4 million Americans quit their jobs in April - a 20-year record. Many of them worked in the retail sector, which is in the middle of a massive labor shortage.

acooban@businessinsider.com (Anna Cooban)

Photo by Sergei Karpukhin\TASS via Getty Images The food service industry has struggled to find workers to fill roles in recent weeks. Photo by Sergei Karpukhin\TASS via Getty Images

About 4 million workers in the US quit their jobs in April - a 20-year record.

There were 9.3 million job vacancies at the end of April, another 20-year record.

Job vacancies rose most in the accommodation and food-service sectors.

Job vacancies rose to a 20 year-high in April, a Labor Department survey showed Tuesday.

The survey also showed that 4 million workers quit their jobs in April - another 20-year record. Job quits rose most in the retail sector and the professional and business services sector.

Companies were advertising 9.3 job million openings at the end of April, up 12% from the previous month. The number of vacancies grew most in the accommodation and food-service sectors, which are opening up after more than a year of COVID-19 restrictions.

Vacancies fell in education, mining, and logging.

Video: 40% of Workers Would Think About Quitting Their Jobs If They Weren’t Allowed 

The job vacancy rate - the number of new job openings as a proportion of total jobs plus vacancies - was up 6%.

The Labor Department started keeping records on job openings in 2000.

Businesses have reported severe labor shortages in recent weeks. The US Chamber of Commerce last week declared a "national economic emergency" which posed "an imminent threat to our fragile recovery."

The shortage has given many workers the confidence to leave their jobs. Insider previously spoke to some workers who "rage quit" their jobs in search of better pay and working conditions, with the pandemic having encouraged many to reevaluate what they want from their work.

Fares on ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft surged as much as 40% in April compared to the same time last year thanks to a driver shortage.

Four in five local pharmacies have struggled to find enough people to deliver prescriptions and run the cash register, according to a report this month by the National Community Pharmacists Association.

Read the original article on Business Insider

It's perfectly legal for billionaires to pay so little in taxes. Democrats say they could finally change that after the bombshell ProPublica report.

insider@insider.com (Juliana Kaplan,Joseph Zeballos-Roig) 

Provided by Business Insider Felipe Castro holds a sign advertising a tax-preparation office for people who still need help completing their taxes before the IRS deadline on April 14, 2010, in Miami. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A ProPublica report based on secret IRS files showed billionaires pay relatively little tax.
Inequality experts have been warning for years that the wealthy pay relatively low taxes.
The details added impetus to a push by Democrats to ramp up taxes on the country's highest earners.

On Tuesday morning, ProPublica published a bombshell report showing how little America's wealthiest pay in taxes, based on leaked documents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The report shows in detail how billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett have seen billions added to their net worth with little impact on their tax bill. It's totally legal, and for many, not all that surprising.

"It's not surprising at all, I think," Chuck Collins, who works at the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies, an organization dedicated to highlighting wealth inequality, told Insider.

Collins recently wrote a book on the ways the ultrawealthy hide their money and avoid taxation. In it, he uses the term "wealth defense industry" for the cottage industry that's grown around helping the rich hold onto their money.

"It's going to be very hard for ordinary people to decipher these tax transactions because they're purposefully complex," Collins said. "The wealth defense industry, their bread and butter is complexity, and opaqueness."

Chuck Marr, the director of federal tax policy at the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Progressive Priorities, said "we've been making this case for a long time." He pointed to a paper from 2019 that outlines many findings similar to those in Tuesday's report.

Still, it's one thing to know something is likely happening, and another to see the details laid bare, and the figures involved. For example, ProPublica found that Warren Buffett paid 0.1% in "true tax rate," which compares how much he paid each year in taxes to how much his wealth grew.

ProPublica's report could draw widespread attention - and scrutiny - to certain intricacies of the tax code just as President Joe Biden moves to reform taxes to pay for his infrastructure proposals.

Already, Democratic lawmakers are seizing on the public report as a way to kickstart tax reform.

The report "should make it very hard for the Congress to not address it," Marr said. "I think it really underscores, again, that very wealthy people do not pay tax on much of their income. And so this tax bill is a clear opening to address that."

 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the world's wealthiest man. Alex Wong/Getty Images

America's wealthiest make most of their money from assets, not income

As the 2019 CBPP paper lays out, a good amount of the income that the wealthiest bring in isn't technically income - or at least it's not taxed that way.

If you work a job where you receive wages in a paycheck, you're probably familiar with the income tax, which taxes the money you get for going to work. Those wages would be income, and you'd be taxed under the income tax.

But, as both the CBPP and ProPublica note, the wealthiest Americans get most of their wealth from assets like stocks, and therefore pay taxes on capital gains.

As Marr and coauthors Samantha Jacoby and Kathleen Bryant write, capital-gains taxes are "effectively voluntary to a substantial extent: High-wealth filers may accumulate capital gains every year as their investments appreciate, but they don't owe tax on those gains until - or unless - they 'realize' the gain, usually by selling the appreciated asset."

So if you hold onto your stock assets, you're not seeing that capital gains rate. Goldman Sachs estimated last month that the wealthiest Americans possessed between $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion in unrealized capital gains at that time. Some argue that those unrealized gains should be taxed, since the wealthiest could be sitting on valuable stocks, making money, and not paying taxes. Meanwhile, researchers at the right-leaning Tax Foundation argue that a progressive consumption tax would be a better way to tax the rich.

ProPublica reported that the ultrawealthy can also borrow hefty sums of money to pay off their bills as they sit on stocks and take in little income. "They'll borrow money and they'll use the stock as collateral," Marr said. That means the wealthy are essentially using these loans as a form of income, but aren't taxed as such.

As Marr, Jacoby, and Bryant write, "this is often a much cheaper strategy than selling stock and paying capital gains taxes, particularly when interest rates are low."

©

  President Joe Biden. Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images

The report could add flame to the fire for tax reform

Even before the ProPublica report, tax debate had been brewing. In particular, a provision called the "step-up basis" had been facing scrutiny.

Let's say you've held onto stock for your whole life, and it's only grown in value. If you die and leave it to someone else, the stock takes on the value at which the recipient gets it, meaning neither the original owner nor the inheritor are taxed on those gains.

For very wealthy people, Marr said, that "wipes out a lifetime of tax liability."

Biden wants to do away with the step-up basis and he wants to tax capital gains for those making over $1 million at a rate equivalent to income.

"Broadly speaking, we know that there is more to be done to ensure that corporations, individuals who are at the highest income are paying more of their fair share," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told The Washington Post in response to the ProPublica report. "Hence, it's in the president's proposals. His budget and part of how he's proposing to pay for his ideas will go ahead."

"The principle here is to equalize the treatment of ordinary income and capital gains, and that is a principle that's neither new or particularly novel," Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, said in an April briefing. "In fact, the last president to enact a reform to equalize the treatment of ordinary income and capital gains was President Reagan, who did so while raising capital-gains taxes as part of the 1986 tax reform."

The White House did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

There's been GOP resistance to further alterations to the tax code following their 2017 tax cut, especially any increase in rates. But the new reporting already ramped up the tax debate within Congress on Tuesday.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill, "To the surprise of nobody I know, the rich and powerful aren't paying their fair share, what else is new?" He urged lawmakers to approve Biden's tax proposals.

"I do want people to understand the bottom line," Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters. "What ProPublica is revealing is, again, some of the country's wealthiest taxpayers [that] profited handsomely during the pandemic are not paying their fair share."

He said he's in the process of crafting a proposal to change that. Asked by Insider about the timeline of its introduction, Wyden responded: "I'll have it ready to go shortly."

"Often solutions to this are portrayed as radical, but what's radical is the current situation," Marr said. "What's radical is that wealthy people, a lot of their income never gets taxed. That's radical."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Solar eclipse to darken sky over NYC, Montreal Thursday morning
By
Brian Lada, Accuweather.com
JUNE 5, 2021 

Jo Anne Lin holds solar eclipse glasses on her friend Dorthy Tan while she photographs the sun through glasses during a solar eclipse watch party in Sunset Hills, Mo., on August 21, 2017. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

The Earth, moon and sun will align again for the second time in as many weeks to create a solar eclipse that will be visible for part of Canada and the United States -- but only if Mother Nature cooperates and provides clear skies.

On May 26, the moon passed through Earth's shadow during a lunar eclipse, and on June 10, the roles will be reversed as the moon casts a shadow on the Earth during the first of two solar eclipses in 2021.

This event will be a far cry from the Great American Eclipse of 2017 when day turned to night from Oregon to South Carolina, but it will still be an impressive show for those in its path.

The upcoming celestial alignment will create an annular solar eclipse, otherwise known as a "ring of fire" eclipse as the moon will be slightly farther away from the Earth than normal, meaning it will not quite be large enough to block out the sun entirely.

The result will be a halo of sunlight around the moon during the height of the eclipse, but this spectacle will only be visible to the remote areas of northern Ontario, far northwestern Greenland, around the North Pole and eastern Russia.

However, millions of people will still be able to see a partial solar eclipse.

A global map of the shadow path for the June 10, 2021, annular solar eclipse. Times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). (Image/NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio )

Right at sunrise on Thursday morning, people across the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada will be able to see, if skies are clear enough, more than half of the sun blocked out by the moon.

This includes metropolitan areas like New York City, Boston, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.

The shaded area of the map is where the solar eclipse will be visible after sunrise on June 10, 2021. (Image/NASA)

People across northern Europe, Iceland, Greenland and northern Russia will also see the moon take a bite out of the sun on Thursday.

Since the moon will never completely block out the sun, proper eye protection is needed throughout the entire eclipse

"It is never safe to look directly at the sun's rays -- even if the sun is partly obscured," NASA warns. "When watching a partial eclipse you must wear eclipse glasses at all times if you want to face the sun, or use an alternate indirect method."

Looking at the sun without a solar filter or eclipse glasses can lead to permanent eye damage, so safety is the top priority for viewing the eclipse first-hand.

Millions of people purchased specially made eclipse glasses for the total solar eclipse in 2017, and they may still be good to use for the upcoming eclipse as long as they have been stored properly.

First, make sure that the glasses have a label that reads "ISO 12312-2" as this is the approved safety standard for eclipse glasses.

"If the filters aren't scratched, punctured, or torn, you may reuse them indefinitely," according to NASA.

People who do not have these eclipse glasses can still enjoy the event by viewing the sun indirectly.

This includes making a simple pinhole projector out of common household items or even just looking at the crescent-shaped shadows that appear when holding out an object like a pasta strainer or crossed fingers.

A pinhole projector is essentially a small hole in a piece of paper. The light that makes it through appears as a crescent when the moon is blocking out part of the sun. (Image/NASA)

Clouds will be concerning for some folks hoping to witness the celestial alignment, including those in some big cities in the mid-Atlantic such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.

The forecast looks better farther north for Boston, as well as Canadian cities such as Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, although a few clouds could still cause some disruptions for onlookers. Even better weather is in the offing for much of Atlantic Canada with a mainly clear sky expected on Thursday morning.

Areas farther west, such as Chicago and Minneapolis, will be able to see a small sliver of the sun covered by the moon right at sunrise, but it will not be nearly impressive as areas farther east.

Another solar eclipse is set to unfold later this year in early December, but this will only be visible across Antarctica so only a handful of people and penguins will have a chance to experience the event

This week's eclipse will also be the last solar eclipse visible from North America until Oct. 14, 2023, when another ring of fire eclipse unfolds, but this time over more populated areas of the U.S. and across Central America and northern South America.

This will be an appetizer for the main event on April 8, 2024, when a total solar eclipse is once again visible from the contiguous U.S.

"The 2024 total solar eclipse will be a spectacular eclipse to witness," expert eclipse photographer and eclipse educator Dr. Gordon Telepun said. "The path encompasses many big cities and therefore a large number of people."

It will also last for nearly twice as long as the eclipse in 2017, so folks that get to enjoy this week's event may want to start planning for the main event taking place in less than three years.

Colombia Church says govt-strike committee dialogue will continue, despite pause

Inés San Martín

Jun 9, 2021

THE CRUX

ROME BUREAU CHIEF

A woman holds a Colombian flag as she listens to Pope Francis Angelus noon prayer in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, May 9, 2021. (Credit: AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia.)

ROME – The Catholic Church in Colombia says dialogue efforts between the government and the National Strike Committee (CNP) will resume, despite an announcement on Sunday by the government that the CNP had decided to “unilaterally suspend the dialogue.”

The dialogue efforts between the government and the CNP, composed mostly of unions, began a month ago and was mediated by the Catholic Church and United Nations.

Representatives met several times without any progress, because neither part is willing to budge: The government is asking strikers to lift the blockades that have created havoc on many of the nation’s main highways since the protests began on April 28, and the strikers want the government of President Iván Duque to sign a protocol that guarantees peaceful protests and limits the use of force by the Colombian police.

A delegation from the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) arrived in Colombia on Sunday ahead of a June 8-10 visit to the country to assess the human rights situation.

At the end of the day of talks on Sunday, Father Fabio Henao Gaviria, the Caritas director who is the facilitator of the process on behalf of the Colombian Episcopal Conference, said on Sunday he believes that the dialogue had been positive, and despite the pause in the negotiations, progress is being made on setting “a national agenda based on the needs of different regions of the country.”

Therefore “the Church is willing to continue accompanying the process, both at the national level and in the territories” and also “reiterates its closeness to the most vulnerable sectors, particularly the youth.”

Several regions in Colombia are holding their own dialogues, particularly in the largest cities, such as Cali and Bogota, most impacted by the violence during the protests. These efforts are still ongoing, despite the temporary suspension of the national dialogue.

Protestors have argued that they had been peaceful in their rallies and that violence only broke out when the police suppressed the demonstrations using violence. Several allegations of human rights violations have been made, including by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

More than 40 people died in the protests and hundreds were wounded. There are also 25 allegations of sexual violence by members of the police during the protests.

According to Archbishop Dario Monsalve Mejia, “the global pandemic has made us all children of the same need, and the national strike, by affecting mobility and distribution, has made everyone feel scarcity, hunger and absolute need, which means vital sustenance for everyone.”

In a statement released on Sunday for the feast of Corpus Christi, the prelate linked the celebration with the lives of Colombians: “The evil and perverse violence, with which some have infiltrated the peaceful protest, and have made armed citizens clash with unarmed citizens, makes us see human blood flow not in the veins, but in the streets and in the territories.”

He called on all citizens to “drink from the cup of Christ’s blood, which means purifying the soul, receiving forgiveness from God and swearing not to kill.”

Bishop Elkin Alvarez of Santa Rosa de Osos and secretary general of the Colombian bishops conference, asked Colombians to continue praying for the country, independently of the dialogue efforts: In these “difficult times that the country continues to go through today, it demands the commitment of all of us Catholics to continue in constant prayer.”

“It is very important to dedicate long moments to the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, in community, praying for peace, the reconciliation of the country and the overcoming of this critical moment we are living,” he added.

The voice of the bishops has morphed since the protests began back in April. The day before the beginning of the general strike, the conference invited people to avoid marching because of the risks involved with the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the apprehension, they recognized the legitimacy of peaceful protests and acknowledged the “complexity of the current situation.”

As the strike gained momentum, however, the bishops were less tepid in their support of the grievances of the protestors, in a country where 23.9 million people lived on less than $91 a month in 2020. The country’s total population is 51 million people, with 37.5 percent living below the poverty line.

“We recognize the legitimate motivations that have led millions of Colombians to express in the streets and in other scenarios their dissatisfaction with the situations of injustice in the country,” one bishop wrote in a May 12 statement. “Being one of the most unequal countries in the world, with nearly half of the population living in poverty, are sufficient reasons for the cup to run over.”

Duque, a Catholic, became president with the support of conservative sectors of the Catholic Church and members of evangelical Christian churches. Now, when the country is going through its deepest crisis in decades, these churches have aligned themselves with the protestors.

“We have realized that the main actor of the strike has been the youth,” said Henao in his post-dialogue reflections. “They have been among the most affected by unemployment and the pandemic. This led us to ask not to stigmatize the protest and to understand that many do not have opportunities, that there is a great lack of hope.”

Follow Inés San Martín on Twitter: @inesanma

Systemic failures behind Colombia police rights abuses: HRW




Systemic failures behind Colombia police rights abuses: HRWFILE PHOTO: Anti-government demonstrations continue in Bogota

Oliver Griffin
Wed, 9 June 2021

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Brutal abuses by Colombia's police during recent anti-government protests are not isolated incidents but part of extensive failings by state security forces, advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Wednesday.

Nationwide demonstrations against the social and economic policies of President Ivan Duque, which began in late April, have been directly connected with at least 21 deaths, according to government figures.

Local rights groups say dozens more have been killed by security forces and HRW says it has confirmed 34 deaths are connected to demonstrations, including 20 people likely killed by police.

HRW said it has also documented beatings, sexual abuse and arbitrary detention of protesters and bystanders by security forces.

"These brutal abuses are not isolated incidents by rogue officers, but rather the result of systemic shortcomings of the Colombian police," Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Credible evidence suggests police killed 16 protesters or bystanders with live ammunition, the report found. In 15 of these cases, the killings may have been intentional.

At least one other victim died after being beaten by police, while three others were killed following "inappropriate or excessive" use of teargas or flash-bang cartridges, it added.

Duque has repeatedly insisted that most Colombian police respect the human rights of civilians, and he has said that any cops who act illegally will be punished. On Sunday, he announced his government will ask Congress to approve more training and increased oversight of police.

Representatives from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) arrived in the country over the weekend for a three-day visit to gather information about possible rights abuses during the protests. They are expected to release a report next week.

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

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Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Visits Colombia

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  Military officers arrest a protester in Cali, Colombia, Apr. 29, 2021. | Photo: EFE

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Published 7 June 2Comments

A human rights observation mission will analyze cases of police violence amid nationwide protests destabilizing the country since Apr. 28.

On Tuesday, a mission from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will start an official visit to Colombia to analyze human rights violations committed by the Military Police (ESMAD) amid nationwide protests whipping the country since April. 

RELATED: 

Colombia: At Least 3,789 Police Brutality Cases Since April 28

The mission will analyze denunciations of excessive use of force, forced disappearances, eye injuries, sexual and gender-based violence committed by ESMAD officials.

After meeting with representatives of the Colombian government on Monday, the IACHR mission will interview victims in Bogota and Cali until June 10 to later present a report.

More than 650 civil society organizations have denounced the lack of independence in the country's judicial and control bodies while urging IACHR to condemn strongly the indiscriminate repression against protesters. 

Even if the observation mission can only issue recommendations to President Ivan Duque's government, some of the human rights violations cases could escalate to the IACHR floor, if the victims decide to pursue this process.

Since April 28, when the national strike began, thousands of people have taken to the street in Colombia and other countries to condemn police brutality and Duque's attempts to install neoliberal policies on tax collection and the health sector amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Strike Committee (CNP) has recorded 3,800 cases of violence against peaceful demonstrators, over 60 homicides, 1,600 arbitrary detentions, 65 cases of eye injuries, and more than 20 sexual assaults against women.

El Espectador - As - Dejusticia

by teleSUR/ eh- JF

 

Human Rights Mission Confirms Police Abuses In Colombia

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  Hundreds of citizens protest in Bogota, Colombia, June 2021. | Photo: Twitter/ @ajplus

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Published 6 June 2021

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An international mission called on President Duque to safeguard the people's life and dignity, guarantee justice and truth, and comply with human rights laws.

After two weeks of investigations, the International Mission of Solidarity and Human Rights Observation confirmed the Colombian people are victims of State terrorism and urged President Ivan Duque to be investigated for murdering and disappearing protesters.

RELATED:

Roadblocks Begin To Be Lifted in Colombia

In a preliminary report, the Mission called on Duque to safeguard the people's life and dignity, guarantee justice and truth and comply with human rights laws.

"During the national strike, the National Police disappeared, murdered, tortured, abused, persecuted, threatened, and intimidated protesters. Police brutality prevented and limited the people's political participation and right to protest," the report states.

The Mission also found that the government deployed sophisticated and lethal weaponry, which turned the country into a warlike zone.

"Duque targeted the people as an enemy, even when protesters were mostly youth, students, women, LGBTQ community members, farmers, Indigenous people, Afro-descendants, social leaders, human rights defenders, and journalists," it said.

The Colombian people "must obtain integral reparation from the government through truth and justice," human rights advocates assured.

The Mission that arrived in Colombia on May 25 is formed by representatives of organizations such as Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ), Coordinating Committee against Police and Institutional Repression (CORREPI), and the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH).

International Mission of Solidarity and Human Rights Observation - La Izquierda Diario

Why Israel Blows Up Media Offices and Targets Journalists


Smoke billows as an Israeli air bomb is dropped on the Jala Tower during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, on Saturday, May 15, 2021. Israel's air force targeted the 11-floor Jala Tower housing Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television and the Associated Press news agency among many other media outlets. (Photo: Mahmud Hams / AFP via Getty Images)

The Israeli government is now exerting deadly force on a large scale to underscore an assertion of impunity—in effect, wielding power to subjugate Palestinian people with methodical disregard for their basic human rights.

NORMAN SOLOMON

Israel’s missile attack on media offices in Gaza City last weekend was successful. A gratifying response came quickly from the head of The Associated Press, which had a bureau in the building for 15 years: “The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today.”

For people who care about truth, that’s outrageous. For the Israeli government, that’s terrific.

The AP president, Gary Pruitt, said “we are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza.”

There’s ample reason to be horrified. But not shocked.

Israel’s military began threatening and targeting journalists several decades ago, in tandem with its longstanding cruel treatment of Palestinians. Rather than reduce the cruelty, the Israeli government keeps trying to reduce accurate news coverage.

The approach is a mix of deception and brutality. Blow up the cameras so the world won’t see as many pictures of the atrocities.

Of course, there’s no need to interfere with journalists documenting the also awful—while relatively few—deaths of Israelis due to rockets fired by Hamas. In recent days the Israeli government has spotlighted such visuals, some of them grimly authentic, others fake.

The suffering in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is tragically real on both sides, while vastly asymmetrical. During the last 10 days, as reported by the BBC, 219 people have been killed in Gaza. In Israel, the number was 10. In Gaza, at least 63 of the dead were children. In Israel, two.

In the midst of all this, shamefully, President Biden is pushing ahead to sell $735 million worth of weapons to Israel, a move akin to selling more whips and thumbscrews to torturers while they’re hard at work tormenting their victims.

On Wednesday, a few members of Congress introduced a bill that seeks to do what the Israeli targeting of media seeks to prevent -- the galvanizing of well-informed outrage. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Mark Pocan introduced a resolution opposing the sale of those weapons.

“For decades, the U.S. has sold billions of dollars in weaponry to Israel without ever requiring them to respect basic Palestinian rights. In so doing, we have directly contributed to the death, displacement and disenfranchisement of millions,” Ocasio-Cortez pointed out.

Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, said: “The harsh truth is that these weapons are being sold by the United States to Israel with the clear understanding that the vast majority of them will be used to bomb Gaza. Approving this sale now, while failing to even try to use it as leverage for a ceasefire, sends a clear message to the world -- the U.S. is not interested in peace, and does not care about the human rights and lives of Palestinians.”

As usual, Israel’s latest killing spree can avail itself of deep pockets provided by U.S. taxpayers, currently $3.8 billion a year in military assistance. An article published last week by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace makes a strong case that the massive subsidy is legally dubious and morally indefensible.

Not many members of Congress can be heard calling for an end to doling out huge sums to the Israeli government. But some progress is evident.

A bill introduced last month by Congresswoman Betty McCollum, H.R.2590, now has 21 co-sponsors and some activist momentum. Its official purpose flies in the face of routine congressional evasion: “To promote and protect the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation and to ensure that United States taxpayer funds are not used by the Government of Israel to support the military detention of Palestinian children, the unlawful seizure, appropriation, and destruction of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in the West Bank, or further annexation of Palestinian land in violation of international law.”

Right now, the government of Israel is exerting deadly force on a large scale to underscore an assertion of impunity—in effect, wielding power to subjugate Palestinian people with methodical disregard for their basic human rights. The process involves reducing as much as possible the eyewitness news coverage of that subjugation.

Israeli leaders know that truth about human consequences of their policies is horrific when illuminated. That’s why they’re so eager to keep us in the dark.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Norman Solomon is co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. His books include "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death" (2006) and "Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State" (2007).