The BlueAnon Problem is Getting Worse... & Today's News
PDS Published 11/12/2024
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Is the left starting to go full Q-Anon?
Because election related conspiracies are starting to become popular among democrats who are still reeling from Kamala Harris’s loss.
And the thing is, just like in 2020, there are a lot of different theories, but the most important thing to note before diving into them is that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has already said:[]
“we have no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.”
But as far as what Democrats are flagging as suspicious, one thing is the voter turnout this year compared to 2020.
With people seeing that in 2020, Biden got 81 million votes to Trump’s 74 million.[]
But this year, counts show Trump at 75 million and Kamala just 71, which looks like the Democrats lost around 10 million votes. []
So you have people saying that millions of votes “don’t disappear on their own.”[]
Or writing that:
“If anyone could fund a massive election fraud scheme it’s Elon musk. He also has motive.”[]
But the thing is, the 2024 vote tally that people are using only reflects the votes so far.
Yes, we have enough to know that Trump won the presidency, but ballots are still being counted.
And in the end, the AP estimates that the number of votes cast will only be around 700,000 less than 2020.[]
With Steve Kornacki also breaking it down on NBC News’s TikTok:
“There’s still a lot to come here. So you’re adding those two numbers together and you’re saying that’s a lot less than 20, well keep in mind that gigantic states like California, there’s millions more to come in from California. Washington too. There’s millions more coming from Illinois. By the end of it, it’s probably going to be a turnout of 10 million more than what you are seeing right here.” (0:45-1:05)
And these are fact checks that the conservatives should keep in mind too, because tons of people on that side have also been using preliminary voter turnout data to further prove that 2020 was stolen, that millions of votes then must have been fake, but no.[]
2024’s turnout is expected to grow significantly once all is said and done.
The other big theory has to do with Elon Musk’s Starlink, but outlets like Politifact have already debunked conspiracy theories related to that.
With some claiming that the Starlink internet provider manipulated vote counts.
But as Politifact noted, major swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, the list goes on, have protocols ensuring that voting equipment is never connected to the internet during ballot tabulation, and generally speaking, voting machines usually are not internet-connected anyways.
With the outlet adding:
“Even if Starlink had somehow been used to modify the vote count, there are systems designed to catch tabulation discrepancies.”
With Politifact finding little evidence that Starlink was widely used in elections in the first place.
And it is worth noting that there are some differences in the misinformation we saw this election compared to last.
Right in 2020, and even this year, Republicans were really setting the stage to call for fraud, though after their victory, their fraud concerns mysteriously went away.
Also, with 2024, it’s largely just civilians online spreading theories and not politicians, like when Trump and elected members of his party were claiming it was rigged.
But so far, Kamala has held a press conference at a landscaping company to demand a recount.
So you have tons of people on the left saying it is time to just touch some grass before we get too deep, people like activist Olivia Who-lee-on-uh saying:
“The election wasn’t stolen. We lost. You sound insane. Stop it!”[]
Hasan Piker also reacting to a bunch of these theories and saying:
“These people are doing the same exact thing that Republicans do. Which is not understanding a process and then because of your own personal inability of understanding the process works, you are now imaging an alternate scenario.” (7:36-7:52)
With him also adding that he feels it is his responsibility to push back on any misinformation, no matter what side it is coming from.
“If something is demonstrably untrue, then I’m gonna call it out. (10:15-10:19)
“If your expectation for me is to not tell people they are wrong, and I do this for the left, I do this for liberals, I always do this for the right, if your expectation is that I sit back and watch this mainstreamification of unhinged conspiracy theories that Republicans engaged with in the 2020 election defeat from the side of liberals, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m not going to feed into people’s delusions.” (10:24-10:49)
And I know i did not get to touch on every single thing people are calling out as sus, but I would love to know your thoughts on this, if you have seen these conspiracies at all.
And what do you think these conspiracy theories speak to, what you think it says about the state of our nation here.
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Marni’i Washington Follow-Up
Let’s talk about Marn’i Washington and the FEMA situation.
Because, like many of you pointed out in the comments, there was a part of this story that we missed when we covered this yesterday.
With that being Marni’s side - which she gave to the Washington Examiner in an exclusive interview. []
And she started by saying that the language in the screenshotspublished by the Daily Wire was shorthand and she gave some context.
Telling the Examiner that she had warned her supervisors that there were streets her team wasn’t able to complete because of, quote, “hostile political encounters.” []
With Marni even saying that those hostile confrontations included threats to the lives of FEMA workers, adding,
“The running trend of those encounters just so happened to [be at houses that] have Trump campaign signage. The notation that was leaked had nothing to do with their political stance. It was with the objective of safety.” []
And that’s not coming out of nowhere - right, a few weeks ago, we covered the threats the FEMA workers were facing amid a storm of misinformation and conspiracy theories.
And so Marni is demanding that FEMA turn over the incident reports showing the hostility her team faced that led to her making this choice. []
Which, according to the Examiner, was backed by Marni’s supervisors - who encouraged and supported her decision to skip certain streets in the name of safety. []
She went on to say that the real issue at hand here is that FEMA isn’t giving its employees enough resources and protection to safely provide help to every household. []
Adding,
“Everybody deserves a chance at disaster relief, and they have not figured out a way [to accomplish that] without subjecting their teammates to hostile work environments.” []
Now, when this story broke, Marni says she started receiving death threats and FEMA promised her they would take care of it but they told her not to talk to the media.
Instead, she says they ghosted her and, quote, “used my silence and allegiance to subject me to more scrutiny and to use me as a scapegoat for what’s going on.” []
And as this story gains traction, moreandmoreheadlinesarepopping up solidifying the narrative of a FEMA supervisor skipping over people simply cause they’re Trump supporters.
So we’re going to have to see what happens from here.
In the meantime, now that Marni’s side of the story is out there, what are your thoughts about this?
Let me know in those comments down below
-Marni’i interview:
FEMA preaches avoidance - not an isolated incident
Not only in FL, also the Carolinas
Again demands incident reports
Clarifies that she is a reservist, with a regular job, asked to go on deployments to areas where natural diasters have struck
Also fired from her personal position
Shared text message clarifying that leadership was aware of her decision to move on from a politically hostile neighborhood
Claimed that FEMA was deleting all of the documentation under her name,
Instead of protecting their people, decided to make it known to Donald Trump that they ally with him because they fear retribution [BYTE]
Claims the leak didn’t come from FEMA but a partner company
Homes were omitted because of political hostility and safety reasons
Clairifed the FEMA requires everyone to document when an encounter is politically hostile
Shared maps of all of the homes her teams canvassed
Clairfies that she makes the decision to move on from a street when her team has 3 hostile encounters
Clarifying that if a trend is present where people with Trump signs are being hostile on this street, they are going to avoid those homes.
Says that teams hae encountered hostility from other political affiliations and homes with no signage
Has a direct response to the right calling her out - 1:45:14, ish
People calling and harassing her
Email example
Welcomes a republican investigation so she can present her information
No longer lives in her home, family’s been impacted, fired, threatened
1:48 in frame
And while I was recording today, Marni appeared in a segment of Roland Martin’s livestream where she dove deeper into her side of the story.
Saying that FEMA preaches avoidance first and deescalation second and this particular situation of homes being skipped isn’t isolated.
And rather than find a solution for the hostility their workers experience, she says that FEMA is using this opportunity to ally themselves with Trump, saying,
She went on to tell Roland that yes, if homes with Trump signs on a certain street are causing problems, they are going to avoid other homes with Trump signs.
But the same can be said for homes of a different or no political affiliation - which has happened.
And she detailed the impact that this situation has had on her personally - saying she lost not only her position with FEMA but also her other job.
She’s gotten threatening calls and emails and had to move out of her house.
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People are dumping Twitter/X after the election.
And right now, a lot of people are choosing Bluesky as their new home.
With the platform's COO telling The Verge that in the last week, Bluesky has gained over 700,000 new users.
The majority of these news users come from the US.
Right now, when it comes to Twitter alternatives, Threads still has more users than Bluesky, but it has had a really rapid growth in recent weeks.
It had just nine million users in September, but now has 14.5 million.[]
With people really starting to flock over in October after Twitter modified its blocking feature.
And now, the election is starting another big move.
With social media researcher Axel Bruns telling The Guardian:
“It’s become a refuge for people who want to have the kind of social media experience that Twitter used to provide, but without all the far-right activism, the misinformation, the hate speech, the bots and everything else.”
Because, as you probably know, Twitter is owned by Elon Musk, whose super PAC spent about $200 million to elect Trump to the presidency.
Reports also saying he has stuck close to Trump ever since the election to influence major transition and administration decisions.
And so you had one historian who recently joined Bluesky also telling The Guardian:
“I am still on X but after January, when X could be owned by a de facto member of the Trump administration, its functions as a Trump propaganda outlet and far-right radicalization machine could be accelerated.”
And that is obviously a big turn off for a lot of people, who are making the choice to no longer support a Musk-backed platform that is becoming increasingly right wing.
That and a lot of people just feel that Twitter has become angrier and more hostile.
The likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Crotez saying she won’t even announce her presence on Bluesky to Twitter because she does not want to “inadvertently cause an influx of all the worst accounts on the internet.”[]
With her also adding:[]
“Good GOD it’s nice to be in a digital space with other real human beings.”
“A thing I like here is it’s okay to have moments of happiness in public without being broadly scolded, and I believe that sustaining this kind of humanity will be very important as we resist fascism.”[]
And it's not just political accounts making the move, Taylor Swift fans have actually gotten a lot of credit for moving the party to Bluesky.
With tons of them posting about what they are calling the Great Swiftie Migration.[][][][]
The CEO of Bluesky even welcoming Taylor’s fans aboard. []
And tons of Swifties are optimistic that this change will allow for them to turn a new leaf in stan posting, to make communities less toxic and spiteful.[][]
Even non-Swifties are noticing their presence and applauding this migration by saying things like:[]
“Taylor Swift fans having a coherent orderly exit from Twitter based on their values and interests not being respected is exhibiting more personal dignity and organizing power than any actual group of elected officials right now lol.”
With one Swiftie explaining to Wired:
“After the election, the timeline was full of Swifties getting DMs from Trump supporters threatening rape or sexual assault and making sexually violent comments gloating because Trump won.”[]
“I love the idea of building a new community here and would love not to have to support Elon in any way.”
Right now, the person they are most hoping will join them in this migration is Taylor Swift herself, as she is still not on Bluesky.[]
But it is not too hard to imagine that she might, as she is using Twitter less and less.
She used to post Eras Tour round ups there, but stopped earlier this year and now only puts them on Instagram.
And there is reason to believe she may not love Elon, not just because of their political differences,
But after she called herself a “childless cat lady” while endorsing Kamala, he tweeted: “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.”[]
And many found that to just be absurdly creepy at best.
So we will have to see if a big stan migration can move the artist over to a new platform, and if other stans start following suit.
Because, even though there is a big move happening, some of these people are still also using Twitter, right, it is not dead in a ditch or anything.
So it will be interesting to see if this is something that Twitter even feels, or how big this migration has to get for it to hurt Twitter.
But in the meantime, I would love to know your thoughts on this one.
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“Your body, my choice”: harassment towards women surges on social media after Trump win, fueled by right-wing voices like Nick Fuentes
Men are being even more horrible on the internet than usual.
Right, since the election, sexist attacks and hate speech against women have dramatically increased on social media platforms.
If you’re active on TikTok in America, you may have seen some of this — or at least seen people responding to it.
And particularly, the phrase “your body, my choice” has been thrown around the platform a lot and commented on videos posted by women discussing what the election means for them and their bodily autonomy.
And that refrain really started to gain so much traction after the white nationalist Holocaust-denying podcaster Nick Fuentes posted this video on X:
“The feel when you’re totally not pressed. The feel when we control your bodies. Hey, bitch, we control your bodies. Guess what, guys win again, okay? Men win again, and yes, we control your bodies.” (00:01 - 00:15)
“It’s your body, my choice.And men win again. Men win again! There will never be a female president, never ever. There will never be a female president ever!” (00:24 - 00:39)
“We will keep you down forever. You will never control your own bodies. You will never be the president of the global empire. Never gonna happen, sweetie. Your body, our choice.” (00:49 - 1:06)
Right, and as of recording, that video has gotten more than 19 million views.
But apparently, Fuentes didn’t feel like the message was clear enough, because he also wrote another post saying:
“Your body, my choice. Forever.”[]
With that post getting more than 90 million views.
And since then, that exact phrase — “Your body, my choice. Forever.” — has been shared all over social media.
Now, with all this, it has since been reported that Fuentes was doxxed and his address was leaked after making those posts.
With the hacker collective Anonymous tweeting over the weekend:
“Nick Fuentes has been fully doxed and it's being shared to millions of women across every social media platform.”[]
You also had people on X saying that his house has now been blurred on Google Maps, and some claiming that he had to flee to his parent's house because of the doxxing — but none of that has been verified.
Fuentes, for his part, has not confirmed the doxxing or anything else as of recording, but he did retweet a post by Candace Owens that referenced another story that has been circulating X about Fuentes pepper spraying a woman who showed up at his house.[]
With users also sharing a picture they claim shows Fuentes using pepper spray during the alleged incident.
Right, and regarding that story, we’ve also seen a 57-year-old woman who goes by Marla Rose on Facebook claiming that she was the person Fuentes pepper sprayed.
Saying she rung his doorbell after another woman showed up in front of Fuentes’ house and egged her on.
Adding, “I cannot back down from anything that even smacks of a dare.”
So I rang the doorbell, he immediately swing the door open like he was at damn Waco, sprayed me with a burning liquid (Pepper spray? Mace?) and pushed me down the stairs onto his sidewalk.”
After that, according to her account, the cops show up to question everyone.
Though no one seems to be filing any charges,
But Marla Rose still included his address a couple of times in her post and throughout the whole thing, she really digs into him.
Now, all that said, this whole situation of sexist abuse and harassment online goes way beyond just Nick Fuentes.
And this isn’t just anecdotal evidence — there is literal data that backs this up.
Right, research from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue — ISD — shows that just for the 24-hour period between last Thursday and Friday, there was a 4,600% increase in mentions of the terms “your body, my choice” and “get back in the kitchen” on X.
And during that same period, “your body, my choice” started trending on Facebook with at least 52,000 posts.
Meanwhile, on TikTok, ISD found that:
“female users are reporting that accounts are commenting ‘your body, my choice’ en masse on their posts.”
And to make shit even more concerning, the organization also reported that the phrase:
“appears to have made its way offline, specifically into schools. Young girls and parents have used social media to share instances of offline harassment. They include the phrase being directed at them within schools or chanted by young boys in classes.”
But that isn’t the only form of the sexist abuse and harassment women have been facing online.
On Election Day, similar sexist language received 64,000 mentions from more than 42,000 accounts on X.
With the report specifically flagging the use of the term “dumb cunt” to target Harris, TV personalities like Rachel Maddow, and others.
ISD also saw major increases in posts calling for the repeal of the 19th Amendment — which gave women the right to vote.
Posts making those demands during election week spiked 663% from the week before.
And those posts had huge reach on some platforms like X, where the top 10 received more than 4 million views collectively.
Right, and ISD says that the attacks we’re seeing right now are fundamentally different from similar harassment they documented after the 2020 and 2022 election cycles.
With the report explaining that this content has always flourished in the manosphere — which is the interconnected group of online communities that promote varying forms of misogyny, male supremacy, anti-feminism, and sometimes violence against women.
But the unprecedented magnitude and spread of this content show that these bad actors have been emboldened by Trump’s re-election.
Which they view as a broad endorsement of their beliefs and an open invitation to come out of their corners of the internet and bring their views to the mainstream.
And honestly, it really shouldn’t be surprising that they’re getting this kind of validation from Trump’s re-election.
Right, Trump himself has continuously used similar misogynistic language.
I mean, we’re literally talking about the “grab ‘em by the pussy” guy.
Hell, just during this election cycle alone, he was indicted and convicted on charges of sexual abuse and defamation in E. Jean Carroll’s legal case against him.
He’s also repeatedly hurled sexist insults at Harris and called her a “bitch” multiple times.
And, of course, he can’t stop bragging about appointing the three Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade.
Which, when you break it down to its core, is the same as bragging about taking away women’s rights to their own bodily autonomy.
And so the millions and millions of Americans who voted for him, they effectively endorsed all of that.
By giving him your vote, you’re saying “I’m ok with this, even if I don’t believe it.”
And many experts note that, at the same time, you have all these huge names that already carry a lot of weight among younger men like Joe Rogan, Jake Paul, and Adin Ross further normalizing Trump’s rhetoric not only by openly supporting him —
But going even further by platforming him and making him seem likable.
So while this is obviously upsetting, it really isn’t that shocking.
And unfortunately, it’s unlikely to go away anytime soon — especially because it’s still able to run rampant on social media.
Right, we all know that Elon Musk won’t do shit — he’s literally played into all of this himself — so it’s no shocker all this content is still up on the platform and gaining views.
And TikTok, meanwhile, has told reporters that multiple phrases flagged by the ISD report violate their community guidelines for hate speech.
This including “your body, my choice,” “get back to the kitchen,” and “repeal the 19th.”
With a spokesperson saying that content that includes those phrases is removed from the platform, unless they are speaking out against that kind of language.
But my team was able to easily find videos with “your body, my choice,” comments on them, as well as other videos defending and promoting the phrase.
And unfortunately, as long as social media platforms let this shit continue, I don’t see any way that we can stop it because it has just become so normalized.
But I’d really like to hear from you — what do you make of all this? Especially if you’ve encountered this content online?
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Officials condemn racist text messages sent to Black residents in at least 32 states, with those texts telling Black people they’ve been "selected for cotton picking" or to become "a slave."
But it’s not just women fending off these sort of attacks.
Right now, there is a nationwide campaign targeting countless numbers of Black Americans and telling them to get ready to become slaves.
With them getting texts like this:
“You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation. Be ready by 12 am November 13th SHARP with your belongings. Our executive slaves will come get you in a Brown Van. Be prepared to be searched down once you’ve entered the plantation. You are in Plantation Group D.”
And there are little differences here and there – usually with the date, the color of the van, or the “plantation group,”
But one of the most disturbing things here is that a lot of these texts include the recipient’s name at the top.
Some of the senders even seem to hint they know the recipient’s general locations cause they list local sites where the recipients need to “report.” []
And if that wasn’t freaky enough, these messages aren’t just being sent out to adults – reportedly kids are even getting them. []
With one mom who spoke to CBS Mornings furious after her 8th grade daughter got one of the texts:
“They didn’t say they were coming to get all of us. They’re saying– you talk about coming to get my child, right, removing my child from me to bring her back to something that’s not even legal, never going to happen. And how dare you even send it to her, how dare you even think that that’s something that would be funny to anybody.” (2:14-2:29)
And one mom in Santa Monica, California, taking matters into her own hands,
Saying she’s spent the last 5 days uncovering dozens of Black students in Santa Monica High School alone that have received the texts. []
And now, she’s calling for increased security for Black kids in Santa Monica schools.
Meanwhile, activists from neighboring communities in LA are now even reportedly demanding that a state of emergency be called for Black students. []
But this is much more widespread than just the LA area.
CBS News says Black Americans across 32 states, as well as in D.C., have gotten these texts since Wednesday last week once it was clear Trump won the election. []
Around that same time, the FBI released a statement saying it was aware of the texts and is working with the DOJ and federal authorities, []
Denver PD’s bias-motivated crimes unit has said it’s looking into two specific cases, []
And multiple school districts have confirmed Black students are being targeted.
But as far as where these texts are coming from?
It seems to be a mix – Louisiana’s attorney general saying some of the messages appear to have been sent from emails routed through VPNs in Poland. []
Though that doesn’t mean the senders are necessarily in Poland.
Meanwhile, CBS reporting that some numbers came from TextNow, which allows people to create free phone numbers. []
TextNow also confirming with several outlets that it shut down accounts sending these messages. []
And a similar service – TextSpot – telling CNN its AI actually prevented at least one of these messages from getting out,
Saying the AI flagged the message, allowing staff to block it and ban the user. []
CBS also claims it spoke with a person who sent one of the texts, with that person reportedly telling the outlet it was a prank before quickly hanging up.[]
And yeah, there’s likely a number of people who saw this starting to trend, thought it’d be “funny,” and sent out a few texts to people they know,
But you also have a software professor telling the AP that an initial, more coordinated effort involving the relatively cheap purchase of heaps of personal data is likely to blame here. []
Explaining that “when combined with other data, such as places of residence or past purchases… it can be easy to use machine-learning algorithms to infer demographic information.”
And saying, “All of this means it might be easier than most people realize to make a really good guess about the race or ethnicity of the person attached to that phone number.”
But unlike TextSpot, for better or worse, the U.S. doesn’t have a filtering system in place that would have flagged any of these messages as suspicious or unwanted.
Now, with all that said, I’ll pass both this story and the “your body, my choice” off to you.
Especially if you’ve been targeted in either one of these campaigns, I’d love to hear from you if you want to share.
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Aid groups say Israel has failed to meet US aid demands by today’s deadline, Israeli minister says Trump’s victory means the ‘time has come’ to annex parts of West Bank, Israeli continues assault on Lebanon while claiming progress in ceasefire talks
Part 1: US Aid Deadline
But then, let’s talk about the US saying it will not limit arms transfers to Israel after some improvements in flow of aid to Gaza.
Right, last month, the Biden administration sent a letter demanding Israel take steps within 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
And specifically, among other demands, the administration called on Israel to allow a minimum of 350 truckloads of aid in every day;
open a fifth crossing into the territory;
allow people in Israeli-imposed coastal tent camps to move inland before the winter;
and ensure access for aid groups to northern Gaza.
And with that, also without being too specific, the administration suggested that Israel’s failure to do so could threaten the provision of American military aid.
And now, thirty days have passed, and the Biden administration is saying enough progress has been made to keep that from happening.
Though, notably, that’s as aid groups say Israel has failed to meet the US demands, claiming conditions are worse than at any point in the 13-month-old war.
Right, eight international aid groups working in Gaza released a report today finding that Israel had failed to comply with almost all of America’s demands.
With the report saying:
“Israel not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza.”
And with that, let’s talk specifics.
The amount of aid reaching Gaza has actually dropped to its lowest level in almost a year.
And to be clear, that’s according to official Israeli figures.
Right, statistics from the military authority responsible for coordinating aid to Gaza show that only around 25,000 tonnes of food aid entered the territory in October.
That’s less than in any full month since December of 2023.
Also, according to the Israeli stats, only 57 trucks a day on average were allowed to cross into Gaza in October.
That’s far short of the 350 trucks a day demanded by the US, as well as the 600 a day that aid agencies say are really needed.
And it doesn’t seem like it’s gotten any better in November either.
Right, so far, only 624 trucks have entered this month.
And that may or may not include more than 170 trucks and fuel tankers that were allowed in on Sunday, but either way, it’s still far from enough.
And with that, that surge in deliveries this weekend? It may be part of a last-minute push by Israel to look like it’s trying.
Right, on Monday, for example, Israel announced a small expansion of its coastal “humanitarian zone,” where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been sheltering in tent camps.
And today, after the aid groups published their report, the Israeli military announced the opening of a fifth crossing.[]
But of course, many say it’s too little too late.
Especially with many saying Israel has been at the same time making it harder to get aid in.
Right, Israeli officials reject the claim that they’re deliberately holding up aid, instead blaming aid groups for failing to organize its distribution and Hamas for stealing shipments.
Aid groups, however, say coordinating with the Israeli military is difficult and time-consuming, with many requests getting turned down.
In October, for example, aid agencies say Israeli authorities directly denied or impeded 58 percent of aid movements.
And since May, only a tenth of more than 300 requests to issue permits to individual drivers have been granted.
And then, finally, the fact that Israel is still waging war after obliterating most of the territory makes things kind of difficult.
With the UN saying it is Israel’s responsibility as the occupying power to facilitate the safe passage of aid inside Gaza.
And also saying that it cannot distribute aid if Israel’s military operations mean it is too dangerous.
I mean, dozens have been killed in just the past couple days.
Right, Palestinian medics said Israeli strikes killed at least 37 people in several parts of the Gaza Strip overnight and into this morning.
And then, later today, an Israeli strike reportedly killed 11 Palestinians in Rafah.
Also, four Israeli soldiers were killed in northern Gaza yesterday.
And with that, like I mentioned before, northern Gaza is where a lot of the attention has been lately.
Right, Israel just launched a major offensive last month in northern Gaza.
And the operation has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands.
Also, Israel has allowed almost no aid to enter the area, where tens of thousands of civilians have stayed despite evacuation orders.
And with that, A UN-backed panel has warned again that famine is imminent in northern Gaza.
And notably, this is the same part of the territory it first rained death and destruction after Hamas killed 1,200 and took more than 200 hostages in October 2023.
And now, Israel has eliminated much of Hamas’s senior military leadership, killed thousands of its fighters and collapsed many of its tunnels — yet Israel has shown no sign of letting up.
And this all ties into the discussion of what Israeli’s real aims are and what will take for this to end.
Right, there’s also concerns that what’s taking place is ethnic cleansing.
And just to sum up the situation, more than 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been displaced and more than two-thirds of buildings have been destroyed or damaged.
Most Gazans face extreme hunger and the medical system has been devastated.
Overall, nearly 70 percent of the 43,500 people killed in Gaza have been women and children.
And as someone pointed out in the comments yesterday, that number may very well be a huge underestimate, when you factor in deaths linked to these other consequences of the war - hunger, healthcare, and what have you.
With one rough estimate this summer putting the true potential death toll close to 200,000.
And all that, along with past comments by Israeli officials, have led to activists, Israeli academics, and the ICJ say that it’s at the very least "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide.
Though, of course, many disagree.
But in any case, this is all also the reason for so much criticism of the Biden-Harris administration.
And that brings us back to this deadline.
I mean, just a couple weeks ago, you had a State Department spokesman Matthew Miller conceding Israel was getting a “fail” grade on improving aid to Gaza.
But as of recording, we’re still waiting to see how the US will respond.
With a lot of people skeptical that it’ll follow through.
And of course, the recent election may be a factor.
Right, because we don’t really know what Trump will do when he takes office, though he has a history of supporting Israel.
And with that, we’re already seeing how some Israeli officials are excited about his victory.
Part 2 West Bank
And specifically, you have Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Bets-uh-lel Smote-rich) - LISTEN) suggesting that Trump winning the election means the time has come to annex parts of the West Bank.
Specifically, saying
“...the current administration chose to interfere in Israeli democracy and personally refused to cooperate with me…”
Adding: Trump’s victory also brings an important opportunity.”
And finally, claiming the “only way to remove” the “threat” of a Palestinian state “is to apply Israeli sovereignty over the entire settlements in Judea and Samaria.”
And while this is just one guy, we’ve seen signs that this isn’t just empty talk.
Right, Netanyahu, for example, announced that Israel’s next ambassador to the US will be someone who has advocated for annexing large parts of the West Bank and argued against Palestinian statehood.
The same can be said for Israel’s new foreign minister.
Right, you have him saying the issue was discussed with Trump before and will likely be discussed again.
With him also adding:
"It is important to state that Israel sees what we call Judea and Samaria and others call the West Bank not as occupied territories but as disputed territories."
And to be very clear there, the West Bank is occupied territory according to the UN and virtually every country on earth, including the US.
Right, Israel has occupied the territory since 1967.
And in the decades since, it has expanded illegal Jewish settlements in the area.
And in fact, over just the past year, while Israel has been waging war in Gaza, it has also been overseeing a major escalation of violence in The West Bank.
Right, more than 700 Palestinians have reportedly been killed there since the war began.
Also, Israel has approved massive land seizures and major settlement construction, escalated demolition of Palestinian property, and increased support for settler outposts originally built in violation of not only international but also Israeli law.
And notably, some of this led to to the Biden administration saying Israel's expansion of settlements is inconsistent with international law –
Which was actually a return to what had been long-standing U.S. policy until Trump.
Also, the Biden Administration has stepped up sanctions on Israeli settlers, including by putting them in place against two entire outposts for the very first time.
Trump, on the other hand, is expected by many to lift sanctions.
But ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see what Trump actually does, and if and how much it differs from current policy.
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