Week-in-Review: 'Deplorable' Decisions From Iowa to Israel

 

Once Again, Biden Bypasses Congress to Approve Arms Sale to Israel

"When Israel runs out of rockets to murder children with they simply hold their hand out to daddy for more," said one critic.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/u-s-aid-to-israel-2666833315

'He Is Not Qualified': Maine Bars Trump From Primary Ballot
"The weight of the evidence makes clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder laid by his multimonth effort to delegitimize a democratic election, and then chose to light a match."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-maine

Israeli Teen Jailed for Refusing to Take Part in Army's 'Criminal Attack' on Gaza
"I believe that slaughter cannot solve slaughter," said 18-year-old Tal Mitnick, who was sentenced to 30 days behind bars for refusing to participate in what a fellow draft resister called a "genocide" in Gaza.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/conscientious-objector-israel Experts 'Terrified' of AI-Driven Misinformation 'Tsunami' in 2024 Election
"If people don't ultimately trust information related to an election, democracy just stops working," said a senior fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/ai-misinformation-election-2024 Palestinians Say Netanyahu 'Confessions' Reveal Truth of 'Genocidal War' in Gaza
The Foreign Ministry said that the Israeli prime minister's push for what he terms "voluntary migration" shows that ethnic cleansing of the besieged enclave is the real goal of the ongoing bombing and ground invasion.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/netanyahu-voluntary-migration-gaza IOWA - YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!

'Deplorable': Iowa's GOP Governor Opts Out of Summer Food Program for Kids
"Announcing three days before Christmas that we've deliberately chosen not to feed hungry kids? The Dickensian parallels write themselves," said the board chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/iowa-food-program Why Rudy Giuliani Can Declare Bankruptcy While Homeowners Can’t
Bankruptcy was designed so people could start over, but these days, the only ones starting over are those with enough political clout to shape bankruptcy laws to their liking.
ROBERT REICH
Dec 29, 2023
Robertreich.Substack.Com


https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/giuliani-bankruptcy-inequality Don’t Stop Speaking About Palestine
No matter the challenges of speaking up in the United States, censorship is deadly for Palestinians.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/don-t-stop-speaking-about-palestine US Foreign Policy Is a Scam Built on Corruption
The $1.5 trillion in military outlays each year is the scam that keeps on giving—to the military-industrial complex and the Washington insiders—even as it impoverishes and endangers America and the world.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/corruption-of-us-foreign-policy Yes, Western Powers Are ‘the baddies’ in Gaza
There is nothing humanitarian about bombing trapped civilians in Gaza, turning their tiny prison enclave into rubble, reminiscent of earthquake disaster zones but this time an entirely man-made catastrophe.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/west-genocide-gaza Fascism Is an Underestimated Threat to US Democracy
The American Experiment in democracy is being tested to its outward limit.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/fascism-threat-us-democracy Ukraine Needs a Cease-Fire, Not Biden’s $50 Billion Escalation
There is a growing gap between the goals of Washington D.C.’s war lobby and the realities on the ground in Ukraine.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ukraine-needs-cease-fire-not-escalation Biden Must Not Compromise on Asylum Rights
Biden and members of Congress who will be voting on the supplemental aid package should think hard about what is and isn’t fair game for negotiation.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/biden-don-t-compromise-asylum-rights Israel’s Long History of Ethnic Cleansing
“Transfer,” often presented as the encouragement of voluntary emigration either by providing material incentives or making the conditions of life impossible, has become increasingly mainstreamed in Israeli political life.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-history-ethnic-cleansing Bellows Is Right: Use Every Tool Available to Defeat Trump
Trump is too dangerous to the future of the planet for us to play nice with people who never, ever play nice.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/bellows-trump-2024 2023: The Year the Bubble of US Leadership Burst
If Ukraine exemplifies yet another iconic U.S. military failure, and BRICS the changing of the guard in the economic realm, the sadistic savagery in Gaza repudiates the moral right of the U.S. to lead… anything.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/2023-us-leadership-bubble-burst The Most Important Thing That Happened This Year Was the Heat

And yet you really wouldn’t know it from reading the wrap-ups of the year’s news now appearing on one website after another.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/most-important-thing-2023-heat 2023’s GOP Debate Moderators Weren’t Interested in Challenging the Candidates
They showed little appetite for questioning the party’s democracy-threatening turn—or much of any other right-wing orthodoxy, for that matter.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/gop-debate-moderators-didn-t-challenge THANK YOU ANN WRIGHT!

Cease-Fire Now! What I Said to the UN Security Council
Wars will never end as long as weapons transfers into the conflict area continue.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/un-security-council-cease-fire Victory Over Fascism in America Must Come From the Ballot Box
Americans who believe in democracy and reject strongman oligarchy must turn out next November in overwhelming numbers and so shatter the GOP that the party will be forced to reinvent itself.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/fascism-america-ballot-box Don’t Stop Speaking About Palestine
No matter the challenges of speaking up in the United States, censorship is deadly for Palestinians.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/don-t-stop-speaking-about-palestine Can the US Follow Chile out of Its Crisis of Representation?
Both countries find themselves with a growing disconnect between citizens and the institutions that claim to represent them, but Chile has gotten more democratic since 2020 while the U.S. has gotten less so.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-chile-crisis-of-representation 2023: The Year Humanity Died
When the dust of the war on Gaza settles, it will sit on our global conscience for generations to come.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/2023-humanity-died-gaza The Arctic Ocean Should Be Protected, Not Exploited
Instead of imposing the same industrial model on the Arctic Ocean that has tragically failed the rest of the world, we need a new protective approach to this unique region, and soon.
RICK STEINER
Dec 27, 2023
Common Dreams


https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/protect-not-exploit-arctic-ocean It's Almost 2024. Where’s the Party of the Working Class?
Is it possible to build a political party that truly speaks to the needs of working people in an era of runaway inequality and incessant mass layoffs?

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-labor-party Higher Education Cannot Train a New Generation Without the Humanities
The assault on the humanities is part of the larger effort to make America more and more hospitable to corporations and their allies.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/higher-education-without-humanities Israel Told the People of Gaza to Go South and Then Bombed the South
"Every night we die 10 times, only we aren't buried."

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-committing-war-crimes-in-gaza US Foreign Policy Is a Scam Built on Corruption
The $1.5 trillion in military outlays each year is the scam that keeps on giving—to the military-industrial complex and the Washington insiders—even as it impoverishes and endangers America and the world.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/corruption-of-us-foreign-policy Countdown to 2030: the State of the Planet in 2023
With only six years left to cut global CO2 emissions by 45% from 2010 levels, are we on track to meet the aspirations of the Paris Agreement, or are we heading for the near-term collapse of our Earth’s systems?

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/state-of-planet-2023 12 Climate Justice Milestones From 2023
2024 brings an opportunity for people most impacted by climate to tell their stories and leverage the power of the world’s courts.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/climate-justice-milestones-2023 The True Threat to Israel’s Survival Hides Not in the Shadows, But the Mirror
Israel’s apparent disregard for Palestinian lives risks the fate of South Africa during apartheid: economic, political, and cultural isolation—and, ultimately, collapse.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-s-threat-in-mirror-not-shadows