Electoral expert says Labour overall has gone backward, despite Starmeroid spin

Keir Starmer and his spokespeople are spinning like crazy that today’s local election results are a sign of how well the public is receiving Starmer’s policy blancmange of nothingness (well, maybe they’re not using quite that terminology), while they point to a few areas where Labour had good results – such as in the Blackpool South by-election.

But Labour also did disastrously in other areas, such as on Teesside, where it failed to oust Tory Ben Houchen despite Houchen facing allegations of deeply dodgy land deals, in North Tyneside, where it lost control of the council, and in the West Midlands, where it expects to lose to the Tories.

And according to expert electoral analysts, Labour has gone backwards compared to last year, like the Tories:

Compared to polling claiming Labour’s Westminster vote share is as high as 47%, a 34% performance is disastrous – and is considerably lower that the shares achieved by Starmer’s predecessors Jeremy Corbyn and Ed Miliband. Corbyn managed higher in 2018 and Miliband in 2012-13:

Independents, meanwhile, performed strongly, beating the LibDems in vote share and seat gains. The Greens also performed well.

With outrage continuing to grow over Starmer’s lockstep with the Tories in backing Israel’s genocidal regime, a nine percent lead does not look guaranteed to hand Starmer a parliamentary majority – and today’s results confirm it.

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Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

https://medium.com/media/367b5bba5e8ec55b675c4f5904bec7ca/href

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So glad Trump lost in 2020 otherwise we’d be seeing fascistic crackdowns on political dissent, police brutalizing protesters, tyrannical suppression of free speech, and the facilitation of racist and Islamophobic agendas. That psycho would probably be committing genocide by now.

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So let me get this straight. The US wound up building its “floating pier” a few miles off the coast of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, but nobody will be able to ship the aid directly to the pier to get it to Gaza. Instead, the aid will be delivered to Cyprus via air or sea, and then from Cyprus the aid will be shipped 200 miles to the pier. From there the pallets of aid will be loaded onto smaller US army boats, which will then carry the aid from the pier to a long causeway on Gaza’s actual coast. Those pallets will then be carried from the boats to the shore via the causeway — possibly by British troops or possibly by Israeli troops depending on what source you’re reading — and taken into Gaza by IDF troops after careful examination and approval of their contents. All to deliver some 90 to 150 truckloads worth of aid per day, which is far short of the 500 truckloads the UN says Gaza needs.

And this is all being done because Israel isn’t simply letting people drive an adequate amount of aid through the custom-built gates directly into Gaza. Since Washington doesn’t want to exert any pressure on Israel to allow such a self-evident move, this immensely complicated and expensive dance is being performed to deliver a pathetically inadequate amount of aid instead. Aid that is only necessary because Israel has been destroying Gaza in its genocidal bombing campaign which it has been carrying out with total impunity.

Cool. Very normal and cool.

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Caitlin Johnstone on Twitter: "US: We trust Israel to investigate itself on all allegations of war crimes.US: Israel please investigate yourself for these alleged war crimes.Israel: No.US: Well that settles it then, we see no evidence that Israel has committed any war crimes. https://t.co/6Kllp6p3Jp / Twitter"

US: We trust Israel to investigate itself on all allegations of war crimes.US: Israel please investigate yourself for these alleged war crimes.Israel: No.US: Well that settles it then, we see no evidence that Israel has committed any war crimes. https://t.co/6Kllp6p3Jp

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In a speech on Thursday Biden defended the violent nationwide police crackdowns on university protests against his genocide in Gaza, saying “dissent must never lead to disorder”.

Ah yes Joe, that’s very progressive of you. Dissent obviously should always be completely innocuous and obedient and not disruptive in any way. As Martin Luther King Jr said, “Our foremost value is to obey the law at all times and inconvenience nobody, because dissent must never lead to disorder. That’s why our civil rights movement famously never has any run-ins with law enforcement.” He said this in one of his most influential works, Letter from Birmingham Candy Shop.

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The Wall Street Journal has an article out titled “In Gaza, Authorities Lose Count of the Dead,” which confirms what’s been obvious for months: the Gaza health ministry doesn’t have the infrastructure to keep track of how many people Israel is killing. This means the official death toll from the Israeli onslaught is almost certainly a massive undercount.

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“You guys I’m super sincerely concerned about hate speech on university campuses,” said the person who’s made an entire career out of pushing for the mass murder of brown-skinned foreigners at every opportunity.

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Caitlin Johnstone on Twitter: "https://t.co/pz95epfOI5 pic.twitter.com/KOGWAAhw88 / Twitter"

https://t.co/pz95epfOI5 pic.twitter.com/KOGWAAhw88

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The US war machine views Palestinians as an inconvenient obstacle to its military agendas in the middle east, in the same way it views the local flora and fauna as an inconvenient obstacle when it’s constructing a new military base, or how it sees whales as an inconvenient obstacle because of public concern about navy sonar testing damaging their hearing and killing them. Palestinians are just viewed as an annoying indigenous animal that gets in the way of the imperial war machinery, and they’d be more than happy for that nuisance to be eliminated completely.

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I’ve had multiple Biden supporters seriously tell me that January 6 was worse than backing a genocide in Gaza in order to argue that Trump was worse than Biden. The mainstream liberal worldview will twist you up so bad inside that you can’t even see Palestinians as human beings.

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Everything Americans were warned would happen under Trump has happened under Biden. The only retort Democrats have to this is “oh yeah well this all woulda been way worse under Trump,” a claim which is (A) based on literally nothing and (B) completely unfalsifiable.

As I’ve said before, the lesson here is not that Trump is better than Biden or that you should support Republicans. The lesson is that no matter who you vote for you get surging authoritarianism at home and war, military expansionism and brinkmanship abroad, and that this system has got to go.

To look at what’s happening and make it about who you should vote for is to completely miss the lesson of what’s happening: that it doesn’t matter who you vote for, because the system is rigged to only let you vote for murderous tyrannical imperialists who serve the interests of plutocrats and empire managers instead of normal human beings. That bickering about where your votes should go is exactly what those plutocrats and empire managers want you to do, because it keeps you trapped within the framework of status quo politics and prevents you from looking at measures that could actually bring about real change like direct action, general strikes, the fomenting of revolutionary ideas, and the emergence of a powerful revolutionary faction.

____________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

Featured image via CENTCOM.

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

https://medium.com/media/d462d7e52f977f2a8fc29a6270c64173/href

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded to the International Criminal Court’s rumored plans to indict Israeli officials for war crimes by claiming that for the ICC to do so would be an “antisemitic hate crime”.

Yes, you read that correctly.

“If this does happen, it will be an indelible stain on humanity. It would be an unprecedented antisemitic hate crime that would add fuel to the antisemitic incitement that is already raging in the world,” said Netanyahu this past Tuesday.

So, to be absolutely clear, Israel’s top government official has announced that charges against himself and other Israeli leaders for obvious war crimes like intentionally bombing and starving civilians would be both “antisemitic” and a “hate crime”.

So, to make things even clearer, when a supporter of the state of Israel claims to be sincerely super duper worried about “antisemitism”, this is the kind of thing they are talking about. This is what the label “antisemitism” has come to mean. It means literally any opposition to, criticism of, or consequences for a nuclear-armed genocidal apartheid ethnostate which is backed by the most powerful empire that has ever existed.

Caitlin Johnstone on Twitter: "I need you to understand that when an Israel supporter claims to be very sincerely concerned about "antisemitism", this is the "antisemitism" they're talking about: pic.twitter.com/kx7TlfHXnq / Twitter"

I need you to understand that when an Israel supporter claims to be very sincerely concerned about "antisemitism", this is the "antisemitism" they're talking about: pic.twitter.com/kx7TlfHXnq

Keeping that in mind, let’s turn now to the bill that just passed in the US House of Representatives which can be used to suppress entirely legitimate political speech critical of Israel as “antisemitic”.

Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp reports:

“The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bill that conflates criticism of the modern state of Israel with antisemitism and will mandate that definition be used by the Department of Education when enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws.

“The bill could be used to crack down on pro-Palestine protesters at college campuses across the country, who have been falsely labeled ‘antisemitic’ despite Jewish students participating in the protests.

“The legislation adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which lists ‘drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis’ as an example of antisemitism.

“The IHRA also defines antisemitism as applying ‘double standards’ to Israel by ‘requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation’ and ‘denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination’ by ‘claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.’”

Antiwar.com on Twitter: "House Passes Bill That Conflates Criticism of Israel With AntisemitismThe legislation adopts a definition of antisemitism that could be used by the Dept of Education to crackdown on college protestsby Dave DeCamp@DecampDave #Gaza #Israel #censorship https://t.co/glebgTsFsY pic.twitter.com/ulsf3PfQOK / Twitter"

House Passes Bill That Conflates Criticism of Israel With AntisemitismThe legislation adopts a definition of antisemitism that could be used by the Dept of Education to crackdown on college protestsby Dave DeCamp@DecampDave #Gaza #Israel #censorship https://t.co/glebgTsFsY pic.twitter.com/ulsf3PfQOK

This comes as House Democrat Richie Torres teams up with Republican Mike Lawler to advance a bill which would create “antisemitism monitors” on university campuses which receive federal funding, which means the US government is actively working to police political speech in response to criticisms of US government policies. Perfectly normal thing to happen in a healthy liberal democracy.

And again, this is happening within a political climate in which the Israeli government publicly announces that “antisemitism” includes charging Israeli war criminals for extensively documented war crimes.

The thing about conflating support for Israel with Judaism and criticism of Israel with anti-semitism is that it necessarily asserts that there’s a religion which holds as an article of faith that your tax dollars must be used to murder foreigners in the middle east, and that any objection to this on your part therefore amounts to religious persecution. Anyone who makes this conflation is saying, “Judaism is a religion which believes your tax dollars need to go toward support for the military adventurism of the state of Israel, and if you don’t like it then you’re basically a Nazi.”

Antiwar.com on Twitter: "Bipartisan Bill Would Create 'Antisemitism Monitors' at College CampusesPro-Palestine protests have been falsely labeled as 'antisemitic' even though many Jewish students are involvedby Dave DeCamp@DecampDave #Gaza #campusProtests #FreedomOfSpeech https://t.co/AzO355K7Md pic.twitter.com/PlqBQAb8Cg / Twitter"

Bipartisan Bill Would Create 'Antisemitism Monitors' at College CampusesPro-Palestine protests have been falsely labeled as 'antisemitic' even though many Jewish students are involvedby Dave DeCamp@DecampDave #Gaza #campusProtests #FreedomOfSpeech https://t.co/AzO355K7Md pic.twitter.com/PlqBQAb8Cg

Which is as self-evidently ridiculous as any position could possibly be, from any angle you could possibly look at it. Obviously the religion of Judaism itself does not say that western governments should be backing nonstop mass military slaughter in the Palestinian Territories and in Israel’s neighboring countries, which is why many Jews do not hold the position that this should be happening. And even if that was a fundamental tenet of the Jewish faith, a religion which asserts that a foreign country has a right to immensely consequential support from your country’s government would need to be criticized aggressively and relentlessly.

You don’t get to claim that criticism of any part a powerful country’s foreign policy is not allowed because such criticism is against your religion or religiously persecutes you. That’s not a thing.

The “antisemitism” moral panic has officially jumped the shark. It has long been absurd, but now it’s a parody of itself. Things are only going to get dumber and more insulting to your intelligence from here.

___________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

Featured image via President.gov.ua (CC BY 4.0 DEED)

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

https://medium.com/media/da0bd6431fb9c556444e99f992417b5d/href

In one of the most appalling propaganda segments I have ever seen in my life, CNN’s Dana Bash launched into a fire-and-brimstone sermon on Wednesday comparing anti-genocide university protesters to the brownshirts of Nazi Germany — doing so in defense of a fascistic police crackdown against those very same protesters.

After playing a clip of Zionist activist Eli Tsives theatrically claiming campus protesters at UCLA were blocking him from his classroom, Bash solemnly said, “Again, what you just saw is 2024 in Los Angeles. Hearkening back to the 1930s in Europe, and I do not say that lightly. The fear among Jews in this country is palpable right now.”

According to journalist Jeremy Lindenfeld — who happens to be Jewish — Tsives wasn’t even being denied access to his classroom, but was only being denied access to the protesters’ encampment which he’d conveniently decided he wanted to walk through in order to get there. Dana Bash makes no mention of this, framing this instead as a terrifying attack on Jews which could soon see them being loaded onto trains headed for extermination camps.

Dana Bash on Twitter: "Today: Destruction, violence and hate overtake college campuses across the country with Jewish students feeling unsafe at their own schools. It is unacceptable, and harkening back to the 1930s in Europe. Our @InsidePolitics show open, here. pic.twitter.com/RiPX0HZbUv / Twitter"

Today: Destruction, violence and hate overtake college campuses across the country with Jewish students feeling unsafe at their own schools. It is unacceptable, and harkening back to the 1930s in Europe. Our @InsidePolitics show open, here. pic.twitter.com/RiPX0HZbUv

Bash played a clip of New York City Mayor Eric Adams saying “There is a movement to radicalize young people, and I’m not going to wait until it’s done,” as though preventing the spread of radical political opinions is something a mayor is elected to do in the United States.

“They’re calling for a ceasefire,” says Bash. “Well, there was a ceasefire on October 6, the day before Hamas terrorists brutally murdered more than a thousand people inside Israel and took hundreds more as hostages.”

This is a brazen propagandistic lie. Israeli forces had been routinely murdering Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank in the weeks and months preceding the October 7 attack. On October 6 2023, The New Arab published an article titled “2023 is ‘deadliest year’ for Palestinian children say human rights groups,” citing the Defence of Children International — Palestine along with other sources.

“This hour, I’ll speak to an American Israeli family whose son is still held captive by Hamas since that horrifying day, that brought us to this moment,” said Bash, adding, “You don’t hear the pro-Palestinian protesters talking about that. We will.”

Ah yes, such brave, up-punching journalistic integrity for you to talk about the Israeli hostages, Dana. Not like we haven’t been hearing about them every single day from the imperial media for the last seven months while orders of magnitude more Palestinians are butchered by US-supplied war machinery.

Teresa Watanabe on Twitter: "200+ pro-Israel counterprotestors are attacking the @UCLA pro-Palestinian encampment. They started beating on one student and stomped another under a plywood board per @latimes @safinazzal on the scene. Where is UCLA security? pic.twitter.com/zjYNFWSK7r / Twitter"

200+ pro-Israel counterprotestors are attacking the @UCLA pro-Palestinian encampment. They started beating on one student and stomped another under a plywood board per @latimes @safinazzal on the scene. Where is UCLA security? pic.twitter.com/zjYNFWSK7r

“At UCLA, pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups were attacking each other, hurling all kinds of objects, a wood pallet, fireworks, parking cones, even a scooter,” Bash says.

Another lie. The footage going around makes it abundantly clear the violence is being consistently instigated by Zionist counter-protesters, with videos of pro-Israel thugs launching fireworks and hurling bottles of chemicals into the encampment, ganging up on a protester on the ground and beating him with sticks, and tearing down parts of the encampment while screaming “Second Nakba!”

Later on in the same segment of Bash’s own show, CNN’s Stephanie Elam contradicts Bash’s both-sides lie by commenting on some of this footage, saying, “And you can see that in the video, it looked like people from this side were breaking down the encampment from the pro-Palestinian side last night, throwing objects in there. As well as it looks like some sort of maybe pepper spray or something coming from the other side over here.”

It should here be noted that Dana Bash gets her surname from her first husband Jeremy Bash, who went on to serve as the chief of staff for both the CIA and the Pentagon. The woman is pure swamp.

It should also be noted that CNN’s own staff recently leaked to The Guardian that they have been pressured to report on the Gaza onslaught with an extreme pro-Israel bias, attributing the pressure to the network’s new CEO Mark Thompson.

I for one think it’s great that the imperial media are becoming so transparently obvious about their propagandistic nature, and I hope they keep exposing mainstream westerners to the fact that the primary purpose of these outlets is to promote the information interests of the US and its allies.

Propaganda only works if you don’t know it’s happening to you, so hopefully they keep going mask-off like this for everyone to see.

_______________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2