#Defenders 2001 11

[probablyasocialecologist]

A recent report by Rutgers University Law School Center for Security, Race, and Rights highlights how claims of antisemitism stemming from Islamophobia are being used to silence discourse about Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians. While not a new phenomenon, the practice has seen an explosion online since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.

The study, titled “Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes in the Palestine-Israel Discourse,” also underscores how the overwhelming majority of news coverage of Palestinians seen in the United States focuses on the most extreme groups while overlooking that most people in and outside of Palestine employ nonviolent means to defend Palestinian human rights.

“The overwhelming majority of the news coverage Americans see of the Palestinian struggle is of the most extreme groups, while most people within and outside of Palestine pursue nonviolent means in defense of the Palestinian right to self-determination,” reads the Rutgers University Law School report. “But even non-violent means of resistance, such as the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, are discredited as antisemitic and illegitimate.”

The report goes further in pointing out that the nature of Islamophobia in the United States is a nonpartisan issue. It’s seen coming from Republicans, Democrats, and Independents along with voters from all sides of the political spectrum. Since the attacks on the United States on Sep. 11, 2001, anti-Muslim language has progressed to more than simply a rhetorical device and is ever-present in U.S. policy wherever Muslims are part of the discussion.

#islamophobia #antisemitism #israel #palestine #usa

[batboyblog]

I think that the only real reason so many people are so willing and quick to denounce the IDF’s anti terrorist activities and conflate it with larger social issues that shouldn’t even be technically related is maybe because what Israel is doing as a means to defend itself similar to how we Americans originally responded in what we needed to do in response to 9/11.

We just wanted to take down the terrorists for such a heinous crime on our people.

The issue though is that people are looking at the consequences of our wars on terror rather than their baseline goals. They look to our actions in Iraq in 2003 and in Afghanistan post-2001 rather than the end goal of stopping terrorists, rather successful or not.

Basically, what these people are saying is that “the world had gone though one War on Terror and we all know how that went” in an attempt to discredit and denounce the whole affair, purposely ignoring the underlying objective of stopping armed and dangerous criminals that launched a heinous attack

This attitude of course is potent and corrupted by such bigotry that it frankly damages their arguments if anything

At least that’s what I think

I think there are a number of reasons,

the Iraq War is a big one in the US and UK (and the rest of Europe to a lesser extent) there's a lot of people, particularly on the left for whom any American/western involvement of any kind in a war in the Middle East is bad and always always will be because of Iraq you saw it with Libya and Syria back under Obama

I think however there's more than that, I think for Arabs and Muslims Palestine has long been an emotive issue and there's just that which we're seeing in Turkey but also from communities inside the UK or the US

I think the idea of the occupation is very emotive for a lot of people, in the 1990s there was a wave of correcting long standing historic wrongs and bring peace, you saw it in Northern Ireland, you saw it in South Africa, Americans and Europeans were involved in protests and sit ins etc in the 1980s and 90s for those causes, and also for Palestine. And I think the failure of the Camp David Process in 2000-2001 mixed with conflating American policy in Iraq with Israel (because of GWB's stated support for Israel, while being cold toward Arafat in his first term) lead to the Western peace camp to get more radicalized

I think antisemitism has ALWAYS fed into that, and lead to a lot of distortion and dehumanization, basically I think starting in the 1990s if you went to college for liberal arts and were at all political criticizing Israel was a way to get nearly automatic approval. And in the 90s it started off with reasonable criticisms you'd hear from most American Jews and many Jews of the Israeli center and left, settlements, occupation, Palestinian free movement, check points etc. But as every year goes by the need to one up and one up grows till you have groups cheering a truly horrific terrorist attack, mass murder etc.

I think it should be pretty easy to say that Hamas are bad people, monsters, and they shouldn't be in charge of any one, I think its the pro-Palestinian stand to say that an army of baby murderers and rapists shouldn't be the government of Gaza?

#thoughts #Israel #ask

[mariacallous]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a vocal advocate of gun control measures who was known for trying to find common ground with Republicans during her three decades in the Senate, has died, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

She was 90.

Feinstein, the oldest member of the Senate, the longest-serving female senator and the longest-serving senator from California, announced in February that she planned to retire at the end of her term.

...

President Joe Biden hailed his former Senate colleague, calling her “a passionate defender of civil liberties and a strong voice for national security policies that keep us safe while honoring our values.”

“I’ve served with more U.S. Senators than just about anyone,” he said in a statement at the time. “I can honestly say that Dianne Feinstein is one of the very best."

...

The California Democrat was a vocal advocate of gun control measures, championing the assault weapons ban that then-President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994, and pushing for restrictive laws since the ban’s expiration in 2004.

As chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Feinstein led a multiyear review of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program developed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which led to legislation barring the use of those methods of torture.

[lonestarbattleship]

"May we never forget those we lost on September 11, 2001.

Three ships built at HII’s IngallsShipbuilding are named to honor the victims of 9/11. USS New York (LPD-21), USS Arlington (LPD-24) and USS Somerset (LPD-25), all sail and defend our country today. These ships contain pieces of metal salvaged from the sites following the attacks on 9/11.

We honor the lives lost as we continue to build ships to defend our nation’s freedom."

Posted by HII’s IngallsShipbuilding Facebook page: link

#USS New York (LPD-21) #USS New York #USS Arlington (LPD-24) #USS Arlington #USS Somerset (LPD-25) #USS Somerset #San Antonio Class #amphibious transport dock #September #2022 #united states navy #us navy #navy #usn #u.s. navy #Ingalls Shipbuilding #HII #my post

[reality-detective]

DJT's EXECUTIVE ORDERS

13818

● Confiscated private and corporate assets

● Seized the NYSE

● Blocking the property of those involved in serious human rights abuses or corruption.

Human trafficking

13848

● 13848 imposes certain sanctions in the event of foreign interference in any of the United States

Choice

13959

● Maintain American leadership in artificial intelligence

Khazarian assets confiscated

● Among the top 3 executive orders - many DS assets were confiscated and DS Agents reversed

○ 13818, 13848 and 13959

● The Space Force has EVERYTHING under control!

● DS money will be used up quickly

● All DS gold has already been confiscated (Vatican etc.)

● Wall Street, Washington DC, Vatican and City of London - all dead

● OPERATION: DEFEND EUROPE. This started March 17th 2020 and takes over the Vatican, it's the mafia and it's seizing all the Rothschilds central banks

● Brexit has severed the Vatican's ropes and stripped the Royals of all assets

● We're going to Tesla and metals instead of oil and gas

GESARA – Global Economic Security and Reform Act

● It should be implemented on 10/11/2001. Stopped by the Khazarian false flag event on 9/11

● Elimination of the national debt of all nations of the world

● No taxes. Only a fixed sales tax of around 15% on new goods

● Waiving of mortgages and other bank departments due to illegal government activities

● Back to constitutional law - get rid of the corrupt law of the sea

● Newly elected leaders - only 10% of current governments

● World peace for 1,000 years or longer.

● Eliminate all current and future nuclear weapons on planet earth

● Gold Standard!

● Introduction of new hidden technologies - 6,000 Tesla patents. free energy

● Build and rebuild in all countries at 1950s prices

● The power back to We The People. Global distribution of wealth

● Odin project = World EBS (Emergency Broadcast System)

- Benjamin Fulford

#pay attention #educate yourselves #educate yourself #knowledge is power #reeducate yourself #reeducate yourselves #think for yourselves #think about it #think for yourself #do your homework #do some research #do your own research #research everything #ask yourself questions #ask yourself #question everything #benjamin fulford

[harrisonarchive]

From a 1987 and 1995 interview.

Additionally...

Q: “Is Sgt. Pepper special for you, or just another album?” George Harrison: “There’s about half the tracks I like and the other half I can’t stand. I like most of side 1…. And I love ‘A Day in the Life,’ and I even like the little Indian one that I did [‘Within You Without You’], which is really strange and unique. But there’s a lot of them on there — ‘Fixing a Hole’ and ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ — which to me are just average. I like Rubber Soul and Revolver, actually. I like some of the White Album a lot; the rest is okay, but I don’t think it’s that special. But even if what they’re saying about Sgt. Pepper being the greatest record of all time is all wrong, I’m glad they’re saying it about one of our records and not somebody else’s, you know.” - Entertainment Weekly, 1987, published December 2001

“Paul always writes nice melodies.” - George Harrison, Scene and Heard, 8 October 1969

“Ringo’s got the best backbeat I’ve ever heard, and he can play great 24 hours a day.” - George Harrison, press conference, October 1974

“[John] wrote, I think, the best Beatles songs that I can think of — like ‘Walrus,’ ‘Glass Onion,’ and ‘Strawberry Fields.’ Those obvious John-songs. You know, I miss that side. I miss that in music, when I listen to other records. There’s nobody who does anything that’s that neat; that fun and unusual and sarcastic and loving.” - George Harrison, Guitar World, April 1988

“I have a tendency to defend Paul — John and Ringo too — if anyone else said anything without qualification about them. After going through all that together, there must be something good about it.” - George Harrison, NME, December 11, 1976

“[George] was very funny, like, ‘The Beatles, they weren’t all that they were cracked up to be’ [laughs]. He loved the Beatles. He used to bitch sometimes about individual Beatles who got on his nerves. But he really loved them down deep.” - Tom Petty, Rolling Stone, January 17, 2002 (x)

#The Beatles #George Harrison #Paul McCartney #Ringo Starr #John Lennon #quote #quotes by George #quotes about George #George and Paul #george and john #George and Ringo #George and Tom Petty #harrisonarchive videos #1980s #1990s #fits queue like a glove

[dhaaruni]

TIL FIRE was formed in 2001 and its first case was defending a professor who joked during class on September 11, 2001, "Anybody who can blow up the Pentagon has my vote."

It's just fascinating how free speech has gone from left-wing sacrament to being right-coded when at the end of the day, policing speech is and always has been a right-wing endeavor and we as a society need to return to that framing.

#Personal

[rapeculturerealities]

Doctor Denounces C.I.A. Practice of ‘Rectal Feeding’ of Prisoners - The New York Times

Dr. Sondra S. Crosby, a court-approved expert on torture and other trauma, testified in a long-running defense effort by lawyers for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is accused of orchestrating the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole. The lawyers are seeking to suppress from his eventual trial admissions he made to federal investigators as tainted by torture.

She held up a tube that is designed to be put in a patient’s windpipe and said that — according to the agency’s once-secret records —C.I.A. prison staff inserted one just like it into Mr. Nashiri’s anus in May 2004. Agency personnel then used a syringe to inject a protein enriched nutritional shake into his body.

She testified that at Guantánamo Bay in 2013, Mr. Nashiri confided that, years earlier, C.I.A. personnel grabbed him from his cell, stripped him naked, shackled him at the wrists and ankles, bent him over a chair and administered the liquid.

He asked that she never again speak to him about it. And he did not attend the court session when she discussed it at length on Thursday.

“This was a very, very distressing painful, shameful stigmatizing event,” Dr. Crosby testified. “He experienced it as a violent rape, sexual assault.”

Another year would pass before Dr. Crosby found corroboration of the account. In December 2014, the Obama administration released a 500-page summary of a classified Senate study of the C.I.A.’s so-called black site program. It revealed the agency’s practice of using “rectal rehydration” and “rectal feeding” to punish prisoners.

At the time, the C.I.A. defended it as a sound medical procedure. The group Physicians for Human Rights then condemned the practice as “sexual assault masquerading as medical treatment.”

But this week the agency declined a request for a comment on the descriptions that were attributed to the C.I.A. in open court. Nor would an agency spokeswoman respond to Dr. Crosby’s testimony that Mr. Nashiri also told her that he was sodomized with a broom stick while the C.I.A. held him in a cell, nude with his wrists shackled above his head.

#Tw description of rape #Rape #Rape as a tool of war #guantanamo #War crimes

[zvaigzdelasas]

[Article Published in 2006]

[Jamestown is a privately-funded US think-tank]

The Chechen factor is one of the controversial issues in the modern history of Azerbaijan. Since the first Russo-Chechen war, Azerbaijan did not pursue a consistent policy concerning the conflict in the North Caucasus. While officially the authorities denied any help to the Chechen mujahideen, various NGOs and private citizens were helping the Chechen cause. Azerbaijani hospitals were helping the Chechen resistance by treating wounded guerrillas. Even the late President Geidar Aliyev acknowledged that wounded Chechens were being treated in Baku hospitals, but denied that they were involved in terrorist activities. Azerbaijan was one of the destinations where Chechen refugees went to avoid atrocities and persecution.

Both the second Russo-Chechen war as well as Putin’s aggressive policy in the former Soviet space forced Azerbaijan to change its attitude and policy toward the conflict. The xenophobia against any Muslim resistance that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States led Azerbaijan to cut off almost [sic] all unofficial support to the Chechens. In the meantime, some the Chechen refugees started to trouble the Azerbaijani authorities. Between 2001-2003, the successful penetration of Salafi ideology became one of the main problems for Azerbaijan’s security agencies. Salafi missionaries [...] from Chechnya, Dagestan and Persian Gulf countries were actively penetrating Azerbaijan. Due to the fact that Azerbaijanis are predominantly (75-80 percent) Shi’a Muslims, Salafism did not find a broad base among the local population. The Chechen refugees, however, especially the youth, were very receptive to Salafi ideas.

[Article Published in 2000]

[Eurasianet receives funding from the NED, OSF, the FCDO, & others]

The Chechen war has placed Azerbaijan in an uncomfortable geopolitical position. Russia has repeatedly accused Azerbaijan of supporting Chechen separatists, and the Kremlin has pressured Baku, seeking Azerbaijani approval for Russian military policies. Though sympathetic to the Chechen cause, Azerbaijani leaders have denied the allegations, and have sought to defend the state's sovereignty and protect its oil export options. In the latest diplomatic incident, Azerbaijani officials rejected a report that Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov and other separatist fighters were using Azerbaijan as a safe haven, the Interfax news agency reported on August 21. "There is not a single Chechen rebel on the territory of Azerbaijan," said a statement issued by Azerbaijan's National Security Ministry. Such claims made by Russian military officials were the result of either "the fruit of a sickly imagination or poor professionalism," the ministry statement added. In mid July, Russia and Azerbaijan sparred over the broadcast of an interview with [Top] Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev by a private television station in Baku. Azerbaijani officials, seeking to allay Russian concerns, initially tried to prevent the broadcast, but relented after a public outcry. The decision predictably produced outrage in the Kremlin.

[Official Statement from Artsakhi MOFA]

[Originally Published At Earliest 2006]

From 1992 to 1994, thousands of mercenaries, mostly Chechens and Afghans, were fighting on the side of Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh.

Azerbaijan started building relations with Chechnya in the beginning of 1990s, when the leader of the “Popular Front of Azerbaijan” Abulfaz Elchibey visited Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and established friendly ties with General Dzhokhar Dudayev2. In April 1992, the delegation of Muslim religious leaders of Azerbaijan visited Chechnya. According to several sources, representatives of the Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan were also secretly included in the named delegation. Apart from the discussion of procedural matters (building relations between the two states and peoples, joining efforts aimed at Islamic revival etc.), the issue of military cooperation was also touched upon during the bilateral meetings. In particular, the possibility of participation of Chechen mercenaries in hostilities against Nagorno Karabakh was discussed in return for Azerbaijan’s consent to use its territory for arms supplies to Chechnya3. The first group of Chechen mercenaries that arrived in Azerbaijan was headed by field commander Shamil Basayev, who later organized a series of violent terrorist attacks across Russian Federation and was included in the UN, US Department of State and European Union lists of designated terrorist actors.

By July 1992, there were already around 300 Chechen militants fighting against Karabakh as part of the Azerbaijani forces4. After several months of fighting against the NKR Defense Army most of the Chechen detachments, having suffered heavy losses and leaving behind captives, left the battle-fields and returned to Chechnya. At the same time, representatives of Chechnya arrived in Stepanakert to conduct negotiations aimed at releasing captive Chechen fighters, which resulted in an agreement to extradite the prisoners. However, the cooperation between Azerbaijan and Chechnya did not end with that, rather it developed further, particularly in the field of arms trade.5 Azerbaijan became a transit country for supplying weapons and material aid to Chechen militants.6 The impunity of Azerbaijan's first attempt to use mercenaries inspired Azerbaijani authorities to engage new groups, this time from among Afghan militants.7 In the summer of 1993, when Azerbaijani army was suffering serious military setbacks on the Karabakh frontline, Baku turned to Afghan authorities for support; seeking to engage Afghan mujahideen in hostilities against Nagorno Karabakh self-defense forces.

In July 1993, Deputy Minister of the Interior of Azerbaijan Rovshan Javadov arrived in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, where he had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Afghanistan, the leader of the party “Hizb i Islami” (Islamic Party) Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to negotiate on sending Afghan militants to Azerbaijan.8 According to several sources, in different periods of 1993-1994, the number of Afghan mujahideen employed in Azerbaijani forces ranged from 1000 to 3000.9[...]

Along with Chechen and Afghan mercenaries, Turkish military advisers and militants of the Turkish nationalist organization “Grey Wolves” (Bozkurt) were fighting on the Azerbaijani side. Beyond the direct involvement of separate Turkish detachments in the hostilities on Karabakh battlefield, around 150 high-ranking officers of the Turkish Army, including 10 retired generals, actively participated in the planning of combat operations and training of subversive and assault units of the Azerbaijani Army in the beginning of 1992.10 During the entire war period, Turkey provided comprehensive military support to Azerbaijan both in terms of army building, and military and logistical supplies. In military actions against Artsakh, mercenaries from CIS countries fought as part of the Azerbaijani forces as well, mainly reinforcing the crews of combat vehicles and machinery of the Azerbaijani Army. Engagement of mercenaries, especially Chechen and Afghan militants, in combat actions in Karabakh, and also the fact that they settled down in Azerbaijan, eventually turned into a serious problem for Azerbaijani authorities. Some of them engaged in criminal affairs instead of participating in military actions or demanded very large remuneration for their participation in hostilities. Involvement of Afghan mujahideen in the conflict zone became the main factor making Azerbaijan a transit country for transportation of illegal drugs to Russia and Europe11 as well as a transit and provisioning point for terrorists and terrorist activities.12

[RFE/RL is US State Media]

[Article Published in 2020]

Mohammad Younas is nostalgic about his time fighting with Azerbaijani forces in the war against Armenians for the Nagorno-Karabakh territory in the early 1990s[...]

“My real motivation in going to Azerbaijan was participating in a jihad, but I also wanted to make some money,” he told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan. Younas was among the thousands of Afghan fighters that Hezb-e Islami, a major Afghan Islamist party [founded by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar & funded by the CIA], sent to Azerbaijan in the 1990s to bolster Baku's war against Armenia. The conflict between the two Soviet republics mushroomed into a full-scale war after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, which preceded the demise of Afghanistan’s communist regime in April 1992.[...]

While far from being materially involved in the current war over Nagorno-Karabakh, Kabul still supports Baku’s position, which sees Yerevan as occupying its territory -- a position also recognized internationally. Afghanistan’s declared support for Azerbaijan has prompted Armenia to push for an end to Kabul's observer status in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russia-led regional alliance.[...]

Hekmatyar still celebrates sending people like Younas and thousands more of his supporters to fight for Azerbaijan after it requested help. In a speech to his supporters last week, he said that in response to an Azerbaijani request he told Afghan refugees in Iran to join the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh. “A sizeable number of our mujahedin went there and scored numerous victories,” he told supporters at a Kabul mosque. “They pushed back the Armenians within the initial days and captured many territories. Their advances continued until the Azerbaijani officials approached us ahead of impending talks that resulted in a cease-fire,” he said, referring to an armistice in May 1994 that ended nearly six years of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.[...]

Upon his return to Afghanistan in June, Younas was paid more than $1,500 for his participation in the fighting by his party, which confirms speculation that Afghan fighters were recruited as mercenaries by Azerbaijan.[...]

[Hekmatyar’s son-in-law and a senior Hezb-e Islami leader] says Hezb-e Islami fighters ultimately contributed to forcing the Armenians to accept a cease-fire. Beginning in late 1993, Armenian authorities protested the recruitment of Afghans by Azerbaijan.

#hekmatyar basayev dudayev #its like a who's who #half expecting shah massoud to show up somehow

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Bill Bramhall

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 12, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

FEB 12, 2024

Today’s big story continues to be Trump’s statement that he “would encourage [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want” to countries that are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) if those countries are, in his words, “delinquent.” Both Democrats and Republicans have stood firm behind NATO since Dwight D. Eisenhower ran for president in 1952 to put down the isolationist wing of the Republican Party, and won.

National security specialist Tom Nichols of The Atlantic expressed starkly just what this means: “The leader of one of America’s two major political parties has just signaled to the Kremlin that if elected, he would not only refuse to defend Europe, but he would gladly support Vladimir Putin during World War III and even encourage him to do as he pleases to America’s allies.” Former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark called Trump’s comments “treasonous.”

To be clear, Trump’s beef with NATO has nothing to do with money. Trump has always misrepresented NATO as a sort of protection racket, but as Nick Paton Walsh of CNN put it today: “NATO is not an alliance based on dues: it is the largest military bloc in history, formed to face down the Soviet threat, based on the collective defense that an attack on one is an attack on all—a principle enshrined in Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty.”

On April 4, 1949, the United States and eleven other nations in North America and Europe came together to sign the original NATO declaration. It established a military alliance that guaranteed collective security because all of the member states agreed to defend each other against an attack by a third party. At the time, their main concern was resisting Soviet aggression, but with the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Russian president Vladimir Putin, NATO resisted Russian aggression instead. 

Article 5 of the treaty requires every nation to come to the aid of any one of them if it is attacked militarily. That article has been invoked only once: after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, after which NATO-led troops went to Afghanistan. 

In 2006, NATO members agreed to commit at least 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP, a measure of national production) to their own defense spending in order to make sure that NATO remained ready for combat. The economic crash of 2007–2008 meant a number of governments did not meet this commitment, and in 2014, allies pledged to do so. Although most still do not invest 2% of their GDP in their militaries, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014 motivated countries to speed up that investment.

On the day NATO went into effect, President Harry S. Truman said, “If there is anything inevitable in the future, it is the will of the people of the world for freedom and for peace.” In the years since 1949, his observation seems to have proven correct. NATO now has 31 member nations.

Crucially, NATO acts not only as a response to attack, but also as a deterrent, and its strength has always been backstopped by the military strength of the U.S., including its nuclear weapons. Trump has repeatedly attacked NATO and said he would take the U.S. out of it in a second term, alarming Congress enough that last year it put into the National Defense Authorization Act a measure prohibiting any president from leaving NATO without the approval of two thirds of the Senate or a congressional law.

But as Russia specialist Anne Applebaum noted in The Atlantic last month, even though Trump might have trouble actually tossing out a long-standing treaty that has safeguarded national security for 75 years, the realization that the U.S. is abandoning its commitment to collective defense would make the treaty itself worthless. Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholtz called the attack on NATO’s mutual defense guarantee “irresponsible and dangerous,” and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, “Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines our security.”

Applebaum noted on social media that “Trump's rant…will persuade Russia to keep fighting in Ukraine and, in time, to attack a NATO country too.” She urged people not to “let [Florida senator Marco] Rubio, [South Carolina senator Lindsey] Graham or anyone try to downplay or alter the meaning of what Trump did: He invited Russia to invade NATO. It was not a joke and it will certainly not be understood that way in Moscow.”

She wrote last month that the loss of the U.S. as an ally would force European countries to “cozy up to Russia,” with its authoritarian system, while Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) suggested that many Asian countries would turn to China as a matter of self-preservation. Countries already attacking democracy “would have a compelling new argument in favor of autocratic methods and tactics.” Trade agreements would wither, and the U.S. economy would falter and shrink.

Former governor of South Carolina and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, whose husband is in the military and is currently deployed overseas, noted: “He just put every military member at risk and every one of our allies at risk just by saying something at a rally.” Conservative political commentator and former Bulwark editor in chief Charlie Sykes noted that Trump is “signaling weakness,… appeasement,…  surrender…. One of the consistent things about Donald Trump has been his willingness to bow his knee to Vladimir Putin. To ask for favors from Vladimir Putin…. This comes amid his campaign to basically kneecap the aid to Ukraine right now. People ought to take this very, very seriously because it feels as if we are sleepwalking into a global catastrophe…. ” 

President Joe Biden asked Congress to pass a supplemental national security bill back in October of last year to provide additional funding for Ukraine and Israel, as well as for the Indo-Pacific. MAGA Republicans insisted they would not pass such a measure unless it contained border security protections, but when Senate negotiators actually produced such protections earlier this month, Trump opposed the measure and Republicans promptly killed it. 

There remains a bipartisan majority in favor of aid to Ukraine, and the Senate appears on the verge of passing a $95 billion funding package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. In part, this appears to be an attempt by Republican senators to demonstrate their independence from Trump, who has made his opposition to the measure clear and, according to Katherine Tulluy-McManus and Ursula Perano of Politico, spent the weekend telling senators not to pass it. South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, previously a Ukraine supporter, tonight released a statement saying he will vote no on the measure.

Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl News recorded how Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) weighed in on the issue during debate today: “This is not a stalemate. This guy [Putin] is on life support… He will not survive if NATO gets stronger.” If the bill does not pass, Tillis said, “You will see the alliance that is supporting Ukraine crumble.” For his part, Tillis wanted no part of that future: “I am not going to be on that page in history.” 

If the Senate passes the bill, it will go to the House, where MAGA Republicans who oppose Ukraine funding have so far managed to keep the measure from being taken up. Although it appears likely there is a majority in favor of the bill, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) tonight preemptively rejected the measure, saying that it is nonstarter because it does not address border security.  

Tonight, Trump signaled his complete takeover of the Republican Party. He released a statement confirming that, having pressured Ronna McDaniel to resign as head of the Republican National Committee, he is backing as co-chairs fervent loyalists Michael Whatley, who loudly supported Trump’s claims of fraud after the 2020 presidential election, and his own daughter-in-law Lara Trump, wife of Trump’s second son, Eric. Lara has never held a leadership position in the party. Trump also wants senior advisor to the Trump campaign Chris LaCivita to become the chief operating officer of the Republican National Committee.

This evening, Trump’s lawyers took the question of whether he is immune from prosecution for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election to the Supreme Court. Trump has asked the court to stay last week’s ruling of the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals that he is not immune. A stay would delay the case even further than the two months it already has been delayed by his litigation of the immunity issue. Trump’s approach has always been to stall the cases against him for as long as possible. If the justices deny his request, the case will go back to the trial court and Trump could stand trial.  

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Bill Bramhall #political cartoon #shot dead on 5th avenue #NATO #Letters from An American #Heather Cox Richardson #MAGA craziness #national security #history #MAGA Republicans #war in Ukraine

[dukeofankh]

I've been treated to some truly wild takes on the genocide in Gaza and the accompanying protests at this point, including from some people I used to respect, but by far the most unhinged line of reasoning I've seen has to be "guh, of course there's war crimes happening in Gaza. All wars have war crimes. Nobody was ever mad when other countries did war crimes, but they're mad now. I wonder what's different this time? That's right, it's an opportunity to hate Jewish people. Folks showing their true colours I guess..."

Like...so much stuff going on there.

First of all, uh, we have actually been pretty mad about war crimes done by other countries. Including by the US! I've seen the line "this is like our 9/11, do you get it now?" so many times. And hey, I remember 9/11 and the following shift in western politics, but I have received the troubling news lot that a lot of full blown adults with political opinions were somehow born after 9/11. I now feel old. Anyway, for those people, I will tell you that even after 9/11, there were protests against going to war in Afghanistan.

"Our Grief is Not a Cry for War"

-Button worn at protest in NYC on Oct. 1, 2001

"You are sending another powerful message to Number 10 and to the White House that we are not simply going to allow the atrocities of September 11 to be replaced with further atrocities in Afghanistan."

- Paul Marsden, UK MP at London protest on Nov. 18, 2001

People do care. People have always cared. The movement to free Palestine seems bigger, but that's because it's joining an organized movement that has been working for decades to bring attention to this cause. People are so angry because the Israeli government is being so strident, gleeful, and vocal about its genocidal intentions. People in the west care so much because our governments are allied with Israel and we are directly culpable for what happens under our watch and with our aid. People are upset that Israel has dropped 22,000 bombs on Gaza in a month and a half, over the explosive power of two nuclear bombs. They're mad not just because that's deplorable, but that that is especially deplorable. That is more than the United States dropped on Afghanistan in 2001 (17,500 bombs), despite Gaza being 14,000 times smaller. As I said, people have always protested war and the crimes inherent to war, but If some people seem more angry at Israel it is because what Israel is doing is legitimately, objectively, and measurably worse.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/12/09/us-weapons-israel-gaza/

Secondly...okay, let's pretend none of that was true. Let's pretend people are just massive hypocrites who say they hate it when children and hospitals get bombed and are more angry when people do that harder, but in fact they actually usually ignore it as long as it isn't Israel doing it. Someone being a hypocrite does not actually make their point invalid. That's just tu quoque, or "you also", a basicass logical fallacy. Even if someone else is a hypocrite, war crimes are still bad and you should be against them happening.

Like, I feel like the reason this keeps coming up isn't to convince Israel's critics. It's apologetics. It's to convince supporters of Israel, not even that they're right, but that everyone else is wrong and antisemitic and evil, so that they can be ignored. Don't worry! Sure there's this niggling little worry that Israel might be going too far, but everything you hear pushing that position is said by people who don't believe it and only say it because they hate you.

Sure, many Zionists defend Israel as doing nothing wrong, or try to discredit the reporting of what they're doing wrong, but people with inconveniently strong critical thinking skills need a fallback to ease their cognitive dissonance, so apologists have this gem.

Like...if you needed someone else to spell it out for you, "but everyone else gets to do genocides, it's only fair I get to do one too...please it's my birthday I don't know why everyone is being so mean...🥺" Is not a good enough reason to get to do a genocide. There is no reason good enough.

"The War on Terror was a fraudulent idiotic tantrum that has caused horrific and permanent damage to the Middle East" was and continues to be an extremely common position among the left, and even some right wingers feel like it was a mistake at this point. But even if they didn't, even if everyone was mad at just Israel and only Israel, even if it was because everyone was super antisemitic...a stopped clock is right twice a day. Genocide is still bad, and would, in fact, be worse than hypocrisy.

#me writing stuff

[remembertheplunge]

5/20/2005

One month to 50th birthday. 30 days to reflect.

“The trip may not be easy, but, even for only a moment of memory, it may be worth the effort.”  Soul Mates  by Thomas Moore, page 10.

The 40’s:

6/20/1995-6/20/2005

The 40’s: First full decade out as a gay man to parents and family

The 40’s: 8 year relationship with Jim

The 40’s: Fired and hired 1000 times, well, maybe 100 times , the fired part. (Re: my criminal defense clients and cases and my Public Defender job)

The40’s: Employee (Public Defender’s office) to being my own boss (private law practice)

The 40’s: SCAP to SCAP free (SCAP: Stanislau County Aids Project volunteer)

The 40’s: working in an office to working at home

The 40’s: working in suits to working in  shorts

The 40’s: Travel to staying home

The 40’s: My father, Jim’s Father and Jim’s mother live and die.

The 40’s: Century turns

The 40’s: 9 elevens and space shuttle scuttles (9/11/2001 Trade Towers attack and 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia explodes in fight).

The 40’s: Clinton Teased and Bush whacked  (The US Presidents 1995-2005)

The 40’s: Single to married

The 40’s: car phone to cell phone

The 40’s: VCR to DVD

#5/20/2005 #the 40s #journaling #gaylife #gay partner

[offender42085]

Post 867

Brandon Thomas Brown, Pennsylvania inmate FM6205, born 1985, incarceration intake in 2003 at age 17, sentenced to 50 years to life, scheduled release date not available

Criminal Homicide, Kidnapping, Rape, Assault

“Justice has been served today.”  That was the response of the mother of 6-year-old murder victim Jasmine Stoud shortly made in August 2022 after the person convicted of killing her daughter 21 years ago was resentenced by Northumberland County President Judge Charles H. Saylor to 50 years to life imprisonment for criminal homicide.

In addition to being resentenced on the homicide offense, Brown, who is now 36, received concurrent sentences of three to 20 years each in state prison on two counts of kidnapping and five to 20 years each in state prison on two counts of rape. Two counts of aggravated assault were merged for sentencing purposes.

Brown was given credit for 20 years, 11 months and 19 days already served in prison, which means his minimum sentence will be reduced to approximately 29 years before he would be eligible for parole.

The felony offenses were filed by Coal Township police against Brown, who was 15 at the time, for kidnapping, assaulting, raping and killing Stoud on Aug. 11, 2001, in a wooded area not far from their West Walnut Street homes in Coal Township.

Prior to sentencing, Stoud’s mother, Rebecca Diaz Richards, who currently resides in Vernal, Utah, addressed the court.

Richards, who broke down crying several times during her emotional victim impact statement, said she believes Brown’s original sentence of life in prison without parole was an appropriate sentence and didn’t see the need to resentence him.

Following resentencing, Richards added, “Justice was served today. I’m very happy with the outcome. Jasmine was a very beautiful little girl. She was loving and caring.”

Brown’s parents and a brother attended the resentencing, but declined comment.

Northumberland County First Assistant District Attorney Robyn Zenzinger, who prosecuted the resentencing case, said, “I respect the decision of the court. It was a very challenging case and I hope the family is able to find some peace.”

Defense attorney James Best reserved comment as did the defendant upon being escorted from the courthouse.

Also in the courtroom during the legal proceeding to show their support for Jasmine’s family were retired Coal Township Police Chief Richard Higgins, retired Coal Township Detective Charles Pensyl III and retired Northumberland County District Attorney Tony Rosini.

The judge had the option of resentencing Brown to life in prison with or without a chance for parole, granting a new sentence with a minimum and maximum incarceration period, or imposing a reduced sentence.

Brown was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of all charges by a jury in Northumberland County on Jan. 24, 2003. In addition to the life sentence, Brown also was ordered by then-President Judge Robert B. Sacavage to serve a consecutive sentence of 17 to 70 years for kidnapping, rape and other charges.

3f

[anthonybialy]

Israel Battles Evildoers Who Got Rich for Some Reason

Hamas doesn’t switch to a rainbow avatar for June.  I’m trying to get liberals to hate them.  These are tough times for the anti-Semitic.  You don’t have to feel bad for the worst sort of haters.  Save concern for an assaulted nation that is demonized for existing.

Baseless vitriol has escalated to monstrous action.  Slaughtering people going about their lives constitutes the clearest violation of life itself as possible in case anyone’s unclear.  One party seems disturbingly so.  The sole country in the Middle East without oil functions the best, which enrages those whose faith revolves around jealousy.

One side created civilization out of nothing. The other tries to turn civilization into nothing.  All-time lies accusing Jews of doing awful things while actual awful things are done to them is one of humanity’s most appalling regular occurrences.  The latest war could only seem worse upon realizing it’s nothing new.

Half of the sides are fiendish.  Invading terrorists may just be the bad guys.  Forget gruesome nonsense about Israel stealing land nobody wanted and that they just might have resided upon a few thousand years ago: acting like both attacker and target are perpetrators is the sophisticated way to lie.  You just know Israel’s foes were asking by noon on September 11, 2001 why they hate us.

“Cycle of violence” is the dark magic phrase to spot.  Anti-Semites realize how unpopular they are right now, so they conceal their bigotry by condemning an alleged cycle instead of the terrorists who began it.  A mugger attacks victim.  Said victim defends against threat to life, property, and liberty.  Liberals shake their heads at the actions of both.  The phonily high-minded would’ve lamented the cycle of violence on D-Day.

Israel’s antagonists pair pretend outrage with actual harm.  As usual, Democrats spurred agony by trying to help.  That’s sadly the best-case scenario.  You might be more generous than deserved and presume they’re not actively encouraging mayhem.  The best case is that doing such would require planning ahead.

Stimulus checks for Hamas got their sole industry humming.  A foreign policy that was already discredited has added granting an allowance to barbarians as a bullet/low point.

It turns out there are worse bribes than giving liberals useless degrees at taxpayer expense.  You’ll be shocked to learn those who shriek about paying back money they borrowed to major in political science so they can afford to keep patronizing artisan baristas don’t grasp how budgeting works.

Blaming the police for crime has devastated countless innocent humans.  The principle has gone international.  The baffling view that cops were the ones causing problems enabled subway-shovers. Its daft holders covered Iran’s discretionary rocket budget.

The White House did their part to wreck society and inhabitants by bailing out America’s sworn enemy.  That’s America’s White House, for the record.  The typical excuse is their usual one, namely that they had no idea their ideas would unleash perniciousness.  Ruining budgets for Americans is accompanied by tossing cash at lunatic mullahs.

Democrats believed Saddam Hussein was building a chocolate chip factory, too.  The only thing keeping Iran from prompting more devastation is ineptness.  Joe Biden is here to help them.  Claims that Iran’s trust fund won’t be spent irresponsibly are based in a Post-it stuck on the cash sacks noting it’s for humanitarian aid, which would be laughable if not for the blood splattered on Israeli streets.  Their pet terrorists attacked Israel less than a month after funds suddenly became free. This presidency strongly discourages noticing consequences.

Earth’s most nefarious terror state used different bills to fund terror, so tell your conscience to pipe down.  Take from this pile, not that one.  A notion that’s either disingenuous or ignorant sums up liberal thinking.  The mob budgets in the same way, with the difference being they can operate businesses.

Iran’s centrifuges spin in celebration.  The usual mendacious scumbags cherish the subsidy, although they won’t send a thank you card.  Democrats have gone out of their way to enable shoplifters, violent agents of urban chaos, and border-hoppers, so the terrible assault against Israel is no more surprising than who facilitated it.

Leave it to liberals to not grasp how loosening up dollars permits spending on other things.  Why would anyone stick to some lame budget?  Iran could’ve just printed more money.

An unwillingness to modify a budget because it would mean less fun is the signature economic principle from the adult children staffing this White House.  You might have to choose grilled cheese instead of Chuck E. Cheese if funds are tight unless you live near the Tehran location.  Under Biden, bread is a luxury, but only in his home country.

Iran’s hobby is funding terrorism.  Their free-time pursuit was funded by Biden putting them on the honor system.  Aiding maliciousness while hassling the decent is regrettably natural from an administration through its consistent opposition to reality.

Biden’s pals are being uncool.  His fervent dedication to attempting peace by befriending the sinister hasn’t quite convinced them to behave.  He’s still lunching alone in the cafeteria.

Inflation making money worth less finally helps, as medieval intruders couldn’t buy as many implements to inflict atrocities.  Liberating funds on September 11 for a real cartoonish villain was not just symbolically disgusting.

Heinous Hamas will find a new homeland in the sea.  The prototypical human demons are as evil as they are stupid.  An excuse for Israel to remove a roving gang of serial killers will be executed with no help from a feckless president that allows mayhem like a substitute teacher.

Hamas failed to anticipate Israel’s righteously swift response for the same shortsighted reason lottery winners who don’t plan ahead spend until they’re broke.  They just bought rockets with the Biden cash infusion instead of McMansions.

Opening wallets so terror benefactors can grab walking-around money turns out to not be a super strategy for finances and pace.  A president who wants to disarm law-abiding Americans coordinated Venmoing the Hamas rocket fund.  Add “fungible” to the ceaseless list of words liberals don’t understand.

#Israel #Iran #Joe Biden #Hamas #terrorism

[reality-detective]

DJT's EXECUTIVE ORDERS 👇

13818

● Confiscated private and corporate assets

● Seized the NYSE

● Blocking the property of those involved in serious human rights abuses or corruption. human trafficking

13848

● Imposes certain sanctions in the event of foreign interference in any of the United States choice

13959

● Maintain American leadership in artificial intelligence, Khazarian assets confiscated

● Among the top 3 executive orders - many DS assets were confiscated and DS Agents reversed

○ 13818, 13848 and 13959

● The Space Force has EVERYTHING under control!

● DS money will be used up quickly

● All DS gold has already been confiscated (Vatican etc.)

● Wall Street, Washington DC, Vatican and City of London - all dead

● OPERATION: DEFEND EUROPE. This started March 17th 2020 and takes over the Vatican, it's the mafia and it's seizing all the Rothschilds central banks

● Brexit has severed the Vatican's ropes and stripped the Royals of all assets

● We're going to Tesla and metals instead of oil and gas

GESARA – Global Economic Security and Reform Act

● It should be implemented on 10/11/2001. Stopped by the Khazarian false flag event on 9/11

● Elimination of the national debt of all nations of the world

● No taxes. Only a fixed sales tax of around 15% on new goods

● Waiving of mortgages and other bank departments due to illegal government activities

● Back to constitutional law - get rid of the corrupt law of the sea

● Newly elected leaders - only 10% of current governments

● World peace for 1,000 years

● Eliminate all current and future nuclear weapons on planet earth

● Gold Standard!

● Introduction of new hidden technologies - 6,000 Tesla patents. free energy

● Build and rebuild in all countries at 1950s prices

● The power back to We The People. Global distribution of wealth

● Odin project = World EBS (Emergency Broadcast System)

#pay attention #educate yourself #educate yourselves #knowledge is power #reeducate yourself #reeducate yourselves #think for yourself #think for yourselves #think about it #do your homework #executive orders #question everything #ask yourself questions

[witchimagefanfic]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Three.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

579,734

3. What fandoms do you write for?

On ao3? Harry Potter, Funny Games (2007) and an obscure Slenderman ARG called EverymanHYBRID (???)

But wait. There's more. I've posted stories on fanfiction.net about The Dark Knight (Joker x OC), Labyrinth (Jareth x OC), Repo! The Genetic Opera (Graverobber x OC) and Phantom of the Opera (Erik x (you guessed it!) OC)

But wait. There's even more. In my google drive live (and die) dozens of unpublished fanfics from various fandoms. Right now, my favorite is about Resident Evil: Village (Heisenberg x OC), but god there are so many more. Every time I fixate on a piece of media, I have to write about it and insert myself into the universe. Usually I abandon the fics though.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Broken Silence (Harry Potter, Snape x OC)

:D (EverymanHYBRID, HABIT x OC)

Whether by knife or whether by gun (Funny Games, Paul x OC)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

No, only occasionally. I could be better about it but anxiety. Plus I get quite a lot of comments and idk...I'd feel bad making it a habit if I only had the bandwidth to answer some. Plus PLUS most of what I would say boils down to "thanks for reading bby" and that gets repetitive. I do read and cherish every single comment I get though.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Haven't ended any yet. Striving to make people cry with BS though.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Again, I have a terrible habit of simply just never ending my fanfictions.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No. Well, once someone tried to defend JKR. Like ??? what a hill to die on.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yeah. Dom/sub vibes, flavors of daddy issues and brat taming, maybe some dubcon floating around.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I have this one wild fanfiction that's a crossover of the 2001 Stephen King miniseries Rose Red and the videogame Dishonored. I wish I was fucking joking. Otherwise no.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. Other stories yes, though.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Well people asked, but I don't think I ever replied.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not unless you could DnD stuff.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

I think I'm abnormal among fandom authors because I never get very excited about shipping canon characters. The one exception is Dean x Castiel -- I am a fucking DIE HARD Destiel shipper. But otherwise, fanfiction for me is about inserting myself or my relatable characters into fandoms.

So when you ask my favorite ship, it's gotta be me x Karl Heisenberg.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Take your pick. Probably the Repo! fic I started in college.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. Flow. ... clarity?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Metaphors and poetry. Can't do that shit. If I write something beautiful, it's because I tripped over my own feet and accidentally landed in it.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Cool, do it, just do your research. Does feel a tiny bit pedantic though.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Labyrinth. I was like 10 and Jareth was ALL I could think about.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

I'd like to say Broken Silence, and in a lot of ways it is. It's certainly the fic I'm proudest of, and one I'm certain to finish. But in terms of just me having fun? My Heisenberg fic is eating my brain right now. Someday I'll post it. Probably.