Tuesday, July 09, 2024

Idiots -- Lindsey Graham, Gretch The Wretch and John Rich

Paul Rudnick.


 

Lindsey, like a caged animal in heat, always in search of love.  :D

If you missed it, the press has been trying hard to make Gretch The Wretch a presidential nominee for the Democratic Party.

My feelings on that?  Oh, hell no.  Of women mentioned, it would have to be Kamala Harris.  I would add that it is the epitome of Gretchen's White privilege to think that she can leap frog over the vice president to become the nominee.  

She is not qualified. 

At THE WASHINGTON POST, Amanda Uhle fluffed Gretch with a supposed book review that reads like a 3rd grade book report and offers no analysis let alone fact check.  How much money did your parents waste, Amanda, on j-school?


Susan Page (USA TODAY) also can't seem to the find the story which, for the record, includes that Gretch probably can't even deliver Michigan, let alone other states.  Her remarks on the Palestinians have lost her Arab support and it won't come back just because she's put on a presidential ticket.  I was about to lose it and I saw this at BUSINESS INSIDER:


  • Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan vowed she wouldn't run if President Joe Biden exited the race.
  • Whitmer has repeatedly backed the president and his 2024 run.
  • Leaked polling found Whitmer was popular among Democrats and outperformed Biden.


Let it be  true.


Who is John Rich?  A Trump supporter who's offered an idiotic theory about Kamala Harris.  First off, no one's talking about "relieving Joe of the presidency with the 25th amendment."  They're talking about Joe realizing that he's too old to be elected for four more years.  Maybe idiots who got their 'education' from FOX "NEWS" shouldn't be weighing in?

Even more true if you're a nobody.  Country music is not my genre.  But I do know it.  The media was saying "Country music star John Rich" and I was thinking, "I've never heard of him."  There's a reason for that.  He is not a country music star. 

He has released albums.  None went platinum (a million sold), none went gold (a half-million sold).  Singles? 

He's released 12 since 2000.  Not one has been a top ten hit.   That's not a country music star.

People might quibble, for instance, about Sheena Easton being a pop music star.  (I wouldn't she's a great singer.)  She's had three top 20 hits and 8 top ten hits -- three of which went to number two and one that made it all the way to number one.  Please note, I'm not going into top forty where Sheena wipes the floor with Mr. Nobody as well.  That would be 17 top forty hits, for anyone wondering.  You can call Sheena a pop music star.  Mr. Nobody is a nobody and, since he's already 50 years old, it's way too late for him to become a somebody as a solo act (should have stayed with the guy who carried his tired rear).


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, July 9, 2024.  Joe.  Go.  
US politics.  Joe Biden.  





Yesterday on BREAKING POINTS -- no video posted here, I stand against transphobia but BREAKING POINTS embraced and platformed it last week -- see "Media: BREAKING POINTS promotes transphboia, CRAPAPEDIA can't handle the truth" and "Iraq snapshot" -- their viewers also stand against it "BREAKING POINTS serving up transphobia" -- Krystal Ball just knew how to talk about Joe Biden.

Bringing I Need Attention Benjamin.  Susan Benjamin, the tired and old voice of CODEPINK, was who Krystal and BREAKING POINTS thought America needed to hear saying Joe Biden should step down.

Really?

You mean the trash that pimped for Barack Obama in 2008 because her mistress/controller Jodie Evans was a bundler for Barack?  So even though was publicly ridiculing Tom Hayden -- who took it like the pathetic loser he was -- for wanting US troops out of Iraq  and even though he started wavering on his 'promise' regarding all US troops out of Iraq (something Tom and 'Medea' didn't realize until July of 2008 -- four months the beans had already been spilled on that), she never 'bird dogged' Barack the way she did Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.  A nun may give herself to Christ, but Jodie forked herself over for currency. As a result, she had the money so Susan Benjamin did what she was told.  


2008 is not minor and the internet can tell you all about it.  It's not like the 1990s or 1970s where you might have to go to a library and look up the past on microfiche or microfilm.   (Actually, I am wrong.  I often am.  Later in the snapshot -- this is dictated -- I was going to include much documentation of 2008 with the delegate count; however, the sites that documented that on longer exist except for Riverdaughter's site.)

A lot of 'names' made clear that they were damn dirty whores.

'Medea' is one of them.  Even for those who don't know her pathetic past, they should know that she's not a Democrat.  That's why she supported Ralph Nader in 2000.  And then she was sort-of for John Kerry because of the nonsense of the 'safe state strategy.'  Joe Biden?

She's hated him forever.

No one gives a damn what sour grapes Susan Benjamin wants, not in anyone in the Democratic Party.  Jodie needs to put her cur back on a leash.

What was the point of the useless segment?



I tapped my own head;
it was a glass, an inverted bowl.
It is a small thing
to rage in your own bowl.


That's all they did, rage in their own bowl.  (Lines quoted are from Anne Sexton's "For John Who Begs Me Not To Enquire Further" -- one of my two favorite poems by Sexton -- let's see if I can work the other one into the snapshot also)


Susan Benjamin is not an expert on electoral politics.  So was she there to call Joe out on age?  That would be hilarious.  She hits 72 this fall and she's been the 'face' of CODESTINK since 2003.  And when the oh-so-White-White-Whiteness of CODESTINK became an issue in the summer of 2006, Susan vowed they were bringing others in and that she was just a temporary (White) face.  18 years later, she's still the face.  And this is the person who's going to say Joe's too old?  

She's a known hater of Joe Biden.  That is her record.  Bringing her on to weigh in that Joe needs to step down?  That's raging in your own bowl.  It's not going to move the needle.  Find a Democrat (which is Susan is not) and you might have someone who could actually reach an audience on this point.




It’s clearly difficult for Democrats to dislodge their most important figures even when political realities suggest that they should; all told, the Democratic party is best understood less as a political party organized to enact or protect specific policies than as a professional association committed to protecting its most valued members.

Until now, that included Biden. Years of disdain from the party’s leadership were set aside after he beat Trump in 2020 ⁠– while there was open conversation that year about the unlikeliness of a second term, no one in the party wound up pushing seriously for a primary or a replacement even as his poll numbers slid and questions about his health emerged. It became clear that Democrats would only topple him in an emergency. After his debate performance, he finally presented them with one.

[. . .]

It’s been reported now that Obama and other party leaders, their initial displays of support aside, have been harboring doubts about Biden’s viability as a candidate; the Democratic omertà has only been broken within the last few days. The critical question is why there wasn’t movement to encourage Biden to drop out sooner. Leaks have been flooding out about the Biden team’s extraordinary insularity and insecurity, but what’s happened with Biden doesn’t outwardly seem terribly different from the way Hillary Clinton coasted to the nomination with only Bernie Sanders in opposition in 2016 or the inertia that kept Dianne Feinstein and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in their posts even as their age became a liability.

It’s clearly difficult for Democrats to dislodge their most important figures even when political realities suggest that they should; all told, the Democratic party is best understood less as a political party organized to enact or protect specific policies than as a professional association committed to protecting its most valued members. 
 


Get it?  Be the change you want to be.  Tired of elderly politicians running for president?  Don't be an elderly head of an organization.  Susan Benjamin should have stepped down years ago to allow new leaders and new ideas.  Instead, she's out of step with CodePink and still can't grasp why the rank-and-file of the organization would not let her speak at that even with Proud Boys and other fright-wing people -- homophobes, racists, xenophobes.  Susan Benjamin needs attention constantly.  The rank-and-file pressured her so she didn't speak at the event.  She just attended.  That is offensive and ridiculous and CodePink had already looked far too White for way too many years before Susan pulled that stunt.

As Ava and I have pointed out many times over the years, Gloria Steinem began shoving Betty Friedan out of leadership in the feminist movement in 1972 when Gloria and her supporters insisted Betty was too old.  Betty was 51-years-old.  So we all know that the minute Gloria hit 51, she was going to step down from leadership, right?  No.  No.  Like Susan, Gloria loved attention.  (As far as I know Susan Benjamin has no CIA links though there are a few people she's close to who do.) 

No, Gloria stuck around until 2020's election when she was 81 years old.  But not, in her mind, too old to lead.  Let's see, Betty personally helped torpedo a Nixon Supreme Court nominee (G Harrold Carswell) and where was Gloria leading a charge against any of Donald Trump's nominees or, for that matter, against John Roberts or Samuel Alito?  Oh, that's right, like Susan Benjamin, Gloria just showed up for media appearances where she made sardonic remarks.  Gloria actually revealed herself in the 1977 DNC convention where she went around imploring women to be grateful for whatever crumbs they got and to not pressure Democratic politicians (HARPER'S was the only left magazine to explore that reality).  

Betty was far from perfect but at least she wasn't CIA and at least she got results.  And now that we know Gloria's CIA history, it's probably time for Susan Faludi to update her chapter on Gloria and Betty and stop pretending Betty was some crazy nut fixated on Gloria.  Gloria was CIA, Gloria did want Betty out of leadership.  (Ruth Rosen's THE WORLD SPLIT OPEN remains one of the few feminist history books that was actually even-handed on the Gloria vs Betty battle.)


Susan 'Medea' Benjamin is the wrong person for this topic.  Marianne Williamson is as well.  We're not posting her videos now.  This is a Democratic Party issue and she chose to go on FOX "NEWS" Saturday.  That's her right but we're no longer interested in her.  This is a family matter to be handled within the Democratic Party.  I have no idea whom she thought she'd appeal to from the Democratic Party base going on FOX "NEWS."  But she's made her plea to them and we're done with her campaign.  Again, family matter.  She chose to be the dancing bear making a mockery out of all Democrats by taking that to FOX "NEWS."  They were going to cover the story without her, absolutely, it's all they do cover, but she didn't need to give the seal of "a Democrat's saying what we're saying."  


So now let's note a video.


That's Kyle, Krystal's husband.  I don't blame spouses for their spouses' behaviors unless they sign off on it.  

But I'm note the video above for several reasons.

First, I do agree with the basic sentiment.  It's not fair, however it goes down, that a person gets selected.


Equally true, this isn't a normal situation.  Not only are questions growing about Joe but this is also a media narrative that builds every day.  Joe doesn't have it in him to take on the media narrative.  How many weeks is he going to let the debate be the story?  And I don't think he can change the narrative now.  That ABC interview last Friday was his last real shot and he failed -- embarrassingly failed to do so.

So I hear what Kyle's saying and I see his point.

But just as the slaughter taking place in Gaza doesn't really begin on October 7th, Democratic Party nonsense in primaries didn't begin in 2020 or in 2016.

Hillary Clinton was a lousy candidate in 2016.  Lousy.  And I think it's due to her Barack envy.  She was a great candidate in 2008 in the Democratic Party primaries.  But Barack, using glib and suave and celebrities, slid right past her.  And I think that's why she was so stupid in her 2016 campaign.  I think she thought that's how it's done -- the way Barack did it in 2008.  If she'd campaigned in 2016 for the presidency like she did in 2008 for the party's nomination, she would have won.  She went every where in 2008.  She took nothing for granted. 

And here's the point, Kyle, that primary was seen as rigged by many as well.

You may not like Hillary but if you're concerned about the process -- as you say in your video -- grasp that 2008 was theft.

We don't have time to rehash everything.  

But let's start with the media that was enthralled with him -- look up the clip of reporters on the campaign plane embarrassing themselves when they see him in blue jeans.  Let's next note that Hillary was in the lead for months in 2008.  How so?  She won Michigan and Florida. 

Why weren't they counted?  The DNC insisted that they had violated rules and that they would not be counted.  

Dianne Rehm, then hosting her own show THE DIANE REHM SHOW two hours each day Monday through Friday, made the mistake of noting, near the end of January, that of course Michigan and Florida would be counted at the convention.  They couldn't have a national convention without doing so.

Diane spoke reality and for that heresy she faced serious pushback and  never brought that reality up again.  


We can talk Norman Solomon who lied on one PACIFICA RADIO program after another until he got busted on air six months after the lying started -- busted by a caller, not a PACIFICA host.  Norman was on as an analyst, he'd pop in and tell you who was winning and who was losing and what was up and what was down.  Just an independent making observations.  Except he wasn't.  He was a pledged delegate from California for Barack Obama.  He lied over and over and he has never apologized for it.

Nor has Melissa Lie Face Harris Lacewell Perry whatever.  She was working for Barack's campaign in 2007.  Yet there she was on DEMOCRACY NOW! presented as an observer and in her 'reporting' on what she was seeing in New Hampshire?  She lavished Barack with praise and ignored Hillary.  And then she went on Charlie Rose and attacked the wife of a sitting senator (he's still in the Senate) when she spoke about Hillary's strengths -- it was a panel.  And Melissa didn't get honest there either.  And that's why PBS pulled the plug on her.  And that's why Princeton dumped her.  And in both cases, Ava and I took the evidence to the people in charge to ensure that Lie Face suffered for her unethical actions and her non-stop lies.

Now we could talk the Texas vote because Barack's campaign paid people for the caucus.  It had never mattered before and most Texas voters didn't even know there was a caucus but to ensure that they won the caucus, they paid and instructed his supporters to tell people there was no point, the vote was over, they weren't voting and go on home.  May the best person win.

We have Sabina, we have Dallas, in all we have 100 community members in Texas that experienced this.   

Now let's pause for a moment.  I didn't plan to go into this much detail about 2008.  But I just remembered Patricia Wilson-Smith.  She was a liar.  Let's pull from Ava and my piece on the DNC convention about Patricia Wilson-Smith

Fact free Patricia Wilson-Smith got caught in an on-air lie. Not that Goody was paying attention:



Can I just say one thing to the point that you just made? I've heard over and over again from Hillary supporters that basically the media didn't treat her very well. I think the argument could be made for Senator Obama, as well. He definitely took his hits in the media also. But having said that, you know, nobody's more conflicted about this than I am. At the beginning, I was very much a Hillary Clinton supporter, at the very beginning. But the time has come for us to basically--



No, Barack didn't take any real hits. That's a lie. But it's not the lie we're speaking of. Read her statement above closely. She was "very much a Hillary Clinton supporter, at the very beginning"?

Patricia Wilson-Smith is a questionable character in our eyes and we say that because she is not a young woman and so her mother is also not a young woman. That would be the mother she states, on air, just had surgery. A political convention or your mother who just had surgery? Wilson-Smith didn't appear troubled in deciding to leave Georgia for Denver. But she wasn't troubled by the fact that she lied on air.



Patricia Wilson-Smith was lying to the audience. She was supposed to present herself as a Hillary supporter who came to Barack and, as such, her lie is supposed to encourage other women to do the same. She certainly claimed she supported Hillary early in the broadcast. But when she couldn't succeed in convincing Hillary supporter Sacha Millstone with her propaganda, Wilson-Smith grew frustrated and went off script declaring, "And secondly, of course, because I've been working so tirelessly over the last year and a half for Senator Obama, I wanted to make the trip and complete the cycle."



Did you catch it because Amy Goodman let it slide by. She's "been working so tirelessly over the last year and a half for Senator Obama." Earlier she asserted, "At the beginning, I was very much a Hillary Clinton supporter, at the very beginning." Now people have claimed it was a long primary process (it wasn't) but it did not last a year and a half. Before the primaries even began (in January of this year), Wilson-Smith had already logged a year working on Barack's behalf.



A year and a half, she states, she worked "tirelessly" to get Barack the nomination. Yet she wants people to believe she's a former Hillary supporter? And not only does Barack supporter Amy Goodman (who has turned her show over to the cause of electing Barack since 2007) avoid confronting Wilson-Smith on that statement, Goodman does damage control by ignoring it and immediately declaring:



I wanted to go back to this issue--although, Sacha Millstone, you say, "I'm not thinking about this at all"--I think this is shocking like to someone like Jose Serrano, the Congress member, who is a long time supported Hillary Clinton, now supporting Barack Obama, the issue of, how could you come out of the convention and then conceivably, possibly, sort of leave it open to vote for John McCain? If you could just say whether or not yet you've decided at this point, which clearly you haven't, what appeals to you about him?



What?



First off, listen to the show, read the transcript, Sacha Millstone has never used the words "I'm not thinking about this at all" so Goody's wrong right there.

But Goody's attempting to suggest that Sacha is supporting John McCain. Sacha had already made clear she was at the convention to vote for Hillary and that's as far as she's decided.

But listen to Liar Goody as she rushes in to cover up for Wilson-Smith exposing herself by pulling out of thin air the claim that Sacha has stated or implied she'll vote for John McCain. (Sacha has mentioned neither the GOP nor McCain up to that point.) Sacha attempts to reply and gets cut off at "I never said" at which point Amy jumps in (covering for herself and Wilson-Smith). Amy Goodman cuts her off and snaps, "So, how could you vote for him?" "Him" being McCain. Sacha manages to get a response before being cut off by Goodman again ("I never said I would. I never said that I was considering voting for John McCain. The question is, am I going to vote for Barack Obama?").


If you wonder why I don't repost segments from DEMOCRACY NOW! on the election, it's because of Amy Goodman's behavior in 2008.  Equally true, when Lie Face showed up on Amy's show and presented herself as just a professor taking some students to New Hampshire, Amy knew it was a lie. Amy had already been on Rev Jesse Jackson's radio program on a panel with Lie Face and on Jesse's show, Lie Face didn't lie, she was all about supporting Barack.  So, yes, Amy knew Lie Face was lyign and, no, I'm not interested in Amy or her guests take this election cycle.  

If you trick and whore, show yourself to the door.
 
It was that behavior by The Cult of St Barack that gave us Donald Trump.  That's the reality.

They lied and whored in the primaries, they lied and whored in the general election and they lied and whored throughout both terms. 

Reality is also that these enablers never held Barack responsible and Susan Benjamin is the perfect example there because when Barack wasn't going to pull troops out of Afghanistan, Susan and Jodie went around insisting that the US troops needed to remain in Afghanistan.  All the whores went marching home.  Leslie Cagen announced, right after the election, that United for Peace and Justice was now closing shop.  US troops weren't out of Iraq, let alone Afghanistan, but they had done their whoring and so they disappeared.  


But here's the other thing, Kyle, the convention!!! The convention!!!! You're so worried about the convention and how the delegates have to vote.
 

What world are you living in?  Are you being sincere?  If you are, then you clearly don't know the 2008 DNC convention.  Not only did IVAW disgrace themselves.  The media was ready to see their big protest against Barack but Barack sent out a go-between who shucked and jived and f**ked them over.  They were left with their bare asses hanging in the wind before they realized they'd been played.  They then went to the GOP convention and took part in whatever (stories differ) when they should have taken their asses home and licked their wounds.  So there's that, yes. 

But I'm talking about the delegates at the 2008 convention.  And I have other things to cover.  So let me refer you to Riverdaughter at THE CONFLUENCE and the link goes to August 28, 2008 and there's a calendar on the left side, scroll down to find it, that will let you go day by day through that whole week.  

The delegates! The delegates!  How will they vote!  

Kyle, take off the purity ring, that barrier's already been crossed.


That’s a real question, not a sarcastic one. Given all that he’s said lately and something Jonathan Last said at the Bulwark this evening, I’m beginning to think Joe is experiencing some guilt mixed with fear of humiliation.

Last is one of the few political types who acknowledges that Hillary had more primary votes in 2008 but that the party wanted Obama. It was a combo of superdelegates, donors etc who made the party bend the rules for him, steal some of Hilary’s elected delegates for him and reduce by half the strength of some of her elected delegates in two states. It made it look like she couldn’t catch up when in reality, she had beaten him in the states that should have made a difference at the convention.

Then, to top it all off, the party didn’t give her a complete floor vote because it wanted to hide the closeness of the race from the public. I thought it looked like a gang rape with Hillary on the convention floor surrounded by a large group of mostly men as they made it impossible for her to challenge what they were doing until she surrendered. It was sickening. I am not exaggerating.

Is that what Joe is afraid of? Because he should know by now that the best way to avoid having the party pick the nominee in spite of the fact that you’ve won more delegates is to not fight it. Concede now. You know what they’re capable of. Right at this moment, they’re lining up the floor vote and have already picked their preferred candidate.

You don’t stand a chance, Joe. You can go on your own terms or you can be cannibalized by your own party who will drag you out on the floor and make you smile while they strip you of any dignity you have left. 

 
And guess what?  We can go back further than 2008.  I don't who lied to you, Kyle, and told you that the conventions are fair and free.

So is there time for voting ahead of the convention?

Maybe if Joe dops out in the next two days.  Maybe not.

But this needs to be dealt with.



THE NEW YORK TIMES offers "Parkinson's Expert Visited The White House Eight Times in Eight Months."  That's just one headline.  This not going away.  This is now the narrative and everything will be put into that narrative and it will go on and as long as Joe is in the race.  


Gaza?

Fourth day in a row of the Israeli government attacking schools.  THE NATIONAL reports:

The Israeli military said its fighter jets struck a school last night in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, which it claimed was being used by militants as cover.

It said the attack was "based on intelligence" and used "precise munition".

"The Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organisations systematically violate international law, exploiting civilian structures and population as human shields for terror attacks against the state of Israel," it said.



Disputing the repeated claims of Israeli officials and their vehement supporters in the Biden administration, who have scoffed at concerns that the Israel Defense Forces are targeting civilians in Gaza, in-depth reporting on Monday based on the testimony of six former IDF soldiers described how they were encouraged to fire their weapons to relieve "boredom" and felt "authorized to open fire on Palestinians virtually at will, including civilians."

In their latest investigative report on the IDF's rules of engagement in Gaza, Israeli publications +972 Magazine and Local Call interviewed six soldiers who had been released from active duty.

Medical providers and eyewitnesses have described the shooting of Palestinian women and children by Israeli snipers, and footage has shown unarmed Palestinians being executed while walking along a road, but the soldiers confirmed that the IDF has been operating with "total freedom of action," as one said, since October.

"If there is [even] a feeling of threat, there is no need to explain—you just shoot," said a soldier identified as B.

If troops see a person approaching and don't know whether they are armed or pose a threat, "it is permissible to shoot at their center of mass [their body], not into the air... It's permissible to shoot everyone, a young girl, an old woman," said B. 



So another lie of the right-wing Israeli government exposed.  Like their lie that they had proof of UNRWA being involved in terrorism, remember?  No proof.  But they managed to scare many countries away from UNRWA and they continue to bomb UNRWA.  ALJAZEERA notes:


Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi has held a joint press conference with Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in Amman.

Here are some of Safadi’s comments:

  • The ability of UNRWA to carry out its role in Gaza has diminished due to the obstacles imposed by the [Israeli] occupation on the agency.
  • UNRWA is a humanitarian agency that cannot be replaced, as no other organisation can do what it is doing now in Gaza.
  • UNRWA plays a heroic role in Gaza to help people who are subjected to brutal aggression.
  • UNRWA’s survival is essential amid the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.
  • Israel’s attempt to assassinate UNRWA politically is part of its attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause.
  • Jordan stands with all its capabilities to provide the necessary support to UNRWA.


Gaza remains under assault. Day 277 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."  ALJAZEERA notes, "The ministry has given its daily update on casualties in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its war on October 7, 2023, with at least 38,243 killed and 88,033 people wounded.  Its statement also says that at least 50 people have been killed in the last 24 hours and 130 wounded, as Israel continues its bombing and ground operations across the Strip." 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."


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