Trina's Kitchen

Friday, October 27, 2023

Arroz Con Pollo in the Kitchen

Nolanda notes it's a lot cooler this week in her home town and she's in the mood for chicken and rice. Her favorite recipe is Simply Recipe's Arroz Con Pollo:

Chicken

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 broiler-fryer chicken, about 2 1/2-3 pounds, cut into serving pieces, or 2 1/2 to 3 pounds chicken thighs or breasts, bone-in, with skin on, rinsed and patted dry
1/2 cup flour, for dredging
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Paprika

Rice

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (can use up to 1/4 cup)
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 cups medium or long-grain white rice
3 cups chicken stock (see note above about the ratio of liquid to rice)
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste or 1 cup diced fresh or cooked tomatoes, strained
Pinch oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Brown the chicken pieces:

Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large 12-inch skillet that has a cover on medium high heat.

Put the flour in a wide bowl, mix in a generous sprinkling of salt, pepper, and paprika. Dredge the chicken pieces lightly in the flour mixture and put them in the pan to brown.

Cook a few minutes on each side, just enough so that the chicken has browned. Use a slotted spoon to remove from pan and set aside.
Brown the rice:
Add the uncooked rice to the pan to brown. Stir to coat the rice with olive oil in the pan. Add a little more olive oil if necessary.

Don't stir too much or you will prevent it from browning. Let the rice brown and then stir a little to let more of it brown.
Add the onion and garlic:

Add the onion and garlic to the pan. Cook the onion, garlic, and rice mixture, stirring frequently, until the onions have softened, about 4 minutes.
Place the chicken pieces, skin side up, on top of the rice.
Add the stock, tomato, salt, and oregano:

In a separate bowl, mix together the stock, tomato, salt, and oregano. Pour the stock mixture over the rice and chicken.
Simmer, covered:
Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, and cover. Let cook for 20 to 25 minutes, depending on the type of rice and the instructions on the rice package, until the rice and chicken are done.

Fluff the rice with a fork. If you want you can sprinkle with some peas. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

News? Jacob Crosse (WSWS) reports:

At least 18 people are dead in Lewiston, Maine, with another 13 injured, following the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the state Wednesday night. As of this writing, at least three of the injured are in critical condition, and the suspected shooter, 40-year-old Robert C. Card, remains at-large more than 24 hours after the mass killing.

According to emergency services, after 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, police began receiving calls of an active shooter at Just-In-Time Recreation, a bowling alley in Lewiston, which is about 30 miles north of Portland, the largest city in the state.

Lewiston, with a population of roughly 36,000, is the second largest city in Maine. Police claim the shooter killed at least seven people at the bowling alley.

Shortly after 7:00 p.m., emergency services began receiving phone calls of a second mass shooting taking place at Schemengees Bar & Grille, a restaurant located roughly four miles south of Just-In-Time and also in Lewiston. Police report at least eight people were killed there.

Following the two shootings, the suspected mass murderer, Card, a Sergeant First Class in the US Army Reserve, evaded police capture and went on the run. For over 24 hours a “shelter-in-place” order has been in effect for Lewiston and Androscoggin County, home to over 111,000 people.

On Thursday, all of the schools in the Lewiston were closed, while Bates College, with an enrollment of some 1,800 students, remained on lockdown.

[. . .]

While there is no current motive at this time, a review of Card’s social media accounts, specifically his Twitter/X account, reveals his far-right leanings. Before the account was suspended, it showed that Card had followed several far-right figures, including Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk, and regularly “liked” posts from Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro, and convicted felon/conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza.

In one of the Trump Jr. posts “liked” by Card, the ex-president’s son asserts falsely that due to the “incredible rise of trans/non-binary mass shooters in the last few years ... maybe, rather than talking about guns we should be talking about lunatics pushing their gender affirming bulls*** on our kids.”

Card also “liked” posts that encouraged motorists to run over anti-police violence protesters and denied the existence of COVID-19.

His fascist politics were well-known to some members of the community. In an interview with NBC, local resident Liam Kent said that the Card family lived on “basically a compound” in Bowdoin.

“The family and Robert, they’re all gun fanatics,” Kent told NBC. “For all intents and purposes, they are very much associated with right-wing militias. It’s known in the town to stay away from them and not approach them.”

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Thursday:

Thursday, October 26, 2023. The Australian government continues to fail Julian Assange and Robert Pether, Gaza remains under assault, verbal attacks are launched on the UN Secretary-General while -- in Florida -- Ronald DeSantis appoints himself classroom monitor, Riley Gaines is not just a transphobe, she also bullies high schoolers, and much more.

Two days ago, Marjorie Cohen wrote at TRUTHOUT:

The stakes are high as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives in Washington, D.C., today to meet with President Joe Biden. The U.S. government hopes to obtain Australia’s support for its cold war initiatives against China.

Australia is one of the United States’ closest allies. Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. comprise “AUKUS,” a trilateral “security” alliance in the Indo-Pacific.

This is a crucial issue for Australia as well. Before Albanese left for the United States, he told parliament that the AUKUS transfer of U.S. and British nuclear submarine technology to Australia was critical to the future of the alliance.

Three e-mails wondered why we didn't note that?

Because we're covering the assault on Gaza primarily right now. Because if Julian were deported to the United States (by England) right now, with protesters already organized in this country demanding a cease-fire, that would only explode and I believe the White House knows that. I could be wrong but I think they'd be stupid to make any more on Julian right now.

Another reason is I don't share Marjorie's belief regarding Australia's prime minister.

Anthony Albanese. What is that a sandwich? A pasta? It's certainly not a leader.

He can't even stand up to Iraq and demand Australian citizen Robert Pether be released.

Australian officials do not give a damn about protecting their own citizens. Three days ago, at WSWS, Oscar Grenfell reported:

Further evidence of Labor’s refusal to defend Assange was provided last Thursday by former independent senator Rex Patrick. In an article co-authored with Philip Dorling and published by Michael West Media, Patrick reported on the results of recent freedom of information (FOI) requests for Australian government documents relating to Assange.

The headline sharply summed up what those documents exposed: “Jail, then jail, and more jail. Labor’s Assange strategy revealed.”

Patrick and Dorling note that Labor’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has postured as a supporter of media freedom, but has said hardly anything about Assange’s plight during his more than year-long tenure.

They report: “Perhaps the first glaring thing that comes from the latest FOI disclosure on the US espionage prosecution of Julian Assange is just how little Australia’s first law officer has been engaged with the matter.

“A request for all briefings and submissions provided to Dreyfus by his department between June 2022 and September 2023 netted just five documents; only one ministerial submission, two parliamentary question time briefs, one ‘hot topic’ brief, and another set of talking points. Five documents across fifteen months.”

The other striking thing about the list of documents is that they appear to have little or nothing to do with the complex legal intricacies associated with trying to liberate a publisher being framed up on major criminal charges in the US. They seem to all relate, primarily, to public relations, i.e., the appearance that the government is doing something, as opposed to the government actually taking action.

The documents contain no indication of substantive diplomatic activity, directed towards encouraging the US to end the prosecution of Assange. Nor do FOI documents obtained from the Australian embassy in the US.

Patrick and Dorling write: “Prime Minister Albanese’s platitudes that the case has gone on too long and should be brought to a close are shown to be just that, platitudes. One of the Government’s standard talking points in Dreyfus’ briefings is to say that ‘not all foreign affairs are best conducted with a loud hailer.’ In this case, however, the documents provide no evidence that any quiet conversations have been had, either.”

The most substantive internal government document to have been released, relating to Assange, remains a June 2022 departmental briefing note by Dreyfus.

The sole references in that document to any action by Labor relate to a period after Assange has been extradited to the US, tried before a national-security kangaroo court and convicted. Under those conditions, the document floats the possibility of a transfer that could see Assange dispatched from a US prison to an Australian one.

Marjorie is very smart. She's not always right. We certainly disagreed over her 2008 election nonsense (where she had one candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination trying to physically assassinate another -- yeah that was crackpot theory time) and certainly we disagreed over Lt Ehren Watada -- specifically over the last call the judge in the court-martial made. I think it was a couple of hours but it might have been a day before she grasped what had just taken place. Check the archives we said it as soon as it happened. I immediately dictated the snapshot announcing that Ehren was now going to be free because Judge Toilet (John Head) had just stopped the case because the prosecution was clearly losing. That's not how the law works. You don't get to call a do over. Double jeopardy attached. I was right on that. Marjorie did grasp it before Norman Solomon (who was whining about the judge's action when he should have been celebrating because that was the best thing that could have happened to Ehren) but she should have gotten it before Norman, she's a trained attorney.

Again, Marjorie's very smart. But she's got a faith right now in the Australian government that I don't have and I'm expecting reason here, not blind faith.

Prem Thacker (INTERCEPT) noted two days ago:

A bipartisan duo in Congress has launched a fresh effort to push President Joe Biden to drop the Department of Justice’s extradition request against Julian Assange and to stop prosecutorial proceedings against him.

Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., are asking their colleagues in the House to sign on to a letter to the Biden administration by Thursday, noting that opposing Assange’s prosecution is important not only for press freedom, but also to maintain credibility on the global stage.

McGovern, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who co-chairs the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in Congress, told The Intercept that the charges against Assange are part of an alarming global trend of increasing attacks against the press, including in the U.S. “The bottom line is that journalism is not a crime,” he wrote in a statement. “The work reporters do is about transparency, trust, and speaking truth to power. When they are unjustly targeted, we all suffer the consequences. The stakes are too high for us to remain silent.”

The lawmakers will send the letter to Biden as well as Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The letter follows a similar effort by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., earlier this year and comes amid Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to the U.S. this week. Buoyed by cross-partisan Australian support for the cause to free Assange, an Australian citizen, Albanese himself has previously expressed frustration with Assange’s situation, saying it had gone on far too long.

“The fact that it’s a bipartisan effort is extremely important, showing that Julian’s issue is not a left or a right issue, but it’s an issue of principle,” Gabriel Shipton, Assange’s brother, told The Intercept.

I always forget Jim McGovern is still in Congress.

Yesterday, Amy Goodman (DEMOCRACY NOW!) noted, "Israel is lashing out at the U.N. after Secretary-General António Guterres said it was guilty of 'clear violations of international humanitarian law' and that the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel 'did not happen in a vacuum.' The Israeli envoy to the U.N. demanded Guterres resign over the comments, as Israel has reportedly refused a visa to U.N. humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths to 'teach them a lesson'." It's not just about carrying out an assault on Gaza, it's about bullying and frightening anyone who might speak up.

ABC NEWS reports:

A New York University Law School student whose job offer from an international law firm was rescinded for remarks seen as insensitive to victims of the Hamas attack on Israel said they would continue to speak out.

Ryna Workman, who uses the pronouns they/them, told ABC News that speaking out was a matter of human rights.

"I will continue to speak up for Palestinian human rights and use whatever platform I have available to me to call for a ceasefire and end this occupation that's harming the Palestinians," Workman told ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis Tuesday in an exclusive interview.

And political hacks -- especially those who are unpopular -- will always try to ride a wave of censorship to score points. Kathryn Varn (AXIOS) reports:

Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered Florida university officials to shut down their pro-Palestinian student groups.

Driving the news: State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues said Tuesday in a letter to university presidents that their chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) "must be deactivated."

Only the University of South Florida in Tampa and the University of Florida in Gainesville have active chapters registered with the schools but the organization appears to have a presence at other universities, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Details: Rodrigues' letter pointed to a "toolkit" released by the group's national chapter that said early October's Hamas attacks on Israel were part of "the resistance" and says: "Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement."

Rodrigues did not respond to Axios' request for comment.

The other side: The University of Florida SJP chapter told Axios in a statement that it found the "recent attempt by the DeSantis administration to shut down our chapter disgraceful."

"If followed through, a precedent would be set to shut down any organization that does not align with the ideals held by Governor DeSantis," the group added.

The assault on Gaza, which is not a war since only one side has the means to destroy a whole population, will cement what some in Washington wanted all along, more lies and more war. Now, speaking out for Palestine is conflated with supporting terrorism.

Another lie that spread like COVID-19 was that progressives and those on the left opposing war are empowering terrorists. Actually, terrorism thrives in war. Like a virus, it grows away from light and oxygen. Those who oppose war give the human family hope for curing a cancerous disease.

On 9/11, I was on my way to the White House to meet with President George W. Bush, and en route, I learned about the targeting of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Our meeting was canceled along with years of work for civic engagement, for getting moderate Muslim voices seen and heard, for resolving crises in the Middle East without war, for peacemaking among followers of the Abrahamic faiths, and for a future of America that included Islam.

Immediately after 9/11, the American people demonstrated their greatness by reaching out to Muslims and learning about Islam as a religion that created a great civilization, much like Western civilization. The Quran became a best-seller at bookstores. Muslims at every local level learned the art of public speaking and became spokespeople for the faith. They aspired to marginalize Osama bin Laden rather than be marginalized. But then the war drums began beating louder and louder, first Afghanistan and then Iraq, both strategic errors by the United States. We never learn from our mistakes.

We certainly don't appear to. Ronald DeSantis thinks he can control free speech and dole it out only to those he agrees with. That's frightening all by itself. It's even more frightening and more upsetting when you grasp this piece of filth wants to be President of the United States and tip-toe on his tippy toes across the Constitution.

They can certainly try to censor but I don't think the American people will be silenced. Nor do I think YOUTUBE's efforts at censorship are 'winning.' We're about to note a DEMOCRACY NOW! segment and you can stream it at the link but we're not putting the video in because YOUTUBE is censoring it and now allowing people to share it.

AMY GOODMAN: The death toll in Gaza has topped 6,500 as Israel continues to bombard the besieged territory for a 19th day. According to Palestinian health authorities, the dead include 2,700 children.

Israel, with the backing of the United States, has rejected calls for a ceasefire. On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the U.N. Security Council and called for a ceasefire.

SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES: It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their lands steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence, their economy stifled, their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing. But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas, and those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

AMY GOODMAN: Israel condemned Guterres’s comments and has vowed to stop issuing visas to U.N. representatives. Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. is also calling for Guterres’s resignation.

This all comes as the humanitarian situation in Gaza grows worse by the hour, as dwindling fuel supplies could soon force the closure of all hospitals in the territory. Israel is also continuing to carry out attacks on the occupied West Bank. An Israeli drone strike on the Jenin refugee camp has killed at least three Palestinians. Israeli security forces and settlers have killed at least a hundred Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October 7th. And even before that, this was the deadliest year for Palestinians, at least one killed a day in the West Bank. Meanwhile, the number of Palestinians jailed by Israel has doubled over the past two weeks, from about 5,000 to 10,000.

In other developments, the prime minister of Qatar says he hopes there will be a breakthrough soon on the Israeli hostages being held by Gaza. Hamas and other groups are believed to be holding about 220 people seized on October 7th in the Hamas attack that left around 1,400 people dead in Israel.

We begin today’s show in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, where we’re joined by Budour Hassan, Amnesty International researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Amnesty International published a report last week headlined “Damning evidence of war crimes as Israeli attacks wipe out entire families in Gaza.”

Budour, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you lay out your findings?

BUDOUR HASSAN: A hello, Amy, to you, to Juan and to all listeners and viewers.

With the help of our field worker who is based in Gaza and testimonies that we gathered from witnesses, victims and relatives, in addition to open-source evidence and photographs examined by our evidence lab team, we found out that Israeli forces carried out indiscriminate attacks, killing and injuring civilians, and in some cases that we documented, and that barely scratch the surface of the horror that is unfolding in Gaza, entire families were wiped out during this bombing campaign, which is only escalating. In addition to indiscriminate attacks by Israeli forces, we also documented the ongoing use of collective punishment, which is a war crime, that even where Israel alleged that there was a military target, a legitimate military target, the attacks failed to abide by the principle of proportionality.

And just, Amy, to go further, because we keep hearing numbers, and sometimes we may be desensitized and even inured to the extent of horror that we are witnessing, that behind each of these number there are stories. So, as part of our work, Amnesty International researchers have been listening to testimonies of people in Gaza, of victims, talking directly to people over the phone. And when we talk to people — for example, we talked to Tahir al-Zaizi [phon.], who lost 26 members of his family. All of his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir el-Balah. Tahir al-Zaizi’s two children, aged 8 and 6, were among those killed — his mother, his father, his brothers, his nieces, everyone of his family. And when we talked to him, he simply said, “You know, in my heart, there is no room for all of this.” And he started reciting the names, ages of his relatives lost. And I was reminded by Scholastique Mukasonga, the Rwandan writer, when she was remembering her loved ones who were killed in the Rwandan genocide and said that “They are all killed. No one has remained.” And this is exactly what happened to Tahir.

Another father we talked to, when we talked to him over the phone, he was removing rubble with his own hands, because bulldozers couldn’t make it to the neighborhood. And there are no — bulldozers can’t even make it because there is no fuel to power bulldozers and to remove the rubble. So he was left with trying to remove the rubble and to excavate the shreds of his daughter. And then, while we were with him on the phone, someone told him, “We found the toe of your little daughter.” And he started kissing her toe. This is the only thing that was left to him from her. We talked to people who don’t even have photographs to remember their loved ones with. They only have rubble, because their phones, their laptops were all destroyed in airstrikes.

We also talked to relatives of the family of al-Dos in al-Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City. Fifteen members of this family were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the bombings on the 7th of October, including a 12-year-old named Awni al-Dos. We did not realize at the time that Awni was a talented gamer and YouTuber. Only later did it emerge from his friends that one of his dreams was to have more than 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, which he will never see. And these are just some of the faces.

Right now, as we speak, people in Gaza have not been able to mourn or to grieve properly. There are no funerals for the dead. It’s very hard. There are more than 1,000 bodies buried under the rubble, and people cannot get. Even when people manage to bury their loved ones, they just bury remnants. And even when they share with us testimonies, with the difficulty of getting to people, what they share with us almost are fragments of testimonies, not really testimonies, because of the devastation that they’re living through and because simply they say, “We need time to at least think about mourning our loved ones, about reflecting on all that we’ve been going through.” And with this incessant bombings and war, they don’t even have time for that.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Budour, I wanted to ask you: What did your report find about the Israeli military warning civilians before dropping these bombs or missile attacks? And also, Israel has claimed that the people of Gaza should move out of northern Gaza into the south. But what are you finding about attacks in the south?

AMY GOODMAN: Budour? We’re talking to Budour Hassan, who is Amnesty International researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We’re having a bit of a sound issue. Amnesty International has published a new report headlined “Damning evidence of war crimes as Israeli attacks wipe out entire families in Gaza.” Go ahead with what you were saying, Budour.

Why don’t we turn to a clip as we fix the sound with Budour Hassan? More than half of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the Israeli assault. This is an 18-year-old Palestinian named Dima Allamdani. She had fled to southern Gaza after Israel ordered Palestinians to leave their homes in the north. Much of her family died in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, where the family had sought temporary shelter.

DIMA ALLAMDANI: [translated] I went to look for my mother, my father and my siblings at the morgue. At first they told me, “Come, see your mother.” They didn’t show me her face, but I recognized her from what she has on her feet. God bless her soul. I felt heartbroken. It was like a nightmare. They opened my father’s coffin, and he had no signs of injuries, but he died. God bless his soul. I had a 16-year-old sister among the dead, and they wrote my name on her coffin since they thought it was me. Her body didn’t have any signs of injuries, but maybe she died from internal injuries. … They also showed me my little sister. She’s in first grade. And they asked me, “Who is she?” At first I didn’t recognize her due to all the cuts and burns on her face. Then they wrote her name on her coffin. I would have never thought that my family would end up like this. I felt heartbroken. It’s a nightmare. I can’t believe it, until now, that they’re all dead, no one left.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I think we have the connection straightened out with Budour Hassan. I was asking you, Budour, about the Israeli warnings to civilians before attacks, what you’ve learned about that, and also about the Israeli claim that the Palestinians of northern Gaza should move to the south for safety.

BUDOUR HASSAN: Juan, in the majority of cases that we did document, there were no warnings before the airstrikes, so the families did not receive at all any warnings. Even in cases where there was advance warning, that advance warning was not effective, because it was only informed to one of the family members, not to the entire family or the residents of the buildings. And it failed to meet the standards that require to make a warning effective, with no clear timeframe.

With regards to the warning, the initial warning by the Israeli army issued on the 13th of October for all of the residents of north of Wadi Gaza to evacuate to south of Wadi Gaza, this amounts to a forced displacement, simply because this is unfeasible for this community to leave. They cannot leave. Obviously, there are thousands of people with disabilities, wounded people. This number of people simply do not have the means and cannot leave. And then that was later followed by leaflets dropped by the Israeli army warning people to leave and then saying that anyone who chooses to stay north of Wadi Gaza will be considered accomplice with armed terrorist organizations, as per the words of the army, which again amounts to collective punishment, fails to meet the principle of distinction, because an entire area, hundreds of thousands, nearly a million people are treated just like an open fire zone, which also signals that the Israeli army intends to not distinguish between civilians and military target, because an entire area is transformed into one.

And even if we support that many of these people were to leave, the situation in southern Gaza, and especially in Rafah and Khan Younis, is particularly dire. The UNRWA-run schools are barely — they’re not capable of dealing with the amount of people, the influx of people into south Gaza, in addition to the incessant bombardment also targeting areas in southern Gaza, especially over the last five days. So, these coercive conditions in which the Israeli army is trying to force people out, which, again, amount to forced displacement, knowing that people in Gaza absolutely have nowhere safe from bombardment and airstrikes.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about the West Bank. That’s where you are right now, Budour. You’re in Ramallah. In the occupied West Bank, health officials say at least a hundred Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and armed settlers amidst mounting military raids and arrests. The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has documented some of the attacks. In one video shared online, an Israeli settler, accompanied by an Israeli soldier, shoots a man at point-blank range. Major protests also across the West Bank have taken aim at the ruling Palestinian Authority, which has launched a violent crackdown on demonstrations. Last week, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl named Razan Nasrallah was shot and killed by PA security forces during protests in Jenin following the deadly bombing of Gaza’s Al-Ahli Hospital. Still not clear what that explosion — who was responsible for that explosion. But, Budour, if you can talk about what’s happening also with Gazans who had work permits in the occupied West Bank, what has happened to them, and what’s happening in the prisons, where thousands of Palestinians are held?

BUDOUR HASSAN: Since the 7th of October, after the Hamas attack, thousands of workers from Gaza who had valid work permits to work in Israel and the occupied West Bank had their work permits unilaterally revoked. So, they could only learn about that through an application. And then Israeli forces started rounding them up and detaining them in military bases in cage-like conditions. One prisoner who was later released, because he was actually a resident of the West Bank, spoke about torture and other ill-treatment to which these workers are subjected. Families of workers who contacted Israeli human rights organizations, including HaMoked, Gisha and Physicians for Human Rights, said that they have no clue where their family members are. So, Israel now is treating — is arbitrarily detaining thousands of Palestinian workers, almost treating them like hostages, denying them due process, denying them meetings with lawyers. There is not even a hint of due process, in addition to torture.

All that in the context of increasing numbers of detentions, and before that, before all of this started, the number of Palestinians administratively detained without charges or trial has hit a 20-year high. And the number has doubled just since the 7th of October. And Palestinian families obviously have not been able to visit their loved ones in prison. In addition to that, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, adopted an amendment that would authorize the Israeli prison authorities to not limit the number of people who can be detained in one cell, which has made the conditions of imprisonment absolutely dire and amounting to torture and other ill-treatment.

All of that, Amy, as you said, in the context of increasing number of unlawful killings of Palestinians, including Palestinian children, mostly during protests, and many of these cases where state-supported settlers have also been rampaging across the West Bank, leading to unprecedented levels of forcible transfer in areas around Ramallah. And unfortunately, this level of pressure, of coercion, of oppression that Palestinians have been facing in the West Bank, which is part and parcels of Israel’s apartheid regime, has received such a scant attention, because all eyes now are on Gaza, which has given the opportunity to Israeli settlers and to Israeli policymakers to actually escalate their campaign of forcible transfer and of settlement expansion.

AMY GOODMAN: Budour Hassan, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Amnesty International researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Again, we will link to Amnesty’s report headlined “Damning evidence of war crimes as Israeli attacks wipe out entire families in Gaza.”

When we come back, we speak with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen about his new memoir, A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, a History, a Memorial. A major talk in New York was canceled after he signed, along with hundreds and hundreds of writers, a letter calling for a ceasefire. Stay with us.

Meanwhile, Julia Conley (COMMON DREAMS) reports:

The chief of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau, Wael Al-Dahdouh, learned while reporting on-air Wednesday that his wife, son, daughter, and grandson had been killed in an Israeli airstrike like the ones the veteran journalist has been covering for nearly three weeks.

Al-Dahdouh was reporting live near Wafa Hospital in Gaza City when someone spoke to him about his family.

"What, what happened? They don't know where they are?" he asked, before being told that his daughter had been hospitalized.

His colleagues later broke the news to viewers that Al-Dahdouh's family members had been killed.

The channel aired footage of the bureau chief weeping over his son, who appeared to be laying on the floor of the nearby hospital. Medical providers have been warning for days that hospitals are overrun with victims of airstrikes and medical supplies and fuel and running dangerously low, putting the healthcare system in Gaza at risk of collaps e.

Another son of Al-Dahdouh's, Yehia, was seriously injured and had to be operated on in a corridor, with doctors resorting to nonsurgical thread to stitch his wound.

While kneeling over his son, Al-Dahdouh reportedly said, "They're taking revenge by killing our children."

From yesterday's snapshot:

AMANPOUR & COMPANY (CNN) did a strong interview with Queen Rania of Jordan. We noted that interview last night and we noted it from Rania's website because AMANPOUR & COMPANY have still not posted it online at their YOUTUBTE page..

The points Rania's making need to be heard. They especially need to be heard in the United States.

"It's not about me, it's about speaking up for humanity," Rania rightly notes in the interview.

An angry e-mail to the public account (common_ills@yahoo.com) insists that I am friends with Rania and have known her my entire life.

No.

I have never met her. I do know her step-mother-in-law and have known Noor for decades. But I've never met Rania. So she's not a friend. If you need me to disclose that her husband's step-mother is someone I've know for decades, I gladly will disclose that and have before. Don't see how that's pertinent to what Rania -- the child of two Palestinians is saying. We highlighted that video for two reasons. First, she is a Palestinian voice. Second, a CNN friend raised the issue of how CNN wasn't posting that video to YOUTUBE. After we noted two times -- the snapshot was the second time -- CNN did post it. That was the point of noting it.

I did not, as the e-mail insists, get a call from Rania asking me to "do a favor as a friend." I've never physically met her and I've never spoken to her on the phone or exchanged texts or e-mails with her.

I'm not bothered by the accusation because it gives me another chance to post the video. But the accusation is false.

Let's move over to a hate merchant. The ugly Riley Gaines -- seriously, did she abuse steroids, is that why she has no breasts and that mannish face? I have no idea. But she is a hate merchant and yet the press wants to give her a pass. No. That's not acceptable. At the start of this month in "Media: The week of WTF?," Ava and I noted:

You can't have WTF without the transphobic, ugly faced trash that is Riley Gaines. What caused the sewer dweller to come to the surface?

Oak Park High School in Kansas City, Missouri named Tristan Young their homecoming queen. A trans-female, she competed against four female students and the high school body voted her homecoming queen. It should have been a great moment for her, a special moment for her.

But Riley had to claw her way in and start trashing Tristan.

No one called that out by the way. Tristan is a high school senior. Bully Gaines is an adult. A bitter, ugly adult who lies and lies again.

Grasp that. She's an adult, a college graduate (if you can believe it), and she was publicly bullying a high school student. That should have been the end of her. But the press refuses to note that she's a bully.

And a liar.

She makes up physical attacks that never happened. The press also refuses to follow up on that.

But the end of her should have been her bullying a high school student.

That is not acceptable.

That should have been it for her and the public square.

One of the lies the bully has repeatedly told -- and the press reported it as gospel -- was that she wasn't a transphobe. Yes, she was and, yes, she is.

A student body voting a trans student as home coming queen has nothing at all to do with sports. That is who she was bullying.

And now she goes around the country preaching her hate.

I get it, I do. If I looked in the mirror and saw that ridiculous face -- the head is too big and the features look tiny and plopped in the middle -- like a pizza that's all crust except for three peperoni slices in the middle -- I'd probably hate the world too. I'd probably rage, "Why!" -- as I'm sure she does daily.

But her being punished with that face and body does not provide her with a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Iowa's Terry Lowman writes the editors of THE DES MOINES REGISTER about how his church became trans inclusive and how, for nearly two decades, there has been no problem with Iowa's bathroom policy which allowed the person to choose which bathroom they wanted to use. But now Riley, Tennessee trash that does not live in Iowa, has taken it upon herself to fundraise for Iowa's governor and racist Kim Reynolds. As Terry notes in his letter, "And now we have Riley Gaines telling Gov. Kim Reynolds’ followers at the governor's fundraiser that this is an issue of moral vs evil. Reynolds says her heart goes out to parents of trans children, but apparently her heart stops when it comes to embracing trans children. According to research in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 82% of trans kids think about killing themselves and 40% attempt suicide." Riley's tax filings will be very interesting and not just for the thousands Ronald DeSantis paid her. Grifters like Riley make big bucks from right-wingers in the shadows.

Returning to the topic of a judge who believes she doesn't have to follow the law, Zachary Schermele (USA TODAY) notes:

Oral arguments began Wednesday in the case of Dianne Hensley, a justice of the peace in Waco who was reprimanded by the state’s judicial conduct commission in 2019 for presiding over only heterosexual weddings.

The new phase of the litigation is the first page in the final chapter of a controversial case that has lingered in the Texas court system – and hung over LGBTQ+ people in the state – for years. It’s yet another legal fight at the intersection of religious freedom and the civil rights of queer and transgender Americans. In recent years, as the makeup of the nation’s highest court has grown more conservative, that fight has only become more pronounced in lower courts across the country.

[. . .]

But the commission's lawyer argued Hensley violated her judicial oath when she chose to discriminate against select Texans.

"It flies in the face of impartiality," said Douglas S. Lang, a former appeals court justice representing the judicial commission.

According to a public warning issued by the commission four years ago, which also cited reports in the Waco Tribune-Herald, Hensley and her staff started turning gay couples away around August 2016, about a year after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in the landmark ruling Obergefell v. Hodges.

She's a bigot and she doesn't belong on the bench. She should actually be impeached for this behavior. She ran for this position, was elected to it but doesn't want to follow the law or fulfil her duties. She shouldn't be trusted with any kind of legal decision at this point. How can anyone trust a judge who is a known bigot and thinks that if she disagrees with a law, she can ignore it? That's not how the American legal justice system works. She's not fit to serve on the bench.

Back to the article:

In an email to USA TODAY, Lang said the public warning wasn't about Hensley's religious beliefs. It was about her behavior, which he said demonstrated bias.

“The Commission will stand up and argue for the preservation of the compelling interest to assure judges’ impartiality and support Texas citizens’ trust in the impartiality of the judiciary,” Lang said.

In an interview this month with the Dallas Morning News, Hensley said she didn't want to be “caricatured” as the case reenters the spotlight. She never received any complaints about turning away same-sex couples, she said. But she couldn't be held responsible for other people's feelings.

“There have been many situations in my life when I didn’t feel overly welcomed or endorsed or whatever,” she told the newspaper. “I’m an adult. That’s just how life is.”

Johnathan Gooch, the communications director for the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Texas, took issue with those comments. He told USA TODAY that gay couples in Texas haven’t complained about feeling unwelcome.

“They’re complaining that their rights are being ignored or overlooked,” he said. “That’s a very different situation.”

The following sites updated:

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Amish Potatoes with Lima Beans

So I spent the day bicycling through Amish country and found a recipe for Amish Potatoes with Lima Beans. Joking! About bicycling -- though we do have Amish farms in the Boston area. I was at the Johns Hopkins Medicine website and found this recipe for Amish Potatoes with Lima Beans:

Ingredients

(Gluten-free)

6 large potatoes
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 10-ounce package frozen baby lima beans, thawed
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Parsley
Paprika

Directions

Bake or microwave potatoes in their skins until tender, but still firm. When cool enough to handle, peel, and cut potatoes into large cubes. Heat oil in an extra wide skillet or stir-fry pan. Add onion and saute over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring every 2 or 3 minutes. Stir in potatoes and lima beans and continue to saute for an additional 5 minutes or so, or until potatoes are golden and lima beans are tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle the top with parsley and paprika and serve.

I'm always asked about lima beans in e-mails so that seemed like a good one to go with. It's heart healthy by the way.

I have noted this before but let me repeat it. I don't do nutritional notes on recipes. If it's Weight Watchers, sure. But they check their information in their books and in their online recipes. Not everyone does. So if you need information on carbs or whatever, always use the link and you can see what they say at the link. And, if it's wrong, you can take it up with them.

Nora Ephron was a film director. She as also a novelist, a screenplay writer, a journalist and much more. In her best selling novel Heartburn she has a recipe -- it may be a lima beans recipe . . . It is. Lima beans and pears. And I loved the book and I did make the recipe and it wasn't right. Did I cook wrong? No. Years later, she wrote an essay where she noted she got the recipe wrong. I think it was the molasses that was off. I could be wrong. I don't have C.I.'s memory. She can usually tell you something without even thinking. Sometimes, she'll say, "Give me a second." She'll look up to her left and then answer. I always wonder if she's like the character Poppy Montgomery played in Unforgettable -- remember how she could remember anything, she'd think and she could remember everything that happened on any day.

I wish I had that kind of memory.

But, back to Nora. I didn't blame Nora when I figured out the recipe was wrong. Just assumed it was an error in the printing.

And that does happen. Which is why I do not provide nutritional information. I don't want to be responsible if it's wrong.

News? Josh Fiallo (The Daily Beast) has some news on a story we've been noting here:

The wealthy Nashville suburb of Franklin roundly rejected what is likely the most controversial mayoral candidate in its history, deciding Gabrielle Hanson’s myriad of scandals—including several instances in which she cozied up to white supremacists—were too much to stomach.

The local real estate developer lost with just 20% of the vote, records showed, keeping the city of 85,000’s longtime incumbent, Ken Moore, in office another four years.

Tuesday’s result puts a cap on a chaotic campaign for Hanson, who seemingly found herself embroiled in new controversies weekly on the home stretch of her campaign.

Hanson, at the time a city alderman, first grabbed national headlines this spring when she tried to block a Pride event in Franklin, arguing that the attire of attendees was a threat to children. Hanson was unable to shut down the event, but the stunt earned her street cred with the city’s conservatives.

Soon after, Hanson announced her plans to run for mayor against Moore, who was first elected to the position in 2011. She quickly notched an endorsement from the city’s Moms For Liberty chapter, a right-wing advocacy organization that’s been labeled an “extremist group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and began echoing far-right talking points.

She loudly lambasted the city for planning to install historical markers about historical racial injustice in the area—memorials she deemed to be “racial terror” markers. She was grilled for threatening to retaliate against a local airport for supporting a Juneteenth festival and was slammed by Nashville cops for spreading false information about a horrific mass shooting at the city’s Covenant School.

Hanson’s outlandish comments brought more eyes on Franklin—a quiet city that scores of country music stars and other wealthy Tennesseans call home.

Later in her campaign, the controversies surrounding Hanson became less about her policy ambitions—like “restoring traditional values and protecting our families”—and more about her personal life.

In September, Nashville’s News Channel 5 revealed that Hanson was arrested in college for promoting prostitution in Texas—a crime she insisted was only a misdemeanor and misunderstanding, but was later revealed to have been a felony conviction.

A week later, the same news station revealed another bombshell. Hanson, who so vehemently fought against a local Pride event because of the attendees’ attire, had once cheered her husband on as he donned nothing but an American flag Speedo and sandals at a Chicago Pride parade in 2008. The report, written by Phil Williams, included a photo of the scantily-clad Tom Hanson, who was then a congressional candidate in Illinois’ 5th district.

“I thought how was I going to make an impact in the parade? I’m a Republican, nobody’s going to want to listen to me," he told the Windy City Times about the Speedo stunt. “So it just came to me. I said maybe I’ll wear an American-flag Speedo and my wife said, “If you do that, I’ll hold you to it.’”

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Wednesday:

Wednesday, October 25, 2023. Who painted the target on the backs of Americans in the Middle East, the assault on Gaza continues, the assault on humanity continues.

Let's start with Iraq. Nisha Zahid (GREEK REPORTER) reports:

In a recent announcement from the The Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH), archaeologists have successfully unearthed a remarkable ancient Assyrian deity statue known as a “lamassu” in Kursbad, Iraq.

A lamassu is a special Assyrian guardian deity, usually portrayed as a mix of human, bird, and either cow or lion features. These unique beings typically have a human-like head, a body resembling that of a bull or lion, and bird-like wings.

In ancient Assyria, they often crafted pairs of lamassu sculptures and placed them at the entrances of palaces. These imposing figures faced both the streets and the inner courtyards.

What’s unique about these sculptures is that they were carved in high relief. When you look at them head-on, they seem still, but from the side, they appear to be in motion.

While we often see winged figures in the low-relief decorations inside rooms, lamassu were not commonly found as large figures in these spaces. However, they occasionally appeared in narrative reliefs. In these depictions, they seemed to take on the role of protectors for the Assyrians.

Ancient Assyrian deity statue in Iraq was discovered and then reburied

This discovery took place during their excavations at the 6th gate, situated in the western part of the ancient city of Khursbad.

Khursbad was originally built as a brand-new capital city by the Assyrian king Sargon II. He started this ambitious project shortly after he became king in 721 BC.

From historic to current, Laurie Mylroie (KURDISTAN 24) notes:

According to the count that [Pentagon Press Secretary Pat] Ryder provided on Tuesday, 10 of the 13 attacks were directed against U.S. forces in Iraq, while the other three targeted US forces in Syria.

Also on Tuesday, Reuters reported that there had been an attack that day on U.S. troops at Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq. However, Ryder could not confirm that, and he cautioned against crediting the widespread misinformation circulating about this issue.

Following Ryder’s briefing, the Pentagon provided data on the injuries to U.S. troops in those attacks.

“At least 24 U.S. troops were hurt”, The Washington Post reported. The vast bulk of casualties came from one incident: an Oct. 18 strike against al-Tanf Garrison in southeast Syria, in which 20 U.S. troops suffered “minor injuries,” when “multiple one-way drones targeted the base,” the Post reported.

Courtney Kube and Mosheh Gains (NBC NEWS) add, "An American civilian contractor died due to a cardiac incident during a shelter-in-place order, but it did not occur during one of the drone attacks."

So the policy US President Joe Biden is pursuing has put a target on the back of all Americans in Iraq and Syria if not throughout the Middle East?

I don't like Bully Boy Bush to this day. He's a War Criminal. And he deserved to be called out for his actions. "Target on their backs"? Remember that. I believe THE NEW YORKER even did a cover illustration -- a drawing where a soldier in Iraq was depicted from behind with a red bulls eye target on his back.

Well that's what Joe's doing now.

And it needs to be called out the same way it would if Bully Boy Bush were still occupying the White House.

These knee-jerk policies are putting us all at risk. And for what? To destroy an indigenous people? We object to that -- now, looking back -- when it comes to the Native Americans. We object to that when we go see a James Cameron AVATAR film. But we're okay with that when the native people being targeted, the indigenous people are Palestinians?

The policy is wrong and Joe Biden is wrong. Speaking to Amy Goodman on yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!, journalist Rami Khouri explained:

You know, there’s basically four global forces now that attract significant human political support across the entire world, and they’re climate change; #MeToo, gender equality; Black Lives Matter, which is antiracism; and Palestine. And Palestine is a global issue, and the Americans and the Israelis and most of the Europeans and now the Canadians, to a large extent, are too blinded to see this reality. So, they feel that we can send in more military force, be tough on TV, and it’ll work. But it doesn’t work. And so, there’s really time for a reassessment. And the Americans, of course, learned this in Vietnam. They learned it in Afghanistan. They learned it in Iraq. But they haven’t learned it. And the Israelis haven’t learned from their experiences, either.

So, resistance and defiance keep driving people in the Arab countries and elsewhere to push back against what the Israelis are doing. And we’re not saying get rid of all the Israelis or kill them. We’re saying let’s have a negotiated peace where there’s an Israeli state that’s predominantly Jewish, like it is now, with a Palestinian state, where the refugeehood and exile of the Palestinians has been resolved according to international law, and we have our sovereign state, and we live in peace. We have made this offer. The Arabs have made this offer repeatedly to Israel, but it’s not interested in that, because Zionism is a strategy, is an ideology, that wants to create a Jewish state in a land that was 93% Arab. And it succeeded. And it doesn’t want peace with the Palestinians. It wants all the Palestinian land, and they want it exclusively for the Jewish people.

You know, the world supported the creation of an Israeli state, and after the Holocaust, that was understandable. And not just the Holocaust, it was a century or more of white European, North American racism and antisemitism against Jews. The Jews were terribly mistreated by white racists in Europe and North America. And they came to the Middle East because they knew that they had always lived there. They were accepted in society as an integrated part of society. And the early settlers who came in the late 19th century and early 20th century up until around 1920, the Jews who came were very accepted in the region. There was no problem — they had always lived there — until it became clear, around 1930, that they wanted to create a state. They wanted to take over and drive out Palestinian Arabs and have a Jewish state. And this coincided with the rise of the Nazis in Europe, which significantly increased the migration of Jews out of Europe. And, of course, the United States and Britain refused to take them, refused to let the Jews come in.

So you have multiple dimensions of historical responsibility. But the final point is that we’re at a stage now where the world — we, and the world, increasingly, clearly see this as an anticolonial struggle aiming for a just peace, equal rights for an Israeli state and a Palestinian state and the other Arab countries whose lands have been ravaged or annexed or occupied by Israel. The Israelis are not interested in that. The Americans totally are uninterested in that. And so this is a real dilemma. What the world needs to study, more than, you know, what are Hezbollah’s motives, is what is the nature of North American and European white racist colonialism, because it’s still going on.

The policy is wrong -- it is criminally wrong. UK SOCIALIST WORKER notes:

The United States is sending Israel military advisers who led massacres in Iraq. The intention is to pass on Western imperialism’s experience of urban warfare and how to destroy opponents.

One of the officers leading the assistance is Marine Corps Lt Gen James Glynn. He played a top role in the battles in the city of Fallujah.

In November 2004 the US dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the city killing Iraqi fighters and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.

The US government at first formally denied reports of its war crime. But a year later indisputable evidence emerged.

The points Rania's making need to be heard. They especially need to be heard in the United States.

"It's not about me, it's about speaking up for humanity," Rania rightly notes in the interview.

Jordan Shilton (WSWS) reports:

Palestinian health ministry officials reported Tuesday that 704 Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes over the preceding 24 hours, making it the deadliest day since Israel’s bombardment of Gaza began over two weeks ago. The grim statistic coincided with statements by representatives of American and French imperialism underscoring their support for the savage slaughter of civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Conditions in the enclave are worsening by the hour. Hospitals are being forced to reduce services due to a lack of fuel, which Israeli authorities are preventing from entering Gaza via the Rafah border crossing from Egypt. Even the UN Refugee Agency (UNRWA) reported that its operations in Gaza may have to be suspended within 24 hours if fuel supplies fail to arrive.

“We are hosting 600,000 people in over 160 underground facilities, including schools, medical facilities, and other buildings like warehouses … We’re so stretched that we have to open warehouses to receive the displaced,” said UNRWA director of communications Juliette Touma. “Supplies are also running out, so we will not be able to give any supplies to [Palestinians in Gaza]. We will not be able to do very simple things like start our fleet of cars or turn on the trucks and go pick up those supplies that are coming in from the borders.”

The World Health Organization called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” Tuesday to allow for fuel shipments to reach Gaza. Six hospitals across Gaza have shut entirely due to a lack of fuel, the WHO said, and the al-Shifa Hospital, the Indonesian Hospital and the Turkish Friendship Hospital are struggling to maintain critical services. “Unless vital fuel and additional health supplies are urgently delivered into Gaza, thousands of vulnerable patients risk death or medical complications as critical services shut down due to lack of power,” the WHO warned.

The Israeli government reiterated yesterday its bitter opposition to any fuel shipments entering Gaza. Only eight trucks passed through the Rafah crossing late in the evening, five carrying water, two food, and one carrying medical supplies for 2.3 million people. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari asserted without providing any evidence that “Hamas uses it [fuel] for its operational needs.”

The Israeli military continued its indiscriminate bombing campaign throughout the day. It struck several targets in the south of the Gaza Strip, where Israeli government officials ordered over a million people to flee almost two weeks ago to ostensibly be “safe” from attacks. One air strike flattened a residential building in Khan Younis with dozens of casualties. Later in the day, a Gaza health ministry spokesman said that 50 people had been killed in air strikes within an hour.

We'll note this from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

Health officials in Gaza say Israel’s unrelenting bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory has killed another 700 people over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll over the past 18 days to more than 5,800 Palestinians. Among them, 2,000 children are dead. One-point-four million Gazans, more than half of the territory’s population, has been displaced. Many say there’s no safe place to be in Gaza right now. The World Health Organization is pleading for far more aid to be allowed into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. We’re going to look now at Egypt’s response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and the negotiations over aid coming through Rafah.

We’re joined by Sharif Abdel Kouddous, independent journalist working with the Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr. He won a George Polk Award for his Al Jazeera documentary, The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. His latest piece for The Guardian is headlined “Israel’s endgame is to push Palestinians into Egypt — and the west is cheering it on.”

Sharif, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about all that’s taking place right now around the Rafah border crossing? And explain who it’s controlled by, and explain what Israel is calling on Egypt to do.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Thank you, Amy.

I think, well, first of all, we have to understand Egypt is the only country other than Israel to share a border crossing with Gaza. And what we’ve seen since October 7th is a lot of negotiations around what’s going to happen at this border crossing. So, as it stands right now, Egypt has insisted on allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza and has allowed multiple countries to deliver aid to Arish in northern Sinai. Countries like Jordan, Turkey, Qatar, the UAE have delivered thousands of tons of humanitarian aid that are kind of idling in these trucks at the border.

So far, since Saturday, something like 75 or 80 trucks have been allowed in, about 20 trucks a day. After a lot of negotiations, 20 trucks a day are being allowed in by Israel into Gaza. And this is nowhere near enough. You know, according to humanitarian organizations, they’ve called it a drop in the ocean. And just to give you a sense, 20 trucks a day amounts to about 4% of an average day’s imports before October 7th, before 1.4 million people were displaced, before 15,000 people were injured, before close to 6,000 people were killed. So, you know, the U.N. is saying that hundreds of trucks a day are needed. And on top of that, Israel has placed heavy restrictions on even that minuscule aid that’s coming in.

Well, firstly, Israel has bombed the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing four times since October 7th, even one time slamming into Egyptian territory at the border. But the aid, when it comes in, it travels to the Ouga-Nitzana border crossing with Israel, where it’s first inspected by Israeli authorities, and then it eventually gets into — goes back to the Rafah border crossing and goes into Gaza. This is a process that takes many hours.

But I think we have to understand that there’s two issues that really stand out on the restrictions. First of all, all deliveries of aid to northern Gaza are prohibited. So, none of this minuscule, even this like paltry amount of aid is getting to northern Gaza. You know, hundreds of thousands have evacuated from northern Gaza after Israel warned people to leave, but there’s still hundreds of thousands that remain. And just to give you a sense, the biggest hospital in Gaza is in Gaza city, Shifa Hospital. This is a hospital that usually, in normal times, has a capacity of about 700 patients. It’s currently overwhelmed with 5,000 patients. And you have something like 45,000 displaced people gathered in and around the hospital grounds seeking shelter. That’s according to the U.N. And none of the aid that’s coming in is getting to them.

But secondly, and very importantly, the aid that is coming in, none of it includes any fuel. Fuel is not being allowed to enter. And fuel is just absolutely crucial for so many things, perhaps most importantly for electricity to run generators. And without fuel, life-saving medical equipment, like incubators, ventilators, won’t work. And so this spells a death sentence for babies in neonatal wards and things like this. So, one official has called it, you know, that the aid coming in is more of a diplomatic symbol rather than actual meeting any humanitarian needs. But we have to see where this is going.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Sharif, I wanted to ask you: First of all, on the water situation, is all water still cut off by the Israelis? And secondly, isn’t the whole issue of Israel urging people to leave Gaza through Egypt a clear sample of ethnic cleansing? After all, Israel has many entrances on its side of the Gaza Strip, where it could allow women and children to come out of northern Gaza, possibly even bus them into the West Bank. But they’re clearly trying to get rid of the Palestinians, as many as possible, from their occupied territories.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Yeah, I mean, this is — I mean, first of all, on the issue of water, people have talked about there’s a real risk of dehydration to death. People are drinking now dirty water. The aid that’s coming in is not enough. You know, the first day, it provided water for about 22,000 people for a few hours, and we’re talking about a place which has 2.3 million people. And no water has been allowed in since October 7th. No aid at all has been allowed in, except for these small convoys. There has been a water pipeline that was — that is supposedly working near Khan Younis, but it’s not nearly providing enough.

And yes, this idea of — so, first of all, this order comes down from Israel — well, first of all, Netanyahu, when this all began on October 7th, took to the airwaves announcing a war against Hamas and telling people in Gaza to leave now, and saying — you know, he left unsaid where they’re supposed to go. But then there was this order to evacuate to the south: 1.1 million people were supposed to evacuate within 24 hours. And you see this kind of push towards the Egyptian border.

And from what we understand, reporting through Mada Masr, that Egyptian sources have told us that in those days in the beginning at least, there was a lot of pressure, and continuing, for Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing, to create a so-called humanitarian corridor and to allow for the forcible displacement of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza into northern Sinai, and that instead of the United States and other Western countries pressuring Israel for a ceasefire, pressuring Israel to allow in the necessary amount of aid, they have instead been pressuring Egypt to open the border and allow for this mass displacement, and have been offering economic incentives to Egypt to do so. We have to remember Egypt is undergoing a very severe economic crisis, with a massive amount of debt, with record-high inflation. And so, you know, there’s been talk of debt relief, of financial compensation, in order to allow for this kind of displacement.

Now, Egypt’s response has been kind of very staunch on this, actually. The president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has very publicly rejected this idea of having a form of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement and exile into Sinai. He has cited Egypt’s sovereignty in this. He has cited the Palestinian cause in all of this. He is even — you know, is drumming up and is riding a wave of public support for this, because Palestine, as we heard from Rami Khouri, is a touchstone issue for so many across the Arab world, for so many across the Global South. And this idea of what they call a second Nakba, a second catastrophe and a second mass displacement, is firmly rejected. So even Sisi called for protests on Friday, for people to take to the streets, and people did, in Cairo, in Alexandria and in other places, although some people carried on those protests into Tahrir, some were chanting revolutionary chants, and we haven’t seen that for many years. And actually, Egyptian authorities have arrested over a hundred people because of that. But, you know, I think many see Sisi’s stance as laudable, rejecting what is essentially an endorsement of a second Nakba.

But I think we have to remember that, you know, him citing the Palestinian cause really rings hollow. And we have to remember that Egypt, its concerns really are national security concerns, not wanting to have a mass population of Palestinians, who could launch attacks against Israel from northern Sinai, and not having to deal with a refugee crisis. Egypt, after all, has helped enforce the siege on Gaza for many years. It destroyed the tunnels that provided a lifeline to Gaza. It has allied with Israel in many different ways in security coordination. It has allowed Israel to conduct a covert air campaign, aerial bombing campaign in Sinai. And it also treats Palestinians coming in and out of Gaza, notoriously, with indignity. But so far, this idea of rejecting this kind of a mass exodus, I think a lot of people are supportive of that policy and, instead, trying to pressure Israel to allow humanitarian aid in.

AMY GOODMAN: Ultimately, Sharif, is it Israel, is it Hamas, is it Egypt, who is preventing that aid? As you said, we’re seeing dozens of trucks now, after weeks of not having anything, when in fact they’re talking about the need is something like 400 to 500 trucks a day. And also, when it comes to what happened this weekend in Cairo, the so-called peace summit of Arab leaders, what did they come up with?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, the peace summit didn’t actually come up with anything. There wasn’t a joint statement that was signed. Sisi and King Abdullah and others repeated condemnations of Israel’s bombing, of Israel’s siege on Gaza, and Sisi again rejected this idea of a mass displacement to Sinai. And I think, you know, we have to also understand that this idea of resettling Palestinians in Gaza to Sinai is not a new one. It’s actually an old colonial fantasy. There has been numerous plans by Israel and others of this idea of resettling the Palestinians in Gaza, who 80% of which are refugees, by the way, who are refugees from 1948, of resettling them again into Egypt. In the mid-1950s, the U.N. devised a plan for this kind of mass resettlement, and it was met with popular outrage in Gaza —

AMY GOODMAN: We have 15 seconds.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: — and kind of crushed in a popular uprising. So, I mean, these kinds of plans are long-standing, and there’s a real fear that they will be realized. But for now, we have to see Egypt is rejecting it, but Israel is creating a situation where life is becoming unlivable in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Sharif Abdel Kouddous, independent journalist working with the Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr, produced the award-winning documentary, The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, about the Palestinian American journalist. We will link to your piece in The Guardian. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Thanks for joining us.

In the United States, people are protesting the assault on Gaza and calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Brett Wilkins (COMMON DREAMS) reports:

As the death toll from Israel's relentless and indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza approached 5,800 Palestinians—including over 2,300 children—a group of around 40 faith leaders calling for an immediate cease-fire led a Tuesday afternoon pray-in at the Washington, D.C. office of U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith leaders and activists occupied the New York Democrat's office in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, where demonstrators opened their action with prayers for the thousands of Palestinians who have been killed since October 7.

Participants "highlighted the devastating impact of each bomb that has been dropped and each life cut short through a reading of nearly 200 names of those killed by American-made weapons, including entire families across generations," the organizers of the pray-in said.

"The actions send a clear message to the Democratic Party: You cannot continue with business as usual while Israel commits genocide in Gaza with full U.S. backing," the coalition added. "Cease-fire is the only moral choice, and the world is watching your next move."

Mike Ludwig (TRUTHOUT) reports on some of the recent protests in the US:

As the death toll of Israel’s brutal siege and intensifying bombardment of the Gaza Strip surpassed 5,000 on Monday, dozens of activists blocked a major intersection in Chicago as mass protests against U.S. support for the Israeli military continue to erupt despite scant mainstream media coverage.

“Only a ceasefire can protect Palestinian and Israeli lives in this perilous moment,” said Eli Newell, an organizer with the Jewish peace group IfNotNow in Chicago, who participated in the direct action on Monday. “Collective punishment won’t make anyone safe — not Palestinian civilians, not Israeli hostages.”

The action was organized by a coalition of Jewish groups, including IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace. About 50 protesters in downtown Chicago blocked rush hour traffic for over two hours on Monday and refused to leave until they were forcibly removed and ticketed by police. Organizers say the activists were flanked by a march of 500 supporters.

From Minneapolis to New Orleans, from San Francisco and Denver to Philadelphia and Skokie, Illinois, thousands of people are taking to the streets and calling for an emergency ceasefire as horrifying images and reports of widespread civilian suffering and death continue to emerge from Gaza. Thousands marched for a ceasefire in Brooklyn on Saturday, and more than 100 were arrested for blocking traffic at various demonstrations in the tri-state region over the weekend, according to local reports.

In Philadelphia, activists in solidarity with Palestinians are calling out local media for allegedly downplaying or outright failing to cover a march and rally over the weekend that attracted a giant mass of people (video below) to the steps of the city’s iconic art museum. The rally was organized by the Philly Palestine Coalition and its allies. Participants estimated that thousands of people showed up to the march and rally.

Staying with the United States. Daniel Villarreal (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

Anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives now want to boycott Listerine because the mouthwash brand featured a progress Pride flag on its bottle.

Chaya Raichik, who goes by LibsofTikTok on social media, posted an image of Listerine bottles that included drawings of same-gender couples holding hands and displaying rainbow flags. She claimed the brand supports child “sex change surgeries” even though such procedures aren’t conducted on children.

The bottle also mentioned the “Care With Pride” initiative. Started by Johnson & Johnson, Listerine’s parent company, the initiative raises money for LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations fighting for “full equality, inclusivity, care, and representation.” In 2023, the initiative benefitted Family Equality, a group that champions education, public acceptance, positive depictions of, and policy initiatives protecting LGBTQ+ families.

Chaya Raichik. Poor thing. She became a public face and . . . well . . . you've seen that face, right? It's kind of ended her movement. Apparently, people don't want to be led by an ugly person, not even conservatives. Since her face has become know, her ability to influence has lessened. Maybe she could wear a mask? Or even just a paper bag over her head? She keeps one by the bed, right, for her husband's sake?

Probably a mask wouldn't help at this point. The tide has turned. She's flailing around now and people see her for the hate merchant she truly is as she cries for one boycott after another and as her lies get exposed. These Carrie Nation types start with a flurry of attention but always end up repelling the majority of Americans. Someone help her off the stage before people start tossing rotten eggs at her.

In other news, Molly Sprayregen (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

An Ohio neo-Nazi has pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime charge for firebombing a church that was planning to host a pair of drag events.

Aimenn D. Penny, a 20-year-old member of an Ohio White Lives Matter group, submitted his plea on Monday, admitting to obstruction of persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs and arson. According to Cleveland.com, he will be sentenced on January 29 by U.S. District Judge Bridget Brennan and faces at least 10 years in prison, with up to 15 on the table.

Penny admitted to throwing Molotov cocktails at the Community Church of Chesterland in Chester, Ohio on March 25. The attack, which left scorch marks on the church’s door, was allegedly in response to drag queen storytime events planned for April 1.

His admission came during a March 31st search of his homes when he told FBI agents he threw the Molotov cocktail with the intent of burning down the church.

How disgusting do you have to be to firebomb a church? Remember that the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama back in 1963 that claimed the lives of 11-year-old Carole Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley was carried out by terrorists who were White supremists as well -- Thomas Blanton, Robert Chambliss, Bobby Cherry and possibly Herman Cash.

All these decades later and racists are still a scourge of America. You would have thought basic humanity and common sense would have run them off long, long ago. However, Robert Downen (TEXAS TRIBUNE) reports that they are very tight with some 'conservatives' in Texas:

In recent weeks, allies of the deep-pocketed conservative PAC Defend Texas Liberty have sought to downplay a meeting between the group’s former leader, Jonathan Stickland, and prominent white supremacist Nick Fuentes. They’ve cast the visit as a one-off mistake — and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he accepted an explanation that it was a “serious blunder."

Responding to calls for him to return the $3 million he received from Defend Texas Liberty this summer, Patrick initially said he would not do so because there was “no hint of any links” between the group and any “antisemitic organizations or other hate groups” when he took the funds in June.

There were, however, ample links.

While Fuentes’ unapologetic hate mongering has made him perhaps the nation’s best-known white supremacist, he was merely the latest in a line of people who have been embraced by Defend Texas Liberty and its close allies despite publicly espousing antisemitic views or partnering with extremists. That includes, among others, Ella Maulding, a social media coordinator for Stickland’s consulting firm who has praised Fuentes as the “greatest civil rights leader in history”; and Shelby Griesinger, the treasurer for Defend Texas Liberty who has claimed on social media that Jews worship a false god and shared memes that depict them as the enemy of Republicans.

Defend Texas Liberty is a political action committee and one of the state’s most influential donors to conservative groups and candidates, including Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton. It is a key part of a sprawling network of nonprofits, dark money groups, political campaigns and media companies that have received more than $100 million from three West Texas oil billionaires, Tim Dunn and brothers Farris and Dan Wilks, as part of a decadeslong project to push Texas to the far right.

And if you're wondering, yes, Defend Texas Bigotry has links to Moms For Bigotry. What? You thought crazy ass Naomi Wollf would get in bed with a group that wasn't entwined with racism?

Anti-vax idiot Michelle Evans is a Moms for Bigotry and that's all Defend Texas Bigotry needed to know to cut her a $30,000 check. Even with that, the hate monger and liar lost. She did share, however, that she was okay with lying on Twitter ("she made headlines for spreading a false rumor that the district had lowered cafeteria tables at a middle school for children who identify as dogs") because she doesn't feel like it harmed anyone. I'm really bothered that these serial liars and racists and homophobes keep thinking they're the people to teach America's children.

These people are disgusting -- and go down in history as disgusting -- no sane person in 2023 is defending, for example, terrorist Thomas Blanton. No, in 2023, sane Americans are applauding Heman Bekele and others making real contributions to this country. Sarah al-Arshani (USA TODAY) reports:

"America's Top Young Scientist" is a 14-year-old who invented a soap that treats skin cancer.

Heman Bekele, a ninth grader from Annandale, Virginia, won the prestigious award from 3M and Discovery Education, considered one of the country's top middle school science competitions.

"I believe that young minds can make a positive impact on the world," Heman said in his submission for the award.

"I have always been interested in biology and technology, and this challenge gave me the perfect platform to showcase my ideas," he said.

Good for him and good for the country. That's what these hate merchants don't get as they attack people due to their skin color or whom they love or what country they were in before they came to the US, these people they attack are the people who do so much to make this a better world. These hate merchants? They don't do a thing to improve the world and we'd all honestly be better off without them.

Fairfax County Schools has a page up about Heman Bekele. Take a moment to grasp what a difference he's making:

Heman, newly crowned “America’s Top Young Scientist” after winning this year’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge, says the memories of people working long hours outside under the glaring sun in Ethiopia stayed with him as he made his way through the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) school system. A graduate of Wakefield Forest Elementary School and Frost Middle School, Heman was struck by the dramatic differences in skin cancer survival rates in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa compared to places where high tech cancer treatments are available.

“Skin cancer is mostly found on people who live within developing countries,” Heman says. “But the average price for an operation is $40,000. I was devastated by the idea of people having to choose between treatment and putting food on the table for their families. There are so many preventable deaths.”

He was determined to find a better way. So Heman researched skin cancer, learning about dendritic cells, which he says help protect skin by boosting immune response. Then he spent months playing with salicylic acid, glycolic acid and tretinoin, trying to find the right combination to help treat skin cancer. He developed SCTS, which stands for skin cancer treating soap, and works by reactivating dendritic cells.

On the topic of hate merchants, Nick Mordowanec (NEWSWEEK) points out, "[Ronald] DeSantis has taken flack this year for multiple incidents related to neo-Nazis, including a campaign video released in July that featured a far-right circular symbol known as the 'sonnenrad' which is often affiliated with neo-Nazi groups. Such groups have drawn scrutiny for being openly brazen about their anti-Jewish sentiments, with one incident in September involving 40-some individuals waving swastikas, giving fascist salutes and chanting 'Sieg Heil' on a bridge in Orlando, Florida."

A better world is possible. "I believe in a better way" as Ben Harper sings.

Rayna Reid Rayford (ESSENCE) reports on a new book:

Imagine: “It’s the year 2050…and racism has ended,” and so posits the newly published book How We Ended Racism: Realizing a New Possibility in One Generation.

In the book, Justin Michael Williams and his co-author Shelly Tygielski divulge a concrete eight-part framework for how we can make this radical idea an actual reality.

“You don’t fix racism,” an excerpt from the book reads, “You don’t fight it. You don’t make it better. You end it. We learned how to bridge any political or ideological divide—inviting liberals, conservatives, and everyone in between to cocreate a future worth fighting for.”

Ahead of the release, Williams sat down with ESSENCE to discuss what inspired the book, the writing process, and what a post-racism world looks like.

A multi-hyphenate, Williams, who is also a Grammy-nominated recording artist, had already penned a best-selling book, Stay Woke: A Meditation Guide for the Rest of Us in February 2020. He revealed that it all started “after George Floyd was murdered and the world was exploding with social justice books. So, I started reading all the things that were coming out, and I just had this epiphany.”

“I just thought—hold on a second—why does every single book start on the first page or two saying something along the lines of ‘racism is this thing that’s going to be passed down for a lifetime, generation after generation?’” shared Williams.

The following sites updated: