Saturday, September 07, 2024

Idiot of the week

If I lived in Texas, I would be voting for Colin Allred for the US Senate.



I think he would be so great in the Senate and do such a good job for the whole country.


I'm glad he's running and I hope he wins.


Meanwhile,  I'm disappointed in myself and feel like I'm letting you readers down.  Why?  Idiot of the Week.  It's time for that again.  And the choice is so obvious.  But I'm sorry because he may end up being the choice every week now for at least the next sixty days: Miss Sassy JD Vance.  Daniel Hampton reports:



Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, once again found himself under fire on social media, this time over his comments that school shootings are a “fact of life."
“If these psychos are going to go after our kids we’ve got to be prepared for it,” Vance told rally-goers Thursday in Phoenix, according to The Associated Press. “We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We’ve got to deal with it.”


[. . .]

The comment immediately drew derision and mockery on social media.

"School shootings are a fact of American life, they are not a fact of British life or French life or Canadian life or Norwegian life ….," wrote journalist Molly Jong-Fast on X.

She added: "School shootings are not a fact, and Australian life, and New Zealand life in Irish life…."

"Get ready to hear this quote repeated, again and again," wrote Christopher Cadelago, Politico's California bureau chief.

"So maybe Trump doesn’t regret picking JD after all," quipped Democratic strategist Joe Trippi.

"@jdvance is a slug in a human suit," chided podcaster Reed Galen.

"I mean this with every ounce of respect that you deserve, @JDVance, F--- ALL THE WAY OFF," wrote Dr. Annie Andrews CEO & founder of Their Future PAC.

Betsey Stevenson, a former member of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers & chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor, pushed back at Vance's claim.

"They are not a fact of life. They do not happen in any other country but the United States," she said. "If they are a 'fact of life' for J.D. Vance that tells you everything you need to know about what he really thinks about supporting kids and families."

 

Donald Trump's campaign is bracing for another round of backlash involving J.D. Vance's extreme takes.

The Republican vice presidential candidate has repeatedly been dogged by his own remarks deemed to be misogynist, off-putting behavior and association with right-wing extremists – most infamously his slandering of Kamala Harris and other Democrats as "childless cat ladies" in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson – and the Trump campaign sees a fresh predicament on the horizon, reported The Bulwark's Marc Caputo.

"More controversy is likely on the way," Caputo wrote. "Vance pre-recorded an interview with Tucker Carlson on Thursday just hours after the White House criticized the right-wing populist for featuring a historian who suggested, a few days before, that the Holocaust happened by accident. Later this fall, CNN reported, Vance is scheduled to appear as a guest of Carlson’s during a live speaking tour."
“'Not ideal timing. But it is what it is,' a Trump campaign official said."

Trump world views the 40-year-old Ohio senator as a welcome dose of clarity in contrast to the 78-year-old former president, who's been increasingly raising concerns about his age and fitness with often incoherent rants on the campaign trail, but Democrats see Vance as an anchor with a net favorability of negative-12.


Trumpers like Miss Sassy?  Well they are stupid.  But they don't know Sassy, they still don't know Sassy. Which is why Miss Sassy -- and all he's trying to hide -- is the Idiot of the Week. 

And I got a feeling he's going to be the Idiot of the Week again before we get to the November election.  Hopefully not every week.  Hopefully some other idiot -- Trump? -- will manage to break up his streak.  Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Friday, September 6, 2024.  Conditions become worse in Gaza, Amnesty International documents War Crimes, Junior's campaign's in debt but he's putting it further in debt as he promotes Donald Trump's campaign, Jill Stein remains a predator, and much more.


Let's start in the US with the presidential election.




Oh, look, it's an advert: BRONZER, HOW NOT TO USE IT.


It's as though they're four-year-old little girls playing in Mommy's make up for the first time.


But who's paying for it?

Robert Kennedy Junior, you may remember, wanted to run for president.  Even going so far as to run as an 'independent.'


Who's paying the bills right now?  Because my understanding is that Junior's campaign had huge debts.  So where did the money come from for yesterday evening's e-mail "Who Bobby wants you to vote for"?


That's what the picture's from.  That e-mail.  Who's paying to produce this stuff?


I don't think it's legal for Junior to use money donated to his campaign to pimp another person's campaign.  If people wanted to donate to Trump, they would have done that.  I don't understand the legality of someone already in debt on their campaign using resources to go further in debt in order to promote another candidate.  

I don't understand it and I'm not the only one confused here.  Junior finally got a response yesterday from various actual small donors who'd started the journey with him.  And they replied back to the shock of the campaign which had no idea just how many people who gave money to Junior now hate him.  Actively loathe him.  "F**k you" is how 42% of the e-mails basically started.  

Junior apparently did not realize how many people now hate him.  Not casual election observers, mind you,  but people who donated to his campaign.  They feel betrayed -- and they should.


Speaking of betrayals, Jill Stein.


Karen Hunter offers her take in the above.  That's her take.  I've offered mine on this issue.  I will add though that AOC is correct that Jill Stein is a "predator."

She waits every four years and shows up to prey on people, to lie to them and mislead them -- that is predator.  AOC is correct.  Not a Ted Glick fan but we'll note this from his ZNET column:


In 2004 there were about 225 GP members who were in elected office, almost all of them low-level offices like school board, water board, etc. Today Jill Stein says there are 144. There are no GP members who have been elected to a state house or senate seat and, of course, none to Congress. It’s a pretty dismal record for 20 years of existence.

Those of us who took the “safe states” position were in a decided minority then, and today, I am sure, anyone who advocated for it would be very unpopular. The GP has become a narrow, tiny party of true believers, destined to get at most 1% or so of the vote. Of course, that would triple the vote total of their Presidential candidate, Howie Hawkins, in 2020.

I remember when it was that I decided I had had it with the GP. I was at a national People’s Summit conference in Chicago in the summer of 2016 organized by National Nurses United and many other progressive groups and individuals who had come together after active involvement in the historic Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign. I was one of those people. On the second day of this event, attended by thousands, I looked up onto a screen that was projecting tweets about the convention that were being posted. I was shocked to see one from Jill Stein explicitly calling out this event and those who organized it as being “sheepdogs for the duopoly.” These supporters of independent socialist Bernie Sanders were all about corralling progressives into the Democratic Party, Stein was saying.

The GP, and others supporting them, don’t get it on mass politics. They believe in ideological purty before anything else. Unless you’re ideologically pure, they would say, you will never be able to bring about the transformational, revolutionary changes needed. Purity comes before anything else.

Twenty years of this approach have made it clear this is a losing strategy. The national US Green Party is a failure because of its rigid and narrow electoral approach.


The Democratic Party sent out a mailing yesterday.


The first early vote ballots will drop in the mail this week.

This is not a drill.

People are voting not just for president, but in critical races that will impact control of the House, the Senate, and races further down the ballot as well.

That is why we are asking you to donate $3 to the Democratic Party today.

$3 because a donation today will go further than at any point later in the cycle.

$3 because control of the White House, Senate, House, and down-ballot races are on the line.

$3 because the DNC is the best organization to ensure we have the infrastructure and resources in the places that will matter most.

We know you didn't wake up and think, “Today is the day I am donating to the DNC,” but just think about the people about to fill out their ballots and the impact your donation can make in reaching persuadable voters before they do.

Today is the day. Donate here:

Can Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and Democrats running for office everywhere count on you to donate today -- especially today -- as ballots are being mailed to voters in several states across the country?


The election is in 59 days.  People need to be watching registration deadlines if they aren't already registered to vote.  On that, we're noting this from THIRD's "Roundtable" again:


Sabina and Francisco are doing great work in Texas and it's great to talk to them and amplify them in any way possible. One thing not being reported is that Texas has disabled online voter registration.  If you're planning to vote in Texas in November, the first thing you need to do is to check and make sure you weren't purged because Governor Greg Asshole has purged over a million people from the voter rolls.   The next thing you need to know is that Greg Asshole has stopped online voter registration.  You will need to register by October 7th.  That may require you going to your local voter registration officials office.  If you're renewing your drivers license or getting a replacement for it, you can register at the DMV.  Fall means county fairs and there will be people with booths and tables set up to register voters..  You can also print up an application online and mail it in.  You need to move quickly on that because October 7th is the deadline.


I'm not a TYT fan but they did cover what's going on in Texas so I'm noting their video today.





Turning to Gaza,  THE NATIONAL reports, "At least six Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes on the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Friday morning. The bodies were taken to Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, the Wafa news agency reported."the United Nations notes:


Víctor Aguayo, UNICEF Director of Child Nutrition, described the situation for children affected by severe malnutrition.

Briefing journalists at the UN Headquarters in New York, he described the situation in Gaza as one of the most severe food and nutrition crises in history.

“The nutrition situation in Gaza is one of the most severe that we have ever seen…it is important to remember that the nearly half of Gaza’s population suffering from this devastation are children,” he said.

Having returned from the enclave last week, he said that the impact of the war and severe restrictions on humanitarian response have led to a “complete collapse” of food, health and protection systems, with catastrophic consequences.

“The fact is that the diets of children in Gaza are extremely poor. It is estimated that over 90 per cent of children are eating at best two types of food per day for weeks or months, in the context of very severe…lack of access to safe water and sanitation,” he said.

Estimates suggest that more than 50,000 children need immediate treatment for acute malnutrition, requiring medical professionals and nutrition workers.

“I walked through markets and neighborhoods, or what is left of markets and neighborhoods…there is no doubt in my mind there is a famine and a large-scale nutrition crisis,” he emphasized, calling for an immediate ceasefire and sustained humanitarian access.

 


Zack Beauchamp (VOX) reports:

This weekend, Israeli soldiers in Gaza discovered the bodies of six hostages executed by Hamas. The response was an outpouring of protests: Israelis flooding the streets to call for a ceasefire that would bring all hostages back and end the war, a demand that a majority of Israelis support. The Histadrut, Israel’s national labor union, called a (swiftly ended) general strike.

The response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to double down on war. In a Monday night press conference, he insisted that any ceasefire would depend on Israeli control over a stretch of territory in southwestern Gaza called the Philadelphi Corridor — something Hamas is not prepared to give. Netanyahu’s presser was so belligerent, in fact, that it may have single-handedly torpedoed ongoing ceasefire talks.

It’s clear that the Israeli public has no faith in Netanyahu’s handling of the war: Roughly 70 percent believe he should resign his position. Yet despite ongoing protests, it’s equally clear that the prime minister will not be changing course voluntarily.

And it looks like he’ll likely get away with it, at least for now.

His government has weathered dismal polling on its war effort, as well as sporadic protests, since the war began last October. And yet, as with past demonstration flare-ups, there has been no evidence that this weekend’s events have brought his government to the brink of collapse. How can this be?

The answer is brute power politics. The 2022 election gave right-wing parties a clear majority in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), allowing Netanyahu to build the most far-right government in Israeli history. Though this coalition has since become extremely unpopular, there’s no way for voters to kick it out on their own.

The government could only collapse if it faces defections from inside the governing coalition. But at present, the greatest threat to Netanyahu’s coalition comes from his extreme right flank, which wants him to continue the war at all costs. And for that reason, he seems intent on doing so.



That's a little too much reality if your name is Debra Messing or Gweneth Paltrow.  Too much facts, too much truth, too much reality.   Here's some more reality from Amnesty International:


International humanitarian law, which applies in situations of armed conflict, including during military occupation, is comprised of rules whose central purpose is to limit, to the maximum extent feasible, human suffering in times of armed conflict.

The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977 are the principal instruments of international humanitarian law. Many of these treaties’ rules are considered customary international law, meaning that they bind all parties to an armed conflict regardless of whether they have ratified particular treaties and whether they are a state forces or a non-state armed group.

According to this customary norm, “the destruction or seizure of the property of an adversary is prohibited, unless required by imperative military necessity”. In addition, according to article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which regulates the actions of Israel as the occupying power in Gaza: “Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.”

According to article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, “extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” is a grave breach of the Convention, and thus a war crime.

Where such destruction is carried out as collective punishment, it also violates article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which provides: “No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.”

Civilian property in armed conflict is also protected by the principle of distinction, which requires that parties to the conflict at all times, distinguish between “civilian objects” and “military objectives” and direct their attacks only at military objectives.

According to customary international humanitarian law, civilian objects are all objects which are not “military objectives”; and military objectives are “limited to those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose partial or total destruction, capture or neutralisation, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage”. Civilian objects are protected against attack, unless and for such time as they become military objectives when all of the criteria for a military objective are temporarily fulfilled Protocol I requires that, in cases of doubt, parties to a conflict should presume that the structure retains its civilian nature. Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects is a war crime.


It's a lengthy press release which is why we linked to the release itself (normally on Amnesty, CCR, etc, we link to home page of the organization).  Brett Wilkins (COMMON DREAMS) reports:


  Amnesty International said Thursday that the Israeli military should be investigated for the "war crimes of wanton destruction and of collective punishment" over its destruction of entire communities along Gaza's border with Israel.

"Using bulldozers and manually laid explosives, the Israeli military has unlawfully destroyed agricultural land and civilian buildings, razing entire neighborhoods, including homes, schools, and mosques," the London-based rights group said in a new investigation.

Amnesty analyzed satellite imagery, as well as photos and videos posted online by invading Israel Defense Forces troops between October and May, and found that the IDF has cleared wide swathes of land up to 1.2 miles (1.8 km) wide along Gaza's eastern border. 

"In some videos, Israeli soldiers are seen posing for pictures or toasting in celebration as buildings are demolished in the background," the report states. 

[. . .]

  In the 335 days since October 7, Israeli forces have killed or maimed more than 145,000 Palestinians in Gaza while forcibly displacing almost all of the embattled strip's 2.3 million people and destroying hundreds of thousands of homes and other structures, according to Palestinian and international officials. Rebuilding after Israel's obliteration of Gaza's civilian infrastructure is expected to cost over $18.5 billion, or nearly Palestine's entire annual gross domestic product.

Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Meanwhile, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan has applied for warrants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes including extermination.

"International humanitarian law, which applies in situations of armed conflict, including during military occupation, is comprised of rules whose central purpose is to limit, to the maximum extent feasible, human suffering in times of armed conflict," Amnesty explained Thursday.

The group noted that under the Fourth Geneva Convention, "extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly," is a war crime.

Additionally, the treaty bans collective punishment of civilians, stating that "no protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed." 


Also covering the report is Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT):


According to an analysis by Amnesty International released Thursday, Israel has cleared a strip of land ranging between 1 km and 1.8 km wide. The buffer zone encompasses nearly the entirety of the Gaza side of its border with Israel, covering 58 square kilometers, or about 22 square miles.

Satellite imagery from May shows that over 90 percent of the buildings in this zone have been destroyed or severely damaged, the rights group found, while the majority of agricultural land there is also damaged.

Investigation by Amnesty International finds that Israeli forces created the buffer zone merely because of its proximity to the border fence, and for no supposed military necessity or tactical purpose. Anything in the zone appears to have been eligible for destruction: homes, schools, farms, mosques and cemeteries were all demolished.

“Around my family home we had a three dunam (0.7 acre) orchard full of fruit trees. They were all destroyed. Only an apple tree and a rose were left. I had bees and produced honey. All of it is gone now,” Salem Qudeih told Amnesty International. Qudeih lived in Khuza’a, situated near the border in Khan Yunis, which Israeli forces raided and nearly totally destroyed in December and January. 


Again, this is reality.  It's not the deranged fantasy that a bunch of self-deceiving idiots keep promoting to justify (and argue for it to continue) the genocide.  Devi Sridhar (GUARDIAN) notes:


The discovery of polio in Gaza reminds us that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to assess the true cost of the war. We don’t have a sense of how widespread disease and starvation are – so called “indirect deaths” – and we are in the dark in terms of total number of deaths. Usually, data is collected from hospitals and morgues, which certify each death and notify the health ministry. Yet these civil registration systems have broken down in Gaza, meaning there is no accurate data on how many deaths have occurred. The health ministry has been trying to put together figures using media reports, which isn’t a reliable way to capture the full picture. It is estimated that there are more than 10,000 bodies buried under rubble still (meaning they can’t be counted), as well as a rising number of unidentifiable bodies. 



Gaza remains under assault. Day 335 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.  THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll rises to 40,861, with 94,398 injured."   Early on, Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) pointed out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."    Months ago, 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 of acute food insecurity or worse."   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."
 



AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring into this conversation another professor, Natasha Lennard, columnist at The Intercept, associate director of the Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism Program at The New School, not far from Columbia University. Her most recent piece, “College Administrators Spent Summer Break Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests.” Can you put Professor Thrasher and Professor Franke’s experience in a broader context of the universities from here in New York, NYU, to other universities around the country?

NATASHA LENNARD: Absolutely. And thank you. It’s lovely to be back. And I firstly want to say thank you to Professor Franke and Professor Thrasher for being among the professors who refuse to be silenced in this moment of what is widely being called a “new McCarthyism.” And I think that’s an accurate description.

Their cases are not unusual, and it is indeed sad, and it is indeed disappointing, indeed no less than ghoulish. We are having, both de facto and through policy, both in terms of new regulations and student conduct guides coming through for this semester, as well as punitive actions against students and professors, a real reification of the claim that Israel critical speech and pro-Palestinian speech should count under violations of Title VI nondiscrimination law and regulations and policy in universities. What that does is align university policy with the right-wing agenda of Congress and right-wing lawmakers who follow in the footsteps of a right-wing Israeli-U.S. consensus.

And I think if a university is not a place where that can be critically challenged, especially at a time of genocide, when there are no universities left standing in Gaza — which we cannot forget — and the concerns of our academy is the speech of professors speaking out for academic freedom and speaking out for the liberation of an occupied people, we’re in very dark times indeed.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Natasha Lennard, you write in your piece in The Intercept that, quote, “Tucked into a document purportedly offering clarification on school policy, the new NYU” — New York University — “guidelines introduce an unprecedented expansion of protected classes to include 'Zionists' and ’Zionism’”?

NATASHA LENNARD: Yes, this is a very exemplary, in the worst of ways, document that was just released by the administration at NYU. It is a new updated guide of student conduct about nondiscrimination and harassment. It goes further than any document I have seen in asserting that Zionism, when used critically, should or at least readily can be understood as — and I quote the document — a “code word.” It doesn’t say that occasionally by antisemites that Zionism is used as a code word. It takes that as a given.

So, that is — to clarify, that is a student conduct guide, very poorly written, very open to misuse, that is asserting that the political ideology founded in the 19th century of the ethnostate of Israel being a Zionist project, that that should be considered part of the protected class of Jewish identity, religion and ethnic and shared ancestry. That is what we’re seeing in attempts of statehouses nationwide to attach Zionism, the political ideology, to the protected class of Jewish identity. It’s extremely dangerous. It performs de facto apologia for Israel. And to have that put into writing by a university so clearly is just open for further abuses and an escalation of the sort of repression we’ve already seen.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Franke?

KATHERINE FRANKE: Well, I teach a class on citizenship and nationality in Israel and Palestine. And we begin with a critical look at the concept of Zionism. Of course, it was advanced as a place, as an idea, about the safety of the Jewish people being located in Mandate Palestine, but there were plenty of Jewish people at the time who said, “This is actually a horrible idea from the perspective of the safety of Jewish people, because what it says is the Jews all belong in Israel and nowhere else, not in Europe, not in the United States, nowhere else. And so this will lead to more violence, more expulsions, more antisemitic pogroms, if we lean in too much to the idea that Jews belong primarily and especially in Israel.” And those were critiques coming from Jews, again, themselves.

So, if we are not allowed to talk about that anymore in universities, what we’ve done is surrendered the very idea of the university itself. And that is so much what troubled us about Minouche Shafik, our president — former president of Columbia’s testimony in Congress, and some of those other presidents who came, who were called before Congress, is they not only did not put up a robust defense of the idea of a university where we teach students how to be critical thinkers in such a critical time, but they actually joined in to the criticism of the university. My president did not stand up for any one of us, nor did Professor Thrasher’s at Northwestern.

And this is part of what concerns me, is that our universities are places now where we could not have a protest and say things that are now being said in Tel Aviv by Israelis. The protests that are happening there this week, if they took place on Columbia’s campus, our students would be expelled or charged with very serious disciplinary violations. This is where we’ve come. It’s impossible to talk about the kinds of things that, Amy, in your setup, of the just horrible things that are happening right this week in Jenin, in Gaza — we can’t talk about that at Columbia. That’s part of what concerns me is, is that we don’t know our history, and these new policies are keeping us from learning it.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Natasha Lennard, we just have about 30 seconds, but you’ve noted that universities are not only facing attacks from Congress, they’re also being subjected to lawsuits all around the country. Could you talk about that briefly?

NATASHA LENNARD: Yes, we’ve seen a series of litigation, including at NYU, Columbia, Harvard, UCLA, brought by often unnamed students and faculty, often very frivolous suits that universities are forced to answer to nonetheless, and then, through settlements and often nonpublic agreements, are then forced to change policy, often leading to the conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to have to leave it there, but we’re going to continue this discussion over time. We’ll link your piece, Natasha Lennard, “College Administrators Spent Summer Break Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests.” She’s at The New School. Columbia Law professor Katherine Franke, Kathleen Peratis, civil rights lawyer, and Steven Thrasher. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.


Nada AlTaher and Nagham Mohanna (THE NATIONAL) report:


Towering piles of rubbish, widespread destruction and tents spread out as far as the eye could see greeted UN workers and medical teams as they arrived at Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis for the second stage of a polio vaccination campaign.

The scale of destruction after several Israeli assaults, and the squalid conditions thousands of Palestinians are living in, shocked even local Gazans such as Dr Fady Abed, from the US-based NGO MedGlobal. He was among those who travelled from the central areas of the enclave to carry out the southern phase of the campaign.

"I saw kids playing among piles of garbage taller than the bus we were in," Dr Abed told The National on Friday.


 Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Texas' Failure To Launch Boyz" went up yesterday.  The following sites updated:

Posted by at

Thursday, September 05, 2024

JD Vance gets even creepier

Tonight,  Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Texas' Failure To Launch Boyz" went up. 


failuretolaunch


Ken Paxton is a thug and a crook and should be in prison for his attack on our voting rights.  From one idiot to an even bigger one . . . 


Miss Sassy, the idiot of all time.   Paul Rudnick Tweets. 






J.D. Vance thinks the high cost of daycare can be solved with one easy trick: Just ask your family for help!

At a Turning Point Action event in Mesa, Arizona, Wednesday, conservative pundit Charlie Kirk asked the Republican vice presidential nominee how to lower the cost of childcare. Vance’s answer seemed more than a little tone-deaf.

“One of the ways that you might be able to relieve a little bit of pressure on people who are paying so much for daycare is, maybe grandma and grandpa wants to help out a little bit more. Or maybe there’s an aunt or uncle that wants to help out a little bit more,” Vance said. “If that happens, you relieve some of the pressure on all of the resources that we’re spending on daycare.”

For parents who do not have access to help from relatives, Vance said that more people have to get training in childcare and that certain certifications have “nothing to do with taking care of kids.” He falsely implied that childcare specialists were forced to have a “six-year college degree” and thus had to charge more for daycare.
Vance’s solutions, if one could call them that, seem out of touch at best. Family help is not a policy solution, nor is it even practical for many parents who do have family willing to help. Childcare certifications also typically don’t require advanced college degrees, or even college degrees at all. While Washington, D.C., has a degree requirement, it’s only for a two-year associate’s degree.



He's so stupid.  He really is.  We should just hiss and boo anytime his face comes on a screen.  I don't know how you can get to be his age and still be so stupid.  At least his running mate, Convicted Felon Donald Trump, has the excuse of going senile.  


Ja'han Jone (MSNBC) notes:


JD Vance sure picked the perfect place to host his latest campaign rally in Arizona. Perfect, because it aligns exactly with his bigoted, chauvinistic worldview. Vance’s event, co-hosted by Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, was held Wednesday at Generation Church in Mesa, Arizona, and featured extremist pastor Ryan Visconti.

Visconti has literally told his followers “Christians can’t vote Democrat.” In addition to parroting right-wing talking points about elections, Visconti has also spewed plenty of anti-LGBTQ venom via his social media accounts.

And his views about women aren’t any better. Julie Roys, a Christian reporter whose work focuses on fundamentalism and Christian nationalism, found social media posts from Visconti in 2022 in which he said a strong woman with a weak husband “will become a toxic woman” and another in which he said domestic abuse isn’t a biblically justifiable reason for divorce. 

“Although heartbreaking, ‘abuse’ is not a biblical justification for divorce,” Visconti claimed in a since-expired Instagram story, adding, “This is the most used and abused (pun intended) argument. It is grounds for separation, but not divorce.” Visconti apparently likes to get punny when he downplays domestic abuse. (In a video on the church’s YouTube in May, Visconti echoes this idea, arguing divorce is only acceptable in cases of “real” abuse, a nebulous term he says ought to be reserved for cases involving physical violence.) Notably, claims like these, discouraging battered spouses from seeking divorce, align with comments Vance has made as well. And Kirk, who hosted a discussion with Vance at the rally, is also known for sexist diatribes.


In case you're not getting what an idiot and liar JD Vance is, go read my mom's "JD Vance is living in sin with bastard children (plus Vegan Tacos)" from last night.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Thursday, September 5, 2024.  Ken Paxton and Greg Asshole continue to attack voting rights in Texas, Robert Kennedy Junior mocks the way Kamala Harris speaks indicating Junior has never heard himself speak, polio vaccination efforts take place in Gaza, and much more.


Starting with the US presidential election which is sixty days away.  To vote, you'll need to be registered -- check the registration date in your state many require you register within by the first of October.  And, of course, if you live in a state like Teas, the government is actively and illegally attempting to prevent you from registering to vote.  

So that we're all on the same page, let's note Ava from this week's "Roundtable" at THIRD:

I'm in California and I was outraged to learn that the attorney general in Texas, Ken Paxton, was sending armed officers to the homes of Latinos involved in voter registration, barging into their homes at six in the morning, refusing to let them get dressed and treating them like criminals.  It's outrageous and it's offensive.  There was no legitimate reason for it but it was intended to terrorize the Latino population in Texas.  As a Latina, I call it out.  CBS did something Wednesday evening and I'd like to include it.



Ava (Con't): Ken Paxton should be carted off in handcuffs for those raids.  And Texas Latinos -- Democrats, Republicans, independents and non-voters -- need to especially register what happened.  They need to turn out and they need to support Colin Allred for the US Senate and Democrats in every race to send a message to the GOP in Texas and elsewhere that this is not acceptable and we will not ignore it.



Let's note this Tweet from US House Rep Joaquin Castro.
 
 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Governor Greg Asshole are abusing their official powers and breaking the law -- Asshole needs to read up on culling the voter rolls because you can't do within 90 days of an election  -- you can't legally do it.


If they get away with these illegal actions in Texas, rabid MAGA will try to do it elsewhere.  

But I'm not seeing that awareness at left and 'left' sites. 

IN THESE TIMES Has Failed The Latino Reader.  Did you see what we did there?  We took a headline to one of IN THESE TIMES many useless crap-ass stories and switched it around to underscore what was really happening  Oh, and, yes, please bore us with another poem -- Manny was never the favorite on MODERN FAMILY but let's pretend bad poetry with a good heart wins the world. THE PROGRESSIVE's not reported on word on this.  COMMON DREAMS?  I can easily find attacks on Kamala Harris but I don't find ____ on this effort to destroy voting rights.  Sadly, it's that way everywhere you look.  I remember when FREE SPEECH TV couldn't stop promoting their 'diverse' line up of guests for a multi-hour broadcast discussing the state of union during Barack Obama's first term as president.  And I remember there were 30 or so guests and there was not one Latino or Latina among them.  And when their issues were raised, an uninformed idiot would speak 'for them.' 

It's past time that left outlets started realizing American Latinos deserve coverage throughout the year and not just on the day before Cinco de Mayo.



In Texas, the GOP continues to make clear that they will bully and intimidate Latino-Americans.  American citizens have faced Attorney General Ken Paxton's armed stormtroopers who show up at dawn banging on doors, barge in with weapons and refuse to allow people to get dressed as they tear apart their homes and apartments.  It's disgusting, it's outrageous and it's illegal.  And if they get away with it in Texas, you damn well better believe that they will try it elsewhere. 



It seems that Texas Governor Ken Paxton will do anything to prevent Texas from flipping for Kamala Harris—including preventing eligible citizens from registering to vote.

Paxton threatened legal action against Bexar and Harris counties if they proceed with sending out mail-in voter registration forms, which the counties have proposed doing via third-party vendors. Paxton argues that it could encourage noncitizens to register to vote.

Of course, Bexar and Harris aren’t like other counties in Texas. They’re urban and populous, and have a majority or even plurality of Latino voters, according to The Hill. And, in 2020, both counties overwhelmingly voted for Joe Biden.

Paxton’s office announced Wednesday that he’d filed a lawsuit against Bexar County Commissioner Court after it approved a proposal that funds the production and mailing of voter registration forms “to unregistered voters in location(s) based on targeting agreed to by the county,” according to KENS-5. Paxton claimed the program was unlawful because it “could induce ineligible people—such as felons and noncitizens—to commit a crime by attempting to register to vote.”


The one committing a crime is Ken Paxton -- no surprise considering his history of corruption.  The crime Paxton is committing is creating an undue burden for Latino-Americans to register to vote.  It is not an equal playing field.  This is not just voter intimidation, it is also a return to the Jim Crow era where only some citizens have voting rights. Maria Villarroel (LATIN TIMES) reports:


The oldest and largest Latino civil rights group, LULAC, says Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has actively "engaged in official oppression" of minority voters following a series of raids on the homes of Latino campaign volunteers in the state.

The League of United Latin American Citizens issued a press release asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Paxton and "his agents for abuse of the elderly, children, violations of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and more to be announced."

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits racial discrimination in voting, and it is designed to enforce the voting rights protected by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the Constitution.

The group also announced it will be hosting a news conference in El Paso to address its allegations. Ray Mancera, national vice president for the Southwest for LULAC will be among the expected speakers. They said that local elected and community leaders, concerned citizens, and get-out-the-vote volunteers will also speak at the event.

The Aug. 20 raids targeted Manuel Medina, chair of the Tejano Democrats, several LULAC members, a state House candidate and a local area mayor, according to the Associated Press.


 I'm disappointed in a lot of people over their silence on this.  This needs national attention.  

This is an assault on democracy.  In the US, we're supposed to believe in voting, we're not supposed to working to prevent Americans from voting.  And yet there is silene from so many.

I get that grifters like Glenn Greenwald who never, ever defend the average American but can't shut up about 'injustice' when the French police arrest a multi-millionaire.  I get that.  But we're supposed to be better than grifters.


We're the party of the people -- All the people.


This is outrageous.  No American citizen should ever be made to feel afraid to vote or afraid to register to vote.  But that is what Paxton and Governor Greg Asshole are trying to do right now.  It needs to be called out loudly and repeatedly and, yes, the Justice Dept needs to open an investigation and to do so immediately.  




As The New York Times reported, some Democratic officials warned that the efforts could intimidate voters so close to Election Day. Mike Doyle, chair of the Harris County Democratic Party, told the newspaper, "The message is we're going to do everything we can to discourage voting in Texas. Why else would you announce this as a big victory? This is supposed to be a routine accuracy check that has been going on forever."


Saul Elbien (NEWS NATION) reviews this week's chronology of events:

In a warning on Monday night, Paxton sought to cast the county’s voter registration plan as a means of registering noncitizens to vote — something the right wing of the state and national GOP insist is part of a plan by Democrats to steal the election. 

County leadership defied Paxton on Tuesday when the board of commissioners voted 3-1 to mail out the registration forms, The Texas Tribune reported.


In a lawsuit filed Wednesday morning in Bexar County District Court, Paxton is demanding that state judges block the registration drive.


Chris Walker (TRUTHOUT) points out:

In his statement announcing the lawsuit, Paxton said the program was “blatantly illegal,” despite no state statute saying so, and claimed Bexar County had acted “irresponsibly” in passing the measure — even though studies have shown that the amount of noncitizen voting in the state is effectively zero.

Bexar County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores said that encouraging people to vote was at the heart of the county’s decision.

“The word ‘integrity’ was used in a statement by the attorney general regarding our voter rolls and [to] ensure only eligible voters can vote,” Clay-Flores said, referring to Paxton’s initial threat of litigation. “And that’s exactly what we are trying to pass…so we can encourage and make sure Americans exercise their right to vote.”

Texas does have a voter registration problem — not in the sense that fraud is being perpetrated on a mass scale, but rather that more than a third of the state who is eligible to vote isn’t registered to do so. According to statistics compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation, only 65.2 percent of Texans who were able to register to vote did so in 2022, placing the state as 10th worst in the entire U.S. in terms of voter registration rates.

Long viewed as a Republican stronghold, Texas has seen small but noticeable shifts in its voting patterns over the past few election cycles. In the 2012 presidential election, for example, Republican Mitt Romney outperformed then-Democratic incumbent President Barack Obama by 15.8 points. In the 2020 presidential race, however, Democrat Joe Biden was only defeated by Republican Donald Trump by 5.6 points.



Monday, LULAC's national president Roman Palomares issued a statement that noted the way Paxton and his goons attempted to intimidate American citizen and civic duty minded Lidia Martinez (she tells her story in the CBS NEWS video at the start of this snapshot) and Roman pointed out:



Labor Day is not just about the work we get paid for. It's also about your countless hours volunteering and defending our communities. LULAC would not be the largest membership-based Latino civil rights organization in the United States without the passion and dedication of volunteers like you. You are the backbone of everything we do.

Also, take pride in knowing that Latinos contribute tremendously to America, contrary to what some would like us to believe. Latinos added $3.2 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2023 alone! We are the driving force in the country's economic engine, and your labor in every area is the reason why.

You help our veterans, seniors, refugees, asylum seekers, and families. Plus, you're fighting for women's rights, supporting the LGBTQIA+ community, and leading voter registration and education efforts. You are making every voice heard, every person valued, and every right protected.

On this Labor Day, know that LULAC sees you, appreciates you, and stands with you in solidarity and gratitude. Together, we are making a difference, one step at a time, one community at a time.


Paxton deserves prison for what he's doing.  Actually, he should be horse whipped in the town square for abusing the powers of his office.  Hogan Gore (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN) reports:


A delegation of congressional Democrats from Texas is asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Attorney General Ken Paxton's actions amid his office's hunt for instances of voter fraud that has largely targeted the state's Latino communities.
[. . .]

"We know very well that the attorney general has used his office historically as a way of pursuing political efforts," U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said Wednesday. "From my perspective, he has a history of misusing his power."

The coalition of Democrats expects to submit a letter to the Justice Department later in the week to formally request an investigation into Paxton's recent actions, Escobar said.



In addition, LULAC and others need to sue him.  When he says that X has done something, he needs to prove it.  He's an Attorney General.  He's saying illegal activity has taken place in the past carried out by these groups.  So where's the proof.  Because it's a libel and a libel is illegal.  There is no proof, it didn't happen.  If it had, Greg Asshole and others in Texas would have prosecuted it.  They didn't.  So they lie in public and they need to be confronted in court for smearing the reputations of various civic organizations with lies which, as government officials, they know is illegal.




 I am a third-generation Texan. I have three degrees from the University of Texas. I have traveled around the country and around the globe and proudly claim my Texas roots.  I have never been ashamed of my Texas heritage until Monday, when I first heard of Attorney General Ken Paxton’s illegal raids against Latino activists, 87-year-old retired teachers and Latino candidates for election. 

Claiming to be the result of an as yet-unfounded investigation into voter fraud, Paxton’s flimsy justification for these predawn raids is straight out of the petite dictator's playbook and has no place in the United States. Paxton should be impeached (again) and his actions renounced in the strongest terms.

Darrick W. Eugene, Austin




Now if you missed it, Little Junior insulted Kamala Harris' speaking yesterday.  Let's note Elaine:




Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slammed Vice President Harris’s candidacy Tuesday, saying she is not “a worthy president” while defending his choice to instead endorse former President Trump.

“I don’t think that Vice President Harris is a worthy president of this country,” Kennedy told NewsNation host Chris Cuomo. “I think we need to have a president who can give an interview, who can articulate a vision, who can put together an English sentence, who can articulate her and defend her policies and her record and who can engage in a debate with, and regular debates unscripted appearances, president or vice president.”


First off, I understand Kamala Harris when she speaks.  I think most people do.

That said, does Junior not get how he sounds when he's grasping for air and volume?  If we're toing to talk about the way Kamala sounds -- which I say is fine -- then maybe we need to talk about the way Junior sounds -- like he's on a respirator.

I think it's in keeping with his long standing racism -- the same long standing racism that led him to endorse Trump -- for him to attack the way a highly educated woman of color speaks. From the same article:


“What our agreement [is] about, it’s about a unity party, about unifying our party over certain objectives,” he added. “And this will allow me to continue to disagree with President Trump on issues that I don’t agree with him on, and him to disagree with me.”


He has no party, he never has.  But I wonder how he sleeps at night knowing that his father's watching him and shaking his head in disgust.



As Elaine notes, Junior can't speak with that strange voice of his.  

But to help Junior out, let's note things that a president or would-be one should be able to do.  When staring into a news camera, 


1) I can say for the record, "My previous wife did not kill herself because of my non-stop, serial cheating."

2) I did not harass a baby sistter -- not in my 30s, not in my 40s, not in my 50s and not in my 60s.  

3) I grasp that an elderly man like myself should not be propositioning underage baby sitters.

4) I am not doing cocaine in 2024.

5) Any women I have bedded in the last 12 months were not kept secret from my current wife.

6) I realize most Americans think I'm a whiny bitch boi due to the fact that I cried and cried over getting on the ballot and now I'm crying as they won't take me off the ballot.

7) I'm sure if my father were alive today, he would say, "Junior, you're making it so hard for this family.  You need to grow up and shape up."

8) I know my Daddy would not have approved of my dumping a bear cub's corpse in Central Park to stage a fake crime.

9) I don't always cry out "Daddy!" while in bed climaxing.  Not always.  Maybe four out of every five times.

10) My father was a giant of a man and me, I'm just Little Junior.  Wah! Wah! Wah!



Now let's note this from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!



AMY GOODMAN: Amidst Israel’s continued military attacks on Gaza, the World Health Organization says its mass vaccination campaign against polio has so far reached about a quarter of Gaza’s children to protect them from paralysis, after Israel agreed to eight-hour pauses in its attacks in certain areas of Gaza. This comes after health officials recently confirmed Gaza’s first polio case in a quarter of a century, a 10-month-old child. This is Gaza resident Baha al-Arbid.

BAHA AL-ARBID: [translated] We’ve heard about the truce for polio vaccinations, but I want to stay in this area, because I don’t trust this truce that has just begun. We still fear bombing will happen at any moment, as it happened this morning.

AMY GOODMAN: And this is Ghada Judeh, who recently got her children vaccinated at Yafa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where she’s also volunteering with the polio vaccination campaign.

GHADA JUDEH: [translated] We are displaced from Deir al-Balah. I gave my children the polio vaccine to protect them from disease, but I can’t protect them from strikes and from death, unless you help us, just as you helped us and delivered the medications to us to protect our children. So, please, stand with us to stop the war so that our children can live peacefully and to continue their studies.

AMY GOODMAN: This comes as residents of Gaza are also facing other diseases and chronic lack of food or access to education. This is Karam Yassin, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy in Deir al-Balah, as well.

KARAM YASSIN: [translated] We want to play with our friends, go to school, eat and drink. But this vaccination is of no use. It’s only useful against polio, but the war has destroyed us. It has destroyed our houses. I wish I can play with my friends, go to school. I wish to eat and drink like I used to before.

AMY GOODMAN: Just before we went to air today, Democracy Now! received this update from Tarneem Hammad in central Gaza, who’s part of the polio vaccination campaign with Medical Aid for Palestinians.

TARNEEM HAMMAD: We would need at least 95% vaccination coverage during each round of the campaign to prevent the spread of polio and reduce the risk of its reemergence. However, we’ve been facing many challenges, given the severely disrupted health system, also water system and sanitation systems. Other requirements for a successful campaign delivery include sufficient cash, fuel and functional telecommunication networks to reach communities with information about the campaign, which has been very, very difficult for all of our healthcare workers and social mobilizers who are working on the ground. Gaza has been polio-free for the last 25 years, so the reemergence, which the humanitarian community has warned about for the last 10 months, is another threat to the children in Gaza and also to the neighboring countries. A ceasefire is the only way to ensure public health security in Gaza and also in the region.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined in Washington, D.C., by Janti Soeripto, president and CEO of Save the Children US. Its staff is working from Deir al-Balah Primary Health Care Center, a key vaccination site, working there in Gaza.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Janti. Can you explain what is happening, how many people you understand have gotten this vaccine? It’s children that they’re attempting to do.

JANTI SOERIPTO: Thanks, Amy.

Yes, our site, our Primary Health Care Center in Deir al-Balah, is one of the 51 sites where vaccinations are given to children. I’ve understood that on day one we were able to vaccinate 1,825 children already, which is encouraging, of course. And our staff are working around the clock to make sure that people understand, that parents understand where they can go to get vaccinations, that those vaccinations are safe, to make sure that children are prepped and to make sure that healthcare workers are trained in order to do so safely. But, of course, we need much more than just a couple of days to be able to give these vaccinations. Also, you heard the cover rate there between 90 and 95%. But you have to give two doses of these vaccinations, and they have to be four weeks apart. So one dose is not enough.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about how these vaccines are being administered? Israel has agreed to certain pauses in the bombing. We’re reporting about children being vaccinated in this area, and children being killed in this area by Israeli bombs. Explain how it all happens and how the vaccines are getting into Gaza right now.

JANTI SOERIPTO: So, the procedure, getting in through the WHO over the road. But I think, look, you laid out so clearly. You can, say, have an eight-hour pause in the window in which you can vaccinate these children in these 51 designated sites. But then, I mean, in practice, yeah, children then have to be moved to a particular site. Then sometimes they have to move back to where they were displaced, because most of the people in Gaza are displaced anyway. They’re not in their homes. Homes are destroyed. So it’s very hard to say. I can’t imagine. You heard the previous person in Gaza talking how worried they were to actually even travel across roads that are destroyed to some of these clinics.

So, there’s real practical, operational problems with this current pause. It is not a ceasefire at all. It is an eight-hour pause every day. And then, again, the vaccines are oral drops, two or three drops per dose. You have to give them twice with four weeks in between. That means you have to track and trace these children, as well. They’re all displaced. Whatever happens between the intervening four weeks between those doses then also impacts how effective your campaign can be.

AMY GOODMAN: So, according to the World Health Organization, the Israeli military bombardment of Gaza has damaged or destroyed 31 of 36 hospitals in the area.

JANTI SOERIPTO: That’s right.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the significance of this, and also how polio has reemerged after a quarter of a century in Gaza?

JANTI SOERIPTO: Yeah, it’s just unbelievable. Look, I was there end of March, and I thought it was unbelievably dire then. And clearly, it has gotten much, much worse since, because I was there when people were still congregating in Rafah, and since then, they’ve been displaced from Rafah and the south of Gaza, as well.

So, you know, there is very, very limited access to healthcare. We set up that Primary Health Care Center in Deir Al-Balah. If you look at the people who come there every day, over half of them have to walk more than an hour — walk more than an hour — to get even to that site. So that tells you something about the lack of healthcare, adequate healthcare, in Gaza right now.

And the reemergence of polio doesn’t surprise us. Save the Children and many other organizations and doctors have been warning against this for many, many weeks now. If you look at the sanitation, the sanitary conditions there, solid waste is everywhere in the Gaza Strip. There are not enough toilets. There are no showers. This was a situation just waiting to happen.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you talked about how this is a two-dose regimen, and they’re trying to get, what, just under 700,000 children, to inject them with these vaccines. This never was an issue in the past. But if they are only able to get the first dose, is it ineffective?

JANTI SOERIPTO: That’s not the right level of coverage. I think — and we should also remind ourselves, these are oral drops. Children are already — in Gaza, are already malnourished. They’re weakened. Their immune systems are compromised after almost a year of conflict, displacements, lack of food — you heard it here before — lack of clean water, etc. So, to get adequate protection, they would definitely need those two doses. So we’re concerned that even the current setup, we will do what we can — the WHO is doing what they can — but it’s going to be difficult to reach the coverage numbers in the way that you would normally do it in a campaign.

AMY GOODMAN: So, families have — surviving families in Gaza have to trust that as the polio vaccination campaign makes its way, for example, to Rafah, and then there’s a pause there, that they won’t be bombed if they leave their house or wherever they are currently displaced to, to get this vaccination. That’s in Gaza. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Israelis are continuing their protests calling for a ceasefire and a hostage deal from the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said no so far. The significance of this? And the position of Save the Children on a ceasefire?

JANTI SOERIPTO: We’ve been calling for a ceasefire since October last year, because we know, as humanitarian operators, that that is the only way to get adequate aid, supplies and services to children and families that need it now. In the current scenario, our amazing staff and volunteers in Gaza are doing what they can at the risk of their own lives. We’ve lost colleagues and partners over these past months. But it’s really difficult to get people to come out, whether to get vaccinated, whether to get food, whether to get some level of mental health support or protection when bombs are falling. And deconfliction, so the safety of your convoys, of sending your own staff on the road with supplies to reach people, is not guaranteed at all.

AMY GOODMAN: In a moment, we’re going to speak with Gershon Baskin, Middle East director of the state International Communities Organization, a back-channel negotiator with Hamas in the past. So I wanted to switch gears just for one minute, Janti, to talk about what’s happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In mid-August, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency in response to mpox. This is Nzigire Lukangira, whose child has been suffering from mpox for days in an isolation ward in Kavumu in the eastern DRC.

NZIGIRE LUKANGIRA: [translated] Since my child got this disease and I brought him here, he only received one injection and some pills. The conditions here are very poor. We have no food, and people are forbidden to visit us because we have a dangerous disease. We are suffering a lot and feel like we will die of hunger here.

AMY GOODMAN: Before we go, Janti Soeripto, as chair and as president and CEO of Save the Children US, you were just in the DRC. Can you talk about this outbreak of mpox and what people should understand and how difficult it is to get a vaccination right now?

JANTI SOERIPTO: Right. Thanks. Yes, I was there in May. I was actually in South Kivu, which is now the epicenter, I think, of this particular outbreak, with over 50 — with 50% of the cases. It is an incredibly contagious disease. It is very dangerous for children. So, of the cases, I think two-thirds of the cases affect young children.

And again — and we see a pattern here, Amy, whether it’s Gaza or the DRC or Sudan, for that matter. You know, contagious diseases, whether it’s cholera or polio or mpox, you know, wreak havoc on populations that are already vulnerable, that are displaced, and there is no access to proper healthcare, vaccinations, no sanitation. And these diseases often cause even more casualties than bombs and bullets.

So, we’re doing what we can. Again, we’re working with communities to make sure that they understand how to prevent or reduce the risk of spreading — simple hygiene, handwashing. Again, clean water is in short supply. People are weakened because there was already a food insecurity crisis. We’re trying to ascertain where people can have access to healthcare. But as you heard in the previous segment, it is difficult to get access to medicine. And there is currently no — there are vaccines in the DRC, either.

AMY GOODMAN: Janti Soeripto, we want to thank you for being with us, president and CEO of Save the Children US.

Next up, as tens of thousands of Israelis protest for Prime Minister Netanyahu to agree to a Gaza ceasefire, we’ll speak with Gershon Baskin, longtime Israeli back-channel negotiator with Hamas. His new book, In Pursuit of Peace in Israel and Palestine. Stay with us.


Gaza remains under assault. Day 334 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.  THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll rises to 40,861, with 94,398 injured."   Early on, Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) pointed out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."    Months ago, 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 of acute food insecurity or worse."   Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

 


April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 



The following sites updated;

Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)