Thursday, June 27, 2024

The debate's started

Paul Rudnick.



I hope you read Ruth's "Bannon belongs in prison or we do not have real judicial system" from last night.  I also hope you read Trina's "David Walsh is a pig who limits the reach of WSWS."  Stan's "WSWS' attack on Jane Fonda was disgusting (and sexist, as Trina noted)" just went up so read that too.  Trina and Stan are right to call WSWS out.


Okay, for news this from DEMOCRACY NOW!

Kenyan President William Ruto has scrapped an unpopular tax bill following a mass nationwide uprising on Tuesday, when soldiers and police fired live rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of protesters who stormed Kenya’s Parliament in Nairobi. At least 23 people were killed and dozens more injured. On Wednesday, President Ruto said he had heard the message of the protesters and had reversed his support for the tax hikes.

President William Ruto: “The country witnessed widespread expression of dissatisfaction with the bill as passed, regrettably resulting in the loss of life, destruction of property and desecration of constitutional institutions.”

President Ruto called the loss of life “very unfortunate” and sent condolences to the families of those killed. Earlier today, police and security forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets at protesters in Nairobi, after organizers called for fresh demonstrations to continue to demand Ruto’s resignation. This is Lorna Dias, a member of Kenya’s Human Rights Commission; she spoke after President Ruto called protesters “treasonous.”

Lorna Dias: “It’s not protesters who are treasonous. It’s Ruto’s acts that are treasonous. … There is nothing that justifies the use of live bullets on protesters, but this regime positions snipers to shoot and kill unarmed protesters.”

We’ll have the latest on the youth uprising in Kenya after headlines.


That's it, I'm trying to watch the debate. Let me post like C.I. did a second ago.

WATCH LIVE: Biden and Trump debate — PBS News simulcast of CNN’s 2024 Presidential Debate

This is broadcasting live right now. I'm leaving this up until the debate's over.



Posted by at



"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

June 7, 2024.  The Israeli propaganda efforts get some media attention, let's not let Cori Bush be turned into the next Jamaal Bowman, we wind down coverage of Julian Assange for now, and much more.



ARAB NEWS notes, "An investigation by The Guardian published this week suggests that, amid a loosening of the interpretation of the laws of war since the deadly Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, Israel has deliberately sought to silence critical reporting."  Yesterday on SECULAR TALK, Kyle noted THE GUARDIAN report.



The “Concert” remark referred to a sprawling relaunch of a controversial Israeli government program initially known as Kela Shlomo, designed to carry out what Israel called “mass consciousness activities” targeted largely at the US and Europe. Concert, now known as Voices of Israel, previously worked with groups spearheading a campaign to pass so-called “anti-BDS” state laws that penalize Americans for engaging in boycotts or other non-violent protests of Israel.

Its latest incarnation is part of a hardline and sometimes covert operation by the Israeli government to strike back at student protests, human rights organizations and other voices of dissent.

Voices’ latest activities were conducted through non-profits and other entities that often do not disclose donor information. From October through May, Chikli has overseen at least 32m shekels, or about $8.6m, spent on government advocacy to reframe the public debate.

It didn’t take long for one of the American advocacy groups closely coordinating with Chikli’s ministry, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, or ISGAP, to score a powerful victory.

In a widely viewed December congressional hearing on alleged antisemitism among student anti-war protesters, several House GOP lawmakers explicitly cited ISGAP research in their interrogations of university presidents. The hearing concluded with Representative Elise Stefanik’s viral confrontation with the then president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay, who later retired from her role after a wave of negative news coverage.

The ISGAP, which reportedly received the majority of its funding in 2018 from the Israeli agency that was running Concert, touted its congressional public relations coup at a 7 April event at the Palm Beach Country Club.

“All these hearings were the result of our report that all these universities, beginning from Harvard, are taking a lot of money from Qatar,” bragged Natan Sharansky, a former Israeli Knesset member (MK) who previously held Chikli’s role and now chairs the ISGAP. Sharansky told the assembled supporters that Stefanik’s remarks had been viewed by 1 billion people.

The ISGAP has continued to shape congressional investigations of universities over claims that protests over Israel’s human rights record are motivated by antisemitism, and the organization has been deeply involved in the campaign to enshrine new laws that redefine antisemitism to include certain forms of speech critical of the nation of Israel. 


They run a deception campaign and they hide it.  They're liars and whores.  And shame on those who claim American citizenship -- or just give lip service to having it -- who are part of a propaganda machine for another government. You shouldn't be a propaganda outlet for the US government but, if you are, at least we don't have to question your patriotism --just your common sense.

Now why does the state of Israel need a propaganda outlet?  Because of all the crimes taking place.  Like?  THE NEW ARAB notes:

Video footage of an Israeli army dog mauling an elderly Palestinian woman in Gaza has sparked questions over the use of canines in the war and their potential use as weapons of torture.

The video footage, broadcasted by the Al Jazeera Network this week, showed a large dog viciously biting and dragging a 66-year-old Palestinian woman in her home in Jabalia, north Gaza. The leaked footage came from a camera attached to the dog.

The woman, identified as Dawlat Abdullah Al Tanani, said she refused to leave her home, with Israeli forces setting the dogs on her while she was still in bed. The mauling resulted in fractures and serious injuries.


So there's that.  And there's this -- how the Israeli government is killing journalists.  And should you choose to stream the video, grasp that you have to click on that link because YOUTUBE is censoring it despite the fact that the only thing graphic in the video is the fact that a government is killing journalists.  There's no shocking image in that footage.  But YOUTUBE slaps a warning on it.  Wonder who asked for that?


The government of Israel also needs to hide what they've done to children in Gaza. Yasmeen Serhan (TIME) reports:


To date, at least 21,000 children are missing amid the chaos of the war, according to a new report by Save the Children—a figure the charity says includes 17,000 children who are unaccompanied or separated from their families as a result of the war and the 4,000 children who are thought to be missing under the rubble, as well as the untold number of children who have either been detained by Israeli forces or have been recently discovered in mass graves.

As with all of the statistics coming out of Gaza—including the more than 37,000-person death toll, a figure that is tracked by the Hamas-led Gaza Health Ministry and which is considered reliable by the U.S. government and the U.N.—the report notes that it is “nearly impossible” to collect and verify information under the current conditions in Gaza given the lack of access granted to aid agencies and forensic experts. But experts warn that the reality is probably far worse.

“Anyone who’s been to Gaza recently knows that these estimates are on the low end,” says Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician who volunteered in Gaza’s Al-Aqsa hospital in March with U.K.-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. During her time in Gaza, Haj-Hassan says it was common after an airstrike or another mass-casualty event for family members to come to the hospital looking for their loved ones who were unaccounted for. “It’s assumed that those kids died buried under the rubble, and I don’t think those deaths are fully accounted for in these numbers.”

She recounts one time when a father, covered in soot and barefoot, came to the hospital calling out his daughter’s name, only to collapse when he realized she wasn’t there. In another, a mother arrives in a wheelchair, just one week postpartum, telling the hospital staff that her seven-day old is trapped under the rubble.

For the roughly 1 million children living in the besieged enclave, the last eight months have been defined by near-constant displacement, death, and destruction. Many are unable to get the nutrients they need as a result of man-made food shortages, creating what the U.N. and others describe as “catastrophic levels” of hunger.  


The Israeli government needs to hide how they're killing doctors.  We noted Doctors Without Borders' statement on the killing of Fadi al-Wadiya in yesterday's snapshot.  THE NEW ARAB notes:

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) physiotherapist who was on his way to work on Tuesday.

The organisation confirmed his killing in a statement but did not explicitly blame Israel.

Fadi Al-Wadiya, 33, was killed along with five others, including three children near an MSF clinic, as he was cycling there.

The father of three was on his way to provide medical care to others who had been wounded in Israel's ongoing war on Gaza.



The United Nations accused Israel of carrying out "systematic attacks" on hospitals as a British charity decried the killing of 500 health care workers since the war in Gaza began.

Israel retaliated following the Hamas militant group's massacre of more than 1,000 people and the taking of Israeli hostages on October 7. The Israel Defense Forces have been waging a military campaign in Gaza which has so far killed more than 37,000 people.

“As of 25 June, 500 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s military assault began in October. This equates to an average of two healthcare workers killed every day, with one in every 40 healthcare workers, or 2.5% of Gaza’s healthcare workforce, now dead,” said British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians in a statement Wednesday.



The deaths pile up -- children, doctors, aid workers, journalists . . .  And in no other war have we treated this kind of killings as acceptable.  A propaganda campaign has ensured that few make the needed connections. We need truth tellers now -- not paid and unpaid lobbyists for the Israeli government.



Cori Bush is in the US Congress.  Guess who's funding her newly sprung rival?  ALJAZEERA reports:

 

Cori Bush, a US Congresswoman representing Missouri, is headed for her own contentious primary in August, and Wednesday’s poll shows her trailing her centrist rival Wesley Bell.

He was ahead of Bush by one point, with 43 percent support to her 42 percent, a difference well within the margin of error. The poll was conducted by the Mellman Group, on behalf of the pro-Israel group Democratic Majority for Israel.

The publication The Hill, however, said the poll could indicate weakness in Bush’s re-election efforts. “This is a notable improvement for Bell from January, when a poll by the firm found Bush leading by 16 points,” it said.


Cori doesn't need to be the next Jamaal Bowman.  She needs to hit back and hit back hard that her concerns are Missouri and the US, not Israel.  She needs to make clear that she is not a foreign agent working for another government.  This should force Wesley, rocking the worst jheri curls of 2024, by the way.  to have to actually stand up.  

And he doesn't have anything to actually stand on. Do we want to talk about while, as a judge, he was also getting money for bail bonds?  Do we want to ponder that conflict of interest?  Or maybe we just want to focus on his work to elect anti-choice politicians -- going so far, in fact, as managing a Republican candidate for Congress' campaign?


The candidate, Mark J. Byrne, ran as a fierce abortion opponent and gun rights crusader. “I intend to protect the rights of the unborn,” his campaign website read. “I believe that there is no greater job for elected representatives.”

[. . .]

As of May, Bell has raised more than $65,000 in contributions from donors who normally give to Republicans. They include a former GOP speaker of the Missouri House, the billionaire hedge fund founder Daniel Loeb, and the former finance chair for Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.) presidential super PAC.

At the end of the last fundraising quarter, Bell reported having about twice as much cash on hand as Bush.

Bell has also benefited from more than $300,000 in ads paid for by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC. While AIPAC backs candidates of both parties who support U.S. military assistance for Israel, progressive critics have noted the PAC’s top contributors are GOP megadonors. Bush is one of AIPAC’s top targets in the 2024 elections. 



Wesley has a reputation for making homophobic remarks.  That should be an issue.  (He reads gay and that would explain why the 49-year-old man is unmarried and maybe that intern that he was running around with was just a beard.  If he's gay and in the closet, that means he's self-loathing and that's no friend to Americans on LGBTQ+ issues -- that's creating a spot in the House like the one we've got in the Senate where Mint Julip downs a mean cock but votes against every LGBTQ+ issue while pretending he's straight.) 

"We don't know who he is, but we know who's funding him."

That's what those supporting Cori should be promoting.  He's anti-choice, he thinks he's above the law (all those ethical problems in his history -- including his inability to create an equal opportunity workplace). 

That's what people need to think about.  Her supporters need to stress that we know where Cori stands on the issues.  For example, she's pro-choice and her office released the following this week:


Congresswoman Cori Bush (MO-01) released the following statement on the second anniversary of the Supreme Court case decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization which overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) with a ruling that held that the constitution does not protect the right to access abortion, overturning over 50 years of precedent.

“The fight to protect access to abortion care and reproductive freedom is personal for me. The decision to have my abortions wasn’t easy, but I knew it was the right decision for me. I am so thankful that as a young adult, I had a safe healthcare option available. For five decades, Roe v. Wade protected our right to make these decisions, but on this day two years ago, this protection was stripped away by the corrupt and illegitimate Supreme Court. Within minutes of this far-right extremist Supreme Court decision, Missouri became the first state to enact its trigger ban and outlaw abortion care. And, in the two years since Roe was overturned, 14 states have enacted total abortion bans. 

“We do not ever have to go back to a time where back-alley, unsafe abortions are the norm because we have medication abortion which in many instances can be received in the mail. But there is no doubt that the Dobbs decision is a major setback, especially for Black, brown, Indigenous communities, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ communities, young people, low-income folks, and other marginalized communities. Because the reality is Roe was always the floor when it came to reproductive freedom—marginalized communities have always faced barriers to care. People in Missouri, and all around the country, will keep having abortions, whether legal or not. We can and we must expand reproductive health care and protect reproductive rights. 

“As a Congresswoman, I have fought hard to protect and expand reproductive rights. It's why I have introduced several pieces of legislation that both protect and expand access to reproductive, sexual health, and abortion care. Just last week I introduced legislation to repeal the Comstock Act, a zombie law that anti-abortion extremists are threatening to use to bypass Congress and enact a nationwide abortion ban.

“The movement for abortion and reproductive justice demands an inclusive, anti-racist, anti-classist, anti-ableist, anti-transphobic response. Only through a unified front can we secure full reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy, dignity, and justice for all. I am honored to stand with people from all backgrounds, genders, faiths, immigration statuses, and communities, as we fight for our freedom.” 

Congresswoman Bush continues to be a fierce champion for reproductive rights and health care in Congress. Since Dobbs, Congresswoman Bush has led the charge and fought for the following initiatives:

  • Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act: eliminate barriers and strengthens access to reproductive health care for people with disabilities. This legislation was introduced alongside Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), and Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).
  • Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act: provides grant assistance to those who live in trigger-ban states, like Missouri, who need to travel to receive reproductive health care. This legislation was reintroduced this month alongside Representatives Marilyn Strickland (WA-10), Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) and Senator Smith.
  • Abortion Justice Act: addresses access to abortion care and puts forth a comprehensive vision of a just America where abortion care is readily available—without stigma, shame or systemic barriers–for all who seek it. This legislation was reintroduced this month alongside Representatives Pressley, Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Nikema Williams (GA-05), and Maxwell Frost (FL-10).
  • Stop Comstock Act: prevents Republicans from resurrecting a zombie law that would achieve a federal abortion ban without passing it in Congress. This legislation will be introduced along with Representatives Balint (VT), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05) and Senators Smith, Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-Nev.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
  • Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA): aims to recognize the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, establish constitutional gender equality, protect abortion rights and safeguard women’s health and bodily autonomy. 

###


Most of all, it needs to be made clear that patriotic Americans, concerned Americans, thinking Americans -- all of us do not support candidates who take money for and from foreign governments.


Let's note this from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!


AMY GOODMAN: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is home in Australia a free man. Assange landed in the Australian capital of Canberra today to cheers from supporters. He disembarked from a chartered jet and waved to the crowd before kissing his wife Stella and lifting her off the ground. He embraced his father, John Shipton, and entered the terminal building with his legal team.

Assange’s arrival in Australia ends a more than 12-year legal ordeal after he published classified documents detailing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Press freedom groups have denounced successive U.S. administrations for targeting Assange, who had been facing 175 years in U.S. prison if he had been extradited and convicted.

Twelve years ago this month, Assange entered the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was given political asylum. He spent seven years there. He has spent the last five years locked up in the harsh Belmarsh Prison in London.

Earlier today, Julian Assange flew from London to the Pacific island of Saipan in Northern Mariana Islands, where he entered a U.S. district court and pled guilty to a single felony count of illegally obtaining and disclosing national security material. The judge, Ramona Manglona, sentenced him to the five years he had already spent behind bars, saying, quote, “You will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man. I hope there will be some peace restored,” she said.

Just moments before this broadcast, Julian Assange’s wife Stella and his lawyers, Barry Pollack and Jen Robinson, held a news conference in Canberra. This is Stella Moris Assange.

STELLA ASSANGE: I wish to thank the prime minister, Albanese, the officials who have been working indefat on securing Julian’s release. I’d also like to thank the Australian people, who have made this possible, because without their support, there would not be the political space to be able to achieve Julian’s freedom. And that support is across — across the board. I thank the opposition for also supporting Julian’s release. It took all — all of them. It took millions of people. It took people working behind the scenes, people protesting on the streets for days and weeks and months and years. And we achieved it.

Julian wanted me to sincerely thank everyone. He wanted to be here, but you have to understand what he’s been through. He needs time. He needs to recuperate. And this is a process. I ask you, please, to give us space, to give us privacy to find our place, to let our family be a family, before he can speak again at a time of his choosing.

I think it’s important to recognize that Julian’s release and the breakthrough in the negotiations came at a time where there had been a breakthrough in the legal case in the U.K., in the extradition, where the High Court had allowed permission to appeal. There was a court date set for the 9th and 10th of July, an upcoming court date in which Julian would be able to raise the First Amendment argument at the High Court. And it is in this context that things finally started to move. I think it revealed how uncomfortable the United States government is, in fact, of having these arguments aired, because this case — the fact is that this case is an attack on journalism, it’s an attack on the public’s right to know, and it should never have been brought. Julian should never have spent a single day in prison. But today we celebrate, because today Julian is free.

AMY GOODMAN: Julian Assange’s U.S. lawyer, Barry Pollack, also addressed reporters in the Australian capital of Canberra and spoke about the details of the case.

BARRY POLLACK: Good evening. Earlier this evening, earlier today, in a courthouse in Saipan, we had a hearing that brought to a close a prosecution that never should have been brought. Julian Assange has for so many years sacrificed for freedom of speech and freedom of the press. He has sacrificed his own freedom. And finally, today, that tragic situation ended, and we are all grateful that Julian is back home in Australia where he belongs, back with Stella, back with his children, reunited with his father.

It is unprecedented in the United States to use the Espionage Act to criminally prosecute a journalist or a publisher. In the more than 100-year history of that law, it has never been used in this fashion. It is certainly our hope that it will never again be used in this fashion.

Julian spent years in Belmarsh. No one should spend a day in prison for giving the public newsworthy and important information — in this case, information that the United States government had committed war crimes, that there were civilian casualties exponentially greater than the United States government had admitted in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was definitely in the public’s interest to have this information, and Julian provided it to the public. He performed a tremendous public service, not a crime.

The problem with the Espionage Act is there is no First Amendment defense in the Espionage Act. It does, by its terms, not matter the reason why you published.

The U.S., for years, the U.S. government, has claimed that these publications did great harm. Today in court, the United States government admitted that there is not a single person anywhere that they can produce that was actually harmed by these publications.

Hopefully, this is the end not just of the case against Julian Assange, but the end of the case against journalism. Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Barry Pollack, Assange’s attorney. His longtime attorney Jennifer Robinson then took questions from reporters, along with Pollock and Stella Assange.

JENNIFER ROBINSON: To start with, there’s no evidence of any actual harm. And that’s exactly what the U.S. government acknowledged in court today in Saipan. So, there is no evidence that anyone was physically harmed as a result of those publications.

The public interest in those publications is clear: evidence of war crimes, that the U.S. had not disclosed the extent of civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, the use of torture and other forms of human rights abuse around the world. There is no denying the public interest in WikiLeaks’ publications, which is reflected in the reasons why WikiLeaks has won the Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism, the Sydney Peace Prize, the fact that Julian has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since those publications. So, to suggest that this was not in the public interest, I don’t understand the basis upon which they could possibly suggest that. And so, I think it’s — this is clear.

REPORTER 1: Stella, can we have a question for you [inaudible]? That moment on the tarmac where you embraced Julian must have been incredibly surreal. Was that the moment you realized that this was over, that he was home?

STELLA ASSANGE: Yes, I was overcome by emotion when I first heard that there were crowds cheering, that I didn’t even know were there, behind a fence, because it was dark. And then I heard them cheer more and more and flashes. And then I turned the corner, and then I saw that Julian was coming. And we embraced. And, I mean, I think you’ve seen the pictures. I don’t want to express in words what is obvious from the image.

REPORTER 2: Stella, what comes next for Julian Assange? Will this revitalize WikiLeaks? Will this [inaudible], what have you? What’s next?

STELLA ASSANGE: Julian needs time to recover, to get used to freedom.

REPORTER 2: Don’t touch me!

STELLA ASSANGE: Someone told me yesterday, who had been through something similar, that freedom comes slowly. And I want Julian to have that space to rediscover freedom slowly — and quickly.

REPORTER 3: Jen, one of my colleagues mentioned the Podesta Files earlier. I think he may not have read them. Could you, now that you have the opportunity, just remind us of how that actually reformed the DNC and the corruption within. The Podesta Files were really good for the Democratic National Congress, yes?

JENNIFER ROBINSON: Look, there was a huge — there’s clearly public interest in the DNC materials that was released by WikiLeaks. And in terms of the legality of those publications, there’s a U.S. court decision showing that it had the highest possible protection of the First Amendment. So, from a principle point of view, people might not like the politics of any particular publication, but that publication is absolutely protected by the First Amendment, as U.S. courts have found.

REPORTER 4: Jen, are there any post-release conditions for Julian — prolonged periods the U.S. has said that he’s banned from returning, stepping foot in the U.S., gag orders, anything like that? And can you and Barry give us a sense of the negotiations with the DOJ, particularly given Julian’s strong-held view that he was not guilty of a crime.

JENNIFER ROBINSON: I think it’s best Barry speaks to the terms of the plea deal.

BARRY POLLACK: There are absolutely no restrictions on Julian. The case against him is over. There is no gag order. There are no other restrictions. He is going to be able to go back to whatever life he chooses to build with Stella and his family.

The negotiations were a protracted process that went on for several months, sort of in fits and starts. We were not close to any sort of a resolution until a few weeks ago, when the Department of Justice reengaged, and there have been very intense negotiations over the last few weeks.

One thing we were very clear about was that any resolution would have to end this matter and that Julian would be free, that he was not going to do additional time in prison, he was not going to do time under supervision, he was not going to do time under a gag order. So, that was one absolute requirement.

Another significant point of negotiation was where the plea would be taken. Julian did not want to come to the United States in any form. Ultimately, obviously, we negotiated Saipan, under conditions where he would be released in the U.K. He would come to Saipan not as a prisoner of the United States or the United Kingdom, and that we would come in and leave on the same day, which is exactly what happened.

And other provisions of the plea that were very significant, the United States agreed that they are not going to bring any other charges against Julian for any conduct, any publications, any newsgathering, anything at all that occurred prior to the time of the plea. So, even if he had prevailed in the extradition proceeding, that would have just resolved this case. This resolves any possible case that the United States could bring against Julian for any subject matter. So, that was obviously very significant to us.

REPORTER 5: Thank you. Jen and also Stella — Stella, you called yesterday your hopes for a pardon to be granted to Julian. How do you see that playing out? Would you like the Australian government to support that call? What could be possibly done to actually achieve that outcome, in your view?

STELLA ASSANGE: Look, I think today we celebrate Julian’s freedom. Today is the day that the plea deal was approved by the judge. I think it’s also a day where I hope journalists and editors and publishers everywhere realize the danger of the — of this U.S. case against Julian that criminalizes, that has secured a conviction for newsgathering and publishing information that was in the public interest, that was true, that the public deserved to know, and that precedent now can and will be used in the future against the rest of the press. So it is in the interest of all of the press to seek for this current state of affairs to change, through reform of the Espionage Act, through increased press protections, and, yes, eventually, when the time comes — not today — a pardon.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Stella Moris Assange, Julian Assange’s wife — she is also a human rights attorney — along with Assange attorneys Barry Pollack and his longtime lawyer Jennifer Robinson, speaking at a news conference in the Australian capital of Canberra, just minutes after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrived in Australia a free man after a 14-year legal ordeal.


DEMOCRACY NOW! did three reports on Julian yesterday.  This is the first of the three at this site.  Normally, around 2:00 pm EST, Monday through Thursday, we note a DEMOCRACY NOW! video and, after that, may note others as well.  That didn't happen yesterday and that wasn't by accident.

We're not noting Julian over the next few weeks unless Kevin Gosztola is covering/reflecting/analyzing -- whatever.  The Kevin exception is because he's covered this story for years and he keeps his head down and focuses on the work so I try to note him anytime I see a new video.  

Otherwise?  Julian needs to time to acclimate.  Based on Stella Assange's remarks, he'll speak when he's ready.  When he does, we'll be happy to note it here.  But this is a human being who's been through a great deal and needs some time away from the public.  We're going to respect that here and until he is speaking about the ordeal, we're not making him a topic with the exception of anything Kevin posts on YOUTUBE.  


Gaza remains under assault. Day 263 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."  THE NATIONAL notes, "At least 37,765 Palestinians have been killed and 86,429 injured in Israel's war on Gaza since October 7, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday.  Over the past 24 hours, 47 people were killed and 52 injured, the ministry added."    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:

  



April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 

As for 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."







The following sites updated:

Posted by at

Just like a white buffalo calf

Paul Rudnick.



AP reports, "Ceremonies and celebrations are planned Wednesday near the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park to mark the recent birth of a white buffalo calf in the park, a spiritually significant event for many Native American tribes.  A white buffalo calf with a dark nose and eyes was born on June 4 in the the park’s Lamar Valley, according to witnesses, fulfilling a prophecy for the Lakota people that portends better times but also signals that more must be done to protect the earth and its animals."  THE FARMERS ALMANAC notes:


The myth of the white buffalo is a deeply revered legend among many Native American tribes, particularly the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Sioux. The most well-known and widely regarded version is the story of the White Buffalo Calf Woman. This myth is considered the most spiritually significant by many Native Americans.

The legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman has been passed down through generations via oral tradition and is also referenced in various literature sources on Native American spirituality. Prominent spiritual leaders like Chief Arvol Looking Horse have spoken extensively about the significance of this legend and the importance of the white buffalo in contemporary times​.

On June 4, 2024, a white buffalo calf was born in Yellowstone National Park, heralding a special omen for Native American and Indigenous peoples of North America. To honor this rare event, Farmers’ Almanac named June’s full Moon, which occurs on June 21, 2024 at 9:08 p.m. EDT, the “White Buffalo Moon.”

In the Lakota tradition, a time of hardship struck the people. Their chief, desperate to find food, sent two scouts on a vital mission. On their journey, they spotted a mysterious figure in the distance. It turned out to be a beautiful woman, but something about her felt otherworldly. One scout, blinded by desire, ignored his cautious companion and approached her. A swift punishment followed, and the man vanished.

Shaken but wiser, the other scout cautiously approached the woman. To his surprise, she revealed herself as a sacred being, known as a “wakan.” She entrusted him with a message—to return to his people and announce her arrival.

When the White Buffalo Calf Woman appeared, she wasn’t alone. She brought with her the most sacred object imaginable—the White Buffalo Calf pipe, a “chanupa.” This wasn’t just any gift. It came with knowledge. She taught the people seven sacred ways to pray, a foundation for their spiritual connection. 


In response, I see Mike Johnson demanding that the 10 commandments be tattooed on the belly of the newborn calf while Marjorie Taylor Greene insists it's a sign of the end of times and a divine punishment for our living in a democracy.


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, June 26, 2024.  Jamaal Bowman loses his primary, Julian Assange is free, the slaughter in Gaza continues.


A lot to cover today.  Let's start with Jamaal Bowman.  



I don't know Jamaal Bowman.  I'm sure he's a wonderful person.  But watching the attempts to save his seat in Congress?  Bewilderment.

Who was this sitting member of Congress and why should I care?

Tomorrow night US President Joe Biden is scheduled to debate Convicted Felon and well known liar Donald Trump.  I hope we don't see the behavior on that stage from Joe, hope this is some new Democratic Party fad passed off as 'framing' or whatever.

Jamal is probably a nice person.


But watching the nonsense that I watched -- as a nonvoter (I don't live in his state, let alone district) -- I kept waiting for a coherent story as to why he mattered and I never got that.

Beggars can't be choosers, agreed.  And in a fight like this -- a Democratic Party primary -- he needed and probably took any support he could get.  

That's fine for the voting booth, that's not good for get out the vote.

So the first mistake his campaign made was in the selection of some of the mouth boxes they threw in front of the cameras.

Here's tip one:  Voters don't usually go for painted up whores.  If you're a member of Congress trying to support another member of Congress, minimize the make up.  That's especially true if you're wearing false eye lashes and even more so if those lashes are opening and closing repeatedly every time you speak.  Do you think anyone's listening to you when you can't stop batting your eyes with those two to three inch eye lashes on?  They're not.  They're laughing at you at worst.  The kinder ones are just distracted and maybe wondering if thick false eye lashes make it harder for you keep your eyes open.

Here's tip two (and see Marica's "The bald idiot needs to let someone else speak publicly"), you are trying to get them on the side of the person you're supporting.  Stop yelling at them.  It's one thing to be enraged about possible policy ramifications if the candidate you're supporting doesn't win.  But you push people away when you're just yelling or hectoring.  Nobody wants a big mouth trying to tell them what to do.

In fact, we could go on and on but we have a lot to cover so let's just sum the tips above and about 15 more I had as: Watch what Ayanna Pressley did and don't do that.  Any member of The Squad could have done a better job than Pressley did.

Ilhan Omar, for example, invites you into a conversation when she's advocating for someone or some issue.  Pressley, from the opening, leaves you off put.

Again, I don't know Jamaal.  More importantly, after weeks of his defenders taking to the media and YOUTUBE (I'm not referring to podcasters offering analysis, I'm referring to guests on those shows who were supposedly advocating on his behalf), I still don't know him.

AIPAC is awful and shouldn't be allowed to be involved in US races.  No foreign money should be allowed period.  And that's something people could have supported.  Israel sticking its nose in a US district election?  No one wants that anymore than they want France or China or even the UK flooding our 'home' elections.  

So you could have made that a strategy.  When AIPAC was raised, I understood what they were getting at but don't think most listening would.  They needed to make that a strong point and they needed to make it an easy to understand point.

But they failed at that.  

Just like they failed to tell us his record and failed to let us know his plans for the future.

AIPAC defined him as unworthy and all his supporters that spoke to the media did was say, "Oh, but he's a good guy."


That's not how you fight.



  • AIPAC spent at least $14.5 million on anti-Bowman ads through its PAC, United Democracy Project, as of June 20, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
  • Much of the spending came after a poll in March from pro-Israel group Democratic Majority for Israel showed Bowman trailing by 17 points.
  • Bowman has emerged as one of Congress' most vocal critics of Israel in recent years, with Latimer running as a pro-Israel alternative in the heavily Jewish, affluent suburban district.



Now with all the money that was spent to defeat Jamaal, there's a good chance it wouldn't have mattered what he or his supporters did.

And the AXIOS  article notes, "Said another Democrat more bluntly: 'AIPAC didn't pull a fire alarm. AIPAC didn't speculate about 9/11'."  Yeah, he had baggage.  

But that could have been defeated or at least strongly challenged and it wasn't.  I have no idea what he plans next.  He could run as an independent in this cycle.  And he could win.  I never would have thought when Ned Lamont defeated the awful Joe Lieberman in the Democratic Party that this country would have to endure Lieberman in the Senate again.  But he managed to pull off a miracle.  Bowman could do the same.  If he's planning that or if anyone else is being targeted by AIPAC, they need to make AIPAC the target.

"I'm trying to work for you" is the appeal to the voters "while this mega rich lobbyist group wants me out to install someone who will work on behalf of a foreign government.  Local politics does not translate as 'whatever Israel wants'."

In terms  of Thursday night, Joe Biden better explain what needs to be done and better stress that it's about making America all it can be for all Americans.  He better bring us into the dream he has for this country.  The media spokespeople  Bowman had did not do that for Jamaal. 



Progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman lost his reelection bid in New York's 16th Congressional District on Tuesday to an establishment-backed county official whose campaign was propelled by nearly $15 million in spending by AIPAC's Republican-funded super PAC.

The United Democracy Project's (UDP) spending made the Democratic primary contest the most expensive House race in U.S. history. According to a Sludgeanalysis of independent election expenditures dating back to 2001, UDP's $14.5 million onslaught to oust Bowman was "more than any other group besides those affiliated with a political party has ever spent on a House election."

The investment paid off, with Westchester County Executive George Latimer leading Bowman by a margin of 58% to 42% with close to 90% of the vote counted in the 16th District, which was redrawn ahead of the 2022 midterms to include more of suburban Westchester County and less of the Bronx.

Bowman, a former Bronx middle school principal who won his House seat in 2020 by defeating AIPAC favorite Eliot Engel, said in his concession speech late Tuesday that "we should be outraged when a super PAC of dark money can spend $20 million to brainwash people into believing something that isn't true."


Now let's move to Julian Assange.

I kept watching THE GUARDIAN's live feed yesterday to make sure this didn't end up a double cross.  I'm so relieved that it wasn't.  



WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been freed from Belmarsh Prison in London, where he has been incarcerated for the past five years, after accepting a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors. After a decade-plus of legal challenges, Assange will plead guilty to a single felony count of illegally obtaining and disclosing national security material for publishing classified documents detailing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan on WikiLeaks. The Australian publisher is expected to be sentenced to time served and allowed to return home, where he reportedly will seek a pardon. 


Some community members have e-mailed about how they wish he hadn't entered a guilty plea.  But they seem to understand why he did.  I've got at least ten in the public e-mail account raging that he betrayed journalism and blah blah blah.

In our current world there was one of two choices for Julian: Stay in prison or leave.

He has spent years fighting for a free press and will likely spend many more years doing so.  (However, if he wants to go to a private life and focus on his own personal life, he's more than done enough.)  

Was he just supposed to rot in jail?  That's what the ten appear to think.  For him to die in jail, they appear to think, would have been better.

It's a free world, we can think what we want and we can say what we want.

And I guess what I'll say back to the ten of you is:

Great, then you do you.  You make that your goal to so support journalism that you're a prisoner for years and you take it at least one more year than Julian did.  And I'll certainly applaud you for that and support you.  

 

Governments abandoned him, news outlets abandoned him.  

He fought and he fought bravely.  

He's free now and I'm happyy for him.

Kevin Gosztola addresses the latest in the video below.

 





 

             Younis lays disorientated on a green mattress in Nasser Hospital, in southern Gaza. His long brown eyelashes rest delicately on his pale sunken face, as he drifts in and out of sleep.

The 9-year-old Palestinian boy lies in his mother’s arms, clearly wasted from severe malnutrition and suffering from dehydration. His blue jogging bottoms hang off his emaciated legs, as his tiny ribcage protrudes from his billowy orange T-shirt.

“I call on people with conscience to help me find health care for my son, so that he can go back to normal,” his mother, Ghanima Juma’a, told CNN last week at the hospital in Khan Younis. “I am losing my son in front of my eyes.”

Two months ago, the family was forced to flee the southern city of Rafah as Israel ramped up its attacks there. These days, they struggle to survive, living along the polluted coastline of Asda’a — near the Al-Mawasi tent camp — where they cannot find enough food, water, or even shade from the Gaza heat.     

             “We have to keep moving from one area to the other because of the war and the invasion… Life is difficult,” his mother said. “We don’t even have a tent over our heads.”

Israel’s war in Gaza has depleted the territory’s health system, leaving staff unable to treat malnourished children. Doctors told CNN they are being forced to turn away parents begging for baby milk, unable to even triage young patients with chronic illnesses compounded by severe hunger.

And as Israel continues its siege on Gaza, preventing aid groups getting enough food into the enclave, parents say they have no choice but to watch their children starve to death. More than eight months of bombardment has shredded infrastructure, wiped out communities and laid waste to entire neighborhoods. Sanitation systems — already stressed by water shortages from extreme heat — have been heavily destroyed, according to the UN, diminishing access to clean water.     



For many months now, it has been no secret that one of America’s closest allies has been using hunger as a weapon against a civilian population. That hunger is being used by Israel is supremely ironic, given the particular role that privation from food plays both in Jewish philosophy and in the grim history of the Jewish people. It is a charge that the Jewish state has repeatedly denied in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Beginning this past winter, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam both condemned Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war. Governmental organizations have also begun to echo those accusations. “In Gaza, we are no longer on the brink of a famine, we are in a state of famine,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said several weeks ago. The Gaza population was facing a “man-made disaster”, Borrell reported. The United Nations World Food Program concurs: a “full-blown famine” is taking place in northern Gaza, according to the head of the program. This was followed by the international criminal court considering issuing warrants against leaders of both Hamas and Israel, and, in the case of the Israelis, for the war crime of starvation of civilians.

Even Germany, which for obvious historical reasons has long been one of Israel’s staunchest allies, finally has begun to warn against using starvation to win a war. The Germans would know about such a tactic. During the second world war, 380,000 people were crowded into the Warsaw ghetto, barricaded, and left to die by the Nazis.

Much of what we know about the effects of long-term starvation comes from a manuscript smuggled out of the ghetto in 1942 and translated into English in the 1970s as Hunger Disease. The remarkable document was compiled by a heroic team of 28 Jewish doctors working under unimaginable conditions.

Hunger Disease tracks the effects of starvation with both precision and striking descriptions: in breaking starvation down into three stages, Hunger Disease catalogs stage one, when surplus fat disappears, as being “reminiscent of the time before the war when people went to Marienbad, Karlsbad, or Vichy for a reducing cure and came back looking younger and feeling better”. With time and no break in malnutrition, starvation enters stage two: “Gradually youth was drained and young people changed into withered old people.” Eventually, “like a melting wax candle”, patients slip into the final, terminal stage.

The suffering and the defiance of the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto have become touchstones for students of Jewish history, a story that every Jew knows well. As Holocaust museums struggle to address the Israel-Gaza war, the idea that we can somehow put what is happening in Gaza at a distant remove from the history of the Warsaw ghetto is grotesque.



The deaths continue to mount as the assault on Gaza continues.  Doctors Without Borders issued the following:

NEW YORK/JERUSALEM, June 25, 2024 — Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is outraged and strongly condemns the killing of our colleague, Fadi Al-Wadiya, in an attack this morning in Gaza City.

Al-Wadiya was killed along with five other people, including three children, near an MSF clinic. He was cycling to work at the time, on his way to provide medical care to others who had been injured. Al-Wadiya was a 33-year-old physiotherapist and father of three who joined MSF in 2018.

"Killing a health care worker while on his way to provide vital medical care to wounded victims of the endless massacres across Gaza is beyond shocking," said Caroline Seguin, MSF operations manager for Palestine. “It's cynical and abhorrent.”

MSF Physiotherapist Fadi Al-Wadiya does exercises with a young patient.
MSF Physiotherapist Fadi Al-Wadiya treats a young patient at Bitlahia Clinic in the north of Gaza, a health facility previously supported by MSF.
Palestine 2022 © MSF

Al-Wadiya's death marks the sixth killing of an MSF colleague in Gaza since October 7. This attack is yet another brutal example of the senseless killing of Palestinian civilians and health care workers in Gaza. In total, approximately 500 health workers have been killed in Gaza since October.

MSF is continuing to verify the details of this horrific incident.

An immediate and sustained ceasefire is critical to prevent more deaths and injuries and scale up the amount of aid getting into the Strip.


Each day that the assault goes on, the Israeli government loses more support and the Israeli state looks worse on the international stage.  How many doctors are going to be killed?  How many aid workers?  How many reporters?  How many children?

War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is out of touch with the real world and he is a serious threat to the safety of the state of Israel.  His actions are exhausting any good will left among the world's people.  We witness day after day a so-called assault on a terrorist or 'terrorist' group that has been defined in practice as an assault on anyone who is Palestinian -- of any age -- and on any foreign person who tries to aid the civilians of Gaza.  That's not targeting terrorism and after almost nine months the world rejects that lie.

It is a genocide.  Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reports:

The UN has reportedly told Israeli officials that it may soon be forced to suspend its various humanitarian aid operations in Gaza, after Israeli forces have spent months targeting and killing humanitarian workers in their genocidal assault.

Two UN officials told the Associated Press in a report published Tuesday that the UN sent a letter to Israeli officials this month saying that the UN’s aid operations in Gaza — which act in some capacities as government services — may have to come to a halt if Israel doesn’t stop targeting humanitarian workers.

The letter called for Israel to open up channels for humanitarian workers to communicate with Israeli officials about ensuring their operations are safe from the Israeli military, a process known as deconfliction, the letter reportedly said. The talks between UN and Israeli officials are ongoing, and no final decision has been made.



Gaza remains under assault. Day 263 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."  THE NATIONAL notes, "At least 37,718 Palestinians have been killed and 86,377 injured in Israel's war on Gaza since October 7, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Wednesday.  Over the past 24 hours, 60 people have been killed and 140 injured, the ministry added."    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:

  



April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 

As for 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."







The following sites updated:

Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)