Category: Food
Hello to Those Who Would Lead; By Randy
Hello to Those Who Would Lead;
I am confused sir and madam:
- You told me I lived in the Land of the Free but seek to force me to pray to your God.
- You told me I lived in the Land of the Brave, but you fear the love of two men, two women.
- You told me I lived in a land of laws, yet you refuse to hold the powerful to them.
- You told me not to ask what my country can do for me, but you take hand over fist.
- You told me how mighty our military stand, yet you undermine, pauper, and deny the soldiers.
- You told me how great my country is, yet restrict education, price me out of healthcare, refuse school lunch programs, deport the homeless, ignore the mentally ill.
- You told me to love my country, then told me to hate my neighbor because he believes differently, speaks differently, dresses differently, loves differently, lives differently.
- You told me my country loves me, but I think you are a liar.
[Intro]
La-da-da-da-da, la-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da, la-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da
[Verse 1]
We are searchlights, we can see in the dark
We are rockets, pointed up at the stars
We are billions of beautiful hearts
And you sold us down the river too far
[Chorus]
What about us?
What about all the times you said you had the answers?
What about us?
What about all the broken happy ever afters?
What about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disaster?
What about love? What about trust?
What about us?
[Verse 2]
We are problems that want to be solved
We are children that need to be loved
We were willin’, we came when you called
But man, you fooled us
Enough is enough, oh
[Chorus]
What about us?
What about all the times you said you had the answers?
What about us?
What about all the broken happy ever afters?
Oh, what about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disaster?
Oh, what about love? What about trust?
What about us?
What about us?
What about all the times you said you had the answers?
What about us?
What about all the broken happy ever afters?
Oh, what about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disaster?
Oh, what about love? What about trust?
What about us?
[Post-Chorus]
Oh, what about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disaster?
What about love? What about trust?
What about us?
[Bridge]
Sticks and stones, they may break these bones
But then, I’ll be ready, are you ready?
It’s the start of us, waking up, come on
Are you ready? I’ll be ready
I don’t want control, I want to let go
Are you ready? I’ll be ready
‘Cause now it’s time to let them know
We are ready, what about us?
[Chorus]
What about us?
What about all the times you said you had the answers?
So, what about us?
What about all the broken happy ever afters?
Oh, what about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disaster?
Oh, what about love? What about trust?
What about us?
What about us?
What about all the times you said you had the answers?
So, what about us?
What about all the broken happy ever afters?
Oh, what about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disaster?
Oh, what about love? What about trust?
What about us?
[Outro]
What about us?
What about us?
What about us?
What about us?
What about us?
What about us?
I was going to do a video but maybe tomorrow.
Ron is still struggling with his leg, and today I needed to order my morphine. Florida is so regressive that you can not use any pharmacy computer system to refill morphine, which is a drug so old it is one of the most researched drugs of all time, but you must personally call in the refill on the right day and then pick it up on that day.
I called it in and from the fact that I got sent right away to the over fill call line instead of the actual pharmacy, which happens a lot because Walgreens is so understaffing and over whelming their store staff. They take the information and then transfer me to the pharmacy of the store I go to, which is just down the road. I wish they would just let the phone call go through to the store I use, as I then have to repeat every thing again.
So several hours later I get the notice the drug is ready, so I go in to get it. Then the first of many things happened that will stay with me. I am waiting in line as a woman is complaining that batteries for her blood pressure cuff wear out too soon and are far more expensive than she can afford. I understand that. But the person behind the counter while understanding can not change the price for her.
So I take the time to explain to her about lower cost rechargeable batteries and recharges that are reasonably priced. She keeps complaining while putting back five different packages of large numbers of batteries. I explained she needed to make sure the rechargeable batteries and the charger were the ones she needed for her blood pressure machine.
Then I step up to the counter, the person behind the counter who was a single mother who I am friendly with as I am almost all the pharmacy staff, simply because I am patient and care about them. She already had my morphine package ready, so I asked if she had a good day off yesterday and how her son had enjoyed the holiday. She rolled up her sleeve and her entire upper arm was bruised and swollen. I immediately became concern and asked her about it and if she was OK. Remember, I worked in an ICU and our concern was always if a patient felt safe at home.
She started to tear up, her lips trembling as she struggled not to cry. Now my entire focus was on her, fuck my morphine. She said it was her son. Now I was totally focused and concerned. I asked her if she was OK, if she felt comfortable talking, or if she would rather not tell me. She replied that her son has mental illness. I told her is she wanted to talk about it, I was here and would listen. Sadly, as she was thanking me, other people stepped up in the line behind me. She sadly shifted to her duty.
I talked to her as she processed my payment. Gave her my thanks and told her she was wonderful, and again if she needed something she had my contact information and “I gave her permission to contact me with it”! The last was important and with in hearing of her coworkers. I am serious, she could contact me and I did not want her in trouble for doing that. So after she thanked me, I left.
I went to the grocery story next door to get a few things. I won’t bore you with the stresses in there. But the most important thing is not the people I talked to in the store, but what happened after I put my stuff in my car, put my cart away, (I am disabled and some days need a walker to walk, but it pisses me off the people who just leave carts in parking spaces or in such a way they hit or will be hit by other cars. Several weeks ago I got so pissed at a woman who was clearly able-bodied who after putting her groceries in her car, left her cart next to my car almost touching it. I had been about to back out, but instead got out, walked around to the passenger side, walked up to her door looked in at her, then took the handle of her cart she left there, and put it in the space for them nearby. All while showing her I was walking with a cane. I then returned, looked into to her car, made an exaggerated shrug motion, and got back into my car. She backed out and left, never even acknowledging the event)
As I was about to open my car door when an elderly woman pushing a cart with a few things stopped almost behind my car. She and I were in direct sight. She was very elderly, had very white hair, had very white pale skin, with bright red pouches under her eyes. She had her left hand up to her brow and was moving it back and forth. By my dogs that love gravy, I was immediately concerned.
Mam’m, are you OK, I asked as I turned fully to her. She stood there a moment wiping at her brow and then turned to me and in a shaky voice said “Oh I am so tired, I am just very tired”! Oh crap, alarm bells are going off in my head. She then went on to say she was going home to rest.
Long story short, which my conversation with her was not. She rambled on about how she lived along but her brother was with her now. Oh, visiting I asked as I said I understood how having other in your home could be disruptive? Nope, and then came 20 minutes of the brother being a long haul truck driver and every part of the rest of her life for the last few years. I went over to her, again trying to assess if she needed assistance or not. She seemed in her senses, she knew what was going on, what year it was, the president, and she just wanted to talk it seemed. But she kept repeating she was very tired. I kept asking if she needed help, was there someone I could call for her. Nope she was not far from home she just wanted to tell me she was very tired, about her brother staying at her home right now, his job, her home, her other stuff.
As far as I could tell she was OK, but yes tired. But really only wanted to talk to someone, even a stranger in a parking lot of a grocery store. I must have talked to her for 20 minutes. My own legs had gone numb and I was leaning hard on the car. I really was stumped what to do, I had nothing I felt would raise red flags for the store if I asked them to help her, and I really felt she was just really lonely. So lonely she was willing to tell her story to a stranger who asked her if she was OK in a store parking lot. I was torn, but my own needs were screaming at me. So I said OK then, if you are sure you’re OK and don’t want me to call anyone or get the store to help, I need to go home. She said her goodbyes, happy weekend and pushed her cart forward.
When I got home, I talked to Ron. He really is the medical person, he spent nearly 20 years in ICU’s giving medical care. He told me I did everything right, I assessed her as best I could. He asked more detailed questions on her skin, her stance and other things I really couldn’t answer. He told me that as she seemed in her right mind, competent and did not ask for help, I really couldn’t have done more. Still I worried. Then I got angry. This old woman lived alone for a long time, she told me, that is why the brother visiting caused her issues. Why is the US so damn hard on older people who are alone? The wealthiest country on earth, number 1 In the GNP and military might, and a little old lady is standing in a parking lot telling a stranger how very tired she is. Hugs. Scottie. And now I am going to bed!
The Majority Report.
I love the Majority Report with Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland. Here are some clips. People might wonder why so many at once. Because I have two monitors / computers. One I normally blog with and the other I constantly stream videos. Mostly news. If I am not in my Pink Palace I have my apple earbuds in listening to podcasts. I rarely do music. Those that follow me and know my history know that I have to constantly have that stream of new data, of idea and sound in to my head to stop the thoughts I don’t want. Granted, it has gotten less urgent over the last few years as I am getting better at coping, but I can not stand longish periods of only my own memories. The first thing I do when I leave my bed to get up is pull my hair back and put in my ear buds. At night when I go to bed I fill my mind with my own stories written based on the characters of books, movies, TV shows that I can fill my mind with writing my self into those stories, keeping the memories from coming up to the front of my mind or having a say. I had these videos ready to post for a while, but never found the time. Today is the time. I don’t expect everyone to watch all of them, but maybe bits or sections, or just the ones that interest you. Thank you for understanding. Hugs. Scottie
/ omarsshakir
https://www.hrw.org/
After briefly touching on the international politics around the 2007 blockade and election of Hamas in Gaza, Shakir explores how the Israeli government has supported and maintained Hamas’ rule as a part of their “policy of separation” between Gaza and the West Bank, and a central tool against the establishment of a Palestinian state. Wrapping up, Omar explores the obvious parallels between the current assault on Palestinians in Gaza and the 1948 Nakba that began the occupation, the recent discovery of Israel’s use of white phosphorus, and what a push for a ceasefire and an end to apartheid could look like.
/ omarsshakir
https://www.hrw.org/
Omar Shakir then joins as he jumps right into the history of the Gaza Strip, from the beginning of its occupation by Israel in 1967, through the establishment of their full blockade on people, goods, and aid in the wake of their military withdrawal in 2005, which launched the current era of strict apartheid and de facto Hamas rule.
I am worn completely out and my day is not done.
Right from the start my day has been on my feet with little pauses. During those pauses, I quickly posted a few things I felt important. I got up at 3:30 am. I feed the cats, did all that stuff, handled a few things on the computers. Ron got up and informed me he had two appointments he failed to put into the calendar, one a doctor’s appointment and the other a Zoom meeting I needed to set my computer system up for. Ok, I got a quick shower and started doing the dishes from last night, kept dealing with cats. Then Ron left for his appointment and called me from the grocery store he stopped at on the way home. He had forgotten to take the cane he uses, and he was struggling to walk. I asked if he needed me to come get him. Nope.
When he got home, I had already set up the computer system, just needed him to sit and do a sound check. But when he pulled in to the driveway, he couldn’t walk, so I got his cane and helped him inside. Then I brought the few groceries in. I put them away. I got him settled in my Pink Palace and ready for the Zoom meeting with family and his brother in the nursing home.
As he did that, I started a red spaghetti sauce for supper. After his meeting He came out and I got him some lunch. I was struggling my self by now so I took even more medications. After he ate he went to bed, I finished making the sauce and got my own lunch.
After eating a great meal of Chicken Supreme with egg noodles and lots of the gravy, I took the remainder out of the large baking dish and put it into smaller containers, then washed all my dishes, his dishes, and the stuff I used to cook the meal. I then got stuff ready for Ron, who wants to make meatballs for the sauce.
I am beat, I am done. At this point, I don’t even care if we eat tonight. I have clenched my teeth so much my own teeth and jaw aches. My back won’t hold me well, my legs hurt and are so shaky. I have four open windows with many tabs, I did not answer any comments or read any other people’s blogs. I keep having pain shocks and muscle spasms, and I am afraid Ron is going to want me to help him more when he gets up. I have 10 minutes left of The Majority Report with Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland. Then I will shut the computers down and go to playing Halo. If you don’t hear from me tonight or you had something you needed a response to, I hope I can get to it tomorrow, but for today I have reached the end of Scotties rope. I know that has happened a lot lately, but the fact is with Ron hurting himself and us not having access to needed healthcare, and being rather lowering income, hell just say it we are poor now, things are much more demanding on me at this time in my life than ever before it seems. Plus I also am old, disabled, in bad health, and today very tired. Hugs, loves, Best wishes. Scottie
Palestinians say Israeli strike hits U.N.-run school; Blinken meets Arab leaders
Israel has some of the best precision bombs / missiles that can hit pinpoint targets. They got them from the US. They know it is against the rules to hit US humanitarian sites, it is off limits to hit shelters. Yet they are doing it and waving it in the world’s face. They know they can keep gaslighting the US public and threaten US politicians with loads of lobby money and threats of primaries. This is sick! We need to put pressure on the US government at all levels to stop this. Hugs. Scottie
GAZA/AMMAN, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Palestinians reported a deadly Israeli strike on a U.N.-run school in northern Gaza serving as a shelter on Saturday ahead of talks in Jordan at which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken heard Arab demands for a ceasefire in the enclave.
Witnesses said the strike hit Al-Fakhoura school in Jabalia, where thousands of evacuees were living. At least 15 people died and dozens more were wounded, said Gaza health ministry official Mohammad Abu Selmeyah.
Reuters pictures of the aftermath showed broken furniture and other belongings lying on the ground, patches of blood spilled on the ground and over food and people crying.
“I was standing here when three bombings happened, I carried a body and another decapitated body with my own hands,” a young boy said in video obtained by Reuters, crying in despair. “God will take my vengeance.”
Nearby, a resident comforted a woman in shock.
One man asked angrily: “Since when has it become normal to strike shelters? This is so unfair.”
Juliette Touma, director of communication for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), confirmed to Reuters that the U.N-run school, which is in the Gaza City area, had been hit.
She said there were children among the casualties, but that UNRWA had not yet been able to verify the exact death toll.
“At least one strike hit the schoolyard where there were tents for displaced families. Another strike hit inside the school where women were baking bread,” Touma said by phone.
The ministry of health in Gaza said another Israeli missile strike killed two women at the door of the Nasser Children Hospital. Several more people were injured, it said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on either incident.
Israel’s ground forces encircled Gaza City on Thursday after stepping up a bombing campaign it says aims at wiping out Hamas, after the militant group which runs Gaza killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostage in an Oct. 7 assault in southern Israel.
Gaza health officials said on Saturday that more than 9,488 Palestinians have been killed so far in the Israeli assault.
Israel last month ordered all civilians to leave the northern part of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City where it says Hamas militants are hiding in tunnels, and head to the south of the enclave.
It has continued to bomb the whole enclave, saying the militants are hiding among civilians, and many people have stayed in the north, where they say they now feel trapped.
The military said it would enable Palestinians to travel on a main Gaza Strip highway, the Salah a-Din road, on Saturday between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. (1100 GMT and 1400). “If you care about yourself and your loved ones, heed our instruction to head south,” it said in a social media post in Arabic.
U.S. Special Envoy David Satterfield said in Amman that between 800,000 to a million people have already moved to the south of the Gaza Strip, while 350,000-400,000 remain in northern Gaza City and its environs.
BLINKEN HEARS CEASEFIRE DEMANDS
In what appeared to presage a widening of Israel’s ground offensive, the military issued footage showing armoured bulldozers churning up northern Gaza areas in what it described as “creating access routes for forces”.
A combined tank and combat engineering unit carried out a “pinpoint raid” in the southern Gaza Strip “to map out buildings and neutralise explosives”, it said.
Israel’s military also said it was striking what it described as “a number of Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon” following fire from there, part of the biggest flareup since 2006.
A Lebanese source familiar with Hezbollah’s attacks said the group had fired a powerful missile not yet used in the fighting and that it had hit an Israeli position across the border from the villages of Ayta al-Shaab and Rmeich.
Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group is backed by Iran, as is Hamas. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday warned that conflict could spread if Israel continued bombing Gaza.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati emphasized the urgency of a ceasefire in Gaza when he met Blinken in Amman on Saturday, Lebanon state news agency said.
Blinken, in turn, emphasized his efforts to halt military operations for humanitarian reasons and to address the issue of prisoners.
Blinken was also meeting the Saudi, Qatari, Emirati and Egyptian foreign ministers on Saturday.
The Arab leaders were set to stress the “Arab stance calling for an immediate ceasefire, delivering humanitarian aid and ways of ending the dangerous deterioration that threatens the security of the region”, the Jordanian foreign ministry said ahead of the meeting.
Washington has maintained robust military and political support for Israel, while calling on its ally to take steps to avoid civilian deaths and address Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.
AMBULANCE HIT
Gaza health officials had said 15 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on an ambulance on Friday evening that was part of a convoy carrying injured Palestinians at Gaza’s biggest hospital, al-Shifa.
Israel’s military said it had hit an ambulance “being used by an Hamas terrorist cell” and killed a number of Hamas fighters.
The Palestinian health ministry challenged Israel to provide proof that the ambulance was carrying militants. Israel said it would release more information. It has accused Hamas of concealing command centres and tunnel entrances in al-Shifa, something Hamas and the hospital denies.
Gaza’s living conditions, already dire before the fighting, have deteriorated further. Food is scarce, residents have resorted to drinking salty water, medical services are collapsing.
ISRAEL SAYS NO PAUSE UNLESS HOSTAGES ARE FREED
Hamas has prepared for a protracted war in Gaza and believes it can hold up Israel’s advance long enough to force a ceasefire, two sources close to the organization’s leadership said. They said it also seeks concessions like the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages.
A senior Biden administration official said on Friday the U.S. had “indirect engagement” aimed at freeing the hostages.
Foreign nationals have been leaving Gaza, but the official said Hamas initially conditioned the release of foreigners on wounded Palestinians being able to exit as well, but one-third of the Palestinians on the list turned out to be Hamas members.
Hamas official Izzat El Reshiq on Saturday urged Arab leaders and people to pressure Israel and the United States by cutting diplomatic ties, expelling ambassadors and leveraging oil and economic interests to support the Gaza Strip’s people.
The United States has dismissed growing international calls for a ceasefire but has sought to persuade Israel to accept localized pauses, an idea rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he met Blinken on Friday.
Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Simon Lewis and Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman, Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Daphne Psaledakis and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Rami Ayyub, Diane Craft, Michael Perry and William Mallard, Philippa Fletcher
True Facts: Incredible Crab Stories
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson Hates Nearly All of Us
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2023/10/speaker-of-house-mike-johnson-hates.html
I want to thank Ten Bears for the link to this web site. I am going to do the non-WordPress version of follow on it. Here is the link from Ten bears’ page with the links. https://homelessonthehighdesert.com/2023/10/29/last-week-in-god-33/ Hugs. Scottie
Liquor laws in Louisiana are a clusterfuck. Because of a state supreme court decision decades ago, they are subject to the whims of a community vote whenever someone can get it on the ballot. So a town can allow alcohol sales in, say, restaurants for a while and then, whenever some opportunistic Christian dickflea gets enough people itching, they can vote to overturn the law and go back to being a dry town or county. Or, you know, parish, as they call counties in the state because Catholicism.
The decent-sized, if generally shitty, town of Minden in the generally shitty Webster Parish was dry in 2003. Minden is 30 miles from Shreveport, which is a decent-sized, if generally shitty, city. The economy of Minden was not doing great 20 years ago, so a group of business owners, with the support of the Chamber of Commerce, wanted to have another vote on allowing alcohol sales in restaurants, hoping that it would attract some chains to town or at least provide a new tax revenue stream. Minden had been dry since a vote in 1974, but after a contentious city council meeting in August 2003, it was decided that the restaurant alcohol sales law would be decided in a special election just a couple of months later.
The people against allowing alcohol sales were straight out of a 1980s movie about tight-ass evangelicals refusing to allow anyone to have fun. Their warnings were like the lyrics of The Music Man song “Ya Got Trouble.” According to one local columnist, “They expanded from simply claiming this was a back-door was to bring about bars and package sales to more extreme connections. They alleged this was an ‘end-around’ to bring sexually oriented businesses, such as strip clubs to Minden. They also pointed out it could be an attempt to bring legalized gambling into Minden.” Churches went into overdrive, with prayer services just to try to get their invisible sky wizard to intervene. They even had round-the-clock prayers just before the election date.
The anti-fun forces, led by five plaintiffs, tried to sue to stop the election, but they filed their lawsuit too late for it to be heard. Their lawyer was a Shreveport attorney who was making a name for himself as a supporter of nutzoid right-wing Christiand causes. And since you read the title of this piece, you already know that it was Mike Johnson, who is now Speaker of the House and second in line to the presidency. That’s right. Two decades ago, he was trying to stop alcohol sales in a town.
The voting occurred that November and over half the registered voters went out to the polls. That’s how much this meant in an off-year election. And, Lord have mercy, they voted 57-43% in favor of alcohol sales in restaurants in Minden. Johnson’s clients considered another lawsuit to question the elections results, but they decided against it, and Minden restaurants and now bars and, yes, casinos can serve alcohol. The nearest strip joint is still about 15 miles away, in the next parish over.
For years, Mike Johnson represented the shittiest fucking people in trying to halt others from having rights or enjoying life in a way that harmed no one. As a dick lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom (motto: “‘Freedom’ should probably be in quotation marks in our name”), Johnson was on the fucked up side of issue after issue in our bullshit culture war. He fought the city of New Orleans to stop it from offering domestic partnership benefits in the pre-Obergefell days. The law had been in place since 1999, and they sued in 2003 in a case they lost in 2005. He opposed the Obama abortion pill mandate, he sued in favor of various school prayer cases, and more. When it comes to abortion and LGBTQ rights, Johnson is the hardest of the hardcore opposing both. And when he was a state representative, in the panicked days before the Obergefell same-sex marriage decision in 2015, Johnson sponsored legislation that would allow businesses to refuse to serve same-sex couples and, going back to his earlier case, would allow a business to deny benefits to same-sex couples because of “religious” reasons.
And perhaps it’s here that we need to pause for a moment and say that Mike Johnson loves God. His version of God, I mean, since, you know, God is made up. But he fuckin’ loves God as intensely and loudly as a newly-out Omaha lesbian loves pussy. He leans Christian dominionist, which is as weird and insidious as it sounds. He says that the United States is a “biblical republic,” whatever the fuck that means. He told Sean Hannity, “Someone asked me today in the media, they said people are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun? I said, Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview, that’s what I believe.” I wonder if that includes all the rules in Leviticus, but I don’t want to ask about beard-shaving regimen.
In his speech before being sworn in as Speaker of the House, he said, “I want to tell all my colleagues here what I told the Republicans in that room last night. I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a manner like this. I believe that scripture, the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you, all of us, and I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time.”
I know they don’t give a shit what heathens like me think, but that shit sounds creepy as fuck. You’re telling me that your imaginary invisible sky wizard contorted all time and space and made everything in the universe move in such a way that you could become the leader of one house of the American Congress. That’s fucking insane because, see, first, you believe in an invisible sky wizard, and, even worse, you have no problem telling me what your invisible sky wizard is doing and saying, and, even worser, you demand that I follow what your invisible sky wizard says. You can say that there are lots of people who believe in your invisible sky wizard, but that doesn’t make it less creepy. In fact, it makes it way creepier.
While Johnson talks a lot about “consensus” and shit, he sure has spent his career, including trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, approaching every issue with the clear-eyed resolution of someone who just loves to make shit worse for everyone except those who also hate nearly all of us. It won’t be some god who ruins the nation. It’ll be a very weird man.
(Quick note about Minden, Louisiana: It sucks as a town. But, man, there are awesome soul food joints there.)
Paul Krugman: There Are No GOP Moderates in the House of Representatives
Gaza, explained
If you want to understand this conflict, if you want to see what real bigotry / racism is watch this video. There is no doubt who is in the wrong, who are the villains really are. Hugs. Scottie
On October 7, Hamas, a militant group based in the Gaza Strip, launched a deadly attack on Israel, killing over 1,400 Israelis and kidnapping over 200. In retaliation, Israeli airstrikes have killed, as of this video, over 6,400 Palestinians in Gaza, where Palestinians have lived for decades under an occupation and blockade.
Since 1967, Israel has imposed tight restrictions on travel and essential goods such as food, fuel, medicine, and water in its occupied territories. In 2007, those restrictions became even tighter in Gaza after Hamas seized power there. Since then, it has been nearly impossible for Palestinians to leave Gaza or to access an adequate supply of essential goods.
Today, the Gaza Strip, with a population of over 2 million Palestinians, is a victim of what many call “collective punishment” as Israel bombards its population, shuts off access to internet, power, food, water, and medicine, forces them to leave their homes, and prepares for a ground invasion.
This latest episode of Vox Atlas explains how the experience of Palestinians in Gaza got to this point, and what’s behind Israel’s occupation and its blockade of Gaza.
Scottie's Playtime 