U.S. Vice President’s remarks come amid allegations from Israel’s critics that claims of sexual and gender-based violence were either fabricated or exaggerated in order to provide justification for its military response in Gaza...
It is, and always has been, an option. Perhaps not an easy one, but the two-party duopoly has brought us here to the brink of democratic collapse.
But what gets me is being told that the other guy will be so much worse for Palestine, when it’s not entirely clear that there will even be a Palestine by inauguration day.
I’ll note here that we Americans have no influence whatsoever on what Hamas does, but allegedly, the President represents us. It makes sense to criticize Biden, whereas criticism of Hamas is just farting into the wind.
True, but if you call yourself conservative while espousing views that society at large views as somewhat left-wing, you’ll constantly need to explain yourself.
What followed was a wave of shooting and arson attacks across 11 Palestinian villages in which a dozen homes and more than 100 cars were torched, thousands of animals were slaughtered, four people were shot dead and scores of others were seriously wounded.
I have no direct evidence, but it’s not at all far-fetched. The Obama administration set up a coordinated effort to share intelligence and plan tactics for the crackdown on Occupy Wall Street across the FBI, state and local police forces, and the banks themselves. The uniformity and brutality of the response to the university anti-genocide protests is… curious, at least.
I haven’t read all of the comments, but here’s a fact I haven’t seen mentioned: The sociopathic narcissist doesn’t give a rat’s ass about Palestine, true, but he also doesn’t give a rat’s ass about Israel. He cares about himself, and will say or so anything to gain support and acclaim. He’s making this threat solely because it plays well to his donors.
THAT’S the scary part. If the authoritarians didn’t exist in our midst, he’d be a middle manager somewhere, instead of a contender for the office of President, again. THAT’S what we need to address, and the history of the past 30 or so years shows that getting a Democrat in office doesn’t fix anything. Electing Biden won’t make the authoritarians go away, which is why we’re back with as rematch of the 2020 election, with our democratic institutions four years weaker, and the vulnerable people in our society more scared and more under threat.
Well, my whole point here is that DJT is a symptom of the much deeper disease. It won’t be him in 2028. It will be another authoritarian, and we can count on that.
I haven’t forgotten that George H.W. Bush (the President’s father) was literally in a meeting with a member of the bin Laden family when the attacks occurred. The Bush and the bin Laden families were highly entangled in oil business dealings. I remember, too, that the only airplanes allowed to fly in U.S. airspace in the days after 9/11—all other traffic everywhere being grounded, stranding Americans far from home—were the flights taking members of the bin Laden family out of the United States, and back to Saudi Arabia.
I wonder why that attack on Saudi Arabia never happened?
I do not, so I’ll take that back. It was widely discussed at the time, so I remembered it as Bush being there when the attack occurred, not that he left shortly before. I will say that I think it’s close enough for the point to stand that the Bush and bin Laden families had business interests in common, and had had personal dealings prior.
“Ties” and “links” are favorite weasel words of media manipulation. They’re factual and imply causality without stating it so they’re not technically wrong. Like, “Schools linked to school shootings”.
“Connected.” Another weasel word. A genealogy web site that I use can tell me how I’m “connected” to King Charles. (At least 32 degrees of separation, including through many marriages.) What are the specific allegations here?
Correct. If journalists know something as a fact, they should state it, and share the source of that fact. If they don’t know something, but have a guess, they can say that it’s their own inference.
But to use weasel words to lead the reader to infer things that are not factually supported is, well, not a good look.
What, specifically, do you think South Africa got wrong in its filing with the ICC laying out the case that it is a genocide? They were pretty thorough.
What if the IDF is pursuing a strategy of plausible deniability? What might that look like? The current violence is seeing Israel losing support throughout the world. If the IDF were to start a straight-up Holocaust, those countries that are protesting now might take direct military action to stop it. Plausible deniability might include, say, fostering the creation of a radical militant group, and directing funds to them in order to create a Big Bad to fight against as cover for genocidal land theft.
Seems to me that the people who support Israel unconditionally fall into two groups: The people who’d never vote for him no matter what he does (Republicans), and people who have no choice but to vote for him no matter what he does (Democrats). He can’t gain any votes by giving aid to Israel.
The full story is that Turks and Caicos Islands has struggled against gun violence for years, so it passed much stricter gun laws in 2022. American tourists were violating this law by bringing guns and ammunition in their bags, but the courts in all of the previous cases recognized that prison was a harsh punishment for lapses like this, so they’d reduce the sentence to a fine. But it just kept happening, and perhaps in frustration, in February an appeals court ruled that the lower courts could not exercise that kind of discretion.
Given that those courts had been lowering the penalty to a fine, it seems unlikely that they’ll sentence people to long prison terms. (Any prison time does seem like an overreaction, but it also seems that the country got frustrated and wants to send a message about following its laws.)
No, it’s actually not true. First-past-the-post voting mathematically tends to result in 2 dominant parties, but there’s no mathematical rule that determines which 2 parties. The first two in American history were the Federalist Party, and the Democratic Republican Party. The duopoly has changed several times over the years, and it could change again if we wanted it. Democratic voters have affirmatively made the choice that supporting genocide is better (read: easier) than trying to shake things up.
The Biden administration has told key lawmakers it is sending a new package of more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition to Israel, three congressional aides said Tuesday....
At first, I considered it one of those proverbial baby-splitting decisions, and thus a dumb move. The Israeli government and its partisans in the U.S. are going to flip out as if this is the worst betrayal ever, because it’s their M.O. to flip out over anything slightly critical. It’s also not going to satisfy the “Genocide Joe” faction.
After some reflection, I think (hope!) that this is a warning shot to get IDF to take protecting civilians seriously. And because they won’t (ethnic cleansing is the whole point of the operation), the Biden team better be ready to back it up with real consequences.
And the idiot Republicans have already jumped straight to impeachment talk, the New War Times is hyperventilating about antisemitism. They have no room to escalate, he’s taken the big political hit. Now there’s not so much further downside to bringing the hammer down on the Netanyahu regime.
This just sounds like a bad idea, a solution in search of a problem. Sure, sudo is a setuid binary, but it’s a fairly simple program, and at some point, you have to trust the code. It’s also a very fundamental piece of the system that you want to always work, even (especially!) when other things get borked. The brief description of run0 already has too many potential points of failure.
The message was not getting through. Not through the phone calls or the emissaries or the public statements or the joint committee meetings. And so, frustrated that he was being ignored, President Biden chose a more dramatic way of making himself clear to Israeli leaders. He stopped sending the bombs....
On one hand, this is a hugely symbolic move, and it is what I wrote to the White House saying that I wanted to see. On the other hand, it’s only symbolic. The IDF already has enough weapons in its stockpile for its planned operation in Rafah. Let’s hope that this symbolic move is followed by action. What we really need to be doing by now is sending precision-guided bombs to Israeli government officials, like Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir, by personal, special delivery.
The Biden administration’s report on whether Israel has violated U.S. and international humanitarian law during the war in Gaza has been delayed and will no longer be released Wednesday as planned, three Senate aides and a House aide told POLITICO....
U.N. agencies said on Tuesday the two main crossings into the southern Gaza Strip remained shut, virtually cutting off the Palestinian enclave from outside aid with few stocks positioned inside....
We could ban lobbying for consideration. (We already have a well-developed body of contract law which spells out the scope of consideration.) A lot of the effectiveness of lobbying comes not from donations, gifts, or other bribe-like transactions, but rather from the scope of their presence. For example, petrochemical lobbyists can show up in person every day of the week, exert direct pressure, and even soft influence like providing consultations or “expert opinion” about bills that come before Congress. The people affected by fracking, on the other hand, have lives to live, and the best that they’re capable of is calling and writing letters occasionally.
Ban consideration in exchange for lobbying, instead. If an individual wants to go to D.C. and lobby on behalf of the petrochemical industry for no personal benefit whatsoever (not even covertly), great, that’s democracy in action. They’d be on a level playing field with the rest of us.
JERUSALEM/DOHA, May 5 (Reuters) - Israeli authorities raided a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as its office after the government decided to shut down the Qatari-owned TV station’s local operations on Sunday, an Israeli official and an Al Jazeera source told Reuters....
Aye, I only had Netflix, but I just cancelled it. If there’s something on one of the streaming services that I really want to see, well, it’s amazing how little it affects my happiness that I don’t get to see it.
Is there any evidence of that? I know that 12% of people who voted for Sanders in the primary ended up voting for Trump in 2016, but where’s the evidence that they were ever Democrats? It’s just as possible that they were Republican-leaning voters who were attracted to Sanders’ message, or trying to sabotage the Democratic primary. That’s a really good narrative for Clinton supporters to soothe their chagrin at the electoral college loss, but as that article points out, that number is actually pretty par for the course in elections.
Among candidates for U.S. sanctions, Israel’s Prison Service should be next on the list. This is apparently the realm where all the sadistic instincts of the minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, find their outlet....
A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.
The genocide has been on-going in slow motion for decades, so there’s not chance in hell that Israel would stop, no matter what Hamas does. It’s baked into the country’s political system: It can’t have a one-state solution and remain a Jewish ethno-state, and it can’t have a two-state solution because the settlers are a vital part of the governing coalition. The only solution that Israeli politics can allow is to remove the people of Palestine. I’m sure they’d be happy with ethnic cleansing, but no other country can practically take in that many refugees, so the final solution is to simply kill them, which the IDF has shown no hesitation to do.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to within days announce sanctions against the Israel Defense Forces “Netzah Yehuda” battalion for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, three U.S. sources with knowledge of the issue told Axios....
Serious mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, this represents a major shift in U.S. policy. On the other hand, JFC, too little, too late. We should be sending the Navy to escort and protect the Gaza aid flotilla. (We know what the terrorists did to the last one in 2010.)
Kamala Harris: Hamas Committed Horrific Acts of Sexual Violence on Oct. 7. We Will Not Be Silent (www.haaretz.com)
U.S. Vice President’s remarks come amid allegations from Israel’s critics that claims of sexual and gender-based violence were either fabricated or exaggerated in order to provide justification for its military response in Gaza...
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UN adds Israel to list of states committing violations against children (www.theguardian.com)
Trump Supporters Issue Threats of Violence Online After Guilty Verdict (truthout.org)
‘Exterminate the beasts’: How Israeli settlers took revenge for a murder in the West Bank (www.bbc.com)
What followed was a wave of shooting and arson attacks across 11 Palestinian villages in which a dozen homes and more than 100 cars were torched, thousands of animals were slaughtered, four people were shot dead and scores of others were seriously wounded.
Trump told donors he will crush pro-Palestinian protests, deport demonstrators | Speaking to wealthy donors behind closed doors, he said that he supports Israel’s right to continue “its war on terror. (wapo.st)
New 9/11 Evidence Points to Deep Saudi Complicity (www.theatlantic.com)
Two decades of U.S. policy appear to be rooted in a mistaken understanding of what happened that day. archive
Amid campus protests, organizers with past ties to Hamas support also emerge (www.usatoday.com)
On Day 7 of the pro-Palestinian protests on the Columbia University campus, Osama Abuirshaid stopped by the student encampment....
Biden: What's happening in Gaza is not genocide (www.gmanetwork.com)
“What’s happening in Gaza is not genocide. We reject that,” Biden said at a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the White House....
Netanyahu angrily rejects move to seek his arrest, lambasts the ICC saying it has compared Israel to "mass murderers" (www.bbc.com)
Statement from President Joe Biden on the Warrant Applications by the International Criminal Court (www.whitehouse.gov)
Full statement:...
U.S. governors urge Turks and Caicos to release Americans as Florida woman becomes 5th tourist arrested for ammo in luggage (www.cbsnews.com)
Biden plans to send $1bn arms shipment to Israel (www.bbc.com)
Biden administration is sending $1 billion more in weapons, ammo to Israel, congressional aides say (apnews.com)
The Biden administration has told key lawmakers it is sending a new package of more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition to Israel, three congressional aides said Tuesday....
Name and shame: Pro-Israel website ramps up attacks on pro-Palestinian student protesters (www.reuters.com)
US says Israel’s use of US arms likely violated international law, but evidence is incomplete (apnews.com)
Neom: Forces 'told to kill’ to clear land for eco-city (www.bbc.com)
Col Rabih Alenezi says he was ordered to evict villagers from a tribe in the Gulf state to make way for The Line, part of the Neom eco-project....
Systemd Looks to Replace sudo with run0 (news.itsfoss.com)
Turning Point or Breaking Point? Biden’s Pause on Weapons Tests Ties to Israel (www.nytimes.com)
The message was not getting through. Not through the phone calls or the emissaries or the public statements or the joint committee meetings. And so, frustrated that he was being ignored, President Biden chose a more dramatic way of making himself clear to Israeli leaders. He stopped sending the bombs....
US report on Israel’s wartime conduct in Gaza delayed, aides say (www.politico.com)
The Biden administration’s report on whether Israel has violated U.S. and international humanitarian law during the war in Gaza has been delayed and will no longer be released Wednesday as planned, three Senate aides and a House aide told POLITICO....
Gaza is 'choked off' from aid since crossings shut, UN agencies say (www.reuters.com)
U.N. agencies said on Tuesday the two main crossings into the southern Gaza Strip remained shut, virtually cutting off the Palestinian enclave from outside aid with few stocks positioned inside....
GOP official argues in favor of child marriage: Girls are ‘ripe’ and ‘fertile’ (www.nj.com)
Israeli authorities raid Al Jazeera after shutdown order (www.reuters.com)
JERUSALEM/DOHA, May 5 (Reuters) - Israeli authorities raided a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as its office after the government decided to shut down the Qatari-owned TV station’s local operations on Sunday, an Israeli official and an Al Jazeera source told Reuters....
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rule conditions (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
Palestinian released from Israeli prison describes beatings, sexual abuse and torture (www.haaretz.com)
Among candidates for U.S. sanctions, Israel’s Prison Service should be next on the list. This is apparently the realm where all the sadistic instincts of the minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, find their outlet....
Bernie Sanders issues scathing statement directed at Netanyahu (www.independent.co.uk)
Hamas official says group would lay down its arms if an independent Palestinian state is established (apnews.com)
A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.
Canada contacts Israel after aid agency says water truck bombed in 'targeted' attack (www.cbc.ca)
Scoop: U.S. expected to sanction IDF unit for human rights violations in West Bank (www.axios.com)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to within days announce sanctions against the Israel Defense Forces “Netzah Yehuda” battalion for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, three U.S. sources with knowledge of the issue told Axios....