DL Open Thread: Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023
Let The Carnage Continue. US vetoes UN resolution calling for ceasefire in Gaza:
World leaders, international rights groups and United Nations officials have criticised the United States for vetoing a UN resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and failing to halt the war that has killed more than 17,400 Palestinians and about 1,100 people in Israel since October 7.
Joe Biden remains complicit in the ongoing genocide. B-but we have to stick with him–why? AIPAC is to Biden what the Chamber is to Carney.
How Much Money Does It Take To Commit Perjury On Behalf Of Trump? In this case, $877,500:
An accounting expert who came to Donald Trump’s defense in his $250m fraud has racked up nearly $900,000 in fees for his testimony, a court heard on Friday.
New York University Stern School of Business research professor Eli Bartov testified on Thursday that he had found “no evidence here of concealment” in his review of the financial statements at the heart of the case.
On Friday, Bartov was asked about how much he had been paid for his services. Bartov is a leading accountancy expert and it is standard practice in the US legal system for expert witnesses to be paid.
In a deposition taken in July, Bartov disclosed that he was being paid $1,350 an hour to work on the case. In court, he said he had now worked about 650 hours on the case, which would total $877,500.
Which doesn’t count his expenses for testifying. He’s only been paid $400K so far. Meaning, applying Trump accounting principles, he’s been paid in full.
Fuckin’ Texas. Cruelty is the point, the only point:
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday night put on hold a judge’s ruling that approved an abortion for a pregnant woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis, throwing into limbo an unprecedented challenge to one of the most restrictive bans in the U.S.
The order by the all-Republican court came more than 30 hours after Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from the Dallas area, received a temporary restraining order from a lower court judge that prevents Texas from enforcing the state’s ban in her case.
Cox learned she was pregnant for a third time in August and was told weeks later that her baby was at a high risk for a condition known as trisomy 18, which has a very high likelihood of miscarriage or stillbirth and low survival rates, according to her lawsuit.
Furthermore, doctors have told Cox that if the baby’s heartbeat were to stop, inducing labor would carry a risk of a uterine rupture because of her two prior cesareans sections, and that another C-section at full term would would endanger her ability to carry another child.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that Cox does not meet the criteria for a medical exception to the state’s abortion ban, and he urged the state’s highest court to act swiftly.
John Carney Says He Needs Money. You know, to run for Mayor of Wilmington. I’ll tell you what, John–announce that you will accept no corporate donations from the Buccini/Pollins of this world and maybe we’ll talk.
What do you want to talk about?
How many innocent people does Israel have to kill before we decide that maybe maliciously bullying the powerless isn’t something that’s endemic to Germans or Russians or Chinese or Americans, that maybe it’s endemic to all humans, Jews included?
It certainly would be a lot more humane if the Hamas terrorists would all put on distinctive uniforms and go stand together out in a field to make their war against Israel. But that’s not happening, so the fight goes to where they are.
Seriously, that is a despicable position to hold.
The wanton killings of civilians are justified b/c some of those we’re killling MIGHT be Hamas? I hear those two-year-olds are especially dangerous.
Before we could de-Nazify Germany, a lot of German civilians died. Same thing here.
You keep proving just how despicable your position is.
Totally devoid of empathy. Just like Netanyahu.
You have a problem of scale here, Puck.
For the sake of argument, what would you say is the over/under for an acceptable “lot” of massacred civilians?
And who are you referring to when you say “we”?
I second these questions. When is enough enough? When do we admit Israel is the oppressor as well as the victim?
Your answer sucks. Killing innocent children to make a political point is what Hamas did. So Israel is no better than Hamas. Therefore I support neither in this war, and I would prefer our government do the same.
“When is enough enough?”
When the hostages are returned and Hamas is removed from power.
“When do we admit Israel is the oppressor as well as the victim?”
I freely admit it, but so what? This is always true in asymmetrical warfare.
By “we,” he means most Americans, who are cheering Israel’s slaughter. We like to pretend we’re less vicious and bloodthirsty than others, but we’re not.
I tend to think Trump and the Republicans have the “indiscriminate killing is ok if the people being killed are powerless browns” voters sewn up. Not for lack of Joe Biden trying to win them over.
The “indiscriminate killing of Jews is OK” vote is already locked up by spoiler Jill Stein.