@EndemicEarthling@todon.eu
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EndemicEarthling

@EndemicEarthling@todon.eu

Recovering coloniser on stolen Gadigal land.
He/any ND DM PhD ΙΧΘΥΣ

Ethics is about asking good questions, not just reaching a good answer. For centuries people have debated: "is it ethical to steal bread if your family is starving?". But there's a more pressing question: "is it ethical to sell bread when people are starving?"

"Let no-one say the past is dead, the past is all about us and within." – Oodgeroo Noonuccal

"There is dignity, grace, and humanity in changing your mind" — Caitlyn Doughty

“People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.” ― Emma Goldman

"You were born at just the right moment to help change everything." — Eric Holthaus

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EndemicEarthling, to Netherlands
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The lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has announced that he is seeking arrest warrants for Benjamin and Yahya , along with senior figures of their respective regimes, for the commission of and .

Amidst the predictable performative outrage from the US political elite, one fact is barely reported upon: the US is amongst a handful of nations that does not recognise the , and has on its books a 2002 law (colloquially dubbed 'the Hague Invasion Act') threatening war upon the (!) should any US citizen (or the citizen of any US ally) be brought for trial before the ICC.

Given the fact that the routinely fails to follow its own laws, let alone , when it comes to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the chances of an actual US invasion of the European lowlands is scant. Nonetheless, the rogue nature of is the always the elephant in the room when it comes to all discussions of accountability for the most egregious crimes of .

EndemicEarthling, to HashtagGames
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Impenetrable
Defence
Guarding
Against
Feelings

or simply IDGAF


EndemicEarthling, to China
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Electric vehicles are making an increasingly bigger dent in oil use, both globally and in Australia. In 2022, they displaced the use of 1.5m barrels of oil a day. Daily global oil demand is around 97m barrels, so there's a long way to go.

But it is not electric cars doing most of the work. It is e-bikes and mopeds. These devices are ten times as common as electric cars globally (led by widespread adoption in ), and twice as popular as e-cars in Australia. In 2022, electric micromobility devices globally displaced more than four times as much oil as electric cars.

If you've never tried one, consider giving it a go. Most bike shops will give you a free test ride. Personally, getting an has been one of the best decisions I've made in the last few years and has been one important way of maintaining our household record of never having owned a car.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240411010328/https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2024/apr/11/evs-are-booming-but-electric-bikes-are-really-cutting-emissions

See also:
This illuminating video from Simon Clarke, titled "How bad are e-bikes for the environment?"
https://invidious.perennialte.ch/watch?v=HW5b8_KBtT8

EndemicEarthling, to Palestine
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As a #Christian, this #Christmas + #Easter have been harder for me than any before.

Most years, amidst the horrors & disappointments of life, Christmas and Easter have provided comfort, hope and challenge: seasons to reflect and recommit, chances to once more receive divine gifts freely and dedicate myself to the good of my neighbours (near and far), to solidarity in suffering, struggle and in seeing those sometimes only momentary glimpses of how another world is possible.

But this Christmas, Christian communities across #Palestine cancelled Christmas celebrations. #Bethlehem was raided by the #IDF (while far worse atrocities were being inflicted on #Gaza just miles away). How then could we sing "O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see you lie"?

And this Easter just passed, nearly all the Christian communities in the holy land, descendents of those who have lived & worshipped there for almost 2,000 years, were refused access to #Jerusalem, while the survivors from the tiny Christian communities in Gaza huddled together–hungry, wounded, scared, grieving–amongst the rubble of their lives and society.

The weapons killing them were supplied by wealthy western nations, whose Christian leaders remain largely silent.

Listen to Rev Dr Munther Isaac from Bethlehem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgKytWyc0EI

EndemicEarthling, to humanrights
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The UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, is an expert on and .

She is widely published, holds a number of academic positions, and has ten years experience advising various international bodies on human rights.

She has just delivered her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, in which she summarises the patterns of violence in and public statements by Israeli officials before reaching this conclusion: "The only reasonable inference to be drawn is a state policy of genocidal violence against Palestinians."

It is worth watching the 12 minute summary of her report.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epKY2ZzjZUc

EndemicEarthling, to Israel
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I'm no kind of expert in , but I've just come across the crime of , which is a , one with a lower legal threshold to prove than .

I wonder, as a matter of communication strategy, why this is hasn't been used more frequently as a widespread description for the criminal acts of the and citizens participating in the blockade of . Is it simply because it is not as well known (and so has less emotional resonance) as genocide?

Under international law, there is also the crime of , which is distinct as well, which has its own standards.

Though it wasn't until the 1970s that starvation was accepted by the US and its western allies as a crime against humanity. Even after the horrors of (including especially the Siege of , the most destructive and fatal siege in human history), the US and its allies still wanted to maintain the right to use starvation as a weapon of war.

So it seems that the same events and actions could potentially be prosecuted under murder, extermination, starvation or genocide, with each crime requiring somewhat different levels and types of evidence to prove.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extermination_(crime)

EndemicEarthling, to Israel
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Every single week for the last 21 weeks upon land, there have been thousands upon thousands (sometimes easily tens of thousands) of people gathering in support of a in and calling upon the Australian government to stop supporting in its .

Every Sunday in Hyde Park at 1.30pm,* we've listened to speakers, speakers, speakers, politicians of various stripes (though neither of the major parties, of course, as they both remain complicit in support of the government responsible for most of the slaughter), elders who lived through the , teenagers organising , community leaders, poets, faith leaders and more, with perhaps 75% of the speakers being women, and almost all being people of colour (most of the exceptions being MPs).

*Except when has dictated otherwise, giving priority to (much smaller and only) occasional pro-Israel rallies and forcing a shift to Saturday a couple of times, under threat of .

Then we've marched (or rolled) with flags, banners, signs, drums and (loud!) voices: Arab, Aboriginal, African, Anglo, Asian and more; from those too old to walk (in wheelchairs) to those too young to walk (in strollers).


1/6

EndemicEarthling, to Palestine
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One hundred and twelve more human beings have been slaughtered in a single incident in , with a further 280 wounded.

In a section of where acute malnourishment is most dire and people are dying of hunger (and treatable infectious disease due to collapse health system, and dehydration/contaminated water due to destroyed water infrastructure, and from exposure, due to the destruction of the majority of all housing - not to mention all the direct deaths from weapons of war), one of the very few aid trucks that made it through the various barriers and delays that continues to implement was delivering food aid when it was surrounded by a crowd of desperate & hungry people.

At this point, accounts diverge. Palestinian witnesses say Israeli military fired into the crowd, killing and wounding hundreds, an account backed up by hospital staff subsequently overwhelmed by the enormous number of dead & wounded. The says they only shot (at) a few people who were threatening a nearby checkpoint, and the majority of the casualties were caused by the food truck driving over people & people trampling each other in the crush.

Who to believe? Those being bombed, shot, starved, dehydrated & told to either leave or die, or the ones doing that to them?
1/2

EndemicEarthling, to Netherlands
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“We as South Africans sense, see, hear and feel to our core the inhumane, discriminatory policies and practices of the Israeli regime as an even more extreme form of the that was institutionalized against black people in my country.”
— Vusimuzi Madonsela, South African ambassador to the

A record number of nations participated in the hearing at the International Court of Justice concerning the legality of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, now in its 8th decade. A ruling is not expected for a few months.

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/02/world-court-hearing-on-legality-of-israeli-occupation-ends-following-week-of-testimony/

EndemicEarthling, to random
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Some thoughts to those inclined to take the word of 'respectable' public figures (who are actually authoritarians and even génocidaires), and to those who have grown cynical of all lying politicians:

There used to be a concept called 'leaving hostages to fortune', in which public figures learned to avoid making promises or offering falsehoods that were vulnerable to thwarting/exposure by future contingencies.

Under the assumption that having your lies exposed or rash promise invalidated would be potentially career-ending, it used to sometimes be reasonable to operate on an epistemic criterion of "embarrassment", where we could increase our level of trust in a statement made by a public figure if it (a) wasn't currently able to be confirmed but (b) it seemed obvious that they would get caught out for lying if it were not true. I.e. "They wouldn't lie about that, right?"

However, the information landscape has profoundly shifted in recent years. (Or has seemed to for some people. See below)
1/4

EndemicEarthling, to random
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Anyone in NSW who hasn't seen the latest video on YT should probably check it out.

If you didn't see the original "Coronation" video he's talking about, documenting the strong links between a senior politician and organised crime, and which led to his house being firebombed, and which he's now taken down, under ongoing threats to the lives of anyone connected to making the video, it's been put on Internet Archive and now re-uploaded to YT a few dozen times.

Here's the original Coronation video (46 min) https://web.archive.org/web/20220801000000*/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGpWvYscSpE

And here's yesterday's statement (3 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRqUVh29LGQ

goes to the very top in .

EndemicEarthling, to Israel
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Have western governments now directly engaged in genocidal actions in ?

To understand why some experts are saying this may be the case, let us sketch some context:

• For the last sixteen weeks or more, has escalated its comprehensive devastation of the entire population of Gaza, causing tens of thousands of violent deaths, many more serious injuries, likely condemning tens or hundreds of thousands more to die in coming weeks and months from dehydration, starvation, exposure, disease, and a collapsed health system, and displacing around two million people.

1/10

EndemicEarthling, to random
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Does anyone else find that Mastodon often takes a considerable amount of time to load new posts?

Not sure if it's a setting I have, a function of something specific to Mastodon, or an aspect of the structure of the fediverse.

Any ideas? Similar experiences?

EndemicEarthling, to random
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Based on previous experiences with displaced populations, 500,000 or more Gazans could die of preventable diseases in the coming months due to illegal Israeli destruction of the health system and forced mass displacement.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/29/health-organisations-disease-gaza-population-outbreaks-conflict

EndemicEarthling, to Israel
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With blocking foreign journalists from having any access to , and murdering more journalists in just 80 days than ever before recorded in a single nation across any 12 month period, and with reports of Israeli bulldozers flattening sites that potentially retain evidence of yet more (bulldozing confirmed by satellite imagery), and with claim after claim from Israel officials concerning specific incidents being revealed by subsequent investigations as being yet more baseless propaganda, the only epistemic assumption that is morally justifiable at this point is to act on the assumption that every testimony of atrocity coming out of Gaza is true.

And to assume that there are more going unreported, whose witnesses are all killed or silenced.

No other position is morally defensible under such conditions.

There is overwhelming evidence that the side with overwhelmingly more power is committing ongoing atrocities against civilians on a massive scale, while attempting to hide the true extent of their crimes.

"We didn't know. We couldn't tell. The fog of war. Both sides tell lies. Wait for independent investigations." These deflections and deferrals can no longer be used with intellectual or moral credibility by citizens in the western nations backing .

EndemicEarthling, to random
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While most people amongst its key western backers are busy with celebrations, Israel's military escalates its crimes in (and the ) yet further.

They are relying on us to not be paying attention.

Four of five people starving in the world right now are in Gaza, due to Israel's deliberate blocking of supplies and distribution for 80 days.

Flooding tunnels with sea water, as Israel is doing, will complete the poisoning of Gaza's aquifer, rendering the area uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.

The Israeli bombing campaign has exceeded the levels of destruction brought by the Allies upon Germany cities towards the end of WWII. And it has been done in a fraction of the time: more devastation in two and a half months than was caused in two and a half years.

In the opening weeks of the escalation, Israel's military was using its largest and most powerful explosives in the very places it was telling Gazans to flee to for refuge.

Beyond the bombs, there are many reports of summary executions and massacres, repeated testimony of extreme , videos of degradation, humiliation and dehumanisation.

says they are only getting started.

He is relying on you looking away, getting tired of the bad news, switching off for a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS1Tw-2cF2o

EndemicEarthling, to Israel
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Israeli military forces have killed more medics than Hamas commanders, with hundreds of documented attacks on medical facilities, ambulances & personnel.

Combined with deprivations of food, clean water, shelter & energy, the collapse of the health system in means devastating epidemics approach.

Senior Israeli government figures have openly been using language.

Giora Eiland, former operations chief & current defence advisor, wrote this in a major 'centrist' newspaper in Israel: "The international community is warning us against severe humanitarian disaster and severe epidemics. We must not shy away from this. After all, severe epidemics in the south of Gaza will bring victory closer. There's no reason why the Hamas generals in southern Gaza wouldn't surrender when they have no fuel, no water, and when plagues reach them and the danger to the lives of their family members will increase".

To which the current finance minister replied: "I agree with every word".

The goals of leadership go well beyond merely targeting . That line, endlessly repeated by western governments & media, is PR for a modicum of . According to many recognised experts in such matters, the goal of this conflict is and .

EndemicEarthling, to behindthebastards
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In case there's anyone wondering why so many people are talking about the death of one of history's most prolific death-dealers, here is a six-part history podcast on .

Part 1: https://pca.st/0ypjwxl2
Part 2: https://pca.st/349zlucs
Part 3: https://pca.st/5o8d5k9x
Part 4: https://pca.st/gnv9evz0
Part 5: https://pca.st/p217oq8r
Part 6: https://pca.st/52bkqddl

is a podcast hosted by , looking at the lives and context of some of history's most awful individuals. One of his most popular subjects was

EndemicEarthling, to abc
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Today, I watched 's (Behind The News), a weekly Australian news program aimed at upper primary school children. The most recent episode had a 4 minute story covering the in and the exchange.
https://www.abc.net.au/btn/classroom/israel-hamas-ceasefire/103147452

Disappointingly, it showed a strong towards in multiple ways:

  1. No mention of being released until the final quarter of the story (and this was covered in seconds, rather than the minutes given to the return of hostages held by ), with no footage (no mention of Israeli government suppression of such footage).

  2. No mention of the fact that the government of has held thousands of Palestinians in detention for years, often with no charge (how is this meaningfully different from holding them as hostages?). By barely mentioning the Palestinians being released, the context of their detention can be passed over without comment.

1/4

EndemicEarthling, to random
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Eyewitness: a UK-based doctor called Prof Ghassan Abu-Sittah spent over 40 days in Gaza since 7th Oct working in many of its hospitals. He says that the destruction of the Gazan health system has been an Israeli military objective.

He also says that he treated many patients with the characteristic awful wounds that are distinctive to the use of white phosphorus, a chemical whose use as a weapon of war is banned under conventions regulating chemical weapons of mass destruction.

https://web.archive.org/web/20231128044438/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/27/london-surgeon-says-saw-massacre-unfold-working-gaza-hospitals

EndemicEarthling, to KindActions
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A of people seeking to put spokes in the wheels of the the putting corporate profits before a .

and to the hundreds of people who used kayaks and their bodies to blockade the world's busiest port for 32 hours this weekend, and to the thousands who supported them, and to the millions who cheered them on, and to the billions for whose sake they were acting. This was a taste of an unstoppable force of collective , and

EndemicEarthling, to climate
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On Gadigal land, outside the office of Australia's federal Environment Minister @TanyaPlibersek's office, with a large group of school students and their allies, demanding the Australian government and commit to .

All of us can help away from :

  • Stop repeating their talking points & narratives (not sure which commonly-repeated tropes are part of their decades-long campaign? Never too late to learn)
  • Stop voting for their paid representatives in parliament (typically found within both/most major parties).
  • Support actions happening near you (not sure what's happening or how to help? Search for your location & ).
  • Learn more about why we're collectively still failing to implement (political/economic/societal/cultural) changes at a scale & pace commensurate with the scale & pace of the (hint: too much power in too few hands: ).
  • Consider the stakes: life as we know it is incompatible with the public business plans of the most powerful corporations on the planet. One/both of those realities will definitely change. Will you?
EndemicEarthling, to Israel
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Useful brief explanation of , why it is dangerous and must not be ignored or minimised, as well as its distinction from both -Zionism and criticism of the government of (with which it can sometimes, though not always, overlap).

https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2023/11/09/antisemitism-dangerous/

EndemicEarthling, to Israel
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"'From the river to the sea' is a recognition that began in 1948 when was created through the of . It is no call for . To call for the destruction of Israel as an apartheid state is not a call for the destruction of Jews living there, any more than the call for the destruction of apartheid in was a call for the destruction of white people. [...] Their call for the dismantling of Israel and the occupation as a political entity, and replacing it with a shared , was systematically misrepresented in Israel and the West as a call for genocide and “driving the Jews into the sea”. This turned reality on its head. It was who were being relentlessly driven off their land over decades, turned into , confined to ever smaller enclaves of land, dominated by Israel."

https://www.voice.wales/from-the-river-to-the-sea-the-true-history-of-a-famous-slogan-for-palestine/

EndemicEarthling, to random
@EndemicEarthling@todon.eu avatar

Micro-napping through "Maximising Audience Engagement" seminar.

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