THIS is interesting: Remember when Israel claims Hamas had a giant headquarters compound under al-Shifa hospital? The reason you don't hear about al-Shifa anymore is that after that horiffic siege and battle, no Hamas headquarters was found underneath the hospital at all. Just 8 rusty old AK's, a laptop and some CD's.
The original claim of a huge HQ underneath has now been memory-holed. This is in the same category as the Pizzagate claim that all those tunnels and studios were supposed to be underneath Comet Pizza in DC-or GW Bush's fake WMD stories about Iraq. All three proven wrong by physical search.
(EDIT 11-29-2023, 10:36PM: tunnels yes but the claimed massive command center NO. If this was a massive command center, why are they making a big deal about finding one electrical fusebox?)
Israel deleted their al-Shifa claims but the Internet remembers..
BREAKING: Opponents of Cop City invade the construction site
On the 7th of September, the Atlanta community sent a "fuck you, Russian warship!" style message to the prosecutors behind the indictments of 61 heroes for opposing the project. They invaded the construction site and locked down to bulldozers while passing motorists honked at a support rally.
No more crap, no more lies, just payback and utterly committed direct action in the face of the most extreme personal risks: Fuck You, Fascist Prosecutor!
"Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton began waging a grisly campaign to force Cox to stay pregnant against her will, even though her condition puts her life, her health and her future fertility in limbo. Late last week, at Paxton’s behest, the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court paused the lower court’s ruling, blocking Cox’s ability to access abortion near home with no indication of when it might issue an opinion. On Monday, her legal team at the Center for Reproductive Rights announced that Cox had decided to leave Texas to access abortion elsewhere “due to the ongoing deterioration” of her health. It wasn’t until later that day that the Texas Supreme Court finally ruled that, essentially, Cox’s abortion couldn’t be medically necessary, in part because her doctor had gone to court to confirm that it was medically necessary."
@igd_news Glad to see she is able to get an abortion outside Texas. The fact that she won't submit and give birth to a dead baby is also a huge "fuck you and the car you rode in" to KKKen Paxton.
Only two things are working against abortion laws right now: the pill networks/self-managed abortion, and interstate travel. Criminalization of interstate travel is next, note that Google has ignored their own promise to stop logging trips to abortion clinics with Google Maps enabled, location sharing ON, and logged into Google. Thus the same "geofence warrants" used for J6 could be used by Ken Paxton to say, get a list of all Texas phones that go within X number of yards of any of a list of known out of state clinics. Counter is to log out of Google, turn off location sharing, disable Google Maps, and use ~Osmand (OpenStreetMap frontend) instead. All clinics should make sure OpenStreetMap has their address so they can be easily found there.
Paxton is also on record as supporting bringing a case to SCOTUS to get approval to reinstate sodomy laws. Note that Texas has a prior history with SCOTUS on that one.
Texas has such an extreme-right reputation I once saw a presumably joking call in the Washington Post (maybe it was a letter?) for throwing them out of the Union. Note that doing that would mean the GOP would never again control the White House and probably never the House of Misrepresentatives again.
Of course, an expelled Texas would be an instant Christian State, with things like the death penalty for abortion and Gay sex. CSNA (Christian State in North America) is one of the nightmare scenarios during a breakup of the US similar to the Syrian Civil War.
Jacksonville protest against Saturday's racist murders calls out DeSantis as a Nazi
On Monday the 28th of August, what was to be a commemoration of MLK's March on Washington in Jacksonville, FL instead turned into a furious protest
against Saturday's murders-and of Fl Governor Ron DeSantis. The Governor is being considered responsible for the shootings. He is being called out for all but soliciting the murders with his steady drumbeat of racist laws and propaganda.
Marchers and speakers called ou DeSantis as a racist, a white supremacist, and an out and out Nazi. While march organizers asked everyone not to engage any counterprotesters or hecklers, not a single Proud Boy or member of any other fascist group other than the cops dared to show up openly.
On Sunday, the 27th of August, Fl Governor Ron DeSantis had the nerve to shot up at a vigil for the three African-Americans murdered by a white nationalist the previous day. He was roundly booed for as one speaker at the Monday August 28 rally described, "offering thoughts and prayers with the same mouth he used to fan the flames of white supremacy."
Somewhere in or near Skokie, Illinois yesterday or last night, someone fired a pistol into the air near a pro-Gaza rally as an attempt of intimidation.
Also in St Petersburg, Fl there was a reportedly unprovoked police attack on a Palestine march as it left City Hall, leading to three arrests.
With all the other incidents there seems to be an all-out drive to suppress the protests in the US. This as some have said the global wave of protests has been delaying Israel's ground offensive (hopefully for good).
New and ugly news from Atlanta: apparently the government intends to refuse to even start the process of certifying the petitions for the ballot measure to cancel the Cop City lease. They are citing the 61 RICO indictments as the excuse.
This raises another question: was this the whole purpose of the indictments? Are they willing to threaten 61 people with a fate some consider worse than death so they can cancel a vote they know they can never win?
That sounds like "democracy" as practiced by the theocrats who have been grinding the people of Iran under their boots, or by Putin as he does the same to the people of Russia.
They need to understand that a cancelled election of this type is incredibly destabilizing. US politics are already a powderkeg, and the so-called "Democrats" in Atlanta by killing democracy threaten to put a match to the works.
Protesters hit Department of State with noise demo, car caravan for Gaza in evening rush
(report delayed by author's trip home to FL from DC)
Late afternoon on Oct 25, antiwar protesters descended on the US Department of state with noisemakers-and a 2020-style car caravan. State Department employees coming out received chants of "Quit Your Job!"
Palestinians and supporters march for Gaza in Tampa
On the 5th of November, Palestinians and supporters in Tampa, Fl held a march for Gaza along Fowler Ave near USF.
Like the previous week's march, hundreds turned out to show their support for Gaza in the face of an all-out attempt at genocide. Israel's Interior Minister has called for the complete expulsion of every man, woman, and child in Gaza.
Already over 9,000 people out of a population somewhere over two million in Gaza have been killed by Israel's bombing. That is equivalent to the toll in the United States if 9-11 had used nuclear weapons in NYC and led to about 1,350,000 deaths in the US assuming a US population of roughly 300 million.
Pro Palestine protesters SHUT DOWN DC's Union Station
On the 17th of November, protesters descended on DC's Union Station intent on shutting it down over the gaza genocide. When they got there, Union Station had shut themselves down, closing their doors to all but Amtrak ticket holders who could not be excluded.
Protesters rallied outside in victory, their mission for the day accomplished.
Looks like Palestine protests and DC in particular are seriously heating up! Official over-reactions to peaceful protests have sparked a major confrontation, evacuated the DNC, and shut down a major transportation hub in the space of just two days. Things are heating up elsewhere too. In Florida, rabidly pro-Israel Gov and Presidential candidate DeSantis is proposing to criminalize ALL pro-Palestine protest if a way around the 1st Amendment can be found. Already he has ordered universities to "deactivate" Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, though the universities and their cops have no legal power to prevent them from continuing to operate without university support and funds.
Note that Ernst claimed they only poured two truckloads (6-20 cubic yards depending on truck capacity and how loaded) of concrete for "a local customer (presumably main contractor Brent Scarborough) working on Cop City. Their trucks were photographed there however, pouring curbs with no other concrete trucks reported present. Now they will pour no more.
ONE night of direct action, concrete contractor quits after just two truckloads. They lost 6 expensive concrete mixer trucks to Cop City fires over those two truckloads though. They played with fire, and they got burned-literally.
Brent Scarborough too “have told the Atlanta Police Foundation and the city that if more their equipment gets torched they’ll pull out of the job”. Someone asked on Birdchan (Twitter/X) if this counts.
Book burners scream for removal of disfavored books at Polk County School Board Meeting
On the 5th of September, at a sparsely populated meeting of the Polk County, FL school board, book burners came out of the woodwork. They are working from a script by so-called "Moms4Liberty" in which they find a book with the most "pornographic" passage they can, and read it out of context in school board meetings seeking to get the books banned. One of them even whined about how Polk County is behind many other counties in banning books!
They were countered by LGBTQ speakers, one of whom called them out as the Nazis they are, warned of the danger posed by the GOP's "Project 2025," and called out school board member and felon Rick Nolte for his role in recent Fascist proposals before the Board
Looks like the war in Gaza is already escalating: the US sent a carrier strike force, and Turkey has warned the US to stay out or fight Turkish troops.
Such a fight will benefit the Kurds by giving Erdogan a powerful new enemy, but will also benefit Putin by tying up the US somewhere other than Ukraine.
Here in the US, we have to be on alert for neo-Nazis to attempt to exploit the war given popular support for hard-pressed Gaza. They will claim to support Palestine when in truth they hate Jews and Muslims alike. In Germany about 20 years ago the neo-Nazis were firebombing apartment buildings popular with Turkish migrants. Let's not forget that history.
The deadline for Fulton County, GA to pay the ransom to Lockbit has EXPIRED. I see no online reports of ransom paid.
This means that essentially ALL of Fulton County's court and police records should soon be appearing on Lockbit's website alongside the teasers already released.
Already this includes a great deal of information that will be priceless to defense attorneys. With luck this will bring the Cop City prosecutions crashing down in flames!
Ugly reports of mass "arrests" of Palestinians in Gaza. Might be something they learned crosstraining with US cops. Reports of a video showing men being rounded up.
Presuming these to be civilians, as anyone caught in a kettle with a full infantry combat loadout has the option of refusing to surrender and fighting it out.
Interesting that a lawyer for Cop City said in court that the project was being held together with "chewing gum and paperclips"-and that ONE day's court ordered stop work could now finish off the whole project.
On the 13th of January, a massive march in solidarity with Gaza assembled on DC's Freedom Plaza and from there proceeded to the White House. Chants of "Genocide Joe" frequently rang out.
So many people attended the march that lead elements arrived at the White House while the last marchers were still on or leaving Freedom Plaza!
Action lasted long past sunset. As the sun set the energy rose-and the White House security lights came on. As smoke flares burned, the fence shook and water bottles flew over the 10 foot riot fence the cops set up in front of the normal White House fence.
At one point, cops behind the fence charged but drew back as more bottles flew. This may have been a bluff charge.
One person reported being pepper sprayed by cops but they seemed to be OK. One arrest or detention occurred during the march, supposedly for an empty holster.
I later heard a report later of a "fence breach"-and that nonessential staffers had been ordered to leave the White House. Both of those are unconfirmed but plausible given the energy of the protest. In every way it reminded me of the first night of the Uprising in DC back in 2020. That was the night protesters succeeded in driving Trump into his bunker. If the reports pan out and especially if Genocide Joe also fled to his bunker, that first night of the Uprising in DC has been matched.
Video summary:
First 30 seconds: before the march and including mock dead babies and blood at the White House
Second part of video: massive march, so big the last marchers are still leaving Freedom Plaza as lead elements reach the White House.
Third part of video (from about 1:30 on): showdown at the 10 foot riot fence, hot and spicy.
Cop City general contractor Brent Scarborough just got hit again: 20 machines trashed at Clayton County, GA site.
This is simple: if a contractor works on Cop City, ALL of their construction sites become legitimate targets. They might be able to protect their shit at Cop Shitty itself, but no way a big contractor like Brent Scarborough can protect all of their sites. There are too many targets, too much night, and too many Elves working to make a better world.
We also have the quote from someone at Brent Scarborough that just one more torched machine may kick them off the project. This isn't another fire (there have been sooo many...) but it is a major cost-and this time they lost TWENTY machines.
Just off Tara Boulevard and Poston Road is a construction site full of dirt that the Clayton County Board of Commissioners hopes will bring millions to the city.
Members of the board say when the development is complete it will be a place where the community can live, work, and play.
However, the project temporarily hit a speed bump shortly before Thanksgiving after more than 20 pieces of construction equipment were vandalized.
According to the police chief, a detective on the case reports a contractor whose equipment was damaged also works on the training center, which has allegedly been the impetus for numerous acts of vandalism.
News confirmed the contractor works on both projects. [Brent Scarbrough]
During an August news conference, Atlanta Police showed pictures of vandalized equipment from the same contractor that saw their equipment vandalized at the Clayton County site. [Communique Of Attack On Brent Scarbrough Site Mentioned In Press Conference]
Christian Nationalist “New Columbia Movement” attacks contraception at annual forced-birth march
Allison Bailey shot this photo of the New Columbia Movement (Christian nationalists) at the big forced-birth march I prefer to call the "March4Death" on Jan 19 in Washington DC. Didn't see it on the day of because I am not on Instagram, someone sent it to me directy.
Here they are attacking contraception, having as predicted moved on from abortion. One trench is taken, the next trench comes under fire.
Black Women drop banner in Atlanta City hall demanding right to vote on Stop Cop City referendum
Another Week of Action against Cop City is now underway
On the 22nd of March, a group of mostly Black Women got inside Atlanta's City Hall. Once inside, they dropped a banner and chanted demands that the city drop their appeal of a so far failed court challenge to the referendum to cancel the lease on Weelaunee Forest.
Police removed the banner, but this did not stop the rest of the protest
If the referendum reaches the ballot is is considered almost certain to pass. Contractors and especially investors might start pulling out at that point, seeing no chance of finishing.
With legislation to de facto ban trans residents in FL from driving blocked by a Senate deadline, the DeSantis regime has instead done the same thing by regulatory action.
Existing licenses with gender markers changed are to be suspended, applications for new ones after today risk PROSECUTION for "fraud." Note that driving without a license is a lesser offense than this but means insurance on cars either cannot be obtained or will refuse to pay.
Also consider the likelihood that a cop will consider a drivers license claiming a (no longer valid) birth certificate gender that does not match a person's presentation to be automatically suspicions and may presume it false. There is thus NO way for a trans person to safely drive on a Florida license.
This is going to force more trans people to move out of Florida due to sprawl that makes getting around without a care considerably more difficult than in the big northeast cities. Miami and Fort Lauderdale might be exceptions.
Since ANY display of a FL license by any trans person to any cop is now dangerous, I would suggest that drivers licenses should be left in cars and never carried on foot or bike unless going someplace that checks ID. In that case carry it well concealed. Purchases at stores where ID is asked for can be declined, I do this all the time, telling staff "just get rid of it" with never a problem, then trying a different chain for that item.
This also means that trans folks who are forced to drive without licenses won't have insurance, and there will be a non-zero number of crashes where "in-solid" cishet, Southern Baptist Flori-Duh KKKonservatives have to pay for their own car repairs after getting their BMW or their jacked-up truck smashed up by a trans driver who then takes off to avoid arrest. They will deserve every dollar of the bill and every sore neck they get.
