We stood with about a thousand people outside the Lackawanna County Courthouse Saturday when a “No Kings” protestor commented on the “WHAT ABOUT GAZA?” sign my political scientist activist wife held.
With a knotted American flag bandana twisted jauntily around his neck like an America’s Cup yacht captain, an obedient cellphone-photo-taking wife by his side and what looked like a pampered grandkid he led by the hand, the anti-Trumper looked derisively at Stephanie’s sign and snapped, “Not Today.”
Turning immediately to confront this smartass ignorance, Stephanie said, “Absolutely today.”
“And every other day,” I said facing our smug critic, firing responses in a litany of harsh truths about why American-taxpayer-sponsored Israeli genocide against Palestinian civilians in Gaza matters every moment of every day.
The self-appointed No Kings censor skittered away like an insect into the comfort of an overwhelmingly brainwashed crowd of mostly registered Democrats dressed in silly costumes carrying signs decorated with cutesy slogans, the same predictable cheerleaders who refuse to take responsibility for their party’s complicity in the ongoing Israeli slaughter.
Two or three times in the course of the afternoon I held above my head a small Palestinian flag taped to a piece of white cardboard. Turning in a circle like an outlaw biker facing numerous opponents in a barroom brawl, I provided easily confirmable facts as a longtime journalist with the word PRESS stenciled in big white letters on the front and back of my blue T-shirt.
I yelled.
“American-sponsored Israeli genocide has killed more than 200 Palestinian local journalists in Gaza.”
I barked.
“Democrats and Republicans together are united in the carnage.”
I roared.
“Free Palestine.”
I didn’t need a microphone, bullhorn or podium. And I didn’t ask the bourgeois special interest rally organizer for permission to speak. I respect my free speech American birthright much more than to ever bow to partisan political control freaks’ delusions of power.
But when I looked around the Scranton No Kings pompom rally, nobody else in the crowd was waving a Palestinian flag or holding a protest sign against the Israeli carnage that has killed more than 64,000 civilians in two years and poisoned the land, air and water upon which humans depend to survive. Only as we left the rally later that day did we meet Farouk, a Palestinian friend who wore a “Free Palestine” sweatshirt and lost family members including children in the ongoing Israeli massacres in Gaza.
Self-centered privileged Democrats abhor criticism of their political party. They still blame those of us who refused to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris for her loss in the 2024 presidential election. Rather than blame Harris herself and other blind faith Democrats like her boss and former President Joe Biden who first signed on to the Israeli genocide, they condemn others. If these whiny elitists ever hope to regain political power, they better soon admit and repair their dismal failings that gave birth to Trump and his band of white supremacists who value iron fist authoritarianism over soft core liberal democracy.
I’m not interested in compromising with or trying to persuade Democrats or Republicans who ignore the starvation and intentional extermination of innocent Palestinian men, women and children. They all need to know I fight on the other side. I’m not going away. And I refuse to remain silent about anybody’s approval of a bastard nation’s America-financed war crimes.
Northeastern Pennsylvania Palestinian rights activists have assembled for the past two years to raise awareness to America’s role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. We zeroed in on the General Dynamics plant in Scranton and the for-profit national defense contractor’s role in the international corporate bomb-making business. United States Army spokespersons have refused to answer my written questions about whether shell casings made at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant mostly for Ukraine are also later packed with explosives and shipped to Israel where they are used to kill Palestinian civilians.
In September 2024 Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, the mother of two children, gleefully visited the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in a cold-blooded celebration closed to the media to autograph a 155mm artillery shell that might have eventually killed mothers and children in Gaza. At a 2023 “Stand With Israel” event at the Scranton Jewish Community Center, Cognetti made clear her alliance and allegiance with Israeli supremacy and militant Zionism.
Since then Cognetti has refused to answer my written questions about whether she still stands with Israel. Now a Democratic congressional candidate while at the same time running for re-election as mayor, Scranton’s warmonger mayor has promised if elected to Congress to help create more work for Scranton bomb makers who help ensure more death and destruction among unarmed civilians.
That’s why NEPA human rights activist Austin Sopko’s surprise disruption of Thursday’s Scranton mayoral debate carries such powerful significance. When Cognetti began a robotic recitation of success as mayor, one of Sopko’s comrades, a Palestinian woman, stood and quietly interrupted to ask Cognetti about her continuing support for Israeli genocide.
As Cognetti smirked and the moderator asked for no more interruptions, Sopko stood, waving a Palestinian flag in one hand and verbally lambasting Cognetti whose politically technocratic mind froze during Sopko’s rapid-fire political diatribe. Sopko clearly rattled Cognetti, exposing her lack of political leadership as she offered no response to legitimate criticism. Before security escorted Sopko from the auditorium, a second woman activist stood to address Cognetti’s racist embrace of Israel’s Palestinian slaughter. All three protestors live and vote in the 8th Congressional District where Cognetti is a candidate.
Our sweet land of liberty must continue to reject symbolic kings, queens, princes and political princesses. No more Trump. No more “Genocide Joe” Biden and “Bombala” Kamala Harris. No more former U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and his former dull congressional sidekick Matt Cartwright. No more phony “Paige against the Machine” Cognetti and her ignoble court of bootlicker jesters.
No more royal pains in the ass who help kill humanity and murder the dreams of children.