(Notes on Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Palestine, and other news items. #12). 

“History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.” – James Baldwin

Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza is one of the worst crimes in human history.

So, where do you stand?

Silence is complicity, and the time has long passed to claim ignorance, or say that Israel’s actions are “complicated”. For the last 16 months, the world has witnessed a GENOCIDE, perpetrated by both Israel, and the United States, which has killed over 400,000 of our Palestinian brothers and sisters (70% of whom are women and CHILDREN). As per international human rights lawyer, Craig Mokhiber, “Palestinian genocide victims are being rounded up, stripped, blindfolded, bound, loaded on trucks, and transported en masse to Zionist horror camps to be beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted, and murdered – all for the “crime” of having been born Palestinian in Palestine. Only the most morally depraved could still defend the Israeli regime.”
Click on the links below to learn more from the United Nations, humanitarian organizations, legal experts, and both the ICC, and the ICJ, who have all concluded that Israel is committing a GENOCIDE in Gaza (with US support).
Human Rights Watch, and its 179-page report detailing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Amnesty International, and its 296-page report detailing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) concluded that Israel is committing a GENOCIDE in Gaza.
The United Nations (UN) report that concluded that Israel is committing a GENOCIDE in Gaza.
Learn more from the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Learn more from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

So, where do you stand?

I have marched and protested on behalf of dozens of causes over the last 20+ years, including those for Peace, and Human Rights. I attend meetings online, and in person, and I try to raise awareness, and educate, as much as possible. I am disgusted by the United States of America, and I feel as though I no longer have a country. Since World War 2, the United States has MURDERED between 20-30 MILLION innocent people (in 37 nations). Brown University’s Costs of War Project, estimates that the US has killed at least 4.5-4.7 MILLION people just in the illegal, US led, post 9/11 wars alone (it is no coincidence that the US also kills, per capita, more animals than any other major power too). And yet despite the moral rot of US leadership, and its countless illegal mass murder campaigns over the decades, not ONE US president, or government official, has ever been held accountable.

“I look forward to the day when there will be an investigation into the role of Western corporate media in this genocide. Because this is not just a genocide that has been overlooked. This is a genocide that has been justified and enabled by the media”
– United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese

The United States, and Israel, are now committing a GENOCIDE (the EVIL of all evils), in Gaza, and the vast majority of Americans remain either willfully ignorant, or supportive of Israel. In fact, a Fox “News” poll from Jan. 10-13, 2025, found that 54 percent of US registered voters sided more with the Israelis, than the Palestinians, while 32 percent sided with the Palestinians. The US corporate media is state media, and should be held accountable too for its incessant lying, and war crimes, but they are not solely responsible for the stupidity, and racism, of the majority of US voters. At some point, we all need to look in the mirror. How do we explain the continued silence (complicity), deliberate ignorance, or worse, of so many Americans, when it’s nearly impossible to NOT know the TRUTH about Israel’s GENOCIDE? I am tired of making excuses for people, who at the end of the day, simply don’t care about issues surrounding Truth & Justice (re: humans, animals, or Mother Earth). The United States is by far, the biggest agent of TERROR in the world today, and the greatest threat to the survival of our species, and with a mostly uninformed, and apathetic population, can a US triggered World War 3 be too far away?
Click here to learn more from the great George Carlin on politicians and the public: Garbage In, Garbage Out.

So, where do you stand?

I grew up in a racist household, where I was conditioned to know when to bite my lip (which meant most of the time), and with the utmost care, when to speak up, and bear the consequences. I like to think that my background provided me with more patience, and forgiveness, when it came to activism, because I learned pretty early that racism, or any form of hatred, is largely based on ignorance, fear, and a desire to feel superior. And that deep down, most people are good (even if the percentage often seems stuck at 51%!). Even though many of my family members, and friends have slowly disappeared over the years due to me being a “drag”, by talking about animal welfare, human rights, peace, and plant-based diets too much (for starters), I still felt optimistic about the future of our species and planet, and believed that it was probably best, like the great Ralph Nader might say, to change our broken systems from within through civic action. I no longer feel that way. I hope that I am wrong, but I don’t see much changing in the United States without a revolution. I was mistaken to think that, for the most part, I understood Americans prior to Israel’s US backed Genocide in Palestine. I knew that most Americans were indifferent to justice related issues, but I believed that if a line was ever crossed, like the United States committing a GENOCIDE, US citizens would rise up and be counted because at their core, most people are good. I now know that except for the younger generation, this is simply not true. There is no core at the moment with the majority of “older” Americans. Due to a shallow culture, willful ignorance, racism, and the indoctrination of “American Exceptionalism” since kindergarten, I don’t think that a revolution in the United States is possible within my lifetime. 

“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.” – Aaron Bushnell

It has been a year since Aaron Bushnell died by self-immolation in protest of the Gaza genocide. As per Mondoweiss, “His memory should stir a fire in our souls, and force us to evaluate our commitment to a better world.”
Click here to learn more from Mondoweiss.
Click here for a powerful 1.5 minute tribute to Aaron Bushnell from Massachusetts Peace Action.
Click here to learn more from active duty Air Force lieutenant, Joy Metzler.

So, where do you stand?

Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza has changed my views, and beliefs, in more ways than I care to admit. So much of what I thought I knew has been flipped upside down. Ongoing US and Israeli War Crimes, and Mass Murder campaigns, have also changed the perspectives, and lives of billions of people worldwide. I now know how America’s worst atrocities were allowed, and how they continue to happen (Genocides, Chattel Slavery, the dropping of nuclear bombs on civilian populations, etc.). People and entire movements (see vegan), that I thought I knew, and once loved, have been exposed for their ignorance, greed, and overall lunacy. If they ever have a change of heart, I will try to be there for them. However, if we allow friends, family, and organizations into our lives, who are knowingly supportive (or complicit) of Israel’s Gaza GENOCIDE, and other atrocities, then we are complicit too. If we don’t challenge EVIL, and those who support it, we normalize the WICKEDNESS, and INSANITY of the crimes, and we become a part of the sickness too. It is heartbreaking to know that overall, the United States doesn’t have a soul.

According to Award winning Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, there are 3 beliefs that Israel, and its Jewish supremacist supporters, must have to be okay with Israel’s brutal occupation, and Genocide in Gaza:
1. A belief that they are the chosen people
2. A belief that they are the victims
3. A belief that Palestinians are less than human

“Nobody is going to pour truth into your brain. It’s something you have to find out for yourself.” – Noam Chomsky

It has taken some time to process, and it breaks my heart, but I now know too that my former friend’s arrogance, sense of victimhood, and hatred of Palestinians, is far more important to her than the TRUTH, and our lifelong friendship. I have lost many friends over the last 20 years for the reasons mentioned above. A few of these friends were like family, and although it hurts, I can no longer make excuses, and FEEL sorry for them. Despite the overwhelming evidence, and international consensus, many Americans continue to DENY that Israel, and the United States, are committing a GENOCIDE in Gaza. These people choose to be ignorant, and unconscionable, and are a big part of the problem. We should all FEEL for our brothers and sisters in Palestine, and other parts of the world, where there are literally MILLIONS of people suffering, and dying, due to US foreign & domestic policies. I tried many times to help my friend understand, but she chose instead, to dissolve our multi-decades friendship, rather than read just one of the evidence based reports from the United Nations, various humanitarian organizations, and International Courts, confirming Israel’s War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity, and GENOCIDE in Gaza. If my friend, and people like her, can deny the existence and dignity of one group of people, then they are only one step away from denying the existence, and dignity of another group of people, or other living beings. So, where does it end? And what does it say about us if we look the other way, and don’t call them out? What is most distressing, is how the indoctrination, and racism/Zionism, damages a person’s soul, to the extent that they would rather lose loving lifelong relationships, and support a GENOCIDE, than question their own racism, and grossly misinformed beliefs. I know from my experiences of dealing with people who are willfully ignorant, and full of hate, fear, and a desire to feel superior, that it doesn’t matter how many times they are proven wrong, they are going to continue to believe what they want to believe, regardless of the truth.

Here is a great response to anyone who questions the importance of raising awareness, and confronting GENOCIDE deniers: “We’ve learned that we must be alert because the risk of recurrence of genocide is always there. One of the reasons I speak so strongly about denial of genocide, is that we know that denial of genocide actually constitutes preparation for another genocide. We have also learned that no society is free of risk, and no country is immune to genocide, especially where these crimes have occurred in the past. So ultimately, I would say the biggest lesson is that there’s a lot of work to be done around building consensus among a critical mass of people to share the same objective in which we work towards a world free of hate and division, where genocide no longer happens.”
– Alice Wairimu Nderitu, Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide
Click here to learn more from the United Nations.

Israeli snipers continue to target, and murder Palestinian children. Additionally, in 2024, an average of 15 Palestinian CHILDREN per day (475 per month), lost one or more limbs, or were condemned to lifelong disabilities (this is in addition to 97% of Palestinian children already suffering from PTSD). According to Save the Children,“A counsellor from a partner organisation in Gaza, which provides mental health support services to children who have been injured during the war said: “One of the children we supported is Ahmad*, a five-year-old who was displaced with his family in a school-turned-shelter. When the school was hit, Ahmad lost his father and one arm. During a counselling session we were playing together with clay, and Ahmad asked me to make him a new arm with the clay. I told him that hopefully when he travels out of Gaza, he will get a new arm. So, he gave me the piece of clay and told me to make him a new ‘Baba’ [dad].”
Click here to learn more about how Israeli snipers target Palestinian children.
Click here to learn more from Al Jazeera English.

Doctors Against Genocide has submitted a report to the UN, that expresses the urgent need for a medical definition of genocide to enable timely interventions by healthcare workers. As per the report, “this report establishes a medical definition of genocide, built from lessons from the ongoing genocide in Gaza, to enable and support the role of healthcare workers both as key frontline protectors of the right to health and life, and as meaningful actors in the early prevention of genocide.”  

“Israel is the main cause of anti-Semitism in the world today.” – Professor Norman Finkelstein

I have learned from journalist Max Blumenthal, that most affluent Jewish Americans are Zionists, and supporters of Israel, and its GENOCIDE in Palestine. How many Jewish supremacists & Zionists are out there using their influence and money to enable US & Israeli war crimes? I would guess thousands, if not millions. Thankfully, there are a ton of inspiring Jewish Americans, and even a few Israeli journalists (see Gideon Levy from above), fighting back, and educating us all. For the most part, I don’t think of people based on their religion, race, or sexual orientation, but in the context of this discussion it is important. For example, I sometimes feel that I should do a better job of remembering the religious beliefs of my friends, so that I could be more thoughtful on their respective holidays. Having said that, when a former friend started making offensive comments about Palestinians, I was quick to remember, “Oh shit, that’s right, she’s Jewish, and might have gone on a brainwashing “birthright” like trip to Israel.” Journalist & filmmaker Katie Halper does terrific work, and she has explained, along with members of Jewish Voice for Peace, how Israel makes Jews less safe through their ongoing occupation, mass murder campaigns, and genocide in Gaza. Unfortunately, it is not just the genocidal Israeli government that is insane, but also the majority of Israel’s population. According to a 2024 Pew Research Center report, only 4% of Jewish Israelis believe that Israel’s military operations in Gaza have gone too far.
Click here to learn more from the Katie Halper show.
Click here to learn more about “birthright” trips from the superb documentary, Israelism.

Israel’s Ten Violations of International Criminal Humanitarian Law in Gaza
1. Genocide Count I. Killing Palestinians in Gaza.
2. Genocide Count II. Deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
3. Genocide Count III. Destroying hospitals and maternal care necessities intended to prevent births by Palestinian women.
4. Crimes against humanity. Extermination and persecution of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza as part of a systematic attack directed at Palestinian civilians.
5. Deliberately targeting civilians and civilian property for destruction.
6. Failing to provide for the security and welfare of the inhabitants occupied by the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza.
7. Impeding delivery of humanitarian assistance.
8. Forcible relocation of civilian population.
9. Use of military force causing civilian casualties vastly disproportionate to the importance of any legitimate military objective.
10. War of aggression against Gaza Palestinians.
Click here to learn more from Ralph Nader.

“If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.” – Charles Bukowski

I have learned from my experiences as a peace, and animal rights activist, that it is really hard to get most people in the United States, who are not living paycheck to paycheck, to think critically, and care about anything (other than their money, status, favorite sports teams, celebrities, cars, and other “fancy things”). Too often, consumerism, and materialism rule the day. Sprinkle in some willful ignorance, racism, and greed, and voila, we have a grossly misinformed, and at best, apathetic population.

Will you help to raise awareness, and challenge most Americans to care about humanity, and animals (other than their dogs)? And not just for the next generation, but for the next thousand generations? A sea change, will likely not happen in my lifetime, but if not now, when?

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Since October, 2023, the United States, and Israel, have KILLED over 400,000 of our brothers and sisters in Palestine. Let’s not forget that nearly half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people are children. Since Israel targets, and murders CHILDREN, it is reasonable to estimate that over the last 16 months alone, close to 200,000 Palestinian kids under the age of 18, have been MURDERED with US taxpayer dollars. ALL CHILDREN are OUR CHILDREN, and we must hold US “leaders” accountable.

So, where do you stand?

The World is on Fire. Here are more news items, and notes from the last couple of months.

1. Getting Away with Mass Murder, Again?
It pains me to know that former president Joe Biden (Genocide Joe), former secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and former secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, will likely never be subject to execution (let alone jail), for their War Crimes. If you are unfamiliar, Joe Biden, and Antony Blinken were both architects of the illegal invasion, and occupation of Iraq in 2003, which was justified at the time by a series of lies, and resulted in the mass murder of MILLIONS of innocent people. Like their contemporaries at the time, both Biden and Blinken, knew that they were lying, and knew, that we knew, they were lying too, and yet they proceeded with impunity. Not only were they never held accountable for their war crimes, but both were rewarded with promotions, lucrative speaking engagements, bookdeals, and the presidency of the United States. Isn’t American “democracy” great?

Fortunately, there is encouraging news on two fronts: 
(A) A non-profit organization has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the Biden Admin. for War Crimes.
According to journalist Ed Sykes, “A non-profit organisation has urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate former US president Joe Biden for fuelling Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. And it has highlighted the role of current president Donald Trump too. Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) isn’t exactly a radical organisation, having previously received ample corporate funding. But it has made the bold decision to submit a 172-page request to the ICC which calls for accountability for Biden, along with his secretary of state Antony Blinken and secretary of defense Lloyd Austin.” 
Click here to learn more about the ICC referrals from the Canary.
Click here to learn more from the always superb Electronic Intifada.

Tell the ICC: Investigate the Biden War Crimes!

Please sign the petition to the ICC (International Criminal Court), demanding an immediate investigation of “Genocide Joe” Biden, and his entire administration for War Crimes. As per CODEPINK: “NOW is the time to hold the Biden Administration accountable for enabling Israel’s war crimes across Palestine! The nonprofit organization DAWN has submitted a 172-page communication to the International Criminal Court (ICC) recommending they investigate former President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for aiding and abetting Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. With DAWN’s comprehensive communication, the heavy-lifting for the ICC is already done. Let’s push them to take action!”
Click here to sign the petition.

Artist: AFSC

(B) A new US-based campaign, Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG), aims to hold lawmakers accountable for making federal taxpayers complicit in Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza.
As per journalist Nora Barrows Friedman, “Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG) began in northern California, but is expanding its membership to include all US federal taxpayers across the country. The group recently announced plans to file a report with the United Nations in April, and is exploring other international legal remedies. “The idea has been that we have an extremely solid legal case,” said Maria Barakat, a member of TAG’s core organizing group, adding that attorneys with the National Lawyers Guild are amongst their legal team…“And so we looked at those Congresspersons who cast a vote in the house on 20 April, 2024 which was to re-up $26.38 billion more in military aid and weapon sales to Israel at that time.” By then, Donnelly adds, “the evidence of genocide was overwhelming, and we had lobbied them extensively not to do that, [but] they did it anyway”…TAG organized class-action lawsuits on behalf of constituents of lawmakers in California who had voted to send taxpayer funds to support Israel’s war crimes, naming Democratic Party congress members such as Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman as well as former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Barakat said that the group is working to make their legal approach applicable to a broader constituency so that it can be adapted to different jurisdictions around the country. The intention of TAG, she says, is “to ensure that our representatives never forget that they have been complicit in genocide and that we will not stop until they are shamed in the world, in the world’s eyes.” TAG’s press team member Mary Samson and activist Hanna Barakat also spoke about the strong response from people all over the country who want to be part of the legal process of accountability and responsibility for local, state and federal lawmakers.
Click here to learn more from the always excellent Electronic Intifada.
Click here to sign on to TAG’s National Movement.

Here are a few quick reminders on the criminality of “Genocide Joe” Biden:
For the record, US President Joe Biden, is/was a mass murdering psychopath, who should be viewed as one of the most overlooked genocidal maniacs in history. We must never forget that Joe Biden was one of the architects of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, which according to Brown University, killed millions of innocent people. Joe Biden also made the following declaration to Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister Menachem Begin (in a 1982 Senate foreign relations committee meeting): “If attacks were launched from Canada into the US, everyone here would have said, “Attack all cities of Canada, and we don’t care if all the civilians get killed.” Prime Minister Begin later told Israeli reporters that he “disassociated” himself from Biden’s remarks, and that according to his values, “it is forbidden to hurt women and children, even in war.” Genocide Joe has also been a chronic liar throughout his career, and the top recipient of any active politician, of AIPAC money. Joe Biden had the power to stop Israel’s Gaza GENOCIDE at any time, but instead chose to not only be complicit with GENOCIDE (the evil of all evils), but co-belligerent as well. So yes, Genocide Joe Biden has been a war criminal for decades, and is now largely responsible for Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza too.
Learn more from Ralph Nader.
Click here to learn more from Norman Solomon on how Joe Biden and Antony Blinken sent us to war in 2003.
Learn more from Brown University’s Costs of War Project.
Click here to learn more from the Intercept about the criminality of Lloyd Austin.
Click here to learn more about Genocide Joe’s unconditional support for Israel. 
Click here to learn how Israeli Human Rights, and Civil Society organizations sent a letter to Biden in December, 2023, asking him to use his influence to change Israel’s policy and prevent the deteriorating humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.

If Biden, Blinken, and Austin were held to the same standards as the Nazis at Nuremberg, all three would be HANGED. Knowing that they are directly responsible for Israel’s GENOCIDE in Gaza, we must stand up, and hold them, and ourselves accountable. These three monsters used billions of US taxpayer dollars to enable Israel’s GENOCIDE in Gaza, while the United States has the worst, and most corrupt health-care system in the world, and record high child poverty, homeless, and suicide rates! Like thousands of others, I intend to spend the rest of my life doing whatever I can to hold the war criminals, Biden, Blinken, Austin, Trump, Obama, Bush, Cheney, Clinton, and others accountable. And once an authentic “justice for all” precedent is finally set in the United States for war criminals, we should then target the US corporate media (state media) as well. Again, the importance of holding our “leaders”, and media, accountable for their war crimes cannot be overstated. It is true that f you are rich and powerful in the US, you are above the law, but hopefully, that will change in my lifetime. If nothing else, we can dream, right? Incidentally, one of the most nauseating thoughts that I can imagine is seeing Genocide Joe Biden, and his predecessors, continue to be glorified by the corporate media, as they shuffle off into the sunset with golden parachutes, and libraries named in their honor. In fact, I just learned thatGenocide Joe, and Kamala Harris, have both signed with Barack Obama’s talent agency, CAA. Apparently, the War Criminals Biden, and Harris, both hope to follow in Obama’s footsteps with regard to creating a fortune from speaking engagements, publishing, and “fluff piece” documentaries that attempt to rewrite history. For the record,  Obama is another genocide supporting war criminal, who stands for nothing, stood for nothing, and accomplished nothing (other than expanding US empire, and maintaining the status quo). Obama reported a net worth of $1.3 million before taking office in 2008, and now has an estimated worth that ranges anywhere from $70 to $135 million. How does that happen? These monsters in suits have the blood of MILLIONS of innocent people on their hands. Imagine the amount of dreams that Genocide Joe has shattered, and the countless lives that have forever been destroyed on his watch. The ruling elite, including Genocide Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump are criminals of the worst kind, and must be held responsible. We must never forget.

The ongoing failures of Biden, and the DNC, have been timed perfectly for Lifetime Criminal Donald Trump. According to the always informative “Useful Idiots” podcast (and economist Yanis Varoufakis), “Donald Trump is the creation of the Democratic Party’s spectacular, lamentable failures. The first time he was elected, it was entirely due to Barack Obama. Barack Obama betrayed every single promise or principle that he put forward in 2008.” And his reelection was a result of the same calculated missteps by the Dems. “The average American couldn’t make ends meet. And yet the liberal establishment were saying you’ve never had it so good and you should celebrate the fact that we’ve had a recovery in the labor market and inflation. People couldn’t make ends meet. And there was a Democratic establishment telling them that it was the best of all possible worlds. How dare you complain about your finances?” Just as he did after Obama, Trump capitalized on this: “Trump comes again and says, I’m looking you in the eye and I can recognize your pain and I’m going to make you great. So he got elected as a result of very concerted efforts by the Democrats to lose.”
Click here to learn more from Aaron Mate, Katie Halper, and Yanis Varoufakis.

Stephen Semler does great work, and here he explains how Joe Biden, and the DNC, are really no better than Trump, and the GOP.

Biden and Trump on Military Spending
Joe Biden would never say what Trump recently did, he took too much pride in inflating the Pentagon budget and nuclear arsenal in the name of great power competition. But Biden’s policies were largely extensions of Trump’s. For example, after Trump ramped up nuclear weapons spending in his first term, Biden doubled down on the same insane practice for the next four years. The concern now is that Trump will pick up right where Biden left off, just as Biden picked up where Trump left off. The same goes for military spending more broadly.

The GOP’s Medicaid and SNAP cuts vs. Biden’s
A leaked 50-page Republican budget document lays out a menu of options to cut SNAP, Medicaid, and other social safety net programs. Two proposals stand out for their combination of severity and likelihood:
– GOP’s Medicaid cuts: Eliminates the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, removing coverage for 13 million people. The GOP estimates this will reduce spending by $561 billion. 
– GOP’s SNAP cuts: Reverses Biden’s 2021 benefit adjustment, reducing monthly benefits by $36 per person. The GOP estimates this will reduce spending by $274 billion. 
These cuts would be devastating. But are they worse than those Biden recently enacted?
– Biden’s Medicaid cuts kicked over 25 million people off the program, nearly double the number who would lose coverage under the GOP proposal.
– Biden’s SNAP cuts slashed monthly benefits by $90 per person, on average, more than double the expected reduction from the Republican proposal.
Biden Restarted Student Loans Because he Felt Like It
Unlike most pandemic-era social programs, the SNAP boost and Medicaid expansion didn’t expire or run out of funding — they only ended because Biden chose to end them. The same goes for student loan payments. Biden never had to end the student loan repayment pause; he did so because he wanted to. This decision threw millions of borrowers into financial distress.
Click here to learn more from Stephen Semler.
Click here to learn more about whether Trump is really cutting the Pentagon budget.

Artist: Carlos Latuff

Genocide Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris, lost to Donald Trump due to their Genocide in Gaza, and other crazy war policies in Ukraine. It didn’t help that US homelessness, and child poverty rates were at all time highs too, along with record high inflation, and a “healthcare” (sick-care) crisis that caused over 550,000 Americans to file for bankruptcy in 2020 (many of whom lost their homes due to medical debt). Let’s not forget too that Biden promised to VETO all “Medicare for All” legislation that came across his desk (despite a Yale U. study that concluded that universal health-care would save, conservatively, 70,000 lives per year, as well as $450 billion).

2. If you think US President Donald Trump will be any better than former president “Genocide Joe” Biden, think again.
Donald Trump is not just a “limited thinker”, he is also a depraved GENOCIDAL lunatic. Trump has reiterated that he plans to “take over Gaza” and that the Palestinians would have “no alternative” but to leave, and to never return. According to the United Nations (UN), “forcible displacement of an occupied group is an international crime, and amounts to ethnic cleansing”. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), ruled in 2024 that Israel’s occupation of Palestine was unlawful. As per the UN, “The landmark ruling of 19 July 2024 declared that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful, along with the associated settlement regime, annexation and use of natural resources. The Court added that Israel’s legislation and measures violate the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid. The ICJ mandated Israel to end its occupation, dismantle its settlements, provide full reparations to Palestinian victims and facilitate the return of displaced people.”

As per the Guardian’s Andrew Roth, “The announcement was welcomed by Israel’s far-right settler movement, as well as their evangelical allies in the US who have endorsed the annexation of the Gaza Strip and other occupied Palestinian territories, including the West Bank. “In the meantime, I would own this,” Trump said of Gaza. “Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.”

Artist: Carlos Latuff

The head of the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Navi Pillay, also said that Trump’s plan for the “forcible displacement of an occupied group is an international crime, and amounts to ethnic cleansing”.
“There is no way under the law that Trump could carry out the threat to dislocate Palestinians from their land,” Pillay said. More than 1.5 million Palestinians and their descendants who lost their homes during the 1948 Arab–Israeli war currently live in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
Click here to learn more.
Click here to learn more from the United Nations.
Click here to learn more from Professor Jeffrey Sachs.
Click here to learn more from Democracy Now!.

How successful will Trump be over the next four years? Perhaps journalist, and former academic, Laura Ruggeri, summed it up best: “But for all his campaign promises, Trump won’t be able to bring about a “reinvigorated” and “renewed” America for a simple reason – more privatization, deregulation and unfettered capitalism, ruthless individualism, unchecked greed and self-interest, and a notion of government devoid of any sense of social responsibility is not a cure, it’s a disease. When individuals are forced into relentless competition for survival, they lose any sense of shared responsibility. In fact, it leads to extreme inequality and the concentration of power in few hands. It is also destroying lives. Over the past two decades, deaths of despair from suicide, drug overdose and alcoholism have risen dramatically, and now claim hundreds of thousands of American lives each year. Of course it’s easier to accuse China of supplying Fentanyl than addressing the root causes of its abuse. As Richard Wolff pointed out,“empires often react to periods of their own decline by over-extending their coping mechanisms. Military actions, infrastructure problems, and social welfare demands may then combine or clash, accumulating costs and backlash effects that the declining empire cannot manage. Policies aimed to strengthen empire—and that once did—now undermine it. Contemporary social changes inside and outside the empire can reinforce, slow, or reverse the decline. However, when decline leads leaders to deny its existence, it can become self-accelerating.”
Click here to learn more from Laura Ruggeri.

Artist: Carlos Latuff

It is important to remember that Lifetime Criminal, Donald Trump, is dangerously dumb too (or as Chris Hedges called him nicely, “a limited thinker”). Trump is an ignorant, racist, greedy, sociopath, who filed for bankruptcy SIX times before being vomited up by the broken, and corrupt, US political system in 2016. I have lived in the NYC area for many decades, and unfortunately, the Trumps have been on my radar for a long time (his father, Fred Trump, was an infamous slum lord in NYC, who made MILLIONS of dollars by exploiting people of color through racist/discriminatory housing policies). Despite his many limitations, and staggering incompetence, Donald Trump is in a position to cause more harm to humanity, and Mother Earth, than perhaps anyone else in human history. The depths of depravity of Donald Trump should frighten us all.

Trump holds chair for War Criminal Netanyahu.

“He has two commitments; one commitment is to himself, the other commitment is to serve corporate power and great wealth…He is a megalomaniac psychopath, all that concerns him is ‘me’…Donald Trump is the worst criminal in human history.” – Noam Chomsky

Please remember too that Donald Trump is a War Criminal, who has no mandate. Only 31.3% of eligible voters chose Trump in the 2024 election. NOT voting was more popular than Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, as 89 MILLION eligible US voters decided NOT to vote (Trump got 76.9 million votes, Harris received 74.4 million). NOT voting WON far and away, primarily because both the DNC & GOP are poisonous war parties, who in the interest of greed and power, ignore the future, and the needs of Americans and Humanity. Our only hope for justice is the mobilization of millions of Americans (good luck to us), and a major push back from the international community. Again, I have never been more disgusted, or ashamed of the United States of America. I can only imagine what our Palestinian brothers and sisters are experiencing at this moment.
Learn more about Donald Trump’s War Crimes (past, present, and future).
Click here to learn more from Matthew Hoh.
Click here to learn more from Common Dreams.

3. Legendary activist Ralph Nader just turned 91 years old, and is still one of my most trusted “go to” sources. 
Here are a few excerpts from an interview with Ralph Nader, and journalist, Jeremy Scahill, from the Ralph Nader Radio Hour:
As per Jeremy Scahill (from DropSite News):
– On Germany being complicit with Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza:
“A friend of mine, Ali Abunima, who runs Electronic Intifada, said that the Germans have been punishing the Palestinians for the German mass murder of Jews for many decades now.”
– On the Ceasefire in Gaza, and the criminality of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris:
“The only reason there’s a ceasefire right now is because of Donald Trump…Trump sometimes does the right thing for the wrong reasons or accidentally. It has nothing to do with Joe Biden, it had nothing to do with Kamala Harris, they should forever be remembered as the people that facilitated this genocide. They should never be able to appear in public without being disrupted and demanded. Now they both signed big contracts with CAA to represent them, and they’re going to go the Obama route where they try to cash in, and they’re going to do whatever books and public speaking. They should never be able to appear in public without being asked about it.”
– On the attempted extermination of Palestinians by Israel and the United States:
“There are approximately 2,000 Palestinian families that no longer exist. Their entire name has been wiped out of their family. Let me repeat that, roughly 2,000 Palestinian families have been erased from planet Earth since this started. So there is no question that a dramatic number of people died well beyond these estimates…One friend of mine, 220 members of her family, they’ve documented that they’ve been killed. This is from one family with the same last name. The other day, I met a Palestinian doctor from Gaza who lives in Germany, and 60 members of his mother’s side of the family have been killed, and 50 members of his father’s side of the family. This is just in my social circle. So if you extrapolate that out and you hear what I’m saying about 2,000 families, you’re talking about large Palestinian families. People will work their whole lives to save up enough money, and they build a house that houses multiple generations of their family…There was a building that was bombed, housing members of a family. 93 people were killed in that bombing. They’re all related. And that’s not wiping out that entire family. That’s just one part of one family. So when you’re talking about 2,000 families being wiped out, when you’re talking about thousands upon thousands of people buried under the rubble of what used to be their homes, and then the Israelis come in with their utterly sadistic macabre tactics, where they then bulldoze people, put them in mass graves, I don’t think we right now have any sense of the scope of the killing that has happened. We’re not even talking about disease, which has spread. There’s a report that came out in early February that said that the life expectancy, this is from The Lancet, had dropped from around 70 years old down to 40 years old in Gaza.”
– On the one thing that we can say for certain:
“I think the only thing I would be able to say with certainty is that there is no chance, if you study the past 76, 77 years of history of the Palestinians, there is no chance that they are going to voluntarily leave their land. There is no chance that they are going to lay down their arms in a struggle for national liberation. And I think that the only certainty here is that the Palestinians are not going to give up. And the question is how much damage has been done to Israel itself by the events of the past 16 months within Israeli society, but also on the world stage? You know, history is filled with examples where it seems that liberation struggles are going to be stomped out, crushed, eliminated. People will be annihilated. And yet somehow, when you’re talking about people who have a deep connection to their land, when you’re talking about people whose entire life story is written in the blood of their relatives, who have been expelled, and imprisoned, and tortured and killed, that those people always have the will to struggle. And so I’m not in the business of predictions, but I’m certain that there is no chance that the Palestinians are going to give up on their righteous cause for national liberation. I think that there are serious questions about the stability and viability of the state of Israel in its current format.”
As per Ralph Nader: “Well, there are 5,000 babies born every month in Gaza, 2.3 million people, and they’re born into the rubble. To begin with, that severely lowers the average life expectancy…Why is it important to have a more accurate estimate (of the number of people killed)? Because it will intensify the diplomatic, political, and civic pressures to stop the killing and to negotiate a peaceful settlement. So we’re talking now of 2.3 million people, Jeremy, they have lost more people than the combined deaths from Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Dresden. That’s important to get to the Western psyche here, the full amount of the horror and the genocide, in order to mobilize more pressure…before October 7th, Israelis bombed periodically Gaza and the West Bank. I think the injury and death ratio was 400 to 1, in the last 50, 60 years. 400 more Palestinians than Israelis. So October 7th happened…”
Click here to learn more from Ralph Nader Radio Hour on Why The Palestinians Will Never Give Up.
Click here to learn how war criminals Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris have signed with the same talent agency. 

4. I learned of Noor Hindi’s outstanding poem from an interview with Omar El Akkard, and Chris Hedges. Wow. 
Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People Are Dying
By Noor Hindi
Colonizers write about flowers.
I tell you about children throwing rocks at Israeli tanks
seconds before becoming daisies.
I want to be like those poets who care about the moon.
Palestinians don’t see the moon from jail cells and prisons.
It’s so beautiful, the moon.
They’re so beautiful, the flowers.
I pick flowers for my dead father when I’m sad.
He watches Al Jazeera all day.
I wish Jessica would stop texting me Happy Ramadan.
I know I’m American because when I walk into a room something dies.
Metaphors about death are for poets who think ghosts care about sound.
When I die, I promise to haunt you forever.
One day, I’ll write about the flowers like we own them.

5. It is not enough to fight for the land, it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here.
Lifetime criminal Donald Trump’s heinous comments about annexing Mexico, Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal, and Gaza, reminded me of a quote from the acclaimed environmentalist, Edward Abbey, “Growth for the sake of growth, is the ideology of a CANCER cell.” I then stumbled across this great passage of Mr. Abbey’s on How to Die, “It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So…ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”
Click here to learn more about Edward Abbey from Maria Popova.

6. Professor Jeffrey Sachs does terrific work, and he recently gave an “explosive” address at the EU Parliament.
Here are a few excerpts from the Jeffrey Sachs address (at the EU Parliament):
– On ending the war in Ukraine: “Trump doesn’t want to carry a loser, that’s it. it’s not some great morality. He doesn’t want to carry a loser.” (Journalist Ben Norton reports that it’s an attempt to divide Russia and China, in order to weaken China)
– On the US Foreign Policy in the Middle East: “The US completely handed over foreign policy to Netanyahu 30 years ago. The Israel Lobby dominates American politics. It’s very dangerous. I’m hoping that Trump will not destroy his administration and worse the Palestinian people because of Netanyahu, who I regard as a war criminal.”
– On Israel and a document called, Clean Break: “…Israel owning Gaza idea has been around at least for 25 years. It actually goes back to a document called clean break that Netanyahu and his American political team put together in 1996 to end the idea of the two- State solution…”
On War Criminal Netanyahu: “Netanyahu’s greatest dream in life is a war between the United States and Iran. He’s not given up, and it’s not impossible that that would come also. And that’s because the US, in this regard, does not have an independent
foreign policy. It is run by Israel. It’s tragic.”
– On China: “Finally let me just say with respect to China. China is not an enemy. China is just a success story. That’s why it is viewed by the United States as an enemy because China is a bigger economy than the United States.”
*And this quote from war criminal Henry Kissinger: “To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”
Click here for a clip of his entire presentation from the Africa News Network.

Artist: Carlos Latuff

Artist: Carlos Latuff

7. Israel = Nazis = US “leadership” = EVIL = Anti-Defamation League (ADL) = GENOCIDE = World War III?
The ADL’s sleazy, smirking, slimy CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt (GreenBLAH), is a War Criminal. Period.
Click here to learn more from the Electronic Intifada.
Click here to learn more from Jewish Voice for Peace.

8. Nearly ALL US politicians are corrupt. Seriously.
Democratic Senator John Fetterman (PA), is another soulless US politician who should be investigated for war crimes. Six of his staffers have resigned due to his obsessive support of Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza. I can only imagine how much of an ignorant psychopath Fetterman must be to wave an Israeli flag while Israel is committing a GENOCIDE. Fetterman has likely received millions of dollars from the Israeli lobby over the years.
Click here to watch the cowardly Fetterman avoid his constituents who are calling him out for supporting a GENOCIDE.
Click here to learn more from the Intercept.
Click here to learn even more from the Intercept, if you can stomach it!

9. Four NYC Deputy Mayors Resign in Protest To NYC’s Corrupt Mayor Eric Adams, and his Quid Pro Quo with Trump
NYC Mayor Eric Adams is a bonafide criminal (possible war criminal too), and once called peace protesters (including myself), who spoke out against Israel’s US backed Genocide in Gaza, “Antisemitic”, and “Disgusting”.
As per Common Dreams, “With the resignation of deputy mayors, it has become clear that Mayor Adams has now lost the confidence and trust of his own staff, his colleagues in government, and New Yorkers…As news broke that four of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ top deputies plan to resign over the alleged deal Adams made with the Trump administration in order to get his corruption case dismissed, calls mounted for the mayor to end the chaos by stepping down. First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer was joined by Meera Joshi and Anne Williams-Isom, who oversee operations and health and human services in the city of more than 8 million people, in a joint statement to their staff Monday announcing that they would step down “due to the extraordinary events of the last few weeks and to stay faithful to the oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families.”
Click here to learn more from journalist Julia Conley.
Click here to learn more about the awfulness of NYC Mayor Eric Adams.

Artist: Christopher Weyant

New York City Mayor, and celebrity Vegan, Eric Adams is a Criminal
Eric Adams Has A Multitude Of Legal And Political Problems That Have Ended Any Political Ambitions He May Have Had
According to journalist Margaret Kimberly, “Donald Trump may have kept him from going to jail, but in seeking a lifeline from a president hated by most New Yorkers, he has sealed his fate and will go down in history as the anti-Black, Black mayor. New York City residents are wondering if mayor Eric Adams will resign, or be removed from office by the governor, or be summoned to an Inability Committee , or limp along ineffectively until his term ends on December 31, 2025. The city’s mayoralty is hanging by a thread with four Deputy Mayors resigning, and top staff under indictment or leaving. Depending on a judge’s ruling, Adams may no longer be under indictment himself because Donald Trump interceded with the United States Attorney on his behalf. So egregious was the action that six prosecutors with solid republican bona fides resigned rather than sign onto the obvious travesty of justice…No one is certain how long the Adams soap opera will go on, but he will not be missed by the Black New Yorkers whose political and material needs he ignored. Eric Adams will be a footnote in history as a clownish and quirky character with legal troubles but whenever he leaves office, he will not be missed.
Click here to learn more from Margaret Kimberly.

10. A 2024 report shows “resounding evidence” that high corporate profits are a main driver of ongoing inflation, and companies continue to keep prices high even as their inflationary costs drop.
As per the Guardian, “The report, compiled by the progressive think tank, Groundwork Collaborative, found corporate profits accounted for about 53% of inflation during 2023’s second and third quarters. Profits drove just 11% of price growth in the 40 years prior to the pandemic…The report’s authors scoured corporate earnings calls and found executives bragging to shareholders about keeping prices high and widening profit margins as input costs come down…”
Click here to learn more from the Guardian. 

“Those who flee freedom live on
but their souls die in fear
Those who thirst for freedom die
but their souls live on in resistance”
– Liu Xiaobo, Human Rights activist, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

“In the context of tragedy, all polite behavior is self-denial…There are two issues of our time, really, that I think amount to a litmus test for morality as far as I’m concerned. One is what you’re prepared to do on behalf of the Palestinian people. And the other is what are you prepared to do on behalf of gay and lesbian peoples.” – Author & Activist June Jordan (1991)

“History teaches us that at the beginning of the greatest tragedies was ignorance…I have no illusions about power. Where there is power there is danger…To be brave is to speak the truth.” – Chinese artist, and activist, Ai Weiwei

11. “The blood of those eating a Westernized diet does fight cancer, otherwise, many of us wouldn’t be alive! But research shows that the blood of people eating plant-based diets fights cancer up to 8 times better.” – Dr. Michael Greger
Following just four simple lifestyle factors can have a strong impact on the prevention of chronic diseases: not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, getting 30 minutes of daily exercise, and eating more healthfully—consuming more fruits, veggies, and whole grains, and less meat. For some cancers, like colon cancer, the top cancer killer of nonsmokers, up to 71 percent of cases appear to be preventable through a similar portfolio of simple diet and lifestyle changes. What happens when we put cancer on a plant-based diet?
Click here to learn more from NutritionFacts.org on How Not to Die.
Click here to learn more about cancer prevention.

Consuming the Standard American Diet (SAD), while your doctor prescribes drugs to treat your disease.

12. High school felt like a jail sentence to me. I hated all aspects of it.
John Taylor Gatto’s book, Dumbing Us Down, is a great read, and one that I highly recommend (even though I don’t agree with a few of his observations). I was reminded of his work recently when I interviewed for a high school position, teaching Earth Science. When asked for my thoughts on the class, I expressed excitement at the prospect of creating lesson plans on the Climate Crisis (one of the two biggest issues of our lifetime, along with nuclear war). The AP’s face soured, as she explained that the gist of the class would be based on state standards, with a heavy focus on “space”. Students really are taught to be employees, and consumers, and not problem solvers. In my experience, critical thinking is not even on the table in most schools.
 
Excerpts from “Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling”:
“School is a twelve-year jail sentence where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned…The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders…By discouraging critical thinking, schools ensure a docile and compliant population…Schooling is a form of adoption. It has little resemblance to education…schools are designed to create workers, not thinkers. I teach school and win awards doing it. I should know.” – John Taylor Gatto

Other Memorable Quotes on School:
– “Education is a system of imposed ignorance…Nobody is going to pour truth into your brain. It’s something you have to find out for yourself…Mass education was designed to turn independent farmers into docile, passive tools of production.” – N. Chomsky
– “Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned.” – Mark Twain
– “I hated school. Even to this day, when I see a school bus it’s just depressing to me. The poor little kids.” – Dolly Parton
– “Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education…Education is one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.” – Bertrand Russell
– “My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school.” – Margaret Mead

Lastly, the great Noam Chomsky on US public education, and the corporate media: “If they have the capacity to think freely and understand these types of things, they’re going to be kept out by a very complicated filtering system-which actually starts in kindergarten, I think. In fact, the whole ed­ucational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for them­selves, and who don’t know how to be submissive, and so on-because they’re dysfunctional to the institutions. I mean, it would be highly dysfunc­tional to have people in the media who could ask questions like this. So by the time you’ve made it to Bureau Chief or Editor, or you’ve become a bigshot at CBS, or something, the chances are, that you’ve just got all this stuff in your bones, you’ve internalized values that make it clear to you, that there are certain things you just don’t say, and in fact, you don’t even think about them anymore.”
Click here to learn more from Noam Chomsky & Edward S. Herman.

Artist: Bob Englehart

I agree that for the most part, the US public school system trains children to be obedient employees, and mindless consumers. Many subjects are not allowed to be discussed, often because they do not promote “American Exceptionalism”. As per John Taylor Gatto, “school trains children to obey reflexively, and not think critically, and independently.”
Click here to learn more about why authoritarians target education.

“The paradise of the rich, is Made out of the hell of the poor.” – Victor Hugo

13. Hogs & Kisses on Valentine’s Day (belated).
Pigs are AWESOME, and there is no better time than right now, to adopt a plant-based diet, reduce their suffering, and improve your health. I promise that you will feel better in about 1.5 billion different ways (that is how many pigs are tortured and slaughtered each year due to our violent and destructive “food” system).

14. The Great Norman Finkelstein educates his audience once again.
Excerpt: “Does that sound like a war, or does that sound like a GENOCIDE?”
Click here for the video, and to learn more from Professor & Author Norman Finkelstein

15. Israel continues to violate its ceasefire agreements as 98 Palestinians have been killed by Israel (with over 800 wounded), since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement went into effect on January 19th.
According to Al Jazeera, Israel has also violated its ceasefire agreement with Lebanon hundreds of times. As per Electronic Intifada, “Israel has committed more than 260 violations of the ceasefire terms. According to Palestinian Security Services, these violations include targeting Palestinians who are returning to their homes, targeting civilian vehicles and heavy equipment, carrying out incursions and bulldozing operations in the eastern areas, demolishing homes in the southern city of Rafah, flying drones across Gaza outside the hours under the terms of the agreement, and carrying out more than 130 aircraft sorties.”
Click here to learn more from the always superb Electronic Intifada.
Click here to learn more from journalists Max Blumenthal, and Aaron Mate, who are trusted sources, and continue to do phenomenal work.

16. I haven’t been WOWED in a long time. Kudos to the rapper Macklemore, and his talented team of artists!
As one viewer wrote in the comments section, “Every artist should be doing THIS!”
The younger generation gives me hope.
F*cked Up: Macklemore
Video: @omaronig, Mixed: @jthicc
Mastered: Becker Mastering
Click here for the music video from Macklemore.
Also, 1 Year of Genocide by the rap artist BBOBBY.
Click here for the video.

17. Today, there are more displaced people in the world than at any other time in history.
As per Human Rights Watch (via the Rights and Wrongs podcast), “It is a humanitarian crisis on a global scale. But rather than seeking humane solutions to this crisis, many governments are choosing to weaponize it, creating a hostile environment for migrants and implementing laws that criminalize migration and undermine human rights.”
Click here to learn more from Human Rights Watch.

“Your best teacher is your last mistake…Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner…The goal of education is not just to fill the mind, but to ignite curiosity and critical thinking.” – Ralph Nader

Artist: Khalil Bendib

18. Billionaires Are Actually Less Intelligent Than Lower-Paid People Study Shows
Excerpt: “According to a recent study, being a billionaire doesn’t necessarily equate to having a superior intellect. In fact, the study reveals that those in the top 1% of earners, aka billionaires, scored lower on cognitive ability tests than those who earned just slightly less than they do…The results showed a strong relationship between intelligence and earning potential until the figure exceeded $64,000 a year. Beyond this point, the correlation became almost negligible. And at the highest pay scales, intelligence plateaued, suggesting that other factors, such as socioeconomic background, culture, personality traits and luck, became more significant.”
Click here to learn more.

19. Two organizations that claim to be about truth, and the protection of consumers from harmful foods, celebrate individuals who support Israel’s US backed Genocide in Gaza.
A. Mom’s Across America has lost credibility in its celebration of Zionist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK, Jr.).
As per Mom’s Across America, “With a vote of 51 to 48, Bobby Kennedy is the new head of Health and Human Services. We couldn’t be more excited and thank you to all of you that contacted your Senators!”
According to Pulitzer Prize winning author Chris Hedges, “RFK, Jr. is the Israel lobby’s useful idiot.”
*Robert Kennedy refused to say that healthcare is a human right at his confirmation hearing. As per Common Dreams, “The problem is that Kennedy isn’t ‘anti-establishment’ in any way that would actually help working-class people at the expense of wealthy plutocrats.” Robert F. Kennedy is a dangerous idiot too, even though he might say something intelligent every other year. The majority of Americans have wanted Universal health-care for DECADES. Health-care is a Human Right!
I reached out to Mom’s Across America to express my disappointment, and raise awareness. Of course, my email message was ignored. SILENCE is COMPLICITY. Shame on Mom’s Across America.
Click here to learn more from Common Dreams.
B. Plant Based Nutrition Support Group (PBNSG), claims that its mission “Empowers All”, unless you happen to be Palestinian.
PBNSG has invited the Jewish supremacist, and Vegan movement “leader”, Dr. Joel Kahn, to speak at an upcoming event. I reached out to PBNSG to express my opposition to Dr. Kahn, and I never received a response. Like most BS organizations in the vegan movement, when push comes to shove, PBNSG is full of IT too! Again, SILENCE is COMPLICITY, and you can’t two sides GENOCIDE. Shame on PBNSG.
Click here to learn more from legendary comedian George Carlin on Advertising and BS.

20. Fundraiser for Luigi Mangioni has raised over $300,000!
An online fundraiser for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting a Big Pharma CEO, has raised over 300K for his defense.

Excerpts from Katie Halper’s interview with the online fundraisers, Jamie Peck, and Sam Beard:
Jamie Peck: “This case has really catalyzed a conversation among Americans, and even around the world, about our nation’s murderous, cruel and unusual is really the best way to describe it, Private for-profit health insurance system. And it seems the
massive, massive outpouring of support that people have shown for Luigi, if you read the comments on the fundraiser, some of them are really incredibly touching. People who work in the healthcare industry, medical providers, saying that they’re just sick and tired of seeing people suffer, and die, because their insurance company decided to deny some life-saving care in order to enrich the profits of shareholders. We’ve got comments from people saying my husband died because his cancer treatment was turned down, so I’m donating this money for him, things of that nature. So anytime you see massive amounts of Americans talking about health-care, and talking about these class-based issues in such an inspiring way, it seems like something worth paying attention to…This country was literally founded on violence, and is continually maintained by violence, which is generally directed from the top down, right. It’s very rare that you see violence coming from the bottom up, but I do think that’s an inevitable fact, especially when one of the great injustices of our time, has been completely unaddressed by either of the major parties. It was not an issue in this last election, and in fact, hundreds of thousands of people lost Health Care under the Biden Administration. But if you want to look at history, we had to fight a war to end chattle slavery right which was the Great Injustice of that time. And if you want to contextualize it, you know things like slave uprisings, where slaves killed their masters, or John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, these things were viewed as terrorism in their time, and John Brown especially, was viewed as a completely crazy person. I think people really need to be taking the the wide view on this as well, and evaluate things in their proper ethical context.”

Sam Beard: “That’s what all of the pundits are really trying to focus on, right. They want the spectacular sort of moral conundrum of are you endorsing murder, right. When we call one person getting killed we call that a murder but what do we call it when we have a system, that very predictably, and intentionally is set up to cause the early deaths of tens of thousands, probably more people per year? We call it good business right and we act like that’s just a fact of life. It should be called bureaucratic murder, or something right. Every single time that we talk to the media, it’s the same thing. It’s like well, are you endorsing murder, did Brian Thompson deserve to die? At the end of the day, I don’t pretend to know who can live and die, unlike Brian Thompson, and the other people from his F*cking executive team. So, you know, you can’t separate these larger ethical questions from these individual moral snapshots.”

Katie Halper: “Whenever someone talks about Hamas’s crimes, unless they’re prepared to call out the infinitely greater terrorism committed by Israel, they just have absolutely no leg to stand on…another person who I think does an excellent job on this is Cornell West, because Cornel West says yes, there were war crimes committed by Hamas on October 7th, obviously way more by Israel, but he says Hamas is actually an anti-terrorist organization, because it was founded to take on Israel, which is the bigger terrorist. So those are the types of people who I am very happy to hear kind of waxing poetic or waxing philosophical about murder and violence, but when it’s people who are okay with the murder built into the system whether it’s Healthcare, or the occupation, that’s when they should just take a walk.”

Excerpt from Yahoo piece: “The American private health insurance industry has ruined countless lives by denying people access to basic care and burying families in medical debt. It’s no surprise that Luigi’s alleged actions are understood and supported by tens of millions of hard-working Americans,” said D4 Legal Committee spokesperson Sam Beard. Fellow spokesperson Jamie Peck said they hope the movement will lead to broad reform throughout the industry, including the creation of “a humane and rational single-payer system that will provide medical care to all who need it, without caveats, and with no role for those who would enrich themselves through the suffering of others.”
*Luigi Mangione appeared in NY court in shackles and a bulletproof vest.
Click here to learn more from BreakThrough News.
Click here to learn more from Katie Halper
Click here for the fundraiser page.
Click here to learn more.

21. Another terrific video from Yellow Dot Studios that exposes some of the crimes of Chevron Oil, and the fossil fuel industry.
Click here for the video.

22. Why is it so difficult to get today’s athletes, and everyone in the sports & entertainment industry, to care about issues surrounding truth & justice?
Answer: They are a BIG part of the problem! See GENOCIDE supporting billionaire owners such as Robert Kraft, and willfully ignorant billionaire athletes like Michael Jordan for more details.

As per the UN, In 1974 while visiting Palestinian refugee camps in South Lebanon,Muhammad Ali declared “In my name and the name of all Muslims in America, I declare support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland and oust the Zionist invaders.”

23. Locally grown meat, dairy and egg products are still harmful to your health if you eat them as part of the Standard American Diet (SAD). Why? Mainly because they still contain cholesterol, saturated fat, and animal protein.
Overall, journalist David Sirota’s reporting (The Lever), is good, and he does seem like a nice person. However, I never think of him as a “go to” source because he is weak on important issues (see Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza), and he occasionally makes false statements without proof. He recently claimed that “locally sourced meat, cheese and fresh cut whole vegetables can fundamentally transform a greasy plate of nachos into a culinary masterpiece. One that’s nourishing too.”
Click here for the interview. 

“Americans love to hear good things about their bad habits.” – Dr. T. Colin Campbell

According to the legendary Dr. T. Colin Campbell (The China Study), “What made this project especially remarkable is that, among the many associations that are relevant to diet and disease, so many pointed to the same finding: people who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease. Even relatively small intakes of animal-based food were associated with adverse effects. People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease. These results could not be ignored. From the initial experimental animal studies on animal protein effects, to this massive human study on dietary patterns, the findings proved to be consistent. The health implications of consuming either animal or plant-based nutrients were remarkably different.”
Click here to learn more from Dr. Campbell. 

As per Forks Over Knives: “So-called organic meat, dairy and eggs are sold as a means for people to reduce their exposure to hormones and chemical toxins. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) states that animals raised on an organic operation must be fed organic feed and given access to the outdoors. They are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic crops are raised without using most conventional pesticides and using no petroleum-based or sewage-sludge-based fertilizers. However, while concentrations of some contaminants may be decreased, switching to organic animal-based food does nothing to decrease the risk for the diseases that remain the biggest killers of Americans. Cholesterol, fat (especially saturated fat), and animal protein are the major culprits in animal products that are associated with higher risks of heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers. They are also associated with the development of the many risk factors that lead to these diseases, including obesity and hypertension.”
Click here to learn more from Forks over Knives. 

24. Lifetime Criminal Donald Trump was trying to act tough with a military salute at this year’s “No Soul” Super Bowl.
While hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters in Gaza are being MASSACRED with US bombs, and millions of US immigrants are being terrorized with threats of deportation, and imprisonment, the bloated War Criminal, Trump, was taking bows at a sporting event, and trying to compensate for a missing soul, and apparently, a tiny, little, itty, bitty, penis. Really, I am not kidding (for the most part), that is the short and long of it (ouch). As per Stormy Daniels, Trump’s penis is “smaller than average”, which may explain a lot. Let’s not forget too that Trump and his lawyers made up an injury to help him dodge military service in Vietnam. He wasn’t a conscientious objector (like thousands of brave draft resisters), he just didn’t want to be conscripted, so he made the problem disappear with a fabricated story, and his Daddy’s money. Even then it would have been understandable, except for the fact that he is an obscene bully to those less fortunate, and a lifelong criminal, who continues to commit War Crimes. Like most of his predecessors, including “Genocide Joe” Biden, Donald Trump, at his core, is a mass murdering coward too.
Click here to learn more from the military times about Trump’s “medical deferment” from Vietnam.
Click here to learn more from Stormy Daniels about Trump’s err, umm, manhood?
Click here to learn more from Ken Klippenstein on Trump’s military salute.
Click here to learn about last year’s No Soul Super Bowl.

25. “No one is illegal on stolen land!” – Texas high school student
How can you not love, and admire, these San Antonio high schoolers, who walked out of class to protest the recent attacks on immigrants? Knowing the repulsive Texas governor, Greg Abbot, he will probably have these inspiring kids arrested.
Click here for the video.

Artist: Nick Anderson

26. I know a likeable man who is an immigrant, and married to another man. He has a working class job, and surprised me recently, when he went on a rant against immigrants, and declared that he agrees with most of what Donald Trump has to say.
I reminded him of Trump’s attacks on immigrants, and the LGBTQ community, and the importance of punching up, and not down. I was left wondering if there is any hope for our species, and reminded of the words of John Steinbeck. “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
How many people like the man I know are damaged as well by the constant bombardment of US propaganda via US “leadership”, and the corporate media?

27. Adopt a Plant-Based Diet Today!
Eating just a handful of berries a day, an easy and delicious dietary tweak, may slow your brain’s aging by years.
According to the always excellent Dr. Michael Greger, and Nutritionfacts.org: “Berries are packed with polyphenols, which have powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Anthocyanidins, the natural blue-purple pigments in plants, are a type of polyphenol that can cross the blood-brain barrier and may provide neuroprotective effects.⁠ Our brain makes up less than about 2 percent of our body weight, but it may use up to 50 percent of our body’s fuel, creating a potential firestorm of free radicals. Might the phytonutrients in berries help fight oxidation, reduce inflammation, and increase blood flow?⁠ ⁠The Harvard Nurses’ Health Study followed 16,000 women for years and found that those eating more berries over the long term had significantly slower cognitive decline. In the study, higher consumption of blueberries and strawberries was associated with “delayed cognitive aging by as much as 2.5 years”—thought due to the anthocyanins.⁠ Performing a randomized cross-over study, researchers had participants drink a smoothie made with a variety of berries. Not only did the study subjects achieve a drop in LDL cholesterol during the berry intervention, but they performed better on short-term memory tests, too. Berries can benefit both the heart and the brain. ⁠When older adults added the equivalent of one cup of blueberries to their daily diet, researchers found improvements in their long-term memory and other aspects of cognition. In terms of the number of errors on the test, the placebo group did worse while the blueberry group did better.⁠ All these results suggest that eating just a handful of berries every day, an easy and delicious dietary tweak, may slow your brain’s aging by years.⁠

A study of nearly one thousand older people, found that people who ate tomatoes or tomato products daily, had just half the odds of depression compared to those who ate them once a week or less. Carotenoid phytonutrients are found predominantly in yellow, orange, and red fruits and vegetables, and a study in the United States measured how much was in the blood of nearly 2,000 people. Higher carotenoid levels among study participants were associated with lower risk of depression symptoms, and the higher the levels, the better they felt. Lycopene, a specific kind of carotenoid, is the red pigment predominantly found in tomatoes and also present in other fruits, such as watermelon, pink grapefruit, guava, and papaya. A study with a thousand or so older men and women found that those who ate the most tomato products had about half the odds of depression. Why not include tomatoes and other lycopene-rich plant foods in your diet? Higher consumption of fruits and vegetables in general, as well as folate-rich beans and greens, may lower the risk for depression. Whether you’re feeling anxious, sad, or angry, have lost interest in activities that once gave you great joy, or just need to talk with someone, never hesitate to seek professional help.”
Click here to watch the video “Antioxidants and Depression” from nutritionfacts.org.
Click here to learn more about how plant-based diets can alleviate the symptoms of Depression from nutritionfacts.org.

“The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.” – Mark Twain

28. I always appreciate the determined Medea Benjamin, and the great work of CODEPINK.
This video is a reminder of the complacency, and willful ignorance of so many Americans. Unsurprisingly, the crowd ignores her message, and appears to have no interest in the truth, and the idea of holding War Criminals accountable.
Click here for the video from the always excellent CODEPINK.

“The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.” – James Baldwin

29. Florida Representative Carlos Gimenez proves once again that he has No Soul.
He supports Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza, and has received over $215,000 from the Pro-Israel Lobby.
Representative Carlos Gimenez Spreads Lies About Gaza.
Click here for the video from CODEPINK.

30. Finally, a smidgen of Justice in the United States, as a 73 year old Illinois man was found guilty of murder, and a hate crime. 
As per Mondoweiss, “Joseph Czuba, 73, was convicted on Friday for the murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, in October 2023. Czuba, who was the boy’s landlord, faces life in prison after a jury found him guilty of committing a hate crime.”
Click here to learn more from Mondoweiss. 

31. Legendary musician and peace activist, Roger Waters, on meeting Elon Musk:
“And he introduced me to Elon Musk and I talked to him, or rather I listened to him for about 10 minutes. And I thought, this guy’s a complete f*cking moron. And he is. He’s a complete idiot. And his narcissism, he oozes from every f*cking awful pore of his disgusting body. And you realize that he’s a complete lunatic. So when I read the history of him getting involved in companies, and stealing the ideas of the people who like Tesla, he had f*ck all to do with Tesla, or the engineering, or anything to do with it. It was other blokes, he just stole it from them. So he’s a good little creepy thief. But, and you only have to watch the inauguration, which I didn’t, but I saw that, you know, and I’m not talking about the Nazi salute, frankly, that’s the least of it, but it’s his bubbling, insane narcissism, that’s the scary thing.”
Learn more from the always entertaining Bad Hasbara podcast.

Artist: Carlos Latuff

32. Israel is a truly EVIL state that not only booby traps TOYS, but also Targets and Murders, THOUSANDS, upon THOUSANDS, of CHILDREN. It is laughable to think that Israel could ever be trusted to honor a cease-fire agreement. Like the Nazis, Israel has no moral code, but unlike the Nazis, they openly boast about their ethnic cleansing, and mass murder campaigns. Israel has a mostly SICK society too, and is arguably the greatest threat to the survival of our species (mainly because it has the majority of US “leaders” in its back pocket). According to the award-winning Lebanese journalist Hala Jaber, “Israel’s history has been flawed with breaking ceasefires. It’s not the first time, and I’m sure it won’t be the last time. Over the last 60 days, Israel actually violated the ceasefire 1,350 times, so that’s nearly 22 and a half violations per day, in a spate of 60 days.”
Learn more from BreakThrough News.

33. Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) does great work, and receives a 4/4 rating on Charity Navigator.
Please click here and donate if you can.

34. Actor Wallace Shawn: Israel Is “Doing Evil Just As Great As What the Nazis Did”
Save for the activism of actresses Susan Sarandon, and Debra Winger, Hollywood celebrities are rarely brave, and decent enough to speak out against Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza. Hollywood “elites” are a despicable lot for the most part, and a big part of our problems (e.g., thousands of Hollywood movies only get made with US military assistance, and script approval). Kudos to actor Wallace Shawn for speaking the truth, and pretty much nailing it in this 1+ minute clip from the Katie Halper show.
Click here for the video.

35. New York University (NYU), Sucks.
A Pro-Genocide, Islamophobic/Zionist NYU Mom, has pressured the university to suspend 13 students who spoke out against Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza. And guess what, NYU complied! Once again, according to NYU, it is okay to commit a GENOCIDE (the evil of all evils), but it is not okay to OPPOSE a GENOCIDE. Make no mistake, Zionism is a powerful, well funded, Genocidal cult, and like millions of others, this NYU Mom (Elizabeth Rand), conflates any criticism of Israel’s ongoing War Crimes, and GENOCIDE, with Antisemitism. She has even started a group called Mothers Against College Antisemitism (MACA, which has over 62,000 members), and has posted Islamophobic content online. In other words, she’s racist, crazy & dangerous, but none of that matters to NYU.
Excerpts from the Intercept’s Akela Lacy’s latest piece,
“NYU’s administration has very clearly bypassed and thus undermined norms of academic freedom, faculty governance, and due process...When comparing NYU’s interactions with Rand to its reaction to students demonstrating against the war on Gaza, Samalin and Karl see a case of preferential treatment. NYU has disciplined and suspended pro-Palestine students, and issued “persona non grata” status to three faculty members last month, barring their access to campus buildings. Samalin also said its administrators have resisted meeting with members of its academic community who have been demanding NYU’s divestment from Israel since 2023, though the school entered into negotiations with protesters in April. At the same time, Mills has been personally corresponding with a parent over matters of discipline. “This question of access to her is itself bound up with questions about punishment and discrimination on campus,” Samalin said. There’s very little confidence in the disciplinary process at our school,” Samalin said. And this could be the final straw because it’s just so obvious that there’s this double standard that applies.”
Click here to learn more from the Intercept.
Click here to learn more from NYU News.

The Onion: China Developing Love, the Greatest Weapon of All

36. My favorite headline of the year: Pentagon Warns China Developing Love, the Greatest Weapon of All
The Onion strikes again!
Click here to learn more from the Onion.

37. Israel = Nazis = US “leadership” = EVIL = US corporate media = GENOCIDE = World War III?
Filmmaker and Journalist Abby Martin is a trusted source, who does terrific work.
Click here to learn more from Abby Martin.

Image: CODEPINK

38. Politico Promotes Lies
Politico is part of the mainstream media landscape, which incessantly lies in order to promote the propaganda/official narratives of the US government. Surprise, surprise, a recent piece by Politico is both, scary and disgusting, as they have cherry picked 11 so-called historians (those academics who support the establishment, because they ARE the establishment) to explain Biden’s legacy. Before I even started to read the first paragraph, I searched the entire piece for the terms “war crimes”, and “genocide”, and came up with ZERO results. I stopped reading. This is how US War Crimes, and Genocides continue. These spineless academic “historians” are only interested in their careers, and maintaining the status quo. Thinking critically, and the TRUTH, are not even on their radar, as they no-doubt lost their souls many years ago (they wouldn’t have their jobs if they were honest, and thought critically). Keep sleepwalking America, and a major F-You to these “historians”, and to Politico. “GENOCIDE Joe” Biden has been a war criminal for decades (see Iraq, etc.), and he has been enabling/committing a GENOCIDE in Palestine for the last 16 months. If we lived in a just society, Joe Biden & Antony “Bloody” Blinken would be HANGED, and the members of the Biden administration who failed to resign, would be, at minimum, subject to execution. Period.
Click here to learn more from Noam Chomsky.

“Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” – Augustine of Hippo

Artist: Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor

39. I was lucky enough to visit South Africa many years ago, and it was one of the best experiences of my life.
A favorite moment, among many, was hearing the beautiful voice, and talent, of Vusi Mahlasela for the first time. 🙂
I am also forever grateful to South Africa for filing a case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), that accuses Israel of committing a GENOCIDE against our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Gaza. Thank you South Africa, I love you.
Learn more:
Click here for Vusi Mahlasela performing “When You Come Back” at Mandela Day 2009 from Radio City Music Hall.
Click here for a live performance of “Ubuhle Bomhlaba”.
Click here for a live performance of “Woza” by Vusi Mahlasela.
Click here for a recording from Acoustic Africa that features Habib Koite & Vusi Mahlasela performing “Basimanyana”.
Click here for Vusi Mahlasela Performing at Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday celebration.
Click here for the song “Weeping” by Vusi Mahlasela.
Click here to learn more from author, professor, and activist, Norman Finkelstein.
Click here to learn more about the ICJ case.

“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” – Nelson Mandela

Image: Mohammed Zaanoun 

As of this writing, Israel has started a new starvation policy, and suspended all aid into Gaza. Israel is pure EVIL, and in most respects, so too is the United States. The Trump administration has also bypassed Congress to send another $4 billion in weapons to Israel, so that the wholesale mass murder campaigns can continue. Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza is one of the worst crimes in human history. So, where do you stand?

Until next time…

FREE PALESTINE!

“Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.” – Frederick Douglass

Additional Sources:
Click here to learn more about how Israel has sabotaged the latest ceasefire and suspended aid into Gaza.
Click here to learn more about Israel’s new starvation policy from journalist Jeremy Scahill and Breaking Points.
Click here to learn more about Israel’s latest starvation strategy from DN!.
Jewish Voice for Peace: Why Israel’s war on Gaza is textbook GENOCIDE.
Click here to learn more from the legendary Ralph Nader on the vast undercount of Gazan deaths.
Save the Children: Risk of Palestinian rights under the Genocide Convention are being violated.
Click here to learn more about the courage of Palestinians.
Click here to learn more about the superb documentary, Theaters of War.
Click here to learn how the latest Marvel movie supports Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza.