COMMON DREAMS: Weekend Edition: Palestinians Mark Land Day Amid Genocide

 

TO THE FEW RIGHT WINGERS WHO ENLIGHTEN THEMSELVES, YOU MIGHT 
CONSIDER READING BILL MCKIBBEN'S COMMENTS ABOUT THE NATIONS 
THAT ARE LEADING....WERE AMERICANS NOT SO POORLY INFORMED,
THE US SHOULD BE LEADING THE WORLD!

Sunday, March 31, 2024 ■ Today's Top News  Conservative Texas District Court Won't Implement Anti-Judge Shopping Policy The chief judge of the Northern District of Texas indicated the court will not follow new guidance, while a lower court judge called out a pro-business group's use of "judge shopping." By Julia Conley Right-Wing Court's PFAS Ruling Will Impede Regulation of Harmful Chemicals, Advocates Say Public health groups are "fully committed to taking all steps available to assure that the Inhance fluorination no longer produces dangerous PFAS which put workers, consumers, and communities at risk." By Julia Conley 'Every Year It Is More Relevant': Palestinians Mark Land Day Amid Genocide "We honor those who rose up in 1976 and all who have risen up to fight for justice in Palestine," said one advocacy group. By Julia Conley WHY WOULD ANY REASONABLE AMERICAN SUPPORT THIS? In GOP's Latest 'Clear Call to Genocide,' Lawmaker Calls for Nuclear Bombing of Gaza "To so casually call for what would result in the killing of every human being in Gaza sends the chilling message that Palestinian lives have no value," said one Palestinian rights advocate. By Julia Conley U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg became the latest Republican lawmaker to openly call for the genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza, saying at a town hall that instead of sending humanitarian aid to starving civilians there, the U.S. should "get it over quick" by dropping a nuclear bomb on the besieged enclave. The Michigan Republican was asked by a voter why taxpayer money was being spent to build a port off the coast of Gaza at an event in the town of Dundee, in a video that was apparently recorded on March 25 and posted to social media on Saturday. "We shouldn't be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima," said Walberg, referring to the two Japanese cities where the U.S. detonated two atomic bombs in 1945, killing an estimated 214,000 people and leaving survivors with the effects of radiation, including chronic and deadly diseases. Walberg's comments were made public a day after it was reported that the Biden administration had approved the transfer of new weapons to the Israel Defense Forces, including 2,000-pound bombs like those that have already made Israel's bombardment one of the deadliest and most destructive in modern history. The White House has called on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, where at least 31 people—including 27 children—have already died of starvation as a result of Israel's near-total blockade on aid since October. Parts of northern Gaza are now experiencing famine, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification global initiative (IPC), after months of warnings from experts that a man-made famine would eventually take hold unless humanitarian aid increased significantly. The Israel Defense Forces' U.S.-backed bombardment of the enclave has killed at least 32,705 Palestinians so far. Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Walberg's "clear call to genocide... should be condemned by all Americans who value human life and international law." "To so casually call for what would result in the killing of every human being in Gaza sends the chilling message that Palestinian lives have no value," said Walid. "It is this dehumanization of the Palestinian people that has resulted in the ongoing slaughter and suffering we see every day in Gaza and the West Bank." Mitchell Rivard, chief of staff to Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), said Walberg's comments illustrate "the Republican position on Gaza." Earlier this month, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told a group of Palestinian rights advocates, "Goodbye to Palestine"—leading Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) to say he had called "for the genocide of the Palestinian people." Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) in February told an activist, "I think we should kill 'em all," when asked about Palestinian children who have been killed by Israel with U.S. military support, while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called for Israel to "level the place" soon after the war started. WHO Chief Demands Swift Medical Evacuations for 9,000 Injured, Sick Patients in Gaza Israel is currently attempting to send several patients back to the besieged enclave from East Jerusalem, where they have been receiving cancer treatment. By Julia Conley 'Obscene': Biden Quietly OKs More 2,000-Pound Bombs, Warplanes for Israel "Arming a war criminal makes you a war criminal," one critic admonished the U.S. president. By Brett Wilkins

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■ Opinion Hey Biden, Give Peace a Chance Public dissatisfaction with the dictatorial decision-making by the White House and the absence of congressional action is growing rapidly. By Ralph Nader The Next Few Years Will Decide What Kind of Future We Leave for My Grandchild Everyone’s job this decade is to arrest the sudden and sickening lurch upward in temperature, so that there’s somewhere at least a little stable for young people to stand as they build that new world that must come. By Bill Mckibben Asa Caleb Crane was born over the weekend; he came into the world with a full head of hair, and on first impression an undeniable charisma, a full array of important moral virtues, and a calm but determined approach to the new world in which he found himself. And I found myself both entirely agog at his general niftiness, and bowled over by the fact that I now know, very intimately, someone who God willing is going to exist in the 22nd century. I can compass the passage of time; my grandmother, who I knew well, was born in the latter part of the 19th century, and I can imagine most of the changes of her life—feel in some visceral way the increase in mobility, in communication, in opportunity, in ease. My parents were born in the Depression and came of age in the great postwar boom; my daughter was born just as the internet was getting off the ground. It all makes more or less sense to me; but of course the future is harder, and the future now is harder than ever. In fact, there have been a spate of stories this week pointing out that even our greatest climate scientists are having a hard time explaining the rapid rise in global temperature over the last 12 months—and others explaining just how hot it has become. Here’s a compelling Guardian account of the record heat across much of Africa in recent weeks. Tarly in Ivory Coast explained: “All I can do is open the windows and the door to let the air flow, but even the air doesn’t move.” He lives with a one-year-old child, who cries at night because he is hot, and his two teenage daughters, who wake up in the middle of the night to shower before returning to bed where they lie in front of the fan. Still, the heat clings; it does not go away. “At four in the morning, it’s when it’s least hot and you can sleep better, but I have to wake up to go to work,” Tarly said. “When it’s this hot, mixed with humidity, time stands still.” Of course time in the larger sense, rushes on—and right now the very real-time acceleration of warming scares me more than I want to admit. It also makes me think—as you might guess from the title of this newsletter—that the next few years may be the crucial ones between now and 2100, maybe even between now and 5100. Because if we don’t break the momentum of the warming then it will build unstoppably on itself—and that will foreclose all kinds of options. It’s keeping those options open that matters to me. I don’t think we can reasonably plan all that far into the future—new technologies, new politics, new attitudes will inevitably shape how things happen 20 or 60 years from now. But I do think we can see the outline of our politics through the end of the decade, and I think it basically involves a single choice: Do we go all-in on the energy transition as the world pledged in December at the last global climate talks, or do we back off, following the advice of, say, the (wildly applauded) Saudi Aramco CEO who said last week at a Houston energy conference that “we should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas and instead invest in them.” The first option—going all-in on the energy transition—doesn’t get us where we need to go, and certainly not by 2030. I don’t see any chance that the temperature won’t still be rising then. But done with vigor it keeps possibilities open: Politico this week reported, for instance, on the growing competition among blue-state governors to come up with more renewables and more efficiency, and the remarkable Kingsmill Bond at the Rocky Mountain Institute reported on the growing competition between the superpower blocs for green energy supremacy. China, Europe, and the United States make up 80%–90% of deployment of key clean technologies. China dominates the supply chain, but change is happening. China has outspent the United States and Europe 10-fold in the past five years to achieve market share in manufacturing of over 90% in solar and 70% in batteries. But United States and European capital expenditure is set to increase 16-fold by 2025, and opportunities for leadership abound; only 20% of final energy demand has been electrified; and technologies to enhance flexibility are still in the early stages. Europe leads in solar and wind share of generation. Europe has the largest share of electricity from solar and wind, and all three regions are moving rapidly up the S-curve towards solar and wind dominance. What I’m trying to say is, we have the chance to move over the next five years to establish a counter-momentum to the rising temperature. If we do, by 2030 we’ll be in a place to weigh the options going forward; if we don’t then nature will be making decisions for us, and we’ll be reacting. For those like me of a certain age we have no real business telling young people what kind of world to build—that will be their opportunity and their responsibility, and my sense is that they have the savvy to do a good job of it. But our job—everyone’s job these next five years—is to arrest the sudden and sickening lurch upward in temperature, so that there’s somewhere at least a little stable for those young people to stand as they build that new world that must come. The best proxy for that stability is the number of solar panels and wind turbines and batteries we install between now and the end of the decade. I’ve always thought this to be true; it’s why this newsletter is called what it is, and it’s why I do the work I do at places like Third Act. It’s just that all of a sudden I take it even more personally. Hi Asa!  Environmental activists rally during the U.K. Student Climate Network’s Global Climate Strike protest action in central London, on September 20, 2019.  (Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images) Protecting Forests Can Help Us Combat the Climate Crisis–If Done Right If we are to restore old growth, combat climate change, and preserve wildlife habitats and have forests for future generations to experience, we must change the way that we manage our public forest lands. By Ellen Montgomery VIEW ALL OPINION Call 207.775.0488 to donate by phone or mail a check to: Common Dreams · PO Box 443 · Portland, ME 04112-0443 · USA Common Dreams is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your contribution is tax-deductible. EIN: 20-3368194