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US Food Insecurity Rate Rose To 13.5% In 2023

September 10, 2024 Michael Long and Lara Gonçalves, Counter Punch. , , ,
The official U.S. food insecurity rate rose to 13.5% in 2023 from 12.8% in 2022, according to data the U.S. Department of Agriculture released on Sept. 4, 2024. That means more than 1 in 8 Americans – about 47 million people – couldn’t get enough food for themselves or their families at least some of the time. This is a significant increase from a recent low of 10.2% in 2021. Food insecurity grew in the two years that followed due to a sharp decline in government benefits, including money for groceries from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the program that pays for students to get lunch and breakfast for free at school.

Legal Experts: US Unilateral Economic Sanctions Violate International Law

August 13, 2024 National Lawyers Guild International Committee. , , ,
New York, NY — A new letter from legal groups, legal scholars, and attorneys calls on the Biden administration to end the use of broad unilateral economic sanctions, noting their civilian harms and illegality under international law. The letter, sent to the White House today, is signed by 38 organizations and 200 individual attorneys, including dozens of legal scholars. The letter notes that, 75 years since the signing of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the collective punishment of civilian populations as a war crime, “collective punishment is a standard practice of US foreign policy in the form of broad, unilateral economic sanctions, such as those imposed on Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran.”

Even The US Propaganda Machine Can’t Whitewash Biden’s Sordid Record

July 24, 2024 Ammiel Alcalay, Middle East Eye. , , ,
In the long shadow of the First World War, one of the greatest titles for an epochal work - Parade’s End, by Ford Madox Ford - definitively marked the final acts of the British empire, that hung on for decades until coming to total demise in, of all places, Yemen. In the same period, TS Eliot, the transplanted American, put it a little differently: “This is the way the world ends / not with a bang but a whimper.” Perhaps the current American equivalent would be “no gas left in the tank”, or “end of the line”. Unfortunately, no well-known enough North American cultural figures come to mind who might be able to describe this particular moment.

Tracking Dissent: US Officials Who Have Resigned Over The War On Gaza

July 11, 2024 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , , , ,
Support from President Joe Biden's administration for the Israeli government's war on Gaza has resulted in an unprecedented surge of dissent within United States agencies. Several officials and military officers have resigned in opposition since the Israeli military launched a massive bombardment after Hamas fighters stormed Israel on October 7, 2023. During the week of July 4, 2024, 12 individuals who resigned released a unified statement of opposition. "America’s diplomatic cover for, and continuous flow of arms to, Israel has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza," the dissenters declared.

Internal Dissent: US Military And Government Officials Demand Ceasefire

July 8, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , ,
Members of the US military, inspired by the actions of Aaron Bushnell and Larry Hebert, have launched a campaign with Veterans for Peace, Appeal to Redress V2, to encourage other active duty military to contact Congress and demand a ceasefire in Palestine. And, 12 government officials who resigned over US policy in Gaza, Palestine and Israel released a statement just before the Fourth of July on the conditions in Gaza and steps that the US government must take to end the genocide in Palestine and repression of dissent at home. Clearing the FOG speaks with a Sargent, who wishes to remain anonymous, and Alex Smith, a former USAID employee who specializes in maternal and child health and international law.

Statement Of US Government Officials Who Resigned Over Policy Toward Gaza, Palestine And Israel

July 4, 2024 Open Letter, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
We are former U.S. Government Officials who resigned from our respective positions over the last nine months due to our grave concerns with current U.S. policy towards the crisis in Gaza, and U.S. policies and practices towards Palestine and Israel more broadly. We are subject matter experts representing the interagency, and are a multifaith and multiethnic community of professionals and patriots dedicated to the service of the United States of America, its people, and its values. Whether in the civil service, foreign service, armed forces, or as political appointees, each of us has sworn an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and as our nation celebrates its Independence Day, each of us are reminded that we resigned from government not to terminate that oath but to continue to abide by it; not to end our commitment to service, but to extend it.

Third Biden Administration Appointee Resigns Over Gaza Policy

July 2, 2024 The Bharat Express News. , , , , , , ,
In 2020, Maryam Hassanein cast her vote for Joe Biden in the first presidential election she was old enough to vote in, believing he represented “hope” and an opportunity for “justice for Muslim Americans and for marginalized communities as a whole.” On Tuesday, Hassanein became the latest member of the Biden administration to publicly resign over the president’s policies on the Gaza war — and the youngest known to resign to date, at age 24. “I learned that even though the agency I work for doesn’t produce foreign policy, serving in the administration in any capacity essentially makes you complicit in the genocide of the Palestinians,” Hassanein told HuffPost of her resignation from the Interior Department, which has not previously been made public.

Top US Official On Israel-Palestine Affairs Tends ‘Surprise’ Resignation

June 23, 2024 News Desk, The Cradle. , , , , , , ,
The deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs at the US State Department, Andrew Miller, resigned from his position this week in what US media describes as a significant “setback” to the White House's efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza. Miller's colleagues told the Washington Post that he announced his departure on 21 June in a surprise move, citing his family and saying “he has seen them sparingly as the eight-month war in Gaza has become all-consuming.” Nevertheless, officials familiar with Miller described him as skeptical of President Joe Biden's "bear hug” strategy toward Israel.

Blinken’s Lies About Hamas Reveal Biden Administration’s True Intentions

June 16, 2024 Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
“The proposal that President Biden laid out 12 days ago was virtually identical to one that Hamas had accepted and put forward itself on May the 6th.  So there’s no reason why this agreement should not be reached.  The only reason would be Hamas continuing to try to change the terms.” So said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in an interview with Al Jazeera on Wednesday. The statement is part of an extended campaign of deception that Blinken has spearheaded. It featured President Joe Biden’s dramatic unveiling of a ceasefire proposal, followed by a U.N. Security Council resolution and Blinken’s latest tour of the Middle East — all ostensibly to reach a ceasefire.

Appeal In Biden Gaza Genocide Case Heard Today

June 11, 2024 Center for Constitutional Rights. , , , , , , ,
June 10, 2024, San Francisco, CA – Today before a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Palestinians from Gaza and Palestinian-Americans with family in Gaza argued that the courts have a constitutional obligation to hear their claims that President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Austin violated their legal duty to prevent – and are complicit in – Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The lower court had found a plausible case of genocide and urged the Biden administration to reexamine its “unflagging support” for Israel’s siege of Gaza, but dismissed the lawsuit in January, finding it was not the court’s place to rule on what it determined was a “political question.”

The Biden Administration Must Stop Israel Before It Escalates In Lebanon

June 8, 2024 Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss. , , , , , ,
“If Hezbollah chooses to start an all-out war, then it will single-handedly turn Beirut and South Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Younis.” Those were the blustery words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, back in December. Since then, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire on a consistent basis, with some minor intensifications of fighting along the way, but have both been careful about escalating the confrontation. Now, however, it seems that a more significant escalation may be at hand. On Tuesday, Israeli Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi made a public statement, saying that “We are approaching the point where a decision will have to be made, and the IDF is prepared and very ready for this decision… we are prepared … to move to an attack in the North.”

Doctors Demand Biden End Solitary Confinement In Immigration Prisons

June 7, 2024 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. , , , , ,
Hundreds of physicians and other health professionals are demanding the Biden administration end the use of solitary confinement in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prisons. The letter comes after reports of multiple suicide attempts by immigrants incarcerated at a privately run ICE facility made national headlines. President Joe Biden pledged on the 2020 campaign trail to end solitary confinement in federal prisons “with very limited exceptions,” and time for change could be running out. Reliance on solitary confinement in ICE jails and prisons — the extremely dangerous and potentially deadly practice of isolating people in tiny cells for weeks, months and even years at time — would likely explode in scope if former President Trump wins the November election and attempts to implement an unprecedented crackdown on undocumented families.

The ICC Takes On Israel And The US Congressional Mafia

May 29, 2024 Medea Benjamin, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
Senator Lindsay Graham was bursting with contempt for the International Criminal Court (ICC) when he grilled Secretary of State Blinken at a May 21 Congressional hearing. Wagging his finger, he warned that, if the ICC gets away with issuing arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, “we are next.”  The audience at the hearing, stacked with CODEPINK pro-Palestine supporters, burst out in applause at the notion of the US being hauled before the world’s highest court. “You can clap all you want,” an angry Graham retorted, “but they tried to come after our soldiers in Afghanistan.”

Biden Administration Working With Social Media Companies To Limit Pro-Palestinian Content

May 25, 2024 Ken Klippenstein, Substack. , , , ,
The Biden administration has publicly admitted that it is working with tech companies to “limit Hamas's use of online platforms, including social media,” part of a campaign to suppress pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel sentiment. Though there has been much speculation that the federal government is pressuring social media companies to police their networks, this is the first official confirmation of its counterterrorism efforts. A little-noticed readout for a May 15 Hague meeting between the State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism Elizabeth Richard and other governments said that Richard “updated the group on U.S. efforts to engage tech companies in voluntary collaboration to limit Hamas’ use of online platforms, including social media, for terrorist purposes.”

DeJoy Agrees To Pause Consolidations At Dozens Of USPS Facilities

May 18, 2024 Eric Katz, Government Executive. , , , , ,
The U.S. Postal Service is pausing some of the most controversial reforms to its mailing network as its leadership has agreed to the demands of a growing, bipartisan chorus in Congress. The mailing agency has halted its plans to consolidate dozens of processing facilities until at least Jan. 1, 2025, ensuring the network overhaul is paused until after the upcoming presidential election in which millions of Americans will be voting by mail. A large swath of lawmakers across the ideological spectrum have called on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to delay or cease the changes, some of which would shift the bulk of mail processing across state lines.
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