A View From The Left- WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

 

Fearmongering Around Muslim Immigrants Echoes Anti-Asian Hysteria of Past On May 6, 1882, U.S. President Chester Arthur signed into law the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first in a series of discriminatory legal measures aimed at curbing immigration from Asia. Speaking at the time of its passage, California Sen. John F. Miller, a leading proponent of the law, declared that the Chinese were “an inferior sort of men” and that “Chinese civilization in its pure essence appears as a rival to American civilization… Japanese-Americans and Muslims in particular share another touchstone experience: a major attack on U.S. soil to which their community was ascribed collective blame. Following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into World War II, Japanese-Americans were subjected to an unprecedented degree of hostility and scrutiny, particularly by mainstream media figures… Decades later, a congressional study commissioned to look into the internment order said that the decision had been undertaken not for legitimate security reasons, but rather as a result of ”racial prejudice, war hysteria and failure of political leadership.”    More

The not always so lovable Dr. Suess, 1942. . .

 

German Feminists: Racialising sexism is no good for women

The fact that some two dozen male asylum seekers and numerous men of North-African descent have been linked to the muggings and sexual assaults in Cologne and other German cities on New Year’s Eve is being shamelessly used by various right wing movements to brandish the trope of Muslim men as a threat to women’s rights.  This is, of course, nothing new. Historically, this trope was deployed by European colonizers and, more recently, it was rebranded by the Bush administration during the occupation of Afghanistan in 2001, when the bombing of the country was presented as necessary to liberate Afghani women from Islamic oppression… So while the trope of Muslim men as women’s enemies completely ignores actual statistics and has been used to depict Muslim women as victims of oppression at the hand of savage Muslim males, none of these anti-Islam and anti-immigration spokesperson seems to have any problem with the exploitation and segregation of Muslim (and non-western migrant) women in European households.   More

 

How Flint, Michigan's tap water became toxic

Nearly two years ago, the state decided to save money by switching Flint's water supply from Lake Huron (which they were paying the city of Detroit for), to the Flint River, a notorious tributary that runs through town known to locals for its filth… The switch was made during a financial state of emergency for the ever-struggling industrial town. It was supposed to be temporary while a new state-run supply line to Lake Huron was ready for connection. The project was estimated to take about two years… Later it became publicly known that federal law had not been followed. A 2011 study on the Flint River found it would have to be treated with an anti-corrosive agent for it to be considered as a safe source for drinking water… In 2011, Flint was declared to be in a financial state of emergency, and the state took budgetary control. Therefore, all the decisions made during the water crisis were at the state level, which state officials confirmed, not by the City Council or the mayor.    More

 

This is how toxic Flint’s water really is

The city reconnected to Detroit's water system in October, but the damage was done. Water from the Flint River was found to be highly corrosive to the lead pipes still used in some parts of the city. Even though Flint River water no longer flows through the city's pipes, it's unclear how long those pipes will continue to leach unsafe levels of lead into the tap water supply. Experts currently say the water is safe for bathing, but not drinking.  A group of Virginia Tech researchers who sampled the water in 271 Flint homes last summer found some contained lead levels high enough to meet the EPA's definition of "toxic waste."   More

 

Surprise! A Venture Capitalist Says We Need Inequality

Paul Graham, a venture capitalist and one of the founders of the startup incubator Y Combinator, would have you believe this rising inequality is a good thing. Or, at very worst, the inevitable consequence of a good thing. "You can't prevent great variations in wealth without preventing people from getting rich," he wrote in an essay that went viral online last week, "and you can't do that without preventing them from starting startups." … The argument takes several turns, but it boils down to two points. First, whether inequality comes from good or bad sources, it does not, by itself, hurt anyone; just because the rich get richer does not mean the poor and middle class can't get richer, too. He concedes that some rich people got that way by taking money from the poor, but not most of them.  That's his second point: We shouldn't try to reduce inequality, because doing so would necessarily mean killing off the innovators and entrepreneurs who get rich for socially good reasons… Research suggests Graham is both overestimating the importance of startups to inequality and underestimating the damage high inequality can inflict.    More

 

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IRAN AGREEMENT AVOIDS A WAR – BUT NOT EVERYONE IS HAPPY

 

A BAD WEEK FOR WARMONGERS

This week is not looking kind to opponents of the Obama administration’s diplomacy with Iran. On Wednesday, Iran freed 10 U.S. sailors less than 24 hours after their two U.S. ships entered Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. This comes just days before the Iran nuclear deal is set to take effect, easing sanctions and freeing up billions in frozen Iranian money. Is this a new era for U.S.-Iran ties? … I think what we saw here is that the administration did not panic, and they did not enter into any bluster, and as a result, this issue was resolved peacefully within 16 hours. If the next president of the United States approaches these issues—and not just with Iran, but with other countries, as well—in the manner that some of the GOP candidates have said that they would, then most likely not only would the sailors not have been released this quickly, but potentially this would have escalated into an actual conflict.   More

 

Iran nuclear deal implementation day could be due within hours

Expectations were high on Saturday as the Iranian foreign minister said that nuclear-related sanctions on his country would be lifted imminently, with some Iranian social media accounts saying the official announcement was coming within "the hour".  Sources at the UN also indicated to AFP that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will announce today that Iran can no longer acquire nuclear weapons, which will prompt the start of sanctions being lifted in what is known as "Implementation Day".  As Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived on Saturday in Vienna, where the nuclear agreement with world powers were finally agreed last July, he said this "was a good day for the world".  "It's a good day for the people of Iran ... and also a good day for the region. The sanctions will be lifted today," Iran's official ISNA news agency reported.   More

 

Iran Nuclear Deal Implementation Day

To reach the implementation stage, Iran had to verifiably dismantle and store under IAEA seal more than 13,000 centrifuge machines, including its more advanced centrifuges, leaving Tehran with 6,104 first-generation IR-1 machines, of which 5,104 will be allowed to continue to enrich uranium to low levels (3.67 percent U-235) for energy production purposes. The remaining 1,044 centrifuges will be at the Fordo site, which can only be used for medical isotope production… The JCPOA also required Iran to ship to Russia over 8.5 tons of all forms of low enriched uranium material, leaving Iran with a working stockpile of just 300 kilograms of uranium enriched to no more than 3.67 percent U-235— far less than what is necessary to enrich further for one bomb. The stockpile cap and prohibition on enrichment above 3.67 percent will remain in place for the next 15 years.  Additionally, Iran was required to remove the core of the Arak reactor and fill the channels with cement, rendering it inoperable. The world’s six major powers, also known as the EU3+3 or P5+1, worked with Iran on a new design, which will optimize medical isotope production.   More

 

Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif:

SAUDI ARABIA'S RECKLESS EXTREMISM

Following the signing of the interim nuclear deal in November 2013, Saudi Arabia began devoting its resources to defeating the deal, driven by fear that its contrived Iranophobia was crumbling. Today, some in Riyadh not only continue to impede normalization but are determined to drag the entire region into confrontation.  Saudi Arabia seems to fear that the removal of the smoke screen of the nuclear issue will expose the real global threat: its active sponsorship of violent extremism… Let us not forget that the perpetrators of many acts of terror, from the horrors of Sept. 11 to the shooting in San Bernardino and other episodes of extremist carnage in between, as well as nearly all members of extremist groups like Al Qaeda and the Nusra Front, have been either Saudi nationals or brainwashed by petrodollar-financed demagogues who have promoted anti-Islamic messages of hatred and sectarianism for decades.   More

 

Republicans’ Self-Defeating Attack on Obama’s Iran Policy

Republican presidential hopefuls didn’t celebrate the quick release of the U.S. military personnel who found themselves in Iranian waters near a sensitive military site. Rather, they portrayed it as a failed opportunity to escalate tensions with Iran, tear up the nuclear deal, and, in the process, potentially put the safety of U.S. military personnel in jeopardy.   Republican frontrunner Donald Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning, after the sailors had been released, that the U.S. should renege on the nuclear agreement and refuse to unfreeze Iranian funds… Trump wasn’t the only GOP presidential hopeful desperately trying to paint the incident as a failure rather than a dividend from years of negotiations between the State Department and Iranian diplomats… Indeed, all of the Republican presidential frontrunners jumped at the opportunity to turn the incident into an indictment of the Obama administration’s Iran diplomacy. But none of them offered an alternative strategy that could produce an outcome more optimal than the quick release of the sailors negotiated by John Kerry.  More

Impending lifting of Iran sanctions worries Israel

Senior Israeli officials, meanwhile, have accused the American administration of ignoring - knowingly and intentionally - the military aspects of the sanctions removal, saying Washington did not put any pressure on the Iranians on the development of strategic weapons - like long-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead… Israel views the public missile experiments conducted in recent months by Iran as a move meant to test international reaction - particularly the American one. President Obama's decision not to press Tehran on this issue encourages the Iranians to continue chipping away at these international agreements meant to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.   More

 

Following the Lead of Israel and its US Lobby. . .

Democrats, frustrated with Obama on Iran, float new sanctions proposals

Democrats in Congress are losing patience with the Obama administration for failing to respond quickly enough to Iran’s test of a ballistic missile.  So frustrated, in fact, that some lawmakers are introducing legislation to ensure the next time Iran violates U.S. or international sanctions in any way, they don’t have to wait on Obama to act. Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.) is preparing to introduce a bill, along with Rep. Theodore E. Deutch (D-Fla.) and a bipartisan group of co-sponsors, to expedite the procedure for imposing additional sanctions on Iran linked to terrorism, human rights violations, or ballistic missile activities. “No response is in effect, a response…if responses are nonexistent, ineffective or delayed, those are also responses,” Kennedy said in an interview. “When it comes to the enforcement mechanisms, Congress should be acting with the administration…there needs to be a mechanism to allow for stronger and more rapid response going forward.”   More