Life In Interesting Times

And we sure are living in them

No one can say yesterday wasn't eventful. But are events trending ever more toward the dark side? You be the judge.

Hundreds of Jewish protesters were arrested in the U.S. Capitol July 22

Israeli PM Netanyahu got 58 standing ovations from the corporate tools in Congress while 25 congress critters sat out his remarks. Here in Maine our four person delegation split, with the odious Senator Susan Collins and Jared Golden, the wannabe Republican who ran as a Democrat deep in Trump country, on hand to applaud genocide. "Independent" Senator Angus King and Democrat Chellie Pingree boycotted the speech; Pingree allegedly because she disapproves of a genocide she's voted to fund several times, and King because he doesn't like Netanyahu personally.

Also in Maine yesterday the spouse of presumed Dem candidate VP Kamala Harris appeared, ostensibly to speak at an abortion clinic, but really to attend a big ticket fundraiser in Falmouth.

In more personal news, my husband and I and nine others had our charges dismissed in Cumberland County Court. We were arrested February 2 in Portland for blocking Franklin arterial at the on and off ramps of I-295. The DA offered to dismiss the charges in exchange for our doing a certain amount of community service, but we instructed our attorney to argue that we were doing community service when we blocked the road. Also that most of us do community service regularly and can document that. 

After we prevailed we went on to a stand out in solidarity with the Arrest Netanyahu demonstrations raging in DC. A good crowd gathered at Monument Square in Portland but the only media coverage was a highly critical right wing outlet that nonetheless shared this photo I'm proud of:

Portland city workers remove stickers almost immediately, but thanks to the documentation this image will live on forever on the interwebs.

Then there was the anticlimactic speech by President Biden confirming that the mysterious tweet conveying an unofficial letter with an odd version of his signature had sealed the deal: he is withdrawing his candidacy for a second term. Many have described his disappearance and the meteoric rise of his VP to inherit the spot as iffy. Now that he's delivered the speech on live television we know he's alive at least and plans to finish out six more months of presiding over genocide in Gaza and nationcide in Ukraine.

Here's a game for you: who told more lies in their speech yesterday, Bibi or Biden? Here are some of the whoppers I noticed.

Netanyahu said:

"Three thousand Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel. They butchered 1,200 people"

As has been amply documented, that is an inflated number; actually 1,139 died on October 7. Even more to the point, many of the Israelis and foreign tourists who died on October 7 were actually killed by the Israeli military -- some by accident, and some by Israeli soldiers carrying out the Hannibal directive.

"Two months ago, I authorized a breathtaking commando rescue operation."

Breathtakingly bad, yes, in that it killed scores of civilians and some of the hostages themselves, succeeding in recovering only three of them.

"Yet incredibly many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil.. They stand with people who came into the kibbutzim, into a home, the parents hid the children, the two babies, in the attic, in a secret attic. They murdered the family, the parents, they found the secret latch to the hidden attic and then they murdered the babies."

There is no evidence for this claim about Hamas killing two babies in an attic. But the U.S. Congress applauded the lie anyway.

"We recently learned from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, that Iran is funding and promoting anti-Israel protests in America."

Any evidence for this claim other than hearsay? And consider the source. I've been protesting non-stop and nobody, Iranian or otherwise, has offered me any money for it.

"For all we know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests that are going on right now outside this building—not that many, but they’re there"

Screengrab from video shared on social media of wildlife dumped on Netanyahu's table at the Watergate Hotel.

In fact thousands were involved in protests the night before, targeting the hotel where Netanyahu was staying with insects and wake up calls throughout the night. During the speech thousands were pepper sprayed by police for stopping in the road, and they burned an effigy of Bibi in front of Union Station. An alleged Mossad infiltrator burned an American flag.

"These protesters chant 'From the river to the sea.' But many don’t have a clue what river and what sea they’re talking about."

Ad hominem attacks are the sign of a weak argument. Pretty sure the Jordan River and and Mediterranean Sea are well known to pro-Palestine chanters, at least the ones I stand and march with.

"For nearly four thousand years, the land of Israel has been the homeland of the Jewish people."

Nope. Israel was created in 1948 as a settler colonial project to take in Jews that had survived the Nazi Holocaust in Europe. Oh, and Jews terrorized by Zionists in Iraq to motivate them to emigrate to the Zionist entity.

"Whenever and wherever we see the scourge of antisemitism, we must unequivocally condemn it and resolutely fight it, without exception."

Torah Jews who reject Zionism condemn it as...antisemitic. Police in Israel beat them up for expressing their beliefs.

"Israel has enabled more than 40,000 aid trucks to enter Gaza. That’s half a million tons of food, and that’s more than 3,000 calories for every man, woman and child in Gaza. If there are Palestinians in Gaza who aren’t getting enough food, it’s not because Israel is blocking it, it’s because Hamas is stealing it."

Evidence that Bibi has calculated the calories needed to either feed or starve people, but we've also seen ample documentation of Israel blocking food aid coming by land or by sea.

"The IDF has dropped millions of flyers, sent millions of text messages, made hundreds of thousands of phone calls to get Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way."

Then, once they're herded together in tent encampments or sheltering in UNRWA schools or in hospitals, the Israeli military bombs them there. Loads of evidence and documentation of these repeated war crimes.

"I asked the commander there, “How many terrorists did you take out in Rafah?” He gave me an exact number: 1,203. I asked him, “How many civilians were killed?” He said, “Prime Minister, practically none. With the exception of a single incident, where shrapnel from a bomb hit a Hamas weapons depot and unintentionally killed two dozen people, the answer is practically none.” 

Here Bibi amplifies an outrageous lie told to him that he apparently believed?

"victory is in sight"

In fact, Israel has been and is losing badly. The blockade of its ports and shipping by Ansar Allah in Yemen has deeply affected their economic well-being, and the call up of so many reservists has gutted businesses who depend on their labor. Israel's Supreme Court recently lifted the exemption of ultra Orthodox Jews from compulsory military service to address this problem.

Ok I could go on but let's transition to the liar in chief.

Biden said while sitting at the Resolute Desk (whatever the fuck that is):

"we are a great nation because we are a good people"

We are actually a settler colonial state built on the corpses of the indigenous people we slaughtered, land theft, and the enslavement and torture of millions of Africans. We have the highest incarceration rate of any country on the planet, and guess who's mostly in our prisons?

"Over the next six months, I’ll be focused on doing my job as president. That means I’ll continue to lower costs for hard-working families, grow our economy. I’ll keep defending our personal freedoms and our civil rights, from the right to vote to the right to choose. I’ll keep calling out hate and extremism, make it clear there is no place, no place in America for political violence or any violence ever, period. I’m going to keep speaking out to protect our kids from gun violence, our planet from climate crisis, is the existential threat."

Not a single one of the those claims is true except possibly the remark about his plan to focus between now and January.

"I’m the first president in this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world."

His most giant whopper. We have "boots on the ground" in so many countries I don't have time to list them all, 800+ military bases in other countries with new ones coming on line daily, and we're teetering on the verge (some say, we're in the early days of) WWIII. 

"when I came to office, the conventional wisdom was that China would inevitably surpass the United States. That’s not the case anymore."

I take it back, maybe this is his biggest whopper. China is ahead in diplomacy, health, infrastructure, economic growth, eradication of poverty -- I could go on but you get the idea.

"We’re leading the world again in chips and science and innovation. We finally beat Big Pharma after all these years, to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, and I’m going to keep fighting to make sure we lower the cost for everyone, not just seniors."

Uh huh. China is ahead in chips and several countries -- Iran, Russia, even North Korea -- are ahead in hypersonic weapons. In fact, so far ahead that the U.S. and Israel can no longer defend against them.

"the most significant climate law ever, ever in the history of the world"

Yeah, Joe, that really seems to be working as we've had several consecutive hottest days ever recorded this summer and you opened up federal lands to drilling.

" America is an idea, an idea stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant."

The world ocean is inarguably several times bigger than "America" which is actually a continent, not a country. I just hope whoever wrote this hyperbolic garbage at my expense didn't get paid too much for it.

""The great thing about America is here kings and dictators do not rule, the people do."

If by people you mean corporate lobbyists and their billionaire bosses then -- I guess so? 

In fact this is the fabric of dishonesty that the rest of this tapestry is woven into: the Democratic Party just undemocratically nominated a third candidate for the Resolute Desk following rejection of the people's choice in 2016 and 2020. For 2024, they weren't taking any chances and have circumvented the entire primary and convention nominating process to choose a candidate that literally no voter wanted last time she ran in a primary.

And they will now proceed to shove Harris down our throats to stave off the threat of another Trump presidency which is almost certain to occur unless he loses his uncanny ability to dodge bullets (actually, shrapnel from the shattered teleprompter on his podium).

As the old Chinese curse goes, may you live in interesting times.