‘I Care About Little Kids Dying’: Ocasio-Cortez Hits Back at Fetterman Over Gaza

Original article by Olivia Rosane republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) speaks during a press conference to call for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on November 13, 2023.  (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

“I care about human rights,” said the New York congresswoman in response to her Democratic colleague in the Senate. “I care that billions of U.S. tax dollars’ worth of weapons are carrying out unspeakable atrocities.”

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized fellow Democrat and Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman on Wednesday for failing to hold the U.S.-armed Israeli military accountable for killing and harming civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks came in response to Fetterman’s dismissal of her earlier call for an arms embargo on Israel, which has received billions of dollars worth of weapons and other military aid since the Hamas-led October 7 attack.

“The tragedy in Gaza is 100% on Hamas,” Fetterman wrote on social media with a screengrab of a Hill headline outlining Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks. “Stop using civilians and hospitals as shields, surrender, and release all remaining hostages—and this ends.”

Ocasio-Cortez then retweeted Fetterman’s words with her own rebuttal.

“I dunno man. I care about little kids dying,” the New York lawmaker replied. “I care about human rights. I care that billions of U.S. tax dollars’ worth of weapons are carrying out unspeakable atrocities. I care enough for us to do better.”

“Hope this bleak dunk attempt gets you whatever it is you’re going for,” she concluded.

The exchange comes as Israel has intensified its assault on northern Gaza in recent days, bombing homes and schools-turned-shelters in the Jabalia refugee camp and issuing new evacuation orders for the beleaguered region yet placing snipers on roofs and shooting people who try to flee. On Saturday, the Palestinian Deputy Observer to the United Nations Majed Bamya called Israel’s escalation in the north a “genocide within the genocide” and the World Food Program said that no food had been able to reach the area since October 1, warning that the ramped up attacks were having “a disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinian families.” However, 50 trucks carrying aid including food were allowed to enter the north on Wednesday.

Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks that prompted Fetterman’s rejoinder came in response to the weekend’s atrocities.

“The horrors unfolding in northern Gaza are the result of a completely unrestrained Netanyahu gov, fully armed by the Biden admin while food aid is blocked and patients are bombed in hospitals,” she wrote on social media on Monday. “This is a genocide of Palestinians. The U.S. must stop enabling it. Arms embargo now.”

Ocasio-Cortez has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s assault on Gaza and the U.S. response. She backed a House resolution calling for a cease-fire weeks into the war, and demanded an end to the flow of weapons from the House floor in March, when she described Israel’s actions in Gaza as an “unfolding genocide.”

Fetterman, meanwhile, has faced protests from some of his more progressive constituents over his hardline pro-Israel stance.

On Tuesday, news broke that the Biden administration had reportedly written a letter to the Israeli government threatening to cut off the flow of weapons to the country unless it took “urgent and sustained actions” to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza within 30 days.

Original article by Olivia Rosane republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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With $75 Million Gift, Musk Joins Right-Wing Billionaires Bankrolling Trump Campaign

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends a campaign rally with Republican nominee Donald Trump on October 5, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

In the third quarter of 2024, Elon Musk, Miriam Adelson, and Richard Uihlein donated a combined $220 million to super PACs supporting the Republican nominee.

Prominent members of the United States’ billionaire class have shelled out massive sums in the final stretch of the 2024 campaign to elect one of their own, Republican nominee Donald Trump, to the White House, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk donating nearly $75 million in recent months to a super PAC supporting the former president’s bid for a second term.

According to federal filings made public Tuesday, at least six other billionaires joined Musk in donating to pro-Trump super PACs in the third quarter of 2024: Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson; businessman Richard Uihlein, the heir to a brewing fortune; David Millstone, co-CEO of Standard Industries; Diane Hendricks, co-founder of ABC Supply; Kelcy Warren, the chair of Energy Transfer Partners; and financier Ike Perlmutter.

Combined, Musk, Adelson ($95 million), and Uihlein ($49 million) funneled around $220 million over the past three months to super PACs supporting Trump, whose campaign has also received huge financial support from reclusive GOP megadonor Timothy Mellon.

Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of the critical social media platform X, sent roughly $75 million in donations to his pro-Trump America PAC, which has been accused of voter deceptionThe Guardian‘s Hugo Lowell noted that Musk’s PAC is “doing the bulk of the Trump campaign’s ground game work across the battleground states,” and the billionaire has been using his social media platform to incessantly promote the former president.

As The New York Times reported earlier this month, America PAC has offered to pay $47 to those who help the organization “find Trump voters.”

Trump—whose campaign has focused heavily on delivering more billionaire-enriching tax cuts—has said that, if he wins next month’s election, he would put Musk “in charge of cost-cutting.”

The head of the American Federation of Government Employees expressed alarm last month over Trump’s push for a “government efficiency commission” headed by Musk, warning that the two billionaires only “care about one thing: lining their own pockets.”

In an X post early Wednesday, Musk announced that he “will be giving a series of talks” throughout the key battleground state of Pennsylvania over the next several days as part of his effort to boost the Trump campaign, whose fundraising operation has struggled to keep up with that of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

CNN noted Wednesday that Harris, who has also received support from prominent billionaires, “has set a blistering pace—raising $1 billion since she became the Democratic standard-bearer in late July—a milestone achieved faster than any other presidential contender.”

“Tuesday’s filings show that a high-dollar fundraising committee that channels money to her campaign and aligned Democratic committees, took in $633 million during the third quarter—four times the amount raised by Trump’s equivalent fundraising arm in that time,” CNN added.

The Washington Post emphasized that “a full picture of the financial strength of the Trump and Harris efforts will not be available until Sunday, when the campaigns and parties file detailed reports with the Federal Election Commission.”

This year’s election is on track to be the most expensive in U.S. history, according to the campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets, with at least $15.9 billion flowing to candidates for federal office and super PACs—an outgrowth of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision.

report published last month by the progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) estimated that by the end of August, just 150 billionaire families in the U.S. had spent nearly $1.4 billion attempting to influence the outcome of the 2024 election.

“Billionaires are making their ‘voices’ heard—make sure theirs don’t drown out yours,” ATF wrote in a social media post on Tuesday, urging people to turn out to vote next month.

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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Labour’s approach to Middle East conflict “failing” as civilian death toll mounts

Image of the Green Party's Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.
Image of the Green Party’s Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.

Green Party Co-Leader, Carla Denyer said, “The reports over the weekend that no food has entered Northern Gaza since the 1st of October, of Israel’s attack on al-Aqsa Hospital, of chemical weapons being used to attack UNIFIL peacekeepers, of mass civilian casualties in Gaza’s Jabalia Refugee Camp and of increased rocket fire into Israel from Hezbollah are extremely disturbing. The huge numbers of civilian deaths and the prospect of widespread starvation in Northern Gaza are intolerable.

The Labour government must recognise that violence in the Middle East is escalating rapidly and that their current approach is failing. The Government needs to consider far more direct measures to incentivise a ceasefire including an end to arms sales, the introduction of divestments, boycotts and sanctions, prosecutions for all those who have committed war crimes and a plan for a viable Palestinian state.”

Continue ReadingLabour’s approach to Middle East conflict “failing” as civilian death toll mounts
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