Educate!
Education is the foundation of political change. In this section we provide news and analyses of current events that you won’t likely read or hear in the corporate media. Our sources are from organizations and independent media outlets free of corporate and government propaganda. We strongly encourage you to share these articles by email and social media so that together we create an echo chamber that overcomes the influence of the oligarchy. You will find large social media sharing buttons on the left side of each article when you open the article to read.
A Palestinian citizen and several foreign activists, including US citizens, were injured on 21 July following an assault by Israeli Jewish settlers in the town of Qusra, located south of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
WAFA news agency reported that, according to local sources, a group of settlers attacked the activists with batons and stones while they were working to plow and clear weeds from village lands.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its medics transferred two US citizens to the hospital after they were assaulted.
Jewish settlers have become increasingly bold in confiscating Palestinian land and establishing farming outposts, which are illegal not only under international law but even under Israeli law.
Kamala Harris’s Distinguished Career Of Serving Injustice
July 22, 2024
Marjorie Cohn, Consortium News.
Educate!
California, Democrats, Elections, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Police
Sen. Kamala Harris is rising in the polls after dramatically confronting former Vice President Joe Biden during the Democratic primary debate about his opposition to federally mandated busing for desegregation.
The following week, however, Harris backed away from saying that busing should always be federally mandated, calling it just one “tool that is in the toolbox” for school districts to use. When asked to clarify whether she would support federal mandates for busing, she said: “I believe that any tool that is in the toolbox should be considered by a school district.” But Biden’s poll numbers are falling as a result of Harris’s theatrical attack.
Venezuela Contra Mundum
July 22, 2024
Maria Paez Victor, Counter Punch.
Educate!
Elections, Far Right Politics, US Intervention, Venezuela
Joseph Conrad insightfully wrote in his book Lord Jim: “You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends“. The same can be said about a nation. So, it should be a clue to any observant person, that the forces of the extreme right, and those who are hoodwinked by them, lead the charge against Venezuela, with a relentless hybrid war and smear campaign.
The USA and its allies are at the head of this campaign. Their motives lie undoubtedly in the desire to take control of the nation’s immense oil reserves, plus its gas, gold and lithium. As well, the USA is imposing collective punishment on Venezuelans with illegal sanctions for daring to assert their sovereignty in deciding that only they, the Venezuelan people, in fair elections, can determine their governance.
World’s Biggest Meat And Dairy Companies Spend More On Ads Than Cutting Emissions
July 22, 2024
Clare Carlile and Brigitte Wear, DeSmog.
Educate!
Big Dairy, Big Meat, False Solutions, Food and Agriculture, greenwashing, Report
Global meat and dairy giants are investing just a fraction of their revenues into cutting emissions despite being among the world’s largest polluters, according to new estimates.
Company spending on advertising outstripped that on low-carbon solutions, the report by campaign group Changing Markets Foundation found, as corporations ramped up attempts to win consumers over with their green credentials.
The meat and dairy sector – responsible for over 14 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions – has come under increasing pressure in recent years to tackle major climate harms.
The New Merchants of Doubt, published on Thursday, examines the climate targets, lobbying records and advertising campaigns of 22 of the largest livestock companies
President Daniel Ortega On The 45th Anniversary Of Sandinista Revolution
July 21, 2024
Tortilla con Sal.
Educate!
Europe, History, Nicaragua, Sandinista Revolution, US Imperialism, Western imperialism
Here, No One Surrenders! Young people are in command and do command, the People is in command and does command, and Daniel obeys. Yes, thanks be to God that we are ready, we are prepared, and this is a task, a labor demanding a great deal of Love for Peace, and that is what Nicaraguans defend.
First of all, we Sandinistas are committed to that Principle, and too, the Nicaraguan people are also convinced that only Peace brings Well-being, Employment, Schools, Hospitals, Roads, Housing, Transportation, Entrepreneurship, Education and Free Education, because that is a Right of the People, a Right of our Families, a Right of our Young People.
International Court Of Justice Advisory Opinion On Israel
July 21, 2024
The International Court Of Justice, Scheer Post.
Educate!
Genocide, International Court of Justice (ICJ), Israel, Palestine, Settlements
In the Court’s view, the fact that an occupation is prolonged does not in itself change its legal status under international humanitarian law. Although premised on the temporary character of the occupation, the law of occupation does not set temporal limits that would, as such, alter the legal status of the occupation. Occupation consists of the exercise by a State of effective control in foreign territory. In order to be permissible, therefore, such exercise of effective control must at all times be consistent with the rules concerning the prohibition of the threat or use of force, including the prohibition of territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force, as well as with the right to self‑determination.
Israel Launches Airstrikes Against Hodeidah Port In Yemen
July 21, 2024
Aseel Saleh, People's Dispatch.
Educate!
Axis of Resistance, Israel, Wars and Militarism, Yemen
The Israeli Occupation Forces launched airstrikes on the Red Sea port of the Hodeidah Governorate, in Yemen on Saturday, July 20. The Israeli airstrikes targeted gas, oil and power facilities within the Ansar Allah-run sea port with F-35 fighter jets, according to media reports.
The Yemeni Health Ministry announced that a number of people were martyred and wounded in the attack without providing further details. The Israeli airstrikes on Yemen came around one day after Ansar Allah-led Yemeni Armed Forces launched a drone attack against the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. This was part of the military operations which the Yemeni Support Front has initiated in response to Israel’s genocidal aggression on Gaza.
Collapsing Empire: Yemen Defeats US Navy
July 21, 2024
Kit Klarenberg, Orinoco Tribune.
Educate!
Axis of Resistance, Gaza, Israel, Navy, Palestine, Red Sea, US Imperialism, US Navy, Yemen
On July 12, the Associated Press (AP) published an astonishing report, on the return of US Navy fighter pilots to Virginia after nine months of failing to thwart the righteous anti-genocide blockade of Red Sea shipping by Yemen’s Ansar Allah. The article was at pains to portray the pilots’ arrival Stateside as a heroic homecoming for courageous American flying aces. In reality, the Empire’s terminal weaknesses, and drastically ever-reducing power, were amply exposed.
AP described the pilots as “feeling relieved… after months of shooting down Houthi-launched missiles and drones off Yemen’s coast in the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II.”
Colonizers Still: It Is Time For Our Relatives’ Things To Be Returned
July 21, 2024
Charmaine White Face, Popular Resistance.
Educate!
Indigenous culture, Museums, Religious Freedom, White Culture
The word “colonizing” means it comes from someplace else and takes over an area. For example, there are such things as “colonizing plants.” These are plants that were not originally from an area, but their seeds blow in and start growing, cutting off the food and water that was for the original plants. The one that usually comes to mind for me is the Russian Thistle that grows so big with its purple flowers and thorns and can take over an area in a couple of years, killing off all the original plants.
It always makes me sad when American white people still try to tell us what to do because that is “colonization.” For human beings it means imposing a way of life, including values from another culture, onto those that have their own culture and ways of being.
Mother Nature Says Adios To Rube Goldberg US Military Pier In Gaza
July 20, 2024
Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance.
Educate!
Aaron Bushnell, Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza, Genocide Joe, Humanitarian Aid, Joe Biden, Resignations, US military
Well, I told you so. Mother Nature with her not-so-big wind and waves tore apart the multimillion-dollar temporary pier that took the U.S. military two months to be transported from a U.S. Army base on the U.S. east coast and another two months to construct like legos.
Mother Nature had to intervene not once, not twice, but three times before the U.S. government finally got the message.
The pier idea was reportedly sprung on the U.S. military in President Biden’s January State of the Union address. The risk assessment for success was probably never started, much less completed, or if it was completed, it was probably hidden in a desk drawer as the predictions would not have matched the political demand of “Do somethingto help get us out of this mess.”
Assassination Attempt On Donald Trump And Political Violence By The US
July 20, 2024
Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report.
Educate!
Assassination, Donald Trump, History, Iran, Joe Biden, Political Violence, Qassem Soleimani, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism
On January 3, 2020, Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and nine other people were killed by a United States drone strike under the orders of President Donald Trump . Soleimani was in Baghdad, Iraq to meet with Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi in order to broker a peace initiative between Iran and Saudi Arabia, two nations which had been antagonists for many years.
At the time Joe Biden was a presidential candidate and he issued a “Statement from Vice President Joe Biden on the Killing of Qassem Soleimani .” Biden said, “No American will mourn Qassem Soleimani’s passing. He deserved to be brought to justice for his crimes against American troops and thousands of innocents throughout the region. He supported terror and sowed chaos.”
In A Historic Ruling, ICJ Declares Israeli Occupation Unlawful
July 20, 2024
David Kattenburg, Mondoweiss.
Educate!
Gaza, Genocide, Human Rights, International Court of Justice (ICJ), Israel, Israeli settlements, Land Rights, Palestine, Settlements
In a scathing Advisory Opinion sure to tighten the legal screws on Israel and place its Western allies in a huge bind, the world’s supreme judicial body declared today that Israel’s 57-year occupation and settlement of the West Bank and East Jerusalem are unlawful, that both must end, that settlements must be evacuated, and that Palestinians — denied their inalienable right to self-determination – must be compensated for their losses and allowed to return to their lands.
“The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying Power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination...
NATO Accelerates Its Conflict With China
July 20, 2024
Vijay Prashad, People's Dispatch.
Educate!
China, NATO, NATO summit, New Cold War, Russia, Ukraine
At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington, the focus was on Ukraine. In the Washington Declaration, the NATO leaders wrote, “Ukraine’s future is in NATO.” Ukraine formally applied to join NATO in September 2022, but soon found that despite widespread NATO support, several member states (such as Hungary) were uneasy with escalating a conflict with Russia. As early as NATO’s 2008 Bucharest Summit, the members welcomed “Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO.”
CrowdStrike Further Tainted By Worldwide Crash
July 20, 2024
Ray McGovern, Consortium News.
Educate!
Computers, Congress, Crowdstrike, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internet, RussiaGate
House Intelligence Committee documents released Thursday reveal that the committee was told two and half years ago that the F.B.I. had no concrete evidence that Russia hacked Democratic National Committee computers to filch the DNC emails published by WikiLeaks in July 2016.
The until-now-buried, closed-door testimony came on Dec. 5, 2017 from Shawn Henry, a protege of former F.B.I. Director Robert Mueller (from 2001 to 2012), for whom Henry served as head of the Bureau’s cyber crime investigations unit.
Henry retired in 2012 and took a senior position at CrowdStrike, the cyber security firm hired by the DNC and the Clinton campaign to investigate the cyber intrusions that occurred before the 2016 presidential election.
There’s No Good Reason To Spend Nearly $1 Trillion On Our Military
July 20, 2024
Lindsay Koshgarian, In These Times.
Educate!
Finance and the Economy, Pentagon Budget, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism
If you looked at the U.S. military budget without knowing otherwise, you’d probably guess we were in the midst of World War III.
Our military spending is now the highest it’s been at any point since World War II — and Congress keeps adding more. The GOP-led House of Representatives just passed legislation that will increase military spending to $895 billion, while the Senate Armed Services Committee passed a bill that would total $923 billion.
Those totals don’t even include the military aid to Ukraine and Israel that was included in the $95 billion war package Congress passed this spring. We’re teetering closer and closer to a $1 trillion military budget.