Anti-War
A friend of mine who follows international developments closely recently observed that the United States and Israel have “own goaled” themselves to become widely perceived as together the two most evil governments on earth. It is a judgement that is hard to disagree with regarding the Jewish state if one examines the abundant evidence that Israel is systematically committing war crimes against the largely unarmed Palestinian civilian population in an effort to bring about ethnic cleansing or even genocide in Gaza and on the West Bank. The process would include removing the Palestinians physically and/or killing them if they resist, which is what is currently taking place. Something like 10,000 dead Palestinian children attest to the brutality and inhumanity of the effort, together with nearly 400 doctors and nurses who were directly targeted plus more than 100 UN employees trying to bring aid to the civilians. What Israel is doing is monstrous, almost unimaginable.
The vast majority of Congress members have refused to call for a ceasefire in Gaza during three months of slaughter by Israel’s military. Capitol Hill remains a friendly place for the Israeli government as it keeps receiving massive arms shipments courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.
At a time when the world seems to be sleepwalking toward nuclear disaster, a new documentary aims to shake us into recognizing the danger - just as The Day After did 40 years ago.
The director, producers and actors of The Day After will join at a theatrical grand premiere of the critically acclaimed, multi-award winning documentary Television Event in the small city where the original movie was filmed: Lawrence, Kansas -- at Liberty Hall on December 4th at 6:30 PM CT. This event will promote the forthcoming broadcasts on PBS stations coast-to-coast.
Television Event is a movie about a movie! It’s about the ABC broadcast of The Day After on November 20,1983 -- smack in the middle of the hottest period of the Cold War.
It is simply inaccurate to claim that the ongoing Israeli attempt to displace all, or many Palestinian refugees from Gaza to Sinai is a new idea, compelled by recent circumstances.
Displacing Palestinians, or as it is known in Israeli political lexicon, the ‘transfer’, is an old idea - as old as Israel itself.
The typical response in the United States to the gradual buildup to a war, or even the launching of a war, or even the launching of a war that is reported in U.S. corporate media, is absolutely nothing different: work, school, shopping, sports, movies, etc.
Among those who have some response, it’s typically based on their understanding of the particular war, shaped largely by corporate media, by the political party of the U.S. president at the time (which makes waging wars in the name of democracy even stranger), by the accumulated months or decades of related propaganda in the culture at large, and by the nature of the war itself — typically understood as if human history had begun the day the war began.
A report from ABC 3 WEAR, reports:
“Chris Lambert is a decorated Vietnam veteran whose battled PTSD for more than 40 years. Lambert’s a three-time Purple Heart recipient, all before his 20th birthday. He says after hearing reports that the suspected gunman in the Maine shooting was treated and released from a facility only weeks later, it’s clear that more long-term care for veterans is needed. However, he feels the shooting suspect’s mental health issues during his service in the military is overplayed. ‘How many people have we watched in these mass shootings and none of them are veterans,’ Lambert said. Stillm, Lambert acknowledged the suspect’s service potentially played a major role in the high number of fatalities. ‘Being a firearms instructor, how accurate he could be, I don’t care if you’re 100-50 yards and you’re jerking a little bit, you’re missing that target. But if he’s instructed and he knows how to breathe, he can take down a lot of people, and that’s tragic,’ Lambert said.”
Labels are central to the politics of media. And no label has been more powerful than “terrorist.”
A single standard of language should accompany a consistent standard of human rights, which the world desperately needs. “If thought corrupts language,” George Orwell wrote, “language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better.”
No amount of rhetoric from its defenders and apologists can change the reality that Hamas engaged in mass murder. What Hamas horrifically did to more than 1,000 Israeli civilians of all ages two weeks ago meets the dictionary definition of terrorism.
When Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations spoke outside the Security Council on Sunday, he said: “This is Israel’s 9/11. This is Israel’s 9/11.” Meanwhile, in a PBS NewsHour interview, Israel’s ambassador to the United States said: “This is, as someone said, our 9/11.”
While the phrase might seem logical, “Israel’s 9/11” is already being used as a huge propaganda weapon by Israel’s government -- now engaged in massive war crimes against civilians in Gaza, after mass murder of Israelis by Hamas last weekend.
We begin with ANDREA MILLER and RAY MCCLENDON, two of our greatest grassroots leaders, introduce their overview for how to organize on the ground with GOTV and democracy center strategies.
As godparents of the Georgia Way/Miracle, they are at the core of the work we do in preserving democracy in this country.
With JOHN STEINER and CAMILLA REES and ROBERT DESMARAIS (from New Orleans) joining in, our co-producer STEVE CARUSO gives us a first-hand report from Ohio on fascist attacks you could not make up.
TATANKA BRICCA and JOEL SEGAL jump in with their unique long-term political wisdom.
Human history is all-too-full of ghastly acts of cruelty and torment. They are our ultimate downfall.
But 80 years ago, the people of Denmark—-often a great personal risk—-saved some 8,000 Jewish Danes from occupying Nazi murderers.
On October 1-- 1943’s Jewish New Year-- Denmark's King and its underground resistance helped mobilize the nation to ferry nearly all resident Jews to safety in Sweden.
The story is complex, but among the most moving and powerful in the annals of our species.
Hitler’s Wehrmacht had occupied Denmark in 1940. Recognizing the Germans’ overpowering might and love of slaughter, the Danes watched the Nazis march into their country with little violent resistance.
Conversely, Hitler desperately needed Danish agricultural supplies. The result was an uneasy coexistence. Alone amongst the countries he occupied, Der Fuhrer abstained from slaughtering en masse the country’s Jews, who were generally well integrated into Denmark’s social mainstream.