Tikkun (https://www.tikkun.org/category/politics__society/page/22/)
Introductory note From Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor, Tikkun:
Last night I received an urgent call from a spokesperson for the courageous Water Protectors at Standing Rock. In pain and shock, they reported vicious assaults on them even as they planned to depart their camp where they held their months-long attempt to protect the waters near their homes from corporate forces who decided to build a pipeline that will likely pollute the Native Americans’ water supply.
By Jonathan Marshall
Only a few months ago, interventionists were demanding a militant response by Washington to what George Soros branded “a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions” — the killing of “hundreds of people” by Russian and Syrian government bombing of rebel-held neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo. Billionaire currency speculator George Soros. (Photo credit: georgesoros.com)
Leon Wieseltier, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former New Republiceditor, was denouncing the Obama administration as “a bystander to the greatest atrocity of our time,” asserting that its failure to “act against evil in Aleppo” was like tolerating “the evil in Auschwitz.”
How strange, then, that so many of the same “humanitarian” voices have been so quiet of late about the continued killing of many more innocent people in Yemen, where tens of thousands of civilians have died and 12 million people face famine. More than a thousand children die each week from preventable diseases related to malnutrition and systematic attacks on the country’s food infrastructure by a Saudi-led military coalition, which aims to impose a regime friendly to Riyadh over the whole country. “The U.S. silence has been deafening,” said Philippe Bolopion, deputy director for global advocacy at Human Rights Watch, last summer.
Editor’s Note: The Israeli right and their allies in the U.S. have used the technique of bringing young people to Nazi concentration camps as a way of communicating them the message “this is why Israel must be given blind support–because without it, we will again be mass murdered.” Now will Netanyahu’s American allies in the Trump Administration follow Vice President Pence and use supposedly pious visits to concentration camps to legitimate their oppressive policies–meanwhile not publicly chastising their own supporters who have engaged in antiSemitic, racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, sexist, and xenophobic acts and discourse (how could they chastise these when the former publisher of our country’s most open to these attitudes alt-right Breitbart News media is now Trump’s primary White House advisor?). We in the liberal and progressive world should hold our own commemorations of the Holocaust, and talk honestly about the causes that led to the Holocaust and the ways that the memory of the Holocaust is now being misused by the elites of power and their favorite bullies and contemporary inheritors of Hitler’s logic: the belief in power over ethics, which is really a way of saying, the overthrow of God or spiritual and religious consciousness and embracing the notion that might makes right (alas, already flourishing in some corners of the religious world). So we at Beyt Tikkun Synagogue-Without-Walls will sponsor such a gathering in the San Francisco Bay Area Sunday April 23rd, 2017–and if we can find someone who will live-stream it, we will make it available to you for whatever it costs us to do that. Meanwhile, please read Warren Blumenfeld’s powerful article below on Pence’s visit to Dachau.
https://consortiumnews.com/ 2017/02/15/progressives-pile- on-flynns-ouster/
Consortium News February 15, 2017
Progressives Pile on Flynn’s Ouster
President Trump is so despised by progressives that many are rallying behind neocon-driven demands for a New McCarthyism to silence those who object to a costly and dangerous New Cold War. They are in effect making an alliance with the most war-mongering parts of the U.S. establishment. They are, in effect, buttressing incredibly dubious notions of U.S. victimhood and demonizing official enemies with the result of increasing U.S. militarism and the likelihood for confrontation with the other nation that could destroy the planet a hundred times over. By Sam Husseini
Many liberals and so-called progressives are stoked that President Trump’s National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, resigned over accusations surrounding his discussions with a Russian ambassador while Trump was president-elect. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California
Congressional Democrats want to use this to go after Trump. Rep. Nancy Pelosi: “After Flynn resignation, FBI must accelerate its investigation of the Trump Administration’s Russian connection.” Even before Flynn’s resignation, Rep. Maxine Waters did a segment on “Democracy Now:” “Trump Should Be Impeached If He Colluded with Russians Ahead of Election.”
There’s certainly reasons to want to see Flynn go — he recently put Iran “on notice” while the White House tried to gin up the case against Iran.
Editor’s note: The article below by MIchael Brenner, cleverly presenting an argument for why Trump should be analyzed as a clinical narcissist,* is not atypical of the kinds of analyses that have been floating around on the internet. Brenner is obviously a talented thinker and his reasoning at many points is solid. Nevertheless, I believe the direction of this and other similar responses to Trump is deeply misguided, even if 1000% accurate, for the following reasons:
1. . I strongly oppose attempts by people to use psychiatric diagnoses to stigmatize the public actions of public figures.
Editor’s Note: From the start of Tikkun magazine close to 31 years ago, we’ve been trying to convince people on the Left that we should be embracing and celebrating all that is good in the U.S. even as we critique what is not. Lets understand its appeal both in the U.S. and around the world as a compensation for what is so hurtful in the global impact of capitalist consciousness. The center of capitalist ideology is its self-justifactory fantasy that the system is based on a meritocracy, so that those who are making it are successful solely because they deserve that success. The hurtful consequence is that most people who haven’t “made it” are taught that this is their own fault–and that causes great deal of pain for a large swath of people who end up blaming themselves, not understanding that it is the whole class structure that guarantees that only a small section of people will ever move up the class ladder. No wonder that they turn to right wing forms of religion and nationalism, because in those communities they are accepted as valuable just because they are a creation of God (in the religious world) or as a member of nation x, y or z (in the world of nationalism).
America Third
Donald Trump Is Giving the Phrase “Multipolar World” New Meaning
By Michael T. Klare
If there’s a single consistent aspect to Donald Trump’s strategic vision, it’s this: U.S. foreign policy should always be governed by the simple principle of “America First,” with this country’s vital interests placed above those of all others. “We will always put America’s interests first,” he declared in his victory speech in the early hours of November 9th. “From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first,” he insisted in his Inaugural Address on January 20th. Since then, however, everything he’s done in the international arena has, intentionally or not, placed America’s interests behind those of its arch-rivals, China and Russia. So to be accurate, his guiding policy formula should really be relabeled America Third. Given 19 months of bravado public rhetoric, there was no way to imagine a Trumpian presidency that would favor America’s leading competitors. Throughout the campaign, he castigated China for its “predatory” trade practices, insisting that it had exploited America’s weak enforcement policies to eviscerate our economy and kill millions of jobs. “The money they’ve drained out of the United States has rebuilt China,” he told reporters from the New York Times in no uncertain terms last March. While he expressed admiration for the strong leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he decried that country’s buildup of advanced nuclear weapons.
By Rebecca Gordon
(an article from our media ally TomDispatch.com)
You know you’re living in a looking-glass world when former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks out against one of Donald Trump’s executive orders. He’s a good example of how past adversaries of movements for peace and justice are lining up against our current adversary, the new president. The United States, Cheney told radio host Hugh Hewitt, should not exclude people from our territory on the basis of religion. That was just a few days after Trump had signed an executive order entitled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” Such a move, said Cheney, “goes against everything we stand for and believe in.”
In the same interview, Cheney revealed the origins of his personal affinity for Muslim refugees. His own ancestors, he said, arrived on this continent to escape religious persecution. “They were Puritans,” he explained, adding, “There wasn’t anybody here then when they came.” No one?
Editor’s note: here is a perspective on some of Trump’s statements that may help us understand why some people continue to see him as a champion challenging the mush of the establishment. What the author below fails to see is that the truth he expressed below is mixed with so many other distortions (e.g. about the threat of terror from Muslim immigrants) that it has the effect of legitimating the lies that regularly pour out of the mouths of our president and his advisors. Dear All,
Trump again states obvious fact. In response to Bill O’Reilly, who calls Putin a killer, Trump looks O’Reilly straight in the eyes and responds:
“What do you think, our country’s so innocent?”
“You think our country is innocent?”
“Well, take a look at what we’ve done…a lot of people were killed…there are a lot of killers around, believe me”
American journalists and politicians are willfully pretending to be innocent and unaware of the glaring facts of mass murder and displacement of millions by their leaders to achieve political agendas. Trump is going to call it as he sees it.
Interview with Joseph Daher: The new balance of terror in Syria
https://socialistworker.org/2017/02/07/the-new-balance-of-terror-in-syria
The new balance of terror in Syria
February 7, 2017
The scorched-earth war of the Assad dictatorship, backed by allies Russia and Iran, against the Syrian Revolution has attained a critical victory with the conquest of the rebellion stronghold of Eastern Aleppo. Now the left must place a premium on understanding the lessons of what happened–and what it will mean for the region. Joseph Daher is a Swiss-Syrian socialist activist, a member of the Revolutionary Left Current in Syria and founder of the Syria Freedom Forever blog. He will be touring the U.S. and Canada February 9-17 to speak about his recent book Hezbollah: Political Economy of the Party of God. Ashley Smithinterviewed Daher about conditions in Syria and the situation for the remnants of revolutionaries after Aleppo, as well as the role that Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Shia fundamentalist party, has played. Syrian soldiers march into a conquered city
AFTER THE conquest of Aleppo, Assad’s counterrevolution seems to have decisively set back the Syrian Revolution.
THE PEOPLE VS. TRUMP
Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah
A ‘Reality TV’ star has become President of the United States. Is it a joke? When ‘President Trump’ was featured on ‘The Simpsons’ in the year 2000 the spectre was supposed to make us laugh – and perhaps also, to make us think… Can we ever know what the future holds?
Editor’s note: Tikkun magazine, as a non-profit, does not endorse candidates for public office nor do we affiliate with any particular political party. We are the voice of Jewish, interfaith, and secular humanist spiritual progressives who seek a world of love and justice. To fully understand what we have in mind, please read www.tikkun.org/covenant and join our interfaith and secular-humanist-and-atheist welcoming NSP–Network of Spiritual Progressives. We do, however, take an interest in the discourse that exists in the liberal and progressive world, and so wanted to interview one of the candidates for the position of chair of the Democratic National Committee, Congressman Keith Ellison, who shares some of the concerns that have been raised by Tikkun and the NSP over the course of the past thirty years. So this is one of many dialogues that Rabbi Lerner has had with Congressman Ellison over the course of the past twelve years.
The Clear and Present Menace of SciLence
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, FACLM
FollowDavid L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, FACLM
Founder, True Health Initiative
I heard from a public health colleague this week, whose work and time are partly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that the CDC did not want to be acknowledged as a funding source in a research paper addressing gun violence. Apparently, CDC scientists have marching orders to be more concerned about unflattering facts about gun violence, than about gun violence itself. That’s ideology 1, epidemiology 0. The score does not improve after that. In high-profile media coverage you have likely seen, we learned that the Trump Administration had, in an early indication of its ominous priorities, effectively issued gag orders to the USDA and the EPA. Apparently, we the people are to be kept uninformed not only about guns, but also about such matters of minor importance as our food supply, and the environment. And perhaps everything else, too, since the White House message to the press was: just keep your mouth shut. The new normal, apparently, is to stand our ground- except where facts are concerned. We want no part of those. Let’s be clear, silence where science ought to be is a grave threat to us all. Those of you who are avowed fans of science as I am need no convincing. To anyone else: well, there is no one else. Just about everyone is a fan of science, it’s just that some don’t realize it. Everyone using the Internet; everyone who has ever flown on a plane or driven across a suspension bridge; anyone who has ever gone out to enjoy the spectacle of a perfectly predicted eclipse or meteor shower…is a fan of science. So, too, is everyone who has ever thrown a light switch. Apparently, the switch is being turned off in the White House to keep disquieting facts in the shadows. The EPA, for instance, told us about lead in the water in Flint, Michigan. In a world where the EPA is muzzled, we might still be in the dark about that. The USDA tells us about food-borne outbreaks, and recalls. Silence, in this case, aids and abets the designs of salmonella.
Against amnesia: The empire under Obama
There is already nostalgia for the Obama years among people who care about justice and peace. But we should question the rosy picture, writes Khury Petersen-Smith. President Barack Obama speaks to U.S. soldiers
EVEN BEFORE Barack Obama left office, an effort was underway to secure his legacy as a progressive and an idealist. And now that Trump has taken the throne of American power, the mythology surrounding the Obama years will only grow. The myth presents Obama as a tragic figure: committed to a progressive agenda, but more committed to national unity.
Editor’s note: Judge Pryor is one of the 3 top candidates Trump is said to be considering for the Supreme Court. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has issued a report on him which we are reprinting below. We support a strong “separation of church and state” (we put the quotes because we mean to include separation of the public arena from all religions, not just Christianity, and because we hold that not just for the U.S. but for Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, and the list goes on to include every country where religion is being forced upon people by the state. At the same time, we believe that religious values have the same right as other values to contend for support in the public sphere (some of which we support, others of which we don’t support). The big mistake of the separationists is that they have confused these two things, and in their desire to keep religion out of the public sphere they’ve often pushed religious values or any other kinds of values out of the public arena or our educational system.