Democracy Crisis in USA as Election Day Looms

Tom Hayden’s The Democracy Journal: Biweekly commentary shifting from the Long Wars to the Climate Wars, from Wall Street Rule to a Democratic Society for All  Published by Tom Hayden and the Peace & Justice Resource Center, The Democracy Journal is a reader-supported journal of original thoughts on peace, justice and green energy. The Democracy Journal is read by activists, organizers, and advocates in 60 communities across the US and abroad. Readers can support the Journal with two easy clicks: by sending stories you like to your own lists, and by making small contributions. November 4 Election The Democracy Crisis: Analysis & Endorsements for LA & California The November election will be a defensive battle to preserve democracy’s claims against a corporate state fueled by rising sums of secret corporate donations coupled with intense machinations at diminishing the popular electoral vote. The reason for Republican and corporate panic is the emergence of “the majority faction” which the Federalists feared – embodied in the Obama coalition of a multi-cultural, multi-racial majority. Continue reading… The Climate Movement Can The Brown Administration Exceed New European Emissions Standards? California clean energy advocates and Brown administration officials should be cheered by the European Union’s announcement that they will cut greenhouse gas emissions by “at least” 40 percent by 2030, a doubling of their current trajectory of 20 percent by 2020. Cuts are measured from 1990 levels. Continue reading… California Energy Strategists Push for 100% Clean Energy, Without Fossil Fuels or Nuclear Power Over one hundred key environmental and social justice organizers met Oct. 16 in San Rafael to launch a strategy for boosting California’s leading role in fighting greenhouse gas emissions and bolstering jobs and environmental justice at the same time. While climate-deniers and their oil and gas industry supporters dominate Congress, states and regions already are building a clean energy economy in the so-called “blue” states where 160 million Americans live. The conference debated ways to build up this “Green Power Bloc” as the pressure builds to achieve global limits on greenhouse gas emissions. – TH   The Huffington Post article below by climate expert John Berger describes the October 16 conference proceedings. Continue reading… The Long War Why Congress Must Vote on War No American president, from Nixon to Obama, has accepted the legal legitimacy of the 1973 War Powers Resolution, one of the major achievements of the movement against the Indochina War. The core claim of the White House has been that executive war-making power cannot be abridged, even though the US Constitution seems to expressly grant the Congress a power-sharing role. Continue reading… How to Shorten the Long War The next turning point in the new Iraq War will be when President Barack Obama and Congress decide whether to maintain their promise to send no American ground troops. If they hold firm, an early diplomatic settlement may be forced on them since the Iraqi armed forces cannot stop the “clear, build and hold” strategy of the Islamic State. Iraq’s Shiite forces cannot, or will not, defend Sunni areas, and Iraq’s Kurds are fighting to defend their territory. Continue reading… Patriotic Betrayal Saddam Hussein was a CIA operative whom the American spy agency deployed in 1959 to kill the ruler of Iraq, Abdul Karim Kassem. Whenthat assassination attempt failed, Saddam entered a CIA protection program in Egypt until his Ba’ath Party, also supported by the CIA, seized power in 1963. At least five thousand Iraqis, many of them student activists, were executed immediately by the Ba’athist regime. And so our Iraq War began. Continue reading… Cuba Cuba Leads While U.S. Lags in Ebola Battle In what a New York Times editorial called “Cuba’s Impressive Role on Ebola” (October 19, 2014), hundreds of Cuban doctors and nurses are being dispatched to West Africa to battle Ebola, train medical personnel, and create isolation and treatment centers. The Cubans are playing “the most robust role” of any country in battling the Ebola plague, which has erupted virulently because of a broad failure, according to the Times, “to produce medicines and vaccines for diseases that afflict poor countries.” Continue reading… “Citizenfour” and “Kill the Messanger” These are outstanding films for anyone engaged in confronting the global surveillance state. They may well contain lessons for the future. Laura Poitras’ “Citizenfour” is a beautifully filmed documentary about the odyssey of Edward Snowden, the independent whistleblower on the National Security Agency. Snowden on the run is filmed surreptitiously in a Hong Kong hotel room and briefly seen in Moscow, and comes across as an immensely likable, human and compelling human being under conditions that would drive many people beyond paranoia. Continue reading… In This Issue November 4 Election: The Democracy Crisis The Climate Movement: Can Brown Admin Exceed European Standards? Bioneers in Huffington Post The Long War: Why Congress Must Vote on War How to Shorten The Long War Patriotic Betrayal Cuba Leads While U.S. Lags in Ebola Battle Sign On with Tom Hayden! Invite Tom Hayden! Support the PJRC! Make your tax-deductible donation of $25 or more to the PJRC and receive a signed copy of my latest book: Inspiring Participatory Democracy: Student Movements from Port Huron to Today. Thank you for your continued readership and dedicated activism, and thank you for any support you can offer. 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