US News

As consciousness in the U.S. continuously develops into more awareness of our impact on the world and the purpose of the capitalist system meant to keep our mouths shut and too poverty-stricken to fight, we’re also confronted with the fact that we are also a violent nation spitefully marching towards a [neo]fascist state. Since 2020, it’s become painfully evident that stripping back the few protections protesters have is a greenlight for more violence from the opposition.

One consolation offered to those concerned about what this decision may mean for the U.S. is that it may not be a permanent ruling. Although SCOTUS allowed the First Amendment right to protest to be attacked, they didn’t outright reverse it, possibly rendering this decision a temporary one.

But why wouldn’t it be? It’s not hard to draw the conclusion that the gag order on protesters intends to be a nationwide feature. The working class has gotten too comfortable with the idea of having a say on how their country runs, and in response we have politicians radicalizing an angry, often armed opposition to keep us in line from just enough of a distance that they face no consequence legally. There are only benefits for the bourgeoisie. If we let them take this from us, it will be gone forever.

Regarding the U.S. rôle, “Genocide Joe” Biden, with the enthusiastic cooperation of the Republican Party, has, as of April 20, pushed a $95 billion war bill through the House of Representatives. The bill, which the Senate passed on April 23, finances a drive toward World War III on three fronts: the […] genocidal war aimed at Palestine, the U.S.-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, and preparation for a U.S.-led war in the Pacific against Peoples China and the Democratic People’s Republic of (North) Korea.

This war bill includes $26 billion more for [neocolonialism’s] genocidal war on Gaza and its active settlement policy in the West Bank aimed at removing Palestinian people from their land. It is direct evidence that, despite Biden’s feigned separation from the Netanyahu-led war régime in [occupied Palestine], both the Republican and Democratic Party intend to continue supplying weapons for genocide.

There is no doubt [that] the movement here will demand the U.S. stop the transfer of weapons to [neocolonists].

“It’s really unbelievable in this day and age that a sitting U.S. Senator can threaten violence to protesters and not be sanctioned or censured or anything else by his colleagues,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, National Chair of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), to The Electronic Intifada.

“It’s been an incredible challenge, in the past six months especially, to experience what Palestinians have in the U.S. — that our lives are expendable, that our rights aren’t defended, that our very existence is threatened. But we can’t and won’t back down, and we will continue fighting to stop the genocide and make sure that racist, white supremacist apologists for [Zionism] like Tom Cotton will see a free Palestine in his lifetime.”

The American Civil Liberties Union did not respond to requests from The Electronic Intifada for First Amendment analysis on how much latitude Cotton has to encourage vigilante violence against protesters.

The crowd blocked traffic for over an hour, surrounding a cop car and refusing to leave the street after two people were arrested. Chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Let them go,” the demonstrators eventually “de-arrested” the two activists, who were released without charges.

Several Palestine solidarity workshops and meetings were part of the conference. An impromptu meeting about the Columbia University occupation included graduate student members of United Auto Workers Local 7902, some of whom were among those arrested at Columbia. Many conference attendees wore keffiyehs in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

Rittenhouse shot three antiracist protesters on Aug. 25, 2020, killing two, at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was acquitted of homicide, attempted homicide and reckless endangerment in 2021. Turning Point reportedly pays him $5,000 for each 30-minute speech. When Rittenhouse attempted to speak at the University of Memphis, he was loudly booed and shouted down, leading him to cut his talk short.

Aciano Rosales, freshman ambassador for the Spanish and Latine Student Association (SALSA), opened the press conference saying, “Kyle Rittenhouse’s presence as a guest speaker mocks the legacy of blood shed by protesters on Kent State’s campus. It optimizes hateful white supremacism that we as Ohio students feel is unacceptable.” (Kentwired.com, April 16)

Rosales was followed by Paul Prediger, formerly Gaige Grosskreutz, who Rittenhouse shot and wounded. For almost four years Prediger kept a low profile but on April 16 felt compelled to speak out, saying, “Enough of the lies and the deceit that has been told by Kyle Rittenhouse for three years about what actually happened in Kenosha August 25, 2022.”

SALSA President Aimée Flores reminded the crowd of the May 4, 1970, Kent State shootings, in which four unarmed students were killed by the Ohio National Guard at a protest of the U.S. war against Vietnam. Calling out bigotry and white supremacy, she said, “That is why Gov. James A. Rhodes was able to send the National Guard to Kent State 54 years ago on that hill. That is why today we ask ourselves, ‘Who will defend us?’”

Yaseen Shaikh, president of the Kent State chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, told The Progressive that a large portion of the student body was unhappy with “a vigilante coming to campus.” SJP helped organize the press conference, along with SALSA, Black United Students, Sister Circle, United Students Against Sweatshops and other student groups.

Some 200 supporters gathered outside Google’s New York office to show solidarity with the workers inside. Chants of “Google, Google, you can’t hide, your tech’s for apartheid!” and “Not another push, not another line, no more code for genocide!” rang out as the crowd grew. Workers from Amazon, Meta and current and former Google workers were joined by activists from Jewish Voice for Peace, Al-Awda, Workers World Party and other groups at the hours-long speakout.

The Google workers made these demands: Drop the Project Nimbus cloud and AI contract now; stop harassment, intimidation, and censorship of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Googlers; and stop retaliation and doxxing of workers raising workplace health and safety concerns caused by Project Nimbus — which has prompted workers to quit rather than see their labor used for genocide.

“Cloud technology should be used in libraries, health care and elsewhere to protect users and the planet,” said former Googler Eddie Hatfield. “Instead, it has become a deadly exchange of technology used against the Palestinians and, from there, the world via the cloud. It has to stop.” Hatfield, a software engineer who uses they/them pronouns, was fired in March 2024 after disrupting a conference speech by the managing director of Google Israel.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4348551

US warmongering

Analysis of current data shows that more than one million Indians now sit in employment-based immigration backlogs. Many of these are highly skilled professionals who face potentially decades-long waits to gain permanent residence (a green card) due to a per-country limit and the low annual quota. While they wait they are often unable to change jobs, or take any action against abusive employers for fear they will be deported and thereby separated from friends and family in [Imperial America]. This is obviously bad for the workers and their families and, like much of the current immigration mess, it's bad for the U.S. economy.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

After months of Democrats looking to outmaneuver Republicans on immigration using Republicans' own right-wing fear-mongering talking points, it looks like a few cracks have emerged in the Democratic coalition. Senate Dems like Alex Padilla and Dick Durbin have finally gotten the backbone to suggest that maybe we should go back to throwing in a few statements about pathways to citizenship every now and again, just to mix things up.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

A Washington Post report centered in Maverick County, Texas (the location of Eagle Pass) shows the inhumanity of the situation around the disposal of the bodies of migrants who die in their attempt to cross the southern border. We learn about a Syrian war refugee, a mother who gave birth on the bank of the river only to have her child die, and another mother whose family took out a loan to send her out of conditions of desperate poverty only to receive word of her death.

These are only a fraction of the stories included in the report, and those in the report are a vastly smaller fraction of the human stories that could be included. The government workers who deal with the bodies are becoming overwhelmed and traumatized, and the systems in which they work are overburdened with no relief in sight.

These tragic deaths are preventable. This situation can change, and it must.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Immigrants are being falsely blamed for Chicago's measles outbreak due to some cases found in a Pilsen migrant shelter. This cluster contains 12 of 61 reported cases in the city. Doctors cite a combination of resident travel and pockets of unvaccinated natives for the outbreak. Unfortunately, half the people in this migrant shelter have not had a chance to be vaccinated against the disease, so mass vaccination is underway with the remaining residents.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Following last week's update, Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that purports to allow state and local police to arrest undocumented immigrants. The bill also thinks it can authorize state courts to deport said immigrants. As a quick reminder, immigration policy and enforcement have always been Federal matters. These state laws will all stand or fall depending on the ultimate fate of SB4, the Texas Patient Zero for these horrors.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

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