Nearly 9,000 women have been killed in Israeli attacks in five months. Another 2,100 are missing and presumed dead, while 23,000 have been wounded and over half a million are displaced.

“Palestinian women, especially in the Gaza Strip, are exposed to the worst humanitarian catastrophe,” Ashraf al-Qudra, the health ministry’s spokesperson, said on Thursday.

Dozens of women and girls have also been detained and face harsh conditions in Israeli custody, including sexual abuse.

Women in Gaza also struggle to find menstruation products and access the necessary pregnancy and post-natal care. The consequences on reproductive health, including a rise in stress-induced miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births, have increased significantly.

Women in labour are undergoing caesarean procedures without anaesthetics, and a shortage of post-operative care such as medication, antibiotics and pain relief further exacerbates the situation.

According to the health ministry, 5,000 women give birth monthly in Gaza under “harsh, unsafe and unhealthy” conditions caused by Israeli bombing and displacement.

There are 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza suffering from “malnutrition, dehydration and lack of medical care.

Donate to Anera's Pads for Gaza campaign to provide pads and other hygiene supplies to Ghazzawin.

It FEELS so much like a real ad I expect to be sold some sort of car tyre or something but it’s just about biting

LINKS & RESOURCES:

Free Ebooks for a Free Palestine!

Verso Books: Solidarity with Palestine: Free Resources and Further Reading

Free Palestine! A Reading List

Books for a Free Palestine

Google Drive of Palestinian Poetry made by @firstfullmoon

Palestinian poems series by @fiercynn

40 books to understand Palestine

FICTION:

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

Wild Thorns by Sahar Khalifeh

The Things We See in the Light by Amal Awad

A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum

Secrets Under the Olive Tree by Nevien Shaabneh

Trees for the Absentees by Ahlam Bsharat

The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah

Mother Country by Etaf Rum

The Sea Cloak and other stories by Nayrouz Qarmout

The Parisian by Isabella Hammad

My First and Only Love by Sahar Khalifeh

Velvet by Huzama Habayeb

Haifa Fragments by Khulud Khamis

NON - FICTION:

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

On Palestine By Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappe and Frank Barat

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe

Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappe

Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire by Jehad Abusalim (Editor), Jennifer Bing (Editor), Mike Merryman-Lotze (Editor)

Except for Palestine The Limits of Progressive Politics by Marc Lamont Hill, Mitchell Plitnick

Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians by Noam Chomsky

Where the Line Is Drawn by Raja Shehadeh

Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights by Omar Barghouti

Palestine: A Socialist Introduction [edited] by Sumaya Awad and Brian Bean

From the River to the Sea [edited] by Sai Englert, Michal Schatz and Rosie Warren

Palestine Speaks [edited] by Mateo Hoke and Cate Malek

The Punishment of Gaza by Gideon Levy

The Question of Palestine by Edward W. Said

I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti

Shell Houses by Rasha Abdulhadi

Born Palestinian, Born Black by Suheir Hammad

Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat

Orientalism by Edward W. Said

Gaza Writes Back by Refaat Alareer

Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd

Ever Since I Did Not Die by Ramy Al-Asheq

Posting anything positive about the president here will get you called a capitalist bootlicker.

What do we expect to happen?

Anger sells better. Anger feels better, it feels righteous.

I just wish it weren’t so damn frustrating, feeling like you’re screaming into the void constantly, fighting against apathy.

CMS just announced that the government will start taking high-cost drugs that were developed with taxpayer dollars and start pulling patents to force competition and low cost generics. That’s fucking momentous.

I saw 1 news article on it. I wouldn’t have known it happened if I didn’t read the news every day. This should have caused the kind of celebration that erupted when companies started announcing $35 insulin caps. Why didn’t it?

They didn't. It was hardly mentioned. Not a blip.

Same exact thing when it came to net neutrality!! It was DEVASTATING when it was killed. People died in wildfires because Internet providers throttled data of firefighters. Xfinity actually stole identities in order to make it happen.

changed the Medicare enrollment periods for elderly and disabled individuals, so that they don’t have to literally enroll in the designated period for enrollment and then STILL WAIT for 2, 3, 4, 5, or even SIX months for their healthcare to start

along the Medicare line, they have added special enrollments for: people who just got released from jail, who lost their low-income healthcare through Medicaid, had a medical emergency or natural disaster that made them miss enrollment, didn’t enroll because they were lied to by their employers, etc

they CAPPED THE COST OF INSULIN to $35/MONTH FOR MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES!!!!! and they are working to get it capped to that for all Americans!!! (but of course, Republicans are fighting it)

Biden pardoned all prior federal offenses for simple possession of marijuana and started the review process to get weed rescheduled federally

provided hundreds of billions nationally in funding for the repair of roads/bridges/highways, expanding high-speed internet access, improving public transportation, adding electric vehicle charging, adding clean energy sources, removing pollution still leaking into communities from industrial manufacturing from DECADES ago, and REMOVAL OF LEAD PIPES not just on state land but on TRIBAL land and TERRITORIES!

cracked down on the (frankly, abusive) overdraft fees from banks - to the point that many banks have removed the fees outright rather than deal with an investigation from the federal government over them - and the last minute surprise fees from hotels/concert venues/etc.

They are working to change Social Security taxation so that those making above $400,000/yr actually have to fucking CONTRIBUTE - because, if you didn’t know, currently Social Security taxes cap out at $160,000. Yes, meaning that those who are MOST ABLE TO AFFORD paying more taxes, and who would contribute MORE in taxes, are paying pennies (if anything).

Also, to increase the minimum SSA benefit from just a cut-and-dry figure that has to be manually increased (and is therefore subject to NOT getting increased), to a scaling percentage of 125% above the poverty line

Also, also, to increase benefits for surviving spouses who abruptly lose 50%+ of their income when a spouse dies, then are shit out of luck for paying for homes/vehicles/etc

Not only that but:

as many people who were vocally against it, they also made covid vaccines widely available and FREE for everyone during the pandemic

provided massive student loan debt relief

ENACTED A MINIMUM 15% CORPORATE TAX on large companies, who otherwise tend to skirt taxes with legally-gray methods

Rejoined the Paris Agreement - literally can’t believe I even have to say that

are providing relief to veterans exposed to burn pits

reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act and added protections for LGBTQ+ individuals and non-women victims, changed it so it now allows tribes to now hold non-native aggressors liable under tribal justice systems, and improved long and short term housing for victims (as well as increased emergency housing access)

I’m not going to say I agree with every action taken under the Biden-Harris admin (lol, looking at you specifically, IRS), but.  These things change people’s lives. Not just a little - they are the difference between literally dying a slow death from lack of medication and living happily.  Between getting heart surgery and NOT getting heart surgery, because you don’t have health insurance, because you just got out of prison for having one (1) molecule of weed stuck to your sleeve during a traffic stop. Election season is already starting, so if you have to remember one thing, remember this:

Adding to this list, the Biden-Harris administration has also:

Changed the Extra Help with Medicare Prescription Drug program, so that EVERYONE on Medicare who is under 150% of the federal poverty level can qualify for zero monthly premiums, zero deductibles, and capped prescription costs at $4.50 generic/$11.40 name-brand.

Provided $3.5 million in grants to expand internet coverage on and to tribal lands.

And $728 million to provide clean, sustainable drinking water to rural and tribal communities and support water and river conservation in the Colorado river basin.

Provided funding for the expansion of Medicaid, meaning that now 40 states offer a year’s worth of health coverage after birth, so postpartum complications can be, y'know… treated without putting you into massive medical debt.

Demanded an additional year of coverage for children’s healthcare under CHIP, via the CAA of 2023, with a hopeful continuation even further under section 1115.

Invested $265 million across 16 states for natural disaster preparation and recovery, including streambank stabilization, flood prevention and watershed restoration projects.

And honestly, this administration has done so much more that I don’t have time to list - with wide-ranging effects that won’t be fully felt for another few years, but are MONUMENTAL for our country, our healthcare, our environment, our jobs, and our futures.

Please don’t allow shills and bots to convince you that voting doesn’t matter or that your vote is inconsequential.

The Department of Delicious Deception should know better than to try to eat wooden food, but the work of Japanese wood sculptor Seiji Kawasaki is so awesomely realistic, we just know they’re going to take a nibble at the earliest opportunity. Just look at these croissants, so flaky and buttery:

But they aren’t flaky, buttery pastries at all. They’re blocks of wood, hand-carved to the tiniest detail and painstakingly painted by Kawasaki. Each piece takes 2-3 hours to complete, some of which aren’t simply decorative. These red peppers, for example, function as chopstick rests:

Follow Seiji Kawasaki on Facebook or Twitter for many more photos of his astonishingly realistic woodcarving.