“When it’s 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When it’s 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, and only 72 in Los Angeles.” – Neil Simon

I have a love-hate relationship with New York City (NYC). It starts with the polluted air, and NYC’s dirty, dawdling subway system, which somehow delivers riders anywhere in the city for three bucks (Staten Island doesn’t count). It then covers the obscene inequality that can be felt in all boroughs, as evidenced by Wall Street cheats dining from a-la carte menus high on want, while nearly 1.5 million of our NYC neighbors line up for blocks at their nearest food kitchen. NYC boasts the highest level of income inequality, and the highest number of billionaires in the world (and subsequent sociopaths), all while its homelessness, food insecurity, and suicide rates are at record highs. But just when I think I hate it, my love for the city snaps back with a visit to a favorite park, or a march to demand justice, or a random conversation with a student, or stranger on the subway. In many ways, NYC has it all, museums, concerts, shows, restaurants, learning institutions, and hell, even the Brooklyn Bridge. And when all else fails (and it does), there’s always another NYC Gay Pride Parade or NYC Marathon event to boost your spirits, and restore your faith in humanity. Yep. I think what I love most about NYC is the people. Although it has more than its share of jerks, NYC is overflowing with interesting, and inspiring people from everywhere on the planet. In fact, New York City, despite its many flaws, is one of the most diverse and inclusive cities in the world, with more than 200 languages spoken and about 37 percent of residents born outside the country. Wow.
Click here for a detailed route of the NYC Marathon.
Click here to listen to Alicia Keys sing about New York.
Click here for Duke Ellington’s Take the A Train.

A Few of my Favorite NYC “Art” Scenes:

Student protesters on the subway.

A Banksy Piece on 79th & Broadway.

“Einstein on a Bike” mural by Kobra (21st & 8th)

Animal Rights March (Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)

The Left is the Fake Conscience of the Right

Poet & Activist June Jordan

“A democratic state is not proven by the welfare of the strong but by the welfare of the weak…In the context of tragedy, all polite behavior is self-denial…Palestine is a moral litmus test for the world” – June Jordan (1936-2002)

Another reason why I love NYC is its artists. I am as far from being an art expert, as I am from being a gifted female country singer. However, I do know enough (as evidenced here), to yes, be dangerous, and yes, enjoy art in all its forms.
Which is why as an activist, I was excited to visit a new outdoor art exhibit in Brooklyn called the Wall of Tears, A public artwork memorializing the 18,457+ children killed in Gaza from October 7th, 2023 until July 19, 2025, by artist Phil Buehler.
I was humbled, and anxious to read as much of the “public artwork” as possible before my brain froze in the cold (it was below 10 degrees). However, after only a few minutes, I noticed that although the piece was powerful, there was no mention of Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Murder, or Undercount in the memorial. Moreover, there was also no acknowledgement (that I could find), explaining how the actual number of Palestinian children MURDERED by the US-Israeli Genocide since October 7, 2023, likely exceeds 100,000! Why was this information not included? An interview with the artist at the exhibit mentions that the number they chose, 18,457, was likely “hundreds” less than the actual number. Wait, what? Why were they ignoring the estimated death toll which is at least 5 times greater than what they were lamenting? The interview also described the US-Israeli Genocide in Gaza as “the war in Gaza.” I discovered later that the same held true with the articles that had been written about the piece too, (murder was used once as it related to Hind Rajab), even though we have known that Israel has been targeting, sniping, and mass-murdering Palestinian CHILDREN for years, and that over 25 major humanitarian organizations have all concluded that Israel is committing a Genocide in Palestine. I sensed a liberal Zionist tone, and soon felt colder, and more annoyed, so I decided to leave.
Click here to learn more about how Israel targets, and snipes Palestinian children in the head.
Click here to learn more about how Israel has been targeting and murdering Palestinian children for years.
Click here to learn how Israel has eviscerated thousands of Palestinians.
Click here for the long list of humanitarian organizations who have concluded that Israel is committing a Genocide in Palestine.
Click here to learn more about the actual death count of Palestinians from Human Rights attorney Steven Donziger.
Click here to learn more about the Gazan death toll from the great Ralph Nader.
Click here to learn more about the heinous and unforgivable crimes of Israel that have constituted a Genocide in Palestine.

Norman Finkelstein

The (Nazi) Holocaust has proven to be an indispensable ideological weapon. Through its deployment, one of the world’s most formidable military powers, with a horrendous human rights record (Israel), has cast itself as a “victim” state, and the most successful ethnic group in the United States (American Jews), has likewise acquired victim status…The biggest insult to the Nazi Holocaust is not denying it, but using it as an excuse to justify the Genocide of the Palestinian people…Israel is the main cause of anti-Semitism in the world today…Human rights are universal, or they mean nothing.” – Norman Finkelstein

Peter Joseph 

Before unpacking liberal Zionism and the Left, it is important to remember that “Genocide Joe” Biden, and the Democratic Party, are as responsible as Israel for the ongoing Genocide in Gaza. Peter Joseph is a writer, and filmmaker, who continues to do thought provoking work. Here he explains how the Left has become the “fake conscience of the right”: 
Excerpts: “The modern “left”, from social democracy to progressive NGOs, functions largely as a moral subsidiary of the dominant system. It mostly humanizes capitalism, manages inequality, and provides the emotional catharsis of protest without challenging property or profit. It exists because power needs its own critique to appear legitimate, while those more radical thinkers that go “too far” are essentially dismissed as irrational or even dangerous…This is why major corporations sponsor “progressive causes,” why universities teach “radical theory” as academic fashion, and why systemic critique rarely leaves the realm of art or activism. The left becomes the fake conscience of the right, its indispensable opposition by which the traditional establishment continues to stabilize its control. In the end, the political spectrum, as propagandized from 18th-century France, is a cage of perception and dismissal, a binary algorithm ensuring the continuity of power under the illusion of pluralism, to the detriment of us all. Hence, to say that “the left does not exist” is not to deny the sincerity of those who struggle for justice, equality, ecological balance, or other needed change. It is to expose how their energy is continually redirected into manageable channels of reform, perpetuating the system’s homeostasis in favor of no change at all, especially if they choose to fall victim to this way of thinking. The real issue is not left or right, but reason versus tradition; dogma versus advancement and/or systemic or anti-systemic. Until that distinction replaces this inherited false dichotomy, political life will remain a theater of managed opposition, a ritualized war of shadows projected on the wall of the same enduring order.”
Click here to learn more from Peter Joseph on how the Left does not Exist.

Wall of Tears: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

THE GOOD: 
I love Phil Buehler’s idea of using a public space to bring more attention to the suffering, and killing, of children in Gaza (despite his numbers being dramatically low, and there being no mention of Gaza now being home to the highest number of child amputees worldwide). It is unfathomable that the names of such a small percentage of the Palestinian kids killed by the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza over the last 2.5 years, can stretch 50 feet down the block. It is an added bonus too that so many passersby will have the opportunity to read some of the stories of these beautiful children. And my God, the stories. I also like that there are sections of the Wall of Tears that highlight individuals by the use of enlarged photos, and background information on each child’s life. One of the children highlighted is five year old Hind Rajab, who was targeted, and murdered, along with her family, by Israeli forces. According to the Hind Rajab Foundation website, “On 29 January 2024, Hind Rajab’s car was hit by Israeli tank fire. Six members of her family died instantly. Hind, wounded and terrified, remained alive for hours, whispering into a phone with PRCS dispatchers: “I’m so scared… please come.” The ambulance sent to save her never made it. It too was shelled and burned. The two medics inside were killed instantly. When rescue workers returned ten days later, they found Hind’s small body lying next to her cousin Layan. Their voices had gone quiet.”
Click here to learn more from the Hind Rajab Foundation and how they are attempting to hold the murderers accountable. 

Wall of Tears: Hind Rajab, Layan Hamada, Others

Hind Rajab: Kindergarten Graduation Photo

Incidentally, “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” is a docudrama about Israel’s killing of 5 year-old Hind Rajab that was nominated for an Oscar at the Academy Awards. According to Chris Hedges, “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” like all great pieces of art, takes a straightforward story, the battle to save the life of a 6-year-old girl, Hind Rajab, trapped in a car in Gaza surrounded by murdered family members, and elevates it to an archetype. This story is as old as time. It lies at the heart of all religious and moral literature. It pits the cruelty and heartlessness of power against the empathy and compassion of the powerless. It asks us what kind of a life we want to live. Is it a life defined by hubris, domination and violence? Or is it a life defined by compassion, justice and self-sacrifice? These are moral, not political questions…Israel and its supporters do not want the outside world to see the bureaucratic machinery that perpetuates its mass slaughter, but I suspect, even more, it does not want the world to see the humanity of the Palestinians who resist…“The Voice of Hind Rajab” reminds us that indifference is complicity. It mocks the rhetoric used to dehumanize Palestinians. It unmasks the petty and deadly tyranny of military occupation. It illustrates the powerlessness, indignity and savage violence of occupation. It exposes the fundamental nature of war and genocide. It is a testament to what is good and what is evil. It asks us to make a choice.”
Click here for the entire piece from Pulitzer Prize winning author Chris Hedges. 
Click here for a trailer of The Voice of Hind Rajab.

Zionism Feeds anti-Semitism (photo: Sean Gallup)

Zionism is Terrorism

THE BAD:
Interestingly, as I was searching for a Wall of Tears website, I came across a New York based organization called the Wall of Tears Foundation. I don’t know if it is related to the Wall of Tears art display in Brooklyn, but it does appear to be a pro-Zionist, Jewish Supremacist organization as it features the Holocaust profiteer himself, Elie Wiesel, and mentions Israel multiple times, without a peep on Israel’s crimes (dehumanization practices, mass-murder campaigns, ethnic cleansing, Genocide, etc.). As per the Wall of Tears Foundation website, “Addressing Antisemitism. Never Forget. Never Again. Never is Now”. These words, without the addition of “Never again for Anyone” are code, and a way for Jewish Supremacists to conflate any criticism of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza with anti-Semitism. Let’s hope that the Wall of Tears in Brooklyn is unrelated.
Click here to learn more about the revolting hypocrisy of Elie Wiesel from the journalist, Max Blumenthal.
Click here to learn more about the two sides of Elie Wiesel.
Click here to learn more about how Zionism causes antisemitism. 
Click here to learn more about the wickedness of Zionism from Jewish Voice for Peace.

Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington DC

The failure of Brooklyn’s Wall of Tears exhibit to be more honest about the US-Israeli Genocide in Gaza, reminded of artist Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. The Vietnam Memorial receives a lot of visits and praise, yet only mentions the 58,000+ US soldiers who died in the Vietnam War, and NOT the estimated 3-4 MILLION Vietnamese civilians who were also killed, and those who are still dying and suffering to this day.
Click here to learn more about US propaganda as it relates to Veterans Day, and the Vietnam War.
Click here to learn more about the 3-4 million Vietnamese killed by the US War Machine.

I shared the message below with the “Wall of Tears” artist, Phil Buehler, and I have yet to receive a response:

Thank you Mr. Buehler for this powerful piece (Wall of Tears). I visited a few days ago and the experience was both heart-breaking, and humbling. So, thank you again for raising awareness to what is happening to our brothers, sisters, and children in Palestine (all children are our children). I noticed however, that none of the articles that have been written about “The Wall of Tears” contain the words “genocide”, and “undercount” (BK Reader, The Guardian, Hyperallergic). In fact, the Guardian’s David Smith, after 2+ years into the genocide, refers to the US-Israeli Genocide in Gaza (one of the worst crimes in human history), as the “war in Gaza”. Moreover, I am not an expert, but the number of children who have been murdered in Gaza since October 8, 2023, is likely well over 100,000 (as per the Lancet, Human Rights Attorney Steven Donziger, etc.). I am curious to know what your thoughts are on the soft, and misleading language that is being written about your work. Are the authors (and perhaps yourself) being careful not to alienate their/your supporters/readers? Also, I am interested in writing a piece about the “Wall of Tears”, but I have no other way to contact you except through your FB page. I would like to learn more about your process, and background if you are interested. I visited your Modern Ruins website and it really was like traveling through time. Regardless, I hope to hear from you, and thanks again.
Click here for an article on the Wall of Tears exhibit from Hyperallergic.
Click here for the article from the Guardian’s David Smith.
Click here for an article from the Brooklyn Reader. 

Across the street from the Wall of Tears.

THE UGLY:
In one of the articles written about the Wall of Tears, Mr. Buehler explained that he had recently come across a James Baldwin quote from 1973 that gave him inspiration: “The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” Unfortunately, it appears to be Mr. Buehler himself, who doesn’t want the world to see the entire truth.

According to journalist Isa Farfan, “Buehler is a Bronx-raised photographer whose public art projects have included portraits of the empty beds of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian forces and documentation of Ferguson in mourning after the killing of Michael Brown. His latest work, produced in collaboration with Radio Free Brooklyn, will remain on view until February 15. Buehler has created other banner-type works, including a 2022 “Wall of Liars and Deniers,” a 50-foot-long composition of Trump allies’ claims of fraud in the 2020 election. Another piece, “Wall of Shame” (2025), chronicled the alleged crimes of January 6 insurrectionists. Though similar in form, his latest memorial takes a different tone from his Trump-related works. Buehler said he read the Post’s July report on the death toll among Gaza’s children and wanted to use art to ensure that the information reaches as many people as possible.”

In other words, Mr. Buehler is a talented artist whose work seems to have mostly safe, pro-DNC, liberal-Zionist leanings (his major exhibits also seem to hit on all of the DNC talking points). His “Wall of Tears” idea was great, and some elements are powerful, but he is ironically, and perhaps unwittingly, being complicit in genocide by downplaying the loss of life, and immense suffering of our Palestinian brothers and sisters (Perhaps in an effort to not alienate anyone, or lose supporters?). On a side note, he also seems to be perpetuating the lies that Russia was unprovoked in Ukraine, and that the Democratic Party played no decisive role in the conflict, which has now killed over 500,000 people. Apparently, he was all in on exposing the extreme dangers of lifetime criminal Donald Trump (which is actually a good thing). But again, why not be truthful and tell the whole story about “Genocide Joe Biden”, and the DNC, and how the US-Israeli Genocide in Palestine is one of the worst crimes in human history? Or at least mention, if not try to hold the democrats, and NATO accountable too for the loss of life in the Ukraine War? These moral and logical progressions don’t seem to be reflected anywhere in his work, or even considered. And they probably won’t be until it becomes socially acceptable by the liberal establishment. The artist’s apparent attachment to liberal Zionist perspectives is what makes this exhibit both disappointing, and frustrating. Mr. Buehler, and the Guardian’s David Smith should know that “you can’t two sides Genocide.” Liberal Zionism is unsustainable because it is a contradiction. A form of cognitive dissonance. It is impossible to support liberal ideas like equality, humanity, and justice while also supporting the Genocidal state of Israel, which is hellbent on the total erasure of our Palestinian brothers and sisters. It is no different than people who say they love animals, or world peace, or climate justice, and then sit down to eat a cheeseburger, and milk-shake, knowing full well, the implications of each. 
Click here to learn more from Professor Jeffrey Sachs about how the war in Ukraine was provoked by the US & NATO expansion. 
Click here for an article on  Mr. Buehler’s empty bed piece. 
Click here to learn more about the death of Liberal Zionism from Chris Hedges and Rabbi Shaul Magid. 
Click here to learn more about Zionism from Professor Mohammad Fadel.

Mr. Buehler’s Wall of Tears piece reminded me of a couple of former friends (who I miss), who would say things like, “There isn’t a genocide in Gaza. The war in Gaza is awful, but Israel has to do what it has to do.” Their liberal Zionism (Jewish supremacist beliefs), and brainwashing, ran so deep that they were no longer capable of critical thinking, and honesty. Their words echoed those of the psychotic former Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir, “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” Damn, talk about every accusation being a confession. 

“Make no mistake, Israel is a genocidal state and a genocidal society…The fight for Palestine is the fight for all of us.”
– Pulitzer Prize winning author Chris Hedges

Wall of Tears, Brooklyn, NY

Final Thoughts on Brooklyn’s Wall of Tears:
Artist Phil Buehler had a wonderful idea, and likely good intentions, but his decision to sanitize the ongoing US-Israeli Genocide in Gaza undermines his entire Wall of Tears project. If you are going to take on the subject of Genocide, you have to at least try to be honest, and bring justice to the victims. Again, you can’t two sides genocide. Firstly, he dramatically downplays the numbers of Gazan children killed (18,457 + “hundreds more” vs. credible estimates that exceed 200,000+ children). I wonder if Phil Buehler knows that nearly half of the people living in Gaza prior to October 7th, 2023, were children, and that close to 95% of these kids were already suffering from PTSD and other psychiatric disorders (due to Israel’s decades long incremental genocide). Secondly, he shares information at his memorial that refers to the US-Israeli Genocide in Gaza, as “the war in Gaza”. It isn’t a war, it’s a GENOCIDE. Again, over 25 major humanitarian organizations have all concluded that Israel is committing a Genocide in Gaza. Do Phil Buehler, and “journalist” David Smith know that (1.) the Palestinians don’t have a military (only resistance fighters), and that (2.) the overwhelming majority of Palestinians killed are civilians, and that (3.) 70% of the estimated 400,000+ Palestinians who have been murdered by Israel over the last 2.5 years, were women and children? Either way, none of what I shared above can be found, or even referenced in his “memorial”. There is also no mention of how Israel has been deliberately targeting and sniping Palestinian kids (and even babies), in the head, or how Israel has been humiliating and dehumanizing our Palestinian brothers and sisters for over 75 years, in what is considered the largest open air prison in human history. Moreover, Israel not only weaponizes the Nazi Holocaust, but it also weaponizes food, water, and even f*cking baby formula as it has been purposely depriving, malnourishing, and starving Palestinians for decades. There is more to share on ethnic cleansing, dehumanization, IDF rapes, Israel’s kidnapping and incarceration of children (without charges), and its deliberate destruction of hospitals, schools, universities, museums and entire families (and their homes), but I will stop there. As Professor Norman Finkelstein says, Israel is indeed a satanic state, but you would never have a clue if your only means of exposure was Phil Buehler’s Wall of Tears exhibit.  
My “Two Cents” Art Review for the Wall of Tears: Great Idea, Poor Execution (disappointing, and a missed opportunity). 5/10.
Click here to learn more from Dr. Gabor Mate on the trauma experienced by Palestinian children.

Random Thoughts on how Zionism = Racism = Fascism = Genocidal Cult 

“You get to decide which side you’re on. And that decision will define the rest of your life.”
– Palestinian-American Writer, Scientist, and Activist, Susan Abulhawa

“I am Jewish and it is easy to explain Zionism. It is a political ideology of settler-colonialism that requires the extermination of Palestinians.” – Journalist Nora Barrows Friedman

Malcolm X

‘I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation, every form of discrimination. I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color, but I don’t believe in the sincerity of white liberals in America…The white liberal is the worst enemy to the black man because he tricks him into believing that progress is being made when it’s not.’- Malcolm X

“The democrats are not the lesser of evils, but the more effective evil.” – Journalist Glen Ford

“Zionism is a cult-like ideology that is putting Jews in danger and the world in danger.” – Egyptian journalist Rahma Zein

“Can’t fight the oligarchy in a party that is bought and paid for by the oligarchy.” – Dr. Jill Stein

Susan Abulhawa

My nose is big and long, crooked and pointy,
and all kinds of fucked up
Still, I can access white privilege if I want
But that would be worse
Would rip my soul
So I search for the Black in me
– Palestinian American poet, author, scientist, and activist, Susan Abulhawa

“There is overwhelming support by Israelis for the genocide. I no longer feel we can live with them. How does one live with people who have been systematically celebrating the most horrific violent holocaust upon us? No, we cannot live with them. This is ultimately a question for Palestinians collectively, how to live with people who supported the genocide with sadism. The holocaust against Jews was hidden, but here, they know and celebrate it. This is unprecedented. In the US, during the Jim Crow era, there was extraordinary violence against Blacks, but when people saw this, it shifted the whole country. This is the natural human impulse, but this seems to be absent in Israeli society. And this has been a surprise. The majority of the population celebrating the genocide is shocking the conscious.”
– Palestinian-American writer, activist and scientist, Susan Abulhawa

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, adopted on 10 November, 1975:
“Determines that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination”.
Click here to learn more from the United Nations on how Zionism is Racism.

The United States and Israel are the Two Biggest Agents of Terror in the World

Artist: Gary Markstein

Artist: Carlos Latuff

The United States and Israel have launched another illegal regime change War against Iran. The United States is EVIL, and could have stopped the Genocidal state of Israel on day one.

As per Common Dreams, “The term ‘preemptive’ is pure propaganda,” wrote journalist Jeremy Scahill. “What was preempted was diplomacy. The same propaganda tactics used in the 2003 Iraq war.”

Iranian Woman Mourns after US-Israeli Bombing
(Image: Fatemeh Bahrami)

The illegal US Israeli attack on Iran has already killed 153 school CHILDREN, aged 7-12 (school weeks in Iran are between Saturdays and Thursdays). According to Middle East Eye, “At least 153 people, almost all of them young girls, have been killed in an air strike on a primary school in southern Iran, according to the city’s governor. The attack on Saturday morning hit Shajareh Tayyebeh school in the city of Minab, in Hormozgan province, as the United States and Israel began launching strikes on targets across Iran. The victims were between seven and 12 years old, according to Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies. A staff member at the Minab school, who asked not to be named, told Middle East Eye she remains in shock at the intensity of the attack. Through tears, she said she used to watch the young girls playing at school every day. After today’s strikes, however, she saw their bodies lying on classroom benches and in different corners of the school.”
Click here to learn more from the Electronic Intifada.
Click here for an excellent piece from journalist Caitlin Johnston titled, “F*ck Everyone Who Made this War Possible.”
Click here to learn more from Chris Hedges.

The United States and Israel are the two biggest agents of TERROR in the world, and the greatest threats to the survival of our species. Again, the United States truly is the Evil Empire as it has murdered millions of our brothers and sisters in the last 20 years alone, and tens of millions more in the previous century. This history, and these actions, are unforgivable.

Gallup: February 2026

According to a recent Gallup poll, “Forty-one percent of Americans now say they sympathize more with the Palestinians in the Middle East situation, while 36% sympathize more with the Israelis. The five-percentage-point difference is not statistically significant, but it contrasts with a clear lead for the Israelis only a year ago (46% vs. 33%) and larger leads over the prior 24 years.
41% Palestinians (+8)
36% Israelis (-10)”

Image: NewsCord

Unfortunately, in the same Gallup poll, it was also reported that most Americans still view Israel more favorably when compared to Palestinians. One of the biggest reasons for Americans being so grossly misinformed, and “dumbed down”, is the US corporate media. As per Eleanor Goldfield, “A new report by the news analysis org NewsCord found that 77.7% of Western corporate media outlets avoid calling Israel’s continued attacks on Gaza ceasefire violations. Over half of the outlets use passive framing which avoids mentioning Israel as the culprit at all, choosing to instead parrot Israeli justifications or both sides-isms. This analysis comes after a previous NewsCord report showed that coverage of Israeli attacks in corporate media is down some 85%.”
Click here to learn more from NewsCord. 
Click here to learn more from Eleanor Goldfield. 

“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and therefore bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.”
– Paulo Freire Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Ilan Pappé

Trump, Biden, Netanyahu, Obama, Bush, Clinton(s), and their accomplices, are enemies of humanity who MUST be held accountable. But how do we do it? In his book, Israel on the Brink, And the Eight Revolutions that Could Lead to Decolonization and Coexistence, historian Ilan Pappe has some interesting thoughts.

Excerpts: 
“Politics,” wrote the British publisher Ernest Ben (1875-1954), “is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedy.” Many people around the world have lost faith in politicians to deliver what matters to them. We are in the age of rulers, not leaders. This is the reality everywhere, but it hits us especially sharply in places that depend on politicians to end immiseration and carnage…Research by Pew in 2023 showed that 80% of Americans thought that large political donors exercised too much influence on policies, while 73 percent thought that lobbyists and special interest groups did. In other words, the majority no longer believe politicians govern for the common good. Similar suspicions about the motivations of politicians abound across the world…It seems the odds are stacked against change from within the parties. To my mind, the energy for building this new left coalition exists outside the parties.”

Mr. Pappe also believes that the structured organization that political parties and unions can offer is essential. He makes a convincing case that the conduit for true change is Palestine. As per Mr. Pappe, “Palestine has proven that conscientious conservatives, liberals and secular and religious people can work together for the sake of a just and moral cause.”
Click here to learn more from Ilan Pappe.

“I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no ‘two evils’ exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say.” – W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)

Artist: Bill Bramhall

The Bottom Line? Regardless of your ignorance, psychopathy, and how egregious your crimes may be, if you are rich and powerful in the United States, you are above the law. We can’t force anyone to think critically. We have to figure it out for ourselves. The Democrats and Republicans represent “one evil party.” They ARE the oligarchs, terrorists, and profits at all costs corporations that remain by far, the greatest threats to the survival of our species. The democrats have been committing a GENOCIDE for the last 2.5 years, and decent, smart people all over the United States are still making excuses for them, and even doing their bidding! Except for a few brief periods (arguably JFK, FDR), the US has been dehumanizing and erasing others it has deemed unworthy for centuries (via genocides, slavery, mass murder campaigns, illegal invasions/occupations, etc.). Unless the US political and economic systems are replaced soon, and the criminals are held accountable, we will likely not survive as a species beyond another generation or two.

The US Israeli Genocide in Palestine has exposed everyone, even the artists.

Until Next time…

*Sending love to Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and all targets of the hegemonic US Empire.

FREE PALESTINE!Artist: Carlos Latuff

“Israel is a satanic state.” – Professor Norman Finkelstein

Where are our Truth Tellers? “Ours is a culture and a time immensely rich in trash as it is in treasures…We have our Arts so we won’t die of Truth.” – Ray Bradbury

“Cut off as I am, it is inevitable that I should sometimes feel like a shadow walking in a shadowy world. When this happens I ask to be taken to New York City. Always I return home weary but I have the comforting certainty that mankind is real flesh and I myself am not a dream.” — Helen Keller

“Cities have sexes: London is a man, Paris a woman, and New York a well-adjusted transsexual.” – Angela Carter

“New York is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition is murderous. But there is one thing about it – once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.” – John Steinbeck

Other Sources:
Click here to learn more about the artist Banksy.
Click here to learn more about the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington DC.
Click here to learn more about the Art(ists) of Compassion.