Thoughts of the day 27 May 2025

Spread the love
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards

So BP representing the fossil fuels industry and the filthy rich has given the climate, biodiversity and all humanity an unambiguous big two fingers. They’re saying fekk you, our profits come before anything, we continue to destroy the climate and all else. Despite the UK government saying no new licences in the North Sea we don’t know where they’re at with licence decisions pending for Rosebank and Jackdaw and government support for airport expansions at Gatwick and Heathrow. If they were serious about climate there would be no hesitation in refusing all these projects. Then there’s the big orange slug that Starmer is reporting to today. The planet can’t afford any of this. Capitalist scum have already fekked the climate, it’s going to get destroyed at a far greater rate now and these absolute bstards are pulling out all the stops.

Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Continue ReadingThoughts of the day 27 May 2025

‘Trump Gaza’ AI Video Denounced as Vicious Embrace of Ethnic Cleansing

Spread the love

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

An AI-generated video posted on social media on February 25, 2025 by U.S. President Donald Trump showed the president with Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza following Israel’s U.S.-backed decimation of the enclave.
(Photo: screenshot/Truth Social)

“Monsters rejoicing in their genocide” was how one observer described the computer-generated video

Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk feasting on local cuisine, U.S. President Donald Trump caressing the arm of a belly dancer in a nightclub, and the Israeli prime minister lounging by a pool are all part of the computer-generated vision Trump shared on his social media platform Tuesday evening for the future of Gaza following Israel’s destruction of the enclave.

Accompanied by an upbeat song heralding “Trump Gaza, shining bright, golden future, a brand new life,” the “sinister” artificial intelligence-made video “must be seen to be believed,” said British trade unionist Howard Beckett.

“Monsters rejoicing in their genocide and ethnic cleansing,” he said, summarizing the 34-second video. “It is truly racist fascism.”

This was just posted on President Trump’s Truth Social account.

Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yasharali.bsky.social) 2025-02-26T05:02:27.987Z

The video was posted amid the fragile cease-fire that’s been in place since mid-January in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians since it began bombarding the enclave in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.

As negotiators have worked toward a permanent cease-fire in recent weeks, Trump has floated a proposal to turn Gaza—home to 2 million people—into a playground for the rich called the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Advocates and experts warned earlier this month that Trump’s proposal to “clean out” Palestinians as part of his latest real estate venture was an explicit call for ethnic cleansing—one that, according to the video Trump posted on Truth Social, includes the construction of a property called “Trump Gaza” and an immense statue depicting the president.

Toward the end of the video Musk, who poured $277 million into Trump’s presidential campaign and has grown richer since Trump took office, is shown again walking through a crowd as money rains down around him.

Palestinian American historian Ussama Makdisi called the video depicting the U.S. colonization of Gaza “sick,” but suggested it showed an extreme outcome of the American political establishment’s view and treatment of Palestinian rights for decades, including its support for Israel’s assault on the enclave.

“What else should we expect from the culmination of a bipartisan U.S. consensus that for a century has waged war on the idea that Palestinians deserve equality and freedom?” said Makdisi.

Ben Goggin, deputy technology editor for NBC News, noted that “nearly all” of the comments posted in response to the video on Trump’s own platform were negative, with self-identified supporters calling it “just plain horrible” and “filth.”

The comments under Trump’s AI generated Gaza video posted to his own platform are nearly all critical…

Ben Goggin (@bengoggin.bsky.social) 2025-02-26T11:32:24.944Z

The origin of the video was not clear on Wednesday; Trump shared it without commenting on who made it.

International human rights experts and a United Nations committee have said there is evidence that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, and this week Democracy for the Arab World Now called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate former U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration for “aiding and abetting” alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The ICC has also issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes. Deif was killed in an Israeli airstrike last year.

Trump’s video, said British-Nigerian activist and author Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, envisions “ethnic cleansing rebranded as a real estate deal.”

“Colonialist white supremacist zionism,” she said, describing the video. “Pure evil.”

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

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Continue Reading‘Trump Gaza’ AI Video Denounced as Vicious Embrace of Ethnic Cleansing

‘Shameful’: Trump Quietly Rips Up Biden Memo Restricting Arms Sales Based on Human Rights

Spread the love

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

Palestinians examine shrapnel from a rocket allegedly used by Israel in the attack to displaced Palestinian tents in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on November 9, 2024.
 (Photo: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The decision tells the international community that “you can ignore American law with respect to the provision of humanitarian aid and the use of weapons provided by American taxpayers.”

A memorandum aimed at restricting arms sales to protect human rights, issued by former U.S. President Joe Biden last year amid intensifying outcry over his administration’s support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, ultimately did little to stop the U.S. from continuing to back a military operation in which there is abundant evidence of war crimes.

But advocates decried President Donald Trump’s decision Monday to repeal the document, National Security Memorandum-20 (NSM-20) as “shameful,” warning that it sends the message that “anything goes,” as Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said.

Van Hollen proposed legislation last year that pushed Biden to introduce NSM-20, which required countries that receive military aid from the U.S. to provide assurances that the weapons will not be used to violate international humanitarian law.

When the memo was introduced last February, rights advocates had been warning for months that continued U.S. support for Israel violated laws that were already in place, including the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act, which restrict arms sales to countries that block humanitarian aid or otherwise break human rights laws.

The U.S. is the largest international funder of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which began bombarding Gaza in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack. Numerous reports have shown that the Israeli military has attacked Palestinian civilians indiscriminately in Gaza, with U.S. weapons used in some assaults.

At least 48,346 people have been killed in Gaza since the bombardment began. A temporary cease-fire was established in January.

Trump quietly repealed NSM-20 after approving the sale of more than $7.4 billion in arms sales to Israel earlier this month and lifting sanctions on Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

The president also released one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that had been frozen by the Biden administration after NSM-20 was issued last year.

Last May, Biden paused the shipment as Israel’s incursion in the southern Gaza city of Rafah garnered international outcry over the danger the expanded attacks posed to the 1.5 million Palestinians who were sheltering in the city.

But that same month, the Democratic administration issued a report that was required by NSM-20 claiming that there was not enough evidence that Israel had violated international humanitarian law to end overall U.S. support for the IDF.

That assessment came days after World Food Program executive director Cindy McCain warned that Israel’s blocking of humanitarian aid into Gaza had led to a “full-blown famine” in the northern part of the enclave.

The administration’s continued support for Israel led some to dismiss NSM-20 as a “PR stunt” and a “gimmick.”

Although NSM-20 did not stop the Biden administration from putting human rights at risk, critics warned that countries such as Israel will be even more emboldened following Trump’s repeal of the memo.

The decision tells the international community that “you can ignore American law with respect to the provision of humanitarian aid and the use of weapons provided by American taxpayers,” Van Hollen told The Washington Post.

Christopher Le Mon, a former State Department official under Biden, told the outlet that “the only thing the Trump administration does by eliminating NSM-20 is signal to U.S. partners that the administration simply doesn’t care how these governments use U.S. arms, no matter how immoral or illegal their conduct.”

Sarah Yager, Washington director of Human Rights Watch, told the Post that with NSM-20 rescinded but other laws like the Foreign Assistance Act still in place, the Trump administration must now “show the American people that [it] will abide by U.S. laws when sending weapons to allies.”

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

Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Continue Reading‘Shameful’: Trump Quietly Rips Up Biden Memo Restricting Arms Sales Based on Human Rights

New German leader signals seismic shift in transatlantic relations

Spread the love

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv4n0dg3v3o

Friedrich Merz says he is eager to re-engage with international partners

Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting didn’t wait for the final results of his country’s election on Sunday to herald a new era in Europe.

Declaring the US indifferent to this continent’s fate, Friedrich Merz questioned the future of Nato and demanded Europe boost its own defences. Quickly.

This tone from the close US ally – and from Friedrich Merz who is known to be a passionate Atlanticist – would have been unimaginable even a couple of months ago.

It’s a seismic shift. That may read like hyperbole, but what we are now experiencing in terms of transatlantic relations is unprecedented in the 80 years since the end of World War Two.

Big European powers have been shocked to the core by the Trump administration, which suggests it could revoke the security guarantees to Europe in place since 1945.

“I would never have thought that I would have to say something like this in a TV show but, after Donald Trump’s remarks last week… it is clear that this government does not care much about the fate of Europe,” Friedrich Merz said during a post-election debate on Sunday.

“My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,” he added.

Original article continues at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv4n0dg3v3o

Who is Friedrich Merz, the man now most likely to lead Germany? Eight things to know

Continue ReadingNew German leader signals seismic shift in transatlantic relations

AP Sues Trump Officials for Retaliatory Blocking of Reporters

Spread the love

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

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on February 12, 2025. (Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

The news outlet has been barred from presidential events for refusing to call the Gulf of Mexico by the president’s chosen name, “the Gulf of America.”

Accusing the White House of a “targeted attack” on editorial independence that “strikes at the very core of the First Amendment,” The Associated Press on Friday filed a lawsuit against three Trump administration officials over its blocked access to all presidential events.

The administration announced earlier this month that AP reporters would not be permitted to cover press events at the White House, Mar-a-Lago, or on Air Force One due to its editorial decision to continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico by the name that has been internationally recognized for more than 400 years.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January stating that the Gulf of Mexico would be renamed the Gulf of America. Trump has the authority to change a body of water’s name for official government purposes, and some bodies of water are called by different names in different countries—for example, the Gulf of California is known as the Sea of Cortez in Mexico.

The AP said it would acknowledge Trump’s chosen name for the body of water, but continue officially referring to it as the Gulf of Mexico.

“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government.”

As Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said this month as she threatened to sue Google for changing the Gulf of Mexico’s names in its maps feature, the U.S. does not have sovereignty over the body of water, and Trump cannot unilaterally order other entities to call it by his chosen name.

The AP on Friday said in its lawsuit that “the press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government.”

The suit names White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who has said in briefings that it is “a fact” that the body of water off the western coast of Florida and the southern coasts of several other states is called the Gulf of America.

The news outlet called on the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. to stop the White House from blocking its journalists from gathering news at presidential events.

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

Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingAP Sues Trump Officials for Retaliatory Blocking of Reporters