from BadEmpanada
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Twitter Spaces Chat Today at 5pm Eastern
by Scott Creighton
UPDATE: BTW I am now on Bluesky as @AmericanEveryman.bsky.social
Morning folks.
We will be doing another Twitter Spaces chat later today at 5pm Eastern on my Twitter feed. I am happy too say AuntBB and DoodleBob will be there along with anyone else who happens by and wants to chat or just hang out.
Bluesky, Gaza, Trump's neocon administration taking shape and perhaps a little BRICS news are on the schedule for discussion along with whatever the audience brings up, provided there is an audience.
It's been a while since we have done one of these and given how I feel about Musk and Twitter now, will probably be a long while before we do another one. On this platform anyway.
We will also talk about the recent spate of race-baiting that has been taking place ever since Trump 'won' the election.
And, I will posit the possibility of doing a live, daily Twitch news hour just too see if folks think that might be worth the effort.
Anyway, 5pm tonight. The Usual Suspects. Come by, say hi and tell us what you really think.
See you there.
Who is Pete Hegseth, the pro-Israel Fox News host picked to head Pentagon?
from al Jazeera
Hegseth has been pro-Israel in his coverage of war on Gaza and dubbed the two-state solution a “lip service”. He did a series – Battle in the Holy Land: Israel at War – about the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza and interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March.
“My interview with Israeli PM @netanyahu today. Israel needs our support!” he posted on X in March.
As an evangelical Christian, he views the Israel-Palestine conflict through a biblical lens.
“This is not some mystical land that can be dismissed. It’s the story of God’s chosen people. That story didn’t end in 1776 or in 1948 or with the founding of the UN. All of these things still resonate and matter today,” Hegseth said in a 2016 interview with the Jewish Press.
Hegseth has also been hawkish towards Iran, calling Tehran “an evil regime” in the wake of the killing of General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, in 2020...
read more here
Bluesky adds 1 million users after US election as users ditch X
from al Jazeera
Social media platform Bluesky has gained more than one million new users since the US presidential election, benefitting from an exodus of people unhappy with the direction of X under billionaire owner Elon Musk.
The micro-blogging site said on Wednesday that it had topped 15 million users, up from about nine million in September.
Started by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey in 2019, Bluesky has gained a reputation as a refuge for left-leaning users disaffected by X’s rightward turn under Musk’s stewardship.
Some Bluesky users have cited Musk’s alliance with US President-elect Donald Trump and a rise in hateful content on X as reasons for making the jump to the platform.
“Hello Less Hateful World,” billionaire Mark Cuban, who backed Vice President Kamala Harris during the election, posted on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, The Guardian newspaper announced it would no longer post content on X due to the “disturbing content” on the “toxic media platform”, including racism and conspiracy theories...
read more here
BRICS not about dividing the world – Lavrov
from RT
The BRICS group of countries does not aim to divide the world, but instead advocates for a new global order based on sovereign equality among nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
In an interview with journalist Marina Kim for the ‘New World’ project published on Thursday, Lavrov emphasized that “BRICS is about the world order founded on the main principle of the UN Charter – sovereign equality of states.”
This statement highlights BRICS’ distinct approach compared to Western-dominated institutions such as the G7, Lavrov said.
The diplomat was asked whether the recent BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan could be likened to historic events such as the Tehran or Yalta conferences. Lavrov responded that while past meetings were characterized by territorial divisions, BRICS aims to empower nations to live based on their own civilizational values, without external interference in trade practices or resource management.
“BRICS is not at all planning to divide the world. It is an association of countries that want to live on the lands given to them by God and their predecessors according to the traditions of their great civilizations, including China, India, Iran, Russia, and many other states,” Lavrov noted. “They wish for no one to dictate how they should trade or prohibit them from processing natural resources, as is happening in Africa.”...
read more here
Hundreds hold protest rallies in Paris against pro-Israel gala organized by far-right figures
from PressTV
Hundreds of people have held protest rallies in Paris against a gala organized by far-right figures to raise funds for the Israeli military, which has been pounding the besieged Gaza Strip in a genocidal war since October last year.
Demonstrations, involving several hundred people, were held in the French capital of Paris on Wednesday against a contentious gala organized by far-right figures in support of Israel aimed at raising funds for the occupying regime’s military.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a vocal advocate of Israeli settlements, was also invited to the gala as a guest, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from local associations, unions and left-wing political parties, prompting two protests in Paris.
The protests took place just before a high-profile soccer match at France's national stadium against Israel’s soccer team, amid heightened tensions over the regime’s brutal wars on Gaza and Lebanon. French authorities have already said that over 4,000 police officers and 1,600 stadium personnel will be on duty for the event...
read more here
Israel's forced displacement in Gaza amounts to war crimes: HRW
from Daily Sabah
Israeli authorities have caused a forced displacement of Palestinian people in Gaza to an extent that constitutes war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a report Thursday.
The report is the latest in a series from aid groups and international bodies warning about the dire humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave.
"Human Rights Watch found that forced displacement has been widespread, and the evidence shows it has been systematic and part of a state policy. Such acts also constitute crimes against humanity," the report said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military or foreign ministry, but Israeli authorities have previously rejected such accusations and say their forces operate in compliance with international law.
The law of armed conflict forbids the forcible displacement of civilian populations from occupied territory unless necessary for the security of civilians or imperative military reasons...
read more here
Ireland appoints ambassador to Palestine, recognizes genocide
from Daily Sabah
Ireland appointed an ambassador to Palestine for the first time on Tuesday, while lawmakers passed a non-binding motion two days later, acknowledging that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Senior ministers confirmed that Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid would step up from her current position as Palestinian Head of Mission to Ireland.
In May Dublin said it was recognizing Palestine as "a sovereign and independent state" comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and agreed to establish full diplomatic relations.
Spain and Norway recognized a Palestinian state the same day as Ireland, with Slovenia following a week later, drawing retaliatory moves from Israel.
They have been among the most outspoken critics of Israel's ruthless attacks since Oct. 7, 2023, which killed over 43,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children...
read more here
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Trump Taps Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to Slash Government
(Two neoliberal billionaires working for another neoliberal billionaire and his neocon cabinet will 'remake' America into 1878 again, the Gilded Age, where captains of industry ran everything and we are all just peons living in their world. Congrats Trumpites!)
from the NYT (H/T T)
How do you slash, cut, restructure and even dismantle parts of the federal government?
If you’re President-elect Donald J. Trump, you turn to two wealthy entrepreneurs: the spaceship-inventing, electric-car-building owner of a social media platform and a moneymaking former pharmaceutical executive who was once one of your presidential rivals.
Mr. Trump said on Tuesday that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead what he called the Department of Government Efficiency. It will be, he said, “the Manhattan Project” of this era, driving “drastic change” throughout the government with major cuts and new efficiencies in bloated agencies in the federal bureaucracy by July 4, 2026.
“A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence,” Mr. Trump wrote in a statement. “I am confident they will succeed!”
The statement left unanswered all kinds of major questions about an initiative that is uncertain in seriousness but potentially vast in scope. For starters, the president-elect did not address the fact that no such department exists. And he did not elaborate on whether his two rich supporters would hire a staff for the new department, which he said is aimed in part at reducing the federal work force...
read more here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)