Author Archives: Subir Grewal

Treasury’s doors are wide open to buy bombs, but we have no money to care for the sick.

Posted on by September 19, 2017

The day before President Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea, the Senate passed a bill authorizing another $700bn for the Pentagon. In a rare act of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, the Senate passed a $700 billion defense policy bill on Monday that sets forth a muscular vision of America as a global power, with a Pentagon budget that far exceeds what President Trump has asked for. Senators voted 89-9 to approve the measure, known as the National Defense Authorization Act; the House has already adopted a similar version. — www.nytimes.com/… Yes, you read that right. The Senate voted to spend even more than the president who wants … Continue reading →

 

Kirsten Gillibrand and 15 out of NY’s 18 House Dems support Medicare for All

Posted on by September 11, 2017

New York has a long history of producing progressives focused on delivering health-care to all. Teddy Roosevelt was the first presidential candidate to propose socialized healthcare. FDR was the first president to actually deliver any kind of federal socialized health-care with the EMIC program and Social Security. EMIC provided some maternity and early childhood care, Social Security provided grants to states to provide programs for public health and services to benefit the blind and disabled. Continuing in that long tradition, New York Democrats have stepped up to support John Conyers’ Medicare For All bill (HR 676). As of today, 15 out of … Continue reading →

 

Sen. Heitkamp (D) will appear with Trump as he pitches lowering corporate taxes to 15%.

Posted on by September 5, 2017

Reducing corporate tax rates somehow always ends up being a “bipartisan issue”. President Donald Trump is increasingly fixated on slashing the top corporate tax rate to 15 percent – a level that pretty much no one else working on the issue in the White House or Congress thinks is workable.In a White House meeting on Tuesday, Trump again expressed his strong desire to hit the 15 percent target, from today’s 35 percent. […] On Wednesday, President Trump plans to travel to North Dakota – his second tax sales pitch in a week – to deliver a speech focused on the … Continue reading →

 

Could the world’s largest democracies descend into sectarian violence?

Posted on by August 18, 2017

Over a year ago, I wrote about how Trump reminds me of a politician I know from my youth, Bal Thackeray: Bal Thackeray adopted a hodge-podge of ideological positions. His party controlled trade unions while he openly admired strongmen and dictators (including Hitler). The one constant throughout his career was the use of ethnic and religious divisions. His real talent was tapping into economic discontent, frustration and anger at corruption. He rose to prominence by fomenting resentment towards “immigrants” from other states in India. Bombay had been a melting pot for decades, attracting people from all over India who spoke a … Continue reading →

 

As you consider 2018/2020 strategy & candidates, don’t miss the forest for the trees.

Posted on by August 16, 2017

  This is a diary about the big picture. About things we should not forget as we fend off the daily outrages of the Trump administration. First, let’s hear from a very large sample of voters who were interviewed on election day 2016, by Reuters/Ipsos: The poll of more than 10,000 people who have already cast their ballots in the presidential election showed a majority of voters are worried about their ability to get ahead and have little confidence in political parties or the media to improve their situation. A majority also feel that the economy is rigged to mostly help … Continue reading →

 

Maxine Waters, Bobby Scott, Elijah Cummings, Barbara Lee and Jim Clyburn support Medicare for All.

Posted on by August 14, 2017

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhuman.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Chicago, March 25, 1966 — Medical Committee for Human Rights) Rep. Barbara Lee (CA-13), Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-3) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (MD-7) were all among the original co-sponsors of HR-676 when Conyers first introduced the bill in February 2003. Rep. Maxine Waters (CA-43) joined them in December 2005. Rep. Jim Clyburn (SC-6) signed up as a co-sponsor in April 2008. All five are members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The CBC provides core support for HR-676, 38 out of 47 … Continue reading →

 

As Trump ponders a coup in Venezuela, report says 165 military coups since ’70 involved DoD trainees

Posted on by August 14, 2017

Calls for a US backed military coup in Venezuela have emanated from the Trump White House. Meanwhile, NPR has given coup advocates a platform to advocate for a coup, positioning it as “humanitarian intervention”. It’s worth discussing the history of coups the US has been associated with. Last week, new documents revealed that the UK government had repeatedly asked the US to foment a coup in Iran in 1952. This is from the NSArchive project at GWU: 1953 Iran Coup: New U.S. Documents Confirm British Approached U.S. in Late 1952 About Ousting Mosaddeq State Department Temporarily Declined, in Part Because U.S. Was … Continue reading →

 

A Modest Proposal: Conscript Don Jr, Jared and Eric into a combat infantry unit

Posted on by August 11, 2017

Eric Trump is 32. Jared Kushner is 36. Donald Trump Jr. is 39. They’re all young enough to serve. Yes, the Army won’t allow Jared and Don Jr to enlist since they’re over 34, but I’m sure the President can make a call and request an exemption. If Donald Trump is going to deliver “fire & fury”, perhaps his kids and sons-in-law should help deliver it. Eric and Don are already “locked & loaded” so to speak. They have the ability to track and shoot dangerous animals as you can see in the photo above. They should require minimal training to … Continue reading →

 

DSA votes for BDS. NYT’s Jerusalem bureau chief says they self-censor and Israel practices apartheid.

Posted on by August 7, 2017

90% of the delegates to the Democratic Socialists of America 2017 convention voted to adopt Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). The text of the resolution read: 1. Democratic Socialists of America declares itself in solidarity with Palestinian civil society’s nonviolent struggle against apartheid, colonialism, military occupation and for equality, human rights, and self-determination. 2. Democratic Socialists of America responds to Palestinian Civil Society’s call by fully supporting BDS. 3. Democratic Socialists of America affirms that any political solution to the ongoing crisis must be premised on the realization of basic human rights, including all rights outlined in the BDS call. … Continue reading →

 

The Bannon-Sessions-Cotton immigration bill isn’t about the Canadian “points model”.

Posted on by August 4, 2017

There are several commentaries  that defend the new immigration bill by favorably comparing it to the Canadian ”points system” for immigration which prioritizes younger more educated workers and those with skills deemed to be in demand. I agree there are advantages to a points system, for one, it takes a more holistic view of immigrants. For example, the Canadian system awards points for family, including siblings in Canada, under the assumption (largely correct) that such a support network helps new immigrants successfully navigate the economy and society. But, lets not delude ourselves. The proponents of these bills don’t want to set up a … Continue reading →

 

Make America White Again*: The Bannon-Miller-Trump Presidency.

Posted on by August 2, 2017

Stephen Miller (Santa Monica native, Duke grad and self-appointed defender of African-American workers) led a press conference on immigration today where he tried the standard Republican trick of playing the victim. You can watch the entire exchange at C-Span. Miller at one point said Jim Acosta was exhibiting cosmopolitan bias by quoting Emma Lazarus’s poem “Give me your tired your poor…” That should probably be transcribed as (((cosmopolitan))) bias, but same difference. Miller was at the presser because the  administration is pushing a bill introduced byTom Cotton (R-AK) and David Perdue (R-GA) to reduce by 50%, the number of immigrant visas available each year. That’s … Continue reading →

 

Why are there so few brown and black faces in ‘Dunkirk’?

Posted on by August 1, 2017

135,000 Senegalese troops fought in Europe during World War I and over 30,000 died. De Gaulle’s Free French Army in World War II was largely composed of troops from the French colonial empire, including conscripts and volunteersfrom among the colonized populations. The Nazis executed several thousand French colonial POWs from Africa, based on their racial animus towards black peoples. Over a million Indian troops served overseas during World War I. Undivided India (most of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal) was part of the British Empire at the time. During World War II, the Indian Army expanded to include 2.5 million troops in uniform. … Continue reading →

 

Rumble: The Indians who rocked the world

Posted on by July 31, 2017

Rumble is a documentary (in theaters now) which explores how American-Indian music and musicians influenced many genres, particularly Rock. As a kid, session musician Stevie Salas would savor the classic concert movie Bangladesh, which chronicled George Harrison’s all-star benefit show from 1971. “How did I watch that movie over and over and never notice that, standing right next to George, was this giant Native American guitar player named Jesse Ed Davis?” Salas asked. “I just thought ‘Wow, he’s a cool-looking guy.’ It’s amazing to me that I never made the connection.” That’s especially amazing considering Salas himself is Native American. Yet … Continue reading →

 

100th Anniversary of the Silent Parade.

Posted on by July 28, 2017

That large banner has the famous line from the American Declaration of Independence, followed by “If of African descent tear off this corner”. TomP had a diary last month on the 100th anniversary of the East St. Louis massacre that described the events and their causes in detail. Today is the 100th anniversary of the Silent Parade in New York City, organized to protest that massacre which claimed the lives of 100-200, the vast majority of them black people. Google changed it’s doodle today to commemorate the protest. They are also highlighting a documentary project from the Equal Justice Initiative called Lynching in … Continue reading →

 

Trump’s publisher and alt-right funder wants to create a whites-only USA by ethnic cleansing.

Posted on by July 23, 2017

By now, most of us are well aware of how the Koch brothers have run a multi-decade effort to fund right-wing economic orthodoxy by financing think-tanks, journalists, periodicals, colleges and professors. There’s often an element of racism at these institutions, but they aren’t explicitly focused on race. That’s an implicit acknowledgement that the broader US post civil rights-era integration has a limited appetite for outright racism. It turns out there’s a counterpart to the Kochs, who has funded white supremacist organizations and rabble-rousers for decades. He Spent Almost 20 Years Funding The Racist Right. It Finally Paid Off. How did explicit racism move … Continue reading →