The Evening Blues - 10-26-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Mississippi Delta blues singer and member of the Mississippi Sheiks, Sam Chatmon. Enjoy!
Sam Chatmon - That's All Right
"Because when you kill 300 people, 400 people, who have nothing to do with the provocations Hezbollah staged, but you do it in effect deliberately by being indifferent to the scale of collateral damage, you're killing hostages in the hope of intimidating those that you want to intimidate. And more likely than not you will not intimidate them. You'll simply outrage them and make them into permanent enemies with the number of such enemies increasing."
-- Zbigniew Brzezinski
News and Opinion
Israel Is Committing A HOLOCAUST
White House Says Continued Civilian Slaughter “Is Going To Happen” In Gaza
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told the press on Tuesday that the continued killing of civilians in Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza “is going to happen”.
“This is war,” said Kirby. “It is combat. It is bloody, ugly and it’s going to be messy, and innocent civilians are going to be hurt going forward. I wish I could tell you something different — I wish that wasn’t gonna happen, but it is going to happen.”
“And that doesn’t make it right,” Kirby added. “It doesn’t make it dismissible. It doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to express concerns about that and do everything we can to help the Israelis do everything they can to minimize it. But that’s unfortunately the nature of conflict.”
Oh okay well as long as you’re going to “express concerns”.
The information interests of Israel and its western allies have been greatly served by framing this onslaught as a “war”, when that label doesn’t actually apply here. A war is when two nations or groups are in a state of armed combat with each other; one side may be more powerful than the other, but the combat is decidedly going two ways.
That’s not what’s happening here. Israel is raining high-tech military explosives upon civilian infrastructure inside a giant concentration camp densely populated with children, and every now and then a militant in Gaza fires back a type of rocket that is essentially a glorified firework which historically hardly ever kills anyone. Israel is killing civilians by the thousands and turning entire city blocks to rubble, while Hamas and other resistance groups in Gaza are doing some light property damage in what amounts to a performative display of defiance.
That’s not a war. That’s a massacre.
By calling this something that it isn’t instead of what it is, Israel apologists are able to respond to all criticisms of its actions with a shrug and a “This is war, man. War is ugly, what can I tell ya?” They wouldn’t be able to do that if they were addressing this atrocity truthfully.
The only thing truthful about Kirby’s framing was his statement that the slaughter of civilians is going to keep happening. The death toll from airstrikes in Gaza has reportedly surpassed 6,500, with the 24-hour periods from Monday to Tuesday and Tuesday to Wednesday both exceeding 700 deaths each. As Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp notes, this large escalation in deaths coincides with claims from Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel has escalated its bombing campaign.
This is all being funded and supported by the United States, who has been ramping up its military presence in the middle east in some pretty disconcerting ways. Not one but two US aircraft carrier strike groups have been deployed to the eastern Mediterranean since the killing began, and the Pentagon has told the press that it expects a “significant escalation” in attacks on US troops in the middle east in response to Israel’s relentless assault on Palestinian lives. US military advisers have been sent to Israel to help the IDF prepare for its ground invasion of Gaza, and as usual Australia is joining in the US warmongering by sending more troops to the middle east as well.
So we can expect a lot more killing in the near future, one way or the other. No meaningful pressure is being placed on Israel to stop butchering civilians, and an escalation into a broader war in the middle east is not at all outside the realm of possibility. Things could be headed in a direction that makes a genocidal massacre look like sunny days in retrospect.
Palestinian Diplomat: The U.S. Is Israel’s “Partner in Crime” in Deadly Assault on Gaza
Israeli bombardment claims over 700 lives in 24 hours as imperialist powers double down on support for genocide against Palestinians
Palestinian health ministry officials reported Tuesday that 704 Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes over the preceding 24 hours, making it the deadliest day since Israel’s bombardment of Gaza began over two weeks ago. The grim statistic coincided with statements by representatives of American and French imperialism underscoring their support for the savage slaughter of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Conditions in the enclave are worsening by the hour. Hospitals are being forced to reduce services due to a lack of fuel, which Israeli authorities are preventing from entering Gaza via the Rafah border crossing from Egypt. Even the UN Refugee Agency (UNRWA) reported that its operations in Gaza may have to be suspended within 24 hours if fuel supplies fail to arrive.
“We are hosting 600,000 people in over 160 underground facilities, including schools, medical facilities, and other buildings like warehouses … We’re so stretched that we have to open warehouses to receive the displaced,” said UNRWA director of communications Juliette Touma. “Supplies are also running out, so we will not be able to give any supplies to [Palestinians in Gaza]. We will not be able to do very simple things like start our fleet of cars or turn on the trucks and go pick up those supplies that are coming in from the borders.” ...
The ability of the far-right Netanyahu government, which is deeply unpopular within Israel, to resort to such brutal methods of collective punishment is due above all to the unconditional support it enjoys from the imperialist powers, first and foremost the United States. White House spokesman John Kirby emphasized Washington’s endorsement of the onslaught on Gaza, telling a Tuesday press conference, “This is war. It is combat. It is bloody. It is ugly, and it’s going to be messy. And innocent civilians are going to be hurt going forward.”
French President Emmanuel Macron became the latest leader from one of the major imperialist powers to visit Israel, appearing alongside Netanyahu at a Tuesday press conference to declare his unflinching solidarity with the genocide against the Palestinians. Macron proposed extending the international coalition formed to fight the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria and Iraq in 2014 to include Hamas. Countries fighting ISIS “should also fight against Hamas,” he said. An Elysee Palace official later added that France is available “to beef up what we are doing in the coalition against ISIS. We are available to include Hamas in [being targeted by] the coalition against ISIS depending on what Israel will ask us to deliver.” The comparison of the present war with the multi-national operations against ISIS is revealing, since the savage US-led war in Syria and Iraq led to the indiscriminate killing of tens of thousands of civilians. The “liberation” of cities like Mosul and Raqqa from ISIS control was achieved through their virtual destruction.
Israeli Tanks ENTER Gaza As Bibi Invokes Holy War
UN Sec. General Tells TRUTH About Palestine - Israel Demands He Resign!
UN chief ‘shocked’ by ‘misrepresentation’ of comments in row with Israel
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, was locked in a bitter row with Israel on Wednesday, saying he was shocked that the Israeli government had misrepresented remarks he had made to the UN to suggest he had justified the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October. Israel has called for his resignation, accusing him of a blood libel and announcing that it was withdrawing travel visas for UN officials, including the UN humanitarian coordinator, Martin Griffiths.
The personal tensions between Guterres and Israeli officials comes as UNRWA, the UN humanitarian agency for Palestinian refugees, warned that it was hours away from being forced to close its operations in Gaza, including the provision of hospital care, due to Israel’s blockade on fuel. Israel also vowed to stop UN officials coming to Israel in a bid to teach the UN a lesson.
Israel is furious that Guterres had suggested the attacks by Hamas could not be seen in a vacuum but followed decades of occupation. Guterres had also accused Israel of clear violations of humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip, and insisted that a humanitarian ceasefire was vital, a position that the US was close to accepting even if it would not use the term ceasefire, but instead a “humanitarian pause”. There were also reports that Israel was under pressure from the US to delay a ground invasion. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said a massive ground invasion by Israel would be a mistake.
Without mentioning Israel by name, a furious-looking Guterres made a press statement in New York recalling that in his remarks on Tuesday he had specifically said no Palestinian grievance could justify the horrendous attacks by Hamas. Rebutting the criticism and insisting it was necessary to re-establish the truth, he said “I am shocked by the misrepresentations by some of my statement … as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite.” ...
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, responded by accusing the UN of continued bias and hatred of Israel. He added: “It is a disgrace to the UN that the secretary general does not retract his words and is not even able to apologise for what he said yesterday. He must resign. The secretary general once again distorts and twists reality. He clearly said yesterday that the massacre by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. Every person understands well that the meaning of the words is Israel has guilt for the actions of Hamas or at the very least it shows his understanding of the ‘background’ leading up to the massacre that Hamas perpetrated.”
Heh, yep, I'm sure those settlers and their IDF protectors are going to listen to Brandon. (snort)
Biden says West Bank settlers ‘pouring gasoline on fire’ as Israel prepares for Gaza ground invasion
Joe Biden has called for an immediate end to Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, as Israel kept up its strikes on Gaza in preparation for a long promised ground invasion.
Speaking at a joint press conference with the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, the president said US support for Israel’s defence was ironclad, but criticised the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank by some Israelis.
“I continue to be alarmed about extremist settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank … pouring gasoline on fire is what it’s like.
“They’re attacking Palestinians in places that they [the Palestinians] are entitled to be, and … it has to stop now.”
Biden: Lost Lives Are ‘PRICE OF WAR,' NO CONFIDENCE In Palestinian Death Toll Data
Red Cross witnesses ‘utter chaos’ at Gaza hospitals as supplies run critically low
A Red Cross mission to assess the state of Gaza’s hospitals has described scenes of chaos and exhaustion in the face of a total blockade, a critical fuel shortage and relentless Israeli bombing. Experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) focused their visit on Tuesday on two of the main medical centres in Gaza, al-Quds and al-Shifa hospitals, and experienced first-hand the intense bombardment of residential areas.
William Schomburg, the head of the ICRC mission in Gaza, said both hospitals “are rapidly running out of fuel and medical supplies”.
“There are hospital workers who have been personally impacted by the conflict and lots of them have been on shift around the clock. They have not been able to go home for several days, working really under the toughest and most unimaginable of conditions in scenes of utter chaos, frankly speaking,” Schomburg said. “We saw individuals with severe burn wounds, children who had lost their lives, a large number of women, older people, people with disabilities.”
As well as being packed with patients with severe injuries from bombings, the hospitals are functioning as shelters for thousands of people displaced from their homes, who “feel like they have nowhere else to go”, Schomburg said. ...
The ICRC hospital visit confirmed the severity of the dearth of fuel for generators that power life-saving medical equipment and keep the lights on, as well as Gaza’s water system. The lack of water and sanitation is increasing the risk of an outbreak of cholera and other infectious diseases, piling a crisis on top of an emergency that many health workers fear is imminent.
Queen Rania of Jordan condemns west’s ‘silence’ over Israeli bombing of Gaza
Jordan’s Queen Rania has accused western leaders of a “glaring double standard” for not condemning Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians in its bombardment of Gaza. Rania, born to Palestinian parents in Kuwait, blasted western nations for opposing a blanket ceasefire and said their silence gave the impression they were “complicit” in Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
“The people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, we are just shocked and disappointed by the world’s reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standard in the world,” she told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself, and condemned the attack,” she said of the day when Hamas militants began a rampage that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped more than 220 others, Israeli officials say. “But what we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks, we’re seeing silence in the world.”
“Are we being told that it is wrong to kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint, but it’s OK to shell them to death?” Queen Rania asked. ...
Queen Rania said of the west’s refusal to back a ceasefire that “the silence is deafening and, to many in our region, it makes the western world complicit through their support and through the cover that they give Israel”.
State Department officials prepare dissent cables in opposition to Gaza assault
US State Department staff are preparing urgent dissent cables over Washington's support for Israel's relentless bombing campaign of Gaza, Middle East Eye can reveal.
Several sources told MEE that tensions are at fever-pitch within the department, as officials are growing increasingly frustrated with the Biden administration's open backing of what human rights activists are calling war crimes against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
MEE understands that several diplomats are torn between staying in their jobs to try and influence policy or leave in protest over Biden's unconditional support for Israel's bombardment and looming ground invasion. ...
The dissent cable is a document submitted through an internal channel that allows diplomats to raise concerns or issues against damaging US foreign policy decisions and follows rumours that "a mutiny" is brewing inside the State Department over Biden's unflinching public support of Israel's actions in Gaza.
Oxfam Accuses Israel of 'Using Starvation as Weapon of War' in Gaza
The humanitarian group Oxfam International on Wednesday accused Israel of "using starvation as a weapon of war" in the besieged Gaza Strip, where hunger and thirst are growing rapidly as just a trickle of aid has been allowed to enter the territory amid the Israeli military's relentless bombing campaign.
Citing United Nations data, Oxfam said in a statement that just 2% of the food that would have been delivered to Gaza prior to Israel's latest assault has been able to enter the strip since October 9, when the Israeli government announced a total blockade of the strip.
International law prohibits the use of starvation as a method of warfare.
In recent days, Israel has allowed several truck convoys carrying food, drinking water, and medical supplies to reach southern Gaza through the Egyptian border, but U.N. officials said that's nowhere near enough to meet the growing needs of Gazans, more than a million of whom have been displaced by Israeli airstrikes.
"The aid which resumed from Egypt over the weekend is a mere drop in the ocean of what is needed," Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Tuesday.
Oxfam noted Wednesday that "despite 62 trucks of aid being allowed to enter southern Gaza via the Rafah crossing since the weekend, only 30 contained food and in some cases, not exclusively so."
"This amounts to just one truck every three hours and 12 minutes since Saturday," the group said.
Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam's regional Middle East director, said in a statement that the situation in Gaza "is nothing short of horrific."
"Where is humanity?" she asked. "Millions of civilians are being collectively punished in full view of the world, there can be no justification for using starvation as a weapon of war. World leaders cannot continue to sit back and watch, they have an obligation to act and to act now."
The United Nations estimates that more than 1.6 million people in Gaza—roughly 70% of the enclave's population—are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Brian Lander, deputy head of emergencies at the World Food Program, toldReuters earlier this week that around 465 trucks of aid per day are necessary to help desperate Gazans who have resorted to drinking sewage-contaminated water and frequently skipping meals.
At best, according to Lander, 20 trucks of aid are reaching Gaza each day.
Oxfam said Wednesday that while some food items such as flour, oil, and sugar are stocked in intact Gaza warehouses, "many of them are located in Gaza City," making it "physically impossible to deliver items due to the lack of fuel, damaged roads, and risks from airstrikes."
Israel has been accused of bombing Gaza bakeries, where people have lined up in recent days to buy bread—sometimes waiting for hours just to get a loaf.
"The electricity blackout has also disrupted food supplies by affecting refrigeration, crop irrigation, and crop incubation devices," the group said. "Over 15,000 farmers have lost their crop production and 10,000 livestock breeders have little access to fodder, with many having lost their animals."
Oxfam implored the United Nations and U.N. member states to "prevent the situation from deteriorating even further" by backing an immediate cease-fire and allowing "unfettered, equitable access to the entire Gaza Strip for humanitarian aid."
"Every day the situation worsens," said Abi Khalil. "Children are experiencing severe trauma from the constant bombardment, their drinking water is polluted or rationed and soon families may not be able to feed them too. How much more are Gazans expected to endure?"
Israeli Military UPSET Israeli Hostages Are Being Released! Wait, Wut?!?!
Israel will flood Hamas tunnels with nerve gas under US navy supervision
Palestinian resistance groups expect Israel to flood Hamas tunnels with nerve gas and chemical weapons under the surveillance of US Delta Force commandos as part of a surprise attack on the Gaza Strip, a senior Arab source familiar with the groups told Middle East Eye.
Israel and the US hope to achieve the element of surprise in order to penetrate Hamas tunnels, rescue an estimated 220 hostages, and kill thousands of soldiers belonging to Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades, the source said in a statement, noting that the information comes from a leak originating in the US.
Middle East Eye cannot independently verify the information in the leak.
“The plan hinges on the element of surprise so as to decisively win the battle, using internationally forbidden gases, particularly nerve gas, and chemical weapons. Large quantities of nerve gas would be pumped into the tunnels,” the source said.
US Delta Force will oversee “large quantities of nerve gas being pumped into Hamas tunnels, capable of paralyzing the bodily movement for a period of time between six and 12 hours."
HOSPITAL STRIKE: NYT Disputes US, Israel Intel
Israel, Kiev Panic; Israel: UN SecGen Resign; China Russia Gain Ground UN; Kiev Avdeyevka Crisis
Ukraine ready to counterattack if Russia strikes energy plants, says Zelenskiy
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine is preparing for renewed Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure ahead of the second winter of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of the country – and that the country is ready to counterattack if targeted.
“We are preparing for terrorist attacks on our energy infrastructure,” Zelenskiy said. “This year we will not only defend ourselves, but also respond.” ...
Last autumn, the average Ukrainian household was left without electricity for weeks due to the strikes, which forced ordinary citizens to cut consumption in order to avoid overloading the power grid. A UN report said that Ukraine’s power-generating capacity had been cut by nearly half by the following April after Russia’s invasion. The country’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said that Ukraine had since repaired 80% of its main power grids and high-voltage stations to their prewar conditions.
Those strikes have resumed, with Russia increasingly relying on drones instead of missiles. On Wednesday, a Russian UAV strike appeared to target the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant in western Ukraine, with nearly 20 people wounded by an explosion and falling debris in the vicinity of the power plant. The attack did not appear to directly strike the power plant but did cut electricity to nearly 1,800 people in nearby towns.
Zelenskiy indicated that Ukraine was prepared to strike back, although it was not clear if he was referring to Russian energy infrastructure or other targets, including military bases and industrial sites.
Nearly one in four Americans believe political violence justified to ‘save’ US
Nearly one in four Americans believe that political violence may be justified to “save” the country, a national opinion poll has found.
The 14th annual American Values Survey, carried out by the non-profit Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in partnership with the Brookings Institution thinktank, offers a snapshot of America’s deepening polarisation and willingness to contemplate taking up arms.
Even as Joe Biden has sought to lower the temperature, support for political violence has increased over the past two years, the survey shows. Today about 23% of Americans agree that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country” – up from 15% in 2021.
The PRRI has asked this question in eight separate surveys since March 2021 but this is the first time that support for political violence has risen above 20% in the general population.
One in three Republicans believe that “true American patriots” may have to resort to violence to save the country, compared with 22% of independents and 13% of Democrats – all representing increases since 2021. Almost one in three white evangelical Protestants believe that patriots may have to resort to political violence to save the country, markedly higher than any other religious group.
Clarence T. Deadbeat:
Clarence Thomas failed to fully repay $267,000 loan for luxury RV, inquiry finds
The US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas failed to repay much – or possibly all – of a “sweetheart deal” to borrow more than $267,000 to buy a luxury motor home, a Senate committee found.
The existence of the $267,230 loan, made by the businessman Anthony Welters in 1999 and forgiven in 2008, was first reported by the New York Times. On Wednesday, the Times quoted Michael Hamersley, a tax lawyer and congressional expert witness, as saying “‘this was, in short, a sweetheart deal’ that made no logical sense from a business perspective”.
The original RV story came amid a torrent of reports, many by ProPublica, about alleged ethical lapses by Thomas, a conservative appointed in 1991 who has failed to declare numerous lavish gifts from rightwing donors.
In the case of the luxury RV – a Prevost Marathon Le Mirage XL – Welters loaned Thomas the money in 1999. The businessman told the Times: “I loaned a friend money, as I have other friends and family. We’ve all been on one side or the other of that equation.” But on Wednesday the Senate finance committee said it had now seen documents that showed an annual interest rate of 7.5% but no obligation to pay down the principal, only annual interest payments of $20,042. “None of the documents reviewed by committee staff indicated that Thomas ever made payments to Welters in excess of the annual interest on the loan,” the panel said.
As described by the Times, when the loan came due, in 2004, Welters granted a 10-year extension “despite the fact that the previous year Justice Thomas had collected $500,000 of a $1.5m advance for his autobiography, according to his financial disclosures. Then, in late 2008, Mr Welters simply forgave the balance of the loan, according to the committee’s report.”
Ford and United Auto Workers’ union negotiators reach potential new deal
Ford Motor Company and the negotiators of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union have reached a labor deal, pending union leadership approval, several news outlets reported on Wednesday. A deal would be the first settlement of strikes against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
The deal is expected to provide a 25% wage hike through the life of the contract, including 11% to start, one of the sources said. Including compounding and cost of living, workers will get more than 30% under the tentative deal. The agreement will also reportedly reduce the time it takes new workers to reach the maximum wage –from eight to three years. ...
In a video posted on X, Shawn Fain, the UAW president said: “We reached an historic agreement.”
“For months, we said that record profits mean record contracts. And UAW family, our stand-up strike has delivered.” He said union leaders would seek to get the deal finalized over the weekend before seeking approval from members.
Getting the deal ratified will be up to Fain and UAW leaders, and it is not assured. UAW workers at Mack Truck earlier this month rejected a proposed contract agreed to by Fain. UAW workers at the company now called Stellantis rejected a proposal endorsed by UAW leaders in 2015.
Republican Mike Johnson elected House speaker after weeks of chaos
Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected speaker of the House on Wednesday, winning the top job in a party-line vote and ending a standoff that had stretched on for more than three weeks.
In the floor vote, Johnson won the support of all 220 Republicans who cast a ballot, while all 209 Democrats present voted for their leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Due to four absences in the chamber, Johnson needed 215 votes to become speaker. ...
Without a speaker in place, the House has been unable to advance any legislation. Biden has called on Congress to pass an aid package to assist America’s allies such as Ukraine and Israel, but the House could not take up such a bill until a new speaker was elected. Johnson said on Wednesday that the first measure taken up under his speakership would be a resolution expressing support for Israel amid its war against Hamas. ...
Even though the House is now open, Johnson’s challenges in uniting his deeply divided conference may be just beginning. Government funding is set to expire in less than a month, and Johnson risks causing a federal shutdown unless he can convince fellow Republicans to back a stopgap funding measure. That same dilemma caused the downfall of the last Republican speaker.
New GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson Has Proposed Trillions in Cuts to Social Security and Medicare
The newly elected Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has previously proposed trillions of dollars in cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and suggested that slashing the programs should be the top priority of Congress.
During his tenure as chair of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) between 2019 and 2021, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) helped craft budget resolutions that called for roughly $2 trillion in Medicare cuts, $3 trillion in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts, and $750 billion in Social Security Cuts, noted Bobby Kogan of the Center for American Progress.
Alex Lawson, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Social Security Works, said in a Wednesday statement following the speakership vote that the budget proposals released by the Johnson-led RSC also endorsed raising the Social Security retirement age, lowering annual cost-of-living benefit increases, and advancing privatization efforts.
"Multimillionaire Johnson has also made the outrageous claim that forced births are necessary to fund Social Security," said Lawson, referring to the Louisiana Republican's attempt to blame Roe v. Wade for depriving the U.S. of "able-bodied workers."
Lawson added that Johnson "recently joined the vast majority of House Republicans to vote for a commission designed to cut Social Security and Medicare behind closed doors."
DeSantis seeks to ‘deactivate’ pro-Palestinian student groups in Florida
A pro-Palestinian student group said Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate, was seeking to undermine free speech rights by moving to “deactivate” its chapters in the state university system, over its response to Hamas attacks on Israel and Israel’s strikes on Gaza in response.
“Governor DeSantis continues to disrespect American values such as freedom of speech to extend his political power,” the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) told the Tampa Bay Times.
“To bend the law in this manner shows the utmost disrespect not only to any pro-Palestinian organisation, but also to anyone who truly cares for political freedom and freedom of speech.”
The statement came in response to publication of a letter in which Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, said two SJP chapters must be “deactivated”.
DOZENS Of Confidential Informants Dished On Joe, Hunter Biden Criminal Activities: Grassley
Fossil fuel firms spent millions on US lawmakers who sponsored anti-protest bills
Fossil fuel companies have spent millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign donations to state lawmakers who sponsored anti-protest laws – which now shield about 60% of US gas and oil operations from protest and civil disobedience, according to a new report from Greenpeace USA.
Eighteen states including Montana, Ohio, Georgia, Louisiana, West Virginia and the Dakotas have enacted sweeping anti-protest laws which boost penalties for trespass near so-called critical infrastructure, that make it far riskier for communities to oppose pipelines and other fossil fuel projects that threaten their land, water and the global climate.
Another four states have enacted narrower versions of the same law, but which could still be exploited to issue trumped-up charges against peaceful protesters. Many were based on a “model bill” promoted by the industry-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec).
According to the report, nine of the top 10 companies that lobbied most for anti-protest bills since 2017 are fossil fuel companies, including US companies ExxonMobil, Koch Industries and Marathon Petroleum, as well as Canadian companies Enbridge and TC Energy (Trans Canada) In addition, 25 fossil fuel and energy companies have contributed more than $5m to state anti-protest bill sponsors in this timeframe, data from political finance trackers Open Secrets and Follow the Money shows.
According to Dollars v Democracy 2023: Inside the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Playbook to Suppress Protest and Dissent in the United States , a playbook of tactics has been deployed by corporations, law enforcement agencies and fossil fuel-friendly lawmakers in the US since the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protests at Standing Rock in 2016. This includes mass arrests, spurious litigation, intelligence sharing, harsh policing tactics such as water cannons and sophisticated public relations efforts to depict activists as troublemakers and extremists, the report says.
Earth close to ‘risk tipping points’ that will damage our ability to deal with climate crisis, warns UN
Humanity is moving dangerously close to irreversible tipping points that would drastically damage our ability to cope with disasters, UN researchers have warned, including the withdrawal of home insurance from flood-hit areas and the drying up of the groundwater that is vital for ensuring food supplies. These “risk tipping points” also include the loss of the mountain glaciers that are essential for water supplies in many parts of the world and accumulating space debris knocking out satellites that provide early warnings of extreme weather.
A new report from the UN University (UNU) in Germany has set out a series of risk tipping points that are approaching, but said having foresight of these meant that it remained possible to take action to prevent them. Tipping points are triggered by small increases in their driving force but rapidly lead to large impacts.
The risk tipping points are different from the climate tipping points the world is on the brink of, including the collapse of Amazon rainforest and the shutdown of a key Atlantic Ocean current. The climate tipping points are large-scale changes driven by human-caused global heating, while the risk tipping points are more directly connected to people’s lives via complex social and ecological systems.
“As we indiscriminately extract our water resources, damage nature, and pollute both Earth and space, we are moving dangerously close to the brink of multiple risk tipping points that could destroy the very systems that our life depends on,” said Dr Zita Sebesvari, at UNU’s Institute for Environment and Human Security. “We are changing the entire risk landscape and losing our tools to manage risk.”
Another risk tipping point examined in the report is when groundwater aquifers are overexploited to the point that the wells run dry. Aquifers currently prevent half the losses to food production caused by droughts, which are expected to become more frequent due to global heating, the report said. The other risk tipping points covered by the report were the point when water supplies from melting mountain glaciers start to decline; when Earth’s orbit becomes so full of debris that one collision with a satellite sets off a chain reaction; when heatwaves pass the point when natural sweating can cool the human body; and when losses of interdependent wildlife species snowball into the collapse of an ecosystem.
Scientists discover why dozens of endangered elephants dropped dead
In May and June 2020, the death of 350 elephants in Botswana’s Okavango delta baffled conservationists and sparked global speculation about what had caused it. Elephants of all ages and both sexes were affected, with many walking in circles before dying suddenly, collapsing on their faces. Two months later, 35 more elephants died in north-western Zimbabwe.
At the time, the deaths in Botswana were attributed to an unspecified cyanobacterial toxin, government officials said, and no further details were published.
But tests on the elephants that died in Zimbabwe have finally come back and shown the cause was a little-known bacterium called Pasteurella Bisgaard taxon 45, which resulted in septicaemia, or blood poisoning. The bacterial infection has not previously been linked to elephant deaths, according to the paper published in the Nature Communications journal. Researchers believe it could have been the same one responsible for the deaths in neighbouring countries. ...
African savanna elephants are declining by 8% a year, primarily due to poaching, with 350,000 remaining in the wild. The paper suggests that infectious diseases should be added to the list of pressures they are facing.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Israel’s Coming Attack on Gaza: Boundary Conditions and Delay
Craig Murray: The Chances of a Regional War
Un SecGen Calls For End Of Zionist Bombing
All Israel Apologists Have Are Ad Hominem Attacks
How bombings, blockades and import bans caused Gaza’s water system to crumble
Germany’s Ban on Public Solidarity With Palestine
Xi says China willing to cooperate with US as hopes rise for talks with Biden
Pro-Israel War Propaganda and Censorship
House Approves Resolution Backing Israel in New Speaker’s First Move
Ukraine's Sudden High Air Losses Likely Caused By New Russian Missiles
The Lost Chance For Peace In Ukraine & What It Will Cost
Carrots farms v valley: the battle over a water-depleted California region
Al Jazeera Gaza Chief Family KILLED
WATCH: Gaza's Shocking DECIMATION On Satellite Pix; Rep Massie STANDS AGAINST War Resolution
A Little Night Music
Mississippi Sheiks - The World Is Going Wrong
Sam Chatmon - Corrina
Sam Chatmon - Let's Get Drunk Again
Chatmon Brothers - What's The Name Of That Thing?
The New Mississippi Sheiks - When I Come Home, Who's Going Out My Back Door
Sam Chatmon - Trouble In Mind
The Mississippi Sheiks - He Calls That Religion
Sam Chatmon - Go Back Old Devil
Mississippi Sheiks - I am the Devil
The Mississippi Sheiks - Sittin' On Top of the World
The Mississippi Sheiks - Honey Babe Let The Deal Go Down
The Mississippi Sheiks - Livin' In A Strain
Comments
It's not complicated, Israel is an apartheid state
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
evening ggersh...
yep, it's not at all complicated. it's a colonial narrative much like all the others with a couple of added elements for plot confusion.
have a great evening!
Now that a special kind of irony
.
Israel is going to gas Palestinians. Will that act finally wake the world up and see Israel for what it is? Probably not, but where is the humanity indeed. Israel can easily turn the water and electricity on again and that will do much more than letting a few aid trucks in and it will reach more people. Funny how president
BlinkenBiden isn’t telling them to do that.Here’s another good article on What happened on October 7th. More evidence that Israel’s troops killed Israelis and not Hamas. Pictures of homes bombed by weapons that Hamas didn’t have. And no I am not excusing what they did. I’m pointing out that Israel is lying about a lot of the things that they are blaming on them.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Somewhat related. This is what happens when you control
the media.
Just like what was happening in Ukraine the same thing is occurring in Gaza. Claims by government sources are taken as the "gospel truth" without any form of fact checking while any information that comes from the perceived enemy is usually treated as less than credible.
eg:
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-palestinians-live-updates-57...
evening snoopy...
when i read that israel was going to gas the palestinians some really dark humor went through my mind. these days it seems like israel can't decide if it wants to be the nazi war criminals that gassed civilians or the other western power war criminals that burned civilians with fire bombing.
I think they have chosen to be both
I had the same dark humor when I read about the gas too. It’s just so gd amazing to me what we are witnessing in Gaza and nothing is being done about it. By the time the Arab and Muslim countries decide to help them most will be dead from dehydration. How long has it been since Israel cut off water and electricity? And those 12 trucks are going to do jack shit for people further away from the crossing. Without gas or roads how are people expected to get there?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
yeah, i wish that the arab world would get its shit together. they really ought to start off with a total embargo on oil and gas going to western nations and get russia and other brics countries to join them in the embargo. that would be a step that might get some traction without a direct intervention. meanwhile they ought to start preparing for a direct intervention, because the israelis and their sponsors aren't about to stop even if their people are inconvenienced.
Agreed
I’m surprised that they haven’t done that yet too. Boy they sure acted like they were going to do something immediately, but so far it’s just been a lot of yada-ing. And what happened to the plan with Turkey and Russia doing it by sea? Bibi can just wait for all the Palestinians to die from lack of food and water before he goes into Gaza. If that happens what good will come from Iran to do something?
I just hope that some day the people who allowed this to happen will be haunted to their graves by the ghosts of 2 million Palestinians and especially the kids that they all watched being slaughtered! Hell if I can I will haunt them myself. Dante's 9th circle of hell is too good for them.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
well...
there's a cynical part of me that wonders if at least some of the assorted arab nations with ringside seats to the genocide are now waiting to allow israel to run up the scoreboard, so to speak, until the fact that they are conducting a genocide is absolutely undeniable. i would guess that at that point, they could wipe israel off the map with impunity, much like the western powers did to nazi germany.
It seems very clear to me that is what Israel is doing alread
Iran says that it has enough conventional bombs to wipe Israel off the map. Heh.. I think that’s fair since Bibi has already wiped Palestine off an actual map.
I just read that their military has gone into the West Bank and they are causing lots of mayhem. They busted up a water line so their plan is for people there to die too.
And is this why Biden is telling Israel to wait? So that he can get more assets in place for his wars against Iran AND Syria?
I’m betting that if this happens then those countries you mentioned will cut off their oil. The fcking neocons are determined to start WW3. I also read that 19 American troops have traumatic brain injuries after the attacks on their base. Iraq or Syria.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
It has started…
I still don’t understand why Russia hasn’t done something about this. Or why it has let Israel bomb at will and destroy their airports. But I saw that Russia has offered to let Iran use its air base.
John Helmer says that Biden is walking into a trap set by Iran, Russia and China and all have missiles that we can’t defend against. Guess the fcking neocons should have paid attention to their war games.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Lol…busted!
.
Yeah he was just in a hurry to go vote. Didn’t he say that he pulled the fire alarm because he thought it would open a locked door? I wonder what would happen if a citizen did what he did…
Sure, Bub. You were just trying to open the door, but after removing the signs and then pulling the alarm you never tried going out that door. The guy who has gotten the longest prison sentence for walking through the capitol should now only have to pay a fine like Bowman gets to. Or maybe Bowman should get his sentence.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
he even thinks like a school principal.
Israel is taking advantage of the fact that could do anything
without any repercussions as they have a carte blanche from the US and its puppets.
evening humphrey...
israel has always basked in the warm glow of u.s. vetoes at the security council. i think that there is a limit to the tolerance of the world for the antics of the u.s. and israel - a limit that we may be getting close to. i dunno, these things are hard to predict the timing of.
lol…
Guess that’s where I read it. Too many tabs open and getting lots of information in my brain.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
War against Iran and a thing about Taylor Swift
Alexander Mercouris is warning that sending additional carrier groups to the Middle East may signal attacks on Iran. Michael Tracey is warning that the fundamentalist Christians are in full support of war with Iran.
Taylor Swift is in the mass media big time. I think she purchased the headlines even from major outlets early on. I remember some outlets writing about her concerts for no apparent reason until it snowballed. Now we are getting paid propaganda.
evening mr w...
heh, i am certain that mercouris and tracey are absolutely correct. the neocons have been hot to get their war on with iran for ages now and the crazy christers have been hot to get armageddon started so jeebus will come back - and brandon appears to be ready to give it to them.
I agree with Ritter's remarks on this
Recently, I heard MacGregor basically saying the impact of US forces offshore in the middle east is over rated. Times and tactics have changed. The downside of direct engagement is too great. Most targets in Iran are too far away. Does the US really want to interfere with the world oil supply? It's a very bad idea. I don't think the US is in a favorable position for trying to go for broke in the middle east.
語必忠信 行必正直
Especially after Biden drained the strategic oil reserve
For some reason democrats refused to let Trump refill it when oil was at $24, but now it’s up over $80 and Biden will be screwed if the oil is cut off. He drained it to help democrats win the midterms. Good luck winning reelection if gas is over $5 or more.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
A mere coincidence!....... I don't think so.
“Israel is now a full-scale dictatorship“ (Mondoweiss)
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/israel-is-now-a-full-scale-dictatorship/
evening lotlizard...
well, uh, so much for that democracy thing.
Just read that Israel has given the police
permission to use live bullets and to kill anyone who blocks roads during protests. The gist is that any Arabs who tries this will be shot on sight. No word if that applies to the Jews who are against the extermination of Palestinians. Israel is losing any morals it had or claimed to have.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
This says the same thing.
Yep that’s what I saw
I read the article about it that I think is posted in naked capitalism links today.
Thanks.
I’m reading how the plans to push Palestinians into the Sinai desert was okay’d by America many years ago. It’s no wonder that Biden and the western leaders are fully behind the genocide. One way or another Israel gets all of Palestine.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I wonder how Israel thinks this will work out.
Like all cultists and nationalists (and sociopaths), Israel always thinks about benefitting itself, first and foremost. This type of self-absorbed ‘group’ tends to isolate itself in a physical and emotional bubble of their own making. No outsiders are welcome. They have no empathy for the feelings of outsiders. They regard the social discord that results from their bold assertiveness of self-interest to be outsider envy or hate. Activism and counter-reactions to their exceptional motives and aggressive actions, are repackaged as discrimination and antisemitism, while they cast themselves as victims. They eschew self-reflection, which explains why their narratives sound tone-deaf and insensitive to much of the outside world, especially among the Global South. They divide outsiders into either allies or enemies, and regard neutrality as sabotage or betrayal. Meanwhile, they and their closest allies are the world’s leading experts in gaslighting and abusing the rights of entire populations.
I may be describing Israel in the paragraph above, however, I could be describing the United States, if you replace the sentence highlighted above with this one:
Activism and counter-reactions to their exceptional motives and aggressive actions, are repackaged as state-sponsored terrorism, while they cast themselves as victims.
I believe the effectiveness of their long-standing hypocritical propaganda has reached its expiration date around the world. The emerging global generations — individuals from age 10 to 25 and 26 to 40 years old — are witnessing the current human genocide of an abused population. They see what is taking place in real time, on the Internet and on television. These generations do not have a personal historical context for what they see. The manipulative propaganda and excuses that they hear do not blind them to the terrible reality the is unfolding before their eyes. This is their very first ‘holocaust’ experience. In the minds of these emergent generations, Israel will likely be branded as a nation of unspeakable Evil and despicable Lies.
There is no way for the state of Israel to recover from this carnage, not for at least another century. Perhaps longer. Israel will simply come to represent the dregs of humanity — a sick religious cult that spreads selfishness, greed, non-inclusiveness, and bad faith wherever they have influence. The dark shadow on their culture won't be loud or noisy. It will simply be a known fact of the world that we live in. The Jews were right when they insisted that they deserved a homeland that would their own kind from anywhere in the world. But they picked the wrong location from the choices they were given.
Even Albert Einstein recommended a different homeland location for Jews, which still exists, with its own university. But it won’t be easy for English speakers to find it online and learn about the greed-based mistake that was made.
.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Hi Pluto
You describe well, the nature of entitlement and victimhood. Not before we all take personal responsibility for where we find ourselves, will matters improve. That requires an impulse toward self-reflection.
Self-reflection and reform.
Agreed. Without that, there will be endless catastrophes caused by the alien behaviors of sociopathic cultures.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
I guess as long as we can't escape
sociopathic cultures, we are pressed to dig down deep into the cultivation of empathy.
Most of the "choices" were bad ones
Anywhere in Africa was highly problematical due to climate and/or carnivorous wildlife and/or hostile natives (the Palestine situation all over again).
Einstein only toyed briefly with the idea of supporting a new Jewish homeland in Peru, then dropped it as impractical. Other places in Central or South America...see Africa.
Anywhere in Europe was out of the question 1933-1945 and too bitter to contemplate thereafter (yes, even today).
Nowhere else had enough serious longterm backing to make it work.
The fundamental problem was (and is) that the extremist Zionists were not and are not going to be satisfied with anything less than the entirety of Mandatory Palestine - all of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine
No matter what, or who, stood in the way.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
You missed the location of the homeland
...that is still functioning as a Jewish homeland, today.
It is a geopolitical secret that is successfully kept from Americans.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Never heard this before
Where is it?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I suspect he means the USA
Nothing official about it. but....
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
hmmm...
well, if i am remembering correctly, there were two proposed jewish homelands in the u.s. - grand island, new york (right outside of buffalo in the niagara river) and sitka, alaska. both of those options failed.
Not the USA.
I am surprised how completely it's been erased from the Internet.
The Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Russia
Current Photos of Birobidzhan
Wikipedia has a report on the capital city Birobidzhan — with typical American characteristics.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Russia?
If not then don’t be shy. Spill.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I added the links.
Not a large Jewish population, but Yiddish is still spoken. Also populated by Ukrainians and Koreans. Located where Russia and China meet. Someday it will likely be part of the Belt and Road. It's serviced by the Siberian Railroad. Beautiful, resource-rich lands on one of Russia's largest rivers.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Well, here's the current distribution list
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_population_by_country
If the reference is to the Beta Israel (aka "Falasha") holdings in Ethiopia, most of them are gone now, due to a series of devastating famines and political upheavals that drove the survivors to evacuate to Israel (where they were not and are not particularly welcome, guess why :-P).
There actually are more Jews in Peru than remain in Ethiopia today.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
interesting...
it's been years since i read about it, but i vaguely remember reading that the community was largely wiped out by a couple of stalin's purges.
It depends on which publication you read
The anti-communist screed runs strong in the West. Stalin was a problem. Infrastructure was slow to develop. Living conditions were difficult.
The Conversation has an informative article
.
Bizarrely, the setbacks in Russia did not prevent a Jewish renaissance of sorts:
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
I didn't "miss" it
I figured it was covered under "Nowhere else had enough serious longterm backing to make it work".
"According to the 2021 census, there were only 837 ethnic Jews left in the JAO (0.6%)." (Wikipoo)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
“To see Jews as [merely] equal is antisemitic”
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/to-dislike-certain-ethnicities-is-racist...
wow!
the danger of magic books laid bare before your eyes.
Hmmm…
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.