On the murder of U.S. journalist Shireen Abu Akleh
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The essence of this post is that the U.S. investigation of the death of Shireen Abu Akleh essentially soft-pedaled or played down the fact that she was both targeted and then assassinated by the IDF as not to aggravate Israel. Typical. RJP
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“Colonel Gabavics said he and others on the team agreed that the Israeli soldier who shot Ms. Abu Akleh must have known that he was shooting at a journalist, though they did not believe that the shooter was targeting Ms. Abu Akleh specifically.
“Colonel Gabavics said he concluded the shooting was deliberate based on several factors:
“- Records of Israeli military radio traffic on the morning before the shooting showed that soldiers were aware of journalists in the area, he said. And there had been no gunfire coming from the journalists’ direction that might make the Israeli soldiers likely to shoot toward them in self-defense, he said.
“- There was an Israeli military vehicle down the road from Ms. Abu Akleh that morning. A sniper watching the road from inside the vehicle would have been able to see the journalists clearly, Colonel Gabavics said.
“- When he visited the scene of the shooting hours after it occurred, he said, his colleagues, wearing blue vests similar to Ms. Abu Akleh’s navy-blue protective vest marked “Press,” positioned themselves where she had fallen. They were visible to him from where the shooter’s vehicle had been, he said.
“- Colonel Gabavics said that the precision of the shots, hitting Ms. Abu Akleh’s head and a carob tree near her, did not suggest an uncontrolled spray of gunfire. That, together with the fact that the shooter fired first at Ms. Abu Akleh’s producer, then at her, then at a passerby who tried to help, indicated to him the shooting was deliberate, he said.”
But, the July 4, 2022, State Department statement on the matter attributed the shooting only to “tragic circumstances.”
As Stephen G. tells the Times, “he and his colleagues ‘were just flabbergasted that this is what they put out.’ That the U.S. government avoided calling it intentional, he said, ‘continued to be on my conscience nonstop.'”
In May of 2024, Stacy Gilbert resigned from the State Department because senior officials insisted on writing a report to Congress that refused to reflect the facts of Israel’s actions towards Gaza. Now today we have a story of a U.S. Army Colonel almost being fired – and certainly being silenced by his chain of command – because he, too, wanted to see the facts, in this case regarding the murder of an American citizen, see the light.
And, of course, in my own resignation I pointed to a long history of the U.S. refusing to apply the Leahy Law to Israel’s security forces.
The U.S. Government must release all information it has regarding the death of Shireen Abu Akleh and all U.S. citizens killed by Israeli security forces. There should not be any partner whose impunity outweighs the lives of our own people.
State Department ruling refusing Gaza children access to U.S. medical treatment remains in force. Diana De Gette commits to look into this.
Palestinian children in Gaza … the midst of a genocide, perpetrated by Israel, largely with U.S. weapons and strategic satellite advice
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What is noticeable from a simple Google scan is that those children that were able to receive treatment here in the USA got considerable publicity locally. Abdul Aziz’s Colorado visit received wide local media coverage. The same is true for Palestinian children in other states as media reporting in the Bay Area, Seattle and other cities indicates. Such media attention, although essentially local humanitarian reports sheds light on the horrors of Israel’s genocidal war of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. It not only greatly embarrasses – and exposes – the murderous IDF campaign to target civilians, including women and children, but it also sheds vivid light on how that enormous store of U.S. weaponry is being used in Gaza against civilians.
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At a meeting with U.S. Congresswoman Diana DeGette, among other things, constituents criticized the State Department decision to refuse Palestinian Gaza children US visa access to U.S. medical facilities. In attendance were members of Colorado’s Palestinian Community, two representatives of Front Range Jewish Voice for Peace and Dr. Mohamed Kuziez, Syrian pediatrician who spearheads Colorado’s “Doctors Against Genocide”. Kuziez spent three weeks in Gaza through Doctors against Genocide caring for wounded Palestinian children, victims of Israeli aggression there.
While refusing to sign on to the Block The Bomb Act, Congresswoman DeGette committed to using her influence to reverse the State Department ban.
As the August 16, 2025 edition of the NY Times noted at the time of decision: “The Trump Administration announced … that it had `paused’ approval of visitor visas for `people from Gaza’, a key pathway for those seeking medical care in the United States, including children who arrived in recent weeks with serious conditions”.
The article, while true enough, is deceptive.
The State Department didn’t just “pause” providing visas for wounded Gazans to receive medical treatment, it canceled such visas. Three months later (at the time of this writing) there has been no change in the policy, nor has there been any State Department “review” (as promised) to determine if the entry of such people represents “a threat to national security” – an allegation that is ludicrous beyond belief. Nor are these visa restrictions, as the Times put it restricting entry to “people from Gaza”. These “people” requesting visas are all children from the ages of 6 to 15, children being targeted by the Israel Defense Force (IDF).
The headline of an article on the same subject from the British news source, The Guardian, was more forthright, more honest. It read, “U.S. state department stops issuing visas for Gaza’s children. That article details the role of rightwing personality Laura Loomer, who apparently has access to President Trump. Loomer proudly describes herself as “pro-White nationalist and a `proud Islamophobe” – in other words an unabashed racist. On social media – she has a large following – Loomer misrepresented the wounded children, including amputees arriving for prosthetic legs as “Islamic invaders from an Islamic terror hot zone”.
Abdul Aziz arrives in Denver from Gaza and Cairo. He is greated by his uncle at Denver International Airport (late January, 2025). R.Prince photo.
Before the visa ban went into effect, several Gaza children were given visas for medical treatment in Colorado. One of them was Abdul Aziz, in Colorado Springs for a prosthetic leg. He lost his leg – it being amputated above the knee, after being hit by shrapnel from an Israeli bombing in Gaza. The amputation was conducted with no anesthetic as Israel has prevented the entry of virtually all medical supplies and equipment into Gaza. He was brought to Colorado through the auspices of HEAL PALESTINE, a non-profit humanitarian aid organization dedicated to providing medical assistance and relief to those in need.
Why would the Trump Administration go so far as to prevent wounded Palestinian kids, those who have lost limbs and suffered other serious injuries, from entering the United States for medical treatment? It seems – and is – so cruel. From the data I could find online, while the number of children needing such care as a result of the Gaza genocide is today somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 – that at the time of the ban, less than 70 had been given medical visas. Another local physician besides Kuziez related that even those granted visa entry had difficulty finding facilities that would be willing to care for them – which is a story in and of itself that deserves attention.
I suspect that Laura Loomer’s much vaunted access to the White House was simply a pretext for a more substantial reason for the visa denial, and that she and her shrill pronouncements provide the Trump Administration with a pretext to undercut the growing sentiment here that the U.S. is supporting a genocide.
What is noticeable from a simple Google scan is that those children that were able to receive treatment here in the USA got considerable publicity locally. Abdul Aziz’s Colorado visit received wide local media coverage. The same is true for Palestinian children in other states as media reporting in the Bay Area, Seattle and other cities indicates. Such media attention, although essentially local humanitarian reports sheds light on the horrors of Israel’s genocidal war of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. It not only greatly embarrasses – and exposes – the murderous IDF campaign to target civilians, including women and children, but it also sheds vivid light on how that enormous store of U.S. weaponry is being used in Gaza against civilians.
What more vivid way to expose the U.S. role in supporting Israel in Gaza than to have the victims its policies treated in American hospitals? Very bad p.r. and p.r is the name of the game these days.
Let us see if De Gette can turn this “visa blockade” around.
Lowell Fey’s Obituary
Lowell with his children. Carol, Tom, Nancy and David., Palmyra Nebraska. 2011
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R Lowell Fey, PhD, age 99 of Nebraska City, NE passed away on Tuesday, October 14, 2025 at Morton Place in Nebraska City, NE.
R Lowell Fey was born on June 11, 1926 in rural Unadilla, NE; the son of Louis Ralph and Nora Elizabeth (Rodaway) Fey. He graduated from Unadilla High School with the Class of 1943.
He attended Nebraska Wesleyan College until entering the U.S. Navy in 1944. He specialized in the new technology of radar until his honorable discharge on July 4, 1946. Following his service, he returned to Nebraska Wesleyan, obtaining his Physics Degree in 1948. Lowell worked in Washington D.C. at the Naval Research Laboratory, then at the National Bureau of Standards, moving to the new NBS Labs in Boulder, CO in 1956. At these institutions he worked on developing the Atomic Clock. In the 1960s, he worked in conjunction with NASA coordinating time signals between satellite tracking stations in support of the Apollo space program. In 1968, he took his family to Braunschweig, West Germany where he had arranged a one-year work exchange. He retired in 1973.
Lowell had a thirst for learning, studying at Colorado State University where he received a Master’s in Agronomy, and later at the University of Colorado at Boulder where he received his Ph.D. in Geography. He was an active member of the Unitarian Fellowship and worked with the Boulder-Jalapa Friendship City Project. He was a man ahead of his time; in the 1960s he started an organic farm called Stonebridge Farm near Lyons, CO and was a founder of the Boulder Farmers Market.
He married Arvilla Mae Lange on April 26, 1950 in Western, NE and they shared 54 years together before her passing in November of 2004.
In 1997, Lowell and Arvilla moved to Nebraska City where he was very active in the community. He was a Board Member for the Center of Rural Affairs, belonged to Nebraskans for Peace, and played trombone in the Southeast Nebraska Community Band. He also was a patron of the Brownville Concert Series, Brownville, NE. Lowell loved to travel and visited many countries around the world.
Those left to cherish his memory include his children: Nancy E. Fey of Denver, CO, Thomas S. Fey of Monroe, WI, Carol F. Chatfield of Boulder, CO and David L. Fey of Lakewood, CO; three grandchildren; Molly Prince of Denver, CO, Abbie Prince of Denver, CO and Miranda Chatfield of Denver, Co, and two great-grandchildren. He had many good friends in the Nebraska City area; Jan Wright, Janet Palmtag, and Tim and Linda Engel were especially devoted.
Lowell was preceded in death by his wife, his parents, and brother and sister-in-law Robert and Barb Fey.
A Memorial Service to celebrate his life will be held at a later time. He will be laid to rest at Plainview Cemetery at Western, NE next to his late wife Arvilla.
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Flock:
Flock users like Denver police can let local law enforcement agencies around the country search their Flock data, and Denver previously allowed national searches on its 111 cameras. When searchers, which are primarily out-of-state police departments, access the data, they are asked to enter a reason for the search. The Denver audit logs show that in many instances, those reasons were “ICE” or “immigration.” About 690 of the immigration-related searches happened after President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
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ACLU on Flock: Fight for the Right to Privacy
Frequent immigration-related searches of Denver Flock camera data revealed in logs
KNUC – August 10, 2025
“I am just flabbergasted that we allowed these cameras to keep running in the city with not even a contract in place,” Parady said.
Data collected by Flock Safety license plate readers across Denver was accessed in immigration-related national searches more than 1,400 times between June 2024 and April 2025, according to audit logs that Newsline obtained from the Denver Police Department.
Flock users like Denver police can let local law enforcement agencies around the country search their Flock data, and Denver previously allowed national searches on its 111 cameras. When searchers, which are primarily out-of-state police departments, access the data, they are asked to enter a reason for the search. The Denver audit logs show that in many instances, those reasons were “ICE” or “immigration.” About 690 of the immigration-related searches happened after President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
Denver turned off the national search feature in April due to concerns related to immigration enforcement.
“The logs confirm our worst fears,” said Katie Leonard, an organizer with the Denver Party for Socialism and Liberation. The group calls for Denver to end its contract with Flock.
Before Denver police disabled the national search feature, immigration-related searches of Denver cameras were conducted by police departments in cities like Dallas and Jacksonville, Florida.
A police spokesperson said in a statement that “just because a user decided to enter “ICE” as the reason, the purpose isn’t necessarily for the purpose of civil immigration enforcement,” adding that the search could be for criminal investigations. It is not known if any of the 1,400 immigration-related searches can be tied to any specific immigration enforcement actions.
Immigration crackdown
The cameras were first installed in Denver in May 2024, with Denver police calling them instrumental for reducing auto theft and other crimes. The cameras have led to 289 arrests by the department, the statement said.
But for advocates and organizations focused on civil liberties, including the ACLU Colorado, Denver’s use of the cameras to solve auto thefts does not outweigh privacy and immigrant rights concerns. Read more…
Josh Paul: ICE arrests Dallas Muslim leader who contributed to a legal, registered charity 30 years ag.
Irina Naji Palestinian kids in Jail
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(Josh Paul is a human rights activist and former director of congressional and public affairs for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, an agency within the United States Department of State. Paul resigned from his position in October 2023 in opposition to the Biden administration’s decision to continue arms transfers to Israel amid the Gaza war, making him the first Biden administration official to do so publicly). He is also, along with Tarik Habash, the founder of A New Policy – an organization dedicated to transforming American foreign policy toward Israel/Palestine to reflect American values and foundational principles of liberty, equality, democracy, and human rights; advancing American interests abroad; and protecting American freedoms at home.)
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Imagine if, 30 years ago, you hired a clown for a charity fundraiser and donated some money to help an orphan. Years later, that charity was prosecuted for alleged malfeasance. And decades after that, as you drove to pick up your kid from school, you were swarmed by federal agents and thrown in prison for giving money to an IRS-registered charity to save the life of an orphan.
That is what has happened to Dallas, TX Muslim community leader, Marwan Marouf, detained by ICE in the past weeks on the basis of charitable acts he performed in good faith in the 1990s via an organization called the Holy Land Foundation that, in the 2000s, was shut down and prosecuted for alleged support to Hamas. These are the facts – the government does not dispute them. We can have a separate discussion about that case, and whether it was fair and just, but whatever its substance, Marouf’s minimal role, 30 years ago, and before any allegations against the charity were even filed, should be no basis whatsoever for the current attempt to deport him.
It’s because of Marouf’s case – and so many others like his around the country – that I joined the Muslim Legal Fund of America in Dallas, TX, this weekend for their annual meeting.
Across America, there is an effort to repress free speech that is critical of Israel using the flimsiest of excuses. We’ve seen students grabbed off the streets for writing op-eds, State Department officials fired for questioning Israel’s narrative, and social media sites like TikTok bought out by the biggest contributor to the Friends of the IDF (which, by the way, if you want to have a discussion about questionable charities…) in an effort to get the story of Gaza out of our ears, and off our screens.
But legal defense organizations are fighting back. The MLFA is one of them, as is Palestine Legal, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and many others. And now they, too, are under attack.
It’s easy to ignore the threat they face, and the causes they represent. What do organizations with words like “Muslim,” “Palestine,” or “American-Arab” have to do with my rights, you might ask?
But the fact is, they are the ones carrying the banner today for the constitutional rights of all Americans. If they lose these fights – if criticism of Israel is a criminal act, if the government can not only ban a charity, but hold liable everyone who supported it before it was banned – we are, all of us at risk.
So I was proud to stand with MLFA this weekend, and am grateful to them for the work they are carrying out every single day, at immense personal risk and with courage, professionalism, and – I have to say – swagger – to fight for the rights and freedoms on which these United States were founded.
Read about Marouf’s case here: https://lnkd.in/edRm6Hfu
Visit and support the MLFA here: https://mlfa.org/
Support the MLFA here: https://mlfa.org/
Middle East at a Crossroads? Maybe. Are the current negotiations once again, a road to nowhere … or a serious step to end the genocide? – II
Homecoming In Gaza (source: EuroMed Human Rights Monitor)
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That having lost the veil of a surprise attack and having been hurt – if not mauled by the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza, from Yemeni missile attacks – Israel needs some breathing room to rearm and rework its plans to overthrow the Iranian government. Such an assault is not easily accomplished. Having lost the possibility of surprise, both Israel and the U.S. understand that they have in fact lost the initiative to overthrow the Iranian government. They were counting on the Iranian opposition to rise up (in the June bombings) to overthrow the government. Not only did this not happen but if anything, the Iranian population, including western oriented elements, have rallied in support of the government in face of those bombings. Still such an attack is, despite Netanyahu’s denial, still very much in the cards.
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Less than a week ago, I wrote a blog column “Middle East at a Crossroads? Maybe. Are the current negotiations once again, a road to nowhere … or a serious step to end the genocide?” In that piece a number of possible scenarios were explored. Here we are a mere three days later and already the some of the fog has lifted some.
No, the current ceasefire is not a “road to nowhere” although where it is headed remains unclear;
Before launching into where I see where the situation might be going – and here, not surprisingly the emphasis is on more war and greater regional instability in the main – a word or two about the ceasefire.
While shakey with Israel still killing Gazan Palestinians – but at a slower rate – it is holding for the most part. The sight of tens – if not hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returning to north to the wreckage that was their homes in north Gaza – is both hearwarmiong and very important. Returning home, even if “home” is an unrecognizable wreckage. If and how long the ceasefire will last is an open question.
Not only are Gaza Palestinains returning to areas of Gaza that Israel swore they would never give up but Israel hostages are being freed as are hardly spoken of thousands of Palestinian prioners in Israeli jails being released, not without complications, yes, but still a step forward. The release of the Israeli hostages is being widely televised in the United States but the release of Palestinian prisoners, themselves hostages in Israel’s war against Palestine, are hardly given any notice at all.
Is what has been agreed to a “peace deal”?
No. It is a ceasefire and between a cease fire and a peace deal there is difference – un gouffre – as the French would say. While the ceasefire is – more or less – proceeding. It, the ceasefire, is Phase One of a three phase agreement. Even it was smacked together hastily – a real rush job – and with little preparation. Read more…
photo credit R. Prince
1.
Although the steam of the anti-nuclear movement has been reduced to nearly nil, Nancy and I try to mark two occasions: August 6 – Hiroshima Day and September 10. On the latter date in 1969 the Department of Energy detonated an unground nuclear blast on the northern side of the Grand Mesa at Rulison, in Western Colorado that was part and parcel of Project Plowshare.
Two movies worth watching probe the human consequences nuclear blasts and accidents. Black Rain by Shohei Imamura (not the movie with the same title starring Michael Douglas) is, as far as I am concerned, one of the finest movies ever made. It explores the aftereffects of both nuclear and conventional war on two individuals, one a young girl who is visited by “black rain” (radioactive fallout) immediately after the Hiroshima blast, the other being a Japanese war veteran who watched his military comrades crushed to death by a tank.
There are a series of films about the Fukushima nuclear accident that explore its aftermath and the human cost – at least part of it – involved. One that we recently saw is Voices in the Wind, a slow-moving, poignant film directed by Nobuhiro Suwa that touches on unmitigated grief, the challenges of healing and importance of the human connection in the aftermath of this traumatic event.
Among the more recent aftereffects of efforts to “tame the atom” is the radioactive contamination of shrimp from Indonesia, much being removed from the shelves of U.S. grocery stores – became a news item this past summer (Summer of 2025).
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A few weeks ago, shopping at a neighborhood Safeway in Northwest Denver, I saw that a package of shrimp on sale, liked the price, and made the purchase. Shortly thereafter I began to see videos and read articles with headlines like “Walmart recalls frozen shrimp over potential radioactive contamination, AP Explains” or “More shrimp recalled for possible radiation contamination”. There was a slew of others, as any initial Google search would indication. The videos and articles all shared pretty much the same information:
BMS Foods, also known as PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati, an Indonesian shellfish supplier, is under investigation by Customs & Border Protection (CBP); a single batch of product, which was not shipped to or sold in the US, tested positive for Cesium-137 contamination. The CBP alerted the FDA, which is now also investigating. BMS Foods supplied frozen shrimp products to Walmart, which sells the product under its Great Value house brand.
Put more bluntly: a batch of shrimp from BMS Foods, an Indonesian supplier that had entered the United States was found to been contaminated with Cesium-137, a radioactive contaminant not found in nature but instead is a product of man-made nuclear reaction. The contaminated shrimp was detected by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol who in turn alerted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA initiated a shrimp recall as early as August 19 first an initial and then an expanded warning about the dangers of eating such shrimp on September 25. At first the FDA’s recall targeted frozen raw shrimp, but later the FDA added cocktail shrimp and cooked medium peeled tail-off shrimp to its list of at-risk products.
First reports were that the batch had been isolated with none of the contaminated shrimp entering the United States. But as often happens, that version of events was soon superseded by more the sobering news that the contaminated shrimp had been carried across the Pacific by more than one container ship and that, indeed, some of it had found their way to a number of U.S. ports and grocery market shelves. Tainted containers and shrimp were found at the U.S. ports of Los Angeles, Houston, Miami and Savannah. Grocery chains initially mentioned included the Walmart and Kroger food chains.
The number of effected states also grew from six in earlier reports to twenty-nine as the story progressed. As the latest FDA statement (September 25, 2025) notes:
On September 23, 2025, Southwind Foods, LLC of Carson, CA expanded its recall to include a limited quantity of Frozen Shrimp. The bagged, frozen shrimp product was distributed between June 24 – September 16, 2025, to retailers, distributors, and wholesalers in the following states: AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, HI, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, and WY. Please see the firm’s recall announcement for additional product information.
Lawrence Wholesale, LLC of Vernon, CA also recalled a limited quantity of Kroger bagged frozen shrimp and Kroger frozen shrimp products. Bagged frozen shrimp and shrimp cocktail products were sold by Kroger in the following states: AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MI, MO, MS, MT, NE, NM, NV, OH, OR, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WV, and WY. Please see the firm’s recall announcement for additional product information.
The statement continues, listing other distributor, wholesalers and grocery chains beyond Walmart and Kroger, suggesting that the radiation contamination crisis continues to expand and is much more serious than initially suggested.
2.
While the detective work pinpointing where the contaminated shrimp has entered the country continues apace with recalls mounting all the time, not every aspect of this radioactive outbreak has been explored. As John LaForge who writes for Nuke Watch Quarterly noted in the Fall, 2025 edition perceptively commented:
“None of the dozens of reports reviewed by Nuke Watch explained how the cancer-causing isotope Cs-137 – a human-made radionuclide only produced inside nuclear reactors – spread to multiple container ships”
The article goes – very much worth reading – suggests three possible sources that might have contaminated the shrimp:
- One suggestion put forth as a hypothesis is that “contamination could be from nuclear industries in China” from a food irradiation plant as the two radioactive substances most used in irradiation facilities are cobalt-60 and cesium-137. These plants tend to use very large quantities of both cobalt-60 or cesium-137.
- A second possibility – Fukushima related – the pirate fisher theory – is that that the food fed to fish farmed shrimp in Indonesia is the source of elevated cesium-137. Such materials is soften harvested by `pirate fishers could be contaminated with Fukushima-derived Cs-137, at endemically high levels in some Pacific Sea areas. This point was developed by Kimberly Robertson, Program Director for the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network.
- The third possibility, that LaForge points out, is that the contaminated shipping containers could have come into close contact with radioactive waste being shipped in the other containers on the same ship. It is also unlikely and extremely scandalous, that the same containers used to ship the shrimp had earlier been used to transport radioactive waste
At the moment the actual source of the Indonesian shrimp contamination has not been identified, or if it has, the result has not been publicly shared. The FDA has announced that the investigations as to the source continue. I would not be surprised if more and more of the investigation centers around Fukushima radiation leaks. The March 11, 2011, triple reactor meltdown at Fukushima continues to leak widespread radioactive leaks into the Pacific Ocean. TEPCO, the Japanese energy company that runs Fukushima has been unable to eliminate or even moderate the amount of radioactive material leaking into the world’s largest ocean. There are some also 880 tons of highly radioactive melted reactor fuel” still smoldering at the bottom of the three devastated reactors”.
The company producing the bag of shrimp I recently purchased is not cited on the list of companies that are a part of the current shrimp recalls but … it does come from Indonesia where virtually all the contaminated shrimp seems to be from. Much as I enjoy shrimp, as a precautionary measure, this one is going in the garbage can.
Middle East at a Crossroads? Maybe. Are the current negotiations once again, a road to nowhere … or a serious step to end the genocide?
We are at some kind of turning point – very dangerous moment that could ignite regional war or even worse or … the start of something more hopeful. It’s impossible to predict at this moment but, either am I a food at being cautiously optimistic? Just grasping at straws?
So what are the possible directions of the overall crisis – Israel’s genocide, its threats to attack Iran – in the Middle East.
I see a number of possible scenarios playing out:
- The so-called ceasefire talks between the U.S., Israel, Hamas and the Arab countries are just a ruse meant to ease Israel’s military burdens in Gaza so it can devote all its energies to another, a bigger U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran than they did on June 12 of this year. Highly possible and certainly both mainstream and alternative media have, with few exceptions, predicted as much, including key commentators that I follow. (Alastair Crooke, Danny Haiphong among them).
- That having lost the veil of a surprise attack and having been hurt – if not mauled by the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza, from Yemeni missile attacks – Israel needs some breathing room to rearm and rework its plans to overthrow the Iranian government. Such an assault is not easily accomplished. Having lost the possibility of surprise, both Israel and the U.S. understand that they have in fact lost the initiative to overthrow the Iranian government. They were counting on the Iranian opposition to rise up (in the June bombings) to overthrow the government. Not only did this not happen but if anything, the Iranian population, including western oriented elements, have rallied in support of the government in face of those bombings. Still such an attack is, despite Netanyahu’s denial, still very much in the cards.
- The “I-WANT-A-NOBEL-PRIZE” obsession of Trump’s; Weird as it migth sound – don’t underestimate this factor in the mix.. I could be, hard as it is to believe, decisive. Beyond Trump’s megalomania, there are elements in the U.S. power structure, from what I can tell especially in the military that Trump has just insulted who have counseled that it is not at all in U.S. interests to purse a military option against Iran. Also growing opposition to the Israeli genocide among Trump’s MAGA youth base is also a factor that could cause Trump and the Republicans serious defeats in the mid-term elections next year.
- So the current negotiations. Friends, opponents to U.S-Israel foreign policy have every reason to look at the current negotiations as some kind of theater where the main act will still be a military attack to “decapitate” (I hate that word) the Iranian leadership when its guard is down because negotiations are transpiring. How can we NOT distrust what Trump and Netanyahu are upto? We’ve seen how negotiations have played out before – in military action, mass assassinations and continued genocide in Gaza.
Although I have followed U.S. policy in the Middle East closely for much of my adult life, I have long ago given up predictions. Most earlier ones I have made have missed the mark to one degree or another anyway. But to be honest I am cautiously optiminstic that the negotiations currently taking place are serious and could possibly lead to as a genuine ceasefire in Gaza. Of course, I won’t believe that until all the Israeli troops – and their foreign mercenary allies – have left Gaza and the aid trucks have started to roll in uninhibited by the IDF or those sickened Israel civilians who have done everything in their power to block the aid deliveries. AND REGARDLESS, la lutta continua … but under different circumstance. Should this play out in this fashion – a historic win for Palestine and set back of major proportions both for Israel and the USA, who are joined at the hipo anyway.
No need, no reason to give up hope for ending the genocide!
Fall 2025: Bird Flu back in the lower 48, earlier than in the past and with a vengeance.
Great White Heron at Cheyenne Bottoms near Great Bend KS. October 1, 2025. There were hundreds of them there
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1.
What will this current bird migration bring? Will bird flu strike again with a vengeance? Will some variety mutate in such a way that humans can transmit it to one another? Or can it be brought under control.?
It’s referred to as “HPAI” which stands for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, known more commonly as simply bird flu. It appears that with this fall migration that it is back with a vengeance. As noted online by the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program:
HPAI has returned to the lower 48 with the Fall migration and cooler temperatures but earlier and at a level that previously was not seen during the this time of year. (This time of year being late September/early October)
Already with the raptor/duck migration hardly having begun there have been multiple positive detections in wild birds (living and dead) across northern tier states from Idaho and Utah to the East coast. While previous outbreaks on poultry farms generally followed the coasts, this year the continent’s interior has felt the brunt. Commercialy poultry farms in North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan have already, in early October been affected with some 600,000 birds infected and the number growing.
Locally HPAI has now already been confirmed in Colorado.
Several weeks ago the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program got a great horned owl from Loveland Colorado by Boyd Lake. It was lethargic, unresponsive and died en route to their facility. The next day an infected turkey vulture was also found near Loveland. Tests at Colorado State University revealed HPAI in both cases.
In a disturbing trends suggesting bird flu’s mutational jumps to mammals, the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association noted back in February of this year that fourteen cases of HPAI-H5N1 had been identified in felines (the cat family) in the state. Of these, ten were found in domestic cats while four cases were in exotic big cats.
Two of the most recent cases in domestic cats were indoor only cats that had exposure to raw poultry meat (chicken, turkey). While most confirmed cases in domestic cats have resulted in death, one cat in Colorado has survived the acute illness. A history of raw pet food consumption in this case prompted H5N1 testing in this cat.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) watchdogs the outbreaks of HPAI in mammals nationwide, monitoring the condition jumping from birds to mammals and thus, potentially humans as the map here indicates. .
Although the risks of bird flu jumping to mammals remains lower than in birds domesticated as well as wild mammal cases have been known for some time. Note the heavy concentration of bird flu jumping to mammals in Colorado, one of the heaviest, if not the heaviest concentration of such cases nationwide. It has infected skunks, wild cats (I presume mountain lions), wolves (described here as wild canines), raccoons, domesticated house cats and rodents. That is quite a list with the Central Flyway during migration seasons being seriously infected. Over the past six months or so bird flue has appeared in house mice and squirrels in North Dakota, dometic cats in California and Texas, and skunks in Texas, such a wide both species and geographic distribution to suggest that the disease is spreading.
2.
Human awareness of strains of influenza in birds goes back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The condition is nothing new although its spread has grown dramatically in recent decades.
Several out breaks were recorded already in the 19th century and referred to as “fowl plague”. It was only as late as 1955 that Schafer determined that fowl plague virus was a variety of influenza.Across the 20th century, bird flue has been identified the world over. Some of these cases, almost all in domesticated chickens include:
- a 1902 outbreak in Brescia, Northern Italy
- a 1927 outbreak in the Netherlands
- a 1934 outbreak in Rostock, Germany
- a 1959 outbreak in Scotland
- a 1961 outbreak in South Africa (this one from contaminated wild terns
While some of the infections were virulent, many were not. But all that changed in the early 1960s with a literal explosion of an enormous variety of strains that have effected both domestic and wild birds. As the National Laboratory of Medicine (NLM) in the United Kingdom notes:
The relationship between fowl plague, avian influenza and human influenza was not apparent before the 1950s, but by 1967 Pereira, Tumova & Webster suggested that the human H2N2 and H3N2 pandemic viruses might have had an avian origin on the basis of antigenic cross-reactivity
According to the NLN, at least twice, avian flu has jumped from birds to humans, once in 1957, the second time in 1969. The study goes on to note that since 1969 that “a limited number of avian virus subtypes (H5, H6, H7, H9, H 10) have been identified but without as yet leading to sustained human-to-human transition. These cases are severe in humans, often causing death. But they remain limited, the key factor being that up till now, while bird has mutated to jump to humans, the condition is not such that once transmitted the virus jumps from one person to another, creating an epidemic.
3.
Who are the main carriers of bird flu?
They include water fowl especially ducks, geese and swans as well as gulls, terns and sandpipers (the formal name of the latter is Charadriiformes). It has been shown that migratory birds may carry bird flu viruses (there are several varietes) over long distances and that through the main migratory flyways. In the case of the Americas it has been shown that bird flu appearing in Mexico was introduced from migrant birds coming from further north. The same is true for the distribtuion of HPAI across East Asia.
The above image shows the global pattern of bird migration flyways, the main point being that they are very much north-south/south-north routes. Infection patterns mirror these flyway geographies. So one source of infection is a result of migration. Given the fluidity of bird life with its seasonal migratory patterns makes it more challenging to tract the pattern of these ever mutating conditions. That said, although migratory birds are good vectors for bird flu transmission the spread of the disease is also the result of “trade of infected domesticated birds”.
One of the more recent virulent strains was found to be driven by human activities in China and there appears to be a kind of synergy between the trade in infected domstic birds and wild bird movement through migratory flyways. This synergy is the result of the fact that wild birds and domesticated poultry can share the same habitat, water and food as wild waterfowl with their presence and concentration are thought to make them key intermediary hosts.
In terms of the more highly infectuous varieties of bird flu …
In 1996, an HPAI variety labeled H5N1 was noted in commercial geese in Guandong Province of China. It was speculated that this strain originated from H5 viruses in wild migratory birds, thus establishing the wild-domestic strain growth. These Goose/Guangdong (Gs/Gd) lineage strains gave rise to outbreaks of HPAI H5N1 in chicken farms in Hong Kong the very next year, in 1997 that further led to fatal human infections The danger of further spreading was so serious that the entire flock of Hong Kong poultry was culled (killed) in the winter of 1997/1998 to stem the spread of the condition. At that time between 1.3 and 1.6 million chickens were exterminated.
The result was that the virus was temporarily frozen, the caveat being that the particular strain of bird flu involved mutated creating a new wave of the influenze and problems. Outbreaks of the more deadly varieties were recorded again in mainland China afterwards as wellas in other countries of Southeast and East Asia resulting in fatal human deaths from the conditions in Vietnam, Thailand and China.
From there it continued to spread worldwide into Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa where its growing intensity was noted alreaedy in 2005. Reports of infected birds were noted in Russia and Kazakhstan (July 2005) and then in Turkey, Romania and Croatia (October 2005), An infected flamingo was found in Kuwait at te end of 2005. By February 2006 it spread to Ira and Iran whre both backyard pultry and wild brids as well as human and domestic cat cares were recorded. Still in 2006 there were several more detections in Central and Western Europe. That same year the bird flu epidemic moved on to Africa where Nigeria and Egypt both reported infections in domestic poultry. The virus continued to spread in Africa, west and northwards in Europe and through the Middle East and South Asian subcontinent in 2006 and 2007.
Given the bird flu virus’ uncanny ability to mutate – the genetic basis of species variation and change otherwise known as evolution – it should not be surprising that varieties of bird flu, some of them potent and deadly, should begin to be found in humans. Zoonotic diseases are those infectious diseases that can be transmitted between animals and humans. A new variation H7N9 is a zoonotic type which, according to the NLM, killed 623 people of 1625 infected, most of these cases being in China.
Snowy Egrets hanging out early morning. Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Preserve. October 1, 2025
4.
Although pretty much all of the above data and analysis comes from Eurasia, eventually, the Americas would be targeted by bird flu as well although it doesn’t appear in some kind of full blown form until 2022, when it explodes. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5) viruses were first detected in U.S. wild birds, poultry, and backyard flocks in November of 2021 and hitting particularly hard in January 2022. The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the first case in a commercial flock on February 8, 2022. The virus spread rapidly, leading to the first confirmed human case in April 2022 and subsequent infections in mammals and humans in 2024 and 2025
- 1924–1925: Avian influenza caused outbreaks in live bird markets in New York City.
- 1968: A flu pandemic that killed an estimated 100,000 Americans involved genes from a bird flu virus. This was the same year that avian influenza A virus infections were confirmed in U.S. wild birds through blood tests.
- 1983: An avian influenza virus began circulating in chickens and later evolved into a highly pathogenic strain.
- 2002: The first human case of low pathogenic avian influenza (H7N2) was identified in the U.S..
- November 2021: The current highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) outbreak began when the virus arrived in North America from Europe.
- February 2022: The first detections of the H5N1 virus were reported in U.S. commercial and backyard poultry flocks.
- April 2022: The first human H5N1 case in the U.S. was reported in Colorado in a person exposed to poultry.
- 2024–2025: The H5N1 virus was detected in dairy cattle in several states, and the first known cow-to-human transmission was identified in Texas in April 2024. Human cases, including the first U.S. death from the virus in Louisiana, were reported through 2024 and early 2025.
What will this current bird migration bring? Will bird flu strike again with a vengeance? Will some variety mutate in such a way that humans can transmit it to one another? Or can it be brought under control.?
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Early morning at Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Preserve. So much activity. October 1, 2025 (R. Prince phot)
Back at Quivira, Cheyenne Bottoms during fall bird migrations.
Pelicans at Quivera National Grasslands in South Central Kansas as a part of the fall, 2025 bird migration.. September 30, 2025. (R.Prince photo)
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Although I have been coming to South Central Kansas for more than a decade to witness the bird migrations taking place here at Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira National Wildlife Preserve, I’ve missed much of the past five years. First there was COVID which kept me grounded. Then there were my own health issues. Finally Mother Nature stepped in as only she can. Two years ago when I passed through about this time of year (October) the area both marshes were dry as a bone as the result of intensive long-term drougth. The area was a central target of the Dustbowl in the 1930s and for the previous three years, had suffered the same drought that had seriously affected New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado – especially in the south and on the Eastern Plains – and southern Colorado.
But this fall the rains were back and so were the birds.
Two years ago, on October 6, 2023, BirdCast, which forecasts “when, where and how far birds will migrate”, noted that on that evening as many as a billion birds migrated south along the North American flyways. As they almost always fly at night, such a dramatic incident passed unnoticed by all those save avid birders. Two years later, but two weeks earlier, on the night of September 2025, that record was breached, reaching new heights when as many as 1.2 billion birds flew down from Canada across the eastern and midwestern regions of the USA on their fall migrations to Mexico, Central America and points further south.
As Birdcast notes on its website:
Bird migration forecasts show predicted nocturnal migration 3 hours after local sunset and are updated every 6 hours. These forecasts come from models trained on the last 23 years of bird movements in the atmosphere as detected by the US NEXRAD weather surveillance radar network. In these models we use the Global Forecasting System (GFS) to predict suitable conditions for migration occurring three hours after local sunset. These maps also show precipitation forecasts (outlined and shown in grayscale). Note, areas forecast to experience precipitation and bird migration may overlap, and predictions for migration intensity may be highly variable in these locations.
Colorado State University and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology currently produce these forecasts … with additional support from University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of Oklahoma. The BirdCast project was created with grant awards from the National Science Foundation and subsequently supported by awards from Leon Levy Foundation.
These documented migrations have taken place mostly east of Colorado along the Mississippi River and Eastern Coastal flight zones. Here in Denver, the migrations are today and for the next few days at a very low level but in South Central Kansas, where I try to go regularly, the activity is more intense. Today (October 7, 2025) it is expected that anywhere from 9000 to 24,000 migrating birds will be stopping at Cheyenne Bottoms, just north of Great Bend, and probably even more at the Quivira National Grasslands, some 35 miles to the south. Among those migrating birds that I saw last week at both places were what I estimate to have been thousands of American White Pelicans clustered in groupings of several hundred each and hundreds of white-faced ibises.
Migration season is an unstable time for many bird species. Should we be surprised that although weather – storms, sudden temperature changes, can adversely affect successful migrations that one of the biggest factors threatening migratory success comes from collisions with built structures, especially brightly illuminated buildings and communications towers, with the most prominent factor being collisions with large urban buildings, especially those made of glass where lights are left on at night. Shutting off lights in urban skyscrapers decreases collision counts by 11 times in the spring and 6 times in the fall. Although shutting off the lights are encouraged, I doubt it is done much to improve the situation in this respect.
The map above, from BirdCast, indicates the migration patterns for last night, the night of October 6, 2025. Note that the highest intensity of bird migrations today is solidly centrally located both sides of the Mississippi River with major migrations at the moment that includes Kansas where I visited. Colorado remains outside of the main path. This map is taken, frankly at a slow hour during the migration. At 1:10 in the afternoon there were, throughout the nation, some 75.5 million birds in flight, mostly flying through the Midwest. While hours later, in the middle of the night, birds moving south during the October 6-7 overnight peaked at 400 million. Evolvingly accurate satellite technology has been key to more accurate counts as has continued technological improvements in climatology.
When drought has not drained Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira of water as it has for the previous three years, both wetlands are so crowded with birdlife that it is almost impossible to take it all in. According to one source, “Rootstalk“, a publication of Grinnell College (from where one of our daughters graduated), as many as forty-five percent of all North American shorebirds pass through Cheyenne Bottoms marsh during the spring and fall migrations, along with 60,000 people. They include ducks, geese, herons, egrets, I saw precious few ducks this time, but don’t remember ever seeing so many herons (including green herons),egrets and pelicans this trip is large numbers as well as a good number of ibises and yellow headed blackbirds. Late September, early October is actually somewhat early for the height of Kansas bird migration. The swarms of ducks come later, from mid to late October into early November. There is also the fact that funding cuts have hurt maintenance at Quivira already and are likely to get worse. Still Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira did not disappoint.
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Snowy Egret, Great White Heron and White-faced Ibises at Quivira National Wildlife Preserve (R. Prince photo)
New Mexico State Senator, Jack C. Block, attacked by his daughter for participating in “50 States, 1 Israel” and becoming an Israeli mouthpiece
Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico – a part of Senator Block’s constituency
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On social media, she commented “It seems like he has sold his soul to the devil.” She asked rhetorically, “How does meeting with Netanyahu help the local people of New Mexico … he clearly doesn’t have his constituents in mind”. She went on to ccused her dad of participating in “a propaganda trip” “with a bunch of his Republican buddies. She wondered if Israel l was paying him to “peddle propaganda”, noteing how Block was stating that “the genocide is a lie”, that “civilians aren’t being killed” and that “the IDF is doing everything they can to minimize casualties.” Summing up she noted, “He’s a Republican politician; that’s par for the course.
“Maddie Block, calling out her father, Jack C. Block, for his participation in “”50 States, 1 Israel”
1.
Maddie Block, daughter of a New Mexico legislator who recently went on a pro-Israeli junket to the Zionist state has come out to harshly criticize her father’s participation in the “50 States-1 Israel” bonanza which brought 250 U.S. legislators, many from state legislatures across the country, to Israel for a week of activities that included meeting with Israeli Prime Minister, Binjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar. Of those who participated approximately 220 were Republicans, 30 Democrats.
New Mexicans should join Maddie Block in calling her father, Jack C. Block, state senator from New Mexico’s Sandoval County west of Sante Fe, on the carpet for his participation in this public relations farce.
Block, who spent a good part of his career in the U.S. military, ran and lost in a Republican primary for New Mexico governor in 2022. In the classic conservative Republican traditon, Block supports Donald Trump, the Second Amendment, right-to-work laws; he favors life imprisonment or the death penalty for drug dealers, citing the fentanyl crisis. He also supports the oil and gas industry . He has described himself as an opponent of the “woke left” – the latest rightwing expression for reintroducing racism and discrimination in the country. Not surprisingly he also opposes abortion and transgender rights.
A portion of the statement that Block posted on X (Twitter) said:
The invasion by Hamas on October 7th was just one front of the coordinated attack on Israel. While Hamas attacked from the ground, Hezbollah and the Houthis attacked Israel from the air with rockets and drones,which are provided by the Iranian regime.Their determination to destroy Israel continues to this day. While we were in Israel, our delegation had to seek protective shelter 3 times in 5 days due to rockets launched towards us.
But, on returning from Israel, Block ran into strong criticism for his pro-Israeli stance from none other than his daughter, Maddie Block. On social media, she commented “It seems like he has sold his soul to the devil.” She asked rhetorically, “How does meeting with Netanyahu help the local people of New Mexico … he clearly doesn’t have his constituents in mind”. She went on to ccused her dad of participating in “a propaganda trip” “with a bunch of his Republican buddies. She wondered if Israel l was paying him to “peddle propaganda”, noteing how Block was stating that “the genocide is a lie”, that “civilians aren’t being killed” and that “the IDF is doing everything they can to minimize casualties.” Summing up she noted, “He’s a Republican politician; that’s par for the course.”
2.
In an effort to counter the growing – if not exploding – global opposition to Israel’s accelerated policies of genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, the United States and Israel has intensified its public relations offensive to try to stem the growing worldwide fury at U.S. and Israeli actions. The “50 States, 1 Israel” junket brought some 250 U.S. legislators, mostly, from what I can tell, from state legislatures, to Israel. The one week junket was touted in the Israeli and American Jewish press as “the largest-ever delegation of U.S. lawmakers to Israel”.
Israeli Prime Minister Binjamin Netanyahu used to occasion of the visit to blame Israel’s growing isolation on Iran, throwing China and Qatar into the same category. “These efforts (to erode ties between Israel and the U.S) are “orchestrated by the same forces that supported Iran,” he continued, accusing China and Qatar of spearheading attacks on the Jewish state’s very legitimacy in the United States and on social media. These state legislators were encouraged to pursue anti-boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) legislation that are already in place in 38 states.
Whitewashing or even softening the impact the daily slaughter of Palestinians – familes blown to bits, women and children born to pieces, intensifying Israel’s starvation blockade that resembles the Nazi blockade of Leningrad more and more – this is becoming an increasingly hard sell even for the U.S. and Israeli media that adept at doing so. If the BDS movement is increasingly weighed down by legal shackles in the United States, abroad, the movement is having some successes – and a few of them very big ones:
- Norway’s $1.5 trillion sovereign wealth fund had recently divested from Caterpillar and from five Israeli banks over human rights violations in Gaza. Denmark’s smaller AkademikerPension will do likewise.
- Shipping giant, Maersk, annoucned that was divesting from comopanies linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank.
The “50 States, 1 Israel” visit comes at a time when Israeli ethnic cleansing ot the West Bank and its genocide (with U.S. weapons, funding and political support) continues to intensify; it comes when the Trump Administration has announced that it will ask Congress for an additional $6 billion in weapons to Israel, when over a 72 hour period recently, Israel bombed six countries (Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Qatar and Yemen) and where everyday the world continues to watch Palestinian women and children in Gaza being blown to bits, hospitals and schools obliterated, targeted assassinations of Arab and Islamic state officials intensified, including those in the midst of negotiations with Israel, etc. etc.
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Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has now been confirmed in Colorado.
Juvenile Bald Eagle. Jim Baker Reservoir. Sunday, March 5, 2023. (R. Prince photo).
(Bird Flu is back; Still many questions remain: where did it originate? How dangerous is it? Will it jump more than it has, to humans?)
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza: Return to the lower 48 and the RMRP.
Snowy Egret. Wheatridge Greenbelt. September 13, 2025
pportive care on admission and then treatment for the high Lead level. Unfortunately, the vulture was found deceased in our Isolation unit on Saturday morning (9/20).
The Block The Bombs Bill – H.R. 3565. Two New Mexico Representatives Weigh In, In Support
Old Town Plaza. Las Vegas, New Mexico. (R. Prince photo)
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by Susan Small
The Block the Bombs bill, H.R. 3565 has 49 cosponsors as of September 9, 2025. Congresswoman Delia Ramirez of Illinois introduced the bill on May 21, 2025.
The Block the Bombs bill would prevent the most destructive and indiscriminate weapons, including bunker buster bombs, 2,000 lbs. bombs, JDAMs, 120mm tank rounds and 155 mm artillery shells from being provided by the US to Israel.
These weapons are what has and is leveling Gaza and killing thousands of civilians, mostly women and children.
Melanie Stansbury and Teresa Leger Fernande, two of New Mexico’s three representatives, signed as H.R. 3565 cosponsors just days ago after months of constituent requests, meetings and pressure to join this congressional effort limiting the US weapons being used to kill Palestinians. Constituents continue to try and persuade New Mexico’s third representative to cosponsor the Block the Bombs bill.
A recent vote by one of the largest caucuses, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, to endorse the Block the Bombs may give a boost to efforts limiting American supply of weapons, possibly facilitating movement towards a ceasefire.
There’s safety in numbers, so United States congressional representatives can weigh any possible AIPAC support they may lose by cosponsoring H.R. 3565 balanced against the votes they may gain in November 2026 if they stand up and put America’s interests over Israel’s genocide.
Regarding Israel, the US has consistently ignored its own Leahy Law, first passed in 1977, which prohibits US assistance to countries if there is credible evidence that “gross violations of human rights” is happening. The recent September 16, 2025, publication of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (COI) finding that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza hasn’t been recognized by this administration as sufficient to limit the US weapons provided to Israel.
The COI genocide announcement is grounded in evidence which the world has heard and seen for the past two years. It’s only the complicit governments refusing to hear and to see.
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Note: None of the members of Colorado’s House of Representatives have signed on to H.R. 3565 – although in a recvent meeting with Denver/Boulder Jewish Voice for Peace, Diana DeGette, did commit to working for opposing funding U.S. arms sales to Israel as a budget item.
The Block The Bombs Bill – H.R. 3565. Common Dreams: DNC Votes Down Resolution Calling for Israeli Arms Embargo to Halt US Complicity in Gaza Genocide
Denver, Colorado. October 21, 2023. Demonstration – one of many – against the U.S.-Israeli genocide against Gaza Palestinians. (R. Prince photo)
DNC Votes Down Resolution Calling for Israeli Arms Embargo to Halt US Complicity in Gaza Genocide
The Block the Bombs Act, first introduced in May by Rep. Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.) and now backed by 49 co-sponsors, calls for a prohibition on the sale of a variety of US weapons and a limitation on military services to the Israeli government, accused of committing a genocide in Gaza.
The vote by the caucus, which took place Saturday and was first reported by Zeteo, marks a historic shift—even for the most progressive group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill—that provides “a significant boost to efforts to hold Israel accountable for its genocidal war in Gaza.”
While the CPC acknowledged that the legislation, H.R. 3565, “targets the most destructive and indiscriminate weapons systems, such as BLU-109 bunker buster bombs, 2,000-pound bombs, Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), 120mm tank rounds, and 155mm artillery shells,” it does not put restrictions on what it terms “defensive systems,” such the Iron Dome missile shield.
“Netanyahu and Trump are a lethal, unaccountable, extremist duo,” said Ramirez in a statement on Sunday. “The Block the Bombs bill is the first step toward oversight and accountability for the murder of children with U.S.-made, taxpayer-funded weapons. In the face of authoritarian leaders perpetrating a genocidal campaign, Block the Bombs is the minimum action Congress must take. I am proud to be part of a caucus of progressive leaders who are challenging policies that destroy life, rob our children of futures, or dehumanize our neighbors.”
Last week, despite a finding just earlier by the UN Commission of Inquiry that Israel is, in fact, perpetrating genocide in Gaza, the US vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza, now undergoing a famine in which hundreds of people—young people and old—have died of starvation and otherwise preventable disease.
In a Saturday op-ed on Common Dreams, Peace Action president Kevin Martin said it’s way beyond time for the US to end its arming of Israel, and he heralded Ramirez’s bill, though not perfect, as the best vehicle in the moment for doing that.
“The bill is as close as we have to a de facto arms embargo on Israel,” argued Martin, “as it would ban transfers of seven specific offensive weapons systems, from bunker-busting bombs to tank ammunition to white phosphorus artillery munitions.
“The Biden Administration’s support for Israel was bad, but predictably, Trump has been worse, accelerating transfers of bombs and guns with monolithic Republican,” argued Martin, “and far too much Democratic, support, in spite of Israel’s clear violations of U.S. and international law in its mass killing of civilians and denial of life-saving humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
DropSite News co-founder Ryan Grim emphasized the historic nature of the vote in a social media post following Saturday’s news.
“Historically, the CPC had resisted weighing in at all on Israel because so many of its members were ‘progressive except for Palestine,‘” said Grim.
“That era is fading,” he added, “this endorsement is a major signal.”
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THE GLOBAL SOUTH CHALLENGES US HEGEMONY (From unipolarity to multilateralism): WHAT SHOULD PROGRESSIVES FROM THE GLOBAL NORTH BE DOING?
THE GLOBAL SOUTH CHALLENGES US HEGEMONY
(From unipolarity to multilateralism):
WHAT SHOULD PROGRESSIVES FROM THE GLOBAL NORTH BE DOING?
Monday, September 22, 2025
8 pm Eastern
COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE FOR DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM
Socialist Education Project (SEP)
4th Monday Zoom Webinar
REGISTER: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/PFhGB4JBRg-Fi5prXINsIg
The world reaction to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have heightened global resistance to traditional European and North American global dominance of the international system. More nations and peoples have risen up to challenge the international order that was constructed by European empires from the 15th century and the US empire since 1898. Manifestations of this resistance include the BRICS, regional international associations, cross-national solidarity, and the continued resistance of countries like Cuba.
This webinar will assess the New International Realities of 2025 and will discuss how peace and justice movements everywhere can support the drive for a New World Order.
Panelists include:
Moderator — Harry Targ, retired professor of political science, Co-chair. SEP. He blogs at www.heartlandradical.blogspot.com
Stephen David — member and activist with Jewish Voices for Peace in Indiana and an activist against apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s.
Duncan McFarland, writer, activist, specialist on China and erver of the BRICS
Rob Prince, Retired Senior Lecturer of International Studies at the University of Denver, Political Commentator on Middle East with KGNU Radio
View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog 
Shireen Abu Akleh, targeted, murdered by IDF
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This entry is lifted from a post by Josh Paul on Linked in. Paul, along with partner Tarik Habash, heads up a new lobbying firm, A New Policy. He a former State Department administrator who approved or rejected arms transfers, including those to Israel. He quit his post at the State Department over the U.S. supported Israeli genocide in Gaza.
In this post he looks at the Israeli investigation into the assassination of U.S. journalist – of Palestinian heritage – of Shireen Abu Akleh