Rally over Gaza
2 Feb 2024
Our usual line in front of the office of Senator Fetterman (D-PA),
prottesting his position on Gaza. On
his press release,
his first paragraph is a good one. But the second paragraph, which
speaks of the need to eliminate Hamas, really needs updating to
acknowledge that Palestinian residents of Gaza are on the wrong side of
what the International Court of Justice made
an interim ruling on, that Israel needed to comply with six
provisional measures designed to ensure that Israel was not committing
genocide.
Irving Courtley Jones aka as Karamo Muchuri
Sulieman. I deal with him as National Writer's Union Philadelphisa Chapter Chair.
The war in Gaza is really
starting to hurt President Biden electorally.
In a new NORC/ AP opinion poll, 50% of
Americans say that they believe Israel has gone too far in its war on
Gaza. That is up from 40% in November.
Also
Scores of people protesting Israel’s
conduct in Gaza were detained Monday afternoon after refusing the leave
the Pennsylvania Capitol’s main atrium.
Scholars are studying whether
or not Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, but as one scholar
pointed out:
Israel has committed “nearly every act
outlined in Article II [of the Genocide Convention] … that accounts for
the more totalized ‘destruction of the national pattern of the
oppressed group’”.
There's
a reason
that disapproval is climbing. 122 days on, over 27k Palestinians have
died and 66k have been wounded since the Hamas attack of October 7th.
Israeli deaths from that attack have shrunken a bit, 1,147 as opposed
to 1,400. Both sets of deaths are still horrific. One of the real
horros
of the war is that there's simply no safe place for Palestinians to go
to. Also:
The UN Agency for Palestiniane Refugees
(UNRWA) has said that “there is very limited access to clean water and
sanitation amid [the] relentless bombardment.”
With the House of Representatives continuing
to stall on passing the Ukraine aid that President
Biden proposed last October, the Ukrainian Army is suffering "shell hunger."
Both Ukraine and the Europen Union are struggling to provide as many
artillery shells as possible, but "Russian Artillery Gunners Are
Getting Cocky. As Ukraine Runs Out Of Ammo, Russian Guns Gather For
Devastating Salvos." Forbes
Also, Ukraine appears about to lose their
first city to Russian advances (Avdiivka) since the loss of Bakhmut
back in May of last year.
Blogger who write about national security matters looks at how
European allies perceive the stranglehold that the Republican House
has on US foreign policy and how Russia and China are both delighted by
that.
Bowing for a moment of silence.
Our blogger at TPM feels that House Republicans have really painted
themselves into a corner by first, demanding
certain provisions in a border bill and then, when Democrats say okay,
suddenly deciding nah, they don't want those provisions after all.
Right now, the Senate has assemled a
370-page bill that largely lines up with general reporting on it.
The agreement
would be the most aggressive
border security and migration overhaul bill in decades if it passes
Congress. It would raise the standard to get asylum, send away those
who don’t qualify and expedite cases for those who do.
Representative Greene is very upse that the House vote to impeach
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas crashed
and burned, going to an extremely narrow defeat. She then blames
Mayorkas for all kinds of things, ignoring the fact that the House could have passed the immigration
bill that was being offered by the Democrat-run Senate and that would
solve a lot of problems that Mayorkas is being blamed for! And yes,Republicans have now passed up the best opportunity they'll have had in decades. Speaker Johnson is nowhere close to being anywhere near as good at his job as Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi was.
Poetry read from the steps.
The legal trials that Donald Trump is undergoing? All
of them are stalled at the moment, but Democrats could point out
that if Trump was really
convinced that he was innocent of all of the charges, then why is he acting to delay his trials?
Wouldn't a truly innocent
person seek to get verdicts before
November's election?
Ronna McDaniel, who was appointed in 2017 to be the head of the
Republican National Committee (RNC), which is in charge of fundraining,
was unceremoniously tossed
under the bus by Trump after it became clear that the RNC had their
-Worst fundraising year since ’93
-Lowest cash on hand headed into a presidential in decades -Worst month
for contributions in a decade.
Is it her fault? Ha, ha, ha! Of course not. Also, "More than $27M in
Trump campaign fundraising went to legal costs in the last six months
of 2023" MSNBC
In his latest trial, on the question of "absolute immunity," the court
skipped the usual honorific of referring to him as "President." Citizen
Trump does not have any more immunity than any other American citizen.
Back in the day, Kevin Sorbo was a notable TV actor in some good series."Hercules:
The Legendary Journeys" and "Andromeda"
being especially good ones. Lately, he hasn't been so popular, so he's
been on Twiter/X, where he normally says pretty foolish things. His
latest is a meme with his pictue saying "Instead of diversity hiring,
how about giving the job to the best person?" Hmm yeah, a good idea in theory. Problem is, there was a reason the US started Affirmative Action.
People who hire other people have a tendency to hire folks who are
similar to themselves. I used to be a Congregationalist, then became a
Methodist. Both are under the umbrella of the United Church of Christ
(UCC). So let's say I was the hiring manager and have a choice between
a Roman Catholic, a Southern Baptist and a fellow UCC member. Even
though the best person might be the Baptist, there would be a powerful
tendency for me to pick the UCC person.
Now, in the armed services and in corporate jobs and in other large
organizations, there are a large number of people to choose from and
the leadership is mission-oriented and folks who aren't picked might
complain or just be quietly resentful. So there's a strong tendency to
pick the best person. Brittney Griner,
a basketball player who's an African-American lesbian who's more
spiritual than religious, would easily make it up the career ladder in
a large organization because she's highly talented. Would she do well
with a small company in rural, heavily white Nebraska? My gess is, ehh,
probably not.
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