To The Hague With Biden

 I turned on my TV Friday night, hoping to get some news I could stand to watch. The corporate networks and PBS have been propaganda vehicles for Israel's genocidal revenge campaign against its Palestinian displacees, so I thought I would give Scripps (formerly Newsy) a try. They do some decent in-depth work, but when I tuned in at 8:45 p.m. Central time they were engrossed in the "breaking news" that the Maine mass shooter Robert Card had been found dead, having shot himself. A press conference was pending, so in the meantime expert-after-expert was interviewed about their expertise in various nuances of mass shootings. 

The press conference was led by the governor of Maine, Janet Mills. She was a bit awkward, not knowing the name of the chief of police she was praising. She announced that she had called President Biden to tell him the news. Because, of course, whenever there is a mass shooting and the killer is dead, he should know. 

This seemed curious to me. Joe Biden, enabler and participant in genocide, needs to know when a killer is dead. He is an expert in mass murder, calling Russia's invasion of Ukraine genocide. He has said, in defense of Israel, that it has the right of self-defense when questioned about indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. He knowingly stated that the number of Palestinians killed has been exaggerated. Knowingly, that is, in knowing that he was lying. When asked about the bombing of a hospital in Gaza he replied that it appears to have been "the other team." It had to be "the other team," because "our team" doesn't do such things. Someone might remind him of Afghanistan, when he was vice-president. A New York Times investigation concluded that which team bombed the hospital is uncertain.

So why the difference? Robert Card has been referred to as a monster. The Hamas attackers have also been referred to as monsters. They also have been called animals, as if animals, of which humans are a species, are lower forms of life. They aren't human, so kill them all, meaning all Palestinians.

Our television media are in full compliance. On Scripps Friday, the in-depth coverage was of "Israel at War." Not "Gaza at War," or Palestinians at war, but Israel at War. They are the ones who natter. 

This will not turn out well for anyone, including genocide enabler Joe Biden. He, the 100% politician, will accelerate towards the asymptotic limit of 0% popularity, the direction he is headed. For his assistance in war crimes he should be remanded to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. His cronies in crime should be there with him. We need a new president. Someone who at the very least knows better than to participate in genocide. That isn't asking much.

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The Intercept has a good analysis of Biden's support for genocide, and potential consequences.

The Center for Constitutional Rights has a pretty good explanation of Israel's campaign of genocide in partnership with the Biden Administration.

Mutiny is brewing at the State Department over Biden's support for genocide in Gaza.  

Kurt Nimmo offers some much-needed insight about Israel and its history with Hamas.

For some history of Israel and the Palestinians, click here. More from KPFA about the history of U.S. foreign policy with Israel.

All this is in context with the world coming apart at the seams.

Nakba is a word we all should know.

Another new insight.

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Back in 2009 I offered a solution to the contested land of the Southern Levant. No one took me up on it. Maybe now it will get some attention, though it will likely be credited to someone other than me. The "Two State Solution" was always a ruse, a phony proposition that neither the "U.S." nor "Israel" had any intention of pursuing seriously. They have "summits," "accords" and agreements, which have always been window-dressing, public relations schemes that were meant to provide cover for the status quo. Now,  thanks to many decades of bad intentions, it has come to what we have now. There will be no continuation of the status quo, Biden and Netanyahu notwithstanding.

Part of Benjamin Netanyahu's genocidal plan is to attack Iran. It should be clear that Iran is a nation of 89,438,795 people. Similar to what is going on in Gaza, bombing Iran would be bombing the people of Iran, under the guise of deterring or destroying its ruling regime. I have some experience with the people of Iran, helping friends decades ago in their efforts to end U.S. support for the brutal Shah, imposed on the Iranian people through a CIA and British coup in 1953. 

They also criticized Israel, and a local "Jewish" person tried to have my friend Ali deported. That is, deported back to Iran, where he would face certain torture and death at the hands of the Shah's feared secret police, the Savak. He wasn't deported, and went on to serve as an ambassador of the revolutionary government, but not for long. He was too independent, and not a religious fanatic. His wife was Palestinian. I learned much from both of them, had many good times, many laughs. I have been very lucky to know such people. 

Here's some background on U.S. involvement in Iran, and the harm it has caused.

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Here's a song. Masters of war depend on politicians to buy their weapons and spread them around the world. The all assume they have God on their side. Tom Waits. Marvin Gaye. John Lennon. Donovan. John Prine. The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Here's a song for Benjamin Netanyahu. Have some fun adding Blinken to this song. 

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On the Trump front, I commented on this article, having a bit of fun:

Trump lawyer Alina Habba thinks Secret Service will protect Trump from being jailed

The Secret Service can protect Trump IN jail, but not FROM jail. It is a Federal bureau, part of the Department of the Treasury, but it does not have unlimited jurisdiction over courts, whether Federal, state or municipal. What will be interesting is when Trump is ordered to serve time in jail whether his Secret Service detail will be allowed to have weapons when they accompany him to his cell. The easiest way to protect Trump when he is sent to a jail or prison is to put him in solitary confinement. His Secret Service guards can stand outside his cell, without weapons. Since no one will be able to enter his cell, he will be free from harm, except from his troubled mind.
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Robert Reich offered a very wise analysis of the various concerns about Israel's carnage campaign on October 30. I put in my two cents:

Great, but go a little deeper 

Great insight from Robert Reich, as usual. I look at it a little differently. Israelis say there is no such thing as a Palestinian, a way of dehumanizing them by negation of their existence. I agree. There are no Israelis either. There is no "Israel." It is a human fiction, an imposition on the land. Gaza can't be "wiped off the map" either. There is no Gaza. The land doesn't call itself any of these things. What really is happening is blowing millions of people off the "map." There is no "Holy Land" either, except in the sense that all land is holy. We don't treat it that way, which is why we are approaching our own extinction. Because of the approaching climate cataclysm national distinctions will become meaningless and cease to exist. They only exist in the minds of men anyway, and these men will mostly, if not all, be gone. 

Men who think they are one kind or another, better than other perceived kinds or another, have at it to reinforce their kindhood and their betterness, to the bitter end. The raging assault on the land known as Gaza is but another example of men not knowing their elbows from a hole in the ground, and by extension, everything in between. 

We have had millennia to get it right, but have refused, consistently. Now it is too late. If we don't blow ourselves to smithereens, the climate will have its way with us. We have had plenty of chances, but chances are not an infinite store. 

Neither 

Worthy of mention is that neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden will be the likely party nominees for the presidency next year. Trump's legal troubles and his declining mental state, and his physical health will all militate against him. Joe Biden is worn out, will be even more worn out next year. 

These people are not things, not permanent entities, givens. They are human beings, both very old, and both in decline. Biden can hardly speak or walk, and being a purveyor of genocide will not make him healthier at 81, his age as of November 20. 

Another way of saying this is that predicting the future is the fool's way of getting through the day. I can cast a bit of doubt on certainty about the future. As Professor Reich well knows, our economic system is characterized by the imperative for infinite growth of output. Though infinite growth is imperative, the planet is finite. There is only so much squeezing blood out of a turnip before the turnip runs out of blood. 

Eventually the system will fail, and likely sooner than any economist can imagine. Maybe next year. It is already way too big. Add to this that the planet is in full rebellion against our drive to infinite conversion of the Earth into finished products. 

The weather is likely to be even more threatening next year. And, our social system is breaking down. The January 6 insurrection was likely a harbinger of things to come. If millions of people can be under the sway of such a mediocre human being as Donald Trump, the breakdown is well under way. 

After Nixon, Reagan, Bush II and Trump, I have given up thinking we can do no worse. You can't make any of these people up, but they were all presidents of the United States, each worse than the previous. Trump and Biden are periphery. We would do better looking at substance.

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Economist Jeffrey Sachs is another great source of wisdom. He offers a clear perspective on the current madness in the Southern Levant. I responded, which can be seen below:

Thanks

Jeffrey Sachs, brilliant guy, again says something so pertinent, thorough and needed. I hope this gets more attention. I was once an attempted economist, actually several times, became disillusioned each time. I have deep admiration for anyone who can stay with it and contribute so meaningfully for so long. I do have a question, though. How do you deal with the contradiction of infinite growth of output on a finite planet?

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Barack Obama has weighed-in on the situation in Gaza, noting that "Nobody's hands are clean." He knows Netanyahu for what he is - a political thug and sociopath. They have never liked each other. For good reason. Netanyahu, thinking he controls the President of the United States, said of Obama, "This guy doesn't get it!" It is a long story.

A crackpot "Republican" has introduced a bill to expel Palestinians from the U.S. The need for attention and air time on Fox News can lead a person to say and do anything. The crackpot "Republican" at hand is named Ryan Zinke. He represents the First Congressional District of Montana. I suppose his futile ban attempt will play well in Montana, a hotbed of Palestinian terrorists.

No Innocent Civilians

A few things are clear from the attack on Israel and its ongoing revenge against the population of Gaza. One is that humans will do anything. No murder, cruelty, destruction, rape, torture, beheading or genocide are beyond the capability and willingness of any of us. The easiest way to do these things is to define someone else as a lesser being, someone not worthy of existence.

Another thing that is clear is that the truth of any world conflict depends on whose "side" one takes. The established order of the United States of America, for instance, sides with Israel, for reasons historical and political. Several countries, including the U.S., denied entry to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany during World War II. After the war the State of Israel was declared, and became a migratory destination for Jewish people the world over. It was, and still is, a diaspora in reverse. Like the settlement of what is now known as "The Americas," this reverse diaspora was made possible by pushing out and killing the people who already lived there.

It seems clear also that we have failed as a species. We have advanced so far that we now can destroy all life on this planet with our technology, and are moving rapidly in that direction. Israel has superior weaponry in the Mideast, easily capable of killing all the Palestinians. They also have the richest banker in the world - us. We foot the bill for whatever mayhem it heaps upon its Arabic displacees 

Now the president of Israel has declared that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza. This is a pretext for killing them all. With our backing. Hitler was truthful about his attempt at genocide. We will find some lie or other when the genocide is complete. Israel already has a handy lie. They are God's chosen people. Everyone else is unchosen, available for elimination, should they qualify as no innocent civilians. We can back God's chosen people with our American exceptionalism. No innocent civilians are no match for these exalted über people.

It will all be for nothing. Climate change is bringing human civilization as we know it to an end, so what is going on in the Southern Levant is but a mild warmup for what awaits us. As biologist Paul Ehrlich so aptly put it earlier this year, "We're through. This civilization has about 20 years left, and then it is over." There will be far fewer, if any, humans left. Maybe the few left will be innocent civilians.
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Here's a song. A theme song for what remains of Homo sapiens after the climate self-corrects.

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Update, October 16: I sent a message to Joe Biden Saturday on the White House website. It is posted below, with one edit of a typo. I said 2013 instead of 2012. The links are added for readers' edification.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

I voted for you for vice president in 2008 and 2012, and for president in 2020. I likely will be voting for Cornel West in 2024. 

The reason I am choosing someone else is because of the carte blanche you are giving the government of Israel to destroy and kill in Gaza. The attack by the group Hamas was heinous, but to approve and encourage a blanket campaign of revenge shows you to be no more than a politician - weighing only the actions and perspective of one "side," the side we favor for reasons of domestic politics. 

I watched a recent interview with Franklin Foer, who wrote a book about you, "The Last Politician." He uses that term in praise, but there is a downside. If one is only a politician, then there is no anchoring in morality and ethics. I remember the Clarence Thomas nomination hearings. You were a 100% politician then too, foisting this corrupt human being on the American public for the past 32 years. 

 

This will not end well. Israel is making itself into a pariah state, and this country is as well. You are still preferable to Trump, but not enough for me to vote for you again.

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Joe Biden was interviewed on 60 Minutes Sunday. 100% politician.

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60 Minutes also has an update about "Republican" presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. Here's his theme song.

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Here's a short history of the Israel-Palestine conflict from ABC Australia.

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More insight from Slate. Another insight from Slate.

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Earlier this month I had a comment posted to an article about Steve Bannon in the New York Times. You might have to subscribe to read it, but you can read it for free below:

A number of things are converging. The end of Trump is rapidly approaching as his legal troubles are driving him batty. He is not mentally well, and it can be argued that he probably has been so for almost all his life. He likely suffered numerous severe beatings from one or both of his parents in his early years. They eventually had enough of him, and shipped him off to military school.

The "Republican" party has been a big nothing for decades, with a succession of grifters holding various offices through various forms of election chicanery. This includes Nixon, Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, and finally Trump. In 2020 the country had had enough of Trump, so his only option was to seize control of the government by force. Thankfully, his followers were as incompetent as he was and is, and the coup attempt failed.

Some, like Bannon, believe that their arrogance will be enough to keep the coup going, and eventually to sweep them into power. It is psychotic and doomed to failure. We should be thankful. If these people were sane, competent and had any kind of plausible vision of what this country and world need they might have succeeded. Instead, all they have are maniacal schemes and dreams of tyranny. Now we are at the end stage. As these criminals get more desperate they will be more dangerous. They will still fail. We need to maintain vigilance. 

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R.I.P. Dick Butkus. I saw him play once. Illinois v. Minnesota in Minneapolis, 1964. We had end zone seats, where you could really see Butkus at work. For half the game, at least. He played center on offense and middle linebacker on defense. On offense he opened holes three players wide - just unbelievable. I haven't seen anything like that before or since. Here are some highlights.

His time with the Bears was pretty unbelievable too, just fearsome. The level of intensity something I also hadn't seen before or since. Off the field you would never know he was so fierce, gentle as a kitten. The Bears, er, the Halas-McKaskey family, should have treated him better. George Halas hated his players. He made Gale Sayers run every play until he got hurt. If the McKaskey family would sell the team it might get better.

I no longer watch football or take any interest in it. I can still honor the past.