Amadou

When my brother was released from prison, he was no longer the same it was not just a release, but as if he carried with him the pain of everyone who remained there. He told us about the spread of severe skin diseases among the prisoners, caused by long months without bathing, without changing clothes, in the absence of water and any means of hygiene or sterilization. He said the suffocating smells filled the cells, and their bodies ached from constant neglect. He told us about the extreme overcrowding in the cells, where dozens were crammed into a space too small for them, with no room to sit or sleep, taking turns lying down, spending long hours standing. No air, no sunlight, only closed walls and a suffocating confinement that crushed the spirit before the body. He spoke about interrogations… about the harsh, repeated torture, the beatings, humiliation, and psychological pressure, just because he was from Gaza. He told us about starvation, about meals that were not enough even for a child, and a constant feeling of dizziness and exhaustion. He told us about the biting cold, about long nights without blankets, shivering until morning, and wet clothes that never dried. About sickness… about unbearable pain, untreated wounds, and medicine denied to them, as if they were left to suffer in silence. But what was worse than all of this… was the psychological destruction. He told us they were deprived of sleep for days, the lights kept on day and night, and shouting in their faces continuously. Sometimes they were forced to sleep while their hands were bound, in painful positions, unable to move or rest. He said they were subjected to humiliating searches repeatedly, stripped of privacy and dignity. He told us about isolation, total disconnection from the world, no letters, no visits, no knowledge of their fate or their families… only emptiness, fear, and waiting. He told us about moments when some completely broke under the pressure, silent crying in the dark, losing hope, people who changed completely and were no longer the same. Some became mentally ill, some lost the ability to speak, and some lived in total silence. He told us things things the mind cannot comprehend, and the heart cannot bear. We listened, caught between shock and helplessness, as if hearing about another world but it was real. The condition of prisoners in the jails is tragically beyond description. All of this happens, is reported, and yet nothing changes.

I know the Nazi card is overused and almost never applies, but what the Israeli Knesset has overwhelmingly voted for today, a law to mass murder Palestinian detainees- prisoners who, inconveniently, cannot just be bombed in Gaza or shot in the streets- a law introduced by a genocidal minister with an international arrest warrant, is the most dystopian and evil shit perhaps any country has done since Nazi Germany.

America…? A moral compass…? *clears throat* The United States was built on genocide and ethnic cleansing In 1898 it declared itself a ‘global power’ by crushing independence movements in the Philippines, killing at least 200k Filipino civilians From 1912 to 1933 it occupied Nicaragua, violently suppressing nationalist movements From 1915 to 1934 it invaded and occupied Haiti, essentially legalising slave labour From 1916 to 1924 it done the same to the Dominican Republic In 1945 it needlessly dropped two atomic bombs on civilians days before they knew Japan was to surrender, in a ‘display of strength’ to the Soviets In 1953 it overthrew Iran’s democracy in an act of pure self-interest In 1954 it overthrew Guatemala’s democracy leading to decades of violence In 1965 it backed mass killings in Indonesia, enabling the murder of up to a million people In the 1960’s and 1970’s it carpet-bombed Vietnam, killed millions, and poisoned the land From 1969 to 1973 it also carpet-bombed Cambodia with similar effects In 1973 it installed a dictatorship in Chile through a military coup From 1979 to 1989 it armed and funded Afghan militias, destabilising the country for decades In the 1990s it strangled Iraq with sanctions, devastating millions In 2003 it invaded Iraq on a lie, leading to a million dead In 2011 it destroyed Libya, turning a functioning state into a failed one where slave markets now exist In the 2020s it continues unabated, funding and arming the Gaza genocide and more atrocities across the Middle East This is not even close to an exhaustive list of US crimes So, what’s very, very important to understand is not that the United States has lost its ‘moral compass’ — it’s that it’s lost its ability to rewrite history in real time because the internet exists It has lost total control of the narrative Or, in short, now we’re able to see what it really is, and always has been

According to declassified IDF archives and research by Israeli historians Benny Morris and Benjamin Kedar, Haganah forces conducted Operation Cast Thy Bread in 1948. They contaminated wells in Palestinian areas like Acre (triggering a typhoid outbreak sickening dozens) and attempted it near Gaza using typhoid/dysentery bacteria. Authorized by Ben-Gurion and Yadin to deter refugee returns and hinder Arab armies. It violated the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Israel denied the accusations at the time.

Naveed is no longer on Twitter so I share his smart analysis with his permission.

If you’re an IDF solider, you can snipe children in the head, you can drop bunker buster bombs on refugee camps, you can execute zip-tied hospital patients, you can leave infants to die in incubators, you can gang-rape detainees—all with total impunity. This is Israel.

If you know someone who is a Joe Rogan fan, here are things you should absolutely say to them. bit.ly/3NCnI4q

The culture war has real life casualties

10/10 would watch

What he said...

This is America

The barbarity of the Republican project laid bare.

She said what she said

Lest we forget this is still going on

At least in Canada you have to volunteer to be euthanized

Human sexuality is messy

"What were you thinking? "Killing 146 Palestinians in the West Bank in 2022, most of them noncombatants, would be meekly accepted? Killing ~30 in the month to date would pass quietly? haaretz.com/opinion/2023-0…