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Israeli Genocide Facilitated By The Collapse Of Liberal Institutions

Same Collapse Seen Across A Wide Spectrum – From Climate To Homelessness

(Caption: Bernie Sanders March (Philadelphia, PA, 7/24/16 – Bill Wolfe)

“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.” ~~~ Mario Savio

For over 6 months now, Israel has engaged in a transparent genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign in the Gaza Strip (and West Bank). These war crimes and atrocities are conducted in full view, with multiple videos posted every day around the world on social media.

In response to an exhaustively documented complaint filed by South Africa, the UN’s highest Court, the International Court of Justice, found that there is a plausible case that Israel is engaged in Genocide.

Back on January 26, the Court imposed “Interim Measures” mandating the Israel stop:

(a) killing members of the group;
(b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and
(d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

For the extraordinarily powerful South African complaint and all documents on that case, see:

• Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel)

Yet, Israel completely ignored and immediately defied the Court’s ruling and mandates. The Israeli defiance went unreported and the genocide continued with impunity.

Literally the day after the ICJ decision, the US – in an obviously coordinated campaign with Israel and virtually all western governments – manufactured the story that members of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)  had participated in the October 7 attack on Israel. These governments all simultaneously announced, before conducting any investigation, suspension of funding for UNRWA, the agency that feeds millions of starving Palestinians.

The US media, also without any investigation or independent fact finding, immediately reported that UNRWA story on page one, which drove the ICJ decision completely out of the news cycle. This is exactly what the US backed Israeli propaganda campaign was designed to do.

Since then, the death count has mounted, and so have starvation and disease and Israeli genocidal bombing of civilian refugee camps, hospitals, et al, slaughter of starving Palestinians seeking food, dubbed the “Flour Massacre” by the UN, – even including recent discovery of hundreds of dead bodies in mass graves.

Yet US legacy media report very little of this, while constantly printing Israeli propaganda as fact or making each atrocity a “He said/she said”.

The Biden administration has vastly accelerated provision of US military support, bypassing Congress and violating US laws that prohibit export of weapons for war crimes.

The entire universe of establishment institutions, e.g. the Church, the professional societies, academia, et al are mostly silent about all this.

A similar story is occurring in Ukraine, as the US instigated and backed proxy war has killed over 500,000 Ukrainians, with Russia on the verge of a humiliating military and geo-strategic victory.

The few voices in protest are occurring on college campuses, and these protesters are being attacked as anti-semites.

It is hard to imagine a more perverse situation.

There are similar collapses occurring on other issues, including massive and growing homelessness, ecological collapse, “deaths of despair”, and the climate catastrophe.

Chris Hedges predicted the collapse of liberal institutions that we are now witnessing in his 2010 book “The Death Of The Liberal Class”. Here’s a video of his talk on that book

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYCvSntOI5s

Perhaps we can respond to that collapse – particularly us “elders” – by getting off our asses and out in the streets to support the college protesters and the climate activists.

For an example of that, see:

“We The Elders – What Will Be Our Legacy” (check out the photo of this banner from 2016 demonstration):

• DNC – Clinton Wrap-up: No Room Under the Tent for Dissent or Activists

I want to followup briefly on a post I wrote yesterday on the Palestine solidarity protests at University of Pennsylvania.

The campus protest movement is getting a lot of historical linkages to Vietnam. I’ve done so myself.

But, it’s not just Palestine that’s on the line. There’s a whole lot more involved.

So, perhaps the better historical analogy is the Berkeley Free Speech Movement – and what followed.

The words of Mario Savio could not be more relevant today: (video)

“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”

For addition excellent historical video of Savio, hit this link.

What a long strange trip its been, eh?

Student Encampment Serving As A Center Of Learning And Organizing

We took a 6 mile (round trip) walk yesterday morning over to University of Pennsylvania to observe the student protests and “Gaza Solidarity Encampment”.

As we approached campus from the South Street Bridge, we noted bomb trains parked literally under an occupied Office building:

Then we saw a water pollution outfall discharge plume to the Schuylkill River. It hadn’t rained recently, so the pollution source might be more than stormwater (hello EPA enforcement!):

And lots of police and traffic.

We mistakenly assumed that all the traffic was destined for the protest, but were disappointed that it was going to the Penn Relays, the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States.

Arriving on campus, we first stopped in a lovely courtyard and fountain next to the museum for some water for Charlie:

Refreshed and moving on, we noted a small encampment, with small groups of students circled to listen to training on non-violent protest and avoiding and documenting police arrests. We were asked not to photograph this circle. There was a real fear of people having their faces photographed – that fear reflects intimidation and harassment by Zionists. I also got the sense – and not the first time – that the young protesters assumed as an old white man that I was undercover cops.

We spoke with a few articulate and knowledgeable students, who explained their campaign and outlined some of the teach ins and activities they were conducting in group circles. There was absolutely no suggestion of any violence, anti-semitism, harassment, or aggressive or disorderly conduct. There was no disruption to campus life, as many students made their way through campus seemingly unfazed.

The Philadelphia police (on bicycles, not horses) and campus security were friendly and restrained, with only a handful even visible, standing remotely on the edge under shade trees. No violent crackdown seemed to be in the cards on the Penn campus:

I was surprised by the tranquility of the protest and business as usual mood of the campus.

I was surprised and disappointed that the demands and messages of the encampment failed to include any linkage to US politics and accountability for the Biden administration. (I was told there were chants of “Genocide Joe”, but I saw no signs or demands targeting Biden). 

I think this failure reflects both a strategic over-reliance on the boycott, divestment, & sanctions tactics, as well as a kind of hostility to traditional politics. (I sense a similar misguided emphasis by climate activists, who focus on disinvestment and fail to engage political tools. I blame Bill McKibben for that Neoliberal protest model, which relies on market forces instead of government policy).

BDS tactics worked to end apartheid in South Africa, but that situation is very different from the current Israeli/Gaza situation.

Politically, the US had no where near the leverage and influence over South Africa as the US now has over Israel. Biden could end the genocide with a phone call threatening cutoff of all US military assistance.

Biden and the Democrats are incredibly vulnerable now going into the Fall elections and an August Convention in, of all places, Chicago. As I tried to explain to some of the students, there are echoes of the forces of 1968 and Vietnam, which forced the resignation of LBJ, which could be exploited to leverage change of Biden policy. Biden could at least immediately stop the killing and starvation and disease and provide humanitarian aid.

Of course, the end of the Israeli occupation and a free Palestinian State will require continued global pressure, including BDS.

Some scenes:

NJ Has Made Little Progress In Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Small Reductions That Have Been Made Result From Closing Coal Power Plants

A Long Way To Go To Meet Emissions Reductions Goals

Gov. Murphy’s Record Is Grossly Exaggerated

DEP Commissioner LaTourette Gaslights About Emissions “Cap”

(Source: NJ DEP Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory (2021)

I thought I’d add a quick dose of reality to the self congratulatory efforts of NJ State officials – and their sycophantic cheerleaders and media stenographers – regarding alleged progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and seriously addressing the climate emergency.

The latest is Gov. Murphy’s press release on increases in solar capacity, “capping off” Earth Week, see:

• Governor Murphy Celebrates Earth Week by Laying Out New Landmark Solar Investments, Putting New Jersey One Step Closer to Achieving 100% Clean Electricity by 2035

And the Governor always holds these press events at old landfills – never at the farms and forests that are being destroyed by these industrial scale “solar farms”.

And the Governor downplays greenhouse gas emissions or discussion of the specifics on exactly how these renewable energy projects impact emissions and local air pollution.

(NJ has fallen sharply from a leading ranked State in solar capacity to a laggard. California gets almost 30% of electricity from solar, while NJ gets less than 4%.)

NJ Gov. Murphy gives new Sierra Club Chapter Director a hug. She has been a disaster and total cheerleader.

The policy objectives have become more about “promoting environmental justice”, union jobs, corporate subsidies, and economic development. Climate and environmental groups have more than willingly gone along with that shift in program objectives from the need for deep and rapid emissions reductions to promotion of social policy, corporate profits, and partisan politics – they have championed it.

So, for some reality, here is DEP’s most recent greenhouse gas emissions inventory.

The data in that Report are rarely presented in news reports.

The most recent report is from 2021, so it is possible that NJ emissions have actually increased, like global increases and according to EPA, US National emissions, both of which are increasing.

Above is a chart of NJ’s historic emissions – as you can see, while there has been some reduction, the emissions are fairly stable over a 32 year period (1990 – 2021).

As the DEP Report notes, the small emissions reductions that have been achieved resulted from the closing of coal power plants, but even that small reduction is exaggerated and misleading because the large lifecycle GHG emissions from natural gas are not fully considered (e.g. from the fracking wellhead, to gas transmission and distribution pipelines, compressor stations, etc).

As the DEP Report notes, emissions from the transportation sector resulting from more fuel efficient vehicles and electric vehicles have been wiped out by increases in vehicle miles traveled and sales are large gas guzzling SUV’s and trucks.

A Long Way To Go

(Source: NJ DEP Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory (2021)

There is a pattern of highly misleading claims made about increased capacity of renewable energy.

That renewable capacity data is almost always presented in relation to number of homes served or cars taken off the road (and note the Governor’s use of the term “expected”:)

New Jersey’s Solar for All award is anticipated to deliver approximately 175 megawatts of solar energy to benefit 22,000 low-income households within the first five years of funding, resulting in approximately $250 million in total energy bill savings over 30 years for residents in newly connected households. Additionally, the award is expected to result in CO₂ emission reductions of 240,000 short tons and enable 90 megawatt-hours of energy storage associated with multi-family housing.

The false inference that is drawn from these juxtapositions is that one unit of renewable energy replaces one unit of fossil energy. That is not true. That this solar power will be directly distributed to nearby low income homes. That is not true either. Nor will this solar capacity have any impact on local air pollution.

Rarely if ever are claims made about the actual impact on local in state emissions (GHG and other air pollutants).

Rarely if ever are data presented on actual GHG emissions, fossil energy imports, and growth in energy demand, which offset and even eliminate any “expected” emissions reductions from the renewable capacity.

There is confusion about a reduction in the rate of GROWTH, versus real reduction in emissions.

In addition to that, there is the concept of “net emissions”, which allow all sorts of schemes – like offsets, trading, biofuels, carbon capture, etc – that are not real emissions reductions and may not even reduce net emissions.

As the DEP Report documents, actual emissions reductions that have been achieved are related to the shut down of coal power plants. There is a message in that reality:

The only way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to stop the extraction of fossil fuels and the construction of fossil infrastructure, and rapidly phase out existing fossil infrastructure, along with huge changes in lifestyle, consumption, and the entire corporate capitalist economic growth paradigm.

And on that front – although NJ is not a fossil fuels producing state – we do have refineries and gas pipelines and power plants and they are GROWING in capacity and emissions, not being shut down.

As an example of that, watch Murphy DEP Commissioner LaTourette dissemble when asked if he will stop issuing permits to new fossil gas power plants and pipeline infrastructure (direct question posed at time 1:45).

At time 5;25, he gaslighted again about the proposed Passaic Valley Sewage Commission gas power plant. (see also:

• Proposed Newark Fossil Power Plant Exposes Major Flaws In DEP Climate, Air Quality, And Environmental Justice Regulations

And in the course of that gaslighting and dissembling, LaTourette even lied by claiming that he had established a “cap” on emissions (at time 6:45).

I assume he was referring to the Governor rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) – but if so, he left out the fact that that is an emissions allowance trading program, not a true “cap”.

The DEP’s flawed CO2 power plant rule does not establish a cap and instead is based on emission rates.

So, the next time these claims are made, please ask tough questions and look at the data.

The Three Legged Stool Has Collapsed

Toothless NJ State Plan And A Passive – Even Pro-Development – DEP Get Another Pass

Adding insult to injury, this NJCF Report was released on the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Highlands Act. That’s a milestone they should have used to launch the “final land use battle” to preserve 100% of the remaining farms and forests.

Conservationists used to advocate that the practice of conservation relied on a “three legged stool”: preservation, planning & regulation, and private land stewardship.

They long ago abandoned work on the planning and regulation leg, and as a result, just like a muscle that goes unused, it atrophied and the stool was destabilized and weakened.

The NJ State Plan, the DEP land use and water resource planning programs, and the State’s leading policy, planning and regulatory role all eroded like the NJ shore after a nor’easter.

But, while conservationists abandoned work on the planning and regulatory leg, they at least remained rhetorically committed to it.

That rhetorical commitment tethered the conservation organizations to the issue, and forced them to remain engaged in the regulatory battles at DEP and land use campaigns that other more aggressive environmental groups mounted. That’s how we got the Highlands Act – a planning and regulatory model that the conservation community initially OPPOSED and only reluctantly joined after the initial hard political work was done by other groups and Governor McGreevey and his DEP Commissioner publicly backed the campaign. (I even had to shame them into opposing DEP’s proposed clearcut of that magnificent sycamore forest on Bulls Island!)

But no more.

Now, going beyond neglect, they’ve abandoned it completely and actively work to undermine planning and regulation, with bullshit like this from a NJ Conservation Foundation Report released yesterday:

Preservation priorities must also include wetlands, wetland buffers, floodplains, and flood hazard areas. Although environmental regulations protect these lands, many are privately owned and vulnerable to encroachments and violations. Permanent preservation through public ownership and strong, enforceable deed restrictions are required to fully preserve these lands.

(notice that there is no demand to strengthen regulations, pressure DEP to more aggressively enforce, or criticize DEP for these regulatory failures).

In addition to undermining regulation, the NJCF Report totally ignores critical issues. Those “preservation priorities” are far too narrow in scope and ignore forests and impacts of climate change. Similarly omitted, the environmental regulations also include the Highlands RMP and Pinelands CMP.

Adding insult to injury, this NJCF Report was released on the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Highlands Act. That’s a milestone they should have used to launch the “final land use battle” to preserve 100% of the remaining farms and forests.

And, as I’ve written here scores of times, the NJCF Report ignores the current policy context.

Specifically, it ignores the “deregulatory ratchet” I’ve recently written about.

It ignores a passive and sometimes explicitly pro-development Murphy administration and DEP. This DEP Commissioner has made outrageous policy statements (e.g. DEP role not to block development, reliance on buyer beware over regulation, et al) that should have been condemned. DEP has issued development approvals that should have been condemned (e.g. millions of square feet of warehouse development, etc). DEP has undermined the Pinelands Commission, the CMP, and promoted off road vehicle destruction and the logging of Pinelands forests. DEP has undermined the Highlands Council and blocked them from adopting more protective forests regulations. DEP has approved Natural Resource Damage settlements with corporate polluters that not only fail to recover money and restore tremendous ecological damage, but promote development! (e.g. BASF and American Cyanamid). DEP has approved a massive development along a C1 reservoir tributary that relies on a harebrained wastewater plan. DEP has delayed and failed to propose effective regulations and has done nothing but issue a series of process oriented nothing-burgers, see:

• Murphy DEP Playing A Perpetual Bureaucratic Shell Game On Climate Emergency

None of that has been criticized by NJCF and their fellow conservationists.

It ignores DEP’s failure to adopt real climate regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of the climate emergency.

It ignores Gov. Murphy’s failure to lead – he is the first Democratic Governor I am aware of that has no environmental legacy commitments or accomplishments (his climate and energy programs are largely rhetorical and his multiple self congratulatory Executive Orders, which read like press releases, are toothless).

Again, the conservationists have abandoned not only planning and regulation, but the necessary hard work of political accountability. They prefer playing nice, cozying up to political power, working the behind the scenes inside game with DEP and “stakeholder process” – a failed approach that even their own Report documents in terms of environmentally sensitive lands lost to development.

Complete reliance on voluntary approaches, e.g. willing sellers and friendly politicians and DEP Commissioners – as the NJCF approach does – is a fatally flawed fools errand.

That approach not only resulted in devastating losses of environmentally sensitive lands, it gave us the “Keep It Green” campaign that produced the compromised small bore current program, which slashed historical Green Acres funding and defunded parks maintenance and other DEP water and toxic site cleanup programs.

As a result of the Keep It Green campaign, not only has funding been slashed, but there is now a $720 million deficit in State Parks maintenance and capital projects, see:

• Murphy DEP Commissioner Dropped A Bombshell Today In Budget Hearing: NJ State Parks Face A $720 Million Maintenance Deficit (almost double prior $400 million)

But you’d never know about any of that by reading the NJCF Report – or the coverage of it by NJ Spotlight.