Friday, March 08, 2024

Political crazies and GOOGLE censorship

Let's start with George Santos.  Remember him?  Expelled from Congress at the end of last year -- just months ago, He's facing federal charges currently.  Miss that?  The Justice Dept.:


CENTRAL ISLIP, NY – A 23-count superseding indictment was filed today in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, charging George Anthony Devolder Santos, better known as “George Santos,” the United States Representative for the Third District of New York, with one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, two counts of wire fraud, two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), two counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of access device fraud, in addition to the seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the United States House of Representatives that were charged in the original indictment.  Santos is due back in federal court in Central Islip on October 27, 2023.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Nicole M. Argentieri, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and James Smith, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and Anne T. Donnelly, Nassau County District Attorney, announced the superseding indictment.

“As alleged, Santos is charged with stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign.  Santos falsely inflated the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen” stated United States Attorney Peace.  “This Office will relentlessly pursue criminal charges against anyone who uses the electoral process as an opportunity to defraud the public and our government institutions.”

“Santos allegedly led multiple additional fraudulent criminal schemes, lying to the American public in the process.  The FBI is committed to upholding the laws of our electoral process.  Anyone who attempts to violate the law as part of a political campaign will face punishment in the criminal justice system,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Smith.

“The defendant - a Congressman - allegedly stole the identities of family members and used the credit card information of political contributors to fraudulently inflate his campaign coffers,” stated District Attorney Donnelly.  “We thank our partners in the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI as we work together to root out public corruption on Long Island.”

As alleged in the superseding indictment, Santos, who was elected to Congress last November and sworn in as the U.S. Representative for New York’s Third Congressional District on January 7, 2023, engaged in two fraudulent schemes, in addition to the multiple fraudulent schemes alleged in the original indictment.


So, guess what?  He wants to run for Congress again.  He's a public embarrassment who should hang his head in shame.  But he thinks he has a political career.  The world has gone insane.


Now this:


The search for former President Donald Trump's Vice President has been whittled down to three top (and young) lawmakers: Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) are the top choices, according to GOP strategist and conservative blogger Ryan Girdusky.


If true, that would mean Marjorie Taylor Greene is no longer on Donald's list.  Guess macho Marjorie isn't a good sell with conservative MAGA freaks.  Oh, they'll use her, they just won't advance or promote her.  She's hit the GOP's glass ceiling.  


Again, they'll chuckle as you makes an idiot of herself at the State of the Union Address.  They just won't advance her.  MAGA conservatives want their women 'lady like.'  Doubt it?  Go to Twitter and look at the MAGA accounts -- look at the violence aimed against women by these conservative men -- where they post photos and videos of women bound and chained and rules about the patriarchy and how women don't have the right to speak -- especially not to say "no" to a man.  


Crazy Marjorie.  She thought she had a future.   Lauren Boebert?  That groper knew her career in district three was over but thought she could win in a new district.  Even Donald endorsing her, however, doesn't appear to be helping her:


Boebert was reportedly well received as she boasted to attendees, " Yesterday, the greatest president of the United States of America, President Donald J. Trump, has fully and completely endorsed me in this race. Because he knows he needs me alongside of him in the fight when he returns to Washington, D.C."

But, in a straw poll at the end of the day, the picture didn't look too rosy.

According to the report, "that endorsement — which she repeatedly highlighted during the forum — still didn’t stop voters from choosing longtime CD4 politician Jerry Sonnenberg as the winner of the straw poll. [Trump supporter Ted] Harvey came in second, followed by Boebert."


So that's the crazies in politics, let's get to GOOGLE.  

This part, about the censorship, may be difficult to follow because I'm writing very censored to avoid being censored by GOOGLE.  March 7th, I wrote a post and published it.


Something weird happened.  Right after hitting "publish" -- right after -- I got a message that the post was flagged and put behind a wall. 

This was not a case of anyone reading it -- even AI reading it -- because it was instantaneous -- unless GOOGLE is now spying on us as we write.

I was blogging in C.I.'s music room and we were listening to music.  I was flustered and she asked what was going on?  


She then, with my permission, attempted to get it posted without the warning.


She tried just copying and pasting it with a different title, that didn't work.  She then copied and pasted it with a different title and going through and removing certain words.  At which point, it went up and did so without any warning or wall. 


If you look at that post that's up, you'll see the name of the athlete in the title -- C.I. put Dean Phillips (which the post also focuses on) ahead of the athlete's name.


So this bad athlete that couldn't make it as football player and then failed as a baseball player and pretends he's happily married and loves kids -- but where are the kids?  Where are the kids?

 

I find it interesting that the language had to be watered down for GOOGLE to allow it up.


Let's be clear that this happened with the sport's failure.  I find it interesting that GOOGLE must have an algorhythm set up that immediately blocks any posts about that failure and things done wrong to kids -- again I have to watch the wording to avoid the algo rhythm.  When C.I. got the post back up with a new title, she had to repeatedly substitute words and pull words.  So hopefully you can understnad when I'm talking about. 


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Friday, March 8, 2024.  Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union Address, Gaza remains his biggest problem, while he scored some successes last night and delivered the remarks perfectly he has still not seriously addressed Gaza, though the media hasn't noted it, Super Tuesday wasn't a bad day for Marianne Williamson, and much more.

In the US last night, President Joe Biden delivered the Constitutionally mandated State of the Union Address.  How was it?

For Joe, pretty damn good.

It could have been the night he was destroyed.  Some might feel it should have been.  Yesterday's snapshot was up about a half hour before the first call came in -- from a DNC friend -- asking, "What the hell are you talking about?"  I explained the FOX NEWS headline.  We walked it through and it would have been the end of Joe's chances at re-election.  

Fortunately for Joe Biden, the GOP is a bunch of idiotic malcontents.  They had the way to take him down last night.  They were too interested in performative and not in action.

Joe has a month or two where he can end the assault on Gaza (and should end it today) but if not don't be surprised if even idiots like the current make up of the Republican Party stumble upon to a victory strategy.

How can Joe demand a cease-fire, how can he make it happen?

That's what I heard over and over in the calls that followed.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were all pretending we still had our virginity.

Take Netanyahu out.  That doesn't mean murder.  That means we have information, we have a spy network, he's a shady character already facing corruption chares in his own country.  He grows increasinly unpopular.  Political murders are no longer done with bullets, they're done with gossip.

Tut-tuting from the newly chaste was the response --  to which I replied, "So you don't want to be part of my dinners this month?"  That's right.  That's where I go to DC and drop gossip.

For example?

You: A Republican star in Congress.  So thrilled and focused on your future.  Me?  The celebrity you bothered at a wedding back when you were a young man.  The celebrity your boyfriend bothered.  Although I felt sorry for him because he was a little younger than you and I got the distinct impression that you affair began while he was underage.  Donna the disgusting women who kept trying to get you in pictures with me.  I meet millions of people.  The joke is I know everyone.  I don't.  And I don't remember everyone.  But too bad for you, you made it into a recent snapshot and there I was just spit balling, doing a little parody of you in the snapshot, giving you a home town in the snapshot and the person I'm dictating the snapshot to asks for a pause and he looks it up and that is your small town.  How did I know it?  That's when it all comes rushing back to me.  And I have the photos.  I don't throw out photos.  I put them in my journals.  I was there for a friend's wedding  And you were there with your fifty-something hag and your boyfriend.  And I have the pictures.  I'll be dining out with various politicians over the next few weeks explaining who you really are when you're not verbally attacking LGBTQ+ people.  Every time you speak to attack them, you're going to know that your colleagues know your full of crap and, most importantly, they're going to conclude -- like I have -- that your young life affair continues to this day since your lover is still around though you pass him off as something other than your lover of several decades. I like doing this.  It tends to make the target a little jumpy, tends to hem them in and make them watch their vile little mouths a little more closely.  Now at some point, this always happens, someone whispers to the press.  That's not my problem.  I didn't whisper to the press.  I just made sure everyone knew that the man screeching about gay people was in fact a gay man himself -- despite the wife.  

That's what I like to do.

I use the truth.  (I used a lie once, for the Iraq War, I've told this story here before, we needed to remove a newspaper's support for Bully Boy Bush and I said we could do it in one dinner.  On a dare, I proved it.  But, yes, I did lie then. Again, we've talked about that before.  The only time I've used a lie but we needed to strip him of support on the Iraq War and when I said how it could be done and several Dem heavyweights scoffed it became, "Oh, you think you know better than me?  Let me show you how it's done."  It took one dinner only.  The paper immediately dropped its support for Bully Boy Bush and his illegal war.) 

So the point is, I don't want to hear anymore excuses from or for the White House.  

The assault needs to end.  Netanyahu is in a weak position.  Confront him with possible exposure over whatever US spy agencies have on him (I have no idea what they have him on but I know they've got stuff).

The US government regularly pressures leaders in Haiti to step down, they can manage to twist Netanyahu's crooked wrist.

And if they don't?  

Republicans these days are very stupid but even they are eventually going to catch on with how to end Joe's political career.  He dodged a bullet last night.  I don't think he'll be that lucky again.

Could be wrong, though.  Wouldn't have thought Marjorie Taylor Greene would show up to the State of the Union looking like the butchest lesbian at a tailgate party but there she was last night working some intense LOVE LIES BLEEDING mood..  

Making a spectacle out of herself.  The way the woman in Texas did.  That's the loser that Elaine was writing about this week.  I was able to call that race a few weeks ago because it was so obvious.  You're a conservative woman and you're hating a man and forgetting the place you try to consign women to in your conservative world.

I'm a feminist.  I believe women can do anything.

Marjorie's not a feminist and she is not for women's rights and does not believe in equality.  Her core audience supports her on that.  So when 'the little woman' forgets her place in public and starts booing and hissing a man, it doesn't always play the way they think.  She was the fat girl getting laughs but now the pep rally's over and she has to deal with the fact that none of the guys like her or find her attractive in any manner.  

Watching her act that way in public -- even forgetting that embarrassing outfit -- you really have to marvel over the self-denial of Marjorie Taylor Greene that allows her to think she can court the crowd she does while acting the way she does.

Jill Dutton thought just like Marjorie.  She thought she was coming on 'ballsy' or something.  Nope.  She just looked like a woman attacking -- and, yes, nagging -- a man (Brent Money).  These anti-women women don't seem to grasp that their natural constituency expects them to be 'respectful' of men and to 'know their place.'  They get out there in the real world and want to act like fully empowered people.  But their political statements and stances make that impossible for them to do.  Jill came off like the nightmare image of every conservative man and she thought that was going to deliver her votes?


Here's Paul Rudnick's take on the the State of the Union Address.




Joe promised ROE V WADE would be restored -- most likely by codifying it -- if he were elected.  That's a promise he better be held to.  Barack Obama promised codifying ROE would be the first thing he did if elected president but he left the White House after eight years of being president without ever having even attempted to codify it.  Joe gave a promise that the cost of a month's insulin would be brought down to thirty-something dollars a month. His speech had strong moments (and his delivery of it was perfection).   Daniel Villareal (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address told transgender Americans, “I have your back.” He also spoke against book-banning and “erasing history,” and told Congress to pass the Equality Act, legislation that would enshrine LGBTQ+ civil rights into federal law.

“Stop denying another core value of America our diversity across American life,” Biden said, about midway through his speech. “Banning books — it’s wrong! Instead of erasing history, let’s make history! I want to protect other fundamental rights! Pass the Equality Act, and my message to transgender Americans: I have your back!”

His speech starkly contrasted the American “core values” of “honesty, decency, dignity, [and] equality” with that of “resentment, revenge, and retribution” held by “some other people my age,” a veiled reference to former President Donald Trump (whom he never mentioned by name).

“I know the American story,” Biden said. “Again and again, I’ve seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for the soul of our nation: between those who want to pull America back to the past and those who want to move America into the future.”

“Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today,” he noted. Then, after mentioning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued invasion of Ukraine — something Putin has justified with anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry — Biden then mentioned the January 6, 2001 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol carried out by Trump’s followers.

“Insurrectionists stormed this very Capitol and placed a dagger at the throat of American democracy,” Biden said. “We all saw with our own eyes these insurrectionists were not patriots. They had come to stop the peaceful transfer of power and to overturn the will of the people. “

“January 6th and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War,” Biden continued. “But they failed. America stood strong and democracy prevailed.”

 
Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) offers this take on SOTU address:

Progressive Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush raised signs calling on President Joe Biden to "stop sending bombs" to the Israeli military as he pledged during his State of the Union address Thursday night to provide more humanitarian aid to Gazans and decried the war's grisly death toll.

"This war has taken a greater toll on innocent civilians than all previous wars in Gaza combined. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of whom are not Hamas," Biden said. "Thousands and thousands of innocents, women and children. Girls and boys also orphaned. Nearly two million more Palestinians under bombardment or displacement."

As expected, Biden announced that the U.S. military will construct a temporary port on Gaza's coast to facilitate the delivery of food, water, medicine, and other humanitarian assistance as Israel obstructs aid shipments on the ground, fueling the spread of malnutrition and disease. Critics blasted the plan as a PR stunt that wouldn't do nearly enough to relieve one of the worst humanitarian emergencies in modern history.

"A U.S. port delivering meager amounts of humanitarian aid and empty rhetoric mean nothing when they are delivered alongside U.S. bombs," said Jewish Voice for Peace Action late Thursday.

The president also called for a six-week cease-fire—far from the "lasting cease-fire" that Tlaib and Bush demanded during Biden's speech.

"The only cease-fire that is morally acceptable is a lasting cease-fire," Bush wrote on social media. "It is inhumane to pause the violence for six weeks and then continue sending bombs right after."

While decrying the immense suffering in Gaza as "heartbreaking," Biden did not acknowledge the critical role that U.S. weapons have played in Israel's monthslong assault. Since the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, the Biden administration has quietly approved more than 100 separate arms sales to the Israeli government, which has used American weaponry to massacre civilians.

Ahead of Biden's speech, hundreds of activists demanding an arms embargo on Israel blocked the route of the president's motorcade as he traveled to the U.S. Capitol.

Gaza is not going away and needs to be addressed.  Joe's speech succeeded because the GOP is so damn stupid and because he had certain things he needed to convey and did so.  But Gaza is not going away.  And this summary sentence from NBC NEWS highlights why Joe can't sell his actions on Gaza to the American people, "Biden also called for an immediate, temporary cease-fire in Israel's war with Hamas and pointed to hostages' families in attendance at the speech, but hopes for a new truce deal by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan have faded after no breakthrough in the talks in Egypt."  He's calling for an immediate, temporary cease-fire.  It's a pause, not a cease-fire, stop lying to us.




President Joe Biden cruised to victory in Hawaii’s presidential caucus on Wednesday, receiving 66% of the vote with 99% reporting. However, just over 1,500 residents cast ballots, and “uncommitted” received 29.1% of the vote, the highest percentage in any statewide contest thus far.

While Hawaii Democrats acknowledged that Biden would almost certainly win the party’s nomination, the select handful of voters who took to the polls described the contest as a “referendum.”


IN THESE TIMES notes that March 12th will see the state of Washington vote in their primary and that "uncommitted" is on the ballot as it will be for the Democrats Abroad.

 
In Hawaii on Wednesday, Marianne got 3.2% of the votes.  She could be relaxing by the pool.  She knows she's not going to win.  She didn't get back in to win, she got back in to make sure that certain issues are being raised.  


Marianne Williamson:  The possibilities are enormous.  We have everything we need in this country.  The possibilities are endless. We have the people and the best practices and the projects.  People who know how to do organic and regenerative farming, who  know how to reclaim the Earth, who know how to reclaim our food, who know how to reclaim our land, who know how to repair us after the ravages of 50 years of corporate dominance in which the very thought that short term corporate profits should take precedence over our safety, our health and our well being, that those economic ideas -- soulless as they are -- should take precedence over the will of the people.  To the point that in the last 50 years  there has been a transfer of wealth to the tune of fifty-trillion dollars. And it has ravaged American middle class.  As soon as they started with this 'trickle down' economic paradigm and as soon as CITIZENS UNITED Supreme Court decision, gave those corporate interests the power to basically buy and sell and turn Washington into a system of legalized bribery.  All that money was transferred into the hands of 1% of Americans.  At this point, that level of economic injustice has ravaged us.  It has ravaged our middle class.  It has ravaged our environment.  It has put carcinogens in our food, toxins in our air.  We don't have universal healthcare like every other advanced democracy does because of the insurance companies.  Over a million people in the United States, ration their insulin.  You don't have that in any other advanced democracy because they have universal healthcare. But all of that because of the greed of the pharmaceutical companies.  Look what has happened to Iowa because of the greed of Big Agriculture and big food companies and big banks.  I don't need to tell you that there is no state in this country that is not experiencing the ravages of an old way of doing things and the possibilities of something new. 


It's amazing that she's not news to the media.  In Virginia this week?  She got 7.8% of the vote.   Do you realize how many Republicans who never got anywhere near that much have been shoved down our throats by the media?  In Utah this week, she got 5.2% of the vote. 4.3% in Vermont, 4.5% in Texas, 9.12% in Oklahoma, 1.4% in Minnesota, 3.2% in Massachusetts, 2.9% in Colorado, 3.4% in California, 4.8% in Arkansas -- how is this not news?

It's not just better than she did in 2020 on Super Tuesday, it's better than Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, the repellant Tulsi Gabbard and others did in 2020 on Super Tuesday.  

Hopefully, poli sci students are paying attention -- especially graduate students because this is a good topic for political science journals.  This weekend, Marianne will be in Atlanta:

  •  





    AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

    NERMEEN SHAIKH: Over the past few weeks, the Biden administration has been publicly voicing reservations over the mounting death toll in Gaza, calling on Israel to protect civilians and allow in humanitarian aid. But behind the scenes, the Biden administration has quietly approved and delivered more than 100 separate weapons sales to Israel over the last five months, amounting to thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters and other lethal aid, this according to a new investigation by The Washington Post.

    AMY GOODMAN: Only two approved foreign military sales to Israel have been made public since the launch of Israel’s assault on October 7th, amounting to over $250 million worth of tank shells and ammunition, which the administration authorized using emergency authority to bypass Congress. But in the case of the hundred other weapons sales, known as Foreign Military Sales, the arms transfers were made without any public debate, because each fell under a specific dollar amount that requires the executive branch to individually notify Congress.

    For more, we’re joined by Josh Paul, a veteran State Department official who worked on arms deals and resigned in protest of a push to increase arms sales to Israel amidst its assault on Gaza. Josh Paul is the former director of congressional and public affairs for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs in the State Department, where he worked for 11 years. He’s now a nonresident at DAWN — that’s Democracy for the Arab World Now. He’s joining us from New Haven, Connecticut.

    Josh, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about the significance of this Washington Post exposé, what we’ve learned about the U.S. flooding Israel with weapons as President Biden talks about saying he’s putting pressure on Israel to let food aid in?

    JOSH PAUL: Thank you, and thank you for having me.

    I think what we’ve learned from this story shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. It is that the president continues to facilitate the flow of arms to Israel despite a change in tone. You know, we have certainly heard the administration call for more humanitarian assistance, for, you know, at least a temporary ceasefire. But at the same time, it continues to provide the arms that enable Israel to continue its operations. So, I think that’s pretty consistent, frankly, with what the White House has said, including John Kirby from the podium this week, that this remains U.S. policy.

    I think many of your viewers may be shocked to hear that there have been a hundred sales in the last few months since October 7th. But here, I don’t think anyone in the State Department will be particularly moved by this story. Much of the process does, unfortunately, move like a production line when it comes to cases that do not require, under law, congressional notification. So what we really have here is both a policy problem but also a lack of transparency that is built into the system, and which can only be remedied by a change in law.

    NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, let’s go to what national security communications adviser John Kirby said. He was questioned at the White House by the journalist Andrew Feinberg, a correspondent for The Independent in Britain.

    ANDREW FEINBERG: What is preventing the president from communicating to the Israeli government that if they don’t allow aid, we will not continue supplying weapons? Why is that not a fair trade: no aid, no bombs?

    JOHN KIRBY: Because the president still believes that it’s important for Israel to have what it needs to defend itself against a still viable Hamas threat. Maybe some people have forgotten what happened on the 7th of October, but President Biden has not.

    NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Josh Paul, your response, both to the question and to Kirby’s response?

    JOSH PAUL: I mean, there you have it. And I think the question could also have noted that under U.S. law, under Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, it is actually illegal to provide military assistance to a country that is restricting U.S.-funded humanitarian assistance. And we know that this is the case with Israel, because Jake Sullivan himself, the national security adviser, has said that this is a problem, and, of course, we would not be airdropping aid into Gaza, were we leaning on Israel to open the humanitarian aid routes. So, you know, I think there is a clear case to be made here that we are not in accordance with U.S. law, certainly out of step, I think, with international law. And at the same time, the Biden administration position remains: We will continue to provide arms to Israel, whatever it requests and requires.

    NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, if you could explain, Josh: How much does this differ from the procedure that’s been in place regarding U.S. arms transfers to Ukraine? I mean, in this case, as we’ve said, only two approved foreign military sales to Israel have been made public. What about to Ukraine?

    JOSH PAUL: Yeah. So, for the most part, the procedures and processes through which we provide arms to Israel versus Ukraine are different. Ukraine requires an authorization under presidential drawdown authority, as well as new and novel funding to, for example, Department of Defense’s Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Those have expired. We are out of, essentially, both of those. And so, without additional funding, we will not be able to provide arms to Ukraine.

    Israel, on the other hand, is perfectly capable of using its own money to procure weapons through the Foreign Military Sales system, through the direct promotional sales system, which, by the way, The Washington Post didn’t touch on. And it’s quite possible that there’s a hundred more sales through that other channel to Israel that we don’t know about. And, of course, you know, we are providing Israel with military ground assistance, which it can also tap into and knows that it will be able to tap into, because it has a 10-year commitment from us to continue providing billions of dollars a year, unlike Ukraine. So it’s a slightly different situation and much easier, I think, for Israel to continue to receive weapons even in the absence of a supplemental, unlike Ukraine.

    AMY GOODMAN: Democratic Colorado Congressmember Jason Crow told The Washington Post the Biden administration should apply, quote, “existing standards” stipulating that the United States, quote, “shouldn’t transfer arms or equipment to places where it’s reasonably likely that those will be used to inflict civilian casualties, or to harm civilian infrastructure.” Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the Post, “I am concerned that the widespread use of artillery and air power in Gaza — and the resulting level of civilian casualties — is both a strategic and moral error.” Now, Crow is not usually a dove on all of these issues, but it’s very interesting to see him talk about his response, his critical response to the U.S. when it comes to Israel.

    And this is particularly interesting on the day of President Biden’s State of the Union address tonight. We don’t know exactly what he’s going to say. We know there are a number of Americans who have family members who are being held hostage in Gaza. We don’t know if the Biden family or the administration will be inviting any Palestinians, and that Biden wanted to be able to announce a ceasefire tonight, which is clear, it looks like, will not be happening. But your response to all of this and how these weapons sales, do you feel, perpetuate the war?

    JOSH PAUL: Yeah, I mean, I think that people who have served in the military or worked in the Middle East, people like Representative Crow, also, frankly, like Secretary of Defense Austin, understand that what Israel is doing is not going to lead to success on Israel’s own terms, as Secretary of Defense Austin has said. It will lead to strategic failure. And that is why I think the same is true on the Israeli side, where you have former heads of Mossad, for example, saying that this is a dead-end road, that what they are doing is damaging to their own interests.

    But I think that is separate from the political question here. And the political question is one in which we have a president and, you know, a set of policies and, frankly, a Congress, as well, for the most part, that remains set on this course, regardless of the harm it is doing to Israeli security and to American global interests and, of course, to so many Palestinians.

    AMY GOODMAN: Josh Paul, you were in the State Department for 11 years, and you were involved with these kind of arms deals. You resigned in protest of a push to increase arms to Israel. But I wanted to ask you: How much does protest on the ground affect what’s going on in the State Department, in the White House? How much do you hear it? I mean, there is a massive amount of protest in the United States. And no matter who wants to insulate Biden from it, almost everywhere he goes he is hearing the chants of “ceasefire.” I mean, tonight, one of his guests will be the UAW President Shawn Fain. The UAW was one of the early unions to call for a ceasefire. How much does it matter?

    JOSH PAUL: I think protest is very important, I think particularly protest when it manifests at the ballot box, in terms of, for example, the “uncommitted” vote or the “other” vote that we have seen in states and will continue, I hope, to see in the coming days, because that signals to the Biden administration that they really have a political problem here. And that is really one of the only means we have of getting this administration to change course in the time that it has left. So I think that is very important. I think it’s most important when it manifests directly in the political process, and when it comes with organization. I think there is a momentum around this issue now, and we have to maintain that momentum for the, frankly, months and years ahead, because this is not going to be a long-term pole to shift where American policy is and has been for many years.

    AMY GOODMAN: Finally, you were inside for years the State Department. Now that you’ve resigned — and we sort of ask you this every time since then — how many people inside the administration have reached out to you? Do you feel that that’s increasing? And how many times do they tell you that they’ve been discussing this with Biden or the inner circle of Biden, and what their views on this are? I mean, Biden was no fan of Netanyahu from the beginning. And so, yet he is embracing him now. What they are saying?

    JOSH PAUL: Yeah, I mean, I’m still hearing from people I had not heard from previously, to be clear, who are saying that, you know, “This is not working. I feel sick to my stomach of being involved in this. And, you know, I’m trying to make changes, and it’s just not working.” I had several of those conversations just in the last week with people I’ve not spoken to before on this issue. So I think the internal pressure, the internal disgust, frankly, is still there.

    But I think, you know, the White House and the president have surrounded the president with, you know, a council of advisers who are, for the most part, like-minded with him. And I don’t know how much of that dissent is actually breaking through, and, even if it did, how much it would change the president’s decision-making. I think he is where he is. And, you know, absent significant political pressure, that is not going to change, unfortunately.

    AMY GOODMAN: Josh Paul, we want to thank you for being with us, veteran State Department official, worked on arms deals, resigned in protest of a push to increase arms sales to Israel and its siege on Gaza. He’s the former director of congressional and public affairs for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs in the State Department, where he worked for 11 years, now a nonresident fellow with DAWN — that’s Democracy for the Arab World Now.






    Gaza remains under assault. Day 154 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  ALMAYADEEN notes, "The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza reported on Friday that 30,878 Palestinians have been killed and 72,402 wounded by the Israeli occupation as the genocide enters its 154th day."  Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:







    And the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."   

    Today is International Women's Day.  CNN's Celine Alkhaldi and Ibrahim Dahman report:

     

    At least 9,000 women have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said in a statement Friday.

    Here's what else the statement said about the conditions of women in Gaza:

    • About 60,000 pregnant women in the Gaza Strip suffer from "malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of appropriate health care"
    • About 5,000 pregnant women in the Gaza Strip give birth every month in "harsh, unsafe, and unhealthy conditions"

    The UN's Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is the main aid agency in Gaza, also posted a statement on X (formerly Twitter), saying an average of 63 women are killed in the enclave per day. "On #InternationalWomensDay, the women in #Gaza continue to endure the consequences of this brutal war," it said.

    UNRWA's Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said more work is required to support and protect women. "An immediate ceasefire is the minimum," he wrote.


    The following sites updated: