1) What Israel did Monday -- closing Gaza's only commercial crossing & blocking ALL exports & imports (except aid it already barely allows, & on top of the many goods it already bans) -- got a collective yawn. To illustrate on the left-liberal end, @democracynow ignored it; NYT:
- 2) Former Gaza health minister Dr. @basemn63 joined me from Gaza to discuss the territory's crippled health system and how Gazans will respond to Israel's new intensification of the already crippling blockade:
- Looking at the time stamp, the news broke after @democracynow went on air. And even if that is irrelevant, be better than that. Your operating platforms are different, your mission is near the same and none of the viewers/listeners use one source to inform ourselves.
- the news broke yesterday, and there was no mention of it today. The reason I invoke it is because it is a leading progressive outlet, and its silence on it is a stark illustration of a broader silence. https://www.democracynow.org/search?query=gaza&page=1 …
- Recently, @democracynow has been omitting some important development. I am worried about that tendency more than ever.
she's not the only 1 silent.
katha pollitt is always silent on palestine. she's an apologist for apartheid and the war crimes of israel.
please read betty's 'The fat apologist for Israel attacks Susan Sarandon' and elaine's 'Katha Pollitt is anti-Arab and anti-Muslim and should be fired.'
years from now, please remember the war criminals and their helpers - that especially includes butter ball fat ass katha pollitt.
Israel closed Gaza’s only cargo crossing and put more restrictions on its fishing waters. The UN says the 12-year Israeli land, air and sea blockade has "devastated" Gaza’s economy and threatens violating "most basic human rights."
How does it go? “If the Arabs put down their weapons their wouldn’t be any violence. If Israel put down their weapons their would be no Israel.” That would be true if only Palestinians had weapons! Since the Gaza Protest, 135 Palestinians killed & 0 Israeli’s. #FreePalestine #BDS pic.twitter.com/8znR3Yiud0
Peter Beinart launches scathing attack on American Jewish leaders for deliberately concealing the truth about Israel's brutal strangulation of the ppl of Gaza.
on that last tweet, imagine what would happen if the katha pollitts were out eating - you know she has to feed that fast ass every 2 hours - and people protested her the way they do the trump administration. fatty might have to shut her fat mouth finally. fatty pollitt.
she should be protested. she's responsible for covering up the deaths of palestinians. she's a fat ass posing as a feminist. go back to stuffing your face, katha.
fat ass katha. could you imagine what would happen if she had to give up eating out? that might be the only thing to get her to stop her lies.
let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Original drone footage by @NRC_Norway in #Iraq shows remaining devastation of #Mosul 1 year after the it was retaken from #ISIS. More than 380k people still displaced, 54,000 home still destroyed, & 8 mil tons of debris still scattered across the city. bit.ly/2KUHU1K
All that 'success.' Hard to believe the Iraqi people didn't storm the polls on May 12th to vote for Hayder and give him a second term?
It's only hard to believe if you bought the crap the corporate media was selling in the long lead up to the Iraqi elections.
Mosul still in ruins one year after 'liberation' from ISIL aje.io/n5qe5
Today marks one year since #Mosul was retaken from the Islamic State group. However one year later the city is still massively destroyed. 380,000 people are still displaced and face extreme living conditions bit.ly/2KUHU1K #Iraq
That's what 'liberation' looks like. What a proud moment for the whole world.
XINHUA reports that the "smell of rotting bodies comes from under the rubbles" and:
In a coffee shop, where many workers used to gather after a hard day of cleaning up ruins of devastated buildings, blames were heard for the Baghdad government's neglecting the city.
A
young man smoking a traditional water pipe, or Shisha as Iraqis name
it, said he heard media reports on funds allocated by the Baghdad
government to rebuild Mosul, but "actually we haven't seen any progress
by this money. I wonder was it true or stolen by corrupt officials?"
"Dozens
of thousands of people cannot come back to their homes, because they
don't have money to rebuild their houses, not to mention the lack of
basic public services in their neighborhoods," the young man said while
he was inhaling deeply from the mouthpiece of the Shisha and exhaling a
jet of white smoke.
"Can
you imagine the misery of the people here, they even using water wells
while the world is watching us?" the young man said, blaming the
situation on corruption and failure of Iraqi politicians.
Islamic Relief notes, "Tons
of explosive remnants are still littered all over the city and hundreds
of thousands of people remain displaced because it is too dangerous for
them to return home. Schools, hospitals and other public facilities
have been damaged and destroyed."
Liberation, or 'liberation,' resulted in what is called the worst battle
since WWII. What did that battle look like? A massacre. A massacre
where civilians couldn't be distinguished from combatants.
That's called a War Crime, by the way.
Wilson Fache (THE NATIONAL) reports on the battle and notes:
One
of the soldiers, his face scarred by shrapnel, recounted the final days
of fighting. “Around 15 per cent of the civilians managed to flee, the
others are in there,” he said, pointing to the murky waters of the
Tigris. “We had to kill everyone. We couldn't tell friends from
enemies.”
The violence never ends in Iraq. Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) notes, of Monday's violence, "At least 34 people were killed, and 11 were wounded in recent violence."
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The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley and NPR 'Music' (it's not a music story, the Tab Hunter piece), PACIFICA EVENING NEWS and BLACK AGENDA REPORT -- updated:
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