Rick Staggenborg, MD

Former VA psychiatrist and founder of Soldiers For Peace International, a virtual Army helping to create a united international front against fascism and war.

[Rick Staggenborg, MD @stagmd]

My favorite quote from this crazy defense of genocide is, "...I sound obscene," as if that is the first time she recognized it. And the other panelists seem to be listening with no sense of alarm that she is saying this on record....

[Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 @infolibnews]

Fmr Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz laments to Jewish Federation that people are finding content from "Al Jazeera and Nick Fuentes" on social media and seeing videos of "the carnage in Gaza."

Holocaust education has backfired in part as people see Palestinians as Jews' victims, she adds.

"They think the lesson of the Holocaust is…you fight the big powerful people hurting the weak people."

(The lesson they were supposed to get is that it gives Israel the right to commit genocide in perpetuity.)

[Rick Staggenborg, MD @stagmd]

@infolibnews My favorite quote from this crazy rant is, "...I sound obscene," as if that is the first time she recognized it.

[AZAPAC @AntiZioAmPAC]

Introducing #AZAPAC!

[Rick Staggenborg, MD @stagmd]

Show Palestine refugees they are not forgotten this Ramadan. For just $50, you can fill the pantry of a Palestine refugee family for a month, or help an orphan thrive - filling both stomachs and hearts.

https://t.co/Vq0lE6iF77

[zac white @zac_white_]

@aaronjmate @democracynow It was heartbreaking to be at a @RonWyden town hall recently. He gave good answers about civil liberties and Trump, and then said “October 7 was worse” than the assault on Gaza, which killed at least 40 times more people.

[Rick Staggenborg, MD @stagmd]

@RealJamesWoods Sorry to hear about your loss, James.

- Your friends in Israel.

[Rick Staggenborg, MD @stagmd]

@RealJamesWoods Not only that, but LAFD had sent fire fighting equipment to Ukraine! I tell you, imperial wars don't benefit us average folks....

[Rick Staggenborg, MD @stagmd]

How to address the political Influence of the Health Industry https://t.co/JazBmLpCN6 via @MoveToAmend

[Rick Staggenborg, MD @stagmd]

The Jewish Council of Australia tells it like it is. Maybe the extreme repressive measures of the govt to stifle dissent has awoken that nation to their systematic propagandization?

[Jewish Council of Australia @jewishcouncilAU]

MEDIA RELEASE: North Gaza siege demonstrates urgent need to cut ties and sanction Israel

The Jewish Council of Australia renews our calls for the Albanese Government to use all possible pressure to stop Israel committing the crime of genocide.

Yesterday, an Israeli strike targeting Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Hospital in central Gaza burned alive at least four Palestinians and injured dozens, many of them wounded patients.

The UN World Food Program reports that no food aid has entered the north of Gaza since October 1, putting over 400,000 people at severe risk of starvation.

In light of these developments, and the worsening conditions imposed on Palestinians in Gaza, and the West Bank, the Jewish Council renews our calls on the Government to immediately cut all military ties with and place sanctions on Israel.

Dr Max Kaiser, Executive Officer, Jewish Council of Australia:

“Penny Wong’s issuing of new sanctions on Iran today is hypocritical in the extreme. We are still waiting for the Australian government to take any substantial action against the Israeli government.

Palestinians in Gaza face death by Israeli assassinations, bombardment, and starvation. The images emerging of Israel’s latest massacres in Gaza ought to force governments like ours to take concrete action. Australia must pay heed to the ICJ and ensure that we are not complicit in war crimes and the crime of genocide.

With each passing day, it becomes clearer that Israel is a rogue state, enabled by the United States and its allies. We say this as part of a large and growing number of Jews – in Australia and around the world – who have been calling for a ceasefire for many months, and saying that Israel’s actions are completely incompatible with our Jewish values. Opposing this genocide is an honouring of our ancestors who were themselves the victims of genocide and racist violence.”

[Rick Staggenborg, MD @stagmd]

Caitlin Johnstone gives a plug for China Report, cohosted by Veterans For Peace notable K.J. Noh

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Big fan of the new weekly @BTnewsroom segment The China Report, featuring the always excellent @catcontentonly. Equally excellent is her cohost KJ Noh (who I don't think is on Twitter), who delivers impressively lucid and compassionate analysis. Will definitely keep watching.

[WikiLeaks @wikileaks]

JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE

Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.

This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations. This created the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalised. We will provide more information as soon as possible.

After more than five years in a 2x3 metre cell, isolated 23 hours a day, he will soon reunite with his wife Stella Assange, and their children, who have only known their father from behind bars.

WikiLeaks published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles, and for the people's right to know.

As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom.

Julian's freedom is our freedom.

[More details to follow]

[Max Blumenthal @MaxBlumenthal]

Enough time has passed since October 7 for Israeli media to state what we’ve been saying for over three months, which is that Israel’s military and political leadership fabricated many of the grisliest Hamas atrocities in order to generate support for the genocidal war it planned in Gaza. Here, a Channel 13 panel including Mickey Rosenfeld, the longtime Israeli police spokesman who spread many such lies after October 7, acknowledges that lurid stories of babies hung on clotheslines, a fetus cut from a pregnant woman, a baby baked in an oven, and more were invented “to increase the magnitude of hatred for Hamas.” As Rosenfeld put it, “The war is not only military, not only political, it’s mainly media.”

Channel 13 manages to elicit a statement of contrition from the IDF spokesman, who apologizes for “describ[ing] a reality that didn’t happen.” Of course, confessions like these are easy when the damage has already been done.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

It's not too late to get involved in opposing Israel's assault on Gaza.

It doesn't matter if you haven't been talking about it until now. It doesn't matter if you haven't understood or paid attention to the Israel-Palestine conflict until now. It doesn't matter if you've been supportive of Israel in the past, or if you've expressed opinions on this subject that you now know were misguided, or if you've never engaged in any kind of activism before.

If that's the case for you, you need to understand that millions of people are on the exact same boat as you right now. MILLIONS. The actions of the state of Israel
over the last three months have caused huge numbers of people not previously aware of its depravity to open their eyes to what's going on, do some research, and change their position.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with joining in with the opposition now. You can safely dismiss anything in you that feels self-conscious about not getting this until now, or feels like it would be inauthentic to join an activist cause after it has gained popularity. Changing your position and taking a stand now makes you MORE authentic, because it shows you are living a life guided by truth and compassion rather than sleepwalking through life guided by blind habit and partisan tribalism.

I guarantee you the people in Gaza would much rather have you than not have you, and losing your support over self-consciousness about joining in later than others did would be a very silly and unfortunate thing to happen. Moreover, you would definitely not be the last to join in this cause; millions more will be joining in after you as the Israeli regime loses support around the world and everyone starts waking up to what's happening in Gaza.

Please disregard anything in you that has been holding back from helping to facilitate that awakening in whatever small way you can, whether that might be due to shame for not getting involved sooner or due to any kind of cringe around activism and political engagement you may have had before. This thing is so much more important than any of us, and it's so much more important than any little feelings of self-consciousness we'd have about getting involved in ways we never would have imagined before. This matter is much too urgent for you to pay any attention to those misguided forces within you that are resistant to taking a stand here.

Take your stand. It will be welcomed, and you will be glad that you did for the rest of your life.

[Rick Staggenborg, MD @stagmd]

@RepLCD Please co-sponsor, and actively support the State-Based Universal Health Care Act (SBUHCA, HR 6270). Rep. Ro Khanna introduced the bill on November 8, 2023. Thank you if you cosponsored the 2021 version (HR 3775) in 2021.

Help states create good systems.

[Abdalhadi Alijla عبد الهادي العجلة @alijla2021]

Via Scott Long.

For those interested, I've uploaded my entire library of books on Palestine/Israel to the cloud, in digital form (mostly pdf and epub) so you can access them. It's a little over 1700 books, a lot of them good and important, some of them historical or political curiosities. Nearly all are in English, I'm afraid. You can download any that interest you individually, or the whole library (about 13 GB). And feel free to share this. Link: https://t.co/a9QzqAcqK3

[Scott Ritter @RealScottRitter]

Israel acknowledged they targeted the hospital because of a Hamas “presence.”

They the retracted that admission.

Later they admitted stroking the “garage” of the hospital, but not the main building. The parking lot is part of the garage, where hundreds of innocent civilians forced from their homes by indiscriminate Israeli bombing were seeking shelter.

Iron Dome activates once hostile rockets are fired. There was no Iron Dome activation at the time the hospital was struck

The hospital was most likely struck by an Israeli artillery rocket.

Quit defending war criminals.

[Rick Staggenborg, MD @stagmd]

@aripari18 @AhmadBaraka10 @jvplive Really? What about the Canaanites?

More selective history from a racist claiming that Palestine is Jewish land because Jewish invaders stole it 3,000 years ago and ruled it as a united kingdom for 160 years. "Our land," indeed!

[Rick Staggenborg, MD @stagmd]

If you weren't done with Kennedy yet, this should convince you that whatever good things he has said, he is either a hypocrite, a liar or a naive fool

[Max Blumenthal @MaxBlumenthal]

Watch @RobertKennedyJr demolish his credibility as a peace candidate in 4.5 minutes

A campaign that began as a defiant broadside against the war state and censorship industrial complex has suddenly pivoted to a bellicose exercise in pandering to rich Likudniks who seek war with Iran, the permanent violent warehousing of Palestinians and the criminalization of activism that challenges Israeli apartheid.

RFK Jr's host was Shmuley Boteach, a professional race hustler and alleged financial fraudster who owes the existence of his one-man political operation to the fortune of Sheldon Adelson, the late ultra-Zionist oligarch who called for dropping a nuclear weapon on Iran.

If RFK was not handed a massive wad of Benjamins to suck up to Shmuley, he was embarrassing himself for free, because he was clearly out of his depth.

During a rambling, militaristic diatribe, he referred to hijabs as "habibs," pronounced Chechnya as though he hadn't heard of the place until twenty minutes before the event, and offered a history of Israel's creation so cartoonishly propagandistic, it made Alan Dershowitz look like Ilan Pappe.

RFK Jr took it upon himself – or was taken on – to defend the Israeli army's brigade-sized invasion of Jenin, during which it bombed buildings with fighter jets and ran bulldozers through the middle of a refugee camp. He referred to the entire city as "a bomb factory," justifying the invasion because, in his words, "virtually one hundred percent of the people there are supporting terrorism." According to RFK, "everybody [in Jenin] is involved in bomb making" – there are no civilians there at all, therefore all are legitimate targets.

He did not seem to know that the Palestinian campaign of suicide bombing ended well over 15 years ago, or that the Palestinian Authority is legally forbidden from defending Palestinians from Israeli violence – its primary function is to act as an occupation subcontractor. According to RFK Jr, the PA has an official "pay-to-slay policy," in which "if you kill any Jew, you are going to get awarded with pay for life." Even professional AIPAC lobbyists shy away from this kind of baseless invective.

The half-baked hasbara escalated from there as RFK Jr cited Richard Kemp, a former British army officer who subsists on Israel lobby speaking fees, to claim "the conduct of the IDF, the Israeli defense forces when they go into Palestinian territories, is beyond anything in the world."

While Israeli army commanders openly adhere to the Dahiya Doctrine, named for the Beirut neighborhood Israel leveled in 2006, and which calls for targeting Arab civilians in order to turn them against their leadership, RFK Jr insisted that Israel's policy is to "avoid civilian casualties" – it exclusively attacks military targets.

It is hard to believe RFK Jr's ahistorical, belligerent line on Israel-Palestine was not bought and paid for by some pro-Israel billionaire. Which means he's just as corruptible as any Democrat or GOP hack. But if he actually believes what he's saying, he's also at least as pro-war as they are.

[Mark Rolofson @MarkRolofson]

On June 10th, the 60th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's "Peace Speech", I talked with people in Gearhart, Oregon about the US proxy war against Russia & the dire need for diplomacy. JFK's speech is a vision for world peace, a warning about nuclear war & a blueprint for diplomacy.

[Michael Tracey @mtracey]

Interesting comment from Sen. Chris Murphy on February 25, 2014 discussing the situation in Ukraine: "I think it was our role, including sanctions and threats of sanctions, that forced, in part, Yanukovych from office"

He famously visited Kyiv with McCain the previous December