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MARGARET KIMBERLEY—Community control of the police should be the goal but that can’t happen unless all government functions address human needs. Without real democracy and a true commitment to human rights, policing will not change. Of course, any discussion of law enforcement is inextricably linked to anti-Black racism, the controlling feature of many aspects of public policy in this country.

No one should allow themselves to be confused by racist pro-police propaganda or to be convinced that they should stop agitating for change. But questioning previous actions, even those made with the best of intentions, is always a positive step. 

The United States as currently constituted can’t function without huge police departments and the big budgets that go with them. An increasingly stressed society must be kept under watch precisely because popular discontent may erupt at any moment. Last year’s protests prove that there are many very discontented people and the domestic military will be ready to keep them all under as much control as it possibly can.

MoA—In 2010 the U.S. wanted to arrest a man who was on a flight from France to Mexico. On U.S. instigation the plane was diverted to Canada where the man was arrested and later transferred to the U.S. In 2012 Turkey forced down a Syrian passenger plane flying from Moscow to Damascus to search it for weapons. None were found. In 2013 U.S. allies shut down their airspace for a flight carrying the Bolivian President Evo Morales from Moscow. The plane had to divert to Austria where the authorities insisted on searching the plane for the “fugitive” Edward Snowden before letting it fly again. Snowden was not on board. In 2016 the Ukraine sent military jets to force a plane flying from Kiev to Minsk to return to Kiev. The authorities were looking for a certain passenger on board who was later found to have been the wrong man.

Members of Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), World Beyond War and other activist groups gathered at the Israeli Consulate on Friday to protest the “bloodshed from Israel’s violence in Gaza,” which saw 11 consecutive days of [lopsided] fighting between Tel Aviv and Palestinian militants. “We’re here to be sure that the blood on the hands of Israel is visible, so we have put this symbol of blood coming out of the door,” Rabbi David Mivasair, a member of IJV, said in a Facebook video as he stood outside the consulate.

PATRICE GREANVILLE—It’s a well known fact that the totality of corporate journos and entertainers, under penalty of career cancellation, obediently toe the imperialist line, that’s why unless you watch or read alternative media sources (like this one) you are liable to be consuming nothing but the smelly servings of the Ministry of Truth. That’s the case therefore with all major comedians approved by the empire, a select group of extremely well paid people which includes Steven Colbert, Bill Maher, John Oliver, and others of equivalent caliber. Well guess, what, folks, it now seems that John Oliver apparently had something like a conversion—at last—or the Israeli/Palestinian issue is so obvious a crime that he simply had enough. Oliver is obviously aware that his segment would detonate an explosion of Hasbara retaliation, and this already has begun. It’s clear the pressure, as usual, is on to make him a non-person, to cancel him, and to make an example, too, lest others begin to think they can cross the invisible but very real imperial red lines with impunity. Oliver’s presentation, by the way, given his usual passion and talent to inject clarity into neglected or distorted issues, was good, but far from splendid. He is either still learning or he was pulling many of the punches that the gravity of Israel’s crimes actually merit.

SHARON KELLY—As of 2019, plastic producers had created 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic — and 91 percent of it was never recycled, according to one peer-reviewed study. Even from the start, a NPR and PBS Frontline investigation found, industry insiders were skeptical that recycled plastic could compete against new production, with one industry insider warning in a speech — in 1974 — that “There is serious doubt that [recycling plastic] can ever be made viable on an economic basis.”  So where does the money for all this come from?