Life In Interesting Times

No one can say yesterday wasn't eventful. But are events trending ever more toward the dark side? You be the judge.

Hundreds of Jewish protesters were arrested in the U.S. Capitol July 22

Israeli PM Netanyahu got 58 standing ovations from the corporate tools in Congress while 25 congress critters sat out his remarks. Here in Maine our four person delegation split, with the odious Senator Susan Collins and Jared Golden, the wannabe Republican who ran as a Democrat deep in Trump country, on hand to applaud genocide. "Independent" Senator Angus King and Democrat Chellie Pingree boycotted the speech; Pingree allegedly because she disapproves of a genocide she's voted to fund several times, and King because he doesn't like Netanyahu personally.

Also in Maine yesterday the spouse of presumed Dem candidate VP Kamala Harris appeared, ostensibly to speak at an abortion clinic, but really to attend a big ticket fundraiser in Falmouth.

In more personal news, my husband and I and nine others had our charges dismissed in Cumberland County Court. We were arrested February 2 in Portland for blocking Franklin arterial at the on and off ramps of I-295. The DA offered to dismiss the charges in exchange for our doing a certain amount of community service, but we instructed our attorney to argue that we were doing community service when we blocked the road. Also that most of us do community service regularly and can document that. 

After we prevailed we went on to a stand out in solidarity with the Arrest Netanyahu demonstrations raging in DC. A good crowd gathered at Monument Square in Portland but the only media coverage was a highly critical right wing outlet that nonetheless shared this photo I'm proud of:

Portland city workers remove stickers almost immediately, but thanks to the documentation this image will live on forever on the interwebs.

Then there was the anticlimactic speech by President Biden confirming that the mysterious tweet conveying an unofficial letter with an odd version of his signature had sealed the deal: he is withdrawing his candidacy for a second term. Many have described his disappearance and the meteoric rise of his VP to inherit the spot as iffy. Now that he's delivered the speech on live television we know he's alive at least and plans to finish out six more months of presiding over genocide in Gaza and nationcide in Ukraine.

Here's a game for you: who told more lies in their speech yesterday, Bibi or Biden? Here are some of the whoppers I noticed.

Netanyahu said:

"Three thousand Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel. They butchered 1,200 people"

As has been amply documented, that is an inflated number; actually 1,139 died on October 7. Even more to the point, many of the Israelis and foreign tourists who died on October 7 were actually killed by the Israeli military -- some by accident, and some by Israeli soldiers carrying out the Hannibal directive.

"Two months ago, I authorized a breathtaking commando rescue operation."

Breathtakingly bad, yes, in that it killed scores of civilians and some of the hostages themselves, succeeding in recovering only three of them.

"Yet incredibly many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil.. They stand with people who came into the kibbutzim, into a home, the parents hid the children, the two babies, in the attic, in a secret attic. They murdered the family, the parents, they found the secret latch to the hidden attic and then they murdered the babies."

There is no evidence for this claim about Hamas killing two babies in an attic. But the U.S. Congress applauded the lie anyway.

"We recently learned from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, that Iran is funding and promoting anti-Israel protests in America."

Any evidence for this claim other than hearsay? And consider the source. I've been protesting non-stop and nobody, Iranian or otherwise, has offered me any money for it.

"For all we know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests that are going on right now outside this building—not that many, but they’re there"

Screengrab from video shared on social media of wildlife dumped on Netanyahu's table at the Watergate Hotel.

In fact thousands were involved in protests the night before, targeting the hotel where Netanyahu was staying with insects and wake up calls throughout the night. During the speech thousands were pepper sprayed by police for stopping in the road, and they burned an effigy of Bibi in front of Union Station. An alleged Mossad infiltrator burned an American flag.

"These protesters chant 'From the river to the sea.' But many don’t have a clue what river and what sea they’re talking about."

Ad hominem attacks are the sign of a weak argument. Pretty sure the Jordan River and and Mediterranean Sea are well known to pro-Palestine chanters, at least the ones I stand and march with.

"For nearly four thousand years, the land of Israel has been the homeland of the Jewish people."

Nope. Israel was created in 1948 as a settler colonial project to take in Jews that had survived the Nazi Holocaust in Europe. Oh, and Jews terrorized by Zionists in Iraq to motivate them to emigrate to the Zionist entity.

"Whenever and wherever we see the scourge of antisemitism, we must unequivocally condemn it and resolutely fight it, without exception."

Torah Jews who reject Zionism condemn it as...antisemitic. Police in Israel beat them up for expressing their beliefs.

"Israel has enabled more than 40,000 aid trucks to enter Gaza. That’s half a million tons of food, and that’s more than 3,000 calories for every man, woman and child in Gaza. If there are Palestinians in Gaza who aren’t getting enough food, it’s not because Israel is blocking it, it’s because Hamas is stealing it."

Evidence that Bibi has calculated the calories needed to either feed or starve people, but we've also seen ample documentation of Israel blocking food aid coming by land or by sea.

"The IDF has dropped millions of flyers, sent millions of text messages, made hundreds of thousands of phone calls to get Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way."

Then, once they're herded together in tent encampments or sheltering in UNRWA schools or in hospitals, the Israeli military bombs them there. Loads of evidence and documentation of these repeated war crimes.

"I asked the commander there, “How many terrorists did you take out in Rafah?” He gave me an exact number: 1,203. I asked him, “How many civilians were killed?” He said, “Prime Minister, practically none. With the exception of a single incident, where shrapnel from a bomb hit a Hamas weapons depot and unintentionally killed two dozen people, the answer is practically none.” 

Here Bibi amplifies an outrageous lie told to him that he apparently believed?

"victory is in sight"

In fact, Israel has been and is losing badly. The blockade of its ports and shipping by Ansar Allah in Yemen has deeply affected their economic well-being, and the call up of so many reservists has gutted businesses who depend on their labor. Israel's Supreme Court recently lifted the exemption of ultra Orthodox Jews from compulsory military service to address this problem.

Ok I could go on but let's transition to the liar in chief.

Biden said while sitting at the Resolute Desk (whatever the fuck that is):

"we are a great nation because we are a good people"

We are actually a settler colonial state built on the corpses of the indigenous people we slaughtered, land theft, and the enslavement and torture of millions of Africans. We have the highest incarceration rate of any country on the planet, and guess who's mostly in our prisons?

"Over the next six months, I’ll be focused on doing my job as president. That means I’ll continue to lower costs for hard-working families, grow our economy. I’ll keep defending our personal freedoms and our civil rights, from the right to vote to the right to choose. I’ll keep calling out hate and extremism, make it clear there is no place, no place in America for political violence or any violence ever, period. I’m going to keep speaking out to protect our kids from gun violence, our planet from climate crisis, is the existential threat."

Not a single one of the those claims is true except possibly the remark about his plan to focus between now and January.

"I’m the first president in this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world."

His most giant whopper. We have "boots on the ground" in so many countries I don't have time to list them all, 800+ military bases in other countries with new ones coming on line daily, and we're teetering on the verge (some say, we're in the early days of) WWIII. 

"when I came to office, the conventional wisdom was that China would inevitably surpass the United States. That’s not the case anymore."

I take it back, maybe this is his biggest whopper. China is ahead in diplomacy, health, infrastructure, economic growth, eradication of poverty -- I could go on but you get the idea.

"We’re leading the world again in chips and science and innovation. We finally beat Big Pharma after all these years, to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, and I’m going to keep fighting to make sure we lower the cost for everyone, not just seniors."

Uh huh. China is ahead in chips and several countries -- Iran, Russia, even North Korea -- are ahead in hypersonic weapons. In fact, so far ahead that the U.S. and Israel can no longer defend against them.

"the most significant climate law ever, ever in the history of the world"

Yeah, Joe, that really seems to be working as we've had several consecutive hottest days ever recorded this summer and you opened up federal lands to drilling.

" America is an idea, an idea stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant."

The world ocean is inarguably several times bigger than "America" which is actually a continent, not a country. I just hope whoever wrote this hyperbolic garbage at my expense didn't get paid too much for it.

""The great thing about America is here kings and dictators do not rule, the people do."

If by people you mean corporate lobbyists and their billionaire bosses then -- I guess so? 

In fact this is the fabric of dishonesty that the rest of this tapestry is woven into: the Democratic Party just undemocratically nominated a third candidate for the Resolute Desk following rejection of the people's choice in 2016 and 2020. For 2024, they weren't taking any chances and have circumvented the entire primary and convention nominating process to choose a candidate that literally no voter wanted last time she ran in a primary.

And they will now proceed to shove Harris down our throats to stave off the threat of another Trump presidency which is almost certain to occur unless he loses his uncanny ability to dodge bullets (actually, shrapnel from the shattered teleprompter on his podium).

As the old Chinese curse goes, may you live in interesting times. 

Top Cop To Be Face Of Fake Progressive Party As Civil Unrest Grows

I've felt for the past few years that the U.S. is showing signs of a civil war that could stave off the revolution we so sorely need. With that in mind, the elevation of genocide supporter and fake progressive Kamala Harris makes a lot of sense.

The Democratic Party and its media minions would have you believe that because someone is a person of color and identifies as female they must, by definition, be progressive. Identity politics has warped the minds of many who seem blinded to the fact the servants of our corporate overlords come in all colors, shapes, and sizes.

https://x.com/kamaufranklin/status/1815175964860596618

Yes, nominating a Black-Indian woman will trigger an avalanche of racist and misogynist invective from the white supremacy crowd who are terrified at inexorably losing their grip on privilege.

Again, useful from the standpoint of fanning the flames of civil unrest in the U.S.

But I think that is a secondary consideration for empire managers. Actually the inarticulate and uncharismatic Harris has a resume tailor-made for the increased repression that will be necessary in order to keep power in the hands of the wealthy few.

During Harris' campaign for president she earned exactly zero delegates but was inexplicably chosen as Biden's running mate anyway. Law professor Marjorie Cohn did a deep dive into Harris' track record at the time to provide us with the relevant facts. So relevant that I'm going to reshare Cohn's piece just without the 2019-specific intro:

Harris, who served as San Francisco district attorney from 2004 to 2011 and California attorney general from 2011 to 2017, describes herself as a “progressive prosecutor.” Harris’s prosecutorial record, however, is far from progressive.

Through her apologia for egregious prosecutorial misconduct, her refusal to allow DNA testing for a probably innocent death row inmate, her opposition to legislation requiring the attorney general’s office to independently investigate police shootings and more, she has made a significant contribution to the sordid history of injustice she decries.

Harris Tried to Whitewash Jail Informant Scandal

For years, perhaps decades, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, in cooperation with the Orange County District Attorney, or OCDA, planted teams of informants in jail to illegally elicit confessions.

Deputy sheriffs placed informants near defendants who were represented by counsel to obtain statements from them. Prosecutors were aware of this program and explicitly or implicitly promised benefits to informants. This violated the defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to counsel.

In People v. Dekraai (2016) [when Harris was California AG], an informant in this program illegally obtained statements from the defendant. After the prosecutor agreed not to use the statements, Dekraai pled guilty to murder and was preparing his defense for a trial on whether he would get the death penalty. He asked the judge to find that the OCDA had a conflict of interest because of its involvement in the jail informant program.

Over a six-month period, the judge held two hearings and heard from 39 witnesses.

The judge found that many witnesses, including prosecutors and law enforcement officers, were “credibility challenged” about the nature of the informant program and their role in it. Some couldn’t remember, the judge determined, but “others undoubtedly lied.”

Thus, the judge concluded that the OCDA had a conflict of interest and recused the entire OCDA office, removing it from any further involvement in Scott Evan Dekraai’s case.

Kamala Harris, who at that time was serving as state attorney general, would then take over the prosecution of the death penalty phase of Dekraai’s trial. But Harris appealed the judge’s ruling and opposed the recusal of the OCDA.

In 2016, the Court of Appeal rejected Harris’s argument and upheld the trial judge’s recusal of the OCDA. The appellate court wrote in its opinion:

“On the last page of the Attorney General’s reply brief it states, ‘The trial court’s order recusing the OCDA from prosecuting Dekraai’s penalty phase trial was a remedy in search of a conflict.’ Nonsense. The court recused the OCDA only after lengthy evidentiary hearings where it heard a steady stream of evidence regarding improper conduct by the prosecution team. To suggest the trial judge prejudged the case is reckless and grossly unfair. These proceedings were a search for the truth. The order is affirmed.”

Attorney Jerome Wallingford represented a man who, like Dekraai, was a victim of the illegal Orange County jail informant program.

“Harris should’ve done her job and investigated the informant program based on the findings of the Court of Appeal in the Dekraai case,” Wallingford told Truthout. “But instead, she tried to whitewash the scandal by protecting the DA and blaming the sheriff.”

The job of the attorney general is not to protect the DA. As chief law enforcement officer of the state, the attorney general’s duty is “to see that the laws of the State are uniformly and adequately enforced,” as mandated by Article V of the California Constitution. Harris violated her legal duty in this case.

Harris Minimized ‘Outrageous Misconduct’

Harris minimized “outrageous government misconduct” in People v. Velasco-Palacios (2015). The trial court found the prosecutor “deliberately altered an interrogation transcript to include a confession that could be used to justify charges carrying a life sentence, and he distributed it to defense counsel during a period of time when [the prosecutor] knew defense counsel was trying to persuade defendant to settle the case.”

After the prosecutor snuck the fabricated confession into the record, it caused the defense counsel to urge the defendant to plead guilty, which undermined the trust the client had in his lawyer.

The trial judge determined that the prosecutor’s action was “egregious, outrageous, and shocked the conscience,” and dismissed the case. Harris’s office appealed.

The Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal, noting that “dismissal is an appropriate sanction for government misconduct that is egregious enough to prejudice a defendant’s constitutional rights.”

Significantly, the appellate court stated that “egregious violations of a defendant’s constitutional rights are sufficient to establish outrageous government misconduct.”

But the Court of Appeal rejected Harris’s argument that if the conduct wasn’t physically brutal, it would not satisfy the “shock the conscience” standard required for dismissal.

Once again, Harris was covering up prosecutorial misconduct and ignoring the Supreme Court’s admonition in Berger v. U.S. that the duty of a prosecutor “is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done.”

Harris: Less-than-progressive record. (Office of the Attorney General of California via Wikimedia Commons)

Harris Opposed Investigations of Police Shootings

These cases are not isolated examples of Harris’s less-than-progressive record as a prosecutor.

“Time after time, when progressives urged her to embrace criminal justice reforms as a district attorney and then the state’s attorney general, Ms. Harris opposed them or stayed silent,” University of San Francisco School of Law Professor Lara Bazelon wrote in a New York Times article titled, “Kamala Harris Was Not a ‘Progressive Prosecutor.’”

Bazelon added, “Most troubling, Ms. Harris fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors.”

After a federal judge ruled in 2014 that California’s death penalty system had become so dysfunctional it “violate[d] the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment,” Harris appealed the decision. As a result, California’s death penalty was upheld and remains in place today.

Harris refused DNA testing that could exonerate Kevin Cooper, a likely innocent man on death row, and she opposed statewide body-worn police cameras. Harris favored criminalizing truancy, raising cash bail fees and keeping prisoners locked up for cheap labor.

She also supported reporting arrested undocumented juveniles to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, covering for corrupt police lab technicians and blocking gender confirmation surgery for a transgender prisoner. A U.S. District Court judge concluded that withholding the surgery constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Many of Harris’s prosecutorial actions disproportionately hurt people of color.

Harris opposed legislation requiring the attorney general’s office to independently investigate police shootings resulting in death. In 2016, members of the California Legislative Black Caucus called on Harris to do more to strengthen accountability for police misconduct.

Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy (D-Sacramento), a member of the Black Caucus, told The Los Angeles Times, “The African American and civil rights community have been disappointed that [Harris] hasn’t come out stronger on this.

Harris Helped ‘Foreclosure King’

Although many of Harris’s prosecutorial actions harmed people of color, a notable one helped the white “foreclosure king” — Steve Mnuchin, [who became] Trump’s Treasury secretary.

Mnuchin was CEO of OneWest Bank from 2009-2015. A 2013 memo obtained by The Intercept alleges that “OneWest rushed delinquent homeowners out of their homes by violating notice and waiting period statutes, illegally backdated key documents, and effectively gamed foreclosure auctions.”

After a yearlong investigation, the California attorney general’s Consumer Law Section “uncovered evidence suggestive of widespread misconduct.” In 2013, they recommended that Harris prosecute a civil enforcement lawsuit against the bank.

Former headquarters of OneWest Bank, Pasadena, California. (Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

“Without any explanation,” Harris’s office declined to initiate litigation in the case.

Mnuchin donated $2,000 to Harris’s Senate campaign in February 2016. It was his only donation to a Democratic candidate.

In January 2017, the Campaign for Accountability claimed that Mnuchin and OneWest Bank used “potentially illegal tactics to foreclose on as many as 80,000 California homes,” and called for a federal investigation.

Harris wrote in her memoir, The Truths We Hold, “America has a deep and dark history of people using the power of the prosecutor as an instrument of injustice.”

She added,

“I know this history well — of innocent men framed, of charges brought against people without sufficient evidence, of prosecutors hiding information that would exonerate defendants, of the disproportionate application of the law.”

Indeed, the public record indicates that as district attorney and later as attorney general of California, Harris has contributed to the injustice she claims to abhor.

And it get worse. Harris has a record of incarcerating the chronically ill parents of truant children, and the parents of chronically ill children. She also failed to release prisoners whose sentences had been served, arguing that that their labor in prison was profitable to the state of California. Her career actions resulted in negative impacts on, disproportionately, people of color and their families.

Top cop Harris seems eminently qualified oversee ramping up suppression of domestic dissent, does she not?