Chris Hedges

The Palestinians in Gaza live in conditions that now replicate those first imposed on Jews by the Nazis in the ghettos set up throughout Eastern Europe. Palestinians cannot enter or leave Gaza. They are chronically short of food—the World Health Organization estimates that more than 50 percent of children in Gaza and the West Bank under 2 years old have iron deficiency anemia and reports that malnutrition and stunting in children under 5 are “not improving” and could actually be worsening. Palestinians often lack clean water. They are crammed into unsanitary hovels.

For the United States, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be over soon. We will leave behind, after our defeats, wreckage and death, the contagion of violence and hatred, unending grief, and millions of children who were brutalized and robbed of their childhood. Americans who did not suffer will forget. People maimed physically or psychologically by the violence, especially the Iraqi and Afghan children, will never escape. Time and memory will play their usual tricks. Those who endured war will begin to wonder, years from now, what was real and what was not.

This week:
1. Madrid resist austerity
2. A History of the Black Bloc
3. Le Peuple de l’Herbe — Parler le fracas
4. Street fighting in Montréal

A history of the Black Bloc from the stimulator on Vimeo.

Chris Hedges, in making the case that Edward Snowden is a hero: "With moral courage comes persecution. It is always defined by the state as treason." His presentation, which I beg you to watch above, is only 8 minutes, 8 minutes of brilliance.

Or, if you need stronger stuff, we'vegot a new jeremiad from Chris Hedges(Plus Dilbert update -- see below)Here on the Pequod: Yes, that's Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab. Says Chris H: "We, like Ahab and his crew, rationalize our collective madness. All calls for prudence, for halting the march toward economic, political and environmental catastrophe, for sane limits on carbon emissions, are ignored or ridiculed. . .

On Friday, November 15, 2013, extreme violence with malicious intent was meted out by Federal District Court Judge Loretta Preska in the sentencing phase of 28 year old hacktivist Jeremy Hammond before a chamber packed with friends, family, supporters and others on the 9th floor of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse in southern Manhattan.

Walker Tells the Truth, the ADL Avoids It
Author, poet and activist Alice Walker Photo: Wikimedia Commons
William A. Cook
“… the ADL blasted Walker for describing Israel’s actions toward the Palestinians as “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” “crimes against humanity,” and “cruelty and diabolical torture”(Haaretz June 18, 2013).