#Sham's 2016 Art

[shamrockaceart]

I sculpted this spherical red octopus figurine using the polymer clay and tools (a cocktail stick/toothpick and craft knife) in the photo. I originally posted it to Instagram on the 30th April 2016. Watermarks have been added where previously there were none.

[sweet-beezus]

I support women's wrongs ♥

[tillzzy]

FMP

body copy citations

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‌

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[route22ny]

The split-screen reality of the Trump era became all too real for Stephen Richer recently, and in a very literal way. On May 15, the Arizona election official — a Republican — was looking at two computer screens. On one was former President Trump’s claim that a key election database had been deleted, an “unbelievable election crime.” On the other screen was that very database, quite intact.

“Wow,” Richer tweeted. “This is unhinged. I’m literally looking at our voter registration database on my other screen. Right now.”

A couple of days later, he made his dismay even more explicit.

“What can we do here?” he asked in an interview with CNN. “This is tantamount to saying that the pencil sitting on my desk in front of me doesn’t exist.”

When Richer unseated a Democratic incumbent to become Maricopa County’s recorder in November, he thought he had won the most boring job in politics: maintaining the county’s voter files. But he had not reckoned on Trump, #StopTheSteal, and the most massive, audacious and successful propaganda campaign in modern American history — a campaign that has adapted Russian-style disinformation to U.S. politics with alarming success.

Fortunately, Richer and his local Republican colleagues have refused to be victimized. Instead, they have shown how to fight back.

Information warfare takes many forms, but it has an overarching goal: to divide, demoralize and disorient a political foe by manipulating the social and media environments. As Yuri Bezmenov, a Soviet intelligence defector, explained in a chilling 1983 interview, “What it basically means is to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves, their family, their community and their country.”

One potent weapon of mass distraction is the “fire hose of falsehood,” a torrent of lies that aims not so much to persuade as to confuse and disorient. After Russian intelligence services got caught poisoning a defector and his daughter in the U.K. in 2018, the Russian government responded with a blizzard of mutually contradictory lies: Britain did it, Ukraine did it, a jealous lover did it, it was a suicide attempt and so on.

Another standard technique: conspiracy bootstrapping. First you spread a rumor. Then you demand an investigation. Failure to investigate just confirms the conspiracy, but so does an investigation with a negative finding. It’s a trap: either ignoring or debunking the conspiracy theory propagates it.

Those techniques are not new. Intelligence services and propaganda experts understand them well, and master propagandists like Josef Goebbels and Vladimir Putin have used them to powerful effect. What no one imagined was that they could be deployed by an American president and his party — and not against a foreign antagonist, but against the American public.

Pundits often say that, whatever his authoritarian tendencies, Trump is too inept and inattentive to have done much lasting damage to democracy. They are wrong: In the realm of information warfare, Trump is a genius-level innovator. It was he who figured out how to adapt Russia-style disinformation to the U.S. political environment, no mean accomplishment.

His use of the fire hose of falsehood was masterly. In his 2016 campaign, according to PolitiFact, 70% of his checkable claims were false or mostly false, a flood of untruths whose like had never been seen in a presidential campaign. He began his presidency by lying about the weather at his inauguration and also lying about the size of the crowd. By the time his presidency was over, Washington Post fact-checkers had clocked him at more than 30,000 confirmed falsehoods, with nearly half coming in his final year.

Similarly, he was a master of conspiracy bootstrapping. He retailed conspiracy theories and falsehoods on the grounds that a lot of people were saying them, although of course he was the sayer-in-chief. Truth and common decency need not apply; when a prominent cable news host criticized him, Trump peddled an absurd (and deeply cruel) lie that the host was suspected of murder.

The black arts of disinformation had the intended effect, at least from Trump’s point of view. They exacerbated the country’s divisions, commandeered the country’s attention, dominated his opponents, disoriented the media and helped him establish a cult of personality among followers who trusted no one else.

Still, he saved the worst for last. His pièce de résistance was the propaganda attack on the 2020 election. Beginning months before the election, he launched a drumbeat of unfounded attacks on mail-in voting. Pundits were puzzled. Many Republicans vote by mail, and the pandemic was especially dangerous to older voters who lean toward Trump; why discourage them from voting safely and conveniently?

But Trump was aiming for the post-election. He saw he was in electoral trouble. With the anti-mail campaign, he was organizing, priming, and testing an unprecedented propaganda network, ready for use if he lost.

And then came #StopTheSteal itself, a disinformation campaign whose likes the country had never witnessed. It mobilized the White House, Republican politicians, social media, conservative cable news and talk radio, frivolous litigation, and every other available channel to broadcast the message that the election was rigged. The Big Lie, as it was aptly named, failed to keep Trump in office, but it succeeded at its secondary goal: turning the Republican Party itself into a propaganda organ.

In April, only a fourth of Republicans believed Joe Biden was legitimately elected, and GOP politicians who insisted on truth were persona non grata.

With that as background, we can see more clearly what is going on right now in Maricopa County, Arizona’s largest. In 2020, Biden carried Maricopa by more than 45,000 votes, and with it the state. The result was certified by the Republican governor, double-checked twice by the county’s election officials, and then confirmed by two independent audits.

But in classic bootstrapping fashion, Trump and state Republican leaders seized on conspiracy theories, such as that phony ballots had been smuggled in from Asia, to launch an unnecessary recount conducted by an unqualified company whose boss had promoted uncorroborated charges of election fraud. In textbook fashion, the controversial recount drove yet more public attention to the conspiracy theories, engendering yet more suspicion and spawning me-too demands for partisan “audits” across the country.

The Arizona shenanigans will not change the outcome of the 2020 election, but that is not the point. A great propaganda campaign is cyclonic and self-propelled: once unleashed, it takes on a life of its own, heedless of any underlying reality. By that yardstick, the Arizona recount is a great propaganda campaign.

Americans have never been exposed to Russian-style disinformation tactics, at least not coming from a major political party and deployed on a national scale. We are thus dangerously vulnerable to them. What can we do? There are no quick or simple answers; developing immunity requires everything from more sophisticated journalism and better-designed social media platforms to teaching media literacy, and much more.

But here is where to start: Do what Stephen Richer did. Insist loudly, unwaveringly and bravely on calling out lies, even at the cost of partisan solidarity.

Once it became clear that the #StopTheSteal campaign was escalating instead of dying out, Richer went public with a no-holds-barred denunciation of what Trump and his enablers were up to. “Just stop indulging this,” he told CNN. “Stop giving space for lies.”

At his side were all five of the Maricopa County supervisors — four of whom are Republicans. Calling the recount a sham, a con, and a “spectacle that is harming all of us,” they declared they “stand united together to defend the Constitution and the republic in our opposition to the Big Lie. We ask everyone to join us in standing for truth.” They also wrote a blistering 14-page letter shredding the alt-audit in detail.

Propaganda attacks succeed when critical points of resistance collapse; they stumble when trusted voices expose lies for what they are. Individuals and small groups may not be able to shut down a propaganda campaign or neutralize all its effects, but they can strip away its facade of legitimacy and act as an anchor against runaway fabulism. That was why the Soviet Union struggled so mightily to silence Andrei Sakharov and other dissident voices, and why those voices ultimately brought down the evil empire.

And it is why Rep. Liz Cheney made a difference when she chose truthfulness over her job in the Republican congressional leadership. The day she was booted, she read her colleagues John 8:32: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” She could not end #StopTheSteal, but she could, and did, dent its credibility and embarrass Republicans whose equivocation and silence abetted the Big Lie.

In the same way, Richer and his colleagues in Arizona laid down a marker. They risked their political standing and even their personal safety (Richer has needed security protection) to expose their own party’s propaganda and shame those who spread it.

The deployment of Russian-style information warfare has allowed Trump and his authoritarian cult to usurp the Republican Party. And they are not finished. Now that they have succeeded with mass disinformation, it will be a fixture of American politics for years to come.

Countermeasures begin, though do not end, with personal integrity: standing up for facts and staying reality-based, whatever the short-term political costs. Think of it as epistemic patriotism, and pray for more of it, especially from Republicans.

***

The author, Jonathan Rauch, is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and the author of “The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-arizona-dreaming-20210522-uyd6ivuv75hd5gof2geyd5adtu-story.html

[queerasart-blog]

Issue 0 | Today in the World

Issue 0 - April/May 2016 ;                              

 TODAY IN THE WORLD

                       by Cha,

Welcome in the news column of this webzine. Here I will talk to you about the four biggest news of the month.I will explain to you in a few words what happened in the world for LGBT people in the past few months.

Do you know what "Shams" is? It's a Tunisian organisation which fights for the rights of the LGBT community. Its members campaign for equality and in favour of the sexual minorities rights. Unfortunately, on January 2016, the Tunisian government decided to stop the activities of the group for thirty days because of an association's law violation. Amna Guellali, the Human Rights Watch director, reacted by saying that the government's decision was a real catastrophe as nobody else in the country were able to do the important work of fighting for the LGBT community. At the moment where I'm writing this, the future of this association is always unknown. (Edit in 2017 : It looks like the association still is active!)

It's been a couple of years since Hollywood's representation of LGBT people became more friendly and this fact can be seen with the Oscar's nominations. This year the movie Carol, which deals with the love affair between a rich woman and an employee of a small shop in the 1950's New York, have six nominations like best actress in a leading role for Cate Blanchett and best actress in a secondary role for Rooney Mara. Trans representation is also on this year Oscar's nominations with the biopic of the first transgender woman who asked for a gender surgery, Danish Girl. This movie won 4 nominations like Eddie Redmayne who is nominated for best actor in a leading role.

Everybody knows who Ellen Page is now and here we are going to talk a little bit about her new documentary called Gaycation. In those videos, we follow the actress around the world, meeting different type of LGBT people. Gaycation is describe as a way for Ellen Page to understand herself more by meeting different people and by understanding LGBT's laws in other country and being aware of how lucky she is in USA or how USA is late concerning freedom for everyone's laws. The first episode is in Japan and you can find it on youtube or just check at the end of this article to find the link.

Now I want to talk to you about another supporting group called Minus18, this Australian group tried to organize a party for the teenagers who don't recognize themselves in heterosexuality or in cisgenderism. The point of the party is that everyone can dress in the way they want and they also can come with a partner of their choice. But organizing this party comes with a price so the association decided to raise money. And here comes the funny fact, an anti-LGBT group decided to go to the Minus18 website and buy all of the tickets to avoid people to go to this party. But in fact they didn't block the entrance, they helped by giving money because the website had never sold any ticket for the party, it was only for raising fund to pay for the LGBT people who were too poor to go to the party!

Complementary informations: 

Shams: https://www.facebook.com/ lgbtrightstunisia http://www.thearabweekly.com/?id=735 

Carol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Carol_(film)

Danish Girl: https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/The_Danish_Girl_(film) 

Gaycation: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=NnrAISE6x08

Minus 18: http://minus18.org.au/

[bestfrozentreats2]

The series has been long gone from radio, but I began airing episodes on my WFMU radio program in Summer 2016, and aired the entire Wilson series on a bi-weekly basis. Wilson is a genial host, a charming broadcaster with a warm presence. His humor is self-deprecating, and he always puts his guests at ease with his robust (sometimes too robust) laughter. The episodes are interesting time capsules from a period when superior audio fidelity was helping FM radio harvest music seekers from static-plagued AM. Despite the dominance of rock, psychedelia, and folk-rock, Wilson offers a bit of genre-surfing in Music Factorycontent, occasionally mixing in R&B, jazz, Latin, and the token classical number. He throws down hippie parlance (“groovy”—a lot) with the conviction of a trendspotter with a master plan, and insists on pronouncing terpsichore as TERP-si-kor. He had Teddy Reig on the program, though probably none of his listeners had a clue about Teddy’s legacy. Thank you, Tom Wilson. And yes, he hosted Lou and John from the Velvet Underground (whose first two albums were produced by Wilson). The VU interview is underwhelming.

Most episodes were transferred from rare vinyl discs provided by Byron Coley, with the rest provided as digital files by Harry Weinger at Universal. Thanks to both gents. I have digitally restored the transfers (often a quixotic endeavor—these were not high-quality pressings), and in many cases replaced music tracks with upgraded audio. The episodes contain commercials for then-new MGM-Verve releases. They are the same commercials, episode after episode, and they become maddening in their repetition. You will be endlessly reminded that “Nico is beautiful,” that “Women hate war,” and that buying a Tim Hardin album “is like owning a work of art.” One of the recurring commercial announcers is Scott Muni, a longtime figure in New York rock radio. Muni had been a Top 40 anchor at WABC-AM until 1965, then gradually transitioned over to FM, eventually finding a home at WNEW-FM in 1967.

You can stream or download each episode below as mp3 audio.  The opening and closing theme is “Help, I’m A Rock” by the Mothers of Invention from the 1966 album Freak Out!, produced by Wilson. I do not own the rights to any of this music, nor to the programs themselves, and these programs are NOT FOR SALE.

Program #01 — Tom Wilson Program #02 — Odetta Program #03 — The Velvet Underground (Lou Reed & John Cale) Program #04 — Every Mother’s Son Program #05 — The Cowsills Program #06 — Paul Williams (editor, Crawdaddy Magazine) Program #07 — Tim Buckley Program #08 — Sam the Sham Program #09 — Artie Ripp (producer/hustler) Program #10 — Teddy Reig (producer/legendary character) Program #11 — Richie Havens Program #12 — Janis Ian Program #13 — The Lovin’ Spoonful (Jerry Yester and Joe Butler) Program #14 — Ultimate Spinach (Ian Bruce-Douglas and producer Alan Lorber) Program #15 — Orpheus (Bruce Arnold and producer Alan Lorber) Program #16 — The Appletree Theater (John Boylan) Program #17 — Beacon Street Union (producer Wes Farrell) Program #18 — Dave Van Ronk Program #19 — Sandy Posey Program #20 — Bobby Callender Program #21 — Harumi Program #22 — Mike Jeffery and Mark Joseph (Tom Wilson absent) Program #23 — Recording engineers: Gary Kellgren, Phil Ramone, Sandy Lehmann-Haupt Program #24 — Bret Morrison (voice of radio’s “The Shadow”) Program #25 — William “Rosko” Mercer (popular New York radio voice in the late 1960s) Program #26 — Paul Shalmy, editor of Eye Magazine (article about WFMU from Eye, Nov. 1969)

In 1968 Wilson left the show, and comedians Bob & Ray were hired to host the series, which moved to WNEW-FM in September of that year.

[solinposts]

I interrupt my normal programming of posts about movies, TV shows, art, books and everything I love, to tell you this:

If you’re thinking about sharing something about Venezuela, make sure you have all the facts and not just the Government-approved “facts”.

I get it. It’s difficult. The Venezuelan Government controls almost all the media, and those they don’t control are threatened into silence. So when you Google what’s going on, you’ll find yourself thinking we live in the most wonderful place on Earth. 

We don’t.

Here are nuggets of information that can help you understand:

1- No, what happened is not a coup. Guaidó is using our Constitution -articles 233 and 333- against Maduro, showing him that his illegal means to get things done have, finally, backfired. The figure of “interim President” is completely legal, and has been used by the Government before after an actual coup -but they’ve conveniently forgotten about it!

2- No, Maduro wasn’t elected in a "transparent” election. Prior to it, he: moved the date of the event to benefit him, imprisoned / disabled our main candidates, stole the National Assembly’s faculties -which was composed mostly of the Opposition after a massive popular election, and that pissed him off- and gave it to an illegal alternate Assembly appointed by him and his cabinet -which was supposed to change the Constitution, but later became an institution that could act above the law and responding to no one but themselves-, and changed the members of the Supreme Court and the Electoral Council so they were both composed mostly of -you guessed it!- people in line with his ideas.

Oh! And Smartmatic, the company in charge of those “transparent” elections Maduro-loving foreigners love to talk about so much, admitted the numbers given by the Government in favor of the illegal alternate Assembly had been tampered with.

So, what did the Opposition do? Tried to negotiate and to reinstate a more level ground with certain conditions, he refused and went on to do his election anyway. Which, by the way, had the lowest turnout in recent years, since people refused to participate in his sham.

Did he care?

No.

Now, tell me: after all that, would you have voted in that election, considering that glorious landscape?

Probably not. 

3- The Opposition isn’t perfect. They have done really shitty things and let down their own people over and over again. 

Still, today, we are in the hands of people who are completely inept at doing the only thing we pay them to do: care for their own people and managing our resources fairly. Because, remember: we owe them no loyalty. They’re our employees. The people we pay and trust to handle our resources correctly.

If they can’t do their job and people are suffering, dying and fleeing the country on foot, risking their lives in the process... we are just supposed to just...take it until they’re done screwing us over?

Why do we have to bear the people who have been in control of everything for almost 20 years and given away our oil and resources to Cuba, China and Russia?

Guaidó is a young politician. For many, he represents change, and we not only yearn for it, but we need it.

4- The Government relies on an empty ideological war to keep itself going. It’s easier to tell people that, sure, everything can be blamed on the U.S; instead of holding Government officials accountable for corruption, squandering and failure.

The worst part is: foreigners eat it up! They love the Venezuelan Government although they have never set foot in the country and would never give up their comfortable lives to come here.

These are also the same people who are very concerned about our oil and resources going to the U.S, but conveniently forget that:

a- our Government hates the U.S but has no problem receiving their mighty dollars after selling their oil almost exclusively to them -so the U.S already has most of our oil, darlings!

and b- our Government loves to buy allies like Cuba, Russia and China by giving away our oil and resources to them. But I guess being under the thumb of those countries is perfectly Ok. Good Imperialism, right?

5- No, your country isn’t doing worse than us. Yes, every country has violence and poverty, unfortunately. But let me give you a little list of what we’re going through:

- Famine

- A staggering scarcity of food, medicine, and medical supplies -which, by the way, kills patients in hospitals every day

- A high rate of child mortality, like never before

- Illnesses that had been eradicated are coming back

- An inflation rate around 1300000.00 -yes, that many zeroes!- percent 

- Our technology is mostly outdated, and anything new is unaffordable for a regular citizen

- We have one of the most dangerous capitals of the world, and people abandon the streets as soon as the sun comes down, out of fear

- There’s total impunity since our policemen have no resources -or legal ability, thanks to laws passed by Chavez and company- to actually get things done or protect us

- Suicide rates have skyrocketed in the last few years

- Many schools and businesses have closed because they can’t keep up with the inflation

- A large majority of the youth has left the country

... and I’ll stop there, because I could go on, but I think you can get a pretty good picture just from that.

So no. Things might be bad in your country, but if you go into a store you will probably see aisles properly stocked, and you probably don’t live with the crippling fear of getting sick or killed on the streets for that old cellphone that took months to pay. If anything, you can have hope. Which is something we lost a long time ago.

6- My experience is not less important than what you think you know. I’ve lived here for 27 years, and lived under this regime for almost 20 years of my life. I’ve lost friends, family, people I love. I work three jobs. I never have enough money to save and provide for a better life for my family. My grandmother and mother were middle-class women who worked all of their lives, and still, they have nothing left because we’ve had to use our combined savings to survive in the last 6 years.

My mother and I have cell phones, we need them for our jobs, but we don’t take them out with us anywhere because we know we could get killed for it. So when one of us goes out, the other stays at home praying nothing bad will happen to me/her.

We sold our second-hand car because we couldn’t afford to maintain it, so we depend on our feet and pitiful public transportation to get where we need to go.

We’re afraid of getting sick. And I haven’t had a check-up since 2016 -which was paid by my job at the time.

Still, I’ve had to deal with pro-Maduro foreigners since yesterday -like, for example, Boots Riley-, spouting “facts” at me and dismissing my struggle. Because, I guess, I don’t matter.

So, don’t tell me how the statistics you Googled have convinced you that Venezuela is a wonderful paradise and we all love Maduro. Don’t tell me that my experience contradicts what you think you know, so therefore I’m either lying or unimportant. Keep your Venezuelasplaining to yourself, because I have to actually live it.

So. PSA over!

There’s so much more to say, and so many things to consider...But for now, continue with your lives, and please help educate people outside.

We need it.

[bountyofbeads]

A Deal That Has Two Elections, Rather Than Mideast Peace, as Its Focus https://nyti.ms/37wxfCC

"The only plan that would work is to grant equal rights to all the inhabitants of the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. Isn’t equal rights and democracy what the US stands for and promotes throughout the World. Isn’t this is what is expected for the “Shining City on the Hill”."

DENNIS, COLORADO

A DEAL THAT HAS TWO ELECTIONS, RATHER THAN MIDEAST PEACE, AS IT'S FOCUS

The Israeli-Palestinian peace plan unveiled by President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounds more like a road map for their own futures than for the Middle East.

By David E. Sanger | Published Jan. 28, 2020, 8:05 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted January 28, 2020 |

WASHINGTON — A president trying to prevail in an impeachment trial stood with an Israeli prime minister under indictment on Tuesday to announce a long-delayed plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the result sounded more like a road map for their own futures than for the Middle East.

For President Trump, it is a plan that builds on his decision to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem — a huge political success among his conservative Jewish donors and evangelicals that, contrary to predictions, did not touch off a violent reaction in the region.

Mr. Trump now enters the heart of his election campaign declaring that he has delivered a plan that makes Jerusalem the undivided capital of Israel and relegates the Palestinian capital to a suburb, and one that Mr. Trump, in a triumph of real-estate branding, is suddenly calling “East Jerusalem.”

And the timing is no accident: At a moment when cable television is focused on impeachment and the prospect that the former national security adviser John R. Bolton might testify, Mr. Trump had a chance to stand in the East Room and cast himself as a peacemaker. With rare self-discipline, he never mentioned the word impeachment.

For his part, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel marches toward his March elections wielding the potent argument that Israelis should ignore his indictment on corruption charges and focus on the fact that he, by force of his relationship with Mr. Trump, moved Washington to give permanent legitimacy to the Jewish settlements in disputed territory.

By Sunday, the prime minister said as he was leaving Washington, Israel will essentially annex the strategically vital part of the Jordan Valley that its military already controls. As the Israeli election nears, those moves allow him to sell himself as the Trump whisperer, the indispensable man who bent the White House to his will.

“Strip away the domestic and Israeli political considerations that determined the timing of the plan’s release," said Robert Malley, the president of the International Crisis Group and a former Obama administration official, “and the message to the Palestinians, boiled down to its essence, is: You’ve lost, get over it.”

That message, implicitly or explicitly, rewrites the art of the Middle East deal. By tilting the map of a future Palestinian state so precipitously in Israel’s direction, Mr. Trump has embraced a plan that essentially dismantles 60 years of bipartisan support for a negotiated process between Israelis and Palestinians, in which both make concessions and land swaps that would define the lines of a new map.

As Mr. Trump acknowledged, Washington would no longer play the role of neutral arbiter — even while vowing to be Israel’s source of protection. Instead, the United States has drawn the lines in a series of maps that sketch out a future Palestinian state that is so gerrymandered that it requires the construction of a giant tunnel across Israel to connect two areas of Palestinian control.

To Mr. Trump, this is the merger of deal making, Middle East urban planning and election-year politics — or rather, potential deal making.

A few days ago Mr. Trump said, “I think we’re relatively close but we have to get other people to agree to it.” In other words the “deal of the century” was no deal at all. And the other people were the Palestinians, who dismissed the proposal and the accompanying map on Tuesday hours after its publication.

[ Image: The White House released this map Tuesday as part of its Middle East peace plan. President Trump posted it on Twitter with the message, “This is what a future State of Palestine can look like, with a capital in parts of East Jerusalem."Credit...The White House]

For election purposes, Mr. Trump does not need a deal, he simply needs the impression that progress is being made.

And at the White House on Tuesday, the ambassadors from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman — but not Saudi Arabia, the country Mr. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has worked hardest to woo — were in the room for the announcement, a seeming endorsement of his approach, if not the specifics.

Their presence would have been unimaginable in the past, especially for any announcement that fell well short of creating a real Palestinian state.

And this one certainly falls short of that goal. Mr. Trump’s 180-page plan would require the Palestinians to accept only partial sovereignty over a future Palestinian state, at least for a considerable time, and give up any claim to territory where the Israelis have already accepted settlements. And it asked them to take the bet that, as Mr. Trump promised, they would ultimately get rich because of a $50 billion investment fund, paid for by Arab neighbors.

It has a brilliant twist: The Palestinians do not have to say yes or no for four years. That means their bottom-line response would not come until the very end of Mr. Trump’s next term, if he is re-elected. In the meantime, Israel would freeze settlements in the territory that Mr. Trump has set aside for the Palestinians, much of it areas the Israelis have little interest in.

That proviso defers all the hard questions for several years of negotiations — with their inevitable breakdowns and crises. But it gives Mr. Trump the campaign-trail talking point that he has fulfilled a 2016 promise and proposed an actual solution, rather than just a process.

The proposal, of course, helps Mr. Netanyahu by moving the goal posts. The status of Jerusalem is set out in the Trump document, rather than being a subject of negotiation. And while past presidents lectured Mr. Netanyahu about his creation of Jewish settlements in territories that are subject to negotiation, Mr. Trump’s plan makes them a permanent feature.

To critics, that is the fatal flaw.

Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, who was among the lawmakers briefed by Mr. Kushner at the White House, called it is “a total abandonment of decades of U.S. Middle East policy.”

He was referring to the longtime American support for a deal that would include only modest adjustments to the Israeli borders drawn in 1967, the year of the Arab-Israeli War, and by a process created in the Oslo Accords, which began in 1993 and largely ended with the failed summit in 2000 at Camp David. The premise of those talks was that the Israelis and Palestinians would set up a complex process and inch their way toward agreements on borders, settlements, political rights and the withdrawal of the Israeli military from Palestinian lands.

There were years of talks, stalemates, “road maps to peace,” collapsed negotiations and intifadas.

Mr. Trump, the disrupter, has made it clear he does not believe that approach would work. On Tuesday, he noted that every president since Lyndon B. Johnson had tried and failed to negotiate a peace deal. Always the real-estate mogul, Mr. Trump has declared that he is more interested in working with existing facts on the ground than on creating processes.

So his plan, three years in the making, is less about future negotiations and more about cementing what exists today and making deals around the edges. If the Palestinians take it, he suggested, riches would follow. There would be a million new jobs, he said, and poverty would be cut in half. Mr. Trump has offered a similar incentive to the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un.

It was pretty familiar Trump language, born of a certainty that economic incentives will overcome ethnic, tribal and religious differences, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. And for the Israeli prime minister, it was a plan tailor-made for an election four weeks away. So tailor-made that a dozen Democratic senators wrote in a letter to Mr. Trump on Tuesday that “the timing of this proposal to coincide with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s indictment on bribery charges also raises disturbing questions about your intention to intervene in the Israeli election process.”

Not surprisingly, Mr. Netanyahu disagreed. “It’s a great plan for Israel,” he said, with an enthusiasm he rarely showed during visits to the White House in the Obama years. “It’s a great plan for peace.”

"I find it hypocritical that a 36 year old real estate executive is allowed to lead a peace plan in Israel because he is Trump's son in law, while we have the GOP doubting the competency of Hunter Biden who sat on a private board of directors. Has the world gone insane?" YUSEF, NYC

"Call it what it is. This is the imposition of annexation on a people by main force, with neither voice nor vote in the matter. It has nothing to do with Democracy; indeed it is the very antithesis of democratic government. The article mentions—but does not press—the role of evangelicalism. That is what this is about, at least here in the US. Trump is reminding the GOP Senators, and reassuring his evangelical base, of his original contract with white conservative evangelicalism: he will do ANYTHING to keep them in power (as they see it). He will keep doing whatever he wants, and it is up to them to protect his back. Needless to say, from the point of view of every democratic norm—I refer to the system of government, not the political party—this is hideously shameful behavior, an autocrat flaunting his abuse. I should add, from the point of view of the Christian gospel, treating Palestinians this way—treating ANYONE this way—is despicable." PAUL, ATHENS, GA

" "It was pretty familiar Trump language, born of a certainty that economic incentives will overcome ethnic, tribal and religious differences, despite considerable evidence to the contrary." So this is "imposed peace" through the "deal of the century" effectuated by two leaders desperate for an escape hatch for their legal troubles. It's also "take it or leave it, but whatever you do doesn't matter" with some sort of pledge that Palestininans can vote on it way later when terms are cemented in place. Is this for real? How on earth can you say this is a peace plan, when the terms are dicatated, the advantages all accrue to Isreal, and it was dreamed up by the son of a US president, not any joint Palestinian-Israeli commission?"

CHRISTINE MCM, MASSACHUSETTS

This is not a plan for peace. The Palestinians were not involved in this plan. The plan terminates in four years. The Arab states are supposed to cough up $50 billion to create a Palestinian economy; pigs will fly when that happens. The mountain rumbled and all that came out from it was a mouse and not a very viable mouse either."

STEPHEN KURTZ, ONTARIO CANADA

"Good example of more gaslighting by Trump and Kushner to look like they are getting something done. Of course Trump had to announce it during his impeachment trial to deflect from the not so good news on that front. Jared worked so hard on the plan and didn't even get to be on TV for the announcement." JACQUIE, IOWA

"How is it possible to have a peace plan when there was no agreement with some of the major stakeholders?"

NEAL, DURHAM NC

"This is not a “deal”. It’s an imposition."

JEREMEY, CHICAGO

Kush baby didn’t have to do much to think up this peace plan. All he had to do was copy the treaties signed with native Americans and apply it to the Palestinians. The Israelis get the bounty and the Palestinians get the reservation. So let’s talk peace and forget illegality and corruption. We are solving the Middle East’s most intractable problem." PDH, WOODSTOCK GA

" This “plan” is typical of how Trump thinks and acts. There is little to no acknowledgment or understanding of the long and complex history of the region. It’s focused on the countries and leaders that Trump and his company have benefited from and ignores a vital party to any Mideast peace plan - the Palestinians. It’s transactionally based, mistakenly thinking that tempting the Palestinians with money, most likely with no real credibility or facts behind the amounts being thrown around, will be successful. And it’s all show with little substance. Trump wants to be seen as a deal maker so that he can brag about it at his rallies and help himself and his indicted friend Bibi win re-election. He really doesn’t care about peace in the Mideast. As usual it’s all to benefit Trump." LHW, BOSTON

This is a plan for war and explicit apartheid. At least it makes bare what has always been true- the settler colonial Israeli project is fully US supported, indeed Israel floats on a sea of US money and lives under a US diplomatic umbrella. This also means the US is explicitly hitching its future in the region to the most retrograde and corrupt forces and undermining the hopes of millions upon millions of people. This, along with deliberately acting to worsen relations with Iran will very likely lead to even worse long term bloodshed and chaos in the region. We all will reap the whirlwind." RICKIBOBBI,

CALIFORNIA

                        *********

Trump Outlines Mideast Peace Plan That Strongly Favors Israel

President Trump called the plan, which would discard the longtime goal of granting the Palestinians a full-fledged state, a “win-win” for both sides.

By Michael Crowley, Peter Baker and David M. Halbfinger | Published Jan. 28, 2020 Updated 6:31 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted January 28, 2020 |

WASHINGTON — President Trump unveiled his long-awaited Middle East peace plan with a flourish on Tuesday, outlining a proposal that would give Israel most of what it has sought over decades of conflict while creating what he called a Palestinian state with limited sovereignty.

Mr. Trump’s plan would guarantee that Israel would control a unified Jerusalem as its capital and not require it to uproot any of the settlements in the West Bank that have provoked Palestinian outrage and alienated much of the outside world. He promised to provide $50 billion in international investment to build the new Palestinian entity and open an embassy in its new state.

“My vision presents a win-win opportunity for both sides, a realistic two-state solution that resolves the risk of Palestinian statehood to Israel’s security,” the president said at a White House ceremony that demonstrated the one-sided state of affairs as he was flanked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel but no counterpart from the Palestinian leadership, which is not on speaking terms with the Trump administration.

Mr. Trump insisted his plan would be good for the Palestinians and in his speech reached out to President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, calling on him to join talks to advance the proposal. “President Abbas,” he said, “I want you to know that if you choose the path to peace, America and many other countries, we will be there, we will be there to help you in so many different ways.”

The event in the East Room of the White House had a Kabuki-theater quality to it as Mr. Trump ended years of suspense over a highly anticipated peace plan. But rather than viewing it as a serious blueprint for peace, analysts called it a political document by a president in the middle of an impeachment trial working in tandem with a prime minister under criminal indictment and about to face his third election in the span of a year.

Nearly three years in the making and overseen by Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the plan is the latest of numerous American efforts to settle the 70-plus-year conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. But it marked a sharp turn in the American approach, dropping decades of American support for only modest adjustments to Israeli borders drawn in 1967 and discarding the longtime goal of granting the Palestinians a full-fledged state.

The proposal imagines new Israeli borders that cut far into the West Bank, and, at least in the short term, calls for what Mr. Netanyahu has described as a Palestinian “state-minus,” lacking an army or air force. The White House called it “a demilitarized Palestinian state” with Israel retaining security responsibility west of the Jordan River, although over time the Palestinians would assume more security responsibility.

Mr. Trump said it was the first time that Israel had authorized the release of such a conceptual map illustrating territorial compromises it would make. He said it would “more than double Palestinian territory” while ensuring that “no Palestinians or Israelis will be uprooted from their homes.” The White House said in a fact sheet that Israel had agreed to “a four-year land freeze” to preserve the viability of a Palestinian state.

Mr. Netanyahu welcomed the plan, describing it as “a realistic path to a durable peace” that “strikes the right balance where others have failed.” Calling Mr. Trump the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House, Mr. Netanyahu added: “It’s a great plan for Israel. It’s a great plan for peace.”

The new Palestinian state would have a capital, which the proposal called Al Quds, that would include some of the outer portions of East Jerusalem. The plan would preserve the status quo at the sprawling compound that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary, or Al Aqsa, which is the name of one of two main Islamic shrines there. The location is the holiest place in Judaism and the third-holiest place in Islam, and the site of numerous clashes over the years. Muslims would continue to be permitted to visit Al Aqsa Mosque.

[ The White House released this map Tuesday as part of its Middle East peace plan. President Trump posted it on Twitter with the message, "This is what a future State of Palestine can look like, with a capital in parts of East Jerusalem."Credit...The White House]

The Trump plan promises a $50 billion economic plan for the new Palestinian state that the White House claimed would create 1 million new jobs over 10 years, double the size of the Palestinian economy, cut poverty in half and reduce unemployment below 10 percent.

By asking the Palestinians to make far more territorial concessions than past proposals, though, Mr. Trump’s plan provided an American imprimatur of support to decades of aggressive Israeli settlement-building in Palestinian areas seized in two wars between Israel and Arab states. And it sent a grim message to the Palestinians that they have missed their chance to win the “two-state solution” they long pursued — as least so long as Mr. Trump is president.

Mr. Kushner and a small circle of Trump officials chose not to pursue the traditional path of brokering talks between the two parties that could lead to a joint proposal, but to hand one down from Washington. Peace-process veterans say that last happened under President Ronald Reagan in 1982.

Working secretively, Mr. Kushner and his team — which included the American ambassador to Israel, David M. Friedman, a strong supporter of Israeli settlement construction — consulted closely with Mr. Netanyahu’s government. But their contact with Palestinian officials ended after Mr. Trump moved the United States embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in December 2017.

Rather than court the Palestinians after that, the Trump administration only increased pressure on them, cutting off American funding for Palestinian areas and shuttering the Palestinian diplomatic office in Washington.

That dashed the initial hopes of Palestinians who believed that Mr. Trump’s unorthodox approach toward foreign policy, and his love for a grand deal, could lead him to pressure Israel to a degree they felt previous American presidents had not.

In the near term, the 80-page plan is most likely to stir up Israeli and American politics. Mr. Trump is sure to cite the plan’s pro-Israel slant on the 2020 campaign trail to win support from conservative Jewish Americans in Florida and other key states, along with the Evangelical Christians who are some of his strongest backers and support Israeli expansion in the Holy Land.

While the Palestinians are nearly certain to reject the plan, Trump allies say they will be closely watching other Arab governments with whom Mr. Trump has established close relations and who have thawed relations with Israel, to see whether they might give the plan any political cover.

Speaking in Tel Aviv on Monday, Nikki Haley, Mr. Trump’s former United Nations Ambassador, suggested that such Arab support could force the Palestinians to come to the table. “If the Arab countries respond favorably to the plan, or even if they don’t run to the Palestinian side, that’s going to be a huge, telling lesson to the Palestinians that they may not have the backing they had before,” she said.

______

Michael Crowley and Peter Baker reported from Washington, and David M. Halbfinger reported from Jerusalem.

_____

"As a descendent of Palastinians, on the one hand I am heartens by the gradual shift in public opinion which is evident in the comments. On the other hand it is also demoralizing that the fate of a people's aspirations is in large part dependent on convincing enough ordinary American citizens, thousands of miles away, that their cause is just and worthwhile."ZG, MARYLAND

"How does one country give away another to a third one? Should we worry Canada might give the US away to China? Somewhere is a mention of $5B. Is this more or less than the Palestinian taxes Israel has been withholding from Palestine? Who is going to pay it? Surely the Palestinians know that their land will be gone and the check will be in the mail."

TIBBY ELGATO, WEST COUNTY, Republic of CALIFORNIA

"A plan supposed to decide the fate of Palestinians, without one of their representatives taking part in the discussions. It reeks of colonialism."

MARTIN DEL CONTE, NYC

"Trump is saying that if the Palestinians agree to this "plan" that he will have their back. If I were a Palestinian, I would seek advice from a Kurd about Trump's trustworthiness."

POTLEMAC, STOW MA

"Trump is saying that if the Palestinians agree to this "plan" that he will have their back. If I were a Palestinian, I would seek advice from a Kurd about Trump's trustworthiness." SAM, MADRID, SPAIN

"So let me get this straight. In order to bring two sides of a land dispute to an agreement, Trump goes to one side, develops a policy they're willing to accept, and calls it a done deal? No wonder Trump University failed." SOME DUDE, SIERRA COUNTRY, CA

"How appalling to see these two felons trying to distract us with their nonsense." NEW ENGLAND We, Boston

"Pretty brazen move to bolster Netanyahu in the upcoming elections. Let’s see, not only does Trump illegally seek interference from a foreign country in our election but he’s in bed with Netanyahu trying to influence Israel’s election. Any more reasons why Trump needs to go NOW, and Netanyahu needs to indicted and prosecuted? "VIC OF NY, NJ

                        *********

A Muted Arab Response to Trump’s Mideast Peace Plan

The U.S. is banking on Arab leaders to help make its plan for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict work. It is not clear how realistic that is.

By Ben Hubbard and Declan Walsh |

Published Jan. 28, 2020 Updated Jan. 29, 2020, 5:44 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted January 29, 2020 |

BEIRUT, Lebanon — In unveiling his plan Tuesday for solving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, President Trump confidently declared that Arab countries would play a key role in its success.

But none of the United States’ Arab allies formally endorsed the plan or made concrete commitments to back it, raising questions about how helpful they will really be in bringing it to fruition.

Mr. Trump announced the plan in an appearance at the White House with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, describing it both as necessary for Israel’s security and as an opportunity for the Palestinians to govern themselves and grow their economy.

There are “many, many countries who want to partake in this,” he told Mr. Netanyahu, predicting that “you are going to have tremendous support from your neighbors and beyond your neighbors.”

But clear indications of that support were lacking.

While three Arab ambassadors — from Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates — were present at the announcement, Mr. Trump said, there were no Palestinians.

“You couldn’t find a single Palestinian to attend?” asked Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian journalist and columnist with Al-Monitor, an online news site.

And despite Egypt and Jordan having peace treaties with Israel, and Mr. Trump having chosen Saudi Arabia for the first overseas trip of his presidency, “none of them came,” Mr. Daoud noted.

For decades, the Palestinian cause was that rare issue that united Arabs across the Middle East. But in recent years, it waned in importance as the peace process foundered.

Some Arab leaders turned their focus inward to domestic security and economic problems. Others, including Persian Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have come to see Iran as the region’s greatest threat, and Israel as a potential ally against it.

Concerns about Iran had become “much more existential than the Palestinian issue,” Mr. Kuttab said. “They are worried about their physical presence being threatened from Iran, much more than Israel,” he said.

Still, for all the changes, Arab leaders refrained from publicly backing Mr. Trump’s plan.

In his address at the White House on Tuesday, Mr. Trump thanked Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates “for the incredible work they’ve done in helping us with so much,” and noted that their ambassadors were in attendance. But even those countries did not formally endorse the plan.

Some other countries took a notedly measured stance.

The foreign ministry of Egypt, the first Arab country to reach a peace treaty with Israel, praised Mr. Trump’s efforts to reach an agreement, but the language of its statement remained inside the boundaries of Egypt’s longstanding policy on the conflict.

Egypt “appreciates the continuous efforts” of the Trump administration to end the conflict, the statement said. It encouraged both sides to resume talks that might eventually restore to Palestinians their “full legitimate rights through the establishment of a sovereign independent state.”

The carefully worded statement was a clear expression of support for the American president, if not for the plan itself, from Egypt’s authoritarian ruler, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whom Mr. Trump once called “my favorite dictator.”

The Trump administration is currently mediating a dispute involving Egypt by hosting negotiations with officials from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over a contentious $4 billion dam that Ethiopia is building.

Jordan, another American ally that has made peace with the Jewish state, effectively ignored Mr. Trump’s plan and restated its commitment to many of the Palestinian demands that the White House proposal disregarded. Among them: the general borders of a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.

In a statement, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Jordan would continue to work with Arab countries and the international community for “the achievement of a just and lasting peace that meets all the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”

Saudi Arabia, too, praised Mr. Trump’s efforts, but did not endorse his plan. The kingdom stuck to its longstanding stance that negotiations should lead to “an agreement that achieves legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”

The de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has broken with previous Saudi leaders by speaking of Israel’s right to its own land and by praising its economy. But Prince Mohammed has not taken formal steps to improve relations because of potential blowback from his own population.

As American allies reacted cautiously to the proposal, adversaries heaped scorn on the United States for its support for Israel.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and political party, called Mr. Trump’s plan “the deal of shame” and pointed an accusing finger at those Arab countries that have allied themselves with the United States.

“This deal would not have taken place had it not been for the complicity and betrayal of a number of Arab regimes, secretly and publicly involved in this conspiracy,” it said in a statement.

In much of the Arab world, Mr. Trump’s proposal was variously received with outrage, humiliation or weary resignation. Hostility toward the Americans and Israelis appeared matched only by a sense of disillusionment among some Arabs toward their own leaders.

[ IMAGE: A mural on  a Gaza City street on Tuesday depicted Mr. Trump with a footprint on his face.Credit...Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images ]

“Historical farces are repeating themselves,” Gamal Eid, a veteran human rights activist in Cairo, said on Twitter. “From the miserable 1917 Balfour Declaration to the farcical 2020 Trump Declaration. And Arab leaders are either useless or cheering.”

Nabil Fahmy, a former foreign minister of Egypt, said he feared that Mr. Trump’s proposal would not only fail to bring peace to the region, but that it might also scupper the chances for a lasting deal.

“To put the proposal this way, you must want to have it rejected,” he said. “And if you reject this deal, you are destroying the tenets of the peace process and all possibilities for progress. It is just astonishing.”

Ali Shihabi, a commentator close to the government of Saudi Arabia, said the plan was “all downside and no upside for U.S. allies in the region.”

Paula Yacoubian, a member of the Lebanese Parliament, was equally dismissive. “A deal from one side is the joke of the century,” she said on Twitter.

Mohamed ElBaradei, a former vice president of Egypt, said he felt the same sense of shame and humiliation that followed the defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. “How would we justify this miserable state of affairs to the upcoming generations?” he wrote on Twitter.

For many, the Trump proposal marked another dismal milestone in what many Arabs view as America’s decades-long abandonment of the Palestinian cause.

A thread of mournful, broader regret ran through some of the commentary, too, a sense that a cause that had united the Middle East for decades was quietly fading away, losing its relevance, and that ordinary Arabs were simply losing interest.

Some said young Arabs were simply preoccupied by the violence or political turmoil that followed the 2011 uprising in several countries, or had themselves been silenced.

“If the governments of the region were representing the will of their people, then perhaps Arab voices would be louder,” said Timothy E. Kaldas, a Cairo-based analyst with the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. “But with the extraordinary repression the region has seen, with regimes uninterested in critical conversations in their own countries, it’s very hard to see what the publics in those countries could actually do.”

_____

Ben Hubbard reported from Beirut, and Declan Walsh from Cairo. Nada Rashwan contributed reporting from Cairo.

______

"Why would President Abbas and the Palestinians accept an offer from an American president who has both been working against their aspirations since his election and a dismal track record of not keeping international agreements? To that one would have to add than the Palestinians would never see the full $ 50 billion bribe. Of course, refusing to play ball on a playing field steeply tilted against them will prompt Netanyahu, with Trump’s approving consent. to go ahead with annexing both the illegal West Bank settlements and the Jordan valley. The latter would deprive the Palestinians of their only major fresh water source. This theft is not even comparable to the US annexing the Rio Grande valley along our Mexican border, as the thus deprived Mexicans can migrate further into Mexico to seek other arable lands. The Palestinians don’t have that option in the arid region of the West Bank. This is a recipe for a major human disaster for which we are not only consensual, but guilty."RUDY, FALMOUTH MA

"This is perverse. As a jew I have long wondered if I would/could feel the same allegiance to Israel that my parents and grandparents have. The answer is a decisive no. I understand security is a constant concern for Israelis but, having visited there, I could not help but observe latent (and often overt) bigotry among the population. The general consensus was almost a dehumanization of the Palestinian people. I suppose that must make it easier to occupy and oppress these people for generations. It would also explain how they can continue to vote a gollum like Netanyahu into office over and over again. I know it hurts Americans, particularly American Jews, to acknowledge it but...we are effectively supporting apartheid South Africa right now. You can say it's more complicated than that but you cannot justify what we are doing to the Palestinian people. Not to mention the land we are allowing settlers to steal from the increasingly cramped Palestinian territories. History will not look kindly on our continued support/enablement of this Israeli occupation."

HALBORO, EARTH

" The Arabs were offered nearly everything that they demanded" The warden painted the guard towers in pastel shades and increased the exercise yard area by 50%, and still the prisoners complain!" ASG21, DENVER

"As an American Jew, I was horrified by the "Deal of the Century" proposed by Trump> he promoted it as a "win-win" yet I see a complete imbalance, giving nearly complete control of Jerusalem, with the exception of small areas to Israel and suggesting there might be an eventual pathway to Palestinian sovereignty but only if they completely agree to one-sided terms. It was of no surprise the the Palestinian Authority (PA) rejected it out of hand. And also no surprise that the peace plan was announced a month before Netanyahu and Gantz have their third election and radically different from what has been discussed over the past three years. This could have been a great opportunity for lasting peace. Instead its just "kick the can down the road""

LORRAINE, SUDBERY, MA

"Some Peace Plan. Apparently, Trump, Bibi, and Kushner forgot that there can’t be peace in the Holy Land without the Palestinians." JULIO Wong,

EL DORADO, OH

"There is little difference between this so-called "peace plan" and the vile apartheid system that once characterized South Africa. This plan was designed to be rejected as were all the other so-called "peace plans." No self-respecting Palestinian leader could sign on to it. Anyone who really wants peace must oppose it. Without justice for the Palestinians, a justice that has been denied them since 1967, there will never be peace. This plan does nothing to give the Palestinians the justice that they and every person in the world deserves. It perpetuates Israeli occupation and oppression." JAN, CA

*********

Trump’s Mideast Plan Could Give Israel Sovereignty Over Much of Jordan Valley

The president, joined by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, will announce the plan at the White House on Tuesday.

By Michael Crowley and Isabel Kershner | Published Jan. 27, 2020 Updated Jan. 28, 2020, 3:51 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted January 28, 2020 |

WASHINGTON — President Trump will release a long-awaited Middle East peace plan on Tuesday that is expected to include a proposal for new Israeli borders and provide for Israeli sovereignty over much of the Jordan Valley, a strategic area on the eastern frontier of the West Bank abutting Jordan.

Mr. Trump will be joined at the White House for the announcement by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister.

Palestinian leaders, who no longer speak to Trump officials, are likely to oppose each of those elements, even if they are combined with the economic rewards of $50 billion or more that the Trump administration says it can deliver.

That is why many analysts say the plan, developed under the supervision of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, is relevant mainly for its potential effect on Israel’s March 2 election, which is likely to decide the fate of the embattled Mr. Netanyahu, and as a distraction from the Senate’s impeachment trial of Mr. Trump.

“One can’t ignore the obvious domestic political context to everything that is going to happen in the next couple of days, both here in the United States and in Israel,” said Robert Satloff, the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “In my view, that drives what is about to happen as much as Middle East peace may drive it.”

Speaking alongside Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Trump said that his proposal, nearly three years in the making, constituted “the closest we’ve ever come” to an agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians and that “we will ultimately have the support of the Palestinians,” a view few view regional experts share.

Mr. Netanyahu’s opponent in the election, Mr. Gantz, traveled separately from his rival to Washington to meet with Mr. Trump on Monday, and flew home after the meeting. Mr. Netanyahu remained in Washington and will appear alongside Mr. Trump at the White House on Tuesday for remarks unveiling the plan.

Mr. Gantz’s allies complained that the joint appearance inappropriately elevated Mr. Netanyahu, who has been a close Trump ally, over Mr. Gantz. Perhaps underscoring the point, Mr. Trump did not invite reporters into the meeting he held with Mr. Gantz shortly after Mr. Netanyahu’s visit.

Asked by reporters about hosting the two rivals in highly unusual back-to-back sessions, Mr. Trump professed neutrality but said he was impatient with Israel’s tangled politics, which have produced three national elections in the past year. Ballots in April and September ended inconclusively, with neither Mr. Netanyahu nor Mr. Gantz able to muster a majority government.

“They’re two good competitors. They’re fighting it out,” Mr. Trump said with Mr. Netanyahu at his side. “I’ve been waiting now — this is my third election. We keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting. So, let’s go. What kind of a system is that?”

Speaking in the Oval Office alongside the president on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu showered his host with flattery.

“You’ve been the greatest man Israel had in the White House,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “I think tomorrow you can continue making history.”

Mr. Gantz, too, praised Mr. Trump in remarks to reporters after he left the White House, calling the president “a true and courageous friend of the State of Israel,” and thanking Mr. Trump for his “profound support of Israel’s citizens and for his commitment to their security.” He called Mr. Trump’s peace proposal “a significant and historic milestone.”

An American plan providing for Israeli sovereignty — also known as annexation — over large portions of the Jordan Valley would present both Mr. Netanyahu and his opponent with a quandary.

It could force Mr. Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political future and his freedom — he is facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust — out of his risk-averse comfort zone and put his credibility with his supporters, and his legacy, on the line. The unveiling of the plan will occur on the same day his bid for parliamentary immunity from prosecution on the corruption charges gets underway in Israel.

Even if the American plan proposes annexation of the Jordan Valley only as part of a larger compromise with the Palestinians, any approval from Washington for the idea of Israeli control of the area is likely to increase pressure on Mr. Netanyahu from his right-wing partners to move ahead immediately and unilaterally.

“The time for talk is over — full sovereignty now,” Naftali Bennett, Mr. Netanyahu’s defense minister and the leader of a right-wing party Mr. Netanyahu depends on for support,  urged last week on Twitter. “Within two weeks we must impose sovereignty over all the settlements.”

Unilateral annexation, however, is not without risk, and something that Israeli leaders, including Mr. Netanyahu, have avoided for decades. For one thing, it could undermine Israel’s strategic peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt. It could also fuel Palestinian unrest or a violent reaction, costing lives on both sides.

For Mr. Gantz, the leader of the centrist Blue and White party, embracing the plan could alienate his more left-leaning supporters and send them back to their more traditional political home, the left-wing Labor-Meretz alliance, tipping the electoral scale away from him.

If Mr. Gantz rejects the plan or gives it a lukewarm reception, that could send his more right-leaning supporters back to Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud or other parties in the right-wing bloc, likewise snatching away the chance of a slim victory.

At a minimum, the peace plan will complicate Mr. Gantz’s efforts to focus Israeli voters’ attention on the cases against Mr. Netanyahu, which he referred to in comments after the meeting. “No one has the right to lead an entire country, at such an intricate diplomatic and security timing, when all of his interests and thoughts are devoted to his own interests,” he said.

“Netanyahu,” he added, “cannot both run a country and run a trial.”

Mr. Gantz also attempted to carve out his own position on the peace plan, welcoming it while distinguishing himself from Mr. Netanyahu by indicating that he prefers not to move unilaterally, but in coordination with Israel’s peace partners.

“Immediately after the elections, I will work toward implementing it from within a stable, functioning Israeli government, in tandem with the other countries in our region,” he said.

As for the weak and ailing Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, acceptance of the plan is impossible since it does not meet the most minimal of Palestinian demands. But refusal leaves his people divided between the West Bank and Gaza, with no state and no road map for the future.

“It is nothing but a plan to liquidate the Palestinian cause,” Muhammad Shtayyeh, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, said at a cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday.

A senior Palestinian official said on Monday that Mr. Abbas had recently received an offer, made through a third party, to speak with Mr. Trump, but declined to do so. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Trump sounded energized on Monday by the scale of the challenge before him.

“I think it’s a fantastic thing if we can pull it off,” he said. “They say it’s probably the most difficult deal anywhere and of any kind to make. In the business world, when I was back in the business world, when a deal was tough, people would jokingly refer to it as, ‘This is tougher than Israel and the Palestinians getting together.’”

Mr. Trump also asserted of the plan: “Many of the Arab nations have agreed to it. They like it. They think it’s great.” No Arab leader has publicly embraced the as-yet-unreleased plan. But Mike Evans, an evangelical leader and Trump ally who has met with several senior Arab officials, said that “even though many won’t say it publicly, quietly they are on board.”

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the liberal advocacy group J Street, said it was unlikely that the plan would win strong Arab support, particularly from Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

“We don’t expect what we’re going to hear tomorrow to be an actual plan for peace,” said Mr. Ben-Ami, who supports greater Palestinian rights. “This is really an effort to shift longstanding U.S. policy into alignment with the hardest-right positions that Israel has ever taken on these issues.”

“It’s not an effort to resolve this conflict,” he added. “It is an effort to redefine what is the baseline of U.S. policy.”

______

Michael Crowley reported from Washington, and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem. David M. Halbfinger contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Mohammed Najib from Ramallah, West Bank.

                        *********

[askavenezuelan]

Art. 233 and 333 - Or how Guaidó ended up as interim President of Venezuela

Another question we received, which is very important to clarify:

“What exactly does it say in the constitution for Guaidó to take power how he did 

Cause this is what I’m told “in absense of s president this guy can act as interim president until new elections take place” as I really oversimplified but is that the idea” 

-  @the-history-munarch  

Let’s start at the beginning:

The reason Venezuelans have been clarifying that what is happening in the country is not a coup is that every move made by Guaidó and the National Assembly is based on the Constitution. Particularly, articles 233, 333 and 350.

Here’s what those articles say:

Article 233:

The President of the Republic shall become permanently unavailable to serve by reason of any of the following events: death; resignation; removal from office by decision of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice; permanent physical or mental disability certified by a medical board designated by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice with the approval of the National Assembly; abandonment of his position, duly declared by the National Assembly; and recall by popular vote. 

When an elected President becomes permanently unavailable to serve prior to his inauguration, a new election by universal suffrage and direct ballot shall be held within 30 consecutive days. Pending election and inauguration of the new President, the President of the National Assembly shall take charge of the Presidency of the Republic. 

When the President of the Republic becomes permanently unavailable to serve during the first four years of this constitutional term of office, a new election by universal suffrage and direct ballot shall be held within 30 consecutive days. Pending election and inauguration of the new President, the Executive Vice-President shall take charge of the Presidency of the Republic. In the cases described above, the new President shall complete the current constitutional term of office. If the President becomes permanently unavailable to serve during the last two years of his constitutional term of office, the Executive Vice-President shall take over the Presidency of the Republic until such term is completed. 

Art. 333:

This Constitution shall not cease to be in effect if it ceases to be observed due to acts of force or because or repeal in any manner other than as provided for herein. In such eventuality, every citizen, whether or not vested with official authority, has a duty to assist in bringing it back into actual effect.  

Art 350:

The people of Venezuela, true to their republican tradition and their struggle for independence, peace and freedom, shall disown any regime, legislation or authority that violates democratic values, principles and guarantees or encroaches upon human rights.

The basics

So, how does this all work?

Well, it’s anything but simple. 

Let’s start with the articles listed above:

1- The Government of Venezuela lead by Maduro has repeatedly violated democratic “values, principles and guarantees” as well as human rights. So under Art. 350, Venezuelans are in their right to disregard their leadership and remove them from power.

2- Since Maduro’s Government has violated the Constitution by stripping the National Assembly (the main institution chosen by the people) of its duties, creating an illegal alternate Parliament, as well as repeatedly infringing articles regarding the role of the National Armed Forces and other institutions, violating basic human rights established in the Constitution, and even ignoring and/or manipulating processes in it... Art. 333 allows citizens to take actions that will bring the Constitution “back into actual effect”.

3- In that sense, the people have demanded exactly that from their National Assembly. And after holding sham elections called by the illegal Constituent Assembly (instead of the National Assembly chosen by the people), Maduro’s rule was declared illegitimate by the National Assembly. By straying away from legality, Maduro has abandoned his position, and therefore there’s a power vacuum in place.

**It’s important to note here, that Venezuelans tried to implement a “recall by popular vote” before Maduro tried to re-elect himself. However, the Electorate Council -controlled by Maduro supporters- pushed back against the possibility, as courts -also controlled by Maduro supporters- lifted complaints against the process of collecting signatures in favor of the referendum, and declared it null. Later on, they also claimed “irregularities” in the signatures that the opposition had managed to collect, and finally suspended the process indefinitely in October of 2016.

This sparked outrage, and during the first months of 2017 deadly protests took place all over the country.

To add insult to injury, while the National Assembly was trying to determine the next steps to take by consulting the people, Maduro took the chance to hastily establish the Constituent Assembly, supported by the Electorate Council, the same that refused the Venezuelans’ right to demand a referendum. **   

So, since there is no President, someone must take his place. Since the Vice-President (currently: Delcy Rodríguez) is also one of the members of the Government infringing the Constitution, the President of the National Assembly must take his place. 

Enter Guaidó.

Guaidó took the role of President of the National Assembly on January, 5th of 2019, while Maduro was declared President of Venezuela on January, 10th of 2019, by the illegal National Constituent Assembly appointed by him. 

Following his usurpation of the role, Guaidó and the National Assembly did “cabildos” (town halls), where they met with people all over Venezuela on streets and squares, so they could explain the complex situation and present their solution: a three-step plan that would return the country to a democratic path.

The plan included:

First: the end of the usurpation by Maduro’s Government. That is: Maduro and his political cronies would have to step down from their current positions.

Second: establishing a transitional Government, led by the National Assembly, as the only legitimate representatives of the people.

And third: calling for free elections, so a new President, truly elected by the majority, could be appointed.

People showed their support to this idea, and they demanded that Guaidó took his role as Interim President, which he did in January, 23rd.

So that’s where we are it right now.

So, why hasn’t Guaidó called for elections yet?  

As seen in the articles mentioned above, our Constitution determined 30 days to call for new elections in case of a power void.

However, like everything in Venezuela, it’s not that simple.

Not only has the usurpation of the ex-Government continued -that is, they still control all institutions and refuse to step down, as well as having the Armed Forces and militias on their side-, but there’s a long and complex process ahead that involves a deep cleanse of all institutions currently hijacked by Maduro’s goons, including the Electorate Council that organizes and audits all elections in the country.

Without a proper cleanse and the establishment of certain conditions that guarantee free and transparent elections (including: no political prisoners, lifting the unfair ban on popular opposition leaders, allowing all Venezuelans in foreign countries to vote, guaranteeing that the departing Government won’t harass, menace or buy the votes of public workers and poor people that have benefitted from certain social programs, etc.), we’ll find ourselves facing the same scenario: rigged elections that will benefit Maduro.

Here’s a great Twitter thread that explains part of what would be needed to grant free and fair elections.

The bottom line

As you’ll see, our Constitution wasn’t anywhere near ready for a situation as critical as ours, so there are many gaps and interpretations that make our current situation extremely delicate.

What’s important to understand is this:

- Guaidó did not "declare himself” President. He took a responsibility established by the Constitution with the support of the Venezuelan people.

- The importance of foreign support is this: there’s no way Guaidó could fulfill any of his roles as President while all institutions are still under Maduro’s claws, and the rest of the countries look away. 

It took so long to get here because for years the rest of the world has only vaguely lamented the difficult situation, called for dialogues (that never see any results) and at the same time fed Maduro’s corrupt Government by maintaining regular commercial relationships with his goons.

That the world has finally understood the gravity of Maduro’s illegality and corruption; and recognized the need to take a strong stance, is a huge step for our voices to be finally heard so we can get our country back on track.  

- It’s not enough to say “we need elections”, because right now there’s not a level playing field, and until there isn’t, we’re still under Maduro’s thumb. So there’s a lot to be done.

Hope this helps, @the-history-munarch

Anything you’d like to ask, let us know!

[shamrockaceart]

A flat grey horseshoe with a dotted and a faint line pattern on top. Originally posted to Instagram on 30th April 2016. Watermarks have been added where previously there were none.

[sweet-beezus]

Thinking about old character designs again...

[creepingsharia]

A Month of Islam in America: March 2019

A Month of Islam in America: March 2019

When Democrats took over the House after the 2018 elections, the House Homeland Security monthly report on terror, aka the Terror Threat Snapshot, was not only discontinued but previous reports were deleted from the government website. This is our version with a focus on Islamization in the U.S. that is much broader than just terror (jihad).

This month’s theme is one liberals and Muslims claim to champion: Diversity. As seen below, they are indeed diverse, but they all have one thing in common: Islam.

Links below may not work unless you know how to find archived posts because the tech police are now enforcing sharia law on Americans. You can easily search the names of the perpetrators and find articles on mainstream news sites or search for the described incident for more details. We likely won’t have time to rebuild all the links but are posting here for reference.

Future generations will thank you!

March 2019

Jihad & Terror

New Jersey: Muslim Sentenced to 16 Years Prison for NYC Bomb Plot on Behalf of ISIS

Gregory Lepsky, 22, of Point Pleasant, New Jersey, was sentenced today to 16 years in prison for planning to construct and use a pressure cooker bomb in New York on behalf of a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

Wisconsin: Muslim convert in Milwaukee who tried to join ISIS gets seven years

Jason Ludke pleaded guilty in October. He committed the crime while on supervision for threatening to kill a federal judge and bomb a Green Bay courthouse. He had cut off a GPS monitoring bracelet before leaving for Texas.

Georgia: Muslim Woman Arrested For Conspiring To Provide Material Support To ISIS

KIM ANH VO joined the United Cyber Caliphate (the “UCC”), an online group that pledged allegiance to ISIS and committed to carrying out online attacks and cyber intrusions against Americans.

New Mexico: Muslims who ran Islamic compound charged with planning terror attacks in the U.S.

A federal grand jury sitting in Albuquerque, New Mexico returned a superseding indictment on March 13 charging Jany Leveille, 36, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, Hujrah Wahhaj, 38, Subhanah Wahhaj, 36, and Lucas Morton, 41, with federal offenses related to terrorism, kidnapping and firearms violations.

The superseding indictment charges all of the defendants with participating in a conspiracy from October 2017 to August 2018 to provide material support and resources, including currency, training, weapons, and personnel, knowing and intending that they were to be used in preparation for and in carrying out attacks to kill officers and employees of the United States, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339A.

Sidebar: Terror-linked CAIR offered them condolences (pic at right)

California man threatens to kill First Baptist Dallas pastor ‘in the name of Allah’

“I will assassinate your pastor in the name of Allah,” said a portion of the letter quoted in federal court documents. “I will burn down Christian churches … this is a threat.”

Missouri: Muslim Refugee Pleads Guilty to Providing Material Support to Terrorists

Armin Harcevic, 41, pled guilty today to an indictment in this case that charged him with one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and one count of providing material support to terrorists.

Wisconsin: Muslim woman pleads guilty to providing support to ISIS

Waheba Dais used social media sites to promote ISIS ideology.

Prosecutors say the 45-year-old woman hacked at least five Facebook accounts. She allegedly used them to pledge allegiance to ISIS and attempt to recruit others to join and conduct attacks on the terror group’s behalf.

Court documents go on to say Dais posted videos with instructions for making explosive vests and bombs — and exchanged information with other suspected ISIS sympathizers on how to make poison.

North Dakota: Somali Woman Charged With Terrorizing Neighborhood Was Previously Tied to Human Sex Trafficking Case

Hawo Osman Ahmed, 26, is charged with a Class C felony of Terrorizing stemming from an incident last November 29 when she confronted three women from her Grand Forks apartment complex with a knife. According to a Grand Forks Police Department affidavit filed in the case, Ahmed said to the women “I’m going to bust all your tires on your car and windows,” “Come over here I’m going to cut you,” and “I’m going to slice your neck,” all while holding the weapon.

North Carolina: Jordanian Muslim who tried to access Fort Bragg special ops facility faces 7 charges, deportation

Court proceedings for Nouran Ahmad Shiba Sueidan were held before Judge Robert T. Numbers in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

″[ICE] will seek to take him into custody for removal proceedings following the resolution of the criminal charges he currently faces,” Bryan Cox, a spokesman for the agency’s southern region, said last week.

Illinois: Bosnian refugee woman pleads guilty to funding fellow Muslim who died waging jihad in Syria

An Illinois woman on Thursday pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists for her role in funding a St. Louis County man who fought and died in Syria.

Mediha Medy Salkicevic, 38, of Schiller Park, Illinois, agreed with prosecutors’ claims that she sent money via PayPal to co-defendant Ramiz Hodzic, who then used the money to buy supplies that he sent to Syria. Salkicevic could face up to 15 years in prison at her sentencing in June, although defense lawyer Joan Miller said she expected a lot less. Salkicevic, originally from Bosnia, is now a U.S. citizen, Miller said.

Philadelphia: Mosque under investigation after child bride says “husband” sexually assaulted her 10-year old sister

Police are now investigating whether child weddings are being conducted at a Philadelphia mosque after a sexual assault victim comes forward to Action News.

In a Facebook video posted two weeks ago, one of the alleged victims describes her ordeal. She’s 17 now but says she first became a child bride at 14.

She says it didn’t last. And in 2016, she says she was married off to Rajmann Sanders, a man more than twice her age who then allegedly began sexually assaulting her and her 10-year-old sister.

Islamic Rape & Violence Against Americans

Dem Senator Kirsten Gillibrand fires Muslim aide after Politico investigates sexual harassment claims against him

Minnesota: Muslim immigrant who raped 10-year old girl gets just 12 years prison

Immigration Jihad in America

California: How did a Muslim refugee – arrested for ISIS cop killing – get into the U.S.? (VIDEO)

New York: “In Collaboration With NYPD,” Muslims Begin Muslim Community Patrol

Kansas: Overland Park Planning Commission Approves Muslim Brotherhood Mosque Expansion Next to Public Schools

Sharia in Your Community

Illinois: Chicago imam says Islamic caliphate our ultimate aim

Dallas: Outfront Media Refuses Billboard Offering Help to Muslim Girls at Risk of Honor Violence, Runs Ads Promoting Hijab

Minnesota: New task force led by Muslim AG and terror-linked Muslim groups may get opportunity to enforce Islamic blasphemy laws

Amazon Bans Tommy Robinson’s Book, ‘Mohammed’s Koran’, Mein Kampf Still Available

Sharia in American Education

Houston: Muslim Children Sing: ‘Allah Akbar, Khamenei Is Our Leader…We Are Your Soldiers’ (VIDEO)

Tennessee: Nashville charter school uses supremacist hadiths to teach Islam

Arkansas: Public high school teacher uses art project to indoctrinate students in Islamic faith

Student-housing deal structured to comply with Islamic sharia law includes 911 units in five U.S. cities

Sharia Adherents in Elected Office

San Francisco: Judge frees Muslim terror suspect who had one-way ticket, talked of killing U.S. soldiers

Virginia: Anti-Semitic Tweeting Muslim Democrat with Hamas-linked Donors Wins Special Election

Special election results in first Muslim woman “hijabi” in Pennsylvania House of Representatives

Florida: Terror-Connected Muslim Lawyer Running for City Commissioner of Coral Springs

Tennessee: Days before inauguration, Gov. Bill Lee prioritized meeting Muslim Council while denying requests for meetings with non-Muslim groups

Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar Holding Secret Fundraisers with Terror-linked Islamic Groups

Minnesota: Bill Will Ban Driving With Mobile Phone…Unless Phone is in a Hijab or Scarf

Arizona: Democrat Senate Candidate Mark Kelly Returns Thousands To United Arab Emirates

Pennsylvania: Dems, Specially-Elected Muslim Lawmaker Decry Opening Prayer as Divisive; Applaud Koran Reading

New Jersey Politicians Blind to Travel Agent’s Muslim Brotherhood Connections

Fraud for Jihad in America

Connecticut: Syrian Psychiatrist Agrees to Pay $3.38 Million to Settle Medicare, Medicaid Fraud

Louisiana: Muslim – who plotted to kill girlfriend’s unborn baby – arrested in $1.2M food stamp fraud

Florida: Davenport doctor settles health care fraud lawsuit for $2.2M

And last, a rare month where the sharia onslaught was halted, albeit temporarily, in multiple cases:

California: Anti-Islamophobia Settlement Bars Terror-linked Muslim Group CAIR from Indoctrinating Students in San Diego School District

Idaho: Bill to ban female genital mutilation (FGM) clears state Senate

Pennsylvania: Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Filed By Islamic Group Against Lutheran Pastor

Federal judge strikes down request to expedite case of ISIS bride who wants to come to U.S.

[a-room-of-my-own]

Four years ago, I wrote about my decision to live as a woman in The New York Times, writing that I had wanted to live “authentically as the woman that I have always been,” and had “effectively traded my white male privilege to become one of America’s most hated minorities.”

Three years ago, I decided that I was neither male nor female, but nonbinary—and made headlines after an Oregon judge agreed to let me identify as a third sex, not male or female.

Now, I want to live again as the man that I am.

I’m one of the lucky ones. Despite participating in medical transgenderism for six years, my body is still intact. Most people who desist from transgender identities after gender changes can’t say the same.

But that’s not to say I got off scot-free. My psyche is eternally scarred, and I’ve got a host of health issues from the grand medical experiment.

Here’s how things began.

After convincing myself that I was a woman during a severe mental health crisis, I visited a licensed nurse practitioner in early 2013 and asked for a hormone prescription. “If you don’t give me the drugs, I’ll buy them off the internet,” I threatened.

Although she’d never met me before, the nurse phoned in a prescription for 2 mg of oral estrogen and 200 mg of Spironolactone that very same day.

The nurse practitioner ignored that I have chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, having previously served in the military for almost 18 years. All of my doctors agree on that. Others believe that I have bipolar disorder and possibly borderline personality disorder.

I should have been stopped, but out-of-control, transgender activism had made the nurse practitioner too scared to say no.

I’d learned how to become a female from online medical documents at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital website.

After I began consuming the cross-sex hormones, I started therapy at a gender clinic in Pittsburgh so that I could get people to sign off on the transgender surgeries I planned to have.

All I needed to do was switch over my hormone operating fuel and get my penis turned into a vagina. Then I’d be the same as any other woman. That’s the fantasy the transgender community sold me. It’s the lie I bought into and believed.

Only one therapist tried to stop me from crawling into this smoking rabbit hole. When she did, I not only fired her, I filed a formal complaint against her. “She’s a gatekeeper,” the trans community said.

Professional stigmatisms against “conversion therapy” had made it impossible for the therapist to question my motives for wanting to change my sex.

The “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (Fifth Edition) says one of the traits of gender dysphoria is believing that you possess the stereotypical feelings of the opposite sex. I felt that about myself, but yet no therapist discussed it with me.

Two weeks hadn’t passed before I found a replacement therapist. The new one quickly affirmed my identity as a woman. I was back on the road to getting vaginoplasty.

There’s abundant online literature informing transgender people that their sex change isn’t real. But when a licensed medical doctor writes you a letter essentially stating that you were born in the wrong body and a government agency or court of law validates that delusion, you become damaged and confused. I certainly did.

Painful Roots

My trauma history resembles a ride down the Highway of Death during the first Gulf War.

As a child, I was sexually abused by a male relative. My parents severely beat me. At this point, I’ve been exposed to so much violence and had so many close calls that I don’t know how to explain why I’m still alive. Nor do I know how to mentally process some of the things I’ve seen and experienced.

Dr. Ray Blanchard has an unpopular theory that explains why someone like me may have been drawn to transgenderism. He claims there are two types of transgender women: homosexuals that are attracted to men, and men who are attracted to the thought or image of themselves as females.

It’s a tough thing to admit, but I belong to the latter group. We are classified as having autogynephilia.

After having watched pornography for years while in the Army and being married to a woman who resisted my demands to become the ideal female, I became that female instead. At least in my head.

While autogynephilia was my motivation to become a woman, gender stereotypes were my means of implementation. I believed wearing a long wig, dresses, heels, and makeup would make me a woman.

Feminists begged to differ on that. They rejected me for conforming to female stereotypes. But as a new member of the transgender community, I beat up on them too. The women who become men don’t fight the transgender community’s wars. The men in dresses do.

Medical Malpractice

The best thing that could have happened would have been for someone to order intensive therapy. That would have protected me from my inclination to cross-dress and my risky sexual transgressions, of which there were many.

Instead, quacks in the medical community hid me in the women’s bathroom with people’s wives and daughters. “Your gender identity is female,” these alleged professionals said.

The medical community is so afraid of the trans community that they’re now afraid to give someone Blanchard’s diagnosis. Trans men are winning in medicine, and they’ve won the battle for language.

Think of the word “transvestite.” They’ve succeeded in making it a vulgar word, even though it just means men dressing like women. People are no longer allowed to tell the truth about men like me. Everyone now has to call us transgender instead.

The diagnostic code in my records at the VA should read Transvestic Disorder (302.3). Instead, the novel theories of Judith Butler and Anne Fausto-Sterling have been used to cover up the truths written about by Blanchard, J. Michael Bailey, and Alice Dreger.

I confess to having been motivated by autogynephilia during all of this. Blanchard was right.

Trauma, hypersexuality owing to childhood sexual abuse, and autogynephilia are all supposed to be red flags for those involved in the medical arts of psychology, psychiatry, and physical medicine—yet nobody except for the one therapist in Pittsburgh ever tried to stop me from changing my sex. They just kept helping me to harm myself.

Escaping to ‘Nonbinary’

Three years into my gender change from male to female, I looked hard into the mirror one day. When I did, the facade of femininity and womanhood crumbled.

Despite having taken or been injected with every hormone and antiandrogen concoction in the VA’s medical arsenal, I didn’t look anything like a female. People on the street agreed. Their harsh stares reflected the reality behind my fraudulent existence as a woman. Biological sex is immutable.

It took three years for that reality to set in with me.

When the fantasy of being a woman came to an end, I asked two of my doctors to allow me to become nonbinary instead of female to bail me out. Both readily agreed.

After pumping me full of hormones—the equivalent of 20 birth control pills per day—they each wrote a sex change letter. The two weren’t just bailing me out. They were getting themselves off the hook for my failed sex change. One worked at the VA. The other worked at Oregon Health & Science University.

To escape the delusion of having become a woman, I did something completely unprecedented in American history. In 2016, I convinced an Oregon judge to declare my sex to be nonbinary—neither male nor female.

In my psychotic mind, I had restored the mythical third sex to North America. And I became the first legally recognized nonbinary person in the country.

Celebrity Status

The landmark court decision catapulted me to instant fame within the LGBT community. For 10 nonstop days afterward, the media didn’t let me sleep. Reporters hung out in my Facebook feed, journalists clung to my every word, and a Portland television station beamed my wife and I into living rooms in the United Kingdom.

Becoming a woman had gotten me into The New York Times. Convincing a judge that my sex was nonbinary got my photos and story into publications around the world.

Then, before the judge’s ink had even dried on my Oregon sex change court order, a Washington, D.C.-based LGBT legal aid organization contacted me. “We want to help you change your birth certificate,” they offered.

Within months, I scored another historic win after the Department of Vital Records issued me a brand new birth certificate from Washington, D.C., where I was born. A local group called Whitman-Walker Health had gotten my sex designation on my birth certificate switched to “unknown.” It was the first time in D.C. history a birth certificate had been printed with a sex marker other than male or female.

Another transgender legal aid organization jumped on the Jamie Shupe bandwagon, too. Lambda Legal used my nonbinary court order to help convince a Colorado federal judge to order the State Department to issue a passport with an X marker (meaning nonbinary) to a separate plaintiff named Dana Zzyym.

LGBT organizations helping me to screw up my life had become a common theme. During my prior sex change to female, the New York-based Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund had gotten my name legally changed. I didn’t like being named after the uncle who’d molested me. Instead of getting me therapy for that, they got me a new name.

A Pennsylvania judge didn’t question the name change, either. Wanting to help a transgender person, she had not only changed my name, but at my request she also sealed the court order, allowing me to skip out on a ton of debt I owed because of a failed home purchase and begin my new life as a woman. Instead of merging my file, two of the three credit bureaus issued me a brand new line of credit.

Walking Away From Fiction

It wasn’t until I came out against the sterilization and mutilation of gender-confused children and transgender military service members in 2017 that LGBT organizations stopped helping me. Most of the media retreated with them.

Overnight, I went from being a liberal media darling to a conservative pariah.

Both groups quickly began to realize that the transgender community had a runaway on their hands. Their solution was to completely ignore me and what my story had become. They also stopped acknowledging that I was behind the nonbinary option that now exists in 11 states.

The truth is that my sex change to nonbinary was a medical and scientific fraud.

Consider the fact that before the historic court hearing occurred, my lawyer informed me that the judge had a transgender child.

Sure enough, the morning of my brief court hearing, the judge didn’t ask me a single question. Nor did this officer of the court demand to see any medical evidence alleging that I was born something magical. Within minutes, the judge just signed off on the court order.

I do not have any disorders of sexual development. All of my sexual confusion was in my head. I should have been treated. Instead, at every step, doctors, judges, and advocacy groups indulged my fiction.

The carnage that came from my court victory is just as precedent-setting as the decision itself. The judge’s order led to millions of taxpayer dollars being spent to put an X marker on driver’s licenses in 11 states so far. You can now become male, female, or nonbinary in all of them.

In my opinion, the judge in my case should have recused herself. In doing so, she would have spared me the ordeal still yet to come. She also would have saved me from having to bear the weight of the big secret behind my win.

I now believe that she wasn’t just validating my transgender identity. She was advancing her child’s transgender identity, too.

A sensible magistrate would have politely told me no and refused to sign such an outlandish legal request. “Gender is just a concept. Biological sex defines all of us,” that person would have said.

In January 2019, unable to advance the fraud for another single day, I reclaimed my male birth sex. The weight of the lie on my conscience was heavier than the value of the fame I’d gained from participating in this elaborate swindle.

Two fake gender identities couldn’t hide the truth of my biological reality. There is no third gender or third sex. Like me, intersex people are either male or female. Their condition is the result of a disorder of sexual development, and they need help and compassion.

I played my part in pushing forward this grand illusion. I’m not the victim here. My wife, daughter, and the American taxpayers are—they are the real victims.

[n0thingiscool]

May 4th - When Nationalists Killed Students in Ohio...

Today was the day four people were shot to death by a fascist gang in Ohio some 40 years ago.

The [White] National[ist] Guard of Ohio killed four young kids/students for having the audacity to exercise their First Amendment in protest of the Cambodian war.

In a nightmarish constantly repeating history the fucking eight fascists who shot and killed the unarmed students were acquitted by 25 spineless jurors, a team of defense lawyers, some bitch ass judges, and what is most likely a total cover up.

To add insult to injury the garbage cans in the jury indicted the students who didn’t die.

Some of these fascist assholes are still alive. Some have unfortunately even had children.  

1. Judges from both a civil and state trial - a. Frank J. Battisti - luckily died with no children b. Don John Young - unfortunately had four kids… odds are that at least one of them are a bootlicker like their dad.

“To Mr. and Mrs. Young were born four children: 1. Celestina, a graduate of Norwalk High School and WardBelmont College, Nashville, Tenn., now a student at the Cleveland School of Art. 2. Don John, Jr., a graduate of Norwalk High School, attends Western Reserve University. 3. Britton D., a graduate of Norwalk High School, attends Western Reserve University. 4. Margaret, attends Norwalk High School.”

http://www.onlinebiographies.info/oh/nco/young-dj.htm

“Judge Don J. Young, who presided over the civil damage suit in United States District Court, praised the jury for its work.

“Never has a jury been given a task so hard as the task given to you,” he said.

“You have done the task no other body in government could. You have been asked to plumb the depths of our civil government, and by your verdicts you have plumbed those depths.

“You are owed the gratitude of everyone in the courtroom, as well as all the people of this free land.”

Judge Young's comments brought another outburst from Mr. Grace. who yelled, “What freedom? This trial has been a sham in every way.””

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/28/archives/kent-state-jury-acquits-all-102-panel-in-46million-action-holds-29.html

2. Defense Attorneys

a. Ohio Attorney General William J. Brown

Ohio Attorney General William J. Brown, whose office served as counsel for the National Guard, said the monetary settlement and statement were the moslt practical way to end the litigation and to put the university back on a positive course.

"We've spent thousands of dollars on this litigation over the past 8 1/2 years, and I'm glad it's over," Brown said. "It would have gone on for the next generation, and the damage to Kent State University can now be reversed."

He added: "From a monetary point of view, the state of Ohio did the right thing." https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/01/05/ohio-agrees-to-pay-750000-to-settle-with-victims-and-parents-of-dead-in-kent-state-shootings/14483367-3c73-4ce3-96c5-acded36b609c/?utm_term=.8a3b2833ad6d

b. Burt Fulton - this scar on humanity served a life that was way to long and luxurious for a person like him. And he had kids… which really sucks.

“ Burt is survived by his loving and devoted wife of 67 years, Barbara Joy (Anderson); loving children, Robin (Allen) Schmidt of Westerville, Bradley (Eileen) Fulton of Westerville, and Joseph (Lisa) Fulton of Findlay, Ohio; adoring grandchildren, Erik, Matthew, Sarah, Brooke, Erin, Abby, Hannah, and Parker; 19 great grandchild” https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dispatch/obituary.aspx?n=burt-james-fulton&pid=180671007&fhid=5981

One defense lawyer, Burt Fulton, praised the guardsmen as “very fine American young men.” https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/28/archives/kent-state-jury-acquits-all-102-panel-in-46million-action-holds-29.html

“Fulton (Colonel) Burt James Fulton, adored husband and father, went to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ July 13, 2016 in Delaware, Ohio. “

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dispatch/obituary.aspx?n=burt-james-fulton&pid=180671007&fhid=5981

He didn’t go to heaven you dipshits. He’s rotting in hell where he belongs and where whoever wrote that trash obit will also meet him.

3. The [white] Ohio National[ist] Guards Murderers

Lawrence A. Shafer,. 28, of Ravenna, Ohio, a former member of G Troop, 107th Cavalry.

James D. McGee, 27, of Ravenna, Ohio, a former member of G Troop, 107th Cavalry.

William E. Perkins, 28, of Canton, Ohio, a former member of G Troop, 107th Cavalry.

James E. Pierce, 29, of Amelia Island, Fla., a former member

James D. McGee  27. of Ra

Ralph W. Zoller, 27, of Mantua, Ohio, a former member of A Company, 145th Infantry.

Barry W. Norris, 29, of Kent, Ohio, former member of G Troop, 107th Cavalry.

Mathew J. McManus, 28, of West Salem, Ohio, a present member of A Company, 145th Infantry.

Leon H. Smith, 27, of Bay City, Ohio, a former member of A Company, 145th Infantry. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/30/archives/us-jury-indicts-8-in-campus-deaths-at-kent-state-u-one-present-and.html

ALSO - “Sanford Rosen, the plaintiffs' chief lawyer, said he considered the statement an apology.

But Sylvester DelCorso, who was Ohio's adjutant general and head of the National Guard in 1970, reacted otherwise.

"No, there was no apology," he said. "We expressed sorrow and regret, the same way you express condolences to a friend.”” https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/01/05/ohio-agrees-to-pay-750000-to-settle-with-victims-and-parents-of-dead-in-kent-state-shootings/14483367-3c73-4ce3-96c5-acded36b609c/?utm_term=.8a3b2833ad6d

Nothing ever changes ----

“But some officers, other witnesses and photographs contradicted these assertions. A Federal Bureau of Investigation report of 8,000 pages that was used extensively by the present grand jury said that the assertion by the National Guard “that their lives were endangered by the students was fabricated subsequent to the event.”” https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/30/archives/us-jury-indicts-8-in-campus-deaths-at-kent-state-u-one-present-and.html

“Since the deaths at Kent State there have been at various times, conflicting statements about what actually took place there. It has been reported that the guardsmen began firing without any orders and it has also been reported that orders were issued for them to begin firing. Today's grand jury report did not address itself to this questions.” https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/30/archives/us-jury-indicts-8-in-campus-deaths-at-kent-state-u-one-present-and.html

“Exactly why the guardsmen fired on the students remains a mystery, but based on a recording of the shootings that Canfora unearthed recently from a Yale University archive, he is now convinced the guardsmen were given an order to fire.

"Right before the gunfire, I was shocked, I was absolutely stunned, to hear what sounded like a militaristic verbal command: "Right here, get set, point, fire,"he said, about hearing the recording.

Although he has called for the investigation to be reopened, he rejects the notion that any guardsmen should be prosecuted at this late date, saying he's only seeking healing and the truth.” https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-05-2010/where_are_they_now_kent_state_shootings.html

“James Rhodes--Ohio governor in 1970, he sent the guardsmen to restore order on the campus. He died in 2001 at the age of 91. "It was a terrible thing," he said on the 30th anniversary of the shootings. "But no one plans a train wreck, either. It just happened. And life goes on.”” https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-05-2010/where_are_they_now_kent_state_shootings.html

“The final part reveals the verdict of the jury which acquitted Governor Rhodes, the Ohio National Guard, and the former President of Kent State University of charges brought against them. It is suggested that there was a payoff and cover-up to prevent the truth from surfacing about the killings. Provided are a chronology of the events and a list of all characters involved in the incident. “ https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED187214

[tran-anh]

棚仔設計學堂 Pang Jai Design Academy (A3 poster, A5 leaflets & social media posts) - illustrations & design

Pang Jai (Yen Chow Street Hawker Bazaar) is a 43 years old outdoor fabric market situated in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong which is home to an intricate maze of fabrics and haberdashery stalls of different fabric sellers. Sadly, Pang Jai has been due to be demolished for redevelopment and the fabric sellers being offered relocation to another part of Sham Shui Po by the Hong Kong government which they have resisted against since 2016 but it’s looking more likely to happen in the upcoming year. Throughout January 2022 they will be holding co-design with sellers workshops, handcraft workshops and guided tours in Pang Jai. Facebook Events Page

Hosted by SKM Arts Union & Pang Jai

Oct - Dec 2021

[futuresandpasts]

Futures & Pasts | MRR #420

I think this column might have marked my three-year MRR anniversary, or at least something close to that. Long-lost ‘80s DIY eccentricity from Portland & Pennsylvania, modern Swiss-German coldwave/minimal post-punk sounds & Swedish Messthetics disciples, readable in Maximum Rocknroll #420 (May 2018).

Portland underground art-punks RANDY and the RANDIES formed in 1979 and featured founding NEO BOYS guitarist Jennifer Lobianco in their original line-up, but the fact that they never released any proper recordings before their split in 1982 has meant that most traces of the group’s history have been primarily relegated to the digital simulacra of photocopied flyers from shows in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, with their name mentioned alongside some of their more well-remembered local peers. A brand new anthology simply titled 12” Vinyl LP finally gives RANDY and the RANDIES the proper documentation that they deserve, pulling together a handful of live tracks recorded across 1980 and 1981 with a series of 8-track recordings conceived as the soundtrack to the fictional film called Beauty and then exhibited as an audiovisual installation with storyboarded photographs at the Portland Center for the Visual Arts in 1982. The collection starts with the group’s two earliest songs, the Lobianco-fronted “Bloating” and “Solar Myth,” which both mirror the raw beauty of the NEO BOYS’ sparse, shambolic jangle and obliquely poetic lyrics. Lobianco relocated to Los Angeles in 1980 and the boys of the RANDIES continued on without her, channeling the off-kilter primitivist skronk of fellow American DIY oddballs like HALF JAPANESE on “Tangled Nico” and the nearly-No Wave sonic collapse of “Big Blue Blade Car,” rounding out the remaining live takes. The LP’s second side is devoted to the songs written for Beauty, where RANDY and the RANDIES alternate between instrumental sound collages and single-song experiments in recreating various subgenre aesthetics—there’s a quick, thrashy hardcore track, a droning piece of dubbed-out mutant disco, a moody and chorus-saturated New Wave pop song, etc. A really wonderful documentation of a too-often overlooked part of Portland’s punk history, and if it were my call, everyone with a WIPERS T-shirt in their closet would be required to own this record. (Randiful Music, randyandtherandies.bandcamp.com)

Steve Krakow of PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE SOUND and the Galactic Zoo Dossier was allegedly in a Chicago secondhand store years ago when he found a cryptic homemade cassette by a mid-’80s Pennsylvania group called IN TIME, which turned out to be chock full of scrappy, psych-inflected DIY racket that sounded as if it had been recorded by Nikki Sudden and Dan Treacy while in seclusion in suburban Philadelphia. Krakow flipped out over it and managed to locate one of the members of IN TIME, in a series of events which ultimately led to the Inside Your Mind LP that came out late last year, collecting the songs from the thrift store-sourced tape along with some previously unreleased tracks. Maybe that whole backstory is true, or maybe it’s all an elaborate hoax (see: that “lost” MICK TROUBLE EP that surfaced last year), but if it is just a put-on, the attention to detail here is truly astonishing. Everything is cloaked in tape hiss and treble, the drums have that perfect basement-bashed cardboard box clatter, the guitar parts twist from jangly technicolor pop to severe, wiry post-punk fits, and the vocals manage to be charmingly off-key even when they’re talk-shouted in a Brit-accented deadpan that you wouldn’t really expect from a band supposedly from the outskirts of Philly. The Paisley Underground scene was thrown around as a reference point here, but IN TIME’s psychedelic leanings really owe more to the buttoned-up mod edge and pop art romanticism of the TELEVISION PERSONALITIES than any BYRDS-worshipping, post-Nuggets Californian garage jangle, with tracks like ”Many are the Tears” and “When I Change My Eyes” capturing the same balance between wide-eyed melodic wonder and darkly serious tension that made the TVPs so brilliant in their prime. Then there’s the art-punk sneer running through “Economic Injustices” and “On the Telephone” descended from the wobbly UK DIY template of SWELL MAPS or the DESPERATE BICYCLES, while the droning mostly-instrumental “Mideastifcation” sounds like IN TIME had some serious fantasies about traveling to where the pyramid meets the eye with the 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS. Sham or not, the narrative surrounding this LP is utterly irrelevant, because it stacks up with pretty much any actual outsider post-punk classic from the early ‘80s. (Mental Experience, guerssenrecords.bandcamp.com)

Charlotte Mermoud’s one-woman post-punk outfit (and MARAUDEUR spin-off) PURPUR SPYTT is back with a new four-track EP called Nitpick, where she continues the process of subtracting elements from her songs until just the most minimal structure is left, threatening to collapse at any moment like a precarious structure of Jenga blocks. Vocals are recited with a flat emotional detachment bordering on spoken word, bass lines throb in repetitive and circular patterns, and a tinny and slightly off-beat drum machine rattles and clangs in the background, sometimes accompanied by brief flashes of sparse, single-note guitar cutting through the negative space. The austere, bass-centered rhythms of “Triangles” and “A Fake Vision of Me” suggest a downbeat bedroom interpretation of LIZZY MERCIER DESCLOUX’s fiery disco-punk grooves, while “Real/Not Real” lurks in the darkened shadows of early ‘80s Euro coldwave with subtle synth whirrs underscoring the mentronomic bass/drum pulse. A femme-led New Neue Deutsche Welle taking shape in 2018? I’m all for it. And heads up tape enthusiasts, because if you missed out on the really excellent MARAUDEUR/PURPUR SPYTT split 10” from 2016, the PURPUR SPYTT side is included on Vacant Stare’s cassette edition of Nitpick—don’t sleep this time. (Les Syndicats des Scorpions/Kakakids/Pouet Schallplaten, lesyndicatdesscorpions.bandcamp.com)

Following the precedent of their post-millennium compatriots in bands like the SUBURBAN HOMES, STRUCTURE, and SARCASM, PRIVATE SECTOR are yet another contemporary combo whose collective glances are fixed backwards at the ’78-’81 golden era of dole-line post-punk and UK DIY—if there’s not at least one person in this bunch sporting a MEKONS badge on their parka, I’ll be amazed. On their new Cost of Living EP, PRIVATE SECTOR make their allegiances to that particular scritch-scratch Messthetics aesthetic plainly obvious, from the recurring lyrical critiques of capitalist/consumerist drudgery to the great, falling apart cover of “Disco Pope” by teenage Rough Trade rabble-rousers the PRATS. The clear PRIVATE SECTOR anthem here is the blown-out, factory floor punk drone of “Survival (Is Killing Me),” which runs through a list of the dead-end ruts and mindless aspirations of modern society (small talk with colleagues, working out, dieting, domestic bliss, careers, so on and so forth) in tandem with the song’s title repeated endlessly in a resigned dual-vocal monotone, like a conceptual successor to GANG OF FOUR’s “At Home He’s a Tourist” stripped of any angular funk edge. Highly appropriate sounds for our current cultural and political hell-world. (Byllepest Distro, byllepestdistroofficial.bandcamp.com)