Depoto should have fired himself. Not Servais' fault the offense couldn't hit the broadside of a barn.

The Taliban's new vice and virtue laws:

precisely the GOP's

the Reich Wing
hates women
& Fear them
even More

@2 I thought you would support the Taliban laws, after all that is what a "free Palestine" would also look like and you have spent the better part of the last year stumping for that.

@1 when you have a team that vastly underperforms based on their talent the coach is going to take the fall. Many of these players have performed better before they came to the Mariners and others improve once they leave the Mariners. There is something wrong with the approach the team is taking to hitting and that is on the coaches.

Jesus, I was somehow actually embarrassed for JD by that donut shop video! I always thought those situations were pretty heavily vetted to insure a friendly and receptive response to the candidate. The utterly unimpressed and disinterested guy was bad enough, but then the woman who didn't even want her face on camera was brutal and damning. I can't help but feel cautiously optimistic about our chances come November given everything that's transpired over the past few weeks (RFK notwithstanding. I do think Trump gets a small, but absolutely significant bump there. Yeesh.)

@2

“I thought you would support the Taliban laws”

that’s because you’re projecting

“after all that is what a "free Palestine" would also look like“

you’ve gone from projecting to extropolating

“and you have spent the better part
of the last year stumping for that.”

I’ve been ‘stumping for Taliban rule in Palestine’?

you and the Wormtongue
conflating ending OUR govenrment’s
support of bibi nutnyahoo’s Ongoing Gen-
ocide with “stumping for Taliban Rule in Palestine”?

nonsense.
your projections
and extropolations
have nothing to do with
my continued support for
a Non-Genocided Palestine
which WE are fucking Financing

both of your continued demonstrations
of making shit up to suit your Far
“right” agenda/narrative’re
annoying, untruthful
and Unhelpful.

The Taliban need killing.

@5 No, you keep claiming if the US stops supporting Israel there will be a "free Palestine" but you never tell us what exactly that means. Free for who? Christians? That didn't work out for them so well in Lebanon. Women? We can see how fundamentalist regimes like the Taliban treat women and I'm not extrapolating that Hamas is a fundamentalist regime. You and others like you have continued to repeat that Isreal is responsible for the majority of the death and suffering during this conflict ignoring the fact that Hamas instigated it, has deliberating placed their people in harms way leading to higher casaulties and most insultingly pretending that if Israel would dismantle their defensive positions the Palestinians would magically live in peace and leave them alone. Your romanticizing of Hamas and the Palestinian cause is completely devoid of any basis in reality.

Eric Rivera is the douche that attacked an Australian woman as a colonizer for deigning to open an Australian style sushi place in NYC (not surprised he’s a horrible person - so on brand for a twitter troll).

@6

the Taliban's
Here in America
see: the Patriarchy
MAGAts & 'Xian' fascists

do we need to wipe 'em out?
no. but their Rule is Toxic
to this World. what we
Need to do is remove
their Power Over this
finite, Gorgeous
little Blue
Planet

thee
very Best
One (in this the
Known Universe) and

Hopefully BEFORE
they've Destroyed it
for Human (and other
living critters') Habitation.

@5: Hamas receives funds from the women-beating regime in Iran. Sinwar, now Hamas’ leader, has said a higher death toll in Gaza suits Hamas’ purposes against Israel. Exactly what kind of government do you think Hamas would create in Gaza/Palestine? That’s a serious question, and no, I don’t expect anything other than your usual verbal abuses, including name-calling for any response.

The two-state solution is now part of the Democratic Party’s platform, and Harris made vague proclamations about Palestinian security and self-determination in her speech. Maybe someone can ask her to explain what that means since she has more power to make it happen than some online rando.

I don’t think anyone truly knows what a post-apartheid Palestinian state looks like but this is ostensibly the US government’s goal, assuming we remain under democratic control in a few months. But what is equally unclear is how killing them by the 10s of thousands and denying access to food, water, and medical care helps them any more than allowing them to decide for themselves how they want to be governed.

RFK Jr. held a solid 5% in basically every swing state. His dropping out and endorsing Trump is probably the final nail in the coffin for Kamala's campaign.

@4 If Vance didn’t have an advance team to make sure the staff were friendly and cool with being on camera, that’s on him and the campaign. Nobody is required to have their face on national news because some guy drops in.

It’s not just not knowing how to order donuts, though. Worse is that Vance made absolutely no attempt to actually connect with the staff. It was three perfunctory questions without listening to or responding to the answers.

Oh for sure, the momentum is going to pivot on an endorsement from the brainworm guy. It’s curtains for Kamala.

Anything can happen, but early voting starts in 2 weeks and Harris’ swing state leads continue to grow. 5% is within the margin of error, and as a general rule you shouldn’t put too much stock in the impact of any candidate when the confidence interval on their polls includes zero.

@12 Ha! Half of Brain Worm's supporters moved to Kamala's side when Biden dropped out. The rest probably won't bother to vote.

@9 MAGA's may be awful but they are not even close to Taliban level awful.

@11 Palestine was never an apartheid state. Google images of Gaza prior to Oct 7th. They have had self determination throughout history and each time have chosen to try to kill their neighbors. I'm not sure why you think this next time will be any different. Israel is far from perfect but they have at least genuinely tried to live in peace with Palestinians and each time are paid back by being murdered.

I don’t know man, seems like apartheid to me. The native population was forcibly displaced from their homes into ghettos where their access to basic needs are controlled by a state where they do not have any representation, and all of their rights are determined by their ethnic heritage. It may not be a textbook case, but whatever you call it, it’s not defensible by any standard of basic human rights for a country that claims to be a western democracy.

and
we are
supporting it.

welcome to
insanity.

Israel does not have a right to defend itself. It is an apartheid state. The violence its army is engaged in has nothing to do with self-defense. It is ethnic cleansing. It is genocide. It is total and complete eradication of Palestinians and all infrastructure used by Palestinians. Palestinians are prisoners in their own land (literally fenced in by walls and subject to abuse, arrest, imprisonment, slaughter, and starvation at the whim of Israelis on any given day). And Israel has the nerve to call themselves the most moral army in the world. They are some of the sickest fucks in the world and btw they train the police departments of the United States (who turn around and slaughter American citizens as they see fit - because? THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO DEFEND THEMSELVES (so they say) against their fear of the existence of Black people.

Israel sucks on the teat of the United States taxpayer to the tune of hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars. And the United States violates its own laws and international laws by arming and funding Israel as it violates human rights and commits ethnic cleansing so they can take what they want (because what they were "given" by Britain isn't enough for them).

Harris will be just like Biden when it comes policy on supporting Israel.

The best way to support the American people (and btw why do politicians always talk about supporting the middle class when an OBSCENE amount of people live in abject poverty in this, an obscenely wealthy country?) is to USE THE HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SENT TO ISRAEL ON AMERICAN WHO ARE IN NEED.

Harris will be elected and all promises made will not be kept. Same as Biden in 2020. All they care about is you vote for them. Nothing will change as soon as they get in power. Biden did nothing to reform the police after the protests against the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020. Biden did nothing to reform the SCOTUS. Biden did nothing to stop the destruction of the USPS (still ongoing and not being stopped by anyone). Biden did nothing to protect civil rights of voters. Biden did nothing to protect the rights of women to the basic human right of bodily autonomy (see the Constitution, oh wait you can't because it's been burned by the SCOTUS MAGAts planted by Trump). I mean, what happened to all of the promises made? As soon as someone is elected into the White House the only thing they think about is getting elected AGAIN.

We don't just need term limits on SCOTUS judges and members of Congress. We need presidents in this country to be allowed one term so they can actually be held to account and do what needs to be done. And in no way should it require hundreds of millions or even a billion or more dollars to become POTUS. Harris already has a war chest of over half a BILLION dollars and every single day I get countless emails and texts about donating to get Harris into the White House. Why are the people in this country expected to do anything other than VOTE for a candidate?

And we the people will have to endure a shit done of bullshit and lawsuits by the MAGAt nation (even if Trump drops dead, because his minions are in every state, engaged in illegal activity to sabotage the election) when he loses because he almost got away with it last time. His minions are ready for it this time (even as he becomes more and more deranged, demented, and delusional).
OR
Will SCOTUS hand the election to Trump like the handed it to George W. Bush?

Only time will tell.

Jews are not the problem, Zionists are, and most Zionists are not Jews! There are more Zionist Christians in the world than there are Jews. Why? Because Christians and all other anti-Semites want Jews in Palestine ("Israel").

There is no two-state solution, because Palestine existed before it was given to the Jews by Britain (again, not theirs to give) as reparations for the Holocaust. Why Palestine? Because the UK and Europe did not want Jews to live in the UK and Europe. So they took Palestine from Palestinians (occupied by Christians, Muslims, and Jews) and gave almost all of it to the Jews that survived the Holocaust and their heirs. If Europe had any interest in true reparations for the horrors of the Holocaust, they would have offered up Germany (or most of Germany) and called that "gift of land" Israel. They didn't.

You want Israel to have the right to defend itself (again, from what? they're the ones committing crimes against humanity), fine, why does the United States have to pay for it? Why does the United States get away with violating its own laws and international law to arm and fund Israel?

If Israel needs to protect itself, let it do it on its own, with its own money. Oh, right, they don't have any. They don't even do the work in "their" country - they use Palestinians for that. Now that they've slaughtered and starved their workforce, they are turning to desperate, poor people in India to make up the work force.

The United States turned Jews away, too, during WW2 and didn't get involved until they were FORCED to do so. The only reason they give Israel hundreds of billions of American taxpayer dollars is so they can have a presence in the Middle East that they believe they have control over. They have no control. It's been almost a year and Israel has refused to do anything but what Israel wants to do. Israel would shrivel up and cease to be able to slaughter Palestinians if the United States turned off the money spigot. They haven't. They won't.

@17: You kinda sorta left out the part where the Arab armies illegally invaded Palestine the moment the British Mandate ended. It was their invasion, to destroy the UN Partition plan, which created many of those refugees. (Too bad those armies didn’t allow any of those refugees to leave Palestine with them at the end, eh?) Jordan wound up in control of the West Bank for the next twenty years. How’d the independent Palestinian state they set up there do? (Wait, what?!?)

Or is it just peachy to deprive Palestinian Arabs of homes, a homeland, and autonomy — so long as other Arabs do it? Discuss.

@7 "Hamas is a fundamentalist regime"

The Israeli far right enabled Hamas because it didn't want the 2 state solution. Do you need a citation, which I have produced before so you are well aware of it

"Hamas instigated it"

It's almost a century old conflict. From Jan 1 to Oct 7, 2023 200 Palestinians were murdered by Israel in the West Bank (do you need to see that Doctors without borders link again?). Declaring that it all started on Oct 7 is just a plain lie (which you never tire of repeating)

@16 "Palestine was never an apartheid state"

World Court Finds Israel Responsible for Apartheid

"In a historic ruling the International Court of Justice has found multiple and serious international law violations by Israel towards Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including, for the first time, finding Israel responsible for apartheid. The court has placed responsibility with all states and the United Nations to end these violations of international law. The ruling should be yet another wake up call for the United States to end its egregious policy of defending Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and prompt a thorough reassessment in other countries as well."

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/19/world-court-finds-israel-responsible-apartheid

@2 kristofarian and @6 dvs99: +2 for the WIN!!
Thank you both, too, for beating me to it.

@9 kristofarian: Thank you. Well said.

At least 40,265 people have been killed and 93,144 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken captive.

Israel is not protecting itself. It is committing ethnic cleansing and choosing to do so because they know no one is going to stop them.

Israel is now a worldwide pariah, as are all Zionists, no matter where they are or what religion. And because the Zionists are worse than the Nazis, Jews in the diaspora will be vilified and harmed. And they won't be able to blame anyone else but Israel.

Israel is an abomination that never should have been created and it will only be in its ceasing to exist that this insanity will finally end. They are forcing the world's hand and while the United States believes no one would dare because they're the biggest, most violent, most depraved, and most armed to the teeth, I believe they are overplaying their hand. And for what? To defend Israel? To use Israel to slaughter brown populations in the Middle East they want slaughtered? The United States is truly fucking evil and all it is doing it drumming up more evil and there will be no happy ending to any of this.

We're all going to find out the hard way.

It doesn't get more mainstream Establishment than The Wall Street Journal, and they posted a long and laudatory story about VP Harris' acceptance of the Democratic nomination. My personal highlight describes how the Democrats displayed a path forward for the country, without getting mired in the zero-sum, divisive identity politics the "progressives" love so much:

‘Yet the convention’s unapologetic embrace of liberal causes, from abortion and gun control to climate change, was also a defiant insistence that their ideology is the new American majority, the new American normal—that it is those who insist on bygone gender roles and restrictive mores who are the “weird” ones, that a diverse, multicultural array of identities can lay claim to apple pie and the American dream. If the sliver of the electorate that remains undecided is, as the analyst Amy Walter recently wrote, disproportionately young, female, pro-choice but pessimistic about the economy, the Democrats’ convention was targeted squarely at her. And yet, one strategist noted after watching Walz’s rural Minnesota football-coach presentation, “We’re not giving up on white guys”—as long as they are the type of white guys who aren’t afraid to cry and support their wives’ careers.’

(https://www.wsj.com/politics/kamala-harris-defines-the-democrats-new-normal-99a56d12?mod=livecoverage_web)

Compare especially, "the sliver of the electorate that remains undecided ... disproportionately young, female, pro-choice," to the Stranger's description of those very same persons: "...the swing voters—horrible, haunted people..."

VP Harris and the Democrats have a bright, hopeful vision for America's future. The Stranger has bitter contempt for the very persons it claims to support. Which, do you think, might have more appeal?

@25 "the Zionists are worse than the Nazis"

It's just not true. First the Zionist movement isn't monolithic and second It's difficult to imagine anything worse than industrial scale extermination in concentration camps. You formulate legitimate complaints about Israel, then you say this and lose much credibility in the process.

Regarding downtown: As anyone who gets out and about knows, the center of downtown has shifted to the north (Denny Triangle, South Lake Union, Belltown, Lower Queen Anne), leaving the Westlake area somewhat lacking. But the new waterfront will hopefully help revitalize at least first and second avenues.

Third Avenue is the big problem. They need to abandon the bus-only concept and return it to regular traffic. Car traffic, with curbside parking. Nothing fancy. There's enough bike lanes on second and fourth, second being a great example of bike lanes and fourth having become another Broadway (which is not a compliment).

The Bon Marche building is the elephant in the room of course. Its closure was the result of the incompetence of Macy's, and their greed (Amazon made them an offer they couldn't refuse). With only half of the main floor currently occupied, it's created a drain on the area. Amazon should take it as an opportunity to do something innovative with the remainder of the first floor and basement levels - particularly as the basement has direct access to the Westlake Link station.

Conversions of older office buildings into apartments and condos are a great idea, as most of them lack the features to be class-A office space and were built in an era of natural ventilation. And of course residents bring a demand for services and amenities downtown.

The proposed redevelopment of the "County Campus" (moving the jail, county offices, and courts to SODO) brings an opportunity to clean up the Pioneer Square area, including removing some of the parasitical "faith-based" services that have messed up that area for a century (I'm looking at you, Union Gospel Mission). Now that the city has finally sold the old public safety building site (that big hole between third and fourth north of the courthouse), there's plenty of opportunity not only to redevelop it but also to finally fix that stupid escalator situation at the Pioneer Square station.

There's a lot to be excited about for downtown. They should start by immediately fixing Third Avenue. That's the easiest step to take.

@26 I know that after many months of making ardent apologies for the brutal colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine, you need to project the image of a hopeful, liberal type by supporting decades-long progressive policies (abortion right, addressing climate change) yet still bashing progressives by regurgitating regressive propaganda about them ("divisive identity politics" about those argue for diversity and being inclusive). Yet, as soon as one scratches the surface of your support for what you conveniently call "liberal", we find out that , for example, you reject the scientific consensus regarding the urgency of addressing climate change effectively within the next few years. I suspect this is true for the conservative WSJ as well so you aren't alone in your pretense of wanting to address climate change without really wanting to address climate change because this is the point: if you do not address climate change now, it will be too late to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Thank
you xina.

@d13r:

"Your
romanticizing
of Hamas and the
Palestinian cause is com-
pletely devoid of any basis in reality."

Who's devoiding reality?

my multitudinous
callings out of Hamas
as A Terrorist Organization is
in no way a “romantization” of Hamas

your fascist agenda
calls for demonization
of anyone not fully support-
ing Israel’s Genocidal Massacre.

"and no,
I don’t expect
anything other than
your usual verbal abuses,
including name-calling for any response."

--@Wormtongue
tS's very own Rodney
Dangerfield aka the King
of Insults/tS's perpetual "Victim"

oh ~ and
Thank You
auntie Gee!

@29: “… you reject the scientific consensus regarding the urgency of addressing climate change effectively within the next few years.”

No, I reject your pseudo-scientific alarmism, which is really just an expression of your general dislike for Western prosperity. Twenty-five years ago, I was an engineer, providing equipment to climate scientists, discussing their work with them. Your recently-borrowed alarmism does not impress those of us who’ve been very familiar with this topic for a long time.

“…yet still bashing progressives…”

By repeating their own words, in context. How long do you think the Stranger can remain relevant if it continues to describe “young, female, pro-choice,” citizens with such delightful terms as, “horrible, haunted people”? For all of your long-winded criticisms, you somehow failed to note the Stranger’s obvious misogyny here.

Look, you’ve tried. The Democrats did not invite, as a guest speaker on Gaza, someone who was not going to mention Hamas. The Uncommitted voters have earned nothing but remorse. After ten months of screaming “genocide,” blockading ambulances, trapping infants without food, harassing elected officials, etc., “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes.” Anyone who wants to know can match Hamas’ actions on 10/7 and after with the actual definition of genocide. Anyone who wants can find Sinwar’s stated desire for greater civilian casualties in Gaza. Iran already attacked Israel, without starting a wider war. The United States will not abandon a democratic, multicultural ally to fanatically-intolerant jihadi terrorists, no matter how many human shields the latter make of Gaza’s children. And, finally, Hamas’ use of human shields is itself a huge and ongoing war crime against civilians — should you ever actually be bothered to care about such things.

It’s over. You lost. If you want to keep shouting, no one can stop you. But no one need listen, either.

Hamas
hides behind
Palestinians like
bibi nutnyahoo hides
behind Hamas war criming
his way into the World's Worst

& as his little
War on Gazans
ends, so does his
Freedom from Prosecution

meaning
there'll be no
End to [t]his madness

unless it's
Nukular or
bibi gets Ousted

so
let's
Stop
Supporting
Genocidal maniacs.

@32 "No, I reject your pseudo-scientific alarmism"

See, that's what I am talking about. You are basically a climate science denier.

The IPCC says:

"The evidence is clear: the time for action is now.

[L]imiting warming to around 1.5°C (2.7°F) requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by 43% by 2030; at the same time, methane would also need to be reduced by about a third. "

https://www.ipcc.ch/2022/04/04/ipcc-ar6-wgiii-pressrelease/

Your personal stories about "discussions you had with climate scientists" have no merit here, and you know nothing of me so cut the crap, charlatan.

@33 "Hamas
hides behind
Palestinians like
bibi nutnyahoo hides
behind Hamas war criming
his way into the World's Worst"

The IDF literally uses Palestinian human shields to search tunnels, as it has used them for years to search conflict zones.

"Video footage published by Al Jazeera shows soldiers ordering Palestinians, wearing Israeli army uniforms with body cameras attached to them, to enter buildings and tunnel openings ahead of the soldiers"
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-01/ty-article/report-israeli-soldiers-filmed-using-detainees-in-gaza-as-human-shields/00000190-6f2b-d6fc-afba-ef7b8ad20000

"Compelling Palestinians to participate in military operations and to
act as “human shields”
The IDF systematically compelled Palestinians to take part in military operations. Several
Palestinians interviewed by Amnesty International in relation to other subjects said that they
had been compelled to take part in military operations and as “human shields”. These
practices violate international humanitarian law. Although the IDF announced through the
State Attorney on 24 May 2002 that it would not use civilians in military operations, Amnesty
International has continued to receive reports of cases in which Palestinians were used by
members of the IDF during military operations, including as “human shields” (see, for
example, the description of the case resulting in the killing of Fares al-Sa’adi above).
The large number of cases of Palestinians used as “human shields” in IDF military
operations reveal a clear pattern. Typically the IDF would compel an adult male6 in their
military operation to search property in each area of the refugee camp. A Palestinian would be
held by the IDF for a certain period, sometimes for days. These Palestinians were placed at
serious risk, in some cases resulting in injury, as the following case illustrates."
https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/mde151432002en.pdf

Israel-Gaza: IDF used Palestinians as human shields 1,200 occasions in last five years, say Israeli defence officials
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/israel-gaza-idf-used-palestinians-as-human-shields-1200-occasions-in-last-five-years-say-israeli-defence-officials/30483468.html

Nice to see Xina call for the elimination of Israel. Let your antisemitism flow through you. Don't hide it, baby - you are so "progressive." At least we know for sure now that you're as bad as the Christian conservatives. Keep writing those letters, sweetie.

Eagerly awaiting Xina and Kirsto-nut telling us that they "have Jewish friends."

@32 "It’s over. You lost"

Until we finally win (we pretty much always do), and even you fake attempts to claim progressive policies as yours (abortion, climate change) so it's far from over.

@35 -- utterly Abhorrent

apparently there is
no End to Israeli
Atrocities.

@36:

"Eagerly
awaiting Xina
and Kirsto-nut telling
us that they 'have Jewish friends.'"

well
I DO!
that grizzled
olde Jew from VT
you've likely Heard of him?

Senator Bernard Sanders (I)?

even He's
against the
mass Slaughter
of Palestinians. go figure

'kirsto-nut'?
C-, but B+
for Effort

keep
touring.

speaking of
Progressives:
from the Ralph
Nader Radio Hour:

Tribute to Phil Donahue

On his show, Phil Donahue never shied away from questioning those in power, be they government officials or corporate CEOs.

And there was no more frequent guest on his program than Ralph Nader. Along with guests Joan Claybrook, Michael Jacobson and Jeff Cohen, we pay tribute to a man Ralph calls “the greatest enabler and defender of the First Amendment right of free speech in American history.”

Phil [Donahue] knew that it wasn't just important to reach people on his show—that he had to have them accessible to materials that elaborated it in greater detail. And he did that for lots of people.

But it all started with his
sense of the purpose of the media
and a public philosophy of justice for all.

Donahue was a great source of help
to get information out to the public
that they really wanted. And no
one else would publicize it.

--by Ralph Nader; Aug 24, 2024

oodles More
on a Great American Hero
who just happened to be a
talk show Host extraordinaire:

https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/p/tribute-to-phil-donahue

@34: Gawd, I would love to see you at an actual conference of climate scientists.You’d last about three minutes, and then would be gently, yet firmly, escorted out of the hall, yelling they were all a bunch of deniers because they hadn’t immediately and totally agreed with every last thing you yelled at them on your way in.

@35: Glad you finally found a use of human shields you can criticize. Everyone involved should be investigated, and anyone found responsible should be held accountable. Meanwhile, there’s another 40k+ who’ve died because Hamas used them as human shields, but that seems not to have bothered you in the slightest.

@36: xina has been calling for the elimination of Israel for months. The Stranger apparently has no problem with her so doing, as they’ve banned other long-time commenters over those months.

@37: Are you signing up for merely another ten months of getting exactly what you’ve gotten so far, or are you all-in on the 75 year plan?

“… fake attempts to claim progressive policies as yours (abortion, climate change)…”

‘Your personal stories about "discussions you had with climate scientists" have no merit here,’

No, of course not. Those discussions were factually-based.

“… and you know nothing of me so cut the crap, charlatan.”

I was a volunteer at Naral for many years. Never saw you there.

nyt

Israel Strikes Hezbollah
in Lebanon, Casting
Attacks as Pre-
Emptive

The Israeli military said Hezbollah was preparing to launch an “extensive” attack on Israel. The fighting threatened to plunge the region into a wider conflict.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/08/24/world/israel-hamas-gaza-war

Trying to Head Off War, U.S. Moves Naval Forces Closer to Israel

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/08/24/world/israel-hamas-gaza-war

Lloyd J. Austin III, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, spoke with Israel's defense minister, Yoav Gallant, on Saturday night to discuss Israel’s defense against Lebanese Hezbollah attacks, the Pentagon said in a statement.

Mr. Austin reaffirmed the United States’ “ironclad commitment to Israel’s defense against any attacks by Iran and its regional partners and proxies,” the statement said.

all This
just to keep
one sorry fascist’s
ass outta fucking prison

are Israel’s cheerleaders
ready to Die for bibi?
sacrificing Others
seems to come
oh so Natural
for them let's
see what hap-
pens when
the shoe's
on the
Other
foot

Did tensora finally admit the Israelis are committing war crimes?
What realization is next; ultra jewish settlers are ethnically cleansing the west bank? The sky is blue? Pope wears a funny hat?

from the Chris Hedges Report:

On the Arrest of Richard Medhurst

The arrest of the reporter Richard Medhurst, who has been one of the most ardent critics of the genocide in Gaza and Israeli apartheid state, at Heathrow airport is part of the steady march towards the criminalization of journalism, something all of us, including Medhurst, understood lay at the heart of the long persecution of Julian Assange.

Where the “norm” was for police to detain people for questioning under Schedule 7, Medhurst became the first journalist in Britain to be arrested under Section 12 of the draconian Terrorism Act.

After being taken into custody by 6 police officers, having his electronic equipment seized and questioned, he was placed in solitary confinement for almost 24 hours.

He was released on pre-charge bail. He will remain under investigation for at least 3 months and faces the prospect of being charged with an offence that could carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

This arrest is about paralyzing his work, and the work of all who call out Israel for its mass slaughter. It is an ominous warning to any who stand up for Palestinian rights.

It is designed to have a chilling effect on reporting that elucidates Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and increasingly the West Bank, as well as the active collaboration in this extermination of the Palestinian people by the U.S. and U.K. governments.

Medhurst’s arrest has nothing to do with fighting terrorism, at least for those who still believe journalism is not terrorism.

--by Chris Hedges; Aug 25, 2024

more on the Zionism
that can NOT allow dissent:
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/on-the-arrest-of-richard-medhurst

more than 150
Journalists have been
Murdered in Palestine by Israel

if Israel
cannot murder
them in Palestine
they can have them
Arrested, what, Anywhere?

the Terrorists’re now
Running the
shitshow.

go, Boeing!
(time to buy-back more
Stocks, for the Shareholders!)

@40 If you refused to have surgery to remove an inflamed appendix and called the surgeon alarmist for wanting to cut you up, you'd be a science denier as well. Chewing the fat with the MD who lives down the street wouldn't confer you any authority on the matter, you'd still be a stupid ass who denies science.

Always fun to read diatribes from the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front on the latest troubling situation.

@40 Regarding Israel's use of human shields, it has been going on for decades and has been actively documented in the press. Yet, you claim it's news to you which at minimum points to your selective and self-serving knowledge of relevant facts. Surprise, (not) you behave like a partisan hack. The IDF again investigating itself and weeding out a few bad apples won't change anything to the systemic abuse of Palestinian civilians by Israeli soldiers. So spare us the crocodile tears.

According to international law, Hamas fighters hiding and living among the Palestinian population is a crime but it doesn't give Israel the right to indiscriminately and disproportionately murder Palestinian civilians. Your constant repeating that Hamas is responsible for the death of these people is nothing more than propaganda to justify the on-going genocide in Gaza. Also, note there is a significant difference between Hamas living and hiding among the population, like most guerilla armies do largely because they have no real other option, and Israel sending civilians in the path of bombs to clear the way for its army. Your attempt at conflating the two as the same thing isn't going unnoticed.

@42 Tensorna wants an investigation. Bad apples will pay. Meanwhile make sure to keep paying taxes as there are more 5 year old terrorists to kill.

@47

certainly, ab.
just as Soon as
this Genocide (which ain't!)
is Over the Investigations will Commence.

'til
then
it's Carte
Blanche, bibi!

(would you
care for any More of
them 2Klb Bunker Busters?)

[they're
on US!]*

*nope
they're
on Gazans
but We, the People
are Buying! splurge a little!

and Think of
the Share
Prices!

it's
Win-
Win-
(lose).

@45
Splitist

"I said to Sinwar, "Tell me, is it worth it for 10,000 innocent people to die, in order to free 100 prisoners?" The reply was, "Even 100,000 is worth it." Their notion of time is different, and the price in blood they are ready to pay in order to achieve their goal is different. Because each person who dies is a shahid [martyr]. It's warfare in the name of God."

https://archive.is/EDGPY#selection-2967.0-2967.362

@49

ah
she's
just Angry
her Cameo was
cut from the Original.

@36 no matter how times you say it, being anti-Israel and anti-Zionist is NOT ANTI-SEMITIC.

Palestinians are Semites who lived in Palestine long before Britain took a huge chunk of Palestine and gave it to the survivors/heirs of the Holocaust and named it Israel.

Palestinians had their country stolen from them and Palestinians at the time this happened were comprised of Christians, Muslims, AND JEWS.

Zionists are the problem. Israel is a problem. Feel free to have Germany give half of Germany to Zionists and call it Israel. That's what reparations look like. The vicious violence against Palestinians since "Israel" was created has been an ever more depraved indifference to human life.

Palestinians deserve to live and experience joy and have a right to their own country as existed long before the Zionists showed up. Jews and Zionists are not the same and never will be. There are Jews worldwide fighting for Palestinians. There are Jews whose family members were murdered in the Holocaust and they are wholly against the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Palestine by Israelis, because they know what is being done in their name, in the name of the Holocaust, is more vile and evil than what the Nazis did. The Nazis were stopped. No one is stopping Israel.

And no one is stopping the United States violating its own laws and International law to arm and fund and aid and abet the ethnic cleansing and total destruction of Palestinians and Palestine.

So yes, I believe Israel has got to go. Palestine was there first. Palestine was a free and sovereign nation before Israel was created. Palestinians deserve Palestine. If Europe wants to give Zionists a country, they can pony up a big chunk of Europe and give it to them.

And the United States and Israel can and should be brought before the International Court of the World and held to account for committing the most viewed, literally live streamed slaughter and starvation of Palestinians and destruction of Gaza into nothing but dead bodies and rubble.

The depraved indifference to Palestinian life is an affront to humanity. And this country's use of American taxpayer dollars to pay for it is not only a crime against humanity, but also a total betrayal of the American people who are suffering and need the hundreds of billions of dollars handed to Israel.

I've got bad news for you, Xina, the United States is the only International Court of the World that matters.

speaking of
raging Idiocy:

@54 -- "You
don't understand
history on so many levels."

the Dunning/Kruger
is Strong in you
yet you want us
to believe up is
down & A = B.

back to your
olde Trolling
ways again,
eh? that
didn't
take
long.

speaking of
raging Idiocy:

@54 -- "You
don't understand
history on so many levels."

the Dunning/Kruger
is Strong in you
yet you want us
to believe up is
down & A = B.

back to your
olde Trolling
ways again,
eh? that
didn't
take
long.

what?! double
double-nickels!
oh-boy-howdie!

another
projection
dewey? you
Forgot to toss
some painstaking-
ly Overlarge words in.

my
comment[s]
still stand[.]s.

@2, @9, and @31 kristofarian and @6 dvs99: I have a recommendation on how to stop global terrorism:
Castration of all GOP males (a.k.a., the American Taliban), members of the (Afghanistan) Taliban, Vladimir Putin, his lapdog, DJT the Orange Turd, Benjamin Netanyahu, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, and all their equally batshit enablers.
'Tis time to nip this globally destructive evil in its toxic 'shroom once and for all.
Misogynists and RWNJs can't spread their evil if they can't forcefully impregnate.

Thank you, xina.

@28 Catalina Vel-DuRay: +1 Hear, hear!

@31 kristofarian: You are most welcome!

@46: "Yet, you claim it's news to you..."

No, I did not. I said you finally found a case of human shields which you were willing to criticize.

Since the 10/7 attacks, some commenters here at Slog have been referencing this NATO report, which extensively documents Hamas' widespread and intentional abuse of civilians in Gaza for human shields, and the occasional abuse of Palestinians by the IDF for the same purpose. So, the IDF's abuse of Palestinians wasn't news to me. Please note a subtle difference between Hamas and Israel on this point: "...this practice was declared unlawful by the Israeli Supreme Court, and several officers were court martialled for applying the technique." (https://stratcomcoe.org/cuploads/pfiles/hamas_human_shields.pdf) Compare with Hamas' position on using human shields, quoted @50.

"According to international law, Hamas fighters hiding and living among the Palestinian population is a crime..."

Specifically, it's a wholesale violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, a continuously ongoing war crime writ very large, and which has directly contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza -- with many more to come if Hamas has anything to say about it (again, @50). Anyone who cares about human life in Gaza has been saying this all along, which explains why you've just started (and kristo' still hasn't gotten there).

"...doesn't give Israel the right to indiscriminately and disproportionately murder Palestinian civilians."

And you have no proof that Israel is doing this. We already know what "indiscriminately and disproportionately" killing of civilians looks like: 1,200 dead in just one day (10/7), from small arms fire alone. Now add IDF's use of heavy weapons. Why isn't the death rate anywhere near what Hamas so easily achieved? Now add Hamas' intentional use of human shields, AND Hamas' stated desire for a larger civilian body count. You get further and further away from the IDF being responsible, and closer and closer to Hamas' driving up the body count, despite whatever restraint the IDF uses.

The numbers simply do not support your claim. They nicely support Sinwar's goals.

As do you.

@61

"blah blah blah blah . . .

'...doesn't
give Israel the right
to indiscriminately and dispro-
portionately murder Palestinian civilians.'

And you have no proof that Israel is doing this."

nope.
just a Body Count
most likely EXCEEDING
Forty Thousand Dead Gazans

and
your
Apologia
wears even thin-
ner than your Excuses.

End the
Madness:
cut bibi OFF
from OUR TAX DOLLARS
& Boeings' et al's Fucking Bombs

NO More Fucking
Fuel to Israeli
TERRORISM

hmmm
Whom was it
who once said:

'There
is NO Just-
ification for Terrorism.

Fucking EVER.'

Remind
us, wouldja?

speaking of
duplicitous
rhetoricians:

@mbcny
Your reply to the OP
is an example of what
Sam Harris has referred
to as the "small fires" tactic.

To wit: To distract the discourse
from a raging inferno, one tosses
out little lit matches in the form of
"what about THIS bad thing by YOUR side?"

The points are minor or
completely mistepresented,
and of limited relevance to the topic
being discussed (even though they some-
times share terms, like "Supreme Court" here).

Most importantly,
by tying people up
with addressing them (i.e.,
with stomping them out) the
major inferno is left unattended.

It's
an effective
and exhausting, but
duplicitous, rhetorical tactic.

--@Jonathan; Brooklyn

oodles More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/26/us/new-orleans-appeals-court-trump.html#commentsContainer&permid=135733221

@64: Yes, obsessively focusing on every last infraction the IDF may have committed in Gaza, whilst studiously ignoring Hamas' constant, ongoing, and wholesale violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention, makes an excellent application of the "small fires" technique. (Doubly so when the leader of Hamas lectures his organization on why they should want more dead children in Gaza.)

And no matter how many children Hamas kills in Gaza this way, no doubt you'll want "oodles More..."

@61 so you knew that Israel had been deliberately using Palestinian human shields to clear a path for its soldiers for years, yet almost daily for month now, you have been only talking about Hamas hiding among Gazans so that you can excuse the IDF committing mass murder and genocide. It's an even worse look than if you hadn't known. And, then you keep claiming that Israel's critics are not sufficiently condemning Hamas for its violations of international law when YOU can't be trusted to provide a non-jaundiced version of actuality.

" the occasional abuse of Palestinians by the IDF for the same purpose"

You are lying again. First, one of the papers cited previously mentioned 1200 cases of Israel using human shields within a 5 year period and there have been numerous reports of Palestinians brutally forced to clear a path free of IEDs ahead of IDF soldiers since October. It's not "occasional" but appears to be essentially common practice. Second, it's not "for the same purpose" as there is a very clear difference between a) proven cases of Israel sending Palestinian civilians in the path of bombs because "their lives isn't worth as much" and b) the alleged presence of guerillas hiding within the proximity of civilians and civilian facilities that is systematically used by Israel to justify indiscriminate and disproportionate Israeli bombings. Note that I am not denying that when facing an occupier pretty much all guerilla armies hide among civilian populations but I am also not going to take at face value the broad claims of entities that have repeatedly shown to be lying when they are in constant and blatant violation of international law.

"...this practice was declared unlawful by the Israeli Supreme Court, and several officers were court martialled for applying the technique."

and the defense ministry appealed against the ruling, which the IDF promptly ignored whenever they saw fit. It's pretty clear that many Israeli institutions are a veneer that hide the reality of a brutal occupier doing everything it can to ethnically cleanse occupied Palestinian land. It's similar in this respect to Israel's use of the Hannibal directive (killing of hostages rather than conceding a bargaining chip to the enemy). It's not allowed until the need arise for it, like it did on Oct 7.

" you have no proof that Israel is doing this" [ indiscriminately and disproportionately murder Palestinian civilians.]

There is a mountain of evidence pointing to almost certain culpability as pointed out by many UN and human rights organizations reports that you know exist (to put your denial into perspective). Issuing evacuation orders doesn't absolve the IDF from protecting civilians even it incurs casualties in the process. One cannot indiscriminately bomb everything because civilians were told to get out, even more so when it's barely hours ahead of the bombing. Civilians who refuse to evacuate because it's too dangerous are not legitimate targets despite Israeli claims. It is lawful only to target the enemy combatants, not the entire neighborhood in massive bombing that produce disproportionate number of victims. The disproportionate number of casualties (100's versus 10,000's) itself indicates that the rule of proportionality were not observed in targeting so does the high civilian death rate ratio (~70% children, women and elders). Israel has provided no evidence or none that is convincing to justify its targeting of civilian infrastructure including all hospitals, many schools, etc

"Hamas' stated desire for a larger civilian body count"

doesn't absolve Israelis doing the murdering, sicko

^
THIS
is why
Humanity
cannot Progress.

thanks,
wormmy!

There
is NO just-
ification for Terrorism.

fucking
EVER.

but
hamas!
but hamas!

END the
Slaughter
depose bibi

& STOP SENDING BOMBS AND
BILLIONS TO A STATE COMMITTING
TERRORISM ON A CAPTIVE POPULATION.

C'MON, Kamala! Do
the RIGHT Thing & you'll
Schweep eltrumpfster right into Prison.

from Democracy Now:

Palestinian Healthcare Workers
Chained, Starved, Sexually A-
Bused: New HRW Report
on Israeli Prisons

We speak with Human Rights Watch researcher Milena Ansari about the organization’s new report detailing the torture of Palestinian medical workers in Israeli prisons:

HRW spoke with eight doctors, paramedics and nurses who were picked up in Gaza before being transferred to the notorious Sde Teiman camp and other facilities, where they say they suffered beatings, starvation, humiliation, electric shocks and other forms of abuse.

[WHAT THE ACTUAL F U C K !?!?]

The men also describe threats of sexual violence during brutal interrogations and seeing another prisoner bleeding after being gang-raped with an M16 rifle by three soldiers.

The findings track with other reports from researchers and survivors, and HRW has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel for its attacks on healthcare workers.

“We’re really ringing the alarm about the situation inside the Israeli custody and detention facilities,” says Ansari, who says evidence is mounting of a “systematic pattern of ill-treatment and abuse.”

Oodles, tonnes
& Oh, so Much More:
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/27/hrw_report

but
but but
but but but:

hamas!

so:
Fully
Justified
by Sociopaths Everywhere!

Afterall:
All’s Fair in
Love & Massacrring*

right?

right?

*Ring-a-Ding-ding!

Your turn,
Wormtongue.

@66: Again, none of these reports are news. They each merit investigation, and prosecution if enough evidence is found. On the larger matter, let's try again:

Hamas, as a matter of policy, hides terrorists amongst the civilian population of Gaza. From behind civilians and civilian infrastructure, Hamas terrorists' shoot at the IDF and Israel (e.g. rockets from Rafah). Hamas' use of civilians as human shields, and shooting from behind them, is a constant, deliberate, relentless practice. It is a war crime writ large, happening every single day, explicitly because Hamas wants it. Sinwar, now the sole leader of Hamas, had lectured his fellow commanders on Hamas' ongoing desire for very large numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza. It is this policy which has caused the tens of thousands of civilian deaths you decry.

The IDF, like every other military, has policies to protect civilians in the areas in which it operates. Israel has laws which must be followed. Like every other military ever, not every soldier or officer always obeys these laws and policies. This is why the American General Kelly Peers conducted an inquiry into American soldiers' actions at My Lai in Viet Nam, concluding they had committed war crimes there, and requesting their generals be court-martialed. (It didn't happen.) This is why there was an American inquiry into Abu Ghraib. This is why the report I cited had mentioned the Israeli Supreme Court stopping the IDF from using human shields, and the courts-martial of the IDF officers who had ordered it. You never knew about that, because you wouldn't read a report which also described exactly how Hamas operates. You are the one ducking reality here.

(And as for claiming Hamas is a "guerrilla" group, how many "guerrilla" armies ever had, as explicitly stated policy, intentionally getting large numbers of the civilians sheltering them killed? Go ahead, give examples.)