Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Richard Roundtree

Richard Roundtree has passed away.  That's very sad.  He was 81 years old and he was a great actor.  He was also a symbol of equality.  In the sixties, he launched a career as a successful male model.  From there, he became a stage actor.  In 1971, he made his first film.

And he became an international star.

The film was SHAFT.  It made him a movie star and did so at a time when there weren't many African-American film stars.  In fact, only two were considered box office stars.   

On the female side, there was Diana Ross.  She was the first African-American woman to ever make it onto the film theaters' top 20 actors -- based on box office.  And she made it in two years (LADY SINGS THE BLUES and MAHOGANY).  It wouldn't be until Whoopi Goldberg came along that another African-American woman would make the list (but that wasn't in the 70s).  The first African-American to be box office was Sidney Poitier in the 60s.  He was the first to make that list (Quigley?) of top 20 actors.  Dorothy Dandridge, for example, never made it.  Sidney proved that African-Americans could be box office.

All they needed was talent and a chance.  Diana Ross came along in the 70s to drive that home and we owe her so much for all the trails she has blazed.  For the 70s, she joined Sidney and the two of them were the only designated box office stars by the list.  The 80s would see Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg and Eddie Murphy join the list.


If SHAFT had made all of its millions in one year -- it was still selling tickets in 1976 -- Richard would have been on the list for 1971.  He would star in two sequels in the 70s: SHAFT'S BIG SCORE! and SHAFT IN AFRICA.  In addition there were 7 TV movies of with Roundtree as Shaft that aired between 1973 and 1974.  He made many films including 1974's box office hit EARTHQUAKE.  He continued making films in the 80s including the notorious INCHON (I didn't say good or profitable, I said "notorious") and the best known is probably CITY HEAT with Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood or AN EYE FOR AN EYE with Chuck Norris. He continued making movies in the 90s and the best known from that period would be the live-action GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE.  In the '00s, as he continued to make films, there was a new SHAFT and he was upgraded to senior talent, the older and wiser character, while Samuel L. Jackson played the younger title character.  This was a really good film and Richard, Samuel and Vanessa Williams were excellent in it with John Singleton directing, writing and producing.  BRICK and SPEED RACER were two of his other high profile films of the '00s. In the 10s, his most prominent film roles were in the movies WHAT MEN WANT (a remake of WHAT WOMEN WANT) and SHAFT where he and Samuel L were now the older and wiser guys and Jessie T Usher was the new young Shaft.

Let's go over to TV and we'll come back to film.  He did many guest spots including CHIPS, THE LOVE BOAT, the original MAGNUM P.I., A DIFFERENT WORLD, MURDER SHE WROTE, AMEN, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (non-DISNEY CBS show with Linda Hamilton), ROC, THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR, L.A. LAW, HANGIN' WITH MR. COOPER, BEVERLY HILLS 90210, THE WAYANS BROS, TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, DR. QUINN MEDICINE WOMAN, LINC'S, SOUL FOOD, ALIAS, THE CLOSER, HEROES, GREY'S ANATOMY, LINCOLN HEIGHTS, THE MENTALIST, MEET THE BROWNS, DIARY OF A SINGLE MOM, PRIVATE PRACTICE, CHICAGO FIRE, Wesley Snipe's THE PLAYER, STAR and LETHAL WEAPON. He also was one of the stars of the ground breaking mini-series ROOTS and he was part of the remake of CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT with Dyan Cannon and Tony Curtis. 


Back to his films.  He has something called THELMA that has not been released yet.  It's a comedy and has a strong cast including Parker Posey, Nicole Byer and June Squibb ("Auntie Alice" on MODERN FAMILY -- the woman who steals Gloria's salsa recipe).  Malcolm McDowell is also in the cast and his last film released while he was alive included Malcolm in the cast as well -- MOVING ON.

If you missed that film, it's now streaming on HULU.  

It's a great film.  He's Jane Fonda's ex-husband.  Jane and Lily Tomlin's friend has died (the friend was married to Malcolm) and now Jane wants to kill the husband (Malcolm) because of all he did wrong.  It's a dark comedy and it's a great film.  I reviewed it here:
 

This is a great film.  The actors pull you in -- along with Lily and Jane, Richard Roundtree deserves applause and so does a woman who Lily's insulted that tells Lily off.

Paul Welz previously worked with Lily on GRANDMA and she should have been nominated for an Academy Award there.  She's just as good here.  But Jane is a masterpiece.  She should be nominated for Best Actress.  This is a character like none she's played before and she nails it.

She's having a strong year with 80 FOR BRADY, MOVING ON and, up next, BOOK CLUB II.  But even if it was just MOVING ON, she has accomplished something.

I can't get over the character she's created.  It's so real and so different and reminds you that she's one of the finest film actresses our country has ever produced.

Make a point to check out MOVING ON.

It was a great movie to go out on.  

Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

Wednesday, October 25, 2023.  Who painted the target on the backs of Americans in the Middle East, the assault on Gaza continues, the assault on humanity continues.


Let's start with Iraq.  Nisha Zahid (GREEK REPORTER) reports:

In a recent announcement from the The Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH), archaeologists have successfully unearthed a remarkable ancient Assyrian deity statue known as a “lamassu” in Kursbad, Iraq.

A lamassu is a special Assyrian guardian deity, usually portrayed as a mix of human, bird, and either cow or lion features. These unique beings typically have a human-like head, a body resembling that of a bull or lion, and bird-like wings.



In ancient Assyria, they often crafted pairs of lamassu sculptures and placed them at the entrances of palaces. These imposing figures faced both the streets and the inner courtyards.

What’s unique about these sculptures is that they were carved in high relief. When you look at them head-on, they seem still, but from the side, they appear to be in motion.

While we often see winged figures in the low-relief decorations inside rooms, lamassu were not commonly found as large figures in these spaces. However, they occasionally appeared in narrative reliefs. In these depictions, they seemed to take on the role of protectors for the Assyrians.

Ancient Assyrian deity statue in Iraq was discovered and then reburied

This discovery took place during their excavations at the 6th gate, situated in the western part of the ancient city of Khursbad.

Khursbad was originally built as a brand-new capital city by the Assyrian king Sargon II. He started this ambitious project shortly after he became king in 721 BC.


From historic to current, Laurie Mylroie (KURDISTAN 24) notes:

According to the count that [Pentagon Press Secretary Pat] Ryder provided on Tuesday, 10 of the 13 attacks were directed against U.S. forces in Iraq, while the other three targeted US forces in Syria.

Also on Tuesday, Reuters reported that there had been an attack that day on U.S. troops at Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq. However, Ryder could not confirm that, and he cautioned against crediting the widespread misinformation circulating about this issue.

Following Ryder’s briefing, the Pentagon provided data on the injuries to U.S. troops in those attacks. 

“At least 24 U.S. troops were hurt”, The Washington Post reported. The vast bulk of casualties came from one incident: an Oct. 18 strike against al-Tanf Garrison in southeast Syria, in which 20 U.S. troops suffered “minor injuries,” when “multiple one-way drones targeted the base,” the Post reported. 




Courtney Kube and Mosheh Gains (NBC NEWS) add, "An American civilian contractor died due to a cardiac incident during a shelter-in-place order, but it did not occur during one of the drone attacks."

So the policy US President Joe Biden is pursuing has put a target on the back of all Americans in Iraq and Syria if not throughout the Middle East?

I don't like Bully Boy Bush to this day.  He's a War Criminal.  And he deserved to be called out for his actions.  "Target on their backs"?  Remember that.  I believe THE NEW YORKER even did a cover illustration -- a drawing where a soldier in Iraq was depicted from behind with a red bulls eye target on his back.

Well that's what Joe's doing now.  

And it needs to be called out the same way it would if Bully Boy Bush were still occupying the White House.  

These knee-jerk policies are putting us all at risk.  And for what?  To destroy an indigenous people?  We object to that -- now, looking back -- when it comes to the Native Americans.  We object to that when we go see a James Cameron AVATAR film.  But we're okay with that when the native people being targeted, the indigenous people are Palestinians?


You know, there’s basically four global forces now that attract significant human political support across the entire world, and they’re climate change; #MeToo, gender equality; Black Lives Matter, which is antiracism; and Palestine. And Palestine is a global issue, and the Americans and the Israelis and most of the Europeans and now the Canadians, to a large extent, are too blinded to see this reality. So, they feel that we can send in more military force, be tough on TV, and it’ll work. But it doesn’t work. And so, there’s really time for a reassessment. And the Americans, of course, learned this in Vietnam. They learned it in Afghanistan. They learned it in Iraq. But they haven’t learned it. And the Israelis haven’t learned from their experiences, either.

So, resistance and defiance keep driving people in the Arab countries and elsewhere to push back against what the Israelis are doing. And we’re not saying get rid of all the Israelis or kill them. We’re saying let’s have a negotiated peace where there’s an Israeli state that’s predominantly Jewish, like it is now, with a Palestinian state, where the refugeehood and exile of the Palestinians has been resolved according to international law, and we have our sovereign state, and we live in peace. We have made this offer. The Arabs have made this offer repeatedly to Israel, but it’s not interested in that, because Zionism is a strategy, is an ideology, that wants to create a Jewish state in a land that was 93% Arab. And it succeeded. And it doesn’t want peace with the Palestinians. It wants all the Palestinian land, and they want it exclusively for the Jewish people.

You know, the world supported the creation of an Israeli state, and after the Holocaust, that was understandable. And not just the Holocaust, it was a century or more of white European, North American racism and antisemitism against Jews. The Jews were terribly mistreated by white racists in Europe and North America. And they came to the Middle East because they knew that they had always lived there. They were accepted in society as an integrated part of society. And the early settlers who came in the late 19th century and early 20th century up until around 1920, the Jews who came were very accepted in the region. There was no problem — they had always lived there — until it became clear, around 1930, that they wanted to create a state. They wanted to take over and drive out Palestinian Arabs and have a Jewish state. And this coincided with the rise of the Nazis in Europe, which significantly increased the migration of Jews out of Europe. And, of course, the United States and Britain refused to take them, refused to let the Jews come in.

So you have multiple dimensions of historical responsibility. But the final point is that we’re at a stage now where the world — we, and the world, increasingly, clearly see this as an anticolonial struggle aiming for a just peace, equal rights for an Israeli state and a Palestinian state and the other Arab countries whose lands have been ravaged or annexed or occupied by Israel. The Israelis are not interested in that. The Americans totally are uninterested in that. And so this is a real dilemma. What the world needs to study, more than, you know, what are Hezbollah’s motives, is what is the nature of North American and European white racist colonialism, because it’s still going on.


The policy is wrong -- it is criminally wrong.  UK SOCIALIST WORKER notes:

The United States is sending Israel military advisers who led massacres in Iraq. The intention is to pass on Western imperialism’s experience of urban warfare and how to destroy opponents.

One of the officers leading the assistance is Marine Corps Lt Gen James Glynn. He played a top role in the battles in the city of Fallujah.

In November 2004 the US dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the city killing Iraqi fighters and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.

The US government at first formally denied reports of its war crime. But a year later indisputable evidence emerged.


AMANPOUR & COMPANY (CNN) did a strong interview with Queen Rania of Jordan.  We noted that interview last night and we noted it from Rania's website because AMANPOUR & COMPANY have still not posted it online at their YOUTUBTE page..  



The points Rania's making need to be heard.  They especially need to be heard in the United States.  

"It's not about me, it's about speaking up for humanity," Rania rightly notes in the interview.


Palestinian health ministry officials reported Tuesday that 704 Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes over the preceding 24 hours, making it the deadliest day since Israel’s bombardment of Gaza began over two weeks ago. The grim statistic coincided with statements by representatives of American and French imperialism underscoring their support for the savage slaughter of civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Conditions in the enclave are worsening by the hour. Hospitals are being forced to reduce services due to a lack of fuel, which Israeli authorities are preventing from entering Gaza via the Rafah border crossing from Egypt. Even the UN Refugee Agency (UNRWA) reported that its operations in Gaza may have to be suspended within 24 hours if fuel supplies fail to arrive.

“We are hosting 600,000 people in over 160 underground facilities, including schools, medical facilities, and other buildings like warehouses … We’re so stretched that we have to open warehouses to receive the displaced,” said UNRWA director of communications Juliette Touma. “Supplies are also running out, so we will not be able to give any supplies to [Palestinians in Gaza]. We will not be able to do very simple things like start our fleet of cars or turn on the trucks and go pick up those supplies that are coming in from the borders.”

The World Health Organization called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” Tuesday to allow for fuel shipments to reach Gaza. Six hospitals across Gaza have shut entirely due to a lack of fuel, the WHO said, and the al-Shifa Hospital, the Indonesian Hospital and the Turkish Friendship Hospital are struggling to maintain critical services. “Unless vital fuel and additional health supplies are urgently delivered into Gaza, thousands of vulnerable patients risk death or medical complications as critical services shut down due to lack of power,” the WHO warned.

The Israeli government reiterated yesterday its bitter opposition to any fuel shipments entering Gaza. Only eight trucks passed through the Rafah crossing late in the evening, five carrying water, two food, and one carrying medical supplies for 2.3 million people. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari asserted without providing any evidence that “Hamas uses it [fuel] for its operational needs.”

The Israeli military continued its indiscriminate bombing campaign throughout the day. It struck several targets in the south of the Gaza Strip, where Israeli government officials ordered over a million people to flee almost two weeks ago to ostensibly be “safe” from attacks. One air strike flattened a residential building in Khan Younis with dozens of casualties. Later in the day, a Gaza health ministry spokesman said that 50 people had been killed in air strikes within an hour.





AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

Health officials in Gaza say Israel’s unrelenting bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory has killed another 700 people over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll over the past 18 days to more than 5,800 Palestinians. Among them, 2,000 children are dead. One-point-four million Gazans, more than half of the territory’s population, has been displaced. Many say there’s no safe place to be in Gaza right now. The World Health Organization is pleading for far more aid to be allowed into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. We’re going to look now at Egypt’s response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and the negotiations over aid coming through Rafah.

We’re joined by Sharif Abdel Kouddous, independent journalist working with the Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr. He won a George Polk Award for his Al Jazeera documentary, The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. His latest piece for The Guardian is headlined “Israel’s endgame is to push Palestinians into Egypt — and the west is cheering it on.”

Sharif, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about all that’s taking place right now around the Rafah border crossing? And explain who it’s controlled by, and explain what Israel is calling on Egypt to do.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Thank you, Amy.

I think, well, first of all, we have to understand Egypt is the only country other than Israel to share a border crossing with Gaza. And what we’ve seen since October 7th is a lot of negotiations around what’s going to happen at this border crossing. So, as it stands right now, Egypt has insisted on allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza and has allowed multiple countries to deliver aid to Arish in northern Sinai. Countries like Jordan, Turkey, Qatar, the UAE have delivered thousands of tons of humanitarian aid that are kind of idling in these trucks at the border.

So far, since Saturday, something like 75 or 80 trucks have been allowed in, about 20 trucks a day. After a lot of negotiations, 20 trucks a day are being allowed in by Israel into Gaza. And this is nowhere near enough. You know, according to humanitarian organizations, they’ve called it a drop in the ocean. And just to give you a sense, 20 trucks a day amounts to about 4% of an average day’s imports before October 7th, before 1.4 million people were displaced, before 15,000 people were injured, before close to 6,000 people were killed. So, you know, the U.N. is saying that hundreds of trucks a day are needed. And on top of that, Israel has placed heavy restrictions on even that minuscule aid that’s coming in.

Well, firstly, Israel has bombed the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing four times since October 7th, even one time slamming into Egyptian territory at the border. But the aid, when it comes in, it travels to the Ouga-Nitzana border crossing with Israel, where it’s first inspected by Israeli authorities, and then it eventually gets into — goes back to the Rafah border crossing and goes into Gaza. This is a process that takes many hours.

But I think we have to understand that there’s two issues that really stand out on the restrictions. First of all, all deliveries of aid to northern Gaza are prohibited. So, none of this minuscule, even this like paltry amount of aid is getting to northern Gaza. You know, hundreds of thousands have evacuated from northern Gaza after Israel warned people to leave, but there’s still hundreds of thousands that remain. And just to give you a sense, the biggest hospital in Gaza is in Gaza city, Shifa Hospital. This is a hospital that usually, in normal times, has a capacity of about 700 patients. It’s currently overwhelmed with 5,000 patients. And you have something like 45,000 displaced people gathered in and around the hospital grounds seeking shelter. That’s according to the U.N. And none of the aid that’s coming in is getting to them.

But secondly, and very importantly, the aid that is coming in, none of it includes any fuel. Fuel is not being allowed to enter. And fuel is just absolutely crucial for so many things, perhaps most importantly for electricity to run generators. And without fuel, life-saving medical equipment, like incubators, ventilators, won’t work. And so this spells a death sentence for babies in neonatal wards and things like this. So, one official has called it, you know, that the aid coming in is more of a diplomatic symbol rather than actual meeting any humanitarian needs. But we have to see where this is going.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Sharif, I wanted to ask you: First of all, on the water situation, is all water still cut off by the Israelis? And secondly, isn’t the whole issue of Israel urging people to leave Gaza through Egypt a clear sample of ethnic cleansing? After all, Israel has many entrances on its side of the Gaza Strip, where it could allow women and children to come out of northern Gaza, possibly even bus them into the West Bank. But they’re clearly trying to get rid of the Palestinians, as many as possible, from their occupied territories.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Yeah, I mean, this is — I mean, first of all, on the issue of water, people have talked about there’s a real risk of dehydration to death. People are drinking now dirty water. The aid that’s coming in is not enough. You know, the first day, it provided water for about 22,000 people for a few hours, and we’re talking about a place which has 2.3 million people. And no water has been allowed in since October 7th. No aid at all has been allowed in, except for these small convoys. There has been a water pipeline that was — that is supposedly working near Khan Younis, but it’s not nearly providing enough.

And yes, this idea of — so, first of all, this order comes down from Israel — well, first of all, Netanyahu, when this all began on October 7th, took to the airwaves announcing a war against Hamas and telling people in Gaza to leave now, and saying — you know, he left unsaid where they’re supposed to go. But then there was this order to evacuate to the south: 1.1 million people were supposed to evacuate within 24 hours. And you see this kind of push towards the Egyptian border.

And from what we understand, reporting through Mada Masr, that Egyptian sources have told us that in those days in the beginning at least, there was a lot of pressure, and continuing, for Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing, to create a so-called humanitarian corridor and to allow for the forcible displacement of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza into northern Sinai, and that instead of the United States and other Western countries pressuring Israel for a ceasefire, pressuring Israel to allow in the necessary amount of aid, they have instead been pressuring Egypt to open the border and allow for this mass displacement, and have been offering economic incentives to Egypt to do so. We have to remember Egypt is undergoing a very severe economic crisis, with a massive amount of debt, with record-high inflation. And so, you know, there’s been talk of debt relief, of financial compensation, in order to allow for this kind of displacement.

Now, Egypt’s response has been kind of very staunch on this, actually. The president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has very publicly rejected this idea of having a form of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement and exile into Sinai. He has cited Egypt’s sovereignty in this. He has cited the Palestinian cause in all of this. He is even — you know, is drumming up and is riding a wave of public support for this, because Palestine, as we heard from Rami Khouri, is a touchstone issue for so many across the Arab world, for so many across the Global South. And this idea of what they call a second Nakba, a second catastrophe and a second mass displacement, is firmly rejected. So even Sisi called for protests on Friday, for people to take to the streets, and people did, in Cairo, in Alexandria and in other places, although some people carried on those protests into Tahrir, some were chanting revolutionary chants, and we haven’t seen that for many years. And actually, Egyptian authorities have arrested over a hundred people because of that. But, you know, I think many see Sisi’s stance as laudable, rejecting what is essentially an endorsement of a second Nakba.

But I think we have to remember that, you know, him citing the Palestinian cause really rings hollow. And we have to remember that Egypt, its concerns really are national security concerns, not wanting to have a mass population of Palestinians, who could launch attacks against Israel from northern Sinai, and not having to deal with a refugee crisis. Egypt, after all, has helped enforce the siege on Gaza for many years. It destroyed the tunnels that provided a lifeline to Gaza. It has allied with Israel in many different ways in security coordination. It has allowed Israel to conduct a covert air campaign, aerial bombing campaign in Sinai. And it also treats Palestinians coming in and out of Gaza, notoriously, with indignity. But so far, this idea of rejecting this kind of a mass exodus, I think a lot of people are supportive of that policy and, instead, trying to pressure Israel to allow humanitarian aid in.

AMY GOODMAN: Ultimately, Sharif, is it Israel, is it Hamas, is it Egypt, who is preventing that aid? As you said, we’re seeing dozens of trucks now, after weeks of not having anything, when in fact they’re talking about the need is something like 400 to 500 trucks a day. And also, when it comes to what happened this weekend in Cairo, the so-called peace summit of Arab leaders, what did they come up with?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, the peace summit didn’t actually come up with anything. There wasn’t a joint statement that was signed. Sisi and King Abdullah and others repeated condemnations of Israel’s bombing, of Israel’s siege on Gaza, and Sisi again rejected this idea of a mass displacement to Sinai. And I think, you know, we have to also understand that this idea of resettling Palestinians in Gaza to Sinai is not a new one. It’s actually an old colonial fantasy. There has been numerous plans by Israel and others of this idea of resettling the Palestinians in Gaza, who 80% of which are refugees, by the way, who are refugees from 1948, of resettling them again into Egypt. In the mid-1950s, the U.N. devised a plan for this kind of mass resettlement, and it was met with popular outrage in Gaza —

AMY GOODMAN: We have 15 seconds.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: — and kind of crushed in a popular uprising. So, I mean, these kinds of plans are long-standing, and there’s a real fear that they will be realized. But for now, we have to see Egypt is rejecting it, but Israel is creating a situation where life is becoming unlivable in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Sharif Abdel Kouddous, independent journalist working with the Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr, produced the award-winning documentary, The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, about the Palestinian American journalist. We will link to your piece in The Guardian. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Thanks for joining us.


In the United States, people are protesting the assault on Gaza and calling for an immediate cease-fire.  

  As the death toll from Israel's relentless and indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza approached 5,800 Palestinians—including over 2,300 children—a group of around 40 faith leaders calling for an immediate cease-fire led a Tuesday afternoon pray-in at the Washington, D.C. office of U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith leaders and activists occupied the New York Democrat's office in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, where demonstrators opened their action with prayers for the thousands of Palestinians who have been killed since October 7.

Participants "highlighted the devastating impact of each bomb that has been dropped and each life cut short through a reading of nearly 200 names of those killed by American-made weapons, including entire families across generations," the organizers of the pray-in said.

"The actions send a clear message to the Democratic Party: You cannot continue with business as usual while Israel commits genocide in Gaza with full U.S. backing," the coalition added. "Cease-fire is the only moral choice, and the world is watching your next move." 


Mike Ludwig (TRUTHOUT) reports on some of the recent protests in the US:


As the death toll of Israel’s brutal siege and intensifying bombardment of the Gaza Strip surpassed 5,000 on Monday, dozens of activists blocked a major intersection in Chicago as mass protests against U.S. support for the Israeli military continue to erupt despite scant mainstream media coverage.

“Only a ceasefire can protect Palestinian and Israeli lives in this perilous moment,” said Eli Newell, an organizer with the Jewish peace group IfNotNow in Chicago, who participated in the direct action on Monday. “Collective punishment won’t make anyone safe — not Palestinian civilians, not Israeli hostages.”

The action was organized by a coalition of Jewish groups, including IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace. About 50 protesters in downtown Chicago blocked rush hour traffic for over two hours on Monday and refused to leave until they were forcibly removed and ticketed by police. Organizers say the activists were flanked by a march of 500 supporters.

From Minneapolis to New Orleans, from San Francisco and Denver to Philadelphia and Skokie, Illinois, thousands of people are taking to the streets and calling for an emergency ceasefire as horrifying images and reports of widespread civilian suffering and death continue to emerge from Gaza. Thousands marched for a ceasefire in Brooklyn on Saturday, and more than 100 were arrested for blocking traffic at various demonstrations in the tri-state region over the weekend, according to local reports.

In Philadelphia, activists in solidarity with Palestinians are calling out local media for allegedly downplaying or outright failing to cover a march and rally over the weekend that attracted a giant mass of people (video below) to the steps of the city’s iconic art museum. The rally was organized by the Philly Palestine Coalition and its allies. Participants estimated that thousands of people showed up to the march and rally.



Staying with the United States.  Daniel Villarreal (LGBTQ NATION) reports:


Anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives now want to boycott Listerine because the mouthwash brand featured a progress Pride flag on its bottle.

Chaya Raichik, who goes by LibsofTikTok on social media, posted an image of Listerine bottles that included drawings of same-gender couples holding hands and displaying rainbow flags. She claimed the brand supports child “sex change surgeries” even though such procedures aren’t conducted on children.

The bottle also mentioned the “Care With Pride” initiative. Started by Johnson & Johnson, Listerine’s parent company, the initiative raises money for LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations fighting for “full equality, inclusivity, care, and representation.” In 2023, the initiative benefitted Family Equality, a group that champions education, public acceptance, positive depictions of, and policy initiatives protecting LGBTQ+ families.


Chaya Raichik.  Poor thing.  She became a public face and . . . well . . . you've seen that face, right?  It's kind of ended her movement.  Apparently, people don't want to be led by an ugly person, not even conservatives.  Since her face has become know, her ability to influence has lessened.  Maybe she could wear a mask?  Or even just a paper bag over her head?  She keeps one by the bed, right, for her husband's sake?

Probably a mask wouldn't help at this point.  The tide has turned.  She's flailing around now and people see her for the hate merchant she truly is as she cries for one boycott after another and as her lies get exposed.  These Carrie Nation types start with a flurry of attention but always end up repelling the majority of Americans.  Someone help her off the stage before people start tossing rotten eggs at her.





An Ohio neo-Nazi has pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime charge for firebombing a church that was planning to host a pair of drag events.

Aimenn D. Penny, a 20-year-old member of an Ohio White Lives Matter group, submitted his plea on Monday, admitting to obstruction of persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs and arson. According to Cleveland.com, he will be sentenced on January 29 by U.S. District Judge Bridget Brennan and faces at least 10 years in prison, with up to 15 on the table.

Penny admitted to throwing Molotov cocktails at the Community Church of Chesterland in Chester, Ohio on March 25. The attack, which left scorch marks on the church’s door, was allegedly in response to drag queen storytime events planned for April 1.
His admission came during a March 31st search of his homes when he told FBI agents he threw the Molotov cocktail with the intent of burning down the church.

How disgusting do you have to be to firebomb a church?  Remember that the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama back in 1963 that claimed the lives of 11-year-old Carole Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley was carried out by terrorists who were White supremists as well -- Thomas Blanton, Robert Chambliss, Bobby Cherry and possibly Herman Cash. 


All these decades later and racists are still a scourge of America.  You would have thought basic humanity and common sense would have run them off long, long ago.  However, Robert Downen (TEXAS TRIBUNE) reports that they are very tight with some 'conservatives' in Texas:


In recent weeks, allies of the deep-pocketed conservative PAC Defend Texas Liberty have sought to downplay a meeting between the group’s former leader, Jonathan Stickland, and prominent white supremacist Nick Fuentes. They’ve cast the visit as a one-off mistake — and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he accepted an explanation that it was a “serious blunder."


Responding to calls for him to return the $3 million he received from Defend Texas Liberty this summer, Patrick initially said he would not do so because there was “no hint of any links” between the group and any “antisemitic organizations or other hate groups” when he took the funds in June.

There were, however, ample links.

While Fuentes’ unapologetic hate mongering has made him perhaps the nation’s best-known white supremacist, he was merely the latest in a line of people who have been embraced by Defend Texas Liberty and its close allies despite publicly espousing antisemitic views or partnering with extremists. That includes, among others, Ella Maulding, a social media coordinator for Stickland’s consulting firm who has praised Fuentes as the “greatest civil rights leader in history”; and Shelby Griesinger, the treasurer for Defend Texas Liberty who has claimed on social media that Jews worship a false god and shared memes that depict them as the enemy of Republicans.

Defend Texas Liberty is a political action committee and one of the state’s most influential donors to conservative groups and candidates, including Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton. It is a key part of a sprawling network of nonprofits, dark money groups, political campaigns and media companies that have received more than $100 million from three West Texas oil billionaires, Tim Dunn and brothers Farris and Dan Wilks, as part of a decadeslong project to push Texas to the far right.


And if you're wondering, yes, Defend Texas Bigotry has links to Moms For Bigotry.  What?  You thought crazy ass Naomi Wollf would get in bed with a group that wasn't entwined with racism?


Anti-vax idiot Michelle Evans is a Moms for Bigotry and that's all Defend Texas Bigotry needed to know to cut her a $30,000 check.  Even with that, the hate monger and liar lost.  She did share, however, that she was okay with lying on Twitter ("she made headlines for spreading a false rumor that the district had lowered cafeteria tables at a middle school for children who identify as dogs") because she doesn't feel like it harmed anyone.  I'm really bothered that these serial liars and racists and homophobes keep thinking they're the people to teach America's children.


These people are disgusting -- and go down in history as disgusting -- no sane person in 2023 is defending, for example, terrorist Thomas Blanton.  No, in 2023, sane Americans are applauding Heman Bekele and others making real contributions to this country.  Sarah al-Arshani (USA TODAY) reports:


"America's Top Young Scientist" is a 14-year-old who invented a soap that treats skin cancer.

Heman Bekele, a ninth grader from Annandale, Virginia, won the prestigious award from 3M and Discovery Education, considered one of the country's top middle school science competitions.

"I believe that young minds can make a positive impact on the world," Heman said in his submission for the award.

"I have always been interested in biology and technology, and this challenge gave me the perfect platform to showcase my ideas," he said.



Good for him and good for the country.  That's what these hate merchants don't get as they attack people due to their skin color or whom they love or what country they were in before they came to the US, these people they attack are the people who do so much to make this a better world.  These hate merchants?  They don't do a thing to improve the world and we'd all honestly be better off without them.

Fairfax County Schools has a page up about Heman Bekele.  Take a moment to grasp what a difference he's making:


Heman, newly crowned “America’s Top Young Scientist” after winning this year’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge, says the memories of people working long hours outside under the glaring sun in Ethiopia stayed with him as he made his way through the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) school system. A graduate of Wakefield Forest Elementary School and Frost Middle School, Heman was struck by the dramatic differences in skin cancer survival rates in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa compared to places where high tech cancer treatments are available.

“Skin cancer is mostly found on people who live within developing countries,” Heman says. “But the average price for an operation is $40,000. I was devastated by the idea of people having to choose between treatment and putting food on the table for their families. There are so many preventable deaths.”

He was determined to find a better way. So Heman researched skin cancer, learning about dendritic cells, which he says help protect skin by boosting immune response. Then he spent months playing with salicylic acid, glycolic acid and tretinoin, trying to find the right combination to help treat skin cancer. He developed SCTS, which stands for skin cancer treating soap, and works by reactivating dendritic cells.


On the topic of hate merchants, Nick Mordowanec (NEWSWEEK) points out, "[Ronald] DeSantis has taken flack this year for multiple incidents related to neo-Nazis, including a campaign video released in July that featured a far-right circular symbol known as the 'sonnenrad' which is often affiliated with neo-Nazi groups. Such groups have drawn scrutiny for being openly brazen about their anti-Jewish sentiments, with one incident in September involving 40-some individuals waving swastikas, giving fascist salutes and chanting 'Sieg Heil' on a bridge in Orlando, Florida."


A better world is possible.  "I believe in a better way" as Ben Harper sings.



 


Imagine: “It’s the year 2050…and racism has ended,” and so posits the newly published book How We Ended Racism: Realizing a New Possibility in One Generation.
In the book, Justin Michael Williams and his co-author Shelly Tygielski divulge a concrete eight-part framework for how we can make this radical idea an actual reality.

“You don’t fix racism,” an excerpt from the book reads, “You don’t fight it. You don’t make it better. You end it. We learned how to bridge any political or ideological divide—inviting liberals, conservatives, and everyone in between to cocreate a future worth fighting for.”

Ahead of the release, Williams sat down with ESSENCE to discuss what inspired the book, the writing process, and what a post-racism world looks like.

A multi-hyphenate, Williams, who is also a Grammy-nominated recording artist, had already penned a best-selling book, Stay Woke: A Meditation Guide for the Rest of Us in February 2020. He revealed that it all started “after George Floyd was murdered and the world was exploding with social justice books. So, I started reading all the things that were coming out, and I just had this epiphany.”

“I just thought—hold on a second—why does every single book start on the first page or two saying something along the lines of ‘racism is this thing that’s going to be passed down for a lifetime, generation after generation?’” shared Williams.



The following sites updated:


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