Israel bombs Gaza during polio vaccination drive

                                            Commentary

 By Reginald Johnson

 How low can Israel go? And how low can the United States go in supporting Israel?

 In the latest atrocity brought on the Palestinians, the Israeli military has bombed Gaza while humanitarian pauses are in effect so children can be given polio shots. A hospital has been hit and a school has been bombed.

 The vaccination drive by the UN is in question now after the IDF detained UN staff at gunpoint and bulldozed UN vehicles.

  These actions that impede a life-saving vaccination drive for children are not just shameful, they are barbaric. And the United States is aiding and abetting the barbarism.

Read it and weep.

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/israel-strikes-gaza-amid-polio-vaccination-drive

'Our news desert is getting bigger and drier'

 

 

        By Reginald Johnson 

   As many of you have heard, the fine all-news station WCBS Radio 880 in New York has been shut down to make way for sports talk, which is a disgrace.

   In the final sign-off for the station on Sunday night, anchor Wayne Cabot talked eloquently about the decline of news in our society and “the fight to stay informed.”

 Here is his statement:

“All of us here knew our audience is engaged and smart and we treated our audience with the respect that a well-informed, well-educated news consumer deserves. That’s right, deserves. Our news desert is getting bigger and drier. It’s like we should get a second medical opinion. 

  "We need to seek out more, and more varied news sources that we trust, because getting your information without the lies and brainwashing in one place has given way to a fight to stay informed. With each closing newspaper, radio newsroom, TV newsrooms, magazines and now even digital news operations, the country we love is diminished.

“So as we leave the news ecosystem after 57 years and 100 years of service on New York radio, we implore you to find that next trusted source , use it, support it in word and in deed. It’s the most patriotic thing you can do and the most satisfying. To paraphrase a CBS News legend (Edward R. Murrow),  “Good night, and good luck.”

  

Pillar of news coverage replaced by sports talk

 

   By Reginald Johnson

    

These are the last days for a bastion of news coverage, WCBS News Radio 880 in New York.

The station, which presented local, regional and national news pretty much 24-7 for the past 57 years to millions of people in the New York tri-state area, will close down news operations on Monday. A new station called WHSQ will take over and present ESPN sports talk.

  What a disaster. WCBS did quite a good job over the years reporting news in a thorough and professional manner. You had local and regional reports throughout the day and national and world stories at the top of the hour. And every half hour, you got sports headlines, traffic and weather.

 You could always turn on 880 and be sure you were going to get a pretty good overview of what was going on. It was kind of like “Old Reliable” on the radio dial.

 Now there’s going to be a “news desert” in what is supposed to be the “communications capital of the world” --- New York City.

  The parent company of WCBS, something called “Audacy” (they should just call it “Audacity”) insists that all is not lost. They say a sister station, 1010 WINS, still offers 24-7 news and will fill the void.

  No, it won’t. I’ve listened to 1010 WINS and it’s pathetic. Here’s the typical fare on WINS: somebody got assaulted in Times Square, a person was shot in the Bronx, or a car jumped the curb and hit a store window in Queens. Few national stories or any stories of import are offered.

  People will say, no problem, just bring up the Internet on your cell phone and you’ll get all the big news you need. Yes, you can, but in most cases you’ll have to pay for it. For most sites, like newspaper sites, you have to be a subscriber.

 And that’s another nice thing about WCBS 880. It’s free. Just turn on the radio, hit a button, and you’re there. You had news for free and totally accessible. No pay walls.

 Yes, you had to put up with ads, but so what? You got a lot of news.

 Personally, I go way back with WCBS 880. I've been listening for over 50 years. I can remember listening to the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973, and John Dean giving testimony, as I drove to work at the Bridgeport Telegram where I was a cub reporter. The station was running the Watergate hearings live, which was a real public service.

 And that's another key point that has to be made here. WCBS 880 provided a public service.  This is what journalism is supposed to do. The station is really a public service institution. Now some corporation, looking solely at its bottom line, and not considering the public interest, can just flick it away. Gone. This should not be allowed to happen.

But it does happen in our capitalist system where public needs or community needs are just not part of the equation.

Yesterday I heard longtime anchors Wayne Cabot and Paul Murnane chatting and reminiscing. Both have been there for 30-40 years covering so many big events, including 911.  Former legendary reporter Rich Lamb (who I remember came up to Bridgeport in 1987 to cover the L’Ambiance construction disaster) called in and said the end of WCBS represented a “radio earthquake” for the New York area and leaves a "vacumn." He’s right. Former anchor Bridgette Quinn and a producer (whose name I can't remember) also mourned the loss of the station. The producer said the time she spent at the station were “the best years of her life.” It was sad.

 Below is a good piece from CNN about the closure of 880, the decline of all-news radio, and the financial pressures stations are facing. https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/16/media/news-radio-local-wcbs-wnyc-sign-off-job-cuts-spotify/index.html

So there you have it.

All-news radio replaced by 24-7 sports talk.

Welcome to the dumbing down of America.

Our harrowing experience in the storm

 

 

                   

         By Reginald Johnson             

 

   Many towns in western Connecticut are still reeling from the torrential downpour that hit last Sunday, which unleashed massive flooding --- sweeping away homes, collapsing roads and killing two people.

 The storm, which some officials are calling a “thousand-year storm” brought three months worth of rain in the space of a few hours. Towns like Monroe and Oxford and Newtown got 12-15 inches of rain. Incredible. https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/weather-news/stories/sundays-massive-rainfall-may-have-been-most-in-connecticut-history-nws/3367349/

We were caught up in this storm and had a harrowing experience trying to get home. My wife works in Newtown and she had an appointment on Sunday with a client and we had to drive to her office. We knew that there was rain and a flood warning out there but it was supposed to be ending by 1:30 so we thought it was safe to drive from where we live in Bridgeport.

There was no rain when we left Bridgeport, but by the time we got to Newtown there was a steady rainfall and the sides of the roads had small rivers of water along the sidewalks. My wife finished with her client in an hour and it looked outside like things were clearing a bit, and we thought everything was going to be okay going home. The client, Lorena, lived in Newtown and she mentioned that if we had any issues we  should call her and we could come to her house. We didn’t think that was going to be necessary. But we were in for a surprise.

  We drove up Church Hill Road from Sandy Hook and were just going over the top towards the Blue Colony Diner below and suddenly we saw that the road was blocked ahead because of flooding. No cars were moving through. And then a shock --- we looked over on the right and saw cars that were submerged in water in a parking lot down at the base of the hill! That’s when we knew that we should have taken that flood warning more seriously.

 My wife said though, there was another way on a back road to get to 25 heading south to Bridgeport. We got on that, went through a pool of water with a lot of other cars but we made it through and we got to 25.  Now we thought we were home free to head south. But not so fast. We got up to the Stop & Shop store which is in the south end of Newtown and there was a huge flood and cars were halfway submerged in water. Many cars were backed up and people were just sitting there, most likely wondering like we were, what do we do now?

After that we turned around and I said maybe some of these pools of water would start going down, since rain had let up. So we thought we’ll just kill some time by going to grocery store and pick up some food, thinking that possibly we might have to spend the night in her office if we couldn’t get home.

 After an hour or so, we tried another back road but there was another blockage and a car was stuck in the water. Meanwhile another alert came over the phone saying there was a flood watch to 7:30. Things were getting anxious and our nerves were on edge. We turned around, hoping to get back to the office, thinking we would spend the night.

   But no luck. The flood water on Church Hill Road had not gone down and now there was a police barrier. That’s when we thought we would have to spend the night sitting in a parking lot in back of CVS.

  I had flashes of my childhood when there was a horrific storm in Connecticut called Hurricane Diane in 1955 and people throughout the Naugatuck Valley and many other towns in western Connecticut were stranded in their cars or homes and had to be rescued. Many could not be and over 90 lives were lost. Homes were swept away and bridges washed out.

 It was at that point we decided we had to call Lorena and take her up on her offer. She told us the roads to go on that were still not blocked and we were able to get to their house. Thank goodness! It was like finding a safe harbor.

We spent some time there and were able to relax a bit. Then Mike, Lorena’s husband, came out and said he’d heard that there was more more rain on the way and we better get going. He knew a back road that was still clear that would take us around the bottleneck on Route 25 and get us home. We jumped in our car, followed him and he led us to around the problem areas and to a clear area of 25 near Monroe. We thanked him so much and we went our way. There was some water in Monroe but we managed to get through it and then got into Trumbull and then Bridgeport, (where there really hadn’t been too much rain), and finally home. Thank you, lord.

 It was a very unnerving experience but while I was frazzled by it all, I realized looking at the news later that night and then in the morning that what we went through was not that bad, compared to what a lot of other people in the Valley and nearby towns like Oxford and Southbury went through. People had to be rescued by the fire department when they got stranded by the floodwater. Homes were washed away or severely damaged. And tragically two women in Oxford were killed when they were swept away by the flash floods. So overall we were lucky.

 All I know now is whenever you get an alert on your cell phone that there’s a flood warning you better follow it, because these storms can get bad quickly and they can produce a tremendous amount of water in a very short period of time and it can become hazardous or even life threatening.

 I also have to comment that these types of heavy rainstorms, or violent windstorms as well that are knocking down a lot of trees, are becoming more frequent. They appear to be a product of climate change and global warming. We really have to heed the scientists and do all we can to at least slow down this phenomenon. We can’t stop it altogether but at least we can slow it down and manage the effects in a safer way.

   Stay alert!

Jill Stein: act now to stop World War III

 

        By Reginald Johnson

     Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said this week it is critical that the United States act quickly to stop Israel from continuing its genocidal war in Gaza and aggressive military actions against Iran and Lebanon.

   Otherwise, she said, we may be headed towards the unthinkable.

   “It is imperative that the US stand up now before it’s too late, before we’re dragged into it which we should not be. This is an absolutely deadly conflict which has every capacity to spiral into not only a major regional but potentially a World War III type conflict that could readily go nuclear. And with Netanyahu and the fascist government that they have now, it is not hard to envision they’re using a nuclear weapon.”

  Speaking on the Krystal Kyle and Friends show, Stein said President Biden has to call Netanyahu and warn him that Israel has to stop its military campaign otherwise US aid will immediately end all aid and the US will get behind an economic boycott of Israel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj2PZ-Pd8PA&t=499s

  Israel cannot wage its war without “full-bore” military support from the US, she said.

 Stein said that previous presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower, had prevented Israel from pursuing dangerous military actions at different times by threatening to withhold aid.

 So far, President Biden and the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris have only made mild criticisms of Israel’s campaign in Gaza. They have also said nothing about the recent missile assassination strikes against Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Beirut and Tehran ---actions which many observers believe could touch off a regional war.

                                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trump shooting: questions abound

 

  By Reginald Johnson

   Four days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, numerous questions remain.

 How was it possible that a gunman was able to crawl up on the roof of a building only 150 yards away from Trump and get off shots before being taken out by authorities? Were all the buildings in the area being surveilled? Did the police know a full half hour before the shooting about the gunman? If so, why wasn’t action taken sooner? Why weren’t drones monitoring the area?

 This appears to be a colossal security failure. There have to be answers.

 Unlike 60 years ago with the Kennedy assassination, when there was only one piece of video evidence --- the movie film made by Abraham Zapruder --- this time there's plenty. A number of rally attendees took cell phone video of the suspected shooter when he was on the roof of the AGR building. So there's a lot of material for authorities to work with, and less chance of a cover-up.

 Check out the following article by Joe Lauria, editor of Consortium News with an excellent piece going into all the outstanding questions as well as the ---  surprise, surprise --- less than stellar job by by self-described journalists covering the incident.

 https://consortiumnews.com/2024/07/17/this-time-there-were-multiple-zapruder-films/

pequonnock.blogspot.com

Greenwich woman loses family in Gaza genocide

 

 By Reginald Johnson

 

  For years, Raghda Shawa was a beloved doctor in Gaza.

 A pediatrician, Dr. Shawa cared for thousands of young children when they were sick, according to Lana Shawa Savoca, a relative who lives in Greenwich, CT and who was treated by Dr. Shawa at age 1-1/2.

 Shawa rose to be head of the Children’s Department at Al-Shifa Hospital, a top medical institution in Gaza City.

“She was a brilliant, kind woman,” said Savoca.

  Last November, Dr. Shawa, 85, confined to a wheelchair, was living in her home near Al-Shifa Hospital with her two ailing sisters, and two nurses, as the Israeli military campaign raged in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces were fighting near the hospital and homes in the area were being bombed.

  “One day, two young Israeli soldiers came to the door. They said her home was marked to be bombed and they needed to evacuate,” said Savoca. “She looked at them and said, ‘You know I’m in a wheelchair. Where can I possibly go? There’s nowhere to go. Everything’s been bombed. I’m elderly. I have two older sisters who are sick here and two nurses. Why would you bomb my home?’ ” recounted Savoca.

  Savoca continued, “after she explained her situation they decided to leave. They apologized and said, ‘It’s okay, we’ll make sure that your home won't be bombed.’ “

    After a number of days the army pulled out of the Al-Shifa area, and Dr. Shawa and the other women were spared --- for now. But fierce fighting continued throughout the Gaza Strip, with Israel bombing at will --- striking hospitals, refugee camps, universities, food warehouses and wiping out whole neighborhoods. Despite international condemnation for the brutality of their campaign, Israel  --- fully backed by the United States --- refused to agree to a ceasefire.

  In March, fighting returned to the Al-Shifa hospital area, with the hospital itself coming under attack. Doctors and medical personnel who refused to leave were shot.

  Perhaps with a sense of foreboding, Dr. Shawa left the following voice recording with a relative: “Gaza has been exterminated. Look at your TV and watch… The whole world is watching… That’s all you’re doing, just watching, not doing anything.… Everyone is dancing on our wounds.”

  The exact details are not clear, but Savoca’s uncle, Mirwan Shawa, said Israeli warplanes which were bombing the area, also bombed Dr. Shawa’s home, despite the earlier pledge this would not happen. All the inhabitants were killed. No evacuation warning had been given, he said.

  After the Israeli army withdrew weeks later, relatives returned to where the house once was, and recovered the remains of those killed. A record of the deaths was made at the Gaza Health Ministry.

 Savoca’s aunt in Ramallah in the West Bank, who knew Dr. Shawa personally, sent out a text relaying the sad news. “I can’t believe this monstrous act,” she wrote.

                              

Dr. Raghda Shawa, center.  A distinguished doctor in Gaza for decades, she was killed along with her sisters and two nurses when an Israeli warplane bombed her home in March. No evacuation warning was given before the bombing.

 Tragically, Dr. Shawa’s death was just one of many among the wider Shawa family in Gaza. Savoca said that the Health Ministry has recorded some 92 members of her family who have died since the Gaza war began in October of last year.

 “They were killed by bombing, shelling, and possibly starvation,” Savoca said.

 The news of Dr. Shawa’s death, and so many others in the Shawa family, has left Savoca shattered.

 “It’s just so, it’s beyond words at this point,” she said. “I mean there is no regard for Palestinian lives, at all. I mean the elderly are not valued, the young are not valued, doctors, especially, are not valued, nor are the lives of writers or journalists. This is unprecedented what is happening… this is indiscriminate killing,” she said.

           

The spreadsheet put together by the Shawa family of Gaza showing the names of 92 family members who have been killed in the Israel-Gaza War. The names were taken from the Gaza Health Ministry.

  

 What happened to the Shawa family has happened to many other extended families in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas conflict. An investigation by the Associated Press published in June said that 60 families in Gaza lost dozens or more members in the war during the deadliest period of the war, between October and December of last year.

  The AP investigation found in those families that at least 25 people were killed – sometimes four generations from the same bloodline.

 “To a degree never seen before, Israel is killing entire Palestinian families, a loss even more devastating than the physical destruction and the massive displacement,” the article said. https://apnews.com/article/gaza-palestinians-families-israel-war-deaths-a9f8bcfe402c17f1f78903eae67b7a7d

  “It’s just so horrifying,” said Savoca. “They say ‘Never Again.’ But it doesn’t apply to the Palestinians.”

  The war in Gaza began in October of last year when Hamas militants raided a music fair in southern Israel and killed 1200 people. Israel responded with a major counter attack and has waged a relentless campaign in the months since in efforts to root out Hamas, the faction that leads the government in Gaza.

  Some 38,000 people in Gaza have been killed, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry. A recent study by the medical publication Lancet, however, reported that the real death toll is more like 186,000.  “The study pointed out that the death toll is higher because the official toll does not take into account thousands of dead buried under rubble and indirect deaths due to destruction of health facilities, food distribution systems and other public infrastructure,” said an article on the Lancet report in al-Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/8/gaza-toll-could-exceed-186000-lancet-study-says

  A number of human rights groups and UN officials have accused the Israeli military of using disproportionate force and committing numerous war crimes. In February, the International Court of Justice said there was a plausible case to be made that Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza.

 There's also reports by UN officials that famine is setting in in Gaza, due to food shortages, caused in part by Israeli attacks on relief trucks and food centers.

   Israeli officials have countered the criticism by maintaining that they use precision in targeting Hamas fighters and try to avoid killing civilians. They further maintain that Hamas combatants use Palestinians as shields, so the loss of Palestinian lives is unavoidable.

  They also deny trying to impede relief efforts.

  Meanwhile, despite the widespread criticism of Israel and its tactics, the Biden administration has continued to provide all the funds necessary for Israel to wage war and most members of Congress from both parties have also given Israel full backing. Only a few representatives have said that they would not vote for further appropriations for Israel and support a permanent cease-fire.

  The devastating losses of her family members in Gaza has prompted Savoca to turn to activism to try to change US policy and stop the war. She spends almost all her time now calling the White House and members of Congress including U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, who represents lower Fairfield County, and Connecticut’s two senators, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy --- urging them to back a permanent ceasefire.

 She also attended a massive demonstration against the war in Washington, DC in January and joined others to protest President Joe Biden when he came to Greenwich for a campaign fundraiser at the home of an HBO executive.

                      

Lana Shawa Savoca, of Greenwich, at a demonstration against the Israeli-Gaza War in Washington, DC in January. 

 Savoca has also worked hard to get cease-fire resolutions passed by local city and town councils.

 While she’s been heartened by the support given by some for her work she’s had some real disappointments, too.

  Savoca and other pro-Palestinian activists tried unsuccessfully to get the City Council in Yonkers, New York (where she used to live)  to pass a cease-fire resolution for Gaza. Such resolutions have been passed by more than 100 other towns and cities around the country including Bridgeport, CT,  Albany, NY, Chicago, Ill., Atlanta, GA, San Francisco, CA and Seattle, WA.

  At the meeting to consider the resolution proposal, Savoca told the heartbreaking story of what happened to Dr. Shawa and her other relatives.

 “I probably sobbed the whole way through,” Savoca said. “We had 60 people that shared their stories and the entire time, one of the councilmen was on the phone. Another one was eating. We were just standing up pouring out our feelings crying, pleading, saying, please!” she said.

 “We know that the City Council in Yonkers doesn’t have much say on world issues, but my God, we just want you to listen to your constituents, like there are so many Arabs in Yonkers --- so many Jordanians, Palestinians and a huge Christian Jordanian community,” she said.

 Savoca was stopped from finishing her testimony when the council chairwoman, Tish James, who did not look at her while she was speaking, slammed down her gavel and said ‘Your time is up! Your time is up!’ “

Another upsetting experience for Savoca has been how her career has evaporated since she began her activism on behalf of Palestine.

  Previously a blogger and writer promoting products online, Savoca said many of her business contacts have dried up once she made known that she was an advocate for the Palestinian cause.

 “Some people blacklisted me. There are some people who live in Westchester that are Jewish and maybe they feel like they have a connection to Israel. I found out later they actually blocked me. I’m not invited to any of the influencer events or blogger events. I kind of had to reinvent myself because I’m a very social person,” she said.

  “I’ve lost all revenue, everything,” said Savoca. “Which is fine. I mean I will always speak my opinion, especially when it comes to Palestine. I can’t stay silent on this.”

  As the US presidential election campaign heats up and news outlets turn their attention to Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as well as to developments in the Ukraine war, the focus on the Gaza conflict has receded.

 "That shouldn't happen, because it's becoming this terrible norm," Savoca said. "We need to have brave journalists to talk about it and people still to call Congress to protest. It's just, it's a living hell – it's an absolute living hell for those people."

 

 

 

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