Monday, December 25, 2023

Christmas In the Trenches


This in my opinion is one of the best antiwar Christmas songs ever written. It's performed by the composer, John McCutcheon.

Best wishes for the holiday season to all of my readers.

15 comments:

MissingJayOttawa said...

Sad but beautiful song, Karen. Thank you. All I can think about is the holocaust in Gaza and how much I detest Genocide Joe. I've read in a few places - a leak out of the White House - that Joe has told Bibi that he has until the end of the year to kill and then he has to stop because it is hurting Joe's chances for re-election. I now know that Joe has always been a Zionist and while I remained only marginally aware of the killing that has gone on for decades, Joe has known and been OK with it his whole time in office. God, how much I hate that man! There must be a special place in Hell for people like him. And people were saying Trump had no moral compass!

I have walked around angry at everyone who wishes me a Merry Christmas because I am furious that almost everyone I meet couldn't care less that they are having to amputate limbs of children without anesthesia in destroyed hospitals in Gaza. People in the West don't want to bear witness to the horror. To top it off, lately, instead of the pro-Palestinian videos I was seeing on TikTok and Instagram, suddenly I am seeing all this pro-Israel shit. Or both sides are equally hurting shit. I'm numb with anger and horror.

The rays of light remain the kids who keep posting on TikTok and the Houthis - I always have a place in my heart for underdogs who refuse to give up. The flotilla in the Red Sea is downright pathetic - Thank God Australia made up some excuse not to join in.

Thank you so much, Karen, for this blog and your articles. You provide a haven for many of us.

annenigma said...

@MissingJayOttawa

Ditto

Valerie said...

This is a little levity. I think I have posted Juice Media productions before but if not, they are brilliant satire. Just in case anyone out there thinks the duopoly trying to keep independent candidates out of the election process is only an American phenomenon, it is here in Australia too. https://theanalysis.news/honest-government-ad-how-to-rig-elections/

It really is as Naomi Klein called it, a shock doctrine. While the world is absorbed in other tragedies like the destruction of war, the evil ones are slipping in a fascist stealing of our choices and democratic rights - even in a parliamentary system that should work better. Channeling Hillary and the DNC . . .

annenigma said...

@Valerie

Very funny and spot on! We need all the humor we can get during these dark days.


On a holiday note, American taxpayers gift all Israeli citizens a free education system up to the university level along with free single payer health care among other perks with the $4 billion automatic transfer every year by Uncle Santa. Now we know why so many Jewish Americans hold dual citizenship!

annenigma said...

While Americans are paying for Israelis to be healthy and well educated, what are they doing with these gifts from God, I mean Americans, other than massacring Palestinians?

It was widely reported a few days ago that Israel returned a truckload of ~80 mutilated and decomposed corpses of Palestinians to Gaza. Israel claims they 'analyzed' those bodies to 'make sure they weren't hostages'. When Palestinians tried to identify them, they noticed that organs were missing.

What's old is new again, just like the Holocaust. This is from The Guardian in 2009 and caused quite a stink between Sweden and Israel at the time.

'Doctor Admits Israeli Pathologists Harvested Organs Without Consent'

"Israel has admitted pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others, without the consent of their families – a practice it said ended in the 1990s – it emerged at the weekend.

The admission, by the former head of the country's forensic institute, followed a furious row prompted by a Swedish newspaper reporting that Israel was killing Palestinians in order to use their organs – a charge that Israel denied and called "antisemitic"."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/21/israeli-pathologists-harvested-organs

The ZioNazis claimed to have discontinued the practice back in the 90's. Or was that just a brief 'humanitarian pause'?

This song should be the anthem of the ZioNazis who are outdoing the Nazis: ANYTHING YOU CAN DO (I CAN DO BETTER). Lyrics by Irving Berlin, born as Israel Beilin:

https://www.songlyrics.com/irving-berlin/anything-you-can-do-i-can-do-better-lyrics/

Some lighthearted examples of the deadly superior mindset underlying the Master Race/Chosen Ones:

Anything you can do I can do better
I can do anything better than you

Anything you can be I can be greater
Sooner or later I'm greater than you

I'm superior, you're inferior
I'm the big attraction, you're the small
I'm the major one, you're the minor one
I can beat you shootin', that's not all

Anyone you can lick, I can lick faster
I can lick anyone faster than you

Any school where you went I could be master
I could be master much faster than you


[This new/old Master Race can't be brought down soon enough.]

annenigma said...

On the rare GOOD NEWS front, yesterday South Africa filed charges of genocide against Israel with the International Court of Justice under the Genocide Convention. It's 84 pages long so it left no hospital rubble or dead UN, MSF, and other civilian bodies unturned in their evidence. They surely included all the self-incriminatory statements by ZioNazi leaders.

Unfortunately it will take years to adjudicate and in the meantime the Holocaust will not stop, barring some serious action by another country. Nevertheless, at least one country is standing up for Palestinians finally even if Genocide Joe vetoes every desperate plea from humanity for a ceasefire. He has the power to stop it but refuses because he's not humane nor sane.

Still, genocide charges are a game changer and big win in terms of battling powerful imperial propaganda. Charges help build public pressure for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) and more diplomatic measures by non-vassal states. How will Biden spin being complicit in Genocide and repeatedly refusing appeals by the entire world for a ceasefire? "Israel has a right to defend itself!" and "What can they do? Hamas are using human shields!" are sick excuses for genocide, vomited up by and for morons.

True to form, Israel responded to these charges by calling it 'disgusting blood libel' fueled by 'antisemetism' but thankfully few outside the Anglo-American Empire are buying their victim crap. They think we're all idiots.

Even Pope Francis' Christmas message referred to this ongoing massacre as being waged for war profiteering by the weapons industry. Israel also bombed Christian churches and assassinated two Palestinian Christians on Christmas Eve by sniper fire in Jerusalem. Israel is just rubbing it in our faces now, especially Joe Biden's. Their claims of "oops, wrong ammunition used on civilians" as if there's a right ammunition to kill civilians. If Joe had half a brain he'd realize that was a direct slap in his face in response to his ridiculous cautions about their minimizing harm to civilians while arming them to the hilt.

To add further insult to injury, Genocide Joe just circumvented Congressional oversight for a second time, sending another generous weapons package to Israel to enable them to continue their genocide. The fact is, Israel is only able to outperform the Nazis due solely to their sacred partnership with the only other White Supremacist country in the world, the "Indispensible Nation" of the United States of AmericIsrael, the global war-profiteering Beast aka the Anglo-American Empire.

Or just '666' for short.

More Good News is that even the Pope gets it and so do the kids, thank you Jesus! Speaking of... who died and made AmericIsrael God of the World? Oh. Right. The original anti-capitalist socialist peacemaker was killed to shut him up and eliminate the threat he posed to the money-making schemes and murderous worldview of the killers. It didn't work then and it won't work now, at least as long as we use our voices in one form and venue or another to keep his message for humanity alive.

That's a real gift to Jesus for his birthday, whatever date it actually was.

Valerie said...

From what I am reading, Operation Prosperity Guardian is a hollow crown. All the countries that have, presumably, been pressured into joining "the coalition of the willing" are sending what amounts to a handful of personnel. I suspect Europe realises it has been left holding the bag in Ukraine after sending more weapons, ammunition, trucks and tanks than it could spare and is reluctant to get dragged into yet another misadventure by the U.S. - especially given the despicable nature of the nation it is championing. The other little countries are off the hook as long as they sign on to the list of nations -

"Each country will contribute what they can" Major General Patrick Ryder said, dubbing it a coalition of the willing. "In some cases that will include vessels. In other cases, it could include staff or other types of support."

Ha! It is like one of those staff parties one HAS to attend in order to show you are a member of the team - when all you really want to do is stay at home and watch TV.

Meanwhile, Team Biden is floating around the idea of confiscating Russia's money in order to pay for the Ukraine War despite the IMF and other financial Gods of the Universe yelling, No! Don't Do It! From what I understand, this will accelerate de-dollarisation. Good! The sooner the U.S. is unable to borrow money to pay for weapons the better.

What sickens me is that the Palestinians continue to die and suffer while Israel perseveres its holocaust unhindered - with the tacit permission of the Western World. Only the little band of Houthis seem to care about them.

annenigma said...

@Valerie

Operation Genocide Guardian!

MissingJay said...

I just read, including missing Palestinians thought to be under the rubble, the death toll is 30,000. I am filled with rage - both at Israel and at the United States (and Joe Biden and the Congress). - And RFK Jr (Who is nothing like his father.)

Unbelievable that this monstrosity of a nation is the hill America is choosing to die on.

So glad JayOttawa isn't alive to see this. He must be grieving in Heaven.

Valerie in Australia said...

John Pilger, outside of Julian Assange, is and was Australia's greatest journalist. He was very controversial - probably because he spent his career making documentaries and outing the relentless abuse of power by western governments (especially Australia, the UK and the US) and their exploitation of privilege against weaker groups of people with little or no voice. The MSM is not being very kind - implying that he wasn't very fastidious about his sources - but John deserves to be remembered for epitomising what journalism SHOULD be and rarely is. Alexander Mercurous had a very good (short) tribute to Pilger, found at Consortium News. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/01/02/watch-mercouris-on-pilger/ Well worth the listen.

annenigma said...

@Valerie in Australia

She IS outstanding! Her name is Neleda Pandor, South Africa's foreign minister, aka Minister of International Relations and Cooperation. I'm a huge fan.

Valerie said...

Her name is Naledi Pandor and she is the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation - the equivalent of our foreign minister.

annenigma in Arizona said...

@Valerie in Australia

We live in time zones where East coast Karen is probably putting her computer to sleep, if not herself, by the time we submit a comment.

Another brilliant woman who speaks truth to power is Italian human rights lawyer Francesca Albanese who's currently the UN Special Rapporteur oPt (for the occupied Palestinian territories). In 2014 she made headlines and got called antisemitic when she described the United States as "subjugated by the Jewish lobby" and Europe by a "sense of guilt about the Holocaust" and arguing that both "condemn the oppressed" in the conflict. 10 years later and she's still right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesca_Albanese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naledi_Pandor

FightingtheGoodFight said...

"The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters." Antonio Gramsci

annenigma said...

The Gaza Genocide hearings in South Africa v. Israel at the Hague will be publicly broadcast on the web on Thursday 1/22 and Fri 1/12. Thursday is for South Africa arguments for provisional measures, Friday for Israel arguments against provisional measures. Provisional measures = immediate ceasefire. 10-12am but depends on your time zone.

https://webtv.un.org/en