DL Open Thread: Saturday, May 11, 2024
State Department As Feckless As Biden On Gaza. Can’t anyone just come out and say the obvious?:
The State Department’s report on the war in Gaza — which suggested Israel had likely violated international law yet remained eligible to receive U.S. military aid — has left President Biden increasingly isolated on an issue that has consumed his presidency and complicated his reelection bid.
The report’s conclusions, including that Israel nonetheless remained eligible to receiveU.S. weapons, did little to resolve simmering tensions over the war, which have been especially raw among young Americans and other groups key to Biden’s political coalition.
“It reeks of cowardice — an unwillingness to state the obvious,” said one Democratic lawmaker, who, like several people interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a frank assessment of the report. The lawmaker said the Biden administration’s position “appears to defy the facts.”
Congress will want to “dig deeper” into the report’s findings, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said. The report found there was insufficient information to draw a firm conclusion about any specific instances of Israel flouting international laws or U.S. policies. International organizations have found clear examples that Israel violated laws by blocking humanitarian aid from reaching civilians, Van Hollen added.
One congressional aide who works on foreign affairs suggested that the State Department’s report reflected an administration that “came to its conclusions first and justified it after the fact.”
An utter lack of moral clarity indeed.
Perhaps someone should read Biden this report:
CNN spoke to three Israeli whistleblowers who worked at the Sde Teiman desert camp, which holds Palestinians detained during Israel’s invasion of Gaza. All spoke out at risk of legal repercussions and reprisals from groups supportive of Israel’s hardline policies in Gaza.
They paint a picture of a facility where doctors sometimes amputated prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing; of medical procedures sometimes performed by underqualified medics earning it a reputation for being “a paradise for interns”; and where the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds left to rot.According to the accounts,the facility some 18 miles from the Gaza frontier is split into two parts: enclosures where around 70 Palestinian detainees from Gazaare placed under extreme physical restraint, and a field hospital where wounded detainees are strapped to their beds, wearing diapersand fed through straws.
“They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings,” said one whistleblower, who worked as a medic at the facility’s field hospital.
“(The beatings) were not done to gather intelligence. They were done out of revenge,” said another whistleblower. “It was punishment for what they (the Palestinians) did on October 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp.”
Mommy Says No! Barron Won’t Have His Debutante Ball At Rethug Convention:
“While Barron is honored to have been chosen as a delegate by the Florida Republican Party, he regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments,” a statement to the Daily Mail read.
It’s unclear what the prior commitments are. But the Friday statement appeared to signal that the former first lady, who has been fiercely protective of Barron during their time in the White House and after, may not be thrilled that her son could enter the political spotlight anytime soon. That apparent reluctance comes amid a parade of humiliating moments for the Trump family, including explicit details of Trump’s sex life, that have played out in Donald Trump’s criminal trial where he faces 34 felony counts related to alleged hush-money payments made to a porn star actress.
The embarrassment spilled out of the courtroom on Thursday when Trump appeared to forget Barron’s age.
Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV. Smocking Gun.
Hospitals: ‘Stay Home’. I dunno, I’m thinking the gap between the Haves and the Have-Nots will increase. Both for hospitals and for those seeking care:
Empowered by Washington and armed with Covid-inspired health innovations, health executives are seeking to increasingly move care outside of the hospital — despite the seeming risk to their bottom line.
Hospital executives think they can more than make up the revenue by shifting their exam and recovery rooms to patients’ homes. And Congress is urging them on, with legislation in the works to help hospitals expand their at-home offerings and to allow Medicare to continue paying for telehealth after lawmakers first granted temporary permission after Covid struck.
The appeal to lawmakers is potential savings if remote care proves more efficient, but hospitals also see financial advantage.
Uh-oh. Carper’s involved, so caveat emptor:
In the Senate, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have a bill that would extend the rules permitting government reimbursement of care at home. A Carper aide told POLITICO that the senator plans to soon introduce another measure that would make hospital-at-home offerings permanent.
Especially since:
Hospitals want to charge the high rates inpatients and their insurers pay, even if care has moved to the home or to an outside clinic where it’s less expensive to offer.
Lawmakers are considering imposing site-neutral policies, cutting down hospital rates — wherever services are performed — to lower reimbursements paid to doctors working out of their offices.
Legislation the House passed overwhelmingly in December by Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, would cut the hospital fees. Hospitals, thus far, have succeeded in lobbying against the measures in the Senate.
Tom: It’s your last rodeo. You don’t need that lobbyist money any more. Can you at least do the right thing on your way out? Maybe you can bring Delaware’s Mini-Me along with you?
What do you want to talk about?
Could be that Marco thinks he’s going to need at-home hospital care and Tom just wants to help him out. Or maybe it’s someone else anticipating future needs.
Next time Von Schitzinpantz does one of his outside-the-courtroom riffs, maybe he’ll say it’s time to abolish the IRS. Here’s why: https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-irs-audit-chicago-hotel-taxes?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
I SAW that. Has Trump ever done anything that’s aboveboard?
A school board election is sneaking up his Tuesday May 14. Is it this quiet everywhere else? Any risk of a MAGA breakthrough?
In Red Clay, incumbent gun nut Jason Casper is being challenged by Susan Sander who is unknown to me. No signs, no mailers, no social media from candidates or the usual suspects (DSEA, DEGOP surrogates, etc.)
Red Clay is silent about the election, not even listing it on the district calendar, and DSEA doesn’t appear to have endorsed either candidate. Both of these uncharacteristic moves are likely to produce a low-turnout election heavy on school employees and thus favor the incumbent.
Would it be irony if Biden is found guilty, and does time for supporting war crimes? Garland could burnish his even-handed, bipartisan credentials.
Trump could campaign on that and win the youth vote. I’m sure the Russian bot farms are already pumping out the memes.
“Trump could campaign on that and win the youth vote.”
Young people are talking about staying home, not voting for Trump.