"Oh no: In case you forgot, SeaFair is around the corner. Can't we get one year where we don't have to listen to the fucking Blue Angels?"

I'm no fan or them either, but I have to point out that we DID recently have two years where we didn't have to listen to the fucking Blue Angels: 2020 and 2021. Thanks, Covid!

US medics who volunteered in Gaza demand arms embargo over ‘unbearable cruelty’ inflicted by Israel

Forty-five surgeons, emergency room physicians and nurses who volunteered in several Gaza hospitals over recent months laid out what they described as the “massive human toll from Israel’s attack on Gaza, especially the toll it has taken on women and children”.

“We cannot forget the scenes of unbearable cruelty directed at women and children that we witnessed ourselves,” they wrote.

“Every single signatory to this letter treated children in Gaza who suffered violence that must have been deliberately directed at them. Specifically, every one of us on a daily basis treated pre-teen children who were shot in the head.”

Several of the signatories previously told the Guardian they believed Israeli snipers were targeting children and reported the devastating impact on civilians of weapons designed to spray high levels of shrapnel.

The medics, who volunteered with the World Health Organization and other relief groups, told the president the real death toll is much higher than the Palestinian ministry of health’s casualty figure of more than 39,000 people killed, the majority being women and children.

“It is likely that the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 92,000, an astonishing 4.2% of Gaza’s population,” they wrote. [...]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/25/israel-gaza-war-biden-letter

A bullet or shrapnel is a distinction without a difference as the intent to assassinate is the same.

Trump is a shitbag, but mocking his assassination attempt doesn't help.

The Trump campaign doesn’t believe it’s a distinction without a difference because the divine intervention narrative plays well with the unwashed masses who worship him, but the public deserves answers about the aging candidate’s health status. If they can’t come clean about something this trivial, what else are they hiding?

“Where will all the swept homeless people in California—home to one-third of the nation's homeless population—go? Unclear!”

What seems clear is if they die of overdoses, then the Stranger will ignore them completely.

Newsom is basically ordering and end to the grip that Martin v. Boise had on homeless policy. Encampments are public health hazards.

Pro tip: any serious candidate for US president will condemn demonstrations where people are burning American flags. If that’s your litmus test you’ll never support anyone who can get elected.

Anyone who remembers Ethan Stowell’s failed “Super Bueno” knows the guy shouldn’t be allowed within 10 feet of an avocado much less to open another Mexican restaurant.

“and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination”.

This will never happen as long as Hamas remains in power.

11: Do the surrounding Arab states (Saudi Arabia, Jordon, Lebanon ...) want a Palestinian state in the region? I gathered over the years that it would be an annoyance for them. I hope that was just cynicism.

Just in time for elections, California politicians want to be seen publcly embracing policy positions long advocated by a majority of the electorate.

Harris is going to continue the current Us policy in Israel. Makes me wonder what catchy nickname the good people at The Stranger will come up with.
Genocide Joe rolls of the tongue.
Killer Kamala maybe?

@11 "This will never happen as long as Hamas remains in power."

Palestinians ended up dead or in refugee camps long before Hamas existed. Anyhow, you should talk to the guy who was for propping Hamas before he was for destroying it:

From the Times of Israel, October 8, 2023
"For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it’s blown up in our faces
The premier’s policy of treating the terror group as a partner, at the expense of Abbas and Palestinian statehood, has resulted in wounds that will take Israel years to heal from

For years, the various governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu took an approach that divided power between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — bringing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to his knees while making moves that propped up the Hamas terror group.

The idea was to prevent Abbas — or anyone else in the Palestinian Authority’s West Bank government — from advancing toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Thus, amid this bid to impair Abbas, Hamas was upgraded from a mere terror group to an organization with which Israel held indirect negotiations via Egypt, and one that was allowed to receive infusions of cash from abroad.
[..]
Most of the time, Israeli policy was to treat the Palestinian Authority as a burden and Hamas as an asset. Far-right MK Bezalel Smotrich, now the finance minister in the hardline government and leader of the Religious Zionism party, said so himself in 2015.

According to various reports, Netanyahu made a similar point at a Likud faction meeting in early 2019, when he was quoted as saying that those who oppose a Palestinian state should support the transfer of funds to Gaza, because maintaining the separation between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state."
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/

“The presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is essentially tied, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll that shows heightened support for her among nonwhite voters and dramatically increased enthusiasm about the campaign among Democrats.”

@14: Obviously, local purity trolls will also now need to manufacture a new reason not to vote for the Democratic candidate.

Other than Xina, have there been any commenters here who've given any indication they'll not be voting for the Democratic candidate?

@17, some have called her boring, and unexciting, but seem willing to cast a vote for her.

My question to them is, who else is better that can be nominated to win the Electoral College this late in the game?

FBI confirms it was a bullet

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/fbi-confirms-bullet-struck-trumps-ear-assassination-attempt-rcna163896

eltrumpfster's
gonna go Back
to the scene of
the unsuccessful
assissination shot

his tempting Fate
might seem as a
Challenge to the
Unhinged which
when to comes
to Magats is
pretty dang
Liksly.

don't
Forget
to Turn
your pin-
head every
3 or 4 seconds
mr tfg djt aka Loser

the gargantuan*
Brain you save
may be your
Very Own.

*it's about the
size of a Walnut
a rather large nut

for someone
so Incurious.

Kamala's
gonna need
to knee eltrumpfy
more than once in the
upcoming Debate. He's
an extremely Slow learner

we can all chant
LOCK HIM UP
every time
she Does.

aim for the groin
you might get
Lucky and Hit
a little some-
thing. you'll
Know when
you Do.

One has to be some kind of sociopath and a racist (is it redundant?) to claim that concerns about Democrats funding the murder of 10,000s of innocent brown people (likely a genocide according to the UN) amounts to reason manufacturing by "purity trolls".

@22 -- well ab we're
Infested with 'em*

but one things for Certain
humiliating eltrumpfster's
gonna go down a lot
Easier if we'll simply
remember this One
EZ Trick: it's Don-
OLDE fucking
trumpfster

massive
emphasis
on the OLD

good
Luck!

*once I get the gist of the
poster's Tone I immediately
scan to the Bottom of their com-
mentary -- if it's Wormtongue, it's a
Strong do-not-Read: who wants to allow his
Poison into their Cranial Sphere for fusk's sake?

I say to
Hell w/him
& his Trolling
commentariations.

calling out
the Sociopaths
is Good Medicine.

@23 I tend to agree Kristo. I just cannot resist pointing out the grotesque absurdity of being said: "it's just 10,000's of dead children and women and men with many more to come. One cannot be perfect you know"

Viz the Olde Trumpfster: will corporate media be as enthusiastic pointing out the ravage of age on Trump as they were on Biden. I'll bet NO

if 'DonOLDE' goes
Viral enough there'll be very
little Need for Network aquisience

so: When're the
Bumperstickers
arriving?

After VP Harris released a statement condemning pro-Hamas protesters, rhetoric, and graffiti, the Stranger 'reports' it as, "Harris signaled Thursday that she will toe the pro-Israel party line when she released a statement condemning the Washington DC protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Congress."

The Stranger should really try to understand the difference between "pro-Hamas" and "anti-Netanyahu," especially given his support for them in the past. There are plenty of persons who oppose both Hamas and Netanyahu.

"There are plenty
of persons who
oppose both
Hamas and
Netan-
yahu."

--@wormmy
getting it
Right

both
terrorists
both Horrific.
see what Happens
when Children're NOT
given the Love & Caring
Crucial for Human/HUMANE
Growth? the World shrugs this
shite ("'kids?' Who NEEDS 'em!?")
off and Pays for it forfucking EVER

if we cannot Learn
we Shan't (don't
DESERVE to)
Exist. C'est
la fucking
Vie

Bitches.

there's your
'Moral Arc'
of THIS
Univ-
erse.

the Clock
is Ticking.

https://tenor.com/view/silly-silly-hats-only-family-learning-channel-animated-cartoon-gif-4517973

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCWXGmCZWNM

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eye-of-Horus

Kamala has the Eyes of Horus.

https://tenor.com/view/beavis-butthead-daria-mtv-laughing-gif-7826662

https://thebuglies.bandcamp.com/track/the-idea

The Stranger and supportive commenters (@22, etc.) seem to believe that if they ignore Hamas, then it simply ceases to exist, and their denial then magically transforms the IDF-Hamas war in Gaza into Israel killing civilians in Gaza for, well, maybe settler-colonist whatever?

The rest of us aren’t bound by this denial, and can clearly see terrorists using civilians for human shields, and even intentionally taking actions which increase the chances civilians will die. As asking the terrorists to stop killing seems unlikely to work, stopping the terrorists takes priority over trying to get the terrorists to give up on terror. That is the hard reality we face.

Hamas took Israelis hostage on 10/7, but they also took the entire civilian population of Gaza hostage as well. Hamas holds primary responsibility for the resultant deaths, and it’s long past time for even the Stranger and supportive commenters to understand this.

but we're
Not Funding
Hamas. that was
the Role bibi chose
for Israel. We ARE Funding
bibi nutnyahoo and His Genocide

we cannot control Israel
but as thee most powerful
country on the Planet we've
to a LOTTA Pull. that Biden can-
not muster it NOR stop Our Tax
Dollars from leaving here to Kill
Civilians -- 30,000 so far & likely
vastly MORE speaks volumes. it's
time to pull the fucking plag & let
Isreal prosecute the guy on whose
watch 10/7 was allowed/not Prevent-
ed & end this "war" on a captive people

the Planet recoils
at bibi & co's
Terror & Our
Complicity.

@33: I wasn’t aware we needed to be funding something to oppose it. (Also, if we “cannot control Israel,” then what difference does harassing Israel make? How do your results of the last nine-plus months of making noise show us having “to [sic] a LOTTA Pull”?)

What, exactly, is stopping anyone from organizing protests against a misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ+, reactionary right-wing terrorist group, one funded by climate-scorching petrodollars from the women-beating theocratic regime in Iran? Hamas would seem to be a rather large and obvious target of protest for all Western liberals and lefties, yet there’s barely a peep from anyone, especially those protesters who claim to care about human lives in Gaza. What gives?

Why have you all abandoned the field to pro-Hamas groups, which call for elimination of Israel? What sense does that make?

what "sense" did it make
for the nutnyahoo to
grandfuhrer in
Hamas in
Gaza?

answer me that
& we'll Chat

The International Court of Justice found Israel (not just Netanyahu) guilty of illegal occupation of Palestine and apartheid. That has nothing to do with Hamas. As a matter of fact, Israel was doing already doing all these things before Hamas existed. Take Hamas out of the picture and Israel will keep doing what they have doing for decades: deny basic rights to Palestinians, periodically "mow the grass" in the words of Israelis themselves, etc ...

@36: I was asking specifically about Gaza, because that is where Hamas operates. If you don’t want to make the connection between “Hamas uses Gazans for human shields, and intentionally drives up the body count,” and the death toll in Gaza, then you won’t; but you shouldn’t be too surprised if no one listens to your caterwauling about civilian casualties there, or calls you pro-Hamas.

Hamas has little to do with Israel's policies of colonial land grab, ethnic cleansing and genocide in all occupied territories including Gaza as shown by the ICJ ruling. You'd better get used to my "caterwauling" and "whining" , genocide enabler.

@38: Does Hamas bear responsibility for the civilian deaths in Gaza? It’s not a tough question. As for your knowledge of the word, “genocide,” did Hamas commit it in Israel on 10/7? Also a simple, yes-or-no question.

As to the overall situation, yes, the immediate and violent rejection of the UN’s 1948 plan for peaceful sharing of the territory has left quite a mess. Too bad none of the countries which invaded the territory had made any provisions for accepting the refugees their unprovoked attacks created, eh?

‘You'd better get used to my "caterwauling" and "whining"’

Who says I’m not? Your silly little displays of abject impotence are quite entertaining; please keep up the good work.

@35: What’s the connection between the two questions? Are you implying we should take our behavioral cues from a man whose behavior you’ve just spent nine months criticizing?

He seemed to have operated on the cynical “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” concept, which often produces the results we now see. As I’ve clearly stated previously on Slog, I believe Israel should punish him to the fullest extent their laws against funding terror groups allow.

(Have you any ideas on how best to apprehend and punish the leaders of Hamas for their actions? Because “ceasefire” sounds a lot more like a reward.)

Francesca Albanese was speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where she presented her latest report, entitled ‘Anatomy of a Genocide’, during an interactive dialogue with Member States.

“Following nearly six months of unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza, it is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of, and to present my findings,” she said.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met.”

Citing international law, Ms. Albanese explained that genocide is defined as a specific set of acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

“Specifically, Israel has committed three acts of genocide with the requisite intent: causing seriously serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group,” she said.

Furthermore, “the genocide in Gaza is the most extreme stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians,” she continued.

“For over 76 years, this process has oppressed the Palestinians as a people in every way imaginable, crushing their inalienable right to self-determination demographically, economically, territorially, culturally and politically.”

She said the “colonial amnesia of the West has condoned Israel's colonial settler project”, adding that “the world now sees the bitter fruit of the impunity afforded to Israel. This was a tragedy foretold.”

Ms. Albanese said denial of the reality and the continuation of Israel's impunity and exceptionalism is no longer viable, especially in light of the binding UN Security Council resolution, adopted on Monday, which called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147976

@40: Sorry, nothing in there about 10/7. Does killing Jews, for being Jews, on land the killers have vowed to cleanse of Jews, qualify as "genocide," or not? It's not a difficult question. Yes or no?

(Also, you might want to edit out the "settler colonist" talk when quoting for most audiences in the Americas. They might think you're advocating for elimination of their own countries, for some reason...)