Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Disgusting Mayim Bialik and her gal pal Bari Weis


It just needs to be said: Mayim Bialik is trash.  Back in 1994, SNL did a skit.  You saw that from the whiner, right?  It destroyed her.  She was a child!  And it was so anti-Semitic because the SNL actress wore a fake big nose!!!!

STFU.  I've had it with that woman.  She wasn't a child.  She was an adult (18 is when you become an adult and she was 19).  It wasn't picking on Jewish people, it was picking on her.  She's got a big nose.  She didn't realize that?  I'll go further, she's got an ugly nose.  From the side that thing is frightening.

I've never said that about Barbra Streisand's nose.  She's got a big  nose (as do I) but she's got a very attractive nose.  Mayim's looks like an evil bird.


Why am I writing about ugly and evil anti-vax idiot Mayim?

Her roll dog's in the news.  Mayim brought transphobe Bari Weiss onto her program this year.  Twice, it turns out.  The first time was enough for those of us who endured the final season of Call Me Kat.  We walked away after she made nice with Bari Weiss.

Well conservative goon and liar Bari is back in the news.  She got arrested for public exposure -- she went outside without a mask and 200 people began retching.

No, seriously, she's claiming that the genocide taking place in Israel is causing a reawakening in the US.

She is so out of touch.  She really is.

Yes, Bari, you idiots -- that includes Mayim -- who confuse the government of Israel with the Jewish people are up in arms.

But the sane and educated people -- you know, Mayim, those of us that believe in vaccines -- are in the majority and, check the polls, we want a cease-fire and we want it now.  We see the Israeli government killing children with these bombings.  We see Gaza without electricity.  We see all of these War Crimes -- that is what they are, War Crimes -- and we are not on board.  

Bari and Mayim are insane.  And they're ugly.  

Time for Mayim to start another pity party, "She called me ugly!  I am a child!"

Anti-vax?  She wasted her money pretending to get an education.  


This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Wednesday, October 25, 2023.  Who painted the target on the backs of Americans in the Middle East, the assault on Gaza continues, the assault on humanity continues.


Let's start with Iraq.  Nisha Zahid (GREEK REPORTER) reports:

In a recent announcement from the The Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH), archaeologists have successfully unearthed a remarkable ancient Assyrian deity statue known as a “lamassu” in Kursbad, Iraq.

A lamassu is a special Assyrian guardian deity, usually portrayed as a mix of human, bird, and either cow or lion features. These unique beings typically have a human-like head, a body resembling that of a bull or lion, and bird-like wings.



In ancient Assyria, they often crafted pairs of lamassu sculptures and placed them at the entrances of palaces. These imposing figures faced both the streets and the inner courtyards.

What’s unique about these sculptures is that they were carved in high relief. When you look at them head-on, they seem still, but from the side, they appear to be in motion.

While we often see winged figures in the low-relief decorations inside rooms, lamassu were not commonly found as large figures in these spaces. However, they occasionally appeared in narrative reliefs. In these depictions, they seemed to take on the role of protectors for the Assyrians.

Ancient Assyrian deity statue in Iraq was discovered and then reburied

This discovery took place during their excavations at the 6th gate, situated in the western part of the ancient city of Khursbad.

Khursbad was originally built as a brand-new capital city by the Assyrian king Sargon II. He started this ambitious project shortly after he became king in 721 BC.


From historic to current, Laurie Mylroie (KURDISTAN 24) notes:

According to the count that [Pentagon Press Secretary Pat] Ryder provided on Tuesday, 10 of the 13 attacks were directed against U.S. forces in Iraq, while the other three targeted US forces in Syria.

Also on Tuesday, Reuters reported that there had been an attack that day on U.S. troops at Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq. However, Ryder could not confirm that, and he cautioned against crediting the widespread misinformation circulating about this issue.

Following Ryder’s briefing, the Pentagon provided data on the injuries to U.S. troops in those attacks. 

“At least 24 U.S. troops were hurt”, The Washington Post reported. The vast bulk of casualties came from one incident: an Oct. 18 strike against al-Tanf Garrison in southeast Syria, in which 20 U.S. troops suffered “minor injuries,” when “multiple one-way drones targeted the base,” the Post reported. 




Courtney Kube and Mosheh Gains (NBC NEWS) add, "An American civilian contractor died due to a cardiac incident during a shelter-in-place order, but it did not occur during one of the drone attacks."

So the policy US President Joe Biden is pursuing has put a target on the back of all Americans in Iraq and Syria if not throughout the Middle East?

I don't like Bully Boy Bush to this day.  He's a War Criminal.  And he deserved to be called out for his actions.  "Target on their backs"?  Remember that.  I believe THE NEW YORKER even did a cover illustration -- a drawing where a soldier in Iraq was depicted from behind with a red bulls eye target on his back.

Well that's what Joe's doing now.  

And it needs to be called out the same way it would if Bully Boy Bush were still occupying the White House.  

These knee-jerk policies are putting us all at risk.  And for what?  To destroy an indigenous people?  We object to that -- now, looking back -- when it comes to the Native Americans.  We object to that when we go see a James Cameron AVATAR film.  But we're okay with that when the native people being targeted, the indigenous people are Palestinians?


You know, there’s basically four global forces now that attract significant human political support across the entire world, and they’re climate change; #MeToo, gender equality; Black Lives Matter, which is antiracism; and Palestine. And Palestine is a global issue, and the Americans and the Israelis and most of the Europeans and now the Canadians, to a large extent, are too blinded to see this reality. So, they feel that we can send in more military force, be tough on TV, and it’ll work. But it doesn’t work. And so, there’s really time for a reassessment. And the Americans, of course, learned this in Vietnam. They learned it in Afghanistan. They learned it in Iraq. But they haven’t learned it. And the Israelis haven’t learned from their experiences, either.

So, resistance and defiance keep driving people in the Arab countries and elsewhere to push back against what the Israelis are doing. And we’re not saying get rid of all the Israelis or kill them. We’re saying let’s have a negotiated peace where there’s an Israeli state that’s predominantly Jewish, like it is now, with a Palestinian state, where the refugeehood and exile of the Palestinians has been resolved according to international law, and we have our sovereign state, and we live in peace. We have made this offer. The Arabs have made this offer repeatedly to Israel, but it’s not interested in that, because Zionism is a strategy, is an ideology, that wants to create a Jewish state in a land that was 93% Arab. And it succeeded. And it doesn’t want peace with the Palestinians. It wants all the Palestinian land, and they want it exclusively for the Jewish people.

You know, the world supported the creation of an Israeli state, and after the Holocaust, that was understandable. And not just the Holocaust, it was a century or more of white European, North American racism and antisemitism against Jews. The Jews were terribly mistreated by white racists in Europe and North America. And they came to the Middle East because they knew that they had always lived there. They were accepted in society as an integrated part of society. And the early settlers who came in the late 19th century and early 20th century up until around 1920, the Jews who came were very accepted in the region. There was no problem — they had always lived there — until it became clear, around 1930, that they wanted to create a state. They wanted to take over and drive out Palestinian Arabs and have a Jewish state. And this coincided with the rise of the Nazis in Europe, which significantly increased the migration of Jews out of Europe. And, of course, the United States and Britain refused to take them, refused to let the Jews come in.

So you have multiple dimensions of historical responsibility. But the final point is that we’re at a stage now where the world — we, and the world, increasingly, clearly see this as an anticolonial struggle aiming for a just peace, equal rights for an Israeli state and a Palestinian state and the other Arab countries whose lands have been ravaged or annexed or occupied by Israel. The Israelis are not interested in that. The Americans totally are uninterested in that. And so this is a real dilemma. What the world needs to study, more than, you know, what are Hezbollah’s motives, is what is the nature of North American and European white racist colonialism, because it’s still going on.


The policy is wrong -- it is criminally wrong.  UK SOCIALIST WORKER notes:

The United States is sending Israel military advisers who led massacres in Iraq. The intention is to pass on Western imperialism’s experience of urban warfare and how to destroy opponents.

One of the officers leading the assistance is Marine Corps Lt Gen James Glynn. He played a top role in the battles in the city of Fallujah.

In November 2004 the US dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the city killing Iraqi fighters and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.

The US government at first formally denied reports of its war crime. But a year later indisputable evidence emerged.


AMANPOUR & COMPANY (CNN) did a strong interview with Queen Rania of Jordan.  We noted that interview last night and we noted it from Rania's website because AMANPOUR & COMPANY have still not posted it online at their YOUTUBTE page..  



The points Rania's making need to be heard.  They especially need to be heard in the United States.  

"It's not about me, it's about speaking up for humanity," Rania rightly notes in the interview.


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 World Health Organization called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” Tuesday to allow for fuel shipments to reach Gaza. Six hospitals across Gaza have shut entirely due to a lack of fuel, the WHO said, and the al-Shifa Hospital, the Indonesian Hospital and the Turkish Friendship Hospital are struggling to maintain critical services. “Unless vital fuel and additional health supplies are urgently delivered into Gaza, thousands of vulnerable patients risk death or medical complications as critical services shut down due to lack of power,” the WHO warned.

The Israeli government reiterated yesterday its bitter opposition to any fuel shipments entering Gaza. Only eight trucks passed through the Rafah crossing late in the evening, five carrying water, two food, and one carrying medical supplies for 2.3 million people. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari asserted without providing any evidence that “Hamas uses it [fuel] for its operational needs.”

The Israeli military continued its indiscriminate bombing campaign throughout the day. It struck several targets in the south of the Gaza Strip, where Israeli government officials ordered over a million people to flee almost two weeks ago to ostensibly be “safe” from attacks. One air strike flattened a residential building in Khan Younis with dozens of casualties. Later in the day, a Gaza health ministry spokesman said that 50 people had been killed in air strikes within an hour.





AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

Health officials in Gaza say Israel’s unrelenting bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory has killed another 700 people over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll over the past 18 days to more than 5,800 Palestinians. Among them, 2,000 children are dead. One-point-four million Gazans, more than half of the territory’s population, has been displaced. Many say there’s no safe place to be in Gaza right now. The World Health Organization is pleading for far more aid to be allowed into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. We’re going to look now at Egypt’s response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and the negotiations over aid coming through Rafah.

We’re joined by Sharif Abdel Kouddous, independent journalist working with the Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr. He won a George Polk Award for his Al Jazeera documentary, The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. His latest piece for The Guardian is headlined “Israel’s endgame is to push Palestinians into Egypt — and the west is cheering it on.”

Sharif, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about all that’s taking place right now around the Rafah border crossing? And explain who it’s controlled by, and explain what Israel is calling on Egypt to do.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Thank you, Amy.

I think, well, first of all, we have to understand Egypt is the only country other than Israel to share a border crossing with Gaza. And what we’ve seen since October 7th is a lot of negotiations around what’s going to happen at this border crossing. So, as it stands right now, Egypt has insisted on allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza and has allowed multiple countries to deliver aid to Arish in northern Sinai. Countries like Jordan, Turkey, Qatar, the UAE have delivered thousands of tons of humanitarian aid that are kind of idling in these trucks at the border.

So far, since Saturday, something like 75 or 80 trucks have been allowed in, about 20 trucks a day. After a lot of negotiations, 20 trucks a day are being allowed in by Israel into Gaza. And this is nowhere near enough. You know, according to humanitarian organizations, they’ve called it a drop in the ocean. And just to give you a sense, 20 trucks a day amounts to about 4% of an average day’s imports before October 7th, before 1.4 million people were displaced, before 15,000 people were injured, before close to 6,000 people were killed. So, you know, the U.N. is saying that hundreds of trucks a day are needed. And on top of that, Israel has placed heavy restrictions on even that minuscule aid that’s coming in.

Well, firstly, Israel has bombed the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing four times since October 7th, even one time slamming into Egyptian territory at the border. But the aid, when it comes in, it travels to the Ouga-Nitzana border crossing with Israel, where it’s first inspected by Israeli authorities, and then it eventually gets into — goes back to the Rafah border crossing and goes into Gaza. This is a process that takes many hours.

But I think we have to understand that there’s two issues that really stand out on the restrictions. First of all, all deliveries of aid to northern Gaza are prohibited. So, none of this minuscule, even this like paltry amount of aid is getting to northern Gaza. You know, hundreds of thousands have evacuated from northern Gaza after Israel warned people to leave, but there’s still hundreds of thousands that remain. And just to give you a sense, the biggest hospital in Gaza is in Gaza city, Shifa Hospital. This is a hospital that usually, in normal times, has a capacity of about 700 patients. It’s currently overwhelmed with 5,000 patients. And you have something like 45,000 displaced people gathered in and around the hospital grounds seeking shelter. That’s according to the U.N. And none of the aid that’s coming in is getting to them.

But secondly, and very importantly, the aid that is coming in, none of it includes any fuel. Fuel is not being allowed to enter. And fuel is just absolutely crucial for so many things, perhaps most importantly for electricity to run generators. And without fuel, life-saving medical equipment, like incubators, ventilators, won’t work. And so this spells a death sentence for babies in neonatal wards and things like this. So, one official has called it, you know, that the aid coming in is more of a diplomatic symbol rather than actual meeting any humanitarian needs. But we have to see where this is going.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Sharif, I wanted to ask you: First of all, on the water situation, is all water still cut off by the Israelis? And secondly, isn’t the whole issue of Israel urging people to leave Gaza through Egypt a clear sample of ethnic cleansing? After all, Israel has many entrances on its side of the Gaza Strip, where it could allow women and children to come out of northern Gaza, possibly even bus them into the West Bank. But they’re clearly trying to get rid of the Palestinians, as many as possible, from their occupied territories.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Yeah, I mean, this is — I mean, first of all, on the issue of water, people have talked about there’s a real risk of dehydration to death. People are drinking now dirty water. The aid that’s coming in is not enough. You know, the first day, it provided water for about 22,000 people for a few hours, and we’re talking about a place which has 2.3 million people. And no water has been allowed in since October 7th. No aid at all has been allowed in, except for these small convoys. There has been a water pipeline that was — that is supposedly working near Khan Younis, but it’s not nearly providing enough.

And yes, this idea of — so, first of all, this order comes down from Israel — well, first of all, Netanyahu, when this all began on October 7th, took to the airwaves announcing a war against Hamas and telling people in Gaza to leave now, and saying — you know, he left unsaid where they’re supposed to go. But then there was this order to evacuate to the south: 1.1 million people were supposed to evacuate within 24 hours. And you see this kind of push towards the Egyptian border.

And from what we understand, reporting through Mada Masr, that Egyptian sources have told us that in those days in the beginning at least, there was a lot of pressure, and continuing, for Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing, to create a so-called humanitarian corridor and to allow for the forcible displacement of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza into northern Sinai, and that instead of the United States and other Western countries pressuring Israel for a ceasefire, pressuring Israel to allow in the necessary amount of aid, they have instead been pressuring Egypt to open the border and allow for this mass displacement, and have been offering economic incentives to Egypt to do so. We have to remember Egypt is undergoing a very severe economic crisis, with a massive amount of debt, with record-high inflation. And so, you know, there’s been talk of debt relief, of financial compensation, in order to allow for this kind of displacement.

Now, Egypt’s response has been kind of very staunch on this, actually. The president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has very publicly rejected this idea of having a form of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement and exile into Sinai. He has cited Egypt’s sovereignty in this. He has cited the Palestinian cause in all of this. He is even — you know, is drumming up and is riding a wave of public support for this, because Palestine, as we heard from Rami Khouri, is a touchstone issue for so many across the Arab world, for so many across the Global South. And this idea of what they call a second Nakba, a second catastrophe and a second mass displacement, is firmly rejected. So even Sisi called for protests on Friday, for people to take to the streets, and people did, in Cairo, in Alexandria and in other places, although some people carried on those protests into Tahrir, some were chanting revolutionary chants, and we haven’t seen that for many years. And actually, Egyptian authorities have arrested over a hundred people because of that. But, you know, I think many see Sisi’s stance as laudable, rejecting what is essentially an endorsement of a second Nakba.

But I think we have to remember that, you know, him citing the Palestinian cause really rings hollow. And we have to remember that Egypt, its concerns really are national security concerns, not wanting to have a mass population of Palestinians, who could launch attacks against Israel from northern Sinai, and not having to deal with a refugee crisis. Egypt, after all, has helped enforce the siege on Gaza for many years. It destroyed the tunnels that provided a lifeline to Gaza. It has allied with Israel in many different ways in security coordination. It has allowed Israel to conduct a covert air campaign, aerial bombing campaign in Sinai. And it also treats Palestinians coming in and out of Gaza, notoriously, with indignity. But so far, this idea of rejecting this kind of a mass exodus, I think a lot of people are supportive of that policy and, instead, trying to pressure Israel to allow humanitarian aid in.

AMY GOODMAN: Ultimately, Sharif, is it Israel, is it Hamas, is it Egypt, who is preventing that aid? As you said, we’re seeing dozens of trucks now, after weeks of not having anything, when in fact they’re talking about the need is something like 400 to 500 trucks a day. And also, when it comes to what happened this weekend in Cairo, the so-called peace summit of Arab leaders, what did they come up with?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, the peace summit didn’t actually come up with anything. There wasn’t a joint statement that was signed. Sisi and King Abdullah and others repeated condemnations of Israel’s bombing, of Israel’s siege on Gaza, and Sisi again rejected this idea of a mass displacement to Sinai. And I think, you know, we have to also understand that this idea of resettling Palestinians in Gaza to Sinai is not a new one. It’s actually an old colonial fantasy. There has been numerous plans by Israel and others of this idea of resettling the Palestinians in Gaza, who 80% of which are refugees, by the way, who are refugees from 1948, of resettling them again into Egypt. In the mid-1950s, the U.N. devised a plan for this kind of mass resettlement, and it was met with popular outrage in Gaza —

AMY GOODMAN: We have 15 seconds.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: — and kind of crushed in a popular uprising. So, I mean, these kinds of plans are long-standing, and there’s a real fear that they will be realized. But for now, we have to see Egypt is rejecting it, but Israel is creating a situation where life is becoming unlivable in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Sharif Abdel Kouddous, independent journalist working with the Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr, produced the award-winning documentary, The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, about the Palestinian American journalist. We will link to your piece in The Guardian. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Thanks for joining us.


In the United States, people are protesting the assault on Gaza and calling for an immediate cease-fire.  

  As the death toll from Israel's relentless and indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza approached 5,800 Palestinians—including over 2,300 children—a group of around 40 faith leaders calling for an immediate cease-fire led a Tuesday afternoon pray-in at the Washington, D.C. office of U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith leaders and activists occupied the New York Democrat's office in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, where demonstrators opened their action with prayers for the thousands of Palestinians who have been killed since October 7.

Participants "highlighted the devastating impact of each bomb that has been dropped and each life cut short through a reading of nearly 200 names of those killed by American-made weapons, including entire families across generations," the organizers of the pray-in said.

"The actions send a clear message to the Democratic Party: You cannot continue with business as usual while Israel commits genocide in Gaza with full U.S. backing," the coalition added. "Cease-fire is the only moral choice, and the world is watching your next move." 


Mike Ludwig (TRUTHOUT) reports on some of the recent protests in the US:


As the death toll of Israel’s brutal siege and intensifying bombardment of the Gaza Strip surpassed 5,000 on Monday, dozens of activists blocked a major intersection in Chicago as mass protests against U.S. support for the Israeli military continue to erupt despite scant mainstream media coverage.

“Only a ceasefire can protect Palestinian and Israeli lives in this perilous moment,” said Eli Newell, an organizer with the Jewish peace group IfNotNow in Chicago, who participated in the direct action on Monday. “Collective punishment won’t make anyone safe — not Palestinian civilians, not Israeli hostages.”

The action was organized by a coalition of Jewish groups, including IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace. About 50 protesters in downtown Chicago blocked rush hour traffic for over two hours on Monday and refused to leave until they were forcibly removed and ticketed by police. Organizers say the activists were flanked by a march of 500 supporters.

From Minneapolis to New Orleans, from San Francisco and Denver to Philadelphia and Skokie, Illinois, thousands of people are taking to the streets and calling for an emergency ceasefire as horrifying images and reports of widespread civilian suffering and death continue to emerge from Gaza. Thousands marched for a ceasefire in Brooklyn on Saturday, and more than 100 were arrested for blocking traffic at various demonstrations in the tri-state region over the weekend, according to local reports.

In Philadelphia, activists in solidarity with Palestinians are calling out local media for allegedly downplaying or outright failing to cover a march and rally over the weekend that attracted a giant mass of people (video below) to the steps of the city’s iconic art museum. The rally was organized by the Philly Palestine Coalition and its allies. Participants estimated that thousands of people showed up to the march and rally.



Staying with the United States.  Daniel Villarreal (LGBTQ NATION) reports:


Anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives now want to boycott Listerine because the mouthwash brand featured a progress Pride flag on its bottle.

Chaya Raichik, who goes by LibsofTikTok on social media, posted an image of Listerine bottles that included drawings of same-gender couples holding hands and displaying rainbow flags. She claimed the brand supports child “sex change surgeries” even though such procedures aren’t conducted on children.

The bottle also mentioned the “Care With Pride” initiative. Started by Johnson & Johnson, Listerine’s parent company, the initiative raises money for LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations fighting for “full equality, inclusivity, care, and representation.” In 2023, the initiative benefitted Family Equality, a group that champions education, public acceptance, positive depictions of, and policy initiatives protecting LGBTQ+ families.


Chaya Raichik.  Poor thing.  She became a public face and . . . well . . . you've seen that face, right?  It's kind of ended her movement.  Apparently, people don't want to be led by an ugly person, not even conservatives.  Since her face has become know, her ability to influence has lessened.  Maybe she could wear a mask?  Or even just a paper bag over her head?  She keeps one by the bed, right, for her husband's sake?

Probably a mask wouldn't help at this point.  The tide has turned.  She's flailing around now and people see her for the hate merchant she truly is as she cries for one boycott after another and as her lies get exposed.  These Carrie Nation types start with a flurry of attention but always end up repelling the majority of Americans.  Someone help her off the stage before people start tossing rotten eggs at her.





An Ohio neo-Nazi has pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime charge for firebombing a church that was planning to host a pair of drag events.

Aimenn D. Penny, a 20-year-old member of an Ohio White Lives Matter group, submitted his plea on Monday, admitting to obstruction of persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs and arson. According to Cleveland.com, he will be sentenced on January 29 by U.S. District Judge Bridget Brennan and faces at least 10 years in prison, with up to 15 on the table.

Penny admitted to throwing Molotov cocktails at the Community Church of Chesterland in Chester, Ohio on March 25. The attack, which left scorch marks on the church’s door, was allegedly in response to drag queen storytime events planned for April 1.
His admission came during a March 31st search of his homes when he told FBI agents he threw the Molotov cocktail with the intent of burning down the church.

How disgusting do you have to be to firebomb a church?  Remember that the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama back in 1963 that claimed the lives of 11-year-old Carole Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley was carried out by terrorists who were White supremists as well -- Thomas Blanton, Robert Chambliss, Bobby Cherry and possibly Herman Cash. 


All these decades later and racists are still a scourge of America.  You would have thought basic humanity and common sense would have run them off long, long ago.  However, Robert Downen (TEXAS TRIBUNE) reports that they are very tight with some 'conservatives' in Texas:


In recent weeks, allies of the deep-pocketed conservative PAC Defend Texas Liberty have sought to downplay a meeting between the group’s former leader, Jonathan Stickland, and prominent white supremacist Nick Fuentes. They’ve cast the visit as a one-off mistake — and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he accepted an explanation that it was a “serious blunder."


Responding to calls for him to return the $3 million he received from Defend Texas Liberty this summer, Patrick initially said he would not do so because there was “no hint of any links” between the group and any “antisemitic organizations or other hate groups” when he took the funds in June.

There were, however, ample links.

While Fuentes’ unapologetic hate mongering has made him perhaps the nation’s best-known white supremacist, he was merely the latest in a line of people who have been embraced by Defend Texas Liberty and its close allies despite publicly espousing antisemitic views or partnering with extremists. That includes, among others, Ella Maulding, a social media coordinator for Stickland’s consulting firm who has praised Fuentes as the “greatest civil rights leader in history”; and Shelby Griesinger, the treasurer for Defend Texas Liberty who has claimed on social media that Jews worship a false god and shared memes that depict them as the enemy of Republicans.

Defend Texas Liberty is a political action committee and one of the state’s most influential donors to conservative groups and candidates, including Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton. It is a key part of a sprawling network of nonprofits, dark money groups, political campaigns and media companies that have received more than $100 million from three West Texas oil billionaires, Tim Dunn and brothers Farris and Dan Wilks, as part of a decadeslong project to push Texas to the far right.


And if you're wondering, yes, Defend Texas Bigotry has links to Moms For Bigotry.  What?  You thought crazy ass Naomi Wollf would get in bed with a group that wasn't entwined with racism?


Anti-vax idiot Michelle Evans is a Moms for Bigotry and that's all Defend Texas Bigotry needed to know to cut her a $30,000 check.  Even with that, the hate monger and liar lost.  She did share, however, that she was okay with lying on Twitter ("she made headlines for spreading a false rumor that the district had lowered cafeteria tables at a middle school for children who identify as dogs") because she doesn't feel like it harmed anyone.  I'm really bothered that these serial liars and racists and homophobes keep thinking they're the people to teach America's children.


These people are disgusting -- and go down in history as disgusting -- no sane person in 2023 is defending, for example, terrorist Thomas Blanton.  No, in 2023, sane Americans are applauding Heman Bekele and others making real contributions to this country.  Sarah al-Arshani (USA TODAY) reports:


"America's Top Young Scientist" is a 14-year-old who invented a soap that treats skin cancer.

Heman Bekele, a ninth grader from Annandale, Virginia, won the prestigious award from 3M and Discovery Education, considered one of the country's top middle school science competitions.

"I believe that young minds can make a positive impact on the world," Heman said in his submission for the award.

"I have always been interested in biology and technology, and this challenge gave me the perfect platform to showcase my ideas," he said.



Good for him and good for the country.  That's what these hate merchants don't get as they attack people due to their skin color or whom they love or what country they were in before they came to the US, these people they attack are the people who do so much to make this a better world.  These hate merchants?  They don't do a thing to improve the world and we'd all honestly be better off without them.

Fairfax County Schools has a page up about Heman Bekele.  Take a moment to grasp what a difference he's making:


Heman, newly crowned “America’s Top Young Scientist” after winning this year’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge, says the memories of people working long hours outside under the glaring sun in Ethiopia stayed with him as he made his way through the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) school system. A graduate of Wakefield Forest Elementary School and Frost Middle School, Heman was struck by the dramatic differences in skin cancer survival rates in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa compared to places where high tech cancer treatments are available.

“Skin cancer is mostly found on people who live within developing countries,” Heman says. “But the average price for an operation is $40,000. I was devastated by the idea of people having to choose between treatment and putting food on the table for their families. There are so many preventable deaths.”

He was determined to find a better way. So Heman researched skin cancer, learning about dendritic cells, which he says help protect skin by boosting immune response. Then he spent months playing with salicylic acid, glycolic acid and tretinoin, trying to find the right combination to help treat skin cancer. He developed SCTS, which stands for skin cancer treating soap, and works by reactivating dendritic cells.


On the topic of hate merchants, Nick Mordowanec (NEWSWEEK) points out, "[Ronald] DeSantis has taken flack this year for multiple incidents related to neo-Nazis, including a campaign video released in July that featured a far-right circular symbol known as the 'sonnenrad' which is often affiliated with neo-Nazi groups. Such groups have drawn scrutiny for being openly brazen about their anti-Jewish sentiments, with one incident in September involving 40-some individuals waving swastikas, giving fascist salutes and chanting 'Sieg Heil' on a bridge in Orlando, Florida."


A better world is possible.  "I believe in a better way" as Ben Harper sings.



 


Imagine: “It’s the year 2050…and racism has ended,” and so posits the newly published book How We Ended Racism: Realizing a New Possibility in One Generation.
In the book, Justin Michael Williams and his co-author Shelly Tygielski divulge a concrete eight-part framework for how we can make this radical idea an actual reality.

“You don’t fix racism,” an excerpt from the book reads, “You don’t fight it. You don’t make it better. You end it. We learned how to bridge any political or ideological divide—inviting liberals, conservatives, and everyone in between to cocreate a future worth fighting for.”

Ahead of the release, Williams sat down with ESSENCE to discuss what inspired the book, the writing process, and what a post-racism world looks like.

A multi-hyphenate, Williams, who is also a Grammy-nominated recording artist, had already penned a best-selling book, Stay Woke: A Meditation Guide for the Rest of Us in February 2020. He revealed that it all started “after George Floyd was murdered and the world was exploding with social justice books. So, I started reading all the things that were coming out, and I just had this epiphany.”

“I just thought—hold on a second—why does every single book start on the first page or two saying something along the lines of ‘racism is this thing that’s going to be passed down for a lifetime, generation after generation?’” shared Williams.



The following sites updated:


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Tuesday, October 24, 2023

3 Liars Forevver

 BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S MEGA DUB  -- THE KOOL AID TABLE 


"I DON'T REALLY FIB," INSISTS SERIAL LIAR GEORGE SANTOS, "I JUST EXTRAPOLATE."


FILE THAT STATEMENT UNDER JUST ANOTHER ONE OF HIS FALSEHOODS.

HIS MOST RECENT LIE?  TELLING "THE NEW YORK TIMES'' JOURNALIST GRACE ASHFORD THAT HIS 5-YEAR-OLD NIECE WAS KIDNAPPED BY THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY WHICH APPARENTLY MAINTAINS AN UNDERGROUND NETWORK THAT STALKS PLAYGROUNDS IN QUEENS AND POSSIBLY OTHER BOROUGHS OF NEW YORK CITY.


WE CORNERED THE RAT OUTSIDE CONGRESS TO ASK IF HE WAS STANDING BY HIS STORY.  BEFORE HE COULD RESPOND, SENATOR LINDSAY GRAHAM PIPED IN TO INSIST, "IT'S TRUE! IT'S TRUE!  AND THEY KIDNAPPED THE LOVE OF MY LIFE TOO. MY GLORIOUS ALBIET MYTHICAL STEWARDESS HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN AGAIN AND SHE WAS A REAL WOMAN WHO INSISTED UPON BEING CALLED A 'STEW' AND NOT A 'FLIGHT ATTENDENT'."  IMMEDIATELY, SENATOR TIM SCOTT WADDLED UP TO INSIST THAT THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY IS WHY NO 1 HAS EVER SEEN HIS GIRLFRIEND -- THAT AND THE FACT THAT SHE HAS NEVER EXISTED. 

"I'M A VIRGIN!" TIM INSISTED.  "WHAT MAN WOULD LIE ABOUT THAT!"

MAYBE A 57-YEAR-OLD CLOSET CASE?


FROM THE TCI WIRE:




RECOMMENDED: ""Some solid criticism of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON"




 
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Monday, October 23, 2023

Shady Menendez enters a plea of innocence

Shady Menendez is back in the news.  Shady can't stay out of the news.  Luc Cohen (Reuters) reports:


U.S. Senator Bob Menendez is set to enter a plea on Monday to a new indictment charging him with conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent for the Egyptian government.

Federal prosecutors on Oct. 12 accused the New Jersey Democrat - until recently the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - of taking actions from 2018 to 2022 on behalf of Egyptian military and intelligence officials.

Menendez is expected to be asked to enter a plea to the new charge at the 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) arraignment before U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein. His lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.

Casey Feindt (UPI) reminds:

The charges, detailed in a superseding indictment on Oct. 12 charged Menendez with an additional criminal count of conspiracy.

They allege that, in his capacity as a public official, he conspired to act as a foreign agent for Egypt by accepting bribes from January 2018 to at least June 2022.





Last month, Menendez pleaded not guilty to three felony charges including conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. Menendez was released on a $100,000 bond. His wife, Nadine Menendez, also pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors alleged that Will Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, three New Jersey businessmen, bribed the senator with gold, money, a luxury car and home mortgage payments in exchange for a “series of official acts and breaches of official duty.” Prosecutors updated the charges earlier this month in a superseding indictment that alleges Menendez accepted bribes from officials in Egypt in exchange for providing sensitive U.S. government information to help the Egyptian government. Participating in this relationship is a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which says individuals have to register with the U.S. government if they want to act as “an agent of a foreign principal,” but because Menendez is a member of Congress he is not eligible. Menendez has maintained his innocence and said he will not step down.

Menendez was previously indicted in 2015 in New Jersey for a similar offense. He was accused of accepting bribes, campaign contributions and bribes for official favors and was acquitted three years later of some charges and had the rest dismissed by the Department of Justice.






Menendez stepped down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee shortly after he was indicted last month. During his tenure as chair of the panel, Menendez helped oversee billions of dollars in U.S. aid to Egypt.

In a statement this month, Menendez said he will “show my innocence” at trial. Through her attorney, Menendez’s wife said she denies all allegations in the indictment. Hana’s attorney, Lawrence Lustberg, said the allegations against his client are false.

In addition to federal corruption case, the FBI is investigating whether Egypt’s intelligence services might have been involved in the alleged bribery scheme described in the indictment last month, sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.

Menendez has rejected demands for his resignation from dozens of his Democratic colleagues after he was indicated on bribery charges last month.


What do you think he did?


That's right, he entered a plea of not guilty.

Shady.  Really now. 


This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Monday, October 23, 2023.  The assault on Gaza continues as US government orders all non-essential personnel out of Iraq.





As ALJAZEERA notes in the video above, the Israeli government bombed Gaza overnight killing hundreds.  Abeer Salman (CNN) adds:

Some 436 people, including 182 children, were killed in overnight Israeli strikes on Gaza, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement.

The majority of those killed were from the southern part of Gaza, the ministry added.

The total death toll since the war began has risen to 5,087 killed, including 2,055 children and 1,119 women, the ministry said.


Wafaa Surafa, Samy Magdy and Samya Kullab (AP) report: 


A premature baby squirms inside a glass incubator in the neonatal ward of al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip. He cries out as intravenous lines are connected to his tiny body. A ventilator helps him breathe as a catheter delivers medication and monitors flash his fragile vital signs.

His life hinges on the constant flow of electricity, which is in danger of running out imminently unless the hospital can get more fuel for its generators. Once the generators stop, hospital director Iyad Abu Zahar fears that the babies in the ward, unable to breathe on their own, will perish.

“The responsibility on us is huge,” he said.


The thought of those babies dying has Sarah Silverman wetting herself as she tries to construct a joke about it and has Jamie Lee Curtis cackling in joy.  They are the wrong side and history should judge them accordingly. Of last night's raids, Jon Queally (COMMON DREAMS) reports, "The Israeli military continued to pummel Gaza with airstrikes on Sunday, including residential neighborhoods in the south, as a top IDF commander said the bombing would now intensify ahead of an expected ground invasion.  Despite urging Palestinians and others caught in Gaza to flee the northern areas, bombings that claimed the lives of yet more civilians—including children—were reported in Khan Younis and the city of Rafah."  REUTERS notes a raid on a West Bank refugee camp, "Residents told Reuters that Israeli forces raided the camp and carried out widespread arrests, as they clashed with gunmen and some youths who threw stones. The Israeli army has not issued a statement about the incident."  Adnan el-Bursh and Sean Seddon (BBC NEWS) report:


At the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in central Gaza, they are running out of material to cover the dead with.

The bodies are stacked in a courtyard outside, prayers are said, and relatives collapse to the floor wailing in grief.

Inside the hospital, doctors battle to patch up the walking wounded and save the gravely injured - but stores of medicine and supplies are dwindling by the day.

A BBC Arabic reporter witnessed a facility overwhelmed with casualties where doctors were racing to finish procedures before moving on to the next patient.

Some of the images which have emerged from the hospital on Sunday are too graphic to share. Children - including at least two babies - are among the dead.


"This is a trapped population with nowhere to run," Rabbi Brant Rosen tells Michael Smith on LAW AND DISORDER RADIO which will begin airing later today on WBAI and throughout the week around the rest of the country on various radio stations.  The other male host slobbers over serial plagiarist Chris Hedges and his work at THE NEW YORK TIMES while failing to inform listeners that work at NYT included front paging the lie -- THE LIE -- that Iraq was connected to 9/11 and doing so in October of 2001 -- even before Judith Miller did her damage.  They cheapen their program by bringing him on and they cheapen it further by joining him in blaming "woke" people for the assault on Gaza.  They need to get their s**t together and do so quickly.  Liars like Chris Hedges do not pull the unconvinced over to your side, they only gives those on the fence more reason to hesitate.


Becky Sullivan (NPR) reports on the Israeli bombing of the Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza:

Soon after the building was hit, churchgoers and other Palestinians rushed to the heap of concrete slabs and debris in an attempt to rescue those trapped in the rubble.

"It was very painful to hear 'my mother is inside,' 'my son is inside,' 'my sister is inside,' " said Elias al-Jeldah, a Palestinian Christian who arrived on the scene shortly after the airstrike. "People were frantic. People were so scared."

Among the dead were several relatives of former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, whose father is Palestinian. "The Palestinian Christian community has endured so much. Our family is hurting badly," he wrote on the social media site X.

In spite of Thursday's strike, hundreds of people have continued to shelter at the St. Porphyrius Church in the days since.

Palestinian Christians who chose to remain at the Orthodox church and the nearby Catholic church said they felt they had nowhere else to go, even as Israel has urged people to evacuate from Gaza City to the southern half of the territory.

The church "seems to be the only place that can take us," said Ayyad. "We Christians have no one in the south."

Churches across the region memorialize the victims

Among the churches holding services to memorialize those killed in Gaza was one of the most sacred sites in Christianity: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site in Jerusalem's Old City that is said to be where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

There, on Sunday, steps away from the elaborate marble shrine that surrounds what many believe to be Jesus' tomb, the patriarch of Jerusalem and All Palestine — the branch of Orthodoxy to which the St. Porphyrius Church belongs — held a prayer service for the victims.


When not bombing churches, the Israeli government bombs mosques.  Saturday,  Usaid Siddiqui (ALJAZEERA) reported, "Israel says it struck a mosque in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, with Palestinian medics reporting at least one person killed."  Friday, Karen Zraick and Ameera Harouda (NEW YORK TIMES) reported:


An Israeli airstrike hit the grounds of the historic Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza City, which was sheltering displaced people, on Thursday night, according to church officials and witnesses.

The church compound, comprising a chapel, seven buildings and a courtyard, was full of Christian families from the Gaza Strip, witnesses said. They said the airstrike happened around 7:30 p.m., when dinner was being distributed.

Videos and images from the scene showed rescuers digging through rubble, working with flashlights late Thursday and into Friday. The chapel was not struck.


Chao Deng (WALL STREET JOURNAL) also noted Friday, "The Israeli military said that a blast Thursday night on the St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church campus in Gaza City was the result of its airstrike." Saturday, Najib Jobain, Joseph Krauss and Samy Magdy (AP) reported, "The border crossing between Egypt and Gaza opened Saturday to let a trickle of desperately needed aid into the besieged Palestinian territory for the first time since Israel sealed it off and began pounding it with airstrikes following Hamas’ bloody rampage two weeks ago. Just 20 trucks were allowed in, an amount aid workers said was insufficient to address the unprecedented humanitarian crisis. More than 200 trucks carrying 3,000 tons of aid have been waiting nearby for days."  Jon Queally (COMMON DREAMS) explains:


Guillemette Thomas, MSF's medical coordinator for Gaza, said Saturday that inside Gaza "we have an extremely high number of injured people arriving in hospitals, very serious patients requiring complex care. According to our colleagues who still work at Shifa hospital, the hospital will soon run out of fuel and therefore electricity. This means that all the patients currently in intensive care units connected to ventilators and babies in incubators will die because of the lack of electricity. Operating theaters will no longer be able to function, patients will no longer be able to be operated on and the number of victims will increase significantly in the coming hours."

Thomas warned that those in the intensive care were "just the tip of the iceberg," warning that all injured and sick people Gaza remain at severe risk.

Human Rights Watch was among those who suggested that the refusal to allow fuel into Gaza—and the absence of efforts to restore or repair devastated the electricity grid or water systems—makes the paltry level stand out as intentionally inadequate.

"While aid agencies struggle to squeeze a few trucks of humanitarian aid into southern Gaza via Egypt, the Israeli authorities are keeping their crossings with Gaza closed and refusing to flick the switch for the water and electricity supply," said Tirana Hassan, HRW's executive director. "There is no excuse for denying water, food, and medicine to Gaza's civilian population. It is cruel and contrary to international law."


Doctors Without Borders adds, "We are in touch with some of our colleagues who are supporting teams from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, particularly in Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where MSF had provided care for burn victims for years. Today, medical staff suffer the same fate as the rest of Gazans: they have been constantly bombed for the past 10 days. Our colleagues tell us that many doctors and other health workers have died since the start of the Israeli offensive." 

CBS NEWS notes, "Israel plans to step up its attacks on the Gaza Strip starting Saturday as preparation for the next stage of its war on Hamas, Israel's military spokesman said. Asked about a possible ground invasion into Gaza, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters Saturday night that the military was trying to create optimal conditions beforehand." And the Israeli government is counting on more weapons from the US government based on the personal promises of President Joe Biden.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) reports:


  With more than 4,100 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis already dead as Israel bombards the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a surprise attack led by Hamas, progressive groups on Friday pushed back against U.S. President Joe Biden's effort to further arm Israel.

"In the face of massive suffering in Gaza and disregard for international law by the Israeli government, the U.S. must not provide additional military aid or weapons that would cause more deaths," the National Priorities Project (NPP) at the Institute for Policy Studies said, demanding that U.S. use its diplomatic power to push for a cease-fire.

"The Israeli military's onslaught on Gaza has not protected civilians. It has instead targeted them," NPP asserted, pointing out that while cutting off Palestinians in the Hamas-governed territory from essentials like food, water, medicine, and electricity, Israel has bombed residential, religious, medical, and educational buildings over the past two weeks. 


Andre Damon (WSWS) notes the United Nation placed the Gaza death toll at 4, 137 on Friday and that, "Over the past week, US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have all visited Israel to give their unequivocal endorsement of the genocidal policies of the Netanyahu regime, which is widely despised within Israel and by Jewish people around the world."  They're not only increasing the killings, the Israeli government is also arresting activists.  Sophie Squire (UK SOCIALIST WORKER) reports:


As the Israeli state prepares for a ground invasion of Gaza, soldiers and settlers have stepped up their brutality against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. 

Mayar Derbashi, a charity worker in Hebron , told Socialist Worker, “A dire and savage onslaught is unfolding in Gaza. 

“In the West Bank, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in arrests. Before 7 October there were about 5,600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention. In less than two weeks, that number has doubled, exceeding 10,000. 

 

Yet Joe Biden wants to give more weapons and more US tax dollars.  His visit accomplished nothing and Ralph Nader really nails that down at DISSIDENT VOICE:


If President Joe Biden were a pony, instead of a perennial warhorse (e.g., gung-ho for Bush/Cheney’s criminal destruction of Iraq), he would have his tail between his legs on his return from a one-day trip to Israel. He failed to achieve any immediate, critical objectives while the ongoing destruction of Gaza and the defenseless Palestinians continues.

Did Biden get Israel and Egypt to allow the exit of hundreds of American citizens fleeing the Gazan firestorm? No!

Did Biden open up corridors for humanitarian aid to the babies, children, women, elderly and other civilians in Gaza who had nothing to do with the October 7 Hamas homicide/suicide attack on Israelis? No!

To the contrary, earlier in the week he cruelly ordered his UN Ambassador to veto a widely supported resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Did he forcefully double down on his earlier counsel to the Israeli government to obey the laws of war, then and now, being openly violated? No! He continued his silence after the Israeli Defense Minister ordered his soldiers with the genocidal command, “No electricity, no food, no fuel, no water…” That death sentence includes patients in hospitals who must endure the carpet bombing of this long-time blockaded tiny strip of desert land holding 2.3 million people. (See, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide).



Joyce Chediac (LIBERATION!) notes what Joe's visit to Tel Aviv means on the world stage, "This extraordinary visit of a U.S. president to a war zone is a full endorsement of Israel’s decision to cut off food, electricity and water to Gaza; of its bombings of several medical facilities and ambulances, schools, mosques, bakeries and UN food storage facilities; and its repeated bombing of the Rafa border crossing with Egypt, making it impossible for Gaza to retrieve 1,000 tons of supplies waiting there to be picked up. It is a green light for whatever else Israel chooses to do."  WORKERS WORLD points out, "Gaza’s territory is roughly the same size and holds the same population as Chicago. One can hardly imagine what sort of horror the current bombing means for the people who are themselves mostly refugees or their descendants, where there is no functioning economy, where half the population are children, and where the Israeli blockade makes it near impossible to leave. There are good reasons that not only Palestinians but also some Western political leaders have called Gaza the largest open-air prison in the world."  Eric London  (WSWS) cites Joe Biden's plan to give $14 billion to Israel and points out that since 1948, the US taxpayers have already forked over $260 billion to the Israeli government.  Of Joe's Thursday night TV address, Eric offers, "Over 20 years ago, then-president George W. Bush used the same language to justify launching imperialist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which were to last 20 years, kill more than one million people, and cost more than $8 trillion, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project. A 2022 report published by the Pentagon admitted that each taxpayer paid $8,278 for the wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021, though the true figure is likely an order of magnitude higher."

 

Funding this assault and providing more weapons for it and verbally praising it means the US government is also responsible -- legally responsible -- for the genocide being carried out. Graham Peebles (DISSIDENT VOICE) observes, "Peace is impossible whilst these destructive ideals dominate."  At TRUTHOUT, Marjorie Cohn (former president of The National Lawyers Guild) writes:


In retaliation against the Palestinians in Gaza for Hamas’s October 7 killing of hundreds of Israeli civilians, Israel has intensified its 16-year siege of Gaza to a “complete siege.” Israel is slaughtering Gazans, cutting off their food, water, electricity and fuel, ordering more than 1 million of them to leave their homes and then bombing their evacuation routes, and trapping them with nowhere to escape.

Israeli forces are amassing tanks on the border in preparation for an imminent invasion. The United States is sending massive firepower to help Israel.

“Complete siege” is a euphemism for ethnic cleansing. It “explicitly indexes a plan to bring the siege to its final destination of systematic destruction of Palestinians and Palestinian society in Gaza,” Raz Segal wrote in Jewish Currents. 

Israel has turned its incremental genocide of the Palestinian people into full-fledged genocide — with the unconditional support of the U.S. government.

“There is a plausible and credible case that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza, as a significant part of the overall Palestinian population, as a protected group,” the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) wrote in its October 18 emergency legal briefing paper titled “Israel’s Unfolding Crime of Genocide of the Palestinian People & U.S. Failure to Prevent and Complicity in Genocide.” 


Dana Elborno (TRUTHOUT)  writes, "Amid the death and destruction from the shower of bombs dropping on Gaza like rain, truly the thing that has forever changed me is seeing how the world is turning into a hate mob against a civilian population, a majority of whom are refugees, the majority of whom are children, all of whom have been living besieged for 16 years. It is the media coverage priming the public to accept mass atrocities by using hateful and racist rhetoric that has left me feeling the most hopeless and scared. This incendiary and dehumanizing language used to describe Palestinians is going to contribute to genocide in Gaza and increasing violence against Muslims in the U.S., like the stabbing to death of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a Palestinian 6-year-old in Illinois."  Gregory Shupak (COMMON DREAMS) also addresses the media coverage:


Recent editorials in leading liberal U.S. newspapers have consistently presented the unrelenting mass terror that Israel inflicts on Palestinians as legitimate.

Media outlets have endorsed Israel's assault on Gaza, and America's funding of the attack, while criticizing those who offer even mildly dissenting views. American publications have repeatedly conferred on Israel's violence a virtuousness, even as it mows people down - a generosity not afforded to its Palestinian counterpart.

On 12 October, The Washington Post ran an editorial praising US President Joe Biden for his "unreserved condemnation of Hamas's terrorism," saying: "In that respect, Mr. Biden's firm words also stand in welcome contrast to the equivocations by a small number of the left-wing members of Congress in his own party, which White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre specifically repudiated."

The link to Jean-Pierre's words indicates that the "equivocations" the Post objects to are statements that "suggested the Hamas attack on Israel should be considered in context with previous actions by Israel," as well as those that "opposed US military aid for Israel on social media and called for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict."

A day before that editorial was published, the human rights groups Mezan, al-Haq, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights jointly documented that, just in the period between midday 10 and 11 October, Israel destroyed entire neighborhoods of al-Qarm, Ezbet Abdrabbo, and al-Sikka, with rescue teams "recover[ing] dozens of bodies" while "others are still under the rubble"; "target[ed]" Gaza's Islamic University and bombed the Al-Fakhoura Scholarship Program building," assaults that combined to kill 57 Palestinians, including 20 children. They further noted Israel's air strikes and shelling of the Middle Area District's agricultural lands and "residential areas, most notably in the three densely populated refugee camps of Al-Bureij, Al-Nusairat, and Deir al-Balah", killing at least 49 Palestinians, 15 of them children.


Media analysis also comes from Mohammed El-Kurd at THE NATION:


 I and a few other Palestinians have been hopping between TV channels and radio stations to talk about the atrocities unfolding in Gaza, most of which are absent from headlines, and we have encountered similar hostility. Producers invite us, it seems, not to interview us for our experiences or analysis or the context we can provide, but to interrogate us. They test our answers against the viewer’s inherent bias—a bias well-fed through years of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian rhetoric. The bombs raining down on the besieged Gaza Strip become secondary, if not entirely irrelevant, to our televised trials.

While I don’t expect pleasantries on air, I want accurate reporting. On the UK’s LBC radio, last week, host Rachel Johnson (sister of the former prime minister) took a break from repeatedly interrupting to question me—in fact, indict me—about unverified, word-of-mouth reports of Palestinian fighters “decapitating and raping” Israelis. She didn’t mention the various videos of Israelis mutilating, stomping, and urinating on Palestinian corpses, many of which are readily available to 83,000 subscribers of an Israeli Telegram channel named “Terrorists_are_dying.”

Such unsubstantiated claims were—and still are—all over the news. The Independent (UK) plastered its Chief International Correspondent Bel Trew’s “impossible to verify” reports of “decapitated women and babies” on its front page. Los Angeles Times columnist Jonah Goldberg reported then redacted “rapes.” On CNN, a teary-eyed Sara Sidner confirmed live, based on Israeli official sources, that “babies and toddlers were found with their heads decapitated,” then apologized on Twitter (now X) that she was “misled,” following a statement, again, from Israeli official sources admitting there is no information confirming the claim that “Hamas beheaded babies.”

This is a familiar playbook. A claim is circulated without evidence; Western journalists spread it like wildfire; diplomats and politicians parrot it; a narrative is built; the general public believes it, and the damage is done.

It may seem trivial to place such weight on the manner of killing, given the fact of killing, but such language isn’t without consequences. On Monday, an Illinois landlord attacked his Palestinian American tenants, seriously injuring a woman and killing her 6-year-old child. “You Muslims must die,” he yelled as he stabbed them each over a dozen times. Joe Biden said he was “shocked and sickened” by the attack, as if he could divorce himself from a claim he had made days before that he’d seen “pictures of terrorists beheading children” (a claim he quietly retracted hours later).

Conjuring rape and decapitation feeds on Islamophobic tropes. Simultaneously, it works hand in hand with the Israeli regime’s PR strategy, which has sought to equate Hamas with ISIS in the audience’s imagination, resurrecting the culture that brought forth the “War on Terror.”

Robin Andersen (DISSIDENT VOICE) also contemplates the effect of the slanted media coverage:


On October 7, the AP reported that US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States “stands with the people of Israel in the face of these terrorist assaults. Israel has the right to defend itself and its people, full stop.” On October 9, The Times of Israel quoted Defense Minister Yoav Gallant saying, “We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.” Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian directed his threat at all Gazans on October 10, declaring, “Kidnapping, abusing and murdering children, women and elderly people is not human.” He then announced, “There will be no electricity and no water. There will only be destruction. You wanted hell; you will get hell.”

In a piece published on October 8 titled “Media Calls The Attack On Israel Unprovoked: Experts Say That’s Historically Inaccurate,” the Huffington Post pointed to the Israeli government’s “apartheid against Palestinians” as a provocation. It quoted IfNotNow, an American Jewish group that opposes Israeli apartheid, expressing their dread for the loss of life and loved ones, Israelis and Palestinians alike. It continued, “Every day under Israel’s system of apartheid is a provocation. The strangling siege on Gaza is a provocation. Settlers terrorizing entire Palestinian villages, soldiers raiding and demolishing Palestinian homes, murdering Palestinians in the streets, Israeli ministers calling for genocide and expulsion” are all provocations.

Indeed, multiple international human rights groups have defined the long-term Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands as a system of apartheid. The death toll on each side exposes the false assertion that Israeli violence is always retaliatory and that of Palestinians is “unprecedented.” The UNOCHA documents 6,407 Palestinian deaths since 2008, compared to 308 Israeli fatalities. Gregory Shupak reported that since 2001, more than ten thousand Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, with “nearly 9 out of 10 deaths this century have been on the Palestinian side.” In addition, the Israelis have made daily life in Gaza miserable. As UK journalist Jonathan Cook wrote, “[Gaza’s] inhabitants—one million of them children—are denied the most basic freedoms, such as the right to movement; access to proper health care, drinkable water, and the use of electricity because Israel keeps bombing Gaza’s power station.” But voices such as Shupak and Cook are virtually absent from US establishment news coverage of the violence.

The Hamas attacks were taken out of the context of ongoing violence, presented without cause, and in narratives that see only Hamas violence but have rarely featured or condemned equivalent Israeli violence against Palestinians. Establishment media’s one-sided pro-Israel coverage, established over many years, fed into the growing consensus that a major retaliation by Israelis would be forthcoming. Early corporate news reporting seemed to confirm its inevitability, with almost no voices of reason or caution allowed to enter the militarized revenge frame coalescing around a major attack.

The verbiage used by the New York Times on the Tribe of Nova music festival also illustrates Big Journalism’s sensationalized, inaccurate reporting. The Times wrote that the “massacre of its youth” and Israel’s “75-year-old quest for some carefree normalcy” met the “murderous fury of those long-oppressed Palestinians who deny the state’s right to exist.” The language of the Times’ report—using “murderous” and denial of Israel’s “right to exist,” with “long-oppressed Palestinians”—makes a mockery of what Gazans have experienced. Additionally, it is not true that Palestinians deny Israel’s right to exist. A quick look at the US State Department’s summation of the 1993 Oslo Accords states that the Palestinian Authority “renounced terrorism and recognized Israel’s right to exist in peace” and Israel accepted the PLO as the representative of the Palestinians,” concessions that undergirded the two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. But Rashid Khalidi has called out the “empty words about a two-state solution while providing money, weapons and diplomatic support for systematic, calculated Israeli actions that have made that solution inconceivable.”



Dylan Saba (IN THESE TIMES) analyzes the media coverage:


On October 8, the morning after Hamas launched an attack from the Gaza strip that killed 1,400 Israelis, Ha’aretz—Israel’s paper of record — published an editorial laying blame for the massacre squarely on Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government. ​“The disaster that befell Israel,” the editorial board wrote, ​“is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu.” Netanyahu ​“completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession” and ​“embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.” It was a damning and powerful indictment.

Two days later, Ryna Workman, the student body president of NYU Law School, sent out a newsletter to classmates as Israel’s retaliatory assault on the Gaza Strip was well underway. Expanding on the Ha’aretz editorial board’s language, Workman wrote that ​“Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.” Workman also affirmed their solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle against oppression.

Almost immediately, they faced a torrent of backlash in the form of online disparagement and right-wing media attention. In response to pressure, the dean of the law school publicly condemned Workman’s remarks. By the evening, the law firm Winston & Strawn, where Workman had planned to work after graduating, publicly withdrew their job offer without so much as a phone call. The university then unilaterally removed Workman from their position as student body president without any disciplinary process, and threatened further charges — all for daring to speak out.

Workman is not alone. Across the US, people speaking out on behalf of Palestinian human rights and against Israeli war crimes, apartheid policies, and settler-colonial expansion that have been unfolding over nearly eight decades are facing a wave of McCarthyite backlash directly targeting their future careers and livelihoods. Students at other prominent universities have faced the same: the leaders of Harvard University student groups were doxxed and smeared for signing a statement also expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people. Their names and faces were plastered on a mobile billboard truck that roamed around campus for days, and a ​“College Terror List” circulated online accusing them of antisemitism. Several also lost job offers. A Berkeley law professor published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal imploring legal employers not to hire his own students and smearing them as antisemitic.


Chip Gibbons (Defending Rights and Dissent) noted earlier this week:


Right now, Arab-American civil rights organizations are reporting an uptick in harassment, including FBI visits to mosques and FBI and ICE detention of Palestinian nationals. 

Politicians are pressuring activists to cancel First-Amendment protected assemblies and boasting to the press that police will be monitoring them. 

The media for its part, instead of serving as a critical watchdog on government abuses of power, including repression of dissent, has helped to whip up this atmosphere. They are conflating protesters with terrorists, pushing politicians to condemn them. They have devoted attention to critiquing the social media posts of college students.

When journalists have asked critical questions, they have been rebuked by officials. During a State Department news conference after several independent journalists asked questions about the impacts of Israel’s bombardment on civilians, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller chastised the journalists stating “Some of the questions I am getting today do seem to ignore the fact that Israel just had 100s of its citizens killed, taken hostage[…]some of the questions seem to pretend that Israel should not be able to conduct operations to be able defend itself and hold accountable terrorists that killed civilians.” 

Defending Rights & Dissent will not be silent as some seek to degrade our democracy and pull the country backwards by imitating the worst abuses of the McCarthy and post-9/11 eras. 


The media has to lie to sell the war, the US government has to crack down on free speech to keep people ignorant.  It's the only way to keep the killing going.  


Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani is the Prime Minister of Iraq.  At ARSHARQ AL-AWSAT, he writes:


"We reaffirm our unwavering stance regarding the Palestinian right to establish an independent state with Al-Quds as its capital."

This is Iraq's steadfast position, reiterated at the United Nations General Assembly in September this year. It remains the cornerstone of our support for the Palestinian cause, aimed at ensuring the Palestinian people's legitimate rights, peace, independence, security, and sovereignty in their own state.

Today, we stand by this principle following the tragedy at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital and the relentless bombardment of innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip. This indiscriminate aggression by Zionist forces has resulted in the loss of thousands of lives.

Recognizing Iraq's historical regional role, Baghdad immediately initiated intense diplomatic efforts upon the outbreak of the conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories. I engaged in a series of telephone conversations with Arab leaders, emphasizing the crucial need for unified Arab and Islamic support for the Palestinian cause. I stressed the importance of de-escalation, upholding human rights, and exerting pressure on the Zionist entity to cease its aggression in the occupied territories and start negotiations that halt the conflict and work towards equitable solutions for the Palestinian people.

During my discussion with US President Joseph Biden, I emphasized the imperative of preventing further escalation in Gaza, halting the bombardment of the Gaza Strip, addressing the deepening humanitarian crisis, facilitating the opening of humanitarian corridors, and ensuring the delivery of essential aid to the people of Gaza, who are enduring the hardships of war and an unjust blockade.


The remarks occur at a time when the US government is evacuating personnel from Iraq.  DW reports:


The US State Department on Sunday ordered the departure of all non-emergency embassy personnel and their families from its Baghdad and Erbil embassies in Iraq, "due to increased security threats against US personnel and interests."

The State Department also issued a travel advisory to US citizens, warning them not to go to the Middle Eastern country. "Do not travel to Iraq due to terrorism, kidnapping, armed conflict, civil unrest, and Mission Iraq's limited capacity to provide support to US citizens," read the advisory.


Vivian Salama (WALL ST. JOURNAL) adds, "The State Department said it ordered eligible family members and nonemergency U.S. government personnel on Friday to depart the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. consulate in Erbil 'due to increased security threats against U.S. personnel and interests'."  Here's the advisory in full:


Travel Advisory
October 22, 2023

Iraq - Level 4: Do Not Travel

O K U T

Updated to reflect the ordered departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and eligible family members.

Do not travel to Iraq due to terrorism, kidnapping, armed conflict, civil unrest, and Mission Iraq’s limited capacity to provide support to U.S. citizens.

On October 20, 2023, the Department ordered the departure of eligible family members and non-emergency U.S. government personnel from U.S. Embassy Baghdad and U.S. Consulate General Erbil due to increased security threats against U.S. government personnel and interests.

Country Summary: U.S. citizens in Iraq face high risks to their safety and security, including the potential for violence and kidnapping. Terrorist and insurgent groups regularly attack Iraqi security forces and civilians. Anti-U.S. militias threaten U.S. citizens and international companies throughout Iraq. Attacks using improvised explosive devices, indirect fire, and unmanned aerial vehicles occur in many areas of the country, including Baghdad and other major cities. In an emergency, consular services to U.S. citizens in Iraq are limited due to severe restrictions on the movements of U.S. government personnel.

Demonstrations, protests, and strikes occur frequently throughout the country.  These events can develop quickly without prior notice, often interrupting traffic, transportation, and other services, and sometimes turning violent.

Do not travel near Iraq’s northern borders due to the continued threat of attacks by terrorist groups, armed conflict, aerial bombardment, and civil unrest.  U.S. citizens should especially avoid areas near armed groups in northern Iraq, which have been targeted with aerial strikes by neighboring countries’ militaries.

U.S. citizens should not travel through Iraq to engage in armed conflict in Syria, where they would face extreme personal risks (kidnapping, injury, or death) and legal risks (arrest, fines, and expulsion). The Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq has stated that it will impose prison sentences of up to ten years on individuals who illegally cross the Iraq-Syria border. Additionally, fighting on behalf of or supporting designated terrorist organizations is a crime under U.S. law that can result in prison sentences and large fines in the United States.

Because of security concerns, U.S. government personnel in Baghdad are instructed not to use Baghdad International Airport. Due to risks to civil aviation operating in the Baghdad Flight Information Region, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has extended for an additional two years its Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) prohibiting certain flights at altitudes below 32,000 feet. For more information, U.S. citizens should consult the Federal Aviation Administration’s Prohibitions, Restrictions, and Notices.

Read the country information page for additional information on travel to Iraq.

If you decide to travel to Iraq:

  • Establish your own personal security plan in coordination with your employer or host organization or consider consulting with a professional security organization.
  • Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney.
  • Discuss a plan with loved ones regarding care/custody of children, pets, property, belongings, non-liquid assets (collections, artwork, etc.), funeral wishes, etc.
  • Share important documents, login information, and points of contact with loved ones so that they can manage your affairs if you are unable to return as planned to the United States.
  • Visit our website for Travel to High-Risk Areas.
  • Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency.
  • Follow the Department of State on Facebook and Twitter.
  • Review the Country Security Report for Iraq.
  • Visit the CDC website for the latest Travel Health Information related to your travel.

Prepare a contingency plan for emergency situations. Review the Traveler’s Checklist







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