Thursday, August 15, 2024

Gena Rowlands

queen drag

 

Above is Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS  "He Wants To Be Your Queen"and it's one of two comics Isaiah's done at THE COMMON ILLS this week.

 

The actress Gena Rowlands has passed away at the age of 94.  I knew her from films like HOPE FLOATS (she's Sandra Bullock's mother), SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT (she's Julia Roberts and Kyra Sedgwick's mother), UNHOOK THE STARS (directed by her son Nick, with Marisa Tomei as her neighbor), ANOTHER WOMAN (Woody Allen directed, she's a college professor getting caught up in overhearing Mia Farrow's therapy session -- it would have made a good comedy but this was done as a drama), ONCE AROUND (she's Laura San Giacoma and Holly Hunter's mother), GLORIA (directed by her husband John Cassavetes, she plays a gun moll who has to protect a kid -- the awful remake with Sharon Stone does not do the original justice) . . . So many.  GLORIA resulted in an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and she was also nominated for A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE -- also directed by her husband John.  But that's not the biggest film she worked on. 


AP notes:

 

Operating outside the studio system, the husband-and-wife team of John Cassavetes and Rowlands created indelible portraits of working-class strivers and small-timers in such films as “A Woman Under the Influence,” “Gloria” and “Faces.”

Rowlands made 10 films across four decades with Cassavetes, including “Minnie and Moskowitz” in 1971, “Opening Night” in 1977 and “Love Streams” in 1984.

 

And one of those ten films is her best known.

 

A CHILD IS WAITING.  John directed the film.  She stars in it with . . . Burt Lancaster and . . . Judy Garland. 

That 1963 drama has never stopped playing.  Even in the age og streaming, you can find it regularly on channels like CINEMA VAULT.  It pulls in Judy's fans, it pulls in Burt Lancaster films, it pulls in fans of John and Gena and it airs constantly. 


VARIETY notes:

 

Younger audiences who know Rowlands only as the memory-challenged older woman in “The Notebook” (directed by her son Nick Cassavetes) or for her Emmy-winning turn in “Hysterical Blindness” owe it to themselves to investigate her most important work, including formidable turns in “Faces,” “Opening Night” and “Gloria” (the most mainstream-friendly of those titles, in which she plays a pistol-packing gangster’s moll charged with protecting a Puerto Rican orphan). My personal favorite is 1971’s almost-impossible-to-find “Minnie and Moskowitz,” if only because the shaggy central couple, played by Rowlands and Cassel, struggle in such recognizably human ways.

Gina was there from the beginning of her husband John’s filmmaking career, witnessing firsthand what is widely recognized as the birth of the American independent film movement. Technically, Rowlands was on stage, acting opposite Edward G. Robinson in “Middle of the Night,” when Cassavetes made “Shadows.” (She does appear briefly in the film, but made a far greater impression in the nine other movies they made together.) Rowlands served as his muse, and without such a force to inhabit her roles, Cassavetes’ oeuvre would not have had the seismic influence on the course of screen acting.

Before moving on to “A Woman Under the Influence,” it’s worth taking a moment to consider the impact of “Shadows” on both Cassavetes’ and Rowlands’ careers. Shot in 1957 for just $40,000, the black-and-white film was an experiment in improvisation-based acting, which grew out of a workshop exercise between Cassavetes and his cast. The performances in that movie are raw, fiery and seemingly unrehearsed (even though some required as many as 50 takes to satisfy the perfectionist first-time filmmaker), introducing a new kind of realism to screen acting.


While CNN notes:


Born and raised in Wisconsin, Rowlands appeared in a handful of television roles before making her cinematic debut in “The High Cost of Loving” in 1958.

She garnered her first Emmy award for her portrayal of the titular first lady in the 1987 made-for-TV movie “The Betty Ford Story.” Later, she would win two more primetime Emmys for her performances in the 1991 CBS film “Face of a Stranger” and HBO’s 2002 movie “Hysterical Blindness.”

Other notable credits for Rowlands include 1995’s “Something to Talk About” with Julia Roberts, “The Mighty” in 1998 costarring Sharon Stone, and 2005’s “Skeleton Key” in which she played the villainous Violet Devereaux opposite Kate Hudson.

 

And NPR offers this personal life look:

 

 Born in 1930, Rowlands was the daughter of a state senator in the now-defunct Wisconsin Progressive Party. She was a sickly, picky child. But as she told Terry Gross on WHYY’s Fresh Air, she was blessed with a playful, artistic mother.

“I remember one time, I wouldn't eat carrots. I wouldn't eat anything yellow,” Rowlands remembered in the 1996 interview. “So she cut a carrot into the shape of a goldfish.... She put it in a goldfish bowl with water in it, and she came in to where I was sick and she said, `I have an uncontrollable urge.' She said, `I can't stand it. I've got to eat this goldfish. I've got to do it.' I said, `No, no, no, no, don't do it.' She said, `I've got to, unless you eat this carrot.'....[She] would go to the most extraordinarily kind of creative lengths to do these things for me.”

In 1950, Rowlands left for New York to study acting at the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts, where she met fellow student Cassavetes. But Rowlands dropped out and began appearing professionally on stage, including in a small role in Paddy Chayefsky's Middle of the Night on Broadway.

She married Cassavetes in 1954. The two started working in commercial television, sometimes together. Rowlands fleshed out even the most fragile characters with gusto, and Cassavetes would emerge as one of the most distinctive independent directors of his era.

 

She was nominated twice for an Academy Award (Best Actress both times) and won an honorary one in 2015, she was nominated eight times for a Prime Time Emmy and won three, she was nominated once for a Daytime Emmy Award and she won, and she had eight Golden Globe nominations with two wins.  Her talent was recognized, applauded and celebrated. 

   

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

 

Thursday, August 15, 2024.  In Gaza the official death toll has passed 40,000, Donald Trump has done something new that should invite an investigation and should result in charges (ADDED: He's violated the Logan Act -- so many e-mails came in during the last hour since this posted that I've added a section where I go into this in detail at the end of this snapshot), Robert Kennedy Jr remains a fake ass and so much more. 



Starting in the US where the presidential election is 81 days away.  And we've got to start with the two fake candidates: Robert Kennedy Junior and Jill Stein.

Junior proves he's a fake every day but never more so than this morning when Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Reid J. Epstein (NEW YORK TIMES) report:


Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate whose standing has dropped in the polls, sought a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss endorsing her in exchange for a promise of a cabinet post, according to two people briefed on the outreach who insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

His effort has been unsuccessful. The news was first reported by The Washington Post.

“We’ve reached out repeatedly through the highest level intermediaries,” Mr. Kennedy wrote in a text message on Wednesday night. “We’ve been told that they have no interest in talking with me.”


Poor little Junior, a failure his old life and now, at 70 years old, it looks like he's going to go out a failure as well.  

So grasp that as Junior continues his failed run: He's on the phone begging for a job in a Kamala Harris administration and saying that he will drop out of the race and endorse her if he can be promised a job.

Grasp that as he slams the Democratic Party.  

That is a fake ass.  That's what fake assery is.  Pretending one thing to the public while doing something else in secret.


Last month, sources told the Post that Kennedy had also discussed the possibility of ending his campaign and endorsing Trump in exchange for a position in his administration in the event he wins a second term in November. Hours after the assassination attempt on the former president, Trump reportedly called Kennedy. Sources indicated that the two spoke about a possible Cabinet-level position or a role where Kennedy would oversee a portfolio of health and medical issues, although it was unclear who pitched the idea.   


Grasp that.  Like any whore, he's for sale to the highest bidder -- or, in his case, any bidder at all.  What an embarrassment to the Kennedy family.  He has no chance at winning and has spent the last year and a half dragging the family's name through the mud.  Most people, for example, didn't know that his second wife killed herself after finding his diaries documenting his non-stop affairs throughout their marriage.  It was whispered about but not part of the national conversation -- let alone on a WIKIPEDIA page.  His eating dog, his crazed comments about Jewish people and some international cabal genetically engineering COVID to make it target other populations.  His harassment of a baby sitter.  We could go on and on.  Because of who his father was, Junior got a lot of protection.  People didn't want to talk about the nutso factor out of respect for Robert F. Kennedy.  They didn't want to trash his legacy.

Sadly, his embarrassing son Junior couldn't care less. 

Robert F. Kennedy made his 1968 campaign about how to help Americans.  His small-minded and small-membered son Little Junior made it all about himself with one whine after another. 

Moving over to the other fake ass Jill Stein . . . 


Usually, the ASSOCIATED PRESS grasps what reporting is.  Of all the US news outlets, it has the least problems and if you were a media critic, it would be the one you rarely had to note.  (In the early days of this site, when we did media criticism constantly, we called out everyone but the outlet called out the least was AP.)   Which is why this article by Jeff Amy and Charlotte Kramon is so disappointing.  This is not a factual statement:  "The Green Party, which has nominated Stein, says it aims to make Georgia ballots using the 20-state rule."



I know YOUTUBERS lie.  They're YOUTUBERS.  (Not all people on YOUTUBE lie but, yeah, if you can identify them as a YOUTUBER, chances are they lie.)

But AP is supposed to be factual.

Jill is not the Green Party's presidential nominee.

That's a fact.  You could call her the presumed nominee.

As a friend who holds office in the Green Party stated yesterday, "Jill Stein supporters can be mad at you but you're noting the convention more than anyone."  Yes, I am.  Does no one know about the convention this week?  


On Saturday, and you can go to the Green Party's website here for the schedule for this week's convention which kicks off tomorrow afternoon, the party will determine their presidential nominee:


Saturday, August 17

• Press conference with the Green presidential and vice-presidential nominees following the nomination, expected to begin around 5 pm

During the nomination, there will be a virtual roll call of designated Delegation Reporters from affiliated state Green Parties and Green identity caucuses, as determined by convention procedure.


Do you get it yet?

She's probably going to become the nominee but despite all the YOUTUBERS lying on their questionable programs, she is not the nominee at this point in time.

I'd love to see the Green Party invest in the party and make someone younger a nominee.  Instead, they'll probably go with Old Lady Jill Stein and let her run for the third time.  If so, that's their declaration that they are not a real party. 

AP is usually factual and the most factual of US news outlets.  So it's really disappointing that they aren't with regards to this but it gave us a chance to note the convention -- starts Thursday, ends Saturday -- one more time.

I have no faith in the national Green Party -- which is why I believe Jill will be the nominee -- but I will note this from Friday's convention schedule because the local chapters and state chapters are better run:


Friday, August 16: Press conferences with Green candidates for state and local office and Greens in public office

• 10 am ET: Green Party candidates for local and state offices

Eddie Espinoza, for Texas Railroad Commissioner https://www.espinoza4tx.com

Nathalie Paravicini, for Oregon Secretary of State https://www.nathalie4or.org

Rachel Braaten, for Mayor of Crystal, Minnesota https://www.rachelformayor.org/home

• 11 am ET: Green Party candidates for federal office

Beau Forte, for US House in New Jersey, District 5 https://beauforcongressnj.com

Justin Filip, for US House in Oregon, CD-4 https://www.justin4congress.org

Michael Dublin, for US House in North Carolina, District 2 https://dublin4congress.org

Kymone Freeman, for DC Delegate to the US House https://kymonefreeman.com



Meanwhile Nemat Shafiq is back in the news.

baroness


From May 1st, that's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "From The River To The Sea No Student Shall Be Free."  Columbia University's President and bully Nemat Shafiq -- Baroness Shafiq -- abused her position to attack the students calling for an end to the assault on Gaza.  Her  'answer' to protests at Columbia -- a campus historically known for its protests -- was to assault the protesters -- verbally and physically.  The issue -- ending the genocide -- was an important issue.  But set aside the issue for a moment and grasp just how much Shafiq's actions disgraced Columbia University, went against everything the campus embodies and stood for. Her actions would have been bad enough at any university but to take place at Columbia?  She is a disgrace and fortunately she's now out the door.



  The president of Columbia University announced her resignation late Wednesday, months after she authorized a violent police crackdown on student demonstrators urging the school to divest from Israel over the country's devastating assault on the Gaza Strip.

Minouche Shafik said in her announcement that recent months have been "a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community." Dozens of Columbia students were arrested and injured during a Shafik-approved police raid of a campus building in late April.

"This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community," said Shafik, whose resignation was effective immediately. "Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead."

  Pro-Palestine student organizers at Columbia—a university at the center of the protest movement that swept the country earlier this year—celebrated Shafik's departure but vowed to continue pressuring the institution's leadership to divest from Israel. Students specifically demanded that Columbia drop its Tel-Aviv Global Center project, which also drew backlash from faculty members when it was announced last year.

Shafik was adamant that Columbia "will not divest from Israel."

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine said in response to Shafik's resignation that "after months of chanting 'Minouche Shafik you can't hide,' she finally got the memo."

  "To be clear," the group added, "any future president who does not pay heed to the Columbia student body's overwhelming demand for divestment will end up exactly as President Shafik did."

The Columbia chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace wrote on social media that students "will never forget the sheer violence unleashed upon us by Minouche Shafik, and we will not be placated by her removal as the university's repression of the pro-Palestinian student movement continues." 




Columbia was the site of the most prominent pro-Palestinian protests of the spring semester. Tensions between student protesters and the administration reached a breaking point in April, when dozens of protesters began occupying South Lawn hours before Shafik testified in front of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

The next day, Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to sweep the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” leading to the arrest of over 100 protesters and generating immediate backlash from local politicians and community members. Encampments sprung up at universities across the nation and world in solidarity with Gaza and Columbia protesters.

Later that month, Shafik again authorized the NYPD to sweep campus on April 30 for the second time after dozens of students occupied Hamilton Hall in the most intense protest escalation of the school year. Police arrested over 100 protesters, threw stun grenades, and used an electric saw to enter the building, which had been barricaded with tables, chairs, and zipties.



This as AP notes, "Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 17 people, including five children and their parents."  The death toll continues to increase and it has passed another marker.  Tom Soufi Burridge and Diaa Ostaz (ABC NEWS) note:


Israel’s war in Gaza has hit another grim milestone after the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the strip declared that the death toll had passed 40,000 since the start of the war on Oct. 8.

On Thursday officials in Gaza said a total of 40,005 people had been killed in the conflict.


BBC NEWS adds, "That number - 40,005 on Thursday - equates to about 1.7% of the 2.3 million population of the territory - another sobering indication of the human cost of the war.  Alongside the fatalities, satellite image analysis suggests nearly 60% of buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the beginning of the war."





AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

The Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues, with 36 Palestinians killed in the last 24 hours, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Among those killed on Tuesday were two newborn twins, a boy and a girl. They were 4 days old. When their father went to register their births at a local government office, the home where they were sheltering, near Deir al-Balah, was bombed, killing the newborn twins, their mother and their grandmother. The Gaza Health Ministry says 115 newborns have been killed in Gaza since October. According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, out of nearly 17,000 Palestinian children killed by Israel in Gaza over the last 10 months, about 2,100 — more than 2,000 — were babies under the age of 2. As we broadcast, nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since October, though the true casualty figure is likely far higher with thousands of dead unaccounted for.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has issued additional evacuation orders for Khan Younis. The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been forcibly displaced, often multiple times. According to the U.N., around 84% of Gaza’s territory has been placed under evacuation orders by the Israeli military.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have raided towns and villages across the territory. In the northern town of Tammun, Israeli forces seized the bodies of four Palestinians killed in a drone strike. Over the past 10 months, Israeli forces have increasingly used aerial strikes in the occupied West Bank, a practice largely not seen in the territory since the end of the Second Intifada in 2005. In the South Hebron Hills, Israeli forces demolished six more homes of a Bedouin community in Masafer Yatta today. And in occupied Jerusalem, hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the second straight day, under the protection of Israeli security forces.

This all comes as the U.S. State Department announced Tuesday it’s approved $20 billion in arms sales to Israel, including scores of fighter jets and advanced air-to-air missiles.

In response to that announcement, our next guest, the prominent Palestinian Reverend Munther Isaac, posted on social media, quote, “The US is funding the genocide. Faith leaders must speak up. Words of 'concern' and void calls for peace are not enough. Speak truth to power. Silence is complicity,” end-quote. The Reverend Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian theologian, is the pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. He’s in the United States on a speaking tour and will be giving an address tonight at the historic Riverside Church titled “Silence Is Complicity.” The Reverend Munther Isaac joins us now in our New York studio.

Welcome to Democracy Now!

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: Thank you for having me.

AMY GOODMAN: We spoke to you at Christmastime in Bethlehem, where you had set up this crèche scene, “Christ in the Rubble.” This is many, many months later. Talk about why you’re in the United States, Reverend.

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: Well, I wish I was not here. I wish I was here in different circumstances. We’re still calling for a ceasefire. And it feels like we’re still calling for the world to humanize the people of Gaza, to humanize Palestinians. So I’m here to talk to faith leaders, and particularly church leaders, my own community, to speak louder, for it’s been 10 months now since this war has broken, and we’re tired of void calls for peace. We’re tired of the same kind of discourse. And it’s time that the voices of faith leaders, it must be heard, given that we are in the country that’s funding this genocide, given that we are in the country that continues to give political cover to this war in Gaza. So, if you’re silent, knowing how your money is being spent, that means you approve. And so, enough is enough. And I hope that more and more faith leaders, pastors, theologians, clergy, speak up more so that this tragedy in Gaza stops.

AMY GOODMAN: You know, yesterday we spoke with the Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy. He was a negotiator under two Israeli prime ministers. And he decried, he criticized Zionist extremism and talked about what it means, what we’re seeing now play out in Gaza. You’re a reverend. If you can talk about the Christian Zionist evangelical community here? Explain to people who they are and how much power they have.

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: Well, Christian Zionists are Christians who endorse the vision of Zionism of bringing Jews to Palestine. And what many people don’t realize is that Christian Zionists are actually far more in number than Jewish Zionists and that Christian Zionism predates Jewish Zionism. Christians began dreaming of this concept of bringing Jews to Palestine long before the modern Zionist movement.

And the idea was that Jews will someday be restored, using a theological term, which really means convert to Christianity, embrace Jesus as their Messiah. And for that to happen, they must be in Palestine, the biblical land. And many Christians would then add that for that — for the Second Coming of Christ to happen, this must happen first. So they tie it to the Second Coming of Christ.

And today, this movement has grown to become a very strong political force, giving millions of dollars and very much engaged in political lobbying on behalf of Israel. We have many congressmen and women actually repeat Christian Zionist phrases, like “You have to bless Israel,” “Israel is chosen by God,” “It’s a Christian commandment to support Israel.” And when, during the Trump presidency, Trump moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the American Embassy, Trump said — and I quote — “I did it for the evangelicals.”

So, this is a very strong political force, which brings me back to what I was saying, that we can’t be silenced when the Bible is weaponized right now to continue a genocide in the same way, because when we look at Zionism and Christian Zionism, in reality, they have contributed to the Nakba in 1948, to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, of Palestinians, many hundreds of thousands of refugees. Israel was not created on an empty land. And as a pastor, I question: Where is the concept of peace and love and justice and compassion in all of this? It’s shocking to us that many Christians don’t see even the humanity of Palestinians because of this theology.

AMY GOODMAN: Have you spoken to the lobby group Christians United for Israel? It’s one of the largest pro-Israel organizations in the United States, has something like 11 million members. The group’s annual summit largely focuses on advocating for increased U.S. military aid to Israel.

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: I’ve never spoken to them directly. I don’t think they will even recognize me as a Palestinian to speak to. It’s a very extreme group. It’s a very militarized group. And it’s shocking to me, again, that such a thing exists in our Christian thinking, because Jesus is the antithetical of all of this.

And the twisted irony in groups like Christians United for Israel is that in the end times scenarios that they fascinate about, they think of a scenario in which two-thirds — you know, when the Jews gather in Palestine, two-thirds of them will be massacred in a big Armageddon type of war, and then the other third will convert to Christianity. And somehow this group is considered pro-Israel or, you know, fighting for the Jews, when, in essence, some of their views are truly antisemitic. And rather than channeling all of these efforts and movement into peace and coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis, they’re promoting war, which, again, shocks me.

So, I hope they listen. But I also hope that people of good conscience in this country, faith leaders from different traditions, speak up against them. And many actually gathered outside of the meeting of Christians United for Israel to show their protest and to say, “Not in our name,” and I’m very grateful for that.

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, earlier this year, nearly 150 Mennonites were arrested on Capitol Hill in an act of peaceful civil disobedience as they called for immediate ceasefire in Gaza. So, clearly, the Christian community is divided on this.

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: It’s divided. And in December, in the sermon I gave in Bethlehem, I said Gaza has become the moral compass of the world. Gaza has divided the world, not on the basis of religion or ethnicity or nationality, but really on moral, ethical grounds. And it has divided even many Christians. And I think that’s a good thing, because we need to know where you stand.

And we’re certainly beginning to see many movements among faith leaders, among Christians. For the last months, many, many Christians are speaking up, conducting not just vigils, pilgrimages, walking in the street, demonstrating. As you said, some have been arrested. Even in the university encampments, I’ve seen many of my pastor friends are there supporting the students, which has actually been one of my messages, that we need to defend, support and encourage those students and be with them. To me, that’s where the street belongs, in the streets — where the church belongs, I mean. It belongs in the streets. So, we’re beginning to see a divide.

But to be honest, by and large, the majority of faith leaders, Christian leaders in particular, are still silent or not strong enough in their calls for peace, for, you know, the United States is still funding this war. You can’t just call for peace. You need to call out your political leaders. You need to speak to them. You need to put pressure on them, to say this is not ethical to continue to fund such a war or to continue to give the political cover. So, more is needed right now. I’m beginning to see some change, but with the urgency of the moment, the numbers of people being killed — 16,000, 17,000 are already — children are being killed in this war, so we can’t just resort to old calls, “Let’s pray for peace,” and hope things get well.

AMY GOODMAN: Has the Jewish opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza surprised you, the number of people in the United States, Jews who have been arrested, who have engaged in protest?

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: Yes and no. And I say no because even before this war, there has been a divide. And actually, surveys showed that, ironically, support to Israel among white evangelicals have always been stronger in the United States than that of the Jewish community. And I also say no because it’s part of the Jewish faith and tradition to be for justice. And, you know, I’ve seen the work with the civil rights in this country, particularly.

But, yes, because it’s really getting stronger and stronger. Groups like IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace and Rabbis for Ceasefire, they’re really speaking up and being well organized — and not just speaking, demonstrating. Many of them, I think, have been arrested. And I’m grateful for their clarity in their opposition to Zionism, because we need to call Zionism for what it truly is. And it’s not just that they’re standing for a ceasefire or peace right now, but they’re clear in their diagnosis of the problem. The ideology of exclusion that Zionism is promoting, and supremacy, has to be called out. And I’m grateful that many Jewish groups in the United States now and around the world is speaking up against Zionism.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you leave us with a graphic picture of Bethlehem, with your hometown, a religious site for the entire world, what it looks like? Before, you mentioned a divide. The divide right through Bethlehem itself, the physical wall.

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: Amy, for the first time in history, Bethlehem and Jerusalem are divided. Bethlehem has always been kind of the little sister of Jerusalem. I still remember vividly when I was a child and my mother used to take us to Jerusalem for shopping. It used to take us 15 minutes on a bus ride to get from Bethlehem to Jerusalem.

Right now we’re isolated. We can’t get to Jerusalem. Bethlehem is a little town besieged by a wall and Israeli settlements, colonies, suffocated in a very small area. And all the land, including the green area around us, is being confiscated by Israel, and it’s out of reach to us, meaning we can’t grow as a community. And we can’t, you know, think of a future if there is nowhere else to go. They’re clearly pushing us out of the country.

And with the isolation from Bethlehem and since October 7th the restriction of movement even to other Palestinian towns, it truly feels like a city isolated. There’s so much unemployment. And right now all it takes for Israel is to close two checkpoints, and Bethlehem becomes another Gaza, another isolated block. This is true for other Palestinian blocks, towns and villages.

AMY GOODMAN: We have 10 seconds.

REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: So, it is a really sad reality, and we’re really anxious that this war on Gaza could expand to the West Bank.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you so much for being with us, Reverend Munther Isaac, Palestinian Christian theologian, pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. He’s speaking tonight at the historic Riverside Church here in New York, his address titled “Silence Is Complicity.”

That does it for our show. To see our podcasts, video and audio, go to democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.



Gaza remains under assault. Day 314 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll rises to 40,005 with 92,401 wounded." Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

  



April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."


Lastly, Convicted Felon Donald Trump apparently is seeking more legal charges.   Writers for AXIOS know how to type, they just don't know how to think which is how you get:

Former President Donald Trump spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and discussed the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, according to two U.S. sources who were briefed on the call. 


Donald Trump is not the president.  He has not been tasked by the US government with any role.  His talks with a leader of a foreign government should not be taking place.  The government is attempting a cease-fire.  He has no legal right to be involved in this and, as we know from the Iranian hostage crisis, when fright-wing politicians enter clandestine talks with a foreign government, no one benefits.  The US Justice Dept needs to open an investigation and the press needs to be asking Donald about this.

ADDED:  This is a violation of The Logan Act, I wasn't aware people wouldn't know about this.  The Logan Act per WIKIPEDIA:

The Logan Act (1 Stat. 61318 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799) is a United States federal law that criminalizes the negotiation of a dispute between the United States and a foreign government by an unauthorized American citizen. The intent behind the Act is to prevent unauthorized negotiations from undermining the government's position.[2] The Act was passed following George Logan's unauthorized negotiations with France in 1798, and was signed into law by President John Adams on January 30, 1799. The Act was amended in 1994, changing the penalty for violation from "fined $5,000" to "fined under this title"; this appears to be the only amendment to the Act.[2] Violation of the Logan Act is a felony, punishable with imprisonment for up to three years.

Only two people have ever been indicted on charges of violating the Act,[3] one in 1802 and the other in 1852.[4] Neither was convicted.[4]


 


Some history.  In 2004, Democratic Party presidential candidate John Kerry noted in remarks that some leaders of other countries had expressed to him that they hoped he won the election.  That's not a violation of The Logan Act but Karl Rove tried to spin it as such.  Donald Trump is familiar with The Logan Act as evidenced by this 2019 report from CNN):

             President Donald Trump on Thursday accused former Secretary of State John Kerry of violating the Logan Act by taking part in negotiations with Iran’s government, which in recent days has announced it will reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal that the Trump administration pulled out of last year.

Kerry promptly denied the President’s accusation.

During an event focused on medical billing at the White House, Trump alleged that Kerry, who served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, is undermining the current administration’s efforts with Iran by participating in calls and meetings with the Iranian government.

“What I’d like to see with Iran, I’d like to see them call me. You know John Kerry speaks to them a lot. John Kerry tells them not to call. That’s a violation of the Logan Act and frankly he should be prosecuted for that,” Trump said. 


Innocent until proven guilty?  I don't go with that here.  I do call for an investigation.  

Netanyahu has publicly attacked US President Joe Biden.  For him to be plotting with Donald Trump?

Donald is a convicted felon and is someone desperate to recapture the White House.  Both of which make him more suspect than John Kerry in 2004 or in 2019.  He was found, in a court of law, to have repeatedly broken the law in order to become president in 2017 (that's what the hush money was about).  So don't give me innocent until proven guilty..  He's a convicted felon and this goes to pattern.

He needs to immediately cease all communications with any people in the Israeli government.  Antony Blinken is the person tasked by the US government with reaching a deal on a cease-fire.  Donald is not part of that effort and should not bee communicating with a foreign leader during this.  You can say "off sides" or "out of bounds," but I say "illegal."

It's amazing that AXIOS was bragging about their exclusive when all they did was type -- and type poorly.  The only reason that calls (or calls) matter is because no calls are supposed to be taking place between Donald and any foreign leader -- especially not one that the US government is currently attempting to negotiate with.

CONSORTIUM NEWS is now a joke.  But were the late Robert Parry alive, he would have grasped this issue immediately because he covered how Ronald Reagan's people interfered with then-President Jimmy Carter's efforts to free the US hostages held by Iran.  That was done to steal an election.  

Donald Trump has motive and he is a convicted felon with a record.  This is not just a type up from AXIOS followed with a "NEXT!" that you move on from.

This is a serious legal issue and also goes to national security and OOPS! Donald's record there -- stealing classified documents and refusing to return them when the FBI ordered him to -- goes to pattern as well.

This needs to be investigated immediately.  If Donald is throwing up roadblocks to a cease-fire, that impacts the people in Gaza as well as this election.  He's a convicted felon and his actions are suspect.



Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Crowd Envy" and "He Wants To Be Your Queen" went up last night.   The following sites updated:


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