WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME
Trump’s Budget Expands Global War on the Backs of the American Poor
It is fitting that while President Trump is traveling the world, sealing a weapons deal with Saudi Arabia, he would drop his own kind of bomb on the American people: his budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, titled, of course, “The New Foundation for American Greatness.” … The budget proposes deep cuts to government support for the poor, including slashing over $800 billion from Medicaid, $192 billion from food assistance, $272 billion from welfare programs, $72 billion from disability benefits, and ending programs that provide financial support for poor college students. While cutting government assistance for working class
Americans, the budget notably beefs up annual military spending by 10%, to the tune of $639 billion. The US defense budget is already roughly the size of the next eleven largest national military budgets combined. Trump’s budget aims to go bigger, laying the groundwork “for a larger, more capable, and more lethal joint force [and] warfighting readiness.” More
Americans, the budget notably beefs up annual military spending by 10%, to the tune of $639 billion. The US defense budget is already roughly the size of the next eleven largest national military budgets combined. Trump’s budget aims to go bigger, laying the groundwork “for a larger, more capable, and more lethal joint force [and] warfighting readiness.” More
Winners and losers in Trump's budget proposal
Trump wants to increase military spending over the next 10 years and slash nondefense spending. Typically, those categories of annually appropriated spending have been roughly equal. Separate are entitlement programs, chiefly Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid; of those, only Medicaid is in for cuts. More
How Trump’s budget helps the rich at the expense of the poor
Trump announced a tax overhaul that would reduce or eliminate trillions of dollars in taxes that are paid primarily by the wealthy, including the estate tax and the marginal rate on ordinary income paid by the richest taxpayers. He would lessen spending on Medicaid, the federal program that provides health insurance to the poor, by $1.4 trillion over a decade, and he would allow states to impose strict limits on other major anti-poverty benefits such as food stamps. The budget also called for repealing President Obama’s health-care reform, which helped cover poor and middle-class households with funds raised in part through greater taxes on the rich… Trump’s policies would almost certainly add to economic inequality — which is already at historically elevated levels. Half a century ago, in 1967, the richest one in 100 American households claimed 11 percent of the income generated by the whole U.S. economy that year. That figure had doubled to 22 percent by 2015, the latest year for which data is available… the richest 0.1 percent of U.S. households alone now own about as much as the poorest 90 percent of the country combined. That discrepancy has not been so severe since the Great Depression. More
Voucher programs will accelerate school resegregation
According to The Century Foundation, a think tank dedicated to reducing inequality, Trump’s plan would increase segregation in public schools because many of the private schools that would be eligible to receive public money through vouchers serve a disproportionate percentage of white and wealthy students, further concentrating students of color and poor students in public schools. A recent report by the Southern Education Foundation found that 43 percent of the nation’s private school students attend virtually all-white schools compared to just 27 percent of public school students… Looking at the effects of school privatization in Southern states shows how it’s tied to increased segregation on the local level. In an amicus brief filed as part of the lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s voucher program established in 2014, the state NAACP showed how private schools are able to induce segregation in public schools… This is illustrated by the fact that even in majority Black counties — Bertie, Halifax, Hertford, and Northampton — the private schools are almost 100 percent white. More
Want To See How School Choice Leads to Segregation? Visit Betsy DeVos’ Hometown
Since Michigan adopted the school choice policies DeVos is now pushing across the country, Holland’s white enrollment has dropped by more than 60%, as students decamped for public schools or charters in whiter communities nearby. The students who remain in the Holland Public Schools are now majority Hispanic and overwhelmingly poor—twice the schools’ poverty rate when Michigan’s school choice experiment began. Many of these students are the children of migrant farm workers who came to this part of the state to pick fruit; school choice enabled Holland’s white families to pick not to attend school with them. One in three students in Holland no longer attends school there, and since the money follows the child in the Mitten State, yet another DeVos priority, white flight has eaten the district’s finances too. In 2000, Holland had fifteen schools. Now it has just eight. Of nine Holland schools that once served elementary students, just two are left. By 2009, even the elementary school where DeVos’ mother once taught had been shuttered. More
BOYCOTT TRUMP!
Can a Movement to Hurt the President Financially Change the Political Landscape?
Among all the ways you can now voice your dissent, though, there’s one tactic that this president will surely understand: economic resistance aimed at his own businesses and those of his children. He may not be swayed by protesters filling the streets, but he does speak the language of money. Through a host of tactics -- including boycotting stores that carry Trump products, punishing corporations and advertisers that underwrite the administration’s agenda, and disrupting business-as-usual at Trump companies -- protesters are using the power of the purse to demonstrate their opposition and have planned a day of resistance against his brand on June 14th… And yet, even as throngs of organizations and hundreds of thousands of individuals throw their energy into economic tactics intended to weaken the president, it’s still an open question whether this type of resistance -- or, more specifically, its current implementation -- can precipitate anything in the way of meaningful change. More
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NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong
Manchester Bombing is Blowback from the West’s Disastrous Interventions and Proxy Wars
The heinous suicide bombing by British-born Salman Abedi of an Arianna Grande concert in Manchester was not merely the work of an “evil loser,” as Donald Trump called it. It was blowback from interventionist policies carried out in the name of human rights and “civilian protection.” Through wars of regime change and the arming and training of Islamist proxy groups, the US, UK and France played out imperial delusions across the Middle East. In Syria and Libya, they cultivated the perfect petri dish for jihadist insurgency, helping to spawn weaponized nihilists like Abedi intent on bringing the West’s wars back home… When the uprising against Gaddafi began in 2011, Ramadan Abedi, the father of Salem, returned to his home country to fight with the LIFG. [Libyan Islamic Fighting Group] He was part of the rat line operated by the MI5, which hustled anti-Qaddafi Libyan exiles to the front lines of the war. More
Manchester Attacks: What Price Hypocrisy?
The lack of a coherent anti-terrorism strategy in Washington and by extension the West, as emergency services deal with the devastating aftermath of yet another terrorist atrocity in Europe – this time a suicide bomb attack at a concert in Manchester, England – has been thrown into sharp relief during President Trump’s tour of the Middle East. Specifically, on what planet can Iran be credibly accused of funding and supporting terrorism while Saudi Arabia is considered a viable partner in the fight against terrorism? This is precisely the narrative we are being invited to embrace by President Trump in what counts as a retreat from reality into the realms of fantasy, undertaken in service not to security but commerce. More
Trump Official Praises Autocratic Rule:
'Not a Single Hint of a Protester' in Saudi Arabia
Putting a fine point on the spin that President Donald Trump's trip to the Middle East has been a glowing, peace-dealing success, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross praised the fact that there were no protesters in Saudi Arabia—a nation where political dissonance is punishable by death. Speaking to CNBC on Monday, Ross, who accompanied Trump on the weekend trip to Riyadh,said he found it "fascinating" that he did not see "a single hint of a protester anywhere there during the whole time we were there. Not one guy with a bad placard." The remarks immediately caught the ear of Middle East experts and other observers. Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in the Center for Middle East Policy, told CNBC afterwards that Saudi Arabia is among the "most repressive" of free speech in the Middle East, adding: "Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy which forbids any political protest or any manifestation of dissent. It is also a police state that beheads opponents." More
Donald Trump puts US on Sunni Muslim side of bitter sectarian war with Shias
President Trump called on 55 Muslim leaders assembled in Riyadh to drive out terrorism from their countries. He identified Iran as a despotic state and came near to calling for regime change, though Iran held a presidential election generally regarded as fair only two days previously… Saudi leaders will be pleased by Mr Trump’s condemnation of Iran as the fountainhead of terrorism. This was the most substantive part of speech and is the one most likely to increase conflict. The Saudis will see it as a licence to increase their support for proxy wars being waged against Shia movements and communities in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and beyond. Houthi militiamen in Yemen and Shia militiamen in Iraq and Syria are often referred to as “Iranian-backed”, which may or may not be true, but it is their Shiism which is by far the most important determinant of their political identity. In targeting them, Mr Trump is plugging the US into the ferocious sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shia. More
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy ruled by Wahhabism, an intolerant form of Sunni Islam, and the Saudi state has supported movements such as Al Qaeda, ISIS and the Taliban. The Saudi government fiercely discriminates against Muslims of other sects, bans public worship by Christians, and supports gender inequality. The Saudis opposed the 2015 U.S.-Iran nuclear deal even though it guarantees a world with fewer nuclear weapons.
Saudi Arabia invaded Bahrain to support that country's rulers during the 2011 Arab Spring, and it is presently making war in Yemen, where its airstrikes have led to many thousands of civilian deaths and risks a serious famine. Our country is providing indispensable military aid and support for the Saudi war in Yemen; in the last two years our government has sold over $20 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia. We refuel Saudi warplanes that have bombed schools, hospitals, marketplaces, weddings, and funerals.
Additionally, Saudi military actions have disrupted the food supply in Yemen. Yemen imports nearly 90% of its food; according to the UN, 17 million Yemenis suffer from severe food insecurity.
Trump Lets Saudis Off on 9/11 Evidence
Many people know the explicit evidence found from 2009 that Saudi Arabia was, “a critical financial support base for al Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups.” Just like many know the more recent and far more damning 2016revelation that Saudi Arabia continues to provide “clandestine financial and logistical support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups” in the Middle East. And, anyone who cares about women’s rights and human rights should also know about the latest human rights report produced by Rex Tillerson’s own State Department that details, “Saudi Arabia’s restrictions on universal rights, such as freedom of expression, including on the internet, and the freedoms of assembly, association, movement and religion, as well as the country’s pervasive gender discrimination.” … Sixteen years post-9/11, the 9/11 families are still earnestly trying to receive a modicum of justice in a court of law by providing all the evidence we have gathered against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We simply want our day in court. More
Trump in the Middle East: From 'America First' to Saudi and Israel first
President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East has turned out as expected: no single act of outreach to the Muslim world could undo his fueling of Islamophobia and no amount of Iranophobia could cover up the irony of Trump and Saudi Arabia uniting against intolerance. It is clear what Trump wanted from the trip: massive arms sales and Saudi investments in the US economy. But it is less clear why Saudi Arabia and Israel once again depict Iran as an existential threat even after Tehran’s nuclear programme has been checked. The answer lies not in Iran’s regional policy, but Israel and Saudi Arabia’s wish for the US to re-establish hard, American hegemony in the Middle East. That is, for the United States to lead and underwrite the Herculean task of sorting out the chaos in the region. In short: Saudi and Israel first. More
Israeli Officers: You’re Doing ISIS Wrong
As far as these Israeli officers are concerned, the ideal strategy is to sit back and let both types of groups duke it out… But does that mean the United States and its allies should simply allow ISIS to retain its so-called caliphate in parts of eastern Syria and eastern Iraq? “Why not?” the officer shot back. “When they asked the late [Israeli] Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the Iraq-Iran War in the 80s, who does Israel stand for, Iraq or Iran, he said, ‘I wish luck to both parties. They can go at it, killing each other.’ The same thing is here. You have ISIS killing Al Qaeda by the thousands, Al Qaeda killing ISIS by the thousands. And they are both killing Hezbollah and Assad.” More
War in Afghanistan Is Killing Children in Record Numbers in 2017
In fact, the 2016 civilian casualty figure was the worst since the US occupation of Afghanistan began in 2001… A family destroyed in seconds -- this horror is just one of too many incidents documented at the onset of this fighting season," Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN Secretary-General's special representative for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told Agence France-Presse. In its annual report for 2016, UNAMA documented 11,418 civilian casualties, an increase over previous years. Children accounted for at least 30 percent of these casualties. The report noted 3,512 child casualties (923 deaths and 2,589 injuries), a 24 percent increase from 2015, and the highest number of child casualties recorded by UNAMA in any single year… While a number of the child casualties are from insurgent attacks and aerial airstrike by pro-government forces, a surprisingly high number of the casualties are a direct result of unexploded ordnance left behind on the battlefield by parties to the conflict who had failed to clear it. More
New York Times!
ALEPPO AFTER THE “FALL”
Yasser said he was one of the first people to come back [to east-Aleppo], right after what he — like everyone else I met — calledthe liberation… Joudeh no longer considers himself a member of the opposition. I asked him why. “No one is 100 percent with the regime, but 
mostly these people are unified by their resistance to the opposition,” Joudeh told me. “They know what they don’t want, not what they want.” In December, he said, “Syrians abroad who believe in the revolution would call me and say, ‘We lost Aleppo.’ And I would say, ‘What do you mean?’ It was only a Turkish card guarded by jihadis.” For these exiled Syrians, he said, the specter of Assad’s crimes looms so large that they cannot see anything else. They refuse to acknowledge the realities of a rebellion that is corrupt, brutal and compromised by foreign sponsors… Aleppo was a turning point, and in some ways an emblem of the wider war. Its fall appears to have persuaded many ordinary Syrians that the regime, for all its appalling cruelty and corruption, is their best shot at something close to normality… “Freedom doesn’t come from destroying the country,” he said… “We all served the politics of other countries in our own land, whether we knew it or not,” he said. “Everybody has to wake up. To be brave, to admit they’ve made mistakes, to come back to the right way.” More
mostly these people are unified by their resistance to the opposition,” Joudeh told me. “They know what they don’t want, not what they want.” In December, he said, “Syrians abroad who believe in the revolution would call me and say, ‘We lost Aleppo.’ And I would say, ‘What do you mean?’ It was only a Turkish card guarded by jihadis.” For these exiled Syrians, he said, the specter of Assad’s crimes looms so large that they cannot see anything else. They refuse to acknowledge the realities of a rebellion that is corrupt, brutal and compromised by foreign sponsors… Aleppo was a turning point, and in some ways an emblem of the wider war. Its fall appears to have persuaded many ordinary Syrians that the regime, for all its appalling cruelty and corruption, is their best shot at something close to normality… “Freedom doesn’t come from destroying the country,” he said… “We all served the politics of other countries in our own land, whether we knew it or not,” he said. “Everybody has to wake up. To be brave, to admit they’ve made mistakes, to come back to the right way.” More
Landslide Win for Iran’s Reformists Doesn’t Fit Trump’s Script, So He Ignores It
As Iran’s moderates celebrated on Saturday night, Trump and members of his cabinet were dancing with swords in Saudi Arabia.
Speaking in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Sunday, Trump made no mention of the scenes in Iran or of President Hassan Rouhani, whose diplomatic engagement with the West over Iran’s nuclear program helped to avert the war American allies in the region, including the Gulf states and Israel, seemed to be still hoping for. Instead, the American president promised the monarchs and autocrats in the room that he would work with them “to isolate Iran.” He also promised, bizarrely, “to help our Saudi friends to get a good deal” from American arms makers. More
Israel Lobby Pays the Political Piper
In this age of rancorous hyper-partisanship, getting members of Congress to agree on anything beyond the naming of a post office is a challenge. Yet in late April, all 100 members of the U.S. Senate signed a tough letter to the U.N. Secretary General, demanding 
that the organization end its “unwarranted attacks” on Israel’s human rights record. Three months earlier, members of the House voted overwhelmingly to condemn a U.N. Security Council resolution critical of Israel’s relentless expansion of settlements on occupied lands. Like dozens of other Democrats, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland blasted President Obama for abstaining from the U.N. vote, saying it “sent the wrong signal to our ally Israel.” In the Senate, leading progressives like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders offered no support for President Obama, either. Their votes and rhetoric did not simply reflect public opinion. Although Americans sympathize with Israel far more than the Palestinians, two-thirds of adults surveyed in in 2015 said the United States should not take sides in the Middle East conflict. Fewer than half say they consider Israel an ally. More
that the organization end its “unwarranted attacks” on Israel’s human rights record. Three months earlier, members of the House voted overwhelmingly to condemn a U.N. Security Council resolution critical of Israel’s relentless expansion of settlements on occupied lands. Like dozens of other Democrats, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland blasted President Obama for abstaining from the U.N. vote, saying it “sent the wrong signal to our ally Israel.” In the Senate, leading progressives like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders offered no support for President Obama, either. Their votes and rhetoric did not simply reflect public opinion. Although Americans sympathize with Israel far more than the Palestinians, two-thirds of adults surveyed in in 2015 said the United States should not take sides in the Middle East conflict. Fewer than half say they consider Israel an ally. More
Netanyahu vows: Temple Mount, Western Wall will forever remain part of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday that the Temple Mount and the Western Wall "will forever remain under Israeli sovereignty" during a special Knesset session celebrating Jerusalem Day and marking 50 years to the capital's unification… "Some see the Six-Day War as a disaster for Israel," Netanyahu went on to say. "I see it as Israel's salvation. How could we keep existing with a narrow waist (of the country) and daily danger to our citizens?" The prime minister spoke of US President Donald Trump's visit to Israel this week, saying "I'm sure you were all as moved as I was to see President Trump and his family standing by the Western Wall and touching its stones. The IDF soldiers who liberated Jerusalem during the Six-Day War did the same, with a burst of emotions that came from the depths of their souls." More
Israeli cops assault American Jewish activists in Jerusalem Day protest
Israeli police broke the arm of an American Jewish activist and injured several other anti-occupation demonstrators while forcefully dispersing a Jerusalem Day protest in the Old City on Wednesday. The demonstration, held at Damascus Gate by American and Israeli Jewish activists with IfNotNow, Free Jerusalem and All That’s Left, took place during the March of the Flags, an annual right-wing parade that habitually results in violence against Palestinians from both its participants and the Israeli police units escorting them. The march is heavily funded by the Jerusalem Municipality. The parade passes through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, and Palestinian traders along the route are ordered by police toclose their shops during the march. More
For many in the Holy Land, Trump’s visit was a success for what he didn’t say
During his public addresses in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Trump talked forcefully about peace but refrained from offering specifics of how it could be achieved or from berating one side or the other too harshly. Unlike his predecessor, there were no references to Israeli settlements, an issue the Obama administration clearly deemed the main barrier to achieving peace. He also did not mention a future with an Israeli and Palestinian state side by side, nor did he bring up the status of Jerusalem. Analysts and commentators were left Wednesday wondering what, if anything, Trump might do to resolve the decades-old conflict. On the Israeli side, leaders celebrated Trump’s vagueness. More
A Palestinian Point Of View On Trump's Attempt At Middle East Peace
I think it's very important to keep in mind that the reason that Israel has been able to maintain this occupation is because the international community has allowed it to maintain the occupation. And so all it really requires is the international community to have the will to actually stop Israel by putting into place measures to hold Israel accountable. Whether that's boycotts, whether it's putting into place sanctions, all of that is possible. Is President Trump the person to do it? On that part, I'm very skeptical. More
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