Slog AM: A SeaTac Stowaway, A Bird Flu Mutation, and Another Impeachment in South Korea

1. Malevolent Ferengi are usurping democracy with Klingon diplomacy.

2. Oh no, not another last remaining hospital in Gaza! This is the twenty-fourth last remaining hospital in Gaza to be destroyed this week! 😄

3. Today is Dec. 27, not 28.

4. @2 Attacking any hospital and killing staff and patients are war crimes, whether they are the last hospital or not.

5. leave it to AI
   
   to seek & find
   
   Joy in the Misery
   
   of Other’s suffering:

   cuz
   
   the Cruelty
   
   IS the bloody point.

   well-played
   
   wormmy.

6. @4: Nah if a militant group is using the hospital you can destroy it. 😉

7. Haven’t seen a coyote but I consistently see large group of bears in front of Diesel every weekend and nobody does a thing about it.

8. @6 “militant group is using the hospital”

   no such evidence exists (regurgitation of IDF press communiques doesn’t qualify)

   “you can destroy it.”

   that is a very specious reading of international law. I suspect if the hospital was occupied by an army of fighters it may be within the law to destroy it but everything possible would still have to be done to protect civilian lives

9. @8 “Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive against Hamas fighters in surrounding neighborhoods, according to staff. The ministry said a strike on the hospital a day earlier killed five medical staff.

   Israel’s military said it was conducting operations against Hamas infrastructure and militants in the area of the hospital, without details. It repeated claims that Hamas fighters operate inside Kamal Adwan but provided no evidence. Hospital officials have denied that.”

   https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/israeli-troops-burn-northern-gaza-hospital-after-forcibly-removing-staff-and-patients-officials-say

10. If you use a hospital (or school) as a rocket launching pad then you get a predictable result. The Palistinians have made it very clear from day one that the only acceptable result is the total destruction of Israel and the murder of all jews.

11. ” I fear bird flu is going to be a major plot point for 2025. … “

    It should be clear that we should be extremely concerned whether or not Trump is president. Personally I suspect that the factory farming model is part of the problem:

    “How the U.S. Lost Control of Bird Flu, Setting the Stage for Another Pandemic

    As the bird flu virus moved into cows and people, sluggish federal action, deference to industry and neglect for worker safety put the country at risk

    Nearly a year into the first outbreak of the bird flu among cattle, the virus shows no sign of slowing. The U.S. government failed to eliminate the virus on dairy farms when it was confined to a handful of states, by quickly identifying infected cows and taking measures to keep their infections from spreading. Now at least 860 herds across 16 states have tested positive.

    Experts say they have lost faith in the government’s ability to contain the outbreak.

    “We are in a terrible situation and going into a worse situation,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. “I don’t know if the bird flu will become a pandemic, but if it does, we are screwed.”

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bird-flu-has-spread-out-of-control-after-mistakes-by-u-s-government-and/

12. @10 “If”

    “if” and then you go on justifying wanton murder through demonization and faulty logic

13. and in
    
    other
    
    news
    
    nyt:

    Rising Prices, Migrants and End
    
    of Covid Aid Fuel Rise
    
    in Homelessness

    The number of people experiencing homelessness topped 770,000, an increase of more than 18 percent over last year.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/us/homelessness-hit-record-level-in-2024.html

    ah, Excellent!
    
    Housing-as-fucking
    
    Commodity Continues
    
    To Rule the Roost! Plus –
    
    BONUS — there’ll be even
    
    MORE diseases of Despair!

    where we can all
    
    judge those of lower
    
    Morality who had the
    
    Temerity to Fail Capitalism!

    Let the Be-
    
    seechings
    
    Begin.

14. Don’t drink and bus.

    Sound Transit buses operated by Pierce Transit will deny boarding to the visibly intoxicated. They don’t want the liability to the taxpayers for passengers that slide out of their seat if hard braking or an accident requires leg pressure on the floor. Impairment slows and weakens the muscles response.

    Light rail, and Eastside Sound Transit buses are operated by Metro. Metro, as we all know, doesn’t have the policy, and will board anyone that can drag their drunk or high ass onto the bus.

15. @2,

    According to the International Committee of the Red Cross’s, International Humanitarian Law database you are incorrect.

    “Rule 10. Civilian objects are protected against attack, unless and for such time as they are military objectives.”

    As with any allegation of a crime, the burden of proof is on the prosecutor to prove that the hospital hadn’t been made a military objective by Hamas.

    Hamas keeps making civilian object into military objectives, or at the very least, there isn’t incontrovertible proof that Hamas is not doing so.

    https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule10

    So keep spewing those misstatements of international law, that even the pro-human rights ICRC, plus the plain language of international treaties they cite, contradicts you on.

16. “Senator Nguyễn Named Commerce Director:”

    That is a great role for him. He will be a great pick for the agency that administers the State’s Housing Trust Fund and homeless shelter funding.

    He has been out of step with even his own caucus as a legislator, having difficulty advancing his hyper-progressive legislation. He can actually have an impact on things he (and I) care about such as low-income housing, working for Fergu.

17. @12: Is it so difficult to believe that a terrorist group with a decades-long history of using hospitals as military positions might be using a hospital as a military position? 😄

18. @13 “The number of people experiencing homelessness topped 770,000, an increase of more than 18 percent over last year.”

    but if you sweep them where they can’t be seen, nobody will care about statistics as long as it doesn’t effect the good folks

19. @17, What Averagebob believes is irrelevant. What is relevant is whether a Prosecutor can prove Hamas was not using that hospital as a military position. Correct me if I am wrong, but so far nobody has even alleged in an international court that the IDF is attacking civilian objects. Unless I am mistaken, they are allegations in the media (aka Don’t take a losing case to court, take it to the media, where rule of law doesn’t apply).

20. “WHO director caught in airport bombing:”

    Nobody who flies into a war zone is protected from being collateral damage in the exchange of bombs and anti-aircraft fire between the combatants.

    Why is this news?

21. @7 Overweight queens, are not bears. Please stop misidentifying gay men.

22. @15 International law has been updated several times since 1948 as you have been told repeatedly, which of course doesn’t prevent you from forgetting’ the 1977 addendum to the 1948 law. What is wrong with you? Are you stupid or is disinformation your purpose?

    @17 Is it so difficult to believe that a colonial state with a decades-long history of apartheid and ethnic cleansing might lie to justify genocide?

23. @18, I support more funding for housing the homeless, more mental health funding to serve that population, and more substance abuse treatment for the homeless, in that order.

    With the stability of housing, many street alcoholics embrace sobriety on their own, without additional treatment. https://www.desc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DESC_1811_JAMA_info.pdf

    That said, enforcing the law to make sure a homeless person’s conduct “doesn’t effect the good folks,” is a valid public policy objective.

    Being homeless, mentally ill, or addicted to substances, doesn’t exempt people from the laws that regulate public behavior. It’s still unlawful to claim public property for private use under the Washington State Constitution, for example. Homelessness is not a pass or exemption from laws governing public conduct.

    Enforcing the law and housing people are not policies that contradict each other. It is not “either, or”, but rather a case of, “both, and”.

24. @19: You are wrong. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on suspicion of, among other things, responsibility for “two incidents that qualified as attacks that were intentionally directed against civilians.” In addition, South Africa has applied for proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice alleging, among other things, “that disproportionate destruction and violence against civilians were part of a deliberate policy.”

    So the allegations are out there, and not just among the usual impotent howling critics of Israel but before international courts. Whether the allegations will stick is, of course, something we must all await with bated breath.

25. @22: “Is it so difficult to believe that a colonial state with a decades-long history of apartheid and ethnic cleansing might lie to justify genocide?”

    It is hard to believe, since there is no colonial state, no apartheid, no ethnic cleansing, and no genocide! 😂😂😂

26. The same four or five idiots arguing international law which, of course, will have zero impact on anything going on in the Middle East. Not one minuscule impact whatsoever. But, please let us all know when you’ve solved the issues!

27. @19 “What Averagebob believes is irrelevant.”

    I’d actually agree if it were what “I” believed, but I am merely repeating what UN experts and the Red Cross say. Contrarily to you and other jackasses here, I am not posturing as an expert on the internet.

28. @27: Really, the Red Cross? hunh 😉

29. Bad link in “Big cats down”

30. @24, An arrest warrant could indicate, depending on the court’s procedure, an indictment. In U.S. Courts, indictments typically, but not always, happen after a suspect is dragged before the court with a warrant. IDK if there is an indictment underlying the warrants, or if that is yet to come.

    South Africa’s language, which you cite, does not allege attacking “civilian objects”, rather civilians themselves. To my knowledge the Court has not ruled on the merits of that, or indicted on either basis.

    Its my understanding that the warrants for the PM and Defense Minister are solely based on accusations of starvation from not letting food into Gaza. (Source: https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/amanpour/episodes/5eca0d8a-9dc0-11ee-8351-930f1ee419cb). David Scheffer, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, discusses the warrants at length after having asserted he read them.

    Thanks for the info.

31. @27, As noted to you previously, both groups are “allegers”, they are not unbiased, and they are not adjudicators of international criminal law.

    As noted to you in @15,

    “Rule 10. Civilian objects are protected against attack, unless and for such time as they are militar objectives.

    https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule10

    That citation is from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

    Please cite allegations by the ICRC that the IDF has violated the rule the ICRC cites in their own database, which indicates that hospitals are lawful military objects when used by enemy combatants for military advantage.

32. Hannah will likely continue to chronicle the “genocide” in Slog, but it is clear the protest movement is sputtering out in ignominy, having achieved nothing.

    Meanwhile, actual leftist groups in Syria, backed by a much larger stateless people, now face a critical historical moment. It would feel redemptive to see western lefties pivot with events and begin to find much sounder footing in advocating for groups like YPD where there is actual solidarity and moreover, a chance to help shape a positive future for Syrians.

    The fixation with Palestinians was sadly for the left, an artifact within academia, that unlike those formative years between the 6 day war and Yom Kippur, no longer has a secular revolutionary entity in the Palestines to stand with.

    The vilification of Israel has, if nothing else, a hefty opportunity cost. Rolling Stones chronicle of the Antifa Battallion should have been a staple TS subject, not Hamas rocket teams holed up in hospitals as they pursue an agenda that no Seattle lefty would actually survive.

33. @32: Israeli issues expose the moral rot at the heart of progressivism like no other issue does. Totally agree there are many more worthy causes in the Middle East progressives could be fighting for, if they hasn’t followed their own prejudices into a cul-de-sac over Israel, lol!

34. “Sound Transit and King County Metro are making fares free on New Year’s Eve.” AWESOME. Kudos Sound Transit and King County Metro!!!

    IMHO, free-fares (or nominal fares) would be great all year-round. There are a lot of drunk-distracted-bad drivers who really should not drive all year-round. Transit is the best option: meet your neighbors, go to the cool places, and save gobs of money all year-round.

35. @34, Except when transit won’t board those visibly impaired by substances because of the liability they take on by doing so.

    If the bus has to brake hard or suddenly stops for any reason, and the impairment means the rider is injured sliding out of their seat, the transit agency is liable for boarding them when they couldn’t ride safely. If they don’t board them, and the impaired person drives and kills someone, transit has no liability.

    See @15.

36. @31 geez you are dense. Rule 10 is only the beginning, There is rule 11 banning indiscriminate attacks as defined in rule 12, then rule 13 that bans area bombardment, rule 14 that mandates proportionality in attacks, and rule 15 which defines the overarching principle of precaution in attacks. All of which make rule 10 conditional to all of the others being met. Listening to you, destroying any civilian facility and killing its occupants because it also contains a couple of fighters (who may be seeking medical care) is legal. That is just plain wrong.

    @30 “Thanks for the info.”

    Don’t play dumb. You have been given that info before. May be you should take notes if you don’t remember, or at least don’t play at “I am the expert on the internet”

37. 21 what if they are hairy fat queens?

38. If US forces find a hospital, church, mosque, or any other building being used as a base to launch attacks against them, that position is targeted for immediate destruction through mortars, artillery, precision guided munitions, or other means. That is how it has always been, and always will be. If that offends you, too bad.

39. @38: More commonly in the case of protected structures such as hospitals being using by the enemy as fighting positions, US forces will attempt a ground raid on the formerly protected structure. Only rarely will US forces simply destroy the structure outright. Whenever feasible, ground raids are the preferred method of attack.

    However, ground raids are usually covered by supporting fires, including the mortars, artillery, and guided munitions that you mention. If the raid force encounters resistance from the enemy, they will call for fires to suppress and kill the enemy.

    From the point of view of the hospital, a raid force that calls for supporting fires can look and feel a lot like the hospital just getting bombed. But it’s not the same, the chief difference being that fires in support of a ground raid will typically leave most of the structure intact once the enemy is suppressed or killed, whereas fires aimed at simply destroying the structure will, well, destroy the structure.

    As best I can tell, the Israelis treat enemy-occupied hospitals in Gaza the same way US forces do. When a hospital is suspected of being used as an enemy position, the Israelis will attempt a ground raid. Often, the ground raid will be supported by fires directed at the hospital, which the hospital people experience as simply just getting bombed. However, the Israelis don’t actually destroy the hospital, they just shoot it up enough that the raid force can safely get inside and sweep it.

    As far as I can tell, the Israelis haven’t outright destroyed a single hospital in Gaza. Instead, they raid the hospitals over and over whenever Hamas comes back inside. Each raid, the hospitals incurs more and more damage from supporting fires, but the destruction is never complete.

    Even the Kamal Adwan Hospital, the subject of today’s Slog, was not destroyed in this latest raid. Instead, the raid force barged in and kicked everyone out. This has happened several times to the Kamal Adwan Hospital already, and each time there is this massive but erroneous international uproar that Israel is “destroying” the hospital. A year ago, for example, France24 reported that the Kamal Adwan Hospital was “in rubble” after an Israeli raid, but here we are a year later with the hospital still standing. 😁

    So kudos once again to Israel for handling the difficult issue of enemy-occupied hospitals in accordance with international law and the highest standards of military conduct! 😁

40. @36, They aren’t indiscriminate attacks. They are targeted at buildings and areas where there is Hamas activity. Rule 11 and 12.

    They are using JDAM, precision guided bombs supplied by the U.S. rather than area wide carpet bombing, or less precise gravity bombing, that would be required if we didn’t. They are using artillery that hits the buildings where they identify Hamas activity. Rule 13.

    Rule 14 is so ambiguous, general, and non-specif as to be meaningless and unenforceable. The case law is thin, with only a handful of cases, and while making rulings in specific cases that proportionality principles weren’t met, the rulings don’t really help define the concept for pragmatic application moving forward. https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/proportionality/

    Even if the case law was more voluminous, principle setting, and defining, as U.S. SCOTUS and appellate ruling are,

    “The Statute of the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) which requires the Court to apply judicial decisions
    
    subject to the provisions of Article 59, which states that “[t]he decision of the Court has nobinding force except between the parties and in respect of that particular case.” https://www.biicl.org/files/918_devashish_krishan,vinson&elkins-_precedent.pdf

    By the court’s own rules and its founding treaty, no one can rely on them moving forward to justify or refute legality in future cases. They are like IRS Letter Rulings. The party to the letter can rely on it, but no other taxpayer may.

    Rule 15, Requires that care be taken to avoid civilian casualties. The combatant checks that box when they target combatants with the best weapon to do the job with a weapon, or combination of weapons, that gives high certainty of neutralizing the target, minimizes casualties for their own force, while limiting collateral damage to the area immediately surrounding the target.

    NONE OF THESE RULES CATEGORICALLY PROHIBITS all CIVILIAN CASUALTIES. Operative word, “all.”

    Such a rule would categorically require repeal of Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, as well as Articles 43 – 47.

    The Elephant in the Room:

    These treaties have been pragmatically unenforceable (the rare exceptions prove the rule) and will remain so. To enforce them would require the courts ruling on them to have their own army.

    How many non-combatants get killed in the crossfire when the Court’s army marches to Jerusalem, opposed by the IDF, to take Netanyahu and the Defense Minister into custody?

    How many Gazans would be killed in the crossfire of a 100,000 person U.N. Army marching into Gaza to forcibly make the IDF and Hamas stop fighting each other, if the Security Council could even agree on such an order?

    Sanctions imposed by the U.N. on Hamas and Gaza in 2006 were not effective in stopping Hamas, and singularly ineffective in stopping 10/7.

    Sanctions imposed on Russia have done what to stop Russia in Ukraine.

    You have argued that South African sanctions were effective to end apartheid. Assuming for the sake of argument, they get the majority of the credit, shortchanging efforts by black South Africans in protest, strike, and boycott, they TOOK SIX FUCKING YEARS.

    How many Gazans will die in six years? At current rates, 200,000 would seem the low-end of the range.

    Applying even more military force to Hamas than the IDF alone can, would force a surrender or their eradication much sooner. It would increase non-combatant casualties in the short run, but would likely produce more than 50% fewer casualties, then having the current level of conflict persist over a six-year sanctions regime, assuming one could be imposed on Israel that was as isolating as the sanctions on SA. That assumption is doubtful. Applying enough force to the IDF to stop them, is even more daunting, civilian casualty intensive, and longer-duration to achieve their military collapse.

    You clearly don’t give a flying fuck about sparing as many Gazans as possible because you don’t embrace what will end combat between the IDF and Hamas as expeditiously as possible. You insist on remedies that have no efficacy and track-record of sparing non-combatants death, injury, and suffering.

    What does have efficacy and a track-record of getting non-combatants out the crossfire? Overwhelming violence against one or all parties to the conflict, to break the will or capacity to keep fighting by one or both parties.

41. Shorter @25: “I know nothing – NOTHING, Col. Hogan!”

42. There is arm waving bullshit from our resident “experts” and there is substantiated information from people who studied the evidence:

    GENEVA (19 June 2024) – The UN Human Rights Office published an assessment today on six emblematic attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza last year that led to high numbers of civilian fatalities and widespread destruction of civilian objects, raising serious concerns under the laws of war with respect to the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack.

    The report details six emblematic attacks involving the suspected use of GBU-31 (2,000 lbs), GBU-32 (1,000 lbs) and GBU-39 (250 lbs) bombs from 9 October to 2 December 2023 on residential buildings, a school, refugee camps and a market. The UN Human Rights Office verified 218 deaths from these six attacks, and said information received indicated the number of fatalities could be much higher.

    “The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimise to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel’s bombing campaign,” said High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.

    The report concludes that the series of Israeli strikes, exemplified by the six incidents, indicates that the IDF may have repeatedly violated fundamental principles of the laws of war. In this connection, it notes that unlawful targeting when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, in line with a State or organisational policy, may also implicate the commission of crimes against humanity.

    “Israel’s choices of methods and means of conducting hostilities in Gaza since 7 October, including through the extensive use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas, have failed to ensure that they effectively distinguish between civilians and fighters.

    “Civilian lives and infrastructure are protected under IHL. This law lays out the very clear obligations of parties to armed conflicts that make protection of civilians a priority.”

    On 11 November 2023, the IDF stated that since the start of their operation into Gaza, the Air Force had “struck over 5,000 targets to eliminate threats in real time”. By that time the Ministry of Health in Gaza had documented the killing of 11,078 Palestinians, with another 2,700 missing and about 27,490 reportedly injured.

    At around the time of these attacks an IDF spokesperson was reported to have said that “while balancing accuracy with the scope of damage, right now we’re focused on what causes maximum damage.” Another IDF official was quoted as saying “Hamas and the residents of Gaza” are “human beasts” and “are dealt with accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza. No electricity and no water, just damage. You wanted hell, you will get hell.”

    While the focus of the report is on Israel, it also highlights that Palestinian armed groups have continued to fire indiscriminate projectiles toward Israel, inconsistent with their obligations under international humanitarian law. The report also stresses the obligation to protect civilians and civilian objects by avoiding locating military objectives in or near densely populated areas.

    In one of the six emblematic Israeli attacks on Gaza, the report states that strikes on Ash Shujaiyeh neighbourhood, Gaza City, on 2 December 2023 caused destruction across an approximate diagonal span of 130 metres, destroying 15 buildings and damaging at least 14 others. The extent of the damage and the craters visible through verified visual evidence and satellite imagery indicates that approximately nine GBU-31s were used, it added. The UN Human Rights Office received information that at least 60 people were killed.

    GBU-31, 32 and 39s are mostly used to penetrate through several floors of concrete and can completely collapse tall structures. Given how densely populated the areas targeted were, the use of an explosive weapon with such wide area effects is highly likely to amount to a prohibited indiscriminate attack, the report finds. The effects of such weapons in these areas cannot be limited as required by international law, resulting in military objects, civilians and civilian objects being struck without distinction, it adds.

    The report also states that in five of the attacks, no warning was issued, raising concerns with respect to violations of the principle of precaution in attack to protect civilians.

    In three of the strikes, the IDF asserted it had targeted individuals connected to the attacks on Israel on 7 and 8 October 2023. As the report sets out, however, the mere presence of one commander, or even several fighters, or of several distinct military objectives in one area, does not turn an entire neighbourhood into a military objective, as this would violate the principle of proportionality and the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks.

    “While the IDF asserts it has initiated factual assessments of most of the incidents examined in the report, it is now eight months since the first of these extremely serious incidents occurred. Yet still there is no clarity as to what happened or steps toward accountability,” said the High Commissioner.

    “I call on Israel to make public detailed findings on these incidents. It should also ensure thorough and independent investigations into these and all other similar incidents with a view to identifying those responsible for violations, holding them to account and to ensuring all victims’ rights to truth, justice and reparations.”

    https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/06/un-report-israeli-use-heavy-bombs-gaza-raises-serious-concerns-under-laws

43. New evidence of unlawful Israeli attacks in Gaza causing mass civilian casualties amid real risk of genocide

    Amnesty International

    The organization carried out an investigation into four Israeli strikes, three in December 2023, after the humanitarian pause ended, and one in January 2024, that killed at least 95 civilians, including 42 children, in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost governorate and at a time when it was supposedly the “safest” area in the strip[…]

    In all four attacks, the organization did not find any indication that the residential buildings hit could be considered legitimate military objectives or that people in the buildings were military targets, raising concerns that these strikes were direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects and must therefore be investigated as war crimes.

    Even if Israeli forces had intended to target legitimate military objectives in the vicinity, these attacks evidently failed to distinguish between military objectives and civilian objects and would therefore be indiscriminate. Indiscriminate attacks that kill and injure civilians are war crimes. The evidence collected by Amnesty International also indicates the Israeli military failed to provide effective, or indeed any, warning – at minimum to anyone living in the locations that were hit – before launching the attacks.

    https://www.amnesty.org.au/israel-opt-new-evidence-of-unlawful-israeli-attacks-in-gaza-causing-mass-civilian-casualties-amid-real-risk-of-genocide/

44. lol, this weird lefty fixation on certain models of munition—in this case JDAM and SDB—reminds of their earlier and equally silly fixation on white phosphorus and depleted uranium during the Iraq War. Certain weapon systems just seem to push people’s buttons for a while, at least until they forget about it and move on to the next outrage du jour. 😂

    It’s urban combat. Large, concrete structures and deep underground bunkers. You’re gonna need JDAMs. Sucks that civilians are in the way, but Hamas chooses the ground. They don’t get to ensconce themselves inside 100-person apartment blocks and thumb their noses with impunity, that’s just not how this works, sorry!

45. Human rights proponents ARE fixated on the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas as mandated by international law so don’t be surprised when the IDF gets charged with indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilians

46. @45: lol sure, charge away! Military necessity makes a great defense 😁

47. from ab, above

    ‘“The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimise to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel’s bombing campaign,” said High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.’

    precisely
    
    as they fucking
    
    Predicted they’d do. publicly.

    depose or pardon
    
    fucking bibi &
    
    END this our
    
    little Mas-
    
    sacre.

    happy Birthday
    
    Jesus!

48. Speaking of particular weapon systems, it looks like the American THAAD battery deployed to Israel back in October just knocked down its first enemy ballistic missile. That’s the first-ever kill for this weapon system in American hands.

    2024 has been an amazing year for the good guys in the Middle East. Huge, huge performances by Israel, Jordan, the US, and our EU allies. Even the Palestinian Security Forces been rocking it in Jenin this month. Keep ‘em coming in 2025, boys!💥💥💥🔥

49. “You’re gonna need JDAMs.”
    
    –@44 looks like we
    
    found our iof
    
    sockbott

50. @36, Info contradicted by an expert interviewed on Amanpour who stated they read the ruling.

51. ‘Given how densely populated the areas targeted were, the use of an explosive weapon with such wide area effects is highly likely to amount to a prohibited indiscriminate attack.”

    That is an interpretation of the law by a body who’s mission is to find human rights violations whenever possible. Their mission is to promote maximal human rights protections. To that end, they will read facts and interpret treaty language to find human rights violations whenever possible.

    They hedge with the word “likely” which indicates they adjudicate nothing.

    If the case is so strong, why aren’t they bring charges at the ICJ, etc.? It must not be a slam dunk case, if they are trying the case via a report rather than a legal filing.

    LIikewise with Amnesty, et.al.. They are advocacy organizations for a cause.

    Its like when the ACLU asserts something out of court. Nobody takes it as legally authoritative or true, but their applying seleftuve facts, not the complete record, through their take on selected laws l, that favor their advocacy interests. When they actually file a case and win, then they are correct. Short of that, its allegations in support of the way they wish the world was or what they wish the law was.

52. @45, If the case was so strong, the charges would be in thr form of legal filings, not reports.

    Assuming there are charges, or even convictions, they will just be added to the pantheon of unenforced international court rulings. What Army enforces these courts orders?

    TLDR. I’ll wait for the movie, assuming any producer will take the story on.

53. from Chris Hedges
    
    former NYT M.E.
    
    Bureau Chief

    Letter to Refaat Alareer – Read by Eunice Wong

    A year ago on Dec. 6, 2023 Israel murdered Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer in Gaza. His poems, however, remain, condemning his killers and beseeching us to honor our shared humanity.

    Dear Refaat,
    
    We are not silent. We are being silenced. The students who, during the last academic year set up encampments, occupied halls, went on hunger strikes and spoke out against the genocide, were met this fall with a series of rules that have turned university campuses into academic gulags.

    Among the minority of academics who dared to speak out, many have been sanctioned or dismissed.

    Medical professionals who criticize the wholesale destruction by Israel of hospitals, clinics and targeted assassinations of health workers in Gaza have been suspended or terminated from medical school faculties with some facing threats to revoke their medical licenses.

    Journalists who detail the mass slaughter and expose Israeli propaganda have been taken off air or fired from their publications. Jobs are lost over social media posts.

    The tiny handful of politicians who condemn the killing have seen millions of dollars spent to drive them from office.

    Algorithms, shadow-banning, deplatforming and demonetizing – all of which I have experienced – are used to marginalize or ban us on digital media platforms. A whisper of protest and we are disappeared.

    None of these measures will be lifted once the genocide ends. The genocide is the pretext. The result will be one huge step towards an authoritarian state, especially with the ascendancy of Donald Trump.

    The silence will expand, like a great cloud of sulfurous gas. We choke on forbidden words. They killed you. They are strangling us. The goal is the same. Erasure. Your story, the story of all Palestinians, is not to be told.

    The Zionists and their allies have nothing left in their arsenal but lies, censorship, smear campaigns and violence, the blunt instruments of the damned.

    [see: Ubiquitous
    
    🔨 above and
    
    Everywhere]

    But I hold in my hand the weapon that will, ultimately, defeat them. Your book, “If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose”.

    “Stories teach life,” you write,
    
    “even if the hero suffers
    
    or dies in the end.”

    Writing, you told your students, “is a
    
    testimony, a memory that outlives
    
    any human experience, and an
    
    obligation to communicate
    
    with ourselves and
    
    the world.

    We lived
    
    for a reason,
    
    to tell the tales of
    
    loss, survival, and of hope.”

    –by Chris Hedges and Eunice Wong; Dec 27, 2024

    this article is read by Eunice Wong, a Juilliard-trained actor, featured on Audible’s list of Best Women Narrators. her work is on the annual Best Audiobooks lists of the New York Times, Audible, AudioFile, & Library Journal. http://www.eunicewong.actor

    tonnes more, deemed too terrorizing to Brutalitarians
    
    https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/letter-to-refaat-alareer-read-by?

54. [@53 — Chris Hedges’ letter
    
    was originally published
    
    Dec 10, 2024]

55. and,
    
    in Other,
    
    Good News:

    Civil war has broken out within the MAGA Republicans.

    Heather Cox Richardson; December 27, 2024

    oodles, Informatively:
    
    https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-27-2024/comments

    it’s pro-Immigrant (CHEAP Labor) MUX et al
    
    vs MAGAs who’d Prefer to be
    
    Employed

    feel
    
    Entitled
    
    to Being employed

    can ya Blame ‘em?

    a little
    
    Internal Dissension
    
    can be a Very Good Thing

56. more on (morons) the gop ‘civil’ war:

    Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and fervent Trump loyalist, helped set off the altercation earlier this week by criticizing Mr. Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian American venture capitalist, to be an adviser on artificial intelligence policy.

    In a post, she said she was concerned that Mr. Krishnan, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in India, would have influence on the Trump administration’s immigration policies, and mentioned “third-world invaders.”

    Ms. Loomer’s comments surfaced a simmering tension between longtime supporters of Mr. Trump, who embrace his virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric, and his more recently acquired backers from the tech industry, many of whom have built or financed businesses that rely on the government’s H-1B visa program to hire skilled workers from abroad.

    oodles:
    
    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/technology/trump-musk-immigration-h1b-visa.html

    perhaps if
    
    anyone’s out
    
    There the gop
    
    may need a little
    
    gasoline on their pyre

    I’d
    
    suggest
    
    the High-test

57. this is where
    
    an ai gopthumper
    
    might come in Handy

    not that I’m
    
    Endorsing
    
    one.

58. are you
    
    sick And
    
    tired of the
    
    Wormtongue’s
    
    🛴-🔨’s & our resident
    
    Nihilust mr magoo’s et al’s POVs?

    (OMG who Isn’t):

    Israel-Hamas War: Last Week
    
    Tonight with John (fuck-
    
    ing) Oliver (HBO)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ9PKQbkJv8

    watch it
    
    and weep
    
    and Laugh
    
    for fuck’s sake

59. it’s Saturday morning and the thread has already reached the “kristofarian ranting alone into the void” stage 😂😂😂

60. @59

    so you
    
    did Not
    
    ‘watch’ JOliver’s
    
    brilliant History of Palestine

    and bibi’s insidious Culpability
    
    in ensuring there’d be NO
    
    Peace in Israel? it’ll blow
    
    your ‘mind’ if you’ve
    
    got one to blow

    if not
    
    your circuits’re
    
    likely easily replaceable.

    take
    
    the Risk
    
    wormmy /🛴🔨

    it cannot
    
    hurt.

61. @60: lol, no I haven’t watched television in many years and you shouldn’t either. Read a book if you’re interested in Middle Eastern history! 😄

62. Good morning Kristo. Have you checked out Josh Johnson’s comedy? I thought he dished out tasteful stuff and great social commentary to boot:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZl_ZBzvifA

    @61 you are up on all the latest soldier of fortune analysis of conflicts so you watch digital media, TV by another name, like everybody else. Your weak attempts at put down suck.

63. @62: Ha ha, well I certainly do read a lot, online and offline, but I never sit and watch. That stuff rots your brain, bruh. 😂 Not “everybody else” does it, and you shouldn’t either 🤣

64. @64 That’s absolutist garbage. There is excellent digital media, both educational, with information not available anywhere else, and some entertaining. I couldn’t function without it both to grow and vege. There is a lot of garbage too, but it is not constrained to the digital world, and one has to be discerning.

    None of the preceding is inconsistent with reading, both short and long form content so your posturing is ill advised as per usual. Moreover, whatever media someone enjoys consuming at one point of their life isn’t necessarily what they’ll consume most in the future. At least that’s my experience.

65. @64, How many Gazans, if any, will charges, assuming there are any, at an international criminal court, save?

    The bandwidth you devote to this non-live saving solution is baffling.

    What does get non-combatants out of the crossfire is the overwhelming application of force so that one, or both sides, loses the will, capacity, or both to continue to fight.

66. @58: That clip is a year old. If you’re going to recommend any of John Oliver’s loud, over-emphatic, condescending soliloquies, please suggest something current.

67. @64: lol OK dude, go watch your videos if that’s where you’re at. 😂

68. @dwebe

    olde af
    
    it May be*
    
    but it’s more
    
    Enlightening than
    
    a full fucking Year of
    
    Network teevee’ll EVER Be.

    & it hasn’t
    
    lost an Iota
    
    or Relevance.

    *ONLY ELEVEN THOUSANDS DEAD!
    
    at the time of JOliver’s brilliant
    
    analysis, above

    mostly Women & Children
    
    who hadn’t been fucking Born
    
    when a deceitful Hamas won their
    
    Very Last Election — in fucking 2009.

    are
    
    They
    
    Complicit?

    cuz WE Sure
    
    As Fuck
    
    are.

69. @66

    “over[sic]-emphatic”

    Expressed or performed with emphasis.
    
    “responded with an emphatic “no.””
    
    Forceful and definite in
    
    expression or action.

    Standing out
    
    in a striking and
    
    clearly defined way.

    it’s Oliver’s schtick*
    
    tho I suspect it’s his
    
    pointng out the Absurd
    
    that’s got you so perturbed

    *he’s both funny
    
    and smart as fuck
    
    everything he says is
    
    factual and his opinions
    
    are laser-focused & he doesn’t
    
    Miss. I can see why it might be Painful

70. @69: ha ha, my man loves his infotainment! Goes great with weed, too, isn’t that right Kristo, ha ha! 😉

71. 🦗off
    
    🔨🛴
    
    🐁🚮.

72. @62~thnx
    
    for the josh
    
    johnson tip!

73. @Natty

    and Thank You
    
    for this little Joni
    
    Mitchell fucking Gem

    play this one
    
    at my Wake
    
    (in 30 yrs).

74. Israel has been on an U.N. Article 51 tear since 10/7:

    “The right of individual or collective self-defence can be exercised in the event of an “armed attack” against a Member of the United Nations.”

    https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/an-israeli-airstrike-near-the-syrian-capital-kills-11-war-monitor-says/

75. “What does get non-combatants out of the crossfire is the overwhelming application of force so that one, or both sides, loses the will, capacity, or both to continue to fight.”

    What a steaming pile of dudu: the victims of the nazis or those of colonial expansion in the Americas, Australia, Africa, etc … “got out of the crossfire” when they were 10′ under or forced into concentration camps/apartheid or pushed into deserts. Note that there are also plenty of less extreme historical examples where lack of compromise/political solution to conflicts led to extreme resentment and further generalized human rights disasters.

    You are the caricature of a conservative militarist, superficially less sophisticated than thumpus but pretty much the same because you push for the same solutions. You make his ideas look bad, which explains why he tries so hard to push you away.

76. The extermination of non-combatants by the Nazi’s ended, on May 8, 1945 when Germany was militarily crushed.

    No amount of asking nicely, compromising by given up Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, and giving up Naval Treaty limitations to Germany appeased them.

    Non-combatants got out of the crossfire when Germany was beaten, and was left with the no viable means to continue fighting.

    Arguably sanctions ended apartheid. It took six fucking years. Six. If Gazans have to wait another six years, at current rates of non-combatant deaths, that’s another 288,000 dead Gazans.

    Additional application of force on Hamas (the weaker military power) to put them in the position that Nazi Germany on May 8, 1945, will end the conflict that has Gazans in the crossfire fastest. If that is by the IDF, the IDF and allies, or a U.N. force, that force can kill 287,999 Gazans in crossfire and Gaza will still be better off (by one dead body).

    You think the ICJ can bet better results for Gazans with more and more unenforceable rulings (unless they are given their own army to invade with)?

    Likewise, the surrender of Japan ended non-combatant deaths among Japanese. Two atomic bombs killed 246,000 Japanese (high end of range). That, and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria ended the conflict that put those non-combatants in the crossfire.

    An invasion of Japan was estimated to cost the allies 250,000 dead. Casualties in prior invasions of Saipan and Okinawa had shown a casualty ration of 1:7. So 250,000 deaths in Nagasaki and Hiroshima saved, 1,450,000 Japanese.

    Wars are utilitarian, cold-hearted exercises, when rules based order has been willfully abandoned. They end when the losses get so high that one, or both sides, becomes combat ineffective. The pain point gets too high. The faster we can hasten that outcome in Gaza, the more Gazan non-combatants will survive.

77. @32: Agreed to all, and thanks for the tip about RS’ Antifada Platoon coverage. Well-written war reportage always gets my appreciation.

    The modern Stranger has an absolute genius for selecting only the least sympathetic examples. For opposing incarceration, they chose a white, female accessory to murder who got angry at not having all of her rights and privileges restored pronto upon her early release. For trans’ rights, they found a champion who had slaughtered immediate family members, tried to cover it up, and whose claim to be trans’ may well originate in a desire to avoid men’s prison (and to have sex with female cell-mates). For the current conflict in the Middle East, they choose to champion the message of a jihadi organization, one which would gladly eradicate almost every human right a Stranger staffer holds dear.

    It’s as if the Stranger’s world is simply not large enough to encompass Black victims of American injustice, trans’ persons who’ve been made to suffer only for being trans’, and Middle Eastern fighters who actually believe things Stranger staffers also claim to believe.

78. @75: lol, my condolences for your losses this year! 😆 Hamas, Hizbollah, and Bashar al-Assad…what a windmill! No wonder you’re sore! 😂An ass-kicking so hard it feels like genocide! 🤣

79. @76 The Nazis were defeated after 10’s of millions of civilians were butchered (a little late) and of course radio silence on all those conflicts/conquests where the attackers and genocide won, such as is currently happening in the Palestinian occupied territories. The question is how to stop conflicts before they start of course, which is the reason why the UN and international law were implemented.

80. @78 of course, slander and posturing is all you have. I won’t ask you to substantiate your accusations this time because we all know that you can’t, so you won’t like all previous times. Little thug

81. @32 ” having achieved nothing.”

    because you can’t (or choose not to) see the forest for the trees. Protest movements rarely win battles but they sometimes win the war, or at least modify the status quo. US public opinion has massively shifted against unconditional support for Israel, which politicians will ignore at their own peril. Young US Jews have become extremely critical of Israel so not only they won’t simply become fodder for Zionism like in the past but they will draw lessons from being part of the backbone of the student movement vilified by the establishment and its media. World public opinion is forcing international justice to at least pretend it cares and that international law applies to everyone. Victory isn’t guaranteed but the hypocrisy of the Western establishment is on full display, which will be costly as the international balance of power shifts away from them.

82. @77 The lesson to draw from this is that unlike you, progressives tend to not be opportunist demagogues: the war crimes committed on Oct 7 don’t make apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide anymore justified than before Oct 7.

83. @81: lol, dream on. The “international balance of power” titled more steeply in favor of Israel this year than it has in decades. The good guys are on an absolute romp in the Middle East! Many happy returns in 2025!💥💥💥

    You’re correct that western progressives have dropped the fig leaf and are now openly clamoring for the Jewish state’s demise…specially because it is the Jewish state, lol! But somehow I suspect Israel will weather the angry tears of American “anti-Zionists” (wink wink) who don’t even know how to wear their ashimagha correctly! 😉

    Take your lumps, Bob, you’ve lost this round. But don’t despair, the grass grows back. Hamas and Hizbollah will eventually re-arm (though more slowly now without Assad, ha ha), and it’s even possible the Houthis will do something big. Stiff upper lip, the Axis of Resistance has been bent but it won’t be broken. At least not until the maraji regime in Iran falls… 🤫

84. Slander and posturing will get you exactly nothing, little thug. Conflating, like you do, a) support for systematic application of international law to b) support for terror, jihad and whatnot is the playbook of the far right.

    You have been trying to impress on whoever wanted to believe you that all these happenings were great victories for Israel but I really see nothing of the sort. I was tempted to call it Pyrrhic but it is questionable they are even significant victories at all given Israel was unable to conduct a ground war in Lebanon despite its massive air supremacy. It failed to retaliate in any significant way against Iran despite what you claim. Basically it killed 200,000 Palestinians (including indirect victims), and a few 1000;s Lebanese,. It is about to gain a few square kms of rubble in Northern Gaza and in the Golan while spending billions of US taxpayer $ in the process. It’s unclear how Assad losing power will affect the balance given Syria ceased a long time ago to be a threat to Israel (despite various claims to the contrary) and that the new power brokers are far from being friends of Israel

    In turn, Israel is closer to being an international pariah than it has ever been, its leaders are charged with war crimes by international justice, it is widely accused of genocide, international public opinion is overwhelmingly against the conduct of the “war” (i.e massacre), and Israeli neo-fascists yield ever greater power on an openly racist society. All of which will have grave repercussions of the future of the country.

    Not a lot to rant and rave about if you ask me but I am sure you’ll manage to rehash all these military facts and weapons that you clearly love as if they changed anything to the political reality (that you desperately want to ignore)

85. @79, Most estimates of deaths from WW II are north of 50 million.

    WW II could have been avoided had France and Great Britain pushed back when the Nazi’s occupied the Rhineland. Hitler ordered his generals to retreat if France contested his militarization of the Rhineland in violation of the Versailles Treaty.

    It all could have been avoided had France and Great Britain marched on Berlin in September 1939. The Nazi’s lacked the ability to attack Poland and defend in the west. France could have been in Berlin with casualties on both sides in the tens of thousands, not the tens of millions, with Poland’s borders restored.

    But voters like you, in France, Great Britain, and the U.S. were squeamish about using decisive, overwhelming violence to kill Hitler’s ambitions in their infancy, when the casualties and collateral damage could be measured in tens of thousands, not tens of millions. Politicians listened. They limited themselves to diplomacy. How did that work out?

    The U.S. Army in 1937 was 17th in the world in size, just behind Portugal and ahead of Bulgaria. The U.S. was deeply isolationist. We didn’t have the means to stand up to Japan, even though were were close to the Japanese in Naval parity. Even without Pearl Harbor, we could not have successfully relieved the Philippines.

    The U.S.’s unwillingness to even have the means to use force when treaties were violated, meant we went from a mere 119,000 servicemen in 1937, to over 16 million mobilized for the war, with a million casualties (400k were fatalities).

    So the peace-nick, limit ourselves to talk, talk, talk, only, cost the planet 50 million human beings, including, but not limited to, at least 6 million Jews.

    Delays in the use of a little overwhelming force early, to strangle the Germany’s remilitarization in it’s crib, cost the planet 50 million people.

    Diplomacy or military action is a false dichotomy. The credible threat of, and if necessary, judicious use of the latter, decisively and early, greatly increases the efficacy of the former. It saves lives.

86. @84: wait, no ground war in Lebanon?! Ha ha, you are even less aware of events in the Middle East than I thought. Not only was there a ground war, there are still Israeli troops on the ground in Lebanon as we speak, lol!

    Syria not a threat?! Dude, even Hizbollah admits that’s where their weapons were coming from! 🤣 That’s why Hizbollah had been propping up Assad with fighters all those years! 🤪 Sorry ya missed it, I figured you’d be proud of them, ha ha! 😜

    And the retaliation against Iran was insignificant only if you consider knocking out Iran’s entire long-range air defense system to be insignificant! 😂😂😂 Know who doesn’t think that loss was insignificant? The maraji, and so much so that they have stopped shooting at Israel so they don’t get pasted! 😙

    Nor is Israel closer to being an “international pariah” than ever in its history. On the contrary, Israel’s defense coordination with the US, Jordan, France, and the UK is closer than its ever been, as you’d know if you had ever, you know, read anything about the war! 😝 Israel’s never had foreign air forces fighting alongside it, but now it does. Nobody loves Hamas except western progressives, everybody else is happy to let Israel wipe them out…and even lend a hand when they can get away with it! 😃

    I am tickled pink that you can’t see how badly the anti-Israel forces got spanked this year. Well, I hope 2025 brings the Islamic resistance just as much “success,” ha ha ha!

    (Also, can you double-check those casualty figures? 200,000? I thought it was supposed to be “millions” ha ha ha)

87. @84: “It’s unclear how Assad losing power will affect the balance…”

    “Hezbollah Chief Says Assad’s Fall Severed Key Supply Line From Iran

    “The loss of the route through Syria is a blow to the Lebanese militia and its most important ally, Tehran”

    (https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hezbollah-chief-says-assads-fall-severed-key-supply-line-from-iran-a723aed5?page=1)

    @84: “… given Israel was unable to conduct a ground war in Lebanon despite its massive air supremacy.”

    Israel achieved its military objective of removing Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, then secured a cease-fire. I’m sorry if you thought they wanted (or needed) a ground war to achieve this.

    Israel crippled thousands of former Hezbollah operatives for life, killed Hezbollah’s top leadership and even some of their Iranian liaisons, and now Hezbollah has lost their overland supply route from Iran. What else does Israel need to do to further weaken Hezbollah?

88. @85 Excellent illustration of the hammer law: if the only tool you have is a hammer, it’s tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail

    The ultimate source of ww2 in Europe were the peace conditions for ww1 that were deeply resented by Germans, which gave rise to ultra nationalism and fascism. Fascism that was tolerated because it was also considered a convenient tool to fight Bolchevism (Churchill: “in the conflict between Fascism and Bolshevism, there was no doubt where my sympathies and convictions lay.”). That cemented the prospect of war because fascists were intent on colonizing Europe like Europe had colonized other lands. Nations, like France, that had literally lost entire generations of young men during ww1 understandably weren’t very keen on doubling down. Peaceniks had fuck all to do with any of it.

    @87 Dude, I am not going to argue whether entering 5 odd kms into Lebanon, and stopping because of casualties amounts to invading Lebanon because I don’t really care but sure, all warmongers were tickled pink when US forces entered Bagdad, remember? In the meantime, as long as political solutions aren’t on the table, there will be no durable deal. And I am not going out on a limb in saying so.

89. @88, 2nd part, is for posturing jackass @86

90. @88: lol, the Israelis were killing Hizbollah at a ratio of 40 or 50 to one. 😄 It’s not Israeli casualties that halted the fighting! If you want to chalk up 2024 as a win for Hizbollah, I hope they win ten more times just like it! 🤣🤣🤣

91. @88, It’s highly probable the peace conditions of WWI were a significant contributing factor to WWII; however, we can’t say for certain that with a more “just” peace, Shitler never would have risen to power.

    We can assess that probability only with hindsight. The parties at the time reasonably thought the best way to make WW I the war that ended all wars was to keep Germany weak. They got the opposite of what they intended and expected from Versailles.

    That said, by the time 1936 roles around, you can’t undo Versailles. You have to deal with the unintended consequence. Talk, talk, talk, and hoping Shitler would either finally see reason, or stop with his Polish conquest because France was to big a bite to chew, finally lead to the German breakthrough in 1940, that doomed France and the BEF from stopping him.

    Intense diplomacy, throughout the late 1930’s, without a stick behind it, had nothing to stand on.

    More force early would have meant tens of thousands of deaths, instead of the tens of million we got later.

    We have the same dynamic playing out in Gaza. The longer Hamas is viable militarily, the longer Gazans are in the crossfire. The more the casualties multiply.

    The conflict in the north on the other hand is starting to wind down. The IDF went early and hard after Hezbollah command and control and munitions. They are approaching ceasefire, with a fraction of the deaths.

    The IDF has not done as well in Gaza because Hamas has spent over a decade tunneling below Gaza. They didn’t have the punch of Hezbollah to start with, but ironically it makes them harder to kill, because they don’t have the command and control that accompanies that punch, for the IDF to target. They don’t have the big piles of munitions that can be easily targeted. Hamas has created the situation the late Sinwar intended, where they are hard to kill, but if left to their own devices they can strike lethally against Israel. When the IDF does strike, Hamas makes it necessary to go through human shields with barbarism that horrifies the world and gets worn by the IDF.

    Heads Hamas wins, and tails the IDF loses, on a game table that the IDF will walk away from at the risk of a mini-10/7 months hence, or an equal or greater 10/7, years hence. Exactly as the late Sinwar intended.

92. @55 kristofarian: I’d LOVE to see MAGA Republicans all fighting each other like rabid sewer rats dying in an exterminator’s trap. Best of all, they’ll have brought it all on themselves by taking the Orange Turd’s bait like Pavlov’s slobbering dogs.
    
    Maybe there’s still some hope for the salvaging of democracy yet.

    Thank you, Nathalie, for Joni Mitchell’s River—what a welcome treat! It’s just what I needed.
    
    Your song tracks are consistently wonderful.
    
    Happy Holidays to you and everyone and the best into the New Year and beyond.

93. @5 kristofarian: Brrrrrrr! No thanks. I’d like to stay as far away from AI as humanly possible, however inevitable the dystopian horrors of the Tech Age. Elon Musk’s and Jeff Bezos’ desperation to ram them down our throats are all so that they can own everyone and everything—including Donald Trump.
    
    Rod Serling must be shaking his head Up There in horrified disbelief that so much of his darkest sci-fi subject matter used in The Twilight Zone—episode plots once considered unthinkable in the 50s and 60s—-has taken fruition today, and from the poisonous RepubliKKKan tree of propaganda and willful misinformation.

94. A bird flu pandemic—terrific. It’s just in time for the Orange Turd’s inaugural ball. I hope it wipes out Trump / Vance and their rabid MAGA / RWNJ population for good.

95. bingo
    
    auntie Gee:
    
    may the MAGAs
    
    & the money-madd
    
    tech soon-to-be Trillionaires
    
    bird-flu (or thru Other means) them-
    
    selves into Oblivion and fucking Beyond

    Most of ’em — the Ir-
    
    redeemables any-
    
    ways Shan’t be
    
    missed.

    and once Again
    
    “averagebob” no
    
    proto-Fascist he be
    
    THANK YOU for your
    
    Diligence in asserting
    
    your Humanity over our
    
    resident fascists & nihilust

    who never met an Oppressor
    
    they couldn’t get behind
    
    & blame their Victims
    
    each & Every time.

    Well-fucking Played:
    
    I’m pullin’ for Your
    
    very own Pulitzer.

    It’s gonna be
    
    an “Exciting”
    
    Happy New
    
    Year. Let’s
    
    Do it.

96. oh
    
    and
    
    THANK YOU
    
    Jimmy fucking Carter (RIP)
    
    & Roz too! ACTUAL Christians
    
    who Devoted their Lives to Peace

    and were Undermined by the
    
    Profiteers, charlatans and far
    
    reich-wing Plutocrats like
    
    ronny raygun, also an
    
    Enemy to America’s
    
    once-Thriving Mid-
    
    dle Class, now in
    
    its death throes

    thanks in great
    
    part to the Status
    
    Quozers, overly-well-
    
    repped right Here @tS.

    raygun removed your Solar Panels,
    
    Jimmy and he Likely removed our
    
    Chances of a Habitable Biosphere
    
    for our chiildren and for theirs

    all so some teeny faction
    
    of Humanity might like
    
    like Gods for the littlist
    
    of Whiles. will Humans
    
    EVER fucking Learn?

    stay
    
    Tuned.

97. @84: “It’s unclear how Assad losing power will affect the balance…”

    Let me help you out there, averagebob. @87, we saw this event has severed Hezbollah’s overland supply route from Iran. Hezbollah had equipped operatives and leaders with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, respectively, because they were under severe international arms restrictions. They had become so desperate for equipment, they allowed the Israelis to infiltrate their supply chain. What do you think the loss of their overland supply route from Iran will do, exactly? Make them more or less desperate for military equipment? Make them more or less able to conduct operations, including defensive operations? Make them more or less vulnerable to Israeli sabotage of their munitions? Give it a whirl, tell us what you really think!

98. @97: Even Iranian state media acknowledges that the fall of Bashar al-Assad was an extremely heavy blow. Averagebob is deeper in denial than the Revolutionary Guards! 😂😂😂

99. tS’s far reich infiltration — now
    
    including wormmy’s sockbott
    
    🔨🛴 is officially Kompleat.

    will the ‘center’ hold?

    I’m expecting
    
    a paradigm shift
    
    beginning 1/1/25

    or maybe the
    
    following
    
    Monday.

100. as long
     
     as we’re
     
     wish-listing

     how ’bout
     
     an Edit button
     
     (cum History!) &
     
     I spose a Deleter too.

     happy new year!
     
     may 2025 be a
     
     Decent one &
     
     Beat all those
     
     Lousy-ass
     
     Predict-
     
     shuns.

101. As I quietly utter the serenity prayer for the umpteenth time, wishing everyone a safe, sane, and hopefully minimally disastrous 2025.

     @95 kristofarian: Here’s to flipping Trump, Vance, MAGAs, Musk, Bezos, Putin, ad nauseum the BIRD in 2025!
     
     Bring on the red wine and dark chocolate, baybee!!

102. .

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