Israel deports thousands of Palestinian workers back to Gaza’s war zone

https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-hamas-workers-rights-7a86c936a64ab785ab27bd72247ce1ef

What the hell?  That is the place they are demanding the Palestinian people leave.  No they want them back where the bombs can kill them.   Don’t we finally see what this is, it is the attempt to kill all the Palestinians they can?  It is a version of the finial solution.  They want to push of kill all the people there and take the land.  And the Israeli government is starting to be honest about it as other governments including the US pull back support.  They will not stop, they don’t need our help to do it, and so they will.  Time for threats of sanctions and other actions we would take against any other government doing this.    Hugs.  Scottie


BY TIA GOLDENBERG AND ISABEL DEBRE
Updated 5:10 PM EDT, November 3, 2023
 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Friday deported thousands of Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip back to the besieged territory, Palestinian authorities said, capping what many described as harrowing weeks trapped in legal limbo since their detention when the Israel-Hamas war erupted.

Some workers, streaming by foot through an Israeli crossing that had been sealed shut since Hamas unleashed its brutal attack on southern Israel Oct. 7, told of violent mistreatment by Israeli authorities in detention centers. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.

“We sacrificed and they treated us like livestock over there,” one of the workers, Wael al-Sajda, said from the border, pointing to his ankle fitted with an identification bracelet.

Al-Sajda was among the roughly 18,000 Palestinians from Gaza allowed to work in menial jobs in Israel. The permits have been coveted in Gaza, which has an unemployment rate approaching 50%. Israel began issuing the permits in recent years, a measure it thought helped stabilize Gaza and moderate Hamas, despite a broader blockade aimed at weakening the Islamic militant group.

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.

Extremists Shout Slurs, Shut Down CA Drag Story Hour

Read the full article. As you can see below, homocon extremist Andy Ngo and the far-right hate group Gays Against Groomers are celebrating.

The jerk below is a well known right wing agitator who used to make stuff up about BLM protestors to try to promote anger at them and black people.  I watched the video in which he claims people of color stopped the performance yet in the video all the people are white.   Hugs

 

 

Haters: Parents get the final say on everything their kids see!

Parents: We’d like our kids to see Drag Queen Story Hour.

Haters: YOU ARE ALL PEDOPHILES.

Haters: You don’t have rights. Only we do.

So in other words, republicans are telling other people how to raise their kids. Why don’t republicans believe in parent’s rights?

All parents have the right to raise proper little uptight Republican children.

So, essentially, the cops get to decide that the perfectly-legal event is disturbing the peace and not the idiots who are protesting the event…?

That’s clearly a slippery slope.

If this had been a BLM protest, they would have shot everyone.

The cops around where I live are known for their indifference to gay people despite this being a town heavily populated by gays. This place is sick with hypocrisy

…a group of about 70 people … wearing black-and-white shirts reading, “Leave our kids alone.”

FunFact: YOUR kids weren’t there.

The parents who brought their own kids to the event should have been the ones wearing those t-shirts.

‘Cause it’s all about the parent’s right to choose until it isn’t.

Let’s distill this.

A person in a costume reads fables and fiction to kids.

Why, that happens every fucking Sunday in buildings with stars atop them across the country.

I can’t tell a difference. 🤔🤔

Civil rights violation? Where were the police officers and what were they doing

They were there NOT arresting the bigots, because they agree with them.

Apparently they were there. And asked some to disperse. And they said no, we aren’t going to disperse. And that was that.

About six to eight protesters refused to leave the entrance even after police issued a dispersal order, according to Pickle.

How many did they arrest after the order was disobeyed? None.

Conclusion: It’s okay to ignore orders from police if you’re illegally blocking a public building’s entrance/exit, though maybe it’s a special rule that only applies to fascists protesting a person in costume reading to children.

Hate to point out the obvious, but they are not “Your Kids”

About six to eight protesters refused to leave the entrance even after police issued a dispersal order, according to Pickle.

 

Police: Ah, gee, citizens, won’t you pretty-please obey a direct order from us impotent policemen?

Could any of the “Haters” give a rational reason, as to how Drag Story Hour hurts kids, and does not ENTERTAIN and TEACH KIDS????

Could any of them give a reason why those kids, whose parents approved and were in attendance, should have decisions made for them by some other party who doesn’t know them?

 

Protesters blockade San Fernando Library, shut down drag queen story event

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-10-27/protesters-blockade-san-fernando-library-shut-down-drag-queen-story-event

Look at the pictures, and tell me what is sexual happening?  What is threatening to kids in these pictures?  A small group of angry violent haters were allowed by the 10 police officers there to deny other people the right to use a public facility and see the performance they had come to see.  The police allowed them to block entrances, to scream profanities in front of children they claimed to be trying to protect, and seemed to feel entitled to force others to do only what the hateful protesters want.  This is not democracy.  Think of how the police handle BLM protestors, and yet made no move to arrest these protestors.  Below is a quote from the article.   Hugs

“Protesters claimed they want to keep children safe while pounding on walls, shouting obscenities and slurs toward my staff and library staff, and using strollers to blockade moving vehicles. The hypocrisy is astounding,” Horvath said.

Drag Queen Pickle reads to children.

Drag queen Pickle reads a story to children during a Drag Queen Story Hour event at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach on June 17.
 
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
———————————————————————————
 ANDREW J. CAMPA STAFF WRITER 
 

Dozens of protesters physically blocked the entrance to the San Fernando Library this week to stop a scheduled drag storytime reading event from taking place.

Videos posted on social media showed a group of about 70 people — some of whom had previously attended similar demonstrations in North HollywoodGlendale and elsewhere — wearing black-and-white shirts reading, “Leave our kids alone.” They chanted the same slogan through bullhorns while hurling verbal abuse and slurs at the guest reader.

Story hours, during which drag queens read to children at venues such as libraries, schools and bookstores, have drawn fury and condemnation from conservatives and right-wing extremists across the country. Some events have been the subject of anti-LGBTQ+ threats and at times violent confrontations.

 

Wednesday’s scheduled 30-minute event, which organizers said was intended to promote youth literacy, never took place.

 

April 23, 2023

“What was meant to be a celebration of love and inclusion turned into the opposite,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, the event’s host, said in a statement Thursday.

 

“Protesters claimed they want to keep children safe while pounding on walls, shouting obscenities and slurs toward my staff and library staff, and using strollers to blockade moving vehicles. The hypocrisy is astounding,” Horvath said.

Horvath’s staff said in an email that the supervisor, who was inside the library, did not officially cancel the event. But it did not proceed because demonstrators “blockaded” entrances — denying entry to both library patrons and drag queen Pickle, the guest reader.

Pickle, Los Angeles chapter president of the nonprofit Drag Story Hour, said she parked blocks away from the library “for safety reasons,” anticipating some hostility.

 

Video footage showed that San Fernando police officers encircled Pickle near the rear entrance. The phalanx moved toward a metal gate but stopped short as some protesters screamed “pervert,” “pedophile” and “disgusting freak” at Pickle.

About six to eight protesters refused to leave the entrance even after police issued a dispersal order, according to Pickle. The San Fernando Police Department did not confirm or deny whether such an order had been given.

LOS ANGELES, CA-AUGUST 23, 2019: Pickle reads a children's book at drag queen story hour during the DTLA Proud Festival at Pershing Square on August 23, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. This is the first of a three-day festival. (Photo By Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
 

 

The drag performer said she and the police then attempted to move to the front entrance. As they walked, protesters blared car horns, refused to move and positioned nearby tables to block the front entryway, she said.

“At this point, the police weren’t making arrests, they weren’t stopping the mob and they were allowing an unelected group of people to determine who could and who could not access a public building,” Pickle said. “Shame on the San Fernando police.”

Pickle received a text from Horvath’s staff telling her to leave since she was unable to enter the building. After receiving a police escort back to her car, she did so.

“They canceled the event and I can’t believe how they handled the situation,” Pickle said, referring to staff from the library and Horvath’s office. “This goes beyond hurt feelings. This is about civil rights and they shouldn’t have invited me down if they weren’t going to stand up for them.”

Drag Queen, Sylvia O'Stayformre, stops to talk about the damage from a December 7 incident, when someone fired a steel ball into the front window, as she arrives to host Drag Queen Storytime and Bingo at Brewmaster's Tap Room in Renton, Wash. on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023.

Feb. 22, 2023

————————————————————-

Questions emailed to L.A. County Library personnel, who oversee the San Fernando Library, were not immediately answered Thursday.

Pickle said she has attended about 50 drag story hour events, but this was the first canceled in person.

A story hour she was scheduled to appear at in Glendale last spring was canceled ahead of time, and protesters also disrupted another of her storybook hours in Sherman Oaks in April.

San Fernando Police Lt. Pete Aguirre said 10 officers were deployed to the library.

LAGUNA BEACH, CA - JUNE 17: Drag Queen Pickle, left, reads a story to children during Drag Queen Story Hour at Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

June 19, 2023

—————————————————————

Aguirre said no arrests were made and no assaults or property damage were reported.

Aguirre said protesters began arriving at 10:30 a.m., with most staying until the event was terminated at noon. Others didn’t leave for another hour and engaged with a “small contingent of counter protesters.”

“We weren’t able to get to the venue, but we ensured that the performer was not assaulted in any way and that they were able to leave the venue unharmed,” Aguirre said.

Fight over Texas anti-abortion transport bans reaches biggest battlegrounds yet

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fight-over-texas-anti-abortion-transport-bans-reaches-biggest-battlegrounds-yet-2023-10-23/

You can not compromise with these people.  They are on a mission from their god, and they don’t care who it hurts.  Why do they do this, to make their god happy with them?  Maybe they think if they deny rights to women, LGBTQIA, and black people then all the bad things they did will be forgiven?     Hugs.  Scottie

———————————————————————————————————

By 

A patient looks at her ultrasound before proceeding with a medical abortion at Alamo Women's Clinic in Albuquerque

A patient looks at her ultrasound before proceeding with a medical abortion at Alamo Women’s Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S., August 23, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo 

 

Two Texas jurisdictions will consider measures this week to outlaw the act of transporting another person along their roads for an abortion, part of a strategy by conservative activists to further restrict abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Commissioners in Lubbock County are slated to vote on the proposal on Monday. A few hours north, the Amarillo City Council on Tuesday will weigh its own such law, which could lead to a future council or city-wide vote.

 

Lubbock and Amarillo are the biggest jurisdictions of the 10 places in Texas that have considered restrictions on abortion-related transportation since the June 2022 end of Roe, which had granted a nationwide right to abortion. Five cities and counties in the state have passed bans.

Lubbock and Amarillo are both traversed by major highways that connect Texas, which has one of the county’s most stringent abortion laws, to neighboring New Mexico, where abortion is legal.

 

Anti-abortion activists backing the proposals say they are meant to bolster Texas’ existing abortion ban, which allows private citizens to sue anyone who provides or “aids or abets” an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

Advocates of reproductive rights say the measures could deter people from seeking abortions or helping others get abortions, even though there is no clear way to enforce the bans. No violations have been reported in the five jurisdictions that have adopted them. Their reliance on citizen enforcement makes them difficult to challenge in court.

 

The greater impact of the ordinances so far appears to be how each side is using them to galvanize voters and pursue bigger political goals heading into an election year in which abortion remains a hot-button issue.

BOTH SIDES MOBILIZING

The campaign to ban abortion-related transit in Texas was started by Mark Lee Dickson, a Christian pastor who began pushing communities to outlaw abortion by declaring themselves “sanctuary cities for the unborn” in 2019.

 

Dickson travels widely to pitch his measures. He also mobilizes supporters to unseat local leaders who oppose the proposals, with the aim of electing officials who will also push other far-right policies.

He took that approach in Odessa’s city elections in 2022 after the council initially blocked one of his “sanctuary city for the unborn” proposals. Dickson responded by marshalling support for council candidates who pledged to approve it.

Once elected, the candidates he backed not only declared Odessa a “sanctuary city,” but also adopted the state’s first abortion transport ban and took other steps Dickson supported, such as rejecting state and federal COVID-19-related mandates.

“This isn’t over just when you address one issue,” Dickson said in an interview.

He plans to be at the meetings in Lubbock and Amarillo this week.

Lubbock County Commissioner Jason Corley said he was inspired to bring the transport ban to a vote on Monday after hearing Dickson promote it at Lubbock’s Constitutionalist Society. Corley, who has supported Dickson’s work for years, said he expected the measure to pass.

Not all backers of abortion restrictions support Dickson’s transport bans, however.

Amarillo Mayor Cole Stanley said he supported Dickson’s “sanctuary city” movement, but is concerned that the transport bans rely on civil enforcement and do not clarify what local authorities are expected to do, potentially entangling the city in investigations brought by private actors.

The debates over the transport bans are spurring new shows of support for abortion access.

In Lubbock County, Kimberleigh Gonzalez is organizing a local Facebook group of 1,100 reproductive rights supporters to show their opposition to the measure at Monday’s meeting.

The group formed after Lubbock voters approved a “sanctuary city” ordinance backed by Dickson in May 2021. Each new attack on reproductive rights “brings us together a little more tightly,” Gonzalez said.

“Since 2021, I know a lot of people personally that are involved that weren’t before, and it just continues to grow and strengthen,” she said.

Abortion rights supporters, including four abortion funds in Texas, said they expected the transport bans to backfire on the anti-abortion movement by galvanizing political participation from abortion rights advocates in the lead-up to next year’s presidential election.

“We’re going to make sure that there are political and electoral consequences for this,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women’s March activist organization.

Reporting by Julia Harte Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Leslie Adler

Doom Spiral

The UN Urges Israel To Stop As They Verge On A Ground Invasion Of Gaza

Israel-Gaza: Some People Have Lost Their Minds

The Rational National points out in his normal reasonable way that holding the view that there is a difference in the worth of a Palestinian child and an Israeli child makes no sense.  He also points out many incidents of Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian people, reporters, and children over the last year that received no news coverage.  The video is done without sensationalism, which I appreciate.  Hugs.


Breaking down the latest from the conflict, including what’s making me go crazy, a good clip from MSNBC, and where major Israeli media is correctly putting the blame.

Transphobic Heckler Ruins His Own Life – Steve Hofstetter

I wanted to post an update of something I got wrong. The tatted up guy at the end of the video had a VERY different story than the one that was told to me.

Turns out he was not only at the show, he was a fan AND the guy that first got the attention of the police. He was so heated because he is part of the LGBTQ community and had been assaulted previously – so when he saw it potentially happening to a few trans women, he grabbed a cop who was stopped at a light, ran back to the theatre, and got in between the transphobe and the women. He wasn’t trying to escalate as much as he was trying to be the one to take the seemingly inevitable punch. And he left when the cops got there because he was the one who called them over in the first place.

I was told he was a bystander who just hopped in the fray, and I understand why the folks who didn’t know him thought that. In their eyes, he showed up out of nowhere and ran in – but really he was running back to protect folks from sharing the same fate he’d already experienced.

Anyway, my apologies go out to him. And know that if I ever get something wrong in a video, I am happy to correct it.

Israel-Gaza: No, This Isn’t Complicated

Discussing the recent events. And no, this isn’t a complex issue.