Saturday, June 08, 2024

Now the homophobes go after Dolly

It's Pride Month, Happy Pride!

 

That means it's time to celebrate one another for our diversity unless, of course,  you're a piece of garbage hiding in a closet and using homophobia to hide who you really are.  

If a married woman with children were truly happy (and truly straight), she wouldn't feel the need to attack Dolly Parton but that's what a Closeted Lesbian has done.  "Closeted Lesbian" because I'm not promoting her or her trashy outlet. YAHOO reports:

 

Dolly Parton’s fans are defending the country music icon after an essay in the [Bestiality] conservative news site went after the 78-year-old “Jolene” singer’s faith earlier this week due to her support for the LGBTQ community.

The headline, “There’s Nothing Loving About Dolly Parton’s False Gospel,” caught many people off guard. Supporters flooded social media with messages critical of the essay, and the writer has now expressed regret for using such a beloved figure to make her point.

[Bestiality] writer [Lesbian Closet Case] criticized Parton for her nonjudgmental approach to life and her claim that she loves everyone — including members of the LGBTQ community, whom she has supported in interviews.

[Lesbian Closet Case]  argued that if Parton is a Christian, as she proclaims, she should call out homosexuality as a sin. “Parton’s version of love, which includes condoning immoral sexual behavior (‘be who you are,’ she’s said), is unaligned with God’s vision for humanity,” Andersen wrote.

 

They are trying to popularize hate.  They are trying to normalize it.

 

They want to destroy the rights of gay people and Elon Musk let's them post their hate on Twitter (I don't work for that chimp, I can call it Twitter).  They post racist and homophobic garbage in a single Tweet and Elon lets them get away with it.  

 

That's not free speech.  It's hatred and these people are disgusting.  They're rather scapegoat people of color and LGBTQ+ people than find joy in our world.

 

As a Catholic, I find these homophobes pretense to believe in God laughable.

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

 

Friday, June 7, 2024.  The CIA grasps how crazy War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu actually is, the physical attacks on journalists (and the Israeli government's intimidation of them) continues, more sir strikes (War Crimes), the useless Jill Stein continues to try to hijack the Green Party, and much more.


Yesterday, the Israeli government added to their long list of War Crimes. with their attack Thursday on a United Nations school housing refugees. 



From last night's THE NEWSHOUR (PBS):


  • Nick Schifrin:

    The classroom, that became a shelter is now shattered. Two Israeli munitions hit their target, a room designed for the displaced, where they slept and where many have lived for months.

    Outside the local hospital, a mother's grief. Frial Zedan lost her 17-year-old son, Mahmoud.

  • Frial Zedan, Mother (through interpreter):

    There's nothing here but people, just people trying to live. Why are you doing this to us?

  • Nick Schifrin:

    Mahmoud's sister, Seham, is inconsolable.

  • Seham Zedan, Sister (through interpreter):

    Why would they bomb the school? Why would they bomb any school? Where do we go? There's no place to go to where they don't drop missiles down on us. Where do we go?

  • Nick Schifrin:

    In another family, too young to understand why, old enough to mourn.

    Palestinian health officials affiliated with Hamas say a dozen victims were women and children. But the Israeli military said, and informed the U.S. in a private briefing, that the classroom had been taken over by 20 to 30 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants who had participated in the October 7 terrorist attacks, planned — quote — "imminent attacks," and turned the three classrooms in the U.N. school into their command-and-control.

    Israel said it dropped small bombs that did not damage nearby rooms, or kill civilians. And, in a briefing, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari displayed the names of Hamas members who'd been killed.

  • Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Spokesperson, Israeli Defense Forces:

    Hamas hopes the international law and public sympathy will provide a shield for their military activities, which is why they systematically operate from schools, U.N. facilities, hospitals, and mosques.

  • Nick Schifrin:

    Today, State Department spokesman Matt Miller called on Israel to be transparent.

  • Matthew Miller, State Department Spokesman:

    Even if the intent is what the IDF has said publicly, that they were trying to use a precision strike just to target 20 to 30 militants, if you have seen 14 children die in that strike, that shows that something went wrong. That said, these are all facts that need to be verified. And that's what we want to see happen.

  • Nick Schifrin:

    Back in the hospital, Samia Al-Maqadmeh cradles her son Imad, who was rescued from the rubble.

    Imad Al-Maqadmeh, Wounded in Airstrike (through interpreter): What did we do? There are no armed people in the school. There are children who play, like us, children. Why did they bomb us? I want to know why. Where should we go?


  • On the dead, AP notes, "Casualties from the school strike — including three women and nine children — were taken to a hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, as documented by hospital records and an Associated Press journalist. The hospital has already been overwhelmed by a stream of ambulances since Israeli forces launched a new offensive in central Gaza this week."  On the US State Dept, Matt Murphy and George Wright (BBC NEWS) add:


    In Washington, Mr Miller said the US has seen reports that 14 children were killed in the strike.

    "If that is accurate that 14 children were killed, those aren’t terrorists," he said.

    "And so the government of Israel has said they are going to release more information about this strike... We expect them to be fully transparent in making that information public.”

    The latest deaths come just a week after 45 people were killed in an Israeli strike in the Gazan city of Rafah.


    The violence continued today with FRANCE 24 reporting this morning:



    On today's violence, Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) adds:


    At least 23 Palestinians were killed early on Friday in Israeli strikes on refugee camps across Gaza, with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar vowing the militant group will fight on until its ceasefire conditions are met.

    The attacks killed five people in Nuseirat camp, including Mayor Iyad Al Maghari, and at least six in Maghazi camp, in central Gaza, the Wafa news agency reported.

    Mr Al Maghari was killed when Israeli forces attacked a municipal office in central Gaza.


    Around the world, people call for an end to this violence, an end to this ongoing slaughter.  The NAACP is using its voice to call for a cease-fire.



    Brett Wilkins (COMMON DREAMS) explains:


      Citing Israel's killing of over 36,000 Palestinians in Gaza and its defiance of a World Court order to stop attacking Rafah, the NAACP on Wednesday joined the hundreds of human rights and civil society organizations urging the Biden administration to halt weapons transfers to Israel.

    The leading U.S. civil rights group noted Israel's defiance of the International Court of Justice's May 24 order to stop attacking the southern Gaza city of Rafah and the Israel Defense Force's (IDF) May 26 bombing of a refugee encampment there that killed and wounded hundreds of Palestinians, including many women and children.

    "The total death toll of Gazans has reached over 36,000 with another 81,000 injured," the NAACP said. "Nearly 500 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 117 children, have also been killed." 


    Violence in this ongoing slaughter also includes attacks on journalists. At the end of last month, Reporters Without Borders  filed another complaint with the International Criminal Court, "RSF has filed this third complaint with the Hague-based ICC because the number of journalists killed in Gaza by the IDF is continuing to grow after passing the 100 mark, in an eradication of the Palestinian media. The complaint, which follows those filed on 31 October and 22 December, details eight new cases of Palestinian journalists killed between 20 December and 20 May, as well as the case of a journalist who was injured. All concerned journalists were killed (or injured) in the course of their work. RSF has reasonable grounds for thinking that some of these journalists were deliberately killed and that the others were the victims of deliberate IDF attacks against civilians."  On Wednesday, a Flag Day parade turned into another excuse for violence as an angry mob of Israelis began attacking Palestinians and journalists (and Palestinians who were also journalists.  DPA noted, "A reporter from Israel's liberal Haaretz newspaper wrote on the social media platform X that a colleague was attacked after defending fellow journalists. Five people were detained in the incident, police said."  Allyson Horn, Haidarr Jones and Orly Halpern (Australia's ABC) explain, "Violence has erupted at Israel's annual Jerusalem Day march, with some Jewish Israelis attacking Palestinians and journalists, including an ABC News team, while chanting offensive slogans."  Today, Thomas Helm (THE NATIONAL) reports:


    Israeli police detained Palestinian journalist Saif Al Qawasmi shortly after he was attacked by an extremist mob in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

    Al Qawasmi, a freelance photographer for several Arab outlets, was held for about an hour and a half after an Israeli ultranationalist told police he was a member of Hamas, Haaretz reported.

    The arrest came shortly after Al Qawasmi was assaulted by dozens of mostly teenage Israelis, who surrounded him close to Damascus Gate.

    The image quickly became emblematic of the horrors Palestinian residents of Jerusalem’s Old City face during the annual Flag March, a deeply contentious parade through the Muslim Quarter.

    The Haaretz report – written by journalist Nir Hasson, who was also attacked trying to protect Al Qawasmi – said there was no evidence any of Al Qawasmi’s attackers had been summoned by police.


    Yesterday, journalist Abu-Bakr Bashir contributed an essay to The Committee To Protect Journalists which concludes with this:


    When I lived in Gaza, I was worried about my life and my children’s future. Now in London, I worry about Gaza and the future of journalism there. In addition to those journalists who have been killed, dozens have fled; these losses are catastrophic to the journalistic profession there. Eight months into the war, I have so many questions: Who will guide the young journalists entering the profession? How objective can they be given the brutal conditions and lack of guidance? Will the world listen to them, let alone believe their narrative?  And at the end of this, will there be young men and women willing to go into journalism in Gaza? Who will tell Gaza’s story?


    This morning, 

                 

    A CIA assessment circulated among US officials this week concluded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likely judges he can get away without defining a post-war plan — even as the Biden administration has launched a full-court press to pressure him to bring an end to the conflict in Gaza.

    Netanyahu “probably believes he can maintain support from his security chiefs and prevent defections” from the right wing of his coalition by discussing the future of Gaza in “vague terms,” the June 3 report, reviewed by CNN, reads.

    The assessment — which has not been previously reported — represents one of the most up to date intelligence assessments about Netanyahu’s mindset that has been circulated among senior US officials, according to a source familiar with internal reporting.

    It comes amid a clear shift in how the Biden administration views Israel: less as a trusted partner and more as an unpredictable foreign government to be analyzed and understood.     


    The CIA?  It's lousy when it comes to predictions but it is often very sharp on analysis.  Then again, since people try to pretend the CIA is about flowers and love (Gloria Steinem infamously stated that their objectives aligned with her own), the CIA may have a bad rap when it comes to their predictions.  The CIA is not about making livers better, it is about sewing unrest.  And when one of this plots and schemes explode somewhere in the world and garners attention, efforts are made to insist that this was never the goal and, woopsie, a mistake was made.  Most likely, it was not.

    So debate how strong they are on predictions, but grasp that they can do strong analysis and have.


    We were the first to note Nouri al-Maliki's paranoia.  This was when he became Iraq's prime minister.  As we noted then, he was made prime minister -- by the US government -- due to the CIA assessment on how vast his paranoia was.


    Now that should have led the US government to refuse to unleash Nouri on the Iraqi people.  However, it's not about what's good for humanity when it comes to the CIA or the US government.  More important to them was having someone that they could control.  Nouri's paranoia meant that they could play him like a puppet.  


    And they did.  But that paranoia they harnessed?  It evolved into paranoia against the US government.  

    They were slow and stupid to realize it had happened.  In fact, in 2010, the US government made the decision to overturn the election results in Iraq (via The Erbil Agreement) and give Nouri a second term.  He was already known for his secret prisons and jails, for his attacks on journalists, for so many appalling actions.  But Samantha Power and others advocated to then-President Barack Obama for Nouri to have a second term. And then all hell broke loose including, but not limited to, the rise of ISIS.


    So here we stand now with a CIA assessment of War Criminal Netanyahu.  Let's hope smarter brains our in the room as the administration debates what to do next.

    Lives are at stake -- not that lives have really mattered that much in the decision making in the past.


    Here's DEMOCRACY NOW!'s Thursday report on the strike on the UN school:


     

    AMY GOODMAN: An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza has killed at least 40 people, including 14 children, according to the government media office in Gaza. Nearly 80 Palestinians were also wounded in the predawn strike on the Al-Sardi School, which is run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known by its acronym UNRWA. The Israeli military claimed it targeted Hamas militants operating in the school, but provided no evidence to back up its claim.

    UNRWA schools across Gaza have functioned as shelters for displaced Palestinians since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza. Last week, Israeli airstrikes hit close to an UNRWA facility in the southern city of Rafah, where tens of thousands had sought shelter, setting tents ablaze and killing at least 45 people. Over 36,600 people have been killed in Israeli military air attacks in Gaza over the past eight months, with over 83,300 injured.

    For more, we’re joined by UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai. She joins us from Amman, Jordan.

    Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Tamara. Can you explain what happened at about — what was it? About 1:30 in the morning Gaza time.

    TAMARA ALRIFAI: Yes. Hi, Amy, and thank you so much for giving UNRWA always a space and a platform on Democracy Now!

    What we understood from our colleagues in Gaza, given how patchy telecommunication is, is that, indeed, an Israeli strike hit one of our shelters. Originally, this was a school, but since the beginning of the war, this school in Nuseirat in the middle part of Gaza, like many, many other UNRWA schools across the Gaza Strip, have housed people who have been repeatedly displaced as the conflict in Gaza evolved, evicting them and forcing them to leave their homes, leave loved ones and leave their things behind. The strike happened around 2 a.m. And from what we understand, there are between 35 and 45 people killed. Many of them are children.

    We also remind that this being an UNRWA shelter, up to 6,000 people had sought refuge and safety inside that school, just like many, many other displaced people of the 2 million population of Gaza have been seeking a safe haven — but it hasn’t been safe — inside UNRWA shelters. I say that it’s not safe, because more than 170 UNRWA buildings, most of them serving as shelters, have been hit since the beginning of the war, killing more than 450 people. And by the way, we have lost — UNRWA has lost so far 193 of my colleagues, all of them killed since the beginning of this war.

    AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to a post on social media where Israeli military spokesperson Peter Lerner said Israel intentionally targeted the school, and wrote, quote, “We assess that: 20-30 terrorists were in the compound at the time of the strike. We targeted: Precision strikes on the specific classrooms. What were the terrorists doing in a @UN school: The compound was used for staging attacks and as a forward operating base,” end-quote. Your response, Tamara?

    TAMARA ALRIFAI: We had 6,000 people, who had been displaced several times since the war started in October, sheltering in our schools. Most of them, more than half of them, were women and children. We’ve been hearing about precision strikes and about reports that some of the UNRWA or U.N. installations have been used by Palestinian armed groups. We hear about this every time a strike kills scores of civilians in or near our buildings. International law is clear. International humanitarian law calls for the protection of civilians, of people, of women, of children. During this conflict, the U.N. has paid the highest toll ever in such a short period. Eight months is not short, but 193 UNRWA staff killed and 450 people in our shelters is huge.

    AMY GOODMAN: And what happened in Rafah last week with the Israeli airstrike, that the Israeli military did not deny, that led to the deaths of 45, at least, Palestinians who were in this tent camp, who had fled there because they were told that this area would be safe?

    TAMARA ALRIFAI: Exactly what you’re saying, Amy. Since the beginning of this war, Gazans have been issued what the Israeli government calls evacuation orders. In reality, these are orders for forced displacement. So, this sea of people in Gaza has moved since the beginning of the conflict from the north of the Gaza Strip or Gaza City to the middle areas, Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, and then they were forced to move again, in the direction of the conflict, to Rafah, where people were told that they would be safe. Until last month, Rafah housed 1.5 million people, all of them displaced several times, and all of them were told that if you go to Rafah, you would be safe.

    Then, as of the 6th of May, the Israeli government decided on a land, ground invasion of Rafah, therefore pushing people to move again. Many of them had nowhere left to go. The tents became very, very rare in Rafah. No one had personal belongings. But mostly, there was nowhere safe, because strikes continues, aerial bombings continued. So, there was nowhere safe. There still is nowhere safe. And what happened to these people in the tents is apocalyptic, like my colleagues from MSF say, and a reminder that nowhere is safe in Gaza.

    AMY GOODMAN: The issue of hunger. The U.N. World Food Programme has issued a dire warning, stating, quote, “Over one million people — half the population of Gaza — are expected to face death and starvation by mid-July” if the war doesn’t end. If you can talk about what UNRWA has been able to do in helping to relieve the suffering, given how many countries have pulled out of funding of UNRWA because Israel said that UNRWA, some of the workers, had been tied to the October 7th attack, though not presenting any evidence, leading to a number of countries restoring funding to UNRWA, though the U.S. hasn’t?

    TAMARA ALRIFAI: So, let’s start with the good news. All of the 16 countries that had suspended funding resumed funding to UNRWA, except the U.S. and the U.K.. The U.S. and the U.K., though, are big donors to UNRWA, so that leaves us with a huge funding gap. Having said that, we’ve been receiving a lot of support from private individuals, private foundations, celebrities, in a sign of acknowledgment of the irreplaceable role that UNRWA has been playing since the beginning of the conflict.

    UNRWA is the largest humanitarian operation. We also cooperate very closely with other U.N. agencies, particularly the World Food Programme, on distributing food. The distribution of food, of wheat flour, of clean drinking water has not stopped since the beginning of the war, despite extremely challenging humanitarian circumstances, that include very, very patchy opening of the crossings, the land crossings, whether it’s Rafah from the Egyptian side or Karem Abu Salem, Kerem Shalom, from the side of Israel. Land crossings are the safest and the fastest ways to get aid into the Gaza Strip. We’ve all been discussing for the longest time how many trucks a day have gone in. I want to say that the last month has been awful. Most of the days in May have seen zero trucks going in for the U.N., and on the best day, we’ve seen 77 trucks — 77 trucks with food, nonfood, mattresses, tents, clean water, medicines, medical supplies for a population of nearly 2 million people, or a bit over 2 million, completely under siege since the latest military operation started in the May.

    So, yes, UNRWA has long warned from malnutrition and an imminent famine. UNICEF just recently said that nine out of 10 children in Gaza fall way below their needed calorie intake daily. And now with the scorching heat of nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit in Gaza, lack of clean drinking water, we have started to see infants dying of dehydration.

    AMY GOODMAN: Finally, this breaking news, the United States and 16 other countries calling on Israel and Hamas to accept the latest ceasefire-hostage deal, not clear exactly what the details are. What would this mean in Gaza right now?

    TAMARA ALRIFAI: A ceasefire is what everyone in Gaza needs right now, just to take a breath and have some respite. But in addition to the ceasefire, there has to be a much increased flow of humanitarian assistance going in, and there has to be a plan to resume some sense of normality in the Gaza Strip, particularly for traumatized children. And for that, a resumption of any kind of learning will help the children, not only lagged behind, but it will also help restore some kind of mental well-being. A ceasefire is what everyone needs in Gaza now.

    AMY GOODMAN: Tamara Alrifai, we want to thank you for being with us, spokesperson for UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees, speaking to us from Amman, Jordan.


    Gaza remains under assault. Day 245 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 reaches 36,731, with 83,530 injured."   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."
     

    As for the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."


    We need to wrap up.  Let's do so with the US Green Party.  Let's start with this Wednesday press release from the Green Party of Michigan:


    Presidential Preference Poll, Let your voice be heard !!!

    ***

    Hi Greens, Its that time again to vote for the candidates who will represent us in the upcoming election. We are asking you to participate in a Presidential poll to help our national delegates who will vote in the national convention August 15-18. We need to know which Presidential candidate best represents our members here in Michigan. If you are a member of GPMI and would like to have your voice heard please follow one of the links below and follow instructions.

    On our website
    Presidential Preference Poll

    download the PDF here
    Presidential Poll document PDF

    download word doc here
    Presidential Poll

    I would also like to remind you that our State Wide convention is just around the corner and will be in person and online. Please join us to vote for your favorite candidates.

    June 15 @ 9:00 am - 5:00 pm EDT
    GPMI Convention
    Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing
    5509 S. Pennsylvania Ave. Lansing, MI, 48911

    ***

    The Green Party of Michigan is constantly searching for new and innovative ways to continue serving Michiganders, keeping candidates on the ballot, and to move our party forward without corporate money which invites corruption.

    We need the support of the people like you. Consider making a donation today (or become a monthly donor in the amount of your choice!) to help sustain our fight for Green politics and against our broken two-party system.

    ***

    Contact GPMI for questions

    Phone: (313)-815-2025

    Email: meetings@migreenparty.org ; webstewmigp@gmail.com

    Sponsoring Group: Green Party of Michigan












     


    Michigan's Green Party is asking its members who they support for the nomination.  That's because -- despite the lies of Jill Stein to the press that she's got the delegate count so she's the nominee -- the nominee will be decided at the July convention.  It has been a party of the people and it has been concerned with serving their members which is why someone -- today or in the past -- could show up at the national convention and inspire the crowd enough that they could get the nomination.  Even if they hadn't run a campaign (the way some wanted Jesse Ventura to do in 2020, just show up at the convention and see if they'd vote him their nominee).  Jill Stein isn't just a failure, she's also a liar.  She is not yet the presidential nominee of the Green Party for 2024.  She may become that, but she's not there yet.  She's lying the same way she lied for Cornel West and to Cornel West and her pathetic attempts to play Wounded White Woman Wound By The Bad Black Man are patently racist and deeply offensive. For more on the way she's tried to cast herself as the poor White woman that some Black man looked at, see Ava and my "Media: They loved him when he stayed in the lane they put him in."


    Ann's "Moron Jill Stein" went up Wednesday night and includes:


    Now she's set to be named the presidential nominee in 2024.  


    If she is?

    I'm not voting for her.

    She will be a three time loser.  She is 74-years-old.

    Are we a political party or not?

    If we are a real political party, then we're not running the same old person over and over and over.

    And I'm really tired of her White face.  We should be working to expand choices.  Having the same White woman fail in three presidential races does not show expansion or growth.  There's a White woman named Kat, for example.  She's being doing strong work for the party since 2008.  Kat Swift.  I always have to look her up, I don't know why.  But she is great, she has energy.  I believe I met her at the 2008 convention but it might have been four years later.

    Are we a real political party or are we the Merry Jill Stein Do Nothings?

    And why am I writing about this useless trash tonight?

    How about she's eyeing a running mate?

    We are the Green Party.  Which Green is she going to choose?

    Oops!  Not a Green at all.


    Yasmeen Abutaleb (The Washington Post) reports: she's told Democrat Abdullah Hammoud she'd like him to consider being her running mate.  He's the Mayor of Dearborn and he's a Democrat.

    So we can't get anyone but crusty ass Jill -- despite having a big political party and despite Jill having run twice already for president -- and now you're telling me that instead of building up the party by choosing a Green who's younger -- aren't we all younger than Jill at this point? -- she's trying to recruit a Democrat?


    We don't have a party.

    And Jill's a f**ing idiot whom we should all be laughing.  From the article:

    Stein’s campaign manager, Jason Call, confirmed that she met with Hammoud last week and asked whether he would “consider joining her campaign as her running mate.”

    Hammoud, however, is too young to qualify as a vice-presidential candidate. Under the Constitution, the president must be at least 35 years old — and therefore so must the vice president, since that person must be ready to step into the Oval Office at any moment.

    The mayor turns 35 in March, meaning he will not meet the age requirement by Jan. 20, 2025, the date of the next presidential inauguration.


    Do you get what a stupid moron Jill Stein is?  She's an embarrassment to the party and has been since 2012 but I guess we're not a real political party after all.  Not only am I not voting for her, I also will not be a Green anymore.  In 2028, if they want to try to lure me back in, the presidential nominee better be no older than 50 and better be a Green Party member.  

    They have turned this party into a joke.


    Jill is a moron and if she becomes the nominee, if she's named as such in the party convention, that is not a good look for the party.  It's amazing, isn't it, how many want to look the other way.  Hey, Cindy Sheehan, remember you using your podcast to promote crazy b.s. about the Green Party and about Howie Hawkins' win?  Howie campaigned. That's how he won.  He got the votes.  Jill just anointed herself.  And you can see who's working the plantation when it comes to so-called Black voices.  They let her trash Conrel, they let her lie about Cornel.  That's how they use their platforms.


    Jill is over seventy years old and was the nominee in 2012 and 2016.  There's no new blood in the Green Party?  Clearly not if anti-vax Jill is named the 2024 presidential nominee.  In fact, that is an announcement -- naming Jill the presidential nominee that the Green Party is dead.  The only reason for that attention seeking whore to run for a third time was to raise the profile of another Green by making them her running mate. Yet, right out of the gate, she stabs the party in the back and tries to bring on a Democrat.  


    Exactly how much does the Green Party intend to take from this trash that left them hugely in debt following her 2016 campaign failure?


    We need to wrap up, I'm running late this morning.  Be sure to check out Jeffery  St. Clair's latest column ("Snatch-and-Grab Israeli Style: Disappearing into the Gulag") at COUNTERPUNCH.  Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "A Message From Governor Greg Asshole" which went up last night.  The following sites updated:


    Thursday, June 06, 2024

    Ungrateful Billy Corgan

    greg a

     

     

    Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "A Message From Governor Greg Asshole" went up a little while ago.  


    Picking up from yesterday's "Justy Timberlake continues to get a pass from the media," another reason tours are doing so poorly right now: Musicians who are just jerks.  Like Billy Corgan:


    Just ahead of the Smashing Pumpkins’ co-headlining European tour with Weezer, Billy Corgan has warned fans that they should expect the band to play more than just the hits.

    In a recent interview with Kerrang!, Corgan said he doesn’t feel obligated to add songs to their setlist due to popular demand. “I don’t play any songs I don’t want to play,” he plainly stated. “I don’t care if they’re a classic or not. If I don’t want to play it, I just don’t play it. I don’t put that on the audience like, ‘Well, I’ve got to play this one for you.’ I think that’s kind of cheese.”


     What a jerk.  He's tried a solo career, he's tried doing other bands.  Nobody cares.  He only attracts fans when he goes back to the Smashing Pumpkins.  And now little priss wants to say he's not going to do the hits?


    Oh, shut up and stop stealing money from fans then.


    He had a bit of talent once.  They ended before grunge collapsed.  He should be grateful anyone wants to see him after all these years (years of failure) since the band imploded.

     

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

     

    Thursday, June 6, 2024.  At least forty people dead from an Israeli attack on a refugee camp -- the attack carried out with US weapons -- the attack only one of at least three attacks on refugee camps taking place today.


    As the day begins in the US, the killing continues in Gaza.  THE IRISH TIMES explains, "Forty people have been killed after an overnight Israeli strike on the UN-run school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in near Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, local authorities report."  Yes, the Israeli government has attacked another refugee camp and to really make it a War Crime, they attacked a school at a refugee camp.  The dead does include children as Australia's ABC notes and the outlet also notes, "Footage showed bodies wrapped in blankets or plastic bags being laid out in lines in the courtyard of the hospital, which was largely dark as staff try to conserve limited fuel for electricity."  SKY NEWS points out, "Eight months into Israel's offensive in Gaza, UNRWA schools in the region now function as shelters as the war has displaced most of the 2.3 million people in the territory."   Abeer Salman and According to a journalist in the area working with CNN, the school was hit by at least three missiles that penetrated the three-story building. The facility was believed to be housing approximately 20,000 displaced people who had taken shelter in the school, its yard, and the surrounding area, according to the journalist."   Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy (AP) remind, "It was the latest instance of mass casualties among Palestinians trying to find refuge as Israel expands its offensives in the Gaza Strip."   Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) offers this context, "The UNRWA school in Nuseirat was just the latest U.N. facility targeted by the Israeli military during its eight-month U.S.-backed assault on the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have damaged or destroyed more than half of Gaza's infrastructure, including all of its universities."  The criminal government of Israel claims terrorists were at the camp.  That would not justify dropping bombs on a refugee camp.  But let's note that the residents of the camp are rejecting the assertion.   Mohammed al-Haijar and Nader Durgham (MIDDLE EAST EYE) report:


     
    Mohammed al-Hajjar in Deir al-Balah, occupied Palestine and Nader Durgham in Beirut     
    “They’re saying they were targeting fighters. What fighters? We don’t have any weapons, we came here for safety with nothing but our tents and the clothes on our backs,” said Ansam. 

    Gaza's media office also strongly rejected Israel claims.

    “The occupation uses lying to the public opinion through false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people,” Ismail al-Thawabta, the director of the office, told Reuters.


    Some video reports from this morning.





    Some Tweets about the slaughter.








    The Israeli government is carrying out these War Crimes but the US government is backing the War Crimes by supplying the weapons.  CNN’s Allegra Goodwin reports:

    US-made munitions were used in a deadly Israeli airstrike on a United Nations-run school in central Gaza on Thursday where Palestinians were sheltering, a CNN analysis of video from the scene and review by an explosive weapons expert has found.  

    At least 45 people died in strike on the school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, a spokesperson for Gaza's Ministry of Health told CNN. 

    CNN identified fragments of at least two US-made GBU-39 small diameter bombs (SDB) in video filmed at the scene by a journalist working for CNN.  

    [. . .]

    US munitions again used: This incident is the second time in two weeks that CNN has been able to verify the use of US-manufactured munitions in deadly Israeli attacks on displaced Palestinians.

    At least 45 people were killed and more than 200 others injured on May 26 after a fire broke out following an IDF strike on a displacement camp in Rafah, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Palestinian medics.   



    As THE NATIONAL notes, the above refugee camp bombing was not the only attack on refugee camps that Israel has carried out this morning, "'Violent bombardment' was also reported at Bureij refugee camp, with strikes also hitting Al Maghazi refugee camp, both also in central Gaza. Strikes were also reported in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south





    AMY GOODMAN: Israeli forces began an escalated offensive on areas of central Gaza today, with airstrikes and ground forces moving into parts of Deir al-Balah, including the Bureij refugee camp. Al Jazeera reports at least 75 people have been killed in the past 24 hours in central Gaza, and the partially functioning hospitals in the area are struggling to cope with the surge in casualties.

    Meanwhile, Israeli troops are continuing their offensive on Rafah in the south, where more than 1 million people have fled over the past few weeks, many of them heading back toward central Gaza. Airstrikes are also continuing in the north, as well. Over the past eight months, Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced over and over again, as they flee from one area to the next in a desperate search for safety.

    Today we look at one young Palestinian story. He’s 19-year-old Helmi Hirez. He’s from Gaza City in northern Gaza. As Israel escalated its attacks on Gaza City, he fled south to Rafah with his parents and identical twin brother. A few days after they left, an Israeli airstrike hit their family home in Gaza City, killing 14 members of their family. Helmi spent three months sheltering in Rafah, until an airstrike slammed into the building next to where he was staying, burying him, his parents and his twin brother under the rubble. His mother was killed in that attack. Helmi then relocated yet again, this time to al-Mawasi, a coastal plot of land east of Khan Younis.

    Helmi joins us now to tell his story. He’s joining us from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, and there is a very long delay between when we ask the question and he’ll be able to answer it.

    But, Helmi, welcome to Democracy Now! If you can start off by telling us your story? Talk about your journey from Gaza City and what has happened to your family all along the way.

    HELMI HIREZ: OK. OK. Thank you, Amy, for having me.

    Well, as you can see, I’m now in Deir al-Balah, in al-Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital. And it’s super crowded here, because several bombings have happened in the last two hours. The hospital is super crowded, and many injured people are here.

    To start, I’m Helmi Hirez, 19 years old, from Gaza City, al-Rimal neighborhood, near Al-Shifa Hospital. Me and my family got out of Gaza on November 11th. After Al-Shifa Hospital and the entire Rimal neighborhood got invaded, we went into Rafah city, walking five kilometers on foot, while the Israeli army was pointing guns at us. And sometimes in this long road — I mean Salah al-Din Street road — sometimes we needed to jump over dead bodies just to don’t walk on them, dead bodies that were left intentionally to create this horrifying mental effect. After one week of our department from Gaza, our house in al-Rimal neighborhood got bombed with two rockets, exactly on November 18th, and 14 beloved family members were killed there. In that day, November 18th, Israel killed over than 1,000 Palestinians.

    After that, we spent three months in Rafah city. And on February 12th, the building next to us got bombed. And we were in the center of Rafah city in two-floors building, and the building next to us was four-floors building. And the spaces between the houses in the center of Rafah city is sometimes less than one meter. So, when that building was bombed with four rockets, we got buried with the rubble. And I was able to get myself out of the rubble, and my twin brother and my father, and start digging over my mother. We dug over than one meter of rubble, and we got our mother breathing. And some guys took her to the hospital as fast as possible. And we kept digging over our sister. We got our sister awake, but not aware. She was vomiting blood. We went to a near house, and we hid there. And unfortunately, my mother suffered from internal bleeding, and she didn’t make it.

    After that, we went to al-Mawasi area, living in a tent. After two months in al-Mawasi area, a near place in less than 200 meters — a near place in less than 200 meters where our camp was got bombed with two rockets also, and which destroyed our entire camp, killing over than four people, and it burned our tent. And we needed to buy a new one and to move to another area in al-Mawasi.

    And this is just my continuous journey of displacement from one place to another, my continuous journey of loss from one place to another. We now live in al-Mawasi area, in less than two kilometers far from where the Israeli army exists. We are super worried. And all we are in al-Mawasi area are super worried that the Israeli army may come again to Khan Younis city or may invade al-Mawasi area. There is a lot of rumors about that. And whenever you walk in al-Mawasi, people are always looking towards the south, where the fire and the flames are coming out of Rafah city. And we can hear the sounds of the shelling and the bombing in Rafah city all day long and all night long.

    We really don’t know where we can go. It’s very hard to know where the safe place is. I mean, we’re now in a green area, and you can hear the bombing every 10 or 15 minutes. In al-Mawasi, we’re in a green area also, and you can hear the bombing all day long, and you can be targeted in any minute. We now live in a tent, which is super hard for me and my family. Because al-Mawasi and Rafah city has kind of a desert climate, because we are near to Sinai Desert, it is super hot. And living in a tent is exactly like living in an oven. Sometimes, in some hours in the day, like 1 p.m., you need to get out of the tent so you can be able to breathe. You get out of the tent, sitting in the sun, just so you can be able to breathe. Cooking on fire and all of these hard life conditions isn’t suitable, isn’t working for us. Me and my twin brother are programmers, and we would never experience this kind of hard lifestyle.

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Helmi —

    HELMI HIREZ: Well, I also want to talk about that I started a campaign to help my family. Can you hear me?

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Helmi, I wanted to ask you — you were a — first of all, condolences again for the loss of so many members of your family. Before the war, you and your twin brother were students. Could you talk to us about what you were studying and what your hopes were for your own future before the war?

    HELMI HIREZ: Yes. Yes. I’m a computer engineering student, and my brother is an AI engineering student. I learned programming since the age of 10 years old. And I have worked for so many projects and so many companies. I got pro in the field, and I learned so many skills. And my brother is a brilliant AI engineer. He developed so many great inventions. In coronavirus crisis, he developed a system so all the malls and all the public places can identify by camera if this person is wearing a mask or not, allow him to enter the building or not, and to limit the disease transportation. And it actually helped a lot in Gaza City. Most public places in Gaza City took his invention and used it.

    I was talking also about that I started a campaign to help my family, because my father was working in Israel before the war. He has permission to work in Tel Aviv. And when this war started, he lost his job. And after three months, we lost our mother, who was a digital marketing agent, so we lost our sole source of income. And we suffered a lot to provide the needed things for our family. So I started a GoFundMe campaign in hopes to help us, like, hold the living experiences of the war, and, after that, at least to rent an apartment and to help me and my brother to our college tuitions to finish our education, after we lost all of our sources of income.

    AMY GOODMAN: You’re talking about your FundMe page, donate to help a twin. We’re showing a photograph right now — we’ve been showing it — of you and your identical twin brother Mohammed. You’re both, what, AI-tech twins, because you’re known for working on AI. But I also wanted to comment on the noise behind you. Our radio audience cannot see this, but we have seen dead bodies behind you wrapped in shrouds, because the place you are right now, right nearby, these attacks have taken place, just in the last 24 hours, so there’s a lot of chaos behind you. But we think it’s worth working hard to hear what you have to say, given your incredible journey. And again, our condolences on the loss of so many of your family members, including your mother. I’m wondering, Helmi, if you can tell us more about your mother, the picture of you and your brother in your graduation gowns with your mom, with that lovely smile, and what her aspirations were for you, and where you plan to go to now, given that the place you have moved to for, I don’t know how many times, is now the site of Israeli bombing.

    HELMI HIREZ: Yes. About the picture, this picture was taken last year in my high school graduation in my last year in high school. The person on the left is me, Helmi. My name in Arabic means “my dream.” My mother named me. The person in the middle is my mother, Ibtisam, which means “smile.” And she always smiled. And the person on the left is my identical twin brother Mohammed.

    We don’t really know where we can go right now, because there is no safe place in Gaza. I mean, we went to Rafah city. Since the day one of the war, they told us, they throw from the plane, they throw papers from the plane saying, “Go to Rafah city. Go to this specific area.” And they drew it on the map. We went there since the beginning of the war. And eventually, they got orders to get out of this area. So, we didn’t know where to go. Especially in this time of the war, people don’t know where to go. They are afraid from going to Deir al-Balah, and because the Israeli army didn’t invade Deir al-Balah before, so they may invade it now. They don’t know where to go. They can’t go to al-Mawasi. I mean, it’s very close to Rafah city, where the Israeli army exists. And they may invade it from this area. Now we’re just squeezed in the middle.

    And, I mean, you can see the place I’m in right now. Every single second, you can see an ambulance coming here. And I’m still under shock, because just two minutes before this interview starts, I saw a shattered dead body. And it was a super horrifying scene. I still can’t, like, process that. After all I went through, I still can’t process seeing this kind of destructive.

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Helmi, what would you — if you could reach out and tell the rest of the world, the people outside of Gaza, what you’re hoping the world can do to assist you and the other Palestinians in Gaza right now?

    HELMI HIREZ: Well, they can raise their voices to ask for the stop of the genocide that is happening in Gaza. And I can’t find any other word that describes what is happening other than “genocide.” They can donate to help the people of Gaza and donate to help build in Gaza all over again, where the destruction in Gaza has removed the entire city, just make it sands over sands. Two days ago, I was in Khan Younis city. And, well, as far as your eye can see, it is only sands. The city does not exist anymore.

    AMY GOODMAN: Helmi Hirez, we want to thank you so much for —

    HELMI HIREZ: For me personally, you can help me by donating to my GoFundMe and my campaign to help my family.

    AMY GOODMAN: Helmi, thank you so much for joining us in this extremely difficult, difficult time. We can’t say enough how much we send our condolences to your entire family. Helmi Hirez is a 19-year-old Palestinian, originally from Gaza City, 14 members of his family killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, just after he, his mom and his dad, his twin brother and sister left and went to Rafah, where they were then struck in an airstrike, struck into the rubble, his mother killed. We will continue to follow Helmi’s story and bring you more later.

    Next up, the board of directors at the Columbia Law Review shuts down the law review’s website after student editors published an article by a Palestinian legal scholar on establishing Nakba as a formal legal concept. Stay with us.


    Gaza remains under assault. Day 244 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 reaches 36,654, with 83,309 injured."   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."
     

    As for the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."



    The UN children's agency said on Thursday that nine out of 10 children in Gaza could not get nutrients from enough food groups to ensure their healthy growth and development.

    "In the Gaza Strip, months of hostilities and restrictions on humanitarian aid have collapsed the food and health systems, resulting in catastrophic consequences for children and their families," Unicef said.

    It said that five sets of data collected between December 2023 and April 2024 had found that nine out of 10 children in the Gaza Strip, which has been pounded by an Israeli offensive since last October, are suffering from severe food poverty.

    This means they are surviving on at most two food groups a day.

    "This is evidence of the horrific impact the conflict and restrictions are having on families' ability to meet children's food needs – and the speed at which it places children at risk of life-threatening malnutrition," Unicef said.




    The following sites updated: