![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Jul. 3rd, 2025 05:38 am
i could fucking cry
In this interview with Brad Lander, he is one of the few politicians that has actually spoken up against Donald Trump using "Palestinian" as a slur.
Tags:
In this interview with Brad Lander, he is one of the few politicians that has actually spoken up against Donald Trump using "Palestinian" as a slur.
Jun. 24th, 2025 08:48 pm
a little good news
Zohran Mamdani, the Muslim Democratic Socialist who has said he would arrest Netanyahu if he came to New York, campaigned on a rent freeze and free public transportation, has won the Democratic primary for New York City mayor.
Tags:
Jun. 6th, 2025 07:45 pm
things that are positive
I realize that there is very little actual good news these days, but here are some things that make me not hate everything a little less.
- Boston Consulting Group CEO apologizes to employees because their own employees gave them shit about partnering with Israel to run food/aid distribution instead of the normal process of distributing aid via UNRWA or the UN - BCG leadership came under fire from staff who said: "Collaborating with a state actor in the midst of a military campaign that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, under the guise of humanitarian aid, is morally indefensible"
- People keep asking the only Muslim candidate (Mira Nair's son) for mayor of NYC if he supports Israel's right to exist, and he keeps saying he believes in its right to exist as a state with equal rights and this is making everyone crazy.
- I got mixed up - I didn't realize there were more people out there trying to break the siege - this one is made of Middle Easterners, and I hope they stay alive. You can track the one Greta Thunberg is on here.
- Anti-ICE protests unfolding in LA. Chickenshit stuff here.
- I hate him for other things, but Newsom threatening to withhold CA's tax money since Trump wants to defund CA? Good.
- Congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh advocating for healthcare for everyone. And refusing to call Musk into the Democratic Party. Unlike Ro Khanna.
- Sen Chris Van Hollen continuing to advocate for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, after it's being confirmed that he's being brought back to the US to get criminally indicted.
- I don't care about this other than it being funny but Trump selling his Tesla. And also Trump threatening to look into the government contracts. Yeah, Biden should have done it.
Tags:
There's more bombing. I don't know what there is left to say.
Things to call your reps about:
30 Senators introduce a resolution calling for the end of the blockade on Gaza.
House Rep Rashida Tlaib re-introduced H.Res 409 - recognizing the Nakba and Palestinian refugees' rights.
Things to call your reps about:
30 Senators introduce a resolution calling for the end of the blockade on Gaza.
House Rep Rashida Tlaib re-introduced H.Res 409 - recognizing the Nakba and Palestinian refugees' rights.
The House vote is happening on Monday.
This Act would essentially make it a crime to voluntarily boycott Israel or settlements. Here's the summary - and here's the actual text itself:
This Act would essentially make it a crime to voluntarily boycott Israel or settlements. Here's the summary - and here's the actual text itself:
This bill expands an existing anti-boycott law to include certain boycotts imposed by international governmental organizations (IGOs).
Current law prohibits various actions by U.S. persons (individuals or entities) in relation to boycotts imposed by foreign governments on a country which is friendly to the United States and that is not itself the object of a U.S. boycott. This bill applies those prohibitions to similar boycotts imposed by IGOs.
Prohibited actions include (1) refusing to do business with companies organized under the laws of the boycotted country, if the refusal is pursuant to an agreement with or request from the country or IGO imposing the boycott; (2) refusing to employ any U.S. person on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin; and (3) furnishing information about whether someone is associated with charitable or fraternal organizations that support the boycotted country.
The bill also requires the President to annually submit to Congress and make available to the public a report describing these boycotts and listing the foreign countries and international organizations involved in fostering or imposing them.
Tags:
Apr. 2nd, 2025 08:03 am
schadenfraude
- Tesla sales plunged 13%
- Elon Musk mocked for trying to spin the Wisconsin election results.
- Tesla Takedown protests continue
- Foot traffic at Target is down for the eighth consecutive week while foot traffic at Costco is rising.
- The House of Rep cancelled votes for the week after 9 Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing a procedural rule that would have killed a bipartisan effort to allow proxy voting for new parents.
- Kat Abughazaleh running for office in Illinois on a platform of "What if we didn't suck?"
- Adam Schiff places hold on Trump loyalist's nomination for top federal prosecutor in DC - they should be placing holds on everyone IMO
Tags:
Mar. 14th, 2025 08:03 pm
mahmoud khalil and higher education
- Here's video of Mahmoud Khalil being arrested by plainclothes immigration authorities who don't identify themselves, and don't show a warrant.
- BTW, a pro-Israel group (Betar) says it has a "deportation list" and sent "thousands of names" to Trump officials.
- Letter to Columbia University from Trump admin demanding - a mask ban, putting the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department under academic receivership for five years, suspend/expend students for Hamilton Hall protest, etc.
- Columbia expels Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers President, union says - The University expelled Grant Miner, president of the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers, UAW announced in a Thursday news release. Miner is a Ph.D. student in the department of English and comparative literature. “Columbia fired our union president the day before we start bargaining—less than a week after allowing ICE to abduct our coworker,” SWC-UAW wrote in a Thursday post on X.
- The University Judicial Board issued expulsions, temporary degree revocations, and multi-year suspensions for students involved in the April 2024 occupation of Hamilton Hall on Thursday, according to a Thursday email from University Life.
- Mahmoud Khalil finally got to speak with his attorney.
- Another protester got arrested by ICE, and another "self-deported".
Tags:
Mar. 8th, 2025 05:42 am
some good things and on boycotts
- Powerful speeches from trans Reps in Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell delivered on Montana House floor flips dozens of Republican votes and kill 2 anti-trans bills.
- Dr Michelle Monje was awarded the Brain Prize. Dr. Monje's lab is one of the places that the Neev Kolte & Brave Ronil Foundation supported with their donations. Her research into DIPG and treatment has led to the complete recovery of one patient in clinical trials, giving hope to children diagnosed with DIPG, and also possibly leading to treatments for other cancers.
- Michael Sheen writes off over $1m of debt for 900 people using his own money.
- A new study from Stanford Med taps AI to find a naturally occurring molecule that works similarly to Ozempic, without the side effects.
- A small biotech lab in China made a new lung cancer drug that's twice as effective as the current biggest cancer drug on the market.
- BDS - this is a multi-decade movement aimed at disrupting businesses that support Israeli apartheid. There is a recent debate about whether No Other Land, the Oscar-winning Palestinian/Israeli documentary about apartheid in the West Bank, should be on the boycott list or not, due to its perceived "normalization" of Zionism. (Side note: almost impossible to find a non-Israeli source about the boycott via search or the actual BDS statement without a lot of digging, really annoying. So much for impartiality.) I follow a lot of the BDS stuff, so I agree with them on a lot of things, but I disagree on this one. If you read the critique of the BDS statement, you'll see there's a class component to it as well as the different circumstances between Palestinians who live in the West Bank and are suffering under Israeli occupation and Palestinians in diaspora who are a bit more removed from the day-to-day violence.
- We're going to see No Other Land today. I do not see a point in boycotting any Palestinian work as most of it is already so marginalized. It is an incredible achievement for this work to break through the censorship in Hollywood, and the thing is, we are starting to have Palestinian/Arab/Muslim art and work that does stand on its own and unapologetic about their politics and point of view. See Mo, Ramy, etc. Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal by Mohammad El-Kurd, which is a searing critique of Western treatment of Palestinians is a NYT bestseller. (Have this one, haven't read it yet.) It also goes to show that there is no such thing as a Palestinian monolith, as the existence of multiple political parties show. The one thing they all agree on is Palestinian self-determination and rights. How we get there is going to be a process.
- PEN America Boycott still stands.
- TeslaTakedown's been pretty effective, I think.
- The one day Feb 28 boycott seems to have had some noticeable effect. There is now a Target Fast in effect for Lent, led by black faith leaders. (Gonna be honest, this one's going to be difficult for me. I love Target.)
- I think of the boycotts as a marathon, not a race. You know, like how Rome wasn't built in a day. I'm not going to boycott Google (impossible for me to) but other people can have at it. It took us a while, but we no longer buy soda at all, and we stopped going to fast food restaurants for the most part, and also chain restaurants. It turns out...we prefer local, independent restaurants anyway. I've dropped a bunch of my Amazon subscribe & saves and downloaded my Kindle ebooks. The Kindle has not really worked out for me...I keep forgetting it exists and it turns out I really like reading on paper.
Aug. 30th, 2024 07:37 am
To read/listen to
Remembering how to care: lessons from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine https://truthout.org/audio/remembering-how-to-care-lessons-from-deep-space-nine/
Aug. 29th, 2024 08:53 pm
killing the vibes
This is my politics stuff dump - I am absolutely going to kill the vibes for a minute here:
That Kamala Harris is making no change in policy on Israel from Biden, and refusing to consider even halting arms to Israel while bemoaning what happens to Palestinians as a result of us arming them is reprehensible, repugnant, and immoral.
That Kamala Harris is going all out on focusing on "securing the border" which is just politician-speak accepting the rightwing racist framework of immigrants as boogymen is also reprehensible, repugnant, and immoral.
That the Democratic Party is taking out opposition to the death penalty, adding language that signals the possibility of picking a fight with Hezbollah, and moving rightward with regards to criminal justice and police, and honestly, downright predictable.
I am so tired. I just want someone with basic morals to be the leader, someone who opposes genocide when they see it, and takes actions to stop it.
I guess that's too fucking much to ask of this country.
That Kamala Harris is making no change in policy on Israel from Biden, and refusing to consider even halting arms to Israel while bemoaning what happens to Palestinians as a result of us arming them is reprehensible, repugnant, and immoral.
That Kamala Harris is going all out on focusing on "securing the border" which is just politician-speak accepting the rightwing racist framework of immigrants as boogymen is also reprehensible, repugnant, and immoral.
That the Democratic Party is taking out opposition to the death penalty, adding language that signals the possibility of picking a fight with Hezbollah, and moving rightward with regards to criminal justice and police, and honestly, downright predictable.
I am so tired. I just want someone with basic morals to be the leader, someone who opposes genocide when they see it, and takes actions to stop it.
I guess that's too fucking much to ask of this country.
Tags:
Aug. 17th, 2024 03:57 pm
the discussion is locked
But r/oakland has an interesting discussion on the merits, advantages, and disadvantages of Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate. lot of different viewpoints - and some gossip:
I worked for her at the DA. She is fine, but not amazing as a politician. Important: she is liberal but not overly progressive, but also she is not Trump or even Trumpian in nature. Many of her views and policies reflect this, even though some are uninspired.
Unimportant, but interesting: she creates toxic work environments that suck to work in. Most of her staff quits on her in a year or two, which means she typically rotates through staff quickly. This has and will continue to impact her ability to operate effectively in Washington.
---
Obama was much further to Biden's left on paper, but once he got into office he never seemed affected by outside pressure. Biden spent his whole career doing one set of things, and then once in office he made partnerships that clearly steered him to make some big changes.
I think it's true that every progressive knows that Harris isn't a true believer. But she also knows which way the wind blows. I think she's flexible. I don't think she's a real progressive, but I absolutely believe she can be a partner to progressives.
(And for any moderates/liberals/conservatives/independents, this can be a reason for you folks to vote for her too.)
I worked for her at the DA. She is fine, but not amazing as a politician. Important: she is liberal but not overly progressive, but also she is not Trump or even Trumpian in nature. Many of her views and policies reflect this, even though some are uninspired.
Unimportant, but interesting: she creates toxic work environments that suck to work in. Most of her staff quits on her in a year or two, which means she typically rotates through staff quickly. This has and will continue to impact her ability to operate effectively in Washington.
---
Obama was much further to Biden's left on paper, but once he got into office he never seemed affected by outside pressure. Biden spent his whole career doing one set of things, and then once in office he made partnerships that clearly steered him to make some big changes.
I think it's true that every progressive knows that Harris isn't a true believer. But she also knows which way the wind blows. I think she's flexible. I don't think she's a real progressive, but I absolutely believe she can be a partner to progressives.
(And for any moderates/liberals/conservatives/independents, this can be a reason for you folks to vote for her too.)
Tags:
Aug. 17th, 2024 08:01 am
just democrats doing democratic stuff
Proposed law SB-1287 targeting campus speech. Intercept has the rundown. CAIR-CA has a factsheet running down the objections to the bill - It attempts to censor and chill the 1st amendment rights to free speech and assembly of students on California’s campuses. This bill will place unconstitutional restrictions on students’ right to free expression based on their viewpoint and content alone, which fails the strict scrutiny standard required by the first amendment.
This was back in June, but LA mayor Karen Bass called for a mask ban in protests just before coming down with COVID herself. I don't know where we're at with that but mask bans have now been enacted in Nassau County, NY, and NC. Jews for Mask Rights has an open letter for the NY legislature.
This was back in June, but LA mayor Karen Bass called for a mask ban in protests just before coming down with COVID herself. I don't know where we're at with that but mask bans have now been enacted in Nassau County, NY, and NC. Jews for Mask Rights has an open letter for the NY legislature.
Tags:
You'll have to excuse me posting about politics so much. Anyway, some stuff:
- We should be clear that the people who heckled Kamala Harris at the Michigan rally and the members of the Uncommitted delegation who met with her prior are 2 different groups. Anyway, I'm not a fan of how she dismissed the protesters. There were more productive ways to deal with it, and no, none of it means they want Trump in the White House instead. Kamala is part of the Biden administration; she has Biden's ear, and she can influence him to change. So it's not an unreasonable ask for our country to commit to following US laws regarding use of weapons.
- Especially in light of (SERIOUS TRIGGER WARNINGS) what's been revealed about what the IDF has been doing to Palestinian prisoners and Israelis rioting for their right to do it.
- Anyway you can sign on to the Not Another Bomb petition here. Uncommitted's linktree.
- I have some serious cognitive dissonance over Tim Walz's admirable championing of human rights in China, and his "unconditional support for Israel".
- Seriously, I want to know what is the disconnect for all these politicians? That if people violate human rights in certain countries, it's morally reprehensible, but if Israel does it, it's always self-defense and morally justified?
- Interesting article on how Hollywood bigwigs are all in for Kamala Harris and are kind of fighting the techbro billionaires.
Tags:
Aug. 6th, 2024 07:20 am
it's walz!!
TAP article on Walz - But it’s Walz’s experience as governor of Minnesota that would be most helpful to Harris as a partner. In a best-case scenario, a President Harris will step into the same situation that Walz did in his second term in Minnesota, with a thin legislative advantage and a public desire for real advances. Walz’s improbable success in governing with a one-seat majority in the state Senate, and not much more in the state House, may have been an important factor in his favor.
Plus, the details of what Walz and the Democratic legislature in Minnesota got done look a lot like what Harris appears to want to get done in her first two years: focusing on child development and family care. Walz signed legislation giving paid sick leave for nearly all workers, as well as a paid family and medical leave law, with up to 12 weeks in benefits and a progressive replacement rate, where poorer Minnesotans get a higher percentage of their income while on leave. His 2023 budget included a $1.5 billion expansion of the child tax credit worth up to $3,000 per family. His 2024 education law expanded public funding for pre-kindergarten to 12,360 seats, and funded increases to the supply of child care. Long-term care and nursing home investments, Head Start grants, and “early learning scholarships” for preschool have also been part of Walz’s budgets.
Tags:
Aug. 1st, 2024 09:32 pm
the news about the hostage exchange
of the US/Russia prisoner swap only highlights for me, how ghastly the situation contrasts to Gaza. The Israeli hostages could have been freed, Palestinians do not have to keep being bombed and forced out of their homes. We do not have to be continually on the brink of regional war.
I'm so over everything.
I'm so over everything.
Tags:
Jul. 31st, 2024 06:57 am
west bank - john oliver
It's not available on YouTube yet, but the latest John Oliver Last Week Tonight episode has a substantial segment about the West Bank, and it is good, and it is fair, and it lays out everything. It's up on Max.
Also, it summarized the Oslo Accords so succinctly that I was like, this is fucking stupid. Why did anyone agree to this?
Also, it summarized the Oslo Accords so succinctly that I was like, this is fucking stupid. Why did anyone agree to this?
Tags:
Jul. 29th, 2024 07:10 am
israel/palestine kamala harris
the myth of kamala harris' gaza shift - As Caitlin so eloquently wrote yesterday, it is understandable that people are so hungry to seize on any scrap of potentially hopeful news about Harris. We have all been tormented by Joe Biden’s rotting visage and equally rotting politics for far too long, and there is a desperation for change.
But we should not invent change where no change is happening. Harris and Biden have been saying the same things about Gaza for a long time. The idea that she has any meaningful distance when it comes to the genocide is fanciful. Ahead of her meeting with Netanyahu, an aide was keen to point out to NBC that “Harris has been engaged on the Israel-Gaza conflict for the last 10 months…including participating in every call with Netanyahu as well as critical meetings like those with hostage families.” Maybe we should take that aide seriously.
Harris support for Israel "ironclad" after attack on Golan Heights - U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' support for Israel's security is "ironclad," her national security adviser Phil Gordon said on Sunday, adding that she has been briefed and is closely monitoring a rocket attack on a football ground in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
“The Vice President has been briefed and is closely monitoring Hezbollah’s horrific attack on a soccer field in Majdal Shams in northern Israel yesterday which killed a number of children and teenagers. She condemns this horrific attack and mourns for all those killed and wounded.
Arab Americans and the presidential campaigns - typical - Siblani, who organized Wednesday’s meeting with Trump surrogates, has spent months serving as an intermediary between his community and officials from all political parties and foreign dignitaries. Privately, he says, almost all express the need for a permanent cease-fire.
“Everybody wants our votes, but nobody wants to be seen as aligning with us publicly,” Siblani said.
Kamala Harris will only shift on Gaza only if we make her - The last 10 months of destruction and carnage, in which the Israelis have killed more than 40,000 civilians and displaced 2 million more, have been a humanitarian catastrophe. They have also been a political disaster for the Democrats. Poll after poll shows that the demand for a ceasefire is mainstream, with voters more likely to cast a ballot for a Democrat who expresses clear support for one than a Democrat who mirrors the Republican on the issue. More than 45 percent of voters who expressed support for the Biden-Harris ticket say that military assistance to Israel should be decreased. The campaign for the “uncommitted” ballot option in states like Michigan, New Jersey, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Washington enabled Democratic voters in the hundreds of thousands, alongside professional organizers and activists, to express opposition to Biden’s unconditional support of Israel’s occupation and apartheid system.
Having watched Kamala Harris in CA politics most of my adult life, my general observation is that: she goes where the wind blows. So keeping up the pressure on her is the correct thing to do.
But we should not invent change where no change is happening. Harris and Biden have been saying the same things about Gaza for a long time. The idea that she has any meaningful distance when it comes to the genocide is fanciful. Ahead of her meeting with Netanyahu, an aide was keen to point out to NBC that “Harris has been engaged on the Israel-Gaza conflict for the last 10 months…including participating in every call with Netanyahu as well as critical meetings like those with hostage families.” Maybe we should take that aide seriously.
Harris support for Israel "ironclad" after attack on Golan Heights - U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' support for Israel's security is "ironclad," her national security adviser Phil Gordon said on Sunday, adding that she has been briefed and is closely monitoring a rocket attack on a football ground in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
“The Vice President has been briefed and is closely monitoring Hezbollah’s horrific attack on a soccer field in Majdal Shams in northern Israel yesterday which killed a number of children and teenagers. She condemns this horrific attack and mourns for all those killed and wounded.
Arab Americans and the presidential campaigns - typical - Siblani, who organized Wednesday’s meeting with Trump surrogates, has spent months serving as an intermediary between his community and officials from all political parties and foreign dignitaries. Privately, he says, almost all express the need for a permanent cease-fire.
“Everybody wants our votes, but nobody wants to be seen as aligning with us publicly,” Siblani said.
Kamala Harris will only shift on Gaza only if we make her - The last 10 months of destruction and carnage, in which the Israelis have killed more than 40,000 civilians and displaced 2 million more, have been a humanitarian catastrophe. They have also been a political disaster for the Democrats. Poll after poll shows that the demand for a ceasefire is mainstream, with voters more likely to cast a ballot for a Democrat who expresses clear support for one than a Democrat who mirrors the Republican on the issue. More than 45 percent of voters who expressed support for the Biden-Harris ticket say that military assistance to Israel should be decreased. The campaign for the “uncommitted” ballot option in states like Michigan, New Jersey, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Washington enabled Democratic voters in the hundreds of thousands, alongside professional organizers and activists, to express opposition to Biden’s unconditional support of Israel’s occupation and apartheid system.
Having watched Kamala Harris in CA politics most of my adult life, my general observation is that: she goes where the wind blows. So keeping up the pressure on her is the correct thing to do.
Tags:
Jul. 23rd, 2024 06:49 am
middle eastern cooking
I don't know why but I keep messing up pita bread. I want nothing more than light fluffy pieces of bread that puff up in the oven but I get heavy disks that taste right but just don't have that lightness. Damn, ok, this might be what I need to review.
We recently shopped at our local Middle Eastern grocery store - it's tiny but it sells halal meat for a quite reasonable price, and they have an amazing spice array in the front. Previously it was all Sadaf products, which we had recently learned was on the boycott list. It's now stocked with Greenland food products, which by the way, you can order online too. I wasn't sure if the removal was related to recent events, but Google reviews where the owner responds to people complaining about the removal of Sadaf products confirms it was. Anyway, Greenland food products are not just comparable to Sadaf, but honestly I think they are better quality than Sadaf.
We also found that they stocked Palestinian olive oil. Bought a bottle to try, but we have not opened it yet.
Anyway yesterday saw someone literally argue, sure the Israeli govt is starving Gaza, bombing them, and its leaders say genocidal stuff, but that doesn't necessarily meet the definition of actual genocide....Like literally do you even hear yourself?
For anyone interested, MetaFilter just posted a roundup of links related to ICJ ruling. Of interest: Palestinian groups forming a unity agreement in Beijing.
We recently shopped at our local Middle Eastern grocery store - it's tiny but it sells halal meat for a quite reasonable price, and they have an amazing spice array in the front. Previously it was all Sadaf products, which we had recently learned was on the boycott list. It's now stocked with Greenland food products, which by the way, you can order online too. I wasn't sure if the removal was related to recent events, but Google reviews where the owner responds to people complaining about the removal of Sadaf products confirms it was. Anyway, Greenland food products are not just comparable to Sadaf, but honestly I think they are better quality than Sadaf.
We also found that they stocked Palestinian olive oil. Bought a bottle to try, but we have not opened it yet.
Anyway yesterday saw someone literally argue, sure the Israeli govt is starving Gaza, bombing them, and its leaders say genocidal stuff, but that doesn't necessarily meet the definition of actual genocide....Like literally do you even hear yourself?
For anyone interested, MetaFilter just posted a roundup of links related to ICJ ruling. Of interest: Palestinian groups forming a unity agreement in Beijing.
Tags: