James is an eighth-generation Texan, former middle school teacher, and Presbyterian seminarian. As a state representative, he’s led the fight against the billionaire mega-donors and puppet politicians who have taken over Texas.
Now, he’s running for U.S. Senate to take his fight against corruption to Washington and win power back for working people.
79. Der Begriff der „sozialen Gerechtigkeit“ hilft zu erkennen, dass Ungerechtigkeit nicht nur aus falschen Entscheidungen einzelner Menschen entsteht, sondern auch aus Strukturen, Mechanismen sowie wirtschaftlichen und kulturellen Gegebenheiten, die fast automatisch Ungleichheit hervorbringen. In diesem Sinne hat der heilige Johannes Paul II. von Strukturen der Sünde gesprochen, [108] die dem Willen Gottes entgegenstehen und einen persönlichen und gesellschaftlichen Umkehrprozess erfordern. In dieser Hinsicht betrifft Gerechtigkeit nicht nur die gerechtere Verteilung von Gütern oder die Korrektur bestehender Ungerechtigkeiten, sondern nimmt auch eine wiedergutmachende Dimension an. Sie zielt darauf ab, zerbrochene Bindungen wiederherzustellen und diejenigen wieder einzubeziehen, die ausgeschlossen wurden, unter Berücksichtigung der Wunden, welche Ungerechtigkeiten hinterlassen haben: Kriege, Kolonialismus, rassistische oder geschlechtsspezifische Diskriminierung, Gewalt gegen ganze Völker, Ausbeutung. Dies kann bedeuten, denjenigen, die ignoriert wurden, Würde und Stimme zurückzugeben, Wege zur Heilung des kollektiven Gedächtnisses zu fördern, diskriminierenden Gesetzen und Praktiken entgegenzuwirken und konkret diejenigen zu unterstützen, die noch heute die Folgen von in der Vergangenheit erlittenem Unrecht tragen.
(…)
178. In unseren Tagen zeigt der Kolonialismus ein neues Gesicht. Er beherrscht nicht mehr nur Körper, sondern eignet sich Daten an und verwandelt das persönliche Leben in verwertbare Informationen. Ganze Gebiete, insbesondere jene mit geringerer geopolitischer Bedeutung und größerer struktureller Anfälligkeit, werden derzeit von einer neuen Logik der Ausbeutung durchzogen: Gesundheitsdaten, epidemiologische Profile, genetische Karten und demografische Daten. Dies sind die neuen „Seltenen Erden“ der Macht: lebenswichtige Informationen, die, sobald sie miteinander verknüpft sind, dazu genutzt werden können, Vorhersagemodelle zu trainieren, Investitionsstrategien zu lenken, Krisen vorauszusehen und vor allem auszuwählen, wer und was zählt. Wer über die Gesundheitsdaten ganzer Bevölkerungen verfügt – heute oft unter dem Deckmantel von Forschungsinnovation oder Entwicklungshilfe erhoben –, besitzt in Wirklichkeit einen strukturellen Hebel für die Zukunft: Er kann die Bedürfnisse und die Märkte gestalten. Und er kann vor anderen entscheiden, wem Medikamente, Investitionen und Schutzmaßnahmen zugeteilt werden. Hierin liegt eine der dringlichsten moralischen Herausforderungen unserer Zeit: gemeinsames Wissen in ein Gemeingut zu verwandeln, statt es als Beherrschungsinstrument zu nutzen. Das bedeutet, den Menschen nicht nur die Daten zurückzugeben, die sie beschreiben, sondern auch die Möglichkeit, zu entscheiden, wie diese genutzt werden, von wem und für wen. Andernfalls wird das digitale Zeitalter nicht postkolonial sein, sondern in einer anderen Form kolonial.
179. Die neuen Formen der Sklaverei leben von Wirtschaftsketten und digitalen Infrastrukturen. Daher ist es notwendig, in mehrere Richtungen zu arbeiten. Erstens müssen Lieferketten, die die Technologiebranche und die digitale Wirtschaft stützen, transparenter werden, damit kein Wettbewerbsvorteil auf unsichtbarer Ausbeutung aufbaut. Zweitens müssen Unternehmen und Investoren klare Kriterien für eine präventive ethische Überprüfung (due diligence) festlegen und dabei den Schutz der Arbeitnehmer, die Bekämpfung von Zwangsarbeit sowie die sozialen Auswirkungen datengesteuerter Geschäftsmodelle zu ihren Prioritäten zählen. Darüber hinaus müssen digitale Plattformen verantwortungsbewusst mit Behörden und der Zivilgesellschaft zusammenarbeiten, um zu verhindern, dass Programme für Kommunikation, Zahlung und Profiling zu Kanälen für die Anwerbung und Kontrolle von Opfern werden. Wenn diese Maßnahmen zusammenwirken, dann kann das digitale Umfeld von einem Raum der Ausbeutung in einen Raum des Schutzes, der Prävention und der Förderung der Würde verwandelt werden.
To Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, and all others of faith,
And to those who follow no formal religion but hold deeply to the universal values of peace, justice, and human dignity:
The U.S. – Israel launched this war of aggression on 28 February 2026, for a second time in less than a year, while Iran-U.S. were engaged in diplomatic negotiations.
This is not merely a war over land, resources, or geopolitics. This is a war that will determine the very meaning of ‚good‘ and ‚evil‘ in our time and for future.
What has been unleashed upon our peace-loving nation is not just another conflict. On one side stand those who delight in violating every law of war and basic human decency—those who murder for sport, who slaughter children to torment their families, who fire newest missiles at women’s sports halls simply to test their destructive power.
This is a war between those who boast of torpedoing unarmed vessels “for more fun,” and those who go to extraordinary lengths to protect innocent lives.
This is a war between professional liars who fabricate justifications for atrocity, and a proud people who defend their homeland and human dignity relying solely on their own strength and resolve.
This is a war between those whose decisions are shadowed by moral compromise, and those who act with a clear conscience.
This is a defining struggle for the future of humankind. It will decide whether civilization’s hard-won achievements—human rights, the rule of law, and basic morality—will survive or be swept away.
We must choose:
Do we accept a world ruled by modern slave masters—arrogant, domineering, and unaccountable—who govern through coercion, lies, and extortion?
Or do we stand for a world grounded in respect, justice, peace, and human dignity?
Humanity’s conscience is not yet dead. But in times like these, silence is complicity with evil.
If you reject the path of barbarism and domination, then find the moral courage to speak, to act, and to stand on the right side of history—before the world descends into an abyss of lawlessness and subjugation.
The choice is yours.
And history will remember.
(March 25, 2026)
Speaking before Spain‘s lower house of parliament, Sanchez challenged the selective application of principles.
„What we cannot do is condemn the invasion of Ukraine … and applaud Iran‘s attacks,“ Sanchez said. „We cannot demand respect for Greenland‘s territorial integrity and remain silent when territorial integrity is violated in Gaza or Lebanon.“
The Spanish leader, who describes Israel’s atrocities in Gaza as genocide, has characterised the U.S.-Israel war on Iran as a violation of international law, becoming the only European head of government to publicly reject the war on principle
(March 2, 2026)
“Don’t delegate conscience,” Daniel Ellsberg wrote.
“Most people conform and accept,” he noted. “A minority protest, withdraw. A tiny minority resist, take risks.”
“The temptation is strong to obey powerful men passively and unquestioningly,” Ellsberg observed in 1971, the year he turned himself in for giving the Pentagon Papers to the press and faced the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison.
He instantly became a pariah among colleagues who’d been his friends at the RAND Corporation, a think tank serving the US war machine. He’d been working there as a strategic analyst before and after a stint at the Defense Department.
“After I released the papers,” he vividly remembered, “some people were afraid to write to me . . . to shake hands with me . . . to receive a phone call from me.” Three years later, his takeaway was: “Accept the risks of freedom and commitment, instead of the risks of obedience and conformity.”
Thousands and thousands of Americans from my generation have been killed and injured in never ending pointless foreign wars and we said no more. But we are freeing the Iranian people.
Please.
There are 93 million people in Iran, let them liberate themselves. But Iran is on the verge of having nuclear weapons.
Yeah sure.
We have been spoon fed that line for decades and Trump told us all that his bombing this past summer completely wiped it all out.
It’s always a lie and it’s always America Last. But it feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different and said no more.
We thought the victory won in 2024 would be finally time to put America First.
And we thought that meant the common American man and woman and their children.
Not the elites.
America has suffered and they don’t even care.
Hundreds of thousands of American small business owners lost their hard earned businesses during tyrannical covid lockdowns, that by the way, started under Trump with 15 days to slow the spread and continued under Biden and Democrats. There is no difference between them.
Vaccine injuries, deaths, delays and loss in our tax payer funded education, record high suicides, record high Big Pharma profits and ZERO accountability for anyone from the MAGA America First administration as they run off to start wars and the board of peace at the same time.
Create the crisis and the solution simultaneously and then build condos to profit. MAGA!
For years we demanded to release the Epstein files, demanding transparency and justice for thousands of victims, women and children, by the richest most powerful men in the world and we had to fight Trump himself to do it, even after we all campaigned on it. And not a single person has been arrested and likely won’t be, no accountability, no justice.
Instead, we get a war with Iran on behalf of Israel that will succeed in regime in Iran.
Another foreign war for foreign people for foreign regime change.
For what?
Does it lower our inflation that our government caused? Caused by BOTH Democrats AND Republicans with their decades of corrupt government spending that has enslaved us all in nearly $40 Trillion in debt and reduced the value of our dollar to nothing. No, war with Iran does not lower inflation and make cost of living affordable.
Does war with Iran fix our healthcare system and make health insurance affordable for Americans??
No war with Iran does not do that and the MAGA admin and Republicans aren’t even working on it in any serious way at all.
Does war with Iran stop AI from replacing your job? Nope.
Does war with Iran help you to be able to afford to buy a home? No, but you’ll see TikTok videos of nice penthouses when Gaza is rebuilt.
Does war with Iran help the mental health crisis in America or help the drug addiction pandemic in America? Nope.
Does war with Iran do anything to help American families stay together and survive? No, not at all.
But within hours of war with Iran it was reported approximately 40 innocent girls, school children, in Iran were killed by bombs from Israel.
And they don’t care, they killed thousands of innocent children in Gaza, and apparently our Pro-Peace administration doesn’t care either.
And, since they won’t solve America’s problems clearly they don’t care about our kids either.
Now, America is going to be force fed and gas lighted all the “noble” reasons the American “Peace” President and Pro-Peace administration had to go to war once again this year, after being in power for only a year.
Head-spinning, but maga.
(January 20, 2026)
A key reason is a reality that Sen. Bernie Sanders described soon after Trump’s 2016 win: “Certainly there are some people in the Democratic Party who want to maintain the status quo. They would rather go down with the Titanic so long as they have first-class seats.”
Democratic Party leaders should be removed from seats of party power or bypassed as relics of bygone eras. Their ongoing refusals to distance from corporate power, rich elites, and militarism have alienated much of the party’s base.
As I wrote in my free new book The Blue Road to Trump Hell, “The Democratic Party enabled Donald Trump to become president twice because of repetition compulsions that still plague the top echelons of the party.” To eject Republicans from power – and to advance a strong progressive agenda – true leadership must come from grassroots mobilization.
As the New York Times reported Friday, FBI agent Tracee Mergen, acting supervisor of the office’s Public Corruption Squad, resigned after senior FBI officials in Washington pushed her to end a civil rights probe into the killing. The agency is focusing on investigating Good and her wife, who were legally observing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, instead of determining whether ICE agent Jonathan Ross used excessive force.
An FBI source told CBS News that Mergen “would not bow to pressure” from the agency’s leaders.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the foundations of the international order „have been shaken“ and that nations shouldn‘t „accept this new reality as fate.“ He made the comments during a speech at the World Economic Forum‘s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. „We do not have to accept this new reality as fate,“ Merz added. „We are not at the mercy of this new world order. We do have a choice. We can shape the future.“ (Source: Bloomberg)
We have entered a time of great-power politics. The international order of the past three decades – anchored in international law – has always been imperfect. Today, its very foundations have been shaken.
This new world of great powers is being built on power, on strength and when it comes to it, on force. It is not a cozy place.
We do not have to accept this new reality as fate. We are not at the mercy of this new world order.
We do have a choice. We can shape the future. To succeed, we must face harsh realities and chart our course with clear-eyed realism.
Her relationship with Mr. Trump began to sour over records related to Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein was facing federal sex trafficking charges when he died by suicide in 2019.
Greene told „60 Minutes“ that after the president called her a traitor, she received a bomb threat on her house — and then, „several direct death threats on my son.“
Asked about her claim that the president was to blame for the threats to her and her son, Greene replied, „The subject line for the direct death threats on my son was his words: „Marjorie Traitor Greene.“
The affordability of health insurance caused Greene to side with the Democrats during the government shutdown in support of extending health care subsidies.
The Georgia representative said she never imagined she would be standing with Democrats on the Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Greene is also the only Republican member of Congress to publicly characterize the war in Gaza as a „genocide“ and she has also voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act. She said she‘s voted to denounce antisemitism before.
„It becomes an exercise that they force on Congress, and I simply got tired of it,“ she said, later adding, „We don‘t have to get on our knees and say it over and over again.“
Greene is one of the few Republicans willing to take on Mr. Trump.
(November 7, 2025)
Over the past two years, Maj. Gen. Tomer-Yerushalmi — the official responsible for all internal investigations and legal enforcement in the Israeli army — has almost entirely refrained from probing the countless, well-documented allegations against its soldiers. The Sde Teiman guards’ crime, however, as captured in the leaked video, was apparently so blatant and grotesque that authorities had no choice but to issue indictments.
When Israeli military police arrived at Sde Teiman to arrest the suspects, however, they were met by right-wing rioters and soldiers, including several members of Knesset hiding behind their immunity. Attempting to block the arrests, they insisted that the perpetrators did nothing wrong and that their actions were merely part of the Israeli war effort.
Tomer-Yerushalmi leaked the video of the rape soon after, and it quickly spread online. Protests by right-wing Israelis in support of the abusers grew in turn. But while many around the world were aghast at what could only be described as “right to rape” protests, the discussion in Israel quickly faded in favor of daily news of “successes” on the Gazan front. The case was largely forgotten for months, until the investigation into the video’s leak was announced last week.
Zum ersten Mal gibt es ein globales Erwachen und eine globale Mobilisierung angesichts eines Völkermords. Dessen müssen wir uns bewusst sein. Natürlich ist es das System, sind es die UN-Mitgliedstaaten, die Israel Straflosigkeit gewähren. Dieses System besteht aus der Komplizenschaft einer Vielzahl von Akteuren und Unternehmen, Universitäten, dem Finanzsektor und all denen, die die Situation normalisiert haben. Aber es herrscht eine Atmosphäre der Veränderung, und wir müssen wissen, dass es richtig ist, weiterhin die Anwendung des Völkerrechts zu fordern. Das ist kein Akt der Nächstenliebe, sondern der Menschlichkeit, der Verantwortung und des Rechts.
(August 26, 2025)
Open Letter co-signed by 209 former EU and Member State Ambassadors and Senior Staff
Issued ahead of informal meeting of Foreign Ministers Gymnich, 29 – 30 Aug 2025
Addressed to:
Heads of State and Government, and Foreign Ministers of the EU 27 Member States
President of the European Council
President of the European Commission
President of European Parliament
High Representative for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy / VP of the Commission
Commissioners for: Mediterranean; Trade; Equality, Preparedness & Crisis Management
Chair, Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET), European Parliament
We, a group now comprising 206 former EU and Member State ambassadors and senior officials, are writing in furtherance of the nine proposed EU actions that we compiled in our open letter of 28 July, in response to the Israeli government’s unlawful actions in Gaza and the West Bank, following Hamas’ heinous attacks on 7 October 2023. We note with dismay that, in the ensuing four weeks since our letter, no ceasefire has been agreed in Gaza, no Israeli hostages
have been released, and, alarmingly, the Israeli government has begun implementing plans to empty Gaza City and its environs of one million Palestinians, by forcing them into concentration areas in the south, in preparation for possible large-scale deportations to third countries with the risk of fomenting a migration crisis. If this was not bad enough the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) confirmed on 22 August that a man-made famine now exists in these same areas of Gaza, with half a million people there facing starvation, destitution and death. Malnutrition now threatens the lives of 132,000 children under five through June 2026 and by the end of September 2025 it is estimated
that 640,000 people (a third of the population) will face catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Tragically, already over 200 Gazan citizens, including over 60 children, have succumbed to malnutrition-related deaths. Furthermore:
● Estimates suggest that just since our letter of 28 July more than 2,600 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, many of them women and children, with over 12,000 injured;
………………………..
An unprecedented number of former EU and national ambassadors, as well as former senior EU officials, have signed a fresh letter urging the EU to take tougher action against Israel over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The joint letter has been signed by 206 former European ambassadors and officials.
That compares to a previous letter sent in July, which had 58 signatures.
(August 11, 2025)
The EU presents itself as a global champion of moral and legal leadership, grounded in the principles of human rights, international law, democracy, and humanitarianism. Yet its failure to uphold these values in the case of Palestine severely undermines its credibility. As Israel’s largest trading partner and second-largest arms supplier, the EU possesses considerable leverage; its refusal to use this influence to hold Israel accountable or protect Palestinian lives signals not powerlessness but a conscious choice of complicity. Moreover, given its member states’ historical entanglement in the colonial partitioning of the Middle East, the EU bears a deeper responsibility to act with justice. Its failure to do so today echoes the very dynamics of domination and double standards it claims to have left behind.
(July 15, 2025)
Reacting to the EU’s decision not to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, Agnès Callamard Amnesty International’s Secretary General said:
“The EU’s refusal to suspend its agreement with Israel is a cruel and unlawful betrayal – of the European project and vision, predicated on upholding international law and fighting authoritarian practices, of the European Union’s own rules and of the human rights of Palestinians.
This will be remembered as one of the most disgraceful moments in the EU’s history.
We are witnessing a reshaping of the individual, of society, of the market, and of the social fabric that binds people together. What remains of meaningful human agency is being dissolved, with Palestinians left to face uncertain fates.
In this open-air theatre, Israel is carrying out a systematic policy of dismantling individuals and structures alike, paving the way for a final phase – one of collective submission, of psychological dependence on the oppressor, and of collapsed trust in society itself.
This, in turn, paves the way for a new order in which people attach their hopes to whoever appears stronger, more capable, more able to feed them. We will by then have become pliable clay, to be shaped by Israel at will or discarded, left as broken human wreckage under the control of warlords and looters.
(August 4, 2025)
Gathered online for their regular Mashreq/Maghreb Working Party and despite mounting pressure on Israel over the hunger crisis in Gaza, the 27 EU diplomats still couldn’t reach any qualified majority on a European Commission proposal to cut Israel from partial access to the EU‘s €95 billion Horizon Europe research fund.
“The situation has not changed,” one EU diplomat said, referring to a formal meeting of EU ambassadors last week which also failed to agree to the Commission’s proposal. The diplomat said the issue was now in the hands of the EU’s foreign affairs ministers, who will meet informally on 29 August.
(August 6, 2025)
Kühn von Burgsdorff served as EU ambassador to Palestinian occupied territories and the Gaza Strip between January 2020 and July 2023. He was recently a coordinator of a letter sent by 27 former EU ambassadors – and subsequently endorsed by 58 – to heads of governments and EU institutions on July 10, calling for actions against Israel due to the ongoing situations in Gaza and in the West Bank.
(July 23, 2025)
The world will remember how the EU and its member states respond to this catastrophic tragedy.
Silence and neutrality in the face of genocide constitute complicity. Inaction emboldens perpetrators and betrays every principle the Union and its member states claim to uphold.
While continuing to call unceasingly for the return of the hostages, a permanent ceasefire and the end to the war, the European Union, long a champion of human rights and the rule of law, must act now in the name of international law, humanity, and justice for the Palestinian people — or risk forfeiting its credibility, influence and moral standing in the world.
Sonia Silva has been working in the embattled enclave since the beginning of November 2023, just one-month after the terror attack by Hamas and other armed groups in southern Israel that sparked the brutal conflict.
She spoke to UN News about the misery people have experienced in recent days.
„…The ongoing shortages of food are making things worse. It affects the entire population, including our frontline partners, our national colleagues and all the supporting staff.
What has struck me most about Gaza is that despite the hardship, colleagues keep going, colleagues keep teasing each other, colleagues who have lost everything show the utmost generosity and solidarity.
I would like to pay tribute to all of my colleagues and our partners who are hanging on to fragments of hope for a better life but still keep essential services running.
They are the best of humankind in a place abandoned by humanity.”
Dozens of Israeli teenagers burned at Habima Square in Central Tel-Aviv on Tuesday, July 15, their draft orders during a demonstration, refusing to serve in the Israeli army in protest against war and genocide in Gaza. They claimed, “We won’t take part in genocide” and “won’t serve apartheid, occupation and war crimes.”
יום רביעי, 25 באוקטובר 2023. 18 יום אחרי שהשמיים נפלו, נתניהו כבר הכריז שצפוי „תמרון קרקעי“, משרד הבריאות בעזה מסר שנשבר שיא, בהפצצות מהאוויר נהרגו ביממה אחת 704 תושבים, ו-90 מדינות נרשמו לדבר בדיון במועצת הביטחון של האו“ם שכונס כדי לקרוא להפסקת אש. עומר אל-עקאד כתב בחשבון ה-X שלו משפט שנצפה מאז יותר מ-10 מיליון פעמים: „יום אחד, כשזה כבר יהיה בטוח, כשלא יהיה כל מחיר לקרוא לדבר בשמו, כשיהיה מאוחר מדי להתעמת עם האחראים, כולם יהיו מאז ומתמיד נגד זה“.
>> „מכירת ספרים היא האור, היא לא פשע בשום דרך וצורה“
אותו פיתול ניסוחי בהיר הלך עם אל-עקאד כל הדרך אל כותרת ספרו השלישי, שבא אחרי שני רומנים מצליחים: אוסף המסות „יום אחד כולם יהיו מאז ומתמיד נגד זה“ יצא לפני כחודשיים, ובו הוא נותן סימנים בקלקולי החשיבה של הליברליזם המערבי, בפערים שבין הערכים להחלטות, במיוחד מול הטיהור האתני שמבצעת ישראל ברצועת עזה.