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"Most arts have produced miracles, while the art of government has produced nothing but monsters."

-- Louis Antoine de Saint-Just

News and Opinion

The Only Good Thing About This Nightmare Is That It’s Exposing The Monsters For Who They Are

A really extraordinary moment occurred on the CNN “town hall” with Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday.

Asked by an audience member what she would do to end the slaughter of Palestinians by US-sponsored bombs, Harris delivered her usual canned answer about how “far too many” Palestinians have died and the need for a two-state solution, after which host Anderson Cooper asked a follow-up question.

“What do you say to voters who are thinking about supporting a third-party candidate, or staying on the couch, not voting at all because of this issue?” Cooper asked.

What followed was an absolutely jaw-dropping answer from the vice president. In essence she says that people who have strong feelings about the genocide in Gaza need to get over it and vote for her anyway if they want abortions and affordable groceries, because she supports the genocide and that’s not going to change.

“Listen, I am not going to deny the strong feelings that people have,” Harris said. “I don’t know that anyone who has seen the images who would not have strong feelings about what has happened, much less those who have relatives, who have died and been killed. And I and I know people and I’ve talked with people, so I appreciate that.”

“But I also do know that for many people who care about this issue, they also care about bringing down the price of groceries,” Harris continued. “They also care about our democracy and not having a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist. They also care about the fact that we need practical, common-sense solutions from a leader who is willing to work across the aisle on behalf of the American people and not themselves. They want a president who cares about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body, understanding that we’re not trying to change anyone’s belief, but let’s not have the government telling women what to do with their body.”

Which is just wild. I mean, technically she’s not saying anything different from what liberals have been shouting for months at Americans who oppose the Gaza genocide, but she’s not supposed to say that! She’s not supposed to come right out and admit that she’s a genocidal monster and tough shit if you don’t like it because the other candidate is the greater evil. That’s normally the sort of disgusting manipulation you let other people do for you while pretending to be a good person.

The only positive thing coming out of this nightmare is that it’s exposing the real monsters for who they are.

More and more people are seeing that the US government is much too evil to be allowed to rule the world.

More and more people are seeing that the state of Israel is much too evil to be allowed to continue to exist in its present iteration.

More and more people are seeing that the western press are propaganda services for the US power alliance and should never be trusted.

More and more people are seeing that the Democratic Party exists solely to protect the murderous and corrupt oligarchic status quo of the US empire and not to promote the interests of ordinary human beings.

More and more people are seeing that western liberalism is just a more photogenic version of fascism.

When you’ve got a leading presidential candidate standing in front of the nation saying that yes she will continue an active genocide but you’d better vote for her anyway if you want abortions and affordable groceries, that shows people something about the kind of nation they live in that you could never get across to them by sheer argumentation.

When you’ve got evidence of mass atrocities entering people’s social media feeds on a daily basis while the entire political-media class tells them this is fine and normal, that communicates a message which would be hard to receive in words alone.

There is so very, very little to say about this horror that is remotely positive. But it is opening eyes. And enough open eyes is all that’s required to change the world.

"Worse and Worse": Hospital Director in North Gaza Says Israeli Assault on Jabaliya Is Bloodiest Yet

Many Children Among Hundreds Killed, Wounded in Latest Israeli Bombings of Gaza

A devastating wave of Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Thursday have killed or wounded hundreds of Palestinians, including many children, according to local and international media reports.

Citing Gaza Civil Defense officials, Palestine's Quds News Network reported Thursday that at least 150 Palestinian civilians were killed or wounded by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombardment of around a dozen apartment towers on Al-Houja Street in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Local and international media outlets earlier reported at least 17 Palestinians were killed and dozens more wounded by an IDF strike on the al-Shuhada school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Medical staff at the al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat—where many people killed and wounded in the strike were taken—told Al Jazeera that 13 children under age 18 and three women were among the dead.

The IDF said the strike targeted a Hamas command-and-control center. However, survivors and eyewitnesses said that all of the dead were women and children.

Gaza Notifications published the names of 16 people killed in the attack, including at least five children—the youngest of whom was a baby, just 11 months old.

The outlet said a total of 203 Palestinian civilians have been killed so far on Thursday, and that "all medical and rescue operations have been completely halted by the military administration."

"The Israeli army has warned that ambulances and rescue teams will be directly targeted if they attempt to continue their operations, effectively blocking any humanitarian efforts," the site added.

Gaza's Government Media Office reported 34 Palestinians including 11 children were burned alive in an IDF strike on a youth club-turned shelter in the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

Here, in Al Maghazi Stadium, israeli occupation slaughtered 11 children! pic.twitter.com/xk2ZrIktHb

— Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza) October 24, 2024

Israeli forces have also reportedly attacked hospitals and healthcare workers throughout Gaza. The Palestine Chronicle reported that IDF troops opened fire on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, "with sick children inside."

Hussam Abu Safia, the hospital's director, told Al Jazeera that IDF tanks surrounded the facility and "directly targeted" it, severely damaging the intensive care unit. On Wednesday, Abu Safia said there were more than 150 wounded people in the hospital, including 14 children in the ICU or neonatal ward.

"There is a very large number of wounded people, and we lose at least one person every hour because of the lack of medical supplies and medical staff," he said. "Our ambulances can't transfer wounded people. Those who can arrive by themselves to the hospital receive care, but those who don't just die in the streets."

The Palestinian Ministry of Health also said several of its employees were wounded by Israeli artillery strikes on Thursday.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory released a report detailing how "Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities."

Israel's ongoing offensive in northern and central Gaza has killed or wounded more than 2,000 Palestinians this month alone, according to Gaza officials. Since last October, Israel's war on Gaza—which is the subject of a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice—has left more than 153,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing; millions more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened; and most of the coastal enclave in ruins.

Thursday's strikes came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the Middle East, where he is set to take part in cease-fire negotiations with officials from Israel, Egypt, and Qatar in the Qatari capital Doha.

"Going back to the negotiations on ceasefire and the hostages, one of the things we're doing is looking at whether there are different options that we can pursue to get us to a conclusion, to get us to a result," Blinken said Thursday.

The United States is Israel's primary international backer, providing billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover including multiple vetoes of United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolutions.

At least 17 people killed in Israeli strike on school turned shelter in Nuseirat

At least 17 people, nearly all women and children, have been killed in Israeli bombing of a school turned shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics in the territory have said. ... Rescue efforts were still under way at the school in Nuseirat camp, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency. The Israeli military said the school was being used as a Hamas command and control centre.

Another 42 people were wounded in the strike in the overcrowded camp, according to nearby al-Awda hospital, which received the casualties. Among the dead were 13 children under the age of 18 and three women, it said.

Israel continues a new offensive in northern Gaza, which Bassal said had killed 770 people since it began on 6 October. Thousands of people have fled to the relative safety of the south of the strip in recent days.

The civil defence agency said on Thursday it had been forced to suspend operations in northern Gaza after what it called threats from the Israeli military to “bomb and kill” rescue crews working in Jabaliya camp, the focus of the new Israeli offensive. Three workers had been wounded and another five arrested by the Israeli army, and the crews’ only working fire engine was destroyed by tank fire, he said. A medic was killed by Israeli fire and another detained on his way to work, according to the Indonesia hospital, one of three struggling medical facilities still operating in the area, on Thursday.

If you liked "All the hospitals in Gaza are Hamas", you'll love Israel's new hit "All the hospitals in Lebanon are Hezbollah." https://t.co/V8VXbAB28D

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) October 21, 2024

Larry C. Johnson | Israel Facing Total Collapse: Crushed by Iran/Hezbollah's Unstoppable Force!

Macron warns Netanyahu against ‘sowing barbarism’ in remarks on Lebanon

Emmanuel Macron has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that “civilisation is not best defended by sowing barbarism ourselves”, as a conference convened by the French president in Paris raised $200m (£154m) for Lebanon’s official military and $800m in humanitarian aid for the country.

Macron also vowed to help train 6,000 extra Lebanese official forces. He called for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers, for which he said there was no justification.

The twin aims of the conference were to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in Lebanon and to strengthen Lebanese state institutions including the official army. France has historical ties to Lebanon and has a large Lebanese diaspora population.

In his opening remarks, Macron also said it was a matter of bitter regret that Iran, backer of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, had “engaged Hezbollah against Israel, while Lebanon’s higher interest required that it stay away from the Gaza war”.

In words directed at the Israeli prime minister, with whom his relationship has deteriorated badly, he said: “We have been talking a lot in recent days about a war of civilisations or about civilisations that must be defended. I am not sure that we defend a civilisation by sowing barbarism ourselves.” Netanyahu had said on Europe 1 radio on Wednesday: “It is a war of civilisations against barbarism; we are at the forefront of this war and France must support Israel.”

If Israel insists on destroying civilian targets in Lebanon, let them buy and build their own weapons. American taxpayers should not be funding this. pic.twitter.com/xR3VLzmWYo

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 23, 2024

Every Israeli Accusation Is A Confession, from Lebanon to Palestine, w/ As’ad Abukhalil

Israeli Rights Group B’Tselem Says Israel Is Carrying Out an Ethnic Cleansing Campaign in Northern Gaza

The Israeli rights group B’Tselem said in a press release on Tuesday that Israel was carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza and called on the world to stop it.

“The magnitude of the crimes Israel is currently committing in the northern Gaza Strip in its campaign to empty it of however many residents are left is impossible to describe, not just because hundreds of thousands of people enduring starvation, disease without access to medical care and incessant bombardments and gunfire defies comprehension, but because Israel has cut them off from the world,” the group said. ...

Gaza’s government media office said Wednesday that at least 770 Palestinians have been killed in northern Gaza in 19 days, dozens more are missing, and over 200 have been “kidnapped” by Israeli forces. According to B’Tselem’s press release, over 50,000 Palestinians have been forced out of their homes.

Israeli Airstrikes Pound Ancient Lebanese City of Tyre

Overnight, Israel demanded an evacuation of civilians from a broad swathe of the ancient Lebanese city of Tyre. They announced that they were going to “forcefully” act against Hezbollah, and if you’ve been following the Lebanon news, that means they’re going to hit a lot of residential buildings. This morning, the first airstrikes started.

At least four airstrikes were reported so far today against the city, with images of smoke seen rising from the city. The casualties aren’t clear, but the strikes were within just a few hundred meters of the UN World Heritage site in Tyre, an ancient Phoenician city and the home of Roman ruins, which includes the city’s Hippodrome. ...

City officials say they hope most of the population was able to flee in the few hours between Israel’s evacuation order and the start of the strikes. They said the orders were centered around the residential and commercial areas in the city. In the first month of the war, residential districts seem to be strongly favored for Israeli strikes.

Max Blumenthal interviews Hamas spokesman on October 7

Much more detail at the link.

US professors face discipline and investigations over Palestine support

Several professors at universities around the US are facing disciplinary actions in regard to their support for the pro-Palestine movement and their students holding protests on college campuses.

At Columbia University, Katherine Franke, law professor and the director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School, is currently under investigation at the school over an interview she gave early this year. Last week, she announced she had filed a complaint against a law firm she retained after it dropped her as a client. Maura Finkelstein, a tenured associate professor of anthropology at Muhlenberg College, a private liberal arts college in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was fired in May over a social media repost on Instagram that a student complained about. She has appealed her termination.

Ruha Benjamin, a professor of African American studies at Princeton University, is being investigated by the university for her pro-Palestine activism at the same time the institution touts her MacArthur genius grant. These are just three examples of professors facing consequences for supporting the student movement against Israel’s war in Gaza that roiled campuses during the last school year, and prompted scores of new university restrictions on protest.

“Reports of professors being investigated and disciplined for speech about the war are disturbing. The purpose of universities is to stimulate debate, including on controversial topics,” said Ramya Krishnan, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “It severely undermines that purpose when universities act as roving censors that can punish faculty’s private political speech. Professors should be able to speak as citizens without retaliation except in the rarest of circumstances – that is, unless their speech compromises their ability to do their jobs.”

University of Michigan recruits state attorney general to crack down on Gaza protesters

When the University of Michigan governing board this year asked the state’s attorney general to bring charges against campus Gaza protesters, they tapped a political ally with whom some board members have extensive personal, financial or political connections, a Guardian investigation finds.

Frustrated by local prosecutors’ unwillingness to crack down on most of the students arrested at the height of the pro-Palestinian encampments last spring, the regents executed a highly unusual move in recruiting the Michigan attorney general, Dana Nessel, because she was more likely to file charges, three people with direct knowledge of the decision tell the Guardian.

The revelations raise new questions about potential conflicts of interest. Six of eight regents contributed more than $33,000 combined to Nessel’s campaigns, her office hired a regent’s law firm to handle major state cases, the same regent co-chaired her 2018 campaign, and she has personal relationships with some regents. Meanwhile, Nessel received significant campaign donations from pro-Israel state politicians, organizations and university donors who over the last year have vocally criticized Gaza protests, records show.

A Guardian analysis finds Nessel’s office has so far charged about 85% of the protesters who were arrested or for whom arrest warrants were requested last school year. By comparison, Washtenaw county’s office only charged 10% of arrests, while the Wayne county prosecutor Kym Worthy dropped all five Gaza protest cases forwarded to her office by Wayne State University police in Detroit, data provided by protesters’ attorneys and prosecutors shows.

The county offices are staffed by local prosecutors who typically handle all criminal charges that occur in that county. By choosing to bypass a local prosecutor in favor of a politically allied attorney general – a statewide position that oversees the local offices – the university has “essentially forum shopped”, said Chesa Boudin, a former San Francisco prosecutor now director of the University of California, Berkeley’s criminal law and justice center. Requesting Nessel take the case from the local prosecutors was legal, but generates distrust of the justice process, Boudin said. “While it might not be a clear, bright line ethics violation, it creates the appearance of impropriety because it causes different outcomes for [the regents] based on their power and relationship with the attorney general,” Boudin said. Other victims of alleged crimes do not get to choose a prosecutor as the politically connected regents did, he added.

Jeremy Loffredo on being jailed by Israel for journalism

Judge strikes down Ohio abortion ban as unconstitutional

An Ohio judge has decided that the state’s ban on most abortions was unconstitutional and could not be enforced. Judge Christian Jenkins, of the Hamilton county common pleas court, also granted a permanent injunction in his ruling on Thursday.

Jenkins said that Ohio’s abortion prohibition flouted language in a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution that protected reproductive healthcare, “Ohio voters have spoken. The Ohio constitution now unequivocally protects the right to abortion,” Jenkins said in his ruling.

Jenkins’s decision stems from a law that prohibited doctors from performing abortions after the detection of fetal cardiac or embryonic activity. This activity can be as early as six weeks into pregnancy, the Columbus Dispatch reported. ...

Advocates launched a ballot initiative to ensure that reproductive healthcare rights, including abortion, were protected by the state constitution. This campaign passed in November last year, winning 57% of voting Ohioans’ support, the newspaper said.

“This is a momentous ruling, showing the power of Ohio’s new Reproductive Freedom Amendment in practice,” Jessie Hill, cooperating attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, said. “The six-week ban is blatantly unconstitutional and has no place in our law.”

Ship owner agrees to pay $102m over Baltimore bridge collapse that killed six

The owner and operator of a ship that crashed into a Baltimore bridge in March, leaving six dead, will pay the US a $100m settlement.

The US justice department announced on Thursday that Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, the Singapore-based corporations that owned and operated the Dali agreed to the $101,980,000 sum, settling a lawsuit over the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s catastrophic collapse. ...

The federal government, which led cleanup efforts, had to remove some 50,000 tons of steel, concrete, and asphalt from the channel, as well as the ship. Federal officials also had to construct temporary channels to help alleviate the blocked waterway.

This settlement does not include money for re-building the Francis Scott Key Bridge. As Maryland built, owned and operated the bridge, state attorneys are pursuing claims for these damages.

The state estimates that rebuilding costs will range between $1.7bn and $1.9bn and that the project should be completed by fall 2028.

Here in Michigan, we know the Democrats have failed on Gaza – and they’ll pay dearly for it

My home town of Dearborn, next to Detroit, is once again under the microscope during a tight election season. While analysts and pollsters see numbers and statistics, I see a beautiful place thriving with diverse communities. Michigan is a key swing state and has the highest Arab-American population in the US, and when I walk in my neighbourhood, I’m greeted by a sea of kofias, Middle Eastern bakeries that make your mouth water, and fancy Yemeni cafes. “Free Palestine” and “ceasefire now” signs pepper the town, in yards and on windows. People express their solidarity with Palestine and Lebanon through T-shirts, watermelon earrings, flags, pendants and bracelets. ...

It is less than a month until the election, and there are a lot of people who don’t feel comfortable voting for either of the main presidential candidates. Many are voting for Stein, some are thinking about sitting this one out, and some are considering voting for Trump.

These are people who would have never, ever voted for Trump, but billions of dollars are being spent by the Democrats to slaughter our loved ones and our families. Israel has been decimating south Lebanon, where many of our relatives live, and now this administration is deploying US troops to the Middle East. Not exactly a winning strategy if they actually want our votes.

Some people think of a Trump vote as a protest vote. I have heard arguments being made along the lines of “Trump is not the person who is committing the genocide right now” or “Well, we didn’t have any wars under Trump”. I personally disagree with this, and consider Trump to be a fascist and fearmonger who deeply traumatised our communities during his presidency. He was a hateful leader who slammed the door on refugees by implementing a Muslim ban. While he didn’t start any wars, he did escalate existing wars in the Middle East and vetoed a series of bipartisan bills that aimed at prohibiting arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Some may scratch their heads and say “Arabs and Muslims voting for Trump are voting for somebody who literally hates them”, but it’s much more complex than that. These Trump votes are the result of disingenuous engagement from the Democratic party and limited opportunities to build a political home for Arab and Muslim Americans outside of elections. The Democrats show up to our communities every four years during an election cycle, repeat soundbites to get our votes, then fail to deliver on their promises.

Heh, watch Nomiki Konst make an ass of herself:

DNC AFRAID Of Jill Stein, GUNS For Her In AD Linking Her To David Duke

UN says time for climate delays has run out

The huge cuts in carbon emissions now needed to end the climate crisis mean it is “crunch time for real”, according to the UN’s environment chief. An unprecedented global mobilisation of renewable energy, forest protection and other measures is needed to steer the world off the current path towards a catastrophic temperature rise of 3.1C, a report from the UN environment programme (Unep) has found. Extreme heatwaves, storms, droughts and floods are already ravaging communities with less than 1.5C of global heating to date.

Current carbon-cutting promises by countries for 2030 are not being met, according to the report, and even if they were met, the temperature rise would only be limited to a still-disastrous 2.6C to 2.8C. There is no more time for “hot air”, the report said, urging nations to act at the Cop29 summit in November.

Keeping the international goal of 1.5C within reach was technically possible, said the report, but it required emissions to fall by 7.5% annually until 2035. That means halting emissions equivalent to those of the EU every year for a decade. Delaying emissions cuts only means steeper reductions would be needed in future.

Unep said countries must collectively commit to cut 42% off annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 57% by 2035 in their next UN pledges, called nationally determined contributions and due in February. Without these pledges, and rapid action to back them up, the 1.5C goal would be gone, the UN said.

However, the head of Unep, Inger Andersen, said it was misguided to fixate only on whether the 1.5C target was kept or not, because every fraction of a degree of global heating avoided would save lives, damage and costs: “Don’t over-focus on a magic number. Keeping temperature as low as possible is where we need to be.”

Hawaii sets rules to stop spread of tree-killing coconut rhinoceros beetles

Hawaii is doubling down in its fight against invasive coconut rhinoceros beetles, with state authorities greenlighting rules to prevent the damaging insects from spreading across the Pacific archipelago. The Hawaii agriculture board on Tuesday approved regulations, including a ban on moving infested soil and compost between islands and an increase of insect inspections, to thwart an influx in pests, according to Honolulu Civil Beat.

These rule changes, which are not yet finalized, come after an approximately 20-month delay. Coconut rhinoceros beetles were first spotted in Hawaii about a decade ago, but “multiple populations” were found on Kauai in May 2023, indicating the problem had worsened, state officials said.

Coconut rhinoceros beetles consume, hurt and sometimes kill palm trees. The beetle can also result in the death of pineapple, bananas, papaya, sugarcane and taro, per Hawaii Public Radio. ...

The rules are also meant to stop the spread of little fire ants, another invasive species that puts local agriculture and native flora at risk, and can cause harm to humans and pets. While these aggressive ants have afflicted the Big Island for years, they have recently spread to Oahu, prompting renewed calls for action, Hawaii Public Radio reports.

Also of Interest

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

Leaked Report Finds Israel Targeting UN Troops in Lebanon, Injured Several With White Phosphorus

Patrick Lawrence: Harris Comes Out of the Closet on Israel

Gaza WILL Get Worse Under Trump. It’ll Also Get Worse Under Harris.

‘Abducted’ Is Not the Word for Israeli Soldiers

Craig Murray: Who Are the Terrorists?
October 24, 2024

‘We’re Witnessing This Global Tidal Wave of Repression’

An unlikely Oakland mayor is fighting for political survival amid a billionaire-backed recall

BRICS Breakthrough? Economists Richard Wolff & Patrick Bond on Growing Alliance, Challenge to U.S.

Israeli Soldiers Refusing To Fight In Gaza!– w/ Scott Ritter & Jose Vega

World Leaders Queue Meet Putin, BRICS Blueprint New Trade Finance System; Ukr Army Dark Day Selidovo

A Little Night Music

Clifton Chenier – Wrap It Up Zydeco

Clifton Chenier Band – Who Who Who

Clifton Chenier – Jolie Blonde

Clifton Chenier – Key To The Highway

Clifton Chenier Band – Squeeze-Box Boogie

Clifton Chenier Band – Calinda

Clifton Chenier – Lafayette Waltz

Clifton Chenier - Bajou Drive

Clifton Chenier - Bon Ton Roulet

Clifton Chenier - I'm a Hog For You

Clifton Chenier - Zodico Stomp

Clifton Chenier - Rockin' the Bop