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"Progressive Democrats who try to tell you that it’s important to support Biden even though he’s committing a genocide because he might do some nice things for Americans domestically are actually giving you a useful insight into exactly what’s so evil about western liberalism."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

Totally worth a click and a full read:

The Biden doctrine in Gaza: bomb, starve, deceive

At his State of the Union address Thursday night, President Biden announced that the US military will install a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza to deliver emergency aid to the besieged enclave, where more than 2.2 million Palestinians face a humanitarian crisis, including starvation. The pier, which will take weeks if not months to complete, will be built by US soldiers. The US, Biden claimed, “has been leading international efforts to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza” and believes that “protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.”

In reality, the emergency project underscores Biden’s real priority: to prolong Israel’s rampage in Gaza, the US is even willing to deploy its own military for face-saving public relations stunts.

With criticism of Biden’s Gaza complicity increasing inside the Democratic Party, and threatening him at the ballot box, the pier is the latest in a series of token gestures aimed at feigning concern for Gazans while providing unfettered support to the Israeli government that is indiscriminately attacking them. The White House has carried out air drops over Gaza that amount to a few trucks’ worth of aid – compared to the thousands of trucks that Israel is blocking with US support. “The food, water, and medical supplies so desperately needed by people in Gaza are sitting just across the border,” Doctors Without Border said Friday. “Israel needs to facilitate rather than block the flow of supplies.”

Even those trucks that can enter Gaza have been unable to make safe deliveries after Israel attacked their Hamas police escorts and crowds of desperate civilians lining up to receive aid. One air drop has even killed five Palestinian civilians and wounded others when a parachute failed to open.

The US military pier, Biden claimed, “will enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day.” His own aides acknowledge that this is a ruse. According to the Washington Post, administration officials quietly concede that “only by securing the opening of additional land crossings would there be enough aid to prevent famine.” And given that the pier will take at minimum 30 days to complete, that “[raises] questions about how famine in Gaza will be staved off in the critical days ahead,” the New York Times notes. The White House has given the answer: rather than compel Israel to open those land crossings and prevent famine, it is instead adopting the Israeli position that the land crossings can be used as a tool of leverage against Hamas — and that Israel can control everything that gets in.

"This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal."
~ Aaron Bushnell https://t.co/CWTQGRaSm6

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) March 8, 2024

Alastair Crooke: Biden Out of Touch with Reality

Gaza food aid ship stuck at Cyprus with ‘technical difficulties’

An aid ship carrying 200 tonnes of food to alleviate looming famine in the Gaza Strip remained docked in Cyprus on Sunday night, despite the push for maritime aid in the face of stalling ceasefire talks and the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Cyprus government spokesperson, Konstantinos Letymbiotis, told the island’s official news agency that the exact timing of the vessel’s departure would not be made public for “security reasons”. It was later reported that due to “technical difficulties”, it might not depart until Monday morning.

World Central Kitchen (WCK), a US-based non -governmental organisation, and the Spanish charity Open Arms, set up to rescue refugees and migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, were expecting a first delivery of goods including rice, flour, lentils, beans and canned fish and meat to leave via an Open Arms vessel from Larnaca this weekend and arrive at an undisclosed location in Gaza in two or three days’ time. But the boat remained moored in Cyprus on Sunday evening. Letymbiotis said the cargo had been inspected by Cypriot officials under a plan approved by Israel.

The WCK spokesperson Linda Roth declined to go into the “full logistical information”, citing an “evolving and fluid situation”, but said Open Arms, towing a barge, would embark as soon as possible. The charities were ready to send another 500 tonnes of aid, funded by the UAE, she added, and work had begun on Sunday on a floating jetty where the aid can be received. ...

The delay in the departure of the aid ship highlights the complexity of delivering aid to Gaza through unconventional means. Israel has been repeatedly accused of not doing enough to facilitate humanitarian assistance to Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people. Its shallow shoreline waters and dearth of functioning ports make such maritime operations difficult, and it is unclear how much assistance via the new “sea highway” will affect the dire humanitarian situation on the ground.

Briahna Joy Gray: Biden KILLS Palestinians With LETHAL Aid Air Drop

Air-Dropped Aid Crushes 5 Palestinians to Death in Gaza

The parachutes of air-dropped pallets of aid failed, causing the large objects to plummet to the ground in northern Gaza, killing five. The US and several other countries have dropped a token amount of aid onto northern Gaza because Israel is only allowing a trickle of aid to enter the Strip by land.

A witness speaking with Al-Jazeera explained the botched aid drop caused a building to collapse, killing some of the people sheltering inside. “People were waiting for the drops when they noticed they were coming in fast. So a group of people took cover in a construction site,” he said. “One of the packages fell atop the site, causing it to collapse, killing and wounding people inside. I rushed to help the people inside when I realized my cousin was among them. He is now dead.”

Palestinian health officials and an eye witness who spoke with CBS News said that the aid crate killed five people, including two children, on Friday morning in northern Gaza . Multiple videos have also shown pallets of aid that have fallen into the Mediterranean Sea floating on the surface where some appear to tangle and plummet down.

CNN Confronts Israel Protests BLOCKING Aid: 'NOT ONE LOAF OF BREAD'

Canada, Sweden Restore UNRWA Funds as Report Accuses Israel of Torturing Agency Staff

The governments of Canada and Sweden have announced they will resume funding for the United Nation's agency that provides humanitarian aide and protection to Palestinians living in Gaza and elsewhere—a move that other powerful nations, including Israel's most powerful ally the United States, continue to refuse.

Calling the lack of humanitarian relief inside Gaza "catastrophic," Canadian Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen said Friday his nation would restore funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in order to help address the "dire" situation on the ground living.

Sweden made its announcement Saturday and said a $20 million disbursement would be made to help UNRWA regain its financial footing.

The restoration of funds follows weeks of global criticism and protest for the decision by many Western nations to withhold UNRWA funds after Israel claimed, without presenting evidence, that a few members of the agency—the largest employer in the Gaza Strip—had participated in the Hamas-led attacks of October 7.

As a result, UNRWA has said it's ability to provide aid and services to Gaza—where over 100,000 people have been killed or wounded in five months of constant bombardment and blockade by the Israeli military—has been pushed to the "breaking point" as malnutrition and starvation has been documented among the displaced population of over 2 million people.

"Canada is resuming its funding to UNRWA so more can be done to respond to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians," Hussen said. "Canada will continue to take the allegations against some of UNRWA's staff extremely seriously and we will remain closely engaged with UNRWA and the UN to pursue accountability and reforms."

"I welcome Canada lifting the pause on funding for UNWRA," said Canadian MP Salma Zahid, a member of the Liberal party representing Scarborough Centre in the House of Commons. "The work that UNWRA does cannot be overstated. It will save lives as we have seen the visuals of children dying of hunger in Gaza. The need for immediate aid is non-negotiable."

Earlier this week, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told a special meeting of the U.N. General Assembly the agency was "facing a deliberate and concerted campaign" by Israel "to undermine its operations, and ultimately end them."

On Friday, Reuters reported on an internal UNRWA report that included testimony of employees who said they were tortured by Israeli officers while in detention to make false admissions about involvement in the October 7 attack.

UNRWA says that Israel tortured some of its employees "to make false statements against the Agency, including that the Agency has affiliations with Hamas and that UNRWA staff members took part in the 7 October 2023 atrocities.” https://t.co/cgqDr9wZOt

— Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (@CJPME) March 8, 2024

According to the reporting:

UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma said the agency planned to hand the information in the 11-page, unpublished report to agencies inside and outside the U.N. specialised in documenting potential human rights abuses.

"When the war comes to an end there needs to be a series of inquiries to look into all violations of human rights," she said.

The document said several UNRWA Palestinian staffers had been detained by the Israeli army, and added that the ill-treatment and abuse they said they had experienced included severe physical beatings, waterboarding, and threats of harm to family members.

Michael Bueckert vice president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, said the new report was "more evidence that Canada's political decision to suspend UNRWA funding was based on false allegations obtained through torture."

"While the resumption of UNRWA aid is certainly welcome," said Bueckert, "there needs to be accountability for the harm that Canada's actions have caused."

Israel Accused Of Torturing UN Workers To Obtain False Testimony About UNRWA

A recent UNRWA document says its staff report having been tortured while detained by Israeli forces, who pressed them to provide false statements about ties between the agency and Hamas.

“The document said several UNRWA Palestinian staffers had been detained by the Israeli army, and added that the ill-treatment and abuse they said they had experienced included severe physical beatings, waterboarding, and threats of harm to family members,” Reuters reports, saying UNRWA workers “reported having been pressured by Israeli authorities into falsely stating that the agency has Hamas links and that staff took part in the Oct. 7 attacks.” 

This is another one of those stories about Israeli offenses that are so stunning that at first you can mistakenly believe you must not be reading it correctly — especially since the western political-media class haven’t been treating it like the jarring news that it is. If we had anything remotely like an objective news media in the western world, reports that Israel tortured United Nations staff to get them to make false statements against a UN aid agency would be the top story everywhere for days. ...

We may be certain that if it was Hamas being accused of torturing workers for international aid agencies in order to extract false confessions, we’d never hear the end of it. To this day unsubstantiated rumors of mass systemic sexual violence on October 7 continue to dominate the headlines resulting in scandalous instances of journalistic malpractice, despite the Israeli spinmeisters behind those reports having a much worse track record than UNRWA in the truth-telling department and UNRWA standing much less to gain than Israel by lying.

But that’s what the information ecosystem looks like in the shadow of the empire. The flimsiest allegations against enemies of the US-centralized power alliance are spun as gospel truth and kept in the headlines for months, while even the most damning evidence against the empire never gets anything better than a cursory nod from the mass media and is then promptly memory-holed as the daily news churn moves on.

"The Trauma Is Immeasurable": Palestinian Writer Susan Abulhawa on Israeli Violence in Gaza

Bernie Sanders reaffirms support for “Genocide Joe” after Biden declares “no red lines” in Israeli assault on Gaza

Less than a day after NBC aired a rare one-on-one interview with President Joe Biden in which the president unequivocally declared that the US would impose “no red lines” on the Israeli government as it continues its genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, top Biden surrogate Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders appeared on Face the Nation to reaffirm his support.

Sanders’ public affirmation of Biden’s flagging presidential campaign comes as the death toll in Gaza continues to climb. In what is surely an underestimate, the Palestinian Ministry of Health documented at least 31,045 people killed in Gaza as of March 10. Of the confirmed dead, about 12,500 are children, while another 8,400 are women. At least 72,654 people have been injured, and more than 8,000 people are missing.

Assuming the missing are dead, roughly 40,000 Palestinians, or nearly 2 percent of the entire population of Gaza, has been killed in roughly 155 days.

In his interview with Margaret Brennan, Sanders expressed sorrow for the thousands killed by US supplied bombs and bullets, and increasingly by starvation due to the Israeli blockade. “Thirty thousand people, two-thirds of them ... women and children” had been killed, but, as he does in every public appearance, Sanders refused to characterize the Israeli government’s actions as a “genocide” or “genocidal.”

Sanders falsely presented the war as solely the product of the “right-wing extremist government under [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu.” In doing so, Sanders completely whitewashes 75 years of US support for Israel and the direct involvement of the Biden administration in arming, financing and politically supporting Netanyahu’s actions.

By presenting the current government in Israel as somehow an aberration from decades of joint Israel-US policy, Sanders postured as an opponent of the Israeli military and declared his opposition to providing another $10.1 billion to Netanyahu, though he indicated he would support the funding if Israel let in more aid trucks.

Ray McGovern: Ukraine and the Pope

Pope provokes outrage by saying Ukraine should ‘raise white flag’ and end war with Russia

The Ukrainian government has responded angrily and vowed never to surrender after Pope Francis said the country should have “the courage to raise the white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.

“Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said on social media on Sunday. ...

Politicians and commentators in Europe expressed outrage after the pontiff gave an interview in which he appeared to stay silent on Russia’s crimes as aggressor in the invasion and placed the onus on Ukraine to make peace.

Atlanta Police Foundation ignored records requests about role in Cop City, lawsuit claims

A law clinic at the University of Georgia has sued the Atlanta Police Foundation, after the non-profit organization repeatedly ignored records requests from journalists and researchers about its role in backing the controversial police-training center opponents have dubbed Cop City.

The complaint, filed on behalf of the digital news outlet Atlanta Community Press Collective and the Chicago-based digital transparency research organization Lucy Parsons Labs, details how numerous queries to the foundation under Georgia’s Open Records Act have not been answered.

It is “the first lawsuit to my knowledge taking on a police foundation” over access to information about what they do, according to Robert Vargas, a University of Chicago sociology professor who researches police foundations.

The Atlanta Police Foundation, or APF, is building the $109m training center on a 171-acre footprint in a forest south-east of the city; at least $67m of the project’s cost comes from taxpayer funds.

The lawsuit “alleges that by virtue of [the foundation] performing a service or function for or on behalf of the City of Atlanta”, all records related to the project should be publicly available, according to a press release from Samantha C Hamilton, an attorney at the university law school’s first amendment clinic.

Major US corporations threaten to return labor to ‘law of the jungle’

Upset by the surge in union drives, several of the best-known corporations in the US are seeking to cripple the country’s top labor watchdog, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), by having it declared unconstitutional. Some labor experts warn that if those efforts succeed, US labor relations might return to “the law of the jungle”.

In recent weeks, Elon Musk’s SpaceX as well as Amazon, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s have filed legal papers that advance novel arguments aimed at hobbling and perhaps shutting down the NLRB – the federal agency that enforces labor rights and oversees unionization efforts. Those companies are eager to thwart the NLRB after it accused Amazon, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s of breaking the law in battling against unionization and accused SpaceX of illegally firing eight workers for criticizing Musk.

Roger King, a longtime management-side lawyer who is senior labor counsel for the HR Policy Association, said “it will be a lose-lose” if the federal courts overturn the 89-year-old National Labor Relations Act, which has governed labor relations since Franklin Roosevelt was president. “We’ll have the law of the jungle, the law of the streets,” King said. “It will be who has the most power. It’s potential for chaos.” ...

Some worker advocates have voiced surprise that these companies are seeking to hobble the NLRB when, in their view, the labor board is already too weak, its penalties toothless. The NLRB can’t fine companies even one dollar for breaking the law – for instance, by illegally firing workers for supporting a union.

SpaceX, Starbucks, Amazon and Trader Joe’s have put forward three main arguments for holding the NLRB unconstitutional: it penalizes companies without a jury trial, exercises executive powers without the president being free to remove board officials, and violates the separation of powers by exercising executive, legislative and judicial functions. This corporate attack is part of a wave of lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of various federal agencies that regulate business.

Briahna Joy Gray & Glenn Greenwald Lament the State of the Union

Russiagate; Hillary considered predictable. Brennan "Cooked The Intelligence"

Cancer-causing PCB chemicals still being produced despite 40-year-old ban

Industry could be producing more cancer-causing PCB chemicals today than at any other point in history, despite their production having been banned more than 40 years ago. ...

Research seen by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations shows that PCBs are being produced as byproducts in chemical reactions, which means small proportions of them are present in many chemicals used today.

“This is staggering given that production of PCBs was banned over 40 years ago and we are supposed to be eliminating them under the Stockholm convention,” said the environmental forensic scientist Dr Dave Megson from Manchester Metropolitan University, who conducted the study.

“When we take into account the volumes of these chemicals and the small levels of PCBs within them then this adds up to a massive number – around 45,000 tonnes per year in the US alone.” During peak commercial production in the 1970s about 39,000 tonnes were made each year, states the study.

“Most people associate this accidental production of PCBs with paints and pigments, but our research shows it’s much broader than that,” said Megson. Chlorinated solvents, which are used in chemical manufacturing, are a major source according to the research. “PCBs are currently going undetected in many studies as the specific PCBs produced accidentally are different from the PCBs that were produced intentionally in the commercial mixtures of 50-plus years ago.”

Power line pole at fault in biggest wildfire in Texas history, report says

The biggest wildfire in Texas state history, which killed two people and scorched more than 1m acres, was caused by a power line pole that had decayed at the base, an investigation has concluded. The finding comes from a Texas A&M forest service investigation into the Smokehouse Creek fire, which blazed through the state’s Panhandle region and into neighbouring Oklahoma after breaking out near the small town of Stinnett on 26 February.

The investigation report described how “[a] power pole that appeared to be decayed at the base where it made contact with ground had broken off at ground level”. Winds of up to 60mph and unseasonably high temperatures had been reported when the blaze started. ...

Xcel Energy is subject to a lawsuit filed on behalf of a homeowner in Stinnett alleging that the fire started “when a wooden pole defendants failed to properly inspect, maintain and replace, splintered and snapped off at its base”.

Xcel has disputed the allegations. However, Mikal Watts, the attorney who filed the suit on the homeowner’s behalf, said in a statement issued this week that the company conducting inspections for Xcel had previously found the pole’s condition to be so unsafe that it had marked it with a red tag, indicating that it should not be climbed and should be replaced immediately.

Oil industry has sought to block state backing for green tech since 1960s

The oil industry has fought against government support for clean technologies for more than half a century, the Guardian can reveal, even as vast subsidies have propped up its polluting business model.

It lobbied lawmakers to block support for low-carbon technologies such as solar panels, electric cars and heat pumps as far back as the 1960s, analysis shows. Trade associations in the US and Europe stymied green innovations under the guise of supporting a “technology neutral” approach to avoiding the damage done by burning their fuels.

The same incumbents were happy to lobby for government support when they were getting started, and had continued to benefit from it since, said Dario Kenner, a visiting research fellow at the University of Sussex who trawled through decades of public statements from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and FuelsEurope.

“It’s obviously hypocritical to call for technological neutrality when you are the dominant technology,” he said. Kenner documented dozens of examples of the oil industry pressuring governments to hold back support for renewable energy, restrict funding for the development of clean technologies and weaken environmental rules that favoured their uptake.

Lobbyists on both sides of the Atlantic argued that government subsidies for clean technologies distorted free markets. Activists say their position is “dishonest” because the oil industry benefits from tax credits and other financial help from governments, and pays for only a fraction of the damage its fuels do to people and the planet. In 2022, the total subsidies for fossil fuels – including costs to society – came to $760bn (£592bn) in the US and $310bn (£264bn) in the EU, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Biden’s Pier-for-Gaza Is Hollow Gesture

Saying “Hamas Just Needs To Surrender” Is Saying “We’ll Kill Kids Until We Get What We Want”

Israel 'Coerces' UN Workers - By Outright Torturing Them

This Is What Our Ruling Class Has Decided Will Be Normal

Israel: Quietly Fraying?

Worrying About TikTok During An Active Genocide

Australian PM Learns He’s Not Above International Law

Impeachment: A Rapid Succession of Events

New Mexicans sickened by atomic bomb testing fight for compensation

Tasmanian premier vows to build world’s largest chocolate fountain if re-elected

U.S.-Backed Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández Convicted of Drug Trafficking

Katie Britt SOTU Reaction PANNED As ‘Cringe,’ By Megyn Kelly; Sex-Trafficking Anecdote SCRUTINIZED

Pentagon ADMITS US Troops AT RISK In Gaza Pier Boondoggle

Israel Fans FREAK Over Jonathan Glazer Oscar Protest

Defense Secretary TELLS THE TRUTH About Gaza Horrors & Gets In Trouble!

The Genocide Democrats: Max Blumenthal speaks at WNDC

A Little Night Music

Lloyd Price - Lawdy Miss Clawdy

Lloyd Price - Where Were You (On Our Wedding Day?)

Lloyd Price - Just Because

Lloyd Price - Such A Mess

Lloyd Price - Mailman Blues

Lloyd Price - I Wish Your Picture Was You

Lloyd Price - Oooh-Oooh-Oooh

Lloyd Price - Lonely Chair

Lloyd Price - Frog Legs