Category: Politics

PCRF communiqué

Date: October 14, 2023

A Humanitarian Catastrophe Unfolds in Gaza – An Appeal to the International Community

A catastrophe of unprecedented proportions is unfolding in what many refer to as “the most densely populated territory on earth”…the Gaza Strip.  Over the course of the last week, Gaza has plunged into a deep trail of destruction and unimaginable human suffering. The non-stop Israeli military bombardment of the civilian population in Gaza has now claimed over 1800 innocent lives, one-third of whom are children.  Over 500,000 people have been displaced and are seeking shelter in UN schools that have reached capacity. The IDF ordered one million people to evacuate northern Gaza for the south within 24 hours (as of yesterday, October 13th) in anticipation of an Israeli ground invasion.  This is being done without guarantees of safety or return to their homes, and what international legal experts say amounts to the forced transfer of inhabitants in violation of international law.

Essential resources like electricity, water, and food have been deliberately cut off, pushing the civilian population to the brink of desperation. The deliberate severing of vital services such as electricity, water, and food has magnified the suffering of Gaza’s people. Hospitals are overwhelmed and unable to provide adequate medical care due to the lack of medical supplies, electricity, and clean water. Emergency medical aid is being denied entry, ambulances are being bombed and vehicles carrying aid are being targeted by airstrikes. The urgent intervention of the international community is critical now more than ever.

In the face of this grave humanitarian crisis, it is imperative that the international community responds with unprecedented urgency and determination. The situation demands decisive, immediate action to alleviate the immense suffering of the over 2 million people trapped in a 140 sq. mile territory, roughly twice the size of Washington, D.C.

PCRF joins other humanitarian organizations and people of goodwill in calling on the international community to provide immediate humanitarian aid, intensify diplomatic efforts for an immediate ceasefire, ensure accountability for violations of international law, and actively support Gaza’s reconstruction. Silence in the face of such tragedy is complicity, and the time to act is now.

For any inquiries, please contact: Steve@pcrf.net

To Donate to PCRF’s Gaza Relief Efforts,  go to our website at www.pcrf.net

The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (“PCRF”) is a 501(c)(3) Federal Tax-Exempt U.S. Organization that provides free medical care to thousands of injured and ill children annually who lack local access to care within the local healthcare system in Palestine and other countries in the Middle East.

I’ve donated to PCRF twice, once a couple of years back and once in the last week. My donations were miniscule but I made them.

If you would prefer to donate in North America to try to stop this mess, here’s an interesting alternative.

a few words

676 words so far today IT’S SO FUZZY

lovely call with Dave last night. His cat was yelling about his hairballs in the background; he sounds like a siamese with his tail being run through a woodchipper, poor lamb.

vivek ramaswamy has actually come right out and stated that ‘human flourishing requires fossil fuels’ and thousands of indigenous nations across the planet say mmmm no fuck you along with hundreds of millions of climate aware school aged children….

 

Okay day

Took Paul for a walk at Fraser Foreshore yesterday, then brought him back here, where he demolished two soups (gazpacho and ramen) and one stir fry, and half a glass of unsweetened ice tea.

He does not really understand that he’s moving out tomorrow. After Suzanne comes today I’m going to go help him pack. I’d prefer to go earlier in the morning but life is what it is.

Ron Desantis saying that the insurance companies will ‘come back to Florida’ if there’s a light hurricane season is like saying that I’m going back to Paul if he apologizes. Did someone sit ALL of his university exams for him?

the evidence is in

God still loves me and Jeff but Peggy’s doing the heavy lifting.

oh yeah the tourtiere and the strawberry rhubarb pie were excellent

Here’s me all ready to breathe fire on Dave D asking him on the phone if he is going to get out to vote for the mayor of Toronto yesterday and with his classic restraint he advises me that he already voted in the advance polls.  I misunderstood, he’d been out and voted earlier that day. LOL

this one’s for the fam

 

Ukraine post

Every day, more civilians die; Russian rockets are mostly knocked down before they hit anything – but some get where they’re going. The Ukrainians are stalled in their offensive for a variety of reasons.  The biggest is that the Russians have had more than a year to dig in, and you can bet your ass that’s exactly what they’ve done, six defensive lines deep across 30 km. Ground the Ukrainians need to traverse to retake their country is often mined, and the Russian guns are heard all the time because they’re entrenched everywhere.  The Ukrainians have lost a lot of soldiers, and a breakthrough point along that eastern line has not made itself known. They’ve also lost a horrifying number of expensive new tanks, enough that Putin was mocking them. It’s been a meat grinder and I think the Ukrainians need to rethink their strategy. The situation is not assisted by internal dissension. Vitaly Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, is openly feuding with Zelenskyy about local government issues (mostly, this is a gross oversimplification) and from anything I’ve been able to read both men are being idiots litigating resource issues in wartime in the fucking press. But yeah, I think Zelenskyy’s going to try to drive Klitschko out of office for what, somehow being a collaborator? that seems to be how to gets people out of wherever they’re thwarting him and I have no notion how that’s supposed to work democracy wise, Klitschko’s a multi-term mayor in wartime.

Having blown up a dam, Putin is now plotting to blow up Zaporizhia’s nuclear power plant. Zelenskyy’s issued a warning to the world.

morning haiku set

grating on your skin
you tense; relaxing you think
it was just sugar

pour out your coffee
onto the firestorm of news
and remark, ‘no change’

the moon, thank goodness
is no longer a pale green
I guess that’s something

Yesterday the moon was green when I got up. I went to look at ‘the Strawberry Moon’ and got a sickly looking moon, scary as hell. If it’s truly an omen for the strawberry moon – the month upcoming – I’m holding myself in braced posture for a lousy time.

The summer will be hot and dry, and that means full of fire and smoke. I just had a vision of Vancouver on fire. Under exceptionally bad conditions we could have urban fires in Vancouver (remember 25 percent of Burnaby is parkland and open space…) and I just had a vision of standing on the back deck and hearing the cops on bullhorns trying to get people out of their houses…. I need to do something else. Sigh.

Russia has repelled a Ukrainian counterattack.

Absolutely none of my Ukrainian and western correspondents are saying this. How easy it is to successfully repel a counterattack that never happened!

However I’m DEFINITELY hearing desperate and very concerning rumblings about a planned ‘event’ by the Russians at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant TO COINCIDE with a Ukrainian counterattack, to get everyone in the west so upset they –I don’t know —  start dancing with the lizard people in their tightie whities while saying nasty things about Zelenskyy, mebbe??  who the hell knows with the Russian strategists right now, they have a century long playbook of assorted misinformation, genocide plus deeply personally vicious tyrannical AND casually banal state actions to pull plays from.

Russia’s ‘many arms in many sleeves’ tactic for its mis/dis campaigns is now extending to SOLICITING SCHOOL CHILDREN to go on podcasts, video streaming and TV platforms to ‘report’ on the ‘military operation’ ie be the next generation of propagandists. These poor kids and their parents are going to be dog meat when the war’s over. I’d like to warn them but no one can.

Jeff and I continue to rewatch Elementary and Stargate Atlantis, are into S2 of LawnOrder, S4 of Medium, and are dipping into Archer, Disenchantment (Eric André voicing Luci and Nat Faxon voicing Elfo are always standouts), Time Team and a couple of other shows.

UBI UBI UBI UBI

THIS COUNTRY NEEDS UBI UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME NOW!

(Scanged from tumblr/twitter):

When you hear that an unhoused person ‘refused services’ here’s what it means:

  • refused to give up their pet to get space in a short term hotel room
  • the shelter they were offered a space in isn’t safe for someone of their gender/sexuality/origin
  • couldn’t consolidate their belongings into two bags.

another person added the following:

  • They didn’t want to sit through demeaning and bigoted religious services just for a place to sleep. (Church run food banks do this a lot too btw).
  • They were late and the shelter wouldn’t let them in and voided the rest of their allowed stay bc they didn’t call and tell the shelter they couldn’t make it in before closing. They had no access to a phone or transportation.
  • One of the other people at the shelter got violent/threatened violence, theft, sexual assault – and the shelter refused to do anything about it.
  • One of the SHELTER EMPLOYEES/VOLUNTEERS got violent/threatened violence and the shelter refused to do anything about it.
  • The shelter refuses to disclose if allergens are in the food they’re providing saying, “This is all you’re getting, be glad for this much and thank god!”
  • Shelter refused to believe person is homeless saying, “You are FAR too clean and nicely dressed!”

 

walkies

Jeff frowns, swings closed

Jeff and I went for a little walk in the gorgeous sunshine yesterday afternoon. Jeff said that he should go for a walk and I said, “I’m going to stagger up the stairs, stagger up the hill to the park and stagger back again,” and he thought I was joking; he joined me after watching me put my shoes on. This is the same park at the start of the pandemic; the logo has all washed off that hoodie but the hoodie remains.

I missed the DD celebration yesterday. I am not sad, I don’t feel sad. I am somewhat immobilized though.

Russians out of Kherson. They’re starting to put anti tank cement blocks on their side of the border, which triggered Finnish Twitter to do a most pointed and technical takedown of how insanely useless it all was. (Altho the discussion was in Finnish you can translate tweets on the fly and man the Finns were just shaking their heads, it was wonderful. There were also comments that since it WAS useless, some oligarch musta got paid for it, ten times what it’s all worth. Lovely.)

Supposedly the new washer will come in the downstairs back door around 11 am today. No movement on the tree, not that I’d expect it on Sunday.

 

by aquilegiaformosa on tumblr
guys we’re not being cringe to keep out the twitter users. we’re being cringe to keep out the ALGORITHMS, the CAPITALISTS, the INFLUENCERS. twitter users are welcome as long as they agree this site is UNMARKETABLE

In other words become ungovernable by being someone you can’t make money from…. by being cringe. You know who’s cringe ? autistic people, by virtue of the intensity of their many hobby horses.

I prefer to be ungovernable by having my own website, that nobody ever looks at, but which will be invaluable to my family after I’m dead. That’s how things work. It’s the longitudinal and continuous energy of it, not the content, necessarily.

Worked on yet another fanfic, “Special Deputy on the Run” yesterday.  I’ve poked into the file for Part II but I think I added 36 words.

The amount of shit kicking Zibethicus (my name for Elon, means muskrat) has taken on the internet is amazing. In a few short weeks he’s scorched his fortune, facing a lawsuit for over 50 billion dollars from a former investor choked that he essentially stole shares from Tesla, received the brickbats of the commentariat and been held up as a model of everything not to do in business. Every time he says so much as boo on twitter hundreds of thousands of people tell him he’s a fucking idiot; it’s glorious, but not enough to get a twitter account.

Continuing counts in the US election still trend Biden’s way. They didn’t poll people who never voted LOL__  so many pundits have tender buttskin hanging out on this that another public spirited activity on twitter these days is going through the pundits’s last two weeks of salty prognostications and retweeting it, saying things like THIS AGED LIKE MILK or DO YOU SUPPOSE YOU WILL EVER BE RIGHT ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT AS THE SPECTRUM FOR YOUR POLITICS etc etc.

It is GLORIOUS and marvellous in our eyes. The night show hosts are having a field day.

Mitch McConnell, easily one of the most corrupt and disgusting politicians in American history, is not Senate GOP Leader any more, and rumblings are someone is going to grab his 15 year old perch in the Senate. The people who are candidates in replacing him aren’t as likely to be as competent at either whipping votes or stealing anything they can reach.

We are about six episodes into Farscape. Every episode is weirder than the next. Truly bizarre show.

Virtually every pediatric ICU in the country is at double capacity. There are so many sick children that you cannot buy children’s aspirin in this country right now.

Spoke to Tammy on the phone the other day, she called. She confirmed that she’s coming at Christmas and I’m seeing her on Boxing Day.

 

Nothing done about the tree

No progress on writing. FINALLY got my package to m&d into the mail to them; includes Alex’s art and the Guest 23 mag I have a poem in, thanks to Dave.

Ball lightning: shown in the video is either ball lightning or a transformer dying, although there was no ‘bang’. … there are family stories about ball lightning that EERILY mimic a story from 1963 recounted in this article. (pOp saw ball lightning move down the centre of the fuselage of the Argus he was flying in). Also, Grandma Susie Hinde saw a troika of ball lightning moving above the frozen surface of a river, as she told me sometime in the 1980s about an event from her girlhood in SK.

Drove Paul around to run errands and get him out of his apartment yesterday. He was in much better shape than on previous days and we had something approaching fun. Keith was about to go for a walk with a friend and Suzanne was there cleaning when I arrived.

Ukrainians who are Orthodox are switching up when they celebrate Christmas to distinguish themselves from a version of Russian Orthodoxy whose Patriarch Cyrill the Biggass Hypocrite has announced that any Russians killed in the UK campaign go straight to heaven. VOOP! YUP  up we go! Local parishes have a choice now about the 25 December or 7 January date for celebrations..

Shlep this morning. I already bought milk at Walmart in Lougheed Mall yesterday. Also came home with about 20 bucks of Purdy’s chocolate TIS THE SEASON.

Justin Trudeau is ‘standing up to China’ which basically means whining and not putting more federal money into chasing down Chinese nationals openly laundering money in this town, the single biggest reason nothing is being done about it.

I HAVE COFFEE, the world is ok.

Locked out

I posted on twitter about Elon Musk and the CPC and my account’s locked. I can’t get back in because I don’t have a cell phone any more for 2 step authentication.

I’m almost happy about this. It’s proof that everything about the app is corrupt. Jeff thinks they’ll recheck and then I’ll get my account back, but I don’t care if I do.

I will miss my friends.

Steve Bannon only got 4 months. OH YEAH…. I’M AN ABOLITIONIST.

I believe Anthony Rapp

I always found him more credible than Kevin Spacey the man ””’HEAVILY ALLEGED ””” and now acquitted of sexually assaulting him when he was FOURTEEN.

Cousin Alex, has indicated, in consequence of conversations with other people in show business, that she believes him too.

Kevin Spacey was small time when it happened, but over and over again older white men are privileged over everyone else and we now have a world that reflects that.

A police officer with the RCMP was murdered here in Burnaby the other day and it’s sad for so many reasons. She was specifically trained to work with vulnerable populations and one of them stabbed her. There was a handwritten note on the spot of her death, “I’m sorry you didn’t make it, I hope you heard us coming.”

I’m angry because I’m afraid the RCMP will use this death as a reason to back away from less violent policing. If they don’t that would be a proper memorial for Cst. Shaelyn Yang.

I’m angry because in all likelihood she was a good cop and good cops seem to get pushed out of the profession one way or another.

I’ll be watching the trial of the man arrested for her murder with interest.

Got my flu shot availability notification; picked up my medications.

Dunnett Day is in planning mode; I don’t think I’ll attend this year. Although I may well if we’re on a heated patio.

8215 words Part II

Suzanne was here yesterday and clean floors actually temporarily existed. She finished the Part I of Totally Boned that I printed for her and wants to give it to her sister Fran now, and I approved. Go litul bok.

I bought myself a steak & lobster dinner for delivery last night. I was so emotionally exhausted after I left Katie’s (although it was awesome to see Alex (new favorite Game ‘Doors’ on Roblox, got a brief tour) and Ryker (who made strange at me). I got very self-indulgent. Briefly saw Keith; he was going walking with a friend and he gave me a hug on the way out the door which I was not expecting and much enjoyed.

Why was I emotionally exhausted – because Paul is, despite many conversations at this point, not actually understanding or able to do anything to help slow his dementia (besides exercise), he’s still in denial about it and not understanding why pestering Keith about his efforts to get a cat (they have mice AND they are all cat people) is counterproductive (Keith’s busting ass).

The reason I went over there was to record any family story he liked with the help of family photos so he could remember and he literally could not put more than a sentence together about any of the pictures we were looking at. I asked him about The House on Wortley Road (that’s the way he says it) and he couldn’t give me more than a couple of sentences and was just randomly saying stuff and saying things like “That’s a good picture of us” (from the Pan Pacific Christmas Party… I think that’s the one where Jarmo nearly got thrown out of the hotel for playing 20th Century Schizoid Man really loud in his room or was it War Pig, I was so effing drunk that night).

I have to start approaching him for this stuff first thing in the morning. And you know what, I’m not really in any shape to do this. He’s already a shell of himself (still cheerful and talkative, just not… himself)  and I was crying in the car on the way back but not loud enough for him to notice.

Ryker is run walking falling crawling at ninety miles an hour. There’s no baby gate for the front stairs (he would basically be in traction for a year if he fell down them) and he crawls CLOSE to the stairs but doesn’t seem interested in flinging himself down them, which is a perfectly fine sign of intelligence. What he does love to do is climb things. He was climbing the elliptical machine the folks have and everything turns and I thought he would end up clipping himself and he did… cried for two seconds.

I left before Dax came over. He thinks I hate him. I don’t any more but I was damned if I was going to let my emotional exhaustion trigger some kind of autistic meltdown and really didn’t want to open that door on Katie.

Jessica’s dad’s surgery was CANCELLED. He needs a triple bypass, he’s in heart failure, and he won’t get the operation until Monday at the earliest. It’s brain-punching news and Jessica and Katie are both terrified he’ll die before he can even have the surgery.

The chaos in the UK is unbelievable, and still life persists there. Brittwitter is alternating wails of angry disbelief, extremely funny reaction pictures, and people saying that Liz Truss, in flattening the pound and killing the queen, is the greatest revolutionary of her generation.

I’m going to try to do something productive today; haven’t figured out what. The rain has finally come and it’s such a relief to be able to breathe. Okay done my daily blog, COFFEE GET IN MY TANK GODDAMN YOU

Liz Truss, folks

Nathan @churchofwolves <—- the author and a ‘mutual’ on twitter (we follow each other – he lives in Glasgow.)

Truss fails upwards, tanks the economy, eats shit on the international stage and nets herself 12x the state pension annually for life. Burn this fucking country to the ground.

LizTruss will be entitled to claim up to £115,000 per year from the taxpayer for the rest of her life once she leaves office, despite likely being one of the shortest-serving prime ministers in history.

https://nationalworld.com/news/politics/public-duties-cost-allowance-liz-truss-will-be-able-to-claim-up-to-ps115000-per-year-to-maintain-public-duties-after-leaving-office-3882642

Based on average life expectancy that’s upwards of FOUR MILLION QUID for TWO MONTHS of being an unmitigated omnishambles.

I’m going to be raging about this all day, fuck.

 

 

I just had to share unmitigated omnishambles with you.

So… someone in the UK slapped two googly eyes on a head of lettuce and asked the internet to bet if it would outlast Liz Truss. Current betting is …. not looking good.

WHILE I WAS TYPING THAT I LEARNED SHE RESIGNED.

Much love to Ontie Mary this morning. I told the story to Jeff over breakfast yesterday of what happened when she watched Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope with her kids in the theatre. As I recollect the story she sussed the movie as being CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD and cheered the heroes and yelled at the villains ….

and got told to behave by her kids.

no.

says.

aunt.

Mary.

during the night

I woke up and realized the air quality was much better. It’s not clear but the elephant got off my chest.

By ditching Anjali Appadurai the BC NDP have indicated SO many things.

  1. Don’t want someone who isn’t beholden to the CPC getting the nom, let alone elected
  2. Currently existing troughpigs in the NDP might get rooted out
  3. Got to keep all but the police unions in line
  4. WHY ON EARTH WOULD THEY WANT MORE YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE PARTY except to work hard and do what they’re told
  5. WHY ON EARTH WOULD THEY WANT TO LET A BUNCH OF FORMER GREENS INTO THE PARTY to challenge them on policy
  6. Why would they let a bunch of young people who are against non stop resource extraction in the teeth of global climate change into the party?
  7. Why would they want people who are for justice and reconciliation (Deeds, not Words) with respect to Indigenous anywhere near the reins?
  8. I could talk about misogyny and racism too but I spose you can take it as read.