before a military review board, an attorney for Guantánamo Bay’s “forever prisoner” revealed that negotiations are underway for his possible release after being tortured and detained without charges for 22 years.
The Supreme Court just gutted a key federal bribery statute this week, handing down a ruling that allows powerful interests to give gifts to politicians as rewards for favors.
The Supreme Court Just Legalized Bribery
Currently, the Palestine issue has become a question of how to get Israel to vacate and st…
By Gim Teh
As Israel’s Gaza genocide death-toll passes 38,000: recognising Palestinian State now critical
The corporate world is afraid of youth demanding change, particularly as rapacious business practices look set to drive us over the climate cliff into a frightening future. One solution the Right has implemented is the Christian Classical Education movement.
By Lucy HamiltonJun 29, 2024
The Right’s war to control education
It was noon on June 26 when the residents of the al-Shuja’iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City — one of the largest neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip inhabited by over 300,000 people — were taken by surprise as Israeli tanks rolled into their neighborhood.
The question pundits always ask following a leadership debate – who won?! – cannot reasonably be asked about today’s 2024
Trump’s IQ
“You got to ask him, as far as Israel and Hamas, Israel is the one that wants to go. He said the only one who wants to keep going is Hamas. Actually, Israel is the one, and you should them go and let them finish the job. He doesn’t want to do it. He has become like a Palestinian. But, they don’t like him because he is a very bad Palestinian. He is a weak one.”
Trump called Biden a “Weak Palestinian:” is the P-word the new N-Word?
Democrats have a deep bench. The options are not simple to choose, but a change of the ticket is essential, or Trump wins
In such shifting views, we see wounded egos, cravenness, and the concerns about an estate whose walls had been breached by a usurping, industrious publisher. By all means use the spoils from Assange and his leakers, even while snorting about how they were obtained. Publish and write about them in the hope of getting a press award. Never, however, admit that Assange is himself a journalist with more journalism awards than many have had hot dinners. In this grotesque reality, we are now saddled with a terrifying precedent: the global application of a US espionage statute endangering journalists and publishers who would dare discuss and run material on Washington’s national security.
Prem Thakker Trump’s racist remarks toward migrants and Palestinians was met with little more than “thank you, President Trump.”
Trump Used “Palestinian” as a Slur. Biden and Debate Moderators Didn’t Say a Word.
The issue of Israel’s creeping annexation of the West Bank has resurfaced in recent days after a leaked recording of Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich revealed a “dramatic” plan to impose permanent Israeli control over the West Bank “without the government being accused of annexing it,” as Smotrich was recorded saying.
Israel’s leaked plan for annexing the West Bank explained
Ilan Pappe demonstrates in his new book, has been instrumental in shaping the narrative in the service and maintenance of the Zionist project. Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic, as Pappe notes, has a long history. Having founded the state of Israel on terrorism, against the wishes of the native population, the Zionist groups that used violence to disrupt the history of Palestine are now determined to shield the occupation state from the global outrage that its genocide in Gaza has provoked.
New revelations by the Guardian have exposed the extent of Zionist lobbying in the US, revealing a coordinated and well-funded effort by the Israeli government to influence public opinion and political discourse. The goal is to shape American debates on college campuses, in Congress and across social media. Another top priority is suppressing criticism of Israel, which is achieved by lobbying lawmakers to adopt the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Jewish racism, and conflate legitimate criticism of Israel with . . . anti-Semitism.
US an “Open Field” for Manipulation by Israeli Propaganda: Mass Consciousness Activities
Former detainees say the Israel Prison Service “has significantly reduced their food rations, to the point of starvation, causing them to shed dozens of kilograms.”
Israeli Officials Hiding Data About Forced Starvation of Gaza Prisoners: Report
Jun 27, 2024
At Sde Teiman, Khaled Mahajneh found a detained journalist unrecognizable as he described the facility’s violent and inhumane conditions.
‘More horrific than Abu Ghraib’: Lawyer recounts visit to Israeli detention center
By Baker Zoubi
‘The Israel Lobby’ in 2007, superior public relations has served as the main explanation for the outsized influence that the nation of Israel holds over American politicians. In that telling, AIPAC (American-Israel Public Affairs Committee) and other supporters of Israel built a sophisticated and far-reaching public relations machine that promotes US politicians who support Israel and punishes those who don’t.
Conceived this way, rich supporters of Israel finance public relations campaigns whereby American politicians are (legally) bribed and coerced into giving US foreign aid to Israel. This aid is then delivered to the nation of Israel, with a preponderance of the money being spent on weapons produced by American weapons producers. To the extent that the goal of ‘the Israel lobby’ is to maximize US foreign aid to Israel, it is also maximizing funding for the American MIC (military-industrial complex).
Source: The ‘Israel Lobby’ Works for the US Military Industrial Complex – CounterPunch.org
“They want to erase the Palestinians who are living,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, “and now they are trying to erase the Palestinians who are dead.”
‘Genocide Denial’: Tlaib, Lee Slam Bipartisan Effort to Suppress Gaza Death Toll
The drone footage provides evidence of Hezbollah’s growing technological capabilities. Along with Nasrallah’s speech, it appears designed to check Israeli threats to invade Lebanon and send a message that Hezbollah has the ability to cause serious damage in Israel in the event of a full-scale war.
How Drones form part of Hezbollah’s deterrence Strategy against Israel
In echoing the US remonstrations to all but itself to construct and abide by a global ‘rules-based order’, one can only think of Gandhi’s reply to a question about his view of ‘Western civilisation’: ‘I think it would be a very good idea.’
Source: WikiLeaks as a resistance to the US or any empire – Pearls and Irritations
Here are the facts on some of the false claims offered during Thursday’s debate.
Factchecked: Trump and Biden’s presidential debate claims
6h ago
The merger of American and Israeli militarism is now more comprehensive than ever. Which is why it’s imperative to support those who show the courage to stand against bigotry and war crimes while defending universal human rights and international law.
Source: US drives Israel’s efforts to exterminate Palestinians | The Electronic Intifada
The latest outrage: the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s thin lifeline for aid via Egypt, closed by Israel in May, as of this week is rendered non-functional due to massive Israeli military actions there. Israeli civilians have blocked other access routes and ransacked aid trucks.
AFP’s server room located on the 11th floor of the Hajji Tower, which was partially destroyed by an Israeli strike on November 2,
A refuge decimated
The Press House in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood was once a sanctuary for journalists: a place to meet up with colleagues, to eat and rest between outings, and to borrow protective vests. For Shuruq As’ad, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, “it was really one of the safest places for journalists” in the Strip before the latest Israeli offensive began
Protest in Israel
However, for the first time in a generation, the Israeli public is forced to contemplate a “day after” scenario, creating space for new political imaginations. As protests and public anger intensify, this collective rage could fuel a transformative new future.
Mr Netanyahu’s departure would not be a magic solution: another prime minister’s policies on Hezbollah and Gaza’s future would probably not look so different. The Biden administration remains reluctant to use its potential leverage – arms supplies, diplomatic positioning and sanctions even against Mr Smotrich – as it should to stop the war in Gaza and the tightening hold on the West Bank. But an administration governed by a sober consideration of Israel’s needs and priorities, rather than driven by personal political survival, might at least find its way to a hostage-and-ceasefire deal and free itself from the dangerous grip of the far right.
Buying and buying America until you own it AIPAC & Citizens United Billionaire’s Row
“This was an act of desperation from a pro-war lobby that is at odds with the majority of Americans, including American Jews.”
Source: Progressives on AIPAC Beating Bowman: How to “Buy an Election”
Never in Australian politics did the Australian public so unintelligently elect a series of right-wing governments over a decade that were rotten, to the core, infected with hatred for the less well-off but happy with the burden they carried. So ignorant of its incompetence. So willing to break laws and trash conventions. They were so utterly corrupted by lying that they sometimes knew not when or why they were telling them.
Its reports have often been central to discussions about the rise of attacks against Jewish people. However, the ADL now faces significant backlash for its brazen conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.
The merger of American and Israeli militarism is now more comprehensive than ever. Which is why it’s imperative to support those who show the courage to stand against bigotry and war crimes while defending universal human rights and international law.
It is a film that painfully displays the brutality of the Israeli Zionist project. You don’t believe this is the case? Well, watch the film and tell me how you justify your position.
What is the story you believe that leads you to think that Palestinians do not deserve the same rights as Israelis, or indeed as other human beings for that matter?
Do you think Israelis are the victims, that their security is so perilous that for security reasons they can lock up more than 9,000 West Bank Palestinians since October 7? They have no formal charges laid against them and no right to legal representation. It is not Israelis who lie in bed thinking Palestinians are coming after them with guns. It is Palestinians who lie in bed knowing Israelis are coming after them with guns.
Source: Where Olive Trees Weep – Australia must recognise Palestine – Pearls and Irritations
Hitler did it Trump’s doing it
FIRE SALE
The cynical billionaires who support Trump — whether feverishly with piles of ill-gotten wealth or passively by not using their wealth and influence to try to stop the fascist train — are the enemy within. These MAGA bankrollers believe that great individual wealth is a sign of the holder’s innate superiority, not the lucky fallout of nepotism, whiteness, a privileged childhood, and access to education. They are the 21st Century American version of the German industrialists, bankers, and rich families who bankrolled Hitler and the Nazis in the 1930s, similarly fanatical about expanding their already-vast wealth and willing to ignore the consequences of the creeping fascism that they are enabling.
Source: Wooing MAGA Billionaires, Fascist Felon Trump holds a Fire Sale on his Potential Presidency
X Corp’s erratic, truculent CEO thought differently about this overly generous extension of Australia’s Online Safety Act. Elon Musk found Inman Grant’s demand insensible, calling her a “censorship commissar” in her insistence on global content bans. While he was happy to acquiesce to restricting access to the video in Australia, the world was quite something else.
When an entity such as News Corp gives advice on what should or should not be accessible to the broader citizenry of any country, the bells should be going off. The Big Tech behemoths have much to answer for – the destruction of privacy, the ruthless monetisation of user data, behavioural modification and hypnotic seduction. But governments of all hues always cling to the same logic: the public is a dangerous beast best fed morsels of information rather than the whole buffet. Ignorance breeds manageable docility.
Blaming Netanyahu for failing to produce a “next day” vision for Gaza, however, is also wishful thinking as it assumes that Israel has all the cards. It has none.
Of course, there is an alternative to the neverending war scenario, namely permanently lifting the siege on Gaza, ending the military occupation, and dismantling the apartheid regime. This would grant Palestinians their freedom and rights as enshrined, in fact, guaranteed in international and humanitarian laws.
If the international community mustered the courage to force such a “next day” reality on Tel Aviv, there would be no need for war, or resistance, in the first place.
It’s these types of conspiracies that Julian Assange would have revealed and been jailed for. 8 Reporters killed by an American helicopter gunship. This is what the American government regards as secret
The Israeli military never contacted the Palestine Red Crescent Society about Israel’s killing of a 6-year-old Palestinian girl, her family members, and the paramedics sent to save her, a Red Crescent spokesperson told The Intercept, refuting the State Department’s first substantive remarks about the killing that took place 148 days ago.
In the nearly five months since the killings, The Intercept repeatedly asked the State Department about the incident, the status of investigations, and how the U.S. could continue sending Israel aid if it could not get straightforward answers on the case. (U.S. policy requires foreign governments to provide assurances they won’t violate international law with U.S. weapons; the U.S. found that Israel likely violated law with American weapons, but did not act on the conclusion.) On almost every occasion, Miller said the U.S. was asking Israel to investigate.
On February 14, for example, after The Intercept asked about the range of material available for an investigation to proceed, Miller said the question is “appropriately addressed to the government of Israel,” but that the U.S. wanted the incident to be investigated. Several times after, Miller either did not have an update on the “ongoing” investigation, or said the department would “come back” after getting an answer.
After nearly 150 days, the State Department finally came back with answers: ones that relied wholly on Israeli claims — assertions the U.S. admitted it did not attempt to verify, that deflated upon the slightest provocation.
Source: Red Crescent: Israel Never Reached Out About Hind Rajab Investigation
Hamas didn’t do this
(Informed Comment) – Save the Children said Monday that in addition to the some 14,000 children killed by the Israeli military according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, another 4,000 are estimated dead under rubble, and 17,000 are wandering around on their own, unaccompanied and separated from their parents (who may have been killed by Israeli fire).
Source: Israeli Forces have killed or Separated from their Families 35,000 Palestinian Children in Gaza
When this does not happen, it signals that no one is safe, that the agreements we’ve made in global fora like the U.N. will not protect anyone, especially not the most vulnerable.
Source: Opinion | Those Who Violate the Rights of Children in War Must Be Held Accountable | Common Dreams
The Democratic establishment and Israel lobby are seeking to destroy the political career of Rep. Jamaal Bowman because he dared to criticize the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. And many liberals are joining right in.
Source: For opposing genocide, Bowman is framed as antisemitic — by liberal Zionists – Mondoweiss
The big question I have is will Julian Assange run for federal parliament like he did back in 2013. That would be interesting to say the least.
“There are three sources of power in Chile: Pinochet, God and DINA.” (Chilean intelligence officer, remarks to a US military attaché, 1974).
Source: DINA: Pinochet’s Directorate for Murder and Torture – » The Australian Independent Media Network
For Julian Assange, the price of freedom has been five years in jail while he fought extradition to the United States to face charges no democracy worthy of the name should ever have brought.
olddogthoughts 
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