#State Dept.

[garudabluffs]

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.>>

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

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

[relaxedstyles]

[viktoriakomova]

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?

[gorps]

i bet those ads are running for free lol

[speedbird1987]

A new update for the Firefighters of Pontypandy with their Uniforms of the Phoenix Fire Department.

[casquecest]

This process of trying to get my license back is becoming more trouble than it's worth.

[thesecondface]

Islands of Abandonment - Cal Flyn

Recently read this book on the near miraculous proliferation of life and biodiversity in post-human landscapes, and what a fantastic book it was. This was very much in the vein of Macfarlane's Underland (both being prone to wax poetic on unconventional landscapes) but more, somehow. I'm not sure I can articulate it well – perhaps it was the choice in the unconventional landscape which predisposes the reader to its inherited stakes, or lack thereof; or perhaps it was the direct, clear cut message this book had, that Underland maybe lacked in – but this felt infinitely more personal. I enjoyed Underland; I enjoyed Macfarlane's writing and his infectious awe with the landscapes around him – I thought he painted a beautiful, unsettling picture of the underworld, but it was his awe at the end of the day and not my own. Flyn, however, tells you exactly what she argues for in her book, and I'll be damned if I wasn't sold right there and then:

The idea that 'knowledge deepens with appreciation' and that aestheticism can be taught is so extremely crucial. You have to fall in love with your environment to understand it. You have to understand it in order to save it (if, indeed, it needs saving of the human kind). And this gold mine of a book takes these forgotten, unpleasant landscapes and makes you love them – practicing precisely what it preaches.

(Perhaps this struck so deeply because I was so sheltered a city kid who then went on to geologise, and went on to find out just how much you can learn from simple observation and the scientific process. How little I knew before, how little I still know – how little everyone else knows, and how difficult a task it is to invoke any response besides the unabiding blankness that is the death-knell to all educators – to apply the term liberally. It's something that I quite desperately want to cultivate, this awareness of the environment around me; I want to train myself to love the things that previously held neither appeal nor interest to me, because not so long ago I was that blank and disconnected. It's why iNaturalist was such a revelation to me. This book was another, I think).

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇲 🪖🏦 🚨

UNITED STATES SENATE APPROVES $886 BILLION DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL

The United States Senate overwhelmingly approved the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a bill funding the U.S. Defense Department to the tune of $886 Billion after abandoning some of the more controversial, hot-button social policies pushed by some Republican lawmakers on Wednesday.

The annual Defense Bill passed with 87 votes in favor and 13 against. A vote in the United States House could come as soon as Thursday morning, with the hope the President could have it signed soon after.

The Bill is the result of many months of negotiations between Democratic and Republican leadership, along with the White House, and remained deadlocked for some time over funding for the war in Ukraine, with the final bill approving the funding.

Earlier this summer, hard-line Republican lawmakers passed their own version of the NDAA including policies blocking medical treatment for transgender troops, the Pentagon's travel abortion policies, and programs to promote "diversity and inclusion". Democrats apposed this version of the NDAA, and the negotiations have been going on until now.

The Senate Bill however does not include the more contentious provisions, and has garnered strong bipartisan support. Language limiting funding for abortion services, transgender medical treatment and drag shows were not included in the final draft.

The final bill did include a pay cap and hiring freeze for defense programs related to "diversity and inclusion". The approved version of the bill also includes provisions supported by Republicans prohibiting the promotion of Critical Race Theory and the display of "unapproved" flags at military instillations, with an eye towards targeting the gay pride and transgender flags.

Another provision pushed by Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker forces the Pentagon to formulate a plan for the use of unused border wall materials.

With some Republican lawmakers balking at the lack of oversight for Ukraine aid, negotiators finally agreed to create a new Special Inspector General for Operation Atlantic Resolve, the official name given to the operations responding to Russia's Special Military Operation in Ukraine.

Before the final vote, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul attempted a last minute meneuver to strip out the four-month extension of the sweeping surveillance powers given through the highly controversial Section 702 affording Intelligence Agencies the power to spy on American citizens who get caught up in the dragnet of foreign surveillance, however that move was voted down 65 to 35.

The final bill also includes provisions to implement the AUKUS submarine sharing pact between the U.S., U.K. and Australia, including the delivery of Virginia-class subs.

Republican Senator Roger Wicker had initially blocked the sub deliveries, in order to secure an additional $3.4 Billion in Submarine Industrial base funding alongside Ukraine and Israel aid. The final deal delays the sub delivery until one year after the bill becomes Law.

The Bill also approves a 5.2% pay raise for troops.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[bombshellsandbluebells]

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

[crenandos]

Some people out here faking autism but who tf wants to be excited about pictures of dirt with me

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[aria-i-adagio]

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?

[chamerionwrites]

Eberhardt recounted stories of brutality, of violence, of murder and terror inflicted on the Indians as they were forced to collect rubber for which the foremen received a percentage...His report betrayed his frustration at being unable to bring any pressure to bear on the Peruvian government. He was, as he put it, "consul of another Government." And he added, tellingly, "Nor as a plain American citizen could I have anything to say on the subject, when I remembered our own treatment of the North American Indian, whom we killed because he would not stand by submissively while we took away his lands." His superiors in Washington were not pleased with that comment.

--Jordan Goodman, The Devil and Mr. Casement

[viktoriakomova]