Tag: politics

Britain et al are correct to embargo a murderous Israel

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.8.2026

The Wall Street Journal editorial writers have gone into rhetorical excess with its “Israel can do no wrong, ever” hot air bloviation.

The blogger performed some historical research and quickly learned that the Israelis have historically utilized one way to deal with their foes as the comment I posted on the WSJ editorial page shows.

At least in this instance the Israelis cannot resort to actual physical violence.

The WSJ editorial writers need to stop pandering to The State of Israel. It’s way past the time when Israel is allowed to act with impunity in its destruction of the Palestinian state. The Brits deserve praise for finally standing up to Israel and condemning its criminal behavior.

I think the fatal bombing of the King David Hotel bombing – Wikipedia in Jerusalem killing 91 people in July 1946 by The Irgun (arguably a Jewish terrorist group) led by future Prime Minister Menachem Begin had a lot to do with the British antipathy directed towards creation of the State of Israel. It’s safe to say that nearly 80 years after the creation of Israel the Israelis have only one way way to deal with their foes, real and imagined. Violence by any means necessary.

Aftermath of the Irgun bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem – 7.22.1946

Europe Joins the Boycott Israel Crowd

Europe has a talent for dressing up domestic political pandering as righteousness on the world stage. The latest is a British ban on imports of Israeli goods from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, plus sanctions on anyone facilitating new construction. France and Canada plan similar measures. “We will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/britain-sanctions-israel-west-bank-palestine-hamas-gaza-e8bab985?st=86Gv5T&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

European Nations Impose Trade Bans on Israel Over West Bank Settlements

The U.K., France, Canada and nine other countries said they would impose new trade restrictions on Israel, escalating a dispute over the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Tuesday’s announcement prompted a swift retaliation from Israel against the U.K., which was the first to announce it would halt trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel said it would close the British consulate in East Jerusalem, which deals largely with Palestinian affairs, and expel British representatives from the U.S.-led coordination center for postwar Gaza.

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/european-nations-impose-trade-bans-on-israel-over-west-bank-settlements-3a5cdfdb?st=emmcJo&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
The video is a simplistic recitation of the July 1946 King David Hotel bombing – Wikipedia. It provides a back to basics look at the incident. The British administrative headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, housed in the southern wing[1] of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, were bombed in a terrorist attack[2][3] on 22 July 1946, by the militant right-wing[4] Zionist underground organization Irgun during the Jewish insurgency.[5][6][7] Ninety-one people of various nationalities were killed, including Arabs, Britons and Jews, and 46 were injured.[8]

The extremist German AfD has won a major political victory

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.9.2026 UPDATED

The Nation – 9.9.2026
Wall Street Journal – 9.9.2026
Financial Times – 9.8.2026
Incisive DW look at the folks who live in Saxony-Anholt

JOURNAL ENTRY

This is so depressing. All morning and now into the evening I have been following the election returns from Germany in the State of  Saxony-Anhalt – Wikipedia where the Alternative for Germany – Wikipedia has won a major victory. Gathering 44 percent of the vote. 2026 Saxony-Anhalt state election – Wikipedia

Not enough to take over political power of this state with 2.3M people in the former  East Germany – Wikipedia. But definitely sending a grim dispiriting message to the rest of the World. This extreme Right MAGA like surge is not going to end anytime soon. I remember visiting  Germany in 2017 and seeing a STOPPT AFD poster. I took a photo and have used it countless times in my blog.

STOPPT DIE AFD – Lubeck, Germany May 2017 – Photo Lee Heidhues

It’s incredible to know that 93 years after the Nazis took power in January 1933 this type of extreme reactionary, racist, anti-immigration party is now so powerful.

I watch the coverage on Deutsche Welle and the correspondents make only brief mention of the political transformation of the Saxony-Anhalt population. A now older generation raised in the totalitarian intolerant Russian governed East Germany. A subjugated population in a police state which was probably, actually, definitely not exposed to multi-culturalism and an influx of immigration and people from different countries. So, when the Wall fell in late 1989 and the open society of the West began to impact the now former East Germany there was a lot of resentment and fear.

That’s what our host Stefan, who owned the Tiergarten Hotel in Berlin, told us in 2017. He is from East Berlin and encouraged Liz and me to visit the former East Berlin and tour the Stasi Museum. Stasi – Wikipedia Stefan told us East Berlin in 2017 looked nearly the same as it did when it was part of East Germany. Old, boring architecture and quiet streets.

Stasi Museum, East Berlin

The Stasimuseum (also known in German as the Forschungs- und Gedenkstätte Normannenstraße)[2] is a research and memorial centre concerning the political system of the former East Germany. It is located in the Lichtenberg locality of Berlin, in the former headquarters of the Stasi (officially the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit), on Ruschestraße, near Frankfurter Allee and U-Bahn station Magdalenenstraße. Stasimuseum – Wikipedia

Liz walking to the Stasi Museum –Photo Lee Heidhues

I wonder what Marion thinks of all this. I’m sure she is shocked. After all Marion is definitely the leftist German native who was the reason we went to Germany in in 2017. Then returned in 2018 and 2023. I will always remember our night with Marion at the Women’s Center in Hamburg. The women were East German born. They told us the East German regime guaranteed education, housing, health care and jobs. But there was a price to pay.

Living in a totalitarian Stasi run state. When the Wall came down in 1989 and the West German ways took over the country the resentment surfaced. Here we are 37 years later and the AfD has been spawned and is now on the precipice of power. It is incredible. I am just totally transfixed and appalled by all of this. The surge of right wing populism continues to grow. I’m sure Trump loves all of it as his MAGA movement continues to steamroll its way forward!!!

https://www.dw.com/en/saxony-anhalt-far-right-afd-secures-huge-lead-in-key-vote/live-78754934

Art of Catastrophe – Charlotte Salomon (16 April 1917 – 10 October 1943) was a German-Jewish artist born in Berlin. She is primarily remembered as the creator of an autobiographical series of paintings Leben? oder Theater?: Ein Singspiel (Life? or Theater?: A Song-play), the largest known artwork made by a Jewish person who died in the Holocaust,[1] consisting of 769 individual works painted between 1941 and 1943 in the south of France, while Salomon was in hiding from the Nazis. In October 1943 Salomon, 5 months pregnant at that time, was captured and deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered by the Nazis soon after her arrival.[2][3][4][5] In 2015, a 35-page confession by Salomon to the fatal poisoning of her grandfather, kept secret for decades, was released by a Parisian publisher.[6]Charlotte Salomon – Wikipedia
Breakdown of vote nationwide for German national election – February 2025

Trump’s toxic claims re mail-in voting roil German election

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.5.2026

Donald Trump’s six years long insane ranting that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and stolen from him unsupported by a shred of reality has now reached Germany.

In Sunday’s German election the ultra right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is projected to win to close to a majority in at least one of three State elections.

The AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt branch, which has been classified by the domestic intelligence agency as a “confirmed right-wing extremist organization”, could become Germany’s first far-right state government since World War II.

It’s no secret that Trump is infatuated with the AfD. In the 2025 national election Trump’s cohort Elon Musk actively supported the AfD which ended up winning 152 seats in the German Bundestag.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD’s lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund has called for postal voting to be restricted to justified exceptional cases. 

During the 2020 US presidential election, President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that expanded mail-in voting would lead to widespread fraud. Fact-checkers documented and debunked repeated false and exaggerated claims about the security of mail ballots.

Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the Trump administration is again seeking to impose new restrictions on mail-in ballots, measures that have faced repeated legal challenges.

In the 2025 national election Trump’s cohort Elon Musk actively supported the AfD

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 9.5.2026

As Germany heads into three elections in September, rumors are circulating on social media claiming that postal voting is not secure — claims that have also been made about other elections. Here’s why they’re wrong.

Stakes are high in Germany’s three September state elections. In Saxony-Anhalt, where voters go to the ballot boxes on Sunday, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) could make history in by winning an outright majority.

Mail-in voting, or “Briefwahl,” has become an increasingly common feature of German elections. But the rise in mail-in ballots has been followed by a renewed wave of speculation and claims questioning the security and integrity of postal vote.

DW Fact check examined a sample of claims circulating online and assessed what the available evidence shows.

Does postal voting manipulate election results?

Claim: Cases of fraud involving postal ballots prove that postal voting is unreliable.

DW Fact check: Misleading. Individual cases of fraud, errors or violations do not demonstrate that the entire postal voting system is unreliable or that it has affected the outcome of an election.

Postal voting easy to manipulate?

Claim: Postal votes are easily manipulated during counting.

DW Fact check: False. Germany has detailed procedures governing the handling and counting of postal ballots. Postal votes are transported, stored and opened according to established rules, and their counting takes place publicly.

https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-germanys-postal-voting-system-isnt-rigged/a-78958438

Trumpism’s Shadow Looms Over German Election

September 5, 2026 at 7:25 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 16 Comments  

“Leaders of an extremist, far-right party in Germany have quietly borrowed pages from President Trump’s playbook to cast doubt on the integrity of absentee voting — alleging without evidence that residents of nursing homes have had their ballots manipulated and calling for an end to postal voting,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“The attack on mail ballots comes as Germany approaches a potentially historic state election that could shatter one of the taboos of its postwar political order by opening the door to a far-right government.”

“Politicians across the ideological spectrum, mindful that polls show Trump to be widely unpopular, don’t invoke his name. But the specter of the American president nevertheless hangs over the election that could have reverberations across Europe if the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party — tacitly echoing Trump’s attacks on migrants, the media and the integrity of elections — pulls off an unprecedented political shock in postwar Germany.”

Trumpism’s Shadow Looms Over German Election

Norway enforces Court order. Seizes Russian vessel in the Arctic

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.3.2026

Norway certainly is ready, willing and able to assert its territorial rights and is willing to enforce an international Court order even if the defendant is the mighty Russian power at its border.

Excerpted from The New York Times 9.3.2026

Norway Seizes Russian Ship, Testing Moscow in the High Arctic

Empowered by an international court order, Norway captured the vessel as part of a global effort to seize Russian assets. The Russians called it “piracy.”

For the past several days, Norwegian security services had been tracking a Russian research ship.

It was cruising around Svalbard, an icy archipelago high in the Arctic near the North Pole that Norway controls but is governed by a one-of-a-kind treaty that gives the Russians access.

On Wednesday, the Norwegians pounced.

Armed with a court order that is part of a global effort to recover Russian assets, Norwegian police officers boarded the ship while it was docked in Barentsburg, a tiny Russian outpost in Svalbard. The officers confronted the captain of the ship, a somewhat clunky, 200-foot-long oceanographic vessel, and announced that they were “arresting” it.

The seized ship was part of a broader effort to enforce an international court judgment ordering Russia to pay a Ukrainian energy company, Naftogaz, more than $4 billion for expropriating that company’s assets in Crimea. The ship, owned by the Russian government and called Professor Molchanov, after a famous Russian scientist, is now prohibited from leaving Barentsburg until Norwegian courts decide what to do next.

“We have only acted as a messenger,” said Lars Fause, the governor of Svalbard.

Norway seizes Russian ship in the Arctic

Norway’s proposed fence along Russian border

Edvard Hagerup Grieg (/ɡriːɡ/ GREEG; Norwegian: [ˈɛdvaʁd ˈhɑ̀ːɡəʁʉp ˈɡʁɪgː]; 15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions brought the music of Norway to fame, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius did in Finland and Bedřich Smetana in Bohemia.[1]

Arrested on Russian ship

The Governor of Svalbard has today, following an order from the Nord-Troms District Court, seized the Russian ship “Professor Molchanov” which is docked in Barentsburg. The seizure was implemented after the Nord-Troms District Court granted the Ukrainian company Naftogaz the right to seize the Russian ship.

In a ruling on August 31, 2026, the Nord-Troms District Court granted the Ukrainian company Naftogaz the right to seize the Russian ship “Professor Molchanov”, which is now docked in Barentsburg on Svalbard.

The legal process and ruling are part of the company’s fight to recover funds that were expropriated by Russia in 2014.

The Governor of Svalbard is the bailiff and, following an order from the Nord-Troms District Court, has seized the ship on Wednesday, September 2, 2026.

The ship has been ordered by the District Court to berth at a location determined by the Governor and it has been decided that the vessel will berth at Barentsburg until the Governor or the Nord-Troms District Court decides otherwise.

The governor will take care of the crew and passengers on board the vessel in collaboration with Trust Arcticugol.

https://prod.sysselmesteren.no/nb/nyheter/2026/09/har-tatt-arrest-i-russisk-skip/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

ART IMITATES LIFE

Occupied (Norwegian: Okkupert) is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015.[2] Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg.[3] Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2017.[4] The third and final season started airing in Scandinavia on 5 December 2019,[5] and was released in many countries via Netflix on 31 December 2019.Occupied – Wikipedia

Stars and Stripes sacked by Trump big mouth Def Sec Hegseth

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.6.2026 UPDATED

Stars and Stripes has been essential reading for the troops since World War II and the several American involvements since then: Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and now Iran to name several

Its tabloid style complete with graphic photos, hard news, gossip and sports provides entertainment to the servicemen and women. Thin skinned Defense Secretary (oops, War Secretary) and Vietnam War (1961-1975) draft dodger Trump want nothing but mindless patriotism on its pages. Not seeing that the editor has been fired for “insubordination”.

Stars and Stripes (stylized in all caps) is a daily American military newspaper reporting on matters concerning the members of the United States Armed Forces and their communities, with an emphasis on those serving outside the United States.[2] It operates from inside the Department of Defense, but is editorially separate from it, and its First Amendment protection is safeguarded by the United States Congress, to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers’ interests, regularly reports.[3] As well as a website, Stars and Stripes publishes a global daily print edition for U.S. military service members serving overseas Monday through Friday.[4] This global edition is also available as a free download in electronic format.[5] The newspaper’s headquarters is in Washington, D.C.[6] Stars and Stripes (newspaper) – Wikipedia

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 8.22.2026

The US Pentagon has sacked the editor, publisher and a reporter of military newspaper Stars and Stripes after they publicly objected to potential editorial interference, they said on Friday.

The newspaper, which has been publishing since World War II, is partially funded by the Defense Department but has remained editorially independent.

Stars and Stripes – June 6th and 7th 1968

“According to the notice, I am being fired ‌for stating in ⁠a CBS ⁠interview that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a personal red line,” Stars and Stripes Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin said in a statement on Friday.

Blowhard ex Fox News talking head Pete Hegseth doesn’t think Stars and Stripes is sufficiently war like. Barb wire Peace symbol from Jeanette Rankin Peace Center in Missoula, Montana – Photo Lee Heidhues

Slavin received a notice of separation for insubordination, as did Publisher Max Lederer and Middle East reporter Lara Korte, Slavin was cited by the Associated Press as saying.

Lederer, who has served as the newspaper’s publisher since 2007, had announced his intention to retire from his position in September.

In an email announcing his retirement, Lederer had said it was clear that the Pentagon had a new vision for the newspaper which differed from his own.

Stars and Stripes May 8th 1945

It came a few weeks after the Pentagon installed Navy Captain William Urban, an active duty serviceman, as the outlet’s deputy editor, without Lederer’s prior knowledge.

Meanwhile, Korte said on social media she was being fired for insubordination “after I told a CBS reporter that I work for Stars and Stripes – not the Pentagon, not any administration, and not any policy maker.”

Stars and Stripes May 1st 1975

Stars and Stripes sacked by Trump big mouth Def Sec Hegseth

https://www.dw.com/en/pentagon-fires-military-newspaper-leadership-for-insubordination/a-78466373

Pentagon cuts access to classified information amid Iran war concerns

Documents associated with the Secretary of Defense Orders Book were removed from an internal Pentagon web portal after The Washington Post’s reporting, three people familiar with the matter said.

https://wapo.st/4x5NQIr

Germany’s far right AfD on the cusp of major electoral victory

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 8.31.2026

Who would have imagined a far right immigrant bashing German political party could rise from the ashes of Nazism in less than 15 years and be on the verge of seizing power in a German State? It could happen this weekend in the German State of Saxony-Anhalt (see below).

STOPPT DIE AFD – May 2017 – Photo Lee Heidhues

Nearly 10 years ago the blogger was in Germany.

At that time the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) was simply another newly formed political entity trying to gain traction. The AfD immigrant bashing received a lukewarm reception. Now, after nearly 10 years the AfD  is on the precipice of a major victory. Achieving a majority in a German State election on September 6th.

During the last German election Trump’s comrade Elon Musk actively campaigned for the AfD.

Alternative for Germany (German: Alternative für Deutschland, AfD [aːʔɛfˈdeː] ⓘ) is a far-right,[18] right-wing populist,[19] national conservative,[20][21] and in parts völkisch nationalist[nb 3] political party in Germany. It has 151 members of the Bundestag and 15 members of the European Parliament. It is the largest opposition party in the Bundestag and a member of the Europe of Sovereign Nations Group in the European Parliament.[22] Alternative for Germany – Wikipedia

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle – 8.31.2026

The AfD is polling above 40% ahead of Saxony-Anhalt’s election on September 6. What is driving support for the far right in this predominantly rural eastern German state?

Just before the election, the AfD is polling at more than 40% in Saxony-Anhalt. The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has been the dominant governing party in the state since German reunification in 1990, trails far behind, with support ranging between 23% and 26%.

The state office for the protection of the constitution has classified the AfD as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organization, but this has done little to dent its popularity among voters. The Left Party is polling at 13%, while support for the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) stands at between 6% and 7%. It remains uncertain whether the Greens and the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) will succeed in returning to the state parliament.

https://www.dw.com/en/saxony-anhalt-election-afd-far-right-germany/a-78482588

https://www.dw.com/en/saxony-anhalt-election-can-the-cdu-stop-the-afd/video-78579766

Saxony-Anhalt (/ … ˈɑːnhɑːlt/ ⓘ … AHN-hahlt;[5][6] German: Sachsen-Anhalt [ˌzaksn̩ ˈʔanhalt] ⓘ; Low German: Sassen-Anholt) is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of 20,555 square kilometres (7,936 sq mi)[7] and has a population of about 2.14 million inhabitants,[2] making it the 8th-largest state in Germany by area and the 11th-largest by population. Its capital is Magdeburg.[8] Saxony-Anhalt – Wikipedia

Cheeseburger lover Trump has a beef with the cattle industry

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 8.26.2026

Full disclosure. The blogger admits he eats an occasional cheeseburger.

The treatment of cattle is cruel and unusual.

The average consumer does not see the cruelty of the slaughterhouse when shopping for beef at the neighborhood supermarket. The beef is nicely packaged in plastic or served up by the ‘butcher’ behind the counter.

Now Donald Trump, a notorious consumer of McDonald’s cheeseburgers, has signed an Order to permit more beef imports. He expects sky high consumer beef prices to drop. The beef industry is in an uproar. It’s just a ploy to boost his floundering presidency before the November 3rd midterm election. Just 69 days away.

The beef is nicely packaged in plastic or served up by the ‘butcher’ behind the counter.
Donald Trump, a notorious consumer of McDonald’s cheeseburgers

Excerpted from Wisconsin State Farmer 8.26.2026

Beef prices have inched upward near record highs, with cattle numbers in their lowest in 75 years due to ranchers culling herds due to years-long droughts that dried up grazing lands and drove up feed prices. The advance of the New World screwworm forced U.S. officials to close the border to Mexican beef, further tightening supplies. Reuters reported that U.S. meatpackers have been shuttering processing plants in response to soaring cattle costs.

Cattle futures fell to eight-month lows shortly after President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 21 plans to allow up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef imports into the United States at reduced tariff rates in an effort to lower consumer prices.

The Oklahoma Farm Report noted that live cattle futures fell $3 to $4 per hundredweight and feeder cattle futures dropped $3 to $6 per hundredweight Friday morning, immediately following Trump’s declaration on Truth Social that beef imports would be “sold at 25% below current market prices”. By market close, however, many contracts had recovered much of those losses.

At a time when U.S. cattle numbers are at historic lows and ranchers are slowly rebuilding herds after years of drought, high input costs, and disease-related trade disruptions, the administration’s move has triggered pushback from farm and ranch groups and Republican lawmakers who are often aligned with the president on agricultural policy. Many warned that the move could weaken cattle markets, slow herd rebuilding, and benefit meatpackers more than producers.

Criticism was notable coming from Montana Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy, who represents one of the nation’s top cattle-producing states.

“I’ve advised President Trump against this course of action for a year because American ranchers have been struggling against packer monopoly for decades and this will harm them…” Sheehy posted on X. “This action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people.”

https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2026/08/26/trumps-beef-import-announcement-sparks-cattle-industry-alarm/91435574007

Top photo: Cattle in the Slaughterhouse

Legalize it. 49ers owner prostitution bust. Waste of cops time

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 8.24.2026

This entire story is ridiculous on several distinct levels.

Not the least will be the pious hand wringing and finger wagging directed towards 49ers owner Jed York. A foolish act? Given that prostitution is illegal.

Otherwise, so what?

First is the fact that prostitution is illegal throughout most of the United States and is the reason that this billionaire this story gets any attention.

Second is the undeniable fact that the billionaire owner of the San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York could be so stupid and put himself in this precarious legal position.

Jed York. Busted

It’s embarrassing for Jed York, embarrassing for the San Francisco 49ers and embarrassing for the City of San Francisco.

Prostitution is legal in many European countries where the activity is closely monitored by local law enforcement and health authorities. If he really needed a little action Jed York should have flown to any number of European cities. Or waited until his team flew to Australia for their upcoming season opener. It’s legal down under as the map below shows.

He can afford the air fare. Instead he went to East Palestine, Ohio. A known hot spot for police ‘stings’. A mere 20 miles from his birthplace.

In countries where it’s illegal working prostitutes are susceptible to unsafe working conditions: pimps, thugs, abusers and subject to arrests.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 8.24.2026

San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York whose wealth is valued at 8.5BN responded to an advertisement on a prostitution website and arranged for a $140 sexual encounter, according to an affidavit signed by an agent with the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force.

He was arrested after he arrived at the mobile home park in East Palestine and was taken into custody as part of a sting operation.

Authorities seized $160 from York that will be forfeited to the task force, which assisted the East Palestine Police Department with York’s arrest, according to court records. The phone the affidavit said was “used to arrange the criminal act” was ordered returned to York.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/49ers-york-arrest-ohio-22401045.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL2JheWFyZWEvYXJ0aWNsZS80OWVycy15b3JrLWFycmVzdC1vaGlvLTIyNDAxMDQ1LnBocA%3D%3D&time=MTc4NzYzNjc5MTA1OA%3D%3D&rid=OTJhM2RhZWItNDMzYy00ZjMxLTgyMTQtZTU2ZjE2NDIzNDRl&sharecount=Mw%3D%3D

A true Israeli ‘terrorist’ Ben-Gvir. Minister of National Security

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 8.21.2026

Perhaps no Israeli leader, aside from Benjamin Netanyahu is more responsible for Israeli criminal behavior than Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The blogger keeps reading reports about Itamar Ben-Gvir. Israel’s Minister of National Security. A man who thinks Palestinians are sub-human; has happily posted videos of himself tormenting protesters who sailed to Palestine to support the people of Gaza and published a video of himself touting ‘gallows’ for Palestinians.

It comes as no surprise that much of the world now treats Israel as a ‘pyrrhia’ State. Its reprisal actions since October 7, 2023 when Hamas brutally murdered 1195 mostly Israelis October 7 attacks – Wikipedia has been labeled ‘Genocide’ by many world leaders and nations.

It is genuinely appalling to learn of how truly despicable is his conduct. The latest inflammatory comments being his wish that 30-40 Palestinians be killed each day.

Call to kill Gazans

In August 2026, he called for killing “30 to 40” people in Gaza every night while speaking to a former hostage, Rom Brasalavski, on a podcast. Ben-Gvir clarified that the killings should go beyond those who “pose an immediate threat”, stating that “there are people there who are not worthy of life… they’re not even people.”[92]

His statement was condemned by the Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, stating that Ben-Gvir’s statement was “inhumane”, “unacceptable” and a violation of international law.[93] Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s foreign minister, also condemned Ben-Gvir’s remarks, calling them “intolerable” and “inhumane”.[94] United Nations secretary-general António Guterres called the remarks as “appaling”, “dehumanizing”, “outrageous”, and “dangerous”.[95] Guterres’ spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, called his remarks as “abhorrent” and “scandalous”.[96]

Ben-Gvir has also called for the ‘hanging’ of Palestinians and showed off the proposed site in a video.

Israel continues to commit genocide, atrocity crimes by deliberately targeting Palestinian children, UN independent commission finds | UN News

Last year, the commission concluded that “Israel had committed genocide against the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip, found that the intense scale and systematic nature of the Israeli military operations have continued, resulting in unprecedented death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children.”

Here are some findings in the commission’s latest report:

  • Israel has killed 20,000 children and injured 44,000 more since 7 October 2023
  • Severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation and the collapse of education and healthcare have erased childhood and will continue to affect children in Gaza throughout their lives
  • Palestinian children have been arrested and subjected to torture and other severe forms of mistreatment in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, with no information on their whereabouts
  • Israeli security forces have used sexual violence against children as part of the collective shaming and oppression, entrenched within a prolonged, ethnic, gendered and intergenerational pattern of occupation and hostilities

Itamar Ben-Gvir – Wikipedia

Ben-Gvir is a settler in the Israeli-occupied West Bank; according to the BBC, his “political background lies in Kahanism—a violently racist movement that supports the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands”. He has a long history of anti-Arab activism, leading to dozens of indictments and at least eight convictions of crimes including incitement to racism and support for, as well as possession of propaganda of, a terrorist organization (the now-illegal Kach political party). As a lawyer, he is known for defending Jews accused of Jewish extremist terrorism in Israeli courts.

Ben-Gvir is known for being a provocateur and has attracted headlines for a variety of reasons: threatening Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on live television in 1995 shortly before his assassination; having had a portrait in his living room of Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish terrorist and mass murderer; calling in 2019 for the expulsion of Arab citizens of Israel who are not loyal to the state;[2] inciting violent clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in 2021; and making highly controversial visits to the Temple Mount, where the al-Aqsa Mosque is located, in 2023 and 2024.

Itamar Ben-Gvir (Hebrew: אִיתָמָר בֶּן גְּבִיר [itaˈmaʁ benˈgviʁ]; born 6 May 1976) is an Israeli politician and lawyer who has served as the minister of national security since 2022, except for a two-month gap in early 2025. He is the leader of Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”), an Israeli far-right, Kahanist and anti-Arab party which won six seats in the 2022 legislative election and is part of the thirty-seventh government of Israel.

Top photo: Itamar Ben-Gvir and Benjamin Netanyahu


Holst’s The Planets – Mars, the Bringer of War
Gustav Holst’s The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite composed between 1914 and 1917, inspired by astrology rather than astronomy. The first movement, Mars, the Bringer of War, sets a tone of relentless aggression and military force Wikipedia+1. performed appropriately by the United States Marine Band

Bibliocide—attacks on written word—tactic of totalitarians and terrorists.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 8.18.2026

Censorship and book burning are a sad historical phenomena. Recent history has found this activity in countries around the world. Nazi Germany, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and Russian obliteration of Ukrainian libraries.

America is not immune. The House Un American Activities Committee (HUAC) strove to ban books in overseas libraries which were deemed “too Communist” and “nonconformist”. Even in the midst of the 21st century certain localities in America have successfully moved to ban books from libraries and schools. Book Bans – PEN America

American Book Banning: Trends, Causes, and Impact

Book banning in the United States has surged in recent years, with both schools and public libraries facing unprecedented levels of censorship.

Scale of the Problem
PEN America’s 2025 report found 6,870 book bans enacted in the 2024–25 school year across 23 states and 87 public school districts, affecting nearly 2,600 authors, illustrators, and translators PEN America. This is the highest number of bans in a single school year ever recorded. The American Library Association (ALA) documented 4,235 unique titles challenged in 2025, with 5,668 books actually banned from libraries, plus 920 restricted through access controls American Library Association. These bans disproportionately target works by authors of color, LGBTQ+ authors, and books addressing racism, sexuality, gender, and history PEN America+1.

Who Is Driving the Bans
ALA data shows that 92% of challenges in 2025 were initiated by pressure groups, government officials, or decision-makers, not individual parents American Library Association. This reflects a coordinated political and activist push to influence school and library curricula.

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 8.18.2026

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/russia-burns-books-and-sacks-libraries-in-ukraine-31326e56?st=DMN2Zg&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Bibliocide—attacks on the written word—is a common tactic of totalitarians and terrorists. The Nazis burned books in Germany in the 1930s, as did the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1970s. Bosnian Serbs destroyed Sarajevo’s National and University Library in 1992, and in 2015 ISIS devastated Mosul Central Library.

Nazi book burnings – Wikipedia The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the German Student Union (German: Deutsche Studentenschaft, DSt) to ceremonially burn books in Nazi Germany and Austria in the 1930s. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. These included books written by Jewish, half-Jewish, communist, socialist, anarchist, liberal, pacifist, and sexologist authors among others.[1] The initial books burned were those of Karl Marx and Karl Kautsky,[2] but the burned books came to include other authors, including the works of Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, H.G. Wells, and effectively any book incompatible with Nazi ideology.
During the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979), the government carried out a systematic campaign to destroy books, newspapers, and other printed materials as part of its broader cultural and political purge. This was part of Pol Pot’s “Year Zero” policy to erase Cambodia’s pre-1975 history, culture, and intellectual life, replacing it with a Maoist-inspired agrarian socialist society

The Ukrainian Culture Ministry says Russia has damaged or destroyed 906 libraries since 2022. Numerous cases of book burning and library sacking have been documented. Among them: In 2022 the Petro Mohyla Church library was burned in Mariupol. Books were burned in Rovenky in 2023. Yulia Kakulia-Danyliuk, a librarian in Kapytolivka, has described the destruction in that village: “Everything was smashed and broken, books were scattered everywhere. There was filth.”

Books in Ruins: How Russia attacks Ukrainian culture

Kapytolivka holds particular significance, having been home to Volodymyr Vakulenko, a poet and children’s book author, who was abducted and murdered by Russian troops in 2022. When the librarian returned after the village’s liberation, only 4,500 of 16,500 books remained. She found books on Ukrainian culture and history in the toilets, covered in human waste. “All of them had been soiled. That was done deliberately.”

Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Center for Civil Liberties (which was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize), describes the destruction of books as “part of a broader genocidal policy of Russia. We know from history that the burning of libraries accompanied genocides throughout the centuries as an erasure of someone else’s identity. Putin openly says that there is no Ukrainian nation, no Ukrainian language, no Ukrainian culture.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Civil_Liberties_(human_rights_organization)

The Center for Civil Liberties (Ukrainian: Центр Громадянських Свобод, romanized: Tsentr Hromadyansʹkykh Svobod) is a Ukrainian human rights organization led by the Ukrainian lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk.[2] It was founded in 2007,[3][4] with the purpose of pressuring Ukraine’s government to make the country more democratic.[5][6] The organization was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Ales Bialiatski and Russian organization Memorial.[3][7]

In America the book burning mania took hold in the early Cold War era.

HUAC and the Era of “Book Burnings”

During the 1950s, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and other anti-communist forces in the U.S. government were linked to reports of book burnings at American-funded overseas libraries. These libraries, numbering about 230 and holding nearly two million books, served millions of visitors annually and were intended to present a “balanced” view of the United States The New Republic.

The Context

  • HUAC’s role: Established in 1938, HUAC targeted alleged communists and “subversive” activities. While it investigated individuals, its influence extended to shaping cultural and informational policy abroad Wikipedia.
  • Overseas libraries: Originally founded in Latin America in 1942–43 to model public libraries abroad, they emphasized free access to all printed materials. By the Eisenhower era, their purpose had shifted toward promoting U.S. perspectives and discouraging “non-conformity” The New Republic.
  • Targeted content: Books deemed “too communist” — including works by or about communists — were removed from shelves. This included literature banned under dictatorships the U.S. had fought against, such as in Germany, Austria, Japan, Korea, and Trieste The New Republic.

Political Backing

  • Eisenhower administration: Reports indicated that State Department directives, sanctioned by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, ordered U.S. libraries abroad to remove such books. President Eisenhower publicly distanced himself from these orders, but his administration’s actions were tied to HUAC’s anti-communist agenda The New Republic.
  • McCarthyism: Senator Joseph McCarthy, though not directly involved with HUAC, was part of the broader anti-communist climate that enabled such censorship Intellectual Freedom Blog.
America doesn’t burn books. It bans them as neo-Nazi sentiment takes hold