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"Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves."

-- Eric Hoffer

News and Opinion

The Toilet Paper Dome

Iran launched over a hundred missiles at military targets in Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Abbas Nilforoushan in last week’s Israeli assassination strike in Beirut.

Iran claims 90 percent of its missiles reached their target, a figure which is impossible to confirm or refute since the Israeli military is censoring information about impact location and damage. Video footage has emerged of explosions on the ground and craters from where the missiles landed, however, which means they weren’t intercepted by Israel’s so-called “Iron Dome” missile defense system.

So it turns out the Iron Dome is mostly narrative, just like everything else about Israel. The aura of imperviousness that Israel works so hard to convey to both its enemies and its citizenry has been punched full of craters as the world is shown evidence that Israel’s defenses are only good against the homemade rockets used by Palestinian resistance fighters. Iran has demonstrated in no uncertain terms that it has the ability to hurt Israel if it wants to.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says the US will be working with Israel to help make sure Iran faces “severe consequences” for its strikes, so it looks like this could get ugly.

Western officials are predictably denouncing the Iranian strike as a “dangerous escalation”, having had nothing to say about any of the horrific western-backed escalations which led to this point, like the year-long mass atrocity in Gaza, the invasion of Lebanon, or Israel’s constant assassination strikes in neighboring nations.

After talking about the Iranian attack as a brazen and unacceptable escalation, State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller was asked by the press if he considered anything Israel has done in the past three weeks escalatory. Miller ridiculously refused to acknowledge any escalatory behavior on Israel’s part, saying instead that Israel had merely “done things to expand the conflict” in order to fight terrorism.

We’ve been seeing similarly bizarre linguistic gymnastics from the mainstream press since Israel began its invasion of Lebanon, with the mass media instead using phrases like “raids”, “ground offensive”, “ground operation”, and “Israel Enters Lebanon” in its headlines in order to avoid the word “invasion”. This is the same media class that used to ridicule Russia for calling its invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation”.

The word you’re looking for is “invasion.”

Israel is invading Lebanon, a sovereign country. pic.twitter.com/8fy9JLb29p

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) September 30, 2024

That’s right, kids: Iran’s attacks “escalate”; Israel’s attacks “expand the conflict”. Lebanon’s attacks are “terrorism”; Israel’s attacks are “self-defense”. Russia launched an “invasion”; Israel launched a “limited ground operation”. Destroying Gaza is a “response to October 7”; October 7 was “unprovoked”. When their guys do it it’s bad, when our guys do it it’s cool.

Hypocrisy runs rife throughout the western empire because the western empire is not what it pretends to be. It pretends to stand for peace and stability when it really stands for war and domination. It pretends to stand for human rights when it really stands for tyranny and abuse. It pretends to stand for truth and justice when it really stands for lies and propaganda.

This is the dystopia we were born into, and it’s got us on a trajectory toward somewhere very bad. Buckle up.

The Looming Catastrophe in the Middle East (w/ Gideon Levy) | The Chris Hedges Report

Israel vows to retaliate after Iran launches unprecedented missile attack

Israel has vowed to retaliate after Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at targets across Israel in a dramatic intensification of a conflict that appeared to be escalating out of control. “Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it,” Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of his security cabinet late on Tuesday. “The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies.” ...

Israel’s military said it was not aware of any injuries from the missile attacks, but the Palestinian civil defence authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank said a man was killed near Jericho and falling rocket debris had caused damage and started fires in the area.

Iran said it launched the missiles toward three Israeli military bases as retaliation for a series of Israeli strikes in Lebanon against its proxy Hezbollah that has devastated the southern suburbs of Beirut, the capital, as well as villages in the country’s south.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, hailed the attack as “a decisive response to the aggression of the Zionist regime”, adding: “Let Netanyahu know that Iran is not a belligerent, but it stands firmly against any threat … Do not enter into a conflict with Iran.”

The order to launch missiles at Israel was made by the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, senior Iranian officials told Reuters.

Iran's Missile Attack On Israel: EXPLAINED

Missile attack on Israel signals that widely feared regional conflict has ignited

The sight of missiles descending on Tel Aviv on Tuesday night was the clearest sign imaginable that the regional conflict so widely feared over the past year may finally have ignited.

This is the second Iranian aerial attack on Israel in less than six months, but last time there was several days’ notice; the much slower drones and cruise missiles arrived first, and the principal target was a military base in the underpopulated Negev desert.

This time, the ballistic missiles arrived first at the end of a 12-minute flight time and the targets appear to have included dense urban areas. In the local press, Israeli officials were being quoted as describing the assault as an Iranian declaration of war.

Despite the fact that there were no casualties, the fact that cities were targeted will be critical to Israel’s response. After Iran’s April attack, the reprisal was largely performative. The only target hit inside Iran was an air defence outpost on a military base near Isfahan.

After Israeli citizens were so clearly threatened on Tuesday night, Benjamin Netanyahu can be expected to respond in a far more comprehensive manner. The options will already have been drawn up, ready for the war cabinet to select, and the target list can be expected to be substantial. It could include Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Aaron Maté : Biden’s Apocalyptic Foreign Policy

Iran calls missile attack on Israel ‘legal, rational and legitimate’

Iran said its supreme leader made the decision to fire dozens of missiles into Israel as retaliation for the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the recent killings of leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, two of the main groups in Iran’s so-called axis of resistance. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said the decision had been made by Ali Khamenei with the backing of the supreme national security council (SNSC) and the Iranian defence ministry.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, hailed the attack as “a decisive response to the aggression of the Zionist regime”, adding: “Let Netanyahu know that Iran is not a belligerent, but it stands firmly against any threat … Do not enter into a conflict with Iran.”

The Iranian mission at the UN said the actions were a “legal, rational and legitimate response to the terrorist attacks of the Zionist regime, which involved the targeting of Iranian nationals and interests and infringing on the national sovereignty of Iran”. It added that, should Israel “dare to respond or commit further acts of malevolence, a subsequent and crushing response will ensue … Regional states and the Zionists’ supporters are advised to part ways with the regime.”

Iranian officials added there were further waves of ballistic missiles ready to go and said the launch of the attacks was signalled to western forces in advance. It was not clear if Middle Eastern states such as Jordan or Saudi Arabia played any part in protecting Israel’s defences as they were alleged to have done when Iran attacked Israel in April in response to the killing of Iranian officials inside a consulate in Damascus.

Joe Biden ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL As Israel And Iran Prepare For WAR

Well of course the idiot did.

Biden reaffirms US support for Israel amid Iran’s missile attack

Joe Biden has reaffirmed US support for Israel after Iran’s ballistic missile attacks, describing the barrage as “defeated and ineffective” and ordering the US military to aid Israel’s defense against any future assaults.

“The attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective, and this is a testament to Israeli military capability and the US military,” the US president told reporters on Tuesday after Tehran launched an unprecedented salvo of 180 high-speed ballistic missiles.

US destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea destroyed several Iranian missiles, US defense officials said. Vessels currently in the region include the USS Arleigh Burke, USS Cole and USS Bulkeley. Additional destroyers are in the Red Sea.

“Make no mistake, the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel,” Biden said.

Caught red-handed. So much for Genocide Joe being "livid."

The US Privately Encouraged Israel To Escalate in Lebanon

POLITICO reported on Monday that despite the Biden administration’s public calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, White House officials privately told Israeli officials that they agreed with the plan to escalate in Lebanon and shift its focus to the north. ...

The report said that Israel told the US of its plans to focus on Lebanon but didn’t offer much detail, and McGurk and Hochstein “relayed to their Israeli counterparts that — while they still urged a cautious approach — the timing was likely opportune for such a move, especially after Hezbollah had been significantly degraded in the months prior.”

The report contradicts public claims from US officials that they have been seeking a ceasefire in Lebanon and are working toward a diplomatic solution. But US actions have shown they do support Israel’s actions in Lebanon, as the Biden administration gave Israel $8.7 billion in new military aid amid the dramatic escalation.

War Profiteer Stocks Jump as Iran Strikes Israel

Mirroring Wall Street's response to Israel launching its assault on the Gaza Strip nearly a year ago, stocks of companies that make money off of war soared on Tuesday after Israelis initiated a ground invasion into Lebanon and Iran sent scores of ballistic missiles toward Tel Aviv and other targets.

Zeteo's Prem Thakker highlighted the performance by three key American multinationals—Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and RTX, formerly known as Raytheon—and noted that it came "while the wider market is down today."

CNBC similarly attributed the market's Tuesday trends to "growing tensions in the Middle East" and reported that another U.S. defense contractor, L3Harris Technologies, "advanced 3%."

Responding to Thakker's observations on social media, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) called the trends "so sick."

"Remember that members of Congress are permitted to own stock in war manufacturing, so when they vote to send more bombs or send our loved ones to war, they profit personally," added Tlaib, a critic of war in general but especially Israel's recent violence.

Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, has condemned the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza—launched after a Hamas-led attack on Israel—as genocidal. Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

Nothing makes the military industrial complex happier than a proper war. https://t.co/gPTJ5OFOrX

— Karim Makdisi (@KarimMakdisi) October 1, 2024

...

Meanwhile, there has been growing criticism of seemingly unconditional U.S. support for Israel's right-wing government in Congress. However, as Sludge pointed out Tuesday, some lawmakers are set to benefit from companies that are doing well thanks to the bloodshed and instability in the Middle East.

Defense contractor stocks are surging today on the news of Iran launching missiles at Israel.

Among those profiting? The dozens of members of Congress who own stocks in defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman. https://t.co/iTT2puvll9

— Sludge (@Sludge) October 1, 2024

Sludge cited recent reporting by co-founder David Moore, who detailed how "at least 50 members of Congress or other members of their households hold stock in defense contractors, companies that receive hundreds of billions of dollars annually from congressionally crafted Pentagon appropriations legislation."

"The total value of the federal lawmakers, defense contractors stock holdings could be as much as $10.9 million," wrote Moore, who analyzed 2023 financial disclosures and stock trades. "The most widely held defense contractor stock among senators and representatives is Honeywell, an American company that makes sensors and guiding devices that are being used by the Israeli military in its airstrikes in Gaza."

Israel Again Accused of Illegally Using White Phosphorus in Lebanon

Israeli forces were accused Tuesday of the war crime of firing white phosphorus artillery munitions over populated areas of southern Lebanon as Israel escalates an assault on its northern neighbor that has killed or wounded thousands of people.

Video footage published on social media and reported by Middle East Eye shows distinctive explosions that appear consistent with the use of white phosphorus rounds over civilian areas of southern Lebanon, including the village of Kfar Kila.

While white phosphorus munitions are not completely prohibited under international law, their use in populated areas is forbidden. White phosphorus round are primarily used to create smokescreens. However, when used as an incendiary weapon, white phosphorus—which ignites on contact with air and burns at nearly 1,500°F (815°C)—can maim and kill by burning flesh straight through to the bone, often causing a slow, agonizing death. Water does not extinguish it.

Israel is dropping white phosphorous on Lebanon - a chemical weapon which causes deep and severe burns to the skin and damages the eyes and lungs.

Another crime against humanity.

Barbarism is being livestreamed - sponsored by Western governments. pic.twitter.com/m5BNb3s7K4

— Fiona Edwards (@Fio_edwards) September 30, 2024

There have been multiple confirmed reports of Israeli forces firing white phosphorus munitions in Lebanon since the political and paramilitary group Hezbollah began attacking Israel with rockets, drones, and other weapons in solidarity with Gaza after Israel's assault on the Palestinian coastal enclave in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. ...

Israeli forces have also used white phosphorus in previous wars, including during the 2006 invasion of Lebanon and over a United Nations school during the 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead invasion of Gaza. Responding to a 2013 petition to Israel's High Court of Justice filed by human rights groups including Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Israel Defense Forces said it would no longer use white phosphorus in populated areas, with "very narrow exceptions" that it would not disclose.

U.S. forces used white phosphorus following the invasion of Iraq and elsewhere across the region during the post-9/11 so-called "War on Terrorism."

This is what the mainstream media *doesn’t want you to see*…

Israeli forces using banned white phosphorus ammunition’s in over 17 towns and cities in Lebanon…

If Hezbollah rained white phosphorus over Tel Aviv there would be wall to wall coverage and every major leader would… pic.twitter.com/FZiuLhRbo8

— Pelham (@Resist_05) June 5, 2024

Responding to Israel's earlier use of white phosphorus in Gaza, HRW Middle East and North Africa director Lama Fakih said: "Any time that white phosphorus is used in crowded civilian areas, it poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering. White phosphorous is unlawfully indiscriminate when airburst in populated urban areas, where it can burn down houses and cause egregious harm to civilians."

"To avoid civilian harm, Israel should stop using white phosphorus in populated areas," Fakih added. "Parties to the conflict should be doing everything they can to spare civilians from further suffering."

Fall of Ugledar. Zelensky exile plan

Justin Trudeau survives a second parliamentary confidence vote

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, has survived a second parliamentary confidence motion in less than a week after opposition parties vowed to keep his minority Liberal government alive for now.

Legislators in the House of Commons voted 207-121 to defeat a bid by the official opposition Conservative party to topple Trudeau, who faces increasing voter fatigue after almost nine years in power.

Last Thursday he easily brushed off an initial Conservative motion to bring him down.

California sues Catholic hospital for denying woman emergency abortion

California’s attorney general on Monday sued a Catholic hospital accused of refusing to provide an emergency abortion in February to a woman whose water broke prematurely, putting her at risk of potentially life-threatening infection and hemorrhage.

The Democratic attorney general, Rob Bonta, accused Providence St Joseph hospital in Eureka of discriminating against pregnant patients and violating the state’s law requiring hospitals to provide necessary emergency care. The lawsuit, filed in Humboldt county superior court, seeks a court order to stop the hospital from denying medically necessary abortions in the future, as well as civil penalties. ...

At a news conference on Monday, Nusslock said that doctors at Providence agreed that she needed an abortion to avoid life-threatening complications. However, doctors said that they could not provide one because the Catholic-affiliated hospital’s policy prohibited any intervention while they could hear “fetal heart tones” unless her life was in immediate danger, Nusslock added.

Before she left for the nearby Mad River community hospital, a nurse gave her a bucket full of towels “in case something happens in the car”, Nusslock said. The hospital’s policy “inflicted on me needless protracted pain, bleeding and trauma”, Nusslock added.

Bonta said Nusslock’s ordeal was reminiscent of women’s experiences in Republican-led states where abortion is banned. In California, Bonta added, the law is clear that hospitals must provide an abortion if it is medically necessary.

US justice department announces investigation into Tulsa race massacre

Late Monday, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced it plans to launch the first-ever federal investigation into the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, in which hundreds of Black Tulsans were killed, thousands were displaced and forced into internment camps overseen by the national guard, and Greenwood, the thriving district once known as “Black Wall Street”, was decimated, looted and burned by a racist mob.

The review, launched by the civil rights division’s Cold Case Unit, comes after a major setback for survivors and descendants of the massacre. In June, Oklahoma’s supreme court dismissed a lawsuit brought by two survivors, Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109, and Viola Fletcher, 110. In July, the women once again called for Joe Biden and the justice department to intervene.

Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general who announced the DoJ review, called the Tulsa race massacre “one of the deadliest episodes of mass racial violence in this nation’s history”.

“We honor the legacy of the Tulsa race massacre survivors, Emmett Till, the Act that bears his name, this country and the truth by conducting our own review and evaluation of the massacre,” Clarke said, announcing that the review should be finalized by the end of the year. “We thus are examining available documents, witness accounts, scholarly and historical research and other information on the massacre. When we have finished our federal review, we will issue a report analyzing the massacre in light of both modern and then-existing civil rights law.”

Private equity firms ploughing billions into fossil fuels, analysis reveals

Private equity firms are using US public sector workers’ retirement savings to fund fossil fuel projects pumping more than a billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere every year, according to an analysis. They have ploughed more than $1tn (£750bn) into the energy sector since 2010, often buying into old and new fossil fuel projects and, thanks to exemptions from many financial disclosures, operating them outside the public eye, the researchers say. In many cases they are mortgaging workers’ futures by taking the money they have put away for old age and investing it in assets that risk serious damage to the climate, the report claims.

“Public sector workers’ money, through national, state, and retirement pensions, provides much of the capital for private equity firms’ energy investments, but there is limited disclosure to the pension fund managers that the deferred earnings of their beneficiaries have potential climate impacts,” it says.

Researchers at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, Global Energy Monitor and Private Equity Stakeholder Project assessed the holdings of 21 private equity firms, overseeing a combined $6tn in assets under management.

The report traces a trend of private equity firms swooping in as large oil and gas firms seek to shed older and dirtier assets and the bigger banks increasingly regard them as risky investments. Thanks to limited disclosure rules, regulatory loopholes and complex corporate structures, some of the dirtiest assets have come to be owned by relatively obscure investment outfits, the report says. This, coupled with the cost-cutting measures for which the private equity sector has long been notorious, has led to an increasingly dangerous situation, introducing further safety hazards, reliability concerns and environmental violations, the report says.

Also of Interest

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

Iran bombs Israel, but buck stops with Biden

US, Israeli officials demand major attack on Tehran after Iranian missile strike

Netanyahu buoyed by far-right support for Israeli land operations in Lebanon

Israelis Will Dance Again, Vows BBC Film

John Mearsheimer Is Not Very Impressed With Israel’s Shock and Awe Campaign Against Hezbollah

Israel - Invading Lebanon To Prolong And Expand Its Supremacists War

Iran Hammers Tel Aviv & Israel

Washington Enters Panic Mode As Even Javier Milei’s Argentina Seeks Closer Economic Ties With Beijing

‘Pattern of negligence’: a chemical plant fire in Georgia forces tens of thousands to take shelter

Did Mexico's New Prez Claudia Sheinbaum Belong to M-19 ?! Rafael Bernal Weighs In

Assange’s FIRST WORDS After Release From Prison!

A Little Night Music

The James Harman Band – Snakes

James Harman - Green Snakeskin Shoes

James Harman - My Little Girl

James Harman - Three Way Party

James Harman -Too right to run

James Harman - Lonesome Moon Trance

The James Harman Band – Voodoo Love

James Harman - Stranger Blues

James Harman Band – If You Lose Your Money

James Harman - Grindin' Bump