If there's anything worse
than the corrupt Supreme Court, it's Donald Trump who appointed corrupt
judges to the Supreme Court and to the federal bench. Case in point, Zachary Cohen and Holmes Lybrand (CNN) report:
A US
district court judge in Alaska who was appointed by former President
Donald Trump abruptly announced his resignation from the federal bench
last week, days before an investigation that found he engaged in an
“inappropriately sexualized relationship” with one of his law clerks was released publicly.
Judge Joshua Kindred, who was confirmed by the US Senate in 2020, notified President
Joe Biden late last week that he would resign effective July 8 but did
not provide a reason for his departure, according to a copy of his brief
resignation letter posted online by the court.
Kindred’s July 5 letter was only two sentences long. He did not address the allegations in his letter.
On
Monday, the same day Kindred’s resignation took effect, the Judicial
Council of the Ninth Circuit revealed the findings of an investigation
into allegations of misconduct against the judge.
“In
its Order and Certification, the Judicial Council concluded, among
other things, that Judge Kindred engaged in misconduct by creating a
hostile work environment for his law clerks and by having an
inappropriately sexualized relationship with one of his law clerks both
during her clerkship and after she became an Assistant United States
Attorney,” the Judicial Council’s press release says.
In a role reversal prompted by astonishing accusations, an Oklahoma judge is waiting to learn his fate as he faces removal from the bench.
Judge
Brian Lovell, 58, was suspended from his post in the Garfield County
associate district after being accused of a gross pattern of misconduct,
including corruption, having sex with court staff, and being involved
in two separate shootings in Texas and Oklahoma.
During
a road rage incident in Texas in September 2023, Lovell allegedly shot
six parked cars at an intersection and tried to force a woman’s car into
oncoming traffic by ramming it twice. In February 2023, Lovell
allegedly did a drive-by shooting at his brother-in-law’s house. He has
been indicted for both shootings and court proceedings are ongoing on
the cases.
Bringing
I Need Attention Benjamin. Susan Benjamin, the tired and old voice of
CODEPINK, was who Krystal and BREAKING POINTS thought America needed to
hear saying Joe Biden should step down.
Really?
You
mean the trash that pimped for Barack Obama in 2008 because her
mistress/controller Jodie Evans was a bundler for Barack? So even
though was publicly ridiculing Tom Hayden -- who took it like the
pathetic loser he was -- for wanting US troops out of Iraq and even
though he started wavering on his 'promise' regarding all US troops out
of Iraq (something Tom and 'Medea' didn't realize until July of 2008 --
four months the beans had already been spilled on that), she never 'bird
dogged' Barack the way she did Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. A nun
may give herself to Christ, but Jodie forked herself over for currency.
As a result, she had the money so Susan Benjamin did what she was
told.
2008 is not minor and
the internet can tell you all about it. It's not like the 1990s or
1970s where you might have to go to a library and look up the past on
microfiche or microfilm. (Actually, I am wrong. I often am. Later in
the snapshot -- this is dictated -- I was going to include much
documentation of 2008 with the delegate count; however, the sites that
documented that on longer exist except for Riverdaughter's site.)
A lot of 'names' made clear that they were damn dirty whores.
'Medea'
is one of them. Even for those who don't know her pathetic past, they
should know that she's not a Democrat. That's why she supported Ralph
Nader in 2000. And then she was sort-of for John Kerry because of the
nonsense of the 'safe state strategy.' Joe Biden?
She's hated him forever.
No
one gives a damn what sour grapes Susan Benjamin wants, not in anyone
in the Democratic Party. Jodie needs to put her cur back on a leash.
What was the point of the useless segment?
I tapped my own head;
it was a glass, an inverted bowl.
It is a small thing
to rage in your own bowl.
That's all they did, rage in their own
bowl. (Lines quoted are from Anne Sexton's "For John Who Begs Me Not To
Enquire Further" -- one of my two favorite poems by Sexton -- let's see
if I can work the other one into the snapshot also)
Susan
Benjamin is not an expert on electoral politics. So was she there to
call Joe out on age? That would be hilarious. She hits 72 this fall
and she's been the 'face' of CODESTINK since 2003. And when the
oh-so-White-White-Whiteness of CODESTINK became an issue in the summer
of 2006, Susan vowed they were bringing others in and that she was just a
temporary (White) face. 18 years later, she's still the face. And
this is the person who's going to say Joe's too old?
She's
a known hater of Joe Biden. That is her record. Bringing her on to
weigh in that Joe needs to step down? That's raging in your own bowl.
It's not going to move the needle. Find a Democrat (which is Susan is
not) and you might have someone who could actually reach an audience on
this point.
It’s clearly difficult for Democrats
to dislodge their most important figures even when political realities
suggest that they should; all told, the Democratic party is best
understood less as a political party organized to enact or protect
specific policies than as a professional association committed to
protecting its most valued members.
Until now, that included Biden. Years of disdain from the party’s
leadership were set aside after he beat Trump in 2020 – while there was
open conversation that year about the unlikeliness of a second term, no
one in the party wound up pushing seriously for a primary or a
replacement even as his poll numbers slid and questions about his health
emerged. It became clear that Democrats would only topple him in an
emergency. After his debate performance, he finally presented them with
one.
[. . .]
It’s been reported
now that Obama and other party leaders, their initial displays of
support aside, have been harboring doubts about Biden’s viability as a
candidate; the Democratic omertà has only been broken within the last
few days. The critical question is why there wasn’t movement to
encourage Biden to drop out sooner. Leaks have been flooding out about
the Biden team’s extraordinary insularity and insecurity, but what’s
happened with Biden doesn’t outwardly seem terribly different from the
way Hillary Clinton coasted to the nomination with only Bernie Sanders
in opposition in 2016 or the inertia that kept Dianne Feinstein and Ruth
Bader Ginsburg in their posts even as their age became a liability.
It’s clearly difficult for Democrats
to dislodge their most important figures even when political realities
suggest that they should; all told, the Democratic party is best
understood less as a political party organized to enact or protect
specific policies than as a professional association committed to
protecting its most valued members.
Get
it? Be the change you want to be. Tired of elderly politicians
running for president? Don't be an elderly head of an organization.
Susan Benjamin should have stepped down years ago to allow new leaders
and new ideas. Instead, she's out of step with CodePink and still can't
grasp why the rank-and-file of the organization would not let her speak
at that even with Proud Boys and other fright-wing people --
homophobes, racists, xenophobes. Susan Benjamin needs attention
constantly. The rank-and-file pressured her so she didn't speak at the
event. She just attended. That is offensive and ridiculous and
CodePink had already looked far too White for way too many years before
Susan pulled that stunt.
As Ava and I have
pointed out many times over the years, Gloria Steinem began shoving
Betty Friedan out of leadership in the feminist movement in 1972 when
Gloria and her supporters insisted Betty was too old. Betty was
51-years-old. So we all know that the minute Gloria hit 51, she was
going to step down from leadership, right? No. No. Like Susan, Gloria
loved attention. (As far as I know Susan Benjamin has no CIA links
though there are a few people she's close to who do.)
No,
Gloria stuck around until 2020's election when she was 81 years old.
But not, in her mind, too old to lead. Let's see, Betty personally
helped torpedo a Nixon Supreme Court nominee (G Harrold Carswell) and
where was Gloria leading a charge against any of Donald Trump's nominees
or, for that matter, against John Roberts or Samuel Alito? Oh, that's
right, like Susan Benjamin, Gloria just showed up for media appearances
where she made sardonic remarks. Gloria actually revealed herself in
the 1977 DNC convention where she went around imploring women to be
grateful for whatever crumbs they got and to not pressure Democratic
politicians (HARPER'S was the only left magazine to explore that
reality).
Betty was far from perfect but at
least she wasn't CIA and at least she got results. And now that we know
Gloria's CIA history, it's probably time for Susan Faludi to update her
chapter on Gloria and Betty and stop pretending Betty was some crazy
nut fixated on Gloria. Gloria was CIA, Gloria did want Betty out of
leadership. (Ruth Rosen's THE WORLD SPLIT OPEN remains one of the few
feminist history books that was actually even-handed on the Gloria vs
Betty battle.)
Susan 'Medea'
Benjamin is the wrong person for this topic. Marianne Williamson is as
well. We're not posting her videos now. This is a Democratic Party
issue and she chose to go on FOX "NEWS" Saturday. That's her right but
we're no longer interested in her. This is a family matter to be
handled within the Democratic Party. I have no idea whom she thought
she'd appeal to from the Democratic Party base going on FOX "NEWS." But
she's made her plea to them and we're done with her campaign. Again,
family matter. She chose to be the dancing bear making a mockery out of
all Democrats by taking that to FOX "NEWS." They were going to cover
the story without her, absolutely, it's all they do cover, but she
didn't need to give the seal of "a Democrat's saying what we're
saying."
So now let's note a video.
That's Kyle, Krystal's husband. I don't blame spouses for their spouses' behaviors unless they sign off on it.
But I'm note the video above for several reasons.
First, I do agree with the basic sentiment. It's not fair, however it goes down, that a person gets selected.
Equally
true, this isn't a normal situation. Not only are questions growing
about Joe but this is also a media narrative that builds every day. Joe
doesn't have it in him to take on the media narrative. How many weeks
is he going to let the debate be the story? And I don't think he can
change the narrative now. That ABC interview last Friday was his last
real shot and he failed -- embarrassingly failed to do so.
So I hear what Kyle's saying and I see his point.
But
just as the slaughter taking place in Gaza doesn't really begin on
October 7th, Democratic Party nonsense in primaries didn't begin in 2020
or in 2016.
Hillary Clinton was a lousy
candidate in 2016. Lousy. And I think it's due to her Barack envy.
She was a great candidate in 2008 in the Democratic Party primaries.
But Barack, using glib and suave and celebrities, slid right past her.
And I think that's why she was so stupid in her 2016 campaign. I think
she thought that's how it's done -- the way Barack did it in 2008. If
she'd campaigned in 2016 for the presidency like she did in 2008 for the
party's nomination, she would have won. She went every where in 2008.
She took nothing for granted.
And here's the point, Kyle, that primary was seen as rigged by many as well.
You may not like Hillary but if you're concerned about the process -- as you say in your video -- grasp that 2008 was theft.
We don't have time to rehash everything.
But
let's start with the media that was enthralled with him -- look up the
clip of reporters on the campaign plane embarrassing themselves when
they see him in blue jeans. Let's next note that Hillary was in the
lead for months in 2008. How so? She won Michigan and Florida.
Why weren't they counted? The DNC insisted that they had violated rules and that they would not be counted.
Dianne
Rehm, then hosting her own show THE DIANE REHM SHOW two hours each day
Monday through Friday, made the mistake of noting, near the end of
January, that of course Michigan and Florida would be counted at the
convention. They couldn't have a national convention without doing so.
Diane spoke reality and for that heresy she faced serious pushback and never brought that reality up again.
We
can talk Norman Solomon who lied on one PACIFICA RADIO program after
another until he got busted on air six months after the lying started --
busted by a caller, not a PACIFICA host. Norman was on as an analyst,
he'd pop in and tell you who was winning and who was losing and what was
up and what was down. Just an independent making observations. Except
he wasn't. He was a pledged delegate from California for Barack
Obama. He lied over and over and he has never apologized for it.
Nor
has Melissa Lie Face Harris Lacewell Perry whatever. She was working
for Barack's campaign in 2007. Yet there she was on DEMOCRACY NOW!
presented as an observer and in her 'reporting' on what she was seeing
in New Hampshire? She lavished Barack with praise and ignored Hillary.
And then she went on Charlie Rose and attacked the wife of a sitting
senator (he's still in the Senate) when she spoke about Hillary's
strengths -- it was a panel. And Melissa didn't get honest there
either. And that's why PBS pulled the plug on her. And that's why
Princeton dumped her. And in both cases, Ava and I took the evidence to
the people in charge to ensure that Lie Face suffered for her unethical
actions and her non-stop lies.
Now we could
talk the Texas vote because Barack's campaign paid people for the
caucus. It had never mattered before and most Texas voters didn't even
know there was a caucus but to ensure that they won the caucus, they
paid and instructed his supporters to tell people there was no point,
the vote was over, they weren't voting and go on home. May the best
person win.
We have Sabina, we have Dallas, in all we have 100 community members in Texas that experienced this.
Now
let's pause for a moment. I didn't plan to go into this much detail
about 2008. But I just remembered Patricia Wilson-Smith. She was a
liar. Let's pull from Ava and my piece on the DNC convention about Patricia Wilson-Smith
Fact free Patricia Wilson-Smith got caught in an on-air lie. Not that Goody was paying attention:
Can
I just say one thing to the point that you just made? I've heard over
and over again from Hillary supporters that basically the media didn't
treat her very well. I think the argument could be made for Senator
Obama, as well. He definitely took his hits in the media also. But
having said that, you know, nobody's more conflicted about this than I
am. At the beginning, I was very much a Hillary Clinton supporter, at
the very beginning. But the time has come for us to basically--
No,
Barack didn't take any real hits. That's a lie. But it's not the lie
we're speaking of. Read her statement above closely. She was "very much a
Hillary Clinton supporter, at the very beginning"?
Patricia
Wilson-Smith is a questionable character in our eyes and we say that
because she is not a young woman and so her mother is also not a young
woman. That would be the mother she states, on air, just had surgery. A
political convention or your mother who just had surgery? Wilson-Smith
didn't appear troubled in deciding to leave Georgia for Denver. But she
wasn't troubled by the fact that she lied on air.
Patricia
Wilson-Smith was lying to the audience. She was supposed to present
herself as a Hillary supporter who came to Barack and, as such, her lie
is supposed to encourage other women to do the same. She certainly
claimed she supported Hillary early in the broadcast. But when she
couldn't succeed in convincing Hillary supporter Sacha Millstone with
her propaganda, Wilson-Smith grew frustrated and went off script
declaring, "And secondly, of course, because I've been working so
tirelessly over the last year and a half for Senator Obama, I wanted to
make the trip and complete the cycle."
Did you catch it
because Amy Goodman let it slide by. She's "been working so tirelessly
over the last year and a half for Senator Obama." Earlier she asserted,
"At the beginning, I was very much a Hillary Clinton supporter, at the
very beginning." Now people have claimed it was a long primary process
(it wasn't) but it did not last a year and a half. Before the primaries
even began (in January of this year), Wilson-Smith had already logged a
year working on Barack's behalf.
A year and a half, she
states, she worked "tirelessly" to get Barack the nomination. Yet she
wants people to believe she's a former Hillary supporter? And not only
does Barack supporter Amy Goodman (who has turned her show over to the
cause of electing Barack since 2007) avoid confronting Wilson-Smith on
that statement, Goodman does damage control by ignoring it and
immediately declaring:
I wanted to go back to
this issue--although, Sacha Millstone, you say, "I'm not thinking about
this at all"--I think this is shocking like to someone like Jose
Serrano, the Congress member, who is a long time supported Hillary Clinton,
now supporting Barack Obama, the issue of, how could you come out of
the convention and then conceivably, possibly, sort of leave it open to
vote for John McCain? If you could just say whether or not yet you've
decided at this point, which clearly you haven't, what appeals to you
about him?
What?
First off,
listen to the show, read the transcript, Sacha Millstone has never used
the words "I'm not thinking about this at all" so Goody's wrong right
there.
But Goody's attempting to suggest that Sacha is supporting
John McCain. Sacha had already made clear she was at the convention to
vote for Hillary and that's as far as she's decided.
But listen
to Liar Goody as she rushes in to cover up for Wilson-Smith exposing
herself by pulling out of thin air the claim that Sacha has stated or
implied she'll vote for John McCain. (Sacha has mentioned neither the
GOP nor McCain up to that point.) Sacha attempts to reply and gets cut
off at "I never said" at which point Amy jumps in (covering for herself
and Wilson-Smith). Amy Goodman cuts her off and snaps, "So, how could
you vote for him?" "Him" being McCain. Sacha manages to get a response
before being cut off by Goodman again ("I never said I would. I never
said that I was considering voting for John McCain. The question is, am I
going to vote for Barack Obama?").
If you
wonder why I don't repost segments from DEMOCRACY NOW! on the election,
it's because of Amy Goodman's behavior in 2008. Equally true, when Lie
Face showed up on Amy's show and presented herself as just a professor
taking some students to New Hampshire, Amy knew it was a lie. Amy had
already been on Rev Jesse Jackson's radio program on a panel with Lie
Face and on Jesse's show, Lie Face didn't lie, she was all about
supporting Barack. So, yes, Amy knew Lie Face was lyign and, no, I'm
not interested in Amy or her guests take this election cycle.
If you trick and whore, show yourself to the door.
It was that behavior by The Cult of St Barack that gave us Donald Trump. That's the reality.
They
lied and whored in the primaries, they lied and whored in the general
election and they lied and whored throughout both terms.
Reality
is also that these enablers never held Barack responsible and Susan
Benjamin is the perfect example there because when Barack wasn't going
to pull troops out of Afghanistan, Susan and Jodie went around insisting that the US troops needed to remain in Afghanistan.
All the whores went marching home. Leslie Cagen announced, right after
the election, that United for Peace and Justice was now closing shop.
US troops weren't out of Iraq, let alone Afghanistan, but they had done
their whoring and so they disappeared.
But
here's the other thing, Kyle, the convention!!! The convention!!!!
You're so worried about the convention and how the delegates have to
vote.
What world are you living
in? Are you being sincere? If you are, then you clearly don't know the
2008 DNC convention. Not only did IVAW disgrace themselves. The media
was ready to see their big protest against Barack but Barack sent out a
go-between who shucked and jived and f**ked them over. They were left
with their bare asses hanging in the wind before they realized they'd
been played. They then went to the GOP convention and took part in
whatever (stories differ) when they should have taken their asses home
and licked their wounds. So there's that, yes.
But I'm talking about the delegates at the 2008 convention. And I have other things to cover. So let me refer you to Riverdaughter at THE CONFLUENCE
and the link goes to August 28, 2008 and there's a calendar on the left
side, scroll down to find it, that will let you go day by day through
that whole week.
The delegates! The delegates! How will they vote!
Kyle, take off the purity ring, that barrier's already been crossed.
That’s a real question, not a sarcastic
one. Given all that he’s said lately and something Jonathan Last said at
the Bulwark this evening, I’m beginning to think Joe is experiencing
some guilt mixed with fear of humiliation.
Last is one of the few political types who
acknowledges that Hillary had more primary votes in 2008 but that the
party wanted Obama. It was a combo of superdelegates, donors etc who
made the party bend the rules for him, steal some of Hilary’s elected
delegates for him and reduce by half the strength of some of her elected
delegates in two states. It made it look like she couldn’t catch up
when in reality, she had beaten him in the states that should have made a
difference at the convention.
Then, to top it all off, the party didn’t
give her a complete floor vote because it wanted to hide the closeness
of the race from the public. I thought it looked like a gang rape with
Hillary on the convention floor surrounded by a large group of mostly
men as they made it impossible for her to challenge what they were doing
until she surrendered. It was sickening. I am not exaggerating.
Is that what Joe is afraid of? Because he
should know by now that the best way to avoid having the party pick the
nominee in spite of the fact that you’ve won more delegates is to not
fight it. Concede now. You know what they’re capable of. Right at this
moment, they’re lining up the floor vote and have already picked their
preferred candidate.
You don’t stand a chance, Joe. You can go
on your own terms or you can be cannibalized by your own party who will
drag you out on the floor and make you smile while they strip you of any
dignity you have left.
And guess what?
We can go back further than 2008. I don't who lied to you, Kyle, and
told you that the conventions are fair and free.
So is there time for voting ahead of the convention?
Maybe if Joe dops out in the next two days. Maybe not.
But this needs to be dealt with.
THE
NEW YORK TIMES offers "Parkinson's Expert Visited The White House Eight
Times in Eight Months." That's just one headline. This not going
away. This is now the narrative and everything will be put into that
narrative and it will go on and as long as Joe is in the race.
Gaza?
Fourth day in a row of the Israeli government attacking schools. THE NATIONAL reports:
The Israeli military said its fighter jets struck a school last night
in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, which it claimed was being used
by militants as cover.
It said the attack was "based on intelligence" and used "precise munition".
"The
Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organisations systematically violate
international law, exploiting civilian structures and population as
human shields for terror attacks against the state of Israel," it said.
Disputing the repeated claims of Israeli officials and their vehement supporters in the Biden administration, who have scoffed at concerns that the Israel Defense Forces are targeting civilians in Gaza,
in-depth reporting on Monday based on the testimony of six former IDF
soldiers described how they were encouraged to fire their weapons to
relieve "boredom" and felt "authorized to open fire on Palestinians
virtually at will, including civilians."
In their latest investigative report on the IDF's rules of engagement in Gaza, Israeli publications +972 Magazine and Local Call interviewed six soldiers who had been released from active duty.
Medical providers and eyewitnesses have described the shooting of Palestinian women and children by Israeli snipers, and footage has shown
unarmed Palestinians being executed while walking along a road, but the
soldiers confirmed that the IDF has been operating with "total freedom
of action," as one said, since October.
"If there is [even] a feeling of threat, there is no need to explain—you just shoot," said a soldier identified as B.
If
troops see a person approaching and don't know whether they are armed
or pose a threat, "it is permissible to shoot at their center of mass
[their body], not into the air... It's permissible to shoot everyone, a
young girl, an old woman," said B.
So
another lie of the right-wing Israeli government exposed. Like their
lie that they had proof of UNRWA being involved in terrorism, remember?
No proof. But they managed to scare many countries away from UNRWA and
they continue to bomb UNRWA. ALJAZEERA notes:
Minister
of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi has held a joint press
conference with Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of the UN’s
agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in Amman.
Here are some of Safadi’s comments:
The ability of UNRWA to carry out its role in Gaza has diminished
due to the obstacles imposed by the [Israeli] occupation on the agency.
UNRWA is a humanitarian agency that cannot be replaced, as no other organisation can do what it is doing now in Gaza.
UNRWA plays a heroic role in Gaza to help people who are subjected to brutal aggression.
UNRWA’s survival is essential amid the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s attempt to assassinate UNRWA politically is part of its attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause.
Jordan stands with all its capabilities to provide the necessary support to UNRWA.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 277 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza
by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.
But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge
for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel,
the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover
for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily
basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to
school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe
Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll.
The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom
believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The
slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US
Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned
the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of
Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted,
"More than
1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza --
have
been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million
women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million
people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." ALJAZEERA notes, "The
ministry has given its daily update on casualties in the Gaza Strip
since Israel began its war on October 7, 2023, with at least 38,243
killed and 88,033 people wounded. Its statement also says that at least 50 people have been killed in
the last 24 hours and 130 wounded, as Israel continues its bombing and
ground operations across the Strip." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained
on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000
Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of
their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe
Lazzarini Tweeted:
April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as
killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000
Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has
estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into
Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
As for the area itself? Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive
has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole
neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been
blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are
still standing, but most are battered shells." Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery
by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and
Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing
destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate
of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second
World War."
So this voice actor of Jimmy Pesto Sr. on BOB'S BURGERS (until he got fired in 2021 and replaced) will be heading off to prison in a few months. NBC NEWS reports:
After his arrest, Johnston was indicted by a federal grand
jury alongside four other Jan. 6 defendants; the government alleged that
all five men took part in the battle at the lower west tunnel leading
into the Capitol, where some of the worst rioter-on-law-enforcement
violence took place on Jan. 6.
The FBI alleged that video footage showed
Johnston “handing up a stolen U.S. Capitol police shield to other
rioters” and that Johnston “participated with other rioters in a group
assault” on the officers protecting the lower west tunnel.
[. . .]
Johnston was listed as No. 247 on the FBI’s Capitol Violence website,
where the bureau posts photos of some of its most wanted rioters from
the Capitol attack. The FBI said that a lawyer representing Johnston
called the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center in March 2021 to
identify him. The bureau said it spoke with three of Johnston’s
associates, one of whom provided the FBI with a text message confirming
his presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Hopefully, he'll learn a lesson behind bars and emerge with remorse for his actions. Otherwise, I want him monitored and a long parole. He tried to destroy our country. If he can't take the blame for what he did and show genuine remorse, he is an active threat to this country.
Monday, July 8, 2024. Joe needs to go and proved it Friday, the UK may
stop trying to delay the ICC from serving arrest warrants, the Israeli
government has spent the last three days (counting this morning)
attacking schools, a new estimate finds that close to 200,000 people may
have been killed so far in the slaughter on Gaza, and much more.
Yesterday evening, the Biden-Harris Campaign sent out the following;
The American people have seen who Donald Trump really is.
The delusion.
The lying.
The racism.
The xenophobia.
The admiration of dictators.
The utter cruelty.
Instead of properly handling the COVID crisis, Trump played golf and
told people to inject bleach. Instead of accepting the 2020 election
results, Trump riled up a mob that ransacked our Capitol and violently
attacked law enforcement.
Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy. And he is a threat to everything we hold dear.
It's our shared responsibility to defeat Trump once and for all and
save our democracy -- but it will be impossible if supporters like you
sit on the sidelines.
The MAGA Right has stockpiled millions of dollars to spread absurd falsehoods, and we must respond with strength.
This is lousy campaigning and we don't have weeks and weeks to fix it.
The Democratic Party needs a better nominee. Competency is not enough.
So
on Friday, ABC aired George Stephanopoulos interview with Joe Biden.
And it was a huge disappointment. Nearly 30 minutes of conversation and
it advanced nothing.
George's role was to ask questions. He is not the campaign. Joe's job was to have been the campaign.
Every
question was met by Joe with a defensive answer. He had been tired, he
had done this, travel, whatever. It was like he sat the for a half
hour while George slugged him repeatedly and, at the end, he expected a
judge to rush out and exclaim "It's a draw!" 'Enduring' an interview is
not proof that you've got what it takes.
Especially
as the same basic question got asked and re-asked, Joe should have
taken those questions and shown America a future. Example, "Well,
George that was last week and we've discussed that. I think American
people are more interested in what we can do the next four years. For
instance, our children need . . ."
He didn't do that.
And
we're not talking about a newbie. Except for four years, Joe has held
public office since 1972. And two of those four years when he didn't
hold office, he was campaigning -- first for the Democratic Party's
presidential nomination, then for the presidency.
He's not up to it and his team is beyond stupid.
The
microphone level was one of the problems in the debate. Where was the
Biden campaign's communications team to see that he was properly miked?
If this were January, there would be too many problems to fix at this point.
Is it fair that one debate -- which he actually won -- destroyed his re-election bid?
No.
No, it's not fair. Life's not fair.
But
the media has had their bone for almost two weeks now and they're not
letting it go. If he were a starlet on a bender, he would be told that
it would take at least six to eight weeks damage control to rehabilitate
his image. We don't have to six to eight weeks to see if he can get
back to where he was -- which was still slightly behind Donald in some
polls.
And Joe's not trying to sell tickets to a
film that if it bombs might be sad but wouldn't be the end of
democracy. There's no guarantee that even a heavy spin could bring him
back to where he was. And e-mails like the one we quoted at the start?
Donald Trump is evil. But that's not enough. When Democrats win, they
usually win for inspiring. Bill Clinton was "Hope Not Fear." Barack
Obama was "Yes We Can." Joe's already won once on "The Other Guy Is
Nuts." Expecting people to go out four years later for the same
slogan? People have busy lives. Voting isn't a breeze for most people
(especially those who don't live in Oregon).
And
four months out from the election isn't when you should have to be
going backwards to try to rebuild confidence in the nominee.
This
is actually the time when he should have been building support and
enthusiasm, not attempting to reassure voters that he can stagger to the
finishing line.
And the only thing crazier
than his being in the race right now is this notion that it needs to be
sugar coated so he'll step down. He got to be president of the United
States. There's not a higher political role in the country -- maybe in
the world. You got to the top, Joe, step down.
Every day that he doesn't is harming the Democratic Party.
The only thing that's going to end the media focus on the debate is an even bigger gas bag event for them: Who will replace Joe!
It
will allow the cheap ass cable 'news' to pretend it's reporting as they
speculate and gossip and don't do any real work. It'll make their
summer.
Joe can say he wants to spend more time
with his family. He can say the truth, "Like the rest of you, I'm
concerned about the threat of Donald Trump to this country and I feel it
is in the best interest of the country if I step aside."
In
terms of a news cycle, the debate was an eternity ago yet it still
dominates and that's going to continue unless the media's given a new
topic. Joe failed to do so with speeches and he failed to do so with
the ABC interview.
Four additional Democrats in Congress told their lawmaker colleagues during a phone call Sunday that they believe President Joe Biden
should step aside to allow someone else to be the party’s nominee for
president, according to multiple people on the call and familiar with
the discussion.
The House Democrats who said Biden should
drop out of the race were Adam Smith of Washington, Jerry Nadler of New
York, Mark Takano of California and Joe Morelle of New York.
All
four lawmakers hold top positions on key committees and bring the
number of Democrats in Congress who have called for Biden to reconsider
his bid for president to nearly a dozen.
Smith is the top
Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. Similar positions are held by
Nadler on the Judiciary Committee, Takano on the Veterans’ Affairs
Committee and Morelle on the House Administration Committee.
The four lawmakers and the Biden campaign did not immediately provide comments on the call.
The
big picture: Democratic lawmakers have gone from shock, to sadness, to
madness since the debate 10 days ago. These Democrats, further deflated by Biden's high-stakes ABC interview, believe there's nothing he can do to reverse the damage — or his aging.
"The
sh*t is going to hit the fan on Monday, when Congress returns," a House
Democrat told us. "People are scared about their own races. But they're
also worried about the country, and about democracy."
Lawmakers were antsy enough
about Biden during their Fourth of July break this past week. There'll
be even greater torque when they're venting, raging and plotting in
person.
"Every single person not named Biden," or
paid by the president, recognizes how deep a hole he's in, said a top
Democratic operative who's talking nonstop to elected officials.
David Axelrod, former President Obama's political architect, described Biden's posture in an opinion piece Saturday: "Denial. Delusion. Defiance." Axe said a growing chorus of Democrats is "fearful of an electoral disaster."
A front-page story in
Sunday's Washington Post quotes an adviser to major donors as
estimating that "for every 10 people who think he should exit, one
thinks he should stay." The story says multiple people "publicly
vouching for Biden, at the behest of the White House and campaign,
privately say there's no path." (Saved ya 2,550 words, 9½ mins.!)
This
is a very bad time. And one thing that needs to be noted is that this
has nearly destroyed his campaign. We're four months out. He can't
hide in a basement like he did during the Democratic Party primaries --
meaning, four more months of him out in public. The press has sharpened
their knives and will be waiting to pounce on any stumble. Joe needs
to go.
Let's turn to Gaza, here are some numbers via ALJAZEERA:
3,376 massacres committed by the Israeli army
38,153 people killed
10,000 missing (their fate unknown)
15,983 children killed
34 died as a result of malnutrition
10,637 women killed
500 medical personnel killed
75 members of the civil defence killed
158 journalists killed
520 bodies recovered from seven mass graves near Gaza hospitals
157 shelters targeted by Israel
87,828 wounded
70 percent of victims are children and women
17,000 children are now without either or both parents
Up to 186,000 people may have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza,
according to a Lancet Journal report. The report said the estimate
includes direct deaths from the conflict as well as indirect deaths from
causes such as reproductive, communicable and non-communicable
diseases.
The Lancet is one of the world's most highly cited medical journals.
In February, John Hopkins University estimated 70,000 'excess deaths' including 10,000 from diseases.
I
think that's a solid estimate. The official count is an undercount
because so many are missing, all these months later. The official daily
count does not include them -- nor does it pretend to. For nine months
now, this slaughter has been going on.
The new Labour government is expected to drop a bid to delay the international criminal court (ICC) reaching a decision on whether to issue an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The development came as Keir Starmer, the new UK prime minister, told the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas,
that he believed the Palestinians had an undeniable right to a
Palestinian state. Starmer spoke to Abbas on Sunday about the “ongoing
suffering and devastating loss of life” in Gaza.
He also spoke to Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, setting out the “clear and urgent” need for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“He added that it was also important to ensure the long-term conditions
for a two-state solution were in place, including ensuring the
Palestinian Authority had the financial means to operate effectively,” a
readout of the call said.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the army will not stop fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon if a ceasefire is reached in the Gaza Strip with Hamas, and that a separate deal with the Lebanese militant group is needed.
His threat
came after Hezbollah on Sunday said it had launched its largest aerial
operation yet, attacking an Israeli surveillance centre on Mount Hermon
in the annexed Golan Heights.
“My
instructions to the forces in the north and the south are clear: even
if we reach a settlement in the south, we will continue to fight in the
north until we bring Hezbollah to a settlement and restore the residents
with security,” Mr Gallant said in a video on Sunday during a visit to
the Mount Hermon area.
“Things
can happen. We do not aspire to it. We are ready for anything, but we
are prepared for the fact that if they come to attack us, or if they try
to harm us, or if they do not allow us to return our citizens safely to
their homes – we will act.”
ALJAZEERA, meanwhile, notes, "We
are receiving reports that Israeli forces are demolishing Amira School
in in the Masafer Yatta region, south of occupied West Bank. The school
serves 70 students from first to fifth grade. The demolition of schools by the Israeli army is not new.
According to the UN, there have been 36 demolitions of 20 schools in
occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank since 2010." The Israeli
government has been attacking schools and universities throughout the
slaughter but has been on a bigger kick in the last three days.
On Saturday, the big attack today was on Al-Jaouni School. Australia's ABC explains, "Al-Nuseirat, one of Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, was the site of stepped-up Israeli bombardment on Saturday." Rushdi Aboualouf and Tom McArthur (BBC NEWS) reported,
"Video from the scene of the Nuseirat school strike shows adults and
children screaming in a smoke-filled street covered in dust and rubble,
as they run to help the wounded. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that the
attack targeted the upper floors of the school, which is located near a
busy market." CNN quoted an unnamed "displaced man" stating, "There
was a swing here, swings were here, (children) were playing. What was
their fault? We barely found this place in the school, but even the
school is not safe." The attack left at least 16 dead. ALJAZEERA quotes Al-Aqsa Hospital's Dr Mohmmed Tahir:
I
entered the ER, and there was absolute chaos. The first thing I
saw was the three or four children on the floor, one of whom had
horrific injuries to the lower back, a flesh wound that went all the way
down to the spine. He had trouble moving his legs. So, I can only
imagine that he had a severe spinal cord injury. Bear in mind, we don’t
have a CT scanner at Al-Aqsa Hospital. It’s
not set up as a trauma centre, so this hospital, which should normally
run with a capacity of 200, has 600 patients. You have children lying on
the floors, men lying on a floor, injured
people everywhere. It’s chaos, and you’re dealing with an already
broken system.
THE IRISH TIMES quotes
Mahmoud Basal (Gaza Civil Emergency Service) stating, "The attack on
the school meant no place in the enclave was safe for families who leave
their houses to seek shelter," And that was Saturday. Sunday? The Israeli government bombed another school. Soraya Ebrahimi (THE NATIONAL) reports:
The civil defence
agency in Hamas-run Gaza said a strike Sunday on a school sheltering
displaced Palestinians killed at least four people, the second such
Israeli attack in two days.
The Israeli military, which has long
accused Palestinian militants of using schools and other civilian
infrastructure, confirmed the strike "in the area of the school"
in Gaza City.
It said the school complex was used as a militant hideout and housed "a Hamas weapons manufacturing facility".
The
civil defence agency said Ihab Al Ghusain, the Hamas government's
deputy labour minister, was among those killed in the strike on the Holy
Family school.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said it is monitoring, with grave concern, the news of the raids at its school.
It
condemned “in the strongest terms the targeting of civilians or any
belligerent actions that fall short of ensuring that civilians remain
outside the combat scene".
"We continue to pray for the Lord’s
mercy and hope that the parties will reach an agreement that would put
an immediate end to the horrifying bloodbath and humanitarian
catastrophe in the region,” the organisation said.
Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) notes this morning other attacks, "One witness said quadcopter drones were shooting intensively around the
universities and industrial area in Tel Al Hawa neighbourhood,
south-west of the city."
Gaza remains under assault. Day 276 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza
by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.
But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge
for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel,
the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover
for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily
basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to
school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe
Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll.
The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom
believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The
slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US
Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned
the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of
Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted,
"More than
1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza --
have
been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million
women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million
people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." ALJAZEERA notes, "At
least 75 people have also been injured in Israel’s attacks across Gaza,
raising the total number of injuries since October 7 to 87,903,
according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The new figures raised the overall death toll to 38,193, including
more than 15,983 children and 10,637 women, the ministry said." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained
on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000
Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of
their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe
Lazzarini Tweeted:
April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as
killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000
Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has
estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into
Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
As for the area itself? Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive
has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole
neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been
blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are
still standing, but most are battered shells." Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery
by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and
Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing
destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate
of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second
World War."
