https://www.npr.org/2024/05/02/1248669695/biden-remarks-white-house-live

"We are a civil society and order must prevail."
"This isn't a moment for politics, this is a moment for clarity."
"Dissent must never lead to disorder."
"It [protesting] needs to be done...within the law."
"As President I will always defend free speech and I will always be just as strong standing up for the rule of law."

Every authoritarian always reverts to the same talking points. That's not surprising. He also reiterated there will be no policy change in the region.

Journalist: "Mr. President, have the protests forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region?"
Biden: "No, thank you." He then very quickly leaves the room.

Genocide will continue until approval ratings improve.

Whoops! Turns out I missed a large story yesterday! The House of Representatives has passed 320-91 (70 Democrats voting against) the Republican-favored Antisemitism Awareness Act which codifies antisemitism as a Civil Rights offense using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's Zionist definition of antisemitism. Should the bill pass, it forces the US Department of Education to consider criticism of Israel's past and present racism as antisemitic violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Moreover, vague examples like "Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation," provide room for convenient interpretations of antisemitism; other acts such as "Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis," effectively silence accusations of genocide and mass, systematic murder by the Israeli government against Palestinians. Should the AAA be signed into law, ALL educational institutions in the US will be legally obligated to swiftly crush all resistance against Israeli's ethnic cleansing.

The upshot is that the AAA is unpopular with rank-and-file democrats, who have been supporting the parallel Countering Antisemitism Act, which doesn't bode well as it heads to the Democratically controlled Senate.

It's worth keeping an eye on these bills and how they evolve over the next few months.

You've probably heard of kettling before, but it's not the be-all-end-all of crowd control tactics. If you can tell what moves the pigs are trying to make you can effectively avoid, counter, and co-opt their techniques.

Courtesy of https://www.instagram.com/p/C6bQkJQA2rR

https://twitter.com/PplsCityCouncil/status/1770972732240564390

This thread has more information specifically on the crossbow tactic and its origins in military policing of all things

https://twitter.com/defendATLforest/status/1724871475931288064

A thread on protest/march safety from the fine folks of Stop Cop City

As we speak the ground operation in Rafah has already begun. I won't be posting any of the footage piling up by the second, but it is just as bad as everyone feared. Palestinians are being bombed even as they attempt to follow another sham evacuation order from Israel.

The "expanded humanitarian zone" in yellow is a pen against the ocean. Where are Palestinians supposed to escape to? Apparently, according to the IOF, hell.

Seeing some estimations that it's anywhere from a 1.5 to 4 hour walk to the yellow zone depending on where in Rafah one is starting from. Words fail.

All of the worst people in congress getting together to manifest the most evil actions you can imagine.

CW: distressing imagery


Regardless of how you feel about Macklemore, this is vital work. This could very easily have been liberal co-option, but no, he's all in.