DL Open Thread: Thursday, December 7, 2023
Can’t let this LBR vote equating anti-Zionism with anti-semitism go. Yo, Lisa, 80% of Gazans have been forced from their homes by Israel. First, ordered to the south by edict of Netanyahu, now being slaughtered in refugee camps by edict of Netanyahu. I know it was a cynical vote, and an easy one. I now know that, when it comes to a proposed US incursion anywhere, you will vote what’s in your political interest, not your conscience. Disappointing, but not surprising. You might want to read this. Or continue ignoring the ongoing genocide:
Dozens were killed Tuesday in an Israeli strike on a school in Khan Younis, witnesses told The Washington Post. Officials from the Gaza Health Ministry said they were still counting casualties from airstrikes. They said many of the dead remained under rubble.
Khan Younis, a city of about 200,000 before the war, has seen its population swell in recent weeks as Israel directed Palestinians to evacuate south. The United Nations estimates there are about 1.9 million displaced people in Gaza, about 85 percent of its residents.
On Wednesday, the IDF warned thousands to evacuate the city. Many have been told to move to Rafah, near the Egyptian border, where a Wednesday strike on the Shaboura refugee camp killed and injured more than two dozen people, witnesses and a local journalist told The Post. The IDF said it was “checking” reports of a strike in Shaboura.
Also not surprising is the fact that college presidents are getting the Third Degree from AIPAC-funded legislators. As if they could do better. D’s have joined the anti-Woke CAucus because–AIPAC.
Alito Isolated On Case Where He Has Blatant Conflict-Of-Interest. You see, he refused to recuse:
The Supreme Court seemed open on Tuesday to narrowly upholding a tax on foreign income in a case that many experts had warned could rewrite vast portions of the U.S. tax system.
A majority of the justices appeared skeptical of striking down the tax. Instead, the justices, including the court’s liberal wing and more moderate conservatives, seemed to be searching for a way toward a limited ruling that would not establish a more sweeping precedent.
Justice Alito drew further attention to the case when he gave an interview to one of the lawyers for the Moores in The Wall Street Journal, prompting calls for his recusal.
Democratic lawmakers had accused him of crossing an ethical line by sitting down for multiple interviews with that lawyer, David B. Rivkin Jr., who writes for the opinion pages of The Journal. Justice Alito rejected those demands and indicated he planned to hear the case.
Wisconsin Phony Electors Admit It Was All A Scam:
The 10 Wisconsin Republicans who posed as electors for President Donald Trump in 2020 even though he had lost the election settled a lawsuit against them Wednesday, acknowledging their actions were part of an effort to overturn the election results.The lawsuit was filed last year by two of the state’s rightful electors, alleging the 10 false electors had engaged in a plot to defraud Wisconsin voters. The lawsuit had sought up to $200,000 from each elector, but no money is being exchanged as part of the settlement.
“We hereby reaffirm that Joseph R. Biden, Jr. won the 2020 presidential election and that we were not the duly elected presidential electors for the State of Wisconsin for the 2020 presidential election,” the statement continues. “We oppose any attempt to undermine the public’s faith in the ultimate results of the 2020 presidential election.”
Nevada Phony Electors Indicted. Which reminds me, the sheer magnitude of the plan to overthrow the will of the people has become normalized, likely b/c of its sheer magnitude:
The chair of the Nevada Republican Party is among the six Republicans who were indicted by a Nevada grand jury on Wednesday for sending a false slate of electoral votes for Donald Trump to Congress after President Biden won the state in 2020.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford announced that each of the six false Trump electors face two felony charges, one charge of offering a false instrument for filing, a category C felony, and one charge of uttering a forged instrument, a category D felony. The indicted Republicans include Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald, state GOP vice chair Jim Hindle III, Clark County Republican Party chair Jesse Law, GOP national committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice.
Wonder If Nevada’s Governor Is Lamenting Vetoing Those Gun Control Bills? You know, after the latest mass-shooting event:
Terrified students and professors cowered in classrooms and dorms as a gunman roamed the floors of a University of Nevada, Las Vegas building, killing three people and critically wounding a fourth before dying in a shootout with police.
The gunman in Wednesday’s shooting was a professor who had unsuccessfully sought a job at the school, a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press. He previously worked at East Carolina University in North Carolina, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information publicly.
Another law enforcement official identified the suspect as Anthony Polito, 67. Investigators searched an apartment in Henderson, Nevada, late Wednesday as part of the investigation and retrieved several electronic devices, including Polito’s cellphone, the official said. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Publish and perish?
What do you want to talk about?
On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Force announced it had found a large Hamas weapons depot in Gaza with an array of weapons including Iranian-designed missiles.
The IDF claims the weapons were found in one the largest Hamas weapons depots in the Gaza Strip sited near a clinic and school in the northern portion of the Gaza Strip. Among the rocket-propelled grenades (RPG), RPG launchers, firearms, explosive devices, anti-tank missiles and other munitions the IDF says it seized were medium to long range rockets of Iranian design. […]
The video also shows a small fixed-wing UAV which appears to be a Hamas Shehab kamikaze drone. Similar to the Iranian Qasef drones used by the Houthis, the Shehab reportedly carries a 5 kg (11-pound) warhead.
Legitimate objection to actions by the Netanyahu government are not in themselves anti-semitic, of course. But I think it can be easy for protesters to slide into that, perhaps unconsciously, just as it’s easy for supporters of a just cause to slip into support for terrorism. On the other hand, it’s easy for those who object to terrorism to ignore legitimate grievances. It’s a horrible situation. Caution and hard thinking advised for us all.
This implies symmetry when there isn’t any. There’s been a totally one-sided disproportionate Zionist war on Palestinians for 100+ years (at least since Balfour in 1917).
We really shouldn’t pretend like there are two equal sides and the occupation is somehow inscrutable. Once one comes to terms with the history, one stops making this mistake.
We also should not pretend that Hamas would kill every Jew everywhere if given the opportunity. This is simply false. The Palestinians are resisting an occupation and ethnic cleansing. The idea that they are an international terror threat is patently absurd.
Are you really George Orwell?
As Israel’s military offensive pushes Palestinian civilians into ever smaller slivers of land, the Israeli military said on Thursday that Hamas militants had fired rockets from inside one of the “humanitarian zones” in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military posted videos and maps that it said showed rockets being fired toward Israel from within the humanitarian zone, Al-Mawasi. The videos and Israel’s account of them could not immediately be verified.
Eric Blair (if that *is* your name) – You like and trust Hamas more than I do. And not every “coming to terms with history” leads to the same conclusion. It might be more complex than you’re allowing for.
Has nothing to do with trust. And it’s not complicated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62I61kBahNY
“So, it’s not a complex issue. That’s the big thing. It’s super simple. There’s one group that has enormous power. It’s the most powerful country in the Middle East. It’s backed by the United States. It acts on another population of people with total impunity and it’s never held accountable for anything.”
So the website dispatchde.com which purported to be run by a “DispatchDE LLC” had a Hockessin mailing address on it, and Cathy Cloutier’s phone number, has been taken down already – 8 days after it was registered. Hilariously, in the “Pike Creek Post” “newspaper” that was dropped in the Pike Creek area, there was a QR code going back to “disptachde.com”. Really bizarre. Now where on earth am I going to be kept up to date on Ramone’s landscaping, pool service, and swim lesson ads?
EB – So Michael Brooks has an opinion and you agree with it.
Where’s the lie?
Can’t wait to see Netanyahou’s plan for rebuilding all the housing for the Palestinians in Gaza that Israel has destroyed?
I’m guessing they’re going to try and force them all to flee to Egypt and not return.
Netanyahu is basically arguing that all of Gaza has tunnels underneath.
Therefore Israel is justified in levelling all of Gaza b/c they’ll likely kill dozens of Hamas members down in those tunnels along with tens of thousands of innocent people. Who Israel SENT THERE.
Anyone who doesn’t recognize that what’s going at this point is genocide is just willfully ignorant.
Like LBR.
The historical Israel-Palestine “big picture” and the specifics of the current conflict are two different things, although opinions about one seem to be influencing opinions about the other. I think it’s possible to consider the history of the region and conclude that Zionism either did or did not lead inevitably to the current situation. In any case the result has been badly handled by both sides. Netanyahu and Hamas are both unfortunate results of the historical background. It might have been worked out at some point if both sides were willing.
The current conflict is a direct continuation of the big picture and equating “both sides” is absolutely ridiculous and historically illiterate. One side is being ethnically cleansed and the other is doing the violent cleansing with the full support of Western empire. There’s a direct line from 1917 Balfour to today.
You’re confused because we all live inside the metropole doing the violence.