Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has triggered global outrage after sharing footage of himself taunting bound activists who had been detained as they tried to sail to Gaza with aid.
The video has been widely condemned by world leaders, including the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and by Israeli politicians, among them the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
... full articleIf the laws are to be so trampled upon with impunity, and a minority is to dictate to the majority, there is an end put at one stroke to republican government, and nothing but anarchy and confusion is to be expected thereafter.
The latest trend among white livestreamers for generating “content”? Approaching Black strangers minding their own business, repeatedly calling them “niggers,” labeling however they respond as “chimping out” and—of course—collecting a pile of money from fans who literally pay to be entertained by racial humiliation.
The biggest star of these “ragebaiting” videos, as they’re called for obvious reasons, is 28-year-old Tennessean Dalton Eatherly, better known online as “Chud the Builder.” Eatherly’s sizable fanbase is built on livestreams in which he sidles up to random Black people, provokes them with racist abuse and dares them to react while threatening to shoot them with the gun and bear mace he carries. This little routine realized its Chekhovian inevitability this past Wednesday, May 13, when Chud shot a Black man—reportedly a disabled veteran—outside the courthouse where he was appearing in one of two criminal cases for which he was already out on bond. (Those cases include an early May incident when Chud refused to pay a $371 restaurant bill; the livestreamed footage of the incident, which you can still watch here, features him berating restaurant employees, including a South Asian server he calls a “jeet” and instructs to go “shit in the street.”) On Friday, the judge overseeing the shooting case announced charges of attempted murder, employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, as well as a $1.25 million bond. Along with a Black stranger, according to reports, Chud also shot himself in the arm. As writer Dixon D. White notes, there may be no more perfect metaphor for the self-inflicted wound of white supremacy.
... full articleThe ultimate enemy of Democracy is not the drug dealer of the crooked politician or the crazed skinhead. The ultimate enemy is the New King that has become so powerful it can murder its own citizens with impunity.
Hundreds of people protested against the opening of a new US consulate in Nuuk after comments by the US special envoy to Greenland that it was time for Washington “to put its footprint back” on the Arctic territory.
Many Greenlandic politicians, including the prime minister, said they would not attend the official opening on Thursday.
Protesters carried Greenlandic flags and signs that read “USA Asu” (Stop USA) and shouted “Greenland belongs to Greenlanders” outside the Greenlandic parliament before shouting “go home” outside the US consulate.
... full articleIn a well governed state, there are few punishments, not because there are many pardons, but because criminals are rare; it is when a state is in decay that the multitude of crimes is a gaurantee of impunity.
At night, the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo, Cuba appears like a tangled string of Christmas lights along the coastline, casting colored silhouettes across the waves that lap ashore. Sailors and Marines pack the local sports bar blaring pop music. Others frequent the bowling alley or play video games under intense strobe lights. Yet in contrast to the brightly illuminated base, nighttime blots out the nearby town of Caimanera, as a result of the energy blockade on Cuba that President Donald Trump tightened this January.
Trump claims that the embargo is necessary to promote a democratic transition in Cuba. Similarly, U.S.-backed opposition leaders in Miami such as Rosa María Payá argue that “the Cuban people [are] grateful” for the sanctions, which will help “make Cuba great again.”
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