DL Open Thread: Sunday, June 9, 2024
4 Hostages Rescued. At Least 274 Palestinians Killed:
The death toll from an Israeli raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp has risen to 274 Palestinians, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday. Israel’s Saturday raid, one of the bloodiest in the war, on the central Gazan camp freed four hostages. Visuals from Gaza showed roads strewn with debris and grievously wounded Palestinians, some without limbs.
I dunno. Perhaps a ceasefire would have been a more preferable alternative. But not if genocide was your goal all along. BTW, looks like the Israeli ‘War Cabinet’ might splinter today:
Israel’s centrist war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has delayed a statement he was due to give later on Saturday in which he was widely expected to announce his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency government.Last month, Gantz presented the conservative prime minister with a June 8 deadline to come up with a clear day-after strategy for Gaza, where Israel has been pressing a devastating military offensive against the ruling Palestinian militant group Hamas.
For all his efforts to evade transparency and, instead, offer a steady stream of lies, Donald Trump has always been brutally honest about one thing: his penchant for revenge.
This lust has, over the years, taken on a particular kink. When possible, Trump has often enjoyed walking up to a microphone and implying—if not outright saying—that his enemies should be investigated, prosecuted, or arrested by the government he wants to head. These enemies include a seemingly endless list of people, from James Comey to Joe Scarborough.
It’s no surprise that vengeful threats of political prosecution have escalated since Trump’s conviction; he and his allies now appear hellbent on opening investigations into all their perceived enemies. Republicans have made clear political persecution could take place as a key role of government should Trump return to the White House.
Far-right fossil fuel allies have launched a stunning and unprecedented campaign pressuring the supreme court to shield fossil fuel companies from litigation that could cost them billions of dollars.
Some of the groups behind the campaign have ties to Leonard Leo, the architect of the rightwing takeover of the supreme court who helped select Trump’s supreme court nominees. Leo also appears to have ties to Chevron, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Supreme court justices met on Thursday to consider whether or not to take up the fossil fuel companies’ request, and the justices could grant or reject the petition in the coming days.
If granted, the request could catalyze the dismissal of the wave of climate accountability lawsuits against big oil – a major win for the defendants seeking to limit their liability for the climate crisis. But it’s the kind of ask about which the supreme court would not normally offer its opinion, advocates and legal experts say.
“The court would probably not think this request is important, unless someone told them it was very important,” said Kert Davies, a director at the Center for Climate Integrity, which supports the litigation against big oil.
Some conservatives have been telling them exactly that.
“I have never, ever seen this kind of overt political campaign to influence the court like this,” said Patrick Parenteau, professor and senior climate policy fellow at Vermont Law School.
Well, we’ve never had a Supreme Court so blatantly and openly corrupt.
I Agree With Charles Oberly. The blatant show-trial of Hunter Biden is disgraceful:
Even accepting all the government’s allegations as true, it’s hard to understand why it is prosecuting the younger Biden: At the time he purchased a firearm, Biden was a nonviolent, 40-something struggling drug addict with zero criminal history. He proceeded to possess a firearm for 11 days and did not use it for any purpose (let alone in a crime).
It has been reported that he is charged with a crime that has almost never been prosecuted – an addict without criminal history misrepresenting his addiction on a firearm purchase form.
Modern prosecutors’ offices have developed simple guideposts for whether to prosecute gun possession:
- Was it used in a crime?
- Was the purchaser a felon?
- Was the purchaser a suspect in another (typically, violent) crime?
- Did the purchaser have a criminal record?
- Was the person a danger to the community?
That is: From all available information, in this time where violent crime is every office’s priority and nonviolent addicts are treated differently than they once were, I cannot conceive of an office spending any resources – let alone five-plus years, countless agents and numerous prosecutors – on a case with similar facts.
What do you want to talk about?
Stop tossing around the word “genocide!” When the Hamas military embeds among innocent Gazans, targeting the terrorists will kill innocents. Rejoice that 4 innocent Israelis have been united with their distraught families!
Ugh. How can anyone rejoice over 4 innocent lives when tens of thousands of innocent people have been killed, lost loved ones, lost limbs, or been otherwise permanently injured and traumatized? It is sickening to value the lives of the innocent Israelis taken on October 7th over the lives of innocent Palestinians. Rejoice somewhere else you callous bigot.
Especially since Netanyahu’s refusal to consider a cease-fire extended the hostages’ stay in captivity while ensuring that thousands of Palestinians would die.
Just because I value Israeli lives does not mean I do not value Gazan lives. Unfortunately, Hamas — supported by the clueless — values neither..
Can you see your reflection in a mirror? Because only vampires like this much blood.
Who, pray tell, are the clueless?
Those who don’t share your views?
The clueless are those who do not know the history and complexity of the Hamas-Israel dispute. Israel turned over Gaza to the Gazans. They foolishly — as did we in 2016 — elected a bat-shit crazy government in Hamas and sealed their own doom. I have great compassion for the Gazans, but that does not mean I cannot accept Israeli’s goal to destroy the terrorism on its border.
And you do.
What, to you, is an acceptable ratio of innocent Israelis killed to innocent Gazans and Palestinians killed?
The Israeli response has been brutally disproportionate, and Netanyahu has led that disproportionate response.
I know you hate the word ‘genocide’ when it comes to that response, but, as a Jew myself, I am disgusted and ashamed at the, yes, genocide being perpetrated on Gazans and Palestinians.
In fact, explain to me how what the Israeli government is doing is not a genocide.
LOL DL couldn’t even manage to talk about a hostage rescue without the using word “genocide.” This isn’t a FOX News audience – things don’t become true by repetition. Not every horrific war is a genocide.
According to reports of the rescue, the bombing was only called in AFTER people were shooting at the rescuers (!) with rifles and grenades.
What the hell kind of humanitarian refugee camp holds hostages and has people lying in wait for rescuers with rifles and grenades?
I call it genocide when conscious starvation is involved.
I can empathize with Israelis who don’t feel they should provide catering deliveries for the war against itself.
Notice there are no reports of famine among the Palestinians who aren’t shooting at Israel (West Bank).
If you can empathize with them more than with starving people, that’s on you.
@Ellie
tl:dr – The needs of the few are greater than the needs of the many.
No one’s “tossing around” the word genocide. The IDF and the right wing barbarians that rule Israel are proudly and blatantly promoting “genocide. The Jewish settlers have been consistent in their murderous disregard for Palestinians and now Netanyahu has his tail wagging a dog excuse to cover his criminal ass via full-scale butchery of innocent Palestinians. That’s called “genocide”
I’m not talking about the settlers (who are an abomination). I am talking about the right of Israel to protect itself against Hamas and Hezbollah. and rescue its innocent civilians who are held hostage (many of whom supported peace with the Gazans).
I think Calvin Trillin said it best: Enough’s enough.
Let’s not call them “settlers”. They are Israeli government backed and funded invaders who have been placed on land parcels “stolen” from Palestinians for the purpose of seizing those properties while intimidating/killing/persecuting innocent Palestinians. They are an “abomination” created and sustained by the far right psychos that currently rule Israel.
I was waiting for the AIPAC response.
Now we’ve got it.
This is such an odd trope. The human shield/embedded amongst Gazans stuff. The Israeli Ministry of Defense is in the HaKirya neighborhood in Tel Aviv right next to high density civilian area. There’s another huge Israeli government building next to a shopping mall.
BREAKING:
“Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz announced his departure from the emergency government Sunday, destabilizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hold on power. The move by Gantz, a former general, may not bring down the government, but it fractures the emergency coalition formed after Oct. 7 and increases the political pressure on Netanyahu to accept a Gaza cease-fire proposal that would bring home the hostages still held by Hamas.”
Puck,
“Provide catering deliveries” really!! You choose words that dehumanize you as a person and your remorseless willingness to display no sympathy for the slaughter of innocents speaks volumes about you.
Representative (retired) John Kowalko