Showing posts with label sociopolitics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sociopolitics. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Israel's State Terrorism

State terrorism’: Qatar PM leads Arab world fury at Israel for striking Hamas leaders in Doha

Illegal and unethical for ‘rogue player’ Netanyahu to target ‘negotiators from the other side’ being hosted by the mediator, says PM Al-Thani; Saudis ‘deploying all capabilities’ to support Gulf ally


"Israel's oldest dailyHaaretz," which was was sanctioned by the Israeli government on Nov. 24, 2024

Analysis, September 10, 2025: With Doha Strike, Israel Signals a Strategic Shift and an Indifference to Consequences

The target of Israel's strike in Doha was a meeting of Hamas' negotiating team, led by the group's chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya. The officials had gathered to discuss the latest U.S. cease-fire proposal as part of ongoing talks on a hostage deal.

And Editorial, September 10, 2025: Israel's Attack on Hamas Chiefs in Doha Is Death Sentence for the Hostages

Israel has further cemented its reputation as a war-mongering state. Its strike on Tuesday in Qatar's capital, Doha, was among the most dangerous, unnecessary and harmful military operations it has ever conducted. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government confirmed what had long been suspected: it doesn't want any cease-fire deal in Gaza that would also secure the return of hostages held by Hamas, as their fate is of no concern. The attack's sole objective is the continuation of the war and, if possible, its expansion to new fronts. 


never again rolling tanks (n)ever again bomber after bomber


anything new
under Gaza's smeared sun?
smoky rubble
beyond smoky rubble, and yet
again smoky rubble


word after word
squeezed out of the PM's mouth
in broad daylight
this daily "banality"
of dying, of death in Gaza

(FYI: L4 alludes to Jewish philosopher and political thinker Hannah Arendt's ground-breaking book, , Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil)

it’s peaceful now

M-16 rifles are blooming, 2000-pound bombs singing, and Merkava tanks sweeping the streets.

Gaza is cleaner than ever, clean of blood-covered children. Yet, somewhere among the rubble the only moving thing is a boy’s eyes that look up to Heaven.

a mural
on the separation wall
of the West Bank:
in midair a girl grasps
a bunch of rainbow balloons

Contemporary Haibun Anthology 20


To conclude today's "Special feature" post, I would like to share with you the latest entry of Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXV: "smoky darkness"
written in response to the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini's September 1 2025 statement: Gaza is “becoming the graveyard of international humanitarian law.” 

smoky darkness ...
God's name slips further
into it


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXVI: "the world(s)"

The World(s)

half awake
to the call of a muezzin ...
in and out
of this cracked window
an Israeli sniper drone

smoky darkness ...
the world
within this hushed silence
and yet is there a world
where no fireballs fly

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on the International Association of Genocide Scholars' Resolution: Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza

(FYI: Haaretz, September 1 2025War Against Journalism

Over 250 global media outlets from over 70 countries staged an unprecedented coordinated "blackout" to protest the killing of journalists in Gaza by Israeli forces.

The initiative, organized by Reporters Without Borders alongside campaign platform Avaaz and the International Federation of Journalists, saw newspapers around the globe publish black front pages, broadcasters interrupt programming, and digital outlets darken their homepages in a show of solidarity with Gazan journalists who have been killed since Israel's military campaign began over a year and a half ago...

The message also resonated among journalists in Israel itself. On Sunday, over 130 Israeli journalists signed a petition calling to stop the killing of their colleagues in Gaza, end the war, and secure a hostage deal.

Among them were 50 Haaretz reporters and others from Calcalist, Time Out, and The Hottest Place in Hell. The petition condemned Israel's record as "the country responsible for the highest number of journalist killings in 2024," and criticized domestic media for failing to cover the human toll of the war.

Outlets such as Local Call and +972 Magazine participated in the RSF blackout campaign, joining what organizers described as the largest global editorial protest in recent history.)



Haaretz, September 1 2025: Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza, Scholars' Association Says

The world's leading genocide scholars' association has passed a resolution saying that the legal criteria have been met to establish Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, its president said on Monday.

Eighty-six percent of those who voted among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars backed the resolution declaring: "Israel's policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)."

The 1948 UN Genocide Convention, adopted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews by Nazi Germany, defines genocide as crimes committed "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such."


And on July 28, 2025, Israeli human rights groups already published their reports on Israel's genocidal war on Gaza:

The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B’Tselem:

July 2025 Report: Our Genocide

And Physicians for Human Rights, Israel:



never again rolling tanks (n)ever again bomber after bomber


each bombed-out house:
an album with no photos
but with people
living, wounded and dead
pressed between its pages


anything new
under Gaza's smeared sun?
smoky rubble
beyond smoky rubble, and yet
again smoky rubble


"Relocation Plan"

summer odors  ...
nowhere to go, no way
to get pieces of bread

ghost town
a Gazan's mind a labyrinth
of dead bodies


another day
another refugee tent
another baby 
with loose skin over bone
starves to death with eyes open


word after word
squeezed out of the PM's mouth
in broad daylight
this daily "banality"
of dying, of death in Gaza

(FYI: L4 alludes to Jewish philosopher and political thinker Hannah Arendt's ground-breaking book, , Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil)


To conclude today's "Special Feature" post, I would like to share with you the latest entry of Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXII: "famine and a food aid truck"

mud-stained bodies
on sweat-drenched bodies on bodies
on a food aid truck


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXIII: "mind view"

Gazan girl's mind view:
mostly smoke and ruins
yet her lifeworld
still bears death and rebirth
on the wings of a dream


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXIV: "The Voice of Hind Rajab"
inspired by The Voice of Hind Rajab, a Gaza film that earned over twenty minutes of standing ovation after its premiere at the Venice Film Festival 

trapped in a car
among six dead relatives
Hind struggles for hours ...
chants of Free Palestine echo 
through the theater and our hearts


FYI: Palestinian-Canadian actress Saja Kilani read a statement on behalf of the cast and crew:

"Hind's story carries the weight of an entire people... Her voice is one amongst 19,000 children who lost their lives in Gaza in the last two years alone… Let Hind Rajab's voice echo in every theatre, let it remind you of the silence the world has built around Gaza."

Thursday, August 28, 2025

A Room of My Own: (N)ever Again Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXX: "never again, (n)ever again"

never again rolling tanks (n)ever again bomber after bomber


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXI: "[paradoxical] state of denial"
written in response to +972 Magazine, August 22, 2025: How Israelis turned atrocity denial into an art

...either it is all fake, or else the Gazans deserved it. Often, paradoxically, it is both at once: “There are no dead children in Gaza, and it’s good that we killed them.


[Paradoxical] State of Denial

smoky twilight ...
will starving babies in Gaza
heal the broken heart
of an Israeli mother
whose children were kidnapped

word after word
squeezed out of the PM's mouth
in broad daylight
this daily "banality"
of dying, of death in Gaza

to save a life
is to save this broken world
a rabbi laments ...
TV debate back and forth
about the new body count

is a mother
cradling a dead baby?
no, it's an actor
holding a life-like doll
it's all fake, Gazans deserve it


FYI: L4 of the second tanka alludes to philosopher and political thinker Hannah Arendt's ground-breaking book,  Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil 

And Ls 1&2 of the third tanka refers to Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:1 (22a):

Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.


Added: This Brave New World, CXXIV

The Ritual Continues

a load of hot air
after shooting after shooting ...
the bell rings
mourners kneel in prayer
then an outburst, where is God?

God doesn't give you
more than you can handle ...
in dim light
these "thoughts and prayers" sharp
like a thousand bullets

the wooden Jesus
drips droplets of red
in gathering dark
with an ear-to-ear smile
a young man finger-gunning


FYI: The Independent, August 28, 2025: ‘Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers..these kids were literally praying’: Minneapolis mayor on school shooting

The New Yorker's daily newsletter, August 27There Will Be a Next School Shooting

If parents in Minneapolis are inconsolable tonight, if parents across the country are afraid that their children’s school might be the next one—and there will be a next one, and a next one after that—that means our nation is working according to our current leaders’ wishes. They wrote it down. It’s how we know we’re truly free.

And Time Magazine, May 25, 2022: School Shootings Confirm That Guns Are the Religion of the Right, 

Sometimes calls for America to return to God are couched in the language of consolation. Especially after a mass shooting..

What’s needed is a coalition of American politicians and citizens—secular and religious—who value the protection of innocent human life above power. Without that, the ritual will continue: Horrific deaths, followed by thoughts and prayers, calls to return to God, and no change.


Added: This Brave New World, CXXV

In This Country

"We have more guns than people," the school pastor says in a trembling voice. "Please don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers..." he pauses for a moment to take a deep breath, "these kids were literally praying when shattered stained-glass windows rained down on them."

armed guard outside ...
one active shooter drill
after another

Sunday, August 24, 2025

Biting NOT Barking: Words Tanka by LeRoy Gorman

English Original

unhoused
or homeless
as if words matter
ice rain
or sleet

Ribbons, 21:1, 2025

LeRoy Gorman


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

無房子可住
或無家可歸
彷彿用詞遣字很重要
冰雨
或雨夾雪
    
Chinese Translation (Simplified)

无房子可住
或无家可归
仿佛用词遣字很重要
冰雨
或雨夹雪


Bio Sketch

LeRoy Gorman lives in Napanee, Ontario. His poetry, much of it minimalist and visual, has appeared in publications and exhibitions worldwide. He is the author of two dozen poetry books and chapbooks. He is also the winner of the 2017 Dwarf Stars Award.

Sunday, August 10, 2025

A Room of My Own: The Golden Dream

Trump Empire, Inc, L

summer moonlight 
lapping against the shore ...
a dinghy adrift

the razor wire glints
with the first light of dawn 
detention center

a Cuban boy's stare
McDonald's arch in a corner 
of his cell window 

dust motes
in a slant of moonlight ...
this drifting life


Added:

sleepless again ...
dusting shelf after shelf
of unread books


Added:

lovers' quarrel
a downy woodpecker
stops drilling


Added:

summer outhouse
the bare light bulb sticky
with bugs


Added: Yellowing Memories, VII

the Perseids peak ...
the lives I dreamed in my teens 
but never lived


Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LI

trumping up 
one crime emergency
after another ...
the Convicted Felon 
finger-guns to the cameras


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXV: "a journalist murdered"

his eyes open
and his bullet-riddled helmet
marked Press ...
heavy footfalls echoing
in the smoky twilight


FYI: Haaretz, August 12: Israel's Targeting of Palestinian Reporters in Gaza Isn't Collateral Damage. It's Strategy

Anas al-Sharif, a well-known Al Jazeera correspondent, was killed this week in an Israeli airstrike. The intention is clear: If you silence the witnesses, you can reshape history

Friday, August 8, 2025

Reading More and Writing Better: Daily Banality Tanka

written in response to  Haaretz, Aug 5, 2025: Large Majority of Israeli Jews Untroubled by Reports of Famine in Gaza, Poll Finds

A vast majority of Israeli Jews – 79 percent – say they are "not so troubled" or "not troubled at all" by the reports of famine and suffering among the Palestinian population in Gaza, according to a poll released Tuesday

And in memory of the philosopher and political thinker Hannah Arendt, author of Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil 

word after word
squeezed out of the PM's mouth
in broad daylight
this daily "banality"
of dying, of death in Gaza


Note: Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil is a 1963 book by the philosopher and political thinker Hannah Arendt. Arendt, a Jew who fled Germany during Adolf Hitler's rise to power, reported on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organizers of the Holocaust, for The New Yorker. A revised and enlarged edition was published in 1964.

Arendt's subtitle famously introduced the phrase "the banality of evil." In part the phrase refers to Eichmann's deportment at the trial as the man displayed neither guilt for his actions nor hatred for those trying him, claiming he bore no responsibility because he was simply "doing his job." ("He did his 'duty'...; he not only obeyed 'orders,' he also obeyed the 'law.'")... 


For more about this then controversial, now classic book, see this fine essay, "Reflecting on Hannah Arendt and Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" 

Abstract:

In this essay, we offer a modern legal reading of Hannah Arendt’s classic book, Eichmann in Jerusalem. First we provide a brief account of how Arendt came to write Eichmann in Jerusalem and explain her central arguments and observations. We then consider the contemporary relevance of Arendt’s work to us as legal academics engaged with a variety of problems arising from our times. We consider Arendt’s writing of Eichmann in Jerusalem as a study in intellectual courage and academic integrity, as an important example of accessible political theory, as challenging the academic to engage in participatory action, and as informing our thinking about judgement when we engage in criminal law reform. Finally, we consider the role of Arendt’s moral judgement for those within government today and how it defends and informs judgement of the modern bureaucrat at a time of heightened government secrecy.


And when evaluated in the context of Israel's genocidal war  in Gaza, the first daily televised genocide, my Ls 3-5 intend to transform the Arendtian concept of the "banality of evil as just doing one's job and obeying the law "behind the barbed wire/inside the camp into "the one, not a serious injustice but a normalized, everyday banality in broad daylight that loses its power to shock and inspire action or thought."


The intolerable is no longer a serious injustice, but the permanent state of a daily banality. Man is not himself a world other than the one in which he experiences the intolerable andvfeels himself trapped.  

Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 2: The Time-Image, pp. 169-70

"Gilles Deleuze's statement suggests that, in modern life, extreme "intolerable" events no longer stand out as exceptional injustices, but rather have become a normalized, everyday banality, losing their power to shock and inspire action or thought. This normalization implies a kind of societal exhaustion or desensitization, where suffering becomes so pervasive that it is accepted as a constant state, making even serious injustices seem mundane. "


FYI: "Israel's oldest dailyHaaretz," which was was sanctioned by the Israeli government on Nov. 24, 2024

August 7:Israeli Security Cabinet Approves Netanyahu's Gaza Takeover Plan, Ignoring IDF Warnings

The security cabinet also approved Netanyahu's plan for the IDF to take full control of Gaza City. Sources say that the evacuation of Gaza City residents to alternative areas is expected to be completed by October 7, and only afterward is the military takeover expected to begin.

And August, 7, Opinion: Israeli Leftists Say They Lost Compassion for Palestinians. But Did It Ever Exist?

The refusal to see Palestinians as human beings isn't a side effect of October 7. This phenomenon predates the latest war, the operations in Gaza, the terror attacks and the rockets. It's a fundamental element of Israel's national consciousness.


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXIV: "starvation death"

another day
another refugee tent
another baby 
with loose skin over bone
starves to death with eyes open

Thursday, July 24, 2025

Biting NOT Barking: Deep Faith/ke Haiku by LeRoy Gorman

English Original

            ke
deep faith

Haiku Canada Review, 19:1, 2025

LeRoy Gorman


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

        偽造
深度信念
    
Chinese Translation (Simplified)

         伪造
深度信念


Bio Sketch

LeRoy Gorman lives in Napanee, Ontario. His poetry, much of it minimalist and visual, has appeared in publications and exhibitions worldwide. He is the author of two dozen poetry books and chapbooks. He is also the winner of the 2017 Dwarf Stars Award.

Monday, July 21, 2025

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Israel Blocking 6,000 UNRWA Trucks from Entering Gaza

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

-- Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

(FYI: The washington Post, July 26: The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near those new aid sites, the U.N. human rights office says)


The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA July 14, 2025: THE CLOCK IS TICKING FAST FOR STARVING CHILDREN IN GAZA

At UNRWA, we have over 6,000 trucks of food, hygiene supplies and medicines outside of Gaza waiting for the green light to go in. The aid will mainly help little girls like Ahlam. UNRWA also has more than 1,000 health workers who can provide boys and girls with specialised nutritional services.

Amid the daily livestream of horrors we get from Gaza on our screens, one cannot help but ask how many more Ahlam’s and Salam’s have to die before taking action?

How much longer until a ceasefire is reached so that bombs stop falling on emaciated and dying children....?

And Al Jazeera, July 20: 18 in Gaza die from starvation in one day amid Israeli blockade. Al Jazeera, July 22 2025: At least 15 people, including four children, have died due to famine and malnutrition in Gaza during the past 24 hours.


almost, with eyes closed
to this shrapnel-filled world ...
a Gazan newborn


Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCIII: "loose skin over bone"

a dull-eyed baby
with loose skin over bone ...
red glow of Gazan skies

between his teeth
a piece of hummus-stuffed bread ...
maimed orphan's last meal



And

too much to ask YOU 
to see Gazans as humans? 
60, 000 deaths
silenced, forgotten, buried
under the weight of daily life

(FYI: The death toll was 50, 000 deaths on March 24, 2025. For more, see Special Feature: Selected Poems on 50,000 DEATHS in GAZA)


To conclude today's special post, I would like to share with you the latest entry of Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCIV: "the luckiest one"

her gaunt face 
swollen and covered in burns ...
this one-legged girl
the luckiest one while others are
buried under the smoky rubble


FYI: "Israel's oldest dailyHaaretz," which was was sanctioned by the Israeli government on Nov. 24, 2024

July 21, 2025: While Israelis Are Watching TV Cook-offs, Israel Continues to Kill and Starve Multitudes of Gazans
Hala Arafat cried out to be rescued from the rubble for hours; the IDF targeted anyone who tried to help. An hour away in Tel Aviv, life goes on as normal as the Air Force carries out another war crime.

And July 23, Opinion: For Israel's Top Court, Human Rights End at the Gaza Border

Such issues include starvation, denial of medical care, bans on Red Cross visits to security prisoners, barring journalists' access to Gaza, forcing civilians to move from place to place and environmental degradation, to name a few. The High Court has consistently chosen not to address such offenses or to restrain the state despite the many petitions submitted over the past 18 months by human rights organizations.


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCV: "the entire town encaged"

the West Bank town
encaged with barbed wire ...
the red glow
of a soldier's Marlboro
against the borderless night sky


FYI: +972 Magazine, July 14 2025: The suffocation of Sinjil (close to Ramallah) 
Encaging the West Bank town with barbed wire, Israel has cut off residents’ land and left others exposed to settler attacks, including a recent lynching.

Earlier this year, the Israeli army erected a towering barbed wire fence that has turned the town into an open-air prison. Built along Route 60, the West Bank’s main north-south highway, the fence has virtually sealed residents off from the outside world and severed them from thousands of dunams of farmland, while leaving those on the other side of the fence totally exposed to settler lynchings like last week’s deadly attack.


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCVI: "stop the war on children"

meter-by-meter photos
of skeletal Gazan babies
and sacks of flour ....
a man chants into a megaphone,
stop the war on children

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Poetic Musings: Bloodied Man Haiku by Chen-ou Liu

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CL: "first casualty of war"

              the
           bloodied
             man
nailed to a wooden cross
               in
               a
             press
              vest


Chen-ou Liu

Commentary: 

Fist of all, the haiku's visual layout, the Cross, relates to its theme: the sacrifice (as implied from "bloodied" and "nailed" to a wooden cross) made by a wartime journalist, also known as a war correspondent (as indicated the bloodied "man in a press vest").  The words, typography, and arrangement of the haiku are integral to its meaning and impact. 


Secondly, the choice of action-packed verbs, "bloodied" and "nailed," shows that this is a target killing of a journalist for revenge, to warn other journalist (as implied from the act of being "nailed to a  wooden cross" for other journalists to see), or to conceal or suppress the truth ...  The intentional targeting of journalists is a WAR CRIME.  


Thirdly, sociopolitically speaking, the immediate consequence of this target killing of journalists is the DEATH of TRUTH.


The first casualty when war comes is truth.

-- Hiram Johnson, a reform governor of California (1911–17) and a U.S. senator for 28 years (1917–45)


As of June 16, 2025, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 185 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.


And last but not least, it's my intention to use the socio-religious symbol of the cross to spark the reader's emotions and reflection on why Israel's GENOCIDAL WAR on GAZA is still raging.


Notes:

1 This haiku is a sequel to the following: 
written in response to Democracy Now, "DECEMBER. 20, 2023:" [NewYork-based, American NGO] Committee to Protect Journalists: Israel Is Killing Media Workers at Unprecedented Pace

smoky rubble
a bullet-riddled helmet
marked PRESS


2 Israel's oldest and most progressive daily founded in 1918, Haaretz, was sanctioned by the Israeli government on Nov. 24, 2024

3 RSF's World Press Freedom Index, 2024: [so-called "first and only democratic country in the Middle East"] Israel, 101/180; Score: 53.23
(FYI: Reporters sans frontières'/Reporters without Borders' World Press Freedom Index aims to compare the level of press freedom enjoyed by journalists and media in 180 countries and territories)

Haaretz, July 2, 2025: Israel's Government Wants to Repress the Press at Home and Bury It in Gaza

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Pope Leo's First US Bishop's Call for Solidarity with Migrants

My Dear Readers:

On the Brink of Trumperica, V
written in response to the Convicted Felon Donald Trump's proclamation: "On Day One, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history."

detention camp in shadow ...
between the guard and holding cells
dialects of silence



Trump Empire, Inc, XXXVI

blood still dripping
from this rusty barbed wire ...
an old man murmurs 
to his only son who stands 
beyond the border of life 


Newsweek, June 13: Pope Leo's First US Bishop Takes Action Against Trump Migrant Crackdown

The first U.S. bishop appointed by Pope Leo XIV has called for priests, deacons and parish leaders to accompany migrants to court and stand in solidarity with them.

Rev. Michael Pham, who was named bishop of San Diego, California, by Pope Leo in May, wrote a letter about the action on Wednesday, along with Rev. Felipe Pulido and Rev. Ramón Bejarano, both appointed by the previous pontiff, Pope Francis.

"On the morning of June 20th, which is International Refugee Day, a group of priests and faith leaders are planning to visit the federal court building to stand in solidarity with migrants who are making their court appearances," they wrote...


The Convicted Felon Donald Trump already federalized four thousand members of the California National Guard without the state’s consent, and ordered seven hundred marines to L.A. He also threatened to deploy the military to demonstrations in other cities. The Washington Post, Jun 11 claimed that escalation would bethe most extensive use of military force on American soil in modern history.

Yet amid the ongoing protests in Los Angeles and a dozen other cities in response to the Administration’s immigration raids, the Convicted Felon hosted his own military parade to celebrate his seventy-ninth birthday.


Trump Empire, Inc, XXXVII

"Happy" Birthday to the Wannabe Dictator, Donald Trump

tank after tank
rolling through the capital ...
crows on a wire

in gathering dark
the entrance to Mar-a-Lago
No Parking Any Time  😎


Trump Empire, Inc, XXXVIII

No Kings protest:
chant after chant of fried truth
eggflation
scrambled justice, poached rights,
cracked democracy...Trump, Fuck Off


(FYI: The Nation, June 16: The No Kings! Movement Trumped Trump

Thomas Paine from Common Sense, the 1776 rejection of King George III and the British monarchy, which declared, “O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!”

More than 5 million everydayAmericans stood forth, as patriots, and trumped Trump.

In America, the law is King!)


To conclude today's Special Feature post, I would like to share with you the following protest song:


People rise up people come together
We never give up we never surrender
To the forces that would keep us down
Our hearts are found
We’re mother bound

Keep on keep on lovers we’ve got what it takes
To shake off the shame and stay awake
Feel the feels and heal the deal
Take it all the way
Stay real

People rise up people come together
One foot in front of the other
Walk on walk on our hearts can crush this
Stand for peace
Work for justice

Keep a weary eye on the powers that be
Keep taking back our democracy
Keep your eyes up keep your mind sharp
The light in our eyes moving
Through the dark

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Special Feature: A Disgustingly Grim Poll and A Response Tanka Inspired by An Ezekielian Vision

"Israel's oldest daily now sanctioned by the Israeli government, Haaretz,"Analysis, June 3, 2025:  A Grim Poll Showed Most Jewish Israelis Support Expelling Gazans. It's Brutal – and It's True

A new survey showing that 82 percent of Jewish Israelis support the expulsion of Gazans was met with disbelief among those who stubbornly believe that the extremists are outliers. But these trends are as consistent as they are shocking

The survey conducted by Professor Tamir Sorek of Pennsylvania State University, published here in Haaretz together with Professor Shay Hazkani, examined what the authors called "eliminatory" attitudes among Jewish Israelis and their theological roots.

Other findings were grim: A majority of 56 percent of Jews supported the "transfer (forced expulsion) of Arab citizens of Israel to other countries." And when asked directly whether they agreed with the position that the IDF, "when conquering an enemy city, should act in a manner similar to the way the Israelites acted when they conquered Jericho under the leadership of Joshua, namely, to kill all its inhabitants?" nearly half, 47 percent, agreed.

The survey found a strong correlation between various indicators of religious identity and observance, and militant attitudes – a classic pattern in Israeli Jewish public opinion. But there was strikingly high support from secular Israelis for the expulsion questions too.

Rate of Jewish Israelis Supporting Expulsion of Gaza Residents:

Secular:         70%
Traditional:     91%
Oothodox:      90%
Haredi:           97%

Rate of Jewish Israelis Supporting Expulsion of Israeli Arabs:

Secular:         38%
Traditional:     65%
Oothodox:      68%
Haredi:           91%

Rate of Jewish Israelis Believing That All RESIDENTS of a Conquered Enemy City Should Be KILLED:

Secular:         31%
Traditional:     60%
Oothodox:      59%
Haredi:           63%


I was COMPLETELY DISGUSTED by these poll results and wrote the following response tanka 

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXC1: "Ezekielian vision"

a dream, and yet ....
in Gaza's mass graves dry bones're
reshaped into skeletons
the skeletons filled out with flesh
then they stand on their feet, alive


FYI: The title of CXCI: "Ezekielian vision" and the imagery of Ls 2-5 allude to Ezekiel's vision of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14)

And Survey Researchers: 

Shay Hazkani, professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of Maryland 

And professor in the History Department of The Pennsylvania State University

Published in Haaretz, May 28 :  Yes to Transfer: 82% of Jewish Israelis Back Expelling Gazans
Twenty years ago, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, the spiritual father of the 'hilltop youth,' sketched out his vision for destroying Israel's democratic institutions and establishing Jewish supremacy. After October 7, it seems that his vision is coming to fruition

Religious interpretations play a key role in shaping these views. Nearly half (47 percent) of respondents agreed that "when conquering an enemy city, the Israel Defense Forces should act as the Israelites did in Jericho under Joshua's command – killing all its inhabitants." Sixty-five percent said they believed in the existence of a modern-day incarnation of Amalek, the Israelite biblical enemy whom God commanded to wipe out in Deuteronomy 25:19. Among those believers, 93 percent said the commandment to erase Amalek's memory remains relevant today.

Two months ago, Supreme Court Justice David Mintz rejected a petition by the human rights group Gisha to order Israel to supply humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Mintz, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Dolev, asserted that this was a "war of commandment" just like in the Torah. He effectively authorized the denial of food, water and medicine to 2 million Gazans. The ruling, joined by Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and Justice Noam Sohlberg, a resident of the Alon Shvut settlement, is already taking its toll...

The educational system, part of the second shell, has become a workplace where Jewish teachers promoting universal values risk dismissal (Arab teachers have long been familiar with this danger). Scholars of education point to a sharp shift in the curriculum's nationalist, ethnocentric direction since the second intifada. It has led to growing support for expulsion and extermination, especially among those who completed their education in the past 20 years.

Some 66 percent of those under age 40 support expelling Palestinian citizens of Israel, and 58 percent want to see the army follow the path laid down by biblical Joshua in Jericho. A generational gap in political positions is not an unusual phenomenon, but in Israel, it has widened greatly since 2000.

Some see the shock and anxiety that gripped the Israeli public in the wake of October 7 as the only explanation for this radicalization. But it seems the massacre only unleashed demons that had been nurtured for decades in the media and the legal and educational systems. Zionism, besides being a national movement, is also a movement of immigrant-settlers, seeking to displace the local population. Settler-immigrant societies always encounter indiscriminate violent resistance from indigenous groups. The desire for absolute and permanent security can lead to an aspiration to eliminate the resisting population. Therefore, virtually every settlement project has the potential for ethnic cleansing and genocide, as indeed happened in North America in the 17th through 19th centuries or in Namibia in the early 1900s...


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCII: "a bag of flour"
written in response to Haaretz, June 1: "31 Killed, 170 Wounded in IDF Strike Near Gaza Aid Site"

a bag of flour
on the muddy roadside
just beyond reach
of an old Gazan's hand
in a pool of blood


FYI: Haaretz, June 6 2025: U.S.-backed Aid Group Halts All Distribution in Gaza


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCIII: "smell of decay"
disturbed by UN News, April 23 2025Sewage, trash and disease overwhelm displaced communities in Gaza

the smell of decay
blends in with the sewage 
and piles of trash ...
swarms of rats on the march
in Gaza's smoky night

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on LGBTQ Rights in the Era of Trumpism

My Dear Friends:

Today, the first day of June, marks the beginning of the FIRST Pride Month under the Convicted Felon, Donald Trump's authoritarian rule.


the White House
pronounces, only two sexes...
trans youth trapped
between black-and-white Kansas
and rainbow-colored Oz


the echo, echoing
of rainbow stars shattering
my gay son's kaleidoscope

Chen-ou Liu


Paisley Currah, The New Yorker, May 27, 2025: Donald Trump’s War on Gender Is Also a War on Government

Amid Donald Trump’s recent attacks on transgender people, many critics of his Administration have cited the German pastor Martin Niemöller, whose 1946 poem “First They Came” describes Nazi Germany’s progressive targeting of maligned groups. Indeed, on the first day of Trump’s second term, he signed an anti-trans executive order decreeing that the federal government recognize only two sexes, male and female; since then, his Administration’s pursuit of groups that it deems enemies—immigrants, college protesters, white-shoe law firms—has progressed rapidly. But Trump’s anti-trans actions are not just opening moves in a battle against vulnerable groups. Nor are they simply fanning the flames of right-wing moral panic. The push to eradicate so-called “woke gender ideology” is also part of the assault on the government itself. The right understands this. It’s time the left did, too...


Trump Empire, Inc, XXXII
for 238 Venezuelan men who were "disappeared" into a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador known as CECOT

at the steps 
of the Statue of Liberty
each of these names
of the disappeared read out loud...
a breath, a wound, and a warning


Trump’s executive order—titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”—instead declares that sex is binary and immutable, “grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” Female “means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.” Males belong, at conception, to the sex that produces the small one. That definition—nonsensical because there are no distinguishable reproductive cells at conception—applies to all agencies and programs of the federal government...

A deluge of policy reversals has followed. The Administration prohibited trans girls and trans women from participating in women’s sports, banned transgender people from serving in the military, reverted to putting sex at birth on federal identity documents, tried to transfer trans women to men’s prisons, and began requiring federal employees to use the bathrooms aligned with their birth sex, among other actions. “Gender” was replaced with “sex” on federal forms, and references to trans people on federal websites (including the National Park Service’s page about the Stonewall Uprising) were removed....

The assault on administrative flexibility is most visible at the National Institutes of Health, where rigid definitions actively prevent scientists and researchers from carrying out the work Congress mandated them to do... 

By mid-May, the N.I.H. had cancelled more than six hundred million dollars in research grants related to transgender health. Even grants that included small numbers of transgender patients were affected. Jason Flatt, a researcher at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, lost funding for a study that would have analyzed the medical records of two hundred thousand people in the course of ten years to understand more about dementia. “Of those two hundred thousand, only four thousand were L.G.B.T., but that was enough to have the award cancelled,” he said. “Basically, they’re saying all my grants are cancelled because they also include trans people.”...

Scientists and researchers understand that sex is a multidimensional category; in their research, they choose whichever dimension of sex and gender—chromosomes, reproductive organs, genital phenotype, hormones, or psychological or social factors—best suits their purpose. The diktat defining sex obliterates the nuanced, purpose-driven tools that allow agencies to support this work effectively...

Trump’s order is like a tornado, crashing unpredictably into departments, reports, standards, forms—and now scientific practice. The goal appears to be not just making villains out of gender and sexual minorities but, by dismantling the health, safety, and welfare infrastructure of the administrative apparatus, targeting the same women that Trump’s “Defending Women” purports to protect...


And The Guardian, May 31: Four queer business owners on Pride under Trump: ‘Our joy is resistance’


don't say gay bill ...
behind thunderclouds
the sun coming out

Chen-ou Liu


black and white
paintings on the pot
the transgender
searches the streak of colors
to fill the gap of the emptiness

Pravat Kumar Padhy

(FYI: HuffPost, June 18: Supreme Court Deals Another Major Blow To Transgender Rights

the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming care for minors in a 6-3 ruling)


shadows on the church wall
love thy trans neighbor painted 
over sin is everywhere 

Chen-ou Liu


people debate
the ways I should be
allowed to exist --
a rainbow forms outside
the social construct of gender

GRIX


Pride Parade --
searching the colours
inside me

Kishor Matte


summer twilight
at the Stonewall Inn
he slides his hand
over the man beside him
murmuring, "for real this time?"

Chen-ou Liu


To conclude today's post, I would like to share with you my response tanka:

Trump Empire, Inc, XXXIII

the Convicted Felon
alone at a White House window ...
from down the street
across the country, around the world
protesters dressed in rainbows


FYI: Ls 3&4 allude to the commencement speech by Harvard president Alan Garber, who has remained defiant as President Trump demands changes at the school:

Members of the Class of 2025 from down the street, across the country, and around the world.
Around the world, just as it should be.


And “First They Came,” a 1946 poem written by the German pastor Martin Niemöller

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me


Added: This Crazy Thing Called Life, I

we're here, we're queer
and so are some of you!
in a heat haze
the phalanx of MAGA men
again rainbow-clad revelers


FYI: This is the first entry of my new writing project, This Crazy Thing Called Life, about a life full of challenges, surprises, and sometimes even paradoxes. 

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Cool Announcement: Free Documentary, Severed: The Story of a Boy From Gaza

(FYI: CNN, May 28Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert told CNN that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza, clarifying that he holds PM Netanyahu and his government responsible, and that the war must come to an end)


My Dear Readers:

An extraordinary short documentary, Severed: The Story of a Boy From Gaza,  is premiering on The Nation Magazine's website this week for free.

Summary: "Severed tells the story of Mohamad Saleh, an 18-year-old from Gaza who has lived through five major assaults on the Gaza Strip. In those attacks, he lost his home, family members, his best friends, and, at the age of 12, his leg. Now living in exile in Egypt, Mohamad struggles to piece together the shattered fragments of his life. Through his eyes, we see the pain and trauma endured by thousands in Gaza, alongside their remarkable strength, resilience, and determination to live."


And the latest pieces of news about Israel's genocidal war on Gaza:

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, "Israel's oldest daily now sanctioned by the Israeli government, Haaretz," May 27, 2025Enough Is Enough. Israel Is Committing War Crimes

Recent operations in the Gaza Strip have nothing to do with legitimate war goals. This is now a private political war... The criminal gang headed by Benjamin Netanyahu has set a precedent without equal in Israel's history

Haaretz, Editorial, May 28: At This Year's Festivities, Jerusalem Day Normalized Calls for Genocide

The new hit that dominated the annual Flag March on Jerusalem Day this year, alongside classics like "May their village burn," "Mohammed is dead" and "Death to Arabs," was "There is no school in Gaza, there are no children left."

And Haaretz, May 28: Yes to Transfer: 82% of Jewish Israelis Back Expelling Gazans

Twenty years ago, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, the spiritual father of the 'hilltop youth,' sketched out his vision for destroying Israel's democratic institutions and establishing Jewish supremacy. After October 7, it seems that his vision is coming to fruition


To conclude today's post, I would like to share with you my reflection on this documentary, Severed: The Story of a Boy From Gaza:


Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXC: "ghostly memory"

awake alone
with the ghostly memory
of skeletal houses ...
this one-legged Gazan teen stares
into the borderless sky


FYI: The World Health Organization estimates up to 4, 000 Gazans have had amputations since October 7th, 2023, as shown at the end of the film

The Guardian, March 27, 2025: There are more child amputees in Gaza than anywhere else in the world. What can the future hold for them?


For example, in 2019, Israeli forces open-fired on Palestinian protestors resulting in 120 amputations, 20 of which were children.

To help with the amputee crisis in Gaza, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) has created the Gaza Amputee Project to help provide surgery, treatment, and prostheses for child amputees.

The following are some of my published tanka about Gazan amputees:


Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LIX: "amputee"

clenching
the toothbrush in his teeth
a Gazan boy
squeezes the tube left-handed
before his cracked mirror



CLXXV: "armless boy"

pile after pile
of shattered concrete and rebar ...
silhouetted
against Gaza's red-tinted skies
an armless boy and his dog 



CLXXXIX: "Heaven and Gaza's ruins"

an armless boy's stare
midnight lightning links Heaven 
and Gaza's ruins ...

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Israeli Opposition Leader's Remark on Israel's Genocidal War on Gaza: a "sane state does not Kill Babies as a Hobby"


Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert told the BBC that what Israel "is doing now in Gaza is very close to a WAR CRIME."

And Haaretz, May 23: A Lost Battle for Human Rights: Throughout the War Israel's High Court Has Denied All Requests to Protect Gazans

Since the start of the war, the High Court has given its seal of approval to all of Israel's actions – withholding of medical treatment, the disappearing of people, denial of media access to Gaza, and above all, starving the population of Gaza)


My Dear Readers:

Earlier on Tuesday, in an interview with Kan public radio, Yair Golan said Israel was "on the path to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa once was, if it does not return to acting like a sane country." He added that a "sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population."

-- excerpted from Haaretz, May 20: Opposition MK Says Israel Risks Pariah Status, 'Sane State Doesn't Kill Babies as Hobby'


Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XC: "just to be alive"

almost, with eyes closed
to this shrapnel-filled world ...
a Gazan newborn



XX: "hospital raid"
first haiku written in the style of magical realism

hospital raid ...
a dead man watches his blood flow
into his children's blood



CLXXXVIII: "a sniper's eye"

a Gazan baby
the glitter 
in a sniper's eye


The Democrats chair also criticized the government's conduct, saying it is "full of vengeful, unintelligent, and immoral individuals who lack the ability to run a country in a time of emergency – people who have nothing whatsoever to do with Judaism." Golan called for the government to be replaced "as soon as possible, so that the war can come to an end."

-- excerpted from Haaretz, May 20: Opposition MK Says Israel Risks Pariah Status, 'Sane State Doesn't Kill Babies as Hobby'


CLXXXI: "things hidden in ears"
inspired by Mosab Abu Toha's poem, "Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear"

doctor, you may find
these things hidden in my ears
a boy murmurs ...
buzzing of drones, roar of fighter jets
screams of Gazans, living and dead



CLXXXV: "covered in blood"

covered in blood
a mother holds her dead children ...
with news on mute
this Israeli expat shouts
we won't forget; they won't escape



Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXXIX: "Heaven and Gaza's ruins"

an armless boy's stare
midnight lightning links Heaven 
and Gaza's ruins ...

Thursday, May 15, 2025

Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Nakba Day

(FYI: Haaretz, 19, 2025: 'We're Destroying Gaza': Netanyahu, Smotrich Rush to Soothe Right's Fears Over Aid Renewal

Israel is engaged in intense, large-scale combat in Gaza… We intend to take control of the entire territory. But we must proceed in a way that prevents anyone from stopping us... 

PM Netanyahu


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXXVI: "crumbs of pita bread"

smoky twilight ...
a Gazan family of four 
gazing long
at the crumbs of pita bread
soaked in overnight tea

FYI: Haaretz, May 19: One Day, Three Diaries From the Brink of Famine in Gaza, Where Even Rotten Food 'Feels Like a Victory'

The current aid blockade imposed by Israel is the longest since the war began in October 2023: No food or humanitarian supplies have entered the Gaza Strip since March 2.

And Haaretz, May 20: Opposition MK Says Israel Risks Pariah Status, 'Sane State Doesn't Kill Babies as Hobby'

Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing The Democrats party, told Israel's public broadcaster that "Israel is on the path to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa once was, if it does not return to acting like a sane country." Golan further said that "a sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population.


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXXVII: "expanding settlements"

forested hillside
where West Bankers used to hike
row upon row of houses


FYI: The Nation, May 20 2025: The Climate Costs of Occupation
As Israel expands its settlements in the West Bank, it has destroyed forests and boosted CO2 emissions.
United Nations Resolution 2334 makes establishing settlements and expanding existing ones in occupied Palestinian territories illegal.

And The Guardian, May 21Israeli troops fire ‘warning shots’ at 25 diplomats visiting occupied West Bank: Shots force delegation representing 31 countries, including Italy, Canada, Egypt and UK, to run for cover


My Dear Friends: 


Nakba of 1948 and Today Are Not Separate Events, but Ongoing Process of Palestinian Displacement, Replacement, Speakers Tell Panel, Urging Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza ...

And The Nation, May 15, "2025:" (Israel's War on Gaza, Day 587) The Nakba Has Never Ended
In Gaza, the boundary marking past and present has become indistinct. Nineteen forty-eight is not over—it is unfolding again, and in more violent and destructive ways.


[decades-long
inhuman occupation compressed]
to one-day attacks
reponding with the red glow
of missiles in Gaza's night sky



this endless loop:
October 7, October 7 ....
[and yet 
the decades before
and the day after...] bloodshedding



each bombed-out house:
an album with no photos
but with people
living, wounded and dead
pressed between its pages



anything new
under Gaza's smeared sun?
smoky rubble
beyond smoky rubble, and yet
again smoky rubble



Haaretz, May 9 2025: How Did Israelis Become So Indifferent to Children Killed in Gaza?

We must ask ourselves, how did we become so indifferent? How have our hearts become hardened to the deaths of children? Why are we silent in the best case, and even rejoicing in the worst, most horrible case? We must view this indifference as a sign that we are undergoing serious deterioration, a process that has affected our central moral nerve. This is a process that requires us to get help.

If nothing can justify what was done to us on October 7, how can it be that what we have been doing to them for more than a year and a half now – actions that have cost tens of thousands of people their lives and destroyed their lands – does seem justified to us?


Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXXIII: "baby's mud-stained arm"

smoky rubbles
a baby's mud-stained arm 
gathering crows


Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXXIV: "grinning and finger-gunning"

smoky ruins
after smoky ruins
a soldier 
grinning and finger-gunning
at the TV camera


Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXXV: "covered in blood"

covered in blood
a mother holds her dead children ...
with news on mute
this Israeli expat shouts
we won't forget; they won't escape


Share with you the following warning and plea to conclude today's Special Feature post

Haaretz, March 5 2024If the Lust for Revenge Makes Israel Resemble Hamas, We'll Surely Lose the Gaza War

Netanyahu has repeatedly whipped Israelis into a mental frenzy of hate, revenge, anger, fear and the need to continue this ever lasting conflict...

And 

I am deeply saddened by what is happening in the Gaza Strip: may there be an immediate ceasefire! Let humanitarian aid be provided to the stricken civil population and let all the hostages be freed.



FYI: Haaretz, May 15: Trump's Sanctions on ICC Prosecutor Have Halted Tribunal's Work
The sanctions, that followed the arrest warrants filed for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, will 'prevent victims from getting access to justice,' said a senior director at Human Rights Watch

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has lost access to his email, and his bank accounts have been frozen.

The Hague-based court's American staffers have been told that they risk arrest if they travel to the U.S. Some non-governmental organizations have stopped working with the ICC. The leaders of one won't even reply to emails from court officials.