There’s an election in Israel today. We know that because we are forced to know everything about that country, spending all our waking hours investigating it and trying to figure out why they are the way they are. I know more about Israel than I know about my own country of birth, and this is the most vile thing they could have done to us. I want to go back to a time when I didn’t have a single thought about them. But alas, because of the Palestinian people, we can no longer allow ourselves the luxury of ignorance.

Let me tell you all about the election today, what the rules are, who the candidates are, and how the Israeli electoral system works:

• …

• …

• …

Just kidding.

Who gives a fuck?

Nothing will change. You’ll get Netanyahu again, who will continue what he has been doing for 60 years, or you’ll get an XYZ continuing the same path.

You’ll get a genocide, or you’ll get a genocide.

About that genocide

There is a new UN report published by the New York Times stating Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since the ceasefire has been declared.

Israel Has Committed Genocidal Acts in Gaza Since Cease-Fire, U.N. Human Rights Panel Says

“The report, delivered to the U.N. General Assembly, noted that between the cease-fire announced on Oct. 10, 2025, and the end of September 2026, Israeli airstrikes, artillery and gunfire had killed 1,431 Palestinians in Gaza, including 300 children. The report rejected a claim in May by the Board of Peace set up by President Trump that the cease-fire had “largely held.””

The panel also accuses Israel of committing crimes against humanity in the West Bank. Israel condemned the report.

Let’s repeat that:

Israel has continued the genocide of the Palestinian people during a declared and signed “ceasefire” agreement.

And the reporters in front of the Israeli poll places are conducting the exit poll results as I type this, asking Israelis about who they voted for. Almost every answer has to do with Arabs: “I voted for the one that will make sure we don’t see any Arabs here.”

And two days ago, Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted an AI pic of an atomic bomb over; what is that down there, Tel Aviv? It looks more like the Freedom One tower to me. Is he threatening to nuke New York if he loses the election?

Translation of his tweet:

I’m so fucking tired of these people. I’m exhausted by their bloodthirst and how absolutely shamelessly they lie. As if talking can bend reality.

They have been lying for so many centuries that they really actually think words can bend reality.

That’s why you see all their trash influencers still talking their heads off, even though they see the comment section and absolutely everyone on earth taking a piss at them. Well, that, and the 7k.

No apartheid, they say? Violently attacking their Arab citizens of Israel, preventing them from casting the vote? Also, what about 700,000 violent settlers who can vote, but not the Palestinians who live in the same area? “The only democracy in the Middle East.”

We have been breaking down these people for years now, and we can keep repeating it until we’re blue in the face. Nothing will change with this election. The only thing that will change, if Netanyahu loses, is the tone of voice.

This new person, if elected, will be more palatable to a world angered by Netanyahu’s (and his party’s) radical rhetoric while being exactly the same in action, if not worse.

If Netanyahu loses, you can be sure the Zionists’ goal is to put a softer image on more devious plans to come.

Israel will never change, because it was never meant to function as a proper civic state. It was only ever meant to maintain the appearance of one.

Everything that angers you about Israel, its crimes, its inability to live alongside its neighbors, its constant coercion of the world into supporting those crimes, can be traced back to this one quote:

Now go check who said it and who posted it on their website. Free Palestine, until Palestine is free!

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Have you ever seen a “ceasefire” looking like an inferno, where a toddler watches her mother burn to death?

Not a single mainstream media outlet reported on this horror. Once again, it’s up to all of us to inform the masses of what Israel has been committing in Gaza while the entire world pretends there is a “ceasefire.”

By Clash Report:

“A 3-year-old girl watched her mother burn to death after an Israeli airstrike hit their apartment. Maryam Ghanem was found on a bed surrounded by flames and heavy smoke in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, her mother Reem Asaad Awad, 33, burning nearby. Maryam suffered burns and was treated at Al-Shifa Hospital. Her father was already killed earlier in the war — her grandmother is now her only family. Israel claimed the strike targeted a Hamas member but gave no evidence.”

This latest massacre happened on day 1,104 of a genocide. Palestinian people, again and again, had to jump into a fire to save their own people, and they will all be called Hamas in a few weeks’ time.

Israel will not offer any proof to that claim. The world will accept it.

Maryam.

Her name is Maryam Ahmed Ghanem.

Her mother’s name was Reem Awad.

She watched her mother burn to death.

Her father was killed a few months ago, also during the “ceasefire.”

A journalist that saved her is Ali Aljafarawi. Yes, Saleh’s brother. Can you even imagine what the lives of these people amount to, due to Zionism?

Are you beginning to understand the case for the Palestinian resistance by now? No? Start here:

We all have reached the “limits of our ability to put words” to this level of evil. I didn’t put those words together, I took them from Trita Parsi, because I do not have words anymore to describe this level of evil; I used them all.

Does evil have levels?

This is what the Palestinian resistance is fighting. An abyss of evil beyond the limits of human comprehension.

Zionism?

This video below is what Zionism is. Maryam in the hospital, with third-degree burns, the morning after she watched her mother burn to death.

Zionism has nothing to do with the “right of the Jewish people to self-determination and statehood in their ancestral homeland.” Zionism is an racist ideology and a quest for an ethnostate that can only survive by doing this to human beings.

Evil.

When I saw this horror yesterday, I tried to come up with the words horrific enough to describe it. I have used the worst words I could possibly find over the course of the last three years, watching Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank.

I don’t have any words that are worse; I have used them all. But Israel keeps committing the worst atrocity after another; how do we follow that with adequate description?

I then went on to commit a crime by asking ChatGPT to give me the right words to describe the unspeakable evil. The one I had no more words for.

This is what it gave me:

Abysmal: evil so deep and profound it seems to have no bottom.

Unimaginable: beyond what the human mind can conceive.

Unthinkable: so morally horrifying that the mind struggles to accept it as possible.

Ineffable: so extreme that language itself fails to describe it.

Abhorrent: so morally repugnant it inspires intense revulsion.

Monstrous: evil so extreme it seems to exceed the bounds of ordinary human cruelty.

Unfathomable: impossible to comprehend the depth or magnitude of it.

Cosmic: on a scale so vast and horrifying that it feels almost beyond human existence.

Eldritch: so horrifying and alien that it feels beyond human understanding, almost otherworldly.

Unconscionable: so morally outrageous that it defies any acceptable standard of human conduct.

Are these words enough to capture what we have seen happen to Maryam, her mother, and nearly a million Palestinians in just the last three years?

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October 7th needs to be the day where you find the courage to delve into the subject of Palestinian resistance. Every day, but especially on this day. And especially all of the people who got involved in this movement later than others.

It’s our duty to have this conversation.

I’m hopeful about the world. Israel grossly underestimated just how many of us refuse to believe that some people are better than other people. Israel worked on Islamophobia as hard as it worked to maintain its stranglehold on Western lands in support of its sick ideology. They unleashed their hell in Gaza, unbothered, not understanding that most people in this world simply refuse to see Muslim and Arab people as lesser human beings, less deserving of life.

Did you ever think about why Palestinian resistance is never allowed to have the airtime anywhere in the West to explain and plead their case? Instead, we have ghouls like Netanyahu, Galant, or Naftali Bennett, alongside all the IDF representatives, tell us what Palestinian resistance wants and plans to do.

They are feeding the world information that is incorrect, on purpose, never allowing the subjugated people to speak for themselves. If you were ever allowed to hear them, you would understand their plight. You would understand why armed resistance becomes necessary when all peaceful means fail. And most people in this world understood it after seeing what Israel has been doing to Palestinian families for three years straight, and 78 years prior.

Most people in this world have a sense of justice and can recognize it, despite centuries of propaganda. The truth always finds a way, and ideologies based on racist, supremacist foundations will always be exposed.

I have done extensive work on the Palestinian resistance for the past three years. A ton of research, and many pieces written on the subject. And I want to share with you the most important parts and the perspective everyone should examine, especially the newcomers who recently joined the support for the Palestinian people and have yet to understand the armed resistance part of this equation.

First of all, everything you have read in the mainstream media about Hamas and October 7th isn’t accurate. Even Israeli media such as Haaretz and numerous others wrote about it. I’ll let you investigate that on your own. Truth is about there.

The core of the Palestinian cause.

Why is the case for the resistance an important conversation we have to have three years into this genocide?

Because the greatest atrocities of the past 40 years have been committed under the guise of a terrorist designation, used as linguistic manipulation to justify Western war crimes. It’s time to move beyond the good West-versus-evil East paradigm of a Marvel superhero movie and awaken to this reality.

People resisting occupation throughout history have been labeled as savages, radicals, and terrorists. If we want to build a better world based on justice, tolerance, and peace, it’s crucial to understand that the designation of terrorism is used as a political label, not a behavioral one.

I watched a real last year that stayed with me even today. It’s by a Palestinian man living in the West, and his message plays exactly into what I’m trying to convey with this article—“Palestinian resistance is the core of the Palestinian cause. Not victimhood.”

Please read it in its entirety:

“It was not 470 days of genocide, it was 470 days of Palestinians resisting their colonizer. And our colonizer reacted with genocide. So if someone were to ask you what happened over the past year and a half in Gaza, the answer should be—Palestinians resisted, and the oppressor responded with genocide. Genocide was a consequence of Palestinians resisting, not the actual event itself.

This is a very important concept for you to digest and drill into your head. Because the core, the foundation of the Palestinian cause is Palestinian resistance which includes armed resistance. The Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people, we would not exist to this day if were not for Palestinians resisting.

West only likes to discuss Palestinians and the Palestinian cause when we are the victims, never when we are heroes, because maintaining this public image of Palestinians only as victims prevents society, prevents the world from remembering what the actual issue is and what the solution to the issue is — the issue being the colonization of our land, and the solution being resisting the colonization.

This is the poison of the West, conditioning the world to think that the solution to problems is charity, peace, and love, and not justice and fighting for freedom.”

We must listen to the Palestinian people when talking about the resistance, not the mainstream media and the Zionist donor class, who are working adamantly to silence their voices. And we must amplify them.

A linguistic manipulation.

Nothing made me more morally nauseated than watching the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the use of a terrorism designation by the Western empire as linguistic manipulation to rehabilitate Al Jolani, a designated terrorist affiliated with ISIS and Al-Qaeda—an organization the American government claims is responsible for 9/11—removing the $10 million bounty on his head, while giving him a CNN Western makeover.

A terrorist for hire, all of a sudden, not a terrorist anymore, as he aligns with the American interests in Syria.

Do you recall what was done to Muslims in America post 9/11? Are you even aware? I was in New York, and it was pure mayhem on the streets. A Morrocan Deli owner on my street who became a friend got his store tear-gassed by 1 pm on 9/11. The cars were sliding through my streets with “Nuke ‘em!” sprayed on the windshield. Homeland Security? Guantanamo Bay? Holding people without trial, human rights violations, torture, indefinite detention without due process.

What was it all for? To hypnotize the uninterested MTV generation to fight wars for profit under the guise of freedom and democracy?

A terrorist designation.

Where does the Palestinian resistance, Hamas, fit into this narrative? Where are they on a terrorism spectrum made up by the West, as they go along?

Caitlin Johnstone:

“Terrorist organization has a lot less to do with how an organization acts and operates and a lot more to do with whether or not they advance the strategic interests of the US empire.

The group that is committing the genocide is of course not a designated terrorist organization.

This is because the label “terrorist organization” is nothing more than a tool of imperial narrative control. In empire language, it just means “disobedient population who need bombs dropped on them”.

You can kill all the civilians you want using whatever methods you want without being considered a terrorist organization, so long as you are a friend of the US empire.”

Battle for your perception.

There’s nothing more dishonest on Earth than the portrayal of the Palestinian people fighting for their freedom and self-determination as radicals.

“As the discourse begins to open, more people are starting to understand this as a rights-based issue. Not an issue of radicalism. This is a movement for the rights of people who’s rights are being denied – who are living under occupation; who want to live in their country, freely, just like anybody else.”

— Yousef Munayyer

Battle for perception. Did you watch The Occupation of the American Mind? It’s a documentary with an All-Star assembly of the most insightful thinkers and experts who have dedicated decades to studying the injustices faced by the Palestinian people. Narrators break it down for you; this isn’t just about America—it applies to all of us, as Israel wages a PR war on the collective West, aggressively propagandizing us about terrorism while stealing Palestinian land.

Sut Jhally:

“There’s really no way to fully understand why the Palestinian people have resisted Israel for so long without understanding this basic history of dispossession and occupation. But for the most part, this isn’t the story we get in American media coverage. Instead, the legitimate grievances of Palestinians, including their right to resist an illegal military occupation, get pushed out of the frame by this constant discussion about extremism, terrorism, and anti-Semitism.”

Talking about Hamas isn’t as much of a taboo anymore as it was for the first year of Israeli onslaught on Gaza. People have caught on. We read the documwnts on Hanibal Directive.

Legacy media, social media, and institutions intimidating us into silence by merely invoking the word antisemitism achieved the opposite. We looked, we researched, we dug. In a healthy society, everything should be open to discussion—preventing people from investigating or analyzing specific groups, individuals, or events only signals that crucial truths are waiting to be uncovered.

Truth is vital to the health and progress of society.

Those who block the discovery of such truths are usually the ruling class or the media that serves their interests—neither of which benefit from you uncovering these realities. Their goal is to prevent you from giving reason, humanity, and purpose to those they label as terrorists, using these labels to shut down a necessary conversation.

And we must have this conversation. How did we arrive here? When did this conversation took a turn with more people understanding it?

I say we arrived here at the corner of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Yahya Sinwar. The release of The Message, a bestseller by Ta-Nehisi Coates documenting his visit to the West Bank, and the seismic death of Yahya Sinwar, in the same month, marked a pivotal moment for this conversation.

After all that we have witnessed over the past sixteen months—a wholesale slaughter, shredding of children, relentless bombing, displacement, deliberate starvation, the destruction of infrastructure, and the international community’s complete unwillingness to intervene—we must have this conversation. In fact, not having it would be insincere.

There are no more roads to take that don’t end at the subject of the Palestinian resistance.

There are no angles left to take on the injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people in 1948, an injustice the world continues year after year, decade after decade—as if its balance depends on harming these 2.2 million souls in that small, remarkable strip of land; not necessarily for its geography, but for the resilience and spirit of its inhabitants.

After all that we’ve learned about the history of Palestine, why does it feel like the world literally runs on the slaughter of its people?

For the past sixteen months, the empathetic segment of the world—those who felt the anguish of people slaughtered by the hundreds daily for nearly 471 days has faced one question. A question posed at the outset of every conversation, whether on TV or in private: “But do you condemn Hamas?”—deceptively, as Piers Morgan repetitively proclaimed, “So I can decide on your moral standing”, with sheer arrogance, as if he had been anointed judge and jury of global moral authority.

And look at him today, totally switching gears after casually ruining so many lives and the careers of Palestinian people who dare to stood up to his “moral quandry.”

Ta-Nehisi.

Ta-Nehisi Coates made a significant shift in the conversation about the Palestinian resistance. Award-winning author and journalist. Legendary scribe of the Black Panther and Captain America. Contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Sterling Brown Endowed Chair in the English department at Howard University. His words had weight.

The Message:

“Were I 20 years old, born into Gaza, which is a giant open-air jail, and what I mean by that is if my father is a fisherman, and he goes too far out into the sea he might get shot by someone off the side of Israeli boats. If my mother picks the olive trees. If she gets too close to the wall, she might be shot. If my little sister has cancer, and she needs treatment, because there are no facilities that do that in Gaza, and I don’t get the right permit, she might die.

And I grow up under that oppression and that poverty and the wall comes down. Am I also strong enough or even constructed in such a way where I say this is too far? I don’t know that I am.”

Morally dicey, hey?

However you frame the issue of resisting the occupation, unless you are a psychopath who benefits from the subjugation of others, you will arrive at the same moral predicament.

The labyrinth.

This moral predicament comes in shades. If you are a member of a military-industrial complex that profits from testing its latest weaponry on the Palestinian people, or if you have the slightly smaller but still significant privilege of being an American who can obtain dual citizenship (and take someone’s home) to frolic on the beaches of Tel Aviv, then you are both benefiting from the occupation and dispossession of the Palestinian people.

But if you are a human being troubled by this injustice and refuse to accept privileges built on the suffering of others, you will inevitably find yourself at the same spot in the labyrinth.

That is the exact spot where Ta-Nehisi Coates landed with his book. The storm that ensued in the aftermath was as if he waved a gun instead of his pen. Ta-Nehisi was called an antisemite, an Israel-hater, and so much more because he disturbed the Israeli battle for our perception.

Another person who inadvertently screwed Israeli perception being shoved down our throats was Yahya Sinwar. Because he died the way he did, not in the tunnel but fighting among his people, wounded, eye to eye with an Israeli drone, stick in his hand—he cemented himself as an actual, living, breathing personification of the Palestinian cause, one that will never, ever fade.

By throwing a stick at the drone that recorded his final moments, he didn’t actually throw a stick; he passed a baton to his people, who would later watch a live footage of it, thanks to the self-sabotaging arrogance of the Israeli Army. It was as if his last message to them was to persevere and keep resisting.

“But he’s a terrorist?”

How can people be terrorists in their own land?

Terrorism: /ˈterəˌrizəm/ noun—the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.

What political aims does the Palestinian resistance have? Is seeking freedom from occupation and self-determination a political aim? Since we all live in freedom and are self-determined, are we also terrorists?

Or is it a human right?

Or is Israel pursuing a political aim of trying to exterminate a population to take their land and create hegemony in the region while building a Greater Israel?

Labeling people whose existence interferes with your political, economic, or territorial interests as ‘terrorists’ is what allows you to commit terrorism against those you label terrorists.

Yes, resistance is also violent. Most resistance movements in history were violent; oppressors usually don’t oppress with nice words. After 76 years of subjugation, dehumanization, rape, massacres, dispossession, illegal military occupation, and the latest—live-streamed genocide of the Palestinian people—do you have the moral clarity to decide who the real terrorists are: those inflicting this pain, or those resisting it?

There is no way to understand the ‘problems’ in the Middle East that destabilize the entire world while filling the pockets of the 1% if we aren’t ready to take on this hard topic. However we try to frame the understanding of what the Palestinian people have endured — especially over the past 471 days — if you have a morally sound compass and view all people as equal, you will always arrive at the same conclusion. It’s like playing a labyrinth game and consistently ending up at the same spot.

I confront these questions daily:

What would I do if this was happening to me?

What would I do if my father was abducted one night and made to walk 30 kilometers at age 75, then arrested, tortured, tied, abused?

What would I do if my child was killed with one sniper shot in the head while playing outside?

What would I do if my brother was arrested for throwing a rock, then raped and abused in Israeli prison?

What would I do if I have to rush to a hospital and was stopped at the checkpoint to bleed or die, because an Israeli soldier was put there to abuse and dehumanize me for kicks?

It’s paramount to have these conversations.

Palestinian people have no voice in mainstream media. Before October 7th, these people were ghosts. Their perspective was non-existent. We have the Israeli narrative, propaganda so grand it even has its name—crafted to justify the violence inflicted on the Palestinian people. Have you ever heard of an occupation that wasn’t violent? The whole premise of any occupation in history is violence.

As Sean Illing aptly put it: “I don’t believe there is any such thing as a moral occupation, because whatever the reasons for it, you cannot occupy a people without visiting cruelties upon them.”

We must have these conversations because the Palestinian people aren’t given space to share their stories in Western media. They are reduced wholesale to ‘terrorists’ so that Western audiences feel no empathy for their extermination. When people are reduced to such a label, their suffering becomes justified.

Yousef Munayyer:

“And so this becomes the framing of the situation: Israel is defending itself, which means Israel is not the aggressor here. That doesn’t square with the reality on the ground, and we know that. You have a right to defend yourself. You don’t have a right to occupy people, deny them their human rights, and then cry foul when they resist. That’s not the right to self-defense. That’s the right to repression. That’s what Israel is asking for here: Let us do away with these dissenters, these Palestinian dissenters, and call it defense.”

Caitlin Johnstone delved deeper into this as well:

“You see a lot of genocidal rhetoric from Israel supporters. The argument is basically that because the Palestinians will never accept the existence of the Jewish state, then the Jews don’t have to accept the existence of the Palestinian people.

You can immediately see the flaw in this logic when it’s written out like this, though. A wildly unequal dynamic is being falsely framed as equal: Israel supporters want an end to the Palestinians as a people, while Palestinians just want an end to the tyrannical apartheid state which murders their children and has taken everything from them.

Palestinians don’t seek the extermination of the Jewish people, but Israel’s supporters absolutely seek the extermination of the Palestinian people — or at least their perpetual subordination.

This isn’t two groups mutually opposed to one another’s existence, this is an apartheid settler colony backed by the most powerful empire in history getting dropped on top of a pre-existing civilization, with the people who had been living there being told that they must either submit to losing their rights, their property and their dignity, or face extermination.”

Execution.

One specific nuance about this whole genocide we’ve been witnessing and the “conflict” in the Middle East, for me, is the sheer casualness with which Israel and the collective West discuss exterminating the resistance. What truly blows my mind, and I haven’t heard many people address this—is the globally accepted notion that people, even if they are labeled terrorists, should be exterminated rather than arrested and tried in the court of law. Since when has it been legal to exterminate people, even if they are criminals or terrorists?

To do this right, we must also be unequivocal and accountable, as it is the responsibility of every human being on this earth: war crimes were committed on October 7th. However, what truly highlights the unacceptable levels of inequality and the supremacy inherent in Israeli society is a belief that one group of people is worth more than another, asserting that all who participated in the acts of October 7th must be eradicated from the earth—then actually proceeding to execute the entire nation.

Since when do crimes, even war crimes, warrant execution? Anyone who commits any type of crime should be apprehended, arrested, tried, and jailed. During Milosevic’s aggression on Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia 30 years ago—a war I lived through—war criminals on each side, responsible for the worst crimes against humanity, weren’t executed; they were arrested, tried, and jailed. Many are still sitting in The Hague today.

Are you aware that you live in a time when one state holds so much impunity that it is allowed not only to execute those who participated in the October 7th, but an entire nation en masse?

Do you understand the damage done to the very foundations of civilization by witnessing people executing not just their opponents, but those they oppress?

Phyllis Bennis:

“October 7th, those are horrific attacks, which should be condemned. They are violations of international law, period. But the problem is that Israeli violence is assumed to be legitimate because it’s always self-defense.”

Are we living in a rule-based society?

We aren’t. As Caitlin Johnstone points out:

“This mass atrocity is being tolerated by huge parts of the population exactly because we see it as intolerable for large numbers of Jews to be killed by those who hate them, not understanding that the people who were killed on October 7 were killed not because of their religion, but because they were part of a settler-colonialist project which is premised on the perpetual abuse of a preexisting Indigenous population.”

This deliberate misperception is allowed to fester in Western society because there aren’t any Palestinian voices allowed in the mainstream spaces to plead their case. But for those of us who want to find those voices and listen—there’s nothing complicated about decades-long, brutally oppressed people burst for liberation.

A prison break on October 7th, whichever way you view it, was their manifesto. We won’t be prisoners anymore; we won’t be subjugated and oppressed. We’d rather be dead than imprisoned; we are going to be breaking free until we ARE free.

You cannot be reading this right now and tell me—but the violence on October 7th, unless you are a blatant supremacist, viewing one group of people as more worthy of another. The level of carnage, displacement, dehumanization, rape, torture, subjugation, prison without charge, slaughter, shredding of children, massacres, and finally a full-throttle genocide the Palestinian people had to endure for 78 years—will produce violent acts. Violence begets violence.

Hamas is a militant group resisting military occupation. These people have repeatedly told you—they want liberation.

Know thy enemy.

Palestinian resistance has managed to achieve the impossible for the past three years, militarily and politically, because they know everything about their occupier, who knows nothing about them.

Benjamin Netanyahu keeps throwing these lines to the US Congress: “The last thing Palestinians want is a political settlement. What they want is more demonstrations, more riots, more bodies—that’s what they want,” reducing the very people his party bankrolled and propped into existence to a blanket ‘terrorists’ label, battling for Western perceptions to feel no empathy for their experiences, thereby justifying their suffering.

Changing the course of this biblical billion-dollar battle for our perception—do you realize just how much the Palestinian resistance achieved in the past three years?

Aaron Mate:

“When you are a colonial power, you are so consumed by hubris—you can never really understand your enemy. Whereas if you are on the receiving end of the colonial power’s violence, you do have a much better understanding of your enemy.”

Scott Ritter:

“It’s not possible for the mindset of Israelis to understand Hamas. They have so dehumanized the Palestinians that they’re incapable of instilling notions that we normally attach to movements that lead to nation-building.”

People who defend Israel’s actions on the ground always claim Israel has reasons for doing things the way it’s doing them. They have to bomb Gaza — they suffered an unprovoked attack from a bunch of evil terrorists. They have to bomb all the hospitals and schools and mosques — that’s where Hamas are hiding. They have to bomb areas that are packed full of children — Hamas is using those children as human shields.

But those who commit mass atrocities always justify their actions. They always have reasons for doing them. They always frame it as a necessary act of self-preservation.”

Claim to the land.

Israel’s biggest fallacy lies in its parroting of a Biblical claim to this land. No one is denying the Jewish people’s claim to that land. The issue is their quest for an ethnostate, not their presence on the land. When supporters of Israel challenge you with the classic question—“Do you think Israel has a right to exist?”—well, why can’t they exist there, living alongside the Palestinian people (or, as they like to call them, Arabs), as they did many decades prior?

The fact that Israeli people who declare themselves Zionists insist on having an ethnostate on land where others already live tells you this is about dominance, economy, and power—not a yearning for the land they once inhabited.

Our part in all this.

The last three years have been a gift for us, a litmus test that Palestine has given us all. We were granted a rare opportunity to see how the people around us—friends, family, strangers, and even celebrities we once admired—think. Celebrities without a spine whose lives we no longer envy. We realized the world is divided into those who can empathize with others and see them as human beings, regardless of cultural differences, and those who simply cannot understand or support anyone rallying for the Palestinian people because they do not see the other as equally worthy.

This truth came from the most unexpected places, from people we would least expect to exhibit this sense of supremacy. I saw it in friends who have very little, yet feel as though their birthplace in the West grants them moral superiority. That realization has been the hardest pill to swallow for many of us.

We must confront ourselves, our part in this, and our privileges, even those we aren’t fully aware of—when discussing the people of Palestine and especially their resistance.

Aaron Maté, on Judge Napolitano, raised some imperative points:

“Hamas is a resistance force fighting the occupation and people in the West judging Yahya Sinwar; I think the most important thing is—we’re responsible for our own actions, our own violence, and that in our case means being involved in one of the world’s longest-running military occupation, an occupation that Hamas was founded to resist and it’s our obligation to end that occupation. Whatever you think about Hamas, that’s what they were doing—their goal was Palestinian liberation.”

This part is crucial:

“There were elements of Hamas, including sometimes Sinwar if you pay attention to what he said, who were willing to accept a major Palestinian compromise of a state just within 22% of historic Palestine in the West Bank and in Gaza, which happens to be the international consensus. It’s Israel which is so extreme that it refused to even accept a Palestinian compromise, which basically put Hamas in the position where something like October 7th could happen—concluding that there was no hope at all for negotiations with Israel, and Netanhayu was openly vowing that there would never be a Palestinian State.

Netanyahu thought he could use Hamas toward that goal by splitting the West Bank from Gaza and propping up Hamas and making it sort of the symbol of the Palestinian struggle, therefore making it off limits to the rest of the world.

That’s why October 7th happened, and it didn’t have to be this way if Israel had seriously engaged with not just the global consensus all the Arab states have offered. If Israel supported this, even members of Hamas including Ismail Haniyeh supported a Palestinian state, if Israel had engaged with that and negotiated seriously for a Palestinian State, October 7th likely never would have happened.”

Before you go.

I want you to marinate on my case for the resistance I laid out for you here. Read it a few times. Send it to your friends who still don’t understand it. Research it more. Read books on it. Know the history, understand the context, and know what preceded the last 3 years you’ve witnessed:

Haifa Massacre 1937, Jerusalem Massacre 1937, Haifa Massacre 1938, Balad al-Sheikh Massacre 1939, Haifa Massacre 1939, Haifa Massacre 1947, Abbasiya Massacre 1947, Al-Khisas Massacre 1947, Bab al-Amud Massacre 1947, Jerusalem Massacre 1947, Sheikh Bureik Massacre 1947, Jaffa Massacre 1948, Deir Yassin Massacre 1948, Tantura Massacre 1948, Qibya Massacre 1953, Khan Yunis Massacre 1956, Jerusalem Massacre 1967, Sabra and Shatila Massacre 1982, Al-Aqsa Massacre 1990, Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre 1994, Jenin Refugee Camp April 2002, Gaza Massacre 2008-09, Gaza Massacre 2012, Gaza Massacre 2014, Gaza Massacre 2018-19, Gaza Massacre 2021, and Gaza Genocide 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026.

But it’s complicated.

I have no better closer than the author Ta-Nehisi Coates; when he was told that the conflict in Palestine was “complicated,” he called that word “horseshit.”

“Complicated was how people had described slavery and then segregation.”

“It’s complicated when you want to take something from somebody.”

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America is Cornell; Cornell is America. Let’s get that out of the way.

A few days ago, a South Park writer, Toby Morton, created a website, CornellSeven.com to break down details in a high-profile sexual assault lawsuit involving seven Cornell students.

Why are satirists doing this? Because we are all exhausted. Having seen what our government has been involved in only in the past four years, while having the audacity to claim Western values, while gaslighting us all about their war crimes all of us are funding—we have finally realized there are no adults in the room. We are the adults. It’s up to us.

A South Park satirist is taking matters into his own hands after Cornell faculty hushed the “incident,” the DA failed to prosecute, and the mainstream media failed to report on it. When the institutions responsible for accountability all look the other way, who benefits from keeping it that way? Billionaire donors.

Who is behind the machinery that makes all of this happen? Billionaire donors. It’s always the Epstein billionaire donor class.

Why was this case reopened after two years? Because Cornell’s student journalists broke the story. They did the job the mainstream media failed to do, deliberately choosing not to cover what happened. The machinery is always the same: crimes happen, cover-up ensues, no accountability happens, billionaire donor class funds this outcome, mainstream media covers for it.

It’s the same principle that has been seen for way too long now. With the genocide our government is funding with our money. With policies that enrich the ruling class instead of benefit our lives. Cruelty to minorities while claiming Western values. Over and over again.

Naturally, the reopening of this case is causing an outcry on social media.

People have had it. Having sympathy for the rapists’ loss of a bright future instead of caring about the rape victim’s welfare is the society designed by the Epstein donor class.

We CAN and MUST reject it. What else can we do but take matters into our own hands and use our collective power and the megaphone of social media to finally demand some accountability?

This article in The Cut—‘What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now,’ by Kate Manne, a professor of philosophy at Cornell University—gets to the core:

“There’s a feeling at times that, while we all know the statistics, protesting sexual assault on campus is a lost cause — and, it must be said, a deeply uncool one. As a feminist commentator, I feel every time I write about these issues that I am swimming against the tide of indifference and himpathy: my term for the reflexive handwringing over the loss of a male perpetrator’s bright future instead of a female rape victim’s welfare. But maybe, finally, the currents are changing: News story after news story about the case has provoked a more vigorous discussion of this case than I, for one, am used to. When I went to work on Monday morning to teach a two-and-a-half-hour seminar, there was a palpable feeling on campus that this is big. This is serious.”

When authorities create a reality where rapists are protected from accountability, it’s up to us to become the digital vigilantes: to name them, expose them, and demand consequences for their criminal actions.

This is not vigilanteism. It’s our fucking DUTY.

If you’re already a subscriber, thank you. If you can become a paid subscriber, your support gives me the time to research, investigate, and write independently, beyond the limitations of mainstream media; please consider doing so here. If you’d like to support my writing just one time, you can do that here. If you aren’t able to support me at this time, please like this post, comment, or share. All your support is much appreciated!

I’m not stunned by any atrocity, crime, horror, or suffering of any kind I hear about anymore. You know by now who rules you, you know all about pedophiles in government carving children, you know about the Epstein class blackmailing their way to power, you know about the Zionist donor class that are okay with exterminating a population for their ideology—what is it to be stunned with anymore?

Don’t confuse this in any way with doom and hopelessness—au contraire, this planet is beautiful, life has so much joy—those who rule us are creating this reality for everyone. What are we doing about it?

There are 3,428 billionaires in this world.

About 500-700 of them are significant political and academic donors.

There are 8 billion of us.

What happened at Cornell University?

According to ABC News, prosecutors in central New York say they are reopening the investigation of alleged "gang rape" at a Cornell University fraternity in 2024 after a civil lawsuit filed earlier this month sparked outrage about the incident.

It’s not alleged. It’s a gang rape. Perpetrators talked about it in the Snapchat group chat.

The story is a classic.

Read more

I can’t say I’m surprised by Macklemore being removed from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour. When you have been watching Zionism in play for the past four years, you know their modus operandi, probably better than they do at this point.

Have you ever met a group who’s so painfully predictable? Also boring, while they’re at it? They are so unbelievably boringly predictable while also being extremely violently deranged about their ideology.

It seems to never stop.

Mauling civilization in Gaza and the West Bank, or working overtime in the West, silencing prominent voices for Palestine by removing our loudspeakers and demolishing our freedom of speech.

The technique is always the same. A prominent person (Macklemore) publicly states their support for Palestine, then pro-Israel hasbarist or entertainer (Pink) enters the picture to move the conversation from the suffering of the Palestinians to the safety of Jews, and one or the other billionaire Zionist (Kraft) uses their power to remove the opportunities from all those who dare to draw attention to the suffering of the Palestinian people.

Whether it’s Macklemore, Bardem, or Ruffalo; whether it’s Pink, Laura Loomer, or Noa Tishby; whether it’s Robert Kraft or Larry Ellison—there’s always a hasbarist and Zionist billionaire tag-team shutting down legit conversation.

Ed Sheeran removed Macklemore from his tour at the request of Robert Kraft, a Zionist billionaire and owner of Gillette Stadium. As I said, this was expected to happen. Pink using her white woman tears to shift people’s attention from images of the leveled Gaza Strip, destroyed by Israeli bombs, on a display at MetLife Stadium, to a conversation about the safety of Jews, a month before the midterm elections, only proves the point that entertainment is a key leg of the machinery working to maintain Zionism and acceptance of Israel as an occupying force in Palestine.

Robert Kraft

It’s fruitless to analyze who Robert Kraft is: a mega donor to AIPAC, charged in a prostitution ring in Florida, led numerous delegations to Israel, organized multiple trips of the NFL players to Israeli military sites, funded millions of dollars to Israel and the IDF, launched a $1 million grant to fight the BDS movement, and so on.

There’s no point in getting into his deplorable character. All the American Zionist billionaires are the same; they are criminals who use their power to evade the law, amass wealth in unethical ways, shift it all to Israel, fund the IDF and illegal settlements, and lobby the US Congress for more money and arms for Israel.

They are like Pokemons, but with access to nuclear weapons.

I want to focus on the statement he released, admitting he called Ed Sheeran to ban Macklemore from The Loop Tour. Published by Variety, Robert Kraft confirms the Zionist strategy talking points we all heard 7 million times in the past four years alone:

“Gillette Stadium has a longstanding commitment to providing a welcoming environment for all guests and ensuring that events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech. Based on Macklemore’s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25th and 26th concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line."

Antisemitic rhetoric and imagery:

He’s serious here. Again, in case you missed it, he claims that: “Based on Macklemore’s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community.”

Imagery they believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community:

This is the same if I were to beat someone up, then tell them their bruises are offensive and hurtful to me.

And he continues:

“This decision is not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf. Their pain and loss are real. But that advocacy should not come at the expense of the Jewish community or obscure the responsibility of Hamas, a United States and globally (including Canada, European Union, United Kingdom, and Japan) designated terrorist organization whose horrific actions have caused immeasurable suffering for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”

So this is not about denying anyone the right to advocate for innocent Palestinians, but I will make a call to remove you from the rest of the tour so you cannot advocate for the innocent Palestinians?

Gotcha.

He’s not done.

“I agree with Macklemore. Too many lives have been lost and there has been too much suffering, but only sharing selective information and ignoring the actions of Hamas is not honest and only advances more divisiveness and hate. Over many decades, I have directed resources to Palestine and created athletic and entrepreneurial opportunities for Palestinians who I admire and respect. Standing with the Palestinian people and standing against Hamas, antisemitism and hate should not be mutually exclusive.”

Also, I noticed something interesting here. A shift. Robert Kraft’s statement talks a lot about the Palestinian people, a subject they never mention when they talk about Jewish unsafety. He’s pretending, of course, he couldn’t care less about Palestinian suffering; he pays for the bombs dropped on them. Nonetheless, I find his attempt to misrepresent his investments in Palestinian “athletic and entrepreneurial opportunities” as a sign they are well aware they have no support or allies in the real world, as Hasan Piker pointed out. He knows where the public stands and obviously sees the need to cater to us.

As I already mentioned, he never invested anything in Palestinian opportunities.

Of course, he did not miss the opportunity to label the advocacy for Palestinian rights to self-determination and the end of military occupation as hate speech. “Gillette Stadium has a longstanding commitment to providing a welcoming environment for all guests and ensuring that events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech.”

Tactic

This is a played-out tactic that doesn’t mean anything anymore.

Every time a public figure draws attention to the violence inflicted on the Palestinian people, especially by showing images alongside it, as Macklemore did at the Met Life, the focus is instantly shifted from Israel’s war crimes to antisemitism and hate speech labels, moving the conversation away from the military occupation of Palestine and the enormous suffering of the Palestinian people onto comforting Jews by constantly having to repeat that the horrific violence in Gaza being displayed in no way means hatred of Jewish people, while painting the person who drew attention to Palestinian suffering as problematic, hateful, and inciting violence.

There’s no philosophy here, folks. The reason why Israel has been able to commit an ethnic cleansing of Palestine is a well-oiled chain.

• IDF is killing people off the Palestinian land.

• Israeli politicians are making sure the mission is completed.

• American Zionists are funding US politicians to let it happen and fund it.

• Billionaire Zionist families are funding violent settlers in the West Bank to take more land.

• The Israeli government is pretending they are condemning their criminals while arming them.

• American hasbarists are propagandizing the American and Western public about Israel defending itself while downplaying Palestinian suffering.

• Numerous American Zionist non-profit “organizations” are smearing people protesting this violence.

• American pro-Israel entertainers are complaining about Jewish safety to shift the conversation from the horrific suffering of the Palestinian people.

• American Zionist billionaires are removing opportunities from people speaking out, and neutral, apolitical people like Ed Sheeran glue it all together.

Leverage

Ed Sheeran had the opportunity to make a real change here.

This was the moment when, if he had said no to removing Macklemore from his tour, he could have used his leverage as a superstar to fight for the right to freely say: killing of any people is simply wrong, and we won’t stand for it.

He had the opportunity to weaken the use of antisemitism as a weapon to silence artists or anyone plainly saying that the wholesale slaughter of any people must be stopped.

But he caved to this criminal.

There is no excuse, in the age of social media, to still dance to the tune of the billionaire class.

They have the power of wealth, but they don’t have the fame and attention that entertainers command. That is why Zionists are always next to talent, as handlers or managers, because they want to impose their ideology on performers who command the attention of millions.

Zionists know they do not have that power themselves, so they conspire to manage it, direct it, condition it. Exactly how Robert Kraft just managed Ed Sheeran into removing Macklemore from his tour.

Ed Sheeran is worth $400 million. His career would have been fine. We would have supported him whether he filled arenas or not.

As for Ed Sheeran’s “typical apolitical stance” of “not taking sides:”

Ed only takes a side when it’s the side of the military industrial complex.

Supremacy

What does this Ed Sheeran, Macklemore, Pink, and Robert Kraft situation show us?

There’s no getting around it, folks. Zionism is simply supremacy. Call it white supremacy, call it Jewish supremacy, the core structure is the same.

Zionism is operating under the idea of Jewish life being more significant than the Palestinian life or any other life. They live by the conviction that, in order for Jews to be safe, Palestinians must silently die, away from the view of the world.

Zionists understand that the population outside of their ideology will never consent to that view, so they use hasbara to propagandize people about Israel, use their power to silence voices showcasing Palestinian suffering, and then use antisemitism to silence criticism by calling it hate speech and incitement to violence.

Zionism is also fascism

It claims to represent the Jewish people’s right to a homeland, when in reality, it exists to protect the crimes of Israel by buying politicians to fund it and support it, while destroying the lives of those who oppose it.

In the aftermath of Macklemore being removed from Ed Sheeran’s tour, Zionists on social media were gloating.

They weren’t talking about coexistence or asking for the safety of both Jewish and Palestinian people.

They were gloating over having the power to remove someone from public view and take away their opportunities simply because they spoke out against Israel’s actions in Palestine.

And that, my friends, is supremacy.

It’s literally flexing power to remove any conversation about Palestine and take away the livelihoods and careers of people who dare to show the world what’s happening in Gaza.

Pink

While Pink is posting statements about feeling unsafe because Macklemore showed images of destruction in Gaza, she started a campaign that resulted in taking away his job:

"You don't have to agree with one thing Israel's government does to not want the Jewish family two rows down from you to be scared or targeted at a concert. That's the only thing I'm asking anybody for.”

How unsafe and scared is the American Zionist millionaire, laughing about at the US Open all weekend, who is able to initiate stripping a man of his livelihood?

The tide has changed.

We all jumped online to condemn John Malkovich for going to perform at ‘The Music Critic’ in Israel, and he cancelled his trip to Tel Aviv. We condemned Pink for attacking Macklemore, and her career outside the Zionists’ circles is forever over.

You have the power.

You are a consumer, buyer, listener, concertgoer. You can force these people to understand what kind of people, celebrities, and artists we will support, and the absolute moral clarity we demand when it comes to the mass murder of the Palestinian people.

“There is no thanks for a duty”

Anyone who doesn’t see it as their duty to use their voice and influence to bring about change, or at the very least raise awareness about ending the military occupation of the Palestinian people, shouldn’t be in your circle or have your support. Your attention is currency, and your consumer dollars are power.

Act accordingly!

💵 💶

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I cannot comprehend how Muslim people find the energy to deal with the Islamophobia they face every single day. I’m exhausted just watching it unfold day in and day out, and lately, the sheer hostility coming from right-wing factions and/or Zionists has made it unbearable to watch.

And I’m just watching.

Islamophobia was invented by Zionists and dutifully adopted by right-wing factions. Let’s just call a spade a spade.

I watch my Muslim friends, famous Muslims, Muslim politicians, and I’m struck by how much dignity and grace they show in the face of it. What kind of upbringing must you have to remain this composed while some of the worst people on earth call you out for things that are the exact opposite of what you have actually done, defaming you in the process? How absolutely evolved must a religion be to teach people to endure this with such dignity?

And maybe, just maybe, this elevated state is exactly why they are hated by so many morally rotten souls?

The Mayor

I cannot watch it. How does he do it? Just take it, smiling through it all, months and weeks of the worst people on earth discussing how offensive it would be if he shows up to the 9/11 anniversary commemoration.

All while he has been commemorating it for weeks. Per New York Times:

• He met with firefighters at firehouses that suffered terrible grave losses on that day, including Ladder 118 in Brooklyn and Engine 24 and Ladder 5 in SoHo.

• He went to Bellevue Hospital to talk with survivors of the attacks, families of victims, and patients suffering ongoing health complications related to the day.

• Last week, he issued executive orders formally honoring victims and their families and empowering city agencies to better respond to sudden emergencies.

• On Monday, his office released a trove of documents about the air quality near ground zero in the months after the attacks.

• And on Tuesday, hours before the conservative politicians held their news conference, Mr. Mamdani held his own in the City Hall rotunda.

The most mind-blowing part of this Islamophobia/Mamdani equation is Rudy Giuliani, whose administration was responsible for numerous post 9/11 deaths, having the gall to make a public statement in his Newsmax interview, saying, “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming.”

On Tuesday, the Mamdani administration released nearly 200,000 pages of post-9/11 air quality reports. And in those documents, per NBC New York, there is a trove of paperwork within which some notes suggest city officials knew of the potential environmental dangers and legal exposure in the early aftermath of the terror attacks.

NBC reports that one undated internal document—a letter to Giuliani’s deputy mayor, Robert Harding—listed various potential grounds for lawsuits against the city, including health advisories that caused people to return to the area too soon, causing toxic exposure.

The most recent figures for the 25th anniversary of 9/11 count roughly 5,900 cancer deaths among people affected by the WTC exposure and roughly 9,700 total deaths from illnesses associated with the exposure.

This is what Rudi Guliani has done. And he’s offended a current mayor who is trying to expose these irregularities for the people who have died as a result of this negligence—might show up at the commemoration.

I hate it here.

This is what our ruling class is. Criminals of the highest degree, inventing things to pass the blame on immigrants, Muslims, socialists; anyone that challenges their status quo, corruption, and moral rot.

Smiling while greeting

Naturally, Mayor Mamdani came to the 9/11 commemoration. There was absolutely no reality in which the gang-bang of Zionists, right-wingers, Islamophobes, warmongers, and the worst people on earth weren’t going to find something on Mamdani to propagandize their base.

Not just find—look for. Invent.

And they did. i24News reported on the grave offense of smiling. Zohran greeted AOC, and they smiled for 4 seconds while exchanging pleasantries.

Call the SWAT Team.

I’m exhausted.

Aren’t you exhausted?

By the hypocrisy.

Of the worst people in our government, responsible for so much grief and pain, former presidents responsible for millions of deaths around the world, present at the same commemoration, with no one in legacy media scrutinizing their behavior.

Do you know why this man frustrates these Islamophobes so much? Mayor Mamdani? Not because he’s a radical Muslim, like they like to gaslight you in the legacy media, but because he ISN’T. He angers them because his behavior, demeanor, work ethic, and accomplishments break decades-long Islamophobia gaslighting about what Muslims are and why you should fear them.

If you want to know the truth, always look around at what’s happening and who is there when legacy media turns their camera off.

After all was said and done, and the worst people in office came, took pictures, and left—Mayor Mamdani, the one whose presence was “offensive” due to a crime of being 9 years old when the towers fell, the one who is “laughing” in the faces of the victims’ families, a “terrorist,” an “Islamist,” a “jihadist”—was the only politician that stayed to actually have a one-on-one conversation with each family member of the 9/11 victims.

What a world.

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I’m just going to call it, and you’re not going to like it, but this is just Jewish supremacy. You can try to weigh it seventeen times over; it ends at the same corner. There is absolutely no way on earth you could be deaf to human suffering unless you see yourself and your people more worthy than others.

I’m sick and tired of these white American Zionist women. They are all the same, resorting to astounding levels of verbal gymnastics to justify the unjustifiable. They are unsincere, and they know it. They absolutely know the people they are trying to smear are suffering. They just think their ideology is worth the suffering and the lives of others.

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And I thought I would have an uneventful Labor Day weekend.

I decided to stay in New York these last couple of days and refused all invitations to get out of the city. My summer was pretty exhausting, with the Knicks, the World Cup, and so many people visiting who needed to be entertained, all while fighting daily fascism, nationalism, and tribalism. I’m spent.

Summer is almost over, and I needed this last weekend of nothingness and chill before the professional demands of fall in New York start chipping away at me.

No can do, said the universe.

My phone had been ringing all weekend. I don’t think I’ve heard my ringtone in over five years (it’s Come Together, by the Beatles), and my inbox is so full that I can barely even reach the messages from the people I know.

Breaking news, a scandal, an expose—all in one: Mayor Mamdani’s New Media Team is revealed. Call the SWAT Team; we have a Signal chat! I’m on the infamous team, and I’ll break it all down for you. Apparently, we need to do the job these mainstream newsrooms are paid for.

There’s virtually nothing that better showcases the downfall of legacy media, its donor system, and its gatekeepers than the phenomenon that is Zohran Mamdani. For the first time in my life, I see their helplessness. Irrelevance, really.

Don’t get me wrong, they can still inflict significant damage; there are so many media illiterate people believing the information served to them by the donor class that funded it, and they are loud. They act on it. But social media murdered legacy media, and they know it. Money doesn’t help when people willing to do something unite to do that thing.

Thirteen years ago, Julian Assange predicted this, at his Oxford Union address:

“Working against the corrupt, powerful organizations who are producing a distorted perspective through mainstream media vehicle has been the internet. It has allowed one person with one truth to speak to every single person who wants to hear that truth.”

This man was arrested, repeatedly targeted for assassination, and had his life ruined for sharing information—showing the world what our elites are funding: the killing of innocent civilians in the Middle East, carried out by an U.S. Apache helicopter crew who knew they were firing on civilians and laughed as they did it.

Information is that important. Sharing the truth can get you killed. And we are the Wikileaks today. Information, your phone, and your platform make you dangerous.

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New Media Team

A few days ago the New York Post decided to publish one of their famous investigative reports about Mayor Mamdani’s New Media Team. When I say famous investigative reports, I mean Bill Ackman calling the Post saying, “I can’t have this Muslim running around being liked, appreciated, and praised—think of something,” and voila—an expose.

This is how they titled their “investigative” piece: Mamdani’s 200-strong ‘influencer’ army revealed — with some PR peddlers pocketing taxpayer cash.

I’ll just hit you with a few of their greatest hits:

“They’re under Zo’s influence.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani assembled an army of nearly 200 “influencers,” giving the social media stars VIP access to push the lefty administration’s talking points, a new bombshell report revealed.

The web of online personalities are being fed talking points by City Hall through an encrypted Signal group text, potentially running afoul of local record-keeping laws, according to the study by the Columbia Journalism Review.

Some influencers are even pocketing taxpayer funds “for work on particular messaging campaigns,” though not for their coverage, the report states.

The secret Signal chat – named “NYC Creators Announcements” – combined with murky money left many watchdogs aghast.

“We don’t know who is getting paid and who isn’t, and the public has no way to tell a paid supporter from an organic voice. There needs to be disclosure, and we need clear rules of the road.”

To be clear, the biggest Zionist rag on earth, who never published one letter that someone didn’t pay for to be written, is arguing that there needs to be a disclosure and clear rules about paid supporters and organic voices.

Do we even act surprised at their standard dose of weekly hypocrisy?

The New York Times

The NY Post is a laughable media outlet in the same category as the National Enquirer. No one really loses sleep over the NY Post. But the fact that the New York Times decided to get involved and do a deep dive of its own is what makes this story fascinating.

They are that afraid of the free flow of information.

We are all well aware that The New York Times lost all its credibility by inaccurately posting about Israel’s assault on Gaza. They have spent 4 years manufacturing consent for a livestreamed genocide, shielding Israel from the worst war crimes known to mankind.

Are we really surprised they conspired to plant the seeds of doubt about our team?

Legacy media is angry that our team of independent thinkers who believe in this administration found a way to bypass the media gatekeepers and take the power to shape the public narrative out of their hands.

It’s unbelievable, just how deceived we have been for so long, thinking this is the coolest, most reputable magazine on earth.

I mourn the NY Times every single day.

This is their “investigation” into a group of citizens rallying around a politician and the policies we chose to support: Inside Mamdani’s Private Army of Public Influencers. And a free version for you, because, fuck this system:

“Zohran Mamdani is seen as a social media wizard. Some of his popularity stems from an influencer operation run by the mayor’s office.”

This “report” is written by Sally Goldenberg and Emma Goldberg. You draw your own conclusions.

I’m going to break down this piece in a live commentary, as a member of Mayor Mamdani’s New Media team, therefore a subject and an insider into this story, unlike the NY Times, grasping at straws:

Read more

What irks me the most in life is disingenuity. Of any kind, in all sorts of people, from all walks of life. Knowing what you’re doing is a grift, a ploy to manipulate and shut down criticism, yet having the audacity to front like you’re serious.

Please stop torturing us with antisemitism as a linguistic manipulation to get away with crimes that uphold your privilege. The jig is up.

Is there anything more annoying in this world than the people who simply cannot understand something is just over? Your wife caught you cheating; stop finding excuses and trying to manipulate your way out of it. You have been found out. Just give it a rest.

The great noticing is here

How are we still entertaining this conversation in 2026? How are we still explaining ourselves to those who consciously and dishonestly use antisemitism to shut down conversation and escape accountability?

We have watched 1,063 days of livestreamed genocide unfolding on our phones; the images of children’s limbs blown off their bodies are imprinted in our minds and will stay there until the end of our time. And yet, we’re still discussing antisemitism, not the genuine one, but the one used to shut down legitimate conversation.

It’s grotesque what the Zionists are doing to this man, day in day out. They are attaching an antisemitism smear to a man who spent the last four years bravely advocating for halting the mass murder of toddlers and civilians, regardless of what that stance professionally cost him.

And that is precisely what bothers them: a man whose moral compass is tuned so correctly that nothing, absolutely nothing, no threats, no smears, no lies, can make him falter in standing up for the humane treatment of all human beings.

The merger

In this latest attempt of trying to slap an antisemitic label on Mark Ruffalo, the issue is a Paramount/Warner Brothers merger, a grotesque consolidation of power that would crush job opportunities and, as Mark pointed out, see a loss of 4500 direct filmmaking jobs and the loss of another 10k ancillary jobs.

Mark voiced a legitimate concern about an $111B merger that would put enormous power into the hands of one family—a family headed by the largest single donor to the IDF and a company whose former CEO just casually stated on camera is producing “profoundly scary technology” for Israel.

A profoundly scary technology for a state currently committing a genocide and set out to create a surveillance state for us all.

We are not angry enough, folks.

These people are taking us for a ride, and we’re still not getting off.

Mark’s Instagram story about the merger

This is what Mark Ruffalo wrote on his Instagram story about this merger. All legit concerns:

Why are we always explaining ourselves? Why is Mark, anyone, all of us constantly needing to explain what we meant?

The biggest criminals on earth are known for this classic MO: audacity and an accusatory tone, deliberately misinterpreting their opponents’ words when those words are right there for all to see, forcing you to explain yourself rather than forcing them to explain their crimes.

I want to literally puke on my living room sofa if I hear one more time that “it’s not antisemitic to be critical of the Israeli government,” followed by calling every single sentence directed to that crime syndicate pretending to be a state—antisemitic.

“It’s not antisemitic to be critical of the Israeli government.”

Unless you are a student on a campus calling out the Israeli apartheid.

Or a singer calling out the IDF’s war crimes.

Or Ms. Rachel saying Palestinian kids should live too.

Or a flotilla activist carrying baby formula to Gaza.

Or a person boycotting food associated with the apartheid state.

Or someone protesting an Oracle executive threatening the world with “profoundly scary technology.”

Or an American actor opposing consolidation of power.

Or the NBC crew attacked by violent settlers in the West Bank.

A grift to end all conversation

Just take a look at this piece made by our favorite hasbarist for hire, Noa Tishby; only, I broke her down too. Not a single word she said about Mark is accurate, and every single word Mark uttered is verifiably true.

And yet, her video full of propaganda, lies, and smears about this man ended up on his Google search profile. Media consolidation? How can a nobody’s video, unrelated to this man, end up on his Google search?

Let’s finally have the honest antisemitism conversation, shall we?

There is only one correct and intellectually honest definition of what antisemitism is. It’s not thoughts or feelings or paranoia. Antisemitism is an actual, tangible action taken against an individual. Not a feeling. Or discomfort.

You will not find a more honest breakdown of antisemitism than what Norman Finkelstein, a son of Holocaust survivors, explained at the Robinson Erhardt podcast. He gave this man a schooling that only Norm can produce:

Robinson:

For the sake of comprehensiveness, there are two more arguments I'd like to touch on. I think it's pretty undeniable, at least from my own experience, that there is very rampant antisemitism in the United States, at least.

Norman:

I don't agree with that at all. There was an era in which one calculated antisemitism not by a person's thoughts, because you can't control a person's thoughts, there was an era where, when you talked about discrimination, when you talked about antisemitism, it meant—does it affect your job opportunities, does it affect your access to certain institutions of higher education, does it affect where you're going to live, does it affect negatively your interactions with the law—that's what antisemitism meant.

There were quantifiable, palpable, and lucid expressions of this phobia, whatever you want to call it, antisemitism or a hateful genocidal intent.

Can you name me a place in the United States where a Jew would have trouble purchasing a home or renting an apartment? Name me one place; I'd be curious where that person would have trouble purchasing a home or renting an apartment. Can you name me one university, one college in the whole United States where a Jew would have trouble getting in because he or she was Jewish?

Could you name me one profession? Does the medical profession discriminate against Jews? Law, there was once a problem; that's why Jewish law firms were created because they couldn't get into the WASP law firms. Does that exist anymore?

It’s just completely and totally ridiculous to talk about antisemitism in the United States. On the contrary, being Jewish gets you into professions because Jews are such a dominant force in the medical field and the law field. There is clannishness; every group has its clannishness. It's an asset, not a disability. It's an asset in our society.

In publishing, being Jewish makes a big difference. You know what they used to call the New York Review? They called it a review of each other's books because they were all Jewish. So in the face of that reality, to speak about antisemitism strikes me as ridiculous and self-indulgent on a Herculean scale.

Antisemitism is not thoughts passing through your head.

Brothers Bloom

I met Mark in 2006, during the shoot for Brothers Bloom. The club I was running at the time was one of the film’s locations, and my then-boyfriend had a tiny role in the film. I hung out with the crew for almost a month; one day the first AD (the First Assistant Director) on the film developed a little crush on me.

“I’m going to put you in the film; I need someone like you in the scene,” he declares to me one day.

“Nah, I don’t act, I pass,” I say, thinking that’s that.

A few days later an assistant calls me to confirm I’m on the call sheet for tomorrow. What? No. I said I’m not interested in being in front of the camera. “Well, you are on the call sheet, so you have to come,” she says matter-of-factly.

I roll up to the unknown, my then-boyfriend slightly annoyed, pretending to be supportive; that man never did enjoy sharing the spotlight. I report to the lady that called me, slightly puzzled why I need to be here and what for. The first AD sees me, rolls up, and says, “Do not worry, you’ll be great; you have a scene with Mark Ruffalo, the assistant will escort you to your coordinator to practice with the knives a bit, because you will have to stab Mark through his fingers several times but not actually stab him.”

I never acted in my life (except for fun, in real life), and I need to stab-not stab Mark Ruffalo on cue.

But Mark was great. He helped me tremendously and made me feel comfortable and wasn’t impatient, and I managed not to hurt him. We spoke about so many things about this world while rehearsing and shooting the scene, and I saw this streak in him—having a need to instantly correct the wrong, call it out, and expose it.

My then-ex did something silly a few days earlier, a self-serving act that was not exactly in the spirit of teamwork, and Mark called him out on it instantly. From what I gathered during that entire month of spending time with this cast and crew, Mark’s sense of right and wrong was so deeply ingrained in him. He had this strong combination of logic, justice, and empathy that made it completely unsurprising to me that he would become what we see today: a stand-up human being, a friend and colleague willing to fight for and risk his career for the benefit of people less privileged than him.

Imagine what this world would be if every single one of us, famous or not, powerful or less influential, with big or small reach in life or social media, had the courage to take on this rotten system of power that is running our lives?

A superhero, in the literal sense of the world. A real-life Avenger.

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After two years of creating cover for Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, mainstream media finally published a piece this week informing us that Israel did, in fact, slaughter a 5-year-old child, her family, and the paramedics who came to rescue her.

CNN informed us that “Israeli military admits for first time to firing on car carrying 5-year-old Hind Rajab as it opens criminal probe,” while the BBC informed us that “Israel confirms soldiers fired at car in which Hind Rajab was killed and opens criminal investigation.”

Huge undertaking. Do they have enough people?

Two and a half years later, we finally know the truth, thanks to CNN, BBC, and co. Top-notch journalism.

Israel admitted it killed her, and it will investigate itself to determine how a 5-year-old child was riddled with 355 bullets in an area where Palestinian children represent a demographic threat to the state of Israel.

Legacy media openly writing about Israel’s war crimes; times are changing, right?

No, times aren’t changing. Mainstream media didn’t suddenly grow a conscience. This is a journalistic trick. These reports mean absolutely nothing. Mainstream media are once more assisting Israel to manipulate their war from accountability.

What’s the play here? Why now?

Media + Israel, two historical partners in crime, took on this project in tandem. There are two parts, two missions, and each is doing its part to make sure Israel never answers for its monstrous war crimes.

Mainstream media’s part

I wrote this article in 2023, exactly one month before Hind Rajab was murdered. Check it out; it’s a very useful detection tool, or a shit-o-meter for your favorite media, something I figured out very early in this Zionist-powered game.

There are three tricks media is playing on us in order to cover, justify, and help Israel complete its ethnic cleansing endeavor without interruption.

Trick #1 — Reporting on something we already know about

The New York Times does this impeccably. Throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza over the past four years, they have repeatedly published articles like Israeli Military Admits Fault in 2 Deadly Strikes in Central Gaza, months later, about crimes that have already happened, crimes they never reported on, and crimes we already know about. Or articles like What Happened in Israel’s Deadliest Attacks in Gaza, again, something we already saw on our phones, months before they published it.

These months, or even years late “reports” are always published in an obligatory passive voice, a directive straight from Tel Aviv, no doubt. Palestinians are never killed, only mysteriously found dead.

When respectable, legacy media reports on something we already know about, there’s nothing at stake for the ethnostate they are trying to shield from public scrutiny. We already know this information from social media. This is not journalism—it would be if they actually reported on it, when it actually happened, to inform you. The reason why they’re publishing these reports after the fact is to create an illusion of impartiality.

Trick #2 — Making both sides in this “conflict” equal

This trick is a masterclass in media manipulation—understood only if you have knowledge of world history or are willing to spend hours daily informing yourself.

“It’s not a genocide; it’s a war. Israel is fighting Hamas militants.”

A nuclear superpower cannot fight a militia made up of orphans whose only means of resisting their occupiers are makeshift rockets and stolen rifles.

When mainstream media reports on both sides in the manner of—well, they sent the rocket, and then we launched an airstrike, and then they sent some fireworks, and then we bombed a refugee camp—it makes this “war” appear equal. It’s not equal, and it’s not a war. It’s a deliberate erasure of an entire people.

Mainstream media invite guests on TV shows in a tit-for-tat format, inviting people on both sides to condemn the actions of the opposite side; will you condemn the Hamas rockets, or will you condemn the Israeli airstrikes—this is a deliberate editorial process, a well-thought-out tactic for you to forget the context and the issue here: 5.5 million people from one population are living at the mercy of, under the rule of, and under the military occupation of another population.

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Trick #3 — “Criticizing” Israel

Notice the words legacy media never uses while criticizing Israel. Media will never say the word genocide even when the number of victims crosses the threshold of other declared genocides in history, even when the genocidal intent has been heard from the mouths of Israeli government officials, soldiers, and supporters. Media will criticize some particular policy of Israel’s state but won’t ever discuss the apartheid and the military occupation carried out by the Israeli state.

They won’t print how the structural situation is fundamentally one of occupation and dispossession. This is how legacy media is assisting in upholding Israel’s status quo. To convince you of this circle of violence from both sides. Use the guise of safety to keep the military occupation running, indefinitely. Maintain the ethnostate.

Israel’s part

Why is Israel finally admitting that it riddled Hind Rajab’s tiny body with 355 bullets and killed the paramedics who came to rescue her, after vehemently denying it for two and a half years?

Because they want to create an illusion of accountability.

Why now?

Because Israel is facing renewed legal scrutiny over its genocide in Gaza and its strikes in Lebanon and in the region.

TRT World reports:

Under the Rome Statute’s complementarity regime, the International Criminal Court is only meant to step in when a state is “unwilling or unable” to genuinely investigate its own nationals, which means a state facing prosecution has a direct incentive to manufacture the appearance of domestic proceedings before the admissibility question is decided against it.

“Israel is currently subject to active ICC proceedings, faces genocide referrals before the ICJ, and is operating under the July 2024 Advisory Opinion finding its occupation violates peremptory norms. Under Article 17 of the Rome Statute, a state may challenge admissibility before the ICC by demonstrating that genuine domestic investigations are underway. The timing of the announcement lines up with Israel losing ground on its case before the ICC, not with any new evidence coming to light.”

— Nasir Qadri, international law practitioner and critical legal scholar at Koc University.

TRT continues:

That framing captures what two years of watching Israel investigate itself has taught rights groups and the family alike: an internal probe has never once translated into meaningful accountability for Palestinian deaths, and there is little in the record to suggest this case will be the exception.

In other words, nothing will come out of this, as usual, when Israel conducts these performative criminal investigations into their own SS Division.

According to the Hind Rajab Foundation, of 52 publicly known Israeli military investigations into violations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, 88% were closed without any finding of wrongdoing or left open indefinitely with no outcome ever published, and only one produced a prison sentence.

“We see this new probe as a pattern, not a genuine pursuit of justice, but a charade meant to whitewash crimes against Palestinians,” a spokesperson of the Hind Rajab Foundation told TRT World.

“The timing is obviously strategic. These announcements come when international pressure is high, and they serve to create the illusion of accountability.”

“Given Israel’s history of such probes ending without meaningful consequences, this appears designed to deflect criticism, not to deliver justice,” the spokesperson adds.

If that part the TRT just laid out for us needs any clarification: Israel very well knows what they are committing are grave war crimes; they know they are erasing an entire population whose land they covet, and they are intentionally murdering them while trying to get away with it.

And they always do get away with it.

Israel has been doing this for decades

• Whether it’s killing 10 activists on the Mavi Marmara flotilla.

• Or murdering paramedics, then burying their ambulances and belongings while lying about it before the phone of one of the paramedics was also discovered, buried, containing video evidence.

• Or striking a World Central Kitchen convoy, killing seven humanitarian workers.

• Or double-tapping Nasser Hospital and killing 22 people, including health workers, emergency response crews, and five journalists.

• Or riddling a 5-year-old with 355 bullets, accompanied by some of the most disturbingly graphic audio a human being could ever hear.

The pattern is always the same: first, they say Hamas or Hezbollah did it; then they deflect or shut the conversation down with accusations of antisemitism or counterattacks. Then, after international pressure, when even their mainstream media partners in crime can no longer run cover for their war crimes, they investigate themselves, find inconclusive results, and conclude it was a “grave error.”

The result is always the same. No accountability. No legal action. No time served. Case closed.

186 humanitarian workers killed.

260 journalists killed.

Never stop talking about this. The only accountability they currently face is the judgment of humanity itself, in the court of global conscience, reminding them of their crimes with every step they take outside their ethnostate.

If you’re already a subscriber, thank you. If you can become a paid subscriber, your support gives me the time to research, investigate, and write independently, beyond the limitations of mainstream media; please consider doing so here. If you’d like to support my writing just one time, you can do that here. If you aren’t able to support me at this time, please like this post, comment, or share. All your support is much appreciated!

Zionist ideology isn’t compatible with civilization outside of their community. Everyone sane knows that. We can also stretch our brains wide enough to inhabit the reality of Zionism being deadly to Palestinian people, having watched limbs being blown off the bodies in Gaza since Israel’s invasion of the Palestinian lands, but what is it to the rest of us?

They aren’t killing us; we’re good, right? Everything that’s not killing us is not that bad, right? Zionism is just incompatible for anyone that doesn’t believe in it or support it, right?

We need to be more serious about this. Zionism is much more nefarious to the rest of the world outside Palestine than we realize, and it is damaging an entire planet, in addition to committing war crimes in Palestine, Lebanon, and throughout the Middle East.

Dual citizens are deciding our future.

This post by Nikki Shapiro Vinckier showcases it well. As Nikki reports, many Jewish voters in Michigan are deeply afraid by Abdul El-Sayed winning the Democratic primary. Many have said they will leave the Senate race blank in November, and others are considering voting for Republican Mike Rogers.

These choices, made by people who have been gaslit about the “evil” Muslims all their lives, are not considering what is best for their fellow Michiganders. They are willing to hand this seat to MAGA because their priority is Israel’s interests in the American midterm election.

As Nikki rightly points out, this is a seat we cannot afford to lose. This is the seat that could help determine who controls the U.S. Senate. A seat that will vote on federal judges, reproductive rights, healthcare, voting rights, and the future of our democracy. A seat that could either challenge Donald Trump’s agenda or give him another vote to advance it.

This slide in Nikki’s post was particularly telling. Check out what Stacy thinks about electing a medical doctor, an epidemiologist, and an Oxford Rhodes scholar whose priority is passing a Medicare for All bill. So devoted to this issue, he wrote a book on it—Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide.

But Stacy, patient zero in the Zionist cult agenda, confidently calls other people brainwashed, warning us all about the Rhodes scholar Abdul El-Sayed and his entire family “Islamic terrorists.”

But Stacy confidently calls other people brainwashed, warning us about the “Islamic terrorism” of Rhodes scholar Abdul El-Sayed and his family.

Whether it’s regular people allowing their obsession with Israel and the Jewish victimhood narrative to prevent desperately needed social and economic policies from being represented in the U.S. Senate, this is hurting American citizens.

The issue with Stacy’s worldview wouldn’t be a problem if she lived in Israel and despised all the Muslims living in her vicinity. But Stacy lives in America, and like millions of other people devoted to Israel and gaslit by the Israeli government and their upbringing, she will deprive the American people of the benefits and policies we need because she lives in a country where she has voting rights, while the interests of that country and its people are not her concern.

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Wouldn’t this be something that would make people around the world angry? Not only do we have to watch the wholesale slaughter of an entire people on our screens, paid for by our tax dollars, and feel powerless to stop it, we also cannot have a government that will work in the interests of its own citizens.

How bloody insulting is it to package it all into antisemitism—to prevent us from voicing our disdain.

What about the politicians?

Nearly all politicians in all of the Western countries around the world work for the benefit of Israel. Politicians are not chosen by what they can do for you; they are chosen by what they can do for Israel.

All the policies that these politicians put out are just a smokeshow; they work for Israel. Therefore, the nice, well-spoken, palatable contenders camouflaged as progressive candidates are even more dangerous.

Like Barack Obama, who dutifully completed the task of expanding the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and clipped Gaddafi before he managed to implement his gold-backed currency, which would have allowed Libya and its partners to trade oil and resources directly for gold, bypassing the U.S. dollar and the entire Western banking system, protecting Libya from Western economic sanctions.

Israel could not have that.

Who did it benefit?

And how many lives and futures were destroyed for it?

Michigan.

In November of 2025, Michigan State Senator Jeremy Moss, a Democrat and an openly gay politician who made history as the first out LGBTQ+ person elected to the Michigan Senate, was caught on tape saying:

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People in power do not want to share their power or resources. Throughout history, the way they maintained control was by controlling information through mainstream media, which, contrary to what we thought, was never truly reporting on the halls of power but instead sitting comfortably too close to them.

Politicians and powerful corrupt organizations have always produced a distorted reality through the mainstream media vehicle, and as Julian Assange rightly predicted some ten years ago, what will eventually work against that trend will be the internet. Social media, to be exact. In Julian’s own words, “It will allow one person with one truth to speak to every single person who wants to hear that truth.”

The phenomenon of social media allowed us all to finally discover what the Palestinian people have been trying to tell the world for decades—Israel is an occupier, an aggressor, and a manipulator embedded in the US government, lobbying for armaments they use to kill their families.

There is no way to fight this, Israel learned, as buying TikTok and investing $150 million in global public diplomacy (hasbara) in 2025, followed by a record-high public diplomacy budget of roughly $730 million for 2026, changed no minds about Israel's crimes in the Middle East.

Reality, simply, cannot be censored. As of today, 69% of US adults hold an unfavorable opinion of the Israeli government.

Ceuta

What happened at the Spain-Morocco border at the city of Ceuta this past Thursday?

The internet was flooded with the scenes of nearly 60,000 Moroccans flooding into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, a small Spanish autonomous city that, alongside Melilla, sits on the northern coast of Africa, shares a land border with Morocco, and sits near the Strait of Gibraltar.

The images were straight out of a far-right wet dream. Far-right parties and politicians around the world, building their political projects on anti-immigrant fearmongering, had their talking points ready to go.

What happened at Ceuta has no relevance to the US, and yet Donald Trump, aware that serving Israel’s interests had damaged his standing with his base ahead of the upcoming midterm elections, used an incident unrelated to the country he governs to score political points by exploiting anti-immigrant fears.

His statement was ready to fly into the world:

“You know, I saw Spain yesterday, and I watched the catastrophe that took place. It looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people. And that same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans don’t get elected. If we’re not in office, our country will be invaded at levels that made Spain look small time.”

Donnie is whoring himself for your midterm votes in November.

The same echo came from the UK. Per Zeteo:

“Christmas came early for the global far right, as images showed tens of thousands of migrants from Morocco breaching the borders of the Spanish enclave Ceuta.

From Donald Trump to Nigel Farage, the far right reacted exactly how you would think – by stirring up fear about a fake “invasion” and weaponizing the so-called crisis to rally their bases.

Trump said the surge should be used as a “talking point” in the midterm election, while Farage used it to promote his Reform UK party.”

What actually happened in Ceuta

The hordes of people that entered Ceuta didn’t look like desperate refugees. The Nation reports:

The human wave that entered Ceuta, including the dozens who drowned trying to get around the border fence sticking out into the sea, were not such desperate refugees, however. Video footage indicates that virtually none of them were carrying bags or other personal belongings. There are also videos showing truckloads of young men, apparently organized by the Moroccan government, being ferried to the edge of Ceuta, as well as scenes of Moroccan border guards waving them through. It even appears that Moroccan intelligence agents were among the crowd in an apparent effort to get a better sense of border security and the Spanish response. Indeed, having tens of thousands of people simultaneously appear at the frontier undoubtedly required major logistical support.

This provocation appears to have been designed by the Moroccan regime to embarrass Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in response to his efforts to warm relations with Morocco’s longtime geopolitical rival Algeria, a key supplier of natural gas made scarce as a result of the Ukraine and Iran wars and whose president he met with the previous week. The Moroccans orchestrated a similar cross-border influx in 2021 in retaliation for Spain’s allowing Western Sahara President Brahim Ghali, whose nation Morocco claims for itself, into the country for medical treatment.

Perhaps not coincidentally, this comes at a time when the American and Israeli governments have been furious at Spain’s Socialist government over its support for Palestinian rights and opposition to the Iran War.

The problem

The ruling class is in a bind. They can no longer distort reality and control the flow of information as they once did. Ordinary people on social media, armed with a different political perspective, influence, and nothing more than a phone in their hand, have become a threat to the halls of power.

And the far-right powers around the globe are not in the mood to share their power or any of the resources; they want to continue hoarding.

After four years of watching the absolute blasphemy of global politics—the people allowing, arming, protecting, and justifying a state committing a livestreamed genocide—we have become trained to detect bullshit within milliseconds.

Anti-colonial, colonial lesson

The Nation, again, calls it all out brilliantly:

While having any European territory on African soil is certainly problematic regardless of its particular history and demographics, it is hard to imagine that these right-wing figures are actually motivated by anti-colonialism.

In addition, the wave of border crossings has created images that far-right parties in Europe are now using to claim that there is an uncontrollable refugee crisis, feeding racist and xenophobic attacks against Sanchez and other left-leaning governments for allowing a foreign “invasion” of EU territory. Conservative European governments have demanded that Spain be removed from the Schengen Zone that allows for passport-free movement within most of Europe despite the fact that Spain maintains tight internal migration control between the presidios and the Spanish mainland and that none of 50,000 who illegally crossed into Ceuta have made it onto the European continent.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Vice President JD Vance blamed the border crossings on “radical left-wing globalist policies that have enabled the Invasion of the West,” while Trump warned that scenes similar to those of the tens of thousands of dark-skinned people storming the border in Ceuta would occur in the United States as well if Democrats get back into office.

Important part

Ironically, rather than being anti-colonial, Morocco itself is a colonial power, having illegally invaded, occupied, annexed, and colonized the nation of Western Sahara, a full member state of the African Union and recognized by the United Nations as a non-self-governing territory. The United States and Israel are the only two countries to formally recognize that occupied country as being under Moroccan sovereignty.

Who benefited the most from this manufactured “crisis”?

Far-right parties and politicians around the world who are building their political projects on anti-immigrant fearmongering. Regardless of video records of truckloads of young men coordinated by the Moroccan government to bust through Ceuta, the far-right, anti-Muslim, immigrant-hating, racist base will eat this up.

Who paid the price?

The 67 people who died as instruments of someone else's political agenda. Per NPR, “The death toll in Spain's Ceuta border crisis with Morocco has climbed to 67; they included some who drowned and some who were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier.”

Whether this global far-right wet dream was orchestrated in D.C., Tel Aviv, Rabat, far-right Europe, or all of the above; whether it was the Moroccan authorities calmly leading the "immigrant crisis" out of the trucks or mainstream media using language such as "military-age men" and "Islamist invasion," the result of this, and of every political theater built around someone's ideology, is the same: dead bodies.

Brilliant researcher, going deeper to explain this fake “invasion.” Take a listen:

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On Wednesday, the United States House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including Section 219, a provision sneakily inserted into this bill by the deviant mind of Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure its passage—an act of treason that will permanently embed the U.S. and Israeli militaries.

A merge, so they call it, a polite, romantic term that disguises the loss of sovereignty, the erasure of national identity, and the catastrophe it represents.

Was the American identity ever really anything other than what American Zionists decided it would be, with the benefit of Israel always operating on the backend of American pride?

Tucker Carlson called this treacherous act a humiliation ritual. More on that later. In preparation for this piece, I checked the Twitter grapevine to see what people were saying about this treacherous act by our sitting representatives.

And this thread I stumbled upon captures this moment in our history so perfectly that it could tell the entire story without any help from me. It contains everything needed to reveal the absurdity of this bill, the provision buried within it, what it represents, and how we arrived at this point. It is a masterclass in storytelling, a performance art:

What to even add anymore? There isn’t a better way to describe this moment in American history than to repeat Tucker’s humiliation ritual.

Zionists in power are lying to you by describing this bill as sharing “defense supply chains while also including joint collaboration on military technologies, data sharing, and research & development.”

In reality, Benjamin Mileikowsky understands the American citizens are appalled by Israel’s war crimes; the approval for that genocidal state is in such a gutter, the Congress cannot fight the public disapproval for yearly military funding for Israel for much longer, and his 10-year deal is soon over.

Per NBC News, in 2016, the U.S. and Israeli governments signed a memorandum of understanding for the 10 years through September 2028 that provides $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems.

How do you continue getting the military aid while the entire world saw you maim children en masse for 4 years straight?

By deviously implanting the Section 219 provision into a defense bill to prevent a separate vote on it. By placing the Israeli Army inside the Pentagon, removing the need for yearly military funding to have to be approved yearly by Congress—voila, problem solved.

Netanyahu didn’t hold his breath for long, claiming an idea to “shift the framework for US-Israel defense cooperation from aid to partnership.”

This letter, his words and rhetoric, this arrogance in such a transparent takeover of American sovereignty for Israel’s gain, bypassing the scrutiny of military aid being approved every year amid a climate of a raging, disapproving American citizenry, is the scariest document I have ever read.

213 Republicans voted for this bill, every single one except for Thomas Massie. 5 Democrats voted for this bill and committed a blatant act of treason. They are Don Davis, Jared Golden, Adam Gray, Vicente Gonzalez, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.

The bill still needs to pass the Senate. The Senate will vote for it. Our government is fully captured.

“Oh, how convenient that there are always *just enough* Democratic votes to help the Republicans get their agenda through!” — Blakeley

What is left for us citizens to do?

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“Never Again” offends me. Every time I hear it, I recoil. It’s a sham, a myth, a lie — the most cynical pretense of all.

Never Again is a platitude. We convinced ourselves that those two words signified a lesson learned, that the memory of past genocides would stop us at even the slightest hint of another, and that the phrase itself carried the power to prevent it. But in reality, Never Again means nothing. It's as hollow as "How are you?"—a ritual we recite without expecting an answer.

Never Again is a lie, a moral leash the West uses to police the rest of the world while continuing to commit the very atrocities it claims to condemn.

Never Again is a comfort mantra. It’s said for show, to make the person saying it feel as though their moral compass is properly calibrated. Never Again is an entire performance, a phrase repeated out of habit, not conviction. It’s no longer a vow, just noise.

July.

Today marks the 31st anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide. Peculiar word to use, anniversary, like we’re celebrating a joyful event or a happy union worth commemorating. It’s dreadful, yet necessary, because it’s Never Again, hey?

July is a hard month for all my Bosnian friends. I see them posting online, sharing remembrance posts that explain what happened for those who don't know. After each one, they draw a parallel with Gaza. A few posts about Srebrenica, followed by posts about Gaza. Then more about Srebrenica, followed by more about Gaza. The little lines on their Instagram Stories are full today.

Their pain is never singular, never just their own. They use it to warn you about today. Even on this dreadful day, they don't make it about themselves but about Never Again. For anyone. Just reading their words, it bleeds through the screen and stings me. It's not normal to be this strong.

Bosnian people are some of the best people I know. In many ways, they remind me of Palestinians. There's a kindness in them that you don't often find elsewhere. A warmth in their eyes, as though the depth of their pain is matched by the softness it leaves behind. They carry a kind of knowledge about the world, as if they're privy to something the rest of us aren't. It's a club reserved only for those who have endured the most devastating forms of injustice.

Hate.

And yet Bosnians, like Palestinians, don't hate. They don't hate the world for letting them down. They don't even hate the perpetrators of their genocide, some of whom were never convicted and now live and walk among them, taunting them with what they got away with. I often wonder how people like the Bosnians can exist in a world that seems far too harsh for such illuminated souls.

They never ask for anything. They're grateful to anyone who acknowledges their pain. They don't rage. They come gently, simply to let you know that July is hard for them—a summer month that, for most of us, is filled with warm nights, sand in our bathing suits, and ice cream stains on our clothes. But for them, it's an unsettling month, a reminder that not all the remains of their 8,372 dead have been found.

They still search for their dead, and every year, on this day, they put those who they found to rest in peace. They will continue looking for the bones of their loved ones or neighbors, until the last remaining soul killed is found.

They don't just live with the pain of their memories or the ongoing reality of still searching for their dead. On this day, they also have to contend with Serbian nationalists denying what happened under nearly every story and every post about commemorating this genocide.

What has been done to combat this denial? In May 2024, United Nations member states voted to declare July 11 as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, an annual day of remembrance for victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Yet, denial is stronger than ever before.

Karadžić.

The History Channel also commemorated the Srebrenica genocide today by posting their investigation on Radovan Karadžić, a notorious war criminal serving life in prison at the Hague, accused of personal and command responsibility for war crimes committed against non-Serbs in Bosnia, under whose command Bosnian Serb forces initiated the Siege of Sarajevo and ordered the Srebrenica genocide in 1995.

He directed Bosnian Serb forces to "create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival of life" in the UN safe area and was accused by the ICTY of ordering that United Nations personnel be taken hostage in May–June 1995.

Serbian nationalists gathered under this post, too, to voice their disapproval of History and history. Never Again is not an exercise these people practice, as Serbian radical president Aleksandar Vučić has been teaching them for 15 years that denial and invented mythology, rather than reckoning with these crimes, is Serbian national identity. You know, this guy:

And these are the Serbian nationalists’ comments on a report about Radovan Karadžić, the butcher of Bosnia, on the anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide:

Never again?

Last year, on the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, Christiane Amanpour shared a video commemorating the genocide. I watched it again today. Amanpour is a British-Iranian journalist and arguably CNN’s most prominent figure, renowned for her decades of war coverage around the world.

She played a crucial role in bringing the atrocities of the Bosnian War to the world’s attention through her reporting. Known for her chit-chat with Ratko Mladić, the perpetrator of the Srebrenica Genocide, during his engagement in pleasantries with Srebrenica residents before he ordered their slaughter.

Christiane Amanpour was in Bosnia at the time of the genocide. She witnessed it in person, reported on it, and clearly and precisely named the perpetrators and their leader. Yet today, she minces her words about the same kind of atrocity unfolding in Gaza, only on a much larger scale.

Her coverage of the Gaza Holocaust happening for the past three and a half years, livestreamed on our phones, daily, has been shameful. Her reporting about the Palestinian people lacks the moral clarity she once had, and in doing so, she is aiding the ruling system and the very people who not only allowed Gaza to happen but are actively funding it.

As someone with decades of experience reporting from war zones, she never named the perpetrators in Gaza by their names and called for their accountability.

Never Again?

There is one sentence Christiane Amanpour said last year in her video commemorating the Srebrenica genocide that banged me on the head, having lived through almost 4 years of the unspeakable war crimes unfolding live on our phones:

“Even wars have rules, you can’t kill civilians and non-combatants.”

Knowing what we know now, almost four years in, and seeing Israeli forces bomb Palestinian civilians in the tents almost seven months after a supposed ceasefire was declared, can we still pretend that wars are about anything but killing civilians?

It’s time we grow up, become atrocity-literate, and acknowledge that wars have always been about targeting civilians under the pretense of security or self-defense. At their core, wars are about removing the people from the land you want to take and seizing the resources they live on. The military exists to carry out that economic and territorial mission. It has never been about anyone’s safety.

Civilians are not collateral damage; they are the target. Genocide is not an exception to war; it is a tactic. A deliberate tool of the imperial conquest.

Never again?

We are the conscience. “This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal,” said Aaron Bushnell before setting himself on fire in protest of the genocide in Gaza. It is our responsibility to never accept any genocide or massacre or any killing of a civilian population as normal. Not in the past, not in the present, and prevent it in the future by exposing those who committed it and those who are denying it to this day.

Upholding that conscience is not a momentary act; it’s a lifelong duty.

A recommended read on this subject:

Srebrenica: Most well-known manifestation of hate rooted in history

“Forgotten genocides are repeated.”

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Last night’s clean sweep for Zohran Mamdani-endorsed candidates in New York’s Democratic primary sent a clear message to not only the citizens and the establishment of the United States but the entire world: we do not want corporate money in politics; we don’t want fascism on our streets; we don’t want wars; and we don’t want our tax money funding Israel, a state committing genocide and ethnic cleansing of their neighbors and the people they occupy.

I love this breakdown by ABC Eyewitness News:

“New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani flexed his political muscle Tuesday, getting a clean sweep as his three endorsed congressional candidates advanced to November’s general election, ousting two incumbent Democratic congressmen.

The mayor said it was a question of electing “better Democrats” who would “put working people back at the heart of politics.” The approach consternated some in Democratic leadership, but the outcome showcased Mamdani’s rising influence.”

Flexed his political muscle.

You got that right. The people of New York have had enough of establishment Democrats offering absolutely nothing but — we aren’t Trump. Consistently not having a policy, not working for the benefit of your constituents, blasting MAGA and Trump in public while being the kinder, more “progressive” partner of the uniparty ruling this country.

In New York’s 7th Congressional District, Mamdani-backed state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez won over Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

In the 10th District, another Mamdani-backed candidate, former city comptroller Brad Lander, beat incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman.

In the 13th District, the mayor’s candidate, community advocate Darializa Avila Chevalier, beat incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat.

For State Senate, Aber Kawas, a Palestinian organizer and democratic socialist fighting for affordable housing, immigrant rights, and no money for war, also won.

A sweep.

It’s one of the biggest upsets in a New York House primary. These victories mean three Mamdani allies will step into Congress in January.

And Zionists are shaking in their boots.

AIPAC is livid.

Do you remember this?

Pro-Israel and dark money groups spent a collective $8.4 million across the three races against Mamdani’s endorsed candidates and lost all three!

Democracy is the vehicle to end democracy?

Check out this tweet below, this reaction, and this coping from pro-genocidal, Islamophobic folks who know support for Israel is collapsing at lightning speed.

Check out Politico:

“Progressives who ran hard against the war in Gaza swept a trio of congressional primaries Tuesday in America’s most heavily Jewish city, turbocharging the Democratic Party’s yearslong shift away from Israel.

The results paint a picture of a Democratic Party rapidly shifting on an issue that was once considered a bipartisan prerequisite for success in the Big Apple and beyond.

Progressives’ victories show that harsh criticism of Israel is now not only politically survivable, but can be advantageous in New York City’s dominant party.

“In a Democratic primary, the people who are against the war in Gaza have a massive political advantage in 2026,” said Jon Paul Lupo, a longtime Democratic strategist in New York who served as an adviser to former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

In New York, progressives’ tour de force indicate the Israel criticism that powered Mayor Zohran Mamdani last year remains ascendent. Mamdani boosted Lander, Valdez and Avila Chevalier to victory on Tuesday.

“This signals a substantial shift in policy toward Israel,” said veteran New York-based Democratic strategist Basil Smikle.

“Unfortunately, democratic socialism and anti-Israel Democrats are going to have a stronger footing than ever before,” said Alex Hoffman, a Democratic strategist and donor adviser who wasn’t involved in these campaigns.

“For pro-Israel groups, there really needs to be a rethink of the strategy, the people involved and how money gets spent. Otherwise it’s going to hurt Democrats nationally.”

And you still thing organizing doesn’t work? People cannot make a change? Voting cannot make a difference?

Well, think again!

Jennifer Welch of the I’ve Had It Podcast did a spot-on breakdown of the historic nature of last night’s sweep:

“What happened in New York last night was the citizens standing up against corporations, against fascism, against MAGA, against corporate Democrats, against establishment Democrats. And this is hopefully going to sweep the entire country.

And people go, "Oh my god, they're so radical.” They're really not.

Not wanting to kill kids, not wanting to fund a country that intentionally targets children is not radical in the least. It is radical, homicidal, and genocidal to kill kids. And then to call the people who oppose that anti-Semitic assholes; this is the biggest bunch of gaslighting, and fuckery on the planet. And good on Zohran for standing up and believing in something and calling these corporate packs out for being the monsters that they are.

And shame on every Democratic politician that takes money from the same fascists that are funding the dismantling of the United States of America and who willfully smile and fund the intentional targeting of kids.”

People have had enough.

Jennifer continues:

“The Democratic Party is now built by corporations. The Democratic Party abandoned Americans, and they're just a MAGA lite, a masterclass in gaslighting. You should be fighting for the American people and listening to what they're saying. They want fighters. You want to go fight for corporations and fight for these lobbyists. The same big tech, the same AIPAC, the same big oil, the same big pharma that fund MAGA also fund the Democratic Party.

And our base just isn't as dumb as the Republican base.

That's what you're dealing with. You're dealing with a high-information voter base. Zohran has proven in the biggest, most capitalistic experiment on the planet, New York City, that you can take on the Democratic establishment, you can take on billionaires, you can take on Trump, you can do all of it, and you can still win. You can endorse three Democratic socialist candidates, not taking any corporate money, and you can still win.

The assholes in this situation are the corporations. The corporations took over the Democratic Party. They are the parasites. What happened in New York City last night is liberation. the first steps of liberation of the Democratic Party back to being a party that delivers materially for the people.

People are sick to death of being lied to. And the Democratic establishment is finding out right now. Your voter base is not nearly as dumb as the corporations that fund you want them to be.”

Truly great analysis by Jennifer, give it a watch when you have a chance!

Congrats, New York! Revolution starts HERE.

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Seeing the images of Israel pounding the ancient city of Tyre in the past week, as well as ordering the evacuation of the entire city on Tuesday, got me reeling. I grew up in the Balkan War of the 90s—bombing historic sites, churches, mosques, harbors, and civilian infrastructures is uncomfortably familiar to me.

My hometown is built around an ancient Roman palace—1,800 years old, called Diocletian’s Palace. If you’ve watched Game of Thrones, you’ve seen the ancient walls of Split. Like historic sites in Tyre, Diocletian’s Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Diocletian's Palace is what the entire identity of the citizens of Split is built on. During the Balkan War, the Yugoslav Army and Navy launched a heavy artillery naval attack on the city. The Yugoslav Navy destroyer Split—ironically bearing the city's name—opened fire on Split, hitting the city center and the port, with Diocletian's Palace among its targets.

The Yugoslav Navy specifically targeted civilian infrastructure, the harbor, and historic parts of Split, all protected under UNESCO World Heritage status, causing widespread panic. Luckily, the naval shell landed just a few yards outside the Golden Gate of Diocletian's Palace. Hitting the palace offered no military advantage. It was personal. It was an attempt at erasure.

After the Battle of the Dalmatian Channels resulted in a major Croatian Navy victory that broke the Yugoslav naval blockade of Split, it forced the Yugoslav Army and Navy to retreat south.

Furious over this naval setback, their inability to take Split, and the ass-whooping they received from a Croatian Navy that had been barely pieced together from civilian vessels, captured equipment, and defecting personnel, Yugoslav forces turned their wrath on the undefended city of Dubrovnik, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. Another Game of Thrones location—yes, the King's Landing.

The blockade and siege of Dubrovnik lasted eight months. The most infamous bombardment, known as the Black Friday Attack, consisted of artillery, naval, and air assaults directed at the UNESCO-protected Old Town.

From. All. Sides. Imaginable.

The city was pounded with such zeal, such fury, making it clear the objective was not military victory or a simplistic land grab, but an attack on culture, heritage, and identity.

More than 11,000 historic buildings were damaged. The Old Town was looted and burned. Monuments, palaces, and churches were engulfed in flames. The entire city of Dubrovnik was left without electricity or water for three months. 194 Croatian military personnel were killed. 88 civilians lost their lives.

The unprovoked, deliberate targeting of a globally celebrated demilitarized zone shocked the world. Dubrovnik had no active military bases, heavy artillery, or soldiers stationed inside the old walls. Its status as an open, undefended cultural sanctuary is why the international community was so deeply shocked by the bombardment.

Attacking such a high-profile cultural landmark without any strategic military objective was an attack on the Croatian people’s morale—a deliberate assault on culture, history, and identity. All while the Yugoslav Army, under Serbian leadership, claimed its actions were defensive.

Every war is built on the same principle: the aggressor claims to be protecting its own security while seeking to expand its territory, blaming the people whose land it covets for resisting and portraying them as a threat to its survival—with the help of a compliant media.

Lebanon

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There’s something about seeing the Global Sumud Flotilla activists getting sadistic treatment on camera, after being shot at, kidnapped, beaten, sexually assaulted, degraded, dehumanized, and then beaten at the Bilbao airport that sent me packing. It’s not by any means the worst thing I’ve seen in the last three years, but the meaning behind it, and what it portends, is.

I think it finally dawned on me what kind of world we are actually living in. All this time, I subconsciously kept waiting for something to stop so we could return to some version of normal life, one that at the very least didn’t exist under the constant threat of nuclear weapons looming over everyone’s heads, only to realize that nothing will ever feel normal until Palestine is free of the military occupation.

It finally dawned on me. The stage we’re in. I don’t think we even quite realize the extent of what’s been done all around the world for Israel to have “the right to exist.”

Something about Itamar Ben Gvir slamming a woman’s head on camera, smiling, knowing the entire world will see it, not caring about a possible repercussion for his behaviour that won’t come — I don’t know what finally flipped in me, but something did.

Imagining what they do to the Palestinian people, when they can do this to Westerners who will come off those planes and report everything that happened to them. Dungeons, no one to care what happens to them, no one to hear them, an entire world muted to their suffering, an invisible nation, voiceless, muted — not allowed to rage about what is done to them, every single day since 1948.

Sometimes I do something mundane during the day, cook dinner, or run errands, and I think about those dungeons their occupiers locked them in, muted, voiceless people, abused and abused and abused, tormented by their jailers, for no reason at all but existing. It stops me in my tracks, my whole body gets paralyzed; how do you live, knowing all this? And I only have to live with the pain of realization, not the actual wrath of hyenas, walking around, fronting like they’re human.

It dawned on me that 1930s Germany looked like a warm-up act to what’s happening now. History is not scarier than today. We’re just in it to see it.

Consequence.

There are two sides to this frustration we all feel; one is knowing what is being done to the Palestinian and Lebanese people, and the other is realizng just how much damage this tiny country of Israel that’s producing so much violence and grief has done to the entire international community.

The Basque Police beating the very people who had been tortured only hours prior, in Spain, no less, a very pro-Palestinian country, to hide evidence, knowing these people would be medically examined, should send shivers down everyone’s spine. It’s not about brutality; we have seen unimaginably worse — it’s about the masterminding behind it. The calculation. Premeditation.

We are all very well-versed in Israeli depravity, but realizing just how many parts around the world are working to keep that machine of violence going, and at what human price, is astounding. You just cannot recover once you realize it.

I implore you to read this piece by Ahmed Eldin, where he explains the machinery behind the brutality of the Basque Police; the who, the whys, and how.

Out Loud with Ahmed

Basque Police Beat Global Sumud Flotilla Torture Survivors In Spain

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6 months ago · 666 likes · 127 comments · Ahmed Eldin

It’s an ugly, ugly world that Israel has created, so they can “exist.” What is the price of that existence? Is it worth it? It is for them, whilst endangering an entire planet. At what point will the international community decide the price is unattainable?

Kidnapping, torturing, abusing, dehumanizing, and sexually assaulting European citizens is a declaration of war from Israel against Europe. Why isn’t it treated as such?

Right to exist.

A few months ago, when the Knesset passed a death penalty bill that would allow the execution of Palestinian prisoners, a member of Knesset, Limor Son Har-Melech, called the occasion a day where Israel “chose life” and said the decision is an example of “true Jewish morality”. The fact that these psychopaths can pass a death law and call that occasion “choosing life” tells us the Israeli mindset is simply not compatible with humanity.

Also, true Jewish morality?

Look at the pure ecstasy on Itamar Ben-Gvir’s face when that law was passed. What kind of human being gets this excited over the death of another human being? And look at his excitement as he takes us on a tour of the execution chamber for the Palestinian people. The same look of excitement when he taunted and tormented the Global Sumud Flotilla activists this week.

Tell me something. Did apartheid South Africa have a “right to exist?” The world agreed that it didn’t. The world then helped to see its dismantlement. And today, South Africa still exists, but apartheid South Africa doesn’t.

Does a genocidal apartheid state of Israel have a right to exist? No. In the future, Israel will probably still exist, but genocidal apartheid Israel won’t.

Why do pundits who support Israeli war crimes constantly ask, “Does Israel have a right to exist?” It’s because that’s the same question Zionists ask anybody who questions Israel’s behaviour.

Nobody asks that question about any country, but Zionists are constantly asking it about Israel, as part of their propaganda playbook. Because the question leads to the usual yes or no logistical chain. If you answer no, they’ll call you an antisemite. If you answer yes, it means you have to support their ethnic cleansing, expansionary landgrabs, and genocidal behaviour, because all of those things are necessary to ensure that Israel continues to exist.

Do Native Americans have the right to exist in a state of their own on land to which they have a historic connection?

Zionism has nothing to do with Israel’s right to exist. It has to do with how it exists.

I read a great analysis by Dr. Sabreena Ghaffar-Siddiqui the other day. It came to me while I was scrolling through the reactions of Zionists online, and the people supporting them, to the viral video of international activists being abused by Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Israeli army.

Here they were, mothers, fathers, educated, successful, seemingly serious people who somehow believe this level of abuse and violation of basic human rights is justified. Whatever group you belong to, how can something like this ever be justified? How can the decades-long abuse of the Palestinian and Lebanese people be justified?

What has always stunned me most is how unified they all are across every walk of life — citizens, politicians, influencers, journalists, public figures, regular families — all operating in unison to preserve this operation, make sure it runs smoothly, and ensure Israel continues to exist no matter the human cost.

Dr. Sabreena Ghaffar-Siddiqui nails it:

“Jewish supremacy is not a feeling or individual prejudice; it is an operating system, just like white supremacy. And it can be neatly placed within the same foundational critical race theory and sociological framework of analysis.

Despite Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem being the first to introduce the concept of Jewish supremacy to describe the apartheid system of ‘Israel’, the system of Jewish supremacy is also imbedded within the wider white supremacist colonial system of operation we have in the west.

If white supremacy can be defined as a political, socio-economic, and cultural system where white people enjoy structural advantages over other racial and ethnic groups, then Jewish supremacy can be described as a political, socioeconomic, and cultural system where Jews enjoy structural advantages (and protections) over other racial, religious, ethnic groups - true both in occupied Palestine and in the west.

Institutionalization: like white supremacy, it is a pervasive system embedded in workplaces, school systems, governments, and legal systems - both in occupied Palestine and the West. Think of the way the education system focuses on the Nazi holocaust vs every other holocaust in history, and how many holocaust memorials there are in the the U.S and Canada vs memorials for the genocide of its Indigenous peoples.

Systemic Power: like white supremacy, rather than just individual hateful acts, Jewish supremacy represents a structure that perpetuates “Jewish privilege” and “exceptionalism” and provides unequal access to resources, opportunities, power, and protection to Jews OVER all other marginalised groups - both in occupied Palestine and the West. Think of the crackdown on campus protests, the mass suppression of “freedom of speech”, and people losing their jobs for simply saying children should not to be burned alive in tents and sniped in the head and chest.

Individual vs structural: While individual, conscious racism exists, the “system of Jewish supremacy” refers to the broader, often unconscious, societal and institutional structures that value Jewish safety and feelings OVER the actual material harm and violence experienced by non-Jewish marginalised people - both in occupied Palestine by Muslim and Christian Palestinians and those in the West by those who might oppose the self-proclaimed ‘Jewish state of Israel’.

And so, like white supremacy, we can describe Jewish supremacy not just as “shark” (an actor) but as the “water” (the environment) in which society operates.”

They are all in on it because they all “benefit from structural advantages over other racial and ethnic groups.” Their supremacy and the excusing of the loss of human life to uphold it is a “political, socioeconomic, and cultural system where they enjoy structural advantages (and protections) over other racial, religious, and ethnic groups, both in occupied Palestine and in the West.”

Zionism has nothing to do with Israel’s right to exist. It has to do with how it exists.

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Michael, Part Two

I’m desperately trying not to write about this anymore. I’m angry. I’m sad. I’m livid. I’m trying to stay away from all the media circus surrounding Michael’s death; it’s been only a week, and I never thought it could be worse than when he was alive. But I live in Hollywood, and even if I stay offline, I cannot buy a piece of godamn bread without my eyeballs being assaulted in the cashier line.

We get it, press, Michael Jackson was weird. Got it! You showed it down our throats for decades, can you give it a fucking rest?

And the media isn’t even the end of my fury. Hearing his friends, acquaintances, family members, doctors, gurus, rabbis, and numerous other idiots in his close circle talk so much nonsense for this past week, it makes you wonder — how did this guy even live to be 50?

How normal could he be with that kind of surroundings? It’s astonishing what’s going on in the aftermath of his death. I’m unable to work, how disturbing it all is. I’m trying to round up his life and legacy, write a decent piece about his art, do this man some justice — but no, you simply cannot catch a fucking breath here, in this town.

The level of rumors and headlines, the audacity of these journalists doing everything but their job of investigating and REPORTING is just grotesque. This is storytelling, this isn’t even journalism anymore.

I’m trying to find some sense. It’s not just that he died, it’s HOW he died. How can his ending not make you furious?! Everyone just keeps repeating how sad and tragic his life was — how could it not be, with everybody around him constantly taking stabs at him?

And he just took it, and took it, and took it.

Now that he died, isn’t there one godamn person in his circle who can step up, truly STEP UP and do him some justice?

Everybody just keeps going along with the same rhythm as when he was alive; shitting, trashing, manipulating — instead of calling out those who took part in his demise. Why would we call anyone out, right? Why would we know the truth, right? It’s easier than ever now that he’s dead; we can just conclude he was weird, that he died because he was a freak, and close up shop?

There are people who, with their DIRECT actions, helped destroy the life of such an extraordinary human being and a talent. And we’ll just let somebody cover it all up?

I understand scandal sells more than humanity, but beyond media — someone’s reaaaaally hard at work trying to cover all this up. Who is covering all this up? What happened here?

And why are we as a public so complacent about this? Why are we not raging? Why are we not investigating? This man was practically an invalid by the time he died; the incredible physical demands on his body since he was 5 years old, to preform FOR US, left him with so many ailments. We enjoyed his music, his performances — couldn’t we at least do him some justice and dig into what happened here?

The man has three small children; it makes absolutely NO SENSE that he would be reckless with asking to be put under with propofol, however sleep-deprived he might have been. It. Makes. No. Sense.

We keep reading how “tragic his life was.” What the fuck do you mean, his life was larger than life itself, and his humanity even larger; tragic were all the leeches around him, and what’s deplorable is that those who contributed to his demise can’t even step forward to do him some justice in death.

I blame them all.

Idiotic “friends” around him that did nothing to protect him.

Some members of his family who can‘t even shed one tear for the son and brother who’s been feeding them all their lives.

The media that deliberately destroyed him because he dared to give them just his art, and not his private life. Because scandals, lies, and smears sell better than achievements and charity.

Random useless strangers that ruined his life, his reputation, and crushed his soul by taking advantage of his kindness.

“Business partners” who used his kindness to feed off of him. You name it, they took a bite.

Executives who feared him having more control than they did.

Can we at least, as the public and as fans, have the decency not to judge, but to try to understand, question what’s been served to us, and demand the truth?

It seems to me that we aren’t supposed to get the truth.

Does this man, who never complained and just kept taking punch after punch, not at least deserve the truth?

Press, you who made enormous profits over five decades by ruining this man’s life, can you at least give something back to him in death and investigate what really happened here? Can you actually investigate this time, what is being covered up, and finally lay it out for the people who actually care?

We are sick of the lies; it’s so transparent and coordinated. Who is afraid of Michael Jackson, even in death? Why are you STILL doing this? WHO are you doing this for?

Why are you taking a step back in the investigation? Why are you not challenging bits and pieces that don’t make any sense in this story? You were relentless when digging through his private life; now dig into the lives of the people who ruined his. Isn’t that just as profitable as exploiting him was?

There are so many things here that do not make sense. So many disturbing things surrounding Michael’s life that, at times, even his strange behavior starts to feel somewhat intelligible.

People always say no one is going to help you unless you help yourself. Strength matters in life, but vulnerability matters too. Sensitivity is often treated as a weakness, something that will diminish you, when in reality it can become a source of enormous strength if you have real support from the people/family around you.

I truly think his biggest downfall was not having any of it.

Even in death, he cannot be left in peace. All of his friends are suddenly crawling out with a story, a clothing line, some advice they supposedly gave him; everybody knew something was wrong, yet nobody did anything. They all come out now with the same line: “He was taking all kinds of pills, you know…” Then why are you saying it now? Why didn’t you say it to him when there was still time?

Why didn’t you do something about it then?

And his family is even worse.

First, his sad excuse of a father goes to the BET Awards held in his son’s honor. He sits in the first row, laughs the whole time, gets up and dances from time to time, and then goes to the after-party. AN AFTER PARTY. Your son died a week ago! When approached by CNN’s reporter asking him how he feels, he simply responds:

“Great, I feel great.”

You feel great?

The confused reporter looks at him, abashed: “Hmmm. Anything else? I mean, you know, your son just died…”, and Joe Jackson says — “Yeah, you know, the world’s greatest entertainer just died, and you know how it is….” Then turns to someone on the red carpet and yells: “Hey Marvin….Marvin, come here, tell him what we do, we just opened a new Record Company, you know, what’s the name of the company, Marvin, Marvin, tell ‘em….”

What ih the flying fuck was that? I know, joke’s on me, expecting more from Joe Jackson, but this whole spectacle is just unbearable.

Hey, Joe, your son just died, but it’s cool, promote your shady business, loser.

Did the media do the piece on this old fart not being phased with his son's death, other than mentioning, well, that was “a bit strange”? No.

How about Jermaine Jackson, the one who always thought he deserved Michael’s solo career, always famously called out for being jealous? Jermaine Jackson went on to meet Larry King in Neverland today, and when Larry asked him, “Are you sad being here? Do you feel terrible?”, loser 2.0 answered, “No, you know, I feel joyful, I feel his spirit….”

This interview sent me to the smithereens.

Larry: “How did you find out your brother died? Was that shocking for you?”

Jermaine: “Well, Larry, I heard from you guys, you guys called me, CNN, ha ha ha…you know, that was funny, yeah, it was a shock, and I had to drive all the way to another part of town.”

(He means he had to drive to UCLA Medical Center when Michael was pronounced dead, as I was there, and saw him going in and out of the hospital.)

Larry: “Well, Jermaine, do you want to know what happened? Why did your brother die?”

Jermaine: “Larry, you know, it doesn’t matter now, you know, I mean I feel his spirit, and I’m joyful.”

Larry: “Yes, I understand, but maybe there was something inappropriate that happened, wouldn’t you like to know?”

Jermaine: “Larry, I feel wonderful here at Neverland. I feel joyful.”

A brain has left the fucking building.

Did any of the press call out on Jermaine? Could Larry King maybe have said Hey, what’s going on with you asshole, can’t you mourn your freaking brother for 2 seconds?

Nah.

I know, Larry’s old school, but hey, if anybody could have done it, it’s Larry King. What was CNN going to do? Fire him? Larry is bigger than CNN.

Just how many people are working for the same system that did not want to have Michael Jackson on this earth anymore?

I’m losing it.

Maybe I’m subjective, I fully admit it. After all, Michael was my first virtual boyfriend. Yes, I felt the first tingle of sexuality that one gets triggered in their adolescence with looking at something or someone — that first thing you feel it, when you understand you’re soon leaving a child in you and becoming a woman. That was Michael in the ‘Dirty Diana’ video for me.

I watched it over and over, relentlessly,  and I thought he had to be the most beautiful boy in all the world. I am subjective. Have at it. But this is not about my pubescent sexuality, discovered by watching Mike crawl on stage in tight leather pants, and that expressive face.

It’s about fairness and fucking justice. It’s about the fact that everybody deserves it, while you’re going on about his face. Why are you all so stuck on the face? A thousand suspicious things are going on about this death, and you’re STILL on the face? It’s his face; he can do whatever he wants with it.

They say extraordinarily talented people are often surrounded by mediocre, uninspired people who leech to them, while deeply resenting their greatness. In Michael’s case, can this be more obvious? His genius was so potent; the people around him could not stand being constantly reminded of how ordinary they were.

It’s only logical, by that formula, that the one person who had a genuinely human reaction to Michael Jackson’s death, a visible pain and despair, was Janet Jackson, the next most talented member of the Jackson family.

Is there an end to how much grief, deception, and betrayal this man endured, and now even in death?

Which brings me to the most painful part of this huge rant, and Michael’s entire life — the molestation lies. The ruined legacy that will never breathe outside this scam, even though the man was acquitted BY THE COURT, on all 14 counts. No media, with access to all the legal files, ever bothered to set the record straight. A ten year long investigation that found NOTHING.

No one’s printing it. We’re still on the Wacko Jacko racist carousel.

If you haven’t been living under a rock somewhere, you know Jordan Chandler’s father sued Michael for child molestation. We all know he put the kid under hypnosis with drugs and implemented a fake “memory.” We all heard the tape of him admitting he drugged and coached the kid, admitting he’s extorting Michael, admitting he doesn’t care about the kid. It’s all ON TAPE. We all know Jordan’s mother was driving around town in Michael’s limo and went shopping using Michael’s black Amex. We all know he was never charged for anything.

We all know Michael wanted to go to trial, but was advised to settle, to make the story go away. Did those around him plan this? He settled; therefore, he’s guilty? He gave them $20 million; therefore, he must be guilty. Right?

Wrong.

Media won’t tell you this. You have to look on your own. I spent months researching this. Michael didn’t settle anything. He did not even know he had settled. He did not give any money. His insurance company settled because THEY did not want to deal with a lengthy trial that would probably cost as much. The studio wanted him to tour, not waste time in the court, like the good cash cow he was. Michael protested it, but it was already done.

And that became the one thing he always regretted because it informed every other leech that Michael’s good for good ‘ol extortion! And they piled up, later in life.

Michael publicly stated all this, but the media never wanted to put it in their circulation. Wacko Jacko was more profitable. It was done; he was a child molester, a stigma that was never going to leave him.

Why am I going on about something that happened 16 years ago? Because the kid who sued him is 29 years old today. Jordan Chandler admitted his father coached him. And Jordan and he also heard that Michael died today. Not just that, he feels bad about it, he says. Not just that, he’s unofficially talking to some small media outlets, asking for forgiveness and admitting Michael Jackson never touched him.

Are you fucking serious?

His dad Evan made him do it, Jordan says to small media outlets, no one heard about, unless you research it yourself. He was afraid of his dad, Jordan says, to a small media outlet no one knows about. He says all that while collecting $20 million of extortion money.

In 2005, Jordan sued his dad because, apparently, he hit him, beat him, and tried to kill him. So he doesn’t have any contact with the dad. But he has the money. Plenty of it. Did Jordan come forward in 2005, when he removed his dad from his life? Did he do anything to save at least the last four years of Michael’s life that he could have spent in dignity?

He didn’t.

But he is stepping out today, a week after Michal had died, one of the most talented entertainers in history, broke and despised. He watched Michael get thrown out of his beloved Neverland because of accusations he now admits were false. He watched him lose everything, and he said nothing.

Today, he’s out in New York, getting papped on the street, dripped in bling that Michael’s extortion money paid for. He was just a kid then, I understand, a victim of greedy parents, I get it. Guess what, Jordan, you aren’t a fucking kid anymore. No one’s pushing you to continue the lie.

Get out of your expensive apartments and your Bentleys, and do one decent thing in your life. Lose me with that mea culpa chatter in the small media outlets; call Larry King or Oprah, sit down, look at the fucking camera, and tell the world the truth.

Harvey Levin, why aren’t you on top of this? What is TMZ doing now? Why aren’t you hunting Jordan in his Bentley, driving around New York, and quizzing him on the street like you do all other celebrities?

Who is the person above, running this charade?

Who is still profiting from lies about Michael, even now, in death?

I just cannot accept the fact that this kind, sensitive, talented human being, the one who gave millions to charity and helped people in need when almost no one else was doing it, the one who was born to bring joy to people, simply fades away and disappears. I cannot believe how mistreated he was in childhood, in life, and even in death, and that no one wants to do absolutely fuck all about it.

Was the purpose of his life truly just to give joy to others, to always give — the joy, the music, the money, the cultural clout — and never receive anything in return except judgment, ridicule, and lies thrown back at him?

I managed to get through this whole piece without crying; I’m angry. Anger is good, better than sadness; anger keeps me focused.

But as I’m finishing writing it, I just saw what Stephen King posted about Michael on his website. This absolutely floored me. I’m bawling, again.

“There’s a sadness that’s all too common in people who possess talent in amounts so great it has become a burden instead of a blessing. Michael was indeed innocent of the abuse allegations. In the court of public opinion, however, he was found guilty of Weirdness of First Degree. You’ll also see Jackson’s sadness and almost painful desire to please. Yes, I am strange, his eyes say, but I am doing the best I can, and I want to make you happy. Is that so bad?”

Indeed, was that so BAD?

The world simply wasn’t ready for so much innocence, kindness, and beauty mixed with that much talent.

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This past weekend, a friend asked me to see the Michael movie with him. I have tickets, where do we meet? This is a friend I usually go to the theater with; we don’t ask each other what we want to see, one of us buys the tickets and tells the other where to show up. When I told him I couldn’t go, he casually asked — busy today, what day can you go? No, I can’t see this movie. Ever.

I spent about 45 minutes on the phone explaining to one of my closest friends why I can’t see a Michael Jackson biopic, and probably never will, and he just wasn’t getting it. Miranda, you’ve been obsessed with Michael for 4 decades, what the fuck, let’s go see a fucking movie.

I figured out during that phone call that I’ll never be able to explain why my body physically can’t walk into that theater and watch that movie unless I give you the full picture. And that picture begins on June 25, 2009 — the day Michael Jackson died. I was there, ten minutes from his house. When the news broke, I went to his home. I went to UCLA Medical Center to wait for confirmation of death. Then I went home and wrote a piece about the entire day.

Five days later, after watching the aftermath of his death unfold — his family, the media, and the people around him who had played a role in his demise — I wrote another piece. That was 17 years ago. These two articles are relics, firsthand historical accounts of one of the biggest cultural events of my lifetime, and of the moment that fundamentally shaped how I perceive humanity, fame, media, power, and America itself.

And more importantly, they became firsthand accounts of what Michael Jackson revealed about human nature itself: how society treats people who embody sensitivity, honesty, genius, and transcendence, and how quickly those same people are consumed by forces built on the exact opposite of everything they represented.

The forces you see at play today.

It’s a full circle. It all connects.

People who are profiting from this movie are the people who participated in removing him from this earth, and who robbed us of him.

I’m haunted by this man. His life, legacy, and the way he ended.

I’m haunted by the fact that he left this earth believing people hated him.

I’m happy that the revival of his image has pushed younger generations to dig deeper into understanding him — one more step toward a greater awakening.

Michael is completing the work, even from the grave.

He warned us then about the systems. The hierarchy. And for me to properly review and write honestly about the renewed interest in Michael’s legacy that this film has reignited, I need to revisit the past and walk that entire circle with you.

Michael Jackson has been a crucial part of my own self-construction. I owe him this series.

Michael, Part One

I wrote this piece on June 25th, 2009, on the day Michael Jackson died, 10 minutes from the house he died in. All the images were taken by me, in front of his house, in front of the UCLA Medical Center, where he was presumed dead, and in front of the morgue in Boyle Heights, where he was finally taken on that day. The pictures are blurry; smartphones weren’t then what they are now — they were taken with my BlackBerry. I have never read this piece since the day I wrote it. It’s been 17 years since I’ve looked at it.

A surreal, surreal day.

I still don’t know what to make of it. I honestly don’t even know what to write about today. What can I write? What is it to say?

Michael Jackson just died.

I can’t even digest that sentence. It just looks wrong. Wrong isn’t the right word; it doesn’t look anything. It just doesn’t look at all. Those four words don't go together; why would anybody say or write that?

I sat down to write what I feel about this entire day, and I just can’t. I’m staring at the blank screen. What kind of poetic justice could ever do justice to someone like Michael Jackson?

Nothing I can say sounds gratifying enough. An Icon? A King? A Legend? It just doesn’t sound enough. But why does this specific death mean more to me than other deaths of the public people I loved, who also crumbled my world?

The fact that this is the first time I was at the place where it happened.

Every time someone I loved died, someone who defined my childhood or teenage years, I heard about it on TV or read about it in the press. And it was always the same ritual: hearing the news, the shock, watching television around the clock, absorbing every detail I could find, refusing to sleep in case I missed something. Watching the stretcher carry out the body of someone who had shaped my life, as if a piece of my own life was being carried away with it.

At those prodigious times, I remember frantically calling my friends who lived where it happened, pestering them with questions, as if knowing every detail would make my grief bearable.

This time, it was the most surreal day. I was there. I live 10 minutes away from the house he died in. First, I woke up to the news that Farrah Fawcett died. Terrible news, but Farrah Fawcett was an icon of another generation, not so much mine; I knew a lot about her, but I didn’t feel that death, other than being sad for this probably very lovely lady.

I left the house shortly and went to the bank. I realized one of the bank tellers is my neighbor; I chatted with him, laughed, gossiped about all the tenants we don’t like, laughed some more, and left. I finished some other chores, came back to my bank again, waited in line to make a deposit, when my banker/neighbor approached me from behind and said:

“Did you hear? I just found out; it’s still unofficial”. And I said: “Yeah, I know, I heard this morning, terrible news”. And he goes: “You couldn’t hear this morning, because it’s 2 pm, and I just heard it. It’s not even official; someone from the Fire Department just leaked it”. And I said: “Well, I did hear this morning that Farrah died; I don’t know what to tell you”. And he goes: “No, not Farrah, that was this morning, but Michael Jackson…Michael Jackson JUST died”…

Come again?

“Michael Jackson just died”.

“Sorry, got to go back to work”.

And he went back behind the counter.

I was spinning. The city was spinning.

I walked to the car where my boyfriend was waiting for me, and I couldn’t speak, couldn’t tell him, his face was spinning, everything was spinning.

The City of Los Angeles, in the next couple of minutes and hours, was just indescribable. A lot of huge people died here, but nothing of this magnitude. Surreal atmosphere. Before it was even official, people were whispering on the streets. Instantly, Michael Jackson’s music was playing from just about every passing car, every store, every house.

One of the Fire Department guys who drove MJ from his house to the hospital told someone right away, before it was even official, and the word spread like a damn plague.

I was driving down Beverly Blvd with my boyfriend, both of us abashed, when the calls started to pour in. Managers, agents, publicists, all the Hollywood people were just perplexed — “Oh my god, did you guys hear, I just heard, did you hear?”

It was minutes, and everybody already knew.

It felt like a dark plague had descended on the city. Sadness isn’t even the word. I don’t have to tell you; you felt it too, if you’re here. Being so close to it made it all the more spellbinding. I felt as if being there, at the place where it happened, at ground zero, might somehow give me a sense of control over the grief.

I couldn’t work that afternoon. If he died 10 minutes from my house, I want to be where it happened, as if I needed to grab a piece of his soul, before it migrates somewhere else.

In all my affliction, I did feel good about something. I felt good about Los Angeles. The same city that often shows attributes I can’t quite fathom, or even stand — today, the city was just amazing. People dropped the act for one day and showed a genuine, colossal sadness everywhere you turned. I have never seen people in this city be authentic about anything, and I finally did today.

There was something so ethereal about Angelenos’ determination to follow Michael through every final stop his body would make, as if letting go were simply unacceptable. Everyone was on the same page. We will follow him. Every step they move him, we’ll follow.

People came to his house in Bel Air, then went to UCLA Medical Center, where he died, then they moved to the morgue in Boyle Heights, and just stayed there all night as if they wanted to guard his body and his soul.

I wanted to be where he died. Even though they say he might have even died in his house, I wanted to be where he was presumed dead. I didn’t want to listen to the news just yet. I didn’t want to make sense out of it at this moment. I didn’t want to know what exactly happened. I just wanted to be where he was going to be last, as if that fixes anything. As if that is going to make it better.

UCLA Medical Center looked like it was under siege. News trucks everywhere, helicopters flying overhead, reporters speaking in a million different languages, Jermaine Jackson going in and out of the hospital crying, it was just surreal.

I will never forget those hordes of people. Thousands of them. People walking out of work, doctors’ offices, grocery stores. I spoke to people at every stop we followed, and whatever they had been doing at that moment, they dropped it and just came. The city froze to a standstill.

I will never forget those faces at every stop. Crying. Confusion. Disbelief. Anger. But something transcendent happened all of a sudden — the grief began to turn into dance, Moonwalk face-offs, singing, and a strange kind of comradeship.

The crowd was at the hospital for about 5–6 hours; nobody was moving, nobody was leaving; everybody was waiting for his body to be taken out of the hospital and put into a helicopter that was supposed to take him to a morgue in Downtown LA. It seemed like everyone was waiting to be absolutely, positively sure he died.

My feelings today shifted from anger, confusion, and disbelief to lethargy, then to a strange sense of solitude, as if I felt he might finally be relieved of the unbelievable lies, smear campaigns, and pressures that had plagued his life.

Some Swedish reporter snapped me out of my thoughts when she approached us outside of the UCLA Medical Center with a question — “What did MJ and his music mean to you?”

God.

How does a person of my generation even answer that question?

I pulled myself together for a few seconds to give her a coherent answer, but instead just fell into a sort of spell of a memory, the recollection of my life that led me here, at this spot, the UCLA Medical Center, where Michael Jackson was presumed dead.

I wasn’t born in this country; he brought me here, at this spot, and left me here, at this spot.

Michel Jackson was more than just a musician to me. He was the personification and the embodiment of America in my eyes. He represented what America meant in my small, adolescent life back in Europe, and he became the trigger that shaped the path my life would take.

I was extremely Americanized as a child, much to the detriment of everyone around me. I absorbed everything that came out of the US: the music, movies, magazines, TV shows, and it was never just entertainment to me; it felt like a mission, a plot.

Seeing Michael for the first time — yes, I saw Thriller first, but I was too young to comprehend its cultural significance, the moment it truly clicked for me was the Dirty Diana video. I was about 12 or 13, and I watched it the way people study a science project. That was the moment I decided I wanted to live in the place where that kind of artistry and dedication could exist.

I knew the names of every single actor, actress, singer, and group from the ’80s and ’90s, and I knew the lyrics to every song. I remembered lines from all my favorite movies. It was a hobby of mine, something I enjoyed. But Michael was different. Michael was a job. A plan, a determination, an endgame. I studied him like one studies survival.

How do I explain all this to a reporter from Stockholm? I lifted my head, she was still looking at me, and said just that — Michael was a survival to me. Existential component that carried everything I felt I needed to inhale to become who I needed to be.

The word started to spread around the crowd in front of the UCLA, that Michael died from some sort of overdose. I wasn’t ready for the cause of death, and to take a path on that road just yet. I ignored it and talked to anyone and everyone outside, but my mind couldn’t avoid it. No one’s mind could avoid it.

I started to get angry again. Wait for the confirmation, I kept telling myself. I couldn’t. I felt betrayed.

How could he be so reckless?

Didn’t he know how much he means to us?

I forced myself to forget the latter. I don’t want to listen to any noise. I walked to the group that was still moonwalking and practicing the tilt. Someone brought the white gloves. I took one. Let’s take a picture, someone said. We didn’t need anyone to coordinate us. We all did it at the same time, same hand.

We just knew.

My boyfriend called me over to show me an article that just came out. The cause of death. I declined to read.

I choose to remember how he made me feel.

At least for today.

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