Some dare not call it genocide

 

Some dare not call it genocide

Folks following the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, fully enabled by America, are of two views.

Those of us in the peace community instantly recognized that Israel’s response to Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack was a genocidal ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from Gaza.

We didn’t have to guess. Israeli leaders made clear thru word and deed that return of Israeli hostages was secondary to their primary goal of killing and clearing out all 2,300,000 Palestinians so Gaza could be redeveloped to expand Greater Israel.

It was also clear that the US, under both Biden and Trump, were and are in complete accord with Israel’s grisly, murderous policy. Biden feigned sympathy for the tens of thousands of dead Palestinian innocents on his watch and the decimated 139 square miles of Gaza rubble. But he kept mum while delivering over $20 billion in weapons allowing Israel to rain down on Gaza over 50,000 tons of American bombs dropped from American planes.

Trump, no surprise, gloried in the worst genocide this century. He invited indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu to the Oval Office to discuss which African countries they could intimidate to take in the roughly 2.2 million remaining starving, sick, traumatized Palestinians. Trump is eager to kick start his biggest real estate project ever, expanding Greater Israel into Gaza once the Palestinians have been cleared out. That is grotesque, not something to champion.

Then there are those who refuse to believe or admit that genocide is occurring before their eyes and ears in real time.

Reasons likely many.

Some simply view it not as genocide but simply a war between Israel and Hamas.

Some argue that the Palestinian destruction, no matter how horrible, does not rise to genocide which they equate to the Nazi horrors of WWII.

Some are in complete sympathy with Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign, indeed, cheering it on. Mike Huckabee, Trump's new Ambassador to Israel, claims there is no such thing Palestine or even Palestinians, so let the ethnic cleansing proceed unabated to expand Greater Israel.

There is a near total blackout in mainstream media of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Whether conservative or progressive, the talking heads go mute when it comes to the informing the public of the most horrific US policy in their lifetime.

None in Congress dare cross the Israel Lobby by calling it genocide. To do so risks having millions in Lobby campaign funds dry up or worse, going to a pro Lobby Primary opponent. Some are horrified by the violence crushing the Palestinians but cannot embrace the moral imperative to call it out and demand its end.

To his credit, Sen. Bernie Sanders tried twice to pass Senate Joint Resolutions to cut off the flow of genocide weapons to Israel but only garnered 17 votes from the other 99 mostly genocide supporting Senators. But tho Sanders calls Israel's conduct "ethnic cleansing", he refuses to call it what it truly is, genocide.

Representing Sanders' Senate opposite is colleague John Fetterman who supports Israel cutting off all food, medicine, water to Gaza till the hostages are released. Horrifying.

Israel breaks the January ceasefire with daily bombings killing dozens of Palestinian innocents while most Americans turn away.

Collectively, American genocide deniers enable President Trump to fund, supply, cheer on arguably the most murderous, destructive and tragically bi-partisan foreign policy in American history.

Book Pick: ‘Stomp Off Let’s Go’ by Ricky Riccardi

 Book Pick: ‘Stomp Off Let’s Go’ by Ricky Riccardi


Not too many under 50 have any idea who Louis Armstrong was or his titanic impact on the trajectory of 20th century American music And those over 50 mostly know the former from his performing pop tunes ‘Hello Dolly’ and ‘What A Wonderful World’ on Ed Sullivan and other variety shows.

That’s a shame which is why ‘Stomp Off, Let’s Go’ is an important addition to the American cultural music story.


Amazingly, Louis Armstrong, a desperately poor black boy in 1900 Jim Crow New Orleans, broke out of a near hopeless future to become among the most recognized music artists on the planet while changing the music forever. That’s the saga told in Riccardi’s bio of Louis’s first 28 years subtitled ‘The Early Years of Louis Armstrong.’


Born most likely Aug. 4, 1901, Louis always claimed and celebrated his birthday July 4, 1900. Father Willie deserted his family early leaving his mom Mayann, Louis and sister Mama Lucy to barely survive in a one room apartment. Mayann was a loving mother whom Louis idolized but also an alcoholic prostitute, one of the few New Orleans occupations available for struggling poor black mothers. Frequently arrested, she’d spend a week or two in jail each time being unable to pay the $2.50 fine.


Louis brushed off his hardscrabble life, forming a singing quartet with his buddies about age 8, busking on street corners for nickels and dimes. That led to his first arrest at age 9 for disturbing the noisy peace.


He also worked for the Karnovsky’s, a Jewish family that ran both a junk and coal business. Louis worked in both, even got his first horn from the Karnovsky’s who treated him as a son. Picking up junk and delivering coal developed an incredible work ethic that lasted seven decades. No Karnovsky’s maybe no Louis Armstrong.


Pops’ caught a big break Dec. 31, 1912, arrested for firing a gun to celebrate the New Year. Sent to the Colored Waifs Home, Louis found another angel, the band director who gave him a cornet to play in the Home’s band. Got so good he was made their leader. A year later Louis came out determined to join the jazz scene just emerging from ragtime.


But poverty continued to stalk Louis’ family. At 15, he even tried his hand at pimping which backfired when his first sex worker stabbed him for not responding to her romantic overtures. Two years later 17 year old Louis fell in love and married Daisy Parker, a prostitute he was frequenting.. Not a good choice as Louis lamented all they did was “fuck and fight.” When he woke up to see Daisy holding a knife to his throat, he decided to move on.


Divorced at 21 Louis escaped Daisy, the collapsing New Orleans music scene and segregation by accepting second cornet slot in his mentor King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band at the Lincoln Gardens on Chicago’s South Side Stroll. No King Oliver maybe no Louis Armstrong.


Louis might have been just another of dozens of great cornet players who faded out early due to booze, womanizing, poor career management, etc. But he struck gold with second wife Lil’ Harden, the Oliver band pianist who forced Louis to leave Oliver to fulfil his destiny as the greatest of all time. Lil’ relentlessly promoted his musical ascendancy negotiating each next step up the musical ladder. Once again, no Lil’ maybe no Louis Armstrong.


Hard to imagine but while Pops was creating revolutionary jazz modernism with his hot Five and Seven recordings from ’25 to ’28, white America outside of jazz fanatics, had no idea he even existed. That’s because the record industry relegated him to their ‘race records’ division which were only sold in black neighborhoods. But he was so good, Okeh Record producer Tommy Rockwell took a chance and released his first mainstream pop recording ‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’ from March 5, 1929 to the general public. Bingo. His crossover to white America established, Armstrong blazed on for 42 more years, even knocking the Beatles off No. 1 with ‘Hello Dolly’ in ’64.


‘Stomp Off, Let’s Go’ most fascinating music bio I’ve read. Can’t’ wait to get Volume 2 in Riccardi’s Armstrong trilogy ‘Heart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years’. Then on to Volume 3 ‘What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong’s Later Years’.

Time for Conclave to consider woman Pope?

 

Time for Conclave to consider woman Pope?

 

The death of Pope Francis presents a golden opportunity for the Catholic Church to leap all the way from before the Middle Ages to the 21st Century. They could so do by considering electing a woman Pope.

 

That is not as preposterous as it sounds. Unbeknownst to most Catholics, the College of Cardinals Conclave, set to begin between 15 and 20 days from Francis’ April 21st death, can elect “any baptized man” to become Pope. That has happened 6 times in the 266 Papal selections (tho none since 1378).

It would take just 1 tiny rules change…replace the word ‘man’ with ‘person’ in the eligibility list. Voila, all those intelligent, compassionate, modern Catholic women become eligible to be Pope No. 267.

 

A woman Pope might just save the dying Catholic Church, at least in Europe and America where Catholics are abandoning an out of touch Catholicism. Much stems from the Church still resistant to popular lay Catholic beliefs supporting birth control, gay marriage, women priests and married priests, whether formalized or not.

 

If by some earthly miracle women will be into the mix when the voting starts, one more change would be cool. A new pellet should be added to the burning of the ballots, one that would display pink not white signaling election of the first woman Pope.