For those of us in the US acknowledging the truth of our own history is not something often taught in schools nor encouraged in our culture generally. The truth is not the wholesome tv show Little House on the Prairie that I grew up watching. It’s a violent truth and we should reckon with it.

Settler colonialism - Wikipedia

Settler colonialism occurs when colonizers invade and occupy territory to permanently replace the existing society with the society of the colonizers.

Settler colonialism is a form of exogenous domination typically organized or supported by an imperial authority, which maintains a connection or control to the territory through the settler’s colonialism.

Learn about the Indigenous people on whose land you occupy via Native Land Digital.

Learn about Territory Acknowledgement:

Territory acknowledgement is a way that people insert an awareness of Indigenous presence and land rights in everyday life. This is often done at the beginning of ceremonies, lectures, or any public event. It can be a subtle way to recognize the history of colonialism and a need for change in settler colonial societies.

I live on the traditional territory of:


ICJ orders Israel to take action to address famine in Gaza:

Judges at the International Court of Justice have unanimously ordered Israel to take all the necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay to Gaza’s hunger-ravaged population.

Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative party, tells Al Jazeera that the move is an “important step” that should be followed by another resolution enforcing a “complete cessation of all military activities by Israel”.

Video


The US and Israel continue partnership in war crimes.

As Gaza Faces Famine, Israel Cuts Ties with UNRWA and U.S. Halts Funding for Critical Aid Agency - YouTube

Despite a U.N.-backed report sounding the alarm on imminent famine in northern Gaza, Israeli authorities announced Sunday they will no longer approve the passage of any UNRWA food convoys into northern Gaza. “Our ability to adequately continue saving lives is really being obstructed,” says UNRWA… The decision came as President Biden signed a $1.2 trillion appropriations bill that strips funding to UNRWA for the next year.


I Could Not Stay Silent: Annelle Sheline Resigns from State Dept. over U.S. Gaza Policy - YouTube

A State Department official working on human rights issues in the Middle East resigned Wednesday in protest of U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza. Annelle Sheline, who worked as a foreign affairs officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, was not planning on publicly resigning, but her colleagues asked her to “please speak out” against the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israel. “At the end of the day, many people inside [the State Department] know that this is a horrific policy, and can’t believe that the United States government is engaged in such actions that contravene American values so directly, but the leadership is not listening,” says Sheline. “I’m trying to speak on behalf of those many, many people who feel so betrayed by our government’s stance.” Sheline describes being moved by the words of Aaron Bushnell, the active-duty U.S. airman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in protest of the war on Gaza, who implored everyone to take a stand against genocide. “I have a young daughter, and I thought about, in the future, if she were to ask me, ‘What were you doing when this was happening? You were at the State Department.’ I want to be able to tell her that I didn’t stay silent.”


Israel: Above the law? | Featured Documentary - YouTube

A look into how and why international laws and principles are being applied and ignored in the Israel-Gaza conflict…

This documentary will explore whether Israel is breaking international law and, if so, why are Western powers, in particular the United States, silent.


Seen on the trail today, a zebra swallowtail! Saw a red spot purple on the walk yesterday. And the small flowers are starting to pop up above the leaves.

Rue anemone A light pink flower grows near a leaf on the forest floor and is sunlit from the back


This is the kind of response I get when I email or call "my" representatives in congress: A screenshot of a reply from a US senator, The text reads: Dear Denny,Thank you for contacting me regarding the ongoing conflict in Israel. Your correspondence significantly informs my decision-making and better helps me represent the state. I continue to strongly condemn Hamas' attack on Israel. The brutal events of Hamas' barbaric assault left thousands dead and wounded, including American citizens. Make no mistake about it: these were coordinated terrorist attacks from a fanatical jihadist organization. Israel has every right to defend itself, and the U.S. must fully support our strongest ally and closest friend in the Middle East. This is especially important given Hamas' clear ties to the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran. I fear that their bloody fingerprints are all over these horrifying tragic events. I am proud to continue supporting Israel in its time of need. More than one hundred hostages, including Americans, continue to suffer unthinkable horrors at the hands of terrorists - being beaten, raped, and tortured in tunnels without ever seeing the light of day. I am sure now, as ever, that Israel must root out this evil. I also have major concerns about corruption and support for terrorism within civilian organizations in Gaza, particularly the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Recent intelligence, widely reported, shows that ten percent of UNRWA employees have ties to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. That amounts to more than 1,200 UNRWA members sowing the seeds of terrorism and antisemitism throughout Gaza. The reports found that 12 UNRWA members actually participated in the savage October 7 attacks. I was glad to support the freeze in U.S. funding of UNRWA; it is disgraceful to think about the hate and violence fostered by UNRWA. Again, thank you for contacting me about this issue; I am proud to continue supporting Israel in this time of need. If you have any other concerns, or need help with a federal agency, please do not hesitate to reach out to my office it is an honor to serve as your voice in the Senate. Very Truly Yours, Eric S. Schmitt

Meanwhile...

Videos of malnourished children show Gaza’s forced starvation crisis | Al Jazeera Newsfeed - YouTube

Starvation is getting worse in north Gaza where 31% of children under the age of 2 are suffering from acute malnutrition, a percentage which has doubled since January.


I’m glad I avoid posting hot takes. Yesterday, Serif, the maker of the very popular Affinity suite of apps, shared the news that it had been acquired by Canva. The thing is, the Affinity apps are very popular alternative to Adobe’s subscription apps. They’re popular because they are excellent but, notably, they are not subscription based apps but rather are available as a one-time purchase.

But Canva, a MUCH larger company, only offers subscriptions. So, predictably, a lot of people quickly jumped to the conclusion that the current version of Affinity apps would be the last available for purchase and that in the future it would be subscription only. Today Serif posted The Affinity and Canva Pledge. The first item of four:

FAIR PRICING Perpetual licenses will always be offered and we will always price Affinity fairly and affordably.

Of course, there’s no way to know if this was the plan or if they may have changed course due to a day of social media complaints. Regardless, I’m relieved that they’ve made it clear!


Pondering a white supremacy that is so deeply embedded in the organization of US society in 2024 that it’s just become a kind of invisible foundational bias that allows us to think of ourselves as “civilized” when, on a daily basis, large sectors of our economy engage in war profiteering.

The majority of the US barely register the violence that resonates from the origins of the nation. From our own violent settler colonialism hundreds of years ago to slavery and to the present day violence that reinforces inequality in every possible layer of our society. From our economics to our political process, policing through education, white supremacy and patriarchy, is still the dominant organization of the US.

But, in general, we’re not a culture that actively engages in any kind of sustained, large scale discussion of our internal organization. That takes a kind of will and desire that we do not muster. We engage in a kind of willful ignorance, we allow ourselves to be distracted by the entertainments provided by those in power and in so doing forget our own collective power.

We go along with the idea that we are individuals not capable of change. A sort of easy, convenient self-delusion because the alternative of collective action is frightening. It’s an inconvenience and potentially dangerous. So we put our heads down and keep going.

A desperate march into increasing instability and madness.


The tide of public opinion in the US has finally turned against Israel and it only took the deaths of 32,000 civilians, countless war crimes, a declaration by the ICJ of plausible genocide and a deliberate campaign by Israel to starve over a million humans.

Majority in U.S. Now Disapprove of Israeli Action in Gaza

WASHINGTON, D.C. – After narrowly backing Israel’s military action in Gaza in November, Americans now oppose the campaign by a solid margin. Fifty-five percent currently disapprove of Israel’s actions, while 36% approve.


Listening to the current episode of the Politically Depressed Podcast: Who pays for your silence? and while the whole episode is excellent, this unspoken truth gave me pause:

Palestinians are paying the price of European anti-semitism.

It’s generally a good podcast by a young Lebanese activist living outside his country. Often meandering and sad, his effort to share and process his thoughts and observations of the state of the world.


Extreme heat could trigger the worst global financial crisis ever seen | New Scientist

Without dramatic action to curb greenhouse emissions, even high-latitude countries with cooler climates will suffer devastating, if indirect, financial losses as extreme heat disrupts global supply chains. The result could be the worst financial crisis the world has ever seen.

It is already well known that severe heatwaves have numerous health and economic impacts, including higher mortality rates, preventing people from working outside, destroying crops and disrupting industrial processes.


War on Gaza: UN special rapporteur accuses Israel of acts of ‘genocide’ - YouTube

Francesca Albanese says Israel has violated three of the five acts listed under the UN Genocide Convention Including: Killing members of a specific group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole and in part. She also found that genocidal acts were approved and given effect after statements of genocidal intent by senior Israeli military and government officials. These acts, Albanese argues, are part of a ‘settler-colonial process of erasure’ - which has been underway for more than 70 years. She recommends - among other things - an immediate arms embargo on Israel. And for member states to support South Africa in its attempt to prosecute Israel at the International Court of Justice.


Ex-U.N. Official Craig Mokhiber: Israel Must Be Held Accountable for Violating Ceasefire Resolution - YouTube

“Israel has the world record” for violating U.N. resolutions and is certain to violate this ceasefire resolution, as well, even though it expressed “the very broad consensus across the global community against Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.” Israel continued bombing Gaza after Monday’s vote, and top Israeli leaders have vowed to continue the war that has killed over 32,000 Palestinians so far.


Israel’s attempt to destroy Unrwa is part of its starvation strategy in Gaza | The Guardian

Israel’s vendetta against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa) illustrates the callousness with which Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has fought the war in Gaza. It also reflects an effort to use Hamas’s 7 October attack as an opportunity for demographic re-engineering.


Study documents slowing of Atlantic currents

While scientists have observed oceans heating up for decades and theorized that their rising temperatures weaken global currents, a new study led by a University of Maryland researcher documents for the first time a significant slowing of a crucial ocean current system that plays a role in regulating Earth’s climate.


UN Security Council passes resolution demanding immediate Gaza ceasefire - YouTube

The United Nations Security Council has called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages as the United States abstained from the vote. The remaining 14 council members voted for the resolution on Monday.


Yes, and the US is complicit.

Half of Gaza’s population is at risk of famine - Vox

Every resident of Gaza is at risk of crisis levels of food insecurity — and half are at risk of famine.

Yes, you read that right: Nearly six months into the Israeli invasion after the October 7 attacks, every single Gaza resident is at risk of at least crisis-level food insecurity…

It’s a crisis that has unfolded at a speed utterly unprecedented this century — and also one that was repeatedly predicted and entirely avoidable if Israel were not placing severe restrictions on aid.


Does Israel need to be forced by the US to end the war in Gaza? | YouTube

All of Israel’s modern wars have ended with US intervention, but the current war in Gaza has gone on for half a year because “Biden is a slow learner”, argues University of Pennsylvania political scientist Ian Lustick… Lustick and Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti talk to host Steve Clemons about the current situation on the ground and the debate within the Democratic Party in the United States.


One of these men has spoken to US Congress and is currently invited to speak again:

  • Adolf Hitler (Date of genocide: 1941 - 1945)
  • Pol Pot (Date of genocide: 1975 - 1979)
  • Benjamin Netanyahu (Date of genocide: 2023 - present)

The list of historical genocides does not yet list Israel but it will.