Despite public disagreements between Washington and Tel Aviv over Gaza, ongoing US–Israel weapon supplies suggest that the discord is more media spectacle than policy shift.
Abdel Qader Osman
MAY 15, 2024
(Photo credit: The Cradle)
With Israel appearing determined to launch a large-scale military operation in Rafah to reverse its current image of defeat in Gaza, another public confrontation – between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – intensified last week.
Biden claims to have halted the shipment of precision weapons to Israel to prevent a large operation in southern Gaza, where around 1.3 million displaced Palestinian civilians have sought shelter, while Netanyahu threatens to continue the war without Washington’s help.
In a CNN interview last week, the US president said, “I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem.”
To which Netanyahu responded that same evening, in a podcast discussion with American Jewish journalist Dan Senor, “If we have to stand alone, we will do so, because I’m the prime minister of Israel, the one and only Jewish state, and we will not go down.”
At first glance, the growing tensions between the two allies playing out in the political and media arenas seemed promising for those parties keen on ending the Palestinian bloodshed seven months after Tel Aviv launched its brutal assault on Gaza.
But the Israeli premier, who has often been caught on camera boasting about Israel’s control over the US political scene, may have won this round. Within just a few days, Biden’s warnings and threats all but dissipated.
It began with a flurry of American politicians hitting the TV circuit to lambast their sitting president for veering from Israel’s war agenda, with some US media outlets describing Biden’s decision as “encouraging antisemitism.”
US ambassador to Tel Aviv, Jack Lew, following the script of his Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, confirmed on Sunday that “fundamentally, nothing has changed in the basic relationship” – that only one batch of US munitions was frozen, but everything else continues to flow “ordinarily.”
And Biden’s meek initiative ended decisively on Tuesday when his administration informed Congress that it is planning a $1 billion weapons transfer to Israel.
Netanyahu certainly knew how to turn the screws.
Confirmation of the status quo
As this was the first rhetorical confrontation between the US and Israel since the Gaza war’s onset, many Arab and western media outlets interpreted the intensity of the exchanges as a result of growing divergence between a Biden administration concerned “for the lives of civilians” and a Netanyahu government seeking to restore the deterrent power it lost on 7 October with Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and Iran’s 13 April retaliatory strikes.
Speaking to The Cradle, Australia-based political analyst Hussein al-Dirani says:
The American administration is primarily responsible for the war of extermination practiced by the Zionist forces against the Palestinians now, in the past, and in the future, and the entity is nothing but one of the arms of American evil in the Arab and Islamic region. Biden can, within one day or less, stop this massacre through an order to the leaders of the aggression to the effect: ‘Stop the war now,’ and it will stop immediately.
The west’s commitment to Zionism
The roots of today’s conflict remain an age-old one: the implantation of the Israeli entity into West Asia, a project of global Zionism originating from the “Herzl Conference” at the end of the 19th century.
For decades, no American or European political leader has had the option of ending support for Israel. The global Israel lobby, now deeply entrenched in western political, academic, media, and finance institutions, aims to protect the existence of Israel at all costs, stabilize it in the region, and push Arab countries to normalize relations with Tel Aviv, explains Yemeni political journalist Osama Sari.
Sari, who is editor-in-chief of the Yemeni Press Agency, tells The Cradle that Biden cannot abandon Israel at this stage, with the contentious US presidential election looming in November and facing great domestic pressure from anti-war US youths and key minority voters.
Some observers believe that Biden’s threat to cut off offensive weapons to Israel was a feint to score points with his restless, disenchanted electorate and to prod Israel into re-opening negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire, which Tel Aviv recently rejected.
Others, like analyst Dirani, contend that Biden’s political ploys cannot effectively influence the presidential contest because Biden and his chief competition, former US President Donald Trump, are both known, longtime, to-the-wall supporters of Israel.
Theatrics of US-Israel’ tensions’
Biden’s short-lived media strategy intended to market the idea that Washington is dissatisfied with Netanyahu’s intransigence and his insistence on invading Rafah to commit even more massacres – turning global and US public opinion further against Israel – despite Hamas agreeing to a ceasefire under the Egyptian–Qatari proposal.
Rhetoric and posturing aside, the US position toward Gaza does not fundamentally differ from Israel’s and may even be more impulsive and irrational. Had it not been for unprecedented amounts of US military support from day one of this round of conflict, the Gaza war would have stalled a good six months earlier. Israel would also not have been able to withstand Iran’s retaliatory response in April without the US military leading all defensive operations, nor even hope to thwart the combined military operations of the region’s Axis of Resistance.
In the UN Security Council, the US has a long history of using its veto power to shield Israel. Out of the 262 vetoed resolutions since the UN’s inception in 1945, Washington has wielded its veto 116 times on issues related to Palestine.
It used this power 80 times to prevent condemnation of Israel and 36 times against laws supporting Palestinian rights, with the latest veto coming down just a month ago.
The White House and the State Department also consistently provide cover for Israel, claiming absurdly that the occupation state is defending itself by international law and that the US has not observed any violations in Gaza despite the Palestinian death toll exceeding 35,000 and the number of wounded surpassing 78,000.
Whose red lines?
This unquestioning support of Israel, despite mumblings in some Beltway corridors that Tel Aviv is becoming a “US liability,” begs the question of whether there is any US red line for malign Israeli behaviors. Yemeni editor Sari doesn’t see the Americans drawing any lines for Israel, no matter the crime:
Until now, no international party has been able to classify Biden’s red lines. His attempt to suggest that it was an invasion of Rafah is not convincing at all. The entity has not left any red lines since the beginning of its aggression against Gaza, and its crimes affected hundreds of patients in the hospitals it stormed.
In fact, Sari adds, “This point does not reflect real seriousness, as Biden and Blinken stated in November that there were no red lines that would prevent military support for Israel against Hamas.”
Journalist Dirani agrees, reflecting growing Arab opinion that the US is only stage-managing matters and shows little intent to pressure Tel Aviv into a resolution of this brutal war:
Biden wants to tell Netanyahu that instead of committing 100 massacres a day in Rafah, he should commit 90 massacres. This is why he did not reach 100, meaning that the massacres should be commensurate with America’s brutality and not with Netanyahu’s well-known brutality.
Dirani further assesses, based on their statements, that all Resistance Axis factions understand the US is complicit in the Gaza genocide and is ultimately the root cause of all tragedies, scourges, and wars in the region.
Finger-pointing aside, this perception of US complicity in Gaza is growing fast in global discourse. Efforts to divest from and boycott Israel are on the rise; many of these targets are weapons factories and transport and logistics firms.
If Israel proceeds with an invasion of Rafah, the repercussions could be severe, leading to the wholesale collapse of US interests in West Asia. As Yemen’s waterway blockades, Iranian strikes, and strategic military operations and salvos from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Palestinian resistance, and the Iraqi resistance have demonstrated, today it is the leaders of the Axis who are setting those red lines, not western powers.
https://thecradle.co/articles/pure-thea ... over-rafah
USAID whistleblowers accuse Biden of 'direct complicity' in Gaza famine
The White House is accused of ignoring dozens of internal dissent memos that have warned for months about the spread of famine in Gaza as a result of Israel's genocidal war tactics
News Desk
MAY 16, 2024
(Photo Credit: JEHAD ALSHRAFI/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES)
Current and former officials from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department say the White House has ignored months of internal warnings about the spread of famine in the besieged Gaza Strip, according to an in-depth investigation by the Independent.
“I believe the US to be complicit in creating the conditions for famine. Not only has our response been woefully inadequate, but we’re actively responsible in large part for it,” a USAID employee told the British daily.
Internal documents reviewed by the Independent show that staffers have repeatedly warned USAID administrator Samantha Power and other senior leaders about the intensifying crisis in Gaza “often to no avail.”
“What was surprising to me, and deeply disappointing, was the fact that we were hearing nothing about imminent famine in Gaza,” a USAID staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, is quoted as saying.
According to the investigation, at least 19 internal dissent memos have been sent since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza by USAID staff, with one of the most recent ones chastising the White House for its “failure to uphold international humanitarian principles and to adhere to its mandate to save lives.”
In an internal dissent cable leaked to HuffPost in early April, officials warned that “the threshold to support a famine determination has likely already been crossed” and that the level of hunger and malnutrition in Gaza was “unprecedented in modern history.”
“Having worked in the administration during the Afghan withdrawal and also the Russian invasion of Ukraine, so many efforts were spearheaded and led, and normal procedures were bypassed given the urgent humanitarian situation. [In Gaza], however, it has been a totally different ballgame. There are systemic issues with how we issue Palestinian cases,” a homeland security official told Responsible Statecraft earlier this week.
“Any kind of initiative to expedite help for Palestinians has been blocked or quelled or slowed down dramatically in a way that I’ve never seen before … As the months dragged on, it became evident that the dissent channels that the State Department likes to tout are about placating staff more than actually listening to those with deep regional and policy expertise and making changes,” the 15-year federal employee added.
Furthermore, the USAID whistleblowers who spoke with the Independent described Washington’s public proclamations of doing all it can to stop the spread of hunger as “very disingenuous.”
“I don’t believe that the President of the United States – Israel’s most important ally and benefactor – has so little leverage that he can’t force them to take meaningful steps to really allow in the amount of aid that is necessary to save lives. It feels like there was no real effort to force Israel’s hands in terms of ensuring greater access to humanitarian assistance,” the US officials say.
Jan Egeland, the Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian organization with dozens of aid workers operating in Gaza, told the British daily that there is a “double standard” from the White House when it comes to Israel.
“The administration could have [pressed Israel to cease its aid restrictions] through the application of Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits assistance to countries restricting US-funded humanitarian assistance; it could have done so through the withholding of arms shipments; it could have done so by supporting resolutions at the UN calling on Israel to stop restricting humanitarian assistance,” Egeland says, stressing that Washington’s “diplomatic impotence has been astounding.”
Dozens of Palestinians – most of them children – have died from starvation as hundreds of thousands are living under conditions of “full-blown famine” in the north of the enclave.
Despite the critical situation, the Israeli army has routinely blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Moreover, mobs of Israeli settlers regularly attack the small trickle of aid deliveries headed for the strip, destroying the food and attacking truck drivers.
On 16 May, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it ran out of stock in southern Rafah and had suspended food aid distributions there since 11 May. As conditions worse, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Thursday it had anchored a floating pier off the coast of Gaza that will allegedly allow for limited aid deliveries.
Speaking to the Independent, Jeremy Konyndyk, a former high-ranking USAID official, described Washington’s plan as a “major policy failure.”
“When the US government has to use tactics that it otherwise used to circumvent the Soviets in Berlin and circumvent ISIS in Syria and Iraq, that should prompt some really hard questions about the state of US policy,” he said.
https://thecradle.co/articles/usaid-whi ... aza-famine
'Biden has the blood of innocent people on his hands': Former US official
The White House has faced a string of public resignations over Biden's unfettered support for Israel's genocidal war in Gaza
News Desk
MAY 16, 2024
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
A Jewish American official in the US government publicly resigned on 15 May in protest of President Joe Biden's support of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
“I can no longer in good conscience continue to represent this administration amidst President Biden’s disastrous, continued support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” the letter from former special assistant to the chief of staff in the interior department, Lily Greenberg Call, reads.
In her letter, she accuses Joe Biden of using Jewish people to justify US support for the mass killing of Palestinians and says the US president “has the blood of innocent people on his hands.”
Call asserts that Washington has long enabled “Israeli war crimes and the status quo of apartheid and occupation,” highlighting that Biden has the power to end the suffering of civilians in Gaza.
“The President has the power to call for a lasting cease-fire, to stop sending weapons to Israel, and to condition aid. The US has used nearly no leverage throughout the last eight months to hold Israel accountable,” she said.
In an interview with AP on Thursday, Call pointed to comments made by Biden at a Hannukah event where he said, “Were there no Israel, there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who was safe,” and at an event at Washington’s Holocaust Memorial last week in which he said the 7 October Palestinian resistance operation was driven by an “ancient desire to wipe out the Jewish people.”
“He is making Jews the face of the American war machine. And that is so deeply wrong,” Call said, noting that her ancestors were killed by “state-sponsored violence.”
Her resignation coincided with the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe, a day that commemorates the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians at the hands of Zionist paramilitaries in 1948.
Call is at least the fifth mid- or senior-level government staffer to resign in protest of the White House’s military and diplomatic support of the genocide in Gaza and is the second political appointee to do so after an education department official of Palestinian heritage resigned in January.
Earlier this week, US army officer Harrison Mann resigned from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), citing his nation’s “unconditional” support for Israel, which he said enabled “the killing and starvation of innocent Palestinians.”
In February, US airman Aaron Bushnell self-immolated in protest to the official US position outside of Israel’s embassy in Washington. “I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” Bushnell said in a live stream before the act.
https://thecradle.co/articles/biden-has ... s-official
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Morehouse Men Must Protest Against Biden
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist 15 May 2024
Protest at Morehouse College, Photo courtesy of rollingout.com
The Morehouse College class of 2024 has a historic opportunity to tell Joe Biden and the world that millions of Black people are outraged by the Israeli/U.S. genocide in Gaza. The only thing they risk is denunciation from the milquetoast petit bourgeoisie.
What is the point of having Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and taking pride in graduates like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or bragging about the greatness of “Morehouse men” if a genocidaire president can be welcomed and honored when he should be scorned? The Morehouse College class of 2024 has the opportunity to answer this question at its commencement ceremony on May 19, 2024, when Joe Biden is scheduled to receive an honorary degree from that institution.
Morehouse president David A. Thomas says that he extended the invitation to Biden in September 2023, making the point that as of that date, Israel and the United States had yet to begin their latest killing spree against the people of Gaza. Of course colleges want prominent people such as presidents to be commencement speakers. It gives their school cache and puts them on the map for good publicity and of course money from the much sought after rich donor class.
But presidents and other prominent malefactors represent a conundrum for the HBCUs. If Morehouse truly existed to uplift the race, it wouldn’t have invited Barack Obama to be a commencement speaker in 2013 either. Obama came into office and immediately bailed out the financial institutions who bankrolled his campaign. When Black people lost their homes in the market meltdown which was caused by his benefactors, he did nothing to help the people who gave him so much love. He had destroyed the Libyan state in a brutal regime change war and was attempting to do the same in Syria. In short, he was a typical U.S. president but one who got a pass from Black people. Of course he is still a big draw and is invited to speak at commencements and other supposedly wholesome events from which he actually should be barred.
Despite the fact that Morehouse did not have the large-scale encampments seen at other schools, its student body was not in favor of Biden’s appearance and they told their president as much in a campus town hall . Students expressed concern that Morehouse would be considered complicit in genocide and that they would be used in campaign ads for a president who sends billions of dollars to wage war in Ukraine while allowing the needs of Black people to languish.
But Morehouse insisted that the sordid show go on and Biden will speak even if students don’t want to hear him. Other colleges have been better at gauging opinion and are more willing to listen to those who protest against involvement with apartheid Israel. New Orleans HBCU Xavier University disinvited UN Ambassador and Louisiana native Linda Thomas-Greenfield when students complained that she would be the commencement speaker. The student association president summed it up in a letter to the administration.
“It has come to our attention that the university has chosen to invite a U.N. ambassador who has voted against a ceasefire in Gaza to address our graduating class. This decision sparked significant dismay and disappointment among us, as it contradicts the values and principles that our institution upholds. ... As members of a compassionate and empathetic community, we cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering of our fellow human beings.” Fortunately the value of a good education isn’t lost on everyone and some educators are actually serious about doing their jobs.
Morehouse president Thomas has doubled down on his decision to invite Biden by threatening to end the commencement ceremony should anyone protest. “Faced with the choice of having police take people out of the Morehouse commencement in zip ties, we would essentially cancel or discontinue the commencement services on the spot.” Surely that is one way to ensure obedience. Who wants to be made responsible for ending the moment of pride and joy for students and families? But Thomas also spelled out what would be permitted. “If during the ceremony, people engage in silent, nondisruptive protests, if, you know, my students when they cross the stage - they want to wear insignia or scars [sic] that identify their relationship to this issue, that will be allowed.”
If students fear ending the ceremony they should follow their president’s directive. Every Morehouse man should get his hands on a keffiyeh and proudly wear it on graduation day. If someone can’t find a keffiyeh he can write the words “Free Palestine” in large and bold letters on his mortarboard cap. Most importantly, the graduating class must sit in stony silence while Biden speaks. There should be no applause, no laughter, no cheering, no smiling, no shaking hands with the man who is not only responsible for genocide in Gaza but who was the point person against school busing to achieve integration. “Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions having built so high that it is going to explode at some point.” Biden is the man who bragged about writing the 1992 Crime Bill that put so many Black people in prison. “We do everything but hang people for jaywalking in this bill.” He should not get off easily at Morehouse or anywhere else. The fact that he is president at all, and like every other democrat only with the overwhelming support of Black people, is a sad commentary on our politics.
May 19 is also a significant date for a much more important reason. Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, was born on May 19, 1925. Malcolm X was a defender of Black liberation struggles in the U.S. and all over the world. He was an internationalist and an anti-capitalist. His birthday should be widely celebrated instead of the Joe Biden get out of jail free Juneteenth travesty. Malcolm X fiercely denounced the white power structure and spoke boldly against the people who run Morehouse and other institutions by begging for favors and silencing protest. On February 4, 1965, just days before his assassination, he told students in Selma, Alabama , “I pray that you will grow intellectually, so that you can understand the problems of the world and where you fit into, in that world picture. And I pray that all the fear that has ever been in your heart will be taken out, and when you look at that man, if you know he’s nothing but a coward, you won’t fear him.”
Hopefully there will be Morehouse graduates wearing pictures of Malcolm X on their gowns and they will remember not to fear people like their accommodationist college president. They should also know that they can walk out of the ceremony, as students have done at other graduations, even if they risk shutting it down. After all, Gaza has no universities. They have all been destroyed by the Israeli Defense Force. If they are worried about what families or friends will think, they should instead think of the student graduating from Al-Azhar University who defended his thesis in a tent because his school buildings no longer exist.
The term Morehouse man ought to be more than a fun popular culture reference. Morehouse men must protest on May 19 or else come up with a new moniker.
https://blackagendareport.com/morehouse ... inst-biden
Won’t you please come to Chicago? Cheri Honkala on the Democratic National Convention
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor 15 May 2024
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling. Photo: Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times
The City of Chicago has inadvertently granted the Poor People’s Army a permit to march to the convention steps of the United Center during the Democratic National Convention.
Students are protesting Biden and Netanyahu’s war on Gaza all over the City of Chicago while city, state, and Democratic Party officials worry about what it portends for the Democratic National Convention (DNC) scheduled for August 19 to August 23. Comparisons to Chicago 1968 are common, and the city’s police will be supported by Secret Service, FBI, Homeland Security, and neighboring police departments. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling is frequently interviewed about preparations, and he says, “We’re the Chicago Police. We’re ready.”
Politico warned that Mayor Brandon Johnson “unabashedly sympathizes with the protesters,” while the World Socialist Website accused him of deploying SWAT teams against peaceful, anti-genocide protestors at the Chicago Art Institute.
I spoke to Cheri Honkala of the Poor People’s Campaign for Economic Rights about the Poor People’s Army’s plan to march on both the RNC and the DNC.
ANN GARRISON: Cheri Honkala, tell us about your plans to march on the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago.
CHERI HONKALA: Well, we're actually marching on both the Republican National Convention (RNC), which is in July, and on the DNC in August. We plan to march on the DNC on August 19, the opening day of the convention.
Every four years since 2000, we've been responsible for organizing the largest marches on opening day at both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. We anticipate that this march is going to be historic because of all the things that are happening, including Israel’s war on Gaza.
AG: The City of Chicago has been denying all requests for permits to march in sight of the United Center, but you got one, right?
CH: Yes, the city was forced to give us a permit because they failed to respond to our appeal of their denial on time. So everybody and their mother, I'm sure, will be joining our march at 4 p.m. on opening day, and our permit allows us to march right to the front doors of the United Center, where the convention will be.
We intend to have a mock hearing where we will determine whether the president and the Democrats are guilty of crimes against humanity. If so, then we will be serving a citizen’s arrest.
Other things will be happening the day before, August 18th. We have Rapper Peach, Rebel Diaz, and a dozen other progressive and popular artists who are going to be performing at a concert the night before the convention begins. And two weeks before, we will actually be marching each and every day, 90 miles, from Milwaukee to Chicago, so we've got lots of work ahead.
AG: Will you be holding a mock trial at the Republican Convention as well?
CH: Yes. We will be holding a mock trial there and also issuing a citizen's arrest if necessary.
Another thing that I want to say is that we're really reaching out to anyone in the faith community who understands the horrendous things happening in the world to come and wrap their moral authority around us and help keep us safe. We've always demonstrated, since the year 2000, that we're nonviolent people. So there shouldn't be any issues with violence.
This march is really important because of the genocide taking place in Gaza right now. We are defending homeless people, while tax dollars continue to finance that war, as opposed to taking care of the basic necessities of life for people here.
Right now we have huge crises. We have fascism that is actually real in this country, and we’ve got immigrants that are just being left to die sleeping outside on the streets and on the borders. And we have artificial intelligence, electronics, and robotics creating massive numbers of unemployed people. We’ve got Cop Cities all over the planet. So we have to decide, like students across the country, to get serious about stepping forward, trying to reclaim a future, saying no to what's happening in our world. We’re following their leadership and bringing out our families to hit the streets on August 19th.1
AG: Tell us about the march from Milwaukee to Chicago. 2
CH: We'll be linking up with poor and homeless people from across the country who are going to be caravaning and taking buses. And we're going to be meeting in Milwaukee. Then we're going to march each and every day for two weeks and pitch tents along the roadside, or in parking lots of friendly churches. We're going to be having daily teach-ins, and doing live reporting, and we're hoping that reporters like yourself will help cover the journey.
We intend to make sure that, with reporters from all around the world in town for the conventions, the real issues are covered.
The other thing that's also really significant is that we've got third parties contending in this election. I've always been about independent politics and independent political motion. We've invited all of the third party candidates to come and march with us. So far Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein has taken us up on the offer.
AG: You ran with Dr. Stein in 2012, right?
CH: Yes, I ran with Jill as a candidate for vice president that year, but we've extended the invitation to all the parties that are running. I myself am very supportive of Jill and not just because she was my former running mate. I’m also very practical, and I know that she's going to have ballot status in nearly every state across the country.
I think we have to look at the bigger picture, which is the goal of developing a real independent third party in this country. If we can reach a certain threshold for a presidential election, then the next time around we'll receive campaign matching funds from the federal government.
AG: I'm in Chicago right now, where there's lots of talk of what happened here in 1968 and preparing for this convention. There’s anxiety that it will be like 1968, which turned violent when the police attacked peaceful demonstrators. Are you prepared for something like that happening?
CH: Yes, but I'm also sure that the media is fearmongering as much as they possibly can because the City screwed up and gave us a permit to march right up to the convention steps. That means that their only option for keeping us from getting there is to scare the hell out of people, so that nobody shows up.
However, we've just never been people—those of us that are on the bottom—who aren’t used to heavy police presence. I live in Kensington here in Philadelphia, where there are police outside my window probably every three days with SWAT teams corralling people. A lot of us, and definitely homeless people across this country, are already dealing with daily sweeps. It's really no different.
AG: Let's explain this, again for emphasis. The City of Chicago has been denying permits to everyone else. And they denied one to you, but you appealed it, and then they failed to respond to the appeal in time, which meant that you got a permit to march right up to the front steps.
CH: Yes.
AG: And you'll be marching with the Poor People's Army, but you’ll no doubt welcome anyone who wants to march with you.
CH: Absolutely. We welcome everybody. The more the merrier. We do ask that everyone who joins us be nonviolent because the police are not nonviolent, and they're well organized and financed.
We’re going to have legal observers. We've got a very experienced team of folks that have helped make sure that our marches have been nonviolent going back to the year 2000, and we've had to deal with fearmongering on a regular basis.
The last time we marched in Minnesota, the feds said that my life was in danger in three different spots. And I said, “Well, if it is, then you had better provide safety.” So we marched and everything was fine.
We could have caved in to the fear around that. But we know that the feds have never provided anybody any kind of safety to begin with, so we're marching. We know we're on the right side of history. You can't not do what needs to be done.
People are dying unnecessarily in this country. They're dying in Haiti. They're dying in Gaza. They're dying unnecessarily in many other places around the world, so it's really time for us to get organized as a people and demonstrate that we're not going to be afraid. We're going to lift our voices. We have a responsibility, with 80,000 reporters in Chicago, to talk about what's really happening in the empire.
AG: With the constant talk here and within the Democratic Party about 1968, there will definitely be media attention on your march and other protests.
When you say you’ll be holding a hearing and serving a citizen’s arrest if need be. Will that be for US complicity in the war on Gaza?
CH: Definitely, but here at home as well. People die every year from freezing to death in this country. People die because they don't have access to health care or the other basic necessities of life. The thing that all these human rights violations have in common is that they're all preventable, unnecessary deaths. So when we have our mock trial, we will be dead serious about asking law enforcement to enforce our citizen’s arrests.
AG: Okay, is there anything else you'd like to say?
CH: We need as much support as possible from people who either want to come and join the march or make food and meet us along the roadside between Milwaukee and Chicago. And, as I said earlier, we hope that people of the faith communities will reach out to envelop us with their moral authority.
If musicians and artists are interested in joining the concert the night before, reach out. If you can help people catch a ride or donate to help get us to Milwaukee or Chicago, we need all the support we can get.
Our website is poorpeoplesarmy.org .
AG: Thank you for speaking to Black Agenda Report.
CH: Thank you.
https://blackagendareport.com/wont-you- ... convention
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"Free market relations"
colonelcassad
May 16, 9:48
"Free markets"
in the United States will prevent China from flooding the American electric car market and making fair competition impossible, Joe Biden said. And he unleashed another round of economic war with China.
The US today increased tariffs on imports of goods from China:
on electric vehicles from 25% to 100% on lithium-ion EV batteries from 7.5% to 25% on battery parts from 7.5% to 25% on solar cells (whether they are assembled in modules or not) from 25% to 50% on natural graphite and permanent magnets from zero to 25% on some other important minerals from zero to 25% on some types of steel and aluminum products from 0-7.5% to 25%for semiconductors from 25% to 50%.
They are like that, free, market relations
https://t.me/neinsider/6814 - zinc
The market decides, they said.
We are waiting for China's retaliatory steps against American companies. China has the potential for this.
Of course, the intensification of the tariff war between the United States and China will only benefit us.
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9153060.html
Google Translator
Note that the first four items on that list are related to climate change mitigation. While I regard the private EV to not be a game changer in that vital endeavor it is notable that the Biden regime has made it as much when talking out of one side of it's mouth, but, well that stock market ya know and he needs every union vote he can get for the upcoming selection. Biden is every bit as duplicitous as Trump, no lesser evil, just different evil.
