Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive
We’re now a few weeks into the ceasefire in Gaza, shakey as it is, and I’m wondering where all the pictures of “starving” children are.
Was that a false narrative perpetuated by the pro-Hamas side of the war?
The pictures I’ve seen of Palestinian children celebrating the ceasefire don’t look starving. Here’s a kid who made it to Western news wires. He looks well-fed, holding an even more well-fed cat.
Pardon my skepticism, but if there was famine in Gaza during the two-year war, shouldn’t we be seeing evidence of it? Where are the skeletized bodies?
Look, I don’t want to go full skeptic on this because, obviously, Gaza has been an inhospitable place for two years. I just expected that once photo journalists gained access, we’d see pictures to substantiate the narrative.
We haven’t so far.
That’s all I’m sayin’.
I’ve yet to hear anyone explain the significance of the “No Kings Day” protests last weekend, such as the one in downtown Reno, above.
It can’t be that Nevada has a king, because we don’t. And what of the protests in Canada and the UK where protesters changed the name from “No Kings” to “No Tyrants.” President Donald Trump has no say in Canada or the UK. And, of course, they couldn’t use the “No Kings” name because Canada and the UK have a king, which is kinda hilarious when you think about it.
I found it all just a bit nebulous and a sign, perhaps, that the Democratic Party has lost its way. What does it really stand for, other than being against anything Trump does. Also, most of the demonstrations featured people dressed up in random blow-up animal costumes. What was that all about? Seemed to punctuate the unserious nature of the protest.
Nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned public demonstration, of course. This is Merica! But it seems to me that crowds like we saw in Reno and Las Vegas were protesting nothing easily definable. What is the gripe?
And to me that makes it all very ineffective.
That’s how I’m seeing it, anyway.
(Sherman R. Frederick is a longtime Nevada journalists and a member of the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. You can read more from him at shermanfrederick.substack.com.)
