Opinion
Israel never learns from its mistakes.
What Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to implement in Gaza is but a poor copy of previous strategies that were used in the past by other Israeli leaders. If these strategies had succeeded, Israel would not be in this position in the first place.
The main reason behind Netanyahu's lack of clarity about his real objectives in Gaza is that neither he nor his generals can determine the outcomes of their futile war on the Strip, a war that has killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians.
And, no matter how hard he tries, Netanyahu will not be able to reproduce the past.
. . . Your soul comes out of hiding.
I understand
that you are blessing me.. . .
I find myself — still — groping in wonder. What a coincidence this was. About a week ago my friend Mike emailed me, telling me he and his wife had been going through boxes and drawers and files in their house, and one of the items they came upon was an old poem I had written — twenty-plus years ago, while I was still grieving my wife Barbara’s death.
I had reclaimed poetry at that point in my life because, as I put it at the time, the narrative of my life had been shattered. I was a writer and I needed to write. I needed to put my feelings into words in order to keep on with my life — and poetry allowed me to do so: to reach deeply into the unknown that is grief, to connect with the unknown without “understanding” it.
While walking through the woodlands of the Black Hills, Chase gives us an astonishing narration about the need to free Leonard Peltier.
In a brilliant, uniquely moving discourse, Chase takes us through the ordeal of Indigenous people at the hands of European settler-colonialism.
He also makes up close and personal Leonard’s tragic imprisonment and the need to get him paroled and free.
VINNIE DESTEPHANO, WENDI LEDERMAN, LYNNE FEINERMAN, STEVE CARUSO contribute beautifully to the dialogue.
We are then honored by ANA MALINOW and her spectacular presentation on MEDICARE and the scam of for-profit national health care.
DR. NANCY NIPARKO joins with Ana in dissecting the American decline in life expectancy and quality of care, a true human and national tragedy.
We hear further on this vital topic as MIKE HERSH, PATRICK HEARNDON, SANDY BOLZENIUS, DAVID SALTMAN, DR. RUTH STRAUSS chime in with their usual genius.
This great two hours remind us of why we love to get together. See you next Zoom.
Who’s in Charge Here?
Certainly not the ‘Commander-in-Chief’, whether he’s a doddering old pedophile in terminal decline, or a narcissistic comb-overed con man and convicted felon.
And, certainly not ‘We The People’, the psyoped and indoctrinated masses.
Thus, the obvious and legitimate question arises, “Who’s really calling the shots – both kinetic and pharmaceutical. Who’s really running these dis-United States?
Chief Suspects
A) A global minority ruling class with Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum (WEF) its most familiar public face?
(B) A Zionist network of lobbyists, Israeli intelligence agents and investment bankers, the public faces of which are AIPAC, ADL and the Mossad. Plus Israeli military and intelligence contractors like Elbit Systems and Magal Security Systems.
The life of a migrant is an unending battle for survival.
That was the message delivered by 2023’s Io Capitano, the story of two Senegalese teens’ perilous attempt to reach Europe. And it’s a message that comes across even more terrifyingly in Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border.
The acclaimed director sets her tale in a specific time and place: the border between Poland and Belarus in 2021. The year is significant because that’s when Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko encouraged desperate people from around the world to travel to his communist country, where they supposedly would be guaranteed safe passage to Poland and the rest of the European Union.
As the film opens, we meet several people who’ve taken advantage of Lukashenko’s offer by catching a flight to Belarus. Among them are Bashir and Amina (Jalal Altawil and Dalia Naous), a Syrian couple who are traveling with an older relative and three young children. There’s also Leila (Behi Djanati Atai), an Afghan teacher fleeing Taliban persecution.
Almost as appalling as President Biden’s debate performance are the efforts of his loyalists to pretend that what 50 million viewers saw and heard didn’t happen or didn’t really matter. What has unfolded in the last few days amounts to a political gaslighting operation by the Biden campaign and supportive pretenders who’ve been trying to erase history as soon as it happened.
Apparently, Biden’s ego has proven to be much more resilient than his cognition, while loved ones and sycophants in concentric inner and outer circles cling desperately to talking points that are patently dishonest, often preposterous, and virulently dangerous for prospects of preventing a second Trump presidency.
By whistling past the graveyard of Biden’s credibility as a viable candidate in 2024, the pretenders are doing a huge disservice to all who want to avert a full takeover of the U.S. government by the fascistic Republican Party.
Let’s start with the innermost circle -- the First Couple. The day after the debate, both sidestepped what it had shown, instead striving to make it about one man’s quest to show individual resilience.