Tim and Caitlin are back with another chat, this time about Assange, Gaza, the empire and propaganda. We also took a couple of questions, including “Where do you get your news and how best to parse fact from fiction?” and “Across the world are there any people you admire offering inspiration and hope?”
Israel's inhumanity and atrocities has completely shocked me. I always knew that zionism was horrible and the way the Israelis colonized and stole Palestine was evil and wrong, but killing children for throwing stones, shooting that man in handcuffs after sending him into the hospital, bombing hospitals and destroying everything.....maybe it should not have surprised me and shocked me, but it did. I have always thought that people who had experienced the holocaust or descended from survivors should probably experience some kind of therapy to help them to understand how and why that happened, but nothing like that ever happened. Instead people were re-traumatized with visits to Auschwitz and they were told that Palestinians were animals.
Actual News services? No where. I check into The NY Times to see what putrid propaganda they are pushing, then I go to Common Dreams to see what the lost liberals are eating up.
But here's my way of making sense of all the nonsense.
"News" commentary/investigative : The Grayzone (Max, Aaron, & Crew), Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi & Walter Kirn - America this Week, The Duran, Jimmy Dore, Revolutionary Black Out Network, Sabbysabs, Garland Nixon, Whitney Webb, Aaron Goode/American Exception, Going Underground, Geopolitical Economy Report, and You of course Caitlin!
Assange's Showdown With The Empire Of Lies, war crimes, genocides, Holocausts, SERIAL LIARS, crimes against humanity, rape, torture, "butchering women and children", blowing up their own citizens, ... .
I avoid any mainstream news channels... I prefer to keep my critical thinking facilities intact. I will not be gaslit. Thank you for your clear-sightedness.
They voted to leave the "EUROPEAN UNION", the trading body. "Europe" itself is a geographic continent, like Africa, or Asia. There are 5 over the world and every country belongs to one. Not every country in Europe belongs to the European Union.
"The U.S. could convince Saudi Arabia and the UAE to supply six
helicopters each if the American "bureaucracy" prevented
quick approval, Saleh suggested. The General responded that
he had already considered the ROYG's request for helicopters
and was in discussions with Saudi Arabia on the matter. "We
won't use the helicopters in Sa'ada, I promise. Only against
al-Qaeda," Saleh told General Petraeus."
Saleh *'promised'* to use the helicopters only in war #1 and not war #2.
In the same meeting the Yemeni made a joke about lying to their own Parliament.
""We'll continue saying the
bombs are ours, not yours," Saleh said, prompting Deputy
Prime Minister Alimi to joke that he had just "lied" by
telling Parliament that the bombs in Arhab, Abyan, and Shebwa
were American-made but deployed by the ROYG."
The lie was well appreciated by the American side who gifted the Yemeni
with an increase in U.S. security assistance.
---
Have to include this too. General Petraeus demonstrates intimate familial knowledge
of the women and children he slaughtered, else complete shamelessness:
"4. (S/NF) Saleh praised the December 17 and 24 strikes
against AQAP but said that "mistakes were made" in the
killing of civilians in Abyan. The General responded that
the only civilians killed were the wife and two children of
an AQAP operative at the site,"
According to Amnesty International the December 17th attack alone was devastating:
"A Yemeni parliamentary inquiry found that 41 local residents, including 14 women and 21 children, and 14 alleged al-Qa’ida members were killed in the attack."
I agree with you about Medea. I want to be Medea Benjamin when I "grow up". I love how she and Code Pink are an eternal thorn in the side of the US Congress. Absolutely brilliant.
Your last point about the indigenous peoples and their connection to the land really struck a chord with me. I've never felt comfortable in my "skin" as a person of mixed ancestry, and I've always lamented the fact the my great-grandmother was removed from her people and turned into "white". My dad's family had no culture or language or anything that was their own and none really to pass down except "American exceptionalism" and all that nonsense. It's probably why I'm working hard to see that the Palestinian people can have their home returned to them someday and justice received for the families for all those lost in the genocide by Israel. #FromTheRiverToTheSeaPalestineWillBeFree !
I'm afraid there was some wishful thinking re Assange. There is always the possibility that he will recover enough to be a threat to the Empire again. Imagine if he were back at the helm of Wikileaks and someone in Mossad sent him dox proving that they knew Oct 7th was coming, did nothing, actually helped it, because their intention was to empty Gaza of Palestinians so they can put settlers there, access the offshore gas without giving Palestinians any of the money, and dig a competing canal to make money on the northern edge of Gaza--so they needed Oct 7 to justify it. The Empire doesn't want to take this risk, and =its current managers have signaled quite clearly that they are comfortable behaving with fairly open contempt toward Australia, world opinion, the international court, the UN, and the Democrat base. They continue to mouth the usual shibboleths about free speech, human rights, and peace but feel no need to make a real pretense of believing in any of that.
One more remark, about Who Inspires You...on the level of governments, South Africa is doing its duty in taking Israel to court, and a few others joined in after...but Israel feels confident in its big brother shielding it from consequences. What country is doing something actual, physical to try to stop Israel? Only little, impoverished, war-ravaged Yemen--and with almost no violence. I am filled with admiration for Yemen..
Good luck, getting justice from a british court.
Free Assange!
An important Jewish voice you've not mentioned is that of Norm Finkelstein.
i don't think the example they've made of him so far will be enough for the bloodthirsty US government. I wish with all my heart it weren't so.
I sure hope the US has destroyed enough of Assange's life that they don't need to do any more. It would be the best news ever to hear that he is free.
Israel's inhumanity and atrocities has completely shocked me. I always knew that zionism was horrible and the way the Israelis colonized and stole Palestine was evil and wrong, but killing children for throwing stones, shooting that man in handcuffs after sending him into the hospital, bombing hospitals and destroying everything.....maybe it should not have surprised me and shocked me, but it did. I have always thought that people who had experienced the holocaust or descended from survivors should probably experience some kind of therapy to help them to understand how and why that happened, but nothing like that ever happened. Instead people were re-traumatized with visits to Auschwitz and they were told that Palestinians were animals.
Actual News services? No where. I check into The NY Times to see what putrid propaganda they are pushing, then I go to Common Dreams to see what the lost liberals are eating up.
But here's my way of making sense of all the nonsense.
"News" commentary/investigative : The Grayzone (Max, Aaron, & Crew), Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi & Walter Kirn - America this Week, The Duran, Jimmy Dore, Revolutionary Black Out Network, Sabbysabs, Garland Nixon, Whitney Webb, Aaron Goode/American Exception, Going Underground, Geopolitical Economy Report, and You of course Caitlin!
Anyone else that is a must listen?
Free Julian Assange! - Free Palestine! - Revolution Now!
Assange's Showdown With The Empire Of Lies, war crimes, genocides, Holocausts, SERIAL LIARS, crimes against humanity, rape, torture, "butchering women and children", blowing up their own citizens, ... .
[please add your own]
I avoid any mainstream news channels... I prefer to keep my critical thinking facilities intact. I will not be gaslit. Thank you for your clear-sightedness.
To follow...all those you named plus Patrick Lawrence, Alan McLeod.
Caitlin.
I am deaf...........so are millions of others.
Please do transcripts for us.
Thank you.
They voted to leave the "EUROPEAN UNION", the trading body. "Europe" itself is a geographic continent, like Africa, or Asia. There are 5 over the world and every country belongs to one. Not every country in Europe belongs to the European Union.
Yes, the US is making a big deal of Navalny, and I think it's just a distraction from the Julian Assange court case.
Here is a Wikileaks cable that you may not be familiar with.
You can see why Assange is hated by the blood thirsty warmongers.
A week after Obama gave his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize
he slaughtered dozens of women and children in Yemen.
He topped that war crime off by covering up the crime.
It was claimed that the Pentagon was targeting a terrorist in Yemen.
Legal problem was that his organization wasn't on the official list
of designated terrorist organizations (darn that paperwork!).
Obama/Pentagon missed their target but slaughtered dozens of women and children.
The perps met with their Yemen counterparts afterwards and the meeting was
described in a memo. Yemen covered for Obama/Pentagon by publicly claiming
that Yemen forces had accidentily killed all those women and children,
but that pesky Assange and his organization leaked the memo!
The cable summing up a meeting between General Petraeus and President Saleh of Yemen
discusses laundering weapons to get around the 'American "bureaucracy"'.
Was this standard operating procedure? We sell weapons to Saudi Arabia and they
transfer them to President Saleh of Yemen to use against the Houthis.
https://search.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/10SANAA4_a.html
"The U.S. could convince Saudi Arabia and the UAE to supply six
helicopters each if the American "bureaucracy" prevented
quick approval, Saleh suggested. The General responded that
he had already considered the ROYG's request for helicopters
and was in discussions with Saudi Arabia on the matter. "We
won't use the helicopters in Sa'ada, I promise. Only against
al-Qaeda," Saleh told General Petraeus."
Saleh *'promised'* to use the helicopters only in war #1 and not war #2.
In the same meeting the Yemeni made a joke about lying to their own Parliament.
""We'll continue saying the
bombs are ours, not yours," Saleh said, prompting Deputy
Prime Minister Alimi to joke that he had just "lied" by
telling Parliament that the bombs in Arhab, Abyan, and Shebwa
were American-made but deployed by the ROYG."
The lie was well appreciated by the American side who gifted the Yemeni
with an increase in U.S. security assistance.
---
Have to include this too. General Petraeus demonstrates intimate familial knowledge
of the women and children he slaughtered, else complete shamelessness:
"4. (S/NF) Saleh praised the December 17 and 24 strikes
against AQAP but said that "mistakes were made" in the
killing of civilians in Abyan. The General responded that
the only civilians killed were the wife and two children of
an AQAP operative at the site,"
According to Amnesty International the December 17th attack alone was devastating:
"A Yemeni parliamentary inquiry found that 41 local residents, including 14 women and 21 children, and 14 alleged al-Qa’ida members were killed in the attack."
I agree with you about Medea. I want to be Medea Benjamin when I "grow up". I love how she and Code Pink are an eternal thorn in the side of the US Congress. Absolutely brilliant.
Your last point about the indigenous peoples and their connection to the land really struck a chord with me. I've never felt comfortable in my "skin" as a person of mixed ancestry, and I've always lamented the fact the my great-grandmother was removed from her people and turned into "white". My dad's family had no culture or language or anything that was their own and none really to pass down except "American exceptionalism" and all that nonsense. It's probably why I'm working hard to see that the Palestinian people can have their home returned to them someday and justice received for the families for all those lost in the genocide by Israel. #FromTheRiverToTheSeaPalestineWillBeFree !
I'm afraid there was some wishful thinking re Assange. There is always the possibility that he will recover enough to be a threat to the Empire again. Imagine if he were back at the helm of Wikileaks and someone in Mossad sent him dox proving that they knew Oct 7th was coming, did nothing, actually helped it, because their intention was to empty Gaza of Palestinians so they can put settlers there, access the offshore gas without giving Palestinians any of the money, and dig a competing canal to make money on the northern edge of Gaza--so they needed Oct 7 to justify it. The Empire doesn't want to take this risk, and =its current managers have signaled quite clearly that they are comfortable behaving with fairly open contempt toward Australia, world opinion, the international court, the UN, and the Democrat base. They continue to mouth the usual shibboleths about free speech, human rights, and peace but feel no need to make a real pretense of believing in any of that.
One more remark, about Who Inspires You...on the level of governments, South Africa is doing its duty in taking Israel to court, and a few others joined in after...but Israel feels confident in its big brother shielding it from consequences. What country is doing something actual, physical to try to stop Israel? Only little, impoverished, war-ravaged Yemen--and with almost no violence. I am filled with admiration for Yemen..