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"The question is, why are politicians so eager to be president? What is it about the job that makes it worth revealing, on national television, that you have the ethical standards of a slime-coated piece of industrial waste?"

-- Dave Barry

News and Opinion

Repression of Campus Palestine Solidarity Reveals the Nature of the State

The repression being carried out against students protesting Israel’s genocide against the people of Gaza encompasses many different issues and indicates that repression overall is escalating against the entire population. We see official efforts at censorship, the nexus between wealth and higher education, bought off elected officials obeying the dictates of imperialism, and evidence that any claims of substantive differences within the duopoly are fiction. There are currently Palestine solidarity encampments on campuses throughout the country but Columbia University in New York City was the focus of much media attention. It was strange to see members of Congress from across the country opine on the actions of students in New York City. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson , even traveled to New York to meet with Columbia’s president and then held a press conference telling her to resign while also demanding that the National Guard be called to end the protests. ...

Colleges, particularly the more “elite” institutions have received a great deal of scorn from elected officials and the corporate media because of their student involvement in Palestine solidarity work. It isn’t difficult to see why. Columbia and schools like it have endowments in the billions of dollars. They provide a source of well-educated servants for the ruling class. The relationship is clear when billionaires like Columbia alumnus Robert Kraft announce that they will suspend contributions. They are not giving away fortunes so that students can be radicalized. Their goal is to accomplish the opposite, to produce conformity and adherence to neo-liberal and imperialist policies which are given legitimacy with the stamp of approval from people with all the right credentials.

Politicians are also recipients of this largesse. The same people who fund their alma maters with big money are also funding political careers for the people who will be their errand boys and errand girls in times of need.

The students and their professors who are facing down the police are to be commended for their actions. They have become the most prominent group expressing public opposition to the U.S./Israeli genocide and that is also why they are being so thoroughly demonized. When those students among them who are in fact from the more privileged class find common cause with people who are being victimized by their government, there is a huge systemic problem. No one knows who they will identify with next. Perhaps there will be a repeat of the 2020 mobilizations in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. Maybe they will encourage dissent among others. If not discredited they could possibly call the entire political system into question. It isn’t surprising that the Speaker of the House shows up to personally aide in the crackdown.

The issue of the Gaza genocide has accelerated calls for censorship as we can see in the bipartisan effort to force a sale of the TikTok platform. Open engagement is highly problematic and the possibility of millions of people being educated about their government’s role in war crimes is too great a chance to take. Censorship is the only option for a ruling class in crisis.

Netanyahu vows to raid Rafah ‘with or without’ hostage deal

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will proceed with an offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah even if renewed efforts at internationally brokered talks with Hamas result in the release of hostages and a ceasefire.

Mediators led by Egypt have renewed efforts aimed at a truce in recent days after it became clearer that Israel is preparing for its long-threatened ground operation in Rafah. The city on the Egyptian border is the only part of the Palestinian territory that has not faced ground fighting, and more than half of the strip’s 2.3 million population has sought shelter there.

Speaking in Jerusalem on Tuesday, the Israeli prime minister said: “The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there – with or without a deal, in order to achieve total victory.”

This week’s talks in Cairo are widely viewed as the last opportunity to salvage a diplomatic solution to free Israeli hostages and a pause or end to the war. A Hamas delegation left the Egyptian capital on Monday, saying they would return again with a written response to Israel’s latest ceasefire proposal, and on Tuesday, while it is believed Israel is waiting for the Palestinian militant group’s response before sending its own delegation.

Netanyahu’s latest comments, made during a meeting with members of two right wing groups representing hostage families and bereaved soldiers’ families, came hours before the arrival of the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on a visit to advance the truce talks. It was not immediately clear whether they would impact Hamas’s response.

U.S. Hypocrisy Laid Bare as Biden Admin Claims ICC Can’t Prosecute Israel for War Crimes

Israel’s Smotrich Calls for ‘Total Annihilation’ of Rafah, Other Cities in Gaza

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday called for the “total annihilation” of Rafah and other cities in the Gaza Strip. “There are no half measures. Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat – total annihilation. ‘You will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven’ – there’s no place under heaven,” Smotrich said.

Smotrich’s reference to “Amalek” was from a line in Deuteronomy, a book in the Hebrew Bible. Amalek is a nation the ancient Israelites were commanded to destroy, and in the book of Samuel, the Israelites were told to “slay both man and woman, infant and suckling.” ...

He also called for the destruction of Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying Israel must “clear out, with God’s help, with one blow, wicked Hezbollah in the north, and really send a message that what will happen to those who harm the Jewish people is the same as those who have tried to harm us in the past – they will be destroyed, destroyed, destroyed. And it will echo for decades to come.”

Biden walks back plan to sanction criminal Israel army unit

Austin Says It’s ‘Possible’ That US Troops on Gaza Pier End Up in a Shooting War

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin acknowledged on Tuesday that it was a possibility that the 1,000 US troops deployed off the coast of Gaza as part of a project to build a pier could come under fire and said they would be able to shoot back.

Austin made the comments in an exchange with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. “They have the right to return fire to protect themselves,” Austin said.

When asked if it was likely that US troops would come under attack from someone in Gaza, Austin said, “That’s possible, yes.”

BREAKING: Secretary Lloyd Austin ADMITS likelihood of shooting warfare between U.S. service members and Gaza forces soon

GAETZ: “This is a very telling moment, Mr. Secretary, because you've said something that's quite possible that could happen. Shots from Gaza on our service… pic.twitter.com/HmS1bfqeWB

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) April 30, 2024

ICJ Rejects Nicaragua's Request to Block German Arms Sales to Israel

The top United Nations court on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected Nicaragua's request for an emergency order directing Germany to halt arms sales to Israel as it wages what the tribunal previously called a "plausibly" genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.

International Court of Justice (ICJ) judges voted 15-1 against the Nicaraguan motion, finding an absence of legal conditions for issuing an order blocking Germany from selling arms to Israel.

"Based on the factual information and legal arguments presented by the parties, the court concludes that, at present, the circumstances are not such as to require the exercise of its power... to indicate provisional measures," ICJ President Nawaf Salam wrote in the ruling.

However, the court did not grant Germany's request for an outright dismissal and will hear arguments on the merits of the Nicaraguan case, a process expected to take months to complete.

Carlos José Argüello Gómez, the head of Nicaragua's legal team and its ambassador to the Netherlands, said after the ruling that the court's decision "doesn't mean that Germany hasn't violated... international law."

"Germany has—from our point of view—violated international law" by providing weapons for Israel, Argüello contended.

Nicaragua asserts that Germany—which provided nearly 30% of Israel's exported arms last year—is complicit in Israeli war crimes and is enabling genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Palestinian and international officials say that more than 123,000 Palestinians have been killed, maimed, or left missing by Israel's relentless 207-day onslaught and siege, which has also displaced around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people and driven at least hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of starvation. The majority of those killed have been women and children.

"Germany is failing to honor its own obligation to prevent genocide or to ensure respect of international humanitarian law," Argüello argued during case hearings earlier this month.

According to the Lawyers' Collective—a Berlin-based group that is suing to stop German arms sales to Israel—Germany's government issued €326.5 million ($348.7 million) worth of weapons export licenses for Israel last year, the majority of which were approved after October 7, 2023. That's a tenfold increase from 2022. The group says these transfers violate Germany's obligations under the War Weapons Control Act, which requires arms exports to comply with international humanitarian law.

Germany counters that its weapons sales to Israel have decreased since the October 7 attack and emphasizes what it says are the defensive nature of recent arms transfers. Berlin also says it has robust internal mechanisms and processes to consider the human rights implications of German arms sales.

Top German diplomat Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, who is leading Germany's legal team at the ICJ, said during hearings that Nicaragua's allegations "have no basis in fact or law."

Reacting to the ICJ ruling, the German Foreign Office said that "Germany is not a party to the conflict in the Middle East. On the contrary, we are working day and night for a two-state solution."

"We are the largest donor of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians," the ministry added. "We are working to ensure that aid reaches the people in Gaza."

The German government has been intensely criticized for its stauch support for Israel and for violently cracking down on pro-Palestinian protests since October. Numerous observers contend that Germany's actions are driven by historical guilt over the Holocaust, with some critics claiming the German government is weaponizing that guilt in order to demonize Palestinians and their defenders.

Israel—which is not a party to the case—vehemently denies genocide charges, arguing it is defending itself in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks that left more than 1,100 people dead and around 240 others taken hostage. Israeli forces are believed to have killed numerous Israelis on October 7 and an unknown number of hostages since then during the bombardment and invasion of Gaza.

In addition to Nicaragua's motion, the ICJ is considering a case brought by South Africa and supported by over 30 nations asserting that Israel's Gaza assault is genocidal because it is "intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial, and ethnical group."

On January 26, the tribunal issued a provisional ruling that found Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza and ordered the country to prevent genocidal acts. Critics accuse Israel of ignoring the order by continuing to block humanitarian aid from reaching Gazans as children and other vulnerable people starve to death.

Citing "the worsening conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza, in particular the spread of famine and starvation," the ICJ last month issued another provisional order directing Israel to allow desperately needed aid into the embattled enclave and reiterating its earlier order to prevent genocidal acts.

Also last month, the U.N. Human Rights Council published a draft report that found "reasonable grounds to believe" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Campus Crackdown: 300+ Arrested in Police Raids on Columbia & CCNY to Clear Gaza Encampments

Police enter Columbia in apparent bid to break up student occupation

New York City police entered Columbia University on Tuesday evening in a reported effort to disperse the students who took over an academic building – and are facing expulsion – earlier in the day and those who have been encamped on school property for two weeks as tensions surrounding the pro-Palestinian demonstration escalated. TV images showed police entering the elite university in upper Manhattan, which has been the focal point of student protests that have spread to dozens of schools across the US.

The specter of expulsion came after dozens of protesters took over Hamilton Hall, an academic building on the New York campus, barricading the entrances and unfurling a Palestinian flag out of a window. “We made it very clear [on Monday] that the work of the university cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules,” a Columbia spokesperson, Ben Chang, said. “Continuing to do so will be met with clear consequences. Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation – vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances – we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday. Students occupying the building face expulsion.”

At an evening news briefing, Mayor Eric Adams and city police officials said the Hamilton Hall takeover was instigated by “outside agitators” who lack any affiliation with Columbia and are known to law enforcement for provoking lawlessness.

Hamilton Hall was one of several buildings occupied during a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam war protest on the campus. Now student protesters there have overtaken it once again, displaying a large banner that reads “Hind’s Hall”, renaming it in honor of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl from Gaza City who was killed by Israeli forces earlier this year.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: Gaza and Free Speech

'Unbelievably Dangerous': Journalist Describes Chaotic Scenes At Site Of UCLA protest

Gaza protesters occupying California university building arrested in police crackdown

Police cracked down on a pro-Palestine demonstration at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, early on Tuesday morning, clearing two buildings that protesters had occupied since last week, arresting dozens of people and detaining at least one journalist. The public university on California’s far north coast said in a statement early Tuesday that an operation by law enforcement, which included police from across the state, had “restored order” to the campus.

“This is a difficult day, it breaks my heart to see it, and truly nobody wanted to see things come to this,” Tom Jackson Jr, the Cal Poly Humboldt president, said in a statement.

Like other universities across the country, Cal Poly Humboldt was the site of major protests over the war in Gaza and the mounting civilian death toll. Students said they planned to hold a sit-in, but barricaded themselves in a university building using furniture, tents, chains and zip-ties as police arrived on campus. Law enforcement officers and students clashed last Monday as police tried to clear Siemens Hall. Video posted by a student activist group showed students chanting “we are not afraid of you” before officers in riot gear attempted to take them into custody. Police could be seen swinging batons at demonstrators as the group pushed them back.

Cal Poly Humboldt said late last week that it would remain closed for the rest of the semester in response to the protests, and accused the demonstrators of “criminal activity”. The university suspended all students participating in the occupation and said if students left by Friday at 4pm they would not be immediately arrested, but could still face legal and academic repercussions.

Phil Giraldi : Students Taking the Lead in Denouncing Atrocities

Ilhan Omar Says GOP Calls to Put Student Protesters on Terror Watch List 'Insanely Dangerous'

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday urged her colleagues to condemn the latest Republican threat against the thousands of university students and faculty who have protested U.S. complicity in Israel's assault on Gaza, after Sen. Marsha Blackburn suggested the protesters have "promoted terrorism" and called for them to be surveilled by the federal government.

"Any student who has promoted terrorism or engaged in terrorist acts on behalf of Hamas should be immediately added to the terrorist watch list and placed on the [Transportation Security Administration] No-Fly List," said the Tennessee Republican.

Blackburn's comments came nearly two weeks after a solidarity encampment set up by students at Columbia University—and the suspension and arrests of more than 100 participants—galvanized students at dozens of schools across the United States and around the world to call for their institutions to divest from Israel and for the U.S. to cut off military funding for the Middle Eastern country.

More than 1,000 students, educators, and other supporters have been arrested, with videos of particularly aggressive police responses at schools including Emory University in Atlanta, Washington University in St. Louis, and University of Texas at Austin further sparking anger among opponents of Israel's bombardment.

Omar (D-Minn.) called Blackburn's comments "insanely dangerous."

Blackburn previously denounced the protesters as "unruly" and "terrorist sympathizers."

Numerous reports have described how the anti-war protests have been peaceful until police officers began violently arresting attendees, while opponents have shared "escalating unhinged calls to crack down" on the demonstrations, said Intercept reporter Murtaza Hussain.

Also on Tuesday, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging him "investigate and prosecute" organizers of the protests" and accusing them of "conspiring to violate the civil rights of a religious minority," referring to Jewish Americans.

Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called on President Joe Biden to summon the National Guard to clamp down on the protests.

Johnson's call was echoed by Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).

"The calls from Cotton and Hawley to deploy the National Guard are not about anyone's safety—many of the pro-Palestinian protesters, against whom the might of the U.S. military would be aimed, are Jewish," wrote Adam Serwer at The Atlantic. He recalled that in 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fatally shot four young students at Kent State University.

"Sending the National Guard to campuses facing Vietnam War protests led to students being killed, including some who had nothing to do with the protests, rather than to anyone being safer," wrote Serwer. "The most likely outcome based on past precedent would be an escalation to serious violence. Which might be the idea."

USC Grad Student Union Files Unfair Labor Practice Charge Against University over Arrests

The corporate biparty circles the wagons.

Democrats vow to block Marjorie Taylor Greene effort to remove House speaker

Democratic leaders in the US House of Representatives vowed that the Georgia extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene “will not succeed” if she triggers an attempt to remove the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, from his role.

In response, Greene promised to press on in her quest to show Johnson the door.

Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic minority leader, made his position clear on Tuesday in a statement with other party leaders that cited Johnson’s recent success in passing a foreign aid package despite opposition from the far right of Republican ranks. Earlier this month, the House voted to send four foreign aid bills to the Senate, even as a majority of Republican members opposed the Ukraine funding piece of the proposal. Joe Biden signed the aid package into law last week.

“From the very beginning of this Congress,” Jeffries and the other leaders said, “House Democrats have put people over politics and found bipartisan common ground with traditional Republicans in order to deliver real results. At the same time, House Democrats have aggressively pushed back against Maga [pro-Trump] extremism. We will continue to do just that.

“At this moment, upon completion of our national security work, the time has come to turn the page on this chapter of pro-Putin Republican obstruction. We will vote to table Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate the chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed.”

U.S. foreign policy isolates the U.S.

Aaron Maté : Ten Years of US in Ukraine

Trump threatens to prosecute Bidens if he’s re-elected unless he gets immunity

Donald Trump has warned that Joe Biden and his family could face multiple criminal prosecutions once he leaves office unless the US supreme court awards Trump immunity in his own legal battles with the criminal justice system. In a sweeping interview with Time magazine, Trump painted a startling picture of his second term, from how he would wield the justice department to hinting he may let states monitor pregnant women to enforce abortion laws.

Trump made the threat against the Biden family in an interview with Eric Cortellessa of Time, in which he shared the outlines of what the magazine called “an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world”.

Trump made a direct connection between his threat to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Bidens should he win re-election in November with the case currently before the supreme court over his own presidential immunity.

Asked whether he intends to “go after” the Bidens should he gain a second term in the White House, Trump replied: “It depends what happens with the supreme court.” If the nine justices on the top court – three of whom were appointed by Trump – fail to award him immunity from prosecution, Trump said, “then Biden I am sure will be prosecuted for all of his crimes, because he’s committed many crimes”.

Jill Stein ASSAULTED, ARRESTED At Washington University

Great Barrier Reef’s worst bleaching leaves giant coral graveyard: ‘It looks as if it has been carpet bombed’

Beneath the turquoise waters off Heron Island lies a huge, brain-shaped Porites coral that, in health, would be a rude shade of purplish-brown. Today that coral outcrop, or bommie, shines snow white. Prof Terry Hughes, a coral bleaching expert at James Cook University, estimates this living boulder is at least 300 years old. “If that thing had eyes it could have looked up and watched Captain Cook sail past,” he says, back on the pristine beach of this speck of an island 80km offshore at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.

It is not just Heron’s grand old bommie that is freshly bleached. The surrounding tangle of staghorn corals, or Acropora, are splashed in swathes of white, or painted a dappled mosaic of greens and browns that betray the algae and seaweeds growing over the freshly killed coral. Hughes estimates 90% of those branching corals are dead or dying. ...

Last month the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority released a report warning that the reef was experiencing “the highest levels of thermal stress on record”. The authority’s chief scientist, Dr Roger Beeden, spoke of extensive and uniform bleaching across the southern reefs, which had dodged the worst of much of the previous four mass bleaching events to blight the Great Barrier Reef since 2016.

Hughes saw in the institute’s aerial surveys results the most “widespread event and severe” bleaching event to date, not just in the south, but across much of the entire system – which stretches 2,300km up the Queensland coast. ...

Hughes has seen the coral ecosystems of the Great Barrier Reef degrade and knows that they are on the inexorable path of further decline. Yet, if global heating can be limited to well below 2C on pre-industrial levels, Hughes still believes it is possible to stabilise sea temperatures and allow those corals that survive to mount a slow recovery. It is not a question of hope or resignation, he says, but “immediate action”. Unless fossil fuel emissions are cut “ASAP”, he says, the corals of the world’s reefs will be replaced by something else, perhaps seaweed or sponges. “There would still be a tropical ecosystem here,” Hughes says with a sweep of his hand. “But at some point we would have to say it is no longer a coral reef. We’d have to call it something else.”

Tyson Foods dumps millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into US rivers and lakes

Tyson Foods dumped millions of pounds of toxic pollutants directly into American rivers and lakes over the last five years, threatening critical ecosystems, endangering wildlife and human health, a new investigation reveals.

Nitrogen, phosphorus, chloride, oil and cyanide were among the 371m lb of pollutants released into waterways by just 41 Tyson slaughterhouses and mega processing plants between 2018 and 2022.

According to research by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the contaminants were dispersed in 87bn gallons of wastewater – which also contains blood, bacteria and animal feces – and released directly into streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands relied on for drinking water, fishing and recreation. The UCS analysis, shared exclusively with the Guardian, is based on the most recent publicly available water pollution data Tyson is required to report under current regulations. ...

The water pollution from Tyson, a Fortune 100 company and the world’s second largest meat producer, was spread across 17 states but about half the contaminants were dumped into streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands in Nebraska, Illinois and Missouri.

The midwest is already saturated with nitrogen and phosphorus from industrial agriculture – factory farms and synthetics fertilizers – contributing to algal blooms that clog critical water infrastructure, exacerbate respiratory conditions like asthma, and deplete oxygen levels in the sea causing marine life to suffocate and die. Yet the UCS research is only the tip of iceberg, including water pollution from only one in three of the corporation’s slaughterhouses and processing plants, and only 2% of the total nationwide.

‘Incredible’ news for bears and wild horses as US shifts preservation plans

Wildlife advocates are celebrating “incredible” news for the preservation of threatened bears, and a herd of historically significant wild horses, in separate north-western and upper midwestern national parks. In North Dakota, the National Parks Service (NPS) has dropped a plan that would have seen about 200 wild horses, descended from those belonging to Native American tribes who fought the 1876 Great Sioux war, rounded up and removed from Theodore Roosevelt national park.

The scheme would have stripped the park of a cultural “emblem” of the future 26th US president’s time as a cattle rancher and hunter in the Dakota territory in the late 19th century, said the Republican North Dakota senator John Hoeven, who helped secure their preservation.

Meanwhile, in Washington, NPS has partnered with US Fish and Wildlife on a plan to reintroduce grizzly bears to the North Cascades ecosystem. The threatened species has not been seen in the area for more than a quarter-century. Between three and seven bears will be released into the park each year in the groundbreaking project that could last up to a decade, with an ultimate aim of building back a healthy population of about 200 bears within six to 10 decades.

Also of Interest

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

What 10 Years of U.S. Meddling in Ukraine Have Wrought (Spoiler Alert: Not Democracy)

Craig Murray: The Curious Case of the Freedom Flotilla

How To Deal With Student Protest Camps (FDR Edition)

Universities as Tentacles of the Police State

‘This machine bonks fascists’: US student protester’s water jug becomes symbol of resistance

Could Lithium-Rich Bolivia Be Next On BRICS’ Membership List? Russia Seems to Think So

Five skeletons found under Wolf’s Lair home of Hermann Göring in Poland

Juan González, Veteran of '68 Columbia Strike, Condemns Current University Leaders

Will the ICC indict Netanyahu?

A Little Night Music

Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)

Aretha Franklin - Chain Of Fools

Aretha Franklin - Drown in My Own Tears

Aretha Franklin - Mary, Don't You Weep

Aretha Franklin - Rocksteady

Aretha Franklin - Do Right Woman, Do Right Man

Aretha Franklin - Dr. Feelgood

Aretha Franklin - Since You've Been Gone

Aretha Franklin - Don't Play That Song

Aretha Franklin - Respect