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.

Menticide As Gaza Atrocities Are Ignored

Jabalia concentration camp, October 21, 2024

Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who had just finished teaching writing to a class of elders.  A student asked how she was doing and my friend replied, I am distraught about Gaza. Student: Why? What's going on in Gaza? 

Today I encountered a new word, "menticide," defined as "a systematic and intentional undermining of a person's conscious mind; synonym: brainwashing."

Yesterday Gazan journalist Motasem Dalloul posted on Twitter:

A mother from #Jabalia says: “They took all the children from their mothers and put them inside what resembled a pit or a hole. The tank came to circle around them repeatedly until their bones cracked under the pressure of dust and sand, amidst the screams of children and the wailing of mothers. “After that, the soldiers came and started throwing the children towards the mothers, and whoever caught a child was ordered to carry him and move away quickly, with no guarantee that the child would be their own. “Many mothers carried children who were not their own, and were forced to leave with them, leaving their own children in the hands of other mothers. This marked the beginning of a new chapter of suffering, with mothers searching for their children in the arms of other women, trying to calm the children they held until they found their real mothers.“

I have no words adequate to describe how I felt when I learned what new horrors my tax dollars are funding in Gaza. 

Also yesterday, the sadists in charge of the Zionist entity Israel accused six of the few journalists still alive and able to report from Gaza as "terrorists." 

Here's Dalloul's post about that:

Day before yesterday, U.S. imperial media outlet CNN committed what turned out to be a blunder when they published a sympathetic piece on the late Eliran Mizrahi, an Israeli occupier who committed suicide after being deployed in Gaza. 

A blunder because here is what Guy Zaken, who drove a bulldozer with Mizrahi, had to say about his genocide-induced trauma:

Zaken said that on many occasions, soldiers had to “run over terrorists, dead and alive, in the hundreds.”

“Everything squirts out,” he added.

Zaken says he can no longer eat meat, as it reminds him of the gruesome scenes he witnessed from his bulldozer in Gaza, and struggles to sleep at night, the sound of explosions ringing in his head.

“When you see a lot of meat outside, and blood… both ours and theirs (Hamas), then it really affects you when you eat,” he told CNN, referring to bodies as “meat.”

I think the phrase "had to" belongs in air quotes, don't you?

Nobody "has to" treat other human beings like this. 

Forced march of Palestinians being expelled from northern Gaza October 2024

Or this (trigger warning: video from September of an Israeli bulldozer running over a child).

Why don't Palestinians just give up and allow Israel to sell off Gaza's gas and oil rights and create settler colonies on top of the blood-stained rubble? An explanatory excerpt from the last will of Yayha Sinwar, who my friend's student has probably never heard of here in the menticide bubble of the U.S. 

"They fear your steadfastness more than they fear your weapons."

Show your steadfastness by standing with us at the General Dynamics bomb factory that makes these:

Take a stand in your community. That is, if menticide hasn't gotten to you yet.

Hasbara Not Working? Crack Down On Free Speech

Yahya Sinwar amid the rubble of Gaza, where he was born a refugee in his own land.

In the West we grew up awash in hasbara i.e. Zionist narrative spin both overt and, at times, surprisingly subtle. 

I can remember my father telling me that Israel had no oil reserves and stood alone in the region in this regard. At the time I'm sure he believed that was true. It was part of the David and Goliath myth-making where the Zionist entity was the weak and small character and the Arabs were the giants. Except when they were invisible -- as in the nonsense saying, "a land without a people for a people without a land."

Decades later I would teach high school students about the rise of fascism, the Holocaust, and the creation of the state of Israel -- followed by the Nakba, still unfolding. It was challenging to convey the jaunty tone of U.S. media coverage from the mid 1960's. For example, the Six-Day War, which a news anchor gleefully termed a "blintz-krieg." Because turning Nazi atrocities into cute references to Jewish cuisine helped conceal the fact that Palestinians were suffering for the sins of European fascists.

How times have changed.

Israel is now the butt of jokes about how universally they're hated, and their attempts at spin are tremendously out of touch. Witness their attempt to denigrate Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by publishing their drone footage of his heroic last stand, footage which contradicted their own propaganda that Sinwar was allegedly hiding in the tunnels, disguised in a burqa, amid hostages being used as human shields. 

Today, people who barely knew his name have seen him display almost superhuman courage and resilience by continuing to resist with only one remaining hand. The effect on public opinion has been the opposite of what was intended: to depict Sinwar as weak and defeated.  Headlines like "IDF Finally Kills Yahya Sinwar After 41,800 Failed Attempts" and photo pairings like this one are all over social media: 

What's a failing imperial outpost to do? Crack down on free speech, of course.

Yesterday in the UK, Electronic Intifada editor Asa Winstanley had his home raided and his electronic devices confiscated.

Here in the belly of the beast, a friend reports their Instagram account is suspended after trying to post writings by and about Sinwar. 

Twitter just announced that blocking will no longer protect your account from unwelcome eyeballs. 

And Australia's government has announce it will levy fines of up to 5% of global revenue on social media platforms that fail to stop the spread of "misinformation." Misinformation meaning true facts that threaten the imperial narrative.

We were told for months that Israel's massacres were about the hostages. But that was never the case, as we found out when we learned that Israel murdered them, too.

From Palestine Will Be Free on substack yesterday:

The world has come to see why that deplorable, despicable, inhuman entity cannot continue to exist and why it must be dismantled in favour of a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea in which all faiths can live peacefully side by side, just like they did before the beginning of Zionist thievery and terrorism over a century ago. 

Sinwar, more than anyone else in recent history, has brought that day closer to fruition. 

October Surprise?

Entry for "October surprise" in the Merriam-Webster dictionary

There's a tradition in U.S. presidential elections for an "October surprise" i.e. a game-changer just prior to the first Tuesday in November. Iran has often factored in to these "surprises" and certainly is poised to do so again this year as the response to Israel's horrific bombing of refugees in tents at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza this week was the U.S. and UK sanctioning Iran (you can't make this shit up). 

I don't think the surprise was the by now iconic (and much suppressed on social media) video of Palestinians in tents at Al-Aqsa being burned alive. Someone on Twitter juxtaposed it with the famous Vietnam war photo of a girl child burned by napalm running naked down a road, speculating that this would be "the" image of the U.S.-Israel extermination campaign in Gaza. Entirely possible, but what's also true is the observation that colonizers have always committed atrocities on indigenous people -- back in the day though, there were no cameras to record the horrors we remember on Indigenous Peoples Day.

Recently I've been helping out as a respite caregiver for my friend's 90+ year old mother. Last night at supper I asked what she had been up to that afternoon.

Mom: Looking at the news but nothing much happened today, just a bunch of stuff about the election. I'm so sick of it all, I wish the election was over.

Me: Nothing about Israel bombing Gaza then?

Mom: No. But I don't think we should send any more money to Israel. I want them to stop doing that! But nobody listens to me.

A better summation of the distraction role of corporate media could hardly be found. 

That's why I don't post much about the election. Which corporate genocide supporter will be in the White House come January? Who cares. Proud to rank Jill Stein - Butch Ware first on my ballot and if we get the right October surprise they could even win as they're on the ballot in enough states to earn a majority of electoral college votes.

This October PAC ad allegedly in favor of Harris - Walz is indeed surprising. It absolutely reads like satire from start to finish. Is it a serious bid for attempts to get men to vote for Harris? This month we also saw Obama making condescending remarks about Black "brothers" being too insecure in their manhood to vote for a woman president so...maybe? 

You be the judge.

All these guys are "man enough" to ignore the U.S.-Israel genocide in Gaza and depleted uranium bombing in Beirut and pogroms in the West Bank? My response: fuck them AND the horse they rode in on.

Three Strikes You're Out?

 

https://x.com/HossamShabat/status/1843743248680136963

I got up in the early morning hours of October 9 to find that three things had happened: Israeli troops had sealed off northern Gaza and begun slaughtering people there after bombing a flour warehouse in the one remaining bakery; the U.S.-Israel had bombed suburbs of Beirut with depleted uranium ordnance; and the U.S.-Israel had bombed residential areas of Damascus in Syria.

I will say U.S.-Israel from now on to acknowledge the fact that, for the purposes of WWIII, they are one and the same. Operating both nations as sock puppets so that Biden can pretend to feel things about Bibi's conduct of the war doesn't really fool anyone, though the talking heads of corporate media must pretend to believe. (Until they self-immolate like CBS worker Samuel Mena just did outside the White House.)

The first two overnight occurrences were the most troubling: Israeli soldiers shooting at children and their families in a concentration camp setting is not new but it is especially horrific after a solid year of forced marches and deliberate starvation in the Gaza strip, and in light of announced plans to “cleanse” northern Gaza of any Palestinian presence in order to turn it into a permanent Israeli military zone. As someone I can't find again on Twitter observed, the Zionists have now done everything the Nazis did to their ancestors except build gas chambers. No need to tattoo numbers on anybody’s arms these days; digital surveillance technology has taken care of that.

Sounds like enough atrocities, doesn't it? But wait, there's more.

Depleted uranium was used extensively by the U.S. in the illegal war on Iraq, so we already know of its horrors. Covering large areas with radioactive dust that will outlive all of us, causing miscarriages and horrific birth defects when pregnant women are exposed, and causing lots of kinds of cancer. 

Iraqi girl Farah after three operations to correct deformities caused by exposure to D.U. in utero

What have the humans of Lebanon done to deserve this treatment? The government of Lebanon allows the U.S. to operate a military base there, but Hezbollah arose and grew in strength in direct response to repeated violence inflicted by Israel on civilians. After witnessing the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacres of a previous war with Israel, who can blame them?

https://x.com/malcolmx653459/status/1844050234474946560

Incinerating people in Damascus and burying them in rubble is the signature act of depravity we’ve come to expect since October 7, 2023. As horrific as the rest, and also a worrying sign that the U.S.-Israel is going for broke, expanding to a regional war that promises to drawn in not only powerhouse Iran but unvanquished Russia on Syria’s behalf. Iran gave up its nuclear weapon program in a diplomatic deal during the Obama administration; now comes news that it is seriously considering restarting that project. Who can blame them?

Russia of course has nukes including so called tactical nukes that are still vastly more powerful than the bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan in WWII. And both Russia and Iran have hypersonic weapons that are nearly impossible for the Iron Dome (or Iron Sieve as it’s now revealed to be) to intercept. The U.S.-Israel has nukes, too, of course and it's pretty clear that no act of war is too awful for them to contemplate. Is Tehran next?

Former arms inspector Scott Ritter thinks it could be, but also thinks that it will hasten rather than delay Israel's demise as a nation. 

now Israel is being bombarded on a near-daily basis by long-range drones, rockets, and missiles fired from Hezbollah, militias in Iraq, and the Houthi in Yemen. The Iranian ballistic missile attack of Oct. 1 vividly demonstrated to all Israelis the reality that there is no viable defense against these attacks. 

Moreover, if the Israel-Iran conflict continues to escalate (and Israel has promised a retaliation of immense proportions), Iran has indicated it will destroy Israel’s critical infrastructure — power plants, water desalinization plants, energy production and distribution centers — in short, Israel will cease being able to function as a modern nation state.

It's not a question of if but a question of when the empire that Zionists built will fall. But will its collapse precede Armageddon, or usher it in? 

Is This The Last October 7 Where We'll Be Able To Speak The Truth?

Many things changed one year ago today when resistance fighters burst through the fence around the world's largest concentration camp, seized hostages, and hid them in Gaza planning to swap them for the thousands of political prisoners held captive by Israel.

Truth was the first casualty on October 7, 2023. Immediately bogus claims of women who were raped and babies who were beheaded by Hamas were circulated and continue to circulate to this day. These are lies. They have been exposed as such long since, yet the Vice President of the U.S. continued spreading them as recently as this week (because that is what a $5 million contribution from AIPAC buys).

That Hamas' stated intention was a prisoner exchange has long since been obscured by the official lies of the Zionist regime and its media servants.

Around 1,200 people are said to have been killed by Hamas on that fateful day. This is also a lie. Many of those who died on October 7 were killed, some deliberately, by the Israeli military. Eyewitnesses report that Israeli soldiers shot at anyone near the breached fence, and fired a tank missile into a kibbutz house known to have Israelis sheltering inside. One baby is known to have died on October 7, the victim of a stray bullet.

Since then many more Israeli hostages have been killed by Israel. But let's stick to October 7 for now.

Immediately narratives claiming October 7 as "Israel's 9/11" were circulated by corporate media around the world. This was meant to signify that an act of terrorism by Muslim Arabs had killed thousands in a sneak attack. What it signified to those paying attention was that the event would quickly be put to use justifying a "war on terror" against civilians in Gaza. 

Within a matter of days Israel had used U.S. bombs to kill tens of thousands in Gaza, and within a matter of weeks it had begun the forced displacements that strongly resemble the agony of Jewish refugees on forced marches in Europe at the hands of the Nazis.

Ironic? Yes. Useful? Undoubtedly. Caitlin Johnstone has written today:

Sympathy for Israel has been used over this past year to manufacture consent for the slaughter of mountains of human beings in advancement of land grabs and military agendas that were planned long before the seventh of October 2023.

What is she talking about?

Maps like this one shared by Netanyahu at the United Nations show Israel swallowing up lands granted to Palestinians by the UN.

Military agendas like aerial bombardment of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and the occupied West Bank. 

Weaponization of communication devices used by Hezbollah resistance fighters along with doctors, EMTs, and other civilians in attacks that were years in the planning.

Deliberate destruction of the hospitals, ambulances, and health care infrastructure of Gaza.

Deliberate starvation of Gaza's children and their families through blocking aid and bombing UNRWA and other food distributors.

And last but certainly not least, dramatic increases in censorship and deliberate distortion of the meaning of key words.

Did you wave a Palestinian flag or chant "Free, free Palestine" this year? Your actions are portrayed as an attack on Jewish people everywhere. Even if you, yourself, are Jewish!

Did you point out that Israel's vicious ethnic cleansing campaign did not begin on October 7? You must hate Jews!

Did you attempt to distinguish between Zionism, a religious supremacist ideology that justifies land theft, and Judaism, an actual religion? Your thought crimes are a threat to narratives that October 7 was meant to advance.

We unequivocally condemn those from our community who continue to exploit the blood of Arab people for their political agenda. This includes individuals and organizations from our community that are lock-step with the democratic and republican parties, putting party over community, politics over justice, and overlooking a genocide for access.   

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), October 6, 2024

Did you call out the two corporate parties in the U.S. for arming and enabling Israel's carpet bombing in Gaza and Lebanon? You are a threat to the ruling class and must be shadowbanned and silenced. 

Democratic Party leaders are calling for a war on your misinformation including

rewriting the 1st Amendment's guarantee of freedom of political speech.

Is this the last October 7 where we'll still be able to speak the truth? People in the UK are already being jailed for saying "from the river to the sea" and people in Germany are being jailed for displaying a Palestinian flag.

Ok, might as well go out with a bang. Here's my contribution to the discourse, now and until liberation. Please feel free to borrow and use my graphic wherever the truth may still be shared.