Hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to flee, once again, after more than half of Gaza's population took sanctuary in the border town of Rafah. This is part of Israel's sadistic playbook.
This is a stunning column. It says it all with simplicity and straightforwardness and yes, horror.Our own leaders and elites have become monsters and cheerleaders for this seething cauldron of bestial depravity. To shine a light on this criminality has become a crime itself, punishable by assault and violence.
So much for "making peace with one's enemy" - a dream snuffed out by Netanyahu all those years ago.
But we must stand with those Jews and Israelis who have spoken up and fought for the Palestinian families caught up in this horror. My admiration for JVP members in particular knows no bounds as they demonstrate that the problem is not jewishness but the simple and straightforward promotion of human depravity as a political Creed.
Thank you Chris for being light in the darkness....
It is the legal aspect that should be represented here. Universities are public places. There is a very real genocide being funded by US congressmen. Children are being killed in Gaza as to which which in our own US law can’t be even be held responsible to stand trial. It is illegal to commit genocide. It is illegal to prohibit non violent speech.
I am shocked to see African American congressman actively prohibiting speech in the universities, especially since it wasn’t that long ago Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders like Medgar Evers were killed advocating for civil rights. What about Billie Holiday’s song “strange fruit” did these congress members forget?
“Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees”
These incarcerated students need to be filing a civil rights complaint. They were not doing anything illegal so we need to bring the same trial from the International Criminal Court here.
Time to find out if US Supreme Court is in pocket of AIPAC’s pocket or not.
This essay had to have been as painful to write as it is to read or hear. Atrocity after atrocity. Humiliation after humiliation. Endless terror... grief... terror... grief...terror...utter exhaustion. Unspeakable deliberate torture. The truth of Mr. Fish's image in this country is horrifying in itself - ”...how to live among people with eyes that don’t water, hearts that don’t flinch, and voices that remain silent” as Roshan quoted. The last stage being "smiley faces" watching war crimes on TV!!
Thank you so much, Chris, for again bearing witness to and speaking these unspeakable truths. And thank you, Eunice, for your beautiful reading. For each of us to help carry as much as we can of these unbearable truths for the sake of the Gazans/Palestinians is why we are here in this moment of time. For those of us who have not succumbed to the deadening, dehumanizing deluge of daily brainwashing that serves to turn hearts to stone and deflect attention away from the vast accumulation, stealing and hoarding of "wealth" (land, oil, resources) at the price of any and every living thing by the soulless corporate and political Entities of Power and Domination, which requires creating and arming soulless brutal oppressors - we feel every word you write and thank you for the tremendous stamina, courage, steadfastness and compassion you give voice to week after week that helps us to bear and hold in our hearts and minds even one tiny sesame seed of the weight of terror and suffering of our brothers and sisters in Gaza/Palestine that you describe.
Together we become an ever growing collective, a solidarity, joining the millions around the world whose eyes do water, with hearts that do flinch and individually and together continue with our words and actions to speak Truth to Power come what may.
Thank you, Mr. Hedges for continue denouncing the genocide. Every day there are more Jewish voices decrying this moral depravity that is staining the religion of Abraham.
Following, I'm sharing the introduction of Max Blumenthal's talk "October 7th was inevitable" at the Boston Community Church, Boston, MA 14 December 2023:
"This means a lot to me to be here. I wanted to be here in person. Because it reminds me that the last talk I did on Gaza was at the synagogue on Passover of Rabbi Brant
Rosen in Evanston, Illinois, outside Chicago, which is an anti-Zionist synagogue that was filled with Jews like me, who see Zionism as transforming our religion which is one
reason why we feel so passionately about this issue. And why you see more and more rising to the occasion. Coming to the fore, occupying the U.S. Capitol, occupying streets around America to protest this genocide. And when I think back about all of the things I witnessed in Gaza in 2014, being in the rubble with families, who saw
their homes that they had worked for their entire lives, with multiple levels for each generation destroyed, reduced to rubble, targeted with missiles. Or speaking to people who had their entire families killed and nearly wiped from the Civil Registry of Gaza, speaking to families who witnessed their loved ones killed like the family of Salem Shamaly who was killed by a sniper. Being in that environment, actually being under the bombing myself and feeling what that's like to have naval shells explode nearby, to have a drone over your head at night, to hear the missile strikes, to actually experience the terror that people experience day in and day out and have the option of leaving when they don't. That made me so upset. When I see all of these morally fraudulent media personalities try to ambush those of us who stand in solidarity with Palestine and try to demand that we condemn October 7, or we condemn Hamas when
none of them condemned a single thing that happened before October 7. If anything, they supported it. Massacre after massacre over 70 years of an unbearable cavalry
experienced by Palestinians and they have never been asked to condemn it. They've never asked a U.S. official or a Western official. And we have to condemn something now? It's as if history didn't exist before October 7. They hate context. They call it whataboutism. That’s like code for context. Let's talk about some history first. Let's try to understand why this is happening because between the time that I was first in Gaza, and now there were at least two major military escalations, which left hundreds of civilians dead, as well as the great March of Return, when civilians in Gaza did
what Thomas Friedman asked them to do. He said, if they would just have a peace march and march towards Israel, young Israelis who believe in peace would join them and they would all march together to Jerusalem. And it would change the Jewish Israeli society's attitudes. Well, they went and did that. And what did Israel do? They sent their
young people in uniform to the frontiers of Gaza. They killed, they maimed, and they showed what they thought of Gaza attempting unarmed resistance. And they left them
Semitic people or Semites is an obsolete term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group associated with people of the Middle East, including Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, and Phoenicians. When did the term "anti-semitic" come to mean "anti Jewish"? This, like so much of the history of the Middle East, is confusing and distorting. We need to take a deep breath. Sit down. Recognize each other's humanity. Agree war is not the answer. Now we just have to get rid of the military/industrial/political complex. Good luck!!
Good luck nothing - lots of hard work, educating, and refusing to be manipulated by war mongers. Biden is so ? bad - a senile old man without a conscience. Without him, and the public funds being spent to supply Israel's military the means of carrying out this crime against humanity, it wouldnt be happening. If this war wasnt dumping billions of public funding into the American and numerous other western economies - this horrid war would not be happening. If the dominant media wasnt so connected to the military academic industrial complex - this war would not be happening. Meantime - Palestinian children, women, infirmed, older people - suffer and die. Not because of anything they did - but because a corrupt man doesnt want to be jailed, and another old man want to dump public funds into a few private hands while generating a few jobs. So wrong. So sick.
I happened to be democrat decades ago but still receive requests for donations to the party and I always reply with a complaint and not money attached. Yesterday, Biden sent a card "My personal Reply to President Joe Biden" asking for support for the DNC. Today I returned it with this notice: "My conscience does not allow me to contribute to a party whose leadership is perpetrating the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza."
i would do the same with letters from Amnesty International telling them I'd donate when they stand up for Julian Assange. Eventually they did but not much. I haven't heard from them since anyway. I'm still working on my reply to these Friends of Zion sons of bitches. Gods Chosen People they say! If their god is Satan.
"God's chosen people they say!" yes. Archeology and biblical scholarship clearly show that the bible's stories are invented and no factual, and in addition those European Jews who colonized Israel might not be descendants of the original Israelites. I'm reading "Ten Myths About Israel" by Professor Ilan Pappe who is an Israeli Jew and wanted to share this quotes with you:
"There are those who would like to question whether the Jews who settled in Palestine as Zionists in the aftermath of 1918 were really the descendants of the Jews who had been exiled by Rome 2,000 years ago. It began with popular doubts cast by Arthur Koestler (1905–83), who wrote The Thirteenth Tribe (1976) in which he advanced the theory that the Jewish settlers were descended from the Khazars, a Turkish nation of the Caucasus that converted to Judaism in the eighth century and was later forced to move westward. Israeli scientists have ever since tried to prove that there is a genetic connection between the Jews of Roman Palestine and those of present-day Israel. Nevertheless, the debate continues today."
"More serious analysis came from biblical scholars who were not influenced by Zionism, such as Keith Whitelam, Thomas Thompson, and the Israeli scholar, Israel Finkelstein, all of whom reject the Bible as a factual account of any significance. Whitelam and Thompson also doubt the existence of anything like a nation in biblical times and, like others, criticize what they call the “invention of modern Israel” as the work of pro-Zionist Christian theologians.... People are entitled to invent themselves, as so many national movements have done in their moment of inception. But the problem becomes acute if the genesis narrative leads to political projects such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, and oppression."
This is eloquent but I find it troubling because it dehumanizes members of the Israeli military and implies that the men (and women?) doing the killing are all working class. I doubt this is an army of sociopaths. Although some are behaving like it now. The US has thousands of veterans suffering from PTSD over the things they did in our wars. I expect the same will be true of many Israeli soldiers. That in no way makes their crimes less horrific or in any way defensible.
Only relatively speaking. Our military spend many gruenly months training our youth to be killers. From the movie "Full Metal Jacket":
Drill Sargent to new recruits in training for the Vietnam war:
-Do any of you know who Chales Whitman was?
-Sir, he shot all those people from that tower in Austin, Texas, sir.
-Charles Whitman killed 12 people.... from a 28-story observation tower at the University of Texas... from distances of up to 400 yards.
-Anybody knows who Lee Harvey Oswald was?
-Sir, he shot Kennedy, sir.
-And do you know how far away he was?
-Sir, it was far! from that depository building, sir.
-250 feet. He was 250 feet away and shooting at a moving target. He got off three rounds with an Italian bolt action rifle in six seconds...and scored two hits including a head shot!
-Do any of you know where these individuals learned to shoot?
-Sir, in the Marines, sir.
-In the Marines! outstanding! Those individuals showed what one motivated Marine and his rifle can do! And before you leave you will be able to do the same thing!
(At the end of the training one of the recruits shot dead the drill Sargent) Fiction often depicts reality.
Past time to name the leaders, the funders and tjose profiting from this genocide while working to stop it. Then prosecute not just Biden and Netanyahu et al but all the war profiteers.
How do we criminalize profiting from war and genocide? Every leader and CEO plus corporation needs to be called out and in jail soon. We have to stop this
It’s important to recognize that this horror, this genocide, has come directly from our country. Materially and spiritually. If we are a democracy then every citizen is complicit and we all must immediately recall, reject, vote out, our corrupted and immoral legislators. If we are an oligarchy, then we must urgently and peacefully create a new legitimate form of government. Including the prosecution of Biden and his fellow war criminals. It doesn’t matter how difficult it is or how long it takes. The days of US imperial, criminal, immunity must end.
Corruption is the case. Following is the summary of the pro-Israeli "contributions" during the period 1990 to 2024. Any person can find who are those paid politicians by checking it in the opensecrets.org website.
House # of Members Average Total Contributions
Democrats 2452 $24,660 $67,510,533
Republicans 1781 $20,327 $41,321,186
Independents 2 $650 $11,700
TOTAL 4235 $25,701 $108,843,419
The US House of Representatives has 435 members and 5 non-voting delegates. Totals may exceed 440 due to mid-term replacements.
Senate # of Members Average Total Contributions
Democrats 526 $79,860 $40,381,935
Republicans 419 $78,323 $31,788,330
Independents 11 $85,441 $1,855,067
TOTAL 956 $77,432 $74,025,332
The US Senate has 100 members. Totals may exceed 100 due to mid-term replacements.
The numbers on this page are based on contributions from PACs and individuals giving $200 or more.
All the numbers on this page are for the All-election cycle and based on Federal Election Commission data released on March 20, 2023.
Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit OpenSecrets. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact OpenSecrets: info@opensecrets.org
Thank You, Open Secrets is an excellent resource! The redesign of Congress to facilitate its own corruption negates any democratic function it may have once had. Most recently the Demo leadership blocked any attempt to constrain members from using their votes to enhance their and their families investment opportunities. This is straight up clear corruption, undermining their oath and commitment to their constituents needs. Elections will only change this if there is a major social movement to challenge this crap. One or two ain't gonna do it..
Agreed. And the problem is that most of our leadership is corrupted from the judiciary to the local politicians. From Democracynow.org news of 05/17/24:
"The Washington Post reports a group of billionaires and business interests privately pressured New York City Mayor Eric Adams to deploy police on pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. A WhatsApp group with some of the country’s wealthiest people detailed donations to Adams’s campaign and conversations with the mayor. Some of those involved include real estate magnate Barry Sternlicht; Daniel Lubetzky, founder of the Kind Snacks brand; hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb; and founder of Thor Equities, Joseph Sitt."
Yes. This is why I vote for a third party instead of the lesser evil. Doing that, I protest, and since the chances of winning are low, one of the evils will win and continue the status quo until the majority of the people revolt and change the system.
I like to read the comments of people who are not famous through wealth or power.
Jews and Palestinians are suffering more than those of us who are nothing in the political world. The reason for this suffering cannot be explained other than blame, scapegoating and fear. Humans organize ways to feel safe so we don't have to worry about the future.
We are not safe if we think about it. We are not in control. And we have never been able to predict a long and healthy life ahead no matter how beautiful and accomplished we become. But we stand a better chance if we stop hating the 'other' and contribute to kindness realizing we are not in control and when we respond by attempting to control others we make things worse.
Between now and the end of life on this planet we can give up the ego's hunger for fame and power and find ways to help each other survive.
Chris, I can't believe it, but the 'TIMES' posted my latest Comment:
Jamelle, your column title says it all, but I'll try to explain more, in terms that these 'TIMES' may not understand more deeply, back all the way to the WWII Pacific OSS in 1945/46, of the 'Deer Team' changing the ebb of all history. If the latest version of a Chat GPT A.I. could reach back and learn from past history from the camaraderie of Archimedes Patti and the "Deer Team" of U.S. soldiers showed the magic path to global peace over EMPIRE in employing "co-opertition" [the integration of competition and cooperation] in such a way as to bring the conflicted, and possibly deadly warfare after WWII into a wonderful, cooperative, and essentially LOVING miracle of getting the Japanese Empire's soldiers, the American soldiers, the somewhat impotent French soldiers, and Hồ Chí Minh to all get together and celebrate what could have been extended PEACE and LOVE, instead of WAR, HATE, and DEATHS for another long eight decades from 1945 to now in 2024. When I was only about 3 in 1951/2, I answered the phone, when my father was gone. The man asked if my daddy was home, and I said no. He said he was a "war buddy of my dad", and that "his name was Patty" --- I hung up the phone. I know dad under, Gen. Kruger as a First Lt. in the Philippine’s, was later in occupation of Kyoto. Dad never talked about what he did between those times, he wasn't in Okinawa. Late in dad’s life he did say that "the Chinese could eat another country for breakfast”. I think his war buddy was Patti.
[I can't get this comment separated into the 4 paragraphs which I wrote it in, but what the hell, I'll try to give you this comment formatted the correct way]
I posted this on Tom Hartmann's substack before I listened to Jeffrey Sachs on an interview with Tucker Carlson. When I saw those two people together I must admit a I did a double take but being an admirer and follower of Sachs I listened to it. As I am a great admirer of Mr. Hedges I am looking to those of you who follow him and are much more intelligent than I for a reaction. As tech and I are not great friends I will try to post the link in another post. Can't figure out how to do it on this one. In case I fail I'm sure you will be able to figure out how to get it. It's an interview with Jeffrey Sachs and Tucker Carlson. It seems Prof. Sachs has been blackballed just like Mr. Hedges.
When is someone going to admit the Emperor has no clothes?! Our system is broken, dysfunctional, corrupt. The Dems can run around claiming they must win to save our democracy. We don't even have a representative republic anymore. The MAGAs are delusional in thinking Trump is their messiah. I often wonder if things would be different today if social media had been around when Granny D (Doris Haddock) in 1999 at 89 did her walk across the US for campaign finance reform. I won't be voting for just plain evil, The Orange One. Neither will I opt for a 3rd party. Nor will I not vote. I will cast my vote for Biden. Hoping against hope he and those around him will have the courage to address the real problems; money, Electoral Çollege and gerrymandering. Oh, did I fail to mention the military/industrial/political complex. Heaven help us!
This is a stunning column. It says it all with simplicity and straightforwardness and yes, horror.Our own leaders and elites have become monsters and cheerleaders for this seething cauldron of bestial depravity. To shine a light on this criminality has become a crime itself, punishable by assault and violence.
So much for "making peace with one's enemy" - a dream snuffed out by Netanyahu all those years ago.
But we must stand with those Jews and Israelis who have spoken up and fought for the Palestinian families caught up in this horror. My admiration for JVP members in particular knows no bounds as they demonstrate that the problem is not jewishness but the simple and straightforward promotion of human depravity as a political Creed.
Thank you Chris for being light in the darkness....
Please, use the correct spelling: Nuanyahu
Nutanyahu!
I thought it was NuttheAshole.
It is the legal aspect that should be represented here. Universities are public places. There is a very real genocide being funded by US congressmen. Children are being killed in Gaza as to which which in our own US law can’t be even be held responsible to stand trial. It is illegal to commit genocide. It is illegal to prohibit non violent speech.
I am shocked to see African American congressman actively prohibiting speech in the universities, especially since it wasn’t that long ago Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders like Medgar Evers were killed advocating for civil rights. What about Billie Holiday’s song “strange fruit” did these congress members forget?
“Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees”
These incarcerated students need to be filing a civil rights complaint. They were not doing anything illegal so we need to bring the same trial from the International Criminal Court here.
Time to find out if US Supreme Court is in pocket of AIPAC’s pocket or not.
I wish this wasn’t the truth.
Thanks Eunice you have a beautiful voice! Even while describing the horror before us! You both make a good team!
This essay had to have been as painful to write as it is to read or hear. Atrocity after atrocity. Humiliation after humiliation. Endless terror... grief... terror... grief...terror...utter exhaustion. Unspeakable deliberate torture. The truth of Mr. Fish's image in this country is horrifying in itself - ”...how to live among people with eyes that don’t water, hearts that don’t flinch, and voices that remain silent” as Roshan quoted. The last stage being "smiley faces" watching war crimes on TV!!
Thank you so much, Chris, for again bearing witness to and speaking these unspeakable truths. And thank you, Eunice, for your beautiful reading. For each of us to help carry as much as we can of these unbearable truths for the sake of the Gazans/Palestinians is why we are here in this moment of time. For those of us who have not succumbed to the deadening, dehumanizing deluge of daily brainwashing that serves to turn hearts to stone and deflect attention away from the vast accumulation, stealing and hoarding of "wealth" (land, oil, resources) at the price of any and every living thing by the soulless corporate and political Entities of Power and Domination, which requires creating and arming soulless brutal oppressors - we feel every word you write and thank you for the tremendous stamina, courage, steadfastness and compassion you give voice to week after week that helps us to bear and hold in our hearts and minds even one tiny sesame seed of the weight of terror and suffering of our brothers and sisters in Gaza/Palestine that you describe.
Together we become an ever growing collective, a solidarity, joining the millions around the world whose eyes do water, with hearts that do flinch and individually and together continue with our words and actions to speak Truth to Power come what may.
Thank you, Mr. Hedges for continue denouncing the genocide. Every day there are more Jewish voices decrying this moral depravity that is staining the religion of Abraham.
Following, I'm sharing the introduction of Max Blumenthal's talk "October 7th was inevitable" at the Boston Community Church, Boston, MA 14 December 2023:
"This means a lot to me to be here. I wanted to be here in person. Because it reminds me that the last talk I did on Gaza was at the synagogue on Passover of Rabbi Brant
Rosen in Evanston, Illinois, outside Chicago, which is an anti-Zionist synagogue that was filled with Jews like me, who see Zionism as transforming our religion which is one
reason why we feel so passionately about this issue. And why you see more and more rising to the occasion. Coming to the fore, occupying the U.S. Capitol, occupying streets around America to protest this genocide. And when I think back about all of the things I witnessed in Gaza in 2014, being in the rubble with families, who saw
their homes that they had worked for their entire lives, with multiple levels for each generation destroyed, reduced to rubble, targeted with missiles. Or speaking to people who had their entire families killed and nearly wiped from the Civil Registry of Gaza, speaking to families who witnessed their loved ones killed like the family of Salem Shamaly who was killed by a sniper. Being in that environment, actually being under the bombing myself and feeling what that's like to have naval shells explode nearby, to have a drone over your head at night, to hear the missile strikes, to actually experience the terror that people experience day in and day out and have the option of leaving when they don't. That made me so upset. When I see all of these morally fraudulent media personalities try to ambush those of us who stand in solidarity with Palestine and try to demand that we condemn October 7, or we condemn Hamas when
none of them condemned a single thing that happened before October 7. If anything, they supported it. Massacre after massacre over 70 years of an unbearable cavalry
experienced by Palestinians and they have never been asked to condemn it. They've never asked a U.S. official or a Western official. And we have to condemn something now? It's as if history didn't exist before October 7. They hate context. They call it whataboutism. That’s like code for context. Let's talk about some history first. Let's try to understand why this is happening because between the time that I was first in Gaza, and now there were at least two major military escalations, which left hundreds of civilians dead, as well as the great March of Return, when civilians in Gaza did
what Thomas Friedman asked them to do. He said, if they would just have a peace march and march towards Israel, young Israelis who believe in peace would join them and they would all march together to Jerusalem. And it would change the Jewish Israeli society's attitudes. Well, they went and did that. And what did Israel do? They sent their
young people in uniform to the frontiers of Gaza. They killed, they maimed, and they showed what they thought of Gaza attempting unarmed resistance. And they left them
with one other option..."
Semitic people or Semites is an obsolete term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group associated with people of the Middle East, including Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, and Phoenicians. When did the term "anti-semitic" come to mean "anti Jewish"? This, like so much of the history of the Middle East, is confusing and distorting. We need to take a deep breath. Sit down. Recognize each other's humanity. Agree war is not the answer. Now we just have to get rid of the military/industrial/political complex. Good luck!!
Good luck nothing - lots of hard work, educating, and refusing to be manipulated by war mongers. Biden is so ? bad - a senile old man without a conscience. Without him, and the public funds being spent to supply Israel's military the means of carrying out this crime against humanity, it wouldnt be happening. If this war wasnt dumping billions of public funding into the American and numerous other western economies - this horrid war would not be happening. If the dominant media wasnt so connected to the military academic industrial complex - this war would not be happening. Meantime - Palestinian children, women, infirmed, older people - suffer and die. Not because of anything they did - but because a corrupt man doesnt want to be jailed, and another old man want to dump public funds into a few private hands while generating a few jobs. So wrong. So sick.
I happened to be democrat decades ago but still receive requests for donations to the party and I always reply with a complaint and not money attached. Yesterday, Biden sent a card "My personal Reply to President Joe Biden" asking for support for the DNC. Today I returned it with this notice: "My conscience does not allow me to contribute to a party whose leadership is perpetrating the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza."
i would do the same with letters from Amnesty International telling them I'd donate when they stand up for Julian Assange. Eventually they did but not much. I haven't heard from them since anyway. I'm still working on my reply to these Friends of Zion sons of bitches. Gods Chosen People they say! If their god is Satan.
"God's chosen people they say!" yes. Archeology and biblical scholarship clearly show that the bible's stories are invented and no factual, and in addition those European Jews who colonized Israel might not be descendants of the original Israelites. I'm reading "Ten Myths About Israel" by Professor Ilan Pappe who is an Israeli Jew and wanted to share this quotes with you:
"There are those who would like to question whether the Jews who settled in Palestine as Zionists in the aftermath of 1918 were really the descendants of the Jews who had been exiled by Rome 2,000 years ago. It began with popular doubts cast by Arthur Koestler (1905–83), who wrote The Thirteenth Tribe (1976) in which he advanced the theory that the Jewish settlers were descended from the Khazars, a Turkish nation of the Caucasus that converted to Judaism in the eighth century and was later forced to move westward. Israeli scientists have ever since tried to prove that there is a genetic connection between the Jews of Roman Palestine and those of present-day Israel. Nevertheless, the debate continues today."
"More serious analysis came from biblical scholars who were not influenced by Zionism, such as Keith Whitelam, Thomas Thompson, and the Israeli scholar, Israel Finkelstein, all of whom reject the Bible as a factual account of any significance. Whitelam and Thompson also doubt the existence of anything like a nation in biblical times and, like others, criticize what they call the “invention of modern Israel” as the work of pro-Zionist Christian theologians.... People are entitled to invent themselves, as so many national movements have done in their moment of inception. But the problem becomes acute if the genesis narrative leads to political projects such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, and oppression."
This is eloquent but I find it troubling because it dehumanizes members of the Israeli military and implies that the men (and women?) doing the killing are all working class. I doubt this is an army of sociopaths. Although some are behaving like it now. The US has thousands of veterans suffering from PTSD over the things they did in our wars. I expect the same will be true of many Israeli soldiers. That in no way makes their crimes less horrific or in any way defensible.
Training humans to be sociopaths is easy, relatively speaking.
it's called Boot Camp
Only relatively speaking. Our military spend many gruenly months training our youth to be killers. From the movie "Full Metal Jacket":
Drill Sargent to new recruits in training for the Vietnam war:
-Do any of you know who Chales Whitman was?
-Sir, he shot all those people from that tower in Austin, Texas, sir.
-Charles Whitman killed 12 people.... from a 28-story observation tower at the University of Texas... from distances of up to 400 yards.
-Anybody knows who Lee Harvey Oswald was?
-Sir, he shot Kennedy, sir.
-And do you know how far away he was?
-Sir, it was far! from that depository building, sir.
-250 feet. He was 250 feet away and shooting at a moving target. He got off three rounds with an Italian bolt action rifle in six seconds...and scored two hits including a head shot!
-Do any of you know where these individuals learned to shoot?
-Sir, in the Marines, sir.
-In the Marines! outstanding! Those individuals showed what one motivated Marine and his rifle can do! And before you leave you will be able to do the same thing!
(At the end of the training one of the recruits shot dead the drill Sargent) Fiction often depicts reality.
Past time to name the leaders, the funders and tjose profiting from this genocide while working to stop it. Then prosecute not just Biden and Netanyahu et al but all the war profiteers.
How do we criminalize profiting from war and genocide? Every leader and CEO plus corporation needs to be called out and in jail soon. We have to stop this
It’s important to recognize that this horror, this genocide, has come directly from our country. Materially and spiritually. If we are a democracy then every citizen is complicit and we all must immediately recall, reject, vote out, our corrupted and immoral legislators. If we are an oligarchy, then we must urgently and peacefully create a new legitimate form of government. Including the prosecution of Biden and his fellow war criminals. It doesn’t matter how difficult it is or how long it takes. The days of US imperial, criminal, immunity must end.
Corruption is the case. Following is the summary of the pro-Israeli "contributions" during the period 1990 to 2024. Any person can find who are those paid politicians by checking it in the opensecrets.org website.
House # of Members Average Total Contributions
Democrats 2452 $24,660 $67,510,533
Republicans 1781 $20,327 $41,321,186
Independents 2 $650 $11,700
TOTAL 4235 $25,701 $108,843,419
The US House of Representatives has 435 members and 5 non-voting delegates. Totals may exceed 440 due to mid-term replacements.
Senate # of Members Average Total Contributions
Democrats 526 $79,860 $40,381,935
Republicans 419 $78,323 $31,788,330
Independents 11 $85,441 $1,855,067
TOTAL 956 $77,432 $74,025,332
The US Senate has 100 members. Totals may exceed 100 due to mid-term replacements.
The numbers on this page are based on contributions from PACs and individuals giving $200 or more.
All the numbers on this page are for the All-election cycle and based on Federal Election Commission data released on March 20, 2023.
Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit OpenSecrets. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact OpenSecrets: info@opensecrets.org
Thank You, Open Secrets is an excellent resource! The redesign of Congress to facilitate its own corruption negates any democratic function it may have once had. Most recently the Demo leadership blocked any attempt to constrain members from using their votes to enhance their and their families investment opportunities. This is straight up clear corruption, undermining their oath and commitment to their constituents needs. Elections will only change this if there is a major social movement to challenge this crap. One or two ain't gonna do it..
Agreed. And the problem is that most of our leadership is corrupted from the judiciary to the local politicians. From Democracynow.org news of 05/17/24:
"The Washington Post reports a group of billionaires and business interests privately pressured New York City Mayor Eric Adams to deploy police on pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. A WhatsApp group with some of the country’s wealthiest people detailed donations to Adams’s campaign and conversations with the mayor. Some of those involved include real estate magnate Barry Sternlicht; Daniel Lubetzky, founder of the Kind Snacks brand; hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb; and founder of Thor Equities, Joseph Sitt."
When things get completely corrupted, is when things get changed.
I saw that show. We are all fortunate to have alternative media! Seriously.
Yes. This is why I vote for a third party instead of the lesser evil. Doing that, I protest, and since the chances of winning are low, one of the evils will win and continue the status quo until the majority of the people revolt and change the system.
It would be great if so many folks voted third party that it created a real electoral crisis. Dream on…. I’m voting for Jill regardless.
I like to read the comments of people who are not famous through wealth or power.
Jews and Palestinians are suffering more than those of us who are nothing in the political world. The reason for this suffering cannot be explained other than blame, scapegoating and fear. Humans organize ways to feel safe so we don't have to worry about the future.
We are not safe if we think about it. We are not in control. And we have never been able to predict a long and healthy life ahead no matter how beautiful and accomplished we become. But we stand a better chance if we stop hating the 'other' and contribute to kindness realizing we are not in control and when we respond by attempting to control others we make things worse.
Between now and the end of life on this planet we can give up the ego's hunger for fame and power and find ways to help each other survive.
Chris, I can't believe it, but the 'TIMES' posted my latest Comment:
Jamelle, your column title says it all, but I'll try to explain more, in terms that these 'TIMES' may not understand more deeply, back all the way to the WWII Pacific OSS in 1945/46, of the 'Deer Team' changing the ebb of all history. If the latest version of a Chat GPT A.I. could reach back and learn from past history from the camaraderie of Archimedes Patti and the "Deer Team" of U.S. soldiers showed the magic path to global peace over EMPIRE in employing "co-opertition" [the integration of competition and cooperation] in such a way as to bring the conflicted, and possibly deadly warfare after WWII into a wonderful, cooperative, and essentially LOVING miracle of getting the Japanese Empire's soldiers, the American soldiers, the somewhat impotent French soldiers, and Hồ Chí Minh to all get together and celebrate what could have been extended PEACE and LOVE, instead of WAR, HATE, and DEATHS for another long eight decades from 1945 to now in 2024. When I was only about 3 in 1951/2, I answered the phone, when my father was gone. The man asked if my daddy was home, and I said no. He said he was a "war buddy of my dad", and that "his name was Patty" --- I hung up the phone. I know dad under, Gen. Kruger as a First Lt. in the Philippine’s, was later in occupation of Kyoto. Dad never talked about what he did between those times, he wasn't in Okinawa. Late in dad’s life he did say that "the Chinese could eat another country for breakfast”. I think his war buddy was Patti.
[I can't get this comment separated into the 4 paragraphs which I wrote it in, but what the hell, I'll try to give you this comment formatted the correct way]
“The great killing field” 😫 how can they be so cruel? Thank you Chris, for your thoughtful article on this grotesque current event.
Sorry to be so dense. How do I connect to tonight's Q and A? Can I just go to the substack?
Please refer to my post 5/29 regarding this interview. Apologies for not being very tech savvy. Couldn't figure out how to put this on that comment.
Rhana Bazzini
From:rhana3@verizon.net
To:Rhana BAZZINI
Wed, May 29 at 5:24 PM
https://x.com/tuckercarlson/status/1795500379578253729?s=42
I posted this on Tom Hartmann's substack before I listened to Jeffrey Sachs on an interview with Tucker Carlson. When I saw those two people together I must admit a I did a double take but being an admirer and follower of Sachs I listened to it. As I am a great admirer of Mr. Hedges I am looking to those of you who follow him and are much more intelligent than I for a reaction. As tech and I are not great friends I will try to post the link in another post. Can't figure out how to do it on this one. In case I fail I'm sure you will be able to figure out how to get it. It's an interview with Jeffrey Sachs and Tucker Carlson. It seems Prof. Sachs has been blackballed just like Mr. Hedges.
When is someone going to admit the Emperor has no clothes?! Our system is broken, dysfunctional, corrupt. The Dems can run around claiming they must win to save our democracy. We don't even have a representative republic anymore. The MAGAs are delusional in thinking Trump is their messiah. I often wonder if things would be different today if social media had been around when Granny D (Doris Haddock) in 1999 at 89 did her walk across the US for campaign finance reform. I won't be voting for just plain evil, The Orange One. Neither will I opt for a 3rd party. Nor will I not vote. I will cast my vote for Biden. Hoping against hope he and those around him will have the courage to address the real problems; money, Electoral Çollege and gerrymandering. Oh, did I fail to mention the military/industrial/political complex. Heaven help us!
Haunting. Like every face in every video from Gaza. God, Do something!