I’m a Far-Left Radical. Here’s What That Means.

Sound scary?




Global activists demonstratate on the first day of the IMF-World Bank Group spring meetings, near the Washington Monument in Washington, DC on April 15, 2024.
(Photo by Chris KLEPONIS / AFP)

Thom Hartmann
Sep 18, 2025

Common Dreams

If you’re even remotely associated with the Democratic Party, whether running for office, helping out, or just breathing while Democratic, the GOP and their rightwing media attack dogs will label you a “far left radical.”

So, in the interest of clarity, let me make it official: I’m a far-left radical.

Here’s why. I believe:

— Every worker should have the right to democracy in their workplace (a union), and that nobody who works full time should have to live in poverty because the minimum wage hasn’t gone up in a stupid amount of time. I’m a far-left radical.

— Retired people shouldn’t have to pay income taxes on their Social Security (the way it was before Reagan), that morbidly rich people should pay into the system like the rest of us, that Social Security should pay enough to live modestly on, and that Medicare should cover all our expenses with minimum hassle. I’m a far-left radical.

— Every American citizen should be able to vote without a hassle, and taking away your vote should require a judge’s action to prove why, just like if a state wants to take away your gun. I’m a far-left radical.

— Speaking of guns, it’s obscene that the leading cause of death for our children is bullets, and we shouldn’t have to regularly terrorize our children with active shooter drills. We need rational gun control laws, like almost every other country in the world has. I’m a far-left radical.

— It’s crazy that three men own more wealth than the bottom half of America and pay less of their income in taxes than your average teenager. If we want the general prosperity of the 1950s, we should have the same tax rate that Republican President Dwight Eisenhower so loved: 90% on the morbidly rich after they’ve made their first few million dollars a year. I’m a far-left radical.

— Our children and grandchildren deserve a world where they needn’t fear being killed by climate-change-driven wild weather, drought, or wildfires, and the air and water are clean. And it’s nuts that we’re subsidizing the fossil fuel industry that’s preventing this. I’m a far-left radical.

— Every other country in the world helps their young people go to college; in most it’s as cheap as it was here in the 1960s when you could put yourself through school with a weekend job. Some countries even pay people to go to college, like the $100/month stipend my dad had with the GI Bill after WWII that built our scientific and business prowess. And it’s wrong to cripple entire generations with trillions in student debt. I’m a far-left radical.

— Across the 34 richest (OECD) countries in the world, over a half-million families are wiped out every year because somebody got sick. All of those families are here in America. Healthcare should be a right — like in every other developed country in the world — instead of a privilege that depends on how much money you have. I’m a far-left radical.

— Starting a small family business, once the backbone of every American town and city, should once again be possible; we need to break up the massive monopolies that have come to dominate every single industry. See: Republican Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Like them, I’m a far-left radical.

— Every person in America should be free to practice their own religion — or no religion — and raise their kids that way without government interference, government promotion, or their tax dollars subsidizing local megachurches’ religious schools. Like the Constitution says. I’m a far-left radical.

— People should be judged, hired, and promoted based on the quality of their minds, their work, and their integrity, not the color of their skin, their ethnicity, or their religion. I’m a far-left radical.

— Women should have the same rights and privileges as men, from the workplace to the boardroom to the voting booth. I’m a far-left radical.

— Our queer brothers and sisters should have the same rights and privileges as everybody else, and be free to live their lives without discrimination or harassment. I’m a far-left radical.

— America is a nation of immigrants, and we have been strengthened in every generation by the diversity of talent and humanity that have come here to participate in the American dream. We need comprehensive immigration reform to clean up our system. I’m a far-left radical.

These are all positions Republicans hate, and any one of them will get you labeled as a far-left radical instantly.

So, the next time some rightwing idiot attacks you for voting for Kamala Harris or having a D on your voter registration or an anti-Trump bumper sticker, simply repeat after me:
“I’m a far left radical — and proud of it!”

‘Macron Get Out!’ Unions Lead Massive Anti-Austerity Protests Across France

“We’re in a situation of injustice,” one protester said. “Workers can no longer feed themselves, students no longer have future prospects.”


At least hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets across France on September 18, 2025 to protest proposed austerity measures.
(Photo by Sébastien Delogu/X)


Jessica Corbett
Sep 18, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Echoing demonstrations against French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms two years ago, hundreds of thousands of people joined protests across France on Thursday, outraged by the government’s proposed austerity measures.

While the CGT trade union—one of several labor groups that pushed for the mass mobilization—put the count at over 1 million, French authorities, whose figures are usually much lower than unions, said more than 500,000 demonstrated nationwide, including 55,000 in Paris.

RECOMMENDED...



Hundreds Arrested in France at Anti-Austerity ‘Block Everything’ Protests



Americans Take to the Streets for 1,000+ ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ Labor Day Rallies

Thursday’s demonstrations followed last week’s ”Block Everything” protests, which coincided with French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s first full day in office. Macron picked Lecornu, his ally and a former defense minister, for the post after François Bayrou lost a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly over the budget plan.

Although “Lecornu quickly scrapped one of the most unpopular proposals—eliminating two public holidays—he has not ruled out the rest,” Euronews noted Thursday. “These include an overhaul of unemployment benefits, delinking pensions from inflation, and raising out-of-pocket medical costs.”

A protester named Alexandre told Euronews that “right now, we have a government that doesn’t listen to us and is even the opposite of what the population needs. A government that robs fellow citizens, and it’s important for everyone to mobilise, for the people of France who want to be dignified and who also want to give others their dignity throughout the world.”





“We’re in a situation of injustice,” he added. “Workers can no longer feed themselves, students no longer have future prospects.”

Hospital staff, railway workers, students, and teachers were among those who poured into the streets across France—including major actions in cities such as Lyon, Marseille, and Paris—rallying behind the message: “Strikes, Blockades, Macron Get Out!”

The Public Service Ministry said that nearly 11% of France’s 2.5 million state employees were on strike. According to Le Monde, “Around 1 in 6 teachers walked out of primary and secondary schools, 9 out of 10 pharmacies were shuttered, and severe disruption occurred on the Paris metro network, where only the three driverless automated lines are working normally.”



Protesters want the government to not only kill the proposed austerity measures but also spend more on public services and impose higher taxes on the wealthy. Sophie Binet, the head of the CGT union, said that “the anger is huge, and so is the determination. My message to Mr. Lecornu today is this: It’s the streets that must decide the budget.”

Multiple elected officials with La France Insoumise (LFI), a party founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon that is now part of the Nouveau Front Populaire alliance, shared social media posts about them joining the protests.

“The mobilization of youth continues,” said Claire Lejeune, an LFI member of the National Assembly, after speaking with secondary school students in Essonne who “no longer want this policy that is wrecking their future.”

Citing “the dismantling of public education,” “war policy,” and “ecological inaction,” Lejeune said: “They are absolutely right; in the country, no one wants Lecornu or Macron anymore. I was in support of this peaceful mobilization, alongside the unions and teachers, and faced with a completely disproportionate police setup.”



Approximately 80,000 police and gendarmes were deployed for the protests. Early Thursday, LFI’s Clémence Guetté, a vice president in the National Assembly, shared footage of officers kicking and shoving a woman.

“Everywhere this morning, the repression strikes and hits without distinction or restraint,” she wrote. “The images reaching us are shameful. Here in Marseille. To everyone, be careful. France no longer has a government: Macron is the only one responsible.”

After the 1 million estimate began circulating, Guetté called the mass action “immense, everywhere, impressive,” and declared: “The people are in the streets! We are going to win.”

As Al Jazeera reported: “Across the country, Palestinian flags were visible as some protesters also stood in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s war on the strip. Protesters blocked the Eurolinks arms factory in Marseille, which is believed to supply equipment to Israel, while holding a large banner that read: ‘Shut down the genocidal factory.‘”



Noting the solidarity with the Palestinian people on Thursday, LFI’s Sarah Legrain called for sanctions, an arms embargo, and lifting Israel’s blockade of Gaza, where civilians are starving to death.

Later Thursday, Legrain celebrated the massive turnout and pledged that “we will keep the pressure up until Macron leaves!”

Israel Bombed My High-Rise Apartment This Week. We Barely Survived.

My cousin saved my life by warning me of the bomb that was about to fall. Now we must flee, but we have nowhere to go.

By Dalia Abu Ramadan , 

Truthout

September 17, 2025

As the towers beside mine fell, I stood in disbelief — how could the memories of countless lives suddenly turn into rubble? Even Al-kenz Tower, where I live, has lost half of its body to the destruction of its neighbors.

Dalia Abu Ramadan

This week, as I stood on my mattress, ready to collapse with exhaustion, my phone suddenly rang. It was my cousin Raneen, her voice urgent and trembling: “Dalia, have you and your family evacuated? They’re about to bomb the tower beside you — and the one across from you. Hurry!”

I immediately started hearing neighbors screaming and people running through the streets in panic. Even now, I struggle to process what happened.

Because I live in a tower surrounded by others in Al-Rimal — a neighborhood in Gaza City dominated by high-rise residential buildings — I felt as though I were living in a ghost city the moment the Israeli occupation began destroying the towers. I knew the day of displacement would come, that I would one day be forced to leave everything behind. But I never imagined the full shock and panic of this news arriving just as I settled to rest.

The Al-Rimal neighborhood has been facing periodic bombardment since April 2025, and the concerted bombing of its high-rise residential buildings started on September 10. On September 14, the day when my cousin called me, the chaos reached its peak.

With the towers reduced to rubble and life erased from the neighborhood, all its residents were forced to flee south, toward Al-Jundi Al-Majhoul Street.

Dalia Abu Ramadan

Countless residential buildings were destroyed. Even shelters were not spared. The Greek Orthodox School, run by the Greek Orthodox community but open to displaced families of all faiths, was struck despite being packed with refugees. And the Islamic University of Gaza — which had previously been targeted many times — was reduced to the ground entirely. This time, the occupation appeared determined to bury every safe haven for the displaced.




That evening, at around 6:30 pm, all I wanted was half an hour of rest. Instead, panic erupted in the streets. People were running and shouting, evacuating our residential block after representatives of the Israeli army called one of our neighbors to say they were going to bomb the massive Al-Jundi tower beside us, and the enormous Sharab residential complex directly across the street.

My family and I knew none of this — we had left our phones aside, desperate for a brief pause. Then came the call from my cousin Raneen, her voice carrying the weight of death itself. At the same time, our neighbors pounded on our door, screaming, “Hurry! There’s no time — you’ll die if you stay!”

I froze, my hands tied by fear. I looked at my sister Farah, unable to move. My mother cried out, “Your brother is outside — how will he know that our whole block is about to be wiped out?”

We decided to take the risk and go back for the belongings we couldn’t retrieve before. We climbed to the seventh floor, even though half the tower was already destroyed.

The shock was unbearable, especially for my father. We rushed down from the seventh floor, pushed forward by the screams around us. We left that tower with nothing but our lives — and our phones.

Finally, we made it out of the high-rise apartment building. I found my brother Mohammed in shock at the door of the tower, saying, “Everyone knows about the brutal bombing that’s coming!” At that moment, his friend Bilal called, equally horrified: “How can the occupation do this in a residential neighborhood packed with people?!” But Mohammed hung up, shouting, “There’s no time to listen!”

We ran with the crowds in the street, desperate to put at least 20 meters between us and the buildings, though danger still hung over us like a shadow.

We stopped in the middle of the road with dozens of other displaced families, not knowing where to go or when the bombing would begin. Then I heard one of the displaced women say, “They won’t carry out ordinary strikes this time — they will use fire belts!”

Fire belts (or “belts of fire”) are an Israeli military tactic in which a continuous chain of explosive strikes is unleased on a single area, decimating buildings along with the entire infrastructure of the targeted area.

The moment those words left her mouth, we all screamed because fire belts do not mean the destruction of one tower, or even several — but the annihilation of an entire neighborhood, its streets, and everyone in it.

We all crowded inside the shop as the streets were littered with shrapnel. Terror gripped everyone — because the bombing was only a few meters away.

Dalia Abu Ramadan

At last, a call from the Israeli military came confirming that the occupying army would not use fire belts. Perhaps they decided that the destruction of those massive buildings was already enough to bury our neighborhood in ruins.

We stood in the street with dozens of displaced families for three endless hours — hours of terror and waiting. The only words that kept circling on everyone’s lips were: “When will it end?”

A representative from the Israeli army called our neighbor from the Kolak family, warning that the strike would be massive. Our neighbor, with bitterness in his voice, asked them, “And when will you finish?” That question captured exactly what was burning inside us all: When will this nightmare end, so we can return to what is left of our homes — or rather, to the rubble?

During the brutal bombardment, I saw fear carved onto every face. Parents’ eyes were heavy with agony as they prayed nothing would happen to their children. The elderly, too weak to walk, were drained of every ounce of strength. We all longed for one thing only: for the bombing to be over.

And finally, after three hours, it ended. I will never forget how we rejoiced — despite having lost our home — simply because we were still alive. Yet joy quickly dissolved into despair when we saw what remained. Our apartment building, half-destroyed, stood dangerously unstable and unlivable, scarred by the leveling of the massive buildings that once stood beside it.

Despite everything, we decided to take the risk and go back for the belongings we couldn’t retrieve before. We climbed to the seventh floor, even though half the tower was already destroyed. Suddenly, while inside, we felt suffocated. Looking down, we saw the lower floors engulfed in flames. Panic and fear struck us, and the Palestinian Civil Defense (the body that usually dispatches emergency responders during disasters like fires) refused to come — our neighborhood had been marked a “red zone,” too dangerous to enter.


Along the road, I saw displaced families collapsed on the ground, sleeping in the open, exhausted and broken.

With the help of our neighbors, we managed to put out the fire and fled quickly into the night. At midnight, we called my uncle’s family, begging them to host us just for that one night. On the way to their house, warplanes roared overhead, the smell of gunpowder filled the air, and the streets were swallowed by terrifying darkness. Along the road, I saw displaced families collapsed on the ground, sleeping in the open, exhausted and broken.

Now we find ourselves forced to consider going south, no matter the cost. After demolishing the high-rise apartment buildings in Al-Rimal, the army threatened us with displacement, ordering us to leave. Yet even in the south, there is no safety — and no shelter awaiting us there.

I don’t know if I will ever live through moments worse than these. How much longer, world? Have you ever tried to place yourselves in the very moments we endure, or are you simply incapable of imagining them at all? I will never forgive a world that watches us die and treats us as if we are nothing.


This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Dalia Abu Ramadan is a Palestinian storyteller and aspiring graduate of the Islamic University of Gaza, sharing powerful narratives that reflect the strength, resilience, and challenges of life in Gaza.

Portending Another Attack, Israeli Foreign Ministry Smears Sumud Flotilla as ‘Jihadist Initiative’

One journalist said that it “feels like the response is being set up to be more severe than in the past.”


Members of the Global Sumud Flotilla wave a Palestinian flag and make a peace symbol with their hands.
(Photo by Global Sumud Flotilla)


Jessica Corbett
Sep 18, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

After Hamas urged international support for the Global Sumud Flotilla, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday signaled another potential attack by claiming on social media that the peaceful humanitarian mission to feed starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip “is a jihadist initiative serving the terror group’s agenda.”

While Israel has not taken responsibility for recent drone attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla—whose name means perseverance in Arabic—the incidents have raised eyebrows, given the country’s history of attacking previous ones. The foreign ministers of 16 other nations on Tuesday implored Israel not to target this flotilla, which involves activists and political leaders from dozens of countries, including eight US veterans.



‘It’s Terror’: Global Sumud Flotilla Bound for Gaza Bombed



16 Nations Warn Israel Against Attacking Gaza-Bound Global Sumud Flotilla

As Middle East Eye reported Thursday, Hamas—which Israel and the United States designate as a terrorist organization despite its governance of Gaza—called for escalating the global movement in solidarity with the strip “in rejection of the [Israeli] occupation’s aggression, crimes of genocide, and starvation.”

“We call for mobilizing all means to support the Global Sumud Flotilla heading to Gaza, and we warn the occupation against targeting it,” Hamas also said in a statement, part of which was quoted in the Israeli ministry’s post on X.

Responding on the same platform, journalist Séamus Malekafzali said: “Past comments from the Israeli government about the aid flotillas focused on celebrity vapidity or didn’t mention their aim at all. Now, they’re honing in on it being a supposedly terrorist instrument. Feels like the response is being set up to be more severe than in the past.”

The post came two days after Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism published a report titled “Global Sumud Flotilla”: A Humanitarian Cover With Documented Links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

As Brussels Signal reported Thursday:
Flotilla representatives and critics dismissed these claims as Israeli disinformation, echoing accusations leveled at prior missions, and called the report a case of “guilt by association,” reliant on photos and unverified affiliations rather than evidence of operational control.

Organizers emphasised transparent crowdfunding for aid, with no terror funding, and framed the convoy as a grassroots response to aid blockages.

Earlier this week, a commission of independent experts at the United Nations concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and an investigation from The New Humanitarian found that Israeli forces have killed nearly 3,000 Palestinian aid-seekers and wounded almost 20,000 others since October 2023. As of Thursday, the overall death toll has topped 65,000, though experts warn the true tally is likely far higher.

With Genocide Confirmed and Gaza City a ‘Lifeless Wasteland,’ US Vetoes Another UN Ceasefire Resolution

“Israel kills every day and nothing happens,” said Algeria’s UN ambassador. “Israel starves a people and nothing happens. Israel bombs hospitals, schools, shelters, and nothing happens.”


Deputy United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus raises her hand to veto a United Nations Security Council veto of a Gaza ceasefire resolution at UN headquarters New York City on September 18, 2025.
(Photo by UN News/X)

Brett Wilkins
Sep 18, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Against a backdrop of Israel’s genocidal obliteration of Gaza City and a worsening man-made famine throughout the embattled Palestinian exclave, the United States on Thursday cast its sixth United Nations Security Council veto of a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages held by Hamas.

At its 10,000th meeting, the UN Security Council voted 14-1 with no abstentions in favor of a resolution proposed by the 10 nonpermanent UNSC members demanding “an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza, the “release of all hostages” held by Hamas, and for Israel to “immediately and unconditionally lift all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid” into the besieged strip.

‘Gaza Is Being Obliterated,’ Says Top UN Official, as World Leaders Stand Aside

Morgan Ortagus, President Donald Trump’s deputy special envoy to the Middle East, vetoed the proposal, saying that the move “will come as no surprise,” as the US has killed five previous UNSC Gaza ceasefire resolutions under both the Biden and Trump administrations, most recently in June.

Ortagus said the resolution failed to condemn Hamas or affirm Israel’s right to self-defense and “wrongly legitimizes the false narratives benefiting Hamas, which have sadly found currency in this council.”

The US has unconditionally provided Israel with billions of dollars worth of armed aid and diplomatic cover since October 2023 as the key Mideast ally wages a war increasingly viewed as genocidal, including by a commission of independent UN experts this week.

Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said the torpedoed resolution represented the “bare minimum” that must be accomplished, adding that “it is deeply regrettable and painful that it has been blocked.”

“Babies dying of starvation, snipers shooting people in the head, civilians killed en masse, families displaced again and again... humanitarians and journalists targeted... while Israeli officials are openly mocking all of this,” Mansour added.



Following the UNSC’s latest failure to pass a ceasefire resolution, Algerian Ambassador to the UN Amar Bendjama asked Gazans to “forgive” the body for not only its inability to approve such measures, but also for failing to stop the Gaza famine, in which at least hundreds of Palestinians have died and hundreds of thousands more are starving. Every UNSC members but the US concurred last month that the Gaza famine is a man-made catastrophe.

“Israel kills every day and nothing happens,” Bendjama said. “Israel starves a people and nothing happens. Israel bombs hospitals, schools, shelters, and nothing happens. Israel attacks a mediator and steps on diplomacy, and nothing happens. And with every act, every act unpunished, humanity itself is diminished.”

Benjama also asked Gazans to “forgive us” for failing to protect children in the strip, more than 20,000 of whom have been killed by Israeli bombs, bullets, and blockade over the past 713 days. He also noted that upward of 12,000 women, 4,000 elderly, 1,400 doctors and nurses, 500 aid workers, and 250 journalists “have been killed by Israel.”

Condemning Thursday’s veto, Hamas accused the US of “blatant complicity in the crime of genocide,” which Israel is accused of committing in an ongoing International Court of Justice (ICJ) case filed in December 2023 by South Africa and backed by around two dozen nations.

Hamas—which led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and is believed to be holding 20 hostages left alive out of 251 people kidnapped that day—implored the countries that sponsored the ceasefire resolution to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who along with former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, to accept an agreement to halt hostilities.

Overall, at least 65,141 Palestinians have been killed and over 165,900 others wounded by Israeli forces since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry—whose figures have not only been confirmed by former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, but deemed a significant undercount by independent researchers. Thousands more Gazans are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the ruins of the flattened strip.

UK Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward stessed after Thursday’s failed UNSC resolution that “we need a ceasefire more than ever.”

“Israel’s reckless expansion of its military operation takes us further away from a deal which could bring the hostages home and end the suffering in Gaza,” Woodward said.

Thursday’s developments came as Israeli forces continued to lay waste to Gaza City as they push deeper into the city as part of Operation Gideon’s Chariots 2, a campaign to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse around 1 million Palestinians from the strip’s capital. Israeli leaders have said they are carrying out the operation in accordance with Trump’s proposal to empty Gaza of Palestinians and transform it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

In what some observers said was a bid to prevent the world from witnessing fresh Israeli war crimes in Gaza City, internet and phone lines were cut off in the strip Thursday, although officials said service has since been mostly restored.

Gaza officials said Thursday that at least 50 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces since dawn, including 40 in Gaza City, which Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Abu Azzoum said is being pummeled into “a lifeless wasteland.”

Azzoum reported that tens of thousands of Palestinians “are moving to the south on foot or in carts, looking for any place that is relatively safe—but with no guarantee of safety—or at least for shelter.”

Israel has repeatedly bombed areas it advised Palestinians were “safe zones,” including a September 2 airstrike that massacred 11 people—nine of them children—queued up to collect water in al-Mawasi.

“Most families who have arrived in the south have not found space,” Azzoum added. “That’s why we’ve seen people setting up makeshift tents close to the water while others are left stranded in the street, living under the open sky.”

BERNIE SANDERS

The Conclusion Is Inescapable: Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza

Having named it a genocide, we must use every ounce of our leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid facilitated by the UN, and initial steps to provide Palestinians with a state of their own.


Relatives of Palestinians, who lost their lives following the Israeli attacks on different part of the region, mourn as the bodies are taken from al-Shifa Hospital for funeral process in Gaza City, Gaza on September 15, 2025.
(Photo by Khames Alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Bernie Sanders
Sep 17, 2025

Common Dreams

Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this war with its brutal attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. Israel, as any other country, had a right to defend itself from Hamas.

But, over the last two years, Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas. Instead, it has waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people. Many legal experts have now concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Association of Genocide Scholars concluded that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.” The Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have reached the same conclusion, as have international groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

‘Stop the Genocide’: Thousands of Israelis Rally Against War and Famine in Gaza

Just yesterday, an independent commission of experts appointed by the United Nations echoed this finding. These experts concluded that: “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”

I agree.

If there is no accountability for Netanyahu and his fellow war criminals, other demagogues will do the same.

Out of a population of 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has now killed some 65,000 people and wounded roughly 164,000. The full toll is likely much higher, with many thousands of bodies buried under the rubble. A leaked classified Israeli military database indicates that 83% of those killed have been civilians. More than 18,000 children have been killed, including 12,000 aged 12 or younger.

For almost two years, the extremist Netanyahu government has severely limited the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza and thrown up every possible hurdle to the United Nations and other aid groups trying to provide lifesaving supplies. This includes an 11-week total blockade in which Israel did not permit any food, water, fuel or medical supplies to enter Gaza. As a direct result of these Israeli policies, Gaza is now gripped by manmade famine, with hundreds of thousands of people facing starvation. More than 400 people, including 145 children, have already starved to death. Each day brings new deaths from hunger.

But it is not just the human cost. Israel has systematically destroyed Gaza’s physical infrastructure. Satellite imagery shows that the Israeli bombardment has destroyed 70% of all structures in Gaza. The UN estimates that 92% of housing units have been damaged or destroyed. At this very moment, Israel is demolishing what’s left of Gaza City. Most hospitals have been destroyed, and almost 1,600 healthcare workers have been killed. Almost 90% of water and sanitation facilities are now inoperable. Hundreds of schools have been bombed, as has every single one of Gaza’s 12 universities. There has been no electricity for 23 months.

And that is just what we know from aid workers and local journalists—hundreds of whom have been killed—as Israel bars outside media from Gaza. In fact, Israel has killed more journalists in Gaza than have been killed in any previous conflict. The result: There is likely much we don’t know about the scale of the atrocities.

Now, with the Trump administration’s full support, the extremist Netanyahu government is openly pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank. Having made life unlivable through bombing and starvation, they are pushing for “voluntary” migration of Palestinians to neighboring countries to make way for US President Donald Trump’s twisted vision of a “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Genocide is defined as actions taken with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.” The actions include killing members of the group or “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” The legal question hinges on intent.

Israeli leaders have made their intent clear. Early in the conflict, the defense minister said, “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” The finance minister vowed that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed.” Another minister declared: “All Gaza will be Jewish… we are wiping out this evil.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.” Another minister called for, “Erasing all of Gaza from the face of the Earth.” Another Israeli lawmaker said, “The Gaza Strip should be flattened, and there should be one sentence for everyone there—death. We have to wipe the Gaza Strip off the map. There are no innocents there.” Yet another Knesset member called for “erasing all of Gaza from the face of the Earth.” And, just recently, a minister in Israel’s high-level security cabinet said: “Gaza City itself should be exactly like Rafah, which we turned into a city of ruins.”

The intent is clear. The conclusion is inescapable: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

I recognize that many people may disagree with this conclusion. The truth is, whether you call it genocide or ethnic cleansing or mass atrocities or war crimes, the path forward is clear. We, as Americans, must end our complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people. That is why I have worked with a number of my Senate colleagues to force votes on seven Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to stop offensive arms sales to Israel. The United States must not continue sending many billions of dollars and weapons to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocidal government.

Having named it a genocide, we must use every ounce of our leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid facilitated by the UN, and initial steps to provide Palestinians with a state of their own.

But this issue goes beyond Israel and Palestine.

Around the world, democracy is on the defensive. Hatred, racism, and divisiveness are on the rise. The challenge we now face is to prevent the world from descending into barbarism, where horrific crimes against humanity can take place with impunity. We must say now and forever that, while wars may happen, there are certain basic standards that must be upheld. The starvation of children cannot be tolerated. The flattening of cities must not become the norm. Collective punishment is beyond the pale.

The very term genocide is a reminder of what can happen if we fail. That word emerged from the Holocaust—the murder of 6 million Jews—one of the darkest chapters in human history. Make no mistake. If there is no accountability for Netanyahu and his fellow war criminals, other demagogues will do the same. History demands that the world act with one voice to say: Enough is enough. No more genocide.

RFK takes the wheel of MAGA's new 'Operation Warp Speed'

Nick Anderson.

 Raw Story
September 17, 2025 


Nick Anderson/Raw Story


Nick Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.

How to Tell When Authoritarians Become Fascists

How real is the threat of fascism? At a minimum, the extreme right is a threat to the very limited, mostly one-dollar, one-vote democracy that capitalists allow us.


A protester stands in front of an image of Trump dressed as Hitler during a protest in Foley Square demanding the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student activist and recent Columbia graduate. WHO CURRENTLY IS BEING DEPORTED TO SYRIA OR ALGERIA
(Photo by Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Gary Engler
Sep 19, 2025

Common Dreams


The times they are a-changin. And quickly. And not in a good way. And it’s scary.

The façade of democracy is being ripped away by politicians who never liked it but lately feel emboldened to admit it. Most important of all, they have begun to act like unapologetic authoritarians. And brag about it. Suddenly the “F word” is on our minds.

‘There Is No Antifa Organization,’ But Trump Still Wants to Designate It a ‘Major Terrorist’ Group

Based on historian Robert Paxton’s definition—“Fascism is a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion”—I developed the following:

Fascism Worry Checklist

If you answer “true” to four or fewer questions, you live in an ordinary, but likely severely unequal, 21st century capitalist country. If you answer “true” to five and up to seven questions, be worried about the potential for fascism in your country. If you answer “true” to eight or more questions, good luck. And seriously consider joining with other activists in defending the bits of democracy that you have left.

(Answer true or false)

10. The loyalty of the police in defending all people, democracy, and the rule of law is in question, at least in part because the far-right has significant support inside their ranks.

9. A popular political party pushes the idea that a ‘successful’ strong man, often a billionaire, is needed to lead the nation against its enemies, foreign and domestic.

8. My country glorifies the military. Everyone is expected to react with an unquestioning patriotism no matter what it does.

7. Those who profit from waging war have created powerful lobby groups. Their self-interest is to define rivals as enemies who must be “defended” against, justifying ever increased spending.

6. While external “enemies” excuse militarism, internal minority groups have become targets of hate campaigns to justify paramilitary militias who are supposedly “defending” the nation and its values.

5. Specialists who have been trained in propaganda targeting other country’s affairs and in overthrowing “unfriendly” governments are available for hire by domestic politicians.

4. A mass movement to oppose “socialism” can be easily mobilized by the wealthy to defend their “property” against increased taxes or efforts to reduce inequality and provide better social services.

3. Verifiable, objective truth is ignored by growing numbers of people. Instead, they believe “Big Lies” or conspiracy theories, which are becoming more common.

2. A political movement has been created in which loyalty to a leader above all else is the critical test of party membership.

1. Many “important” people, especially the wealthy, no longer trust democracy or believe in elections and are willing to manipulate results to get their way.

How real is the threat of fascism? At a minimum, the extreme right is a threat to the very limited, mostly one-dollar, one-vote democracy that capitalists allow us. Supporters of the system claim capitalism is integral to liberal democracy, but that is absurd. Everywhere fascism has taken power or grown quickly it is because the wealthy and powerful have thrown their support behind it and against democracy. When forced to choose between their “property rights” and democracy, capitalists choose self-interest, which is maintaining their wealth and power. All over the world rich people are abandoning conservative parties in favor of the extreme right or are pushing the traditional parties of wealth to the extreme right.

I wrote the above for a book that I subsequently turned into 43 videos titled Economic Democracy or No Democracy—An Anti Oligarchy Manifesto for the Your Socialist Grandfather YouTube channel. Suddenly it seems much too topical. Urgent even.

'Laughing at him': Foreign official in awe watching King Charles 'humiliate' Trump

Robert Davis
September 18, 2025
 RAW STORY


US President Donald Trump and King Charles interact at the state banquet for the US President and First Lady Melania Trump at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, on day one of their second state visit to the UK, Wednesday September 17, 2025. Yui Mok/Pool via REUTERS


A Ukrainian MP said Thursday that President Donald Trump was "humiliated" on the world's stage yet again while he visited the United Kingdom's royal family.

Kira Rudik, leader of the Ukrainian Holos Party, discussed Trump's U.K. visit in an interview with Times Radio. Rudik said that King Charles "humiliated" Trump during the state dinner at Windsor Castle by subtly calling out Trump's isolationist stance in the Ukraine war.

King Charles said that it was "time for Europe and our allies to stand together" to defeat the growing wave of fascism.

"It was such a nice statement from a leader who understands the difference between value and values," Rudik said. "Looking at it not from just a short-term gains situation but from the historical value situation, from something that you believe in for generations and stand for, then you know how important it is to be on the right side of history."

Rudik also accused Trump of "playing a game" to help Russian President Vladimir Putin escape accountability for invading Ukraine. That game has also "put Europe's security at stake," she said.

"Does he want to continue to be humiliated, or does he want to be a strong president as he promised?" Rudik said. "Does he want to be perceived as someone who can end the war, someone who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, someone who is actually ready to stand up against China, against Iran, against North Korea, or as someone that all these tyrannies will be laughing at?"

'Beating the retreat': British historian decodes Trump's visit to the UK

US President Donald Trump delivers his speech as King Charles III and the Princess of Wales listen during the state banquet for the US President and First Lady Melania Trump at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, on day one of their second state visit to the UK, Wednesday September 17, 2025. Yui Mok/Pool via REUTERS

The Conversation

September 19, 2025 

State visits are always grand occasions, but Donald Trump’s second was unprecedented in terms of scale and spectacle. The president was treated to the most impressive ceremonial welcome ever laid on for any head of state.


After enjoying a carriage ride through the grounds of Windsor Castle with the king, queen and prince and princess of Wales, the president was greeted by the largest guard of honour ever, comprising 1,300 troops and 120 horses. A lunch, private tour of St George’s Chapel and a Red Arrows flypast followed, before the day culminated in a lavish white-tie state banquet.

All this pomp and pageantry has a purpose and a keen eye can spot meaning in most parts of the itinerary.

For example, there were obvious nods to the government’s priorities for this visit throughout the first day, even before the government meetings began. Prime minister Keir Starmer has wanted to focus on tech and defence, so we saw key business leaders, including the head of Apple and CEO of OpenAI, on the guest list for the state banquet.

There was also a clear focus on defence throughout the first day’s proceedings. As well as inspecting the customary guard of honour, the President took part in the “beating the retreat” ceremony – the first time that this historic military parade has been performed at an incoming state visit.

British and American F-35 fighter jets were part of the aerial flypast and when symbolic gifts were exchanged, Trump presented the king with a replica of a President Eisenhower sword. This, he said, was a “reminder of the historical partnership that was critical to winning World War II”.

But perhaps the government’s objectives were seen most clearly in the speeches delivered during the state banquet. King Charles explicitly reminded the President that the UK had agreed “the first trade deal” of any country with his administration, which he said had brought “jobs and growth” to both countries and hoped would allow for them to “go even further as we build this new era of our partnership”.

Most striking of all, however, were the king’s comments on defence. He explicitly told Trump that “in two world wars, we fought together to defeat the forces of tyranny. Today, as tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine, to deter aggression and secure peace”.

The first day of any state visit is all about royal pageantry, with discussions of politics usually left for day two. This is because in the UK’s constitutional monarchy, the monarch is bound by the doctrine of political neutrality, which means that the king must remain neutral on political matters.

But some have argued that Charles was, with these comments, straying into politics and went too far. The journalist Michael Wolff said the king was effectively correcting Trump over his failure to strike a peace deal in Ukraine and that the President would have been “super irritated” by the intervention.

However, it is important to note that the king’s words will have been chosen carefully for him by the UK government. This is because Charles is bound by the cardinal convention, a constitutional rule according to which he must act on the advice of the government. All his speeches are written by ministers, and this particular speech reportedly went through many drafts to ensure that the king “pushes the right buttons without crossing political lines”.

The button that this speech was designed to push was peace in Ukraine. After his very public spat with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office earlier this year, the UK government has been concerned that Trump is indifferent about who wins the Russia-Ukraine war and favours an appeasement solution with Putin. It wants to get Trump firmly on Ukraine’s side – and thought the king was the best person to deliver this message.

The king is a skilled diplomat whose unrivalled soft power gives him the unique ability to influence some of the biggest political issues of our time. And he seems to get on well with Trump. The king met the President during his first state visit in 2019, wrote to him following his assassination attempt and, unusually, invited him for an unprecedented second state visit with a special hand written note.

There seemed to be genuine warmth between the two men during this second visit. The President, for example, praised the king, describing him as “his friend who everybody loves” and “a great gentleman and a great king”.

And there are signs that this flattery and warmth nullified any potential annoyance over the Ukraine comments. In his own speech, Trump effused that the day was “one of the highest honours” of his life and that “the word ‘special’ does not begin to do justice” to the UK-US relationship.

If the state visit helps increase US support for the British economy and Ukraine, it will be a job well done for the royals.

Francesca Jackson, PhD candidate, Lancaster Law School, Lancaster University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

'We are horrified': NYT chastises Trump in scathing op-ed

Adam Lynch

ALTERNET

September 19, 2025 | 

The New York Times accused Trump of wielding some ugly free speech to bury the speech of others.

“Trump and his aides tell … a false [story]. They claim that political violence comes mostly from the left. … In fact, multiple data sources show that neither side has a monopoly on political violence, but it is more likely to come from the right,” the Times reports. “Between 2015 and 2024, 54 percent of ideologically connected killings were committed by people on the far right, according to the Anti-Defamation League. By comparison, 8 percent came from the political left.”

“We are horrified by the killing of [MAGA influencer Charlie] Kirk, and we mourn his death,” the Times reports. However, as stated by former vice president Mike Pence: “there was one person responsible for Charlie Kirk’s assassination.”

That doesn’t appear to stop Trump from using Kirk’s death to crackdown on “hateful” free speech with which he disagrees, while his speech remains free and thoroughly hateful.

“After the attack at [former Speaker Nancy] Pelosi’s home, which included a brutal assault of her husband, Paul, Mr. Trump himself and other prominent Republicans mocked the victim and spread absurd conspiracies that the episode was staged. After the shooting of two Democratic legislators and their spouses in Minnesota, Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, bizarrely blamed “Marxists,” while Laura Loomer, an influential Trump confidante, falsely blamed “goons” working for Gov. Tim Walz, the Minnesota Democrat.”

These are terrible things to say, but they are not crimes, said the Times, “and they are certainly not grounds for a government crackdown against conservative groups,” and it urged Trump and his aides “to remember the free-speech criticisms that they and other conservatives have often made of progressives over the past decade.”

“In his Inaugural Address in January, Mr. Trump promised to ‘bring back free speech to America.’ [Vice President JD] Vance, while speaking in Munich in February, excoriated European countries for restricting speech and promised, ‘Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree,’” the Times recalled.

But instead of living up to these principles, the Trump administration and its allies are attempting to restrict speech in ways that are more extreme than anything Democrats have done.

If Trump refuses to stand up for “the basic American right to disagree without fear of oppression, others still can,” said the Times, and it urged the Supreme Court to jettison Trump’s upcoming executive order targeting left-leaning organizations as “clearly unconstitutional.”

“The ability to disagree with other people on raw, difficult issues, without fear of repression, is the essence of American freedom.”

Read the New York Times report at this link.

One senator's ignorant Charlie Kirk whine shows how far the GOP has fallen

Ray Hartmann
September 18, 2025 

RAW STORY

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) questions FBI Director Kash Patel on Capitol Hill. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst




This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.


Eric Schmitt tried to present himself as an intellectual at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.



He came off like a little boy trying on his father’s clothes in the mirror.

It was all swagger and no fit.

Schmitt thoughtfully entitled his remarks, “There Can Be No Unity Between Good and Evil.” Even the subject of the hearing — smarmy FBI Director Kash Patel — must have been wondering to himself about how that could possibly be helpful.

The problem wasn’t merely with the content of Schmitt’s falsehood-laden messaging. His role, after all, was to parrot Donald Trump’s reprehensible words dividing the nation at a time of national strife, as no American president ever has before.

But Schmitt’s speech — which you can watch here or read here — was nothing more than a faux-intellectual diatribe delivered with the gravitas of Daffy Duck doing a TED talk.

Early on in his remarks, Schmitt sounded like a U.S. Senator:
Over the past week, leaders from across the political spectrum have come out and condemned Charlie [Kirk]'s murder and political violence more broadly. For that, we’re all very grateful. We should be grateful. There have been calls together to come together in the wake of Charlie’s murder and I want to do that. Someday, I pray we can be united as a country again and go forward again as one people under one flag.

That sounded fine to me. My reaction in this space had been that “we should all as Americans deplore — without qualification — Kirk’s murder. It’s a moment that could bring us all together in revulsion, across the great political divide.”

Unfortunately, Schmitt’s gratitude lasted just a few paragraphs. He cited some random polling which he claimed showed that liberals are fine with political violence and conservatives aren’t. That junk doesn’t deserve further mention here, much less — with no vetting or validation — at a U.S. Senate proceeding.

As for “coming together,” it was probably not all that helpful for the senator to spew lies like this one:
The George Soros empire has financed a vast ecosystem of radicals all working together — dropping off bricks at riots — to unleash a tidal wave of violent anarchists on our streets and prop it up with an army of researchers and experts and journalists and propagandists who downplay political violence.

Nothing like serving up propaganda to call out propaganda. It might soothe the sensibilities of MAGA faithful, but Schmitt’s just another politician making stuff up.

But what sets Schmitt apart is his veneer of solemnity while delivering such truly unserious drivel. With no self-awareness, Schmitt persists in trying to dress up the basest political tripe in a wardrobe of make-believe intellectualism.

Behold the philosopher Eric Schmitt holding forth with large words:
Upstream from the dehumanization and demonizing political violence and rhetoric tearing apart our country, is a divide on how we view America and Americans. Are we good? Are we evil? Is there something inherently special about Western civilization or is this 2,000-year project rotten to the core? And if it is something worth fighting for, which I believe it is, how do we do it?”


What?

Now, I’ve written quite a few clunky paragraphs in my day — and mixed more than my share of metaphors — but I’m not certain how to decode Schmitt’s gibberish.


We’ve all heard our nation described as a grand “experiment,” but arguably not one spanning 2,000 years. With apologies to those who maintain Jesus was an American.

And who describes “Western civilization” as a “2,000-year project?” Mind you, this wasn’t a slip of the tongue: it’s in his speech text and was faithfully repeated in his live remarks.

Are we good? Are we evil? Does dehumanization flow upstream? Were the Dark Ages part of Western civilization? Is this the sort of work product you’d get if Plato impregnated Laura Loomer?


I’m not so sure about those questions, but I am about this one:

Does Eric Schmitt truly not comprehend the outrageous hypocrisy of viciously attacking people’s character and motives who disagree with him — and calling them “evil” — and then whining like this?

And I would point out we’ve heard years of the left — their loudest voices — calling anyone on the right an extremist MAGA Republican, a fascist, a Nazi, an existential threat to democracy.

Check yourself. And don’t give me this both sides bullshit!


It’s hard to counter such eloquence from such a towering intellect.


Still, here’s a thought: If you truly hold the worldview that in American politics, everything comes down to good versus evil — and that you’re good and those of us who disagree with you are evil — say it all you want. It’s a free country.

But don’t bother pretending to be smart about it.

(Note: this is the first of a two-part post. Tomorrow’s installment will examine Schmitt’s premise that political violence in America is not a “both sides” matter.)