The always evolving iPad set-up (and speculations on the iPad's future)
America is built on settler colonialism, slavery and white supremacy. For decades we’ve supported Israel in its constant breaking of international laws and now, genocide.
If we refuse to end our complicity in genocide what are we? I see a pattern here.
But do go on about democracy.
The March 4 episode of The Majority Report features an excellent interview with Rashid Khalidi that begins at 23:30 and covers his work documenting the Palestinian resistance to Britain dating back to 1917:
…well before the establishment of the state of Israel, looking at the central role of the West – namely Britain and the US – in support and facilitating the violent establishment and maintenance of a Zionist apartheid state.
I see a lot of white middle class Democrats on social networks proclaiming that the only way to save democracy this year is to vote for Biden.
Have you ever protested in the street, how often and will you do so again if necessary?
Democracy is not just voting.
Thinking of to Aaron Bushnell and his self-immolation to protest genocide
Over the past week my mind went often to Aaron Bushnell and his self-immolation to protest genocide a week ago.
“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now." - Aaron Bushnell, February 25, 2024
Via Mastodon: StillIRise1963…
People who’ve had it so easy have no fucking idea what their inaction will bring to them.
People don’t know how easy they have it. Most Americans live better that probably at least 6 billion people on the planet. We have our issues and inequalities and various forms of classism, but very few of us spend our days getting water or wood or protecting ourselves from militias roaming the country. Few of us live in tiny apartments in shifts while we work in sweatshops. We’re spoiled. A lot of us
Linked: Palestinian and Gaza News
For Israel, violence is inherent in its colonial DNA: Marwan Bishara…
At least 77 Palestinians have been killed and more than 250 people are injured - after Israeli forces opened fire on people trying to collect food aid in Gaza City. Hundreds of hungry and starving Palestinians had come to collect food aid, when they were attacked by Israeli snipers and shelled by Israeli tanks. Civilians were left scrambling to transport the dead and injured to nearby hospitals - many are in critical condition. Most of the medical facilities in Gaza are barely functioning or out of service.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire, now the largest in Texas history at 1 million acres, 2,000 square miles. The same amount of land as the state of Delaware. And it’s still burning.
Do the people of Texas support taking personal and legislative action to address the climate emergency?
They should.
A deeply broken country
This morning Starrwulfe wrote :
The enshittification of my country is depressing and tiring.
Agreed. I keep trying to pull back, big picture, long period for context and perspective. So many things continue to go the wrong way. I lost faith in the legistlative process/system 30 years ago at which point I began to realize that the electoral process/system was equally broken. I still had hope though that the people of the country would step up to the challenge of figuring out the problems. In the past 15 years it seems increasingly clear that that will not happen.
We call ourselves the United States of America but there are many Americas and in truth it’s far from United. That’s a habit of the past not reflected by the current reality. Much of the enshitification that we see in 2024 is a result of economic and cultural divides. Of course these have existed since the founding of the country and they persist today, exploited to create conflict.
“Uncommitted”: Over 100,000 Cast Protest Vote Against Biden’s Gaza Policy in Michigan Primary…
Over 100,000 voters cast their ballots for “uncommitted” in an organized campaign protesting U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza. The major battleground state is home to one of the largest Arab American populations in the country, but the movement to vote “uncommitted” is now expected to spread to other states… “There is genocide unfolding. People want it to end. The president either is going to have to act decisively to end it, or it’s going to have an impact in November.”
Linked: Climate Emergency
The climate emergency is all around us.
Smokehouse Creek Fire now second-largest on record in Texas…
The Smokehouse Creek Fire has burned 500,000 acres since igniting Monday afternoon, making it the second-largest wildfire on record in Texas, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. It remains completely uncontained and is likely to grow further. The largest wildfire was the East Amarillo Complex fire in 2006, which consumed more than 900,000 acres, according to Texas A&M.
Israel and the US, partners in land theft, genocide and apartheid.
West Bank settler expansion: a year on the frontline - YouTube
In the West Bank tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been a fact of life for decades. But since the October 7th attacks, the situation has only got worse, with hundreds of Palestinians being killed - and more illegal Israeli settlements spreading across the land.
In a recent thread about Israel’s ongoing atrocities against Palestinians on Micro.Blog, these two excellent posts stood out to me. First, David Marsden offered this postwhich included a link to the history of the Palestinian slogan “from the river to the sea” . Then this:
For almost 20 years Hamas has repeatedly offered Israel a peace process and effectively a two state solution, based on an Israeli military withdrawal to its 1967 borders, the establishment of a Palestinian mini-state on the West Bank and Gaza, with a ten year truce to negotiate other outstanding issues, such as the right of return for refugees.
Then Samjc offered this:
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable” ~ JFK
Without justifying the atrocities of Oct 7, the structural reality of Israel makes violence inevitable. You have one group who has taken the land of another to create an ethno-state, leaving most of the original inhabitants with no rights. Until that basic structure changes, we can expect outbursts of violence from both sides – for Palestinians as resistance, and perhaps also vengeance as you put it; for Israel, it is “security” (even though it is the structural violence of the situation that reproduces Israel’s vulnerability)
“My name is Aaron Bushnell. I’m an active duty member of the United States Air Force. And I will no longer be complicit in genocide.”
Every major press story left out his last words as he burned: Free Palestine!
We cannot allow the status quo to water down the martyrdom of Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old hero who served in the US Airforce and intentionally created a media firestorm against the ongoing agenda of the geriatric western ruling class. Contrary to reports from the press, this was not a shocking case of self harm, or a small minded tragedy.
Republican House Rep. Andrew Ogles on Gaza: “We Should Kill Them All”…
In a stunning admission, a House Republican was caught on camera this week saying that he thinks the U.S. and Israel should kill all Palestinians in Gaza.
Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles made the comments in response to pro-Palestine activists who confronted him in a hallway about the U.S.’s continued support for Israel’s genocidal assault in Gaza, which has killed 30,000 Palestinians so far, including 12,300 children.
HunterNP: Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell…
“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now."
Suicide vs genocide: Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell
On Sunday, February 25, 25-year-old active duty member of the United States Air Force Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in the US capital of Washington, DC, in a one-airman revolt against the US-backed slaughter currently being perpetrated by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.
Over the past 143 days, Israel has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave…
Nancy MacLean, “The Pre-History—and Likely Sequels—of the Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol”
The attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, was just a hint. Nancy MacLean on decades of intentional cultivation:
What we are seeing in the United States today is the coming together of a network of far-right corporate donors determined to remake the world, a major political party their grantees have radicalized beyond recognition, and vigilantism in multiple arenas being spurred by highly profitable media outlets.
Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Feb 21
Steve Bannon: “MAGA will govern for fifty years”.
Pizzagate conspiracist Jack Posobiec:
“Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on Jan. 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it…. Bcz all glory is not to government. All glory to god”
Trump’s address is set for Saturday, 24 Feb.