Tuesday, October 24, 2023

2023 Passings

These are the deaths community members found worth noting this year.

 

Lisa Presley -- Elaine noted her passing.


Christine McVie -- Kat covered her passing.

 

Adam Rich -- Marcia noted his passing.

 

Jeff Beck -- Kat noted his passing.

 

Lance Kerwin -- Rebecca noted his passing.


Barrett Strong -- Ruth noted his passing.

 

Lisa Loring -- Rebecca noted her passing.

 

Burt Bacharach -- Rebecca noted his passing.

 

Raquel Welch -- Elaine noted her passing.

 

Stella Stevens  -- Rebecca noted her passing.

 

Richard Belzer -- Ruth noted his passing.  

 

Kevin Alexander Gray -- C.I. notes his passing.

 

Pat Schroeder -- Kat noted her passing.

 

Lance Reddick -- Mike notes his passing.  

 

Darcelle XV -- Elaine notes his passing.

 

"Mark Russell" -- Ruth notes his passing 

 

"Elizabeth Hubbard" -- Trina notes her passing.

 

"Mary Quant and more Peabody nominations" -- Elaine notes a passing.

 

"Harry Belafonte" -- Kat notes a passing.


"
Gordon Lightfoot" -- Kat notes a passing.

 

"jacklyn zeman, rose schlossberg, john travolta and..." -- Rebecca notes the passing of Jacklyn Zeman.


 

"Iraq snapshot," "Tina Turner (1939 to 2023)," "The groundbreaker Tina Turner," "Tina Turner," "Lauren Boebert gets burned by AOC," "MAX and NETFLIX, Eva Longoria," "Tina Turner, Eric Swalwell, John Roberts," "They've ruined their reputation," "Hate merchant Tulsi Gabbard," "tina turner passed but the hideous gop lingers," "Tina " and "The wrong people are dying" -- The community notes the passing of Tina Turner.

 

 "Gay actor George Maharis has died" -- Stan notes the passing. 


"10 great songs that Cynthia Weil co-wrote" and "Cynthia Weil" -- Marcia and Kat note Cynthia Weil's passing.


"Hate merchant Pat Robertson has passed away" -- Kat notes the end of Pat Robertson.


"Glenda Jackson" -- Ruth notes the actress's passing.

 

 

"Iraq snapshot" -- C.I. notes the passing of Daniel Ellsberg.

 

"Andrea Evans" -- Kat notes the passing of a soap opera icon. 

 

"Tony Bennett" -- Kat notes the passing of a great singer.

 

"Paul Reubens," "Pee-Wee's Big Holiday" and "One more time on Pee-Wee Herman" -- Betty and Marcia note the passing of Paul Reubens.


"Robbie Robertson" -- Kat covers the passing.

 "David Jacobs" -- Kat notes the passing of a TV creator. 

 

"Arleen Sorkin" -- Marcia notes the passing of a voice, sitcom and daytime TV actress.

 

"billy miller has passed away" -- Rebecca notes a passing. 


"DiFi dies" -- Betty notes the passing of an elderly fool.


"David McCallum led a long life" -- Stan notes the passing of an actor who starred in two huge TV shows. 

 

"rudolph isley " -- Rebecca notes the passing of a music legend.

 

"Phyllis Coats -- TV's original Lois Lane" -- TV's first Lois Lane remembered by Kat.

 

"Piper Laurie" -- Marcia remembers the late actress.


"Suzanne Somers" -- Isaiah notes the significance of Suzanne Somers.

 

 "Mailbag" -- noting the passing of Mark Goddard.


 "lara parker" -- Rebecca covers the passing of Lara Parker.

 

"Carla Bley" -- Marcia notes the passing of a jazz pioneer.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Books

1summerread

 

"Mafia Wives (Susan Williams' WHITE MALICE)" -- C.I. reviews this book.

 

 "The Sewing Circle" -- Marcia reads Axel Madsen's THE SEWING CIRCLE.

 

 "Ellen Sander's The Lifestyle That Classic Rock Unleashed" -- Trina reviews this book.


"Phyllis Diller 1917 – 2012: News, Quotes, Interview" -- Ann reviews this book.


"Call Her Heroic (Ava and C.I.)" -- Ava and C.I. review this book.


"Boze Hadleigh's Hollywood Gays" -- Marcia reviews this book.

 

"Robert Sellers wrote a book of garbage" -- Kat reviews HOLLYWOOD HELLRAISERS.   

 

 

"SCREAM VI and THE BOYS" -- Stan reviews Ron and Clint Howard's THE BOYS.

 

 

"the world according to joan" -- Rebecca reviews this book.

 

 "Elton John and Whitney Houston" -- Kat reviews Elton John's autobiography and a biography on Whitney Houston.


"DON RICKLES: THE MERCHANT OF VENOM" -- Isaiah reviews this book.

 

"Crispy Calamari in the Kitchen" -- Trina reviews  AIR FRYER COOKBOOK FOR BEGINNERS: EFFORTLESSLY GRILL, ROAST AND BAKE HOMEMADE MEALS: YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS WITH QUICK, TASTY & HEALTHY RECIPES.

 

 "Vincent Price and Universal" -- Marcia reviews John L. Flynn's 75 YEARS OF UNIVERSAL MONSTERS and Vincent Price's I LIKE WHAT I KNOW: A VISUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

 

"3 books to skip" -- Kat reviews  Bertill Nordahl's CAT SEVENS, CARLY SIMON AND LEONARD COHEN AND ALL THE OTHERS, David Redford's NEIL& JONI: 2 LIVES, 21 ALBUMS and Ellen Sanders' ROCK AND ROLL WOMENHOOD: CASS ELLIOT, GRACE SLICK, LINDA RONSTADT, FANNY AND MORE.

 

"THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: AN UNNATURAL HISTORY" -- Mike reviews Elizabeth Kolbert's THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: AN UNNATURAL HISTORY.


"Paul Kupperberg's DIRECT CONVERSTIONS: TALKS WITH FELLOW DC COMICS BRONZE AGE CREATORS" -- Isaiah reviews this book.

 

"JOAN BAEZ: THE LAST LEAF" -- Ruth reviews  this book by Elizabeth Thomas.

 

 "A JOYOUS TRANSFORMATION: THE UNEXPURZGATED DIARY OF ANAIS NIN, 1966 -1977" -- Ruth reviews a book by Anais Nin.

 

"An aging queen writes a bitter book about The Way We Were" -- Marcia reviews a bad book about THE WAY WE WERE.

 

 

"Travis Stewart's bad book supposedly on Stevie Nicks" -- Kat reviews a bad book supposedly about Stevie Nicks.

 

"Austin Breakfast Tacos: The Story of the Most Important Taco of the Day"-- Trina strongly recommends this cookbook.


"GET LOST" -- Isaiah looks at this comic magazine


"Lucille Ball and HERE'S LUCY" -- Stan reads up on the second half of Lucille Ball's life.


"Melody Thomas Scott's Always Young and Restless: M..." -- Ann reviews this autobiography.


"ROCK AND ROLL NIGHTMARES" -- Elaine reviews this book about crime in the music world. 


"ALL THE LEAVES ARE BROWN" -- Kat reviews this book about the Mamas & the Papas.


"SAPIENS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND" -- Mike reviews a science book.



"Stephen Rebello's DOLLS! DOLLS! DOLLS: DEEP INSIDE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, THE MOST BELOVED BAD BOOK AND MOVIE OF ALL TIME" -- Stan reviews a book about the making of VALLEY OF THE DOLLS.


 "Elizabeth Taylor -- two books" -- Ruth covers Katy Holborn's ELIZABETH TAYLOR: AN ELIZABETH TAYLOR BIOGRAPHY and Gian-Luca di Rocco's WOMEN IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT: CHARTING SOCIETAL PROGRESS THROUGH THE FILMS OF ELIZABETH TAYLOR AND JANE FONDA 1944-1981.

 

"Split Image: The Life of Anthony Perkins" -- Ann reviews a biography about Anthony Perkins.

 

 "Andrea Warner's BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY" -- Mike wonders why he bothered to read this book?


"Worst summer read ever is by Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince" and "'the fondas: henry, jane and peter' is a very bad book" -- Marcia and Rebecca review Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince's THE FONDAS: HENRY, JANE AND PETER.

 

"Cookbooks and Air Fryer Cauliflower in the Kitchen" -- Trina reviews two cookbooks.

 

"Do not read ENDLESS HIGHWAY at AMAZON" -- Isaiah lays it out for AMAZON's KINDLE. 

 

 "Naomi Klein's DOPPELGANGER" -- C.I. reviews Naomi Klein's latest book.

 

 "Demetrius Sherman's BLACK COMIC BOOK HISTORY" -- Isaiah reviews a book about the history of comic books.


"Stefan Kanfer's Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball" -- Marcia reads up on one of her favorite entertainers. 


"Anne Edwards is a waste of time and a killer of trees" -- Elaine reviews Anne Edwards' A REMARKABLE WOMAN: A BIOGRAPHY OF KATHARINE HEPBURN.  


"Howard Zinn's A PEOPLE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES" -- Elaine reviews Howard Zinn's book.


" robert dance - a lousy writer - knows damn little about joan crawford" -- Rebecca reviews a really lousy book about Joan Crawford.

Gaza

For Gaza coverage we are reposting this Saturday entry from THE COMMON ILLS:



The continued assault on Gaza

The assault on Gaza continues.   Israel says it struck a mosque in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, with Palestinian medics reporting at least one person killed."  Yesterday, Karen Zraick and

An Israeli airstrike hit the grounds of the historic Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza City, which was sheltering displaced people, on Thursday night, according to church officials and witnesses.

The church compound, comprising a chapel, seven buildings and a courtyard, was full of Christian families from the Gaza Strip, witnesses said. They said the airstrike happened around 7:30 p.m., when dinner was being distributed.

Videos and images from the scene showed rescuers digging through rubble, working with flashlights late Thursday and into Friday. The chapel was not struck.

Chao Deng (WALL STREET JOURNAL) also noted Friday, "The Israeli military said that a blast Thursday night on the St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church campus in Gaza City was the result of its airstrike." Tonight, Najib Jobain, Joseph Krauss and Samy Magdy (AP) report, "The border crossing between Egypt and Gaza opened Saturday to let a trickle of desperately needed aid into the besieged Palestinian territory for the first time since Israel sealed it off and began pounding it with airstrikes following Hamas’ bloody rampage two weeks ago. Just 20 trucks were allowed in, an amount aid workers said was insufficient to address the unprecedented humanitarian crisis. More than 200 trucks carrying 3,000 tons of aid have been waiting nearby for days."  Jon Queally (COMMON DREAMS) explains:


Guillemette Thomas, MSF's medical coordinator for Gaza, said Saturday that inside Gaza "we have an extremely high number of injured people arriving in hospitals, very serious patients requiring complex care. According to our colleagues who still work at Shifa hospital, the hospital will soon run out of fuel and therefore electricity. This means that all the patients currently in intensive care units connected to ventilators and babies in incubators will die because of the lack of electricity. Operating theaters will no longer be able to function, patients will no longer be able to be operated on and the number of victims will increase significantly in the coming hours."

Thomas warned that those in the intensive care were "just the tip of the iceberg," warning that all injured and sick people Gaza remain at severe risk.

Human Rights Watch was among those who suggested that the refusal to allow fuel into Gaza—and the absence of efforts to restore or repair devastated the electricity grid or water systems—makes the paltry level stand out as intentionally inadequate.

"While aid agencies struggle to squeeze a few trucks of humanitarian aid into southern Gaza via Egypt, the Israeli authorities are keeping their crossings with Gaza closed and refusing to flick the switch for the water and electricity supply," said Tirana Hassan, HRW's executive director. "There is no excuse for denying water, food, and medicine to Gaza's civilian population. It is cruel and contrary to international law."


Doctors Without Borders adds, "We are in touch with some of our colleagues who are supporting teams from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, particularly in Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where MSF had provided care for burn victims for years. Today, medical staff suffer the same fate as the rest of Gazans: they have been constantly bombed for the past 10 days. Our colleagues tell us that many doctors and other health workers have died since the start of the Israeli offensive." 

CBS NEWS notes, "Israel plans to step up its attacks on the Gaza Strip starting Saturday as preparation for the next stage of its war on Hamas, Israel's military spokesman said. Asked about a possible ground invasion into Gaza, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters Saturday night that the military was trying to create optimal conditions beforehand." And the Israeli government is counting on more weapons from the US government based on the personal promises of President Joe Biden.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) reports:

  With more than 4,100 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis already dead as Israel bombards the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a surprise attack led by Hamas, progressive groups on Friday pushed back against U.S. President Joe Biden's effort to further arm Israel.

"In the face of massive suffering in Gaza and disregard for international law by the Israeli government, the U.S. must not provide additional military aid or weapons that would cause more deaths," the National Priorities Project (NPP) at the Institute for Policy Studies said, demanding that U.S. use its diplomatic power to push for a cease-fire.

"The Israeli military's onslaught on Gaza has not protected civilians. It has instead targeted them," NPP asserted, pointing out that while cutting off Palestinians in the Hamas-governed territory from essentials like food, water, medicine, and electricity, Israel has bombed residential, religious, medical, and educational buildings over the past two weeks. 


Andre Damon (WSWS) notes the United Nation placed the Gaza death toll at 4, 137 on Friday and that, "Over the past week, US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have all visited Israel to give their unequivocal endorsement of the genocidal policies of the Netanyahu regime, which is widely despised within Israel and by Jewish people around the world."  They're not only increasing the killings, the Israeli government is also arresting activists.  Sophie Squire (UK SOCIALIST WORKER) reports:


As the Israeli state prepares for a ground invasion of Gaza, soldiers and settlers have stepped up their brutality against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. 

Mayar Derbashi, a charity worker in Hebron , told Socialist Worker, “A dire and savage onslaught is unfolding in Gaza. 

“In the West Bank, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in arrests. Before 7 October there were about 5,600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention. In less than two weeks, that number has doubled, exceeding 10,000. 

 

Yet Joe Biden wants to give more weapons and more US tax dollars.  His visit accomplished nothing and Ralph Nader really nails that down at DISSIDENT VOICE:


If President Joe Biden were a pony, instead of a perennial warhorse (e.g., gung-ho for Bush/Cheney’s criminal destruction of Iraq), he would have his tail between his legs on his return from a one-day trip to Israel. He failed to achieve any immediate, critical objectives while the ongoing destruction of Gaza and the defenseless Palestinians continues.

Did Biden get Israel and Egypt to allow the exit of hundreds of American citizens fleeing the Gazan firestorm? No!

Did Biden open up corridors for humanitarian aid to the babies, children, women, elderly and other civilians in Gaza who had nothing to do with the October 7 Hamas homicide/suicide attack on Israelis? No!

To the contrary, earlier in the week he cruelly ordered his UN Ambassador to veto a widely supported resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Did he forcefully double down on his earlier counsel to the Israeli government to obey the laws of war, then and now, being openly violated? No! He continued his silence after the Israeli Defense Minister ordered his soldiers with the genocidal command, “No electricity, no food, no fuel, no water…” That death sentence includes patients in hospitals who must endure the carpet bombing of this long-time blockaded tiny strip of desert land holding 2.3 million people. (See, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide).



Joyce Chediac (LIBERATION!) notes what Joe's visit to Tel Aviv means on the world stage, "This extraordinary visit of a U.S. president to a war zone is a full endorsement of Israel’s decision to cut off food, electricity and water to Gaza; of its bombings of several medical facilities and ambulances, schools, mosques, bakeries and UN food storage facilities; and its repeated bombing of the Rafa border crossing with Egypt, making it impossible for Gaza to retrieve 1,000 tons of supplies waiting there to be picked up. It is a green light for whatever else Israel chooses to do."  WORKERS WORLD points out, "Gaza’s territory is roughly the same size and holds the same population as Chicago. One can hardly imagine what sort of horror the current bombing means for the people who are themselves mostly refugees or their descendants, where there is no functioning economy, where half the population are children, and where the Israeli blockade makes it near impossible to leave. There are good reasons that not only Palestinians but also some Western political leaders have called Gaza the largest open-air prison in the world."  Eric London  (WSWS) cites Joe Biden's plan to give $14 billion to Israel and points out that since 1948, the US taxpayers have already forked over $260 billion to the Israeli government.  Of Joe's Thursday night TV address, Eric offers, "Over 20 years ago, then-president George W. Bush used the same language to justify launching imperialist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which were to last 20 years, kill more than one million people, and cost more than $8 trillion, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project. A 2022 report published by the Pentagon admitted that each taxpayer paid $8,278 for the wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021, though the true figure is likely an order of magnitude higher."

 

Funding this assault and providing more weapons for it and verbally praising it means the US government is also responsible -- legally responsible -- for the genocide being carried out. Graham Peebles (DISSIDENT VOICE) observes, "Peace is impossible whilst these destructive ideals dominate."  At TRUTHOUT, Marjorie Cohn (former president of The National Lawyers Guild) writes:


In retaliation against the Palestinians in Gaza for Hamas’s October 7 killing of hundreds of Israeli civilians, Israel has intensified its 16-year siege of Gaza to a “complete siege.” Israel is slaughtering Gazans, cutting off their food, water, electricity and fuel, ordering more than 1 million of them to leave their homes and then bombing their evacuation routes, and trapping them with nowhere to escape.

Israeli forces are amassing tanks on the border in preparation for an imminent invasion. The United States is sending massive firepower to help Israel.

“Complete siege” is a euphemism for ethnic cleansing. It “explicitly indexes a plan to bring the siege to its final destination of systematic destruction of Palestinians and Palestinian society in Gaza,” Raz Segal wrote in Jewish Currents. 

Israel has turned its incremental genocide of the Palestinian people into full-fledged genocide — with the unconditional support of the U.S. government.

“There is a plausible and credible case that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza, as a significant part of the overall Palestinian population, as a protected group,” the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) wrote in its October 18 emergency legal briefing paper titled “Israel’s Unfolding Crime of Genocide of the Palestinian People & U.S. Failure to Prevent and Complicity in Genocide.” 


Dana Elborno (TRUTHOUT)  writes, "Amid the death and destruction from the shower of bombs dropping on Gaza like rain, truly the thing that has forever changed me is seeing how the world is turning into a hate mob against a civilian population, a majority of whom are refugees, the majority of whom are children, all of whom have been living besieged for 16 years. It is the media coverage priming the public to accept mass atrocities by using hateful and racist rhetoric that has left me feeling the most hopeless and scared. This incendiary and dehumanizing language used to describe Palestinians is going to contribute to genocide in Gaza and increasing violence against Muslims in the U.S., like the stabbing to death of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a Palestinian 6-year-old in Illinois."  Gregory Shupak (COMMON DREAMS) also addresses the media coverage:


Recent editorials in leading liberal U.S. newspapers have consistently presented the unrelenting mass terror that Israel inflicts on Palestinians as legitimate.

Media outlets have endorsed Israel's assault on Gaza, and America's funding of the attack, while criticizing those who offer even mildly dissenting views. American publications have repeatedly conferred on Israel's violence a virtuousness, even as it mows people down - a generosity not afforded to its Palestinian counterpart.

On 12 October, The Washington Post ran an editorial praising US President Joe Biden for his "unreserved condemnation of Hamas's terrorism," saying: "In that respect, Mr. Biden's firm words also stand in welcome contrast to the equivocations by a small number of the left-wing members of Congress in his own party, which White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre specifically repudiated."

The link to Jean-Pierre's words indicates that the "equivocations" the Post objects to are statements that "suggested the Hamas attack on Israel should be considered in context with previous actions by Israel," as well as those that "opposed US military aid for Israel on social media and called for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict."

A day before that editorial was published, the human rights groups Mezan, al-Haq, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights jointly documented that, just in the period between midday 10 and 11 October, Israel destroyed entire neighborhoods of al-Qarm, Ezbet Abdrabbo, and al-Sikka, with rescue teams "recover[ing] dozens of bodies" while "others are still under the rubble"; "target[ed]" Gaza's Islamic University and bombed the Al-Fakhoura Scholarship Program building," assaults that combined to kill 57 Palestinians, including 20 children. They further noted Israel's air strikes and shelling of the Middle Area District's agricultural lands and "residential areas, most notably in the three densely populated refugee camps of Al-Bureij, Al-Nusairat, and Deir al-Balah", killing at least 49 Palestinians, 15 of them children.


Media analysis also comes from Mohammed El-Kurd at THE NATION:


 I and a few other Palestinians have been hopping between TV channels and radio stations to talk about the atrocities unfolding in Gaza, most of which are absent from headlines, and we have encountered similar hostility. Producers invite us, it seems, not to interview us for our experiences or analysis or the context we can provide, but to interrogate us. They test our answers against the viewer’s inherent bias—a bias well-fed through years of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian rhetoric. The bombs raining down on the besieged Gaza Strip become secondary, if not entirely irrelevant, to our televised trials.

While I don’t expect pleasantries on air, I want accurate reporting. On the UK’s LBC radio, last week, host Rachel Johnson (sister of the former prime minister) took a break from repeatedly interrupting to question me—in fact, indict me—about unverified, word-of-mouth reports of Palestinian fighters “decapitating and raping” Israelis. She didn’t mention the various videos of Israelis mutilating, stomping, and urinating on Palestinian corpses, many of which are readily available to 83,000 subscribers of an Israeli Telegram channel named “Terrorists_are_dying.”

Such unsubstantiated claims were—and still are—all over the news. The Independent (UK) plastered its Chief International Correspondent Bel Trew’s “impossible to verify” reports of “decapitated women and babies” on its front page. Los Angeles Times columnist Jonah Goldberg reported then redacted “rapes.” On CNN, a teary-eyed Sara Sidner confirmed live, based on Israeli official sources, that “babies and toddlers were found with their heads decapitated,” then apologized on Twitter (now X) that she was “misled,” following a statement, again, from Israeli official sources admitting there is no information confirming the claim that “Hamas beheaded babies.”

This is a familiar playbook. A claim is circulated without evidence; Western journalists spread it like wildfire; diplomats and politicians parrot it; a narrative is built; the general public believes it, and the damage is done.

It may seem trivial to place such weight on the manner of killing, given the fact of killing, but such language isn’t without consequences. On Monday, an Illinois landlord attacked his Palestinian American tenants, seriously injuring a woman and killing her 6-year-old child. “You Muslims must die,” he yelled as he stabbed them each over a dozen times. Joe Biden said he was “shocked and sickened” by the attack, as if he could divorce himself from a claim he had made days before that he’d seen “pictures of terrorists beheading children” (a claim he quietly retracted hours later).

Conjuring rape and decapitation feeds on Islamophobic tropes. Simultaneously, it works hand in hand with the Israeli regime’s PR strategy, which has sought to equate Hamas with ISIS in the audience’s imagination, resurrecting the culture that brought forth the “War on Terror.”

Robin Andersen (DISSIDENT VOICE) also contemplates the effect of the slanted media coverage:


On October 7, the AP reported that US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States “stands with the people of Israel in the face of these terrorist assaults. Israel has the right to defend itself and its people, full stop.” On October 9, The Times of Israel quoted Defense Minister Yoav Gallant saying, “We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.” Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian directed his threat at all Gazans on October 10, declaring, “Kidnapping, abusing and murdering children, women and elderly people is not human.” He then announced, “There will be no electricity and no water. There will only be destruction. You wanted hell; you will get hell.”

In a piece published on October 8 titled “Media Calls The Attack On Israel Unprovoked: Experts Say That’s Historically Inaccurate,” the Huffington Post pointed to the Israeli government’s “apartheid against Palestinians” as a provocation. It quoted IfNotNow, an American Jewish group that opposes Israeli apartheid, expressing their dread for the loss of life and loved ones, Israelis and Palestinians alike. It continued, “Every day under Israel’s system of apartheid is a provocation. The strangling siege on Gaza is a provocation. Settlers terrorizing entire Palestinian villages, soldiers raiding and demolishing Palestinian homes, murdering Palestinians in the streets, Israeli ministers calling for genocide and expulsion” are all provocations.

Indeed, multiple international human rights groups have defined the long-term Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands as a system of apartheid. The death toll on each side exposes the false assertion that Israeli violence is always retaliatory and that of Palestinians is “unprecedented.” The UNOCHA documents 6,407 Palestinian deaths since 2008, compared to 308 Israeli fatalities. Gregory Shupak reported that since 2001, more than ten thousand Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, with “nearly 9 out of 10 deaths this century have been on the Palestinian side.” In addition, the Israelis have made daily life in Gaza miserable. As UK journalist Jonathan Cook wrote, “[Gaza’s] inhabitants—one million of them children—are denied the most basic freedoms, such as the right to movement; access to proper health care, drinkable water, and the use of electricity because Israel keeps bombing Gaza’s power station.” But voices such as Shupak and Cook are virtually absent from US establishment news coverage of the violence.

The Hamas attacks were taken out of the context of ongoing violence, presented without cause, and in narratives that see only Hamas violence but have rarely featured or condemned equivalent Israeli violence against Palestinians. Establishment media’s one-sided pro-Israel coverage, established over many years, fed into the growing consensus that a major retaliation by Israelis would be forthcoming. Early corporate news reporting seemed to confirm its inevitability, with almost no voices of reason or caution allowed to enter the militarized revenge frame coalescing around a major attack.

The verbiage used by the New York Times on the Tribe of Nova music festival also illustrates Big Journalism’s sensationalized, inaccurate reporting. The Times wrote that the “massacre of its youth” and Israel’s “75-year-old quest for some carefree normalcy” met the “murderous fury of those long-oppressed Palestinians who deny the state’s right to exist.” The language of the Times’ report—using “murderous” and denial of Israel’s “right to exist,” with “long-oppressed Palestinians”—makes a mockery of what Gazans have experienced. Additionally, it is not true that Palestinians deny Israel’s right to exist. A quick look at the US State Department’s summation of the 1993 Oslo Accords states that the Palestinian Authority “renounced terrorism and recognized Israel’s right to exist in peace” and Israel accepted the PLO as the representative of the Palestinians,” concessions that undergirded the two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. But Rashid Khalidi has called out the “empty words about a two-state solution while providing money, weapons and diplomatic support for systematic, calculated Israeli actions that have made that solution inconceivable.”



Dylan Saba (IN THESE TIMES) also analyzes the media coverage:


On October 8, the morning after Hamas launched an attack from the Gaza strip that killed 1,400 Israelis, Ha’aretz—Israel’s paper of record — published an editorial laying blame for the massacre squarely on Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government. ​“The disaster that befell Israel,” the editorial board wrote, ​“is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu.” Netanyahu ​“completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession” and ​“embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.” It was a damning and powerful indictment.

Two days later, Ryna Workman, the student body president of NYU Law School, sent out a newsletter to classmates as Israel’s retaliatory assault on the Gaza Strip was well underway. Expanding on the Ha’aretz editorial board’s language, Workman wrote that ​“Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.” Workman also affirmed their solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle against oppression.

Almost immediately, they faced a torrent of backlash in the form of online disparagement and right-wing media attention. In response to pressure, the dean of the law school publicly condemned Workman’s remarks. By the evening, the law firm Winston & Strawn, where Workman had planned to work after graduating, publicly withdrew their job offer without so much as a phone call. The university then unilaterally removed Workman from their position as student body president without any disciplinary process, and threatened further charges — all for daring to speak out.

Workman is not alone. Across the US, people speaking out on behalf of Palestinian human rights and against Israeli war crimes, apartheid policies, and settler-colonial expansion that have been unfolding over nearly eight decades are facing a wave of McCarthyite backlash directly targeting their future careers and livelihoods. Students at other prominent universities have faced the same: the leaders of Harvard University student groups were doxxed and smeared for signing a statement also expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people. Their names and faces were plastered on a mobile billboard truck that roamed around campus for days, and a ​“College Terror List” circulated online accusing them of antisemitism. Several also lost job offers. A Berkeley law professor published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal imploring legal employers not to hire his own students and smearing them as antisemitic.


Chip Gibbons (Defending Rights and Dissent) noted earlier this week:


Right now, Arab-American civil rights organizations are reporting an uptick in harassment, including FBI visits to mosques and FBI and ICE detention of Palestinian nationals. 

Politicians are pressuring activists to cancel First-Amendment protected assemblies and boasting to the press that police will be monitoring them. 

The media for its part, instead of serving as a critical watchdog on government abuses of power, including repression of dissent, has helped to whip up this atmosphere. They are conflating protesters with terrorists, pushing politicians to condemn them. They have devoted attention to critiquing the social media posts of college students.

When journalists have asked critical questions, they have been rebuked by officials. During a State Department news conference after several independent journalists asked questions about the impacts of Israel’s bombardment on civilians, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller chastised the journalists stating “Some of the questions I am getting today do seem to ignore the fact that Israel just had 100s of its citizens killed, taken hostage[…]some of the questions seem to pretend that Israel should not be able to conduct operations to be able defend itself and hold accountable terrorists that killed civilians.” 

Defending Rights & Dissent will not be silent as some seek to degrade our democracy and pull the country backwards by imitating the worst abuses of the McCarthy and post-9/11 eras. 


The media has to lie to sell the war, the US government has to crack down on free speech to keep people ignorant.  It's the only way to keep the killing go.  


The answer is not to be silent.  Spent the day with one group after another speaking about this issue.  I would urge you reach out to whomever you know but I would argue you would be most effective reaching out to those over 40 because that is where the knee-jerk support for the Israeli government in the US.  And that is where I saw the most shock as I spoke to groups today.  Speaking to two college groups, for example, was just getting applause and support.  I spoke to a group of people over forty and the response was they were shocked. 

One 47-year-old woman, and I'm not trying to make fun of her because we all have learning gaps and the US media has been a propaganda front for the Israeli government for decades, stopped me in the midst of one response I was making to ask me what I was talking about.  Israel was always where it is now, she stated.  No, the state of Israel was created in 1948.  I spoke about screenwriter Ben Hecht and the creation of that nation in 1948 to explain to her how it came to be.  Ben Hecht, a great writer, is one of sources of knowledge.  Use what you have, use what you connect with to discuss this with others.  It gave time, because Ben co-wrote 20TH CENTURY (film starring Carole Lombard and John Barrymore -- a screwball classic), the original SCARFACE, Carole Lombard's NOTHING SACRED (another screwball classic), Alfred Hitchcock's NOTORIUS . . . So it gave time to reset, it tossed out some non-Israeli trivia that people could nod their heads to, etc.  And then we were able to talk about Ben's work creating the state of Israel.  Use your own knowledge base.  


But talk about it.  Because it's a history that you know but that a lot of people don't. We've talked here many times about how the media taught homophobia.  Consumers of the news media in the bulk of the 20th century were taught that gay men and lesbians were mentally ill.  That was the 'educated' opinion.  By the same token, the media has spent years in this country denying the reality of the creation of the Israeli state and lying to make it synonymous with American Jews. 


During that same time, the US media also engaged in non-stop attacks on Arabs.  


All of this combines, after years and decades, to create a general misconception -- not by accident, that was always the intent.  


And that's what we're up against.  But it's not as bad as it was at the start of the week.  As Americans are becoming more aware, the number of people supporting a cease-fire is increasing significantly. Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) reports:


  Most members of the U.S. Congress have thus far refused to support a cease-fire in Gaza as Israel's siege and airstrikes inflict horrific damage on the occupied territory.

But according to a Data for Progress survey released Friday, the tiny fraction of Congress that has backed a cease-fire is more in line with the views of U.S. voters than the overwhelming majority of lawmakers in the House and Senate—and President Joe Biden.

The poll shows that 66% of likely voters agree that "the U.S. should call for a cease-fire and deescalation of violence in Gaza" and "leverage its close diplomatic relationship with Israel to prevent further violence and civilian deaths."

IfNotNow, a Jewish-American group that has helped organize major demonstrations in support of a cease-fire this week, said in response to the survey that "it's past time for our political leaders to listen to their constituents and put a stop to this violence." 

  

The following sites updated:




  • Kat reviews The Rolling Stone's Hackney Diamonds

    Reposting Kat's latest album review:


    Kat's Korner: Those new Rolling Stones' gems aren't zirconia

    Kat:  18 years between albums?  And we though Sade was the musical equivalent of Halley's Comet.  Friday, HACKNEY DIAMONDS was released -- the first new studio album in 18 years for the Rolling Stones.  Is that a record for time between albums?



     



    I just found out Ann-Margret released an album, BORN TO BE WILD, last April.  I'll try to review it before the end of the year..  It's her first studio album since 2011 (Grammy winner GOD IS LOVE: THE GOSPEL SESSIONS VOL. 2).  But PP Arnold went from 1968's studio album KAFUNTA to 2007's FIVE IN THE AFTERNOON which is 39 years between studio albums. (Former Ikette PP Arnold found more success in the UK than the US and she is known in England for hits like "The First Cut Is The Deepest," her Rolling Stones cover "As Time Goes By" and "Angel of the Morning," among others).  Another sixties stand out would by Mary Weiss.  The leader of the pack?  No, but the main vocalist of The Shangri-Las (who had hits with "The Leader of the Pack," "(Remember) Walking In The Sand." "Give Him A Great Big Kiss," "Give Us Your Blessings," "I Can Never Go Home" and "Long Live Our Love."  SHANGRI-LAS-65! was the group's last studio album (also only their second studio album) and Mary didn't release another studio album again until 2007's DANGEROUS GAME.  That's 42 years and, for rock era performers, that might be the record.  Besides, there's 2016 studio album of cover songs BLUE & LONESOME.

    But A BIGGER BANG was the Stones' last studio album of original songs and I praised it in real time; however, as I've noted in the many years since (noted many times), I don't think I properly appreciated it.  Year after year, that 2005 album grew on me.  I now think its a classic Stones' album.

    And this new one, HACKNEY DIAMONDS?


    The late drummer Charlie Watts appears on two tracks -- there are 12.  That's the first thing to note. He's not the first Rolling Stone to die (that would be Brian Jones in 1969).  The official band is now down to three members: guitarist Ronnie Wood -- who joined the group in 1975 and became an official member in 1976 -- and original members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.  Original member Bill Wyman left the group in 1993 but came back for two concerts at the end of 2012 and he comes back for one track on this album ("Live By You").  Otherwise it's session musicians not deemed worthy of being band members (not deemed worthy yet?) and guest stars. 

    Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder join the band for "Sweet Sounds of Heaven."



    Gaga and Stevie bring their energy to the song and there's no argument that it only benefits from it -- that said, the song's strong enough it would have been a band classic without any guest star.  It's the sort of deep dive Stones song that the Black Crows repeatedly tried to write but never really came close to capturing -- a rough, wild night turning into early morning relief and amazement (that you had a good time or that you had a great time and survived).  


    No, I'm not, not goin' to Hell 
    In some dusty motel 
    And I'm not, not goin' down 
    In the dirt 
    Yes, yes, yes
     I'm gonna laugh, 
    I'm gonna laugh, 
    I'm gonna cry, 
    I'm gonna cry 
    Eat the bread, drink the wine 
    'Cause I'm finally, finally quenchin' 
    My thirst, yeah


    It's the sort of song that feels lived in the way the group's early hits did.  That lived in experience was what Americans could most identify with in the group's early years, something a lot wilder and more relatable than what most of the British invasion was turning out.  The Kinks, the Who and others were good about taking you to that giddy high of the perfect night but really there for that moment of relief when the night's fading.

    The Beatles could do that  That's why they and the Stones were the super groups of British sixties music.  They were a four member band, the Fab Four, that broke up in the sixties leading the Stones to trail blaze the seventies and Paul McCartney provides bass for "Bite My Head Off" which sounds like a photographic negative of The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog."  Makes you wonder what a 70s Beatles could have come up with?


    Elton John provides piano on "Live By The Sword" which is a nice touch and on "Get Close" which is more than a nice touch.  Or maybe it's the other way around?  Elton seems to be part of the driving force on "Get Close" where he's more on an accent on "Live By The Sword."  Keith Richards and Ron Wood really cook up some steam on the latter and adding accents might be all anyone else on an instrument could contribute.

    Everyone cooks on the last track as well, a cover of Muddy Waters' blues classic "Rollin' Stone Blues" -- the song that the group took their name from way back in 1962. (Before anyone e-mails, "Rollin' Stone Blues" is the song's title -- on HACKNEY DIAMONDS, the track listing adds a "g" to the title making it "Rolling Stone Blues.") And it works here due to the performance and also as a musical acknowledgement of how the band started.

    "Tell Me Straight" is Keith's sing-along.  The guitarist takes the lead vocal.   It's a good song and it's a good performance.  Might even be able to chart -- "Happy" (from EXILE ON MAIN STREET) remains the only song with just Keith on lead vocal that's ever made the top forty. But it's a solid track and adds texture and dimension as album offering. 

    There's not a dud on the album.  "Driving Me Too Hard" has a touch of "Tumbling Dice" to it -- or maybe it's a nod to "Tumbling Dice."


    .
    "Tumbling Dice" was a top forty hit in 1972.  HACKNEY DIAMONDS already has brought the group another top forty hit.




    "Sweet Sounds of Heaven" is a hit on the rock charts.  Listening to the album, there are ten other songs that would be worthy of singles charts.  This really is a strong and assured album from the band and I don't think anyone was expecting this level of confidence or art from them.  But in a time when Bono's body's gone more bloated than his ego and 'super group' U2 is reduced to begging for audiences in Las Vegas, the Rolling Stones show up yet again to demonstrate what rock is really all about. 


     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Ann calls out Chynna Phillips for promoting and making nice with a homophobe

    Reposting Ann's Sunday piece:

     

    Chynna Phillips is a Homophobic witch - boycott Wilson Phillips Oct 23rd concert

    Never would have thought Chyna Phillips was a Karen.  Turns out, she's far worse.  She's a homophobic witch.

    Rebecca just called me.  She left a comment at Chynna's video that just went up about 30 minutes ago, the video is:

    Victoria Jackson Hosts California Healin' Group!


    And, no, I'm not reposting it.  So they won't allow Rebecca's comment to go up.  She noted that she never expected Chynna to be a homophobe but here she is platforming Victoria Jackson and making nice with her.  Again, by the way, not the first time.


    If you don't know the slut Victoria Jackson, consider yourself lucky.  She was the worst member of SNL ever.  That's why they don't invite her back.  She had no talent and played a breasty slut in every skit because she thought that was comedy.


    Today, she lies that she's a Christian.



    April of this year, The Los Angeles Times reported:


    More than 30 years ago, Victoria Jackson performed a handstand on “Saturday Night Live” to praise the “freedom to express myself any way I like” in America.

    Now, she’s among the Tennessee residents speaking out against the LGBTQ community and its efforts to celebrate Pride this year.

    Jackson, who was part of the “SNL” cast from 1986 to 1992, appeared at a city council meeting in Franklin, Tenn., where the Pride festival was on the docket Tuesday. She was among the scores of residents who appeared to make the case for, or against, Pride during the meeting.


    That is who 'Christian' Chynna chooses to promote.  F**K YOU AND KISS MY BLACK ASS.


    I'm so sick of these fake asses.  Chynna has no soul clearly -- I'd argue that should have been obvious just from listening to her sing.


    But F**K YOU, Chynna and F**K your husband too.  You can both go to hell, you crazy ass homophobe.


    ADDED:

    Turns out Chynna will be on stage with Wilson Phillips on Oct. 23rd at Thunder Valley Casino and Resort.  Boycott them.  I doubt the Wilson sisters -- Carnie and Wendy -- are homophobes but a message needs to be sent as a war on LGBTQ+ people is carried out in this country: Homophobia is not acceptable.  And it's not Christian.  As someone raised in the church -- the Black church -- I think I know a great deal more about Christ than White Karen Chynna who discovered Jesus only after she was a do-nothing house wife who needed to do something for media attention. Also go read Rebecca's "robert dance - a lousy writer - knows damn little about joan crawford" -- it's a great book review.

    This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

     

    Donald Trump Spills Secrets | 60 Minutes Australia

    Must catch video of the week



     

    Donald Trump Spills Secrets | 60 Minutes Australia

    Subscribe here: http://9Soci.al/chmP50wA97J Full Episodes: https://9now.app.link/uNP4qBkmN6 | 60 minutes uncovers tape recordings of Australian Billionaire Anthony Pratt sharing the classified information former president Donald Trump told him. WATCH more of 60 Minutes Australia: https://www.60minutes.com.au LIKE 60 Minutes Australia on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/60Minutes9 FOLLOW 60 Minutes Australia on Twitter: https://twitter.com/60Mins FOLLOW 60 Minutes Australia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/60minutes9 For over forty years, 60 Minutes have been telling Australians the world’s greatest stories. Tales that changed history, our nation and our lives. Reporters Liz Hayes, Tom Steinfort, Tara Brown, Nick McKenzie and Amelia Adams look past the headlines because there is always a bigger picture. Sundays are for 60 Minutes. #60MinutesAustralia

     

     

     

    This edition's playlist

     

    1) Joni Mitchell's JONI MITCHELL ARCHIVES -- VOL. 3: THE ASYLUM YEARS (1972 - 1975).

     

     2) The Rolling Stones' HACKNEY DIAMONDS.


    3) Diana Ross' THANK YOU. 

     

    4) Diana Ross' TOUCH ME IN THE MORNING.

     

    5) The Rolling Stones' FLOWERS.

     

    6)   Tyler Childers' RUSTIN' IN THE RAIN.

     

    7)  Pretenders' RESTLESS.

     

    8) kd lang's HYMNS OF THE 49TH PARALLEL.


    9) Sam Smith's GLORIA.

     

    10) Joni Mitchell's JONI MITCHELL AT NEWPORT.


     

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