Disrupting Business As Usual

Trigger Warning: This blog post contains a photograph of a Palestinian child starved to death by Zionist blockade of Gaza.

I can't have been the only person who saw that the Key Bridge over Baltimore Harbor had collapsed and thought, That will disrupt commerce and the war machine significantly. Probably for years. More than a mile long, the bridge was an integral part of the Interstate-695 highway system that connects to "the Beltway" in the Washington DC/Virginia/Maryland region. That's the belly of the military contracting beast, and the bridge being out of commission is and will remain a big deal.

The bridge is named for Francis Scott Key, composer of  our odious U.S. national anthem that glorifies "rocket's red glare and bombs bursting in air" -- so maybe there is some violent karma at work here, too.

The ship that hit the Key was registered in Singapore and video shows it having power problems just prior to striking the bridge support, so there's little suspicion it was deliberate. Of course Congress has demonstrated repeatedly that they cannot distinguish between Singapore and China, at least where TikTok owners and operators are concerned. So who knows who will get blamed for what was most likely an accident. 

Prayers up for the bridge workers and motorists plunged into frigid water in the dead of night (1am).

This tragedy unfolds amidst context of constantly escalating disruptions to business as usual while genocide in Gaza continues. 

"This is not a photo of a mummy or an embalmed body retrieved from one of Gaza’s ancient cemeteries. This is a photo of Yazan Kafarneh, a child who died of severe malnutrition during Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip." Source: Mondoweiss

This morning my husband shared news that Gazans had drowned swimming out to retrieve the paltry aid being airdropped into the Mediterranean Sea. He and I have agreed we will both keep getting louder and more disruptive as long as the U.S. continues funding -- and corporations continue profiting -- from torturing millions Palestinians to death to steal their land.

Here's a proposal for April 15 from the Coordinated Economic Blockade to Free Palestine.

The UN passing a mealymouthed temporary ceasefire resolution that does not even call for the release of the thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children in their prisons is of little interest to me. So what if the US abstained after vetoing other such resolutions? Obtaining bargaining chips to secure the prisoners' release is the reason that Hamas took hostages on October 7. Any agreement that doesn't start there is public relations and not worth wasting my time considering.

Here's the real news: Congress passed and Biden signed a fiscal year 2024 budget that has more than $1 trillion allocated for death, destruction, and new yachts for General Dynamics executives.

Also note that nuclear weapons spending is hidden in the Energy Department's budget line, so even $1.118 trillion is an understatement of the cost to operate our military and militarized State Department for another year.

This is unsustainable. A nation with this moral position deserves to be disrupted constantly. Let's go!

For a ShutDown4Palestine action near you visit shutitdown4palestine.org.