AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager

Saturday, July 22, 2017

A View From The Left-NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong

NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong

Trump Ends Covert Aid to Syrian Rebels Trying to Oust Assad

Despite how despicable Donald Trump remains in so many ways, reports that he plans to end US arming of so-called “moderate” Syrian rebels is good for Syria – and good for the US. While the NY Times had a low-key but relatively straightforward report about the policy change, the more Neocon-oriented Washington Post had this headline: Trump ends covert CIA program to arm anti-Assad rebels in

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Syria, a move sought by Moscow. (One of the paper’s columnists was even more alarmed: Trump’s breathtaking surrender to Russia) Liberal Middle East scholar Juan Cole wrote: Trump hands Putin gift, cancels Support for Syrian Rebels.

This is crazy. Whether or not there may have been an opportunity to replace Syria’s Bashar al-Assad with a secular democratic regime in the early days of the Arab Spring (doubtful), that is clearly no longer a possibility. “Democratic” “moderate” armed rebels – to the extent they exist at all – have no imaginable path to power, compared with the extremist Islamic sectarians who dominate the opposition military forces -- with the continued aid from US allies autocratic Turkey and the absolutist Gulf petro-monarchies. Those who continue to advocate more US intervention or support for the “Syrian Revolution” are promoting the unending destruction in Syria without even the remotest possibility of a positive outcome. They have blood on their hands.

Not surprisingly, Israel, which has quietly intervened in Syria in support of the Islamist rebels, is against efforts to wind down the fighting in Syria through cooperation between Russia and the US, such as the recently-agreed ceasefire in SW Syria. Israel has attacked Syria many times over the years, including during its current civil war, and threatens further attacks against “Iranian bases” in Syria. Look for stepped-up war cheerleading from Washington Neocons and Israel’s poodles in the US Congress.

But this doesn’t mean that US intervention in Syria is over. US support for “anti-ISIS” armed groups, together with US bombing in Syria (illegal under international and US law) and Iraq (technically “legal” but unwise and immoral) is on-going -- with horrific civilian casualties.

The U.S. is also risking a catastrophic military clash with Russia or Iran in Syria. There is no legal or moral basis for the United States to be waging war in Syria, risking conflict with Russia and nuclear apocalypse for us all. Sign up for the Thunderclapand sign the petition to the U.S. Congress and Secretary of Defense James Mattis, urging them to immediately remove all U.S military planes from Syrian skies and keep them out of that country's airspace. Partners Include: RootsAction.org, World Beyond War, DailyKos, Veterans For Peace, The Nation, andWatchdog.net

ISIS is retreating in Syria and Iraq, but the US is not. The Trump administration has not made secret its hostility to Iran -- and the drumbeats for war are building.

Send a message to your members of Congress today speaking out against this frightening drift towards deeper war in the Middle East!

The world’s lack of outrage over civilian deaths in Mosul is shameful

The catastrophic number of civilian casualties in Mosul is receiving little attention internationally from politicians and journalists. This is in sharp contrast to the outrage expressed worldwide over the bombardment of east Aleppo by Syrian government and Russian forces at the end of 2016. Hoshyar Zebari, the Kurdish leader and former Iraqi finance and foreign minister, told me in an interview last week: “Kurdish intelligence believes that over 40,000 civilians have been killed as a result of massive firepower used against them, especially by the Federal Police, air strikes and Isis itself.” …“Mosul residents routinely described to Amnesty International how they sheltered in homes with relatives or neighbours in groups of between 15-100.”

It was these groups that became the victims of the massed firepower of pro-government forces. In many streets, every house is destroyed. More

Corporate Media Largely Silent on Trump’s Civilian Death Toll in Iraq

Earlier this week human rights group Amnesty International issued a lengthy report accusing US-backed forces of “repeated violations of international humanitarian law, some of which may amount to war crimes,” in Mosul, Iraq, causing the deaths of at least 3,700 civilians. Neither this report, nor the broader issue of the civilian toll in the US war against ISIS, has come close to penetrating US corporate media. The only major radio or television outlet to report on Amnesty’s claims was NPR (7/12/17). While traditional print outlets, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, did run Reuters (7/11/17) and AP (7/12/17) articles, respectively, on the report, neither covered it themselves. Neither Amnesty’s charges, nor the broader issue of civilian deaths in Mosul, garnered any coverage in television news, with no mention on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN or MSNBC. The expulsion of ISIS from Mosul by the US-led coalition did receive coverage, but the US role in killing civilians was uniformly ignored. More

Pentagon wants to build new US facilities in Iraq, Syria

The Donald Trump administration is pushing Congress for the authority to build new “temporary” facilities in Iraq and Syria as part of the US-led campaign against the Islamic State. In a policy statement released Tuesday night, the White House argues that US troops are hamstrung by legal restrictions on their ability to expand US military infrastructure “in both Iraq and Syria.” The administration wants lawmakers to extend existing authorities that only cover the “repair and renovation” of facilities to also encompass “temporary intermediate staging facilities, ammunition supply points, and assembly areas that have adequate force protection.” … But detractors say the effort could further draw the United States into Syria’s complex civil war, even as Congress continues to resist launching a full-fledged debate over updating the 2001 use of force authorization that remains the main legal justification for US involvement in the region. More

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EMPIRE OF DESTRUCTION

It was supposed to be twenty-first-century war, American-style: precise beyond imagining; smart bombs; drones capable of taking out a carefully identified and tracked human being just about anywhere on Earth; special operations raids so pinpoint-accurate that they would represent a triumph of modern military science. Everything “networked.” It was to be a glorious dream of limited destruction combined with unlimited power and success. In reality, it would prove to be a nightmare of the first order. If you want a single word to summarize American war-making in this last decade and a half, I would suggest rubble. It's been a painfully apt term since September 11, 2001. In addition, to catch the essence of such war in this century, two new words might be useful: rubblize and rubblization. Despite the doubts about such a form of global warfare that candidate Trump raised during the 2016 election campaign, the process has only escalated in the first months of his presidency. Washington, it seems, just can’t help itself in its drive to pursue this version of war in all its grim imprecision to its increasingly imprecise but predictably destructive conclusions. More

Trump Is Violating The Iran Deal

With two years of successful implementation in the books, Washington should be celebrating the anniversary of a historic Iran nuclear deal. Instead, President Trump is violating the pact and prompting its demise. With each passing day, it becomes less plausible that his violations are mistakes rather than malicious. This is all the more ironic given reports that his administration plans to once again re-certify Iran’s compliance with its Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) commitments. However, reaffirming that Iran is fulfilling its end of the bargain does not mean America is doing the same… First, it is now clear that the Trump administration intends to flout the full scope of U.S. obligations under the JCPOA so as to limit promised business ties with Iran… Considering, too, that the U.S. has the positive obligation to “agree on steps to ensure Iran’s access in areas of trade, technology, finance, and energy,” Trump’s private urging to foreign countries to withdraw business ties with Iran puts the U.S. in irrefutable breach of the JCPOA. More

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

WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

KRUGMAN: Health Care in a Time of Sabotage

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Is Trumpcare finally dead? Even now, it’s hard to be sure, especially given Republican moderates’ long track record of caving in to extremists at crucial moments. But it does look as if the frontal assault on the Affordable Care Act has failed… But now the federal government itself is run by people who couldn’t repeal Obamacare, but would clearly still like to see it fail — if only to justify the repeated, dishonest claims, especially by the tweeter in chief himself, that it was already failing. Or to put it a bit differently, when Trump threatens to “let Obamacare fail,” what he’s really threatening is to make it fail… As reported by The Daily Beast, the Department of Health and Human Services has diverted funds appropriated by law for “consumer information and outreach” and used them instead to finance a social media propaganda campaign against the law that H.H.S. is supposed to be administering — a move, by the way, of dubious legality. Meanwhile, the department’s website, which used to offer helpful links for people seeking insurance, now sends viewers to denunciations of the A.C.A. More

THE NEW WORKING CLASS

The principle of neoliberal governance—democratic politics as mere theater, markets as the real governors—became literal here: the Democrats banked their hopes on someone pretending to be a politician on the TV. This dismal outcome—and, beneath it, the fantasy of grafting the Democratic Party onto an electoral base of affluent moderates in areas like Ossoff’s Atlanta suburbs—are a product of historical forgetting. Elite Democrats seem not to remember where they came from, or what it was like when working-class people actually turned out for them. Today’s Democratic leadership and its strategy are the offspring of a process of social transformation in the late twentieth century. Yet they seem to be blissfully unaware of this historical process, and thus unable to grasp that it has become a trap—much less why it has, or how to escape it… The danger that the Democratic Party and elite liberalism now face is that they cannot conceive of the American working class as it actually is, insisting instead on addressing a specter from decades ago. The right-wing hard-hat, the eternal Reagan Democrat—such anachronistic images provide a way of not engaging with questions of class inequality. So long as these ghostly figures are what “working class” means, there can be no working-class force in political life, and the cycle of programmatic dilution and mass demobilization can continue, with increasingly horrifying consequences. More

Quit Your Job for a Better One? Not if You Live in Idaho

Idaho achieved a notable distinction last year: It became one of the hardest places in America for someone to quit a job for a better one. The state did this by making it easier for companies to enforce noncompete agreements, which prevent employees from leaving their company for a competitor. While its economy is known for agriculture — potatoes are among the state’s biggest exports — Idaho has a long history as a technology hub. And the new law landed in the middle of the tech world, causing a clash between hungry start-ups looking to poach employees and more established companies that want to lock their people in place… Alex LaBeau, president of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, a trade group that represents many of the state’s biggest employers, countered: “This is about companies protecting their assets in a competitive marketplace.” More

Worker Wages Flat, But Since 1978 CEO Pay Has Soared by 937%

Wages for most American workers have remained basically stagnant for decades, but a new report published on Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows that the CEOs of America's largest firms have seen their pay soar at a consistent and "outrageous" clip… "While the 2016 CEO-to-worker compensation ratio of 271-to-1 is down from 299-to-1 in 2014 and 286-to-1 in 2015, it is still light years beyond the 20-to-1 ratio in 1965 and the 59-to-1 ratio in 1989," the report observes. " … EPI proposes several policies that would curtail executive pay and potentially put more money into the pockets of workers, including "higher marginal income tax rates at the very top" and higher taxes for companies with high CEO-to-worker pay ratios. The Trump administration, however, has indicated that it intends to do precisely the opposite. More

HOW MUCH IS A BOSS WORTH?

As a 2016 nationwide survey reveals, 74 percent of Americans believe that top corporate executives are overpaid. This public dismay with CEO compensation exists despite the fact that Americans drastically underestimate what top corporate executives are paid every year. In fact, the survey found that CEO compensation at Fortune 500 companies was approximately ten times what the typical American thought it was. What are these CEOs actually paid? According to a study for the Associated Press by the executive data firm Equilar, in 2016 the typical CEO at the S&P 500 companies received $11.5 million in salary, stock, and other compensation. Of course, this was the median CEO income. Some were paid a great deal more… Against this backdrop, it’s striking that the Republicans controlling Congress and the White House championhuge tax cuts for the wealthy and oppose any increase in the minimum wage. More

With New D.C. Policy Group, Dems Continue to Unify With Bush-Era Neocons

While the rise of Donald Trump, whom neocons loathe, has accelerated this realignment, it began long before the ascension of Trump and is driven by far more common beliefs than contempt for the current president. A newly formed and, by all appearances, well-funded national security advocacy group, devoted to more hawkish U.S. policies toward Russia and other adversaries, provides the most vivid evidence yet of this alliance. Calling itself the Alliance for Securing Democracy, the group describes itself as “a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative” that “will develop comprehensive strategies to defend against, deter, and raise the costs on Russian and other state actors’ efforts to undermine democracy and democratic institutions,” and also “will work to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin’s ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in the United States and Europe.” It is, in fact, the ultimate union of mainstream Democratic foreign policy officials and the world’s most militant, and militaristic, neocons. The group is led by two longtime Washington foreign policy hands, one from the establishment Democratic wing and the other a key figure among leading GOP neocons. More

Americans’ Massive Disapproval of Both Parties

The “Monthly Harvard-Harris Poll: June 2017” is the latest poll in that series, and it scientifically sampled 2,258 U.S. registered voters, of whom (as shown on page 30) 35% were “Democrat,” 29% were “Republican,” and 30% were “independent”). It indicates (page 24) that 37% “approve” and 63% “disapprove” of “the way the Republican Party is handling its job.” It also indicates (page 25) that 38% “approve,” and 62% “disapprove,” of “the way the Democratic Party is handling its job.” So: despite there being 6% more self-described “Democrat”s than “Republican”s, there was only 1% more disapproval of the Republican Party than of the Democratic Party; and, this indicates that there was a substantial disapproval of “the Democratic Party” by Democratic voters (more disaffection by them for ‘their’ Party, than by Republicans for theirs). More

NBC News Poll: AMERICAN FEARS OF WAR GROW

An overwhelming majority of Americans — 76 percent — are worried that the United States will become engaged in a major war in the next four years, according to a new NBC News|SurveyMonkey National Security Poll out Tuesday. The number has jumped 10 points since February, when 66 percent of Americans said they were worried about military conflict… While concerns about Russian meddling in the 2016 election have divided the country in recent months, Democrats and Republicans agree that North Korea is the most urgent threat. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaners, 42 percent say North Korea is the most immediate threat, and a similar number of Republicans and Republican-leaners (45 percent) agree. [And, contrary to all the MSM/Trump Administration hype, only 2% saw Iran as an immediate threat to the US.] More

HOUSE PASSES BUDGET-BUSTING DEFENSE POLICY BILL

The fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act H.R. 2810 (115) was approved 344 to 81,

gaining the support of 117 Democrats and all but eight Republicans. The bill would exceed the president's $603 billion defense budget request. But it also would blow past the $549 billion cap on defense spending set under the 2011 Budget Control Act by about $72 billion. For the funding scheme to work, lawmakers would need to strike a deal to increase or repeal the budget caps… The House measure would authorize $621.5 billion for national defense programs, including the Pentagon's base budget and nuclear programs under the Energy Department, as well as another $75 billion in war funding. It also would tap $10 billion from the war-related Overseas Contingency Operations account to pay for base budget items, including $6 billion to boost Navy shipbuilding. The NDAA funding levels mirror a budget blueprint being crafted by the House Budget Committee… And the administration urged lawmakers to cut spending elsewhere in the federal budget to make up for the bill's $18.5 billion increase in base defense spending over the president's budget request. More

ROLL CALL: YES Keating, Lynch, Moulton; NO Capuano, Clark, Kennedy, McGovern, Neal, Tsongas

How to Sustain Perpetual War? Easy: Hide the Bodies

Sustaining America’s state of post-9/11 perpetual war requires skillful manipulation of the public at home. The key tool used for this purpose is the bloodless narrative, a combination of policy, falsehoods and media manipulation that creates the impression that America’s wars have few consequences, at least for Americans. How can the American government sustain its wars in the face of dead soldiers coming home? Why is there no outcry among the American people over these losses? The answer is the narrative of bloodless war. The bloodless war narrative’s solution to the dead is a policy of don’t look, don’t tell… Death, when it is reluctantly acknowledged, must still follow the bloodless narrative as closely as possible. Death must be for a good cause, freedom if possible, “for his buddies” later when public opinion weakens. More

Come to the next monthly Dorchester Standout for Black Lives Thursday August 17, 5:30-6:30 PM at Ashmont T station plaza

Come to the next monthly

Dorchester Standout for Black Lives

Thursday August 17, 5:30-6:30 PM

(and the third Thursday of every month)

at Ashmont T station plaza

Come to the next monthly Dorchester Standout for Black Lives

Thursday August 17, 5:306:30pm (and the third Thursday of every month) at Ashmont T station plaza. There were 40 people at our June 15 standout!

We will hold a big banner saying “We Believe that Black Lives Matter” and Black Lives Matter signs (including about a variety of issues that impact Black lives), and hand out fliers to pedestrians and drivers stopped at red lights. Please join us; all are welcome!

Remaining dates this spring and summer are:

August 17, and September 21. Kelley kelready@msn.com or Becky, beckyp44@verizon.net, or call Dorchester People for Peace 617-282-3783

* * * *

WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

KRUGMAN: Health Care in a Time of Sabotage

THE NEW WORKING CLASS

The principle of neoliberal governance—democratic politics as mere theater, marke

From Veterans For Peace-Can You Help Uplift Veteran Voices?

7/20/2017 7:00 PM

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Our most recent edition of Space Alert! is now at the printer and will be mailed soon. In the meantime you can check it out Online via the link above.

If you’d like to help us distribute copies please let us know how many you want and we will mail them to you – all we ask is that your reimburse us for postage once they arrive at your door.

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Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. - Henry David Thoreau

From Socialist Alternative- We raised $10,000 in one night!

7/21/2017 5:10 PM

Socialist Alternative Ginger Jentzen

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On July 9, over 150 people came out to celebrate the historic victory of the $15/hr minimum wage movement that was spearheaded by 15Now, Socialist Alternative, and Ginger Jentzen.

The celebration featured Kshama Sawant, the socialist Seattle City Councilmember who led the fight for $15 in Seattle, who delivered a powerful appeal to support Ginger’s insurgent campaign to challenge the Democratic Party establishment.Together, we raised over $10,000 to elect Ginger to the Minneapolis City Council!

We’re showing it’s possible to build a political alternative, rooted in social justice movements, based on unapologetic demands for working people, and free from donations from corporate executives and big developers. Let’s build on this momentum to raise another $10,000 before the first campaign finance report on August 1st!

If 100 people chip in $100 this month, we can hit our goal. Can you tip the scales in favor of working people and renters by throwing down $100 - or whatever you can - to the only campaign that’s not for sale to corporate executives and big developers?

Movements make the impossible possible. As Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant said at the celebration, “The interests of big business and big developers are diametrically opposed to the interests of working people...but [with $15/hr] we prevailed, because we got organized, and we fought back."

We’ve already knocked on thousands of doors, mobilized over 100 volunteers, and inspired donations from over 700 working people. This is a campaign we can win, if people like YOU continue to dig deep. But big business knows what we’re capable of. The Chamber of Commerce, big downtown developers, and anti-worker corporate executives will spend big to defeat our political revolution.

Can you chip in to Team Ginger today?

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