There's always news of Doo-Doo DeSantis. One thing I've been trying to work in of late is the interview that LGBTQ NATION did with US House Rep Ro Khanna:
LGBTQ Nation: What a crazy year it’s it’s been. Obviously, for the LGBTQ+ community, we need straight people to help. It can’t just be queer politicians because there aren’t enough of them. So, what brings you to the fight? It seems like everybody has that friend or relative or an experience that influenced them. Everybody’s got a story. What’s yours?
Rep. Khanna: Mine is probably rooted in my values from my childhood, growing up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and my grandfather spent four years in jail alongside Gandhi as part of India’s independence moment. So, from a young age, I grew up being taught about the dignity and worth of every human being. He literally spent years of his life in jail fighting for those principles.
Growing up in school as a son of immigrants with a funny-sounding name, I used to get teased. And I just thought bullying is cruel, and it’s not something that should have any place in society. So, for me, it’s about sort of a broad honor principle that we shouldn’t pick on people, we shouldn’t be cruel to people. We should treat everyone with basic dignity. School, in particular, can be a pretty mean place if you don’t fit in, and the folks now being picked on are often LGBTQ or trans. Standing up for them is standing up for the kind of decency and kindness that I would have wanted in my school experience and that my grandfather fought for for every person.
LGBTQ Nation: I have to admit, sometimes covering Congress feels like covering a high school, with the constant picking on people and snide, mean comments. They’re even on social media constantly, just bad-mouthing everyone.
RK: I think it is like a high school, though, in some ways, worse with the insults. I probably didn’t meet someone who was gay until college and someone trans until later in the Bay Area. But I don’t think it requires knowing someone who has gone through an experience of discrimination, who’s LGBTQ or trans, to stand up for kindness and decency. Right? I think we have to think about our own experiences and the cruelty we have faced and then say, “Why would you want any person to face that?” You don’t want to have everyone need to have an awakening.
Doo-Doo news? He's in a cat fight with Donald Trump these days. He looks like he's drowning and desperate to somehow stay relevant.
On the other side of the aisle? This:
One of former President Barack Obama’s top political advisers warned Wednesday that President Biden’s record low approval rating is “very, very dark” news for his re-election campaign.
David Axelrod, Obama’s top campaign guru, referenced a recent Wall Street Journal poll on his “Hacks on Tap” podcast that shows only 37% of voters approving of the 81-year-old president’s job in the Oval Office, with 61% holding an unfavorable view of the incumbent.
The same poll has former President Donald Trump leading Biden by four points in a head-to-head matchup, and by six points with independent candidates in the mix.
“Job approval down, ratings generally down, most of the comparatives with Trump not good,” Axelrod told his co-hosts, political consultant Mike Murphy and former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. “What I worry about, you guys, from a Biden standpoint, is these are the kinds of things you get when people are starting to rationalize their votes.”
“And they just put out another photo op with the ‘Bidenomics’ sign next to him … it’s just unbelievable to me,” he added, referencing the White House’s insistence on promoting Biden’s economic agenda despite poll after poll showing Americans are dissatisfied with the president’s handling of the economy.
The best way to stop a second term for Donald Trump would be to have a better Democratic Party nominee.
And Joe's support of Israel's genocide isn't doing him any favors. I hear more and more people saying that they won't vote for him because of it.
At the late date, what name Dem could step in?
I'd say Russ Feingold, Patty Murray, Gavin Newsom, maybe AOC?
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
In Washington, D.C., over a dozen Jewish elders chained themselves to the fence in front of the White House, urging President Biden to end his opposition to a ceasefire. The 18 women who participated in the act of civil disobedience read the names of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since Hamas’s October 7 attack. They also chanted, “Biden, Biden, pick a side, ceasefire not genocide!”
Also on Capitol Hill, over 100 protesters occupied the Senate atrium Monday, urging lawmakers and the Biden administration to cease all military aid to Israel, and instead divest funds for affordable housing, healthcare and other needs. Many protesters wore black shirts with the words “Invest in life.” Dozens were arrested.
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in war-torn Gaza, in a rebuke to the United States which has repeatedly blocked ceasefire calls in the UN’s Security Council.
A majority of 153 nations voted for the ceasefire resolution in the General Assembly’s emergency special session Tuesday, while 10 voted against and 23 abstained.
While a General Assembly vote is politically significant and seen as wielding moral weight, it is nonbinding, unlike a Security Council resolution. The US last week vetoed a ceasefire resolution in the smaller Security Council, which had been approved by a majority of the powerful 15-member body.
+ Americans are experiencing a rare chance to relive in real-time echoes of the darkest episodes of our own history–from the howitzering of the exhausted Nez Perce in the Bear Paws to the slaughter of nearly frozen Lakota women and children at Wounded Knee; from the internment of Japanese-Americans to the grotesqueries of Abu Ghraib–and seem to have decided it was all for the greater good.
+ Gaza 2023, not Iraq 2004…
+ The Financial Times reported this week that the retaliatory bombing of Gaza with American weapons and American consent may have already surpassed the death toll from the retaliatory bombing of Dresden by US and UK bombers during the waning days of WW II.
A British Palestinian surgeon who spent weeks in the Gaza Strip during the current Israel-Hamas war as part of a Doctors Without Borders medical team said he has given testimony to a British war crimes investigation unit.
Ghassan Abu Sitta, a plastic surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, has volunteered with medical teams in multiple conflicts in Gaza, beginning as a medical student in the late 1980s during the the first Palestinian uprising. He has also worked in other conflict zones, including in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Here's a video of the doctor explaining what he saw:
Of course, the Israeli government denies they are committing War Crimes and Joe Biden's right there denying as well. But it's not that easy, it's not that simple. Josh Meyer (USA TODAY) explained:
But a growing chorus of international experts – including some former U.S. government war crimes officials – say Israel's bombing of civilian areas is a clear violation of the internationally recognized rules of armed conflict.
“I have very serious concerns about their compliance with the law of war in Gaza based on what I’m seeing,” attorney Brian Finucane, who spent nearly a decade as a State Department adviser on the law of armed conflict, said in an interview. One of the biggest concerns, said Finucane, who left the State Department in 2021, involves “how Israel is defining military objectives, and whether those definitions are consistent with the law of war.”
[. . .]
“Is Israel doing everything feasible to limit civilian harm? Is it causing disproportionate harm when attacking civilian targets?” asked Anthony Dworkin, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “These depend on context – such as information on targeting – which is why leaders are hesitant to make conclusive statements.
“But I would say that Israeli actions fall outside what is reasonable and do constitute war crimes,” Dworkin, a former director of the nonprofit Crimes of War Project, told USA TODAY.
Click here for ALJAZEERA's INSIDE STORY addressing the topic of possible US complicity in War Crimes. The realities of abuse taking place cannot be refuted. This morning on NPR's MORNING EDITION, Ari Daniel noted:
Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states, "Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict." Article 19 continues, "The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy."
When attacks on health facilities or medical workers do happen — as they have repeatedly in these and other conflicts — the results are devastating. In addition, "part of [health workers'] mission is to provide a witness function," says Amy Hagopian, a public health researcher at the University of Washington, now retired. In her view, this is one reason why health professionals can pose a threat to a military or militia. They can "undermine the credibility of the fighting force [and hold] them accountable in ways that legal entities seem not to be able to do," she says.
Global health officials are concerned with the quickening pace and severity of attacks in multiple conflict zones. "The sanctity of health care is less and less respected," observes Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization. "It seems the world has lost its moral compass."
Sam Zarifi, the executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, agrees. He says, "There's a norm that we have to protect health-care facilities. The temptation to violate that norm has always been very high. That's why the norm has to be really strengthened."
But the opposite has happened, Zarifi believes. He's worried that this norm has been eroding in conflicts all over the world. Before the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the year 2023 was already positioned to be the worst yet for attacks on health care. The ensuing war between Israel and Hamas has pushed that trend into overdrive.
War Crimes?
Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) reports on a TELEGRAM channel with videos and photos posted to it of abuses being carried out. The abuses are posted not in horror but in glee "often accompanied by celebratory captions and emojis." The Israeli military is said to be the ones behind the channel (with a name apparently intended to mock Muslims or just celebrate the hack Boris Johnson and his bad political novel about assassinating a US president) but the Isreali government denies any involvement in the channel. What's posted is offensive and does amount to War Crimes. Johnson:
One image shows what appears to be two Israeli soldiers dragging a dead body with the caption, "Who wants to buy a mop made by Hamas?"
Other screengrabs published by Haaretz show bodies described in the caption as "dead Hamas terrorists."
Haaretz also pointed to an October 11 post on the channel that read: "Burning their mother... You won't believe the video we got! You can hear the crunch of their bones. We'll upload it right away, get ready." Other images of Palestinians on the channel were captioned "exterminating the roaches" and "exterminating the Hamas rats."
The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill called the images and accompanying messages "deeply, deeply sick" and noted that "there are similar channels run by Israelis that have much larger followings than the IDF one."
"I scanned through the postings of this sadistic IDF-run Telegram channel and it is utterly sickening," Scahill wrote on social media.
Jeet Heer, national affairs columnist for The Nation, likened the Telegram images to the appalling photos that emerged nearly two decades ago from the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib military prison in Iraq—"but on a far larger scale."
"This will be Biden's legacy," Heer wrote.
War Crimes?
From yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!
AMY GOODMAN: The United Nations General Assembly is voting today on a resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and the immediate release of all hostages. The vote comes four days after the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire to halt Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which has killed over 18,000 Palestinians.
Israel says Hamas and other groups in Gaza are still holding 138 hostages. During the seven-day truce in late November, Hamas released 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and children who were held in Israeli prisons.
On Monday, relatives of some of the remaining Israeli hostages met with Israeli lawmakers at the Knesset. The Times of Israel reports the families, quote, “called for the government to prioritize seeking an agreement for their release through diplomatic channels, rather than pressing on with the military offensive in Gaza against Hamas,” unquote. Family members are planning to hold a protest outside the Knesset today under the slogan “The hostages have no time.”
We’re joined right now by Neta Heiman Mina. Her 84-year-old mother, Ditza Heiman, was held hostage in Gaza and freed on November 28th. She had been kidnapped on October 7th from her home on the kibbutz Nir Oz near the border with Gaza by Hamas. Neta Heiman is joining us from Haifa. She’s a member of the Israeli chapter of Women Wage Peace.
Neta, welcome to Democracy Now! I’m so sorry under these circumstances. Can you talk about what you’re demanding?
NETA HEIMAN MINA: We are demanding to release all the hostages. We are demanding from the Israeli government to put a deal on the table, not — do not wait to Sinwar to offer a deal. We need the Israeli government to put a deal that will be — it will be a painful price. We will need to release lots of Palestinian prisoners. We will need to do a lot of days of stop the fire, fire stop. But the people that were taken on the 7th of October, the price is for them, and they deserve this price, because the country left them behind. It’s been 67 days, I think, since the 7th of October, and they’re still there. Yesterday, Amiram Cooper from kibbutz Nir Oz, it was his 85th birthday, a 85-years-old man that they’re keeping hostage in Gaza without medication, without enough food. Who can survive this?
AMY GOODMAN: There’s been some discussion of Israel flooding the tunnels with saltwater. Can you respond to this, and what was said to Israeli lawmakers?
NETA HEIMAN MINA: Yes, yes. Part of our people are in these tunnels. If you flood it with water, what will happen to the hostages? We know part of them is in the tunnels — are in the tunnels.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the day that your mother was released? This was during the truce, during the temporary ceasefire, when more than a hundred — Hamas released more than a hundred hostages. Where were you? How was your mother, Ditza Heiman?
NETA HEIMAN MINA: It was very exciting. We wait for this for 53 days. She was a hostage 53 days. And we wait for her to be in the list. Every day there was a list, who will be released the day after. And we wait. And she came back. We were very happy. She came back, and she’s OK. But there is a lot of people are still there. And this is what’s important, to bring them back home immediately, because they have no time. The bombing on Gaza can hurt them. My mother wasn’t in a tunnel. Every bomb that they fell on Gaza can hurt her, hurt the hostages. We must bring them home now. There is no time.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk more about how she was treated by Hamas, who she was held with, and also who your mom, 84 years old, Ditza is? And talk about her role in the kibbutz Nir Oz.
NETA HEIMAN MINA: I can’t — the story for 53 days, it’s her story, and I can’t tell her condition, because it’s going to be a danger for the people who left behind. She was 84 years old, that lived all her adult life in the kibbutz near the border with Gaza. She built the kibbutz. She was from the founders of the kibbutz. She was a very — she was a social worker for a long time. She worked until age of 80.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Neta, if you can talk about your organization, Women Wage Peace, an organization that the slain activist Vivian Silver was also a part of, who was killed on one of the kibbutzes? They thought she was being held hostage, but, ultimately, I guess, they found DNA of her on the kibbutz.
NETA HEIMAN MINA: Women Wage Peace is a movement, Israeli movement, of people from all of the rainbow, political rainbow. We are not a — sorry. And all we ask, since Tzuk Eitan, since 2014, to make an agreement with the Palestinians. We don’t tell what kind of agreement, but we believe that there is a possibility to talk with the Palestinians and to make an agreement that they will bring us a peaceful life. We have a sisterhood, a movement, a Palestinian sisterhood movement, that they call us — themselves Women of the Sun. There are people, women, from the West Bank and from Gaza, as well. And we all believe that we can live here in peace.
AMY GOODMAN: In your opinion piece for Haaretz back in October, you wrote, “I’m furious at the Israeli government, and the accursed members of the government who, because of them, the army was patrolling the West Bank village of Hawara over the Sukkot holiday, instead of guarding and protecting my mother. I’m furious at this government that has for almost a year been doing everything they can to escalate the situation in the Gaza border area. This colossal failure, this chaos, is on their shoulders, is their fault — as is the fact that even now, four days later, a government representative has still not visited most of the families of the hostages.” That was in October. If you can talk about what is happening now with the Israeli government, how they’re communicating with you? You gave a speech yesterday. Explain where you gave it and what your message was, Neta.
NETA HEIMAN MINA: The Israeli government contacted all the families, and all the hostage families had contact with the government and with the army, but it took too long. Part of the families, it took almost two weeks until someone called them. Yesterday we were — Women Wage Peace were lighting Hanukkah candles in the Hostages Square, the name of the Tel Aviv Museum. And we call for a release all the hostages, and they start a peace process after.
AMY GOODMAN: What would that peace process look like?
NETA HEIMAN MINA: I don’t know. I know that Hamas must go. They can’t control Gaza. But Israel can’t control Gaza, as well. It will be — I think it will be — it will need international involvement to establish something else in Gaza, that maybe the Palestinian — I don’t know how to tell it in —
AMY GOODMAN: Authority? The Palestinian Authority?
NETA HEIMAN MINA: Authority will take — yes, the Palestinian Authority will take Gaza, to establish something else to replace the Hamas control in Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: Your final thoughts —
NETA HEIMAN MINA: And then maybe — what?
AMY GOODMAN: Your final thoughts on President Biden, on the United States vetoing the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for ceasefire?
NETA HEIMAN MINA: I think it must be a ceasefire for — that we can release all the hostages. And then, Israel has a right to protect herself. And what happened on the 7th of October came out from Gaza. But I don’t think we can destroy Gaza or erase Gaza. There are also innocent people in Gaza, not all of them from the Hamas.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Neta Heiman Mina, I want to thank you for being with us. Her 84-year-old mother, Ditza Heiman, was kidnapped by Hamas from her home on the kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza border, was released November 28th. Neta is a member of the Israeli chapter of Women Wage Peace.
Coming up, outrage is growing in Dubai after a call to phase out fossil fuels is dropped from the draft of the proposed climate deal at the U.N. climate summit. We’ll be in Dubai. Stay with us.
Israel continues to prevent independent journalistic access to Gaza – it will do so until there is a ceasefire and even then, if Israel remains in control of the territory, I am not sure we will be allowed in.
I don't think the Israeli forces are worried about whether we are safe in there or not – I think there are things they don't want us to see and that they want to master the media battlefield.
So they are fighting on all fronts and controlling the media is one of them.
If you look at Israeli TV, it is focused 24/7 on Gaza of course. But what you don’t see is Palestinian suffering.
You see troops, the home front, constant reminders of what happened on 7 October. You see the pain of the hostage families.
What you do not see are stories of individual Palestinians, nor the colossal scale of the damage going on in Gaza.
Ackman wrote on X that he “learned from someone with first person knowledge of the Harvard president search that the committee would not consider a candidate who did not meet the DEI office’s criteria,” adding that Gay would not have found herself in the role without a “fat finger on the scale.”
While I wish it were not necessary, let me set the record straight. President Gay’s resume is exemplary. She earned an undergraduate degree at Stanford University and was awarded the Anna Laura Myers Prize for best senior thesis in the Economics Department. She earned a Ph.D. at Harvard, then served three years as Harvard's Dean of Social Science before becoming the Faculty of Arts and Science Edgerley Family Dean.
Whatever you think about current events, there can be no dispute over her qualifications.
Make no mistake: Ackman’s statement on President Gay and equating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to modern-day McCarthyism have nothing to do with combating antisemitism. Rather, Ackman is choosing to inflame “anti-woke” culture wars against the most visible Black woman he could target.
This strategy is patently offensive. It undermines the true purpose and goal of diversity programming and devalues the hard work and accomplishments of President Gay and every other Black woman in a position of power and influence.
Iraqi-American beauty mogul Huda Kattan, 40, has said she has received threats for sharing her pro-Palestinian stance online. Now in a video she uploaded to TikTok on Sunday, she said she is looking for truth and justice.
"We have to remember that we can't be afraid to lose anything, we have to trust the process and we have to trust that if we lose something, something else will come to us the right way because we are doing good work, we have to believe that, I believe that wholeheartedly," she said in the clip.
"I'm willing to risk my entire business, everything that I have on that, in search of the truth and justice and we have to be doing to do that," Kattan said.
"There's an ethnic cleansing and genocide and they try to change the definition all the time to redefine it…stop treating us like we're stupid, we're not stupid," she said.
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