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Israeli forces storm Palestinian school in West Bank, confiscating mobile cafeteria

Shatha Hammad
Middle East Eye
Mon, 28 Oct 2019 16:30 UTC
Israeli forces confiscate a mobile container
© MEE/Shatha Hammad
Israeli forces confiscate a mobile container used as a kitchen and cafeteria by Dahr Al-Maleh Elementary School
Israeli forces raided a school in the village of Dahr al-Maleh in the West Bank, demolished its wall and confiscated a mobile container that was used as a cafeteria on Monday, the head of the village council told Middle East Eye.

Israeli forces stormed into the village at 6.30am, smashing through the gates of the primary school and breaking down its doors, Omar al-Khatib said.

The Dahr Al Maleh Elementary Mixed School, located south of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, has been under constant threat of being demolished and has not been granted permission for any construction on its premises.

Due to the lack of space, parents donated a mobile container for the school to utilise as a cafeteria and kitchen, according to Khatib. Israeli troops confiscated tools, a refrigerator, gas stove, cleaning equipment and stationery, he said.
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Bulb

GOP state legislators seek bill that would ban child gender transition treatments

Penny Starr
Breitbart
Wed, 06 Nov 2019 16:16 UTC
transgender teen
Three Republican lawmakers in three states, including Kentucky where elections will be held on Tuesday, are crafting legislation to protect children from controversial gender transition treatment such as puberty-blocking drugs or surgery.

Kentucky State Rep. Savannah Maddox (R) wrote in a recent Facebook post that she "began drafting a bill designed to protect children under the age of 18 from gender reassignment surgery or from receiving drug treatments designed to alter their natal gender."

"I am a strong advocate for parents' rights — but it is not the right of a parent to permanently alter a child's gender or identity, even when based upon certain behaviors or the perceptions of a child's mind which has not yet had time to fully develop," Maddox wrote.
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Russian Flag

Russia not joking: Unmatched hypersonic & laser weapons to be supplied to the military, Putin assures commanders


RT
Wed, 06 Nov 2019 16:22 UTC
putin
© Sputnik / Mikhail Klimentyev
Russia won't stop boosting its defensive capabilities with state-of-the-art weaponry, but it doesn't mean that it's going to threaten other countries with it, Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said.

"Hypersonic, laser and other state-of-the-art weapon systems, which no other country possesses, will be put in service," Putin promised as he met with newly assigned military commanders and prosecutors at the Kremlin.

However, those futuristic arms "are no excuse for Russia to threaten anybody," he pointed out.
On the contrary, we are ready to do everything in our power to promote the disarmament process in view of our latest weapon systems, which are developed with the sole purpose of guaranteeing security in the face of growing threats we face.
Last year, Putin caused frenzy in the Western media by announcing a whole of new range of Russian weapons, including hypersonic and cruise missiles, lasers and underwater drones with nuclear-powered engines.
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Eagle

It's the Democratic Party, stupid: Democrats - not Russia, have delegitimized the democratic process

Elizabeth Vos
Consortium News
Mon, 04 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
Sanders Clinton debate
© YouTube/Screen shot
Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a 2016 Democratic primary debate.
With the U.S. presidential cycle gearing up, Elizabeth Vos takes stock of lessons from 2016.

Establishment Democrats and those who amplify them continue to project blame for the public's doubt in the U.S. election process onto outside influence, despite the clear history of the party's subversion of election integrity. The total inability of the Democratic Party establishment's willingness to address even one of these critical failures does not give reason to hope that the nomination process in 2020 will be any less pre-ordained.

The Democratic Party's bias against Sen. Bernie Sanders during the 2016 presidential nomination, followed by the DNC defense counsel doubling down on its right to rig the race during the fraud lawsuit brought against the DNC, as well as the irregularities in the races between former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Tim Canova, indicate a fatal breakdown of the U.S. democratic process spearheaded by the Democratic Party establishment. Influences transcending the DNC add to concerns regarding the integrity of the democratic process that have nothing to do with Russia, but which will also likely impact outcomes in 2020.

The content of the DNC and Podesta emails published by WikiLeaks demonstrated that the DNC acted in favor of Hillary Clinton in the lead up to the 2016 Democratic primary. The emails also revealed corporate media reporters acting as surrogates of the DNC and its pro-Clinton agenda, going so far as to promote Donald Trump during the GOP primary process as a preferred "pied-piper candidate." One cannot assume that similar evidence will be presented to the public in 2020, making it more important than ever to take stock of the unique lessons handed down to us by the 2016 race.
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Star of David

We need to stop living in denial and admit that Israel is an evil state

Gideon Levy
Haaretz
Wed, 31 Jul 2019 16:49 UTC
Israeli Border Police officers
© Mohamad Torokman/Reuters
Israeli Border Police officers stand guard as Palestinians wait to cross through the Qalandiyah checkpoint, June 2016.
Israel may not be Nazi, nor even a fascist state. Yet it is a member of the same terrible family, the family of evil states. Just consider these acts of evil perpetrated by the state...

After we've cited nationalism and racism, hatred and contempt for Arab life, the security cult and resistance to the occupation, victimhood and messianism, one more element must be added without which the behavior of the Israeli occupation regime cannot be explained: Evil. Pure evil. Sadistic evil. Evil for its own sake. Sometimes, it's the only explanation.

Eva Illouz described its signs ("Evil now," Haaretz, July 30). Her essay, which challenges the idea of the banality of evil, considers the national group as the source of the evil. Using philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's concept, she finds a "family resemblance" between the Israeli occupation and history's evil regimes. This similarity does not mean that Israel is Nazi, nor even fascist. And yet it is a member of the same terrible family, the family of evil states. It's a depressing and brilliant analysis.

The evil that Illouz attributes to Israel is not banal, it cannot happen anywhere, and it has political and social roots that are deeply embedded in Israeli society. Thus, Illouz joins Zeev Sternhell, who warned in his impressive and resounding essay about the cultural soil out of which fascism is now growing in Israel ("The birth of fascism," Haaretz Hebrew edition, July 7).

Comment: Does one really need to see the incredibly long list of articles published here - affirming the reality of Israel's rampant malevolence - to know that what the author states above is correct? We think not.

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Newspaper

Andrew Yang — Technocratic populist

Marshawn Brewer
Quillette
Tue, 05 Nov 2019 12:00 UTC
Andrew Yang

Andrew Yang
Andrew Yang is a peculiar candidate for the presidency; not only has he no previous political experience, but he has also placed great emphasis on issues that have been on the fringes of mainstream media political discourse usually examined by academics or YouTube personalities. It is a credit to him that topics like automation, the meaning and value of work, the concentration of elite talent in to narrow career paths, and of course, UBI, have had a chance to be touched upon during this campaign cycle.

Nonetheless, the most provocative aspect of the Yang campaign, and of the man himself, is the unusual tension between a technocratic emphasis on expertise and efficiency, and the populist rhetoric he uses to denounce remote elite enclaves, and to call for a revolution that, in the words of Bismarck, we undertake rather than undergo.1 Yang views himself — or at least projects himself as — the people's technocrat. An expert that the average Joe can trust.

Yang as Technocrat

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

'Justice can never be too late': Bill Clinton accusers speak after Ronan Farrow says former president was 'credibly accused of rape'

Shelby Talcott
The Daily Caller
Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:40 UTC
bill clinton_rape
© MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Getty Images
  • Investigative reporter Ronan Farrow said Friday that the rape claim against former President Bill Clinton is credible and needs to be revisited.
  • The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to three of Clinton's accusers to ask for their thoughts on Farrow's commentary.
  • Juanita Broaddrick, Leslie Millwee and Kathleen Willey, three of Clinton's accusers, are still hoping for justice and told the DCNF that having their story validated would be meaningful.
Former President Bill Clinton's accusers still want justice, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation after reporter Ronan Farrow said on Nov. 1 that the former president was "credibly accused of rape."

Farrow wrote the book Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, which is about NBC News's alleged attempts to silence his reporting surrounding sexual assault allegations against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. He spoke on CBS's "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Nov. 1 and said Clinton's alleged victim Juanita Broaddrick "credibly" accused the former president of rape and that the accusation was "overdue for revisiting."

After the segment aired, three women who have accused Clinton of sexual assault — Broaddrick, Leslie Millwee and Kathleen Willey — talked to the DCNF, expressing their view on Farrow's comments and discussing how they are still hoping for justice.
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Gold Seal

Russia isn't getting the recognition it deserves for its accomplishments in Syria

Scott Ritter
truthdig
Wed, 30 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
Putin
© Sergei Chirikov / AP
At a time when the credibility of the United States as either an unbiased actor or reliable ally lies in tatters, Russia has emerged as the one major power whose loyalty to its allies is unquestioned, and whose ability to serve as an honest broker between seemingly intractable opponents is unmatched.

If there is to be peace in Syria, it will be largely due to the patient efforts of Moscow employing deft negotiation, backed up as needed by military force, to shape conditions conducive for a political solution to a violent problem. If ever there was a primer for the art of diplomacy, the experience of Russia in Syria from 2011 to the present is it.

Like the rest of the world, Russia was caught off guard by the so-called Arab Spring that swept through the Middle East and North Africa in 2010-2011, forced to watch from the sidelines as the old order in Tunisia and Egypt was swept aside by popular discontent. While publicly supporting the peaceful transition of power in Tunis and Cairo, in private the Russian government watched the events unfolding in Egypt and the Maghreb with trepidation, concerned that the social and political transformations underway were a continuation of the kind of Western-backed "color revolutions" that had occurred previously in Serbia (2000), Georgia (2003) and Ukraine (2004).

When, in early 2011, the Arab Spring expanded into Libya, threatening the rule of longtime Russian client Moammar Gadhafi, Russia initially supported the creation of a U.N.-backed no-fly zone for humanitarian purposes, only to watch in frustration as the U.S. and NATO used it as a vehicle to launch a concerted air campaign in a successful bid to drive Gadhafi from power.
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Briefcase

Huawei to spend $40 billion on supplies from Europe to offset US ban

Oscar Schneider
The Brussels Times
Mon, 04 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
5G Tower
Chinese telecoms giant Huawei plans to spend up to 40 billion U.S. dollars on supplies in Europe in the next five years to offset its lost access to American products, the Group told the French news agency, AFP, on Monday.

Huawei's decision is a direct result of the decision by the White House to ban U.S. companies from selling technology to the group, which it suspects of potential espionage on Beijing's behalf.

It is not without consequences for groups like Qualcomm, Intel, Micron or Google, since Huawei usually spends over 10 billion dollars a year on semi-conductors, spare parts and services for its smart phones and network equipment.
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Newspaper

Trump attacks New York leaders as hundreds of prisoners set for early release


RT
Tue, 05 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
Donald Trump
© Reuters, Global Look Press
Trump has blasted plans to release nearly 900 New York City prisoners.
US President Donald Trump has joined a chorus of opposition to moves by New York leaders which will see hundreds of inmates being released from prison as early as next month.

The controversial law doesn't officially come into force until 2020, but New York's state court system indicated in recent days that it will begin to release prisoners next month to avoid a glut of cases when January rolls around.

New York City has estimated that around 880 prisoners will be eligible for release under the statute. Officials don't yet know how many inmates will be released state-wide, as each county has to determine how many cases it has.
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