A View From The Local Boston Left- U.S. WARS ABROAD INCREASE INEQUALITY AT HOME

WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

U.S. WARS ABROAD INCREASE INEQUALITY AT HOME

The United States’ descent, since the late 1970s, into quasi-oligarchic levels of wealth concentration is a story of globalization, declining union membership, and technological change, among other factors. But one explanation is often missing from this list, and that is the fact that the United States is a country at war.  The U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan is currently in its seventeenth year. Together with the Iraq war and an array of “War on Terror” operations spanning the globe, such military engagement has cost the United States dearly in both blood and treasure. By one estimate, the United States’ post-9/11 military campaigns have cost the country all of $5.6 trillion. When a bill is that large, the means by which a country chooses to pay it will profoundly affect its economy, to the point of helping determine who gets rich and who stays poor…  U.S. leaders have preferred to finance war by borrowing money while cutting taxes. This method is politically expedient, but it exacerbates inequality by benefitting wealthy citizens while burdening those with lower incomes. Unfortunately, there is little indication that lawmakers will embrace a different funding method anytime soon.    More

Here's why Green New Deal advocates should address militarism

Even those congresspeople who want to seriously address the climate crisis, however, fail to grapple with the simultaneous crisis of militarism. The war on terror unleashed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack has led to almost two decades of unchecked militarism. We are spending more money on our military than at any time in history. Endless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere are still raging, costing us trillions of dollars and creating humanitarian disasters. Old treaties to control nuclear arms are unraveling at the same time that conflicts with the major powers of Russia and China are heating up. Where is the call for the New Peace Deal that would free up hundreds of billions from the overblown military budget to invest in green infrastructure? Where is the call to close a majority of our nation’s 800-plus military bases overseas, bases that are relics of World War II and are basically useless for military purposes? Where is the call for seriously addressing the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons?  More

WALL STREET, BANKS, AND ANGRY CITIZENS

In today's global economy, financial security is increasingly the property of the 1%. No surprise, then, that, as a sense of economic instability continued to grow over the past decade, angst turned to anger, a transition that -- from the U.S. to the Philippines, Hungary to Brazil, Poland to Mexico -- has provoked a plethora of voter upheavals. In the process, a 1930s-style brew of rising nationalism and blaming the “other” -- whether that other was an immigrant, a religious group, a country, or the rest of the world -- emerged…  Ultimately, what transcends geography and geopolitics is an underlying level of economic discontent sparked by twenty-first-century economics and a resulting Grand Canyon-sized global inequality gap that is still widening. Whether the protests go left or right, what continues to lie at the heart of the matter is the way failed policies and stop-gap measures put in place around the world are no longer working, not when it comes to the non-1% anyway. People from Washington to Paris,London to Beijing, increasingly grasp that their economic circumstances are not getting better and are not likely to in any presently imaginable future, given those now in power.   More

Elizabeth Warren’s strategic partnership with House Democrats for Progressive Bills

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is pushing three big ideas — cracking down hard on DC lobbying, giving workers more of a say in how corporations operate, and creating 3 million new affordable housing units — and now she has found partners for all of them among key House Democrats. This week, Warren and House Democratic members introduced two of her sweeping bills in the House — the Accountable Capitalism Act, and the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act — to complement ones she has already introduced in the Senate. Her third bill, a broad anti-corruption bill called the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act, was introduced in the House a few weeks ago.   More

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NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong

Senate Fingers Saudi Bin Salman as Murderer, Demands End of Yemen War

Seven Republicans joined the Democrats in the Senate in voting for resolutions that 1) assigned the blame for the murder of the dissident Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi to Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman and 2) invoked the War Powers Act of 1973 in calling for an end to US military involvement in the Saudi-led war on Yemen… Just so Trump and his Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, get the message right off the bat, the resolution is entitled “To direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress.”  The Senators point out that under article I, section 8, clause 11 of the United States Constitution, the Senate has the sole power to declare war, and go on to point out rather testily that Congress has not declared war on Yemen nor was it ever consulted about the US entering the fray against the Houthis or Helpers of God in the Republic of Yemen.   More

The New York Times published a long and heart-wrenching rort on the destruction and suffering in Yemen:

A Tragedy in Yemen, Made in America

PEACE ACTION: Senate Passes Historic Bill Directing End U.S. Role in Yemen War

“The Trump administration needs to listen to the growing bipartisan consensus in Congress that U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen must end without delay. With this strong bipartisan action in the Senate, Republican leadership in the House needs to stop blocking the will of the majority and allow a vote in the House without delay. If the Trump administration does not act to end the unconstitutional U.S. role in Yemen, the incoming Congress will move to force its hand next year. “This vote is the culmination of years of work by champions in the Senate like Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Mike Lee (R-UT), by peace groups, human rights groups, and political groups from across the political spectrum, and by grassroots activists across the nation demanding Congress take action to end the unconstitutional U.S. role in Yemen. This vote is a testament to the power of political activism, and a reminder that we must continue the struggle for a just and responsible foreign policy, because that struggle makes a difference.”   More

Latest Odds of a Shooting War between NATO and Russia

There has been a proxy war within Ukraine since 2014, with NATO backing Poroshenko’s Ukrainian government and Russia backing the dissidents and armed separatists who speak Russian and identify as Russian in Ukraine’s southeastern Donbass region. But in the Kerch Strait the hostilities are between Russia and Ukraine, with NATO behind Ukraine.  A shooting war will begin if it escalates to where NATO soldiers shoot and kill Russian soldiers or vice versa. Whoever shoots first, the other side will feel compelled to respond, and then there’ll be a war between Russia and NATO or Russia and a NATO nation. We don’t know whether NATO would feel compelled to respond as one if Russians fired on soldiers of individual NATO nations—most likely UK soldiers since the UK is sending more of its Special Forces and already has the largest NATO military presence in Ukraine.   More