A unique book. Thanks, Lillian, for letting people know about this fine work.

Thank you for all you do. Hope to have a chance to see you soon again.

I wonder if  you could advertise my book. I want it to be read more. I believe it is well worth reading as well as a fast read over the summer.

Survival and Conscience: From the Shadows of Nazi  Germany to the Jewish Boat to Gaza.

A prologue can be read on my website and it can be ordered from there.

Link:     lillianrosengarten.com

With love and hopes for peace.

Lillian

“Her memoir is a cry from the heart, a call for the centrality of human rights for all... her life-long search for justice and spiritual peace is both moving and inspiring.”       – ALICE ROTHCHILD, Author, On the Brink

For Fear of Being Called by Marilyn Buck - 1996

In Peru a demonstration
against a rise in bread prices
is stopped
because of threats to denounce
those who demand bread
as terrorists.

How greatly we fear language
an electric cattle prod
to drive us into corners
where we cower
for fear of being called
terrorists or communists or criminals.

How did we allow those who don't give
a damn about how we
the 80% live or die
to rob us of our language
to intimidate us into cutting out
our tongues

and binding our limbs into lameness?
How can we be more afraid
to be called terrorists
than to die in the dark
with no one there to speak for us?

Cheerleading US military interventions in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America

 

July 1

GUEST: John Walsh, writer for CounterPunch, Antiwar.com, Consortium News and Dissident Voice, as well as former Professor of Physiology and Cellular Neuroscience at a Massachusetts Medical School, talks about China and US hegemony.

John V. Walsh, Author at CounterPunch.org

I put this graphic up because it goes beyond logic. There is something sinister about two grown men fighting over a submissive woman. It brings up all the complexities of our mating rituals, as well as the dangers of our subliminal feelings. 

Is the will be be dominant over the Chinese people such a deep seated and potentially deadly aspiration? In a world of nuclear arms it certainly is. John Walsh holds up a mirror to the US, revealing that the will to dominate the world is the driving force of our foreign policy towards both China and Russia. And like most subliminal needs, it is a force that we steadfastly refuse to even acknowledge. 

Can we create a world were all countries and all people have inalienable rights? Where one country doesn't start a third world war because it can't dominate all the others? It seems like the peace movement had better get back in gear. Democrats tend to be as militarily aggressive as Republicans. And our media is once again cheerleading US military interventions in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. 

As neoliberalism tightens its grip

June 24

GUEST: Aldo Madariaga, assistant professor of political science at the Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago de Chile, associate researcher of the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies, and author of "Neoliberal Resilience," talks about the dangers to democracy that this economic system poses. 

Neoliberal Resilience | Princeton University Press

Aldo put together the pieces of neoliberalism for our listeners. It is an evolving concept, like a boa constrictor always tightening its grip. One might call it Capitalism, but it is more than that. Neoliberalism knows no boundaries when it comes to making a profit. It is the triumph of philosophy over our more common emotions like empathy and the need for justice. 

How societies get taken over by neoliberalism is a worthwhile exploration. So to is the end result of such societies. When the very rich take over all decision making, there is usually a revolt from the workers. That revolt is often co-opted by the billionaire class, that ends up funding racist demagogues as a way to hold onto their riches. Perhaps our fears of Trump are misdirected. It is leaders like Clinton and Obama who have actually paved the way for the collapse of our democracy. 

Trump is replaceable, but our broken system is not. When enough people lose faith, our government will fall, along with both its corporate run political parties. I think we came much closer to that point on January 6. And that seminal moment will come again, as neoliberalism tightens its grip a little bit more. 

Human beings yearning for freedom

June 17

GUEST: Raz, artist, researcher and recent Palestinian immigrant to the US, talks about her family's history in the West Bank and Jordan, as well as the new links she has established with local human rights organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace and Mideast Crisis. 
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGbOxHAhwo

Raz gives a good speech, full of reason as well as emotion. Why should Palestinians in their diaspora be scattered to the ends of the earth because Jewish supremacists insist on having the Holy Land all to themselves? Haven't the people of the world decided that apartheid is a crime? That the settlement of land occupied by a foreign country during war is illegal? And when will Palestinians be counted as human beings with the same rights as everyone else?

Politically, Raz has come to join local organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace - Hudson Valley and Middle East Crisis. Recently she spoke at a Black Lives rally, comparing the racism that exists in the US to racism in Palestine. She described the many similarities of the struggle, from police violence to economic oppression. And she asked the question that we have all been wondering about. Will America's waking up to racial injustice here at home spread to their perceptions about Palestine? For the first time, advocating for Palestinian rights is not being seen as antisemitic, but as a human yearning for freedom. 

https://hudsonvalleybds.org/

https://mideastcrisis.org/

https://jvphudsonvalley.blogspot.com

He never uttered the word apartheid

For anyone familiar with Israel's treatment of Palestinians, there isn't really much new. The Israeli Army is bulldozing houses in the West Bank so that more Jewish settlers can move in. This "ethnic cleansing" is done so that new immigrants from Brooklyn with the right religion can replace Palestinians. 

Then there are the attacks on mosques using teargas and rubber bullets. There are the shootings and crippling of protesters determined to save their farms and homes. Or the beating and incarceration of children. We have seen it all before, like an old documentary film on Kristallnacht. 

The people of Gaza have endured much more: the genocidal attack on their schools, hospitals, power plants, and sewage systems. Israeli military assaults on Gaza always kill lots of children, hundreds in fact. The ultimate aim of the Israeli Army is extermination, and each new bloodbath tests the boundaries of what Israel can get away with.

What is new about Israel's murderous behavior is that more Americans are finally becoming aware of our country's role in perpetuating this carnage. The US protects Israel from the condemnation of the rest of the world at the UN. When it comes to more bombs, missiles and planes, the US is always there to arm and fund the monstrous Israeli war machine. And most of our Congress is simply paid off by the Israel Lobby. Our "progressive" Rep. Delgado, for example, rakes in $30,000 per year from the Lobby and has never uttered the word apartheid. 

Fred

Imbecilic tweets from the most dangerous man in the world

June 10

GUEST: Luma Nichol, writer, LGBTQI activist and Co-founder of the United Front Against Fascism (UFAF) that was organized to counter White Aryan Resistance, the Populist Party, and Aryan Nations in the Northwest, talks about today's anarchist movement.

Are today’s anarchists movement builders?

What if when the fascists come, there is nobody in the streets to fight back? That is not a question that you will find in our neoliberal media, which never wants our activism to go beyond the safe confines of our voting booths. Let the two party system and our Constitution deal with the far right when it raises its ugly head. 

Of course, history is full of examples of what happens when countries leave the protection of democracy up to their corrupt politicians and far right military. The January 6 assault on Congress is a case in point. The assault was planned and promoted by Trump and the Republican Party. And all efforts to protect the Congress were delayed by some top generals at the Pentagon. It was a dry run of an American coupe, only nobody in our media will describe it that way. 

Most lacking was any response in the streets by a unified antifascist movement, determined to protect our democracy from being overrun. Luma and I talked about how right wing racists were defeated in the Northwest. The Nazis and the Aryan Nation were met by even larger crowds of antiracist protesters, and their drive to organize in this region of the country was finally defeated. 

After orchestrating any number of coups in foreign countries, the US seems to be completely ignorant about how democracies get overthrown. Had key members of Congress been captured, Trump would have declared martial law and called on the US military to restore order. The vote count would never have been completed, and we would still be getting imbecilic tweets from the most dangerous man in the world.