liberal protections, it was only, as it were, to save them.&#160; In holding this view, they were not just blowing air; they had a certain take on liberal political philosophy behind them, and they had a distinguished philosopher adeptly expounding it.</p>
<p>Along with other greater and lesser eminences of the Frankfurt School, Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) came to the United States as a refugee before World War II.&#160; Unlike many of the others, he stayed.</p>
<p>As an unabashed Hegelian with interests in Heidegger, Marx, and Freud, Marcuse was hardly a philosopher in the American vein.&#160; However, back in the day, academics in the humanities, harbored a grudging respect for European scholars with good reputations in cosmopolitan circles, and so Marcuse was able to find a niche.</p>
<p>Leftwing American students were especially draw to anything with a Marxist flavor that bore the imprimatur of German or French respectability.&#160; The United States never had much of an indigenous Marxist tradition to start with, and what there was had been largely decimated during the McCarthy era.&#160; Marcuse’s arrival on the scene was a godsend.</p>
<p>Also, by the sixties, there was a developing convergence between longstanding Frankfurt School concerns with the role of media in late (overripe) capitalism, and ways of thinking that were emerging in the Anglosphere, according to which, as in the celebrated slogan of Marshall McLuhan, “the media is the message.”</p>
<p>Having come of age in Wilhelmine Germany, Marcuse was fascinated by the contrast between the ways in which, for example, news about atrocities committed by Germans during World War I were suppressed, while Americans could watch American troops committing atrocities against the Vietnamese every night on television.&#160; He was confident that had the news gotten out in the Germany of his youth that support for the war would have quickly disappeared.&#160; This did not seem to be happening in the United States, at least not rapidly enough for him to notice.</p>
<p>Marcuse’s notion of “repressive tolerance” makes particular sense in that context.</p>
<p>Naturally, the way he set out to justify the concept reflected the Hegelian – or rather Left Hegelian – bases of his thought.&#160;&#160; The Left Hegelians – Marx was one of them for a while — were a group of young German philosophers in the late 1830s and 40s who maintained that Hegel’s philosophy of history, at least in Germany at the time, had revolutionary implications.</p>
<p>From within that theoretical perspective, he argued that liberal tolerance was part of the Enlightenment’s emancipatory project, and ought to have culminated in a Revolution that would put Reason in control – initially in Europe and then throughout the world.</p>
<p>For Marcuse and other Frankfurt School thinkers, that revolution began in Russia, but then faltered in Germany and everywhere else outside the Soviet Union, where efforts to survive capitalist encirclement and to overcome economic and cultural backwardness gave rise to profound distortions which, so to speak, threw History off its track.</p>
<p>As a result, capitalism survived and even prospered; and pure tolerance, tolerance regardless of content, “turned into its opposite.”&#160; &#160;It became a means for perpetuating an oppressive status quo.</p>
<p>How could this have come about?&#160; &#160;Marcuse’s account is too obscure to say for sure precisely what he thought.&#160; It is clear, though, that institutions that shape what eighteenth century philosophers called “opinion,” and that Marxist-leaning Frankfurt School dialecticians called “consciousness,” had everything to do with this remarkable transformation.</p>
<p>Nowadays, such concerns would lead critics to focus on inequality and the concentration of media ownership.&#160; Marcuse cast blame mainly on the media itself.</p>
<p>Like McLuhan, he made much of passive viewers being bombarded with images on flat screens; seeing commercials in which, say, cartoon mosquitoes are decimated by bug spray followed by images in news reports of real Vietnamese peasants being decimated by American bombs.&#160; Same presentation; same moronizing effect.</p>
<p>Marcuse would also sometimes invoke a more pedestrian metaphor according to which “pure” tolerance functions like an escape valve through which potentially revolutionary ideas lose their power to subvert the status quo.&#160; Marcuse seems to have thought that were they directly repressed, as they would be in more illiberal regimes, pressure would build, and they would become dangerous.&#160; Instead, they are effectively neutered, allowing authorities to tolerate them perfectly well.</p>
<p>What, then, is to be done?&#160; &#160;For Marcuse, as for other Frankfurt School theorists, this is ultimately a question about the agents of social change.</p>
<p>For Marcuse and the others, the traditional Marxist view, according to which a proletariat, with nothing to lose but its chains, is the bearer of new social relations, no longer obtains.&#160; For one thing, even by the end of the nineteenth century, workers had more to lose than their chains.&#160; For another, when the world revolution Marxists envisioned stalled at the borders of the old Russian empire, there was no way, within the confines of the prevailing orthodoxy, to bring it back to life.</p>
<p>It would therefore seem that the Idea of Freedom has no way to get where it must go – unless an alternative agent, a substitute for a no longer revolutionary working class, could somehow take its place.</p>
<p>Some thought that Third World liberation struggles could rise to the occasion.&#160; With the Vietnam War raging, and intimations of what Che Guevara called for – “two, three, many Vietnams” – in the air, radical students were on board.&#160; Marcuse less so; he was sympathetic, but skeptical.</p>
<p>His reservations were not exactly those of an aging fuddy-duddy.&#160; Quite to the contrary, this most unhippy-like of men, put his faith in the emerging counter-culture of the time.&#160; Marcuse himself was more drawn to Goethe than to the Grateful Dead, but he had great hopes for sex, drugs, and rock and roll.</p>
<p>Perhaps this was madness, but there was indeed a method to it.&#160; To break out of a stultifying social order no longer capable of revolutionizing itself, one had to be outrageous in the way that only a genuinely counter-cultural current can be.</p>
<p>But this is more easily said than done, as Marcuse and his followers soon discovered; the system’s capacity to coopt just about anything turned out to be limitless.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, for a while, Herbert Marcuse was a household name, a media star.&#160; His thoughts about transgressive behavior gained a wide audience, especially in student circles.&#160; Disrupters of the norms governing the marketplace of ideas looked to him for validation and guidance.</p>
<p>It was not always obvious at the time, but it is nevertheless plain, especially in retrospect, that, throughout it all, Marcuse never opposed liberal positions at the level of ideal theory.</p>
<p>Their terminology and the philosophical underpinnings of their views were plainly different, but it would not be wrong, only anachronistic, to identify Marcuse’s views about what ought to be with Mill’s.&#160;&#160; Where the thinking of the two part ways is over what to do in cases where real world conditions deviate significantly from those assumed in the ideal case.</p>
<p>Indeed, the position Marcuse became notorious for defending is of a piece with widely accepted ways of thinking about other social practices.&#160; For example, pacifists and most non-pacifists agree that there would be no wars waged in a better possible world.&#160; But, again, the actual world is far from ideal. &#160;Pacifists think that the way to move it closer to the ideal is to act as one would under better circumstances; non-pacifists who value real peace think instead that wars must sometimes be fought to get to a point where they need be fought no longer.&#160; Many of them also think that the pacifist way, if widely followed, could, and usually would, make matters worse.</p>
<p>Those who insist on holding sacrosanct the principle of non-interference in the marketplace of ideas are like pacifists; those who agree with Marcuse are like the non-pacifists most of us are.</p>
<p>Of course, this is only an analogy, but I would venture that the cases are enough alike that it could be argued, very plausibly, that, from a moral point of view, Marcuse’s position, though transgressive, is not especially problematic.&#160; The problem with it is just that, in practice, it is counter-productive.</p>
<p>It is, by now, a familiar story: disrupt speeches given by defenders of indefensible positions and, before long, the disruption itself, not the positions that warranted what the disrupters did, is all that anybody wants to talk about.</p>
<p>This soon came to be widely appreciated.&#160; When the disruptions ceased, as they did not long after they began, it was in large part for this reason.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Thus disruptive students and others who took Marcuse to have vindicated positions they were led to by sheer outrage and anger, and those who were radicalized by those arguments themselves, had no real quarrel with Mill’s or any other liberal philosopher’s defense of free expression.</p>
<p>Quite to the contrary: pure tolerance had turned into its opposite, and they saw themselves turning it back.</p>
<p>Or rather, trying to turn it back, but failing – inasmuch as their efforts deflected attention away from the ideas and arguments they wanted to force upon a marketplace of ideas gone topsy turvy, making free speech itself the issue instead.</p>
<p>There is no reason to expect that disruptions nowadays, a half century later, would not have the same consequences.&#160; There is ample evidence corroborating this expectation.</p>
<p>The last time, though, the disruptions gave rise to interesting, even edifying, philosophical debates.&#160; This time, such debates as there are have had mainly to do with dubious empirical claims that well meaning but muddle-headed people, responding to the outrages of the present period, have turned into dogmas.</p>
<p>Unlike before, the student left is no longer where the action is.&#160; It does seem that “the times they are a’ changing” once again, but not nearly fast enough.&#160; Even now it is far from clear that there is any significant student left at all.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, many of the most widely publicized efforts to disrupt or prevent the free expression of ideas still take place in privileged academic precincts. Trumpians who bloviate against “political correctness” make the most of this.&#160; For anyone intolerant of silliness, it is hard not to sympathize with them.</p>
<p>In <a href="" type="internal">The Leviathan</a> (1651), the greatest work of political philosophy ever written in the English language, Thomas Hobbes listed “glory” among the characteristics of human nature that, unchecked, would lead to a devastating “war of all against all.” &#160;Glory causes persons to attack one another “for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other signe of undervalue, either direct in their Persons, of by reflexion in their Kindred, their Friends, their Nation, their Profession, or their Name.”</p>
<p>It could seem that Hobbes was describing a state of mind that has become common in some student milieus to such an extent that unaffected students and administrators intent on avoiding strife (and lawsuits) have become willing to proscribe expressions of ideas that some might find offensive.&#160; Whether or not the ideas in question could be reasonably deemed noxious hardly matters.</p>
<p>This is not a matter of turning pure tolerance right side up in order to restore its emancipatory function.&#160; It is pure and simple illiberalism.</p>
<p>Liberalism opposes state and societal institutions treating adults like children.&#160; There is a liberal case to be made for protecting children from hurt feelings; for adults, there is none.&#160; Neither is there a case for not treating college-age children like full-fledged adults.</p>
<p>What seems to have happened is that reasonable ideas about the importance of self-esteem in early childhood education have percolated up and beyond K-12 teaching into the ambient culture of colleges and universities, causing entire categories of persons to inveigh against treating themselves and others like the grownups they surely are.</p>
<p>There are, of course, important issues about how much to challenge young and not-so-young students, and about civility in the classroom.&#160; These are pedagogical, not philosophical, concerns, however; they have no bearing on issues of free speech.</p>
<p>But with the Left goes missing, that point gets lost.&#160; Politics abhors a vacuum.&#160; With class politics out (except, of course, for the ruling class), identity politics rushes in, and liberal protections go by the board — as trifles, words, smiles, and the like become paramount concerns.</p>
<p>Combine that frame of mind with an ahistorical understanding of styles of politics reminiscent of historical fascism, styles legitimated and even promoted by Donald Trump and the miscreants around him, and what we get is antifa – a leftish variant of alt-right hooliganism.</p>
<p>Antifa illiberalism might be defensible if there were reasons to think that it helps to protect communities of color made more vulnerable than before by Trump’s assumption of power.&#160; However, just the opposite seems to be the case.&#160; This new dispensation of illiberal militancy makes the situation of vulnerable communities and persons worse.</p>
<p>Of course, it is far too soon to know for sure.&#160; Therefore, let the debate go on.&#160; Indeed, for Mill’s reasons, no debate should ever be closed — because, as he maintained, what seems patently false now could turn out, despite everything, to be true or partly true, and because even if does not, “the lively confrontation of truth with error” makes for better, more competent, consumers in the marketplace of ideas.</p>
<p>But even with all questions left open, and all conclusions regarded as provisional, we still sometimes have to judge and act.</p>
<p>In this case, that is easy.&#160; It is more than clear enough that antifa is bad news; that, whatever else it does, it makes outcomes worse, for vulnerable populations especially.</p>
<p>The intolerance Marcuse defended was counter-productive too.&#160; But then, the bad consequences were not all that grave, and the forms of militancy he defended did lead to advances in philosophical and political insight.&#160; There are no redeeming political or philosophical benefits in the offing now.</p>
<p>There is a certain irony in this because, from the time of the French Revolution, and especially in the period around and after the First World War, there were lively and insightful discussions, on both the Left and the Right, about what violence is and about whether, and to what extent, it can be justified – not just philosophically, but also, mainly, politically.</p>
<p>Fascists, real ones, and others too promoted notions of redemptive violence, as indispensable means for replacing decadence with virtue, and for turning societies in the grip of decrepitude into vigorous, healthy political regimes.&#160; These ways of thinking resonated far beyond the horizons of the hard Right.</p>
<p>Similar views emerged in the course of anti-colonial liberation struggles in the middle and later years of the twentieth century.&#160;&#160; Franz Fanon’s masterpiece, <a href="" type="internal">The Wretched of the Earth</a>, is a still widely read example.</p>
<p>However, there is no hint of any of this emanating out of antifa circles. They have no Marcuse; indeed, from a distance it looks like they only have ruffians and louts itching for fights.</p>
<p>Could they be provacateurs?&#160; &#160;No doubt, some of them are.&#160; After all, our deep state is on their case, and, as our second worst president ever would put it, only a fool would “misunderestimate” the FBI, or doubt the capacity of our&#160; “intelligence services,” the CIA especially, to do democracy harm.</p>
<p>More likely, though, most of them are just unhinged.&#160; They should be reined in and their energies put to better, more constructive uses, while there is still a chance.</p> | true | 4 | photo erick hrz aguirre cc 20 better angels nature abraham lincoln talked always short supply american right160 however problem sometimes goes remission people forget became hard forget rise tea party election african american president moment became clear donald trump taken seriously became impossible 160under trump vileness reigns conjunction developments ostensibly liberal quarters percolating years tea party trump phenomenon made free speech issues problematic ways since days united states devastating vietnam back militants identified leftwing ideological perspectives would sometimes violate liberal norms disrupting preventing public expressions views oppose disrupters mostly students elite colleges universities fields operation seldom extended beyond borders campuses160 exceptions white uppermiddle upper class positions todays disrupters students too160 best knowledge never studied systematically except anecdotal impressionistic level160 therefore much known would fair say however radicalized fewer counterparts sixty years ago educated assume highlevel positions american power structure 160it even likely come humble class positions faith socalled american dream rare world came disruptions like preceding dispensation raise philosophical questions moment though case unlike questions seldom discussed discussions take place generally muddled unfortunate todays world efforts disrupt marketplace ideas politically consequential assessing consequences purchase philosophical issues involved indispensible liberal political philosophy began always philosophy tolerance160 emerged course wars religion followed protestant reformation contending sides fought exhaustion sought justify sentiment famously articulated rodney king cant get along began effort justify inevitable grudging acceptance religious diversity became time fullfledged celebration diversity beliefs ways living always accorded pride place freedom expression160 much even freedom religion support free speech defines liberal worldview theoretical accounts worldview tantamount theories limited sovereignty160 hold areas individuals lives behaviors political authorities rightfully intrude areas individuals enjoy immunities coercive interference time liberals argued immunities extend beyond relations individuals governments broader sphere civil society160 thus greatest classical liberal philosophers john stuart mill 18061873 called shielding individuals state interference also moral coercion public opinion liberal view individuals ought business unless compelling reason state broader civil society interfere160 kind reason mill classical liberals countenanced prevention of160 significant harm identifiable others paternalistic reasons making persons better preventing harm ruled out160160 interferences intended shield people feeling offended disrespected also ruled efforts enforce morality particular vision religious secular good life160 even interferences intended prevent harm society generally distinct harm particular individuals proscribed therefore impossible liberal point view justify interfering free expression opinions160 160opinions like matters conscience fall within thought private sphere everyone speak sovereign undefended stipulation160 principled conviction backed arguments160 arguments fall two broad categories appeal fundamental rights maintain tolerance makes outcomes better general arguably fatal problem rights based justifications justifying rights american politics problem typically avoided evaded shifting discussion away rights claims general rights claims rooted us constitution rights come profoundly perhaps fatally mysterious160 mystery first amendment came from160 came philadelphia specifically discussions held constitution hall late 1780s like constitutionally prescribed rights second amendment worded ways make implications unclear could said rather elaborations embellishments also come chambers supreme court washington dc therefore nothing arbitrary groundless it160 small consolation however anyone seeking guidance free speech issues arise long constitution complexities first amendment casuistry commanded attention judges legal theorists ordinary citizens contributions free speech issues unfolded become increasingly clear positions could defended criticized straightforwardly well teased words constitution jurisprudence grown around it160 needed sufficient ingenuity disingenuousness legal traditions constitutional jurisprudence affect issues must addressed arguments must made160 substantively change little nothing neither suggest way defend liberal immunities generally160 among things us constitution address matters liberal concern particular problem kinds libertarians set justify views draw thomas jefferson many founding fathers philosophy john locke 16321704160160 locke thought rights came god deist jefferson loath follow locke road160 deists believe omnipotent omniscient perfectly good indeed create beyond involvement human affairs god deists simply hands enough establish fundamental political civil rights nevertheless seemed rhetorically appropriate jefferson beyond talking precisely god nowadays appeals god kind locke made centuries ago seem outlandish face except perhaps benighted regions still mired antiquated modes thought 160but notwithstanding jeffersons expectations many places survive land free 160and even academic precincts libertarians others neolockeans justify individuals rights control gain revenue productive assets exchange please roughly way locke did160 seldom invoke god directly might well satisfactory justifications least liberal immunities especially ones pertinent freedom expression eschew rights talk jeremy bentham 17481832 famously called nonsense stilts favor justifications depend purportedly beneficial consequences freedom political moral coercion bentham founder utilitarian theory influenced mill author liberty 1859 160utilitarianism mainly ethical theory also provides way assess social practices institutions160 general idea best institutional arrangements best effects wellbeing individuals mill took version idea board defending tolerance generally freedom expression particular grounds compared alternative practices conducive promoting individual wellbeing always casebycase basis general rule mill never spoke marketplace ideas expression concoction 160160160oliver wendell holmes 18411935160 idea mind decades thought behind holmes expression began resonate american jurisprudence demonstrated ideal cases markets indeed produce best possible outcomes welldefined sense best160 however connections know demonstrable intuitions behind marketplace ideas talk attenuated best mill thought regard speech best ideas truest morally decent likely emerge restrictions said otherwise expressed restrictions place160 mill also maintained addition improving level public discourse pure unrestricted tolerance tolerance views regardless content also gives rise virtuous circle individuals become competent consumers marketplace ideas place evaluate mills arguments certainly problems except point irony fact many liberals general soundness mills defense pure tolerance practical purposes article faith tenet prevailing liberal orthodoxy also place examine connections liberal political philosophy developed centuries liberalism come mean american politics suffice say connections complicated exist160160 libertyand classical contemporary articulations liberal political philosophy say new deal great society political settlement enough historical continuities conceptual affinities justify using name two seldom reasons fastidious shifting one sense other160 point germane inasmuch efforts block disrupt speech always face illiberal first dispensation speech disrupters motivated opposition war perceived time war waged liberals perception waned even richard nixon became president still unindicted war criminal henry kissinger joined nixon intensify level pointless wanton destruction vietnam elsewhere southeast asia160 time nixon considered antithesis liberal understanding carried kissinger well relevant though insofar operative standard fidelity spirit letter new deal great society settlement nixon liberal say barack obama much less clinton husband anybody else currently leading democratic party160 also bears mention even present state decrepitude kissinger served advisor hillary clinton case understandable students others fresh free speech movement berkeley related civil rights struggles south would let horror death destruction america raining upon vietnam neighbors hostility towards liberals behind diminish commitment sacrosanct liberal protections free expression would mistake however think first dispensation speech disrupters merely acting out160 thought insofar destroying liberal protections save them160 holding view blowing air certain take liberal political philosophy behind distinguished philosopher adeptly expounding along greater lesser eminences frankfurt school herbert marcuse 18981979 came united states refugee world war ii160 unlike many others stayed unabashed hegelian interests heidegger marx freud marcuse hardly philosopher american vein160 however back day academics humanities harbored grudging respect european scholars good reputations cosmopolitan circles marcuse able find niche leftwing american students especially draw anything marxist flavor bore imprimatur german french respectability160 united states never much indigenous marxist tradition start largely decimated mccarthy era160 marcuses arrival scene godsend also sixties developing convergence longstanding frankfurt school concerns role media late overripe capitalism ways thinking emerging anglosphere according celebrated slogan marshall mcluhan media message come age wilhelmine germany marcuse fascinated contrast ways example news atrocities committed germans world war suppressed americans could watch american troops committing atrocities vietnamese every night television160 confident news gotten germany youth support war would quickly disappeared160 seem happening united states least rapidly enough notice marcuses notion repressive tolerance makes particular sense context naturally way set justify concept reflected hegelian rather left hegelian bases thought160160 left hegelians marx one group young german philosophers late 1830s 40s maintained hegels philosophy history least germany time revolutionary implications within theoretical perspective argued liberal tolerance part enlightenments emancipatory project ought culminated revolution would put reason control initially europe throughout world marcuse frankfurt school thinkers revolution began russia faltered germany everywhere else outside soviet union efforts survive capitalist encirclement overcome economic cultural backwardness gave rise profound distortions speak threw history track result capitalism survived even prospered pure tolerance tolerance regardless content turned opposite160 160it became means perpetuating oppressive status quo could come about160 160marcuses account obscure say sure precisely thought160 clear though institutions shape eighteenth century philosophers called opinion marxistleaning frankfurt school dialecticians called consciousness everything remarkable transformation nowadays concerns would lead critics focus inequality concentration media ownership160 marcuse cast blame mainly media like mcluhan made much passive viewers bombarded images flat screens seeing commercials say cartoon mosquitoes decimated bug spray followed images news reports real vietnamese peasants decimated american bombs160 presentation moronizing effect marcuse would also sometimes invoke pedestrian metaphor according pure tolerance functions like escape valve potentially revolutionary ideas lose power subvert status quo160 marcuse seems thought directly repressed would illiberal regimes pressure would build would become dangerous160 instead effectively neutered allowing authorities tolerate perfectly well done160 160for marcuse frankfurt school theorists ultimately question agents social change marcuse others traditional marxist view according proletariat nothing lose chains bearer new social relations longer obtains160 one thing even end nineteenth century workers lose chains160 another world revolution marxists envisioned stalled borders old russian empire way within confines prevailing orthodoxy bring back life would therefore seem idea freedom way get must go unless alternative agent substitute longer revolutionary working class could somehow take place thought third world liberation struggles could rise occasion160 vietnam war raging intimations che guevara called two three many vietnams air radical students board160 marcuse less sympathetic skeptical reservations exactly aging fuddyduddy160 quite contrary unhippylike men put faith emerging counterculture time160 marcuse drawn goethe grateful dead great hopes sex drugs rock roll perhaps madness indeed method it160 break stultifying social order longer capable revolutionizing one outrageous way genuinely countercultural current easily said done marcuse followers soon discovered systems capacity coopt anything turned limitless nevertheless herbert marcuse household name media star160 thoughts transgressive behavior gained wide audience especially student circles160 disrupters norms governing marketplace ideas looked validation guidance always obvious time nevertheless plain especially retrospect throughout marcuse never opposed liberal positions level ideal theory terminology philosophical underpinnings views plainly different would wrong anachronistic identify marcuses views ought mills160160 thinking two part ways cases real world conditions deviate significantly assumed ideal case indeed position marcuse became notorious defending piece widely accepted ways thinking social practices160 example pacifists nonpacifists agree would wars waged better possible world160 actual world far ideal 160pacifists think way move closer ideal act one would better circumstances nonpacifists value real peace think instead wars must sometimes fought get point need fought longer160 many also think pacifist way widely followed could usually would make matters worse insist holding sacrosanct principle noninterference marketplace ideas like pacifists agree marcuse like nonpacifists us course analogy would venture cases enough alike could argued plausibly moral point view marcuses position though transgressive especially problematic160 problem practice counterproductive familiar story disrupt speeches given defenders indefensible positions long disruption positions warranted disrupters anybody wants talk soon came widely appreciated160 disruptions ceased long began large part reason thus disruptive students others took marcuse vindicated positions led sheer outrage anger radicalized arguments real quarrel mills liberal philosophers defense free expression quite contrary pure tolerance turned opposite saw turning back rather trying turn back failing inasmuch efforts deflected attention away ideas arguments wanted force upon marketplace ideas gone topsy turvy making free speech issue instead reason expect disruptions nowadays half century later would consequences160 ample evidence corroborating expectation last time though disruptions gave rise interesting even edifying philosophical debates160 time debates mainly dubious empirical claims well meaning muddleheaded people responding outrages present period turned dogmas unlike student left longer action is160 seem times changing nearly fast enough160 even far clear significant student left nevertheless many widely publicized efforts disrupt prevent free expression ideas still take place privileged academic precincts trumpians bloviate political correctness make this160 anyone intolerant silliness hard sympathize leviathan 1651 greatest work political philosophy ever written english language thomas hobbes listed glory among characteristics human nature unchecked would lead devastating war 160glory causes persons attack one another trifles word smile different opinion signe undervalue either direct persons reflexion kindred friends nation profession name could seem hobbes describing state mind become common student milieus extent unaffected students administrators intent avoiding strife lawsuits become willing proscribe expressions ideas might find offensive160 whether ideas question could reasonably deemed noxious hardly matters matter turning pure tolerance right side order restore emancipatory function160 pure simple illiberalism liberalism opposes state societal institutions treating adults like children160 liberal case made protecting children hurt feelings adults none160 neither case treating collegeage children like fullfledged adults seems happened reasonable ideas importance selfesteem early childhood education percolated beyond k12 teaching ambient culture colleges universities causing entire categories persons inveigh treating others like grownups surely course important issues much challenge young notsoyoung students civility classroom160 pedagogical philosophical concerns however bearing issues free speech left goes missing point gets lost160 politics abhors vacuum160 class politics except course ruling class identity politics rushes liberal protections go board trifles words smiles like become paramount concerns combine frame mind ahistorical understanding styles politics reminiscent historical fascism styles legitimated even promoted donald trump miscreants around get antifa leftish variant altright hooliganism antifa illiberalism might defensible reasons think helps protect communities color made vulnerable trumps assumption power160 however opposite seems case160 new dispensation illiberal militancy makes situation vulnerable communities persons worse course far soon know sure160 therefore let debate go on160 indeed mills reasons debate ever closed maintained seems patently false could turn despite everything true partly true even lively confrontation truth error makes better competent consumers marketplace ideas even questions left open conclusions regarded provisional still sometimes judge act case easy160 clear enough antifa bad news whatever else makes outcomes worse vulnerable populations especially intolerance marcuse defended counterproductive too160 bad consequences grave forms militancy defended lead advances philosophical political insight160 redeeming political philosophical benefits offing certain irony time french revolution especially period around first world war lively insightful discussions left right violence whether extent justified philosophically also mainly politically fascists real ones others promoted notions redemptive violence indispensable means replacing decadence virtue turning societies grip decrepitude vigorous healthy political regimes160 ways thinking resonated far beyond horizons hard right similar views emerged course anticolonial liberation struggles middle later years twentieth century160160 franz fanons masterpiece wretched earth still widely read example however hint emanating antifa circles marcuse indeed distance looks like ruffians louts itching fights could provacateurs160 160no doubt are160 deep state case second worst president ever would put fool would misunderestimate fbi doubt capacity our160 intelligence services cia especially democracy harm likely though unhinged160 reined energies put better constructive uses still chance | 2,408 |
<p>President Barack Obama blew a kiss to Apple in the State of the Union speech, praising the entrepreneurial spirit of its founder, the late Steve Jobs, as the cameras panned to his widow in the audience.</p>
<p>Obama’s timing couldn’t be weirder. In the last month, Apple has released a damning audit which found that almost 100 of Apple’s supplier factories force more than half their workers to exceed a 60-hour week. The company announced responsibility for aluminum dust explosions in Chinese supplier factories that killed four workers and injured 77. Hundreds more in China have been injured cleaning iPad screens with a chemical that causes nerve damage.</p>
<p>Apple was just subjected to a “This American Life” radio special reporting on its abysmal factory conditions in China (Jon Stewart gigged ‘em on the issue, too). Last weekend a front-page New York Times story asked why the company offshored all of its manufacturing, mostly to China. (The answer is found in the what its executives call “flexibility.” Tens of thousands of workers there live in factory dorms on-site, where, the Times reports, they are woken in the middle of the night and forced onto 12-hour shifts when Apple decides a product needs tweaking.)</p>
<p>In the face of all this bad press, the tech darling’s response has been to reveal its supplier factories and to announce a partnership with the Fair Labor Association to do stepped-up factory inspections. The FLA is the partly corporate-funded group that until now only monitored apparel factories, and which Nike helped establish after its own scandals in the ’90s.</p>
<p>In sum, Apple is now doing what Nike has been doing for nearly 15 years: the apology-plus-transparency formula, straight out of the manuals offered by “reputation management” consultants.</p>
<p>This was certainly enough for most mainstream media and even some activists. Some were a bit more dubious but still pinned their hopes for stemming the abuses on the chimera of “consumer pressure.”&#160; For those who may believe that rich-country consumer pressure should not be so summarily dismissed, I believe that it’s useful to turn to Jeffrey Swartz, until mid-2011 the CEO of Timberland, who says that consumers don’t care at all about workers’ rights.&#160; In a late-2009 article he wrote, “With regard to human rights, the consumer expectation today is somewhere in the neighborhood of, don’t do anything horrible or despicable… if the issue doesn’t matter much to the consumer population, there’s not a big incentive for the consumer-minded CEOs to act, proactively.”&#160; In a 2008 interview he mused about his desire to “seduce consumers to care” so that Timberland’s CSR report was not mere “corporate cologne”.</p>
<p>It must be said that Apple looked more serious this week than it did two years ago, when it shrugged off 18 worker suicides at its main supplier, Foxconn, in China. Steve Jobs told the press that the high number of suicides was about average for the Chinese population as a whole. Just last week, Terry Gou, CEO of Foxconn, referred to his workers as “animals” during an appearance at the Taipei City Zoo—not a lot of empathy there, either.</p>
<p>Change the Image, Not the Actual</p>
<p>When anti-sweatshop campaigners in the ’90s relentlessly called Nike out for its miserable, toxic factories around the world, sneaker-buying Americans did have an impact on Nike.</p>
<p>U.S. sales fell for four successive years, despite billion-dollar marketing outlays every year. So CEO Phil Knight rented the National Press Club and told reporters his shoes were “synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse.” He vowed to put things right.</p>
<p>Since then, Nike has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on factory “monitoring” and hired on a “corporate social responsibility” staff of over 200. Nike became a charter member of the FLA in 1999, and has a representative on its board.</p>
<p>What has it wrought? Very little. Richard Locke, a highly-regarded business professor and long-time observer of Nike, has been granted extraordinary access by the shoe giant. “A decade’s-worth of high-profile efforts to change sweatshop conditions in overseas apparel factories hasn’t worked,” Locke concludes.</p>
<p>Why hasn’t it? He who pays the piper calls the tune. All these new workers’ rights experts work for the corporations they’re monitoring—either directly, as on Nike’s social responsibility staff, or in NGO mode. NGOs sell their monitoring services to the big brands that are seeking cover while their supplier factories continue the same profitable patterns of worker abuse.</p>
<p>The most recent example where this kind of voluntary monitoring has proved ineffective comes from Indonesia. An Indonesian union won in court a $950,000 settlement this month for 4,500 workers at a factory that supplied Nike. They were forced to work seven days a week without overtime pay—at a big factory supposedly under FLA monitoring for a decade.&#160; (It’s easy to miss 570,000+ unpaid overtime hours, right?)</p>
<p>A decade’s-worth of high-profile efforts to change sweatshop conditions in overseas apparel factories hasn’t.</p>
<p>This is not to say that these high-profile monitoring operations are worthless. Just ask the shareholders who saw Nike bounce back from being equated with slavery to join the top rankings of “responsible” companies. “Corporate social responsibility” has proved invaluable at repairing brand images and wrong-footing the anti-sweatshop movement – maybe what Bill Clinton had in mind when launching the Apparel Industry Partnership, precursor to the FLA.</p>
<p>In fact, one could argue that the FLA has made the situation worse. It has been monitoring and certifying “compliance” for Nike and other apparel giants for more than a decade, apologizing for the corporations as they continue to squeeze suppliers, crush worker organizing, and cheat workers out of severance pay when their factories flee to lower-cost havens.</p>
<p>FLA CEO Auret van Heerden has excused Nike and its other corporate “partners” for the below-subsistence prices paid to sweatshop contractors, saying “simply blaming buyers and the prices they pay is too simple.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile sportswear companies unabashedly gloat over the power they have to dictate prices paid to supplier factories.</p>
<p>When Reebok and Adidas merged in 2006, an executive bragged on an investor call about negotiations “with all our key footwear and apparel suppliers to lock in cost savings for 2007 that should be in the double-digit million range.”</p>
<p>A New Hope?</p>
<p>With Apple, however, we may be able to turn the FLA’s involvement to the workers’ advantage.</p>
<p>An independent Hong Kong-based group, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), has years of experience interacting with Foxconn workers.</p>
<p>The situation is similar to what we’ve seen happen with United Students Against Sweatshops, which has developed on-the-ground relationships with garment worker organizations in Latin America for a decade.</p>
<p>USAS and the Worker Rights Consortium, an independent factory monitor funded by its member colleges, have used a combination of pressure inside boardrooms and outside retail stores.</p>
<p>When companies that supply garments to colleges close their contracted factories in the face of worker organizing, or subject workers to unsafe working conditions, the WRC investigates and USAS students agitate.</p>
<p>Through pressure on the corporations at the top of the supply chain, several factories have reopened and hired back workers—with a union.</p>
<p>In China, it is quite possible that SACOM could bird-dog the FLA, insisting on real-time sharing of its reports, for example.</p>
<p>So far Apple, following Nike’s playbook, has produced audits that say violations are occurring, but does not reveal in which factories they’re happening. The FLA also doesn’t insist on that level of transparency, essentially saying “trust us.”</p>
<p>The WRC, by contrast, insists on knowing where the factory is and what’s happening, so it can gauge progress. The FLA could use some pressure to do the same.</p>
<p>One of the most refreshingly honest voices in the global worker rights field is the business professor, Prakash Sethi.&#160; For years he was the architect of Mattel’s supply chain code-and-monitoring apparatus and has done consulting work in this field for several other Fortune 500 firms (including – ugh! – Freeport McMoRan).&#160; He says that the major global players – the World Bank, OECD countries and the International Labor Organization – have failed to apply pressure on low-cost producing countries that do not protect workers’ human rights or health and safety.&#160; He has also called on corporations to pay restitution to developing-world workers for ‘years of expropriation’ enabled by corrupt, repressive regimes.&#160; (Particularly poignant was his brusque assertion in a New York Times interview that ‘bigotry’ was at the root of most companies’ refusal to even try to grapple with some of these issues.)&#160; Mattel ended its supplier-factory monitoring in 2009 and there were no untoward consequences, such as negative press reports.</p>
<p>In any case, more attention paid to Apple’s supplier factories will further anti-sweat groups’ communications with workers, and help build networks through social media and texting. It’s not the UAW in the ’30s yet, but it’s a beginning.</p>
<p>Jeff Ballinger is a researcher and writer on sweatshop monitoring. He is a member of Worker Rights Consortium’s advisory council. Follow his tweets @press4change &amp; <a href="mailto:ballingerjd@gmail.com" type="external">ballingerjd@gmail.com</a> is the e-mail</p> | true | 4 | president barack obama blew kiss apple state union speech praising entrepreneurial spirit founder late steve jobs cameras panned widow audience obamas timing couldnt weirder last month apple released damning audit found almost 100 apples supplier factories force half workers exceed 60hour week company announced responsibility aluminum dust explosions chinese supplier factories killed four workers injured 77 hundreds china injured cleaning ipad screens chemical causes nerve damage apple subjected american life radio special reporting abysmal factory conditions china jon stewart gigged em issue last weekend frontpage new york times story asked company offshored manufacturing mostly china answer found executives call flexibility tens thousands workers live factory dorms onsite times reports woken middle night forced onto 12hour shifts apple decides product needs tweaking face bad press tech darlings response reveal supplier factories announce partnership fair labor association steppedup factory inspections fla partly corporatefunded group monitored apparel factories nike helped establish scandals 90s sum apple nike nearly 15 years apologyplustransparency formula straight manuals offered reputation management consultants certainly enough mainstream media even activists bit dubious still pinned hopes stemming abuses chimera consumer pressure160 may believe richcountry consumer pressure summarily dismissed believe useful turn jeffrey swartz mid2011 ceo timberland says consumers dont care workers rights160 late2009 article wrote regard human rights consumer expectation today somewhere neighborhood dont anything horrible despicable issue doesnt matter much consumer population theres big incentive consumerminded ceos act proactively160 2008 interview mused desire seduce consumers care timberlands csr report mere corporate cologne must said apple looked serious week two years ago shrugged 18 worker suicides main supplier foxconn china steve jobs told press high number suicides average chinese population whole last week terry gou ceo foxconn referred workers animals appearance taipei city zoonot lot empathy either change image actual antisweatshop campaigners 90s relentlessly called nike miserable toxic factories around world sneakerbuying americans impact nike us sales fell four successive years despite billiondollar marketing outlays every year ceo phil knight rented national press club told reporters shoes synonymous slave wages forced overtime arbitrary abuse vowed put things right since nike spent hundreds millions dollars factory monitoring hired corporate social responsibility staff 200 nike became charter member fla 1999 representative board wrought little richard locke highlyregarded business professor longtime observer nike granted extraordinary access shoe giant decadesworth highprofile efforts change sweatshop conditions overseas apparel factories hasnt worked locke concludes hasnt pays piper calls tune new workers rights experts work corporations theyre monitoringeither directly nikes social responsibility staff ngo mode ngos sell monitoring services big brands seeking cover supplier factories continue profitable patterns worker abuse recent example kind voluntary monitoring proved ineffective comes indonesia indonesian union court 950000 settlement month 4500 workers factory supplied nike forced work seven days week without overtime payat big factory supposedly fla monitoring decade160 easy miss 570000 unpaid overtime hours right decadesworth highprofile efforts change sweatshop conditions overseas apparel factories hasnt say highprofile monitoring operations worthless ask shareholders saw nike bounce back equated slavery join top rankings responsible companies corporate social responsibility proved invaluable repairing brand images wrongfooting antisweatshop movement maybe bill clinton mind launching apparel industry partnership precursor fla fact one could argue fla made situation worse monitoring certifying compliance nike apparel giants decade apologizing corporations continue squeeze suppliers crush worker organizing cheat workers severance pay factories flee lowercost havens fla ceo auret van heerden excused nike corporate partners belowsubsistence prices paid sweatshop contractors saying simply blaming buyers prices pay simple meanwhile sportswear companies unabashedly gloat power dictate prices paid supplier factories reebok adidas merged 2006 executive bragged investor call negotiations key footwear apparel suppliers lock cost savings 2007 doubledigit million range new hope apple however may able turn flas involvement workers advantage independent hong kongbased group students scholars corporate misbehavior sacom years experience interacting foxconn workers situation similar weve seen happen united students sweatshops developed ontheground relationships garment worker organizations latin america decade usas worker rights consortium independent factory monitor funded member colleges used combination pressure inside boardrooms outside retail stores companies supply garments colleges close contracted factories face worker organizing subject workers unsafe working conditions wrc investigates usas students agitate pressure corporations top supply chain several factories reopened hired back workerswith union china quite possible sacom could birddog fla insisting realtime sharing reports example far apple following nikes playbook produced audits say violations occurring reveal factories theyre happening fla also doesnt insist level transparency essentially saying trust us wrc contrast insists knowing factory whats happening gauge progress fla could use pressure one refreshingly honest voices global worker rights field business professor prakash sethi160 years architect mattels supply chain codeandmonitoring apparatus done consulting work field several fortune 500 firms including ugh freeport mcmoran160 says major global players world bank oecd countries international labor organization failed apply pressure lowcost producing countries protect workers human rights health safety160 also called corporations pay restitution developingworld workers years expropriation enabled corrupt repressive regimes160 particularly poignant brusque assertion new york times interview bigotry root companies refusal even try grapple issues160 mattel ended supplierfactory monitoring 2009 untoward consequences negative press reports case attention paid apples supplier factories antisweat groups communications workers help build networks social media texting uaw 30s yet beginning jeff ballinger researcher writer sweatshop monitoring member worker rights consortiums advisory council follow tweets press4change amp ballingerjdgmailcom email | 867 |
<p>Paul Mitchell</p>
<p>Around 80,000 overwhelmingly public sector workers took part in a “Britain needs a pay rise” march and rally in London on Saturday organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Around 3,500 people attended a similar event in Glasgow under the banner “A Just Scotland,” and several hundred demonstrated in Belfast in Northern Ireland.</p>
<p>The march in London was divided into separate union contingents, each with its own colour-coded banners and balloons. The rally was addressed by the leaders of all the major public sector unions, who appealed to the government to change course and for the Labour Party to present an alternative.</p>
<p>TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady claimed the “massive turnout” would send a strong message to the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition:</p>
<p>“Our message is that after the longest and deepest pay squeeze in recorded history, it’s time to end the lock-out that has kept the vast majority from sharing in the economic recovery.”</p>
<p>“The average worker is £50 [US$80] a week worse off than in 2007 and five million earn less than the living wage,” O’Grady complained.</p>
<p>Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey claimed the unions were involved in an “ongoing campaign to demand from the political elite” fairness, social justice, decent wages and an end to austerity. He said the government was determined to “dismantle the NHS [National Health Service] … destroy the welfare state [and] devastate local government.” McCluskey appealed for “a [Labour] government that fights for working people like the Tories fight for the rich … that offers a clear socialist alternative at the next election.”</p>
<p>“So I say to Labour–stop being scared of your own shadow,” he added. “Don’t shrink what you offer the British people. The time for being timid is past. Be brave, be inspired by this march today.”</p>
<p>Sounding like a country parson, McCluskey cajoled the audience, “Hold on tight, comrades, keep the faith–keep fighting and victory will be ours.”</p>
<p>Communications Workers Union (CWU) leader Billy Hayes continued in a similar vein, declaring that despite government promises, austerity had not produced “a real recovery in the economy … closed the public spending deficit … led to a revival in manufacturing [or] led to a new wave of private sector investment.”</p>
<p>Hayes too pleaded with Labour to “break with austerity” and “commit to resolving the problems, not continuing the Tory and LibDem austerity policies.”</p>
<p>Of course, the Labour Party has no intention of breaking with austerity policies. The TUC has called for a £10 an hour minimum wage, but Labour Party leaders are only talking about a miserable increase to £8 by 2020 from the current £6.50 if they win power in next year’s elections. Financial analysts suggest the rate would probably rise above £8 by 2020 anyway based on current trends.</p>
<p>So anodyne is the TUC’s message that sections of the ruling elite have backed its call, concerned that low wages have led to poor consumer demand and falling prices and threaten deflation–and that rising inequality could provoke a social explosion. Institute of Directors campaigns chief Christian May declared, in response to the union rally, “We have sympathy with the TUC’s argument because it remains the case that too many people are still feeling the effects of the recession more keenly than the benefits of the recovery.</p>
<p>“When the TUC protests about the pay gap between bosses and workers, remember they are not talking about business in general, but about a tiny number of people who run the world’s biggest firms. The boards of these companies can no longer be deaf to public opinion,” May added.</p>
<p>The demonstration was supposed to be the culmination of a week of strike action, but there was little joint action of union members planned across the UK. The strikes that took place were held on different days, or different times of the same day. Despite workers in both the public and private sector being hit since the 2008 global financial crisis, the strike was confined to the public sector. A number of strikes were cancelled at the last minute. All in all, a deliberately pathetic showing, aimed to demoralise more than anything else.</p>
<p>A four-hour strike by health workers, including nurses and midwives, went ahead on October 13, followed by a civil service strike on October 15 called by the Public and Commercial Services Union. A planned strike by 1.5 million council workers, scheduled to be held on October 14, was called off by the Unison, Unite and GMB unions who claimed a new offer from employers of 2.3 percent over two years and a lump-sum payment of up to £325 opened up the possibility for further talks. A not dissimilar deal–one percent in one year–was rejected by council workers and led to a strike in July.</p>
<p>GMB national official, Brian Strutton, complained, “It has proved extremely difficult to persuade the local government employers to agree new pay proposals for us to consult our members on. But now we have an agreed set of new proposals which we will consult on and while doing that GMB is suspending the strike planned for October 14.”</p>
<p>The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) cancelled a 48-hour strike on October 14-16 and called off an overtime ban of London Underground workers claiming there was “significant movement” in talks over the closure of ticket offices and job cuts. RMT General Secretary Mike Cash declared, “The substantial improvements we have agreed allow us to move forwards … But the union’s core opposition to the austerity-led cuts on London Underground has not shifted an inch and we remain vigilant for further developments and their impact.”</p>
<p>On October 14, the University and College Union called off its strike over a one-percent pay offer, after a High Court injunction brought by the Association of Colleges, which claimed the ballot used to justify the action was too old. The miserly deal had previously been agreed by Unison, Unite, GMB, and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.</p>
<p>At the October 18 rally, the trade union leaders spoke, not surprisingly, as though they have had nothing to do with the onslaught on living standards and declining wages. Over the last period they have demobilised all opposition in alliance with corporate management and governments in an attempt to make British capitalism more competitive.</p>
<p>The so-called left union leaders play a particularly pernicious role in all this. Only last month McCluskey’s Unite agreed to cut 900 jobs, slash pay by up to 30 percent and reduce the terms and conditions of the remaining workforce at Monarch Airlines, Britain’s oldest surviving carrier.</p>
<p>Hayes and the CWU oversaw the privatisation of Royal Mail last year, despite widespread opposition from the public and workers in the industry. Once it took place, the union quickly demonstrated its official role as industrial policeman by implementing the “Agenda for Growth, Stability and Long Term Success,” including bringing to a close 62 local disputes involving postal workers opposed to mail centre closures, exhausting workloads and victimisation.</p>
<p>In the year since privatisation, Royal Mail’s annual operating profits have jumped by 12 percent to £671million from £598 million for which the Royal Mail’s chief executive, Moya Greene, dutifully thanked the CWU, noting, “Our union has decided that, for the good of the company, and the people who work in it rely on us having better relationships and looking for less conflictual ways to resolve our differences.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/10/20/tucm-o20.html" type="external">This piece</a> was reprinted by <a href="" type="internal">RINF Alternative News</a> with permission or license.&#160;</p> | true | 4 | paul mitchell around 80000 overwhelmingly public sector workers took part britain needs pay rise march rally london saturday organised trades union congress tuc around 3500 people attended similar event glasgow banner scotland several hundred demonstrated belfast northern ireland march london divided separate union contingents colourcoded banners balloons rally addressed leaders major public sector unions appealed government change course labour party present alternative tuc general secretary frances ogrady claimed massive turnout would send strong message conservativeliberal democrat coalition message longest deepest pay squeeze recorded history time end lockout kept vast majority sharing economic recovery average worker 50 us80 week worse 2007 five million earn less living wage ogrady complained unite general secretary len mccluskey claimed unions involved ongoing campaign demand political elite fairness social justice decent wages end austerity said government determined dismantle nhs national health service destroy welfare state devastate local government mccluskey appealed labour government fights working people like tories fight rich offers clear socialist alternative next election say labourstop scared shadow added dont shrink offer british people time timid past brave inspired march today sounding like country parson mccluskey cajoled audience hold tight comrades keep faithkeep fighting victory communications workers union cwu leader billy hayes continued similar vein declaring despite government promises austerity produced real recovery economy closed public spending deficit led revival manufacturing led new wave private sector investment hayes pleaded labour break austerity commit resolving problems continuing tory libdem austerity policies course labour party intention breaking austerity policies tuc called 10 hour minimum wage labour party leaders talking miserable increase 8 2020 current 650 win power next years elections financial analysts suggest rate would probably rise 8 2020 anyway based current trends anodyne tucs message sections ruling elite backed call concerned low wages led poor consumer demand falling prices threaten deflationand rising inequality could provoke social explosion institute directors campaigns chief christian may declared response union rally sympathy tucs argument remains case many people still feeling effects recession keenly benefits recovery tuc protests pay gap bosses workers remember talking business general tiny number people run worlds biggest firms boards companies longer deaf public opinion may added demonstration supposed culmination week strike action little joint action union members planned across uk strikes took place held different days different times day despite workers public private sector hit since 2008 global financial crisis strike confined public sector number strikes cancelled last minute deliberately pathetic showing aimed demoralise anything else fourhour strike health workers including nurses midwives went ahead october 13 followed civil service strike october 15 called public commercial services union planned strike 15 million council workers scheduled held october 14 called unison unite gmb unions claimed new offer employers 23 percent two years lumpsum payment 325 opened possibility talks dissimilar dealone percent one yearwas rejected council workers led strike july gmb national official brian strutton complained proved extremely difficult persuade local government employers agree new pay proposals us consult members agreed set new proposals consult gmb suspending strike planned october 14 rail maritime transport union rmt cancelled 48hour strike october 1416 called overtime ban london underground workers claiming significant movement talks closure ticket offices job cuts rmt general secretary mike cash declared substantial improvements agreed allow us move forwards unions core opposition austerityled cuts london underground shifted inch remain vigilant developments impact october 14 university college union called strike onepercent pay offer high court injunction brought association colleges claimed ballot used justify action old miserly deal previously agreed unison unite gmb association teachers lecturers october 18 rally trade union leaders spoke surprisingly though nothing onslaught living standards declining wages last period demobilised opposition alliance corporate management governments attempt make british capitalism competitive socalled left union leaders play particularly pernicious role last month mccluskeys unite agreed cut 900 jobs slash pay 30 percent reduce terms conditions remaining workforce monarch airlines britains oldest surviving carrier hayes cwu oversaw privatisation royal mail last year despite widespread opposition public workers industry took place union quickly demonstrated official role industrial policeman implementing agenda growth stability long term success including bringing close 62 local disputes involving postal workers opposed mail centre closures exhausting workloads victimisation year since privatisation royal mails annual operating profits jumped 12 percent 671million 598 million royal mails chief executive moya greene dutifully thanked cwu noting union decided good company people work rely us better relationships looking less conflictual ways resolve differences piece reprinted rinf alternative news permission license160 | 728 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Marines_with_Iraqi_POWs_-_March_21,_2003.jpg"&gt;Lance Cpl. Brian L. Wickliffe, U.S. Marine Corps&lt;/a&gt;/Wikimedia Commons</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175752/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>“But when, with modest effort and risk, we can stop children from being gassed to death, and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act.&#160;That’s what makes America different.&#160;That’s what makes us exceptional.&#160;With humility, but with resolve, let us never lose sight of that essential truth.”</p>
<p>—Barack Obama, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/09/10/remarks-president-address-nation-syria" type="external">address to the nation</a> on Syria, September 10, 2013</p>
<p>Let’s be Americans, which means being exceptional, which also means being honest in ways inconceivable to the rest of humanity.&#160;So here’s the truth of it: the American exceptionalism sweepstakes really do matter. Here. A lot.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2011/01/31/obama-has-mentioned-american-exceptionalism-more-than-bush" type="external">Barack Obama</a> is only the latest in a jostling crowd of <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/13/news/la-pn-obama-romney-america-exceptional-20120413" type="external">presidential candidates</a>, <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/09/05/newt_gingrich_explains_american_exceptionalism.html" type="external">presidential wannabes</a>, <a href="http://www.speaker.gov/speech/speaker-boehner-reasserting-american-exceptionalism-us-russia-relationship" type="external">major politicians</a>, and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/28/AR2010112804139.html" type="external">minor figures</a> of every sort, not to speak of a raging horde of neocons and <a href="http://patriotpost.us/opinion/20056" type="external">pundits</a> galore, who have felt compelled in recent years to tell us and the world just how exceptional the last superpower really is.&#160;They tend to emphasize our ability to use this country’s overwhelming power, especially the military variety, for the global good—to save children and other deserving innocents.&#160;This particularly American aptitude for doing good forcibly, by killing others, is considered an incontestable fact of earthly life needing no proof. &#160;It is well known, especially among our leading politicians, that Washington has the ability to wield its military strength in ways that are unimaginably superior to any other power on the planet.</p>
<p>The well-deserved bragging rights to American exceptionalism are no small matter in this country.&#160;It should hardly be surprising, then, how visceral is the distaste when any foreigner—say, Russian President Vladimir Putin—decides to appropriate the term and use it to criticize us.&#160;How visceral?&#160;Well, the sort of visceral that, as Democratic Senator Bob Menendez <a href="if%2520you%2520really%2520are%2520an%2520American,%2520that,%2520not%2520to%2520put%2520a%2520fine%2520point%2520on%2520it,%2520makes%2520you%2520want" type="external">put it</a> recently, leaves us barely repressing the urge to “vomit.”</p>
<p>Now, it’s not that we can’t take a little self-criticism.&#160;If you imagine an over-muscled, over-armed guy walking into a room and promptly telling you and anyone else in earshot how exceptionally good he is when it comes to targeting his weapons, and you notice a certain threatening quality about him, and maybe a hectoring, lecturing tone in his voice, it’s just possible that you might be intimidated or irritated by him.&#160;You might think: narcissist, braggart, or blowhard.&#160;If you were the president of Russia, you might <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html" type="external">say</a>, “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.” &#160;</p>
<p>Yes, if you’re a foreigner, this country is easy enough to misunderstand, make fun of, or belittle.&#160;Still, that didn’t stop the president from proudly bringing up our exceptionalism two weeks ago in his address on the Syrian crisis.&#160;In that speech, he plugged the need for a US military response to the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian military.&#160;He recommended launching a “limited strike,” assumedly Tomahawk missiles heading Damascus-wards, to save Syria’s children, and he made sure the world knew that such an attack would be no passing thing.&#160;(“Let me make something clear: the United States military doesn’t do pinpricks.”)</p>
<p>Then, in mid-speech, in a fashion that was nothing short of exceptional (if you were considering the internal logic of the address), he suddenly cast that option aside for another approach entirely. But just because of that, don’t let first impressions or foreign criticism blind you to the power of the president’s imagery.&#160;In this century, as he suggested then and in an <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/09/24/obama-america-exceptionalism-putin-un/2861129/" type="external">address to the U.N.</a> two weeks later, American exceptionalism has always had to do with Washington’s ability to use its power for the greater planetary good.&#160;Since, in the last decade-plus, power and military power have come to be essentially synonymous in Washington, the pure goodness of firing missiles or dropping bombs has been deified.</p>
<p>On that basis, it’s indisputable that the bragging rights to American exceptionalism are Washington’s. For those who need proof, what follows are just eight ways (among so many more) that you can proudly make the case for our exceptional status, should you happen to stumble across, say, President Putin, still blathering on about how unexceptional we are.</p>
<p>1. What other country could have invaded Iraq, hardly knowing the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite, and still managed to successfully set off a brutal sectarian civil war and <a href="http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-post.html" type="external">ethnic cleansing campaigns</a> between the two sects that would subsequently go regional, whose <a href="http://www.iraqbodycount.org/" type="external">casualty counts</a> have tipped into the <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/25/100000-dead-in-syrias-civil-war/2587521/" type="external">hundreds of thousands</a>, and which is now <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/world/middleeast/sectarian-violence-reignites-in-an-iraqi-town.html" type="external">bouncing back</a> on Iraq?&#160;What other great power would have launched its invasion with plans to garrison that country <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174807/engelhardt_the_great_american_disconnect" type="external">for decades</a> and with the larger goal of subduing neighboring Iran (“Everyone wants to go to Baghdad; real men <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/18/opinion/things-to-come.html" type="external">want to go</a> to Tehran”), only to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/world/middleeast/last-convoy-of-american-troops-leaves-iraq.html" type="external">slink away</a> eight years later leaving behind a Shiite government in Baghdad that was a firm ally of Iran?&#160;And in what other country, could leaders, viewing these events, and knowing our part in them, have been so imbued with goodness as to draw further “red lines” and contemplate sending in the missiles and bombers again, this time on Syria and possibly Iran?&#160;Who in the world would dare claim that this isn’t an unmatchable record?</p>
<p>2. &#160;What other country could magnanimously spend <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-03-28/world/38097452_1_iraq-price-tag-first-gulf-war-veterans" type="external">$4-6 trillion</a> on two “good wars“ in Afghanistan and Iraq against lightly armed minority insurgencies <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175114/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_what_the_u.s._military_can%27t_do" type="external">without winning</a> or accomplishing a thing?&#160;And that’s not even counting the funds sunk into the Global War on Terror and sideshows in places like Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, or the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175545/kramer_hellman_war_pay" type="external">staggering sums</a> that, since 9/11, have been poured directly into the national security state. &#160;How many countries, possessing “the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175337/" type="external">finest fighting force</a> in the history of the world,” could have engaged in endless armed conflicts and interventions from the 1960s on and, except in unresisting Panama and tiny Grenada, never managed to definitively win anything?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />3. &#160;And talking about exceptional records, what other military could have brought an estimated <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/world/01logistics.html" type="external">3.1 million pieces</a> of equipment—ranging from tanks and Humvees to porta-potties, coffee makers, and computers—with it into Iraq, and then transported most of them out again (while destroying the rest or turning them over to the Iraqis)?&#160;Similarly, in an Afghanistan where the US military is now drawing down its forces and has <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-06-19/world/40067061_1_afghanistan-war-mine-resistant-ambush-protected-kandahar-airfield" type="external">already destroyed</a> “more than 170 million pounds worth of vehicles and other military equipment,” what other force would have decided ahead of time to shred, dismantle, or simply discard $7 billion worth of equipment (about 20% of what it had brought into the country)?&#160;The general in charge proudly calls this “the largest retrograde mission in history.” To put that in context: What other military would be capable of carrying a total consumer society right down to PXs, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/world/middleeast/09bases.html" type="external">massage parlors</a>, <a href="http://www.wavy.com/news/military/kandahar-airfield-boardwalk-is-a-world-away-from-war" type="external">boardwalks</a>, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/12/04/sprj.irq.internet.cafe/" type="external">Internet cafes</a>, and <a href="http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=25008" type="external">food courts</a> to war?&#160;Let’s give credit where it’s due: we’re not just talking retrograde here, we’re talking exceptionally retrograde!</p>
<p>4. What other military could, in a bare few years in Iraq, have built a staggering <a href="http://www.centcom.mil/news/u-s-forces-have-met-all-obligations-in-iraq-general-says" type="external">505 bases</a>, ranging from combat outposts to ones the size of small American towns with their own electricity generators, water purifiers, fire departments, fast-food restaurants, and even <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR2006020302994_pf.html" type="external">miniature golf courses</a> at a cost of <a href="http://enr.construction.com/news/bizlabor/archives/031020.asp" type="external">unknown billions</a> of dollars and then, only a few years later, abandoned all of them, dismantling some, turning others <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jICw_Ai7K9e7eaTZrdJ3j9CDpbGw?docId=CNG.5e8ac5c2a9b4aae9e06b37574187c1ac.701" type="external">over to</a> the Iraqi military or into <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/camp-victory-the-us-military-headquarters-in-iraq-getting-ready-to-close/2011/09/01/gIQA4tb5NK_print.html" type="external">ghost towns</a>, and leaving yet others to be <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/06/AR2009120602689_2.html?sid=ST2009120602379" type="external">looted</a> and stripped?&#160;And what other military, in the same time period thousands of miles away in Afghanistan, could have built more than <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175501/nick_turse_450_bases" type="external">450 bases</a>, sometimes even hauling in the building materials, and now be <a href="http://world.time.com/2013/03/11/how-to-dismantle-an-occupation-u-s-soldiers-tear-down-afghan-bases-take-home-memories/" type="external">dismantling them</a> in the same fashion?&#160;If those aren’t exceptional feats, what are?&#160;</p>
<p>5. In a world where it’s hard to get anyone to agree on anything, the covert campaign of drone strikes that George W. Bush launched and Barack Obama <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175551/" type="external">escalated</a> in Pakistan’s tribal areas stands out.&#160;Those hundreds of strikes not only caused significant numbers of civilian casualties (including <a href="http://droneswatch.org/2013/01/20/list-of-children-killed-by-drone-strikes-in-pakistan-and-yemen/" type="external">children</a>), while helping to destabilize a sometime ally, but almost miraculously created public opinion unanimity.&#160;Opinion polls there indicate that a Ripley’s-Believe-It-or-Not-style 97% of Pakistanis consider such strikes “ <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/little-support-in-pakistan-for-american-drone-strikes-targeting-extremist-leaders/" type="external">a bad thing</a>.”&#160;Is there another country on the planet capable of mobilizing such loathing?&#160;Stand proud, America!</p>
<p>6. And what other power could have secretly and illegally <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/7789/engelhardt_the_cia's_la_dolce_vita" type="external">kidnapped</a> at least <a href="http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/globalizing-torture-cia-secret-detention-and-extraordinary-rendition" type="external">136 suspected terrorists</a>—some, in fact, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/13/european-court-human-rights-cia-abuse-khaled-elmasri" type="external">innocent</a> of any such acts or associations—off the streets of global cities as well as from the backlands of the planet?&#160;What other nation could have mustered a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175650/greg_grandin_the_latin_american_exception" type="external">coalition-of-the-willing</a> of 54 countries to lend a hand in its “rendition” operations?&#160;We’re talking about more than a quarter of the nations on Planet Earth!&#160;And that isn’t all.&#160;Oh, no, that isn’t all.&#160;Can you imagine another country capable of setting up a genuinely global network of “ <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mayer" type="external">black sites</a>” and borrowed prisons (with local torturers on hand), places to stash and abuse those kidnappees (and other prisoners) in locations ranging from <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2012/04/polish-pm-reveals-that-us-tortured-at-black-sites-in-his-country.html" type="external">Poland</a> to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/01/AR2005110101644.html" type="external">Thailand</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Romania</a> to <a href="http://harpers.org/blog/2010/03/inside-the-salt-pit/" type="external">Afghanistan</a>, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/01/who-is-omar-suleiman.html" type="external">Egypt</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/international/01renditions.html" type="external">Uzbekistan</a> to <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/05/nation/la-naw-somali-detainee-20110706" type="external">US Navy ships</a> on the high seas, not to speak of that jewel in the crown of offshore prisons, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/172761/karen_greenberg_guantanamo_is_is_not_a_prison" type="external">Guantanamo</a>"&#160;Such illegality on such a global scale simply can’t be matched!&#160;And don’t even get me started on <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/31/obama-justice-department-immunity-bush-cia-torturer" type="external">torture</a>.&#160;(It’s fine for us to take pride in our exceptionalist tradition, but you don’t want to pour it on, do you")</p>
<p>7. Or how about the way the State Department, to the tune of <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR2008042202465.html" type="external">$750 million</a>, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174789/the_mother_ship_lands_in_iraq" type="external">constructed</a> in Baghdad the largest, most expensive embassy compound on the planet—a 104-acre, Vatican-sized citadel with <a href="http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/must-u-s-embassies-now-be-fortresses/" type="external">27</a> blast-resistant buildings, an indoor pool, basketball courts, and a fire station, which was to operate as a command-and-control center for our ongoing garrisoning of the country and the region?&#160;Now, the garrisons are gone, and the embassy, its staff cut, is a global white elephant.&#160;But what an exceptional elephant!&#160;Think of it as a modern American pyramid, a tomb in which lie <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/embassy-to-nowhere/" type="external">buried</a> the dreams of establishing a Pax Americana in the Greater Middle East.&#160;Honestly, what other country could hope to match that sort of memorial thousands of miles from home?</p>
<p>8. Or what about this?&#160;Between 2002 and 2011, the US <a href="http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/money-pit-monstrous-failure-us-aid-afghanistan" type="external">poured</a> at least $51 billion into building up a vast Afghan military.&#160;Another $11 billion was dedicated to the task in 2012, with almost $6 billion more planned for 2013.&#160;Washington has also sent in <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175128/tomgram%3A_ann_jones,_us_or_them_in_afghanistan" type="external">a legion of trainers</a> tasked with turning that force into an American-style fighting outfit.&#160;At the time Washington began building it up, the Afghan army was reportedly a heavily illiterate, drug-taking, corrupt, and ineffective force that lost one-third to <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/afghan-soldiers-failing-to-re-enlist-1.854483" type="external">one-half</a> of its personnel to casualties, non-reenlistment, and <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KK26Df01.html" type="external">desertion</a> in any year.&#160;In <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175128/tomgram%3A_ann_jones,_us_or_them_in_afghanistan" type="external">2012</a>, the latest date for which we have figures, the Afghan security forces were still a heavily illiterate, drug-taking, corrupt, and inefficient outfit that was losing about one-third of its personnel annually (a figure that may even be <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175128/tomgram%3A_ann_jones,_us_or_them_in_afghanistan" type="external">on the rise</a>).&#160;The US and its NATO allies are committed to spending <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324188604578545420443715216.html" type="external">$4.1 billion annually</a> on the same project after the withdrawal of their combat forces in 2014.&#160;Tell me that isn’t exceptional!</p>
<p>No one, of course, loves a braggart; so, easy as it might be to multiply these eight examples by others, the winner of the American exceptionalism sweepstakes is already obvious.&#160;In other words, this is a moment for exceptional modesty, which means that only one caveat needs to be added to the above record.</p>
<p>I’m talking about actual property rights to “American exceptionalism.”&#160;It’s a phrase often credited to a friendly nineteenth century foreigner, the French traveler Alexis de Tocqueville.&#160;As it happens, however, the man who seems to have first used the full phrase was Russian dictator Joseph Stalin.&#160;In 1929, when the US was showing few signs of a proletarian uprising or fulfilling Karl Marx’s predictions and American Communists were claiming that the country had unique characteristics that left it unready for revolution, Stalin <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/how-joseph-stalin-invented-american-exceptionalism/254534/" type="external">began denouncing</a> “the heresy of American exceptionalism.” &#160;Outside the US Communist Party, the phrase only gained popular traction here in the Reagan years.&#160;Now, it has become as American as sea salt potato chips.&#160;If, for instance, the phrase had never before been used in a presidential debate, in 2012 the candidates couldn’t stop wielding it.</p>
<p>Still, history does give Vladimir Putin a claim to use of the phrase, however stomach-turning that may be for various members of Congress.&#160;But maybe, in its own way, its origins only attest to… well, American exceptionalism.&#160;Somehow, through pureness of motive and the shining radiance of the way we exercise power, Washington’s politicians have <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/02/opinion/la-oe-engelhardt-american-exceptionalism-20111202" type="external">taken words</a> wielded negatively by one of the great monsters of history and made them the signature phrase of American greatness.&#160;How exceptional!</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the <a href="http://www.americanempireproject.com/" type="external">American Empire Project</a> and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The United States of Fear</a> as well as a history of the Cold War, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a> (recently published in a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CRW66UC/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00CRW66UC&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Kindle edition</a>), runs the Nation Institute’s <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>. His latest book, co-authored with Nick Turse, is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0086EF89K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B0086EF89K" type="external">Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050</a>.</p>
<p>Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook</a> or <a href="http://tomdispatch.tumblr.com/" type="external">Tumblr</a>. Check out the newest Dispatch book, Nick Turse’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Changing-Face-Empire-Cyberwarfare/dp/1608463109/" type="external">The Changing Face of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyberwarfare</a>. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>.</p> | true | 4 | lta hrefhttpenwikipediaorgwikifileus_marines_with_iraqi_pows__march_21_2003jpggtlance cpl brian l wickliffe us marine corpsltagtwikimedia commons story first appeared tomdispatch website modest effort risk stop children gassed death thereby make children safer long run believe act160thats makes america different160thats makes us exceptional160with humility resolve let us never lose sight essential truth barack obama address nation syria september 10 2013 lets americans means exceptional also means honest ways inconceivable rest humanity160so heres truth american exceptionalism sweepstakes really matter lot barack obama latest jostling crowd presidential candidates presidential wannabes major politicians minor figures every sort speak raging horde neocons pundits galore felt compelled recent years tell us world exceptional last superpower really is160they tend emphasize ability use countrys overwhelming power especially military variety global goodto save children deserving innocents160this particularly american aptitude good forcibly killing others considered incontestable fact earthly life needing proof 160it well known especially among leading politicians washington ability wield military strength ways unimaginably superior power planet welldeserved bragging rights american exceptionalism small matter country160it hardly surprising visceral distaste foreignersay russian president vladimir putindecides appropriate term use criticize us160how visceral160well sort visceral democratic senator bob menendez put recently leaves us barely repressing urge vomit cant take little selfcriticism160if imagine overmuscled overarmed guy walking room promptly telling anyone else earshot exceptionally good comes targeting weapons notice certain threatening quality maybe hectoring lecturing tone voice possible might intimidated irritated him160you might think narcissist braggart blowhard160if president russia might say extremely dangerous encourage people see exceptional whatever motivation 160 yes youre foreigner country easy enough misunderstand make fun belittle160still didnt stop president proudly bringing exceptionalism two weeks ago address syrian crisis160in speech plugged need us military response use chemical weapons syrian military160he recommended launching limited strike assumedly tomahawk missiles heading damascuswards save syrias children made sure world knew attack would passing thing160let make something clear united states military doesnt pinpricks midspeech fashion nothing short exceptional considering internal logic address suddenly cast option aside another approach entirely dont let first impressions foreign criticism blind power presidents imagery160in century suggested address un two weeks later american exceptionalism always washingtons ability use power greater planetary good160since last decadeplus power military power come essentially synonymous washington pure goodness firing missiles dropping bombs deified basis indisputable bragging rights american exceptionalism washingtons need proof follows eight ways among many proudly make case exceptional status happen stumble across say president putin still blathering unexceptional 1 country could invaded iraq hardly knowing difference sunni shiite still managed successfully set brutal sectarian civil war ethnic cleansing campaigns two sects would subsequently go regional whose casualty counts tipped hundreds thousands bouncing back iraq160what great power would launched invasion plans garrison country decades larger goal subduing neighboring iran everyone wants go baghdad real men want go tehran slink away eight years later leaving behind shiite government baghdad firm ally iran160and country could leaders viewing events knowing part imbued goodness draw red lines contemplate sending missiles bombers time syria possibly iran160who world would dare claim isnt unmatchable record 2 160what country could magnanimously spend 46 trillion two good wars afghanistan iraq lightly armed minority insurgencies without winning accomplishing thing160and thats even counting funds sunk global war terror sideshows places like pakistan somalia yemen staggering sums since 911 poured directly national security state 160how many countries possessing finest fighting force history world could engaged endless armed conflicts interventions 1960s except unresisting panama tiny grenada never managed definitively win anything 3 160and talking exceptional records military could brought estimated 31 million pieces equipmentranging tanks humvees portapotties coffee makers computerswith iraq transported destroying rest turning iraqis160similarly afghanistan us military drawing forces already destroyed 170 million pounds worth vehicles military equipment force would decided ahead time shred dismantle simply discard 7 billion worth equipment 20 brought country160the general charge proudly calls largest retrograde mission history put context military would capable carrying total consumer society right pxs massage parlors boardwalks internet cafes food courts war160lets give credit due talking retrograde talking exceptionally retrograde 4 military could bare years iraq built staggering 505 bases ranging combat outposts ones size small american towns electricity generators water purifiers fire departments fastfood restaurants even miniature golf courses cost unknown billions dollars years later abandoned dismantling turning others iraqi military ghost towns leaving yet others looted stripped160and military time period thousands miles away afghanistan could built 450 bases sometimes even hauling building materials dismantling fashion160if arent exceptional feats are160 5 world hard get anyone agree anything covert campaign drone strikes george w bush launched barack obama escalated pakistans tribal areas stands out160those hundreds strikes caused significant numbers civilian casualties including children helping destabilize sometime ally almost miraculously created public opinion unanimity160opinion polls indicate ripleysbelieveitornotstyle 97 pakistanis consider strikes bad thing160is another country planet capable mobilizing loathing160stand proud america 6 power could secretly illegally kidnapped least 136 suspected terroristssome fact innocent acts associationsoff streets global cities well backlands planet160what nation could mustered coalitionofthewilling 54 countries lend hand rendition operations160were talking quarter nations planet earth160and isnt all160oh isnt all160can imagine another country capable setting genuinely global network black sites borrowed prisons local torturers hand places stash abuse kidnappees prisoners locations ranging poland thailand romania afghanistan egypt uzbekistan us navy ships high seas speak jewel crown offshore prisons guantanamo160such illegality global scale simply cant matched160and dont even get started torture160its fine us take pride exceptionalist tradition dont want pour 7 way state department tune 750 million constructed baghdad largest expensive embassy compound planeta 104acre vaticansized citadel 27 blastresistant buildings indoor pool basketball courts fire station operate commandandcontrol center ongoing garrisoning country region160now garrisons gone embassy staff cut global white elephant160but exceptional elephant160think modern american pyramid tomb lie buried dreams establishing pax americana greater middle east160honestly country could hope match sort memorial thousands miles home 8 this160between 2002 2011 us poured least 51 billion building vast afghan military160another 11 billion dedicated task 2012 almost 6 billion planned 2013160washington also sent legion trainers tasked turning force americanstyle fighting outfit160at time washington began building afghan army reportedly heavily illiterate drugtaking corrupt ineffective force lost onethird onehalf personnel casualties nonreenlistment desertion year160in 2012 latest date figures afghan security forces still heavily illiterate drugtaking corrupt inefficient outfit losing onethird personnel annually figure may even rise160the us nato allies committed spending 41 billion annually project withdrawal combat forces 2014160tell isnt exceptional one course loves braggart easy might multiply eight examples others winner american exceptionalism sweepstakes already obvious160in words moment exceptional modesty means one caveat needs added record im talking actual property rights american exceptionalism160its phrase often credited friendly nineteenth century foreigner french traveler alexis de tocqueville160as happens however man seems first used full phrase russian dictator joseph stalin160in 1929 us showing signs proletarian uprising fulfilling karl marxs predictions american communists claiming country unique characteristics left unready revolution stalin began denouncing heresy american exceptionalism 160outside us communist party phrase gained popular traction reagan years160now become american sea salt potato chips160if instance phrase never used presidential debate 2012 candidates couldnt stop wielding still history give vladimir putin claim use phrase however stomachturning may various members congress160but maybe way origins attest well american exceptionalism160somehow pureness motive shining radiance way exercise power washingtons politicians taken words wielded negatively one great monsters history made signature phrase american greatness160how exceptional tom engelhardt cofounder american empire project author united states fear well history cold war end victory culture recently published kindle edition runs nation institutes tomdispatchcom latest book coauthored nick turse terminator planet first history drone warfare 20012050 follow tomdispatch twitter join us facebook tumblr check newest dispatch book nick turses changing face empire special ops drones proxy fighters secret bases cyberwarfare stay top important articles like sign receive latest updates tomdispatchcom | 1,256 |
<p>Jeannette Wicks-Lim is an economist at the <a href="http://www.peri.umass.edu" type="external">Political Economy Research Institute (PERI)</a>. She completed her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2005. Wicks-Lim specializes in labor economics with an emphasis on the low-wage labor market and has an overlapping interest in the political economy of race. Her dissertation, Mandated wage floors and the wage structure: Analyzing the ripple effects of minimum and prevailing wage laws, is a study of the overall impact of mandated wage floors on wages. Specifically, she provides empirical estimates of the extent to which mandated wage floors cause wage changes beyond those required by law, either through wage effects that ripple across the wage distribution or spillover to workers that are not covered by mandated wage floors. Jeannette regularly publishes commentary in Dollars &amp; Sense.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore.
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<p />According to American official figures, 15&#160;percent of Americans live in poverty. Our next guest think it's more like one in three, over 33&#160;percent of Americans living in poverty.
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<p />Now joining us from Amherst, Massachusetts, is Jeanette Wicks-Lim. She's an assistant research professor at PERI institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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<p />Thanks for joining us again, Jeannette.
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<p />JEANNETTE WICKS-LIM, ASSISTANT RESEARCH PROFESSOR, PERI: Hi, Paul. Thanks for having me.
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<p />JAY: So how do you get to your number? And how does anybody get to their numbers? I guess, first of all, how does the quote-unquote official number come to be?
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<p />WICKS-LIM: Well, it's interesting. The official poverty statistic comes from a measure that was created in the mid--well, early 1960s. And it was really put together quickly, and it was kind of considered a placeholder, just 'cause the federal government wanted to have some way to measure poverty and basically took a very low-cost food plan and just multiplied it by three and decided that that was what would account for what a family would need just to be at a poverty-level standard of living. So that has been the measure over all this time, so about 50 years now.
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<p />But this official count has been criticized widely by, you know, many poverty experts. And in the mid 1990s, the National Academy of Sciences put together a panel of poverty experts to take a look, take a real close look at this measure and figure out what's wrong with it and how do we improve it. Based on this panel, there were a lot a lot of recommendations. The panel itself said, we know that the official count is wrong and we know that we need to replace it.
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<p />Now, two decades later, after that, about 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau, which publishes the official count, came up with a new measure, called the supplemental poverty measure, as a way to correct for the official count. And so, unfortunately, I've taken a look at this measure, and it doesn't look--in terms of the number of people who are--count as poor, it doesn't look a whole lot different than the official count. So, like you said, about 15&#160;percent of the American public is considered poor under the official count. With this new measure, it's only 16&#160;percent.
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<p />Now, when I've looked at this measure, I've tried to think about, well, what would people reasonably consider to be poor. And I think it's pretty reasonable to describe being poor as somebody who can't meet their basic needs--food, shelter, their necessary medical care, that sort of thing. And if you actually tally up what the costs are for those things and see what the incomes actually would look like just to meet those basic needs, you're looking at something that's more on the order of two times the official poverty line. So I think that a much more accurate poverty line would be something on the order of double what the official poverty line is. And that would get us to a number of one in three Americans being considered poor as opposed to the current official statistic of 15&#160;percent.
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<p />JAY: What changes city by city? It costs a lot more to live in New York than someplace in the south.
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<p />WICKS-LIM: Yeah.
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<p />JAY: But given that, what kind of numbers are we looking at in terms of family income? What family income, for example, in the Northeast is considered poor?
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<p />WICKS-LIM: Right. Well, this is really interesting, 'cause, you know, I don't want to just wholly criticize this new measure that the Census Bureau has come out with. The supplemental poverty measure actually tries to take into account costs of living differences, which the official count actually doesn't do at all. So, for example, a family of four with the official poverty line is about $23,000 a year whether or not you live in New York City or if you live in Utica, New York, or if you live in, you know, a small rural town in Nebraska. The same income--poverty income threshold applies. The supplemental poverty measure tries to differentiate between those things. So they take into account especially the housing costs, that they're double in New York versus in other average-cost towns. So the supplemental poverty measure does make improvements, takes into account these costs of living differences across the country.
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<p />But my main concern about the new measure is that it doesn't take into account the fact that just the poverty line itself is just too low. You're not--when you actually add up what the costs are for families to meet their basic needs, it's really not just, you know, a little bit more than the official poverty line. It's actually substantially more than the poverty line.
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<p />You know, there was a study done in the mid 1990s where--a national survey done of families to see what kind of economic hardships they experience. And what one study found looking at this survey data was that if you look at people who are officially poor, about 29&#160;percent of them reported having some sort of critical hardship like having their utilities cut off or missing meals or not getting the necessary medical care.
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<p />Now, if you look at people who are between the poverty line and twice the poverty line, you saw a very similar rate of people experiencing critical hardships like this. It went down to, I think, something like 23&#160;percent. So, you know, it went down a little bit but not a lot. And so it was only when you got above twice the poverty line did you actually see this number drop substantially to [incompr.] 11&#160;percent. So I think that's a pretty good marker, you know, twice the poverty line, of when families are actually getting to a point where they're meeting their very basic needs. And so I think that is a much more accurate measure of what people need in order to meet their food, shelter, medical care, you know--.
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<p />JAY: So you're saying $23,000 per family, that's the official number for how many dollars a family of four should have. So you're saying it should actually be more than $40,000 if you're actually going to have someone out of poverty if it's a family of four.
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<p />WICKS-LIM: Right. Exactly. Right. The official poverty income threshold is about $23,000, and I'm saying about double that is a much more reasonable threshold, something on the order of $45,000, to cover the basic needs of a family of four.
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<p />JAY: And how does this affect public policy? Does it trigger anything? I guess what I'm getting at other than us understanding how many poor people there are in the society, how does this, you know, what you're saying is a wrongfully low number in the official estimation of poverty, how does that affect public policy?
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<p />WICKS-LIM: Right. Well, what's interesting is that, you know, there are, you know, [incompr.] large-scale social welfare programs that recognize that people who are at twice the poverty line and below that need help, federal assistance. If you look at, like, the National School Lunch Program, you know, subsidized lunches for kids and subsidized breakfasts, you look at the low-income housing energy program, you know, that gives subsidies for energy bills, those programs actually consider people who are twice the poverty line and below to be in need. So there [incompr.] the poverty--the official poverty line is way too low. And you see programs that actually count people who are twice the poverty line and below as needing subsidies, needing help from the federal government in order to meet their basic needs. So in terms of public policy, I mean, you already have programs who are recognizing what poverty actually is [incompr.] something like twice the poverty line.
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<p />I think what's really important for people to think about is that I know that, you know, calling yourself poor doesn't feel very good. You know, it's a pretty stigmatized label. And so it feels more comfortable to think about, you know, 15&#160;percent, you know, something like one in seven, around there, Americans being poor, and you can sort of count yourself out of that. But when you start to think about what it is that people actually need to meet their basic needs and you recognize that it's something more like twice the poverty line, then you see that one in three Americans are actually poor, then you're looking at you--you know, you and a group of friends, a substantial number of you are going to be considered poor. And I think that to recognize that, to know that people are struggling that much, is really important for public policymakers to consider [crosstalk]
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<p />JAY: Right. And how does one in three number compare to other industrialized countries if you try to use similar measurements?
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<p />WICKS-LIM: Right. You know, I don't have international comparisons off the top of my head, so I would have to go back and take a look at those numbers. But I think if, you know, the number itself, one in three, I think might sound startling to people, but if you really think about how people are sort of getting by these days, it starts to sound a bit more realistic. You know, people, you know, worried about whether or not they're going to be able to make their rent, you know, worried about whether or not they can cover a health care bill, you know, worried about whether or not they're going to be able to put the food on the tables that they need to, you know, that sounds a little bit more like what reality is for most Americans.
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<p />JAY: Right. Okay. Thanks for joining us, Jeannette.
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<p />WICKS-LIM: Thanks a lot, Paul.
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<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | true | 4 | jeannette wickslim economist political economy research institute peri completed phd economics university massachusetts amherst 2005 wickslim specializes labor economics emphasis lowwage labor market overlapping interest political economy race dissertation mandated wage floors wage structure analyzing ripple effects minimum prevailing wage laws study overall impact mandated wage floors wages specifically provides empirical estimates extent mandated wage floors cause wage changes beyond required law either wage effects ripple across wage distribution spillover workers covered mandated wage floors jeannette regularly publishes commentary dollars amp sense paul jay senior editor trnn welcome real news network im paul jay baltimore according american official figures 15160percent americans live poverty next guest think like one three 33160percent americans living poverty joining us amherst massachusetts jeanette wickslim shes assistant research professor peri institute university massachusetts amherst thanks joining us jeannette jeannette wickslim assistant research professor peri hi paul thanks jay get number anybody get numbers guess first quoteunquote official number come wickslim well interesting official poverty statistic comes measure created midwell early 1960s really put together quickly kind considered placeholder cause federal government wanted way measure poverty basically took lowcost food plan multiplied three decided would account family would need povertylevel standard living measure time 50 years official count criticized widely know many poverty experts mid 1990s national academy sciences put together panel poverty experts take look take real close look measure figure whats wrong improve based panel lot lot recommendations panel said know official count wrong know need replace two decades later 2011 us census bureau publishes official count came new measure called supplemental poverty measure way correct official count unfortunately ive taken look measure doesnt lookin terms number people arecount poor doesnt look whole lot different official count like said 15160percent american public considered poor official count new measure 16160percent ive looked measure ive tried think well would people reasonably consider poor think pretty reasonable describe poor somebody cant meet basic needsfood shelter necessary medical care sort thing actually tally costs things see incomes actually would look like meet basic needs youre looking something thats order two times official poverty line think much accurate poverty line would something order double official poverty line would get us number one three americans considered poor opposed current official statistic 15160percent jay changes city city costs lot live new york someplace south wickslim yeah jay given kind numbers looking terms family income family income example northeast considered poor wickslim right well really interesting cause know dont want wholly criticize new measure census bureau come supplemental poverty measure actually tries take account costs living differences official count actually doesnt example family four official poverty line 23000 year whether live new york city live utica new york live know small rural town nebraska incomepoverty income threshold applies supplemental poverty measure tries differentiate things take account especially housing costs theyre double new york versus averagecost towns supplemental poverty measure make improvements takes account costs living differences across country main concern new measure doesnt take account fact poverty line low youre notwhen actually add costs families meet basic needs really know little bit official poverty line actually substantially poverty line know study done mid 1990s wherea national survey done families see kind economic hardships experience one study found looking survey data look people officially poor 29160percent reported sort critical hardship like utilities cut missing meals getting necessary medical care look people poverty line twice poverty line saw similar rate people experiencing critical hardships like went think something like 23160percent know went little bit lot got twice poverty line actually see number drop substantially incompr 11160percent think thats pretty good marker know twice poverty line families actually getting point theyre meeting basic needs think much accurate measure people need order meet food shelter medical care know jay youre saying 23000 per family thats official number many dollars family four youre saying actually 40000 youre actually going someone poverty family four wickslim right exactly right official poverty income threshold 23000 im saying double much reasonable threshold something order 45000 cover basic needs family four jay affect public policy trigger anything guess im getting us understanding many poor people society know youre saying wrongfully low number official estimation poverty affect public policy wickslim right well whats interesting know know incompr largescale social welfare programs recognize people twice poverty line need help federal assistance look like national school lunch program know subsidized lunches kids subsidized breakfasts look lowincome housing energy program know gives subsidies energy bills programs actually consider people twice poverty line need incompr povertythe official poverty line way low see programs actually count people twice poverty line needing subsidies needing help federal government order meet basic needs terms public policy mean already programs recognizing poverty actually incompr something like twice poverty line think whats really important people think know know calling poor doesnt feel good know pretty stigmatized label feels comfortable think know 15160percent know something like one seven around americans poor sort count start think people actually need meet basic needs recognize something like twice poverty line see one three americans actually poor youre looking youyou know group friends substantial number going considered poor think recognize know people struggling much really important public policymakers consider crosstalk jay right one three number compare industrialized countries try use similar measurements wickslim right know dont international comparisons top head would go back take look numbers think know number one three think might sound startling people really think people sort getting days starts sound bit realistic know people know worried whether theyre going able make rent know worried whether cover health care bill know worried whether theyre going able put food tables need know sounds little bit like reality americans jay right okay thanks joining us jeannette wickslim thanks lot paul jay thank joining us real news network end disclaimer please note transcripts real news network typed recording program trnn guarantee complete accuracy | 974 |
<p>This article was originally printed in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-glossy-new-front-in-battle-for-hearts-and-minds-1934020.html" type="external">The Independent</a>.</p>
<p>It’s sleek, it’s glossy, it’s in eloquent Arabic, Pashto and Dari, and it pours derision on American and Nato forces in Afghanistan; it is the brand new propaganda wing of the Taliban: not just internet video of attacks on the western armies in Helmand and Kandahar, but professionally produced magazines, carrying stories of the Taliban’s own “martyrdom” operations and the names of its dead fighters. For once, the cliché “well-oiled publicity machine” is correct.</p>
<p>Nureddin — or Abu Ahmed, as he preferred to be called, to denote that he is Ahmed’s father — is one of the creators of Al-Samoud, which roughly translates as “Resistance” or “Stay Put!” The latest front page of the Taliban’s monthly Arabic-language house magazine is adorned with photographs of a grim-faced General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, and the headline: “A surprise is awaiting the enemy in Helmand.” Inside, an editorial asks: “Is the battle of Marja as decisive as they claim?” while an article on casualties is accompanied by a coloured photograph of a British military cortège passing through the village of Wootton Basset.</p>
<p>Abu Ahmed is from Logar province in Afghanistan but his Arabic is fluent and his arguments straightforward. “In the West,” he says to me, “they say they have freedom of speech — so why shouldn’t we have freedom of speech?” We are talking over lunch in the weird company of three pink storks and a peacock that prowl the Afghan-Tajik-Uzbek restaurant in Islamabad where he has chosen to meet me, wearing a white robe, a white cap and a carefully combed beard.</p>
<p />
<p>His spectacles give him a student’s complexion, his arguments are exceptionally dry. When I ask him why he doesn’t produce an English edition of Al-Samoud and sell it to the 150,000 Nato troops in Afghanistan, he shakes his head with the words: “They are seeing everything live and they would have no time to read it — they are too busy fighting for their lives.”</p>
<p>Al-Samoud and the Taliban’s three other magazines in Pashto and Dari — the bi-monthly Morchel (“Trench”), Saraq (“Flame”) and Shahamak (“Dignity”) — are obviously produced on modern presses, although Abu Ahmed will not reveal their location. I suspect they are in Pakistan and receive a sharp look by way of reply. But they reveal two new characteristics: an almost obsessive attention to detail, and the new name of the Taliban. The group now calls itself the “Islamic Emirate”. That’s the original name of the country the Taliban governed until 2001, and its readoption is an attempt to free itself from the thieves and mafiosi in Afghanistan who call themselves “Taliban” but who have nothing to do with Islam or hostility to the Western forces in the country. Al-Samoud describes itself as “the Islamic monthly magazine published by the media centre of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”. The Taliban distribute it across the Arab Gulf.</p>
<p>Abu Ahmed believes that the “Islamic Emirate’s” magazines will continue in their own right after Western forces leave Afghanistan. “Whenever we get news, we do not rush it into print,” he says. “We are checking this news with our sources in different provinces. Most of us are young people, doing different jobs — for the political as well as the military side of our organisation, although we are not fighters. As you know, the media is controlled by the West — so we decided to try and counter their propaganda. Of course, we also follow what their military says: details of their operations, attacks, and details of what they are going to do next — this is very interesting to us.”</p>
<p>The “Islamic Emirate’s” internet “Shariah radio” is also part of Abu Ahmed’s remit: tough, hard-edged programmes intended to appeal to rural Afghans. “We have proved that Afghans can adjust themselves to learning about the situation,” he says. “Most of our websites are run by professionals. That’s why the Americans have tried to block them so many times, using different “gates” in Afghanistan and other areas — but we have been able to unblock them every time.”</p>
<p>Abu Ahmed admits that illiteracy presents a major problem — he doesn’t mention, of course, that the Taliban made a major contribution to this by banning female education — but says that Afghans who can read pass on the information in the magazines to all members of their families. He says that women are now involved in the magazines’ production and in the military struggle. “From our point of view, a woman is the property of one person — if she is my wife, she is mine. But our women are cleaning the Kalashnikovs, carrying ammunition. In Kandahar, they are carrying mines under their burqas because that way they cannot be checked.”</p>
<p>Al-Samoud in many ways mimics Western propaganda. The “military commander” in Helmand, for example, is quoted as saying that “the mujahedin (holy warriors) are fighting the enemy in Marja with high spirits”. The latest issue carries special features on the 20th anniversary of the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan, an interview with the rebel commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, and America’s use of dogs to torture prisoners (a practice employed at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison). One story claims that US servicewomen are used to abuse and humiliate Taliban prisoners. There are even profiles of hundreds of Taliban “martyrs” — identifying, for the very first time, with names and photographs, those who have died fighting Nato. Saad al-Haq (code-named “Jenaan”), for example, died in a follow-up attack against the Kandahar Nato base on 20 March 2008. Mullah Abdel Manon was killed on 14 September of the same year “in a martyrdom attack” against the same “Crusader fort”. Maulawi Abdul Salam died last year during an attack on the fort of Zaal in Moudiriya.</p>
<p>Oddly, Al-Samoud even names its editorial board — Hamidullah Amin is the “president of the board of publishing”, and Ahmed Shah Halim is the chief editor, assisted by three journalists, Ikram Maiwandi, Salahedin Momand and Arfan Balchi. Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai keeps a keen eye on the Taliban’s propaganda. “Their magazines and websites are targeted at different audiences,” he says. “They are keen to tell of their battlefield achievements — that is how they will impress their donors. Their articles didn’t used to be so good, but they’ve improved tremendously. Now they are very well written, though of course one-sided. Nowadays, the magazines even contain poetry.”</p>
<p>The propaganda wing of the Taliban calls itself the “Information and Cultural Department” which is run by Abdul Hai Mutmain from Zabul. He was once head of the Taliban’s “information department” in Kandahar where, though not a minister, he was close to the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar. “The Americans say they came to save Afghanistan from war,” Abu Ahmed continues. “But this war is only harvesting our civilians. The Americans are coming with their war planes and killing civilians. The Americans see everything from the sky — surely they can tell the difference between two or three cars of civilians and military targets? So this means they are either doing it deliberately or they do not know how to fight.”</p>
<p>And as the peacock on the lawn tries to attack the remains of our food, Abu Ahmed adds his own personal warning. “My father and grandfather told me: ‘You have to fight the Russians’. Now I tell my son: ‘You must fight the Americans’. The first thing we teach our children is ‘Allah’. The second is fighting the Americans. As for the British, they are making the same mistakes they made before — they will experience a second Maiwand.”</p>
<p>Afghan forces routed a British army at Maiwand in the Second Afghan War. Only later, however, does Abu Ahmed tell me that his son is just three years old. By the time he grows up, I ask him, doesn’t he think the Nato forces will have left Afghanistan? In return, I get a thin-lipped smile and a raising of eyebrows. I suspect that means they will be staying.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | article originally printed independent sleek glossy eloquent arabic pashto dari pours derision american nato forces afghanistan brand new propaganda wing taliban internet video attacks western armies helmand kandahar professionally produced magazines carrying stories talibans martyrdom operations names dead fighters cliché welloiled publicity machine correct nureddin abu ahmed preferred called denote ahmeds father one creators alsamoud roughly translates resistance stay put latest front page talibans monthly arabiclanguage house magazine adorned photographs grimfaced general stanley mcchrystal us commander afghanistan headline surprise awaiting enemy helmand inside editorial asks battle marja decisive claim article casualties accompanied coloured photograph british military cortège passing village wootton basset abu ahmed logar province afghanistan arabic fluent arguments straightforward west says say freedom speech shouldnt freedom speech talking lunch weird company three pink storks peacock prowl afghantajikuzbek restaurant islamabad chosen meet wearing white robe white cap carefully combed beard spectacles give students complexion arguments exceptionally dry ask doesnt produce english edition alsamoud sell 150000 nato troops afghanistan shakes head words seeing everything live would time read busy fighting lives alsamoud talibans three magazines pashto dari bimonthly morchel trench saraq flame shahamak dignity obviously produced modern presses although abu ahmed reveal location suspect pakistan receive sharp look way reply reveal two new characteristics almost obsessive attention detail new name taliban group calls islamic emirate thats original name country taliban governed 2001 readoption attempt free thieves mafiosi afghanistan call taliban nothing islam hostility western forces country alsamoud describes islamic monthly magazine published media centre islamic emirate afghanistan taliban distribute across arab gulf abu ahmed believes islamic emirates magazines continue right western forces leave afghanistan whenever get news rush print says checking news sources different provinces us young people different jobs political well military side organisation although fighters know media controlled west decided try counter propaganda course also follow military says details operations attacks details going next interesting us islamic emirates internet shariah radio also part abu ahmeds remit tough hardedged programmes intended appeal rural afghans proved afghans adjust learning situation says websites run professionals thats americans tried block many times using different gates afghanistan areas able unblock every time abu ahmed admits illiteracy presents major problem doesnt mention course taliban made major contribution banning female education says afghans read pass information magazines members families says women involved magazines production military struggle point view woman property one person wife mine women cleaning kalashnikovs carrying ammunition kandahar carrying mines burqas way checked alsamoud many ways mimics western propaganda military commander helmand example quoted saying mujahedin holy warriors fighting enemy marja high spirits latest issue carries special features 20th anniversary soviet retreat afghanistan interview rebel commander jalaluddin haqqani americas use dogs torture prisoners practice employed iraqs abu ghraib prison one story claims us servicewomen used abuse humiliate taliban prisoners even profiles hundreds taliban martyrs identifying first time names photographs died fighting nato saad alhaq codenamed jenaan example died followup attack kandahar nato base 20 march 2008 mullah abdel manon killed 14 september year martyrdom attack crusader fort maulawi abdul salam died last year attack fort zaal moudiriya oddly alsamoud even names editorial board hamidullah amin president board publishing ahmed shah halim chief editor assisted three journalists ikram maiwandi salahedin momand arfan balchi pakistani journalist rahimullah yusufzai keeps keen eye talibans propaganda magazines websites targeted different audiences says keen tell battlefield achievements impress donors articles didnt used good theyve improved tremendously well written though course onesided nowadays magazines even contain poetry propaganda wing taliban calls information cultural department run abdul hai mutmain zabul head talibans information department kandahar though minister close taliban leader mullah omar americans say came save afghanistan war abu ahmed continues war harvesting civilians americans coming war planes killing civilians americans see everything sky surely tell difference two three cars civilians military targets means either deliberately know fight peacock lawn tries attack remains food abu ahmed adds personal warning father grandfather told fight russians tell son must fight americans first thing teach children allah second fighting americans british making mistakes made experience second maiwand afghan forces routed british army maiwand second afghan war later however abu ahmed tell son three years old time grows ask doesnt think nato forces left afghanistan return get thinlipped smile raising eyebrows suspect means staying | 698 |
<p>When President Bush signed the new law, sponsored by Senator McCain, restricting the use of torture when interrogating detainees, he also issued a Presidential signing statement. That statement asserted that his power as Commander-in-Chief gives him the authority to bypass the very law he had just signed.</p>
<p>This news came fast on the heels of Bush’s shocking admission that, since 2002, he has repeatedly authorized the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance without a warrant, in flagrant violation of applicable federal law.</p>
<p>And before that, Bush declared he had the unilateral authority to ignore the Geneva Conventions and to indefinitely detain without due process both immigrants and citizens as enemy combatants.</p>
<p>All these declarations echo the refrain Bush has been asserting from the outset of his presidency. That refrain is simple: Presidential power must be unilateral, and unchecked.</p>
<p>But the most recent and blatant presidential intrusions on the law and Constitution supply the verse to that refrain. They not only claim unilateral executive power, but also supply the train of the President’s thinking, the texture of his motivations, and the root of his intentions.</p>
<p>They make clear, for instance, that the phrase “unitary executive” is a code word for a doctrine that favors nearly unlimited executive power. Bush has used the doctrine in his signing statements to quietly expand presidential authority.</p>
<p>In this column, I will consider the meaning of the unitary executive doctrine within a democratic government that respects the separation of powers. I will ask: Can our government remain true to its nature, yet also embrace this doctrine?</p>
<p>I will also consider what the President and his legal advisers mean by applying the unitary executive doctrine. And I will argue that the doctrine violates basic tenets of our system of checks and balances, quietly crossing longstanding legal and moral boundaries that are essential to a democratic society. President Bush’s Aggressive Use of Presidential Signing Statements</p>
<p>Bush has used presidential “signing statements” – statements issued by the President upon signing a bill into law — to expand his power. Each of his signing statements says that he will interpret the law in question “in a manner consistent with his constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch.”</p>
<p>Presidential signing statements have gotten very little media attention. They are, however, highly important documents that define how the President interprets the laws he signs. Presidents use such statements to protects the prerogative of their office and ensure control over the executive branch functions.</p>
<p>Presidents also — since Reagan — have used such statements to create a kind of alternative legislative history. Attorney General Ed Meese explained in 1986 that:</p>
<p>To make sure that the President’s own understanding of what’s in a bill is the same . . . is given consideration at the time of statutory construction later on by a court, we have now arranged with West Publishing Company that the presidential statement on the signing of a bill will accompany the legislative history from Congress so that all can be available to the court for future construction of what that statute really means.</p>
<p>The alternative legislative history would, according to Dr. Christopher S. Kelley, professor of political science at the Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, “contain certain policy or principles that the administration had lost in its negotiations” with Congress.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court has paid close attention to presidential signing statements. Indeed, in two important decisions — the Chadha and Bowsher decisions – the Court relied in part on president signing statements in interpreting laws. Other federal courts, sources show, have taken note of them too.</p>
<p>President Bush has used presidential signing statements more than any previous president. From President Monroe’s administration (1817-25) to the Carter administration (1977-81), the executive branch issued a total of 75 signing statements to protect presidential prerogatives. From Reagan’s administration through Clinton’s, the total number of signing statements ever issued, by all presidents, rose to a total 322.</p>
<p>In striking contrast to his predecessors, President Bush issued at least 435 signing statements in his first term alone. And, in these statements and in his executive orders, Bush used the term “unitary executive” 95 times. It is important, therefore, to understand what this doctrine means. What Does the Administration Mean When It Refers to the “Unitary Executive”?</p>
<p>Dr. Kelley notes that the unitary executive doctrine arose as the result of the twin circumstances of Vietnam and Watergate. Kelley asserts that “the faith and trust placed into the presidency was broken as a result of the lies of Vietnam and Watergate,” which resulted in a congressional assault on presidential prerogatives.</p>
<p>For example, consider the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which Bush evaded when authorizing the NSA to tap without warrants — even those issued by the FISA court. FISA was enacted after the fall of Nixon with the precise intention of curbing unchecked executive branch surveillance. (Indeed, Nixon’s improper use of domestic surveillance was included in Article 2 paragraph (2) of the impeachment articles against him.)</p>
<p>According to Kelley, these congressional limits on the presidency, in turn, led “some very creative people” in the White House and the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to fight back, in an attempt to foil or blunt these limits. In their view, these laws were legislative attempts to strip the president of his rightful powers. Prominent among those in the movement to preserve presidential power and champion the unitary executive doctrine were the founding members of the Federalist Society, nearly all of whom worked in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan White Houses.</p>
<p>The unitary executive doctrine arises out of a theory called “departmentalism,” or “coordinate construction.” According to legal scholars Christopher Yoo, Steven Calabresi, and Anthony Colangelo, the coordinate construction approach “holds that all three branches of the federal government have the power and duty to interpret the Constitution.” According to this theory, the president may (and indeed, must) interpret laws, equally as much as the courts. The Unitary Executive Versus Judicial Supremacy</p>
<p>The coordinate construction theory counters the long-standing notion of “judicial supremacy,” articulated by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall in 1803, in the famous case of Marbury v. Madison, which held that the Court is the final arbiter of what is and is not the law. Marshall famously wrote there: “It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.”</p>
<p>Of course, the President has a duty not to undermine his own office, as University of Miami law professor A. Michael Froomkin notes. And, as Kelley points out, the President is bound by his oath of office and the “Take Care clause” to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and to “take care” that the laws are faithfully executed. And those duties require, in turn, that the President interpret what is, and is not constitutional, at least when overseeing the actions of executive agencies.</p>
<p>However, Bush’s recent actions make it clear that he interprets the coordinate construction approach extremely aggressively. In his view, and the view of his Administration, that doctrine gives him license to overrule and bypass Congress or the courts, based on his own interpretations of the Constitution — even where that violates long-established laws and treaties, counters recent legislation that he has himself signed, or (as shown by recent developments in the Padilla case) involves offering a federal court contradictory justifications for a detention.</p>
<p>This is a form of presidential rebellion against Congress and the courts, and possibly a violation of President Bush’s oath of office, as well.</p>
<p>After all, can it be possible that that oath means that the President must uphold the Constitution only as he construes it – and not as the federal courts do?</p>
<p>And can it be possible that the oath means that the President need not uphold laws he simply doesn’t like – even though they were validly passed by Congress and signed into law by him? Analyzing Bush’s Disturbing Signing Statement for the McCain Anti-Torture Bill</p>
<p>Let’s take a close look at Bush’s most recent signing statement, on the torture bill. It says:</p>
<p>The executive branch shall construe Title X in Division A of the Act, relating to detainees, in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and as Commander in Chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power, which will assist in achieving the shared objective of the Congress and the President, evidenced in Title X, of protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks.</p>
<p>In this signing statement, Bush asserts not only his authority to internally supervise the “unitary executive branch,” but also his power as Commander-in-Chief, as the basis for his interpretation of the law — which observers have noted allows Bush to create a loophole to permit the use of torture when he wants.</p>
<p>Clearly, Bush believes he can ignore the intentions of Congress. Not only that but by this statement, he has evinced his intent to do so, if he so chooses.</p>
<p>On top of this, Bush asserts that the law must be consistent with “constitutional limitations on judicial power.” But what about presidential power? Does Bush see any constitutional or statutory limitations on that? And does this mean that Bush will ignore the courts, too, if he chooses – as he attempted, recently, to do in the Padilla case? The Unitary Executive Doctrine Violates the Separation of Powers</p>
<p>As Findlaw columnist Edward Lazarus recently showed, the President does not have unlimited executive authority, not even as Commander-in-Chief of the military. Our government was purposely created with power split between three branches, not concentrated in one.</p>
<p>Separation of powers, then, is not simply a talisman: It is the foundation of our system. James Madison wrote in The Federalist Papers, No. 47, that:</p>
<p>The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.</p>
<p>Another early American, George Nicholas, eloquently articulated the concept of “power divided” in one of his letters:</p>
<p>The most effectual guard which has yet been discovered against the abuse of power, is the division of it. It is our happiness to have a constitution which contains within it a sufficient limitation to the power granted by it, and also a proper division of that power. But no constitution affords any real security to liberty unless it is considered as sacred and preserved inviolate; because that security can only arise from an actual and not from a nominal limitation and division of power.</p>
<p>Yet it seems a nominal limitation and division of power – with real power concentrated solely in the “unitary executive” – is exactly what President Bush seeks. His signing statements make the point quite clearly, and his overt refusal to follow the laws illustrates that point: In Bush’s view, there is no actual limitation or division of power; it all resides in the executive.</p>
<p>Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense:</p>
<p>In America, the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.</p>
<p>The unitary executive doctrine conflicts with Paine’s principle – one that is fundamental to our constitutional system. If Bush can ignore or evade laws, then the law is no longer king. Americans need to decide whether we are still a country of laws – and if we are, we need to decide whether a President who has determined to ignore or evade the law has not acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government.</p>
<p>JENNIFER VAN BERGEN, a journalist with a law degree, is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512925/counterpunchmaga" type="external">THE TWILIGHT OF DEMOCRACY: THE BUSH PLAN FOR AMERICA</a> (Common Courage Press, 2004). She writes frequently on civil liberties, human rights, and international law. Her book, ARCHETYPES FOR WRITERS, about the characterization method she developed and taught at the New School University, will be out in 2006. She can be reached at <a href="mailto:jvbxyz@earthlink.net" type="external">jvbxyz@earthlink.net</a>.</p>
<p>This article originally appeared on Findlaw’s Writ.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | president bush signed new law sponsored senator mccain restricting use torture interrogating detainees also issued presidential signing statement statement asserted power commanderinchief gives authority bypass law signed news came fast heels bushs shocking admission since 2002 repeatedly authorized national security agency conduct electronic surveillance without warrant flagrant violation applicable federal law bush declared unilateral authority ignore geneva conventions indefinitely detain without due process immigrants citizens enemy combatants declarations echo refrain bush asserting outset presidency refrain simple presidential power must unilateral unchecked recent blatant presidential intrusions law constitution supply verse refrain claim unilateral executive power also supply train presidents thinking texture motivations root intentions make clear instance phrase unitary executive code word doctrine favors nearly unlimited executive power bush used doctrine signing statements quietly expand presidential authority column consider meaning unitary executive doctrine within democratic government respects separation powers ask government remain true nature yet also embrace doctrine also consider president legal advisers mean applying unitary executive doctrine argue doctrine violates basic tenets system checks balances quietly crossing longstanding legal moral boundaries essential democratic society president bushs aggressive use presidential signing statements bush used presidential signing statements statements issued president upon signing bill law expand power signing statements says interpret law question manner consistent constitutional authority supervise unitary executive branch presidential signing statements gotten little media attention however highly important documents define president interprets laws signs presidents use statements protects prerogative office ensure control executive branch functions presidents also since reagan used statements create kind alternative legislative history attorney general ed meese explained 1986 make sure presidents understanding whats bill given consideration time statutory construction later court arranged west publishing company presidential statement signing bill accompany legislative history congress available court future construction statute really means alternative legislative history would according dr christopher kelley professor political science miami university oxford ohio contain certain policy principles administration lost negotiations congress supreme court paid close attention presidential signing statements indeed two important decisions chadha bowsher decisions court relied part president signing statements interpreting laws federal courts sources show taken note president bush used presidential signing statements previous president president monroes administration 181725 carter administration 197781 executive branch issued total 75 signing statements protect presidential prerogatives reagans administration clintons total number signing statements ever issued presidents rose total 322 striking contrast predecessors president bush issued least 435 signing statements first term alone statements executive orders bush used term unitary executive 95 times important therefore understand doctrine means administration mean refers unitary executive dr kelley notes unitary executive doctrine arose result twin circumstances vietnam watergate kelley asserts faith trust placed presidency broken result lies vietnam watergate resulted congressional assault presidential prerogatives example consider foreign intelligence surveillance act fisa bush evaded authorizing nsa tap without warrants even issued fisa court fisa enacted fall nixon precise intention curbing unchecked executive branch surveillance indeed nixons improper use domestic surveillance included article 2 paragraph 2 impeachment articles according kelley congressional limits presidency turn led creative people white house department justices office legal counsel olc fight back attempt foil blunt limits view laws legislative attempts strip president rightful powers prominent among movement preserve presidential power champion unitary executive doctrine founding members federalist society nearly worked nixon ford reagan white houses unitary executive doctrine arises theory called departmentalism coordinate construction according legal scholars christopher yoo steven calabresi anthony colangelo coordinate construction approach holds three branches federal government power duty interpret constitution according theory president may indeed must interpret laws equally much courts unitary executive versus judicial supremacy coordinate construction theory counters longstanding notion judicial supremacy articulated supreme court chief justice john marshall 1803 famous case marbury v madison held court final arbiter law marshall famously wrote emphatically province duty judicial department say law course president duty undermine office university miami law professor michael froomkin notes kelley points president bound oath office take care clause preserve protect defend constitution take care laws faithfully executed duties require turn president interpret constitutional least overseeing actions executive agencies however bushs recent actions make clear interprets coordinate construction approach extremely aggressively view view administration doctrine gives license overrule bypass congress courts based interpretations constitution even violates longestablished laws treaties counters recent legislation signed shown recent developments padilla case involves offering federal court contradictory justifications detention form presidential rebellion congress courts possibly violation president bushs oath office well possible oath means president must uphold constitution construes federal courts possible oath means president need uphold laws simply doesnt like even though validly passed congress signed law analyzing bushs disturbing signing statement mccain antitorture bill lets take close look bushs recent signing statement torture bill says executive branch shall construe title x division act relating detainees manner consistent constitutional authority president supervise unitary executive branch commander chief consistent constitutional limitations judicial power assist achieving shared objective congress president evidenced title x protecting american people terrorist attacks signing statement bush asserts authority internally supervise unitary executive branch also power commanderinchief basis interpretation law observers noted allows bush create loophole permit use torture wants clearly bush believes ignore intentions congress statement evinced intent chooses top bush asserts law must consistent constitutional limitations judicial power presidential power bush see constitutional statutory limitations mean bush ignore courts chooses attempted recently padilla case unitary executive doctrine violates separation powers findlaw columnist edward lazarus recently showed president unlimited executive authority even commanderinchief military government purposely created power split three branches concentrated one separation powers simply talisman foundation system james madison wrote federalist papers 47 accumulation powers legislative executive judiciary hands whether one many whether hereditary selfappointed elective may justly pronounced definition tyranny another early american george nicholas eloquently articulated concept power divided one letters effectual guard yet discovered abuse power division happiness constitution contains within sufficient limitation power granted also proper division power constitution affords real security liberty unless considered sacred preserved inviolate security arise actual nominal limitation division power yet seems nominal limitation division power real power concentrated solely unitary executive exactly president bush seeks signing statements make point quite clearly overt refusal follow laws illustrates point bushs view actual limitation division power resides executive thomas paine wrote common sense america law king absolute governments king law free countries law ought king ought unitary executive doctrine conflicts paines principle one fundamental constitutional system bush ignore evade laws law longer king americans need decide whether still country laws need decide whether president determined ignore evade law acted manner contrary trust president subversive constitutional government jennifer van bergen journalist law degree author twilight democracy bush plan america common courage press 2004 writes frequently civil liberties human rights international law book archetypes writers characterization method developed taught new school university 2006 reached jvbxyzearthlinknet article originally appeared findlaws writ 160 | 1,102 |
<p>Unfortunately, there aren’t many insider accounts of closed institutions.</p>
<p>Writer Ted Conover wrote about being a prison guard in “Newjack.” Lawrence Wright wrote about being a reporter for a Saudi Arabian newspaper in the New Yorker. Ernie Fitzgerald wrote about corruption in Pentagon procurement in “The High Priests of Waste.” Neo-vegetarian Howard Lyman wrote about his life as a cattleman in “Mad Cowboy.” Jonathan Harr wrote about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of the country’s biggest environmental lawsuit in “A Civil Action”…</p>
<p>These occasional fascinating accounts offer a glimpse into how closed institutions work, why and how they do what they do — or don’t do what they should do.</p>
<p>Last year Sacramento Bee reporter Gary Delsohn wrote about his year-long experience in the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office in “ <a href="" type="internal">The Prosecutors: A Year In The Life of a District Attorney’s Office</a>.”</p>
<p>Surprisingly, Delsohn got Sacramento County DA Jan Scully to give him a desk in her sprawling offices to observe the operation for an entire year with only two conditions: 1. He couldn’t write about open cases, and 2. He had to clear prosecutor quotes with Scully prior to publication. The second condition wasn’t enforced because Delsohn didn’t use any potentially offending quotes about his near-coworkers.</p>
<p>Although we get lots of real and fictional accounts of the actions of District Attorneys in the popular media, and we may think we know a little about what DAs do, we seldom hear what really goes on behind the DA’s door. Delsohn’s book promised to fill the gap.</p>
<p>But Delsohn fails to deliver.</p>
<p>He spends too much time on trials, and not nearly enough on the inner workings of the prosecutor’s office; focuses only on high-profile murder cases; doesn’t do enough case follow-up, failing to note the nature of any appeals, or of any appellate actions the DA was involved in; spends too much time quoting prosecutors’ on-the-record closing statements and those of victim families; and is very one-sided in his portrayal of the prosecutors as uniformly fine, sympathetic upstanding characters triumphing over the bad guys, detectives’ lapses and defense attorney machinations.</p>
<p>Besides describing some of behind the scenes negotiations in the Symbionese Liberation Army’s 25-year old Emily Harris et al murder case (at a bank in Carmichael, a suburb of Sacramento), the book does at least remind us of some important aspects of the judicial system.</p>
<p>Prosecutors, investigators and cops can and do routinely lie — as do criminals, of course. Lies and personalities have become an important part of a supposedly truth-seeking, impartial justice system. Cops, prosecutors and investigators can say things like, “The other guy already told us all about it.” Or, “We have your fingerprints on the murder weapon.” Or, “We have a witnesses who saw you…” Even when it’s not true.</p>
<p>Enormous amounts of resources are expended in prosecuting obviously guilty people just so that the defendant can take a shot at a lighter sentence. In one case Delsohn relates, more than four years and millions of dollars were used to put away a murdering gang-banger who, along with his teenage associates, killed a defenseless bread store clerk with a sawed off Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun in the commission of a robbery when the gang banger got pissed off because the bread store didn’t have much money when they robbed it. The investigation only required following up on a tip from a former friend of the gang-banger and getting one of his teenage assistants to testify against the shotgun-wielder in exchange for a lighter sentence. The only reason for the (costly) trial was that the murdering scumbag thought he might escape the death penalty. He did.</p>
<p>Standards of prosecution in DA’s offices are very high. In serious crimes, DAs want a well-documented and fully researched case before they go to trial. That’s not easy — it’s one of the reasons plea bargains are so common. Convincing a jury to convict on an initial charge can be much harder and more expensive than convincing a defendant to plead to a lesser charge. Because of the Three Strikes Law and the long sentences nonviolent offenders face under it, many in this category have no real choice but to exercise their right to a jury trial, seriously burdening the judicial system and greatly increasing the cost — even where there’s little question of guilt. Another reason DA’s offices like plea bargains is that cops and investigators routinely screw up, at least in terms of prosecuting the case. They don’t get enough evidence, screw up the crime scene, make procedural errors. They miss opportunities to interrogate suspects before they clam up. And they don’t have to disclose their screw ups to the defense.</p>
<p>Although prosecution standards are high, the criteria for success is relatively low. Prosecutors consider plea bargains and ordinary convictions as successes, even if the resulting sentence looks light to ordinary citizens.</p>
<p>Most alleged perps are pretty stupid. You’d think suspects in serious cases would at least know by now not to show up for interviews with seemingly friendly cops and investigators without a lawyer. Or not to make transparently disprovable statements on tape that make them sound guilty even if they’re not.</p>
<p>Prosecutors have tremendous discretion in how they charge cases — particularly their discretion as to who will face a possible death sentence. Even in death penalty cases, the decision to seek the death penalty can be based on one senior prosecutor’s personal desires.</p>
<p>Most legal work is dull and plodding.</p>
<p>But any ordinary follower of the judicial system who might pick up Delsohn’s book already knows these things.</p>
<p>By telling us mostly what we know using tedious courtroom transcriptions and ignoring the smaller cases, the errors, the personality conflicts, the working conditions, the office politics, the incompetence, etc., Delsohn’s book becomes more of a PR job for the DA. (Which may have been Scully’s intent in the first place.)</p>
<p>But you do have to admire the usually mediaphobic Sacramento DA for even letting Delsohn in. I don’t think our popular local Mendocino DA Norm Vroman, although well-known for his relative openness, would let me spend a year in his office.</p>
<p>MARK SCARAMELLA is the managing editor of the <a href="http://www.theava.com/" type="external">Anderson Valley Advertiser</a>. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:themaj@pacific.net" type="external">themaj@pacific.net</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | unfortunately arent many insider accounts closed institutions writer ted conover wrote prison guard newjack lawrence wright wrote reporter saudi arabian newspaper new yorker ernie fitzgerald wrote corruption pentagon procurement high priests waste neovegetarian howard lyman wrote life cattleman mad cowboy jonathan harr wrote behindthescenes maneuvering countrys biggest environmental lawsuit civil action occasional fascinating accounts offer glimpse closed institutions work dont last year sacramento bee reporter gary delsohn wrote yearlong experience sacramento county district attorneys office prosecutors year life district attorneys office surprisingly delsohn got sacramento county da jan scully give desk sprawling offices observe operation entire year two conditions 1 couldnt write open cases 2 clear prosecutor quotes scully prior publication second condition wasnt enforced delsohn didnt use potentially offending quotes nearcoworkers although get lots real fictional accounts actions district attorneys popular media may think know little das seldom hear really goes behind das door delsohns book promised fill gap delsohn fails deliver spends much time trials nearly enough inner workings prosecutors office focuses highprofile murder cases doesnt enough case followup failing note nature appeals appellate actions da involved spends much time quoting prosecutors ontherecord closing statements victim families onesided portrayal prosecutors uniformly fine sympathetic upstanding characters triumphing bad guys detectives lapses defense attorney machinations besides describing behind scenes negotiations symbionese liberation armys 25year old emily harris et al murder case bank carmichael suburb sacramento book least remind us important aspects judicial system prosecutors investigators cops routinely lie criminals course lies personalities become important part supposedly truthseeking impartial justice system cops prosecutors investigators say things like guy already told us fingerprints murder weapon witnesses saw even true enormous amounts resources expended prosecuting obviously guilty people defendant take shot lighter sentence one case delsohn relates four years millions dollars used put away murdering gangbanger along teenage associates killed defenseless bread store clerk sawed mossberg 12gauge shotgun commission robbery gang banger got pissed bread store didnt much money robbed investigation required following tip former friend gangbanger getting one teenage assistants testify shotgunwielder exchange lighter sentence reason costly trial murdering scumbag thought might escape death penalty standards prosecution das offices high serious crimes das want welldocumented fully researched case go trial thats easy one reasons plea bargains common convincing jury convict initial charge much harder expensive convincing defendant plead lesser charge three strikes law long sentences nonviolent offenders face many category real choice exercise right jury trial seriously burdening judicial system greatly increasing cost even theres little question guilt another reason das offices like plea bargains cops investigators routinely screw least terms prosecuting case dont get enough evidence screw crime scene make procedural errors miss opportunities interrogate suspects clam dont disclose screw ups defense although prosecution standards high criteria success relatively low prosecutors consider plea bargains ordinary convictions successes even resulting sentence looks light ordinary citizens alleged perps pretty stupid youd think suspects serious cases would least know show interviews seemingly friendly cops investigators without lawyer make transparently disprovable statements tape make sound guilty even theyre prosecutors tremendous discretion charge cases particularly discretion face possible death sentence even death penalty cases decision seek death penalty based one senior prosecutors personal desires legal work dull plodding ordinary follower judicial system might pick delsohns book already knows things telling us mostly know using tedious courtroom transcriptions ignoring smaller cases errors personality conflicts working conditions office politics incompetence etc delsohns book becomes pr job da may scullys intent first place admire usually mediaphobic sacramento da even letting delsohn dont think popular local mendocino da norm vroman although wellknown relative openness would let spend year office mark scaramella managing editor anderson valley advertiser reached themajpacificnet 160 | 599 |
<p>If It Weren’t for Those Meddling Iranians</p>
<p>“This demonstrates the ever pernicious Iranian meddling in other countries in the region.”</p>
<p>—unnamed U.S. official complaining to Reuters ( <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/29/yemen-weapons-iran-idUSL1N0AY0AI20130129" type="external">1/28/13</a>) about Iran allegedly sending arms to Yemen, where the U.S. is conducting a secret drone war</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Extreme Weather, Unexplained</p>
<p>NBC Nightly News (1/13/13) asked a serious question, then offered an unserious answer. Anchor Lester Holt remarked: “Strange winter: Why it is so cold where it should be warm, and so warm where it should be cold. What is going on with all this extreme weather?” Correspondent Kristen Dahlgren turned to the Weather Channel’s Greg Postel, who explained that there was “a very strong dip in the jet stream [that] has placed itself over the western part of the country, and that’s allowed some very cold air from Canada to move southward.”</p>
<p>NBC could have gone on to explain, as the blog ClimateSight ( <a href="http://climatesight.org/2012/12/19/climate-change-and-the-jet-stream/" type="external">12/19/12</a>) did, that disruptions in the jet stream’s path are linked to climate change. It cited a study (Geophysical Research Letters, 3/12) finding “that Arctic amplification—the faster rate at which the Arctic warms, compared to the rest of the world—makes the jet stream slower and wavier”—increasing the chances of long-lasting cold or hot spells.</p>
<p>But NBC didn’t mention climate change at all in its discussion of extreme weather. Instead, Dahlgren concluded, “Talk about upside-down weather.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Secondhand Smear</p>
<p>The New York Post, which has a history of baselessly smearing Occupy Wall Street (FAIR Blog, <a href="" type="internal">7/12/12</a>), is at it again (12/31/12), describing a man arrested for allegedly having a weapons cache in his Manhattan apartment as a “Harvard grad and Occupy Wall Street activist.” No one associated with Occupy seems to ever have heard of Aaron Greene, but that didn’t stop CBS This Morning (1/2/13) from reporting the unsourced allegation: “The New York Post reported Greene was a member of the Occupy Wall Street movement, but the group has denied this.”</p>
<p>That was followed by a soundbite from former NYPD intelligence director Mitchell Silber, who spun out this scenario:</p>
<p>The assumption is that the vast majority of the people there were peaceful protesters, but there was a more radical fringe element to the group, and there was a concern that at some point they might turn to violence if they weren’t accomplishing their political aims.</p>
<p>Thus an unsubstantiated claim by a partisan news outlet becomes an opportunity for fact-free fantasies about the violent tendencies of a peaceful protest movement.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Suspect Success Story</p>
<p>“The most troubled nations, including Spain, have slashed wage costs and overhauled labor and social rules in an effort to become more competitive,” wrote the Washington Post’s Howard Schneider ( <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-15/business/36384398_1_euro-zone-president-francois-hollande-steel-plant" type="external">1/16/13</a>), in a report on Eurozone economic policies. “There is mounting pressure on France to do the same—or risk falling behind in Europe’s struggle for economic revival.”</p>
<p>France’s economy is not doing 
particularly well; it’s got an unemployment rate of 9.8 percent and had estimated GDP growth of just 0.1 percent last year, according to the 
CIA World Factbook. But Spain is doing far worse, with 24.9 percent unemployment and negative 1.5 
percent growth last year.</p>
<p>Who, then, would hold up Spain as model for France? Only someone, like Schneider, who objected ideologically to the fact that “France’s socialist government raised taxes on the wealthy and threatened to nationalize a steel plant last year.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Rapidly Rising Wreckage</p>
<p>The Washington Post editorial page ( <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/venezuelas-endgame-approaches/2013/01/05/bd36fde0-56a2-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_print.html" type="external">1/5/13</a>) took a swipe at the gravely ill 
Hugo Chávez: “Venezuelans are bracing themselves for the death of the caudillo who has ruled them—and wrecked their once-prosperous country—over the past 13 years.” The Post has <a href="" type="internal">never let facts</a> stand in the way of their hatred of Chávez, but readers should be aware that Venezuela’s per capita GDP has risen 59 percent since he was first elected in 1999.</p>
<p>As economist Mark Weisbrot (NYTimes.com, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/01/03/venezuela-post-chavez/venezuelans-will-vote-with-their-wallets" type="external">1/4/13</a>) explained, Chávez and his party are popular “mainly because they greatly improved the living standards of the majority of voters…. Since 2004, after the economy recovered from the devastating opposition oil strike, poverty has been cut by half and extreme poverty by more than 70 percent.”</p>
<p>The New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson ( <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/services/presscenter/2013/01/28/130128pr_press_releases" type="external">1/28/13</a>) had a take similar to the Post’s, describing Venezuelans as “the victims of their affection for a charismatic man, whom they allowed to become the central character on the Venezuelan stage, at the expense of everything else.” “Everything” apparently doesn’t include a rapidly rising standard of living.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Occupiers? We Meant Homemakers</p>
<p>When demonstrators set up tents to protest Israeli plans to build new colonies on Palestinian land, the New York Times (1/12/13) at first reported it with an accurate headline: “Palestinians Set Up Camp in Israeli-Occupied West Bank Territory.”</p>
<p>Too accurate, apparently, because at some point the paper changed the headline to give Israel’s action a warmer and fuzzier spin: “Palestinians Set Up Tents Where Israel Plans Homes.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>And Now, a Word From Our Subject</p>
<p>PBS’s Nova ( <a href="http://video.pbs.org/video/2326108547/" type="external">1/23/13</a>) aired an episode called “Rise of the Drones”—a mostly upbeat look at “the amazing technologies that make drones so powerful” and are surveillance “propelling us toward a new chapter in aviation history.” What viewers weren’t told was that one of the corporations that helped fund the broadcast, aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, is also a major manufacturer of drones used in warfare and surveillance, including the Desert Hawk, the Fury and the Stalker. That drone captured by Iran that Nova discussed? That was one of Lockheed’s.</p>
<p>PBS supposedly has a clear rule against this sort of thing: “When there exists a clear and direct connection between the interests or products or services of a proposed funder and the subject matter of the program, the proposed funding will be deemed unacceptable.” But when it comes to taking money from corporations with an interest in programming, rules at PBS were made to be broken (FAIR Action Alert, <a href="" type="internal">7/12/10</a>).</p> | true | 4 | werent meddling iranians demonstrates ever pernicious iranian meddling countries region unnamed us official complaining reuters 12813 iran allegedly sending arms yemen us conducting secret drone war 160 extreme weather unexplained nbc nightly news 11313 asked serious question offered unserious answer anchor lester holt remarked strange winter cold warm warm cold going extreme weather correspondent kristen dahlgren turned weather channels greg postel explained strong dip jet stream placed western part country thats allowed cold air canada move southward nbc could gone explain blog climatesight 121912 disruptions jet streams path linked climate change cited study geophysical research letters 312 finding arctic amplificationthe faster rate arctic warms compared rest worldmakes jet stream slower wavierincreasing chances longlasting cold hot spells nbc didnt mention climate change discussion extreme weather instead dahlgren concluded talk upsidedown weather 160 secondhand smear new york post history baselessly smearing occupy wall street fair blog 71212 123112 describing man arrested allegedly weapons cache manhattan apartment harvard grad occupy wall street activist one associated occupy seems ever heard aaron greene didnt stop cbs morning 1213 reporting unsourced allegation new york post reported greene member occupy wall street movement group denied followed soundbite former nypd intelligence director mitchell silber spun scenario assumption vast majority people peaceful protesters radical fringe element group concern point might turn violence werent accomplishing political aims thus unsubstantiated claim partisan news outlet becomes opportunity factfree fantasies violent tendencies peaceful protest movement 160 suspect success story troubled nations including spain slashed wage costs overhauled labor social rules effort become competitive wrote washington posts howard schneider 11613 report eurozone economic policies mounting pressure france sameor risk falling behind europes struggle economic revival frances economy particularly well got unemployment rate 98 percent estimated gdp growth 01 percent last year according cia world factbook spain far worse 249 percent unemployment negative 15 percent growth last year would hold spain model france someone like schneider objected ideologically fact frances socialist government raised taxes wealthy threatened nationalize steel plant last year 160 rapidly rising wreckage washington post editorial page 1513 took swipe gravely ill hugo chávez venezuelans bracing death caudillo ruled themand wrecked onceprosperous countryover past 13 years post never let facts stand way hatred chávez readers aware venezuelas per capita gdp risen 59 percent since first elected 1999 economist mark weisbrot nytimescom 1413 explained chávez party popular mainly greatly improved living standards majority voters since 2004 economy recovered devastating opposition oil strike poverty cut half extreme poverty 70 percent new yorkers jon lee anderson 12813 take similar posts describing venezuelans victims affection charismatic man allowed become central character venezuelan stage expense everything else everything apparently doesnt include rapidly rising standard living 160 occupiers meant homemakers demonstrators set tents protest israeli plans build new colonies palestinian land new york times 11213 first reported accurate headline palestinians set camp israelioccupied west bank territory accurate apparently point paper changed headline give israels action warmer fuzzier spin palestinians set tents israel plans homes 160 word subject pbss nova 12313 aired episode called rise dronesa mostly upbeat look amazing technologies make drones powerful surveillance propelling us toward new chapter aviation history viewers werent told one corporations helped fund broadcast aerospace giant lockheed martin also major manufacturer drones used warfare surveillance including desert hawk fury stalker drone captured iran nova discussed one lockheeds pbs supposedly clear rule sort thing exists clear direct connection interests products services proposed funder subject matter program proposed funding deemed unacceptable comes taking money corporations interest programming rules pbs made broken fair action alert 71210 | 579 |
<p>Many people now believe that the financial crisis was not an accident. They think that the Bush administration and the Fed knew what Wall Street was up to and provided their support. This isn’t as far fetched as it sounds. As we will show, it’s clear that Bush, Greenspan and many other high-ranking officials understood the problem with subprime mortgages and knew that a huge asset bubble was emerging that threatened the economy. But while the housing bubble was more than just an innocent mistake, it doesn’t rise to the level of “conspiracy” which Webster defines as&#160; “a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act.”&#160; It’s actually worse than that, because bubblemaking is the dominant policy, and it’s used to overcome structural problems in capitalism itself, mainly stagnation.</p>
<p>The whole idea of a conspiracy diverts attention from what really happened. It conjures up a comical vision of&#160; top-hat business tycoons gathered in a smoke-filled room stealthily mapping out the country’s future. It ignores the fact, that the main stakeholders don’t need to convene a meeting to know what they want. They already know what they want; they want a process that helps them to maintain profitability even while the “real” economy remains stuck in the mud.&#160; Historian Robert Brenner has written extensively on this topic and dispels the mistaken view that the economy is “fundamentally strong”. (in the words of former Treasury secretary Henry Paulson)&#160; Here’s Brenner :</p>
<p>“The current crisis is more serious than the worst previous recession of the postwar period, between 1979 and 1982, and could conceivably come to rival the Great Depression, though there is no way of really knowing. Economic forecasters have underestimated how bad it is because they have over-estimated the strength of the real economy and failed to take into account the extent of its dependence upon a buildup of debt that relied on asset price bubbles.</p>
<p>“In the U.S., during the recent business cycle of the years 2001-2007, GDP growth was by far the slowest of the postwar epoch. There was no increase in private sector employment. The increase in plants and equipment was about a third of the previous, a postwar low. Real wages were basically flat. There was no increase in median family income for the first time since World War II. Economic growth was driven entirely by personal consumption and residential investment, made possible by easy credit and rising house prices. Economic performance was weak, even despite the enormous stimulus from the housing bubble and the Bush administration’s huge federal deficits. Housing by itself accounted for almost one-third of the growth of GDP and close to half of the increase in employment in the years 2001-2005. It was, therefore, to be expected that when the housing bubble burst, consumption and residential investment would fall, and the economy would plunge. ” (“Overproduction not Financial Collapse is the Heart of the Crisis”, Robert P. Brenner speaks with Jeong Seong-jin, Asia Pacific Journal)</p>
<p>What Brenner describes is an economy \that–despite unfunded tax cuts, massive military spending and gigantic asset bubbles–can barely produce positive growth.&#160; The pervasive lethargy of mature capitalist economies poses huge challenges for industry bosses who are judged solely on their ability to boost quarterly profits. Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein and JPM’s Jamie Dimon could care less about economic theory, what they’re interested in is making money; how to deploy their capital in a way that maximizes return on investment. “Profits”, that’s it.&#160; And that’s much more difficult in a world that’s beset by overcapacity and flagging demand.&#160; The world doesn’t need more widgets or widget-makers. The only way to ensure profitability is to invent an alternate system altogether, a new universe of financial exotica (CDOs, MBSs, CDSs) that operates independent of the sluggish real economy. Financialization provides that opportunity. It allows the main players to pump-up the leverage, minimize capital-outlay, inflate asset prices, and skim off record profits even while the real&#160; economy endures severe stagnation.</p>
<p>Financialization provides a&#160; path to wealth creation, which is why the sector’s portion of total corporate profits is now nearly 40 per cent. It’s a way to bypass the pervasive inertia of the production-oriented economy. The Fed’s role in this new paradigm is to create a hospitable environment (low interest rates) for bubble-making so the upward transfer of wealth can continue without interruption. Bubblemaking is policy.</p>
<p>As we’ve pointed out in earlier articles, scores of people knew what was going on during the subprime fiasco. But it’s worth a quick review, because Robert Rubin, Alan Greenspan, Timothy Geithner, and others have been defending themselves saying, “Who could have known?”.</p>
<p>The FBI knew (“In September 2004, the FBI began publicly warning that there was an “epidemic” of mortgage fraud, and it predicted that it would produce an economic crisis, if it were not dealt with.”) The FDIC knew. ( In testimony before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, FDIC chairman Sheila Bair confirmed that she not only warned the Fed of what was going on in 2001, but cited particular regulations (HOEPA) under which the Fed could stop the “unfair, abusive and deceptive practices” by the banks.) Also Fitch ratings knew, and even Alan Greenspan’s good friend and former Fed governor Ed Gramlich knew. (Gramlich personally warned Greenspan of the surge in predatory lending that was apparent as early as 2000. Here’s a bit of what Gramlich said in the Wall Street Journal:</p>
<p>“I would have liked the Fed to be a leader” in cracking down on predatory lending, Mr. Gramlich, now a scholar at the Urban Institute, said in an interview this past week. Knowing it would be controversial with Mr. Greenspan, whose deregulatory philosophy is well known, Mr. Gramlich broached it to him personally rather than take it to the full board. “He was opposed to it, so I didn’t really pursue it,” says Mr. Gramlich. (Wall Street Journal)</p>
<p>So, Greenspan knew, too. And, according to Elizabeth MacDonald&#160; in an article titled “Housing Red flags Ignored”:</p>
<p>“One of the nation’s biggest mortgage industry players repeatedly warned the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other bank regulators during the housing bubble that the U.S. faced an imminent housing crash….But bank regulators not only ignored the group’s warnings, top Fed officials also went on the airwaves to say the economy was “building on a sturdy foundation” and a housing crash was “unlikely.”</p>
<p>So, the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America [MICA] also knew. And, here’s a clip from the Washington Post by former New York governor Eliot Spitzer who accused Bush of being a ‘partner in crime’ in the subprime fiasco. Spitzer says that the OCC launched “an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general just to make sure the looting would continue without interruption. Here’s an except from Spitzer’s article:</p>
<p>“In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis….the OCC promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government’s actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules. (Washington Post)</p>
<p>So, the Fed knew, the Treasury knew, the FBI knew, the OCC knew, the FDIC knew, Bush knew, the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America knew, Fitch ratings knew, all the states Attorneys General knew, and thousands, of traders, lenders, ratings agency executives, bankers, hedge fund managers, private equity bosses, regulators knew. Everyone knew, except the unlucky people who were victimized in the biggest looting operation of all time.</p>
<p>Once again, looking for conspiracy, just diverts attention from the nature of the crime itself. Here’s a statement from former regulator and white collar criminologist William K. Black which helps to clarify the point:</p>
<p>“Fraudulent lenders produce exceptional short-term ‘profits’ through a four-part strategy: extreme growth (Ponzi), lending to uncreditworthy borrowers, extreme leverage, and minimal loss reserves. These exceptional ‘profits’ defeat regulatory restrictions and turn private market discipline perverse. The profits also allow the CEO to convert firm assets for personal benefit through seemingly normal compensation mechanisms. The short-term profits cause stock options to appreciate. Fraudulent CEOs following this strategy are guaranteed extraordinary income while minimizing risks of detection and prosecution.” (William K. Black, “Epidemics of’Control Fraud’ Lead to Recurrent, Intensifying Bubbles andCrises”, University of Missouri at Kansas City – School of Law)</p>
<p>Black’s definition of “control fraud” comes very close to describing what really took place during the subprime mortgage frenzy. The investment banks and other financial institutions bulked up on garbage loans and complex securities backed by dodgy mortgages so they could increase leverage and rake off large bonuses for themselves. Clearly, they knew the underlying collateral was junk, just as they knew that eventually the market would crash and millions of people would suffer.</p>
<p>But, while it’s true that Greenspan and Wall Street knew how the bubble-game was played; they had no intention of blowing up the whole system. They simply wanted to inflate the bubble, make their profits, and get out before the inevitable crash.&#160; But, then something went wrong. When Lehman collapsed, the entire financial system suffered a major heart attack. All of the so-called “experts” models turned out to be wrong.</p>
<p>Here’s what happened: Before to the meltdown, the depository “regulated” banks got their funding through the repo market by exchanging collateral (mainly mortgage-backed securities) for short-term loans with the so-called “shadow banks” (investment banks, hedge funds, insurers) But after Lehman defaulted, the funding stream was severely impaired because the prices on mortgage-backed securities kept falling. When the bank-funding system went on the fritz,&#160; stocks went into a nosedive sending panicky investors fleeing for the exits. As unbelievable as it sounds, no one saw this coming.</p>
<p>The reason that no one anticipated a run on the shadow banking system is because the basic architecture of the financial markets has changed dramatically in the last decade due to deregulation. The fundamental structure is different and the traditional stopgaps have been removed. That’s why no one knew what to do during the panic. The general assumption was that there would be a one-to-one relationship between defaulting subprime mortgages and defaulting mortgage-backed securities (MBS). That turned out to be a grave miscalculation. The subprimes were only failing at roughly 8 percent rate when the whole secondary market collapsed. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill explained it best using a clever analogy. He said, “It’s like you have 8 bottles of water and just one of them has arsenic in it. It becomes impossible to sell any of the other bottles because no one knows which one contains the poison.”</p>
<p>And that’s exactly what happened. The market for structured debt crashed, stocks began to plummet, and the Fed had to step in to save the system. Unfortunately, that same deeply-flawed system is being rebuilt brick by brick without any substantive changes.. The Fed and Treasury support this effort, because–as agents of the banks–they are willing to sacrifice their own credibility to defend the primary profit-generating instruments of the industry leaders. (Goldman, JPM, etc) That means that Bernanke and Geithner will go to the mat to oppose any additional regulation on derivatives, securitization and off-balance sheet operations, the same lethal devices that triggered the financial crisis.</p>
<p>So, there was no conspiracy to blow up the financial system, but there is an implicit understanding that the Fed will serve the interests of Wall Street by facilitating asset bubbles through “accommodative” monetary policy and by opposing regulation. It’s just “business as usual”, but it’s far more damaging than any conspiracy, because it ensures that the economy will continue to stagnate, that inequality will continue to grow, and that the gigantic upward transfer of wealth will continue without pause.</p>
<p>MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:fergiewhitney@msn.com" type="external">fergiewhitney@msn.com</a></p>
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<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
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<p />
<p /> | true | 4 | many people believe financial crisis accident think bush administration fed knew wall street provided support isnt far fetched sounds show clear bush greenspan many highranking officials understood problem subprime mortgages knew huge asset bubble emerging threatened economy housing bubble innocent mistake doesnt rise level conspiracy webster defines as160 secret agreement two people perform unlawful act160 actually worse bubblemaking dominant policy used overcome structural problems capitalism mainly stagnation whole idea conspiracy diverts attention really happened conjures comical vision of160 tophat business tycoons gathered smokefilled room stealthily mapping countrys future ignores fact main stakeholders dont need convene meeting know want already know want want process helps maintain profitability even real economy remains stuck mud160 historian robert brenner written extensively topic dispels mistaken view economy fundamentally strong words former treasury secretary henry paulson160 heres brenner current crisis serious worst previous recession postwar period 1979 1982 could conceivably come rival great depression though way really knowing economic forecasters underestimated bad overestimated strength real economy failed take account extent dependence upon buildup debt relied asset price bubbles us recent business cycle years 20012007 gdp growth far slowest postwar epoch increase private sector employment increase plants equipment third previous postwar low real wages basically flat increase median family income first time since world war ii economic growth driven entirely personal consumption residential investment made possible easy credit rising house prices economic performance weak even despite enormous stimulus housing bubble bush administrations huge federal deficits housing accounted almost onethird growth gdp close half increase employment years 20012005 therefore expected housing bubble burst consumption residential investment would fall economy would plunge overproduction financial collapse heart crisis robert p brenner speaks jeong seongjin asia pacific journal brenner describes economy thatdespite unfunded tax cuts massive military spending gigantic asset bubblescan barely produce positive growth160 pervasive lethargy mature capitalist economies poses huge challenges industry bosses judged solely ability boost quarterly profits goldmans lloyd blankfein jpms jamie dimon could care less economic theory theyre interested making money deploy capital way maximizes return investment profits thats it160 thats much difficult world thats beset overcapacity flagging demand160 world doesnt need widgets widgetmakers way ensure profitability invent alternate system altogether new universe financial exotica cdos mbss cdss operates independent sluggish real economy financialization provides opportunity allows main players pumpup leverage minimize capitaloutlay inflate asset prices skim record profits even real160 economy endures severe stagnation financialization provides a160 path wealth creation sectors portion total corporate profits nearly 40 per cent way bypass pervasive inertia productionoriented economy feds role new paradigm create hospitable environment low interest rates bubblemaking upward transfer wealth continue without interruption bubblemaking policy weve pointed earlier articles scores people knew going subprime fiasco worth quick review robert rubin alan greenspan timothy geithner others defending saying could known fbi knew september 2004 fbi began publicly warning epidemic mortgage fraud predicted would produce economic crisis dealt fdic knew testimony financial crisis inquiry commission fdic chairman sheila bair confirmed warned fed going 2001 cited particular regulations hoepa fed could stop unfair abusive deceptive practices banks also fitch ratings knew even alan greenspans good friend former fed governor ed gramlich knew gramlich personally warned greenspan surge predatory lending apparent early 2000 heres bit gramlich said wall street journal would liked fed leader cracking predatory lending mr gramlich scholar urban institute said interview past week knowing would controversial mr greenspan whose deregulatory philosophy well known mr gramlich broached personally rather take full board opposed didnt really pursue says mr gramlich wall street journal greenspan knew according elizabeth macdonald160 article titled housing red flags ignored one nations biggest mortgage industry players repeatedly warned federal reserve federal deposit insurance corp bank regulators housing bubble us faced imminent housing crashbut bank regulators ignored groups warnings top fed officials also went airwaves say economy building sturdy foundation housing crash unlikely mortgage insurance companies america mica also knew heres clip washington post former new york governor eliot spitzer accused bush partner crime subprime fiasco spitzer says occ launched unprecedented assault state legislatures well state attorneys general make sure looting would continue without interruption heres except spitzers article 2003 height predatory lending crisisthe occ promulgated new rules prevented states enforcing consumer protection laws national banks federal governments actions egregious unprecedented 50 state attorneys general 50 state banking superintendents actively fought new rules washington post fed knew treasury knew fbi knew occ knew fdic knew bush knew mortgage insurance companies america knew fitch ratings knew states attorneys general knew thousands traders lenders ratings agency executives bankers hedge fund managers private equity bosses regulators knew everyone knew except unlucky people victimized biggest looting operation time looking conspiracy diverts attention nature crime heres statement former regulator white collar criminologist william k black helps clarify point fraudulent lenders produce exceptional shortterm profits fourpart strategy extreme growth ponzi lending uncreditworthy borrowers extreme leverage minimal loss reserves exceptional profits defeat regulatory restrictions turn private market discipline perverse profits also allow ceo convert firm assets personal benefit seemingly normal compensation mechanisms shortterm profits cause stock options appreciate fraudulent ceos following strategy guaranteed extraordinary income minimizing risks detection prosecution william k black epidemics ofcontrol fraud lead recurrent intensifying bubbles andcrises university missouri kansas city school law blacks definition control fraud comes close describing really took place subprime mortgage frenzy investment banks financial institutions bulked garbage loans complex securities backed dodgy mortgages could increase leverage rake large bonuses clearly knew underlying collateral junk knew eventually market would crash millions people would suffer true greenspan wall street knew bubblegame played intention blowing whole system simply wanted inflate bubble make profits get inevitable crash160 something went wrong lehman collapsed entire financial system suffered major heart attack socalled experts models turned wrong heres happened meltdown depository regulated banks got funding repo market exchanging collateral mainly mortgagebacked securities shortterm loans socalled shadow banks investment banks hedge funds insurers lehman defaulted funding stream severely impaired prices mortgagebacked securities kept falling bankfunding system went fritz160 stocks went nosedive sending panicky investors fleeing exits unbelievable sounds one saw coming reason one anticipated run shadow banking system basic architecture financial markets changed dramatically last decade due deregulation fundamental structure different traditional stopgaps removed thats one knew panic general assumption would onetoone relationship defaulting subprime mortgages defaulting mortgagebacked securities mbs turned grave miscalculation subprimes failing roughly 8 percent rate whole secondary market collapsed former treasury secretary paul oneill explained best using clever analogy said like 8 bottles water one arsenic becomes impossible sell bottles one knows one contains poison thats exactly happened market structured debt crashed stocks began plummet fed step save system unfortunately deeplyflawed system rebuilt brick brick without substantive changes fed treasury support effort becauseas agents banksthey willing sacrifice credibility defend primary profitgenerating instruments industry leaders goldman jpm etc means bernanke geithner go mat oppose additional regulation derivatives securitization offbalance sheet operations lethal devices triggered financial crisis conspiracy blow financial system implicit understanding fed serve interests wall street facilitating asset bubbles accommodative monetary policy opposing regulation business usual far damaging conspiracy ensures economy continue stagnate inequality continue grow gigantic upward transfer wealth continue without pause mike whitney lives washington state reached fergiewhitneymsncom words stick 160 | 1,174 |
<p>Unless the Obama administration succeeds in making Mahmoud Abbas an offer he can’t refuse – or even if it does, but events spin out of control – the UN General Assembly will soon vote to accord UN membership to a soon-to-be-declared state of Palestine.&#160;&#160;Because the US, and probably also Britain and France, will veto the measure in the Security Council, what happens in the General Assembly will be largely symbolic – a gesture through which the majority of the worlds’ people, including many in the West, express solidarity with the Palestinian national movement.&#160;&#160;Wh the US backing Israel to the hilt, Palestine will still be far from becoming a full-fledged state.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, what happens in the UN could be a game changer.&#160;&#160;&#160;In conjunction with the rise of democratic movements throughout the region, the collapse of Israel’s alliances with Turkey and Egypt, the growth of the boycott-divestment-sanctions movement in the West, and the emergence, in Israel itself, of its own version of the Arab spring, there is a sense abroad, and in Israel, that the times they are a changin’ – and not in ways likely to comfort friends of the status quo.</p>
<p>Therefore expect a fresh wave of hysteria and, along with it, a spate of declarations about how Israel confronts an “existential threat.”</p>
<p>That expression entered the political lexicon only recently, thanks mainly to Israeli “public diplomacy.”&#160;&#160;It sounds portentous, but all it means literally is that someone’s or something’s existence is in jeopardy.&#160;&#160;If so, the world is full of existential threats.&#160;&#160;But the expression is seldom used except in reference to Israel, and its actual deployment has very little to do with whether the threat is serious or even real.</p>
<p>This is the sense in which Iran’s still aspirational nuclear weapons program or Iran <a href="" type="internal" /> itself are existential threats, along with Palestinian “terrorism.”&#160;&#160;&#160;An existential threat makes an excellent&#160;casus belli, a justification for war.</p>
<p>It can at least be argued, however fatuously, that there is a need for Israel to defend itself against violence perpetrated by a “rogue state” or terrorists bent on its destruction.&#160;&#160;But it is hard for anyone, especially apologists for Israel, to make a similar case for the existential threat that lies immediately ahead.&#160;&#160;It is, after all, one of the United Nations’ long established roles under international law to confer legitimacy upon fledgling states, and it was upon just such a vote as the one that will welcome Palestine into the community of nations that the nascent state of Israel relied to secure its own legitimacy sixty-three years ago.</p>
<p>What is likely to happen in the General Assembly will trouble defenders of the status quo and embarrass Israeli government officials, persons not easily given to embarrassment.&#160;&#160;It is also sure to ratchet up Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.&#160;&#160;A third Intifada could erupt.&#160;&#160;Needless to say, the Israeli juggernaut is more than adequate to defend against any conceivable military challenge emanating from Palestinian quarters.&#160;&#160;But it will take some doing, on Israel’s part (and on the part of Palestinian factions that function unintentionally, but objectively, as Israel’s partners in keeping the status quo in place) for the struggle ahead to take a military turn.&#160;&#160;What the Israeli government and its friends fear is that, this time around, a new uprising will carry enough moral weight to influence public opinion to such an extent that Europe will be lost and that even America’s blank check will be at least partially withdrawn.</p>
<p>If so, defenders of the status quo are right to be concerned – for the status quo.&#160;&#160;But does this constitute an existential threat?&#160;&#160;&#160;It is hard to say because it has never been clear what is supposed to be threatened by the existential threats Israel purports to confront: is it its existence as a state not of its citizens, but of the Jewish people?&#160;&#160;Is it the physical existence of the inhabitants of that state?&#160;&#160;Those who promote the expression relish its ambiguity.&#160;&#160;It serves their purpose well.</p>
<p>In reality, of course, there is nothing in the offing that rises to the level of an existential threat in any plausible sense of the term.&#160;&#160;There never has been.</p>
<p>Up to this point, the conventional wisdom was that the main existential threat facing Israel comes from the Iranian nuclear program.&#160;&#160;But this is plainly nonsense.&#160;&#160;&#160;Even were Iran to succeed in building a nuclear device – an unlikely prospect in the short term, since, according to all available evidence, they are trying only to build the capacity, not the weapon itself – they would have to be suicidal to use nuclear weapons for any purpose other than deterrence.&#160;&#160;&#160;Israel, after all, is among the most bellicose states in the world; and in addition to being otherwise armed to the teeth, it has more than two hundred of its own “deterrents” at the ready.&#160;&#160;Does anyone think that, if threatened, Israel’s leaders would be sane enough not to use them?</p>
<p>It is well to keep this in mind as Israel seeks permission from its American protector to attack Iran.&#160;&#160;Everyone who is not a neocon, and especially everyone in the military, knows full well that an Israel-Iran war would harm American interests; it would be so detrimental that it is hard to see how even a subservient Congress and administration would permit it.&#160;&#160;This is why Israeli hawks are by now finding it pointless to depict Iran as an existential threat; why, for the most part, they have moved on.</p>
<p>The Palestine question is more complicated – and the fact that, in this case, the United States is sure to do all that it can to see that Israel’s government gets its way is part of the reason.&#160;&#160;&#160;From a moral point of view, the American position is reprehensible.&#160;&#160;It is also self-defeating because it makes a “two state solution,” indispensable if there is to be any enduring Jewish state at all, all but impossible to achieve.&#160;&#160;What Israelis call “the demographic bomb” will see to that; given differential birthrates, there is no way that a Jewish majority can be maintained throughout all of mandate Palestine.&#160;&#160;Many Israelis know this.&#160;&#160;But they are nowadays as politically impotent in their own country as the Democratic “base” is in ours.</p>
<p>The general contours of a negotiated settlement, acceptable to all who believe in a two state solution, have been clear for decades.&#160;&#160;The details were spelled out at Taba in January 2001 during the final days of the Clinton administration.&#160;&#160;&#160;In the ensuing years, Israel has created more “facts on the ground” and, thanks in part to Israeli and American connivance, the Palestinian Authority has been severely weakened.&#160;&#160;But it would not require Solomonic wisdom to bring Taba up to date.&#160;&#160;Even Hillary Clinton could do it.</p>
<p>However, it will take a real game changer for anything like that to happen.&#160;&#160;Because Israel holds almost all the cards while the Palestinian Authority holds almost none, the way forward – so long as the United States remains useless – is to change the legal parameters under which the Palestinian movement operates.&#160;&#160;&#160;As matters now stand, it is clear that Israel won’t agree to live alongside a viable Palestinian state; officially autonomous Bantustans are as far as it will go.&#160;&#160;This is so not just because many Israelis harbor hopes for a Greater Israel or because the Israeli political class is effectively owned by a religiously driven settler movement.&#160;&#160;The more important reason is that if there were a just peace, Israel’s reason for being a state of the Jewish people, and therefore its hold over “diaspora” Jews and even over its own population, would diminish, not abruptly but inexorably.</p>
<p>Leaders of the Israeli political and military establishment understand this.&#160;&#160;&#160;It is why they conjure up existential threats and why, regardless what they say, they have repeatedly drawn back from making peace with the Palestinians.&#160;&#160;And it is why they fear what the General Assembly of the United Nations is about to do.</p>
<p>&#160;* &#160; * &#160;*</p>
<p>The animating principle of the Zionist movement from the 1890s on has been that Jews need a state to serve as a refuge in a world in which anti-Semitism is a force of nature.&#160;&#160;That thought never gained traction before the Nazis took power in Germany, and even then it was resisted by secular Jews committed to universalist ideologies and also, for theological and philosophical reasons, by Orthodox and Reform Jews.&#160;&#160;In time, universalist ideologies faded and Zionism hijacked Judaism.&#160;&#160;Meanwhile, as Jewish assimilation has proceeded at full throttle in the United States and other Western countries, and with anti-Semitism no longer much of a concern, Israeli nationalism has all but monopolized Jewish identity politics in the West.</p>
<p>Because Judaism, shorn of the Zionist shell that has been imposed upon it, is a non-starter for most Jews today, and because inter-marriage is so prevalent, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a sense of Jewish identity on religious or ethnic grounds.&#160;&#160;That leaves only Israel.&#160;&#160;And as Israeli society sheds its historical ties to secularism and socialism, Israel has become hard to love or even to admire.&#160;&#160;No wonder that so few diaspora Jews would even think of living there or that so many Israelis live abroad.</p>
<p>There is, of course, still the memory of the Nazi Judeocide, and Zionists exploit it for all it is worth.&#160;&#160;But as time passes, that memory becomes less serviceable; and not all the Holocaust museums in the world can maintain its efficacy.&#160;&#160;The Zionist movement succeeded in appropriating moral capital from the devastation Nazi Germany wreaked upon European Jewry, but it has spent that capital recklessly, and there is not much of it left.</p>
<p>Enter existential threats.&#160;&#160;When they do not exist, as is the case with the ones Israel’s leaders invoke, they need to be invented or at least blown up out of all proportion.&#160;&#160;This is what we are about to witness again.</p>
<p>No doubt, Obama would like to engineer a “two state solution.”&#160;&#160;&#160;But the plain fact is that he can’t deliver – because he can’t or won’t take on the government of Israel and the Israel lobby in the United States.&#160;&#160;Along with so many of the worlds’ peoples, Palestinians – and Israelis too – are now paying the price, just as we Americans are, for our president’s inability to govern, much less to lead.</p>
<p>With uncanny foresight, Benjamin Netanyahu took Obama’s measure early on, when even the Republican leadership was still groping its way.&#160;&#160;And he evidently takes pleasure in demonstrating, time and again, that, on matters pertaining to Israel and Palestine, the Commander-in-Chief of the world’s only super-power is as resolute as a jellyfish.&#160;&#160;&#160;With very different implications, the world has finally come to see what Netanyahu long ago realized, and it looks like, before long, it will make itself heard.</p>
<p>Assuming Obama can’t stop the General Assembly vote, what will happen next is unclear.&#160;&#160;Always a genuine existential threat to the Palestinian people, Israel could exact&#160;&#160;severe costs if it perceives itself threatened, and Palestinians can be sure that if a “humanitarian intervention” is then launched, it will be directed, as always, against those who challenge American rule.</p>
<p>But now is as good a time as any to seek to alter the rules that govern an increasingly intolerable status quo in Israel-Palestine relations; and, as they say, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”&#160;&#160;Israeli intransigence will surely prevail for a while longer but, in the face of an outraged world, it cannot prevail indefinitely, even with American support.&#160;&#160;Meanwhile, it is up to Americans, American Jews especially, to do all we can to mitigate that support – not just in solidarity with the victims of our country’s nefarious influence and meddling, but also, in Thomas Jefferson’s words, out of “decent respect…[for] the opinions of mankind.”</p>
<p>Andrew Levine&#160;is a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, the author most recently of &#160; <a href="" type="internal">THE AMERICAN IDEOLOGY</a> (Routledge) and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">POLITICAL KEY WORDS</a>&#160;(Blackwell) as well as of many other books and articles in political philosophy. He was a Professor (philosophy) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Research Professor (philosophy) at the University of Maryland-College Park.</p> | true | 4 | unless obama administration succeeds making mahmoud abbas offer cant refuse even events spin control un general assembly soon vote accord un membership soontobedeclared state palestine160160because us probably also britain france veto measure security council happens general assembly largely symbolic gesture majority worlds people including many west express solidarity palestinian national movement160160wh us backing israel hilt palestine still far becoming fullfledged state nevertheless happens un could game changer160160160in conjunction rise democratic movements throughout region collapse israels alliances turkey egypt growth boycottdivestmentsanctions movement west emergence israel version arab spring sense abroad israel times changin ways likely comfort friends status quo therefore expect fresh wave hysteria along spate declarations israel confronts existential threat expression entered political lexicon recently thanks mainly israeli public diplomacy160160it sounds portentous means literally someones somethings existence jeopardy160160if world full existential threats160160but expression seldom used except reference israel actual deployment little whether threat serious even real sense irans still aspirational nuclear weapons program iran existential threats along palestinian terrorism160160160an existential threat makes excellent160casus belli justification war least argued however fatuously need israel defend violence perpetrated rogue state terrorists bent destruction160160but hard anyone especially apologists israel make similar case existential threat lies immediately ahead160160it one united nations long established roles international law confer legitimacy upon fledgling states upon vote one welcome palestine community nations nascent state israel relied secure legitimacy sixtythree years ago likely happen general assembly trouble defenders status quo embarrass israeli government officials persons easily given embarrassment160160it also sure ratchet palestinian resistance israeli occupation160160a third intifada could erupt160160needless say israeli juggernaut adequate defend conceivable military challenge emanating palestinian quarters160160but take israels part part palestinian factions function unintentionally objectively israels partners keeping status quo place struggle ahead take military turn160160what israeli government friends fear time around new uprising carry enough moral weight influence public opinion extent europe lost even americas blank check least partially withdrawn defenders status quo right concerned status quo160160but constitute existential threat160160160it hard say never clear supposed threatened existential threats israel purports confront existence state citizens jewish people160160is physical existence inhabitants state160160those promote expression relish ambiguity160160it serves purpose well reality course nothing offing rises level existential threat plausible sense term160160there never point conventional wisdom main existential threat facing israel comes iranian nuclear program160160but plainly nonsense160160160even iran succeed building nuclear device unlikely prospect short term since according available evidence trying build capacity weapon would suicidal use nuclear weapons purpose deterrence160160160israel among bellicose states world addition otherwise armed teeth two hundred deterrents ready160160does anyone think threatened israels leaders would sane enough use well keep mind israel seeks permission american protector attack iran160160everyone neocon especially everyone military knows full well israeliran war would harm american interests would detrimental hard see even subservient congress administration would permit it160160this israeli hawks finding pointless depict iran existential threat part moved palestine question complicated fact case united states sure see israels government gets way part reason160160160from moral point view american position reprehensible160160it also selfdefeating makes two state solution indispensable enduring jewish state impossible achieve160160what israelis call demographic bomb see given differential birthrates way jewish majority maintained throughout mandate palestine160160many israelis know this160160but nowadays politically impotent country democratic base general contours negotiated settlement acceptable believe two state solution clear decades160160the details spelled taba january 2001 final days clinton administration160160160in ensuing years israel created facts ground thanks part israeli american connivance palestinian authority severely weakened160160but would require solomonic wisdom bring taba date160160even hillary clinton could however take real game changer anything like happen160160because israel holds almost cards palestinian authority holds almost none way forward long united states remains useless change legal parameters palestinian movement operates160160160as matters stand clear israel wont agree live alongside viable palestinian state officially autonomous bantustans far go160160this many israelis harbor hopes greater israel israeli political class effectively owned religiously driven settler movement160160the important reason peace israels reason state jewish people therefore hold diaspora jews even population would diminish abruptly inexorably leaders israeli political military establishment understand this160160160it conjure existential threats regardless say repeatedly drawn back making peace palestinians160160and fear general assembly united nations 160 160 160 animating principle zionist movement 1890s jews need state serve refuge world antisemitism force nature160160that thought never gained traction nazis took power germany even resisted secular jews committed universalist ideologies also theological philosophical reasons orthodox reform jews160160in time universalist ideologies faded zionism hijacked judaism160160meanwhile jewish assimilation proceeded full throttle united states western countries antisemitism longer much concern israeli nationalism monopolized jewish identity politics west judaism shorn zionist shell imposed upon nonstarter jews today intermarriage prevalent becoming increasingly difficult maintain sense jewish identity religious ethnic grounds160160that leaves israel160160and israeli society sheds historical ties secularism socialism israel become hard love even admire160160no wonder diaspora jews would even think living many israelis live abroad course still memory nazi judeocide zionists exploit worth160160but time passes memory becomes less serviceable holocaust museums world maintain efficacy160160the zionist movement succeeded appropriating moral capital devastation nazi germany wreaked upon european jewry spent capital recklessly much left enter existential threats160160when exist case ones israels leaders invoke need invented least blown proportion160160this witness doubt obama would like engineer two state solution160160160but plain fact cant deliver cant wont take government israel israel lobby united states160160along many worlds peoples palestinians israelis paying price americans presidents inability govern much less lead uncanny foresight benjamin netanyahu took obamas measure early even republican leadership still groping way160160and evidently takes pleasure demonstrating time matters pertaining israel palestine commanderinchief worlds superpower resolute jellyfish160160160with different implications world finally come see netanyahu long ago realized looks like long make heard assuming obama cant stop general assembly vote happen next unclear160160always genuine existential threat palestinian people israel could exact160160severe costs perceives threatened palestinians sure humanitarian intervention launched directed always challenge american rule good time seek alter rules govern increasingly intolerable status quo israelpalestine relations say nothing ventured nothing gained160160israeli intransigence surely prevail longer face outraged world prevail indefinitely even american support160160meanwhile americans american jews especially mitigate support solidarity victims countrys nefarious influence meddling also thomas jeffersons words decent respectfor opinions mankind andrew levine160is senior scholar institute policy studies author recently 160 american ideology routledge and160 political key words160blackwell well many books articles political philosophy professor philosophy university wisconsinmadison research professor philosophy university marylandcollege park | 1,017 |
<p>Photo by Romerito Pontes | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>In the summer of 2000, Edward Said visited the Lebanese border with Israel, which had recently ended its brutal 18-year-long occupation of southern Lebanon. He spent the morning touring the grim chambers of El-Khaim prison, where Palestinian detainees had been interrogated and tortured. In the afternoon, he stopped at the newly liberated town of Kafr Killa. In a celebratory act, Said picked up a small stone and hurled it across a concertina wire fence marking the border and toward an Israeli watchtower, a half-mile in the distance. The stone fell harmlessly into the desert, several hundred yards short of the military outpost.</p>
<p>A <a href="" type="internal">photo of Said’s stone toss</a> was snapped by a photographer from Agence France-Presse. The next morning that image was picked up by UPI and appeared in newspapers around the world under headlines charging that the Columbia University professor had thrown rocks at Israeli soldiers.&#160; It is a measure of Israel’s stranglehold on the western media that this trivial incident ignited a spasm of outrage. Said was denounced as the “professor of terror” and “Hezbollah’s philosopher.” There were calls for him to be fired from Columbia University and evicted from the prestigious Modern Language Association, where he’d once served as president.</p>
<p>The New York Times continued to pound Said about the incident for eight-months, gleefully reporting in March 2001 that the Freud Society of Vienna had cancelled a planned lecture by Said over concerns about his “anti-Semitism.” Said responded sharply, “Freud was hounded out of Vienna because he was a Jew. Now I am being hounded out because I am a Palestinian.”&#160; In the end, even former friends like Christopher Hitchens would betray Said.</p>
<p>Through the madness Said was unflinching. When Alexander Cockburn and I met him in New York a few months after he returned from Lebanon, Edward bragged about his pitching form as being in the “Doc Gooden mode.” He maintained that the stone toss was a symbolic act. “a gesture of joy that the occupation had ended.”</p>
<p>The stones of the Occupied Territories were freighted with powerful symbolic meaning. The image of the stone-thrower flipped Israel’s founding myth on its head. The roles of David and Goliath had been reversed. But it goes deeper than that. The stones of Palestine also represented the shattered remains of a culture that was being destroyed in the post-Oslo Accords era that Said had warned about for years. Oslo, Said had predicted, would leave Palestinians defenseless and alone, as the Israelis demolished house after house, village after village, ripped up olive groves and pastures, effaced the names Palestinian of towns from maps and left only rubble behind.</p>
<p>Since the Oslo Accords, Israeli settlements in the West Bank have more than tripled. Meanwhile, Gaza has become a geographical cage, a sealed enclosure of bombed out buildings, generational despair and hopelessness, where youth &#160;suicides now exceed 80 per month. When has the impotent Palestinian Authority ever intervened to save a house or village from Israeli bulldozers? The stones of destroyed homes had become the last weapon of Palestinian self-defense.</p>
<p>Nearly two decades later, the Palestinian situation is more desperate than ever and the Trump administration is seeking to exploit this dire condition for its political advantage. Trump’s Middle East policy is largely dictated to him by the Vegas gargoyle Sheldon Adelson. Adelson spreads his money across the Trumpscape like an oil spill, contaminating every Trump foreign policy position—from Palestinian statehood to the Iran nuclear deal—with his own zany brand of extreme Zionism.</p>
<p>The centerpiece of the new Trump Israel policy is, of course, his zealous push to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy to the city. There’s nothing particularly new here. Like many odious schemes, this has been the official position of the US government since Clinton-time, though both the sagacious George W. Bush and his successor Barack Obama, who followed the Bush precedent in so many matters, pretended otherwise.</p>
<p>Trump, ever the drama queen, intended to weaponize his Jerusalem gambit, hoping that the brash announcement would provoke a militant uprising that would give Netanyahu the excuse to crackdown with his customary savagery. Abdel El-Sisi played along, lending the plan his cruel endorsement, proving that Egypt hasn’t been this subservient since Octavian sacked Alexandria. In <a href="" type="internal">Fire and Fury</a>, Steve Bannon gave Trump’s cynical game plan away, saying the ultimate solution to the Palestinian problem was to “let Jordan take the West Bank, let Egypt take Gaza. Let them deal with it. Or sink trying.” Call it the Three State Solution.</p>
<p>Trump and Netanyahu engineered the outraged reaction they wanted, but not, perhaps, in a way they expected. A week after Trump announced his Jerusalem decision, a Palestinian protest erupted in the village of Nabi Salih. Claiming the Palestinians were throwing stones, Israeli soldiers moved in to quash the demonstration and began firing indiscriminately into the crowd, hitting a 14-year-old boy named Mohammed al-Tamimi&#160;in the face, inflicting a ghastly wound. His cousin, Ahed Tamimi, witnessed the shooting and rushed toward the Israeli soldiers, slapping one across the face. The 16-year-old Tamimi was arrested, charged with incitement and assault, and carted off to join more than 400 other Palestinian children currently held in Israeli prisons without bail. Tamini’s pleas for a public trial were denied. In a closed-door hearing, she was finally strong-armed into a plea bargain that will send her to prison for an additional eight months, 30 days less than an Israeli court sentenced <a href="http://imemc.org/article/sentence-of-israeli-soldier-who-executed-palestinian-reduced-to-nine-months/" type="external">Elor Azaria</a>, the IDF soldier who killed an injured Palestinian by shooting him in the head while he was laying on the ground.</p>
<p>Like Said’s stone toss, Ahed Tamimi’s brave slap of a helmeted Israeli soldier was also caught on camera and quickly spread across the globe. This time, however, intimately human response of a teenage girl served to expose the inhumane violence of a regime gone mad.</p>
<p>Took All My Money, Wrecks My Car</p>
<p />
<p>Sound Grammar</p>
<p>What I’m listening to this week…</p>
<p>Still recreating my vinyl collection. The latest acquisitions…</p>
<p>31. <a href="" type="internal">Headhunters</a> by Herbie Hancock</p>
<p>32. <a href="" type="internal">Learning to Crawl</a> by The Pretenders</p>
<p>33. <a href="" type="internal">We’re Only in It For the Money</a> by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention</p>
<p>34. <a href="" type="internal">Entertainment!</a> by Gang of Four</p>
<p>35. <a href="" type="internal">Afrodisiac</a> by Fela Kuti &amp; the Africa 70</p>
<p>What next?</p>
<p>Booked Up</p>
<p>What I’m reading this week…</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">The First Domestication: How Wolves and Humans Coevolved</a>&#160;by Raymond Pierotti and Brandy R. Fogg</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1524732834/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Time Pieces: A Dublin Memoir</a> by John Banville</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1786632586/counterpunchmaga" type="external">A Walk Through Paris</a> by Eric Hazan</p>
<p>Shit or Fly?</p>
<p>Robert Coover:&#160;“The superhero, his underwear bagging at the seat and knees, is just a country boy at heart, tutored to perceive all human action as good or bad, orderly or dynamic, and so doesn’t know whether to shit or fly.”</p> | true | 4 | photo romerito pontes cc 20 summer 2000 edward said visited lebanese border israel recently ended brutal 18yearlong occupation southern lebanon spent morning touring grim chambers elkhaim prison palestinian detainees interrogated tortured afternoon stopped newly liberated town kafr killa celebratory act said picked small stone hurled across concertina wire fence marking border toward israeli watchtower halfmile distance stone fell harmlessly desert several hundred yards short military outpost photo saids stone toss snapped photographer agence francepresse next morning image picked upi appeared newspapers around world headlines charging columbia university professor thrown rocks israeli soldiers160 measure israels stranglehold western media trivial incident ignited spasm outrage said denounced professor terror hezbollahs philosopher calls fired columbia university evicted prestigious modern language association hed served president new york times continued pound said incident eightmonths gleefully reporting march 2001 freud society vienna cancelled planned lecture said concerns antisemitism said responded sharply freud hounded vienna jew hounded palestinian160 end even former friends like christopher hitchens would betray said madness said unflinching alexander cockburn met new york months returned lebanon edward bragged pitching form doc gooden mode maintained stone toss symbolic act gesture joy occupation ended stones occupied territories freighted powerful symbolic meaning image stonethrower flipped israels founding myth head roles david goliath reversed goes deeper stones palestine also represented shattered remains culture destroyed postoslo accords era said warned years oslo said predicted would leave palestinians defenseless alone israelis demolished house house village village ripped olive groves pastures effaced names palestinian towns maps left rubble behind since oslo accords israeli settlements west bank tripled meanwhile gaza become geographical cage sealed enclosure bombed buildings generational despair hopelessness youth 160suicides exceed 80 per month impotent palestinian authority ever intervened save house village israeli bulldozers stones destroyed homes become last weapon palestinian selfdefense nearly two decades later palestinian situation desperate ever trump administration seeking exploit dire condition political advantage trumps middle east policy largely dictated vegas gargoyle sheldon adelson adelson spreads money across trumpscape like oil spill contaminating every trump foreign policy positionfrom palestinian statehood iran nuclear dealwith zany brand extreme zionism centerpiece new trump israel policy course zealous push recognize jerusalem israels capital move us embassy city theres nothing particularly new like many odious schemes official position us government since clintontime though sagacious george w bush successor barack obama followed bush precedent many matters pretended otherwise trump ever drama queen intended weaponize jerusalem gambit hoping brash announcement would provoke militant uprising would give netanyahu excuse crackdown customary savagery abdel elsisi played along lending plan cruel endorsement proving egypt hasnt subservient since octavian sacked alexandria fire fury steve bannon gave trumps cynical game plan away saying ultimate solution palestinian problem let jordan take west bank let egypt take gaza let deal sink trying call three state solution trump netanyahu engineered outraged reaction wanted perhaps way expected week trump announced jerusalem decision palestinian protest erupted village nabi salih claiming palestinians throwing stones israeli soldiers moved quash demonstration began firing indiscriminately crowd hitting 14yearold boy named mohammed altamimi160in face inflicting ghastly wound cousin ahed tamimi witnessed shooting rushed toward israeli soldiers slapping one across face 16yearold tamimi arrested charged incitement assault carted join 400 palestinian children currently held israeli prisons without bail taminis pleas public trial denied closeddoor hearing finally strongarmed plea bargain send prison additional eight months 30 days less israeli court sentenced elor azaria idf soldier killed injured palestinian shooting head laying ground like saids stone toss ahed tamimis brave slap helmeted israeli soldier also caught camera quickly spread across globe time however intimately human response teenage girl served expose inhumane violence regime gone mad took money wrecks car sound grammar im listening week still recreating vinyl collection latest acquisitions 31 headhunters herbie hancock 32 learning crawl pretenders 33 money frank zappa mothers invention 34 entertainment gang four 35 afrodisiac fela kuti amp africa 70 next booked im reading week first domestication wolves humans coevolved160by raymond pierotti brandy r fogg time pieces dublin memoir john banville walk paris eric hazan shit fly robert coover160the superhero underwear bagging seat knees country boy heart tutored perceive human action good bad orderly dynamic doesnt know whether shit fly | 683 |
<p>Fox's Ingraham: The "Phony War On Women" Is "Contrived" By Democrats. On the April 9 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, guest host Laura Ingraham claimed "the phony war on women" was "contrived" by Democrats. From The O'Reilly Factor:</p>
<p>INGRAHAM: The phony war on women. That is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo. Keeping with the theme of suffering on Good Friday, the White House hosted and boasted a "women in the economy" conference. Now, this, of course, follows the relentless push by Democrats to gin up the contrived war on women election year narrative. [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, <a href="/embed/clips/2012/04/10/23915/fnc-orielly-20120409-ingrahammemo" type="external">4/9/12</a>]</p>
<p>Fox's Doocy "Completely Agree[d]" With Ingraham That The "War On Women" Is "Phony." On the April 10 edition of Fox News' Fox &amp; Friends, co-host Steve Doocy hosted Ingraham and said he "completely agree[d]" with her claim on The O'Reilly Factor that the GOP's "war on women" is "phony." From Fox &amp; Friends:</p>
<p>DOOCY: Hey, Laura, I watched you filling in for Bill [O'Reilly] last night. You started with the segment on the war on women, and you -- I completely agree, it's phony. You know, the Democrats are trying to portray the Republicans as waging a war on women, and you talked a little bit about how they didn't, they weren't -- it's just bogus. Made up by the Democrats and the mainstream media. But, you know, in the last week or so, the Muslim Brotherhood has been invited to the White House. And when you think about a war on women, you know, the people who follow sharia law, who has got a bigger war on women than the people who stone them? [Fox News, Fox &amp; Friends, <a href="/embed/clips/2012/04/10/23914/fnc-ff-20120410-ingrahamphony" type="external">4/10/12</a>]</p>
<p>Doocy: Democrats "Have Invented This Phony War On Women" Because "The Stimulus Didn't Work Out So Well." On the April 9 edition of Fox News' Fox &amp; Friends, Doocy claimed Democrats "invented this phony war on women" to get female voters to "vote for their candidates." From Fox &amp; Friends:</p>
<p>DOOCY: The economy not working for the president as a campaign issue -- you know, the stimulus didn't work out so well and he's got a lot of problems -- so in the last couple of months, what they have done, the Democrats, is they have invented this phony war on women. They said, Republicans are against women.There's not really a war on women. There's a war for women, because they would like to have as many women vote for their candidates. [Fox News, Fox &amp; Friends, <a href="/video/2012/04/09/foxs-doocy-democrats-have-invented-this-phony-w/185483" type="external">4/9/12</a>, via Media Matters]</p>
<p>Michelle Malkin: "War On Women" Was "Contrived And Manufactured" By DemocratsTo "Distract From The Econom[y]." On the April 5 edition of Fox News' Fox &amp; Friends, Doocy asked Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin whether the "war on women" was "invented to take people's eyes off the prize, which is the economy." Malkin agreed, claiming it "was contrived and manufactured from the get go." From Fox &amp; Friends:</p>
<p>DOOCY: Wouldn't you say though, Michelle, the whole war on women really was invented to take people's eyes off of the prize, which is the economy and gas prices, and when you look at those things, the president -- not doing so well.</p>
<p>MALKIN: Yes. That's absolutely right, Steve. It was contrived and manufactured from the get go. We know that from [Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke's] past political history. And as is the case with Obama and his Chicago team, it is always about the distraction. And I think the GOP, before that kerfuffle happened, of course, had been gaining a lot of ground and traction in trying to zero back in on jobs and gas prices. And I think as we head into November, we're going to see more and more of this ratcheting up of the politics of personal destruction and the demagoguery, whether it's with women or race, anything to distract from the economies and the jobs death toll that this administration is responsible for.</p>
<p>GRETCHEN CARLSON (co-host): But also the distraction in that particular discussion was to try and reach out to women by the Obama administration instead of talking about what the issue really was, which was religious freedom. [Fox News, Fox &amp; Friends, <a href="/video/2012/04/05/foxs-doocy-and-malkin-agree-war-on-women-was-in/169081" type="external">4/5/12</a>, via Media Matters]</p>
<p>Fox's Krauthammer: "The Media Have Collaborated In Inventing" A War On Women. During the April 6 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer said:</p>
<p>KRAUTHAMMER: The idea is because there was some objection on religious liberty grounds to force Catholic institutions to dispense them for free, it's a war on women. The idea of the meme was they want to deny access to contraception, as if Republicans want to shut the door of American pharmacies for any woman looking for contraception. So the media have collaborated in inventing an issue. Obama sees an opening. He actually said women aren't interest group. Of course they are in the eyes of the administration, and that's why it's holding a conference. [Fox News, Special Report 4/5/12, transcript via Nexis]</p>
<p>CNN's Erickson: "The Left Will Surely Drag Augusta National Into Its 'War On Women' Mythology." In an April 6 post to his website RedState, CNN contributor Erick Erickson wrote of the all-male golf club Augusta National, "The left will surely drag Augusta National into its 'War on Women' mythology. I hope, however, that yet again Augusta National keeps its head up." [Red State, <a href="http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/04/06/augusta-national/" type="external">4/6/12</a>]</p>
<p>Fox's Palin: GOP's War On Women A "Straw-Man/Straw-Woman" Created By The "Mainstream Media." During the April 3 broadcast of Fox News' Hannity, Fox News contributor Sarah Palin spoke with host Sean Hannity about exit poll results from the Wisconsin GOP primary and said:</p>
<p>PALIN: Did they say anything about the women's vote tonight? Because, of course, many in mainstream media, they're trying to make an issue out of this straw-man/straw-woman, this war on women that supposedly the GOP is waging, and making a big darn deal about that. And I wonder if the poll numbers are reflecting that.</p>
<p>HANNITY: We don't have the final polling on it, but he was leading if you look at, you know, among just about every category [Fox News, Hannity, <a href="/embed/clips/2012/04/10/23911/fnc-hannity-20120403-palinstrawman" type="external">4/3/12</a>]</p>
<p>Fox's Crowley: "Obama's Re-Election Team ... Orchestrated The Whole Bogus War On Women Thing." During the April 3 broadcast of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News contributor Monica Crowley claimed that "the Obama re-election team, the left, sort of orchestrated this whole bogus war on women thing." [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, <a href="/embed/clips/2012/04/10/23913/fnc-oreilly-20120403-crowlyboguswaronwomen" type="external">4/3/12</a>]</p>
<p>NRO's Lopez: The "War On Women" Is A Democratic "Desperation Campaign." In an April 2 National Review Online article, editor-at-large Kathryn Jean Lopez called the "war on women" a "desperation campaign" by Democrats who "lost women in 2010" and "want them back." From National Review Online:</p>
<p>"We're never going to let this happen again," Ms. magazine editor Kathy Spillar proclaimed, underscoring the real purpose of the "war on women" desperation campaign. Democrats lost women in 2010, and they want them back. And they will scare women -- even constructing threats that don't actually exist -- if they have to. Their strategy is insulting to women who don't share their hostility toward the Catholic Church and other religious groups that have tried to be led not into the temptations of our secularist age. Even New York Times polling suggests that voters are paying more attention to the details behind the incendiary, misleading rhetoric that the White House and its allies insist on. When people are specifically asked if individuals and institutions with moral objections should be able to be free of government contraception coercion, freedom wins.</p>
<p>In an earlier post, Lopez called the "war on women" a "crass election ploy to scare women voters to vote Dem." [National Review Online, <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/294929/desperately-seeking-women-kathryn-jean-lopez" type="external">4/2/12</a>; <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/294122/war-women-crass-election-ploy-scare-women-voters-vote-dem-kathryn-jean-lopez" type="external">3/21/12</a>]</p>
<p>Limbaugh: "Obama's Got Trouble With His Base. That's What This Nonexistent But Alleged Republican War On Women Is All About." During the March 26 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show, host Rush Limbaugh claimed:</p>
<p>LIMBAUGH: Obama's got trouble with his base. That's what this nonexistent but alleged Republican war on women is all about. Obama is not doing well with the female vote, and he is trying to improve his circumstances there. And throughout polling data, his base is not that firm because they're not happy with the slow speed with which they thought they were going to get a new kitchen, or a new car, at least have a job.[Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, <a href="/embed/clips/2012/04/10/23912/prn-rush-20120326-phonywar" type="external">3/26/12</a>]</p>
<p>In May 2011, House GOP Passed Bill That Would Ban D.C. Reproductive Funding. In May 2011, House Republicans unanimously passed the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which created a "ban on the District [of Columbia] using its own money to fund abortions for low-income women." From The Washington Post:</p>
<p>The House approved a bill Wednesday that would make permanent a ban on the District using its own money to fund abortions for low-income women, dealing D.C. another setback in its quest to retain control over its finances.</p>
<p>The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act cleared the House on a 251-175 vote, with 16 Democrats joining all 235 Republicans present to support it. The bill would tighten laws designed to prevent federally-funded abortions across the country, and would enshrine the District ban into federal law. The spending resolution signed by President Obama last month contains a similar restriction on D.C., but it only lasts through Sept. 30. [The Washington Post, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-wire/post/house-approves-measure-that-would-ban-dc-funded-abortions/2011/05/04/AFlntKqF_blog.html" type="external">5/4/11</a>]</p>
<p>"No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion" Bill Originally Included Language Restricting The Definition Of Rape. The original version of the No Taxpayer For Abortion Act included language amended from the Hyde Amendment, which limited federal funding for abortion to cases of rape, incest, and when the mother's life is in danger. The law would have removed all exceptions other than "forcible" rape. A January 28, 2011, Mother Jones article pointed out that this would have "rule[d] out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases." From Mother Jones:</p>
<p>For years, federal laws restricting the use of government funds to pay for abortions have included exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. (Another exemption covers pregnancies that could endanger the life of the woman.) But the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," a bill with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has dubbed a top priority in the new Congress, contains a provision that would rewrite the rules to limit drastically the definition of rape and incest in these cases.</p>
<p>With this legislation, which was introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape exemption be limited to "forcible rape." This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible. For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion. (Smith's spokesman did not respond to a call and an email requesting comment.) [Mother Jones, <a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/republican-plan-redefine-rape-abortion" type="external">1/28/11</a>]</p>
<p>Virginia GOP Passed Measure To Require "Invasive" Vaginal Ultrasound Before Abortions. In February, Republicans in the Virginia House of Delegates introduced a bill that would have required women in the early stages of pregnancy to undergo an "invasive" transvaginal ultrasound before an abortion. Following public pressure, [t]he House of Delegates passed a modified version of the bill that still requires a medically unnecessary ultrasound. From Mother Jones:</p>
<p>Virginia's controversial mandatory ultrasound bill is now headed to Gov. Bob McDonnell's desk. While the final version of the bill allows women to opt out of having an invasive transvaginal ultrasound -- the provision that drew a national spotlight in the last couple weeks -- don't be fooled: It's still a burdensome law.</p>
<p>The original bill would have required women seeking an abortion to undergo whatever kind of ultrasound gets the best image of the embryo or fetus. In the early stages of pregnancy -- when the vast majority of abortions occur -- that's typically a transvaginal ultrasound, which is far more invasive than the abdominal kind (think jelly-on-the-belly). That requirement was scrapped at the eleventh hour, after a deluge of national attention. Abortion rights activists said mandating such an invasive procedure amounted to "state-sanctioned rape," a comparison that clearly struck a nerve: Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show took cracks at the bill; more than a thousand women gathered in silent protest outside the state capitol. Eventually, McDonnell backtracked on his initial support, stating last week, "No person should be directed to undergo an invasive procedure by the state, without their consent, as a precondition to another medical procedure." [Mother Jones, <a href="http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/03/why-virginias-new-mandatory-ultrasound-law-still-sucks" type="external">3/3/12</a>]</p>
<p>Pennsylvania GOP Proposed "Invasive" Ultrasound Bill. In February, Republicans in the Pennsylvania State House introduced legislation requiring that "medical professionals say women would have to undergo an invasive, vaginal ultrasound." From PennLive.com:</p>
<p>Under the bill in Pennsylvania, medical professionals say women would have to undergo an invasive, vaginal ultrasound. That prospect is drawing outrage among supporters of abortion rights.</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>The bill, proposed by Rep. Kathy Rapp, a conservative Republican from Warren County, outlines what women seeking an abortion would undergo in great detail.</p>
<p>The bill requires that the woman not only get an ultrasound, but that the ultrasound screen be in her line of sight. The woman can choose to look away, the legislation states, but the technician performing the ultrasound would have to note if the woman viewed the results.</p>
<p>The patient would also have to hear the results of the physician's finding, sign a written report to give to the abortion provider, and receive a sealed copy of the ultrasound's image.</p>
<p>On March 2, The New York Times noted that the State House majority leader canceled debate on the bill "follow[ing] a national uproar over a similar proposal in Virginia":</p>
<p>The State House majority leader announced on Thursday that a bill requiring ultrasounds before abortions would not be considered soon. The shift followed a national uproar over a similar proposal in Virginia, which as originally worded would have forced women to have vaginal ultrasounds. The majority leader, Mike Turzai, a Republican, canceled a debate on a bill that critics said would require invasive procedures and interfere with doctor-patient relations. A spokesman, Stephen Miskin, said, "Until there is a consensus within the House and the medical community, it won't be scheduled for a vote." [PennLive.com, <a href="http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/02/pennsylvania_house_bill_would_2.html" type="external">2/29/12</a>; The New York Times, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/02/us/pennsylvania-ultrasound-bill-is-shelved.html?_r=1" type="external">3/2/12</a>]</p>
<p>Alabama GOP Attempted To Pass Transvaginal Ultrasound Bill. In February, Alabama GOP State Sen. Clay Scofield ended debate over a bill that would have required transvaginal ultrasounds before getting an abortion. From The Huffington Post:</p>
<p>Alabama state Sen. Clay Scofield (R) backed off a provision Monday that would have forced women to submit to transvaginal ultrasounds before getting an abortion. The move mirrors the fate of an ultrasound measure in Virginia, which was similarly scrapped in favor of one that mandated a less invasive procedure.</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>The change of course comes after state Sen. Linda Coleman (D) denounced the transvaginal ultrasound bill as nothing less than "a state-sanctioned rape bill," arguing in a recent interview that beyond restricting access to safe abortion care, the bill amounts to an assault on women. [The Huffington Post, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/28/alabama-ultrasound-bill-clay-scofield_n_1307593.html" type="external">2/28/12</a>]</p>
<p>GOP Lawmakers In Idaho Introduced Transvaginal Ultrasound Bill. In February, GOP lawmakers on the Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee unanimously voted to introduce a bill that would have required "an invasive transvaginal ultrasound" procedure "before any Idaho woman could have an abortion." From the Spokesman-Review:</p>
<p>Controversial anti-abortion legislation that caused a brouhaha before being withdrawn in Virginia was introduced in Idaho today, to require an ultrasound before any Idaho woman could have an abortion.</p>
<p>The issue is that at very early stages of pregnancy, before six to eight weeks gestation, a regular abdominal ultrasound doesn't provide a clear picture of the fetus, requiring instead an invasive transvaginal ultrasound, a procedure that includes penetration of the patient with an ultrasound wand. Idaho Senate Assistant Majority Leader Chuck Winder, R-Meridian, said the original version of his bill specifically mentioned that procedure, but he removed it. [The Spokesman-Review, <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/feb/27/pre-abortion-ultrasound-bill-introduced-idaho/" type="external">2/27/12</a>]</p>
<p>Georgia GOP Cuts Option For Abortion Services After 20 Weeks. In March, Georgia Republicans passed a bill that would have "cut by about six weeks the time women in Georgia may have an elective abortion." According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the bill "would tighten medical exemptions for terminating pregnancies and require any abortion performed after 20 weeks of pregnancy be done in a way to bring the fetus out alive. No exemption is made for rape or incest":</p>
<p>As originally written by its sponsor, state Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens, the proposal would have cut by about six weeks the time women in Georgia may have an elective abortion. The Senate's changes forced into the bill an exemption for "medically futile" pregnancies, giving doctors the option to perform an abortion past 20 weeks when a fetus has congenital or chromosomal defects.</p>
<p>Although the House -- including McKillip and House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge -- initially balked, they agreed Thursday to move forward with a compromise. It was to include a definition in the bill describing what "medically futile" means: Profound and "irremediable" anomalies that would be "incompatible with sustaining life after birth."</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>Commonly referred to as a "fetal pain" bill, House Bill 954 would tighten medical exemptions for terminating pregnancies and require any abortion performed after 20 weeks of pregnancy be done in a way to bring the fetus out alive. No exemption is made for rape or incest. The measure says that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks, therefore the state has an interest in protecting it. [The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, <a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-government/georgia-lawmakers-pass-abortion-1401963.html" type="external">3/29/12</a>]</p>
<p>Arizona GOP Promoting Law That Restricts Abortion To 20 Weeks And Requires Ultrasound. The Republican-led state legislature in Arizona is promoting a bill that would ban "most abortions performed after 20 weeks of pregnancy." From Reuters:</p>
<p>A controversial Arizona bill that bans most abortions performed after 20 weeks of pregnancy moved closer to becoming law on Wednesday in the Republican-controlled state legislature after clearing the state Senate.</p>
<p>The bill, which would still allow abortions after 20 weeks in the case of medical emergency, was passed by a mostly party-line 20-to-10 vote in the Senate on Tuesday. Only a small number of abortions are performed in Arizona after 20 weeks.</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>The Arizona bill would also require women to have an ultrasound at least 24 hours prior to having an abortion, instead of the one hour that is currently mandated under state law.</p>
<p>In addition, the bill would require that the state create a website that details the risks of the procedure and shows pictures of the fetus in various stages. [Reuters, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/28/us-arizona-abortion-idUSBRE82R1D020120328" type="external">3/28/12</a>]</p>
<p>In 2011, Center For Reproductive Rights "Monitored Over 600 Anti-Choice Bills That Would Undermine Women's Autonomy And Fundamental Rights To Health And Well-Being" At The State Level. From the Center for Reproductive Rights' 2010-11 annual report:</p>
<p>The Center is hard-pressed to cite a time in the last twenty years that can rival -- in volume and in severity -- this most recent period of anti-woman, anti-child, and anti-health legislative action in the United States.</p>
<p>In 2011, the Center's State Program has monitored over 600 anti-choice bills that would undermine women's autonomy and fundamental rights to health and well-being. It's clear: Women and their fundamental rights to health and decision-making are being attacked. [Center for Reproductive Rights annual report, <a href="http://reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/AR_2010-11_SPREADS.pdf#page=15" type="external">2010-11</a>]</p>
<p>House Republicans Voted To Cut Off Funding To Planned Parenthood. In February 2011, the House approved GOP Rep. Mike Pence's amendment to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. According to a February 18, 2011, Politico article:</p>
<p>The House just approved Rep. Mike Pence's amendment to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, checking off a hot-button social issue even as it set up a bigger showdown over defunding the health care law.</p>
<p>The vote was 240-185 with 11 Democrats voting for the amendment, and seven Republicans voting against. One member voted present. A group of Republicans on the floor applauded when the vote hit 218.</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>A longtime anti-abortion crusader, Pence has three times previously tried to cut off legislative funding, called Title X, for any group that provides abortions.</p>
<p>The money cannot be used to pay for abortions, and Pence has not argued that Planned Parenthood has used the funds to do so.</p>
<p>But he argues that cutting off support for millions of women's health clinics would cut off their ability to perform the procedure.</p>
<p>"We should end the day when the largest abortion provider is the largest recipient of [Title X] federal funding," he said.</p>
<p>"What's clear to me, if you follow the money, you can actually take the funding supports out of abortion. We then have a much better opportunity to move forward to be a society that says yes to life."</p>
<p>Planned Parenthood estimates it received a quarter of the $317 million in Title X funds appropriated last year. They use the money for pelvic exams, breast exams, safer-sex counseling and basic infertility counseling, among other things. [Politico, <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49830.html" type="external">2/18/11</a>]</p>
<p>GOP Sen. Roy Blunt Introduced Amendment That Would Have Allowed Any Employer To Deny Reproductive Health Coverage To Women. In March, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) introduced an amendment to a highway funding bill that "would have allowed not only religious groups but any employer with moral objections to opt out of the coverage requirement." From The Washington Post:</p>
<p>The Senate Thursday rejected an effort to vastly expand conscience exemptions to the Obama administration's new birth control coverage rule, even as Republican presidential contenders continued to tussle over the issue.</p>
<p>The measure, an amendment proposed by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to a highway funding bill, would have allowed not only religious groups but any employer with moral objections to opt out of the coverage requirement. And it would have allowed such employers to do so in the case of not only contraception but any health service required by the 2010 health-care law. [The Washington Post, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/birth-control-exemption-bill-the-blunt-amendment-killed-in-senate/2012/03/01/gIQA4tXjkR_story.html" type="external">3/1/12</a>]</p>
<p>Texas Republican Lawmakers Voted To Restrict Health Services To Low-Income Women. In March, "conservative Republican lawmakers" in Texas implemented a law that would "cut off clinics with any affiliation to a[n abortion] provider, even if it's just a shared name, employee or board member." From USA Today:</p>
<p>Delia Henry was tired but had no idea her blood sugar was high when she went to Planned Parenthood for her annual gynecological exam. The clinic referred her to a doctor, who diagnosed her with diabetes.</p>
<p>The 31-year-old nursing student said she would have skipped the exam since she has no insurance, but she had just signed up for Texas' Women's Health Program, which provides cancer screenings, contraceptives and basic health care to about 130,000 low-income women through Medicaid.</p>
<p>But under a state law taking effect Wednesday, Henry and other eligible women won't be able to get care at Planned Parenthood clinics -- which treat about 44% of the program's patients -- or other facilities with ties to abortion providers, meaning those women will have to find new health-care providers.</p>
<p>The $40 million program is at the center of a faceoff between conservative Republican lawmakers and the federal government, which provides 90% of the program's funding. Although Texas already forbids taxpayer money from going to organizations that provide abortions, the law will cut off clinics with any affiliation to a provider, even if it's just a shared name, employee or board member.</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>The nonpartisan Center for Public Policy Priorities, which works to alleviate poverty, said poor women would have difficulty finding new doctors who participate in the program. Doctors and clinics must be qualified Medicaid providers and enrolled in organizations that manage the program. [USA Today, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-03-11/texas-planned-parenthood/53483484/1" type="external">3/11/12</a>]</p>
<p>GOP-Led Indiana Legislature Voted To Eliminate Funding To Planned Parenthood. In June 2011, a federal judge struck down a law passed by Indiana GOP state lawmakers that would have eliminated both state and federal matching funds from going to Planned Parenthood "because it performs abortions." From Reuters:</p>
<p>A judge on Friday granted a preliminary injunction preventing the state of Indiana from enforcing a law that eliminated funding to Planned Parenthood because it performs abortions.</p>
<p>The Republican-led Indiana legislature had voted to strip the women's health group of funding, including money from the federal Medicaid program for the poor, and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed the legislation into law. [Reuters, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/25/us-abortion-indiana-plannedparenthood-idUSTRE75O05Y20110625" type="external">6/25/11</a>]</p>
<p>WI GOP Gov. Scott Walker Repealed Law Aimed At Preventing Gender Wage Discrimination. On April 5, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker repealed a law "that made it easier for victims of wage discrimination to have their day in court." From The Huffington Post:</p>
<p>A Wisconsin law that made it easier for victims of wage discrimination to have their day in court was repealed on Thursday, after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) quietly signed the bill.</p>
<p>The 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act was meant to deter employers from discriminating against certain groups by giving workers more avenues via which to press charges. Among other provisions, it allows individuals to plead their cases in the less costly, more accessible state circuit court system, rather than just in federal court.</p>
<p>In November, the state Senate approved SB 202, which rolled back this provision. On February, the Assembly did the same. Both were party-line votes in Republican-controlled chambers.</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>Sara Finger, executive director of WAWH, said that the repeal was a "demoralizing attack on women's rights, health, and wellbeing."</p>
<p>"Economic security is a women's health issue," she said. "The salary women are paid directly affects the type and frequency of health care services they are able to access. At a time when women's health services are becoming more expensive and harder to obtain, financial stability is essential to maintain steady access." [The Huffington Post, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/06/scott-walker-wisconsin-equal-pay-law_n_1407329.html" type="external">4/6/12</a>]</p>
<p>Limbaugh Repeatedly Called Fluke A "Slut" And "Prostitute" For Promoting Contraception Coverage. Following Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke's congressional testimony in support of contraception coverage, Rush Limbaugh repeatedly called Fluke a "slut" and "prostitute" on air. From the February 29 edition of Premiere Radio Network's The Rush Limbaugh Show:</p>
<p>LIMBAUGH: What does it say about the college coed Susan Fluke [sic], who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex.</p>
<p>She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps.</p>
<p>The johns, that's right. We would be the johns -- no! We're not the johns. Well -- yeah, that's right. Pimp's not the right word.</p>
<p>Limbaugh later "apologize[d]" to Fluke "for the insulting word choices." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, <a href="/video/2012/02/29/limbaugh-student-denied-spot-at-contraception-h/186411" type="external">2/29/12</a>, via Media Matters; RushLimbaugh.com, <a href="/blog/2012/03/01/updated-limbaughs-misogynistic-attack-on-george/184248#saturday" type="external">3/3/12</a>, via Media Matters]</p>
<p>Loesch: Fluke "Wants To Be Able To Be As Promiscuous As She Wants To Be." During the March 2 edition her radio show, CNN contributor Dana Loesch responded to a caller who said that Fluke should "change her career and go work at the Mustang Ranch out there in Vegas," and said:</p>
<p>LOESCH: Oh my gosh. That could be -- you know, I'm telling you, she's worried about money apparently instead of going and asking for the government. But see that's -- and, Mike, I appreciate your call -- it comes down because she doesn't want to have to pay her own bills, because she's an independent woman. She's an independent woman like that Destiny's Child song, but she doesn't want to take care of all of her own business, because that's what independent women do. Independent women expect the government, which is characterized as the old cartoon Uncle Sam, to take care of their financial needs. She wants to be able to be as promiscuous as she wants to be, and all of the accoutrements that go along with that, she wants those to be financed by the government, because that's what independent women do. [KFTK, The Dana Show, <a href="/research/2012/03/20/cnns-dana-loesch-and-the-bullying-campaign-agai/186286" type="external">3/2/12</a> via Media Matters]</p>
<p>Jim Hoft: Fluke "Insisted She Was No Prostitute For Wanting Government To Pay For Her Sex At College." In a March 2 Gateway Pundit post titled, "Hot-And-Bothered Coed Who Demanded Free Birth Control From Congress Responds to Critics -- Insists She's No Prostitute," Jim Hoft wrote:</p>
<p>On Thursday night, MSNBC's Ed Schultz interviewed hot-and-bothered Georgetown coed Sandra Fluke, the woman who went before a Congressional panel and demanded free birth control for herself and her peers. Sandra Fluke, who was mocked by Rush Limbaugh on his radio show this week, insisted she was no prostitute for wanting government to pay for her sex at college. [Gateway Pundit, <a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/03/hot-and-bothered-coed-who-demanded-free-birth-control-from-congress-responds-to-critics-insists-shes-no-prostitute-video/" type="external">3/2/12</a>, emphasis in original]</p>
<p>Fox's Hannity: Limbaugh Is Making The Point That "For Crying Out Loud, Why Is The Taxpayer Bearing The Cost Of The Sex Life Of Students At Georgetown University Law School?" On the March 2 edition of his radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity said:</p>
<p>HANNITY: [W]ith absolutely, you know, just a sense of confidence in what is right here, I watched this woman Sandra Fluke give this testimony. And it's -- there is a sense of entitlement and outrage that in fact that she or her fellow law students will have to pay for their own contraception.</p>
<p>And now people are mad at Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh, I've been a fan of for years. And for years, what does he say? He illustrates absurdity by being absurd. And Rush says: "Well, if we're going to pay for it do we get videos with it?" Did he mean it? You know, for those on the -- no, he did not mean it. He's making a point. And the point is is that for crying out loud, why is the taxpayer bearing the cost of the sex life of students at Georgetown University Law School? And how that's missed on the media. I mean, maybe she could take a year off of law school to pay -- to fund, you know, the remaining three years of one's sex life. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, <a href="/embed/clips/2012/03/02/23151/prn-hannity-20120302-fluke" type="external">3/2/12</a>, via Media Matters]</p> | true | 4 | foxs ingraham phony war women contrived democrats april 9 edition fox news oreilly factor guest host laura ingraham claimed phony war women contrived democrats oreilly factor ingraham phony war women subject evenings talking points memo keeping theme suffering good friday white house hosted boasted women economy conference course follows relentless push democrats gin contrived war women election year narrative fox news oreilly factor 4912 foxs doocy completely agreed ingraham war women phony april 10 edition fox news fox amp friends cohost steve doocy hosted ingraham said completely agreed claim oreilly factor gops war women phony fox amp friends doocy hey laura watched filling bill oreilly last night started segment war women completely agree phony know democrats trying portray republicans waging war women talked little bit didnt werent bogus made democrats mainstream media know last week muslim brotherhood invited white house think war women know people follow sharia law got bigger war women people stone fox news fox amp friends 41012 doocy democrats invented phony war women stimulus didnt work well april 9 edition fox news fox amp friends doocy claimed democrats invented phony war women get female voters vote candidates fox amp friends doocy economy working president campaign issue know stimulus didnt work well hes got lot problems last couple months done democrats invented phony war women said republicans womentheres really war women theres war women would like many women vote candidates fox news fox amp friends 4912 via media matters michelle malkin war women contrived manufactured democratsto distract economy april 5 edition fox news fox amp friends doocy asked fox news contributor michelle malkin whether war women invented take peoples eyes prize economy malkin agreed claiming contrived manufactured get go fox amp friends doocy wouldnt say though michelle whole war women really invented take peoples eyes prize economy gas prices look things president well malkin yes thats absolutely right steve contrived manufactured get go know georgetown law student sandra flukes past political history case obama chicago team always distraction think gop kerfuffle happened course gaining lot ground traction trying zero back jobs gas prices think head november going see ratcheting politics personal destruction demagoguery whether women race anything distract economies jobs death toll administration responsible gretchen carlson cohost also distraction particular discussion try reach women obama administration instead talking issue really religious freedom fox news fox amp friends 4512 via media matters foxs krauthammer media collaborated inventing war women april 6 edition fox news special report fox news contributor charles krauthammer said krauthammer idea objection religious liberty grounds force catholic institutions dispense free war women idea meme want deny access contraception republicans want shut door american pharmacies woman looking contraception media collaborated inventing issue obama sees opening actually said women arent interest group course eyes administration thats holding conference fox news special report 4512 transcript via nexis cnns erickson left surely drag augusta national war women mythology april 6 post website redstate cnn contributor erick erickson wrote allmale golf club augusta national left surely drag augusta national war women mythology hope however yet augusta national keeps head red state 4612 foxs palin gops war women strawmanstrawwoman created mainstream media april 3 broadcast fox news hannity fox news contributor sarah palin spoke host sean hannity exit poll results wisconsin gop primary said palin say anything womens vote tonight course many mainstream media theyre trying make issue strawmanstrawwoman war women supposedly gop waging making big darn deal wonder poll numbers reflecting hannity dont final polling leading look know among every category fox news hannity 4312 foxs crowley obamas reelection team orchestrated whole bogus war women thing april 3 broadcast fox news oreilly factor fox news contributor monica crowley claimed obama reelection team left sort orchestrated whole bogus war women thing fox news oreilly factor 4312 nros lopez war women democratic desperation campaign april 2 national review online article editoratlarge kathryn jean lopez called war women desperation campaign democrats lost women 2010 want back national review online never going let happen ms magazine editor kathy spillar proclaimed underscoring real purpose war women desperation campaign democrats lost women 2010 want back scare women even constructing threats dont actually exist strategy insulting women dont share hostility toward catholic church religious groups tried led temptations secularist age even new york times polling suggests voters paying attention details behind incendiary misleading rhetoric white house allies insist people specifically asked individuals institutions moral objections able free government contraception coercion freedom wins earlier post lopez called war women crass election ploy scare women voters vote dem national review online 4212 32112 limbaugh obamas got trouble base thats nonexistent alleged republican war women march 26 broadcast premiere radio networks rush limbaugh show host rush limbaugh claimed limbaugh obamas got trouble base thats nonexistent alleged republican war women obama well female vote trying improve circumstances throughout polling data base firm theyre happy slow speed thought going get new kitchen new car least jobpremiere radio networks rush limbaugh show 32612 may 2011 house gop passed bill would ban dc reproductive funding may 2011 house republicans unanimously passed taxpayer funding abortion act created ban district columbia using money fund abortions lowincome women washington post house approved bill wednesday would make permanent ban district using money fund abortions lowincome women dealing dc another setback quest retain control finances taxpayer funding abortion act cleared house 251175 vote 16 democrats joining 235 republicans present support bill would tighten laws designed prevent federallyfunded abortions across country would enshrine district ban federal law spending resolution signed president obama last month contains similar restriction dc lasts sept 30 washington post 5411 taxpayer funding abortion bill originally included language restricting definition rape original version taxpayer abortion act included language amended hyde amendment limited federal funding abortion cases rape incest mothers life danger law would removed exceptions forcible rape january 28 2011 mother jones article pointed would ruled federal assistance abortions many rape cases mother jones years federal laws restricting use government funds pay abortions included exemptions pregnancies resulting rape incest another exemption covers pregnancies could endanger life woman taxpayer funding abortion act bill 173 mostly republican cosponsors house speaker john boehner rohio dubbed top priority new congress contains provision would rewrite rules limit drastically definition rape incest cases legislation introduced last week rep chris smith rnj republicans propose rape exemption limited forcible rape would rule federal assistance abortions many rape cases including instances statutory rape many nonforcible example 13yearold girl impregnated 24yearold adult would longer qualify medicaid pay abortion smiths spokesman respond call email requesting comment mother jones 12811 virginia gop passed measure require invasive vaginal ultrasound abortions february republicans virginia house delegates introduced bill would required women early stages pregnancy undergo invasive transvaginal ultrasound abortion following public pressure house delegates passed modified version bill still requires medically unnecessary ultrasound mother jones virginias controversial mandatory ultrasound bill headed gov bob mcdonnells desk final version bill allows women opt invasive transvaginal ultrasound provision drew national spotlight last couple weeks dont fooled still burdensome law original bill would required women seeking abortion undergo whatever kind ultrasound gets best image embryo fetus early stages pregnancy vast majority abortions occur thats typically transvaginal ultrasound far invasive abdominal kind think jellyonthebelly requirement scrapped eleventh hour deluge national attention abortion rights activists said mandating invasive procedure amounted statesanctioned rape comparison clearly struck nerve saturday night live daily show took cracks bill thousand women gathered silent protest outside state capitol eventually mcdonnell backtracked initial support stating last week person directed undergo invasive procedure state without consent precondition another medical procedure mother jones 3312 pennsylvania gop proposed invasive ultrasound bill february republicans pennsylvania state house introduced legislation requiring medical professionals say women would undergo invasive vaginal ultrasound pennlivecom bill pennsylvania medical professionals say women would undergo invasive vaginal ultrasound prospect drawing outrage among supporters abortion rights bill proposed rep kathy rapp conservative republican warren county outlines women seeking abortion would undergo great detail bill requires woman get ultrasound ultrasound screen line sight woman choose look away legislation states technician performing ultrasound would note woman viewed results patient would also hear results physicians finding sign written report give abortion provider receive sealed copy ultrasounds image march 2 new york times noted state house majority leader canceled debate bill following national uproar similar proposal virginia state house majority leader announced thursday bill requiring ultrasounds abortions would considered soon shift followed national uproar similar proposal virginia originally worded would forced women vaginal ultrasounds majority leader mike turzai republican canceled debate bill critics said would require invasive procedures interfere doctorpatient relations spokesman stephen miskin said consensus within house medical community wont scheduled vote pennlivecom 22912 new york times 3212 alabama gop attempted pass transvaginal ultrasound bill february alabama gop state sen clay scofield ended debate bill would required transvaginal ultrasounds getting abortion huffington post alabama state sen clay scofield r backed provision monday would forced women submit transvaginal ultrasounds getting abortion move mirrors fate ultrasound measure virginia similarly scrapped favor one mandated less invasive procedure change course comes state sen linda coleman denounced transvaginal ultrasound bill nothing less statesanctioned rape bill arguing recent interview beyond restricting access safe abortion care bill amounts assault women huffington post 22812 gop lawmakers idaho introduced transvaginal ultrasound bill february gop lawmakers idaho senate state affairs committee unanimously voted introduce bill would required invasive transvaginal ultrasound procedure idaho woman could abortion spokesmanreview controversial antiabortion legislation caused brouhaha withdrawn virginia introduced idaho today require ultrasound idaho woman could abortion issue early stages pregnancy six eight weeks gestation regular abdominal ultrasound doesnt provide clear picture fetus requiring instead invasive transvaginal ultrasound procedure includes penetration patient ultrasound wand idaho senate assistant majority leader chuck winder rmeridian said original version bill specifically mentioned procedure removed spokesmanreview 22712 georgia gop cuts option abortion services 20 weeks march georgia republicans passed bill would cut six weeks time women georgia may elective abortion according atlanta journalconstitution bill would tighten medical exemptions terminating pregnancies require abortion performed 20 weeks pregnancy done way bring fetus alive exemption made rape incest originally written sponsor state rep doug mckillip rathens proposal would cut six weeks time women georgia may elective abortion senates changes forced bill exemption medically futile pregnancies giving doctors option perform abortion past 20 weeks fetus congenital chromosomal defects although house including mckillip house speaker david ralston rblue ridge initially balked agreed thursday move forward compromise include definition bill describing medically futile means profound irremediable anomalies would incompatible sustaining life birth commonly referred fetal pain bill house bill 954 would tighten medical exemptions terminating pregnancies require abortion performed 20 weeks pregnancy done way bring fetus alive exemption made rape incest measure says fetus feel pain 20 weeks therefore state interest protecting atlanta journalconstitution 32912 arizona gop promoting law restricts abortion 20 weeks requires ultrasound republicanled state legislature arizona promoting bill would ban abortions performed 20 weeks pregnancy reuters controversial arizona bill bans abortions performed 20 weeks pregnancy moved closer becoming law wednesday republicancontrolled state legislature clearing state senate bill would still allow abortions 20 weeks case medical emergency passed mostly partyline 20to10 vote senate tuesday small number abortions performed arizona 20 weeks arizona bill would also require women ultrasound least 24 hours prior abortion instead one hour currently mandated state law addition bill would require state create website details risks procedure shows pictures fetus various stages reuters 32812 2011 center reproductive rights monitored 600 antichoice bills would undermine womens autonomy fundamental rights health wellbeing state level center reproductive rights 201011 annual report center hardpressed cite time last twenty years rival volume severity recent period antiwoman antichild antihealth legislative action united states 2011 centers state program monitored 600 antichoice bills would undermine womens autonomy fundamental rights health wellbeing clear women fundamental rights health decisionmaking attacked center reproductive rights annual report 201011 house republicans voted cut funding planned parenthood february 2011 house approved gop rep mike pences amendment cut funding planned parenthood according february 18 2011 politico article house approved rep mike pences amendment cut funding planned parenthood checking hotbutton social issue even set bigger showdown defunding health care law vote 240185 11 democrats voting amendment seven republicans voting one member voted present group republicans floor applauded vote hit 218 longtime antiabortion crusader pence three times previously tried cut legislative funding called title x group provides abortions money used pay abortions pence argued planned parenthood used funds argues cutting support millions womens health clinics would cut ability perform procedure end day largest abortion provider largest recipient title x federal funding said whats clear follow money actually take funding supports abortion much better opportunity move forward society says yes life planned parenthood estimates received quarter 317 million title x funds appropriated last year use money pelvic exams breast exams safersex counseling basic infertility counseling among things politico 21811 gop sen roy blunt introduced amendment would allowed employer deny reproductive health coverage women march sen roy blunt rmo introduced amendment highway funding bill would allowed religious groups employer moral objections opt coverage requirement washington post senate thursday rejected effort vastly expand conscience exemptions obama administrations new birth control coverage rule even republican presidential contenders continued tussle issue measure amendment proposed sen roy blunt rmo highway funding bill would allowed religious groups employer moral objections opt coverage requirement would allowed employers case contraception health service required 2010 healthcare law washington post 3112 texas republican lawmakers voted restrict health services lowincome women march conservative republican lawmakers texas implemented law would cut clinics affiliation abortion provider even shared name employee board member usa today delia henry tired idea blood sugar high went planned parenthood annual gynecological exam clinic referred doctor diagnosed diabetes 31yearold nursing student said would skipped exam since insurance signed texas womens health program provides cancer screenings contraceptives basic health care 130000 lowincome women medicaid state law taking effect wednesday henry eligible women wont able get care planned parenthood clinics treat 44 programs patients facilities ties abortion providers meaning women find new healthcare providers 40 million program center faceoff conservative republican lawmakers federal government provides 90 programs funding although texas already forbids taxpayer money going organizations provide abortions law cut clinics affiliation provider even shared name employee board member nonpartisan center public policy priorities works alleviate poverty said poor women would difficulty finding new doctors participate program doctors clinics must qualified medicaid providers enrolled organizations manage program usa today 31112 gopled indiana legislature voted eliminate funding planned parenthood june 2011 federal judge struck law passed indiana gop state lawmakers would eliminated state federal matching funds going planned parenthood performs abortions reuters judge friday granted preliminary injunction preventing state indiana enforcing law eliminated funding planned parenthood performs abortions republicanled indiana legislature voted strip womens health group funding including money federal medicaid program poor indiana governor mitch daniels signed legislation law reuters 62511 wi gop gov scott walker repealed law aimed preventing gender wage discrimination april 5 wisconsin gov scott walker repealed law made easier victims wage discrimination day court huffington post wisconsin law made easier victims wage discrimination day court repealed thursday wisconsin gov scott walker r quietly signed bill 2009 equal pay enforcement act meant deter employers discriminating certain groups giving workers avenues via press charges among provisions allows individuals plead cases less costly accessible state circuit court system rather federal court november state senate approved sb 202 rolled back provision february assembly partyline votes republicancontrolled chambers sara finger executive director wawh said repeal demoralizing attack womens rights health wellbeing economic security womens health issue said salary women paid directly affects type frequency health care services able access time womens health services becoming expensive harder obtain financial stability essential maintain steady access huffington post 4612 limbaugh repeatedly called fluke slut prostitute promoting contraception coverage following georgetown law student sandra flukes congressional testimony support contraception coverage rush limbaugh repeatedly called fluke slut prostitute air february 29 edition premiere radio networks rush limbaugh show limbaugh say college coed susan fluke sic goes congressional committee essentially says must paid sex make makes slut right makes prostitute wants paid sex shes much sex cant afford contraception wants taxpayers pay sex make us pimps johns thats right would johns johns well yeah thats right pimps right word limbaugh later apologized fluke insulting word choices premiere radio networks rush limbaugh show 22912 via media matters rushlimbaughcom 3312 via media matters loesch fluke wants able promiscuous wants march 2 edition radio show cnn contributor dana loesch responded caller said fluke change career go work mustang ranch vegas said loesch oh gosh could know im telling shes worried money apparently instead going asking government see thats mike appreciate call comes doesnt want pay bills shes independent woman shes independent woman like destinys child song doesnt want take care business thats independent women independent women expect government characterized old cartoon uncle sam take care financial needs wants able promiscuous wants accoutrements go along wants financed government thats independent women kftk dana show 3212 via media matters jim hoft fluke insisted prostitute wanting government pay sex college march 2 gateway pundit post titled hotandbothered coed demanded free birth control congress responds critics insists shes prostitute jim hoft wrote thursday night msnbcs ed schultz interviewed hotandbothered georgetown coed sandra fluke woman went congressional panel demanded free birth control peers sandra fluke mocked rush limbaugh radio show week insisted prostitute wanting government pay sex college gateway pundit 3212 emphasis original foxs hannity limbaugh making point crying loud taxpayer bearing cost sex life students georgetown university law school march 2 edition radio show fox news host sean hannity said hannity absolutely know sense confidence right watched woman sandra fluke give testimony sense entitlement outrage fact fellow law students pay contraception people mad rush limbaugh rush limbaugh ive fan years years say illustrates absurdity absurd rush says well going pay get videos mean know mean hes making point point crying loud taxpayer bearing cost sex life students georgetown university law school thats missed media mean maybe could take year law school pay fund know remaining three years ones sex life premiere radio networks sean hannity show 3212 via media matters | 2,986 |
<p>&#160; &#160; Former University of Southern California tailback Anthony Davis in 1973. (David F. Smith / AP)</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/scheer-intelligence/anthony-davis-and-the-repercussions-of-a-football-career" type="external">this week’s “Scheer Intelligence”</a> podcast on KCRW, Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer speaks with former USC football player Anthony Davis about living with the brain injuries Davis sustained during his celebrated career.</p>
<p>Co-author with Jeremy Rosenberg, a USC assistant dean,&#160;of the 2014 book “Kick-Off Concussion: How the Notre Dame Killer Recovered His Brain,” Davis recounts his discovery of his various cognitive problems. He and Scheer talk about whether there can be such a thing as a completely “safe” sport, and Davis discusses his hope that the NFL implements monitors to improve players’ safety. Rosenberg joins the discussion as well.</p>
<p>Transcript:</p>
<p />
<p>Robert Scheer: Hello, there, this is Robert Scheer with another edition of Scheer Intelligence; hopefully, the intelligence will come from my guests in this podcast. One of them is a very famous USC football player, and we are doing this at the new Annenberg facility at USC. And we have Jeremy Rosenberg, who was an assistant dean here for the last five years in the Annenberg School. And the two of you have written a book about Anthony Davis’s experience, but it’s not really an on-the-field book; it’s a book about the consequences of playing football, particularly what happens to your brain. The book is called Kick Off Concussion. It has an introduction by a doctor that did pioneering research in this book, which I’m sure you’ll talk about, Dr. Daniel Amen from Orange County. The subtitle is, How the Notre Dame Killer Recovered His Brain. So you were this great hero in the field, and the reason I love talking to you and having you come in and speak to our students here is it gives them both sides of this sport. You’re a big fan of it; you’ve felt it added a lot to your life; you went on to play professional ball and so forth; you got to see a lot of the world. On the other hand, you’re living proof of the damage that football as a rough sport can do. So why don’t you just tell me what you try to say in this book and what it’s all about?</p>
<p>Anthony Davis: Well, first of all, starting off about my problems with the concussions, it started with a guy, a gentleman by the name of Don Bakos, who went here as a pharmaceutical major, who became the head pharmacist at Cedars Sinai. His hobby was taking photos of athletes, and I happened to be his favorite athlete. That’s how I met [him]. He had a whole library full of photos of me that I’d never seen. And so we started conversing about injuries and how I got out of the game so early, and he knew I had some issues with my weight. He said, ‘But, ah, have you ever had your brain scanned?’ I said, no, I don’t need it. He says, ‘Well, you’ve been hit in the head several times, and I know you’ve had a couple of concussions. You might have had more.’ And he said, ‘Have you ever heard of a gentleman by the name of Dr. Daniel Amen?’ I says, no, not at all. So I had some episodes with memory, and right after I talked about it, walking out of my house, forgetting that I’d locked the door, did I lock it, going back and forth. And then the thing that turned me toward Dr. Amen was that incident on the 405 freeway where I blanked out. I said, I need to get ahold of Don. So he arranged it, and that’s how I realized that I had a problem. Then realizing, also, some of my colleagues past and present had it even worse, after meeting Dr. Amen.</p>
<p>RS: What year was that when you blanked out on the 405?</p>
<p>AD: That was two thousand, ah, 2007.</p>
<p>RS: So while we’re talking here, students in my class are watching a very good FRONTLINE PBS documentary, ‘League of Denial.’ And it’s all about how the National Football League basically denied that there was a problem here. And then most recently, The New York Times had an investigative piece in March of 2016 showing how there’d been a deliberate cover-up of the significance of these injuries. And they made the comparison with the tobacco industry, [which] concealed the bad effects of smoking and had phony science and so forth. In the case of the National Football League, when they went through the studies, it turns out they were relying on professional football teams to give them the data; these teams distorted the data, they left out a hundred, ten percent of the cases of people that had serious injury. And you know, basically, it’s a cover-up. And so, but at the time when you discovered this, there wasn’t much talk about concussion. Kids were still being encouraged to play football at an early age, and the negative consequences were really played down. Why? Because football, first of all, on a college level, is a way of these colleges finding meaning in their existence as well as financial support; and then on the professional level, it’s America’s sport in terms of the audience it commands, the money that’s generated. So what was the mood when you first discovered you had a problem from your football career? What was the reaction of people? Did they believe it, did they think it was real?</p>
<p>AD: Well, first of all, myself, when I met Amen, and talking to him, I [thought], this is hokey-pokey. This is voodoo medicine. I mean, even though I’d had a problem, I said you know something, I’m not going to believe what this guy is talking about. And so he says, ‘Well, Anthony, first, if you want to hear the results of your scan,’ he says, ‘how many concussions do you think you had?’ I said, I think I’ve had maybe two. He said, ‘No, you had three. So if you had three, you probably had more.’ And he says, ‘You remember any incidents?’ I said I remembered one time getting knocked out, don’t remember part of the game. So I took a trip to [California] when he put me on the supplement program. And I had been on the program for about a month; I got there, but I left my supplements down in Southern California. Well, I was feeling better, but I found the effects of not taking it for two or three days, and I realized that I had a problem. And I went and contacted him, and he said ‘Well, we diagnosed you; you needed to stay on the product.’ And I, from that day on, I never, I do not leave unless I have my supplements. That’s daily; I take it religiously. So from that point, Dr. Amen and his staff said, ‘You know something, I’d like to do an NFL study.’ So what I did, arranged with him, was to go meet with the Southern California sector of the Retired [Players] Association here in Southern California. And he met with about fifty of us, and that’s when we launched the program. While we were doing the book, Jeremy and I, it was like 115 guys who got scanned. He calls me the father of his brain study, because I was the first guy. And so that’s what escalated everything, and then also, you know, Dr. Bennet Omalu, in combination with him, that raised, escalated the awareness of the concussion situation. And then the mothers started to get involved: should my kid play this game? And I became a major advocate of the fact that the more trauma you had, and once you put a helmet on your head the trauma starts; it doesn’t go away. And you got to remember, when a kid is 12 years old putting a helmet on his head, the trauma begins. So you realize that some guys who played Pop Warner football, which is maybe three years; then you got high school, four years; that’s seven. Then you got college, that’s four more; you know, that’s eleven. Then some guys play [that] which I call the really serious, crucial yeaRS: eight, nine, ten years of professional football. Now, Dr. Amen says, ‘You only, you didn’t play long in football because other injuries made you retire’ – bad back, broke my leg, hurt my shoulder. He said, it was very fortunate you got out of the game when you did, because of your concussions. Visualize some guys playing ten to 15 years. In the case of Junior Seau, he played 20 years of professional football. Prior of all other years he played—Pop Warner, high school. You can’t play twenty years of professional football without any consequences.</p>
<p>RS: Yeah, I remember a very sad evening when you came in to speak in my class, and we showed a movie about concussion, and a family member of Junior Seau’s family was there. And you know, discussed how painful that whole experience was, and what it did to her father.</p>
<p>AD: Well, I was very upset about that; when I saw her, it was very emotional for me. I feel a little guilty, because when he had his first episode, I needed to get on the phone and call Junior, and I didn’t do it; get up here, and I didn’t do it; knowing him so many years when he was ‘SC, USC here, in the pros. And it still bothers me to this day that if, could I have made that call, and it’d have got here?</p>
<p>RS: You were a three-letter athlete, right?</p>
<p>AD: No, I was two. Baseball and football.</p>
<p>RS: –two, baseball and football—oh, I thought you played a little basketball.</p>
<p>AD: Oh no, no, I wasn’t that good.</p>
<p>Jeremy Rosenberg: That’s a different Anthony Davis. Who had a concussion also, by the way.</p>
<p>AD: But I played on five national championship teams here, three in baseball, two in football, and all-American in both.</p>
<p>RS: You had a choice. You actually might have been a better baseball player than you were a football player, no? I’m not taking anything away from your football prowess, but you were, you know, headed for a good, major career, right?</p>
<p>AD: Well, first of all, if I’d do it over, it’s no football. I was the number one draft choice out of high school, Baltimore Orioles.</p>
<p>RS: In baseball, yeah.</p>
<p>AD: Most people thought that was my career. And to this day, if you talk to people who know anything about my career, ‘He’s a better baseball player.’ I think about that all the time. And even my late baseball coach, Rod Dedeaux’s, his favorite words, ‘Tiger, you got to play baseball. What you’re doing on the football field is all right, but baseball is your game.’RS: Yeah, that’s what people have said about you who have looked at your life. So what got you to go into football, the glamour?</p>
<p>AD: No, it wasn’t glamour so much; it was financial, it was family issues. And the money was right away; baseball, I might have gone to minors for a while. But according to the guy who drafted me, said—and Jeremy was there interviewing him—he says I’m in the big leagues in no time. But that was sort of sad to hear, too, because I thought I was going at least two or three years in the minor leagues. He says no, we projected you to be in the big leagues at nineteen.</p>
<p>RS: When you say the money, though, does that mean they gave you a scholarship at USC, or—?</p>
<p>AD: Well, I had a scholarship to play two sports.</p>
<p>JR: A.D., tell how much money you got for the World Football League deal that you took instead of a minor league baseball salary that would have put you in, like, Bluefield, West Virginia.</p>
<p>AD: Well, it was—back in the day, I signed a five-year, $1.8 million contract, which is a lot of money in those years. So how is a kid going to turn that down from the humble beginnings he’s come from? So I’m thinking about all the different things that I struggled through; my mother, who to this day I still look out for and take care of. So that was one of the major factors of why I did what I did.</p>
<p>RS: Well, tell me about the humble beginnings, because you know, I’ve been watching film clips of you, and there’s no mention on ESPN or on USC’s football, of any of your background or what you did before you got here. All we see is this guy running around the field like, you know, getting in harm’s way.</p>
<p>AD: Well, I don’t know if they’re in the business of really talking about my childhood, but maybe that can change a little bit if I’m that important to the program and the school overall. I don’t know why, but it made me the athlete and the person that I am, my background.</p>
<p>RS: Well, tell us about it.</p>
<p>AD: I really didn’t have a father influence. My father was a devout alcoholic, which I call him—I mean, I can say it—I call him a sociopathic ignoramus. Not the fact that he was that, but he portrayed himself that way. And plus he had an alcohol problem. And so I really didn’t have any proper guidance. When I should have been getting nurtured about the world I was stepping into—especially in the days, I grew up in the Jim Crow era anyway, and didn’t really know what to face in the public eye. But behind doors, I was mistreated along with my other siblings. And I don’t know how my mother kept us together. My mother always wanted to put us in a different environment so we could flourish in different areas, because she realized we had some talent in our family; my brother’s an attorney, done real well, went to your alma mater, Cal. My daughter went to Cal, and my sister went here, USC. So she knew, but she had to battle his alcoholism, his abusiveness, to keep everything together. So that’s one of the reasons I drove and did [what I did]. Now, if I’d have been nurtured, it might have been a different story.</p>
<p>RS: But you know, you talk about the Jim Crow days, and here we are in Los Angeles, and you think, well, it wasn’t the Deep South. But I remember in class, you once told the students that you would stand on one building over there that you guys called the Ghetto Steps—</p>
<p>AD: [Laughs]</p>
<p>JR: VKC [VonKleinSmid Center]!</p>
<p>RS: And—huh?</p>
<p>AD: VKC, the steps. It was pretty much where the minorities hung out, the blacks. Because back in the day, when I was here, the majority of the blacks that went here were on the football team or athletic team, either basketball track or football. Majority of us was football. But it didn’t mean it isolated the rest, because whites and everyone else came and joined us, too. But you know, when you had a break between class, we all went to the ghetto steps.</p>
<p>RS: Well, I remember doing a year of graduate work at Syracuse University; that was 1958, where Jim Brown had been, and Ernie Davis and others. And there on Marshall Street, you know, right down that main drag, you’d go in there and the black students were sitting at one corner and one table—this is in the north, in Syracuse. But you know, yet, ‘SC was a way out, right? ‘SC was—</p>
<p>AD: You got to remember, in the Jim Crow years, the problem with discrimination was in the Deep South, if you know anything about American history; from Texas to Florida, that was the heart of it. But when you went northeast, if you went southwest, you saw sprinkles of it; but the majority of it was in the South. And so Jim Brown, I’ve had conversations with Jim Brown. See, the only reason Jim Brown got to play is because the other four runningbacks got injured at Syracuse. Went on, became this great All-American, and should have won the Heisman himself. So you know, he told me the story of how he went to Texas, deep Texas when they played in the Sugar Bowl—no, the Cotton Bowl—and that they refused to let the team play if Jim Brown played. So his whole team collectively said, if you’re not going to let him play, we’re all going home. But that’s what happened, because he was a star.</p>
<p>RS: Well, ‘SC was involved in a similar incident, wasn’t—</p>
<p>AD: Well, it was the 1970 game, which I’m part of. Matter of fact, the producer might be here tonight, his name is Kerry McCluggage, who’s working on this [film] project. And ‘SC played the first integrated game.</p>
<p>RS: In the SEC.</p>
<p>AD: In the SEC. Whereas George Wallace at the time was the governor; the legendary Bear Bryant was the coach—</p>
<p>RS: This was Alabama.</p>
<p>AD: Was Alabama. And you know, Alabama was unbelievable; like, it was so segregated—</p>
<p>RS: But Bear Bryant was in on it, he wanted to integrate.</p>
<p>AD: No, he wanted, he always wanted to integrate.</p>
<p>RS: Yeah.</p>
<p>AD: I had the privilege of sitting with him in 1975 when I won the award of the most valuable player for ABC television, the most valuable player awards, won on television. He was also awarded—and he sat there and told me verbatim, he says, ‘Anthony, I get tabbed as being a devout racist. But I’ve always wanted to integrate the SEC.’ And I said well, coach, you’re the big name in the SEC. He says, ‘Well, I always wanted to have integration. And I hated the fact that’ —another player that was from Alabama named Clarence Davis—whose family actually moved to California, he went to East L.A. College and came to ‘SC, two-year All-American—was right there in the backyards of Bear Bryant. He mentioned that. And he says, ‘But a lot of blacks during that period of time didn’t even consider going to Alabama in the schools, because they don’t allow blacks to even participate and go to schools there.’ Their attitudes were, well, get out of high school, get a job, that’s it. You’re either sharecropping, or working in the factories, or whatever. Football was out. And Bear explained it. He was very, he was hurt by that, because he was tabbed as, like, the George Wallaces of that era.</p>
<p>JR: You know, Chapter 4, I think, of the book, which is titled ‘NFL’—‘not for long,’ or—</p>
<p>AD: You can say it. It’s not—</p>
<p>JR: I’m not going to say it. [Laughs]</p>
<p>AD: —well, I mean, you know. But I carried that—that’s one of the reasons I wear the symbol of this ring. I don’t wear the ring because, I wear the symbol for what a 90-year-old man said to me. I know you don’t like referring to the N-word, but this is what that old man said, 90-year-old guy. I saw him at CW &amp; Chris down in western South Central Los Angeles.RS: What ring is that?</p>
<p>AD: This is an NFL ring, this is an NFL Players Association ring. This states that I played in the league, but there’s other things that I added to it. And this man helped me add it to it. He says—I hope you don’t get shut down. [Laughs]</p>
<p>RS: No, go ahead, go ahead, this is public radio, we can talk.</p>
<p>AD: Anyway, the gentleman was looking at me, says you know, you’re Anthony Davis; I’ve watched you play and saw your pro career, and I know you got injured. But you see that ring you got on your hand, son? It means three things to me. NFL, not for long, and nigga for life. I said, wow, why did he say that?</p>
<p>RS: This is a white guy?</p>
<p>AD: It was a black guy.</p>
<p>RS: A black guy.</p>
<p>AD: Ninety years old. He said, ‘I’m 90 years old. I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen a man lynched, I’ve seen a man shot, I’ve seen everything. I’m from the Deep South.’</p>
<p>JR: And the chapter of the book begins with you saying, my mom Velma, she was born a slave—OK, we called it sharecropping down in Texas, you know, dot, dot, dot. She wouldn’t let you go play, right, in any SEC school? She wanted you to play here or—</p>
<p>AD: First, I was getting recruited. And she said, hey, he’s not going anywhere in the South. She said, all the letters coming to the high school for him, throw in the trash.</p>
<p>RS: So let me get it back to this issue, because you’ve been a pioneer—you’ve been a pioneer in a number of ways. But you know, everybody around ‘SC, what they know about you is you had it made; you were the great star, you saved ‘SC, you’re the Notre Dame Killer; you had this great, you’re a legend, right? Here, you’re a legend. And yet, there’s another side to it. Right? Injuries. You know, what happens after. Why don’t you give us that picture and talk about particularly the issue of concussions, which have been played down until recently?</p>
<p>JR: And I’ll just add in at the beginning here, before A.D. goes, that in the book we have two images, two brain scans, right. And when Dr. Amen was scanning your brain as one of those hundred and now fifty football players he’d scanned, he analyzed your brain and said at age 54, when you got scanned, you had the brain equivalent to an 85-year-old. So then after you started doing, you know, your work with him, I think you scanned it down to the equivalent of a 65-year-old. So while he may look good—before you and I knew him, obviously, you were a mess; and inside, obviously, even a bigger mess.</p>
<p>AD: Well, I realized it because you know, looking back, I made bad decisions; I was irrational; anger; just associated myself with bad people. And I realized, God, look, did you do all of this? Because you do a review of your life sometimes; you know, how you sit around, you sort of get reviewing your life, said, why did I do that? If I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t have had these problems today. From a societal situation, business situation, financial situation, family situation, my choices were off-base. I feel that I’m focused now; I’m in a good situation with my business; I have good people around me.</p>
<p>RS: What was the response of this college or any college? Because you know a lot of these football players, and did the college take any responsibility for any of the injuries, did they care?</p>
<p>AD: No. No, and I’m a big advocate of that; the NCAA and NFL, like you just mentioned earlier, now that they’ve admitted it, now, I think it’s time for the NCAA, especially the game of football, and the NFL, they need to step up and do something to help these guys. Most guys are not going professionally. And if you have—and I know every guy that puts a helmet on the head has brain trauma. And, like, I would like to see, if you’re going to play this game, you should have a comprehensive supplement program; you should get hyperbaric treatment; and the school, the NCAA should make sure each program has that program, along with the NFL. Since the NFL has now admitted it, to the situation. But I believe that they’re going to start putting limits on guys, how long they play, based on a yearly scan. There’s guys walking around here that have eight or nine concussions, still playing.</p>
<p>RS: Let me ask you a question. Because for a young black kid growing up now in L.A., football or basketball, these are the ways that they think about getting out.</p>
<p>AD: Out of the hood.</p>
<p>RS: Right? So you’re holding up a model, the media is holding up a model, of all right, you know, maybe learning is not as important; maybe school’s not as important, but you know, if you’re big enough, fast enough, you’re going to have a way out here. And there are probably a lot of kids you run into and say, hey, you’re Anthony Davis.</p>
<p>AD: What I stress to a kid and a mother and a father that walks up, I say listen, you might be a great athlete, but academics is the way out, not sports.</p>
<p>RS: Do you think the schools should do more, or the colleges?</p>
<p>AD: I think every school should do more. I think they should monitor every student athlete that comes here and make sure they have certain parts to play. If you can perform great on the field, you better perform in the classroom just as well, or be a participant and be able to be functional in these classrooms, where most of them are not, nationwide. It’s a problem nationwide.</p>
<p>RS: What about the contradiction that the coach is getting these enormous salaries, and the student’s getting so little?</p>
<p>AD: Well, that’s a problem, too. I mean, here, the thing, when I tell guys, students being recruited, I say listen: a coach can be there, they get two or three or four, five million dollars a year; you don’t get that; you should participate in some of that salary. And also, too, don’t ever come to a school where a coach says you’re going to be this, you’re going to be that, and next year he’s gone. Don’t base your decision on going to a school, based on what the coach tells you; you base your decision on the school that fits your need for the future.</p>
<p>JR: You took the 1.5 and bolted before your graduation.</p>
<p>AD: Right.</p>
<p>JR: So you’re not just saying that as somebody who hasn’t been through it.</p>
<p>AD: Absolutely.</p>
<p>JR: You’ve told me many times you regret that and would love to come back.</p>
<p>AD: I regret it. I regret it, but the thing that I had, I think I had going better than most guys, I had some focus; I knew I wanted to do something outside of the game, basically what I’m doing today. A lot of guys don’t have that.</p>
<p>RS: What are you doing today</p>
<p>AD: I’m in the real estate development business. I’m with a group called Greenlaw Partners. It’s a bout seven of us from USC.</p>
<p>RS: Frankly—I’ve gotten to know you a little bit, and frankly, I don’t see the damage. I mean, so tell me about concussions; tell me about the downside. Because you present as a very together person. What’s the hard side of this experience?</p>
<p>AD: Getting knocked down. I mean, just—having it all, and hitting that valley or floor, and struggling to try to climb that mountain again. That’s the toughest thing, realizing that you made so many mistakes, that you were off-base; you were hurt. And frankly, you’re pretty much dying. Because I was headed to pre-Alzheimer’s.RS: I mean, what, you couldn’t think right, or—?</p>
<p>AD: Oh, I wasn’t focused. I couldn’t focus—</p>
<p>JR: You told me you made a lot of mistakes in your personal life—</p>
<p>AD: I made a lot of mistakes; I mean, I made a lot of mistakes, business-wise, across the board. A lot of mistakes. I’m very fortunate to be able to sit here and tell you that I’m focused now, and ready, and been doing this for the last seven, eight years in terms of having my act together.</p>
<p>RS: It’s difficult for someone who hasn’t been in your shoes to understand the life of any successful athlete. I know from my own students there’s a lot of jealousy, you know; if you talk about student athletes, ‘Yeah, well, but they get this, and they get that, and they got a chance to have’—there’s a lot of resentment. And you know, ‘We pay tuition too, and we work hard.’ And when you discovered that you had problems, what was the response of the school or your old friends, of the media, or the sports writers? Were they aware that there was a problem with concussions? Was it ever—when you started talking about this, how were you received by the reporters you used to know?</p>
<p>AD: Thought I was wacko. They said, he’s smoking something. Listen, you know, when I started [getting] involved with this, I wasn’t aware, I was very ignorant of it, myself. I’ve been educated over the last eight years on this topic. They thought I was nuts; they said, oh, he must have had a drinking problem, he must have had a drug problem. Because a lot of that stuff floated around, too, you know. Lost all his money, did this, blah, blah, blah—which a lot of guys have substance problems even today when they get out, because of this. All they’re trying to do is combat the pain and stuff. But the bottom line is, those are the kinds of things that rumors are flying around even through the press, and even when people see me, oh, you know, that’s AD, he used to—</p>
<p>RS: But isn’t there a kind of corruption of the media? They’re making a living off guys like you; papers get sold, TV ratings go up, there’s a whole industry around sports. You’re the Bad News Bear here; you’re bringing news that, even with the helmet, that’s not safe.</p>
<p>AD: No.</p>
<p>JR: This is something that A.D. and I would talk about a lot when we would meet up on—</p>
<p>RS: How’d you guys meet, anyway? I should reintroduce you, Jeremy, because there’s this guy keeps piping up his voice. What’s your connection?</p>
<p>AD: I was bugged about doing this book, since I was the father of this concussion movement. And so I conversed, and then I said, well, I thought about Annenberg; and then I called an assistant or person who worked under—</p>
<p>RS: This is the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism! Yes.</p>
<p>AD: Right. And so they said, we’re looking for a guy that can work with me on putting a book together, and he was recommended by the Annenberg staff.</p>
<p>RS: And you were assistant dean here.</p>
<p>JR: I was. At that point I wasn’t yet.</p>
<p>RS: Well, let me put you on the spot, Jeremy Rosenberg. So you were part of the establishment here at a major university, major academically as well as in athletics. And when you started doing this story about here’s one of ‘SC’s great heroes, did people want to know about the downside?</p>
<p>JR: I was not, ah—I think I was a consultant at that time, so I wasn’t actually part of the administration at that moment. But when the book came out, I was. And A.D. made it clear from the start that this could be a book on the real, that we weren’t going to sugar coat anything; if he wanted to talk about the, quote unquote, ghetto steps at VKC and what life was like on campus then as opposed to what it was like at a UC school, like UCLA, where Angela Davis was, as you say, ‘rocking her fro’—he said, let’s put that all in there. So A.D. wanted it to be a full look, warts and all, at his life, at college life, at professional life. Frankly, administrators here didn’t ask what I was doing and didn’t ever, you know, read manuscripts in advance, didn’t ask to. So I wish I had gotten to have some kind of a debate or discussion with people, but frankly, they—maybe in keeping with that A.D. had disappeared a little bit off people’s radar—you know, they weren’t checking up on me and saying what are you up to, what are you doing. I will say that when you asked, you’ve talked before about concussions and the electronic media and how everyone is, you know, in a way—my word—involved in a conspiracy of sorts or a collusion of sorts, or they’re all connected. I wanted to jump on that; that’s what A.D. and I would talk about a lot when we’d meet up to write the book: what’s the future of pro football? You two, I know, are big NFL or pro football fans; I’m more of a world football, soccer fan, so it wouldn’t hurt me as much if that game disappeared. But we’d talk all the time, like, could it go away? And when you scenario plan it out, I think that it’s highly unlikely that the NFL will disappear, because yes, there’s a lot of fans; but more importantly, just like the Pentagon has, when they get a primary contractor and a million subcontractors, there are parts being made for some ship that isn’t even needed by that branch of the armed services, in so many Congressional districts, the NFL has so many media partners, streaming media partners, so the new media companies are involved; all the advertisers. You could think of, instead of a factory building a ship part in a different district, you could think of the stadiums as being 30 factories, you know, production factories for football games. So as much as I might be fine with football going away and it just becoming a virtual sport where people can still gamble based on VR and AR, and they can still gather like in Esports Arena to watch the game and cheer and tailgate, I think that it’s highly unlikely that there’s going to be anything more than incremental change, despite what the NFL just admitted.</p>
<p>RS: You know, you bring up an uncomfortable point. Yeah, I’m an Oakland Raiders season ticket fan; I’ve been there since the 1960s, you know, I’m a hypocrite, I’ll admit it—</p>
<p>JR: And my soccer players bang heads hitting the ball and get concussions that way.</p>
<p>RS: –OK, and I’ll admit that, but then you know, the fact is, you do hear people tell you, no! Sports are great! And they bring camaraderie, you learn a lot; I’ve heard you say that, you know. And so let’s wrap this up with, where are we going with this thing?</p>
<p>AD: Well, this is Robert Dixon when it comes to organized football: The more the concussion’s out publicly, amongst mothers with sons, it’s going to start right there. The less they play, that’s going to be the diminish of the future farm teams of college and professional football. And I believe if it does continue, both on the collegiate and the professional level, I believe it’s going to be a scanning program on how long guys can play. If you have some serious head injuries, you’re not going to play anymore. I believe that the NFL eventually will scan each player’s brain every year; that’s where it’s headed. And make a determination of whether or not this guy’s going to play or not. And you have guys that play on Sunday who fake the protocol, the concussion protocol, to get back out there. But down the road, you’re going to pay [the price]—I believe that’s where it’s going. And oh, by the way, as we speak, there’s been eight related deaths this past year, and concussions are up 50 percent in the National Football League from last year. So it’s coming to a crossroad, and they have to make a decision what they do. I know it’s a lot of money, means a lot, lot of sponsorship. And you’ve got 32 of the collectively, 32 collective richest men in the world that control the National Football League. So you got to make a decision, and you got to let them know, listen, you’re playing football—it’s a great game, but it’s a dangerous game, and you got to let everybody know the consequences of playing this game and what the repercussions will be after you play five to six or maybe ten years.</p>
<p>RS: Can it be made safe?</p>
<p>AD: No. You could put a tank around your head. No one can see it, but [shakes water bottle, sound of water sloshing] You can hear that? That’s what your brain feels like when you get hit. It shakes. You could put a six-inch wall around that head, but the brain is soft matter. It’s like cottage cheese, and every time it bangs against the walls, that’s damage. That’s trauma.</p>
<p>RS: Are there sane sports, and is baseball or maybe basketball one of them, where you don’t suffer that much? And maybe football, certainly if it were not so lucrative to so many people financially, maybe football would be history?</p>
<p>AD: It’s very lucrative. I mean, it’s the number one sport in the country. I don’t know what they’re going to do. They’re at a crossroads; they got to make a decision what they’re going to do. I mean, I’ll probably be long gone before something happens; no one will probably be in this room before it happens, or it might be the tail end of my life. But I see it changing dramatically.</p>
<p>JR: I’m telling you, holograms, VR, AR, you can still gamble, you can still gather, you can still tailgate—just won’t be any concussions, because homo sapiens won’t be involved. [Laughter]</p>
<p>RS: Turn it virtual. Jeremy Rosenberg, Anthony Davis, a great legend at USC, one of the great football centers. And want to thank you for coming in here for this edition of Scheer Intelligence podcast. You’ve added a lot of intelligence to the enterprise.</p>
<p>AD, JR: Thank you.</p>
<p>RS: That’s it for another edition of Scheer Intelligence. My guests were Anthony Davis and Jeremy Rosenberg. Producers Josh Scheer and Rebecca Mooney, with a big assist from Sebastian Grubaugh at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.</p> | true | 4 | 160 160 former university southern california tailback anthony davis 1973 david f smith ap weeks scheer intelligence podcast kcrw truthdig editor chief robert scheer speaks former usc football player anthony davis living brain injuries davis sustained celebrated career coauthor jeremy rosenberg usc assistant dean160of 2014 book kickoff concussion notre dame killer recovered brain davis recounts discovery various cognitive problems scheer talk whether thing completely safe sport davis discusses hope nfl implements monitors improve players safety rosenberg joins discussion well transcript robert scheer hello robert scheer another edition scheer intelligence hopefully intelligence come guests podcast one famous usc football player new annenberg facility usc jeremy rosenberg assistant dean last five years annenberg school two written book anthony daviss experience really onthefield book book consequences playing football particularly happens brain book called kick concussion introduction doctor pioneering research book im sure youll talk dr daniel amen orange county subtitle notre dame killer recovered brain great hero field reason love talking come speak students gives sides sport youre big fan youve felt added lot life went play professional ball forth got see lot world hand youre living proof damage football rough sport dont tell try say book anthony davis well first starting problems concussions started guy gentleman name bakos went pharmaceutical major became head pharmacist cedars sinai hobby taking photos athletes happened favorite athlete thats met whole library full photos id never seen started conversing injuries got game early knew issues weight said ah ever brain scanned said dont need says well youve hit head several times know youve couple concussions might said ever heard gentleman name dr daniel amen says episodes memory right talked walking house forgetting id locked door lock going back forth thing turned toward dr amen incident 405 freeway blanked said need get ahold arranged thats realized problem realizing also colleagues past present even worse meeting dr amen rs year blanked 405 ad two thousand ah 2007 rs talking students class watching good frontline pbs documentary league denial national football league basically denied problem recently new york times investigative piece march 2016 showing thered deliberate coverup significance injuries made comparison tobacco industry concealed bad effects smoking phony science forth case national football league went studies turns relying professional football teams give data teams distorted data left hundred ten percent cases people serious injury know basically coverup time discovered wasnt much talk concussion kids still encouraged play football early age negative consequences really played football first college level way colleges finding meaning existence well financial support professional level americas sport terms audience commands money thats generated mood first discovered problem football career reaction people believe think real ad well first met amen talking thought hokeypokey voodoo medicine mean even though id problem said know something im going believe guy talking says well anthony first want hear results scan says many concussions think said think ive maybe two said three three probably says remember incidents said remembered one time getting knocked dont remember part game took trip california put supplement program program month got left supplements southern california well feeling better found effects taking two three days realized problem went contacted said well diagnosed needed stay product day never leave unless supplements thats daily take religiously point dr amen staff said know something id like nfl study arranged go meet southern california sector retired players association southern california met fifty us thats launched program book jeremy like 115 guys got scanned calls father brain study first guy thats escalated everything also know dr bennet omalu combination raised escalated awareness concussion situation mothers started get involved kid play game became major advocate fact trauma put helmet head trauma starts doesnt go away got remember kid 12 years old putting helmet head trauma begins realize guys played pop warner football maybe three years got high school four years thats seven got college thats four know thats eleven guys play call really serious crucial years eight nine ten years professional football dr amen says didnt play long football injuries made retire bad back broke leg hurt shoulder said fortunate got game concussions visualize guys playing ten 15 years case junior seau played 20 years professional football prior years playedpop warner high school cant play twenty years professional football without consequences rs yeah remember sad evening came speak class showed movie concussion family member junior seaus family know discussed painful whole experience father ad well upset saw emotional feel little guilty first episode needed get phone call junior didnt get didnt knowing many years sc usc pros still bothers day could made call itd got rs threeletter athlete right ad two baseball football rs two baseball footballoh thought played little basketball ad oh wasnt good jeremy rosenberg thats different anthony davis concussion also way ad played five national championship teams three baseball two football allamerican rs choice actually might better baseball player football player im taking anything away football prowess know headed good major career right ad well first id football number one draft choice high school baltimore orioles rs baseball yeah ad people thought career day talk people know anything career hes better baseball player think time even late baseball coach rod dedeauxs favorite words tiger got play baseball youre football field right baseball gamers yeah thats people said looked life got go football glamour ad wasnt glamour much financial family issues money right away baseball might gone minors according guy drafted saidand jeremy interviewing himhe says im big leagues time sort sad hear thought going least two three years minor leagues says projected big leagues nineteen rs say money though mean gave scholarship usc ad well scholarship play two sports jr ad tell much money got world football league deal took instead minor league baseball salary would put like bluefield west virginia ad well wasback day signed fiveyear 18 million contract lot money years kid going turn humble beginnings hes come im thinking different things struggled mother day still look take care one major factors rs well tell humble beginnings know ive watching film clips theres mention espn uscs football background got see guy running around field like know getting harms way ad well dont know theyre business really talking childhood maybe change little bit im important program school overall dont know made athlete person background rs well tell us ad really didnt father influence father devout alcoholic call himi mean say iti call sociopathic ignoramus fact portrayed way plus alcohol problem really didnt proper guidance getting nurtured world stepping intoespecially days grew jim crow era anyway didnt really know face public eye behind doors mistreated along siblings dont know mother kept us together mother always wanted put us different environment could flourish different areas realized talent family brothers attorney done real well went alma mater cal daughter went cal sister went usc knew battle alcoholism abusiveness keep everything together thats one reasons drove id nurtured might different story rs know talk jim crow days los angeles think well wasnt deep south remember class told students would stand one building guys called ghetto steps ad laughs jr vkc vonkleinsmid center rs andhuh ad vkc steps pretty much minorities hung blacks back day majority blacks went football team athletic team either basketball track football majority us football didnt mean isolated rest whites everyone else came joined us know break class went ghetto steps rs well remember year graduate work syracuse university 1958 jim brown ernie davis others marshall street know right main drag youd go black students sitting one corner one tablethis north syracuse know yet sc way right sc ad got remember jim crow years problem discrimination deep south know anything american history texas florida heart went northeast went southwest saw sprinkles majority south jim brown ive conversations jim brown see reason jim brown got play four runningbacks got injured syracuse went became great allamerican heisman know told story went texas deep texas played sugar bowlno cotton bowland refused let team play jim brown played whole team collectively said youre going let play going home thats happened star rs well sc involved similar incident wasnt ad well 1970 game im part matter fact producer might tonight name kerry mccluggage whos working film project sc played first integrated game rs sec ad sec whereas george wallace time governor legendary bear bryant coach rs alabama ad alabama know alabama unbelievable like segregated rs bear bryant wanted integrate ad wanted always wanted integrate rs yeah ad privilege sitting 1975 award valuable player abc television valuable player awards television also awardedand sat told verbatim says anthony get tabbed devout racist ive always wanted integrate sec said well coach youre big name sec says well always wanted integration hated fact another player alabama named clarence daviswhose family actually moved california went east la college came sc twoyear allamericanwas right backyards bear bryant mentioned says lot blacks period time didnt even consider going alabama schools dont allow blacks even participate go schools attitudes well get high school get job thats youre either sharecropping working factories whatever football bear explained hurt tabbed like george wallaces era jr know chapter 4 think book titled nflnot long ad say jr im going say laughs ad well mean know carried thatthats one reasons wear symbol ring dont wear ring wear symbol 90yearold man said know dont like referring nword old man said 90yearold guy saw cw amp chris western south central los angelesrs ring ad nfl ring nfl players association ring states played league theres things added man helped add saysi hope dont get shut laughs rs go ahead go ahead public radio talk ad anyway gentleman looking says know youre anthony davis ive watched play saw pro career know got injured see ring got hand son means three things nfl long nigga life said wow say rs white guy ad black guy rs black guy ad ninety years old said im 90 years old ive seen ive seen man lynched ive seen man shot ive seen everything im deep south jr chapter book begins saying mom velma born slaveok called sharecropping texas know dot dot dot wouldnt let go play right sec school wanted play ad first getting recruited said hey hes going anywhere south said letters coming high school throw trash rs let get back issue youve pioneeryouve pioneer number ways know everybody around sc know made great star saved sc youre notre dame killer great youre legend right youre legend yet theres another side right injuries know happens dont give us picture talk particularly issue concussions played recently jr ill add beginning ad goes book two images two brain scans right dr amen scanning brain one hundred fifty football players hed scanned analyzed brain said age 54 got scanned brain equivalent 85yearold started know work think scanned equivalent 65yearold may look goodbefore knew obviously mess inside obviously even bigger mess ad well realized know looking back made bad decisions irrational anger associated bad people realized god look review life sometimes know sit around sort get reviewing life said didnt wouldnt problems today societal situation business situation financial situation family situation choices offbase feel im focused im good situation business good people around rs response college college know lot football players college take responsibility injuries care ad im big advocate ncaa nfl like mentioned earlier theyve admitted think time ncaa especially game football nfl need step something help guys guys going professionally haveand know every guy puts helmet head brain trauma like would like see youre going play game comprehensive supplement program get hyperbaric treatment school ncaa make sure program program along nfl since nfl admitted situation believe theyre going start putting limits guys long play based yearly scan theres guys walking around eight nine concussions still playing rs let ask question young black kid growing la football basketball ways think getting ad hood rs right youre holding model media holding model right know maybe learning important maybe schools important know youre big enough fast enough youre going way probably lot kids run say hey youre anthony davis ad stress kid mother father walks say listen might great athlete academics way sports rs think schools colleges ad think every school think monitor every student athlete comes make sure certain parts play perform great field better perform classroom well participant able functional classrooms nationwide problem nationwide rs contradiction coach getting enormous salaries students getting little ad well thats problem mean thing tell guys students recruited say listen coach get two three four five million dollars year dont get participate salary also dont ever come school coach says youre going youre going next year hes gone dont base decision going school based coach tells base decision school fits need future jr took 15 bolted graduation ad right jr youre saying somebody hasnt ad absolutely jr youve told many times regret would love come back ad regret regret thing think going better guys focus knew wanted something outside game basically im today lot guys dont rs today ad im real estate development business im group called greenlaw partners bout seven us usc rs franklyive gotten know little bit frankly dont see damage mean tell concussions tell downside present together person whats hard side experience ad getting knocked mean justhaving hitting valley floor struggling try climb mountain thats toughest thing realizing made many mistakes offbase hurt frankly youre pretty much dying headed prealzheimersrs mean couldnt think right ad oh wasnt focused couldnt focus jr told made lot mistakes personal life ad made lot mistakes mean made lot mistakes businesswise across board lot mistakes im fortunate able sit tell im focused ready last seven eight years terms act together rs difficult someone hasnt shoes understand life successful athlete know students theres lot jealousy know talk student athletes yeah well get get got chance havetheres lot resentment know pay tuition work hard discovered problems response school old friends media sports writers aware problem concussions everwhen started talking received reporters used know ad thought wacko said hes smoking something listen know started getting involved wasnt aware ignorant ive educated last eight years topic thought nuts said oh must drinking problem must drug problem lot stuff floated around know lost money blah blah blahwhich lot guys substance problems even today get theyre trying combat pain stuff bottom line kinds things rumors flying around even press even people see oh know thats ad used rs isnt kind corruption media theyre making living guys like papers get sold tv ratings go theres whole industry around sports youre bad news bear youre bringing news even helmet thats safe ad jr something ad would talk lot would meet rs howd guys meet anyway reintroduce jeremy theres guy keeps piping voice whats connection ad bugged book since father concussion movement conversed said well thought annenberg called assistant person worked rs annenberg school communication journalism yes ad right said looking guy work putting book together recommended annenberg staff rs assistant dean jr point wasnt yet rs well let put spot jeremy rosenberg part establishment major university major academically well athletics started story heres one scs great heroes people want know downside jr ahi think consultant time wasnt actually part administration moment book came ad made clear start could book real werent going sugar coat anything wanted talk quote unquote ghetto steps vkc life like campus opposed like uc school like ucla angela davis say rocking frohe said lets put ad wanted full look warts life college life professional life frankly administrators didnt ask didnt ever know read manuscripts advance didnt ask wish gotten kind debate discussion people frankly theymaybe keeping ad disappeared little bit peoples radaryou know werent checking saying say asked youve talked concussions electronic media everyone know waymy wordinvolved conspiracy sorts collusion sorts theyre connected wanted jump thats ad would talk lot wed meet write book whats future pro football two know big nfl pro football fans im world football soccer fan wouldnt hurt much game disappeared wed talk time like could go away scenario plan think highly unlikely nfl disappear yes theres lot fans importantly like pentagon get primary contractor million subcontractors parts made ship isnt even needed branch armed services many congressional districts nfl many media partners streaming media partners new media companies involved advertisers could think instead factory building ship part different district could think stadiums 30 factories know production factories football games much might fine football going away becoming virtual sport people still gamble based vr ar still gather like esports arena watch game cheer tailgate think highly unlikely theres going anything incremental change despite nfl admitted rs know bring uncomfortable point yeah im oakland raiders season ticket fan ive since 1960s know im hypocrite ill admit jr soccer players bang heads hitting ball get concussions way rs ok ill admit know fact hear people tell sports great bring camaraderie learn lot ive heard say know lets wrap going thing ad well robert dixon comes organized football concussions publicly amongst mothers sons going start right less play thats going diminish future farm teams college professional football believe continue collegiate professional level believe going scanning program long guys play serious head injuries youre going play anymore believe nfl eventually scan players brain every year thats headed make determination whether guys going play guys play sunday fake protocol concussion protocol get back road youre going pay pricei believe thats going oh way speak theres eight related deaths past year concussions 50 percent national football league last year coming crossroad make decision know lot money means lot lot sponsorship youve got 32 collectively 32 collective richest men world control national football league got make decision got let know listen youre playing footballits great game dangerous game got let everybody know consequences playing game repercussions play five six maybe ten years rs made safe ad could put tank around head one see shakes water bottle sound water sloshing hear thats brain feels like get hit shakes could put sixinch wall around head brain soft matter like cottage cheese every time bangs walls thats damage thats trauma rs sane sports baseball maybe basketball one dont suffer much maybe football certainly lucrative many people financially maybe football would history ad lucrative mean number one sport country dont know theyre going theyre crossroads got make decision theyre going mean ill probably long gone something happens one probably room happens might tail end life see changing dramatically jr im telling holograms vr ar still gamble still gather still tailgatejust wont concussions homo sapiens wont involved laughter rs turn virtual jeremy rosenberg anthony davis great legend usc one great football centers want thank coming edition scheer intelligence podcast youve added lot intelligence enterprise ad jr thank rs thats another edition scheer intelligence guests anthony davis jeremy rosenberg producers josh scheer rebecca mooney big assist sebastian grubaugh usc annenberg school communication journalism | 3,123 |
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<p>Happy bottom of the year, everybody. It’s hard to believe, but 2008 is already half done, with only six months remaining for us to get our year-end best-of lists together! How will we manage? Sure, we’re waiting for new discs from Beck, Black Kids, The Faint, maybe U2, and, uh, New Kids on the Block, but in the meantime, here’s an admittedly subjective list of the finest full-length releases of the year so far (complete with videos!), as well as a “next 10” list of CDs nipping at their heels. Will Party Ben like experimental hip-hop and droney noise-rock this year? Click the “continues” button and find out!</p>
<p>10. Flying Lotus – Los Angeles (Warp) While it’s clear the Californian producer is an heir to J Dilla’s woozy, scratchy style, Flying Lotus faces forward on this 17-track album, combining soulful, jazzy beats with throbbing electronic buzzes and strange, swirling effects. He’s clearly listened to the spacey dubstep of Burial as well, but Los Angeles is a place all his own: an ominous, static-y broadcast from a city on the brink. Check out “RobertaFlack,” where the R&amp;B vocal is suffused under waves of sound:</p>
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<p>9. The Raveonettes – Lust Lust Lust (Vice) Oh, Raveonettes. So cute! Hanging out in Denmark, creating their own little world where fuzzed-out ’60s surf-rock and the Velvet Underground never went out of style. While Lust stays safely within that zone, it pulls back from the brink of cliché, doing more with less: less hokey retro cover art, less production, and perhaps, even more bleak than ever. Witness single “Dead Sound,” a wry reference both to their iconoclastic style and the feeling you get “when nightfall comes and you’re still alone.” Ulp.</p>
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<p>8. Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III (Cash Money) Okay, I wasn’t so hot on this album when it came out, but the more it spins in my iTunes, the more I catch myself humming along. So what if it’s a sell-out: Wayne is one of the most fascinating, colorful figures in popular music, as curious as Kanye but with a much greater tolerance for emotional depth. He matches wits with Jay-Z on “Mr. Carter,” growling, “I got summer hating on me cause I’m hotter than the sun,” and with a million CDs sold and counting, it’s hard to argue.</p>
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<p>7. Hercules &amp; Love Affair – S/T (DFA) Everyone’s always talking about the New York “disco resurgence,” but it seems to me like disco never left; it’s like the strutting, thumping soundtrack of the city. Essentially a solo project with multiple guest vocalists, the album’s most brilliant (and natural) idea was bringing in Antony of Antony and the Johnsons, whose haunting vibrato fits perfectly over the retro boogie. Check out “Blind,” where the obtuse lyrics somehow complement the propulsive funk:</p>
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<p>6. Vampire Weekend – S/T (XL) Boy did I want to hate these guys, and who could blame me: they’re smirky, lily-white NYC preps bastardizing Afropop with the hype meter set at 11. But it turns out they’re making quirky, infectious tunes with a direct line back to fellow Afropop-inspired New Yorkers Talking Heads, and in single “A-Punk,” they have one of the unlikeliest, and giddiest, hits of the year.</p>
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<p>5. No Age – Nouns (Sub Pop) With so many people heading to LA to “make it big,” it’s always hard to define an “LA sound,” but the noisy, psychedelic, energetic punk of No Age is at least a nominee. A D.I.Y. duo who doesn’t shy away from electronics, they make fuzzy rock that’s not afraid of a little sunlight: single “Eraser” has bright, open chords under the unsettling layer of feedback.</p>
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<p>4. Beach House – Devotion (Carpark) This Baltimore duo have the patience of Low but the eclecticism of Arcade Fire, filling out these delicate ballads with surprising instrumentation: harpsichords, organs, pedal guitars. Over it all, singer Victoria Legrand’s classically-trained voice rings out in clear, pure tones, like on single “Gila,” where she sings, “Sure, you’ve got a handle on the past/It’s why you keep your little lovers in your lap.”</p>
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<p>3. M83 – Saturdays = Youth (EMI) While ’80s nostalgia is nothing new, it usually takes the form of dancing happily to “Hungry Like the Wolf.” Yet it took a lone Frenchman to spelunk the ’80s caverns and find a neglected grotto: dramatic, soundtrack-y, Miami Vice-ballady, faker-than-fake gauzy synth pop. The cover, a Breakfast Club-referencing photo of fashion-damaged teens, makes the reference clear, and despite the artifice, the album is unexpectedly emotional, like a letter of forgiveness to our hopelessly screwed-up youthful selves. Check out “Graveyard Girl,” with its references to New Order and Echo &amp; the Bunnymen:</p>
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<p>2. Santogold – S/T (Downtown) Sure, she’s the “new M.I.A.,” a genre-bending hipster-beloved singer who gets stuck in the wrong bins at the record store. But if part of M.I.A.’s legacy is to inspire young record company assistants to bravely strike out on their own musical paths, then more power to her, and the artist formerly known as Santi White has a path all her own. The album jumps between genres, but is unified by reggae’s loping backbeat, whether it’s on the warbling, synthetic “Creator” or on the guitar-led “L.E.S. Artists,” a passionate, mournful cry that sounds like nothing so much as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.</p>
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<p>1. Portishead – Third (Go!) A result of a nearly unheard-of pact between artist and listener, to put our ten years apart behind us and do the hard work necessary to get reacquainted. The band did their part, throwing out all their old instruments to force themselves to reinvent, and we did ours, letting our eardrums adjust to the shocking blast of “Machine Gun.” Against all odds, we did it, we and Portishead, we got back together, and like the best, most surprising make-up sex, the music is awe-inspiring: at times rough, at times delicate, united by lead singer Beth Gibbons’ ice-cold voice. “In my thoughts I have bled, for the riddles I’ve been fed,” she sings on “The Rip,” which evolves from a simple ukulele ballad into a majestic electronic arpeggio.</p>
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<p>Next 10: Nick Cave &amp; the Bad Seeds – Dig Lazarus Dig, The Duke Spirit – Neptune, Bun B – II Trill, Fleet Foxes – S/T, Crystal Castles – S/T, Black Mountain – In the Future, Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours, Atlas Sound – Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, Belye Flagy Zazhigaite Medlenno – Even if the Proletariat Takes the Power Into Its Own Hands, the Spring Will Be Left For Us and the Aims of War Will Remain the Same, MGMT – Oracular Spectacular</p>
<p>Okay, Riff commenters, have at it; but as always, I plead with you to criticize without name-calling.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | happy bottom year everybody hard believe 2008 already half done six months remaining us get yearend bestof lists together manage sure waiting new discs beck black kids faint maybe u2 uh new kids block meantime heres admittedly subjective list finest fulllength releases year far complete videos well next 10 list cds nipping heels party ben like experimental hiphop droney noiserock year click continues button find 10 flying lotus los angeles warp clear californian producer heir j dillas woozy scratchy style flying lotus faces forward 17track album combining soulful jazzy beats throbbing electronic buzzes strange swirling effects hes clearly listened spacey dubstep burial well los angeles place ominous staticy broadcast city brink check robertaflack rampb vocal suffused waves sound 9 raveonettes lust lust lust vice oh raveonettes cute hanging denmark creating little world fuzzedout 60s surfrock velvet underground never went style lust stays safely within zone pulls back brink cliché less less hokey retro cover art less production perhaps even bleak ever witness single dead sound wry reference iconoclastic style feeling get nightfall comes youre still alone ulp 8 lil wayne tha carter iii cash money okay wasnt hot album came spins itunes catch humming along sellout wayne one fascinating colorful figures popular music curious kanye much greater tolerance emotional depth matches wits jayz mr carter growling got summer hating cause im hotter sun million cds sold counting hard argue 7 hercules amp love affair st dfa everyones always talking new york disco resurgence seems like disco never left like strutting thumping soundtrack city essentially solo project multiple guest vocalists albums brilliant natural idea bringing antony antony johnsons whose haunting vibrato fits perfectly retro boogie check blind obtuse lyrics somehow complement propulsive funk 6 vampire weekend st xl boy want hate guys could blame theyre smirky lilywhite nyc preps bastardizing afropop hype meter set 11 turns theyre making quirky infectious tunes direct line back fellow afropopinspired new yorkers talking heads single apunk one unlikeliest giddiest hits year 5 age nouns sub pop many people heading la make big always hard define la sound noisy psychedelic energetic punk age least nominee diy duo doesnt shy away electronics make fuzzy rock thats afraid little sunlight single eraser bright open chords unsettling layer feedback 4 beach house devotion carpark baltimore duo patience low eclecticism arcade fire filling delicate ballads surprising instrumentation harpsichords organs pedal guitars singer victoria legrands classicallytrained voice rings clear pure tones like single gila sings sure youve got handle pastits keep little lovers lap 3 m83 saturdays youth emi 80s nostalgia nothing new usually takes form dancing happily hungry like wolf yet took lone frenchman spelunk 80s caverns find neglected grotto dramatic soundtracky miami viceballady fakerthanfake gauzy synth pop cover breakfast clubreferencing photo fashiondamaged teens makes reference clear despite artifice album unexpectedly emotional like letter forgiveness hopelessly screwedup youthful selves check graveyard girl references new order echo amp bunnymen 2 santogold st downtown sure shes new mia genrebending hipsterbeloved singer gets stuck wrong bins record store part mias legacy inspire young record company assistants bravely strike musical paths power artist formerly known santi white path album jumps genres unified reggaes loping backbeat whether warbling synthetic creator guitarled les artists passionate mournful cry sounds like nothing much yeah yeah yeahs 1 portishead third go result nearly unheardof pact artist listener put ten years apart behind us hard work necessary get reacquainted band part throwing old instruments force reinvent letting eardrums adjust shocking blast machine gun odds portishead got back together like best surprising makeup sex music aweinspiring times rough times delicate united lead singer beth gibbons icecold voice thoughts bled riddles ive fed sings rip evolves simple ukulele ballad majestic electronic arpeggio next 10 nick cave amp bad seeds dig lazarus dig duke spirit neptune bun b ii trill fleet foxes st crystal castles st black mountain future cut copy ghost colours atlas sound let blind lead see feel belye flagy zazhigaite medlenno even proletariat takes power hands spring left us aims war remain mgmt oracular spectacular okay riff commenters always plead criticize without namecalling | 673 |
<p>The “structural adjustment” programs that big corporations, wealthy governments, and international lenders imposed on much of Latin America, Africa, and Asia in the 1980’s and 1990’s are now being applied back home in the U.S. In order to reduce the deficit while still funding the largest military machine the world has seen, the federal government has slashed funding for housing, education, health care, and environmental protection. State governments have followed suit, putting increasing pressure on counties, cities, and towns to privatize everything from prisons to public hospitals to municipal water systems. The wave of privatization has resulted in the loss of union jobs, higher fees for vital services, and a lack of accountability for how public money is spent and basic needs are met. Non-profits are left scrambling to try to meet the needs of people who used to depend on government programs that have now been scaled back or eliminated, and find themselves competing for the same grants and appealing to the same donors to help them through each new crisis.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, progressive social movements in this country find themselves fragmented and lacking a vision for the future. Daily struggles against new wars, new funding cuts, new court rulings, and new arrests leave activists unable to develop a coherent response to the broad assault on the public sector, civil liberties, civil rights, and international law.</p>
<p>In response to this crisis, over fifty labor, environmental, peace, human rights, civil rights, neighborhood, and women’s groups came to organize the Boston Social Forum, which will bring thousands of activists from throughout New England and around the world together at the University of Massachusetts in Boston from July 23-25 to share their ideas and experiences, build new networks and alliances, and articulate an alternative vision for our collective future. Modeled on the World Social Forum, which has brought tens of thousands of activists from social movements around the world together in Porto Allegre, Brazil, and Mumbai, India, together to share their strategies, analysis, and proposals, the Boston Social Forum will be the first major social forum in North America.</p>
<p>Prominent writers, artists, and activists like Winona LaDuke, Angela Davis, Medea Benjamin, Tom Goldtooth, Jim Hightower, Manning Marable, and Harry Belafonte. But the most important conversations will take place between people from radically different walks of life finding common ground. Where else will a union organizer from Rome, a single mother holding down three jobs, the only out lesbian from a high school in rural Utah, an organic farmer from Maine, a college student who spent the winter working for Howard Dean in Iowa and New Hampshire, a South African poet, a seventeen year old rapper, a homeless Vietnam veteran, a campesino woman tortured by the Colombian Army, and an Ivy League economics professor sit down together to explore the inks between the struggles they all face and then spend the night dancing to hip-hop and Afro-Cuban jazz?</p>
<p>Ours will be an open-ended process ­ we will not be hammering out a manifesto, adopting a platform, or issuing a five-year plan. We are uniting around common questions rather than ideology: What kind of future do e want for Boston? For our region? For our nation? Fr the world? What is our vision of a better society? As Suren Moodliar of the North American Alliance for Fair Employment says, “We don’t have the answers but we know who does.” Those answers will emerge from conversations between people from different communities, different movements, and different cultures. Events at the Boston Social Forum will include:</p>
<p>— A benefit concert featuring Billy Bragg, theFoundation, Nora York, and others . . .</p>
<p>— The Active Arts Conference helping young people explore hip-hop music, art, and culture as a positive force for social change . . .</p>
<p>— Over 500 workshops and discussions on a broad range of issues including but not limited to climate change, corporate accountability, health care, education, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered liberation, criminal justice, immigration, labor, environmental justice, nonviolence, peace, labor, global justice, water privatization, and women’s liberation.</p>
<p>— An International Peace and Human Rights conference with delegations from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America</p>
<p>— Presentations by Hasan Barghouthi, Zia Mian, Rep.Dennis Kucinich, Walden Bello, Dennis Brutus, Phyllis Bennis, Danny Glover, Sonia Sanchez, Aichan Vanaik,Pervez Hoobody, Paul Farmer, Diane Dujon, FelixArroyo, Eric Mann, Rabbi Michael Lerner, and others.</p>
<p>— A dramatic recreation of Fannie Lou Hamer’s speech to the 1964 Democratic Convention by activists connected with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party</p>
<p>— Art, music, drama, and films</p>
<p>— A summit of progressive journalists working tocreate a new national media network (see <a href="" type="internal">http://summitnet04.com/</a> for more information.)</p>
<p>and much more!</p>
<p>The Boston Social Forum won’t be just a conference, it will be a living experiment in real democracy.</p>
<p>We are at a crucial moment right now — environmental protections are being rolled back, our military is occupying two nations, social services are under assault, public utilities are being privatized, civil liberties and civil rights are being eroded. The Boston Social Forum will present us with a chance to build new alliances with activists from other movements, to strategize together, and to assert that” Another world is possible!” And necessary!</p>
<p>Sean Donahue directs the <a href="http://www.stopcorporatecontrol.org/" type="external">Corporations and Militarism Project of the Massachusetts Anti-Corporate Clearinghouse</a> and is a contributor to CounterPunch’s forthcoming book on the 2004 elections, Dime’s Worth of Difference: Beyond the Politics of Lesser Evils. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:wrldhealer@yahoo.com" type="external">wrldhealer@yahoo.com</a></p>
<p>For more information on the Boston Social Forum go to ( <a href="http://www.bostonsocialforum.org/" type="external">http://www.bostonsocialforum.org</a>.)</p> | true | 4 | structural adjustment programs big corporations wealthy governments international lenders imposed much latin america africa asia 1980s 1990s applied back home us order reduce deficit still funding largest military machine world seen federal government slashed funding housing education health care environmental protection state governments followed suit putting increasing pressure counties cities towns privatize everything prisons public hospitals municipal water systems wave privatization resulted loss union jobs higher fees vital services lack accountability public money spent basic needs met nonprofits left scrambling try meet needs people used depend government programs scaled back eliminated find competing grants appealing donors help new crisis meanwhile progressive social movements country find fragmented lacking vision future daily struggles new wars new funding cuts new court rulings new arrests leave activists unable develop coherent response broad assault public sector civil liberties civil rights international law response crisis fifty labor environmental peace human rights civil rights neighborhood womens groups came organize boston social forum bring thousands activists throughout new england around world together university massachusetts boston july 2325 share ideas experiences build new networks alliances articulate alternative vision collective future modeled world social forum brought tens thousands activists social movements around world together porto allegre brazil mumbai india together share strategies analysis proposals boston social forum first major social forum north america prominent writers artists activists like winona laduke angela davis medea benjamin tom goldtooth jim hightower manning marable harry belafonte important conversations take place people radically different walks life finding common ground else union organizer rome single mother holding three jobs lesbian high school rural utah organic farmer maine college student spent winter working howard dean iowa new hampshire south african poet seventeen year old rapper homeless vietnam veteran campesino woman tortured colombian army ivy league economics professor sit together explore inks struggles face spend night dancing hiphop afrocuban jazz openended process hammering manifesto adopting platform issuing fiveyear plan uniting around common questions rather ideology kind future e want boston region nation fr world vision better society suren moodliar north american alliance fair employment says dont answers know answers emerge conversations people different communities different movements different cultures events boston social forum include benefit concert featuring billy bragg thefoundation nora york others active arts conference helping young people explore hiphop music art culture positive force social change 500 workshops discussions broad range issues including limited climate change corporate accountability health care education gay lesbian bisexual transgendered liberation criminal justice immigration labor environmental justice nonviolence peace labor global justice water privatization womens liberation international peace human rights conference delegations africa asia europe latin america presentations hasan barghouthi zia mian repdennis kucinich walden bello dennis brutus phyllis bennis danny glover sonia sanchez aichan vanaikpervez hoobody paul farmer diane dujon felixarroyo eric mann rabbi michael lerner others dramatic recreation fannie lou hamers speech 1964 democratic convention activists connected mississippi freedom democratic party art music drama films summit progressive journalists working tocreate new national media network see httpsummitnet04com information much boston social forum wont conference living experiment real democracy crucial moment right environmental protections rolled back military occupying two nations social services assault public utilities privatized civil liberties civil rights eroded boston social forum present us chance build new alliances activists movements strategize together assert another world possible necessary sean donahue directs corporations militarism project massachusetts anticorporate clearinghouse contributor counterpunchs forthcoming book 2004 elections dimes worth difference beyond politics lesser evils reached wrldhealeryahoocom information boston social forum go httpwwwbostonsocialforumorg | 567 |
<p>If there’s anything Americans love more than expensive outdoor recreation equipment, bacon, and wars of choice, it’s innovation. Imported from the Silicon Valley/venture capital sphere, the concept has pervaded every arena of human enterprise in this country and many others besides, from poetry to politics, education to agriculture.</p>
<p>If you want a literary grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, know that “innovative projects are strongly encouraged”; if you want one for design, make sure to employ “innovative forms of art-making”; and don’t even think about getting funded for your stage drama unless your work is at the leading edge of “groundbreaking, innovative theater.” (A 2011 issue of the NEA’s magazine, NEA Arts, asks the burning question, “What is Innovation?”)</p>
<p>President Obama spoke of innovation eleven times in his 2011 State of the Union speech. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, a city overrun with innovators of all stripes and home to its own “Innovation Center,” the local schools are now subject to an “Innovation Agenda.” Twenty-nine TED Talks bear the “innovation” tag, and a Google search for “Malcolm Gladwell” and “innovation” produces 2.37&#160;million hits. A March&#160;8 New York Times story was headlined, without apparent irony, “An Innovation in Luxury Watches Celebrates Long-Lost Function.”</p>
<p>These examples would seem to suggest the emptiness of the term. The Innovation Agenda consists mainly in doing everything as it has always been done in new configurations and different buildings. TED Talks and Gladwellian theses are increasingly shorthand for intellectual vacuity. And nothing screams pointless rhetoric like a political call for innovation — especially from Obama, whose chief accomplishments, with Congress’s aid, have been cementing his predecessor’s antipathy to civil liberties and his predilection for unaccountable global war, while further institutionalizing our broken health care system by forcing everyone to buy in. (The latter might have been the best of many bad options, but it was certainly not innovative.)</p>
<p>Yet “innovation” is far from empty. It is a loaded word. It does a great deal of work, painting a vast landscape of meanings even as it obliterates or camouflages others. It has become an imperial force.</p>
<p>Part of the reason that innovation is so attractive is that it seems to work in business. It makes a lot of sense if you have a product to sell. If you’re entering a crowded market, you need to do something that others haven’t, or come up with a way to do what others have done more cheaply. If you want people to keep buying your products, you need to make them new every now and then.</p>
<p>Of course, this has its downsides. As the Foxconn suicides have made all too clear, the demand for product innovation is so intense that factories and workers can’t easily keep up, sometimes with terrifying results. And an exposé of an Amazon warehouse from the Allentown showed that the company’s highly innovative fulfillment operation comes at great cost to employees.</p>
<p>Despite these concerns, innovation has survived its extension to the world beyond product development — if such a world remains — where it maintains its panacea-like quality. Innovation provides hope of a solution where there otherwise may not be any. When President Obama calls for innovation — or its closely related cousin, “new ideas” — he is effectively masking the fact that he doesn’t have any. If he did, he would tell us.</p>
<p>Consider a tragic illustration from politics: the Avi Schaefer Peace Innovation Competition at Harvard University, which bestows $1,000 on a student who, in 500&#160;words, supplies “innovative and creative solutions to solve the conflict between the Israeli [sic] and Palestinians.”</p>
<p>Never mind that one example on the competition flyer is “innovative uses of social media networks,” as if anything could be more banal. Here as ever, innovation itself is the solution. Once we have innovated, intractable problems will disappear, and the struggle to overcome them will dissolve.</p>
<p>Innovation recognizes that we face challenges now and responds with faith in the future. Maybe this is all to the good. Maybe the best escapes from our current entanglements have not yet been found. But the notion of innovating our way out of contentious debates is fishy. Our seemingly insurmountable disagreements reflect what we think of as real ethical and ideological difference. The innovation ethos says that these differences are in fact insubstantial and that there is a solution we will all agree to if only we can think of it and engineer it into existence.</p>
<p>In other words, tomorrow’s solution is not merely better than those we can conceive of today, but it is outside the bounds of contestation. It has no normative content; it just works, and we’ll all recognize that.</p>
<p>Education — a field in which innovation is not just a buzzword, but sine qua non — provides a case in point. Innovation has brought us charter schools, performance pay for teachers, de-unionization, vouchers, Teach for America and similar programs that ensure a steady flow of inexperienced educators, cash incentives for student achievement, high-stakes testing, multilingual pedagogy, and increasingly standardized curricula focused on math, reading, and science at the expense of music, visual arts, home economics, and physical education.</p>
<p>Most of these innovations are intended to fix an achievement gap, as measured by standardized tests, between whites and people of color, poor and rich. Yet there seems to be little recognition of the fact that the achievement gap is not the disease, but rather the symptom. The diseases are systemic racism and poverty. Those are not going to be eliminated by innovations in education. By “tinkering toward utopia” through the schools, to borrow a phrase from education-reform historians David Tyack and Larry Cuban, we are ignoring the true challenge, a challenge that Americans prefer to believe does not exist.</p>
<p>So here innovation is presented as a solution-in-itself, with no normative content: we’re just trying to get those numbers to even out. Not surprisingly, the most heavily promoted education innovations are corporatist in nature, favoring market-style fixes that are also presented as non-ideological, as is the market system itself.</p>
<p>As in education, similarly in the arts. Here innovation colonizes other values and displaces the kinds of questions we have always asked about art, questions that some of us, especially those who think about and write criticism, might foolishly have thought were essential to art itself. Conflicts over what beauty is and what should be art’s purpose get muscled out. Where one might have seen art as a tool for political expression, community engagement, or deepening spiritual commitment, the zeal for innovation says art need only be a vessel for novelty. Whatever form that novelty takes, the work will be judged quantitatively, according to its distance from what came before.</p>
<p>Novelty may be a useful criterion when we judge the success and failure of a creative work. But it shouldn’t be the only criterion, or even emphasized. Just as it shouldn’t be the only or primary watchword in politics and education. Perhaps the solution to the conflict in Israel and Palestine is an old one: democracy for everyone who lives there. Perhaps the solution to the achievement gap is an old one: welfare and affordable childcare, to combat the pathologies bred by poverty in the five years before kindergarten.</p>
<p>But we don’t want to rehash those arguments, do we? We’d prefer to think that those ethical and ideological conflicts aren’t real after all, or are only as real as our imaginations are stunted.</p>
<p>Will our faith in innovation be rewarded? Will the fetish for new ideas that we see in TED Talks, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the World Economic Forum ideas lab, Obama’s speeches, and the endless stream of idea-of-the-moment journalism at last prove its worth? Maybe. Or maybe it will go on doing principally what it does now: offering the false hope that we will one day conquer exhaustion, frustration, boredom, ourselves.</p> | true | 4 | theres anything americans love expensive outdoor recreation equipment bacon wars choice innovation imported silicon valleyventure capital sphere concept pervaded every arena human enterprise country many others besides poetry politics education agriculture want literary grant national endowment arts know innovative projects strongly encouraged want one design make sure employ innovative forms artmaking dont even think getting funded stage drama unless work leading edge groundbreaking innovative theater 2011 issue neas magazine nea arts asks burning question innovation president obama spoke innovation eleven times 2011 state union speech cambridge massachusetts city overrun innovators stripes home innovation center local schools subject innovation agenda twentynine ted talks bear innovation tag google search malcolm gladwell innovation produces 237160million hits march1608 new york times story headlined without apparent irony innovation luxury watches celebrates longlost function examples would seem suggest emptiness term innovation agenda consists mainly everything always done new configurations different buildings ted talks gladwellian theses increasingly shorthand intellectual vacuity nothing screams pointless rhetoric like political call innovation especially obama whose chief accomplishments congresss aid cementing predecessors antipathy civil liberties predilection unaccountable global war institutionalizing broken health care system forcing everyone buy latter might best many bad options certainly innovative yet innovation far empty loaded word great deal work painting vast landscape meanings even obliterates camouflages others become imperial force part reason innovation attractive seems work business makes lot sense product sell youre entering crowded market need something others havent come way others done cheaply want people keep buying products need make new every course downsides foxconn suicides made clear demand product innovation intense factories workers cant easily keep sometimes terrifying results exposé amazon warehouse allentown showed companys highly innovative fulfillment operation comes great cost employees despite concerns innovation survived extension world beyond product development world remains maintains panacealike quality innovation provides hope solution otherwise may president obama calls innovation closely related cousin new ideas effectively masking fact doesnt would tell us consider tragic illustration politics avi schaefer peace innovation competition harvard university bestows 1000 student 500160words supplies innovative creative solutions solve conflict israeli sic palestinians never mind one example competition flyer innovative uses social media networks anything could banal ever innovation solution innovated intractable problems disappear struggle overcome dissolve innovation recognizes face challenges responds faith future maybe good maybe best escapes current entanglements yet found notion innovating way contentious debates fishy seemingly insurmountable disagreements reflect think real ethical ideological difference innovation ethos says differences fact insubstantial solution agree think engineer existence words tomorrows solution merely better conceive today outside bounds contestation normative content works well recognize education field innovation buzzword sine qua non provides case point innovation brought us charter schools performance pay teachers deunionization vouchers teach america similar programs ensure steady flow inexperienced educators cash incentives student achievement highstakes testing multilingual pedagogy increasingly standardized curricula focused math reading science expense music visual arts home economics physical education innovations intended fix achievement gap measured standardized tests whites people color poor rich yet seems little recognition fact achievement gap disease rather symptom diseases systemic racism poverty going eliminated innovations education tinkering toward utopia schools borrow phrase educationreform historians david tyack larry cuban ignoring true challenge challenge americans prefer believe exist innovation presented solutioninitself normative content trying get numbers even surprisingly heavily promoted education innovations corporatist nature favoring marketstyle fixes also presented nonideological market system education similarly arts innovation colonizes values displaces kinds questions always asked art questions us especially think write criticism might foolishly thought essential art conflicts beauty arts purpose get muscled one might seen art tool political expression community engagement deepening spiritual commitment zeal innovation says art need vessel novelty whatever form novelty takes work judged quantitatively according distance came novelty may useful criterion judge success failure creative work shouldnt criterion even emphasized shouldnt primary watchword politics education perhaps solution conflict israel palestine old one democracy everyone lives perhaps solution achievement gap old one welfare affordable childcare combat pathologies bred poverty five years kindergarten dont want rehash arguments wed prefer think ethical ideological conflicts arent real real imaginations stunted faith innovation rewarded fetish new ideas see ted talks aspen ideas festival world economic forum ideas lab obamas speeches endless stream ideaofthemoment journalism last prove worth maybe maybe go principally offering false hope one day conquer exhaustion frustration boredom | 703 |
<p>Dahr Jamail has written extensively about climate change as well as the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Martha Gellhorn Award for Journalism and the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. He is the author of two books: Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq and The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
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<p /> JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
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<p />Twenty-fourteen has been quite the year for climate issues. If you remember, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history, and that could lead to, quote, serious and pervasive effects to our environment.
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<p />With us to discuss the top three climate red flags that people should be aware of is our guest Dahr Jamail. Dahr is a staff writer, reporter for Truthout, and he currently focuses on the environment and climate change. He joins us now from Washington State.
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<p />Thanks so much for joining us, Dahr.
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<p />DAHR JAMAIL, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR: Good to be here.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: So, Dahr, here on The Real News we're not going to do a countdown. We're just going to get right to it and talk about the number-one story, in your opinion, for 2014. And that has to be the hottest year in recorded history. That's 2014. That's according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. So, Dahr, what's the significance of that?
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<p />JAMAIL: Well, it is significant, because it shows that we are clearly on a very, very steep trend, as far as every year getting hotter, I mean, 2014 being the hottest year ever recorded (that's according to NOAA and several other major agencies) and also considering the fact that the ten hottest years ever recorded have all occurred in the last 16 years. And so when we look into the future projections, this doesn't bode well, because clearly we're on a very dramatically upwardly escalating trend, but also because even the worst case IPCC future temperature projections show that by 2100, worst-case is around 5 degrees C, which, of course, is astronomically high, considering that humans have never even lived on a planet a 3.5 C above baseline temperatures or higher. But that's even now being--the IPCC prediction is now even being eclipsed by a recent Smithsonian Institute documentary that predicted between a 9 and 11 Fahrenheit increase by 2100, which is even significantly more than the IPCC worst-case.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: And so what are we talking about here when we're talking about temperatures? Are we talking about just oceans? Land? What are we talking about?
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<p />JAMAIL: Well, everything, because right now the temperatures on land haven't increased as much. I mean, already, clearly they've increased dramatically, but they've been somewhat tempered because oceans have absorbed about 90 percent of the CO2 and a lot of the temperature. And that's going to start--basically, the land's going to start picking up more of the slack, for a lack--for a very general way to put it, as we move into the future. So we're going to see a lot more dramatic increase, both on land and the oceans, rather than the majority of it being in the ocean so far.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Okay. Let's continue and talk about the oceans, 'cause we're melting polar ice caps and the rise in sea level. So that brings us to our number-two story, polar ice caps melting. Can we talk about some specifics here? Where are we seeing this happen? And what kind of effect is it having on human and animal populations?
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<p />JAMAIL: Well, 90 percent of the global human population lives in relatively close proximity to the coast. So this is going to have direct impact on the vast majority of the people on the planet. And the most obvious places to look are what people would think of first, places like the entire state of Florida. But then we can move into the major cities right on the coast, places like Miami. We can look overseas, the entire delta, you know, Bangladesh. We can look at largely coastal countries like Japan and Southeastern Asia, other coastal cities up like where I am, Seattle, by way of example, go down the West Coast, you know, L.A., San Francisco, huge population centers right on the coast.
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<p />And this is a very important aspect of the story, because the worst-case IPCC prediction is one meter sea level rise by 2100, and yet the chief scientist of NASA, at a recent lecture at University College of London, said that that IPCC worst-case prediction doesn't even take into account the Western Antarctic ice sheet, which is now melting far faster than anyone suspected it would, and that would add yet another one meter C [sic] in addition to the IPCC one C prediction. So already we've just literally seen in the last few weeks, because of that addition by NASA's chief scientist, literally a doubling of the worst-case prediction. So we're looking at worst-case scenario of two degrees C by 2100 of sea level rise across the globe.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Alright. Last but not least, Dahr, of course, we could talk about the rise in natural disasters, specifically extreme drought, as well as extreme weather events happening all over the world. I mean, in the past, climate scientists have really been sort of hesitant, Dahr, to make his connection with weather and climate change. What's actually changed in the science?
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<p />JAMAIL: Well, science has basically been able to catch up, get a lot closer with real-time events. And so the direct correlation between extreme weather events, whether it be storms, droughts, etc., directly to climate change, that they've just become a lot more adept at it. And so it's clear that, for example, if we talk about some evidence of this closer to home, the California drought, NASA, for example, just released a study that even despite the recent rains in the state, that the groundwater reserves are still depleted to the point where they would require 11 trillion gallons of water to be--get them back up to normal levels. And if we look at extreme weather events while they're--you know, we can look at droughts; there's been several other cases across the U.S., record-setting temperatures of hot and cold both; we didn't really see any big hurricanes hit the U.S. this season, but if we look overseas at Asia, the Philippines, Japan, other areas of Asia have been hit by some of the biggest record-breaking storms in history, with a lot of casualties. And so these are ongoing and clearly continuing to increase across the world, in addition to places like Kiribati, one of the South Pacific islands that it came out this year that their government announced that, hey, we're not going to exist before long, and they're starting to look at where to move their people to, and literally an entire country is going to not exist within the next couple of decades.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Oh my goodness. Wow. Dahr Jamail, thank you so very much for giving us an update on what stories that we should be thinking about that happened this year, but also things to be keeping track of in the year to come. Thank you so much.
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<p />JAMAIL: Thank you.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | true | 4 | dahr jamail written extensively climate change well bp oil disaster gulf mexico recipient numerous awards including martha gellhorn award journalism james aronson award social justice journalism author two books beyond green zone dispatches unembedded journalist occupied iraq resist soldiers refuse fight iraq afghanistan jessica desvarieux trnn producer welcome real news network im jessica desvarieux baltimore twentyfourteen quite year climate issues remember un intergovernmental panel climate change reported emissions greenhouse gases highest history could lead quote serious pervasive effects environment us discuss top three climate red flags people aware guest dahr jamail dahr staff writer reporter truthout currently focuses environment climate change joins us washington state thanks much joining us dahr dahr jamail investigative journalist author good desvarieux dahr real news going countdown going get right talk numberone story opinion 2014 hottest year recorded history thats 2014 thats according national oceanic atmospheric administration dahr whats significance jamail well significant shows clearly steep trend far every year getting hotter mean 2014 hottest year ever recorded thats according noaa several major agencies also considering fact ten hottest years ever recorded occurred last 16 years look future projections doesnt bode well clearly dramatically upwardly escalating trend also even worst case ipcc future temperature projections show 2100 worstcase around 5 degrees c course astronomically high considering humans never even lived planet 35 c baseline temperatures higher thats even beingthe ipcc prediction even eclipsed recent smithsonian institute documentary predicted 9 11 fahrenheit increase 2100 even significantly ipcc worstcase desvarieux talking talking temperatures talking oceans land talking jamail well everything right temperatures land havent increased much mean already clearly theyve increased dramatically theyve somewhat tempered oceans absorbed 90 percent co2 lot temperature thats going startbasically lands going start picking slack lackfor general way put move future going see lot dramatic increase land oceans rather majority ocean far desvarieux okay lets continue talk oceans cause melting polar ice caps rise sea level brings us numbertwo story polar ice caps melting talk specifics seeing happen kind effect human animal populations jamail well 90 percent global human population lives relatively close proximity coast going direct impact vast majority people planet obvious places look people would think first places like entire state florida move major cities right coast places like miami look overseas entire delta know bangladesh look largely coastal countries like japan southeastern asia coastal cities like seattle way example go west coast know la san francisco huge population centers right coast important aspect story worstcase ipcc prediction one meter sea level rise 2100 yet chief scientist nasa recent lecture university college london said ipcc worstcase prediction doesnt even take account western antarctic ice sheet melting far faster anyone suspected would would add yet another one meter c sic addition ipcc one c prediction already weve literally seen last weeks addition nasas chief scientist literally doubling worstcase prediction looking worstcase scenario two degrees c 2100 sea level rise across globe desvarieux alright last least dahr course could talk rise natural disasters specifically extreme drought well extreme weather events happening world mean past climate scientists really sort hesitant dahr make connection weather climate change whats actually changed science jamail well science basically able catch get lot closer realtime events direct correlation extreme weather events whether storms droughts etc directly climate change theyve become lot adept clear example talk evidence closer home california drought nasa example released study even despite recent rains state groundwater reserves still depleted point would require 11 trillion gallons water beget back normal levels look extreme weather events theyreyou know look droughts theres several cases across us recordsetting temperatures hot cold didnt really see big hurricanes hit us season look overseas asia philippines japan areas asia hit biggest recordbreaking storms history lot casualties ongoing clearly continuing increase across world addition places like kiribati one south pacific islands came year government announced hey going exist long theyre starting look move people literally entire country going exist within next couple decades desvarieux oh goodness wow dahr jamail thank much giving us update stories thinking happened year also things keeping track year come thank much jamail thank desvarieux thank joining us real news network end disclaimer please note transcripts real news network typed recording program trnn guarantee complete accuracy 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<p>In many parts of the world today, outside the West, violent confrontations are intensifying. To interpret these complex, horrific events, American citizens-whose leaders are intimately involved in these violent confrontations-have a ready-made cognitive framework, which easily simplifies and neutralizes the complex and bitterly contested content. This hegemonic ideological framework rests essentially on a few simple Orwellian categories of the standard formula: war is peace.</p>
<p>Acts that are essentially the same are judged not by their social content-their context and effects-but by pre-constituted discursive categories. Differentiation and association are ordered so that the hegemonic (i.e., dominant, leading) side is always good and just. Consider the soldier, who joins the military with the explicit mandate of being willing to kill-and die in the process-at the command of a higher rank (presumably for the national defense). Now consider someone who also wants to defend the nation, but has no standing organized military, and no military resources that allow him or her to shoot from a distance, or from armored vehicles. This person-willing to die and kill for perceived national defense-differs from the soldier only in means. And it is means only-not ends, consequences, or conditions-that the Orwellian framework needs to make its differentiations and associations.</p>
<p>Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas Friedman, “one of America’s leading interpreters of world affairs” columnist for the New York Times, is a master of this Orwellian mystification. In his March 31 column, “Suicidal Lies,” Mr. Friedman warns us, with all his probity and prescience, that “The Devil is . . . dancing our way.” He warns that a new type of warfare is threatening us-America, and the other “civilized” people-for its political gain. The isolated, clandestine suicide bomber. How dare he or she, that individual with no organized army, no F-16s, naval ships or tanks from Lockheed, Raytheon or GE, make a frontal assault (and for political gain, no less!)?</p>
<p>It is war, Mr. Friedman says. But if one cannot match the military might of their enemy and, a fortiori, if their tactics become effective, the Orwellian framework so common to American hegemony easily places (subjectifies) them: terrorists (against civilization); or, as Mr. Friedman would have it, the Devil (against God). Practical import: terrorists are the ones who want nuclear and biological weapons; the armies of the civilized nations are the ones who have them. Indeed, casual but careful observation suggests a good prima facie case that there is a high negative correlation between military might and the likelihood of being labeled terrorist (weakness and/or non-authorized tactics=terrorist).</p>
<p>Mr. Friedman pretends he can understand the daily fright, desperation and frustration in the Middle East (presumably of both sides, though he only acknowledges that the Israeli’s are “terrified,” since only Palestinians commit acts of terror). He assumes he can understand, from his civilized perch, these constraints and pressures (e.g., living in a refugee camp with little food or water or education, after being driven from your home and illegally occupied by a military force that has received $92 billion in aid from the US in the last half century) enough to see through the “suicide lie.”</p>
<p>I do not condone suicide bombings, but I don’t pretend to have the knowledge to suggest that a particular combination of desperate conditions will not make suicide (with some value added in the military sense of more death) seem like a viable option. He asserts that desperation could not be the reason, because many other people are desperate and, more importantly, they could have simply non-violently resisted (e.g., the armored bulldozers that destroy their homes).</p>
<p>But though many people smoke without ever getting lung cancer, I doubt Mr. Friedman would claim that cigarettes don’t cause cancer. Yes, suicide bombers choose-under massive pressure and constraint-their fate. And we will never know the final straw. But if we want to think carefully about the relationship between desperation (and the Middle East condition in general) and suicide bombing, an appropriate counterfactual is enough. Without a particular set of very desperate conditions we known as Palestine under Sharon-led, US-backed Israeli occupation, we don’t have such patterns of suicide bombing.</p>
<p>Palestinian society does not generate suicide bombers in isolation. Something is very wrong over there and unfortunately for minds like Friedman’s who seek easy, cut-and-dried answers, it is simply not all the Palestinians’ fault. Nor is it all Israel’s fault. Both sides have committed atrocities. But we really need to take a look at some basic facts, abstracted from rhetoric and our Orwellian blinders which make us think that “our” side is always the righteous; “our” cause always just.</p>
<p>Israel has one of the largest and most sophisticated armies in the world, from armored bulldozers to F-16’s. Palestine hardly has a viable government or standing army, consisting mostly of unarmed citizens. The Palestinians (mostly civilians) have died now three for every one Israeli. Mr. Friedman is correct about one thing: the suicide bombings are working (which is why, he admits, he is now worried). Before the recent wave of suicide bombings, since the first Intifada in December 1987, 168 Israelis had died compared to 1471 Palestinians. Under these conditions it is ridiculous to assert, as most of the American establishment does, that Arafat has the ability to stop the various factions and individuals committing these acts (indeed, if control of a domestic population is so easy, then why does the US incarcerate more of its population per capita than any other nation in the world?).</p>
<p>Mr. Friedman thinks we need to bomb first, then talk. He offers two other reasons why their suicide bombings must be thought of as a new tactic aimed at annihilating “civilization” (better spend more on the star wars missile shield), rather than a choice made out of desperation: empty assertions that the Clinton proposal would have worked, and that in any case, non-violent resistance would have worked 30 years ago (both fallacious forms of reasoning that masquerades as sound counterfactual)! Yet, he does admit that the Palestinians are “blinded by their narcissistic rage.”</p>
<p>Whatever adjective you want to append to blinded rage, it is disingenuous to argue that desperation does not play a role in children blowing themselves up. It is dangerous to demand, as Mr. Friedman does, that the Israel “deliver them a military blow” that will knock some sense into them. The suicide bombers are all out of sense. It is a simple fact that occupation, forced dislocation and sustained military assault are producing suicide bombing and all the misery that surrounds it.</p>
<p>At this point, it is impossible to decipher “who struck the first blow,” who the aggressor is. People like Mr. Friedman take the easy way out and assert that the side with the high-tech, advanced weapons and tactics are the civil and just, while the poor people without resources are terrorists-and they must be stopped lest they get any resources (he fears they would rather have a nuclear bomb to blow him up than some land and peace).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, one decisive assault and them some more talks will not bring peace. Israel needs to pull out of the occupied territories now, and replace Sharon with someone more interested in peace than war. The United States needs to join the rest of the world and condemn the illegal Israeli occupation and, more importantly, cut off Israel from military support-both in subsidy and in weapons sales. Both sides need to work hard and reflect, but this cannot happen while Palestinian territory is under occupation and assault. An Israeli retreat is the necessary first step to peace.</p>
<p>Matt Vidal is studying for his doctorate in sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:mvidal@ssc.wisc.edu" type="external">mvidal@ssc.wisc.edu</a></p> | true | 4 | many parts world today outside west violent confrontations intensifying interpret complex horrific events american citizenswhose leaders intimately involved violent confrontationshave readymade cognitive framework easily simplifies neutralizes complex bitterly contested content hegemonic ideological framework rests essentially simple orwellian categories standard formula war peace acts essentially judged social contenttheir context effectsbut preconstituted discursive categories differentiation association ordered hegemonic ie dominant leading side always good consider soldier joins military explicit mandate willing killand die processat command higher rank presumably national defense consider someone also wants defend nation standing organized military military resources allow shoot distance armored vehicles personwilling die kill perceived national defensediffers soldier means means onlynot ends consequences conditionsthat orwellian framework needs make differentiations associations pulitzer prize winning author thomas friedman one americas leading interpreters world affairs columnist new york times master orwellian mystification march 31 column suicidal lies mr friedman warns us probity prescience devil dancing way warns new type warfare threatening usamerica civilized peoplefor political gain isolated clandestine suicide bomber dare individual organized army f16s naval ships tanks lockheed raytheon ge make frontal assault political gain less war mr friedman says one match military might enemy fortiori tactics become effective orwellian framework common american hegemony easily places subjectifies terrorists civilization mr friedman would devil god practical import terrorists ones want nuclear biological weapons armies civilized nations ones indeed casual careful observation suggests good prima facie case high negative correlation military might likelihood labeled terrorist weakness andor nonauthorized tacticsterrorist mr friedman pretends understand daily fright desperation frustration middle east presumably sides though acknowledges israelis terrified since palestinians commit acts terror assumes understand civilized perch constraints pressures eg living refugee camp little food water education driven home illegally occupied military force received 92 billion aid us last half century enough see suicide lie condone suicide bombings dont pretend knowledge suggest particular combination desperate conditions make suicide value added military sense death seem like viable option asserts desperation could reason many people desperate importantly could simply nonviolently resisted eg armored bulldozers destroy homes though many people smoke without ever getting lung cancer doubt mr friedman would claim cigarettes dont cause cancer yes suicide bombers chooseunder massive pressure constrainttheir fate never know final straw want think carefully relationship desperation middle east condition general suicide bombing appropriate counterfactual enough without particular set desperate conditions known palestine sharonled usbacked israeli occupation dont patterns suicide bombing palestinian society generate suicide bombers isolation something wrong unfortunately minds like friedmans seek easy cutanddried answers simply palestinians fault israels fault sides committed atrocities really need take look basic facts abstracted rhetoric orwellian blinders make us think side always righteous cause always israel one largest sophisticated armies world armored bulldozers f16s palestine hardly viable government standing army consisting mostly unarmed citizens palestinians mostly civilians died three every one israeli mr friedman correct one thing suicide bombings working admits worried recent wave suicide bombings since first intifada december 1987 168 israelis died compared 1471 palestinians conditions ridiculous assert american establishment arafat ability stop various factions individuals committing acts indeed control domestic population easy us incarcerate population per capita nation world mr friedman thinks need bomb first talk offers two reasons suicide bombings must thought new tactic aimed annihilating civilization better spend star wars missile shield rather choice made desperation empty assertions clinton proposal would worked case nonviolent resistance would worked 30 years ago fallacious forms reasoning masquerades sound counterfactual yet admit palestinians blinded narcissistic rage whatever adjective want append blinded rage disingenuous argue desperation play role children blowing dangerous demand mr friedman israel deliver military blow knock sense suicide bombers sense simple fact occupation forced dislocation sustained military assault producing suicide bombing misery surrounds point impossible decipher struck first blow aggressor people like mr friedman take easy way assert side hightech advanced weapons tactics civil poor people without resources terroristsand must stopped lest get resources fears would rather nuclear bomb blow land peace unfortunately one decisive assault talks bring peace israel needs pull occupied territories replace sharon someone interested peace war united states needs join rest world condemn illegal israeli occupation importantly cut israel military supportboth subsidy weapons sales sides need work hard reflect happen palestinian territory occupation assault israeli retreat necessary first step peace matt vidal studying doctorate sociology university wisconsin madison reached mvidalsscwiscedu | 703 |
<p />
<p>Americans shell out close to $2.4 billion on diet-related foods each year, so it was with great fanfare that Procter &amp; Gamble trumpeted the Food and Drug Administration’s January 1996 approval of olestra. Since then, snack foods made with the “fat substitute” have debuted in five test markets, but they carry a label required by the FDA that warns that olestra (or Olean, P&amp;G’s brand name) “may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools” and “inhibits the absorption of some vitamins and other nutrients.”</p>
<p>P&amp;G says it would like the FDA to let it soften the unsettling label when the agency revisits olestra’s approval by 1998, so when the products are later sold nationwide, the public won’t think olestra is anything other than the “breakthrough, calorie-free fat replacer that tastes great” that P&amp;G claims it is.</p>
<p>But dropping the label might not be so easy. In late February, the Center for Science in the Public Interest — which had opposed olestra’s FDA approval — released findings from a confidential study by Frito-Lay (which is testing its own olestra-based snack food line, Wow!) that reported olestra caused “anal oil leakage” in 3 to 9 percent of its product testers. The report also cited incidences of underwear spotting (5 percent in one test group) and a “greater variety of gastrointestinal changes” than normal (7 percent). This confirmed earlier CSPI reports from consumers who claimed olestra caused a range of digestive problems.</p>
<p>And that’s not the worst of it. Scientists, such as Meir Stampfer of the Harvard School of Public Health, say consumption of olestra may make it difficult for the body to absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, and could deplete carotenoids, important nutrients that are believed to reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, and other chronic ailments.</p>
<p>In order to combat this spate of bad news, P&amp;G has mounted an impressive public relations campaign to try to make olestra easier for the public — and the government — to stomach:</p>
<p>Working With the FDA According to Henry Blackburn of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, one of five FDA panel members who voted against olestra’s approval, “The FDA did not conduct a disinterested peer review. The FDA staff worked closely with P&amp;G and acted as proponents of the company’s petition.” Of the 17 FDA panelists who voted to approve olestra, nine have links to companies that could benefit from its approval. These include Bruce Chassy of the University of Illinois, whose department’s research has been funded by Nestlé and Dean Foods; John Doull of the University of Kansas Medical Center, who has worked for Pillsbury and Best Foods; and David Lineback, a consultant whose client list has included P&amp;G.</p>
<p>Supporting Stealth Advocates Several high-profile scientific experts have publicly touted olestra without disclosing that they or their organizations receive funding from P&amp;G. For example, Elizabeth Whelan of the American Council on Science and Health wrote a January 28, 1996, syndicated column calling the FDA’s decision to approve olestra “both tasty and satisfying.” She added: “Within months we will be able to buy a variety of delectable zero-fat snacks — a real-life case of getting something for (almost) nothing.” Whelan failed to mention that her group receives funding from P&amp;G — at least $22,500 since 1995. (Whelan says P&amp;G’s support represents less than 1 percent of her group’s budget.)</p>
<p>Louis Sullivan, a former secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, has addressed press conferences and written letters to the editor on behalf of olestra. Rarely is it noted that he also works as a paid P&amp;G consultant. In one dispatch to the New York Times, Sullivan — identified only as the president of the Morehouse School of Medicine — said, “Americans can feel confident in the safety of snacks made with olestra.”</p>
<p>Sullivan also promoted olestra in a 10-minute video P&amp;G sent to local groups, such as PTAs, as part of its marketing effort in Columbus, Ohio. Accompanying the video was a “fact sheet” from the American Dietetic Association that was virtually identical to P&amp;G’s own handouts — no real surprise, since P&amp;G (which provides significant funding to the ADA) paid for the fact sheet.</p>
<p>Courting Congress In order to line up support in Washington, P&amp;G’s political action committee contributed more than $300,000 to congressional races in the last election cycle. P&amp;G, based in Cincinnati, has received particular support from five members of Ohio’s delegation, four of whom received money from P&amp;G’s PAC. In February 1995, Sens. John Glenn and Michael DeWine and Reps. John Boehner, Steve Chabot, and Rob Portman (who doesn’t accept PAC money but took contributions from P&amp;G executives) wrote a joint letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to argue that olestra is safe.</p>
<p>Hitting the Opposition In the past year several articles critical of olestra’s leading critic, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, have been written by authors whose organizations receive P&amp;G funding. In July 1996, for example, Henry Miller of the Hoover Institution, a think tank that gets money from P&amp;G, attacked the center’s position on olestra in the Wall Street Journal. A month later, Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute — which received $140,000 last year from P&amp;G — penned a similar article for USA Today. Neither Miller nor Ornstein disclosed the conflict.</p>
<p>Paying for Science P&amp;G’s funding of scientific research creates a significant conflict of interest between the company’s aims and those of objective science. For instance, at a conference on fat substitutes sponsored by the prestigious New York Academy of Sciences last fall, two P&amp;G consultants, Penny Kris-Etherton of Penn State and John Foreyt of the Baylor College of Medicine, were speakers, as was John Peters, P&amp;G’s associate director of regulatory and clinical development. The conference was co-sponsored by the International Life Sciences Institute, which includes P&amp;G on its board of directors. P&amp;G also helped fund the conference, though ILSI won’t disclose the amount.</p>
<p>The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences will publish the conference proceedings this May. Printed as a bound volume and distributed to more than 700 libraries, the annals, according to the academy, “are among the oldest and most frequently cited sources of scientific research.”</p>
<p>P&amp;G argues that the fees it pays scientific consultants are modest — William Klish of the Baylor College of Medicine, for example, says he’s received $10,000 over five years — and unlikely to influence scientific outcomes. “These are known academics and health researchers who have built reputations for sound science over their careers,” says P&amp;G spokeswoman Jacqui d’Eon. “They are not going to be bought.”</p>
<p>John Stauber, editor of PR Watch, disagrees: “[P&amp;G consultants] are carefully selected and can be counted on to promote the official line. There’s nothing objective or independent about them.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | americans shell close 24 billion dietrelated foods year great fanfare procter amp gamble trumpeted food drug administrations january 1996 approval olestra since snack foods made fat substitute debuted five test markets carry label required fda warns olestra olean pampgs brand name may cause abdominal cramping loose stools inhibits absorption vitamins nutrients pampg says would like fda let soften unsettling label agency revisits olestras approval 1998 products later sold nationwide public wont think olestra anything breakthrough caloriefree fat replacer tastes great pampg claims dropping label might easy late february center science public interest opposed olestras fda approval released findings confidential study fritolay testing olestrabased snack food line wow reported olestra caused anal oil leakage 3 9 percent product testers report also cited incidences underwear spotting 5 percent one test group greater variety gastrointestinal changes normal 7 percent confirmed earlier cspi reports consumers claimed olestra caused range digestive problems thats worst scientists meir stampfer harvard school public health say consumption olestra may make difficult body absorb fatsoluble vitamins e k could deplete carotenoids important nutrients believed reduce risk cancer heart disease chronic ailments order combat spate bad news pampg mounted impressive public relations campaign try make olestra easier public government stomach working fda according henry blackburn university minnesota school public health one five fda panel members voted olestras approval fda conduct disinterested peer review fda staff worked closely pampg acted proponents companys petition 17 fda panelists voted approve olestra nine links companies could benefit approval include bruce chassy university illinois whose departments research funded nestlé dean foods john doull university kansas medical center worked pillsbury best foods david lineback consultant whose client list included pampg supporting stealth advocates several highprofile scientific experts publicly touted olestra without disclosing organizations receive funding pampg example elizabeth whelan american council science health wrote january 28 1996 syndicated column calling fdas decision approve olestra tasty satisfying added within months able buy variety delectable zerofat snacks reallife case getting something almost nothing whelan failed mention group receives funding pampg least 22500 since 1995 whelan says pampgs support represents less 1 percent groups budget louis sullivan former secretary health human services oversees fda addressed press conferences written letters editor behalf olestra rarely noted also works paid pampg consultant one dispatch new york times sullivan identified president morehouse school medicine said americans feel confident safety snacks made olestra sullivan also promoted olestra 10minute video pampg sent local groups ptas part marketing effort columbus ohio accompanying video fact sheet american dietetic association virtually identical pampgs handouts real surprise since pampg provides significant funding ada paid fact sheet courting congress order line support washington pampgs political action committee contributed 300000 congressional races last election cycle pampg based cincinnati received particular support five members ohios delegation four received money pampgs pac february 1995 sens john glenn michael dewine reps john boehner steve chabot rob portman doesnt accept pac money took contributions pampg executives wrote joint letter health human services secretary donna shalala argue olestra safe hitting opposition past year several articles critical olestras leading critic center science public interest written authors whose organizations receive pampg funding july 1996 example henry miller hoover institution think tank gets money pampg attacked centers position olestra wall street journal month later norman ornstein american enterprise institute received 140000 last year pampg penned similar article usa today neither miller ornstein disclosed conflict paying science pampgs funding scientific research creates significant conflict interest companys aims objective science instance conference fat substitutes sponsored prestigious new york academy sciences last fall two pampg consultants penny krisetherton penn state john foreyt baylor college medicine speakers john peters pampgs associate director regulatory clinical development conference cosponsored international life sciences institute includes pampg board directors pampg also helped fund conference though ilsi wont disclose amount annals new york academy sciences publish conference proceedings may printed bound volume distributed 700 libraries annals according academy among oldest frequently cited sources scientific research pampg argues fees pays scientific consultants modest william klish baylor college medicine example says hes received 10000 five years unlikely influence scientific outcomes known academics health researchers built reputations sound science careers says pampg spokeswoman jacqui deon going bought john stauber editor pr watch disagrees pampg consultants carefully selected counted promote official line theres nothing objective independent | 703 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/robboudon/291583692/sizes/z/in/photostream/"&gt;Rob Boudon's buddy icon Rob Boudon&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175604/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>Democrats are frustrated: Why can’t Republican voters see that Republicans pass voter ID laws to suppress voting, not fraud?</p>
<p>Democrats know who tends to lack ID. They know that the threat of in-person voter fraud is wildly <a href="http://votingrights.news21.com/article/election-fraud/" type="external">exaggerated</a>. Besides, Republican officials could hardly have been clearer about the real purpose behind these laws and courts keep striking them down as unconstitutional. Still, Republican support remains <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/106809815/Mercyhurst-Fall-2012-Poll-for-Release" type="external">sky high</a>, with only <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/08/12/National-Politics/Polling/question_6231.xml?uuid=clnMuOQZEeGJ93biOpgtBg" type="external">one third</a> of Republicans recognizing that they are primarily intended to boost the GOP’s prospects.</p>
<p>How can Republican voters go on believing that the latest wave of voter ID laws is about fraud and that it’s the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/08/12/National-Politics/Polling/question_6233.xml?uuid=dXk52OQZEeGJ93biOpgtBgUS" type="external">opposition</a> to the laws that’s being partisan?</p>
<p>To help frustrated non-Republicans, I offer up my own experience as a case study. I <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175590/tomgram%3A_jeremiah_goulka%2C_confessions_of_a_former_republican" type="external">was</a> a Republican for most of my life, and during those years I had no doubt that such laws were indeed truly about fraud. Please join me on a tour of my old outlook on voter ID laws and what caused it to change.</p>
<p>Fraud on the Brain</p>
<p>I grew up in a wealthy Republican suburb of Chicago, where we worried about election fraud all the time. Showing our IDs at the polls seemed like a minor act of political rebellion against the legendary Democratic political machine that ran the city and county. “Vote early and often!” was the catchphrase we used for how that machine worked. Those were its instructions to its minions, we semi-jokingly believed, and it called up an image of mass in-person voter fraud.</p>
<p>We hated the “Democrat” machine, seeing it as inherently corrupt, and its power, we had no doubt, derived from fraud. When it wasn’t bribing voters or destroying ballots, it was manipulating election laws—creating, for instance, a signature-collecting requirement so onerous that only a massive organization like itself could easily gather enough John Hancocks to put its candidates on the ballot.</p>
<p>Republicans with long memories still wonder if Richard Nixon lost Illinois—and the 1960 election—thanks to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s ability to make dead Republicans vote for John F. Kennedy. For us, any new report of voter fraud, wrapped in rumor and historical memory, just hammered home what we already knew: it was rampant in our county thanks to the machine.</p>
<p>And it wasn’t just Chicago. We assumed that all cities were run by similarly corrupt Democratic organizations. As for stories of rural corruption and vote tampering? You can guess which party we blamed. Corruption, election fraud, and Democrats: they went hand-in-hand-in-hand.</p>
<p>Sure, we were aware of the occasional accusation of corruption against one or another Republican official. Normally, we assumed that such accusations were politically motivated. If they turned out to be true, then you were obviously talking about a “bad apple.”</p>
<p>I must admit that I did occasionally wonder whether there were any Republican machines out there, and the more I heard about the dominating one in neighboring DuPage County, the less I wanted to know. (Ditto Florida in 2000.) Still, I knew—I knew—that the Dems would use any crooked tool in the box to steal elections. Therefore America needed cleaner elections, and cleaner elections meant voter ID laws.</p>
<p>Doesn’t Everyone Have an ID?</p>
<p>Every once in a while I’d hear the complaint—usually from a Democrat—that such laws were “racist.” Racist? How could they be when they were so commonsensical? The complainers, I figured, were talking nonsense, just another instance of the tiresome PC brigade slapping the race card on the table for partisan advantage. If only they would scrap their tedious, tendentious identity and victim politics and come join the rest of us in the business of America.</p>
<p>All this held until one night in 2006. At the time, my roommate worked at a local bank branch, and that evening when we got into a conversation, he mentioned to me that the bank required two forms of identification to open an account. Of course, who wouldn’t? But then he told me this crazy thing: customers would show up with only one ID or none at all—and it wasn’t like they had left them at home.</p>
<p>“Really?” I said, blown away by the thought of it.</p>
<p>“Yeah, really.”</p>
<p>And here was the kicker: every single one of them was black and poor. As I’ve written <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175590/tomgram%3A_jeremiah_goulka%2C_confessions_of_a_former_republican" type="external">elsewhere</a>, this was one of the moments that opened my eyes to a broader reality which, in the end, caused me to quit the Republican Party.</p>
<p>I had no idea. I had naturally assumed—to the extent that I even gave it a thought—that every adult had to have at least one ID. Like most everyone in my world, I’ve had two or three at any given time since the day I turned 16 and begged my parents to take me to the DMV.</p>
<p>Until then, I couldn’t imagine how voter ID laws might be about anything but fraud. That no longer held up for the simple reason that, in the minds of Republican operators and voters alike, there is a pretty simple equation: Black + Poor = Democrat. And if that was the case, and the poor and black were more likely to lack IDs, then how could those laws not be aimed at them?</p>
<p>Whenever I tell people this story, most Republicans and some Democrats are shocked. Like me, they had no idea that there are significant numbers of adults out there who don’t have IDs.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0086EF89K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B0086EF89KUS" type="external" />Of course, had I bothered to look, the information about this was hiding in plain sight. <a href="http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/citizens_without_proof_a_survey_of_americans_possession_of_documentary_proo/%5D" type="external">According to</a> the respected Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, 7% of the general voting public doesn’t have an adequate photo ID, but those figures rise precipitously when you hit certain groups: 15% of voting age citizens making less than $35,000 a year, 18% of Americans over 65, and a full quarter of African Americans.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/07/pennsylvania-voter-id-philadelphia-blacks-latinos_n_1752480.html" type="external">study</a> by other researchers focusing on the swing-state of Pennsylvania found that one in seven voters there lack an ID—one in three in Philadelphia—with minorities far more likely than whites to fall into this category. In fact, every study around notes this disparate demographic trend, even the low-number outlier study preferred <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2012/08/getting-it-wrong-on-voter-id" type="external">by</a> Hans van Spakovsky, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s voter “ <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/09/20/040920fa_fact?currentPage=all" type="external">integrity</a>” activist: its authors still <a href="http://www.american.edu/spa/cdem/upload/csae080109.pdf" type="external">found</a> that “registered voters without photo IDs tended to be female, African-American, and Democrat.”</p>
<p>The “R” Bomb</p>
<p>The more I thought about it, the more I understood why Democrats claim that these laws are racist. By definition, a law that intentionally imposes more burdens on minorities than on whites is racist, even if that imposition is indirect. Seeing these laws as distant relatives of literacy tests and poll taxes no longer seemed so outrageous to me.</p>
<p>After I became a Democrat, I tried explaining this to some of the Republicans in my life, but I quickly saw that I had crossed an invisible tripwire. You see, if you ever want to get a Republican to stop listening to you, just say the “R” word: racism. In my Republican days, any time a Democrat started talking about how some Republican policy or act was racist, I rolled my eyes and thought Reagan-esquely, there they go again…</p>
<p>We loathed identity politics, which we viewed as invidious—as well as harmful to minorities. And the “race card” was so simplistic, so partisan, so boring. Besides, what about all that reverse discrimination? Now that was racist.</p>
<p>We also hated any accusation that made it sound like we were personally racist. It’s a big insult to call someone a racist or a bigot, and we loathed it when Democrats associated the rest of us Republicans with the bigots in the party. At least in my world, we rejected racism, which we defined (in what I now see as a conveniently narrow way) as intentional and mean-spirited acts or attitudes—like the laws passed by segregationist Democrats.</p>
<p>This will undoubtedly amaze non-Republicans, but given all of the above, Republican voters continue to hear the many remarkably blunt statements by those leading the Republican drive to pass voter ID laws not as racist but at the very worst Democratist. That includes comments like that of Pennsylvania House majority leader <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/10/02/the-pennsylvania-voter-id-fight-explained/" type="external">Mike Turzai</a> who spoke of “voter ID, which is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania: done.” Or state Representative Alan Clemmons, the principal sponsor of South Carolina’s voter ID law, who handed out bags of peanuts with this <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/alan-clemmons-voter-id-law_n_1839375.html" type="external">note</a> attached: “Stop Obama’s nutty agenda and support voter ID.”</p>
<p>Besides, some would point out that these laws also affect other people like the elderly (who often vote Republican) or out-of-state college students (often white)—and the latter would make sense as a target, because in the <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/03/video-foolish-college-kids-jus.html" type="external">words</a> of New Hampshire House leader Bill O’Brien, that’s the age when you tend to “foolishly… do what kids do”: “vote as a liberal.” And yes, this might technically violate the general principle that clean elections should include everyone, but partisans won’t mind the results.</p>
<p>This makes me wonder how bothered I would have been had I known how committed Republican strategists are to winning elections by <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-gop-war-on-voting-20110830#ixzz28AKcEftV" type="external">shrinking</a> the electorate rather than appealing to more of it. I did certainly harbor a quiet suspicion that, to the extent we were the party of the managerial class, we were inherently fated to be a minority party.</p>
<p>The Safety Valve</p>
<p>Another key reason why Republican voters see no problem with these laws is their big safety valve: if you don’t have an ID, well, then, be responsible and go get one!</p>
<p>If, however, Republican voters are generally unaware of the high frequency of minorities, the poor, and the elderly lacking IDs, they are blissfully ignorant of the real costs of getting an ID. Yes, the ID itself is free for the indigent (to comport with the 24th Amendment’s ban on poll taxes), but the documents one needs to get a photo ID <a href="http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/the_challenge_of_obtaining_voter_identification/" type="external">aren’t</a>, and the prices haven’t been reduced. Lost your naturalization certificate? That’ll be $345. Don’t have a birth certificate because you’re black and were born in the segregated south? You have to go to <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/169572/discriminatory-south-carolina-voter-id-law-challenged-federal-court-updated" type="external">court</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, Republican voters—and perhaps most others—tend not to be aware of how hard it can be to get an ID if you live in a state where DMV offices are far away or where they simply aren’t open very often. One can only hope that would-be voters have access to a car or adequate public transportation, and a boss who won’t mind if they take several hours off work to go get their ID, particularly if they live in, say, the <a href="http://newsbound.com/explainer-breaking-down-the-voter-id-battle-text-only/" type="external">third</a> of Texas counties that have no ID-issuing offices at all.</p>
<p>I doubt that most Republican voters know that some Republican officials are taking steps to make it even harder to get that ID. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, to take an example, signed a strict voter ID law and then made a move to start <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OKSP800.htm" type="external">closing</a> DMV offices in areas full of Democrats, while increasing office hours in areas full of Republicans—this in a state in which half of blacks and Hispanics are estimated to lack a driver’s license and a quarter of its DMV offices are open <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-gop-war-on-voting-20110830" type="external">less than one day per month</a>. (Sauk City’s is open a whopping <a href="http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/the_challenge_of_obtaining_voter_identification/" type="external">four</a> times a year.) Somehow I doubt that this is primarily about saving money.</p>
<p>What To Do?</p>
<p>One reason why voter ID laws are so politically successful is that they put Democrats in a weak position, forcing them to deny that in-person voter fraud exists or that it’s a big deal. Republican voters and <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/04/22/foxs-voter-fraud-special-light-on-voter-fraud/186051" type="external">media</a> simply won’t buy that. It doesn’t matter how many times the evidence of the so-called threat has been <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/10981-new-nationwide-study-of-election-fraud-since-2000-finds-just-10-cases-of-in-person-voter-fraud" type="external">shown</a> to be trumped up. It’s a bad position to be in.</p>
<p>Providing examples of Republicans committing fraud themselves—whether <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/26/republican-candidate-quits-after-companion-caught-voting-while-dead/" type="external">in-person</a> or, as in <a href="http://articles.boston.com/2012-08-14/metro/33182270_1_absentee-ballots-voter-fraud-general-election" type="external">Massachusetts</a> and <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57522694/voter-registration-fraud-claims-singe-gop/" type="external">Florida</a>, with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/us/politics/as-more-vote-by-mail-faulty-ballots-could-impact-elections.html" type="external">absentee ballots</a> (a category curiously exempted from several of the Republican-inspired voter ID statutes)—won’t provide a wake-up call either. Most Republican voters will shrug it off by saying, essentially, “everybody’s doing it.”</p>
<p>If we can’t talk about race, and Republican voters insist that these laws really are about fraud, then maybe Democrats should consider a different tack and embrace them to the full—so long as they are redesigned to do no harm. IDs would have to be truly free and easy to obtain. The poor should not be charged for the required documentation. More DMVs should be opened, particularly in poor neighborhoods and rural areas, and all DMVs should have evening and weekend hours so that no one has to miss work to get an ID.</p>
<p>To be sure that the laws do no harm, how about mobile DMV units that could go straight to any area where people need IDs? Nursing homes, churches, senior centers, you name it. They could even register people to vote at the same time. Now that would be efficient—and democratic.</p>
<p>No, wait, I’ve got it: How about a mandatory ID card? Every American would receive a photo ID as soon as he or she turns 18. That’s it! A national ID card!</p>
<p>Then voter ID laws would be the perfect thing, because we all want clean elections with high voter turnout, don’t we?</p>
<p>Something tells me, though, that Republicans won’t go for it.</p>
<p>Jeremiah Goulka writes about American politics and culture, focusing on security, race, and the Republican Party. A <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175590/jeremiah_goulka_confessions_of_a_former_republicanUS" type="external">TomDispatch regular</a>, his work has been published in the <a href="http://prospect.org/authors/jeremiah-goulkaUS" type="external">American Prospect</a>, <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/03/28/guest_op_ed_mek_and_its_material_supporters_in_washington/US" type="external">Salon</a>, and elsewhere. He was formerly an analyst at the RAND Corporation, a recovery worker in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, and an attorney at the US Department of Justice. He lives in Washington, D.C. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/JeremiahGoulkaUS" type="external">@jeremiahgoulka</a> or contact him through his website <a href="http://jeremiahgoulka.com/US" type="external">jeremiahgoulka.com</a>. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>.</p> | true | 4 | lta hrefhttpwwwflickrcomphotosrobboudon291583692sizeszinphotostreamgtrob boudons buddy icon rob boudonltagtflickr story first appeared tomdispatch website democrats frustrated cant republican voters see republicans pass voter id laws suppress voting fraud democrats know tends lack id know threat inperson voter fraud wildly exaggerated besides republican officials could hardly clearer real purpose behind laws courts keep striking unconstitutional still republican support remains sky high one third republicans recognizing primarily intended boost gops prospects republican voters go believing latest wave voter id laws fraud opposition laws thats partisan help frustrated nonrepublicans offer experience case study republican life years doubt laws indeed truly fraud please join tour old outlook voter id laws caused change fraud brain grew wealthy republican suburb chicago worried election fraud time showing ids polls seemed like minor act political rebellion legendary democratic political machine ran city county vote early often catchphrase used machine worked instructions minions semijokingly believed called image mass inperson voter fraud hated democrat machine seeing inherently corrupt power doubt derived fraud wasnt bribing voters destroying ballots manipulating election lawscreating instance signaturecollecting requirement onerous massive organization like could easily gather enough john hancocks put candidates ballot republicans long memories still wonder richard nixon lost illinoisand 1960 electionthanks chicago mayor richard daleys ability make dead republicans vote john f kennedy us new report voter fraud wrapped rumor historical memory hammered home already knew rampant county thanks machine wasnt chicago assumed cities run similarly corrupt democratic organizations stories rural corruption vote tampering guess party blamed corruption election fraud democrats went handinhandinhand sure aware occasional accusation corruption one another republican official normally assumed accusations politically motivated turned true obviously talking bad apple must admit occasionally wonder whether republican machines heard dominating one neighboring dupage county less wanted know ditto florida 2000 still knewi knewthat dems would use crooked tool box steal elections therefore america needed cleaner elections cleaner elections meant voter id laws doesnt everyone id every id hear complaintusually democratthat laws racist racist could commonsensical complainers figured talking nonsense another instance tiresome pc brigade slapping race card table partisan advantage would scrap tedious tendentious identity victim politics come join rest us business america held one night 2006 time roommate worked local bank branch evening got conversation mentioned bank required two forms identification open account course wouldnt told crazy thing customers would show one id none alland wasnt like left home really said blown away thought yeah really kicker every single one black poor ive written elsewhere one moments opened eyes broader reality end caused quit republican party idea naturally assumedto extent even gave thoughtthat every adult least one id like everyone world ive two three given time since day turned 16 begged parents take dmv couldnt imagine voter id laws might anything fraud longer held simple reason minds republican operators voters alike pretty simple equation black poor democrat case poor black likely lack ids could laws aimed whenever tell people story republicans democrats shocked like idea significant numbers adults dont ids course bothered look information hiding plain sight according respected brennan center justice new york university school law 7 general voting public doesnt adequate photo id figures rise precipitously hit certain groups 15 voting age citizens making less 35000 year 18 americans 65 full quarter african americans recent study researchers focusing swingstate pennsylvania found one seven voters lack idone three philadelphiawith minorities far likely whites fall category fact every study around notes disparate demographic trend even lownumber outlier study preferred hans van spakovsky conservative heritage foundations voter integrity activist authors still found registered voters without photo ids tended female africanamerican democrat r bomb thought understood democrats claim laws racist definition law intentionally imposes burdens minorities whites racist even imposition indirect seeing laws distant relatives literacy tests poll taxes longer seemed outrageous became democrat tried explaining republicans life quickly saw crossed invisible tripwire see ever want get republican stop listening say r word racism republican days time democrat started talking republican policy act racist rolled eyes thought reaganesquely go loathed identity politics viewed invidiousas well harmful minorities race card simplistic partisan boring besides reverse discrimination racist also hated accusation made sound like personally racist big insult call someone racist bigot loathed democrats associated rest us republicans bigots party least world rejected racism defined see conveniently narrow way intentional meanspirited acts attitudeslike laws passed segregationist democrats undoubtedly amaze nonrepublicans given republican voters continue hear many remarkably blunt statements leading republican drive pass voter id laws racist worst democratist includes comments like pennsylvania house majority leader mike turzai spoke voter id going allow governor romney win state pennsylvania done state representative alan clemmons principal sponsor south carolinas voter id law handed bags peanuts note attached stop obamas nutty agenda support voter id besides would point laws also affect people like elderly often vote republican outofstate college students often whiteand latter would make sense target words new hampshire house leader bill obrien thats age tend foolishly kids vote liberal yes might technically violate general principle clean elections include everyone partisans wont mind results makes wonder bothered would known committed republican strategists winning elections shrinking electorate rather appealing certainly harbor quiet suspicion extent party managerial class inherently fated minority party safety valve another key reason republican voters see problem laws big safety valve dont id well responsible go get one however republican voters generally unaware high frequency minorities poor elderly lacking ids blissfully ignorant real costs getting id yes id free indigent comport 24th amendments ban poll taxes documents one needs get photo id arent prices havent reduced lost naturalization certificate thatll 345 dont birth certificate youre black born segregated south go court similarly republican votersand perhaps otherstend aware hard get id live state dmv offices far away simply arent open often one hope wouldbe voters access car adequate public transportation boss wont mind take several hours work go get id particularly live say third texas counties idissuing offices doubt republican voters know republican officials taking steps make even harder get id wisconsin governor scott walker take example signed strict voter id law made move start closing dmv offices areas full democrats increasing office hours areas full republicansthis state half blacks hispanics estimated lack drivers license quarter dmv offices open less one day per month sauk citys open whopping four times year somehow doubt primarily saving money one reason voter id laws politically successful put democrats weak position forcing deny inperson voter fraud exists big deal republican voters media simply wont buy doesnt matter many times evidence socalled threat shown trumped bad position providing examples republicans committing fraud themselveswhether inperson massachusetts florida absentee ballots category curiously exempted several republicaninspired voter id statuteswont provide wakeup call either republican voters shrug saying essentially everybodys cant talk race republican voters insist laws really fraud maybe democrats consider different tack embrace fullso long redesigned harm ids would truly free easy obtain poor charged required documentation dmvs opened particularly poor neighborhoods rural areas dmvs evening weekend hours one miss work get id sure laws harm mobile dmv units could go straight area people need ids nursing homes churches senior centers name could even register people vote time would efficientand democratic wait ive got mandatory id card every american would receive photo id soon turns 18 thats national id card voter id laws would perfect thing want clean elections high voter turnout dont something tells though republicans wont go jeremiah goulka writes american politics culture focusing security race republican party tomdispatch regular work published american prospect salon elsewhere formerly analyst rand corporation recovery worker new orleans following hurricane katrina attorney us department justice lives washington dc follow twitter jeremiahgoulka contact website jeremiahgoulkacom stay top important articles like sign receive latest updates tomdispatchcom | 1,267 |
<p>Jack Kurtz-POOL/ZUMAPress</p>
<p />
<p>Last time Washington took a swing at comprehensive immigration reform, the far right went nuts. In 2007, when President George W. Bush joined with leading Democrats to push an immigration package, the bill died in the Senate, the casualty of a GOP base revolt stoked by talk radio and hardline anti-immigration groups. (And, by the way, some Democrats were happy to watch a Bush initiative go down.) Now, after the Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Eight released <a href="" type="internal">an immigration reform package</a> and President Barack Obama <a href="" type="internal">essentially backed the effort</a>, the looming question is whether opponents of immigration reform can muster the same kind of backlash—and how ready Republican supporters of immigration reform are to fight back.</p>
<p>Carlos Gutierrez was Bush’s secretary of commerce when the 2007 immigration bill crashed and burned. “It was on the one hand talk radio, on the other it was these groups: FAIR and NumbersUSA, Center for Immigration Studies,” Gutierrez says, naming <a href="" type="internal">several restrictionist groups</a> founded by anti-immigration <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/us/17immig.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">activist John Tanton</a>. “We were getting it all over the place.”</p>
<p>Now those same groups are gearing up to stop bipartisan immigration reform again.</p>
<p>Mark Krikorian, the head of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports very strict limits on immigration, thinks reformers will run into trouble once as soon as they present an actual bill. “They say no military plan survives contact with the enemy,” he says. “Well, it’s going to be a similar situation. Once the bill is actually presented, it’s going to have hundreds and hundreds of provisions in it, many of which are going to be unacceptable to lots of Republican and even independent voters.”</p>
<p>Tamar Jacoby of ImmigrationWorks USA, a right-leaning pro-immigration group, disagrees: Immigration reform opponents are “a small faction of the [Republican] party that screams really loud. They’re not an unbeatable force—it’s just that people haven’t played it well.”</p>
<p>Republicans supportive of immigration reform intend to play it better this time. The push for reform is coming from sections of the party that have historically been supportive of reform, like <a href="http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/evangelical-leaders-praise-immigration-reform-framework" type="external">conservative religious groups</a> and the business community. But future Republican presidential hopefuls such as Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have gotten on board, too. Rubio, who had been working on his own plan before joining the Gang of Eight, spent the last two weeks on the right-wing talk radio circuit getting approval for his comprehensive immigration reform plan from the likes of Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Laura Ingraham, despite a general similarity <a href="" type="internal">to what Obama has previously proposed</a>. When Rubio went on Limbaugh’s show Tuesday, Limbaugh told him, “What you are doing is admirable and noteworthy.” Lou Dobbs, a former CNN anchor now at Fox Business who spent the better part of the last decade <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2005/12/12/dobbs-i-support-the-minuteman-project-and-the-f/134416" type="external">praising wannabe border vigilantes</a> and falsely portraying undocumented immigrants as carriers of leprosy ( <a href="http://mediamattersaction.org/reports/fearandloathing/online_version" type="external">not a metaphor</a>), said Rubio’s plan was “a rational, effective, humane response to the issue.”</p>
<p>There’s money behind the GOP pro-reform effort, too. Charles Spies, a <a href="" type="internal">Republican operative who cofounded the Mitt Romney super-PAC Restore Our Future</a> and helped raise millions for Romney’s campaign, started a new super-PAC last November with Gutierrez to support skittish Republicans worried about primary challenges from the right on immigration.</p>
<p>“In the past all [Republican candidates] had to consider politically was an attack from their right flank,” Spies says. “Now they know they have an organization that can come in and support them if they’re attacked.” Republicans for Immigration Reform has only just begun raising money, though, and Spies says that for now he expects it won’t start spending its cash until the 2014 election season.</p>
<p>Most GOP members of Congress haven’t said whether they support the Senate plan, but some have already come out against it. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) a <a href="" type="internal">potential 2016 presidential contender</a>, <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/could-one-of-the-senate-s-few-hispanics-lead-the-gop-push-against-immigration-20130125?mrefid=earthbox" type="external">was part of a meeting of immigration reform opponents in the Senate last week</a>. On Monday, he released a statement <a href="http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/01/sen-ted-cruz-deep-concerns-about-immigration-blueprint-sen-john-cornyn-dubious-too.html/" type="external">expressing opposition to the Senate plan</a> because it would grant a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. National Review <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/339184" type="external">published an editorial Wednesday staunchly opposed</a> to any path to legalization for undocumented immigrants, writing, “Take away the Spanish surname and Latino voters look a great deal like many other Democratic constituencies.” In other words, legalizing undocumented immigrants will only help Democrats win elections.</p>
<p>Limbaugh may have praised Rubio, but he also left himself plenty of room to oppose immigration reform and blame Democrats for marring the Florida senator’s good works. If Limbaugh turns against the bill, other talk radio hosts, including many if not all of those who seem to have lined up with Rubio, will follow Limbaugh’s lead. And then the whole effort could be back where it was last time around. “There’s a lot of Republicans fearful that Barack Obama will march out at the end take credit for it, and say, ‘Look at those evil bastards—I barely kept them from sealing the borders with lava,'” says a Republican consultant.</p>
<p>The conflicts within the Republican Party over immigration aren’t the only threats to comprehensive reform. Making the path to citizenship too onerous could doom liberals’ and Democrats’ support for it. Contentious issues like how the law treats same-sex spouses and future foreign workers could divide Democrats and the left, too. “There’s going to be things in there that are going to be objectionable to members of both parties,” says Ira Mehlman, a spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), one of the groups Gutierrez says helped kill immigration reform last time and will try to do so again.</p>
<p>Using the specifics of an immigration reform bill to divide its supporters is a strategy that’s worked before. But immigration reform advocates contend that the times have changed. “They’re trying that strategy and it’s not breaking through—their strategy of trying to kill the whole policy by picking it to pieces,” says Lynn Tramonte of the pro-immigration reform group America’s Voice.</p>
<p>Gutierrez says that he’s more optimistic about reform than he was the first time around. “There is a better chance [of passage] than [last time],” Gutierrez says, but it’ll be anything but easy. “In the past it’s been the anti-immigration-reform side who seem to have a system together, a way of pushing Congress. People who want immigration reform have to step it up.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | jack kurtzpoolzumapress last time washington took swing comprehensive immigration reform far right went nuts 2007 president george w bush joined leading democrats push immigration package bill died senate casualty gop base revolt stoked talk radio hardline antiimmigration groups way democrats happy watch bush initiative go senates bipartisan gang eight released immigration reform package president barack obama essentially backed effort looming question whether opponents immigration reform muster kind backlashand ready republican supporters immigration reform fight back carlos gutierrez bushs secretary commerce 2007 immigration bill crashed burned one hand talk radio groups fair numbersusa center immigration studies gutierrez says naming several restrictionist groups founded antiimmigration activist john tanton getting place groups gearing stop bipartisan immigration reform mark krikorian head center immigration studies supports strict limits immigration thinks reformers run trouble soon present actual bill say military plan survives contact enemy says well going similar situation bill actually presented going hundreds hundreds provisions many going unacceptable lots republican even independent voters tamar jacoby immigrationworks usa rightleaning proimmigration group disagrees immigration reform opponents small faction republican party screams really loud theyre unbeatable forceits people havent played well republicans supportive immigration reform intend play better time push reform coming sections party historically supportive reform like conservative religious groups business community future republican presidential hopefuls rep paul ryan rwis sen marco rubio rfla gotten board rubio working plan joining gang eight spent last two weeks rightwing talk radio circuit getting approval comprehensive immigration reform plan likes sean hannity mark levin laura ingraham despite general similarity obama previously proposed rubio went limbaughs show tuesday limbaugh told admirable noteworthy lou dobbs former cnn anchor fox business spent better part last decade praising wannabe border vigilantes falsely portraying undocumented immigrants carriers leprosy metaphor said rubios plan rational effective humane response issue theres money behind gop proreform effort charles spies republican operative cofounded mitt romney superpac restore future helped raise millions romneys campaign started new superpac last november gutierrez support skittish republicans worried primary challenges right immigration past republican candidates consider politically attack right flank spies says know organization come support theyre attacked republicans immigration reform begun raising money though spies says expects wont start spending cash 2014 election season gop members congress havent said whether support senate plan already come sen ted cruz rtex potential 2016 presidential contender part meeting immigration reform opponents senate last week monday released statement expressing opposition senate plan would grant path citizenship undocumented immigrants national review published editorial wednesday staunchly opposed path legalization undocumented immigrants writing take away spanish surname latino voters look great deal like many democratic constituencies words legalizing undocumented immigrants help democrats win elections limbaugh may praised rubio also left plenty room oppose immigration reform blame democrats marring florida senators good works limbaugh turns bill talk radio hosts including many seem lined rubio follow limbaughs lead whole effort could back last time around theres lot republicans fearful barack obama march end take credit say look evil bastardsi barely kept sealing borders lava says republican consultant conflicts within republican party immigration arent threats comprehensive reform making path citizenship onerous could doom liberals democrats support contentious issues like law treats samesex spouses future foreign workers could divide democrats left theres going things going objectionable members parties says ira mehlman spokesperson federation american immigration reform fair one groups gutierrez says helped kill immigration reform last time try using specifics immigration reform bill divide supporters strategy thats worked immigration reform advocates contend times changed theyre trying strategy breaking throughtheir strategy trying kill whole policy picking pieces says lynn tramonte proimmigration reform group americas voice gutierrez says hes optimistic reform first time around better chance passage last time gutierrez says itll anything easy past antiimmigrationreform side seem system together way pushing congress people want immigration reform step | 621 |
<p>MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin won a fourth presidential term with nearly 77 percent of the vote — his highest score ever and a massive mandate to pursue his nationalist, assertive policies for another six years in power.</p>
<p>Near-final results released Monday showed that the other seven candidates were far behind Putin in Sunday’s voting.</p>
<p>Observers reported widespread ballot stuffing and unprecedented pressure on Russians to vote, but that is unlikely to seriously damage Putin given his popularity and his tight control over Russian politics.</p>
<p>With 99.8 percent of the vote counted, the Central Election Commission said Monday that communist Pavel Grudinin came in a distant second with 11.9 percent. Third was ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky with 5.7 percent. The only candidate to openly criticize Putin during the campaign, liberal TV star Ksenia Sobchak, won just 1.7 percent.</p>
<p />
<p>Putin’s most serious rival, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was barred from the race because of a fraud conviction widely seen as politically motivated.</p>
<p>The electoral commission said official turnout was 67 percent, but the figure marred by widespread account of workers being coerced to vote and numerous incidents of ballot stuffing.</p>
<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin rolled to a crushing re-election victory Sunday. He told cheering supporters that “we are bound for success.” Putin faced seven minor candidates. His strongest opponent was barred from running. (March 19)</p>
<p>Putin has never faced a serious threat to his rule since he came to power on the eve of the new millennium. He won 53 percent of the vote in the 2000 presidential election, 71 percent in 2004 and 64 percent in 2012.</p>
<p>The massive victory gives Putin new confidence to stand up to the West.</p>
<p>The election came amid escalating Cold War-like tensions, with accusations that Moscow was behind the nerve-agent poisoning this month of a former Russian double agent in Britain and that its internet trolls had waged an extensive campaign to undermine the 2016 U.S. presidential election.</p>
<p>The accusations ultimately bolstered Putin among a populace that sees him as their defender against a hostile outside world and the embodiment of Russia’s resurgent power on the world stage.</p>
<p>The election was such a foregone conclusion that Putin gave only a perfunctory victory speech and said nothing about what he will do for his country.</p>
<p>“We are bound for success,” he said, to crowds near the Kremlin chanting “Russia! Russia!”</p>
<p>Putin’s victory puts his opponents in a tough spot.</p>
<p>Navalny called for a boycott but it’s unclear whether that had any effect. He then clashed publicly with Sobchak on Sunday night, accusing her of being a Kremlin stooge. Sobchak dismissed his accusations and, in turn, blamed what she described as his divisive rhetoric for her low results. Both were silent Monday, and their future plans are unclear.</p>
<p>Putin’s electoral power has centered on stability, a quality cherished by Russians after the chaotic breakup of the Soviet Union. But that stability has been bolstered by a suppression of dissent, the withering of independent media and the top-down control of politics called “managed democracy.”</p>
<p>That included pressure on voters to fulfil their “civic duty.”</p>
<p>Two election observers in Gorny Shchit, a rural district of Yekaterinburg, told The Associated Press they saw an unusually high influx of people going to the polls just before 2 p.m. A doctor at a hospital in the Ural mountains city told the AP that 2 p.m. was the deadline for health officials to report to their superiors that they had voted.</p>
<p>Observer Sergei Krivonogov said voters were taking pictures of the pocket calendars or leaflets that poll workers distributed, seemingly as proof of voting.</p>
<p>Other examples from observers and social media included ballot boxes being stuffed with extra ballots in multiple regions; an election official assaulting an observer; CCTV cameras obscured by flags or nets from watching ballot boxes; discrepancies in ballot numbers; last-minute voter registration changes likely designed to boost turnout; and a huge pro-Putin sign in one polling station.</p>
<p>In his next six years, Putin is likely to assert Russia’s power abroad even more strongly. He recently announced that Russia has developed advanced nuclear weapons capable of evading missile defenses. The Russian military campaign that bolsters the Syrian government is clearly aimed at strengthening Moscow’s foothold in the Middle East, and Russia eagerly eyes any reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula as an economic opportunity.</p>
<p>At home, Putin would face a challenge of how to diversify an economy still dependent on oil and gas and improve medical care and social services in regions far removed from the cosmopolitan glitter of Moscow.</p>
<p>He would need to make a choice between grooming a preferred successor or staying at the helm beyond 2024, either by scrapping term limits or by shifting into a new position of power. Asked late Sunday if he intends to initiate changes in the constitution, he answered that he has no such plans “yet.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Jim Heintz in Moscow and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Yekaterinburg contributed.</p>
<p>See complete Associated Press coverage of the Russian election:&#160; <a href="https://www.apnews.com/tag/RussiaElection" type="external">https://www.apnews.com/tag/RussiaElection</a></p> | true | 4 | moscow russian president vladimir putin fourth presidential term nearly 77 percent vote highest score ever massive mandate pursue nationalist assertive policies another six years power nearfinal results released monday showed seven candidates far behind putin sundays voting observers reported widespread ballot stuffing unprecedented pressure russians vote unlikely seriously damage putin given popularity tight control russian politics 998 percent vote counted central election commission said monday communist pavel grudinin came distant second 119 percent third ultranationalist vladimir zhirinovsky 57 percent candidate openly criticize putin campaign liberal tv star ksenia sobchak 17 percent putins serious rival opposition leader alexei navalny barred race fraud conviction widely seen politically motivated electoral commission said official turnout 67 percent figure marred widespread account workers coerced vote numerous incidents ballot stuffing russian president vladimir putin rolled crushing reelection victory sunday told cheering supporters bound success putin faced seven minor candidates strongest opponent barred running march 19 putin never faced serious threat rule since came power eve new millennium 53 percent vote 2000 presidential election 71 percent 2004 64 percent 2012 massive victory gives putin new confidence stand west election came amid escalating cold warlike tensions accusations moscow behind nerveagent poisoning month former russian double agent britain internet trolls waged extensive campaign undermine 2016 us presidential election accusations ultimately bolstered putin among populace sees defender hostile outside world embodiment russias resurgent power world stage election foregone conclusion putin gave perfunctory victory speech said nothing country bound success said crowds near kremlin chanting russia russia putins victory puts opponents tough spot navalny called boycott unclear whether effect clashed publicly sobchak sunday night accusing kremlin stooge sobchak dismissed accusations turn blamed described divisive rhetoric low results silent monday future plans unclear putins electoral power centered stability quality cherished russians chaotic breakup soviet union stability bolstered suppression dissent withering independent media topdown control politics called managed democracy included pressure voters fulfil civic duty two election observers gorny shchit rural district yekaterinburg told associated press saw unusually high influx people going polls 2 pm doctor hospital ural mountains city told ap 2 pm deadline health officials report superiors voted observer sergei krivonogov said voters taking pictures pocket calendars leaflets poll workers distributed seemingly proof voting examples observers social media included ballot boxes stuffed extra ballots multiple regions election official assaulting observer cctv cameras obscured flags nets watching ballot boxes discrepancies ballot numbers lastminute voter registration changes likely designed boost turnout huge proputin sign one polling station next six years putin likely assert russias power abroad even strongly recently announced russia developed advanced nuclear weapons capable evading missile defenses russian military campaign bolsters syrian government clearly aimed strengthening moscows foothold middle east russia eagerly eyes reconciliation korean peninsula economic opportunity home putin would face challenge diversify economy still dependent oil gas improve medical care social services regions far removed cosmopolitan glitter moscow would need make choice grooming preferred successor staying helm beyond 2024 either scrapping term limits shifting new position power asked late sunday intends initiate changes constitution answered plans yet ___ jim heintz moscow nataliya vasilyeva yekaterinburg contributed see complete associated press coverage russian election160 httpswwwapnewscomtagrussiaelection | 514 |
<p>Let’s just cut to the chase here: Practically everything about Donald Trump’s behavior concerning Russia and the ever-growing list of allegations that would almost certainly lead to his impeachment, if not being charged with treason, indicates he’s someone who has&#160;a lot&#160;to hide.</p>
<p>This is&#160;not&#160;how an innocent person behaves.</p>
<p>1. Innocent people don’t rant and rave about information they claim isn’t true: Would an innocent person get annoyed if people were pushing legitimately fake rumors about them? Of course they would — but they wouldn’t act like this. If none of this information is true, then there shouldn’t be anything for Trump to be upset about. An innocent person would state their innocence, deny the allegations, then sit back and let the people looking into this vindicate them as soon as the investigation(s) completed.</p>
<p>2. He would actually want Congress and U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate him: A person with nothing to hide isn’t worried about investigators exposing anything they don’t want made public because, as Trump’s repeatedly claimed, all of these allegations are “FAKE!”</p>
<p>3. Trump’s desperate to silence whistleblowers: While Trump and his supporters act like leaks to the press, even from our intelligence agencies, are some massive scandal — they’re not. The media citing “unnamed sources,” or information from leaks from various departments (yes, even the CIA, NSA, and FBI), is something that’s happened in practically every administration. The issue here is, Trump is doing everything he can to silence whistleblowers. It’s obvious he’s not actually&#160;upset about leaks — especially considering he&#160;loved&#160;leaks during the campaign — it’s the information being released that he’s trying to suppress.</p>
<p>4. He’s orchestrating a deliberate plan to attack and undermine the credibility of the media: If a person with something to hide is terrified of much more damning facts about them being made public, but they have little to no control over that information eventually coming out, the only thing they can really do is try to <a href="" type="internal">slander those reporting the information</a> they don’t want people to believe. Which is exactly what Trump’s doing by claiming any media outlet&#160;that won’t behave&#160;like his personal state-run propaganda machine is “FAKE!” Since Trump&#160;can’t shut down the freedom of the press like a dictator normally would, his only viable option is to <a href="" type="internal">emulate a go-to move</a> for most authoritarian tyrants&#160;by accusing anyone&#160;who says anything negative about them of&#160;being “out to get them” and pushing “FAKE!” news.</p>
<p>5. He’s trying to intimidate the press into not reporting anything negative about him: Following his speech at CPAC 2017, Trump&#160;banned several media outlets from attending a meeting with press secretary Sean Spicer. On the “banned list” was CNN, the&#160;New York Times,&#160;the&#160;Los Angeles Times,&#160;Buzzfeed, and Politico. This comes after <a href="" type="internal">a rumor a few weeks ago</a> that Trump was contemplating not allowing members of his administration to do interviews with media outlets that weren’t going to “promote their agenda.” This is Trump essentially trying to intimidate the media into doing what he wants or he’ll cut them off from access to his administration.</p>
<p>6. This is how he always acts when his lies are exposed: He’s attacked a disabled reporter for contradicting <a href="" type="internal">his absurd 9/11 conspiracy</a>; said all the woman accusing him of sexual assault were liars; attacked a union leader for calling out the exaggerated number of jobs “saved” from&#160;Mike Pence’s deal with Carrier; tried to slander a former Miss Universe by telling his millions of followers on Twitter to seek out her non-existent sex tape; said the media was lying about the size of his inauguration crowd not being the “largest in history”; and has claimed he only lost by 3 million votes because “millions” of people voted illegally.</p>
<p>Whenever one of Trump’s&#160;lies is debunked, he attacks the person who exposed his lie, while often pushing some sort of ridiculous conspiracy to “justify” whatever nonsense he’s trying to con&#160;people into believing. So when I see him acting&#160;exactly&#160;how he always acts when one of his many lies are debunked, that tells me this information about Russia is almost certainly true — and we haven’t even gotten to the best parts yet.</p>
<p>7. All the people he’s surrounded himself with who’ve had ties to Russia: Here we have the most pro-Russian person to ever get elected to office, during an election where our intelligence agencies have identified Russia as the country that launched a cyber attack to influence our election in his favor, who just happens to be surrounded by a rather high number of people with ties to Russia —&#160;this is all not just a&#160;coincidence. Hell, he just had his top national security advisor “resign” after lying about calling Russian officials and discussing sanctions President Obama issued against the country because of the cyber attack they launched against us.</p>
<p>8. He still won’t release his tax returns: Quite a few of the allegations floating around out there are tied to possible financial weaknesses Trump might have with Russia. Well, a very simple way to disprove a lot of this would be for him to release his tax returns — something he adamantly refuses to do.&#160;Though it’s not just that Trump hasn’t released his taxes, it’s that he’s repeatedly&#160;lied&#160;about why he won’t. Much like #2, if he has nothing to hide, then why won’t he release his returns so he can easily diffuse many of these negative rumors about possible blackmail Putin might have on him?</p>
<p>9. He lied about how long he knew Michael Flynn had discussed the sanctions with Russia, and only got rid of him when he had no other choice: Despite Trump and his administration playing dumb concerning Flynn’s talks with Russia, they were told about this&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-evaluating-the-situation-involving-flynn-russia/2017/02/13/2ac5a690-f249-11e6-9fb1-2d8f3fc9c0ed_story.html?utm_term=.37d10ace8e46" type="external">weeks&#160;before</a> he finally “resigned” — but lied about it. The only difference between the day he resigned and the day Trump was first told about the sanctions being discussed is that he didn’t get rid of Flynn until outside forces&#160;pressured him to do so. Which is why <a href="" type="internal">I said at that time</a>, I fully believe Trump was the one who ordered Flynn to make that call. If he were really “upset” that Flynn supposedly lied, then he would have gotten rid of him immediately.</p>
<p>10. He flat-out refuses to say anything negative about Russia or Vladimir Putin: This is the one that, in my opinion, is an obvious sign something is definitely going on. Not only has Trump refused to say anything negative about the country that attacked us or its leader, but he’s routinely&#160;praised&#160;the serial-killing Russian tyrant. A man like Trump who’s attacked China (repeatedly), Mexico, NATO, the U.N., U.S. intelligence agencies, and even Gold Star parents who, oddly, won’t say a single negative thing about Russia or Putin.</p>
<p>Then when you combine that with the fact that some of these allegations involve Putin having information he plans to use&#160;to blackmail Trump, plus reports that Russia was trying to help get him elected, his extremely strange refusal to say anything negative about an enemy that attacked us or its leader is textbook behavior of someone who’s being blackmailed.</p>
<p>Trump can keep saying a “relationship with Russia would be a good thing” to defend this nonsense, but a relationship with&#160;every country&#160;would be a good thing. Yet he doesn’t mind speaking out against Mexico, China, Iran, or practically any other country —&#160;except&#160;the one reports have alleged has compromised him.</p>
<p>At this point, the evidence is overwhelming that&#160;something&#160;is clearly going on between Donald Trump and Russia. His&#160;behavior is that of someone who’s clearly terrified of people believing the truth and is desperate to do whatever he can to discredit and silence those reporting it.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.twitter.com/allen_clifton" type="external">Hit me up on Twitter</a> or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/allencliftonroc" type="external">Facebook</a> and let me know what you think.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Former Reagan Official Calls Out Trump, Tells Him To Do Something He's Too Afraid To Do</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">If Trump is as Innocent as He Claims, Then He Should Testify, Under Oath, Publicly</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">There's Another Disturbing Reason Why Russia Might be Helping Donald Trump's Campaign</a></p>
<p>13 Facebook comments</p> | true | 4 | lets cut chase practically everything donald trumps behavior concerning russia evergrowing list allegations would almost certainly lead impeachment charged treason indicates hes someone has160a lot160to hide is160not160how innocent person behaves 1 innocent people dont rant rave information claim isnt true would innocent person get annoyed people pushing legitimately fake rumors course would wouldnt act like none information true shouldnt anything trump upset innocent person would state innocence deny allegations sit back let people looking vindicate soon investigations completed 2 would actually want congress us intelligence agencies investigate person nothing hide isnt worried investigators exposing anything dont want made public trumps repeatedly claimed allegations fake 3 trumps desperate silence whistleblowers trump supporters act like leaks press even intelligence agencies massive scandal theyre media citing unnamed sources information leaks various departments yes even cia nsa fbi something thats happened practically every administration issue trump everything silence whistleblowers obvious hes actually160upset leaks especially considering he160loved160leaks campaign information released hes trying suppress 4 hes orchestrating deliberate plan attack undermine credibility media person something hide terrified much damning facts made public little control information eventually coming thing really try slander reporting information dont want people believe exactly trumps claiming media outlet160that wont behave160like personal staterun propaganda machine fake since trump160cant shut freedom press like dictator normally would viable option emulate goto move authoritarian tyrants160by accusing anyone160who says anything negative of160being get pushing fake news 5 hes trying intimidate press reporting anything negative following speech cpac 2017 trump160banned several media outlets attending meeting press secretary sean spicer banned list cnn the160new york times160the160los angeles times160buzzfeed politico comes rumor weeks ago trump contemplating allowing members administration interviews media outlets werent going promote agenda trump essentially trying intimidate media wants hell cut access administration 6 always acts lies exposed hes attacked disabled reporter contradicting absurd 911 conspiracy said woman accusing sexual assault liars attacked union leader calling exaggerated number jobs saved from160mike pences deal carrier tried slander former miss universe telling millions followers twitter seek nonexistent sex tape said media lying size inauguration crowd largest history claimed lost 3 million votes millions people voted illegally whenever one trumps160lies debunked attacks person exposed lie often pushing sort ridiculous conspiracy justify whatever nonsense hes trying con160people believing see acting160exactly160how always acts one many lies debunked tells information russia almost certainly true havent even gotten best parts yet 7 people hes surrounded whove ties russia prorussian person ever get elected office election intelligence agencies identified russia country launched cyber attack influence election favor happens surrounded rather high number people ties russia 160this a160coincidence hell top national security advisor resign lying calling russian officials discussing sanctions president obama issued country cyber attack launched us 8 still wont release tax returns quite allegations floating around tied possible financial weaknesses trump might russia well simple way disprove lot would release tax returns something adamantly refuses do160though trump hasnt released taxes hes repeatedly160lied160about wont much like 2 nothing hide wont release returns easily diffuse many negative rumors possible blackmail putin might 9 lied long knew michael flynn discussed sanctions russia got rid choice despite trump administration playing dumb concerning flynns talks russia told this160 weeks160before finally resigned lied difference day resigned day trump first told sanctions discussed didnt get rid flynn outside forces160pressured said time fully believe trump one ordered flynn make call really upset flynn supposedly lied would gotten rid immediately 10 flatout refuses say anything negative russia vladimir putin one opinion obvious sign something definitely going trump refused say anything negative country attacked us leader hes routinely160praised160the serialkilling russian tyrant man like trump whos attacked china repeatedly mexico nato un us intelligence agencies even gold star parents oddly wont say single negative thing russia putin combine fact allegations involve putin information plans use160to blackmail trump plus reports russia trying help get elected extremely strange refusal say anything negative enemy attacked us leader textbook behavior someone whos blackmailed trump keep saying relationship russia would good thing defend nonsense relationship with160every country160would good thing yet doesnt mind speaking mexico china iran practically country 160except160the one reports alleged compromised point evidence overwhelming that160something160is clearly going donald trump russia his160behavior someone whos clearly terrified people believing truth desperate whatever discredit silence reporting hit twitter facebook let know think former reagan official calls trump tells something hes afraid trump innocent claims testify oath publicly theres another disturbing reason russia might helping donald trumps campaign 13 facebook comments | 729 |
<p>Rodger Mallison/Fort Worth Star-Telegram via ZUMA Press</p>
<p />
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176202/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>Through good times and bad, regardless of what’s actually happening in the world, one thing is certain: In the long run, the Pentagon budget won’t go down.</p>
<p>It’s not that the budget has never been reduced. At pivotal moments, like the end of World War II as well as the war’s end in Korea and Vietnam, there were indeed temporary downturns, as there was after the Cold War. More recently, the <a href="http://budget.house.gov/budgetcontrolact2011/" type="external">Budget Control Act of 2011</a> threw a monkey wrench into the Pentagon’s plans for funding that would go ever onward and upward by putting a cap on the money Congress could pony up for it. The remarkable thing, though, is not that such moments have occurred, but how modest and short-lived they’ve proved to be.</p>
<p>Take the current budget. It’s down slightly from its peak in 2011, when it reached the highest level since World War II, but this year’s budget for the Pentagon and related agencies is nothing to sneeze at. It comes in at roughly <a href="http://armscontrolcenter.org/fy-2016-defense-budget-request-briefing-book/" type="external">$600 billion</a>— <a href="http://www.thirdway.org/report/the-presidents-2017-defense-budget" type="external">more</a> than the peak year of the massive arms buildup initiated by President Ronald Reagan back in the 1980s. To put this figure in perspective: Despite troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan dropping sharply over the past eight years, the Obama administration has still managed to <a href="http://www.thirdway.org/report/the-presidents-2017-defense-budget" type="external">spend</a> more on the Pentagon than the Bush administration did during its two terms in office.</p>
<p>What accounts for the Department of Defense’s ability to keep a stranglehold on our tax dollars year after endless year?</p>
<p>Pillar one supporting that edifice: ideology. As long as most Americans accept the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175973/" type="external">notion</a> that it is the God-given mission and right of the United States to go anywhere on the planet and do more or less anything it cares to do with its military, you won’t see Pentagon spending brought under real control. Think of this as the military corollary to American exceptionalism—or just call it the doctrine of armed exceptionalism, if you will.</p>
<p>The second pillar supporting lavish military budgets (and this will hardly surprise you): the entrenched power of the arms lobby and its allies in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill. The strategic placement of arms production facilities and military bases in key states and congressional districts has created an economic dependency that has saved many a flawed weapons system from being unceremoniously dumped in the trash bin of history.</p>
<p>Lockheed Martin, for instance, has put together a handy <a href="https://www.f35.com/about/economic-impact-map" type="external">map</a> of how its troubled F-35 fighter jet has created 125,000 jobs in 46 states. The <a href="http://www.ciponline.org/research/entry/promising-the-sky-pork-barrel-politics-and-the-f-35-combat-aircraft" type="external">actual figures</a> are, in fact, considerably lower, but the principle holds: Having subcontractors in dozens of states makes it harder for members of Congress to consider cutting or slowing down even a failed or failing program. Take as an example the M-1 tank, which the Army actually wanted to stop buying. Its plans were thwarted by the Ohio congressional delegation, which led a <a href="https://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/07/30/10325/army-tank-could-not-be-stopped" type="external">fight</a> to add more M-1s to the budget in order to keep the General Dynamics production line in Lima, Ohio, up and running. In a similar fashion, prodded by the Missouri delegation, Congress <a href="https://news.usni.org/2015/07/22/boeing-plans-to-keep-super-hornet-line-open-after-positive-signs-from-congress-international-navies" type="external">added</a> two different versions of Boeing’s F-18 aircraft to the budget to keep funds flowing to that company’s St. Louis area plant.</p>
<p>The one-two punch of an environment in which the military can do no wrong while being outfitted for every global task imaginable, and what former Pentagon analyst Franklin “Chuck” Spinney has called “ <a href="http://www.ranum.com/editorials/must-read/spinney/spinney_testimony.htm" type="external">political engineering</a>,” has been a tough combination to beat. &#160;</p>
<p>The overwhelming consensus in favor of a “cover the globe” military strategy has been broken from time to time by popular resistance to the idea of using war as a central tool of foreign policy. In such periods, getting Americans behind a program of feeding the military machine massive sums of money has generally required a heavy dose of fear.</p>
<p>For example, the last thing most Americans wanted after the devastation and hardship unleashed by World War II was to immediately put the country back on a war footing. The demobilization of millions of soldiers and a sharp cutback in weapons spending in the immediate postwar years rocked what President Dwight Eisenhower would later <a href="http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/ike.htm" type="external">dub</a> the “military-industrial complex.”</p>
<p>As Wayne Biddle has noted in his seminal book <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1991-07-28/books/bk-112_1_wayne-biddle" type="external">Barons of the Sky</a>, the US aerospace industry <a href="http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-students/ww2-history/ww2-by-the-numbers/wartime-production.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/" type="external">produced</a> an astonishing 300,000-plus military aircraft during World War II. Not surprisingly, major weapons producers struggled to survive in a peacetime environment in which government demand for their products threatened to be a tiny fraction of wartime levels.</p>
<p>Lockheed President Robert Gross was terrified by the potential impact of war’s end on his company’s business, as were many of his industry cohorts. “As long as I live,” he <a href="http://democracyjournal.org/magazine/21/peace-is-our-profession/" type="external">said</a>, “I will never forget those short, appalling weeks” of the immediate postwar period. To be clear, Gross was appalled not by the war itself, but by the drop off in orders occasioned by its end. He <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0047T86BA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" type="external">elaborated</a> in a 1947 letter to a friend: “We had one underlying element of comfort and reassurance during the war. We knew we’d get paid for anything we built. Now we are almost entirely on our own.”</p>
<p>The postwar doldrums in military spending that worried Gross so were reversed only after the American public had been fed a steady, fear-filled diet of anti-communism. <a href="https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/documents/pdf/10-1.pdf" type="external">NSC-68</a>, a secret memorandum the National Security Council prepared for President Harry Truman in April 1950, created the template for a policy based on the global “containment” of communism and grounded in a plan to encircle the Soviet Union with US military forces, bases, and alliances. This would, of course, prove to be a strikingly expensive proposition. The concluding paragraphs of that memorandum underscored exactly that point, <a href="https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/documents/pdf/10-1.pdf" type="external">calling for</a> a “sustained buildup of US political, economic, and military strength…[to] frustrate the Kremlin design of a world dominated by its will.”</p>
<p>Sen. Arthur Vandenberg put the thrust of this new Cold War policy in far simpler terms when he bluntly <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-cobbs-global-policeman-20160704-snap-story.html" type="external">advised</a> President Truman to “scare the hell out of the American people” to win support for a $400 million aid plan for Greece and Turkey. His suggestion would be put into effect not just for those two countries but to generate support for what President Eisenhower would later <a href="http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html" type="external">describe</a> as “a permanent arms establishment of vast proportions.”</p>
<p>Industry leaders like Lockheed’s Gross were poised to take advantage of such planning. In a draft of a 1950 speech, Gross <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0047T86BA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" type="external">noted</a>, giddily enough, that “for the first time in recorded history, one country has assumed global responsibility.” Meeting that responsibility would naturally mean using air transport to deliver “huge quantities of men, food, ammunition, tanks, gasoline, oil and thousands of other articles of war to a number of widely separated places on the face of the earth.” Lockheed, of course, stood ready to heed the call.</p>
<p>The next major challenge to armed exceptionalism, and to the further militarization of foreign policy, came after the disastrous Vietnam War, which drove many Americans to question the wisdom of a policy of permanent global interventionism. That phenomenon would be <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/kicking-the-vietnam-syndrome-u-s-interventionism-and-the-victory-of-perception-management/5421897" type="external">dubbed</a> the “Vietnam syndrome” by interventionists, as if opposition to such a military policy were a disease, not a position. Still, that “syndrome” carried considerable, if ever decreasing, weight for a decade and a half, despite the Pentagon’s Reagan-inspired arms buildup of the 1980s.</p>
<p>With the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Washington decisively renewed its practice of responding to perceived foreign threats with large-scale military interventions. That quick victory over Iraqi autocrat Saddam Hussein’s forces in Kuwait was <a href="http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-03-06/news/1991065215_1_vietnam-syndrome-vietnam-war-south-vietnam" type="external">celebrated</a> by many hawks as the end of the Vietnam-induced malaise. Amid <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhARosaTfSw" type="external">victory parades</a> and celebrations, President George H.W. Bush would enthusiastically <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=19351" type="external">exclaim</a>, “And, by God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all.”</p>
<p>However, perhaps the biggest threat since World War II to an “arms establishment of vast proportions” came with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, also in 1991. How to mainline fear into the American public and justify Cold War levels of spending when that other superpower, the Soviet Union, the primary threat of the previous nearly half-century, had just evaporated and there was next to nothing threatening on the horizon? General Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, summed up the fears of that moment within the military and the arms complex when he <a href="http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19910409&amp;slug=1276426" type="external">said</a>, “I’m running out of demons. I’m running out of villains. I’m down to Castro and Kim Il-sung.”</p>
<p>In reality, he underestimated the Pentagon’s ability to conjure up new threats. Military spending did indeed drop at the end of the Cold War, but the Pentagon helped staunch the bleeding relatively quickly before a “peace dividend” could be delivered to the American people. Instead, it put a firm floor under the fall by announcing what came to be known as the <a href="http://www.merip.org/mer/mer208/rise-fall-rogue-doctrine" type="external">“rogue state” doctrine</a>. Resources formerly aimed at the Soviet Union would now be focused on “regional hegemons” like Iraq and North Korea.</p>
<p>After the 9/11 attacks, the rogue-state doctrine morphed into the Global War on Terror (GWOT), which neoconservative pundits soon labeled “ <a href="http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=5144" type="external">World War IV</a>.” The heightened fear campaign that went with it, in turn, helped sow the seeds for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was promoted by <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/cltv/2014/05/condoleezza-rice-smoking-gun-be" type="external">visions</a> of mushroom clouds rising over American cities and a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/9301/%20jim_lobe_on_timing_the_cheney_nuclear_drumbeat" type="external">drumbeat</a> of Bush administration <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/22794451/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/study-bush-led-us-war-false-pretenses/#.V_0gs5MrKCQ" type="external">claims</a> (all false) that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al Qaeda. Some administration officials including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/aug/21/iraq.richardnortontaylor" type="external">suggested</a> that Saddam was like Hitler, as if a modest-sized Middle Eastern state could somehow muster the resources to conquer the globe.</p>
<p>The administration’s propaganda campaign would be supplemented by the work of right-wing corporate-funded think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. And no one should be surprised to learn that the military-industrial complex and its money, its lobbyists, and its interests were in the middle of it all. Take Lockheed Martin Vice President Bruce Jackson. In 1997, he became a director of the <a href="http://cryptome.org/rad.htm" type="external">Project for the New American Century</a> and so part of a gaggle of hawks including future Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, his future boss Donald Rumsfeld, and future Vice President Dick Cheney. In those years, PNAC would advocate the overthrow of Saddam Hussein as part of its project to turn the planet into an American military protectorate. Many of its members would, of course, enter the Bush administration in crucial roles and become architects of the GWOT and the invasion of Iraq.</p>
<p>The Afghan and Iraq wars would prove an absolute <a href="http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/wp-content/uploads/cow/imce/papers/2011/The%20Military-Industrial%20Complex%20Revisited.pdf" type="external">bonanza</a> for contractors as the Pentagon budget soared. Traditional weapons suppliers like Lockheed Martin and Boeing prospered, as did private contractors like Dick Cheney’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/us/a-closer-look-at-cheney-and-halliburton.html" type="external">former employer</a>, Halliburton, which made billions providing logistical support to US troops in the field. Other major beneficiaries included firms like <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/blackwater-and-the-time-warp-of-the-iraq-war/390480/" type="external">Blackwater</a> and <a href="http://www.pogo.org/blog/2016/07/dyncorp-facing-new-charges-fraud-iraq-contract.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/" type="external">DynCorp</a>, whose employees guarded US facilities and oil pipelines while training Afghan and Iraqi security forces. As much as <a href="https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/cwc/20110929213815/http:/www.wartimecontracting.gov/" type="external">$60 billion</a> of the funds funneled to such contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan would be “wasted,” but not from the point of view of companies for which waste could generate as much profit as a job well done. So Halliburton and its cohorts weren’t complaining.</p>
<p>On entering the Oval Office, President Barack Obama would ditch the term “global war on terror” in favor of “countering violent extremism”—and then essentially settle for a no-name global war. He would shift gears from a strategy focused on large numbers of “boots on the ground” to an emphasis on <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/01/12/reflecting-on-obamas-presidency/obamas-embrace-of-drone-strikes-will-be-a-lasting-legacy" type="external">drone strikes</a>, the use of <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/09/08/documents-show-u-s-military-expands-reach-of-special-operations-programs/" type="external">Special Operations forces</a>, and <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-saudi-security-idUSKCN11D2JQ" type="external">massive transfers of arms</a> to allies like Saudi Arabia. In the context of an increasingly militarized foreign policy, one might call Obama’s approach “politically sustainable warfare,” since it involved fewer (American) casualties and lower costs than Bush-style warfare, which peaked in Iraq at more than 160,000 troops and a comparable number of private contractors.</p>
<p>Recent terror attacks against Western targets—Brussels, Paris, Nice, San Bernardino, Orlando—have offered the national security state and the Obama administration the necessary fear factor that makes the case for higher Pentagon spending so palatable. This has been true despite the fact that more tanks, <a href="http://www.usaf.com/1bomb.htm" type="external">bombers</a>, <a href="http://www.navy.mil/navydata/ships/carriers/carriers.asp" type="external">aircraft carriers</a>, and <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat" type="external">nuclear weapons</a> will be useless in preventing such attacks.</p>
<p>The majority of what the Pentagon spends, of course, has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. But whatever it has or hasn’t been called, the war against terror has proven to be a cash cow for the Pentagon and contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon.</p>
<p>The “war budget”—money meant for the Pentagon but not included in its regular budget—has been used to add on tens of billions of dollars more. It has proven to be an effective “ <a href="http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/07/19/Why-Congress-Should-Cap-Pentagon-s-Slush-Fund" type="external">slush fund</a>” for weapons and activities that have nothing to do with immediate war fighting and has been the Pentagon’s preferred method for evading the caps on its budget imposed by the Budget Control Act. A Pentagon spokesman admitted as much recently by <a href="http://www.pogo.org/straus/issues/defense-budget/2016/pentagon-admits-half-of-war.html" type="external">acknowledging</a> that more than half the $58.8 billion war budget is being used to pay for nonwar costs.</p>
<p>The abuse of the war budget leaves ample room in the Pentagon’s main budget for items like the overpriced, underperforming F-35 combat aircraft, a plane that, at a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-lockheed-fighter-idUSBRE82S03L20120329" type="external">price tag</a> of $1.4 trillion over its lifetime, is on track to be the most expensive weapons program ever undertaken. That slush fund is also enabling the Pentagon to spend billions of dollars in seed money as a down payment on the department’s proposed <a href="http://www.nonproliferation.org/us-trillion-dollar-nuclear-triad/" type="external">$1 trillion plan</a> to buy a new generation of nuclear-armed bombers, missiles, and submarines. Shutting it down could force the Pentagon to do what it likes least: live within an actual budget rather than continuing to push its top line ever upward.</p>
<p>Although rarely discussed because of the focus on Donald Trump’s abominable behavior and racist rhetoric, both candidates for president are in favor of increasing Pentagon spending. Trump’s “ <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-hartung/trumps-pentagon-plan-coul_b_12085172.html?" type="external">plan</a>” (if one can call it that) hews closely to a blueprint developed by the Heritage Foundation that, if implemented, could increase Pentagon spending by a cumulative $900 billion over the next decade. The size of a possible <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-hartung/how-much-would-a-clinton_b_12102118.html?" type="external">buildup under Hillary Clinton</a> is less clear, but she has also pledged to work toward lifting the caps on the Pentagon’s regular budget. If that were done, and the war fund continued to be stuffed with non-war-related items, the Pentagon and its contractors will be sitting pretty.</p>
<p>As long as fear, greed, and hubris are the dominant factors driving Pentagon spending (no matter who is in the White House), substantial and enduring budget reductions are essentially inconceivable. A wasteful practice may be eliminated here or an unnecessary weapons system cut there, but more fundamental change would require taking on the fear factor, the doctrine of armed exceptionalism, and the way the military-industrial complex is embedded in Washington.</p>
<p>Only such a culture shift would allow for a clear-eyed assessment of what constitutes “defense” and how much money would be needed to provide it.&#160; Unfortunately, the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned Americans about more than 50 years ago is alive and well, and gobbling up your tax dollars at an alarming rate.</p>
<p>William D. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. His latest book is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Prophets-War-Lockheed-Military-Industrial-Complex/dp/1568586973?ie=UTF8&amp;ref_=nosim&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex</a>.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | rodger mallisonfort worth startelegram via zuma press story first appeared tomdispatch website good times bad regardless whats actually happening world one thing certain long run pentagon budget wont go budget never reduced pivotal moments like end world war ii well wars end korea vietnam indeed temporary downturns cold war recently budget control act 2011 threw monkey wrench pentagons plans funding would go ever onward upward putting cap money congress could pony remarkable thing though moments occurred modest shortlived theyve proved take current budget slightly peak 2011 reached highest level since world war ii years budget pentagon related agencies nothing sneeze comes roughly 600 billion peak year massive arms buildup initiated president ronald reagan back 1980s put figure perspective despite troop levels iraq afghanistan dropping sharply past eight years obama administration still managed spend pentagon bush administration two terms office accounts department defenses ability keep stranglehold tax dollars year endless year pillar one supporting edifice ideology long americans accept notion godgiven mission right united states go anywhere planet less anything cares military wont see pentagon spending brought real control think military corollary american exceptionalismor call doctrine armed exceptionalism second pillar supporting lavish military budgets hardly surprise entrenched power arms lobby allies pentagon capitol hill strategic placement arms production facilities military bases key states congressional districts created economic dependency saved many flawed weapons system unceremoniously dumped trash bin history lockheed martin instance put together handy map troubled f35 fighter jet created 125000 jobs 46 states actual figures fact considerably lower principle holds subcontractors dozens states makes harder members congress consider cutting slowing even failed failing program take example m1 tank army actually wanted stop buying plans thwarted ohio congressional delegation led fight add m1s budget order keep general dynamics production line lima ohio running similar fashion prodded missouri delegation congress added two different versions boeings f18 aircraft budget keep funds flowing companys st louis area plant onetwo punch environment military wrong outfitted every global task imaginable former pentagon analyst franklin chuck spinney called political engineering tough combination beat 160 overwhelming consensus favor cover globe military strategy broken time time popular resistance idea using war central tool foreign policy periods getting americans behind program feeding military machine massive sums money generally required heavy dose fear example last thing americans wanted devastation hardship unleashed world war ii immediately put country back war footing demobilization millions soldiers sharp cutback weapons spending immediate postwar years rocked president dwight eisenhower would later dub militaryindustrial complex wayne biddle noted seminal book barons sky us aerospace industry produced astonishing 300000plus military aircraft world war ii surprisingly major weapons producers struggled survive peacetime environment government demand products threatened tiny fraction wartime levels lockheed president robert gross terrified potential impact wars end companys business many industry cohorts long live said never forget short appalling weeks immediate postwar period clear gross appalled war drop orders occasioned end elaborated 1947 letter friend one underlying element comfort reassurance war knew wed get paid anything built almost entirely postwar doldrums military spending worried gross reversed american public fed steady fearfilled diet anticommunism nsc68 secret memorandum national security council prepared president harry truman april 1950 created template policy based global containment communism grounded plan encircle soviet union us military forces bases alliances would course prove strikingly expensive proposition concluding paragraphs memorandum underscored exactly point calling sustained buildup us political economic military strengthto frustrate kremlin design world dominated sen arthur vandenberg put thrust new cold war policy far simpler terms bluntly advised president truman scare hell american people win support 400 million aid plan greece turkey suggestion would put effect two countries generate support president eisenhower would later describe permanent arms establishment vast proportions industry leaders like lockheeds gross poised take advantage planning draft 1950 speech gross noted giddily enough first time recorded history one country assumed global responsibility meeting responsibility would naturally mean using air transport deliver huge quantities men food ammunition tanks gasoline oil thousands articles war number widely separated places face earth lockheed course stood ready heed call next major challenge armed exceptionalism militarization foreign policy came disastrous vietnam war drove many americans question wisdom policy permanent global interventionism phenomenon would dubbed vietnam syndrome interventionists opposition military policy disease position still syndrome carried considerable ever decreasing weight decade half despite pentagons reaganinspired arms buildup 1980s 1991 persian gulf war washington decisively renewed practice responding perceived foreign threats largescale military interventions quick victory iraqi autocrat saddam husseins forces kuwait celebrated many hawks end vietnaminduced malaise amid victory parades celebrations president george hw bush would enthusiastically exclaim god weve kicked vietnam syndrome however perhaps biggest threat since world war ii arms establishment vast proportions came dissolution soviet union end cold war also 1991 mainline fear american public justify cold war levels spending superpower soviet union primary threat previous nearly halfcentury evaporated next nothing threatening horizon general colin powell chairman joint chiefs staff summed fears moment within military arms complex said im running demons im running villains im castro kim ilsung reality underestimated pentagons ability conjure new threats military spending indeed drop end cold war pentagon helped staunch bleeding relatively quickly peace dividend could delivered american people instead put firm floor fall announcing came known rogue state doctrine resources formerly aimed soviet union would focused regional hegemons like iraq north korea 911 attacks roguestate doctrine morphed global war terror gwot neoconservative pundits soon labeled world war iv heightened fear campaign went turn helped sow seeds 2003 invasion iraq promoted visions mushroom clouds rising american cities drumbeat bush administration claims false saddam hussein weapons mass destruction ties al qaeda administration officials including secretary defense donald rumsfeld even suggested saddam like hitler modestsized middle eastern state could somehow muster resources conquer globe administrations propaganda campaign would supplemented work rightwing corporatefunded think tanks like heritage foundation american enterprise institute one surprised learn militaryindustrial complex money lobbyists interests middle take lockheed martin vice president bruce jackson 1997 became director project new american century part gaggle hawks including future deputy secretary defense paul wolfowitz future boss donald rumsfeld future vice president dick cheney years pnac would advocate overthrow saddam hussein part project turn planet american military protectorate many members would course enter bush administration crucial roles become architects gwot invasion iraq afghan iraq wars would prove absolute bonanza contractors pentagon budget soared traditional weapons suppliers like lockheed martin boeing prospered private contractors like dick cheneys former employer halliburton made billions providing logistical support us troops field major beneficiaries included firms like blackwater dyncorp whose employees guarded us facilities oil pipelines training afghan iraqi security forces much 60 billion funds funneled contractors iraq afghanistan would wasted point view companies waste could generate much profit job well done halliburton cohorts werent complaining entering oval office president barack obama would ditch term global war terror favor countering violent extremismand essentially settle noname global war would shift gears strategy focused large numbers boots ground emphasis drone strikes use special operations forces massive transfers arms allies like saudi arabia context increasingly militarized foreign policy one might call obamas approach politically sustainable warfare since involved fewer american casualties lower costs bushstyle warfare peaked iraq 160000 troops comparable number private contractors recent terror attacks western targetsbrussels paris nice san bernardino orlandohave offered national security state obama administration necessary fear factor makes case higher pentagon spending palatable true despite fact tanks bombers aircraft carriers nuclear weapons useless preventing attacks majority pentagon spends course nothing fighting terrorism whatever hasnt called war terror proven cash cow pentagon contractors like lockheed martin boeing northrop grumman raytheon war budgetmoney meant pentagon included regular budgethas used add tens billions dollars proven effective slush fund weapons activities nothing immediate war fighting pentagons preferred method evading caps budget imposed budget control act pentagon spokesman admitted much recently acknowledging half 588 billion war budget used pay nonwar costs abuse war budget leaves ample room pentagons main budget items like overpriced underperforming f35 combat aircraft plane price tag 14 trillion lifetime track expensive weapons program ever undertaken slush fund also enabling pentagon spend billions dollars seed money payment departments proposed 1 trillion plan buy new generation nucleararmed bombers missiles submarines shutting could force pentagon likes least live within actual budget rather continuing push top line ever upward although rarely discussed focus donald trumps abominable behavior racist rhetoric candidates president favor increasing pentagon spending trumps plan one call hews closely blueprint developed heritage foundation implemented could increase pentagon spending cumulative 900 billion next decade size possible buildup hillary clinton less clear also pledged work toward lifting caps pentagons regular budget done war fund continued stuffed nonwarrelated items pentagon contractors sitting pretty long fear greed hubris dominant factors driving pentagon spending matter white house substantial enduring budget reductions essentially inconceivable wasteful practice may eliminated unnecessary weapons system cut fundamental change would require taking fear factor doctrine armed exceptionalism way militaryindustrial complex embedded washington culture shift would allow cleareyed assessment constitutes defense much money would needed provide it160 unfortunately militaryindustrial complex eisenhower warned americans 50 years ago alive well gobbling tax dollars alarming rate william hartung director arms security project center international policy latest book prophets war lockheed martin making militaryindustrial complex | 1,510 |
<p>The good—the very good—energy news is that the Indian Point nuclear power plants 26 miles north of New York City will be closed in the next few years under an agreement reached between New York State and the plants’ owner, Entergy.</p>
<p>New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has long been calling for the plants to be shut down because, as the New York Times related in its story on the pact, they pose “too great a risk to New York City.” Environmental and safe-energy organizations have been highly active for decades in working for the shutdown of the plants. Under the agreement, one Indian Point plant will shut down by April 2020, the second by April 2021.</p>
<p>They would be among the many nuclear power plants in the U.S. which their owners have in recent years decided to close or have announced will be shut down in a few years.</p>
<p>This comes in the face of nuclear power plant accidents—the most recent the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan—and competitive power being less expensive including renewable and safe solar and wind energy.</p>
<p>Last year the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant in Nebraska closed following the shutdowns of Kewanee in Wisconsin, Vermont Yankee in Vermont, Crystal River 3 in Florida and both San Onofre 2 and 3 in California. Nuclear plant operators say they will close Palisades in Michigan next year and then Oyster Creek in New Jersey and Pilgrim in Massachusetts in 2019 and California’s Diablo Canyon 1 in 2024 and Diablo Canyon 3 in 2025.</p>
<p>This brings the number of nuclear plants down to a few more than 90—a far cry from President Richard Nixon’s scheme to have 1,000 nuclear plants in the U.S. by the year 2000.</p>
<p>But the bad—the very bad—energy news is that there are still many promoters of nuclear power in industry and government still pushing and, most importantly, the transition team of incoming President Donald Trump has been “asking for ways to keep nuclear power alive,” as <a href="" type="internal">Bloomberg News</a> reported last month.</p>
<p>As I was reading last week the first reports on the Indian Point agreement, I received a phone call from an engineer who has been in the nuclear industry for more than 30 years—with his view of the situation.</p>
<p>The engineer, employed at nuclear plants and for a major nuclear plant manufacturer, wanted to relate that even with the Indian Point news—“and I’d keep my fingers crossed that there is no disaster involving those aged Indian Point plants in those next three or four years”—nuclear power remains a “ticking time bomb.” Concerned about retaliation, he asked his name not be published.</p>
<p>Here is some of the information he passed on—a story of experiences of an engineer in the nuclear power industry for more than three decades and his warnings and expectations.</p>
<p>THE SECRETIVE INPO REPORT SYSTEM</p>
<p>Several months after the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania in March 1979, the nuclear industry set up the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) based in Atlanta, Georgia. The idea was to have a nuclear industry group that “would share information” on problems and incidents at nuclear power plants, he said.</p>
<p>If there is a problem at one nuclear power plant, through an INPO report it is communicated to other nuclear plant operators. Thus the various plant operators could “cross-reference” happenings at other plants and determine if they might apply to them.</p>
<p>The reports are “coded by color,” explained the engineer. Those which are “green” involve an incident or condition that might or might not indicate a wider problem. A “yellow” report is on an occurrence “that could cause significant problems down the road.” A “red” report is the most serious and represents “a problem that could have led to a core meltdown”—and could be present widely among nuclear plants and for which action needs to be taken immediately.</p>
<p>The engineer said he has read more than 100 “Code Red” reports. What they reflect, he said, is that “we’ve been very, very lucky so far!”</p>
<p>If the general public would see these “red” reports, its view on nuclear power would turn strongly negative, said the engineer.</p>
<p>But this is prevented by INPO, “created and solely funded by the nuclear industry,” thus its reports “are not covered by the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and are regarded as highly secretive.” The reports should be required to be made public, said the engineer. “It’s high time the country wakes up to the dangers we undergo with nuclear power plants.”</p>
<p>THE NRC INSPECTION FARCE</p>
<p>The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is supposed to be the federal agency that is the watchdog over nuclear power plants and it frequently boasts of how it has “two resident inspectors” at each nuclear power plant in the nation, he noted.</p>
<p>However, explained the engineer, “the NRC inspectors are not allowed to go into the plant on their own. They have to be escorted. There can be no surprise inspections. Indeed, the only inspections that can be made are those that come after the NRC inspectors “get permission from upper management at the plant.”</p>
<p>The inspectors “have to contact upper management and say they want to inspect an area. The word is then passed down from management that inspectors are coming—so ‘clean up’ whatever is the situation is.”</p>
<p>“The inspectors hands are tied,” said the engineer.</p>
<p>THE 60- AND NOW 80-YEAR OPERATING DELUSION</p>
<p>When nuclear power plants were first designed decades ago, explained the engineer, the extent of their mechanical life was established at 40 years. The engineer is highly familiar with these calculations having worked for a leading manufacturer of nuclear plants, General Electric.</p>
<p>The components in nuclear plants, particularly their steel parts, “have an inherent working shelf life,” said the engineer.</p>
<p>In determining the 40-year total operating time, the engineer said that calculated were elements that included the wear and tear of refueling cycles, emergency shutdowns and the “nuclear embrittlement from radioactivity that impacts on the nuclear reactor vessel itself including the head bolts and other related piping, and what the entire system can handle. Further, the reactor vessel is the one component in a nuclear plant that can never be replaced because it becomes so hot with radioactivity. If a reactor vessel cracks, there is no way of repairing it and any certainty of containment of radioactivity is not guaranteed.”</p>
<p>Thus the U.S. government limited the operating licenses it issued for all nuclear power plants to 40 years. However, in recent times the NRC has “rubber-stamped license extensions” of an additional 20 years now to more than 85 of the nuclear plants in the country—permitting them to run for 60 years. Moreover, a push is now on, led by nuclear plant owners Exelon and Dominion, to have the NRC grant license extensions of 20 additional years—to let nuclear plants run for 80 years.</p>
<p>Exelon, the owner of the largest number of nuclear plants in the U.S., last year announced it would ask the NRC to extend the operating licenses of its two Peach Bottom plants in Pennsylvania to 80 years. Dominion declared earlier that it would seek NRC approval to run its two Surry nuclear power plants in Virginia for <a href="" type="internal">80 years.</a></p>
<p>“That a nuclear plant can run for 60 years or 80 years is wishful thinking,” said the engineer. “The industry has thrown out the window all the data developed about the lifetime of a nuclear plant. It would ignore the standards to benefit their wallets, for greed, with total disregard for the country’s safety.”</p>
<p>The engineer went on that since “Day One” of nuclear power, because of the danger of the technology, “they’ve been playing Russian roulette—putting one bullet in the chamber and hoping that it would not fire. By going to 60 years and now possibly to 80 years, “they’re putting all the bullets in every chamber—and taking out only one and pulling the trigger.”</p>
<p>Further, what the NRC has also been doing is not only letting nuclear plants operate longer but “uprating” them—allowing them to run “hotter and harder” to generate more electricity and ostensibly more profit. “Catastrophe is being invited,” said the engineer.</p>
<p>THE CARBON-FREE MYTH</p>
<p>A big argument of nuclear promoters in a period of global warming and climate change is that “reactors aren’t putting greenhouse gases out into the atmosphere,” noted the engineer.</p>
<p>But this “completely ignores” the “nuclear chain”—the cycle of the nuclear power process that begins with the mining of uranium and continues with milling, enrichment and fabrication of nuclear fuel “and all of this is carbon intensive.” There are the greenhouse gasses discharged during the construction of the steel and formation of the concrete used in nuclear plants, transportation that is required, and in the construction of the plants themselves.</p>
<p>“It comes back to a net gain of zero,” said the engineer.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, “we have so many ways of generating electric power that are far more truly carbon-free.”</p>
<p>THE BOTTOM LINE</p>
<p>“The bottom line,” said the engineer, “is that radioactivity is the deadliest material which exists on the face of this planet—and we have no way of controlling it once it is out. With radioactivity, you can’t see it, smell it, touch it or hear it—and you can’t clean it up. There is nothing with which we can suck up radiation.”</p>
<p>Once in the atmosphere—once having been emitted from a nuclear plant through routine operation or in an accident—“that radiation is out there killing living tissue whether it be plant, animal or human life and causing illness and death.”</p>
<p>What about the claim by the nuclear industry and promoters of nuclear power within the federal government of a “new generation” of nuclear power plants that would be safer? The only difference, said the engineer, is that it might be a “different kind of gun—but it will have the same bullets: radioactivity that kills.”</p>
<p>The engineer said “I’d like to see every nuclear plant shut down—yesterday.”</p>
<p>In announcing the agreement on the closing of Indian Point, Governor Cuomo described it as a “ticking time bomb.” There are more of them. Nuclear power overall remains, as the experienced engineer from the nuclear industry said, a “ticking time bomb.”</p>
<p>And every nuclear power plant needs to be shut down.</p> | true | 4 | goodthe goodenergy news indian point nuclear power plants 26 miles north new york city closed next years agreement reached new york state plants owner entergy new york governor andrew cuomo long calling plants shut new york times related story pact pose great risk new york city environmental safeenergy organizations highly active decades working shutdown plants agreement one indian point plant shut april 2020 second april 2021 would among many nuclear power plants us owners recent years decided close announced shut years comes face nuclear power plant accidentsthe recent ongoing fukushima nuclear disaster japanand competitive power less expensive including renewable safe solar wind energy last year fort calhoun nuclear plant nebraska closed following shutdowns kewanee wisconsin vermont yankee vermont crystal river 3 florida san onofre 2 3 california nuclear plant operators say close palisades michigan next year oyster creek new jersey pilgrim massachusetts 2019 californias diablo canyon 1 2024 diablo canyon 3 2025 brings number nuclear plants 90a far cry president richard nixons scheme 1000 nuclear plants us year 2000 badthe badenergy news still many promoters nuclear power industry government still pushing importantly transition team incoming president donald trump asking ways keep nuclear power alive bloomberg news reported last month reading last week first reports indian point agreement received phone call engineer nuclear industry 30 yearswith view situation engineer employed nuclear plants major nuclear plant manufacturer wanted relate even indian point newsand id keep fingers crossed disaster involving aged indian point plants next three four yearsnuclear power remains ticking time bomb concerned retaliation asked name published information passed ona story experiences engineer nuclear power industry three decades warnings expectations secretive inpo report system several months accident three mile island nuclear plant pennsylvania march 1979 nuclear industry set institute nuclear power operations inpo based atlanta georgia idea nuclear industry group would share information problems incidents nuclear power plants said problem one nuclear power plant inpo report communicated nuclear plant operators thus various plant operators could crossreference happenings plants determine might apply reports coded color explained engineer green involve incident condition might might indicate wider problem yellow report occurrence could cause significant problems road red report serious represents problem could led core meltdownand could present widely among nuclear plants action needs taken immediately engineer said read 100 code red reports reflect said weve lucky far general public would see red reports view nuclear power would turn strongly negative said engineer prevented inpo created solely funded nuclear industry thus reports covered us freedom information act regarded highly secretive reports required made public said engineer high time country wakes dangers undergo nuclear power plants nrc inspection farce us nuclear regulatory commission nrc supposed federal agency watchdog nuclear power plants frequently boasts two resident inspectors nuclear power plant nation noted however explained engineer nrc inspectors allowed go plant escorted surprise inspections indeed inspections made come nrc inspectors get permission upper management plant inspectors contact upper management say want inspect area word passed management inspectors comingso clean whatever situation inspectors hands tied said engineer 60 80year operating delusion nuclear power plants first designed decades ago explained engineer extent mechanical life established 40 years engineer highly familiar calculations worked leading manufacturer nuclear plants general electric components nuclear plants particularly steel parts inherent working shelf life said engineer determining 40year total operating time engineer said calculated elements included wear tear refueling cycles emergency shutdowns nuclear embrittlement radioactivity impacts nuclear reactor vessel including head bolts related piping entire system handle reactor vessel one component nuclear plant never replaced becomes hot radioactivity reactor vessel cracks way repairing certainty containment radioactivity guaranteed thus us government limited operating licenses issued nuclear power plants 40 years however recent times nrc rubberstamped license extensions additional 20 years 85 nuclear plants countrypermitting run 60 years moreover push led nuclear plant owners exelon dominion nrc grant license extensions 20 additional yearsto let nuclear plants run 80 years exelon owner largest number nuclear plants us last year announced would ask nrc extend operating licenses two peach bottom plants pennsylvania 80 years dominion declared earlier would seek nrc approval run two surry nuclear power plants virginia 80 years nuclear plant run 60 years 80 years wishful thinking said engineer industry thrown window data developed lifetime nuclear plant would ignore standards benefit wallets greed total disregard countrys safety engineer went since day one nuclear power danger technology theyve playing russian rouletteputting one bullet chamber hoping would fire going 60 years possibly 80 years theyre putting bullets every chamberand taking one pulling trigger nrc also letting nuclear plants operate longer uprating themallowing run hotter harder generate electricity ostensibly profit catastrophe invited said engineer carbonfree myth big argument nuclear promoters period global warming climate change reactors arent putting greenhouse gases atmosphere noted engineer completely ignores nuclear chainthe cycle nuclear power process begins mining uranium continues milling enrichment fabrication nuclear fuel carbon intensive greenhouse gasses discharged construction steel formation concrete used nuclear plants transportation required construction plants comes back net gain zero said engineer meanwhile many ways generating electric power far truly carbonfree bottom line bottom line said engineer radioactivity deadliest material exists face planetand way controlling radioactivity cant see smell touch hear itand cant clean nothing suck radiation atmosphereonce emitted nuclear plant routine operation accidentthat radiation killing living tissue whether plant animal human life causing illness death claim nuclear industry promoters nuclear power within federal government new generation nuclear power plants would safer difference said engineer might different kind gunbut bullets radioactivity kills engineer said id like see every nuclear plant shut downyesterday announcing agreement closing indian point governor cuomo described ticking time bomb nuclear power overall remains experienced engineer nuclear industry said ticking time bomb every nuclear power plant needs shut | 940 |
<p>[Written April 3rd, dictated over the phone April 4, 2002]</p>
<p>There are many myths about what is happening in the Middle East- urban legends, stereotyping and dangerously slanted information. This information has been spoon-fed to the American people. We lap it up unquestioningly. But these half truths, slants and outright lies do as much to perpetuate this blood bath as if we were sending guns and ammunition. Oh wait we are.</p>
<p>MYTH #1 is that this conflict is ‘”too far away” or ‘” none of our business”. Before I continue I want to make sure that every American is clear that the US sends six billion dollars in aid to the Israeli government. So for people who think this conflict is not their problem I would like to give an update on what their tax dollars are being used for- Tanks. Lots and lots and lots and lots of tanks. Automatic weapons and olive green uniform. Right now:</p>
<p>OUR TAX DOLLARS are blocking all the entrances to Bethlehem, not allowing anyone in or out.</p>
<p>OUR TAX DOLLARS have also surrounded manger square. Where little baby Jesus once laid in a manger, Palestinians are now lying wounded and dying or contracting gangrene.</p>
<p>OUR TAX DOLLARS keep ambulances from reaching them.</p>
<p>OUR TAX DOLLARS have also trapped 200 Palestinians inside the church of the Nativity, including the Governor of the Bethlehem District, where the wounded are without medical attention and the rest are without food.</p>
<p>The day of the invasion OUR TAX DOLLARS killed a priest and wounded nuns.</p>
<p>And when the Latin Patriarchy marched from Jerusalem in support of their endangered brothers and sisters, OUR TAX DOLLARS would not allow them through the Bethlehem checkpoint, turning them back to Jerusalem in the cold drizzle.</p>
<p>Near Manger Square OUR TAX DOLLARS killed a mother and her teenage son. Bodies are still lying in the house as we speak while the younger children scream. When some international press went to try and rescue the children they were shot at by OUR TAX DOLLARS, in the same way OUR TAX DOLLARS shot through the door of that same house without even a warning.</p>
<p>OUR TAX DOLLARS “sanitize” the Palestinian refugee camps. Two nights ago in Dehaisha refugee camp our dollars were demanding all the men aged 14-45 and all the women 15-25 come out of their houses and give themselves over. Pictures of the dead plaster all the walls of the camps like wallpaper.</p>
<p>Which brings me to MYTH #2–that all Palestinians are terrorists, raised to kill since childhood. Arafat, the fearless leader of the terrorist state. This biased, slanted information makes me ill and ill to think of all the people who have digested it. Remember when native Americans were ‘”savages”? Remember all the Anti-Semitic propaganda of WWII? It is of urgent importance that we brush up on history quickly because if we do not learn these lessons right now we are dooming ourselves to repeat them. Saying that every Palestinian is a terrorist is like saying that every New Yorker walks around with a knife waiting to mug people in dark alleyways. The information that is given to Americans is biased profiling.</p>
<p>I sat in a Palestinian living room watching TV with the family when we all heard the news of the suicide bomber in Tel Aviv. Their reactions were the same as mine, Oh no, how many were killed? Oh no, this is terrible. The Palestinians realize that they will all pay for the acts of one, the proof being the invasion of Bethlehem. The bomber in Jerusalem was from the Dehaisha Refugee Camp and not surprisingly the people living there, 11,000 of them plus internationals, prepared themselves for direct and merciless retaliation. It would be like attacking the home town of Timothy McVeigh and killing the innocent people living there.</p>
<p>These Palestinian people have been living under Marshall law for over 30 years in constant fear for their lives. They are not raising their children to become terrorists. They are trying to raise their children as best they can in desperate situations. Walking through Aida Refugee Camp I see the paintings of the children and the children”s cultural center that is the pride of the 3700 people living there. The doctor and poet who heads the center says, ‘”the world cannot say that we raise our children to fight”. He gestures to the wall ‘”the kids do not paint tanks or artilleries they are painting on the walls their dreams lakes, rivers, doves”. There is not green in the refugee camps these kids have never seen these things, they paint from their dreams.</p>
<p>Aida camp has been working with the children of the camp teaching them music, dancing, poetry, music, dancing sports, all the things that children should do. The adults feel that these skills are better weapons. They explain, and I agree, that the children ‘”need this kind of hope” and healthier ways to express the myriad feelings swimming inside their little minds.</p>
<p>Kareem tells me a story. Once when the children were learning music inside a relatively exposed building inside the camp the Israeli soldiers began shooting. The children became afraid so to help calm them he suggested they sing. The songs of the children were drowning out the sounds of the shooting and giving the children courage. And then a girl was injured.</p>
<p>There are many more myths from the Middle East but we should also feel responsible for the international silence regarding the dire situation of the Palestinian people. Addressing the 22 internationals staying in the Aida Camp the same doctor says ‘”we were beginning to lose hope that anyone cared, we appreciate what you do. It gives us a little light in the darkness that surrounds us”.</p>
<p>Nancy Stohlman is a member of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace, and one of four Coloradans currently in the West Bank in solidarity with Palestinians under siege by the Israeli military. You can read more about their experiences at: <a href="http://www.ccmep.org/palestine.html" type="external">http://www.ccmep.org/palestine.html</a></p> | true | 4 | written april 3rd dictated phone april 4 2002 many myths happening middle east urban legends stereotyping dangerously slanted information information spoonfed american people lap unquestioningly half truths slants outright lies much perpetuate blood bath sending guns ammunition oh wait myth 1 conflict far away none business continue want make sure every american clear us sends six billion dollars aid israeli government people think conflict problem would like give update tax dollars used tanks lots lots lots lots tanks automatic weapons olive green uniform right tax dollars blocking entrances bethlehem allowing anyone tax dollars also surrounded manger square little baby jesus laid manger palestinians lying wounded dying contracting gangrene tax dollars keep ambulances reaching tax dollars also trapped 200 palestinians inside church nativity including governor bethlehem district wounded without medical attention rest without food day invasion tax dollars killed priest wounded nuns latin patriarchy marched jerusalem support endangered brothers sisters tax dollars would allow bethlehem checkpoint turning back jerusalem cold drizzle near manger square tax dollars killed mother teenage son bodies still lying house speak younger children scream international press went try rescue children shot tax dollars way tax dollars shot door house without even warning tax dollars sanitize palestinian refugee camps two nights ago dehaisha refugee camp dollars demanding men aged 1445 women 1525 come houses give pictures dead plaster walls camps like wallpaper brings myth 2that palestinians terrorists raised kill since childhood arafat fearless leader terrorist state biased slanted information makes ill ill think people digested remember native americans savages remember antisemitic propaganda wwii urgent importance brush history quickly learn lessons right dooming repeat saying every palestinian terrorist like saying every new yorker walks around knife waiting mug people dark alleyways information given americans biased profiling sat palestinian living room watching tv family heard news suicide bomber tel aviv reactions mine oh many killed oh terrible palestinians realize pay acts one proof invasion bethlehem bomber jerusalem dehaisha refugee camp surprisingly people living 11000 plus internationals prepared direct merciless retaliation would like attacking home town timothy mcveigh killing innocent people living palestinian people living marshall law 30 years constant fear lives raising children become terrorists trying raise children best desperate situations walking aida refugee camp see paintings children childrens cultural center pride 3700 people living doctor poet heads center says world say raise children fight gestures wall kids paint tanks artilleries painting walls dreams lakes rivers doves green refugee camps kids never seen things paint dreams aida camp working children camp teaching music dancing poetry music dancing sports things children adults feel skills better weapons explain agree children need kind hope healthier ways express myriad feelings swimming inside little minds kareem tells story children learning music inside relatively exposed building inside camp israeli soldiers began shooting children became afraid help calm suggested sing songs children drowning sounds shooting giving children courage girl injured many myths middle east also feel responsible international silence regarding dire situation palestinian people addressing 22 internationals staying aida camp doctor says beginning lose hope anyone cared appreciate gives us little light darkness surrounds us nancy stohlman member colorado campaign middle east peace one four coloradans currently west bank solidarity palestinians siege israeli military read experiences httpwwwccmeporgpalestinehtml | 530 |
<p>‘Authoritarians’—a subset of conservatives who are particularly loyal to their tribe—are allergic to uncertainty and fiercely refuse to modify their beliefs in response to new evidence.</p>
<p>Did humans evolve over the course of millions of years, or were we created by God just a few thousand years ago? A letter signed by more than 50 scientific societies in 2009 said that the theory of evolution is “the foundation of modern biology, and is crucial in fields as diverse as agriculture, computer science, engineering, geology and medicine.” The letter was addressed to the Texas State Board of Education. That group, dominated by creationists, had only faith and the Bible on its side, yet it was squarely within the American mainstream. Polls show that about 40 percent of the population believes God created humans within the last 10,000 years.</p>
<p>Do tax cuts increase revenues? Is abstinence education more effective than comprehensive sex education? Does human activity create climate change? The answers are no, no and yes, if you believe experts and the body of empirical evidence that has emerged from their work over the past several decades. But clearly, many Americans don’t believe experts and empirical evidence, and instead choose to base their opinions on little more than faith, or on dubious experts whose work is considered marginal within their field.</p>
<p>What exactly is going on when humans choose to reject truth claims that emerge from experimentation and actual evidence? And why is it that conservatives are far more likely than liberals to hold counter-factual opinions?</p>
<p>In his new book, The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science – and Reality, Chris Mooney aims to explain why Republicans “deny science – and reality.” He looks for answers primarily in the field of psychology – the “rarely discovered continent in our politics” – and what he finds is fascinating and frightening. It isn’t news that many Republicans hold contrarian beliefs. But did you know more education often leads to a greater level of reality denial? According to Mooney’s statistics, 19 percent of college-educated Republicans believe human activity is responsible for global warming, while 31 percent of Republicans without a college degree believe so. And the same is true of the most politically engaged Republicans: The most “knowledgeable” are also the most misinformed, and presenting them with counter-evidence only makes them more sure of themselves.</p>
<p>It isn’t that Republicans explicitly want to be detached from reality. They claim their own version of things is true, obviously. The root of the trouble is that holding beliefs that square with reality is less important to them than their need for certainty and for loyalty to their tribe. This is especially true of a subset of conservatives Mooney calls “authoritarians,” who are particularly allergic to uncertainty and fiercely refuse to modify their beliefs in response to new evidence. They “extol traditional values, are very conventional, submit to established leaders, and don’t seem to care much about dissent or civil liberties.” When Mooney describes the “Republican” brain, it’s mainly these authoritiarian conservatives who he has in mind. He doesn’t attempt to quantify them, but they seem to constitute a significant minority within the GOP – perhaps between one-third and one-half of the party’s voters.</p>
<p>Authoritarians are best understood in contrast to their antithesis, what Mooney calls the “open” personality, which he says is the defining characteristic of liberals. Being an open personality means seeking out new experiences and having a basic curiosity about foreign ideas, people and places. Open personalities are also driven by a need for self-expression, and they value creativity with the same enthusiasm that conservatives, particularly authoritarians, value conformity.</p>
<p>These links between psychology and politics are well-established and supported by a solid body of scholarly work, according to Mooney. But we have less ground for certainty about the physiology of those links: how the brains of conservatives and liberals might literally be different. There is suggestive but not definitive evidence that the size of the amygdala – “an almond-shaped bunch of neurons located in an evolutionarily older part of the brain, the limbic system” – may play a role in one’s political orientation. The amygdala is strongly associated with fear; one of its tasks is to “structure our life-preserving defense responses.” Experiments have shown that conservatives tend to have bigger and more active amygdalas, but the field of “neuropolitics” is in its early stages, as Mooney notes. It’s clear, though, that genetics helps shape our political beliefs. According to Mooney, “40 percent or more of the variability in our political outlooks is ultimately attributable to genetic influences.”</p>
<p>It’s also clear that, whatever the extent of its physiological origin, fear is a major motivator in the GOP’s drive to deny reality. In The Republican Brain and in his previous work, The Republican War On Science, Mooney describes the network of institutions and counter-experts that conservatism has fostered over the past several decades. The well-known think tanks, such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, are just the beginning. There are dozens of smaller institutions that are little-known outside of conservative circles but enormously influential within them. One example is WallBuilders, which is devoted to “America’s forgotten history and heroes” and presents a highly mythologized, Christian-focused account of the nation’s past. The head of WallBuilders, David Barton, has accused President Obama of being anti-Biblical.</p>
<p>In field after field, from economics to political philosophy to the sciences, such institutions and “experts” have created a counter-narrative that challenges and often inverts the mainstream consensus. Their aim isn’t to get at the truth as it is commonly understood. Instead, it is to bind believers together and reinforce their faith. In a world that seems increasingly perilous and incomprehensible, this faith offers a measure of security. Indeed, facts seem to matter so little to modern Republicans because the facts are irrelevant to – or else a threat to – the elaborate alternate realities that they’ve constructed. And the reason the most highly educated and engaged Republicans are also the most detached from reality is that they’re aware of the opposing points of view. So keeping the faith requires continual rationalizations. In other words, it takes more than cluelessness to be a reality-denying Republican. It takes hard work.</p>
<p>Mooney paints the psychological differences between liberals and conservatives in broad strokes. More precision – and more breadth – would be welcome. Precisely how do we explain, for example, the astonishing exceptionalism of American conservatism in relationship to much of Western Europe, where conservatives are far more comfortable with scientific expertise and modernity in general? This nation’s high level of religiosity surely has much to do with the disparity – but how does that fact square with the psychological and physiological determinism at the heart of his book?</p>
<p>And are there any plausible solutions? It’s ironic The Republican Brain will only heighten the dilemma that Mooney presumably wants to help resolve. The dilemma is that conservatives won’t read or engage with this kind of book.</p>
<p>Mooney goes to great lengths to say that the Republican brain isn’t necessarily bad, just different, but his provocations can only sound to conservatives like more liberal smugness and self-righteousness. The book’s premise suggests that a solution to the dilemma he lays out is virtually impossible, and Mooney offers none, aside from a vague hope that we can all learn to appreciate our differences. But the unsettling truth is that the health and future of our democracy depend in large part on whether there are, in fact, any real solutions.</p>
<p>Theo Anderson, an In These Times writing fellow, has contributed to the magazine since 2010. He has a Ph.D. in modern U.S. history from Yale and writes on the intellectual and religious history of conservatism and progressivism in the United States. Follow him on Twitter @Theoanderson7 and contact him at theo@inthesetimes.com.</p> | true | 4 | authoritariansa subset conservatives particularly loyal tribeare allergic uncertainty fiercely refuse modify beliefs response new evidence humans evolve course millions years created god thousand years ago letter signed 50 scientific societies 2009 said theory evolution foundation modern biology crucial fields diverse agriculture computer science engineering geology medicine letter addressed texas state board education group dominated creationists faith bible side yet squarely within american mainstream polls show 40 percent population believes god created humans within last 10000 years tax cuts increase revenues abstinence education effective comprehensive sex education human activity create climate change answers yes believe experts body empirical evidence emerged work past several decades clearly many americans dont believe experts empirical evidence instead choose base opinions little faith dubious experts whose work considered marginal within field exactly going humans choose reject truth claims emerge experimentation actual evidence conservatives far likely liberals hold counterfactual opinions new book republican brain science deny science reality chris mooney aims explain republicans deny science reality looks answers primarily field psychology rarely discovered continent politics finds fascinating frightening isnt news many republicans hold contrarian beliefs know education often leads greater level reality denial according mooneys statistics 19 percent collegeeducated republicans believe human activity responsible global warming 31 percent republicans without college degree believe true politically engaged republicans knowledgeable also misinformed presenting counterevidence makes sure isnt republicans explicitly want detached reality claim version things true obviously root trouble holding beliefs square reality less important need certainty loyalty tribe especially true subset conservatives mooney calls authoritarians particularly allergic uncertainty fiercely refuse modify beliefs response new evidence extol traditional values conventional submit established leaders dont seem care much dissent civil liberties mooney describes republican brain mainly authoritiarian conservatives mind doesnt attempt quantify seem constitute significant minority within gop perhaps onethird onehalf partys voters authoritarians best understood contrast antithesis mooney calls open personality says defining characteristic liberals open personality means seeking new experiences basic curiosity foreign ideas people places open personalities also driven need selfexpression value creativity enthusiasm conservatives particularly authoritarians value conformity links psychology politics wellestablished supported solid body scholarly work according mooney less ground certainty physiology links brains conservatives liberals might literally different suggestive definitive evidence size amygdala almondshaped bunch neurons located evolutionarily older part brain limbic system may play role ones political orientation amygdala strongly associated fear one tasks structure lifepreserving defense responses experiments shown conservatives tend bigger active amygdalas field neuropolitics early stages mooney notes clear though genetics helps shape political beliefs according mooney 40 percent variability political outlooks ultimately attributable genetic influences also clear whatever extent physiological origin fear major motivator gops drive deny reality republican brain previous work republican war science mooney describes network institutions counterexperts conservatism fostered past several decades wellknown think tanks american enterprise institute heritage foundation beginning dozens smaller institutions littleknown outside conservative circles enormously influential within one example wallbuilders devoted americas forgotten history heroes presents highly mythologized christianfocused account nations past head wallbuilders david barton accused president obama antibiblical field field economics political philosophy sciences institutions experts created counternarrative challenges often inverts mainstream consensus aim isnt get truth commonly understood instead bind believers together reinforce faith world seems increasingly perilous incomprehensible faith offers measure security indeed facts seem matter little modern republicans facts irrelevant else threat elaborate alternate realities theyve constructed reason highly educated engaged republicans also detached reality theyre aware opposing points view keeping faith requires continual rationalizations words takes cluelessness realitydenying republican takes hard work mooney paints psychological differences liberals conservatives broad strokes precision breadth would welcome precisely explain example astonishing exceptionalism american conservatism relationship much western europe conservatives far comfortable scientific expertise modernity general nations high level religiosity surely much disparity fact square psychological physiological determinism heart book plausible solutions ironic republican brain heighten dilemma mooney presumably wants help resolve dilemma conservatives wont read engage kind book mooney goes great lengths say republican brain isnt necessarily bad different provocations sound conservatives like liberal smugness selfrighteousness books premise suggests solution dilemma lays virtually impossible mooney offers none aside vague hope learn appreciate differences unsettling truth health future democracy depend large part whether fact real solutions theo anderson times writing fellow contributed magazine since 2010 phd modern us history yale writes intellectual religious history conservatism progressivism united states follow twitter theoanderson7 contact theointhesetimescom | 703 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Challenging lawmakers to help him create greater economic opportunity, President Barack Obama will use his State of the Union address Tuesday to announce he’s raising the minimum wage for new federal contract workers to $10.10 an hour, underscoring a go-it-alone strategy in an election year critical to Democrats’ hopes for retaining Senate control.</p>
<p>Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress will be wrapped in a unifying theme: The federal government can play a key role in increasing opportunities for Americans who have been left behind, unable to benefit from a recovering economy.&#160; <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Yet the president will deliver a split message, pressing issues that will distinguish him and Democrats from Republicans in the 2014 midterm elections.</p>
<p>Illustrating his willingness to act on his own, the White House says Obama will announce that he will sign an executive order increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 for new federal contracts. The measure affects only future contracts, not existing ones, and would only apply to contract renewals if other terms of the agreement changed. As a result, the order would benefit far fewer workers than the number foreseen by advocates of federal contract employees.</p>
<p>Still, the issue dovetails with what will be Obama’s broader call for an increase in the national minimum wage to $10.10 and for future increases to be tied to inflation. Obama last year had called for an increase in the minimum wage to $9.</p>
<p>Even as he argues that low income Americans and many in the middle class lack the means to achieve upward mobility, Obama will also feel compelled to take credit for an economy that by many indicators is gaining strength under his watch. As a result, he will talk positively about a recovery that remains elusive to many Americans.</p>
<p>Some Democrats are warning Obama to tread carefully.</p>
<p>“We hope that he does not dwell on the successes of the economy, which may be apparent in employment statistics, the GDP and stock market gains, but which are not felt by folks at the grocery store,” Democratic political analysts James Carville and Stan Greenberg wrote in a recent strategy memo.</p>
<p>The president will present Congress with an agenda largely unchanged from what he called for a year ago, but one that nevertheless fits neatly into this year’s economic opportunity theme. He will continue to seek an overhaul of immigration laws, an increase in the minimum wage and expanded pre-school education.</p>
<p>But after a year in which those proposals languished and gun control failed, the White House is eager to avoid letting Obama be defined by quixotic ambitions. As a result, he will stress success through executive actions, though their reach would be far more modest than what he could achieve through legislation.</p>
<p>“Congress is slow to action and we’re not going to wait for that,” White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said in an interview on “CBS This Morning.” He told NBC’s “Today” show that Obama is not concerned about his public approval ratings as he enters the sixth year of his presidency: “The president doesn’t come down to work every day or go up to the residence every night worried about poll numbers.”</p>
<p>Obama’s biggest and most lasting accomplishment of his second term could be immigration legislation. House Republican leaders lately have sent signals that they are willing to act on piecemeal legislation, and Obama has given them room to work without prodding.</p>
<p>How immigration gets resolved will depend much on what the House is able to pass and if and how it can be reconciled with bipartisan Senate legislation that passed last year. Conservatives are pushing back against any bill that gives legal status to immigrants who are in the country illegally. And some Democrats would prefer to use the unresolved issue to mobilize Hispanic voters for this year’s midterm elections.</p>
<p>Eager not to be limited by legislative gridlock, Obama on Tuesday is also expected to announce executive actions on job training, retirement security and help for the long-term unemployed in finding work.</p>
<p>Among them is a new retirement savings plan geared toward workers whose employers don’t currently offer such plans. The program would allow first-time savers to start building up savings in Treasury bonds that eventually could be converted into a traditional IRAs, according to two people who have discussed the proposal with the administration. Those people weren’t authorized to discuss it ahead of the announcement and insisted on anonymity.</p>
<p>“Tomorrow night, it’s time to restore opportunity for all,” Obama said Monday on the video-sharing site Vine, part of the White House’s broad social media promotion of the speech.</p>
<p>The White House says the hike in minimum pay for federal contract workers would most benefit janitors and construction workers working under new federal contracts, as well as military base workers who wash dishes, serve food and do laundry. The White House says contractors will have time to take the higher minimum wage into account when pricing their bids.</p>
<p>Obama’s go-it-alone approach has already irritated Republicans, some of whom claim he is pushing the limits of the Constitution.</p>
<p>“We have a minimum wage. Congress has set it. For the president to simply declare I’m going to change this law that has passed is unconstitutional,” Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said Tuesday on CNN.</p>
<p>“He can work with us to create opportunity and prosperity,” wrote Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. “Or he can issue press releases.”</p>
<p>The approach, some Republicans say, could also backfire by angering GOP leaders who already don’t trust Obama’s administration.</p>
<p>“The more he tries to do it alone and do confrontation, the less he’s going to be able to get cooperation,” said John Feehery, a former top House Republican aide.</p>
<p>Obama will follow his State of the Union address with a quick trip Wednesday and Thursday to Maryland, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Tennessee to promote his proposals. On Friday, Obama will hold an event at the White House where he’ll announce commitments from several companies to not discriminate against the long-term unemployed during hiring.</p>
<p>Following tradition, the White House has invited several people to sit with first lady Michelle Obama during Tuesday night’s address. Among them are General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Cristian Avila of Phoenix, an immigrant who with two younger siblings was brought to the U.S. illegally when Avila was 9. Now 23, Avila is one of the so-called Dreamers who have benefited from an Obama policy allowing young people who immigrated illegally with their parents to avoid deportation. Other guests include two survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing and Jason Collins, an openly gay former NBA player.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.</p>
<p>Copyright 2014 The Associated Press</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Contact author</a></p>
<p>&#160;&#160; <a href="" type="internal">federal contractor news</a>, <a href="" type="internal">federal worker news</a>, <a href="" type="internal">hourly wage increase</a>, <a href="" type="internal">living wage news</a>, <a href="" type="internal">minimum wage increase news</a>, <a href="" type="internal">State of the Union</a></p> | true | 4 | washington ap challenging lawmakers help create greater economic opportunity president barack obama use state union address tuesday announce hes raising minimum wage new federal contract workers 1010 hour underscoring goitalone strategy election year critical democrats hopes retaining senate control obamas speech joint session congress wrapped unifying theme federal government play key role increasing opportunities americans left behind unable benefit recovering economy160 yet president deliver split message pressing issues distinguish democrats republicans 2014 midterm elections illustrating willingness act white house says obama announce sign executive order increasing minimum wage 725 1010 new federal contracts measure affects future contracts existing ones would apply contract renewals terms agreement changed result order would benefit far fewer workers number foreseen advocates federal contract employees still issue dovetails obamas broader call increase national minimum wage 1010 future increases tied inflation obama last year called increase minimum wage 9 even argues low income americans many middle class lack means achieve upward mobility obama also feel compelled take credit economy many indicators gaining strength watch result talk positively recovery remains elusive many americans democrats warning obama tread carefully hope dwell successes economy may apparent employment statistics gdp stock market gains felt folks grocery store democratic political analysts james carville stan greenberg wrote recent strategy memo president present congress agenda largely unchanged called year ago one nevertheless fits neatly years economic opportunity theme continue seek overhaul immigration laws increase minimum wage expanded preschool education year proposals languished gun control failed white house eager avoid letting obama defined quixotic ambitions result stress success executive actions though reach would far modest could achieve legislation congress slow action going wait white house chief staff denis mcdonough said interview cbs morning told nbcs today show obama concerned public approval ratings enters sixth year presidency president doesnt come work every day go residence every night worried poll numbers obamas biggest lasting accomplishment second term could immigration legislation house republican leaders lately sent signals willing act piecemeal legislation obama given room work without prodding immigration gets resolved depend much house able pass reconciled bipartisan senate legislation passed last year conservatives pushing back bill gives legal status immigrants country illegally democrats would prefer use unresolved issue mobilize hispanic voters years midterm elections eager limited legislative gridlock obama tuesday also expected announce executive actions job training retirement security help longterm unemployed finding work among new retirement savings plan geared toward workers whose employers dont currently offer plans program would allow firsttime savers start building savings treasury bonds eventually could converted traditional iras according two people discussed proposal administration people werent authorized discuss ahead announcement insisted anonymity tomorrow night time restore opportunity obama said monday videosharing site vine part white houses broad social media promotion speech white house says hike minimum pay federal contract workers would benefit janitors construction workers working new federal contracts well military base workers wash dishes serve food laundry white house says contractors time take higher minimum wage account pricing bids obamas goitalone approach already irritated republicans claim pushing limits constitution minimum wage congress set president simply declare im going change law passed unconstitutional rep steve king riowa said tuesday cnn work us create opportunity prosperity wrote brendan buck spokesman house speaker john boehner rohio issue press releases approach republicans say could also backfire angering gop leaders already dont trust obamas administration tries alone confrontation less hes going able get cooperation said john feehery former top house republican aide obama follow state union address quick trip wednesday thursday maryland pennsylvania wisconsin tennessee promote proposals friday obama hold event white house hell announce commitments several companies discriminate longterm unemployed hiring following tradition white house invited several people sit first lady michelle obama tuesday nights address among general motors ceo mary barra cristian avila phoenix immigrant two younger siblings brought us illegally avila 9 23 avila one socalled dreamers benefited obama policy allowing young people immigrated illegally parents avoid deportation guests include two survivors boston marathon bombing jason collins openly gay former nba player ___ associated press writer josh lederman contributed report copyright 2014 associated press 160 contact author 160160 federal contractor news federal worker news hourly wage increase living wage news minimum wage increase news state union | 692 |
<p>Taiji town, in Wakayama prefecture, is a sleepy little fishing village on the eastern coast of Japan about four driving hours from Osaka (Kansai) international airport. Taiji is considered the birthplace of traditional whale hunting in Japan, with a history that dates back to the 1600s.</p>
<p>Travelling down and around the coast from Osaka to Taiji, you will see that the entire coastline is dotted with similar small towns – all with the same style of harbours and small fishing boats.</p>
<p>What sets Taiji apart from other towns is the refusal to accept that there are alternatives to this long held custom of slaughtering small cetaceans. Most of the world was not aware that this was happening until Ric O’Barry brought it to the world’s attention through the making and screening of his award-winning documentary “The Cove”.</p>
<p>“The Cove” was not the first time that the practices had attracted attention here; in 2003 Sea Shepherd activists Alex Cornelissen and Allison Lance were arrested for cutting the nets in the notorious cove and were detained for four weeks before being evicted from Japan.</p>
<p>Arriving in Taiji on 31 August 2010, with a small but select group of Sea Shepherd volunteer activists – all from Brisbane, Australia – we discovered the town was not what we expected. The fleet of fishing boats used in the Dolphin drives, known to us from information readily available on the internet, were sitting lazily in the main harbour. An initial drive past The Cove on our first day in Taiji, the last guaranteed day of safety until April 2011 for the dolphins, yielded no confrontations with pro-hunting militants and no other opposition. In fact, the town was all but deserted.</p>
<p>After checking into our accommodation, one other scuba diver, two scouts, and I headed back to the town to ascertain what preparations were underway for the start of a possible six-month slaughter. We were able to casually walk down to the beach at The Cove, which is visible from the road into town. There was no scrutiny or surveillance from the adjacent car park as we had expected. We donned our snorkelling gear and swam around to the secluded killing cove – this was an unsettling experience – swimming in waters where up to 2,000 Bottlenose and Risso dolphins, False Killer and Pilot whales have been butchered on an annual basis just did not feel right.</p>
<p>Our swim into and out of the killing cove was uneventful, save for the attention it received from a couple that began filming and conducted a short interview with us. This action swiftly brought us to the attention of the local Police. With snorkelling gear in hand, we attempted to walk from The Cove but did not get very far before being questioned by two local [Shingu] Police officers. After some playful banter, and surprisingly no questions as to why we were snorkelling in the cove, we shook hands and left to return to our traditional-style guesthouse in a nearby town.</p>
<p>That night, two of us again headed for the town under cover of darkness, armed with equipment to document any activity either into or out of the harbour and around The Cove, including the secluded killing cove. We nestled into position undetected for the duration of our surveillance activities, and at 3:00am lights started appearing around the town as fishermen woke for their daily routines. At 3:45am, the fishermen started leaving the harbour under the light of the half moon and a star-lit sky. It was not until 5:30am that a procession of the boats involved in the dolphin drives left the sanctity of the main harbour and headed due east under the rising sun.</p>
<p>Shortly before 8:00am the boats returned back from the same easterly direction. This time not in single file but in a long arc of eight evenly spaced boats, slowly driving forward, herding a pod of terrified dolphins or small whales toward their doom. The only noise was the droning of the engines from the distance. Two of the larger boats in the fleet charged ahead to set up positions near the entrance to The Cove, ready to ensure that their quarry did not escape. The dolphins must have gone deep and shifted direction, because within a few minutes all boats broke formation and headed back out to sea. This was a great day for the dolphins with none being caught. A press release was quickly penned to inform the world that the hunts had again resumed with the first one being unsuccessful.</p>
<p>It was not only the world that listened to this first report, but also the fishermen and those holding higher office in the Institute for Cetacean Research, the organisation that ultimately profits from the sales of dolphins for captivity and the annual illegal Antarctic whaling operation. They now knew that representatives of their nemesis, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, were in town – watching and waiting!</p>
<p>A pod of bottlenose dolphins were captured the following morning and witnessed in The Cove. The town’s fisheries agency confirmed that twenty had been captured and a number of them had been kept for sale with the remainder released.</p>
<p>Our photographic evidence confirmed this statement. The captured dolphins were manually moved using small boats and hand-held stretchers to the holding pens in the main harbour on Friday, 3 September where they wait for slave owners from aquariums and other captive dolphin enterprises to collect them; they are destined for a life of misery and will be forced to endure an unnatural diet of dead fish laced with antibiotics and anti-depressants in order to survive.</p>
<p>The knowledge that their activities were being closely monitored prompted an immediate heightening of security over the holding pens and around the town by a team of eleven police and two Japanese Coastguard employees. They were growing anxious over the possibility of a rescue attempt on the dolphins. Sea Shepherd did it in 2003, and could do it in 2010!</p>
<p>Throughout our time in Taiji, we were stopped several times by the police, never admitting our true intentions or affiliations. We also encountered the Japanese Coastguard personnel who knew I was leading this charge into their territory and wanted to warn me that if I attempted a second Sea Shepherd action on the nets then I would be charged – the others in my group were warned not to associate with me!</p>
<p>The Coastguard let us leave, but ensured that we were constantly followed by both Police and Coastguard vehicles until we lost them in a series of manoeuvres in the back streets of Kushimoto. They have not found us since, despite attempts to pose as media for bogus interviews and always calling us within minutes of us escaping their surveillance attempts.</p>
<p>To the fishermen of Taiji, the dolphins and small whales are merely big fish to be captured, sold and forced into an unnatural life in dolphin shows and aquariums for the amusement of humans — or slaughtered inhumanely for their significantly lesser value as meat. These animals are laden with toxic chemicals including PCB’s and methyl-mercury that have permeated the oceanic food chain since the start of the industrial revolution.</p>
<p>Despite scientific evidence highlighting levels of contaminants in the meat that exceed the recommended levels safe for human consumption, it is still sold in supermarkets and served in school lunches. Local Taiji townspeople, and those of neighbouring areas, are being exposed to chemicals that were linked to catastrophic neurological problems (known as Minamata disease) endured by people in Minamata as mercury from industrial waste contaminated their drinking water with poison.</p>
<p>The mayor of Taiji has commented publicly that as long as he holds office the killing of dolphins and other cetaceans will continue. He argues that tradition and custom warrant the continuation of the dolphin drives and refuses to acknowledge that profiteering from these mammals in the name of human entertainment is only a recent phenomenon.</p>
<p>The world must know what is happening in Taiji. We direct no malice towards anyone in Taiji or wider Japan except those involved in these cruel and barbaric slaughters, those capturing dolphins for exploitation, and those that profit from both practices.</p>
<p>We have met and shared laughter with many wonderful locals during our short time in this beautiful, culturally rich area. We have been offered help whenever we have needed it, above and beyond that ever experienced in any other country I have visited or lived. It is unfortunate that a small handful of people continue to bloody these waters and do not seek to find an alternative as many other towns both in Japan and around the world have already chosen to do.</p>
<p>Taiji is not a town prospering from the sale and slaughter of dolphins; instead it too is slowly dying. The lifeblood ebbing slowly out of it by the refusal of younger fishermen to participate in the killings and the profits going to those in higher authority who know only greed without compassion.</p>
<p>Tangalooma Resort, on Brisbane’s Moreton Island, was once the home of one of Australia’s most notorious whaling stations, responsible for decimating the population of humpback whales over such a short period of time that, had they not ceased whaling operations when they did, the humpbacks may have never recovered.</p>
<p>Instead of hiding its 400 years of whaling, Taiji, like Tangalooma Resort, or even Futo in Japan, could be prospering from eco-tourism. After all – who wants to go to a town responsible for the ritualistic murder of cetaceans?</p>
<p>And finally, to those organisations like the Whale Museum in Taiji, the dolphinariums and the Sea World’s of this ocean planet – shame on you! Your greed is the driving force behind the exploitation of these magnificent creatures and the reason that the dolphin hunts continue in places like Taiji. This greed and total disregard for these mammals denies them the freedom of the oceans and forces them into shallow artificial waters where they must perform in order to eat – and where they are denied the opportunity to exhibit natural swimming, hunting, mating and social behaviour.</p>
<p>It is time for people to realise that visiting dolphins and small whales in captivity is directly correlated to the deaths of more than 20,000 cetaceans in Japan every year!</p>
<p>MICHAEL DALTON is Taiji campaign director for <a href="http://www.seashepherd.org/" type="external">Sea Shepherd Conservation Society</a>.</p> | true | 4 | taiji town wakayama prefecture sleepy little fishing village eastern coast japan four driving hours osaka kansai international airport taiji considered birthplace traditional whale hunting japan history dates back 1600s travelling around coast osaka taiji see entire coastline dotted similar small towns style harbours small fishing boats sets taiji apart towns refusal accept alternatives long held custom slaughtering small cetaceans world aware happening ric obarry brought worlds attention making screening awardwinning documentary cove cove first time practices attracted attention 2003 sea shepherd activists alex cornelissen allison lance arrested cutting nets notorious cove detained four weeks evicted japan arriving taiji 31 august 2010 small select group sea shepherd volunteer activists brisbane australia discovered town expected fleet fishing boats used dolphin drives known us information readily available internet sitting lazily main harbour initial drive past cove first day taiji last guaranteed day safety april 2011 dolphins yielded confrontations prohunting militants opposition fact town deserted checking accommodation one scuba diver two scouts headed back town ascertain preparations underway start possible sixmonth slaughter able casually walk beach cove visible road town scrutiny surveillance adjacent car park expected donned snorkelling gear swam around secluded killing cove unsettling experience swimming waters 2000 bottlenose risso dolphins false killer pilot whales butchered annual basis feel right swim killing cove uneventful save attention received couple began filming conducted short interview us action swiftly brought us attention local police snorkelling gear hand attempted walk cove get far questioned two local shingu police officers playful banter surprisingly questions snorkelling cove shook hands left return traditionalstyle guesthouse nearby town night two us headed town cover darkness armed equipment document activity either harbour around cove including secluded killing cove nestled position undetected duration surveillance activities 300am lights started appearing around town fishermen woke daily routines 345am fishermen started leaving harbour light half moon starlit sky 530am procession boats involved dolphin drives left sanctity main harbour headed due east rising sun shortly 800am boats returned back easterly direction time single file long arc eight evenly spaced boats slowly driving forward herding pod terrified dolphins small whales toward doom noise droning engines distance two larger boats fleet charged ahead set positions near entrance cove ready ensure quarry escape dolphins must gone deep shifted direction within minutes boats broke formation headed back sea great day dolphins none caught press release quickly penned inform world hunts resumed first one unsuccessful world listened first report also fishermen holding higher office institute cetacean research organisation ultimately profits sales dolphins captivity annual illegal antarctic whaling operation knew representatives nemesis sea shepherd conservation society town watching waiting pod bottlenose dolphins captured following morning witnessed cove towns fisheries agency confirmed twenty captured number kept sale remainder released photographic evidence confirmed statement captured dolphins manually moved using small boats handheld stretchers holding pens main harbour friday 3 september wait slave owners aquariums captive dolphin enterprises collect destined life misery forced endure unnatural diet dead fish laced antibiotics antidepressants order survive knowledge activities closely monitored prompted immediate heightening security holding pens around town team eleven police two japanese coastguard employees growing anxious possibility rescue attempt dolphins sea shepherd 2003 could 2010 throughout time taiji stopped several times police never admitting true intentions affiliations also encountered japanese coastguard personnel knew leading charge territory wanted warn attempted second sea shepherd action nets would charged others group warned associate coastguard let us leave ensured constantly followed police coastguard vehicles lost series manoeuvres back streets kushimoto found us since despite attempts pose media bogus interviews always calling us within minutes us escaping surveillance attempts fishermen taiji dolphins small whales merely big fish captured sold forced unnatural life dolphin shows aquariums amusement humans slaughtered inhumanely significantly lesser value meat animals laden toxic chemicals including pcbs methylmercury permeated oceanic food chain since start industrial revolution despite scientific evidence highlighting levels contaminants meat exceed recommended levels safe human consumption still sold supermarkets served school lunches local taiji townspeople neighbouring areas exposed chemicals linked catastrophic neurological problems known minamata disease endured people minamata mercury industrial waste contaminated drinking water poison mayor taiji commented publicly long holds office killing dolphins cetaceans continue argues tradition custom warrant continuation dolphin drives refuses acknowledge profiteering mammals name human entertainment recent phenomenon world must know happening taiji direct malice towards anyone taiji wider japan except involved cruel barbaric slaughters capturing dolphins exploitation profit practices met shared laughter many wonderful locals short time beautiful culturally rich area offered help whenever needed beyond ever experienced country visited lived unfortunate small handful people continue bloody waters seek find alternative many towns japan around world already chosen taiji town prospering sale slaughter dolphins instead slowly dying lifeblood ebbing slowly refusal younger fishermen participate killings profits going higher authority know greed without compassion tangalooma resort brisbanes moreton island home one australias notorious whaling stations responsible decimating population humpback whales short period time ceased whaling operations humpbacks may never recovered instead hiding 400 years whaling taiji like tangalooma resort even futo japan could prospering ecotourism wants go town responsible ritualistic murder cetaceans finally organisations like whale museum taiji dolphinariums sea worlds ocean planet shame greed driving force behind exploitation magnificent creatures reason dolphin hunts continue places like taiji greed total disregard mammals denies freedom oceans forces shallow artificial waters must perform order eat denied opportunity exhibit natural swimming hunting mating social behaviour time people realise visiting dolphins small whales captivity directly correlated deaths 20000 cetaceans japan every year michael dalton taiji campaign director sea shepherd conservation society | 903 |
<p />
<p>Penney Kome</p>
<p />
<p>This article reminds me of <a href="http://www.carleton.edu/curricular/GERM/courses/GERM232/rapunzel/bettleheim.htm" type="external">Bruno Bettleheim’s</a> discussions on grisly fairy tales, and how such fantasies help children learn how to deal with fears. In fact, my 12-year-old son recently found my copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales and took it to school to read. The other kids kept borrowing it.</p>
<p>However, there are two things our boys have never been allowed: guns, and horror movies. Even before I left the US for Canada, I was horrified by the easy availability of guns in the US. I still am. Our boys have never had so much as water pistols. Unlike what I’ve heard from other parents, they never devised toy guns on their own, either.</p>
<p>What I also dislike, and our boys seem to dislike as well, are violent stories that elevate anxiety without any purpose beyond perhaps a jolt or nervous giggle. Let’s face it, a lot of slasher movies and action thrillers have no plot to speak of, much less character development. They’re a kind of pornography.</p>
<p>Americans seem to prize a certain edginess, and I wonder how much of that is a cultivated state of anxiety. Canadians tend to be more reflective — okay, except for David Cronenberg — and more interested in group solutions rather than individual solutions. Canadians would, I think, be puzzled by talk about children’s “natural aggression.”</p>
<p>Gerard Jones responds:</p>
<p />
<p>Thanks for the comparison to Bettleheim, Penney. Obviously his work informs mine. When I was growing up, the Grimms tales were in disfavor among well-intentioned liberal parents just as violent pop culture was, so I never read them as a child. After I read “The Uses of Enchantment” in my late teens, however, I sought them out, and have been fascinated ever since with the similarities and differences between traditional violent stories and pop-culture violence — specifically the question of whether movies, comic books, and the like meet the emotional needs of modern people in the way oral traditions met those of our ancestors (which, to an extent, they do).</p>
<p>But we disagree about toy guns. Real guns are too readily available in the US. But imaginary guns aren’t real guns, and there is no real-life connection between a child’s love of the former and anyone’s use of the latter.</p>
<p>We accept the truism that “children have trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy.” But where violence is concerned it’s often the adults who have the trouble. To a child, a gun is a miraculous object, an extension of personal power across space, a wand that can destroy fears with the squeeze of a finger. To the adult who forbids toy guns in the house, who shrieks, “Not at people!” even when the pistol is only a pointed finger, the gun is a reminder of gruesome news stories. We slap our symbolism, wrongly and unfairly, onto our children’s. For us, the result is distrust of our own sons and daughters. For them, it’s confusion about the power, danger, and acceptability of their own inner narratives.</p>
<p>Not all kids want toy guns, or point their fingers and make shooting noises, but an awful lot of them do. My editor at Basic Books tells the story of a little boy in her son’s Greenwich Village preschool, raised by pacifist liberal parents who kept all combat toys as far away from him as possible, who nonetheless, during Passover, bit his matzoh into the shape of a gun and went around saying “bang bang.” But kids who do such things show no greater tendency toward later violence than the relatively few kids who don’t.</p>
<p>What matters most is to trust the child. Whatever a boy or girl does, pretends, or loves to play with points to his or her real needs and emotions. Unless there are clear signs that a child is acting out in a destructive way, the best thing we can do to help that child integrate his or her desire for power and fantasies of destruction is to facilitate them, acknowledge them, and play along with them. Don’t be afraid. Encourage the child to bring even the scariest fantasies to you. Even if those fantasies involve toy guns that remind us of the horror of real guns, or gory slasher attacks that appear, to parents, to have no purpose but agitation.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Kathleen Maffei</p>
<p />
<p>I would like to thank Jones for raising the point that fantasy can play an important role in children’s emotional development, validating their feelings of anger and need for empowerment. All emotions are valid and need to be expressed, not repressed; and I believe that learning healthy forms of expression is the key to a functional person.</p>
<p>It is important to note, though, that not all media violence is of the same kind. Stories that have “lofty messages of benevolence” can fulfill the need for an outlet while demonstrating responsibility. We need to teach children how to use their anger in effective, self-empowering ways. I may be enraged enough at the driver who cuts me off to want to run him off the road, but an effective member of society might channel that anger into the energy needed to petition the township for stricter road signs and law enforcement. The latter can really be much more personally fulfilling.</p>
<p>Violence in the course of instruction is a lesson about the world we live in, about the individual’s sense of self, about the ways in which we can trust and vent our emotions effectively. But please don’t mistake this for the forms of entertainment that encourage senseless destruction and gore for the sake of gore. There can honestly be a balance in the rate at which we expose children to these things as they grow and a responsibility in the way we portray them.</p>
<p>Gerard Jones responds:</p>
<p />
<p>I agree, Kathleen: Moral and instructive narratives have real value. I gained from them in my days as a comics fan, and I tried to impart them to most of the superhero stories I wrote professionally. But I’ve found over time that what matters most isn’t the instructive content of the story but the symbolic, emotional content. What matters most for children is the very process of identifying with a combative or aggressive protagonist (or antagonist), feeling the feelings that come up through vicarious immersion in a conflictive story, and then owning those feelings, sharing them with others, and integrating them into an expanded self. Young people often miss or ignore a story’s moral functions, but still benefit hugely from fantasied participation in imaginary conflict.</p>
<p>Sometimes instructional elements can actually weaken a story’s emotional benefit by coming between the audience and the vital, symbolic guts of the make-believe conflict, or leading the storytellers away from the primal violent fantasy that inspired the story in the first place. Stories can be both emotionally valuable and instructive, but often stories that make no effort at instructive value have more developmental value for young people than stories that do.</p>
<p>Which brings us back to slasher films. Most of those movies do have plots, and the plots usually have an implicit moral, but it’s a moral I find repugnant: that sex, attention-seeking, self-assertion, and adolescent daring are bad and should be rewarded with death. The typical slasher plots sets up a group of young people and then has the villain kill them in sequence until only one or a very few are left alive; the kids who die are usually the ones who’ve just had sex, or are very popular or self-involved, or take risks, while the ones who survive are the timid, chaste “good girls” (or, sometimes, boys). The moral reflects cultural biases that teenagers shouldn’t assert themselves, defy norms, pursue personal pleasure, or break from the group.</p>
<p>It’s a mistake, however, to think that the pubescent fans of these movies are only having their anxieties heightened and internalizing a few represssive messages. Many teenagers are scared, troubled, and confused by the urges they feel suddenly exploding through their bodies. Many are painfully torn between asserting themselves as independent, sexual, quasi-adults and staying safe and sound in the family home as “good kids.” They come to fear their own desires and fantasize about the dire consequences of them. Horror movies help them externalize those fears, giving the fears a symbolic form — a form usually shared with peers — that can lift them out of the cycle of internalized, unspoken obsession. Once the ultimate fears and ultimate desires have been vicariously experienced, they can both be woven into a more balanced view of the world and oneself. Most adolescents who go through a phase of watching slasher movies come out of it more comfortable with themselves as teenagers.</p>
<p>Which isn’t to say that everyone reacts the same way. Many kids (and adults) are simply scared and agitated by such movies. Younger children, especially, may derive nothing but increased anxiety from explicit violence. I believe strongly in the idea of age appropriateness. And some people do become hooked on the the thrills of the horror movie and have a hard time cycling through them, usually because they haven’t learned effective ways of expressing or integrating their scariest feelings.</p>
<p>But again, my core advice is to trust the child: If an adolescent is powerfully drawn to slasher movies, or any other stories apparently without any instructional value, it’s because those stories are giving her something that she craves; and, therefore, something that she needs emotionally and developmentally. If the taste becomes an obsession, or she starts to act out in ways that are destructive to herself or others, then it’s time to take some action; not necessarily forbidding the stories, but certainly trying to find out what the stories are triggering.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="/commentary/columns/2000/06/jones1.html" type="external">Read last week’s discussion</a> on this topic.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | penney kome article reminds bruno bettleheims discussions grisly fairy tales fantasies help children learn deal fears fact 12yearold son recently found copy grimms fairy tales took school read kids kept borrowing however two things boys never allowed guns horror movies even left us canada horrified easy availability guns us still boys never much water pistols unlike ive heard parents never devised toy guns either also dislike boys seem dislike well violent stories elevate anxiety without purpose beyond perhaps jolt nervous giggle lets face lot slasher movies action thrillers plot speak much less character development theyre kind pornography americans seem prize certain edginess wonder much cultivated state anxiety canadians tend reflective okay except david cronenberg interested group solutions rather individual solutions canadians would think puzzled talk childrens natural aggression gerard jones responds thanks comparison bettleheim penney obviously work informs mine growing grimms tales disfavor among wellintentioned liberal parents violent pop culture never read child read uses enchantment late teens however sought fascinated ever since similarities differences traditional violent stories popculture violence specifically question whether movies comic books like meet emotional needs modern people way oral traditions met ancestors extent disagree toy guns real guns readily available us imaginary guns arent real guns reallife connection childs love former anyones use latter accept truism children trouble distinguishing reality fantasy violence concerned often adults trouble child gun miraculous object extension personal power across space wand destroy fears squeeze finger adult forbids toy guns house shrieks people even pistol pointed finger gun reminder gruesome news stories slap symbolism wrongly unfairly onto childrens us result distrust sons daughters confusion power danger acceptability inner narratives kids want toy guns point fingers make shooting noises awful lot editor basic books tells story little boy sons greenwich village preschool raised pacifist liberal parents kept combat toys far away possible nonetheless passover bit matzoh shape gun went around saying bang bang kids things show greater tendency toward later violence relatively kids dont matters trust child whatever boy girl pretends loves play points real needs emotions unless clear signs child acting destructive way best thing help child integrate desire power fantasies destruction facilitate acknowledge play along dont afraid encourage child bring even scariest fantasies even fantasies involve toy guns remind us horror real guns gory slasher attacks appear parents purpose agitation kathleen maffei would like thank jones raising point fantasy play important role childrens emotional development validating feelings anger need empowerment emotions valid need expressed repressed believe learning healthy forms expression key functional person important note though media violence kind stories lofty messages benevolence fulfill need outlet demonstrating responsibility need teach children use anger effective selfempowering ways may enraged enough driver cuts want run road effective member society might channel anger energy needed petition township stricter road signs law enforcement latter really much personally fulfilling violence course instruction lesson world live individuals sense self ways trust vent emotions effectively please dont mistake forms entertainment encourage senseless destruction gore sake gore honestly balance rate expose children things grow responsibility way portray gerard jones responds agree kathleen moral instructive narratives real value gained days comics fan tried impart superhero stories wrote professionally ive found time matters isnt instructive content story symbolic emotional content matters children process identifying combative aggressive protagonist antagonist feeling feelings come vicarious immersion conflictive story owning feelings sharing others integrating expanded self young people often miss ignore storys moral functions still benefit hugely fantasied participation imaginary conflict sometimes instructional elements actually weaken storys emotional benefit coming audience vital symbolic guts makebelieve conflict leading storytellers away primal violent fantasy inspired story first place stories emotionally valuable instructive often stories make effort instructive value developmental value young people stories brings us back slasher films movies plots plots usually implicit moral moral find repugnant sex attentionseeking selfassertion adolescent daring bad rewarded death typical slasher plots sets group young people villain kill sequence one left alive kids die usually ones whove sex popular selfinvolved take risks ones survive timid chaste good girls sometimes boys moral reflects cultural biases teenagers shouldnt assert defy norms pursue personal pleasure break group mistake however think pubescent fans movies anxieties heightened internalizing represssive messages many teenagers scared troubled confused urges feel suddenly exploding bodies many painfully torn asserting independent sexual quasiadults staying safe sound family home good kids come fear desires fantasize dire consequences horror movies help externalize fears giving fears symbolic form form usually shared peers lift cycle internalized unspoken obsession ultimate fears ultimate desires vicariously experienced woven balanced view world oneself adolescents go phase watching slasher movies come comfortable teenagers isnt say everyone reacts way many kids adults simply scared agitated movies younger children especially may derive nothing increased anxiety explicit violence believe strongly idea age appropriateness people become hooked thrills horror movie hard time cycling usually havent learned effective ways expressing integrating scariest feelings core advice trust child adolescent powerfully drawn slasher movies stories apparently without instructional value stories giving something craves therefore something needs emotionally developmentally taste becomes obsession starts act ways destructive others time take action necessarily forbidding stories certainly trying find stories triggering read last weeks discussion topic | 845 |
<p>In 2004, a bipartisan coalition of Alabama leaders moved to eliminate sections of the state constitution mandating school segregation and poll taxes. They assumed it’d be an easy feat — until Roy Moore got involved.</p>
<p>Democrats and Republicans led by then-Gov. Bob Riley (R) worked together on an amendment to remove&#160;language in the state constitution mandating “separate schools for white and colored children” and allowing poll taxes, Jim Crow-era requirements that people to pay to vote that disenfranchised most black people.</p>
<p>The changes were purely symbolic — all of the state constitutional language had already been struck down by state and federal courts — but civil rights and business leaders saw it as a way to heal old wounds and make the state more attractive to big business.</p>
<p>The opposite happened instead, and Moore’s fierce opposition likely made the difference.</p>
<p>“He had a huge impact. It was a measure that was set to pass without much opposition and then because he got involved it changed the dynamic completely,” said Susan Kennedy of the Alabama Education Association, the state public teachers’ lobby that supported the amendment.</p>
<p>At the time, Moore, who is currently the GOP nominee and the front-runner to become Alabama’s next U.S. senator, had recently been booted from the state supreme court for defying higher court orders to remove a Ten Commandments statue from in front of his courthouse. That fight had made him a superstar in the religious right both in the state and nationally.</p>
<p>When conservative evangelical activists including the Alabama Christian Coalition began warning about adverse effects of the segregation amendment he stepped up to be the amendment’s most prominent foe — a move that kept his name in the headlines as he geared up for a 2006 primary challenge against Riley and sent the amendment down to a narrow defeat.</p>
<p>“This amendment is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and the people of Alabama should be aware of it,” Moore told the Birmingham News in 2004, warning it would “open the door to an enormous tax increase” — one of many broadsides he issued.</p>
<p>His argument worked. The statewide measure failed by about 2,000 votes, out of 1.4 million cast. Every subsequent attempt to remove the language since that initial failure has failed, most recently in 2012.</p>
<p>Moore’s stance against the amendment was one of many of his efforts over two decades that has built him a fiercely loyal following on the religious right. That base wasn’t enough when he ran against Riley in 2006, but it powered his primary victory over Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL) last month and has him favored to win the Dec. 12 general election. It’s also one in a long line of racially charged episodes in Moore’s career.</p>
<p>Moore faces former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, who is best known for successfully prosecuting, decades later, Ku Klux Klan member responsible for the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four young black girls.</p>
<p>Alabama’s state constitution still contains the following language:</p>
<p>“Separate schools shall be provided for white and colored children, and no child of either race shall be permitted to attend a school of the other race.”</p>
<p>A ‘Black Eye’ For Alabama</p>
<p>The battle over removing segregationist language is part of a much larger effort that has pitted reformers, civil rights groups and many in the business community against Old South traditionalists and some other conservatives in the state for much of the last two decades.</p>
<p>The amendment was a part of Riley’s push to modernize the state constitution, a sprawling, racist document dating to 1901 that codified Jim Crow and created a strong state central government.</p>
<p>“Federal and state court rulings have struck down a lot of these [clauses] as unconstitutional, but it was viewed by many as a black eye for the state,” Toby Roth, who served as Riley’s chief of staff during the constitutional fights, told TPM.</p>
<p>The amendment to remove segregationist language sailed through the Democratic-controlled state legislature with strong bipartisan support, and supporters expected it to pass when put to a statewide vote. But lawmakers also added a provision that would have stripped a 1956 amendment passed in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision desegregating schools. That amendment said Alabamans had no constitutional “right to education or training at public expense.”</p>
<p>Moore and hardline conservatives pounced to argue the removal of that language would allow for a backdoor tax increase by judges who would see it as granting a constitutional right to an education, warning it would hurt taxpayers and threaten private schools and homeschoolers.</p>
<p>Lawmakers were caught off-guard by the heated opposition. But while they’d&#160;had past success in removing other racist language, even in those efforts it’d been clear that not everyone in Alabama was ready to let go of the Old South: A 2000 amendment to remove language banning interracial marriage had passed, but by a closer-than-expected 60 percent to 40 percent margin.</p>
<p>This amendment got caught in a more recent fight over education funding as well, an issue that’s both racially charged and far from symbolic for many voters in the state.</p>
<p>In 1993, a state judge had struck down the education language as unconstitutional while ruling that the state needed to spend more on schools. The state supreme court struck down that ruling in 2002, with Moore on the court. Many white Alabamians had pulled their kids out of public schools during desegregation, creating a new de facto segregated school system in parts of the state and leaving little incentive for white Alabamians, especially wealthier ones, to pay to improve schools that in parts of the state were heavily black.</p>
<p>“People were afraid that it would reignite the [school] equity argument that was sued over in the 1990s,” said Kennedy. ”</p>
<p>Many voters’ opposition to more school funding was and is ideological and financial, not purely racially driven. But civil rights groups argue that the effect is the same.</p>
<p>“When you talk about not guaranteeing or taking away the language from the&#160;Constitution&#160;not guaranteeing the right to a public education, that’s racist,” Southern Christian Leadership Conference President Charles Steele Jr., a former Alabama state senator, told NPR at the time.</p>
<p>The most prominent politician besides Moore battling the amendment was his protege and former staffer, Tom Parker, who was running for the Alabama Supreme Court at the time. During that campaign, Parker&#160; <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2004/alabama-supreme-court-candidate-tom-parker-has-extremist-ties" type="external">spoke at an event</a> celebrating&#160; Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader, hosted by opponents of the civil rights movement, and handed out Confederate battle flags at the funeral of a woman believed to have been the last living widow of a Confederate soldier.</p>
<p>The battle over the amendment came just a year after the Christian Coalition had helped defeat a Riley-backed push to increase state taxes to invest more on education and infrastructure.</p>
<p>The ongoing tax fights had made many conservatives wary of any constitutional changes, with a faction that simply opposed any tweaks.</p>
<p>“You do have a more conservative wing of the Republican Party that’s always suspicious of any constitution changes as a backdoor attempt to raise taxes,” Roth said.</p>
<p>Parker and Moore explicitly made that argument.</p>
<p>Moore told the Associated Press that the amendment was “another attempt to open the door for a court-ordered tax increase without the consent of the people” after they’d defeated the earlier amendment, while Parker ran radio ads saying that it would create “a new right to education for citizens of all ages” and warning “liberals will use this to pressure judges into raising your taxes.”</p>
<p>Parker won by a narrow margin even though he was heavily outspent in the race.</p>
<p>Moore’s other controversies</p>
<p>Moore is best known nationally for his controversial religious views. He’s <a href="" type="internal">said</a> Muslims shouldn’t be allowed in Congress, that Sharia law is already being implemented in&#160;parts of the&#160;Midwest, and that “homosexual conduct should be illegal.”</p>
<p>But his racial views have also raised questions.</p>
<p>Moore’s Foundation for Moral Law&#160; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/27/politics/kfile-roy-moore-secession-day-events/index.html" type="external">hosted</a>&#160;the neo-Confederate, pro-secession League of the South’s annual “Secession Day” events in 2009 and 2010, though Moore’s staff claim he didn’t know about it . League leaders have participated in pro-Moore rallies both times he was removed from the state court. They also vociferously opposed the 2004 segregation amendment and actively campaigned for Parker, Moore’s protege. As TPM previously reported, Moore’s <a href="" type="internal">biggest donor, Michael Peroutka, is a neo-Confederate</a> who has advocated that the South should secede and for years served on the League of the South’s board.</p>
<p>Moore has said he doesn’t support secession and believes “all men are created equal,” though he’s <a href="" type="internal">declined to disavow</a> the League or Peroutka. His campaign didn’t respond to multiple requests to discuss this story.</p>
<p>Moore also&#160; <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/ilanbenmeir/chief-justice-of-alabama-supreme-court-once-addressed-white?utm_term=.ewXm6mEqG#.atY7V70xq" type="external">spoke at an event</a> for the Council of Conservative Citizens in 1995 — a&#160; group that Charleston mass murderer Dylann Roof would cite as a key influence two decades later.</p>
<p>“I did not consider the Council of Conservative Citizens to be a ‘white supremacist’ group when I spoke to them 20 years ago,” Moore&#160; <a href="http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/06/post_61.html" type="external">said</a>&#160;in 2015, pointing out other prominent Republicans had spoken to the group.</p>
<p>Moore’s office&#160;is adorned with&#160;a portrait of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and busts of generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, though he’s&#160; <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21688858-it-would-be-mistake-dismiss-alabamas-chief-justice-outlandish-fanatic" type="external">claimed</a>&#160;that’s because they’re fellow West Point graduates.</p>
<p>He hasn’t shied away from racial controversy during his current Senate run either. Moore has continued to question whether President Obama was born in the United States, and&#160; <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/351194-roy-moore-refers-to-red-and-yellow-americans-in-campaign-speech" type="external">referred to</a>&#160;“reds and yellows” as he lamented racial division during a campaign speech. Moore’s Facebook page has shared&#160; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/04/politics/kfile-roy-moore-facebook/index.html" type="external">memes</a>&#160;claiming Obama was Muslim and one that <a href="" type="internal">showed</a> black people stomping a cop car with text saying the way to stop riots was to “play the national anthem — they’ll all sit down.”</p>
<p>Moore’s Motivations</p>
<p>Those who supported the amendment are split about Moore’s reason for taking on the fight.</p>
<p>Most don’t think his views are rooted chiefly in the racial politics that conservative Alabama politicians in both parties have exploited for years. But while some see a purist ideologue, others see an opportunist who’s fine making common cause with more fringe figures to further his own ambitions.</p>
<p>“I can’t say at this point what drove Roy Moore other than his own self-interest,” University of Alabama Law Professor Bryan Fair, who is black and serves on the board of the Southern Poverty Law Center, told TPM.</p>
<p>Fair argued Moore’s involvement may have been crass opportunism.</p>
<p>“It was perceived as a racial issue by significant parts of the population, especially the African American population, who very much wanted to see this language removed,” he said. “Roy Moore didn’t use the N word but one doesn’t have to use the N word to be a racist or act with racial motives or with a callousness or indifference towards racial inequality.”</p>
<p>Others think Moore and his allies on this fight were purists driven by an ideological opposition to state-funded education — one critic who asked not to be named in order to speak frankly described him as “a religious nut” and a “zealot” but not a racist. Moore has often railed against public schools and even once <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2007/05/41824/" type="external">wrote</a> that public pre-school was an “unjustifiable attempt to indoctrinate our youth” and compared it to Nazi indoctrination programs.</p>
<p>“I would not go so far as to say the Moore camp had racist motivations. It would be completely consistent with them being suspicious of activist judges trying to raise revenues from the bench. Could you find someone who had racist motivations who was on his side on this? I’m sure you could. But I’ve disagreed with Judge Moore on several things and I would never ascribe his personal motivations to a racist agenda,”&#160;said Roth, Riley’s former chief of staff.</p>
<p>“There is a philosophy that any additional services offered by the state government will cost additional money and there is a constituency that wants to leave a cap on that. The segregationist language was secondary to that concern for them,” said Kennedy.</p>
<p>Others think both are true — that Moore is an ideologue driven by theocratic, anti-government views who is also a savvy politician willing to make common cause with racists, even though racial animus doesn’t drive his own views.</p>
<p>“Moore spoke to some crazy groups in the past like the League of the South but that wasn’t race-based, it was a lot more about groups that buy what he’s saying,” said another former Riley staffer. “Moore is not a George Wallace racial demagogue guy. He’s a demagogue on a lot of things, race just isn’t one of them.”</p> | true | 4 | 2004 bipartisan coalition alabama leaders moved eliminate sections state constitution mandating school segregation poll taxes assumed itd easy feat roy moore got involved democrats republicans led thengov bob riley r worked together amendment remove160language state constitution mandating separate schools white colored children allowing poll taxes jim crowera requirements people pay vote disenfranchised black people changes purely symbolic state constitutional language already struck state federal courts civil rights business leaders saw way heal old wounds make state attractive big business opposite happened instead moores fierce opposition likely made difference huge impact measure set pass without much opposition got involved changed dynamic completely said susan kennedy alabama education association state public teachers lobby supported amendment time moore currently gop nominee frontrunner become alabamas next us senator recently booted state supreme court defying higher court orders remove ten commandments statue front courthouse fight made superstar religious right state nationally conservative evangelical activists including alabama christian coalition began warning adverse effects segregation amendment stepped amendments prominent foe move kept name headlines geared 2006 primary challenge riley sent amendment narrow defeat amendment wolf sheeps clothing people alabama aware moore told birmingham news 2004 warning would open door enormous tax increase one many broadsides issued argument worked statewide measure failed 2000 votes 14 million cast every subsequent attempt remove language since initial failure failed recently 2012 moores stance amendment one many efforts two decades built fiercely loyal following religious right base wasnt enough ran riley 2006 powered primary victory sen luther strange ral last month favored win dec 12 general election also one long line racially charged episodes moores career moore faces former us attorney doug jones best known successfully prosecuting decades later ku klux klan member responsible 1963 birmingham church bombing killed four young black girls alabamas state constitution still contains following language separate schools shall provided white colored children child either race shall permitted attend school race black eye alabama battle removing segregationist language part much larger effort pitted reformers civil rights groups many business community old south traditionalists conservatives state much last two decades amendment part rileys push modernize state constitution sprawling racist document dating 1901 codified jim crow created strong state central government federal state court rulings struck lot clauses unconstitutional viewed many black eye state toby roth served rileys chief staff constitutional fights told tpm amendment remove segregationist language sailed democraticcontrolled state legislature strong bipartisan support supporters expected pass put statewide vote lawmakers also added provision would stripped 1956 amendment passed wake 1954 supreme court decision desegregating schools amendment said alabamans constitutional right education training public expense moore hardline conservatives pounced argue removal language would allow backdoor tax increase judges would see granting constitutional right education warning would hurt taxpayers threaten private schools homeschoolers lawmakers caught offguard heated opposition theyd160had past success removing racist language even efforts itd clear everyone alabama ready let go old south 2000 amendment remove language banning interracial marriage passed closerthanexpected 60 percent 40 percent margin amendment got caught recent fight education funding well issue thats racially charged far symbolic many voters state 1993 state judge struck education language unconstitutional ruling state needed spend schools state supreme court struck ruling 2002 moore court many white alabamians pulled kids public schools desegregation creating new de facto segregated school system parts state leaving little incentive white alabamians especially wealthier ones pay improve schools parts state heavily black people afraid would reignite school equity argument sued 1990s said kennedy many voters opposition school funding ideological financial purely racially driven civil rights groups argue effect talk guaranteeing taking away language the160constitution160not guaranteeing right public education thats racist southern christian leadership conference president charles steele jr former alabama state senator told npr time prominent politician besides moore battling amendment protege former staffer tom parker running alabama supreme court time campaign parker160 spoke event celebrating160 nathan bedford forrest confederate general ku klux klan leader hosted opponents civil rights movement handed confederate battle flags funeral woman believed last living widow confederate soldier battle amendment came year christian coalition helped defeat rileybacked push increase state taxes invest education infrastructure ongoing tax fights made many conservatives wary constitutional changes faction simply opposed tweaks conservative wing republican party thats always suspicious constitution changes backdoor attempt raise taxes roth said parker moore explicitly made argument moore told associated press amendment another attempt open door courtordered tax increase without consent people theyd defeated earlier amendment parker ran radio ads saying would create new right education citizens ages warning liberals use pressure judges raising taxes parker narrow margin even though heavily outspent race moores controversies moore best known nationally controversial religious views hes said muslims shouldnt allowed congress sharia law already implemented in160parts the160midwest homosexual conduct illegal racial views also raised questions moores foundation moral law160 hosted160the neoconfederate prosecession league souths annual secession day events 2009 2010 though moores staff claim didnt know league leaders participated promoore rallies times removed state court also vociferously opposed 2004 segregation amendment actively campaigned parker moores protege tpm previously reported moores biggest donor michael peroutka neoconfederate advocated south secede years served league souths board moore said doesnt support secession believes men created equal though hes declined disavow league peroutka campaign didnt respond multiple requests discuss story moore also160 spoke event council conservative citizens 1995 a160 group charleston mass murderer dylann roof would cite key influence two decades later consider council conservative citizens white supremacist group spoke 20 years ago moore160 said160in 2015 pointing prominent republicans spoken group moores office160is adorned with160a portrait confederate president jefferson davis busts generals robert e lee stonewall jackson though hes160 claimed160thats theyre fellow west point graduates hasnt shied away racial controversy current senate run either moore continued question whether president obama born united states and160 referred to160reds yellows lamented racial division campaign speech moores facebook page shared160 memes160claiming obama muslim one showed black people stomping cop car text saying way stop riots play national anthem theyll sit moores motivations supported amendment split moores reason taking fight dont think views rooted chiefly racial politics conservative alabama politicians parties exploited years see purist ideologue others see opportunist whos fine making common cause fringe figures ambitions cant say point drove roy moore selfinterest university alabama law professor bryan fair black serves board southern poverty law center told tpm fair argued moores involvement may crass opportunism perceived racial issue significant parts population especially african american population much wanted see language removed said roy moore didnt use n word one doesnt use n word racist act racial motives callousness indifference towards racial inequality others think moore allies fight purists driven ideological opposition statefunded education one critic asked named order speak frankly described religious nut zealot racist moore often railed public schools even wrote public preschool unjustifiable attempt indoctrinate youth compared nazi indoctrination programs would go far say moore camp racist motivations would completely consistent suspicious activist judges trying raise revenues bench could find someone racist motivations side im sure could ive disagreed judge moore several things would never ascribe personal motivations racist agenda160said roth rileys former chief staff philosophy additional services offered state government cost additional money constituency wants leave cap segregationist language secondary concern said kennedy others think true moore ideologue driven theocratic antigovernment views also savvy politician willing make common cause racists even though racial animus doesnt drive views moore spoke crazy groups past like league south wasnt racebased lot groups buy hes saying said another former riley staffer moore george wallace racial demagogue guy hes demagogue lot things race isnt one | 1,240 |
<p>In potentially the biggest con ever executed, Donald Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul and reality TV show celebrity, ascended to the most powerful position in the world – the Presidency of the United States of America. Throughout his election campaign and since his inauguration, Trump has displayed authoritarian rhetoric and tendencies that have begged the question – is the new Republican regime a form of fascism?</p>
<p>To determine whether a regime or politician is fascist in nature it is useful to examine&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Umberto Eco’s essay “Ur-Fascism”</a>. In it, Eco constructs a list of 14 features typical of Fascism. He states:</p>
<p>“These features cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it.”</p>
<p>Trump’s rhetoric and his administration’s deeds so far eerily qualify under multiple categories, including&#160;fear of difference,&#160;appeal to a frustrated middle class&#160;and the practice of what George Orwell called “newspeak”, among others.</p>
<p>The Trump Administration and Anti-Semitism</p>
<p>Since the rise of Trump there has been a spike in&#160; <a href="" type="internal">incidents of anti-Semitism</a>&#160;and a sharp&#160; <a href="" type="internal">escalation in bomb threats</a>&#160;aimed at Jewish community centers. In a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">recent case</a>&#160;that received media attention, a Jewish family was targeted by White nationals and neo-Nazis in Whitefish, Montana, the hometown of Richard Spencer, an “alt-right” ideologue. Importantly,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">anti-Semitism is a main principal of the racial theory that guides White supremacy and the “alt-right”</a>.</p>
<p>Trump’s own racist-hued&#160; <a href="" type="internal">history</a>&#160;is well-documented; his campaign received&#160; <a href="" type="internal">endorsements</a>&#160;from famous White supremacists and members of the Ku Klux Klan and he has surrounded himself with the likes of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Steve Bannon</a>, the former executive chair of Breitbart news, a haven for the “alt-right”.</p>
<p>In what many see as an egregious display of anti-Semitism and even Holocaust denial, Trump’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day&#160; <a href="" type="internal">statement</a>&#160;failed to specifically address the suffering of Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis, even though racial struggle and the targeting of Jews as an ethnic group set for extermination (i.e. the “ <a href="" type="internal">Final Solution</a>”) were at the core of Nazi ideology.</p>
<p>Jews, Anti-Semites and Israel</p>
<p>One would logically expect the American Jewish community to unite around vocal opposition and resistance as a response to the new Republican administration’s fascist tendencies and ties to White nationalists and neo-Nazis. Though&#160; <a href="" type="internal">some rabbis have come out in protest</a>&#160;over Trump’s Muslim travel ban, the American Jewish community’s response to the new administration has been weak and split, with one main reason – Israel. Trump and his gang have capitalized on the inherent contradiction between&#160; <a href="" type="internal">liberal cosmopolitan Jewish values</a>&#160;and an ethical emphasis on human rights, and the unjust nationalist policies of Israel towards indigenous Palestinians.</p>
<p>This contradiction was highlighted in a&#160; <a href="http://forward.com/news/national/356363/speechless-rabbi-admits-losing-argument-over-racism-and-israel-to-white-sup/" type="external">recent debate between Rabbi Matt Rosenberg and Richard Spencer</a>, in which the latter justified the creation of a white “ethno-state” by using the example of the exclusionary Zionist ideology and practices of the state of Israel. The rabbi was left speechless. Accordingly, the term “ <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/trump-bringing-white-zionism-white-house" type="external">white Zionism</a>” has been used to describe “alt-right” ideology.</p>
<p>In line with widespread support for Trump in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu has been&#160; <a href="" type="internal">very favorable, even jovial</a>&#160;at the prospects of the new Republican administration. With Donald Trump as their champion, the Tea Party represents tribal, misogynist and nationalistic attitudes that are championed by Jewish right-wing Zionists like Netanyahu. In fact, the very idea for the “alt-right” Breitbart news website&#160; <a href="" type="internal">was conceived in Israel</a>&#160;and it has faithfully served as&#160; <a href="" type="internal">an outlet for the Tea Party, anti-Semitic and Zionist agendas</a>. On a personal level, Trump and Netanyahu are&#160; <a href="" type="internal">mirror images of each other</a>&#160;in their corruption, extravagance and talent in manipulating the press.</p>
<p>But this is nothing new. Zionists and anti-Semites have historically shared mutual interests. While anti-Semites have wanted to get rid of Jews, Zionists have concentrated their efforts on attracting them to Israel’s shores, i.e. Judaizing Israel as a means to fight the “demographic threat” posed by native Palestinians.</p>
<p>Jewish Collaborators and Faux-Friends</p>
<p>In order to guarantee support of the American Jewish community for Israel, which manifests in unparalleled diplomatic and financial backing by the United States government, prominent figures within the American Jewish community have whitewashed and trivialized the contradiction between American Jewish liberal values and the discriminatory policies in Israel. Anyone, but especially Jews, who vocally criticize the injustices perpetuated by Israel against Palestinians or others are marginalized and viciously attacked by Zionist organizations and their members.</p>
<p>Predictably, some of these same apologists are now protecting the new Trump administration. One such example is the lawyer&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Alan Dershowitz</a>. For years Dershowitz carelessly used the pejorative “anti-Semite” to describe any critics/opponents to Zionism and the state of Israel, including&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Students for Justice in Palestine and the non-violent Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) organization</a>. &#160; <a href="" type="internal">When referring to Steve Bannon</a>,&#160;however, he claimed that “you should not toss that phrase around casually” and that it is “not legitimate to call somebody an anti-Semite because you might disagree with their policies”. Dershowitz, a so-called guardian of civil liberties, also&#160; <a href="https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&amp;ion=1&amp;espv=2&amp;ie=UTF-8#q=dershowitz+judge+trump" type="external">came out in defense of Trump himself</a>&#160;after the recent debacle in which the President disrespectfully called Judge James L. Robart a “ <a href="" type="internal">so-called judge</a>” on Twitter. Dershowitz remained true to his Trumpophilia stating the President “shows respect for independent judiciary”.</p>
<p>Some claim that it is impossible for Jews or for gentiles who have Jewish friends or family (as in ‘some of my best friends are Black’) to be anti-Semites. In addition, according to Dershowitz and his ilk, those who support the goals of Zionism and the Israeli government are automatically friends of the Jewish people.</p>
<p>This logic is employed to explain away anything reeking of anti-Semitism from Trump’s administration: e.g. the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, is married to a Jewish man,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Jared Kushner</a>, their family are members of the orthodox politically right-wing Hassidic Chabad movement, and the President has ‘beautiful Jewish grandchildren’. What’s more, Trump’s new appointee for&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Israeli ambassador, David Friedman</a>, is an orthodox Jew and staunch Zionist who subscribes to the fantasy of Greater Israel. This same sort of rationale is employed by Breitbart contributor and “alt-right” ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos, who has Jewish heritage and is openly gay (another community persecuted by the Nazis).</p>
<p>These anecdotes prove that the exclusionary versions of Zionism that Israel has adopted since its inception are contradictory to an expression of Judaism as an ethical tradition unbound by race or nation state. Instead, Jewish political&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Zionism developed as a secular ideology</a>, with nationalistic and messianic overtones inspired by and coming from Christian Zionism (which predates the Jewish version) and the more contemporary Jewish far-right. As such, it is directly aligned with (fascistic) racist views that promote a form of global apartheid, now championed by Trump and his new Republican administration.</p>
<p>Against Fascism, White supremacy and Zionism</p>
<p>Israel was inspired by the aspect of Zionist ideology that argued for the necessity of a safe refuge and homeland for the Jewish people who suffered persecution and trauma. Zionism has led to noteworthy accomplishments: Israel has served as a model for nation-building and Israelis have managed to revitalize ancient Hebrew into a modern and vibrant language. Zionism helped create an image of a new Jew – one who works the land, fights in all dimensions for his/her rights, and raises his/her head tall and proud.</p>
<p>However, as with all settler-colonialist and exclusivist projects, the indigenous population has paid the price. As a result of political Zionism and Israeli policies, Palestinians have undergone a process of ethnic cleansing and genocide to make room for non-native Jewish settlers.</p>
<p>As the blooming relationship between the Trump administration and Israeli politicians and apologists shows, the ethno-centric character of Israel shares many attributes with- and has been a source of inspiration for- American White nationalism, now embodied in Trump’s administration.</p>
<p>In order to effectively fight this new administration and protect community members against the growing tide of anti-Semitism, American Jews need to recognize these parallels, come to terms with the failure of political Zionism and renounce collaborators such as Alan Dershowitz and David Friedman.</p>
<p>To counter Trump it is essential that American Jews fight against all ethno-centric, exclusivist forces, including fascism, White supremacy and Zionism. The long history of trauma and persecution must guide Jews in a quest to vanquish these forces alike toward a vision of justice, freedom and equality for all.</p>
<p>This piece first appeared on <a href="" type="internal">Mondoweiss</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | potentially biggest con ever executed donald trump billionaire real estate mogul reality tv show celebrity ascended powerful position world presidency united states america throughout election campaign since inauguration trump displayed authoritarian rhetoric tendencies begged question new republican regime form fascism determine whether regime politician fascist nature useful examine160 umberto ecos essay urfascism eco constructs list 14 features typical fascism states features organized system many contradict also typical kinds despotism fanaticism enough one present allow fascism coagulate around trumps rhetoric administrations deeds far eerily qualify multiple categories including160fear difference160appeal frustrated middle class160and practice george orwell called newspeak among others trump administration antisemitism since rise trump spike in160 incidents antisemitism160and sharp160 escalation bomb threats160aimed jewish community centers a160 recent case160that received media attention jewish family targeted white nationals neonazis whitefish montana hometown richard spencer altright ideologue importantly160 antisemitism main principal racial theory guides white supremacy altright trumps racisthued160 history160is welldocumented campaign received160 endorsements160from famous white supremacists members ku klux klan surrounded likes of160 steve bannon former executive chair breitbart news altright many see egregious display antisemitism even holocaust denial trumps international holocaust remembrance day160 statement160failed specifically address suffering jewish people hands nazis even though racial struggle targeting jews ethnic group set extermination ie final solution core nazi ideology jews antisemites israel one would logically expect american jewish community unite around vocal opposition resistance response new republican administrations fascist tendencies ties white nationalists neonazis though160 rabbis come protest160over trumps muslim travel ban american jewish communitys response new administration weak split one main reason israel trump gang capitalized inherent contradiction between160 liberal cosmopolitan jewish values160and ethical emphasis human rights unjust nationalist policies israel towards indigenous palestinians contradiction highlighted a160 recent debate rabbi matt rosenberg richard spencer latter justified creation white ethnostate using example exclusionary zionist ideology practices state israel rabbi left speechless accordingly term white zionism used describe altright ideology line widespread support trump israel prime minister benjamin bibi netanyahu been160 favorable even jovial160at prospects new republican administration donald trump champion tea party represents tribal misogynist nationalistic attitudes championed jewish rightwing zionists like netanyahu fact idea altright breitbart news website160 conceived israel160and faithfully served as160 outlet tea party antisemitic zionist agendas personal level trump netanyahu are160 mirror images other160in corruption extravagance talent manipulating press nothing new zionists antisemites historically shared mutual interests antisemites wanted get rid jews zionists concentrated efforts attracting israels shores ie judaizing israel means fight demographic threat posed native palestinians jewish collaborators fauxfriends order guarantee support american jewish community israel manifests unparalleled diplomatic financial backing united states government prominent figures within american jewish community whitewashed trivialized contradiction american jewish liberal values discriminatory policies israel anyone especially jews vocally criticize injustices perpetuated israel palestinians others marginalized viciously attacked zionist organizations members predictably apologists protecting new trump administration one example lawyer160 alan dershowitz years dershowitz carelessly used pejorative antisemite describe criticsopponents zionism state israel including160 students justice palestine nonviolent boycott divestment sanctions bds organization 160 referring steve bannon160however claimed toss phrase around casually legitimate call somebody antisemite might disagree policies dershowitz socalled guardian civil liberties also160 came defense trump himself160after recent debacle president disrespectfully called judge james l robart socalled judge twitter dershowitz remained true trumpophilia stating president shows respect independent judiciary claim impossible jews gentiles jewish friends family best friends black antisemites addition according dershowitz ilk support goals zionism israeli government automatically friends jewish people logic employed explain away anything reeking antisemitism trumps administration eg presidents daughter ivanka trump married jewish man160 jared kushner family members orthodox politically rightwing hassidic chabad movement president beautiful jewish grandchildren whats trumps new appointee for160 israeli ambassador david friedman orthodox jew staunch zionist subscribes fantasy greater israel sort rationale employed breitbart contributor altright ideologue milo yiannopoulos jewish heritage openly gay another community persecuted nazis anecdotes prove exclusionary versions zionism israel adopted since inception contradictory expression judaism ethical tradition unbound race nation state instead jewish political160 zionism developed secular ideology nationalistic messianic overtones inspired coming christian zionism predates jewish version contemporary jewish farright directly aligned fascistic racist views promote form global apartheid championed trump new republican administration fascism white supremacy zionism israel inspired aspect zionist ideology argued necessity safe refuge homeland jewish people suffered persecution trauma zionism led noteworthy accomplishments israel served model nationbuilding israelis managed revitalize ancient hebrew modern vibrant language zionism helped create image new jew one works land fights dimensions hisher rights raises hisher head tall proud however settlercolonialist exclusivist projects indigenous population paid price result political zionism israeli policies palestinians undergone process ethnic cleansing genocide make room nonnative jewish settlers blooming relationship trump administration israeli politicians apologists shows ethnocentric character israel shares many attributes source inspiration american white nationalism embodied trumps administration order effectively fight new administration protect community members growing tide antisemitism american jews need recognize parallels come terms failure political zionism renounce collaborators alan dershowitz david friedman counter trump essential american jews fight ethnocentric exclusivist forces including fascism white supremacy zionism long history trauma persecution must guide jews quest vanquish forces alike toward vision justice freedom equality piece first appeared mondoweiss 160 | 831 |
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<p>"What we have argued is that bank workers, in the same way in a hospital a nurse is a frontline on quality care, that bank workers can be the frontline on making sure that banks aren’t cheating and robbing people," says Stephen Lerner, a longtime organizer. (Photo provided by Stephen Lerner) &#160;</p>
<p>Welcome to Interviews for Resistance. Since election night 2016, the streets of the United States have rung with resistance. People all over the country have woken up with the conviction that they must do something to fight inequality in all its forms. But many are wondering what it is they can do. In this series, we'll be talking with experienced organizers, troublemakers and thinkers who have been doing the hard work of fighting for a long time. They'll be sharing their insights on what works, what doesn't, what has changed and what is still the same.</p>
<p>Stephen Lerner: My name is Stephen Lerner. I am a fellow at Georgetown’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. I work on the HedgeClippers and bank workers and a number of different campaigns that are all focused on looking up the money tree at who is really running the politics and the economy of the country.&#160;</p>
<p>Sarah Jaffe: Let’s start with the bank workers because the bank workers just kicked off a union drive.</p>
<p>Stephen: The bank workers campaign is really interesting, because what most people don’t realize is banks in most countries in the world are significantly unionized. We have a three-pronged campaign. One has been broadly building worker committees in banks in the United States. One of the first real victories of that is the bank workers campaign, the Committee for Better Banks, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and a whole series of community groups, which we will come back to, were the <a href="http://prospect.org/article/first-and-foremost-wells-fargo-scandal-about-workers" type="external">whistle-blowers</a> on the Wells Fargo scandal, where they were opening fake accounts.</p>
<p>There is an ongoing, growing campaign with workers in all the major U.S. banks, but what we are focusing on now is a bank called Santander, which a Spanish-owned bank which is, again, union in most countries in the world and heavily unionized in Brazil and Argentina. In the United States they are primarily a northeastern bank, but they are also a big national subprime auto lender. There is now a global demand on the bank that they agree not to fight the union and be neutral, the same in the United States as they do in other countries. What was really exciting in the kick-off, and sort of unheard of, is an addition to the traditional solidarity actions, letters and pickets, in Argentina and Brazil, workers actually walked off the job and did shutdowns of bank branches and other centers, demanding the bank not interfere with workers’ rights to organize unions in the United States.</p>
<p>What has been fascinating about the campaign both here in the United States and bank workers in other unions, there has always been a dual demand. The traditional demand about how workers should be paid and treated decently, and simultaneously that workers should not be forced to sell predatory products or cheat people as a condition of employment. What we have argued is that bank workers, in the same way in a hospital a nurse is a frontline on quality care, that bank workers can be the frontline on making sure that banks aren’t cheating and robbing people.</p>
<p>That is why the work with Wells Fargo has been so exciting, because literally tens of thousands of workers have signed petitions saying these outrageous sales goals could only be met if they cheated customers. One part is workers as whistle-blowers, workers as a frontline in saying, “What the bank is doing is bad.” Then, “As workers, we don’t want to participate in a scheme where the bank makes money by cheating people.”</p>
<p>Sarah: One of the things that is interesting about this is the connection with these international unions that represent bank workers. When we talk about globalization, jobs moving around the world and progressive solutions to Trump’s nationalism, international campaigns like this are a really interesting starting point.</p>
<p>Stephen: As someone who has done a lot of organizing where we ask unions in other countries to support workers in the United States who organize in global companies, what is unique about the bank workers organizing is the Brazilian bank workers, which I think are the biggest bank workers union in the world and one of the most progressive, have aggressively and wonderfully called on the American labor movement to organize bank workers. It is not just out of solidarity. They cannot maintain the standards they have won in Brazil and around the world if the largest country with the biggest finance industry is non-union.</p>
<p>It is almost hallucinogenic to have workers in so-called developing countries say that their wages and benefits are threatened by the level of non-union staff in the United States. There is this fantastic group led by the Brazilian bank workers and UNI, the global bank worker federation, that is working both to support the campaign and pressure the company, but also, around the globe has lifted up this call, which I think is really unusual for unions about workers not being pressured to cheat people as a condition of employment.</p>
<p>There have been meetings all over the world on this and a real commitment to doing concrete stuff to pressure the bank. We are going to be going to the Santander shareholder meeting in Spain. We have done a series of reports that have been exposing Santander’s bad practices, ranging from their role in both the Puerto Rican debt crisis, their role in subprime auto. They just failed their Community Reinvestment Act test and we did&#160; <a href="http://betterbanks.org/report/denied-an-assessment-of-racial-and-economic-disparities-in-santander-banks-mortgage-lending/" type="external">a report on that</a>. Again, we are building a campaign not just about what is good for workers, but about workers who will make the company healthier in terms of how it engages with customers and consumers.</p>
<p>Essentially, the Community Reinvestment Act [CRA] requires, in simplest terms, banks to provide resources to the communities that they are in, to invest in. We did a report first that showed that their lending practices ignored or skipped over poor communities and communities of color. There is a test that is done under the CRA Act to see if you have given enough money or loaned enough money. The bank failed it. <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-02-16/santander-us-mortgage-data-shows-racial-economic-discrimination-group" type="external">The bank also failed the stress test</a>. We think there is a relationship between mistreatment of workers and the underpinnings of the bank being threatened because they are engaged in all sorts of risky practices that may make them a little bit of money in the short run, but then blow up on their face in the long run.</p>
<p>Sarah: One of the things that connects a lot of the work you do is mapping where the power and the money comes from for bad policies and bad politicians. Those are policies that are bi-partisan, we should say. In the age of Trump, in particular, talk about the importance of this kind of work and why it is important to know who is funding your politicians.</p>
<p>Stephen: The <a href="http://hedgeclippers.org/" type="external">HedgeClippers</a> campaign looks at hedge funds and private equity, thus hedge clippers clipping their power. It basically says, “These are the finance capitalists that are driving political and economic inequality.” What we have done is both deep dive reports, exposes, lots of direct action to directly confront them. Our little joke is that we have either been incredibly prescient or Trump picked his entire Cabinet by looking at who we have been fighting. Pre-Trump winning, we were saying whether it is Goldman Sachs or Steven Schwarzman from Blackstone, these are the people who are really running the government. Lots of folks are laughing saying we are a conspiracy cult or something. Then, when Trump got elected, he put all of these people directly in charge. It is sort of an irony that Trump’s election was probably the best testimony to the idea that whether Dems or Republicans—that a player is really who is running the show.</p>
<p>We are doing a lot of work on mapping the different Trump worlds. There are the people, like Mnuchin and the Goldman Sachs folks that are directly in the administration and we map all the benefits that their companies will reap from that. Then, there are the Steve Schwarzmans and the Carl Icahns and this other set of players that run committees for him. So, they can essentially create government policies that will further enrich their companies. Then, there is a third set of people like John Paulson, who made all his money in the housing crisis, who may not be directly working for Trump, but who supported him and is now going to reap the benefits. For example, he is heavily invested in Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>What we have been looking at is, how do you identify the corporate collaborators with Trump, and then look at ways to start putting pressure on them so that they pay a price for the fact that they are in bed with Trump?</p>
<p>One thing is that many of these folks who are in bed with Trump have significant investments from public employee pension plans and college endowments. We have been ongoing running the campaign saying that pension funds and endowments basically are getting lousy deals from these guys, meaning they pay a lot of money to invest in them and they get lousy returns. We are going to escalate that, but we are also going to look at some of the hedge funds that have really atrocious policies and raise the issue that colleges and pension plans shouldn’t invest in racist companies. For example, this guy Robert Mercer whose family owns part of Breitbart. They are <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/no-one-knows-what-the-powerful-mercers-really-want/514529/" type="external">Cambridge Analytica</a>, the secret polling apparatus for Trump. I think it is the city of Providence in Rhode Island has invested in one of his funds.</p>
<p>We want to start raising the issue for a bunch of these people that we should cut off their capital. Basically, public dollars or the dollars of progressive institutions shouldn’t be invested in them. Another thing we are doing is we have been introducing legislation on a state-by-state basis to tax the carried interest exemption. This is a loophole that lets them take the regular income that most people pay 30-35 percent on and they get to take 15 percent. I won’t bore you with the details of how they do it, except it is an $18 billion a year tax loophole.</p>
<p>Taxing it on a state level, on the one hand in New York it would produce $3.7 billion in revenue, but the other thing it does is it cuts off their capital. One of the reasons they can give so much money politically is because they have a special tax loophole that gives them $18 billion in cash to play with. One of the ways we can hurt them is cutting off tax breaks and cutting off investment. I think there is a sweet irony of their greed in getting in bed with Trump may make them much more susceptible to cutting off their capital.</p>
<p>Another thing was really illustrated on the CWA Momentive Strike, which was a long strike in upstate New York. When people realized that Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman had been involved in investing in the company and focused on him, it changed the nature of the strike. Instead of it being an isolated battle, it was Trump’s job czar is actually involved in cutting wages, benefits, and outsourcing work. This is one of the pieces that I think is the most critical, which is showing that the people that Trump has put in charge, like Wilbur Ross, are actually job destroyers. We want to completely change the story by putting the spotlight on them by saying, “These are actually the people that got rich destroying good jobs. It is not evil foreigners or immigrants. It is these guys.” That lets you raise a whole set of issues in terms of showing who they are and then, all the different ways that they gamed the system to enrich themselves at the expense of workers.</p>
<p>Sarah: This goes back to work that you were doing before the financial crisis within SEIU [Service Employees International Union], right?</p>
<p>Stephen: Yes. Going back to SEIU in 2007, we looked at the private equity industry and realized that if you look at the companies they own, which are called portfolio companies, that six of the ten largest employers in the United States are private equity companies. Most people don’t know that there is this giant monstrosity at the top that actually owns it. What gets really interesting is if you look at a company like Blackstone, they own a hotel, they own manufacturing, they are the biggest apartment owner in the country now. It lets you look at how you might campaign on them on multiple levels. You can campaign by organizing their non-union workers. This is what you get for being in the Trump Amen Chorus, everybody looks more deeply at your companies. They own retail outlets, they own apartments, they are tax avoiders.</p>
<p>There is an incredible opportunity, to use the word of the day, “intersectionally,” to say to a whole set of different groups, “Why not focus all of our energy on a couple of these characters as a way to both build a broader movement, but also tell the story about how they use their wealth to game the system and the more they game the system, the richer they get.” I think Schwarzman is worth $11 billion and just had his 70th birthday party where they spent tens of millions. It also lets you tell the story of the grotesqueness of these people. It was so fascinating to find workers, some of whom voted for Trump, are sort of stunned when they find out that the guys destroying their jobs are who Trump has put in charge.</p>
<p>Sarah: This campaigning has been going on around the Dakota Access Pipeline with people and cities, in fact, divesting from Wells Fargo and other banks that are invested in that pipeline.</p>
<p>Stephen: Wells Fargo workers exposed how they were cheating consumers, but there is now a campaign called <a href="http://www.citypages.com/news/whistleblowers-claim-wells-fargo-was-also-scamming-immigrants-on-insurance-policies/406334515" type="external">Forego Wells</a>. Surprise, surprise, there is a website ForegoWells.org. What it is saying is, “Let’s look at the totality of Wells Fargo.” They treat their workers terribly. They rob consumers. They are a funder of the Dakota Access Pipeline. They fund private prisons. They fund, in some way, payday lending. Again, the idea here is saying, “There are an unlimited number of bad guys out there, but whatever your issue is, let’s pile on a couple of the most dominant players.” And remember that Elaine Chao, who now is Head of Transportation, she was on the board of Wells Fargo during all of the scandals. Again, what you basically have is one of the board members of Wells Fargo now in the Trump cabinet and this company captures almost everything that is wrong with what is going on in this country. Wells Fargo is a wonderful example of the corruption and debasement of the system. They have binding arbitration. If you have an account with them, you automatically give up the right to sue them. When they illegally opened up accounts for people, when people attempted to sue about that illegally opened account, the bank said, “Well, your illegally opened account has a binding arbitration procedure. Therefore, you can’t sue us on the illegally opened account.” You can’t make this stuff up.</p>
<p>A big part of our work is basically saying, “Trump has surrounded himself with these set of players. That is who they really are. Let’s look at all of the way they screw people that are the opposite of Trump.” The way I think about it is, we have to make Trump guilty of every evil and sin they commit. If Trump picked Elaine Chao, then he is supporting fake accounts. He is supporting all these things. On the other hand, anybody who associates with Trump has to be guilty of all of his sins. So, Jamie Dimon from JPMorgan and Lloyd Blankfein from Goldman Sachs like to pretend they are at least social progressives. Gary Cohn who is a Goldman Sachs guy who went over to the administration stood behind Trump when he signed the Muslim ban. We need to hold Goldman Sachs accountable. Goldman Sachs and their people are behind anti-immigrant and Muslim bashing. I think there is a fantastic opportunity to force these contradictions, drive some wedges in the ruling class, and really tell the story about what used to be secret. These are the guys that are running both the economy and the government.</p>
<p>Sarah: Some people who are reading or listening to this are familiar with what went on in Greece and other countries that got the short end of the austerity agenda. Puerto Rico is a little bit closer to home, it is our government who is doing this to Puerto Rico with the help of all of these same people that we have just been talking about.</p>
<p>Stephen: Before I get into the detail of Puerto Rico, I think the way to think about this is globally—first, with the IMF [International Monetary Fund]. They took developing countries and basically used the Shock Doctrine to devastate the economies of those countries and enforce austerity. Then, they have experimented in Greece and other countries on how you enforce austerity and overrule democratic control and now the United States, we are experimenting with the same thing, which is how you purposely make a place broke. Then, when it is broke you say, “We need to put an emergency control board and get rid of democratic rule.” Then, once you get rid of democratic rule, you can basically turn it into a paradise for the rich.</p>
<p>The story they would tell is that Puerto Rico borrowed $70 billion, is hopelessly in debt, and now they need, like the Greeks, to pay the piper, to pay the money back. The first thing is that Puerto Rico didn’t borrow $70 billion dollars. Puerto Rico, with the help of Santander Bank and Goldman Sachs, did a series of loans that are essentially the equivalent of a payday loan for a country. One of the loans that they did, they borrowed $3.5 or $4 billion. This is all on the <a href="http://www.refundproject.org/#puerto-rico" type="external">Refund America site</a>. But, the payback is $33 billion. It was essentially how a loan was created that could be hidden off the books because you don’t pay the money for years. You borrow $4 billion, you owe $33 billion. The banks and hedge funds knowingly created loans that created huge profits for them that Puerto Rico couldn’t pay back.</p>
<p>Again, the best way to think about them is as a payday loan. One of the best examples of this is Santander Bank, who we talked about earlier, was the underwriter for many, many of these loans. They made huge profits on it. What the federal government has done is set up a control board to basically enforce austerity in Puerto Rico. The two head principle guys of the control board are from Santander Bank. These guys that basically created the debt and the loans and got rich on it now are adjudicating that the only way to fix the economy is cuts that are actually greater than Greece. They are the ones who are deciding who gets paid and doesn’t get paid. Essentially, the issue in Puerto Rico, like almost everywhere is, “Why should banks and hedge funds and others get paid mega returns when the result of that is a devastation of the island?”</p>
<p>They have also adopted a thing where basically if a millionaire lives there part-time, they don’t have to pay any tax. They are creating an economy where the rich pay almost no tax. Where the taxes for everybody else goes up dramatically and now they are moving in on lowering the minimum wage. Their real goal is to turn Puerto Rico into a playground for the super-rich.</p>
<p>Sarah: This was all under the Obama administration. What can we expect from Trump on this front?</p>
<p>Stephen: I think it has finally happened that the Puerto Rican government has actually hired … <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/puerto-rico-turns-to-corey-lewandowski-to-help-with-its-fiscal-crisis-2017-1" type="external">Corey Lewandowski</a> to try to open doors on the hill. John Paulson, who I brought up earlier, who is a Trump supporter and who made his $15 billion on the housing crisis, is buying up hotels and property all over Puerto Rico at a discount. I think the first thing to realize is a bunch of people that are in the Trump world either are buying property there or have investments in hedge funds there.</p>
<p>In the bill that created a control board, there were certain things that were supposed to protect pensions and other things, I think you could imagine all of that getting much worse, whether it is just in climate or in actually changing the law. I think under Trump, it will just be worse because at least in the old administration, there was the rhetoric of “We have to create a sustainable economy.” In this case, there is no illusion. The island is just increasingly going to be depopulated as people flee to the United States in search of work.</p>
<p>Sarah: At least people coming from Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens …</p>
<p>Stephen: I don’t know if you saw that in Chicago, there was a <a href="http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/eduardo-caraballo-puerto-rico-deportion-94795779.html" type="external">Puerto Rican citizen of the United States</a> that was held for three days by ICE because they didn’t believe he was a citizen.</p>
<p>Sarah: It is worth noting that the Puerto Rico situation is particular, but that many of the people who are coming to this country to find jobs are doing it because we, more or less, did something similar to their countries at some point.</p>
<p>Stephen: There are two things I have heard that are interesting. One, at the turn of the last century, people talked about how it was big sugar and agriculture and all that that basically sucked all the money out of Puerto Rico and now it is finance. The key thing about Puerto Rico is this is an experiment happening in a colony or a territory of the United States that they want to export, which is you make lots of money driving a place into bankruptcy and you seize control of it through control boards. This is Flint. This is Detroit. Then, once you are in control, you not only suck more money out from austerity, but then you create a system that puts corporations completely in control. You privatize everything. Part of the law in Puerto Rico not only says you can pay under the U.S. minimum wage, it also says that you don’t have to do environmental impact statements. You can just build stuff more quickly. I think the reason that people should care about Puerto Rico is, one, because it is horrific as a humanitarian and economic crisis, but this is the beginning of what they would like to do in Chicago, what they would like to do in all sorts of places here, which is, significantly in communities of color, finding ways to gain complete control of the economy and the politics.</p>
<p>Sarah: People want to talk about Germany and Italy and Fascism and Nazism and certainly we have people like Richard Spencer walking around and Steve Bannon at the White House, it is important to know global history, but also we need to know our own history and some of the lessons for understanding come from things that happened in the past. I wanted to ask you to talk a little bit more about what the lessons that we are missing right here at home are.</p>
<p>Stephen: The starting point that I think you really hit on is there is a little bit of this rhetoric and shock at how could this happen in America? How could we have an immigrant ban? How could we have this out-of-control racism? In some ways, it is kind of bizarre because we don’t need to look to Germany and Italy. We just need to look to our own past. In many ways, this is American as apple pie. If you think back 100 years to both the pre- and post-World War I period, you had a very fascinating set of things happening. One, you had the growing industrialization that totally changed labor-management relationships. You had growing giant factories, you had huge immigration, you had growing left movements. When you look at the reaction to that, it was vilifying immigrants and communists and socialists and anarchists. There was a huge strike out west where they&#160; <a href="http://lawyersgunsmon.wpengine.com/2011/07/this-date-in-labor-history-july-12-1917" type="external">literally put everybody in boxcars and deported them</a>.</p>
<p>What is fascinating about that period is one, how the state used its apparatus to attack the left and immigrants and create the fear. Then, it wasn’t Islam. It was evil foreigners and communists and all of that. But the level of repression was extraordinary. The other part of it is the level of resistance. The giant steel strikes and the L.A. Times was blown up by the McNamara Brothers. That is a famous case because Clarence Darrow was the attorney and it was the iron workers union and everybody said it was a frame and then they basically they said, “Yes, we did do it.” But, to capture the intensity of struggle. People didn’t say, “Oh, the state apparatus is really bad” or “People might get deported,” there were huge strikes. This was actually when the ACLU was founded under a different name in that period. There was incredible class conflict. There is a book that Joseph McCartin from Georgetown wrote that I am just reading, so I can’t fully say what he says, but I think looking at that both gives us a window into the kind of repression that we will face, but also what people did in response.</p>
<p>What Joe McCartin argues in his book is even though many of the big strikes and things were lost in that period, he refers to it as the dress rehearsal for the CIO, that those battles and the relationships people made and what people learned in those fights created the consciousness and the relationships and an understanding of the system that made it possible for people then to engage, even during the Depression and post-Depression, in mass struggle.</p>
<p>I think that is an area that we need to look at both as guidance to what they would do and then guidance about the importance of directly confronting and fighting it. In the south, if you actually think about the 1940s and 1950s and Jim Crow, it was an apartheid state where the so-called rule of law was irrelevant. The struggle of both black workers and union campaigns, again, I think shows that we don’t need to think of Germany or Italy, whether it is lynchings or shootings or jailings. If people hadn’t stood up to that at tremendous risk in their darkest of times—that created the conditions that allowed the Civil Rights Movement to grow later. People forget that the Civil Rights Movement wasn’t just … Rosa Parks sat on the bus and everything happened. That there were years of deep organizing and struggles. I think looking at those two periods is helpful in understanding what has happened in America in the past and then also how fighting it sets the stage for victories later.</p>
<p>Sarah: How can people keep up with you and the different organizations that you have mentioned?</p>
<p>Stephen: One, there is a group called <a href="https://littlesis.org/" type="external">littlesis.org</a> which, as they say, they are the opposite of Big Brother. They are doing fantastic work on mapping relationships with Trump. The other is <a href="http://hedgeclippers.org/" type="external">hedgeclippers.org</a> has now 45 reports on the evil doers and also are sponsoring all sorts of direct action and other campaigns around divestment. There is also the Refund America Project, which is <a href="http://www.refundproject.org/" type="external">refundamerica.org</a> that Saqib Bhatti and Maurice Weeks run, which is really looking at Puerto Rico and municipal debt. Then, there is <a href="http://www.bargainingforthecommongood.org/" type="external">bargainingforthecommongood.org</a>, which is a campaign where unions and community groups are going to the bargaining table together and saying that in addition to decent wages and benefits, we want to bargain about the political and economic issues in our communities. Then, my name is <a href="https://twitter.com/stephenlerner" type="external">Stephen Lerner</a>. You can follow me on Twitter.</p>
<p>The moment that we are in, I think, is: How do we pick out a couple of corporations that are tied to Trump and are simultaneously intersecting with different movements? How do we pick a set of companies and people within those companies and really focus in on what they are doing and look at ways that not just embarrass them, but we cut off their capital and really impact their businesses and say, “On the one hand, you may in the short-run get rich off of the dealings of Trump, but in the long-run you are planting the seeds to your own destruction.”</p>
<p>Interviews for Resistance is a project of Sarah Jaffe, with assistance from Laura Feuillebois and support from the Nation Institute. It is also available as a podcast. Not to be reprinted without permission.&#160;</p> | true | 4 | email name recipients email comma separated message captcha argued bank workers way hospital nurse frontline quality care bank workers frontline making sure banks arent cheating robbing people says stephen lerner longtime organizer photo provided stephen lerner 160 welcome interviews resistance since election night 2016 streets united states rung resistance people country woken conviction must something fight inequality forms many wondering series well talking experienced organizers troublemakers thinkers hard work fighting long time theyll sharing insights works doesnt changed still stephen lerner name stephen lerner fellow georgetowns kalmanovitz initiative labor working poor work hedgeclippers bank workers number different campaigns focused looking money tree really running politics economy country160 sarah jaffe lets start bank workers bank workers kicked union drive stephen bank workers campaign really interesting people dont realize banks countries world significantly unionized threepronged campaign one broadly building worker committees banks united states one first real victories bank workers campaign committee better banks communications workers america cwa whole series community groups come back whistleblowers wells fargo scandal opening fake accounts ongoing growing campaign workers major us banks focusing bank called santander spanishowned bank union countries world heavily unionized brazil argentina united states primarily northeastern bank also big national subprime auto lender global demand bank agree fight union neutral united states countries really exciting kickoff sort unheard addition traditional solidarity actions letters pickets argentina brazil workers actually walked job shutdowns bank branches centers demanding bank interfere workers rights organize unions united states fascinating campaign united states bank workers unions always dual demand traditional demand workers paid treated decently simultaneously workers forced sell predatory products cheat people condition employment argued bank workers way hospital nurse frontline quality care bank workers frontline making sure banks arent cheating robbing people work wells fargo exciting literally tens thousands workers signed petitions saying outrageous sales goals could met cheated customers one part workers whistleblowers workers frontline saying bank bad workers dont want participate scheme bank makes money cheating people sarah one things interesting connection international unions represent bank workers talk globalization jobs moving around world progressive solutions trumps nationalism international campaigns like really interesting starting point stephen someone done lot organizing ask unions countries support workers united states organize global companies unique bank workers organizing brazilian bank workers think biggest bank workers union world one progressive aggressively wonderfully called american labor movement organize bank workers solidarity maintain standards brazil around world largest country biggest finance industry nonunion almost hallucinogenic workers socalled developing countries say wages benefits threatened level nonunion staff united states fantastic group led brazilian bank workers uni global bank worker federation working support campaign pressure company also around globe lifted call think really unusual unions workers pressured cheat people condition employment meetings world real commitment concrete stuff pressure bank going going santander shareholder meeting spain done series reports exposing santanders bad practices ranging role puerto rican debt crisis role subprime auto failed community reinvestment act test did160 report building campaign good workers workers make company healthier terms engages customers consumers essentially community reinvestment act cra requires simplest terms banks provide resources communities invest report first showed lending practices ignored skipped poor communities communities color test done cra act see given enough money loaned enough money bank failed bank also failed stress test think relationship mistreatment workers underpinnings bank threatened engaged sorts risky practices may make little bit money short run blow face long run sarah one things connects lot work mapping power money comes bad policies bad politicians policies bipartisan say age trump particular talk importance kind work important know funding politicians stephen hedgeclippers campaign looks hedge funds private equity thus hedge clippers clipping power basically says finance capitalists driving political economic inequality done deep dive reports exposes lots direct action directly confront little joke either incredibly prescient trump picked entire cabinet looking fighting pretrump winning saying whether goldman sachs steven schwarzman blackstone people really running government lots folks laughing saying conspiracy cult something trump got elected put people directly charge sort irony trumps election probably best testimony idea whether dems republicansthat player really running show lot work mapping different trump worlds people like mnuchin goldman sachs folks directly administration map benefits companies reap steve schwarzmans carl icahns set players run committees essentially create government policies enrich companies third set people like john paulson made money housing crisis may directly working trump supported going reap benefits example heavily invested puerto rico looking identify corporate collaborators trump look ways start putting pressure pay price fact bed trump one thing many folks bed trump significant investments public employee pension plans college endowments ongoing running campaign saying pension funds endowments basically getting lousy deals guys meaning pay lot money invest get lousy returns going escalate also going look hedge funds really atrocious policies raise issue colleges pension plans shouldnt invest racist companies example guy robert mercer whose family owns part breitbart cambridge analytica secret polling apparatus trump think city providence rhode island invested one funds want start raising issue bunch people cut capital basically public dollars dollars progressive institutions shouldnt invested another thing introducing legislation statebystate basis tax carried interest exemption loophole lets take regular income people pay 3035 percent get take 15 percent wont bore details except 18 billion year tax loophole taxing state level one hand new york would produce 37 billion revenue thing cuts capital one reasons give much money politically special tax loophole gives 18 billion cash play one ways hurt cutting tax breaks cutting investment think sweet irony greed getting bed trump may make much susceptible cutting capital another thing really illustrated cwa momentive strike long strike upstate new york people realized blackstones steve schwarzman involved investing company focused changed nature strike instead isolated battle trumps job czar actually involved cutting wages benefits outsourcing work one pieces think critical showing people trump put charge like wilbur ross actually job destroyers want completely change story putting spotlight saying actually people got rich destroying good jobs evil foreigners immigrants guys lets raise whole set issues terms showing different ways gamed system enrich expense workers sarah goes back work financial crisis within seiu service employees international union right stephen yes going back seiu 2007 looked private equity industry realized look companies called portfolio companies six ten largest employers united states private equity companies people dont know giant monstrosity top actually owns gets really interesting look company like blackstone hotel manufacturing biggest apartment owner country lets look might campaign multiple levels campaign organizing nonunion workers get trump amen chorus everybody looks deeply companies retail outlets apartments tax avoiders incredible opportunity use word day intersectionally say whole set different groups focus energy couple characters way build broader movement also tell story use wealth game system game system richer get think schwarzman worth 11 billion 70th birthday party spent tens millions also lets tell story grotesqueness people fascinating find workers voted trump sort stunned find guys destroying jobs trump put charge sarah campaigning going around dakota access pipeline people cities fact divesting wells fargo banks invested pipeline stephen wells fargo workers exposed cheating consumers campaign called forego wells surprise surprise website foregowellsorg saying lets look totality wells fargo treat workers terribly rob consumers funder dakota access pipeline fund private prisons fund way payday lending idea saying unlimited number bad guys whatever issue lets pile couple dominant players remember elaine chao head transportation board wells fargo scandals basically one board members wells fargo trump cabinet company captures almost everything wrong going country wells fargo wonderful example corruption debasement system binding arbitration account automatically give right sue illegally opened accounts people people attempted sue illegally opened account bank said well illegally opened account binding arbitration procedure therefore cant sue us illegally opened account cant make stuff big part work basically saying trump surrounded set players really lets look way screw people opposite trump way think make trump guilty every evil sin commit trump picked elaine chao supporting fake accounts supporting things hand anybody associates trump guilty sins jamie dimon jpmorgan lloyd blankfein goldman sachs like pretend least social progressives gary cohn goldman sachs guy went administration stood behind trump signed muslim ban need hold goldman sachs accountable goldman sachs people behind antiimmigrant muslim bashing think fantastic opportunity force contradictions drive wedges ruling class really tell story used secret guys running economy government sarah people reading listening familiar went greece countries got short end austerity agenda puerto rico little bit closer home government puerto rico help people talking stephen get detail puerto rico think way think globallyfirst imf international monetary fund took developing countries basically used shock doctrine devastate economies countries enforce austerity experimented greece countries enforce austerity overrule democratic control united states experimenting thing purposely make place broke broke say need put emergency control board get rid democratic rule get rid democratic rule basically turn paradise rich story would tell puerto rico borrowed 70 billion hopelessly debt need like greeks pay piper pay money back first thing puerto rico didnt borrow 70 billion dollars puerto rico help santander bank goldman sachs series loans essentially equivalent payday loan country one loans borrowed 35 4 billion refund america site payback 33 billion essentially loan created could hidden books dont pay money years borrow 4 billion owe 33 billion banks hedge funds knowingly created loans created huge profits puerto rico couldnt pay back best way think payday loan one best examples santander bank talked earlier underwriter many many loans made huge profits federal government done set control board basically enforce austerity puerto rico two head principle guys control board santander bank guys basically created debt loans got rich adjudicating way fix economy cuts actually greater greece ones deciding gets paid doesnt get paid essentially issue puerto rico like almost everywhere banks hedge funds others get paid mega returns result devastation island also adopted thing basically millionaire lives parttime dont pay tax creating economy rich pay almost tax taxes everybody else goes dramatically moving lowering minimum wage real goal turn puerto rico playground superrich sarah obama administration expect trump front stephen think finally happened puerto rican government actually hired corey lewandowski try open doors hill john paulson brought earlier trump supporter made 15 billion housing crisis buying hotels property puerto rico discount think first thing realize bunch people trump world either buying property investments hedge funds bill created control board certain things supposed protect pensions things think could imagine getting much worse whether climate actually changing law think trump worse least old administration rhetoric create sustainable economy case illusion island increasingly going depopulated people flee united states search work sarah least people coming puerto rico us citizens stephen dont know saw chicago puerto rican citizen united states held three days ice didnt believe citizen sarah worth noting puerto rico situation particular many people coming country find jobs less something similar countries point stephen two things heard interesting one turn last century people talked big sugar agriculture basically sucked money puerto rico finance key thing puerto rico experiment happening colony territory united states want export make lots money driving place bankruptcy seize control control boards flint detroit control suck money austerity create system puts corporations completely control privatize everything part law puerto rico says pay us minimum wage also says dont environmental impact statements build stuff quickly think reason people care puerto rico one horrific humanitarian economic crisis beginning would like chicago would like sorts places significantly communities color finding ways gain complete control economy politics sarah people want talk germany italy fascism nazism certainly people like richard spencer walking around steve bannon white house important know global history also need know history lessons understanding come things happened past wanted ask talk little bit lessons missing right home stephen starting point think really hit little bit rhetoric shock could happen america could immigrant ban could outofcontrol racism ways kind bizarre dont need look germany italy need look past many ways american apple pie think back 100 years pre postworld war period fascinating set things happening one growing industrialization totally changed labormanagement relationships growing giant factories huge immigration growing left movements look reaction vilifying immigrants communists socialists anarchists huge strike west they160 literally put everybody boxcars deported fascinating period one state used apparatus attack left immigrants create fear wasnt islam evil foreigners communists level repression extraordinary part level resistance giant steel strikes la times blown mcnamara brothers famous case clarence darrow attorney iron workers union everybody said frame basically said yes capture intensity struggle people didnt say oh state apparatus really bad people might get deported huge strikes actually aclu founded different name period incredible class conflict book joseph mccartin georgetown wrote reading cant fully say says think looking gives us window kind repression face also people response joe mccartin argues book even though many big strikes things lost period refers dress rehearsal cio battles relationships people made people learned fights created consciousness relationships understanding system made possible people engage even depression postdepression mass struggle think area need look guidance would guidance importance directly confronting fighting south actually think 1940s 1950s jim crow apartheid state socalled rule law irrelevant struggle black workers union campaigns think shows dont need think germany italy whether lynchings shootings jailings people hadnt stood tremendous risk darkest timesthat created conditions allowed civil rights movement grow later people forget civil rights movement wasnt rosa parks sat bus everything happened years deep organizing struggles think looking two periods helpful understanding happened america past also fighting sets stage victories later sarah people keep different organizations mentioned stephen one group called littlesisorg say opposite big brother fantastic work mapping relationships trump hedgeclippersorg 45 reports evil doers also sponsoring sorts direct action campaigns around divestment also refund america project refundamericaorg saqib bhatti maurice weeks run really looking puerto rico municipal debt bargainingforthecommongoodorg campaign unions community groups going bargaining table together saying addition decent wages benefits want bargain political economic issues communities name stephen lerner follow twitter moment think pick couple corporations tied trump simultaneously intersecting different movements pick set companies people within companies really focus look ways embarrass cut capital really impact businesses say one hand may shortrun get rich dealings trump longrun planting seeds destruction interviews resistance project sarah jaffe assistance laura feuillebois support nation institute also available podcast reprinted without permission160 | 2,355 |
<p>Photo by Nathaniel St. Clair</p>
<p>Donald Trump’s train wreck of a speech in Phoenix was hardly unique.&#160; It was similar to the president’s previous outings, which were also marked by rambling, Orwellian propaganda, random bloviations, and authoritarian media scapegoating.&#160;&#160; But the speech was significant, nonetheless, as a sign of Trump’s growing attacks on leftist protesters.&#160; The president, who never left the campaign trail, absurdly <a href="" type="internal">spoke</a> of “all Americans” as playing “on the same team” and uniting in “love,” a week after he insulted sensible peoples the country over by referring to many of the white supremacists in Charlottesville as not so bad, and celebrating the symbols of America’s white supremacist past.</p>
<p>Trump’s demonization of reporters in the crowd, his incessant attacks on his political critics, and his singling out of a previously obscure, small leftist group – Antifa – for condemnation, suggests his agenda is driven by anything but unification.&#160; Rather, and as we’ve long known, his entire persona is based on deeply divisive, and hateful, incendiary rhetoric directed against Trump’s political critics.&#160; Vilifying protesters in the crowd as “anarchists,” <a href="" type="internal">the president</a> spoke derisively of leftist anti-fascist militants who seek confrontations with the far right: “They show up in the helmets and the black masks and they’ve got clubs and everything.&#160; Antifa!”</p>
<p>Normally, I wouldn’t be very concerned with a single speech in which Trump attacks his political critics.&#160; But his decision to run interference for reactionaries and white supremacists in Charlottesville was an important moment in this presidency, suggesting that fascism sympathy is now a mainstay of executive politics.&#160; The events in Phoenix are instructive in terms of spotlighting the dangers of the rise of reactionary politics and the role of police in <a href="" type="internal">protecting</a> these groups.&#160; It’s as clear now as ever that leftist demonstrators are not going to be treated fairly by the police.&#160; A new <a href="" type="internal">video</a> from “Real News AZ” documents in real time the escalation of violence between protesters and city police outside of Trump’s rally in Phoenix.&#160; The video shows clearly that police first initiated violence against the protesters, charging at peaceful demonstrators, and firing tear gas canisters.&#160; This blatantly contradicts police <a href="" type="internal">claims</a> that they were merely defending themselves from protesters who initiated the conflict by throwing rocks at law enforcement.&#160; Yes, the video shows, rocks were thrown at police, but it was not until after they had charged demonstrators and fired tear gas.&#160; With great irony, Trump demonized “anarchist” protesters for seeking to stoke violence, while a police-initiated riot unfolded right outside the convention center’s doors.</p>
<p>The Phoenix police riot is merely one of countless stories in which increasingly militarized law enforcement have demonstrated their willingness to criminalize and suppress peaceful dissent on the left.&#160; And if they’re willing to do this to non-violent protesters, imagine what’s in store for small groups of Antifa activists, who will be easy to isolate and suppress through state violence.&#160; These activists now have a target painted on their back courtesy of the commander in chief.&#160; &#160;One need look no further than a disturbing video <a href="" type="internal">clip</a> from Phoenix of one protester wearing a gas mask, who can be seen kicking tear gas back at police after their unprovoked attack on demonstrators, to see what happens to those who reciprocate the violence visited on them by police.&#160; The protester was quickly taken down, as police fired a rubber bullet into his groin, and as another demonstrator pulled the limping youth away from the police’s front line.&#160; The video is disturbing, symbolically speaking, in demonstrating the savage repression of the American police state, as an ominous wave of riot police march in lock-step toward the overwhelmed protesters, firing tear gas and preparing to engage in more violence against the crowd.</p>
<p>Antifa’s revolution against the American police state and the reactionary right was over before it even began. The group has no mass support base, and its significance is primarily symbolic, as a representation of militant opposition to fascism, police, and capitalism.&#160; Anyone who believes Antifa protesters will prevail against well-armed white nationalists, hyper-militarized militia groups, and the police state, is sorely mistaken. President Obama did little during his presidency to reign in an increasingly violent and aggressive right-wing militia movement, as the incidents involving Cliven and Ammon Bundy made all too clear.&#160; And Trump has long courted the reactionary right by legitimating their protests and their concerns, while refusing to send a consistent message that hate groups and their violence will not be tolerated.</p>
<p>In this environment, I will not be surprised if militia groups escalate their aggressive tactics, thinking they’ve been deputized by the president to commit vigilante violence in pursuit of their political goals.&#160; Even if these forces could be subdued by left militants – which they can’t – there is zero chance of violent protest succeeding against reactionary local police forces and national guard forces, who will not hesitate to put down Antifa leftists in favor of promoting “order” in the streets.</p>
<p>The question now is how to best build a mass movement against America’s creeping fascism?&#160; Will that be achieved by punching neo-Nazis and white supremacists in the face, and by small groups of protesters throwing rocks and kicking tear gas at the police?&#160; Or will mass-based non-violent protest be the way forward?</p>
<p>I appreciate militant anti-fascists’ commitment to defending individuals who are physically attacked by far-right fascists and reactionaries.&#160; I share their concern with the rise of fascism more generally, and their recognition of the role that the police state plays in reinforcing right-wing militarism and vigilantism.&#160; And Trump’s efforts to single out Antifa protesters, as if this group represents a serious threat to American security, are absurd.&#160; Available evidence suggests that this movement has never been more than a marginal force in American politics, so Trump’s attack on Antifa is really a red herring from a president who seeks to create a false equivalence between the very real threat of right-wing militia groups to social order, and the miniscule number of protesters on the left committed to fighting fascists through violence.</p>
<p>Antifa has became a news story because of presidential bloviating, coupled with sensationalistic news coverage of left demonstrations that focuses on the few committed to violent protest.&#160; Almost no one knew what Antifa was a few months ago, and the group had little visibility even on the left prior to recent months.&#160; Until Charlottesville, it was viewed (if at all) by most people I know as periphery to any serious discussion of politics.&#160; But once the mass media – in pursuit of bigger audiences and profits – amplified the conflict between a small number of left militants and white supremacists, the public started to take notice of the group.&#160; Antifa barely appeared in the American media prior to this month.&#160; According to the Lexis Nexis news database, the New York Times devoted just three stories to Antifa from January through July 2017, while CNN had only 8 segments mentioning the group during this period.&#160; But throughout the first three-and-a-half weeks of August, the group appeared in nearly two-dozen stories in the New York Times, and another six dozen stories on CNN.&#160; And Trump’s decision to fixate on Antifa and left militants means the group will continue to serve as the boogey man of the left in “mainstream” political discourse.&#160; For those lacking familiarity with the group, it’s important to point out: Antifa is not a mass movement.&#160; Its main role today appears to be that of a punching bag for Trump in his efforts to stoke a war between the reactionary right and left-leaning Americans.</p>
<p>Despite Antifa’s fixation on white nationalists, we need to take care to recognize the primary threats to American security.&#160; A few hundred neo-Nazis and KKK supporters running around Charlottesville yelling “blood and soil” and other white power slogans was quite disturbing for many Americans, including myself, who saw the event in the news.&#160; But this small group is not the central problem, despite the fetishization of violence against these extremists embraced by militant left anti-fascists.&#160; This segment of the far-right will never be embraced by the masses of Americans, and polls show as much, with only about <a href="" type="internal">5 percent</a> of the public holding sympathetic views toward “white nationalists” and “white supremacists.” The real dangers are two-fold: 1. that police forces across the country could use the foil of Antifa as an excuse to crack down on mass non-violent protest groups they have long sought to suppress, including Black Lives Matter protesters, anti-Trump protesters, and other left-wing activists; and 2. the legions of right-wing militias across America, who count in their membership hundreds of thousands of well-armed members, and who have been treated with kid’s gloves by the police.&#160; This latter movement could play a significant role in suppressing progressive protesters, and has already <a href="" type="internal">intimidated</a> and terrorized the general public and <a href="" type="internal">institutions</a> of government in pursuit of its political agendas.&#160;&#160; Small leftist groups like Antifa and Redneck Revolt are not going to defeat the dual threat of the police and paramilitaries on the right.</p>
<p>The Trump administration and right-wing pundits want to use Antifa to paint with a broad brush an image of the American “left” as committed to militancy, extremism, and violence.&#160; Such depictions serve their political goals of marginalizing the left, while propping up the reactionary right.&#160; Trump’s attacks on left militants will make it easier to suppress mass non-violent protests, considering reporters’ long-established practice of framing left protesters as violent agitators, and taking at face value police departments’ claims that they merely protect the public and order, rather than violently suppress constitutionally protected speech and assembly.&#160; American law enforcement has never been shy about using violence to suppress minority communities, so it’s no stretch of the imagination to say that the American right – which has long been set on labeling Black Lives Matter as a “terrorist organization” – is chomping at the bit to justify violent state attacks on people of color.</p>
<p>All of this is quite dangerous and toxic to left movement building.&#160; The elevation of a infinitesimally small group of militant leftists into the spotlight means “the left” is no longer in control of its own public image.&#160; This is a significant turn of events, considering that our nation’s focus on political extremism until recently was directed at Trump, not “the left.”</p>
<p>I have little interest in bickering with fellow progressives about whether Antifa is a serious political uprising.&#160; Recent polling suggests the movement is supported by just <a href="" type="internal">5 percent</a> of the American public – equivalent to the number who support white nationalists and white supremacists.&#160; In other words, left-wing militants and their methods are rejected by almost all Americans – a sign of the irrelevance of this group, practically speaking, in building a leftist mass movement in favor of transforming American politics.</p>
<p>Those sympathetic to Antifa’s methods might argue that 5 percent public support is rather significant, in that it translates into 12.4 million people in a country of 249 million adults.&#160; Aren’t social movements always made up of a small, but determined and passionate minority?&#160; This perspective would be more convincing if the vast majority of “supporters” of Antifa were active in the streets, but they aren’t.&#160; No serious political commentator or analyst would argue that millions, or even tens or hundreds of thousands of Antifa activists have been active this year fighting fascists and police forces in the U.S.&#160; The actual number of these activists is a tiny fraction of this larger population of “supporters.”&#160; Rather, what we have is a relatively large group of people in the general public who are telling pollsters they are on board with Antifa’s anarchist-Black Bloc tactics, but who do little to act on this sentiment.&#160; I’m not surprised by this finding.&#160; Societies have always had armchair revolutionaries, and the U.S. is no different.</p>
<p>It’s also not surprising that Black Bloc-Antifa tactics failed to win over the masses.&#160; Recent research demonstrates that non-violent civil disobedience is far more effective than violence in achieving political goals.&#160; This conclusion is documented in detail in Erica Chenoweth’s important book, <a href="" type="internal">Why Civil Resistance Works</a>, in which she finds that non-violent activist campaigns are twice as likely to succeed as violent ones.&#160; The reason should be obvious.&#160; As Chenoweth explains in a recent article, “ <a href="" type="internal">Violence Will Only Hurt the Trump Resistance</a>,” while non-violent protest is more appealing to the average American, bringing in the masses and expanding the support base of a protest movement, violence tends to depress mass participation, sour potential allies, encourage violent repression, and push previous supporters away.&#160; In short, violence is a polarizing force that turns off the public.&#160; It deters mass participation, and works against efforts to build mass or revolutionary movements.</p>
<p>The discussion of Antifa and whether it’s a serious political movement is a distraction.&#160; The movement – if one could call it that – hides in the shadows; its members don masks at rallies, and its main arteries of information – websites such as “libcom” and “itsgoingdown.org” are entirely anonymous, providing no information about the identity of its organizers. The group’s anonymity speaks to its failure to cultivate mass support and legitimacy and to its irrelevance in the larger fight against the rise of American plutocracy.</p>
<p>Still, Antifa’s political structure offers some lessons to progressives, providing us a picture of what a legitimate mass movement should actually look like.&#160; The lessons are threefold.&#160; First, a genuine mass movement must be based on transparency of dialogue and membership.&#160; Its members and the groups that comprise it must be publicly identifiable, so that they may be properly engaged with in public venues, so that they can be supported by the mass public, and so that they are accountable to people.&#160; Secrecy in communication is toxic to democratic discourse, and it’s a recipe for irrelevance when it comes to selling a movement to the mass public.</p>
<p>Second, Antifa teaches us that it’s counterproductive to elevate methods of resisting oppression over substantive discussions of what the left stands for, rather than simply what it opposes.&#160; Opposition to fascism is a valiant goal.&#160; But that by itself is not a legitimate blueprint for societal transformation.&#160; Does the left want to be remembered for bluster about busting Nazi skulls, or for offering a serious vision for societal change?&#160; Should that vision be pragmatically driven by a push for social democracy, defined by a living wage, increased regulation of business, universal health care, re-unionization, and a stronger welfare state?&#160; Or should we be pushing for participatory democracy in the workplace via worker ownership of the economy and other forms of grassroots, direct democracy?&#160; Or some combination of both?&#160; Progressives are not all of one mind in answering these questions, but the fixation on methods of resistance over the substance of change means we’ve put off a broader discussion about what our society should look like moving forward.</p>
<p>A final lesson: the contrast between Antifa militancy and non-violent mass resistance demonstrates what effective and counterproductive resistance to state repression and reactionary politics look like.&#160; Violent resistance by the few is easy to dismiss and demonize, as Trump has recently shown.&#160; Violent efforts to shut down reactionary’s events and rallies and commit assault against its members benefit from little public support.&#160; These tactics are a distraction from more serious organizing and left discourse on how to achieve meaningful societal change.&#160; Punching Nazis in the face may be cathartic those engaging in this tactic, but it is irrelevant to progressive mass movement building.</p>
<p>Rather than relying on an isolated, militant few to “lead” the left forward, we should be looking to more effective, peaceful opposition strategies. &#160;The recent Boston protest against the right is instructive of what has gone right for progressives in recent months.&#160; By bringing together <a href="" type="internal">40,000 people</a> to oppose America’s reactionary turn, demonstrators in Boston marginalized the small contingent of right-wing fascists who gathered, and shifted the public discussion away from the rise of hate groups, and toward the rise of mass resistance to bigotry.&#160; Despite his initial attempt to denigrate anti-fascist protesters as simply “ <a href="" type="internal">anti-police agitators,”</a> Trump was eventually forced to “applaud” the peaceful “protesters in Boston speaking out against bigotry and hate.”</p>
<p>In the case of Laguna Beach, California, counter-protesters also <a href="" type="internal">came together</a> to outnumber and overwhelm reactionaries who organized an “America First” anti-immigration rally.&#160; Importantly, the rally remained non-violent, despite the presence of far-right white nationalists and a strong police presence. &#160;In other words, progressive ralliers achieved their goal of marginalizing the right – without using violence. The lesson is clear from these protests: greater numbers of protesters, coupled with a commitment to mass non-violence, is an effective method of pacifying reactionary groups.</p>
<p>As progressives, we need to rethink our priorities moving forward. Rather than being told by Donald Trump and the media what defines us, we need to work toward developing our own mass movement in opposition to reactionary bigotry, government repression, and plutocracy.&#160; This resistance needs to draw mass support from the political center, pulling it to the left, thereby creating even greater groundswell of pressure for social, political, and economic change. This won’t be accomplished by celebrating vigilantism and violence, which are both rejected by most Americans. There is a lot of work to be done, and little time to waste.</p> | true | 4 | photo nathaniel st clair donald trumps train wreck speech phoenix hardly unique160 similar presidents previous outings also marked rambling orwellian propaganda random bloviations authoritarian media scapegoating160160 speech significant nonetheless sign trumps growing attacks leftist protesters160 president never left campaign trail absurdly spoke americans playing team uniting love week insulted sensible peoples country referring many white supremacists charlottesville bad celebrating symbols americas white supremacist past trumps demonization reporters crowd incessant attacks political critics singling previously obscure small leftist group antifa condemnation suggests agenda driven anything unification160 rather weve long known entire persona based deeply divisive hateful incendiary rhetoric directed trumps political critics160 vilifying protesters crowd anarchists president spoke derisively leftist antifascist militants seek confrontations far right show helmets black masks theyve got clubs everything160 antifa normally wouldnt concerned single speech trump attacks political critics160 decision run interference reactionaries white supremacists charlottesville important moment presidency suggesting fascism sympathy mainstay executive politics160 events phoenix instructive terms spotlighting dangers rise reactionary politics role police protecting groups160 clear ever leftist demonstrators going treated fairly police160 new video real news az documents real time escalation violence protesters city police outside trumps rally phoenix160 video shows clearly police first initiated violence protesters charging peaceful demonstrators firing tear gas canisters160 blatantly contradicts police claims merely defending protesters initiated conflict throwing rocks law enforcement160 yes video shows rocks thrown police charged demonstrators fired tear gas160 great irony trump demonized anarchist protesters seeking stoke violence policeinitiated riot unfolded right outside convention centers doors phoenix police riot merely one countless stories increasingly militarized law enforcement demonstrated willingness criminalize suppress peaceful dissent left160 theyre willing nonviolent protesters imagine whats store small groups antifa activists easy isolate suppress state violence160 activists target painted back courtesy commander chief160 160one need look disturbing video clip phoenix one protester wearing gas mask seen kicking tear gas back police unprovoked attack demonstrators see happens reciprocate violence visited police160 protester quickly taken police fired rubber bullet groin another demonstrator pulled limping youth away polices front line160 video disturbing symbolically speaking demonstrating savage repression american police state ominous wave riot police march lockstep toward overwhelmed protesters firing tear gas preparing engage violence crowd antifas revolution american police state reactionary right even began group mass support base significance primarily symbolic representation militant opposition fascism police capitalism160 anyone believes antifa protesters prevail wellarmed white nationalists hypermilitarized militia groups police state sorely mistaken president obama little presidency reign increasingly violent aggressive rightwing militia movement incidents involving cliven ammon bundy made clear160 trump long courted reactionary right legitimating protests concerns refusing send consistent message hate groups violence tolerated environment surprised militia groups escalate aggressive tactics thinking theyve deputized president commit vigilante violence pursuit political goals160 even forces could subdued left militants cant zero chance violent protest succeeding reactionary local police forces national guard forces hesitate put antifa leftists favor promoting order streets question best build mass movement americas creeping fascism160 achieved punching neonazis white supremacists face small groups protesters throwing rocks kicking tear gas police160 massbased nonviolent protest way forward appreciate militant antifascists commitment defending individuals physically attacked farright fascists reactionaries160 share concern rise fascism generally recognition role police state plays reinforcing rightwing militarism vigilantism160 trumps efforts single antifa protesters group represents serious threat american security absurd160 available evidence suggests movement never marginal force american politics trumps attack antifa really red herring president seeks create false equivalence real threat rightwing militia groups social order miniscule number protesters left committed fighting fascists violence antifa became news story presidential bloviating coupled sensationalistic news coverage left demonstrations focuses committed violent protest160 almost one knew antifa months ago group little visibility even left prior recent months160 charlottesville viewed people know periphery serious discussion politics160 mass media pursuit bigger audiences profits amplified conflict small number left militants white supremacists public started take notice group160 antifa barely appeared american media prior month160 according lexis nexis news database new york times devoted three stories antifa january july 2017 cnn 8 segments mentioning group period160 throughout first threeandahalf weeks august group appeared nearly twodozen stories new york times another six dozen stories cnn160 trumps decision fixate antifa left militants means group continue serve boogey man left mainstream political discourse160 lacking familiarity group important point antifa mass movement160 main role today appears punching bag trump efforts stoke war reactionary right leftleaning americans despite antifas fixation white nationalists need take care recognize primary threats american security160 hundred neonazis kkk supporters running around charlottesville yelling blood soil white power slogans quite disturbing many americans including saw event news160 small group central problem despite fetishization violence extremists embraced militant left antifascists160 segment farright never embraced masses americans polls show much 5 percent public holding sympathetic views toward white nationalists white supremacists real dangers twofold 1 police forces across country could use foil antifa excuse crack mass nonviolent protest groups long sought suppress including black lives matter protesters antitrump protesters leftwing activists 2 legions rightwing militias across america count membership hundreds thousands wellarmed members treated kids gloves police160 latter movement could play significant role suppressing progressive protesters already intimidated terrorized general public institutions government pursuit political agendas160160 small leftist groups like antifa redneck revolt going defeat dual threat police paramilitaries right trump administration rightwing pundits want use antifa paint broad brush image american left committed militancy extremism violence160 depictions serve political goals marginalizing left propping reactionary right160 trumps attacks left militants make easier suppress mass nonviolent protests considering reporters longestablished practice framing left protesters violent agitators taking face value police departments claims merely protect public order rather violently suppress constitutionally protected speech assembly160 american law enforcement never shy using violence suppress minority communities stretch imagination say american right long set labeling black lives matter terrorist organization chomping bit justify violent state attacks people color quite dangerous toxic left movement building160 elevation infinitesimally small group militant leftists spotlight means left longer control public image160 significant turn events considering nations focus political extremism recently directed trump left little interest bickering fellow progressives whether antifa serious political uprising160 recent polling suggests movement supported 5 percent american public equivalent number support white nationalists white supremacists160 words leftwing militants methods rejected almost americans sign irrelevance group practically speaking building leftist mass movement favor transforming american politics sympathetic antifas methods might argue 5 percent public support rather significant translates 124 million people country 249 million adults160 arent social movements always made small determined passionate minority160 perspective would convincing vast majority supporters antifa active streets arent160 serious political commentator analyst would argue millions even tens hundreds thousands antifa activists active year fighting fascists police forces us160 actual number activists tiny fraction larger population supporters160 rather relatively large group people general public telling pollsters board antifas anarchistblack bloc tactics little act sentiment160 im surprised finding160 societies always armchair revolutionaries us different also surprising black blocantifa tactics failed win masses160 recent research demonstrates nonviolent civil disobedience far effective violence achieving political goals160 conclusion documented detail erica chenoweths important book civil resistance works finds nonviolent activist campaigns twice likely succeed violent ones160 reason obvious160 chenoweth explains recent article violence hurt trump resistance nonviolent protest appealing average american bringing masses expanding support base protest movement violence tends depress mass participation sour potential allies encourage violent repression push previous supporters away160 short violence polarizing force turns public160 deters mass participation works efforts build mass revolutionary movements discussion antifa whether serious political movement distraction160 movement one could call hides shadows members masks rallies main arteries information websites libcom itsgoingdownorg entirely anonymous providing information identity organizers groups anonymity speaks failure cultivate mass support legitimacy irrelevance larger fight rise american plutocracy still antifas political structure offers lessons progressives providing us picture legitimate mass movement actually look like160 lessons threefold160 first genuine mass movement must based transparency dialogue membership160 members groups comprise must publicly identifiable may properly engaged public venues supported mass public accountable people160 secrecy communication toxic democratic discourse recipe irrelevance comes selling movement mass public second antifa teaches us counterproductive elevate methods resisting oppression substantive discussions left stands rather simply opposes160 opposition fascism valiant goal160 legitimate blueprint societal transformation160 left want remembered bluster busting nazi skulls offering serious vision societal change160 vision pragmatically driven push social democracy defined living wage increased regulation business universal health care reunionization stronger welfare state160 pushing participatory democracy workplace via worker ownership economy forms grassroots direct democracy160 combination both160 progressives one mind answering questions fixation methods resistance substance change means weve put broader discussion society look like moving forward final lesson contrast antifa militancy nonviolent mass resistance demonstrates effective counterproductive resistance state repression reactionary politics look like160 violent resistance easy dismiss demonize trump recently shown160 violent efforts shut reactionarys events rallies commit assault members benefit little public support160 tactics distraction serious organizing left discourse achieve meaningful societal change160 punching nazis face may cathartic engaging tactic irrelevant progressive mass movement building rather relying isolated militant lead left forward looking effective peaceful opposition strategies 160the recent boston protest right instructive gone right progressives recent months160 bringing together 40000 people oppose americas reactionary turn demonstrators boston marginalized small contingent rightwing fascists gathered shifted public discussion away rise hate groups toward rise mass resistance bigotry160 despite initial attempt denigrate antifascist protesters simply antipolice agitators trump eventually forced applaud peaceful protesters boston speaking bigotry hate case laguna beach california counterprotesters also came together outnumber overwhelm reactionaries organized america first antiimmigration rally160 importantly rally remained nonviolent despite presence farright white nationalists strong police presence 160in words progressive ralliers achieved goal marginalizing right without using violence lesson clear protests greater numbers protesters coupled commitment mass nonviolence effective method pacifying reactionary groups progressives need rethink priorities moving forward rather told donald trump media defines us need work toward developing mass movement opposition reactionary bigotry government repression plutocracy160 resistance needs draw mass support political center pulling left thereby creating even greater groundswell pressure social political economic change wont accomplished celebrating vigilantism violence rejected americans lot work done little time waste | 1,636 |
<p>It’s one thing to read about the United States in the news every day, or hear about the growing sociopolitical insanity from friends via the Internet. It is another thing altogether to come back to the land of one’s birth and citizenship for a few weeks, and to observe it all directly. That comfortable feeling of safe distance that some of us who live in calmer countries (calmer on the surface, at least) cherish and hold dear is, after only eight or nine hours in an airplane, gone. There is an uneasy feeling that anything could happen – even out in the thinly-populated Northern Neck region of Virginia, on a small waterway which winds through woods and farms to the juncture of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay, one is far too close (three hours) to Washington DC and the psycho-vortex which seems to swallow, corrupt, and transform all clear thought into greedy self-interest and imperial cynicism. It does not seem impossible that stormtroopers clad in Darth Vaderish armor could roll up in front of my elderly mother’s house to haul a Socialist and atheist who has no use for nationalism off to some grim dungeon and brand him a supporter of “terrorism”, whatever that means this week – after all, such things are happening daily in countries allied to the United States, such as Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia, not to even mention those listed by the US government on the latest edition of the Axis of Evil.</p>
<p>After three days of communing with nature, walking, observing bald eagles, herons, deer and wild turkeys, and watching the warm October sunlight play on the water from the dock, I made – as usual – the mistake of turning on the radio to National Public Radio (NPR), one of the few things one can hear with a clear non-digital radio signal out here, hoping to get a little of what passes for news without inducing one of the anger attacks that often follows such a simple twist of the radio knob in this part of the world. I should have known better.</p>
<p>One topic dominated the coverage in the American mainstream media that day, including NPR, which at one time was a media institution with a relatively progressive outlook. That topic was the death of four US soldiers in the African country of Niger, and the resulting furor. After too many minutes of listening to breathless questions from NPR’s deeply unpleasant and prissy moderator Ari Shapiro to such paragons of official truth as former US Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon Panetta — breathless questions about how this attack against foreign soldiers in Niger could possibly have happened?! — I grew increasingly angry. According to sources such as AirWars, several thousand civilians have died under US bombs in places like Iraq, Syria and Yemen this year alone. I rarely see any coverage whatsoever of these deaths in the mainstream media, either here in the USA or in Germany where I live. Americans are, in general, not concerned about foreign deaths as a result of US imperial military action. Many of us in my online group of political allies tried for the entire duration of the 2016 election campaign to get liberals to deal with those deaths and to include American military madness among their criteria for Presidential political decisions … without success.</p>
<p>But when four US soldiers die overseas, the shock and the sense of crisis take control of the US corporate mainstream media for days, even weeks.</p>
<p>This, in a country which maintains more than 800 military bases worldwide and sends many hundreds of thousands of soldiers into war zones, often in contravention of international law.</p>
<p>There were also accompanying stories about the widows of the dead soldiers and the allegedly improper manner in which the President had spoken to them on the telephone, after calling to console them. Clearly, these lives are far, far more important than those of the thousands of dead persons in the Middle East and elsewhere, at least in the minds of a vast segment of the American public.</p>
<p>I was, and continue to be, outraged and dumbfounded. I am back in the parallel universe of my birth.</p>
<p>The bewildering dichotomy between some aspects of everyday life here in the USA, and the political and social madness which so many Americans either support unquestioningly and vehemently, or bemoan as regrettable but unavoidable, puzzles me again on this trip. Here in beautiful rural Virginia the people one encounters on the street, in a bookstore or supermarket, are so much friendlier and immediately likeable than in similar encounters in Europe. After a total of 18 years as a resident of Germany I still struggle with the tendency of the majority of Europeans to avoid eye contact, and to look at me with suspicion or mistrust if I say hello. Once one gets to know them they are usually fine people, and very often I have more in common with them than with the friendly and acknowledging Americans. But the social tradition in public there is utterly different, and it always makes me happy to be among these warm, open Virginians and Georgians and Tennesseans – although if we were to discuss politics or religion, my views would most likely horrify them. For a few weeks it’s enough to eat Mexican food or barbecue or crab cakes and oysters with them, buy beautiful big homegrown tomatoes at their vegetable stands, and listen to them play fabulous bluegrass music, with heartfelt gospel lyrics which often nostalgically move my atheist heart.</p>
<p>But the contradictions are myriad and mind-boggling. In a country full of mentally disturbed and often strongly drugged people with deadly weapons, a status mostly sanctioned by law, there is a constant obsession with safety in daily life. The majority appears to consider the laws in question logical and correct.</p>
<p>Many other things are startling to those of us who live elsewhere, even those like myself who come from this country. The number of enormously, hideously obese people one sees here cannot be compared with any other country on the planet, in my experience. Many of these people appear quite comfortable with their astonishing girth, wearing tight clothes that emphasize it rather than rendering it a bit more fashionable or less obvious.</p>
<p>One need not come here in person to experience the flag worship and military worship: we read about “taking a knee” and such matters in our own press, where the media find such matters fascinating. But for a visitor, the sheer number of American flags flying visibly here is sometimes overwhelming. I sometimes think that, since they are mostly on display for other Americans, this patriotism contest may have more to do, in some cases at least, with confused people reminding themselves where they are.</p>
<p>The tone, sheer volume, and vulgarity of much advertising in the USA is shocking to those who are unfamiliar with it. Although I am an American, I undergo major culture shock myself every time I see and hear it around me once again after a longer interval. While I generally avoid the commercial corporate media where the stuff is unavoidable, you cannot escape it here for long. I am always amazed at how accustomed and inured to it even sophisticated Americans of my acquaintance are. To me it is like a hard slap in the face, followed by revulsion and loathing. I live in Germany, which is a capitalist country with plenty of advertising. But in Germany it is possible, even on commercial TV channels and radio stations, to listen or watch for 15 or 20 minutes, sometimes even an hour, without being attacked by vulgar advertising. The short programming intervals between commercial content here in the US never cease to amaze me, on the rare occasions when I indulge in a bit of exploration through my mother’s hundreds of television channels.</p>
<p>Still, life here on the Chesapeake Bay is similar enough in many ways to life during my youth in Tennessee to be quite enjoyable, provided that I studiously avoid the aforementioned horrors. Things still move pretty slowly here, and the main street of the small nearby hub city is still quaint and peaceful enough to evoke pleasant memories and sensations. The autumn sky is bright blue, the air appears quite clear in this industry-free region, at night the stars shine with fiery brilliance.</p>
<p>It will be different next week when my partner and I take to the interstate highways to visit friends in other states. One sprawling and ugly subdivision, suburb, and shopping center after another, huge parking lots everywhere, the same corporate logos on the same franchised restaurants, giant billboards along the highways (forbidden in most of Europe). No practical alternative to traveling by car, no comfortable European trains.</p>
<p>Most refugees flee from hunger, war, and poverty. I, on the other hand, will gain 10 pounds or so eating favorite southern dishes here in the land of my birth, which are mostly unavailable or much more expensive at home in Europe. It will be time for a serious diet when we return home after Thanksgiving.</p> | true | 4 | one thing read united states news every day hear growing sociopolitical insanity friends via internet another thing altogether come back land ones birth citizenship weeks observe directly comfortable feeling safe distance us live calmer countries calmer surface least cherish hold dear eight nine hours airplane gone uneasy feeling anything could happen even thinlypopulated northern neck region virginia small waterway winds woods farms juncture potomac river chesapeake bay one far close three hours washington dc psychovortex seems swallow corrupt transform clear thought greedy selfinterest imperial cynicism seem impossible stormtroopers clad darth vaderish armor could roll front elderly mothers house haul socialist atheist use nationalism grim dungeon brand supporter terrorism whatever means week things happening daily countries allied united states turkey israel saudi arabia even mention listed us government latest edition axis evil three days communing nature walking observing bald eagles herons deer wild turkeys watching warm october sunlight play water dock made usual mistake turning radio national public radio npr one things one hear clear nondigital radio signal hoping get little passes news without inducing one anger attacks often follows simple twist radio knob part world known better one topic dominated coverage american mainstream media day including npr one time media institution relatively progressive outlook topic death four us soldiers african country niger resulting furor many minutes listening breathless questions nprs deeply unpleasant prissy moderator ari shapiro paragons official truth former us secretary defense cia director leon panetta breathless questions attack foreign soldiers niger could possibly happened grew increasingly angry according sources airwars several thousand civilians died us bombs places like iraq syria yemen year alone rarely see coverage whatsoever deaths mainstream media either usa germany live americans general concerned foreign deaths result us imperial military action many us online group political allies tried entire duration 2016 election campaign get liberals deal deaths include american military madness among criteria presidential political decisions without success four us soldiers die overseas shock sense crisis take control us corporate mainstream media days even weeks country maintains 800 military bases worldwide sends many hundreds thousands soldiers war zones often contravention international law also accompanying stories widows dead soldiers allegedly improper manner president spoken telephone calling console clearly lives far far important thousands dead persons middle east elsewhere least minds vast segment american public continue outraged dumbfounded back parallel universe birth bewildering dichotomy aspects everyday life usa political social madness many americans either support unquestioningly vehemently bemoan regrettable unavoidable puzzles trip beautiful rural virginia people one encounters street bookstore supermarket much friendlier immediately likeable similar encounters europe total 18 years resident germany still struggle tendency majority europeans avoid eye contact look suspicion mistrust say hello one gets know usually fine people often common friendly acknowledging americans social tradition public utterly different always makes happy among warm open virginians georgians tennesseans although discuss politics religion views would likely horrify weeks enough eat mexican food barbecue crab cakes oysters buy beautiful big homegrown tomatoes vegetable stands listen play fabulous bluegrass music heartfelt gospel lyrics often nostalgically move atheist heart contradictions myriad mindboggling country full mentally disturbed often strongly drugged people deadly weapons status mostly sanctioned law constant obsession safety daily life majority appears consider laws question logical correct many things startling us live elsewhere even like come country number enormously hideously obese people one sees compared country planet experience many people appear quite comfortable astonishing girth wearing tight clothes emphasize rather rendering bit fashionable less obvious one need come person experience flag worship military worship read taking knee matters press media find matters fascinating visitor sheer number american flags flying visibly sometimes overwhelming sometimes think since mostly display americans patriotism contest may cases least confused people reminding tone sheer volume vulgarity much advertising usa shocking unfamiliar although american undergo major culture shock every time see hear around longer interval generally avoid commercial corporate media stuff unavoidable escape long always amazed accustomed inured even sophisticated americans acquaintance like hard slap face followed revulsion loathing live germany capitalist country plenty advertising germany possible even commercial tv channels radio stations listen watch 15 20 minutes sometimes even hour without attacked vulgar advertising short programming intervals commercial content us never cease amaze rare occasions indulge bit exploration mothers hundreds television channels still life chesapeake bay similar enough many ways life youth tennessee quite enjoyable provided studiously avoid aforementioned horrors things still move pretty slowly main street small nearby hub city still quaint peaceful enough evoke pleasant memories sensations autumn sky bright blue air appears quite clear industryfree region night stars shine fiery brilliance different next week partner take interstate highways visit friends states one sprawling ugly subdivision suburb shopping center another huge parking lots everywhere corporate logos franchised restaurants giant billboards along highways forbidden europe practical alternative traveling car comfortable european trains refugees flee hunger war poverty hand gain 10 pounds eating favorite southern dishes land birth mostly unavailable much expensive home europe time serious diet return home thanksgiving | 817 |
<p>These are desperate days for Entergy, the big Arkansas-based power conglomerate that owns the frail Indian Point nuclear plant, located on the east bank of the Hudson River outside Buchanan, New York-just 22 miles from Manhattan.</p>
<p>First, a scathing report by a nuclear engineer fingered Indian Point as one of five worst nuclear plants in the United States and predicted that its emergency cooling system “is virtually certain to fail.”</p>
<p>This damning disclosure was hotly followed by the release of a study conducted by the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission which ominously concluded that the chances of a reactor meltdown increase by nearly a factor of 100 at Indian Point because the plant’s drainage pits (also known as containment sumps) are “almost certain” to be blocked with debris during an accident.</p>
<p>“The NRC has known about the containment sump problem at Indian Point since September 1996, but currently plans to fix it only by March 2007,” says David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists who. “The NRC cannot take more than a decade to fix a safety problem that places millions of Americans at undue risk.”</p>
<p>Entergy and the NRC both downplayed the meltdown scenario and defended the leisurely pace of the planned repairs, which won’t start until 2007. Entergy says that there’s no rush to fix the problems with the emergency system because a breakdown isn’t likely in the first place.</p>
<p>But that’s flirting with almost certain disaster. Entergy and the NRC are staking the lives of millions on odds of a single water pipe not breaking under pressure. The problem is that these very kinds of pipes have corroded and been breached at other nuclear plants featuring similar pressurized water design. At the Davis-Bessie plant near Toledo, Ohio, a vessel head on one of the cooling water pipes had been nearly corroded away by acid and was dangerously close to rupturing.</p>
<p>The cooling water in these pipes is kept at a pressure of 2,200 pounds per square inch. If a pipe breaks, the 500-degree water would blow off as steam, tearing off plant insulation and coatings. The escaped water will pour into the plant’s basement, where sump pumps are meant to draw the water back into the reactor core. But the Los Alamos tests showed that the cooling water would collect debris along the way that will clog up the mesh screens on the pipes leading back into the reactor. If this happens, the cooling of the reactor fuel would stop, the radioactive core would start to melt and the plant will belch a radioactive plume that will threaten millions downwind.</p>
<p>All this would happen very fast. The Indian Point 2 reactor would exhaust all of its cooling water in less than 23 minutes, while the number 3 reactor would consume all of its water in only 14 minutes. Try getting a nuclear plumber that quickly.</p>
<p>Yes, it sounds trite, but that’s essentially what Entergy proposes as its quick fix to the meltdown scenario. Jim Steets, Entergy’s spokesman on Indian Point matters, told the New York Times last month that the company was training its workers to scour the plant for flaking paint and potential debris and that if an accident occurred they would pump the water into the core more slowly, a plan that would buy plant managers and executives a few more minutes to flee the scene.</p>
<p>Where people would go and how they would get there in the event of a nuclear meltdown or other radioactive release at Indian Point is unclear. In September 2002, New York Governor George Pataki commissioned a report on Indian Point’s evacuation plan. He picked James Lee Witt, the former Rose Law Firm attorney who served as head of FEMA during the Clinton administration, to oversee the investigation. At the time, Pataki said that he would support closure of the plant if Witt’s report revealed that communities near the plant could not be safely evacuated.</p>
<p>Witt submitted his report on January 10, 2003. While somewhat timid and cautious, Witt concluded that Entergy’s off-site evacuation plans for Indian Point were woefully inadequate.</p>
<p>Witt wrote: “It is our conclusion that the current radiological response system and capabilities are not adequate to overcome their combined weight and protect the people from an unacceptable dose of radiation in the event of a release from Indian Point, especially if the release is faster or larger than the design basis release.”</p>
<p>In the end, Witt concluded that it was not possible to fix the evacuation plan, given the problems at the plant, the density of the nearby communities and looming security threats.</p>
<p>This sobering scenario was followed by news that a review of the company’s security record revealed that Entergy, in cahoots with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, faked a test designed to determine whether the plant is vulnerable to a terrorist attack.</p>
<p>In an August letter, the NRC assured members of Congress that Entergy had developed a “strong defensive strategy and capability” for the plant and passed with flying colors a so-called “force-on-force” test, a mock assault.</p>
<p>In turns out, however, that the NRC gave Entergy officials months of advance warning about the test and then, as the Indian Point team cribbed for the exam, dumbed down the assault to ensure that they would pass.</p>
<p>Most assessments by the CIA and other intelligence agencies suggest that an assault on a nuclear plant would require a squad-sized force of between 12 and 14 attackers, who would assault the plant by night, armed with explosives, machine guns with armor-penetrating bullets, and rocket-propelled grenades.</p>
<p>This isn’t the attack that was repelled by the Entergy security team. Instead, Entergy’s men battled off a squad of 4 mock terrorists, armed only with hunting rifles, who assaulted the plant in broad daylight. Moreover, the attacking squad weren’t former Delta Force operatives trained in terrorist tactics, but security officers from a nearby nuclear plant who assault the plant from only one point after crossing open fields in plain view of Indian Point’s security guards.</p>
<p>Just to make sure that there were no surprises, the Entergy security team, which consisted largely of guards hired only for the test, was warned that a mock attack would take place sometime within the next hour. Even under these rigged conditions, Entergy barely passed the security test.</p>
<p>Environmentalists and anti-nuke activists living near the plant hoped this would be the final straw for the aging reactor. They marshaled their evidence of safety violations, inept evacuation plans and lax security and headed off to offices of the most powerful Democrat in America, Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>But Hillary has remained about reserved as Pataki on Indian Point, issuing robotic requests for more studies but refusing to call for the plant’s closure. Not that her words mean much. Last month, she pledged to filibuster the nomination of Utah governor Mike Leavitt for director of the EPA. She ended up voting to confirm his nomination.</p>
<p>Of course, Hillary’s ties to Entergy are almost primal. The Little Rock-based Entergy Corporation, which once employed John Huang, the infamous conduit to the Lippo Group, was one of Bill Clinton’s main political sponsors, shoveling more than $100,000 into his political coffers from 1992 to 1996.</p>
<p>The more plaintive the cries for Indian Point’s closure, the more money Entergy spreads around to politicians with reputation for flexibility in these matters. Already this year, Entergy’s New York Political Action Committee-ENPAC New York-has doled out more than $25,000 to New York politicians alone. Everyone got into the act from Pataki and Clinton to Democratic congressman Eliot Engel to lowlier footsoldiers for the nuclear plant, including two state assemblymen, commissioners from Westchester and Orange counties, Bronx Borough president Adolfo Carrion and state comptroller Alan Hevesi, whose election campaign was endorsed by the Sierra Club.</p>
<p>Political money isn’t the only tool in Entergy’s bag of tricks. In late October, community activists in the Bronx reported that emissaries from Entergy were canvassing black and Hispanic neighborhoods in New York City and Westchester County with an ominous warning: if Indian Point closes, air quality in urban areas will deteriorate and more blacks and Hispanics will develop respiratory illnesses. The Entergy reps told people that new coal-fired power plants would be built in their neighborhoods and urged them to sign a petition.</p>
<p>“In recent years, nearly all proposals for new power plants in New York state have been in or adjacent to areas with high concentrations of people of African descent and Latinos,” a memo handed out at the door warns. There is, naturally, much truth to this claim. and Entergy is in a unique position to know. since throughout the southeast it has targeted its power plants in black neighborhoods, where it has heralded them as bringing economic engines for impoverished communities.</p>
<p>The canvassers also carried cellphones as they went from door to door. They hit the speed dial number of a local legislator, handed the phone to the resident and then prompted them on how to express their concerns about the possible closure of Indian Point.</p>
<p>The petition drive, which discreetly by-passed the 13 predominately white districts in Westchester County, was run by a group calling itself by the lofty-sounding name: the Campaign for Affordable Energy, Environmental &amp; Economic Justice. The group was supposedly based in Manhattan. In fact, it was created and wholly funded by Entergy.</p>
<p>“This is a sham front group fabricated by the nuclear industry to scare black and low income people,” says Susan Tolchin, a staffer for Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano, who supports closing the Indian Point plant. “It’s an outrageous and disgusting attempt to exploit the minority community for corporate greed.”</p>
<p>JEFFREY ST. CLAIR is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512585/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: the Politics of Nature</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | desperate days entergy big arkansasbased power conglomerate owns frail indian point nuclear plant located east bank hudson river outside buchanan new yorkjust 22 miles manhattan first scathing report nuclear engineer fingered indian point one five worst nuclear plants united states predicted emergency cooling system virtually certain fail damning disclosure hotly followed release study conducted los alamos national laboratory nuclear regulatory commission ominously concluded chances reactor meltdown increase nearly factor 100 indian point plants drainage pits also known containment sumps almost certain blocked debris accident nrc known containment sump problem indian point since september 1996 currently plans fix march 2007 says david lochbaum nuclear safety engineer union concerned scientists nrc take decade fix safety problem places millions americans undue risk entergy nrc downplayed meltdown scenario defended leisurely pace planned repairs wont start 2007 entergy says theres rush fix problems emergency system breakdown isnt likely first place thats flirting almost certain disaster entergy nrc staking lives millions odds single water pipe breaking pressure problem kinds pipes corroded breached nuclear plants featuring similar pressurized water design davisbessie plant near toledo ohio vessel head one cooling water pipes nearly corroded away acid dangerously close rupturing cooling water pipes kept pressure 2200 pounds per square inch pipe breaks 500degree water would blow steam tearing plant insulation coatings escaped water pour plants basement sump pumps meant draw water back reactor core los alamos tests showed cooling water would collect debris along way clog mesh screens pipes leading back reactor happens cooling reactor fuel would stop radioactive core would start melt plant belch radioactive plume threaten millions downwind would happen fast indian point 2 reactor would exhaust cooling water less 23 minutes number 3 reactor would consume water 14 minutes try getting nuclear plumber quickly yes sounds trite thats essentially entergy proposes quick fix meltdown scenario jim steets entergys spokesman indian point matters told new york times last month company training workers scour plant flaking paint potential debris accident occurred would pump water core slowly plan would buy plant managers executives minutes flee scene people would go would get event nuclear meltdown radioactive release indian point unclear september 2002 new york governor george pataki commissioned report indian points evacuation plan picked james lee witt former rose law firm attorney served head fema clinton administration oversee investigation time pataki said would support closure plant witts report revealed communities near plant could safely evacuated witt submitted report january 10 2003 somewhat timid cautious witt concluded entergys offsite evacuation plans indian point woefully inadequate witt wrote conclusion current radiological response system capabilities adequate overcome combined weight protect people unacceptable dose radiation event release indian point especially release faster larger design basis release end witt concluded possible fix evacuation plan given problems plant density nearby communities looming security threats sobering scenario followed news review companys security record revealed entergy cahoots nuclear regulatory commission faked test designed determine whether plant vulnerable terrorist attack august letter nrc assured members congress entergy developed strong defensive strategy capability plant passed flying colors socalled forceonforce test mock assault turns however nrc gave entergy officials months advance warning test indian point team cribbed exam dumbed assault ensure would pass assessments cia intelligence agencies suggest assault nuclear plant would require squadsized force 12 14 attackers would assault plant night armed explosives machine guns armorpenetrating bullets rocketpropelled grenades isnt attack repelled entergy security team instead entergys men battled squad 4 mock terrorists armed hunting rifles assaulted plant broad daylight moreover attacking squad werent former delta force operatives trained terrorist tactics security officers nearby nuclear plant assault plant one point crossing open fields plain view indian points security guards make sure surprises entergy security team consisted largely guards hired test warned mock attack would take place sometime within next hour even rigged conditions entergy barely passed security test environmentalists antinuke activists living near plant hoped would final straw aging reactor marshaled evidence safety violations inept evacuation plans lax security headed offices powerful democrat america hillary clinton hillary remained reserved pataki indian point issuing robotic requests studies refusing call plants closure words mean much last month pledged filibuster nomination utah governor mike leavitt director epa ended voting confirm nomination course hillarys ties entergy almost primal little rockbased entergy corporation employed john huang infamous conduit lippo group one bill clintons main political sponsors shoveling 100000 political coffers 1992 1996 plaintive cries indian points closure money entergy spreads around politicians reputation flexibility matters already year entergys new york political action committeeenpac new yorkhas doled 25000 new york politicians alone everyone got act pataki clinton democratic congressman eliot engel lowlier footsoldiers nuclear plant including two state assemblymen commissioners westchester orange counties bronx borough president adolfo carrion state comptroller alan hevesi whose election campaign endorsed sierra club political money isnt tool entergys bag tricks late october community activists bronx reported emissaries entergy canvassing black hispanic neighborhoods new york city westchester county ominous warning indian point closes air quality urban areas deteriorate blacks hispanics develop respiratory illnesses entergy reps told people new coalfired power plants would built neighborhoods urged sign petition recent years nearly proposals new power plants new york state adjacent areas high concentrations people african descent latinos memo handed door warns naturally much truth claim entergy unique position know since throughout southeast targeted power plants black neighborhoods heralded bringing economic engines impoverished communities canvassers also carried cellphones went door door hit speed dial number local legislator handed phone resident prompted express concerns possible closure indian point petition drive discreetly bypassed 13 predominately white districts westchester county run group calling loftysounding name campaign affordable energy environmental amp economic justice group supposedly based manhattan fact created wholly funded entergy sham front group fabricated nuclear industry scare black low income people says susan tolchin staffer westchester county executive andrew spano supports closing indian point plant outrageous disgusting attempt exploit minority community corporate greed jeffrey st clair author brown long looked like green politics nature 160 160 | 979 |
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<p>The Democrats claim that they oppose George W. Bush and his right-wing agenda. But they save their real poison for challengers from their left.</p>
<p>Last weekend, Ralph Nader announced that he would run as an independent candidate in the 2004 presidential election–and was met with a tidal wave of abuse and slander. “It’s dishonesty of the highest level to say ‘I’m running as an independent,’ when all he’s doing is helping elect Bush, and he knows it,” ranted New York City Democrat Elizabeth Holtzman, a former member of Congress. “He’s nothing but a shill for George Bush.”</p>
<p>New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson declared that “it’s about [Nader], it’s about his ego, it’s about his vanity, and not about a movement.” It takes a special kind of arrogance to dismiss as a “shill” someone with Ralph Nader’s decades of political accomplishments–or for a power-hungry hack like Bill Richardson to suddenly offer himself as a spokesperson for “the movement.” But when it comes to denouncing Nader, nothing is out of bounds.</p>
<p>Predictably, the loudest voices in the anti-Nader chorus are from self-identified “progressives.” In early February, the liberal Nation magazine printed an “Open Letter” warning Nader that “the very progressives distressed by the prospect of your candidacy would contribute eagerly” to “recriminations about being a spoiler or, worse, an egotist.”</p>
<p>For weeks after, the mainstream media quoted from the Nation open letter as “proof” that Nader was out of touch with his “supporters.” The Nation’s editors should think about how often the corporate press has asked their opinion about the war on Iraq, or Bush’s tax cut giveaway–and why the media’s interest seems to be limited to the subject of Ralph Nader. In other words, who’s shilling for who?</p>
<p>Nader’s real “crime” is that he represents an alternative to the Washington status quo, which he accurately describes as a “two-party duopoly.” As the Green Party’s presidential candidate in 2000, his campaign was a lightening rod for millions of people fed up with the Democratic Party’s ongoing shift to the right. Nader challenged the argument, served up at every election, that people who care about peace and justice have no choice but to hold their nose and vote for the least bad of two similar candidates.</p>
<p>His pro-worker, anti-corporate appeal won 2.7 million votes–the best showing for a left-wing third party candidate in half a century. Democrats and their left-wing apologists say that these votes cost Al Gore the election.</p>
<p>But Gore won the popular vote–beating George Bush by half a million votes. It took vote fraud in Florida–which the Gore campaign didn’t effectively challenge–the skewed winner-take-all Electoral College system, and a 5-4 decision by the unelected justices of the U.S. Supreme Court to install Bush in the White House.</p>
<p>It is true that had Gore had won a portion of Nader’s vote in Florida or New Hamphire, he would have won these states’ electoral votes and moved into the White House. But votes for Pat Buchanan of the right-wing Reform Party were greater than George Bush’s margin of defeat in Wisconsin, Oregon, Iowa and New Mexico in 2000–yet no one called Buchanan a “spoiler.”</p>
<p>The Democrats’ complaints about Nader assume that our votes “belong” to the two mainstream parties–and any third party challenge is, by definition, stealing them from their rightful owners. This reasoning allows Democrats like Al Gore to position themselves just barely to the left of their Republican opponents, offering nothing to the party’s liberal and working-class base but their claim to be the “lesser evil.”</p>
<p>The consensus on the broad left today is that the Bush administration has proved to be so right wing that “anybody but Bush” would be an improvement. As the Nation’s open letter argued, “[W]hen devotion to principle collides with electoral politics, hard truths must be faced. Ralph, this is the wrong year for you to run: 2004 is not 2000.”</p>
<p>But this shortsighted reasoning has been the rationale for supporting Democrats every four years–sacrificing more far-reaching goals to the immediate aim of defeating the Republican candidate. The logic is self-defeating–preventing the U.S. left from ever developing a genuine political alternative outside the Democratic Party and allowing the Democrats to move ever rightward politically without fear of losing their liberal voting base.</p>
<p>This year, the man who is likely to win the nomination–John Kerry–has a reputation as a “liberal.” Yet he voted for the Patriot Act, for the war on Iraq, for Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” law, for the North American Free Trade Agreement–and now he is on record opposing gay marriage and supporting the continued U.S. occupation of Iraq.</p>
<p>As Nader made clear when he announced his candidacy on NBC’s Meet the Press, “This is a fight for all third parties…I don’t think America belongs just to the Democratic and Republican Parties.” To be effective, however, Nader has to clearly aim his campaign toward the left–and abandon any notion that he can also appeal to “conservative and libertarian Republicans,” as he claimed on Meet the Press.</p>
<p>Nader’s campaign can only be meaningful if he forcefully emphasizes the left-wing character of his platform–in support of universal health care, taxing the rich, ending poverty, expanding workers’ rights, enacting a living wage, the right to choose abortion, and the right of gays and lesbians to marry, in opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the USA PATRIOT Act, the death penalty and the war on drugs.</p>
<p>Nader disappointed his supporters during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq by failing to take a clear stand against Bush’s war drive. And during his appearance on Meet the Press, he had to be prodded to speak out against the occupation–though his campaign’s Web site now features a statement in opposition to both the invasion and occupation.</p>
<p>The question of U.S. imperialism can’t be avoided in this election, since the U.S. government’s stated aim is to use Iraq as a launching pad to reshape the entire Middle East in its own interests. By the same token, the right-wing offensive led by the White House on issues like gay marriage, abortion and affirmative action has set the stage for important conflicts that are radicalizing growing numbers of people. These confrontations can’t be dismissed or downplayed.</p>
<p>Nader needs to raise his voice on all the issues that are sparking resistance today, and he has to carry out a full campaign, without concessions and compromises. Aside from these political considerations, there’s the concrete question of how prominent Nader can be in this election. As an independent candidate, he will have to meet requirements set in each state to get on the ballot–overcoming the many obstacles designed to discourage third party candidates.</p>
<p>The Green Party itself is divided between those swayed by the “anybody but Bush” argument–and those who would like to draft Nader as the party’s nominee at their convention in June. It will take some months to see where Nader will even be able to compete for votes.</p>
<p>The Nader campaign in 2004 is unlikely to be the kind of galvanizing force that it was in 2000. Nevertheless, with the Democrats set to nominate a political insider like John Kerry, a significant minority of people will be disgusted with election-year “politics as usual.”</p>
<p>Many will be receptive to Nader’s description of Washington as “corporate-occupied territory”–and the election campaign as “the two parties…ferociously competing to see who is going to go to the White House and take orders from their corporate paymasters.” With Nader in the running, these people have the opportunity to ask themselves some hard questions.</p>
<p>Would they rather vote for John Kerry, who has spent the last 20 years in Washington loyally serving the corporations that provided the bulk of his campaign contributions–or Ralph Nader, who stood up against corporate greed and for workers’ rights? John Kerry, who opposes the right of gays and lesbians to marry–or Ralph Nader, who supports it? John Kerry, who supports the occupation of Iraq–or Ralph Nader, who opposes it?</p>
<p>There is a difference between Kerry and Bush–but as Nader says, “It’s a question between both parties’ flunking.” We deserve better than this choice between two evils.</p>
<p>ALAN MAASS is the editor of the Socialist Worker. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:maass@socialistworker.org" type="external">maass@socialistworker.org</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | 160 democrats claim oppose george w bush rightwing agenda save real poison challengers left last weekend ralph nader announced would run independent candidate 2004 presidential electionand met tidal wave abuse slander dishonesty highest level say im running independent hes helping elect bush knows ranted new york city democrat elizabeth holtzman former member congress hes nothing shill george bush new mexico gov bill richardson declared nader ego vanity movement takes special kind arrogance dismiss shill someone ralph naders decades political accomplishmentsor powerhungry hack like bill richardson suddenly offer spokesperson movement comes denouncing nader nothing bounds predictably loudest voices antinader chorus selfidentified progressives early february liberal nation magazine printed open letter warning nader progressives distressed prospect candidacy would contribute eagerly recriminations spoiler worse egotist weeks mainstream media quoted nation open letter proof nader touch supporters nations editors think often corporate press asked opinion war iraq bushs tax cut giveawayand medias interest seems limited subject ralph nader words whos shilling naders real crime represents alternative washington status quo accurately describes twoparty duopoly green partys presidential candidate 2000 campaign lightening rod millions people fed democratic partys ongoing shift right nader challenged argument served every election people care peace justice choice hold nose vote least bad two similar candidates proworker anticorporate appeal 27 million votesthe best showing leftwing third party candidate half century democrats leftwing apologists say votes cost al gore election gore popular votebeating george bush half million votes took vote fraud floridawhich gore campaign didnt effectively challengethe skewed winnertakeall electoral college system 54 decision unelected justices us supreme court install bush white house true gore portion naders vote florida new hamphire would states electoral votes moved white house votes pat buchanan rightwing reform party greater george bushs margin defeat wisconsin oregon iowa new mexico 2000yet one called buchanan spoiler democrats complaints nader assume votes belong two mainstream partiesand third party challenge definition stealing rightful owners reasoning allows democrats like al gore position barely left republican opponents offering nothing partys liberal workingclass base claim lesser evil consensus broad left today bush administration proved right wing anybody bush would improvement nations open letter argued devotion principle collides electoral politics hard truths must faced ralph wrong year run 2004 2000 shortsighted reasoning rationale supporting democrats every four yearssacrificing farreaching goals immediate aim defeating republican candidate logic selfdefeatingpreventing us left ever developing genuine political alternative outside democratic party allowing democrats move ever rightward politically without fear losing liberal voting base year man likely win nominationjohn kerryhas reputation liberal yet voted patriot act war iraq bushs child left behind law north american free trade agreementand record opposing gay marriage supporting continued us occupation iraq nader made clear announced candidacy nbcs meet press fight third partiesi dont think america belongs democratic republican parties effective however nader clearly aim campaign toward leftand abandon notion also appeal conservative libertarian republicans claimed meet press naders campaign meaningful forcefully emphasizes leftwing character platformin support universal health care taxing rich ending poverty expanding workers rights enacting living wage right choose abortion right gays lesbians marry opposition invasion occupation iraq usa patriot act death penalty war drugs nader disappointed supporters runup invasion iraq failing take clear stand bushs war drive appearance meet press prodded speak occupationthough campaigns web site features statement opposition invasion occupation question us imperialism cant avoided election since us governments stated aim use iraq launching pad reshape entire middle east interests token rightwing offensive led white house issues like gay marriage abortion affirmative action set stage important conflicts radicalizing growing numbers people confrontations cant dismissed downplayed nader needs raise voice issues sparking resistance today carry full campaign without concessions compromises aside political considerations theres concrete question prominent nader election independent candidate meet requirements set state get ballotovercoming many obstacles designed discourage third party candidates green party divided swayed anybody bush argumentand would like draft nader partys nominee convention june take months see nader even able compete votes nader campaign 2004 unlikely kind galvanizing force 2000 nevertheless democrats set nominate political insider like john kerry significant minority people disgusted electionyear politics usual many receptive naders description washington corporateoccupied territoryand election campaign two partiesferociously competing see going go white house take orders corporate paymasters nader running people opportunity ask hard questions would rather vote john kerry spent last 20 years washington loyally serving corporations provided bulk campaign contributionsor ralph nader stood corporate greed workers rights john kerry opposes right gays lesbians marryor ralph nader supports john kerry supports occupation iraqor ralph nader opposes difference kerry bushbut nader says question parties flunking deserve better choice two evils alan maass editor socialist worker reached maasssocialistworkerorg 160 | 760 |
<p>BOOK EXCERPT</p>
<p>It isn’t nutmeg that’s at stake in the Caribbean and Central America; it is the United States’ national security.</p>
<p>—President Ronald Reagan, March 10, 1983</p>
<p>Though seldom remembered today, the 1983 US invasion of Grenada provided the template for Pentagon control of how its wars are covered (DoD/Wikimedia)</p>
<p>On October 23, 1983, US combat troops began Operation Urgent Fury in the eastern Caribbean, invading the sovereign state of Grenada, an island of 113 square miles with approximately 110,000 inhabitants. It was the first time the US military had committed combat troops since Vietnam. Over the course of a year, the Reagan administration had argued vigorously that Grenada posed a threat to US national security.</p>
<p>Unlike the unlimited access journalists had in Vietnam, the media were barred from covering Urgent Fury. Adm. Wesley McDonald banned reporters for “operational reasons.”</p>
<p>Nightly news broadcasts showed images of journalists in helicopters circling the island in a futile attempt to cover the combat. After three days of heated charges by media organizations of Pentagon censorship, and pressure from some members of Congress, Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. John W. Vessey directed McDonald to allow reporters on the island by October 28.</p>
<p>Urgent Fury, carried out 20 years before Operation Iraqi Freedom, has faded from public and political memory.</p>
<p>Indeed, during the commemoration of the death of Ronald Reagan in the summer of 2004, Grenada went all but unmentioned. Few heralded the former president for saving the country from what he characterized at the time as an imminent threat. Yet there is much to be remembered, as there are many cogent parallels between Grenada and Iraq.</p>
<p>Certainly there are numerous points of departure, not least of which are the geographic, political and religious differences between the two countries. Urgent Fury was quickly completed and considered a success at the time. But on that small island can be found the precursors to much of what would happen two decades later.</p>
<p>Though contentious, it was the first time that “pre-emption” for security reasons was posed as a justification for military intervention. The invasion of Grenada, it was argued, was a defense against Communism; that of Iraq was called a defense against terror. But in the aftermath of both operations, flawed intelligence would be the common theme.</p>
<p>In denouncing enemies quite distinct from one another, the rhetorical similarities between two activist Republican presidents are nonetheless striking. Finally, in implementing new and historically divergent policies restricting media access, the military learned important lessons about the press and the public, lessons they would later apply to the Middle East.</p>
<p>Barred from covering the invasion directly, media relied on Pentagon images, like this one that appeared to show a warehouse brimming with Soviet weaponry (DoD/Wikimedia).</p>
<p>Because the press corps was kept off the island, no independent footage of the first three days of Urgent Fury was available to the news media. Pentagon camera crews supplied the first pictures from Grenada of warehouses that appeared to be stacked with automatic weapons. The footage was used to verify Reagan’s claim that there were enough weapons to “supply thousands of terrorists.”</p>
<p>When reporters were finally allowed onto the island, the warehouses they found were half empty. Some contained cases of sardines, and most of the weapons were antiquated.</p>
<p>Writing in the Columbia Journalism Review (3-4/85), Newsday editor Anthony Marro suggested the weapons were “more suited for defense by an island militia than for the export of terrorism and revolutions.”</p>
<p>Stuart Taylor, Jr., writing in the New York Times (11/6/83) about US intelligence, reported that initial claims of the numbers of Cubans on the island were greatly inflated. “Over three days the Pentagon estimate of the number of Cuban fighters who had met the invading force seems to have plunged from more than 1,000 to fewer than 200, including the estimated 30 to 70 Cubans who were killed.”</p>
<p>In the wake of the invasion, reporters criticized the inaccuracies that had been used to justify it. “The inflation of the number of Cubans, and the initial characterization of them as a military force, was part of the data that were used by the Reagan administration to argue that a Cuban takeover was at hand, and that American students were in danger,” Marro wrote. In addition, since journalists did not accompany troops, there was little independent documentation to refute or confirm administration assertions.</p>
<p>President Reagan depicted Grenada’s New Jewel Movement as a dangerous “virus.”</p>
<p>Taking a closer look at claims made by the Reagan White House about the dangers posed by Grenada helps illustrate the enduring language and logic of war. Recognizable at the time as classic Cold War rhetoric, Ronald Reagan’s oratory also heralded speeches yet to be given by President George W. Bush.</p>
<p>As early as February 1982, when introducing the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), Reagan drew a line between democratic governments in the hemisphere and the New Jewel Movement headed by Prime Minister Maurice Bishop:</p>
<p>Nowhere in its whole sordid history have the promises of Communism been redeemed. Everywhere it has exploited and aggravated temporary economic suffering to seize power and then to institutionalize economic deprivation and suppress human rights…. In the Caribbean we above all seek to protect those values and principles that shape the proud heritage of this hemisphere. Some, however, have turned from their American neighbors and their heritage. Let them return to the traditions and common values of the hemisphere and we all will welcome them. The choice is theirs.</p>
<p>We recognize in these words the fundamentals of war rhetoric, with the clearly drawn dividing line between “us” and “them.”</p>
<p>In a speech two months later, the president added another dimension to the basic binary structure by assigning a geopolitical context that emphasized the dangers posed by what he argued was a small but formidable enemy. While speaking in Barbados (4/8/82), Reagan included Grenada in the spreading Communist threat he saw in Central America:</p>
<p>El Salvador isn’t the only country that’s being threatened with Marxism, and I think all of us are concerned with the overturn of Westminster parliamentary democracy in Grenada.</p>
<p>That country now bears the Soviet and Cuban trademark, which means that it will attempt to spread the virus among its neighbors.</p>
<p>The metaphor of viral disease evokes fear and offers few avenues of approach consistent with diplomatic or even rational solutions to foreign disputes. The metaphor can only be extended in certain prescribed ways. Since it is a “spreading virus,” not some bacteria, a simple antibiotic cannot restore health. Interventions far more drastic need to be taken. We see here the linguistic logic of such military euphemisms as “surgical strike.”</p>
<p>By the spring of 1983, the president escalated his rhetoric about the dangers Grenada posed to the United States. As Robert Beck argued in the Long Term View (Spring/04), “Just like that which preceded the March 2003 US attack on Iraq, the Grenada invasion was preceded by maximalist administration rhetoric about regional and strategic threat.”</p>
<p>Aerial photographs were used to depict an airport being built for tourism as a military threat (DoD).</p>
<p>On March 23, in a “National Security Address to the Nation,” Reagan delivered what Beck calls a “rhetorical coup de grace” on Grenada. The president showed television viewers reconnaissance photographs that he said provided evidence that a suspicious airfield was being constructed on the island. Reagan asserted, “On the small Island of Grenada . . . the Cubans, with Soviet financing and backing, are in the process of building an airfield with a 10,000-foot runway. Grenada doesn’t even have an air force. Who is it intended for?” Explaining that American oil imports pass through the Caribbean, he continued, “The Soviet-Cuban militarization of Grenada, in short, can only be seen as power projection into the region.”</p>
<p>But the new airstrip at Point Salines was no military secret. American students attending St. George Medical School had frequently jogged around it as it was being built. In fact, the Soviet Union did not financially support building the airfield, while development money did come from other members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The project was consistent with the development of a tourism industry and other Caribbean business ventures.</p>
<p>But satellite imaging creates meanings over and above what it purports to depict. The strong visual rhetoric communicates a sense of danger and urgency that demands timely response. The need to use a spy satellite to reveal a construction project asserts that the project is secret, and therefore a threat to those it is hidden from.</p>
<p>Taken from such distances, the visual technology produces a blurred, grainy scene, making spy images difficult to decode. With details hard to define, they are not recognized as familiar landscapes. A high degree of interpretive analysis assigns meaning to them. These characteristics render such imagery extremely suitable as persuasion. These same strategies would be used two decades later on February 5, 2003, this time by Secretary of State Colin Powell on the floor of the United Nations, as he argued the need for pre-emptive war against Iraq.</p>
<p>Reagan was unable to garner public support for a US invasion of Nicaragua. But a small island, Grenada, would be an easier target, more quickly subdued. And the cumulative criticism of Nicaragua played an important role in the president’s pre-invasion rhetoric characterizing Grenada. Grenada, Cuba and Nicaragua were dubbed the “Caribbean Triangle.” Reagan’s words are familiar in retrospect, exhibiting a distinct rhetorical similarity to the “axis of evil.” They imply a crucial connection without having to articulate or defend accusations that influential economic or political ties exist and have resulted in significant threat.</p>
<p>The defining moment for the invasion of Grenada came when the government was deposed and Prime Minister Maurice Bishop assassinated on October 19, 1983. Though the Reagan White House was predisposed to military intervention with increasingly escalating rhetoric, the final plan for Urgent Fury followed the coup. The coup provided an incident that could be responded to, just as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, provided the context for the war on Iraq. The invasion was set in motion in the days following, and the White House was careful to launch diplomatic efforts garnering regional support from the OECS, the same group that had helped finance the new airport.</p>
<p>Pentagon media control ensured that grateful medical students became a prime subject of news coverage.</p>
<p>In the absence of combat coverage, the military did offer other photo opportunities that were very effective in justifying their mission. Members of the press were escorted to Charleston Air Force Base, where returning medical students kissed the ground, exhilarated to be out of harm’s way. Highly positive television and newspaper reports repeated Reagan’s assertion that “we got there just in time.” The invasion in retrospect became justified as a rescue mission of American nationals—an evacuation of the approximately 1,000 students attending St. George Medical School.</p>
<p>With few negative images to cast a dark eye over Urgent Fury, the American public responded favorably to assertions that the mission had to be carried out to save the American students on the island. An ABC/Washington Post poll found 71 percent of the public in favor of the invasion, only 22 percent opposed.</p>
<p>Without independent real-time coverage, the Los Angeles Times later reported (1/13/91), “There were no on-the-spot reports of the inter-service snafus that bedeviled the operation, of the high incidence of US casualties from ‘friendly fire’ or of the 30 inmates killed in an air strike on the local mental hospital.” Even though no television footage was aired in a timely manner of the bombing of the civilian psychiatric hospital, two journalists who managed to slip ashore the night before the assault recorded the story. Four other members of the press were captured by the military and held incommunicado for two days.</p>
<p>The government said that it prevented reporters from accompanying the troops because of concern for their safety. But danger had never been a deterrent to journalists, 50 of whom died in Vietnam covering that war.</p>
<p>The credentialing required to cover combat included forms releasing the government from responsibility.</p>
<p>Subsequent comments by Secretary of State George Shultz revealed some sense of what the real motivations were: “These days in the advocacy journalism that’s been adopted, it seems as though the reporters are always against us and so they are always trying to screw things up. And when you’re trying to conduct a military operation, you don’t need that.”</p>
<p>And in the midst of the controversy following the press embargo, Reagan explained at a press conference that the media had not been on “our side militarily” in Vietnam. However, former President Jimmy Carter would later comment (L.A. Times, 2/13/89) that the military’s handling of journalists in Grenada was “much more repressive in nature than anything I remember in the history of our country.”</p>
<p>Media accepted claims based on “abysmal…intelligence” that Grenada posed a threat to the United States (DoD/Wikimedia).</p>
<p>Numerous government investigations over the years have demonstrated a disturbing lack of evidence behind the claims that Grenada was a threat to the United States and other islands in the Caribbean. Robert Beck (Long Term View, Spring/04) cited a Senate Armed Services Committee staff report from February 1986 and a Department of Defense assessment from July 1986 that both discuss the “almost total lack of accurate intelligence.”</p>
<p>These reports were later confirmed in the memoir of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who admitted to “an abysmal lack of accurate intelligence” before the Grenada invasion. Beck noted that the Reagan White House had an “exaggerated perception of the threat posed by a Cuba-backed Grenada.”</p>
<p>In a PBS Frontline documentary, Operation Urgent Fury, Francis McNeil, Reagan’s special emissary during the Grenada intervention, told journalist Seymour Hersh: “Wishful thinking is a problem that afflicts any government . . . but it seemed to me that the ideological component of the Reagan administration harkened back to almost the McCarthy period.” And as Beck pointed out, “The extent to which the Soviet Union would or could have strategically exploited Grenada seems in retrospect rather slight.”</p>
<p>Though a staunch anticommunist and friend of Reagan, then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher did not approve of the US action, commenting on BBC radio, “If you are going to pronounce a new law that wherever there is Communism imposed against the will of the people then the US shall enter, then we are going to have really terrible wars in the world.”</p>
<p>Though the administration had secured an invitation from OECS, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on November 2 condemning the invasion as a “violation of international law.” The vote had a greater majority than the resolution condemning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Article 51 of the UN Charter bars military action against another country unless it is defensive in nature.</p>
<p>UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick justified the Grenada invasion as a response to “the threat posed to the security of the entire region.” (State Department)</p>
<p>In 2003, the United States argued that the invasion of Iraq was a defensive action against the imminent threat of weapons of mass destruction. Subsequently, that claim too was shown to be based on faulty, exaggerated and planted evidence. The lack of adequate public examination in the aftermath of Urgent Fury and in the years that followed has no doubt contributed to the loss of critical perspective on war rhetoric of preemptive strikes.</p>
<p>Preparing the legal argument that justified Urgent Fury for UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick’s October 27, 1983 address to the Security Council was a contentious affair.</p>
<p>Allan Gerson, a member of the US Mission to the U.N., advocated that the invasion should be justified as an anticipatory “collective self-defense action.” But Department of State representative Michael Kozak objected, saying that Grenada posed no imminent threat of “armed attack.”</p>
<p>In heated discussions, Kozak argued that a US self-defense rationale under the circumstances would extend an exception to the UN Charter prohibiting the use of force “to the point that armies could march through it. And any such future armies might not be those of the United States and its allies.” Instead, he urged the legal justification to be restricted to the “protection of nationals.”</p>
<p>Gerson explained his disagreement with Kozak in his 1991 book The Kirkpatrick Mission: Diplomacy Without Apology:</p>
<p>The whole world knows that that’s not what the operation was really about. If it was it would have been much more limited, without the need for OECS involvement. If protection of nationals is what we were truly interested in, we would have done an Entebbe-style rescue. Here US national security interests in the region were involved…. Isn’t that why we did what we did? If so, why not say it?</p>
<p>Kirkpatrick’s speech represented a compromise between the two positions, and strong references to the preemptive rationale remained in her statement to the UN: “The United States, whose own nationals and vital interests were independently affected, joined the effort to restore minimal conditions of law and order in Grenada and eliminate the threat posed to the security of the entire region.”</p>
<p>While media exclusion seemed to be a success for the Pentagon in Grenada, it helped lead the US into future military disasters (cc photo: Lloyd Morgan).</p>
<p>While historians recognize the challenges to the UN Charter posed by the US invasion of Grenada, it did not become a major international incident, nor did it pose the problems for the United States that rose in the wake of the invasion of Iraq. The subdued post-invasion situation in Grenada left the justifications for Urgent Fury intact, and one can only surmise that the outcome emboldened those who would propose a preemptive strike in the future.</p>
<p>Operation Iraqi Freedom, however, did not enjoy such success. While images of the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein made it appear initially that Iraqis would accept US forces in Baghdad, the year that followed the invasion showed that occupying troops (though the Pentagon preferred the term “coalition forces”) could not stabilize the country, and reconstruction efforts were thwarted by the lack of security. The death toll for Iraqis and hostility toward the American occupation resulted in constant attacks.</p>
<p>In addition, adequate international support will not be forthcoming without adherence to the spirit of international law. As Beck and others, including the Center for Constitutional Rights have pointed out, the US doctrine of preemption departs from the common understandings of the legal argument that supports a state’s right to self-protection under the UN Charter.</p>
<p>Taking the exceptional step to military action, without it being an unquestioned response in self-defense to an attack, depends on the reliable assessment of a given threat’s imminence. In evaluating the need for both Urgent Fury and Iraqi Freedom, such claims of imminent threat seem easy to assert as war rhetoric designed to persuade, but harder to verify as a justification for war.</p>
<p>The Pentagon did learn important lessons of media management by implementing such restrictive policies during Urgent Fury. Without on-the-spot reportage, few unpleasant images found their way onto television screens. Yet the military paid a price for creating such ill will among network reporters and the international press corps. Negative coverage and complaints did follow in subsequent reporting, and pressure was brought to bear from current and ex-government officials.</p>
<p>The controversy over the press lockout resulted in a review by a special Department of Defense panel. The Sidle Commission recommended, among other things, the press pool arrangement. Selected journalists accredited and assembled by the military were to go in with the fighting forces next time. Clearly the press would have to be managed in a different way in future conflicts.</p>
<p>But the impact of the images of students kissing the tarmac could not be overestimated. They would become iconic of Urgent Fury, confirming the dominant narrative of a rescue mission, erasing the more complicated nature of the invasion.</p>
<p>Here, too, at the time, media management seemed a great success. Belief in the power of the image to confer meaning onto military conflict no doubt influenced the staging of future visual representations such as the toppling of Hussein’s statue. By the end of the decade, the United States would invade Panama, and the post-Vietnam military management of press access to the battlefield would continue to evolve.</p>
<p>Excerpt from A Century of Media, A Century of War (Peter Lang) by Robin Andersen. Andersen teaches Communication and Media Studies and is director of Peace and Justice Studies at Fordham University.</p>
<p>corrected version 2/13/09</p> | true | 4 | book excerpt isnt nutmeg thats stake caribbean central america united states national security president ronald reagan march 10 1983 though seldom remembered today 1983 us invasion grenada provided template pentagon control wars covered dodwikimedia october 23 1983 us combat troops began operation urgent fury eastern caribbean invading sovereign state grenada island 113 square miles approximately 110000 inhabitants first time us military committed combat troops since vietnam course year reagan administration argued vigorously grenada posed threat us national security unlike unlimited access journalists vietnam media barred covering urgent fury adm wesley mcdonald banned reporters operational reasons nightly news broadcasts showed images journalists helicopters circling island futile attempt cover combat three days heated charges media organizations pentagon censorship pressure members congress joint chiefs staff chair gen john w vessey directed mcdonald allow reporters island october 28 urgent fury carried 20 years operation iraqi freedom faded public political memory indeed commemoration death ronald reagan summer 2004 grenada went unmentioned heralded former president saving country characterized time imminent threat yet much remembered many cogent parallels grenada iraq certainly numerous points departure least geographic political religious differences two countries urgent fury quickly completed considered success time small island found precursors much would happen two decades later though contentious first time preemption security reasons posed justification military intervention invasion grenada argued defense communism iraq called defense terror aftermath operations flawed intelligence would common theme denouncing enemies quite distinct one another rhetorical similarities two activist republican presidents nonetheless striking finally implementing new historically divergent policies restricting media access military learned important lessons press public lessons would later apply middle east barred covering invasion directly media relied pentagon images like one appeared show warehouse brimming soviet weaponry dodwikimedia press corps kept island independent footage first three days urgent fury available news media pentagon camera crews supplied first pictures grenada warehouses appeared stacked automatic weapons footage used verify reagans claim enough weapons supply thousands terrorists reporters finally allowed onto island warehouses found half empty contained cases sardines weapons antiquated writing columbia journalism review 3485 newsday editor anthony marro suggested weapons suited defense island militia export terrorism revolutions stuart taylor jr writing new york times 11683 us intelligence reported initial claims numbers cubans island greatly inflated three days pentagon estimate number cuban fighters met invading force seems plunged 1000 fewer 200 including estimated 30 70 cubans killed wake invasion reporters criticized inaccuracies used justify inflation number cubans initial characterization military force part data used reagan administration argue cuban takeover hand american students danger marro wrote addition since journalists accompany troops little independent documentation refute confirm administration assertions president reagan depicted grenadas new jewel movement dangerous virus taking closer look claims made reagan white house dangers posed grenada helps illustrate enduring language logic war recognizable time classic cold war rhetoric ronald reagans oratory also heralded speeches yet given president george w bush early february 1982 introducing caribbean basin initiative cbi reagan drew line democratic governments hemisphere new jewel movement headed prime minister maurice bishop nowhere whole sordid history promises communism redeemed everywhere exploited aggravated temporary economic suffering seize power institutionalize economic deprivation suppress human rights caribbean seek protect values principles shape proud heritage hemisphere however turned american neighbors heritage let return traditions common values hemisphere welcome choice recognize words fundamentals war rhetoric clearly drawn dividing line us speech two months later president added another dimension basic binary structure assigning geopolitical context emphasized dangers posed argued small formidable enemy speaking barbados 4882 reagan included grenada spreading communist threat saw central america el salvador isnt country thats threatened marxism think us concerned overturn westminster parliamentary democracy grenada country bears soviet cuban trademark means attempt spread virus among neighbors metaphor viral disease evokes fear offers avenues approach consistent diplomatic even rational solutions foreign disputes metaphor extended certain prescribed ways since spreading virus bacteria simple antibiotic restore health interventions far drastic need taken see linguistic logic military euphemisms surgical strike spring 1983 president escalated rhetoric dangers grenada posed united states robert beck argued long term view spring04 like preceded march 2003 us attack iraq grenada invasion preceded maximalist administration rhetoric regional strategic threat aerial photographs used depict airport built tourism military threat dod march 23 national security address nation reagan delivered beck calls rhetorical coup de grace grenada president showed television viewers reconnaissance photographs said provided evidence suspicious airfield constructed island reagan asserted small island grenada cubans soviet financing backing process building airfield 10000foot runway grenada doesnt even air force intended explaining american oil imports pass caribbean continued sovietcuban militarization grenada short seen power projection region new airstrip point salines military secret american students attending st george medical school frequently jogged around built fact soviet union financially support building airfield development money come members organization eastern caribbean states oecs project consistent development tourism industry caribbean business ventures satellite imaging creates meanings purports depict strong visual rhetoric communicates sense danger urgency demands timely response need use spy satellite reveal construction project asserts project secret therefore threat hidden taken distances visual technology produces blurred grainy scene making spy images difficult decode details hard define recognized familiar landscapes high degree interpretive analysis assigns meaning characteristics render imagery extremely suitable persuasion strategies would used two decades later february 5 2003 time secretary state colin powell floor united nations argued need preemptive war iraq reagan unable garner public support us invasion nicaragua small island grenada would easier target quickly subdued cumulative criticism nicaragua played important role presidents preinvasion rhetoric characterizing grenada grenada cuba nicaragua dubbed caribbean triangle reagans words familiar retrospect exhibiting distinct rhetorical similarity axis evil imply crucial connection without articulate defend accusations influential economic political ties exist resulted significant threat defining moment invasion grenada came government deposed prime minister maurice bishop assassinated october 19 1983 though reagan white house predisposed military intervention increasingly escalating rhetoric final plan urgent fury followed coup coup provided incident could responded terrorist attacks september 11 2001 provided context war iraq invasion set motion days following white house careful launch diplomatic efforts garnering regional support oecs group helped finance new airport pentagon media control ensured grateful medical students became prime subject news coverage absence combat coverage military offer photo opportunities effective justifying mission members press escorted charleston air force base returning medical students kissed ground exhilarated harms way highly positive television newspaper reports repeated reagans assertion got time invasion retrospect became justified rescue mission american nationalsan evacuation approximately 1000 students attending st george medical school negative images cast dark eye urgent fury american public responded favorably assertions mission carried save american students island abcwashington post poll found 71 percent public favor invasion 22 percent opposed without independent realtime coverage los angeles times later reported 11391 onthespot reports interservice snafus bedeviled operation high incidence us casualties friendly fire 30 inmates killed air strike local mental hospital even though television footage aired timely manner bombing civilian psychiatric hospital two journalists managed slip ashore night assault recorded story four members press captured military held incommunicado two days government said prevented reporters accompanying troops concern safety danger never deterrent journalists 50 died vietnam covering war credentialing required cover combat included forms releasing government responsibility subsequent comments secretary state george shultz revealed sense real motivations days advocacy journalism thats adopted seems though reporters always us always trying screw things youre trying conduct military operation dont need midst controversy following press embargo reagan explained press conference media side militarily vietnam however former president jimmy carter would later comment la times 21389 militarys handling journalists grenada much repressive nature anything remember history country media accepted claims based abysmalintelligence grenada posed threat united states dodwikimedia numerous government investigations years demonstrated disturbing lack evidence behind claims grenada threat united states islands caribbean robert beck long term view spring04 cited senate armed services committee staff report february 1986 department defense assessment july 1986 discuss almost total lack accurate intelligence reports later confirmed memoir gen norman schwarzkopf admitted abysmal lack accurate intelligence grenada invasion beck noted reagan white house exaggerated perception threat posed cubabacked grenada pbs frontline documentary operation urgent fury francis mcneil reagans special emissary grenada intervention told journalist seymour hersh wishful thinking problem afflicts government seemed ideological component reagan administration harkened back almost mccarthy period beck pointed extent soviet union would could strategically exploited grenada seems retrospect rather slight though staunch anticommunist friend reagan thenbritish prime minister margaret thatcher approve us action commenting bbc radio going pronounce new law wherever communism imposed people us shall enter going really terrible wars world though administration secured invitation oecs united nations security council passed resolution november 2 condemning invasion violation international law vote greater majority resolution condemning soviet invasion afghanistan article 51 un charter bars military action another country unless defensive nature un ambassador jeane kirkpatrick justified grenada invasion response threat posed security entire region state department 2003 united states argued invasion iraq defensive action imminent threat weapons mass destruction subsequently claim shown based faulty exaggerated planted evidence lack adequate public examination aftermath urgent fury years followed doubt contributed loss critical perspective war rhetoric preemptive strikes preparing legal argument justified urgent fury un ambassador jeane kirkpatricks october 27 1983 address security council contentious affair allan gerson member us mission un advocated invasion justified anticipatory collective selfdefense action department state representative michael kozak objected saying grenada posed imminent threat armed attack heated discussions kozak argued us selfdefense rationale circumstances would extend exception un charter prohibiting use force point armies could march future armies might united states allies instead urged legal justification restricted protection nationals gerson explained disagreement kozak 1991 book kirkpatrick mission diplomacy without apology whole world knows thats operation really would much limited without need oecs involvement protection nationals truly interested would done entebbestyle rescue us national security interests region involved isnt say kirkpatricks speech represented compromise two positions strong references preemptive rationale remained statement un united states whose nationals vital interests independently affected joined effort restore minimal conditions law order grenada eliminate threat posed security entire region media exclusion seemed success pentagon grenada helped lead us future military disasters cc photo lloyd morgan historians recognize challenges un charter posed us invasion grenada become major international incident pose problems united states rose wake invasion iraq subdued postinvasion situation grenada left justifications urgent fury intact one surmise outcome emboldened would propose preemptive strike future operation iraqi freedom however enjoy success images toppling statue saddam hussein made appear initially iraqis would accept us forces baghdad year followed invasion showed occupying troops though pentagon preferred term coalition forces could stabilize country reconstruction efforts thwarted lack security death toll iraqis hostility toward american occupation resulted constant attacks addition adequate international support forthcoming without adherence spirit international law beck others including center constitutional rights pointed us doctrine preemption departs common understandings legal argument supports states right selfprotection un charter taking exceptional step military action without unquestioned response selfdefense attack depends reliable assessment given threats imminence evaluating need urgent fury iraqi freedom claims imminent threat seem easy assert war rhetoric designed persuade harder verify justification war pentagon learn important lessons media management implementing restrictive policies urgent fury without onthespot reportage unpleasant images found way onto television screens yet military paid price creating ill among network reporters international press corps negative coverage complaints follow subsequent reporting pressure brought bear current exgovernment officials controversy press lockout resulted review special department defense panel sidle commission recommended among things press pool arrangement selected journalists accredited assembled military go fighting forces next time clearly press would managed different way future conflicts impact images students kissing tarmac could overestimated would become iconic urgent fury confirming dominant narrative rescue mission erasing complicated nature invasion time media management seemed great success belief power image confer meaning onto military conflict doubt influenced staging future visual representations toppling husseins statue end decade united states would invade panama postvietnam military management press access battlefield would continue evolve excerpt century media century war peter lang robin andersen andersen teaches communication media studies director peace justice studies fordham university corrected version 21309 | 1,977 |
<p>Dr. Heiner Flassbeck graduated in April 1976 in economics from Saarland University, Germany, concentrating on money and credit, business cycle theory and general philosophy of science; obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from the Free University, Berlin, Germany in July 1987. 2005 he was appointed honorary professor at the University of Hamburg.</p>
<p>Employment started at the German Council of Economic Experts, Wiesbaden between 1976 and 1980, followed by the Federal Ministry of Economics, Bonn until January 1986; chief macroeconomist in the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin between 1988 and 1998, and State Secretary (Vice Minister) from October 1998 to April 1999 at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Bonn, responsible for international affairs, the EU and IMF.</p>
<p>Worked at UNCTAD since 2000; from 2003 to December 2012 he was Director of the Division on Globalisation and Development Strategies. He was the principal author of the team preparing UNCTAD's Trade and Development Report, with specialization in macroeconomics, exchange rate policies, and international finance. Since January 2013 he is Director of Flassbeck-Economics, a consultancy for global macroeconomic questions (www.flassbeck-economics.com). Co-authored ACT NOW! The Global Manifesto for Economic Policy published in 2013 in Germany.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome back to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay. And this is Reality Asserts Itself.
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<p />We're continuing our series of interviews with Heiner Flassbeck. And Heiner now joins us in the studio.
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<p />Thanks for joining us again.
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<p />Heiner worked at UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and from 2003 to 2012 he was the director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies. Earlier in his career, amongst many accomplishments, he was the chief macro economist in the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin between '88 and '98, and a vice minister from October '98 to '99 at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Bonn.
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<p />So in the end of the last interview you were saying you hope for--and I put the words in your mouth, but you kind of agreed--a reasonable, more rational capitalism than we have now. A few years ago, about three, four years ago, I was at a conference at Bretton Woods that George Soros organized with this think tank he's created called INET, and he opened the conference and he looked out at everybody in the audience for quite a while, clearly trying to think of what to say, I think, and he started it with the words--he said, "I'm bewildered." And he says, I don't understand what's going on. He says, it is so obvious that the speculation, financial speculation is completely out of control, that it's going to lead to a disaster, and there's things we could do about it, and no one will do anything, and it doesn't matter what people like me say, no one's listening to me, which suggests that maybe you can't have this reasonable, rational capitalism. I'm not even suggesting Soros's model is reasonable or rational. That's another conversation. But you can't get even the most weak-kneed regulation passed anymore, especially in the United States, but I don't think Europe's a heck of a lot better. You know, has that horse left the barn?
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<p />DR. HEINER FLASSBECK, FMR. DIRECTOR, UNCTAD DIVISION ON GLOBALIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES: Yeah, it left the barn. That's true. And it's very difficult to get it back, for sure. I mentioned already that the Bretton Woods system, which was a reasonable approach to capitalism, so to say, was created under very unique circumstances that shook up the world.
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<p />JAY: Explain what that system was for people that don't know.
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<p />FLASSBECK: Well, it was a system where we had strong regulation on capital flows; we had the banks diminished to their proper service work for the economy, to finance real investment; we had a global monetary system with rather fixed exchange rates so that not everybody could speculate with currencies; and all these things. We had a lot of provisions that made the system stable. And we had a strong intervention into the labor market on the one hand, or at least we had conditions on the labor market that gave people clearly the permanent expectation that they would get with [the people (?)] that they're working for.
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<p />JAY: There was much higher unionization.
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<p />FLASSBECK: Yeah, there was higher unionization. And there was a mood in this confrontation with the East, with the planned economies, that the West had to give something, that you had to, so to say, calm down people by giving them the proceeds that they [were working for (?)]
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<p />JAY: Well, they had to--didn't there have to--the Soviet Union was promising full employment, and capitalism had to promise full employment.
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<p />FLASSBECK: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That is surely one of the reasons that we had this confrontation and the West had to give something to the people to calm down people and to make them happy in their system. The fight of the system was, in so far, quite productive, as it brought about a balance between capital and labor, which we after that never had again.
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<p />In the middle of the '70s (we mentioned it already) we had the increase of unemployment, and then we had Thatcherism, Reaganism, and Reaganomics, and all that, and this led to a sharp shifting of the balance of power towards capital. And with the fall of the wall at the beginning of the '90s, that process even became stronger and stronger all over the place because there was no confrontation anymore and there was nothing to be given to the [people (?)].
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<p />JAY: So isn't that where we've come with Reagan and Thatcherism and has continued to today? Is that the not the more natural gravitation, then, of capitalism that the--you know, the Soviet Union posed a threat, real or imagined, but whatever, it was perceived that socialism actually was going to deliver a social safety net and full employment and so on and so on, so capitalism, particularly in Europe, both because of the strength of the unions but also because East Germany's next door, has to prove that capitalism can give all these things and freedom, where the Soviet Union, you could only get this stuff if you give up your freedom, but once the Soviet Union, it starts to become clear, is on the way down and is probably going to implode, then that goes away, and then from that point on this is the capitalism?
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<p />FLASSBECK: This is the capitalism up to the point of the crisis. When we had the big crisis in 2008, then there was a chance to change things. And we still have the chance to change things, because we're not out of the crisis, we're not out of that crisis that started in 2008. So we're in the year five or six after the crisis and we're not yet out. So this is a plain disaster. This is the same thing as we had with the Great Depression in the '30s. There was no confrontation of the system. The system, the planned system, Soviet Union and China, was not important for the thinking of the Northern or Western countries.
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<p />JAY: Well, it was certainly in the minds of people--.
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<p />FLASSBECK: [crosstalk] but it was not really the confrontation as after the Second World War and at that time. But at that time there were corrective forces. So the corrective force was the crisis. The big depression changed capitalism to a certain extent, and President Roosevelt was the one who did it. But looking back and looking into the history of the whole thing, it seems that it was due to a very few people, and President Roosevelt was clearly one of the most important ones who drove the whole thing into a different direction, who changed capitalism. And we haven't found a person like that.
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<p />JAY: 'Cause the alternative model to save capitalism was Hitler.
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<p />FLASSBECK: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, well, Hitler did it in his way. It was also the state who became strong. State did everything. The state produced full employment. So it was similar, but under different political circumstances.
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<p />JAY: Well, based on militarization.
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<p />FLASSBECK: Militarization, yeah, for sure.
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<p />JAY: Although some people argue it's the same with Roosevelt, that the real solution here was the war.
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<p />FLASSBECK: Okay, yeah, but, well, we do not have to go into that, because that's a difficult question.
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<p />But we do not have something like that, we do not have a shock like that, we do not have a person like that that would lead the world out of this desperate situation in which we are now. We have produced in Europe, in the last five years we have produced unemployment rates that are absolutely equal to the Great Depression. The United States is still in a stagnation of the overall economy. Monetary policy is trying desperately whatever is possible, these crazy things that everybody would have considered to be crazy things ten years ago and so on. So we have not left the recession and the recessive mode, and we're not out of the crisis. We're just trying to paper it over by extreme political measures because we haven't understood what is at stake at this moment and what kind of critical point capitalism has reached because of the distributive changes that we have seen in the aftermath of the long period of high unemployment, the balance of power shifting towards capital and labor left behind.
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<p />JAY: And what shape is Europe in? Because it's not on the headlines anymore. You know, a little while ago it was Greece, and before that it was Spain. But at least as far as American and North American news goes, it's kind of off the front pages now.
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<p />FLASSBECK: Yeah, it's coming back because of deflation. What we see now is clearly a move into deflation, a Japanese-like scenario. But what the Fed tried to prevent in the United States in the last years was a Japanese-like scenario where, after such a crisis, you fall into a deflationary mode. This is exactly happening in Europe. And the reason is very simple, but nobody talks about it. The reason's very simple, namely, we're cutting wages, we're cutting everywhere wages. We have pressure on wages to be cut and wages to follow the German model, so-called model, where wages are not rising in line with productivity anymore. And this is done, executed, in Spain and Greece and Portugal. They're trying to--starting with that in France or they're talking about it in France and Italy, and this is already entering the whole European economy into a deflationary phase. And, again, it is the central bank. Everybody talks about a central bank there, their calculations--the IMF is joining in there--how much money the central bank has to spend now in buying bonds and under other assets to avoid deflation. Nobody talks about wages.
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<p />But it is absolutely clear, it's obvious, the evidence is so clear they cannot--on nothing we have clearer evidence than on the fact that wages are determining prices. So unit labor costs--so this is the premium of wages, nominal wage increases over productivity--this determines inflation. It's absolutely clear. But it is ignored by the whole profession. They're ignoring this fact because--.
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<p />JAY: Break that down what you just said, or explain it, the formula on inflation.
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<p />FLASSBECK: So what it means is that as long as nominal wages rise in line with productivity, you have inflation zero. But all the countries want a certain positive inflation.
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<p />JAY: By "nominal" you mean real wages.
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<p />FLASSBECK: No, nominal wages. Nominal wages are the wages that people get.
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<p />JAY: That's what I mean.
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<p />FLASSBECK: And these wages should rise in line with productivity, but, plus, in line with an inflation target. So if you have an inflation target of 2 percent, then nominal wages should rise in line with the productivity increase, the expected productivity increase, so to say, the trend of productivity that you have in a country--in the United States it would be 2 percent--plus the 2 percent for the inflation target, which would make 4 percent in the United States and in Europe overall. And only if you do that--.
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<p />JAY: Wage increases at 4 percent would keep a balance.
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<p />FLASSBECK: Yeah, that would keep a balance, and that would keep real wages rising by 2 percent, and it would keep the inflation rate on a stable growth path. This is exactly what you want, and to avoid deflation. As soon as you let high unemployment put pressure on wages, you have--the unions are weak, you have reduced unionization, and so on, then you get the imbalance. And the imbalance shows into things. The imbalance shows in nominal wages not rising in line with this formula that I just mentioned and not rising in line with productivity and inflation target. This puts pressure on deflation. And at the same time as real wages are falling, to a certain extent, at least, they reduce demand and we see rising unemployment. This is the situation in Southern Europe. In Southern Europe we had huge pressure on nominal wages. So nominal wages are cut by 10, 15 percent, which means that prices are falling by 10 percent. But, nevertheless, real wages are falling by 5 percent, and this depresses demand, and unemployment is rising. So what you get is deflation and rising unemployment at the same time.
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<p />This is the worst situation that you can imagine, because then monetary policy's over. Monetary policy cannot fight that anymore, because they cannot go below zero percent [crosstalk] interest rate.
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<p />JAY: By "monetary policy" you mean lowering interest rates.
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<p />FLASSBECK: They cannot lower the interest rate below the zero bound, what economists call the zero bound, namely. Below zero it doesn't make sense. If you don't--if you ask people to pay money for a bank account, they don't come anymore. They don't bring it to a bank account anymore.
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<p />JAY: Well, your home, Germany, is essentially the powerhouse of Europe, and they're kind of managing all of this. And do you not seem to mind what's going on?
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<p />FLASSBECK: Well, unfortunately, we have a very poor--the poorest economic debate in the whole of Europe is happening in Germany. It's not happening in Germany because nobody is discussing this question. We have a finance minister who has no clue about economics. He is talking about Swabian housewives, so to say, a micro example, as being the model for the economic policy, which doesn't make sense at all. And the chancellor obviously is buying this kind of approach. So it's really absurd. I'm not shying away from talking about it because I have to talk about my own country in these words, which is not the nicest thing you can do, but it's really like that. It's absolutely absurd. And I hope for a long time or for some time that the international discussion would change that a bit, but it's not happening.
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<p />What we see is that France and Italy are following now. France has--the president, Hollande, has explicitly declared that he wants to follow the German model, and in Italy we hear similar things. But this doesn't exactly work anymore. If France and Italy are following this policy that Spain and Portugal and Greece did already, then we will have rising unemployment in France and Italy, which will rise the unemployment rate in the whole of the European Monetary Union to 20 percent or something like that, plus we will see deflation, and then the euro will rise. So internationally it will have no repercussions and no positive effects for the Europeans, because the euro will rise. That is what we see already. The euro has risen by something like 10 percent against the dollar in the last months, since the beginning of the year. So the whole game is really absurd. It's a race to the bottom. They're running behind Germany. They're racing towards a dead end. And the overall effect will be deflation and a deeper recession and more unemployment.
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<p />JAY: But isn't that what the German and European elites had wanted for a long time? As long as the Soviet Union was there as this supposed alternative system, they had to do this big social safety net and good pensions and long maternity leaves, and they had to share with the working classes of Europe a fairly significant portion of the wealth. And now they don't, and now they're taking advantage of this crisis to break the back of this whole infrastructure that was created after the World War II. And it seems--you're suggesting it's very irrational and it's heading to a dead end. But if I'm really rich and I'm sitting in Europe, maybe I'm thinking what I really want is I want an American style low-wage economy, I want a really weak working class, I want high unemployment, and I want to sell stuff to Asia. You know, the Chinese and Indians, Brazilians, whatever, they can buy our stuff, and we don't have to share any of this wealth with the workers of Europe.
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<p />FLASSBECK: No, no. But it doesn't work.
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<p />JAY: But do you not think that's--must be how they're thinking?
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<p />FLASSBECK: That's what they're thinking, yeah, that's how they're thinking, sure. But if they would be a bit more rational, they would understand that it cannot work, because the whole world cannot export anything to nowhere. And we all know the Chinese and the Indians will not be the ones who run huge current-account deficits and will take our goods. It's just the other way around. They want to run current-account surpluses, so they want to sell more to our countries than the other way around.
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<p />JAY: Yeah. I mean, it's going to start a worldwide race to the bottom.
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<p />FLASSBECK: Yeah, it's a worldwide race to the bottom. That's right. Europe is engaging or is maybe even the leader in that race to the bottom. But it doesn't make sense for--every reasonable capitalist should think about, if the time horizon is at least, say, ten, 20 years, for someone who runs a company or owns a company, he or she should know that it cannot work, because you need consumers at the end, you need people who are able to buy the stuff that you're producing. And you have--there are only your workers who are the ones who can buy the stuff that you're producing. Otherwise, someone will lose. Well, then you can hope that you're the survivor and the others will lose. Well, that always may be the motivation behind so micro economic decisions, but in the end it cannot work, and every reasonable capitalist should know it cannot work. You need consumers. You need people who earn money and earn not only money but earn as much as the productivity increase is in real terms, because otherwise the productivity increase, as such, will lead to unemployment. That's absolutely sure.
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<p />And the United States was only, so to say, bridging the past 20 years by one instrument that is not there forever, by bringing down the savings ratio. You can survive a period where real income, real wages are not growing if the people are willing to reduce their savings ratio to zero or something like that, but more than zero is hardly possible, and then it's over. Then the whole--.
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<p />JAY: Well, of the people that really own stuff and really wield political power--and I'm talking about that stratum of billionaires, the global oligarchs in all this--have you met any that--I mean, I should say there aren't a--there are a few, I think, but there aren't very many, would you say, that are, using your words, reasonable or rational.
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<p />FLASSBECK: No, that's right. They are rational in their environment, maybe, in their microenvironment. They're not looking at the overall economy. That's right. And here we're lacking politicians who are pushing for rational solutions--.
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<p />JAY: Well, they work for these various oligarchs, more or less.
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<p />FLASSBECK: That's right. That's--the plutocracy is what a plutocracy is. And that is why the plutocracy will hit the wall again. There's no way out. There will be a new crisis sooner or later, a bigger crisis than we have seen, maybe, and then either we find someone who understands these mechanisms and these relationships and changes the world, a politician or political leader, or, I don't know, the whole system will collapse. I mean, what you see in Europe now: you see that right-wingers are taking over everywhere. Look at Hungary. Look at France where the Front national is coming up.
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<p />JAY: Ukraine.
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<p />FLASSBECK: The right-wing party. And so this is the near-term solution, so to say, the political solution that you find, people who are saying, well, globalization has failed, Europeanization has failed, everything is failed, so we go back to our national frontiers and we close our borders, we live in splendid isolation.
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<p />JAY: Back to the 1930s.
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<p />FLASSBECK: Yeah, back to the 1930s. This is what is happening now. And then the race to the bottom for a time will be stronger than before, and at the end--but they have no solution at all, also no solution. And then we will end up again in trade wars or other wars.
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<p />JAY: Alright. We're going to continue this discussion with Heiner Flassbeck on Reality Asserts Itself on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | true | 4 | dr heiner flassbeck graduated april 1976 economics saarland university germany concentrating money credit business cycle theory general philosophy science obtained phd economics free university berlin germany july 1987 2005 appointed honorary professor university hamburg employment started german council economic experts wiesbaden 1976 1980 followed federal ministry economics bonn january 1986 chief macroeconomist german institute economic research diw berlin 1988 1998 state secretary vice minister october 1998 april 1999 federal ministry finance bonn responsible international affairs eu imf worked unctad since 2000 2003 december 2012 director division globalisation development strategies principal author team preparing unctads trade development report specialization macroeconomics exchange rate policies international finance since january 2013 director flassbeckeconomics consultancy global macroeconomic questions wwwflassbeckeconomicscom coauthored act global manifesto economic policy published 2013 germany paul jay senior editor trnn welcome back real news network im paul jay reality asserts continuing series interviews heiner flassbeck heiner joins us studio thanks joining us heiner worked unctad united nations conference trade development 2003 2012 director division globalization development strategies earlier career amongst many accomplishments chief macro economist german institute economic research berlin 88 98 vice minister october 98 99 federal ministry finance bonn end last interview saying hope forand put words mouth kind agreeda reasonable rational capitalism years ago three four years ago conference bretton woods george soros organized think tank hes created called inet opened conference looked everybody audience quite clearly trying think say think started wordshe said im bewildered says dont understand whats going says obvious speculation financial speculation completely control going lead disaster theres things could one anything doesnt matter people like say ones listening suggests maybe cant reasonable rational capitalism im even suggesting soross model reasonable rational thats another conversation cant get even weakkneed regulation passed anymore especially united states dont think europes heck lot better know horse left barn dr heiner flassbeck fmr director unctad division globalization development strategies yeah left barn thats true difficult get back sure mentioned already bretton woods system reasonable approach capitalism say created unique circumstances shook world jay explain system people dont know flassbeck well system strong regulation capital flows banks diminished proper service work economy finance real investment global monetary system rather fixed exchange rates everybody could speculate currencies things lot provisions made system stable strong intervention labor market one hand least conditions labor market gave people clearly permanent expectation would get people theyre working jay much higher unionization flassbeck yeah higher unionization mood confrontation east planned economies west give something say calm people giving proceeds working jay well todidnt tothe soviet union promising full employment capitalism promise full employment flassbeck yeah yeah absolutely surely one reasons confrontation west give something people calm people make happy system fight system far quite productive brought balance capital labor never middle 70s mentioned already increase unemployment thatcherism reaganism reaganomics led sharp shifting balance power towards capital fall wall beginning 90s process even became stronger stronger place confrontation anymore nothing given people jay isnt weve come reagan thatcherism continued today natural gravitation capitalism theyou know soviet union posed threat real imagined whatever perceived socialism actually going deliver social safety net full employment capitalism particularly europe strength unions also east germanys next door prove capitalism give things freedom soviet union could get stuff give freedom soviet union starts become clear way probably going implode goes away point capitalism flassbeck capitalism point crisis big crisis 2008 chance change things still chance change things crisis crisis started 2008 year five six crisis yet plain disaster thing great depression 30s confrontation system system planned system soviet union china important thinking northern western countries jay well certainly minds people flassbeck crosstalk really confrontation second world war time time corrective forces corrective force crisis big depression changed capitalism certain extent president roosevelt one looking back looking history whole thing seems due people president roosevelt clearly one important ones drove whole thing different direction changed capitalism havent found person like jay cause alternative model save capitalism hitler flassbeck yeah yeah yeah absolutely well hitler way also state became strong state everything state produced full employment similar different political circumstances jay well based militarization flassbeck militarization yeah sure jay although people argue roosevelt real solution war flassbeck okay yeah well go thats difficult question something like shock like person like would lead world desperate situation produced europe last five years produced unemployment rates absolutely equal great depression united states still stagnation overall economy monetary policy trying desperately whatever possible crazy things everybody would considered crazy things ten years ago left recession recessive mode crisis trying paper extreme political measures havent understood stake moment kind critical point capitalism reached distributive changes seen aftermath long period high unemployment balance power shifting towards capital labor left behind jay shape europe headlines anymore know little ago greece spain least far american north american news goes kind front pages flassbeck yeah coming back deflation see clearly move deflation japaneselike scenario fed tried prevent united states last years japaneselike scenario crisis fall deflationary mode exactly happening europe reason simple nobody talks reasons simple namely cutting wages cutting everywhere wages pressure wages cut wages follow german model socalled model wages rising line productivity anymore done executed spain greece portugal theyre trying tostarting france theyre talking france italy already entering whole european economy deflationary phase central bank everybody talks central bank calculationsthe imf joining therehow much money central bank spend buying bonds assets avoid deflation nobody talks wages absolutely clear obvious evidence clear cannoton nothing clearer evidence fact wages determining prices unit labor costsso premium wages nominal wage increases productivitythis determines inflation absolutely clear ignored whole profession theyre ignoring fact jay break said explain formula inflation flassbeck means long nominal wages rise line productivity inflation zero countries want certain positive inflation jay nominal mean real wages flassbeck nominal wages nominal wages wages people get jay thats mean flassbeck wages rise line productivity plus line inflation target inflation target 2 percent nominal wages rise line productivity increase expected productivity increase say trend productivity countryin united states would 2 percentplus 2 percent inflation target would make 4 percent united states europe overall jay wage increases 4 percent would keep balance flassbeck yeah would keep balance would keep real wages rising 2 percent would keep inflation rate stable growth path exactly want avoid deflation soon let high unemployment put pressure wages havethe unions weak reduced unionization get imbalance imbalance shows things imbalance shows nominal wages rising line formula mentioned rising line productivity inflation target puts pressure deflation time real wages falling certain extent least reduce demand see rising unemployment situation southern europe southern europe huge pressure nominal wages nominal wages cut 10 15 percent means prices falling 10 percent nevertheless real wages falling 5 percent depresses demand unemployment rising get deflation rising unemployment time worst situation imagine monetary policys monetary policy fight anymore go zero percent crosstalk interest rate jay monetary policy mean lowering interest rates flassbeck lower interest rate zero bound economists call zero bound namely zero doesnt make sense dontif ask people pay money bank account dont come anymore dont bring bank account anymore jay well home germany essentially powerhouse europe theyre kind managing seem mind whats going flassbeck well unfortunately poorthe poorest economic debate whole europe happening germany happening germany nobody discussing question finance minister clue economics talking swabian housewives say micro example model economic policy doesnt make sense chancellor obviously buying kind approach really absurd im shying away talking talk country words nicest thing really like absolutely absurd hope long time time international discussion would change bit happening see france italy following france hasthe president hollande explicitly declared wants follow german model italy hear similar things doesnt exactly work anymore france italy following policy spain portugal greece already rising unemployment france italy rise unemployment rate whole european monetary union 20 percent something like plus see deflation euro rise internationally repercussions positive effects europeans euro rise see already euro risen something like 10 percent dollar last months since beginning year whole game really absurd race bottom theyre running behind germany theyre racing towards dead end overall effect deflation deeper recession unemployment jay isnt german european elites wanted long time long soviet union supposed alternative system big social safety net good pensions long maternity leaves share working classes europe fairly significant portion wealth dont theyre taking advantage crisis break back whole infrastructure created world war ii seemsyoure suggesting irrational heading dead end im really rich im sitting europe maybe im thinking really want want american style lowwage economy want really weak working class want high unemployment want sell stuff asia know chinese indians brazilians whatever buy stuff dont share wealth workers europe flassbeck doesnt work jay think thatsmust theyre thinking flassbeck thats theyre thinking yeah thats theyre thinking sure would bit rational would understand work whole world export anything nowhere know chinese indians ones run huge currentaccount deficits take goods way around want run currentaccount surpluses want sell countries way around jay yeah mean going start worldwide race bottom flassbeck yeah worldwide race bottom thats right europe engaging maybe even leader race bottom doesnt make sense forevery reasonable capitalist think time horizon least say ten 20 years someone runs company owns company know work need consumers end need people able buy stuff youre producing havethere workers ones buy stuff youre producing otherwise someone lose well hope youre survivor others lose well always may motivation behind micro economic decisions end work every reasonable capitalist know work need consumers need people earn money earn money earn much productivity increase real terms otherwise productivity increase lead unemployment thats absolutely sure united states say bridging past 20 years one instrument forever bringing savings ratio survive period real income real wages growing people willing reduce savings ratio zero something like zero hardly possible whole jay well people really stuff really wield political powerand im talking stratum billionaires global oligarchs thishave met thati mean say arent athere think arent many would say using words reasonable rational flassbeck thats right rational environment maybe microenvironment theyre looking overall economy thats right lacking politicians pushing rational solutions jay well work various oligarchs less flassbeck thats right thatsthe plutocracy plutocracy plutocracy hit wall theres way new crisis sooner later bigger crisis seen maybe either find someone understands mechanisms relationships changes world politician political leader dont know whole system collapse mean see europe see rightwingers taking everywhere look hungary look france front national coming jay ukraine flassbeck rightwing party nearterm solution say political solution find people saying well globalization failed europeanization failed everything failed go back national frontiers close borders live splendid isolation jay back 1930s flassbeck yeah back 1930s happening race bottom time stronger endbut solution also solution end trade wars wars jay alright going continue discussion heiner flassbeck reality asserts real news network end disclaimer please note transcripts real news network typed recording program trnn guarantee complete accuracy | 1,795 |
<p>The ethanol scammers have no shame. None. And neither does the ethanol industry’s new hired gun, General Wesley Clark.</p>
<p>Last week, the EPA announced that it was considering raising the volume of ethanol that could be blended into gasoline from the current limit of 10% to as much as 15%. The agency is reacting to a petition from the pro-ethanol trade group, Growth Energy, a recently formed group that has hired Clark to be its spokes-general. More on Clark in a moment.</p>
<p>There’s plenty of opposition to Growth Energy’s proposal. Among the biggest opponents are the automakers. The problem is obvious: automobile warranties could be voided and cars could be damaged by the higher ethanol blends. There are about 250 million motor vehicles in the US and of those, fewer than 10 million have been built to handle blends greater than 10% ethanol.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal summed up the problem well in an April 17 article, when it said that consumers who use gasoline blends containing more than 10% ethanol:</p>
<p>could get stuck paying the bills if there’s damage to fuel lines or other components unless auto makers agree to shoulder the costs. Auto makers offer so-called flex-fuel vehicles designed to accept up to 85% ethanol fuels. But many current and older model cars aren’t designed for ethanol concentrations above 10%. Alan Adler, a spokesman for <a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&amp;symbol=gm" type="external">General Motors</a> Corp., said if the EPA allows higher ethanol blends “we want to be sure that we’re not on the hook for vehicles” that end up having problems with higher blends.</p>
<p>That’s the key. No one wants to be “on the hook” for the damage caused by the ethanol scam. And the evidence shows that ethanol – even at 10% blend volumes — is already damaging vehicles. In January, Toyota announced that it was recalling 214,570 Lexus vehicles. The reason for the recall: The company found that “ethanol fuels with a low moisture content will corrode the internal surface of the fuel rails.” Toyota didn’t disclose how much the recall would cost.</p>
<p>But Clark and his backers are facing organized resistance. And lots of it. On March 26, a letter from one of the oddest coalitions&#160; in modern American history was sent to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Obama’s advisor on climate change, Carol Browner. The coalition advised that it “opposes any administrative or legislative efforts to increase the current cap on the amount of ethanol permitted to be blended into gasoline” until “comprehensive testing programs” have been done. The signatories included, among others, the Sierra Club, National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Grocery Manufacturers Association, Friends of the Earth, and the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers. (Read the letter here: <a href="" type="internal">http://www.npradc.org/</a>)</p>
<p>I was alerted to the letter by Frank O’Donnell, president of Washington-based Clear Air Watch. During an interview last week he told me, “I’ve never seen the Sierra Club, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the oil industry on same page in my life.” O’Donnell believes that increased ethanol use will be bad for air quality. Beyond that issue, he said “There’s reason to be concerned that higher ethanol blends will be bad for consumers. Not that much objective study has been done on higher blends of ethanol on engines, lawn mowers, boats” and other consumer products.</p>
<p>So why does the ethanol industry need to move past the 10% limit on blending? In industry parlance, the ethanol producers are hitting the “blend wall.” That is, they have way too much capacity and motorists aren’t buying enough gasoline to absorb all the ethanol they are producing. That leaves them with two options: close more distilleries or force more ethanol into motorists’ fuel tanks. And that’s where Growth Energy’s rent-a-general strategy comes in.</p>
<p>On February 5, Growth Energy announced that Clark will be the group’s co-chairman. And it trumpeted the fact that Clark is “one of the most highly decorated military leaders since General Dwight D. Eisenhower.” Decorated or not, Clark’s job is to help convince federal regulators that increasing the blend volume is a good idea. And in theory, Clark should lend some class to the&#160; ethanol scammers. He’s a retired four-star general who graduated first in his class from his class at West Point. He served as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. In 2004, he ran for president as a Democrat but quit the race after racking up a single primary win: Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Clark has declared that moving to 15% ethanol will stimulate the US economy and create 136,000 jobs. He has even claimed – perhaps with a straight face – that US farmers are “the original free market people in America.”</p>
<p>That claim would be amusing if it weren’t so absurd.</p>
<p>Jeff Broin, the CEO of POET, a South-Dakota-based ethanol producer and one of the backers of Growth Energy, told the Journal that if the ethanol blend volume isn’t raised to 15%, “without question grain supplies are going to grow and the next group looking for a bailout will be the American farmer.”</p>
<p>Thus, while Clark is claiming that farmers are the original free market types, his pals in the industry are saying just the opposite, that they need more taxpayer dollars. And therein lies just one of the many outrages of&#160; the ethanol scam: Today, the ethanol industry is in a financial crisis. Despite years of huge subsidies and mandates, they can’t make a profit. (One analyst quoted cited by the Journal estimated that some distilleries are losing $0.10 on every gallon of ethanol they produce.) And yet the only solution that the scammers can find for their predicament? Yep, you guessed it, more subsidies and mandates.</p>
<p>The scammers are pushing for more ethanol consumption at the exact same time that new reports are showing the huge environmental costs of their favorite fuel. On April 2, an international team of 75 scientists from 21 countries released a report which determined that “the water requirements of biofuel-derived energy are 70 to 400 times larger than other energy sources such as fossil fuels, wind or solar.”</p>
<p>Of course, the water problem is just one of many deleterious effects of the ethanol scam. And for a few pieces of silver, Clark has chosen to ignore all of those problems. Back in February, Growth Energy said that Clark will lead the group “as it works to increase American energy independence.”</p>
<p>Good luck with that, General.</p>
<p>ROBERT BRYCE’s latest book is <a href="" type="internal">Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence”</a> which just came out in paperback.</p> | true | 4 | ethanol scammers shame none neither ethanol industrys new hired gun general wesley clark last week epa announced considering raising volume ethanol could blended gasoline current limit 10 much 15 agency reacting petition proethanol trade group growth energy recently formed group hired clark spokesgeneral clark moment theres plenty opposition growth energys proposal among biggest opponents automakers problem obvious automobile warranties could voided cars could damaged higher ethanol blends 250 million motor vehicles us fewer 10 million built handle blends greater 10 ethanol wall street journal summed problem well april 17 article said consumers use gasoline blends containing 10 ethanol could get stuck paying bills theres damage fuel lines components unless auto makers agree shoulder costs auto makers offer socalled flexfuel vehicles designed accept 85 ethanol fuels many current older model cars arent designed ethanol concentrations 10 alan adler spokesman general motors corp said epa allows higher ethanol blends want sure hook vehicles end problems higher blends thats key one wants hook damage caused ethanol scam evidence shows ethanol even 10 blend volumes already damaging vehicles january toyota announced recalling 214570 lexus vehicles reason recall company found ethanol fuels low moisture content corrode internal surface fuel rails toyota didnt disclose much recall would cost clark backers facing organized resistance lots march 26 letter one oddest coalitions160 modern american history sent energy secretary steven chu agriculture secretary thomas vilsack epa administrator lisa jackson obamas advisor climate change carol browner coalition advised opposes administrative legislative efforts increase current cap amount ethanol permitted blended gasoline comprehensive testing programs done signatories included among others sierra club national petrochemical refiners association competitive enterprise institute grocery manufacturers association friends earth association international automobile manufacturers read letter httpwwwnpradcorg alerted letter frank odonnell president washingtonbased clear air watch interview last week told ive never seen sierra club competitive enterprise institute oil industry page life odonnell believes increased ethanol use bad air quality beyond issue said theres reason concerned higher ethanol blends bad consumers much objective study done higher blends ethanol engines lawn mowers boats consumer products ethanol industry need move past 10 limit blending industry parlance ethanol producers hitting blend wall way much capacity motorists arent buying enough gasoline absorb ethanol producing leaves two options close distilleries force ethanol motorists fuel tanks thats growth energys rentageneral strategy comes february 5 growth energy announced clark groups cochairman trumpeted fact clark one highly decorated military leaders since general dwight eisenhower decorated clarks job help convince federal regulators increasing blend volume good idea theory clark lend class the160 ethanol scammers hes retired fourstar general graduated first class class west point served supreme allied commander nato 2004 ran president democrat quit race racking single primary win oklahoma clark declared moving 15 ethanol stimulate us economy create 136000 jobs even claimed perhaps straight face us farmers original free market people america claim would amusing werent absurd jeff broin ceo poet southdakotabased ethanol producer one backers growth energy told journal ethanol blend volume isnt raised 15 without question grain supplies going grow next group looking bailout american farmer thus clark claiming farmers original free market types pals industry saying opposite need taxpayer dollars therein lies one many outrages of160 ethanol scam today ethanol industry financial crisis despite years huge subsidies mandates cant make profit one analyst quoted cited journal estimated distilleries losing 010 every gallon ethanol produce yet solution scammers find predicament yep guessed subsidies mandates scammers pushing ethanol consumption exact time new reports showing huge environmental costs favorite fuel april 2 international team 75 scientists 21 countries released report determined water requirements biofuelderived energy 70 400 times larger energy sources fossil fuels wind solar course water problem one many deleterious effects ethanol scam pieces silver clark chosen ignore problems back february growth energy said clark lead group works increase american energy independence good luck general robert bryces latest book gusher lies dangerous delusions energy independence came paperback | 642 |
<p />
<p>Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011. <a href="http://www.goes.noaa.gov/ECIR3.html" type="external">NOAA</a></p>
<p>Furthermore to Kate Sheppard’s <a href="" type="internal">excellent post</a> last month… The National Climatic Data Center’s (NCDC) latest <a href="http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/reports/billionz.html#narrative" type="external">Billion Dollar Disaster Report</a> finds the US has racked up more mega-expensive natural disasters in 2011 than ever before. So far we’ve suffered more than five times the huge disasters typical at this time of year. Already d amage costs have reached nearly $32 billion . Compare that to the first half of the average year— prior to the onset of “big” hurricane season— between 1980 and 2010, where disaster costs typically run $6 billion.</p>
<p>Billion-dollar-plus natural disasters between 1980 and 2010, using a GNP inflation index.</p>
<p>All told the US has suffered 99 weather-related disasters over the past 31 years, where overall damages and economic costs reached or exceeded $1 billion. The normalized losses (that is, the numbers adjusted for the GNP inflation index) add up to more than $725 billion for those 99 disasters .</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>So far, nine natural disasters, each totaling more than a billion dollars in losses, have befallen the US this year. Here’s the NCDC <a href="http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/reports/billionz.html#narrative" type="external">list</a>:</p>
<p>Groundhog Day Blizzard Jan 29-Feb 3: Insured losses were greater than $1.1 billion. Total losses (insurance, state and local snow removal, business interruption) were greater than $3.9 billion. Thirty-six deaths. A picture of the EF3 tornado that struck Tushka, Oklahoma, 14 April 2011. Gabe Garfield and Marc Austin/NOAA</p>
<p>Midwest/Southeast Tornadoes April 4-5: An estimated 46 tornadoes caused more than $1.4 billion insured losses, total losses greater than $2 billion, 9 deaths.</p>
<p>Southeast/Midwest Tornadoes April 8-11: An estimated 59 tornadoes caused more than $1.5 billion insured losses, total losses greater than $2.2 billion, numerous injuries, no known deaths.</p>
<p>Midwest/Southeast Tornadoes April 14-16: An estimated 160 tornadoes caused more than $1.7 billion insured losses, total losses greater than $2 billion, 38 deaths .</p>
<p>Southeast/Ohio Valley/Midwest Tornadoes April 25-30: An estimated 305 tornadoes caused somewhere between $3.7 to $5.5 billion (the numbers are still being accounted), total losses approaching $10 billion, 320 deaths.</p>
<p>Midwest/Southeast Tornadoes May 22-27: An estimated 180 tornadoes caused between $4 and $7 billion insured losses (the numbers are still being accounted) , total losses may exceed $7.0 billion, 172 deaths— including the EF-5 tornado that struck Joplin, MO, killing 141, the deadliest single tornado in the US since record-keeping began.</p>
<p>Wildfires in Texas as of 30 April 2011. At this point more than two million acres/809,371 hectares had already burned. Jesse Allen/ <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=50342" type="external">NASA Earth Observatory</a></p>
<p>Texas Drought and Wildfires, Spring-Summer 2011: drought and wildfires across Texas, New Mexico, and western Oklahoma racked up fighting/suppression costs of about $1 million a day. Total losses to agriculture and cattle were estimated between $1.5 and $3 billion, as of 16 June. Expenses are likely to rise as the drought continues.</p>
<p>This map depicts rainfall for the Midwest from April 19 to 25, when rainfall totals ranged from 150 millimeters/5.9 inches to greater than 525 millimeters/20.7 inches, prompting, major flooding. Jesse Allen/ <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=50243" type="external">NASA Earth Observatory</a></p>
<p>The Missouri River floods have not made it onto this list, since their onset was near the end of the compilation period.</p>
<p />
<p>The technical report, <a href="http://ols.nndc.noaa.gov/plolstore/plsql/olstore.prodspecific?prodnum=C00580-PUB-A0001" type="external">A Climatology of 1980-2003 Extreme Weather and Climate Events</a>, by Tom Ross and Neal Lott, is illuminating. Here are some highlights (bold emphasis is mine):</p>
<p>In twenty of the past twenty-four years, the U.S. has experienced at least one weather-related billion-dollar disaster.</p>
<p>The only years without at least one billion-dollar disaster were 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1987.</p>
<p>Since 1988, at least one disaster occurred each year, with only one such event in 1988 and 1990, and seven billion-dollar events in 1998. Two of the 1998 disasters were caused by hurricanes.</p>
<p>Overall, hurricanes and tropical storms account for 16 of the 58 events and 28% of the monetary losses (normalized to 2002).</p>
<p>The ten major droughts/heatwaves which have occurred since 1980 account for the largest percentage (42%) of weather- related monetary losses.</p>
<p />
<p>The technical report concludes:</p>
<p>Although some studies suggest that trends such as population increases, population shifts into higher risk areas, and increasing wealth have been the key factors in weather related disasters (as opposed to historical trends in the frequency or strength of such events), there is evidence that climate change may affect the frequency of certain extreme weather events. An increase in population and development in flood plains, along with an increase in heavy rain events in the U.S. during the past fifty years, have gradually increased the economic losses due to flooding. If the climate continues to warm, the increase in heavy rain events is likely to continue. While trends in extratropical cyclones are not clear, there are projections that the incidence of extreme droughts will increase if the climate warms throughout the 21st century.</p>
<p />
<p>National Weather Service’s <a href="http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/index.php" type="external">Climate Prediction Center</a></p>
<p>If you’re wondering what disasters might be delivered in the next quarter, check out the maps and the legend, above, for forecasts of temperature and precipitation anomalies through the end of October 2011. Hurricanes not included.</p>
<p>Crossposted from <a href="http://deepbluehome.blogspot.com/" type="external">Deep Blue Home</a>.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | groundhog day blizzard 2011 noaa furthermore kate sheppards excellent post last month national climatic data centers ncdc latest billion dollar disaster report finds us racked megaexpensive natural disasters 2011 ever far weve suffered five times huge disasters typical time year already amage costs reached nearly 32 billion compare first half average year prior onset big hurricane season 1980 2010 disaster costs typically run 6 billion billiondollarplus natural disasters 1980 2010 using gnp inflation index told us suffered 99 weatherrelated disasters past 31 years overall damages economic costs reached exceeded 1 billion normalized losses numbers adjusted gnp inflation index add 725 billion 99 disasters far nine natural disasters totaling billion dollars losses befallen us year heres ncdc list groundhog day blizzard jan 29feb 3 insured losses greater 11 billion total losses insurance state local snow removal business interruption greater 39 billion thirtysix deaths picture ef3 tornado struck tushka oklahoma 14 april 2011 gabe garfield marc austinnoaa midwestsoutheast tornadoes april 45 estimated 46 tornadoes caused 14 billion insured losses total losses greater 2 billion 9 deaths southeastmidwest tornadoes april 811 estimated 59 tornadoes caused 15 billion insured losses total losses greater 22 billion numerous injuries known deaths midwestsoutheast tornadoes april 1416 estimated 160 tornadoes caused 17 billion insured losses total losses greater 2 billion 38 deaths southeastohio valleymidwest tornadoes april 2530 estimated 305 tornadoes caused somewhere 37 55 billion numbers still accounted total losses approaching 10 billion 320 deaths midwestsoutheast tornadoes may 2227 estimated 180 tornadoes caused 4 7 billion insured losses numbers still accounted total losses may exceed 70 billion 172 deaths including ef5 tornado struck joplin mo killing 141 deadliest single tornado us since recordkeeping began wildfires texas 30 april 2011 point two million acres809371 hectares already burned jesse allen nasa earth observatory texas drought wildfires springsummer 2011 drought wildfires across texas new mexico western oklahoma racked fightingsuppression costs 1 million day total losses agriculture cattle estimated 15 3 billion 16 june expenses likely rise drought continues map depicts rainfall midwest april 19 25 rainfall totals ranged 150 millimeters59 inches greater 525 millimeters207 inches prompting major flooding jesse allen nasa earth observatory missouri river floods made onto list since onset near end compilation period technical report climatology 19802003 extreme weather climate events tom ross neal lott illuminating highlights bold emphasis mine twenty past twentyfour years us experienced least one weatherrelated billiondollar disaster years without least one billiondollar disaster 1981 1982 1984 1987 since 1988 least one disaster occurred year one event 1988 1990 seven billiondollar events 1998 two 1998 disasters caused hurricanes overall hurricanes tropical storms account 16 58 events 28 monetary losses normalized 2002 ten major droughtsheatwaves occurred since 1980 account largest percentage 42 weather related monetary losses technical report concludes although studies suggest trends population increases population shifts higher risk areas increasing wealth key factors weather related disasters opposed historical trends frequency strength events evidence climate change may affect frequency certain extreme weather events increase population development flood plains along increase heavy rain events us past fifty years gradually increased economic losses due flooding climate continues warm increase heavy rain events likely continue trends extratropical cyclones clear projections incidence extreme droughts increase climate warms throughout 21st century national weather services climate prediction center youre wondering disasters might delivered next quarter check maps legend forecasts temperature precipitation anomalies end october 2011 hurricanes included crossposted deep blue home | 558 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>“Ignorance of remote causes disposeth men to attribute all events to the causes immediate and instrumental: for these are all the causes they perceive.”</p>
<p>Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)</p>
<p>So this is what alternative politics in America has degenerated to: Pat LaMarche, the newly minted vice-presidential candidate of the Green Party, has announced that she might not even vote for herself in the fall elections. The Greens, always a skittish bunch, are so traumatized by the specter of Bush and Cheney that they’ve offered up their own party-born out of rage at decades of betrayal by Democrats from Carter to Clinton-as a kind of private contractor for the benefit of those very same Democratic Party power brokers.</p>
<p>Take a close look at what LaMarche, a not-ready-for-primetime radio “personality”, had to say to say to her hometown newspaper in Maine only days after winning the nomination in Milwaukee.</p>
<p>“If the race is tight, I’ll vote for Kerry,” LaMarche said. “I love my country. But we should ask them that, because if Dick Cheney loved his country, he wouldn’t be voting for himself.”</p>
<p>This is the sound a political party makes as it commits suicide.</p>
<p>LaMarche’s running mate, David Cobb, is no better. The obscure lawyer from Texas is a dull and spiritless candidate, handled by some truly unsavory advisors (more on them in future columns). In action, he functions as a kind of bland political zombie from a Roger Corman flick, lumbering across the progressive landscape from Oregon to Wisconsin and back again, to the tune of his liberal political masters. The tune? The familiar refrain of “Anybody But Bush.”</p>
<p>Bland, yes, but it worked, thanks to the likes of Medea Benjamin and the pompous Ted Glick. At their recent convention in Milwaukee, the Green Party, heavily infiltrated by Democratic Party operatives, rejected the ticket of Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo in favor of the sour campaign of Cobb and LaMarche.</p>
<p>This won’t harm Nader much. Indeed, it may liberate him. Free of the Green Party’s encyclopedic platform, Nader can now distill the themes of his campaign to the most potent elements (war, jobs, corruption and the environment) and, unburdened by the concern of party building, Nader can, if he chooses (and he should), focus his efforts only on the battleground states, where Kerry must either confront Nader’s issues or lose the election. It’s as simple as that.</p>
<p>The fatal damage in Milwaukee was done to the Green Party itself, where Cobb and his cohort sabotaged the aspirations of thousands of Greens who had labored for more than a decade to build their party into a national political force, capable of winning a few seats here and there and, even more importantly, defeating Democrats who behave like Republicans (cf: Al Gore). The fruits of all that intense grassroots organizing were destroyed in an instant.</p>
<p>But behold: the rebuffed Nader continues to poll nearly 6 percent without the Green Party behind him. Yet, you can’t discern Cobb’s numbers with an electron microscope. Of course, the pungent irony is that’s precisely the way Cobb and his backers want it.</p>
<p>So, the Greens have succeeded in doing what seemed impossible only months ago: they’ve made the quixotic campaign of Dennis Kucinich, which still chugs along claiming micro-victory after micro-victory long after the close of the primaries (indeed there have been more victories after the polls closed than before), seem like a credible political endeavor. Of course, Cobb and Kucinich share the same objective function: to lure progressives away from Nader and back into the plantation house of the Democratic Party.</p>
<p>But at least Kucinich remained a Democrat. Cobb and LaMarche were supposedly leaders of a political party that formed not in opposition to Republicans, but from outrage at the rightward and irredeemable drift of the Democratic Party. Apparently, the Green Party has not only lost its mind, it’s lost its entire central nervous system, including the spine–especially its spine. They’ve surrendered to the politics of fear. And once the white flag is raised there’s little chance of recovering the ground you’ve given up.</p>
<p>Always nearly immobilized by an asphyxiating devotion to political correctness, the Green Party has now taken this obsession to its logical extreme by nominating a pair of political cretins at the top of its ticket. Under the false banner of the Cobb/Lamarche campaign, the Green Party is instructing its members to vote for its candidates only in states where their vote doesn’t matter. This is the so-called safe state strategy.</p>
<p>Safe? Safe for whom? Not for Afghan or Iraqi citizens. Not for US troops. Not for the detainees at Gitmo, Bagram or Abu Ghraib. Not for migrant farm laborers or steelworkers. Not for the welfare mother or the 2 million souls rotting in American prisons. Not for the spotted owl, the streams of Appalachia or the rainforests of Alaska. Not for the residents of Cancer Alley or the peasants of Colombia or teen age girls slaving away in Nike’s toxic Indonesia sneaker mills. Not for the Palestinians, the Lakota of Pine Ridge or elementary school students from the hard streets of Oakland. Not for the hopeless denizens of death row or three strikers in for life for a gram of crack or gays hoping to unite in marriage or even cancer patients seeking simple herbal relief from excruciating pain.</p>
<p>A crucial player in this unsavory affair was Medea Benjamin, the diva of Global Exchange. In rationalizing her decisive vote backing the Cobb/Lamarche ticket, Benjamin emitted this profundity: “John Kerry is not George Bush.” Apparently, that tiny sliver of genetic variation is all it comes down to these days.</p>
<p>Yes, Medea, you’re right. Kerry is simply Kerry, a bona fide war criminal, with a record of political infamy that is just as malodorous as that of George Bush-only it’s longer. Over the past four years, Kerry has been complicit in the enactment of some of Bush’s most disgusting policies. Indeed, these days Kerry offers himself up mainly as a more competent manager of the Bush agenda, a steadier hand on the helm of the Empire.</p>
<p>Kerry stands unapologetically for nearly every issue that caused the Greens to bolt the Democratic Party. He was present at the founding of the Democratic Leadership Council, the claque of neo-liberals that seeks to purge the Democratic Party of every last vestige of progressivism and reshape it as a hawkish and pro-business party with a soft spot for abortion-essentially a stingier version of the Rockefeller Republicans.</p>
<p>Kerry enthusiastically backed both of Bush’s wars and now, at the very moment Bush is signaling a desire to retreat, the senator is calling for 25,000 new troops to be sent to Iraq, where under his plan the US military will remain entrenched for at least the next four years.</p>
<p>Kerry supported the Patriot Act without reservation or even much contemplation. Lest you conclude that this was a momentary aberration sparked by the post-9/11 hysteria, consider the fact that Kerry also voted for the two Clinton-era predecessors to the Patriot Act, the 1994 Crime Bill and the 1996 CounterTerrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which were just as bad if not worse.</p>
<p>Although he regularly hams it up in photo-ops with the barons of big labor, Kerry voted for NAFTA, the WTO and virtually every other job-slashing trade pact that has come before the senate. Kerry, who has courted and won the endorsement of nearly every police association in the nation, regularly calls for putting another 100,000 cops on the streets and even tougher criminal sanctions against victimless crimes. He refused to reconsider his fervid support for the insane war on drug users, which has destroyed families and clogged our prisons with more than 2 million people, many of them young black men, whom the draconian drug laws specifically target without mercy. Kerry backs the racist death penalty and minimum mandatory sentences.</p>
<p>A couple of weeks ago the Congressional Black Caucus jeered Ralph Nader when he spoke to them about his campaign, a bizarre reception for a man who has been a tireless advocate for civil rights and poor people. If this group of legislators actually cared about the welfare of their constituents, instead of merely their sinecure within the party, they would hire the twin Dominatrixes of Abu Ghraib, Lynddie England and Sabrina Harman, to clip a dogleash on Kerry (who disgustingly said he’d like to become the second black president) to interrogate him about his dreadful record on civil rights when he comes calling seeking their support. Of course, they won’t. The Congressional Black Caucus is perhaps the only political conclave with clout as vaporous as the Greens.</p>
<p>Kerry, and his top advisor Rand Beers (a veteran of the Clinton and Bush National Security Council), crafted Plan Colombia, the brutal and toxic war on Andean peasants, waged for the benefit of oil companies under the phoney rubric of drug eradication. His scrawny energy plan, devoid of any real emphasis on conservation or solar power, calls for more off-shore oil leasing, widespread natural gas drilling, transcontinental pipelines and strip-mining for coal. His deficit-fixated economic policy, scripted by Wall Street bond tycoon Robert Rubin, is even more austere than Clinton’s.</p>
<p>Like Joe Lieberman, Kerry markets himself as a cultural prude, regularly chiding teens about the kind of clothes they wear, the music they listen to and the movies they watch. But even Lieberman didn’t go so far as to support the censorious Communications Decency Act. Kerry did. Fortunately, even this Supreme Court had the sense to strike the law down, ruling that it trampled across the First Amendment.</p>
<p>All of this is standard fare for contemporary Democrats. But Kerry always goes the extra mile. The senator cast a crucial vote for Clinton’s wretched bill to dismantle welfare for poor mothers and their children and, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, he continues to hail the mean-spirited measure as a tremendous success.</p>
<p>This is merely a precis of the grim resumé of the man the Green Party now supports through the proxy candidacy of David Cobb. The message of the Cobb campaign is: a vote for Cobb is a vote for Kerry. Translation: a vote for Cobb is a vote for war, and everything that goes along with it.</p>
<p>It’s also a vote for political self-annihilation. David Cobb is the Jim Jones of the Green Party. Form a line and pass the Kool-Aid.</p>
<p>Risk free voting? I wouldn’t bet your life on it.</p>
<p>JEFFREY ST. CLAIR is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512585/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: the Politics of Nature</a> and, with Alexander Cockburn, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia</a>.</p> | true | 4 | 160 ignorance remote causes disposeth men attribute events causes immediate instrumental causes perceive thomas hobbes leviathan 1651 alternative politics america degenerated pat lamarche newly minted vicepresidential candidate green party announced might even vote fall elections greens always skittish bunch traumatized specter bush cheney theyve offered partyborn rage decades betrayal democrats carter clintonas kind private contractor benefit democratic party power brokers take close look lamarche notreadyforprimetime radio personality say say hometown newspaper maine days winning nomination milwaukee race tight ill vote kerry lamarche said love country ask dick cheney loved country wouldnt voting sound political party makes commits suicide lamarches running mate david cobb better obscure lawyer texas dull spiritless candidate handled truly unsavory advisors future columns action functions kind bland political zombie roger corman flick lumbering across progressive landscape oregon wisconsin back tune liberal political masters tune familiar refrain anybody bush bland yes worked thanks likes medea benjamin pompous ted glick recent convention milwaukee green party heavily infiltrated democratic party operatives rejected ticket ralph nader peter camejo favor sour campaign cobb lamarche wont harm nader much indeed may liberate free green partys encyclopedic platform nader distill themes campaign potent elements war jobs corruption environment unburdened concern party building nader chooses focus efforts battleground states kerry must either confront naders issues lose election simple fatal damage milwaukee done green party cobb cohort sabotaged aspirations thousands greens labored decade build party national political force capable winning seats even importantly defeating democrats behave like republicans cf al gore fruits intense grassroots organizing destroyed instant behold rebuffed nader continues poll nearly 6 percent without green party behind yet cant discern cobbs numbers electron microscope course pungent irony thats precisely way cobb backers want greens succeeded seemed impossible months ago theyve made quixotic campaign dennis kucinich still chugs along claiming microvictory microvictory long close primaries indeed victories polls closed seem like credible political endeavor course cobb kucinich share objective function lure progressives away nader back plantation house democratic party least kucinich remained democrat cobb lamarche supposedly leaders political party formed opposition republicans outrage rightward irredeemable drift democratic party apparently green party lost mind lost entire central nervous system including spineespecially spine theyve surrendered politics fear white flag raised theres little chance recovering ground youve given always nearly immobilized asphyxiating devotion political correctness green party taken obsession logical extreme nominating pair political cretins top ticket false banner cobblamarche campaign green party instructing members vote candidates states vote doesnt matter socalled safe state strategy safe safe afghan iraqi citizens us troops detainees gitmo bagram abu ghraib migrant farm laborers steelworkers welfare mother 2 million souls rotting american prisons spotted owl streams appalachia rainforests alaska residents cancer alley peasants colombia teen age girls slaving away nikes toxic indonesia sneaker mills palestinians lakota pine ridge elementary school students hard streets oakland hopeless denizens death row three strikers life gram crack gays hoping unite marriage even cancer patients seeking simple herbal relief excruciating pain crucial player unsavory affair medea benjamin diva global exchange rationalizing decisive vote backing cobblamarche ticket benjamin emitted profundity john kerry george bush apparently tiny sliver genetic variation comes days yes medea youre right kerry simply kerry bona fide war criminal record political infamy malodorous george bushonly longer past four years kerry complicit enactment bushs disgusting policies indeed days kerry offers mainly competent manager bush agenda steadier hand helm empire kerry stands unapologetically nearly every issue caused greens bolt democratic party present founding democratic leadership council claque neoliberals seeks purge democratic party every last vestige progressivism reshape hawkish probusiness party soft spot abortionessentially stingier version rockefeller republicans kerry enthusiastically backed bushs wars moment bush signaling desire retreat senator calling 25000 new troops sent iraq plan us military remain entrenched least next four years kerry supported patriot act without reservation even much contemplation lest conclude momentary aberration sparked post911 hysteria consider fact kerry also voted two clintonera predecessors patriot act 1994 crime bill 1996 counterterrorism effective death penalty act bad worse although regularly hams photoops barons big labor kerry voted nafta wto virtually every jobslashing trade pact come senate kerry courted endorsement nearly every police association nation regularly calls putting another 100000 cops streets even tougher criminal sanctions victimless crimes refused reconsider fervid support insane war drug users destroyed families clogged prisons 2 million people many young black men draconian drug laws specifically target without mercy kerry backs racist death penalty minimum mandatory sentences couple weeks ago congressional black caucus jeered ralph nader spoke campaign bizarre reception man tireless advocate civil rights poor people group legislators actually cared welfare constituents instead merely sinecure within party would hire twin dominatrixes abu ghraib lynddie england sabrina harman clip dogleash kerry disgustingly said hed like become second black president interrogate dreadful record civil rights comes calling seeking support course wont congressional black caucus perhaps political conclave clout vaporous greens kerry top advisor rand beers veteran clinton bush national security council crafted plan colombia brutal toxic war andean peasants waged benefit oil companies phoney rubric drug eradication scrawny energy plan devoid real emphasis conservation solar power calls offshore oil leasing widespread natural gas drilling transcontinental pipelines stripmining coal deficitfixated economic policy scripted wall street bond tycoon robert rubin even austere clintons like joe lieberman kerry markets cultural prude regularly chiding teens kind clothes wear music listen movies watch even lieberman didnt go far support censorious communications decency act kerry fortunately even supreme court sense strike law ruling trampled across first amendment standard fare contemporary democrats kerry always goes extra mile senator cast crucial vote clintons wretched bill dismantle welfare poor mothers children despite mounting evidence contrary continues hail meanspirited measure tremendous success merely precis grim resumé man green party supports proxy candidacy david cobb message cobb campaign vote cobb vote kerry translation vote cobb vote war everything goes along also vote political selfannihilation david cobb jim jones green party form line pass koolaid risk free voting wouldnt bet life jeffrey st clair author brown long looked like green politics nature alexander cockburn imperial crusades iraq afghanistan yugoslavia | 995 |
<p>Bodies are buried in Ghouta, Syria, after a chemical weapon attack killed as many as 1,300. Erbin News/NurPhoto/ZUMA</p>
<p>UPDATE August 30, 2013, 1:00 PM EST: The Obama Administration has released its assessment of the chemical weapons attack in Syria. According to the document ( <a href="" type="internal">view it here</a>), the US government “assesses with high confidence” that the Syrian government carried out the attack, using a nerve agent. The document also says that the Syrian regime maintains a stockpile of numerous chemical agents, including mustard, sarin, and VX.</p>
<p>Here is the map released by the White House showing areas reportedly affected by the August 21 chemical attack ( <a href="" type="internal">click to enlarge</a>.)</p>
<p>The Obama administration has moved a fifth destroyer containing cruise missiles into the Mediterranean Sea and seems prepared to take <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/us/politics/obama-syria.html?_r=0" type="external">limited punitive military action</a> against Syria for the presumed use of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The White House is expected to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/30/world/europe/syria-civil-war/index.html?section=money_topstories&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_topstories+(Top+Stories)" type="external">&#160;declassify evidence</a> today that will show that Assad’s forces launched a poisonous gas attack against civilians earlier this month, killing more than 1,300. A year ago, President Obama set a “ <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/08/barack_obama_s_red_line_the_president_s_foreign_policy_rhetoric_on_syria.html" type="external">red line</a>,” noting that the use of chemical weapons would be unacceptable in the Syrian civil war that has raged for over two years and killed over 100,000 people. But with Britain refusing to lend support for a retaliatory strike, some members of Congress are wondering whether the use of chemical weapons is an automatic rationale for America to go to war. Here’s a backgrounder on these nasty weapons, who has them, what they do to the body, and how the United States has in the past responded to their use.</p>
<p>What is a chemical weapon? Experts generally categorize chemical weapons based on their biological effects. According to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, chemical weapons include nerve agents, choking agents, blister agents such as mustard gas, blood agents, chemicals that cause psychotic disorders, and riot-control agents, such as tear gas. Also included are <a href="http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2021686339_syriasidebarxml.html" type="external">defoliants</a> such as Agent Orange, which was used by the United States in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Under the 1997 <a href="http://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention/about-the-convention/" type="external">Chemical Weapons Convention</a> (more on that below), it’s perfectly fine for countries to <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/02/why_isnt_tear_gas_illegal.html" type="external">deploy tear gas against domestic protesters</a> so long as it’s not used as a weapon of war. But as <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/02/why_isnt_tear_gas_illegal.html" type="external">Slate</a> points out, riot-control agents can still be deadly in enclosed spaces. According to <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/PHR_other/PHR_CWAOverview_FactSheet_Final.pdf" type="external">Physicians for Human Rights</a>, the main chemical weapons doctors watch out for these days are VX, sarin, and tabun—all nerve agents—and BZ and mustard gas.</p>
<p>What do these chemicals do to people? Chemical weapons wreak havoc on the body, but are not always lethal. Nerve and choking agents hit hardest. When you inhale a <a href="http://www.opcw.org/protection/types-of-chemical-agent/choking-agents/" type="external">choking agent</a>—such as chlorine gas, which was used extensively during World War I—it forces fluid into your lungs, and that basically drowns you. Nerve agents can kill within minutes (in the case of VX), and cause twitching and seizures prior to death. Symptoms of mustard gas include skin blistering, burning eyes, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and swelling of the respiratory tract that can seal the victim’s airway. They take 2 to 24 hours to appear and are not usually lethal if adequate health care is available.</p>
<p>Which chemical agent was used in Syria? Sarin, allegedly. When absorbed through the skin, sarin attacks the nervous system and can kill a person in <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/PHR_other/PHR_CWAOverview_FactSheet_Final.pdf" type="external">5 to 10 minutes.</a> It was developed in 1938 in Nazi Germany and was allegedly tested on people in <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=0XZHSyTLyIMC&amp;pg=PA669#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">concentration camps.</a> Sarin was the gas used a deadly 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway by an extremist cult. (See timeline below.)</p>
<p>How are survivors of the Syrian attack being treated? Tim Shenk, a spokesman for Doctors Without Borders, which operates six hospitals and four health centers in the north of Syria, says that the main drug used to treat neurotoxic symptoms is atropine. The group sent approximately 1,600 vials of the drug to field hospitals in Damascus about six months ago. Those were used in the recent incident, and Doctors Without Borders is now sending 15,000 additional vials to facilities in that area. If atropine is injected within one hour of exposure, it can be <a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/how-it-works-atropine-the-nerve-gas-antidote-15859092?src=rss" type="external">highly effective</a>—but in Syria, there wasn’t enough atropine to treat everyone, and not all patients made it to the hospital in time.</p>
<p>Why are chemical weapons considered worse than, say, bombing women and children? “Unfortunately, there are no international laws against war itself,”&#160;Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, tells Mother Jones. “But there are rules about how wars can and cannot be conducted…Holding the line against further chemical weapons use is in the interests of the United States and international security, because chemical weapons produce horrible, indiscriminate effects, especially against civilians, and because the erosion of the taboo against chemical weapons can lead to further, more significant use of these or other mass destruction weapons in the future.” Chemical weapons also evoke the horrors of World War I and the Holocaust.</p>
<p>But writer Paul Waldman sees international hypocrisy on the subject. “Getting killed by mustard gas is surely awful,” he writes <a href="http://prospect.org/article/why-are-chemical-weapons-different" type="external">in The American Prospect</a>. “But so is getting blown up by a bomb. Using one against your enemies gets you branded a war criminal, but using the other doesn’t.” Steve Johnson, a visiting fellow at the United Kingdom’s Cranfield University and an expert on chemical warfare, said in an interview, “I can understand why [chemical warfare] feels emotive to us—it is insidious, there is no shelter, it is particularly effective on the young, elderly, and frail, and can be a violent and excruciating death.” He adds, “When one breaks it down ethically, though, it seems impossible to say that it is more acceptable to kill 100 people with explosives than with nerve agent.”</p>
<p>Does the United States usually intervene when chemical weapons are used? Far from it. “As far as I know,” the Arms Control Association’s Kimball says, “this would be among the first instances when a state’s use of chemical weapons would have prompted military action by the US or by others.” And <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/08/25/secret_cia_files_prove_america_helped_saddam_as_he_gassed_iran" type="external">Foreign Policy</a> reported this week that unearthed CIA documents show that the United States gave the location of Iranian troops to Iraq in 1988, fully aware that Saddam Hussein’s regime was planning to attack Iran with chemical weapons—including sarin.</p>
<p>Here are some of the most notable recent uses of chemical weapons by governments and terrorist groups.</p>
<p />
<p>1980s, Iran: During the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam Hussein’s regime <a href="http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/08/27/syria-and-the-worlds-deadly-history-of-chemical-weapons/" type="external">uses nerve gas, including sarin, and mustard gas</a> in Iran, killing up to 20,000 soldiers. The United States was <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/08/25/secret_cia_files_prove_america_helped_saddam_as_he_gassed_iran" type="external">complicit</a>, according to recently released CIA documents.</p>
<p>1988, Halabja, Iraq: Saddam Hussein’s regime <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21814734" type="external">unleashed</a> mustard gas on a town overtaken by Kurdish rebels at the end of the Iran-Iraq War, killing about 5,000 civilians.</p>
<p>1989, Tbilisi, Georgia: Russian security agents allegedly use a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/25/world/military-gas-used-in-soviet-georgia.html" type="external">World War I-era gas</a> against protesters. About 4,000 people seek hospitalization.</p>
<p>1994, Matsumoto, Japan: Aum Shinrikyo, a cult obsessed with the idea of apocalypse, released sarin at several sites, killing seven people and injuring more than 200.</p>
<p>1995, Tokyo, Japan: Aum Shinrikyo released sarin gas on the subway, killing at least 12 people and injuring more than 5,500.</p>
<p>Are chemical weapons allowed under international law? Nope. In 1925, following the large-scale use of nerve gas, tear gas, and other deadly agents during World War I, countries signed a <a href="http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/geneva/text/geneva1.htm" type="external">Geneva protocol</a> prohibiting the use of gas as a method of warfare on the grounds that it has been “justly condemned by the general opinion of the civilized world.” Using chemical weapons is a war crime under the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). A legally binding arms control treaty on chemical weapons, the Chemical Weapons Convention, was drafted in <a href="http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&amp;mtdsg_no=XXVI-3&amp;chapter=26&amp;lang=en" type="external">1992</a>. Its signatories agreed to not use or produce chemical weapons, and to destroy their remaining stockpiles. Since 1997, when the treaty went into effect, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has inspected more than 2,600 chemical weapons sites declared under the treaty. Here’s a map showing which countries have not yet signed and/or ratified the treaty, or ratified it only in the last five years:</p>
<p />
<p>Who still has chemical weapons? As of February 2013, Albania, India, Iraq, Libya, Russia, and the United States still have <a href="http://www.opcw.org/our-work/demilitarisation/" type="external">declared chemical weapons stockpiles</a>. (This doesn’t count the five countries that have not signed nor ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, or nations that may have secret stockpiles.) Since 1997, at least 80 percent of the world’s stockpiles have been destroyed—the United States and Russia have been dragging their feet, according to Cranfield University’s Johnson. Thirteen countries, including China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Iraq, and France also have declared existing chemical weapons production facilities—but of <a href="http://www.opcw.org/our-work/demilitarisation/" type="external">those 70 total declared facilities</a>, 64 have been destroyed or converted for peaceful purposes. All have been inactivated.</p>
<p>Which nations support US military intervention on the basis of a chemical weapons attack? British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged his support for a US strike against Syria, but he was rebuffed by parliament, including members of his own <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/british-prime-minister-david-cameron-loses-parliamentary-vote-on-syrian-military-strike/2013/08/29/4fabb080-10f7-11e3-bdf6-e4fc677d94a1_story.html" type="external">Conservative Party</a>. The UN Security Council meeting on the topic ended in a&#160; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/30/world/europe/syria-civil-war/index.html?section=money_topstories&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_topstories+(Top+Stories)" type="external">stalemate</a>, without authorization for military intervention. Russia passionately opposes intervention, as it blames Syrian rebels for the chemical attacks.&#160;France could turn out to be the crucial backer for Obama, as President Francois Hollande has <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/30/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE97K0EL20130830" type="external">expressed his support</a>, and is not bound by his parliament’s vote. &#160;</p> | true | 4 | bodies buried ghouta syria chemical weapon attack killed many 1300 erbin newsnurphotozuma update august 30 2013 100 pm est obama administration released assessment chemical weapons attack syria according document view us government assesses high confidence syrian government carried attack using nerve agent document also says syrian regime maintains stockpile numerous chemical agents including mustard sarin vx map released white house showing areas reportedly affected august 21 chemical attack click enlarge obama administration moved fifth destroyer containing cruise missiles mediterranean sea seems prepared take limited punitive military action syria presumed use chemical weapons bashar alassads regime white house expected 160declassify evidence today show assads forces launched poisonous gas attack civilians earlier month killing 1300 year ago president obama set red line noting use chemical weapons would unacceptable syrian civil war raged two years killed 100000 people britain refusing lend support retaliatory strike members congress wondering whether use chemical weapons automatic rationale america go war heres backgrounder nasty weapons body united states past responded use chemical weapon experts generally categorize chemical weapons based biological effects according organization prohibition chemical weapons chemical weapons include nerve agents choking agents blister agents mustard gas blood agents chemicals cause psychotic disorders riotcontrol agents tear gas also included defoliants agent orange used united states vietnam 1997 chemical weapons convention perfectly fine countries deploy tear gas domestic protesters long used weapon war slate points riotcontrol agents still deadly enclosed spaces according physicians human rights main chemical weapons doctors watch days vx sarin tabunall nerve agentsand bz mustard gas chemicals people chemical weapons wreak havoc body always lethal nerve choking agents hit hardest inhale choking agentsuch chlorine gas used extensively world war iit forces fluid lungs basically drowns nerve agents kill within minutes case vx cause twitching seizures prior death symptoms mustard gas include skin blistering burning eyes abdominal pain nausea vomiting swelling respiratory tract seal victims airway take 2 24 hours appear usually lethal adequate health care available chemical agent used syria sarin allegedly absorbed skin sarin attacks nervous system kill person 5 10 minutes developed 1938 nazi germany allegedly tested people concentration camps sarin gas used deadly 1995 attack tokyo subway extremist cult see timeline survivors syrian attack treated tim shenk spokesman doctors without borders operates six hospitals four health centers north syria says main drug used treat neurotoxic symptoms atropine group sent approximately 1600 vials drug field hospitals damascus six months ago used recent incident doctors without borders sending 15000 additional vials facilities area atropine injected within one hour exposure highly effectivebut syria wasnt enough atropine treat everyone patients made hospital time chemical weapons considered worse say bombing women children unfortunately international laws war itself160daryl kimball executive director arms control association tells mother jones rules wars conductedholding line chemical weapons use interests united states international security chemical weapons produce horrible indiscriminate effects especially civilians erosion taboo chemical weapons lead significant use mass destruction weapons future chemical weapons also evoke horrors world war holocaust writer paul waldman sees international hypocrisy subject getting killed mustard gas surely awful writes american prospect getting blown bomb using one enemies gets branded war criminal using doesnt steve johnson visiting fellow united kingdoms cranfield university expert chemical warfare said interview understand chemical warfare feels emotive usit insidious shelter particularly effective young elderly frail violent excruciating death adds one breaks ethically though seems impossible say acceptable kill 100 people explosives nerve agent united states usually intervene chemical weapons used far far know arms control associations kimball says would among first instances states use chemical weapons would prompted military action us others foreign policy reported week unearthed cia documents show united states gave location iranian troops iraq 1988 fully aware saddam husseins regime planning attack iran chemical weaponsincluding sarin notable recent uses chemical weapons governments terrorist groups 1980s iran iraniraq war saddam husseins regime uses nerve gas including sarin mustard gas iran killing 20000 soldiers united states complicit according recently released cia documents 1988 halabja iraq saddam husseins regime unleashed mustard gas town overtaken kurdish rebels end iraniraq war killing 5000 civilians 1989 tbilisi georgia russian security agents allegedly use world war iera gas protesters 4000 people seek hospitalization 1994 matsumoto japan aum shinrikyo cult obsessed idea apocalypse released sarin several sites killing seven people injuring 200 1995 tokyo japan aum shinrikyo released sarin gas subway killing least 12 people injuring 5500 chemical weapons allowed international law nope 1925 following largescale use nerve gas tear gas deadly agents world war countries signed geneva protocol prohibiting use gas method warfare grounds justly condemned general opinion civilized world using chemical weapons war crime statute international criminal court icc legally binding arms control treaty chemical weapons chemical weapons convention drafted 1992 signatories agreed use produce chemical weapons destroy remaining stockpiles since 1997 treaty went effect organization prohibition chemical weapons inspected 2600 chemical weapons sites declared treaty heres map showing countries yet signed andor ratified treaty ratified last five years still chemical weapons february 2013 albania india iraq libya russia united states still declared chemical weapons stockpiles doesnt count five countries signed ratified chemical weapons convention nations may secret stockpiles since 1997 least 80 percent worlds stockpiles destroyedthe united states russia dragging feet according cranfield universitys johnson thirteen countries including china united kingdom united states iraq france also declared existing chemical weapons production facilitiesbut 70 total declared facilities 64 destroyed converted peaceful purposes inactivated nations support us military intervention basis chemical weapons attack british prime minister david cameron pledged support us strike syria rebuffed parliament including members conservative party un security council meeting topic ended a160 stalemate without authorization military intervention russia passionately opposes intervention blames syrian rebels chemical attacks160france could turn crucial backer obama president francois hollande expressed support bound parliaments vote 160 | 946 |
<p>Mexico City.</p>
<p>Fury at the billionaire bail-out of the criminal class that has driven Wall Street into a disaster of 9/11 dimensions festers down at the bottom of the economic food chain on Main Street USA. It is a familiar syndrome south of the border. Bailing out the super rich on the backs of the rest of us has had Mexicans seething since the great FOBAPROA scam of the mid-1990s.</p>
<p>The Mexican Meltdown kicked in in late 1994. The outgoing president, the reviled Carlos Salinas de Gortari, had borrowed $33 billion USD in short-term loans to keep his house of cards from crashing down before he left office. Worried about his legacy, Salinas refused to devaluate a chronically over-valued peso, leaving the dirty work to his inept successor Ernesto Zedillo. When on December 20th, the new president was forced to devalue, the peso sank from three to ten to a dollar overnight. Panicked investors pulled their money out of the country to the tune of $1.5 billion a day. Capital flight emptied out the nation’s once-healthy reserves. With payback on Salinas’s short-term “tesobonos” coming due daily, Mexico was staring down default by January 1995.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Mexican banks, which were re-privatized just two years previous, had been stripped back to the bone. The only liquidity left in the vaults was said to be $26 billion in narco-money that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration claims is washed through the Mexican banking system annually. Interest rates were ratcheted up to 100% plus and debtors were crucified.</p>
<p>Encouraged by the banks, farmers had borrowed beyond their means to position themselves for the never-materialized bonanza of the North American Free Trade Agreement (TLCAN are its Spanish initials) and couldn’t pay up. The banks foreclosed on family farms, ranches, machinery, and herds of livestock.</p>
<p>Urban borrowers, squeezed by the soaring rates, lost taxis and taco stands, their furniture and their apartments. The banks hired armed, off-duty cops who broke down the doors of the debtors, terrorizing their families. Over a thousand citizens were unlawfully jailed and charged with theft.</p>
<p>By February 1995, Mexico had lurched into its deepest economic slide since the Great Depression. Indeed, depression was the mood of the day. Farmers drank pesticide to end it all or poured gasoline over their bodies and immolated themselves in despair. 33 citizens leaped to their deaths before onrushing trains down in the Mexico City Metro in 1996, a record.</p>
<p>But other debtors organized and fought back. El Barzon which took its name from a popular depression-era tune (the “barzon” was the strap that fastened the plough to the mule team) mobilized farmers and cityslickers alike. Bank officials were tarred and feathered, highway tollbooths burnt to the ground. In Mexico City, the Barzonistas sealed bank doors shut with superglue and marched through the streets in their underwear or less or clothed only in barrels in classic Great Depression style. One day, El Barzon paraded a circus the banks had foreclosed on to the great doors of the Bank of Mexico where the elephants took dumps on the marble steps, a steaming souvenir for the hated bankers.</p>
<p>The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency told the daily business journal El Financiero that the Barzon movement was even more subversive than the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, the Indian rebels in Chiapas whom Zedillo was falsely blaming for destabilizing Mexico and triggering the collapse.</p>
<p>Like the Cassandras of Wall Street today, the bankers cried Armageddon and the president, Zedillo, much as George Bush in the current imbroglio, stampeded congress into a monumental bail-out. FOBAPROA (“Banking Fund for the Protection of Savings”) dumped $120 billion USD in bad debt on the backs of Mexican taxpayers, 20% of the nation’s gross domestic product – Bush’s monstrous bail-out only accounts for 7% of U.S. GDP.</p>
<p>Unlike the U.S. Congress’s testy reaction to what is being dubbed “GRINGOPROA” here, the Mexican legislature, then dominated by the long-ruling (71 years) Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in connivance with the right-wing PAN, signed off on FOBAPROA without missing a beat. Only the left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), led by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) raised its voice in protest. A referendum on the bail-out organized by Lopez Obrador drummed up 2,000,000 votes against Zedillo’s skam.</p>
<p>The cost of FOBAPROA has been incalculable. With the Mexican government obligated to shell out $8 to 10 billion USD of Mexican taxpayers hard-earned money each year to pay off the debts of deadbeat banks, social budgets have shrunk, schools and hospitals do not get built, and the nation’s highway system, also privatized under Salinas and Zedillo, has fallen into dangerous disrepair.</p>
<p>Once the banks had been reasonably sanitized, the Zedillo government sold them off to international financial combines – Citigroup, Santander, the Bank of Nova Scotia, the Spanish BBVA, and the Hong Kong-based HSBC dominate the Mexican banking industry, 90% of which is in non-Mexican hands. Now the globalization of the Mexican banking system has left it vulnerable to contagion from the collapse of Wall Street.</p>
<p>In fact, the gringo credit crunch has already spread south of the border. Battered by spiraling interest rates, Mexican borrowers are defaulting big time on their loans – 6.9% of all bank loans are unrecoverable. Spurred by unconscionable hand-outs of credit cards to the middle and underclasses, 8.9% of all plastic is contaminating credit markets. Constricting credit threatens 2,000,000 small businesses and doomsayers speculate that fresh crisis and a new FOBAPROA are on Mexico’s plate for 2009.</p>
<p>The U.S. debacle, tagged the “Jazz Effect” by Argentinean president Cristina Fernandez at the United Nations General Assembly conclave last week (an insult to a uniquely American art form), has infected Mexico’s economic bloodstream and the nation’s well-being seems beyond recovery for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>Whereas President Felipe Calderon and his 350-pound finance minister Agustin Carstens once assured suspicious investors of 3% growth in 2008, the lowest on the Latin American totem pole trailing even basket case countries like Honduras and Haiti, Merrill Lynch, itself a flattened former powerhouse just spun off to the Bank of America, has recalibrated that anemic forecast to a sickly 1.9% in light of the fall-out from the downturn in El Norte.</p>
<p>Sinking oil prices as energy demand tails off into a deflationary spiral will cripple investment in PEMEX, the national oil consortium Calderon so ardently wants to sell off to Big Oil – PEMEX accounts for 40% of the nation’s budget. Even more ominous is the nosedive in “remesas”, remittances sent south by Mexican workers in the U.S. that is the only sustenance for whole rural regions and which constitute Mexico’s poverty program – one out of every four Mexican families now subsist on the remesas. Remittances are Mexico’s second source of dollars, right behind petroleum.</p>
<p>This August, the flow of greenbacks from the north diminished by a shocking 12% and total remesas have sunk 4.4% in the first five months of 2008. Prospects for relief are dim. Mexicans working in the U.S. are the last hired and the first fired. With U.S. national unemployment topping 6% – California where more Mexicans work than any other state registered 7.9% unemployment last month and the construction industry which employs many Mexican workers is off 14% – workers are beginning to return home even though unemployment and inflation here are hitting highs not seen since the Meltdown of the 1990s.</p>
<p>Although the Calderon administration minimalizes the return migration, estimating that no more than 200,000 workers will come home to Mexico in coming months, many immigration watchers are calculating that the numbers could stretch into the millions. Despite labor secretary Javiar Lozano’s happy face forecast that Mexico will be able to provide jobs for the returnees, it should be remembered that these workers fled to the U.S. precisely because they could not find work here.</p>
<p>Moreover, Mexico, which runs a serious trade deficit with the U.S., will see exports and the jobs they generate dry up in 2009. Automobile and auto parts orders, a big chunk of Mexico’s export basket, have been cancelled due to sagging sales up north and workers are being laid off on both sides of the border. Manufacturing orders for border-based maquiladoras are plummeting and hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost to even lower wage countries like China in recent years.</p>
<p>The news gets worse. Workers’ pension funds, privatized under Zedillo to allow for investment in money markets, have lost 62.5 billion pesos since the first of the year. The credit collapse has gutted the Mexican stock market as sorely as it has eviscerated U.S., European, and Asian exchanges – the Bolsa de Valores has lost over a thousand points just in the last month, panicking the nation’s top Forbes list billionaires.</p>
<p>Carlos Slim, the world’s first, second, third, or fourth richest man depending on how one measures fortunes, claims to have lost half of his in recent weeks – Slim, owner of many telephone companies in Latin America, is heavily invested in both Wall Street and the Mexican stock market where his corporations account for a third of the trading volume. The despondent Slim recently summoned the press to hear out his doom and gloom prognosis, describing the current credit crisis as far more dangerous than 1929 and anticipating deep and prolonged world recession if not Great Depression.</p>
<p>While the sky falls in on Mexico’s future, President Felipe Calderon appears astoundingly blasé, echoing John McCain’s misguided appraisal of his own economy by declaring Mexico’s “fundamentally sound”, an opinion he shared with brokers last week at the reeling New York Stock Exchange where he was invited to open trading by clanging the traditional bell.</p>
<p>Calderon’s optimism was echoed by his super-sized finance minister Carstens who assures investors that “this is one crisis Mexico is prepared for.” The old maxim that when Wall Street gets the sniffles, Mexico comes down with pneumonia is no longer operative, the former World Bank behemoth counsels. “Now Wall Street has pneumonia and we will only get a little cough.” Such delusional reasoning invoked a chorus of coughing when Carstens went before congress recently to insist that Mexico would resist the gringo disease without resorting to cutting budgets.</p>
<p>Dubious observers like La Jornada financial columnist Carlos Fernandez Vega suggests that a good place to initiate cuts might be Carstens himself. Imagine how much Mexico could save in spiraling food costs if the corpulent finance secretary’s intake was slashed 10% in the next budget cycle.</p>
<p>JOHN ROSS is wrestling with “El Monstruo” in the maw of Mexico City.&#160; These dispatches will continue at 10-day intervals until the draft is done.&#160; If you have further information visit <a href="http://www.johnross-rebeljournalist.com/" type="external">www.johnross-rebeljournalist.com</a> or <a href="mailto:johnross@igc.org" type="external">johnross@igc.org</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | mexico city fury billionaire bailout criminal class driven wall street disaster 911 dimensions festers bottom economic food chain main street usa familiar syndrome south border bailing super rich backs rest us mexicans seething since great fobaproa scam mid1990s mexican meltdown kicked late 1994 outgoing president reviled carlos salinas de gortari borrowed 33 billion usd shortterm loans keep house cards crashing left office worried legacy salinas refused devaluate chronically overvalued peso leaving dirty work inept successor ernesto zedillo december 20th new president forced devalue peso sank three ten dollar overnight panicked investors pulled money country tune 15 billion day capital flight emptied nations oncehealthy reserves payback salinass shortterm tesobonos coming due daily mexico staring default january 1995 meanwhile mexican banks reprivatized two years previous stripped back bone liquidity left vaults said 26 billion narcomoney us drug enforcement administration claims washed mexican banking system annually interest rates ratcheted 100 plus debtors crucified encouraged banks farmers borrowed beyond means position nevermaterialized bonanza north american free trade agreement tlcan spanish initials couldnt pay banks foreclosed family farms ranches machinery herds livestock urban borrowers squeezed soaring rates lost taxis taco stands furniture apartments banks hired armed offduty cops broke doors debtors terrorizing families thousand citizens unlawfully jailed charged theft february 1995 mexico lurched deepest economic slide since great depression indeed depression mood day farmers drank pesticide end poured gasoline bodies immolated despair 33 citizens leaped deaths onrushing trains mexico city metro 1996 record debtors organized fought back el barzon took name popular depressionera tune barzon strap fastened plough mule team mobilized farmers cityslickers alike bank officials tarred feathered highway tollbooths burnt ground mexico city barzonistas sealed bank doors shut superglue marched streets underwear less clothed barrels classic great depression style one day el barzon paraded circus banks foreclosed great doors bank mexico elephants took dumps marble steps steaming souvenir hated bankers us central intelligence agency told daily business journal el financiero barzon movement even subversive zapatista army national liberation indian rebels chiapas zedillo falsely blaming destabilizing mexico triggering collapse like cassandras wall street today bankers cried armageddon president zedillo much george bush current imbroglio stampeded congress monumental bailout fobaproa banking fund protection savings dumped 120 billion usd bad debt backs mexican taxpayers 20 nations gross domestic product bushs monstrous bailout accounts 7 us gdp unlike us congresss testy reaction dubbed gringoproa mexican legislature dominated longruling 71 years institutional revolutionary party pri connivance rightwing pan signed fobaproa without missing beat left party democratic revolution prd led andres manuel lopez obrador amlo raised voice protest referendum bailout organized lopez obrador drummed 2000000 votes zedillos skam cost fobaproa incalculable mexican government obligated shell 8 10 billion usd mexican taxpayers hardearned money year pay debts deadbeat banks social budgets shrunk schools hospitals get built nations highway system also privatized salinas zedillo fallen dangerous disrepair banks reasonably sanitized zedillo government sold international financial combines citigroup santander bank nova scotia spanish bbva hong kongbased hsbc dominate mexican banking industry 90 nonmexican hands globalization mexican banking system left vulnerable contagion collapse wall street fact gringo credit crunch already spread south border battered spiraling interest rates mexican borrowers defaulting big time loans 69 bank loans unrecoverable spurred unconscionable handouts credit cards middle underclasses 89 plastic contaminating credit markets constricting credit threatens 2000000 small businesses doomsayers speculate fresh crisis new fobaproa mexicos plate 2009 us debacle tagged jazz effect argentinean president cristina fernandez united nations general assembly conclave last week insult uniquely american art form infected mexicos economic bloodstream nations wellbeing seems beyond recovery foreseeable future whereas president felipe calderon 350pound finance minister agustin carstens assured suspicious investors 3 growth 2008 lowest latin american totem pole trailing even basket case countries like honduras haiti merrill lynch flattened former powerhouse spun bank america recalibrated anemic forecast sickly 19 light fallout downturn el norte sinking oil prices energy demand tails deflationary spiral cripple investment pemex national oil consortium calderon ardently wants sell big oil pemex accounts 40 nations budget even ominous nosedive remesas remittances sent south mexican workers us sustenance whole rural regions constitute mexicos poverty program one every four mexican families subsist remesas remittances mexicos second source dollars right behind petroleum august flow greenbacks north diminished shocking 12 total remesas sunk 44 first five months 2008 prospects relief dim mexicans working us last hired first fired us national unemployment topping 6 california mexicans work state registered 79 unemployment last month construction industry employs many mexican workers 14 workers beginning return home even though unemployment inflation hitting highs seen since meltdown 1990s although calderon administration minimalizes return migration estimating 200000 workers come home mexico coming months many immigration watchers calculating numbers could stretch millions despite labor secretary javiar lozanos happy face forecast mexico able provide jobs returnees remembered workers fled us precisely could find work moreover mexico runs serious trade deficit us see exports jobs generate dry 2009 automobile auto parts orders big chunk mexicos export basket cancelled due sagging sales north workers laid sides border manufacturing orders borderbased maquiladoras plummeting hundreds thousands jobs lost even lower wage countries like china recent years news gets worse workers pension funds privatized zedillo allow investment money markets lost 625 billion pesos since first year credit collapse gutted mexican stock market sorely eviscerated us european asian exchanges bolsa de valores lost thousand points last month panicking nations top forbes list billionaires carlos slim worlds first second third fourth richest man depending one measures fortunes claims lost half recent weeks slim owner many telephone companies latin america heavily invested wall street mexican stock market corporations account third trading volume despondent slim recently summoned press hear doom gloom prognosis describing current credit crisis far dangerous 1929 anticipating deep prolonged world recession great depression sky falls mexicos future president felipe calderon appears astoundingly blasé echoing john mccains misguided appraisal economy declaring mexicos fundamentally sound opinion shared brokers last week reeling new york stock exchange invited open trading clanging traditional bell calderons optimism echoed supersized finance minister carstens assures investors one crisis mexico prepared old maxim wall street gets sniffles mexico comes pneumonia longer operative former world bank behemoth counsels wall street pneumonia get little cough delusional reasoning invoked chorus coughing carstens went congress recently insist mexico would resist gringo disease without resorting cutting budgets dubious observers like la jornada financial columnist carlos fernandez vega suggests good place initiate cuts might carstens imagine much mexico could save spiraling food costs corpulent finance secretarys intake slashed 10 next budget cycle john ross wrestling el monstruo maw mexico city160 dispatches continue 10day intervals draft done160 information visit wwwjohnrossrebeljournalistcom johnrossigcorg 160 ad 160 160 160 160 | 1,090 |
<p>The Manhattan Institute’s panel on “Quality of Life” (photo: Manhattan Institute)</p>
<p>Last week I rolled up to 7 World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan for a “Quality of Life Panel” hosted by the Manhattan Institute, one of the city’s most influential conservative think thanks. As a policing activist and writer in &#160;New York City very much focused on the Broken Windows theory—which says punishing low-level “quality-of-life” offenses deters serious crime—the event caught my eye.</p>
<p>The panel, held November 19, was the centerpiece of “Quality of Life Week,” a discussion touching on the city’s handling of homelessness and the perceived signs of returning “disorder.” The discussion was one of many facilitated by <a href="http://thebeatmi.com/" type="external">The Beat</a>, the Manhattan Institute’s social media-oriented “daily email blast that cuts through the clutter…drawing from the work of the Manhattan Institute’s scholars.”</p>
<p>The Beat, it turns out, “is your go-to source to get the facts.”</p>
<p>I like to get the facts, so I finagled my way into the event as a writer and blogger, which was important since MI’s MO was to bring in members of the media to educate them about the Institute’s take on on the issues of the day. The Beat provides a bevy of conservative ideas and research on issues ranging from traffic to crime in public housing to the <a href="http://www.citylab.com/crime/2015/06/busting-the-myth-of-the-ferguson-effect/396068/" type="external">mythical</a> “Ferguson Effect,” a theory promulgated by Manhattan Institute fellow Heather MacDonald in the pages of Wall Street Journal ( <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-nationwide-crime-wave-1432938425?alg=y" type="external">5/29/15</a>)–and which began to ratchet up last year in City Journal ( <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2014/eon1222hm.html" type="external">12/22/14</a>), MI’s quarterly magazine.</p>
<p>To understand The Beat, you have to understand the Manhattan Institute’s influence both in New York and nationally. Co-founded in 1978 by a British chicken tycoon named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Fisher" type="external">Antony Fisher</a> and William Casey, who would go on to be Ronald Reagan’s CIA director, the organization has been at the forefront of the usual conservative skirmishes: <a href="" type="internal">charter schools</a>, cutting welfare, climate change denial, fracking, etc.</p>
<p>In New York City, the think tank was instrumental in the NYPD’s adoption of Broken Windows &#160;as it pushed aggressive quality-of-life policing with the administration of Mayor Rudy Giuliani and police commissioner Bill Bratton in the early 1990s. A special 1992 City Journal issue titled “The Quality of Urban Life” breathed life into quality-of-life policing, convincing Giuliani to promote Bratton from transit chief to police commissioner.</p>
<p>“A prostitute smokes crack in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in the early 1990s”: photo illustrating City Journal‘s <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_1_broken-windows-policing.html" type="external">defense</a> of Broken Windows (photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis)</p>
<p>MI continues promoting quality-of-life policing today: When Broken Windows became the focus of criticism in Ferguson, Baltimore and back in New York as people protested the shooting deaths of unarmed men, Bratton and Broken Windows co-creator George Kelling published defenses of their theory—where else but in an issue of City Journal ( <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_1_broken-windows-policing.html" type="external">Winter/15</a>)?</p>
<p>Then, of course, there’s the organization’s deep stable of fellows. MacDonald, Bratton and Kelling are all notable current or former senior fellows. Joining Bratton on last week’s panel were Fred Siegel, an old Giuliani staffer and longtime professor, and Jason Riley, a Wall Street Journal columnist—both MI senior fellows. In the audience that day was Michael Meyers, the leader of a questionable New York civil rights “coalition” (it’s really just him) who now <a href="" type="internal">moonlights</a> as Fox News‘ “civil rights expert”—also a Manhattan Institute fellow. And I’m not sure, but Nicole Gelinas, New York Post columnist and MI senior fellow, was probably there as well.</p>
<p>So you can imagine what I was walking into for the panel. Moderated by NY1‘s Errol Louis, the lineup included Bratton, Siegel, Riley and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s spokesperson Phil Walzak. Bratton, perhaps recognizing me, pointed me out to his security team. They were nice enough to stay nearby and make sure I was safe until I took my seat.</p>
<p>After a few minutes of shmoozing between Bratton (who made multiple sweeps of the cookie tray), Manhattan Institute fellows and reporters from local media—Politico, CBS, NY1, the Gotham Gazette (which published an <a href="http://gothamgazette.com/index.php/opinion/5995-a-city-we-all-want-to-live-in" type="external">opinion piece</a> by the MI president that same day)—Louis began the panel with a pretty remarkable question posed to Bratton.</p>
<p>Bill Bratton lamented that state law and the Constitution handcuffed what he could do about homelessness. (photo: Manhattan Institute)</p>
<p>“Is there a nexus,” Louis asked, “to counter-terrorism work that quality-of-life strategies would be part of the toolkit to help keep the city safe?”</p>
<p>“There actually is,” Bratton responded.</p>
<p>While I was prepared to listen to a hefty amount of the usual conservative talking points, this one was pretty wild. The way that we police a homeless person or a young black man performing in the subway has a “nexus” with how the city prepares to fight ISIS or Al Qaeda?</p>
<p>Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. Members of the media like Louis (whose father was a police officer) are already fairly tight at the hip with Bratton and the police department. And, after all, Bratton did <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/nyregion/commissioner-details-policing-options-and-use-of-resources-at-council-budget-hearing.html?_r=0" type="external">testify publicly</a> last year that NYPD officers trained in counterterrorism were being sent into public housing buildings. Still, I took furious notes.</p>
<p>Bratton went on to talk about the “radicalization” of young people and how not just parents, but also teachers and coaches, should start to recognize “changes in behavior” and “lifestyle” in young people and execute the “see something, say something” approach before things get out of hand.</p>
<p>Riley, continuing to go off the topic of quality of life, at one point made the mistake of trying to criticize Walzak and the de Blasio administration for last year’s dismantling of the NYPD’s demographics unit, a program which surveilled New York Muslims. An angry Bratton countered that it was he himself who cut the program, noting that the unit was 15 or 16 people who were basically getting no important intel. His surveillance apparatus was much more sophisticated, he explained. Riley didn’t talk much after that.</p>
<p>Eventually the conversation steered back towards quality of life and the panel’s (and audience’s) almost unanimous disgust toward one group of people: the homeless. Louis began by reading an open letter published in that day’s Daily News ( <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/nov-19-zadroga-act-paris-comics-article-1.2439652" type="external">11/19/15</a>) penned by a woman from the Upper West Side complaining that she saw actual homeless people while she walked her young child to art class. “Something massive and scary is happening,” she went on to say, blaming the liberal de Blasio administration. While Siegel credited Bratton with keeping crime stats down, he also described a stark change in the city that oddly wasn’t reflected in any crime statistic, but rather a level of “menace that’s returned,” embodied by the homeless person asking for a nickel or dime, as he put it.</p>
<p>New York Post (8/14/14) warns about the return of a 1990s bugbear.</p>
<p>In explaining these signs of decay and disorder, Siegel mentioned that the news media had done the early work of pointing out that there were, believe it or not, still homeless people in New York. CBS‘s Marcia Kramer, who was in the audience, could attest to that as she filed <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josmar-trujillo/ramping-up-the-nypds-war_b_7957770.html" type="external">several reports</a> focusing on a homeless black man in Columbus Circle. The panel also noted the numerous New York Post front pages from this past summer (though not the Post <a href="http://observer.com/2015/07/new-york-post-makes-reporter-pretend-to-be-homeless/" type="external">stunt</a>of having a reporter dress up as a homeless man in front of the mayor’s home). Siegel mentioned, perhaps inadvertently, that public opinion on there being a supposed homelessness epidemic actually followed that synchronized media coverage (which even <a href="http://gothamist.com/2015/08/10/cops_hate_homeless_too.php" type="external">had the help</a> of police unions).</p>
<p>Ah, so the media homeless hysteria in fact preceded the public’s opinion swing, helping to shape it. That makes a lot of sense. A few straight days of front pages might convince people that there’s a problem. If “menace” can be measured through New York Post covers, then Siegel was right. And if the question of there being a breakdown of the city’s quality of life, the theme of the panel, was primarily media-made, then the Manhattan Institute was smart to stay ahead of that narrative by hosting writers and journalists at events that take MI’s own claims as self-evident.</p>
<p>At the end of the discussion, a woman from the audience was chosen to ask a question; she begged Bratton for a solution to poor people asking her for change as she’s leaving her local Whole Foods supermarket in Manhattan. He recommended she call the cops, or have the store call the cops. And in a moment of solidarity with the utterly disgusted and mostly white audience (the guy next to me repeatedly whispered “sickening” at the mention of the homeless), Bratton marveled that he, too, has to deal with the problem, since there’s a shelter near his home, in “one of the better areas” of the East Side. That likely was not his other home in the Hamptons; Bratton <a href="http://nypost.com/2014/05/21/bill-bratton-has-a-deep-personal-hatred-of-graffiti/" type="external">complained</a> last year that he’s forced to see graffiti on his train ride home to the Island.</p>
<p>Seemingly at a loss for clear solutions other than to harp on his Broken Windows approach and that he “made his name” on clearing beggars from the subways “during Giuliani,” Bratton lamented how state laws and the Constitution have handcuffed what he and his officers can do about the homeless. The audience seemed equally disappointed.</p>
<p>Finally, after I’d had enough of the homeless-bashing, I left the immaculate surroundings of the Downtown conference room and headed back out into the city. In the subway station, there were three members of a family struggling to get a bunch of worn-out suitcases onto the train. The group—a woman, her mother and her brother—had just left a shelter where the younger woman had been staying with her months-old baby.</p>
<p>She had been in the women-only shelter for a few months after years of living on the streets. She was leaving to move in with Mom, who lives in public housing, after life in the shelter became unbearable. Recently she and her baby were forced to sleep in the shelter’s basement when they didn’t arrive in time for the curfew. There had also been an incident where cops were called after she had tried to get her clothes and possessions from the shelter.</p>
<p>The cops had given this woman, who didn’t want to give her name, a hard time. But this was nothing new, as she had been constantly disrespected and harassed by cops during her years living on the streets, she said. Her mother and brother both rolled their eyes at mention of the police. Mom was going to have to ask another family member to leave so make room for her daughter and new granddaughter. It was a struggle, they said. Just seeing them try to get all of bags onto the train filled my heart with a lot of raw emotions.</p>
<p>And yet in the back of my head, all I could think of was Bratton and the staffers and audience of the Manhattan Institute, dining on catered lunch and chocolate cookies, pounding the table about their “quality of life.”</p>
<p>Josmar Trujillo is a former columnist for Extra! who writes at the Huffington Post, Newsday and amNY. He is also an organizer with the Coalition to End Broken Windows and New Yorkers Against Bratton.</p> | true | 4 | manhattan institutes panel quality life photo manhattan institute last week rolled 7 world trade center lower manhattan quality life panel hosted manhattan institute one citys influential conservative think thanks policing activist writer 160new york city much focused broken windows theorywhich says punishing lowlevel qualityoflife offenses deters serious crimethe event caught eye panel held november 19 centerpiece quality life week discussion touching citys handling homelessness perceived signs returning disorder discussion one many facilitated beat manhattan institutes social mediaoriented daily email blast cuts clutterdrawing work manhattan institutes scholars beat turns goto source get facts like get facts finagled way event writer blogger important since mis mo bring members media educate institutes take issues day beat provides bevy conservative ideas research issues ranging traffic crime public housing mythical ferguson effect theory promulgated manhattan institute fellow heather macdonald pages wall street journal 52915and began ratchet last year city journal 122214 mis quarterly magazine understand beat understand manhattan institutes influence new york nationally cofounded 1978 british chicken tycoon named antony fisher william casey would go ronald reagans cia director organization forefront usual conservative skirmishes charter schools cutting welfare climate change denial fracking etc new york city think tank instrumental nypds adoption broken windows 160as pushed aggressive qualityoflife policing administration mayor rudy giuliani police commissioner bill bratton early 1990s special 1992 city journal issue titled quality urban life breathed life qualityoflife policing convincing giuliani promote bratton transit chief police commissioner prostitute smokes crack bushwick brooklyn early 1990s photo illustrating city journals defense broken windows photo andrew lichtensteincorbis mi continues promoting qualityoflife policing today broken windows became focus criticism ferguson baltimore back new york people protested shooting deaths unarmed men bratton broken windows cocreator george kelling published defenses theorywhere else issue city journal winter15 course theres organizations deep stable fellows macdonald bratton kelling notable current former senior fellows joining bratton last weeks panel fred siegel old giuliani staffer longtime professor jason riley wall street journal columnistboth mi senior fellows audience day michael meyers leader questionable new york civil rights coalition really moonlights fox news civil rights expertalso manhattan institute fellow im sure nicole gelinas new york post columnist mi senior fellow probably well imagine walking panel moderated ny1s errol louis lineup included bratton siegel riley mayor bill de blasios spokesperson phil walzak bratton perhaps recognizing pointed security team nice enough stay nearby make sure safe took seat minutes shmoozing bratton made multiple sweeps cookie tray manhattan institute fellows reporters local mediapolitico cbs ny1 gotham gazette published opinion piece mi president daylouis began panel pretty remarkable question posed bratton bill bratton lamented state law constitution handcuffed could homelessness photo manhattan institute nexus louis asked counterterrorism work qualityoflife strategies would part toolkit help keep city safe actually bratton responded prepared listen hefty amount usual conservative talking points one pretty wild way police homeless person young black man performing subway nexus city prepares fight isis al qaeda perhaps shouldnt surprised members media like louis whose father police officer already fairly tight hip bratton police department bratton testify publicly last year nypd officers trained counterterrorism sent public housing buildings still took furious notes bratton went talk radicalization young people parents also teachers coaches start recognize changes behavior lifestyle young people execute see something say something approach things get hand riley continuing go topic quality life one point made mistake trying criticize walzak de blasio administration last years dismantling nypds demographics unit program surveilled new york muslims angry bratton countered cut program noting unit 15 16 people basically getting important intel surveillance apparatus much sophisticated explained riley didnt talk much eventually conversation steered back towards quality life panels audiences almost unanimous disgust toward one group people homeless louis began reading open letter published days daily news 111915 penned woman upper west side complaining saw actual homeless people walked young child art class something massive scary happening went say blaming liberal de blasio administration siegel credited bratton keeping crime stats also described stark change city oddly wasnt reflected crime statistic rather level menace thats returned embodied homeless person asking nickel dime put new york post 81414 warns return 1990s bugbear explaining signs decay disorder siegel mentioned news media done early work pointing believe still homeless people new york cbss marcia kramer audience could attest filed several reports focusing homeless black man columbus circle panel also noted numerous new york post front pages past summer though post stuntof reporter dress homeless man front mayors home siegel mentioned perhaps inadvertently public opinion supposed homelessness epidemic actually followed synchronized media coverage even help police unions ah media homeless hysteria fact preceded publics opinion swing helping shape makes lot sense straight days front pages might convince people theres problem menace measured new york post covers siegel right question breakdown citys quality life theme panel primarily mediamade manhattan institute smart stay ahead narrative hosting writers journalists events take mis claims selfevident end discussion woman audience chosen ask question begged bratton solution poor people asking change shes leaving local whole foods supermarket manhattan recommended call cops store call cops moment solidarity utterly disgusted mostly white audience guy next repeatedly whispered sickening mention homeless bratton marveled deal problem since theres shelter near home one better areas east side likely home hamptons bratton complained last year hes forced see graffiti train ride home island seemingly loss clear solutions harp broken windows approach made name clearing beggars subways giuliani bratton lamented state laws constitution handcuffed officers homeless audience seemed equally disappointed finally id enough homelessbashing left immaculate surroundings downtown conference room headed back city subway station three members family struggling get bunch wornout suitcases onto train groupa woman mother brotherhad left shelter younger woman staying monthsold baby womenonly shelter months years living streets leaving move mom lives public housing life shelter became unbearable recently baby forced sleep shelters basement didnt arrive time curfew also incident cops called tried get clothes possessions shelter cops given woman didnt want give name hard time nothing new constantly disrespected harassed cops years living streets said mother brother rolled eyes mention police mom going ask another family member leave make room daughter new granddaughter struggle said seeing try get bags onto train filled heart lot raw emotions yet back head could think bratton staffers audience manhattan institute dining catered lunch chocolate cookies pounding table quality life josmar trujillo former columnist extra writes huffington post newsday amny also organizer coalition end broken windows new yorkers bratton | 1,058 |
<p>This Saturday, when Ireland takes its place among the nations of the world and thousands of its people march through Dublin and Belfast against the coming war, five of the island’s most honourable activists will be forcibly missing from our ranks.</p>
<p>Deirdre Clancy, Karen Fallon, Nuin Dunlop, Damien Moran and Ciaron O’Reilly are still in jail after their early-morning incursion onto a runway and into a hangar at Shannon Airport on February 3rd. The five of them are charged with criminal damage to a US Navy cargo 737 - a plane that was already in for repairs after a hatchet-attack a week earlier by another activist, Mary Kelly.</p>
<p>Their actions, launched from the ‘peace camp’ established at the airport, have seriously discomforted the Irish government, whose commitment to Ireland’s military neutrality is now barely nominal. Tens of thousands of US troops en route to the Gulf have stopped at Shannon - most of them aboard chartered civilian aircraft - and it became obvious in January that the US had been flouting aviation rules that required it to request permission to land munitions at the airport. After Irish officials spent several days playing word games about whether unloaded sidearms constituted weapons, the permissions began to be requested, and were duly granted.</p>
<p>After nearly a week in custody, Mary Kelly accepted the onerous bail terms set by the district court in Ennis, Co Clare. Ciaron O’Reilly and Karen Fallon have been refused bail, while the three others who are still incarcerated refused to comply with terms that included a personal surety of about $3,000 each; twice-daily appearances at a designated Garda (police) station; staying out of Clare; agreeing not to confer with each other before their trial; and steering at least one mile clear of the US embassy in Dublin. (One of them, Dunlop, is a US citizen, but it’s fair to say she’ll neither be seeking nor receiving consular assistance.)</p>
<p>Moran, the youngest of them at 22, is a seminarian, and the five have described themselves as representing the Dublin Catholic Worker. The burly Irish-Australian O’Reilly – at 42 the oldest of the bunch and, with his dreadlocks, its media icon - has longstanding connections with Phil Berrigan’s Jonah House in Baltimore, and spoke, electrifyingly, on a platform with Dan Berrigan in Dublin last summer. He and the other four who are still in jail fasted for five days before their last court appearance. They’re due before the judge again on the 21st.</p>
<p>In a country that is ostensibly secularising, and which was never too keen on mixing enthusiasm with religion anyway, the Shannon activists’ commitment - which smacks of actual belief - has been surprisingly popular, despite some government and media spinning against them. The papers particularly enjoyed O’Reilly’s response to the question of whether he was the group’s ‘leader’: “The Holy Spirit led our group.”</p>
<p>There has been a suggestion, too, that once they had breached the fence they indulged in ‘bizarre rituals’, including daubing “Pitstop of Death” in their own blood. The implied criticism is hard to sustain in light of half the population’s continuing adherence to a weekly ritual in which wine is transformed into human blood, and bread into flesh. (Moran’s own court account of the action mentioned nothing more bizarre than a good old-fashioned recitation of the Holy Rosary.)</p>
<p>The government is deadly serious in its propaganda against the group. When Kelly damaged the Navy plane initially, it was announced that the taxpayer would be forced to foot the half-million-plus dollar bill for repairs. (No one mentioned that a military contractor charges that much to change a washer.) The party line turned more sinister when the next, embarrassing incident occurred. State broadcaster RTE reported that the group of five had “overpowered a member of the Garda”; the Taoiseach (prime minister) Bertie Ahern denounced the “so-called peace campaigners” for using violence, and transport minister Seamus Brennan and others echoed his anger. We were told via the broadcast media on various occasions throughout the day of their arrest that the policeman in question had received medical attention and even that he was hospitalised.</p>
<p>However, when the five arrived in court that evening there was no sign of any assault charges, and their lawyer turned angrily on the government for its “wild allegations”. (Sources close to the defendants suggest quietly that the single Garda sergeant guarding the plane may have had an early-morning panic attack when he was awakened by five peaceniks going about the Lord’s work.)</p>
<p>In the meantime, another court action against the ‘peace camp’, where a large majority of campers weren’t involved in any ‘direct action’, forced the camp off airport property. One of those campers, linking the struggle for peace with that for justice in the Middle East, was Caoimhe Butterly, a young woman only recently returned from a courageous year bearing witness in and around Jenin, where she was wounded by Israeli soldiers. Now forced out of Shannon, she is planning to go to Baghdad.</p>
<p>The government says the US military build-up to date has been in accordance with UN resolution 1441, passed when Ireland served on the Security Council. An actual, unmandated shooting-war, spokesmen suggest, might just be another story. One of the main charter operators, World Airways, has already switched its stopovers from Shannon to Frankfurt, and key EU states are making anti-war noises; but once the bombing starts, the smart money is on the Irish finding a ‘nuanced’ way of doffing the cap to our political and corporate sponsors in Washington, and letting the planes continue to land at Shannon.</p>
<p>Arguing against bail for the Catholic Worker group, Garda Inspector Tom Kennedy told the district court: “On the basis of the information given to the court, these people see it as their right and duty to interfere with aircraft landing at Shannon.” Now that the Irish army has moved in to protect those aircraft, anti-war ‘direct actors’ may have to look elsewhere.</p>
<p>HARRY BROWNE writes for The Irish Times and is a lecturer in the school of media at Dublin Institute of Technology. He can be contacted at <a href="mailto:harrybrowne@eircom.net" type="external">harrybrowne@eircom.net</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | saturday ireland takes place among nations world thousands people march dublin belfast coming war five islands honourable activists forcibly missing ranks deirdre clancy karen fallon nuin dunlop damien moran ciaron oreilly still jail earlymorning incursion onto runway hangar shannon airport february 3rd five charged criminal damage us navy cargo 737 plane already repairs hatchetattack week earlier another activist mary kelly actions launched peace camp established airport seriously discomforted irish government whose commitment irelands military neutrality barely nominal tens thousands us troops en route gulf stopped shannon aboard chartered civilian aircraft became obvious january us flouting aviation rules required request permission land munitions airport irish officials spent several days playing word games whether unloaded sidearms constituted weapons permissions began requested duly granted nearly week custody mary kelly accepted onerous bail terms set district court ennis co clare ciaron oreilly karen fallon refused bail three others still incarcerated refused comply terms included personal surety 3000 twicedaily appearances designated garda police station staying clare agreeing confer trial steering least one mile clear us embassy dublin one dunlop us citizen fair say shell neither seeking receiving consular assistance moran youngest 22 seminarian five described representing dublin catholic worker burly irishaustralian oreilly 42 oldest bunch dreadlocks media icon longstanding connections phil berrigans jonah house baltimore spoke electrifyingly platform dan berrigan dublin last summer four still jail fasted five days last court appearance theyre due judge 21st country ostensibly secularising never keen mixing enthusiasm religion anyway shannon activists commitment smacks actual belief surprisingly popular despite government media spinning papers particularly enjoyed oreillys response question whether groups leader holy spirit led group suggestion breached fence indulged bizarre rituals including daubing pitstop death blood implied criticism hard sustain light half populations continuing adherence weekly ritual wine transformed human blood bread flesh morans court account action mentioned nothing bizarre good oldfashioned recitation holy rosary government deadly serious propaganda group kelly damaged navy plane initially announced taxpayer would forced foot halfmillionplus dollar bill repairs one mentioned military contractor charges much change washer party line turned sinister next embarrassing incident occurred state broadcaster rte reported group five overpowered member garda taoiseach prime minister bertie ahern denounced socalled peace campaigners using violence transport minister seamus brennan others echoed anger told via broadcast media various occasions throughout day arrest policeman question received medical attention even hospitalised however five arrived court evening sign assault charges lawyer turned angrily government wild allegations sources close defendants suggest quietly single garda sergeant guarding plane may earlymorning panic attack awakened five peaceniks going lords work meantime another court action peace camp large majority campers werent involved direct action forced camp airport property one campers linking struggle peace justice middle east caoimhe butterly young woman recently returned courageous year bearing witness around jenin wounded israeli soldiers forced shannon planning go baghdad government says us military buildup date accordance un resolution 1441 passed ireland served security council actual unmandated shootingwar spokesmen suggest might another story one main charter operators world airways already switched stopovers shannon frankfurt key eu states making antiwar noises bombing starts smart money irish finding nuanced way doffing cap political corporate sponsors washington letting planes continue land shannon arguing bail catholic worker group garda inspector tom kennedy told district court basis information given court people see right duty interfere aircraft landing shannon irish army moved protect aircraft antiwar direct actors may look elsewhere harry browne writes irish times lecturer school media dublin institute technology contacted harrybrowneeircomnet 160 | 570 |
<p>Right now, representatives of the governments of the world are meeting in Bali, Indonesia, to negotiate international agreements to forestall climate change. Necessarily, these negotiations will revolve around technical, arcane matters. What targets should be set for reduced greenhouse gas emissions? Which countries should adhere to which targets? Should there be emissions rights trading, and if so, how should trading systems work? What financing mechanisms will be established to help developing countries transition to cleaner production methods and leapfrog over polluting technologies? Will there be special mechanisms established to protect forests? How should global trading rules be altered? And on and on.</p>
<p>The world desperately needs these negotiations to succeed, for science-based emission targets to be set, and for principles of social justice to shape the allocation of rights, duties and financial obligations needed to avert climate catastrophe. And whatever progress can be achieved in Bali, the better.</p>
<p>But we also need something else, which will almost surely precede global agreements and serious commitments to undertake the massive economic and social reorganization that the threat of global warming — and other pending ecological catastrophes — commands.</p>
<p>That something else is a broad public understanding of how the system all fits together. Not just how important it is to change from incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs or the value of recycling — though these things are vital — but how the present system of making, transporting, selling, buying, using and disposing of things is trashing the planet. If we’re going to save ourselves from global warming, we’re going to have to do things differently.</p>
<p>That’s where The Story of Stuff comes in.</p>
<p>“The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard” is an engaging new short film that explains the “materials economy” in 20 fun-filled minutes.</p>
<p>Yes, fun-filled.</p>
<p>Produced by Free Range Studios, which developed “The Meatrix” — an animated short about factory farming that ranks among the cleverest uses of Internet technologies to deliver a politically progressive message — The Story of Stuff features the wonderful Annie Leonard, amusing graphics, lots of humor, and a complicated analysis presented in an easy-to-understand conversational tone.</p>
<p>You can watch the whole thing at <a href="http://www.StoryofStuff.Org" type="external">StoryofStuff.Org</a>. You’ll have to watch the film to enjoy the humor — there’s no easy way to convey the playful cartooning with serious purpose. But I guarantee chuckles even for the most austere.</p>
<p>The core themes of the Story of Stuff are:</p>
<p>1. The world is running up against resource limits.</p>
<p>“We’re running out of resources. We are using too much stuff. Now I know this can be hard to hear, but it’s the truth and we’ve got to deal with it. In the past three decades alone, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed. Gone. We are cutting and mining and hauling and trashing the place so fast that we’re undermining the planet’s very ability for people to live here.”</p>
<p>2. Corporate globalization is premised on externalizing costs — making someone other than the companies that make things pay for the environmental and human costs of production.</p>
<p>“I was thinking about this the other day. I was walking to work and I wanted to listen to the news so I popped into this Radio Shack to buy a radio. I found this cute little green radio for 4 dollars and 99 cents. I was standing there in line to buy this radio and I was wondering how $4.99 could possibly capture the costs of making this radio and getting it to my hands. The metal was probably mined in South Africa, the petroleum was probably drilled in Iraq, the plastics were probably produced in China, and maybe the whole thing was assembled by some 15 year old in a maquiladora in Mexico. $4.99 wouldn’t even pay the rent for the shelf space it occupied until I came along, let alone part of the staff guy’s salary that helped me pick it out, or the multiple ocean cruises and truck rides pieces of this radio went on. That’s how I realized, I didn’t pay for the radio.”</p>
<p>Who did? The people who lost their natural resource base, factory workers, those who are made sick from factory pollution, and retail workers without health insurance.</p>
<p>3. The corporate economy rests on the artificial creation of need —</p>
<p>“the golden arrow of consumption.”</p>
<p>“Have you ever wondered why women’s shoe heels go from fat one year to skinny the next to fat to skinny? It is not because there is some debate about which heel structure is the most healthy for women’s feet. It’s because wearing fat heels in a skinny heel year shows everyone that you haven’t contributed to that arrow recently so you’re not as valuable as that skinny heeled person next to you or, more likely, in some ad. It’s to keep buying new shoes.”</p>
<p>4. Things can be different. And they must be made to be different.</p>
<p>“What we really need to chuck is this old-school throw-away mindset. There’s a new school of thinking on this stuff and it’s based on sustainability and equity: Green Chemistry, Zero Waste, Closed Loop Production, Renewable Energy, Local Living Economies. Some people say it’s unrealistic, idealistic, that it can’t happen. But I say the ones who are unrealistic are those that want to continue on the old path. That’s dreaming. Remember that old way didn’t just happen by itself. It’s not like gravity that we just gotta live with. People created it. And we’re people too. So let’s create something new.”</p>
<p>If you worry these claims are too broad, go to the website, <a href="http://www.StoryofStuff.Org" type="external">StoryofStuff.Org</a>. It has supporting evidence and links to a vast array of additional resources and materials.</p>
<p>Is The Story of Stuff just preaching to the converted? No. (Though note, as a friend says, that there’s a reason and rationale for the clergy to preach to the congregation every week — it reinforces, deepens and sustains commitment and understanding.)</p>
<p>The Story of Stuff is something you can show to anyone (or ask anyone to view online). It’s persuasive but not a sermon. It’s sophisticated but not esoteric. Its tone is light but its content is serious. It’s narrated by the irrepressible Annie Leonard with passion but no pretense.</p>
<p>Annie, who is a former colleague and good friend, casually mentions at the start of The Story of Stuff that she spent 10 years traveling the world to explore how stuff is made and discarded. This doesn’t begin to explain her first-hand experience. There aren’t many people who race from international airports to visit trash dumps. Annie does. In travels to three dozen countries, she has visited garbage dumps, infiltrated toxic factories, worked with ragpickers and received death threats for her investigative work. Her understanding of the externalized violence of the corporate consumer economy comes from direct observation and experience.</p>
<p>The Story of Stuff is a short film about the big picture. Give it a look, and encourage others to check it out.</p>
<p>If negotiations like those in Bali are ultimately going to succeed, we need lots more people to internalize the message of The Story of Stuff, and mobilize, as Annie says, to create something new.</p>
<p>ROBERT WEISSMAN is editor of the Multinational Monitor.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | right representatives governments world meeting bali indonesia negotiate international agreements forestall climate change necessarily negotiations revolve around technical arcane matters targets set reduced greenhouse gas emissions countries adhere targets emissions rights trading trading systems work financing mechanisms established help developing countries transition cleaner production methods leapfrog polluting technologies special mechanisms established protect forests global trading rules altered world desperately needs negotiations succeed sciencebased emission targets set principles social justice shape allocation rights duties financial obligations needed avert climate catastrophe whatever progress achieved bali better also need something else almost surely precede global agreements serious commitments undertake massive economic social reorganization threat global warming pending ecological catastrophes commands something else broad public understanding system fits together important change incandescent compact fluorescent light bulbs value recycling though things vital present system making transporting selling buying using disposing things trashing planet going save global warming going things differently thats story stuff comes story stuff annie leonard engaging new short film explains materials economy 20 funfilled minutes yes funfilled produced free range studios developed meatrix animated short factory farming ranks among cleverest uses internet technologies deliver politically progressive message story stuff features wonderful annie leonard amusing graphics lots humor complicated analysis presented easytounderstand conversational tone watch whole thing storyofstufforg youll watch film enjoy humor theres easy way convey playful cartooning serious purpose guarantee chuckles even austere core themes story stuff 1 world running resource limits running resources using much stuff know hard hear truth weve got deal past three decades alone onethird planets natural resources base consumed gone cutting mining hauling trashing place fast undermining planets ability people live 2 corporate globalization premised externalizing costs making someone companies make things pay environmental human costs production thinking day walking work wanted listen news popped radio shack buy radio found cute little green radio 4 dollars 99 cents standing line buy radio wondering 499 could possibly capture costs making radio getting hands metal probably mined south africa petroleum probably drilled iraq plastics probably produced china maybe whole thing assembled 15 year old maquiladora mexico 499 wouldnt even pay rent shelf space occupied came along let alone part staff guys salary helped pick multiple ocean cruises truck rides pieces radio went thats realized didnt pay radio people lost natural resource base factory workers made sick factory pollution retail workers without health insurance 3 corporate economy rests artificial creation need golden arrow consumption ever wondered womens shoe heels go fat one year skinny next fat skinny debate heel structure healthy womens feet wearing fat heels skinny heel year shows everyone havent contributed arrow recently youre valuable skinny heeled person next likely ad keep buying new shoes 4 things different must made different really need chuck oldschool throwaway mindset theres new school thinking stuff based sustainability equity green chemistry zero waste closed loop production renewable energy local living economies people say unrealistic idealistic cant happen say ones unrealistic want continue old path thats dreaming remember old way didnt happen like gravity got ta live people created people lets create something new worry claims broad go website storyofstufforg supporting evidence links vast array additional resources materials story stuff preaching converted though note friend says theres reason rationale clergy preach congregation every week reinforces deepens sustains commitment understanding story stuff something show anyone ask anyone view online persuasive sermon sophisticated esoteric tone light content serious narrated irrepressible annie leonard passion pretense annie former colleague good friend casually mentions start story stuff spent 10 years traveling world explore stuff made discarded doesnt begin explain firsthand experience arent many people race international airports visit trash dumps annie travels three dozen countries visited garbage dumps infiltrated toxic factories worked ragpickers received death threats investigative work understanding externalized violence corporate consumer economy comes direct observation experience story stuff short film big picture give look encourage others check negotiations like bali ultimately going succeed need lots people internalize message story stuff mobilize annie says create something new robert weissman editor multinational monitor 160 | 657 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">The Mideast is awash now in popular awakenings</a>, always in oil and, often overlooked, in arms. States like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have jet fighters and rockets to rival or exceed the conventional military muscle of European powers like Britain and France. And Mideast states are buying more firepower over the next four years, with totals approaching $123 billion for U.S. sales alone. Of this, the <a href="/content/dailybeast/cheats/2010/09/13/us-plans-60b-saudi-arms-deal.html" type="external">Saudi share</a> could be upward of $60 billion for even more front-line aircraft and missiles, making it the largest U.S. arms sale in history.</p>
<p>The Libyan government is fighting NATO today with the very arms eagerly and recently sold by Italy, France, and Britain, when these allies chose to look upon <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2011/03/23/berlusconi-and-qaddafi-their-close-friendship.html" type="external">Col. Muammar Gaddafi</a> as a tolerable weirdo, a reliable supplier of oil, and a good arms customer. Iran, of course, with its missile arsenal and its open arms pipeline to radical groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, serves as principal reason for most Western arms sales. Despite all the nightmares that can be conjured from these growing arsenals, Western policymakers reckon otherwise. They feel that their arms sales do far more good than harm—and they're probably correct, at least for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>One big reason is money. Sure it sounds crass, but arms sales are quite profitable, and a partial but consequential offset for those high-flying oil bills. Business is business, after all. The Arab oil states sell Europe and America oil at exorbitant prices, and the big weapons producers—the United States, Britain, France, Russia, and now even China—sell weapons to Arabs at equally exorbitant rates. Arms bills don't begin to offset oil bills, but everything helps. The $60 billion Saudi bonanza would likely guarantee 77,000 high-paying jobs in America, according to one estimate.</p>
<p>Nor do Western policymakers believe that their arms sales have proved to be matches to light waiting Mideast conflagrations. Indeed, they think the contrary. Apart from Saddam Hussein's attacks on Iran and Kuwait many years ago, they calculate that their arms sales have helped keep the peace by maintaining various balances of power. The calculus in Washington, for example, is that the massive sales to states on the Arabian Peninsula like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, as well as sales to Egypt, contribute to deterring Iran. That is the main justification for the sales by the State Department. It is backed up by the judgment of regional experts who say Iran is well aware that America's Sunni Arab allies on the Arabian peninsula have clear air and missile superiority in the Gulf.</p>
<p>U.S. officials are also ever mindful, as if they could be otherwise, of the effect of these new weapons in Arab hands on Israel's security. Over the years, U.S. administrations have gone ahead with sales to Arab states, despite Israeli objections. At other times, they've gone ahead, but with suitable compensation to Israel in order to maintain its technological and operational superiority. Thus, with more updated F-15 fighters heading to Saudi Arabia, the United States will do Israel one better by selling it even <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2010/11/16/israeli-security-not-settlements-is-the-issue.html" type="external">more advanced F-35 fighters</a>. To some degree as well, Israelis calm themselves by being the region's only producer of front-line military equipment. While Israelis can never rest easy, they know they possess overall conventional force superiority, not to mention nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>Western leaders are confident they can handle the Mideast problems of the past—but much less so the possible consequences of the new popular awakenings.</p>
<p>Thus, Western leaders are confident they can handle the Mideast problems of the past—but much less so the possible consequences of the new popular awakenings, the Arab Springs or democratic revolutions. For sure, most Western leaders initially saw what they wanted to see and what they hope will happen: transitions that might result in stable democracies over time as Arabs come of political age. Second looks, however, revealed strong possibilities that America's autocratic friends would crack down even harder against the protesters, as in Bahrain and by the conservative army in Egypt. Not to be forgotten, these crackdowns would be enabled by Western arms. Third looks created even greater alarms. Specifically, fears are rising that while democrats may be toppling autocrats and opening the door to a better future, real power might be flowing to religious extremists. The concrete concern now is that elections in countries like Egypt are likely to throw power to the best organized political groups, which are not the young democrats but the far better organized Muslim Brotherhood and its allies. It obviously doesn't sit well to contemplate high-powered modern armaments in the hands of such groups. Saudis and Israelis could also agree on that.</p>
<p>Americans don't feel comfortable with arms sales, never have. They don't like thinking of themselves or having others think of them as merchants of death. To this point, however, Washington policymakers have no trouble standing up to the merchant of death image. As far as they can see, their arms sales help keep the peace by maintaining three essential balances of power: Among Arab states, where none has the cause or the might to start wars; between Arab states and Israel, where Israel has clear force superiority; and between Israel and Arab states on the one side, and Iran, on the other, where states friendly to Washington clearly have the upper hand. Western nightmares come from their hopes for Arab democracy and their fears that fledgling Arab democracies will go awry. In a highly volatile region of the world, brimming with modern arms, that's what keeps them awake at night.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cfr.org/bios/3325/leslie_h_gelb.html" type="external">Leslie H. Gelb</a>, a former New York Times columnist and senior government official, is author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061714542/thedaibea-20" type="external">Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy</a> (HarperCollins 2009), a book that shows how to think about and use power in the 21st century. He is president emeritus of the <a href="http://www.cfr.org/" type="external">Council on Foreign Relations</a>.</p> | true | 4 | mideast awash popular awakenings always oil often overlooked arms states like israel saudi arabia united arab emirates jet fighters rockets rival exceed conventional military muscle european powers like britain france mideast states buying firepower next four years totals approaching 123 billion us sales alone saudi share could upward 60 billion even frontline aircraft missiles making largest us arms sale history libyan government fighting nato today arms eagerly recently sold italy france britain allies chose look upon col muammar gaddafi tolerable weirdo reliable supplier oil good arms customer iran course missile arsenal open arms pipeline radical groups like hezbollah hamas serves principal reason western arms sales despite nightmares conjured growing arsenals western policymakers reckon otherwise feel arms sales far good harmand theyre probably correct least foreseeable future one big reason money sure sounds crass arms sales quite profitable partial consequential offset highflying oil bills business business arab oil states sell europe america oil exorbitant prices big weapons producersthe united states britain france russia even chinasell weapons arabs equally exorbitant rates arms bills dont begin offset oil bills everything helps 60 billion saudi bonanza would likely guarantee 77000 highpaying jobs america according one estimate western policymakers believe arms sales proved matches light waiting mideast conflagrations indeed think contrary apart saddam husseins attacks iran kuwait many years ago calculate arms sales helped keep peace maintaining various balances power calculus washington example massive sales states arabian peninsula like saudi arabia kuwait united arab emirates oman well sales egypt contribute deterring iran main justification sales state department backed judgment regional experts say iran well aware americas sunni arab allies arabian peninsula clear air missile superiority gulf us officials also ever mindful could otherwise effect new weapons arab hands israels security years us administrations gone ahead sales arab states despite israeli objections times theyve gone ahead suitable compensation israel order maintain technological operational superiority thus updated f15 fighters heading saudi arabia united states israel one better selling even advanced f35 fighters degree well israelis calm regions producer frontline military equipment israelis never rest easy know possess overall conventional force superiority mention nuclear weapons western leaders confident handle mideast problems pastbut much less possible consequences new popular awakenings thus western leaders confident handle mideast problems pastbut much less possible consequences new popular awakenings arab springs democratic revolutions sure western leaders initially saw wanted see hope happen transitions might result stable democracies time arabs come political age second looks however revealed strong possibilities americas autocratic friends would crack even harder protesters bahrain conservative army egypt forgotten crackdowns would enabled western arms third looks created even greater alarms specifically fears rising democrats may toppling autocrats opening door better future real power might flowing religious extremists concrete concern elections countries like egypt likely throw power best organized political groups young democrats far better organized muslim brotherhood allies obviously doesnt sit well contemplate highpowered modern armaments hands groups saudis israelis could also agree americans dont feel comfortable arms sales never dont like thinking others think merchants death point however washington policymakers trouble standing merchant death image far see arms sales help keep peace maintaining three essential balances power among arab states none cause might start wars arab states israel israel clear force superiority israel arab states one side iran states friendly washington clearly upper hand western nightmares come hopes arab democracy fears fledgling arab democracies go awry highly volatile region world brimming modern arms thats keeps awake night leslie h gelb former new york times columnist senior government official author power rules common sense rescue american foreign policy harpercollins 2009 book shows think use power 21st century president emeritus council foreign relations | 601 |
<p>Washington Post: “Mr. Trump’s remarks have a ripple effect overseas, signaling that the United States will no longer champion freedom of the press and expression.”</p>
<p>Recently, the Chinese government caused a stir when it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/02/china-accuses-western-media-fake-news-human-rights" type="external">dismissed multiple reports</a> that it had tortured activists in prison as “FAKE NEWS.” Several outlets were quick to note this choice of words echoed the use of the term “fake news” to dismiss any unflattering media coverage—regardless of truth—by President Donald Trump:</p>
<p>The general thesis of these pieces is that by taking the otherwise useful term “fake news” and haphazardly ascribing it to any media he didn’t like, Trump had opened the floodgates for “authoritarian governments” to do just that, thus watering down the “fake news” label and providing cover to oppressive regimes worldwide to do the same.</p>
<p>“When President Trump called the US news media ‘the enemy of the American People’ and brandished the moniker ‘fake news’ at reports he didn’t like,” the Post insisted, “tyrants everywhere perked up.”</p>
<p>“Experts said on Friday that Mr. Trump’s continuing attacks on the news media would help lend credibility to Chinese efforts to undermine Western ideals and foreign journalists,” the Times added.</p>
<p>This is true as far as it goes; Trump’s attacks are cynical and self-interested—as are, apparently, the Chinese government’s. But missing from these assessments is one key fact: It was US corporate media, in their post-election rush to smear leftists and libertarian sites as Kremlin stooges, that first stripped the term “fake news” of any objective taxonomical value.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-users-crowdsource-fake-news-document-2016-11" type="external">Three</a> <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-fake-news-developers-work-on-fix/" type="external">separate</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html" type="external">blacklists</a> of so-called “fake news” sites were boosted by dozens of mainstream media outlets in the weeks after the election, with little regard for which outlets were on these lists.</p>
<p>It turned out that anonymous “experts” do not provide good guidance on what is and isn’t “fake news.”</p>
<p>The most prominent such blacklist, by a dodgy and anonymous group called “PropOrNot,” was first breathlessly reported on by the Washington Post ( <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html" type="external">11/24/16</a>) and later written up in AP ( <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/94878e22421544ab860c8eae93c6c50d" type="external">11/25/16</a>), USA Today ( <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/11/25/reports-russian-operation-boosted-fake-news-phenomenon/94424206/" type="external">11/25/16</a>), PBS ( <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/russian-propaganda-effort-behind-flood-fake-news-preceded-election/" type="external">11/25/16</a>), NPR ( <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/11/25/503361296/experts-say-russian-propaganda-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election" type="external">11/25/16</a>), Daily Beast ( <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/11/25/russian-propaganda-bolstered-fake-news-during-election.html?via=desktop&amp;source=copyurl" type="external">11/25/16</a>), Slate ( <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/11/25/how_russian_propaganda_used_facebook_to_spread_fake_news_during_the_election.html" type="external">11/25/16</a>), Gizmodo ( <a href="http://gizmodo.com/research-confirms-that-russia-played-a-major-role-in-sp-1789363613" type="external">11/25/16</a>) and The Verge ( <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/25/13746250/us-election-russia-influence-fake-news-propaganda" type="external">11/25/16</a>).</p>
<p>It quickly became clear the PropOrNot blacklist, which included entirely-within-the-mainstream leftist and libertarian publications like Naked Capitalism, Truthdig, TruthOut and Consortium News, had been compiled by unreliable ideologues. That list was quickly <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/09/washington-post-on-the-fake-news-hot-seat.html" type="external">discredited</a>, with the Washington Post walking back their tacit endorsement in an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html?utm_term=.61cda86beedc" type="external">editor’s note</a> roughly a week later.</p>
<p>PropOrNot’s net was cast so wide by that even Drudge Report , a 21-year-old site with <a href="https://www.similarweb.com/website/drudgereport.com" type="external">130 million</a> monthly visits, was lumped in with Kremlin “fake news” solely because the list’s (again, anonymous) author deemed them Russian “useful idiots.” Drudge’s massive traffic was lumped into a still-unproven claim of 213 million views for “fake news” that was repeated by scores of high-status pundits, <a href="https://twitter.com/jonathanweisman/status/801968278591721472" type="external">including</a> New York Times deputy Washington editor Jonathan Weisman.</p>
<p>All three publications now lamenting over Trump and other world leaders’ use of “fake news” to disparage media on purely ideological grounds—the Post, Times and Slate—helped do just that months prior by legitimizing PropOrNot and other “fake news” blacklists.</p>
<p>The vagueness of the term was apparent from the beginning, with politicians from across the spectrum, including Democrats, routinely conflating “fake news” (i.e., media reports that are consciously untrue) with vague notions of “propaganda” (a far more nebulous distinction), typically including the Russian government–funded English-language network RT. Indeed, this was the framing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/12/08/hillary-clinton-attacks-fake-news-in-post-election-appearance-on-capitol-hill/?utm_term=.f49e65439abf" type="external">used by Hillary Clinton</a> in her first post-election speech when she praised Congress for creating what would become the Global Engagement Center to combat an “epidemic of malicious fake news and false propaganda that flooded social media.”</p>
<p>But which was the problem, fake news or “propaganda”? Or was it both?</p>
<p>CNN was throwing around the term “fake news” before Trump stuck the label on CNN.</p>
<p>Other media casually switched between “fake news” and “propaganda” with little regard for what, exactly, they were contesting. CNN ( <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/02/politics/russia-fake-news-reality/" type="external">12/2/16</a>), in its rundown of the “Russian fake news” menace, lumped “fake news” and run-of-the-mill propaganda, even relying on the already-discredited PropOrNot group to do so:</p>
<p>The 2016 presidential race was rife with disinformation, none more blatant than fake news—hoaxes, half-truths, outright lies—that flashed through the internet at warp speed.</p>
<p>But “fake news” was originally supposed to just be the “hoaxes” and “outright lies”—not “half-truths,” which gets us into much more murky waters. The rest of the piece went on to conflate disparate concepts even more aggressively:</p>
<p>Watts says that, during the election campaign, three main groups traded in fake news: passionate Trump supporters; people out to make money by driving followers to their websites with “click bait” stories; and the Russian propaganda apparatus.</p>
<p>Obviously, false stories made up to drive traffic, news produced by over-enthusiastic partisans and information created by foreign psyops experts are not the same thing, and putting the same label on each of them seems dubiously helpful. (Note that “Watts” here is <a href="http://www.fpri.org/contributor/clint-watts/" type="external">Clint Watts</a> of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, who—as CNN failed to inform us—formerly ran West Point’s Countering Terrorism Center, so we’re getting an unlabeled government propaganda expert’s take on foreign propaganda.)</p>
<p>But the standard of denouncing any information with a spin you disagree with had been set. Trump would first use the term to disparage CNN about a week later, on <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/807588632877998081" type="external">December 10</a>. &#160;Everything, in a matter of weeks, had become “fake news.”</p>
<p>At no point was anyone compelled to define or limit the scope of the phenomenon; from the beginning, one could add something to the category simply by calling it so. That demagogues like Trump, and foreign governments looking to stifle dissent, would use this already malleable and abused term to serve their own ends was completely predictable. (After all, governments around the world took the word “terrorism” and ran with it in much the same way.)</p>
<p>Obviously, there is a notable power asymmetry between the Washington Post and other US news outlets, on the one hand, and the president of the United States; but noting who loosened the ideological pickle jar is an important piece of context as <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/03/06/facebook-begins-flagging-disputed-fake-news/98804948/" type="external">large corporations</a> and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/facebook-fake-news-article-fine-germany-fake-news-article-thomas-oppermann-sdp-chairman-a7484166.html" type="external">governments</a> &#160;are now deploying the term to justify regulation of content. Perhaps if major news outlets had bothered to define—and use—the term “fake news” in a semi-coherent fashion, it could have made its exploitation by reactionary forces that much less likely.</p>
<p>Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst for FAIR.org. You can find him on Twitter at&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonnyc" type="external">@AdamJohnsonNYC</a>.</p> | true | 4 | washington post mr trumps remarks ripple effect overseas signaling united states longer champion freedom press expression recently chinese government caused stir dismissed multiple reports tortured activists prison fake news several outlets quick note choice words echoed use term fake news dismiss unflattering media coverageregardless truthby president donald trump general thesis pieces taking otherwise useful term fake news haphazardly ascribing media didnt like trump opened floodgates authoritarian governments thus watering fake news label providing cover oppressive regimes worldwide president trump called us news media enemy american people brandished moniker fake news reports didnt like post insisted tyrants everywhere perked experts said friday mr trumps continuing attacks news media would help lend credibility chinese efforts undermine western ideals foreign journalists times added true far goes trumps attacks cynical selfinterestedas apparently chinese governments missing assessments one key fact us corporate media postelection rush smear leftists libertarian sites kremlin stooges first stripped term fake news objective taxonomical value three separate blacklists socalled fake news sites boosted dozens mainstream media outlets weeks election little regard outlets lists turned anonymous experts provide good guidance isnt fake news prominent blacklist dodgy anonymous group called propornot first breathlessly reported washington post 112416 later written ap 112516 usa today 112516 pbs 112516 npr 112516 daily beast 112516 slate 112516 gizmodo 112516 verge 112516 quickly became clear propornot blacklist included entirelywithinthemainstream leftist libertarian publications like naked capitalism truthdig truthout consortium news compiled unreliable ideologues list quickly discredited washington post walking back tacit endorsement editors note roughly week later propornots net cast wide even drudge report 21yearold site 130 million monthly visits lumped kremlin fake news solely lists anonymous author deemed russian useful idiots drudges massive traffic lumped stillunproven claim 213 million views fake news repeated scores highstatus pundits including new york times deputy washington editor jonathan weisman three publications lamenting trump world leaders use fake news disparage media purely ideological groundsthe post times slatehelped months prior legitimizing propornot fake news blacklists vagueness term apparent beginning politicians across spectrum including democrats routinely conflating fake news ie media reports consciously untrue vague notions propaganda far nebulous distinction typically including russian governmentfunded englishlanguage network rt indeed framing used hillary clinton first postelection speech praised congress creating would become global engagement center combat epidemic malicious fake news false propaganda flooded social media problem fake news propaganda cnn throwing around term fake news trump stuck label cnn media casually switched fake news propaganda little regard exactly contesting cnn 12216 rundown russian fake news menace lumped fake news runofthemill propaganda even relying alreadydiscredited propornot group 2016 presidential race rife disinformation none blatant fake newshoaxes halftruths outright liesthat flashed internet warp speed fake news originally supposed hoaxes outright liesnot halftruths gets us much murky waters rest piece went conflate disparate concepts even aggressively watts says election campaign three main groups traded fake news passionate trump supporters people make money driving followers websites click bait stories russian propaganda apparatus obviously false stories made drive traffic news produced overenthusiastic partisans information created foreign psyops experts thing putting label seems dubiously helpful note watts clint watts foreign policy research institute whoas cnn failed inform usformerly ran west points countering terrorism center getting unlabeled government propaganda experts take foreign propaganda standard denouncing information spin disagree set trump would first use term disparage cnn week later december 10 160everything matter weeks become fake news point anyone compelled define limit scope phenomenon beginning one could add something category simply calling demagogues like trump foreign governments looking stifle dissent would use already malleable abused term serve ends completely predictable governments around world took word terrorism ran much way obviously notable power asymmetry washington post us news outlets one hand president united states noting loosened ideological pickle jar important piece context large corporations governments 160are deploying term justify regulation content perhaps major news outlets bothered defineand usethe term fake news semicoherent fashion could made exploitation reactionary forces much less likely adam johnson contributing analyst fairorg find twitter at160 adamjohnsonnyc | 654 |
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<p>As millions of Americans around the country fire up the grills on Memorial Day and welcome the arrival of summer, it might be easy to forget what the holiday is supposed to commemorate. That’s why on Monday, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/pov/" type="external">the POV</a> (Point of View) series on PBS will air Of Men and War, a documentary years in the making that chronicles the stories of American combat veterans as they undergo therapy to cope with their traumatic memories of war.</p>
<p>French filmmaker and producer Laurent Bécue-Renard spent 10 years working on the project, conceptualizing it, scouting locations, finding veterans who would be willing to participate, and then filming their therapy sessions. He focused much of the film on <a href="http://thepathwayhome.org/" type="external">the Pathway Home</a>, a therapy and service center for veterans in Northern California that offers an immersive residential treatment setting for veterans. Bécue-Renard and his cinematographer spent 14 months filming therapy sessions and then checked in on the veterans over the course of four years, filming their family lives after treatment.</p>
<p>“Rage and anger carried me through everything,” one veteran says as the cameras roll. Another describes killing somebody. “I leveled my weapon, led my target, and I pulled the trigger,” he says, adding that while subsequently moving the body, “a big chunk of his brain fell on my foot.” As he starts to tear up, he describes the blank stare on the corpse’s face. “He just kept looking at me.”</p>
<p>The film originally debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014 and went on to win the award for <a href="https://www.idfa.nl/industry/press/english-2014/28-november-of-men-and-war-wins-vpro-idfa-award-for-best-feature-length-documentary.aspx" type="external">best feature-length documentary</a> at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam later that year. Monday’s airing is the US television debut. Bécue-Renard’s first war documentary, <a href="http://www.alice-films.com/war-wearied" type="external">War Wearied</a>, was released in 2003 and chronicled the lives of three war widows in Bosnia. Of Men and War is the second film in this trilogy; the third will focus on the children of veterans and how their parents’ military service shapes their lives.</p>
<p>Bécue-Renard spoke with Mother Jones about the process of making the film, how it affected him, and what he thinks people should take away from it.</p>
<p>Mother Jones: This film deals with some pretty heavy stuff. How did the material affect you?</p>
<p>Laurent Bécue-Renard: I had a specific quest while doing this project. Both my grandfathers fought in World War I, but they never spoke [about it] to their wives, nor to their kids, or to their grandkids. So I always felt that there was something that wasn’t being told in the family and that I definitely wanted to access. I also have my own experience of war as a civilian, since I spent the last year of the war in Bosnia [as] the editor of an online magazine. That experience determined my career as a filmmaker, and I first made a film called <a href="http://www.alice-films.com/war-wearied" type="external">War Wearied</a>, where the question of being a war widow was addressed. After that film, I really felt the need to have access to what it is to be a young man sent to war, survive it, come back home, and start a family, or live with a family, and raise kids.</p>
<p>I was ready to hear what I was going to hear while I would be shooting. Besides that, for three years before starting to shoot, I did extended scouting, mostly in California, with combat veterans and their families and therapists. All that I heard, including what I heard afterward while shooting, sounded very familiar. It’s not only about death, it’s about surviving. The film itself is a journey toward life, which makes it a rather positive outcome. Although it’s tough. There are a lot of difficulties for each of these young men to survive. On the daily basis when you’re sitting in the therapy room, it’s mostly about death.</p>
<p>So I won’t be hiding that. At times it was tough to hear, because when you’re in the editing room for four years, you keep hearing it, day after day after day after day, and we had so much material, 500 hours to edit, so it takes a toll on you, of course. But again, I had a quest, and also, as the therapist is doing in the therapy room, I was seeking [to show their quest to regain] life. And that also helped not only me, but also my editors and my cinematographer.</p>
<p>MJ: <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/what-percentage-of-americans-have-served-in-the-military/" type="external">Less than 10 percent of the US population</a> has served in the military. What do you want Americans to take away from this film?</p>
<p>LBR: There’s a huge amount of young men and women deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan that are paying a high price, and this is the real cost of the war. It can’t be only when we talk “this war” or “that war,” or “going to war there or there,” and we are in favor or we are against. It can’t be only a discussion over the idea or the concept or the politics of the war. It has always to bear in mind the high price that will be paid by these young men and women and their families. That’s one thing.</p>
<p>The second thing is, you’re right, people have no idea, consciously they have no idea. But all our families in the Western world have gone through two world wars in the course of the 20th century and subsequent wars in the post-colonial world. You’re talking about the US—all families were touched one way or another by World War II. So what these guys are saying, and what I was saying earlier about my grandfathers, it’s something that did touch their family at one stage or another, and it did shape the psyche of the family in one way or another.</p>
<p>I’m always amazed in America, when I write the subject and say it’s not really about now—of course it’s about now because I shot now—but it’s also about your father or your grandfather or your great grandfather. And you know, they would have said most probably the same thing as these men in the therapy room had they been in a position to talk about their experience, to talk about what they felt and how war affected them.</p>
<p>MJ: You point out the generational aspect of this, and it’s certainly apparent in the film. Why are generations so important in this story of war?</p>
<p>LBR: In the film you see a few kids who are growing up next to their father, who has been traumatized by the experience of war. And these kids that we see on screen, to some extent it is us, or it is our parents, who grew up next to a father or a grandfather that was strongly affected by the experience of war.</p>
<p>So it’s not that far away. You just need to think a little bit. If we, the democracies, go to war, of course it’s always a failure because we didn’t manage to solve our problem through diplomacy or politics or economics or culture or whatever. But there’s a high price that will be paid by a few young men and women, and we should always have that in mind.</p>
<p>It is already in our family. We might not know it consciously, but it’s there. It’s been experienced in the past and it has shaped our families.</p>
<p>I’m deeply convinced that most modern neuroses find their roots in the experience of war in the previous generation in the 20th century, and sometimes we don’t know why we have that kind of neurosis in our behavior, and in one way or another there’s a link to some extent with the experience of the war.</p>
<p>MJ:&#160; There has been a lot of PTSD coverage in the US in various mediums. What makes this film different?</p>
<p>LBR: The camera is, from scratch, embedded in the therapy process. And it’s part of the therapy process. Meaning that you, the viewer, you’re part of it. And you’re in this room from the very beginning of this journey that each of these guys is going through in therapy, and they want you to be there; otherwise they would not accept the camera. It is, for them, very important to be acknowledged, and that their trauma and their experience be validated by not only the community they belong to, but the community of mankind that they feel separated from because of their experience with war. I know a lot of programs have addressed the question of…what is PTSD, what are the consequences of PTSD? But here you’re part of the process.</p>
<p>MJ: It seems as if the role of narrative in all this is really important.</p>
<p>LBR: Part of the trauma and part of the consequences of the trauma is that they feel so lonely. Not only within the family, but within the community. The premise of the film is also that this story they’re working on and their work as a patient in therapy is something that is going to be shared. The process itself, not only the story, but the process of how difficult it is to find a way to tell a meaningful story about what happened to you in the context of the war. That’s what you’re witnessing on screen.</p>
<p>It’s not a depressing process. This is the difference between just interviewing people with trauma. Here they are in a survival process. They want to survive, they want to live. So what you’re witnessing is their fight for survival, even though it’s tough, and things you’re going to be hearing are tough things. Even though these guys went through very, very difficult things, they’re fighting to survive psychologically. And that’s what you’re witnessing, and you’re part of their survival journey.</p>
<p>MJ: What do you think about the Memorial Day timing of your film’s first screening in the United States?&#160;</p>
<p>LBR: I’m very happy and honored that POV and PBS chose Memorial Day to broadcast the film. It’s not only about the Afghanistan or the Iraq war. It’s about all the men and women who went to war and experienced it and were traumatized by it and survived it and lived with the experience of the war. I think if people can bear that in mind, always, it will help them, even in their daily life. That’s where we come from. At one stage or another we have to face it, and it’s better than avoiding it.</p>
<p>I’m also very happy for the characters in the film, because for them it was not only a courageous journey to go through therapy. Very few men and women go to such a residential therapy program during which, for three to four months on average, you go to sessions and you’re really working hard on your psychological wounds. It’s a very courageous journey—but it’s all the more courageous to do it and publicly accept the camera in the room and to stick to it. They never asked us to leave the room or stop filming. They really wanted it and they did it very courageously.</p>
<p>And when they eventually saw the finished film, they realized and they told us how important it was for them. They realized that the film was giving a voice not only for them, but for all the guys and women who would never go to therapy or would never be heard by not only their families, but the community. So I’m so proud that it’s broadcast on Memorial Day.</p> | true | 4 | millions americans around country fire grills memorial day welcome arrival summer might easy forget holiday supposed commemorate thats monday pov point view series pbs air men war documentary years making chronicles stories american combat veterans undergo therapy cope traumatic memories war french filmmaker producer laurent bécuerenard spent 10 years working project conceptualizing scouting locations finding veterans would willing participate filming therapy sessions focused much film pathway home therapy service center veterans northern california offers immersive residential treatment setting veterans bécuerenard cinematographer spent 14 months filming therapy sessions checked veterans course four years filming family lives treatment rage anger carried everything one veteran says cameras roll another describes killing somebody leveled weapon led target pulled trigger says adding subsequently moving body big chunk brain fell foot starts tear describes blank stare corpses face kept looking film originally debuted cannes film festival 2014 went win award best featurelength documentary international documentary film festival amsterdam later year mondays airing us television debut bécuerenards first war documentary war wearied released 2003 chronicled lives three war widows bosnia men war second film trilogy third focus children veterans parents military service shapes lives bécuerenard spoke mother jones process making film affected thinks people take away mother jones film deals pretty heavy stuff material affect laurent bécuerenard specific quest project grandfathers fought world war never spoke wives kids grandkids always felt something wasnt told family definitely wanted access also experience war civilian since spent last year war bosnia editor online magazine experience determined career filmmaker first made film called war wearied question war widow addressed film really felt need access young man sent war survive come back home start family live family raise kids ready hear going hear would shooting besides three years starting shoot extended scouting mostly california combat veterans families therapists heard including heard afterward shooting sounded familiar death surviving film journey toward life makes rather positive outcome although tough lot difficulties young men survive daily basis youre sitting therapy room mostly death wont hiding times tough hear youre editing room four years keep hearing day day day day much material 500 hours edit takes toll course quest also therapist therapy room seeking show quest regain life also helped also editors cinematographer mj less 10 percent us population served military want americans take away film lbr theres huge amount young men women deployed either iraq afghanistan paying high price real cost war cant talk war war going war favor cant discussion idea concept politics war always bear mind high price paid young men women families thats one thing second thing youre right people idea consciously idea families western world gone two world wars course 20th century subsequent wars postcolonial world youre talking usall families touched one way another world war ii guys saying saying earlier grandfathers something touch family one stage another shape psyche family one way another im always amazed america write subject say really nowof course shot nowbut also father grandfather great grandfather know would said probably thing men therapy room position talk experience talk felt war affected mj point generational aspect certainly apparent film generations important story war lbr film see kids growing next father traumatized experience war kids see screen extent us parents grew next father grandfather strongly affected experience war far away need think little bit democracies go war course always failure didnt manage solve problem diplomacy politics economics culture whatever theres high price paid young men women always mind already family might know consciously experienced past shaped families im deeply convinced modern neuroses find roots experience war previous generation 20th century sometimes dont know kind neurosis behavior one way another theres link extent experience war mj160 lot ptsd coverage us various mediums makes film different lbr camera scratch embedded therapy process part therapy process meaning viewer youre part youre room beginning journey guys going therapy want otherwise would accept camera important acknowledged trauma experience validated community belong community mankind feel separated experience war know lot programs addressed question ofwhat ptsd consequences ptsd youre part process mj seems role narrative really important lbr part trauma part consequences trauma feel lonely within family within community premise film also story theyre working work patient therapy something going shared process story process difficult find way tell meaningful story happened context war thats youre witnessing screen depressing process difference interviewing people trauma survival process want survive want live youre witnessing fight survival even though tough things youre going hearing tough things even though guys went difficult things theyre fighting survive psychologically thats youre witnessing youre part survival journey mj think memorial day timing films first screening united states160 lbr im happy honored pov pbs chose memorial day broadcast film afghanistan iraq war men women went war experienced traumatized survived lived experience war think people bear mind always help even daily life thats come one stage another face better avoiding im also happy characters film courageous journey go therapy men women go residential therapy program three four months average go sessions youre really working hard psychological wounds courageous journeybut courageous publicly accept camera room stick never asked us leave room stop filming really wanted courageously eventually saw finished film realized told us important realized film giving voice guys women would never go therapy would never heard families community im proud broadcast memorial day | 878 |
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