Monday, April 1: Six Months of Genocide
This year we're all April fools
It’s hard to put into words exactly, but it kinda feels like we as a society have moved beyond the need for a holiday like April Fools Day. This year April has made a fool of us all, by the simple fact that we continue to sit around powerless to stop a genocide in Gaza funded by our tax dollars. Every passing day brings further grotesque evidence that these past six months have included Israeli war crimes on a scale hard to imagine.
This weekend the genocidal buffoons in the apartheid state of Israel celebrated April Fools Day early by bombing a tent area near Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital with clearly identified BBC and AP journalists taking cover while a delegation from the World Health Organization was also present. I honestly can’t think of a more horrific way of reminding the rest of the world that their actions are beyond reproach or punishment. The apartheid state said, “April Fools, we’ll keep killing Palestinians for as long as we like.” No amount of international pressure or sanctions (apart from a complete arms embargo) could get in the way of a murderous regime determined to extinguish Palestinian life in any way possible. But it’s not enough for these cowards to focus their murderous intent on Gaza, earlier today an Israeli airstrike targeted and destroyed the consular section of Iran's embassy in Damascus, Syria, killing or wounding everyone inside.
There are still some heroes doing their best to end the violence. Heroes like Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, who presented a report entitled “Anatomy of a Genocide”, detailing the extent of some of the Israeli war crimes reported thus far. Albanese is also the name of a large candy manufacturer in the state of Indiana, located less than an hour from where I sit, where they specialize in gummy candy production. There’s no connection between the two Albanese’s as far as I know.
Separately, a US official named Annelle Sheline who worked with the state department chose to resign last week, publicly claiming that she, “no longer wanted to be affiliated with this administration”. Sheline also called out Biden for openly ignoring US law over Israel, stating that the US is "aware of plenty of evidence that Israel was violating international law", and that, "the Biden administration was violating US law by continuing to supply weapons." This lady risked her career for her beliefs, which is admirable. It certainly shouldn’t have taken six months to recognize the inhumanity on display, but better late than never I guess.
This weekend also featured the homie Ramy Yousef gracing the stage of Saturday Night Live to publicly and unequivocally call for a ceasefire in Gaza and a free Palestine. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the cultural discourse in the United States has shifted far enough to allow a program like SNL to feature the words "Free the people of Palestine," along with the studio audience bursting into applause. This is a far cry from how people could talk about Palestine 10 years ago, but there’s still much farther to go.
Side Items
Baltimore Bridge Collapse: On Tuesday last week, a massive container ship ran into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, tearing it asunder and knocking several vehicles into the waters below. A few people were killed in the accident, including several immigrant workers trying to fix potholes in the road, doing their best to help fix this broken place. Now the wreckage continues to be dealt with and tens of thousands of Marylanders are trying to find a new way to get around town, which highlights yet another headline case of misplaced priorities. This incredibly costly and inconvenient accident occurred just weeks after Baltimore announced plans for the construction of a brand new $1 billion jail which would be the most expensive state-funded project in history. When the focus of a society is on adding billion dollar prisons rather than fixing roads or bridges, that’s a pretty good indication of where things are headed
Waffle House Corporate Greed: Last week, Waffle House workers in Georgia joined the growing wave of labor resistance to corporate greed, as workers in Conyers went on strike to demand an end to the company’s senseless policy of deducting a ‘meal credit’ of at least $3 from worker pay every shift, regardless of whether the employee actually eats a meal or not. Mind you this is a $4 BILLION corporation we’re talking about, where the chairman, Mr. Joe Rogers Jr, is worth $1.7 billion, and pays Waffle House workers as little as $2.13 an hour and still finds time in his busy day to take $3 out of their paychecks for each on-shift meal whether they end up eating it or not. Now I see why they’re always fighting in there
Crypto’s Fallen Prince: Sam Bankman-Fried, the scam-artist//crypto genius who ran the crypto exchange FTX was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the massive fraud scheme that unraveled with the collapse of the company. This is likely the last I’ll mention the guy, so I figure it’s also worth mentioning that I don’t believe anybody deserves to be locked in a cell for 25 years. People like Sam Bankman-Fried are incredibly unlikely to spend that amount of time locked up, so he’s not so relevant, but the people that are trapped for 25 years, I don’t think anyone is really benefitting from their torture, but that’s just me