In a recent interview, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed allegations of Israeli genocide in Gaza, claiming, “If Israel wanted to commit a genocide against Palestinians, they could do it in a minute.”

That assertion contradicts the findings of numerous Holocaust and genocide scholars, including Israeli historian Raz Segal, who cites explicit statements of genocidal intent, mass killing of civilians, deliberately destroying life-sustaining conditions, and the systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure.

On June 23, a United Nations Commission reported that the Israeli military continues to commit genocide in Gaza by deliberately targeting children, causing “unprecedented death, injury and trauma.”  

The report details attacks on hospitals, schools and orphanages, as well as torture and sexual violence against children in custody, concluding that “the essence of childhood has been destroyed.”

Yet there remains a striking lack of urgency among members of Congress when it comes to protecting Palestinian lives.

As Jewish-American scholar Judith Butler has observed: “The Palestinians have been labeled as ungrievable. That is to say, they are not a group of people whose lives are being considered as worthy of value, of persisting, of flourishing in this world. If they are lost, it is not considered to be a true loss.”

Congress must confront this moral failure and comply with U.S. law. The Leahy Law states:

 “No assistance shall be furnished to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.”  

Representative Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has introduced an amendment to eliminate $3.3 billion in military aid for Israel from the federal budget, showing that Congress does have the power to condition assistance. 

Anything less is a choice to accept the ongoing destruction of Palestinian life.

‘Social Democrats’ pose a big threat; research recommended

My biggest “pet peeve” in the world of politics is that a lot of political “conservatives” constantly refer to Democrats, liberals and progressives as being “socialists,” when they actually know that they are not.  

They are all “Social Democrats” who do not want to replace our market-based capitalist economic system with a genuinely “socialist” one that has never successfully worked in any large-scale society. 

I am sure that it would bother conservatives if Democrats, liberals and progressives constantly referred to all of them as “survival-of-the-fittest” Social Darwinists who try to keep it a secret from the public.  

While some conservatives do want to abolish every single federal government social program that helps the lower and middle classes, it would be incorrect, unjust, unfair and stealthy to claim that all of them do.

To find out what a “socialist” actually does and does not believe in, please read the article titled “Bernie Sanders Isn’t A Socialist,” which appeared (on Feb. 13, 2020) in The New York Times. It can be found online.

The author of the article is Paul Krugman, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2008.

Stewart B. Epstein

Rochester, N.Y.

Daily Planet columnist called a right-wing ‘moron’ for rallying bend 'idiot-loser' Spencer Pratt; Israeli prime minister 'owns' Republican Party, letter-writer alleges

Roger Buckner is a moron.  

A right-wing pro-pedophile fascist fan of (expletive deleted) Donald “Tel Aviv” Trump, Mr. Buckner (a columnist for the Daily Planet) can’t stop whining because his second-favorite “reality television” rich-boy Republican imbecile, Spencer Pratt, lost his race for mayor of Los Angeles, California.  

Spencer Pratt is a joke. That’s why your idiot candidate lost, crybaby conservative Mr. Buckner.  

L.A. hates pathetic political scammer Pratt almost as much as traitor Trump is hated by California patriots.

The only people who were the least bit surprised by stupid idiot Spencer Pratt’s embarrassing loss in the primary election are people who don’t live in California — people like brainless Republican racist Roger Buckner, whose knowledge of California politics consists of nothing but Fox “News” talking points.  

Keep relying on Fox “News,” please, you GOP tool. It’s served you so well.  Blue Wave on the way in November! Keep whining, Roger. The Republican Party is owned by (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu.

And keep on losing, Republicans.  

In advance, thank you for handing the Congress back to Democrats.

Just like in 2020, when Joe Biden crushed Orange Hitler, 2026 and 2028 are going to be bad years for neo-Nazi numbskulls.  

Bum rush the U.S. Capitol again, I dare you!  

You know you want to, just do it, hateful hillbillies.  

Next time, try not to urinate or defecate on public property, GOP pigs.  Otherwise, it’s a pro-freedom firing squad for you fascists that you’ll find in Washington, D.C., when you lose again and riot again.  

Democrats don’t need to commit election fraud because the majority is on our side.  Read a poll sometime. The GOP is done!

Lying, cheating and stealing is the Republican way of life. Now you’ll pay for it. America will deliver that payback in November ‘26.  

And psycho Spencer Pratt, who promised to leave California as the loser he is, can move in with Roger Buckner in his backwoods North Carolina shack, since they’re fascist friends and all.  

Mr. Pratt has lost his L.A. privileges by popular demand, so he’s moving to North Carolina.

But of course, adjudicated sexual abuser and disgusting deviant Donald Trump is also done, son!  

Trump’s next impeachment will be fun.  

Then up next is couch-lover JD Vance (the U.S. vice president), who will lose the 2028 presidential election in a monumental landslide of historic proportions.  

We’ll make the rich pay taxes.  

Imagine that? Rich GOP pigs crying all day.

World Cup reality: U.S. actually more welcoming than its brand, reader claims

Now that the World Cup denouement is behind us, a couple of thoughts on this impactful, global event.

As we know, Brand USA has taken an international hit for obvious reasons. But it seems that the U.S., as the key tri-host country, may have helped the American image. 

“The front porch of our house is the first thing a visitor experiences before they ever step inside,” noted Darin White, the founder of Samford University’s Sports Industry Program in Alabama and a former soccer coach. “Sports serves the same function for cities, states and countries. It is often the first meaningful, emotionally charged encounter someone has with a place they might otherwise never have thought much about.”

In short, most Americans are still nice, welcoming people.

BTW, Donald Trump has been, understandably, keeping his distance from World Cup matches. 

Getting booed at a (New York) Knicks game at Madison Square Garden was bad enough. 

He has been especially wary of English-speaking foreign spectators. 

British fans have caught media attention for their less-than-nuanced chants of: “He’s fat with the piles; he’s in the Epstein files.”