apple.news/A5LL4_4_DQqq5E7FzlbvFow
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AJ DiCosimo jokingly writes about the history of exorcism.
— Read on www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/a-brief-history-of-exorcism -
Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel, during which more than fourteen hundred people were killed, has provoked significant anger at Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s Prime Minister. More than half of Israelis believe that he should resign as soon as the war in Gaza is over, and almost nine in ten say that Hamas’s incursion represented a failure of his government’s leadership. But Netanyahu is also the great survivor of Israeli politics: after serving as Prime Minister for three years in the nineties, and then a dozen more starting in 2009, he returned—despite myriad legal troubles—in December as the head of the most right-wing government in the nation’s history.
— Read on www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/is-this-the-end-of-the-netanyahu-era -
The content focuses on the ongoing conflict in Gaza and surrounding areas. It highlights the high number of Palestinian casualties, the inadequate UN aid, and reports from Al Jazeera and other sources. The spokesperson for Hamas criticizes Israel’s actions and accuses them of lying. The content also mentions the death of a Palestinian prisoner and Israeli raids in the West Bank. The Iranian Foreign Minister expresses concern about the situation and accuses the US of hypocrisy. The content includes comments about Iran’s involvement in the conflict and attacks on oil fields in Syria. It also mentions Biden’s position on the hostage release and reports from Lebanon and Eilat, Israel.
Tuesday 24 October 2023
Aljazeera is reporting 5,000 Palestinians dead and intense bombing in the last few hours. It is 1 AM in Gaza.
The strikes hit refugee camps. Scores of people are reported killed in Al Shati and Jabalia.
Reporters note that UN aid for Gaza is a fraction of what’s needed and there is video of women and children waiting to be handed small amounts of goods. These are not the videos being seen on the corporate news.
Aljazeera has reporters inside Gaza, reporting from Gaza.
A spokesman for Hamas (Osama Hamdan) says the release of the captives was the result of Egyptian-Qatari negotiations. He says that Hamas asked that the Israelis cease the bombing while they were releasing prisoners. The Israelis did not comply. “You can’t trust the Israeli’s” they don’t accept the rules.” “They don’t care about the lives; they just want to kill more.”
There’s been reporting about 50 hostages being released but the Hamas spokesman says those are rumors. “Lies is what they’ve said about bombing the hospital…Everyone knows now that they are lying.”
According to reporter, Carles Stratford, in Ramallah, the Israelis thanked the Egyptians but not the Quartaries. Stratford says it seems Hamas wants to get out the civilians and keep the military hostages.
There have been protests in the West Benk about the death of a Palestinian prisoner. A Hamas leader Omar Daraghmeh was taken prisoner in the West Bank on October 9. It was later announced that he died in prison. Hamas is calling this an assassination.
There are reports of an attack in the West Bank. In a village, close to Ramallah, there was a military raid. More Israeli raids to find Palestinian fighters will go on.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iranian Foreign Minister, said:
The region is a powder keg. I talked with Lavrov. A position that is not in the interests of the Palestinians will not be adopted at the UN security council. The US is sending military equipment to Israel, so stop your hypocrisy about expanding the war.
Dorsa Jabbari, in Tehran, says that the Iranian government has spoken to Hamas as well as Islamic Jihad. They say they have been urged to show restraint. But, they say, these groups are independent. The hypocrisy of the US asking us to show restraint, while they send arms and move these ships closer is apparent.
The Iranian Foreign Minister has been meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister, Lavrov, about preventing the US from passing any UN resolution on the war in Gaza.
Shihab Rattansi, reporter in D.C., comments about the Pentagon press conference. Their concern was Iran and a wider conflict. Iran’s fingerprints were all over the conflict, to escalate the conflict in Iran and Syria. There have been attacks from Syria. There are ongoing attacks on the oil fields the US controls in eastern Syria. (Note: ?)
When Trump was in power, he said that the only reason the US was in Syria was to take the oil.
Biden said that we should have the hostages released and then we can talk. Is this the official position? Has this been communicated to Hamas? The leaks to the press are that the US is pressuring Israel to hold the ground invasion so that more hostages can be released.
In Lebanon, residents say that the region is being turned into a war zone. Report from South Lebanon:
People are moving out of the border of Lebanon. “Where am I go to?” Asks an elderly woman.
Teresa Bo reports from Eilat, Israel. It’s a tourist destination, but it is now filled with displaced people. 60,000 people have arrived there. There is talk about setting up a tent city. The people are afraid and many blame Netanyahu.
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Wednesday 25 October 2023
The Republicans have finally agreed upon someone to nominate for Speaker. According to postings…
- He maintains that women have abortions after a baby is born.
- Trump won the 2020 election.
- Jan. 6th was a “legitimate protest.”
- Covid was a hoax
- Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme.”
- He wants to cut Medicare
- Climate change is a hoax.
“They Legitimized the Myth of a Stolen Election – and Reaped the Rewards.”
- Just after Jan. 6th, the Republicans were wringing their hands, afraid that the voters were going to hold them responsible. They decided they had to make a clear stand against the events.
- Now, people who voted to reject the results of the election wear it like a “badge of honor.”
- The Times calls Mike Johnson “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections.”
- “Corporate backers have reopened their coffers to lawmakers they once denounced as threats to democracy.”
- “…a dozen Republican lawmakers who broke with Mr. Trump have either lost primaries or chosen to retire.”
Tweet from Mondaire Jones
- “Mike Johnson built a legal career in Louisiana opposing the basic civil rights and civil liberties of the LGBTQ+ community….Voting for him as Speaker is despicable.
Tweet from Sawyer Hackett, Johnson…
- Architect of House effort to overturn election
- Was on Trump legal defense in both impeachments
- Supports national abortion ban
- Wants to ban same-sex marriage
- Thinks weed is a gateway drug
And…
I just refilled the bird feeder. Ten minutes later, the porch was filled with our squirrel girls, titmice, and the rarely seen enormous Blue Jay. Our cats love watching all this.
When I was growing up, there were Blue Jays everywhere, but in Coastal Georgia, we rarely see them. I don’t know whether this is the change in location (West Georgia to Coastal Georgia) or the intervening decline in bird (and insect species) in fifty years.
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On the morning of Saturday, October 7, the Palestinian group Hamas carried out a surprise attack on Israel on an unprecedented scale:
— Read on www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/martin-indyk-why-hamas-attacked-and-why-israel-was-taken-surprise -
Israel’s offensive will pit Sisi against his own people.
— Read on www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/egypt-cauldron-gazaTurmoil in Gaza is not entirely a bad thing for the regime of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. In many respects, his government would be happy to see Israel eliminate Hamas,
As the Egyptian economy flounders, Sisi may also see an opportunity to squeeze debt relief and other concessions from Western countries and international institutions in exchange for agreeing to humanitarian aid corridors and facilitating the departure from Gaza of foreign nationals.
The Egyptian public is outraged by the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza and the potential ground offensive. Government-sanctioned protests on behalf of the Palestinians have, in the past, served as opportunities to express ordinarily stifled dissent against the Egyptian government itself—and they could do so again. U.S. policymakers have long conflated regime and national interests in their dealings with countries in the Middle East, but the two are in fact separate. Like most of its counterparts across the region, the Egyptian government is an autocracy. It is neither representative nor popular at home, prizing stability over domestic accountability. And yet that lack of accountability may now undermine Sisi’s rule, as angry Egyptians grow increasingly disenchanted with a government that both impoverishes them and fails to address the desperate plight of their neighbors.
For both Sisi and his Gulf patrons, Israel’s threat to destroy Hamas can only be welcomed: Israel will be doing them a favor for which they will be genuinely, if discreetly, grateful
Western powers have spent the past decade making quiet accommodation with a slew of Arab autocracies, including Egypt. Popular discontent is growing. Hamas may be distasteful to most Egyptians—who rue the unhappy tenure of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood—and indeed to most Arabs who are appalled by Hamas’s brutality, reminiscent of ISIS’s notorious cruelty. But in its spectacular claim on the world’s attention in the face of Israeli repression and global neglect, the militant group also evokes the popular uprisings of 2011
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Tuesday 24 October 2023
If you didn’t see the interview with Harry Dunn at the end of Nicolle Wallace’s MSNBC show, try to find it. It is such a touching interview. I wish I could clone Harry Dunn and make billions of him. He is what people used to be before all this money and corruption. He is what people should be. The honesty, the wisdom, the depth, the respect for and the yearning for justice is what we need.
This country seems incapable of prosecuting white collar, corporate and political criminals. Dunn expressed the exasperation I think many people feel over plea deals that allow people who have used their law degrees to overthrow the government to get probation for five years.
Dunn, as many of us, wants justice. Mark Meadows going free is not justice. I don’t care if Trump dies in prison, it will still be unjust that Mark Meadows slimed his way out of accountability.
But, more importantly, Dunn is the type of person who makes you want to be better, do more, try harder, fight with more commitment. You don’t see many of those people on television.
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www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/10/07/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-maps.html
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 95 Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, health officials said, a surge in violence in what was already a particularly deadly year in the West Bank. One Israeli soldier was also killed in clashes.
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www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/world/middleeast/israel-invasion-gaza-delay.html
Mr. Netanyahu came into this crisis at a low point in his career, fighting corruption charges in court as his far-right and religiously ultraconservative government sought to curb the powers of the judiciary, spurring months of mass protests in the deeply divided country.
Law, Power, and Justice 