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“Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating upon itself — a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred.”

-- Frank Herbert

News and Opinion

All Of Western Civilization Owns This Genocide

It’s wrong to blame the Gaza genocide on Jews. It isn’t wrong because antisemitism is a major danger in our society (it’s not), nor because there’s a risk that people will start loading Jews onto trains again (there isn’t), nor because Jewish Israelis and their supporters are blameless (they obviously are not).

It’s wrong to blame this whole thing on Jews because it lets the rest of us off the hook.

This is our genocide. This is our crime. To blame it all on the Jews is to say that our society is perfectly fine and healthy and that none of this would be happening if not for the Machiavellian manipulations of a small Abrahamic religion. It’s to deny the reality that the middle east is on fire right now because of everything this perverse civilization is and always has been.

It is not a coincidence that the tendency to blame all society’s ills on the Jews is much more prevalent on the far right than anywhere else. Rightists are ideologically inhibited from seeing western civilization as a uniquely pernicious blight on this world, and from seeing capitalism and imperialism as the driving force behind the injustices and abuses it inflicts. If you have an ideological need to view all those things as fine and good, then you need to come up with some other explanation for why everything is shitty and evil. So they buy into this infantile narrative that western civilization would be just peachy if it weren’t for those darn Jews.

But western civilization is not peachy. It is a profoundly sick dystopia built by genocide and slavery and fueled by human blood. This would be true with or without Israel, and with or without Judaism.

The genocide in Gaza is happening because the western empire wants it to happen. Biden could have ended this with a phone call at any time. Our leaders are not being reluctantly pushed into this. They’re slaughtering innocent human beings as casually as they slaughtered them in past western military interventions which had nothing to do with Israel, and for the same reasons.

The western empire is constantly working to bludgeon the world into obedience and submission, aggressively targeting any population which insists on its own sovereignty. We’ve seen it in Latin America, we’ve seen it throughout Europe and Asia, we’ve seen it in Africa, and we’ve seen it in the middle east in the same way. Israel is a member state of the western empire and plays a pivotal role in helping to beat down disobedient populations like Iran, Ansar Allah, Hezbollah and Hamas who don’t submit to the will of the empire. I used to list Syria among those who stand against the empire, but the west and Israel have succeeded in smashing it down and absorbing it into the imperial blob.

The empire uses Zionism as one of many tools for enacting its will in the middle east, but if it wasn’t Zionism it would be something else. The violence would play out in different ways under different narratives, but there would still be a continuous violent bludgeoning of disobedient populations in this crucial strategic region which is rich in resources and critical trade routes.

This is just what we are as a civilization. A murderous, thieving, tyrannical empire constantly bullying and abusing the earth’s population into obedience and submission. Some people try to make Jews into the problem because they don’t want to face reality. And the reality is that the problem is us.

Look at Gaza. Really look at it. Watch the videos. Listen to the screams. Read the harrowing stories. This is who we are. This is what we have become. Not because of the Jews. Because of us. The sooner we own this, the sooner we can move toward healing all the entirely home-grown illnesses within us which gave rise to it. And the sooner we can start becoming something better.

"Total Moral, Ethical Failure": Holocaust Scholar Omer Bartov on Israel's Genocide in Gaza

Israel orders remaining residents of Beit Hanoun to leave

Israel has issued new evacuation orders for all remaining civilians to leave Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza as part of a blistering three-month-old campaign that Israel denies is aimed at depopulating a third of the Palestinian territory, amid reports Israeli attacks have damaged two more struggling hospitals in Gaza City.

The Israeli army forcibly evacuated Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia on Friday, leaving the northern third of the strip, which is cut off from the rest of Gaza, with just one small functioning medical centre, al-Awda, in nearby Jabalia. On Sunday, everyone remaining in Beit Lahia was ordered to leave after Palestinian militants launched five rockets from the area that targeted Israeli territory.

Some patients were taken to the nearby Indonesian hospital, which is without water or electricity and is not in service. Medics were prevented by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from joining them there, the local health ministry said. The World Health Organization said it would send an emergency mission to the Indonesian hospital on Sunday “to safely move patients to southern Gaza for continued care”.

Israel’s military said Kamal Adwan was being used as a base for Hamas operations, and that it would not allow services to resume there. The Palestinian militant group denies using medical infrastructure as cover for its activities. The IDF said it interrogated 950 people during the Friday raid on the hospital and claimed that 240 were found to be militants. Thirteen had pretended to be patients and attempted to flee on stretchers or in ambulances, it added.

Most of the medical staff detained have since been released but the hospital’s director, Hussam Abu Safiya, was still unaccounted for. Nurses and doctors told local media they had been beaten, stripped and then forced to walk towards southern Gaza, reports that were corroborated by the WHO.

"A Genocidal Project": Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah on Israel's Destruction of Gaza Health System

WHO ‘appalled’ by Israel attack on northern Gaza’s last functioning major hospital

The World Health Organization says it is “appalled” by an Israeli raid which it said had shut down and partly destroyed the last major hospital still functioning in northern Gaza. Israel’s “systematic dismantling of the health system” combined with a siege of the population in the north of the coastal strip over the past 80 days “puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk”, the WHO said.

It cited initial reports that some departments of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia “were burnt and severely damaged during the raid, including the laboratory, surgical unit, engineering and maintenance department, operations theatre, and the medical store”. ...

In a joint statement with the Israel Security Agency, the IDF said: “The IDF and ISA completed a targeted operation against a Hamas Command Center in the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabaliya … During the operation in the area, over 240 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists and other operatives suspected of terror activities were apprehended ... Among the suspects taken for questioning was the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, who is suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative.” The statement added that the IDF “will continue to act in accordance with international law”. ...

“Kamal Adwan is now empty,” the statement said. “On Friday evening, the remaining 15 critical patients, 50 caregivers and 20 health workers were transferred to Indonesian hospital, which lacks the necessary equipment and supplies to provide adequate care. The movement and treatment of these critical patients under such conditions pose grave risks to their survival. The WHO is deeply concerned for their wellbeing, as well as for the Kamal Adwan hospital director, who has been reportedly detained during the raid. The WHO lost contact with him since the raid began.”

Chris Hedges: Catastrophe for the Palestinians and the region

Syria’s De Facto Leader Says It Will Take Four Years To Hold Elections

Syria’s de facto leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, also known as Ahmed al-Sharaa, said in an interview published on Sunday that it may take up to four years to hold elections and three years to draft a new constitution.

“The process of writing the constitution may take about three years, and we look forward to a constitution that lasts for the longest possible period, and this is a difficult and lengthy task,” Julani, the former leader of al-Qaeda in Syria, told Al-Arabiya. “Organizing elections may take four years; any valid elections will require a comprehensive population census.”

Julani and his group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, took over Syria after former President Bashar al-Assad fled on December 8. Julani has appointed HTS officials to senior positions in the new “transitional government,” including Anas Hassan Khattab, another former al-Qaeda commander who was named Syria’s intelligence chief.

Media Already WHITEWASHING Terrorists Running Syria! w/ Max Blumenthal

Syrian minorities under threat as security forces carry out raids against 'remnants of Assad militias'

The new Syrian government led by former Al-Qaeda leader Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani is carrying out raids and arrests against members of Bashar al-Assad’s fallen government amid reports of sectarian killings of minorities by forces associated with the new government.

The state-run Syrian news agency SANA reported on Saturday that “a number of remnants of the Assad militias” had been arrested and their weapons and ammunition confiscated in Syria’s coastal Latakia region. Security forces have also been pursuing members of the former government in the regions of Tartous, Homs, and Hama in recent days.

The media office of Syria’s interim interior ministry said the campaign was only launched after members of the former government had failed “to hand over their weapons and settle their affairs” within a specific time frame.

Videos and reports circulating on social media indicate that former soldiers and civilians are also being expelled from their homes or abducted and executed by HTS militants for simply being Alawite.

The HTS-led Military Operations Command in Syria has set up "reconciliation centers" for ex-Assad government personnel to surrender weapons and receive temporary IDs, but reports indicate that numerous individuals have been abducted and found dead, even after having given up their weapons.

Report: US THAAD System Used in Israel for First Time To Intercept Houthi Missile

An American Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery that President Biden deployed to Israel earlier this year was used on Friday for the first time to attempt to intercept a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthis, Reuters has reported.

The attack came after Israel bombed the Sanaa International Airport in Yemen, almost killing the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Houthis said they launched a missile at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in response.

The Israeli military said the Houthi missile was intercepted by Israeli air defenses, but it’s unclear if it was the THAAD that actually downed the missile. The Reuters report said “an analysis” of the THAAD missile launch would determine its success.”

Lavrov Says Russia’s ‘Not Satisfied’ With Proposals From Trump Team To End Ukraine War

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Sunday that Moscow was “not satisfied” with reported proposals being discussed by President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team to end the war in Ukraine.

Recent media reports have said Trump’s team proposed the idea of Ukraine pledging not to join NATO for at least 20 years as part of a potential peace deal. Another report said Trump wants European troops to deploy to Ukraine to monitor a future ceasefire.

“Judging by numerous leaks and Donald Trump’s own interview with Time magazine on December 12, he is talking about ‘freezing’ hostilities along the line of engagement and transferring further responsibility for confronting Russia to the Europeans,” Lavrov said, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

UnitedHealthcare Whistleblower: Claim Denial 'QUOTAS' Exist

Luigi Mangione Prosecution Is Corrupted By Healthcare Industry!

Nearly 7 in 10 Americans Say Insurers' Greed Played Role in UnitedHealthcare CEO Killing

In the wake of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in early December, some political observers were taken aback by the public response to the event, which included morbid humor and expressions of "Schadenfreude," in the words of one woman who had battled an insurance company to secure treatment for her mother's cancer.

But according to a new poll released by NORC at the University of Chicago Friday night, the belief that the for-profit health insurance industry's business practices were largely to blame for the apparent targeted killing of Thompson is far from a fringe viewpoint.

Sixty-nine percent of respondents placed a "great deal or moderate amount" of blame on healthcare coverage denials by insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare, for Thompson's killing.

Sixty-seven percent said exorbitant profits made by health insurers were to blame.

UnitedHealthcare, which reported $16 billion in profits last year, has garnered outrage for its claims denial practices. A Senate investigation earlier this year found the company was one of three that were intentionally denying claims made by nursing home patients who had Medicare Advantage plans and had suffered falls and strokes, in order to increase profits.

The company is also facing a class-action lawsuit over its use of algorithms to deny care.

Last year, a Commonwealth Fund survey found the 17% of Americans had been told by an insurance company that a medical claim was denied, and the poll suggested many patients and doctors feel powerless to stop companies like United from denying them care; more than half said they and their physicians did not challenge the insurers' decision.

That poll matched the results of the NORC survey released on Friday, in which 15% of respondents said they had had a claim denied.

The poll was released the same day that NBC News published an investigation showing that cancer patients are disproportionately affected by claim denials and insurers' requirements that they obtain "prior authorization" in order to receive life-saving care, an arduous process that can delay treatment and allow their condition to worsen.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year found that 22% of cancer patients did not receive treatment their doctors had prescribed because of denials or prior authorization requirements.

A survey of oncologists in 2022 found that 42% of prior authorizations were delayed by more than one business day, and 14% of the delays had a serious adverse impact on the patient.

The patients experienced "disease progression" 80% of the time and "loss of life" 36% of the time.

Insurers are increasingly relying on prior authorizations to delay or deny care for cancer patients, a 2023 study found. The number of nonspecialty oncology drugs that required prior authorization rose from 16% in 2010 to 78% in 2020. ...

Journalist Ken Klippenstein noted that the NORC poll included a nuance that was "sorely lacking in major media coverage" after Thompson's death, which at times suggested that people who acknowledged the insurance industry's deadly practices were "supporting" the fatal shooting.

The poll found that 78% of people believed the person who shot Thompson outside a hotel in Manhattan bore "a great deal" or a "moderate amount" of blame for the killing.

"Now compare that with the tsunami of corporate media op-eds and pundits expressing the sparkling insight that murder is wrong," wrote Klippenstein. "Yeah, we know. Episodes like these really show you how much contempt these elite media organs have for the public, which they apparently see as helpless children in need of a preschool level moral lesson."

"As the NORC poll shows, the vast majority of people know that, yes, of course murder is wrong—they just also happen to think there's more to the story than that," he continued. "And they're right: How can you have an honest discussion about any of this without addressing the Moloch-like industry that profits from denying people healthcare?"

But as Klippenstein wrote on Thursday, those who took part in that "honest discussion" in the days after Thompson's killing were branded as "extremists" not just by the media, but by law enforcement.

Days after the killing, Klippenstein wrote, the New York Police Department circulated an intelligence report on the suspected gunman, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione—but the report also included warnings about "ordinary people" who expressed sympathy for Mangione online.

"Warning of 'a wide range of extremists' that 'may view Mangione as a martyr,' the report's title singles out 'disdain for corporate greed," wrote Klippenstein, noting that the document was circulated to law enforcement and counterterrorism agencies nationally.

But as the latest polling shows, he wrote, "believing the health insurance industry is at least partly responsible for the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO is not some fringe position."

Tim Dillon MOCKS Dead United CEO At Netflix Roast

Kentucky police fatally shoot man while serving warrant at wrong home

Police in Kentucky recently shot a man to death in his home while they executed a search warrant that appears to have been intended for a different address.

Doug Harless, 63, lived in London, a southern Kentucky town of about 8,000 residents, and was killed by police officers at his home at 511 Vanzant Road on the night of 23 December. However, audio from local Laurel county emergency dispatchers – and obtained by Kentucky news stations – shows that the search warrant was intended for 489 Vanzant Road, as was repeated multiple times on a recording of the audio.

The owner of 489 Vanzant Road told news station WKYT that no one had lived at that address for months. ...

Surveillance video provided to local news by Harless’s neighbor showed officers arriving at his home at about 11.50pm, banging on the door and announcing themselves over the sound of barking dogs. The video shows officers moved around the perimeter of the house – with others on the porch – before the sound of five gunshots erupted. Separately, a voice is heard on dispatch audio saying: “Shots fired. 489 Vanzant Road.” Harless received medical attention at the scene but died there.

Police initially did not say whether Harless was armed. But, in a press release three days after the shooting, police alleged that he “produced a firearm and pointed it at officers”.

Republican congressman says party should drop ‘food fight’ over leadership

The US House member Mike Lawler attempted on Sunday to tease out two pressing issues facing the new Congress beginning in 2025, telling an American political talkshow that this was not the moment for his fellow Republicans to have a “food fight” over leadership in Capitol Hill and that the country “needs an immigration system that works”.

Both issues have dominated political headlines in recent days, as potential policy splits become apparent between far-right congressional Republicans and the executive team being assembled for their party leader Donald Trump’s second presidency beginning in January.

Lawler told ABC’s This Week that the US House speaker, Mike Johnson, should be re-elected despite Republican infighting over whether he should keep the position after his handling of negotiations over a government funding bill. ...

Lawler said: “We can’t get anything done unless we have a speaker” – including certifying Trump’s victory in the November election, which is scheduled to take place in early January.

“So, to waste time over a nonsensical intramural food fight is a joke. And I think my colleagues, if they didn’t learn anything from the [outgoing] Congress, it should be that we absolutely do not need a fight over the speakership,” Lawler said.

DELUSIONAL Joe Biden STILL Thinks He Would Have Beaten Donald Trump, REGRETS Dropping Out!

Biden reportedly regrets ending re-election campaign and says he’d have defeated Trump

Joe Biden regrets having pulled out of this year’s presidential race and believes he would have defeated Donald Trump in last month’s election – despite negative poll indications, White House sources have said.

The US president has reportedly also said he made a mistake in choosing Merrick Garland as attorney general – reflecting that Garland, a former US appeals court judge, was slow to prosecute Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January 2021 insurrection while presiding over a justice department that aggressively prosecuted Biden’s son Hunter.

With just more than three weeks of his single-term presidency remaining, Biden’s reported rueful reflections are revealed in a Washington Post profile that contains the clearest signs yet that he thinks he erred in withdrawing his candidacy in July after a woeful debate performance against his rival for the White House, Trump, the previous month.

While Biden and his aides have been careful not to blame Harris, they apparently believe the result would have been different if he had stood his ground, according to the Washington Post’s reporting. It is a view disputed by many Harris supporters, who blame the president for waiting too long before withdrawing, thus leaving the vice-president with little time to mount an effective campaign.

They also point out that Biden’s determination to seek a second term violated his 2020 campaign vow to be a “transitional” figure, who would pass the torch after one term after steering the country away from Trump’s presidency.

Former President and Human Rights Champion Jimmy Carter Dies at 100

Former President Jimmy Carter, who served just four years in office and went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of work promoting human rights and international peace, died on Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia at the age of 100.

His death was confirmed by his son and came close to two years after the Carter Center announced that the former president had stopped medical treatment for health conditions and was entering hospice care.

Rights advocates have credited Carter for his championing of the rights of marginalized people including Palestinians, even as the U.S. political establishment remains overwhelmingly supportive of Israel's violent policies in Palestine. ...

Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts," including his leadership during the painstaking negotiations that ended decades of conflict between Egypt and Israel in 1978. In his acceptance speech, Carter warned against the invasion of Iraq.

He published the book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid in 2006, comparing Israel's treatment of Palestinians to apartheid in South Africa. The book was treated as controversial, but he vehemently defended its central argument.

"The word 'apartheid' is exactly accurate," he told Democracy Now! "Palestinians can't even ride on the same roads that Israelis have created in Palestinian territory... The Israelis completely dominate the life of the Palestinian people."

In October 2023, the Carter Center issued a statement saying there was "no military solution" to the conflict between Hamas and Israel, and demanded a cease-fire.

Carter also distinguished himself among former presidents by speaking out against the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, saying the U.S. had become an "oligarchy with unlimited political bribery."

Climate crisis exposed people to extra six weeks of dangerous heat in 2024

The climate crisis caused an additional six weeks of dangerously hot days in 2024 for the average person, supercharging the fatal impact of heatwaves around the world.

The effects of human-caused global heating were far worse for some people, an analysis by World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central has shown. Those in Caribbean and Pacific island states were the hardest hit. Many endured about 150 more days of dangerous heat than they would have done without global heating, almost half the year.

Nearly half the world’s countries endured at least two months of high-risk temperatures. Even in the least affected places, such as the UK, US and Australia, the carbon pollution from fossil fuel burning has led to an extra three weeks of elevated temperatures.

Worsened heatwaves are the deadliest consequence of the climate emergency. An end to coal, oil and gas burning was vital to stopping the effects getting even worse, the scientists said, with 2024 forecast to be the hottest year on record with record-high carbon emissions.

The researchers called for deaths from heatwaves to be reported in real time, with current data being a “very gross underestimate” because of the lack of monitoring. It is possible that uncounted millions of people have died as a result of human-caused global heating in recent decades. “The impacts of fossil fuel warming have never been clearer or more devastating than in 2024 and caused unrelenting suffering,” said Dr Friederike Otto, of Imperial College London and the co-lead of WWA. “The floods in Spain, hurricanes in the US, drought in the Amazon, and floods across Africa are just a few examples. We know exactly what we need to do to stop things from getting worse: stop burning fossil fuels.”

‘They’re stuck’: Cape Cod seeing more whale, turtle and dolphin strandings

While Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is known as a popular vacation destination in the north-east US, it has built a reputation for an entirely different reason this year: animal strandings. Dolphins, whales, sea lions and turtles are turning up in large numbers on the beaches of the famous peninsula in a phenomenon that has experts scrambling to execute more rescue operations than ever before. The cause? Changing tides. ...

Experts say the influx of animals being stranded is due to the increasingly drastic change in tidal levels. On Cape Cod, the difference between low and high tide can be between 9 and 12ft (3-4 meters), which can be fatal to a dolphin if it becomes stuck on land, Sharp said. “While they can thrash around if they’re in shallow water, over a sandbar, and kind of squirm their way to deeper water, they need over a foot of water,” Sharp said. “Once that tide continues to drop, though, they’re stuck where they are.”

And dolphins are hardly the only ones endangered by the shifting tides. Linda Lory, the New England Aquarium’s rescue and rehabilitation manager, has been leading the effort to save “cold-stunned” turtles. Turtles become “cold-stunned” when they’re exposed to rapidly cooling waters, which often causes them to become weak and prone to health issues.

Many of the turtles facing this problem in Cape Cod are the critically endangered Kemp’s ridley species, which are notably the smallest sea turtles in the world. While Lory says it’s not unusual to see stranded hypothermic turtles wash up on beaches, “historically speaking, we are seeing higher numbers than usual”.

Peru Declares Environmental Emergency Over Oil Spill

At least seven beaches and the safety of local wildlife have been impacted by an oil spill in northern Peru, said the South American country's Environmental Assessment and Oversight Agency on Thursday as the government declared an environmental emergency.

The environmental watchdog, known as OEFA locally, said in a preliminary report that about 10,000 square meters of surface seawater have been contaminated by the crude oil, which spilled from a vessel at a terminal of the Talara refinery.

Petroperu, the state-owned oil company, was preparing to load the oil onto a tanker when the spill was detected at Las Capullanas beach.

The company has not disclosed exactly how much oil spilled, but OEFA said it has extended over an area of 116-566 acres. Petroperu has also not stated the cause of the accident.

Also of Interest

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

Israel Is Killing Civilians In Gaza On Purpose, And It’s Not Even Debatable

Israeli forces ‘sexually assaulted, beat and insulted women’ during Gaza hospital raid

20 Years After His Death, Gary Webb’s Truth Is Still Dangerous

Israel, Not the ‘Liberators,’ Will Decide Syria’s Fate

Six Scenarios for Syria

How Ukraine is Helping the HTS Militants Who Overthrew Assad

US-UK directing attacks on Russian military bases in Syria

Ukraine’s Reckless Drone Attacks Are Responsible for the Azerbaijan Airlines Tragedy

China Sanctions More US Companies in Response to US Military Aid to Taiwan

Trump sides with Musk on support for H-1B visas for foreign tech workers

Cellphone Seizures & the Courts

A Newly Declassified Memo Sheds Light on America’s Post-Cold War Mistakes

Donald Trump's SUPPORT For H-1B Visas Prompts FURIOUS DEBATE; America FIRST?

A Little Night Music

Willie Nix - Just Can't Stay

Willie Nix - Lonesome Bedroom Blues

Willie Nix - Try Me One More Time

Willie Nix - Nervous Wreck

Willie Nix - Prison Bound Blues

Willie Nix - Seems Like a Million Years

Willie Nix - Baker Shop Boogie

Willie Nix - Midnight Showers Of Rain

Willie Nix - Just One Mistake

Willie Nix - Let's Take A Little Walk