Kenosha Unsurprising

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Kenosha Unsurprising

By Paul Street On August 28, 2020

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

There is little to be surprised about by recent events in Kenosha, Wisconsin given:

+ The deepening crisis of Black life in the COVID-19 period.

+ The persistent problem of murderous and racist policing.

+ The possession of video-capable smart phones by tens of millions of Americans.

+ The ongoing existence of a protest movement for the protection of Black lives.

+ The military-style weaponization of much of the populace.

+ The presence of heavily armed rightly-wing white militias across the country.

+ The toxic hold of eliminationist white nationalism over one of the nation’s two reigning political parties.

+ The existence of a noxious right-wing media empire.

+ The longtime (arguably foundational) elevation of property over human rights in American history.

+ The continuing presence of an (at least) instinctual fascist and doctrinal Christian white nationalists (e.g., Stephen Miller and William Barr) in the White House,

Of course there was a domestic disturbance in the city’s impoverished Black community. The George Floyd protests didn’t dismantle racial oppression and inequality in America. Systemic institutional racism and savage race-class apartheid remain in full force, with the domestic misery they produce exacerbated by COVID-19.

Of course a young Black man involved in the disturbance was viciously assaulted by a white police officer who pumped seven bullets into his back. The nation’s heavily armed police forces haven’t been purged of the vast number of violence-prone white racists and authoritarians who infect their ranks. Racist cops are regularly egged on to “crack down” violently on Black people by right-wing “law and order” forces from the President of the United States down through FOX News, right-wing talk radio, online racist hate groups, and the heads of local police unions.

Of course the shooting of Jacob Blake and the murder of one protester were caught on cell phone video and posted on social media. Damn near every American over 10 years old has a smart phone that can record and upload videos these days.

Of course Kenosha erupted in the wake of the attempted police murder of Jacob Blake. Activists and citizens did not take to the streets within and beyond Kenosha in record numbers this summer – at least 27 million across the United States by the end of the July – in order to go back to racist police state butchery caught-on-videotape-as-usual. The George Floyd protests did not occur so that neo-Jim Crow police state fascism could continue unabated.

Of course Kyle Rittenhouse, the demented white teenager affiliated with right-wing militia and thanked for his service by local police, shot two protesters dead in the streets of Kenosha with an AR-15 and then walked right past Kenosha County police with his weapon around his shoulders.

The nation is saturated with deadly assault weapons at the behest of the neofascistic National Rifle Association. Psychotics and sociopaths regularly gain access to weapons of mass destruction like AR-15s in the “armed madhouse” that is contemporary America. Federal, state, and local government have long tolerated the existence of far-right white-nationalist militia terror groups, some of whom function as open allies and adjuncts of their racist friends in local, state, and federal law enforcement.

Of course Rittenhouse and his “Kenosha Guard” militia comrades justified their lethal presence on the streets of Kenosha with the claim that they sought to protect private property. Private property had long been considered sacrosanct and identified as the true basis of “liberty” in arch-capitalist America.

Kyle’s Dear Leaders: “The Communists Are Taking Over”

Damaged young men and adolescents like the Kenosha street-shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, a Trump fan and police devotee (his social media account is filled with “Blue Lives Matter” posts) are being sparked into a fascistic frenzy by a fascist president, a white-nationalist (Republican) party, and neofascist media outlets who tell them that the Great White Fatherland is under existential assault from Communist totalitarians masquerading as civil and human rights advocates and allied with the other leading national party – the supposedly “radical Left” Democrats.

On his path to infamy, the 17-year-old psycho killer Kyle Rittenhouse became a big time MAGA-boy, a Trump fan who travelled from northeastern Illinois to Des Moines, Iowa to hear his Dear Leader speak last January. A CSPAN photo shows Rittenhouse standing in the arch-propertarian Trump rally’s front row, gazing in rapt adoration at the indecent beast who tells police to “take the gloves off” when dealing with Black criminals and who fantasizes about attacking immigrants and protesters with “vicious dogs.”

We can be sure that young Kyle listened carefully to the paranoid-style rhetoric of the Chosen One as Trump responded to the George Floyd rebellion this summer. Let’s examine some of what he likely heard – and then activated upon three nights in Kenosha. Look at this passage from the June 26^th executive order in which Trump responded to the George Floyd uprising by mandating prosecution and prison sentences for anyone who defaces public monuments honoring vicious slave-owners and Indian killers like Andrew Jackson and George Washington:

“Over the last 5 weeks, there has been a sustained assault on the life and property of civilians, law enforcement officers, government property, and revered American monuments… Many of the rioters, arsonists, and left-wing extremists who have carried out and supported these acts have explicitly identified themselves with ideologies — such as Marxism — that call for the destruction of the United States system of government. Anarchists and left-wing extremists have sought to advance a fringe ideology that paints the United States of America as fundamentally unjust…”

Read that again. That was the President of the United States trying to criminalize the notion that the U.S. is “fundamentally unjust.” [1]

Behold the following lines from Trump’s July 4^th Eve speech, delivered amid openly fascist esthetics in the holy Fatherland setting of Mount Rushmore while Lakota Sioux activists faced tear gas on the perimeter. In badly delivered prose likely drafted by the neofascist Stephen Miller, Trump proclaimed that:

“Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children… Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our Founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities…They think the American people are weak and soft and submissive.  But no, the American people are strong and proud, and they will not allow our country, and all of its values, history, and culture, to be taken from them. “

“… We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation’s children, end this radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life. In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance.  If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished.  It’s not going to happen to us…Make no mistake: this left-wing cultural revolution is …determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage. The radical ideology attacking our country advances under the banner of social justice.  But in truth, it would demolish both justice and society.”

“American heroes defeated the Nazis, dethroned the fascists, toppled the communists, saved American values, upheld American principles, and chased down the terrorists to the very ends of the earth. We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and people who, in many instances, have absolutely no clue what they are doing.”

Did you take all that in? Fascistic Marxists and left anarchists are taking over. They’ve infiltrated “our” media, “our” schools, and “even our corporate boardrooms” (!) They are taking over our children’s minds and wiping out our history. A Radical Left specter haunts America, portending a grim totalitarian future. But the great American volk will slay this evil demon because they are not weak. Under the lead of the tangerine-tinted Chosen One, the silent Amerikaner majority will stand up to protect the Great White Homeland against the Red Menace and its swarming, deranged, and polyglot minions in the scary, sinister, and dark-skinned cities, where weak liberals have handed power to communist animals scheming to loot American culture and society. (My guess is that Miller tried but failed to get Trump to use the phrase “cultural Marxism.”)

Listen to a recent insane Trump attack on Biden: “He’s going to do things that nobody ever would ever think even possible. Because he’s following the Radical Left agenda. Take away your guns. Destroy your second amendment. No religion, no anything. Hurt the Bible, hurt God. He’s against God. He’s against guns. He’s against energy, our kind of energy.” (That’s right, the deeply conservative U.S. corporatist-imperialist Republocrat Joe Biden is such a dangerous tool of the Radical Atheist Child-Eating Marxist-Fascist Conspiracy that he intends to use the presidency to hurt God. Our kind of energy”? That would non-renewable fossil fuels, the kind of energy that is ending the human experiment by turning the planet into a giant Greenhouse Gas Chamber.)

I’m guessing that young Kyle appreciated Trump’s Tweeted response to early George Floyd unrest: “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Perhaps the teen killer also heard an unhinged outburst of racist neo-McCarthyism from the mouth of Trump’s henchman, Attorney General William Barr. Evil Buddha Barr recently went on the raving lunatic Marc Levin’s FOX News show to say that Black Lives Matter (BLM) is comprised of “Bolsheviks” advocating “some form of socialism, communism.” Barr called the social justice protests that have arisen since the George Floyd lynching “a new form of urban guerrilla warfare.” Barr claimed that BLM reflects the Democratic Party’s shift to the “far left” in pursuit of “complete political victory.” Power, Barr said, has become a “secular religion of the left…They want to run people’s lives so they can design utopia for all of us…and it’s the lust for power.” According to Barr, the corporate Democratic Party is cover for and captive to the great Stalinist campaign to put Americans in work and re-education camps. Barr told Levin that a considerable portion of the Democratic Party’s congressional delegation are “true believers…essentially revolutionary in outlook; they believe in tearing down the system.” (The rest of the Congressional Dems,” Barr said, are “just cowards” who “are interested in getting re-elected and are afraid of a challenge from the Left. For them, it’s careerism…”)

Donald “White Power” Trump preceded the Democratic National Convention’s opening two Mondays ago with a feral, hour-long neo-McCarthyite rant in which he said the following:

+ “Nobody’s going to want to cover Sleepy Joe. We’ll end up with one very boring socialist country that will go to hell…they’ll all lose their networks, they’ll all lose their wealth, everything will be gone.”

+ “Unlike Sleepy Joe Biden our approach to the pandemic is based on science, not left-wing ideology.”

+ “Kamala Harris… co-sponsored a $32 trillion socialist takeover of healthcare and our country, because our country would be ruined, destroyed… You have $33 in healthcare and $93 trillion on the socialist Green New Deal.”

+ The Democrats are “typical politicians, but radical left wing.”

+ “If Joe Biden and the radical Dems take power, they will pass legislation gutting every single police department in America…Every voter should ask themselves a simple question: do you want the radical left policies of Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco imposed on the entire country?”

+ “Joe Biden is the puppet of left-wing extremists, trying to erase our borders, eliminate our police, indoctrinate our children, vilify our heroes, take away our energy…Destroy our second amendment, attack the right to life and replace American freedom with left wing fascism. Left wing. We’re going to left wing all the way. Fascists. They are fascists.”

+ “Now Biden is running on the most extreme far-left agenda ever put forward by a major party…the Biden Bernie manifesto calls for appointing far left prosecutors, judges, and justices of the United States Supreme Court.”

Fascist Tropes

This brutish 21^st Century neo-McCarthyism – completely absurd considering the deeply conservative and even right-wing nature of the Biden-Harris presidential ticket – has been a key animating theme in this week’s Republican National Convention (RNC). One RNC speaker after another preposterously linked the corporate and imperialist Biden candidacy and Democratic Party to “socialism” and even “communism,” both smeared as “totalitarian” enemies of “Western civilization.” Especially amusing and (yet) terrifying was the fanatical oration yelled by the bizarre Gene Simmons impersonator and gold-digging fascist Kimberly Guilfoyle (Donald Trump, Jr.’s scary silicon girlfriend). “Biden, Harris, and the rest of the socialists,” Guilfoyle bellowed, “will fundamentally change this nation…As a first generation American, I know how dangerous their socialist agenda is… The same socialist policies which destroyed Cuba and Venezuela must NOT take root in our cities and our schools.” (A child of Puerto Ricans, Guilfoyle appeared not know that Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens before they came to the mainland).

Again and again, RNC speakers hit on core fascist and authoritarian tropes: the menace of Marxism/socialism; the false conflation of corporate moderates and centrists (like Biden, Harris and the rest of the Democratic Party establishment) with “the radical left;” the “weakness” of the liberals and moderates in the face of the alleged Red Menace; the grave danger to the “homeland” posed by dark, polyglot, and cosmopolitan cities; the readiness to use force as a political weapon (the genuinely grotesque right-wing activist Charlie Kirk called Trump “the bodyguard of Western Civilization”); the obsession with Law and Order; the conflation of protest with rioting and (sacrilegious) property destruction; the betrayal of the great Nation by liberal and Left elites who are “indoctrinating our children,” wrecking “our culture and history,” and turning us all into slaves of a giant Stalinist State.

The opening night of the convention prominently featured a speech by Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the wealthy white couple who criminally brandished an assault rifle and a rapid fire pistol at Black Lives Matter protesters from the steps of their mansion in St. Louis, Missouri last June 28th.

The McCloskeys were charged with “the unlawful use of a weapon,” a felony offense, by St. Louis County last Jull 10th. But so what? White nationalism is about extra-legal measures. Fascism is not bound by the rule of law.

It can’t happen here? Get over that one, for God’s sakes. It’s happening right now and has been for some time. If Trump gets a second term, maybe Kyle Rittenhouse can be released from detention long enough to be a guest of honor at the ceremony unveiling the newly carved face of Donald Trump at Mount Rushmore. Don Lemon will cover the event from an undisclosed location in western Canada.

Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson still has his job after telling his millions of viewers that Rittenhouse’s murderous actions were justified since the teenager rightly “decided to maintain order when no one else would.”

Surprised that Carlson would incite further violence by saying that? You shouldn’t be. Tucker’s a fascist too. There’s a whole bunch of them running loose in the Armed Madhouse.

And “this monster” – Tucker Carlson – is, a friend writes, “the most watched talking head on cable news.”

Endnote

1. The United States, by the way, is fundamentally unjust. Even before the Trump Virus sparked a depression and corporate bailout that deepened inequality in the U.S., the three wealthiest Americans’ combined wealth already exceeded that of the nation’s bottom 50 percent. The top tenth of the upper U.S. One Percent already had a shared net worth greater than that of the nation’s bottom 90 percent and median Black household wealth amounted to 6 cents on the white median household dollar. The nation has long been riddled by massive, interrelated disparities of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and power that make an abject mockery of its claim to represent democracy and equality before the law. Exhaustive empirical research shows that progressive majority public opinion is close to irrelevant in the making of “public” policy, which consistently reflects the preferences of the wealthy Few and their giant corporations and financial institutions. You can learn all about this from mainstream researchers and journalists who never identify with “ideologies such as Marxism” or acknowledge that significant socioeconomic disparity and top-down class rule are inherent to the profits system.

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URL to article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/28/kenosha-unsurprising/

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

 

 

Trump Administration Allows Thousands of Corporations to Bypass Environmental Rules

Published on Portside (https://portside.org/)

Trump Administration Allows Thousands of Corporations to Bypass Environmental Rules

E. Knickmeyer, C. Bussewitz, J. Flesher, M. Brown, M. Casey

August 24, 2020

Associated Press/PBS

Thousands of oil and gas operations, government facilities and other sites won permission to stop monitoring for hazardous emissions or otherwise bypass rules intended to protect health and the environment because of the coronavirus outbreak, The Associated Press has found.

The result: approval for less environmental monitoring at some Texas refineries and at an army depot dismantling warheads armed with nerve gas in Kentucky, manure piling up and the mass disposal of livestock carcasses at farms in Iowa and Minnesota, and other risks to communities as governments eased enforcement over smokestacks, medical waste shipments, sewage plants, oilfields and chemical plants.

The Trump administration paved the way for the reduced monitoring on March 26 after being pressured by the oil and gas industry, which said lockdowns and social distancing during the pandemic made it difficult to comply with anti-pollution rules. States are responsible for much of the oversight of federal environmental laws, and many followed with leniency policies of their own.

AP’s two-month review found that waivers were granted in more than 3,000 cases, representing the overwhelming majority of requests citing the outbreak. Hundreds of requests were approved for oil and gas companies. AP reached out to all 50 states citing open-records laws; all but one, New York, provided at least partial information, reporting the data in differing ways and with varying level of detail.

Almost all those requesting waivers told regulators they did so to minimize risks for workers and the public during a pandemic — although a handful reported they were trying to cut costs.

The Environmental Protection Agency says the waivers do not authorize recipients to exceed pollution limits. Regulators will continue pursuing those who “did not act responsibly under the circumstances,” EPA spokesman James Hewitt said in an email.

But environmentalists and public health experts say it may be impossible to fully determine the impact of the country’s first extended, national environmental enforcement clemency because monitoring oversight was relaxed. “The harm from this policy is already done,” said Cynthia Giles, EPA’s former assistant administrator under the Obama administration.

EPA has said it will end the COVID enforcement clemency this month.

Refinery giant Marathon Petroleum, already struggling financially before the pandemic, was one of the most aggressive in seeking to dial back its environmental monitoring. On the same day EPA announced its new policy, the Ohio-based company asked Indiana officials for relief from its leak detection, groundwater sampling, spill prevention, emissions testing and hazardous waste responsibilities at its facilities statewide.

“We believe that by taking these measures, we can do our part to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” Tim Peterkoski, environmental auditing and processes manager for Marathon Petroleum, told the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

Marathon also pushed for and was granted permission to skip environmental tests at many of its refineries and gas stations in California, Michigan, North Dakota and Texas.

Spokesman Jamal Kheiry said Marathon sought broad regulatory relief early in the pandemic, when it was uncertain how long lockdowns would last or how its operations would be affected. But the company continued emissions monitoring and other activities and usually met deadlines, he said.

Penny Aucoin, a resident of New Mexico’s oil-rich Permian Basin, said since the pandemic, she and her husband have spent days begging regulators to investigate surges of noxious gas or hisses that they feared could signal a dangerous leak from one of the many oil and gas companies operating near their mobile home.

“There’s nobody watching,” Aucoin said. “A lot of stuff is going wrong. And there’s nobody to fix it.”

Maddy Hayden, New Mexico’s environmental spokesperson, said her agency stopped in-person investigations of citizen air-quality complaints from March to May to protect staff and the public but stood ready to respond to emergencies.

Almost every state reported fielding requests from industries and local governments to cut back on compliance. Many were for activities like delaying in-person training or submitting records by email rather than paper. Others, however, were requests for temporary exemptions or extensions on monitoring and repairs to stop the flow of harmful soot, toxic compounds, disease-carrying contaminants or heavy metals, AP found.

Regulators, for example, waived in-person inspections at parts of a former nuclear test site in Nevada, switching to drive-by checks.

North Carolina allowed Chemours Co., which is cleaning up dangerous PFAS industrial compounds in drinking water, to pause sampling of residential wells because it would require entering elderly residents’ homes.

Saint-Gobain, whose New Hampshire plant has been linked by the state to water contaminated with PFAS chemicals, has requested delaying smokestack upgrades that would address the problem. The company says the delays are necessary partly due to problems the company’s suppliers and contractors have faced because of the coronavirus.

State Rep. Rosemarie Rung, a Democrat who uses bottled water due to the PFAS contamination, said the company was “just dragging their feet.”

The AP’s findings run counter to statements in late June by Susan Bodine, EPA’s assistant administrator for enforcement, who told lawmakers the pandemic was not causing “a significant impact on routine compliance, monitoring and reporting” and that industry wasn’t widely seeking relief from monitoring.

A separate analysis of EPA enforcement data shows 40% fewer tests of smokestacks were conducted in March and April compared with the same period last year, according to the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, a network of academics and non-profits.

Hewitt, the EPA spokesman, said the agency did not know why there were fewer tests but pointed to the plunge in economic activity accompanying the pandemic, and said closed facilities would have been unable to test smokestacks.

Oil and gas companies received a green light to skip dozens of scheduled tests and inspections critical for ensuring safe operations, such as temporarily halting or delaying tests for leaks or checking on tank seals, flare stacks, emissions monitoring systems or engine performance, which could raise the risk of explosions.

Taken together, the missed inspections for leaks could add hundreds or thousands of tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, and could be making refinery work more dangerous, said Coyne Gibson, a former oil and gas engineer and a member of the Big Bend Conservation Alliance in Texas.

“The whole point of leak detection is to avoid people being harmed from a leak of toxic material,” said Victor Flatt, environmental law professor at the University of Houston. “If you suspend leak detection, you don’t even know if it’s happening.”

Monitoring and other pollution regulations often are depicted as legally mandated paperwork requirements, said Philip J. Landrigan, a biology professor and director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College. But air pollution alone increases risks of heart disease, stroke, lung disease and premature births, and when environmental standards are not held to, “as surely as night follows day there are going to be an increased number of deaths from those causes,” Landrigan said.

EPA’s policy was “primarily related to record keeping, training and flexibility in the timing of routine inspections where there may have been limited personnel or capabilities due to COVID-19,” said Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president at

The American Petroleum Institute, which pushed for the policy. He maintained the industry’s pollution control equipment continues to operate.

In North Dakota, regulators granted Oklahoma-based ONEOK’s request to bypass groundwater sampling at its natural gas liquids processing plant in Garden Creek, where regulators said at least 837,000 gallons of natural gas liquids have spilled from a leak since 2015.

ONEOK skipped sampling because of safety concerns about third-party contractors traveling during the pandemic, and the company resumed sampling in June, spokesman Brad Borror said.

"Almost every state reported fielding requests from industries and local governments to cut back on compliance."

Some states were generous with exemptions. Arkansas granted a blanket, months-long waiver to oil and gas companies for safety testing of temporarily abandoned wells and other activities.

Alaska authorized delayed inspections at dozens of massive tanks used to store petroleum, and let companies defer drills designed to ensure they can quickly respond to major oil spills. It also said the state would take no action against companies for not complying with some air pollution regulations in instances related to COVID-19.

In Wyoming, regulators gave breaks on air emissions rules in about 300 cases, mostly for oil and gas companies, including ExxonMobil and Sinclair.

It wasn’t just huge industry that requested the exemptions.

As supply chains broke down at the start of the outbreak, Minnesota granted more than 90 waivers on how many animals could be stuffed into feedlots, potentially raising risks of water contamination from manure. Farms and landfills in Iowa received variances on animal disposal regulations to allow for the mass burial and composting of livestock.

Michigan approved or was reviewing requests from several cities to delay replacing lead water pipes or testing for lead, spurred in some instances by the Flint water crisis.

Eric Schaeffer, a former director of EPA’s office of civil enforcement under President George W. Bush, dismissed assurances from governments that reducing monitoring during the outbreak wouldn’t lead to a surge in pollutants.

“It’s like saying we’re going to remove the radar guns and remove speedometers, but you still have to comply with the speed limit,” said Schaeffer, now head of the Environmental Integrity Project advocacy group. “That doesn’t make sense.”

The following Associated Press reporters contributed to this story. Ellen Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City, Cathy Bussewitz reported from New York City, John Flesher reported from Traverse City, Michigan, Matthew Brown reported from Billings, Montana, and Michael Casey reported from Boston.

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Source URL: https://portside.org/2020-08-29/trump-administration-allows-thousands-corporations-bypass-environmental-rules

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

 

 

‘Muscular’ Foreign Policy: Media Codeword for Violence Abroad

 https://fair.org/home/muscular-foreign-policy-media-codeword-for-violence-abroad/

View article on FAIR's website ‘Muscular’ Foreign Policy: Media Codeword for Violence Abroad Alan MacLeod   The Washington Post's Josh Rogin (8/13/20) writes that "Biden and Harris, if they are elected, will have a chance to prove that Democratic muscular liberalism is still the right approach." Writing in the Washington Post , pro-war columnist Josh Rogin appeared relieved that Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris as his running mate for November—as opposed to a progressive like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders, who would have called for cutting military budgets, fewer US interventions and the withdrawal of troops stationed abroad. Biden and Harris, he explained, will together pursue a “robust” foreign policy agenda. Harris is described approvingly by one source as “pragmatic” (another media codeword—FAIR.org, 8/21/19), and together, Rogin notes, she and Biden can prove that “muscular liberalism is still the right approach.” What that actually means in practice, he is a little vague on, though he does suggest that will entail “aggressively” “confronting” nuclear powers Russia and China.  “Muscular,” along with similar words like “robust,” are commonly used in political reporting, especially with regards to foreign policy. They are inherently positive descriptions, conveying strength and confidence, their opposites being “weak,” “feeble” or “decrepit.” It is obvious which have the better connotations. This is a real problem, because all too regularly the words are used as euphemisms to sugarcoat inflicting violence around the world. Often the consequences of such a policy are not stated, as when CBS News (6/17/16) reported that John Kerry recommended “a more muscular US role in Syria,” or when a guest on the Rachel Maddow Show (6/18/14) described former Vice President Dick Cheney as wishing for a more “muscular policy” for the US in Iraq. Thus, when CBS’s Face the Nation (3/23/18) aired a segment entitled, “Trump Surrounding Himself With ‘More Muscular’ Foreign Policy Team,” a naif or a foreigner might be forgiven for thinking Jesse Ventura or Arnold Schwarzenegger was advising the president. And when the BBC (12/18/17) reported on the US’s “muscular engagement” with the world, they were not describing a new workout plan.   CBS (3/23/18) described Trump's hiring hyper-interventionist John Bolton as signaling a "more muscular" foreign policy team. Sometimes, however, journalists made explicit what such a foreign policy would consist of. The New York Times (5/14/15), for instance, described Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio as offering “a robust and muscular foreign policy,” including the end of normalization with Cuba, a hike in military spending and reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act. The Times is a repeat offender in whitewashing the Florida senator’s often disturbing policies; in 2019 it described his advocacy for further sanctions and military intervention in Venezuela as “muscular policy tools” (New York Times, 1/29/19). By this time, the sanctions had already killed an estimated 40,000 people and would go on to kill over 100,000. What about blocking the import of medicines is “muscular”? “Sociopathic” might be a better adjective. Support for regime change in Venezuela is bipartisan, however, with Bloomberg’s Eli Lake (8/3/20) recently noting that support for a “democratic transition” there would be more “steadfast” under a Biden administration.  The result of “muscular” and “robust” policies can also be seen all over the Middle East. In 2017, Trump reversed his earlier promise to pull US troops out of Afghanistan, instead announcing his own surge, having just dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in human history on the country. The Washington Post (8/21/17) described his decision as “muscular but vague.” On Syria, the New York Times (4/21/17) pondered whether a more or less muscular approach would bring better results. And when Trump ordered B-52 bombers to Iran’s doorstep, CBS anchor Margaret Brennan (5/12/19) asked a guest what he thought of the president’s “muscular response” to Iranian provocation.  Or you can also read about Saudi Arabia’s muscular foreign policy in Yemen (LA Times, 4/20/15, 8/11/19; BBC, 4/21/15), thought to have killed hundreds of thousands of people. Likewise, on one of the many recent occasions when Israel bombed Gaza, the Washington Post (3/26/19) noted that some Israeli politicians were calling for an even more “muscular response”—combining the “muscular” media trope with the convention that the US and its allies never initiate violence themselves, but only ever “respond” to enemy provocation (FAIR.org, 6/6/19, 8/21/20). So reflexive is this media whitewashing of state violence that it is even applied to official enemies. For instance, in an article explaining the rise of Russian president Vladimir Putin, CNN (8/8/19) wrote: “What explained Putin's surge in popularity over those crucial early months? One factor was clear: Putin's muscular response to domestic terrorism.” That “muscular response,” CNN explicitly stated, included when “Russian forces leveled the [Chechen] rebel capital of Grozny,” which is thought to have killed around 9,000 people.  The word is also sometimes used in reference to domestic programs as well, but generally only when involving oppressing the powerless. In 2012, Fox News (1/10/12) reported that immigration activists were unhappy with President Barack Obama’s “muscular deportation policy” (which saw more people deported than ever before). Likewise, in the wake of masked federal agents abducting people off Portland’s streets, the New Yorker (7/24/20) worried about the “ever more muscular immigration-enforcement presence in US life.” "Weak" is used in corporate media as a synonym for "diplomatic" (Fox Business, 8/18/20). While advocating wholesale violence is “robust” or “muscular” in media speak, opposing it is inherently “weak” and worthy of condemnation. A case in point is Bernie Sanders, whose “weak foreign policy,” according to Business Insider (3/15/20), was a serious black mark against him. Examples of his weakness, it noted, include “an obvious commitment to rejoin the Iran deal” and ending Saudi attacks on Yemen.  More scandalous, apparently, were his “controversial comments” on Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba, comments that amounted to not endorsing US regime change efforts against sovereign nations. This, for Business Insider columnist and former US diplomat Brett Bruen, made him a unserious presidential candidate.  And while Rogin and the WaPo might have described Biden as robust on foreign policy, Trump did not see it that way; the president this month telling Fox Business (8/18/20) his opponent was “weak” on the issue. The reason? Biden would pursue a diplomatic solution with Iran, like Obama did. There is nothing inherently strong about destroying or terrorizing other nations, and nothing weak about opposing it. But our hawkish corporate media continue to present it as such, therefore subtly manufacturing consent for continued conflicts around the world. The next time you hear someone on corporate media praising a “muscular,” or “robust” foreign policy, be on the alert: They might be trying to sell you another war.     Read more © 2020 Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. All rights reserved.

PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO SEND AN EMAIL TO COLOMBIAN AND INTERNATIONAL AUTHORITIES TO DEMAND AN END TO THE MASSACRES OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS!

 PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO SEND AN EMAIL TO COLOMBIAN AND INTERNATIONAL AUTHORITIES TO DEMAND AN END TO THE MASSACRES OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS! https://afgj.salsalabs.org/nomoremassacresincolombianomasmasacresencolombia/index.html?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=10997e6d-eb47-4cee-80bd-4302906a2314

Alliance for Global Justice Statement on the Recent and Ongoing Massacres of Colombian Social Leaders and Ex-Insurgents

The Alliance for Global Justice is extremely concerned with the recent increase of violence in Colombia. In our June 16, 2020 action, we asked you to sign a letter asking Members of the USA Congress to act immediately to protect the lives of social leaders, peasants, indigenous and Afro Colombians victims of the violence generated by the illegal arm forces present in their communities. Unfortunately, despite our efforts, the human rights situation in Colombia has worsened to disturbing levels.

In 2020, there have been 43 massacres with most of the victims in the Colombia states of Nariño, Cauca, Valle del Cauca, Antioquia, Arauca, and Santander del Norte. A considerable increase happened in August, after the Colombia Supreme Court ordered the house arrest of the Ex-President Uribe. During this month, there have been six massacres, with a total of 24 victims. Among the victims are six children, three indigenous Awa of the Pialapi Pueblo Viejo, in Nariño, and seven young men under 26 years of age.

These massacres are adding to the difficult situation in Colombia, the most dangerous country in the world for human rights defenders. Since 2018, social leaders, environmental activists, and social activists totaling 183 have been killed. During the same period, 222 ex-combat signers of the Peace Agreement also were killed.  In other words, social movement leaders and former insurgents were being killed in political violence at a rate of around one person every three days. Following the election of President Duque, the rate rose to around one person killed every other day. Around Christmas of 2019, the rate of killings rose to one social movement leader, human rights defender, or peace process participant killed every day. As of August 19, 2020, Indepaz listed a total of 243 social leaders, human rights defenders, or peace process participants that had been murdered so far this year, bringing the rate to more than one victim of political violence per day. If we add the 28 persons killed in the spree of political violence on Friday, August 21, 2020, we see a new rate, as of August 25, of one victim of political violence in Colombia every 21 hours, that is, five victims every four days.

Even when human rights defenders have denounced threats of massacres, the Colombian government has not intervened. This includes a recent threat of a massacre by armed groups against the Collective Territory of the Naya River region, comprised of 73 communities. The Naya region suffered the horrible massacre of 2001, when more than forty people were killed.

We denounce U.S.A support to train and fund Colombian military forces over the past twenty years, using U.S. taxes to spy on reporters, human rights defenders, politicians, judges, union leaders and possible military whistle blowers.

We have asked you to contact your congressional representatives to sign dear colleague letters, and we have asked you to call on Secretary of State Pompeo to help protect human rights defenders and to hold accountable those responsible for these violations.

We have asked the Colombian President and its government to protect the lives of its citizens with no effective measures taken by them.

Even though these authorities do not want to hear us, we will not be silent. We will raise up our voices as often as is necessary until the killings stop! This increasing violence against the Colombian people and their country’s peace must not be tolerated. From the streets of Colombia to the streets of the U.S.A, people are rising up to demand an end to political violence against human rights defenders and social movement leaders. This brutality must end.

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

 

 

 

Baltimore Activist Alert – August 30 – September 1 2020

Baltimore Activist Alert – August 30 – September 1 2020

 "I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours." -Martin Luther King Jr.

 Friends, this list and other email documents which I send out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center.  Go to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com. 

 If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send contributions to Max Obuszewski, BNC, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Max Obuszewski can be reached at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net.

1] Books, buttons and stickers

2] Web site for info on federal legislation

3] Get involved with NCNR   

4] Walk for Change – Aug. 30

5] Join the Positive People Network, Inc. – Aug. 30

6] COVID-19 Outbreak in Gaza – Aug. 30  

7] Baltimore Ethical Society closed – Aug. 30

8] Free Food Distribution – Aug. 30

9] Health care call – Aug. 30

10] Race and the War Machine – Aug. 30

11] Pentagon Peace Vigil – Aug. 31

12] The Art of Protest – Aug. 31

13] Land of Kush Food Rescue – Aug. 31

14] Food Collection – Aug. 31

15] McConnell must stop playing politics – Aug. 31

16] COVID-19 & Racial Justice – Aug. 31

17] Food Truck Monday – Aug. 31

18] What threats to our national security make this so? – Aug. 31

19] Protect Frontlines Forest Defenders everywhere!  – Aug. 31

20] Get Money Out of Maryland – Aug. 31

21] Outside Bread for the Journey Soup Kitchen – Sept. 1

22] Toward a Post-Nuclear Just Peace – Sept. 1

23] Protest weapons research at JHU – Sept. 1

24] Legacy of Race & Racism in Georgetown – Sept. 1

25] Candlelight Vigil for Those Lost to Racism – Sept. 1

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1] – Buttons, bumperstickers and books are available.  “God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions” stickers are in stock. Call Max at 410-323-1607.

2] –To obtain information how your federal legislators voted on particular bills, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/.  Congressional toll-free numbers are 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. The White House Comment Email is accessible at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.

3] – THE ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR].  It will be augmented by conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed.  It will consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to U.S. wars.

To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email address to mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net.  Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to subscribe.  

4] – On Sun., Aug. 30 from 8:15 to 10:30 AM, Walk for Change in Old Town, Alexandria.  Start at Misha's Coffeehouse, 102 S. Patrick St., Alexandria, VA 22314. Every Morning, Walk. Wear shirts or carrying signs with positive messages of Equality. The only prerequisite is an able body, loving heart and a dedication to ACTION for change and EQUALITY. Each member has taken action and contributed $ to a BLM cause and continues to keep the MOVEment alive through Daily Walks. Check out https://www.facebook.com/events/2508407094

78673/?event_time_id=250840719478672.

5] – On Sun., Aug. 30 at 10 AM, join the Positive People Network, Inc. Conference at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, WDC. The Positive People Network, Inc. will be representing people living with HIV at the March on Washington.  See https://www.facebook.com/events/730842154345506/.

6] – On Sun., Aug. 30 at 10 AM ET, find out about the COVID-19 Outbreak in Gaza: Live from the Ground, hosted by CODEPINK: Women for Peace. Visit the Online Event at https://www.codepink.org/covid_outbreak_in_gaza. Earlier this week, Gaza went into lockdown after discovering its first outbreak of the coronavirus. The pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but it is especially threatening to residents of Gaza and other Palestinians. Gaza is already vulnerable due to its fragile healthcare system, the challenges created by the Israeli blockade, and the ongoing energy crisis. Palestine needs help no more than ever. What can be done?  Join CODEPINK’s Ariel Gold in conversation with Mona Msaddar and Basman Derawi of We Are Not Numbers, an organization that aims to humanize the Palestinian struggle. Together, they will illuminate the severity of the situation in Gaza, and share ways the rest of the world can help.  Join by Zoom here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85148556538.

7] - Usually, the Baltimore Ethical Society, 2521 St. Paul St., Baltimore 21218, meets on Sundays, and generally there is a speaker and discussion at 10:30 AM.  However, the meeting on Sun., Aug. 30 seems to be cancelled.  Email ask@bmorethical.org. Visit https://bmorethical.org/events/?dd_year=2020.

8] – On Sun., Aug. 30 from 11 AM to 12:30 PM ET, get with Free Food Distribution - Fresh fruits & vegetables, hosted by the Indian Cultural Association of Howard County, Maryland. The Indian Cultural Association is pleased to team up with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 4100 St. John's Lane, Ellicott City 21042 to distribute fresh fruits & vegetables. See https://www.facebook.com/events/636791273610865/?event_time_id=636791280277531.

9] – Join the Healthcare Emergency Town Hall on Sun., Aug. 30 at 4 PM. Tell Congress We Need Medicare For All.  Invest To Enact Medicare For All And Science-Based Effective, Emergency COVID-19 Response Policies.  Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) is working to defeat and root out dangerous, extremist Trumpism. That means we need to be much more than just better than right-wing racists, science deniers, and frauds. We must lead the way on proven successful programs including Expanded and Improved Medicare for All (MFA). Email Mike Fox at info@pdamerica.org to get the secure log in codes.

10] – Race and the War Machine will be discussed on Sun., Aug. 30 from 4 to 5:30 PM as part of an Online Event.  Sign up at http://masspeaceaction.org/venue/online-event/?emci=dd363fc3-30e6-ea11-8b03-00155d0394bb&emdi=878c41be-42e6-ea11-8b03-00155d0394bb&ceid=269591. Michael McPhearson will lead the discussion.  He is currently residing in Seattle, Washington, and was the executive director of Veterans for Peace from October 2013 to June 2019. He is a founding co-chair of the Don’t Shoot Coalition in Saint Louis, MO. Don’t Shoot was organized in the aftermath of the death of Michael Brown, Jr.

  So much of the way police in this country and state operate is predicated on enforcing the war of drugs. We know that this approach has completely failed to address the overdose crisis in our state and has only fueled police violence. Progressive Maryland is calling for a special legislative session to address both the eviction crisis and the war on drugs. Remove the enforcement of the drug war from police hands, and it will protect both drug users and Black and Brown communities across our state.   On Mon., Aug. 31 from 6 to 7:30 PM, come together for a training on how to text Marylanders to demand our legislators address the crisis of violent policing and the war on drugs. RSVP to receive the Zoom info: https://secure.everyaction.com/W7kOm0qCS0Owz_Q1XDDyQQ2?emci=d84c980c-a6e8-ea11-8b03-00155d0394bb&emdi=3234a91b-ace8-ea11-8b03-00155d0394bb&ceid=136680.

11] – There is a weekly Pentagon Peace Vigil from 7 to 8 AM on Mondays, since 1987, outside the Pentagon Metro stop.  The next vigil is Aug. 31, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker.  Email artlaffin@hotmail.com or call 202-882-9649.  The vigil will be outside the Pentagon's south Metro entrance and in the designated "protest zone" behind bicycle fences across from the entrance to the Metro.  By Metro, take Yellow Line and get out at the "Pentagon" stop. Do not go to the Pentagon City stop! Go up south escalators and turn left and walk across to protest area. By car from D.C. area, take 395 South and get off at Exit 8A-Pentagon South Parking. Take slight right onto S. Rotary Rd. at end of ramp and right on S. Fern St. Then take left onto Army Navy Dr. You can "pay to park" on Army Navy Dr.,  and there is meter parking one block on right on Eads St. Payment for both of these spots begin at 8 AM.  No cameras are allowed on Pentagon grounds. Restrooms are located inside Marriott Residence Inn on corner of S. Fern and Army Navy Dr.  

12] – On Mon., Aug. 31 from 10 AM to 4 PM, check out The Art of Protest, hosted by the Carroll Arts Center, 91 W. Main St., Westminster 21157.  It will continue each morning at 10 AM until Sept. 15. See a collection of homemade signs that were used in a variety of 2020 protests.  RSVP to the reception here: https://sforce.co/2E9Xjd4.  Look at https://www.facebook.com/events/232854097755058/?event_time_id=232854131088388.

13] – On Mon., Aug. 31 from 11 AM to 1 PM, there is a Food Rescue at Land of Kush, 840 N. Eutaw St., Baltimore 21201 on Mon., June 8 from noon to 1 PM.  This will continue each Monday through Oct. 26. Get some free vegan and plant-based food for the community. Bring a bag, take what you want as supplies last. Items from The Land of Kush's menu are not included in the give-away but will be available for sale. See https://www.facebook.com/events/950858858703919/?event_time_id=950858865370585.

14] – On Mon., Aug. 31 from noon to 2 PM, and Mondays through Aug. 31, there is a Food Collection for the Assistance Center of Towson Churches and Ascension Lutheran Church, 7601 York Road, Towson 21204. ACTC provides assistance to those with food-insecurity in our community.  If you NEED food, it is distributed Monday through Friday 10 AM to 2 PM at ACTC, 116 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Towson 21204. IF YOU CAN SHARE FOOD... place it in the truck parked on MONDAYS from noon to 2 PM in the Ascension Lutheran Church parking lot; on THURSDAYS from noon to 2 PM at the Trinity Episcopal parking lot, 120 Allegheny Ave., Towson 21204; on THURSDAYS from 5 to 7 PM in the Valley Baptist Church parking lot, 1401 York Rd., Towson 21093. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/227533218694234/?event_time_id=227533238694232.

15] – Majority Leader Mitch McConnell must stop playing politics with the lives of poor and low-income people, who are being forced out of their homes during a pandemic. As of Aug. 24, the last remaining federal protection established by the CARES Act vanished, leaving an estimated 30 million to 40 million Americans facing eviction. And that number doesn't include those who could lose their homes from foreclosure. Hear from those on the frontlines of this crisis and once again flood McConnell’s phone lines with thousands of calls. Once again, on Mon., Aug. 31 at 3:30 PM, flood his office with calls. Go to https://actionnetwork.org/events/national-moral-monday-digital-march-on-mcconnell-pass-a-just-stimulus-and-stop-evictions?source=direct_link&&link_id=5&can_id=4b9d4061aec5469758759317ac0f5285&email_referrer=email_904871&email_subject=voting-is-power-unleashed.

16] – On Mon., Aug. 31 from 4 to 5 PM, check out COVID-19 & Racial Justice: Responding to Dual Pandemics, hosted by the Talbot County Free Library and Anne Arundel County Public Library.  Get more info about this Online Event at https://howardcounty.librarycalendar.com/events/covid-19-racial-justice-responding-dual-pandemics. Our country is in the midst of two simultaneous pandemics. COVID-19 continues to alter our daily lives. At the same time, and for the past 400+ years, Black Americans have been facing the ongoing pandemic of Racial Injustice. We are at a moment of intersection between these two crises.  Former Secretary of Education under President Obama John B. King Jr. and Sabina Taj, Education professional, will discuss the dual crises and ask: how do we move forward, together?  REGISTRATION is REQUIRED IN ORDER TO RECEIVE THE EVENT LINK: https://howardcounty.librarycalendar.com/events/covid-19-racial-justice-responding-dual-pandemics.  See https://www.facebook.com/events/295160308433324/.

17] – On Mon., Aug. 31 from 5 to 8 PM, get with Food Truck Monday at Mt. Zion Church, 1643 E. Churchville Road, Bel Air 21015. Mt. Zion Church is hosting Food Truck Mondays! Each week, through October 26, a few different local food trucks will be featured. Proceeds will benefit Children of Zion Village in Namibia. Food truck lineups will be posted weekly! Each event will be held rain or shine. Skip cooking and come have dinner with us to support a great cause. https://www.facebook.com/events/626485358235756/?event_time_id=626485391569086.

18] – The Ploughshares Fund is hosting Three Happy Hours via Zoom, and the first is on Mon., Aug. 31 at 7 PM ET.  What threats to our national security make this so? How do democratic processes impact foreign policy goals? As we face a global pandemic and recession, how do nuclear weapons impact budgetary priorities and define the key relationships around the world that are critical to our safety?  RSVP at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vY-IXUbQSNKo2RZI_L6E6A.  Email bfisk@ploughshares.org.

19] – The fires raging from the Amazon to Indonesia have been absolutely devastating to frontline and Indigenous communities -- especially during a global pandemic. We want you to hear first-hand what’s happening on the ground as rainforests are being intentionally set on fire for profit. The Rainforest Action Network is holding a webinar and rally on Mon., Aug. 31 to hear from the frontlines and take action in solidarity with the movement to protect Frontlines Forest Defenders everywhere!  RSVP for the Aug. 31 at 8 PM ET webinar at https://act.ran.org/page/21819/subscribe/1?ea.tracking.id=e_en&en_og_source=e_en&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=EngagingNetworks&utm_campaign=utm_campaign&utm_content=FWOA+-+Webinar+-+Organizing+B&ea.url.id=570930.  You can’t travel to the Amazon or Indonesia, but you can meet the Forest Defenders fighting to protect them from corporate destruction. And you can help them put out the fires.

20] – Join the Get Money Out of Maryland Teleconference on Mon., Aug. 31 from 8:30 to 9:30 PM.  There are two ways to join the conference: Dial 1 929 205 6099, and then use meeting ID: 512 862 260. Or Click on your device if you have downloaded the app from Zoom. The focus will be on organizational sign-ups, public relations, and logistics for lobbying in Annapolis.

21] – On Tues., Sept. 1 from  1:30 to 2 PM, check out Outside Bread for the Journey Soup Kitchen individual lunches given out by Amazing Grace Lutheran Church in Baltimore.  This Tuesday soup kitchen will until Dec. 1. The church is at 2424 McElderry St., Baltimore 21205.  Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/602052220539690/?event_time_id=602052307206348.

22] – On Tues., Sept. 1 from 4 to 5 PM, get with Toward a Post-Nuclear Just Peace, hosted by The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and Georgetown University Press. To receive the Zoom webinar link, RSVP by noon EST on Tues., Sept. 1 using this link: https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/events/toward-a-post-nuclear-just-peace#rsvp.  On November 10, 2017, Pope Francis became the first pontiff to ban nuclear weapons outright, even for the purpose of deterrence. At a Vatican conference of leaders in the field of disarmament, he made it clear that the possession of the bomb itself was immoral. The Catholic Church's advocacy of nuclear abolition presents an opportunity for global leaders to connect disarmament to larger movements for peace, pointing toward future action. In a similar development including voices from violent conflict zones and Vatican conferences in 2016 and 2019, the just peace ethic provides a crucial framework for considering how we might proceed on this issue and other intense conflicts. Recognizing that all life is sacred while also seeking peace through violence is an untenable position. Just peace is an important framework for considering how we might pursue a nonnuclear peace. It turns our attention to creative strategies of active nonviolence embedded in the characters of the practitioners.

In this conversation, Rev. Drew Christiansen, S.J., co-editor of A World Free from Nuclear Weapons (2020), and Eli McCarthy, editor of A Just Peace Ethic Primer (2020), will discuss the implications of the Pope’s stance on nuclear disarmament and how a just peace might be pursued more faithfully, consistently, and effectively. Topics will include the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, the challenges of the new nuclear age, the three categories of a just peace ethic and a case example, and the agenda for both theoretical inquiry and programs of social action in pursuit of a post-nuclear peace.  Look at https://www.facebook.com/events/340157380696853/.

23] – There is a Vigil to say "No Drone Research at JHU" at 33rd and N. Charles Sts. on Tuesdays from 5 to 6 PM. Contact Max at mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net or 410-323-1607.  You may consider contacting President Ron Daniels and telling him that the university should reject all military contracts, including those for killer drone and nuclear weapons research.  The president’s mailing address is Office of the President, 242 Garland Hall, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, Maryland 21218.  You can also reach his office by Phone: (410) 516-8068, Fax: (410) 516-6097 or email: president@jhu.edu.

24] – On Tues., Sept. 1 from 6:30 to 8 PM,  find out about Reckoning the Legacy of Race & Racism in Georgetown, hosted by Tudor Place Historic House & Garden, Dumbarton House, NSCDA Museum & Headquarters and Mt. Zion-Female Union Band Historic Memorial Park. For info on this Online Event, visit dumbartonhouse.org/event/healing-through-history. Join a panel of thought leaders, academics, and descendants for a conversation about race and racism in Georgetown.

  Much of residential and commercial Georgetown was built by free and enslaved African Americans and, for many years, Georgetown was an extremely diverse neighborhood. According to census data, in 1800 34% of Georgetown residents were free or enslaved African Americans while Black Georgetowners account for less than 6% of the population today. Following the national response to the murder of George Floyd, Healing through History will explore the policies and practices that led to this change, bringing a critical and crucial lens to our neighborhood

25] – On Tues., Sept. 1 at 7 PM, join a Candlelight Vigil for Those Lost to Racism, hosted by St. Joseph's on Capitol Hill Catholic Church, 313 2nd St. NE, WDC 20002. Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/candlelight-vigil-for-those-lost-to-racism-tickets-117038690875.  Join with neighbors from Capitol Hill faith communities to witness against the evil of institutional racism and call for change. The fight against racism concerns everyone, especially Christians. When Christ was asked which was the first of all the commandments, He replied, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ And the second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mk 12: 28-31).

America’s original sin – that of racism against African Americans – is entrenched not just in our history, but in our political structure, legal system, and social fabric. It is so entrenched that some do not even recognize it for what it is. Our Bishops state that “Racism is an attack on the image of God that has been given to every one of us by the Creator (Gen. 5:1-3). Because each person has been created by God, we are all united together with the Lord and with each other. Racism rejects what God has done by refusing to acknowledge the image of God in the other, the stranger and the one who is different. The fact that we were created in the image of God should remind us that each person is a living expression of God that must be respected and preserved and never dishonored.” Pray for victims of institutional racism and call for healing in our Church, our community and our country.  Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1440419536343290/.

To be continued.

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs