More grassroots anti-war activism in the US:
Walkouts, Blockades, and Student Occupations in Solidarity with Palestine Continue | It’s Going Down
Resistance to the US backed Israeli war and genocide against Palestinians living in the occupied territories remains ongoing, with a chorus of mass protests, sabotage, occupations at US universities, and blockades of weapons suppliers continuing into the spring, as a call grows “to disrupt and blockade economic logistical hubs and the flow of capital” on April 15th.
A carefully presented and well researched video by Randahl Fink: Genocide in Gaza — is Israel guilty? - YouTube
#Gaza #Israel #Genocide
UN Human Rights Council calls for halt to weapons shipments to Israel : NPR
GENEVA — The U.N.’s top human rights body called on countries to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel in a resolution passed Friday that aims to help prevent rights violations against Palestinians amid Israel’s blistering military campaign in Gaza.
The sweeping measure takes aim at an array of Israeli actions such as impeding access to water and limiting shipments of humanitarian aid into Palestinian areas. It also calls on U.N.-backed independent investigators to report on shipments of weapons, munitions and “dual use” items — that have both civilian and military applications — that could be used by Israel against Palestinians.
Evidence that grassroots, progressive activism in the US is still alive and capable of changing world events. While it’s still early days it seems that the Biden administration may finally be shifting its position on Israel. The killing of the 7 aid workers of the World Central Kitchen seems to have been the tipping point but for weeks efforts by on-the-ground activists in Michigan and most recently Wisconsin have rung Biden’s alarm bells.
Of course, this is only a sign of an early shift directly related to getting food and aid into Gaza. Will enough aid flow in fast enough to blunt the worst case scenario of famine from unfolding? We will soon find out.
Will Israel still launch a large scale offensive into Rafah? Will there be deeper, long term shifts in military aid to Israel or is this just a temporary shift? What comes next? What’s the goal? Is it a ceasefire or something more lasting?
The Perserverance of Dignity – Abolition Media
The Zapatistas of Chiapas, Mexico have been working for 30 years to create and expand real, local democracy.
Young Liria nodded excitedly with a smile that lit up her face like the Mayan sun. Her small frame rocked back and forth with emotion. She had been at the 30th anniversary celebration of the EZLN in the Caracol of Dolores Hidalgo, and still vibrated with the energy of it. Along with thousands of her peers, she witnessed as people from around the globe streamed into the remote canyons of Chiapas to celebrate, and to listen to the Zapatista youth as they enacted their stories before an international audience. She witnessed for the first time the global reach of their movement that her grandparents and parents had built, and that she, should she choose to, would be charged with carrying on.
‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
The Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human oversight and a permissive policy for casualties
Schools close and crops wither as ‘historic’ heatwave hits south-east Asia | The Guardian
Thousands of schools in the Philippines have stopped in-person classes due to unbearable heat. In Indonesia, prolonged dry weather has caused rice prices to soar. In Thailand’s waters, temperatures are so high that scientists fear coral could be destroyed.
A “historic heatwave” is being experienced across south-east Asia, according to Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian.
Biden is not passively funding the slaughter of Palestinians, he’s working hard to do so, bypassing Congress at least twice. And his supposed “outrage” at Israel’s genocide is not convincing. With each week Biden seems determined to hand the election over to Trump.
The activist, progressive, empathetic left of the base has been protesting loudly while the wealthier, white, comfortable middle class portion of the Democratic base generally seems more self-concerned. My outsider perspective is that while this wealthy Democratic base has generally dominated the party it may be that Biden’s active support of war crimes and genocide might prove a tipping point.
Almost 50,000 Wisconsin voters just told Biden to stop the Gaza war. Will he listen? | The Guardian
The protest vote in Wisconsin has made clear that this campaign is bigger than Biden. The many people calling for a ceasefire aren’t merely swing voters or bitter castoffs who have long left the party. Many involved in the uncommitted campaigns have, until now, been committed Democrats. But they fear a critical mass of voters may permanently leave the Democratic party if Biden and other leaders don’t implement a ceasefire in Gaza, and quickly. For some voters, even that may be too little, too late.
In this Majority Report clip about Israel’s recent slaughter of WCK aid workers in Gaza Emma Vigeland refers to the IDF as the Israeli Genocide Force.
Calling things out for what they are.
See also:
- US billionaires: Oligarchs
- The Republican Party: The Fascist Party
War Crimes: “Sniper shots to the brain. They were seven or eight years old.”
Dr Fozia Alvi was making her rounds of the intensive care unit on her final day at the battered European public hospital in southern Gaza when she stopped next to two young arrivals with facial injuries and breathing tubes in their windpipes…
Children account for more than one in three of the more than 32,000 people killed in Israel’s months-long assault on Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Delusions at the United Nations | Al Jazeera
We have now entered the comforting world of delusions.
Earlier this week, 14 members of the United Nations Security Council agreed on a resolution that called for an “immediate ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas and the “unconditional release of all hostages”.
Applause broke out in the chamber. It was a surreal, farcical scene, punctuated by an expression of self-congratulatory delusion that something tangible had finally been achieved to end Israel’s killing rage in the shattered, dystopian remnants of the Gaza Strip…
Is the US status as a war criminal just being accepted by its citizens? Seems that way.
Interview with Josh Paul, former State Department official who resigned in October to protest increasing arms sales to Israel. The most recent shipment to include 25 F-35 fighter jets and the 1,800 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs used to level entire city blocks.
Biden Violating U.S. Law by Rushing More Arms to Israel - YouTube
The Biden administration has recently authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel.
The case for paying ranchers to raise trees instead of cattle | The Guardian
There is a simple, cost-effective and scientifically sound way to turn back the clock on global warming and reverse the catastrophic collapse of biodiversity: pay ranchers to raise trees instead of cattle.
By mass, the world’s 1.7 billion cows are the dominant animal species on Earth, far outweighing the human population, and outweighing all the wild terrestrial mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians left on Earth by more than 15-fold. More than a third of Earth’s land is used to feed livestock.
1 in 5 Wisconsin Democrats Said Gaza War Will Impact Their Primary Vote
More than 1 in 5 Wisconsin Democrats said that Israel’s war in Gaza is impacting their vote in the state’s primary on Tuesday, while 71% said they strongly support an immediate and permanent ceasefire, according to a new poll released on Monday.
11% of respondents said President Joe Biden’s handling of the war will impact their vote in November if he does not change course and another nearly 14 percent said it could. Nearly 5%, meanwhile, said their vote has been impacted regardless of a change in policy.
Not a surprise that the Fascist Party in attempting to limit democracy in Missouri.
Lawmakers, in a panic over the prospect that voters might overturn their abortion ban, are moving at what for them amounts to lightning speed on a constitutional amendment to make it harder to pass initiative petitions in Missouri.
Big surprise.
Nations Are Undercounting Emissions, Putting UN Goals at Risk - Yale E360
Because of lax rules, national inventories reported to the United Nations grossly underestimate many countries’ greenhouse gas emissions…
In the United States, an analysis published this month of the air over the country’s oil and natural gas fields found that they emit three times more methane — a gas responsible for a third of current warming — than the government has reported.
Lots of planning for November and post election: How Viktor Orbán Conquered the Heritage Foundation | The New Republic
Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made waves by flying to the United States to meet with Donald Trump—but not with sitting president Joe Biden. It was, at a minimum, a severe breach of diplomatic protocol, and one that threatens to unravel Budapest’s strained relations with Washington even further. Even Biden himself commented on the meeting, saying that Orbán—an authoritarian who has effectively unwound Hungarian democracy—was “looking for dictatorship.”
Not only will the cost of food contiune to rise, but an increasingly destabilized climate will decrease crop production as the population of the planet grows. We will have food shortages. The poorest of the planet will suffer first. And the wealthiest 10% are okay with that.
Extreme Heat Is Driving Up Food Prices — and It’s Only Going to Get Worse | Truthout
Food prices have climbed 25 percent over the past four years, and Americans have been shocked…
We’ve been warned, we sholudn’t be shocked.
I’ve seen it suggested that American billionaires should now be referred to as oligarchs. By the same logic, we should also now refer to the Republicans as Fascists, and the Republican Party as the Fascist Party.
Call them what they are. Fascists.
The GOP is Fascism now.
Walberg, a fundamentalist former Christian pastor, once ran the homophobic, far right Moody Bible Institute in Chicago while supposedly representing a Michigan district, Walberg is against everything— a woman’s right to choose, the Affordable Care Act, gay marriage, and any attempt to counter the climate crisis. He went to Uganda to voice support for that country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, which prescribes executions for gay people.