Letter to my Congressman, Jake Auchincloss

 Subject: US Support of Israel's War On Gaza

Congressman Auchincloss:

The complicity of the government of the United States in the wholesale slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza - including thousands of CHILDREN - is absolutely repugnant and intolerable, both to myself, my family members, and my friends. It must end. I will be following your votes in the House on this subject with great care.

Congressman Auchincloss' response:

Dear Peter,

Thank you for contacting me regarding the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel. I welcome the opportunity to respond to you directly.

On October 7, 2023, during celebrations of Simchat Torah, Hamas terrorists launched an unprovoked attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air, and sea. Hamas, whose founding charter is dedicated to destroying Israel and murdering Jews, is an internationally recognized terrorist organization that executed Israeli civilians, including babies, while using innocent Palestinians as human shields. In the initial attack, at least 33 American citizens were killed and over 200 civilians and soldiers, including children, were taken hostage by Hamas. The Hamas terrorist attacks and subsequent conflicts throughout the region have resulted in thousands of more deaths of Israelis and Palestinians, children among them.

Israel is a liberal democracy with the right and responsibility to defend itself and its citizens. Calls for de-escalation are premature. Israel needs the military latitude to re-establish deterrence in a hostile region, continue hostage rescue operations, and root out the nodes of terrorism. As Israel conducts its military response, I support upholding the law of armed conflict that is meant to protect the lives of civilians, and I appreciate the Biden Administration’s numerous statements to that effect.

Israelis and Palestinians alike deserve equal measures of freedom and security, and I have been clear in public and in conversations with Israeli officials that military action in Gaza must be accompanied by a post-Hamas political vision for just governance in Gaza. During the military operation, Israel and its supporters should make every effort to protect civilians suffering at the hands of Hamas in Gaza. I am committed to working with my colleagues and the Administration to provide additional humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, evacuate foreign nationals from Gaza, facilitate the return of hostages taken by Hamas, and maintain support for Israel’s right and ability to defend itself.

I joined my colleagues in sending a letter to the Egyptian Ambassador urging the Egyptian government to work constructively with the United States and Israel to establish a humanitarian corridor and safe zones in southern Gaza for civilians seeking refuge until they can safely return to their communities in northern Gaza. I also signed a letter to President Biden encouraging his administration to continue its efforts to secure safe passage for humanitarian aid into Gaza, and to prevent escalation on other fronts, including from Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border.

On October 18, 2023, President Biden announced that the United States will provide $100 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank through partners like the United Nations and international non-governmental organizations. This funding will support over one million displaced civilians’ ability to access clean water, food, hygiene support, medical care, and other essential needs. During his recent trip to the region, President Biden secured an agreement with Egypt to allow trucks carrying this critical humanitarian aid safe passage through the Rafah Crossing. The president has since requested further funding from Congress for efforts to stabilize conditions in the Middle East, which I will support.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me about this important issue. Your comments help me to better represent the people of our Congressional District. Please do not hesitate to email me through my website at www.auchincloss.house.gov or call my office at (202) 225-5931 if I can be of any further assistance to you.

Sincerely,

Jake Auchincloss

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I found Auchincloss' response to be ABSOLUTELY unacceptable.

Letter to America (Letter to the American People)

 I despise censorship. No, that's putting it too mildly: I LOATHE it with incandescent hatred.

So when western governments (purportedly "democracies") join with big tech companies to censor something, I'm immediately triggered.

The Letter to America written by Osama bin Laden is the latest target for censorship. It makes some valid points, and also some completely invalid ones. But I believe that people have a right to read it for themselves and make up their own minds, rather than have their supposed representative governments clamp their dictatorial hands over our eyes.

Even the Internet Archive has been purged of copies. But I found one, oddly enough, on Newsweek. Needless to say, I immediately copied the text and saved it. If this link is taken down, I'll post my copy.

Fuck censorship!

Osama Bin Laden's Letter to America (full text)

Marvel, Circling the Drain

Disney has pushed the release of Captain America: Brave New World back nine months. Word is they're reshooting acts 1, 2, and 3. That's basically the whole movie.

It's likely that one of the reasons they're reshooting is to remove the Israeli superheroine, Sabra. It's just too controversial a topic for a movie series that Disney is trying to slant towards a younger, more female audience - particularly since young people are sympathizing with the plight of the people of Gaza more and more these days.

I remember when Sabra was introduced back in 1980. Her intro was so painful that it stuck in my mind for decades. "I am Sabra, the Israeli superhero. Like the desert cactus for which I am named, I am sweet to my allies but prickly to my enemies." Or something very close to that. It was painfully stupid even back then!

As for Disney, fuck them. I'm a long-time comic book geek and I was an MCU fan until things turned into shit (specifically with Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Multiverse of Madness, and everything after Endgame except for the Spider-Man movies (technically not part of the MCU) and the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. The problem is, simply enough, shit writing. It's a mistake Hollywood makes again and again. They despise their audiences and see them as morons, so they start putting out stupid, badly-written shit under the assumption that those morons will lap up whatever crap is given them. 

But they CAN'T make people like something that they hate. The most they can do is trick them once, as they did with Captain Marvel: by sandwiching it between Infinity War and Endgame, implying (falsely) that it was necessary to see Captain Marvel in order to "get" Endgame, and - most of all - by spending millions buying tickets to Captain Marvel to artificially pump up numbers. I'm not the only one who found the theater damned closed to empty when I saw Captain Marvel, and that WASN'T the case for any other MCU production up to that point. Disney also bought a shitload of critics and subverted Rotten Tomatoes to boot. And wasn't it around that time that YouTube killed off the ability to see the number of downvotes?

The funny thing is that Feige and the rest of the fuckwits at Disney STILL don't realize what the problem is. They can't, because THEY'RE the problem. Disney has taken Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar, all of which were huge money-makers, and killed them all dead, dead, dead. But they insist that it has to be the FANS who are at fault - never them. It's late-stage capitalism in action.

I'm going to enjoy watching their slow, drawn-out, painful death.

Those darned human shields!

About Israel's "human shields" talking point: where exactly is Hamas supposed to fight from? Israel has penned them into one of the most densely populated spots on Earth, a literal concentration camp. If Hamas is supposed to line up nicely on a battleground far from civilians, Israel would have to SUPPLY that battleground! And of course if such an outlandish scenario were to occur, Israel would promptly bomb Hamas' ranks into oblivion.

The next step in peace officers?

You know what would be interesting? If cops were all replaced with shepherds. I'm talking the old-fashioned kind, with a "crook" (the stick with the curved handle, not Richard Nixon). It would be a better world! People need shepherds far more than black-suited thugs with guns and a license to kill.