By the way, that Minister of Diaspora Affairs is the same one that declared that Tel Aviv's Pride Parade was a "disgraceful vulgarity." Yet another reminder that just because Israel itself has better protections for LGBTQ+ folks than Hamas doesn't mean that the current government wants to keep it that way.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-12-29/ty-article/.premium/israels-new-diaspora-minister-called-tel-avivs-pride-parade-a-disgraceful-vulgarity/00000185-5e21-d819-a995-fea176c60000

"Great, we’re trying to sanction the ICC now?"

Republicans would have pulled out of the UN a long time ago if they could. Short of that, systematically undermining international law with the help of conservative Democrats is just routine behavior. Exceptionalism is really a thing.

“… she doubled down on her point that her amendment wasn’t actually a threat to BIPOC capital projects,”

And she’s right about that. Her amendment exists to ensure accountability for public funds spent, lest Seattle get another round of this:

‘Councilmember Tammy Morales took the lead on proposing a budget amendment to fund the $3 million “Black Brilliance Research Project” as proposed by KCEN and Decriminalize Seattle, with the co-sponsorship of Councilmembers Gonzalez, Herbold and Mosqueda. Early drafts from Morales, including her review comments, make clear that the intent from the beginning was to award the contract to KCEN, though there is discussion as to whether the official appropriation should remain vague (even Angelica Chazaro of Decriminalize Seattle, perhaps sensing the awkwardness of an organization demanding money for itself from the city, advised Morales not to list KCEN in the budget amendment document).’

Read all about the resultant farce, archived at https://sccinsight.com/2021/07/29/the-black-brilliance-research-project-beginning-to-end-part-1/

According to this headline post, there’s no longer such reticence on organizations demanding city money for themselves. (Why the Stranger now loudly celebrates less oversight of public expenditures remains a mystery.)

@3 You'd have a point ... if Hamas actually threw gay people off rooftops. That was Islamic State in Iraq in 2015. Definitely don't let facts get in the way of a good story though.

https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/video-people-thrown-roof-shows-punishment-by-is-not-hamas-2023-12-14/

Iraq, don't you mean Russia? By all means, vote for Putin's puppet if you want to support international LBGTQ+ rights.

“It could be worse” is not exactly a rousing defense of Israel’s record on gay rights nor its potential to backslide. It’s pinkwashing whataboutism that offers nothing better for LGBTQ Israelis or Palestinians and a call for people to accept less than they deserve because someone somewhere else has even less.

@3 so tossing gays off rooftops is a serious no-no but indiscriminately butchering entire families with disproportionate means like 2000lbs bombs is just "collateral damage"?

It's so complicated to remember it all

@11 That's pretty rich, coming from you.

@6 see @11. At least /try/ to maintain some intellectual consistency for 5 posts. Since you put yourself out there as a voice of reason and all.

@9 It's also one more example of how the Israeli right wing is everything Hamas is, toned down about 25%. But that's an inconvenient discussion for the "Israel or bust" folks.

Did you get your negative attention quota met for the day?

@11 "murdering gays" is discordant with "murdering brown people"?

@4 this whole affair reminds of the annual SHARE/LIHI meltdowns that occurred regularly anytime the council dared asked for accountability. It would seem like every year members of the council would question Scott Morrow and his gang about their ability to actually remove people from homelessness. They would march to council chambers with their red signs and create a big scene and magically their funding was restored. rinse and repeat.

Why does NYC have public toilet apps and we have nothing? I continue to be appalled by the lack of public toilets in Seattle. If you want people to spend money in your city, having access to public toilets is a necessity. And I'm not talking about putting the burden on private businesses, which just makes owners put their toilets behind a locked door.
If I was going to run for public office, I'd make having good public bathrooms the priority of my service.
After that, fixing road potholes, safe bike lanes, increased public transportation, more pedestrian only streets, robust mental health services, and don't get me started on my thoughts on police reforms - we'd be here all day.
Back to the real question - where's our Seattle potty app?

@1, @9, @13: Manufacturing propaganda? Spreading hate? Now, if only that Diaspora Minister can quickly rack up a few dozen felony convictions, he’ll have a fifty-fifty shot at a Cabinet appointment in our next Administration.

But why settle for a coin flip? You did actively improve his chances, by voting “uncommitted,” right?

@17: Previous attempts to create more public toilets led to the unpopular result of creating very expensive private chambers for drug addicts to shoot up in. Anybody trying to use those facilities after a junkie had checked in for a nod was SOL.
This significantly diminished the Council's enthusiasm for similar initiatives going forward.

@20 You make so many assumptions with so little knowledge. Unlike some others here, I'm all in on Biden. He's been a remarkably progressive and effective president in practice. Sure I don't agree with everything he's done, but in every area I care about the Orange Menace would be orders of magnitude worse. I've made that clear any number of times, but maybe you'll pull your head out for long enough to notice this time.

Because you have a great deal of trouble with nuance, I have noted that the uncommitted movement corresponded fairly closely in time to some changes in approach to Israel from the Biden administration. That doesn't mean that I voted that way.

@17 I have a potty app installed on my Android phone. In the google play store it's called Where is Public Toilet:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sfcapital.publictoiletinsouthaustralia

The URL indicates that it is from South Australia, but it works in my 98198 zip code. Here's a short (149 seconds) video showing its features: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBPVqMS2ytU

@19
"None of that is unlawful under international treaty. Some in the U.N. would like to make it so, "

From the International Committee of the Red Cross:

The main instruments of international humanitarian law are the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 for the protection of war victims. These treaties protect the wounded, the sick, the shipwrecked, prisoners of war and civilians. However, the Conventions left gaps in important areas, such as the conduct of hostilities and protection of civilians from the effects of hostilities. To remedy these shortcomings, two Protocols were adopted in 1977.
[...]
Protocol I provides a reminder that the right of the parties to conflict to choose means and methods of warfare is not unlimited and that it is prohibited to employ weapons, projectiles, material or tactics of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering (Art. 35).

What new provisions does Protocol I contain?

Protocol I extends the Geneva Conventions’ definition of international armed conflict to include wars of national liberation (Art. 1) and specifies what constitutes a legitimate target of military attack.
a) prohibits indiscriminate attacks and attacks or reprisals directed against :

the civilian population and individual civilians (Art. 48 and 51);
civilian objects (Art. 48 and 52);
objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population (Art. 54);
cultural objects and places of worship (Art. 53);
works and installations containing dangerous forces (Art. 56);
the natural environment (Art. 55);

Most attacks or other acts carried out in violation of these prohibitions are, subject to certain provisos, considered grave breaches of humanitarian law and classified as war crimes.

b) extends the protection accorded under the Geneva Conventions to all medical personnel, units and means of transport, whether civilian or military (Art. 8-31);

c) lays down an obligation to search for missing persons (Art. 33);

d) strengthens the provisions concerning humanitarian relief for the civilian population (Art. 68-71);

e) protects the activities of civil defence organizations (Art. 61- 67);

f ) specifies measures that must be taken by the States to facilitate the implementation of humanitarian law (Art 80-91).[..]

https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/legal-fact-sheet/protocols-1977-factsheet-080607.htm

Only 3 states have refused to sign protocol 1, one of these 3 is Israel.
It's probable that Israel is in violation of every single article of protocol 1

From UN experts:
They recalled that the attack comes soon after a landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered Israel to immediately halt the military offensive, and any other action in Rafah that may result in genocidal acts. Israel had flagrantly disregarded this directive in Sunday night’s attack, the experts said.

“ICJ orders like the one issued on 24 May 2024 to Israel are binding. And Israel – which has enjoyed impunity for its crimes against the Palestinian people for decades, and for its brutal assault on the people of Gaza over the past eight months – must comply,” the experts said.
“ICJ orders like the one issued on 24 May 2024 to Israel are binding. And Israel – which has enjoyed impunity for its crimes against the Palestinian people for decades, and for its brutal assault on the people of Gaza over the past eight months – must comply,” the experts said.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/05/un-experts-outraged-israeli-strikes-civilians-sheltering-rafah-camps

@26 Pro Tip: Most of the treaties protecting civilians in time of war were created immediately after WWII, on the premise that maybe we could do a little better than mass targeting of civilians. This may shock and amaze you, but the rules were somewhat different in 1865 than they are today.

Also, it's worth noting that the new technology of photography allowed people back home to see the aftermath of Civil War battles (photographing dead bodies is a lot easier when constrained by long shutter times), and people back home were shocked by what they saw.

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna42531908

Jesus Christ Ahab + sockpuppets, get a life.

@31,

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/majority-independents-double-haters-trump-end-2024-campaign/story?id=110778206

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/one-10-republicans-less-likely-vote-trump-after-guilty-verdict-reutersipsos-poll-2024-05-31/

Here, this one just posted an hour ago.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/05/trump-poll-lead-shrank-00161953

In a country of 350 million people with unique and ever shifting political opinions, you'll be able to find polls to back up just about any opinion one might conceive. Why are you so desperate to flaunt your credentials as a bona fide dem? Is it because you post so much repellant right wing rhetoric here that you have to do so to convince yourself? Many people are saying this.

Pissing in public is only inconvenient if you don't have a penis. Even then you aren't trying too hard. Tons of places to pop a squat.

Ahab, if you aren't getting paid by the Israelis and Russians, please let me be your agent. Your tireless devotion to being wrong is endearing.

@37: “Your tireless devotion to being wrong is endearing.”

Tell us again how “eliminationist” isn’t a real word.

@25 World institutions are taking an ever more important role in governance so what courts have been able to do in the past is not a template for the role they will play in the present and future. Effective application of war crime law waged by independent institutions depends on the existence of a global consensus of nations around the ICC and the ICJ. The refusal of the global superpower to sign to the jurisdiction of the International Crime Court is the most obvious indication that the full consensus doesn't yet exist. The credibility of the ICC is now at stake as it tries to show that it isn't just for Africans and that even close allies of the world superpower can't commit war crimes without consequences.

Despite claims these charges against Israel amount to nothing, nobody is taking this very lightly as shown by US congress and administration attempting to prevent the court from doing its business (what's fair for Putin isn't fair for Netanyahu), and Israel threatening ICC prosecutors ( Israeli Spy Chief ‘Threatened’ ICC Prosecutor Over War Crimes Inquiry https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israeli-spy-chief-threatened-icc-prosecutor-over-war-crimes-inquiry-guardian-investigation-finds/ar-BB1nbwsG ). The threat of indictment for war crime and genocide in front of the ICC and ICJ is almost certainly having an effect today on the course of Israel's drive for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza. As Israel becomes a global pariah, also because accusations of war crimes being leveled against it, it opens itself to sanctions and it becomes more and more difficult for its allies to provide unconditional support for its actions.

@39: You can puff up international institutions all you like; when they focus exclusively on the actions of one side in the conflict and ignore the other, they forsake whatever credibility they may have had. It’s like your detailed recounting of international law @24, whilst you bristle at any mention of Hamas’ wholesale violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention’s ban on using humans for shields.

“… it opens itself to sanctions…”

Oh no! Not the threat of sanctions! Next you’ll be telling Israel they face threat of missile attacks from Iran!

Wait, what?

Good luck with your sanctions regime. Specifically, in getting anyone in Israel to care.

@40 When international institutions exclusively focus on one side and not the other? Like when the ICC prosecutor requested arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders? Or like when the ICJ called for a cease fire and for release of hostages? Golly, that's some one-sided behavior right there.

@41: And the effects upon Hamas of those rulings/requests has been what, exactly? Campus protests across the country against Hamas? Demands for sanctions/disvestment against/from Qatar? Riiiiiiiight.

@40 "focus exclusively"

Lie #1: International Institutions have condemned the death of Israeli civilians on October 7, the indiscriminate lobbing of rockets toward Israel and are seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leaders for war crimes committed on October 7. When everything is over, and the number of dead, missing, wounded, starved are counted there will be ~2 orders of magnitude more Palestinian than Israeli victims, and Gaza will be flattened for 2 million people with nowhere to go so institutions are focusing their attention where it needs to be focused.

"you bristle at any mention of Hamas’ wholesale violation "

Lie #2: First, systematically mentioning human shields is the ONLY argument pro-Israel warmongers like you ALWAYS use to justify the wanton murder of civilians by Israel so it's not like anyone has a choice to not address the issue. I have acknowledged that using human shields is a war crime and that Hamas may be using it if anything else because it cannot be avoided at all times in the most densely populated open air prison on the planet. I have also said that human rights organizations pointed to Israel providing no evidence for its systematic claim that Hamas uses human shields and that they have found no such evidence to support Israel's claim. Given that Israel has a poor record of telling the truth and will use any means at its disposition to catapult the propaganda/fog of war ("40 beheaded babies", for example), I do have serious doubt about the veracity of said claims, And finally, I have also said that even the presence of human shields do not provide cover for indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks classified as war crimes in protocol 1 of the 1987 addendum to the Geneva Convention

Now YOU decide to support the rogue state openly flaunting international law at every turn in the occupied territories, and I decide to support independent international institutions as long as they do what they designed to do: defend fairness, peace and stability..

@43: “International Institutions have condemned the death of Israeli civilians on October 7,”

In the case of UN Women, all it took to break their dead silence was several months of outcry, including at least one letter signed by dozens of Members of Congress. Also women’s’ organizations protesting outside of UN HQ in New York. By contrast, UN Women was (rightly) reporting on the negative effects of IDF’s ground invasion of Gaza within a couple of weeks.

“I have also said that human rights organizations pointed to Israel providing no evidence for its systematic claim that Hamas uses human shields and that they have found no such evidence to support Israel's claim.”

https://stratcomcoe.org/cuploads/pfiles/hamas_human_shields.pdf

That report covers the period 2008-2014. No doubt Hamas has stopped since October 7. /snark

Boeing for Bankruptcy in 2024!
Orange Turd for Prison for Life!
Death to the GOP!

Is it just me, or is the latest deadly heat wave hitting the MAGAt-stubborn states the hardest?
Climate change from fossil fuel overuse is real, deniers.