Matt Carter

I live my life in a way that allows me to feel superior to most people most of the time.

[Matt Carter @Cartergan]

@tsn unless Reggie Miller survived being struck by lightning between games 1 and 2, I’m gonna assume there is something wrong with the audio for the Lakers Timberwolves game. Any chance we could get this fixed?

[Steven Donziger @SDonziger]

President Biden just commuted the sentences of 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others. Happy for them, but disappointed I did not make the cut.

There are 40 days left in Biden’s term — please help me and the Amazon communities deliver justice to Chevron.⤵️ https://t.co/S4R2mF3wpP

[Aaron Maté @aaronjmate]

Jeremy Loffredo (@loffredojeremy) of @TheGrayzoneNews, a US citizen, has been arrested by Israeli forces and after 24 hours is still being detained. I ask all journalists to join us in calling for his release.

[Matt Carter @Cartergan]

@David_Moscrop File this with the “Housing needs to retain its value.” Yes, this country has some serious problems, but how about we focus on problems whose solutions won’t upset well off boomers.

[Joel Harden @JoelDHardenNDP]

Ontario is breaking the wrong kind of records in health care. Patients and health care staff deserve better. #onpoli

[The Breach @TheBreachMedia]

A CBC producer is lifting the veil on how the broadcaster whitewashed Israel’s horrors in Gaza.

In a tell-all essay, she describes the inner workings of newsrooms where double standards and biases sidelined the truth—before she resigned in protest.
https://t.co/CkUV5Auldp

[Macklemore @macklemore]

HIND’S HALL. Once it’s up on streaming all proceeds to UNRWA.

[Hamza M Syed @HamzaMSyed]

Listen to Guyana's ambassador at the UN security council explain why they abstained on the U.S. resolution

[Jacobin @jacobin]

Nobody should lionize former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, who died in February. His corrupt leadership turned Canada into a US vassal, undermined the working classes, and sold the state to private enterprise. https://t.co/URk5jxuLC5

[Joel Harden @JoelDHardenNDP]

I love Ottawa, but I’m disappointed in my city today.

Using a small megaphone to advocate for Palestinian human rights gets a $490 fine?

This has to stop. #CeasefireNOW

[Camila @camilapress]

Canada: CTV News fired Yara Jamal, the only Palestinian working in the CTV Atlantic region.

“Freedom of speech does not exist for people like me.”

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Another masterful interview on Gaza of Dominique De Villepin, former Prime Minister of France, who IMHO is the best diplomat the West has produced in decades.

Again I believe that his words are so important and so rare among Western leaders today, that I decided to translate it in full (the bold parts are emphasis Villepin himself made when speaking):

"The Israeli government, Benjamin Netanyahu, failed on October 7th and failed doubly. Firstly, in its ability to ensure the protection of the Israeli people by allowing massacres that are an abomination to occur. He bears direct responsibility for what happened. And his second failure is having encouraged a policy of occupation and colonization, which continues at this moment in the West Bank and constitutes another threat to Israel if a second front in the West Bank were to open.

Force does not ensure the security of a people! This is what all Israelis must understand today. And what is important is that since October 7th, the Israeli government's choice has been to escalate the use of force. You know, neither force nor vengeance ensures peace and security. What ensures peace and security is justice! And justice is not being served today.

The rationale of the Israeli government for the bombings happening today is flawed, and the whole international community can see it. The principle is: "we target terrorists, and unfortunately, there are also civilian populations," what is euphemistically called in military language "collateral damage." It must be understood that this collateral damage is not accidental. That is to say, it is perfectly predictable and fully accepted.

[Host: "But once again, the responsibility is not solely Israeli."]

But once more, let's stop asking about responsibility; let's look at the reality of what's happening on the ground! Assigning fault, allow me to tell you, we will leave to historians. What we want is to stop this violence, to stop these massacres. Israel is putting itself in danger, even more today, with this type of warfare and these types of strikes.

We are essentially dealing with a policy of vengeance from the Netanyahu government. Israel has the right to self-defense, but self-defense does not give an indiscriminate right to kill civilian populations. When you target an ambulance, you can always imagine that there was a terrorist in one of the ambulances, or not. But the result is that there are children, women who die. Every child, every woman killed, that's more terrorists. Therefore, Israel's objective, what Israel achieves, is exactly the opposite of what they wish. So, it is essential today to change this logic and return to a strategy that is sound.

Hostages, everything must be done to secure their release. But let's not forget: the Palestinian people are also taken hostage, by Hamas and by Israel. And Hamas, we all know, cares little for the Palestinian people. So telling Hamas: "we will not lift the siege, we will not have a humanitarian truce until the hostages are released," is a dialogue of the deaf.

Benjamin Netanyahu is waging a war to do everything so that the political solution does not come to the table. And this is where the international community, Europe, the United States, must tell Benjamin Netanyahu that this war is not acceptable. It is not acceptable because it leads us directly [to escalation] - because we can see it well, from Hamas we will move to Iran, from Iran we will move to other targets, and we then enter into the logic of a clash of civilizations. When Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu says that on one side there is the people of light and on the other the people of darkness, we can see the kind of spiral we are getting into.

All the wars that have been going on for the past twenty years are wars that begin and do not end. These are frozen conflicts. We know how to start a war; we do not know how to end it. And Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu could control Gaza, it would change nothing. There will continue to be terrorist attacks, Israelis will continue to live in fear. We must get out of this. The second reason why this is yesterday's war is that the war against terrorism has never been won anywhere. Force is not the answer, once again. Vengeance is not the answer. The answer is justice, and that is what all the peoples of the world, all those who today watch what is happening, call for justice.

Today the direction we must follow is to prevent Benjamin Netanyahu from continuing his suicidal logic that will make Israel a besieged state. They can besiege Gaza, but they will be besieged. And do not think that tomorrow we will again have a pacified discourse with Saudi Arabia, with the Arab states that will normalize the situation: no! The wounds of history are awakening.

Israel's interest is to have a responsible state at its side. And this responsible state, let's stop splitting hairs, must clearly be the West Bank, all of the West Bank. It must be Gaza, with access between the two territories, and East Jerusalem. The problem, and this is the whole point of Benjamin Netanyahu's escalation, is that Benjamin Netanyahu does not want it. And the policy of separation must be dignified. That is, it must confer to the Palestinians a state where they can live, a viable state, a true state, which can build itself and which will be all the more at peace...

[Host: "Does that mean that the settlements in the West Bank have to be removed?"]

Well, when we left Algeria, there were a million French who left Algeria. Today there are 500,000 Israelis colonizing the West Bank, and there are 200,000 in East Jerusalem.

[Host: "They must leave the West Bank?"]

Yes. Yes, that is history, that is responsibility, that is the price! I tell you solemnly, it is the price of security for Israel! And all those who today consider that it will never be enough are pursuing the worst policy."

Credit to @caissesdegreve who took these extracts from the original interview which can be found here: https://t.co/hRuGw6CbuA

[Matt Carter @Cartergan]

@DougHenwood He’s the GOAT of BLOAT.

[Matt Carter @Cartergan]

@dwdavison I thought it was supposed to be the teeth with the Brits?! What is happening with everyone’s hair?

[Bryce Greene @TheGreeneBJ]

I unequivocally condemn this violent and unprovoked attack by these Haitian radicals against a peaceful nation.

While we can criticize the institution of slavery, it in no way legitimizes violence against innocent civilians.

France has a right to defend itself!

[Matt Carter @Cartergan]

@opl_bpo

[Matt Carter @Cartergan]

@MatthewEMiranda Anglo version: Mia Namis.

[Matt Carter @Cartergan]

@TheCinesthetic Brando in the Fugitive Kind

[Matt Carter @Cartergan]

@David_Moscrop We live in a fundamentally undemocrtic society. Foreign policy, (like monetary and debt policy) is not seriously discussed with the electorate because at the end of the day, these policies are not up for debate.

[BLOWBACK: NO DAYLIGHT OUT NOW @blowbackpod]

Episode 1 - "Snake Eater" is now LIVE, wide-release

And season 4 is available in FULL at https://t.co/adhvSP0iGt

https://t.co/6OvsTVLL98