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"Power is being able to say complete and utter nonsense and have it be believed, powerlessness is where no matter how much cogent evidence and proof one has, to not be believed."

-- Catharine MacKinnon

News and Opinion

On Gaza And Feelings Of Powerlessness

It’s the sense of powerlessness that gets to you. Watching all these people being slaughtered and tormented in Gaza and in Lebanon with the full support of your own government and its allies, but being unable to stop it.

That’s basically been the main message of the 2024 US presidential election with regard to Israel’s US-backed atrocities: “You are powerless to stop this.” Over and over again in various ways Americans are being fed the message that the slaughter is going to continue regardless of who wins, so you may as well give up on saving Gaza and try to look out for your own interests.

That was what Kamala Harris was saying when she told Americans that they need to vote for her, even though she will continue the Gaza genocide, if they want things like affordable groceries and abortion rights. She was saying, “You are powerless. There is nothing you can do to stop this. What are you going to do, vote for Trump? He’ll continue the genocide too. Vote for a third party candidate? They can’t win. We’ve closed off all the options by which you might try to end this. We’ve shut and locked all the doors. There’s no way out. You might as well relax and submit to the inevitable.”

And, in a sense, the empire managers are not wrong when they tell us this. The system is stacked to prevent us from stopping their genocidal rampage in the middle east. You can’t vote your way out of it; they’ve rigged it so all possible results of the election lead to more genocide. You can’t fight a revolution to stop it; westerners are currently too propaganda-addled to rise up in sufficient numbers to join you, and you’d just get killed. You can’t even engage in direct action like blocking the weapons shipments and sabotaging the arms manufacturers unless you’re prepared to do some serious prison time. 

This reality weighs heavily on those who oppose this genocide. I sometimes see activists online snapping and lashing out at people on their side over the fact that they’re not doing more, not putting their bodies and lives on the line, not doing whatever it takes to stop this nightmare.

Which is an entirely understandable response to the situation we now find ourselves in. We should all be doing everything we can to end this genocide and stop the empire’s bloodbath, and those who are going above and beyond on this front should be commended.

But I think the real lesson behind this feeling of powerlessness and the message from our rulers that we are powerless to stop them is just that: that we are powerless. Or, more specifically, that we have been made powerless. That our power has been taken from us, and given to people who should not have power.

That’s the message we should be taking from all this: that we are living in a civilization that has been rigged by the powerful, for the benefit of the powerful, to siphon power away from the many to and give it to a few oligarchs and empire managers.

We have been made powerless. Until we get real about this fact, we won’t be able to address it. As long as we’re still fooling ourselves into thinking there’s a swift and immediately available option for us to end these murderous atrocities, we won’t be able to begin addressing the problem that we live in a highly controlled tyrannical dystopia where the people do not have the kind of power we’re taught we have in school.

Of course we do have power in the most real sense: there are a whole lot more normal people than there are oligarchs and empire managers, and we could easily implement any changes we wanted to if we rose up in sufficient numbers. But we’re not rising up in sufficient numbers because far too many of us have been successfully indoctrinated into believing our genocidal, ecocidal, omnicidal status quo is acceptable, with the help of the most sophisticated propaganda machine that has ever existed.

As long as westerners are being successfully psychologically manipulated at mass scale into consenting to the insane behavior of the western empire, we are completely powerless. They may as well have steel chains around each of our necks and mind control chips in each of our brains. There is nothing we can do to stop them from ethnically cleansing Gaza, waging nonstop wars, engaging in increasingly dangerous nuclear brinkmanship, or destroying the biosphere we depend on for survival.

If we can find some way to shake off the conditioning which manipulates us into thinking revolutionary change is unnecessary, then anything becomes possible. If enough people can awaken to the urgent need for change, collective measures like national strikes and mass-scale civil disobedience could bring the capitalist empire to its knees without firing a shot. We own all the labor and purchasing power upon which the empire is built; that’s why a historically unprecedented amount of propaganda has gone into making sure we never make use of that power.

But nothing like that can happen until we come to terms with the reality that we live in a civilization that is designed to make us powerless. Until then we’re stuck with ridiculous strategies which feed into the illusion that we have the power to do something meaningful within the current system, like “Vote for Kamala and then push her to the left” or “Vote for Trump and hope he does something unpredictable”.

Alastair Crooke : Israel’s Preference For Self-Destruction

Israel, with US support, attacks Iran

In a major escalation of the imperialist military offensive throughout the Middle East, Israel launched three waves of airstrikes on Iran Saturday morning in coordination with the Biden administration. The White House quickly endorsed Israel’s illegal attack on Iran, declaring, “We understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran as an exercise of self-defense.” A White House official further endorsed the illegal attack in a statement to Bloomberg, calling it “targeted and proportional.” The official told Bloomberg, “The president and his national security team, of course, worked with the Israelis over recent weeks” to plan the illegal act of war.

Rather than self-defense, the attack is a calculated provocation aimed at eliciting a military response by Iran that can be used to justify further US-Israeli aggression, including the deployment of even more combat troops to Israel and a further military build-up throughout the region. ...

The attack follows the October 9 discussion between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which the American president signed off on the strikes, along with a series of discussions with the Pentagon and White House Friday night. The attack took place just days after US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that US combat troops had arrived in Israel, in the role of air defense support for the operation. The attack took place as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the Middle East after extensive discussions with Netanyahu in which he reviewed both the planned attack on Iran and Israel’s so-called “generals’ plan” to starve, displace, or exterminate the remaining population of Northern Gaza. ...

While the scope of the Israeli attack is at this point unclear, it is evident that the Biden Administration is recklessly seeking to escalate war throughout the Middle East targeting Iran. Israel’s attack on Iran is part of its rampage throughout the Middle East, supported by the imperialist powers, with the aim of reimposing colonial domination over the oil-rich region as part of their effort to dominate Russia and China.

Israel’s strikes on Iran reportedly hit air defence systems protecting energy sites

Details have emerged suggesting Israel used precision air and drone strikes in its unprecedented attack on Iran this weekend to target air defence systems protecting crucial oil and gas facilities, as well as military sites linked to Tehran’s nuclear programme and ballistic missile production. Israel openly attacked Iran for the first time on Saturday in the latest direct confrontation between the regional enemies, bringing the Middle East another step closer to a full-scale conflagration.

In the immediate aftermath, Iran appeared to downplay the airstrikes, which killed four soldiers. Fearing all-out war and shocks to the global oil industry, western leaders had urged Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, not to target oil or nuclear facilities in the widely anticipated response to an Iranian ballistic missile salvo on Tel Aviv and military bases on 1 October. Iranian officials had repeatedly warned attacks on nuclear or energy infrastructure would cross a “red line”.

Satellite imagery of affected sites in Iran and details reported by the New York Times suggest the Israeli leader heeded allies’ advice, but the locations of the strikes nonetheless signalled that Israel is capable of hitting high-value targets if the escalation continues. ...

Citing three Israeli and three Iranian officials, the New York Times said that in the first phase of the attack, Israeli jets targeted air defence systems in Syria and Iraq, preventing Tehran’s allies from intercepting the aircraft en route. In Iran, air defence systems were also attacked, with the aim of limiting Iran’s ability to fend off future attacks. Some of the targeted systems are supposed to protect important sites, including the Abadan oil refinery, the Bandar Imam Khomeini petrochemical complex, the gasfield Tange Bijar, and Bandar port in the south of the country, the paper said.

Three Russian-made S-300 air defence systems around Tehran were also reportedly hit, as well as the Parchin and Parand military bases, it added. Social media videos appeared to show damage to a factory near the capital that builds oil and gas industry machinery.

"We Are in an Escalatory Cycle": Trita Parsi on Latest Israeli Attack on Iran, Risk of Wider War

Iran says it will respond ‘appropriately’ to Israeli strikes but does not seek war

Iran’s leadership has said it is are weighing a response to this weekend’s Israeli airstrikes, as the country called on the UN security council to meet on Monday. Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Tehran was not looking for a war but would respond “appropriately” to Israel’s strikes. “We do not seek war but we will defend the rights of our nation and country,” Pezeshkian told a cabinet meeting on Sunday. He added: “We will give an appropriate response to the aggression of the Zionist regime.”

It is not clear whether Pezeshkian was indicating that Iran would contemplate a direct military response, could step up efforts to arm regional proxies including Hezbollah, or would consider other diplomatic protests in response to Saturday’s airstrikes. His remarks came amid a debate in Iran on whether the Israeli attack, more limited than some had predicted, warrants a military response and if the country will be seen as weak if it does nothing.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Sunday in his first response to the attack that the “evil committed by the Zionist regime two nights ago should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated”. Khamenei said Iran’s power should be demonstrated to Israel, adding: “It is up to the authorities to determine how to convey the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and to take actions that serve the interests of this nation and country.” His remarks suggest there is no immediate military response planned, as Iran weighs its options.

"This Carnage Needs to Stop": Israel Bans Aid Groups from Gaza, Kills Over 1,000 in North Gaza Siege

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 70 as UN chief calls civilians’ plight ‘unbearable’

Approximately 70 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the past day, health officials in Gaza said, as Israel’s renewed campaign in the north of the strip shows no sign of slowing despite the revival of ceasefire talks after a three-month-long hiatus. ...

Information about the situation in northern Gaza has become increasingly sporadic and difficult to verify as Israel’s new ground and aerial assault focusing on Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun enters its fourth week. Internet and phone services have been down for hours at a time, and civil defence workers have been unable to reach the sites of recent strikes due to Israeli forces’ ever-tightening siege and attacks on their crews.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) withdrew from Kamal Adwan hospital, one of only three still operating in the area, on Sunday morning after raiding the compound a day earlier. Staff said dozens of male health workers and some patients had been detained. The death toll from an Israeli airstrike on Beit Lahia on Saturday evening rose to 40 on Sunday, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Another strike on houses in Jabaliya on Sunday morning killed 20 people, and 11 more people were killed in the bombing of a school turned shelter in the Shati area of Gaza City, the health ministry in the previously Hamas-controlled territory said.

In statements, the IDF said they had “eliminated over 40 terrorists” in Jabaliya, and they disputed the death toll in Beit Lahiya, which they said did not align with the “precise munitions” used. ...

In a statement on Sunday, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, called the plight of civilians trapped by the fighting in north Gaza “unbearable”. His office said: “The secretary general is shocked by the harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north, with civilians trapped under rubble, the sick and wounded going without life-saving healthcare and families lacking food and shelter.”

The continuous air bridge of US arms to Israel

'The Entire Population of North Gaza Is at Risk of Dying': UN Relief Official

Israel could kill everyone left in Northern Gaza if its assault on the enclave continues, a United Nations relief official warned on Saturday.

U.N. Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya also called for an end to the Israeli attack.

"What Israeli forces are doing in besieged North Gaza cannot be allowed to continue," Msuya said.

In particular, Msuya emphasized Israel's targeting of hospitals and shelters and interference with relief work.

"Hospitals have been hit, and health workers have been detained. Shelters have been emptied and burned down. First responders have been prevented from saving people from under the rubble. Families have been separated, and men and boys are being taken away by the truckload," she said.

Msuya estimated that Israel's actions in the north had killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands. According to Al Jazeera, an Israeli siege on the north that began earlier in October has killed around 640.

"The entire population of North Gaza is at risk of dying," Msuya said. "Such blatant disregard for basic humanity and for the laws of war must stop."

The U.N. official's remarks came as Israeli troops withdrew from a deadly attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, which Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum said "is considered a medical lifeline for the two-thirds of Palestinians in northern Gaza."

Massive destruction left by the Israeli army following the recent raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. pic.twitter.com/tOk1MVt8ja

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 26, 2024

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had surrounded the hospital for days before entering and opening fire on Thursday and Friday, the Gaza Health Ministry and the hospital's director told CNN.

"Instead of receiving aid, we are receiving tanks," hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya said in a video.

Medics told Al Jazeera that the IDF had detained 44 members of the hospital team, later releasing 14 of them. The director of field hospitals in Gaza, Marwan Al-Hams, said that soldiers had also destroyed medications as they left, "preventing us from saving the wounded."

The director of field hospitals in Gaza, Marwan Al-Hams, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli occupation army has destroyed all medications and medical supplies at Kamal Adwan Hospital before their withdrawal in a bid to prevent crews from saving the injured. pic.twitter.com/6jjtrUznJ5

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 26, 2024

"It is a catastrophic situation as patients and the wounded are left on the floor without any medical attention," hospital spokesperson Hisham Sakani told Al Jazeera. "We are facing grave dangers, and here I am once again sending an SOS to the whole world. We pray to God almighty our plight comes to an end and Israeli massacres [are] ceased."

"The entire population north of Gaza Strip are now without any medical service after all the hospitals have been destroyed and forced out of operation," Sahani continued.

Msuya's statement also came a day after U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called Friday's attacks on northern Gaza the "darkest moment" of the war.

"The Israeli Government's policies and practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians," Türk said. "We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity."

Msuya and Türk's statements reflect the opinion of human rights experts that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Court of Justice is still considering the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel. To date, the Israeli assault has killed at least 42,924 people and wounded 100,833, but the true numbers could be much higher.

Emergency medical doctor Mads Gilbert, who has volunteered in both Gaza and Lebanon, criticized Western governments for allowing the raid on Kamal Adwan, as well as Israel's systematic attacks on healthcare workers and facilities in Gaza.

"We need an additional factor to understand why this has been allowed to go on, and that is actually that the Palestinian people are defined as under-humans," Gilbert told Al Jazeera. "We would never have allowed this to happen, for example, in Ukraine. Almost 250,000 people in the northern part of Gaza have now no healthcare, and that in itself is part of the genocide."

The Institute for Middle East Understanding called on both the international community and the U.S. government to respond to Israel's violations of international law.

"The Biden-Harris administration must stop the flow of U.S. weapons to Israel which constitutes a necessary step to halting Israel's ongoing war crimes," IMEU wrote on social media Saturday. "It's time for an arms embargo now."

Phil Giraldi : US/Israel Connected by Lies and Bloodshed

BRICS nations make urgent call for Palestinian statehood, Gaza ceasefire

The representatives of the BRICS group of emerging economies declared on 23 October their support for Palestine’s admission as a full member of the UN, based on commitment to a two-state solution under international law.

The declaration came on the first day of this year’s BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan. The summit is scheduled to continue until 24 October.

Leaders of BRICS called in a joint statement for an “independent and viable State of Palestine, under the internationally recognized borders of June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side in peace and security with Israel.”

The statement expressed “grave concern over the deteriorating situation and humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory, in particular the unprecedented escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.” It also called for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the release of captives on both sides, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have consistently blocked.

Ukraine Selidovo collapse. North Korea in Kursk?

G7 vows to clamp down on Russia’s oil sanctions evasion

Finance ministers of the G7 nations vowed on Saturday to step up efforts to prevent Russia from evading sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine. “We remain committed to taking further initiatives in response to oil price cap violations,” the group said in a statement after a meeting in Washington. Those further steps were not spelled out in detail.

In December 2022, the G7 with the EU and Australia agreed to pressure buyers of Russian oil to not go above a certain price ceiling. The agreement was intended to limit Russian petroleum sales and revenues without curbing exports so sharply that it would cause global oil prices to soar.

But some countries, notably China, have continued to import Russian crude oil without observing the price ceiling.

The G7 finance ministers also said they would take additional measures aimed at “increasing the costs to Russia of using the shadow fleet to evade sanctions”. Officials say Russia has used its fleet of shadow tankers, many of them old, unmarked and poorly maintained, to skirt sanctions by transporting oil without properly declaring their cargo or itineraries.

Japan’s ruling coalition to lose majority in election, national broadcaster says

Japan’s ruling coalition is certain to lose its majority in parliament in Sunday’s general election, according to the national broadcaster, after taking losses amid voter anger over a funding scandal and a cost of living crisis in the world’s fourth-biggest economy.

The outcome may force the Liberal Democratic party (LDP), which has ruled Japan almost without interruption since the mid-1950s, or the main opposition Constitutional Democratic party (CDP) into power-sharing agreements with other parties to form a government. The official result is not expected until Monday morning.

The LDP’s ability to form a government will depend on whether it can continue as the senior partner in a coalition with Komeito, a much smaller party that was also projected to lose seats. The two parties together need 233 seats to retain a majority.

While the result is not a repeat of the political seismic shock of 15 years ago – an unprecedented defeat for the LDP – it has left the party significantly weakened and will raise questions about the future of the recently installed prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba. Ishiba, 67, called Sunday’s election only days after taking office on 1 October, aiming to bolster his position and that of his scandal-hit party.

“The results so far have been extremely severe, and we take them very seriously,” Ishiba told the national broadcaster, NHK. “I believe the voters are telling us to reflect more and become a party that lives up to their expectations.”

Dems' Failing "Trump Is Hitler" Tactic Deployed Again

Kamala: accept genocide, get affordable groceries

Two hurricanes stir up voter backlash to Florida Republicans’ climate denialism

The climate emergency was already a hot-button political issue in Florida long before devastating back-to-back hurricanes named Helene and Milton barreled into the state in recent weeks. Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor who considers global warming “leftwing stuff”, angered environmental advocates by signing a bill in May scrubbing the words “climate change” from state statutes and in effect committing Florida to a fossil fuel-burning future.

They saw his comments and actions as merely the latest acts of an extended period of climate denialism by state leaders – including Rick Scott, his predecessor as governor who is seeking re-election as US senator next month in a tight race with the Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

Scott also censored talk of the climate crisis. Nicknamed “Red Tide Rick” by opponents for slashing $700m in water management funding intended to fight toxic algae blooms, Scott “systematically” disassembled “the environmental agencies of this state”, according to the Democratic former senator Bill Nelson.

Now, as weary Floridians head for the polls next month, many in areas still devastated by the deadly storm surge and high intensity winds from two hurricanes, there is evidence that the twin disasters are fueling something of a backlash. DeSantis is not on the ballot, but Scott is, and so are many among the Republican supermajority in the state house and senate who have been blindly loyal to both governors’ agendas.

Some voters say climate issues have become uppermost in their minds, having experienced or witnessed the wrath of Helene and Milton, as well as other recent Florida cyclones, and frustration over the long history of inaction or denial in the face of rising sea levels and record ocean heat that experts say is powering ever-stronger storms. The movement is pronounced among younger and first-time voters, whom advocates say have been registering and voting early in unprecedented numbers.

Sliver of cool surface water 2mm deep helps oceans absorb CO2, say scientists

A sliver of cool surface water less than 2mm deep helps oceans absorb carbon dioxide, a British-led team of scientists has established after months of voyages across the Atlantic painstakingly measuring gas and temperature levels. The subtle difference in temperature between the “ocean skin” and the layer of water beneath it creates an interface that leads to more CO2 being taken in, the scientists observed.

They used highly sensitive equipment to measure the water temperature and to spot and record tiny differences in the amount of CO2 in the air swirling towards the ocean surface and away again. ...

The 2mm sliver of water is slightly colder because of the “cool skin effect”, which is caused by heat leaving the water as it is in direct contact with the atmosphere. The results, published in the Nature Geoscience journal, have been passed on to the Global Carbon Budget assessment, a worldwide consortium of scientists set up to establish a common understanding of the Earth’s carbon cycle.

‘Danger in my back yard’: residents in a wildfire-prone California town eye more Yosemite tourism with unease

Kathleen Armstrong saw the smoke curling above the tree-covered horizon and turned on her scanner with bated breath. Mariposa was on fire again. It was the Fourth of July, a high-risk time in the California mountain town near Yosemite national park that had already seen its fair share of emergency evacuations.

Memories still fresh from the destructive 2022 Oak fire, Armstrong and her husband rushed to pack up their four dogs as the sky began to glow red and flames raced toward the back door. “It was traumatizing,” she recalled in a recent interview. “It’s a miracle we are still here.” In the aftermath of the French fire, Armstrong and her neighbors reflected on their chaotic evacuation down the winding mountain roads and focused on a new worry: this time, they barely made it through the sloping two-lane egress toward town. Would they make it next time around?

Kampgrounds of America (KOA) is eyeing a plot just down the road for a new camping and glamping development. Should the project move forward, up to a thousand visitors could end up spending the night on land that straddles the narrow escape route. When a fire inevitably flares again, evacuating may be far more challenging.

As the outdoor recreation industry reaches deeper into natural areas, issues like these are causing concerns in the rural communities across the US. In the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where Mariposa is located, tourism has boomed, along with the promise of economic opportunities for an area that has long had few. But the nature that serves as the attraction isn’t able to accommodate an onslaught of visitors, especially now that the climate crisis has turned up the dial. ... Residents who have paid a heavy toll to recover from and prepare for these extreme elements are increasingly worried that, along with fire dangers, a boost in tourists will drain their waning water supply, overwhelm infrastructure and put additional strain on the delicate ecosystems.

Also of Interest

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

Lying Western Press Scramble To Frame Israel’s Attack On Iran As Self-Defense

The West’s Support for Israel’s Genocide Is Destroying the World as We Know It

What Has Israel Achieved In The Last Year?

In Midst of Palestinian Genocide, Late Hamas Leader Scolded for ‘Eradicating’ Israel

Palestinian boy, 15, survives kidnap and torture by settlers in Masafer Yatta

Evo Morales accuses Bolivian government of trying to kill him

How Russia Is Overwhelming Ukrainian Frontlines

US Black Sea Strategy Takes Another Big Hit in Georgia Election

Phil Lesh obituary

"Save Us From Ourselves": 3,000+ Israelis Call For Int'l Help to Pressure Israel to Back Ceasefire

ISRAEL BOMBS IRAN: WW3 Offramp Or No?

Biden Apologizes for Native American Boarding Schools That Aimed to Exterminate Indigenous Culture

“We Must End This War Madness!” – Candidate Dennis Kucinich

Lebanon rejects US envoy's surrender plan

A Little Night Music

Big Bill Broonzy - See See Rider

Big Bill Broonzy - Midnight Special

Big Bill Broonzy - Hey Hey

Big Bill Broonzy - Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad

Big Bill Broonzy - I Get the Blues When it Rains

Big Bill Broonzy - Frankie And Johnny

Big Bill Broonzy - Backwater Blues

Big Bill Broonzy - Get Back

Big Bill Broonzy - The Glory of Love