Biden & Crew apparently believe almost anything said by the extremist Netanyahu

 https://www.democracynow.org/2024/12/26/michael_casey_resigns_over_gaza

Watch/listen to why a fifteen-year USA diplomat resigned from the State Department.  Several others also have done likewise, but we don't hear about it from the Mainstream/Corporate Media.

Casey was a frontline diplomat in the Israel-Gaza conflict.  He wrote numerous reports to the Upper Crust of the State Dept. detailing the war crimes of the Israeli military.  They were ignored.  Details are at the link above.

Israel continues to attack children, hospitals, schools, refugee shelters, ambulances, journalists, and basic infrastructure.  Biden & Crew continue their "ironclad support".  The tiny amount of humanitarian aid (food, water, medical supplies) which sometimes is allowed to get through to Gaza is grossly inadequate. People in Gaza are starving, dying from lack of medical care, and often being maimed or killed outright still to this day.  Where's compassion?

The entire scenario is a stain not only on Biden's Administration, but also on our country.  Yes, some are protesting and speaking out against this immoral Gaza policy, but not nearly enough.  Some world Leaders are boycotting Israel, but not enough.  What the Israeli Gov't is doing in Gaza is textbook genocide, and our Gov't is complicit in the execution of it.  There's a high probability that when Trump takes office, he'll make things even worse.

Watch the video at the link above, and then ask:  are the deaths of innocent people in Gaza simply "collateral damage"?  Keep in mind that genuine collateral damage is accidental.  The deaths in Gaza are are not such.  They are brought about on purpose.  The Israeli military knows children are in the hospitals, schools, shelters, etc., being attacked.  The excuse for the killing appears to be:  Hamas is hiding there, so we have no choice.  Really?!  There is, of course, always a choice in such matters.  No sane, ethical person would use such an excuse to murder innocent children.

Every government in the world should be shunning Netanyahu and boycotting Israel.  They should be doing so because millions of their citizens are demanding such actions.

.....................

Not only my opinion.  Be Well, and be a friction against the Machine.

Mea Culpa, and Brief Notes on What the Trumpican Party Victory Reveals

First, as evidenced by the previous Post on this blog, I misjudged the thinking of the majority of the people here in my beloved Land.  I've always known WHY that majority is fed up with The Establishment and its Plutocracy.  On the socio-economic scale, the lower 80% of people here have been shafted for decades.  My mistake was in thinking:  by now surely ALL people would see clearly that Trump is a) not the one to save them; and b), he's a con-man who actually is in favor of the ruling Plutocracy.  I was wrong; they don't see it.

Here are just a few of the things the Trumpican Party victory reveals (in no particular order) ---

1.  Apparently, too many of us have been dumbed-down to the point where we no longer are capable of critical thinking.  In general, I blame our education system for that.  Mainstream Media also are at fault.  Have you noticed, for example, for many years young folks have been encouraged to skip a university education in favor of a vocational/trade school.  Such schools certainly serve a valuable function; however, their limitations need to be considered.  Generally, they don't provide a well-rounded education.  Yes, it's true you don't need a university education to get a good job; but such a higher education provides most students with a lot more than a job.  It broadens your worldview, and gives you skills in understanding what's important in life.  It does more, but I need to keep this essay relatively short.

2.  There also seems to be a serious problem with too many universities.  It appears to me that too many of them are more concerned with not offending some group or another rather than exploring ways to develop open minds and critical thinking.

3.  The mainstream, corporate faction of the Democratic Party is not paying enough attention to Main Street.  Worse, they are marginalizing the Progressives in their Party, the ones who are tuned-in to Main Street.

4.  The mainstream Dems who now rule their Party need to stop enabling Netanyahu's genocidal wars.  They should do so not only for obvious ethical/moral reasons, but also because they won't get Arab-American votes until they do.  [That's about 1.5 million votes. ]

5.  Trump realized a long time ago that if you repeat a lie enough times, then people will come to believe it.  He repeatedly lies/lied about immigrants, the economy, Democrats, any Republicans who oppose him, election integrity, crime stats, covid, the Media, etc., and all those lies have served him well.

6.  The Upper Crust of the Dem Party has failed miserably at showing people the urgency of addressing the existential threat of ecological overshoot, and the fact that Trump policies will increase the threat & the urgency by orders of magnitude.  Educational institutions, the Mainstream Media and others also have failed in that regard.  Perhaps they all have failed because they don't fully understand the Crisis, or they still may believe we humans have until 2050 to address the problem.  In any case, within ten years politics will not be uppermost in anyone's mind; but trying to find a degree of physical, mental, and economic comfort will be.

7.  Most people apparently are as in the dark about eco-overshoot's existential threat as is Trump and the Plutocracy.  Otherwise, they never would have voted an ecological ignoramus into office.  They would have known that such an action would be tantamount to eco-suicide.

...........................

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

ADDENDUM to: "After EIGHTEEN YEARS..."

 https://individualsovereignty.blogspot.com/2024/05/after-eighteen-years-this-state-dept.html

NOTE:  The piece above was posted just before Biden announced he won't ship certain bombs to Israel if they launch a full-scale attack on Rafah.  Good for Joe; however, all other munitions will continue to be shipped, just not the bunker-buster bombs.  

CHILDREN will continue to die from USA munitions.  If not that, then from starvation or lack of hospitals/health care personnel.  North Gaza is now officially deemed (by the World Food Programme) to be in a full-blown famine.  Netanyahu continues to restrict food aid.  People object, but don't worry, Bibi - Joe says USA support of Israel is "iron-clad, even when we disagree".  

[So, you can continue to starve those dangerous kids in Gaza, even the newborns and orphans.  Go Bibi!  Biden and the Republicans here give you their iron-clad support.]

This war needs to end, and Biden could end it.  Bombing hospitals, and killing children, and killing health care workers, and killing people standing in line to receive aid, and sending people to "safe areas" and then attacking those areas are all war crimes.  Stop ALL military aid to Israel, Joe.  Sanction and shun Netanyahu, et al.  Stop all Trade with Israel until the war ends.  Make all that "iron-clad".  Then, the probability is high that the slaughter and starvation will cease instantly.

........................

Not only my opinion.  Take Care

After EIGHTEEN YEARS, this State Dept. diplomat...

has resigned because of Biden's egregious, hypocritical Gaza policy.

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/5/3/state_dept 

Listen carefully to her reasoning; she's right on the mark.  Her name is Hala Rharrit.

Yesterday, Biden made things worse with his antisemitism speech.  Apparently, he doesn't know the difference between antisemitism and antizionism.  The difference is significant.  He also accused protesters of forgetting what Hamas did on October 7.  There's no basis for such an accusation.  No one has forgotten.  What Hamas did then does not justify what Netanyahu has been doing for months...with aid from the USA.  Biden is forgetting what the Israeli Leadership has been doing to Palestinians for about 75 years.

CHILDREN still are dying, health care people as well.  Reporters have been targeted, hospitals destroyed, and civilians have no safe haven anywhere.  In addition, the World Food Programme recently declared North Gaza is now in a "full-blown famine".  Meanwhile, Netanyahu continues to restrict food aid into Gaza.

Biden is turning into a hack politician.  No vision, no diplomacy, and dogmatic.  [By the way, Trump is even worse.]  Even more unacceptable, Joe is complicit in ethnic cleansing and numerous war crimes.  He has taken no significant actions to rein-in the criminal fanaticism of the current Israeli Leadership.  His puny protestations to Netanyahu are overwhelmingly being ignored.  Meanwhile, civilians are being shot, bombed, and starved while their infrastructure is reduced to rubble.

It's all unethical, immoral, and in many cases, criminal.  Scholars, diplomats, politicians, even Israelis, and others all around the world are saying so.  Biden's lack of comprehension of the situation is mind-boggling.  He appears to be in some sort of dogmatic rut.  It pains me to see that the few politicians in the USA with a notable amount of philosophical vision have been (to a large degree) effectively marginalized by the dogmatists.

.....................

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Gaza, Israel, USA, Biden, and Netanyahu

Someone I care about wrote me and suggested I have compassion for Biden.  My response is below.

RE your "compassion for Biden" comment---

My compassion is for the children and other civilians in Gaza.  Biden is now a war criminal (according to several philosophers, UN humanitarian workers, university professors, & others), complicit in ethnic cleansing, genocide, and the outright starvation & murder of innocent children.  His hypocritical statements, e.g., "I'm doing everything I can to stop this [the "over-the-top" war]" are sickening.  He's not doing even half of what he could.

I wonder how compassionate toward Genocide Joe you'd be if your grandson had been killed in Gaza by U.S. supplied weapons.  Biden has materially helped to kill over 12,300 children.  Nothing can excuse that.  I don't care what his reasoning is.  He's complicit in war crimes, period.  Trump would be even worse, but that doesn't make Biden less of a war criminal.  What he's doing is a stain on him and everyone in this country.  It's totally unforgivable.  You don't back a thug (Netanyahu) who purposely attacks hospitals, UN shelters, ambulances, residences, etc., with innocent children in them...even if you believe your perceived enemy also is there.  It's criminal, immoral, unethical, and barbaric.  And yet, Biden keeps sending weapons to do the deed.

Outrageous.

Don't bother trying to change my mind on this... because no one can.  No one.

---------------------------------

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Ten reasons why it's time for President Biden to gracefully retire

1.  President Biden, you tepidly stated the Israeli response to the initial Hamas attack was now "over the top".  It's much more than that; it's criminal.  Yet, you keep sending weapons and ammo to Israel, thus supporting the response which you say is too much, "over the top".  Hello!
2.   Every country ( including the USA) should be sanctioning Netanyahu and other members of the current Israeli Leadership who are responsible for purposely killing thousands of children and other civilians.  Those victims are not collateral damage.  It was known they were in the hospitals, UN shelters, refugee camps, ambulances, residences, etc. which were attacked.  Netanyahu et al. are Trump-on-steroids.  That's what you're supporting, Mr. President.  Wake up.
3.  According to Oil Change International,  twenty countries (including the USA) are planning to expand oil production for twenty-six more years.   https://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2023/09/OCI-Planet-Wreckers-Report.pdf
4.  You tout your climate mitigation efforts, but they really are a mixed bag.  In accordance with number 3. above, you are expanding drilling for fossil energy on public lands.  Plus, the Inflation Reduction Act (constantly bragged about by you and others) favors oil companies as much as efforts toward renewable energy.
5.  Your Administration continues to pursue Julian Assange.  His "crime" was exposing US military misdeeds, some of which were war crimes.  Your backing of Netanyahu means you are complicit in war crimes.  That's according to many humanitarian scholars at the U.N., a few politicians here in the USA,  a few universities around the world, and several governments.  Wake up.  You're aiding in the murder of CHILDREN.
6.  Yes, you're better than Trump as a Leader, but not better than so many other potential candidates.  Trump is so unAmerican and has such a cult mentality, but still might win the election if someone other than you isn't running against him.  You don't seem to know how to deal with his idiocy.  Like many others, you let him get away with constantly changing the subject whenever he's caught in a lie or otherwise backed into a corner.  He acts like a spoiled brat, and gets away with it.  Anyone who knows the first thing about debating could show him up to be the whining child he is in no time at all.  He's a gaslighter, a serial liar, a bully, and his knowledge of almost everything is pathetic.  He's not an unknown. 
7.  Unlike a few politicians, you don't seem to understand ecological overshoot at all.  Plus, you don't appear to grasp any ecological principles (not just overshoot).  Like other anachronistic politicians, you apparently believe infinite economic growth - which, by the way, is exponential - is compatible with the health of a finite planet.  You don't see such as an oxymoron.
8.  Like Obama and Trump, you're updating our nuclear weapons arsenal instead of eliminating it.  You seem to have bought into the idea that a "limited" nuclear war is possible without any significant consequences.  Sheer ignorance.
9.  Trump has zero statesmanship, but yours isn't much better.  Putin warned the West about NATO expansion to his borders, and wanted talks about Ukraine.  Your Administration avoided talks.  Instead, you were quick to jump into a proxy war.

 10.  Your outmoded foreign policy is a disaster.  It's predicated on the idea of the USA as the world's police force.  It's stuck in a "unipolar" world, with the USA as the undisputed Head Honcho.  It fails to recognize the emerging multipolar world, in which other major nations actually get to have some influence in their regions.  See the Jeffrey Sachs interviews on Democracy Now for details.

The election still is eight months away.  Time to change horses.  There are plenty of potential candidates who have a much better chance than you, Mr. President, of defeating the poorest excuse for a politician in the history of our country.  Bow out gracefully, and you'll see a flood of (okay, maybe only several) candidates enter the race.  The wannabe dictator will be defeated first verbally, and then at the ballot box.  Hands down.  

.......................

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Wars around the world currently are being run by thugs

 Civil society is being egregiously damaged, essentially torn apart.  Putin (in his defense) was backed into a corner by expansion of NATO to the East; then he reacted like a thug.  With October 7, the Leadership of Hamas became criminal thugs.  [Yes, Gaza and the West Bank have been strangled by Israel's politicians for decades; but that's no justifiable excuse to brutally murder civilians, including children.]  Netanyahu and crew certainly were entitled to a response; but for weeks their over-reaction has become criminal thuggery.  No time to summarize the various thugs in parts of Africa and even in South America.

While Biden is not a thug, he 's supporting the thuggery of Israeli Leadership by supplying weapons, ammo, and military intelligence against Gaza.  So, in essence, he gives aid to:

a)  the bombing of medical facilities, ambulances, civilian residences, schools, UN shelters, refugee camps, and whole areas where Palestinians were sent because they supposedly were "safe" areas; and,

b)  the killing of CHILDREN; and,

c)  the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians; and,

d)  the intentional starving of them as well.

While all that may not make him a thug, arguably it does place him on the border of being not only unlawful and heartless, but insane as well.  [No, I'm not trained in clinical psychology.  But a wise man once told me:  "You don't have to be a master carpenter to recognize a shack.":]

This is all so Orwellian that it's truly mind-boggling.  Why people keep electing Establishment thugs (for example, Netanyahu and the micro-thug, Trump), to office is beyond my comprehension.  If not thugs, we elect dogmatic, stuck-in-the-Past, corporatist-supporting people with no vision and zero capability of thinking comprehensively (e. g., Biden, Bush, and again, Trump).

In this country, Elizabeth Warren should be elected President, or someone along the lines (back when) of the Republican Senator, Mark Hatfield, a truly honorable politician; or, someone like George McGovern, another honorable Senator.  Instead, we get either wannabe Fascists or slumbering, corporatist drones.  C'est la vie

...........................

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

p.s.  War is mostly for the benefit of Big Biz, and a distraction from the shrinking of the Middle Class.

Three Liars: Obama, Netanyahu, and Susan Rice

Yes, it's a harsh title, I know.  Perhaps I'm wrong.  If they aren't lying, then they're extremely uninformed, ignorant, and/or naive.  You decide.  I'm taking a break from painting, so this piece will be somewhat short.  In my opinion, the three characters mentioned in the title above perfectly illustrate how Oligarchs (or their puppets) sometimes operate.  Consider the following points.

1.  The tunnels---  Hamas has built tunnels into Egypt as well as Israel.  After the current dictator of Egypt took part in a military coup that overthrew a democratically elected gov't, he had the Egyptian ends of the Hamas tunnels SEALED.  Israel could have done the same thing with the ends of the tunnels crossing their borders.  The Israelis claimed that one of the reasons they bombed and invaded Gaza (killing hundreds of civilians and destroying thousands of homes) was to destroy the tunnels.  They could have been permanently sealed from the Israeli side.  This was expressed by Norman Finkelstein on Democracy Now.  Rarely reported in the Corporate Media is why there were tunnels into Egypt.  It was because Gaza is under blockade... not just weapons are restricted, but all kinds of civilian goods as well.  Those tunnels allowed the Palestinians to obtain much needed civilian goods and supplies.  The Israelis allow only minimal amounts to be imported into Gaza.  Gazans are not permitted to be a free people; they basically are confined to an area that is six times more densely populated than Manhattan.

2.  Obama and the Congress have given foreign aid to Egypt that amounts to over a billion dollars.  The sole reason for that appears to be because the Egyptian dictatorship does not support Hamas.  [Let's not forget that decades ago, the Israeli Irgun was a terrorist organization as well, operating in the very same land where Hamas dwells.]

3.  The rockets---  First of all, the Hamas "rockets" hardly can be called rockets at all.  That term implies a degree of sophistication; nevertheless, they are explosive projectiles of some sort.  The author, Norman Finkelstein, claims they amount to something a few degrees above fireworks.  In any case, they certainly are dangerous... so, that begs the question, why are they being fired into Israel?  The Corporate Media rarely go into that, and if so, just barely.  I have to be brief, too... Hamas is trying to get Israel to end the almost eight-year blockade of Gaza.  In addition, I suspect that Palestinians are still pissed off that for more than 65 years, the Israelis have been trying to drive them off their land.  Palestinians refused to accept the U.N. partition of their land (Palestine) in 1948 into two States (Israel and Palestine) because they had been living on that land in a majority for hundreds of years.  They considered all of it their land.  The Israelis, by means of terrorism starting in 1946, finally forced the British to go to the U.N. for some sort of solution to the "Palestinian problem".  The Israelis "reclaiming" land on which their ancestors lived a couple of thousand years ago is akin to me & my "clan" returning to Ireland and "reclaiming" some place where my ancestors lived a couple of thousand years ago.  Perhaps the American Indians/Native Americans here in the U.S. should reclaim their land.  [You see how the whole idea breaks down in modern times.]

4.  The Iron Dome---  Theodore Postol, an M.I.T. Professor, a physicist, and expert on missiles, rockets, and military defense systems, stated on Democracy Now that the Iron Dome is at most perhaps 5% effective.  He explained his claim quite well, but I don't have the time to detail it.  He also said that the lack of Israeli death and injury from Hamas attacks is not due to the Iron Dome, but rather to the advanced Israeli early warning system and the fact that Israeli homes, by law, must have an artillery-shell-proof shelter within.  In addition, of course, there are many public shelters throughout Israeli towns and cities.
Meanwhile, Obama and our Congress have authorized $225 million MORE to bolster the almighty Iron Dome...which, according to a top expert, is 5% effective.  Who benefits?  Raytheon Corporation, that's who.  Plus, National Security Advisor Susan Rice states publicly what a great defense system is the Iron Dome.

5.  The lobbyist-funded love affair between the U.S. Gov't and the Israeli Gov't---
Norman Finkelstein, on Democracy Now, also pointed out that Obama started out touting the righteousness of the Israeli invasion of Gaza.  Then after the Israelis essentially murdered so many civilian bystanders and even U.N. personnel in schools and hospitals by deliberate targeting of same, he had to change his tune.  According to Finkelstein, Netanyahu withdrew his troops because Obama said publicly that the Israeli actions were deplorable and indefensible.  The author said that this is the beginning of the end of the love affair between the two Gov'ts.

6.  Even IF Hamas was using civilians to shield military activities, a HUMANE Gov't does not go ahead anyway and target civilian homes, schools, and hospitals...thus killing hundreds of innocent men, women, and CHILDREN.  CHILDREN!  As to the Israeli military warning civilians that their homes were about to be bombed, the question arises, to where should they run?  U.N. shelters were also bombed... killing refugees, as well as U.N. workers.  That is insanity; there is no justification for it.  These are war crimes.

Enough of the lies from the Establishment... enough of only part of the history of Israel and Palestine.  Israel is not the Little Miss Goodie Two Shoes portrayed by Obama (until very recently), Netanyahu, Susan Rice, and the Corporate Media.  There are two sides to every story of conflict.

Partly just my opinion.

Be Well