Biden is not passively funding the slaughter of Palestinians, he’s working hard to do so, bypassing Congress at least twice. And his supposed “outrage” at Israel’s genocide is not convincing. With each week Biden seems determined to hand the election over to Trump.
The activist, progressive, empathetic left of the base has been protesting loudly while the wealthier, white, comfortable middle class portion of the Democratic base generally seems more self-concerned. My outsider perspective is that while this wealthy Democratic base has generally dominated the party it may be that Biden’s active support of war crimes and genocide might prove a tipping point.
Almost 50,000 Wisconsin voters just told Biden to stop the Gaza war. Will he listen? | The Guardian
The protest vote in Wisconsin has made clear that this campaign is bigger than Biden. The many people calling for a ceasefire aren’t merely swing voters or bitter castoffs who have long left the party. Many involved in the uncommitted campaigns have, until now, been committed Democrats. But they fear a critical mass of voters may permanently leave the Democratic party if Biden and other leaders don’t implement a ceasefire in Gaza, and quickly. For some voters, even that may be too little, too late.
In this Majority Report clip about Israel’s recent slaughter of WCK aid workers in Gaza Emma Vigeland refers to the IDF as the Israeli Genocide Force.
Calling things out for what they are.
See also:
- US billionaires: Oligarchs
- The Republican Party: The Fascist Party
War Crimes: “Sniper shots to the brain. They were seven or eight years old.”
Dr Fozia Alvi was making her rounds of the intensive care unit on her final day at the battered European public hospital in southern Gaza when she stopped next to two young arrivals with facial injuries and breathing tubes in their windpipes…
Children account for more than one in three of the more than 32,000 people killed in Israel’s months-long assault on Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Delusions at the United Nations | Al Jazeera
We have now entered the comforting world of delusions.
Earlier this week, 14 members of the United Nations Security Council agreed on a resolution that called for an “immediate ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas and the “unconditional release of all hostages”.
Applause broke out in the chamber. It was a surreal, farcical scene, punctuated by an expression of self-congratulatory delusion that something tangible had finally been achieved to end Israel’s killing rage in the shattered, dystopian remnants of the Gaza Strip…
Is the US status as a war criminal just being accepted by its citizens? Seems that way.
Interview with Josh Paul, former State Department official who resigned in October to protest increasing arms sales to Israel. The most recent shipment to include 25 F-35 fighter jets and the 1,800 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs used to level entire city blocks.
Biden Violating U.S. Law by Rushing More Arms to Israel - YouTube
The Biden administration has recently authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel.
The case for paying ranchers to raise trees instead of cattle | The Guardian
There is a simple, cost-effective and scientifically sound way to turn back the clock on global warming and reverse the catastrophic collapse of biodiversity: pay ranchers to raise trees instead of cattle.
By mass, the world’s 1.7 billion cows are the dominant animal species on Earth, far outweighing the human population, and outweighing all the wild terrestrial mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians left on Earth by more than 15-fold. More than a third of Earth’s land is used to feed livestock.
1 in 5 Wisconsin Democrats Said Gaza War Will Impact Their Primary Vote
More than 1 in 5 Wisconsin Democrats said that Israel’s war in Gaza is impacting their vote in the state’s primary on Tuesday, while 71% said they strongly support an immediate and permanent ceasefire, according to a new poll released on Monday.
11% of respondents said President Joe Biden’s handling of the war will impact their vote in November if he does not change course and another nearly 14 percent said it could. Nearly 5%, meanwhile, said their vote has been impacted regardless of a change in policy.
Not a surprise that the Fascist Party in attempting to limit democracy in Missouri.
Lawmakers, in a panic over the prospect that voters might overturn their abortion ban, are moving at what for them amounts to lightning speed on a constitutional amendment to make it harder to pass initiative petitions in Missouri.
Big surprise.
Nations Are Undercounting Emissions, Putting UN Goals at Risk - Yale E360
Because of lax rules, national inventories reported to the United Nations grossly underestimate many countries’ greenhouse gas emissions…
In the United States, an analysis published this month of the air over the country’s oil and natural gas fields found that they emit three times more methane — a gas responsible for a third of current warming — than the government has reported.
Lots of planning for November and post election: How Viktor Orbán Conquered the Heritage Foundation | The New Republic
Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made waves by flying to the United States to meet with Donald Trump—but not with sitting president Joe Biden. It was, at a minimum, a severe breach of diplomatic protocol, and one that threatens to unravel Budapest’s strained relations with Washington even further. Even Biden himself commented on the meeting, saying that Orbán—an authoritarian who has effectively unwound Hungarian democracy—was “looking for dictatorship.”
Not only will the cost of food contiune to rise, but an increasingly destabilized climate will decrease crop production as the population of the planet grows. We will have food shortages. The poorest of the planet will suffer first. And the wealthiest 10% are okay with that.
Extreme Heat Is Driving Up Food Prices — and It’s Only Going to Get Worse | Truthout
Food prices have climbed 25 percent over the past four years, and Americans have been shocked…
We’ve been warned, we sholudn’t be shocked.
I’ve seen it suggested that American billionaires should now be referred to as oligarchs. By the same logic, we should also now refer to the Republicans as Fascists, and the Republican Party as the Fascist Party.
Call them what they are. Fascists.
The GOP is Fascism now.
Walberg, a fundamentalist former Christian pastor, once ran the homophobic, far right Moody Bible Institute in Chicago while supposedly representing a Michigan district, Walberg is against everything— a woman’s right to choose, the Affordable Care Act, gay marriage, and any attempt to counter the climate crisis. He went to Uganda to voice support for that country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, which prescribes executions for gay people.
‘Obscene’: Biden Quietly OKs More 2,000-Pound Bombs, Warplanes for Israel
The Washington Post reported Friday that Biden authorized shipments including more than “1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, as well as 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines worth approximately $2.5 billion.”
“Arming a war criminal makes you a war criminal,” one critic admonished the U.S. president.
Despite growing worldwide calls for an arms embargo, the Biden administration in recent days has approved the transfer of billions of dollars worth of new weapons shipments to Israel…
Gaza starvation could amount to war crime, UN human rights chief tells BBC
After months of warnings, a recent UN-backed report offered hard statistical evidence that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is turning into a man-made famine.
It has increased the pressure on Israel to fulfil its legal responsibilities to protect Palestinian civilians, and to allow adequate supplies of humanitarian aid to reach the people who need it.
According to Volker Türk, the UN’s most senior human rights official, there is a “plausible” case that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.
In the US we’re just beginning to pay the price for what we’ve done. The wealthiest class in the top 10% on the planet (most in the US are in this group), are now feeling just a hint of the pain that is to come. The insurance crisis will bleed out into other economic crises. And we in western nations have not yet begun to experience the food shortages that will come soon enough as the climate emergency creates instability in the agricultural systems of the world.
The home insurance market is crumbling. These owners are paying the price | CNN Business
But as climate change increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather, insurers — especially those in areas most impacted by floods and fires — are raising their premiums, or pulling out altogether, impacting the affordability and availability of home and fire insurance.
Herrera shopped around for a new plan, but he struggled to find a policy. Louisiana Citizens, the insurer of last resort for property owners in the state, was out of the question. It would have cost more than $7,000 annually…
“It’s a very difficult situation,” he said. He never imagined that when he bought his home, private insurance options would be this limited and the last resort insurer would be so expensive…
He never imagined because he, like most in the US, wasn’t paying fucking attention. Climate scientists and activists have been warning for at least two decades that this day would come.
Herrera’s insurance story is common in Louisiana and other places across the country at increasingly higher risk for extreme weather.
There were a record 28 weather and climate disasters with losses totaling over $1 billion last year in America, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. By comparison, between 1980 and 2023, the typical annual average for these events was 8.5.
Just getting started.
‘Ecocide in Gaza’: does scale of environmental destruction amount to a war crime? | The Guardian
Satellite analysis revealed to the Guardian shows farms devastated and nearly half of the territory’s trees razed. Alongside mounting air and water pollution, experts says Israel’s onslaught on Gaza’s ecosystems has made the area unlivable
For those of us in the US acknowledging the truth of our own history is not something often taught in schools nor encouraged in our culture generally. The truth is not the wholesome tv show Little House on the Prairie that I grew up watching. It’s a violent truth and we should reckon with it.
Settler colonialism - Wikipedia
Settler colonialism occurs when colonizers invade and occupy territory to permanently replace the existing society with the society of the colonizers.
Settler colonialism is a form of exogenous domination typically organized or supported by an imperial authority, which maintains a connection or control to the territory through the settler’s colonialism.
Learn about the Indigenous people on whose land you occupy via Native Land Digital.
Learn about Territory Acknowledgement:
Territory acknowledgement is a way that people insert an awareness of Indigenous presence and land rights in everyday life. This is often done at the beginning of ceremonies, lectures, or any public event. It can be a subtle way to recognize the history of colonialism and a need for change in settler colonial societies.
I live on the traditional territory of:
ICJ orders Israel to take action to address famine in Gaza:
Judges at the International Court of Justice have unanimously ordered Israel to take all the necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay to Gaza’s hunger-ravaged population.
Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative party, tells Al Jazeera that the move is an “important step” that should be followed by another resolution enforcing a “complete cessation of all military activities by Israel”.
The US and Israel continue partnership in war crimes.
Despite a U.N.-backed report sounding the alarm on imminent famine in northern Gaza, Israeli authorities announced Sunday they will no longer approve the passage of any UNRWA food convoys into northern Gaza. “Our ability to adequately continue saving lives is really being obstructed,” says UNRWA… The decision came as President Biden signed a $1.2 trillion appropriations bill that strips funding to UNRWA for the next year.