Saturday, March 16, 2024

Gaza

The assault on Gaza continues.  PEN America is an organization that's supposed to support "the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide and claims they "champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible."  Nearly 100 years ago (1922) the organization was founded.  Richard Luscombe (GUARDIAN) reports:

More than a dozen prominent authors and literary figures have withdrawn from PEN America’s flagship World Voices Festival in protest of what they see as an inadequate response by the organization to the “genocide” being committed against Palestinians by Israel in Gaza.

The group of writers, which includes Naomi Klein, Michelle Alexander, Hisham Matar, Isabella Hammad and Zaina Arafat, sent a letter to PEN America asserting it had “betrayed the organization’s professed commitment to peace and equality for all, and to freedom and security for writers everywhere” by failing to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war.

The protest, first reported Thursday by Literary Hub, is the latest broadside directed at the literary freedom advocacy organization following a series of high-profile resignations and other denouncements in recent weeks.



Naomi Klein Tweeted:

 

LITERARY HUB notes:

In January, two prominent novelists cut ties with PEN America over its decision to platform controversial actor and outspoken ceasefire opponent Mayim Bialik at a PEN Out Loud event in Los Angeles. Palestinian-American writer Randa Jarrar was then forcibly removed from said event on January 31. One week later, a group of 600 writers and poets signed an open letter condemning PEN’s relative silence on Gaza. That letter has now been signed by more than 1300 writers, including Roxane Gay, Lauren Groff, Marie-Helene Bertino, Kiese Laymon, Saeed Jones, Carmen Maria Machado, Solmaz Sharif, Tommy Pico, Laura van den Berg, and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.

The authors of this latest open letter are inviting other writers to reconsider their scheduled participation in the 2024 PEN World Voices Festival in order to hold PEN America to account, and to encourage others in the literary world to speak out.



Mayim Bialik is anti-trans, anti-vaccine and anti-Palestinian.  This is who a group of educated people choose to applaud?  They should be ashamed of themselves.   Amanda Yen (DAILY BEAST) notes:

In a lengthy letter released Wednesday and signed by dozens, the writers explained that PEN’s unwillingness to call for a ceasefire in Gaza directly contradicts its stated commitment to protecting free expression.

They said that such silence amounts to a “betrayal” of PEN’s values.

“This failure is particularly striking in light of the extraordinary toll this catastrophe has taken in the cultural sphere. Israel has killed, and at times deliberately targeted and assassinated journalists, poets, novelists, and writers of all kinds,” the letter reads. It adds that the targeting of cultural institutions, like universities and libraries, amounts to a kind of cultural genocide.

Among the writers who have died in Gaza are the Palestinian poet and scholar Refaat Alareer, who was killed with several family members in a targeted Israeli airstrike in December; and the entire family of the Al-Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael al Dahdouh.

PEN America has come under fire for its position of neutrality on the Gaza crisis before. In January, two novelists canceled their scheduled appearance at a PEN event when they learned it would also platform Mayim Bialik, who has been slammed for her posts on the Israel-Hamas war. The next month, hundreds of writers signed an open letter demanding PEN America speak out on “the 225 poets, playwrights, journalists, scholars and novelists killed in Gaza and name their murderer: Israel, a Zionist colonial state funded by the U.S. government.”


Just wondering, is anyone planning to call out the hacktress that tried to cover up for Selma Blair's Islamaphobia with her throwback posts?  Or are we supposed to assume that Selma's bad performance and kiss in CRULE INTENTIONS is something worth noting?  Sorry, Arah, just like with Charisma, no one in the industry believes you or respects you for you latest stunt.



Thousands of protesters filled the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Saturday night, with two separate groups calling for the government to resign and demanding the release of hostages held in Gaza. 

In Tel Aviv: Demonstrators on two main streets of Tel Aviv called on the Israeli government to resign, with some protesters also seen burning fires and scuffling with police in the city.

Protesters blocked Ayalon Highway — a major inter-city freeway in Gush Dan, Israel, in the metro Tel Aviv area — and chanted, "There is nothing more important. Every hostage must come back." Na'ama Lazimi, a member of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, was seen among the protesters on the highway.  

In Jerusalem and Caesarea: Thousands of family members of hostages still held in Gaza demanded the release of their loved ones on Saturday evening. A social media video captured arrests of protesters who were calling for elections near Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence in Caesarea. Israeli police said they arrested four in Caesarea and two in Jerusalem.  

What police say: Israel Police said it approved the request to hold the protests, but added that "a number of protesters gathered illegally on Menachem Begin Road and began to violate the order by lighting fires on the road and blocking the movement of vehicles."

"At the same time, a number of protesters went down to Ayalon and blocked a part off the road while confronting the police," the statement said, adding that police then "announced that the demonstration was illegal and that they should clear the traffic routes. At this stage, the rioters did not listen to the instructions and the police had to use measures to disperse the rioters in order to stop the offense."


Netanyahu also has problems in the US.  CNN reports, "US President Joe Biden described Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s floor speech criticizing Netanyahu as “good,” saying the New York Democrat “expressed serious concern” that is shared by many Americans. Biden said Schumer had contacted his senior staff beforehand to let the White House know he’d be making the speech."  And Lauren Gambino (GUARDIAN) reports:
 
Joe Biden should use his leverage and the law to pressure Israel to change how it is prosecuting the war in Gaza, the Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, is among a group of senators urging Biden to stop providing Israel with offensive weapons until it lifts restrictions on the delivery of food and medicine into Gaza, where children are now dying of hunger and famine looms.

“We need the president and the Biden administration to push harder and to use all the levers of US policy to ensure people don’t die of starvation,” Van Hollen said in an interview on Friday.

This week, Van Hollen and seven of his colleagues sent a letter to the president arguing that Israel was in violation of the Foreign Assistance Act, a section of which prohibits the sale and transfer of military weapons to any nation that restricts the delivery of US aid.

 

In other news, Lauren Irwin (THE HILL) reports, "The first ship carrying 200 tons of food gathered by World Central Kitchen (WCK) arrived in Gaza Friday and, the organization announced, more will be coming soon.  WCK, the charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, released a statement that its team unloaded the aid in Gaza."  POLITICO adds, "Videos posted online show a crane transferring crates from the barge onto trucks on a custom-built jetty."  And the violence continued with ALJAZEERA noting:

We’ve been reporting on a deadly Israeli attack on a residential building in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

The Wafa news agency is reporting that most of the victims were women and children. It said the attack targeted the Thabet family house in the city’s Bishara neighbourhood.

Citing medical sources, Wafa said there have been seven Israeli attacks on families in the Gaza Strip, resulting the killing of 63 people and wounding of 112 others.

A number of victims are still under the rubble, it said.


Gaza remains under assault. Day 162 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes, "At least 31,553 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the war began in October, according to the latest update from Gaza's Health Ministry."  Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:








And the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."   

In a new development, ALJAZEERA reports:

Two UN human rights experts have called on BP, Chevron and Exxon to stop supplying oil to the Israeli military amid the ongoing war on Gaza.

Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, cited research from Oil Change International showing that the three companies were supplying oil to the Israeli military through the United States, Brazil, Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

Fakhri said the companies “are likely complicit in genocide” and called for called for “economic sanctions”.

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, supported Fakhri’s call and said “corporations should cease and desist or face potential liability tomorrow”.


The following sites updated:


New Issue of The BlackCommentator - Issue 992 Women’s History Month

  

The Black Commentator Issue #992 is now Online


March 14, 2024




Read issue 992




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Tarpon Springs, FL 34688-2635




NEWS: Congressman Greg Casar Reacts to TikTok Forced Sale Bill

 
NEWS: Congressman Greg Casar Reacts to TikTok Forced Sale Bill
March 13, 2024

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas) released the following statement after voting no on H.R.7521, the TikTok forced sale bill. 

“I voted no on the TikTok forced sale bill. While I have serious data privacy concerns with TikTok, this bill was rapidly rushed to a vote by the Republicans with almost no public scrutiny -- and that’s a recipe for unintended consequences,” said Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas). “We need well-vetted, robust protections for TikTok users. Today’s bill simply may not work.”

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Congressman Greg Casar represents Texas’s 35th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which runs down I-35 from East Austin to Hays County to the West Side of San Antonio.  A labor organizer and son of Mexican immigrants, Casar serves as the Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the 118th Congress. He also serves on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Committee on Agriculture. 



Congresswoman Bush Delivers Floor Speech to Celebrate 314 Day in St. Louis

 March 14, 2024

Congresswoman Bush Delivers Floor Speech to Celebrate 314 Day in St. Louis

WATCH: “On 314 Day, St. Louis has gathered together to bask in the love and the pride that we have for our community,” says Bush

Washington, D.C. (Mar. 14, 2024) – Yesterday, Congresswoman Cori Bush (MO-01) delivered a speech on the House floor to celebrate 314 Day and honor the rich social, cultural, and artistic history of St. Louis. Watch HERE or read her full remarks, as prepared for delivery, below.

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

“St. Louis and I rise in celebration of 314 Day, founded by Young DIP, celebrated across St. Louis on March the 14th — 3 1 4 — which is our area code.

“On 314 Day, we celebrate our amazing sports teams and passionate fans from the St. Louis Cardinals, Blues, CITY Soccer Club, Battlehawks, Surge, as well as our college and high school teams.

“On 314 Day, we indulge in toasted raviolis, Imo’s pizza, Red Hot Riplets, in our Chinese food, and Vess soda.

“On 314 Day, we enjoy artists and creators rooted in St. Louis, like Nelly, the St. Lunatics, Tina Turner, Scott Joplin, Michael McDonald, Maya Angelou, and Cbabi Bayoc.

“Most importantly, on 314 Day, St. Louisans gather together to bask in the love and the pride that we have for our community. To be from St. Louis is to love St. Louis.

“Every day, it is among one of my life’s greatest honors to be your Congresswoman. St. Louis, I love you, and happy 314 Day.”

Rep. Takano’s Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act Gains Senate Companion Bill Introduced by Sen. Sanders

 March 13, 2024

Rep. Takano’s Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act Gains Senate Companion Bill Introduced by Sen. Sanders

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the Senate companion bill to Congressman Mark Takano’s (CA-39) Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act. This legislation would reduce the standard workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and lowering the maximum hours threshold for overtime compensation for non-exempt employees. 

“As the lead sponsor of the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act in the House of Representatives and a Senior Member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, I am thrilled that Senator Sanders is leading the Senate companion to this transformative legislation that will be a win for both workers and workplaces,” said Rep. Takano. 

“Moving to a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay is not a radical idea,” said Sen. Sanders. “Today, American workers are over 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago. That has got to change. The financial gains from the major advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology must benefit the working class, not just corporate CEOs and wealthy stockholders on Wall Street. It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life. It is time for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay.”

The Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act does not make any changes or limit the number of hours that an employee may work in a standard workweek but amends the definition of the workweek in federal law. The majority of workers impacted would be non-exempt, hourly workers, but some salaried workers fall under the scope of the bill’s provisions. This legislation has the potential to increase wage-earning opportunities for a larger number of workers by limiting the number of hours required to reach the full-time threshold, as well as allow for better work-life balance and overall health outcomes.  

Full text of the House version of the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act is available here. A one pager can be found here.

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Congressman Garcia Secures Over $15 Million For Local Projects In Government Funding Package

 

Congressman Garcia Secures Over $15 Million For Local Projects In Government Funding Package

March 14, 2024

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Robert Garcia (CA-42) announced that $15,708,979 in new federal funding is headed to Long Beach and Southeast LA to support vital community projects. These investments will support cities, educational institutions, and neighborhood-serving organizations and were just signed into law by President Biden.

A full list of greater Long Beach area community projects totaling over $9.8 million receiving funding for Fiscal Year 2024 include:

  • $3,443,700 to California State University Long Beach for improvements to the Isabel Patterson Child Development Center in the City of Long Beach 
  • $963,000 to Long Beach Community College for a Space Beach Research and Innovation Center in the City of Long Beach
  • $1,000,000 to the City of Long Beach for Studebaker Road Corridor Improvements
  • $850,000 to the City of Long Beach for Bixby Park Community Center Improvements 
  • $850,000 to the City of Long Beach for Heartwell Park Field Improvements 
  • $500,000 to the City of Long Beach for Martin Luther King, Jr. Park Improvements 
  • $850,000 to the City of Lakewood for the Palms Park Community Center Improvement Project
  • $870,000 to the City of Bellflower for Public Safety Security Camera Systems
  • $500,000 to the City of Avalon, Catalina Island for improvements to the Cabrillo Mole Ferry Terminal

The Long Beach area investments continue Congressman Garcia’s long-time support for our local educational institutions and city infrastructure. He will continue to ensure that federal dollars support local city and university and college needs.

“Having served as Mayor of Long Beach, I understand the vital role that federal funding plays in sustaining our cities. From critical park improvements to affordable childcare, these neighborhood projects aim to improve the lives of everyone in our district,” said Congressman Garcia. “I’m focused on serving the people of Long Beach and our surrounding communities every single day.”

“These bold investments will help to ensure that every corner of our town benefits from critical infrastructure investments,” said Rex Richardson, Mayor of the City of Long Beach. “From revitalizing our beloved parks to enhancing street safety, these projects will boost our ‘Elevate 28’ infrastructure programs and shape our community’s future. We are extremely grateful for the support of Congressman Garcia and his team in working with us to transform these visions into reality.”

“Access to child care is essential for some of our Beach students, allowing them to focus on their studies and successfully graduate. We are immensely grateful to Rep. Garcia’s sponsorship and advocacy in helping these planned improvements become a reality,” said Dr. Jane Conoley, CalState University Long Beach President. 

“We are so grateful to Congressman Garcia for his work to secure this vital funding, which helps LBCC boost its Space Beach curriculum into the future,” said Dr. Mike Muñoz, LBCC Superintendent-President. "With over 47% of current aerospace employees having an associate degree or less, community colleges are critical for training this workforce. Key funding like this ensures that LBCC remains prepared to fulfill this need and enables us to grow our aerospace, engineering and other STEM programs.”

A full list of Southeast LA area community projects totaling over $5.8 million for Fiscal Year 2024 include:

  • $1,500,000 to the City of Cudahy for Senior Affordable Housing Development
  • $1,216,000 to the City of Maywood for Sewer Projects 
  • $1,116,279 to the City of Bell for Pritchard Field Park Improvements
  • $850,000 to the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles for Downey Family YMCA Improvements 
  • $700,000 to the City of Bell Gardens for Bell Gardens Veterans Park Refurbishment
  • $500,000 to the City of Commerce for Zero-Emission Bus Operations, Maintenance, and Administration Facility

“From affordable housing developments for seniors to renovating the Downey YMCA, these community projects aim to improve the lives of everyone in our district.” said Congressman Garcia. “As we continue to work hand in hand with local partners, it is my priority to advocate for funding that will serve folks from every corner of our district.” 

“We thank Congressman Robert Garcia for his effective leadership in securing $1.5 million for our city’s Senior Affordable Housing Project. The funding ensures the construction of 140 new senior affordable housing units that will include a medical center and provide social services to our seniors,” said Jose R. Gonzalez, Mayor of the City of Cudahy.

“We are grateful to Congressman Robert Garcia for his leadership in securing the funds to support our vision for the Kolar Family Y in Downey. This Center For Community Well-Being will provide vital programs and resources for youth, families, and seniors, including social impact, youth development and healthy living initiatives that will make the Downey community stronger,” said Victor Dominguez, President and CEO, YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles.

Each U.S. Representative may request funding for up to 15 projects in their community for Fiscal Year 2024 – although only a handful may actually be funded – and projects are restricted to state and local governments and eligible non-profit entities. Congressman Garcia and his staff reached out and met with numerous stakeholders from each corner of the district to discuss projects throughout each of the communities the Congressman represents. A list of these projects and a map can be found here.

Since coming to Congress, Congressman Garcia has helped secure transformational grant money for community investments for the Long Beach area, including $335,600,000 for the Port of Long Beach Pier B green rail system, $30,000,000 for the City of Long Beach’s Shoreline Drive Gateway project, $20.5 million for safer streets in Florence-Firestone, and $15,775,000 to purchase new electric school busses for Long Beach Unified School District. 

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Baldwin Leads Wisconsin, Iowa Senators in Calling on Biden Administration to Help Reopen Black Hawk Bridge

Baldwin Leads Wisconsin, Iowa Senators in Calling on Biden Administration to Help Reopen Black Hawk Bridge

Sudden failure closes vital link over Mississippi River that connects Wisconsin to Iowa

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Joni Ernst (R-IA) joined together to push the Biden Administration to continue working with the Iowa and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation to reopen the Black Hawk Bridge that connects Lansing, Iowa to Crawford County, Wisconsin – a vital link for commuters, families, and goods between the two states that since February 25 has been closed after the bridge experienced a sudden structural failure.

“The bridge’s closure impacts thousands of Wisconsinites and Iowans, with an estimated 2,200 vehicles previously crossing the bridge daily, and there are limited other options for crossing the river,” wrote the Senators in a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Administrator Shailen Bhatt. “Those in the community will now be required to travel miles south to the bridge connecting Marquette, Iowa with Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin or north for the bridge connecting La Crosse, Wisconsin and La Crescent, Minnesota.”

On March 4, the Iowa Department of Transportation submitted a letter of intent to request emergency relief funds through the FHWA’s Emergency Relief program, which provides reimbursable funding for the repair or reconstruction of certain Federal-aid highways that have suffered serious damage from natural disasters or catastrophic failures from external causes. The Senators urged DOT to continue working with the Iowa and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation to get the existing bridge reopened.

“We strongly support the efforts to get the existing bridge reopened and request that FHWA continue to work with the Iowa and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation to restore traffic on this bridge as soon as possible,” the Senators concluded.

A copy of this letter is available here and below.

Dear Secretary Buttigieg and Administrator Bhatt:

As you are aware, on February 25, 2024, a bridge in Lansing, Iowa connecting Iowa Highway 9 to Wisconsin Highway 35 experienced a sudden structural failure, leading to the bridge’s closure. Surveys and assessments conducted by the Iowa and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation found that the bridge sustained severe damage due to an external force. On February 29th, 2024. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation. 

The bridge’s closure impacts thousands of Wisconsinites and Iowans, with an estimated 2,200 vehicles previously crossing the bridge daily, and there are limited other options for crossing the river. Those in the community will now be required to travel miles south to the bridge connecting Marquette, Iowa with Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin or north for the bridge connecting La Crosse, Wisconsin and La Crescent, Minnesota.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)’s Emergency Relief (ER) program provides reimbursable funding for the repair or reconstruction of certain Federal-aid highways that have suffered serious damage from natural disasters or catastrophic failures from external causes. On March 4, 2024, the Iowa Department of Transportation submitted a letter of intent to request ER funds and FHWA responded promptly on March 5, 2024, acknowledging receipt of the letter and reiterating the parameters of the ER program.

We strongly support the efforts to get the existing bridge reopened and request that FHWA continue to work with the Iowa and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation to restore traffic on this bridge as soon as possible.

Thank you for your time and attention to this important matter. 

Sincerely,

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Murray Cosponsors Legislation to Crack Down on Big Corporations Shrinking Products Without Reducing Prices, Stop Shrinkflation

 

Murray Cosponsors Legislation to Crack Down on Big Corporations Shrinking Products Without Reducing Prices, Stop Shrinkflation

Bill empowers Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to crack down on corporations reducing product size without a reduction in price

Federal Reserve research found corporate profits account for total inflation from July 2020 through July 2021 and 41 percent of total inflation from July 2020 through July 2022 

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) and six of their colleagues in introducing the Shrinkflation Prevention Act to crack down on shrinkflation and on corporations that deceive consumers by selling smaller sizes of their products without lowering the prices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, big corporations took advantage of the crisis to prey on consumers through greedflation: raising prices by even more than necessary to cover increases in their costs, and hiding behind inflation and supply chain disruptions to do it. Now that the market shock of the pandemic has largely abated, corporations’ costs are coming down and profits are rising. But for American families, prices remain high. The Shrinkflation Prevention Act would help to put more money in the pockets of working families, make big corporations pay their fair share, fight unfair corporate price gouging, and take on corporate monopolies to increase competition and lower costs.

“Trying to pull a fast one on American families by shrinking products and selling them for the same price is plain wrong—and it’s about time Congress cracked down on these deceptive practices,” said Senator Murray. “Families in Washington state aren’t fooled when they go to the grocery store and find the sizes of their favorite foods shrinking while the prices stay the same—I’m proud to be a cosponsor of Senator Casey’s Shrinkflation Prevention Act to help stop corporations from ripping off American consumers.”

The Shrinkflation Prevention Act would:

  1. Direct the FTC to promulgate regulations to establish shrinkflation as an unfair or deceptive act or practice, prohibiting manufacturers from engaging in shrinkflation
  2. Authorize FTC to pursue civil actions against corporations who engage in shrinkflation
  3. Authorize state attorneys general to bring civil actions against corporations engaging in shrinkflation

Murray and Casey were joined on the bill by U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). The bill is endorsed by Groundwork Collaborative, Public Citizen, Consumer Federation of America, and WorkMoney.

Read more about the Shrinkflation Prevention Act here.

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Iraq snapshot

Friday, March 15, 2024.  Arun Gupta has a major piece debunking the October 7th rape myths, another massacre of Palestinians attempting to get food, Senator Chuck Schumer makes a needed call, and much more.


Let's start with Arun Gupta who has an article COUNTERPUNCH published this morning:

Following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks that resulted in at least 1,163 deaths, rumors began circulating that Israeli women were experiencing horrific mass rape and sexual violence. Months later, a position paper by Physicians for Human Rights Israel and a New York Times investigation convinced many observers that Hamas used rape as a weapon of war. But an investigation by YES! examining both reports, other media investigations, hundreds of news articles, interviews with Israeli sources, and photo and video evidence reveals a shocking conclusion: There is no evidence mass rape occurred.

The New YorkerNew York TimesAssociated Press, and The Nation treat PHRI’s paper as the gold standard for proof of Hamas’ rape and sexual violence. But the paper is shockingly thin. It lacks original reporting and is based on media reports that are dubious at best with no corroboration—no forensic evidence, no survivor testimony, no video evidence.

During a two-hour-long interview that was heated at times, Hadas Ziv, director of ethics and policy at Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), acknowledged numerous problems with the position paper she co-authored, “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence As a Weapon of War During the October 7, 2023 Hamas Attacks.

Ziv admitted credibility problems with sources and that she did not review all available evidence. She was “unaware” numerous sources had fabricated atrocity stories about Oct. 7. Ziv said, “Yeah, that’s a problem,” about a soldier she quotes whose claim of rape was changed by the government. She quoted volunteers from Zaka, a scandal-plagued organization that collected human remains after Oct. 7, but Ziv did not realize Zaka openly talks of inventing stories. When discussing claims that women’s sexual organs were deliberately mutilated, Ziv conceded, “OK, if there’s alternative explanations you can’t say that.”

While admitting “I did not know all the stories that you speak about that discredit those witnesses,” Ziv also lashed out: “I feel like I’m a rape victim that’s being interrogated.” YES! responded, “Not every interview is a friendly interview.”

Further, the PHRI paper is riddled with errors small and large. Names are misspelled, quotes don’t match links, and an individual is misidentified. Ziv was unaware that the Israeli government alleges it has forensic evidence of rape, which it has not produced publicly. Most egregious, Ziv didn’t realize her paper counted one alleged gang rape as two separate incidents.


My apologies.  I didn't know about the article until COUNTERPUNCH published it.  YES! published it on March 5th.  We don't highlight YES!  That's for good reason that goes back decades and had to do with an employee (looking at the site, this employee -- that a British MP warned me about -- hasn't been involved with the outlet in at least four years).  We've noted Arun many times over the years and I have no problem noting him.  I also have no problem linking to this YES! interview Sonali Kohlhatkar did with Arun.  I would embed it here if I could find it on YOUTUBE.  I have no problem with Sonali.  And I might not have a problem now with YES!   I would recommend that you listen to the interview.  And if I had heard it last week, Ava and I would have referenced it in our piece for THIRD ("Media: When It Doesn't Add Up").

Starvation remains the playbook for the Israeli government as the assault on Gaza continues.  And in the news this morning is another attack, from Thursday, on civilians trying to receive aid.




Gaza officials said the attack occurred as a crowd gathered to receive aid from a truck at the Kuwait roundabout, a key interchange used by humanitarian convoys carrying food into northern Gaza. More than 150 people were wounded, they added.

The latest incident came hours after eight people were killed in an airstrike on an aid distribution centre at al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, health officials said.



At least 21 Palestinians have been killed after Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of people waiting for aid in Gaza City in the same area that was targeted hours earlier, government officials said.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza described the late Thursday attack as a “new, premeditated massacre” and said more than 150 people were wounded.

t was the latest in a string of assaults on people desperately in need of food and other essential supplies as Israel continues to obstruct and severely control the entry of aid into the enclave.

Earlier on Thursday, at the same food distribution point at the Kuwait Roundabout, Israeli forces had shot dead at least six Palestinians, as the death toll has risen to more than 400 people in such attacks.

Witnesses told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces had used helicopters, tanks and drones to target thousands of people waiting on food trucks.




Thursday's bloodshed drew comparisons to the February 29 attack in which Israeli forces opened fire on crowds of starving Gazans trying to get their hands on bags of flour. The attack was later dubbed the "flour massacre."

The Israeli military claimed that most of the deaths were caused by a stampede, but testimony from witnesses and hospital officials as well as bullets found at the scene refuted that narrative.

"Our governments did nothing to hold Israel accountable last time it attacked desperate hungry people seeking aid in Gaza," said Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns at Medical Aid for Palestinians. "So why wouldn't it do the exact same thing again?"

Prior to Thursday's attack—described as "another flour massacre"—Gaza authorities estimated that Israeli forces had killed at least 400 people waiting for humanitarian aid deliveries. Between mid-January and the end of February, the United Nations documented at least 14 instances of Israeli forces opening fire on crowds gathered to receive humanitarian aid. 

On the topic of aid, THE GUARDIAN notes this morning, "The first aid vessel heading to the besieged Gaza Strip via a new maritime corridor was visible on Friday off the coast of the war-ravaged territory, an AFP journalist said."  Dalya al-Masri (NBC NEWS) adds, "The ship == called Open Arms and run by a Spanish charity of the same name -- carries around 200 metric tons of supplies including flour, rice and water, from Larnaca port in Cyprus. Video footage from the AFP news agency showed the ship visible off the shore of the Gaza Strip on Friday morning London time."  ALJAZEERA explains, "The aid ship departed from Cyprus on Tuesday, towing a barge containing about 200 tonnes of flour, rice and protein."  Also on aid, Australia has announced that it will be restoring its funding to UNRWA -- the UN aid organization targeted with smears by the Israeli government as part of the plan to starve Gaza.  Mona Farag (THE NATIONAL) notes, "Ireland pledged €20 million in additional support for the relief agency last week."  Staying on Ireland for a moment more, THE GUARDIAN reports:

Protests have been held in Dublin and Belfast urging US president Joe Biden to demand a permanent ceasefire in the Middle East, reports the Press Association (PA).

The Amnesty International demonstrations took place to coincide with Irish premier Leo Varadkar’s meeting with Biden at the White House as part of the traditional St Patrick’s Day visit on Friday.

Activists from Amnesty gathered at US diplomatic offices in Dublin and Belfast on Friday morning holding banners that read: “President Biden, listen to your Irish roots and demand a permanent ceasefire.”




Another story developing since yesterday's snapshot, US Senator Chuck Schumer is calling for elections in Israel.  



ALJAZEERA terms Chuck's call "a political earthquake."  Liz Goodwin and THE WASHINGTON POST describe the speech as "scathing." Yesterday afternoon, CNN) reported:

 Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday criticized Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, calling for new elections in a speech on the Senate floor on the Israel-Hamas war.

“As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7. The world has changed, radically, since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past,” said Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in America.

“Five months into this conflict, it is clear that Israelis need to take stock of the situation and ask: must we change course?” he continued. “At this critical juncture, I believe a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel, at a time when so many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government.”

The humanitarian crisis impacting Palestinian civilians in Gaza has grown increasingly dire as Israel’s war against Hamas continues, a situation that has increased pressure on Democratic party officials, including President Joe Biden, to take a harder line against Israel. Congressional aid to Israel has stalled after the Senate passed a package with aid for Israel and Ukraine that has not been taken up in the House.     

This morning, CNN offers, "The Senate floor speech was also an unmistakable sign of increasing frustration among top Democrats about Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza following the October 7 Hamas terror attacks that killed 1,200 people and his unwillingness to listen to US advice. It also reflects political realities in the United States."  


Americans were already outraged and the outrage continues to grow.  Michael Collins and Sudiksha Kochi (USA TODAY) report:

Americans are growing more sympathetic to Palestinians and want President Joe Biden to do more to improve humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip as death, hunger and disease spread through the region after five months of the Israel-Hamas war.

Nearly half of American voters (45%) believe Biden should pressure Israel to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, an exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll shows.

“What is going on there is deplorable,” said Jana Pender, 67, a retired casino housekeeping worker from Detroit. “Children are dying.”

While young voters have long agreed that Biden should do whatever it takes to ensure a cease-fire, the poll shows a growing consensus even among older Americans that Biden needs to do more.







NERMEEN SHAIKH: The death toll in Gaza has topped 31,300. At least five people were killed on Wednesday when Israel bombed an UNRWA aid distribution center in Rafah — one of the U.N. agency’s last remaining aid sites in Gaza. The head of UNRWA called the attack a, quote, “blatant disregard to international humanitarian law.”

This comes as much of Gaza is on the brink of famine as Israel continues to limit the amount of aid allowed into the besieged territory. At least 27 Palestinians have died of starvation, including 23 children.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera is reporting six Palestinians were killed in Gaza City when Israeli forces opened fire again on crowds waiting for food aid. Over 80 people were injured.

In other news from Gaza, Politico reports the Biden administration has privately told Israel that the U.S. would support Israel attacking Rafah as long as it did not carry out a large-scale invasion.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we begin today’s show looking at how the U.S. media is covering Israel’s assault on Gaza with the acclaimed TV broadcaster Mehdi Hasan. In January, he announced he was leaving MSNBC after his shows were canceled. Mehdi was one of the most prominent Muslim voices on American television. In October, the news outlet Semafor reported MSNBC had reduced the roles of Hasan and two other Muslim broadcasters on the network, Ayman Mohyeldin and Ali Velshi, following the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel. Then, in November, MSNBC announced it was canceling Hasan’s show shortly after he conducted this interview with Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is an excerpt.

MEHDI HASAN: You say Hamas’s numbers — I should point out, just pull up on the screen, in the last two major Gaza conflicts, 2009 and 2014, the Israeli military’s death tolls matched Hamas’s Health Ministry death tolls, so — and the U.N., human rights groups all agree that those numbers are credible. But look, your wider point is true.

MARK REGEV: Can I challenge that?

MEHDI HASAN: We shouldn’t —

MARK REGEV: Will you allow me —

MEHDI HASAN: We shouldn’t —

MARK REGEV: — to challenge that, please? Can I just challenge that?

MEHDI HASAN: Briefly, if you can.

MARK REGEV: I’d like to challenge that.

MEHDI HASAN: Briefly.

MARK REGEV: I’ll try to be as brief as you are, sir. Those numbers are provided by Hamas. There’s no independent verification. And secondly, more importantly, you have no idea how many of them are Hamas terrorists, combatants, and how many are civilians. Hamas would have you believe that they’re all civilians, that they’re all children.

And here we have to say something that isn’t said enough. Hamas, until now, we’re destroying their military machine, and with that, we’re eroding their control. But up until now, they’ve been in control of the Gaza Strip. And as a result, they control all the images coming out of Gaza. Have you seen one picture of a single dead Hamas terrorist in the fighting in Gaza? Not one.

MEHDI HASAN: Yeah, but I have —

MARK REGEV: Is that by accident, or is that — 

MEHDI HASAN: But I have, Mark —

MARK REGEV: — because Hamas can control — Hamas can control the information coming out of Gaza?

MEHDI HASAN: Mark, but you asked me a question, and you said you would be brief. I haven’t. You’re right. But I have seen lots of children with my own lying eyes being pulled from the rubble. So —

MARK REGEV: Now, because they’re the pictures Hamas wants you to see. Exactly my point, Mehdi.

MEHDI HASAN: And also because they’re dead, Mark. Also —

MARK REGEV: They’re the pictures Hamas wants — no.

MEHDI HASAN: But they’re also people your government has killed. You accept that, right? You’ve killed children? Or do you deny that?

MARK REGEV: No, I do not. I do not. I do not. First of all, you don’t know how those people died, those children.

MEHDI HASAN: Oh wow.

AMY GOODMAN: “Oh wow,” Mehdi Hasan responded, interviewing Netanyahu adviser Mark Regev on MSNBC. Soon after, MSNBC announced that he was losing his shows. Since leaving the network, Mehdi Hasan has launched a new digital media company named Zeteo.

Mehdi, welcome back to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. I want to start with that interview you did with Regev. After, you lost your two shows, soon after. Do you think that’s the reason those shows were canceled? Interviews like that?

MEHDI HASAN: You would have to ask MSNBC, Amy. And, Amy and Nermeen, thank you for having me on. It’s great to be back here after a few years away. Look, the advantage of not being at MSNBC anymore is I get to come on shows like this and talk to you all. You should get someone from MSNBC on and ask them why they canceled the shows, because I can’t answer that question. I wish I knew. But there we go.

The shows were canceled at the end of November. I quit at the beginning of January, because I wanted to have a platform of my own. I couldn’t really spend 2024, one of the most important news years of our lives — genocide in Gaza, fascism at the door here in America with elections — couldn’t really spend that being a guest anchor and a political analyst, which is what I was offered at MSNBC while I was staying there. I wanted to leave. I wanted to get my voice back. And that’s why I launched my own media company, as you mentioned, called Zeteo, which we’ve done a soft launch on and we’re going to launch properly next month. But I’m excited about all the opportunities ahead, the opportunity to do more interviews like the one I did with Mark Regev.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Mehdi, could you explain Zeteo? First of all, what does it mean? And what is the gap in the U.S. media landscape that you hope to fill? You’ve been extremely critical of the U.S. media’s coverage of Gaza, saying, quite correctly, that the coverage has not been as consistent or clear as the last time we saw an invasion of this kind, though far less brutal, which was the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

MEHDI HASAN: Yeah, it’s a great question. So, on Zeteo, it’s an ancient Greek word, going back to Socrates and Plato, which means to seek out, to search, to inquire for the truth. And at a time when we live in a, some would say, post-truth society — or people on the right are attempting to turn it into a post-truth society — I thought that was an important endeavor to embark upon as a journalist, to go back to our roots.

In terms of why I launch it and the media space, look, there is a gap in the market, first of all, on the left for a company like this one. Not many progressives have pulled off a for-profit, subscription-based business, media business. We’ve seen it on the right, Nermeen, with, you know, Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire and Bari Weiss’s The Free Press, and even Tucker Carlson has launched his own subscription-based platform since leaving Fox. And on the progressive space, we haven’t really done it. Now, of course, there are wonderful shows like Democracy Now! which are doing important, invaluable journalism on subjects like Gaza, on subjects like the climate. But across the media industry as a whole, sadly, in the U.S., the massive gap is there are not enough — I don’t know how to put it — bluntly, truth tellers, people who are willing to say — and when I say “truth tellers,” I don’t just mean, you know, truth in a conventional sense of saying what is true and what is false; I’m saying the language in which we talk about what is happening in the world today.

Too many of my colleagues in the media, unfortunately, hide behind lazy euphemisms, a both-sides journalism, the idea that you can’t say Donald Trump is racist because you don’t know what’s in his heart; you can’t say the Republican Party is going full fascist, even as they proclaim that they don’t believe in democracy as we conventionally understand it; we can’t say there’s a genocide in Gaza, even though the International Court of Justice says such a thing is plausible. You know, we run away from very blunt terms which help us understand world. And I want to treat American consumers of news, global consumers of news — it’s a global news organization which I’m founding — with some respect. Stop patronizing them. Tell them what is happening in the world, in a blunt way.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Mehdi, talk about this. I mean, in your criticism of the U.S. media’s coverage, in particular, of Israel’s assault on Gaza — I mean, of course, you have condemned what happened, the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7th. You’ve also situated the attack in a broader historical frame, and you’ve received criticism for doing that. And in response, you’ve said, “Context is not causation,” and “Context is not justification.” So, could you explain why you think context, history, is so important, and the way in which this question is kind of elided in U.S. media coverage, not just of the Gaza crisis, but especially so now?

MEHDI HASAN: So, I did an interview with Piers Morgan this week. And if you watch Piers Morgan’s shows, he always asks his pro-Palestinian guests or anyone criticizing Israel, you know, “Condemn what happened on October 7th.” It’s all about October the 7th. And what happened on October 7th was barbarism. It was a tragedy. It was a terror attack. Civilians were killed. War crimes were carried out. Hostages were taken. And we should condemn it. Of course we should, as human beings, if nothing else.

But the world did not begin on October the 7th. The idea that the entire Middle East conflict, Israel-Palestine, the occupation, apartheid, can be reduced to October 7th is madness. And it’s not just me saying that. You talk to, you know, leading Israeli peace campaigners, even some leading Israeli generals, people like Shlomo Brom, who talk about having to understand the root causes of a people under occupation fighting for freedom. And it’s absurd to me that in our media industry people should try and run away from context. My former colleagues Ali Velshi and Ayman Mohyeldin, who Amy mentioned in the introduction, they were on air on October the 7th as news was coming in of the attacks, and they provided context, because they’re two anchors who really understand that part of the world. Ayman Mohyeldin is perhaps the only U.S. anchor who’s ever lived in Gaza. And they came under attack online from certain pro-Israel people for providing context. This idea that we should be embarrassed or ashamed or apologetic as journalists for providing context on one of the biggest stories in the world is madness. You cannot understand what is happening in the world unless we, unless you and I, unless journalists, broadcasters, are explaining to our viewers and our listeners and our readers why things are happening, where forces are coming from, why people are behaving the way they do. And I know America is a country of amnesiacs, but we cannot keep acting as if the world just began yesterday.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about a piece in The Intercept — you also used to report for The Intercept — the headline, “In Internal Meeting, Christiane Amanpour Confronts CNN Brass About 'Double Standards' on Israel Coverage.” It’s a really interesting piece. They were confronting the executives, and “One issue that came up,” says The Intercept, “repeatedly is CNN’s longtime process for routing almost all coverage relating to Israel and Palestine through the network’s Jerusalem bureau. As The Intercept reported in January, the protocol — which has existed for years but was expanded and rebranded as SecondEyes last summer — slows down reporting on Gaza and filters news about the war through journalists in Jerusalem who operate under the shadow of Israel’s military censor.” And then it quotes Christiane Amanpour, identified in a recording of that meeting. She said, “You’ve heard from me, you’ve heard my, you know, real distress with SecondEyes — changing copy, double standards, and all the rest,” Amanpour said. The significance of this and what we see, Mehdi? You know, I’m not talking Fox right now. On MSNBC — 

MEHDI HASAN: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: — and on CNN, you rarely see Palestinians interviewed in extended discussions.

MEHDI HASAN: So, I think there’s a few issues there, Amy. Number one, first of all, we should recognize that Christiane Amanpour has done some very excellent coverage of Gaza for CNN in this conflict. She’s had some very powerful interviews and very important guests on. So, credit to Christiane during this conflict. Number two —

AMY GOODMAN: International —

MEHDI HASAN: — I think U.S. media organizations — 

AMY GOODMAN: — I just wanted to say, particularly on CNN International, which is often not seen —

MEHDI HASAN: Very good point.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: — on CNN domestic.

MEHDI HASAN: Very good — very good point, Amy. Touché.

The second point, I would say, is U.S. media organizations, as a whole, are engaging in journalistic malpractice by not informing viewers, listeners, readers that a lot of their coverage out of Israel and the Occupied Territories is coming under the shadow of an Israeli military censor. How many Americans understand or even know about the Israeli military censor, about how much information is controlled? We barely understand that Western journalists are kept out of Gaza, or if when they go in, they’re embedded with Israeli military forces and limited to what they can say and do. So I think we should talk about that in a country which kind of prides itself on the First Amendment and free speech and a free press. We should understand the way in which information comes out of the Occupied Territories, in particular from Gaza.

And the third point, I would say, is, yeah, Palestinian voices not being on American television or in American print is one of the biggest problems when it comes to our coverage of this conflict. When we talk about why the media is structurally biased towards one party in this conflict, the more powerful party, the occupier, we have to remember that this is one of the reasons. Why are Palestinians dehumanized in our media? This is one of the reasons. We don’t let people speak. That’s what leads to dehumanization. That’s what leads to bias.

We understand it at home when it comes to, for example, Black voices. In recent years, media organizations have tried to take steps to improve diversity on air, when it comes to on-air talent, when it comes to on-air guests, when it comes to balancing panels. We get that we need underrepresented communities to be able to speak. But when it comes to foreign conflicts, we still don’t seem to have made that calculation.

There was a study done a few years ago of op-eds in The New York Times and The Washington Post on the subject of Israel-Palestine from 1970 to, I think it was, 2000-and-something, and it was like 2% of all op-eds in the Times and 1% in the Post were written by Palestinians, which is a shocking statistic. We deny these people a voice, and then we wonder why people don’t sympathize with their plight or don’t — aren’t, you know, marching in the street — well, they are marching in the streets — but in bigger numbers. Why America is OK and kind of, you know, blind to the fact that we are complicit in a genocide of these people? Because we don’t hear from these people.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Mehdi, I mean, explain why that’s especially relevant in this instance, because journalists have not been permitted access to Gaza, so there is no reporting going on on the ground that’s being shown here. I mean, dozens and dozens of journalists have signed a letter asking Israel and Egypt to allow journalists access into Gaza. So, if you could talk about that, why it’s especially important to hear from Palestinian voices here?

MEHDI HASAN: Well, for a start, Nermeen, much of the imagery we see on our screens here or in our newspapers are sanitized images. We don’t see the full level of the destruction. And when we try and understand, well, why are young people — why is there such a generational gap when it comes to the polling on Gaza, on ceasefire, why are young people so much more antiwar than their elder peers, part of the reason is that young people are on TikTok or Instagram and seeing a much less sanitized version of this war, of Israel’s bombardment. They are seeing babies being pulled from the rubble, limbs missing. They are seeing hospitals being — you know, hospitals carrying out procedures without anesthetic. They are seeing just absolute brutality, the kind of stuff that U.N. humanitarian chiefs are saying we haven’t seen in this world for 50 years.

And that’s the problem, right? If we’re sanitizing the coverage, Americans aren’t being told, really, aren’t being informed, are, again, missing context on what is happening on the ground. And, of course, Israel, by keeping Western journalists out, makes it even easier for those images to be blocked, and therefore you have Palestinian — brave Palestinian journalists on the ground trying to film, trying to document their own genocide, streaming it to our phones. And we’ve seen over a hundred of them killed over the last five months. That is not an accident. That is not a coincidence. Israel wants to stamp out independent voices, stamp out any kind of coverage of its own genocidal behavior.

And therefore, again, you’re able to have a debate in this country where the political debate is completely disconnected to the public debate, and the public debate is completely misinformed. I’m amazed, Nermeen, when you look at the polling, that there’s a majority in favor of a ceasefire, that half of all Democrats say this is a genocide. Americans are saying that to pollsters despite not even getting the full picture. Can you imagine what those numbers would look like if they actually saw what was happening on the ground?

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, I want to go to what is unfolding right now in Gaza. You said in a recent interview that in the past Israel was, quote, “mowing the lawn,” but now the Netanyahu government’s intention is to erase the population of Gaza. So let’s go to what Prime Minister Netanyahu said about the invasion of Rafah, saying it would go ahead and would last weeks, not months. He was speaking to Politico on Sunday.

PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: We’re not going to leave them. You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is? That October 7th doesn’t happen again, never happens again. And to do that, we have to complete the destruction of the Hamas terrorist army. … We’re very close to victory. It’s close at hand. We’ve destroyed three-quarters of Hamas fighting terrorist battalions, and we’re close to finishing the last part in Rafah, and we’re not going to give it up. … Once we begin the intense action of eradicating the Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah, it’s a matter of weeks and not months.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Mehdi, your response to what Netanyahu said and what the Israelis have proposed as a safe place for Gazans to go — namely, humanitarian islands?

MEHDI HASAN: So, number one, when you hear Netanyahu speak, Nermeen, doesn’t it remind you of George Bush in kind of 2002, 2003? It’s very — you know, invoking 9/11 to justify every atrocity, claiming that you’re trying to protect the country, when you, yourself, your idiocy and your incompetency, is what led to the attacks. You know, George Bush was unable to prevent 9/11, and then used 9/11 to justify every atrocity, even though his incompetence helped allow 9/11 to happen. And I feel the same way: Netanyahu allowed the worst terror attack, the worst massacre in Israel to happen on his watch. Many of his own, you know, generals, many of his own people blame him for this. And so, it’s rich to hear him saying, “My aim is to stop this from happening again.” Well, you couldn’t stop it from happening the first time, and now you’re killing innocent Palestinians under the pretense that this is national security.

Number two, again George Bush-like, claiming that the war is nearly done, mission is nearly accomplished, that’s nonsense. No serious observer believes that Hamas is finished or that Israel has won some total victory. A member of Netanyahu’s own war cabinet said recently, “Anyone who says you can absolutely defeat Hamas is telling tall tales, is lying.” That was a colleague of Netanyahu’s, in government, who said that.

And number three, the red line on Rafah that Biden suppposedly set down and that Netanyahu is now mocking, saying, “My own red line is to do the opposite,” what on Earth is Joe Biden doing in allowing Benjamin Netanyahu to humiliate him in this way with this invasion of Rafah, even after he said he opposes it? I mean, it’s one thing to leak stuff —

AMY GOODMAN: Mehdi —

MEHDI HASAN: — over a few months —

AMY GOODMAN: — let’s go to Biden speaking on MSNBC. He’s being interviewed by your former colleague Jonathan Capehart, as he was being questioned about Benjamin Netanyahu and saying he’s hurting Israel more than helping Israel.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: He has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas. But he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken. He’s hurting — in my view, he’s hurting Israel more than helping Israel by making the rest of the world — it’s contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it’s a big mistake. So I want to see a ceasefire.

AMY GOODMAN: And he talked about a, well, kind of a red line. If you can address what Biden is saying and what he proposed in the State of the Union, this pier, to get more aid in, and also the dropping — the airdropping of food, which recently killed five Palestinians because it crushed them to death, and the humanitarian groups, United Nations saying these airdrops, the pier come nowhere near being able to provide the aid that’s needed, at the same time, and the reason they’re doing all of this, is because Israel is using U.S. bombs and artillery to attack the Palestinians and these aid trucks?

MEHDI HASAN: Yeah, it’s just so bizarre, the idea that you could drop bombs, on the one hand, and then drop aid, on the other, and you’re paying for both, and then your aid ends up killing people, too. It’s like some kind of dark Onion headline. It’s just beyond parody. It’s beyond belief.

And as for the pier, as you say, it does not come anywhere near to adequately addressing the needs of the Palestinian people, in terms of the sheer scale of the suffering, half a million people on the brink of famine, over a million people displaced. Four out of five of the hungriest people in the world, according to the World Food Programme, are in Gaza right now. The idea that this pier would, A, address the scale of the suffering, and, B, in time — I mean, it’s going to take time to do this. What happens to the Palestinians who literally starve to death, including children, while this pier is being built? Finally, I would say, there’s reporting in the Israeli press, Amy, that I’ve seen that suggests that the pier idea comes from Netanyahu, that the Israeli government are totally fine with this pier, because it allows them still to control land and air access into Gaza, which is what they’ve always controlled and which in this war they’ve monopolized.

The idea that the United States of America, the world’s only superpower, cannot tell its ally, “You know what? We’re going to put aid into Gaza because we want to, and you’re not going to stop us, especially since we’re the ones arming you,” is bizarre. It’s something I think Biden will never be able to get past or live down. It’s a stain on his record, on America’s conscience. The idea that we’re arming a country that’s engaged in a “plausible genocide,” to quote the ICJ, is bad enough. That we can’t even get our own aid in, while they’re bombing with our bombs, is just madness. And by the way, it’s also illegal. Under U.S. law, you cannot provide weaponry to a country which is blocking U.S. aid. And by the way, it’s not me saying they’re blocking U.S. aid. U.S. government officials have said, “Yes, the Israeli government blocked us from sending flour in,” for example.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Mehdi, let’s go to the regional response to this assault on Gaza that’s been unfolding with the kind of violence and tens of thousands of deaths of Palestinians, as we’ve reported. Now, what has — how has the Arab and Muslim world responded to what’s going on? Egypt, of course, has repeatedly said that it does not want displaced Palestinians crossing its border. The most powerful Muslim countries, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Emirates, if you can talk about how they’ve responded? And then the Axis — the so-called Axis of Resistance —  Houthis, Hezbollah, etc. — how they have been trying to disrupt this war, or at least make the backers of Israel pay a price for it?

MEHDI HASAN: So, I hear people saying, “Oh, we’re disappointed in the response from the Arab countries.” The problem with the word “disappointment” is it implies you had any expectations to begin with. I certainly didn’t. Arab countries have never had the Palestinians’ backs. The Arab — quote-unquote, “Arab street” has always been very pro-Palestinian. But the autocratic, the despotic, the dictatorial rulers of much of the Arab world have never really had the interests of the Palestinian people at their heart, going back right to 1948, when, you know, Arab countries attacked Israel to push it into the sea, but, actually, as we know from historians like Avi Shlaim, were not doing that at all, and that some of them, like Jordan, had done deals with Israel behind the scenes. So, look, Arab countries have never really prioritized the Palestinian people or their needs or their freedom. And so, when you see some of these statements that come out of the Arab world at times like this, you know, you have to take them with a shovel of salt, not just a grain.

Also, I would point out the hypocrisy here on all sides in the region. You have countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which were involved in a brutal assault on Yemen for many years, carried out very similar acts to Israel in Gaza in terms of blockades, starvation, malnourishment of the Yemeni children, in terms of bombing of refugee camps and hospitals and kids and school buses. That all happened in Yemen. Arab countries did that, let’s just be clear about that, things that they criticize Israel for doing now. And, of course, Iran, which sets itself up as a champion of the Palestinan people, when Bashar al-Assad was killing many of his own people, including Palestinian refugees, in places like the al-Yarmouk refugee camp, Iran and Russia, by the way, were both perfectly happy to help arm and support Assad as he did that. So, you know, spare me some of the grandiose statements from Middle East countries, from Arab nations to Iran, on all of it. There’s a lot of hypocrisy to go around.

Very few countries in the world, especially in that region, actually have Palestinian interests at heart. If they did, we would have a very different geopolitical scene. There is reporting, Nermeen, that a lot of these governments, like Saudi Arabia, privately are telling Israel, “Finish the job. Get rid of them. We don’t like Hamas, either. Get rid of them,” and that Saudis actually want to do a deal with Israel once this war is over, just as they were on course to do, apparently, according to the Biden administration. We know that other Arab countries already signed the, quote-unquote, “Abraham Accords” with Israel on Trump’s watch.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about the number of dead Palestinian journalists and also the new U.N. investigation that just accused Israel of breaking international law over the killing of the Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah in southern Lebanon. On October 13th, an Israeli tank opened fire on him and a group of other journalists. He had just set up a live stream on the border in southern Lebanon, so that all his colleagues at Reuters and others saw him blown up. The report stating, quote, “The firing at civilians, in this instance clearly identifiable journalists, constitutes a violation of … international law.” And it’s not just Issam in southern Lebanon. Well over a hundred Palestinian journalists in Gaza have died. We’ve never seen anything like the concentration of numbers of journalists killed in any other conflict or conflicts combined recently. Can you talk about the lack of outrage of other major news organizations and what Israel is doing here? Do you think they’re being directly targeted, one after another, wearing those well-known “press” flak jackets? It looks like we just lost audio to Mehdi Hasan.

MEHDI HASAN: Amy, I can — I can hear you, Amy, very faintly.

AMY GOODMAN: Oh, OK. So —

MEHDI HASAN: I’m going to answer your question, if you can still hear me.

AMY GOODMAN: Great. We can hear you perfectly.

MEHDI HASAN: So, you’re very faint to me. So, while I speak, if someone want to fix the volume in my ear. Let me answer your question about journalists.

It is an absolute tragedy and a scandal, what has happened to journalists in Gaza, that we have seen so many deaths in Gaza. And the real scandal, Amy, is that Western media, a lot of my colleagues here in the U.S. media, have not sounded the alarm, have not called out Israel for what it’s done. It’s outrageous that so many of our fellow colleagues can be killed in Gaza while reporting, while at home, losing family members, and yet there’s not a huge global outcry. When Wael al-Dahdouh, who we just saw on the screen, from Al Jazeera, loses his immediate family members and carries on reporting for Al Jazeera Arabic, why is he not on every front page in the world? Why is he not a hero? Why is he not sitting down with Oprah Winfrey? I feel like, you know, when Evan Gershkovich from The Wall Street Journal is wrongly imprisoned in Russia, we all campaign for Evan to be released. When Ukrainian journalists are killed, we all speak out and are angry about it. But when Palestinian journalists are killed on a level we’ve never seen before, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, where is the outcry here in the West over the killing of them? We claim to care about a free press. We claim to oppose countries that crack down on a free press, on journalism. We say journalism is not a crime. But then I don’t hear the outrage from my colleagues here at this barbarism in Gaza, where journalists are being killed in record numbers.



Gaza remains under assault. Day 161 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  NBC NEWS notes, "The death toll in Gaza since Oct. 7 has surpassed 31,000 , according to the enclave's Health Ministry, which says more than 73,000 have been injured. The Israeli military said at least 247 soldiers have been killed since the ground invasion of Gaza began."  Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:








And the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."   



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