Daily Archives: November 21, 2020

2020-11-21: News Headlines

Susan Jaffe (2020-11-21). [World Report] US Supreme Court poised to keep the Affordable Care Act. thelancet.com A lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act may be floundering after Supreme Court justices questioned why the law should be dismantled. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC.

Richard Horton (2020-11-21). [Comment] Offline: Holocaust education—a medical imperative. thelancet.com As school students in England in the 1970s, we were taught the bare facts of the Holocaust. And that is where we left it. A fact of history, a fact certainly to be remembered, yet a fact that seemed very distant from contemporary times. But last week, the Ontario Medical Association, together with Doctors Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, held a webinar to discuss the case for teaching the Holocaust in medical schools. The meeting was led by Dr Frank Sommers, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

Jonathan Cook (2020-11-21). Netanyahu Seeks to Smash the Joint List and Cement Permanent Rule by Israel's Far-Right. dissidentvoice.org Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is only weeks away from the scheduled start of his long-awaited corruption trial — the endgame in a series of investigations that have been looming over him for years. As a result, he has been taking extraordinary measures to save his political skin. One of the most surprising is his …

Sarah Hawkes (2020-11-21). [Perspectives] The banality of the patriarchy. thelancet.com When German—American philosopher Hannah Arendt covered the 1961 trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann for The New Yorker magazine—her reports led to her book of 1963, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil—she was struck by the concept of banality. Arendt wrote that Eichmann, this bureaucrat who was "medium-sized, slender, middle-aged, with receding hair, ill-fitting teeth, and nearsighted eyes" was responsible for participation in one of the greatest crimes in history. The banality to which Arendt referred, however, was not Eichmann's unexceptional physical appearance, but "an inabi…

Matthew J.L. Ehret (2020-11-21). John F. Kennedy and America's Lost Patriotic Heritage. dissidentvoice.org Man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe…. — President Kennedy, 1961 Inaugural Address Where China and Russia are currently leading a new paradigm …

Yves Engler (2020-11-21). Double Standard Blatant on Israel and China "Foreign Influence" in Canada. dissidentvoice.org Foreign influence in Canada is bad if it comes from China, but not even worth mentioning if it comes from Israel. That seems to be the position of the Globe and Mail. Canada's 'paper of record' is so gripped with anti-Chinese fervor that it is blind to a blatant double standard. Contrasting the Globe and …

Seye Abimbola, Madhukar Pai (2020-11-21). [Perspectives] Will global health survive its decolonisation? thelancet.com There are growing calls to decolonise global health. This process is only just beginning. But what would success look like? Will global health survive its decolonisation? This is a question that fills us with imagination. It is a question that makes us reflect on what Martin Luther King Jr saw when he said in 1968, in the last speech he gave before he was killed, that "I've been to the mountaintop…and I've seen the Promised Land." If what he saw was an equal, inclusive, and diverse world without a hint of supremacy, then, that world is still elusive.

Stephen Lendman (2020-11-20). Possible US Strike on Iran? globalresearch.ca Since Iran ended a generation of US/UK-installed fascist tyranny in 1979, both wings of US duopoly rule waged dirty war on the country and its people by other means. | They stopped short of attacking Iranian territory militarily. | Will US hardliners …

Dan Cohen (2020-11-20). How Joe Biden Plans to Make The American Empire Great Again. mintpressnews.com Behind his rhetoric, Joe Biden will seek nothing less than global supremacy, escalating a new and even more dangerous arms race that risks the destruction of humanity, what he calls "decency" and "normalcy."

Ramzy Baroud (2020-11-20). As Israel Destroys EU Projects in Palestine, European Foreign Policy Remains Impotent. dissidentvoice.org Belgium is furious. On November 6, the Belgian government condemned Israel's destruction of Belgian-funded homes in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank. Understandably, Brussels wants the Israeli government to pay compensation for the unwarranted destruction. The Israeli response was swift: a resounding 'no'. The diplomatic row is likely to fizzle out soon; neither will Israel cease …

_____ (2020-11-20). The AMA Officially Recognized Racism As A Public-Health Threat. popularresistance.org The American Medical Association has officially defined racism as a public health threat that has created substantial health inequality. | Racism, both systemic and structural, has historically perpetuated health inequality and cut short the lives of many Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in the US and around the world. | Over the last year, a number of county and state authorities have also labelled racism a public health threat. | Among them are county councils in San Bernardino, California, and Montgomery, Maryland, as well as authorities in Michigan, Nevada, Cleveland, Denver, and Indianapolis.

_____ (2020-11-20). Jewish-Led Groups Condemn Pompeo For Declaring Boycott-Divestment Movement Anti-Semitic. popularresistance.org Jewish peace activists led a wave of stinging rebuke of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Thursday after he declared the peaceful Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian human rights "anti-Semitic" while visiting an illegal Israeli settler colony built on stolen West Bank land. | Pompeo became the first top U.S. diplomat to visit an Israeli settlement in the unlawfully occupied West Bank of Palestine as he lunched at a winery in Psagot, located on a hill formerly known as Jabel Tawil until Israeli forces conquered it in 1967.

Shatha Hammad (2020-11-20). Palestinians with disabilities battling PA for vital healthcare. middleeasteye.net Palestinians with disabilities battling PA for vital healthcare | Covid-19 has exposed a deeply flawed health insurance system that lets disabled Palestinians down badly | Fri, 11/20/2020 – 16: 17 | Disability rights activists including Abdelrahman Awwad (C) and Shatha Abu Srour (R) have staged a sit-in for nearly three weeks in Ramallah. The banner reads: "We die of coronavirus and we die of medic…

Dennis Broe (2020-11-20). 'Lovecraft Country': Liberating 1950s apartheid America one monster at a time. peoplesworld.org It's now a done deal with the series already out in its entirety, but the best pilot and one of the best shows of the year is HBO's Lovecraft Country. The series is a second stunner by showrunner Misha Green after the too quickly aborted success of Underground, about the underground railroad. Lovecraft Country refashions …

Patricia Gorky (2020-11-20). Georgia emerges as central target of far right mobilization. liberationnews.org Tensions in Georgia, a state playing a key role in the outcome of the 2020 election, are rising. Far right groups continue to mobilize around the unfounded claims of widespread election fraud in the state.

Raul Diego (2020-11-20). Predictive Programming? Israeli Publishers Have Been Writing About a COVID-Like Pandemic for Years. mintpressnews.com The general public's willing acceptance of the draconian restrictions placed on mobility and freedom of assembly due to the coronavirus was "predicted" in fictional novels and other artistic creations over the last few decades. Is it a matter of life imitating art or something more sinister?

Jonathan Cook (2020-11-20). "I Am Greta" isn't About Climate Change. It's About the Elusiveness of Sanity in an Insane World. counterpunch.org Erich Fromm, the renowned German-Jewish social psychologist who was forced to flee his homeland in the early 1930s as the Nazis came to power, offered a disturbing insight later in life on the relationship between society and the individual. In the mid-1950s, his book The Sane Society suggested that insanity referred not simply to the

WSWS (2020-11-20). Pompeo escalates Iran war threats in trip to Israel. wsws.org The US Secretary of State arrived in the wake of Israeli air strikes against Iranian forces in Syria, and announced yet another round of sanctions against Tehran.

WSWS (2020-11-20). Palestinian Authority restores "cooperation" with Israel as Pompeo visits West Bank. wsws.org The US Secretary of State became the first top US official to visit an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, while also touring the occupied Golan Heights.

WSWS (2020-11-20). The Endless Trench: Hiding for decades from the Spanish fascists. wsws.org The film fictionally treats an actual phenomenon, the dozens or more of left-wing opponents of Franco, known as "moles," who concealed themselves in their own homes for 30 years following the defeat of the Republican forces in 1939.

commondreams (2020-11-20). Black Lives Matter D.C. v. Trump Must Proceed, Defendants Need to Be Held Accountable. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Refuse Fascism Bay Area (2020-11-20). Saturday 11/21: Trump: You're Fired. Now Get the Hell OUT! indybay.org Castro & Market, San Francisco…

Dr. Zuhair Sabbagh (2020-11-19). Forbidden Weapons and Israeli War Crimes. globalresearch.ca In the period 2008-2014, Zionist settler colonialists launched three aggressive wars against the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip: (1) Dec 2008-Jan 2009, (2) 14 Nov 2012, and (3) July-August 2014. During these aggressive wars, the Israeli military used a number …

Alex MacDonald (2020-11-19). Israel boycott: What is the BDS movement? middleeasteye.net Israel boycott: What is the BDS movement? | As the US prepares to brand the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement 'antisemitic', Middle East Eye takes a look at the campaign | Thu, 11/19/2020 – 11: 20 | People take part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration on 10 October 2015 in Paris calling for a boycott of Israel and for the recognition of the State of Palestine (AFP) | For 15 years, the Bo…

Brett Wilkins, staff writer (2020-11-19). "Proudly Pro-BDS": Jewish-Led Groups Condemn Pompeo for Declaring Boycott-Divestment Movement Anti-Semitic. commondreams.org "Our response to the false designation will be to… challenge Israeli policies of occupation and apartheid and galvanize public opinion for freedom and justice in Palestine," vowed CodePink's Medea Benjamin. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Sheren Khalel (2020-11-19). 'We are not afraid of you, Mike': Activists react to Pompeo's move against pro-BDS groups. middleeasteye.net 'We are not afraid of you, Mike': Activists react to Pompeo's move against pro-BDS groups | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated any group that supports Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as antisemitic | Thu, 11/19/2020 – 19: 35 | Palestinians demonstrate near Israeli settlement of Psagot against visit by Mike Pompeo on 18 November (AFP/File photo) | Pro-Palestine and…

WSWS (2020-11-19). Saeb Erekat: Palestinian peace negotiator who epitomised the degeneration of the PLO (1955-2020). wsws.org While all obituaries testify to Erekat's tenacity, none could explain why he and the Palestine Liberation Organisation were in the end wholly unsuccessful.

Miko Peled (2020-11-19). The Last Negotiator: The Death of Saeb Erekat Could Mark the End of Palestinian Reconciliation. mintpressnews.com Saeb Erekat was one of the last of a generation of Palestinian negotiators inspired by the conciliatory style of Yasser Arafat. His death may be the end of an era of hope that a peaceful solution with Israel is possible.

MEE and agencies (2020-11-19). BDS: US to label Israel boycott movement as 'antisemitic'. middleeasteye.net BDS: US to label Israel boycott movement as 'antisemitic' | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also announces that settlement products will be labelled 'made in Israel' | Thu, 11/19/2020 – 08: 38 | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan are seen past American and Israeli flags as they step off a plane at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv (AFP) | The United States will label the Boycott…

Liz Theoharis (2020-11-19). The New Politics of the Poor in Joe Biden's (and Mitch McConnell's) USA. counterpunch.org In the two weeks since Election 2020, the country has oscillated between joy and anger, hope and dread in an era of polarization sharpened by the forces of racism, nativism, and hate. Still, truth be told, though the divisive tone of this moment may only be sharpening, division in the United States of America is

Hajira Asghar (2020-11-19). Palestinians, Iran in the crosshairs as Pompeo makes farewell visit to Israel. liberationnews.org Pompeo used the occasion to deepen two of the most odious features of U.S. foreign policy: support for the colonial occupation of Palestinian land, and warmongering against Iran.

John P. Geyman (2020-11-19). Beyond COVID-19: the Power Struggle Over Alternatives for Health Care Reform. counterpunch.org Today we face the COVID-19 pandemic, with its resultant economic downturn and systemic racism—the triple crises that have exposed the serious problems of U. S. health care. It is now obvious to most observers that the system is broken, raising the question of how it can be put together through the political process after a hotly contested election season filled with disinformation and confusion about potential reform alternatives.

commondreams (2020-11-19). CODEPINK Appalled at the Trump Administration's Labeling of BDS as Antisemitic. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Glen Ford (2020-11-19). Black "Misleaders" Back Susan Rice as Top Diplomat. Black Democrats See Her a Role Model. globalresearch.ca Genocide in Congo and militarization of the African continent are Susan Rice's specialties, but Black Democrats see her as a "role model." | "Rice cultivated relations with every pro-U.S. warlord in Africa." | No one in high levels of U.S. government …

splcenter (2020-11-19). Neo-Nazi, Klan Leader Thomas Metzger Dies in California. splcenter.org Thomas Linton Metzger, a neo-Nazi former Ku Klux Klansman who later formed the White Aryan Resistance, died early this month, according to his website.

_____ (2020-11-19). The U.S. Working Class Meets the Elections and Loses Ground. strategic-culture.org W. T. WHITNEY | The recent election campaign pitted one capitalist-oriented political party against another. But class conflict continued and working people did not fare well. | The election period was show-time for U.S. racial antagonisms. Candidates of both parties responded variously to racism. With working-class voters filling the ranks of each one, the U.S. working class was shown to be divided as it responded to racism. These are divisions that weaken the working class. | The police killing of George Floyd occurred in late May. Soon crowds of white and Black people were protesting together in little towns a…

_____ (2020-11-19). Training Bias Out Of Teachers. popularresistance.org This summer, the Des Moines, Iowa, public schools held a series of anti-racist town hall meetings in the wake of the police-led killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on people of color in their community. But the conversation rapidly turned to inequalities within in the school system. | "I would describe it as a harsh look into the current realities of what our students and our families are saying to us around anti-racism in our schools," said Goodrell Middle School Principal Peter LeBlanc, who noted the conversations are part of the district's ongoing equity aud…

Joseph Gascoigne (2020-11-19). "Nazi Satan Death Cults" and other Mass Distractions. dissidentvoice.org Recently, Dissident Voice contributor, the never-compromising class- and labor-blogger, Michael K. Smith, took on a dragon of the progressive left whose slaying really seems long overdue. Writing in his typically potent style, Smith hammered out the following: How many times do we need to request a meaningless 'denunciation' of white supremacy? We, on what passes for …

Chauncey DeVega (2020-11-19). Make fun of the "Million MAGA March" all you want — white supremacy has not been defeated. salon.com American fascism held power for four years — and now controls the Republican Party. Don't look the other way…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-11-19). Palestinian Authority to restore ties with Israel. peoplesdispatch.org The PA had cut ties with Israel in May after it announced plans to annex parts of the West Bank. The proposal for restoration of relations comes after assurances by Israel of a return to the status quo before May…

D. Watkins (2020-11-19). Poet Nikki Giovanni shares her wisdom about Biden, cowardly racism, and why love is a pineapple. salon.com The acclaimed activist and educator returned to "Salon Talks" to discuss the presidency & the writing process…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-11-19). Palestinians oppose Pompeo's visit to illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. peoplesdispatch.org Mike Pompeo became the first top US diplomat to visit an illegal Israeli settlement. He also said that the US government had historically been wrong about settlements and it could be done in a lawful manner…

Fight Back (2020-11-19). Israeli missile attack kills 3 Syrian soldiers. fightbacknews.org The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reports Israel launched an attack on Syria, November 18. Citing a military source, SANA states "at about 03: 11 a.m. on Wednesday, the Israeli enemy launched an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan that targeted the southern region as the Syrian air defenses confronted it and downed a number of rockets." | The SANA report added "three soldiers were martyred in the aggression, and a soldier was injured, in addition to causing material damages." | With U.S. backing, Israel regularly launches air assaults on Syria and is illegally occupying the Golan Hei…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-11-19). Peaceful movement will prevail, says BDS in response to Pompeo calling it anti-Semitic. peoplesdispatch.org In a press conference with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said the government would label the BDS movement as anti-Semitic and withdraw funds to organizations which are part of it…

Mehr News Agency (2020-11-19). Iran questions US double standards on nuclear verification. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Nov. 19 (MNA) — Referring to the US behaviour towards KSA, UAE, and Israel regime's nuclear activities, Kazem Gharibabadi questioned the US double standards on nuclear verification.

news.un (2020-11-19). UN holds dialogues to examine racism in its ranks. news.un.org In an address on Thursday at an event for UN staff, Secretary-General António Guterres underscored the need to confront racism within the world body, initiating a series of discussions on the subject.

Carla Stea (2020-11-19). Strangling Sanctions against North Korea. "Psychopathic Double Standards" at the UN Security Council. globalresearch.ca Do They Have a Conscience? | "A key difference between a psychopath and a sociopath is whether he has a conscience, the little voice inside that lets us know when we're doing something wrong, says L. Michael Tompkins, EdD. He's a …

WSWS (2020-11-19). Former Sheriff David Clarke calls for Proud Boys chapter in Wisconsin. wsws.org Clarke spoke at a Milwaukee County Republican event on Saturday, along with Republican State Senator Chris Kapenga.

Soham Bandyopadhyay (2020-11-19). An Institutionally Racist Lockdown Policy. globalresearch.ca For Christians across the world, Christmas is a time for families and friends to come together and revel in their importance to one another. Similarly, for Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and some Buddhists, Diwali represents a celebration of the relationships between …

WSWS (2020-11-18). The anti-Semitism witch-hunt and the failure of Corbynism. wsws.org This speech was delivered by Socialist Equality Party National Secretary Chris Marsden to a public meeting titled, "The Blairites' anti-Semitism witch-hunt and the failure of Corbynism," held on November 15, 2020.