Kat's "Kat's Korner: The late Melanie releases a live album" and "Kat's Korner: Judy Garland, THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!" went up on the Fourth. And congratulations to Kat on the Judy review. In 2019, Kat saw that various websites online covered Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and various male singers who also acted but there was a huge glaring omission: Judy Garland. As she noted, in the 30s and 40s, there were soundtracks released from Judy's movies and Judy cut many 78s -- a recording that was a little longer than a single (45) but way less than an album (33) -- but no albums. When she did start doing albums, she was CAPITOL RECORDS and she did six studio albums there. With THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!, Kat has now reviewed all six albums. She may or may not go for the live albums next but applause to her for seeing a need, establishing a goal and sticking to it. The day after her review of Judy's album, Kat reviewed a new book about one of Judy's films so be sure to catch that too "C'MON, GET HAPPY is the worst book of 2024."
I love that comic. I really do. And doesn't capture Clarence perfectly? Crooked Clarence is a dump machine.
I'm not in the mood to write about the Supreme Court -- you don't want me cursing. I was talking to my father on the phone and a few slipped out and I felt so bad because I do not curse around my parents. My dad said it was fine and understandable "because those corrupt nuts are trying to destroy this country." But that was last night and I still feel bad. I don't want to write about Joe Biden. I saw the ABC interview and wasn't impressed. I'm not making a call for him to step down but I was not impressed.
So let me instead write about something that will probably lead me tossing around "stupid" and "idiot" but none of the powerful curse words that flew out of my mouth on the phone last night. For the record, I do curse. Not around my kids and not around my parents. But ask my friends, ask my sisters or my brother, and they will tell you I curse. This is not 'Oh! I had a sin!' I have many sins and I believe God forgives all. I just feel bad because it's something I do not do -- curse in front of my kids or my parents.
So anyway, TYT. The griftopia of all time. Given millions by Hollywood to do investigave journalism and all that money just slipped away -- no reporting came with it. They do the same opinion talking head stuff that every other YOUTUBER does but they weren't given tons of money by Hollywood.
In recent years, it's no longer where did the money go? No, it moved over to how to grift even more. Best way the hideous Ana has found is to trash transgender people. She should rot in hell for that. And Cenk's always been a liar. And the two of them and their transphobia ran Benny off. Sorry for Benny but I'm not surprised, they never really were comfortable covering any LGBTQ+ releated content. They were your stuffy half-left from 1962 when they started. As a Black woman, I pick 1962 on purpose because their racism has always been on display if you were Black. A White person might have missed it, but those of us who are Black saw the freeze up and shftiness when it came to anything to with Black people.
So Rick Strom is apparently a host of 'TYT SPORTS' -- and a producer. And he's done a segment on YOUTUBE that you can look up, it's entitled "MAGA Athlete Hit with INSTANT Karma After Bigoted Ran Goes Viral."
I'm not reposting that garbage. The 'athlete' -- I've never heard him -- is a piece of work. And Rick calls him out for racist statements -- like he wants to bring George Floyd back to life so he can kill him, repeatedly using the N-word and saying he's KKK -- and Rick calls him out for xenophobia over the anti-Muslim remarks.
And White Rick looks so damn proud of himself as do all the White people in the commnets.
And my problem?
Where's the call out on the athlete's homophobia?
He mocks gay people, he paints Arabs as butt f**kers, etc. Homophobia runs all through that but the river can't be seen from Denial apparently.
You know what, Rick? We, Black people, have been getting along just fine without you. If you think you can score points with me by sticking up in a segment, grasp that you didn't. My brother's gay and I do notice when you give a pass to homophobia. So kiss my Black ass and try to be good Whitey for someone else because you're not about equality. If you were about equality you would have made time to call out the homophobia.
He's a fake ass.
Here's Isaiah's second comic fom the Fourth, "He Eats Dog"
Friday, July 5, 2024. As the slaughter in Gaza continues, the official
death toll has passed the 38,000 mark, 'progressive' David Sirota is
pimping a candidate to replace Joe Biden and David doesn't want you to
get how he's tricking you again (Israel loves David's choice --
environmental activists, First Amendment supporters, and opponents to
genocide aren't crazy for Josh Shapiro), Joe Biden will be on ABC
tonight with an interview while he tries to assure Democrats that he's
up to the task of running for the presidency, and much more.
Today, the European Union's Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Committee released the following:
High
Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell and Commissioner for Crisis
Management, Janez Lenarčič, have issued the following statement:
"The
European Union is deeply concerned about the Israeli army orders to
evacuate civilians from the area of Khan Younis. Some 250,000 people are
impacted by the evacuation orders. These orders also threaten the
patients of the European Hospital, one of the few remaining partially
functioning hospitals in southern Gaza.
Injured and sick
patients from the European Hospital, including pregnant women and
elderly people, were forced to relocate to other facilities, such as the
Nasser Hospital. Staff also tried to save medical equipment. This
evacuation decision is certain to worsen overcrowding, and cause severe
shortages in the already overwhelmed remaining hospitals, at a time when
access to emergency medical care is critical.
Forced
evacuations are creating a humanitarian crisis within the crisis. They
exacerbate an already catastrophic humanitarian situation, with nearly
1.9 million Gazans displaced within the Strip, as stated by UN Senior
Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag in the
Security Council. There are no facilities to accommodate people, and
humanitarian partners struggle to meet the immense needs of the newly
displaced.
The European Union reiterates that for
evacuations not to amount to prohibited forcible transfers, they must
conform with International Humanitarian Law, guaranteeing safety in
transit and proper accommodation in areas of refuge for Palestinians
called on to evacuate. Israel is likewise responsible for guaranteeing
that displaced persons are able to return to their homes, or areas of
habitual residence, once hostilities end. Displaced people also need to
have access to the necessary services and have their needs met.
Faced
with the deteriorating situation, the European Union has mobilised all
its crisis response and humanitarian tools to channel needed aid to
Gaza. This includes medical supplies, drugs and medications, and a
significant increase in EU funding to humanitarian partners.
A
ceasefire is all the more important now, and would make possible a
surge of humanitarian assistance to Gaza as well as the release of all
hostages.
The European Union recalls the obligation to
respect and implement the orders of the International Court of Justice
(ICJ) of 26 January and 24 May 2024, which are legally binding. The EU
gives its full support to the comprehensive roadmap presented by
President Biden and calls for the immediate implementation of United
Nations Security Council resolution 2735, as well as the implementation
of UN Security Council resolutions 2728, 2720 and 2712."
Also speaking out is the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. PRESS TV reports:
An international human rights organization says Israel is
using water as another weapon of genocide against Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip by deliberately reducing the amount of water available to
them, especially potable water sources.
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a new press release issued
on Thursday that the Tel Aviv regime is purposefully causing the death
of over 2.3 million people as part of its genocide war.
The Euro-Med noted that its field team observed significant damage to
a desalination plant in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood, south of Gaza
City, as a result of an Israeli strike. The attack claimed the life of a
young man who was filling a gallon with water there and left several
other individuals wounded.
The station, which provided services to at least 50,000 people in
several nearby residential neighborhoods, sustained significant damage
after being struck by an Israeli guided bomb that broke through multiple
stories and detonated on the first floor.
Yet
the US Congress has no such statement to make collectively? Nothing.
However, US Senator Lindsey Graham has finally learned to breathe
through his nose and did manage to speak while otherwise occupied. ALJAZEERA notes:
United States Senator Lindsey Graham has sparked anger after he
responded to protests outside his home in Seneca, South Carolina, with
anti-Palestinian remarks on social media.
“The Palestinians in Gaza are the most radicalized population on the
planet who are taught to hate Jews from birth. It will take years to fix
this problem,” Graham said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“When I hear ‘from the river to the sea,’ it reminds me of ‘the Final
Solution.’ The Hamas terrorists are the SS on steroids,” he added,
drawing a comparison to a Nazi paramilitary organisation, the
Schutzstaffel (SS).
As part of the post, Graham shared a video of a small line of
protesters — about 20 in total — who held up a large Palestinian flag on
the road outside his home and chanted, “Lindsey Graham, we’re not done.
Intifada’s just begun.”
Lindsey
went on in the deleted post, per ALJAZEERA, to apologize to his
neighbors for the disturbance the protesters were causing. Couldn't he
have just used the excuse he usually does on his neighbors? "They're my
nephews."
Paul Rudnick Tweets:
ALJAZEERA notes:
In response to Thursday’s social media post, Claudia De la Cruz, the
PSL’s presidential candidate, compared Graham to Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It’s clear from Lindsey Graham’s comments that he considers the
entire Palestinian population to be ‘the enemy’, making his genocidal
intent as clear as Netanyahu’s. He should be held to account for aiding
and abetting war crimes,” De la Cruz said in a statement posted online.
A majority of Americans likewise disapprove of Israel’s actions in
Gaza: The survey agency Gallup found in March that 55 percent oppose the
military offensive, and approval dropped to 36 percent.
And still the slaughter continues.
That's
a video report from NBC so maybe it'll still visible in the snapshot
five hours from now? I always wonder, when a person or outlet thinks
they want to be noted here: Do they really? Do they not know that when
it's spotted here, there's a good chance that it will be restricted when
the Zionists start complaining and spamming YOUTUBE? I don't know. At COUNTERPUNCH, Vijay Prashad notes the children of Gaza:
Everyday Violence
June 14: One child was killed by Israeli airstrikes in Zeitoun (Gaza City).
June 22: Two children were killed by Israeli airstrikes in Shujaiya (Gaza City).
June 25: Two children were killed by Israeli fire on al-Wahda Street, near Al-Shifa Hospital (Gaza City).
June 25: Three children were killed by Israeli airstrikes in the Maghazi refugee camp.
Each of these stories is about precious
children, most of whom have not even reached the age of 10. Some of
these children lived through the barbarous Israeli bombardment of 2014
when over 3,000 children had been killed. Sitting in the homes of
families in Gaza City and Khan Younis in the aftermath of that war, I
heard story after story about children killed and children maimed (Maha,
paralyzed; Ahmed, blinded—my notebook a mess of loss and sorrow). As
the bombs continued to fall in 2014, Pernille Ironside, then-chief of
the Gaza office of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) saidthat
373,000 children needed “immediate psycho-social first aid.” There were
simply not enough counselors to help the children, most of whom are now
hardened because of the ugliness of occupation and war.
The violence that they experience has
become a daily affair. But this kind of violence can never be mundane.
“I am scared,” said Hind Rajab. I remember meeting a little boy who was
playing with a football on the streets of al-Mughraqa. His father, who
was showing me around, told me that the boy was not able to sleep, but
would stay awake at night and cry. That was in 2014. That boy must now
be in his early twenties. He might not be alive.
One or Two Legs
An Al Jazeera interactive website has
the names of the children killed since October 2023, one killed every
fifteen minutes; as I scrolled down the names, I felt ill, and then
found this at the very end: “These are the names of only half of the
children killed.” In early May, UNICEF director Catherine Russell said,
“Nearly all of Gaza’s children have been exposed to the traumatic
experiences of war, the consequences of which will last a lifetime.” In
her statement, where she reported that 14,000 children have been killed,
she said that “an estimated 17,000 children are unaccompanied or
separated.” These numbers are estimates and are likely to be
undercounts.
A new report from
Save the Children suggests that over 20,000 children are missing in
Gaza. They are either under the rubble, detained by the Israeli
military, or buried in mass graves. During a detailed briefing on June
25, the Commissioner-General of the UN Palestine Agency (UNRWA) Philippe
Lazzarini said something
staggering: “And you take into consideration that basically, we have
every 10 days children losing one leg or two legs on average. This gives
you an idea of the scope of the type of childhood a child can have in
Gaza.”
The story should not be real. It was the
morning of December 19, 2023. Israeli tanks rumbled through the
neighborhood of Rimal in Gaza City. Seventeen-year-old Ahed Bseiso was
on the top floor of a six-floor building trying to call her father in
Belgium to tell him that she was still alive. She heard a loud noise,
fell, and called out for her sister Mona and her mother. Her family
rushed up, carried her down, and laid her on the kitchen table where her
mother had been making bread. Ahed’s uncle Hani Bseiso, an orthopedic
doctor, looked at her leg and realized that he would have to either
amputate it or she would die. He grabbed whatever supplies he could find
and conducted the amputation without anesthesia. Ahed recited verses
from the Quran to calm herself. Hani wept as he did the operation, which
the family filmed and later posed on YouTube, which was reposted in many places.
These are the stories of Gaza.
These
children are dead and dying and let's not pretend that those lucky
enough to survive are not going to be haunted by their own childhood for
the rest of their lives. Let's not also not forget the countries
feeding this nightmare, making it continue. ANADOLU AGENCY (via MEMO) notes:
Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, now stretching into its 10th month, has
been marked by severe civilian casualties and widespread destruction,
significantly fuelled by Western arms.
Germany, as the second-largest arms supplier to Israel after the US, plays a major role in exacerbating the crisis.
Despite global condemnation and calls for an end to arms sales,
Germany, alongside the US, Italy and the UK, continues to be the main
supplier of military equipment that intensifies the violence and
suffering in Gaza.
I've seen and done things I want to forget I've seen soldiers fall like lumps of meat Blown and shot out beyond belief Arms and legs were in the trees
I've seen and done things I want to forget Coming from an unearthly place Longing to see a woman's face Instead of the words that gather pace
The words that maketh murder These, these, these are the words The words that maketh murder These, these, these are the words The words that maketh murder These, these, these are the words The words that maketh murder These, these, these are the words Murder
These, these, these are the words The words that maketh murder These, these, these are the words The words that maketh murder
-- "The Words That Maketh Murder," written by PJ Harvey, first appears on her LET ENGLAND SHAKE album
In
the US, we're still caught in the will-he-or-won't-he. Joe Biden is
the US president and the Democratic Party's presidential nominee for
November. Could it change? It could. But those who think they're
helping, those like professional idiots at THE VANGAURD? Zac and
'Cody', I didn't realize that they didn't even have college educations.
I know they're idiots and I know they have no knowledge base and no
core values. But just because you desire Joe gone, is that a reason to
present your segments as Donald-is-a-truth-teller?
They're
stupid and uninformed which is why any lengthy conversation they post
needs to be fact checked. But they're just dumb blowhards.
I am not interested in liars.
Norman
Solomon lied throughout 2008 in radio appearance after radio
appearance, TV appearance after TV appearance. He had no dog in the
fight, he insisted, but Barack was the best nominee. Those who read his
printed opinion pieces at corporate news sites knew better -- and they
saw something that you didn't see when he was reposted by COUNTERPUNCH
or COMMON DREAMS or whomever: That he was a pledged delegate for
Barack. He had to include that when he got actual payment from actual
newspapers because if he didn't include it they could've gotten him for
failing to disclose and that would have taken the whole syndicate his
columns went through down. That's a liar.
We don't need liars in this debate. He elected to lie and we don't need him, can't trust him.
If
you have whored yourself in the past, have lied to the American people
and tried to trick them, you don't belong in this conversation. You are
not to be trusted.
Tonight, on ABC's first hour of prime time, Joe will speak with George Stephanopoulos
Watch, make up your own mind.
Also watch the way some try to spin it. Opinions are one thing and
people can see the same thing and disagree but then there are whores.
David
Sirota, come on down. The man who looks like a drunken doctor mangled
his skull during birth with forceps has always been problematic. There
was the moment when he attacked an Iraq War veterans mother and did so
as though she didn't know what she was talking about. She knew what she
was talking about and, sad for David, we knew why David was whoring --
she was rightly calling out US House Rep David Obey. Let's go back
because David Sirota wants this forgotten. When we called him out in
real time for attacking Tina, he sent us this most foul mouthed e-mail
where he repeatedly stated he was going to sue. As I noted when he got
an undeserved Academy Award nomination, I evened the score by printing
up that e-mail and sharing it at every official Academy Award event I
attended.
You
might not know her name, but she's fast become a fresh face of the
antiwar left. Missouri mom Tina Richards became an overnight YouTube
sensation last week, when an encounter she had with Rep. David Obey in a
Capitol Hill corridor went viral—just as Congress was debating a bid to
rein in spending for President Bush's surge in Iraq. During the
encounter, Richards approaches Obey, chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee, to discuss her son, Marine Cpl. Cloy
Richards—who suffers from undiagnosed traumatic brain injuries following
two tours of duty in Iraq and a failure by the military health-care
system to provide adequate treatment, his mother says. Obey responds
patiently, at first, but the congressman grows agitated as the
conversation continues, and he tells Richards that "liberal idiots" were
pushing Congress to defund the war—which, Obey argues, would further
hurt the cause of veterans whose health-care needs are already being
shortchanged.
Richards,
the CEO of Grassroots America, a nonprofit devoted to social-justice
issues, has continued walking the halls of Congress since then, pushing
members to end the war in Iraq. Cloy is due to be deployed to Iraq later
this month despite his injuries, she says, and has threatened suicide
if he is to be deployed again.
That's
who David Sirota attacked in a piece that he later had taken down. In
the piece, please note, he attacked her for not grasping how important
David Obey was. As he relentlessly kissed David Obey's ass, he forgot
to include that, woops, he had been paid by Obey for many years. That's
what professionals call "disclosure." And that's why we called him out
and he was furious and angry and then, a week later, while defending
Obey yet again, he did manage to do the needed disclosure -- bare
minimum.
His second attempt at the topic
omitted Tina's name but did continue to lecture her and others because
who knows better about war than David Sirota? Forget that Tina's son
had served two tours in Iraq, David Sirota knew better than her. Knew
better than everyone because, as he wrote, there are "idiot liberals"
and they are wrong to "berate" David Obey or anyone like him.
Are you getting just what a piece of crap David Sirota is?
Why bring this up now?
David's
been in the conversation regarding the nominee. David wants Joe Biden
out. Okay, he's not alone on that. There are others who want the
same. But David's also pimping a replacement: Josh Shapiro the governor
of Pennsylvania who doesn't believe in mask mandates or addressing
climate change. But for our focus here? Let's note this from ALJAZEERA:
While he may not have the national name recognition that his fellow
governors Newsom and Whitmer enjoy, Shapiro is considered one of the top
candidates to potentially replace Biden.
The governor, who previously served as Pennsylvania’s attorney
general, comfortably won his election in the Mid-Atlantic swing state in
2022. Since taking office, he has had positive approval ratings.
With regards to the war in Gaza, Shapiro has been a staunch supporter of Israel.
“The whataboutism used by some to justify Hamas’s unprovoked actions
is ignorant and wrong,” he said last year. “There is no moral
equivalency here. Israel has a right to defend itself.”
Shapiro has also been outspoken in denouncing what he describes as anti-Semitism by protesters who oppose the war in Gaza.
In April, he likened pro-Palestinian student protesters
to the Ku Klux Klan. The campus protests, however, have been largely
peaceful, and student leaders say accusations of anti-Semitism
misrepresent their aim: to encourage their universities to divest from
Israeli companies linked to the country’s human rights abuses.
“We have to query whether or not we would tolerate this if this were
people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia making comments about
people who are African American in our communities,” Shapiro told CNN.
And
that's who David Sirota supports. David wants Joe Biden out and he
wants Shapiro in. How exactly is David a progressive whatever it is
that he calls himself these days? (I just call him an ass regardless.)
Maybe David Sirota needs to sit his tired ass down and keep it down?
(For the record, he never apologized to Tina.)
Some
people are genuinely concerned that Joe is not going to win in
November. They are in a panic and they might be right to be in a
panic. It might be good to have a different nominee. But some people
who are injecting themselves into this conversation are doing so for
other reasons and are not being honest about it. We need to be sure, as
the conversation continues, that the David Sirotas and Norman Solomons
who have lied in the past to try to get you to vote for someone aren't
part of this conversation. They aren't honest brokers and we shouldn't
listen to them.
The ALZAZEERA article
does a run down on a number of possibilities that a number of people
are pushing. I've warned about Gretch The Wretch already so we won't
quote from the article on her but you should look over the article and
ponder why some people keep pimping a candidate that has so very little
to offer? Well, I say they have nothing to offer and nothing that says
American President -- I say that but maybe, like David Sirota, you're
ideal President of the United States is a man who proposed to his wife
in Jerusalem? What's more American than that, right?
Yesterday,
the death toll in Gaza passed 38,000. So maybe not the best time to
pimp Josh Shapiro -- who made a dozen trips to Israel before being
elected governor and whose election as governor led to a front page
story by THE TIMES OF ISRAEL insisting "Josh Shapiro's inauguration symbolizes a new age for Jewish politicians" -- an article that basically attacks Ed Rendell ("Josh
shows up for us just by being so proudly Jewish and that is really
something because Rendell, who I worked for and who I love, I mean, he
never hid his Jewishness, but he didn’t wear it on his sleeve"). I know Ed, I've know him for years and this has been disclosed here repeatedly. One example of many, March 2012:
Trudy Rubin (Philadelphia Inquirer) admonishes Ed Rendell here.
Trudy Rubin's one of the few journalists who doesn't forget Iraq so we
note her columns. I don't think Ed's done anything wrong (as noted
before, I know Ed). But we'll use that to note a few things about the
MEK which has nothing to do with the US legal obligations to Camp Ashraf
residents.
So Little Joshy
-- whom THE TIMES OF ISRAEL dished was the best Jewish politician since
Joe Lieberman!!! are your panties wet yet, girls? -- is just THE TIMES
OF ISRAEL's cover boy and, I'm sure, nude centerfold.
He's
clearly not who America needs and it's really past time that the left
started holding David Sirota accountable or at least permanently tuning
him out. Whether it's defending US politicians for prolonging the Iraq
War or pimping a non-Green and pro-genocide man for the Democratic
Party's presidential nomination or, for that matter, attacking the
mother of an Iraq War veteran, David Sirota has shown us what he is and
he's done so repeatedly.
I was going to include
one of David Sirota's Tweets where he basically creams his shorts as he
fantasizes about Joshua Shapiro but the person I'm dictating this too
found something much more interesting.
I'm
sorry, where above did I knock Emily Sirota for her husband's Zionist
beliefs? I didn't. That Tweet is nothing but sexism. Jill Biden is
the First Lady. I never held Laura Bush responsible for her War
Criminal husband's actions. I don't understand why David needs to knock
Jill or to tie her being on the cover of VOGUE -- a common thing for
First Ladies -- to his desire to oust Joe Biden so he can get an Israeli
loyalist nominated for president?
David Sirota
is a piece of crap. You need to grasp that not everyone involved in
the conversation on the issue of who the Democratic Party's presidential
nominee should be is an honest broker. Some are in it to trick you and
they will -- as they have repeatedly in the past -- lie to you and
think they can manipulate you.
Regarding this topic -- following Wednesday's snapshot
-- many e-mails came in to the public e-mail account
(common_ills@yahoo.com) from people saying that here I was telling them
to vote for whomever the Democratic Party's nominee was. I didn't do
that. I'm sorry that I wasn't more clear but that was a huge, lengthy
snapshot.
This does appear in the Wednesday snapshot:
So you're reality is
Cornel West, Chase Oliver or a Democrat if you're voting for president
in 2024. Donald's going to destroy Palestine even more. And his vile
and disgusting comments in the debate received no pushback from Owen or
Glynneth. Or anyone else.
If you're a
Libertarian, Chase Oliver is a great choice. I can certainly understand
someone wanting to vote for Cornel West -- since he's been on fire
since rejecting a bunch of White 'leaders' trying to jerk him around.
We've noted Laura Flanders' interview with his running mate earlier this
morning but I will include it here in the snapshot as well.
In
prior years, we covered everyone running for president -- whether they
had a chance at the slot or not. In 2023, I noted here that I wasn't
doing that. It's a lot of work and there are a lot of liars. When
Howie Hawkins won the Green Party nomination for president, he won it.
He did that by working his ass off. Dario and the other whores thought
campaigning was Tweeting every other week. That's not a campaign.
Then, filled with sour grapes, they tried to tank Howie by going around
to various questionable platforms (CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX, to cite one)
where hosts would not only air their lies but also encourage them.
Dario didn't run a campaign. Howie did and that's how Howie got the
nomination. The attacks, the smears on Kevin Zeese, all of that
nonsense was repugnant.
And Jill Stein was a
part of that. And Jill's a worthless candidate. If the Green Party
gives her the nomination, it deserves all the ridicule it gets.
So
I noted that we weren't covering every campaign. I said we'd cover
what we could of real campaigns. Cornel came alive as a candidate
during the combative interview with Jimmy Dore and I have no problem
highlighting his campaign. I wish I had time to note Chase Oliver. But
my time is limited.
That snapshot was
directed to those people who were voting Democrat or planning to. I
worded that very badly in the snapshot and the person I was dictating it
to even asked me if I wanted to include a statement like that and I
responded, "_____ no, just get the damn thing up already." A feeling
I've got this morning because this snapshot has gone on way too long as
well. Expect Monday's to be much shorter.
But,
no, I'm not telling anyone that they have to vote for the Democrat. I
am voting for the Democrat and I'm doing that because I am so worried
what's going to happen to reproductive rights, to the LGBTQ+ community,
to our basic rights, to our citizens -- that threat Donald made against
Liz Cheney is not something minor.
But some
people don't want to vote Democrat and I understand that. And when I'm
talking about do we keep or replace Joe, I'm speaking to other
Democrats. It's a difficult conversation to have because a lot of
'celebrities' on the left -- I'm referring to pundits -- pose as
Democrats but they aren't Democrats. They're Socialists, or they're
Democratic Socialists, or they're this or they're that. And they try to
butt into this conversation and pretend to be Democrats. I find that
dishonest, manipulative and disgusting.
You're
a Socialist who wants Joe out? Say you're a Socialist. But if you're a
liar, you don't admit it, you won't fess up because you know the minute
you do, the natural response on the part of many Democrats is going to
be, this is a decision for members of the Democratic Party only.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 273 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza
by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.
But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge
for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel,
the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover
for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily
basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to
school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe
Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll.
The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom
believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The
slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US
Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned
the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of
Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted,
"More than
1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza --
have
been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million
women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million
people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL noted yesterday, "More
than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed since October,
according to the latest figures from the enclave's health ministry. A
total of 58 people were killed in the 24-hour reporting period, taking
the overall toll to 38,011. Another 179 people were wounded, taking the
total number of injured to 87,445. The majority of victims are women and children, according to the ministry." This number has not yet been updated on Friday. Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained
on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000
Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of
their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe
Lazzarini Tweeted:
April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as
killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000
Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has
estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into
Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
As for the area itself? Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive
has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole
neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been
blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are
still standing, but most are battered shells." Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery
by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and
Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing
destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate
of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second
World War."
For years, conservatives have railed against what they call the “administrative state” and denounced regulations.
But let’s be clear. When they speak of the “administrative state,”
they’re talking about agencies tasked with protecting the public from
corporations that seek profits at the expense of the health, safety, and
pocketbooks of average Americans.
Regulations are the means by which agencies translate broad legal mandates into practical guardrails.
Substitute the word “protection” for “regulation” and you get a more
accurate picture of who has benefited — consumers, workers, and average
people needing clean air and clean water.
Substitute “corporate legal movement” for the “conservative legal
movement” and you see who’s really mobilizing, and for what purpose.
**
I spent four years as policy director at the Federal Trade Commission,
advising the commissioners on how best to protect the public from
corporate excesses. I spent four more years as secretary of labor,
protecting American workers from the depredations of big American
corporations.
Most large corporations I dealt with obeyed laws and regulations
designed to protect the public, but they spent a great deal of money
trying to prevent such laws and regulations from being created in the
first place and additional efforts contesting them through the courts.
Last week, the Supreme Court made it much harder for the FTC, the Labor
Department, and dozens of other agencies — ranging from the
Environmental Protection Agency to the Food and Drug Administration,
Securities and Exchange Commission, Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and National
Highway and Safety Administration — to protect Americans from corporate
misconduct.
On Thursday, the six Republican-appointed justices eliminated the
ability of these agencies to enforce their rules through in-house
tribunals, rather than go through the far more costly and laborious
process of suing corporations in federal courts before juries.
On Friday, the justices overturned a 40-year-old precedent requiring
courts to defer to the expertise of these agencies in interpreting the
law, thereby opening the agencies to countless corporate lawsuits
alleging that Congress did not authorize the agencies to go after
specific corporate wrongdoing.
In recent years, the court’s majority has also made it easier for
corporations to sue agencies and get public protections overturned. The
so-called “major questions doctrine” holds that judges should nullify
regulations that have a significant impact on corporate profits if
Congress was not sufficiently clear in authorizing them.
Make no mistake: Consumers, workers, and ordinary Americans will be
hurt by these decisions. Big corporations — especially their top
executives and major investors — will make even more money than they’re
already making because of them.
**
These rulings are the consequence of a corporate strategy launched 53 years ago.
In 1971, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, then a modest business group in
Washington, D.C., asked Lewis Powell, then an attorney in Richmond,
Virginia, to recommend actions corporations should take in response to
the rising tide of public protections (that is, regulations).
Powell’s memo—distributed widely to Chamber members—said corporations
were “under broad attack” from consumer, labor, and environmental
groups.
In reality, these groups were doing nothing more than enforcing the
implicit social contract that had emerged at the end of World War II,
ensuring that corporations be responsive to all their stakeholders—not just shareholders but also their workers, consumers, and the environment.
Powell saw it differently. He urged businesses to mobilize for political combat.
Business must learn the lesson … that political
power is necessary; that such power must be assiduously cultivated; and
that when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with
determination—without embarrassment and without the reluctance which has
been so characteristic of American business.
He stressed that the critical ingredients for success were organization and funding.
Strength lies in … the scale of financing available
only through joint effort, and in the political power available only
through united action and national organizations.
On August 23, 1971, the Chamber distributed Powell’s memo to leading
CEOs, large corporations, and trade associations. It had exactly the
impact the Chamber sought—galvanizing corporate American into action and
releasing a tidal wave of corporate money into American politics.
An entire corporate legal movement was born—including tens of thousands
of corporate lobbyists, lawyers, political operatives, public relations
flaks, think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute and the
Heritage Foundation, and corporate recruiters to the courts, such as the
Federalist Society.
In 1972, President Nixon appointed Powell to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is supposed to work for the American people. But cheap whores like Clarence Thomas who use their appointments to whore for corporations are just about being on the take. His legacy is to be remembered as a crooked judge who took bribes. That's who he is and that's how he will be seen. Pure trash who betrayed the people he was supposed to serve.
Pure garbage that should have been put frog marched through DC with everyone gathered to pelt him with rotten fruit as he was removed from the bench.
Harvard constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe on Monday shredded the Supreme Court’s granting of total immunity to Donald Trump for “official acts” he took as president as “a devastating blow to our system of government.”
“For all practical purposes, this is absolute immunity,” Tribe explained to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
“It’s
dangerous and it means we have to be even more careful never to elect a
president who would think, let alone say, he wants to be a dictator on
day one,” he added. Trump has vowed to be a dictator
on the first day of a potential second term. The presumptive GOP
presidential nominee has also promised to seek revenge on his enemies.
In these hideous times, we need hope. Here's Diana Ross performing her 90s dance hit "I Will Survive"
Wednesday, July 4, 2024. The mess that is the Democratic Party
currently is scaring the hell out of Democratic voters, the party needs
to get its act together, the assault on Gaza continues with food
deprivation continuing to be the Israeli government's go-to weapon of
choice.
Okay, let's talk about reality and I
don't mean the fact that Chris Hemsworth needs to accept that he isn't
box office but, yes, there is that. No, what I'm talking about is the
Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
We
had to deal with this garbage last week and we're still here with it.
It's a media game for some and for a lot of whores it's just part of the
destroy-the-Democratic-Party b.s. that they pursue every election
cycle.
But for people out there, this isn't funny. It's not cute and it's very stressful.
Do you idiots have any idea what you're doing?
You clearly don't.
Rank-in-file Democrats are on edge and you're not helping.
If you're Norman Solomon -- see Marcia's "Shut up, Norman Solomon" -- you don't give a damn and we grasp that just like we grasp that you're not a Democrat.
If
Joe Biden's going to be replaced, that needs to be dealt with
immediately. This is not something that you can stretch out for weeks
and weeks. If he's not going to be replaced, the subject needs to be
dropped immediately.
I don't care one way or
the other, honestly, what happens. I've said for two years now that I
will vote for whomever the nominee is. And I've repeatedly pointed out
this year and last that it might not be Joe Biden.
To
those who think we cannot have a different nominee in November because
it's too late, it logically isn't, it historically isn't. We'll come
back to that.
To those who think -- or whore,
scheme and plan (I'm looking at you, Norman) -- they can wage a long
battle to force Joe to step down, we can't handle that.
One way or another, the American people need to know what's going on. I would've thought this was settled Monday. It's not.
Ava
and I spoke with students on three campuses yesterday. This is
stressing them out. If Joe steps down, great. We'll move forward. If
Joe's not stepping down, your little war needs to stop. Right now, he
is the candidate.
Due to changes and
'changes,' in our modern era most of us only know of a candidate being
clear before the convention. In the not-so-distant past, the
convention was where the nomination was settled.
Let's note Marianne Williamson.
Marianne
Williamson has a largely positive message in the above. Whomever the
nominee is -- even if it's Joe -- needs to utilize that messaging.
Can
Marianne be the nominee? I don't know. No one knows at this point.
If Joe steps down (and he doesn't have to), most likely the primary
contestants don't matter at all. The personality challenged Dean
Phillips got more votes than Marianne but no one in their right mind
would pull for Dean Phillips.
Roland S. Martin
has rightly noted that there's a level of disrespect with their current
(forced) conversation that doesn't even seem to consider Vice President
Kamala Harris.
Kamala
didn't run in the 2024 primary and she's been seen as part of the
ticket Biden-Harris. If Biden is going to step down, I don't know that
Kamala's up to it. I would say the same thing about Joe Biden if this
were 2012 and Barack was deciding to step down.
Why?
Kamala
is the Vice President. She's a question mark as such -- the same way
Joe was in 2020 when he ran for the presidential nomination. But she
doesn't come with a clean slate. She has to answer for everything Joe
has done as president -- Biden-Harris. If Joe's going to step aside, I
don't know that we need a candidate who is so closely tied to him. "You
and Joe did this and you and Joe did that and all I did since I left
the White House was stuff my fat face and cheat on my wife." Isn't that
what Donald would do at the next debate? So with regards to Kamala,
that's the question to ask: Does the person who gave policy advice but
did not make decisions need to be the candidate when she gets saddled
with 100% of the responsibility for everything Joe did?
Kamala does have the presence to put forward a strong campaign. She also comes with baggage.
Less baggage than Gretchen.Whitmer. Kamala is a national known. Gretchen is not. Her behavior during the pandemic is reprehensible:
In
May 2021, Whitmer apologized after being photographed with a large
group of unmasked people, with no social distancing, at a restaurant in
East Lansing.[69][70][71] The restaurant was violating state-mandated social distancing guidelines that restricted indoor dining to six people per table.[72]
You
may or may not agree with the mandates she imposed in Michigan during
the pandemic but it is her record -- the imposing of mandates -- and
then she's not following what she imposed on others in the state?
“If you don’t live in these regions … think long
and hard before you take a trip into them. A small spike could put the
hospital system in dire straits pretty quickly. That’s precisely why
we’re asking everyone to continue doing their part,” said Whitmer before
she eased restrictions last Monday.
But Whitmer’s husband, Marc Mallory, might have missed that message. According to a local marina owner, Mallory called asking if the facility could put his boat in the water by Memorial Day weekend.
When
Tad Dowker, the owner, said it would not be possible to dock his boat
in time, Mallory identified himself as the governor’s husband and asked
whether that might help him.
In a Facebook post
that has since been removed, Dowker said: “This morning, I was out
working when the office called me, there was a gentleman on hold who
wanted his boat in the water before the weekend. Being Memorial weekend
and the fact that we started working three weeks late means there is no
chance this is going to happen … Well our office personnel had explained
this to the man and he replied, ‘I am the husband to the governor, will
this make a difference?’”
A spokesperson for
Whitmer initially warned against rumors and misinformation when asked
about the claims – although the representative did not deny them
outright.
But today Whitmer accepted that her husband had made the call, calling it “a failed attempt at humor”.
Again,
she imposed the rules. And she didn't follow them. Then you get her
corrupt husband. And her office lies and said that didn't happen. Then
she's forced to admit it did happen -- after having lied that it didn't
-- and she tries to pass off her husband's corruption as "a failed
attempt at humor."
That freak show doesn't belong on the national stage.
Her name should not be thrown around by pundits or the press but it is being thrown around.
She
would be a nightmare candidate. And that is a consideration when
anyone other than Joe is being considered. Joe's known. The country
knows who he is. He has no new scandals and pretty much all the dirty
laundry there is on him is already out there.
Whomever the nominee is -- Joe or anyone else -- the press and the GOP are going to try to destroy them.
On
paper, John Kerry looked so good. Years in the Senate, a Vietnam
veteran, very few rumors of affairs, etc. Then we were stuck with him.
And the press did it's usual garbage. October 4, 2004, Geraldine Sealey (SALON) noted:
Avid New York Times readers probably recognize this quote from the paper
of record's campaign coverage: "Who among us does not like NASCAR?"; or
perhaps, "Who among us does not love NASCAR?" The paper has attributed
some iteration of the quote to John Kerry in several opinion columns and
news stories since March, always to make the point that try as he
might, John Kerry just doesn't get the common, NASCAR-loving man, and
when he tries to adopt a regular-guy persona, the result is laughably
unconvincing.
As
Sealey goes on to note, the quote -- which was not true -- popped up in
the columns of Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich and in the reporting of Sheryl
Gay Stolberg. Again, completely made up. And the GOP made up their
Swift Boat Bums.
And
that'll happen again (and again and again because the press is so
inherently f**ked up -- they need their lies or they can't function and
because the GOP identifies your biggest strength that could attract
swing voters and rips that apart).
And
then we got the things John Kerry actually did. That embarrassing wind
surfing. He looked -- and looks -- like Ichabod Crane and he was over
60 year old at the time, no one needed that in any swim ware or
compression shorts.
Selecting another candidate as this point would have to be done very carefully.
Kamala
is a known and there's nothing that they can throw at her that the
whole country isn't already aware of -- unless the press didn't do their
job in 2019 and 2020. That's not true of Gretchen. That's not true of
the basically unknown man that David Sirota's supporting (Josh
Shapiro). The national stage is not for the squeamish or the sensitive
or those who have not been vetted by the national press. B-b-but we're
talking governors!!!!!!
The
state press? That's what we're expecting to have done the job? This
is not meant as an attack on Sarah Palin. But John McCain picked her as
a running mate because she was a governor. And the press in Alaska had
'vetted' her for some time. But the national press looked at her much
differently -- in part because state press tends to kiss up to
governors.
So this notion that someone's a governor so they've been vetted. No, they haven't.
If
they're Gavin Newsom, you can say that. Gavin is on the national stage
and has been for years. The GOP has vilified him for years on the
national stage. Americans have an idea of who he is.
If
the GOP was debating whether to dump Donald Trump or not (which they
should), you could point to Ron DeSantis and Chris Christie as two
governors who were known on the national stage.
So
the point is Gavin's a good prospect if Joe was not the nominee. I
love Gavin and have known him for years -- that's not the first time
that's been disclosed here. My concern with Gavin is the ex-wife. I
never trusted her, post-divorce she became a Republican and I'd wonder
what she might be willing to do to tank Gavin if he was the nominee.
I
want to get to Gaza in terms of the election. But let's wait on that
so we can go from Gaza in terms of the election to what's going on in
Gaza right now.
Let's
talk about sexism for a moment. I agree with Roland that it's
bothersome that Kamala is not even mentioned by the pundits and the
'activists' (fake ones like Norman Solomon). I don't like Kamala.
Check the archives, that's long been disclosed. I've known her before
she threw her hat in the ring to run for the Democratic Party's
presidential nomination. I don't like her. But don't tell me that she
shouldn't at least be considered when she's served four years as the
vice president and when she's a known figure on the national stage.
Again, I think she would be too closely tied to Joe to be an effective
candidate (weighed down by his baggage) but, if we're talking about
replacing Joe, yes, she deserves to be part of the candidates we're
considering. And it is sexism to pretend otherwise.
Sexism?
It needs to stop with regards to Jill Biden. I've noticed how THE
VANGUARD and others have distorted photos of her to make her look weird
and strange. That's outrageous.
I
know Jill. I like Jill. When she was The Second Lady, I believe she
only got noted by me in one entry -- those entire eight years -- because
I didn't want to sit in judgment on her. I noted before Joe took the
oath for Vice President that I would not be noting her because if I did,
I'd also have to note her if something negative came up. Nothing
negative did in those eight years. We noted her once because of a
column she'd done on veterans issues and we cover veterans issues here.
As
First Lady? I've avoided noting her unless it was with regards to
Hunter Biden and a line was being crossed in my mind that shouldn't
be.
People have
written outrageous things about her in the last four years and that's
upset me but I haven't brought it here because there's a conflict of
interest since I do know her.
But
this is different because Jill's being distorted and attacked. There's
no reason to photo shop her to make her look different.
There's
also no reason for anyone to write a column or insist in a video that
Jill needs to tell Joe to step down. Joe's the one to decide that. Who
the hell are you to tell someone that it's their job to get their
spouse to step down?
Who the hell are you?
That's
outrageous and it's also very sexist. And her duty? Joe ran for
office. She did not. Joe holds elected office. She does not. Her
'job' is to support her spouse. Her job is not to do whatever it is you
want her to do.
I've got one more thing to
deal with that I forgot and we're going to shoe-horn it in here. I noted
that I don't like Kamala. I also don't like Liz Cheney.
That's one of two videos we noted in the last 24 hours on Liz.
I
don't like Liz. I would never vote for Liz. We have never glorified
her here. My favorite Cheney moment in my life was when Dick Cheney
smiled at me thinking he might come over -- for an autograph? -- and I
flipped him off and watched him scowl. That moment still makes me
smile.
But
anyway, what Donald Trump just did is outrageous. It is offensive. It
should be seen as the threat to her that he meant it to be. This is why
this idiot cannot be allowed to have four more years in the White
House.
We didn't
praise Liz when she was 'on our side' in the eyes of some on the left.
We didn't do a revisionary take on her.. I didn't like her and I don't
like her. But that's a threat on her life and it is outrageous that
Donald Trump made it. That should have been headlines. THE NEW YORK
TIMES should have immediately published an editorial calling for Donald
to drop out of the race for making that threat.
If
you're going to replace Joe you need to accept some realities. We're
getting into Gaza now but I'll probably have a bit more on other things
before we're actually there.
Joe is a disappointment on Gaza. And if another Democrat runs and is elected president in November, it's going to be the same.
Maybe not if Marianne's the nominee and gets elected.
But the reality is that basically any other Democrat is going to be operating as Joe did on Gaza.
It's our job to pressure Joe. It's our job to pressure whomever is elected in November.
I call out Joe here on Gaza all the time. I will continue to do so.
But I'm aware that there's a lot of money involved and I am aware that politics are corrupt.
I
feel we need to be at point Z with regards to Gaza. I'd define that as
the Israeli government ending its assault and of the Palestinian people
having self-rule and that electricity and water do not depend upon or
go through Israel.
That's where we need to be.
A Democrat probably only gets us to H on the A to Z scale.
A Republican in the White House takes us back to A.
Hey, Owen Jones, I'm looking at you. Shut your f**king pie hole.
You're not an American, you don't live in this country. The only reason
I've listened to you in the past is because of the plight of the
Palestinians. I don't need you -- foreigner -- doing a segment with
your 'thoughts' on the debate. Nor do I see how your attacks on Joe --
which pimp Donald Trump -- help Palestinians. Joe's not the one who
moved the Embassy in Israel, for example. Joe's not the one in the
debate Thursday night who made vile comments about Palestinians.
Exactly.
Owen Jones embarrassed himself and acted a whore in that segment. We
haven't noted him since. I'm not fond of whores or con artists. If
Gaza is your issue, then be smart on it.
US
elections really aren't your business, Owen. Butt the hell out.
That's goes for Glynneth Greenwald whose chosen to make his life in
Brazil as well. Their glee after the debate should have exposed them to
everyone.
Donald
will not help the Palestinians. Nor will Robert Kennedy Junior who's
made that clear in his remarks (which is why the Libertarian Party
refused to give him their nomination when he begged for it). Jill
Stein! That dried up whore couldn't stand up on Iraq. When THE NEW YORK
TIMES (Tim Arango) reported in September of 2012 that Barack Obama was
secretly sending US troops back into Iraq, Jill didn't touch it even
when her supporters begged her to -- even when her inner circle begged
her to. She's a whore who rides any cause that's got attention.
Otherwise, she's just doing her anti-vax nonsense. That's really all
she's ever had. Not only is she a fake, she can't win.
So
you're reality is Cornel West, Chase Oliver or a Democrat if you're
voting for president in 2024. Donald's going to destroy Palestine even
more. And his vile and disgusting comments in the debate received no
pushback from Owen or Glynneth. Or anyone else.
A
lot of money goes into each election cycle -- as Jamaal Bowman can
attest -- and the Democratic Party and their nominee is not going to
walk away from that or risk alienating those donors. Or risking those
votes.
Joe
deserves to be pressured, he deserves to be called out. And that's
going to be true of any Democrat who could be in the White House in 2025
(except maybe Marianne).
Change happens slowly.
The
Palestinians have suffered for decades. Today, they have the most
support in the US that they have ever had. And if we talk about this
issue and explore this issue, the support will increase. When that
happens, we can see a US government that doesn't repeatedly give the
government of Israel a pass -- not on bombing and attacking a US ship, not on carrying out a genocide.
It is our job to press on this issue. It is our job to do so in an informed manner.
That
means (A) post debate you're not attacking the nominee that you can
push especially when the nominee he's on stage with is make disgusting
remarks about Palestinians gets a pass from you, (B) you grasp that a
propaganda operation went on for decades -- carried out by the press --
that has given a false perspective of the 1948 creation of the Israeli
government. That means you grasp that the people who first moved in in
1948 (moved into occupied territories) were willing to be in UK camps.
The horror of the Holocaust didn't lead to a demand that, "No, you're
not going to cage me." Why? Because it was already occupied land.
In all, the British detained about 52,000 ma’apilim (illegal
immigrants) on Cyprus, including about 1,300 from North Africa. The
Cyprus detainees were primarily young people who had joined Zionist
youth groups before departing Europe. Approximately 80 percent were aged
12 to 35, while 8,000 were between the ages of 12 and 18. The majority
were orphans.
The mossad l’aliyah bet branch of the Hagana (an
underground Jewish military organization) was responsible for
organizing the illegal immigration movement. It was most interested in
recruiting young and hardy immigrants who were dedicated to the Zionist
cause and capable of participating in the struggle to create a Jewish
state. The mossad l’aliyah bet relied upon the Zionist youth movements in the displaced persons camps of central Europe—Hashomer Hatzair, Dror, Gordoniah, Nocham, and Betar—to
provide the immigrants. This arrangement determined the unique
demographic make-up of the Cyprus camps. Despite the diverse political
movements represented in the camps, the internees established a joint
movement structure to represent their needs before the authorities.
Conditions in the camps
The
British military ran the detention camps in accordance with the harsh
model of the POW camp. Surrounded by barbed wire and watch towers, the
camps were under constant guard. The Joint Distribution Committee
provided for the welfare of the detainees, including supplying food and
medical care, mitigating the hardships suffered by the detainees. JDC
Cyprus director Morris Laub served as the representative of the
detainees vis-a-vis the British authorities.
There
were two types of refugee camps on Cyprus. Five summer camps (nos. 55,
60, 61, 62, 63) were located at Kraolos, near Famagusta. The detainees
were housed in tents. Seven winter camps (nos. 64-70) were located at
Dekalia. Housing there consisted of tin Nissen huts and some tents.
After December 1946, the majority of the children and teenagers were
placed in Camp 64, known as the youth village.
Conditions
were generally harsh. People were squeezed into tents and tin huts that
were unbearably hot in the summer and freezing cold in the rainy
winter, with little furniture, no electric lighting, limited access to
water, bad food, and poor sanitary conditions.
Approximately
2000 babies were born in the Cyprus camps. The births took place in the
Jewish wing of the British military hospital in Nicosia. Four hundred
Jews died during their internment on the island and were buried in the
Margoa cemetery.
The
British were successful in apprehending most of the 70,000 illegal
immigrants who embarked for Palestine. Nonetheless, as space for
refugees on Cyprus became scarce and ships continued to sail from Europe
carrying ma’apilim, it became apparent to the British that the policy of detention in Cyprus was not successful in deterring the Ha’apala movement.
The conditions in the Cyprus detentions camps and the sight of Jewish
Holocaust survivors being held behind barbed wire also excited
widespread criticism of British handling of the problem of Jewish
immigration to Palestine. The British decision to send the refugee ship Exodus 1947 back
to Europe in July 1947 instead of detaining its passengers on Cyprus
represented an admission of the failure of the Cyprus deterrent.
For
most of those survivors interned on Cyprus, the experience only served
to strengthen their resolve to reach Palestine, which they almost all
did following the creation of Israel in May 1948.
At
one time, from 1946 through 1948, it was the opinion of the world
leaders that these people could not just storm into Palestine. "The
Jewish immigration to Palestine." The lie that some pro-genocide
Americans keep repeating today that Palestine didn't exist and blah blah
blah? It's a lie. And we need to call it out.
I'm
hoping global pressure will be enough to end the slaughter in Gaza
before the end of the year. In 2006, at THIRD, a roundtable, I upset
some -- including Jim -- when I shared that the Iraq War would still be
going on after we closed down THIRD. At that point, the plan was to
close THIRD at the end of 2008. That was the plan. And it was 2006,
before the mid-term elections. And Jim and many others were young and
thought that the Iraq War would have to be over because the American
people had turned against it. I understand why they thought that way.
But that's not what I was expecting based on the life I'd lived. And
I'm not expecting equality for Palestinians this calendar year. If I'm
wrong, I'll be thrilled. But I'm not seeing it happening.
So
we need to be pressuring whomever is the president and we need to be
addressing this issue with our friends and our families and strangers
and what have you. Education is our strongest tool in any peace
movement.
Education means making smart
choices as well. And a Democratic candidate who we need to get to Z but
is only at H right now is always preferrable to a GOP candidate who is
at A.
Owen Jones, who does not live in the US,
looked at a US debate where one candidate outright attacked
Palestinians and smeared Palestinians. Owen Jones did not make that the
thrust of his video. Instead, he chose to focus on Joe and mock Joe
and take glee in mocking Joe. And that might be fine if he'd done a
video on Donald and what Donald said about Palestinians in the debate.
But he didn't do that. He's made it very hard for me to take him
seriously.
And I don't take seriously anyone who doesn't live in the US trying to attack Joe. As Betty's "We are so screwed" and Rebecca's "posers and the crooked court'' note -- what do we have left right now in terms of remedy with regards to the corrupt Supreme Court -- prayer?
Twelve
former Biden administration officials who resigned over policy on
Israel and the Gaza war say the government’s actions have endangered US
national security.
The policies have further destabilised the region and “put a target on America’s back”, they say in a joint statement.
One of the 12 resigned only on Tuesday from the US Department of the Interior.
The
US Department of State has previously denied such claims, pointing to
its criticism of civilian casualties in Gaza and its efforts to boost
humanitarian aid.
The joint statement by the former officials says: "America’s diplomatic
cover for, and continuous flow of arms to Israel has ensured our
undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a
besieged Palestinian population in Gaza."
Maryam Hassanein, appointed by President Joe Biden to the US Department
of Interior, resigned on Tuesday over the government's support of
Israel.
"As a Muslim American, I cannot continue working for an
administration that ignores the voices of its diverse staff by
continuing to fund and enable Israel's genocide of Palestinians," Ms
Hassanein wrote on X.
She joined the Biden administration in
January but said: "It has become clear to me that I do not have a place
in this administration."
Ms Hassanein became the latest of at
least 10 government officials and staff members to resign over the US
support of Israel as the civilian death toll grows and humanitarian
crises worsen in Gaza.
In 2020, Maryam Hassanein cast a ballot for Joe Biden
in the first presidential election she was old enough to vote in
because she felt he represented “hope” and a chance of “justice for
Muslim Americans and for marginalized communities as a whole.” On
Tuesday, Hassanein became the latest member of the Biden administration
to publicly quit over the president’s policy in the Gaza war — and the youngest known resignee so far, at 24.
“I
came to understand that even if the agency I’m working at is not
producing foreign policy, serving in the administration in any capacity
does essentially make you complicit in the genocide of the
Palestinians,” Hassanein told HuffPost of her resignation from the
Interior Department, which has not previously been publicly reported.
She worked as a special assistant to the assistant secretary for land
and minerals management.
She
described quitting as a way “to leverage privilege” to make a statement
against Biden’s support for Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza
Strip, which has killed close to 38,000 people, displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s residents and plunged the region into a humanitarian crisis.
Hassanein
joins a group of at least 11 resignees across the government who felt
Biden’s approach made it impossible for them to continue serving under
him. Many of them worked in national security positions, including veteran former State Department official Josh Paul, who was the first to quit in a development HuffPost first reported. Frustration with the moral and strategic toll
of Biden’s support for the Israeli offensive has been significant
across government agencies, sources have told HuffPost, with some saying
it has reached heights only comparable to outrage among U.S. officials
over the decision to invade Iraq in 2003. Government officials have
organized several protests and signed internal and public expressions of dissent.
There's a small but growing number
of resignations from the government and now the American military over
U.S. policy in Gaza. Today, we hear from two service members.
Army
Maj. Harrison Mann spent 13 years in the military. He describes his
most recent job as assistant to the director who oversaw all things
Middle East at the Defense Intelligence Agency, including the Israel
crisis response. One day in the fall, he says, he couldn't do the work
anymore.
HARRISON MANN: October 17, there was this
explosion at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza that killed upwards of a hundred
people, and it was the only time that I'd seen the intelligence
community actually make a concerted effort to investigate what looked
like some of war crime. And in that instance, we determined that it was
not the Israelis.
And that was very heartening for me
'cause I thought, wow, there's going to be intense interest in
investigating possible war crimes or killings of civilians. But shortly
after that process, I understood that that was an outlier and that we
were really never going to drill deep into any killings of civilians
ever again.
FADEL: After his resignation went into effect,
he published an open letter online explaining that his decision to walk
out was due to moral injury, noting that he is the descendant of
European Jews.
MANN: Seeing videos of burnt corpses and
dead kids and people starving to death, I think, should be very
affecting for anybody, but if you're Jewish, you can't look at that and
not think of your own people's history. It's impossible not to if you
think that Arabs are human beings, too.
FADEL: I also
connected with 1st Sgt. Mohammed Abu Hashem, a Palestinian American. He
says his aunt's killing in a strike on her building in Gaza's Jabalia
refugee camp in October sealed his decision to end a 22-year career in
the U.S. Air Force. The strike, he says, killed nearly two dozen people,
including children.
MOHAMMED ABU HASHEM: I never received a
single answer from my leadership team or from our government as to what
happened on that day. And it didn't matter how far I made it in the
military that I was not going to be able to affect change based on the
rank and based off of my leadership. On October 21, I submitted my
decision to step away.
FADEL: Abu Hashem's aunt is one of
six relatives he's lost in Gaza. Both Harrison Mann and Mohammed Abu
Hashem say they resigned so they could speak out but also because they
felt guilt.
MANN: You're going into work every day
understanding that you're partially supporting this military that is
deliberately starving and killing massive numbers of civilians.
FADEL:
Israel denies that they're deliberately killing civilians. Biden has
said it's possible that U.S. weapons have been used in war crimes in
Gaza.
MANN: Could I respond to that...
FADEL: For...
MANN: ...Statement?
FADEL: Sure.
MANN:
Yeah, I just say the Israeli military is totally dependent on the U.S.
for munitions. Especially at the start of the war, they were expending
them at an extremely high rate. So the idea that they even have anything
left that's not U.S.-made is very unlikely.
Humanitarian aid should never be politicized though, quite often, the
very survival of nations is used as political bargaining chips.
Sadly, Gaza
remains a prime example. Even before the current war, the Gaza Strip
suffered under a 17-year hermetic blockade, which has rendered the
impoverished area virtually “unlivable.”
That very term, “unlivable” was used by the then-United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Palestine, Michael Lynk, in 2018.
As of mid-December of last year, “nearly 70% of Gaza’s 439,000 homes
and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed,” The Wall Street Journalreported, citing experts who conducted a thorough analysis of satellite data.
As tragic as the situation was in December, now it is far worse.
Sixty-seven percent of Gaza’s water, sanitation facilities, and infrastructure have been destroyed
or damaged, according to a statement by the United Nations Agency for
Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, on June 19, leading to the spreading of
infectious diseases, which has ravaged the beleaguered population for
months.
The spread of disease is also linked to the accumulation of garbage everywhere in Gaza. Earlier, the refugees agency reported
that “as of June 9, over 330,000 tons of waste have accumulated in or
near populated areas across Gaza, posing catastrophic environmental
(and) health risks.”
The situation was already disastrous. Indeed, three years before the
war, the Global Institute for Water, Environment, and Health (GIWEH) said,
in a joint statement with the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor,
that 97% of Gaza water was undrinkable and unfit for human consumption.
Yet, so far, any conversation on allowing aid to Gaza, or the
rebuilding of Gaza after the war, has been placed largely within
political contexts.
By shutting down all border crossings, including the Egypt-Gaza Rafah Crossing—which, on June 17, was set ablaze—Israel has politicized food, fuel, and medicine as tools in its war in the strip.
THE NATIONAL notes, "China has condemned Israel for its obstruction of aid into Gaza, warning
that the man-made humanitarian crisis is at an unprecedented level and
amounts to a 'serious breach' of international law."
Gaza remains under assault. Day 271 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza
by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.
But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge
for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel,
the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover
for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily
basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to
school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe
Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll.
The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom
believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The
slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US
Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned
the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of
Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted,
"More than
1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza --
have
been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million
women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million
people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll reaches 37,953 , with 87,266 injured." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained
on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000
Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of
their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe
Lazzarini Tweeted:
April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as
killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000
Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has
estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into
Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
As for the area itself? Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive
has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole
neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been
blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are
still standing, but most are battered shells." Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery
by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and
Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing
destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate
of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second
World War."
