A while back, I took the following notes from the article ‘Innocent Israelis’ by Patrick Lawrence (Scheer Post). These comments are from an ordinarily lucid reporter writing on October 11th. We didn’t know then what we know now, but we did know that collective punishment is wrong, and that there is most certainly such a thing as the concept of a innocence. Lawrence in this article seems to be arguing for a pretty strict restriction of the definition of that word, as illustrated below.

“To assume the responsibilities that... [More]”

Normal Finkelstein has woken from a slumber, finally being interviewed and questioned about his deep knowledge of Palestine, Israel and their shared history. I’ve written relatively extensively about him recently, in Norman Finkelstein is on a tear, but also in many Links & Notes stretching back over 10 years (with several from the last six weeks), from when I reviewed the film Lemon Tree in 2016 or when I reviewed the film Defamation in 2013.

He’s usually absolutely strictly no-nonsense, but... [More]

Man, I saw the title of the article Murder And Rape For The Cause by Scott H. Greenfield (Simple Justice) and my heart sank. I wrote about why in Some commentators are still MIA, where the author featured prominently.[1]

I don’t even have anything to cite from this article because it’s so insipid. I just wanted to keep in my notes that, once again, an ordinarily useful writer and thinker simply cannot keep his shit together or think of justice when his team’s been attacked.

Greenfield is Jewish. He loves Israel. He cannot stand to... [More]

The article TikTok teens aren’t stanning Osama bin Laden by Ryan Broderick (Garbage Day) discusses a recent flare-up in the mainstream, western (mostly U.S.) media and governing bodies whereby there were several calls to ban TikTok because it’s radicalizing the youth.

At issue, of course, if the failure to indoctrinate them properly to be able to ignore war crimes and still sleep at night. So, what you need to do is to make a lot of noise about a world-girdling social network—😱 RUN BY CHINAMEN 😱 YELLOW PERIL ALERT... [More]

This 20-minute video from 2017 features a series of person-in-the-street interviews with Jerusalem residents, expressing their opinion of the living situation in the West Bank, for themselves and the Palestinians.

Israelis Speak Candidly to Abby Martin About Palestinians by Empire Files (YouTube)

Abby Martin Interviews people of various ages, at least half are English, but a few are in Hebrew or a mix of Hebrew and English. They express pretty strong opinions about the reality, advantages, and disadvantages of various racial characteristics and their relation to viability... [More]

I found the following talk is quite illuminating, especially the first 35 minutes or so, where Singal reads a prepared speech. He chooses his words very carefully, expressing what I think is an eminently rational and empathetic view. He’s not denying anyone’s existence.

If only people were capable of understanding words and sentences instead of imbuing and overlaying them with their own thoughts immediately. Instead of hearing what other people are saying, they end up hearing what they thought... [More]

The following video makes the point of the title of this article quite concisely; I’ve included a transcript underneath the video.

'You're just scum' — Haley blasts Ramaswamy over his attack on her daughter's TikTok by CNBC Television (YouTube)

If you don’t want to watch the video, here’s a faithful transcription of that train-wreck of human interaction and elocution.

Ramaswamy: I wanna laugh at why Nikki Haley didn’t answer your question, which is about looking families in the eye. [sic] In the last debate, she made fun of me for actually joining TikTok. Well, her own daughter was actually using the... [More]

The interview Adam Curtis Talks to Jacobin About Russia, Oligarchs, and the Fall of the USSR by Taylor C. Noakes (Jacobin) is interesting and thought-provoking—as Adam Curtis often is. Of course, I had notes, which I’ve interspersed with citations from the article.

“As one Russian journalist said to me, London now does feel a bit like Moscow in 1988. My primary goal was to tell the story, but I also wanted to convey that disenchantment with democracy can have its roots in corruption. And there’s quite a lot of... [More]”

The article Israel Has Permanently Lost The Argument by Caitlin Johnstone (Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix) writes,

“I cannot adequately express the immensity of my respect for the many, many, many Jewish voices I’ve seen taking a firm and forceful stand against the Gaza massacre. I’m just over here getting yelled at by strangers online and I find it pretty intense; you’re having much harder arguments with family, with friends, with people you’ve known your whole lives, about something that probably feels a lot more personal for you.... [More]”

Amira Hass is a leading journalist (with Gideon Levy) at Ha’aretz. “Amira Hass is the only Israeli journalist who has lived in the West Bank for 30 years and has a deep understanding of the Palestinian experience.” The article Amira Hass Speaks on Gaza Slaughter by Jewish Voice for Labour (Scheer Post) includes an embedded video that is age-restricted.[1]

I hadn’t seen the video, but I found it highly unlikely that there was really age-restricted content there. It seemed much more likely that YouTube’s algorithms saw Amira’s name... [More]

After years of lying quietly in his Brooklyn apartment, having given up on his 40-year career of tilting at the windmills of the Israeli occupation, the anger is back. He’s back on the scene, providing valuable insight as the world’s leading expert on the occupation.

The following interview was excellent (but the podcast linked below is even better).

Gaza Update with Norman Finkelstein by Useful Idiots (YouTube)

As for the first hospital bombing of this latest round of war, Finkelstein says that

1. Israel always bombs hospitals (he directed us to his... [More]

The Moral Complexities Of Bombing A Concentration Camp Full Of Children by Caitlin Johnstone (Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix)

“They’re dropping bombs on a concentration camp full of kids. Even shitlibs and pseudo-leftists who get every other foreign policy issue wrong are managing to get this one right, it’s that obvious. Anyone getting this issue wrong can be permanently dismissed without any real loss.”

This is mostly true—except that you have to realize and accept that there are good, rescuable people out there who do not accept the... [More]

The post there was an attempt at not getting caught lying (Reddit) shows a video of a Joe Biden campaign event from 1987. Joe Biden is and has always been an arrogant, lying asshole without an ounce of empathy. His personality is such that he will lie four times just to make himself look better than whomever he happens to be arguing with, not at all concerned that he will be caught out later. This is not only sociopathic, but deeply stupid. It’s the kind of recklessness you absolutely don’t want in a... [More]

A few days back, I wrote Losing the plot completely, describing several previously useful commentators who’d gone completely off the script after October 7th. As of November 3rd, the article Is “Humanitarian Pause” A Real Thing? by Scott H. Greenfield (Simple Justice) reveals the current state of mind for at least one of the authors. It ends with this incoherent and clearly unedited babble.

“The newly-beloved phrase, “humanitarian pause,” seems so ripe for the moment to “do something” (remember the syllogism?) to help the... [More]”

The article Hamas Clarifies They Meant To Start The Type Of War Where They Get To Do Whatever They Want And No One Fights Back (Babylon Bee) is just one in a large set of really tone-deaf and unfortunately unsurprisingly one-sided headlines from this supposedly satirical online newspaper. A good satirist would somehow note that that headline may reflect how Hamas currently feels, but also how Israel was acting a few weeks ago.

There are many more irony-free and completely non-self-aware headlines from the... [More]

The article Drug makers have tripled the prices of top Medicare drugs by Beth Mole (Ars Technica) writes,

“Overall, the average lifetime price increase for the top 25 drugs was 226 percent. The highest increases were seen in drugs that have been on the market the longest. For example, drugs that were on the market for under 12 years had an average lifetime price increase of 58 percent, while those on the market for 20 or more years had an average lifetime increase of 592 percent.”

These are medications to help people.... [More]

The article US Colleges and Universities Are Becoming Giant Exploitation Machines by Daniel Denvir & Dennis M. Hogan (Jacobin) writes,

“[…] there are schools like Yale or Princeton, frankly, that have the latitude such that they could pretty much send people to school for free. But in spite of that, they continue to overwhelmingly enroll wealthy students.”

And it’s not merit-based; they’re laundering privilege into credentials. That’s their business.

“They’re going to end up graduating students with more debt who also have... [More]”

The article Let Me Reiterate the Questions I Asked in My AOC Essay by Freddie de Boer (SubStack) writes

“Ocasio-Cortez is not treated like a legislator, but like an icon, a sacred cow who can’t be criticized where any back-bench fifth-year representative would be for similar behavior. I don’t know what that is, but it’s not progressive.”

This is a not unusual idolization of a person who is seen as a bulwark against things ostensibly even more evil. But, as listed in concise detail in the linked article, there are... [More]

Oh, c’mon, Bernie. Really?

The article In New Hampshire speech, Bernie Sanders seeks to give Biden “progressive” credentials, comparing him to FDR by Patrick Martin (WSWS) reports on Sanders’s latest disappointment. The article basically provides detail for what it says on the tin.

Specifically, he said this:

“The Democrats, once and for all, must reject the corporate wing of the party and empower those who are prepared to create a grassroots, multi-racial, multi-generational working class party in every state in... [More]”

The western world doesn’t have a moral leg to stand on unless or until this happens.

From the article, US Moral Authority Is Dead And Buried by Caitlin Johnstone,

“[…] when people try to frame Assange’s persecution as a matter of public perception and fighting foreign narratives about the US, they are incorrect. The issue is not that Assange’s persecution makes the US look bad, the issue is that it proves the US is bad. (Emphasis in original.)”

The letter[1] writes,

“The prosecution of Julian Assange for... [More]”

The article Pakistan’s political crisis will deepen its economic misery by Julia Horowitz (CNN) writes,

“What’s known as a “balance of payments” crisis is eroding standards of living in a country still reeling from devastating flooding last year. It could “reverse the poverty gains achieved in the last two decades and further reduce the incomes of already poor households,” the World Bank warned last month.

“Pakistan’s ability to maintain payments on its debt has also been called into question. Ratings... [More]”

I’ve been following and reading Matt Taibbi’s journalism for quite some time. The first reference to an article of his I can find is from Lies, Damned Lies and The Media, in which I cited an article of his called Punish the Right-Wing Liars, published on AlterNet. He’s been on right side of justice for a long time. He’s been chastising the press for lying and forsaking its journalistic duties for just as long.

Whereas he used to hammer exclusively on the more right-wing press during the Bush... [More]

Lately, I’m seeing a lot of otherwise solid news sources start sniping at each other for no other reason that they disagree on some issues—or agree on issues, but disagree on how to address them. It’s really sad to see, but there it is. I know that this is how standard media works, but it’s starting to bleed more and more into the world of my more esoteric newsfeeds.

For example, Jeffrey St. Clair at CounterPunch will not stop sniping at Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, and Jimmy Dore as... [More]

I read through the Full transcript of Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address by Biden Administration (CNN). Since I read it, it’s now been annotated to death. When I read it, it was just a transcript.

It’s quite a piece of work. I had to check a few times to see whether I was reading the state of the union of the U.S.A.

Joe Biden describes a country with policies that I don’t recognize. He describes a functioning democracy that is surging with greatness and getting amazing things done for everyone. And, at the same... [More]

The article Ukraine Expects to Get All the Western Weapons It Wants by Dave DeCamp (Scheer Post) quotes Yury Sak, an advisor to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, who is

“[…] confident Ukraine will get everything it wants. “They didn’t want to give us heavy artillery, then they did. They didn’t want to give us HIMARS systems, then they did. They didn’t want to give us tanks, now they’re giving us tanks. Apart from nuclear weapons, there is nothing left that we will not get,” he said.”

Hiroshima Mushroom CloudBut why stop... [More]

Max Blumenthal can be a pain in the ass because he’s so harsh sometimes and he expresses such disgust with things that don’t seem that disgusting, but the man has seen things. So, when he says that a staged a-cappella in a Kiev subway makes him sick to his stomach, it’s because he knows that it’s a staged operation funded by think tanks funded by the CIA, deliberately made and promulgated by the U.S. government to retain support for the war in Ukraine.

How Zelensky Is Leading Ukraine's Massive Privatization Drive by Behind the Headlines (YouTube)

He says at 17:20,

“Every war or color... [More]”

The following video was quite interesting and not just for observing the sartorial style of the San Fransisco author set. They are very thoughtful and passionate revolutionaries for a sane and just society.

'Chokepoint Capitalism' How to take back the arts from Big Tech | Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow by The Real News Network (YouTube)

At 36:20, Rebecca says,

“People’s passion is being weaponized to facilitate their exploitation.” These are the so-called “thankless” jobs where the pay sucks, but it’s morally and/or societally important: health-care, education, old-age care, care for the poor. All of these need to be... [More]

The following video is almost two hours long. I have not summarized it, but address the general tenor of Žižek’s argumentation and presentation.

An Evening with Slavoj Žižek: Why Do We Enjoy Feeling Ashamed? (YouTube)

I continue to be shocked at how terrible Žižek’s take on the Russian attack on Ukraine is. This video is very long and he spends most of the time fighting foolish strongmen, mostly people he calls his “friends”, who all seem to have the absolute worst reasons possible for not supporting Ukraine wholeheartedly.

I heard absolutely nothing about... [More]

Since at least July, I’ve been following the story of the railroad workers in the U.S. Their situation is awful. Their working conditions are extremely strict. They are not commensurate with those of a civilized society. It is only because of the extreme death of labor in the U.S. that there is even a discussion. But there is—because there is no support for labor in the U.S., only support for capital.

The U.S. is far from covering itself in glory, as we’ll learn from a spate of articles,... [More]

I think that one of the main things that sticks in my craw about the war in Ukraine is the absolute speed with which so many people capitulated to the idea of its inevitability. We acted like Liam Neeson in Taken, Sylvester Stallone in Rambo, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando, Mel Gibson in Payback, or, most recently, Keanu Reeves in John Wick .

Look, you could still enjoy the movies, but you must be aware of how manipulative the initial scene of massive injustice toward our hero or his family... [More]