Saturday, August 10, 2024

Music: The Killers, the AMAs, Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross

 

That's "Bright Lights" -- the new video from The Killers. 

 

In other music news, ABC's American Music Awards?  No longer on ABC.

 

Dick Clark had a deal with ABC where he hosted AMERICAN BANDSTAND (1956 to 1989).  The Grammys had begun airing on TV.  ABC had them for 1971 and 1972 but the Grammys then moved to CBS.  So Dick Clark created the AMAs and ABC aired the first one in 1974.


All these years later (fifty), the American Music Awards follow The Grammys over to CBS.


This October 6th, CBS will air a special celebrating the 50th anniversary of the AMAs and then, in May, the latest presentation of the American Music Awards ceremony will air on CBS.

 

The American Music Awards will move to 2025, with host network CBS planning to run an AMA 50th anniversary special in October in the time period where the awards show was originally supposed to run.

CBS and AMA producer Dick Clark Productions says that it will run the 50th anniversary special on Sunday, Oct. 6, which will “feature themed highlights from AMAs’ expansive show archives, each culminating with an original performance or artist interview. Segments will look back on the evolution of specific artists and genres at the AMAs, as well as award and performance milestones.”

 

 There have been some great moments at the AMAs over the years.


Like Diana Ross getting the lifetime achievement award.

 

 

 Cyndi Lauper performing "When You Were Mine."

 

 

 In 1985, Cyndi was riding the SHE'S SO UNUSUAL wave.  She'd had hits with "Girls Just Want To Have Fun," "Time After Time," "She-Bop," "All Through The Night" and "Money Changes Everything" -- all top five hits except for the last one which made it to number 27.  And she's on the AMAs singing . . . a great song from her album that was not a single.  Prince wrote "When You Were Mine," by the way.  That's what was great about the AMAs, sometimes they'd break out a new song.

 

A lot of my AMA memories are of Diana Ross.  So let me note this compilation of her AMA appearances. 

 

 

 

 

 

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

Friday, August 9, 2024.  Presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks with the UAW about our power when we pull together, Robert Kennedy Junior offers up a Cruise to Hell contest, and much more.



In the US, the presidential election will be held November 5, 2024.  Early voting will start sooner but the 'last day' of voting will be November 5, 2024.  The Democratic Party's presidential nominee is Kamala Harris.  Yesterday, she and her running mate Tim Walz spoke to the United Auto Workers (UAW) in Wayne, Michigan Local 900 chapter.  Local 900 members are credited with being part of the driving force last year that brought about the negotiations with the Big Three automakers last year.  Addressing the gathered, Kamala noted,  "When you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for. We stand for the people. We stand for the dignity of work. We stand for justice. We stand for equality. And we will fight for all of it."  Excerpt:

 

Presidential nominee Kamala Harris:  But the same people raised us.  Good people.  Hard working people.  People who had pride in knowing we were a community of people who looked out for each other.  You know, raised by a community of folks who understood that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it's based on who you lift up.  And you know there's a perversion that's happened in our country in the last several years where there's a suggestion that   somehow strength is about making people feel small, making people feel alone but isn't that the very opposite of what we know -- unions know to be strength?  It's about the collective.  It's about understanding no one should ever be made to fight alone -- that we are all in this together.  You know why I fought in my career for unions and labor because I understand the concept -- the noble concept -- behind collective bargaining and here it is, here it is:  Fairness.  Fairness.  It's about saying, "Hey, in a negotiation, don't we all believe the outcome should be fair?"  I mean who could disagree with that?  The outcome should be fair.  It should be fair, right?  But when you're talking about the individual and a big company and you're requiring that one individual to negotiate against a big company, how's that outcome going to be fair?  So collective bargaining is about saying, "Let the collective come together around a common experience which at its core is about dignity and the dignity of  labor and then let the people come together to negotiate so you make the balance  and then the outcome will be fair."  And isn't that what we're talking about in this election.


Crowds are turning out for the Harris-Walz ticket.  And they're doing a great job on social media.  Where they need to step up their game?  Democrats need to shore up elderly voters.  They are often the most at risk when it comes to misinformation.  That's not because they're lazy.  It's because they're trying to educate themselves.  That's why they watch the news and, sadly, that does include watching FOX "NEWS" for some elderly Democrats.  I'm speaking to youth groups, labor, women's groups as usual but I have added the elderly and that's based on some polling I've seen and concerns that some friends in DNC leadership have noted.  So, just added the elderly segment this week, here's what I'm hearing that needs to be stepped up: The campaign website.

You need speeches up there, you need issues and positions up there.  The website deserves a D grade currently.  I'm not here to sugar coat or tell people good job when there's no good job being done.  This might fly with younger people but it's not working for the elderly population.  

There's another problem and maybe I should have started with that.  ACT BLUE should not be able to pull focus from Kamala's designated campaign site unless they clearly and easily link to her website.  "I felt trapped," one 74 year old woman stated.  She searched for Kamala Harris' website and saw ACT BLUE official Kamala Harris website.  She clicked.  And she couldn't go anywhere.  Well maybe she could, maybe if she chose a donation amount and then gave her credit card information, maybe then she could go somewhere beyong that huge STOP SIGN that ACT BLUE's website is.

At least on Kamala's official site, they can click a clearly noted "Close" and get off the begging for money page to look for actual content.

But when they look for it, it's not there. 

These are people who vote and these are people who grew up as voters being able to dash to the local campaign headquarters where there would be tons of printed pages with positions on this and on that, with biographical information, you name it. This is hurting another group, by the way.  But we'll come back to that.

There's no content there.  Elderly people especially want content.  If they're visiting a website for a presidential candidate, they should find a plethora of information -- more information than they could ever want.

The other group.  As I was dictating the above, I flashed on 1992 and how Bill Clinton -- if people were being honest -- got about ten more votes because of campaign literature.  It was a Sunday and it started with a mother of one of my kids' classmates calling about an assignment.  Could I help?  Some of the kids had put off their assignment on the presidential election.  It was Sunday, the campaign office was closed, the internet wasn't what it is today.  I said sure, let's meet at our local campaign headquarters and I'd unlock it and we'd get some papers for the woman's child that he could use to write a report.  She said that was great and thanked me and asked if it was okay for any other parent to come along?  Sure, anyone she knew whose kid needed material for a paper could meet us up there.  It ended up being ten parents and they honestly weren't planning on voting.  It's California, we go blue.  They were busy raising kids and busy living life.  But the fact that they were able to go in, on a Sunday, to a closed campaign office to get material so their kids could turn in an assignment the next day made a difference.  

So I'm thinking of those 1992 parents.  And school's about to start up.  And they're going to be parents whose kid put off an assignment and they're going to be trying to help their children at the last minute and the official Kamala Harris for President website is useless at this point.  They're not going to find anything that will talk about climate change or reproductive rights.  

The only reason the website appears to exist right now is for donations.  And that's the complaint I've heard all week from the elderly. 

As things shifted in the last decades, Ava and I noted that a politician's campaign website was their campaign office and it needed to be run as such.  (We also used to look at all the presidential campaign websites and write about how good or bad a job they were doing.)  Team Kamala needs to up their game and do so immediately.  Elderly voters are being let down.  And as school starts to start up, if the website isn't beefed up, you're going to find parents feeling let down because they should be able to visit the official website and find information their kids can use for papers or presentations at school.

Let's move on.  Robert Kennedy Junior.  It's been such a busy week that we've only had time to post the videos about his creepy staging of a crime in Central Park with the corpse of a young bear cub. We don't have time for it now.

We're noting his contest.  Donate ten dollars to Junior and you can enter to be part of the "celebrity cruise"!!!! Celebrity?


On August 28, 2024, you and a guest could embark on a sunset cruise with Bobby, Cheryl Hines, star of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hollywood superhero fan favorite actor, Zachary Levi, influential Substack writer, Jessica Reed Kraus, Drea de Matteo, the critically acclaimed and award-winning actress from The Sopranos, and legendary basketball star Metta World Peace.

Cheryl's not a celebrity and she may be the most well known of that list of losers.  Zac?  The second Shazam movie flopped, his HAROLD movie that opened last weekend is a flop.   Who does that leave?  The ONLYFA NS 'actress'?  What you really see, if you pay attention, is the COVID crazies.  I really don't understand those crazies.  One of them, for example, could use COVID to come out -- to finally come out.  He could say, "I can't get an erection so I've decided I'll sleep with men."  COVID is the key that will finally let you come out of the closet.  Your management team wouldn't let you in the '00s.  Now it can be your time at last.  You can use COVID to come out as the bottom you've been your whole life and you can pin it on COVID by using that false rumor that the shot makes some men unable to get erections.


If you want to take a trip with losers, Junior's serving it up.  Some might see winning that contest as a victory, I'd see it as being consigned to hell.

Transition!  Let's note this from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

Israel is facing growing condemnation over the torture and rape of Palestinian prisoners. Israel’s Channel 12 News aired shocking footage of Israeli soldiers sexually abusing a Palestinian prisoner. The video shows a group of blindfolded prisoners lying on the ground inside a prison at Sde Teiman army base, which critics have compared to Guantánamo. Israeli guards are then seen taking one man into a corner, where the soldiers encircled him and reportedly sexually assaulted him. Israel’s investigation of this incident is what led a group of far-right Israeli protesters and lawmakers to break into two military bases last week in an effort to prevent the soldiers from being questioned.

Meanwhile, a group of U.N. experts has warned Israel’s escalating use of torture of jailed Palestinians is a crime against humanity. The experts wrote, “Torture practices are irredeemably unlawful and constitute international crimes, yet form part of the modus operandi of Israel’s notorious detention and torture system,” unquote.

Meanwhile, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has published a major new report documenting how the Israeli prison system has become what B’Tselem calls a “network of torture camps.”

I want to turn to an interview conducted by B’Tselem of Ashraf al-Muhtaseb, a father of five from Hebron and a wedding band manager. While detained on the morning of November 18th last year, Ashraf had prison guards storm his cell he shared with other men, claiming they were looking for a radio.

ASHRAF AL-MUHTASEB: [translated] One morning at 6:00, they raided our cell, about 15 guards with a monstrous dog. Sometimes they made him attack sensitive body parts. They attacked us all, kicking us and hitting us with sticks. I was leaning against the wall behind others in the cell. They started kicking me in the neck and ear. Unfortunately, I got a very hard blow to my ear. I’ve completely lost my hearing on that side. I got four fractures in my back ribs, three in my chest, and fractures in my hands and other body parts.

AMY GOODMAN: In another interview conducted by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, 50-year-old Firas Hassan, an official in the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Youth and Sports, describes not only being beaten by prison guards while in detention, but hearing that their brutal attack is being live-streamed for Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security of Israel, to watch.

FIRAS HASSAN: [translated] On November 9th, 2023, two prison forces, the District Unit and the Initial Response Force, came into cell 14 we were in, on wing 28. We were 10 Palestinians in the cell. The forces came in masked and beat us for 50 minutes. They laughed while they hit us and live-streamed it all. I understand Hebrew, and I heard one say, “We’re live-streaming for Ben-Gvir, directly to Ben-Gvir.” They beat us in various ways, with their hands and feet, and then brought in police dogs, after they tied our hands behind our backs and blindfolded us.

AMY GOODMAN: B’Tselem also spoke to Sari Huriyyah. He’s a 53-year-old real estate lawyer and an Israeli citizen. He was arrested and detained over a Facebook post November 4th last year. In this clip, Sari describes 'Abd a-Rahman Mar'i, a 23-year-old man in the isolation cell next to him, screaming in pain and later being brought out in a body bag.

SARI HURIYYAH: [translated] He screamed in pain constantly, begging for the doctor. The guard would come now and then and swear at him and tell him to shut up. In the morning, the guards came to count us. One said, “Get up, you animal. Get up, you dog.” They checked him, and the whole place went silent. Finally, the doctor said, “There’s nothing to be done.” One of the guards said to them, “My condolences.” And they all started laughing. They put him in a black body bag and carried him out like trash.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined right now by Sarit Michaeli, international advocacy lead for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. The group’s new report is titled “Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps.”

Sarit, thanks so much for being with us. Just as we listen to these horrifying accounts, please lay out your findings.

SARIT MICHAELI: I think on a very fundamental level, Amy, our findings look at the systemic, ongoing and state-sanctioned, government-sanctioned use of torture and abuse in the Israeli prison system vis-à-vis Palestinians, Palestinians who Israel considers to be — views as security prisoners.

Now, this is something that we have discussed in the past. I mean, torture and abuse of Palestinian detainees in detention and interrogations have occurred. They have been documented. But the level, the degree, the scope, the scale of this phenomenon since October 7th are simply unrelated to anything we’ve seen in the past.

And when we look at the way these people are treated — you showed some of the testimonies. Some of the — many more testimonies are actually available on our website, and we are sharing them online. You see that, clearly, this isn’t the actions of any sort of rogue element of the Israeli prison system. It’s a government-sanctioned and also government-supported, government-mandated policy. And that’s the central conclusion that we have from all of the information that we’ve collected in recent months.

AMY GOODMAN: If you can talk about Firas, who was describing not only being beaten by the Israeli soldiers, but also the fact that this beating was being live-streamed for the national security minister of Israel, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to watch?

SARIT MICHAELI: So, I just want to clarify: We know that the police say — or, sorry, the prison guards were discussing this. Certainly, we have not — you know, we clarified in our communications that we don’t know whether this was indeed, like, literally live-streamed for Itamar Ben-Gvir or whether it was more about the spirit of Itamar Ben-Gvir, because a lot of the things we see on the ground today in the Israeli prison system are directly related to the influence, to the spirit of Minister Ben-Gvir.

I think it’s certainly not the case that Minister Ben-Gvir is the only person responsible. Absolutely, the prime minister, Prime Minister Netanyahu, who gave him all of his authority, is absolutely responsible and culpable for this reality. But the Israeli government and Ben-Gvir have shown again and again, since October 7th but also before October 7th, that they are hell-bent, that their intention is to cause this deterioration to increase the pressure on Palestinian prisoners.

And this was — this has been done, and we saw these kinds of developments even prior to October 7th. From the beginning of the tenure of Minister Ben-Gvir as minister of national security, he has been imposing his racist, his Kahanist agenda, both on the Israeli police, with great success, unfortunately, and also on the Israeli Prison Service. October 7th, the horror, the crimes committed against Israelis on October 7th, served as a golden opportunity for Ben-Gvir to continue to cynically manipulate the Israeli trauma, the Israeli fear and anger, in order to push forward this agenda that he has been promoting even beforehand.

So, I think one of the clear things that we’ve seen on the ground and in the system since October 7th was that much of this Israeli policy, at least the parts about starving prisoners, about cramping them all together in large numbers in cells, canceling any possibility for them to have any sort of sustenance, to buy additional food, for example, all of these policies have been declared. They’ve been stated by the Israeli government. They haven’t hid this. Ben-Gvir himself has been on the media promoting these policies and showing — you know, having these, like, show visits to visit prisoners that he claims are Nukhba — right? — are Palestinian, are Hamas fighters from Gaza.

But what we have seen again and again, based on the testimonies that we’ve taken, is that the Israeli policy wasn’t just applied Palestinian Hamas suspects. We would argue, by the way, that this is absolutely, categorically prohibited regardless of the crimes people have been — have committed. Torture and this type of treatment is absolutely prohibited. But Israel is claiming, and in some cases showing — right? — performing, in a way. And this is — I think the incident that was described in this testimony seems very much an example of this, not just the kind of actual violence and ill-treatment and humiliation, but making it very, very public. And this is something that is simply chilling and is part of the really deep moral abyss that this report exposes, I think, within our society today.

AMY GOODMAN: The Israeli Supreme Court considered a petition yesterday to close a desert military prison where soldiers have been accused of abusing Palestinians, most recently this shocking video that aired on Israeli News 12, the Channel 12, showing Israeli soldiers sexually abusing a Palestinian prisoner. Talk about that video and what the Supreme Court is calling for or if they’ve had a ruling yet.

SARIT MICHAELI: Well, I think there’s a few things to unpack in this situation. I mean, again, regardless of the specifics of this individual case — B’Tselem hasn’t documented it; we’re not familiar enough with the details — I think this is a moment within Israeli society where the old way of doing things, which involved very often these sham investigations — right? — pretending that we’re holding soldiers accountable for violations of Palestinian rights and investigating suspected wrongdoing, this is rejected, is being rejected by a growing — maybe majority, certainly very large number of Israelis, who are simply not interested in any kind of accountability, because they do not believe that the Palestinians deserve any rights. And this is an interesting and quite disturbing and very, very depressing situation to experience, because the power and the violence released by the recent, for example, charging of far-right activists into the Sde Teiman military base and into the Beit Lid military base isn’t just going to harm, you know, the specific investigative bodies that we are very critical of. This is an action that is very concerted and coordinated by the Israeli far right in order to scare off any type of law enforcement in Israeli society.

And this is why I think it’s so deeply connected to what we’ve seen yesterday in the High Court. There is a High Court petition against Sde Teiman. It’s being — it was presented by the Israeli — by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. And the state has, as is its custom, denied that there is any wrongdoing in Sde Teiman. But there’s also another kind of parallel development, which is that a far-right mob has actually verbally charged the High Court justices yesterday in the Israeli High Court and also tried to assault the lawyers acting on behalf of ACRI. And I think this is an excellent example of what has been happening to the gatekeepers in Israel. This is an example of why these gatekeepers, who were meant to protect against the type of abuses that we describe in this report, they have been so scared off, they’ve been so weakened and paralyzed after many, many years of these types of far-right and even quite centrist assaults, that the type of reality that we exposed in the report is allowed to go pretty much on as Minister Ben-Gvir pleases, with very little resistance from the High Court, the other courts, from the attorney general. Now, certainly, we have had, and we’re still extremely critical of these institutions, of the Israeli court system, of the Israeli attorney general, but we do expect them to stand up to this type of abuse, to this type of official torture. And I think one of the reasons why Ben-Gvir has been so successful in imposing his own agenda, his racist, Kahanist agenda, is this weakness, the cowering of the gatekeepers that have been weakened for so many years.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about the protests that took place in the last days trying to prevent the Israeli soldiers or police from being questioned about the sexual assault or the rape of a Palestinian prisoner?

SARIT MICHAELI: Yeah. I mean, I think I should also maybe open this with one point of light in the current reality, which is that since the publication of B’Tselem’s report, and also since the publication and the exposure of the story about these really horrific suspicions in Sde Teiman, there’s been a very strong voice coming from Israelis who categorically oppose this — not necessarily Israelis who are absolutely with B’Tselem on everything, mainstream Israelis who know, who understand that if you are a country that claims you’re a democracy — of course, we would take great issue with this — then you cannot simply abuse people because you suspect them or because you’ve accused them and even because you’ve convicted them of perpetrating the most horrific crimes. This is simply unacceptable. And people are saying this very openly in our society today. These might not be the majority of Israelis, but it’s very heartening to hear these voices again and again, as I said, also in response to B’Tselem’s report.

But the story itself, the reason it got such prominence is because it really is — it’s something that one did not expect to see up until, really, the recent period. And I’m saying that even though, you know, as I said, B’Tselem’s report also revealed additional cases of suspected sexual and gender-based abuse. The story of the suspicions of sexual abuse by soldiers in Sde Teiman has generated a mass public outcry, but it’s also generated a mass response by proponents of the far right, of the Kahanist movement in Israel, who simply do not want any kind of action by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians to be subject of any sort of accountability process. I mean, that’s the whole point. From their perspective, they would like to have a completely open field in terms of what they can do to Palestinians. And this is both for soldiers and settlers. And anyone who tries to impose any, even the most rudimentary, the most basic, level of accountability is attacked as an enemy of the state, as a traitor.

And this brings us into quite an absurd situation, where bodies that we, as I said, are extremely critical of — for example, the State Attorney’s Office and also the Military Advocate General’s Office — are now coming under fire, not for what we would argue is the correct reason, the fact that they have enabled Israel to allow the army and soldiers on the ground to use totally disproportionate force against Palestinians. They’ve enabled almost everything that Israel has been doing in Gaza in recent months — the mass killings, the starvation, the horrific things we have done in Gaza. This is not what the far right is criticizing these institutions for. The criticism is coming when — in the very, very rare cases where there is an occasional investigation when the Israeli investigative bodies simply don’t have any other choice, I’m assuming. I’m only speculating, right? But the fact that there is CCTV footage of this alleged assault and the fact that the story has become so prominent and the possibility of an internal whistleblower inside who reported this have left the authorities really with no option other than to conduct this investigation. Certainly, many other cases and the broad policy is not investigated, but they are still attacked by the right for this tiny foray into accountability.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to yesterday’s briefing at the U.S. State Department, where Matthew Miller is questioned about this issue. This is the reporter Rabia Iclal Turan.

RABIA ICLAL TURAN: Going back to Israel, Israeli media today released a video showing Israeli soldiers raping a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman detention camp. The footage was very disturbing. I know you have commented on the reports about this detention center before, but we have now — we now have a new evidence, which is video. Have you seen that video? And do you have anything to say on that and also the reports of, you know, rape —

MATTHEW MILLER: Yeah.

RABIA ICLAL TURAN: — in Israeli prisons?

MATTHEW MILLER: So, we have seen the video. And reports of sexual abuse of detainees are horrific. They ought to be investigated fully by the government of Israel, by the IDF. Prisoners need to be treated — prisoners’ human rights need to be respected in all cases. And when there are alleged violations, the government of Israel needs to take steps to investigate those who are alleged to have committed abuses and, if appropriate, hold them accountable.

RABIA ICLAL TURAN: And, actually, this is not the first rape incident we have been hearing about Israeli prisons. And Israeli human rights group B’Tselem on Monday released a report saying that Sde Teiman is only tip of the iceberg and that, you know, Israeli detention centers turned into a network of torture camps for Palestinian — Palestinians. Its report cited testimonies from 55 Palestinian detainees. So, I know the Israelis are investigating this, but would you support an independent investigation into those allegations?

MATTHEW MILLER: So, I would have to look at what the specific independent investigation people are calling for and pass judgment on the merits. But, look, there ought to be zero tolerance for sexual abuse, rape of any detainee, period.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s the State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. Sarit Michaeli, if you could talk about the significance of what he is saying, and what you’re demanding at this point as the international advocacy lead for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem?

SARIT MICHAELI: Yes, Amy. Well, I think the most important thing to clarify in terms of our response to this is that Israel is not going to hold an investigation into the conduct and into the policies in its detention centers, for the pure reason, for the obvious reasons that these are policies. They’re not the actions of rogue elements, as I said. They’re not the actions of individuals who are going against the grain. They are dictated by the management of the Israeli prison system and by the government. They are supported by these bodies. And therefore, the only options for investigations are individual cases that are either so egregious that it would be impossible for the authorities to ignore them because of international pressure or in cases where there is some sort of documentation. And that is generally, I think — when you look at the Israeli investigations, that is generally the way the Israeli authorities work. The small, isolated, token investigations cover up for broader policies.

And in this specific case, I think, from our perspective, we have, A, not appealed — we have not requested Israeli investigations; B, we do not expect any Israeli investigations to fundamentally alter the situation. What we do expect is the international community to take action. And in the report, we’ve appealed to all nations and also to all relevant international institutions to look into the situation, to make it — to make it stop. Specifically, we’ve also appealed to the International Criminal Court, because these offenses that we list in our report are war crimes. They also, we would argue, reach the magnitude of crimes against humanity. And this is the responsibility of the international community, including the United States government, to address. It’s not just an intra-Israeli issue. Certainly, the Israeli government in its current standing — I mean, it’s pretty blatantly obvious that if the Israeli government is not able to hold an investigation into such serious allegations of horrific abuse without a mob of right-wing fanatics rushing, storming into two military bases, then it’s blatant that Israel isn’t going to be able — willing or able to address this broader policy of torture, you know, by order, essentially, against Palestinians since October 7th.

AMY GOODMAN: Sarit Michaeli, I want to thank you for being with us from Tel Aviv, international advocacy lead for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. We’ll link to your new report

SARIT MICHAELI: Thank you very much.

AMY GOODMAN: — “Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps.”


Where's the video?  Use the link.  We posted it yesterday afternoon.  A few hours later, YOUTUBE had done their censorship nonsense.  I'm not posting a video in a snapshot that is a blank square before the snapshot goes up.  


Gaza remains under assault. Day 308 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."   THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll rises to 39,699 with 91,722 wounded." 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."


Now to another topic.  From yesterday's snapshot:

Team Kamala Harris is gearing up with multiple in-person events this week and, today alone, six zoom phone banks and training alone.  Unlike Kamala Harris, the GOP has an elderly man in charge as their candidate and terms like "memes" and "viral" sailed right over Donald Trump's head and he instead insisted they send his ridiculous pick for a running mate -- JD "Skidmarks" Vance -- as a stalker, following Kamala and her running mate Tim Walz around.  Skidmarks must be Donald Trump's idea of a groupie.  

And you have to feel sorry for Skidmarks.  Especially if you have eye sight and vision, you have to feel sorry for him as they use him, the fat man who wore Spanx during the GOP convention and wears eyeliner daily,  to attack Tim Walz's service.  "When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did?  He dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he's been criticized for aggressively by a lot of people that he served with."  Two people have criticized him for leaving the National Guard at the end of the four years.  Idiots -- Ann covered one idiot last night and she's right -- especially abut the man needing a breast reduction.  Tim  served 24 years.  Following 9/11, he re-enlisted for four more years.  After that?  He retired.  That's not "dropping out."  He didn't go AWOL.  He served 24 years. 
 

"As a Marine who served his country in uniform," JD Vance boasted of himself yesterday.  Huh?

You may have played dress up -- did the Marines let you wear eyeliner in Iraq? -- but stop with the service nonsense.  You 'served' in Iraq as a journalist.  Stop pretending otherwise.  As Elaine rightly noted last week:


Let me get this right, Skidmarks Vance who tries to play combat veteran to the public, was actually in Iraq for six months as "a military journalist."  From WIKIPEDIA:


After graduating from Middletown High School in 2003,[19] Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in Iraq as a combat correspondent for six months in late 2005.[20] He was part of the Public Affairs section of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing[21][22] and said that his service "taught me how to live like an adult" and that he was "lucky to escape any real fighting".[23] His decorations included the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.[20]



He's not a combat veteran.  He's a joke.  He 'served' in Iraq . . . as a journalist.  What?  The USO was full?  

What a joke.  Everything about the Trump-Vance ticket is a fraud.


Well I'm blown away because in response to the above a Vance supporter e-mailed to insist his outrage.  I'm amazed.  Who knew Vance had a supporter.  But the man didn't make a convincing case for an informed supporter, "J.D. Vance saw combat in Iraq and defused bombs.  He was not a journalist in Iraq and he would never be part of a profession like that!"

I think you're confusing THE HURT LOCKER with your lover.  Skidmarks Vance did not defuse bombs.  He typed.  If you doubt it, Meg Kinnard (AP) notes, "Vance enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating high school, serving four years as a combat correspondent, a type of military journalist, and deploying to Iraq in that capacity in 2005."


For more on military service, you can refer to this video.





That's former US House Rep. Adam Kinzinger calling out the lies and the liars trying to attack Tim Walz's 24 years in the National Guard.

 

"I am furious about this attack," Adam explains in the video above.  And we all should be furious but listen and grasp what a liar the Tommys attacking Tim are.  And, here's Adam's service record:
 

Kinzinger resigned from the McLean County Board in 2003 to join the United States Air Force. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in November 2003 and later awarded his pilot wings. Kinzinger was initially a KC-135 Stratotanker pilot and flew missions in South AmericaGuamIraq and Afghanistan. He later switched to flying the RC-26 surveillance aircraft and was stationed in Iraq twice.[11]

Kinzinger has served in the Air Force Special Operations CommandAir Combat CommandAir Mobility Command, and Wisconsin Air National Guard and was progressively promoted to his current rank of lieutenant colonel.[12] As part of his continued service with the Air National Guard, Kinzinger was deployed to the Mexico–United States border in February 2019 as part of efforts to maintain border security.[13]

 



The following sites updated:







Thursday, August 08, 2024

Kate Pierson (yea!) and (boo) Jason Aldean and Kenny Wayne Junior Shepherd

Jason Aldean's biggest problem these days -- after his rampant racism -- is his inability to step away from the dinner table.  Well fatty may be fat for a reason.  Turns out, "Just prior to signing with his record label, Broken Bow Records, Aldean explained things were financially grim - particularly considering he was a new dad struggling to support a young family as a then-unknown musician."  Feeling sorry for him?  Don't.  Soon as the money came in, he started cheating on his wife and eventually left her for that piece of trash that makes the bad hair extensions (makes them and, sadly, wears them).  And equally true, struggling to put food on the table doesn't turn you into a racist.  That's all he is: A fat racist.  

Poor fat racist, he can't write songs and he can't sell albums.  Despite professional cretins like Jonathan Turley hyping him like crazy all last year, the album didn't go platinum.  Wait, it also didn't go gold.  Wait, still talking.  It also didn't sell 250,000 copies.  Wait, it didn't sell 100,000 copies.  Still going, it didn't sell 50,000 copies.  It allegedly sold 20,000 copies in physical format and digital streaming.  

Nobody wants to buy 'music' from a 'songwriter' (he can't write a song by himself and he only 'co-wrote' three on this last album but that he 'co-wrote' -- put his name to -- three songs was seen as a breakthrough) -- especially not a fat one, especially not a racist, especially not a man who leaves his wife and kids for a dime store floozy.  Hey, Aldean, you can use that.  "I Fell In Love With The Dime Store Floozy" can be your next song.  You can get someone else to write it for you but you can use the title I gave you for it and I give you permission to pretend you came up with that.



Speaking of people I loathe:



Shreveport native and multi-platinum Grammy-nominated rock artist Kenny Wayne Shepherd has a lot to celebrate. Between the band’s recent induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, the upcoming release of their new album, going on tour, and joining the Experience Hendrix Tour this fall, there’s a lot to look forward to.

Junior's disgusting.  I was supposed to do photos of him -- he was probably 20 -- and I actually went to Shreveport.  Now I've waited for actual stars.  And they usually apologize.  He was being sold as a pin-up at the time.  And he wasn't good looking back then either -- unless you're into albinos.  So I wait at their crappy Shreveport office with at least one overflowing ash tray on every surface -- desks -- end tables, everything -- for over two hours.  While Daddy keeps explaining that Junior got a new sport utility vehicle -- and, yeah, Dad Ken did call Kenny "Junior" over and over.  I'm waiting because Junior's playing on his new toys?


I waited over two hours.  I called the magazine that wanted the photos and spoke to the editor who said, "Forget it, Kat, he's not really that good looking anyway."  I then left and as I was leaving Dad tries to get me to wait, he's on his way, now he's on his way.  As I'm walking out Kenny Junior's walking in.  He's drunk off his ass and his eyes are too f-d up for photos anyway.  He falls on the floor and screams "You tripped me!" at me and no, I didn't trip him but if he wants to stick to that lie, fine, I tripped the lousy Kenny Wayner Shepherd.  I can't stand him to this day.

And that was so trashy, it was like 1997 and you did not expect a business office to smell like a stale, dirty ash tray but that's what it smelt like.  That really set the tone for that photo shoot that never was.  And they didn't send anyone back -- the magazine -- they were done with him based on my report of what went down.

He should have been on his knees because he was nothing -- he still is nothing -- but instead the spoiled brat wanted to ego trip.  And that explains why his pathetic career never, ever went anywhere.


Lastly, Kate Pierson.

 

 That's a new video from her (13 days old).  In case you don't know Kate, here's this:

 

Catherine Elizabeth Pierson (born April 27, 1948)[1] is an American singer, lyricist, and founding member of the B-52s. She plays guitar, bass and various keyboard instruments. In the early years, as well as being a vocalist, Pierson was the main keyboard player and performed on a keyboard bass during live shows and on many of the band's recordings, taking on a role usually filled by a bass guitar player, which differentiated the band from their contemporaries. This, along with Pierson's distinctive wide-ranging singing voice, remains a trademark of the B-52s' unique sound. Pierson has also collaborated with many other artists including the Ramones, Iggy Pop and R.E.M. Pierson possesses a mezzo-soprano vocal range.

In February 2015, Pierson released her first solo album, Guitars and Microphones, featuring material co-written by Sia.[2] She later released the non-album single "Better Not Sting the Bee", and then she released an April 16, 2016 cover of "Venus" as a single. Side B included "Radio In Bed" written by Kate and her wife Monica Coleman. Both tracks were produced by Jack White.

 

 When I saw the video a little while ago, I was so happy.  Kate's one of the greats.  I hope she has an album coming out soon but for now I will just enjoy and love the video.

 

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

Thursday, August 8, 2024.  The GOP trots out another tired strategy to discredit the Democratic presidential ticket.  with them, it always is the same old thing.



Team Kamala Harris is gearing up with multiple in-person events this week and, today alone, six zoom phone banks and training alone.  Unlike Kamala Harris, the GOP has an elderly man in charge as their candidate and terms like "memes" and "viral" sailed right over Donald Trump's head and he instead insisted they send his ridiculous pick for a running mate -- JD "Skidmarks" Vance -- as a stalker, following Kamala and her running mate Tim Walz around.  Skidmarks must be Donald Trump's idea of a groupie.  

And you have to feel sorry for Skidmarks.  Especially if you have eye sight and vision, you have to feel sorry for him as they use him, the fat man who wore Spanx during the GOP convention and wears eyeliner daily,  to attack Tim Walz's service.  "When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did?  He dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he's been criticized for aggressively by a lot of people that he served with."  Two people have criticized him for leaving the National Guard at the end of the four years.  Idiots -- Ann covered one idiot last night and she's right -- especially abut the man needing a breast reduction.  Tim  served 24 years.  Following 9/11, he re-enlisted for four more years.  After that?  He retired.  That's not "dropping out."  He didn't go AWOL.  He served 24 years. 
 

"As a Marine who served his country in uniform," JD Vance boasted of himself yesterday.  Huh?

You may have played dress up -- did the Marines let you wear eyeliner in Iraq? -- but stop with the service nonsense.  You 'served' in Iraq as a journalist.  Stop pretending otherwise.  As Elaine rightly noted last week:


Let me get this right, Skidmarks Vance who tries to play combat veteran to the public, was actually in Iraq for six months as "a military journalist."  From WIKIPEDIA:


After graduating from Middletown High School in 2003,[19] Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in Iraq as a combat correspondent for six months in late 2005.[20] He was part of the Public Affairs section of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing[21][22] and said that his service "taught me how to live like an adult" and that he was "lucky to escape any real fighting".[23] His decorations included the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.[20]



He's not a combat veteran.  He's a joke.  He 'served' in Iraq . . . as a journalist.  What?  The USO was full?  

What a joke.  Everything about the Trump-Vance ticket is a fraud.


As Paul Rudnick noted:



Skidmarks is worthless.   Chris Hayes addressed the GOP's latest desperation move.




It really reminds me of "The cowardly Caitlin Johnstone."  As Betty rightly notes in her post, Australian Caitlin Johnstone refuses to call out her own government for anything -- like blogger Luke before her -- but can't stop bashing leaders of other countries.  That's not bravery, that's cowardice. 

I could have spent every day in the last decades here calling out some ruler in Iran or Uganda or Italy or wherever.  That's not hard for me to do from the safety of another country.  You're a coward when you look elsewhere for abuses while ignoring the ones in your own country.  

It's a point that even that old whore Glory Hole Greenwald grasps.  

But Caitlin doesn't.  Neither does Skidmarks.

He's going to infer that Tim Walz is a coward based on 24 years of service in the National Guard and no one's supposed to notice that the man he's on the ticket with, Donald Trump, never served in the US military? 
 
March of 1965 is when US Marines began arriving in South Vietnam as combat troops (US troops  arrived earlier as "advisors").  Donald was 18 years old.  Donald didn't join the military then.  As the war in Vietnam went on for years, Donald didn't join the military.

What did he do?  From WIKIPEDIA:


While in college, Trump obtained four student draft deferments during the Vietnam War.[11] In 1966, he was deemed fit for military service based on a medical examination, and in July 1968, a local draft board classified him as eligible to serve.[12] In October 1968, he was classified 1-Y, a conditional medical deferment,[13] and in 1972, he was reclassified 4-F, unfit for military service, due to bone spurs, permanently disqualifying him.[14]


The US' keyboard warrior in Iraq, Skidmarks Vance, wants to attack Tim while ignoring the realities of Donald Trump?  Yeah, taht's a Caitlin Johnstone move.  Now I have not made a big issue about Donald's avoiding military service.  I wish no American had been sent to Vietnam.  But when his cur is attacking Tim, I think it's pertinent that Donald repeatedly refused to serve in Vietnam -- four times he refused.  

When Donald was in the White House and the anonymous sourced article about him having insulted wounded veterans came out, check the archives, I defended Donald.  I said I couldn't believe any US president would say such a thing.  I defended him.  And I was wrong -- I often am.  As more have come forward, we know he did mock them, he did make fun of them.

And that does make sense.  He refused to go four times.  And that meant that others went in his space.  Unable to take a stand -- cowards never do -- Donald couldn't say, "I thought that war was wrong."  Not even to himself.  All he could say was, "I'm a scared, I'm a scared."  So seeing wounded veterans just reminds him that he is a coward.  

This really isn't a path to victory for Donald.  He should curb his bitch.  Actually, he should replace it.  But, again, coward.  Donald's a coward.  To replace Vance on the ticket would require the kind of strength of character that Donald Trump has never once in his life displayed.





Turning to the Middle East, let's note this from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!



AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We look now at how the Middle East is bracing for a possible broader regional war after Hamas’s top political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran and a top Hezbollah commander was assassinated in Beirut last week. Israel took credit for the Beirut strike and has been widely accused of being behind the Haniyeh killing.

On Tuesday, Hamas named Yahya Sinwar to be the group’s new political leader replacing Haniyeh. Yahya Sinwar has served as Hamas’s top leader in Gaza since 2017, is credited with being the mastermind of the October 7th attack on Israel that killed more than 1,100 people.

For more on boiling tensions in the region, we go to Croatia, where we are joined by Jeremy Scahill of Drop Site News. His recent piece is headlined “'Something came from the outside': An Eyewitness Account of the Aftermath of Ismail Haniyeh’s Assassination.”

Jeremy, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you start off by finding out who you spoke to and what you found out?

JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, Amy, first, let’s set the scene here. Benjamin Netanyahu, the week before these assassinations, had celebrated his victory tour in the United States, where he not only stood before the U.S. Congress and got repeated standing ovations as though he was on some sort of a bloody bizarro version, you know, world version of a concert, where he was celebrating his genocidal war and receiving generous applause from both Democrats and Republicans, and he not only met with the sitting president, but also Kamala Harris, as well as Donald Trump, and the message that he heard from all three of them was that they were ironclad in their support for what they characterized as Israel’s security. Now, there was some difference in how each of those three people interacted with Netanyahu, but the most important thing for people to remember is that all three of them firmly support the bipartisan U.S. policy, which has led to this genocidal, scorched-earth war against the Palestinians of Gaza.

So, Netanyahu then comes back to Israel and immediately greenlights a series of assassinations. You have the killing in Beirut of Fuad Shukr, who was a senior Hezbollah commander. Also killed in that strike, we understand, was an Iranian military adviser to Hezbollah. And that was followed, just some hours later, by the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau. And Haniyeh had just returned back to a guest residence that is housed within a compound in northern Tehran that is controlled and guarded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the most elite military force in the country.

I spoke to Dr. Khaled Qaddoumi, who is Hamas’s senior representative in Tehran and also a member of its Arab and Muslim world outreach division of Hamas. He was on the second floor of this building. You know, they call it a guesthouse, but it’s basically like an apartment complex. And Dr. Qaddoumi was on the second floor. Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard were on the fourth floor. Dr. Qaddoumi described to me how he had not gone to the state dinner, which was held in honor of Iran inaugurating its new president. Ismail Haniyeh was there, as were many leaders from the region. Haniyeh gets back to the guest complex around 11:30. Dr. Qaddoumi and others gather with Haniyeh. He says that they were discussing the assassination of Fuad Shukr in Lebanon and what they were assessing might be the regional implications for a broader war and Netanyahu’s game plan. And then they retired to their rooms to go to sleep.

And Dr. Qaddoumi described hearing a massive shaking of the building. And he, you know, was disoriented, woke up, didn’t know what it was. He thought at first maybe there had been an earthquake on what he said was a kind of great scale. He gets out of the bedroom and just sees smoke. He discovers that the bathroom walls and part of the ceiling had collapsed in the room where he was. He goes out into the hallway. Other members of the Hamas delegation told him that there had been some sort of a strike on Ismail Haniyeh’s apartment.

Dr. Qaddoumi, who is a medical doctor, ran then up to the fourth floor, and he entered the guest suite where Ismail Haniyeh had been staying, and he discovered the body of Ismail Haniyeh, as well as his bodyguard. And he described to me seeing what appeared to be a massive hole in the exterior wall. It also had some windows. But he said it appeared to him as though some sort of a missile or other projectile had crashed into the room from the outside and that that was what had in fact killed Ismail Haniyeh.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Jeremy, what do you make of the New York Times report that came out a few days later claiming that the explosion was a result of a bomb that had been smuggled into that residence months earlier? And, of course, that report was from Ronen Bergman, who is the New YorkTimes reporter probably most — closest to Israeli intelligence.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Yeah, Juan, that’s correct. You know, Israel has been clearly spinning a narrative. In fact, today, some of the top Israeli propagandists on social media have been pushing more details about this story, and they say that Mossad was able to coopt Iranians to go into the guest complex and plant these explosives. And they say that the perpetrators of the bombing of Haniyeh were captured on CCTV.

And Ronen Bergman was the first to report this in The New York Times, and he has a very long history of reporting on Mossad activities. He has close ties to Israeli intelligence. He wrote a book called Rise and Kill First, which is about the history of Israel’s assassination program. And really, this narrative is something that is sort of like pulled from the script pages of the series Tehran, the Israeli show about a covert Israeli agent who is operating inside of Iran trying to take down a nuclear reactor.

Now, I should say, in the interest of accuracy and fairness, we don’t know exactly what happened there. It is plausible that what is being promoted by The New York Times and, you know, Israeli propagandists is largely the truth, that they were able to penetrate the building, that they planted these explosives. The Iranians, though, have pushed back very, very strongly against that. They say that some sort of a projectile hit the building. In fact, Juan, within hours of the explosion inside of Haniyeh’s guest suite, Iranian news services were already saying that some sort of a projectile was seen hitting the building.

So, you know, it’s possible that what is being stated about a bomb being planted there is true. The Iranians are pushing back against it. Not just Dr. Qaddoumi from Hamas, but other eyewitnesses also described damage to the scene that appears consistent with a missile or a rocket or some sort of projectile hitting it. There’s been discussion that Israeli intelligence was able to penetrate either the mobile phone of Ismail Haniyeh or his bodyguard and that they were able to use tracking malware to pinpoint a precision missile strike against him. There have been reports that Ismail Haniyeh’s entire upper body was destroyed, which could either be consistent with a bomb under a bed that exploded or a missile directly hitting him if he was near his phone. So, we don’t know.

What we do know is that the Iranians are in a position to release forensic evidence. Presumably, in an IRGC compound, they also have video surveillance capabilities. We know that they did have counterespionage facilities there, as well as radar and, presumably, countermissile technology in the area. So, either way you slice it, though, this is very bad for Iran, because it indicates a security breach. Yes, it would probably be worse if they were able to penetrate the ranks of the IRGC and convert Iranians into agents. But the mere fact that Israel was able to do this assassination on Iranian soil is a very, very bad thing for Iran. And that lends some legitimacy to the fact that they’re saying that it was a missile strike, because even admitting that is very, very bad. But at the end of the day, the Iranians are in the best position to present evidence to the world of what happened.

I must say, though, that while this discussion is relevant — how did Israel assassinate thew leader of Hamas, the top negotiator in a process that Joe Biden is claiming is so central, that he wants a ceasefire right now — every time we talk about this or what the Israelis have succeeded in doing is distracting from the fact that the genocide in Gaza continues, that Netanyahu is serving as the chief arsonist in the Middle East, that he’s trying to draw the United States into war with Iran, that he’s trying to draw the United States into war with Hezbollah.

And, you know, for all the talk of Western countries about how Iran needs to show restraint, the truth is, and this is just a fact — it’s not politically correct to say it, but it’s factual — both Iran and Hezbollah, given what they’ve been facing, have already shown quite a bit of restraint. And the last time the Iranians responded to the Israelis was when Israel, on April 1st, launched a strike inside of Syria, in Damascus. They bombed the Iranian Consulate. They killed a dozen people. About half of them were IRGC personnel. Yes, Iran rained missiles down on Israel and sent fleets of drones toward Israel, but they did it in a highly telegraphed manner that allowed the United States and other countries to amass a very effective countermissile defense operation. I believe one person was killed in that Iranian missile strike.

So, you know, the devil is often in the details here. It’s very clear that Netanyahu has no intention of engaging in a ceasefire. He’s going to continue with the genocide in Gaza. And he really wanted to strike not just at Hamas, but, in many ways, this was a very bold operation to tell Iran, “We can strike whenever and wherever we want against you.”

AMY GOODMAN: We just have less than a minute, Jeremy, but your response to the latest news that Hamas has chosen Yahya Sinwar to replace Ismail Haniyeh, of course, who was assassinated and was the chief negotiator with Israel around the issue of a ceasefire?

JEREMY SCAHILL: My sources, Amy, have told me — within Hamas, have told me that this was a wartime decision, that they didn’t have time to assemble the full Shura Council and that the only sensible decision they could make was to fully support the on-the-ground commander of the military operations, which right now is Yahya Sinwar. This is also in line with recent polls that they’ve done in the Palestinian Occupied Territories that indicate that the popularity of Sinwar and Hamas, in general, are rising as the popularity of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are going down. It’s a statement that they understand Israel wants to fight to, quote-unquote, “total victory,” and they’re going to continued their operations, which they feel have been successful militarily in repelling and causing great harm to the Israeli military.

AMY GOODMAN: Jeremy Scahill, we want to thank you so much for being with us, of Drop Site News. We’ll link to your recent piece headlined “'Something came from the outside': An Eyewitness Account of the Aftermath of Ismail Haniyeh’s Assassination.” Jeremy is former senior reporter and correspondent at The Intercept.



More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since the start of Israel's war on the enclave, which entered its eleventh month on Wednesday, according to the latest death toll provided by Gaza health authorities.

Israeli attacks in the West Bank have killed 620 people, including 145 children and nine women, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

In Gaza, the death toll rose to 39,699, with more than 91,700 injured since the war broke out on October 7 after a Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people.

The ministry says most of the deaths there have been of women and children.



Today, Human Rights Watch released the following:

Israeli forces stormed a Gaza City home on December 21, 2023, throwing grenades inside and opening fire on a room where a civilian family was sheltering, Human Rights Watch said today.

The attack killed seven people, including a pregnant woman, and severely injured two, including a 5-year-old. Witnesses also allege that Israeli forces shot a blind 73-year-old man after securing the building and forcing all other family members out. The incident should be investigated as a possible war crime, and forces involved should be held accountable.

“There is no excuse for soldiers storming into a home full of civilians and firing without precaution,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis, conflict, and arms director at Human Rights Watch. “They decimated a Palestinian family and orphaned a small child who may never be able to walk again.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed three al-Khalidi family members, two who witnessed the attack and were interviewed over the phone, and in June 2024 they met with Faisal, the injured 5-year-old, in Qatar, where he was receiving medical care. Researchers also analyzed a video uploaded to the Israeli armed forces’ X (formerly known as Twitter) account, IDFonline, parts of which were verified as having been filmed between December 20 and 21. It shows Israeli soldiers and armored vehicles in the vicinity but no ongoing fighting or soldiers coming under fire.

Mohammed al-Khalidi, 40, and Mu’min al-Khalidi, 21, cousins, said that in the night between December 20 and 21, a munition hit a home in Sheikh Radwan, in north Gaza City, near five schools sheltering displaced people. Mohammed, Mu’min, and 29 other family members were in the house next door, having fled their homes following an evacuation phone call from the Israeli military. They said that Mohammed’s sister-in-law Fatma al-Khalidi, 32, who was seven months pregnant, suffered a broken leg during the munition attack.

About 30 minutes after the attack, Mohammed said, Israeli forces arrived with armored vehicles and bulldozers. “We looked out and saw them smashing windows, running over cars with their tanks, destroying electricity lines, destroying everything else they could,” Mohammed said. Many residents of the area fled south, but the al-Khalidis did not, as older family members were unable to flee quickly. Both said no one in the house was armed or had any ties to an armed group, nor did they know of any fighters in the vicinity at the time.

At about noon the following day, both Mu’min and Mohammed said, Israeli forces fired munitions at the first floor of their building. Then, at about 5 p.m., over a dozen Israeli soldiers rammed through the gate into the yard and, without warning or provocation, tossed a grenade through a window of the home’s empty front room. After, Mohammed said, soldiers threw another grenade into the house’s main corridor, proceeded down it, kicked down a door and threw at least 2 more grenades into a room in which 12 people were sheltering, including Mu’min and Mohammed.

Both said when they heard soldiers approaching, they had grabbed their identity documents and were holding them up in their hands. Mu’min said he was injured and fell to the ground against the wall, with his uncle Amjad al-Khalidi, 42, on top of him.

The women screamed and a soldier entered and opened automatic rifle fire on everyone, both men said. Fatma, who was killed, along with her husband, Ahmed, was holding Faisal, who was seriously injured. When the shooting stopped, Fatma’s 6-year-old son, Adam, ran out of the room on seeing his father, Mohammed’s brother, Ahmed al-Khalidi, 34, “lying on the floor in a puddle of blood, like a slaughtered sheep,” Mohammed said. Adam was uninjured.

The cousins said the attack killed seven members of the family: Fatma; Ahmed; Mohammed’s brothers-in-law Shaaban Abu Jabal, 33, and Adham Abu Jabal, 20; and Nawal al-Khalidi, 70, and her children Raed al-Khalidi, 49, and Amjad al-Khalidi.

“One soldier said in Arabic, ‘Whoever is alive, stand up,’” Mohammed said. “I stood and he looked at me and said, ‘You survived, you fucker didn’t you?’ They took me outside and scanned my face with a machine.”

Abd Rabu al-Khalidi, Nawal’s 73-year-old husband, who was blind and uninjured, did not leave the room. Other family members – all children and women – who had been sheltering in a different room were also ordered outside by the soldiers. Mohammed said soldiers strip-searched the surviving men and searched the women and children. They asked where the original residents of the house were, and Mohammed said they didn’t know.

Then, Mohammed said, “We heard bullets being fired inside. I think that’s when they killed whoever had survived inside. They told us, ‘Your last chance to live is to walk in a line behind that soldier.’ We asked, ‘Where are you taking us?’ He said, ‘Shut up and just walk behind him.’”

Mu’min had also been unable to leave the room. “I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t hear anything because the explosions made me temporarily lose my hearing,” he said. “I quickly lost consciousness.” When he came to the next day, he realized he was lying under a pile of bodies.

“There are no words to describe what I felt,” he said. “All I want to know is why? Why did I have to live though such a massacre? Why did I lose all these people? What did we do to deserve all this? There were no resistance fighters in the house, no weapons of any kind, just civilians.”

Metal fragments from the explosion had wounded Mu’min in his knee, calf and foot, and a bullet hit his thigh. He said that when he regained consciousness, he was able to reach for a bottle of water, but soon lost consciousness again, and only was able to revive himself and drag himself out from under the bodies the following day, able only to move his hands. By this point Abd Rabu had been killed, apparently once soldiers reentered the house after evacuating Mohammed and others.

Mohammed found Mu’min when he returned four days later with a doctor to retrieve the bodies. “The legs of Amjad, Raed, and Shaaban had been shattered by the grenade explosion,” Mohammed said. “They looked like mincemeat, and metal fragments had pierced Ahmed in the stomach and neck. I saw Fatma’s belly and face full of metal fragments. Blood was sprayed all over the wall. Adham had a bullet wound that went in through his jaw and exited the back of his head…. Abd Rabu was also dead, with bullet wounds.”

Mohammed said he found over 60 bullet casings in the house.

Faisal had four surgeries in Gaza for ruptured intestines, a punctured bladder, and multiple hip fractures, and three more in Qatar. Six months after the attack, a plaster cast encased him from the waist to the top of his legs. Doctors say he may never walk again. Abdulhafith al-Khalidi, Faisal’s uncle and now his guardian, who accompanied him to Doha, said the attack had dramatically changed the child: “[Faisal] used to be so social and outgoing. He was always independent, running around and talking to new people. He was never afraid. Now if I go to the other room, he starts calling for me. He can never be left alone.”

Mu’min said he has not received clearance to leave Gaza and remains in the north with no medication, his injuries largely untreated, including multiple ruptured tendons.

Surviving al-Khalidi family members identified the house where the attack took place on a map. Human Rights Watch analyzed a video made up of seven clips posted online by the Israeli military on December 24. One shows Israeli forces operating less than 160 meters from the home the al-Khalidis identified.

The Israeli military report accompanying the video said the units appearing in the video are the 13th Shayetet and 401st Brigade. Human Rights Watch established that at least one clip from the video was filmed between the morning of December 20 and late afternoon on December 21. It shows at least 17 Israeli military personnel outside the Al-Taqwa Mosque, 170 meters southwest of the home.

In the same X post, the Israeli military posted a photograph and said it raided a school, which Human Rights Watch located on the opposite side of the street, and found a cache of weapons and explosives. The Israeli authorities have not publicly provided any further information about the attack. Additionally, they did not respond to a July 15 Human Rights Watch letter summarizing its findings and requesting specific information about the incident.

“This incident highlights the deadly cost of Israeli forces’ failure to safeguard, and in some cases to apparently target civilian lives in Gaza, including children,” Wille said. “Other governments should press the Israeli government to end unlawful attacks, and avoid complicity in possible war crimes by halting arms transfers to Israel.”



Gaza remains under assault. Day 307 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."   THE NATIONAL notes, "At least 39,699 Palestinians have been killed and 91,722 others injured in Israel's war on Gaza since October 7, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Thursday.  In the past 24 hours, 22 people were killed and 77 injured, the ministry added." 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."





The following sites updated: