Sunday Roundup - October 5, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at recent court decisions on voting rights, the Hong Kong protests, Syria, Israel's growing isolation, and Ebola.

Voting Rights (or lack thereof) 

As the US midterm elections draw near, voting rights proponents have sued in Federal court, contesting various voter suppression laws passed in Republican-controlled states.  With SCOTUS's gutting of the Voting Rights Act and their unleashing of unlimited campaign money by the Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions, the voter suppression laws are the third part of the shameful Troika of Plutocracy that promises to turn this year's election into the least democratic since the days of Jim Crow. As summarized by the Brennan Center for Justice: Since the 2010 election, new voting restrictions are slated to be in place in 22 states. Unless these restrictions are blocked — and there are court challenges to laws in six of those states — voters in nearly half the country could find it harder to cast a ballot in the 2014 midterm election than they did in 2010. The new laws range from photo ID requirements to early voting cutbacks to voter registration restrictions. Partisanship and race were key factors in this movement. Most restrictions passed through GOP-controlled legislatures and in states with increases in minority turnout.
Ohio - “There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders,” Roberts wrote in the court’s main opinion in McCutcheon.  Evidently that right does not extend to minorities in Ohio without cash to throw into campaigns.  Think Progress reported on September 29:  ...the Supreme Court returned from its summer vacation for the “Long Conference,” the day when the justices consider the backlog of petitions asking them to hear cases that built up while they were away for the summer. Yet, despite the fact that the justices typically face hundreds of petitions that they must consider during this conference, five of them still found time on Monday to make it harder for Ohio residents to cast a vote. In a 5-4 decision that divided entirely along partisan lines, the Court allowed cuts to Ohio’s early voting days to go into effect. Notably, this decision came down just 16 hours before polling places were set to open in that state.
Wisconsin - The American Civil Liberties Union and other rights groups are bringing Wisconsin's voter ID law to the Supreme Court.  Arguing that one in ten voters already registered in Wisconsin may not actually get to cast their ballots this year, civil rights and citizens’ advocacy groups asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to bar a new requirement to produce a photo ID before voting.  By a vote of five to five, a federal appeals court has permitted enforcement for this year’s general election, already underway with absentee voting.  The plea for the Supreme Court to step in now was filed with Justice Elena Kagan, who handles emergency filings from the geographic area that includes Wisconsin.  She can act on her own, or share the issue with her colleagues. [SCOTUS blog, October 2]
North Carolina - Several provisions of North Carolina's harsh voter suppression laws were struck down by a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.  It's now headed to the Supreme Court.  In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked provisions of a North Carolina voting law that would have ended same-day registration and eliminated the counting of votes cast outside one's precinct. But it left intact a lower court decision that affirmed the law's reducing the number of early voting days, expanding what can be done to challenge voters and eliminating the discretion of county election boards from adding an extra hour on election day in extraordinary circumstances. [Daily Kos, Oct 1]

Hong Kong

Photo is by AP and appeared in The Independent
The "Umbrella Revolution": Riot police launch tear gas into the crowd
 as thousands of protesters surround the government headquarters in Hong Kong

In another "democracy" story, the Hong Kong student protests sparked by the announcement of the 2017 election framework continued.  On Thursday the protesters were demanding the resignation of Hong Kong's Chief Executive Leung Chung-Ying as Beijing hardened its line on the protests.  Bolstered by a vote of confidence in the People's Daily, Leung shows no sign of resigning but has agreed to have a high ranking official in his administration meet with the protesters.  Speaking at the end of a fifth day of protests, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying refused to meet demonstrators’ demands to resign but said his top official, Carrie Lam, would hold a meeting with students to discuss political reforms...The protests represent the biggest challenge to Chinese rule over its special autonomous region since its handover from the UK in 1997. They were sparked by dissatisfaction over a framework handed down by Beijing for the election of Mr Leung’s successor in 2017. Under the model, candidates would have to achieve the support of at least 50 per cent of a 1,200-strong committee, which opponents say is stacked with Beijing loyalists.  [The Independent, Oct 2]  On Friday, The Guardian reported that  violent scuffles broke out in one of Hong Kong’s most famous and congested shopping districts..., as supporters of Chinese rule stormed tents and ripped down banners belonging to pro-democracy protesters.  [The Guardian, Oct 3]

Syria 

April 2014 Photo is from The Independent

The Syrian Civil War has been raging for 3-1/2 years. As of the end of August, more than 191,000 Syrians had been killed in the conflict.  More than 3,000,000 Syrians have sought refuge in other countries and 6,500,000 have been internally displaced.  Neither the government nor the rebels have been able to defeat the other side and the continuing flow of arms to both sides has only prolonged the conflict.  In a massive display of ignorance, the US Congress recently voted $500 million to arm and train the Syrian rebels.  Military experts and others warn that arming the rebels will embolden and inadvertently aid ISIS.  Writing in the Huffington Post on September 17 prior to the Congressional vote, Kate Gould and (retired) Colonel Lawrence B. Wilkerson warned "If Congress signs this check for the FSA, IS will help cash it. For years, IS has recruited former FSA fighters and seized weapons funneled to Iraq and Syria from the U.S. and other countries."  That this aid to the rebels will worsen the civil war is an obvious and foregone conclusion.  The organization Win Without War adds: "After more than a decade of war, it's clear that military force will not stop extremism in the region. Instead of dumping additional weapons into Syria, Congress should support alternatives to combat the threat of ISIS and to end the Syrian civil war."  The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) published an article by Yezid Sayigh that argues that, in the face of the growing power of Islamic State, now is the time to seek a truce in the Syrian Civil War.  Specifically Sayigh recommends that the two sides observe independent truces implemented in parallel.  This approach would not require a formal diplomatic agreement, just robust endorsement and timely coordination by the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Iran—the government’s and the opposition’s external backers that are most engaged in Iraq...Now is the moment for [these] three outside actors in particular...to pressure the regime and rebels alike to commit to separate unilateral truces, coordinating the process indirectly to ensure these are implemented in parallel.  A major advantage of this approach is that it sidesteps tortuous discussions about political preconditions and the status of the Syrian parties of the sort that rendered the otherwise commendable Geneva 1 communiqué of June 2012 stillborn.

Israel
Following on the heels of its brutal, war-crime-ridden assault on the Gaza Strip, the right-wing Israeli government announced its largest appropriation of Palestinian land in 30 years in September. Located as it is in the sensitive East Jerusalem area, the proposed settlement is one more indication of this government's lack of commitment to a just two-state solution and a viable Palestinian state.  Even the United States may have finally had enough of this intransigence.  Following a Wednesday meeting between President Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu in which the 2600 home settlement was discussed, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said "The United States is deeply concerned by reports the Israeli government has moved forward" with planning for settlements in a "sensitive area" of East Jerusalem...Earnest said Israel would send a "very troubling message" by following through with the settlement project, and in noticeably blunt language said that the step was contrary to Israel's stated goal of negotiating a permanent final status agreement with the Palestinians.  "This development will only draw condemnation from the international community, [and] distance Israel from even its closest allies," Earnest said.  He added that it would also "poison the atmosphere" - not only with the Palestinians but with "the very Arab governments" with which Netanyahu had said he wanted to build relations.  All Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory are illegal under international law  [Al Jazeera, October 2]

The EU likewise condemned the Israeli plan, calling it “highly detrimental” to diplomatic efforts for Israeli-Palestinian peace.  Brussels called on Israel to “urgently reverse” actions leading to settlement expansion in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians hope to make the capital of a future state alongside Israel.  “This represents a further highly detrimental step that undermines prospects for a two-state solution and calls into question Israel’s commitment to a peaceful negotiated settlement with the Palestinians,” the EU’s diplomatic service said.  The housing units, which have been slated for construction since 2012 in the neighborhood of Givat Hamatos, were given final approval last week, according to the Peace Now watchdog. [Al-Arabiya/Agence France-Presse, October 3]

Meanwhile, Netanyahu was blaming the Israeli peace organization Peace Now for the United States' position on the new settlements, and he was appearing before the UN trying to conflate Hamas with ISIS.  It didn't work.  Nathan Brown, in a September 30 op-ed piece for CEIP, "Netanyahu's Convenient Lies About ISIS and Hamas", writes: Speaking at the General Assembly this week, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu repeated a refrain he has sounded for three decades (since his days as Israeli ambassador to the U.N.) — that all forms of terrorism are different sides of the same coin and have civilization as their target...But is it accurate? Well, yes of course — in the same sense that France’s François Hollande, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Israel’s HaPoel Tel Aviv all spring from the same socialist movement. It’s not clear how such claims aid understanding, analysis or policy.  I'm not sure how to define terrorism.  Perhaps we should look at the number of civilian deaths, all of which are inexcusable and should be considered war crimes.  1462 civilians in Gaza were killed by Israeli firepower.  6 civilians were killed by Hamas' flying pipe bombs (referred to in the press as "rockets").   Seems that the IDF assault against Gaza did a pretty good job of terrorizing the impoverished and blockaded enclave.

Ebola
[Mother Jones, October 1] On Tuesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States; the infected patient was a man who traveled from Liberia to visit family in Texas. It's the latest development in the ever-worsening outbreak of the virus, which so far has sickened more than 6,500 people and killed more than 3,000. The United States government has pledged to send help to West Africa to help stop Ebola from spreading—but the main agencies tasked with this aid work say they're hamstrung by budget cuts from the 2013 sequester.  Sequestration caused budget cuts in the National Institute of Health's budget affecting every area of medical research.  Cuts to international aid budgets and to USAID totaling $700 million affected the detection and containment of the disease.  Dr. Beth Bell of the CDC testifying before a Senate committee, argued that the epidemic could have been stopped if more had been done sooner to build global health security... "If even modest investments had been made to build a public health infrastructure in West Africa previously, the current Ebola epidemic could have been detected earlier, and it could have been identified and contained."
Update: On Friday, the World Health Organization reported the latest Ebola figures: 3,431 people killed by the disease out of 7,470 confirmed or suspected cases in west Africa

Earth to Hillary: We don't need an ignorant hawk in the White House.

The 2016 elections are more than two years away, so anything might happen between now and then. As of today, though, Democrats are giving overwhelming support for a Hillary Clinton run and she is ahead of presumptive Republican candidates by 6 or 7 points.  As a one-term Secretary of State, she accomplished nothing of note.  Today, her rhetoric on foreign policy as she gears up for the 2016 campaign is becoming hawkish to the point of stupidity.  She is distancing herself from Obama's more moderate policies, getting in line with AIPAC's support of Likud policies, and, just may be, endangering the last chance for a two-state solution and a just settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

Andy Kroll in an August 15 Mother Jones post writes:  "In a recent interview with The Atlantic, Hillary Clinton went to great lengths to separate herself from her former boss, President Obama, in the realm of foreign policy. She unabashedly defended Israel's actions in the ongoing war in Gaza, chalked up civilian casualties in that conflict to 'the fog of war,' drew a hard line on Iran, and argued that the 'failure' of the Obama administration to arm Syrian rebel forces led to the rise of the Islamic State."  Her comments are decidedly not those of a future President - at least not anyone that I'd like to support.  We've already had the Bush-era neocons lead us into unjustifiable wars and drain the Treasury of at least $4 trillion.

How any fair-minded person can defend Israel's actions against Gaza - killing at least 1400 civilians including more than 400 children, destroying more than 10,000 homes and the enclave's only power plant, shelling six UN shelters for persons displaced by the assault, to name a few - is beyond imagination.  These actions are war crimes - not something to be sloughed off as consequences of "the fog of war."  She's signaling AIPAC that they should not abandon the Democrats because of Obama's policies and comments - tepid as they are in light of the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis brought about by the Israeli assault.  Hell, the Israelis don't really believe anyone will prosecute the war crimes committed in Gaza - they never have been held accountable in the past.  By the time the war crimes inquiry has recommendations to make, Hillary, with her bizarre take on the destruction in Gaza, will be on the horizon as potentially the next President.

And you can bet that Netanyahu and the right-wing thugs that are in power in Israel today are also taking note.  Clinton's statements are basically saying to Bibi and his crowd, "Don't worry. I won't be as tough on you as Obama."  (Not that Obama was in any sense tough but at least when Kerry became Secretary of State the US made an attempt to bring about a just peace in the region.)  The Israelis stonewalled the Kerry negotiations for nine months and then sabotaged them by escalating settlement construction.  Seeing the handwriting on the wall, the Palestinian Authority formed a unity government with Hamas.  Netanyahu and his crowd then had the gall to blame that unity government for the breakdown of the peace talks.  If they can drag their feet and be counterproductive for nine months while the world's eyes were focused on them, how easy it will be for them to delay any serious talks to produce a two-state solution for the next two years. Rebuilding Gaza and ending the seven-year blockade that has devastated that region will (or should) take up much of the world community's attention.  Compared to what the IDF did to Gaza, the general oppression of the Palestinians seems "benign" - as some of the more ludicrous Israeli commentators and politicians describe the 47 year Occupation.

As for Clinton's comments blaming the rise of ISIS on Obama's failure to arm the Syrian rebels, one can only wonder if she has any comprehension at all at what is happening there.  The Syrian civil war is a sectarian one.  Assad and the Syrian government are primarily Shia.  The rebel forces and ISIS are primarily Sunni.  I'm trying to understand the logic of how arming the Sunni rebel forces would stop the rise of Sunni ISIS forces.  That's right - there is no logic to the argument.

The Mother Jones article has an amusing "Who Said It, Clinton or McCain?" quiz.  If I wanted John McCain to be President, I'd have voted for him in 2008.  There's no groundswell of American support for a more belligerent foreign policy.  Other than currying AIPAC support, I'm not sure why Clinton is making these comments.

It's difficult to support someone with these views and the Democratic Party needs a serious wake up call.  It has been drifting rightward since the 1980's and its policies are centrist at best.  Just saying "we're not as bad as the Republicans" is not good enough.  Let's hope that Hillary gets a bit wiser on foreign policy in the next 2 years.  Let's hope she gets to be more of a twenty-first century leader and less of a twentieth-century hawk.

Sunday Roundup - May 4, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at Ukraine, Syria, global May Day celebrations, South Sudan and income disparity on 21st century America.

Ukraine

Outside the burned out trade union building in Odessa(Reuters)

With military operations by Ukrainian government forces underway against a rebel-held city, the crisis in the Ukraine has taken another step towards civil war.  The Guardian reported the Russian reaction to the Ukrainian offensive on Friday: A spokesman for Vladimir Putin said the Geneva agreement to defuse the situation in eastern Ukraine was no longer viable after Kiev launched a military operation against the rebel-held city of Slavyansk on Friday.  The Ukrainian military launched its first serious offensive to retake the city, which is being held by pro-Russia militia, early on Friday morning....Russia's foreign ministry accused the Ukrainian military of launching rocket strikes at protesters and claimed it had used ultranationalists from the group Right Sector..."As we have warned many times before, the use of the army against its own people is a crime and is leading Ukraine to catastrophe," the statement said.  The situation worsened later Friday when skirmishes broke out in Odessa between pro-Russian and anti-separatist groups.  As reported by the BBC: Pro-Russia supporters in the Ukrainian city of Odessa have voiced their anger a day after 42 people were killed.  Friday's clashes culminated in a major fire at a trade union building where most of the deaths occurred. Hundreds of people gathered there on Saturday.  The protest comes as Ukraine says it has seized a security building from rebels in the east of the country. Most of the deaths occurred when petrol bombs were thrown at the trade union building where pro-Russian protesters had sought refuge in the trade union building after their encampment was burned down.

Katrina vanden Heuvel and Stephen Cohen,writing in The Nation , in an article to be published in the May 19 issue, wonder about Obama's indirect declaration of a new Cold War against Russia - a declaration made with little discussion or public debate and with bipartisan and media support or indifference.  No modern precedent exists for the shameful complicity of the American political-media elite at this fateful turning point. Considerable congressional and mainstream media debate, even protest, were voiced, for example, during the run-up to the US wars in Vietnam and Iraq and, more recently, proposed wars against Iran and Syria. This Cold War—its epicenter on Russia’s borders; undertaken amid inflammatory American, Russian and Ukrainian media misinformation; and unfolding without the stabilizing practices that prevented disasters during the preceding Cold War—may be even more perilous....Both sides in the confrontation, the West and Russia, have legitimate grievances. Does this mean, however, that the American establishment’s account of recent events should not be questioned?  Vanden Heuvel and Cohen point to twenty years of NATO's eastward expansion, the triggering of the Ukraine crisis by the West’s attempt, last November, to "smuggle the former Soviet republic into NATO", and the "jettisoning in February of the West's own agreement with then-President Viktor Yanukovych" which brought to power in Kiev an extremely anti-Russian and unelected regime.  Most recently, Kiev’s sending of military units to suppress protests in pro-Russian eastern Ukraine is itself a violation of the April 17 agreement to de-escalate the crisis.

Syria
Syria's government and rebels have agreed to a ceasefire in Homs to allow hundreds of fighters holed up in the old quarters of the city to leave – a deal that will bring the country's third-largest city under the control of forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad. [The Guardian, May 2]  The fighters were the remnants of the rebel forces that had controlled Homs until the Syrian government began its offensive.  This is a face-saving measure for the small hardcore group of rebels that had remained fighting, dispatching explosive-rigged cars into government-controlled areas, killing dozens of people, mostly civilians. Most recently, two car bombs on Tuesday killed more than 50 people in a government-controlled area of Homs.  

May Day (International Labor Day)

From Common Dreams post: Union leaders during May Day celebrations in Bilbao, Spain
 The banner in front reads, "Without Quality Employment, There is no Recovery'
(Photograph: VINCENT WEST/Reuters)

Except in the United States and Canada, May 1 is a public holiday that celebrates the contributions of workers around the world.  This year was no exception. From the Common Dreams post of May 1: In marches and street demonstrations, people across the world on Thursday were marking May Day, or International Labor Day, by demanding better treatment of working people and union members as they also called  for respect of democratic freedoms and equal rights.  Most marches went off peacefully but there was a confrontation with police in Turkey where the government had banned demonstrations.

South Sudan
There's a small spark of hope emerging in South Sudan.  John Kerry appears to be on the verge of getting two rival factions to agree to sit down for ceasefire discussions.  As reported in The Guardian on Friday: The peace talks could mark a turning point in nearly six months of horrific fighting largely along ethnic lines between Dinka and Nuer tribes. It began after Kiir [the country's President], a Dinka, accused Machar, a Nuer, of plotting a coup to seize power last December. A ceasefire agreement reached in January was abandoned within days.

Rise of the Oligarchs
State Department whistle-blower Peter van Buren takes a look at life on the other side of the tracks in 21st century America in a May 1 TomDispatch.com post.  As part of his journey through the country, he visits Atlantic City, New Jersey, Weirton, West Virginia, and Spanish Harlem in New York City.  What he sees and reports is not pretty - a damning reflection on the living conditions of the working class in the richest nation on earth.  Van Buren observes the cumulative effects of years of deindustrialization, declining salaries, absent benefits, and weakened unions, along with a rise in meth and alcohol abuse, a broad-based loss of good jobs, and soaring inequality...What I found in my travels was place after place being hollowed out as wealth went elsewhere and people came to realize that, odds on, life was likely to get worse, not better. For most people, what passed for hope for the future meant clinging to the same flat-lined life they now had...What’s happening is both easy enough for a traveler to see and for an economist to measure. Median household income in 2012 was no higher than it had been a quarter-century earlier. Meanwhile, expenses had outpaced inflation. U.S. Census Bureau figures show that the income gap between rich and poor had widened to a more than four-decade record since the 1970s. The 46.2 million people in poverty remained the highest number since the Census Bureau began collecting that data 53 years ago. The gap between how much total wealth America's 1% of earners control and what the rest of us have is even wider than even in the years preceding the Great Depression of 1929.  With the Supreme Court decisions allowing an ever-increasing role for money in shaping our politics and, let's face it, money wins elections, I'm afraid the interests of the 99% will not come to the forefront anytime soon.

Sunday Roundup - April 13

“I believe the only way to live and to be truly successful is by collective effort, with everyone working for each other, everyone helping each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards at the end of the day.”

- Bill Shankly, Liverpool FC Manager from 1959-74

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at Russia-US relations, Syria, and the World Cup.

Russia-US Relations
The overthrow of Russia-leaning Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, the Crimean referendum to rejoin Russia, and Russia's subsequent annexation of Crimea have placed US-Russia relations in about as bad a place as they have been since the end of the Cold War.  Congressional Republicans have ratcheted up their rhetoric and seem to have lost their senses on the issue of nuclear safety.  As The Nation's editor Katrina vanden Heuvel writes on April 10: Representatives Michael Turner (R-OH) and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Buck McKeon (R-CA) introduced a bill that, among other things, prohibits "the contact, cooperation or transfer of technology between the National Nuclear Security Administration [NNSA] and the Russian Federation until the Secretary of Energy certifies the Russian military is no longer illegally occupying Crimea, no longer violating the INF treaty, and in compliance with the CFE treaty." Engendering nuclear instability by using safety as a stick is an incredibly reckless way to approach global security.  The bill has little chance of prevailing and, even if it does, it will be vetoed by President Obama.

NASA/AFP/Getty Images (appears in Al Jazeera article)

Thankfully, the crisis in the Ukraine has not affected operations at the International Space Station.  Al Jazeera reported on April 9: While relations between American and Russian space officials have frayed because of the crisis in Ukraine, work together on the station remains the same, officials say....The Russian cargo shuttle launched Wednesday morning from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and after about four spins around the Earth it docked with the ISS, delivering food, fuel and cosmic knickknacks to one Japanese astronaut, two American astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts on board.

The Japan Times offers this take on the deterioration of relations between the two superpowers: Underlying the ferociously strong sense of grievance that prevails among the Russian people against the West is one simple, overpowering emotion: “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore” (to use the classic line from Howard Beale, the Mad Prophet of the Airwaves from the classic 1976 movie “Network”).  Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has not just seen its historic standing and interests in its ancient zone of influence, going back hundreds of years, shrink; worse, Russia’s reach has been systematically dismantled by the United States. One solemn promise after another, made to the Russians, has been forgotten, ignored or scrapped.  It is one thing to talk about other nations’ freedom and independence (and rejoice when they receive it). It is quite another matter if those powers then move deliberately to put those freed countries fully into their orbit.

Syria
In a bleak account of the possibilities for peace in Syria, Yezid Sayigh, writing for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, writes in an April 8 article: The grim truth is that for those determined to extract a diplomatic exit from the crisis under present conditions, Iran’s latest four-point peace plan is the only potentially feasible bid on the table. It calls for a general ceasefire, a national unity government composed of the regime and Syria’s “internal” opposition, the successive transfer of a wide but unspecified range of presidential powers to the government over several years, and general and presidential elections.

World Cup

Bill Shankly turned Second Division Liverpool into an English Premier League "bastion of invincibility"
Photo by Bob Thomas appears in The Far Post article

Roads and Kingdoms continues its excellent "The Far Post" series on the global soccer culture in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup.  One of the most interesting and thought-provoking in the series is philosopher Simon Critchley's March 11 piece, "Working Class Ballet", on the "spectacle, poetry and importance of professional football."  It's a personal telling of his life-long love of the sport.  Along the way, he speaks of the great Liverpool coach Bill Shankly, his memories of previous World Cups, of his relationship through the sport to his father and to his son, and the film Zidane: A Portrait of the 21st Century.  Here are a few quotes from the article, reflecting on the World Cup:
The World Cup is a spectacle in the strictly Situationist sense. It is a shiny display of teams, tribes and nations in symbolic, indeed rather atavistic, national combat adorned with multiple layers of commodification, sponsorship and the seemingly infinite commercialization...

The World Cup is an image of our age at its worst and most gaudy. But it is also something more, something bound up with difficult and recalcitrant questions of conflict, memory, history, place, social class, masculinity, violence, national identity, tribe and group....

The World Cup, then, is about ever-shifting floors of memory and the complexity of personal and national identity. But at its best it is about grace...an unforced bodily containment and elegance of movement, a kind of discipline where long periods of inactivity can suddenly accelerate and time takes on a different dimension in bursts of controlled power. 

Sunday Round-Up - February 9, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the Syrian Civil War, Israeli-Palestinian relations, the Eurozone recession, the cuts to the US food stamps program and climate change.



Syria
With a three-day ceasefire in place, the first stage of the evacuation of the besieged city of Homs began on Friday.  As reported in The Guardian: "Scores of Syrian women, children and elderly men from the besieged old city of Homs have been evacuated to safety and humanitarian supplies are expected to be allowed in in the first stage of a limited relief operation agreed between the UN and the government of President Bashar al-Assad."  The Assad government has agreed to attend the second round of Geneva II peace talks. The NGO Save The Children welcomed the deal but sees it as a temporary measure: "We need all parties to the conflict to allow immediate humanitarian assistance into Homs and other besieged areas all across Syria, from Aleppo to Damascus." [The Guardian, February 7]


Israel-Palestine

Palestinian workers from Hebron at a checkpoint. Image credit:Emil Salman; Haaretz, February 7

AIPAC and Benjamin Netanyahu are still reeling from their failed ham-handed attempt to derail the Iran nuclear negotiations.  Support for the new Iran sanctions bill is diminishing with several former cosponsors now saying they changed their mind.  So back to the main issue of concern for Israelis - how are the US sponsored negotiations with the Palestinians going?  Recent polls suggest that neither the Palestinian nor the Israeli public believes a deal can be reached.  The negotiations are stalled and the US is signaling that the original April 29 date for a final agreement is in jeopardy.  There is Palestinian anger at the ongoing Israeli permitting of illegal settlements on Palestinian land, and the destruction of Palestinian homes is at a five year high.  A key stumbling block for the Israelis is the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.  It seems to me that one solution might be Arab and Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state combined with a recognition of the Palestinian right of return, a guarantee that Palestinians will be accorded full rights in Israel should they choose to return, and an end to settlement activity and home destruction on Palestinian lands.


Russia Today reported on Friday of the protests lodged by aid groups and the UN on the destruction of the Palestinian homes.  "In a statement Friday, 25 aid organizations said the number of demolitions went up by almost half and the displacement of Palestinians by almost three-quarters between July 2013 – when peace negotiations began again – and the end of the year, compared to the same time period in 2012.  The groups said that of the 663 Palestinian structures destroyed by Israel in 2013, 122 were constructed with international donor aid. The 663 demolitions mark the highest number in the last five years. 'International and local aid organizations have faced increasingly severe restrictions in responding to the needs created by the unlawful demolition of civilian property, in violation of Israel's obligation to facilitate the effective delivery of aid,' wrote the groups, which included Oxfam. 


On Thursday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on the meeting between "chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat  [and] U.S. Middle East peace talks envoy Martin Indyk, against a backdrop of tension between Israel and the United Sates and criticism in Jerusalem of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry...Erekat said Thursday in an interview on Al Jazeera television that the Palestinian response to Israel’s continued construction in East Jerusalem was to join the Geneva Convention, in preparation for declaring the settlements a war crime and bringing Israel to the International Criminal Court in The Hague." 

Eurozone Recession
The Guardian reported on January 31 that  Eurozone unemployment dropped for the third straight month in January.  Overall unemployment in the Eurozone is still at 12%, ranging from ~5% in Austria and Germany to over 25% in Spain and Greece. "Youth unemployment fell by 23,000 to 3.53 million, with the youth jobless rate falling to 23.8% from 24% in November."  European policymakers are "becoming increasingly concerned about the risk of deflation, with the latest data showing inflation fell to 0.7% in January from 0.8% in December."

Food Stamp Cuts
The Republican assault on the social safety net continues.  Not only have they blocked the extension of long-term unemployment benefits - the measure fell one vote short of the required 60 to break the Senate filibuster - but they managed a big win in the cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program passed as part of the farm bill.  Mother Jones reporter Erika Eichelberger wrote on January 31 of the impending passage of the Farm Bill by the Senate with its subsequent sign-off by the President.  Both of these steps have now been executed and $8.6 billion will be taken from the food stamps program over the next 5 years.  It's less than the Tea Party wanted but double the amount in the original Senate bill.  Eichelberger explains why the compromise level of cuts is a Republican win: "In addition to the [nearly] $9 billion in food stamp cuts in this five-year farm bill, another $11 billion will be slashed over three years as stimulus funding for the program expires. The first $5 billion of that stimulus money expired in October; the rest will disappear by 2016. In the months since the first $5 billion in stimulus funding was cut, food pantries have been struggling to provide enough food for the hungry. Poverty remains at record high levels, and three job applicants compete for every job opening.And yet, despite the $5 billion in cuts that already happened and the guarantee of $6 billion more, Republicans succeeded in getting their Democratic peers to cut food stamps further."  As the non-profit Feeding America noted "The $8.6 billion cut means that 850,000 SNAP recipients will lose an average of $90 in monthly benefits. That’s not a talking point. That’s real food for families that are struggling."

Climate Change
Haven't heard much on climate change in the news recently?  You're not alone.  Tom Engelhardt bemoans the lack of coverage in a February 2 essay on the TomDispatch website.  "That the anything-but-extreme Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) offers an at least 95% guarantee of human causation for global warming is not a story, nor is the recent revelation that IPCC experts believe we only have 15 years left to rein in carbon emissions or we’ll need new technologies not yet in existence which may never be effective.  Nor is the recent poll showing that only 47% of Americans believe climate change is human-caused (a drop of 7% since 2012)...Climate change isn’t the news and it isn’t a set of news stories.  It’s the prospective end of all news.  Think of it as the anti-news."




Link
Food bank locator - find a food bank in your area - from the Feeding America website

Sunday Round-Up - February 2, 2014

 

Being generous of spirit is a wonderful way to live.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/pete_seeger.html#VmFfacgEv5oWbgDW.99

 Being generous of spirit is a wonderful way to live. - Pete Seeger

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside American mainstream media.  Today we remember Pete Seeger, look at the Year of the Horse, and, in brief, the Syrian peace talks, the surprise cover of the Rolling Stone, and John Kerry's quest for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Folk singer and activist Pete Seeger passed away on January 27 at the age 94.  Infamously blacklisted after his appearance before the McCarthy-era "House Un-American Activities Committee", he was a tireless advocate for workers, civil rights, the environment and peace.  Pete Seeger influenced generations of songwriters.  "Once called 'America's tuning fork,' Pete Seeger believed deeply in the power of song," President Barack Obama said in a statement on Tuesday. "Over the years, Pete used his voice—and his hammer—to strike blows for worker's rights and civil rights; world peace and environmental conservation. And he always invited us to sing along." [Mother Jones, Jan 28]  Mother Jones has a phenomenal musical tribute to Pete Seeger which you can reach by clicking this link.  For more on his appearance before HUAC and the "black list", see Corey Robin's excellent post of January 29.  Pete Seeger was a genuine force for good and he will be missed.




The Year of the Horse has begun.  Lunar (aka Chinese) New Year celebrations started January 31 with as many as 2 billion people joining in across the globe - particularly in the Far East.  The celebrations continue for 15 days.  In China alone 3.62 billion journeys are expected to be taken in the 40 day period surrounding the New Year. "The staggering figure of passengers is set to make Chunyun, which literally means Spring Festival, transportation the largest seasonal human migration on the globe." [Xinhua news agency]  According to Chinese Zodiac lore, "People born in the year of the horse are said to be a bit like horses: animated, active and energetic – they love being in a crowd. They are quick to learn independence – foals can walk minutes after birth – and they have a straightforward and positive attitude towards life. They are known for their communication skills and are exceedingly witty." [The Guardian, January 31]

(Lunar New Year images appeared in the International Business Times and are by Reuters)

In Brief

The first round of peace talks to end Syria’s civil war have concluded with little tangible progress to speak of, delegates said Friday, as rights groups reported nearly 1,900 deaths in Syria as the summit was being held in Switzerland.  A second round has been scheduled to start February 10. [Al Jazeera, January 31]

Pope Francis made it to "the cover of the Rolling Stone".  A feature-length article on "a man whose obvious humility, empathy and, above all, devotion to the economically disenfranchised has come to feel perfectly suited to our times" appears in the February 13 issue. [Rolling Stone website, January 28]


US Secretary of State John Kerry and an elite team of US diplomats return to Israel as goals shift for the US's once-ambitious peace plan.  [The Guardian, January 30]

Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't. 

- Pete Seeger

Sunday Round-Up January 19, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at Syria, Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Syria


Peace talks to end the Syrian civil war are (hopefully) about to get underway in Geneva on January 22.  The UN, US and Russia have been trying to bring both sides to the table for months.  "The Syrian government announced on 27 November that it would participate in the talks, but added that its official delegation would not be going 'to hand over power to anyone'...The National Coalition [the coalition of rebel groups fighting the Assad government] is split over whether to attend, and is due to vote on the issue.  The opposition alliance long resisted calls to commit, but after intense pressure from its Western and Arab backers it voted on 11 November to participate if a number of conditions were met."  Whether anything will be accomplished is anybody's guess.  The two sides appear to have "irreconcilable objectives: Syria has repeatedly said President Assad's departure is out of the question, while the National Coalition has made it clear that President Assad must have no role in the transitional governing body called for in the Geneva Communique." [BBC News, January 17]

In a January 17 article, James Robbins, Diplomatic Correspondent for BBC News, examines how peaceful protests in March 2011 erupted into this all out civil war that has been going on for nearly 3 years and has left more than 100,000 people dead and has made 2.5 million people flee their homes.  The two side are intractably deadlocked with neither side strong enough to win nor weak enough to lose.  What many on the rebels side thought would be over in months has now stretched into years.  "Fighting between jihadists and more moderate opposition forces have added another layer to the conflict....Former US ambassador Ryan Crocker is among those urging the West to reconsider the unthinkable - a future Syria still controlled by President Assad.  He believes the alternative is that an al-Qaeda affiliate could seize power in Damascus. 'We rather blithely took the position that Assad must go,' he told [James Robbins].  'But if he goes because the radical Sunni opposition pushes him out we face the prospect of a country in the hands of al-Qaeda.  As bad as Assad is, I think from a Western perspective that is far, far worse.' "

(Image is by Reuters)

Iran

World powers and Iran are "likely to start talks on a final settlement to the long dispute over its nuclear ambitions in February, shortly after a six-month deal curbing its atomic activity takes effect, a diplomatic source said on Monday...Iran and the six powers said ... the deal would go into effect on January 20, pending verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Tehran is meeting its end of the bargain.  The preliminary accord appeared to arrest a drift towards regional war ..." [Reuters, January 13]

Meanwhile nuclear talks between Iran and International Atomic Energy Agency have been postponed to February 8.  "The UN nuclear watchdog has said a planned meeting with Iran next week to discuss how to allay concerns over its nuclear programme had been postponed to 8 February, without giving a reason.  The talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are separate from – though still closely linked with – broader diplomacy between Tehran and six world powers over Iran's disputed nuclear activity....The IAEA already regularly inspects Iranian nuclear sites to make sure there is no diversion of sensitive material for military purposes.  It will increase the frequency of such visits and see some additional facilities, including plants where Iran manufactures equipment for refining uranium. Enriched uranium can have both civilian and military purposes." [The Guardian, January 14]

Israel-Palestine

Reuters reported on Thursday of the hardening settlement demands of Benjamin Netanyahu and on his trip to Jordan. "Israel's prime minister has increased the amount of occupied territory he wants to keep after any peace deal with the Palestinians, Israeli radio reported on Thursday, a move that could complicate U.S.-backed efforts to reach an accord.  Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman declined to comment on the report that he had added a bloc of Israeli-settled land near the Palestinian governmental seat in the occupied West Bank to a list of enclaves Israel intends to retain.That would leave 13 percent of the West Bank in Israeli hands, Israel's Army Radio said, a prospect likely to dismay Palestinians who want the area for a future state."  An unidentified Palestinian official, while rejecting the notion of Israel keeping large clusters of settlements is quoted as saying "once we agree on the withdrawal to 1967 borders, we can accept minor exchanges of land on a case-by-case basis."  Jordan has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1994.  Netanyahu visited King Abdullah in Amman and an Israeli statement said "Netanyahu 'emphasized that Israel places a premium on security arrangements, including Jordan's interest in any future agreement' with the Palestinians."


Haaretz expanded on Netanyahu's discussions in Jordan.  This was at least the fourth such trip since the negotiations restarted last year.  "The Americans and Palestinians have updated the Jordanians on the negotiations at every step of the way, prompting some disagreement when it comes to Jordan's stake in the core issues....Among the issues pertaining to Jordan are the western border of the Jordan Valley, the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and water supplies."  Haaretz has learned "that the Americans have suggested the force placed in the Jordan Valley contain Palestinian and Israeli soldiers or police along with American or international boots on the ground."

Sunday Round-Up - November 3, 2013

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at Iran, Syria, and the self-fulfilling prophecy of perpetual war.  Sources include The Christian Science Monitor, The Guardian, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and TomDispatch.com.

Iran

Nuclear talks with Iran are showing signs of progress and hope. Unfortunately that doesn't stop some in Congress from threatening additional sanctions against Iran as the next round of talks gets underway. The increasingly-ridiculous House of Representatives has passed a resolution requiring additional sanctions. In the Senate, which should know better, the Banking Committee is now considering a similar move. These actions do nothing but poison the negotiating atmosphere. The Christian Science Monitor reports on the comments of Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking in Turkey on November 1. Zarif "warned that the international community risked missing a chance to strike a deal over Iran’s nuclear program and lambasted a “zero-sum” diplomatic approach in which each side tried to make gains at the expense of the other." That approach has failed to achieve any progress in the one and half years of talks and both sides need a fresh approach. Zarif said that "Iran was ready to “do everything in our negotiations with the P5+1 to ensure that even the perception that Iran has anything but peaceful intentions for its nuclear program will be removed, because we believe that even the perception that Iran pursues a nuclear weapons program is not only wrong, but dangerous.” 

 

The Obama Administration is not standing still in the face of the hawkish Congressional rhetoric. The Guardian.in an October 25 article, reported Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman's comments to Voice of America that a delay in new sanctions will let the US see if talks over Iranian nuclear ambitions can gain traction. "The public nature of Sherman's statement was seen as a significant gesture to Tehran. 'I thought it was a very positive statement...the most forward-leaning statement that I can recall an Obama administration official using, when discussing sanctions, at any time over the past four to five years.' said Reza Marashi, research director at the National Iranian American Council. "It was very specific. That not only sends a message to Congress but it also sends a message I think to the Iranians as well. That shows a certain level of seriousness to make these kinds of statements publicly."

 

Syria

Syria has met the first deadline set by arms inspectors for the destruction of its chemical weapons.      "The Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) announced ...that Syria's declared chemical weapons production and mixing facilities had all been destroyed – a day ahead of the target it had set. It means that Syria can no longer produce any new chemical weapons, although it has yet to start destroying its existing stockpile. This is estimated at about 1,000 tonnes of chemicals and weapons, including mustard gas and the deadly nerve agent sarin."  But the humanitarian crisis continues with the recent confirmation of a polio outbreak among Syrian children.  David Miliband, a former British foreign secretary and head of the International Rescue Committee called it a "terrifying indication of what can happen when a country falls apart under the weight of war".[The Guardian, October 31]

 

Besides polio, other diseases are taking hold along the Syria-Turkey border.  "According to doctors struggling to cope with minimal state help in the frontier region, measles and other infectious diseases such as cutaneous leishmaniasis [which causes skin sores] have started to appear on both sides of the border. The World Health Organisation has already raised an alert about the revival of polio in northern Syria. All were previously illnesses under control in the neighbouring countries...."Communicable diseases like measles, typhoid or TB are now popping up in Turkish cities," said Dr. Ramazan Kaya, a specialist for internal diseases. Speaking of Qamishli refugee camp, Kaya said "Sanitary conditions are dismal. Water is no longer chlorinated, rubbish isn't collected anymore.  Syria is known to have had very good healthcare. Since the beginning of this conflict, the system has started to break down, and it is getting worse by the day. There are shortages of everything – medicine, vaccines, medical equipment." [The Guardian, November 1]

 

In an October 28 article, The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace notes Saudi Arabia's increasing involvement in the Syrian civil war. "The shift to an increasingly assertive stance on the Syrian crisis reflects the Saudi leadership’s dismay about the U.S.-Russian agreement on dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons capability. The effort effectively removes the specter of U.S.-led military action against the regime and potentially rehabilitates Assad as a partner of the international community. Riyadh has long pushed for a tougher line. The additional prospect of a U.S.-Iranian understanding on the nuclear file has only made the Saudi leadership more grimly determined to bring down Assad."  As CEIP's Yezid Sayigh explains, the "Saudi plan to build a new national army for the Syrian opposition is polarizing the rebels and potentially undermining Riyadh’s objectives in Syria." The Saudi effort will complicate the planned Geneva II peace conference.   Sayigh concludes "The Saudi leadership should be careful what it creates in Syria: [the rebel group] Muhammad’s Army may eventually come home to Mecca." 

 

Bringing both sides to the negotiating table without preconditions is the only hope for an end to this tragic conflict.  The United Nations Security Council should consider imposing an immediate arms embargo on Syria.  With neither side having a clear advantage, the humanitarian crisis will only worsen as long as this civil war, fueled by imported arms, continues.

 

The Self-fulfilling Prophecy of Perpetual War

 

The October 29 TomDispatch post presents the case against drone warfare.  Along with the blanketing surveillance (including that of allied world leaders), the increased use of drones is a symptom of  a larger disease. "Devoted since [9/11] to perpetual war across significant parts of the planet and to a surveillance apparatus geared to leave no one anywhere in privacy, the U.S. now resembles a rogue superpower to an increasingly resistant and restless world."   The post contains, in its entirety, the epilogue to Jeremy Scahill's Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield.  Tom Englehardt writes: "No single reporter has done more than Jeremy Scahill to bring us back news of how, in the post-9/11 years, Washington took its wars into the darkness, how it helped create a landscape of blowback abroad, and just how such roguery works when it comes to a superpower."  Recent investigations of drone attacks that resulted in civilian deaths in Yemen and Pakistan were investigated by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.  Human Rights Watch found evidence of  the killing of civilians "indiscriminately in clear violation of the laws of war."  Amnesty International "has serious concerns that this attack [in Pakistan] violated the prohibition of the arbitrary deprivation of life and may constitute war crimes or extrajudicial executions."  Besides the ethical and legal arguments, there is also the practical argument.  After a recent visit to Pakistan, UN special rapporteur on drones Ben Emmerson said, “The consequence of drone strikes has been to radicalize an entirely new generation."  Addressing drone attacks in his epilogue, Scahill writes that today "decisions on who should live or die in the name of protecting America’s national security are made in secret, laws are interpreted by the president and his advisers behind closed doors, and no target is off-limits, including U.S. citizens....At the end of the day, U.S. policymakers and the general public must [ask]...are our own actions, carried out in the name of national security, making us less safe or more safe?...As large-scale military deployments wound down, the United States had simultaneously escalated its use of drones, cruise missiles, and Special Ops raids in an unprecedented number of countries. The war on terror had become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The question all Americans must ask themselves lingers painfully: How does a war like this ever end?"