Wednesday, February 26, 2025

FOUR C’s — Careless, Corrupt, Chaotic, Callous (and an “I” for Incompetent) — are US

(Are we? —Toys R’ Us might disagree)



Inmates at Helm
Misters M and T (& Co), and A Streak that Crosses Aisles



MUSK Contributions to Donald Trump


Musk Personal contribution

$130 million+

 

 

Musk “America PAC”

$200 million+




US Government Contributions to Musk



$21 billion

Promised or Awarded

Since 2008 (still flowing-Feb 2025)

$76.7 million

Promised

Since 47th’s Inauguration

 

 

 


WHAT FOR


National Aeronautics and Space Administration: “Flying NASA to the moon” US government-exorbitantly funds, via “federal contracts,” Elon Musk’s “private space company… ‘SpaceX.’”


Since the start of recordkeeping in this area, money promised to SpaceX


PROMISED in US government contracts, research grants, and other forms of public assistance

$20.7 billion

 

 

NASA (contracts with) in above promised

$14.6 billion

 

 

PROJECTED (if NASA exercises all options in every contract

$56.4 billion

 

 

US government Paid out to date

 

$8.7 billion

 

 

US Government in Debt to Musk

US Government in Debt to Musk

 

 

US Department of Defense (promised) contracts with Musk’s SpaceX

 

$5.6 billion

Up to max future payout $32.8 billion

 

 

US Department of State subsidiary US Agency for International Development (USAID) PROMISED TO Musk’s SpaceX subsidiary Starlink

 

(circa) $2.3 million

 

 

US Department of Commerce owed to Musk’s SpaceX

$1.4 million

 

 

US Department of Veterans Affairs owed to Musk’s SpaceX

$578,875




Money to Tesla Electric Vehicle Company Run by Musk



US Government boost of Tesla income via tax credits to Tesla-buying customers

$3.4 billion

 

 

US Department of Energy low-interest loan to Tesla for help developing new electric vehicles

$465 million

 

 

US government contract with Tesla for “‘armored electric vehicles’” (under current scrutiny)

 

$400 million

 

 

 

US government purchases solar and vehicles

$4.5 million

 

 

 

 

(Federal data analyzed by The Independent)
Independent UK: “Here’s how many billions Elon Musk’s companies are making from U.S. taxpayers: While their boss takes a sledgehammer to federal agencies, SpaceX and Tesla are earning big money from government contracts,” writes Io Dodds February 23, 2025, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/musk-government-contracts-spacex-tesla-taxes-b2703141.html


US Government Spending in Top 50 Recipients
Source USA Spending FY 2008 through FY 2025 – Five area Recipients
*(Akb = Also Known By)


$30.2 Billion

 

LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP akb* 22 other names

 

Five US Gov Awarding Agencies

Department of Defense

National Aeronautics and Space Administration  Department of Homeland Security

Department of Transportation

Department of Justice

 

 

 

$21.9 Billion

 

ROCKWELL COLLINS AUSTRALIA PTY LIMITED

Akb 52 other names

 

 

Five US Gov Awarding Agencies

Department of Defense

National Aeronautics and Space Administration  Department of Homeland Security

Department of Transportation

General Services Administration

$20.1 Billion

 

THE BOEING COMPANY

Akb 23 other names

 

 

Five US Gov Awarding Agencies

Department of Defense

National Aeronautics and Space Administration  Department of Homeland Security

General Services Administration

Department of Energy

 

$10.2 Billion

 

LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION

Akb 3 other names

 

Three US Gov Awarding Agencies

Department of Defense

National Aeronautics and Space Administration  Department of Homeland Security

 

$9.3 Billion

 

LEIDOS HOLDINGS, INC.

Akb 45 other names

 

Five US Gov Awarding Agencies

Department of Defense  Department of Veterans Affairs

Department of Health and Human Services

Department of Transportation

Department of Energy

 

USA Spending dot Gov “Recipient Profiles.” https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient



“Which Inmate Is Running the Asylum?” 
Electoral Vote https://www.electoral-vote.com/



Trump, “Musk and his Band of Bros”


“With Trump, way back in 2016 (campaign) or 2017 (commencement of his administration), we kept looking for the underlying plan, the logic, the chess moves. And it turns out those things weren't there.

“We are not inclined to make that mistake again with Musk. It is possible he is brilliant in other domains, but in this domain, he's lost.”


An Infamous, Callous 5 Bullet Electronic Missive

People “who work for the federal government, either as regular employees or as contractors, are, by and large, loyal and hardworking public servants who—in many cases—left money on the table by agreeing to work in the public sector. They have families (and) mortgages…. They have lives. They are human beings.

“To make them jump through stupid, insulting hoops—like they are trained seals begging for a treat—is just reprehensible.”

The infamous electronic mail arrives and “quite a few high-ranking Trumpers (tell) their underlings to ignore (it).” Among the Trump-appointed high-rankers casting doubt on or putting a spanner in the bulleted missive are “FBI Director Kash Patel and DNI Tulsi Gabbard.”

The careless, callous creature then appeals to his would-be master (?) who then posts an apparent ‘I’m with you- keep pitching’ message via “his very sad little social media platform.” And the callous bulleted missive returns threatening immediate termination of service of those failing to respond to said missive. The sitting president’s I’m with you- keep pitching, my boy, apparently turned to comme ci, comme ça or you’re on your own, partner.
His second attempt at support reportedly said something to the effect that “employees who did not follow Musk's orders would be ‘fired’ or … ‘semi-fired,’” leaving muddied the meaning of “’semi-fired.’” And post Trump the OPM messaged a declaration that employee responses to the South African’s “demands (were) optional”; and not responding “would not lead to termination.”
The consensus of opinion in some sectors, this writer observes, is that there is not only callousness and carelessness; but there is incompetence (and therefore weakness) all round.
Some “Trumpers have concluded that Musk is incompetent or … a threat, or both.” Moreover, the writer continues, the sitting US president has a habit of attracting and hiring incompetents” — as “he is himself an incompetent manager”— and questionable online content makers. The author cites the current appointment to deputy FBI director, a man whose salient qualifications are apparently “far-right, extremely whack-a-doodle, Trump-cultist podcast[ing]” heard to declare that “his mission is to ‘own the libs’ because they are ‘pure unadulterated evil.’”

The management incompetence and questionable judgment of the sitting president was evidenced in “his first term” which was “marked by all kinds of turf wars … among … underlings, usually ending in someone being (pushed out)”: vast turnover of employees and general destabilization or chaos. In his second term, “the turf wars” are seen to start “much earlier and are developing much quicker.”

Four is a long pull of years for a US President. And what happens from here to there is anybody’s guess. What is known, the writer concludes, is that the sitting president seems to be intimidated by the South African; and a general manifestation of the former’s character and behavior is spinelessness. “… Even as Musk steps on every toe in Washington, Trump doesn't have the courage to rein him in. … Will The Donald (eventually summon the courage to) impose some discipline on Musk? And, if so, will it actually come from the President, or will he send someone like Stephen Miller to do it?”


Stephen Miller, an influencer and hanger-on around media and federal government with seemingly questionable or extremist views has been in recent years a White House Director of Speechwriting (January 20, 2017 – January 20, 2021) and, serving with Jared Kushner, a Senior Advisor to the President (January 20, 2017 – January 20, 2021). His current double roles are United States Homeland Security Advisor and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy (both since January 20, 2025).


“That's where things stood as of 2:00 a.m. PT on Tuesday. Who knows what the situation will be by, say, 2:00 p.m. PT on Tuesday?” Source: Electoral Vote “Which Inmate Is Running the Asylum?” https://www.electoral-vote.com/



Money Plays?
Quid Pro Quo?
Revolving Door
Inmates Running the Asylum 

Run amok

The Face of US Politics
Corruption, Chaos, Carelessness, Callousness, Calculated Incompetence


There is a critical difference between the Forty-sixth and the Forty-seventh US President. And mind you, I am not one who falls in love with or holds membership in a fan club for politicians of any stripe. So, bear that in mind. 

The Forty-sixth had long overstayed his time in office. And, clearly, he was suffering a serious mental impairment. Yet, foolishly, his political party exploited this in order to manage him. Impairment (any kind of incompetence) weakens a person, leaving them terribly vulnerable. Perhaps, also, he was corrupt, criminally abusive of public office. Criminality and unethical behavior should be checked and reprimand, chastised or otherwise subjected to the rule of law—not matter who is involved. But I believe, also, that the forty-sixth was knowledgeable of public service and knew or should have known the proper role and functioning of government (the US Government). He knew what government was supposed to do. His long years (in two branches of government) would have taught him, firsthand, the difference and necessary distinction between public service and private enterprise.

The Forty-seventh is totally ignorant of that critical distinction and difference. In my view, he is uncaring of that difference and distinction and has no interest learning, let alone or honoring it. In his ignorance (ignorance also impairs, weakens, leaves vulnerable), he is also arrogantly disrespectful of government and of public servants. The forty-seventh is a private enterprise man, a buyer and seller of stuff, a wheeler-dealer. A merchant centered on self: on getting more than giving. He hasn’t a clue and cares less about Government of by and for the People.

Government, US Government, was not created to buy and sell stuff; nor was it (or its employees or leaders) meant to be bought and sold (or to preach a religion)—the essence and meaning of corruption, breakdown, destruction of all that is of (We the People American cultural) value.

Government, US Government, was not intended to serve or pander to special interests (and if it was, the system was also a work in progress toward building a more and more perfect Union). Government should be a vital servant of ALL the people—having the whole society in mind, clearly cognizant of (and emotionally embracing) the principle that the health of the whole society (society as a whole) and government (up and down the spectrum) is dependent on the health and wellbeing of all the country’s people.




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PROLIFIC SOUTHERN-BORN AMERICAN WRITER DR. CAROLYN LADELLE BENNETT focuses on People, Press, Politics USA; Domestic and Foreign Affairs (no copyright claimed in direct quotes and individual image)
Latest book: Are There No Champions? Yes and No
Links: https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett
https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/
(live limited) https://www.bennettsareherenochampions.com/
https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/859250-are-there-no-champions-yes-and-no
https://www.xlibris.com
Email: Nolandanisland@hotmail.com or Authorswork@gmail.com

Friday, February 14, 2025

Calculated Chaos, Corruption, Carelessness

The Trump-Adams-USAG Affair Against the Public Interest

Public Servant Eric Leroy Adams 
  • Employee of the New York City Police Department (1984–2006)
  • Member of the New York State Senate (January 1, 2007 – December 31, 2013)
  • President of Brooklyn, Borough of New York City (January 1, 2014 – December 31, 2021)
  • Mayor of New York City (Incumbent: January 1, 2022 -).


INDICTED by GRAND JURY
Reported by DOJ

“For nearly a decade, ADAMS has used his prominent positions in New York City government to obtain illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel. ADAMS solicited and accepted these benefits from foreign nationals, businessmen, and others. ADAMS then pressured the New York City Fire Department to facilitate the opening of a foreign government’s Manhattan skyscraper that had not passed a fire inspection. To conceal this criminal conduct, ADAMS took steps to hide his receipt of improper benefits from the public and law enforcement,” allegations in the Grand Jury indictment released by the US Department of Justice Thursday, September 26, 2024.
“ADAMS, 64, of Brooklyn, New York, is charged with one count of conspiracy to receive campaign contributions from foreign nationals and commit wire fraud and bribery, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; two counts of soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals, which each carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison; and one count of soliciting and accepting a bribe, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.”
The announcement concludes “As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the Indictment and the descriptions of the Indictment set forth … constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation.… The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.” PUBLIC CORRUPTION Press Release Thursday, September 26, 2024, New York City Mayor Eric Adams Charged with Bribery and Campaign Finance Offenses https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/new-york-city-mayor-eric-adams-charged-bribery-and-campaign-finance-offenses
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; James E. Dennehy, Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and Jocelyn E. Strauber, Commissioner, New York City Department of Investigation

“The prosecution of this case is being handled by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Hagan Scotten, Celia V. Cohen, Andrew Rohrbach, and Derek Wikstrom are in charge of the prosecution.” Case assigned to U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho.


QUID PRO QUO sort of 
Anything Goes when Power Wants what it Wants



Associated Press, Reuters reporting February 11 and 14, 2025


The US Department of Justice on Monday February 10, 2025, “ordered federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, arguing in a remarkable departure from long-standing norms that the case was interfering with the mayor’s ability to aid the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration.”

“The memo also ordered prosecutors in New York not to take ‘additional investigative steps’ against the (man) until after November’s mayoral election.” The memorandum “left open the possibility that charges could be refiled after that following a review.” Offenhartz, Jake, Alanna Durkin Richer and Eric Tucker “Top Justice Department official orders prosecutors to drop charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams,” Associated Press February 11, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/eric-adams-indictment-109ef48bd49bc8adc1850709c99bf666


Lawyer and lobbyist, former Attorney General of Florida (January 4, 2011 – January 8, 2019) and current United States Attorney General (Incumbent February 5, 2025 - ) Pamela Jo “Bondi” (acting Deputy Emil Bove) “… in her first day on the job … issued a directive stating that Justice Department lawyers who decline to appear in court or sign briefs would be disciplined and possibly fired” (Reuters). Cohen, Luc and Sarah N Lynch Reuters February 14, 2025 “Trump DOJ’s order to drop Eric Adams case sparks mass resignations” February 14, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/manhattan-us-attorney-sassoon-resigns-after-request-drop-eric-adams-case-2025-02-13/
  • Danielle Sassoon resigns as Manhattan US Attorney
  • John Keller and Kevin Driscoll resign from DOJ
  • Three other DOJ deputies resign - Rob Heberle, Jenn Clarke and Marco Palmieri
  • https://www.reuters.com/world/us/manhattan-us-attorney-sassoon-resigns-after-request-drop-eric-adams-case-2025-02-13/


Opposing Chaos, Caprice, Corruption 


Language of Weaponization
as the Language of “isms” (terrorism, racism, fascism, etal)


Defending the Public Interest: DANIELLE RENEE SASSOON Ivy League graduated lawyer clerked with US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (2012-2013), lead prosecutor (along with AUSA Nicolas Roos) in the Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried case at trial 2023 [on wire fraud (2 counts), conspiracy to commit wire fraud (2 counts), conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering charges; defendant now serving 25-year prison sentence]; January 21, 2025, appointed by US President Donald Trump United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

“… [T]o reward Adams’s opportunistic and shifting commitments on immigration and other policy matters with dismissal of a criminal indictment. … is a breathtaking and dangerous precedent….”—DANIELLE R. SASSOON, United States Attorney Southern District of New York February 12, 2025, writes to Attorney General of the United States Pamela Jo Bondi (former personal attorney of Donald Trump and his February 2025 appointee to office of US AG)

Excerpt from Sassoon’s letter to Bondi


The memorandum sent by acting Deputy to the USAG, Emil Bove “states that dismissal” of the case against New York Mayor Eric Adams “is warranted because of the conduct of this office’s former U.S. Attorney, Damian Williams, which, according to Mr. Bove’s memo, constituted weaponization of government as defined by the relevant orders of the President and the Department.”

However, … “dismissing the case will amplify, rather than abate, concerns about weaponization of the Department.”
“Despite Mr. Bove’s observation that the directive to dismiss the case has been reached without assessing the strength of the evidence against Adams, Adams has already seized on the memo to publicly assert that he is innocent and that the accusations against him were unsupported by the evidence and based only on ‘fanfare and sensational claims.’ Confidence in the Department would best be restored by means well short of a dismissal.
“As you know, our office is prepared to seek a superseding indictment from a new grand jury under my leadership.” [A superseding indictment is a formal accusation that replaces an original indictment in a criminal case. It can add, change, or remove charges or defendants. (General reference)]

“We have proposed a superseding indictment that would add an obstruction conspiracy count based on evidence that Adams destroyed and instructed others to destroy evidence and provide false information to the FBI, and that would add further factual allegations regarding his participation in a fraudulent straw donor scheme.

“That is more than enough to address any perception of impropriety created by Mr. Williams’ personal conduct. The Bove memo acknowledges as much, leaving open the possibility of refiling charges after the November 2025 New York City Mayoral Election.”

Further regarding “… conditioning the dismissal on the incoming U.S. Attorney’s ability to re-assess the charges consistent with either the weaponization rationale or the law concerning motions under Rule 48(a). … [K]eeping Adams under the threat of prosecution while the Government determines its next steps is a recognized reason for the denial of a Rule 48(a) motion.”
Rule 48 “Dismissal”: (a) “By the Government. The government may, with leave of court, dismiss an indictment, information, or complaint. The government may not dismiss the prosecution during trial without the defendant's consent.” RULE 48 (A) “provides in part that the attorney general or the US ATTORNEY may by leave of court file a dismissal of an indictment, information, or complaint to terminate prosecution.” Leave of court is “a judge’s permission to do something that is not part of the normal legal process”, e.g., “starting a proceeding, filing certain documents, or appealing a decision.”
Sources Cornell Law School https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcrmp/rule_48
Office of Justice Programs US Department of Justice https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/criminal-procedure-rule-48-fed-r-crim-p-district-court-may-not-deny

In her argument against the order to dismiss the criminal indictments against Adams, Sassoon concludes on this one issue of “weaponization.”

“… Given the highly generalized accusations of weaponization, weighed against the strength of the evidence against Adams, a court will likely question whether that basis is pretextual… (quoting sources) … (courts ‘should be satisfied that the reasons advanced for the proposed dismissal are substantial and the real grounds upon which the application is based’).”

Finally, she writes, “I remain baffled by the rushed and superficial process by which this decision was reached, in seeming collaboration with Adams’s counsel and without my direct input on the ultimate stated rationales for dismissal.”



“Cannot” “in Good Faith” Carry out USAG Dismissal Orders


“Mr. Bove’s memo… (directing) me to dismiss an indictment returned by a duly constituted grand jury for reasons having nothing to do with the strength of the case, raises serious concerns that render the contemplated dismissal inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts,” Sassoon writes.
“The reasons advanced by Mr. Bove for dismissing the indictment are not ones I can in good faith defend as in the public interest and as consistent with the principles of impartiality and fairness that guide my decision-making.” Documents: Sassoon letter “NY prosecutor's resignation letter” February 12, 2025, via Email: The Honorable Pamela Jo Bondi Attorney General of the United States U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20530 Re: United States v. Eric Adams, 24 Cr. 556 (DEH) Source: AP Contributed by AP Staff (Associated Press), Created on 2/13/2025, Last updated on 2/13/2025; Language: English https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25526481-sassoon-letter/


Reuters February 13, 2025, Update 


“Six senior Justice Department officials, including Manhattan's top federal prosecutor, resigned … rather than comply with an order to dismiss corruption charges against New York City’s mayor, according to internal Justice Department letters seen by Reuters and people familiar with the matter.…

“Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, the Trump administration’s recent pick to temporarily lead the office prosecuting New York Mayor Eric Adams, resigned her post on Thursday, according to the memorandum by Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, a Trump appointee.”
Reuter’s writers cap the not-yet mid-February drunken fit of chaos, capriciousness and corruption by recalling another ill-advised precedent in US history and politics.
“Thursday’s resignations sparked comparisons from legal experts to the ‘Saturday Night Massacre’ in 1973, when senior Justice Department officials resigned after refusing President Richard Nixon’s order to fire the special counsel investigating the 1972 break-in by Republican operatives at the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington.”
Caught in a vise of wrongdoing and cover-ups in the second term of his presidency, the thirty-seventh US president sought to cut off intelligence and suppress knowledge of wrongdoing. 

In a brouhaha between the legislative and executive branches of government, President Richard Milhous Nixon (setting a pattern for the Showman) started firing top-level investigators and the dominoes started falling; soon, the whole house came tumbling down. The barrage of firings and resignations, in dramatic press fashion, became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.” 

None of this, however, has put an end to the relentless corruption in US public office (up and down the spectrum) -- reaching even farther back to New York City/New York state politics and political machine “Tammany Hall” 1789-1967 and its notorious power broker Boss Tweed (William Magear Tweed, 1823-1878). The inmates, layered with lawyers, just craft clever meanings and keep changing meanings; legalize behavior unbecoming public office, and behaviors that are clearly unethical and criminal.  




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PROLIFIC SOUTHERN-BORN AMERICAN WRITER Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett focuses on People, Press, Politics USA; Domestic and Foreign Affairs (no copyright claimed in direct quotes and individual image)
https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett
https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/
Latest book: Are There No Champions? Yes and No
(live limited) https://www.bennettsareherenochampions.com/
https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/859250-are-there-no-champions-yes-and-no
https://www.xlibris.com
Email: Nolandanisland@hotmail.com or Authorswork@gmail.com

Saturday, February 8, 2025

LIFE Neither Marketable NOR Exclusive Right

Thus, RULES: Essentiality of Universal Laws, Ethical Principles Consistently Applied and Obeyed

At Issue

Foreign-Inflicted
Unspeakable
Suffering
Seen Up close 

“Everyone deserves health care,” said Dr. Jilani.  

“It is a basic human right. No one should have to undergo this dystopian level of destruction, despair, the disintegration of their community and the fabric of their culture, or the dismantling of their health care systems” said the physician working in Gaza at Al Aqsa Hospital during the period December 25, 2023, through January 8, 2024, in partnership with Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Dr. Seema Jilani “served as a pediatrician on the Emergency Medical Team, working on pediatric wards and in the emergency room.” She gave an interview with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. 


From the Ground in Gaza
Dr. Seema Jilani’s Experiences, Observations


“People were being brought into the hospital by every means possible. Parents brought their injured children into the hospital on mattresses.”
Injuries “… were extraordinarily severe,” the “scale and magnitude” “was phenomenal, especially in children.”

“I never thought as a pediatrician that I would be at all useful in a war, but I was treating war-wounded children and pronouncing them dead at rates I had not done before. One day in our code resuscitation room, four out of the five patients we were actively bringing back from the brink of death were under the age of 15. The high proportion of children amongst war injured and dead is appalling.”
“My fear centers on the generation of new amputees and children who have been traumatically burned or left to live with a disability facing adolescence and adulthood without the support they need.”
The people of Gaza are languishing “under relentless bombing and suffering tremendous consequences to their families and their children.” Often, they have “to bury whole families or bury their children without a dignified death or burial.”


The Hospital in Gaza

“The hospital itself became a de facto village full of hundreds, if not thousands of people. Inside the hospital were tents, a magnitude of tents.” “Every square inch of the hospital was taken up by families sheltering together.”
“Even patients who were expected to be discharged would not leave because there was no safe place to go. So, they were sheltering in what they assumed would be a safe place, which ended up not being a safe space for them.”


The Medical Staff in Gaza


“Doctors themselves have been displaced several times over. They were in the midst of finding shelter and food for their families and would still come to work and bravely treat patients, and sometimes even their friends and family.”

“They expressed a fear about even being healthcare workers because they had seen what had happened to healthcare workers previously who had been targeted or detained.… They not only fear for their own lives, they are fearing for their families’ lives, fearing that they will be detained, that their hospital will be targeted, and that the shelter they seek won’t be safe from bombardment.”

One day “…when we were waiting in the doctor’s area, I noticed that a nurse was quietly sobbing in the corner. When we inquired how we could support or help, it turned out that he had pronounced his friend, another colleague from the hospital, dead overnight.”

“We learned tremendously from our Palestinian colleagues, who are highly educated and engaged, working alongside one another as a team.…” The Palestinian medical staff “are people who are intensely dedicated to their work and to their communities; valiantly working under extreme circumstances with minimal supplies and with patients who desperately need their efforts.”

Source: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine March 2024, Interview “On the ground with a doctor in Gaza” https://www.rescue.org/uk/article/ground-doctor-gaza
“Dr Seema Jilani from the International Rescue Committee served as a pediatrician on the Emergency Medical Team deployed to Al Aqsa Hospital, the sole remaining hospital in Gaza’s middle region at the time. After her team was forced to withdraw due to increasing Israeli military activity, she talks candidly about how children in Gaza are affected by the war; the extreme challenges in dealing with mass casualties; and the emotional toll on healthcare providers who treat war-wounded children.”



The world contributed to taking away our dignity

But “I would rather die in my home than in a tent,” Mahmoud Shalabi told the interviewer. 

Mahmoud Shalabi was described as deputy program director in Gaza for the UK-based NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians. Son of parents who had been “forced to flee their homes in the city of Ashdod during the war and campaign of ethnic cleansing that accompanied the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, referred to by Palestinians as al-Nakba – the catastrophe.” “When the Israeli military issued evacuation orders on October 13, 2023, telling 1.1 million Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip to head south, Mahmoud Shalabi decided he wasn’t going to leave.”


Later, between October 2023 – July 2024, the interviewer asked Mahmoud Shalabi about living conditions in northern Gaza during the conflict (excerpt from responses)


“Devastation is everywhere. …
“If you were someone who visited Gaza years ago and came back, you would be shocked by the level of destruction that you will see everywhere: on the streets, in the homes, and in any aspect of life.… You will be shocked by the sad reality of the sewage water, the garbage everywhere, the lack of transportation, people (having to walk) long distances. You will also realize that there is no (running) water. You will see queues of people waiting for water trucks, for clean water, basically, to bring for their children; and, also, to be able to drink some water.”
“There is no water access, no infrastructure. There are no electricity poles in the street, no telephone poles, no lights, no electricity since the fourth or fifth day of the war. You are talking about nine months with no electricity.”

“Famine and starvation are imminent. Every day you hear about a child who has suffered acute malnutrition and died.” There is deep suffering and sadness seen on the faces of the people. “They are exhausted. I am exhausted. Everyone in Gaza is exhausted. The mental toll that we have is extreme, and I’m not sure we will recover from it for ages to come.”


“We Palestinians are a dignified people,” Shalabi said. 

“This is a very important word in our life.”
But “the world has contributed to taking away from us our dignity.” “The international support for the war and the way aid has been entering Gaza—the flour massacre (back) in March; the air drops falling in some areas and not others, some falling into the sea” — show carelessness and humiliations, indignities, disrespect for “the people of Gaza.”

Gaza between October 2023 and July 2024 Mahmoud Shalabi remembers

  • “I remember a school being targeted in Jabalia refugee camp. I was taking my mother for an issue that she had to Kamal Adwan Hospital. I remember seeing people lying on the ground waiting for someone to take care of them. No one was taking care of them because the load was humongous.”
  • “I remember seeing dead bodies in the corridors. It was like, this person is dead, leave him there. We can’t do anything right now. There weren’t refrigerators working; they couldn’t put the dead bodies inside the refrigerator.”
  • “I also remember at the Indonesian Hospital during the massacre that happened [last November] in al-Faluja (north of Gaza city). When I went to check on my friend and his family, the number of dead bodies was overwhelming. The injured people were everywhere on the pavement outside of the hospital because there was no space available inside the emergency room. Some of them, like elderly people, were bleeding from their heads, and [the healthcare workers] couldn’t do anything. People just put a blanket on them and left them. That’s the only care that they could provide at that stage.”
  • “Another person had their guts outside of their belly – sorry for the graphic images – but their guts were spilled all over their body. You know what they did? At one stage, they said, ‘Khalas, this person is going to die. Let’s read al-fatiha (the Muslim prayer said before someone dies), and may God bless his soul’. That’s it.”

THAT’S WHAT’S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW. … [T]he hospitals are not coping with the huge number of people that get injured and targeted directly by the Israeli forces….”


Source: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine July 9, 2024. “What is life like in northern Gaza?” Interview Edited by Andrew Gully. https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2024/world-humanitarian-day-amplifying-voices-war-gaza 
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/interview/2024/07/09/life-in-northern-gaza-palestine?

Related source Damon, Andre WSWS January 22, 2025 “Trump’s UN ambassador pick says Israel has ‘biblical’ right to West Bank” “White House signals new phase in ethnic cleansing of Palestine” 
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/01/22/qjxm-j22.html



Lancet Findings

  • Life Expectancy in Gaza “decreased by 34.9 years during the first 12 months of the war.”
Life expectancy losses in the Gaza Strip during the period October 2023, to September 2024
Prof Michel Guillot, PhD; Mohammed Draidi, MA; Valeria Cetorelli, PhD; José H C Monteiro Da Silva, MA; Ismail Lubbad, PhD https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02810-1/abstract



February 2025
“Traumatic Injury Mortality in the Gaza Strip”
October 7, 2023-June 30, 2024


  • Deaths resulting from “traumatic injury” (estimate)

 

64, 260

 

 

  • CDR Annualized estimate

 

39.3 per 1000 people

 

[Crude death rate (CDR): Number of deaths in a population per unit of time, usu. per 1,000 people (calculated by dividing total number of deaths by population at risk of death during that time period)]

  • Deaths of women and children

 

16, 699

 

(estimate figures relative to ages under 18 and above 65, dependent upon availability of data)
Source: The Lancet Volume 405, Issue 10477p469-477 February 08, 2025, Open access “Traumatic injury mortality in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024: a capture–recapture analysis” Zeina Jamaluddine, PhD; Hanan Abukmail, MD; Sarah Aly, DO; Prof Oona M R Campbell, PhD; Prof Francesco Checchi, PhD https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02678-3/fulltext




Universal Declaration of Human Rights 
Excerpt



Historically CONTEXTUALIZED


“Disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts that have outraged the conscience of mankind.” … 

“…If man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, … human rights should be protected by the rule of law.”



Boldly DECLARED


“The INHERENT DIGNITY and equal and inalienable rights (of all human beings) is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”


“… A WORLD in which human beings enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want …, the highest aspiration of the common people.”


“ESSENTIAL to PROMOTE … the development of friendly relations between (and among) nations”

“…The peoples of the United Nations in the Charter (of the United Nations) reaffirm their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women; and determine to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”

“Member States pledge to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

“Common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge.”


PROCLAIMED by GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS “this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.” December 10, 1948



Articles 1-3

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration…(and) … no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.” 

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.


Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.


Article 6

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 12

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence; nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation; Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks


Article 13

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.


Article 15

Everyone has the right to a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.


Article 17

Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.


Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion…

Article 25

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

Article 26

Everyone has the right to education.


Source: United Nations Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
“Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (English) United Nations Department of Public Information, NY https://www.ohchr.org/en/human-rights/universal-declaration/translations/english
https://www.ohchr.org/en/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
https://www.ohchr.org/en/about-us/high-commissioner




In My View 


Life, Liberty, Safety, Security, Sovereignty 

All are nonexclusive rights, inalienable rights

Human beings as Human beings: Rights due by virtue of being Human.

No matter how many games with words or finagling with meanings people in powerful positions choose to play, there is no taking away or removing human from the being who is human

Human rights are universally applicable. Laws universally, consistently, honorably applied and adhered to ensure the universality of rights.





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PROLIFIC SOUTHERN-BORN AMERICAN WRITER DR. CAROLYN LADELLE BENNETT focuses on People, Press, Politics USA; Domestic and Foreign Affairs (no copyright claimed in direct quotes and individual image)
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