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Linked: Climate Emergency

This chart of ocean temperatures should really scare you… If you were to dip your toes into the middle of the North Atlantic — say, somewhere between South Carolina and Spain — the water would feel frigid. You definitely wouldn’t want to swim. It’s winter. Yet that water would, in fact, be very warm, relatively speaking. Right now, the North Atlantic ocean is, on average, warmer than any other time on record, running about 2 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the average temperature over the last three decades.

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An 11 minute clip that clearly explains the current crisis in Gaza, Biden and his loss of support among progressives

Uncommitted vote in Michigan ‘doing Biden a favor’ by sounding alarm on Gaza policy

“Uncommitted” earned 100,000 votes in the Michigan Democratic primary Tuesday, raising flags to the Biden administration that its policy on Gaza could lose him crucial swing state voters. SiriusXM’s Dean Obeidallah and Jewish Current’s Peter Beinart say the effort reflects a need for urgency in resolving the war in Gaza.

The always evolving iPad set-up (and speculations on the iPad's future)

It's March of 2024 and we're expecting new iPad and likely a new Magic Keyboard sometime this month. Given Apple rolled out 2 new MacBook Airs on Monday I'd guess iPad releases will be next Monday, the 11th. My main interest isn't the iPad itself but the Magic Keyboard. I'm doubtful that it will be backward compatible put I'm not ruling it out. My hope is that it's backward compatible to 2018 models and that it's something closer to the Brydge keyboard offering.

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America is built on settler colonialism, slavery and white supremacy. For decades we’ve supported Israel in its constant breaking of international laws and now, genocide.

If we refuse to end our complicity in genocide what are we? I see a pattern here.

But do go on about democracy.

The March 4 episode of The Majority Report features an excellent interview with Rashid Khalidi that begins at 23:30 and covers his work documenting the Palestinian resistance to Britain dating back to 1917:

…well before the establishment of the state of Israel, looking at the central role of the West – namely Britain and the US – in support and facilitating the violent establishment and maintenance of a Zionist apartheid state.

I see a lot of white middle class Democrats on social networks proclaiming that the only way to save democracy this year is to vote for Biden.

Have you ever protested in the street, how often and will you do so again if necessary?

Democracy is not just voting.

Over the past week my mind went often to Aaron Bushnell and his self-immolation to protest genocide a week ago.

“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now." - Aaron Bushnell, February 25, 2024

Pixel art style graphic that depicts a soldier standing in solute and facing forward. The soldier is engulfed in flames and the words Free Palestine are repeated in  bold, large graphical font from the top of the graphic to the bottom, each line: FREE PALESTINE.

Memories of Aaron Bushnell : As Recounted by His Friends...

On February 25, Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire at the gate of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC as an act of protest against the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Hostile critics have attempted to shrug off Aaron’s action as the consequence of mental illness. On the contrary, Aaron’s choice was a political action arising from his deeply held anarchist convictions. In the following collection, we share Aaron’s own summary of his politics, followed by testimony from three of Aaron’s close friends.

‘An extreme act’: Why Aaron Bushnell self-immolated for Gaza | The Take...

Aaron Bushnell, a member of the US air force, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, in an act of political protest over Israel’s war in Gaza. Bushnell livestreamed his death, saying he no longer wanted to be complicit in genocide. How will his message resonate?

The Life & Death of Aaron Bushnell: U.S. Airman Self-Immolates Protesting U.S. Support for Israel...

Democracy Now! speaks with Bushnell's friend and conscientious objector Levi Pierpont, who says his friend's death was not a suicide but was about using his life to send a message for justice. "We have to honor the message that he left," says Pierpont, who says Bushnell died "to get people's attention about the genocide that's happening in Palestine." Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat, lays out the history of self-immolation to protest war and how Bushnell's act could impact U.S. policy for the war on Gaza. "It was an act of courage, an act of bravery, to call attention to U.S. policies," says Wright, who offers support to Pierpont and other veterans advocating for peace live on air.

Aaron Bushnell’s Act of Political Despair...

He had been watching a Presidential race between two elderly men who seem to differ little on what for Bushnell was the most pressing issue in the world today: the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. What did it matter that Bushnell had the right to vote if he had no real choice? That he was a member of the military surely made matters worse. His final message on Facebook read, “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.” (The message, which contained a link to the page on Twitch where Bushnell was planning to live-stream his final act of protest, is no longer visible.)

In His Right Mind ❧ Current Affairs...

Bushnell placed his act within the context of the 143 days of horror Palestinians have suffered since October 7. He refused to be a part of it any longer—not the white phosphorus burning children to the bone, not the indiscriminate bombing that has killed 30,000 people and destroyed libraries, bakeries, schools, hospitals, and entire families, and not the celebrations of genocide happening on the other side of the Gaza border.

There is a certain ghoulish delight taken in the suffering of Palestinians. At Keren Shalom, Israelis place bouncy castles in front of aid trucks to ensure help is delayed and denied. On social media, the soldiers of the IDF film themselves laughing and giving the thumbs-up as they bulldoze Palestinians’ homes and loot their belongings.

The response to Bushnell’s self-immolation has been similarly cruel.

US Airman Self-Immolates in Front of Israeli Embassy, Yelling “Free Palestine”...

As Bushnell committed his final act of protest, the official death toll from Israel’s genocide of Gaza was surpassing 30,000 Palestinians, with thousands more missing under the rubble, many presumed dead. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has reported that Israel has blocked food from entering the northern part of Gaza since January 23, and officials have warned that over 700,000 Palestinians in Gaza are on the verge of starving to death due to Israel’s starvation campaign. Horrors that would otherwise be unimaginable — like newborn babies dying from starvation, air strikes or the systematic destruction of an entire region’s medical system — are becoming commonplace for Palestinians amid Israel’s horrific assault.

As Bushnell falls over, a police or security officer is seen on video pointing a gun at his burning body. Another officer responding to the incident can be heard yelling, “I don’t need guns, I need fire extinguishers.”

Suicide vs genocide: Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell...

Over the past 143 days, Israel has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave. In video footage recorded prior to and during his self-immolation, Bushnell states that he will “no longer be complicit in genocide” and that he is “about to engage in an extreme act of protest – but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonisers is not extreme at all”.

To be sure, Palestinians have long been accustomed to, well, burning to death at the hands of Israeli weaponry, ever since the state of Israel undertook to lethally invent itself on Palestinian land in 1948. The Israeli military’s use of skin-incinerating white phosphorus munitions in more recent years has no doubt contributed to the whole Palestinian “experience”.

On Bushnell - by Thrival - Synthegeist...

We cannot allow the status quo to water down the martyrdom of Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old hero who served in the United States Airforce and intentionally created a media firestorm against the ongoing agenda of the geriatric western ruling class. Contrary to reports from the press, this was not a shocking case of self harm, or a small minded tragedy. Yesterday, Aaron contacted reporters, donned his fatigues, and stood in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., and set an intentional, bold example of what heroes do rather than “be complicit in genocide.”

Since western powers invented Israel by stealing land from Palestinians in 1948, colonizers have rained decades of genocide down upon the children of Gaza, with the latest 144-day assault claiming nearly 30,000 Palestinian deaths and murdering over 10,000 babies and children with every war crime imaginable, from burning white phosphorus to outright starvation.

Aaron Bushnell Refused to Be Silent on the Horrors in Gaza...

Bushnell’s death takes place as the Joe Biden administration continues to arm Israel to the hilt, lavishing it with billions of dollars while providing a diplomatic cover for its war crimes in Gaza, vetoing several UN resolutions for a cease-fire. The United States has rewarded Israel’s war crimes with a war crime of its own, as it continues to starve Palestinians by halting funding to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. This halt in funding is a collective punishment of the Palestinian people for seeking justice at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), while promising not to punish Israel for its potential looming invasion of Rafah even if it targets civilians, and despite mounting fears of genocide and ethnic cleansing. (The United States was among the few countries to defend Israel at the ICJ hearing on Israeli occupation last week.)

As Bushnell burned, the death toll in Gaza passed thirty thousand civilians, nearly half of them children. Two million Palestinians have been displaced. Half of the population is on the brink of starvation, as Israel continues to deprive the besieged Gaza Strip of food, water, and medicine, thus condemning thousands of Palestinians to a slow, agonizing death.

venera.social 🍀 | Farhad @ venera.social 🍀

In the aftermath of Bushnell’s self-immolation, the New York Times announced: “Man Dies After Setting Himself on Fire Outside Israeli Embassy in Washington, Police Say” – a rather strong contender, perhaps, for the most diluted and decontextualised headline ever. One wonders what folks would have said in 1965 had the US newspaper of record run headlines like: “Octogenarian Detroit Woman Dies After Setting Herself on Fire, Police Say – An Event Having Nothing Potentially To Do With Said Woman’s Opposition To The Vietnam War Or Anything Like That”.

And while such an intense and passionate form of suicide is no doubt bewildering to many, genocide should be all the more appalling; as Bushnell himself said, self-immolation is nothing “compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine”, where people know all too well how quickly human beings burn.

In Bushnell’s case, the US political-media establishment appears to be doing its best to not only decontextualise but also posthumously discredit him. Time Magazine’s write-up, for example, admonishes that the US “Defence Department policy states that service members on active duty should ‘not engage in partisan political activity’” – as though actively abetting a genocide weren’t politically “partisan”.

Via Mastodon: StillIRise1963

People who’ve had it so easy have no fucking idea what their inaction will bring to them.

Cynthia

People don’t know how easy they have it. Most Americans live better that probably at least 6 billion people on the planet. We have our issues and inequalities and various forms of classism, but very few of us spend our days getting water or wood or protecting ourselves from militias roaming the country. Few of us live in tiny apartments in shifts while we work in sweatshops. We’re spoiled. A lot of us

Linked: Palestinian and Gaza News

For Israel, violence is inherent in its colonial DNA: Marwan Bishara… At least 77 Palestinians have been killed and more than 250 people are injured - after Israeli forces opened fire on people trying to collect food aid in Gaza City. Hundreds of hungry and starving Palestinians had come to collect food aid, when they were attacked by Israeli snipers and shelled by Israeli tanks. Civilians were left scrambling to transport the dead and injured to nearby hospitals - many are in critical condition.

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The Smokehouse Creek Fire, now the largest in Texas history at 1 million acres, 2,000 square miles. The same amount of land as the state of Delaware. And it’s still burning.

Do the people of Texas support taking personal and legislative action to address the climate emergency?

They should.

This morning Starrwulfe wrote :

The enshittification of my country is depressing and tiring.

Agreed. I keep trying to pull back, big picture, long period for context and perspective. So many things continue to go the wrong way. I lost faith in the legistlative process/system 30 years ago at which point I began to realize that the electoral process/system was equally broken. I still had hope though that the people of the country would step up to the challenge of figuring out the problems. In the past 15 years it seems increasingly clear that that will not happen.

We call ourselves the United States of America but there are many Americas and in truth it’s far from United. That’s a habit of the past not reflected by the current reality. Much of the enshitification that we see in 2024 is a result of economic and cultural divides. Of course these have existed since the founding of the country and they persist today, exploited to create conflict.

For many decades many have taken note that “the system” didn’t work well for the working class. The haves and have nots are easy to see if one just looks. They may be in the small towns in the countryside or in the urban core of cities, white, brown, and black.

In the past 10 years much of the country has been energized in a dramatic way but tragically that movement was never about democracy, social or economic justice. Donald Trump spoke to the deep frustrations of the working class whites of the US. He energized their anger and told them he would get justice for them. In part he tapped into their decades of latent racism, but simultaneously he tapped into the real truth that they had been left behind by the wealthier classes of the country. He tapped into their fear that they didn’t belong in a country that was being taken away by “others”: non-whites, migrants, non-Christians (most notably Muslims), trans and gay people.

For 10+ years he’s stirred the emotions of millions of people. And to be clear, a part of what makes this movement dangerous and, frankly, terrifying, it’s that it is his movement. The Republican party as it once was has been overthrown. The establishment of that party was show the door and push through it. MAGA is in service to Donald Trump and he is in service to himself. Hence we find ourselves at the door step of something new in America: Autocracy.

In the two party system the opposition consists of the Democratic part which consists of two divided groups.

Those historically labeled “liberal”, seem increasingly fearful and concerned, but I would say that this America is still fairly distracted by their investment in the system. I think of this is the establishment portion of Democratic Party. These folks tend to be whiter and wealthier, middle class with more education. They’ve done better than most and see the system as functional because it’s mostly worked well for them. These are the folks that have thus far dominated what passes for a “left” in the US. Some of these folks are active in the Democratic party but most are far more likely to be active at the local Target or on a vacation. They’ve got more wealth and can afford to be.

Contrasted against this are the “progressives”. These are the working class of the left. These folks lack the privileges of the wealthier liberals. They are the underdogs of the left. The progressives are a mix of races, pro-union, younger, angrier and have benefited far less from the system. These are the activists. The folks that supported Sanders and who are now most vocal about protesting Biden’s support of Israel. When there are anti-war protests these are the folks to organize and come out in greatest numbers. They are the ones that organize and show up Black Lives Matter protests. They’re more likely to be involved with union organizing. In terms of wealth these folks have more in common with “the other side”, the poorer rural whites of MAGA.

As we enter the election season of 2024 the split on the left is deeply concerning. Not surprisingly the establishment liberals don’t have much energy or argument beyond the easiest, most convenient which is always, simply, “support the establishment”. They’re not interested in rocking the boat because their boats are bigger and filled with more stuff. The status quo has been fairly good to the middle and upper middle class and they’d like to keep it that way. They tend to trust the system more than anyone else. In terms of the 2024 election, they’re not interested in debate or discussion. All they can muster is “Look, Trump is terrible, he must not win. There is no choice.”

And on that, they’re not wrong. Trump must not win.

But this establishment of the Democratic Party is loosing the long game because outside of the wealthiest in the country, they’re the most comfortable. They can afford to put off action. And they can afford to turn away from the uncomfortable truths of our times. And they’re arrogant in their self estimate of being the reasonable moderates not just of the country but of their own party. They snub their noses at the youthful activists of their party suggesting that their social justice ideals, while admirable, just aren’t practical. Sure, when it’s safe to do so, it adds an interesting social justice flavor to the party. But it’s just there as a window dressing.

The safe moderate choice of the establishment Democrats in 2020 was Joe Biden and while he did an admirable job his first term he is also a very proud Zionist and that’s proving to be a problem in the early months of 2024 as Israel commits what has been called by the International Court of Justice “plausible genocide”. The comfortable middle class Democrats are having a hard time seeing the truth as it pertains to the facts of this inconvenient moment in history. Or, if they are seeing it they’re not willing to say much about it.

The problem of the middle class of America is that they are largely isolated from the world’s problems. They are safe and comfortable and that’s what matters most to them. It allows them to live relatively safe, comfortable and untroubled lives most of the time. Not only do they serve as a ballast, providing balance against the have-nots in their own country, but they also muffle the injustices brought by US foreign policy to the rest of the world.

Tragically though, in the case of Israel, even the moderate candidate is one who continues US support of Israel’s apartheid, war crimes and genocide.

What the US faces is far, far worse than enshitification. The attempt to cling to comfort and convenience often means turning away from problem solving. It leads to kicking the can down the road and leaving the actual problem solving to future generations. That’s what the US has been doing for decades with many of its problems. But as the rising seas become increasingly rough the ballast of a moderate middle class cannot hold. We cannot innovate our way out of the climate emergency. We cannot ignore genocide. We cannot pretend that perpetual economic growth is possible.

Our future is not going to be comfortable, convenient or pleasant. The sooner we can stop pretending and get on with making the necessary changes the better off we will be.

“Uncommitted”: Over 100,000 Cast Protest Vote Against Biden’s Gaza Policy in Michigan Primary

Over 100,000 voters cast their ballots for “uncommitted” in an organized campaign protesting U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza. The major battleground state is home to one of the largest Arab American populations in the country, but the movement to vote “uncommitted” is now expected to spread to other states… “There is genocide unfolding. People want it to end. The president either is going to have to act decisively to end it, or it’s going to have an impact in November.”

Linked: Climate Emergency

The climate emergency is all around us. Smokehouse Creek Fire now second-largest on record in Texas… The Smokehouse Creek Fire has burned 500,000 acres since igniting Monday afternoon, making it the second-largest wildfire on record in Texas, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. It remains completely uncontained and is likely to grow further. The largest wildfire was the East Amarillo Complex fire in 2006, which consumed more than 900,000 acres, according to Texas A&M.

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Israel and the US, partners in land theft, genocide and apartheid.

West Bank settler expansion: a year on the frontline - YouTube

In the West Bank tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been a fact of life for decades. But since the October 7th attacks, the situation has only got worse, with hundreds of Palestinians being killed - and more illegal Israeli settlements spreading across the land.

Support Palestinian resistance to genocide and settler colonialism.

An image of a sign with this text: YOU TAKE MY WATER-BURN MY OLIVE TREES-DESTROY MY HOUSE-TAKE MY JOB-STEAL MY LAND -IMPRISON MY FATHER KILL MY MOTHER-BOMB MY COUNTRY-STARVE US ALL-HUMILIATE US ALL-BUT-I AM TO BLAME FOR MY RESISTANCE

In a recent thread about Israel’s ongoing atrocities against Palestinians on Micro.Blog, these two excellent posts stood out to me. First, David Marsden offered this postwhich included a link to the history of the Palestinian slogan “from the river to the sea” . Then this:

For almost 20 years Hamas has repeatedly offered Israel a peace process and effectively a two state solution, based on an Israeli military withdrawal to its 1967 borders, the establishment of a Palestinian mini-state on the West Bank and Gaza, with a ten year truce to negotiate other outstanding issues, such as the right of return for refugees.

Then Samjc offered this:

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable” ~ JFK

Without justifying the atrocities of Oct 7, the structural reality of Israel makes violence inevitable. You have one group who has taken the land of another to create an ethno-state, leaving most of the original inhabitants with no rights. Until that basic structure changes, we can expect outbursts of violence from both sides – for Palestinians as resistance, and perhaps also vengeance as you put it; for Israel, it is “security” (even though it is the structural violence of the situation that reproduces Israel’s vulnerability)

“My name is Aaron Bushnell. I’m an active duty member of the United States Air Force. And I will no longer be complicit in genocide.”

Every major press story left out his last words as he burned: Free Palestine!

Yogthos on Mastodon

We cannot allow the status quo to water down the martyrdom of Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old hero who served in the US Airforce and intentionally created a media firestorm against the ongoing agenda of the geriatric western ruling class. Contrary to reports from the press, this was not a shocking case of self harm, or a small minded tragedy.

Orange graphic with words Free Palestine. Aaron Bushnell is standing on the right side of the image. He is uniformed and burning. To the left is a uniformed officer pointing a gun at Aaron. This is a depiction seen in the on-scene video when an officer on the scene spent several minutes pointing a gun at Aaron as he burned.

Republican House Rep. Andrew Ogles on Gaza: “We Should Kill Them All”

In a stunning admission, a House Republican was caught on camera this week saying that he thinks the U.S. and Israel should kill all Palestinians in Gaza.

Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles made the comments in response to pro-Palestine activists who confronted him in a hallway about the U.S.’s continued support for Israel’s genocidal assault in Gaza, which has killed 30,000 Palestinians so far, including 12,300 children.

HunterNP: Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell

“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now."