SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
Several speakers at the Democratic Convention made good points about what's at stake in this November's election.
Even more on target were the grassroots organizers who, along with Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar, highlighted the hard-hitting UnitedAgainstTrump virtual rally during the convention organized by a coalition of social justice groups.
But it was an announcement from the GOP about who would speak at this year's Republican National Convention that painted the most vivid picture of what this year's balloting is actually about.
The white St. Louis couple that brandished guns at peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters in June will take the podium to promote Donald Trump's re-election.
ANTI-BLACKNESS CENTER-STAGE
Political messaging doesn't get any clearer than this.
With this invitation, Trump is declaring that the message he's been sending via Twitter to white homeowners is center stage in the GOP luminary lineup:
"Get your guns out. Defend your way of life from the Black people who are coming to take your house and rape your women."
This is straight out of Ku Klux Klan messaging and practice in the era of Jim Crow. But these was not a peep - not a peep - of objection from a single GOP elected official.
And why would there be? None raised an eyebrow two weeks earlier when Trump tweeted a racist foghorn blast instead of a mere dog-whistle touting his rollback of an Obama- era program intended to combat segregation in suburban housing: "people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream" would "no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood. Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down."
From the Obama-era birther campaign that Trump used to catapult himself into the nationwide spotlight (now being reprised as birtherism 2.0 targeting Kamala Harris) to his current love affair with these two unrobed white terrorists, anti-Blackness has been Trumpism's standard operating procedure.
A HATER ACROSS THE BOARD
Never one to set limits on bigotry, Trump builds on anti-Blackness to promote racist hate across the board.
Trump just finished heaping praise on Laura Loomer, winner of a Republican congressional primary in Florida, who is a conspiracy theorist and proud Islamophobe. Loomer is on record as declaring that "Muslims should not be allowed to seek positions of public office in this country. It should be illegal." The perfect follow up to Trump's Muslim ban, right?
Making sure to keep demonization of (non-white) immigrants in the mix, Trump went to the U.S.-Mexico border to reprise his longstanding anti-immigrant rant in Yuma, Arizona August 17. As usual blathering on about immigrants being criminals, rapists and the like, Trump closed with a claim to be "proudly defending the jobs, safety and security" of Americans, eliciting cheers from the crowd.
Puerto Ricans are the despised "other" for Trump as well. Former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor confirmed August 19 that Trump "wanted to see if we could swap Puerto Rico for Greenland," because, in Trump's words, 'Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor.'"
Trump has the GOP behind him in all this, with numerous studies showing the correlation between "white grievance" and Republican support. One former Republican strategist after another has been acknowledging that "the GOP is a party whose center of gravity is white nationalism (Avik Roy) and "Trump is the logical conclusion of what the party became over the past 50 or so years, a natural product of the seeds of race-baiting, self-deception and anger that now dominate it." (Stuart Stevens)
The latest detailed evidence of the GOP's racist moorings and the way it is shaping the 2020 election is in Thomas Edsall's August 19 column in the New York Times. Edsall's piece is subtitled "2020 is the struggle between racial liberalism and racial conservatism" and bluntly states, "Fanning the flames of racial animosity lies at the core of Trump's election strategy, as it did in 2016."
This is why when activists say, "white supremacy is on the ballot" and "anti-Black racism is on the ballot" in 2020, they are dead right.
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Several speakers at the Democratic Convention made good points about what's at stake in this November's election.
Even more on target were the grassroots organizers who, along with Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar, highlighted the hard-hitting UnitedAgainstTrump virtual rally during the convention organized by a coalition of social justice groups.
But it was an announcement from the GOP about who would speak at this year's Republican National Convention that painted the most vivid picture of what this year's balloting is actually about.
The white St. Louis couple that brandished guns at peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters in June will take the podium to promote Donald Trump's re-election.
ANTI-BLACKNESS CENTER-STAGE
Political messaging doesn't get any clearer than this.
With this invitation, Trump is declaring that the message he's been sending via Twitter to white homeowners is center stage in the GOP luminary lineup:
"Get your guns out. Defend your way of life from the Black people who are coming to take your house and rape your women."
This is straight out of Ku Klux Klan messaging and practice in the era of Jim Crow. But these was not a peep - not a peep - of objection from a single GOP elected official.
And why would there be? None raised an eyebrow two weeks earlier when Trump tweeted a racist foghorn blast instead of a mere dog-whistle touting his rollback of an Obama- era program intended to combat segregation in suburban housing: "people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream" would "no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood. Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down."
From the Obama-era birther campaign that Trump used to catapult himself into the nationwide spotlight (now being reprised as birtherism 2.0 targeting Kamala Harris) to his current love affair with these two unrobed white terrorists, anti-Blackness has been Trumpism's standard operating procedure.
A HATER ACROSS THE BOARD
Never one to set limits on bigotry, Trump builds on anti-Blackness to promote racist hate across the board.
Trump just finished heaping praise on Laura Loomer, winner of a Republican congressional primary in Florida, who is a conspiracy theorist and proud Islamophobe. Loomer is on record as declaring that "Muslims should not be allowed to seek positions of public office in this country. It should be illegal." The perfect follow up to Trump's Muslim ban, right?
Making sure to keep demonization of (non-white) immigrants in the mix, Trump went to the U.S.-Mexico border to reprise his longstanding anti-immigrant rant in Yuma, Arizona August 17. As usual blathering on about immigrants being criminals, rapists and the like, Trump closed with a claim to be "proudly defending the jobs, safety and security" of Americans, eliciting cheers from the crowd.
Puerto Ricans are the despised "other" for Trump as well. Former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor confirmed August 19 that Trump "wanted to see if we could swap Puerto Rico for Greenland," because, in Trump's words, 'Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor.'"
Trump has the GOP behind him in all this, with numerous studies showing the correlation between "white grievance" and Republican support. One former Republican strategist after another has been acknowledging that "the GOP is a party whose center of gravity is white nationalism (Avik Roy) and "Trump is the logical conclusion of what the party became over the past 50 or so years, a natural product of the seeds of race-baiting, self-deception and anger that now dominate it." (Stuart Stevens)
The latest detailed evidence of the GOP's racist moorings and the way it is shaping the 2020 election is in Thomas Edsall's August 19 column in the New York Times. Edsall's piece is subtitled "2020 is the struggle between racial liberalism and racial conservatism" and bluntly states, "Fanning the flames of racial animosity lies at the core of Trump's election strategy, as it did in 2016."
This is why when activists say, "white supremacy is on the ballot" and "anti-Black racism is on the ballot" in 2020, they are dead right.
Several speakers at the Democratic Convention made good points about what's at stake in this November's election.
Even more on target were the grassroots organizers who, along with Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar, highlighted the hard-hitting UnitedAgainstTrump virtual rally during the convention organized by a coalition of social justice groups.
But it was an announcement from the GOP about who would speak at this year's Republican National Convention that painted the most vivid picture of what this year's balloting is actually about.
The white St. Louis couple that brandished guns at peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters in June will take the podium to promote Donald Trump's re-election.
ANTI-BLACKNESS CENTER-STAGE
Political messaging doesn't get any clearer than this.
With this invitation, Trump is declaring that the message he's been sending via Twitter to white homeowners is center stage in the GOP luminary lineup:
"Get your guns out. Defend your way of life from the Black people who are coming to take your house and rape your women."
This is straight out of Ku Klux Klan messaging and practice in the era of Jim Crow. But these was not a peep - not a peep - of objection from a single GOP elected official.
And why would there be? None raised an eyebrow two weeks earlier when Trump tweeted a racist foghorn blast instead of a mere dog-whistle touting his rollback of an Obama- era program intended to combat segregation in suburban housing: "people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream" would "no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood. Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down."
From the Obama-era birther campaign that Trump used to catapult himself into the nationwide spotlight (now being reprised as birtherism 2.0 targeting Kamala Harris) to his current love affair with these two unrobed white terrorists, anti-Blackness has been Trumpism's standard operating procedure.
A HATER ACROSS THE BOARD
Never one to set limits on bigotry, Trump builds on anti-Blackness to promote racist hate across the board.
Trump just finished heaping praise on Laura Loomer, winner of a Republican congressional primary in Florida, who is a conspiracy theorist and proud Islamophobe. Loomer is on record as declaring that "Muslims should not be allowed to seek positions of public office in this country. It should be illegal." The perfect follow up to Trump's Muslim ban, right?
Making sure to keep demonization of (non-white) immigrants in the mix, Trump went to the U.S.-Mexico border to reprise his longstanding anti-immigrant rant in Yuma, Arizona August 17. As usual blathering on about immigrants being criminals, rapists and the like, Trump closed with a claim to be "proudly defending the jobs, safety and security" of Americans, eliciting cheers from the crowd.
Puerto Ricans are the despised "other" for Trump as well. Former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor confirmed August 19 that Trump "wanted to see if we could swap Puerto Rico for Greenland," because, in Trump's words, 'Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor.'"
Trump has the GOP behind him in all this, with numerous studies showing the correlation between "white grievance" and Republican support. One former Republican strategist after another has been acknowledging that "the GOP is a party whose center of gravity is white nationalism (Avik Roy) and "Trump is the logical conclusion of what the party became over the past 50 or so years, a natural product of the seeds of race-baiting, self-deception and anger that now dominate it." (Stuart Stevens)
The latest detailed evidence of the GOP's racist moorings and the way it is shaping the 2020 election is in Thomas Edsall's August 19 column in the New York Times. Edsall's piece is subtitled "2020 is the struggle between racial liberalism and racial conservatism" and bluntly states, "Fanning the flames of racial animosity lies at the core of Trump's election strategy, as it did in 2016."
This is why when activists say, "white supremacy is on the ballot" and "anti-Black racism is on the ballot" in 2020, they are dead right.
The Palestinian group Al-Haq outlined the "targeting of hospitals and health centers, the denial of adequate medical provisions into and around the Gaza Strip, and the abduction, torture, and killing of medical personnel."
Less than a week into a fragile cease-fire between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq on Thursday released a report detailing how "Israel has systematically targeted and attacked the healthcare system to the point of its collapse in a campaign of genocide."
The new report—titled The Systematic Destruction of Gaza's Healthcare System: A Pattern of Genocide—builds on previous publications, including from United Nations entities, and testimonies from medical professionals who have worked in Gaza since Israel launched its U.S.-backed assault in retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack.
"The Israeli occupying forces' (IOF) targeting of hospitals and health centers, the denial of adequate medical provisions into and around the Gaza Strip, and the abduction, torture, and killing of medical personnel is evidence of Israel's genocidal intent to: (i) inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and (ii) impose measures intended to prevent Palestinian births in the Gaza Strip," states the 116-page report.
"The concerted policy to destroy the healthcare system in Gaza is directly and causally linked to statements made by Israeli officials," the document continues, offering various examples and highlighting how it wasn't just hospitals—Israel also attacked "civilian residences, schools, shelters, mosques, churches, and other protected areas under international humanitarian law."
The report argues that "Israel's systematic campaign against Gaza's healthcare infrastructure as a whole is exemplified by the targeted destruction of al-Shifa Hospital," which is the largest hospital in the occupied Palestinian territory and "older than Israel." The document also addresses Israel's attacks on Adwan, al-Amal, al-Aqsa, al-Awda, Indonesian, Kamal, and Nasser hospitals.
Along with offering a summary of facts and legal analysis of "Israel's systematic attacks on Gaza's healthcare system as acts of genocide," war crimes, and violations of international humanitarian law, the publication features recommendations for other countries and blocs, international tribunals, U.N. experts, companies, and healthcare professionals.
Al-Haq calls on the international community to "name and condemn Israel's ongoing genocide," impose an arms embargo, support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and demand the release of Palestinian political prisoners and those who have been arbitrarily detained by Israel, including healthcare workers.
The report was published as the death toll in Gaza continues to grow, as displaced residents of the Palestinian enclave return to the remnants of their homes and communities decimated by more than 15 months of Israeli bombings and raids.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said Thursday that the official death toll rose to 47,283, after 120 bodies "were recovered from under the rubble" in the past 24 hours, and 111,472 people have been injured. Global experts warn the true death toll is likely far higher.
Israel faces a genocide case led by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its military assault and restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
Al-Haq's report notes both the ICC warrants and the ICJ case, urging other governments to formally support the latter effort.
Throughout the 15-month assault on Gaza, Israeli settlers and troops also targeted Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank—where Al-Haq is based. However, since the cease-fire took effect Sunday, attacks in the West Bank have sparked fresh alarm.
In addition to pushing for the investigation of Israel's assault on Gaza, the new report urges a U.N. commission to probe "genocidal acts in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, including but not limited to killings of Palestinians, causing serious bodily or mental harm to Palestinians, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people."
"It's laughable that the party that once prided themselves on being champions of state and local government are now trampling state and local authority," said Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
The top Democrat on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee issued a statement Thursday condemning the Trump administration's threat that state and local officials could be criminally prosecuted for refusing to cooperate with the president's planned immigration crackdown, which is already drawing legal action and vows of opposition from advocacy groups and communities across the country.
"This policy will lead to chaos, division, and protracted litigation that will unnecessarily cost both state and federal taxpayers huge amounts of money that could be used to keep America safe," wrote Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who also argued that the "federal government doesn't own the states."
Raskin's comments were in response to a Tuesday memo from Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to Justice Department employees that was obtained by The Washington Post.
"Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands," wrote Bove, who stated that the supremacy clause of the Constitution and other legal authorities "require state and local actors to comply with the executive branch's immigration enforcement initiatives."
The memo also makes mention of a "Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group" which will identify state and local policies and laws that are inconsistent with White House immigration initiatives.
On Monday, his first day in office, Trump announced sweeping changes to U.S. immigration enforcement via executive actions, including attempting to end birthright citizenship, reinstating his "Remain in Mexico" policy, suspending refugee resettlement, and moving to restrict federal funds to so-called sanctuary cities.
In response to the memo, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that the move is a "scare tactic," according to The Los Angeles Times. Bonta said that his team is reviewing the memo and will be "prepared to take legal action if the Trump administration's vague threats turn to illegal action."
Raskin challenged the memo for its "failure to cite any authority for this proposition."
"The Constitution and Supreme Court precedents make clear that the 10th Amendment and constitutional federalism protect state and local government and their officials from being 'commandeered' by the federal government as instrumentalities to carry out its policies," he wrote.
"It's laughable that the party that once prided themselves on being champions of state and local government are now trampling state and local authority by commandeering state and local governments to serve a federal agenda," he added.
"This echoes the tactics Israeli forces have employed in Gaza."
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that Israel's military is applying "lessons" learned during its bombardment of Gaza to recent attacks on the West Bank—and a leading human rights group warned that as in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces' actions are resulting in "significant humanitarian consequences."
Operations like "Iron Wall" in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin and a "surge in settler attacks" that have been backed by the IDF "have heightened insecurity, displacement, and severe restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement," said the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on Thursday.
Iron Wall began Tuesday, with the IDF launching airstrikes and ground attacks in the West Bank two days after a cease-fire took effect in Gaza.
At least 12 Palestinians have been killed in the Iron Wall attacks and 40 people have been injured, including medical workers, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
After months of warnings from rights organizations that the IDF cut off access to essential services for Gaza residents with a near-total humanitarian aid blockade and the relentless bombardment of the enclave, the NRC said that Israeli forced have "increased checkpoints, roadblocks, and other physical barriers throughout the West Bank."
"These measures further fragment Palestinian communities, restrict access to essential services, and prevent humanitarian agencies, like NRC, from reaching the communities we serve," said the group.
The latest violence in the West Bank is part of a broader trend, with Israel having begun launching airstrikes in the territory after October 7, 2023, for the first time since the Second Intifada in 2000-05.
The IDF launched Iron Wall in Jenin two weeks after a shooting attack that Israel blamed on gunmen in the refugee camp, which has long been a hub for Palestinian resistance groups and is also home to more than 24,000 Palestinians who are registered in the camp.
Katz said in a statement Wednesday that with the Jenin raid, the IDF is applying "the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza."
"We will not allow the arms of the Iranian regime and radical Sunni Islam to endanger the lives of [Israeli] settlers [in the West Bank] and establish a terrorist front east of the state of Israel," he said.
In addition to the attacks in Jenin, masked Israeli settlers have been filmed setting fire to homes and vehicles in towns across the Israeli-occupied territory in what the Israel-based human rights group B'Tselem called an effort to "impose a 'price tag' for the release of Palestinians" as part of the cease-fire agreement in Gaza.
Residents told Al Jazeera that "constant gunfire and explosions" have been heard in Jenin since Iron Wall began, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported that the IDF has left the camp "nearly uninhabitable."
An estimated 2,000 families have been displaced from the Jenin area since December, according to the agency.
"We are seeing disturbing patterns of unlawful use of force in the West Bank that is unnecessary, indiscriminate, and disproportionate. This echoes the tactics Israeli forces have employed in Gaza," said Angelita Caredda, NRC's Middle East and North Africa regional director. "Under international law, Israel must bring its occupation of Palestinian territory to an end as rapidly as possible. Until then, it must fully comply with its obligations as an occupying power, including the protection of civilians."
In addition to airstrikes and ground attacks, the governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told Agence France-Presse that Israeli military bulldozers have destroyed all roads leading to the camp and to the nearby hospital. Twenty Palestinians from villlages in the Jenin area have been detained since Iron Wall began on Tuesday, according to the governor.
"What we are seeing in Jenin camp is horrific, said one paramedic trained by Doctors Without Borders. "People are targeted while being evacuated, and the wounded cannot be reached by ambulance."
In 2024, Israeli demolitions in the West Bank reached a record high, said the NRC, with 1,768 structures destroyed. IDF soldiers and settlers killed at least 499 Palestinians in the territory last year.
U.S. President Donald Trump has selected at least two nominees for high-level diplomatic positions—Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) for U.N. ambassador and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for ambassador to Israel—who have expressed support for right-wing Israeli officials' claim that Israel has a "Biblical right" to the West Bank.
Amid the settler violence and Jenin raid, Caredda called on the international community to "take decisive action to stop these violations and end the occupation."
"Impunity for serious violations of international law has allowed Israel to unlawfully escalate violence in the occupied West Bank," said Caredda.