47 Is Going To Be So Much Worse Than This?

Liberals continue melting down over 47's announced draft picks for government positions. They are going to be so much worse! they howl as recycled neocons are slotted in to keep the war and wage theft machines humming.

I'm not surprised by these developments because a) I read Chris Hedges' piece before the election advising that the oligarch party thrives on chaos and will create it in order to take the money and run and b) we already had 47 back when he was 45, and he really hasn't changed. 

I am also not horrified by these developments because honestly what could be more horrifying than what follows? (Trigger warning: these are the images I have not been able to stop seeing in my grieving, distraught mind; this is my brain on genocide.)

Concentration camps in Gaza

Forced death marches from one end of Gaza to the other

Click the link to see this horrific video 

https://x.com/philippa_bear/status/1856808303592181

Starvation in Gaza

Dispatch from @AbubakerAbedW in Deir-al-Balah, shared by Jeremy Scahill on Twitter

Doctors testifying about treating vast numbers of children shot in the head by Israeli snipers

https://x.com/RyanRozbiani/status/1856430910553354747

Hand waving desperately from rubble in Lebanon

(Can't find this one again, but I will never unsee it.)

Air strikes on Syria

Security officers and rescuers gather at a destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Air strikes on Yemen

US-British coalition warplanes conducted seven airstrikes on targets across the Houthi-controlled northern Yemen on November 10, Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported. 

There is no "worse than this," and you will not convince me otherwise.

How Long Will Protests At Bomb Factory Continue? As Long As It Takes To Shut It Down!

The crowd at weekly standouts in Saco, Maine at General Dynamics' bomb factory across the street from an elementary school continues to grow. There were 26 of us yesterday around the time that the shift and the nearby schools let out providing a big drive by audience (and they have stopped keeping the kids in at recess so there's that audience, too). When autonomous groups arrive at dawn to block the incoming shift we expect fewer people because of the hour, but those actions have been growing in numbers, too. 

Diversity of messaging and associations makes for unity of fields!

Yesterday my friend Bruce Gagnon wrote:

Good turn out tonight in Saco - at least 26 spread out over both sides of road with 2 bullhorns raising chants. Chief of police came up and asked me how long these protests will go on - I said I don't see them stopping as long as the U.S. keeps supplying the zionists with money and weapons. 

I also told him about how U.S. space tech is helping Israel target people in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.

Why ask Bruce rather than one of the people on the bullhorns? Bruce has served as police liaison before (see his post about how angry the chief was last time he did this).

You meet the nicest people doing this kind of work. Yesterday two newish readers of my blog and I talked about my process: get up at dawn and read the news until I feel like my head is going to explode from stress and cognitive dissonance. Process by writing a blog post, and survive to be in action another day.

A motorist stopped to taunt one of us yesterday warning that now that 47 was coming back to the White House that our kind would soon be feeling the effects. Several veiled threats of violence followed until our friend ran the guy off with a feigned gesture of contempt that seemed to frighten him. He was so frightened that he called the police and filed a complaint. If he was trying to impress us with what a tough guy he is, it was an epic fail.

Some of us are old, but most of us are young. Some of us are veterans, but most of us declined to enlist in the imperial wars. We're here, and some of us are queer. Get used to it! 

Palestinian Resistance Groups React: New Boss, Same As Old Boss

While U.S. election drama was underway, the Pentagon took steps to hasten WWIII: it moved nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to Qatar (with U.S. pilots), and it tested an intercontinental ballistic missile delivery system out of Vandenberg Air Base in California. The Democratic Party is seen as losing the White House and both branches of Congress in part because their wars -- in Ukraine and, with Israel, in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen -- are unpopular with voters, and because the austerity that endless wars require is deeply unpopular. 

https://x.com/BigBreakingWire/status/1854166174453375297

Our imperial overlords sneak their warmongering moves into the news cycle when they think it will be least noticed.

I thought it might be of interest to readers to see reactions from people impacted by U.S. foreign policy. This content is available on Telegram, but you will not see it in your corporate news feed.

New Secretary-General of Hezbollah,  Sheikh Na’eem Qasem (in translation, vetted by an Arabic-speaking friend):

https://x.com/swilkinsonbc/status/1854493691454345250 & see also https://x.com/V_Palestine20/status/1854505512777228688

From the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (English translation from same source):

Trump’s victory will reinforce the American anti-Palestinian approach, and the Democratic Party’s loss is a natural result of its direct involvement in the zionist war of genocide.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine affirms that Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s victory in the U.S. elections does not, in any way, signify a real change in the hostile approach that successive American administrations have pursued against our Palestinian people and their just cause. There is no fundamental difference between the Republican and Democratic parties; both have contributed to supporting the zionist entity and participated in the war of genocide against our people, whether through policies or unlimited military and diplomatic support.

Our people have never placed their hopes on any candidate from either the Democratic or Republican parties, as we have never witnessed any positive change in U.S. administration policies, which have consistently aligned fully with the zionist entity, providing it with military funding and all forms of political, legal, and diplomatic protection.

The Democratic Party’s loss is a logical result of its complicity with the zionist entity; it rejected calls from supporters of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian community, and Arab and Muslim communities in the United States to pressure for an end to the war of genocide in Gaza, continuing its support for aggression against our people. Today, the Democrats are paying the price for ignoring these demands at the ballot box.

We in the Popular Front do not expect any positive development from a Donald Trump administration; rather, we anticipate an escalation in hostile policies against our people, fully biased in favor of the zionist entity.

We call on supporters of the Palestinian people, as well as movements, organizations, and groups that stand with our cause in the United States, to intensify pressure on the new U.S. administration to end its support for the zionist entity. [emphasis mine]

We see in the popular and student movements that stand in solidarity with Gaza, along with the emergence of small, free voices and parties, a glimmer of hope that could contribute to even a slight change in the U.S. stance on our cause.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Central Media Dept, Nov 6, 2024

From the Popular Resistance Committees (English translation from same source):

The Republican and Democratic parties are two identical faces in entrenching American tyranny and supporting zionism in the genocidal wars it waged against our Palestinian and Lebanese peoples and our nation.

America is the enemy of peoples; it is a symbol of tyranny and arrogance, ruling the world with iron and fire, igniting wars and the flames of hatred across the entire globe.

America, with all its components, parties, and councils, stands behind the support for the zionist entity with all kinds of shells, rockets, and destructive weapons that wreak havoc on our people in Palestine and Lebanon.

Our people rely solely on their steadfastness, the valor of their resistance, and the support of the Axis of Resistance and the free people of the nation and the world in confronting the genocide and massacres they are subjected to. All successive American administrations are enemies of our people, our nation, and of free peoples.

Media Office of the Resistance Committees in Palestine

Wednesday 06 November 2024

https://x.com/gazanotice/status/1854491593207599356

From Hamas (English translation from same source):

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Press Statement on the Results of the U.S. Presidential Election

In light of the results indicating Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. election, we, in the Islamic Resistance Movement - Hamas, affirm the following:

1. Our position regarding the new U.S. administration will depend on its stances and practical actions towards our Palestinian people, their legitimate rights, and their just cause.

2. It is unfortunate to note that all successive U.S. administrations, since the occupation of Palestine in 1948, have held negative stances on the Palestinian cause. They have consistently been the primary supporter of the zionist occupation in all fields, and the previous administration followed a path biased towards occupation and aggression, providing political and military cover for zionist war criminals to continue some of the most horrific acts of genocide in modern history, solidifying its role as a full partner in the killing of tens of thousands of our people, including children, women, and the elderly.

3. We call for an end to the blind bias toward the zionist occupation and for serious and genuine efforts to stop the war of extermination and aggression against our Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, to end the aggression against our brotherly Lebanese people, to halt the provision of military support and political cover for the zionist entity, and to recognize our people’s legitimate rights.

4. The elected U.S. President is urged to heed the voices that have risen from within American society itself for more than a year since the zionist aggression on Gaza, rejecting occupation and genocide and objecting to support and bias toward the zionist entity. [emphasis mine]

5. The new U.S. administration must understand that our Palestinian people will continue to confront the abhorrent zionist occupation and will not accept any path that detracts from their legitimate rights to freedom, independence, self-determination, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital.

Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas, Wednesday, 04 Jumada al-Awwal 1446 AH, Corresponding to: 06 November 2024 

Some Memes, And A Broken Glass

Roadside sign spotted in Maine's 2nd congressional district yesterday

Last time Donald Trump won the presidency I was so rattled that I threw my laptop across the room. Not on purpose, I just forgot to zip that compartment of my backpack and inadvertently launched it when I swung the pack onto my back to head out to school.

I'm retired now and we go to bed early around here. The 8pm robo call on election eve from what our answering machine described as "Donald G Tromp" rattled my husband and as I went to silence it I heard his water glass shatter in the living room. I knew the caller was not in Maine, because in my neck of the woods we do not call each other at that time of night, where a late call indicates an emergency.

U.S. national politics are an emergency, but there isn't anything you're going to do about it at the ballot box.

I figured that Trump would carry the 2nd congressional district where I live -- it is covered with strategic yard signs like: TRUMP SAFETY-- KAMALA CRIME; it has gone for Trump every time he's on the ballot (delivering a whopping one electoral vote); and our polling place was so full the clerk had to squeeze me into a makeshift voting booth.

My sister was convinced that reproductive rights were the #1 concern of voters while I remain convinced that the Biden-Harris administration's full throttle conduct of the U.S.-Israel genocide in Gaza was top of mind. What that mostly reflects is where we source our information, and we're probably both a little bit right, but it's murky: Democrats have failed to codify Roe v. Wade every chance they get, and Trump promised to be even more pro-Israel than VP Harris.

People I know in the pro-Palestinian movement debated whether the admonition to elect a Democrat because they are "easier to organize under" was misguided or a bold canard. As an old antiwar protester I can assure you that millions of people who come out into the streets against a Republican war will go back to eating brunch during a Democratic war.

https://x.com/sbg1/status/1854116340337881252

I hate to say I told you so, but I've been predicting for months that the liberal media's obsession with Trump (New Yorker piece above is typical) indicated that we would be getting him again. Elections are mostly about name recognition. Whose name is never out of the headlines? And who ever even heard of Kamala Harris before the Democratic Party undemocratically selected her as VP and then their presidential nominee?

So I am returning to my old ways -- I will no longer be helping the narcissist in chief build his brand and its value. I used to refer to him as "45" but henceforth he shall be known in these pages as "47".

Now back to organizing against U.S.-Israel and the imperial wars that never end. Never stopped under Bush Jr., Obama, 45, Biden -- and won't stop under 47 either.

See you in the streets.

Who Will Be Figurehead Of This Doomed Empire?

So the October surprise turned out to be major newspapers failing to endorse the current administration's candidate, albeit for different reasons.

Most significant: the Los Angeles Times, a paper long in the grip of the Zionist lobby -- which is huge and particularly powerful in southern California (see UCLA and USC actions against student protesters for evidence) -- declined due to the influence of the 31 year old daughter of its new owner. Nika Soon-Shiong explained:

As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.

The Gannett newspaper chain, largest in the U.S. and including flagship publication USA Today, also will not endorse a candidate this year, giving no real reason other than a vague assurance that the decision was made a year ago. Washington Post owner, oligarch Jeff Bezos, published an op-ed explaining that in a close election some see as a referendum on the U.S.-Israel genocide, he is hedging his bets.

Glenn Greenwald commented:

To say that liberal elites were enraged by this news and have gotten into a spiraling meltdown of hysteria and betrayal is to understate the case. Some of these journalists and editors actually resigned in protest, including one of the longest-time and most influential neocons, Robert Kagan, who resigned today from The Washington Post. 

Kagan is the husband of Victoria Nuland, architect of the destruction of Ukraine. Perfect guy to have on your editorial board to pump up the jam for that particular disastrous imperial war.

Is it any wonder that a Gallup poll this month found corporate media have sunk even lower in the public's esteem than Congress?

The part that gets overlooked deliberately by nearly all corporate media: the U.S.-Israel empire is foundering, and a popularity contest for figurehead of the sinking ship is largely irrelevant.

We are nearing the end times. As British journalist Jonathan Cook observed:

Every empire falls. Its collapse becomes inevitable once its rulers lose all sense of how absurd and abhorrent they have become.

Along these lines, here's some of what I've been reading this week that's worth considering.

For starters, I think these two articles belong together:

"Trump's Madison Square Garden event turns into a rally with crude and racist insults" (Associated Press, October 27)

"Collapsing Empire: China and Russia checkmate US Military" (Kit Klarenberg's substack Global Delinquents, October 29)

Here, I got a kick out of Aussie blogger Caitlin Johnstone riffing on the poor quality of our candidates in these declining days of empire:

Iranian cleric Shahab Moradi after the US assassinated Iran’s immensely popular general Qassem Soleimani in 2020 complained that Iran can’t even really retaliate for the assassination because the US doesn’t have any real heroes of its own. 

“Think about it. Are we supposed to take out Spider-Man and SpongeBob?”

But we're laughing through our tears as the dying beast destroys many lives on its way down to perdition.

A useful analysis of this election is from Chris Hedges:

The choice this election is between Corporate and Oligarchic Power

There is a civil war within capitalism. Kamala Harris is the face of corporate power. Donald Trump is the mascot of the oligarchs. Either way, we lose.

This answers the oft asked question, if both corporate parties answer to the same donors and pursue the same genocidal policies while competing to be the most pro-Israel, what's a voter to do? Something like 40% of eligible voters declined to participate last time around.

Hedges, who has already voted for pro-Palestine Greens Stein and Ware, as I will do on Tuesday: 

Corporate power needs stability and a technocratic government. Oligarchic power thrives on chaos and, as Steve Bannon says, the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” Neither are democratic. They have each bought up the political class, the academy and the press. 

Both are forms of exploitation that impoverish and disempower the public. Both funnel money upwards into the hands of the billionaire class. 

Both dismantle regulations, destroy labor unions, gut government services in the name of austerity, privatize every aspect of American society, from utilities to schools, perpetuate permanent wars, including the genocide in Gaza, and neuter a media that should, if it was not controlled by corporations and the rich, investigate their pillage and corruption. 

Both forms of capitalism disembowel the country, but they do it with different tools and have different goals.

If you're in Maine, consider complaining to the Portland Press Herald which today published two articles on the election, including one focused on what's driving college students' votes, without once mentioning the genocide in Gaza. Journalistic malpractice is what I call it. Democratic Party aligned media want you to believe their party will protect abortion rights (they haven't and won't) and the environment (don't make me laugh), and that these are the issues that brought tens of thousands of young people out into the streets over the past year.

Then meet us at the No Votes for Genocide rally in Monument Square today, Saturday November 2, at 3pm. It's part of a national mobilization ahead of the election. 

Then, see NAILA AND THE UPRISING at 7pm at nearby Space gallery (reserve your free tickets here). Co-presented by the Maine Palestine Film Collective, the Maine Coalition for Palestine, and Multitude Films. Trailer available here on YouTube. 

The U.S.-Israel war on Palestinians didn't start on October 7, 2023 and it won't end on November 5, 2024. But it will end someday, and people in the U.S. cannot escape forever the consequences of imperial bullying around the globe.

More Reports, Videos Of Action At General Dynamics Bomb Factory Across From School

It's Halloween, when little children who have never known the horrors of war get to dress up as something scary, stay out after dark, and collect treats from their neighbors.

The theme of blood and death prevailed at Monday's direct action at the General Dynamics bomb factory across from an elementary school in Saco Maine.

Here is some of the great reporting that has been shared since my first blog post about the action:

From Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Maine chapter, three videos that include some of the speeches. One powerful speaker is a Palestinian-American young person, and another is a boomer, daughter of Holocaust survivors, and member of Jewish Voice for Peace. Both are opposed to building bombs to drop on children!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBwmgSixqW2/

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBtxFlnx7ql/

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBrpSJDx0hm/ 

Police liaison Bruce Gagnon's post includes reporting on the agitated and angry police presence. Bruce was convinced that the chief of police was about to punch him in the nose at one point, and the chief did indeed shove someone else later in the action.

Finally, the only corporate media account, heavily skewed toward the inconveniencing of schoolchildren whose superintendent decided to keep them inside for recess. I don't like WMTW's framing but I do appreciate them showing up, sharing so many of our high impact visuals, and interviewing Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights co-director Abby Fuller who articulated the teaching opportunity our action created.

https://x.com/OnlinePalEng/status/1851895629334647221

On the night in the U.S. when we scare little children for the thrill of it, I'll be thinking of the children of Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria terrorized by U.S.-Israel carpet bombing of their neighborhoods. They are really scared, and their blood is on our hands.

Police Shove Protesters, Demand They Stop Terrorizing Children With Evidence Of Terrorized Children

Push came to shove -- literally -- today when my husband and I attempted to block an entrance to General Dynamics' bomb factory in Saco, Maine. Our friend who was serving as police liaison later told us the chief of police was so angered by our pre-dawn appearance that he had to take a walk to cool down. Apparently we had betrayed the trust of the Saco PD who had "tried to work with you all" during past demonstrations. Inexplicably, no one was arrested and we went home with all our materials.

Many empty threats were made, however. Police threatened to arrest someone for swearing over the loudspeaker and also threatened to charge someone for the cost of cleaning up the watercolor "blood" that so appropriately filled the potholes and gutters of the GD plant's main driveway. 

They even brought out the principal of Young Elementary, a K-5 school that is directly across the street from the factory and, incidentally, the fire department. (If there's no danger to the schoolchildren from the factory then why did the town locate their new fire station rights on its doorstep?)

Many of the visuals shared today by the 35 people who turned out at dawn underscored the harm to children being done by GD bombs shipped by the U.S. and dropped on Gaza by Israel. 

There were child-size shrouds labeled with the names and ages of children from 11 months to teenagers.

There were posters made from photos of the mangled and dead children now buried in Gaza.

There was a sign focusing on a number of child amputees that was particularly moving.

There were the handcuffed and blindfolded "detainees" crying out, "They killed my children!" "What have you done with my child?"

Then there was the soundtrack with explosions, machine gun fire, and other random sounds of war. The police demanded that be turned off before the schoolchildren arrived for the day, but that was the plan all along.

School busses passing by saw quite a scene this morning. Many motorists honked and waved in solidarity. Some gave the middle finger or chanted, "Trump, Trump" as they passed. At our closing circle I picked up a Harris-Walk campaign sign that was lying on the ground.

"Taking out the trash?" asked a young activist.

It's now been a solid year of genocide in Gaza, with no end in sight. For the second time in my life the general public's discontent with a U.S. sponsored war is the issue in a presidential election that takes place a week from tomorrow.

As one of many good signs today said, "Your silence will be studied by your grandchildren."

When will we ever learn?

Space Tech Is How Israel Targets Doctors' & Journalists' Homes For Bombing

I hustled down to the Maine Space Conference yesterday morning in time to meet with a tv reporter but alas her story seems to have fallen by the wayside (if I find it later I'll edit to include it.) I told her satellite technology is what enables Israel to target residential buildings where they know doctors and journalists live.

Similarly, an interview of Bruce Gagnon of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space by a reporter from Space News is nowhere to be found this morning. Or as Jonathan Cook put it, "Israel kills the journalists, Western media kills the truth."

If you search for Maine Space Conference you'll find plenty of adulatory articles about how exciting the space industry is and how each step toward turning our beautiful state into a militarized rocket launch site is to be applauded. 

Folks in Kodiak, Alaska who had this experience continue to suffer the consequences. Though their launch site was built with assurances that all uses would be civilian in nature, that turned out to be a huge lie as even the Israeli military uses the launch site in Kodiak.

A recent report from a local resident highlights the pollution risks of hosting launch sites:

the Alaska DEC is keeping on top of a rocket fuel spill accident at the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska that happened the end of July. ABL Space was suppose to launch a rocket back in January and for 6 months all ABL did was ‘testing’ on the launch pad, no launch and closing off the state road to the public off and on during that time.

The end of July the rocket was setting on the pad for engine testing once again when the engine caught on fire, tipping the rocket over and spilled 1,800 gallons of fuel on the pad and surrounding soil. The soil is now in the process of being dug up, stored and covered until it can be shipped off island to a land fill in Washington state.

There was a Astra Space rocket accident last year and it took 6 months to dig up all the contaminated soil and ship it off island, which took until December. Rocket fuel also seeped into the ground water.

Yesterday in Maine we heard from Gagnon during the protest:

The Maine Space Conference is promoting the militarization of space. Efforts are being made to test hypersonic missiles at the former Loring Air Force Base. bluShit Aerospace is receiving funding from the U.S. Air Force and Space Force to launch 'dual use' (military/civilian) mini-satellites into dangerously congested Lower Earth Orbit.

Promises of lots of jobs, little to no environmental impacts, and peaceful exploration of space are the standard claims made at a myriad of potential sites the U.S. military is exploring around the world.

The U.S. and Israel have been blocking a space weapons ban treaty (PAROS) at the United Nations for more than 25 years.

Our nation cannot afford to pay for a new expensive arms race in outer space.

And we heard from Mary Beth Sullivan specifically about current wars that already depend on space-based technology: 

Space technology is playing a major role in the Gaza genocide.

The current wars in both Ukraine and Gaza are experimental laboratories for arms developers and showcases for their products

Space is now an essential technical area being used in war fighting

BY FAR: the US is biggest spender on space programs, and the US launches more objects into space than any other nation

SpaceX developed the Starlight Satellite constellations to bring the internet and broadband to the world to connect us all to the internet, right? A commercial product to benefit the masses, right?

Did you know that SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are used by Israel in its genocide against Gaza, and its bombing campaign against Lebanon?  It’s a primary enabler of the use of drones.

 

Militaries have developed a dependency on space systems to coordinate, command, and control activity at all levels over wide areas.

Israel also has it’s own space launch capability, and its own military satellites which are part of what’s called the Eros NG constellation. One of the most powerful intelligence collection systems in the world. They have satellites in constant orbit downloading info.

 GPS Jamming by Israel being used in Gaza and Lebanon.              

Also, the US and the UK use spy plane flights for Israel to aid in surveillance, facilitate propaganda, and much more

Australia has a spy base in Pine Gap which is downloading info from Gaza. Pine Gap sends the info to the US’s National Security Agency, who then sends to Israel. This clearly implicates Australia -  and the US -- in Israel’s genocide.

Same can be said for a spy base called Menwith Hill in the UK.

Reports show that Artificial Intelligence is enabling decision-making systems in Israel against the people of Palestine. Programs called Gospel, Lavender, and Where’s Daddy are trained to recognize features of people who might be affiliated with Hamas. The program tracks individuals and groups.

Techniques using AI and message interception are joined together.

Many nations in the region are developing their own space technology.

There have been no physical attack on a satellite as yet in this war but, if such an attack happens, new replacement satellites will need to be launched quickly.  To that end, the US is operationalizing a “rapid response.”

 For more information on resistance to the construction of a launch site in Maine visit NoToxicRockets4ME.org.