USAUSAUSA? Looks like Sausage to me.

As the sage dictum suggests, don’t inquire into its contents. As a vegan I now enjoy reading the ingredients in such no-animal tube meats as Field Roast, produced by artisans who sign off on their work.

field.roast

Genuine big-deal topics are not covered in this depressing election year.

Smallish asteroids are reported only after they slip by our planet. I hear that extinction events occur regularly, perhaps half a dozen of them since the planet sphered together over a few billion years or so.

extinction.event

Or is it 6,000 years ago? I’m told that your guess is as good as mine. Have I mentioned that I live close (geographically) to the Creation Museum and to that other Ken Ham production? 

Climate change is associated with extinction events but it wasn’t in keeping with the alternate reality show in Cleveland, the progressive pole of electoral Ohio. Cincinnati, at the conservative pole, get noticed every four years. I’m just south of the Ohio River. We don’t decide elections here, but there is no dearth of demagogues in Frankfort. Hell, we couldn’t even ditch Mitch.

poll.tax.now

Woody Guthrie knew fascism, synchronistically well. Guthrie’s father fell victim to the father of today’s favorite fascist. That word is not used on right-wing calling cards, but by their actions do we know them. Our fascist du jour might just give it an Ayn-Randian shrug. Where is John Galt when we don’t need him?

woodytrump

Veganism is another threat to capitalist society as we know it. Death is a great job creator. Trillion dollar enterprises thrive on the death sector in our capitalist cornucopia. I sit on a man’s back… Cheers!

A vegan diet is a planet saver. It provides no answer for impending meteor strikes, but it means taking a potent step toward addressing climate change.

A vegan diet grants benefits to all and to each. You can even read about the vegan choice in one or two posts here. I leave them to your discretion; in fact, I leave everything to your discretion.

every-time-you-eat-or-drink-you-are-either-feeding-disease-or-fighting-it-quote-1

Fascism is a disease.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taking BDS Viral: Stanley Cohen OpEd

Just when will an article on Palestinian human rights ever go viral? My hope is NOW.

with.bds.and.palestine

It is not cheap to make all the news that’s fetid to print. You have to make it palatable while erroneous. American media giants are like Wonder Bread, not remotely wonderful but they knead a profit. What else matters?

A few days ago an Op-Ed written by Stanley Cohen popped up on Al Jazeera.

Here is my reaction:

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Stanley Cohen is major league.  Whenever perplexed on the state of the State of Palestine and the refugees living there, listen to someone who has been well informed for something like a half-century.

During that time he has not wavered from representing real Palestinians. Universal human rights belong to all 7 billion individuals on this battered orb. Pleas are not just for the chosen.

Expedience is not the name of the game today, it’s a character flaw that Mr. Cohen doesn’t have, and he is not about to change. Stanley is not a political animal, and that doesn’t play well among multicrats gazing at the weather vane and thinking about trial balloons.

As hard as they have tried the powers that be have never been able to pin a single charge on Mr. Cohen, it’s not the wonders of teflon at play. Actually just simple human integrity at work: rare mettle.

The injustice system of Prison America sent him to Canaan Prison for eleven months in 2015 while they looked for some evidence they could find or that they could convincingly plant. They have never found any, but that’s the genius of the Patriot Act. Make the prison industrial complex the heartbeat of America.

Through 2015 Caged but Undaunted kept his voice alive.  A tip of the hat to Marion Heads., another Mensch out there lighting candles for every fellow traveller suffering under the drang of fascism.

It’s expedient to imprison without cause. Today it’s Orwellian patriotism, though I don’t like calling it Orwellian. The word itself peals like something out of the NewSpeak Dictionary. George Orwell saw it coming point blank.

orwell.1984
Source

Previous stuff on Stanley Cohen that you won’t read this on NYT or NPR. Unfortunately they follow the expedient.

#UpTheRebels

Editor note: I am humbled by my readers. That’s as it should be. However, I published my last article before it could be properly edited and several of you read the more hapless early version, and so I Speak Arabic Openly and Joyfully.

Reporting from the land of the fête and the home of the Atlanta Braves. BDS USA BDS USA!

Thanks for reading. Opposing viewpoints welcome.

America Nakba Tour Memories

 

Refugee crisis continues, right to return still a universal human right

It was my privilege to meet personally with Umm Akram, Amena Ashkar and Samir Salem when the North America Nakba Tour visited Cincinnati Clifton Mosque (Masjid): a Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition event.

traditional.values.universal

The British Empire closed shop on their Raj in India in 1947 and they left Palestine in 1948. At the same time another colonizer opened shop under new management and with a new name. They had owned the place 3,000 years ago and decided to own it again.

Speaking truth to power is not the same as speaking truth to the powerless.

I had a light bulb moment:

Amena momentarily flinched when a questioner referred to an entity I am calling SRL. Her reaction gave me pause and served as a reminder of the entity that controls the narrative: those who lived in Palestine 3,000 years ago and decided to own it again.

Never believe your own propaganda.

I’m calling the entity (one of the words Amena uses) SRL because I am presently learning one of the Semitic languages based on the root system. The larger of the Semitic languages has 300,000,000 speakers, but the principal language in SRL is spoken by 9,000,000. The word antisemitism should be redefined.

My ears and eyes are always open to the slightest mention of anything Palestinian in the news. American media is either corporately owned or corporately sponsored. Censoring the news is ungodly expensive. Without the billions of dollars infused into SRL the whole entity would collapse under its own weight.

Stolen land? What stolen land? Nina Paley’s animated take on land rights is worth your time IMO. Following Nina Paley is worth all the while. If you are having a problem choosing your next Paley animation: Nina Paley Blog.

nina.paley.goddess

So my question hangs in the air: “why is it always okay to freely and frequently speak the word Isr**l, wave their colors, celebrate eternal victimhood, speak loud, act brazen, flex Spartan muscles, trot out the toys of a soldier society…

Occupation of another people is not a universal human right.

Back to SRL. The SRLies use the word Palestinian as a curse word. They never even whisper the word PALESTINE.

Thanks for reading.

Thalwen Explains Hasbara: إسرائيل

Truth to Power

A single truth can defeat a legion of lies. A 15-year-old shows us how.

I’m reminded of the guy in Poe’s “Telltale Heart.” Truth pulses.

Leanne Mohamad is a 15 year old Palestinian who lives in the UK. A student at Wanstead High School, she took top place in the Redbridge regional final for Jack Petchley’s Speak Out challenge. The Speak Out Challenge is an annual contest that is funded by the Jack Petchley Foundation and the purpose of it […]

via Leanne Mohamad, censored for hoping for freedom — Thalwen’s Rants and Stuffs

Thalwen is setting a higher bar in solid reporting at the same time as the hasbara crowd keeps lowering theirs. This is another one for the reference shelf here at billziegler1947. It may be daunting to publish small unfunded thoughts when I could get paid to sit at a monitor and yell “Go Team Hasbara Go!” but this way I can live with myself.