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Category: United States

  • Thoughts On The Ceasefire News

    Israel continued to hammer Gaza with military explosives on Thursday despite the announcement of the first stages of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

    Israel always does this. When normal people get a ceasefire agreement, they think, “Good, this means we can finally stop fighting and killing.” Whenever Israelis get a ceasefire agreement, they go, “This means we have to hurry up and kill as many people as possible before it takes effect.”

    But it does appear that the killing and abuse will at least diminish for a time, which is an objectively good thing no matter how you slice it.

    The first stages of the agreement reportedly entail a partial withdrawal of IDF troops, Israel’s starvation blockade officially ending, humanitarian aid being allowed into the enclave, and both Israel and Hamas releasing captives and stopping the fighting.

    Drop Site News reports that, according to Hamas sources, subsequent  phases will entail “No surrender, no disarming, no mass exile, but most of all a permanent end to the war.”

    SCOOP: this is the agreement document between Israel and Hamas under the title “Comprehensive End to the Gaza War” – including the signature of the mediators. More details of my story – at @kann_news pic.twitter.com/1qGPGFck7q

    — Gili Cohen (@gilicohen10) October 9, 2025

    It remains to be seen if there will be any movement toward a lasting ceasefire beyond the first stage. When an agreement was reached late last year, it never made it beyond the first phase, and then the Trumpanyahu administration declared a siege and resumed the killing.

    The far-right members of the Netanyahu regime certainly seem like they don’t expect the ceasefire to hold.

    Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement that Israel has a “tremendous responsibility to ensure that this is not, God forbid, a deal of ‘hostages in exchange for stopping the war,’ as Hamas thinks and boasts,” and that “immediately after the hostages return home, the State of Israel will continue to strive with all its might for the true eradication of Hamas and the genuine disarmament of Gaza.”

    Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir issued similar remarks, saying that he and his Jewish Power party will use their leverage to dismantle the Netanyahu government if it “allows the continued existence of Hamas rule in Gaza.”

    Netanyahu himself has been studiously avoiding any talk of commitment to a lasting ceasefire, mostly limiting his public statements to the significance of freeing Israeli hostages.

    Notice how it doesn’t say words like “ceasefire,” “withdrawal,” or “end of war.” pic.twitter.com/HqSWje4313

    — Assal Rad (@AssalRad) October 9, 2025

    So there’s not a whole lot to feel optimistic about here. If the killing does stop on a lasting basis, it will be a pleasant surprise.

    If it does, we can only surmise that the US and Israel calculated that the worldwide PR crisis created by the genocide was getting too severe to sustain, which would be a win for all of us. Trump has gone on record to say that “Bibi took it very far and Israel lost a lot of support in the world. Now I am gonna get all that support back.”

    Either that, or they calculated that they’re going to need all their firepower for a planned war with Iran, which would, of course, be terrible for everyone.

    We shall see. For now, at least, it will be nice for everyone to have a breather. If things really do calm down, I’m going to do something I’ve never done in my entire writing career and try to take a full weekend off work to decompress. Focusing on a live-streamed genocide for two years takes a toll on the mind and body.

    Here’s hoping for a better future.

    The post Thoughts On The Ceasefire News first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Tiktok, Oracle, And Israel: The New Geopolitics Of Algorithms

    Launched in 2017 by the private Chinese company ByteDance, TikTok quickly became one of the most important social networks on the planet. By early 2025, it had 1.6 billion active users, more than half of them outside China, of whom an estimated 170 million are North American; 1 in 5 people in the US get their news from this network, 4 in 10 among the 18-29 age group. Today, it is the fastest-growing platform among the younger segments of the global population.

    The US government has waged a long battle to force ByteDance to sell the US branch of TikTok to a group of “domestic” capitalists, citing national security concerns and threatening to ban the platform in the US if the deal did not go through.

    The post Tiktok, Oracle, And Israel: The New Geopolitics Of Algorithms appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • American Defiance Will Ultimately Save Our Democracy

    As president Trump tears up the U.S. Constitution he twice swore to uphold, fierce backlash from an aroused John and Jane Public is not far off. Contempt for that document and Americans’ baked-in characteristic of feistiness when pushed too far is one of the four key factors preventing him and his regime from turning democracy into a dictatorial dynasty.

    Three of the four historic factors buttressing America’s form of democracy against Trump’s autocracy were recently listed by Politico contributor Jonathan Schlefer. They should lift the spirits of the fearful and depressed a notch or two:

    A careful comparison with countries that fought off autocratic attempts, as well as those which succumbed, suggests that American democracy might be more resilient than you think. At a minimum, it has crucial advantages over democracies that failed. Three main things stand out: None was nearly so rich [as the U.S.]. None was nearly so long-lived. And none had a legal establishment tracing its genealogy back to Magna Carta in 1215.

    But the most powerful, unmentioned factor of all, however, is raising the dander of average Americans when their personal “ox is finally gored.” As consumer-advocate Ralph Nader warned Trump recently in Common Dreams:

    Americans don’t like to be told to shut up; they don’t like to have things rightfully theirs taken from their families; they don’t like to be fired en masse without cause; they don’t like government contracts for vital services being arbitrarily broken. They also don’t like their government being overthrown by fascistic gangsters….

    Once Trump’s voters and his business base start turning against him, with wide media coverage and dropping polls, the stage will be set for surging demands for his resignation and impeachment that starts with “impossible,” then “possible,” then “probable,” then conviction. If the GOP sees either its political skin at risk in 2026 versus Trump’s destructive, daily delusions and dangerous daily damage, politicians will put their political fortunes first. That is what Congressional Republicans did when they told Nixon to resign in 1974 over the Watergate scandal.”

    Our history is punctuated by Americans initially made hot-tempered from being treated like medieval serfs with no rights by British kings and their swaggering local officials and troops. Most complaints were over British taxes and tariffs, but also tenants’ rights, starvation, cutting ship masts from trees, newcomer rivalries, Christian morality, and Parliament’s Navigation Acts mandating trade only with Britain.

    The Boston Revolt of 1689, for example, had the longest list of grievances against the British governor: enforcing those Acts, restricting town meetings, promoting the Anglican church in a Quaker city, denying land claims, negating Boston’s city charter, assigning hated British officers to lead the local militia. The last straw may have been his creating a “Dominion of New England” for easier control of defiant subjects using litigation, civil disobedience, nettlesome newsletters like the Pennsylvania Journal, fists, and guns. Nearly 20 Colonial uprisings were recorded between 1676 and 1776.

    At the lower social levels in those days were tavern brawls over politics, insults to women, cockfight boasts , and losing at cards and skittles. Not to mention collecting horseracing bets, or my indentured ancestor decking an officious British constable for missing a tax appointment on the Boston docks.

    At upper-class levels, testiness in the early 1800s was exemplified by the famous duel between former Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton when he called his long-time political rival Vice President Aaron Burr “a dangerous man” at a dinner party. Burr called him out and fatally wounded him in a duel.

    Fifty-six years later when abolition divided the nation, Massachusetts’ Sen. Charles Sumner had just made a major anti-slavery floor speech attacking a colleague (“a noisesome, squat, and nameless animal”). South Carolina’s fiery House member Preston Brooks marched into the Senate to avenge his friend. He aimed his metal-topped cane at Sumner’s head and nearly beat him to death.

    Meantime out in the lawless West, cattle rustling, horse and hog thievery, and land disputes were involved in “the great range wars” usually settled by rifles, savage beatings, and impromptu hangings. One dustup was New Mexico’s “Lincoln County War” of the 1870s where Billy the Kid got his start as a posse member turned killer until he was gunned down. Jesse James was another. Hair-triggered and an unregenerate Confederate, he and his brother Frank formed a gang robbing banks, stagecoaches, and trains all over the Midwest. Jesse even issued press releases about their prowess—until he, too, took a bullet to the head.

    It’s undeniable that the number of books about their deeds, the movies and television series reveals a rancorous public drawn to their murderous adventures as “speaking truth to power.” It strongly indicates millions still yearn for a Robin Hood—even though none of their booty ever went to the poor.

    Economic victims in the late 1890s suffered under robber barons and their president William McKinley, a high-tariff, global conquistador. But at the 1901 New York exposition, he grandly extended a plutocratic handshake to a bitter, 28-year-old laid-off Ohio factory worker who had stalked him for weeks. The assassin threw off a handkerchief concealing a pistol, and fatally shot him.

    What American today has not done a slow burn finally igniting a raging internal inferno over both molehills and mountains?

    Watch a schoolyard of five-year-olds when an unintentional bump turns into fistfight. Or listen to a chorus of objections to line-jumpers at athletic events or the movies. The act of driving can transform peaceful Jekylls into near homicidal Hydes. Add resentments over barking dogs, unruly kids, driveway blockage, tree cutting or planting, spraying bushes, and grass clippings blown across a neighbor’s property line once too often.

    As for loving a neighbor as “thyself,” Google lists pages of neighbor vs. neighbor lawsuits winding up in civil or criminal courts. Too often, they also turn into bloodletting.

    One celebrated case involved Kentucky’s Sen. Rand Paul. He had just stepped off his mower when a surly neighbor raced over, struck him from behind, breaking six ribs and injuring his lungs. The cause? A bundle of yard debris crossing the property line (“He must have lost it,” said Paul).

    However, testiness has grown far more serious these days with the availability of guns. Last year, an irate neighbor in Alabama “discharged multiple rounds” into his target’s house. Another pair of neighbors in Palm Beach, Florida last May evidently argued over moving a basketball hoop shared by both households to a new spot. One pulled a handgun and fatally shot the other—and his wife.

    All of the evidence above brings us to the main point being made here: If Americans are so easily irked by the “small stuff,” consider what they’ll do about large and immediate issues affecting survival. Like Trump’s killing Medicaid. Or slowly strangling Social Security and Medicare. Or laying off hundreds of thousands of federal civil servants.

    In Trump’s months-long blitzkrieg of more than 200 executive orders (EOs) to overthrow democracy for a dictatorship, he seems to count on his military’s use of flash-bang bombs, tear gas, beatings, jailings, and killings to silence Americans into groveling obedience.

    He and his advisors somehow have forgotten the thousands of mutinous troops in Vietnam: fragging officers, disobeying direct orders for patrols and battles and the like. If they balked at killing an Asian enemy, wouldn’t they do the same when it involved fraternizatings from their fellow Americans (Sunday dinners, bowling, beer and TV sports invitations), a tactic suggested by one activist group in Portland?

    Now, the July No Kings demonstration drew five million Americans to the streets (and millions more at home) 1.5 percent of the population . The second No Kings rally October 18 may well draw double that number, given Trump’s latest spate of illegal and cruel EOs. Crowd-counting statisticians such as Erica Chenoweth at Harvard’s Kennedy School have said that even a one percent protest has tumbled almost half of the world’s dictators.

    Add to all these millions of angry “little people,” the anxious or furious 2.3 million Federal civil servants who’ve kept the wheels of government service running. They see the handwriting on the wall in viewing the treatment of 100,000 colleagues being summarily forced out of careers without the legality of reduction-in-force hearings. The economic impact alone on their families, landlords, producers and sellers of retail goods and services will be devastating.

    True, the federal courts have temporarily halted some of the most unconstitutional of Trump’s orders so far, and he’s chosen to ignore their rulings. But not the temperament of most ticked-off Americans. And that could erupt at any time, despite Senators like Oregon’s Jeff Merkley writing to us Portland creative activists to “cool it.” He said:

    “Trump’s play is right out of the authoritarian handbook: he wants to stoke violence, then use violence to justify tightening his authorian grip on our communities. We can’t play into his hand. I urge folks to remain peaceful, and to not take his bait.” Oregon’s governor Tina Kotek also told us that Trump’s federalizing 200 of our National Guard would cost state taxpayers $10 million. So we’re willing to stay calm, cool, and collected—for rhe moment.

    But whether trying to bully, muzzle, and suppress feisty Americans into accepting Trumpian chains will never, ever work for long. For 400 years we have been fighting bullies and smiting would-be dictators. Here in Portland and other targeted cities, we’re unlikely to stop anytime soon.

    The post American Defiance Will Ultimately Save Our Democracy first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Urgent Next Steps for Palestine at the UN

    As U.S. President Donald Trump surely intended, his “20-point Gaza plan” succeeded in upstaging calls by many other world leaders at the UN General Assembly for concrete, coordinated UN-led measures to force Israel to end its criminal genocide in Gaza and the illegal occupation of Palestine.

    Trump’s White House meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyah on September 29 coincided with the last day of the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York, where Trump had met with eight Arab and Muslim leaders at the UN and won their support for a proposed plan for Gaza. In a textbook bait-and-switch, Trump then allowed the Israelis to significantly alter his plan before he unveiled it to the world at his meeting with Netanyahu, but pretended it was the same plan that the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and other countries had endorsed.

    Trump’s plan is based on cornering Hamas into a series of steps it hasn’t agreed to: freeing all the Israeli prisoners in Gaza without a full Israeli withdrawal; surrendering its weapons and its role in Palestinian politics; and handing Gaza over to a new phase of Israeli occupation. Gaza would be governed by a “board” headed by Trump and former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair, who not only invaded Iraq alongside the U.S. in 2003, but at the same time masterminded a dirty war against Hamas that led to the isolation and blockade of Gaza, and ultimately to the current crisis.

    Under Trump’s plan, Israel would agree to end its genocidal assault on Gaza and partially withdraw its forces, but nothing in his plan would prevent it relaunching the genocide once the Israeli prisoners in Gaza were safely back in Israel. It would also retain control of Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt, allowing it to keep restricting the entry of food, medicine and rebuilding materials.

    In response to Trump’s proposal, Hamas agreed to release all its Israeli prisoners in return for an Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners, but only after a permanent Israeli ceasefire and withdrawal from Gaza. Prime minister Netanyahu said publicly that Israel will not withdraw its forces from Gaza until Hamas and other Palestinian forces have been removed from power and disarmed, while Hamas insists it will not disarm until the occupation of Palestine ends and its fighters can hand over their weapons to the new armed forces of the sovereign nation of Palestine.

    Hamas also responded that it has no authority to act as the sole negotiator in talks on the future of Palestine. It said Palestine must be governed by Palestinians, not Trump or Blair, and that its future must be negotiated between representatives of all Palestinian factions.

    So Trump’s plan is rife with conditions that one side or the other won’t agree to, and it seems unlikely to end the genocide. But in any case, it is clearly designed to perpetuate, not to end, Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. As the Progressive International said in a statement on October 7:

    Far from paving a path to peace, it offers a blueprint for the further colonisation and subjugation of the Palestinian people — the culmination of decades of dispossession and destruction that reached its dark zenith in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

    The current negotiations may collapse quickly or drag on for weeks or months, but the UN and the world’s governments should not sit idly by as passive observers. The UN should urgently prepare to take the concrete steps that leaders from around the world called for at the General Assembly in September, to give force to UN General Assembly resolutions calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the unrestricted restoration of life-saving humanitarian aid, and a final end to the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine.

    In July 2025, the UN General Assembly organized a “High-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution.” The conference was chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, and its goal was “not only to reaffirm international consensus on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine but to catalyze concrete, timebound and coordinated international action toward the implementation of the two-State solution.”

    The conference produced a lengthy “New York Declaration,” which was endorsed by the General Assembly in a resolution on September 12, by a vote of 142 to 10, with 12 abstentions.

    But this was a plan for the “day after,” which, by itself, failed to bring that day any closer, because it deliberately avoided taking the “concrete, timebound and coordinated international action” that the conference’s mandate had explicitly called for.

    The declaration was based on the deliberations of 8 working groups, co-chaired by representatives of 15 different countries, the Arab League and the European Union, which each drew up plans for the aftermath of a hypothetical permanent ceasefire in Gaza, with topics like “Humanitarian Action and Reconstruction” and “Security for Israelis and Palestinians.”

    Three roundtables at the July conference, chaired by former Irish president Mary Robinson, former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid bin Ra’ad of Jordan, agreed that the General Assembly’s first step should be the international recognition of the state of Palestine.

    UN recognition requires the approval of both the General Assembly and the UN Security Council. However, with such a large majority of countries supporting recognition, and the United States abusing its veto to sideline the Security Council, the General Assembly can call an Emergency Special Session (ESS) to act alone under the “Uniting for Peace” principle, to officially recognize Palestine and welcome it as a full UN member.

    Instead, while several Western countries finally recognized Palestine, bringing the total number who have recognized its independent statehood to 157, the declaration was endorsed in a regular session of the General Assembly that lacked the power to grant formal UN recognition.

    But the most serious omission from the July 2025 conference and the September 12 resolution was that they failed to take concrete, coordinated UN action to impose a ceasefire in Gaza, the vital first step to get to the “day after” that the working groups at the conference were tasked with planning for. Trump took advantage of that omission to propose an end to the genocide in Gaza on terms that would perpetuate the Israeli occupation instead of ending it.

    It was entirely predictable that Israel would reject and ignore the New York Declaration, and prime minister Netanyahu did just that in his General Assembly speech on September 26. But after most of the delegates walked out and left Netanyahu ranting to a nearly empty hall, the Hague Group of countries led by Colombia and South Africa hosted a meeting with representatives of 34 countries to plan the coordinated, concrete action the UN must now take to end the genocide and the occupation.

    As Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla told the General Assembly in his speech the next day, it should convene an Emergency Special Session “without further delay” to take concrete measures for Palestine, including a binding resolution on full UN membership.

    If the General Assembly is serious about ending the genocide and the occupation, the Emergency Special Session must also debate and vote on a UN-led arms embargo, economic boycott and other concrete measures designed to force Israel to comply with international law, international court rulings and UN resolutions on Palestine.

    The UN Human Rights Office in Geneva already has a database of 158 Israeli and multinational corporations that are complicit in Israel’s illegal occupation, so an international boycott of those companies could take effect immediately.

    Israel is a small country, dependent on trade and economic relations with countries all over the world. If the large majority of countries that voted for the New York Declaration are ready to back their words and their votes with coordinated action, a UN-led trade boycott, divestment campaign and arms embargo can put enormous pressure on Israel to end its genocide in Gaza and its illegal occupation of Palestine. With full participation by enough countries, these steps could quickly make Israel’s position untenable.

    Many speakers at the 2025 General Assembly called passionately for this kind of decisive action to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza and end the occupation. King Abdullah of Jordan asked, “How long will we be satisfied with condemnation after condemnation without concrete action?”

    President Lula said that Brazil already has an arms embargo against Israel and has cut off all trade with its illegal settlements; Turkiye severed all trade links with Israel in August; Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof called for an arms embargo and the suspension of the EU’s trade agreement with Israel; and Chadian prime minister Allah-Maye Halina declared, “Our duty from this moment on is to transform this strong declaration into concrete acts and make the Palestinian people’s hope a reality.”

    The Hague Group of countries was formed by the Progressive International to support South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice and war crimes cases against Israeli officials at the International Criminal Court. In a meeting at Bogota in Colombia in July, twelve of those countries committed to an arms embargo and other concrete measures against the Israeli occupation. In his speech to the General Assembly on September 23, Colombian president Gustavo Petro called for an Emergency Special Session on Palestine and for a UN peacekeeping force to “defend Palestine.”

    A previous Emergency Special Session in September 2024 demanded that Israel must end its post-1967 occupation of Palestine within a year. Israel’s refusal to even begin to do so, and its defiant escalation of its genocide in Gaza, increasing repression in the other occupied territories and attacks on other countries provide all the grounds the General Assembly should need to take the concrete, coordinated measures that many countries are calling for.

    Tragically, instead of applying the diplomatic and economic pressure it will take to secure a ceasefire and end the occupation, France, Saudi Arabia and their partners instead relied on dangling carrots in front of Israel, such as regional economic integration and recognition by Arab and Muslim countries, to try to seduce or bribe Israel into complying with international law and UN resolutions.

    This was never going to work. The toothless New York Declaration, and now Trump’s new occupation plan for Gaza, have wasted irreplaceable, precious lost time for the besieged, starved, bombed people of Gaza, as more of them are killed, maimed and starved to death every day. The UN General Assembly must follow up on these flawed initiatives with decisive UN-led action to actually end the genocide and the occupation, by imposing economic sanctions, an arms embargo and other measures to diplomatically and economically isolate Israel.

    There is nothing to prevent the UN General Assembly from quickly convening a new meeting of its Emergency Special Session on Palestine. The ESS can finally take the “concrete, time-bound, coordinated international action” that the French- and Saudi-led initiative promised but failed to deliver – what Malaysian foreign minister Mohamad Hasan described to the General Assembly as “concrete action against the occupying force.”

    Across the world, ordinary people are rising up to demand that their governments take action, while flotillas of activists set sail to breach the blockade of Gaza that their governments have failed to challenge.

    The Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly, meeting under the Uniting for Peace principle, can debate and pass binding resolutions on UN recognition of Palestine, a UN-led international arms embargo, economic boycott and disinvestment campaign, war crimes prosecutions, and other measures to diplomatically isolate Israel.

    By responding to calls of conscience from their own people, voting for these measures at the UN and acting quickly to enforce them, the governments of the world have the collective power to end this genocide and the brutal, illegal occupation of Palestine that it is part of. Now they must use it.

    The post Urgent Next Steps for Palestine at the UN first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Two Years of Resistance to Imperialist Barbarism!

    Two years after Al-Aqsa Flood, Palestinians Continue Their Fight for National Liberation and the Right to Exist!

    Today, October 7th, 2025, marks two years since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood changed the present and future of resistance not only in Palestine, but throughout the world. As we have stated previously, “the Black Alliance for Peace views the Al-Aqsa Flood as a legitimate resistance operation by the besieged Palestinians – the only party with an internationally recognized right of resistance. We support Palestinian resistance against the violent military domination by white supremacist imperialism and colonialism that began, first in the form of British colonialism, and continues in the form of zionism.” The Palestinian Resistance has given humanity the ideological clarity to understand in no uncertain terms the true nature of zionism and capitalist imperialism, and the so-called “Western civilization” that upholds them.

    The Palestinian Resistance in Gaza, as well as in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, has unmasked the “Western liberal order” for what it has always been, a structure of degradation, war, and genocide – based in the exploitation and domination of the masses of the world’s people. They have shown all of humanity that while resistance comes with a cost, within this global imperialist system, it is the only path to self-determination, human dignity, and collective liberation. The Palestinian people have paid an unconscionable cost for their resistance. The people of Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, and Syria have also found themselves further engulfed in the fire caused by zionist settler-colonialism and U.S.-led imperialism.

    While some would draw sharp distinctions between the Biden and Trump administrations, the former’s full-throated support for the zionist genocide in Gaza reveals to us that the entire duopoly of political elites in the United States has been spearheading support for the state of Israel’s genocidal ambitions. The Trump administration has only accelerated and further unmasked these intentions. The Trump-Netanyahu “peace plan” for Palestine provides insight into how the ruling political and corporate elites plan to divide and dominate the globe in a more advanced, straightforwardly militaristic status quo.

    In Gaza, this plan would mean that Palestinians are excluded from negotiations over their own territory, forced into a “bantustan” framework under foreign supervision, and stripped of meaningful statehood while international forces oversee their administration, a return to the colonial British model of control that precipitated the 77 years of Nakba and occupation. Haiti is now being subjected to a similar model: decisions imposed by external actors, foreign forces exercising operational command, and a people’s sovereignty denied under the pretext of “security.” In both cases, imperial powers insist on “peace” and “stability” while erasing the political agency of the oppressed. As we have seen with the genocide in Gaza and accelerating settler-occupation throughout Palestine, BAP understands that the logic of U.S.-led imperialism is destruction, dismemberment, and death for all oppressed peoples.

    In the face of this outrightly colonial “peace plan”, Hamas’s response further solidifies the clarity and heroism of the Palestinian Resistance. Rather than capitulate, the Resistance agreed in principle to releasing the captives, an agreement they made as early as 2023 but which was sabotaged by the zionist entity. They also agreed only to a governing structure that would be in alignment with the principles of international law and the national interest of Palestine, while leaving further terms to be worked out in negotiations. Resistance, not concessions, is what has forced this plan forward.

    Whether in Gaza, the Congo, Sudan, the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, or Haiti, the only “peace” that U.S.-led imperialism seeks is capitulation [or submission] to “full-spectrum dominance” and white supremacist, colonial control, which is the antithesis of self-determination for the colonized and oppressed masses of the world. This colonial control and false peace-making follows the consistent logic of domination and genocidal settler colonialism that Indigenous peoples of North America have been subjected to for over 500 years. This same colonial logic is playing out in cities across the U.S., as Black/African and Brown people and neighborhoods are occupied and terrorized by federal and local militarized “police” forces, and those who resist their brutalization and violation of human rights are punished with more brutalization. This logic is enforced through a militarization of our local environments and nations around the globe by the U.S. Department of War, which utilizes CENTCOM in Palestine and West Asia, AFRICOM on the continent, SOUTHCOM in Our Americas, INDOPACOM in the Pacific, and NORTHCOM (which oversees DHS/ICE and receives support from the National Guard) in the United States. These are not structures that can be reformed, they must be defeated.

    As our dear sister, and now ancestor, Assata Shakur said, “Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.” While we are far from anything resembling true peace, repair, and freedom for Palestinians in Gaza, the oppressed peoples of the world understand much more clearly now that there is no hope in appealing to a liberal order that sustains itself on our dismemberment, degradation, and death. Resistance, and the development of self-determinative institutions based in popular power, must be our continued response to oppression, from Gaza to Los Angeles, from Haiti to Sudan, from Yemen to Chicago.

    Long live the resistance!

    No Compromise, No Retreat!

    The post Two Years of Resistance to Imperialist Barbarism! first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • State of Play in US-Israel’s Land-Grab Bid

    Trump, impatient to claim a Nobel Peace prize, bullies everyone into accepting a madcap peace plan that gives little or no consideration to the Palestinians’ future.

    Who gave him authority to decide such matters, and where are the United Nations in all this? And what about international law and the raft of UN resolutions on these matters that are waiting to be implemented? This looks like an attempt to bury them.

    The other day we saw Trump and Netanyahu holding hands and smirking as they launched their 20-point so-called peace plan which the war criminal and pro-Israel freak Tony Blair also had a hand in. Trump said Netanyahu had agreed it and Arab countries were onboard, but many will doubt that.

    Trump then issued a blood-curdling threat to Hamas that if they didn’t accept his plan within 3 days he would give Israel the green light to carry on with the genocide while he himself, presumably, would continue supplying the ammunition. “All HELL, like no one has ever seen before”, would be let loose, he snarled.

    His grand plan is so vague that it can be interpreted in different ways, provides no clear pathway to Palestinian freedom and self-determination, completely bypasses the United Nations, and puts two fingers up to international law. No sane person would agree to it. When Netanyahu got home he pretty well disowned it, repeating that Israel would never allow a Palestinian state to emerge. “It’s not written in the agreement. We said we would strongly oppose a Palestinian state,” he announced. Of course, this has been the Zionist position since Day 1 in 1948. Domination of Palestine from the river to the sea is the very raison-d’etre of the Israel Project and they won’t be deflected. They’ve pursued their criminal ambition for 7 decades, with the US and UK providing diplomatic cover and much more, and they now smell victory.

    Hamas have sensibly signalled acceptance in principle of some aspects, subject to more work on the detail. But they are at odds with Trump’s plan in several respects.

    In particular, they object to foreign involvement in Gaza’s interim governance. The plan does not identify any Palestinian individual or group by name as being involved in the transition. Instead it says the panel would be supervised by a new international transitional body headed by Trump himself and which would include other members, including former UK prime minister Blair. Hamas said it would agree to hand over Gaza’s administration “to a Palestinian body of independents (technocrats) based on Palestinian national consensus and supported by Arab and Islamic backing”‘

    As for Hamas playing no part in Gaza’s future, the Trump plan says they must “agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form,” and that there will be a “process of demilitarisation of Gaza”. Hamas’s response is that they are part of a “comprehensive Palestinian national framework” and “tied to a collective national position in accordance with relevant international laws and resolutions”. The future of Gaza and the rights of Palestinian people are to be discussed within that national framework, in which Hamas will be included and “will contribute with full responsibility”.

    So there’s a considerable gulf. Hamas’s statement did not specifically accept Trump’s 20-point plan although Trump, for his own reasons, pretends it did.

    What does the UN say?

    Meanwhile the United Nations has savaged the half-baked and, let’s face it, dishonest plan.

    A team of 28 independent human rights experts, appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, warn that any peace plan must absolutely safeguard the human rights of Palestinians, and not create further conditions of oppression. “We welcome parts of the peace plan announced by the United States to end the war in Gaza, including a permanent ceasefire, rapid release of unlawfully detained persons, an influx of humanitarian aid under United Nations supervision, no forced displacement from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the non-annexation of territory. These are broadly requirements of international law that should not depend on a formal peace plan.”

    But they warn that other key elements of the plan are inconsistent with fundamental rules of international law and the 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice which demands that Israel ends its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “Imposing an immediate peace at any price, regardless of or brazenly against law and justice, is a recipe for further injustice, future violence and instability.”

    The experts’ objections include the following:

    • The plan does not guarantee the Palestinian right of self-determination as international law requires, and it is subject to vague pre-conditions concerning Gaza’s redevelopment, Palestinian Authority reform, and a “dialogue” between Israel and Palestine. Palestine’s future would thus be at the mercy of decisions by outsiders, not in the hands of Palestinians as international law commands.
    • The plan also preserves the failed status quo of requiring more negotiations with Israel, when the Israeli Prime Minister has already declared that Israel would “forcibly resist” statehood. This is blatantly against the International Court of Justice (ICJ) finding that fulfilling the right of self-determination cannot be conditional on negotiations.
    • The “temporary transitional government” is not representative of Palestinians and even excludes the Palestinian Authority, which further violates self-determination and lacks legitimacy.
    • There are no concrete benchmarks or timeframes for a transition to representative governance, which belongs to the Palestinians only, without foreign interference.
    • Oversight by a “Board of Peace” chaired by the US President is not under United Nations authority or transparent multilateral control, while the US is a deeply partisan supporter of Israel and not an “honest broker”. This proposal is reminiscent of colonial practices and must be rejected.
    • An “International Stabilisation Force”, outside the control of the Palestinian people and the United Nations as a guarantor, would replace Israeli occupation with a US-led occupation, contrary to Palestinian self-determination.
    • Partial Israeli occupation could continue indefinitely through a “security perimeter” inside Gaza’s borders, which is absolutely unacceptable.
    • The demilitarisation of Gaza has no end date and, if permanent, could leave it vulnerable to Israeli aggression.
    • Nothing is said regarding the demilitarisation of Israel, which has committed international crimes against the Palestinians and threatened peace and security in the region through aggression against other countries.
    • De-radicalisation is imposed on Gaza only, while anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab sentiments, radicalisation and public incitement to genocide have been hallmarks of dominant rhetoric in Israel over the past two years.
    • The plan largely treats Gaza in isolation from the West Bank including East Jerusalem, when these areas must be regarded as a unified Palestinian territory and State.
    • An “economic development plan” and “special economic zone” could result in illegal foreign exploitation of resources without Palestinian consent.
    • There is no duty on Israel and those who have sustained its illegal attacks in Gaza to compensate Palestinians for illegal war damage.
    • The plan provides for the release of all Israeli hostages but only some of the many arbitrarily detained Palestinians.
    • Amnesties offered to Hamas seem to be unconditional, even if they committed international crimes, denying justice for victims of international crimes. And the plan does not address accountability at all for Israeli international crimes and human rights violations against the Palestinian people. There is no commitment to transitional justice, historical truth-telling or genuine reconciliation. There is also no guaranteed access for independent journalists.
    • Accountability and justice are integral to sustainable peace.
    • The plan does not address other fundamental issues such as ending illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, borders, compensation, and refugees.
    • The plan does not provide a leading role for the United Nations, General Assembly or Security Council, or specifically for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which is vital to assisting and protecting Palestinians.
    • Any peace plan must respect the ground rules of international law. The future of Palestine must be in the hands of the Palestinian people – not imposed by outsiders under extreme conditions of duress in yet another scheme to control their destiny.
    • The International Court of Justice has been crystal clear: Conditions cannot be placed on the Palestinian right of self-determination. The Israeli occupation must end immediately, totally and unconditionally, with due reparation made to the Palestinians.
    • Finally, the United Nations – not Israel or its closest ally – has been identified by the ICJ as the legitimate authority to oversee the end of the occupation and the transition towards a political solution in which the Palestinians’ right of self-determination is fully realised.

    Which leaves us in no doubt. Trump is ignorant of international law (or he regards it as a huge inconvenience to his private agenda) and his plan has little to do with lasting peace. He must be persuaded to stand aside and leave all this to the UN. Imperfect though it is, the UN the best we’ve got.

    The post State of Play in US-Israel’s Land-Grab Bid first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • How a Fed Overhaul Could Eliminate the Federal Debt Crisis

    The Federal Reserve’s independence is currently being challenged by political forces seeking to reshape its mandate. The Fed has not always been independent of Congress and the Treasury. Its independence was formalized only in 1951, with a Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord that was not a law but a policy agreement redefining the relationship of the parties. In the 1930s and 1940s, before the Fed officially became “independent,” it worked with the federal government to fund the most productive period in our country’s history. We can and should do that again.

    In a Sept. 1 Substack post titled “Fed Faces Biggest Direct Challenge by a President Since JFK – and This Is a Good Thing,” UK Prof. Richard Werner shows that there is no evidence that more independent central banks deliver lower inflation. In fact, per his findings, central bank independence has no measurable impact on real economic performance, and greater central bank independence has resulted in lower economic growth.

    This two-part series will probe the forces in play now to overhaul the Fed, and the feasibility of redirecting it to use its tools, including “quantitative easing,” not just to save the banks but to save the economy. Part I looks at a particularly flawed Fed policy — Interest on Reserves (IOR)  — which burdens the budget, stifles liquidity, and subsidizes banks. Then it suggests ways that eliminating IOR and reining in the Fed’s independence could solve the Treasury’s interest burden altogether.

    A Unique Opportunity for a Fed Overhaul

    In a paper in the Spring 2025 edition of The International Economy titled “The Fed’s New ‘Gain-of-Function’ Monetary Policy,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued that “overuse of nonstandard policies, mission creep, and institutional bloat are threatening the central bank’s monetary independence.” He called for “an honest, independent, and nonpartisan review of the entire institution and all of its activities, including monetary policy, regulatory policy, communications, staffing, and research.”

    In a July 17 CNBC interview, former Fed governor Kevin Warsh went further, calling for sweeping changes in how the central bank conducts business and suggesting a policy alliance with the Treasury Department. Warsh is considered one of three or four finalists to take over as chairman after Jerome Powell at the Fed.

    On August 25, Pres. Trump then sparked a political firestorm when he declared he was firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook “for cause,” citing mortgage fraud allegations from Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte. An NBC News report observed:

    Cook’s legal battles are playing out against a broader struggle over the long-held political independence of the Federal Reserve. Trump and several of his officials, including Pulte, have attacked Powell in a months-long campaign to pressure the central bank into significantly cutting its benchmark interest rate, arguing it would stimulate the economy.

    On Oct.1, the United States Supreme Court temporarily blocked the attempt to remove Governor Cook by delaying a decision on a ruling from a lower court that allowed her to stay in her position until the high court hears oral arguments in the case in January.

    On Aug. 8, Fed Governor Adriana Kugler resigned, and in September, Trump pick Stephen Miran was confirmed as her replacement. The Daily Rip observed that Cook’s removal, alongside Kugler’s sudden resignation, could give Trump a 4-to-3 board majority to push for lower interest rates, in order to ease the $37 trillion national debt’s servicing costs.

    But if easing the national debt servicing costs is the goal, lowering interest rates won’t do much to further it. The Fed has control only of the fed funds rate, which is short-term. Marketable securities make up the vast majority of the debt held by the public, and most of those securities are notes and bonds with fixed interest rates and maturities ranging from two to 30 years. These existing obligations continue to accrue interest at their fixed higher rates until they mature.

    A More Effective Target: Interest on Reserves

    While political reshuffling grabs headlines, the real target of the Administration’s moves may be that little-known Fed policy called Interest on Reserves. So argues an August 28 Heresy Financial podcast, which observes that IOR costs taxpayers $186 billion annually by paying banks a hefty interest to hold their reserves at the Fed. By eliminating IOR, the Administration could not only save this $186 billion but would release the $3.3 trillion now sitting idle in reserve accounts to other investments, most likely Treasuries, where banks could get a comparable safe return. The result would be not only to restore Fed profits to the Treasury but to lower federal borrowing costs.

    The Fed says it needs IOR as a tool to control short-term interest rates, which it needs to be able to do to control inflation. By paying substantial interest on reserves, the Fed ensures that banks don’t flood markets with cash by over-lending, triggering price inflation. But the Fed managed rates through open market operations before 2008 without IOR, showing it is not essential; and it is a very costly tool.

    The Crushing Financial Burden of IOR 

    The Federal Reserve has paid interest on bank reserve balances since 2008. As of May 2025, the Fed was paying 4.4% on $3.3 trillion in reserves, totaling $186 billion annually. These payments are deducted from the Fed’s earnings, which by law are returned to the U.S. Treasury after deducting the Fed’s costs, reducing the federal deficit.

    In 2021, Fed remittances to the Treasury totaled $79 billion. In 2023, high IOR costs led to Fed losses of $114.3 billion. This not only halted remittances to the Treasury entirely, it created a net deficit to the Fed that will have to be repaid from future taxes to cover its costs. A St. Louis Fed report said it could take years before the Fed is able to once again return profits to the government.

    As of the beginning of September, the national debt is at $37.4 trillion and interest payments for FY2025 are at $933 billion — the third largest category of federal expenditure after Social Security and Medicare. Lost remittances force the Treasury to borrow more at higher rates, pushing 10-year Treasury yields up to 4.2% as of September 26. A proposed bill to eliminate IOR estimates savings of $1.1 trillion over 10 years by restoring Fed profitability and remittances.

    IOR has other downsides besides loss of remittances to the Treasury. It incentivizes banks to park funds at the Fed, earning over 4% risk-free, rather than using their reserves to back riskier commercial and consumer loans. Since bank lending is the source of the vast majority of the circulating money supply today, IOR reduces the money supply, constrains liquidity, and throttles lending to businesses and consumers.

    Before 2008, banks lent freely, and funds held in reserve accounts were minimal. Reserves surged to $2.7 trillion by 2014 and remain high, reflecting substantially reduced lending. Commercial and industrial loans grew only 2.1% annually from 2020 to 2024 compared to 5.6% pre-2008, starving small businesses of capital.

    A Subsidy for Big Banks at the Expense of Taxpayers

    Critics of IOR argue that it is a subsidy for large banks, rewarding them for holding idle funds rather than fostering economic growth. Meanwhile, taxpayers face rising borrowing costs. Credit card rates averaged over 25% and 30-year fixed rate mortgages hit 6.3% in September.

    IOR, which is now over 4%, sets a floor on the fed funds rate — the rate at which banks lend to each other — since they won’t lend for less than they can make at the Fed. It thus keeps borrowing costs high, contradicting the Fed’s goals of maximum employment and stable prices. Ending IOR would force banks to either lend or invest in Treasuries, aligning their incentives with economic growth.

    Part 5 of a Cato Institute series called “Reforming the Federal Reserve” concludes:

    At its core, the IOR policy is a government subsidy to large financial institutions. Banks now have their own risk-free savings accounts, giving them returns that are hundreds of basis points higher than what regular consumers receive on their own deposits at the very same institutions. If that isn’t bad enough, the billions that banks receive in interest payments have reduced their incentive to lend in the private market, reducing the cash available to regular Americans to borrow while flooding the banking system with trillions in reserves.

    … The Fed has disbursed billions in risk-free government payments to large banks.… This policy is economically costly, threatens the Fed’s mandate to stabilize prices, and is unfair to everyday Americans.

    Quantitative Easing: Another Fed Tool for Bank Rescue that Could Be Diverted to Public Investment

    Eliminating IOR would produce substantial savings, but like lowering the fed funds rate, it would not fix the federal debt problem since it would not address the $10 trillion in annual debt rollovers or long-term debt. Making short-term debt cheaper could also encourage more government borrowing without curbing spending, worsening the debt cycle.

    A more effective way to fix the debt permanently would be to pay it, or at least some portion of it, with government-issued money. Quantitative easing (QE), in which the Fed creates new reserves to purchase assets, is another Fed tool that today has served the banks alone. But the precedent for Fed “money-printing” has been set, and if it can be done to save the banks, it can be done to save the public. Critics say this would inflate consumer prices, but Part II of this article will counter that objection with some very successful non-inflationary precedents.

    During “QE1” (2008-2010), the Fed purchased $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) — many of them distressed or illiquid — directly from banks and government-sponsored entities. This removed toxic assets from bank balance sheets and transferred them to the public. As Joseph Stiglitz observed, “We socialized losses, even as we privatized gains.” The Fed absorbed toxic assets and inflated asset prices to recapitalize Wall Street, while leaving homeowners and small businesses behind.

    In a September congressional hearing, Stephen Miran pointed to a rarely discussed third mandate of the Fed. Besides price stability and maximum employment, it is required to moderate long-term interest rates. Miran argued that this mandate offers a legal and strategic opening for QE to serve public investment rather than private speculation.

    But Even QE Can Provide No Federal Debt Relief Under IOR

    Quantitative easing has periodically been proposed as a way to tackle the federal debt crisis. With $9.2 trillion in Treasury debt maturing annually, in four years the Fed could theoretically shift the whole $37 trillion debt onto its own books through QE and return the interest it earns on the bonds to the Treasury. The debt would still be there, but it would be an interest-free debt to a partner government agency, the Fed. Under current laws and policies, however, there are two obstacles to this solution:

    1. The Primary Dealer Restriction: The Fed is not allowed to buy securities directly from the Treasury. It must buy from “primary dealers” on the open market like everyone else; and these dealers (mostly very large banks) park the funds they receive for the trade in their reserve accounts, on which the Fed pays IOR.

    2. Net Loss from IOR: As of May 2025, the Fed was paying 4.4% on reserves but earning only around 3.3% on Treasury securities. So rather than returning the interest from the bonds to the Treasury, this QE maneuver would actually cause the government to lose $101 billion annually on the $9.2 trillion in bonds ($9.2 trillion × 1.1% (4.4% – 3.3%). The banks, not the Treasury, would reap the benefits.

    A Call for Reform

    Changing these rules requires legal changes or a cooperative Fed board, which faces resistance from the banking lobby profiting from IOR’s $186 billion windfall. The Fed has issued trillions of dollars in reserves to save the banks, its real constituents. Would it do that to save the government? Only if its interests were aligned, as they were in the 1930s and 1940s.

    Either the independence of the Fed needs to be curbed or the Treasury needs to issue money directly, as Abraham Lincoln did. As will be shown in Part II of this article, this solution has substantial successful precedent both in the U.S. and abroad; it need not create inflation, and it is the monetary “secret sauce” of our largest competitor, China. By directing central bank liquidity toward infrastructure and industrial policy, the People’s Bank of China stabilizes prices, supports employment, and reduces long-term borrowing costs. The question is not whether QE can serve the public, but whether the Fed will choose to wield its mandate for that purpose.

    Central banks must be accountable not just to their banking constituents but to Congress and the people they represent. If we’re legalizing QE for Wall Street, then it’s time to fund QE for Main Street.

    The post How a Fed Overhaul Could Eliminate the Federal Debt Crisis first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • How a Fed Overhaul Could Eliminate the Federal Debt Crisis

    The Federal Reserve’s independence is currently being challenged by political forces seeking to reshape its mandate. The Fed has not always been independent of Congress and the Treasury. Its independence was formalized only in 1951, with a Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord that was not a law but a policy agreement redefining the relationship of the parties. In the 1930s and 1940s, before the Fed officially became “independent,” it worked with the federal government to fund the most productive period in our country’s history. We can and should do that again.

    In a Sept. 1 Substack post titled “Fed Faces Biggest Direct Challenge by a President Since JFK – and This Is a Good Thing,” UK Prof. Richard Werner shows that there is no evidence that more independent central banks deliver lower inflation. In fact, per his findings, central bank independence has no measurable impact on real economic performance, and greater central bank independence has resulted in lower economic growth.

    This two-part series will probe the forces in play now to overhaul the Fed, and the feasibility of redirecting it to use its tools, including “quantitative easing,” not just to save the banks but to save the economy. Part I looks at a particularly flawed Fed policy — Interest on Reserves (IOR)  — which burdens the budget, stifles liquidity, and subsidizes banks. Then it suggests ways that eliminating IOR and reining in the Fed’s independence could solve the Treasury’s interest burden altogether.

    A Unique Opportunity for a Fed Overhaul

    In a paper in the Spring 2025 edition of The International Economy titled “The Fed’s New ‘Gain-of-Function’ Monetary Policy,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued that “overuse of nonstandard policies, mission creep, and institutional bloat are threatening the central bank’s monetary independence.” He called for “an honest, independent, and nonpartisan review of the entire institution and all of its activities, including monetary policy, regulatory policy, communications, staffing, and research.”

    In a July 17 CNBC interview, former Fed governor Kevin Warsh went further, calling for sweeping changes in how the central bank conducts business and suggesting a policy alliance with the Treasury Department. Warsh is considered one of three or four finalists to take over as chairman after Jerome Powell at the Fed.

    On August 25, Pres. Trump then sparked a political firestorm when he declared he was firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook “for cause,” citing mortgage fraud allegations from Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte. An NBC News report observed:

    Cook’s legal battles are playing out against a broader struggle over the long-held political independence of the Federal Reserve. Trump and several of his officials, including Pulte, have attacked Powell in a months-long campaign to pressure the central bank into significantly cutting its benchmark interest rate, arguing it would stimulate the economy.

    On Oct.1, the United States Supreme Court temporarily blocked the attempt to remove Governor Cook by delaying a decision on a ruling from a lower court that allowed her to stay in her position until the high court hears oral arguments in the case in January.

    On Aug. 8, Fed Governor Adriana Kugler resigned, and in September, Trump pick Stephen Miran was confirmed as her replacement. The Daily Rip observed that Cook’s removal, alongside Kugler’s sudden resignation, could give Trump a 4-to-3 board majority to push for lower interest rates, in order to ease the $37 trillion national debt’s servicing costs.

    But if easing the national debt servicing costs is the goal, lowering interest rates won’t do much to further it. The Fed has control only of the fed funds rate, which is short-term. Marketable securities make up the vast majority of the debt held by the public, and most of those securities are notes and bonds with fixed interest rates and maturities ranging from two to 30 years. These existing obligations continue to accrue interest at their fixed higher rates until they mature.

    A More Effective Target: Interest on Reserves

    While political reshuffling grabs headlines, the real target of the Administration’s moves may be that little-known Fed policy called Interest on Reserves. So argues an August 28 Heresy Financial podcast, which observes that IOR costs taxpayers $186 billion annually by paying banks a hefty interest to hold their reserves at the Fed. By eliminating IOR, the Administration could not only save this $186 billion but would release the $3.3 trillion now sitting idle in reserve accounts to other investments, most likely Treasuries, where banks could get a comparable safe return. The result would be not only to restore Fed profits to the Treasury but to lower federal borrowing costs.

    The Fed says it needs IOR as a tool to control short-term interest rates, which it needs to be able to do to control inflation. By paying substantial interest on reserves, the Fed ensures that banks don’t flood markets with cash by over-lending, triggering price inflation. But the Fed managed rates through open market operations before 2008 without IOR, showing it is not essential; and it is a very costly tool.

    The Crushing Financial Burden of IOR 

    The Federal Reserve has paid interest on bank reserve balances since 2008. As of May 2025, the Fed was paying 4.4% on $3.3 trillion in reserves, totaling $186 billion annually. These payments are deducted from the Fed’s earnings, which by law are returned to the U.S. Treasury after deducting the Fed’s costs, reducing the federal deficit.

    In 2021, Fed remittances to the Treasury totaled $79 billion. In 2023, high IOR costs led to Fed losses of $114.3 billion. This not only halted remittances to the Treasury entirely, it created a net deficit to the Fed that will have to be repaid from future taxes to cover its costs. A St. Louis Fed report said it could take years before the Fed is able to once again return profits to the government.

    As of the beginning of September, the national debt is at $37.4 trillion and interest payments for FY2025 are at $933 billion — the third largest category of federal expenditure after Social Security and Medicare. Lost remittances force the Treasury to borrow more at higher rates, pushing 10-year Treasury yields up to 4.2% as of September 26. A proposed bill to eliminate IOR estimates savings of $1.1 trillion over 10 years by restoring Fed profitability and remittances.

    IOR has other downsides besides loss of remittances to the Treasury. It incentivizes banks to park funds at the Fed, earning over 4% risk-free, rather than using their reserves to back riskier commercial and consumer loans. Since bank lending is the source of the vast majority of the circulating money supply today, IOR reduces the money supply, constrains liquidity, and throttles lending to businesses and consumers.

    Before 2008, banks lent freely, and funds held in reserve accounts were minimal. Reserves surged to $2.7 trillion by 2014 and remain high, reflecting substantially reduced lending. Commercial and industrial loans grew only 2.1% annually from 2020 to 2024 compared to 5.6% pre-2008, starving small businesses of capital.

    A Subsidy for Big Banks at the Expense of Taxpayers

    Critics of IOR argue that it is a subsidy for large banks, rewarding them for holding idle funds rather than fostering economic growth. Meanwhile, taxpayers face rising borrowing costs. Credit card rates averaged over 25% and 30-year fixed rate mortgages hit 6.3% in September.

    IOR, which is now over 4%, sets a floor on the fed funds rate — the rate at which banks lend to each other — since they won’t lend for less than they can make at the Fed. It thus keeps borrowing costs high, contradicting the Fed’s goals of maximum employment and stable prices. Ending IOR would force banks to either lend or invest in Treasuries, aligning their incentives with economic growth.

    Part 5 of a Cato Institute series called “Reforming the Federal Reserve” concludes:

    At its core, the IOR policy is a government subsidy to large financial institutions. Banks now have their own risk-free savings accounts, giving them returns that are hundreds of basis points higher than what regular consumers receive on their own deposits at the very same institutions. If that isn’t bad enough, the billions that banks receive in interest payments have reduced their incentive to lend in the private market, reducing the cash available to regular Americans to borrow while flooding the banking system with trillions in reserves.

    … The Fed has disbursed billions in risk-free government payments to large banks.… This policy is economically costly, threatens the Fed’s mandate to stabilize prices, and is unfair to everyday Americans.

    Quantitative Easing: Another Fed Tool for Bank Rescue that Could Be Diverted to Public Investment

    Eliminating IOR would produce substantial savings, but like lowering the fed funds rate, it would not fix the federal debt problem since it would not address the $10 trillion in annual debt rollovers or long-term debt. Making short-term debt cheaper could also encourage more government borrowing without curbing spending, worsening the debt cycle.

    A more effective way to fix the debt permanently would be to pay it, or at least some portion of it, with government-issued money. Quantitative easing (QE), in which the Fed creates new reserves to purchase assets, is another Fed tool that today has served the banks alone. But the precedent for Fed “money-printing” has been set, and if it can be done to save the banks, it can be done to save the public. Critics say this would inflate consumer prices, but Part II of this article will counter that objection with some very successful non-inflationary precedents.

    During “QE1” (2008-2010), the Fed purchased $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) — many of them distressed or illiquid — directly from banks and government-sponsored entities. This removed toxic assets from bank balance sheets and transferred them to the public. As Joseph Stiglitz observed, “We socialized losses, even as we privatized gains.” The Fed absorbed toxic assets and inflated asset prices to recapitalize Wall Street, while leaving homeowners and small businesses behind.

    In a September congressional hearing, Stephen Miran pointed to a rarely discussed third mandate of the Fed. Besides price stability and maximum employment, it is required to moderate long-term interest rates. Miran argued that this mandate offers a legal and strategic opening for QE to serve public investment rather than private speculation.

    But Even QE Can Provide No Federal Debt Relief Under IOR

    Quantitative easing has periodically been proposed as a way to tackle the federal debt crisis. With $9.2 trillion in Treasury debt maturing annually, in four years the Fed could theoretically shift the whole $37 trillion debt onto its own books through QE and return the interest it earns on the bonds to the Treasury. The debt would still be there, but it would be an interest-free debt to a partner government agency, the Fed. Under current laws and policies, however, there are two obstacles to this solution:

    1. The Primary Dealer Restriction: The Fed is not allowed to buy securities directly from the Treasury. It must buy from “primary dealers” on the open market like everyone else; and these dealers (mostly very large banks) park the funds they receive for the trade in their reserve accounts, on which the Fed pays IOR.

    2. Net Loss from IOR: As of May 2025, the Fed was paying 4.4% on reserves but earning only around 3.3% on Treasury securities. So rather than returning the interest from the bonds to the Treasury, this QE maneuver would actually cause the government to lose $101 billion annually on the $9.2 trillion in bonds ($9.2 trillion × 1.1% (4.4% – 3.3%). The banks, not the Treasury, would reap the benefits.

    A Call for Reform

    Changing these rules requires legal changes or a cooperative Fed board, which faces resistance from the banking lobby profiting from IOR’s $186 billion windfall. The Fed has issued trillions of dollars in reserves to save the banks, its real constituents. Would it do that to save the government? Only if its interests were aligned, as they were in the 1930s and 1940s.

    Either the independence of the Fed needs to be curbed or the Treasury needs to issue money directly, as Abraham Lincoln did. As will be shown in Part II of this article, this solution has substantial successful precedent both in the U.S. and abroad; it need not create inflation, and it is the monetary “secret sauce” of our largest competitor, China. By directing central bank liquidity toward infrastructure and industrial policy, the People’s Bank of China stabilizes prices, supports employment, and reduces long-term borrowing costs. The question is not whether QE can serve the public, but whether the Fed will choose to wield its mandate for that purpose.

    Central banks must be accountable not just to their banking constituents but to Congress and the people they represent. If we’re legalizing QE for Wall Street, then it’s time to fund QE for Main Street.

    The post How a Fed Overhaul Could Eliminate the Federal Debt Crisis first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Surreal Reality: Global School Principal and His Favorite Monitor

    IMAGE/Khaama Press
    VIDEO/Mirror Now/Youtube

    The Principal of Global School had asked his favorite Monitor to keep an eye on other students in the Middle East class.

    The Monitor’s family had given hefty donation to the Principal for running the school. In return, the Principal would overlook small or big mistakes, blunders, wrongs, of his favorite Monitor, and would do him great favors. For a very long time, the Monitor’s been mad and has been punishing some particular students. Since last two years, the Monitor went totally rogue; he beat the hell out of five students. One of those students, the first student, witnessed half his house burned down. The Principal, a peace loving person, avoids hassles and so didn’t say anything to the Monitor — and earned suggestions of his name for the Noble Peace Prize.

    Then one day the Monitor beat up the sixth student. It was a humongous dilemma for the Principal: the sixth student had given big donation too, and had gifted a fast vehicle to the Principal. It is a universal fact that the Principal rarely says no to the Monitor. The Principal has a doctorate in The Art of the Deal; he found a way out. Although he permitted to strike the sixth one. After fifteen or so minutes he called the student to inform him. The sixth student was crying: the Monitor had already finished his job.

    The Principal said: I called you the minute I knew. The Principal sensed the sixth one’s anger and decided to do something.

    When, the Monitor went to the Principal’s office to report how the Middle East class was doing, the Principal handed him a piece of paper with a written apology which the Monitor was ordered to read out to the sixth student, on the phone. The Principal didn’t want to piss off one of his big donors.

    The Monitor didn’t like it but then he thought: I control the whole Middle East class, I have so much power, unimaginable. After Principal, I am the only one with so much power — that power is due to money and fighting toys from the Principal’s family. I better say sorry, as it is small
    inconvenience to continue the abundance being received.

    The Monitor half-heartedly said sorry, but the humiliation he felt and the reluctance to apologize was clearly visible on his face. The sixth student just wanted to hear an apology to save his face. The Principal’s donations from that student are now secure.

    The Principal wrote a personal letter assuring the sixth student that from now on any attack on him would be considered a “threat” to the Principal himself.

    But it was the Monitor who got the last laugh. The Principal promised the first student that his half burnt house will be somewhat fixed and he’ll be permitted to reside there. But it is the Monitor at whose whim the repair will begin — it may be forever delayed or postponed.

    The post Surreal Reality: Global School Principal and His Favorite Monitor first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Establishment of Colonial Military Governance Over Haiti by UN Security Council

    On Tuesday, Sep 30, 2025, the UN Security Council voted to adopt a resolution drafted by the U.S. and Panama that would create a so-called “Gang Suppression Force” (GSF) to invade Haiti. The resolution was adopted with 12 votes in favor and 3 abstentions (China, Russia, and Pakistan). The Black Alliance for Peace unequivocally condemns the adoption of this resolution. We see the GSF as a further step in the destruction of Haitian popular sovereignty, pushing the country into militarized, neocolonial servitude.

    The resolution for the “Gang Suppression Force” (GSF) authorizes the deployment of up to 5,550 personnel, foreign police and soldiers, with powers to “neutralize, isolate,” and detain and imprison Haitian civilians – independent of the Haitian police and government. As JP, a BAP Haiti/Americas Team member, proclaimed during our Emergency Rally outside the UN on Sep 30, 2025: “In essence, this force will be granted a blank check by the so-called ‘international community,’ enabling it to execute the continued colonial capture of Haiti under the hollow guise of international legitimacy.” The GSF gives full oversight to a “Standing Group” of foreigners (which is similar to the Core Group), which will work with the established UN occupation office, BINUH, leaving Haitians as little more than symbolic partners. The GSF will also have a foreign “Force Commander.” All of this effectively creates another colonial governance model for Haiti.

    The GFS is supposed to replace the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, which was approved by the UNSC in October 2023, with police and military from Kenya and other Caribbean nations deployed in June 2024. It must be remembered, however, that the MSS was authorized through US pressure on regional actors, under the illegitimate US-installed Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, and deployed under the auspices of the nine-member “Transitional Presidential Council” of Haiti, also installed by the US and its minions in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

    We stress, in other words, that Haiti has no legitimate government. And as we continue to recount, Haiti has been under foreign occupation for more than twenty years, resulting in the complete collapse of its entire government structure. Both the MSS and the GSF are not only a continuation of that occupation, but are, by all standards, illegal. Indeed, we believe that the GSF is an attempt to further curtail the popular mass protests – 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2022  –for Haitian self-determination.

    Moreover, it is absurd to call for foreign military invasion over gangs, especially with support from governments with their own violent internal crises – states such as Panama, Ecuador, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.

    While some are arguing that this new foreign military invasion in Haiti is a relief for a country besieged by gangs, we should also not forget that the crisis in Haiti is a crisis of imperialism – the rise in armed groups must be understood as a symptom of that crisis. Furthermore, the crisis continues with full complicity and participation of the so-called “international community” and compradors in the region. In 2022, for example, Haitian organizations blamed the United Nations and Core Group occupation for enabling the “gangsterization” of the country.

    BAP also condemns the role played by regional actors – including CARICOM and other OAS-aligned states – for continuing to participate in the U.S. imperial onslaught on Haiti. At the same time, we want to express our disappointment that the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation failed to use their veto power in support of Haiti despite their strong criticisms and acknowledgment of US treachery in the region. Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov himself noted that Haiti is effectively a testing ground for an ever-expanding model of U.S. military power, one with no clear mandate, no meaningful Haitian oversight, and no accountability. Yet, these members of the UNSC allowed the U.S.-led imperialist mission to advance, exposing the hollowness of the “international community’s” claim to stand with the Haitian people.

    Haiti is part of the global African nation and, as such, the war on Haiti is a core aspect of the War on African/Black peoples, not just in the Americas but throughout the world. As we begin the fifth annual Month of Action against AFRICOM (U.S. Africa Command), BAP understands that the confluence of militarized imperialist forces and corporate vultures that seek to crush and pick apart Haiti is also present domestically and globally, particularly on the African continent. Whether in the Congo, Sudan, the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, or Haiti, the only “peace” that U.S.-led imperialism seeks is one of “full-spectrum dominance” and white supremacist, colonial control, which is the antithesis of African/Black self-determination. This same colonial logic is playing out in cities across the U.S., as Black/African and Brown people and neighborhoods are occupied and terrorized by federal and local militarized “police” forces. As the war against African/Black people intensifies globally, the occupation of Haiti, ongoing since 2004, is now reaching its logical, violent, destabilizing conclusion.

    We must oppose this “Gang Suppression Force” and any further U.S.-led militarization and domination of Haiti, for the dignity and self-determination of the people of Haiti, for the struggle toward liberation of all African peoples, and for the security and well-being of Our Americas.

    We call for:

    • An immediate end to the foreign military occupation of Haiti – the dissolution of the Core Group and its BINUH office as well as the recall and annulment of the resolution for the Gang Repression Force;

    • The U.S. to abide by the UN arms embargo on Haiti and stop the export of military grade weapons to Haiti;

    • The governments in the Caribbean and Latin America should stop participating in the US imperial onslaught on Haiti and respect Haiti’s sovereignty and the right of its people to determine their own political future;

    • Anti-imperialist regional solidarity across the Caribbean and Latin America to resist the normalization of foreign military interventions;

    • The right of Haitian migrants to free movement and asylum, without xenophobia, criminalization, or bias.

    Hands Off Haiti!

    Make Our Americas a Zone of Peace!

    No Compromise No Retreat!

    The post The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Establishment of Colonial Military Governance Over Haiti by UN Security Council first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • From Nazi Germany to US-Israel – Who Are the Real Untermenschen?

    Matt Haig’s The Humans (2013) uses sci fi, ‘speculative fiction’, for what it does best: reveal to us how lethal human beings are and how we need to control technology before it turns us into monsters and reduces planet Earth to … Gaza. This time it’s a simple tale of the seductiveness of ‘going native’ faced with totalitarian alienation, and genocide by the latter against those oh-so seductive natives.

    ‘Going native’ was a big problem for settler-colonial imperialism over the past 4 centuries. Too many settlers, especially in New England, refused the near-starvation conditions they faced as indentured labour or even as so-called landowners, and joined their local native tribe. Or women and child were captured and, voluntarily or grudgingly, joined the captors, and were happy to live the less stressful life of hunting and gathering. They were hunted down and forcibly returned to ‘civilization’, as this was really the worst crime – rejecting the settler-colonial enterprise.

    The natives’ lives were indeed better, but they didn’t believe in money or private property, which were essential to the slave society the Americans were introducing, so they had to be eliminated. Imagine if ‘settlers’ had defected en masse and managed to maintain the real paradise of the time (or any time): the free indigenous life, proven for more than 10,000 years, without oppressive laws (natives: I won’t obey any law that I can’t disobey), private property, slavery …

    The most famous case of abduction is Olive Oatman and her sister Mary Anne who were captured in a raid in 1851, and ended up with a sympathetic Mohave chief Espaniol, who adopted them into the tribe. They lived happily, had Mohave names and even facial tattoos. Mary Anne died but Olive went on to marry a native and have children. When whites interacted with the Mohave, she did not make any effort to be repatriated, figuring her white family was dead, considering hersellf a Mohave. When the authorities in Fort Yuma heard of her existence, they demanded her return, threatening to wipe out the Mohave if they didn’t hand her over.

    She always spoke highly of her Mohave family, though she was pressured into falsely saying she was a slave and denying her native family. There are many more cases of white men who defected to live with natives. They too were hunted down by settlers and either forced to reject native life or killed as enemies. Those days are gone, but in Palestine-Israel, it is still illegal for a Palestinian to marry an Israeli Jew, Jews are raised on racism and hatred against Palestinians, and the ongoing genocide is accepted, even celebrated.

    Dickinson would have loved Oatman

    Aussies, Emily Dickinson, nutty profs

    In The Humans, Haig uses his plot as a platform to make a devastating critique of our techno-dystopia, and the general goofiness if not perverstity of the human race. Materializing on Earth, Mr Alien (a clone of nutty prof Andrew) is baffled by the earthlings’ manners and social customs (they very rarely discuss the things they really want to be talking about), their neurotic body shame and clothing etiquette. Oh, and let’s not forget The Things They Do To Make Themselves Happy That Actually Make Them Miserable. This is an infinite list. It includes – shopping, watching TV, taking the better job, getting the bigger house, writing a semi-ahtobiographical novel, educating their young, making their skin look mildly less old, and harbouring a vague desire to believe there might be a meaning to it all.

    He pities them, being not only mortal but have to take precious and limited time and read. No wonder they were a species of primitives. By the time they had read enough books to reach a state of knowledge where they can do anything with it, they are dead. He wonders if their purpose was simply to pursue the enlightenment of orgasm. A few seconds of relief from the surrounding dark.

    Haig and his alterego Andrew take refuge in Emily Dickinson – I dwell in possibility – whose pearls are dropped throughout The Humans, poetry being one of the few unadulterated good things about humans.

    Vonnadorian Andrew was sent on a nasty mission to assassinate some nasty earthlings. Much like Australia was populated by British dregs, criminals, so rebellious Andrew was sent to far-flung Earth, as punishment for his blasphemous talk at the museum of Quadratic Equations. To the colonies, though with a different mission – not to colonize but to stop the horrible humans from achieving a singularity in their technology, allowing them to move around the universe and bring their violent, racist ways with them. They have developed technology at a rate too fast for human psychology too keep up with, and yet they still pursue advancement for advancement’s sake, and for the pursuit of the money and fame they all crave so much.

    Haig has his finger on humanity’s pulse in his string of sci fi adventures. How to stop time (2017) and The Midnight Library (2020) are intriguing takes on time travel, whereas The Humans brings past and future into a troubled present. The Vs are an advanced race who have perfected their ‘civilization’, having long ago solved the (very real) Riemann hypothesis, unsolved since proposed in 1859.1

    Alien Andrew is a clone of the eponymous mad maths prof who managed to prove the infamous Riemann hypothesis, supposedly the scientific link which would catapult Homo sapiens into the techno-future. His mission is to kill the real Andrew, impersonate him long enough to remove all traces of the Riemann solution, the key to earthlings’ singularity. Of course, alien Andrew starts to appreciate the messy, smelly, disgusting ways of the earthlings, their anger, hate, fighting, murdering fellow earthlings. Vs never kill each other, but have no remorse about killing earthlings, whom they despise as primitives.

    Fast forward to the genocide of Palestinians by settler-colonial Israel today, and the AI nightmare technology that is abetting it. Even the best-case utopian endgame is erasure of all ethnicity in a sterile eternal life of no pain, but no humanity. Sterile reason (destroy Untermenschen) governs without any messy emotions.

    Basically, the Vs are Nietzsche’s superman who is ‘beyond good and evil’, or Israelis, soulless in their cold-blooded genocide, or today’s AI, mistaking computer-think for what’s innately human – love and emotions, our baked-in altruism.

    A delightful thread weaving through the novel is Haig’s love of Emily Dickenson, who for some reason the real Andrew discovers and which is the anti-Riemann solution, i.e., ‘all you need is love.’ Alien Andrew discovers classic rock music, especially the Beatles and Beach Boys. The Vs don’t need love anymore. ‘All you need is maths’ is their credo. Along with ‘don’t kill any Vs, but sub-Vs, humans, are fair game.’

    Israel as counterfactual mistake

    Which brings us back to Israel. Israel is chock-full of Nobel maths and physics nerds, ‘all you need is maths’. It should be a paradise, up there with Vonnadoria. The sacred law of both is don’t kill your own people. Oops, forgot the IDF’s nifty Hannibal hypothesis.2 So already something is seriously amiss.

    What the Vs – and Israelis – did was to take the totalitarian utopias of the 20th c, fascism and communism to their ‘logical’ conclusion. They were in many ways similar – a social project with universal aspirations, though with the huge difference that fascism was based on war and race and Űber/Untermenschen, and communism was against war and racism. The Vs clearly see humans as disposable, subhuman, Untermenschen, but to be killed only if they become a threat to other planets, so ‘nice’ fascists. And if humans miraculously stop slaughtering each other and destroying their planet, then they would be invited to join the Vs and other mature races. Ditto Israel, which promises benign totalitarianism for Palestinians too, if they renounce any aspirations for their own state and submit as Untermenschen to the Jewish master race.

    Much as I loved the ideas of the Soviet Union, with its benign aspirations as a model for post-capitalism, it always struck me as, well, a bit boring. No real suffering for the vast majority, no unemployment, no war, but no soul and a techno-laggard; i.e., it seemed unable to catapult itself into a singularity, a real jump forward. I never had any truck with Nazism, no lust for inflicting pain, for mass murder, but I think it’s a shame our earthly communist ‘paradise’ ended so badly.

    Enter Israel. It started as a sort-of ally of the Soviet Union, glad to accept Soviet recognition, collective agriculture, arms. Stalin supported it, thinking it would be a willing socialist ally, along with Mao’s China. For a few years (months?), the world looked to be communism’s oyster. Lol.

    Israel’s founders were not the rational communists of Stalin’s imagination, but the irrational Zionist racists of Hitler’s imagination. Hitler flipped the Zionist project of Jewish supremacism on its head for his own racist Aryan project: to kill and ethnically cleanse Germany, the world, of all Untermenschen nonGermans (Jews, Slavs, blacks …). We now know that from the 1920s, Zionists were courting Nazis such as Eichmann, working in league with them to push Germany’s Jews to emigrate to Palestine. Yes, the Balfour letter set the stage, but Israel was originally a fascist project in league with Hitler, as much as British one.

    Fascism was attractive to Jewish Utopians, bent on creating a Jewish state, as a pragmatic, militaristic, racial theory.3 All the Zionists did was carry on with their fascist project under the guise of democracy, abandoning collective agriculture and embracing US anti-communism. Their secret love of Hitler’s fascism was swept under the carpet, a blip on the road to Greater Israel. Hitler’s own fascism and gas chambers proved very useful in retrospect, giving the Jews a get-out-of-jail-free card forever. Until 10/7/23.

    10/7: Beyond the Pale

    Since October 7, 2023, the world has been force fed genocide on flat-screen TVs. Too much Semitism! And the wrong kind, favouring Jewish Semites over Muslim and Christian Semites. And most of the ‘Jews’ aren’t Semites at all. They are Europeans, Americans, French, etc. Very few actual Jewish Semites — the Arab Haredi — and they are despised almost as much as the Palestinians are. You want to puke from the lies spewing from the Israeli maw.

    Finally their sins are catching up with them. IOF occupation soldiers, honouring a fallen comrade in Gaza, had to discretely turn their backs to the camera, as they now fear arrest under the ICJ and ICC for their crimes if they travel abroad. No more selfies by these cowardly soldiers parading in bras and undies of Palestinians they’ve raped and murdered.

    What can we call these ‘new Israelis’? The idea in 1948 was to create a Homo israeli, a new macho, militant Jewish identity, not the Untermenschen of Nazism. But this new Israeli is immoral, happily violating accepted Old Testament morality (thou shalt not kill/ steal/ rape); in fact, abandoning all morality, making them amoral. What is the meaning of Untermenschen but ‘beneath humanity’, Hitler’s description of Jews? Israel has completed Hitler’s project, making Jews ‘outside the Pale’,4 today’s Untermenschen, beneath human, inhuman.

    Unfortunately, these days, these Untermenschen are for all intents and purposes, controlling the world. Proof positive is the fact that they can boldly carry out their genocidal deeds in full view of all earthlings, who cower in fear of them. Unless US Jews and goys wake up very soon and put a stop to this, we can only pray that some Vonnadorians somewhere out there come and save us from our evil Other. Hitler #2? No. Enough violence. BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) will do the trick, i.e., grassroots mobilization of our altruism instinct.

    How tragic. With the Jewish renaissance of the 19th century bringing Jews into the western mainstream, they quickly became central to Europe’s great cultural flowering, with Marx and Freud at the heart, and dozens of Jewish Nobel Prize winners in all fields, from literature to physics. But even as this was happening, Zionism was percolating, festering, erupting in 1948, its apotheosis in 2023, Nazism (now embedded in US/NATO) passing the torch to the once-persecuted Jews, who didn’t skip a beat, immediately killing and dispossessing 100,000s of Palestinians, much like the Nazis dealt with the Jews of Germany and the shtelts of Poland just a few years before. The West accepted this state of affairs for 78 years out of guilt or ignorance, but finally is waking up to the reality.

    But this is exactly what you did to your natives right up to today, the Israelis retort. You have your Untermenschen, and we have ours.

    Not so simple, we reply. We realize now this was a great crime. Hitler tried to do it to you and we helped liberate you. What you are doing now is no longer acceptable. We don’t believe in Untermenschen anymore, and neither should you. And if you insist, then we are obliged to stop you and protect your so-called Untermenschen, the Palestinians from extermination.

    What is troublesome, and which undermines the ‘going-native’ Andrew’s epiphany (and heppi end), is that Israelis almost fully approve of the genocide, have no remorse, no conscience. They are following Hitler’s losing strategy of violence, not Stalin’s crude, but benign communist strategy, which, as it turned out, was also losing, though because it was too ‘nice’, not too inhuman, like Hitler’s.

    We managed to get mixed up in the 20th century, calling communism evil and fascism good. We pretend we don’t like fascism but we accept Israel’s (and Ukraine’s) and are now adapting it under Trump. Now we are painted into a corner, and it will take getting our feet stained and rejecting Israel’s version of the shiny Vonnadorian fascist utopia is soulless and sterile.

    Any alien arriving on Earth couldn’t help but be appalled at our inhumanity, the bacchanalia of Evil we celebrate every day. The US has been at war 235 years out of 250. Israel has been at war since before it was ‘created’, and currently is fighting on (last count) 7 fronts (get ready, Egypt!), with US and NATO funnelling arms into the conflagration.

    Alien Andrew rejects his self-satisfied, boring eternity in utopia for the dystopian world of feelings. He went native, as Israeli Jews are going to have to do if they plan to stay in the Holy Land. Aliens can assimilate. Zionism has turned Israelis into bona fide Untermenschen, the lowest of the low, unashamed, inhuman genociders.

    Indigenous peoples around the world have survived their holocausts, their genocides, and we humbly turn to them for advice about the meaning of it all, about how we should live, though as humans, we will always fall short. I suspect Haig doesn’t really believe in an atheistic techno-eternity. That the real meaning of life (thank you Woody Allen) is … love and death.

    ENDNOTES:

    The post From Nazi Germany to US-Israel – Who Are the Real Untermenschen? first appeared on Dissident Voice.
    1    The Riemann hypothesis explains why there are 25 primes below 100, only 21 between 1– and 200, 16 between 10000 and 1100 and then few higher, but still an infinite ‘few’. There has been a $1m Millennium Prize for proving this equation in reality, still unclaimed.
    2    Introduced in 1986, the Hannibal Protocol states ‘kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces’, i.e., it’s okay to murder Israeli soldiers to make their release from captivity unnecessary.
    3    In 1933, even Freud, though no Zionist, and not without some subtle irony, sent his admirer Mussolini a volume of his public exchange of letters with Albert Einstein titled Why War? with the inscription: “Benito Mussolini with the respectful greetings of an old man who recognizes in the ruler the cultural hero.”
    4    The Pale of Settlement was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 1917 (de facto until 1915) in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish residency was forbidden.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Canada Warns Travelers With X Marker on Passports They May Face Obstacles in US

    The Canadian Department of Global Affairs has updated its travel advice for people planning to travel to the United States, specifically warning people who have the gender marker “X” on their passports that they may face obstacles or restrictions while traveling abroad. The X marker is specifically granted to transgender or nonbinary individuals who do not want to place a “male” or “female”…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Will California Zionise K-12 Education?

    Factual information about Israel and Palestine may soon be outlawed in the California K-12 school system. Assembly Bill 715 is currently on Governor Newsom’s desk. The legislation was recently rushed through the California legislature, amended just days before passage, and voted on at 1 a.m. with almost no time for public comment.

    The hurry is intentional because opposition grows whenever people learn about it. AB715 is opposed by educators across the spectrum, including the California Teachers Association, California Faculty Association, Association of School Board Administrators, California School Boards Association, and Council of UC Faculty Associations. Civil rights organizations, such as ACLU Action, also oppose the legislation.

    What it purports to do

    Assembly Bill 715 aims to “prevent antisemitism.” It asserts, “Jewish and Israeli pupils are facing a widespread surge in antisemitic discrimination, harassment, and bullying. In many cases, such discrimination, harassment, and bullying has been so severe and pervasive that it has placed Jewish pupils at risk, or completely impeded their ability to learn or engage in school programs or activities.”

    The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is the main source for the claim that there is a “widespread surge” in antisemitism. Their accuracy is widely disputed. As the Jewish Currents publication reports, “A line-by-line reassessment of the organization’s data illuminates the flaws in its methodology.”

    There is already protection in the California Education Code for genuine cases of discrimination or bullying. Section 220 of the code specifies that “No person shall be subjected to discrimination on the basis of disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes.” Through their ethnicity and religion, Jewish students are clearly a protected group. So are Israeli students. They can file claims of discrimination under existing legislation.

    What it will actually do

    AB715 aims to expand the definition of “discrimination” and outlaw any textbook, instructional material, or course content that “would subject a pupil to unlawful discrimination.”

    But what is “unlawful discrimination”? AB715 specifies that the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism is the basis for identifying antisemitism. That report asserts, “Jewish students and educators are targeted for derision and exclusion on college campuses, often because of their real or perceived views about the State of Israel. When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism.” The document claims, “an unshakeable commitment to the State of Israel’s right to exist, its legitimacy, and its security. In addition, we recognize and celebrate the deep historical, religious, cultural, and other ties many American Jews and other Americans have to Israel.”

    The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism embraces the controversial “working definition” of antisemitism advanced by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). This definition has been widely criticized for its conflation of antisemitism with anti-zionism and criticism of the State of Israel. Over 100 human rights and civil society organizations reject the IHRA definition. Yet this is the definition which AB715 is based on.

    If passed, AB715 will result in strict regulation of education and educational material that might subject Jewish students to “unlawful discrimination”. Facts and informed opinions about the reality in Israel and Palestine may be considered “antisemitic” or likely to cause discomfort. For example, students will not learn:

    *The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli PM Netanyahu charging him with crimes against humanity.

    * The International Association of Genocide Scholars determined that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

    * Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Israel’s B’Tselem have ALL independently investigated and determined that Israel is an apartheid state.

    * The greatest scientist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, was against the creation a Jewish state and sought a binational Arab Jewish state in Palestine.

    * In 1948, Einstein, Hanna Arendt, and other Jewish leaders denounced Menachim Begin as a Nazi and fascist.

    * The Israeli newspaper Haaretz documents a Jewish scholar who was zionist but now supports Hamas and considers their armed resistance legitimate and legal.

    All of the above are facts and assessments by credible organizations and individuals. AB715 is so vague yet sweeping that such education about Israel and Palestine may be considered “unlawful discrimination” against a pro-Israel student and therefore prohibited.

    The Costs of AB715

    If passed, AB715 will cost Californians dearly. It mandates the creation of a new Office of Civil Rights with an Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator and staff producing regular reports, investigations, etc. Incredibly, AB715 allows any member of the public to file a complaint, even anonymously. These complaints must be investigated and responded to within time requirements. School boards and superintendents, already busy, will have to spend precious time and resources investigating each and every complaint in a timely manner. The predictable result will be fear or prohibition on saying anything about Israel or Palestine. The Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator is also mandated to provide antisemitism education to teachers, administrators, and school boards.

    Under California’s “Golden State Plan to Counter Antisemitism,” millions of dollars are appropriated for education about the genocide which ended 80 years ago. Meanwhile, there is no funding and it appears the California legislature seeks to prevent education about the genocide happening today in Gaza.

    Making it even worse, AB715 invites lawsuits which will further burden the education system. The legislation says, “Civil law remedies, including but not limited to injunctions, restraining orders, or other remedies, may also be available to complainants.” Under AB715, as a gift for zionist activists, any member of the public can be a complainant.

    AB715 should NOT be signed into law

    The organizations representing California teachers, adminstrators, school superintendents and school boards are ALL against this legislation. AB715 will be costly, wasteful, and damaging to K-12 education in California. Where there are genuine cases of discrimination or bullying, existing legislation is adequate. All students are protected against discrimination or bullying under section 220 of the California Education Code. Where Jewish or Israeli students have been victimized, they have the same recourse as all students. They do not need preferential treatment.

    Teaching facts and expert opinions about Israel and Palestine is not antisemitic. It is history and current events.

    Feeling uncomfortable when learning some facts or opinions is not being a victim; it is being educated. People can disagree and have different perceptions; they should not be prevented from hearing facts and different perspectives.

    The intent of AB715 is clear: to restrict factual information about an important region of the world and to punish educators who present the Palestinian and anti-zionist Jewish perspective. Governor Newsom should not sign the legislation. To encourage him to make the right decision, contact him via this link.

    This legislation does not prevent antisemitism; it actually promotes it by demonstrating that major Jewish organizations and the Jewish Legislative Caucus have the power to push this legislation which will deny the history and current reality of the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, Jewish Voice for Peace and organizations across the education profession are working hard to stop this assault on the California education system.

    The post Will California Zionise K-12 Education? first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • 300+ Million Angry Americans

    This is from Wikipedia:

    12 Angry Men is a 1957 American legal drama film directed by Sidney Lumet in his feature directorial debut, adapted by Reginald Rose from his 1954 teleplay.[6][7] A critique of the American jury system during the McCarthy era,[8][9] the film tells the story of a jury of twelve men as they deliberate the conviction or acquittal of a teenager charged with murder on the basis of reasonable doubt; disagreement and conflict among the jurors forces them to question their morals and values. It stars an ensemble cast, featuring Henry Fonda (who also produced the film with Rose), Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E. G. Marshall, and Jack Warden.

    This writer played the Ed Begley part in the play for an Off Broadway Production in 1993. I loved the character I portrayed, the bigoted owner of a filling station. Throughout the story this man, gruff and impatient and inconsiderate, finally got to the eleven other jurors, most of them who had originally agreed with his opinion of guilt for the defendant. Finally, his terrible, nasty and discriminating feelings toward the young defendant and the class he came from caused the others to stand up and turn their backs on him during his diatribe. He then had what psychologists today would label as a mental breakdown, as he sat for the remainder of the play with head down, trembling.

    When will the majority of Trump’s party and his MAGA followers finally have enough of this man and his craziness? Factor in the high tariffs that us working stiffs are paying at the checkout counter, and the tremendous cuts in our safety net, including Medicaid for millions of his own MAGA crowd, and the tax cuts for basically his super rich donors and corporations. Now we have a new one: Going against a law that has been on the books since 1878, the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from being used for domestic law enforcement, unless directed through the Constitution via the Congress. He calls anyone who protests his directives a terrorist, and then he highlights them as left-wing. The sad irony is that Trump pardoned the terrorists from Jan 6, 2021. You remember that crowd? The fools who listened to him, Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, Mel Brooks and others to go and break into a Capitol building filled with legislators in session. Imagine if a crowd of Black Lives Matter demonstrators took to that building, attempting to break in and disrupt the Congress. How many dead black bodies would be left on those grounds after being machine-gunned?

    One hopes that reason will finally hit those who have spent these 10 years supporting this guy. He should have been indicted after the January 6th Commission gave its report. At worst, he would now be in exile in his Mar-a-Lago estate, looking at videos of himself with Jeffrey and Ghislaine and who knows how many other super rich patrons of the three of them.

    The post 300+ Million Angry Americans first appeared on Dissident Voice.

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  • Palestinian Subordination: Donald Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan

    He had moments of discomfort and embarrassment – pressed into calling the Qatari Prime Minister by his host to apologise for striking Doha and made to pay lip service to the prospect of a Palestinian state – but Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu had many reasons to be pleased. On September 29, President Donald Trump advanced a peace proposal that essentially preserves Israeli pre-eminence regarding the fate of Palestinians, though it entails a cessation of hostilities, an affirmation that Gazans would not be expelled (those leaving would have the right to return), and an injunction against Israeli annexation of the Strip. But Hamas, militarily and politically, would have to surrender all claims, with the Palestinian Authority shepherded and supervised by foreign powers.

    Trump’s peace proposal comprises twenty points. They include a “deradicalized terror-free zone”, Gaza’s redevelopment for the benefit of its people aided by “a panel of experts who have helped birth some of the thriving miracle cities in the Middle East”, and an immediate end to the war on its acceptance by the parties. Israel would withdraw to an agreed upon line in anticipation of a hostage release, during which all military operations would cease pending complete withdrawal. All hostages, dead and alive, would be returned within 72 hours, to be followed by the release of 250 Palestinian life sentence prisoners and Gazans detained since October 7, 2023.

    Hamas and militant factions will forfeit any role in governing Gaza, with any offensive infrastructure and equipment destroyed, but any of its members wishing to commit to “peaceful co-existence” and decommissioning of weapons will be granted amnesty, with those wishing to leave given safe passage to receiving countries. Compliance by the militant group will be overseen by “regional partners”. Full aid would resume, with the UN and Red Crescent restored to their role as chief distributors.

    On the issue of governance, a temporary technocratic “apolitical Palestinian committee” of qualified Palestinians and “international experts” would form a temporary transitional body, subject to a “Board of Peace” personally chaired by Trump. Most unfortunately, it is likely to include such figures as Sir Tony Blair, the Middle East’s typhoid Mary when it comes to peace. The transitional authority would hold the reins till reforms by the Palestinian Authority had been completed. With immediacy, however, the US would work with Arab and international partners to deploy an “International Stabilisation Force” to Gaza. The ISF will be responsible for training Palestinian police forces and provide support in terms of vetting recruits, with assistance from Jordan and Egypt.

    The proposal clearly envisages a significant role for the ISF, though says about who will comprise it. Israel will not, under the plan, occupy or annex Gaza, surrendering what territory it has taken to the ISF. Even if Hamas were to delay or reject the proposal, the Israeli Defense Forces would still hand over occupied territory of “terror-free areas” to the stabilisation force but retain a security perimeter to stem “any resurgent terror threat.”

    The plan also envisages the establishment of an interfaith dialogue to promote the values of peace between the parties, and a “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” if the programs for Gaza’s redevelopment and PA reform take place as planned. A vague US promise to “establish a dialogue” between Israel and the Palestinians regarding peaceful and prosperous co-existence rounds off the points.

    There was palpable grumbling from the Israeli camp. Netanyahu undoubtedly harbours ambitions of finishing “the job”, and there is little to say the war will not resume once the Israeli hostages are returned. Having previously rejected any governing role of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, he now reluctantly accepts the idea subject to a “radical and genuine overhaul” of the body.

    Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, one of the right-wing heavies in the Israeli cabinet, is threatening to withdraw his Religious Zionist Party from the coalition. Agreeing with the plan had been “an act of wilful blindness that ignores every lesson of October 7.” It would only “end in tears.” Fellow zealot, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, is also likely to be seething.

    Opposition leader Yair Lapid is also suspicious of Netanyahu, who tends to say “yes” when visiting Washington, “standing in front of the cameras at the White house, feeling like a breakthrough statesman.” On returning to Israel, however, he always seemed to add a qualifying “but”, his political base always reminding him “who the boss is.”

    In keeping with history, the Trump plan, even if it were to be implemented to the letter, enshrines the essential subordination of Palestinian goals to the dictates of other powers. Palestinian military presence is not only to be curtailed but essentially eliminated altogether. Hamas, never consulted regarding the peace terms, is to accept its own effacing. The PA is to accept its own subservience and infantilisation. The Gazans are also to accept an economic and development program dictated and directed from without. Statehood is to be kept in cold storage till appropriate, controlled conditions for its release are approved – and certainly not by the Palestinians themselves. They, it would seem, remain the considered errant children of international relations, mistrusted and requiring permanent, stern invigilation.

    The post Palestinian Subordination: Donald Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Ukraine: America Ain’t Going Anywhere (MAGA)

    So, we are being subjected to the latest bout of verbal gymnastics as analysts bend themselves to the futile task of inferring logic from Donald Trump most recent effusions on matters Ukraine. Futile because the man possesses no approximation of a mind capable of coherent thought processes. His sole fixed reference points are emotional obsessions and slogans that sparkle in his otherwise inert grey matter. Statements and actions invariably are random, often self-contradictory, and susceptible to reversal either by mood shifts or by the manipulations of calculating persons in his entourage and stray acquaintances.
    This manifest reality is beyond the comprehension of most observers and commentators, as well as statesman as astute as Vladimir Putin. For they have spent their lives reasoning about persons and events that meet some minimal standard of logic – however odd some premises might be, how impractical some objectives, how inconsistent some diplomacy, how tumultuous the domestic setting they live in. Trump, his odd bin collection of fanatics, imperial day-dreamers, league 3 Machiavellians, and sheer incompetents who occupy official positions or otherwise have access to him, are a world unto themselves without precedent for a consequential power. Their common denominator is ignorance: of other countries, of their leaders, of their history, of how the global economy works, of nuclear weapons – and, above all, of themselves and the United States in whose name they presume to act.
    Now, we are in a lather trying to make sense of Trump’s latest non-sensical pronouncement on Ukraine. The captions tell us that “Trump Wants out,” “Trump Washes His Hands of Ukraine,” “Presidents Sets Up Europeans as Fall Guys When Ukraine Collapses,” “Trump Reverses Himself on Possible Ukrainian Successes,” “Trump Threatens New Attacks on Russian Oil Trade, Says Russian Economy on Point of Collapse,” “No Easing of Punitive Tariffs on India,” “Trump Urges Europeans to Shoot Down Russian Jets,” “Trumps Launches Personal Attack on Putin.”
    Anyone who seeks to make sense of this, in the context of myriad confused initiatives and declarations since January 20, might as well stick to Rubic’s Cube – at least there, the cubes are in fixed positions.
    Yet, there is s measure of discernible consistency if we shift our gaze away from the tactical machinations of the past 8 months to the strategic framework of American policy toward Ukraine and Russia. For that has remained constant. Most strikingly, Washington has been waging war on Russia through its proxy from February 2022 until today.
    Concretely, it has been the United States that trained and equipped the UAF for offensive actions to retake the Donbass and Crimea; that drew up the plans for an all-out campaign for doing so when preempted by Moscow; that drew up the plans for the Fall 2022 counter offensive; that designed and provided overall command of the massive offensive in June 2023 that failed so ignominiously; that has equipped the Ukrainian military with the most advanced weapons in the American arsenal; that used all its influence to extract equipment and shells from allies around the world; that placed a networks of 13 CIA manned Intelligence hubs on the border to provide tactical intelligence for operations of various types against Russia; that trained and works hand-in-glove with the Ukrainian SBU at all levels; that provides crucial satellite and electronic Intelligence that makes possible Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on targets in Russia; that is the de facto operator of HIMARS and ATACMS ballistic missiles providing operation codes (along with satellite data) – as required by U.S. law – without which Ukrainian officers would be unable to activate those systems. In toto, between 3-4,000 American military personnel are permanently assigned to Ukraine.

    NONE of this has changed under Trump nor is any change indicated.

    The one concrete change is Washington’s insistence that the Europeans pay for the weaponry and related equipment that the United States provides Ukraine. In other words, those transactions henceforth will be on a commercial basis rather than in the form of aid. This manifestly does not represent a “retreat” from Ukraine, an “abandonment” of Europe, much less a reversion to “neo-isolationism.” The American foreign policy elite (and political class generally) remains dedicated to the historic project of securing our dominance of the world system – a commitment now made more urgent by the appearance of powers that could challenge it. A sense of national vulnerability and diminished prowess adds to that felt imperative.
    It was always unrealistic to take at face value Trump’s remarks that he wanted to be the peacemaker in Ukraine. For, to do so, he and America would have to accept minimal Russian terms representing a humiliating defeat for the West. That reality was unspinnable. Hence, all the toing-and-froing on ceasefires, on staged virtual meetings in Istanbul, on summits with Putin, on deals for trading Russian occupied for an stop to hostilities – has been contrived theatre whose outcome should have been foreseen.
    The United States’ goal in regard to Russia since 1991 has been to keep it weak and dependent on the West, to control its natural resources, to marginalize it as a power in Europe and in the Middle East, a non-factor in the global scheme of things. In brief, Russia’s role was to be an adjunct to America’s hegemonic world order. When Vladimir Putin in February 2007 at the Munich Security Conference made it clear that Russia would follow the course of basing its policies on Russian sovereign interest instead, the instant reaction in Washington (and other Western capitals) was to initiate actions intended to thwart Russia’s plans for regaining an independent place in the international system, to isolate it, and to force it to reverse course by replacing Putin with a more pliable leader. That has remained constant, unqualified, and unchallenged from George Bush through Obama, Trump I, Biden, and now in Trump II. It is a goal whose premises and purposes are agreed by the near totality of the country’s political class. Trump’s fulminations cannot hide the cardinal fact that America is locked into a self-declared combat with Russia – and all who are associated with it.
    The post Ukraine: America Ain’t Going Anywhere (MAGA) first appeared on Dissident Voice.

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  • The World’s Richest People are Chinese, not Americans

    Four years after defeating the US in battle, in 1955, Mao told colleagues, “If we can’t overtake America in 100 years we don’t deserve to exist. We should be wiped off the face of the earth”. Less than seventy years later, China overtook America.

    Today, Chinese are much richer than their American and European counterparts, they live longer, healthier lives and their children graduate from high school three years ahead in STEM subjects. Before we examine China’s rise, however, let’s review the West’s decline:

    • Most Americans have saved less than $10,000. Only 0.1% hold $5+ million, the minimum required for retirement.
    • “Twice a week the YMCA holds a free food distribution for the military community, and every week, there are more families in the line than food to serve.” NBC News, 8/2/25.
    • The official US poverty rate is 11.6%, with 38 million people living in poverty. US Census
    • “Most Americans don’t earn enough to afford basic costs of living, analysis finds,”

      Megan Cerullo, CBS News.

    • The bottom 50% of American citizens own 2.5% of national wealth. St. Louis Federal Reserve.
    • In 2007, the median US homebuyer was 39 years old. Today, she’s 56.
    • In 2025, the average Dane works 6500 hours for each year of retirement. Their Chinese work 4600 hours.
    • Last year, the median net worth in Germany’s richest city, Berlin, was $89,000, says Bundesbank.

    How China did it

    American workers’ real incomes have not risen since 1975, their savings have fallen steadily since 1989 and the results are undeniable.

    Chinese workers, by contrast, have doubled their real incomes every 10-12 years since 1955 and they saved 35% of their incomes every year. In 2020, urban Chinese families’ median net worth was $200,000. In 2025 it will be $250,000.

    Our media and government will suppress news of this change for as long as possible but, once it becomes common knowledge, it will permanently change the world.

    I’ll speculate about that revolution next week.

    The post The World’s Richest People are Chinese, not Americans first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Two Men, an Evil Empire, Evil Jews of Genocide Legacy, and the Mowing of the World’s Compassion and AGENCY

    Kelly’s on house arrest, essentially, for another three years of a sentence that did not meet the supposed level of his “crime.”

    And not too many Substackers even can grasp how the “otherside” of the railroad tracks lives, though Kelly, from Wisconsin, is smart, a musician and got that sheepskin in accounting, too.

    He’s got the Palestine flag in his backyard in River Falls, Wisconsin, and he has his heart at the heart of their liberation, in a time of amnesia-lobotomy and absolute consumer euphoria.

    Here’s the KYAQ interview, talking about Oct. 7 then and now and beyond: LINK.

    Some other shows on my radio show here: LINK.

    KYAQ Home -

    Kelly and a granddaughter.

    A poem or two: first, Paul Haeder’s

    Shajarat Zaytun Baladi … My Olive Tree

    the sand pulls from it
    Gazans, oil trees, hard pan
    and wheat, villages of white
    plaster, before the invasion
    monsters in the Naba, sicarios
    murdering even the British
    Mandate boys, hotels bombed
    by Jews who worship
    and now … Zionism

    *

    is the state of Israel
    a place of starvation
    a hell-scape of murder
    a dungeon for rape and torture
    the proving grounds
    for the fascists

    *

    Silicon Wadi, Tel Aviv
    Silicon Valley, California
    the stories have already been
    written, daily, cell phones
    uploaded when the Jewish
    state fails to block the web
    stories from volunteers
    on Dunkirk like flotillas

    *

    the land of desert people
    Arab and Christian scholarship
    like a bombing range
    tools of electronic monitoring
    drones that whistle, sound like
    wounded puppies, children crying
    drawing out the compassion
    of Gazans, until some Zionist
    Talmudist taps the armed quad-copter
    another one at the ready for second tap
    third tap, they call children bug splat

    *

    Murder Incorporated Jews
    of New York ran rum, and Jews
    of Palestine now run killing fields
    laugh and mock
    lie and deceive, honey
    trapping Trump-Princes-Clintons
    a world based on baseness

    *

    the ultimate weapon is now
    forgetting, looking at presstitutes
    yammering about Epstein or Kirk
    the brownshirts, my dear liberals
    were always there, even si se puede
    Obama hated Occupy Wall Street
    Kill List Tuesdays

    *

    this is new, TikTok and Live Streaming
    1,000 murders then 5 K then 20 thousand
    Killed, not KIA-ed – that’s for a war
    the action in these Gazan kills
    is their very desire for bread
    huddling in apartments
    clamoring for tents

    *

    this is the New Jerusalem
    branded now almost all
    Jews globally are beyond eye for an
    eye as they hem and haw
    call the starvation and murder
    global antisemitic conspiracy
    as the number now reaches 65,000
    but reality says 400,000 dead

    *

    under rubble, and more tens of thousands
    to die after the two-year mark
    into that Christmas madness
    of America, Empire of Chaos
    Empire of Death
    Empire of Amnesia
    Empire of Hate/Hell/War

    *

    as Gaza burns and implodes
    white phosphorus the
    smell of napalm in the morning
    Lt. Colonel Kilgore: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning”
    Smiling ordering helicopter strikes
    on a Vietcong village, destruction Happy
    Hollywood ….

    Empire of Lobotomies now

    USA.

    *****

    Poet, professor and writer, Refaat Alareer killed in Israeli strike | Al Jazeera Newsfeed

    If I must die … Refaat Alareer.

    If I must die
    you must live
    to tell my story
    to sell my things
    to buy a piece of cloth
    and some strings
    (make it white with a long tail)
    so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
    while looking heaven in the eye
    awaiting his dad who left in a blaze
    and bid no one farewell
    not even to his flesh
    not even to himself
    sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
    and thinks for a moment an angel is there bringing back love
    If I must die
    let it bring hope
    let it be a tale

    *****

    Several kites in Palestine colors flying, with a dove in the middle.

    If I must live… Islam Elbassuony

    (In response to Refaat Alareer’s poem and to the world…)
    How was I to know?
    My kite, your kite, white with a long tail
    not in the right site
    Drained with fear
    How will my kite fly
    In front of a child’s sight
    If I must live
    trying to pick myself up piece by piece
    To find some peace
    Everybody here out of sight
    All in a survival fight.
    With memories they hold tight
    I was lost within darkness
    then I found that Gaza is a child
    Asking me to convey
    a message to you
    (Can I go where you go
    Laying my head on you
    turning a moment into forever?)
    Just like the first time
    Sick of waiting so can we skip to that part?
    Look where we are
    We are sinking till we reach that part
    Promise I will not let you down
    Just know you don’t have to do this alone
    But
    It should be your world instead
    Fly your kite
    I did it once
    Let it be twice
    Let it be another tale

    …It’s your turn, world… say something!

    *****

    Sickness of the International order/disorder:

    A verdict may not come for at least another two years from the International Court of Justice amidst the ongoing genocide in Gaza — why the delay?

    One year ago today, the United Nations General Assembly gave Israel a 12-month deadline to end its illegal occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Not only has Israel not complied, but it has proceeded to increase its genocide of the Palestinians in both territories, with full support from the U.S.

    Q&A: Former UN official Craig Mokhiber on Gaza and genocide

    Craig Mokhiber, an international human rights lawyer and former senior United Nations human rights official, noted that the legitimacy of the UN is at stake here, and it has the power to act right now to end the genocide by passing the Uniting for Peace Resolution with a two-thirds majority:

    “Under the so-called Uniting for Peace resolution, the General Assembly, within 24 hours, could adopt a resolution that calls for the stripping of Israel’s UN credentials, calls for sanctions and a military embargo, calls for the establishment of a criminal tribunal, reactivates the UN’s anti-apartheid mechanism, and that establishes a multi-national UN protection force that could actually get into Gaza, protect civilians, facilitate humanitarian aid, preserve evidence of Israeli crimes, and begin the process of reconstruction.”

    There aren’t enough Molotovs for this shape of evil Judaism.

    Who are Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli ministers facing sanctions? | Israel | The Guardian

    Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, described Gaza as a “real estate bonanza” and said a business plan for the territory is “on President Trump’s desk,” with negotiations already underway with the U.S. He framed the ongoing demolitions as part of “urban renewal,” stating,

    “The demolition phase is always the first phase of urban renewal. We did that, now we need to start building.”

    Another Palestinian Poet, alive and in the USA:

    Finally, the blasphemy of my own district in Oregon, as  a Jewish Only and Israel First representative goes on a Bibi Paid For Junket to Occupied Palestine during his people’s commission of genocide and ethnic cleansing and perversities and crimes.

    Before David Gomberg and the other state legislators left Israel, each state was encouraged to plant a tree. Gomberg said he responded to a reporter’s question about what the tree planting meant to him.

    “People who plant trees think of the future,”: Gomberg replied. “I plant it today and think of a time in the future when Arab and Jewish children can sit in the shade of this tree in peace and friendship.”

    P.O.S.:

    email: vog.erutalsigelnogeronull@grebmoGdivaD.peR
    phone: 503-986-1410
    address: 900 Court St NE, H-480, Salem, OR, 97301
    website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/gomberg

    Oregon wildfires burn 826,000 acres, torch 174 homes in 2021 season

    If you read me regularly, you know Oregon has a ton of problems, most of which could be solved with hard-hitting legislative action and, well, pushing up against Stephen Miller’s White House.

    Here’s the official graft paperwork for 250 American politicians’ trip:

    Finally, as a legislator required to file an annual Statement of Economic Interest (SEI), you will be required to report the aggregate value of any paid expenses provided under ORS 244.020(7)(b)(H) on your 2025 SEI. As the source of the paid travel expenses, the Consulate General of Isreal should provide you with a notice or a summary of the expenses paid.

    Link.

    They were never shown this:

    Or:

    May be an image of 1 person and child

    But they got on their knees and planted trees in a genocidal land: With my State’s flag fluttering in the wind.

    Planting a Tree

    I wrote him a quick note, decrying his defamation of my tax dollars and his supposed representation of MY district with major drought, housing, rural health, education, tourism, unemployment problems!

    You can imagine what I told him in an email! No amount of sources or Susan Abdulhawa videos will help this captured Zionist.

    Listen to her above, and I did send him the link and this:

    In this episode of Out Loud with Ahmed Eldin, I sit down with Palestinian novelist, poet, and activist Susan Abulhawa — the bestselling author of Mornings in Jenin and Love in the Time of Genocide.

    Susan does not speak in half-truths. She speaks with unflinching honesty about Gaza, about rage, and about the cost of refusing to name things for what they are: genocide, colonialism, betrayal. With a voice sharpened by both grief and defiance, she reminds us that anger is not a weakness to be hidden but a weapon of survival — a force that, if channeled, can become a source of responsibility, courage, and hope.

    We talk about Gaza not just as a place under siege, but as a mirror of humanity’s future. Susan pulls apart the psychology of helplessness, the myth of Western “decorum,” and the illusion of free speech that crumbles when confronted with Palestine. She calls out complicity — from Arab regimes to global powers — while celebrating the unimaginable resilience of a people who refuse to kneel.

    This is not an easy conversation. It’s not meant to be. But it’s necessary. Listening to Susan is to be confronted with the unbearable truths of our time — and also to be reminded of the duty, the possibility, and the power of resistance in all its forms.

    Two Oregon lawmakers go on Israel-sponsored trip as country invades Gaza City • Oregon Capital Chronicle

    Here’s my hard copy:

    David Gomberg - Search / X

    Gomberg

    RE: Israel First and Jewish First trip paid for by genocidal state

    Gomberg: Not only the optics, but the ethics are so skewed in the wrong direction that shame should be your middle name.

    You were manipulated, by the Kings of Hasbara, and you are duped into believing anything the Jewish State of Murdering Raping Starving Poisoning Maiming Palestine tells you.

    You are, seemingly, beyond educating, but in the end we have hundreds of major issues to confront because of spineless democrats and the fascist new guy acting as President, even though your fellow Jews are  his puppet masters:

    Stephen Miller, Larry Fink, Schwarzman, Altman, Karp, Ellison(s), Kushner(s) Adelson, Alman, Zuckerberg, and, well, so many on the Forbes list of 130 Jewish billionaires.

    It is genocide, and it has been since before the original Nakba. You have failed the litmus test of credibility:

    • Israeli rights groups: In July 2025, Israeli human rights organizations B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI) issued reports accusing Israel of committing genocide. They cited official statements inciting violence against Palestinians and the deliberate destruction of essential life-sustaining systems in Gaza.
    • Jewish Member of Congress: In September 2025, U.S. Representative Becca Balint became the first Jewish member of Congress to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.
    • Jewish scholars: Scholars with expertise in Holocaust and genocide studies have also made this accusation.
      • Israeli-American scholar Raz Segal described the early bombing campaign as a “textbook case of genocide”.   Segal was among the first to publicly call the destruction in Gaza a “textbook case of genocide,” publishing an article on the topic on October 13, 2023. This was just days after Israel began its bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip
      • In a New York Times op-ed, Israeli genocide expert Omer Bartov stated his “inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people”.
      • Israeli historian Amos Goldberg published an article in Hebrew in April 2025 titled, “Yes, it is a genocide,” after an earlier letter from Jewish and Holocaust studies researchers condemned official Israeli discourse surrounding the war.
    • Protest groups: Left-wing and anti-Zionist Jewish groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, have been prominent in protests calling for a ceasefire and condemning Israel’s military operation.
    • Health professionals: In September 2025, hundreds of Jewish physicians and scholars from the U.S., UK, and Israel signed an open letter calling for an end to what they described as a “deliberate campaign to destroy civilian life in Gaza”.

    Two prominent Israeli rights groups on Monday said their country is committing genocide in Gaza, the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations against Israel during nearly 22 months of war.

    The claims by B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel add to the list.

    I am ashamed of my vote for you, and alas, no vote for you ever again, and if I see you in public, I will shame you, through my keffiyeh in the air, and call you a genocidaire more concerned with his Ashkenazi heritage than human rights and the rights of Oregonian voters to not be smeared with the stain of Israeli lies, propaganda, death, and deprivations beyond any measure in history.

    And then to see your little narrative in the Lincoln County Leader, well, alas, you have proven that it was all dog and pony.

    Disrespectfully yours,

    PH, Lincoln County

    Two Oregon lawmakers go on Israel-sponsored trip as country invades Gaza City | Lake Oswego Review

    Israel paid for state lawmakers to visit country on ‘50 States, One Israel’ trip Two Oregon lawmakers are among 250 state legislators across the U.S. visiting Israel this week on a trip sponsored by the Israeli government.

    Israel hosted Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis and Rep. Emily McIntire, R-Eagle Point, on a trip Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as the largest-ever bipartisan delegation of American lawmakers to visit.

    The Consulate General of Israel, calling the trip “50 States, One Israel,” is covering the lawmakers’ cost of air travel, lodging, ground transportation and meals between Sept. 13 and Sept. 18.

    The post Two Men, an Evil Empire, Evil Jews of Genocide Legacy, and the Mowing of the World’s Compassion and AGENCY first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Billionaires Could Soon Face More Taxing Times

    Billionaires, beware: Thousands of your countrymen are focusing hard on reining in your riches. All of them, including large numbers of millionaires, want you to pay higher taxes. They want a twenty-first century America with less income inequality and more tax fairness.

    Something like the America of decades ago, before the laws started leaning toward high-income taxpayers. (And they’re still leaning that way: see the gifts handed out to the rich in the Big Unbeautiful Bill rammed through by the GOP earlier this year.)

    The posse that’s pursuing billionaires includes tax experts, scholars, investigative journalists, Democratic lawmakers, and two groups devoted especially to tax reform. One is Patriotic Millionaires, self-defined as “a collection of wealthy Americans fighting against the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in the United States.” The other has a name that needs no definition, Tax the Greedy Billionaires.  Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) sums up its mission in eight words: “Tax the billionaires instead of funding the billionaires.”

    Here are a few glimpses of what they’re all seeing—and what they’d like to be seeing instead.

    Patriotic Millionaires underscores the country’s growing inequality and a tax code that deserves most of the blame: “Those who are already rich can make money in ways that are subject to income taxes at lower rates or don’t count as ‘income’ at all.” As a result, “Billionaires now pay lower effective tax rates than all other income groups.” Because of this, “The U.S. tax system has enabled a concentration of wealth so extreme that it threatens our economy, our democracy and the planet.”

    Tax the Greedy Billionaires sounds an equally loud alarm. “America’s wealth inequality has reached a dangerous tipping point. The richest Americans have captured our government, rigging the rules in their favor and amassing unprecedented concentrations of wealth and power…. The American Dream can’t survive in a system where unlimited wealth for the few destroys opportunity for all.”

    Real estate multimillionaire Kimberly Hoover will benefit hugely from the Big Unbeautiful Bill, but she’s not happy. “At some point, it starts to feel wrong. It starts to feel somehow inappropriate…. Imbalanced is not really good for anyone, even if you’re on the positive end of that imbalance…”

    The independent newsroom ProPublica named names and detailed the details in a bombshell piece, “How Billionaires Have Sidestepped a Tax Aimed at the Rich.” One of the named names was Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor “who sits atop one of the most profitable trading firms in the world”.

    Yass was particularly successful in gaming the Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT), a tax crafted to target traders like him. But that wasn’t all; in 2013 and 2014, he also wiped out “hundreds of millions in interest and dividend income.”

    Ron Wyden (D-OR) is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. He spoke for all the reformers in a statement that included these words: “To the nurse or the janitor whose taxes come straight out of their paychecks, it’s ridiculous to see these examples of fabulously wealthy individuals enjoying huge windfalls and continuing to avoid paying a fair share.”

    Professor of Law Brian Galle thinks he has a better idea for taxing the rich than the minimum income tax proposed by the Biden Administration. He would adjust the capital gains tax rate so that it increases the longer an asset is held. Galle calls it FAST, or Fair Share Tax. He believes it could be designed to yield just as much revenue as any other option, and would be easier to implement as well.  (Currently, of course, the long-term capital gains tax is less than the tax on wages—one more example of a tax law favoring the rich.)

    Gabriel Zucman is a leading champion of taxing the rich to reduce inequality. He’s a professor both here and abroad, at the Paris School of Economics and the University of California at Berkeley.  Zucman readily acknowledges the failure of earlier attempts, like former President Biden’s, to make the rich pay more.  At the same time, “The odds [for success] are good even if the timing is uncertain….Fiscal history is full of U-turns.”

    Lastly, just a couple of months ago, lawyer and tax reformer Bob Lord gave us an eye-opening perspective: “The top 3 U.S. oligarchs now sit on $992 billion. The age of trillionaires is upon us. For context, $1 trillion is over $1 million per day since Jesus died.”

    Summing up, future Congresses will need to choose between raising taxes on the super-rich or continuing to make them even richer. To put it emotionally, thousands of reformers are certain to end up crying—crying either tears of joy or tears of sorrow.

    • First appeared (9/25) in the New York Daily News.
    The post Billionaires Could Soon Face More Taxing Times first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • How Trump’s Trade War with China Crushed US Farmers

    Trump’s Trade War has officially backfired on US Farmers and the entire US agricultural sector. 40% of crops farmed in the US is sent abroad but after Trump attacked China, China began sourcing soybeans, corn and other products from countries like Brazil. In today’s video we break down why the Trump Trade War is hurting the US and why it has little to no effect on China.

    The post How Trump’s Trade War with China Crushed US Farmers first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • How I’ve Learned to be a Social Socialist

    Thriving by Not Minding My Own Business

    How many of you have met socialists who look like the one at the top of the article? I have and there are plenty like this. It was in the Fall of 2017 that my life-partner, Bruce Lerro and I travelled from Oakland to Berkeley to hear Suzie Weissman, biographer of the Russian Revolutionary Victor Serge, give a talk about the Russian Revolution on its 100 year anniversary. As we made our way in towards the building we saw a man selling newspapers. As it was almost time for her talk to start, I wanted to make sure the guy selling the newspapers knew the talk was about to begin. I mentioned this to Bruce and he tried to discourage me from approaching this guy. But I went anyway. “You should gather your things and come in or you will be late. I don’t remember exactly what he said but it was something to the effect that he wasn’t going in. I asked why. From then on I was treated to a bombardment of the history of the Russian Revolution, including Trotsky’s speech of 1922. This guy looked just like the picture above. I excused myself. When I caught up with Bruce I told him what had happened, and he just said, “that’s why I tried to stop you.” It’s pretty difficult to have an actual conversation with them because they simply keep saying the same thing and using the same sources for quotes. They don’t actually want ‘with’ you – they talk ‘at’ you”.

    I’m not going to talk about our definition of socialism here. Please see our website under “Alternatives to Capitalism”. This is just my personal, daily experience of being a socialist.

    Because I have been fortunate in my lifetime in many ways, I work to share my happiness and pleasure in life in a “social” way. I believe this would benefit many socialists. Instead of lecturing people about socialism, I simply ask people about their own lives. I smile and say hello to everyone I see.

    How Did I Get This Way?

    Once I stopped working full-time in a job that I loved as a career counselor at California State University, I found myself becoming more and more open. It took a while for me to adjust to having more time for myself, but not long. Since I was able to go for walks every morning in the park across the street from our house, I began to open up to many of the people I saw there. Every morning there were people doing Tai Chi and there was a regular Chinese contingent of older people who walked around a circle talking. Because of the extra time I had I also started writing some articles for our website and spending more time there.

    From Oakland to Olympia

    When we moved from Oakland to Olympia that blew the roof off my convivial self. Olympia is technically a city, but it is really a town. On the streets it’s rare that people don’t acknowledge each other and say good morning. There is no financial district and in the old days working class people worked in the brewery. We marveled when we first got here at how courteous the drivers were. There was rarely any running of lights, being cut off or refusals to let us merge into traffic. However, the drivers are SLOW.  I have screamed a number of times “let’s go, mutha fuckas” – only not where they can hear me.

    Engaging People Where They Work

    Now that we live in Olympia, WA, I’ve made many friends at the two grocery stores where we shop. Some of them are even my Facebook friends now. I’ve told some of them that I’m a socialist and they always seem surprised. I’ve talked with some of them about different aspects of socialism. I always call them by their name. The Haggen’s deli section is currently without a manager since Rachel left. As I approach the deli to buy some harvest slaw, I ask one of the workers there, Zach, “how is work?”. The conversation went like this:

    Zach: Good, its actually better now that we don’t have a boss.

    Barbara: What do you mean?

    Zach: The bosses just get in the way. Especially the new ones who feel they have to prove themselves. They start moving everything around without even asking us how things already work. We already know how to do things here. We don’t need them.

    Barbara: Have you ever heard of workers co-ops? They don’t have any bosses. They decide among themselves what to produce, how much to produce, who to distribute it to and they even decide on their own salaries. You know about the food co-ops?

    Zach: Yeah.

    Barbara: You should check them out.

    Zach: Yeah, but they probably wouldn’t pay enough. With the union I make $36 an hour.

    Barbara: Well I know you couldn’t start that high. But the co-op workers don’t start at minimum wage. They typically start at $20 an hour.

    Zach: That’s pretty good.

    Since I maintained my relationship with Rachel after she left Haggen’s, she complained to me that no one at her new job likes her.

    Rachel: I don’t know what it is, but I can’t seem to make friends there.

    Barbara: You aren’t supposed to make friends, you are there to work.

    Rachel: I know, but still. When I first came to Haggens, before I was a manager, I had lots of friends who worked alongside me.

    Barbara: What is your job title in your new Safeway job?

    Rachel: Assistant manager.

    Barbara: That’s the problem. Is there a union there at Safeway?

    Rachel: Yes.

    Barbara: Are you in it?

    Rachel: No.

    Barbara: So you have the union against you.  The workers see you as being on the side of management.

    Rachel: But I am not.

    Barbara: Than you shouldn’t have taken that position. How does the main manager feel about you?

    Rachel: He treats me like I am nothing.

    Barbara: That’s because you aren’t a ”real” manager. Are there any other assistant managers?

    Rachel: No, just me.

    Barbara: OK you are isolated. It has nothing to do with your personality. It wouldn’t matter if you were the sweetest person in the world.  It’s your location in the capitalist class structure that is the cause of your loneliness. This is how capitalism works.

    I have interactions also with other customers in a number of ways. I often tell older women who are wearing colorful clothing how beautiful they look. I regularly ask people to help me reach something on a high shelf. If it’s a man I call him “Mr. Tall Person…can you please reach…”. I’ve never had anyone turn me down.

    When shopping at Haggen’s Grocery Store I have come to know almost everyone who works there.

    Some of the dialogues I’ve had include my asking them: “How is work treating you?” After I’ve gotten to know them that paves the way for me to tell them that the wage they make is only about a fifth of the real wealth they produce. Four fifths go to the capitalist owners and bosses who produce nothing. I tell some of them about how different it is in worker co-ops.

    Many of them have opened up to me. Here are some of the responses I’ve received:

    • One person who works there is definitely not known for being social. I have engaged with Kristi every time I shop there and now she comes out from behind the counter so we can hug. Since Kristi is an avid gardener, I asked her if she would be willing to re-pot my violet plant. She said without any hesitation she would be happy to do that and told me to bring it in for her the next week.  She has made time to talk to me even though recently a woman wanted to be waited on and was aggravated.
    • Another worker, Lore, starts crying when she sees me at the deli. Lore always announces, “She’s here!” and when I leave, “Barbara’s leaving!”
    • Rachael, the former deli manager, would hug and confide in me how difficult it is for her to work there. I tell her it’s that a middle manager is treated suspiciously by managers since she works so closely with the workers and that she is treated suspiciously by workers simply because she’s a manger.
    • Zach, a tall conservative guy at the deli always comes out and hugs me. When he asks me what I’m going to be doing for the rest of the day, I tell him I will be working on our Socialist Planning Beyond Capitalism website. He has never shown disdain for that and will listen to the things I tell him about it.
    • I ran into the guy who refills the soda shelves. He said he hadn’t seen me in too long. He tells me he’s always praying for me. He’s very speedy and doesn’t stop working while we’re talking, but I always insist on a hug – which I get.
    • Just recently I ran into a bunch of firefighters there, and I began thanking all of them. I asked if anyone knew about ICE arresting brave men fighting a terrible wildfire in Oregon when they didn’t have their citizenship papers on them. Most of them did not know this and were shocked.

    Trader Joe’s

    Kali was putting out fruit and told me she got into trouble with management for trying to organize a union. We talked about how to stop them from punishing her and stand up for her rights.

    Barbara: Sorry to hear that Kali, but you know unions used to demand much more than this

    Kali: Like what?

    Barbara: A hundred years ago, in this country, the Industrial Workers of the World said that workers should control the factories and the issue they fought for was who was producing the goods.

    Kali: But why should they? The owners took the risk of starting up the business.

    Barbara: But where did the owners get the money from to start the business? They got it from the surplus labor of the workers.

    Kali: What do you mean?

    Barbara: How long is your shift?

    Kali: Eight hours.

    Barbara: Do you know how much wealth is being created?

    Kali: I don’t know what you mean

    Barbara: The wage the owner of Trader Joe’s pays you and the other workers is only about 25% of the total wealth that you all create. The rest is for the expenses of the capitalist. So the owner has to pay management, pay taxes, pay landlords to rent the building and the rest is for their profit.

    Kali: So you are saying that we workers are producing another 75% of the total wealth that we never see?

    Barbara: Yes. What you see are your wages. Your wages are just enough to pay for your food, clothing, and housing. After all, the employer needs to get you back on the job the next day, so there are limits to how much they can exploit you.

    Kali: I never thought about it like this. How come this wasn’t explained to me?

    Barbara: Because capitalists control the textbooks and don’t want you to think this way….

    Buzzer goes off

    Kali: I’ve got to get back to work.

    Barbara: Of course. See you next week.

    I’m not always so intense at Trader Joe’s but I’m always great at engaging people. For example:

    • I asked a cashier where she was from because of her accent when she spoke to me. I did this because the customer in front of me never said a word to her. She told me she was from Ukraine which turned into an even longer conversation about what it was like for her to now live in the US.
    • A very stocky, gay guy with a flower in his hair is always happy to see me. One  checker waved and motioned me over while he was at the register. I always look across the registers to see who’s there and then wave.

    The Blue Heron

    Every Sunday Bruce and I go in to our favorite bakery which is run as a workers co-op and buy things that are sugar-free. Almost everyone who works there knows me and they usually call out my name when I come in. Many of them know I’m a socialist. While we don’t often talk about socialism, it’s important for them to see a “social” socialist. I have come to know almost everyone who works there: Joe, Avery, Merry, Eva, Zelle and Adam. Once I  asked Merry since she does alterations if she could get the wrinkles out of my skin. Everybody laughed. Bruce and I shop separately because I need social time and Bruce goes back to the car and reads a book – he refuses to come into the Blue Heron with me.

    Engaging With Strangers

    I often have dialogues with strangers on the street, in parking lots and at musical events. Recently we attended an event called Music in the Park. The music was Sottish folk singing and so inspiring. I simply got up and started dancing to the music by myself. I then started inviting people to dance with me. Some didn’t, some did. But even the ones who refused to dance continued to watch the rest of us and smile. Bruce and I got up to dance to a version of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl.” Three other people joined us and we all sang together.

    I shop at places where the homeless have their spots. I make a point of giving them $5. I do more than give them money. I ask them how they are doing. I am amazed at how grateful they are and kind in their own way. They are nothing like the stereotypes of hostile or psychotic people who can’t stand up and are on drugs, although we see plenty of those, too. While some may think that is a waste of money and time, I believe they deserve respect, something they rarely receive. As a result of this I have found more people (not everyone) open to hearing about socialism.

    At one point we were looking for people who could do yard work for us. We had planned to put ads up in stores or look at NextDoor, but that never happened because my “street sense” got the best of me. We were about six blocks from home in our car, when I saw this guy working in a yard. I stopped the car in the middle of the street and put the car in reverse. I yelled out, ‘hey you”, do you live here?”. He said he was gardening for the people who lived there. I said, “do you have a card?” He said he didn’t – he was just starting out. I asked how much he charged. He gave me a ridiculously low price. I told him he should charge more and that he needs a business card.  Then I asked if he had any openings. We worked it out and he worked for us for about a year. I wrote a great evaluation for him on Yelp, and he would end up having more work than he knew what to do with. He was a Trump supporter and wanted to move to a rural area in Tennessee because he didn’t like the educational system here. Even after he moved he sent me pictures of him and his son riding dirt bikes. At some point he joked about how we were probably liberal. I told him we were socialists. He said he wasn’t sure what that meant. I explained to him what socialism was without lecturing him, without using socialist jargon, in plain English. He was very interested. He told me it couldn’t be too bad if I was a member.

    Olympia Senior Center

    When we first were visiting Olympia, WA in January 2018 to see if we wanted to move here, Bruce arranged for an interview at the Olympia Senior Center in hopes of getting some teaching work. He was hired and his first class was in the Fall of 2018. Over the next seven years he managed to teach every quarter. His classes included:

    • Brainwashing, Propaganda and Rhetoric
    • What in the World is Going On?
    • Visionary Adult Development: The Case of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

    As you might imagine, these courses frequently lent themselves to discussions of capitalism and socialism. I attended almost every class. In general, we had anywhere from 8-10 people, most of whom were retired nurses, teachers, and white collar workers. I often brought out personal experiences about watching Michael Moore’s movie Capitalism a Love Story. In these classes I was able to talk about capitalist healthcare. I told them about what care systems are like as a patient in the US and what the health care systems are like in other non-capitalist countries. In Bruce’s class about Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, I often pointed out things about her life that other students hadn’t noticed. These included things like her ability to form cross-class alliances that allowed her to get her comrades out of prison. In the last class, I printed out the verses of IWW organizer Joe Hill’s tribute to Elizabeth called Rebel Girl. I brought in a video of the song. I led the singing and gradually the others joined in. By the end of the song about half the class was in tears.

    After we moved here we wanted to establish a regular place to walk. We walk now in two places. One is where we walk five days a week and a couple of “special” places on the weekend. Wherever we walk we hold hands. Each of us wears colorful clothes which makes us stand out. People seem to respond to this. Often times in our weekend walks around Capitol Lake people smile at us before we even notice them. We feel a special affinity for couples who are also holding hands. One time a young Latina women approached us. As our eyes met, she started crying. Through tears she asked us how long we were together. She told us she wished that this could happen for her as she got older. We told her we wished for that for her, too.

    Neighbors

    In our neighborhood we walk 20 blocks walk from every weekday morning. Along the way we have made connections with other regular walkers but also, people in their houses who see us go by every day.  Right now we have about 8 neighbors we know spanning this mile-long walk who we see off and on every day. We always talk with them briefly or wave to them at their windows.

    I’ve gotten to know our neighbors by initiating conversations with them.

    Now go into neighbors:

    • Lin – old guy who walks every day using a walker – x-miner league baseball player who was a political science high school teacher
    • Dianne and Deane – neighbors who we wave to in their living room every morning – both worked in the military – they liked us even though they’re conservative and know we are socialists
    • Daniel – gardener/carpenter/musician who is always working on a house near us (he’s invited us to his gigs and told us about a blues music festival in Port Townsend) lives on Decatur with Rose
    • Allie – “polymorphist” lesbian neighbor who always says she wants to have a relationship like ours as she sees us holding hands. She has also expressed interest in learning about socialism – she will edit Bruce’s next book
    • Laurie – neighbor who often talks to us as we’re passing her house – working class – worked for the state – has a good Irish sense of humor
    • Ralph – he’s very interested in socialism and we have good discussions about it
    • Carrie – a social worker who knows we are socialists as we have had some conversations with her about it
    • Michael (gay guy on corner)

    The only two political  neighbors we know are Lin and Ralph. Bruce met Lin on one of our walks and he asked Bruce what he was doing with his time. Bruce told him he teaches and writes. Lin wanted to know about what and Bruce sent him the link to our website Socialist Planning Beyond Capitalism. As it turns out Lin is an ex minor league baseball picture who would wind up as a political science teacher. The discussion turned to socialism and Lin was comfortable with that.

    We gradually formed a relationship with Ralph over many months. Ralph seemed very hungry to talk about what is going on in the world. We guardedly asked each other about news sources and thought we had something in common. They included The Rising Tide Foundation and the work of Richard Wolff and Michael Hudson. We met with him a number of times to discuss world politics and socialism.

    I always initiate waving at people as they drive  by even though I don’t know them – they almost always wave back. Sometimes they wave at us first. You might think that it’s odd to wave to people you don’t know. Not in Olympia. We sometimes say to each other, “is there something in the drinking water”?

    Worker Co-Operatives

    Some people think that worker co-ops have crabby workers because they are probably socialists. These people will learn quickly that they are the opposite of crabby. Worker co-ops are very different than people who work in corporate-owned businesses. If you engage with people who work in co-operatives they are rarely like the image at the top of the page. These folks almost always seem happy and friendly. Sure, they work hard. But they don’t have a “big boss” staring over their shoulder. They are the ones who make the decisions about how much they want to work, how much they want to get paid and so many other aspects of work. Because they get to have a say they rarely look beaten down or overworked.

    So please, if you have it in your heart to support the workers, shop at co-operatives and support them in any way you can. Then you, too, can become a social socialist.

    Conclusion:

    As I learned more about socialism I understood how wonderful it is of wanting the workers to own the means of production. Our society today in Western countries is based on capitalism. Workers do not own the means of productions. Their bosses do – and their bosses give them orders. Almost always the “big” bosses or corporate heads do none of the actual work. They are the ones who collect almost all of the money, then invest it in the stock market to make even more money. Yet they are the ones who tell us what to do, when to do it, how long to do it and – if we’re lucky – pay us a living wage. So many, however, are not paid a living wage and have to rely on programs like welfare, for which they are shamed. Many of them do not receive do not have healthcare so they go without.

    My point in this article is to take seriously that we are social beings no matter where we go – at work, in school with neighbors and even most challenging, with strangers in public. When shopping it is key to ask two questions of the workers to get the ball rolling:

    • How’s work?
    • How is capitalism treating you

    Adult education is the easiest place to have an engagement with people, especially when the subject matter of class is about sociology or history. With neighbors the engagement is slower and more careful because if you live near people there are consequences of tipping your hand too early about being a socialist. As an example, we had a good relationship with our neighbor across the street till he put up his Ukrainian flag. With strangers there is the least amount of time and space to develop political discussions. However, being in a political demonstration makes it easier to get into deeper politics because you can assume everyone is mostly on the same page. The song “Bread and Roses” is what we often sing. Please listen. Here are the lyrics .  It’s hard not to listen without being moved by it as I was in my first demonstration and every time I hear it playing today.

    As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
    A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
    Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
    For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!

    As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,
    For they are women’s children, and we mother them again.
    Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
    Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread but give us roses.

    As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
    Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
    Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
    Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.

    As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,
    The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
    No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
    But a sharing of life’s glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.
    Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
    Hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses.

    The post How I’ve Learned to be a Social Socialist first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • U.S. Domestic Colonial Occupation Must Be Met with a Struggle for Decolonization, Not Reform

     Since August, federal mandates carried out against Washington D.C. and intensified policing have been escalating with both the federal and local governments making it clear that they are waging a domestic war on African (Black) working class and migrant diaspora people. This imposition is not only in the form of increased National Guard troops. Arrests, deportations, and raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surged in Washington, D.C. as part of the federal crackdown, leading to high levels of fear in immigrant communities and has emboldened the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to harass and make more arrests, especially of Africa (Black) youth.

    Pan-African Community Action (PACA) and the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) D.C. City Wide Alliance (BAP-DC), of which PACA is a member, reaffirm that these events are all the logical endpoints of a political system that prioritizes property over people and repression over community safety. With every passing week the U.S. settler colonial state, currently presided over by the Trump administration, intensifies its naked aggression.

    Mobilizations of resistance have been met with unabated policies of repression. On September 17, the House voted to expand MPD’s powers to pursue suspects in high-speed chases, further endangering life and limb of D.C. residents. Several deaths and injuries in D.C. have occurred due to high-speed police chases. Recent legislation also mandates that D.C. judges strictly comply with mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines for youth, requires the DC attorney general to release a website with juvenile crime statistics, and lowers the age at which youth can be tried as adults to the age of 14. It should go without saying that such policies in the U.S. are inherently racist and will disproportionately impact African (Black) youth.

    But PACA and BAP-DC do not reduce the problem to a Trump presidency. The Black misleadership class – a.k.a. compradors – is the primary impediment to organizing the masses of African people, a reality in all major Democratic Party-led cities targeted by the Trump administration. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. City Council recently approved a new labor agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police that includes a 13% pay raise for D.C. police officers, starting October 1st. This agreement also includes retroactive cost-of-living increases and other incentives for police officers. The council voted to extend Bowser’s expanded youth curfew into the fall, granting police the power to declare designated zones with earlier curfews. The criminalization of working-class African people by the DC city government preceded the federal imposition. These recent policies must be viewed as complementary to Trump’s takeover, rather than resistant to it.

    The trend in most of the cities targeted by the federal militarization is for Black misleaders to respond to the Trump administration’s threats by expanding policing on their own. PACA and BAP-DC will not allow the squabbles among the ruling class and its political lackeys to distract us and the people. We cannot become spectators of bipartisan power struggles and infighting, while our communities remain targets of both camps.

    We reject under no uncertain terms the false framing and claims that these actions are about public safety. It is a shift toward domestic lawfare – legal actions undertaken as part of a hostile campaign against the African (Black) working class and migrant diaspora. Under capitalism, law does not serve as a remedy for the people’s needs or concerns. Invariably, it is used by the rich and powerful to wage war on marginalized people. PACA and BAP-DC caution against the tendency to confine the narratives to local framing and understand that local resistance must see itself clearly as part and parcel of the anti-imperialist struggle of the global south.

    The heinous U.S. attacks on Venezuelan boats in international waters under the guise of carrying out a war on drugs are a counterpart to the domestic war on the people in this country. The brazen and unmitigated genocide against Palestine is being committed by the same enemies of humanity currently targeting our communities. The military occupation of Africa in the form of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), is an affront to African (Black) people everywhere in the world and is a counterpart to militarized police occupations of our working-class communities across the U.S.

    After returning the so-called Department of Defense to its original name of War Department, Donald Trump, the current president of imperialism, threatened Chicago on a social media post, “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.” While this may be seen by some as the antics of a megalomaniac, we are clear that at the root of this is the U.S. capitalist, imperialist system desperately trying to hold on to power. This is why its lawfare is also taking aim at organized resistance. Recent rhetoric and proposals from the Trump administration target “far-left” organizations and non-profits it accuses of fomenting political violence. The Liberal tendency is to double down on expressions of allegiance to the U.S settler colonial project, a white supremacist extension of Western Europe, instead of opposing repression.

    In D.C., this takes the masked form of advocating for D.C. statehood, a reform that misguides the people’s indignation toward a nonsolution, a goal that will only add another layer of state structure for compradors to occupy. Statehood has done nothing for African (Black), indigenous, and immigrant communities facing oppression and repression in cities that are part of states across the U.S. Preserving the political autonomy and independence of D.C.’s current political process is inconsequential if local leaders continue to wage an unrelenting war against the African (Black) working-class people in D.C. Long before Trump entered the scene, the D.C. local government had already pioneered a “tough on crime” agenda that included the passage of the D.C. Secure Omnibus Crime Bill, widespread criminalization of fare evasion, and approving the construction of a new D.C. jail. Further, statehood has not increased safety or improved the lives of working-class people in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Atlanta, or Chicago, whose populations are subjected to relentless police occupation, widespread surveillance, increased deportations, and crackdowns against civil disobedience and resistance.

    The criminalization, police occupation, surveillance, crackdowns on any resistance, and all such forms of repression are reflections of an ailing and inherently fascist U.S settler colonialism and cannot be remedied through reformism.

    The only logical response of the colonized to its colonization is to organize for decolonization and liberation. The unavoidable first step is community control over public safety. As we have said, “the debate over federal takeover versus local government control is a distraction. In practice, both levels of this state have committed to deepening policing, expanding surveillance, and protecting the interests of capital over the needs of the people. The difference lies in style, not substance.”

    The struggle must be to organize for power. Not reform. The people most subjected to the machinations of the system must organize against the U.S. settler colonialist system upheld by a synthesis of capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. PACA and BAP-DC declare that the right to self-determination must be won through building radical political alternatives that prove poverty stems not from lack of resources but from their organized theft. And that sovereignty is never granted – it is seized.

    The post U.S. Domestic Colonial Occupation Must Be Met with a Struggle for Decolonization, Not Reform first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • We Are All antifa Now


    Boom – by Mr. Fish

    Trump’s designation of the amorphous group antifa, which has no formal organization or structure, as a terrorist organization permits the state to charge us all as terrorists. The point is not to go after members of antifa, short for anti-fascist. It is to go after the last vestiges of dissent. When Barack Obama oversaw the coordinated national campaign to shut down the Occupy encampments, antifa — so named because they dress in black, obscure their faces, move as a unified mass and seek physical confrontations with police – was the excuse.

    “I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post. “I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

    I have no love for antifa. The feeling is mutual. I was a fierce opponent of the Black Bloc anarchists who identified with antifa. They embedded themselves in Occupy encampments and refused to take part in the collective decision making. They carried out property destruction and initiated clashes with the police. Occupy activists were antifa’s human shields. I wrote that antifa was “a gift from heaven to the security and surveillance state.”

    David Graeber, whose work I respect, wrote an open letter criticizing my position.

    I was doxed. My lectures and events, which received phone threats forcing venues to hire private security, including bodyguards, were picketed by men dressed in black, their faces were covered by black bandanas. They all carried the same sign, no matter which city I was in, that read: “Fuck You Chris Hedges.” During a debate with an anarchist supporter of antifa in New York City, several dozen black-clad men in the audience jeered and interrupted me, often yelling out sarcastically “amen.”

    The state effectively used antifa — I am certain antifa was heavily infiltrated with agents provocateurs — to shut all of us down. The corporate state feared the broad appeal of the Occupy movement, including to those within the systems of power. The movement was targeted because it articulated a truth about our economic and political system that cut across political and cultural lines.

    Antifa, let me be clear, is not a terrorist organization. It may confuse acts of petty vandalism and a repellent cynicism with revolution, but its designation as a terrorist organization has no legal justification.

    Antifa sees any group that seeks to rebuild social structures, especially through nonviolent acts of civil disobedience, as the enemy. They oppose all organized movements, which only ensures their own powerlessness. They are not only obstructionist, but obstructionist to those of us who are also trying to resist. They dismiss anyone who lacks their ideological purity. It does not matter if individuals are part of union organizing, workers’ and populist movements or radical intellectuals and environmental activists. These anarchists are an example of what Theodore Roszak in The Making of a Counter Culture called the “progressive adolescentization” of the American left.

    John Zerzan, one of the principal ideologues of the Black Bloc movement in the United States, defended “Industrial Society and Its Future,” the rambling manifesto by Theodore Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, although he did not endorse Kaczynski’s bombings. Zerzan dismisses a long list of supposed “sellouts” starting with Noam Chomsky and including myself.

    Black Bloc activists in cities such as Oakland smashed the windows of stores and looted them. It was not a strategic, moral or tactical act. It was done for the sake of destruction. Random acts of violence, looting and vandalism are justified, in the jargon of the movement, as components of “feral” or “spontaneous insurrection.” These acts, the movement argues, can never be organized. Organization, in the thinking of the movement, implies hierarchy, which must always be opposed. There can be no restraints on “feral” or “spontaneous” acts of insurrection. Whoever gets hurt gets hurt. Whatever gets destroyed gets destroyed.

    “The Black Bloc movement is infected with a deeply disturbing hypermasculinity,” I wrote. “This hypermasculinity, I expect, is its primary appeal. It taps into the lust that lurks within us to destroy, not only things but human beings. It offers the godlike power that comes with mob violence. Marching as a uniformed mass, all dressed in black to become part of an anonymous bloc, faces covered, temporarily overcomes alienation, feelings of inadequacy, powerlessness and loneliness. It imparts to those in the mob a sense of comradeship. It permits an inchoate rage to be unleashed on any target. Pity, compassion and tenderness are banished for the intoxication of power. It is the same sickness that fuels the swarms of police who pepper-spray and beat peaceful demonstrators. It is the sickness of soldiers in war. It turns human beings into beasts.”

    But while I oppose antifa, I do not blame them for the state’s response. If it was not antifa it would be some other group. Our rapidly consolidating police state will use any mechanism to silence us. It actually welcomes violence. Confrontational tactics and destruction of property justify draconian forms of control and frighten the wider population, driving them away from any resistance movement. It needs antifa or a group like it. Once a resistance movement is successfully smeared as a flag-burning, rock-throwing, angry mob — which those in the Trump administration are working hard to do — we are finished. If we become isolated, we can be crushed.

    “Nonviolent movements, on some level, embrace police brutality,” I wrote. “The continuing attempt by the state to crush peaceful protesters who call for simple acts of justice delegitimizes the power elite. It prompts a passive population to respond. It brings some within the structures of power to our side and creates internal divisions that will lead to paralysis within the network of authority. Martin Luther King kept holding marches in Birmingham because he knew Public Safety Commissioner ‘Bull’ Connor was a thug who would overreact.”

    “The explosive rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement came when a few women, trapped behind orange mesh netting, were pepper-sprayed by NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna,” I went on. “The violence and cruelty of the state were exposed. And the Occupy movement, through its steadfast refusal to respond to police provocation, resonated across the country. Losing this moral authority, this ability to show through nonviolent protest the corruption and decadence of the corporate state, would be crippling to the movement. It would reduce us to the moral degradation of our oppressors. And that is what our oppressors want.”

    I saw how antifa was weaponized to break the Occupy movement. Now it is being weaponized to throttle any resistance, no matter how tepid and benign.

    This justification for widespread repression is absurdist theater, characterized by fictions, including the supposed “Red-Green” alliance of Islamists and the “radical left.” Stephen Miller, Trump’s top policy adviser, insists there was an “organized campaign” behind the assassination of Charlie Kirk, whose martyrdom has turbocharged state repression. Any Trump opponent, including billionaire financier George Soros and his Open Society Foundations, will soon be caught in the net.

    We are all antifa now.

    The post We Are All antifa Now first appeared on Dissident Voice.

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  • The Neofascist Economy is Here

    Donald Trump is creating a new form of capitalism. His economic policy is driven by his personal whims rather than the needs of capital, the results of which are likely to bring disaster to our economy and extreme hardship to American workers and the American people.

    Trump voters have consistently overlooked or dismissed his glaring failures as a businessman who squandered his great family wealth. Born with a golden spoon in his mouth, this self-anointed Commander of Capitalism had an allowance of $200,000 annually as a toddler and became a millionaire at the age of eight. After he finished college his daddy provided him with a million dollars annually, but once on his own he nearly lost his fortune. Remember, he filed for bankruptcy six times. Never one to admit failure of any kind, Trump thinks he’s qualified to save the American economy because he thinks he’s a master deal maker. We can thank NBC for falsely promoting his image as NYC’s most successful real estate entrepreneur. He was nothing of the kind. The truth is the big absentee owners of New York City real estate and banking shunned him. Before NBC rescued Trump, his public life consisted of appearances at professional wrestling matches, dwindling movie cameos, and hawking his fake university.

    But facts have consequences and the consequence of corporate broadcasting’s legitimation of Trump set him on the path to the White House. Now, as another consequence, he’s creating a new neo-fascist economy, a capitalism more obedient to him than to profit. And no institution, no law, in fact, nothing is going to stop him. As he put it, “I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” Consider these few examples: He unilaterally imposed tariffs on most countries, including a couple that don’t exist, and changes the rate on an almost daily basis. After calling for the firing of the head of Intel, he forced the company to surrender a 10% stake to the government. He put the squeeze on Nvidia and AMD – you want an export license, gimme what I want – forcing them to turn over 15% of revenue earned from selling chips in China. His old reliable mode of economic extortion – the threat of even higher tariffs – convinced Apple to “promise” to invest billions in the United States, and he agreed to the sale of U.S. Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel providing he has the power to influence corporate decisions. He’s now using that power to prevent the building of a steel mill in blue state Illinois. Sounds like an extortion racket, doesn’t it? He used the government’s leverage over a potential merger to get CBS to kick Stephen Colbert off the air and he has tried to use the same script with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel. As Steve Ratner notes in the New York Times, the White House keeps a scorecard of over 500 corporations and Trade Associations based on their support for Trump’s tax and spending programs. Trump’s new American economy works on one principle: Support Trump or suffer the consequences (Putin excepted, of course).

    Trump’s excursions into the corporate economy make a mockery of the myth of the free market. It presents the captains of America’s corporate economy, an economy mostly dominated by a handful of companies that control the bulk of their markets, with a Hobson’s choice: do they follow the interests of capital or do they risk retribution by resisting the president’s threats? As Baron and Sweezy show, capital seeks its most profitable outlets, but Trump’s arbitrary whims take corporations in a different direction. Consider the case of Apple. To avoid unacceptably high tariffs the company made a vague promise to invest up to six billion dollars in the United States, even though the costs of domestic production are exorbitantly higher. Given Trump’s immigration policies and Apple’s reliance on a specialized labor force, the absence of a trained labor pool will drive up production costs even more. Sales and profits are likely to fall under this scenario. How will stockholders respond? Will investors start funneling their money elsewhere? If so, what does Apple’s future and the future of other firms Trump is extorting look like?

    Trump’s approach creates uncertainty that is almost sure to lead to disinvestment in the American economy. Investors require certainty. Why would capital flow into or even remain in the United States given Trump’s almost daily changes to his tariff policies and extortion of even the biggest companies? Businesses large and small tried to stockpile parts and commodities before the tariffs hit and even absorb some rising costs to cushion prices to their consumers. But the stockpiles are depleted and stockholders will tolerate reduced profits for only so long. Now it’s likely that companies will pay for the tariffs by cutting jobs and wages, further increasing the country’s already record-breaking economic inequality. Tariffs are just one aspect of the uncertainty that Trump has wrought upon us. A massive decline in foreign investment will drive up long-term interest rates even as Trump tries to force lower short-term rates on the once independent FED. Trump’s actions will make access to capital more costly, triggering an economic slowdown, increase unemployment, and undercut the value of the U.S. dollar. All this all but guarantees the US will lose the many imperial advantages of the dollar as the world’s most secure international currency.

    Some pundits call Trump’s policies socialism. They miss the point. Trump has no interest in using the means of production for the public good. To the contrary, his program, such as it is, follows the fascist playbook: make all important institutions — corporations, universities, law firms, the entertainment industry, professional sports — serve and reflect the leaders’ power craving. Trump’s fantasy-driven narcissism is everywhere: meddling in the private sector; total indifference to facts and truth; a super nationalistic MAGA celebration of a falsified golden era; his ever-present self-glorification as the one and only man “who can fix anything;” disregard for the law and tradition; persecution of enemies; and the dominant role played by military spending. And let’s not forget the gawdy public displays of military power, such as a mass parade and mobilization of troops in Democratic led cities. American monopoly capitalism was far from perfect, but the jugular question here isn’t ideological. It’s whether the already flawed version of American “free enterprise” can survive fascist irrationality. Subordinating the real economy of the United States to the whims of “the great leader” makes no sense. But it is our governing reality. The real question then is, can we survive it?

    The post The Neofascist Economy is Here first appeared on Dissident Voice.

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  • A New and Darker McCarthy Era Descends with the Night

    In a dark time, the eye begins to see ….
    What’s madness but nobility of soul
    At odds with circumstance? ….
    A steady storm of correspondences!”

    – Theodore Roethke, “In a Dark Time”

    We are all obscurantists now, deep in crepuscular propaganda, looking for light. “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there,” as Bob Dylan’s sings in “Not Dark Yet.” “Well, my sense of humanity has gone down the drain.”

    It’s a sentiment more and more people can identify with as dark, dangerous, and duplicitous news reports loot the public’s mind of any sense of logical understanding by presenting stories that contradict themselves, while inducing great anxiety. Double-binds, Catch 22s, contronymal cages meant to trap the public in impossible conundrums.

    (A contronym is a word having two definitions that contradict each other. Two examples are the word bolt, which can mean to lock with a bolt and to flee, and clip, which means to attach and to detach.)

    Chaos reigns, as it is meant to do, as the Bill of Rights is stripped, Palestinians are slaughtered, nuclear war becomes more likely, and the crackdown on dissent increases dramatically under the second Trump administration. Today’s operation chaos, with its spying on American citizens, etc., makes the CIA’s previous illegal Operation Chaos (1967-74) spying operation seem quaint by comparison. Today’s surveillance is synonymous with the Internet and digital technology. It is getting very dark indeed.

    The American oligarchic political system that is endlessly debated and fixates people’s attention is a contronymal system that contains positive and negative poles that cancel each other out while keeping the believer frozen and frustrated. It is essentially Orwell’s Doublethink with a twist, which is the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accept both as true; such is a mainstay of effective propaganda. Once you are in it, you are trapped because there are no outside references – the simulated system of thought is your cage. Biden vs. Trump is an example of this cage, a cage created to keep people ensnared in confusion.

    The Trump administration, working for the 1% and Israel, is creating a strategy of tension between social groups not seen since the CIA run Operation Gladio throughout Europe after WWII that involved assassinations, bombings, etc. that were blamed on communists. In other words, false flag operations meant to inflame the public through deception.

    The official government and corporate media (but I am repeating myself) stories about the brutal public assassination of the influential young conservative Charlie Kirk and his subsequent sanctification as a great American martyr is an example of the contronymal cage at work. The stories are preposterous, as in the word’s etymological sense of before-behind, and therefore contradictory and absurd. The stories are like matrushka dolls; when the largest lie starts to fall apart you remove it and present fallback position number two and so on to the next hidden doll, if necessary. These stories are created before to be used after. Paul Craig Roberts described it thus:

    James Jesus Angleton, head of CIA counterintelligence for three decades, long ago explained to me that intelligence services create stories inside stories, each with its carefully constructed trail of evidence, in order to create false trails as diversions. Such painstaking work can serve a variety of purposes. It can be used to embarrass or discredit an innocent person or organization that has an unhelpful position on an important issue and is in the way of an agenda. It can be used as a red herring to draw attention away from a failing explanation of an event by producing an alternative false explanation. I forget what Angleton called them, but the strategy is to have within a false story other stories that are there but withheld because of “national security” or “politically sensitive issues” or some such. Then if the official story gets into trouble, the backup story can be released in order to deflect attention into a new false story or to support the original story. Angleton said that intelligence services protect their necessary misdeeds by burying the misdeed in competing explanations.

    I discern a trend in all the Charlie Kirk commentaries that suggests something else may be involved. Maybe Israel killed Kirk. Maybe not. I don’t know. There is no  definitive evidence that they did. But as in the sentence Ralph Waldo Emerson ascribed to Henry Thoreau – “Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk” – Netanyahu’s repeated denials seem very odd if Israel did not kill Kirk.

    I do know that the official reports about the alleged assassin Tyler Robinson raise as many questions as they don’t answer. But from ex-CIA commentators to Council of Foreign Relation members to the conservative Ron Unz and others across the political spectrum, they are saying or intimating that not only has Israel probably killed Kirk but a number of them are making sure to add that it killed JFK, RFK and did 9/11, etc., and in all these commentaries the Central Intelligence Agency is never once mentioned. Very strange. Very, very strange. It’s as if the CIA has handed off all assassinations to the Mossad. So why?  Why so much talk about the Mossad but none about the CIA?

    And then you have Trump and Netanyahu, saying Israel’s hands are clean in the Kirk killing and more, which means Kirk was killed by a lone nut like JFK, Malcom X, MLK, Jr., and RFK. So it was Israel or a lone nut in all these assassinations. So who says otherwise, who says the CIA was behind the 1960 assassinations? Who says the lone nut scenarios are bullshit? Who says 9/11 was a U.S. inside job? Very few. I do. But more importantly, a man with a new book – Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of JFK, Malcom X, Martin, and RFK – coming out in a month, James W. Douglass. Both of us are also sharp critics of Israel. Interesting comments before publication! What will come after?

    It should be self-evident that Israel is run by fanatical Zionists and it is committing genocide of the Palestinians and has a long history of assassinating its alleged enemies. Netanyahu and his ilk have zero compunction when it comes to carrying out the most evil deeds (nor does the CIA). And Donald Trump is Israel’s fervent ally in all this, including the targeting of Iran.

    The great journalist Max Blumenthal’s recent articles at The GrayZone about Charlie Kirk’s break with Netanyahu and his cutout funders in the U.S.A. shine a bright light on the backstory to Kirk’s killing. Blumenthal, a man of the left and a long-time analyst of Kirk, Israel, and Palestine, reports that Kirk, a man of the right, was in the weeks and months before his assassination moving away from his previous full-throated support of Israel because of its genocide of the Palestinians and his revulsion for Netanyahu. Previously, Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA (TPUSA), was fully backed by the Zionist government and its cutout backers in the U.S. It was essentially an arm of Israeli propaganda and an important support for Trump aimed at young American conservatives. But in recent months, as Kirk suffered pangs of conscience, he had starting criticizing Israel and turned down a massive offer of money from Netanyahu and more from pro-Israel backers into TPUSA. He was turning away from his previous support for the Netanyahu Zionist forces and was afraid for his life, especially after an August meeting in the Hamptons on Long Island convened by the Israel backer billionaire Bill Ackman where Kirk was harshly attacked for his change of heart. Blumenthal reports all this and more, noting that Kirk was terribly shaken by the Hamptons’ rabid attack on him and was fearful for his safety.

    Whether the Kirk story will fade into the background, I do not know. It is clear that Israel, Trump, and TPUSA have claimed him as a fallen martyr for their own purposes. Already we see that the alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, and the investigation into Kirk’s death, is receding from public view. I would claim – purposely. The lone nut meme will no doubt live on, as many bizarre theories will proliferate as usual. Despite its historical record as a ludicrous lie, the lone nut story endures. Until it doesn’t, and then the next matrushka doll will be pulled out, offering a glimpse of truth to conceal the greater lie. We can expect a bowl of slop explanations to proliferate. So it goes.

    Blumenthal is a very solid reporter and believes his many sources for his reporting on the Kirk story are reliable and truthful. I agree. There is always the small chance in this world of endless propaganda that he has been played, but logic and his track record make this extremely unlikely. I urge readers to listen to him spell out his reporting in great detail and most brilliantly when interviewed by Chris Hedges recently. Not only does he detail his reporting on the matter but places it in a larger historical perspective that is essential.

    There is no doubt we are moving deeper into a dark period in American history, one that may make the 1950s look tame. A new/old strategy of tension is underway – Blumenthal says it has been building since 2020 but I would say longer – pitting people against each other while the 1%, the killers, and the warmongers roll on and over ordinary people as they crack down on civil liberties, dissent, and everything a free people hold sacred.

    On a final note and as an example of the way the system of control works, you will remember that Trump was elected in part on his pledge to end Biden’s war against Russia via Ukraine. He said he would do so within his first 24 hours in office. Many bought this clear bullshit, even some on the left. Others didn’t because they knew there would be a continuity between Biden’s and Trump’s foreign policy. I was one on them and so in February I wrote Hold the Applause for Trump, the “Peacemaker.”  Now we will shortly enter his ninth month in office and he just stood in front of the U.N. and declared that the war is winnable and Ukraine needs our support to do so. Like a conman barker at a carnival’s spinning wheel, he wishes the crowd “good luck” as he announces the following on his Truth Social site:

    After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form. With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option. Why not? Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win. This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like “a paper tiger.” When the people living in Moscow, and all of the Great Cities, Towns, and Districts all throughout Russia, find out what is really going on with this War, the fact that it’s almost impossible for them to get Gasoline through the long lines that are being formed, and all of the other things that are taking place in their War Economy, where most of their money is being spent on fighting Ukraine, which has Great Spirit, and only getting better, Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that! Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act. In any event, I wish both Countries well. We will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them. Good luck to all!

    DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

    When a president can utter such blatant aggressive nonsense that is contradicted by all the facts, you know a dark night for truthful souls is coming, along with a direct NATO war with Russia and a U.S./Israel attack on Iran.

    It’s not fully dark yet, but we’re getting there.

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  • US judge endorses US$1.5bn Anthropic copyright settlement

    A federal judge in California has preliminarily approved a landmark US$1.5 billion settlement of a copyright class action brought by a group of authors against artificial intelligence company Anthropic. The proposed deal marks the first settlement in a string of lawsuits against tech companies including OpenAI, Microsoft and Meta Platforms over their use of copyrighted…

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  • Please Don’t Step In It!

    I gotta get back to doing stand-up comedy. I mean the **** is so smelly and deep no matter where you look. Don’t you just love those countless television and radio commercials showing Americans how those lovely corporations are there to help you? I mean, everything being sold, even healthcare and medicines, is there to make our lives better. Thank God they haven’t yet taken away the listing of side effects on most of the drugs Big Pharma insists we need to take in order to live. (Of course, there are cases when a [slight] percentage of us are in quite dire straits, in actual life and death struggles). How about those commercials where everyone taking the newest miracle drug dances around with each other like they did on VE Day 1945?

    The car commercials are great. Especially when the average price of a new car or SUV or pickup truck is well over $50k, or with a BMW or Mercedes well over $70k. Factor in the overwhelming number of working stiffs out there, duh, like 90% of us, who have trouble affording a $20k used car. The bandits in corporate Amerika have the whole deck rigged when $20k a year covers about six month’s rent for so many families. We haven’t even gotten to health care costs yet:

    A few years ago my wife, who was not yet eligible for Medicare, was  costing us $7k a year in hospitalization insurance premiums.  For the first time in her life she gets a kidney stone. Knowing how much an ambulance costs ($ 600-700 for the ride over to the ER) she was in so much pain she could not literally get out of bed. Between the ambulance and the ER charge ( and let me say that everyone involved in caring for her, from the paramedics to the nurses and doctor, were top shelf human beings). The next month we get a bill for over $2500 as Blue Cross only paid like $400 or $500 of the $3000 visit to the ER. You see, technically she was not admitted to the hospital, only to the ER. Blue Cross was shrewd enough to call their plan Hospitalization, so we got squat!

    It seems like the politicians, from both parties, have copied the accident attorneys with their mantra: “I’m out there fighting for you!” No boxing gloves needed for these jokers. We should know by now that the Republicans are only out there fighting for YOU when they send undocumented laborers away from their **** jobs. They are fighting to keep the top bracket of Americans (duh, like less than one percent of us) from paying their fair share, as the rest of us pay through the nose for housing, food, clothing, doctor bills etc. Let’s call a spade a spade (No pun intended). The Republican Party has a history of making sure that people with black (and now brown) skin don’t live near us white people or go to school with our kids… except the high school football and basketball stars who they find a way in. Now, the Democrats, who say they “Feel your pain,” with 10% few exceptions suck up to their corporate or billionaire donors and turn a blind eye to the needs of us working stiffs. Instead of fighting to stop funding phony wars and other foreign interventions, they go right ahead with this empire. Lip service is what they decide to give us.

    So, that is why this writer says you must be careful where you step when you walk outside of your little cocoon.

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  • Diplomats And Activists Gather To Commemorate Historic Meeting Between Fidel And Malcolm X

    Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernández de Cossío, along with Cuban diplomats from the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations, gathered in Harlem alongside US-based activists and organizational leaders to commemorate the historic meeting between Fidel Castro and Malcolm X which took place 65 years ago.

    “The meeting at the Hotel Theresa was not a photo-op or passing event,” said Manolo De Los Santos, the executive director of New York City-based movement incubator The People’s Forum. De Los Santos addressed the crowd gathered in the Riverside Church in Harlem. “It was a profound act of solidarity that showed the world a different way forward.”

    The post Diplomats And Activists Gather To Commemorate Historic Meeting Between Fidel And Malcolm X appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Recognize Hamas

    Meaningless gestures

    Israel’s most genocidal Western supporters are planning to “recognize” a “Palestinian state”. France, Britain, maybe even Canada if the Palestinian state meets the Canadian Prime Minister’s novel criterion (the Canadian PM said he thinks there needs to be a “Zionist Palestinian State”).

    This “Palestinian State” will be run by the “Palestinian Authority” and will derive its authority not from its arms or the electoral legitimacy of its people, but from an agreement with Israel signed in Oslo in 1993 under American auspices, one that binds the Palestinian Authority but not Israel. For this agreement, the Palestinian Authority imprisons, tortures, and kills Palestinians, while the Israelis enthusiastically break every obligation and provision that is supposed to compel their side.The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, September 12, 2025 (UN)

    Meanwhile, some United Nations committee, following some group of something called “genocide scholars”, has decided two years and hundreds of thousands of deaths later, that Israel is, indeed, committing genocide in Gaza.

    Genocidal politicians like Bernie Sanders followed – they too, discovered that there’s a genocide in Gaza.

    Do not find hope in these gestures.

    That’s not because they are symbolic. The US / Israel and Western allies are more dependent on propaganda than any other tool. Symbolism is extremely important to them. If they were deprived of their symbols, they would have a far harder time committing this genocide.

    But these gestures do not do that. These gestures are meaningless.

    The Heated Exchange

    What is a sort of symbolic gesture that would have an effect on the genocide?

    There’s a clue to be found in the viral video of a Chinese academic confronting an Israeli official. The Chinese academic states a figure (probably one tenth of the actual death toll) of 70,000 killed, and says that Israel lost legitimacy when they killed so many women and children. The Israeli official says that is not factual. Prof. Xuetong rejoins that Israel does not get to determine what is factual and what isn’t.

    Prof. Xuetong gets right to the heart of Israel’s symbolic power: it is to determine what is factual and what isn’t.

    But the truth is that even Prof. Xuetong accepts much, far too much, of Israel’s “facts”.

    Through its disciplined spokesman, Israel tells the professor that “the terror organisation Hamas is still holding our hostages”.

    Prof. Xuetong replies: “Your military people should [have shot] the terrorists. Not the children! Not the women! When [you] shot the women and the children, you lost the legitimacy to carry out any actions [for] that reason.”

    You agree they’re genociding. Why do you still believe them?

    But if it’s the case that Israel is committing genocide, why is the “international community” that decides the facts accepting Israel’s claim that Palestine is full of terrorists that are to be killed?

    Why is the “international community” accepting Israel’s claim that Hamas is a terrorist organization at all?

    Why is the “international community” accepting Israel’s lies about what happened on October 7, 2023?

    It’s been two years. Official bodies now accept that Israel’s committing genocide. Now how about some skepticism about the claims Israel made to justify that genocide?

    Reject both Israeli facts and Israeli logic

    The international community to which Prof. Xuetong refers has some serious rethinking to do. It is not solely the acceptance of Israeli facts, but the acceptance of Israeli logic that must stop.

    If the international community accepts that terrorists are simply to be eliminated, there is a lot more genocide in our future. What is the definition of terrorism? Israelis and their followers would say, “a terrorist is whoever we say it is”, but to try to apply any non-racist logic, the only viable definition of terrorism is something like the “killing of noncombatants for political objectives”. Israeli logic is that everyone involved in the entire chain is a terrorist: those who fire the weapons, those who make the weapons, those who transport them, those who manufacture them, those who finance them, and those who justify their use. And furthermore, Israelis state that eliminating terrorists is so important that it’s acceptable to kill 2-10 others per terrorist if they are “human shields”. This is the declared, accepted doctrine (Israeli practice, which includes rape, torture, and infrastructure destruction, is much worse) which Israeli lawyers defend in public and under which they are committing this genocide.

    Imagine if the “international community” applied this logic about eliminating terrorists consistently. The Israelis are, after all, killing people all over the world, and especially Palestinians, for political objectives – terrorism. There are hundreds of thousands of people in their army, navy and air force firing these weapons. Between Israel, Europe, the US and beyond, there are millions of people involved in the production and distribution of these weapons and in the ideological and media terrorist apparatus of rationalization and justification.

    If the “international community” wishes to apply Israel’s logic about terrorism, it has three choices:

    1. Accept racism. Accept that the US / Israel has a right to label terrorists, commit genocide, and the rest of the world can just hope not to be on the list.
    2. Commit a counter-genocide. Start drawing up their own list of millions of people in the US, Israel, and Europe, who, by way of their participation in the production, distribution, and justification of bombing and famine in Gaza, meet the Israeli definition of terrorists, to be eliminated.

    The third choice is to discard this logic altogether, get out of the genocidal Israeli mentality, and focus on what will stop genocide, not proliferate it.

    Symbolic gestures

    Symbolic gestures should attack Israel’s symbolic powers:

    • Israel’s lies about October 7th.
    • Israel’s ability to label the Palestinian people – and the people of the whole world, increasingly – as “terrorists” or “human shields”, who Israel has the right to kill.
    • Israel’s ability to label anyone resisting them as illegitimate, as outside of politics, and as people who Israel is allowed to kill. Yesterday it was the PLO. Today it’s Hamas. Symbolic demons, symbolic targets when the real target is the entire Palestinian people and especially their children.

    If the Israelis succeed in their genocide and “wipe out Amalek”, tomorrow there will be a new Amalek – and the Israelis will be there to extract the world’s condemnations of Amalek one way or another. Israel conjures up enemies to continue its supremacist and colonialist aims.

    A Meaningful Gesture: Recognize Hamas

    Imagine if the “international community”, instead of “you should have killed the terrorists and spared the children,” were to say “We don’t give a damn if you call them terrorists, you have no right to kill anybody anywhere.”

    Imagine if the “international community” were to say, “we have investigated your claims and we don’t believe your lies about October 7th.”

    Imagine if the “international community” were to say, “the military actions taken by Palestinian armed organizations against the Israeli army are legitimate, but the genocidal actions taken by Israel, including mass Hannibal actions killing hundreds of Israelis on October 7, are not. We recognize the Palestinian resistance, but Israel has lost its right to be recognized.”

    Imagine if the “international community” were to say, “none of the things Israel has said about them can disqualify the Palestinian resistance, but Israel’s genocidal actions and statements have disqualified Israel.”

    Imagine if the “international community” were to say, “after your long record of atrocities, the only sensible conclusion is not that the future Palestinian state must be disarmed, but that Israel must be disarmed.”

    Imagine if the “international community,” instead of making a fantastical distinction between “offensive” weapons and “defensive” weapons, were to say, “with no sign of a halt to the genocide on the horizon, we are going to work towards ensuring parity of weapons between the Palestinians and the Israelis, so there is meaningful deterrence from genocide now and in the future.”

    Yes, today’s symbolic gestures are meaningless. But symbolic gestures are not inherently meaningless.

    If the “international community” wants to take meaningful, purely symbolic action, the thing to do isn’t to recognize a disarmed, Zionist, Palestinian statelet. It isn’t to attend to Israel’s chosen collaborators. It’s to begin negotiating the future of the region directly with the people that Israel wants to kill. It’s to recognize that resistance to genocide is legitimate by recognizing the people resisting. It’s to say, yes, people resisting now will indeed have a say in the future of Palestine, while the people committing genocide now will not.

    It’s to recognize Hamas.

    The post Recognize Hamas first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Israeli Overreach in Palestine and West Asia

    In an extraordinary televised statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the Zionist faithful that the state of Israel will curtail its current ambitions as part of a longer term strategy. The statement is short on specifics, but it comes on the heels of several apparent major failures of Israeli policy.

    The most recent is the attack on Qatar, which has probably robbed both Israel and the US of the vaunted Abraham Accords, which had been a cornerstone in Israeli, US and Western policy in the region. Although Israel, the UAE and Bahrain are the only official signers, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait assumed (or gained assurances) that by “normalizing” relations with Israel and cooperating with the US and NATO countries, they could come under a protective American umbrella that would assure their security from common enemies, in much the same way as Jordan and Egypt, if not better. The bombing of Qatar was a message that not only can they not trust Israel to honor the arrangement, but that US protection – a supposedly rock solid foundation – was essentially worthless, even for a small, compliant country housing the largest US military base in West Asia to protect it. The fact that the Israeli bombings took place in the capital of Qatar, less than 20 miles from al-Udeid airbase leased to the US and heaquarters of the US Central Command, was not lost on the Qataris or the other Gulf monarchies. It was a grave shock to US interests in the region. Even if the US had taken pains to assure the Arab monarchies after the fact that it had been a foolish error of judgment that would not be repeated, these conservative and sensitive partners are not likely to take such assurances for granted anymore, and will be more open to offers from more reliable protectors.

    The US does not often rebuff or chastise Israel, and even less under a Trump administration so beholden to Israel and its US supporters for delivering the White House to him. But in this case even the threat of releasing Epstein files – which the Mossad is thought to hold – might not be enough to coerce such assistance to Israel for a second such episode. (You can only divulge the files once, after which they no longer have value.)

    This brings us to the threat of a US-Israeli attack on Iran. This, too, is probably receding, partly as an effect of the Israeli and US miscalculation in Qatar. Instead, the US is more likely to settle for the recent UN imposition of “snapback” economic sanctions on Iran, which were probably inevitable in any case. Even Iran and the rest of the world might prefer such sanctions as an alternative to a major regional war with unknown consequences. In addition, the Pentagon has expressed concern about the depletion of US weaponry through transfer to Israel and Ukraine. Netanyahu’s speech indicates that Israel might also be having second thoughts, related more to the effect of such a war upon an Israeli public already demoralized and by what seems like endless sacrifices to them. Another exodus of Israel’s population could have major long term consequences.

    For these reasons and others, it is possible that Israel is also trimming its ambitions with respect to Gaza. Already, Netanyahu has stepped back from his recent goal of depopulating all of Gaza. His military commanders have told him that they would need six infantry divisions to do that, while the current under-strength units amount to little more than one. Netanyahu has therefore adjusted the goal to ethnically cleansing just the northern third of the territory, consisting mostly of Gaza City. Nevertheless, this task is more difficult because few Palestinians in northern Gaza consider southern Gaza safer or more livable than Gaza City, even under attack. Netanyahu knows how to change that equation, but he won’t. Furthermore, the longer he pursues this objective, the less patient the Israeli population – including the military – will become, and the more casualties it will take from the literally underground resistance of Hamas and its allies. Israeli society is substantially exhausted and perhaps unwilling to stay the course.

    Of course, Israel is by no means throwing in the towel on all of its actual and potential occupied territories. It has captured substantial amounts of Syrian territory with relatively little opposition since the defeat of the Syrian army. Its military is also active in Lebanon, with the long term purpose of capturing, depopulating and annexing south Lebanon. Resistance there has been subdued since a ceasefire was negotiated November 27, 2024, despite thousands of Israeli violations, but Israel may decide that this is where it can advance its expansionist agenda more successfully than on other fronts. Nevertheless, Israel has failed at least six times at capturing south Lebanon since 1967, and it may prove beyond their means this time, as well. Hezbollah will undoubtedly have a say in the matter.

    Meanwhile, the rest of the world is becoming more activist in isolating and ostracizing Israel. Israel can survive even if its only lifeline is the US, but it could potentially become a caged existence that will last only as long as its support in the US, where the Jewish community seems to be growing at roughly the same rate that Israel’s shrinks, but where there is increasing concern that Israel is committing a genocide.

    These trends are reflected in Netanyahu’s speech and in the frustration and division within Israeli society itself. Is the Zionist experiment finally starting to fail? We know that it cannot survive without massive support and protection from the United States and its powerful Zionist lobby. But is this lobby reaching the limits of its power, as it seeks to circumscribe free speech, academia, the media and other aspects of American society, using antisemitism as a bludgeon? It is not clear that Americans, especially the younger generation, will tolerate such invasion upon their lives and freedoms.

    The post Israeli Overreach in Palestine and West Asia first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.