Monday, May 13: Lost Sense of Humor
Nothing remotely funny about tens of thousands of murdered Palestinians
We’ve long since passed the point in this genocide where no place is safe in Gaza. More than eight months of endless murder and destruction with the blind support and financial backing of the most powerful nations on the planet.
At this point the genocidal apartheid-defending Israeli forces are ordering Palestinians to evacuate northern cities like Jabalia as well as the southern area of Rafah while they continue to indiscriminately bomb everything in between (Remind me again what’s the technical term for this process??). The bloodthirsty military has wrecked its way across Gaza, reaching all the way to the Egyptian border and seizing control of the Rafah border crossing. Now they’re preparing for the widely-expected war crime on the territory where ~1 million refugees uprooted by the war have been sheltering. Meanwhile, clueless American politicians like South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham are going on TV and suggesting nuking Gaza as a potential solution. Thanks for your valuable input Lindsey, you slimy little malignant weasel.
This CNN special news report features testimony from whistleblowers within the genocidal Israeli military who reveal details on the Sde Teiman concentration camp in the remote Israeli desert. The military base now doubles as a detention center in the Negev desert around 18 miles from Gaza, housing many Palestinians detained during Israel’s invasion of Gaza. The horror stories coming from this prison should come as no surprise, but the depravity never ceases to disturb.
According to these Israeli whistleblowing cowards, they describe a facility where doctors are sometimes amputating prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing; of medical procedures being performed by unqualified medics earning it a reputation for being “a paradise for interns”; a place where the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds left to rot. Of course, Palestinians have been reporting these facts for months, ignored by mainstream outlets and mocked by their oppressors. The mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners is as foundational to the apartheid state as the dispossession of residents and occupation of foreign land.
This video was shared with me earlier this week, depicting a protest for Palestine 20 years ago in Wichita, Kansas. This brief window into the past shows how little has changed over the past decades. 20 years ago these kids were marching in the Midwestern streets with signs calling for an end to the occupation and drawing attention to the genocide. For anyone suggesting this is an emerging issue of the past 8 months, understand that one of those little kids featured in this video grew up to be my wife. This isn’t a new issue or some unpredictable catastrophe, this has been a calculated and systemic extermination of Palestinian life for generations.
In the international arena, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine last week. The final vote tally was 143-9 with 25 countries abstaining from voting. To the surprise of absolutely no one, the United States continued down the wrong side of history, voting against the resolution, along with the apartheid state this country is sponsoring. While the resolution gives Palestine some new rights, it reaffirms that it remains a non-member observer state without full UN membership or the right to vote in the General Assembly. And of course the US has made clear that it will continue to block any attempts at granting Palestinian membership and statehood.
In other news, many American universities held their graduation ceremonies this past weekend, with students staging walkouts and disruptions at a number of events. At Duke University, dozens of students justifiably abandoned their commencement speaker, former comedian and genocide enthusiast Jerome “17-38” Seinfeld. The washed-up clown delivered a forgettable speech reminding students not to lose their sense of humor, which is easier said than done when you have a passing awareness of global reality and a functional sense of compassion.
Turns out all those bozos who claimed to be concerned about antisemitism on college campuses really just didn’t want to hear from students about the complicity of academic institutions in genocide. For context, in 2020 the American government gave more money to defense contractor Lockheed Martin than to the Department of Education. You might read that statistic and wonder how that could possibly be true, but to call American academic institutions anything other than investment portfolios would be a mistake. Our higher education system may be circling the drain, but the important thing is that we don’t lose our sense of humor.
Side Items
Don’t Mackle Less: Thrift shop aficionado and Grammy-winning musician Macklemore bravely did what no other major musician has done so far, releasing a song called “Hind’s Hall” directly addressing the crisis in Gaza and donating all proceeds to UNRWA. While the rap world continues to be distracted by feuding grown men and their alleged misdeeds it’s refreshing to see that not every creative artist has sold their voice and soul to the industry
Rent is Too Damn High: A 34-year-old Michigan woman was found living inside a triangle-shaped sign at the top of a retail strip with enough space for a computer, printer, coffee maker, and other luxurious amenities. In years past this kind of story would typically be my bread and butter; something so strange and difficult to envision, but undoubtedly innovative and hilarious. Sadly I read a story like this now and wonder about the shortage of affordable housing in this country. The more we learn about our societal decline the harder it is to find humor in ridiculous stories like this one
All of the Lights: A rare geomagnetic storm brought sensational views of celestial aurora to people around the world this week. Sadly I was unable to witness the glorious lightshow in Chicago due to a combination of light pollution and a general inability to stay up late enough to see anything, but the photos and videos have been phenomenal