Daily Archives: August 4, 2020

2020-08-04: News Headlines

RT (2020-08-04). 'Erotic mind control community has a racism problem': BLM activists go after hypnotists in latest bizarre witch hunt. rt.com As street battles between murky federal agents, Antifa and various mom'n'pop protest groups over systemic racism continue in Portland, it appears a similar, but more insidious war is underway… in the erotic mind control community. | A seemingly never-ending thread, posted to Twitter by a self-professed 30-something white woman, who is part of the ultra-niche sexual "So, I want to address something that will probably surprise no one: The…

RT (2020-08-04). Illinois lawmaker calls for ABOLITION of 'racist' history classes until state comes up with more 'inclusive' alternative. rt.com LaShawn Ford, a Democrat in the Illinois General Assembly, has called for an immediate halt to history classes that he claims "lead to white privilege and a racist society," sparking concerns over an Orwellian revision of history. | "I'm calling on the state board of education to end the teaching of history and the local school districts to take immediate action by removing the current history books and curriculum practices that unfairly communicate our history," Ford said on Sunday at an event in Evanston, Illinois. His vague plan calls for temporarily replacing history classes by devoting greater attention t…

Ramzy Baroud (2020-08-04). 'Optimism of the Will': Palestinian Freedom is Possible Now. counterpunch.org In a recent TV discussion, a respected pro-Palestine journalist declared that if any positive change or transformation ever occurs in the tragic Palestinian saga, it would not happen now, but that it would take a whole new generation to bring about such a paradigm shift. As innocuous as the declaration may have seemed, it troubled

Raul Diego (2020-08-04). New Reports Suggest Libyan Warlord Khalifa Haftar Is Working with Mossad. globalresearch.ca Reports of Israeli support for the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar are nothing new, but as the apartheid state gains ground among Arab nations, the need to hide Mossad's role in the destabilizing of oil-rich Libya may be disappearing. | *** | The …

IMEMC News (2020-08-04). Israel Confiscates 327 Dunams Near Bethlehem To Build Colonialist Units. imemc.org The Israeli occupation authorities have issued orders from the confiscation of 327 Dunams (80.8 Acres) of Palestinian lands to build hundreds of units in an illegal colony east of Bethlehem, south of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank. Hasan Breijiyya, the head of the Bethlehem office of the Colonization & …

BIICFHRIOT (2020-08-04). B'Tselem: "If You Build It, They Will Come" imemc.org B'Tselem — The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories: While the news is full of the plans to annex the West Bank and legalize construction in settlements — Israel is busy creating facts on the ground, as usual. Annexation or not, Israel has been demolishing homes in …

Ali Salam (2020-08-04). Israeli Settlers Attack Palestinians, Soldiers Set Fire to Palestinian-owned Crops. imemc.org A large group of illegal Israeli settlers, on Saturday evening, assaulted Palestinian families, north of Ramallah, in central occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Information Center reported. According to local sources, a large number of armed illegal colonists with dogs, attacked Palestinian families, including Sheikh Mohamed al-Hajj and his family in …

IMEMC News (2020-08-04). Updated: PPS: "Israeli Soldiers Abduct Fifteen Palestinians In West Bank" imemc.org Updated: The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) has reported that Israeli soldiers abducted, overnight until dawn hours Tuesday, fifteen Palestinians, including a young woman, during extensive and violent searches of homes across the occupied West Bank. The soldiers also shot two Palestinians in Jericho.

Ali Salam (2020-08-04). Army Halts Construction Of Nine Palestinian Homes Near Salfit. imemc.org The Israeli occupation army issued, Sunday, orders halting the construction of nine Palestinian homes in Kafr ad-Deek town, west of Salfit, in central West Bank. Several army jeeps invaded the village and handed local residents the stop-work orders against the nine homes as a prelude to demolishing them, local sources …

IMEMC News (2020-08-04). Israel Confiscates 200 Dunams Of Palestinian Lands Near Bethlehem. imemc.org The Israeli occupation authorities confiscated, Monday, 200 Dunams of Palestinian agricultural lands in Kisan village, east of Bethlehem, south of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank, in addition to issuing an order for demolishing a barn. Ahmad Ghazal, the deputy-mayor of Kisan village, stated that a large military force invaded …

IMEMC News (2020-08-04). Israeli Colonists Burn Two Palestinian Cars Near Nablus. imemc.org Several fanatic illegal Israeli colonists infiltrated, on Tuesday at dawn, into Far'ata Palestinian village, west of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and burnt two cars in addition to writing racist graffiti. Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors Israel's illegal colonialist activities in northern West Bank, said …

IMEMC News (2020-08-04). Soldiers Demolish Barns Near Bethlehem. imemc.org Israeli soldiers invaded, Tuesday, Kisan Palestinian village, east of Bethlehem south of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank, and demolished several barns. The army also delivered orders for the demolition of residential sheds near Hebron. Ahmad Ghazal, the deputy mayor of Kisan, said several army vehicles and bulldozers invaded the …

Peoples Dispatch (2020-08-04). Israeli warplanes bomb targets in Syria. peoplesdispatch.org Israeli air force fighter jets, attack helicopters and other attack aircraft conducted airstrikes in southern Syria late on August 3, Monday. Israel claimed that the airstrikes were in retaliation to an attempted attack on Sunday along the northern Israel-Syria border in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. | The Syrian government is yet to confirm the specific locations targeted by the Israeli bombings. The official Syrian SANA news agency stated that the airstrikes caused significant material damage to Syrian government property, adding that no Syrians, civilian or military, were injured. | Syrian state media la…

David Giesen (2020-08-04). Saturday 8/8: How much do Black Lives Matter? Enough to share land values? indybay.org Join Zoom Meeting | zoom.us/j/94061550597?pwd=d1hRVUxITVYwUT… | Meeting ID: 940 6155 0597 | Passcode: uuc6Gd…

Jonathan Cook (2020-08-04). Can Israelis Broaden Their Protests Beyond Netanyahu? globalresearch.ca Israel is roiling with angry street protests that local observers have warned could erupt into open civil strife — a development Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be encouraging. | For weeks, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have been the scene of …

Alan Macleod (2020-08-03). Report: "Woke" Corporations Supporting Black Lives Matter Quietly Funding Police. mintpressnews.com Corporations like JPMorgan Chase, Chevron and Marathon claim to support the movement for black lives, but their donations to police help "tyrannize the very communities" they claim to stand with.

Staff (2020-08-03). Voting Rights Activist LaTosha Brown: Trump Is Hellbent on Undermining Democracy to Win Reelection. democracynow.org With President Trump trailing in most polls, he tweeted recently that he was floating the idea of delaying the November election — something he cannot legally do — and continued his attacks on mail-in voting. "We have a president who is probably the most fascist president that we've ever had in this country," responds LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund and the BVM Capacity Building Institute. "He is hellbent on pushing the boundaries, whatever he needs to do, to undermine and undercut democracy."

Ali Salam (2020-08-03). Israeli Army Fires Missiles Into Khan Younis. imemc.org The Israeli Air Force fired, on Monday at dawn, several missiles into areas in Khan Younis and Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, causing damage. The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) has reported that an Israeli drone fired at least two missiles into an area, west …

Miko Peled (2020-08-03). New Report Reveals Israel Demolishes Over 2,000 Palestinian Bedouin Homes per Year. mintpressnews.com Today Israel only allows indigenous Palestinian Bedouins to live on 12% of their ancestral homeland in the Naqab, transferring them to camps and crowded villages reminiscent of Native American reservations.

Judy Greenspan (2020-08-03). 50 years of struggle from Black August to Black Lives Matter Movement — a WW commentary. workers.org This Aug. 7 marks the 50th anniversary of the heroic attempt by Jonathan Jackson, younger brother of George Jackson, to free three Black revolutionaries from the clutches of the California state prison system. The fact that this bold attempt failed has no bearing on its historical and revolutionary significance to . . . |

John Bellamy Foster (2020-08-03). A fractured empire, within and without. mronline.org Two things seem certain at this point: (1) The Trump administration will continue to extend its heavy handed neofascist tactics in the next three months, seeking to expand its political base by these means, and (2) the White House and the Republican Party will try to engineer another set of stimulus payments/tax cuts in early …

Julian Cola (2020-08-03). How Joeseph Goebbel's Nazi Propaganda Gave Birth to Today's Western Media. mintpressnews.com Western mass media continues to be atomized in its coverage. It thrives on soundbites. Sensationalism. Cacophony. A malnutrition of context with roots in the Nazi propaganda construct of Joseph Goebbels.

A Guest Author (2020-08-03). Disability movement is 'part of the global working class'. workers.org by Kristen Turgeon The following slightly edited remarks were made by Kristen Turgeon from the Boston branch of Workers World Party on a July 30 webinar sponsored by WWP's Disability Rights Caucus and titled "Smash Ableism, Racism, All Bigotry & Oppression!" Kristen Turgeon. WW PHOTO: Stevan Kirschbaum It has been . . . |

David Barber (2020-08-03). Renouncing White Privilege: A Left Critique of Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility" counterpunch.org White supremacy is not only white over black, it is also the small number of rich whites over the much larger number of poor and working class whites. In return for a guarantee that the latter group of whites will suffer the many calamities of life afflicting working people in a capitalist society less intensely and less frequently than do black people and people of color, the poor and working class whites will not challenge the rule of the rich.

RT (2020-08-03). 'Stop politicizing economy': Beijing blasts US for threatening to ban TikTok & other Chinese apps. rt.com Threatening to restrict Chinese apps on groundless claims that they're feeding data on Americans to the government in Beijing only exposes Washington's hypocrisy, China's Foreign Ministry said. | Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has called on the US to "provide an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory environment for market entities of other countries to invest and operate in the US." | Stop politicizing trade and economic issues, and stop promoting discrimination and policies of exclusion through abusing the concept of national security. | Washington has been threatening TikTok and other Chinese software co…

RT (2020-08-03). Netanyahu's son calls Israeli protesters 'aliens,' says daddy laughs at them. rt.com Thousands of Israelis who have been protesting against Benjamin Netanyahu are "aliens" who make the embattled prime minister laugh, his son, Yair Netanyahu, told a local radio station. | During his appearance on Galey Israel Radio on Monday, Netanyahu Jr was asked if he and his father had watched clips of the large-scale rallies demanding the PM's resignation. | "I let him see select parts," Yair

RT (2020-08-03). Israel strikes Syrian military targets near Damascus, IDF calls it 'response' to failed border attack. rt.com Israeli jets bombed several Syrian military sites south of Damascus late on Monday, the IDF has confirmed, saying that the attack had been launched in response to the attempted planting of a bomb in the Golan Heights. | The airstrike took place in the countryside southwest of Damascus, SANA news agency reported, describing explosions being heard in the city. | The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) then said in a statement the attack was a response to an attempted provocation on the Syrian-Israeli border, targeting a fence in the occupied Golan Heights. | The IDF said the strike targeted Syrian army's observation pos…

RT (2020-08-03). Poland's top court confirms Duda as president, declares complaints insufficient to void election results. rt.com The Supreme Court of Poland on Monday upheld the re-election of President Andrzej Duda. The court decided that complaints about the validity of the presidential election did not necessitate a rerun. | The ruling paves the way for Duda to take the oath of office before both chambers of parliament on Thursday, AP reports. The court evaluated some 6,000 election complaints from voters as well as from the team of the candidate that Duda faced in a runoff, the liberal Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski. | Duda won 51.03 percent of the vote and Trzaskowski 48.97 percent in the July 12 election. | Ninety-two alleged viol…

CP Editor (2020-08-03). Cornel West and Richard Wolff talk about Capitalism and White Supremacy. counterpunch.org

Ramzy Baroud (2020-08-03). Human Rights Defenders: Palestinian Eyewitness Testimony of the Execution of Abdul Fattah al-Sharif by Israeli Soldier, Elor Azaria. counterpunch.org As illegal Jewish settlers increase their attacks on Palestinian civilians in the occupied city of Al Khalil (Hebron), the people of the Palestinian city continue to mount a campaign of popular resistance. One of the channels of resistance is Human Rights Defenders, "a grass-roots, non-partisan Palestinian organization, working to support nonviolent popular resistance through popular

WSWS (2020-08-03). International Olympic Committee promotes Olympics with Nazi propaganda. wsws.org The inclusion of clips from Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia film makes clear that attempts to sanitise the crimes of the National Socialists is not limited to the spheres of politics and academia.

Peoples Dispatch (2020-08-03). BDS activist's detention extended for 15 days by military court in Israel. peoplesdispatch.org An Israeli military court approved a request by Israeli domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet to hold Mahmoud Nawajaa for 15 days. Nawajaa was illegally abducted from his home on July 30…

IMEMC News (2020-08-03). Army Abducts Five Palestinians In Nablus, One Near Jerusalem. imemc.org Israeli soldiers abducted, earlier Monday, five Palestinians near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and one near Bethlehem, south of occupied Jerusalem. Several army jeeps invaded 'Aseera ash-Shamaliya town, north of Nablus, before the soldiers stormed and violently searched many homes. The soldiers then abducted five Palestinians, identified as …

Amira Hass (2020-08-03). A clear message from West Bank mosque burning: Palestinians must disappear. zcomm.org The arsonists' indirect message is: Look at us, we do whatever we like and will continue to do it, because the police won't bother to search for us and the army won't turn us in. And if they do catch us, they won't prosecute us, and if they do prosecute, the judges will find an excuse to acquit us.

Julian Agyeman (2020-08-03). Urban planning as a tool of white supremacy. zcomm.org Segregation in Minneapolis, like elsewhere in the U.S., is the result of historic practices such as the issuing of racialized real estate covenants that kept nonwhite people from buying or occupying land…

_____ (2020-08-03). 15 Lessons From 15 Years Of BDS. popularresistance.org July marked the 15th anniversary of the launch of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. | Much has happened over those years. Here are 15 lessons I've learned on the journey to dismantle Israeli apartheid. It is incredible how many cities and cultural spaces have declared themselves "apartheid free zones," how many companies have divested from Israeli apartheid, how many artists have decided not to play in Israel and how many academics have ended relationships with Israeli institutions as a result of BDS campaigns. | Yet it is often difficult to keep our hopes up while knowing that Israeli aparthe…

_____ (2020-08-03). Settlers Move In On Palestinian World Heritage Site. popularresistance.org This is not the first time settlers have tried to take over this area. In December 2018, hundreds of settlers arrived overnight with bulldozers and tractors, dug an access road through the mountain, and tried to establish an outpost. They failed: it rained, the vehicles got stuck, and in the morning the Civil Administration — the arm of Israel's military government that governs the 2.8 million Palestinians in the West Bank — evacuated them. | "The effort in 2018 was well-funded," Etkes adds. "Everything was done very professionally, with heavy vehicles. That's an investment of hundreds of thousands of…

Michelle D. Holmes (2020-08-03). Black Lives Depend on the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. commondreams.org "On the road to making a healthy diet accessible to everyone, the Dietary Guidelines will continue to be an invaluable tool for health professionals, federal nutrition program operators, and many families. But we are far from reaching our destination." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Jonathan Cook (2020-08-03). Can the Anti-Netanyahu Protests grow into a Larger Movement? dissidentvoice.org Israel is roiling with angry street protests that local observers have warned could erupt into open civil strife — a development Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be encouraging. For weeks, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have been the scene of large, noisy demonstrations outside the official residences of Mr Netanyahu and his public security minister, …

yenisafak (2020-08-02). Eid al-Adha: Turkey donates meat to needy Gazans. yenisafak.com Palestinian authorities on Sunday began distributing meat from livestock sacrificed with donations from Turkey on the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival to hundreds of families in need in the Gaza Strip.During the four-day holiday, the Ministry of Foundations and Religious Affairs aims to provide as many as 4,500 families with meat, Eshref Ismail, the director of the projects department at the ministry, told Anadolu Agency.The Turkiye Diyanet Foundation is financing the initiative.Most of the Muslim-majority countries around the world, including Turkey, are observing the four-day holiday that started on Friday.On Eid al…

Mike Whitney (2020-08-02). Seattle's "Bolshevik Revolution" globalresearch.ca "We are coming to dismantle this deeply oppressive, racist, sexist, utterly bankrupt system of capitalism. We cannot and will not stop until it is dismantled, and we replace it with a socialist world, based on solidarity, genuine democracy, and equality." …

RT (2020-08-02). 'North Korea TV can learn from them': Netanyahu lashes out at Israeli media over 'one-sided' coverage of protests. rt.com Israeli media is not reporting on the protests against him, but taking part in them, PM Benjamin Netanyahu said as he launched several attacks on the country's press, which he insisted was acting "North Korea-style." | The demonstrations, which have been underway for months in Israel, are "being fueled especially by the media who have enlisted themselves [to the protests] in a manner the like of which I can't remember," Netanyahu The…

RT (2020-08-02). Joe says no: Trader Joe's stands up to outrage mob, proving the impotence of online activism. rt.com Grocery chain Trader Joe's won't be changing its supposedly "racist" product labels. In an era where suspect tweets can ruin careers, the decision is a reminder that online activism doesn't always matter in real life. | According to more than 5,000 signatories of an online petition, some of the chain's branding — which sees its Italian range labeled 'Trader Giotto's', its Mexican range called 'Trader Jose's', and its Chinese food named 'Trader Ming's' — is racist. | The branding "exoticizes other cultures," the petition states. Furthermore, the petition alleges that the company's founder Joe Coulombe…

_____ (2020-08-02). U.S. Troop Removal From Germany: a NATO-Skeptic POTUS Always Wins. strategic-culture.org Is there any good reason why Germany is still occupied by the United States? After 75+ years one could make a strong argument that the Nazi threat is over. Donald Trump would seem to agree with this sentiment and directly stated that he wants to continue to reduce the number of American soldiers on the territory of today's friendlier tolerant and geopolitically submissive Deutschland. The logic by which U.S. forces are stationed across the globe has been called into question many times and very often has no sellable answer. Trump himself agrees with the dubious nature of the need to have an American army base in…

Fight Back (2020-08-02). Large protests continue in Portland. fightbacknews.org Portland, OR — The chant of "Black lives matter!" echoed off the Federal Courthouse Friday, July 31, as nearly 3000 demonstrators assembled in downtown Portland. Federal agents and local police were not visible, but a number of protesters stated that agents remain inside the courthouse. Many rally participants were well prepared for an attack, wearing head protection and gas masks to lessen the impact of teargas and police projectiles. No clashes occurred. | The courthouse is covered with slogans and surrounded by concrete barriers topped by metal fencing. African Americans and other oppressed nationalitie…

Fight Back (2020-08-02). Thousands march and rally in Portland. fightbacknews.org Portland, OR – Large marches rocked downtown Portland, August 1, as thousands took to the streets in defense of Black lives. Trade unionists had a visible presence in the large protests. | Many rallied in front of the federal courthouse, which is surrounded by concrete and metal barriers. | The federal courthouse has been the scene of intense clashes between protesters and federal agents sent by the Trump administration. As of midnight, police had no visible presence. | According to reports, police declared an action in the Northeast Portland neighborhood to be an 'unlawful assembly' and arrested several people.

news.un (2020-08-02). Leaving No Roma behind during a pandemic, and beyond: a UN Resident Coordinator's Blog. news.un.org Roma people in Europe face widespread discrimination in many areas of life, including housing and health. In this opinion piece, Francoise Jacob, the UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia, explains how the UN is helping Roma communities, many of which have no access to safe water or electricity, to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

IMEMC News (2020-08-02). Army Abducts A Mother, Her Son And Daughter, In Hebron, After Colonists Attempted to Kidnap A Child. imemc.org Israeli soldiers abducted, on Saturday evening, a Palestinian mother along with her son and daughter after they helped free a child after she was assaulted by illegal colonialist settlers who tried to kidnap her. According to human rights activist and a volunteer with the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights …

_____ (2020-08-02). Law Enforcement Exposed: Massive Blue Leaks, Police Pentagon Papers. popularresistance.org In an email message, Betsy Reed, the editor-in-chief of the Intercept reports, "Hundreds of thousands of files from the FBI and local police departments have been leaked, exposing serious abuses of power by law enforcement." She writes, Blue Leaks "are like the Pentagon Papers for U.S. law enforcement." The leaks show how political activists are targeted and monitored on social media, that there is widespread racial bias by police and that police exaggerate threats by antifa to justify violence against protesters.

_____ (2020-08-02). 'We Are On The Cusp Of Something Great'. popularresistance.org Since the nation erupted after the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, Black organizers and community members have been working around the clock to channel mass protests into tangible victories. Nikita Mitchell, 26, is national coordinator of The Rising Majority, formed in 2017 by the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition that includes Black Lives Matter. Rising Majority is led by Black people and people of color, and brings social movements together in an anti-racist, anti-capitalist Left for radical democracy.