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Thank God for the German Hate Police! Or heil … or whatever the appropriate salutation is for these unsung heroes. They just saved us all from “hate” again!

Yes, that’s right, once again, democracy-loving people here in New Normal Berlin and all across the New Normal world were right on the brink of being exposed to “hate,” and would have been exposed to “hate,” had the Hate Police not sprang into action.

You probably have no idea what I’m talking about.

OK, what happened was, some pro-Palestinian activists organized a “Palestine Congress,” and attempted …

The photo is a screen shot from Press TV showing a demo protest against the shutdown of the conference.
A three day Palestine conference in Berlin was forcibly shut down after three hours on Friday. Electricity was abruptly terminated in the midst of the presentation by Salman Abu Sitta, the 87 year old author of the authoritative “Atlas of Palestine”.

Former Greek Finance Minister and leader of DIEM25, Yanis Varoufakis, was prevented from entering Germany to attend the conference. He went on Twitter/X to send a message:

Do you know that …

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The Paris climate agreement of 2015 set the standards for how nation/states must approach the net zero target year 2050 by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in stages, starting with major reductions by 2030.

Paris ’15 is dead.

According to a new report by Global Energy Monitor of San Francisco, at least 20B barrels of oil equivalent has been discovered since the International Energy Agency statement of fact in 2021 that no new oil, gas, or coal development should proceed if the world is to reach net zero by 2050.

Nevertheless, as of today, fossil fuel producers worldwide plan on quadrupling output from …

What would happen if the US Congress funded solar energy instead of war on Palestine?

“Israelis gathered on a hilltop outside the town of Sderot on Monday to watch the bombardment of Gaza” in 2014. Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR), a worthy-sounding broadcaster which began life back in 1917 with the aim of sharing the educational resources of the University of Wisconsin with the state’s residents and now inspires communities around the world, has been feeding its listeners a load of old toffee about a place called Sderot, an Israeli township a stone’s throw from Gaza.

As …

Al-Aqsa University in Khan Younis is one of many areas in Khan Younis to which Israel has caused enormous damage.  (Ruwaida Amer)
Khaled Arqoub was shocked when he saw that his home had been flattened.

It and the buildings next door were destroyed after Israeli troops entered Khan Younis city in tanks.

“I have lost everything,” Arquob said.

When Israel began its ground invasion, Arquob left his home for al-Mawasi, an area in southern Gaza. He only came back to Khan Younis after the Israeli forces withdrew a few days ago.

“As I walked …

A Washington Post columnist, Catherine Rampell, headlined on April 5, “The Great Medicaid Purge was even worse than expected” and reported:

It’s a tale of two countries: In some states, public officials are trying to make government work for their constituents. In others, they aren’t.

This week marks one year since the Great Medicaid Purge (a.k.a. the “unwinding”) began. Early during the pandemic, in exchange for additional funds, Congress temporarily prohibited states from kicking anyone off Medicaid. But as of April 1, 2023, states were allowed to start disenrolling people.

Some did so immediately. So …

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Walking stiffly, largely distracted, and struggling to focus on the bare essentials, US President Joe Biden was keeping company with his Japanese counterpart, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, when asked the question.  It concerned what he was doing regarding Australia’s request that the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange be returned to Australia.

Assange, who has spent five tormenting years in Belmarsh Prison in London, is battling extradition to the US on 18 charges, 17 tenuously and dangerously based on the US Espionage Act of 1917.

The words that followed from the near mummified defender of the Free World were short, yet bright enough for …

It took a genocide for Torontonians to commit themselves to the goal of defeating Israel. It turns out Iranian President Akhmedinejad was right after all. ‘Israel’ must be wiped off the map. It is an ugly cancer that could kill its Earthly host. But it will disappear only by the will of the people, Palestinian, Canadian, Jewish-Christian-Muslim united.

The Palestinians have been at it from 1917, the year British Lord Balfour (arch anti-Semite) wrote his poison pen letter offering a Jewish state in the soon-to-be British colony Palestine (to rid Britain of …

April 15 is tax day in the U.S. The average individual U.S. taxpayer contributes $25.25 towards weapons for Israel each year, adding up to a staggering total of $3.8 billion that fuels violence and repression against the Palestinian people. Despite President Biden’s recent call for a ceasefire, the U.S. continues to send weapons to Israel, and Congress is currently considering sending $14.1 billion in additional military funding to further arm the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Instead of funding genocide, the U.S. could prioritize human life by investing in healthcare, …

[CODEPINK and other peace activists outside the German Consulate in Los Angeles/Ryan Wentz — CODEPINK]
From coast to coast, CODEPINK delegations protested at German diplomatic missions in support of Nicaragua’s case against Germany at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for complicity in Israel’s genocide that has killed or maimed over 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
On the first day of ICJ proceedings, April 8, 2024, in Nicaragua v. Germany, pickets and letter deliveries took place in DC, NYC, LA, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Houston, Miami and Seattle. Demonstrators echoed Nicaragua’s …

Remorseless killing at the initiation of artificial intelligence has been the subject of nail-biting concern for various members of computer-digital cosmos.  Be wary of such machines in war and their displacing potential regarding human will and agency.  For all that, the advent of AI-driven, automated systems in war has already become a cold-blooded reality, deployed conventionally, and with utmost lethality by human operators.

The teasing illusion here is the idea that autonomous systems will become so algorithmically attuned and trained as to render human agency redundant in a functional sense.  Provided the targeting is trained, informed, and surgical, a utopia of …

The government wants your money.

It will beg, steal or borrow if necessary, but it wants your money any way it can get it.

This is what comes of those $1.2 trillion spending bills: someone’s got to foot the bill for the government’s fiscal insanity, and that “someone” is the U.S. taxpayer.

The government’s schemes to swindle, cheat, scam, and generally defraud taxpayers of their hard-earned dollars have run the gamut from wasteful pork barrel legislation, cronyism and graft to asset forfeiture, costly stimulus packages, and a national security complex that continues to …

In anarchist history, 8 April 1877, a group of anarchists including a young Errico Malatesta marched into the small village of Letino. Chaos ensued as they looted the town safe and burned the village tax documents and property deeds in the streets.

It was one of the earliest examples of a new anarchist strategy: “Propaganda by the Deed.”

Years ago, I made the statement that Palestinians had not sacrificed enough. It was meant to be a shocking statement, but it wasn’t a judgmental one. What I meant was that all of the terrible sacrifices that Palestinians had made up until that time had failed to liberate Palestine, and that we would know when adequate sacrifice had been made by the standard of whether liberation had been achieved.

I believe that we are reaching a vantage point where this accomplishment is now within view, or at least just over the horizon. If so, it is utterly astonishing, but the greatest …