Salvador Dalí White calm 1936
A reader sent me this, saying “I’ve had a graphic in my head for awhile now that I was hoping would appear in the public domain but I haven’t seen anyone post it yet. Finally I just hacked it out on an old version of Photoshop..”
These people are serious (-ly ill)
Whoopi on The View pleads with Liz Cheney to run third party claiming Trump wants to be dictator for life:
"If he ever gets in again we'll never have any more elections. There will be no more. He will stop it and he's very clear about that. He wants to be dictator for life!" pic.twitter.com/sOjFoyhK6j
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 10, 2024
Ben Carson
Why Donald Trump Knew He Had to Run
Ben Carson says Donald Trump had everything, but he put all that on the line when he realized the country was going off the cliff.
Watch our full coverage of @RealBenCarson’s speech in Davenport, IA here: https://t.co/Mev7asV55i pic.twitter.com/j0hueyvCiu
— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) January 11, 2024
ICJ
A must share video! Perhaps the most important part of the South Africa case against Israel at the ICJ today presented. pic.twitter.com/8X5IJPMkpl
— Furkan Gözükara (@GozukaraFurkan) January 11, 2024
Voter fraud
https://twitter.com/i/status/1745617977750196505
Letitia
https://twitter.com/i/status/1745451111870525938
No Europe (maybe Belgium?!), no North America.
“Willis might want to consult with a criminal defense attorney for some advice. Just a suggestion.”
• The Georgia Case Against Trump Should Be Paused (Gregg Jarrett)
Sex, money, and power. That’s what drove District Attorney Fani Willis to bring flimsy racketeering and conspiracy charges against former President Donald Trump and others in Georgia, according to a recent court filing demanding that the case be toss out. The scheme that Willis purportedly concocted reads like a steamy Harlequin romance novel, replete with a secret lover and luxury trysts financed by taxpayer dollars as they plotted to elevate her career by destroying a political opponent seeking to retake the White House. Pull up a beach chair and dig in. The salaciously shocking accusations by Trump co-defendant Michael Roman threatens to upend the Fulton County prosecution by disqualifying the DA and even dismissing entirely her prosecutions for election interference.
There’s a lot of slime to unpack here. But it begins with the curious decision made by Willis to hire —allegedly without authorization— a private attorney by the name of Nathan Wade to honcho the case against Trump, even though he has scant experience in felony cases. That would normally make him an unqualified prosecutor. So, what was going on? Perhaps Wade has other skills because Roman claims that the Trump-hating DA and her married subordinate were having an affair before and after she retained him. So far, neither one has denied the liaisons. To complicate matters, Willis has been subpoenaed by Wade’s wife to appear as a witness in their divorce case on January 23. That’ll be stimulating. Oh…but there’s more.
County records show that Wade was paid a whopping $654,000 for his “work,” which is hard to fathom by any compensation standard. The court motion contends that Willis and her paramour then used some of the cash for lavish vacations taken together in California, Florida, and the Caribbean. I’m guessing there wasn’t much incriminating Trump evidence to be gathered in those venues. But you never know what you’ll find on board one of those popular cruise lines. Billing records also show that Wade traveled to Washington DC for two different meetings at the Biden White House, which are identified on the invoices as 8 hours each. This would put a lie to Willis’s earlier statements that her prosecution of Trump was not discussed or coordinated with his election opponent.
I have long argued that the Georgia case is tainted by the stench of political prejudice, manipulated evidence, and a shameful contortion of the racketeering laws. But now, one is left to wonder whether it was “pillow talk” that led to inventing charges against Trump. In a sane world, the Georgia trial judge should hold an open hearing and demand honest answers. The accusations are serious, the conflict of interest is self-evident, and the ethical impropriety is severe. If warranted, the judge must refer the matter to the state attorney general, Christopher Carr, for immediate investigation of Willis and Wade. Obviously, the District Attorney’s office cannot be trusted to investigate itself. And neither can the feds appointed by Biden and controlled by his lapdog Merrick Garland at the DOJ.
In the meantime, the misbegotten racketeering case against Trump should be halted until an independent probe is concluded so that the public can be assured that this dubious prosecution was not poisoned at the outset by unethical or even corrupt conduct. If the allegations have validity, Willis’s actions demand her removal from the case and, potentially, the charges dropped against Trump and all other defendants. The previously negotiated plea agreements could be vacated due to prosecutorial misconduct. Willis might want to consult with a criminal defense attorney for some advice. Just a suggestion. Did she and her lover conspire to nail Trump while enriching themselves and promoting her political career as the darling of Democrats who brought down Joe Biden’s nemesis? It sure looks like it.
Funneling county money to your amorous partner and then using it jointly for extravagant recreation smacks of misappropriation of public funds and honest services fraud. As the court filing notes, Willis and Wade were “profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of taxpayers.” One can even contend, as Roman does, that it was Willis and Wade who were running an organized criminal enterprise known as racketeering, not Trump. But that’s probably a bridge too far.
The White House AND the J6 Committee…
• Fani Willis Coordinated with J6 Committee Before Launching Trump Case (PB)
There is more evidence of political motivation behind the Trump “racketeering” case launched in Fulton County, Georgia last year. According to a new report in Politico, the Fulton County prosecutor got help from none other than January 6 committee, which was organized and run during the previous Congress under former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The partisan coordination between the January 6 committee and the Fulton County D.A.’s office reveals more insight into Trump opponents’ relentless efforts to criminalize legal objections to the 2020 election. “Georgia prosecutors probing Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election got an early boost in the spring of 2022. It came from another set of investigators who were way ahead of them: the House Jan. 6 select committee,” Politico’s report noted.
“Committee staff quietly met with lawyers and agents working for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in mid-April 2022, just as she prepared to convene a special grand jury investigation,” the report continued. “In the previously unreported meeting, the Jan. 6 committee aides let the district attorney’s team review — but not keep — a limited set of evidence they had gathered.” “Over the next few months, committee staff also had a series of phone calls with Willis’ team,” the report added. “They answered the prosecutors’ questions and shared insight on matters like Trump’s false electors gambit and his efforts to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Both of those ploys ultimately featured prominently in the criminal charges that Willis brought against Trump and his allies last summer.”
“The contacts between the committee and Willis’ team also helped prosecutors prepare for interviews with key witnesses,” the report noted. The Politico report continues to shed new light on the contacts between the partisan January 6 committee and the Fulton County D.A.’s office, again, framing legal objections to the 2020 election as “election subversion.” “The content of the meetings and calls was described by two former committee officials familiar with the outreach, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about the contacts,” Politico noted in the exclusive report. “The timing was corroborated by exhibits attached to new court filings in Willis’ ongoing prosecution of Trump and 14 co-defendants for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“The committee aided Willis’ nascent probe even as it rebuffed the Justice Department’s requests for material in the separate federal criminal probe of Trump’s election subversion,” it continued. The Fulton County D.A.’s office replied that it was only granted access to now-public information. “As the January 6th Committee’s final report transparently stated, the Committee shared information — all of which is now public — with prosecutors conducting concurrent, independent investigations.”
Changed the title. Enough beating around the bush.
Original title: “Georgia prosecutor’s meeting with Biden officials the latest evidence of WH hand in Trump cases”
Subtitle: “The Biden White House had previously worked with the National Archives and FBI to provide “special access” to Trump’s presidential documents.”
• Biden White House Has Been Prosecuting Trump (JTN)
The special prosecutor in the Fulton County, Georgia case against former President Donald Trump sent an invoice to the district attorney which included charges for meetings with the Biden White House officials, according to court documents, raising questions about the White House’s involvement with criminal cases against Trump. This revelation comes after Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis came under scrutiny because of the court filings which allege that the two have been engaged in an affair while the DA’s office paid Wade over $650,000 in legal fees since January 2022. The new information regarding the White House Counsel meeting with Wade also follows previous reports by Just the News that the Biden White House worked to facilitate “special access” for the FBI to 15 boxes of Trump presidential documents that he had returned to the National Archives.
The new court filing, which is part of a Georgia case against Michael Roman, a Trump codefendant, shows that the special prosecutor met on at least one occasion with Biden’s White House Counsel. Wade indicated that this meeting was part of his travel to Athens, Ga., on May 23, 2022, according to an invoice that he submitted to the DA’s office. “Travel to Athens; Conf with White House Counsel,” the invoice reads. Wade charged the DA’s office $2,000 in attorney’s fees for the work. The invoices provided in the suit show at least one more meeting with Biden White House staff, on November 18, 2022, that appears to have taken place in Washington, D.C., though there is no record of a visit by Wade in the White House visitor logs. “Interview with DC/White House,” the invoice reads. Wade charged another $2,000 in fees for this meeting.
The November meeting with undisclosed White House staff was held just three days after Trump, the widely anticipated election opponent of Biden, announced that he was running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, filed the motion calling for the court to dismiss the criminal charges against her client, arguing that Willis “never had legal authority to appoint the special prosecutor, who assisted in obtaining both grand jury indictments.” The motion also called for Willis and Wade to be disqualified from office and removed from the prosecution, respectively, because of an “improper, clandestine personal relationship” between the two during the case, according to the filing. Merchant is interested in sealed court records that are a part of the special prosecutor Wade’s divorce, which may shed light on his alleged relationship with Willis. Merchant told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she reviewed these filings and is asking a judge to unseal the case, arguing that they were improperly sealed.
Wade started his special prosecutor contract with Willis the day before he filed for divorce in Cobb County, Ga., in November 2021, but the filing was improperly sealed, the court document also states. Willis hired Wade to prosecute Trump, and he has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees from January 2022 through December 2023, according to the court filing. Willis’ office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. Willis spokeswoman Pallavi Bailey said that the district attorney’s office would respond to the allegations “through appropriate court filings,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Roman, the former president, and 17 other co-conspirators were charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, among other Georgia state counts, for their alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in favor of Trump. Three former Trump attorneys, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, as well as Republican poll watcher Scott Hall, have all pleaded guilty in the case, while all other defendants pleaded not guilty. The Fulton County case is one of four ongoing criminal cases brought against Trump.
Secure the border now?
• US Confirms Ukraine Military Supplies Have Stopped (RT)
The military aid Washington has been providing Kiev has come to a halt, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday. His remarks came amid the resurgence of debate in Congress about the importance of continuing support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. “We have issued the last drawdown package that we had funding to support, and that’s why it’s critical that Congress move on that national security supplemental request,” Kirby told reporters at a press briefing, admitting that “the assistance that [the US had] provided has now ground to a halt.” The last aid package worth $250 million was authorized by President Joe Biden in late December through the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows for urgent deliveries of weapons to allies without congressional approval.
Biden has been asking Congress to vote for his more than $100 billion supplemental budget request, of which more than $60 billion is slated for Ukraine. Republicans have blocked the measure, demanding that the White House and congressional Democrats agree to their plan of tightening security at the border with Mexico. Director of the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young told the press in January that the drawdown authority “is not going to get big tranches of equipment into Ukraine,” describing the situation as “dire.” Earlier in the month, Pentagon spokesman, Major General Patrick Ryder, warned that the army was running out of options “to replenish the stocks.”
While Biden has publicly pledged to back Kiev for “as long as it takes,” some Republicans and the media have been questioning Washington’s existing strategy, given that Ukraine’s much-hyped counteroffensive ended in a failure. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top general, admitted last year that the conflict was “at a stalemate.” EU officials are also increasingly acknowledging that the deliveries of weapons to Ukraine have been delayed due to production and logistics issues. “Europe doesn’t know how to fight wars,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said in a recent interview. “Unfortunately, our friends spent too much time deliberating on how and when to ramp up their production of weapons and ammunition.”
“..Biden’s partners in the corruption business in Ukraine finance terrorist acts, thus avoiding responsibility for corruption in Ukraine..”
• Ex-Ukrainian MP Calls For Corruption Charges Against Biden (RT)
The Republican-led effort to impeach US President Joe Biden should include an indictment for facilitating corruption in Kiev, former Ukrainian MP Andrey Derkach said in an interview published on Wednesday. The ongoing impeachment inquiry against Biden, dismissed by US Democrats as a partisan publicity stunt, is looking into the president’s potential involvement in influence peddling in Ukraine by his son, Hunter. It is also investigating possible interference in the 2020 US presidential election, during which reporting about Biden Jr.’s laptop was suppressed by partisan American media and tech giants. Former Ukrainian MP Derkach is a controversial figure who worked with Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s lawyer, who investigated Biden’s ties with Ukraine. Speaking to Italian-US journalist Simona Mangiante in the Belarusian capital Minsk, Derkach claimed there was substantial evidence of the Biden family enriching itself in Ukraine, which is allegedly being ignored by US authorities.
“What’s important to me in the congressional investigation is not to bring Biden in for influence peddling. It is important for me that the final document of the Congress says that the money stolen from my fellow Ukrainians was taken out of Ukraine… and given to… Biden,” he said. As vice president, Joe Biden was the leading official on Ukraine in Barack Obama’s administration. A widely publicized example of Biden’s influence on Kiev came in 2016, when he pressured the country into sacking its prosecutor general. At the time, Viktor Shokin was investigating Burisma, a gas firm that listed the then-vice president’s son Hunter Biden on its board. Critics have accused Joe Biden of abusing his position to cover for his son, though the US president has claimed he was merely removing a corrupt official from power. Derkach, who has been accused by the US and Ukraine of working for Russia, lives in exile and says he is focused on anti-corruption advocacy.
Anyone who wants to expose alleged Ukraine-linked criminality in the Biden family is routinely dismissed by American officials as agents of Moscow, Derkach argues. In his interview with Mangiante, the former lawmaker implied that US influence on Ukraine allowed Joe Biden ensure that anyone involved in the alleged corruption schemes was let off the hook. He cited the example of Burisma head Nikolay Zlochevsky, who in 2020 was accused of sending $6 million in cash to people investigating him in exchange for closing the case. Despite being caught red-handed, neither Zlochevsky nor his middlemen were duly punished, Derkach said. The businessman effectively received a slap on the wrist last year in the form of a $1,800 fine, he pointed out.
Zlochevsky has also donated tens of millions of dollars to Kiev’s war effort against Russia, which some Ukrainian media have speculated impacted the outcome of the case. According to Derkach, some of the money went to the GUR, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, and was presumably used to fund its operations. The agency’s leadership makes “no secret of the fact that they carry out terrorist acts and political assassinations for extra-budgetary cash. Once again: Biden’s partners in the corruption business in Ukraine finance terrorist acts, thus avoiding responsibility for corruption in Ukraine,” the former official alleged.
“Shokin is now a hostage on Ukrainian territory. As far as I know, he is not allowed to leave Ukraine. He is under the total control of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)..”
• Ukraine Prosecutor ‘Fired’ By Biden May Be Killed, Ex-MP Warns (RT)
The former Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Viktor Shokin, who was famously sacked by then-President Pyotr Poroshenko, under pressure from US president Joe Biden, is being used by the current government in Kiev as a bargaining chip with Washington, controversial former MP Andrey Derkach has claimed in an interview. Biden had Poroshenko sack Shokin in 2016, when he was Vice President in the Obama administration, and threatened to withhold a $1 billion loan otherwise. The now-incumbent US president claimed that the prosecutor was corrupt, and also bragged about getting rid of the man. Critics of Biden have alleged that he used his office to derail an investigation into the gas firm Burisma, which infamously retained his son Hunter on a well-paid board position during his father’s tenure as Obama’s VP.
Derkach made his explosive claims in an interview with Italian-US journalist Simona Mangiante, which she published on Wednesday on X (formerly Twitter). It was recorded in Minsk, Belarus. “Shokin is now a hostage on Ukrainian territory. As far as I know, he is not allowed to leave Ukraine. He is under the total control of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU),” he claimed. The senior figures interested in information possessed by Shokin are President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the US side, and President Vladimir Zelensky and his chief-of-staff Andrey Yermak on the Ukrainian side, according to Derkach. He claimed that last October Shokin had contacts with two attorneys “working with the US Congress,” Jake Greenberg and Clark Abourisk.
The SBU “recorded those conversations, where Shokin told the Congress about real criminal acts of Blinken and Biden, and about the corruption of the Biden family.” The former official said he’d been tipped off about the surveillance by sources inside the SBU. Derkach is an intelligence officer by background and served in the Ukrainian agency before being elected to the parliament. He claimed that his sources had told him that “the question of liquidating Mr Shokin on the territory of Ukraine is under consideration.” He urged the US Congress to ensure the man’s safety and extraction from his home country. During the hour-long interview Derkach spoke in Russian and touched on a number of sensitive aspects of US-Ukraine relations, including those he’d been personally involved in.
He was the official that published in 2020 what he claimed to be recordings of conversations that Biden and Poroshenko had in 2015-2016. In the interview this week he also claimed that he was acting with the blessing of Zelensky’s office, which was seeking to discredit the former president. The US government branded Derkach a Russian agent in 2022 and indicted him for allegedly interfering in the 2020 presidential elections. Last year, Ukraine accused him of treason, claiming he was working for Moscow. Zelensky stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship in January 2023. Derkach has denied the accusations and claims in the interview that the Ukrainian charges against him were brought after Kiev failed to dispose of him by other means, on a direct request from Antony Blinken.
“This is an excerpt from Colonel Jacques Baud’s latest book, The Russian Art of War: How the West Led Ukraine to Defeat (L’art de la guerre russe: Comment l’occident conduire l’ukraine a la echec)”
• The Russian Art of War: How the West Led Ukraine to Defeat (Baud)
Throughout the Cold War period, the Soviet Union saw itself as the spearhead of a historical struggle that would lead to a confrontation between the “capitalist” system and “progressive forces.” This perception of a permanent and inescapable war led the Soviets to study war in a quasi-scientific way, and to structure this thinking into an architecture of military thought that has no equal in the Western world. The problem with the vast majority of our so-called military experts is their inability to understand the Russian approach to war. It is the result of an approach we have already seen in waves of terrorist attacks—the adversary is so stupidly demonized that we refrain from understanding his way of thinking.
As a result, we are unable to develop strategies, articulate our forces, or even equip them for the realities of war. The corollary of this approach is that our frustrations are translated by unscrupulous media into a narrative that feeds hatred and increases our vulnerability. We are thus unable to find rational, effective solutions to the problem. The way Russians understand conflict is holistic. In other words, they see the processes that develop and lead to the situation at any given moment. This explains why Vladimir Putin’s speeches invariably include a return to history. In the West, we tend to focus on X moment and try to see how it might evolve. We want an immediate response to the situation we see today. The idea that “from the understanding of how the crisis arose comes the way to resolve it” is totally foreign to the West.
In September 2023, an English-speaking journalist even pulled out the “duck test” for me: “if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.” In other words, all the West needs to assess a situation is an image that fits their prejudices. Reality is much more subtle than the duck model…. The reason the Russians are better than the West in Ukraine is that they see the conflict as a process; whereas we see it as a series of separate actions. The Russians see events as a film. We see them as photographs. They see the forest, while we focus on the trees. That is why we place the start of the conflict on February 24, 2022, or the start of the Palestinian conflict on October 7, 2023. We ignore the contexts that bother us and wage conflicts we do not understand. That is why we lose our wars…
“Religious nationalism is to religion what National Socialism was to socialism..”
• Israel Cannot Be a Colonial Power and a Democracy (Chris Hedges)
The scholar, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who Isaiah Berlin called the conscience of Israel, warned that, “If Israel did not separate church and state, it would give rise to a corrupt rabbinate that would warp Judaism into a fascistic cult. Religious nationalism is to religion what National Socialism was to socialism,” warned Leibowitz, who died in 1994. He understood that the blind veneration of the military, especially after the 1967 war that captured the West Bank in East Jerusalem was dangerous and would lead to the ultimate destruction of democracy. “Our situation will deteriorate to that of a second Vietnam, to a war and constant escalation without prospect of ultimate resolution,” he wrote. He foresaw that, “The Arabs would be the working people and the Jews, the administrators, inspectors, officials and police, mainly secret police. A state ruling a hostile population of 1.5 million to 2 million foreigners would necessarily become a secret police state.
With all that implies for education, free speech and democratic institutions. The corruption characteristic of every colonial regime would also prevail in the state of Israel. The administration would have to suppress Arab insurgency on the one hand and acquire Arab quiz links on the other. There is also good reason to fear that the Israeli Defense Force, which has been until now, a people’s army would, as a result of being transformed into an army of occupation to generate and its commanders who will have become military governors, will resemble their colleagues in other nations.” He warned that the rise of virulent racism would consume Israeli society. He knew that prolonged occupation of the Palestinians would spawn concentration camps for the occupied, and that in his words, “Israel would not deserve to exist and it will not be worthwhile to preserve it.”
The decision to obliterate Gaza has long been the dream of Israeli fanatics, heirs of the fascistic movement led by the extremist Meir Kahane, who was barred from running for office and whose Kach Party was outlawed in 1994 and declared a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States. These Jewish extremists who today make up the ruling coalition government are orchestrating the genocide in Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinians are being killed or wounded a day. They champion the iconography and language of their homegrown fascism. Jewish identity and Jewish nationalism are the Zionist versions of blood and soil. Jewish supremacy is sanctified by God as is the slaughter of the Palestinians who are compared to the biblical Amalekites massacred by the Israelites. Enemies, usually Muslims, slated for extinction are subhuman who embody evil.
Violence and the threat of violence are the only forms of communication those outside the magic circle of Jewish nationalism understand. Millions of Muslims and Christians, including those with Israeli citizenship, are to be purged. Joining me to discuss what the occupation of Palestine has done to Israeli society and what the results of the current murderous campaign in Gaza and the West Bank portends for Israel in the future is Ilan Pappe, Professor of History of the University of Exeter in Great Britain, who has described what Israel does to the Palestinians as incremental genocide. He has written numerous books including The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories and The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, which his French publisher has ceased publishing despite a surge in sales since the October 7th attacks, part of the concerted campaign by Zionists and their supporters to discredit and censor narratives that are critical of Israel.
“..As many as 312 Palestinian families in Gaza lost over 10 members each in just the first month of the bombing alone…”
• What Israel Faces at The Hague (Gareth Porter)
When the International Court of Justice opens its consideration of the case against Israel’s genocidal policy towards Palestinians living in Gaza on Thursday it will have before it a petition from South Africa, which initiated the case. In legal terms it is a request that the court decides on “provisional measures” to protect the Gazan people from “imminent and irreparable loss,” in other words, to stop Israel’s assault on Gaza. But in political terms the 84-page document that South Africa submitted to the Court represents the most powerful indictment of Israeli genocide that has been available to the public thus far. It not only documents the genocidal consequences of the Israeli massive bombing and siege of Gaza, but presents a complete file of official Israeli professions of determination to carry out genocide against the Palestinians population of the Gaza strip.
The latter evidence comes directly from the mouths of Prime Benjamin Netanyahu himself, the president of Israel, the minister of defense, the minister of national security, five other government ministers and several leading Israeli military figures. It is a heart-rending document that can leave no one who reads it in doubt about the explicitly genocidal motive of the Israeli government in ordering indiscriminate bombing and the deliberate denial of food, water, energy and medical care and supplies to the Palestinian population with the explicit intention of making it impossible for Palestinians to sustain life in Gaza. The terrible human toll of the Israeli assault on the population of Gaza in terms of death and injury from Israeli bombing is well known. What is not generally known to the U.S. public is evidence provided in the South African document that Israelis have deliberately chosen the most indiscriminate way of bombing possible.
Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas of the world, so indiscriminate weapons are far more lethal there than in normal situations. Yet despite the availability of precision guided weapons, as the South African document points out, Israel has been dropping completely unguided “dumb bombs” and 2,000 pound munitions that have a lethal radius of up to 360m and cause serious injuries for 800m in all directions. Primary victims of the Israeli strategy, counting for 40 percent of the casualties, are children, with more than 115 Palestinian children in Gaza killed every day. The document cites a study by Save the Children showing that the 3,195 Palestinian children killed in the first three weeks in Gaza alone is more than total number of children killed each year since 2019 across all the world’s conflict zones.
And because of the close-knit character of Palestinian families and the prolonged war, the document reveals that this bombing strategy has taken a tragic toll on entire extended families, with mothers, fathers, children, siblings, grandparents, aunts and cousins frequently killed simultaneously with no remaining survivors. As many as 312 Palestinian families in Gaza lost over 10 members each in just the first month of the bombing alone.
The “extraordinary feature” of this case is how open Israeli officials are about their “genocidal intent.”
South African legal scholar Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, presenting at The Hague, says the evidence for genocide is “incontrovertible.” pic.twitter.com/ufpyq5cCZN
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) January 11, 2024
Max Blumenthal and Aaron Maté.
• Questions For NYT About Shoddy ‘Hamas Mass Rape’ Report (GZ)
The Grayzone has identified serious issues with the credibility of key sources quoted in the New York Times’ December 28 story, “Screams Without Words: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on October 7.” Authored by Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz, and Adam Sella, the article purports to prove “a broader pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7” than even Israeli authorities have been willing to allege . However, the Times report is marred by sensationalism, wild leaps of logic, and an absence of concrete evidence to support its sweeping conclusion.
The Times has come under fire from family members of Gal Abdush, the so-called “girl in the black dress” who features as Exhibit A in Gettleman and company’s attempt to demonstrate a pattern of rape by Hamas on October 7. Not only have Abdush’s sister and brother-in-law each denied that she was raped, the former has accused the Times of manipulating her family into participating by misleading them about their editorial angle. Though the family’s comments have sparked a major uproar on social media, the Times has yet to address the serious breach of journalistic integrity that its staff is accused of committing. The Israeli police have also issued a statement since the publication of the Times’ article asserting that they themselves are unable to locate eyewitnesses of rape on October 7, or to connect the testimonies published by outlets like the Times with anything remotely resembling evidence.
We call on the New York Times to publicly address the comments by the Abdush family accusing Times reporters of misleading them and lying about the circumstances of her death. The Times must also address the statement issued by Israel’s police subsequent to the article’s publication and explain why Gettleman and his co-authors apparently omitted it. Further, we demand a response to our thoroughly sourced debunking of testimony by key witnesses quoted in the story, as well as the documented record of discredited claims and ethically dubious activity by those same witnesses. We have provided several questions for your consideration. If you are unable to furnish responses which satisfactorily address the issues we have raised about the credibility of your article, we believe it must be retracted in full.
You write, “Based largely on the video evidence — which was verified by The New York Times — Israeli police officials said they believed that [Gal] Abdush was raped, and she has become a symbol of the horrors visited upon Israeli women and girls during the Oct. 7 attacks.” However, the sister of Gal Abdush, Miral Alter, stated in a January 2 Instagram comment that “she was not raped… There was no proof that there was rape, it was only a video.” She also pointed out that the timeline between Gal’s last message to the family and the time of her reported murder made it impossible for a rape to occur: “How in 4 minutes [were] they also raped and burned [?]” Alter concluded, “the New York Times that came to us indicated that they wanted to do a story in memory of Gal and Nagy [her husband] and that’s why we approved. If we knew that it was a headline like rape slaughter, we would never agree. Never.”
“Having been pushed too far, the farmers are now threatening to undermine the entire European project with support for populist and, in some cases, outright anti-EU parties..”
• The EU’s Worst Nightmare: Pitchforks! (Butler)
I recently wrote about what has become a global, populist political phenomenon. Citizens of multiple countries, in both hemispheres, are not only voting for populist candidates but are also working outside their entrenched political establishments to either enact desired changes or oppose undesired ones. The latter has been in focus this week as German farmers travelled to Berlin and other cities to blockade the roads in protest at the removal of certain subsidies considered noncompliant with official climate policies. Although not well reported in the British media, in the continental media, the protests made the front page. Farm subsidies have existed all across Europe ever since the EU was founded. Affordable and available basic food was considered – and still is – a matter of national security. And since European farmers are not always as competitive as those elsewhere, subsidies were deemed required to keep them in business.
No longer. Apparently, climate goals now trump food security and affordability. And so the subsidies are to be ended, rendering farmers less competitive and possibly forcing some into bankruptcy. As has been true throughout modern European history, the progressive Dutch were among the first to revolt against what they perceived as oppressive rules handed down from above. Farmers blockaded multiple cities and motorways in response to proposed nitrogen (fertiliser) quotas. More recently, the Dutch gave the largest portion of seats in the Tweede Kamer – their equivalent of the House of Commons – to the populist party of Geert Wilders. Now farmers in Germany, the EU’s largest, wealthiest country, and largest net contributor to the EU budget, have joined the fray. They, in turn, have been joined by farmers in neighbouring Poland, Hungary and Austria. HGV drivers, many of whom supply farms with fertilisers and other essentials and in turn deliver produce from farm to table.
The pitchforks have come out, as it were. As it happens, the UK also has a venerable populist tradition. In 1381, there was the so-called “Peasants Revolt” led by Wat Tyler. It began in Brentwood, Essex, with a dispute over unpaid taxes and rapidly spread to engulf much of southeast England. London was sacked, and many prominent buildings were set on fire. These included the Tower of London, in which Richard II’s lord chancellor and lord high treasurer were discovered by the rebels and summarily killed. By comparison, today’s EU farmers are rather restrained in their actions. But they have laid down a populist political gauntlet of sorts. The common agricultural policy has been the backbone of the EU for decades. The perceived common interest of farmers has functioned as a form of political “cement” to hold the European project together and provide a base on which to build further integration into other industries.
Having been pushed too far, the farmers are now threatening to undermine the entire European project with support for populist and, in some cases, outright anti-EU parties. Recent polls suggest that, in eastern Germany, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is the leading political party. Brussels has yet to voice any specific concerns about the matter. Perhaps they see these developments as just storms in teacups. Ensconced in their modern glass and steel palaces, they might even ponder whether, if European food security and affordability are compromised in pursuit of their lofty climate goals, they should just let their peasants eat cake instead.
“Over 162,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since the spring of 2022, when governors and mayors of states along the southern US border began busing them north en masse..”
• US School Boots Out Students To Shelter Migrants (RT)
Thousands of New York City public school students were ordered to attend classes remotely on Wednesday so that migrants previously housed in a Brooklyn tent city could take shelter in their school’s gymnasium during an approaching storm. Students and teachers were informed on Tuesday morning that James Madison High School had been “activated” as a “temporary overnight respite center” for some 1,900 migrants staying at Floyd Bennett Field, a tent city five miles away. They were given until 5pm to remove everything they might need for the coming days. The relocation was described by City Hall spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak as “a proactive measure being taken out of an abundance of caution to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals working and living at the center,” as the storm was predicted to bring winds of up to 70mph. However, it was not clear how long the migrants were expected to be staying at the gym.
“The relocation will continue until any weather conditions that may arise have stabilized and the facility is once again fit for living,” Mamelak said. She noted that the migrants would “continue to be provided with essential services and support” while occupying the school building. New York City Mayor Eric Adams attempted to convert public school gyms into migrant housing last spring as thousands of illegal immigrants descended on the city every week. The plan met with strident opposition and organized protests from parents concerned about their children sharing space with unvetted adults of unknown origin. The mayor ultimately backed off on plans to convert dozens of gyms into temporary migrant accommodation, though his administration denied a policy reversal had taken place and reserved the right to commandeer the buildings once more if the rate of new arrivals increased.
Over 162,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since the spring of 2022, when governors and mayors of states along the southern US border began busing them north en masse to so-called “sanctuary cities” known for their refusal to enforce immigration law. The human tide has long since overwhelmed the shelter system, leading the city to erect three massive tent complexes across the five boroughs – though only Floyd Bennett Field, with its tents held down by “heavy stones” rather than permanent anchors, was deemed at risk enough to warrant evacuation in the face of the coming storm. Last month, Adams predicted the resulting humanitarian crisis would cost the city $12 billion over three years. He has declared a state of emergency and significantly cut funding for most city services, further outraging long-time residents, who are fleeing the city in droves. New York lost more residents in 2023 than any other state, many hailing from the city.
“.. we’re going to have peace through strength.”
• Trump Runs On ‘Largest Deportation Effort’ If Reelected (SAC)
The border crisis has reached such a level that even liberal, so-called sanctuary cities, are admitting migrants are taking over their resources at an unsustainable rate. During his Fox News town hall Wednesday night, former President Donald Trump vowed that if he were to be reelected, he would create the “largest deportation effort in the history of our country…we have no choice.” Trump stated more than 18 million people will have entered the United States borders illegally by the end of President Joe Biden’s presidency. Not only is the number “not sustainable for our country” but a huge risk lies within just who the individuals are that are passing through without detection. “Many of those people come from jails and prisons, many of those people come from mental institutions and insane asylums, and many of those people are terrorists,” Trump said.
National Review notes a few other key points trump made during the Fox News live event: Trump called the economy under Biden “horrible” and said inflation also continued to be “horrible.” But, he noted, the stock market is doing well, and attempted to take credit. “I think if I wasn’t leading [in the polls] the stock market would be 25 percent lower,” he said. “And I think, frankly, if I didn’t win, I think the stock market would crash.” He touted the relative global calm under his leadership, saying, “I’m the only president in 72 years, I didn’t have any wars.” He claimed that Russian president Vladimir Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine if he was president, and Hamas terrorists wouldn’t have attacked Israel. “They see a weak president in our country and they did something that is unthinkable,” Trump said, adding that if he’s elected again “we’re going to have peace through strength.”
“..the death of “X,” as Musk has renamed the platform, has been foretold with a regularity reminiscent of Western fantasies about Russia’s government..”
• X, Drugs, Politics: What’s Behind The Latest Attack On Elon Musk? (Amar)
A few months ago, Musk committed the unforgivable sin of stating the facts. From Beijing’s standpoint, he explained, Taiwan is “an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China mostly because … the US Pacific Fleet has stopped any sort of reunification effort by force.” That is, actually, true. (Yes, he also made a comparison with Hawaii. Frankly, who cares?) Taiwan, it is also true, is a special case. The US and China have long practiced a compromise, going back to 1972. China has insisted that it has the right to use force to reunite Taiwan with mainland China, but, crucially, it has refrained from doing so. The US has recognized that Beijing speaks for China (and not Taiwan’s capital Taipei), while still supporting Taiwan militarily and maintaining a policy of “strategic ambiguity.” This is designed to leave open the question of whether Washington would fight for Taiwan. This compromise has been inconsistent but helped preserve the peace for half a century.
Yet since 2022, it has been Washington, not Beijing, that has upset this fragile balance the most, by provocative visits, exercises, and statements, most importantly by President Joe Biden himself. This is the context in which Musk reminded everyone of the underlying reality: that Taiwan is not a sovereign country, and that China has a legitimate claim under international law. Yet the narrative build-up to what may be the next major war for American global hegemony (this time to be lost against China, not Russia), requires us to forget that basic fact. It would be hard for CNN et al to whip Western publics into the requisite furor against “Chinese aggression,” if they were too well aware that, as a matter of fact, China is after what is legally its own territory.
If Musk has been worse than tactless, namely factual, about the world outside the US, he also has created upset at home. In general, he has become more outspoken about his politics that tend strongly – and for my taste – very unattractively to the right, even by American standards, in a capitalist-libertarian register. In particular, he has loudly challenged what he sees as the bane of the “woke-mind virus” and the failure of American border and immigration policy. In addition, he has been open about shifting his allegiance from the Democrats to the Republicans. And, worst of all, of course, he has taken over the social media platform once known as Twitter. Since then, the death of “X,” as Musk has renamed the platform, has been foretold with a regularity reminiscent of Western fantasies about Russia’s government.
Musk has also been criticized for bias and caprice in his very personalized handling of X, often with good reason. But the real issue for his centrist detractors is not his being biased but being biased in the wrong direction. Whereas old Twitter was a solid bastion of the center-liberal US establishment, Musk’s X is more right-wing, erratic, and unpredictable. It is, however – as Jill Lepore, another Musk-slayer with impeccable centrist credentials has rightly pointed out in the New Yorker – not a matter of “free speech” or “representation.” Because Twitter/X has always been a business. What is at stake is something else: control, or, as the perspicacious Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci would have put it, ideological hegemony. And with Musk at the helm, the former Twitter is certainly not a stable tool of such hegemony. That does not make it an agent of revolution or even progress. But it does make for an increase in establishment insecurity and infighting, for now.
Alphabet
In 1972 Kermit and little Joey Calvan sang the alphabet on Sesame Street, with the addition of a special guest.
Beautiful.
— Michael Warburton (@MichaelWarbur17) January 11, 2024
Snow
Light on falling snow looks like it’s creating a portal to another dimension
pic.twitter.com/5NEz3GEtCf— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) January 11, 2024
Giraffe
Giraffes on streets, 3D billboards are next level
pic.twitter.com/PujcGFO6wv— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) January 11, 2024
Poetry
https://twitter.com/i/status/1745490185880551606
“You may know that cicadas spend most of their lives as underground nymphs, emerging in cycles of 13 or 17 years (coincidentally two prime numbers). The years when the two cycles emergence coincide are therefore rare, and one is 2024. The 17-year cicada and the 13-year cicada, which are periodical cicadas, are scheduled to emerge in Middle Tennessee in 2024. The broods co-emerge every 221 years. The last time the two broods co-emerged was in 1803, the same year as the Louisiana Purchase and Thomas Jefferson was president.”
Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.
