It comes as a sad if not tragic fact that while we as a nation know how to commemorate an attack on our country by foreign terrorists, we have failed when it comes to an attack on us by domestic terrorists. It’s all a bit like a school shooting, isn’t it? We can get an accurate body count, we can learn who is responsible from police, prosecutors, and the courts, but we cannot come to agreement on what caused the terrible incident.
All RIGHT! We need you LKTIV, and here's some good news from January 6 litigation posted just yesterday, it's a hammering down on the seditious insurrectionists they never expected, that's for sure:
In the case before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Russell Alford, who was a participant in the Capitol protest on January 6, 2021, appealed his convictions and sentence for four misdemeanors. The misdemeanors were related to his unauthorized entry and conduct within the U.S. Capitol. Although Alford's behavior while in the Capitol was neither violent nor destructive, he was convicted for his role in disrupting the Congress's electoral certification and endangering public safety.
Alford raised two issues in his appeal: the sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions for disorderly or disruptive conduct and the reasonableness of his twelve-month sentence. The court affirmed his convictions, noting that a jury could rationally conclude that his unauthorized presence as part of a mob contributed to the disruption of the Congress's proceedings. The court also affirmed his sentence, stating that the district court was within its discretion in imposing a within-Guidelines sentence after considering the circumstances.
The case underscores that disorderly or disruptive conduct, as defined by relevant statutes, can include non-violent and non-destructive actions if they are likely to endanger public safety or create a public disturbance. Even passive conduct can be deemed disorderly or disruptive, depending on the context. The court also emphasized that sentencing disparities among defendants with similar records who have been found guilty of similar conduct are not inherently unreasonable, especially when the defendant's conduct during trial or other factors may justify a greater sentence.
****** Full text of the judgment in downloadable PDF is there, too, collect them all, amaze your friends and stun and confuse the usual suspects, too!
I read the DC CircuitCourt of Appeals' decision, and I would aver that the reviewing court bent over backwards in its legal analysis to affirm the convictions. As a lawyer experienced in this sort of thing, I respect the opinion writer's thoroughness. But January 6. 2021 was a day like no other, and here the sum and substance of the day should have alerted Alford that what was .going pn around him in the way of damaging the Capitol was going to reflect badly on him, what with a destructive riot going on around him and with people loudly shouting "Where's Nancy!", an obvious reference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Any sensible person not bent on creating mischief would have been long gone. Technical legal arguments about the nature of criminal trespass aside, I would have indicted Alford if only his shadow had been captured on surveillance tape recordings of the armed intrusion. He being where he should not have been, and what appears to be something of a protracted presence at the site, with the full commotion going on around him deprives Alford of any benefit of the doubt.
Regardless of the specifics, just being a part of that writhing mass of invaders, hands in pockets, as it were, was more than sufficient in a practical sense to impute the responsibility of the rioters on every side of Alford to apprise him that he should not have been there. Anything in the way of participation in that mayhem beyond merely being present in the Capitol under those circumstances would, in my view, warrant convicting him of a felony.
Absolutely. These guys have been playing silly mind games of their own, floating untethered from facts in the "RWNJ Blogosphere," listening for years to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones and the whole Fox News lineup of liars along with Liar-in-Chief Trump, they seem to believe that trained judges and attentive juries will fall for the same paralogical gibberish, it really is pathetic, sad insofar as it's all so damn unnecessary - NONE of this Trump cult roller coaster ride to Nowhere is helping to solve a single one of their issues (psychological or in the world of politics) - immigration, ok, it desperately needs reforms, a path to citizenship, booting out the actual criminals, a "Guest Worker" program expanded carefully, work on the sources in Central America and S.A, to rein in the causes pushing people to this level of desperation, etc.
You could go down the list of all their (legitimate) grievances about the economy or whatever, and none of the GOP programs help at all and some make things far worse.
GOP has no interest in bettering people's lives. That is so sad for their constituents. Joe Biden cares, tRumpish people can't. It's ugly and the tRumpish people impute their motives to everyone else. It gets sadder and sadder and more and more dangerous for our country. I have a good friend who is tRumpish. She believes he doesn't mean what he is saying. Horrifying. No persuasion or facts can change or beliefs. We are living in a Disney Made-for-TV NIGHTMARE
This PC or the blog wiped out my reply - some of those people are just really really stupid and stubborn about it, surely that's not applicable to your close friend, so maybe it's wishful thinking, a kind of denial that anyone could be as vile as Trump (despite his record, but people can be too busy to really come to grips with it).
I spent YEARS avoiding really really stupid people (not "ignorant because sheltered," not "naive but open-minded," not "well-meaning but just very slow-witted but good hearted and kind," no! Not them) and was mostly successful - but that may track living and working and socializing /dating near college or university campuses - at Macalester, the near Drake U. in Des Moines in the 1970s, the around Arizona State in Tempe, then around the U. of M in Minneapolis, then commuting to William MItchell for law school, so even the waitresses I dated were just as likely as not to be majoring in Anthropology and minoring in French, took no special effort by me or anyone else - that's the women who were around, the staff, the grad students, employees. But I also think practically ANYONE can figure out ways to avoid the dumbazz extremist Maga types, cult fanatics in a religion, that type - and now, online counts too!
Yeah people, and when you've known them for years "what are ya gonna do?!?"
Maybe hope there's a general cool down after the smoke clears from the November - December shouting, recriminations ("How could you LOSE to (the opponent)!" "What will we do now, all is lost, it's the end, we're doomed, doomed I say, DOOOOOOOOMMMMMEEEEDDD !!!," "No, panic is not a strategy! We need to regroup, take a vacation...have to keep on." etc.)
It's very strange. Trump has established a record since his election, and had one many of us didn't know much about unless we were living around NYC, long before! By now it's clear enough, so there's some kind of willful denial, wishful thinking, or in some cases -hopefully not your good friend, I can't imagine that, seriously - they are just really really stupid and obstinately sure of their views anyway, maybe the two traits tend to go together? I wouldn't know as I have spent over sixty years doing my best to avoid stubbornly stupid (not "ignorant," not "naive," not "well-meaning but very sheltered"!) people and have succeeded very well in most cases.
It helped that I was almost always working and socializing near colleges or universities, in St. Paul at Macalester, in Des Moines around Drake U., in Tempe around Arizona State University, in Minneapolis at the U and then commuting to William Mitchell for law school, even waitresses I dated were majoring in anthropology and French or whatever, it wasn't even as if me or anyone else had to make some "special effort," that's the women who were around, also grad students, university staff, employees, etc. - but I also think ANYONE can more or less figure out ways to just stay away from those folks, and seek out people who have functioning, curious minds, right? Nowadays: online too, that counts as a start! No MAGA blogs, etc. Let birds of a feather flock together!
Lucian, to further illustrate what you cogently said here, we have the supposed "intelligentsia" of the once decent GOP like George Will making equivalency comparisons to Joe Biden. We now read main stream writers ignoring the blatant fact Trump attempted to destroy our democracy on January 6th and comparing Biden's presidential tactics, which are LEGAL, to the criminal acts of Trump makes me want to hurl. A narcissistic clown who calls our soldiers losers and suckers. Who told Kelley as they visited Arlington, "I don't get it, what was in it for them?" A grifter who did not separate his businesses from the presidency and raked in millions while in the office, whose son in law gained 2 billion from the Saudis, a criminal ex-president who has openly declared he will get retribution with those who opposed him, has said he will ignore the US Constitution, a "human?" who calls migrants "vermin polluting American blood," and George Will and others attempt to make an equivalency to Joe Biden?
By doing this, I see no difference between what I studied about Germany in the 1930s as Hitler rose in power and the so called German intelligentsia like wise made comparisons, in the end helping Hitler and the Nazi takeover. Are Americans so blind that they cannot see what is right in front of their noses? All Americans watched either live or later the insurrection on January 6th. For millions to now claim those traitors were patriots, were really good people and to excuse the narcissist who caused it means we are headed in the same direction as Germany in the '30s. Yikes.
False equivalencies are fallacies hence it is rare any comparison other than identical twins can be reasonably fashioned. To that very point find self avoiding the Hitler-Germany Trump-USA trap due to all the historical differences between 1930s onward Germany and 2016 onward America. To me it's not enough to view the 2men w/o viewing the circumstances of their respective times. (Tongue-in-cheek) I suppose Hitler's mustache and Trump's hair can be compared for the ridicule value.
Unlike the early1930s and onward Germany which included Hitler's rise in a new political party, Trump is a result of one. While it can be argued exactly when the GOP began backsliding it's to fair to point to the Civil Rights movement overlapping the War in Southeast Asia. From that general time frame forward dudes like Lee Atwater and his many disciples began demonizing non-Republicans and nonwhites via messaging and false narratives, and of course dog whistle political rhetoric. Resulted in generations worth of drip, drip, drip that every Republican president since then adding on more.
All Trump did was take it to another level by replacing demonizing with dehumanizing "the other" casting them as the enemy. Can't emphasize that enough. Anyone who is not a Trump supporter whether they reside in the States or are resident/citizens or heads of states of other nations are classified as Trump haters aka the enemy. By doing so Trump far exceeded Hitler's attack on small sized minorities, Jews, 2spirit people, Gypsies, and Commies.
6Ja. was a deliberate betrayal of democracy, the Constitution, the Oath,, and rule of law. And involved far more people than have been indicted. On element that 6Jan shares with coups and auto-coups is the participation of the military. In the case of 6Jan, specifically the US Army that participation was in plain sight during the attack on the USCB by their absence throughout the many hours.
And now 3years later there remains no believable explanation for their inaction. That would include no actual investigation into DoD's phone logs that day, not so much as to who called them, rather who did they NOT call or perhaps did. Pentagon is filled with teevee sets. Requires the suspension of all disbelief that 1000s of SO/GOs didn't fill the halls with sounds are wadafuq are we waiting for as well as across DoD email and phone lines.
The chain of [mil] US Army command had to isseu a go order to authorize the NG to assemble as well as to head to the USCB. Instead they watched as the USCB fell. There 6Jan testimony is not believable. And was challenged by O-5 attorney for the NG. His story is in the Military Times published on Jan 2024.
Again, 6Jan had to be a much larger undertaking including Republican members of Congress and in the states well beyond the fraudulent electors. Most of all WH officials and at DoJ who sat in on those bizarro meetings. They hears and saw much yet never ever did their duty to notify anyone in LE or by reaching out to the media. They are as complicit and they gave incomplete testimony to Jan6HSC and likely to the Special Counsel's team.
(1) There is wisdom behind Goodwin's Law (2) One data point a comparison not make. If it did, then all right handed men can be favorably compared.
A Big Lie is associated with the overwhelming majority of strongmen throughout history along with their appeal to dark souls via hate [of others] aka a Boogieman or Boogiemen. It's Chapter One in the Dictator (or Wannabe) Playbook. Chapter Two : How to Juice to Appear Stronger Than You are. Chapter Three: Get Rich Quick.
FTR: Hitler wanted to lead a German Empire,, aka Third Reich, an actual Weltanschauung Trump is an isolationist who sees America as a golf course (his own words during a trip to Scotland).
One cannot ignore the vast differences between the two men (Hitler loved dogs, Trump hates dogs-can do this all day, James) and their visions for their respective nation each led for a short time.
You know, we have been told for years that United States' downfall would be because we allowed sex before marriage, we allowed same sex marriage, we watch porn, we take drugs, there are too many single-parent households, we allow women and people of color to have too much power, even that we listen to too much jazz or rock and roll. But the "degradation", it turns out isn't related to these social norm changes, but to the mores of the "fine people" many of us have trusted. The people I trust look past the noise and see that the rot comes from hate of the other; pure and simple, many of us are guided in our daily lives by fear of the different. How can we ever rise if we don't recognize that fear of the other is only a primitive human response like fight or flight that is possible to resolve with simple engagement of a logical, BRAIN-motivated acknowledgement of the truth that humans come in many, many equally valid varieties? We need to celebrate the differences, not hide and fear them.
You might consider this, in fact we all might look into it - I discovered it in the course of trying to find one (a charity to help bolster Ukraine in their defense against Putin's genocidal invasion) that wouldn't be engaged in brow-beating essentially captive Ukrainians, then being coerced into biblical ranting or even measured propaganda - if it's feasible:
Brave Ukrainians are now fighting for their freedom, democracy, and the fundamental values and principles of the sovereign nation for which they stand.
Millions of families are suffering terrible misery as a result of the current state of affairs which has shocked much of the world.
REVIVED SOLDIERS Ukraine is a well-established 501(c)(3) U.S. charity that has been providing medical and humanitarian help to Ukraine for many years
We are now working around the clock to deliver medical equipment and supplies, arrange humanitarian aid, and provide medical treatment to injured Ukrainians.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded REVIVED SOLDIERS Ukraine’s founder - the “Order of Princess Olga” - the highest civilian award
On February 24, 2022, the Russian Army invaded
Ukraine *******
Item 1 of 9
Thanks to the generous support of our Donors and the hard work of our Volunteers in the United States and Europe, during the past year of 2022, REVIVED SOLDIERS Ukraine has provided assistance to Ukraine in the total amount of
$6,800,056
Ukrainian wounded soldiers received medical treatment and prosthetics in the US and Ukraine
$421,029
TWENTY-ONE sonoscanner ultrasound machines
$436,126
THIRTY-SEVEN ambulances for military and civilian hospitals
$543,246
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN DJI mavic 3 and Evo drones
$226,260
FIFTY-ONE bulletproof and four-wheel drive army vehicles
$554,641
Celox tactical medicine, tourniquets, and first aid kits for army paramedics
$150,633
{Photos Courtesy Carol Guzy - Zuma Press} - photo images did not transfer from Foxfire, etc.
To be fair: A lot of people who are in denial about J6 have already spent the past 22 years telling us that 9/11 was an inside job. The deeper issue is that we have so many people who refuse to join the fact-based consensus reality, for reasons we'd do well to spend more time contemplating.
Tune into nothing but Fox for a week and you will see why.
Bring back the Fairness Doctrine!!!! Force Fox to comply or be moved to comedy channeling with BULLSHIT warnings. WE did have an FCC, right? Give it some teeth or at least make the greedy tools all where goofy hats and clown noses when broadcasting.
Lies are not news and shouldn't be allowed to be broadcasted as such to the 50% of human sampling who are apparently dumber than the smartest great ape without warnings in place or the US will eventually be a totally lost cause. Trump is Hitler and Rupert is Goering. Let them run free and unencumbered to our peril.
And aliens built Stonehenge, the Pyramids, and every other temple in the past; the moon shot was done at Disney studios; dinosaurs walked with Jesus; a woman’s body is perfectly capable of stopping pregnancy from rape.
I agree entirely with your feelings about this great rip in the fabric of the country, but I disagree with this: “Here’s hoping it won’t take just as long for us to commemorate 1/6 with the unity and propriety that we commemorate 9/11.” That, I believe, will never happen. To bastardize Matthew 26:11 (not to be confused with “two Corinthians”)
Eloquently and passionately expressed, Lucian. Thank you! The whitewashing by Trump and his allies and supporters of that failed coup on 1/6 must continue to be called out. He and the mob attempted to overthrow our government and destroy our democracy by disrupting the legal proceedings of a just and fair election. I'm deeply worried about what is coming. Thank you for emphasizing how much of a calamity this was for our nation. I believe democracy can triumph over authoritarianism here, but it's going to take all of us voting to keep Trump from returning to the White House.
Sobering commentary on what today means. The heart of your column is this:
"The United States, once a beacon of freedom and stability for other nations to admire and emulate, has descended along with other nations into political conflict, sectarian violence, and threats against the lives of public officials ..."
Our country was not like that in my formative years, even during the Civil Rights and Vietnam eras. There was some violence, yes, but not on the scale we have seen the past few years. And more importantly, people on both sides of issues generally understood the facts, but vehemently disagreed on the policies or actions being taken based on those facts. By contrast today, a substantial minority cannot even accept the truth of actual facts, but make up their own facts and fantasies about events, such as the 2020 election. How do we deal with such people who have no grasp of reality or an unwillingness to accept what is the plain truth about events?
Maybe it will take a generation for that deluded and insane minority to die off before we can get back to (mostly)respectfully differing on policies but accepting the facts that drive those policies. In the meantime, w e need to ensure that the country's democratic institutions survive and thrive going forward, else we fall into the abyss of tyranny and authoritarianism.
We have our work cut out for us in the coming year.
They are laughed at by the hard-core cultists...look at Breitbart, Daily Caller, Newsmax for the really serious threats. I spent today wandering through a Colorado thread full of seriously angry, demented Americans. I went to the Secretary of State's FB, Jena Griswold...dive in and get really scared over the ignorance, hate and love of 45...we are in deep shit, kiddies.
Here are the key right-wing media figures who rewrote the history of January 6
For the past three years, Tucker Carlson, Darren Beattie, Julie Kelly, Steve Bannon, and others have pushed a revisionist counternarrative that has undone the initial consensus about the attacks
Written by Jack Winstanley, Camden Carter & Payton Armstrong
I have always believed that Merrick Garland was a mistake and that Biden should have appointed Preet Bharara, a former federal prosecutor (who Trump fired). Garland, a former judge with no prosecutorial experience, moved far too slowly. His lack of timely action has created an urgency to go to trial this year while Trump is trying to run out the clock. Never hire a judge to prosecute!
One of the saddest discoveries of my adult life is that stupidity and cowardice are powerful -- and incredibly common -- motivations for our behavior. I’ve tried to come up with another explanation for the fog of bullshit and the Trump recovery after January 6, but apart from corruption-- a subset of that stupidity and cowardice stuff -- I can’t. I also can’t understand why there’s any mystery to any of this.
Last night as I was about to sleep a man on tv 13 said that many of the insurrectionists were middle , upper middle class types, Lawyers, meds, business types and more. He claimed even if we get rid of trump our democracy i will still be in peril.
This is true. Trump is only a symptom - albeit an especially hideous one - of the direction in which the Republican Party has been moving for decades. Folks such as Newt and Rush propelled it along, and here we are. Time to take it back.
Yes—already established, little discussed, the middle class predominance in the 6 January riot—comfortable Republicans who believe taxes intrude on their freedom. I guess that's why the GOP could claim the mob was ordinary tourists.
I think that may all depend upon how he is "got rid of." A very clear example is required, I believe, to display the dire consequences of betraying one's sworn oath of office. Until quite recently that would have already been a swift trial and military execution (by firing squad). Why shouldn't Mr. Precedent be setting another all-time first here? First former president sentenced to death for crimes while in office. Then, while he is squealing and appealing, indict every sitting (and retired) politician who "participated in, aided or provided comfort to" the insurrection and insurrectionists. I bet that would change some attitudes and songs, quick-smart.
In an ideal world, but what am I thinking? America can't even see the hypocrisy in supplying and funding Netanyahu to do to the women, children, hospitals and infrastructure in Gaza what they condemn Putin for in Ukraine. Or would be, if they could pass any funding bills with the government you got, that nobody deserves.
LOL, it's not REMOTELY the same thing to defend one's nation from genocidal fiends like HAMAS, not under the law of armed conflict, not under international human rights law, no where, read this and either refute it or cease and desist from enabling Hamas's policy of of continued murders of their own Palestinian opponents, and of course Jews, Israelis, Americans, and any allies of the State of Israel, all of whom the openly declare they consider legitimate targets for murder:
nonsense being spread about a "ceasefire" is so dangerous, as opposed to a "humanitarian pause" - Hamas are terrorists, they profit from a phony ceasefire.
Don’t Lecture Israel About ‘Proportionality’
Shoshana Bryen • October 30, 2023
As the Israeli incursion into Gaza continues, increased attention has been focused on the notion of “proportionality” in both the number of casualties on each side and the sophistication of weapons each side brings to bear. Mostly, pundits mean that Israel is killing too many Palestinians. An understanding of proportionality in the laws of war, however, has been missing.
Even friends of Israel get it wrong – one irate speaker on British television said, “Do you want proportionality? Should Israel seek out young women in Gaza, rape, torture, and kill them? Should Israel find babies and murder them in front of their parents – or murder parents in front of their children? Should Israel indiscriminately shell Palestinian villages?”
An Israeli journalist, in a prior response to Hamas missiles, went so far as to call Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system “unsportsmanlike.” He wondered what FIFA would say “if Germany, with its superior economy and industry, were to replace Manuel Neuer with a bionic goalkeeper… capable of calculating where each Argentine ball will come from, the exact position to stand in, and amount of force needed to block it… On the modern battlefield (Israel) is a bionic Germany.”
How unsportsmanlike!
Then there is the “yes, but…” response. “Yes” Hamas started it; “Yes,” Hamas tortured and massacred Israeli civilians; “Yes” Hamas puts military infrastructure in civilian neighborhoods; “Yes” Israel is entitled to self-defense; “Yes” the Israelis warn Palestinians. “But” so many more Palestinians have been killed than Israelis.
Isn’t that the definition of “disproportionate?” No. It isn’t.
Proportionality in international law is not about equality of death or civilian suffering, or even about firepower returned being equal in sophistication or lethality to firepower received. Proportionality weighs the military necessity of an action against the suffering that the action might cause to enemy civilians in the vicinity. A review of expert opinion – none of which was written in relation to Israel – helps to clarify. And each should be read in relation to Hamas crimes against Israeli civilians.
Prof. Horst Fischer, Academic Director of the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany, and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, wrote in The Crimes of War Project:
The principle of proportionality is embedded in almost every national legal system and underlies the international legal order… When a party commits a lawful attack against a military objective, the principle of proportionality also comes into play whenever there is collateral damage, that is, civilian casualties or damage to a non-military objective… attacks are prohibited if they cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, or damage to civilian objects that is excessive in relation to the anticipated concrete and direct military advantage of the attack. This creates a permanent obligation for military commanders to consider the results of the attack compared to the advantage anticipated.
Exactly as Israel does when it drops leaflets warning civilians of an impending attack and aborts missions after finding civilians used as human shields on rooftops.
The Council on Foreign Relations notes:
A state is legally allowed to unilaterally defend itself and right a wrong provided the response is proportional to the injury suffered. The response must also be immediate and necessary, refrain from targeting civilians, and require only enough force to reinstate the status quo ante.
Status quo ante October 7 is impossible for Israel.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, investigated allegations of war crimes during 2003 invasion of Iraq, and in 2006 published an open letter containing his findings. Included was this section on proportionality:
Under international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute, the death of civilians during an armed conflict, no matter how grave and regrettable, does not in itself constitute a war crime. International humanitarian law and the Rome Statute permit belligerents to carry out proportionate attacks against military objectives, even when it is known that some civilian deaths or injuries will occur.
A crime occurs if there is an intentional attack directed against civilians (principle of distinction) or an attack is launched on a military objective in the knowledge that the incidental civilian injuries would be clearly excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage (principle of proportionality).
Finally, Dr. Françoise Hampton, University of Essex (UK) wrote about the concept of “military necessity.”
Military necessity is a legal concept used in international humanitarian law (IHL) as part of the legal justification for attacks on legitimate military targets that may have adverse, even terrible, consequences for civilians and civilian objects. It means that military forces in planning military actions are permitted to take into account the practical requirements of a military situation at any given moment and the imperatives of winning.
As some military objectives are destroyed, the enemy will use other installations for the same purpose, thereby making them military objectives and their attack justifiable under military necessity. There is a similarly variable effect on the determination of proportionality. The greater the military advantage anticipated, the larger the amount of collateral damage – often civilian casualties – which will be “justified” or “necessary.”
All civilian casualties are to be mourned, but what becomes clear – absent a shaky notion of sportsmanship – is that Israel has the right, and indeed the obligation, to defend its people, has the right to “win” the war of self-defense that it is fighting, and has taken account of the requirements of international law regarding “proportionality” and “military necessity.”
While the killing of civilians is dreadful, the rape, torture, shooting young women in their sex organs, and playing catch with their severed breast is... there are no words to describe what Hamas fighters did. Just think of how you would feel if one of your relatives were so murdered?
Another key fact of which the wider world tends to be wholly ignorant - busy with its quotidian struggles and usually not caring much to begin with - there are about 16 million Jews in the world, total, and around 6 million in Israel and same number in the USA!
One stubborn, or maybe just really elderly, Jew still lives in Yemen, I read the other day. Anyway I think the usual idea (along with some of the Protocols Banker-Conspiracy paranoid demonizations of Jews as "secretly running things and to hell with everyone else," which is so contrary to facts it leaves me speechless, but they don't care, they have their all-purpose "Bogey Man" object of hate and a crackpot rationale for why things are so messed up!) is that of course there are several hundred million Jews. Maybe a billion! After all, the planet's population is around 8 billion, so why not? The older I get the more I respect facts.
Richard, that statement about “Jews are running everything” has been said for eons. All I know is that we have to remind people that Hamas committed atrocities to innocent people. They started this war. Unfortunately, the Palestinians are caught in the middle and that isn’t fair. I can’t stand Netanyahu nor the Likud Party. To me, they are as much fascists as the ones we have in our country.
Oh yeah I entirely agree, it's crucial to distinguish whatever Netanyahu's self-serving motives are, from the legal case under the Genocide convention that fails against Israel, and HAMAS is unfortunately "popular" amongst Palestinians according to polling data, sure, but we have NO IDEA what some of those same people being polled would say if HAMAS wasn't able to imprison or kill them for stating their opposition, either. There haven't been elections in Gaza since September, 2006 - HAMAS hasn't allowed them! The news coverage does.not.even.make.that.clear. Think about that!
I just heard a farcical line of preposterous bilge (in fact it may still be on the BBC World News overnight broadcast) presided over by "Paul Henley" featuring "Ali" or ("Ollie") "Hayns" (?) or "Haines? Haynes?" - the latter identified only as a "free-lance journalist," a completely one sided line of anti-Israeli propaganda lauding the "symbolic importance" of South Africa being the nation behind the 82 paged "cogently reasoned (sic)" brief charging ISRAEL with "genocide" in Gaza.* There was also a telling snort of derision from Henley vis-a-vis a separate discussion about US "soft power" being promoted via music, "Do you think anyone in MOSCOW cares about that?" (i.e., cares that this or that musician or music originates in the US) - again, as IF Muscovites are free to publicly praise the US! And as IF there is no sub rosa opposition IN MOSCOW to Putin!
I will be investigating who the hell Henley and the other propagandist are over the next days/weeks/months because of course I will.
I'll stop posting links here, there is an entire page (and a huge archive) of devastating rebuttals to BBC, Guardian, Sky News, and Times (of London) obfuscations, non fact-checked reporting, and worse biased reporting errors. I started reading the material on this website's predecessor in 2009-2010, when it mainly focused on the Guardian's "Comment is Free" section and other Guardian articles. The Guardian no longer even features a regular "Comment is Free" section, and I for one can explain that succinctly and accurately: the readership overall, collectively, did such an effective job of refuting the incredible b.s. the Guardian routinely featured in that era that the G just stopped providing a forum for it. Now they allow comments under SOME articles, and like the bad old days, immediately jump in to close down the comments once a trend emerges that exposes one of their hare-brained dogmatic "identity politics" darlings of the moment as full of beans, or there's some similarly obvious and embarrassing slapdown. What must have really bugged them was that some of the most scathing responses were not only deserved, but that they came from solid progressive "left wingers" espousing universal human rights, opposition to global oppression of women, ethnic minorities, and against the forces promoting what amounts to global ecocide. Conservatives or actual right-wingers complaining wouldn't bother them nearly as much, and I admit it's strange to ever find oneself on "the same side" as someone like Netanyahu, but he's simply "doing the right thing by accident, by fortuitous happenstance," what else can he do but respond to assert Israel's self-defense rights, anyway?
And it's not ONLY the barbaric atrocities, so horrible the mainstream news has, for better or worse, shied away from authentic details, it's the fact I have posted on this very blog several times since October 7: If you were to have a terrorist massacre in the United States in 2023 that killed the same number, proportionately, as HAMAS did in Israel, it would translate to 40,000 dead Americans, men, women and children, targeted intentionally, enthusiastically, with all the bombastic b.s. "justifications," in ONE DAY!
You likely already realize it, but millions don't - that Israel is not just a very small country, about the "size of New Jersey" used to be the comparison I heard as a 14 year old kid in Des Moines during the 1967 Six Day War, but with "neighbors" run by fanatics dedicated to wiping them out, a second Shoah / Holocaust.
EDIT: I have agreed with "Vague Craig" on many many issues, but I also realize my usual allies on the democratic Left do not agree with me - and they're WRONG.
People tend to have no comprehension of the magnitude of Oct. 7 to the Israelis. You and I realize if that kind of event really DID happen here, if, somehow, some lunatic terrorist cult seized territory in Canada (it's impossible as it is now, but ex hypothesi!) and managed to strike Buffalo killing FORTY THOUSANDS PEOPLE in one day, we would go bonkers, essentially, and it would be a done deal that if we found the terrorists deeply embedded in the civilian infrastructure, siting missile platforms in and around schools, mosques, apartment complexes, shopping centers, hospitals, with a gargantuan tunnel system complete with power, heat, ac, running like 300 miles total, we would MAYBE drop 7 million leaflets , do all the phone warnings, urge the civilians to flee, then hit the legit military targets. Just like the IDF!
Well said, I have tried to make those points many times on Facebook and on the NYT Web-Site and when I get to proportionality the Times do not publish it.
Minneapolis city council set to condemn Israel's war in Gaza
A majority of council members will ask the U.S. government to withdraw support for Israel's military operations in Gaza.
Author: John Croman
Published: 9:56 AM CST January 6, 2024
Updated: 9:56 AM CST January 6, 2024
Facebook
MINNEAPOLIS — A solid majority of the Minneapolis City Council has laid out plans to introduce a resolution Monday calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and asking the federal government to withdraw support for Israeli military operations against Hamas.
They say the United States shouldn't be giving political or material support to the Israeli government for a military campaign that has claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians and created a humanitarian crisis for Gazans fleeing the invasion.
"We want an end to our tax dollars being used to contribute to this humanitarian catastrophe and unspeakable loss of life," Council Member Aisha Chughtai remarked during a Friday afternoon press conference.
"As a Muslim person, just watching the horrific violence in Gaza over the last few months has been a deeply painful and personal thing to experience, like many people in our community."
The event also featured speakers from a coalition supporting the resolution, including the Council on Islamic American Relations, TakeAction Minnesota, Jewish Voices for Peace and Minnesota BDS Community.
"To my community I say Jewish safety matters. And it must come through the safety and liberation of all people," Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg of Jewish Voices for Peace. "We will not find safety or peace through a wall or a gun as thousands of children are killed."
Jaylani Hussein of CAIR said that at least 100 of the Palestinians who've died in Gaza have Minnesota connections, including one family that lost 40 family members in one airstrike. He said the U.S. has become increasingly isolated by not condemning the deaths of civilians.
"Calling for a ceasefire is not a major step. Calling for a ceasefire is the least we can do. It is the most basic, human request."
Mayor Jacob Frey, at a separate press conference Friday, said he won't support any resolution that doesn't acknowledge the Oct. 7th attack that sparked this Israeli incursion into Gaza. At least 1,200 civilians were killed in those attacks, and 200 persons were taken hostage.
"I did not hear from enough people how horrible it was, I did not hear from enough organizations about how innocent lives and civilians should not be slaughtered. That is a universal truth that we should all abide by."
He said that, as a Jew, he would've expected that the council members talk to him about their resolution before launching the effort.
"There are resolutions out there that I would adamantly support. A resolution calling for an end to the atrocities and support for innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli, I would proudly get behind. It is not mutually exclusive to be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine. You can be supportive the state of Israel and simultaneously disagree adamantly with the administration that is running the government."
Frey bristled at the notion that Israelis are being condemned as colonizers when it was a nation founded by refugees fleeing prosecution. He noted his Jewish ancestors in Europe were persecuted and murdered first by Russians and later by German Nazis in the Holocaust.
He said he supports a two-state solution that recognizes that both Jews and Arabs have historical connections to that part of the world dating back thousands of years.
He was joined by Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman of Temple Israel. She noted she has worked for years to form bonds with fellow clergy of all faiths and to build bridges of understanding, but that fabric has been frayed since the Oct. 7 attacks and Israel's retaliatory military strikes against Hamas.
"The recent increase in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in our city has caused suffering and fear to many communities and to the residents of Minneapolis," Rabbi Zimmerman remarked.
"In this time of great upheaval, we need the council to be a unifying force that brings us together to fight hate speech and hate violence. We pray every Shabbat for innocent lives of Israelis and Palestinians who have died. We pray to return those kidnapped by Hamas on October 7."
Frey also invited Steve Hunegs, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. He acknowledged deaths of Palestinian civilians has been tragic but objected to term "genocide" being used to describe what's happening in Gaza.
"This accusation of genocide against the Jewish people and Israel, is wrong, it’s a blood libel. And on top of everything else it turns fact and history on his head when you’re talking about Hamas, which in its charter has the goal of destroying Israel.
The actual wording of the resolution won't be made public until Monday, but Council Member Auren Chowdhury conveyed a sense of what will be in it.
"The ask is to make it clear that in a Democratic society, where are public dollars are a part of our voice, that there is a broad voice saying we do not want to contribute to a humanitarian crisis. It does not speak for us," Chowdhury told reporters.
"We ask our US congressional delegation and our president to hold the state of Israel accountable, and to push for a permanent, immediate ceasefire to allow for humanitarian aid and to end further US military funding that is contributing to this humanitarian crisis."
*****
I first met Mayor Frey in 2013 /2014 when he was running for city council himself in Ward 3,
Precinct 3, a bit closer to the University of Minnesota campus (by only about sixteen blocks) from where I am living now, a few blocks from the Mississippi River and St. Anthony Main - the oldest part of the the city, same Ward. Our council rep, Michael Rainville, won't support this
resolution, but I guess he will be a dissenter, like Mayor Frey.
Thanks, the NYT doing that sort of thing is one of the main reasons I cancelled my subscription - but it's different for those of us who (1) Don't live IN one of the five boroughs, nearby in L.I. or NJ or PA or CT, maybe commute regularly or (2) Have friends / family living in NYC, IF that was the case I would go ahead and read the NYT for all of the useful info and features that are well worth the cost, which isn't that onerous. I'm in the Twin Cities, so not only do we have a vibrant arts scene, there's more theatrical venues per capita than anywhere else between NY and the Bay Area, with the possible exception of Chicago, a world class orchestra (I raised funds and sold season subscriptions for the Minnesota Orchestra as a PT gig on and off for eight years, 1996-2004) and more than enough intellectual stimulation and all the rest to occupy one's time. It's a drag, though, I always used seek out the New York Times pre-internet, around the U campus in Coffman Union, or in the library, or at a Dinkytown newsstand that sold every imaginable publication from all over the world (we have a huge South Asian and Chinese foreign student presence and have for many years,, so that helped the owners stay in business) but not anymore.
Compare the Guardian, they have been incredibly biased for DECADES on the entire I/P disputes, struggles, attacks, wars, terrorist organizations, failed negotiations {"The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity" - is that quote from Golda Meir?), parades honoring Palestinian "martyrs" who turn out to have bombed a Pizza outlet - Sbarro, textbooks in Palestinian schools filled with anti-Semitic stereotypes, wacko cartoons showing the "martyrs" at work...this is a practically endless list. On top of which, Palestinians who dissent often have to flee (Cf. Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Turkey, Egypt, etc.) "or else."
I agree that we will not emerge from this chapter in the conflict between democratic and totalitarian values without violence. Violence seems to be the only means (other than surrender of the opposition) that totalitarianism accepts for settling conflict. Donald Trump is enamored of violence performed on his behalf. I think he believed it would never touch him; look at the maelstrom that the merest possibility has turned him into.
My expectation is that Drumpf loses, and his followers resort to violence (again) to try and change events; or Drumpf "wins" (however that happens) and he and his followers employ violence against all his "enemies" and opponents. And we must resist. Either way, we're in for it.
Every minute of that madness is on tape. Let’s do re-education camps in which all deniers have to watch the entire sad event as many of us did, and have the sessions monitored by Michael Fanone. He can also answer all the questions afterward.
The massive, seemingly willful ignorance of so many millions could only have been achieved through Australian Rupert Murdoch's Fox News being politically unhinged and let loose upon America's voting morons. There are more of them now than in 2016, and they are much louder.
[A major mystery is still unsolved 3 years after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
Posted 7 Hours Ago
Read More]
Donald Trump Monday accused former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) of deleting evidence of a long-debunked claim that he offered to provide 10,000 soldiers to defend the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
"Why did American Disaster Liz Cheney ... DELETE & DESTROY most of the evidence, and related items, from the January 6th Committee of Political Thugs and Misfits," Trump wrote in a New Year's Day post on TruthSocial. "THIS ACT OF EXTREME SABOTAGE MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR MY LAWYERS TO PROPERLY PREPARE FOR, AND PRESENT, A PROPER DEFENSE OF THEIR CLIENT, ME.
Yeah, but that is simply nonsense.
Trump "never requested 10,000 National Guard troops to secure the Capitol that day," the Washington Post reports.
The number was tossed around in "casual conversation that is now regarded by his supporters as a lifeline to excuse his inaction when a mob inspired by his rhetoric invaded the Capitol," the report notes
The Defense Department never considered Trump remarks to be a "direct order," according to the Post.
There is no evidence to destroy in the case because it flatly didn’t happen. But that hasn’t stopped this tall tale from being a large part of MAGA gospel.
Even Trump should know better because January 6 wasn’t the first time he had supposedly made such a request, he had previously asked for “10,000 troops” to respond to the George Floyd protests in Washington DC.
******* The article continues, it's "just one damn thing after another," attributed to Bette Davis, as Margo Howard just pointed out on the previous LKTIV post about Kareem and medical challenges.
Correction: in sixth graf, 2001 for 2021. Ooops. Too many twos and ones and zeros
Thanks
The primitive form of Autocorrect in my brain made an instantaneous subtraction calculation on its abacus.
All RIGHT! We need you LKTIV, and here's some good news from January 6 litigation posted just yesterday, it's a hammering down on the seditious insurrectionists they never expected, that's for sure:
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/cadc/23-3023/23-3023-2024-01-05.html?utm_source=summary-newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2024-01-06-us-court-of-appeals-for-the-district-of-columbia-circuit-5555f8b581&utm_content=text-case-title-1
Justia Opinion Summary
In the case before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Russell Alford, who was a participant in the Capitol protest on January 6, 2021, appealed his convictions and sentence for four misdemeanors. The misdemeanors were related to his unauthorized entry and conduct within the U.S. Capitol. Although Alford's behavior while in the Capitol was neither violent nor destructive, he was convicted for his role in disrupting the Congress's electoral certification and endangering public safety.
Alford raised two issues in his appeal: the sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions for disorderly or disruptive conduct and the reasonableness of his twelve-month sentence. The court affirmed his convictions, noting that a jury could rationally conclude that his unauthorized presence as part of a mob contributed to the disruption of the Congress's proceedings. The court also affirmed his sentence, stating that the district court was within its discretion in imposing a within-Guidelines sentence after considering the circumstances.
The case underscores that disorderly or disruptive conduct, as defined by relevant statutes, can include non-violent and non-destructive actions if they are likely to endanger public safety or create a public disturbance. Even passive conduct can be deemed disorderly or disruptive, depending on the context. The court also emphasized that sentencing disparities among defendants with similar records who have been found guilty of similar conduct are not inherently unreasonable, especially when the defendant's conduct during trial or other factors may justify a greater sentence.
****** Full text of the judgment in downloadable PDF is there, too, collect them all, amaze your friends and stun and confuse the usual suspects, too!
"...his presence was an aspect of the disorder and disruption of the Capitol...".
YES!!! Thank you for this, Richard!!
Thank you for sharing this! Indeed heartening.
I read the DC CircuitCourt of Appeals' decision, and I would aver that the reviewing court bent over backwards in its legal analysis to affirm the convictions. As a lawyer experienced in this sort of thing, I respect the opinion writer's thoroughness. But January 6. 2021 was a day like no other, and here the sum and substance of the day should have alerted Alford that what was .going pn around him in the way of damaging the Capitol was going to reflect badly on him, what with a destructive riot going on around him and with people loudly shouting "Where's Nancy!", an obvious reference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Any sensible person not bent on creating mischief would have been long gone. Technical legal arguments about the nature of criminal trespass aside, I would have indicted Alford if only his shadow had been captured on surveillance tape recordings of the armed intrusion. He being where he should not have been, and what appears to be something of a protracted presence at the site, with the full commotion going on around him deprives Alford of any benefit of the doubt.
Regardless of the specifics, just being a part of that writhing mass of invaders, hands in pockets, as it were, was more than sufficient in a practical sense to impute the responsibility of the rioters on every side of Alford to apprise him that he should not have been there. Anything in the way of participation in that mayhem beyond merely being present in the Capitol under those circumstances would, in my view, warrant convicting him of a felony.
Absolutely. These guys have been playing silly mind games of their own, floating untethered from facts in the "RWNJ Blogosphere," listening for years to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones and the whole Fox News lineup of liars along with Liar-in-Chief Trump, they seem to believe that trained judges and attentive juries will fall for the same paralogical gibberish, it really is pathetic, sad insofar as it's all so damn unnecessary - NONE of this Trump cult roller coaster ride to Nowhere is helping to solve a single one of their issues (psychological or in the world of politics) - immigration, ok, it desperately needs reforms, a path to citizenship, booting out the actual criminals, a "Guest Worker" program expanded carefully, work on the sources in Central America and S.A, to rein in the causes pushing people to this level of desperation, etc.
You could go down the list of all their (legitimate) grievances about the economy or whatever, and none of the GOP programs help at all and some make things far worse.
GOP has no interest in bettering people's lives. That is so sad for their constituents. Joe Biden cares, tRumpish people can't. It's ugly and the tRumpish people impute their motives to everyone else. It gets sadder and sadder and more and more dangerous for our country. I have a good friend who is tRumpish. She believes he doesn't mean what he is saying. Horrifying. No persuasion or facts can change or beliefs. We are living in a Disney Made-for-TV NIGHTMARE
This PC or the blog wiped out my reply - some of those people are just really really stupid and stubborn about it, surely that's not applicable to your close friend, so maybe it's wishful thinking, a kind of denial that anyone could be as vile as Trump (despite his record, but people can be too busy to really come to grips with it).
I spent YEARS avoiding really really stupid people (not "ignorant because sheltered," not "naive but open-minded," not "well-meaning but just very slow-witted but good hearted and kind," no! Not them) and was mostly successful - but that may track living and working and socializing /dating near college or university campuses - at Macalester, the near Drake U. in Des Moines in the 1970s, the around Arizona State in Tempe, then around the U. of M in Minneapolis, then commuting to William MItchell for law school, so even the waitresses I dated were just as likely as not to be majoring in Anthropology and minoring in French, took no special effort by me or anyone else - that's the women who were around, the staff, the grad students, employees. But I also think practically ANYONE can figure out ways to avoid the dumbazz extremist Maga types, cult fanatics in a religion, that type - and now, online counts too!
Birds of a Feather Flock Together...
A little stupid and very stubborn
Yeah people, and when you've known them for years "what are ya gonna do?!?"
Maybe hope there's a general cool down after the smoke clears from the November - December shouting, recriminations ("How could you LOSE to (the opponent)!" "What will we do now, all is lost, it's the end, we're doomed, doomed I say, DOOOOOOOOMMMMMEEEEDDD !!!," "No, panic is not a strategy! We need to regroup, take a vacation...have to keep on." etc.)
It's very strange. Trump has established a record since his election, and had one many of us didn't know much about unless we were living around NYC, long before! By now it's clear enough, so there's some kind of willful denial, wishful thinking, or in some cases -hopefully not your good friend, I can't imagine that, seriously - they are just really really stupid and obstinately sure of their views anyway, maybe the two traits tend to go together? I wouldn't know as I have spent over sixty years doing my best to avoid stubbornly stupid (not "ignorant," not "naive," not "well-meaning but very sheltered"!) people and have succeeded very well in most cases.
It helped that I was almost always working and socializing near colleges or universities, in St. Paul at Macalester, in Des Moines around Drake U., in Tempe around Arizona State University, in Minneapolis at the U and then commuting to William Mitchell for law school, even waitresses I dated were majoring in anthropology and French or whatever, it wasn't even as if me or anyone else had to make some "special effort," that's the women who were around, also grad students, university staff, employees, etc. - but I also think ANYONE can more or less figure out ways to just stay away from those folks, and seek out people who have functioning, curious minds, right? Nowadays: online too, that counts as a start! No MAGA blogs, etc. Let birds of a feather flock together!
ANY excuse to post this, will do:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pQuZ4xQOVo
TIM CURRY - Birds of a Feather (Flock Together)
Read it. Thank you
Lucian, to further illustrate what you cogently said here, we have the supposed "intelligentsia" of the once decent GOP like George Will making equivalency comparisons to Joe Biden. We now read main stream writers ignoring the blatant fact Trump attempted to destroy our democracy on January 6th and comparing Biden's presidential tactics, which are LEGAL, to the criminal acts of Trump makes me want to hurl. A narcissistic clown who calls our soldiers losers and suckers. Who told Kelley as they visited Arlington, "I don't get it, what was in it for them?" A grifter who did not separate his businesses from the presidency and raked in millions while in the office, whose son in law gained 2 billion from the Saudis, a criminal ex-president who has openly declared he will get retribution with those who opposed him, has said he will ignore the US Constitution, a "human?" who calls migrants "vermin polluting American blood," and George Will and others attempt to make an equivalency to Joe Biden?
By doing this, I see no difference between what I studied about Germany in the 1930s as Hitler rose in power and the so called German intelligentsia like wise made comparisons, in the end helping Hitler and the Nazi takeover. Are Americans so blind that they cannot see what is right in front of their noses? All Americans watched either live or later the insurrection on January 6th. For millions to now claim those traitors were patriots, were really good people and to excuse the narcissist who caused it means we are headed in the same direction as Germany in the '30s. Yikes.
False equivalencies are fallacies hence it is rare any comparison other than identical twins can be reasonably fashioned. To that very point find self avoiding the Hitler-Germany Trump-USA trap due to all the historical differences between 1930s onward Germany and 2016 onward America. To me it's not enough to view the 2men w/o viewing the circumstances of their respective times. (Tongue-in-cheek) I suppose Hitler's mustache and Trump's hair can be compared for the ridicule value.
Unlike the early1930s and onward Germany which included Hitler's rise in a new political party, Trump is a result of one. While it can be argued exactly when the GOP began backsliding it's to fair to point to the Civil Rights movement overlapping the War in Southeast Asia. From that general time frame forward dudes like Lee Atwater and his many disciples began demonizing non-Republicans and nonwhites via messaging and false narratives, and of course dog whistle political rhetoric. Resulted in generations worth of drip, drip, drip that every Republican president since then adding on more.
All Trump did was take it to another level by replacing demonizing with dehumanizing "the other" casting them as the enemy. Can't emphasize that enough. Anyone who is not a Trump supporter whether they reside in the States or are resident/citizens or heads of states of other nations are classified as Trump haters aka the enemy. By doing so Trump far exceeded Hitler's attack on small sized minorities, Jews, 2spirit people, Gypsies, and Commies.
6Ja. was a deliberate betrayal of democracy, the Constitution, the Oath,, and rule of law. And involved far more people than have been indicted. On element that 6Jan shares with coups and auto-coups is the participation of the military. In the case of 6Jan, specifically the US Army that participation was in plain sight during the attack on the USCB by their absence throughout the many hours.
And now 3years later there remains no believable explanation for their inaction. That would include no actual investigation into DoD's phone logs that day, not so much as to who called them, rather who did they NOT call or perhaps did. Pentagon is filled with teevee sets. Requires the suspension of all disbelief that 1000s of SO/GOs didn't fill the halls with sounds are wadafuq are we waiting for as well as across DoD email and phone lines.
The chain of [mil] US Army command had to isseu a go order to authorize the NG to assemble as well as to head to the USCB. Instead they watched as the USCB fell. There 6Jan testimony is not believable. And was challenged by O-5 attorney for the NG. His story is in the Military Times published on Jan 2024.
Again, 6Jan had to be a much larger undertaking including Republican members of Congress and in the states well beyond the fraudulent electors. Most of all WH officials and at DoJ who sat in on those bizarro meetings. They hears and saw much yet never ever did their duty to notify anyone in LE or by reaching out to the media. They are as complicit and they gave incomplete testimony to Jan6HSC and likely to the Special Counsel's team.
End
The main hitler trump comparison is the use of the big lie theory.
(1) There is wisdom behind Goodwin's Law (2) One data point a comparison not make. If it did, then all right handed men can be favorably compared.
A Big Lie is associated with the overwhelming majority of strongmen throughout history along with their appeal to dark souls via hate [of others] aka a Boogieman or Boogiemen. It's Chapter One in the Dictator (or Wannabe) Playbook. Chapter Two : How to Juice to Appear Stronger Than You are. Chapter Three: Get Rich Quick.
FTR: Hitler wanted to lead a German Empire,, aka Third Reich, an actual Weltanschauung Trump is an isolationist who sees America as a golf course (his own words during a trip to Scotland).
One cannot ignore the vast differences between the two men (Hitler loved dogs, Trump hates dogs-can do this all day, James) and their visions for their respective nation each led for a short time.
I agree that all strong men use similar techniques.
I see trump as a spoiled petulant child with strong racist and misogynistic views.
Hitler was obsessed with murdering classes and races of people his entire life.
Hitler had to create a new party while the republicans were already primed for a racist anti democratic misogynistic liar.
Indeed I do not call Trump hitler but another similarity is the shocking ignorance of both.
No ce hearing from you.
Agree w/every word. Will add to your list by adding another tell of both and other dictators, paranoia and of course self-aggrandizement.
Nice to post with you, James.
Nice
Absolutely agree
You know, we have been told for years that United States' downfall would be because we allowed sex before marriage, we allowed same sex marriage, we watch porn, we take drugs, there are too many single-parent households, we allow women and people of color to have too much power, even that we listen to too much jazz or rock and roll. But the "degradation", it turns out isn't related to these social norm changes, but to the mores of the "fine people" many of us have trusted. The people I trust look past the noise and see that the rot comes from hate of the other; pure and simple, many of us are guided in our daily lives by fear of the different. How can we ever rise if we don't recognize that fear of the other is only a primitive human response like fight or flight that is possible to resolve with simple engagement of a logical, BRAIN-motivated acknowledgement of the truth that humans come in many, many equally valid varieties? We need to celebrate the differences, not hide and fear them.
I get your point, but I will not be celebrating the maggots.
I hadn't thought about the two terrorist attacks in that way. I'm not quick. My heart goes out to the brave Ukrainians being made hostages of MAGA.
You might consider this, in fact we all might look into it - I discovered it in the course of trying to find one (a charity to help bolster Ukraine in their defense against Putin's genocidal invasion) that wouldn't be engaged in brow-beating essentially captive Ukrainians, then being coerced into biblical ranting or even measured propaganda - if it's feasible:
https://www.rsukraine.org/
*******
Your support can
make a difference
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Millions of families are suffering terrible misery as a result of the current state of affairs which has shocked much of the world.
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{Photos Courtesy Carol Guzy - Zuma Press} - photo images did not transfer from Foxfire, etc.
Timothy Snyder, the Yale Historian, similarly has been raising funds for an Iron Dome to protect the skies over two additional Ukrainian cities!
And, just like you wrote a few columns ago, the NY Times is at full speed ahead with bothsiderism when obviously there are not two sides.
There are NOT two sides, except, well, democracy and totalitarianism. Maybe newspaper writers and editors could use a history class.
To be fair: A lot of people who are in denial about J6 have already spent the past 22 years telling us that 9/11 was an inside job. The deeper issue is that we have so many people who refuse to join the fact-based consensus reality, for reasons we'd do well to spend more time contemplating.
Tune into nothing but Fox for a week and you will see why.
Bring back the Fairness Doctrine!!!! Force Fox to comply or be moved to comedy channeling with BULLSHIT warnings. WE did have an FCC, right? Give it some teeth or at least make the greedy tools all where goofy hats and clown noses when broadcasting.
Lies are not news and shouldn't be allowed to be broadcasted as such to the 50% of human sampling who are apparently dumber than the smartest great ape without warnings in place or the US will eventually be a totally lost cause. Trump is Hitler and Rupert is Goering. Let them run free and unencumbered to our peril.
And aliens built Stonehenge, the Pyramids, and every other temple in the past; the moon shot was done at Disney studios; dinosaurs walked with Jesus; a woman’s body is perfectly capable of stopping pregnancy from rape.
I agree entirely with your feelings about this great rip in the fabric of the country, but I disagree with this: “Here’s hoping it won’t take just as long for us to commemorate 1/6 with the unity and propriety that we commemorate 9/11.” That, I believe, will never happen. To bastardize Matthew 26:11 (not to be confused with “two Corinthians”)
“The crazy you will always have with you.” Us.
Eloquently and passionately expressed, Lucian. Thank you! The whitewashing by Trump and his allies and supporters of that failed coup on 1/6 must continue to be called out. He and the mob attempted to overthrow our government and destroy our democracy by disrupting the legal proceedings of a just and fair election. I'm deeply worried about what is coming. Thank you for emphasizing how much of a calamity this was for our nation. I believe democracy can triumph over authoritarianism here, but it's going to take all of us voting to keep Trump from returning to the White House.
Sobering commentary on what today means. The heart of your column is this:
"The United States, once a beacon of freedom and stability for other nations to admire and emulate, has descended along with other nations into political conflict, sectarian violence, and threats against the lives of public officials ..."
Our country was not like that in my formative years, even during the Civil Rights and Vietnam eras. There was some violence, yes, but not on the scale we have seen the past few years. And more importantly, people on both sides of issues generally understood the facts, but vehemently disagreed on the policies or actions being taken based on those facts. By contrast today, a substantial minority cannot even accept the truth of actual facts, but make up their own facts and fantasies about events, such as the 2020 election. How do we deal with such people who have no grasp of reality or an unwillingness to accept what is the plain truth about events?
Maybe it will take a generation for that deluded and insane minority to die off before we can get back to (mostly)respectfully differing on policies but accepting the facts that drive those policies. In the meantime, w e need to ensure that the country's democratic institutions survive and thrive going forward, else we fall into the abyss of tyranny and authoritarianism.
We have our work cut out for us in the coming year.
Outlaw Faux news
They are laughed at by the hard-core cultists...look at Breitbart, Daily Caller, Newsmax for the really serious threats. I spent today wandering through a Colorado thread full of seriously angry, demented Americans. I went to the Secretary of State's FB, Jena Griswold...dive in and get really scared over the ignorance, hate and love of 45...we are in deep shit, kiddies.
They have to be hit with still more massive defamation suits, yes, that's the way to "outlaw" them, along with the mediamatters.org treatment!
https://www.mediamatters.org/
Here are the key right-wing media figures who rewrote the history of January 6
For the past three years, Tucker Carlson, Darren Beattie, Julie Kelly, Steve Bannon, and others have pushed a revisionist counternarrative that has undone the initial consensus about the attacks
Written by Jack Winstanley, Camden Carter & Payton Armstrong
Published 01/06/24 10:12 AM EST
It's going to take longer than a generation with all these full of ignorance wishy washy newly minted voters.
At least start with the current generation entering school. Have to start somewhere, though it is a seemingly herculean task.
I have always believed that Merrick Garland was a mistake and that Biden should have appointed Preet Bharara, a former federal prosecutor (who Trump fired). Garland, a former judge with no prosecutorial experience, moved far too slowly. His lack of timely action has created an urgency to go to trial this year while Trump is trying to run out the clock. Never hire a judge to prosecute!
One of the saddest discoveries of my adult life is that stupidity and cowardice are powerful -- and incredibly common -- motivations for our behavior. I’ve tried to come up with another explanation for the fog of bullshit and the Trump recovery after January 6, but apart from corruption-- a subset of that stupidity and cowardice stuff -- I can’t. I also can’t understand why there’s any mystery to any of this.
Last night as I was about to sleep a man on tv 13 said that many of the insurrectionists were middle , upper middle class types, Lawyers, meds, business types and more. He claimed even if we get rid of trump our democracy i will still be in peril.
This is true. Trump is only a symptom - albeit an especially hideous one - of the direction in which the Republican Party has been moving for decades. Folks such as Newt and Rush propelled it along, and here we are. Time to take it back.
Yes—already established, little discussed, the middle class predominance in the 6 January riot—comfortable Republicans who believe taxes intrude on their freedom. I guess that's why the GOP could claim the mob was ordinary tourists.
Right,we then are the elites. Geez, I like that and i forgot I was brought up in the working class of Passaic, NJ
That's exactly what MAGAts are taught. Us looking down our snooty noses at them is central to their resentment.
How dare we prefer the best understanding of the facts we can find to their wild-eyed ravings? It's an outrage!
I think that may all depend upon how he is "got rid of." A very clear example is required, I believe, to display the dire consequences of betraying one's sworn oath of office. Until quite recently that would have already been a swift trial and military execution (by firing squad). Why shouldn't Mr. Precedent be setting another all-time first here? First former president sentenced to death for crimes while in office. Then, while he is squealing and appealing, indict every sitting (and retired) politician who "participated in, aided or provided comfort to" the insurrection and insurrectionists. I bet that would change some attitudes and songs, quick-smart.
In an ideal world, but what am I thinking? America can't even see the hypocrisy in supplying and funding Netanyahu to do to the women, children, hospitals and infrastructure in Gaza what they condemn Putin for in Ukraine. Or would be, if they could pass any funding bills with the government you got, that nobody deserves.
\end rant
LOL, it's not REMOTELY the same thing to defend one's nation from genocidal fiends like HAMAS, not under the law of armed conflict, not under international human rights law, no where, read this and either refute it or cease and desist from enabling Hamas's policy of of continued murders of their own Palestinian opponents, and of course Jews, Israelis, Americans, and any allies of the State of Israel, all of whom the openly declare they consider legitimate targets for murder:
https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2023/10/30/dont-lecture-israel-about-proportionality/ ******* Here's the text, you can learn something about why the
nonsense being spread about a "ceasefire" is so dangerous, as opposed to a "humanitarian pause" - Hamas are terrorists, they profit from a phony ceasefire.
Don’t Lecture Israel About ‘Proportionality’
Shoshana Bryen • October 30, 2023
As the Israeli incursion into Gaza continues, increased attention has been focused on the notion of “proportionality” in both the number of casualties on each side and the sophistication of weapons each side brings to bear. Mostly, pundits mean that Israel is killing too many Palestinians. An understanding of proportionality in the laws of war, however, has been missing.
Even friends of Israel get it wrong – one irate speaker on British television said, “Do you want proportionality? Should Israel seek out young women in Gaza, rape, torture, and kill them? Should Israel find babies and murder them in front of their parents – or murder parents in front of their children? Should Israel indiscriminately shell Palestinian villages?”
An Israeli journalist, in a prior response to Hamas missiles, went so far as to call Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system “unsportsmanlike.” He wondered what FIFA would say “if Germany, with its superior economy and industry, were to replace Manuel Neuer with a bionic goalkeeper… capable of calculating where each Argentine ball will come from, the exact position to stand in, and amount of force needed to block it… On the modern battlefield (Israel) is a bionic Germany.”
How unsportsmanlike!
Then there is the “yes, but…” response. “Yes” Hamas started it; “Yes,” Hamas tortured and massacred Israeli civilians; “Yes” Hamas puts military infrastructure in civilian neighborhoods; “Yes” Israel is entitled to self-defense; “Yes” the Israelis warn Palestinians. “But” so many more Palestinians have been killed than Israelis.
Isn’t that the definition of “disproportionate?” No. It isn’t.
Proportionality in international law is not about equality of death or civilian suffering, or even about firepower returned being equal in sophistication or lethality to firepower received. Proportionality weighs the military necessity of an action against the suffering that the action might cause to enemy civilians in the vicinity. A review of expert opinion – none of which was written in relation to Israel – helps to clarify. And each should be read in relation to Hamas crimes against Israeli civilians.
Prof. Horst Fischer, Academic Director of the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany, and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, wrote in The Crimes of War Project:
The principle of proportionality is embedded in almost every national legal system and underlies the international legal order… When a party commits a lawful attack against a military objective, the principle of proportionality also comes into play whenever there is collateral damage, that is, civilian casualties or damage to a non-military objective… attacks are prohibited if they cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, or damage to civilian objects that is excessive in relation to the anticipated concrete and direct military advantage of the attack. This creates a permanent obligation for military commanders to consider the results of the attack compared to the advantage anticipated.
Exactly as Israel does when it drops leaflets warning civilians of an impending attack and aborts missions after finding civilians used as human shields on rooftops.
The Council on Foreign Relations notes:
A state is legally allowed to unilaterally defend itself and right a wrong provided the response is proportional to the injury suffered. The response must also be immediate and necessary, refrain from targeting civilians, and require only enough force to reinstate the status quo ante.
Status quo ante October 7 is impossible for Israel.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, investigated allegations of war crimes during 2003 invasion of Iraq, and in 2006 published an open letter containing his findings. Included was this section on proportionality:
Under international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute, the death of civilians during an armed conflict, no matter how grave and regrettable, does not in itself constitute a war crime. International humanitarian law and the Rome Statute permit belligerents to carry out proportionate attacks against military objectives, even when it is known that some civilian deaths or injuries will occur.
A crime occurs if there is an intentional attack directed against civilians (principle of distinction) or an attack is launched on a military objective in the knowledge that the incidental civilian injuries would be clearly excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage (principle of proportionality).
Finally, Dr. Françoise Hampton, University of Essex (UK) wrote about the concept of “military necessity.”
Military necessity is a legal concept used in international humanitarian law (IHL) as part of the legal justification for attacks on legitimate military targets that may have adverse, even terrible, consequences for civilians and civilian objects. It means that military forces in planning military actions are permitted to take into account the practical requirements of a military situation at any given moment and the imperatives of winning.
As some military objectives are destroyed, the enemy will use other installations for the same purpose, thereby making them military objectives and their attack justifiable under military necessity. There is a similarly variable effect on the determination of proportionality. The greater the military advantage anticipated, the larger the amount of collateral damage – often civilian casualties – which will be “justified” or “necessary.”
All civilian casualties are to be mourned, but what becomes clear – absent a shaky notion of sportsmanship – is that Israel has the right, and indeed the obligation, to defend its people, has the right to “win” the war of self-defense that it is fighting, and has taken account of the requirements of international law regarding “proportionality” and “military necessity.”
The same cannot be said for Hamas.
While the killing of civilians is dreadful, the rape, torture, shooting young women in their sex organs, and playing catch with their severed breast is... there are no words to describe what Hamas fighters did. Just think of how you would feel if one of your relatives were so murdered?
Another key fact of which the wider world tends to be wholly ignorant - busy with its quotidian struggles and usually not caring much to begin with - there are about 16 million Jews in the world, total, and around 6 million in Israel and same number in the USA!
One stubborn, or maybe just really elderly, Jew still lives in Yemen, I read the other day. Anyway I think the usual idea (along with some of the Protocols Banker-Conspiracy paranoid demonizations of Jews as "secretly running things and to hell with everyone else," which is so contrary to facts it leaves me speechless, but they don't care, they have their all-purpose "Bogey Man" object of hate and a crackpot rationale for why things are so messed up!) is that of course there are several hundred million Jews. Maybe a billion! After all, the planet's population is around 8 billion, so why not? The older I get the more I respect facts.
Richard, that statement about “Jews are running everything” has been said for eons. All I know is that we have to remind people that Hamas committed atrocities to innocent people. They started this war. Unfortunately, the Palestinians are caught in the middle and that isn’t fair. I can’t stand Netanyahu nor the Likud Party. To me, they are as much fascists as the ones we have in our country.
Oh yeah I entirely agree, it's crucial to distinguish whatever Netanyahu's self-serving motives are, from the legal case under the Genocide convention that fails against Israel, and HAMAS is unfortunately "popular" amongst Palestinians according to polling data, sure, but we have NO IDEA what some of those same people being polled would say if HAMAS wasn't able to imprison or kill them for stating their opposition, either. There haven't been elections in Gaza since September, 2006 - HAMAS hasn't allowed them! The news coverage does.not.even.make.that.clear. Think about that!
I just heard a farcical line of preposterous bilge (in fact it may still be on the BBC World News overnight broadcast) presided over by "Paul Henley" featuring "Ali" or ("Ollie") "Hayns" (?) or "Haines? Haynes?" - the latter identified only as a "free-lance journalist," a completely one sided line of anti-Israeli propaganda lauding the "symbolic importance" of South Africa being the nation behind the 82 paged "cogently reasoned (sic)" brief charging ISRAEL with "genocide" in Gaza.* There was also a telling snort of derision from Henley vis-a-vis a separate discussion about US "soft power" being promoted via music, "Do you think anyone in MOSCOW cares about that?" (i.e., cares that this or that musician or music originates in the US) - again, as IF Muscovites are free to publicly praise the US! And as IF there is no sub rosa opposition IN MOSCOW to Putin!
I will be investigating who the hell Henley and the other propagandist are over the next days/weeks/months because of course I will.
* https://camera-uk.org/2023/12/13/bbcs-paul-adams-amplifies-hamas-propaganda/
https://camera-uk.org/2023/05/09/palestinian-casualties-in-2023-the-facts/
https://camera-uk.org/2024/01/05/bbc-news-reporting-on-saleh-al-arouri-highlights-years-of-omission/
https://camera-uk.org/2024/01/05/weekend-long-read-388/
I'll stop posting links here, there is an entire page (and a huge archive) of devastating rebuttals to BBC, Guardian, Sky News, and Times (of London) obfuscations, non fact-checked reporting, and worse biased reporting errors. I started reading the material on this website's predecessor in 2009-2010, when it mainly focused on the Guardian's "Comment is Free" section and other Guardian articles. The Guardian no longer even features a regular "Comment is Free" section, and I for one can explain that succinctly and accurately: the readership overall, collectively, did such an effective job of refuting the incredible b.s. the Guardian routinely featured in that era that the G just stopped providing a forum for it. Now they allow comments under SOME articles, and like the bad old days, immediately jump in to close down the comments once a trend emerges that exposes one of their hare-brained dogmatic "identity politics" darlings of the moment as full of beans, or there's some similarly obvious and embarrassing slapdown. What must have really bugged them was that some of the most scathing responses were not only deserved, but that they came from solid progressive "left wingers" espousing universal human rights, opposition to global oppression of women, ethnic minorities, and against the forces promoting what amounts to global ecocide. Conservatives or actual right-wingers complaining wouldn't bother them nearly as much, and I admit it's strange to ever find oneself on "the same side" as someone like Netanyahu, but he's simply "doing the right thing by accident, by fortuitous happenstance," what else can he do but respond to assert Israel's self-defense rights, anyway?
And it's not ONLY the barbaric atrocities, so horrible the mainstream news has, for better or worse, shied away from authentic details, it's the fact I have posted on this very blog several times since October 7: If you were to have a terrorist massacre in the United States in 2023 that killed the same number, proportionately, as HAMAS did in Israel, it would translate to 40,000 dead Americans, men, women and children, targeted intentionally, enthusiastically, with all the bombastic b.s. "justifications," in ONE DAY!
You likely already realize it, but millions don't - that Israel is not just a very small country, about the "size of New Jersey" used to be the comparison I heard as a 14 year old kid in Des Moines during the 1967 Six Day War, but with "neighbors" run by fanatics dedicated to wiping them out, a second Shoah / Holocaust.
EDIT: I have agreed with "Vague Craig" on many many issues, but I also realize my usual allies on the democratic Left do not agree with me - and they're WRONG.
People tend to have no comprehension of the magnitude of Oct. 7 to the Israelis. You and I realize if that kind of event really DID happen here, if, somehow, some lunatic terrorist cult seized territory in Canada (it's impossible as it is now, but ex hypothesi!) and managed to strike Buffalo killing FORTY THOUSANDS PEOPLE in one day, we would go bonkers, essentially, and it would be a done deal that if we found the terrorists deeply embedded in the civilian infrastructure, siting missile platforms in and around schools, mosques, apartment complexes, shopping centers, hospitals, with a gargantuan tunnel system complete with power, heat, ac, running like 300 miles total, we would MAYBE drop 7 million leaflets , do all the phone warnings, urge the civilians to flee, then hit the legit military targets. Just like the IDF!
Well said, I have tried to make those points many times on Facebook and on the NYT Web-Site and when I get to proportionality the Times do not publish it.
And it just keeps spreading, now the Minneapolis City Council is wasting our time with this:
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/politics/mpls-city-council-gaza-ceasefire-resolution-israel/89-a9eca649-5678-41ea-a7c3-7ce75ecf83a8
Politics
Minneapolis city council set to condemn Israel's war in Gaza
A majority of council members will ask the U.S. government to withdraw support for Israel's military operations in Gaza.
Author: John Croman
Published: 9:56 AM CST January 6, 2024
Updated: 9:56 AM CST January 6, 2024
Facebook
MINNEAPOLIS — A solid majority of the Minneapolis City Council has laid out plans to introduce a resolution Monday calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and asking the federal government to withdraw support for Israeli military operations against Hamas.
They say the United States shouldn't be giving political or material support to the Israeli government for a military campaign that has claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians and created a humanitarian crisis for Gazans fleeing the invasion.
"We want an end to our tax dollars being used to contribute to this humanitarian catastrophe and unspeakable loss of life," Council Member Aisha Chughtai remarked during a Friday afternoon press conference.
"As a Muslim person, just watching the horrific violence in Gaza over the last few months has been a deeply painful and personal thing to experience, like many people in our community."
The event also featured speakers from a coalition supporting the resolution, including the Council on Islamic American Relations, TakeAction Minnesota, Jewish Voices for Peace and Minnesota BDS Community.
"To my community I say Jewish safety matters. And it must come through the safety and liberation of all people," Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg of Jewish Voices for Peace. "We will not find safety or peace through a wall or a gun as thousands of children are killed."
Jaylani Hussein of CAIR said that at least 100 of the Palestinians who've died in Gaza have Minnesota connections, including one family that lost 40 family members in one airstrike. He said the U.S. has become increasingly isolated by not condemning the deaths of civilians.
"Calling for a ceasefire is not a major step. Calling for a ceasefire is the least we can do. It is the most basic, human request."
Mayor Jacob Frey, at a separate press conference Friday, said he won't support any resolution that doesn't acknowledge the Oct. 7th attack that sparked this Israeli incursion into Gaza. At least 1,200 civilians were killed in those attacks, and 200 persons were taken hostage.
"I did not hear from enough people how horrible it was, I did not hear from enough organizations about how innocent lives and civilians should not be slaughtered. That is a universal truth that we should all abide by."
He said that, as a Jew, he would've expected that the council members talk to him about their resolution before launching the effort.
"There are resolutions out there that I would adamantly support. A resolution calling for an end to the atrocities and support for innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli, I would proudly get behind. It is not mutually exclusive to be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine. You can be supportive the state of Israel and simultaneously disagree adamantly with the administration that is running the government."
Frey bristled at the notion that Israelis are being condemned as colonizers when it was a nation founded by refugees fleeing prosecution. He noted his Jewish ancestors in Europe were persecuted and murdered first by Russians and later by German Nazis in the Holocaust.
He said he supports a two-state solution that recognizes that both Jews and Arabs have historical connections to that part of the world dating back thousands of years.
He was joined by Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman of Temple Israel. She noted she has worked for years to form bonds with fellow clergy of all faiths and to build bridges of understanding, but that fabric has been frayed since the Oct. 7 attacks and Israel's retaliatory military strikes against Hamas.
"The recent increase in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in our city has caused suffering and fear to many communities and to the residents of Minneapolis," Rabbi Zimmerman remarked.
"In this time of great upheaval, we need the council to be a unifying force that brings us together to fight hate speech and hate violence. We pray every Shabbat for innocent lives of Israelis and Palestinians who have died. We pray to return those kidnapped by Hamas on October 7."
Frey also invited Steve Hunegs, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. He acknowledged deaths of Palestinian civilians has been tragic but objected to term "genocide" being used to describe what's happening in Gaza.
"This accusation of genocide against the Jewish people and Israel, is wrong, it’s a blood libel. And on top of everything else it turns fact and history on his head when you’re talking about Hamas, which in its charter has the goal of destroying Israel.
The actual wording of the resolution won't be made public until Monday, but Council Member Auren Chowdhury conveyed a sense of what will be in it.
"The ask is to make it clear that in a Democratic society, where are public dollars are a part of our voice, that there is a broad voice saying we do not want to contribute to a humanitarian crisis. It does not speak for us," Chowdhury told reporters.
"We ask our US congressional delegation and our president to hold the state of Israel accountable, and to push for a permanent, immediate ceasefire to allow for humanitarian aid and to end further US military funding that is contributing to this humanitarian crisis."
*****
I first met Mayor Frey in 2013 /2014 when he was running for city council himself in Ward 3,
Precinct 3, a bit closer to the University of Minnesota campus (by only about sixteen blocks) from where I am living now, a few blocks from the Mississippi River and St. Anthony Main - the oldest part of the the city, same Ward. Our council rep, Michael Rainville, won't support this
resolution, but I guess he will be a dissenter, like Mayor Frey.
Thanks, the NYT doing that sort of thing is one of the main reasons I cancelled my subscription - but it's different for those of us who (1) Don't live IN one of the five boroughs, nearby in L.I. or NJ or PA or CT, maybe commute regularly or (2) Have friends / family living in NYC, IF that was the case I would go ahead and read the NYT for all of the useful info and features that are well worth the cost, which isn't that onerous. I'm in the Twin Cities, so not only do we have a vibrant arts scene, there's more theatrical venues per capita than anywhere else between NY and the Bay Area, with the possible exception of Chicago, a world class orchestra (I raised funds and sold season subscriptions for the Minnesota Orchestra as a PT gig on and off for eight years, 1996-2004) and more than enough intellectual stimulation and all the rest to occupy one's time. It's a drag, though, I always used seek out the New York Times pre-internet, around the U campus in Coffman Union, or in the library, or at a Dinkytown newsstand that sold every imaginable publication from all over the world (we have a huge South Asian and Chinese foreign student presence and have for many years,, so that helped the owners stay in business) but not anymore.
Compare the Guardian, they have been incredibly biased for DECADES on the entire I/P disputes, struggles, attacks, wars, terrorist organizations, failed negotiations {"The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity" - is that quote from Golda Meir?), parades honoring Palestinian "martyrs" who turn out to have bombed a Pizza outlet - Sbarro, textbooks in Palestinian schools filled with anti-Semitic stereotypes, wacko cartoons showing the "martyrs" at work...this is a practically endless list. On top of which, Palestinians who dissent often have to flee (Cf. Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Turkey, Egypt, etc.) "or else."
I want to be on the firing squad.
I agree that we will not emerge from this chapter in the conflict between democratic and totalitarian values without violence. Violence seems to be the only means (other than surrender of the opposition) that totalitarianism accepts for settling conflict. Donald Trump is enamored of violence performed on his behalf. I think he believed it would never touch him; look at the maelstrom that the merest possibility has turned him into.
My expectation is that Drumpf loses, and his followers resort to violence (again) to try and change events; or Drumpf "wins" (however that happens) and he and his followers employ violence against all his "enemies" and opponents. And we must resist. Either way, we're in for it.
Every minute of that madness is on tape. Let’s do re-education camps in which all deniers have to watch the entire sad event as many of us did, and have the sessions monitored by Michael Fanone. He can also answer all the questions afterward.
They would celebrate it rather than learn from it.
Yes!
The massive, seemingly willful ignorance of so many millions could only have been achieved through Australian Rupert Murdoch's Fox News being politically unhinged and let loose upon America's voting morons. There are more of them now than in 2016, and they are much louder.
I don’t care how old Rupert is but he should be deported.
Trump continues to generously supply still more "talking points" for Dems, and evidence for the prosecutors, the mook can't help himself!
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/5/2215112/-Trump-blames-Liz-Cheney-for-destroying-evidence-that-doesn-t-exist?detail=emaildkre&pm_source=DKRE&pm_medium=email
[A major mystery is still unsolved 3 years after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
Posted 7 Hours Ago
Read More]
Donald Trump Monday accused former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) of deleting evidence of a long-debunked claim that he offered to provide 10,000 soldiers to defend the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
"Why did American Disaster Liz Cheney ... DELETE & DESTROY most of the evidence, and related items, from the January 6th Committee of Political Thugs and Misfits," Trump wrote in a New Year's Day post on TruthSocial. "THIS ACT OF EXTREME SABOTAGE MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR MY LAWYERS TO PROPERLY PREPARE FOR, AND PRESENT, A PROPER DEFENSE OF THEIR CLIENT, ME.
Yeah, but that is simply nonsense.
Trump "never requested 10,000 National Guard troops to secure the Capitol that day," the Washington Post reports.
The number was tossed around in "casual conversation that is now regarded by his supporters as a lifeline to excuse his inaction when a mob inspired by his rhetoric invaded the Capitol," the report notes
The Defense Department never considered Trump remarks to be a "direct order," according to the Post.
There is no evidence to destroy in the case because it flatly didn’t happen. But that hasn’t stopped this tall tale from being a large part of MAGA gospel.
Even Trump should know better because January 6 wasn’t the first time he had supposedly made such a request, he had previously asked for “10,000 troops” to respond to the George Floyd protests in Washington DC.
******* The article continues, it's "just one damn thing after another," attributed to Bette Davis, as Margo Howard just pointed out on the previous LKTIV post about Kareem and medical challenges.