Informed Comment daily updates (05/11/2024)

Palestine and History: Macklemore v. Hillary Clinton Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered herself of some ahistorical and distorted remarks about Palestine on Morning Joe, maintaining that the young people protesting the Gaza atrocities do not know history. Former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticizes pro-Palestinian protests, saying that many of the young people […]

Weaponizing Antisemitism By Ellen Cantarow and Jennifer Loewenstein | – ( Commondreams.org ) – All of us—and we are legion across the world must keep our eyes on the genocide in Gaza, as well as on the vicious pogroms underway in the West Bank. A recent statement by James Elder of UNICEF reports that in Rafah, “The European […]

Israel is not giving Aid Groups what they need to  run operational Responses the Gaza Emergency By Raymond Offenheiser, University of Notre Dame | – (The Conversation) – Amid persistent calls from the United States and other countries that Israel needs to make it easier for life-saving aid to reach Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military closed two of the region’s few operating border crossings in Rafah, a southern […]

Old posts you may have missed

Antisemitism and Antizionism: A Dangerous Conflation Why are Algorithms called Algorithms? A brief History of the Persian Polymath you’ve likely never Heard of War Culture Hates the Ethical Passion of the Young Juan Cole: Israel and Campus Protests (Sea Change Radio) Israel wants to destroy Gaza and annex the West Bank, but what do the Palestinians want? Washington U.: Protesting Severe Beating by Police of Prof. Steve Tamari, Arrest, Suspension of Faculty and Students This Generation’s Vietnam: Students are Protesting Israeli Genocide, meeting Media and Political Vilification

Week in Review: The Conscience of a Nation Speaks

 

Saturday, May 4, 2024 ■ The Week in Review 'Racist POS' Mike Collins Cheers Video of Ole Miss Mob Attack on Black Student "This is not about Israel, Palestine, or Gaza. This is old-fashioned American racism and misogyny," said one observer. "These are the types of young white men who will grow up to be Republican governors, senators, and members of Congress." Republican Georgia Congressman Mike Collins came under fire Friday over a social media post applauding video of white University of Mississippi students racially abusing a Black woman participating in a campus protest for Palestine. Collins posted the video—in which numerous people can be heard grunting like apes and one young man is seen jumping up and down like a monkey in front of the Black woman—with the caption, "Ole Miss taking care of business." By Brett Wilkins • May 3, 2024 Israel Briefs US on Plan for 'Ethnic Cleansing' of Rafah "A military invasion in Rafah would be CATASTROPHIC... There can be no more 'evacuations.' There is no safe place to go," said Oxfam, calling for an immediate cease-fire. By Brett Wilkins • May 3, 2024 'Absurd!': US Billionaires Pay Lower Tax Rate Than Working Class for First Time "It's time to tax the billionaires," economist Gabriel Zucman argues in a new analysis. By Jake Johnson • May 3, 2024 ICC Condemns Efforts to 'Intimidate' the Court as Netanyahu Arrest Warrant Looms Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and GOP lawmakers in the U.S. have threatened to retaliate against the court if it issues arrest warrants for officials in Israel's government. By Jake Johnson • May 3, 2024 *****MUST READ!**** Corporate Profiteering Schemes That Drive Inflation Detailed at Senate Hearing "At every turn, companies are cutting corners on the path to record profits, and American consumers are paying the price," one expert testified. Progressive policy experts took aim at corporate greed and profiteering during a Thursday U.S. Senate hearing on "shrinkflation," the process of reducing the size or quantity of a product while selling it at the same price. At the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing—entitled "Higher Prices: How Shrinkflation and Technology Can Impact Consumers' Finances"—Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) began by acknowledging that "prices today are far too high, and families are having a harder time finding a fair price, seeing more of their paycheck vanish into thin air." "All of this is happening while corporate profits hit record highs," the senator continued. "Let's be clear: The fact that prices and corporate profits are going up at the same time is no coincidence. A study by the Kansas City Fed found that corporate profits drove half of the price increases in 2021." By Brett Wilkins • May 2, 2024 Nearly All 600,000 Kids in Rafah 'Injured, Sick, Malnourished,' Says UNICEF A full-scale Israeli assault on the crowded southern Gaza city "would bring catastrophe on top of catastrophe for children." By Jessica Corbett • May 2, 2024 Biden Condemned for Ahistorical and 'Politically Suicidal' Attack on Campus Protests "Biden's claim that 'dissent must never lead to disorder' defies American history, from the Boston Tea Party to the tactics that civil rights activists, Vietnam War protesters, and anti-apartheid activists used to confront injustice." By Jake Johnson • May 2, 2024 'Tragic and Unjust': Trump Judges Grant Biden DOJ Request to Toss Youth Climate Case "We will keep fighting for climate justice," said one plaintiff, "but this is another dark day for protecting young people from climate harm imposed by their government." By Jake Johnson • May 2, 2024 57 House Dems Call On Biden to Prevent Israeli Assault on Rafah "An offensive invasion into Rafah by Israel in the upcoming days is wholly unacceptable." By Jessica Corbett • May 1, 2024 Jewish Groups Decry House Passage of Bill Defining Criticism of Israel as 'Antisemitism' "Antisemitism is a serious problem, but codifying a legal definition could have dangerous implications for free speech," said one campaigner. By Brett Wilkins • May 1, 2024 Israeli Finance Minister Denounced for Calling for 'Total Annihilation' of Gaza "But… did he say it on a college campus? Otherwise, it's just not news. Sorry, them's the rules," said one journalist sardonically. By Julia Conley • May 1, 2024 Pro-Genocide Mob Attacks Nonviolent Encampment, Beats Students at UCLA Encampment organizers called the assault "nothing less than a horrifying, despicable act of terror." By Jake Johnson • May 1, 2024 Ilhan Omar Says GOP Calls to Put Student Protesters on Terror Watch List 'Insanely Dangerous' Sen. Marsha Blackburn put "a target" on protesters across the country with her latest attack on them, said Omar. By Julia Conley • Apr 30, 2024 'Scathing Indictment' of Big Oil Lies Unveiled on Eve of Senate Hearing The report details a "campaign of deception, disinformation, and doublespeak waged using dark money, phony front groups, false economics, and relentless exertion of political influence." By Jessica Corbett • Apr 30, 2024 VIEW ALL NEWS JOIN THE MOVEMENT As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. JOIN WITH US TODAY ■ Opinion Opposed to Genocide in Gaza, This Is the Conscience of a Nation Speaking Through Your Kids This is about a genocide being carried out with American money and with American weapons against a people that has been living under occupation for generation after generation after generation. By Rashid Khalidi • May 3, 2024 Antisemitism: The Big Lie Smearing Campus Protesters The people who make, report, and teach history should take note: it has never been kind to those who spread Big Lies. This time will be no different. By Richard Eskow • May 2, 2024 Breaking Down AOC Derangement Syndrome Relentlessly tearing down one of our most effective leaders undermines the capacity for progressives to win. And win we must. By Aaron Regunberg • May 2, 2024 The Biden Administration's Hypocrisy on College Protests Must End While the White House is quick to condemn any allegation of antisemitism at protests, whether verified or manufactured, it has repeatedly failed to condemn verified incidents of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia on college campuses. By Edward Ahmed Mitchell,Shafiquil Mushna • May 1, 2024 The Supreme Court Justices Colluding With Trump to 'Catch and Kill' Insurrection Case There’s a reason the right-wing justices are eager to support Trump’s senseless arguments on presidential immunity. By Mitchell Zimmerman • Apr 30, 2024 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

Informed Comment daily updates (05/04/2024)

 

Netanyahu as Lord of the Flies: He has wounded, sickened or starved all 600K Palestinian Children in Rafah Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Catherine Russell, the head of UNICEF, said this week that of the 600,000 children in Rafah, southern Gaza, all of them are either injured, or sick, or malnourished. Much of the Gaza population has been forced south to Rafah by the Israeli military, which had promised them it was a […]

Plastic is Climate Change in a Bottle – So let’s put a Cap on It By Jack Marley, The Conversation | – (The Conversation) – Plastic pollution and climate change have common culprits – and similar solutions. The penultimate round of negotiations for a global pact on plastic ended yesterday in Ottawa. Nearly 200 countries have agreed that a treaty must tackle plastic pollution at every stage of its existence, […]

Columbia Students are Sick at Heart, just as we were in ’68 Mark Rudd ( Waging Nonviolence ) – What is the ethical response to witnessing a great moral crime? Turn away and allow oneself to be distracted? Pretend it doesn’t exist? Or acknowledge the crime for what it is, and take some sort of action to try to stop it? Students at Columbia in 1968 understood […]

Old posts you may have missed

Top Ways MAGA and Right Wing Zionism Converge, and Why Smotrich is Embracing Trump Ukraine, Israel, and the Incoherence of U.S. Foreign Policy The Right is weaponizing Antisemitism to Distract from Israel’s Atrocities and Smear Campus Protests I was Arrested at Columbia University in 1968: I am Cheering on the Students of Today This is Why the Students are Protesting: Eyes on Israel’s Killing Fields in Gaza Birding in Gaza amid a Nightmare of War “Intifada” in Arabic just means Uprising or Mass Protest; it is used for the Jewish Warsaw Uprising

Top News: 'Politically Suicidal' Biden Remarks?

PART OF BEING AN INFORMED VOTER IS READING! 
GATHERING INFORMATION & INSIGHTS THAT OTHERS OFFER....

SINGLE SOURCING INFORMATION IS THE DEFINITION OF FAILURE...

 

Thursday, May 2, 2024 ■ Today's Top News  THIS IS THE DEFICIT THAT REPUBLICANS LAMENT.... Tax Rates for Big Corporations Fell by Nearly Half After Trump Cuts And this is the policy Republicans and their presumptive presidential nominee are vowing to extend if they win in November. By Jake Johnson Nearly All 600,000 Kids in Rafah 'Injured, Sick, Malnourished,' Says UNICEF A full-scale Israeli assault on the crowded southern Gaza city "would bring catastrophe on top of catastrophe for children." By Jessica Corbett Biden Condemned for Ahistorical and 'Politically Suicidal' Attack on Campus Protests "Biden's claim that 'dissent must never lead to disorder' defies American history, from the Boston Tea Party to the tactics that civil rights activists, Vietnam War protesters, and anti-apartheid activists used to confront injustice." By Jake Johnson Fossil Fuel Companies Use Enclosures to Hide Planet-Heating Methane Flares "If you enclose the flare, people don't see it, so they don't complain about it," said one expert. "But it also means it's not visible from space by most of the methods used to track flare volume." By Brett Wilkins 'Stop Sending Arms': Global Day of Action to End Israel's Assault on Gaza "The Global Day of Action must serve as a wake-up call to states that continue to supply arms to all parties to the conflict in Gaza that they are at risk of being complicit in war crimes," said one campaigner. By Julia Conley 'Tragic and Unjust': Trump Judges Grant Biden DOJ Request to Toss Youth Climate Case "We will keep fighting for climate justice," said one plaintiff, "but this is another dark day for protecting young people from climate harm imposed by their government." By Jake Johnson JOIN THE MOVEMENT As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. JOIN WITH US TODAY ■ More News Professors, Speakers Cut Ties With Universities Over Police Crackdowns on Protests 'An Affront to the World': Shell Posts Billions in Profits as Planet Burns excerpt: Oil major Shell announced $7.7 billion in profits during the first quarter of 2024 on Thursday, as well as a $3.5 billion share buyback program. The news comes as every month covered by the period was the hottest of its kind on record. The three-month period also saw the second-largest wildfire in Texas history, extreme heat in West Africa and the Sahel, and the beginning of the Great Barrier Reef's fifth mass bleaching event in eight years. Scientists have clearly linked global heating, and the weather disasters it exacerbates, to the climate crisis driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. "As extreme weather accelerates and the cost-of-living crisis rumbles on, Shell's latest billion-pound profits are an affront to the world," Izzie McIntosh, climate campaign manager at Global Justice Now, said in a statement. "The grotesque wealth that this Earth-wrecking company continues to accumulate is something we cannot allow ourselves to accept as normal." 'Their Blood Is on Gene Block': UCLA Students Injured in Violent Police Raid 57 House Dems Call On Biden to Prevent Israeli Assault on Rafah VIEW ALL NEWS ■ Opinion Antisemitism: The Big Lie Smearing Campus Protesters The people who make, report, and teach history should take note: it has never been kind to those who spread Big Lies. This time will be no different. By Richard Eskow Breaking Down AOC Derangement Syndrome Relentlessly tearing down one of our most effective leaders undermines the capacity for progressives to win. And win we must. By Aaron Regunberg The Biden Administration's Hypocrisy on College Protests Must End While the White House is quick to condemn any allegation of antisemitism at protests, whether verified or manufactured, it has repeatedly failed to condemn verified incidents of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia on college campuses. By Edward Ahmed Mitchell,Shafiquil Mushna 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