Just about everyone in the country knew when there was a mass-shooting killing eighteen people last month in Maine, but there was very little coverage about the fact that in the local area many people were ordered to "shelter-in-place" and it's possible that they could have been charged with a crime for normal everyday activities, in a state of virtual martial law. This was reported briefly when it was lifted, Maine officials lift shelter-in-place order as search for mass shooting suspect continues 10/27/2023, but few people knew about this outside of Maine, even in neighboring states. There was a similar situation in Pennsylvania when Danilo Cavalcante escaped and was on the run for two weeks, as reported by many sources including Escaped Pennsylvania killer Danilo Cavalcante taken into custody after he was subdued by a police dog. 09/13/2023 However, once again, there were few reports about possible violations of rights of citizens, although if you watched closely during the obsession coverage you might have seen the police pulling people over and searching their cars during that period, a possible violation of fourth amendment rights, which are no longer well enforced, assuming they ever were.
The most extreme example, at least that I can remember in recent history, was after the Boston Bombing about ten years ago, when some people warned that it could be a greater danger including In marathon bombing's aftermath, martial law is greatest threat (Column) 04/24/2013, but this has been mostly forgotten. That case, plus the escaped convicted murderer both involved foreign policy indirectly. The Boston Bombing was incited by mass murder of Muslims in other countries angering immigrants; and the escaped murderer came from Brazil, where he committed his first murder, which was an exceptionally violent country with high murder rates, partly because of our foreign policy history, which has overthrown many Democratic governments. However, the vast majority of mass murders or other panic situations are domestic mass murders or other crimes; and whether it's related to foreign policy or not, we have good credible research showing how to make these incidents much less likely without resorting to controversial activities that threaten our rights. Unfortunately even though this research is in alternative media, books that get very little promotion, or academic journals, they're almost never covered in mainstream media or used to make policy decisions that could make these panic situation much less likely.
Now there's increased panic about possible "terrorist attacks" as reported in FBI Director Christopher Wray warns Congress of terror threats inspired by Hamas' attack on Israel 10/31/2023 which says "Washington — FBI Director Chris Wray warned Congress Tuesday that Hamas' terror attacks on Israel could motivate threats similar to those posed by ISIS in years past, according to law enforcement assessments, but he cautioned there is no indication Hamas itself intends to or has the capacity to conduct attacks in the U.S." This warning was repeated again numerous times in the past few days as well as similar warnings when our government has been involved in wars abroad for decades.
So far it's been very rare for these terrorist attacks to materialize, although most of the public often trusts our government when they stir up panic, and there have been a few exceptions, most notably the 9/11/2001 attack, which we weren't warned about, and many much smaller attacks, including the Boston Bombing, the San Bernadino mass shooting, the Orlando mass shooting, and a few others, but if you search through lists of mass shootings those inspired by foreign military engagements make up a small fraction of them.If anything, it should be surprising that these retaliation attacks aren't much more common; because, although those relying on traditional media might not know it, all the wars we've been involved in since World War II, if not ever, have been based on lies, and our victims know it. On top of that there have been dozens of coups supported by our government since World War II, mostly involving the CIA, and in many cases they've lead to death squads within the countries overthrown partly by the CIA. A few of the most widely known are Iraq 1953, Guatemala 1954, Congo 1960-1, and Chile 1972. These were all followed by tyrannical governments that terrorized their own people, while helping American corporations increase profits, and there are many more that didn't get as much attention, especially in mainstream media.
One of the most important things we need to protect democracy is accurate information about important issues, which we don't have in this country, at least not from traditional media that most people rely on. Fortunately other sources are available, although most people never heard of them, including the fact that we fight all wars based on lies and that our country does fight wars abroad to defend democracy at all, including the conflict in Israel, and the most important causes of violence at home, both of which I covered in at least a couple previous articles and will cover more below.
And for more reliable information about these wars based on lies there are many books exposing them that get no promotion from traditional media, often that are available free online like "Killing Hope" by William Blum 2003, which lists a large number of undemocratic interventions in foreign countries against the will of local people, and often leading to death squads terrorizing the people; Vincent Bevins "The Jakarta Method" 2020, which covers some of the same coups in more detail showing how countries in South America imitated tactics in Jakarta Indonesia; Kwame Nkrumah, "Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism" 1965; which describes how former Colonialist powers changed their tactics and instead of occupying countries themselves arranged for puppet leaders in their place, and often staged fake elections to make them look democratic; James Carroll "House of War" 2006 describing how the author was raised in a military family, a son of a General, and came to the realization that our government wasn't defending freedom, but corporate power, and wrote about inciting wars relentlessly; Alan Friedman "Spider's Web" 1993, which exposes how the Reagan/Bush administrations armed Iraq, with the help of the United Kingdom, Italy, and an Italian Bank, providing the funds and weapons used to invade Kuwait creating an unnecessary war; and "The Merchants of Death" H. C. Engelbrecht and F. C. Hanighen 1937, which is a classic exposing how weapons manufacturers set the stage for a constant state of war putting profits ahead of lives, peace and Democracy. All these books are now available free online, and get almost no media promotion from mainstream news, yet they do a much better job explaining the history of war and how to avoid it than MSM, which is essentially a corporate propaganda organization supporting war when wealthy people profit from it. And of course, there are many more good books besides them, which don't get promoted by traditional media, although they're not all available free.
A few other good books include Susan Williams "White Malice" 2021, which describes the coup in Congo as well as several other conflicts in Africa and Neo-Colonialism practices; Tom Burgis "The Looting Machine" 2015 which also describes Neo-Colonialism and the looting of Africa; and Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration 2021 by Aviva Chomsky, which also describes Neo-Colonialism in Central America, although she uses the term Neo-Liberalism, and she explains how it lead to our immigration problems and their high rates of violence and crime even after wars end, which were caused by intervention from our country. Her Amazon description says "Focusing on the valiant struggles for social and economic justice in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras, Chomsky restores these vivid and gripping events to popular consciousness. Tracing the roots of displacement and migration in Central America to the Spanish conquest and bringing us to the present day, she concludes that the more immediate roots of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras lie in the wars and in the US interventions of the 1980s and the peace accords of the 1990s that set the stage for neoliberalism in Central America."
Aviva Chomsky's book is important in several ways because in addition to reporting on intervention by the United States in Central America she also explains how overthrowing democratic governments, or in some cases, trying to do so, leads to much higher rates of violence and crime which also contributes to the high number of immigrants from Central America. Once you understand this, you can look at the political activities in many more countries, especially those in the Americas south of the border and recognize the same pattern applies to them as well, in a few occasions, those that did the best job standing up to intervention by the United States, are the least violent, relatively speaking. According to Wikipedia: List of countries by intentional homicide rate almost all the countries with the highest murder rates are former colonies of European countries, or suffered from intervention by the United States, or in many cases both, especially in the Americas. One of the least violent countries in the Americas is Cuba, which is the country most successful at preventing US control of their economy. Nicaragua also overthrew their puppet governors, the Samozas, and even though it's more violent than Cuba it's less violent than the majority of the Americas south of the border, and Bolivia, which recently had several progressive governments, including by Evo Morales, and after the 2019 coup was reversed another of his allies, is even less violent than Cuba, and only a handful of small countries plus Canada, which has a much better health care, education system, and many other social programs than any other country in the Americas, including the United States, are less violent than Bolivia; and even though the United States isn't as violent as most of the countries they intervened in, which have fewer social services than the United States, the USA still has higher murder rates than about fourteen countries in the Americas, including a few they intervened in. Since there's evidence showing that our intervention is a contributing factor in high rates of violence south of the border that implies that it's indirectly responsible for the violence in Brazil, possibly including Danelo Cavalcante, who caused the panic in Pennsylvania in September.
In most cases the same root causes of violence effect all cultures, although some of the details vary. Many countries in Europe do a much better job addressing them, and most of them aren't related to foreign intervention, at least not in Europe any more. But, here in the United States, and the countries south of the border the intervention of the United States has a major impact. Some of this also impacts our own country, with veterans who are more likely to be involved in mass shootings, which could lead to panic situations where the police infringe on our rights in cases of emergency, as David Swanson helps point out. David Swanson has been tracking the percentage of mass shooters that were also military veterans, since 2017, based on a Mother Jones’ database, which was not created for this purpose, but based on shootings that killed three or more people, which is more stringent than other definitions where a mass shooting is one that kills or injures four or more people, in most cases not killing anyone. His latest article on the subject Washington Post Reports on Gun Suicides and Veterans, Still Refuses to Mention Veterans and Mass Shootings 10/31/2023 points out that 40 out of 127 mass shootings that meet this criteria, counting only shooters between the age of 18 and 59, are veterans, which now comes to 31% of the population, even though veterans only make up about a quarter of that percentage of the population in that age range. When it comes to people over sixty the percentage is much higher, of course. Swanson points out that when he first tracked this it was 34% of mass shooters and rose to 36% of the population before dropping to 31% of the population, but the percent of the population that are veterans is dropping faster than the percentage of mass shooters who are veterans.
However, mass shootings are only a fraction of all shootings or murders, although they're much more likely to result in panic situations where police infringe on people's civil rights. David Swanson has pointed out that few if any other organizations, including Mother Jones, tries to study this, which I've found is mostly true when I did my own research into the subject almost ten years ago when I wrote States with high murder rates have larger veteran populations and Teach a soldier to kill and he just might, both of which used the best research available that I could find at the time as well as some additional research of my own, including a long list of murders by veterans. David Swanson rightfully points out that some of the mass shooters might have been veterans even though he wasn't able to document them; however, most mass shooters get much more attention than lower profile murders, often killing family members or other veterans, so it's unlikely that he missed many, but it's virtually guaranteed that many more than I found were also veteran murders, since the media doesn't report on most murders nearly as thorough as mass shootings.
As I said, it's very rare for big institutions to study this, for one reason or another, but there have been a few exceptions, which I covered in the articles cited in the previous paragraph, including "Lethal Warriors," a series of newspaper articles which was turned into a book by David Philips; another series of articles by the New York Times where they collected articles of over a hundred veterans arrested for murder in a short period of time, but by their own admission was far from complete, so it couldn't be used for statistical purposes; and one of two statistical studies by The Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics comparing the percentage of prisons that were veterans, which they found to be somewhat low, at least in the headlines about the studies, but as I explained in my previous articles the actual reports found some flaws with those headlines, and I found several more, including preferential treatment for veterans enabling them to get shorter sentences, and the fact that most veterans are recruited from rural areas that are much less violent and most murders are much more likely to happen in abandoned inner cities.
If the veteran murders that I found were complete, which it certainly isn't, then it might have shown that if you compared veteran rates with murder rates then veterans might have been less likely to commit murder than non-veterans, but only modestly. Since it's not complete or peer reviewed this isn't a guarantee; but if it were then it would almost certainly show that veterans are more likely to commit murder than non-veterans throughout the country; however, since veterans are mostly recruited from less violent rural areas, if you compare the rates with those areas the difference would almost certainly be much higher. This is all the more reason why the academic world, FBI and military should do a more thorough study; but there's little chance they will, because they probably suspect the results and don't want to report on this problem, avoiding the conclusion that wars abroad are a contributing factor to violence at home, which I have no doubt is true.
This is just one of many contributing causes to violence which makes these panic situations more likely; and there's plenty of research showing what the other factors are, but they've virtually never reported in traditional media, nor is the best research used to make policy decisions by politicians; instead policy decisions seem to be made based on flawed beliefs by politicians or their campaign donors, which also enrich campaign donors increasing income inequality, which is one of the leading causes for violence. One of the most important contributing factors of violence, which I've covered repeatedly, is early child abuse including the use of corporal punishment which correlates with other forms of violence. In one of my previous articles Research On Preventing Violence Absent From National Media I pointed out the fact that the states that still allow corporal punishment in schools, and for the most part use it more at home as well, always have had higher murder rates than those not using it, going back to at least 1991, based on FBI crime rates. In 1992 there was only about a 2% difference; this rose steadily until breaking a record in 2019 with a rate of 6.07 per 100,000 in states that still allow corporal punishment compared to only 4,22 in states not allowing it. Other academic researchers, who I've cited in past articles, have also confirmed that child abuse and corporal punishment teaches violence later in life. In the vast majority of cases children abused or receiving corporal punishment don't immediately resort to violence, but they do learn to use it more later in life, which explains the higher murder rates. In most cases rates of violence seem to decline five to fifteen years after banning corporal punishment in schools and the longer it's banned the lower rates of violence they have, but this isn't the only contributing factor of violence, of course.
Other major contributing causes of violence often have a major impact on abandoned inner cities, where there are few educational or economic opportunities for people living in slums, especially minorities. The media often implies it's the fault of the poor living in these areas, but policy decisions by the rich are responsible for depriving them of reasonable opportunities and forcing many people into desperate situations. There are numerous studies, including some simple ones I did my self, as well as peer reviewed ones from traditional academics, showing that other contributing causes or risk factors for violence include income inequality, poverty, lack of child care, education or employment opportunities, gambling, union busting and other factors, including even insurance, which provides an incentive for crime or murder all increase violence. I've done numerous articles on these issues listed at Contributing causes to crime and how to prevent them.
In addition to those studies there are other studies that show it's far less expensive to house the homeless than it is to ignore the problem and allow social problems to escalate; there are many of these studies in the United States, but the best one may come from Finland where they adopted a housing first program which saves about $17,600 as I pointed out in Machiavellian Ideology Ignores Real Science, which includes several links to peer reviewed studies. This article also covers studies about drug treatment including Portugal's efforts to decriminalize drug abuse and treat it. Most of the studies from that article don't focus on financial savings, but they show they save an enormous amount of lives, keep people out of prison, and prevent many social problems from escalating, which no doubt will save a lot more than it costs as well. Even though the studies I covered previously don't address financial savings this article does, Substance Abuse Prevention Dollars and Cents: A Cost-Benefit Analysis and it says:
1.2. Savings From Effective School-Based Substance Abuse Prevention
If effective prevention programs were implemented nationwide, substance abuse initiation would decline for 1.5 million youth and be delayed for 2 years on average. It has been well established that a delay in onset reduces subsequent problems later in life (Grant & Dawson, 1997; Lynskey et al., 2003). In 2003, an estimated:
* 8 percent fewer youth ages 13 to 15 would not have engaged in binge drinking
* 11.5 percent fewer youth would not have used marijuana
* 45.8 percent fewer youth would not have used cocaine
* 10.7 percent fewer youth would not have smoked regularly
The average effective school-based program in 2002 costs $220 per pupil including materials and teacher training, and these programs could save an estimated $18 per $1 invested if implemented nationwide. Nationwide, full implementation of school-based effective programming in 2002 would have had the following fiscal impact:
* Saved State and local governments $1.3 billion, including $1.05 billion in educational costs within 2 years
* Reduced social costs of substance-abuse–related medical care, other resources, and lost productivity over a lifetime by an estimated $33.5 billion
* Preserved the quality of life over a lifetime valued at $65 billion
These aren't the only studies saying that show solving problems before they escalate, another article of mine Burying violence prevention education, including Crumbly shooting, is routine! reviewed these studies as well as studies on child care and how much money they save, especially for at risk parents, and some studies show that for every dollar spent on child care at least seven dollars are save on other social problems by preventing them from escalating, and other studies have shown they might save as much as sixteen dollars for every dollar spent on child care. All these early social problems which are far less expensive than dealing with increased social problems also help solve many other issues, including Epidemic of abandoned babies & possibly mothers, which is far worse in the United States than in Europe, like many other social problems, because they do a much better job funding many problems before they escalate.
Then why aren't all these solutions which have been proven to work being implemented?
Furthermore, in most cases the research showing how to solve many social problems is decades old and has been getting consistently better as more research is done, as I have pointed out in several articles including We're Using Children For Research, Without Accepting The Benefits! which cites several sources, including Lisbeth Schorr "Within Our Reach" 1988, thirty-five years ago, and provides many more studies about how helping at risk families saves much more money than it costs. There have been many other research books going back decades if not over a century, before her book, although in most cases the most recent research improves on past research, including research since her book, yet politicians don't base important decisions on this research, nor does the media inform the public about this research.
The clear answer seems to be that those that control powerful organizations, mostly a small percentage or the public which happen to be very wealthy and control corporations and media, don't want to educate the public or look out for the best interest of the majority, otherwise they already would have done so. I pointed this out in Conclusive Proof Showing Democracy In The USA Is A Lie! which shows dozens of polls and when it comes to most polls related to fiscal issues a large majority of the public is clearly on one side of the issue, but campaign donors are on the other side and the political establishment always takes the side of campaign donors. The exceptions are social issues which might have politicians on both sides of the issue, or when it comes to fiscal issues, one exception might be spending on infrastructure, which Biden finally increased, but perhaps not until it was so bad that it impacted the profits of the wealthy so it was the rare case where campaign donors are on the same side as the public. In most cases these polls impact issues that could help solve social problems, reduce violence, and save money at the same time, like the studies I mentioned above. Some of this includes increased spending for child care which I mentioned above, but all of them would reduce epidemic levels of income inequality and white collar crime, which would reduce social problems and crime.
This clearly indicates that our government isn't nearly as Democratic as we've been led to believe. Instead of a Democracy we have a Machiavellian Plutocracy where the rich control the information we use to make important decisions, while the best research to solve many problems, including to help reduce violence and make panic situations like mass shootings much less common, is not presented to the public or used to solve problems. The same also goes to wars in foreign countries where the truth is often buried until it's too late, including the conflicts in both Ukraine and Gaza, where the media has provided the public with an incredibly biased and selective view of the facts.
In both the Ukrainian and Gaza/Israel cases I found that alternative media outlets were far more reliable than traditional media, and in some cases traditional media didn't report on many important details until they were pressured to but still presented a very biased view. I didn't agree with Putin's invasion of Ukraine or Hamas's raid in Israel, but there were important facts about both situations traditional media refused to report properly, and both of them could have been prevented; on top of that, they weren't unprovoked, as our government and media try to claim. When Russia invaded Ukraine traditional media hardly reported on the fact that this followed an eight year civil war, portraying it as unprovoked as I pointed out in If You Care About Children, It Must Include Victims Of Both Russia & the USA where I started by pointing out the double standard, which is very common, of being outraged by the murder of some children by our enemies, while covering up the murder of children, often much worse, by our allies, including Israel. That article pointed out that even though traditional media wasn't covering it, other sources were and they showed that the civil war began because of protests following the former president's refusal to accept a loan that would require austerity suppressing workers rights. The protest that led to the coup was supported by Neo-Nazis, which were a relatively small percentage of the population, but a large percentage of those trying to overthrow the government, and Victoria Nuland. After the revolution or coup, workers rights groups, socialists, and communists, were deprived of their rights and often attacked and killed in the civil war. I went into this more in Which Alternative Ukrainian Reality Is Real? which also explains that without the intervention of Biden and Nuland the coup and civil war never would have happened, nor would the Russian invasion, and if they allowed reasonable negotiations they could have ended the war long ago.
There are some similarities with the war between Israel and Gaza for the past two months, which is mostly based on a narrow acknowledgement of history. Not only could this recent conflict have been prevented, but so could many previous wars, as I pointed out in World War II Could & Should Have Been Avoided, Zionists May Have Been Partly Responsible which focuses largely on the "Transfer Agreement" where Zionists agreed to abandoned plans to boycott Germany as early as 1933, especially if they had help from other sources, but by abandoning that boycott they may have enabled Hitler's economy to recover and even unwittingly financing it indirectly. That article also includes some discussion of other ways the war and Holocaust could have been prevented, including if wealthy people hadn't been sympathetic to Hitler, and even considers what could have happen if God, assuming he exists, had provided advice to teach people to get along, instead of inspiring multiple religions and watching while they fight and kill each other. If that had happened, no doubt the recent conflict never would have happened either.
After that article and the recent war broke out I pointed out how Israel and Zionist supporters were ignoring many aspects of history in USA & Israel Are Intentionally Creating Permanent Conflict, Based on Lies! which also points out the (Wikipedia) Nakba and constant oppression by Israel of the Palestinians showing the October 7 attack was far from unprovoked and that, once again Israel was killing far more people than Hamas, the vast majority who were not involved in the October 7. When I first posted that there were only about five thousand Palestinians killed in response to the October 7 attack and few of them were involved in the attack, while over two thousand of them were children. Now the total is about fifteen thousand Palestinians killed with over six thousand of them children. Initially there were only 27 children killed on the October 7 attack, this may have grown to at least 29, recently then after several child hostages died, possibly from Israeli air raids, it may have risen from there, possibly to about 35, which is too high, but not nearly as high as the 6,000 children killed by Israel.
Since then I found one of the sources for some of the videos that I cited in the previous article which actually came from Tantura (2022) 1080p HD a documentary about Nakba in a seaside village where witnesses and participants admitted to it. yet the Israeli government, our government, traditional media, and many other supporters of Zionism are almost in total denial about this. The result is that the most important decisions are based on lies, and this has costed thousands of lives recently, and past lies cost millions of lives!
If we want to prevent wars based on lies and other atrocities that make panic situations that may infringe on our rights we have to have a media which does a much better job reporting the truth!
There's much more to the Israel conflict which I haven't got to, but I will in a follow up article; but for now alternative media, if you sort through the best ones, is much more credible than traditional media.
In the meantime the following are more sources for this article, including some about the Israel conflict:
Wikipedia: Tantura massacre
Wikipedia: List of wars involving Israel
List of Mass Shootings
Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2021 05/24/2022
A list of mass killings, active shooter incidents in the United States since January 10/26/2023
US Mass Shootings, 1982–2023: Data From Mother Jones’ Investigation 10/26/2023 First posted in Dec. 2012, updated regularily when new mass shootings happen
ABC News Report Claims No Past Mass Shooters Have Been Veterans; At Least 31% Have Been 10/28/2023
Sexual assault center at Canadian university signs onto open letter that DISPUTES women were raped and sexually assaulted during Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel 11/17/2023
Anti-Defamation League Maps Jewish Peace Rallies With Antisemitic Attacks 11/0/2023 American Jews have mobilized several thousand Jews across the U.S. to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. ADL calls these Jewish organizations “hate groups.”
At Anti-Israel March in D.C., Explicit Expressions of Support for Terror and Antisemitism 11/04/2023
The Shift: March for Israel 11/16/2023 Thousands gathered in Washington this week to support Israel. The Israeli Consulate announced 290,000 people attended, while estimates show they were off by about 265,000. Still, support for Israel from elected officials was clear. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) live-tweeted the proceedings but remained suspiciously silent during Pastor John Hagee’s speech. It would take too long to run through every infamous thing this man has said, so let’s just cover the ones that might be relevant to, say, the Anti-Defamation League: He once said, “God sent Hitler to help Jews reach the Promised Land.“ He once said the Antichrist is a “half-Jew homosexual.” He once said The Holocaust happened because Jews disobeyed God. He once said The Holocaust happened because Jews defied Zionism. He once said a peace deal in the Middle East will be the work of the Antichrist.
He Claimed God Sent Hitler to Create Israel. Now He’s Speaking at the Pro-Israel Rally. What? 11/14/2023 “God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land,” the pastor claimed in a 1999 sermon. (He apologized almost a decade later, saying that “I grappled with the vexing question of why a loving God would allow the evil of the Holocaust to occur…I regret if my Jewish friends felt any pain as a result.”) After Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 2,000 people, Hagee blamed it on gay people. “There was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.” (He later semi-apologized, saying, “Neither I nor any other person can know the mind of God concerning Hurricane Katrina. I should not have suggested otherwise.”)
“When my grandmother arrived here in Israel….” 11/03/2023 “When my grandmother arrived here in Israel, after the holocaust, the Jewish agency promised her a house. She had nothing. Her whole family had been exterminated. She waited a long time, living in a tent in a very precarious position. They then took her to Ajami in Jaffa, in a wonderful house on the beach. She saw that on the table there were still the plates of the Palestinians who had lived there, and who had been driven away. She returned to the agency and said “take me back to my tent, I’ll never do to someone else that which has been done to me.” This is my heredity, but not everybody made that choice. How can we become that which we were oppressed by? This is a great question.“ Hadar Morag, Israeli Director.
800+ Legal Scholars Say Israel May Be Perpetrating 'Crime of Genocide' in Gaza 10/18/2023
“A Textbook Case of Genocide”: Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal Decries Israel’s Assault on Gaza 10/16/2023
Young Israelis Are Clueless About the Occupation. This Activist Wants to Change That 01/02/2023
Young Israelis are clueless about the occupation. A reality TV star is trying to change that. 01/06/2023
Ben-Gurion’s Notorious Quotes: Their Polemical Uses & Abuses 10/04/2006 True quote confirmed along with the following: “If I knew that it was possible to save all the children of Germany by transporting them to England, and only half by transferring them to the Land of Israel, I would choose the latter, for before us lies not only the numbers of these children but the historical reckoning of the people of Israel.” Ben-Gurion (Quoted on pp 855-56 in Shabtai Teveth’s Ben-Gurion in a slightly different translation). “If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?” David Ben-Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister): Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp121. “We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population? ‘Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said ‘ Drive them out! ‘ “ Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979. Partition: “after the formation of a large army in the wake of the establishment of the state, we will abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine “ — Ben Gurion, p.22 “The Birth of Israel, 1987” Simha Flapan.
J’Accuse – An Open Letter to Hamas Apologists 10/30/2023 Includes very selective claims and outright lies, including several references to large number of beheaded babies and other exagerations or unconfirmed claims.
Critical Replies: Stephen RhymerView Stephen Rhymer’s profile • 3rd+ --chef, journalist, political operative, yogi 15m I accuse Hamas of unspeakable crimes against humanity. Full Stop. I accuse Israel of using The Holocaust as a blank check to do whatever they want to Palestinians with no fear of sanction. I accuse Israel of blockading Gaza from getting essential materials and services for 17 years. I accuse Israel of indiscriminately bombing Gaza, senselessly killing people and using bombs to make the rubble dance. I accuse Palestinians and Israelis of acting like the Hatfields and McCoys, fighting a war that should have ended decades ago. There will be no winner in this war. There will only be killing and destruction. No one will get out alive.; _________ Justice PercellView Justice Percell’s profile • 3rd+ Software Developer at Sevatec, Inc. 7m You do not have a right to force religion on anyone. You do not want anyone to force religion on you. Freedom of religion is a human right. Israel is a violation of multiple human rights. The declaration of Israel in 1948 caused wars and untold human death and destruction, which is continuing to this day. Those who support Israel are promoting the suffering that Israel creates. Death and suffering will continue until Israel is abolished, which will happen, because there are 8 billion people on the planet who don't want religion forced on them, and who recognize that a state for Jewish people is nothing but an attempt to force religion on others. That is the ultimate act of terrorism. --Justice Percell, author of "Israel Does Not Have a Right to Exist".
J’Accuse – An Open Letter to Hamas Apologists Daniel Wolf / LinkedIn 10/30/2023 shared on 11/01/2023
“When my grandmother arrived here in Israel….” 11/03/2023 “When my grandmother arrived here in Israel, after the holocaust, the Jewish agency promised her a house. She had nothing. Her whole family had been exterminated. She waited a long time, living in a tent in a very precarious position. They then took her to Ajami in Jaffa, in a wonderful house on the beach. She saw that on the table there were still the plates of the Palestinians who had lived there, and who had been driven away. She returned to the agency and said “take me back to my tent, I’ll never do to someone else that which has been done to me.” This is my heredity, but not everybody made that choice. How can we become that which we were oppressed by? This is a great question.“ Hadar Morag, Israeli Director.
Israel-Gaza conflict: Latest news as hostage explains why she shook Hamas militant's hand 10/25/2023 When asked why she turned to shake hands with one of the Hamas militants as he turned her over to the Red Cross, she replied that they had treated her "with softness and supplied all our needs". "We told them, no politics," she said of conversations they tried to have with their captors. "We didn’t answer them [on politics]. They talked about all kinds of things. They were very friendly to us. They took care of all of our needs; this must be said to their credit. We ate what they did."
Freed Israeli grandmother, Yocheved Lifshitz, is a peace activist who helped sick Gazans, grandson says 10/23/2023
READ: Full Transcript of Fatima Mousa Mohammed’s Antisemitic Speech at CUNY Law School 06/13/2023
A growing number of reports indicate Israeli forces responsible for Israeli civilian and military deaths following October 7 attack 10/22/2023 Electronic Intifada published a long interview with Yasmin Porat, describing how she was held hostage by Palestinian militants in Kibbutz Be’eri. According to her account, the kidnappers treated her and other hostages “humanely,” believing they would be allowed to retreat safely to Gaza due to the protection of the Israeli captives. However, when the Israeli soldiers arrived, “they eliminated everyone, including the hostages. There was very, very heavy crossfire.”
How did the Hamas enter the most secured and sophisticated Israel border? 10/29/2023 They also revealed how the borders between Israel and Gaza are the most heavily secured borders anywhere on Earth. High tech sensors alert the Israeli Defense Forces from the moment that even a small animal approaches the border Yet hundreds of Hamas fighters were not only able to approach the border, but they blew up the fences, they entered Israeli territory and started destroying homes and burning down villages and killing Israeli people without any semblance of defense by the Israeli military. Turns out that shortly before this attack, the government had ordered the removal of all military presence from that area. Hamas was literally given a free pass to enter and start their operation. In the next videos you will hear former members of the Israeli Defense Force explain that something very, very concerning ... I served as an Infantry Operations Sergeant during Operation Protective Edge (2014) in Gaza. I was in the Logistics Support during the 2014 Gaza war. Listen carefully, there is no way in the world that anyone can approach the border without us knowing about it!! The observers sit in the bunkers and cannot move their eyes. They look at the screen constantly. A pigeon or stork that approaches the border immediately alerts all the forces in the sector!! There is no way in hell that they didn’t see 400 men with tractors come. October 7, 2023 this is Efrat Fenigson, and I’m here to share an update from Israel Hamas war, which started this morning 1:47
🇮🇱 Israel-Hamas War - An Update 10/07/2023 Transcript
Netanyahu Accused of 'Genocidal Intentions' in Gaza After 'Holy Mission' Speech 10/30/2023
Netanyahu declaring invasion: "You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible" 1 Samuel 15:3 "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" 10/28/2023
1 Samuel - Chapter 15 3 Now, go and crush Amalek; put him under the curse of destruction with all that he possesses. Do not spare him, but kill man and woman, babe and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." '
Does anyone want to ask Zionists if anti-Zionist Jews being told they should have been ‘put in gas chambers’ and that ‘Hitler made a mistake’ falls under antisemitism?: Zionazism is the new Nazism 10/02/2023
Israeli forces shot their own civilians, kibbutz survivor says 10/16/2023
How 'Israel' likely killed its own settlers on October 7: The Grayzone 10/27/2023 The Grayzone publishes a report that covers various incidents, evidence, and testimonies that showcase Israeli fingerprints all over the killing and burning of settlers in the Gaza Envelope.
What really happened on 7th October? 10/24/2023 Evidence is now emerging that up to half the Israelis killed were combatants; that Israeli forces were responsible for some of their own civilian deaths; and that Tel Aviv disseminated false ‘Hamas atrocities’ stories to justify its devastating air assault on Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Report: 7 October testimonies strike major blow to Israeli narrative 11/02/2023
New evidence that IDF shelled Israeli citizens on Oct. 7, killing over a hundred 10/29/2023 Tuval Escapa, Yasmin Porat Jewish Israeli witnesses
'Not in our name': the Jewish New Yorkers speaking out against 'dehumanisation' of Palestinians 10/20/2023 Murphy is concerned that a false dichotomy is being created, whereby “you either support terrorism or you support the state of Israel”, she says. ... “War crimes by one party do not justify war crimes by another,” she says. “Obviously 9/11 was a war crime. Obviously, the attacks by Hamas were a war crime. But that does not justify war crimes by the United States in Iraq or by Israel in Gaza.” .... Growing up, he says, his family taught him that “never again was never again for anyone”.
Embracing racism, rabbis at pre-army yeshiva laud Hitler, urge enslaving Arabs 04/30/2019 “The gentiles will want to be our slaves. Being a slave to a Jew is the best. They’re glad to be slaves, they want to be slaves,” he told a class in one of the video clips. “Instead of just walking the streets and being stupid and violent and harming each other, once they’re slaves, their lives can begin to take shape.” ..... “Yes, we’re racists. We believe in racism… There are races in the world and peoples have genetic traits, and that requires us to try to help them,” he said. “The Jews are a more successful race.” ..... “Let’s just start with whether Hitler was right or not,” he told students. “He was the most correct person there ever was, and was correct in every word he said… he was just on the wrong side.” ..... “The real Holocaust was not when they murdered the Jews, that’s not it. All these excuses — that it was ideological or systematic — are nonsense,” he said. “Humanism, and the secular culture of ‘We believe in man,’ that’s the Holocaust.”
Van Jones heckled during 'March for Israel' rally: 'No ceasefire!' 11/14/2023 The heckling started after Jones expressed sympathy for Israeli and Palestinian children caught in the war that was started on Oct. 7 when the terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing more than 1,200 people. "My heart breaks for all the Israeli children. My heart breaks for all the Palestinian children, and my heart breaks for all the Jewish American children who are now also living in fear," Jones said before referencing the more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas. "I pray that every single hostage is released." At first, the crowd roared with approval before breaking into chants of "No ceasefire! No ceasefire!" and boos when Jones called for an end to bombing in Gaza. "I'm a peace guy. I pray for peace. No more rockets from Gaza and no more bombs falling down on the people of Gaza. God protect the children," Jones continued amid the crowd's disapproval. "Let's end all the horror and all the heartbreak in the Holy Land."
It was martial law in Watertown 04/18/2014 An activist who endured a lockdown during the manhunt after the Boston Marathon bombings remembers that day.
In marathon bombing's aftermath, martial law is greatest threat (Column) 04/24/2013
'Saw Killer' has jail term extended to at least 2062 after stabbing prison guard in neck 09/27/2023
Saw: The True Story That Inspired The Horror Movie 09/03/2023 In 2003, Brian Wells, a.k.a. the Pizza Bomber was a victim of what would've been a Jigsaw copycat killer had it been a few years later, and it was documented in the Netflix series Evil Genius. The pizza delivery man had an explosive collar locked around his neck, and he was told that it would detonate if he didn't complete a scavenger hunt list, which included robbing a bank. Wells was ultimately caught and arrested, and just a few minutes before the bomb squad arrived, the explosive device was detonated, instantly killing Wells.
Wikipedia: Saw (franchise)
Meet The Real Jigsaw Horror Psychologists
Gunman wanted to punish Illinois university, report says 03/22/2010 Steven Kazmierczak wanted infamy. He wanted video-game-style bloodshed. And he wanted to punish Northern Illinois University, the “surrogate family” that had kept his demons at bay but had, he thought, abandoned him, according to a report on the 2008 shooting.
Saw VI Murder: Drug Addict Matthew Tinling Mimicked Murder Scene From Slasher Horror. 03/21/2013 Matthew Tinling, 25, was found guilty of stabbing Richard Hamilton 17 times in the head, neck and legs in the sheltered accommodation they shared in Maida Vale, London, in April 2012.
Portrait of the School Shooter as a Young Man 02/12/2009 "I've been shot." This was the voice mail Steve Kazmierczak's best friend Kevin left for Steve when he heard about the shooting on campus. Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. Six dead. Eighteen wounded. He didn't know that Steve was the shooter. Called Steve's cell; straight to voice mail. "I've been shot!" he laughed. "Give me a call back." Steve grew up watching horror movies with his mother. Fleshy, enormous, laid out beside him on the couch. Middle of the day, and all shades are drawn. Dark. She's protective, doesn't want Steve to go outside. Won't let him play much with other children. She's not mentally right, according to Steve's godfather, but what can he do? A family feud. Horror movies and the Bible, those are what animate this living room, those are Steve's inheritance. A close fit, the plagues, the tortures of Job. God's sadistic games, teaching his flock to appreciate the value and meaning of their lives. The flesh of no consequence. Late night, his mother can't sleep. An insomniac with anxiety problems. A history of depression on his father's side, Steve's grandfather an alcoholic. So they continue on, still watching. .... Even better than the pellet gun, though, are Drano bombs. Pete Rachowsky, a kid Steve knows from school, teaches other kids how to make them. Steve and one of his few friends, Joe Russo, decide to try it. Maybe it's a way to cement the friendship with Joe. Steve is very protective of his friends, recalls Adam. There aren't many who will have him.
.... "We spoke to Steven's parents, and they related that Steven was very nervous and scared about being at the police station and he realized that what he had done was a mistake," reads the police report from February 10, 1994. "They advised that they would discipline him and would like us to speak to Steven to scare him in order that he would not make any bombs in the future." .....
Steve has been with a man before. .....
Senate Voted to Let Vets With Mental Issues Keep Guns Hours Before Maine Shooting 10/26/2023
