RANIA KHALEK,
[in D.C. area] raniakhalek[at]gmail.com,
@RaniaKhalek
CommonDreams.org reports in “Pro-Fracking, Pro-Colonialism, Anti-Single Payer: Dem Platform Disappoints,” that: “At the committee’s final meeting in Orlando, Florida, supporters of Hillary Clinton successfully voted down amendments supporting a single payer healthcare system, a nationwide ban on fracking, as well as an amendment objecting to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and characterizing the settlements as illegal.”
Khalek, associate editor at the ElectronicIntifada.net and co-host of the “Unauthorized Disclosure” podcast, live tweeted much of the meeting, writing: “Cornel West: ‘We’re in same condition party was in 80yrs ago when they didn’t wanna deal w Jim Crow.’” “Hillary supporter argues against universal health care in #DemPlatform bc it would disrespect Obama’s accomplishment with ACA. I’m floored.” “Room is chanting ‘single payer now!’ Amendment defeated, no universal healthcare in #demplatform. We wouldn’t wanna hurt Obama’s feelings.”
Khalek recently wrote the piece “Democrats try to bury Palestine in middle of the night,” about Democratic platform committee meetings.
ALICE SLATER, alicejslater[at]gmail.com
Slater is with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and the Abolition 2000 coordinating committee. She said today: “Having met in Warsaw this weekend, the NATO communique issued by the heads of state reflected no change in its belligerent policy towards Russia.”
Slater noted a series of aggressive actions from NATO: “In 2002, the U.S. government withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty we had signed with the Soviets in 1972 and put new missile bases in Poland and Romania.” She recently co-wrote a piece “Time to Rethink NATO” in the Hill: “Although NATO took no military action during the Cold War, during the first Gulf War it deployed forces for the first time, and then acted unlawfully when it bombed Yugoslavia without UN authorization. The UN Charter, devoted to preventing ‘the scourge of war,’ allows nations to the use force only in self-defense when under threat of imminent attack, or when authorized by the Security Council, neither of which had occurred when NATO bombed Yugoslavia in the 1999 Kosovo war. Since then NATO has taken part in many military actions, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. But this year it has been particularly aggressive and provocative, conducting massive military maneuvers on Russia’s borders.”