#State Dept.
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State Department Official Resigns, Says Israel Is Using U.S. Arms to Massacre Civilians in Gaza
We speak with Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned last month to protest continued arms sales to Israel amid its bombardment of Gaza, writing in a viral letter that one-sided U.S. support for Israel is “shortsighted,” “destructive” and “contradictory.” Media reports say many others inside the State Department are equally frustrated with the U.S. role in the conflict. Paul tells Democracy Now! he tried to raise his concerns with his superiors but found “no appetite for that discussion” and that unlike all other U.S. arms sales that take humanitarian concerns into account, Israel gets a blank check. Paul says the overall message inside the Biden administration is: “Don’t question the policy because it’s coming from the top.”
"So, we’re talking about about 20,000 arms sale cases a year that the State Department processes, which could be anything from bullets to radios to fighter jets."
AMY GOODMAN: The HuffPost has this new piece that reports, “A task force on preventing atrocities did not meet until two weeks into the war, and officials say department leaders are telling them their expertise won’t affect policy.” Explain what goes on.
AMY GOODMAN: So, I wanted to ask you about this In These Times report that the White House has requested an unprecedented loophole in arms spending to allow it to be able to conduct arms deals with Israel in complete secrecy, without oversight from Congress or the public.
JOSH PAUL: Yeah. So, we provide Israel with $3.3 billion a year in foreign military financing, which is the State Department and U.S. government’s primary functional — primary mechanism for funding the sale of arms to other countries. Of note, you know, we typically provide — setting aside Ukraine — about $6 billion a year in foreign military financing around the world. So Israel already gets more than half of that.
J.P. "With regards to this package specifically, it includes $3.5 billion in foreign military financing. Israel can draw on that to purchase essentially what it wants. And what’s unusual about this, as well, in addition to the removal of the notification, is that Israel would be entitled, under the proposal sent to Congress, to spend all of this money within its own defense industry. Israel is, of course, a top 10 exporter of arms around the world, often competing with the United States. And the idea that we will be providing funding to subsidize that competition is really unimaginable."
"And Congress generally has stood up in the past repeatedly on matters of human rights and arms sales. What was different here was that there was none of that. There was no debate. There was no space for debate. And there was also no congressional appetite or willingness to have debate."
LISTEN READ MORE Transcript https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/3/josh_paul_resigns_israel_gaza
LINKS
"This is not the State Department I know. That's why I left my job."
<<The United States recently suspended most civilian firearm exports for 90 days due to national security concerns.>>
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Nothing about the ICJ hearings or the US starting a war on Yemen but thank you Wikipedia dot org for telling me who won the World Darts Championship
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Cristina Rivera in 2006
Born May 9 1959 in Dominican Republic
Woodside, New York
#Cristina Rivera#DR#Woodside#Queens#NYC#New York State Dept. of Labor#New York State Dept. of Transportation#beloved daughter#beloved aunt and sister#beloved cousin#may she rest in peace#<3#2006
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I do think it’s genuinely unhealthy/disturbing when gymnasts make references to some dumbass fan discourse du jour in a snippy epic clapback social media caption or tweet I’m sorry like. you’re literally at the Olympics throw your phone into the fucking seine..?! if you won’t then someone else should be hired to do it for you??!!!! tf?
#there is zero need for you to be plugged into what some randos are running their mouths about to get 5k twitter likes and a big dopamine hit#au contraire there’s an active need for you to be oblivious of that shit#the team should be given one of those state dept staffer iphones with 90% of the functions removed#btw this is a ref to Suni and simone ig stories not the snarky simone caption referring to skynnyr
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i bet those ads are running for free lol
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This process of trying to get my license back is becoming more trouble than it's worth.
#The alcohol awareness course I completed in 2013 was good enough for the judge but the State of Missouri Dept of Rev apparently didn't agree#so they put a hold on my license to block me getting a license anywhere else#& when I tried to change my NE license to a MA one MA was like 'oh hey you owe us $$ now for that offense that occurred TWO YEARS BEFORE YO#EVEN MOVED HERE! Also pay us a reinstatement fee too even though you've never held a MA license xoxo'#So now I have to do the programme all over again; get a letter of clearance from MO saying 'hey we're cool now'#and then I have to argue with MA that I really shouldn't owe you money for something that happened before I had ever set foot in your state#Nebraska the state in which I held a license at the time is the only sensible one here bc they've stayed the fuck out of it#This is me#Also the incident in MO in 2013 isn't even supposed to be on my record..!!!!! I fulfilled my terms. This is stupid.
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A new update for the Firefighters of Pontypandy with their Uniforms of the Phoenix Fire Department.
#ellie phillips#fireman sam#art#penny morris#elvis cridlington#station officer steele#arnold mckinley#phoenix fire dept#arizona#united states#america
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🇺🇲🇨🇺 🚨 FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO BOLIVIA ARRESTED FOR SPYING FOR THE CUBAN GOVERNMENT
A Former US Ambassador to Bolivia was arrested Monday on charges of secretly spying for the Cuban government for decades.
According to news reports, Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, a onetime US envoy to Bolivia, was arrested on charges of secretly working for the Cuban government, and even boasted about how his decades of work has "strengthened the revolution immensely."
Victor Manuel Rocha appeared Monday in Federal Court in front of Chief Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres in Miami.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the arrest "exposes one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent."
#source
@WorkerSolidarityNews
#united states#us news#us#cuba#cuba news#politics#geopolitics#us foreign policy#us imperialism#imperialism#spy#spying#us wars#justice department#department of justice#us dept of justice#dept of justice#world news#global news#international news#news#breaking news#current events#news report#us politics
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ALLLLLSOOO how much of the budget is going to go towards bringing back now Oscar award winner RDJ when I know for a fact Disney pays their crew minimum rates, cuts down departments and pre production to save money (which leaves creatives unable to make things of quality) and just generally doesn’t value the actual crew people making their films
in a period in the industry where like every other crew person is unemployed and struggling to make ends meet
this is less a call out of RDJ himself and MORE a call out of how ridiculously disproportionate budgeting towards crew salaries and the things that will get you quality work (like hiring enough art people and giving them enough time in pre pro - similarly hiring more vfx people and giving them enough time in post) vs. the salaries of name actors has gotten, how much of these massive, ballooning budgets just go towards a handful of people
and that is not to say actors aren’t important! I don’t mean to argue that crew are more important than actors because the fact is it’s a collaborative art form that requires ALL pieces of the puzzle to perform well to make a quality product
but how much does your actor matter when the story around them is terrible because you didn’t let people skilled at storytelling make the decisions? how good can they possibly look when you hired too few costume designers and gave them no time or money to produce quality costumes? how well does the actor’s performance work when you shoot everything on green screen and then overwork a handful of vfx artists with waaaay too tight of deadlines and also constantly change your mind on what they should even be creating, leading to low quality looking work that is more laughable than immersive?
but paying RDJ a massive amount of money to return to a series that continues to make decisions void of actual storytelling, that values all the wrong things over the talented creatives that actually have the skills to make quality art people care about, that considers AI a fair replacement to artists because they fundamentally misunderstand the value of art and creativity in filmmaking, is the solution to save the MCU
anyways, I am once again begging everyone to read Martin Scorsese’s article on the MCU
#ranting lmao#unemployed and bitter about the industry#pingpongimg between it’s hilarious they had to bring rdj back and oh boy the amount of money they will spend to do that while pulling it#from everyone else and every other dept they can just highlights the state of the industry#it’s not that actors are unimportant but when you’re paying#PAs the lowest possible amount#you can#lower than other productions around you in the same city#and your actors are making 1000s a DAY for working way less hours#ooooooohhhhh boy#there’s an issue#I understand paying name actors higher salaries but like the massive distance between actor rates and crew rates is insanity#as if you could have a movie without crew#tho tbh Disney would 100% make movies without crew if they could
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Some people out here faking autism but who tf wants to be excited about pictures of dirt with me
#got called by the state geology dept wanting us to xray some sediment for metals n shit#we're gonna do it and im stupid excited#the symptoms....
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Cristina Rivera
Born May 9 1959 in Dominican Republic
Woodside, New York
#Cristina Rivera#DR#Woodside#Queens#NYC#New York State Dept. of Labor#New York State Dept. of Transportation#beloved daughter#beloved aunt and sister#beloved cousin#may she rest in peace#<3
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#I’ve only heard vague mentions of this stuff before idk details but yeah#there’s like a dozen very evil things that company does on the regular and it’s been a huge stain on the Utah programs reputation for me#even before all this shit about tom came to light. like ok byu is one thing but ur a pac 12 state flagship university#with a fuckhuge athletics dept. it’s insane to me that normal people want anything to do with the institution
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I really, really resent it when people don't fucking cite their sources when handing down an edict and attributing it to "the law."
I resent it even more when I can't find the law in question. And when what I do find contradicts what I'm being told.
So, um, citation, or I'm not doing it.
What are they going to do? Fire me?
#bitches i read byzantine theology for funzies#do you really think the tn code annotated is going to overwhelm me?#the state BOE rules?#a SCOTUS opinion?#the US Code?#dept of ed memos?#oh no bitches... i need a citation for this unicorn like 'law'#because all I'm finding is that the ELL staff aren't meeting the requirements of their job description#and as a secondary teacher i'm dying of laughter that they think keeping up with 25 students is difficult
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Surprisingly it barely stormed where I am and it's weirdly quiet here now but I'm watching a storm chaser currently parked in Barnsdall, Oklahoma and seeing the damage there is a bit harrowing, damn
#a tornado went straight through there a bit ago#Apparently all they have there is a volunteer fire dept#it's a pretty small town I think. It's crazy#and apparently new storms are picking up in the southwest of the state#I know some people who live in the path of those storms#so I'm especially hoping they don't get too severe#sorry i'm just nervously rambling at this point. idk why i'm so freaked out by the storms tonight
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