German cops get rough in Berlin
Police in Berlin, Germany, arrest pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped outside German Parliament.
Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....
The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. We must all do more to help stop this western corporate arrogance that puts the future generations lives in despair. @BruceKGagnon
Police in Berlin, Germany, arrest pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped outside German Parliament.
U.S. even pissing off the IMF these days over incompetence of American economic decision making in Washington. Or was it all by design? Maybe Mr. Big's interests are not the same as the majority of the people?
Do something now about your debt the IMF says....the drive to increase spending should be resisted as most of it is going for warmongering.
Cost of interest to banks on US debt is greater than 2024 spending on the Pentagon and Medicare combined. Next seven generations would be still paying that debt. Nice gift to our kids huh....
The banksters are doing well but rest of us are in the shitter.
Let's get out while we still can.
Bruce
#BenjaminNetanyahu dropped a two-minute video on X "condemning" college campus protests at #ColumbiaUniversity and other #Campus #Protest movements.
Aaron hadn't caught wind of the statement before this interview but does a great job sharing the truth.
These are the worst lies by Netanyahu that I've ever seen.
Please share this short video so as many people as possible can see how the zionists are exposing themselves as the frauds that they are.
Bruce
Palestinian Civil Defence team says evidence from mass graves, in the grounds of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, shows the Israeli army carried out summary executions.
392 bodies have been recovered in mass graves, but they have not been able to identify 267 of them. And at least 20 people may have been buried alive at the medical complex.
Children were also among the bodies recovered.
The team is accusing Israel of committing crimes against humanity. Meanwhile, international pressure is mounting on Israel after the discovery of the mass graves.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says Washington wants answers. The White House says reports of mass graves in Gaza are 'deeply disturbing'.
The EU and the United Nations have already called for an independent investigation.
Mass graves have been discovered in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City as well as Nasser Hospital in the south.
Dr Mohammed al-Moghier is the Head of the Monitoring and Documenting Unit at the Civil Defence Department in Gaza. He shares the evidence they have found from the uncovering of the mass graves in Khan Younis.
International lawyer Geoffrey Robertson says there must be an independent investigation following the discovery of hundreds of bodies buried in mass graves at Gaza’s Nasser Hospital.
Zionists in Israel are getting worried about the power of student protests across the US.
Yesterday Netanyahu called the student uprising 'antisemitic' which is a joke due to the fact that many of these are being led by Jewish students. But zionists never let facts get in the way of their steady stream of lies.
"Diaspora Jews are currently suffering from a harsh wave of antisemitism in communities and on campuses in the US, Europe, and around the world," far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said, according to a report in Israeli media network Arutz Sheva on Wednesday.
Of course US- based zionists are similarly over reacting by ordering the cops to crash the non-violent protests and arrest students and some faculty members.
This of course will only spread the campus protests even farther.
Imagine a student is paying for tuition, food and campus housing and gets kicked off campus for peaceful protest. What are they being taught about 'real democracy'? It's quite a civics lesson in real time!
Fascism (the wedding of corporations and government) is revealing its ugly face across the US-UK-EU as the western rulers are finding their regional military outpost in the Middle East being exposed daily as genocidal maniacs. One must work hard not to see the truth before our very eyes.
The map at the top is likely not complete. I know of at least one college campus here in Maine joining the protests for a free Gaza. I am certain there are countless more across the nation and beyond.
We need to keep the pressure building and continue calling out the zionist genocidal war crimes against Palestine.
Bruce
China’s announced it’s writing off some loans owed by Zimbabwe which is struggling with heavy debt. The gesture was made during the African country’s independence celebrations marking 44 years of freedom from British colonial rule.
This is why the west hates China.
The western 'Rules Based Order' does not allow for this biblical mandate of forgiving debt. Capitalism does just the opposite. It takes everything of value the debtor has and keeps the debtor in bondage.
“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. And this is
the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent
to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother,
because the Lord's release has been proclaimed." ~ Deuteronomy 15:1-2
China lived under the yoke and the whip of western extractive capitalism for a long time. The Chinese understand what much of the Global South is going through these days.
The western 'way of life' resulted from more than 500 years of thievery from the Global South. The reason the US-UK-EU are now at war with the rest of the world is the colonial occupiers know the vise is turning and squeezing them. Thus they move to terrorism in the vain attempt to hold onto power and domination.
But it is not working.
Thank you China.
Bruce
The Palestinian government media office in Gaza has released figures showing the extent of Israel's devastating war on Gaza, now in its 200th day.
Here are the key numbers:
(3,025) Massacres committed by the Israeli army (a massacre refers to an attack that leads to the killing of at least three people)
(41,183) People killed and missing
(34,183) Deaths recorded by hospitals
(14,778) Children killed
(30) Children died due to starvation and malnutrition
(9,752) Women killed
(485) Health professionals killed
(67) Emergency responders killed
(140) Journalists killed
(7,000) Missing, 70 percent of whom are children and women
(77,143) Wounded
(17,000) Children lost one or both parents
(11,000) Wounded and need urgent travel to receive life-saving treatment
(10,000) Cancer patients facing the risk of death
(5,000) Total number of people detained
(310) Health professionals detained
(20) Journalists detained
(2,000,000) Internally displaced
(700,000) Diagnosed with infectious diseases as a result of displacement
(181) Government offices destroyed
(103) Schools and universities completely destroyed
(309) Schools and universities partially damaged
(239) Mosques completely destroyed
(317) Mosques partially damaged
(3) Churches targeted and damaged
(86,000) Housing units completely destroyed
(294,000) Housing units partially damaged and made uninhabitable
(75,000) Tonnes of explosives dropped by the Israeli army
(32) Hospitals put out of service
(53) Health centres put out of service
(160) Health institutions targeted
(126) Ambulances destroyed
(206) Archaeological and heritage sites destroyed
Added up:
These are most certainly war crimes against humanity. Israel is an apartheid genocidal state and must be immediately prosecuted and kicked out of the United Nations. The zionists are breaking all UN rules and standards.
Iran’s Operation True Promise strikes on 13 April have reopened the deep wounds Israel incurred during Hamas’ 7 October attack. While Operation Al-Aqsa Flood shook the occupation state’s security bubble at its core, a single night of Iranian rockets and drones left Israelis straggling to hold on to even a sliver of their famed deterrence posture.
As military spokesman for Hamas' Qassam Brigades Abu Obeida succinctly highlighted in his 23 April speech:
Iran’s response, in its size and nature, established new rules and confused the enemy’s calculations.
A point of no return
Today, it is Iran – not the US, not Israel, and certainly not the Isfahan attack – which has restabilized the regional balance, even temporarily, pending the crystallization of the new rules of engagement.
Tel Aviv’s counterstrike tried hard to mitigate the possibility of any further Iranian retaliation – especially as Tehran’s next move would likely come without warning, involve Iran’s superior missiles, and potentially the mobilization of Iranian allies toward Israel's borders.
The Axis of Resistance was happy to allow their Iranian ally to take center stage on 13 April and exact revenge for Israel’s miscalculated 1 April bombing of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Damascus. Any further bold moves from Tel Aviv would ensure that the Axis would activate on every front to swarm Israel.
So, for the moment, Tel Aviv does not dare to compromise Iran’s security directly, instead turning their impotent rage toward vulnerable Rafah, where over a million Palestinian civilians are stranded without food, shelter, and water.
The Hebrew media is already spinning for all its worth, promoting Tel Aviv’s “gains” from demonstrating restraint against Iran – whether from last week’s UN Security Council veto of a Palestinian state or the new $26 billion aid package the US Congress just approved for Israel, or obtaining White House support for the occupation army’s Rafah invasion.
Dr Hussein al-Musawi, the spokesman for the Iraqi Harakat al-Nujaba, tells The Cradle that Israel has, in effect, received a blank check for bad behavior from Washington:
It is not surprising that the US supports and defends Israel, regardless of its violation of international norms, and this undoubtedly embarrasses the Iraqi government, which seeks to take a clear position on the US military presence in Iraq.
For these and many other reasons, Israeli leaders are now acutely aware that any overtly aggressive action will not go unnoticed in the current geopolitical climate. The region is embroiled in what could be described as a 'mini-international-regional war,' characterized by intermittent flare-ups and periods of relative calm.
True Promise, much like Al-Aqsa Flood before it, is poised to be recorded in history as a pivotal, perhaps even terminal, moment for the brief history of the Israeli occupation state, which now finds itself more isolated than ever and facing an increasingly uncertain future.
~ Khalil Harb is a Beirut-based journalist and former editor-in-chief of the Lebanese daily Al-Safir. He has also worked for the Associated Press and the Lebanese An-Nahar newspaper. Khalil is a graduate of the American University in Cairo.
MB and I traveled to Downeast Maine (actually up north along the eastern coastline) last Friday and returned home on Monday after a visit with some friends.
We spent two nights seeing Russell and Akemi Wray in Hancock where they run Gull Rock Pottery. Akemi is the potter and Russell does sculpture, painting and etchings. That is Russell just above in the photo holding the sign. Above his head is his Earth flag which he always flies. We were on the bridge in Ellsworth at noon on Sunday for an hour.
Akemi (from Japan) is a great cook and did her usual spoiling of her guests. It rained most of the day on Saturday so lots of puzzle making was done with a fire going in the fireplace. It is always good to spend time with them. Much story telling was done by all.
Eleven people showed up for the bridge vigil which got very good reviews from the busy traffic zooming by. Many honks, waves, and peace signs came our way. I only saw one negative - a middle finger hoisted into the air by some man. Polls say the American people are getting impatient with US policy toward Israel's genocide in Palestine. We could see the worm turning amongst the folks in cars.
After the bridge on Sunday we drove to Deer Isle to see friends Dud and Jean Hendrick. Dud is a Vietnam vet and a leading activist in the state who we have known since we moved to Maine in 2003. Deer Isle is a fantastically beautiful spot on the rocky coast. Dud and Jean (as they always do) took us for a long walk through woods and trails and along the coastline.
Jean is a hoot who makes us all uproariously laugh and she had us going at breakfast before we took off for home.
Peace and anti-imperialist work is difficult and deeply frustrating but we've met such wonderful friends doing our years in the movement. It was nice to get away for a couple of days and be with such outstanding people.
Visits like this helps us hold our heads high and keep going during hard times like these.
Bruce
Growing outrage over Israel's war on Gaza has sparked protests at major universities.
Students at Yale, Columbia and New York University have been holding sit-in protests on campus, defying demands to stop. More than 100 students at Columbia [new teaching home for Hillary Clinton and Victoria Nuland] have been arrested so far, as officials scramble to defuse the growing movement.
Similar protests in support of Palestine continue at university campuses across the United States, despite a crackdown by police.
Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey is at New York University for the latest.
'Military Space Forces: The Next 50 Years'
The study states, "Armed forces might lie in wait at that location to hijack rival shipments on return [to Earth]."
In other words - space piracy.
Any moon base would also be powered by nuclear reactors as the industry views space as an unlimited market for their unpopular products.
Aerospace corporations have long maintained that this space militarization program would be 'the largest industrial project' in human history. With current government debt in the U.S. now at $35 trillion and rising - how can the nation truly afford to undertake such a fool hardy game?