Israel Appears To Be An Apartheid State

Israel Appears To Be An Apartheid State

The Palestinians are trapped between Hamas and Israel

EDITORIAL:                                                              Israel Is Acting Like An Apartheid State

By William Jones and D. S. Mitchell

What is Apartheid?

The 1973 Apartheid Convention and the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defined apartheid as systematic and institutionally entrenched domination and repression by one racial group over another through “inhumane acts.” Among such acts are:

  1. Arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment of the members of a racial group
  2. Measures designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups
  3. Forcible transfer
  4. Expropriation of landed property
  5. Denial of the right to leave and to return to their country and the right to a nationality

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OPINION: Gaza Unrest

Opinion: Gaza Unrest

AK 47's loved by American gun culture

OPINION: Unrest In Gaza

The Never Ending War

The current conflagration in Gaza is not unexpected. There has been at least 100 years of war in the region. Who knows where to start the story? Each war, no matter how long or short has added to the story. For convenience I will start in the early 20th century, during WWI.

By William Jones and D. S. Mitchell

Mandate For Palestine

The conflict has its origin back in the early 20th century. Palestine was being ruled by the Ottoman Empire. During WWI the Turks were defeated and the Empire collapsed, leading to the Mandate for Palestine, which gave Britain administrative control of Palestine and Transjordan. During this time, the majority of the inhabitants of this land were Arab, while the Jews were the minority.

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Trump Racism Is Bad For America-Part I

Part I:Trump Racism Is Bad For America-

 

By Trevor K. McNeil

Trump racism, antisemitic attacks, and political threats: *”The die hath been cast” my friends and the writing is on the wall. In twenty-foot high blood dripping letters. Donald Trump is a racist; or, *”at least all the racists think he is”. Donald John Trump, Defiler of Democracy and Desecrator of Innocents has well and truly gone too far. With a wink and nod, accidentally on purpose, Trump inspired the worst instance of mail bombing since the Unabomber.  Trump has made shifting lies, heated rhetoric and vicious attacks on his rivals a winning strategy for small base election victory.

Words matter: Clearly Trump has moved the thermostat of racial hatred to high. The endless attacks on his political rivals, people of color, and immigrants ignite his narrow support base. His reckless inflammatory comments, his race baiting, his name calling have made him an idol of the alt-right. What is becoming ever more clear is Trump’s racism.

A bomber’s agenda: Let’s be very clear the names on the bomber’s hit list were taken right off the Trump rally hate list. Mind you, four of the people on the bomber’s hit list were two former U.S. presidents and their wives! This is the worst attack on a political party in American history. Investigators revealed that the bomber’s list included over 100 people. One hundred people, from the “Other” side. As far as we know the bomber mailed only 14 pipe bombs.

The common theme is hate: A white gunman known for posting disturbing  online threats against blacks was seen attempting to break into a black church in Jeffersontown, Kentucky. Failing at the church break-in the he headed to the local Kroger grocery store where he approached two black customers and shot them point blank in the head. He was arrested near-by after the event without resistance. Authorities have charged him with multiple hate crimes.

Ak-15 the weapon of choice: On Saturday, Oct. 27th, 2018 the worst attack on Jewish citizens in U.S. history occurred. A radical voice of extreme right messaging walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue and massacred eleven Jews while they prayed. The gunman, using an AK-15 seriously wounded six more, three of the wounded included responding police officers. Prosecutors have charged the suspect with multiple hate crimes.

More inappropriate response: Inconceivably, several self described vigilante groups have formed in response to a caravan of immigrants from Central America reportedly headed north toward the U.S. southern border. The migrant caravan is at least a 1,000 miles away, and consists mostly of women and children. The right wing propaganda machine is fueling fear and anger among American citizens. The vigilantes vow to shoot the immigrants “if need be.” My question is, will we soon be witnessing a massacre of asylum seekers at our southern border? My God, I pray not.

Dark history: After the end of the Civil War a period of Reconstruction was begun in the south. Resistance to the northern oversight quickly formed. Southern activists formed paramilitary groups of White supremacists to thwart forced Reconstruction. Military groups lynched blacks and burned their homes. Disenfranchising and terrorizing the black population was the central goal of the white supremacy groups of the period. Of those 19th century hate groups the Ku Klux Klan was the most infamous. After the cementing of Jim Crow laws the original Klan disbanded, their goals achieved.

A rebirth:  New leaders revived the Klan in the 20th century for a new cause. The revival was  a defensive reaction to the massive wave of immigrants arriving in America. The “new” Klan refused to limit its hate. The new version of the Ku Klux Klan expanded their targeted hate campaign beyond the Blacks to include immigrants, most particularly the Jews, the Mexicans, the Catholics, the Asians, the Irish, and the Poles. In effect, anyone not white and native-born.

Tell tale surge:  There has been a palpable uptick in terms of hate groups since the ascension of Trump and Trump racism. The Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan claim to be the fastest growing hate group in America, proclaiming their membership numbers have gone up by thousands since Trump was elected, particularly in predominantly African-American cities such as St. Louis and Baltimore.

Change is in the air:  Attitudes are changing and that isn’t necessarily a good thing. In August 2018 there was a White Power group rally in the small rural Pennsylvania town of Ulysses. The town was proudly awash with Nazi flags and swastikas one year after Charlottesville, Va where a group of “very fine” white supremacists rallied, terrorized the town and left one counter-protester dead.

White supremacists groups surge in membership:   Quite simply Trump racism is setting the tone. The election of Donald Trump has emboldened hate groups in the United States. The Traditional Worker’s Party, formed after the 2016 presidential election reports large numbers of new recruits.

Trump racism shows itself: Trump racism is right there in his rhetoric. His near constant use of “they” and “them” is classic moral dissociation. He might as well say, “us” and “them”.  Is Trump a member of the KKK, or the Nazi’s? Not demonstrably. Evidence indicates Trump Sr, had ties to the KKK.  Although there is not direct evidence of such an affiliation for Donald Trump it doesn’t mean it is not true. David Duke, Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan fully embraces Trump and Trump does not criticize the Grand Wizard, because they are all “fine people.”

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A Neighbor’s Nazi Experience

A Neighbor’s Nazi Experience

D. S. Mitchell

Martin Hartman, a tall slender man, his thinning white brushed back leans against his cane for support. There is a sadness in his eyes and a soberness in his demeanor. You can tell he has a story, and he wants to tell it.

He was born in Holland in 1924. He looks to the ground, before looking back into the reporters eyes. His family had owned a prosperous construction business, until the Depression he tells us. His family like many others had suffered during those economically depressed times, but by 1940, things he explains slowly as memories cloud his 93-year-old face, the economy “had begun to turn around”.

The turnaround was slow, but things had been looking up.  Within just a few days his life, and the life of friends and family were inexorably changed forever.

“I was 16. It was May 10, 1940. We heard bombing and saw planes. It was the German invasion, and the blitz was over in three days.” The squashing of Holland’s defenses was quick, but far from painless.

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Moving Backwards With Trump

Moving Backwards With Trump

D. S. Mitchell

As a Progressive liberal I have clung to the base expectation that we, as Americans were moving forward, arguably slowly, but always in a forward trajectory toward social justice.  A journey toward more respect and equality between the sexes, the races, and the various religions. To a more open and honest place, where conversation about racism, sexism and every other negative-ism which have for so long separated us could be discussed. In that perfect progressive dream, people of varied colors, sexual orientation and diverse faiths came together without distrust or hate and together worked for the betterment of their community and the country.

The election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States was a gigantic step backward for the country in so many ways.  From a historical perspective, there is usually no continuous imaginary “forward trajectory.” In fact, regression often comes after a period of steady social forward movement. This Trump Regression has caused many people that have never been active in politics to come out and join in a resistance movement against the hatred, bigotry and isolationism of this small, mean spirited man.

Trump attacks anybody and everybody. The man is not only a deranged narcissist, but a bigot, a racist a xenophobe , homophobe and probably two dozen other “phobics” that I don’t want to get sidetracked on,.  Trump is immoral.  And because of that immorality he is a danger to the morals, ethics and norms of propriety that guide our collective sense of civility.  His contempt for rules and his ignorance of policy is demoralizing and embarrassing.

Trump uses Twitter to attack his former opponent Hillary Clinton, his predecessor Barack Obama, his AG Jeff Sessions, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Rosie O’Donnell, Mexicans the transgender community, pipeline protesters and multiple other groups.  In fact, his attacks are nearly universal, except for Russia and Vladimir Putin.  He uses Twitter to inflame and agitate, to divide and aggravate, to humiliate and degradate.

Charles Blow in the NY Times described it this way, “multiple populations are being assaulted at once, across race, ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual identity.” He further added, “we were unprepared for the daily reality of living in a nightmare.”

Blow finished his piece with a reprint of the famous Martin Niemoller’s poem, which is seen in many versions.  Moeller was an anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor who was quite outspoken against Hitler and the Nazi movement and was imprisoned by German authorities until the end of WWII.  Niemoller’s poem and the “bystander” speech by Elie Wiesel are threads of the same theme.  Do not allow yourself to stand back and do nothing, do not be complicit through silence to the subjugation, persecution, and murder of your fellow man, no matter what color, race or ethnicity.

In an earlier post I talked about Wiesel and his bystander speech, so  like Charles Blow, I will reprint Martin Niemoller’s famous and frightening reminder that we must always be alert to injustice and when seen, point it out and push back against its dangers.

“First they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out–because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out–because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Wow. That pretty much sums it up.  Doesn’t it ? I wish I could put such simple words together for such perfect impact.I pray this period of Trump Regression will be only temporary. And hopefully, this disgusting vision from the past will be short lived and in fact will be the catalyst for a new generation of Progressivism and tolerance. Don’t allow the targeting of individuals or groups to occur on your watch. Speak up, speak out. Do not be silenced. Join the Resistance.

Calamity Politics is here to be a voice for the Progressive community.  I try to present a relevant and engaging article on a near daily basis. I admit right now that I am pretty irritated with the activities in Washington, D.C. and am airing my anger and frustration through my somewhat snarky posts.  But, in the current irritable political climate it is understandable.  Have a great day. It is beautiful and the beach and Lily thinks it’s time for a walk.

Join the Resistance

Dar