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Kamala Harris: “More AIPAC Than J Street”
“is being embraced by many progressive Democrats, and she’s branding herself as a progressive. Yet in the course of her little more than two years in the U.S. Senate, she’s taken some foreign policy positions that should give pause to supporters of human rights and international law.”
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Will Elliott Abrams, “Abettor of Genocide,” do to Venezuela What he did to Guatemala?
“Elliott Abrams does indeed represent longstanding U.S. policy. The problem is that that policy is to be willing to abet genocide, as the U.S. did in Guatemala (under Abrams), as a Guatemalan court ruled last September after hearing evidence in a genocide trial in which I testified. … Last September 26 a Guatemalan court ruled that the U.S. policy pushed by officials like Elliott Abrams was behind the rapes, tortures, & mass murders of indigenous people, which they formally determined to constitute ‘genocide.’ … Elliott Abrams, who dismissed as ‘ludicrous’ the idea that even he should be subject to trial…
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Venezuela Intervention: Pretexts and Solutions
“The U.S. government refusing to withdraw its officials from Venezuela may well set up a pretext for further intervention or blockade.”
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Jerry Brown: Democrats’ Posture on Putin is “Stupid”
“I think it is stupid for Democrats to be attacking Putin on all issues and not holding open the channel of nuclear dialogue. Yes, deal with the issues in Syria, and killing diplomats, and Ukraine, and Crimea and all the rest of that, but that doesn’t warrant a nuclear blunder that kills billions of people, or millions. So yes, whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or somewhere in between, we need to have dialogue. And something that might help is a bit of humility. Yes, the Russians have plenty of faults, and sins I might even say, but we too…
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“Attempted Coup” in Venezuela
“We are coming up on the 15 year anniversary of the US-perpetrated coup in Haiti that took place on February 29 of 2004. U.S. troops kidnapped the democratically elected president Aristide. Canada and France helped out to provide cover for the widely loathed ‘W’ Bush in 2004.”
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On Venezuela, Trump “Clear Violation” of International Law
“It is preposterous to suggest that the president of the U.S., Brazil or Colombia should dictate who should hold power in Venezuela. That is a decision to be determined solely by the people of Venezuela.”
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In Pro-NATO Vote, Did Dems Ditch Medicare for All “Gold Standard” HR 676?
“Now that the Democrats can no longer ignore that their base is demanding a single payer health system, we have lost both HR 676 by number and its status as the gold standard. From what we have heard, as we have still not seen the text of the draft as promised, the new health bill being written by Jayapal has an unnecessarily long transition period and maintains the for-profit providers in the system. The delayed transition means more preventable deaths and suffering. Keeping the for-profits means higher costs and lower quality of care.”
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Is Venezuelan Opposition Aiming for “Ungovernablity”?
“The issue for Venezuela is how to create the context to reconcile differences, recognize the existence of the other and avoid a crisis of ungovernability.”
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MLK and the Silence on Palestine
“Just as King received fierce, overwhelming criticism for his speech condemning the Vietnam War — 168 major newspapers, including The Times, denounced the address the following day — those who speak publicly in support of the liberation of the Palestinian people still risk condemnation and backlash. Bahia Amawi, an American speech pathologist of Palestinian descent, was recently terminated for refusing to sign a contract that contains an anti-boycott pledge stating that she does not, and will not, participate in boycotting the State of Israel.”
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Teachers’ Strike and PR Campaign Against Them
“When Alex Caputo-Pearl was elected the president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) in 2014, I knew that children, families, and communities would soon have a newly energized and empowered defender in the teachers union. Today, as a Los Angeles native and a supporter of public schools and their teachers, I am on the edge of my office chair following the news of the first strike by L.A. Unified School District teachers in 30 years.”
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“With a tiny staff, it has managed to place on the air and in newspapers, points of view otherwise excluded from the national debate.”
Howard Zinn