Voters
US Congress passes Act to defund Defense, State Depts and NSC unless Israel gets all arms
US political insanity regarding Israel in a nutshell as politicians move to cripple their own government unless it enables foreign regime’s genocide
The US Congress has passed a bill that will de-fund the Defense Department, State Department and National Security Council if Joe Biden does not immediately agree to send Israel any and all weapons it wants, with no strings attached.
Biden had delayed some shipments of the largest and most indiscriminate bombs, in a token effort to show that he is not enabling Israel’s genocide, after polling showed many usual Democrat voters will not back him in November’s presidential election because of his support for Israel despite its slaughter of tens and tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children and its deliberate creation of famine in Gaza. But it seems even that token show of resistance is intolerable to Zionist groups.
More than a dozen Democrats colluded with Republicans to pass the new Act titled “To provide for the expeditious delivery of defense articles and defense services for Israel and other matters” by 224-187 votes. The text of the Act reveals the genocidal insanity of a majority of US politicians, most of whom will have received significant funding from pro-Israel groups, or else been threatened that the same groups will fund their opponents at the next election. It mandates the defunding of the three key government departments if Biden does not submit and send Israel :
The world has not gone insane in the fact that so many western politicians – including in the UK – are prepared not just to turn a blind eye to genocide, but to actively enable it. It has long been insane, but the madness has been exposed by apartheid Israel’s nakedly genocidal ambitions.
Biden is said to be prepared to veto the legislation if the Senate does not block it.
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Analysis: Spanish PM Sánchez ‘trying to adulterate’ Catalan elections as Puigdemont returns
Catalan film-maker Jordi Oriola Folch analyses the run-up to Catalonia’s elections next week
Exiled Catalan politician Carlos Puigdemont (image courtesy of Albert Salamé, www.vilaweb.cat)
On 12 May next week, elections will be held to choose the government of Catalonia. Four years ago, Catalan pro-independence parties won with 52% of the votes and 55% of the seats. A Catalan pro-independence government of ERC and JUNTS was formed with the support of the CUP. But different strategies in the face of constant Spanish judicial repression meant that ERC was left alone in the government.
In these Catalan elections, the situation is totally different, because the result of the last Spanish elections has forced the ruling PSOE to make a pact with JUNTS so that its 7 votes would contribute to the investiture of President Pedro Sánchez. This has forced him to accept an amnesty law with which, soon, all those persecuted by the “lawfare” (judicial warfare using fraudulently the law) of the Spanish justice system will be free of any accusation. Among them, the Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who in 2017 organised the referendum on self-determination, was illegally deposed by the Spanish government and had to go into exile in Belgium to avoid being unjustly imprisoned.
At the beginning of this election campaign, the PSC (the Catalan PSOE) was leading the polls because the majority of the non-independence vote is concentrated in this party. A little further behind were the two big pro-independence parties, ERC and JUNTS. But then Puigdemont announced that he was standing as a candidate and that he would return triumphantly to Spain for the investiture with the protection of the amnesty he has managed to wrest from Spain. Then voting intentions began to shift towards JUNTS and closer and closer to the PSC.
The thing is that Puigdemont is the number one enemy of Spanish nationalism and arouses great fear in Spain, because he represents insubordination to the state and has not been able to be subdued. This is why, at the start of the election campaign, Pedro Sánchez surprised everyone with a reckless and disturbing juggling act. Without warning, he published a letter on social media announcing that he was very upset with the extreme right because his wife was accused of corruption. And he announced that he was giving himself five days to reflect on whether he should leave the presidency. Sánchez had always denied the claims of the pro-independence movement that they had been victims of “lawfare”, with the mantra that Spain is a state governed by the rule of law. But now he has acknowledged that, in Spain, judicial dirty war is being practised.
The country was left on the edge of the precipice, waiting for the president’s decision. After five days he affirmed that he would continue and, taking advantage of the state of shock, tried to call on his followers to vote in the Catalan elections with the justification of demonstrating to the extreme right that Pedro Sánchez has the support of the people. With this manipulative strategy, Sánchez managed to increase the PSC’s voting intentions and stay ahead of Puigdemont.
But as the elections approach, it seems that this trend of PSC growth has stalled and, on the other hand, the pro-independence electorate is concentrating its vote on Puigdemont. We shall see who ends up winning… In any case, even if Puigdemont does not come out on top, it is possible that he will be the only one to obtain a majority to be invested as president of Catalonia. In this case: how will Spain react to a person it has persecuted so viscerally? Will it respect the will expressed at the ballot box or will it give free rein to its repressive nationalism?
Jordi Oriola Folch is a physicist, documentary filmmaker and teacher who lives in Barcelona and fights for the independence of Catalonia.
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Video: Labour doorknocker appears to call voters ‘F***ing P*kis’ for voting independent (UPDATED)
UPDATE: the woman in the video has denied saying the words attributed to the video. Labour claims that independent audio analysts say the sound has been doctored and Muslim Labour figure Mish Rahman says he has seen the original video and it tells a different story. The original text of this article has been removed until the matter is resolved. Labour remains a party full of racism toward Black, Muslim and Gypsy Roma people.
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Craig Murray selected to stand for Workers Party in Blackburn
Left-wing former ambassador will stand at next general election
Former UK ambassador Craig Murray has been selected by the Workers’ Party GB to stand as its candidate in Blackburn at the next general election.
Murray, who has been targeted by UK security services for standing up for human rights in Palestine and against corruption in the UK and was removed by the government from his ambassador role for objecting to the use of intelligence obtained by torture, runs a well-known left-wing news site. Like party leader George Galloway, he is a Scot.
He was jailed for eight months in 2021, serving half the sentence before release, after a farcical conviction in a Scottish court for supposed ‘jigsaw identification’, even though so-called ‘mainstream’ media had actually identified the person involved and Murray had not. Alba Party MP Kenny MacAskill called Murray’s sentencing:
vindictive and a sad day for Scottish justice.
The Blackburn seat is currently held by Labour. The seat has a similar demographic to nearby Rochdale, which was won last month in a landslide by Galloway.
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Starmer ‘ordering MPs to abstain’ again on SNP Gaza ceasefire motion
Cowardly Labour leader helped out by Speaker after alleged threat but will still betray Palestinians facing genocide
Keir Starmer is set – again – to order MPs to abstain on the SNP’s motion condemning Israeli war crimes and calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, after Speaker Lindsay Hoyle helped him out by ignoring parliamentary convention.
Hoyle should normally have ruled out Starmer’s weasel-worded amendment to the SNP motion after the Tories tabled their own amendment, but has allowed Labour’s to go forward too, after alleged threats by Starmer and his team to try to remove Hoyle as Speaker if he declined:
Tory MPs claim Starmer & Labour chief whip Sir Alan Campbell threatened during behind the scenes talks to attempt to remove Sir Lindsay Hoyle as Speaker if he didn’t select Labour amendment. Now Hoyle is facing Tory fury.
— Jon Craig (@joncraig) February 21, 2024
Labour’s motion, which makes the situation more about the rights and feelings of Israelis and their apartheid regime instead of the war crimes and slaughter of civilians being perpetrated by their government and military, is unfit, but voting for that will allow Starmer and co to tell voters they have voted for a ceasefire, even when in reality it is nothing more than a regurgitated ‘humanitarian pause’ favouring Israel’s agenda.
Few will be fooled, but Starmer will as usual have the collusion of the mainstream media to push the scam – unless enough Labour MPs rebel to vote for the SNP motion after Labour’s is defeated.
Update: SNP Westminster leader has said his MPs will back Starmer’s feeble amendment:
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Video: Reeves flees questions about Gaza
Shadow Chancellor and aides can hardly get away fast enough
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has fled a member of the public who attempted to ask questions about Gaza, where Israel has murdered and maimed well over a hundred thousand civilians, mostly women and children, and is continuing the slaughter daily. Despite the International Court of Justice putting Israel on trial for genocide, Reeves and boss Starmer have defended its right to ‘defend’ itself – in Starmer’s case even, explicitly, by committing war crimes, although he subsequently tried to claim that was not what he had said, despite it being publicly available on video.
After failing to deflect the woman by asking if she was a constituent, Reeves and her entourage tried to beat a hasty retreat, but the undeterred justice advocate followed them along the street, demanding to know whether Reeves had enjoyed a drink of water when more than a million in Gaza are hungry and thirsty and how she would like to have to dig her children out of rubble when so many Palestinians have to – and demanding of those with her how they could support Reeves and the regime of which she is part:
Reeves – who has previously claimed that the hundreds of thousands who left Labour after Starmer’s assault on democracy were “a good thing” because it cleansed Labour of the “stain” of antisemitism – didn’t have the courage to face scrutiny. She was also caught using whole Wikipedia sections for ‘her’ book and was revealed to have accepted a large sum from a climate-change sceptic just before Labour dumped its promise to invest £28bn a year in green energy.
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