Category: human rights

Jimmy Carter: Epic Underdog

Google parses data and presents common search terms: a mix of auto-correct and auto-suggest. I just typed in “jimmy carter”:

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Then I typed in “george w bush”:

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net worth? National Enquiring minds want to know. Unless that worth is not monetary value. Speaking of net worth, I also read that Michael Pence would like to be a Vice-President like Dick Cheney.

The conundrum of the curmudgeon: pessimism and honesty are not mutually exclusive positions. Feel-good news about humane factory farms is not news. We are witnessing the disappearance of journalism, I am much afraid to report.

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While we are yet upon a theme of curmudgeons and conundrums, allow me to recommend Ambrose Bierce. There are yet a few months remaining in the fell year 2016, so consider the Bierce definition of  PATRIOTISM,

In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.

Let me suggest that Dick Cheney take the net worth award, W take the quotes award. Period. Full Stop.

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What gives with this “net worth” fascination?

Google provides no suggestions for ‘dick cheney gross worth’

However, the clarity of Carter’s insight, restraint and persistence lifts my spirit. His quiet presence as a defender of minority views and marginalized peoples makes him my role model. Search the internet for guinea worm to discover the name of its mortal enemy. Here is a small hint: it’s not the rabbit.

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Peace not Apartheid

I like to imagine an alternate history where a Carter second term sends Reagan back where he always belonged: Hollywood. Privatizing everything does not advance the common good. But it may often advance the common bad.
Carter learns from his mistakes. Negotiation is a better for genuine peace, why do countless Presidents select “war without end Amen.”

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Carter did not drop a single literal bomb on any political opponent. The Camp David Accords accorded hope for the ever bedeviling slaughter in Israel-Palestine/Palestine-Israel.
500,000 nails sealed the coffin memorialized by an imagined headstone: Oslo Accords of 1993: Epic Fail. RIP

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I also imagine an alternate history where Gore actually occupies the office he legitimately won.

And I voted for McGovern in 1972.

NYT: All The News They Didn’t Print

I just read an article in  TimesWarp, a site that reports biased coverage in the New York Times of human rights violations in occupied Palestine. But never ever mention Palestine.

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Map provided in a brochure for a tour of the Holy Land in July 2016. Misinformation taken to the ultimate desired state.

Whitewashing Israeli War Crimes: the NYT Turns its Back on Survivors and Critics. It refers to bias on the part of Isabel Kershner in her New York Times article. It’s actually a pretty good textbook example of the fallacy of the middle ground. I think it is more than significant that her son is in the Israeli Army.

David Brooks may be the best known reporter for the Times. He is über well respected and considered a moderate and thoughtful writer. The guy has street cred. From his profile:

— David Brooks became an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times in September 2003. His column appears every Tuesday and Friday. He is currently a commentator on “PBS NewsHour,” NPR’s “All Things Considered” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

He also has a son in the Israeli army.  Do you think it might influence his reporting, well of course not. Why even bring it up?

Stories about Palestine are sanitized to remove any hint of a voice from a land destroyed in 1948 (The Nakba) and then further occupied in 1967 (The Naksa). It is still occupied as I write this. I was 8 months old on the day of Nakba (May 14, 1948), 19 years old on the day of Naksa (June 5, 1967).

Misinformation on Palestine has run rampant 24/7 for the last 24,943 days.

Journalists are rare and they seem to have left the building.

OK, let’s see how CAMERA.org views the New York Times. Here we have a monstrous and monstrously sized billboard below.

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CAMERA is an acronym for The “Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.” OK I’m dumbstruck by their understanding of Joseph Goebbels and Newspeak.

The NYT provides absolutely no reporting from within the occupied territories. Not good news if you are a reader of The Gray Lady, newspaper of record.

Last February Mondoweiss printed a parody of the New York Times that contained “all the news we didn’t print.”

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Map provided in a brochure for a tour of the Holy Land in July 2016. Misinformation taken to the ultimate desired state.

CAMERA explains the inaccuracies in the Mondoweiss parody. OK I’m dumbstruck again.

My humble gratitude to visitors identified on my WordPress analytics page as located in the “Palestinian Territories.” However, when I float an arrow cursor to find out where it is the names Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan pop up.  Hey, where in the world is Palestine? 

 

For freedom from misinformation know your sources.What about corporately sponsored media? …coming soon.

Thanks for reading. 

Ethnic Cleansing Begins At Home

Nazi ethnic cleansing began with a single unknown undesirable, but within a decade the 1 became the 6,000,000. To observe that number from the perspective of coincidence, it’s the number of Palestinians alive today: each a refugee still. There is no statute of limitation for war crimes. Just ask someone on the receiving end of genocide.

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Have I mentioned that the Palestinians are from Palestine? Roots matter to olive trees and to Palestinians. Water, hummus, olives. An incomparable Mediterranean coastline. Countless cities and villages cleansed of long-established inhabitants.

Viva Palestina!

The time for Israel to stop Palestinian home demolition and pacification was 68 years ago; both demolitions and executions are crimes against humanity, against an indigenous people living under occupation today or as refugees in planet-wide diaspora.

Daily life for the indigenous Semitic people of this land: constant torment by mostly non-Semitic settlers indigenous to Europe. IDF and IOF combatants may commit any crime of their choosing, without fear of consequence or inconvenience. Any day, every day, all day. Which Semites are not included in a blanket inditement: Antisemitism! Antisemitism!

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A strange celebration of Sparta and ungodly decadence: a failed experiment, a way of life that requires several billion dollar annual infusions from the United States and the Marshall Islands.

A land-based aircraft carrier with a hundred nuclear weapons, a laboratory for testing weapon systems and conducting security experiments. Well chosen people? Well…

From the layout of the house housing a 12-year-old rock-throwing terrorist. IDF soldiers show up at 2:00 A.M. No proverbial knock on the door, just break it down and rattle the sleeping. Rattle and curse the ugliest phrases a fighting man can muster. And, so a final enough solution: indefinite incarceration for the kid, a house removed by a wrecking ball or dozer, a homeless family. But it doesn’t matter: they are annoying Arabs. Ptui.

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Some sources for guidance in non-violent resistance. Think Warsaw Ghetto.

Jews Against Genocide

Jews for Justice for Palestine

Jewish Voice for Peace

Thanks for reading.

Cincinnati and Dayton for Palestine

The BDS movement is gaining momentum. Inertia is important when reminding people that the “Universal” Declaration of Human Rights is not limited to a select group of nice people.

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No. It’s not.

Last week I uploaded a link that buoyed my spirit: a marginalized people may yet gain the attention it so desperately needs. It’s an article in Mondoweiss  that’s received 503 views so far on the CPSC FB page.

Viva Palestina! Boycott Israel Until Palestinians Have Equal Rights

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Yesterday the Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition hosted a taste of Palestine event to celebrate solidarity in electorally significant SW Ohio. About 30 attendees enjoyed a gathering of people from a range of interests, ethnicities and ages to engage in festive spirit.

The dishes were overwhelmingly vegan and a tribute to the healthy aspects of a Mediterranean diet.

Among the gentle people there was a contingent from Dayton OH where an active solidarity for refugees of the longest lasting refugee crisis since 1948, known as the Nakba. Please visit American Support Network for Palestine for some extraordinary links on Palestine after Nakba

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By the way, Naksa is the Arabic word the means The World Turned Upside Down for the further occupation of land west of the Jordan River in the year 1967. From the river to the sea refers to this very body of water and the Mediterranean Coast. A land that the poet Mahmoud Darwish expresses in his poem “Unfortunately it was Paradise.”

Take a look at a map of population distribution and you see that people like to live near bodies of water, particularly where the coast is superbly beautiful.

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Today this beach has the very un-Arabic name “Gordon Beach” located at the very un-Arabic name Tel-Aviv. Turning the ancient city of Jaffa.