Accumulated Tidbits and Reader Responses as of Aug. 31

* Re: Fear, Inc. -- Re: Tidbits and Readers' Responses - 
  August 29, 2011 (Ethan Young)
* Re: The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets
  Progressive (David Van Arsdale, Martin Morand)
* Re: Blacks and Latinos Will Suffer When the Student Debt
  Bubble Bursts (Minerva T. King)
* He's Back - Breakfast Protest of Henry Kissinger - 
  Sept. 13 in New York City
* A CONVERSATION WITH DOROTHY NAOR - Sept. 8 in Berkeley

==========

* Re: Fear, Inc.
Re: Tidbits and Readers' Responses - August 29, 2011

David I. Shapiro asks about "Fear, Inc.", a Portside cross-
post on Islamophobia from the Center for American Progress:

'Somewhere in the article it asks the question, why? It
leaves the answer unclear to me. Why?'

He's entitled to an answer, so here's Phyllis Bennis from
the Institute for Policy Studies:

'It will remain an important tool for those who want to
mobilize support for wars in the Muslim world, for treating
Muslim countries as legitimate military targets. But it will
also be important here, in the United States, just like
anti-communism during the Cold War. In the popular idiom,
this was "reds under your bed," which turned into Soviet
infiltration, into the Students for a Democratic Society
being a communist underground. This didn't have much to do
with reality. At the foreign policy level, there was detente
with the Soviet Union and China. We weren't going to war
with them. But you needed popular anti-communism to maintain
support for big military budgets. It's about fear, about
having an enemy, to justify that spending when people are
losing their jobs and homes. Unless people believe we're
doing that to be safe, you can't get away with that kind of
military spending.

'With the fall of communism, we didn't have Soviet Union to
kick around anymore. But then came the idea of Islam as an
enemy. That's powerful. There are so many versions. It's in
a lot of countries. The "long war" can be a very long war.
Islam is not going anywhere.'

http://www.fpif.org/articles/interview_with_phyllis_bennis

This analysis also shows the difference between the
Institute for Policy Studies and the Center for American
Progress.

Ethan Young

==========

* Re: The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets
Progressive

You may be very interested in this two part article on
migrant work/ers.  It is published in the Peace Newsletter --
a 75 year old peace and social justice paper.

part 1:
http://www.peacecouncil.net/pnl/11/806/806migrant.html
 
part 2:
http://www.peacecouncil.net/pnl/11/807/807migrant.html
 
 
Solidarity,
 
David Van Arsdale

====

Dean Baker re Markets

The "capitalism" which Adam Smith wrote about at the time of
the American Revolution was based on an agricultural economy
where land and the landed - plus some small crafts and
simple manufacturing -- were the primary determinants of and
sources for wealth. That's why Smith noun for capitalist is
"merchant". But it produced Some Things!

"Das Capital" which Karl Marx described (in glowing terms
insofar as its accomplishments to date) was a manufacturing
economy and produced much wealth - stuff people wanted and
came to need.

Contemporary capitalism is a robber economy which produces
its greatest wealth for the most wealthy Not through making
stuff but by manipulating money and government -- what Baker
refers to as "...income and wealth shifted toward the rich
by ... government policies..."

Martin Morand

==========

* Re: Blacks and Latinos Will Suffer When the Student Debt
Bubble Bursts

Sad, but true. One possible solution for students of color:
LEARN A TRADE! Sounds, simplistic, I know, however, this is
one good way to increase your chances of being able to feed
yourself and your family.

Minerva T. King, NBCT

==========

* He's Back - Breakfast Protest of Henry Kissinger - Sept.
13 in New York City

Once again! He's back!
* Join ETAN and other groups for a "Breakfast Protest of
Henry Kissinger"

September 13, 2011, 7:30-8:30 am
The Waldorf-Astoria, Park Ave. & 50th St., New York, NY

Bring your coffee (or tea) and bagel and a sign.

Contact ETAN <[log in to unmask] - subject=Kissinger+protest> if
you can help or for more info.
www.etan.org

Join ETAN and other organizations in protesting Henry
Kissinger's latest public appearance in New York. *Please
help spread the word!

Remind people about Henry Kissinger's sordid and criminal
history concerning East Timor, West Papua, Vietnam,
Cambodia, Chile, Cyprus, Bangladesh, Angola, West Papua, and
elsewhere.

Read and distribute ETAN's " Hold Kissinger Accountable
leaflet"
http://etan.org/etanpdf/Hold_Kissinger_Accountable.pdf
about Kissinger's role in Indonesia's illegal and brutal
invasion of East Timor and Indonesia's annexation of West
Papua. Print out and distribute (PDF)
http://etan.org/etanpdf/Hold_Kissinger_Accountable.pdf

Additional background here -
http://etan.org/news/kissinger/default.htm

follow ETAN on Twitter: http://twitter.com/etan009

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email: [log in to unmask]
Skype: john.m.miller
http://www.etan.org

Twitter: http://twitter.com/etan009
Blog: http://etanaction.blogspot.com/
Facebook:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/134122?recruiter_id=10193810

Send a blank e-mail message to [log in to unmask] to find out how
to learn more about East Timor and Indonesia on the Internet

==========

A CONVERSATION WITH DOROTHY NAOR
Thursday - September 8, 2011 - 7 pm
at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
1924 Cedar Street (at Bonita Avenue), Berkeley

http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/content/jvp-san-francisco/east-bay-chapter

Dorothy Naor is an Israeli Activist for peace and justice in
Palestine/Israel.  She was born in San Francisco in 1932,
and grew up in the Bay Area, but has lived in Israel since
1958. 

She is a member of New Profile, a pluralist feminist
organization that seeks to transform Israel from a
militarized society to a 'civil-ized' one.  She additionally
supports Boycott from Within as a non-violent means of
pressuring the Israeli government to end the occupation.
Admission $5 to $10, no one turned away for lack of funds.

Wheelchair Accessible
Sponsored by The Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian
Universalists Social Justice Committee and co-sponsored by
Jewish Voice for Peace and Bay Area Women in Black.

___________________________________________

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