First They Came for the Palestinian
Things are as frightening as ever in the United States right now, due to the racist, lawless dictator, Donald Trump, and his soulless gang of extremists. Historically, US “leaders” have never really had a moral code, as they have mainly focused on self-enrichment, with complete disregard for everyone, and everything, including Mother Earth. It is within this context, that Trump, and his horrifying sidekicks, may take the cake.
I was proud to join a demonstration in Manhattan this week calling for the release of Columbia University student protest leader, Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested for exercising his constitutional rights, and speaking out against Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza. Mr. Khalil did not break any laws, and was arrested in front of his wife, who is 8 months pregnant (apparently, recently indicted NYC Mayor, Eric Adams, federal agents, and the increasingly thuggish NYPD, had no concern for the health risks of the baby, or the US Constitution that they were pissing on). Mahmoud has a green card, which means he is a lawful permanent resident of the United States. If the US government can arrest and deport green card holders for exercising their first amendment rights (free speech), and protesting a GENOCIDE, then how long before they try to arrest, and deport US citizens who speak out against the genocide too? Regardless, Columbia University has shown once again that it not only supports Israel’s Genocide in Gaza (along with other major US universities), but that it will also try to destroy any student, or faculty member, who speaks out against the genocide too.
Artist: CODEPINK
Human rights lawyer, and Rutgers University professor, Noura Erakat, has explained that it was the Biden Administration, and the DNC, that created the conditions that we are now seeing the Trump administration exploit. According to Ms. Erakat, “The United States, under the Biden administration, continued, fomented, supplied, made possible a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza for 16 months straight; in order to do that, repressed speech at home, fomented the attack on students, expanded presidential authority, refused to apply U.S. law, denigrated international law, and basically created, spread a red carpet for the Trump administration to come now and expand that repression to all other vulnerable communities. And I want to emphasize that this was possible because of the thorough dehumanization of Palestinians, because of the desensitization to their suffering, because of the racialization as violent and dangerous. There was not a blink amongst the Democratic establishment that children were being slaughtered and asking for Americans not to slaughter them. Somehow, “do not kill children” became an exception when it came to Palestinians…They were actually supporting the repression of students at universities because they were described as violent and dangerous, rather than celebrated as anti war protesters, in the tradition of university protest in this country. I have quotes from the Biden administration, from Biden himself, where he says, “Let me be clear: violent protests will not be tolerated, but peaceful protest is,” suggesting that the student protests were violent, when 98% of them were nonviolent, and the violent ones were violent specifically because of mob violence, and because of police violence, because of drones, because of law enforcement that was sent out to the universities. It was Biden who said, “This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous. It has absolutely no place on college campuses or anywhere in our country”…It was the Biden administration, it was the Democratic establishment, that has created the conditions that we are now seeing taken advantage of. The Trump administration before has tried to gut women and gender studies, DEI, critical race theory, but could not do it, but in this moment has been able to do it because all of the guards have been let down as the supposed liberal establishment allowed for these repressive regimes to be mobilized against Palestinians once again, understanding us as the lowest hanging fruit to sacrifice rather than as the canary in the coal mine that has been telling you danger is here…And so, this message is not to point fingers, but this message is to mobilize us and to stand in line that in order to defeat this fascist rollout, Palestinians have to be centered. Palestinian humanity has to be recognized. Palestine has to be central to an agenda, not because it is exceptional, but specifically because it is not exceptional and it is central to this agenda that is being rolled out, and it can stand at the gate against further repression…But what we get in this lesson is that this kind of anticipatory obedience to do what the administration does will not make you safe, not at the university level and not at the individual level. The only way to protect yourself is to protest in this moment. Your silence will be a target, not a shield. There is no way to put your head down and to survive this moment…”
Click here to learn more from Democracy Now!.
Click here to learn more from Noura Erakat.
Artist: ADC
Thankfully, there is some good news. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), has filed a historic federal lawsuit that is challenging Trump’s attacks on free speech. As per PhD candidate Momodou Taal, “The U.S. government claims to be zealous about free speech — except when it comes to Palestine. We’ve been here before: McCarthyism to Civil Rights to Vietnam, times when this country has deviated from its stated commitments to free speech. This is another generational moment, another hour of reckoning. Why is there a Palestine exception?…Americans, I echo Martin Luther King’s words when I call on you to be true to what you say on paper. Join me in defending all of our speech.”
Click here to learn more about the historic lawsuit challenging Trump’s Attack on Free Speech.
Click here to learn more from the ADC.
“Donald Trump is the worst criminal in human history.” – Noam Chomsky
In addition to the quote above, Mr. Chomsky also once called Donald Trump a “sociopathic megalomaniac”, and for good reason. According to constitutional lawyer, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, “I think what we’re witnessing right now with Mahmoud Khalil, and the efforts throughout the Trump Administration, are exceptional, extraordinary, and unconstitutional…for anyone that’s been thinking they can wait it out, or keep their head down, or see what happens, we can see what’s happening. They (Trump & Co.), have said what they’re going to do. They’re attempting to implement what they’ve said they’re going to do. They are targeting people based on political activity, based on political viewpoint. They are engaged in a very significant remaking of fundamental democratic rights, or an attempted remaking. And so the question for all of us is, what can we do? Every person needs to be acting in a way that stands up, that is organizing with others, that is in fact taking advantage of our right to speak out, our right to dissent, our right to free speech. Because that is actually how we have the ability to make change, to hold on to what we believe in, and to push forward for the changes that should happen in society. If we are silent, it is the worst thing that we can do. It will not protect us. Silence in the end is acquiescence, and acquiescence will destroy the basic principles that we all believe in.”
Click here to learn more from the Empire Files.
Artist: Carlos Latuff
Two additional & disturbing thoughts on Trump supporters, and how Zionism, and the Israeli lobby, to a large extent, control both US foreign policy, and what is taught in US public schools:
(1) On my subway ride home from the demonstration for Mahmoud Kahlil (near City Hall), there were a group of 5-6 white guys on the train, the shortest of whom was wearing a MAGA hat. If you are unfamiliar, MAGA is a pro-Trump slogan that stands for Make America Great Again, and it has been described as an “indicator of covert White supremacist sympathies”. Anyway, I was wearing a keffiyeh, and the smallest guy in the group, felt emboldened to start up with me by leering, which of course, descended into a heavy staring contest for about 10-15 seconds. I am not a tough guy, but I have never experienced anything like that in my 20+ years of living in NYC. Luckily, they exited the train after only one stop. The moment however, provided a microscopic reminder of what it must be like to be a person of color, or BIPOC, in the United States. The brief encounter reminded me of another James Baldwin quote, “The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.” The US is not just a criminal state that is run by corporations, it is also a racist state. It doesn’t take much to scratch the surface, and awaken the ugliness, and ignorance of Americans. I fear that the young man with the MAGA hat is not alone, and that due to the events over the last 16 months, perhaps thousands, if not millions more like him, are feeling cockier, and more entitled than ever.
Artist: Mr. Brain
(2.) I recently interviewed for a 10th grade biology teaching position with a highly regarded charter school in Manhattan. The interview went well, I think, until the very end when the principal explained the success of their program, and how they receive millions of dollars in donations from people like Michael Bloomberg (Zionist billionaire, and former mayor of NYC). I immediately asked how the school is able to prevent a powerful Israeli supporter, like Michael Bloomberg, from influencing their curriculum, if they are also receiving large sums of money from him. The principal said that it has never been a problem, as she walked me out the door. Needless to say, I received a short and sweet email two days later saying thanks, but no thanks!
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, is One of the Most Dangerous Lunatics on the Planet
“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence”.
– Charles Bukowski
Did you know that the US Secretary of War (Defense? please), Pete Hegseth, is a former co-host of the TV show Fox & Friends (where he made MILLION$ promoting lies), and a religious extremist? Did you also know that he supports torture, war crimes, and Israel’s Genocide in Gaza? True story. Pete Hegseth, the new US secretary of “Defense” is also a misogynist, and Christian Zionist. In other words, Pete Hegseth is a complete sh*t show, and may be the most dangerous person on the planet. For real.
Images: Geopolitical Economy Report
Journalist Ben Norton, co-founder of the Geopolitical Economy Report, continues to do great work, and in his latest piece, he took on the tedious, and painstaking task of combing through Pete Hegseth’s book, “American Crusade”, to expose the delusional, racist, and warmongering thoughts of the newly appointed, US Secretary of War.
Artist: Carlos Latuff
Here are 21 excerpts from Ben Norton’s excellent article on Pete Hegseth, that should TERRIFY us all:
1. In a speech he gave to the US armed forces a few days after assuming his role in January, Hegseth pledged, “We will remain the strongest and most lethal force in the world”.
2. Trump’s Defense Secretary (Secretary of War), Pete Hegseth is a self-declared “crusader” who believes the USA is in a “holy war” against China, the left, and Islam.
3. “Communist China will fall”, he vowed in his 2020 book “American Crusade”, promising, “Israel and America will form an even tighter bond, fighting the scourge of Islamism and international leftism”.
4. Hegseth vowed that, if Trump could return to the White House and Republicans could take power, “Communist China will fall—and lick its wounds for another two hundred years”.
5. Hegseth declared that the Chinese “are literally the villains of our generation”, and warned, “If we don’t stand up to communist China now, we will be standing for the Chinese anthem someday”.
6. In March 2025, Hegseth told Fox News that the United States is “prepared” to go to war with China.
7. In another address in February, Hegseth expressed his commitment to “making our military once again into the most lethal, badass force on the planet”.
8. Hegseth studied at Princeton University and worked as a stock market analyst for the Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns (which collapsed in the 2008 financial crisis). He later did a Master’s degree at the blue-blooded Harvard Kennedy School, which has trained a Who’s Who of the global political class.
9. Before Trump’s first term, Hegseth was just another cookie-cutter neoconservative Republican. In fact, he was such a mouth-foaming hawk, and he so strongly supported the illegal invasion of Iraq, that he volunteered to fight there for the US Army.
10. Hegseth worked for a year at the US internment camp at Guantánamo Bay, in occupied Cuban territory. When he served there, brutal torture was being carried out by the George W. Bush administration.
11. As defense secretary, Hegseth has defended Trump’s decision to deport undocumented immigrants to Guantánamo Bay. He visited the internment camp and posed for a Pentagon photo op to support the policy.
12. Pete Hegseth is closely linked to an extremist Christian nationalist church that preaches that the United States should follow biblical law.
13. Hegseth’s church is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which believes that the LGBTQ community should be criminalized. Some of its prominent members argue that women should lose the right to vote, and have even spoken positively of slavery.
14. He quoted Trump, who said in 2019, “China is a threat to the world in a sense, because they’re building a military faster than anybody”. Fact Check: The United States outspends the next TEN countries combined on its military, including both China, and Russia.
15. Hegseth declared that, through so-called “globalism”, China is waging a “technological war, cultural war, trade war, and military war”.
16. “The Chinese economy is fake because it’s not free, yet powerful—built through theft, intimidation, and the weakness of China’s opponents”, Hegseth wrote.
17. “Does any sane American actually think communist China is our friend? Anyone? Of course not!” Hegseth wrote. He added, “Except for communism-loving Bernie Sanders and his ‘bros,’ commonsense Americans understand what China represents”.
18. Hegseth predicted that, if the Democrats won the 2020 US election, “Leftism will enslave us all with big government until it’s enslaved by Islamism”, and “there will be some form of civil war”.
19. He claimed that, if Trump lost the 2020 election, “Communist China will rise—and rule the globe. Europe will formally surrender. Islamists will get nuclear weapons and seek to wipe America and Israel off the map. Freedom will fade, tyranny will rise”. Trump did end up losing the 2020 election, and none of that happened.
20. “We Christians—alongside our Jewish friends and their remarkable army in Israel—need to pick up the sword of unapologetic Americanism and defend ourselves. We must push Islamism back”, he added.
21. “Without God, America is not America”, Hegseth declared, asserting that the “secularism movement is incompatible with Americanism”.
Click here for the entire piece from Ben Norton, and the always superb, Geopolitical Economy Report.
Click here for the 39+ minute YouTube video from the Geopolitical Economy Report.
Click here for an excellent piece from the Empire Files’ Mike Prysner on Pete Hegseth’s racist attacks on Black troops.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, is INSANE. Unfortunately, he is also in charge of the entire US military (Pentagon), which is the largest, and most destructive military in human history. I truly believe that Pete Hegseth is mentally ill, and that he will not be satisfied until all of the inhabitants of Mother Earth are nuclear annihilated. Thanks to crazed monsters, like Pete Hegseth, the United States continues to be the biggest agent of TERROR in the world, and the greatest threat to the survival of our species.
Image: Geopolitical Economy Report
Did you know that the United States is the #1 arms dealer in the world, and that it exports 43% of the world’s weapons?
As per another superb Ben Norton report:
“The United States is the biggest arms dealer on Earth, responsible for 43% of the world’s weapons exports from 2020 to 2024.
The US transferred seven times more than China, and five times more than Russia.”
(more scary statistics):
“Of all weapons exports from 2020 to 2024. The US transferred 7.3 times more weapons than China, and 5.5 times more than Russia. In fact, Russia’s global arms exports declined by 64% from 2020 to 2024, and China’s fell by 5.4%, whereas those of the US grew by 21%.
This is according to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The 10 largest arms exporters from 2020-24 were the following:
1. United States (43% of the world)
2. France (9.6%)
3. Russia (7.8%)
4. China (5.9%)
5. Germany (5.6%)
6. Italy (4.8%)
7. United Kingdom (3.6%)
8. Israel (3.1%)
9. Spain (3.0%)
10. South Korea (2.2%)
Exports of major arms by 10 largest exporters, 2020-2024
Changes in volume of exports of major arms since 2015-19 by the 10 largest exporters in 2020-24
Click here to learn more from the Geopolitical Economy Report.
Click here for the video from Ben Norton, and the Geopolitical Economy Report.
Stephen Semler continues to do fantastic work as well. In his latest piece, he shows how the US Pentagon has never passed an audit, and how DOGE completely ignores US military spending (over 62% of US taxpayer dollars go to military programs).
As per his latest article, “Anyone serious about cutting government waste, fraud, and abuse would start with the Pentagon. Despite the massive sums of public funds at play, the Pentagon has never passed an audit. What’s more, investigations have found systematic price gouging by contractors on nearly everything the Pentagon buys. With that in mind, here are a few bullet points on where DOGE isn’t cutting.”
Click here to learn more from Stephen Semler.
Loving China
For a ton of reasons, I love China. Aside from its awe-inspiring culture, history, physical geography, and beautiful people, China also has the best Plant-Based food on the planet! 🙂
Yum!
Did you know that China has pulled over 800 MILLION people out of poverty over the last 20 years? And that pervasive homelessness, and large slums are non-existent in China, as it has one of the highest home ownership rates in the world, surpassing 90%?
Artist: CODEPINK
According to the Oxford Encyclopedia, “The term “democracy” derives from its Greek origins in demos (the people) and kratos (rule) and refers to a form of government based on rule by the people with popular sovereignty as its defining feature.”
Tricontintal’s Vijay Prashad is another trusted source, who does phenomenal work. He was recently on the Scheer Intelligence podcast, and cited something called the “Democracy Perceptions Index 2024”, which is the world’s largest annual study on how people perceive democracy. As per the report, 78% of people living in China feel that they’re living in a true democracy, while more than half of Americans, myself included, feel that they are NOT living in a democracy. The report is fascinating as it raises all kinds of questions regarding democracies, and the role of “legitimate” elections, and true representation. China may not have “elections” for its president, yet the vast majority of our brothers and sisters in China, feel that their government cares, and that their voices are heard, and their concerns are addressed. It is a reminder of how egregiously broken and corrupt the US political system has become, and how the vast majority of US “leaders” have no souls, as they are loyal only to the billionaires, corporations, and lobbyists who extend their careers, and fatten their pockets (e.g., the majority of US Senators are millionaires).
According to Vijay Prashad, “Okay. In China, 78% of the population polls say that they think their democracy is fine, and they call it a democracy. It’s interesting. So, the question that comes to me is what do they think is a democracy? How do they understand democracy? The last time I was in New York City, walking around the street, I was horrified to see how many homeless people were living on the streets. This was around the time of the UN General Assembly in September. The streets seemed packed in Midtown Manhattan with homeless people. There was a man roaming around without pants on. The majority of the people were African-American and Latinos who were living on the street…It’s a horrendous sight and right past them you have middle class people, professionals and so on just walking by, absolutely inured that this is a democracy, we can vote, so everything is fine. That’s one scenario. When I’m in a place like China, or even actually increasingly in places like Vietnam, you just don’t see homeless people anywhere. And I have asked people, like not just government officials but people who live in, who I know socially, and so on. What has happened? Well, when China abolished absolute poverty, one of the things that did happen was people got housing. They got the ability to have a basic meal. A basic floor was set under people with transfer payments that go into your phone. Everybody was brought into the digital systems, a big part of poverty eradication. When they eradicated poverty, they did something truly democratic to their society. And we need to understand that. I mean, if you have a cartoon understanding that the West is free because there are elections and that countries around the world are unfree because they don’t have elections, you have a very narrow understanding of democracy. Other people might understand democracy to mean we don’t have poverty. We’ve been liberated from the site of disease and poverty on the streets. We don’t have that. This is therefore a democracy.”
Click here for the entire interview with Vijay Prashad, and Bob Scheer.
Click here to learn more from the Alliance of Democracies.
Click here to learn more from CODEPINK.
Lastly, a new United Nations report titled, “More than a human can bear”: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023“, has found that Israel’s US backed GENOCIDE in Gaza has resulted in more “genocidal acts” by Isreal in its deliberate targeting of fertility facilities with the intention of preventing births among Palestinians in Gaza. The report also detailed systematic sexual abuse by Israel against Palestinians of all ages, including boys and girls. Israel’s GENOCIDE in Gaza would not be possible without US taxpayer dollars, and the complicity, and co-belligerance of the United States military, and US “leaders”.
Click here to learn more from Mondoweiss.
Click here to learn more from Middle East Eye.
Women wait to receive food rations in Gaza.
Palestinian man carries a child. Image: Yassir Quid
“The line is actually very clear.The line is not a thin line. It has nothing to do with whether you’re pro-Hamas or not. The line has to do with whether you’re pro-genocide or not. And it’s a very clear line in the sand. We drew that line as the mass movement over a year and a half ago. And that’s how history is going to remember it, too. On which side did you stand? Did you stand for the genocide or did you stand against the genocide?” – Layan Sima Fuleihan, Palestinian organizer, and Education Director at The People’s Forum
US President Donald Trump isn’t just a buffoonish, racist, lifetime criminal. He is now guilty of additional war crimes, and GENOCIDE too. I once thought that he was too dumb to qualify as pure evil, but clearly, I was wrong. Like his predecessor(s), if Trump was held to the same standards as the Nazis at Nuremberg, he would be hanged.
Israel is now indistinguishable from the Nazis in its crimes, and depths of depravity. I am starting to believe that overall, so too is the United States. I know that it is a tired trope to compare modern US “leaders” to Hitler, but my God, if ever the shoe fits.
Until next time….
FREE PALESTINE!
*Did you know that Israel is placing bombs disguised as food, or toys, in Palestinian homes, for those who return? One bomb disposal expert said, “This is a gift of death that the Israeli soldiers left for the children of Gaza.”
Click here to learn more from the Electronic Intifada about how Israel leaves “Gifts of Death” for Palestinian children.
Israel = Nazis = US “leadership” = EVIL = US Corporate Media = GENOCIDE = World War III?
Other Sources:
Click here to learn more about Donald Trump’s War Crimes.
Click here to learn more about the protesters arrested at Trump Tower in NYC.
Click here to email Congress and demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil via Jewish Voice for Peace.
Click here to learn more about the awfulness of Pete Hegseth from CODEPINK.
Click here to learn more from Ralph Nader on how silence is complicity.
Click here to learn more from Layan Sima Fuleihan, and the Socialist Program with Brian Becker.
Click here to learn more about the poster from the main image.
