Jack Delano, April 1942. "Madison, Wisconsin. Members of the University of Wisconsin's Blue Shield Country Life Club visiting the studio of John Stuart Curry, university artist-in-residence. One of the aims of the club is to bring about greater participation in cultural activities among farm people."
[Photo: Shorpy/Jack Delano, U.S. Foreign Information Service]
The painting on the left wall: John Curry's "State Fair":
"Trailblazing". Sometimes it just takes your breath away.
As part of This Girl Can week we're celebrating four inspirational trans women from around the world trailblazing the way in the world of sport. 🏳️⚧️
🧵(1/2) For a daily dose of motivation.#ThisGirlCan pic.twitter.com/6p0xjOnZFs
— Goldsmiths SU (@GoldsmithsSU) February 21, 2024
If only there was a multilateral legal body out there that investigated calls for genocide. https://t.co/fDdTRPMQ1N
— Jonathan Schanzer (@JSchanzer) February 24, 2024
It's not just in Gaza that the people relied on foreign aid while the rulers – Hamas – spent the money on expanding their military capabilities. According to Steven Stalinsky at MEMRI it's the same story with the Youthis in Yemen. Both, not coincidentally, are Iranian proxies:
Across the Middle East, failed states and territories depend on massive amounts of humanitarian aid from the West to feed and care for populations. Many of these are run, de facto, by Iran via proxies. One such proxy is the Ansar Allah, commonly known as the Houthis, the organization that controls much of the country, including the capital Sana'a and 70%-80% of the population –and which has, for the past decade, been supplied by Iran with advanced and sophisticated weaponry.
Yet while Yemen, whose 32 million people are among the poorest and hungriest in the world, receives billions of dollars in humanitarian aid every year, the Houthis maintain a vast military, complete with arsenals of the latest weapons and equipment, including missiles and drones that are, based on observation, worth tens of millions or even billions of dollars. These are stockpiled under the noses of the Western bodies and organizations on the ground – just as happened in Gaza with Hamas and in Lebanon with Hezbollah….
The Houthis – whose official motto is "God is great, death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews, victory to Islam" – are laser-focused on building military might and carrying out attacks on ships in the Red Sea – to the point where the State Department, on February 21, condemned them for "continu[ing] to demonstrate disregard to the Yemeni people" for "risking spillage of fertilizer and fuel into the sea and threatening Yemen's fishing industry" and "bringing corn and other food supplies to the Yemeni people." It added that they are "preventing the delivery of food and essential items on which the Yemeni people rely and making it difficult for humanitarians to do their essential work, endangering an already fragile humanitarian situation."
More than two-thirds of Yemen's population – some 21.6 million people – depend on food and humanitarian aid from international organizations to avoid starvation. Severe maternal malnutrition and mahram restrictions on women preventing them from going anywhere without a male family member exacerbate the situation.
The United Nations warned as early as 2017 that Yemen was facing "the largest famine the world has seen for many decades, with millions of victims," and that "Yemenis are not going hungry, they are being starved." The World Health Organization has noted that Yemen's health system is near collapse; a WHO official said in April 2023 that 540,000 children under five are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition "with a direct risk of death." Doctors and nurses describe children who are "just skin and bones," motionless on hospital beds, their bodies covered with sores, and with barely enough energy to breathe or open their eyes.
We don't hear abou it, no doubt, because Israel can't be blamed.
It has been known for years that the Houthis are stealing aid directly from the mouths of the people of Yemen, and this is ongoing. As of 2018 and 2019, according to a UN World Food Program report as well as media and the Yemen government itself, food aid was being stolen, withheld, and misappropriated by the Houthis. A 2020 Human Rights report also stated that the Houthis were diverting and blocking aid. It is known that the Houthi organization, The Supreme Council for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation, has complete oversight over all humanitarian aid work in territories under most of Yemen.
Meanwhile the idiot crowds on the London anti-Israel marches indulge in pro-Houthi chants..
As the Houthis gain prominence across the Middle East, and now in the West, for their actions against both Israel and the U.S., the left has been touting their "long tradition of solidarity with the Palestinian people" and their role as an anti-imperialist resistance movement. Beginning in December in New York City, protests are featuring crowds chanting "Yemen, Yemen, make us proud, turn another ship around!" and "Hands Off Yemen." Pro-Houthi marches continued, including with a January 12 "Hands Off Yemen" rally outside the Yemen UN Mission in New York. The chant was heard at a 200,000-strong protest in London as well on January 13. Meanwhile, back in Yemen, the Houthis continue to impose their will on the populations under their control – including with death sentences for university students, as well as punishments such as flogging and stoning for "immoral acts," and shaving boys' heads for the crime of sporting "Western hairstyles."
Startlingly original portraits by Kenyan photographer Osborne Macharia, from his series Daughters of the Rift:
[All images © Osborne Macharia]
On Instagram.
Watch this woman lose it at McDonald’s employees because the wrapper on her burger is blue and white 🇮🇱
Next up, boycott the sky. pic.twitter.com/YzWruLc7yZ
— Duckie🎗️ (@spaced_out_duck) February 23, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
From the JC:
A woman visiting a McDonald’s outlet in the US complained to staff that the colour of a McChicken wrapper conveyed tacit support for the “killing of Palestinian kids”.
In a video that went viral on social media on Friday, the woman declares herself “starving”, finishes off her meal in her car and then pulls out her phone to express her fury. In her clip, she says: “Conveniently, McDonald’s changed their packaging.
“What does that resemble?” she asks the viewer rhetorically.
Entering the shop, she approaches an unwitting employee and asks: “What is this?”
“This one,” the employee asks, “it’s a McChicken wrapper.”
“But why is it blue and white?”
“Honestly, I don’t know,” he claims.
“I think you do know. This is in support of Israel.”
The McDonald’s employee meekly attempts to explain that the packaging has been like that for over two months because the branch ran out of the regular-coloured ones, to which the woman says: “No, I don’t think so. This is obviously in support of Israel.”
“No, I mean we actually had that for a while, though,” the employee responds.
“I know this is not your fault because you’re an employee, but I think this is disgusting for them to do this, and I know you in your heart, you know in your heart that this is clearly what this wrapper is for.”
“I mean I didn’t know that, though.”
“I’m explaining it to you,” she persists, “this is what it’s for, this is the colour of their flag, this is clearly what they’re doing and what they’re showing to people, and I think it’s disgusting.”
Dragging a second unwilling employee into the fray, the woman says, while tapping her finger: “This is in support to kill Palestinian kids, this wrapping,”
“I’m just really upset that I got my order, and I got this flag for my wrapping, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s upset and who’s shocked to come to the drive-through and to receive this wrapping.”
She goes on: “I really advise you to go back to your original wrapping and if they’re forcing you to do this, this is gonna be known.
“I’m not trying to be rude to you, I’m just really upset that I see this. So this, you’re giving me a McChicken sandwich supporting the killing of kids, and I hope you don’t feel good about that. I hope, I hope.”
The woman, who filmed the incident and posted it online, added that she want to “make a big deal out of it.
“I was really shocked when I saw that, and it really hurt my feelings seeing that I’m Palestinian, and even if I’m not Palestinian.”…
In a statement, McDonald’s said the wrapper was a “generic one that has been used for years in some McDonald’s restaurants across markets for special orders, limited-edition products, or temporary shortages of designated wrappers,” and none of the colour choices were intended to make any political statements.
Israel derangement syndrome – the new antisemitism.
A very North Korean tale – Songjin Steel Mill workers face struggle session after enjoying South Korean music:
Two female switchboard operators who were caught engaging in non-socialist behavior last year recently faced a struggle session at the cultural center of the Songjin Steel Mill, Daily NK has learned.
“A woman working as a switchboard operator at Songjin Steel Mill invited a female colleague to her father’s birthday party and then played South Korean music for a dance party. This came to the attention of the police and the two women were publicly criticized,” a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The two women were arrested late last year and investigated for two months. After the Lunar New Year, they were sent to a public ideological struggle session and also face legal consequences, the source said.
According to the source, the two women, who worked as switchboard operators at the Songjin Steel Mill, were both into South Korean movies, dramas, and music and had formed a close relationship while secretly watching South Korean videos.
One of the switchboard operators invited the other to her home on the birthday of her father, an official with the food administration office in Kimchaek, in late December 2023. The two of them played South Korean music on the stereo, turned up the volume, and danced to the music from early in the evening until 11 PM.
The wife of a city policeman who had recently moved to the neighborhood had also been invited to the father’s birthday party. After the police officer’s wife returned home, she told her husband that the songs at the party had the distinctive feel of South Korean music, prompting the police to investigate the incident.
“Sensing an opportunity for promotion, the police officer checked the facts of his wife’s claim and immediately reported the affair to his superiors. As a result, the two switchboard operators at the steel mill were promptly arrested, and their own superiors – the manager of the switchboard room and the secretary of the steel mill’s Socialist Patriotic Youth League chapter – were also reprimanded over the matter,” the source said.
After their arrest, the two women were subjected to a two-month investigation and then dragged in front of all the steel mill workers for a public ideological struggle session for non-socialist behavior. The source said the two women stood on stage with their hands tied and heads bowed as they endured scathing criticism in front of the entire workforce.
“The officials denounced the women’s non-socialist behavior during the struggle session and at the same time sternly warned the other workers of the need to eliminate all non-socialist elements from their lives. In the end, the official’s daughter, who was identified as the instigator, was sentenced to three years in prison, and her colleague was sent to a forced labor camp,” the source said.
The cadre at the municipal food administration office was dismissed from his post and transferred to a labor-intensive job for failing to keep his daughter in line, the source added.
Here we go again. It's the case of Scarlet Black, mentioned here on Tuesday – and the verdict's in. The Times headline – Woman who live-streamed cat killing found guilty of murdering man.
A woman who live-streamed herself killing a cat smiled in court after being found guilty of murdering a man four months later as he walked home from a night out in Oxford.
Scarlet Blake, 26, singled out Jorge Martin Carreno, 30, in July 2021 and led him to a secluded riverbank where she hit him on the back of the head with a vodka bottle, throttled him and then pushed him into the River Cherwell, where he drowned.
Blake, wearing a dark suit, showed no emotion as the guilty verdict was delivered at Oxford crown court.
Prosecutors said Blake killed Carreno, who worked at the BMW Mini plant in the city, because she had a “fixation with violence and with knowing what it would be like to kill someone”.
The video of the cat-killing four months before the murder showed Blake saying: “Here we go my little friend. Oh boy, you smell like shit. I can’t wait to put [you] through the blender.”…
The prosecution said Blake had an “extreme interest in death and in harm” and derived sexual gratification from violence and killing.
Not once in the article – not once – is it mentioned that Blake is trans. That is, Blake is a man. This is not a woman's crime. That's quite some level of dishonest reporting. And, of course "Comments for this article have been turned off", because they know perfectly well how disgraceful this reporting is and how people will respond. But still they do it…
Same for the Guardian.
The BBC is not much better, talking always of the "woman" and using female pronouns throughout, but at least they mention that he's trans.
The fact that he's a man, that he's trans, is central to the story. We're being lied to…
Update: the Times article has been amended, and now at least does slip in a mention that Blake is transgender.
The real voice of Gaza:
Hamas are firing at hungry people who do not have food in their homes. Have they no shame? They got us into a war we don't want. We want peace. We want our children to go to school. Our children shouldn't be displaced. They should not live in the streets. Who is responsible for all these things? Why is Hamas doing this? They are shooting at people. Why? Because they are hungry? They are shooting at people because they are hungry?
"Sinwar, what gives you the right to kill your own people? Sinwar, it is you that is killing us, not the Israeli army. It is you who is killing us. Shame on you, Hamas.
"Listen to this. This is direct shooting. While I am talking to you, Hamas is shooting at hungry protesters."
The Yoko Ono exhibition at Tate Modern has received all-round positive reviews – at last a chance to re-evaluate one of the great pioneers of conceptual and performance art. Laura Freeman in the Times, for instance: "This exhibition took me by surprise. I went expecting oddity and wilful obscurity, I left charmed, amused and (mostly) won over." Well I went expecting oddity and pretension, and that's pretty much what I got.
Much is made of Cut Piece, for instance – her most famous attempt at performance art, where she sits entirely still while invited members of the audience, armed with scissors, come up and cut off her clothes bit by bit until she's naked. You might think this is intended as a powerful comment on the male attitude towards women, but that doesn't seem to be at all what she meant. She said that the performer could be any gender and denied any feminist message. "It was a form of giving, giving and taking. It was a kind of criticism against artists, who are always giving what they want to give. I wanted people to take whatever they wanted to, so it was very important to say you can cut wherever you want to ". And, it's "my hope for world peace". Of course.
Then there's a whole wall's worth of tiny messages and instructions from her book Grapefruit, which you may or may not find whimsical and haiku-like. Such as "Steal all the clocks and watches in the world. Destroy them", and "Stick a carrot up your arse and watch six back-to-back episodes of Coronation Street". [OK, one of those I made up.]
I was, I admit, delighted with "White Chess Set" – all white pieces: "play until you forget which pieces are yours". A few tables were set up, with people happily playing along. A rare spark of mischievous subversive humour.
It's been claimed that people hated Yoko because she split up the Beatles. Maybe, but they were clearly splitting anyway. I think what annoyed people more was the vacuous narcissism of the millionaires' "bed-in" and the "Give peace a chance", "Peace is yours if you want it", "Imagine peace", "War is over" stuff. There are endless quotes about peace in the show; about how people need to put aside their differences and live in harmony. To which the only response really is: tell that to fucking Putin. Tell that to Hamas.
It may have had (slightly) more resonance at a time when war mainly meant Vietnam, but it hasn't worn well. All it leads to is empty sloganising. A room is set aside for people to write their thoughts on the wall. The dominant messages: "Free Palestine"; "Free Gaza".
Mick Hartley 