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"To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult."

-- Isaac Asimov

News and Opinion

Meditations On A Six Year-Old Amputee Crawling Through Gaza With The Help Of A Roller Skate

It’s funny the things that get to you when witnessing the nightmare in Gaza, out of all the horrors you’ll see there from day to day. Today I saw a video of a six year-old Palestinian boy whose legs had been amputated dragging himself through his tent camp with the help of a roller skate worn on one of his hands, and it just about destroyed me.

It was one of those inline skates that showed up in the nineties. Rollerblades, we called them. Western boys played with them in summers full of joy and laughter and skinned knees and grass stains. Now a little boy named Mohammad Saeed uses one to help him scoot through the dirt, because his legs were blown off by western military explosives, launched by Israelis who probably played with inline skates when they were small.

We are the terrorists. https://t.co/Od7U4hW7E6

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) December 14, 2024

This genocide has been going on so long that the child amputees who live all over Gaza are learning strategies to get through life without their limbs.

They did a study recently which found that virtually all children in Gaza now feel their deaths are imminent, and half of those surveyed said they wish to die. 

But their lives go on. Even with missing limbs, often amputated without morphine or anesthetic, their lives go on. Crawling their way through muddy tent camps, they go on. They find a way through each day.

It’s the kind of thing that might inspire you if it were something you were just passively witnessing instead of something the western power structure you live under is actively inflicting on people. For those of us who live under the shadow of the US-centralized empire it’s a bit more emotionally complicated than an inspirational story about the indomitable spirit of the Palestinian people, because it’s also a story about how we failed to stop this from happening.

When we look at Mohammad Saeed crawling through the dirt on his leg stumps with the help of a roller skate, we are seeing our own civilization reflected back at us. A genocidal dystopia of complete moral bankruptcy. This is what we have become. This is what we have allowed our rulers to turn us into.

Oh Mohammad, I am so sorry. I am so sorry that we allowed it to come to this. I am sorry that your legs were taken from you, and I am sorry for everything else that has been taken from you on top of them. Your parents maybe. Your siblings maybe. Certainly some loved ones. Obviously your home, and obviously your childhood.

I have nothing to offer at this time, either to my readers or to Mohammad Saeed, apart from my own sorrow. Some days all you can do is pour your heart out on the floor and warn passersby to try not to slip on it, tears streaming down over the gaping hole in your chest.

None of this is right, and I don’t feel like pretending it’s right. I don’t feel like trying to put a positive spin on it or say it’s all going to get better. Some things are just terrible, and it’s okay to feel terrible about them. Feelings are meant to be felt. It’s sad and it’s enraging and it’s shameful and it’s damning, and absolutely nothing else.

We live in a world of such breathtaking beauty and such jaw-dropping savagery. Explosions of love hiding behind every molecule in a society that is ruled by true monsters.

We are big enough to hold these paradoxes. We are big enough to feel the majesty of creation and the gut-punch of genocide. The wet, juicy, sloppy love for our fellow human beings and the horror at how cruel we can be to one another. The exhilaration of life on this strange blue planet and the crushing grief of failure after failure to make things a little better here.

Both the good and the bad are allowed to flourish in this world. Clearly. I have no answers or miracle cures for this. We do our best to be decent people and get through each day. We pick up our skate and crawl on.

"Lawless": Marwan Bishara on Israel Bombing Syria 800 Times & Expanding Occupation of Golan Heights

Israel strikes Syria as Netanyahu approves plan to expand Golan Heights settlement

Israel struck dozens of sites in Syria overnight with airstrikes, despite the Syrian rebel leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, saying his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group was not interested in conflict with Israel. Jolani’s comments came as Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced on Sunday that he had approved a plan to expand settlement building in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The latest airstrikes follow a statement by Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, that Israeli troops, who seized the Golan Heights buffer zone with Syria last week, would remain for the winter on Mount Hermon – known to Syrians as Jabel Sheikh – in positions they occupied last week. Katz’s office said in a statement that “due to what is happening in Syria, there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak”.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, a nom de guerre used by Ahmed al-Sharaa, told Syrian state media: “There are no excuses for any foreign intervention in Syria now after the Iranians have left. We are not in the process of engaging in a conflict with Israel.” Jolani said Israel was using false pretexts to justify its attacks on Syria, but that he was not interested in engaging in new conflicts as the country focused on rebuilding after the end of Bashar al-Assad’s reign. He added that “diplomatic solutions” were the only way to ensure stability rather than “ill-considered military adventures”.

“Israeli arguments have become weak and no longer justify their recent violations. The Israelis have clearly crossed the lines of engagement in Syria, which poses a threat of unwarranted escalation in the region,” Jolani said. ...

Saudi Arabia on Sunday condemned Israel’s plan for the Golan Heights as “sabotage”. In a statement, Riyadh’s foreign ministry expressed “condemnation and denunciation” of the plan, which it called part of “continued sabotage of opportunities to restore security and stability in Syria”.

Israel’s Plan to Conquer the Middle East is Unfolding Before Our Eyes in Syria w/ Rania Khalek

Antony Blinken confirms ‘direct’ US contact with Syria’s rebel rulers HTS

Antony Blinken said the US had made “direct contact” with Syria’s victorious Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels as western and Arab states along with Turkey jointly voiced support for a united, peaceful Syria. The US secretary of state’s comment is despite Washington having designated the HTS rebels as terrorists in 2018. Blinken and other diplomats held talks on Syria in Aqaba, Jordan, on Saturday. “We’ve been in contact with HTS and with other parties,” Blinken said, without specifying how the contact took place.

Turkey announced it had reopened its embassy in Damascus, nearly a week after the Islamist-led rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and 12 years after the Turkish diplomatic mission was closed early in Syria’s civil war. Turkey has been a major player in Syria’s conflict, holding considerable sway in the north-west, financing armed groups there and maintaining a working relationship with HTS, which spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad.

In a joint statement after the meeting in Jordan, diplomats from the US, Turkey, the EU and Arab countries “affirmed the full support to the Syrian people at this critical point in their history to build a more hopeful, secure and peaceful future”. They called for a Syrian-led transition to “produce an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government formed through a transparent process”, with respect for human rights.

Israel, Turkey, US Begin Carving up Syria’s Resources After Removing al-Assad

Trump Transition Team Considering Strikes on Iran

Strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities are being seriously considered within the Donald Trump transition team, according to the Wall Street Journal. While there is no proof Tehran is trying to make a nuclear weapon, Washington and Tel Aviv are threatening to attack Iran’s nuclear energy infrastructure.

“The military-strike option against nuclear facilities is now under more serious review by some members of his transition team,” the WSJ explained. “Iran’s weakened regional position and recent revelations of Tehran’s burgeoning nuclear work have turbocharged sensitive internal discussions, transition officials said.” ...

According to WSJ, President-elect Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have recently discussed potentially attacking Iran. “Trump has told Netanyahu in recent calls that he is concerned about an Iranian nuclear breakout on his watch.” The report continues, “The president-elect wants plans that stop short of igniting a new war, particularly one that could pull in the US military.”

The sources explained that the administration is considering two options. The first is bolstering American military presence in the Middle East while providing Israel with the ability to destroy Iranian nuclear sites without US assistance. The other option calls for American threats to force Tehran to make concessions at the negotiation table.

Alastair Crooke : A War Without Limits

77 House Dems Call for 'Full Assessment' of Israeli Compliance With US Law

As Israel continues to decimate the Gaza Strip with American weapons, 77 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives this week demanded that the Biden administration "provide a full assessment of the status of Israel's compliance with all relevant U.S. policies and laws, including National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) and Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act."

Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) spearheaded the Thursday letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, with less than six weeks left in President Joe Biden's term.

Since Biden issued NSM-20 in February, his administration has repeatedly accepted the Israel government's assurances about the use of U.S. weapons, despite reports from journalists and human rights groups about how they have helped Israeli forces slaughter at least 44,875 Palestinians and injure another 106,454 people in the besieged enclave over the past 14 months.

Chief Dennis Fritz : Who Can Stop Netanyahu?

'We Have Run Out of Body Bags to Bury the Dead' in Gaza

Rescue workers, children, and journalists are among the civilians killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza on Sunday, as the death toll continues to mount in a military campaign Amnesty International earlier this month said has all the markings of an active and ongoing genocide.

"Due to the rising Israeli bombings and killings in northern Gaza, we have run out of body bags to bury the dead," said Palestinian journalist Hossam Sabath, reporting from northern Gaza on Sunday. "Now we resort to using any piece of clothing or a blanket for their burial."

On the ground in the town of Beit Hanoun, where Israeli troops reportedly killed at least 20 people—including civilians—in a series of raids in the area on Sunday, Sabath said the the "scenes of charred bodies are too distressing for us to broadcast. However, they are part of the documented evidence of genocide involving the burning of people alive. We are ready to hand them over to any human rights organization."

According to the Gulf Times:

Israeli troops killed at least 22 Palestinians, most of them in the northern Gaza Strip, on Sunday in airstrikes and other attacks on targets that included a school sheltering displaced Gazans, medics and residents said.

They said at least 11 of the dead were killed in three separate Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City houses, nine were killed in the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia camp and two were killed by drone fire in Rafah.

Residents said clusters of houses were bombed and some set ablaze in the three towns. The Israeli army has been operating in the towns for over two months.

In Beit Hanoun, Israeli forces besieged families sheltering in Khalil Aweida school before storming it and ordering them to head towards Gaza City, the medics and residents said.

Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, quoted witnesses who reported "severe injuries" among those who survived the attacks further north.

"They have nowhere to go because the Israeli military forces are encircling the area with tanks and armored vehicles, and hammering the school with heavy artillery," Mahmoud reported.

A family of four were among those killed, including two children, after the classroom where they were sheltering took a “direct hit” from Israeli artillery fire that arrived without prior warning, the outlet reported.

“Many of the injured are in the courtyard of the school and inside the other classrooms," according to Mahmoud. "They can't get any treatment because none of the hospitals in Beit Hanoon are operational."

Separately, Al-Jazeera reports Sunday that an Israeli bombing killed three members of the Palestinian civil defense search-and-rescue team in central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp. The new agency also reported that one of its own staff, cameraman Ahmed al-Louh, was killed in the same attack.

Ahram Online reports:

In its first response to the incident, Gaza's government media office condemned the killing of al-Louh and called on the international community to act against the systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists. "The number of martyred journalists has now risen to 195 with the martyrdom of colleague Ahmed al-Louh," the office stated.

Al Jazeera reiterated its condemnation of the attack, describing al-Louh's death as part of a broader assault on press freedom in Gaza. "Ahmed al-Louh was dedicated to documenting the realities of the ongoing conflict under the most dangerous conditions," the network said.

"The unprecedented killing of journalists by the Israeli military continues with impunity," said fellow reporter Sharif Kouddous.

On Dec. 5, Amnesty International released a 296-page report—featuring interviews with survivors and witnesses of Israel's large-scale campaign of bombing, displacement, arbitrary detention, and destruction of Gaza's agricultural land and civilian infrastructure—that conclude what Israel has been doing in Gaza amounts to genocide.

"Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them," said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty's secretary-general, upon release of the document. "Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now."

As the weekend's latest catalog of death and injuries suggests, it has not stopped.

Israel to close Dublin embassy after Ireland supports ICJ genocide petition

Israel has announced it will close its embassy in Ireland, citing Dublin’s decision last week to support a petition at the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide.

The move was announced by the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, who said it was prompted by the Irish government’s “extreme anti-Israeli policies”, noting its decision to join the ICJ petition last week.

The Irish taoiseach, Simon Harris, said on “This is a deeply regrettable decision from the Netanyahu government. I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law.

“Ireland wants a two-state solution and for Israel and Palestine to live in peace and security. Ireland will always speak up for human rights and international law. Nothing will distract from that.”

Israel has not applied similar measures to other countries, including Egypt, Spain, and Mexico, that joined the petition.

Putin Medvedev Warn Kiev US More Annexations, Russia Destroys 4 Patriots, Jihadis Ask Russia Stay

Scott Horton EXPOSES Media Ukraine Lies

Trump Says No to ‘Foolish’ US Missile Attacks on Russia

President-elect Donald Trump accused the Biden administration of “escalating this war” in Ukraine and “making it worse” by allowing U.S. long-range ATACMS missiles to be fired from Ukraine deep into Russia. “I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia,” Trump told Time magazine in an interview published on Thursday. He said:

“Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done. Now they’re doing not only missiles, but they’re doing other types of weapons. And I think that’s a very big mistake, very big mistake.”

Last Thursday former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter was on a day-long venture in the labyrinth of House office buildings on Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress and their staffs to prevent the U.S. from attacking Russia with ATACMS. That alone, Ritter argued, would reduce the threat of a nuclear exchange with Russia, which had warned would be possible if the missile attacks continue.

Among the steps Ritter recommended to Republican Congressmen was to get word to Trump’s transition team to get Trump to make an immediate statement that after he is sworn in he will order a cessation of ATACMS being fired into Russia. Such a statement from Trump, Ritter argued on Capitol Hill, would lessen tension with Moscow over the ATACMS and possibly avert catastrophe. Trump’s comments to Time was what Ritter had in mind.

South Korea Impeaches President as Demands Grow for Democratic Reforms

South Korea’s president reportedly defies summons in martial law inquiry

South Korea’s conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has reportedly failed to obey a summons from prosecutors investigating him on charges including insurrection as he faces impeachment after declaring martial law. Yoon, who was sent a summons on Wednesday requesting him to appear for questioning at 10am local time on Sunday, did not show up, according to the Yonhap news agency. Yoon and other senior officials are being investigated on possible charges of insurrection, abuse of authority and obstructing people from exercising their rights.

Yonhap said prosecutors – who are also seeking arrest warrants for senior military officials, including the head of the army special warfare command and the chief of the capital defence command – plan to issue another summons for the president.

The president’s reported failure to appear came a day after South Korean MPs voted to impeach him over the unsuccessful attempt to declare martial law almost two weeks ago that plunged the country into some of its worst political turmoil in decades. ...

Yoon’s powers have been suspended until the constitutional court decides whether to remove him from office or reinstate him. If Yoon is dismissed, a national election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.

The court will meet to begin considering the case on Monday, and has up to 180 days to issue a ruling. But observers say a ruling could come faster. In the case of parliamentary impeachments of past presidents, Roh Moo-hyun in 2004 and Park Geun-hye in 2016, the court spent 63 days and 91 days respectively before determining to reinstate Roh and dismiss Park.

Denied: ProPublica Exposes UnitedHealth Profiteering Off Limiting Care for Children with Autism

‘Only one viable defense’: how might the CEO murder case play out in court?

Mangione, 26, purportedly left a trail of evidence in his wake: surveillance footage showing his face, as well as fingerprints on a cereal bar and water bottle near the murder scene, linked him to the shooting, authorities said. Local police in Altoona allegedly discovered still more evidence linking Mangione to the crime: a black 3D-printed pistol and silencer, as well as a manifesto that railed against health insurers’ prioritization of profits over patients.

Mangione, who allegedly carried a fake ID, was arrested on weapons and forgery charges, and has since been jailed in Pennsylvania. He is fighting extradition to New York City for second-degree murder and gun charges.

Yet, despite this alleged abundance of evidence, veteran New York City attorneys believe that Mangione might have a viable trial defense that could keep him from spending the rest of his years behind bars – even if jurors eventually find that he killed Thompson. ...

“He has one and only one viable defense and that is extreme emotional disturbance,” said Ron Kuby, a veteran criminal defense attorney whose practice focuses on civil rights. “One version of extreme emotional disturbance is he just snapped, but the defense is broader than that and certainly covers the slow, bitter, corrosive wearing away of normal sentiments of right and wrong until it all collapses in pain,” Kuby explained.

If a jury finds a defendant guilty of murder, but also finds the crime was due to extreme emotional disturbance, that reduces the crime of murder to first-degree manslaughter. The sentencing range for first-degree manslaughter ranges from five to 25 years’ imprisonment.

Victims of ‘kids-for-cash’ judge outraged by Biden pardon: ‘What about all of us?’

Victims of a former Pennsylvania judge convicted in the so-called kids-for-cash scandal are outraged by Joe Biden’s decision to grant him clemency.

In 2011, Michael Conahan was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison after he and another judge, Mark Ciavarella, were found guilty of accepting $2.8m in illegal payments in exchange for sending more than 2,300 children – including some as young as eight years old – to private juvenile detention centers.

Conahan was released from prison in 2020 due to Covid-19 and placed on house arrest, which had been scheduled to end in 2026. Conahan’s sentence was one of about 1,500 the US president commuted – or shortened – on Thursday while also pardoning 39 Americans who had been convicted of non-violent crimes.

In response to Conahan’s pardon, the mother of a boy sent to jail at age 17 before later dying by suicide told the Citizens’ Voice: “I am shocked and I am hurt.”

“Conahan’s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son’s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power,” Sandy Fonzo said to the outlet. “This pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer. Right now I am processing and doing the best I can to cope with the pain that this has brought back.”

More at the link:

From the US to Uganda, how climate activism has been criminalised in 2024

Back in early August, I reported on the arrest of two climate activists outside the New York headquarters of Citibank, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel financiers and target of a campaign known as Summer of Heat. John Mark Rozendaal, a former music instructor at Princeton University, and Alec Connon, director of the climate nonprofit group Stop the Money Pipeline, were detained for 24 hours and charged with criminal contempt, which carries up to seven years in prison. Why? Rozendaal was playing a Bach solo on his cello while Connon sheltered him with an umbrella – which police claimed broke the conditions of a temporary restraining order that related to another bogus charge of assault (that was later dropped).

Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, took up the pair’s case, and together with three other UN experts wrote a formal letter to the US government explaining their fears that the charges were without foundation, and appeared to be a punishment for participating in peaceful protests on the climate crisis and human rights. ...

Lawlor and the other UN experts wrote to US authorities: “Please indicate what steps have been taken and measures put in place to ensure that all human rights defenders taking peaceful action to promote measures to mitigate climate change and a just transition can carry out their work free from fear of threat, violence, harassment or retaliation of any sort.”

Last week, Lawlor made the letter public after they failed to respond – it’s customary to give states 60 days to respond privately to special rapporteurs before communications are published. “Authorities should be listening to defenders, but they are not … they are being met with criminalisation,” Lawlor told me. “The climate crisis is a human rights crisis, but states aren’t responding as they should.”

Rozendaal and Connon pleaded guilty to “disorderly conduct” for playing the cello and holding an umbrella. They were among thousands of climate activists who over the summer participated in a series of nonviolent protests calling on Citibank to stop financing the oil and gas industry and increase funding for renewables. Many activists were arrested but most cases were dismissed, with just a handful proceeding through the courts.

TikTok’s annual carbon footprint is likely bigger than Greece’s

TikTok’s annual carbon footprint is probably larger than that of Greece, according to a new analysis of the social media platform’s environmental impact, with the average user generating greenhouse gases equivalent to driving an extra 123 miles in a gasoline-powered car each year.

Estimates from Greenly, a carbon accounting consultancy based in Paris, place TikTok’s 2023 emissions in the US, UK and France at about 7.6m metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) – higher than those associated with Twitter/X and Snapchat in the same region.

TikTok has 1 billion users worldwide and Greenly’s findings placed its carbon footprint just above Instagram’s – even though Instagram has nearly double TikTok’s user base. The reason behind this lies in the unique addictiveness of TikTok’s platform. The average Instagram user spends 30.6 minutes on the app a day. Meanwhile, the average TikTok user spends 45.5 minutes scrolling.

“The whole algorithm is built around the massification of videos,” explained Alexis Normand, the chief executive of Greenly. “Addictiveness also has consequences in terms of incentivizing people to generate more and more [of a carbon] footprint on an individual basis.”

Given that the US, UK and France make up just under 15% of TikTok’s global user base, the platform’s overall carbon footprint is likely around 50m metric tonnes of CO2e. And since these data center calculations do not include other smaller sources of TikTok’s emissions, such as the emissions associated with office spaces and employee commuting, this is likely an underestimation.

Also of Interest

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

That Which Can Be Destroyed By The Truth, Should Be

Patrick Lawrence: Blinded to Syria

In Syria dirty war, “our side” has won

Syria’s Assad Has Fallen – Just as the Pentagon Planned 23 Years Ago

South Korea - National Assembly Impeaches President Over Failed Putsch Attempt

Tom Neuburger: The Media’s Bizarre Treatment of the Mangione Case

The Democratic Party Faces Its Day of Reckoning

New Jersey DRONE Origins REVEALED?! Federal Defense Program SUSPECTED

Putin's Novorossiya speech. Trump, Ukraine drawdown process

Pepe Escobar : The Syrian Tragedy

A Little Night Music

Roy Milton - R.M. Blues

Roy Milton & His Solid Senders - Milton's Boogie

Roy Milton - It's Later Than You Think

Roy Milton - Baby I'm Gone

Roy Milton & His Solid Senders - Hop Skip & Jump

Roy Milton - Rockin' Pnuemonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu

Roy Milton - The Hucklebuck

Roy Milton - Short, Sweet And Snappy

Roy Milton - Red Light