Cognitive dissidence keeps me up

Cognitive dissidence keeps me up at night. On one side, my country preaches human rights and democracy. But at the same time, it sends Israel one ton "Biden Bombs" to blow up what is left of Gaza.

There is very little left. Two million refugees are huddled under makeshift tents, waiting for food that never comes. Yet our sweet land of liberty keeps sending billions in military aid to keep the Palestinian genocide going. What perverse monster could think of doing such a thing to other human beings? What government bureaucrat would carry out such murderous orders?

The ongoing extermination of two million Palestinians is Gaza isn't hidden very well. Skeletal children are holding out their metal pots for any little scrap of food. They have to drink contaminated water because the electricity is gone and the pipes all destroyed. School for these children is just a memory of long ago. There are no school buildings left, nor any colleges. Nothing but rubble as the Palestinian people prepare their children to die.

I don't want to be a citizen of a country that does that to millions. Our pro-Zionist Congressional representatives get hundreds of thousands from the insanely rich Israel Lobby. That just makes people like Pat Ryan nothing but hired killers. He has already gotten over $163,000 this year in Israeli bribes. (opensecrets.org)

"Let me ask you one question. Is your money that good? Will it buy you forgiveness, do you think that it could?" -Bob Dylan

Fred Nagel

Symbol of Palestinian Resistance

 

Watermelon is a cherished fruit in Palestine. It is also a symbol of resistance to Israeli occupation and repressions. After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel banned the Palestinian flag, as well as its colors of red, green, black and white. And in the 1980s, Israel shut down art galleries and arrested artists for displaying anything that represented Palestinian freedom. According to the popular story Israeli authorities warned artists that "Even if you do a watermelon, it will be confiscated." Hence even holding a slice of fresh watermelon outside became a statement of protest.

Watermelon has also become a reminder of "Pinkwashing," the attempt to use LGBTQ rights to cover up the racism of Israel's apartheid regime. Pinkwashing tries to sell Israel's occupation as somehow a paradise for gay rights, despite the fact that 5 million Palestinians live under a brutal yoke of oppression.

Now that Israel's harsh occupation has become a genocide, it is more important than ever that we as US citizens do whatever we can to save millions of Palestinians. Tens of thousands of children have been slaughtered. Many more are without food, water and shelter, a killing field that is funded and abetted by the United States government.

Is this what our country has become? Our politicians have all been paid off by the billionaires in the Israeli Lobby. Biden has gotten more money from the Israel Lobby than any other politician in Washington. Our own Pat Ryan is swimming in pro-Israel funds. Check out the massive amounts our two Senators rake in from Israel (opensecrets.org).

Our country could stop this slaughter if it wanted to. Instead we see the pro-Palestinian college encampments being brutalized by the police, ever eager to serve the ruling class. But there is resistance in the air. Our students are telling the nation to end its genocide of the Palestinian people. The rest of the world is demanding that the two pariah states of Israel and the United States be ostracized for their brutal crimes against humanity. Isn't it time we all took some responsibility for what our country is doing in our name?

mideastcrisis.org

Our murderous parent

My country is like a bad parent who never really changes his abusive habits. He sent me off to war in 1967, only to have all the lies come back to haunt him. He killed two million Vietnamese along with 58,000 US troops, and never even said he was sorry.

In the 1980s, he was training death squads in Central America, and arming them to commit atrocities in Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. And after all that bloodletting, he never whispered a word of remorse.

The invasion of Iraq was another inexcusable moment for my American family. The invasion was all based on his lies about weapons of mass destruction, and again we murdered millions of innocent people. But our media hid most of the slaughter from us, and neither political party thought to condemn his obvious war crimes.

Now our parent is paying for and perpetuating the worst genocide of the 21st century. True to form, he never bothers to look at the torture, the starvation, the endless bombing of hospitals and schools in Gaza. The charnel house of his wars reminds us once again of how criminal our parent really is. And how dangerous. His wars abroad are based on carnage, and that is what our shameless parent is very good at. He sees some strategic goal in the eradication of the Palestinian people and there is nothing that can stop him. Not even the slaughter of 20,000 children.

Our murderous parent will one day destroy our American family.  

Fred Nagel

Now that we have hit 103,000, it might be time to change

This ClassWars Blog has followed Activist Radio guests for over a decade. Recently, I have used it to publish letters and articles that haven't been as closely linked to Activist Radio. That gives me more freedom, since linking to a specific guest each week had begun to feel restrictive. 

So I will continue to post my writings, and even include some graphics to spice things up. If you are a regular reader of this blog, I would love to hear what you think about the change. Just drop me an email.

Fred

Jews have been used and abused by both England and the United States

We are so aware of the powerful Israel Lobby and its money machine that we overlook the many ways that Jews have been used and abused by both England and the United States. Going all the way back to the Balfour Declaration, we find that England had a habit of promising Palestine to several nations and peoples at the same time. There was the promise made in 1915 to give Arabs independence from the Ottoman Empire (called the Hussein-McMahon correspondence). And then there was a separate agreement with the French in 1916 that guaranteed Palestine would be under international control, and the rest split between the two Western powers (called the Sykes-Picot agreement). England made all three agreements without even consulting the indigenous inhabitants of the region.

How big a gift was this thrice promised land of Palestine to the Jews? It was already owned and occupied by millions of Palestinian people. To make the area an all Jewish state would take decades of ethnic cleansing and slaughter, something that would eventually make Israel a pariah state in the rest of the world. A kinder, more reasonable solution would have been to let Jews immigrate to English speaking countries where there was plenty of room. But of course, England and the US did not want the millions of desperate Jewish refugees who needed a home. Giving Palestine to the Jews ensured that they wouldn't be clambering to get into England and America.

Probably the most important reason for the creation of Israel is the oil fields that surround our militarized colony in the Middle East. Not only did England and the US avoid a huge influx of Jews, but these redirected immigrants would form a military base to extend Western control over these vast oil fields. Israel would do the dirty work of empire without staining the reputation of English speaking countries.

It wasn't long before both England and the US began see another benefit to the creation of the state of Israel. The Jewish Holocaust was a potent symbol and could be used in so many ways. Even the Western support of Israel's ethnic cleansing and genocide could be made virtuous by referring to the Holocaust. How could anyone dare to criticize Israel/US foreign policy if it were done in the name of Jewish suffering?

In addition, charges of antisemitism have become the weapon of choice in England and the US for ending any criticism of the US Empire and its unholy alliance with Israel. If you are a college teacher who condemns Israel's war crimes and crimes against humanity, why you must be an antisemite! If you are a student chanting "Free Palestine," why you must hate Jews. Our Congress is falling all over itself to make any criticism of Israel illegal, and these laws are a  particularly dangerous assault on our First Amendment freedom of speech.  

But the use of the Holocaust and antisemitism for political gain cheapens and debases Jewish history and Jewish culture. Who will respect these terms when they are used to justify an ongoing genocide? Who will be left to fight real antisemitism? Certainly not the 36 million Christian Zionists in America, whose thinly veiled antisemitism should be a concern to us all.

These supposed allies of Zionism are intent on pushing all Jews into the Holy Land where they can either convert to Christianity or be slaughtered. Only when Jews have been ethnically cleansed from the rest of the world, will sweet Jesus appear and save all Christians from the carnage awaiting Jewish unbelievers. Is this "final solution" any better than the plan offered by the insane leaders of the Third Reich? In fact, is it really any different?

Will the creation of Israel prove to be the second catastrophe visited on the Jewish people by Western imperialism? 

Racism is an integral part

July 4

 

GUEST: Miranda Cleland, advocacy officer at Defense for Children International - Palestine and leader of the No Way to Treat a Child campaign that advocates for the human rights of Palestinian children.

Defense for Children International/Palestine

Why are these human rights groups collecting evidence and compiling reports about the treatment of Palestinian children? The Israel/US killing machine has slaughtered 15,000 children in Gaza already, and the leader of the genocide is speaking to the US Congress this week.

There isn't any question about whether the Israeli Army has butchered children, whether it was with US made bombs, tank shells or killer drones. Who on earth would reach any other conclusion?

But the details and pictures are still missing. Americans live in an artificial environment. The few corporations that dominate all US news media always report the same story. Pictures of wounded, starving children always turn out to be from Ukraine, not Palestine. We can live our lives knowing that tens of thousands of Palestinian children are facing death, as long as we are not reminded of it. And that is something our Pentagon dominated news would never do. 

What makes a genocide? How do people look the other way? Defense for Children International makes looking the other way just a little bit harder. If the children were white and spoke English, this slaughter would never have started. If there is anything that this genocide has taught us, it is that racism is an integral part of the US support for the killing fields of Gaza. 

Exposing the hypocrisy of their university

June 27

 

GUESTS: Ethan Fraenkel and Noam Chen-Zion, students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University, talk about their open letter criticizing the university for alleging antisemitism against anyone opposing Zionism. 

Open letter to Columbia University

I was very happy to have Ethan and Noam on Activist Radio. Their open letter exposes Columbia University's empty rhetoric and complete subservience to the US Empire. Can college students gain anything from such a sterile academic environment? From a propaganda arm of the Military Industrial Complex?

Ethan and Noam have certainly learned a lot, although most of their enlightenment has come from exposing the hypocrisy of their university. But think of how many students have not spoken out, or risked their future careers. Those students have also learned something, that ideas and concepts don't matter as long as they are able to regurgitate conventional narratives. That lesson makes institutions like Columbia University into high priced indoctrination centers. In short, Columbia has sold its academic soul to the billionaires and the US war machine. 

Real education can't be bought by Columbia's sixty six thousand in tuition and fees. It is a ripoff if you value intellectual curiosity and independent analysis.   

Children eat animal feed

In Gaza, the children eat animal feed, the lucky ones who find it. Those without carry their pans and bowls around, looking for anything to fill them.

In the past, such things would be hidden from us. We were mostly spared what our military machine did to children in Korea or Viet Nam. In both invasions and occupations, the US killed millions and bombed whole countries to rubble. Many citizens suspected what was going on, but didn't have to face it. This time, there is no end to pictures of desperate children. Their bowls will remain empty, and we will eventually see their small bodies curled up somewhere in the blasted concrete.

I would like to forget feeding Joe Biden for a couple of days, just so he knows what it's like. I would like to shut off water to the Pentagon so they have to drink from their toilets. I wish I could take all the money that Rep. Pat Ryan gets from the criminal pro-Israel Lobby and spend it on bread for Gaza. I would like to burn my tax dollars so that they don't buy missiles and bombs for those monsters who kill the children in God's name.

Our Military Industrial Complex is the most sinister organization in the world. They plan how to enrich themselves by butchering civilians in the Third World.

"Let me ask you one question, Is your money that good? Will it buy you forgiveness, Do you think that it could?"            -Bob Dylan

Fred Nagel

Poster boy for this massacre of the innocents

How does one go on as normal? 20,000 children face starvation in Gaza. It is not the result of some natural disaster, but a calculated step in ethnically cleansing all Palestinians from a greater Israel. We know who gives the orders: Netanyahu, who has the honor of speaking to the US Congress this week. We know who is paying billions to keep the genocide going, and that is you and I. We even know who is blocking any effective action by the United Nations: our venal Congress, stuffed to the gills with bribes from the Israel Lobby and the all powerful US weapons makers. Finally, we know how this starvation is kept under wraps by our state controlled media. The inhumanity and butchery of the US/Israeli genocidal alliance is seldom covered.

That is why we seldom see their collapsed little bodies and swollen bellies. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have already been killed. There are no hospitals and schools, all bombed out by US supplied planes and bombs. There is no shelter because Gaza is nothing but pulverized rubble. There is no potable water or sewage systems, all Israeli targets in the worst genocide of this century. And the children are eating grass and dying in droves.

Our Representative Pat Ryan, with ties to the US weapons industry and recipient of over $213,000 in pro-Israel bribes this year alone (opensecrets.org), could be the poster boy for this massacre of the innocents. Why don't you tell him?
(845) 443-2930

Fred Nagel
8 Clay Ct.
Rhinebeck, NY 12572
845 430 4676

They don't mind how much blood is lost

The children are starving in Gaza. Tens of thousands of them. Their hunger and suffering is part of the purposeful extermination of Palestinians by Israel and the United States. It is just another of the crimes against humanity, planned and implemented by the American Axis of Evil in the Middle East.

Our recent presidential debate reveals how little our political elite care about war crimes. There is Biden, who just can't stop sending billions in ammunition and bombs to Israel. There is Trump, who openly states that he will eradicate the people of Gaza even faster. Then there is Worm Hole Kennedy, a born again Zionist. To make sure that no candidate in the debate dares question the use of starvation as a war tactic, two right wing, Zionist CNN commentators were chosen as moderators.

That would be five lovers of apartheid debating just how many more need to die in Gaza. How many more shot, bombed or starved to death by the unholy alliance, the last, great Judeo-Christian crusade to capture the Holy Land for their Gods: Big Oil and the Military Industrial Complex.

In 1968 we had an election between "Tricky Dick" Nixon, and "Dump the Hump" Hubert Humphrey, both solidly behind a continuation of the US war crimes in Vietnam. 35,000 young Americans were to die from that election. So would a million Vietnamese.

The billionaire elites are stacking our election again. They want their money, and don't mind how much blood is lost. Just vote and keep your mouth shut!

Fred Nagel

The world's last empire

June 20

 

GUEST: Robert Roth, veteran anti-imperialist activist, former member of the SDS and the Weather Underground, and co-founder of the Haiti Action Committee, talks about Columbia University in the last 60s and now.

Reflections on SDS and Black Power

Robert Roth and I are both products of the late 1960s. He was in the Weather Underground and I was a reluctant young draftee sent overseas to occupy Korea. Both of us blamed politicians of the major parties for the mess our country was in. LBJ and then Tricky Dick Nixon were willing to kill any number of Vietnamese for an American win in Southeast Asia. 

But the US could not win the "American War," as the Vietnamese call it. Yes, the US killed millions, but to no avail. Vietnam had been fighting imperial powers for generations and were willing to sacrifice anything for their freedom. What irony you say. Our country that supposedly supported democracy and freedom preferred mass killing to negotiations. There is nothing that the American Empire was not willing to do, even sending 58,000 of its sons to the slaughter.

But is wasn't the Viet Cong that the empire feared. It was its own young people who finally stopped fighting the war, and turned their attention to the streets. "Down with American imperialism" they shouted. And instead of voting for another warmongering Democrat, they simply yelled "Dumped the Hump," as Hubert Humphrey was called.   

The empire is fearful again. It is plain as day that our elites are supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people. Our leaders have all been bought off by the Israel Lobby. Our colleges and universities use antisemitism to limit any debate on campuses. And our media just supports American carnage as it always has.

But making the empire fearful is all we have in this completely corrupted system. Make those Pentagon warmongers shake. Use those encampments to promote a vision of America as a just state, committed to democracy and the good of humankind. "You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will be as one."

The opposite to dreaming is specicide. The end of the Anthropocene Epoch. America may well be the world's last empire.

The mark of Cain

June 13

 

GUEST: Nina Farnia, professor at Albany Law School, co-founder of the International People's Tribunal on US Imperialism, and co-founder of the newly formed Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective, talks about free speech on campus.

Center for Constitutional Rights letter

This is the new normal. The original meaning of antisemitism has been changed into a fascist weapon, and used on students and teachers who have expressed horror at the genocide of the 21st century.

Instead of stopping this genocide, the American Empire is paying for the bombs and rockets, as well as the white phosphorus used on Palestinian schoolchildren.

People of color like Dr. Farnia will always be targeted by the willing intellectual thugs that populate the administrations of our schools and colleges. Don't like genocide in Gaza, why you must be an antisemite! Do you think that racism in Israel is linked to the racism of empire? Your voice must be silenced by the new McCarthyism. 

The Israeli holocaust of the Palestinians is a colonial project of the American elites. Both major parties are pro-genocide. The leaders of our colleges and our mainstream media are all pro-genocide. Like Hitler and the German people, we in the American Empire will bear the mark of Cain for as long as people have a history to read. 

The revolution has started

June 6

 

GUEST: Jim Yanda, longtime civil rights activist and New York political organizer, talks about why he is working to elect Cornel West for president, and how his candidate exposes the US empire and its many wars of aggression in the Third World.

Cornel West as president

I thought this conversation with Jim Yanda was going to be interesting. How does an average American citizen move beyond the two party, worst of two evils conundrum? 

Most of Jim's arguments are quite logical. Both major parties favor the very rich in everything they do. The Supreme Court has made overt bribery the driving mechanism of our political system. The Zionists do it, and so do the major oil companies. If you have the cash, why you can write the laws. Voting for either of the major candidates for president is an exercise of wilful ignorance.

Are there any differences? Of course there are. Biden might be a little better on the environment, on LGBTQ rights, on civil liberties, abortion rights and labor issues. But the difference is actually quite small. The Democrats need these issues to run on, so prefer talk rather than action. We heard 8 years of peace talk from the Democrats while Bush was president. During the Obama wars, the peace movement disappeared. 

A major difference is that the Democrats seem to take more risks when it comes to a possible nuclear Armageddon. Trump at least talked about possible friendship with Russia and China. Blinken is a deranged Cold Warrior, as are many leaders of this current administration. 

So there you have it. The only sensible choice is Cornel West or Jill Stein. At least they are talking about how to turn the empire around. And when enough people start listening to them, why the revolution has started.  

 

They are riding naked, of course

May 30

 

GUEST: Alfred de Zayas, Cuban born American lawyer and writer, Fulbright Fellow at the University of Tübingen in Germany, and attorney for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, talks about US reporting on Nicaragua, Venezuela and Gaza.

Venezuela and the US Left at Crossroads

There are those who have prospered in the academic and governmental realms, but whose opinions about the US Empire are unsparingly critical. Dr. de Yayas is one such individual. 

At times he is a voice in the wilderness, talking about the children being slaughtered in Gaza, and the self serving politics of our ruling class. Once we see how corrupt and murderous the rule of the elite is, there is no going back. You can become a cog in the wheel, a toady who mouths the familiar excuses for the empire, or you can become a truth teller. 

We talked also about the media that does its very best to keep our citizenry absorbed in other issues. Besides the dozen or so leftist publications and media programs, our news is entertainment for the masses, a People Magazine made up a short stories of the glamorous and famous. A wasteland of the intellect really.  

So I do my show, all too aware of how bare bones it really is. I get all the guests, write the show, produce and then record it. I pick the songs too. And if you are still reading this, you have probably gotten further than most. But here you are, and I am sorry I can't reach out and shake your hand. You must be interested in truth, and you must think that Activist Radio has a part in revealing the butchers who run our national killing machine. They are riding naked, of course, and their hands are covered with blood.

Ours is a system run amok.

 

May 23

 

GUEST: Claire Cousin, co-founder of the Hudson/ Catskill Housing Coalition, and the first Black woman elected to the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, talks about her run for NY State Assembly and her support for Palestine.

Claire Cousin for NY Assembly

This is what democracy looks like. Claire is a bright person who wants to do good in her community and in her country. She wouldn't end up on some corporate payroll, or looking the other way as Israel annihilates the Palestinian people. She can't be bought; she will never be part of the well bribed elite. 

To see our Congress falling all over itself to kiss the ass of that murderous of all leaders, Netanyahu, is to understand just how important Israeli cash is. Congress lets itself be bribed by one foreign country, the genocidal state that is dropping white phosphorus on all the children of Gaza. There is no shame. Our Senator Schumer and our president are drowning in billionaire donations. Ours is a system run amok. And it's just so amazing that once in a great while we get a real person to run. Vote for Claire Cousin over her Israeli paid opponent.

Israel seems more like a deranged sect

President Biden talks about American "red lines," that protect Palestinians from an ongoing extermination. But these red lines are just another blatant lie; there is no pause in the US support for genocide.

It turns out that people have their own red lines. For me, Israel's recent threats to the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is my limit. Not only did Israel threaten at least two prosecutors, but its secret intelligence agency also menaced their families. So much for Israel's respect for international justice.

Israel's starving tens of thousands of children in Gaza and its incessant bombing of their refugee camps have shown the state of Israel to be a world pariah. Its entire reason for being is racist violence and murder. That explains Israel's fascist alliance with the ultra right wing in our own country. Zionism is the poison that will bring down both our democracies.

And I don't care what religion Israel claims to be. No religion on earth can justify its endless war crimes and crimes against humanity. At times Israel seems more like a deranged sect, hell bound for self destruction. And we may all end up having to sip its cool-aid. Israel is a nuclear power run by a madman.

We have a new generation that understands what Israel is: the unhinged colony of a crumbling empire. It is not a legitimate state, just like Apartheid South Africa was not worthy of existence. Time to delegitimize the racist and fascist state of Israel.

Fred Nagel

The price for an emerging fascism

May 16

 

GUEST: Athena Mutua, author, political activist and professor at University of Buffalo School of Law, talks about critical race and feminist legal theory and how these concepts are tied to civil rights and anti-imperialism.

Athena D. Mutua, Professor of Law

Critical race theory is an unbiased look at racism in American history. It is opposed by white nationalists who don't want this history to be exposed. Why do they try to outlaw this troubling examination? Because it will take off their white robes and pointed hats and expose them for what they are, race haters. 

Trumps return to office is based on several things. The Democrats, funded by corporations and their rich elites, don't really want to improve the lot of working people. Democrats what to fight wars that will enrich the weapons manufacturers. They support the Israeli genocide because very rich Zionists have learned how to bribe our elected representatives. The Democrats have put right wing Zionists in the highest places of our government; just look at Blinken and Biden. The whole Democratic establishment is pro genocide.

But Trumps success is based on something much longer lasting than Democratic failings and corruption. Trump is a bigot and race hater. He has learned how to encourage and energize white nationalism, something a long line of our nation's leaders have done before him. Just read a little about critical race theory. It is all there to see. 

It turns out that the very rich are turning their backs on even the pretext of democracy, and are now supporting this return to racism. Trump will make them even richer, in the short term anyway. In the long term, even the rich end up paying the price for an emerging fascism.

Crying out for mercy

May 9

 

GUEST: Nancy Mansour, Palestinian activist, co-founder of Existence is Resistance, and Executive Director of Eyewitness Palestine, talks about how local rallies can become a nationwide call for an end to apartheid and genocide.

Eyewitnesspalestine.org

Nancy takes us to another world, one that we barely remember after a nightmare. The sounds of the drones overhead both night and day. The smells that one never forgets. She describes for us the killing fields of Gaza. 

There are so many ways to escape such an experience. Our media will help us out by gradually disappearing any mention of 2.3 million Palestinians being destroyed by a slow moving genocide. Her interview was filled with verbal images that were perhaps more moving than pictures of starving children. This is the world of Eyewitness Palestine.

The organization is built on the assumption that the average person will see what apartheid looks like and will commit to ending it. And for most people, it seems to work. The people I know who come back from an Eyewitness Palestine trip are motivated from the heart. Perhaps if enough people saw what Israel is doing to the Palestine people, we would demand that our elites stop funding the carnage. Perhaps we would insist that the International Criminal Court charge Biden and Blinken with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

I notice that the New York Times has stopped covering the starving children. It prints articles about peripheral issues like the accuracy of reports on how many Israeli women were raped and murdered by Hamas, or how US colleges are influenced by billionaire Zionists. We don't see or read about the millions of children carrying around empty pots on the chance they will find something to eat. No, if the American people witnessed that, they would cry out for mercy.

Using antisemitism as a weapon

The term antisemitism has completed its long journey from the Third Reich and the Holocaust to its new home with white supremacists in the United States. The Lawler Bill, which just passed in the House, defines any criticism of Israel as antisemitism and threatens our nation's colleges with loss of their non profit status. Listening to right wing politicians attacking our universities using antisemitism as a weapon seems beyond belief. These are the same politicians who want to put more Blacks in jail, send all immigrants back to where they came from, are openly homophobic and misogynistic, and who fervently believe that Jesus is coming down to kill all Jews in the Holy Land. In short, how did antisemitism become the battle cry for the fascist elements of our society?

Zionism is fascism, with all the trademarks of its violence, racism and nationalism. Zionists want control over what's discussed in our colleges and non profit organizations. That has always been a critical step in the fascist agenda.

Another step is the targeting of businesses based on ethnicity and religion, like the recent Zionist attack on the Petit Bistro, a Palestinian owned restaurant in Rhinebeck. Such assaults resemble Nazis tactics in 1938. In fact, the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza is similar to the wholesale extermination of Jews and Gypsies that occurred during the Third Reich.

We must come together as a country and demand that this current fascist Zionist movement not destroy our democracy or our basic humanity.

Rather than listen to our nation's citizens

May 2

 

GUEST: Susan Smith, Director of Operations at the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Black Lives activist in Ferguson, former host of “From Ferguson to Palestine” radio program at Vassar College, and member of Islamic Relief USA, talks about her mission to break the blockade of Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla.

This is the ship

I have not heard from Susan, so I think she is still waiting for permission to sail. There is something familiar about international attempts to break the blockade of Gaza. Out of all the boats that have set sail, only one has ever made it to the beach and contact with the Palestinians. These three boats, loaded with food and medical supplies, are perticularly needed in this time of injury and famine.

Are the Israelis just so skillful at thwarting these flotillas? Or is there more going on? The US seems to be an observer, although a very poor one, since these stories seldom make it into The New York Times. Of course. the NYT is mostly a Zionist publication, and has many reasons for distorting the news, including its decades long fielty to the Pentagon and the nation's weapons makers.

I think that these boats never complete their journeys because the US is intent on stopping them. Israel doesn't really have the connections to disrupt these flotillas, but the empire certainly does. And the US doesn't want to be seen as the country that starved millions to death. Instead the US pulls the strings to stop the boats, and then just buries the story.

How else to keep the slaughter going while the majority of Americans want to stop the genocide? Our elites have long decided to do what they want, rather than listen to our nation's citizens.

Utterly devastating

Thank you for the opportunity to bring the story of the emergency Gaza Freedom Flotilla to your listeners. Unfortunately, the day after our interview, Guinea Bissau, the country flagging 2 of the 3 flotilla ships, in collusion with Israel, pulled them at the last moment the day before we were set to sail.

Here is a Democracy Now interview with Huwaida Arraf, of the International Solidarity Movement, providing the details: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/29/gaza_freedom_flotilla?autostart=true

And here is an article from the Times of Israel from March telling the visiting President of Guinea Bissau, "You are a true friend of Israel": https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/herzog-tells-visiting-president-of-guinea-bissau-you-are-a-true-friend-of-israel/

This news was utterly devastating.

Peace,
Susan

Their own Nuremberg Tribunal

April 18

 

GUEST: Dr. Paul Larudee, Fulbright-Hays lecturer and government adviser in the Middle East, co-founder of the Free Palestine and Free Gaza Movements, and crew member aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, talks about the incredible sacrifices that Palestinians are making to free themselves from Israeli occupation and genocide.

Palestine’s Sacrifice

Paul has some liberating ideas on Israel's genocide in Gaza. His reasoning is often far from the mainstream analysis, but that's because our media and our politicians are actively working for the annihilation of two million plus Palestinians.

How can the citizens of such a country ever bring themselves to support what their two, pro war parties have wrought? The US forces a mass murder on the psyche of the American people every twenty or so years. The bloodletting in Vietnam has never been internalized, much less accepted by the public. The invasion of Iraq killed millions more, and we forced a famine on the population of Afghanistan when our military occupation was finally brought to an end.

Maybe that is how genocide works. Any country that supports mass murder will eventually be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. In Gaza, the evidence is overwhelming that the US has blood on its hands. Looking back for the last seventy years, we can see a pattern of military aggression unmatched in the rest of the world. And when asked, the people of the world always say that the United States is the biggest threat to world peace. Maybe when our citizens finally realize what we have done, there will be a sea change and our leaders will be sent to their own Nuremberg Tribunal.

 

We haven't evolved fast enough

April 11

 

GUEST: Dr. Larry Wittner, early civil rights and anti-apartheid activist, author of several books, and Professor of History emeritus at SUNY Albany, talks about nuclear winter and Einstein's warnings about nationalism.

Einstein's Postwar campaign to save the world

I woke up last night to a huge explosion. When I rushed to the window, I saw a black cloud rising several miles away. Immediately, I tried to judge whether the explosion was in Kingston, a small city across the Hudson River. Was it the beginning of a nuclear war? I stood there for a while, thinking about my grandchildren. Would there be anyone left?

I don't know how many people in the United States have this nuclear Armageddon stored somewhere in their psyche. I think millions do, especially when the warmongers in our government are in the ascendancy. We don't really have a peace movement to balance the war parties. Little is said about our aggressive behavior towards China and Russia. In fact, Russia talks openly about a nuclear war if their national sovereignty is threatened. The US military support of Ukraine certainly fits that bill. 

In a way, nuclear war is like climate change. Most of us know that there is a good chance our life on earth will end in one of these two ways. As God told Noah: "It won't be water, be fire next time." Will it be the slow but irreversible heating of our planet, or will it be a flash of light seen from my bedroom window?

The wonder of it all is that no one in our political class seems to care. Maybe capitalism makes people live their lives as if there was no tomorrow. Get rich, buy everything you can, and hope the fire comes after you have gone. Perhaps this world view is the fatal flaw of human beings. We haven't evolved fast enough to compensate for our burgeoning technology. As Pete Seeger told us: "We will love or we will perish." 

All shit hole countries belong to the American Empire

April 4

 

GUEST: Sahar Aziz, award winning author, Distinguished Professor of Law, Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar, and Middle East and Legal Studies Scholar at Rutgers University Law School, talks about how race intersects with religion in the US.

Distinguished Professor of Law

Acknowledgement of racism must be a powerful motivator. At least the right wing fundamentalists think so. Any academic course or publication that acknowledges racism in the United States is attacked, censored or removed from libraries. We don't want to know, and we certainly don't want our children to know. So our history must be lobotomized.

One might think that the same reactionary forces would object to the study of racism in US foreign policy. But it is our elite political class that opposes this type of analysis. It is the military industrial complex that makes sure that any academic who speaks or writes about racism in our foreign policy is attacked or fired. The racism that is at the heart of empire is strictly off limits.

That's because almost every military invasions the United States has undertaken in the last 75 years has involved an attack on people of color. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are all countries that are generally considered to be non-white. Or as our fascist leader might say, they always live in "shit hole countries." 

All shit hole countries belong to the American Empire.

Existence that threatens the entire human race

March 28

GUEST: Philippe Diaz, award winning French screenwriter, film director and producer with over 20 documentaries to his credit, talks about his latest project: I Am Gitmo, a movie that follows the travails of a Muslim schoolteacher sold to a CIA black site and transported to Guantanamo.

Cinema Libre Studio

Most countries have parts of their history they would like to forget. Shameful periods when their citizens acted like wild beasts instead of people. Think of the IDF forces in Gaza. How those sharp shooters must love putting a US made bullet between the eyes of a six year old. That will be a story to tell back at the barracks.

The US has more of these shameful periods than most, however. The horrors of slavery and lynching can still be seen in the embedded racism of our economic and criminal justice systems. The ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples can still be seen in their squalid concentration camps called reservations. And victims of US war crimes are still remembered in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Guantanamo is a similar boil on the ass of our nation. It hurts every time we sit down to join other nations that don't waterboard prisoners, anal rape them, and hold them for 20 years without charges. 

 

Gaza, however, is different. Our country stands with Israel as it commits another holocaust. As it starves Palestinian children to death, and obliterates the lives of two million parents. No, that is more like a terminal cancer that has spread from Israel to its only ally in the world, the United States. Neither country deserves to survive, just like the Third Reich had to be taken apart to stop its war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel and the US are no longer viable states, given the extent of their barbarism and slaughter. Their continued existence threatens the entire human race.

War crimes, disguised as a functioning democracy

More 2,000 pound bombs for the genocide. And more jets to drop them on helpless and starving Palestinians in Gaza. Biden comes through once more for the Israel the oppressor, for the pariah of the 21st century.

Genocide Joe will be running against the fascist, racist, would be dictator, Donald Trump. It is a parade of fools for the majority of sane Americans who refuse to starve tens of thousands of children, but don't want a crazy dictator either. Another lesser of two evils moment for the long suffering electorate?

It is more than that. We are presented with two very old men, whose life experiences have been war and crony capitalism. They embody some of the worst excesses of the American Empire since World War II. And they can hardly remember what they did yesterday.

Meanwhile, the very richest own just about everything there is to own. Three people in the US have more wealth than the bottom 50% of the nation. There is rampant hunger, homelessness and lack of medical care for millions, while half the nation's federal budget goes to making war on the rest of the world.

Late stage empires seldom work very well. Roman citizens were impoverished by the endless wars of the first century, while their emperors got crazier and more dangerous. Life was hell except for the very richest, who barricaded themselves against the stricken masses. Our own government is little more than 75 years of war crimes, disguised as a functioning democracy.

Not really a war, of course

The war goes on. Not really a war, of course. This is a widely admitted genocide, and its targets have been tens of thousands of civilians, almost half of them children.

The genocide has links to the one country still sending weapons and financial aid to Israel, our very own land of the free, home of the brave. The US is the accomplice to the worst slaughter of the twenty first century.

We can talk about the Israel Lobby, as well as the Christian Zionists, two groups that put Old Testament ravings above their basic humanity. "Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey."

But the butchery in Gaza can't all be blamed on religious psychopaths. There is something disturbing about our two war parties. Congress and our main presidential candidates are stumbling over each other for more bloodshed. 13,000 children aren't enough. Who could their God be?

Maybe it is Allen Ginsberg's Molech, the God that destroys children though materialism and war. Molech in the twenty first century is wearing an IDF uniform as he shoots starving Palestinians. He is also Congressman Pat Ryan, whose "Top Contributor" for 2024 is AIPAC at $39,900, and "Top Industry" is Pro-Israel at $159,000 (data from OpenSecrets.org). He talks about ceasefires, but always votes to send more bombs and bullets to Israel.

And will this carnage we watch every night eventually be called the American Genocide? We know that it will.

Similar motivations in Hindu Nationalists

March 21

 

GUEST: Andy Izenson, staff attorney, member of the Family Law Institute of the National LGBT Bar Association, and past president of the NYC National Lawyers Guild, talks about the enormous effect the right wing, Christian Zionist movement has on US support for Israel.  

Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic

There are secrets to be revealed when it comes to the Christian Zionist movement. There are twice as many avowed Christian Zionists in the US as there are Jews in the entire world. And their organizational strength and fund raising machine makes them a menace when it comes to influencing how our country treats Palestinians in the Middle East. 

Andy explains that the Christian Zionists want all the Jews in the US to "return" to Israel because that would get rid of them here. The second reason is that Christian Zionists are essentially fascist and want to subjugate our country to a new wave of paternalism, homophobia and anti feminism. In fact, these Zionists want to put their boot heel on the necks of anyone who is not Christian, male and white. Christian Zionists have an inherent congruence of interests with the fascist Israelis. They both seek to create a theocracy based on ethnic cleansing and murder. One could find similar motivations in the Hindu Nationalist movement and with the Islamic State.

The pantheon of killers and war mongers

March 14

 

GUEST: Shahd Safi, born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp and now in Rafah with her family, talks about her work as a freelance journalist and the desperation of the Palestinian people with nowhere else to go.  (Interview from Report Gaza)

Palestinian Women in Gaza: Cruel Realities of Displacement

This talk by Shahd was recorded from Report Gaza, and was somewhat disjointed. I had interviewed Shahd last spring, but lost all connection with her. I was so happy to hear that she and her family were still alive. And her eyewitness accounts were as revealing as they had been before the Israel genocide. 

Shahd stated plainly that her goal was to escape the carnage with her family. She wasn't very hopeful that a ceasefire would ever come. To Shahd, this looked to be another Nakba, the 1948 catastrophe of ethnic cleansing in all of Palestine. She had started a GoFundMe to raise money for her escape.

Since then, I hear that Shahd and her family did escape. They had raised the tens of thousands necessary to survive. They had done something that few have been able to accomplish, and I don't blame Shahd. The pariah state of Israel may well get rid of all its six million Palestinians. Israel may get rid of all the Palestinians through slaughter and starvation, just like the Nazis did to the Jews. 

But the real difference is the role of the US. We fought the Nazis in WWII. We are in bed with the Nazis in 2024. We are sending them the bullets and the bombs. We are keeping the rest of the world from intervening. And the war crimes belong to us, as a nation. The US will take its place in the pantheon of killers and war mongers for the rest of recorded history. 

 

Toxic to the thousands of Palestinian children

March 7

 

GUEST: Ann Wright, author, retired United States Army colonel, and former US diplomat who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, talks about genocide and Palestinian liberation.

Why Would Anyone Kill Themselves to Stop a War?

Ann Wright has seen a great deal of US foreign policy up close. But she is also clear about what she didn't see in the Army as well as in the diplomatic core. She was never involved in coups or assassination attempts. And when she was confronted with ethical choices, she resigned from working with the US State Department. The invasion of Iraq was one lie too many. 

Ann brings a real sense of realism to how the United States operates in the rest of the world. Take the genocide in Gaza. She knows that our country could demand that Israel stop starving Palestinian children to death. But all our political parties are already bought off by the Israel Lobby. All our politicians can talk, but they can't really act. It is an inability caused by the ruin of our democracy, which has been sold to the highest bidder. In this case it is the hundreds of millions that come from US weapons makers and from Israel. It is a cesspool, toxic to the thousands of Palestinian children who will wither away and die in their obliterated world. 

Wouldn't it be amazing if our politician class included people like Ann Wright? Real people who refuse to murder civilians for profit.  

No escape from their demonic tormentors

There is a madness that comes from the daily view of genocide. All we have learned and all we have read stops at the barbed wire enclosure of Gaza. Inside, there are the images of Hell so ubiquitous in medieval art. For the damned, there is no pity, and no escape from their demonic tormentors.

But somehow to see this in real time breaks down the barriers of what we expect to encounter in our lives. That actual human beings could become the agents of such barbarism is just too horrible to dwell on, much less try to understand. This Hell on earth goes beyond rational thought.

Maybe that is why the genocide enablers keep sending Israel more weapons while they talk about ceasefires and food shipments. Are Biden and Blinken overcome by the horrors they have wrought, or are they simply part of the devil's plan?

Maybe that is why the holy stewards of Judeo/Christian religions are so determined to look the other way. Talking about genocide isn't a very civilized thing to do, especially when some are certain to take offense. The food banks they so generously organize and oversee as part of God's work aren't really for the starving children of Gaza. And the interfaith groups they so proudly belong to, won't lift a finger to condemn the charnel house that Israel has created for the Palestinians.

That leaves the rest of us. Are we too traumatized to act when the genocide is done in our name?

Fred Nagel
 

After our empire crumbles into dust

What can one do when our government provides the bombs and the bullets for the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people? The current slaughter in Gaza is much worse than the Nakba of 1948, when Israel killed a few thousand while pushing three quarters of a million Palestinians from their ancestral homeland. In Gaza, Israel is just murdering as many Palestinians as it can. It is just an extermination.

Perhaps this slaughter is occurring because the US has encouraged such bloodletting in the past. Our country has always been there to support the worst of Israeli excesses. So machine gunning a long line of starving Palestinians waiting for food trucks is just another step in the moral depravity that our country has learned to live with.

Israel is the wayward child of the American Empire. It is the serial killer that the US has always coddled and protected, no matter what the body count has been. The horror of exterminating 12,000 children makes us all despair. Our country's parenting has created this killing machine, and all we can do is watch the children be bombed, shot and starved to death.

We can point to villains, of course. Like Senators Gillibrand and Schumer, who have grown rich from supporting Israel. We can embarrass Representative Pat Ryan for his huge, pro-Israel bribes. But that is not enough to save our souls. We are the enablers of another holocaust, and the mark of Cain will remain, even after our empire crumbles into dust.

Free, Free Palestine!

 

February 29

 

GUEST: Yakov Pipman, long time Israeli citizen who fought as an IDF soldier for three wars, talks about winning Palestinian human rights and the history of Matzpen, the revolutionary socialist movement in Israel.  

Matzpen, Israeli peace movement

Perhaps Israel could have been different. It could have been that shelter from the storm that this persecuted people most richly deserved, after the genocide of the Third Reich.

But somehow Israel got tangled up with imperialist powers, the United States and England. These victors of World War II never really stopped fighting. They plotted how to gain control over the entire oil rich Middle East, and Israel was to be their linchpin. 

But imperialist powers are always based on racism, and Israel soon learned how to abuse and punish the indigenous people of Palestine. The Nakba of 1948 is one terrible example. Three quarters of a million Palestinians were forced off their land, so that the state of Israel could become a theocracy. To get the Palestinians to move, the new state of Israel slaughtered various villages, a precursor of things to come. 

Today's genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza shows the direction of Israel from some limited form of democracy to a full blown fascist state. And for every step of the way, the US has been there to furnish the ammunition and provide the international cover in the UN. Matzpen is the history of some more progressive Jews who resisted the bloody theocracy. That resistance is now flourishing on campuses as well is in community resistance organizations like Jewish Voices For Peace. 

Join the resistance! Free, Free Palestine!

Poorly disguised kleptocracy

February 22

 

GUEST: Ann Larson, antipoverty activist and contributor to the anthology, Going for Broke: Living on the Edge in the World's Richest Country, talks about how the poorly paid get by in a country designed for the billionaire class.

Ann Larson: The Cashier Philosopher

The poorly paid don't really get by. They cut corners and don't buy what their families really need. Sometimes that is healthcare and education. Sometimes it is just peace of mind.

A nation's money is a zero net gain amount. If one interest group takes more, other groups get less. If half the nation's tax proceeds go to making weaponry, why there is only half left for education, housing, medical care, daycare, etc. If large corporations get tax breaks, why the poor and middle class have to pay more. When a nation has 756 billionaires, why 50% of Americans have to live from paycheck to paycheck. 

And when the nation's working class pushes back, why the plutocracy will often support a fascist, who will keep wages low and punish dissenters. Trump didn't come out of nowhere. 

Nor did our two pro-war parties. We have troops abroad in about half the world, while our working class is the poorest of all in the industrialized nations. War and occupations abroad benefit the very rich, and penalize the very poor. Our system is not a democracy, but a poorly disguised kleptocracy, the rule by the corrupt few.

Made in America

Rep. Pat Ryan's Office

February 15

 

GUEST: Rahul Kumar, high school activist and founder of Poughkeepsie 4 Palestine, talks about how his generation is organizing local rallies and public speak outs against the genocide in Gaza, and the warmongering of our political elites.

Rally in Poughkeepsie, NY

Marxist intellectual and historian Vijay Prashad came to Vassar College yesterday, the guest of the college's Students for Justice in Palestine. Before we started, the packed house gave a hand to Rahul in the audience, thanking him for his community work in pushing our House representative Pat Ryan to at least say the world "ceasefire."

It was a moment of inter generational connection. There were members of Women in Black - New Paltz, Mideast Crisis https://mideastcrisis.org/ and Jewish Voice for Peace, many in their 70s and 80s. There were many Vassar students, some faculty, and then there was Rahul who is 14 years old. 

But you don't have to be of a certain age to see what our country has become: the number one bully of the world. We love "human rights" and "democracy," while butchering and starving children in Gaza. You would think that this gross hypocrisy would eventually kill us, and it will. Our "sweet land of liberty" will drag the whole world down with some deadly combination of nuclear war, global warming catastrophe, and AI. Our planet's Armageddon will have a familiar phrase burned into its remains: "Made in America."

How we might some day break free

February 8

 

GUEST: Michael Zweig, author of the newly published book, Class, Race, and Gender: Challenging the Injuries and Divisions of Capitalism, talks about the uprisings against the wealthy elites who run our state.

Class, Race, and Gender

Michael's new book takes you through the labyrinth of hidden passions and motivations in our society. They are hidden because they are so powerful, and potentially so destructive to our supposedly democratic society. Have you ever doubted the mainstream narrative of why we give tax breaks to the billionaires, or why we keep going to war? Michael Zweig explains what's missing.

Once I decided to read Michael's new book, I found it quite compelling. Soon it became what I did when I had 15 minutes to spare. Of course class has always been interesting to me. ClassWars.org is built around what Americans don't know about their own society. Would we be better citizens of Mother Earth if we were more self aware? And would a world run by the very rich and their bloated corporations ever allow such subversive notions?  

Activist Radio is just a tiny thorn in the bland facade of corporate America. A tiny annoyance to our rulers, who steal most of our money and send our young off to endless wars. Why waste your time with all these AI generated conspiracy theories? Why spin your wheels on fantasy? Class, Race and Gender explains how we became enslaved, and how we might some day break free.

Write my name on my leg, Mama

Write my name on my leg, Mama
Use the black permanent marker
with the ink that doesn’t bleed
if it gets wet, the one that doesn’t melt
if it’s exposed to heat

Write my name on my leg, Mama
Make the lines thick and clear
Add your special flourishes
so I can take comfort in seeing
my mama’s handwriting when I go to sleep

Write my name on my leg, Mama
and on the legs of my sisters and brothers
This way we will belong together
This way we will be known
as your children

Write my name on my leg, Mama
and please write your name
and Baba’s name on your legs, too
so we will be remembered
as a family

Write my name on my leg, Mama
Don’t add any numbers
like when I was born or the address of our home
I don’t want the world to list me as a number
I have a name and I am not a number

Write my name on my leg, Mama
When the bomb hits our house
When the walls crush our skulls and bones
our legs will tell our story, how
there was nowhere for us to run

 

By zeina azzam

Genocide is just another acceptable tactic

We often think of our elected officials as ordinary people, caught up in the spirit of public service. They certainly try to be like the rest of us, with families and favorite teams to cheer for. It's true, they are often a bit more patriotic than the average citizen. Not so carried away, however, as to ever fight America's endless wars in the Third World.

But when the Senate voted today for more aid to Israel, my confidence in our elected leaders faltered. We can see it on every computer screen, the genocide of 2 million at the hands of a rabid and racist Israeli army. Netanyahu's Israel behaves like the Third Reich, and our elected leaders behave like this is what normal people do.

But normal people want a ceasefire, not another shipment of bombs and missiles to Israel. Normal people are horrified at the prospect of tens of thousands of children being starved to death. Not our political leaders, however. Now that Israel has two million Palestinian civilians hopelessly crowded into southern Gaza, the "final solution" can begin. And to that rarified world of the US Senate, that's just fine.

The startling amorality of our ruling class, however, is a teaching moment. Our government is not a democracy, and its two party system is nothing more than a sham. The system is so monstrous that we have to take notice. Our late American empire is a killing machine, and genocide is just another acceptable tactic.

Fred Nagel

We are not monsters

February 1

 

GUEST: Shahd, young Palestinian activist and political writer living with her family in Gaza, is now missing and perhaps one of the tens of thousands murdered by the Israeli state.

UPDATE: Shahd is still alive and reporting on Gaza!

We Are Not Numbers

The long walk to Palestine’s freedom

I was so relieved to learn that Shahd has survived the Israeli genocide. She is now in the south of Gaza, but still writing about the trauma being endured by her people. The interview I did with her about a year ago is still so moving; I am glad I got a chance to air it again. 

Shahd pushes us to consider individuals and not the of thousands of body bags being created. Thinking about how our country is enabling this genocide makes you hate our murderous leaders, who care so little when their demented foreign policy requires the killing of Palestinian 12,000 children. Has our ruling class no morality at all? And has our experiment in democracy finally come to an end? For a nation that provides bombs and planes to expedite a genocide, could not be a government of the people, by the people, or for the people. We are not monsters, like the two party, pro war leaders who rule us. 

UPDATE: Shahd will be interviewed live from Gaza this Thursday! Gaza Unfiltered: Voices from the Ground. You can register through this link: https://natakallam.com/gaza-unfiltered-voices-from-the-ground/

• Online Event on Zoom
• Feb 22, 2024

• At 6:00 pm CET
• At 7:00 pm Gaza
• At 12:00 pm EST