Monday, April 8, 2024

Who will stand with Donald?

Tuhin Das Mahapatra (THE HINUDSTAN TIMES) reports:

A New York appeals court judge has denied a request by former President Donald Trump to postpone his upcoming criminal trial over hush-money payments.

The trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection on April 15th. Trump’s legal team had sought an emergency hearing to argue for the trial’s delay, hoping to relocate the proceedings from Manhattan, where they claim political bias due to its Democratic-leaning populace.


As you know, that is only one of the trials Mr. Trump is a defendant in.  REUTERS notes another, "The special counsel pursuing federal criminal charges against Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss filed a U.S. Supreme Court brief on Monday urging the justices to reject the former president's bid for immunity from prosecution on the principle that 'no person is above the law'." 




Guess who is backing Jack Smith's prosecution?  Gabe Whisnant (NEWSWEEK) reports:

Ty Cobb, Donald Trump's former White House lawyer, was among a group of 13 former prosecutors, constitutional lawyers and elected and government officials to sign a Supreme Court brief supporting Special Counsel Jack Smith against Trump on the argument of presidential immunity.

Cobb served as Trump's special counsel for two years. He was joined in signing the brief by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, along with Bill Kristol, who served as Chief of Staff under Vice President Dan Quayle.

The nation's highest court will hear oral arguments on the presidential immunity debate April 25 as part of Trump's aim to dismiss Smith's 2020 election obstruction case into the former president, where the Republican has pleaded not guilty to four federal charges.

The brief's preparation was led by Seth Waxman, a former U.S. Solicitor General. Conservative anti-Trump lawyer and legal analyst George Conway also signed the "friends of the court" brief.

The key arguments of the amicus brief are: The Constitution does not endow former presidents with immunity from criminal prosecution. And, in addition, even if former presidents had some limited immunity against criminal prosecution for certain official acts, it could not conceivably reach the acts alleged here.


Those who know him do not appear to want Mr. Trump back in the White House.   That point is made clearer in Michelle L. Price report for THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:


Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper has called him a “threat to democracy.” Former national security adviser John Bolton has declared him “unfit to be president.” And former Vice President Mike Pence has declined to endorse him, citing “profound differences.”

As Donald Trump seeks the presidency for a third time, he is being vigorously opposed by a vocal contingent of former officials who are stridently warning against his return to power and offering dire predictions for the country and the rule of law if his campaign succeeds.

It’s a striking chorus of detractors, one without precedent in the modern era, coming from those who witnessed firsthand his conduct in office and the turmoil that followed.

Sarah Matthews, a former Trump aide who testified before the House Jan. 6 committee and is among those warning about the threat he poses, said it’s “mind-boggling” how many members of his senior staff have denounced him.

“These are folks who saw him up close and personal and saw his leadership style,” Matthews said. “The American people should listen to what these folks are saying because it should be alarming that the people that Trump hired to work for him a first term are saying that he’s unfit to serve for a second term.”


This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:


Monday, April 8, 2024.  Calls grow for Netanyahu to step down six months into the never-ending assault on Gaza. 


Saturday, throughout Israel, protests took place calling for early elections and for Netanyahu to resign.  Charlie Summers (TIMES OF ISRAEL) notes the protests continued on Sunday,


During the demonstration, large sections of the crowd repeatedly broke into chants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, eschewing the Hostage and Missing Families Forum’s staunch refusal to take a partisan stance and reflecting growing frustration among many over the government’s inability to negotiate freedom for the captives, which include 129 kidnapped on October 7 and four others in captivity for nearly a decade. The number includes the remains of over two dozen captives Israel believes to be dead.

During a speech by Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, protesters drowned him out with cries of “Deal now!”

“Half a year is half a year too much, for each and every one of the hostages,” said Lion.

The anti-government tone intensified as Yehuda Cohen, father of the captive soldier Nimrod Cohen, tore into the current government, calling on Netanyahu to resign. Swaths of the crowd responded jeered with each mention of Netanyahu’s name.


Netanyahu is a War Criminal.  He is also a failure who should have made a deal to bring all the hostages home immediately but instead allowed them to continue to be held for a month, for two, for three, for four, for five and now for more than six months.

It's not just the stress that this has put on the loved ones that needs to be called out, it's also the fact that the longer someone is held, the less chance that they will make it out.  

The people of Israel wanted the hostages back, they wanted them to be released.  Instead, Netanyahu has dicked them around for six months and put his own interests ahead of the needs of the people he is supposed to be serving. 

Protests with chants to bring the hostages home did not start last week, they've been taking place all along and Netanyahu has ignored this demand, has ignored his responsibility to the hostages and to see that they are returned safely.  

He is a disgrace on every level and the anger aimed at him -- from all over the world -- has been earned and then some.

For six months now, the world has allowed Netanyahu's killing spree and War Crimes to continue.

Retired Air Force Master Sgt Wes Bryan appeared on PBS' THE NEWS HOUR Friday on a segment about the murder of the seven aid workers on the World Central Kitchen mission to deliver food to the starving in Gaza.  He observed, "I think that, when you have an overall culture of what seems to be callousness and indifference towards civilian harm, disregard for international humanitarian law and an overaggressiveness, really an emotional campaign that's being waged by the IDF, the probability of these kind of targeting mistakes increases tenfold."  That sentence more than sums up the actions Netanyahu has ordered and pursued for six months. 


Around the world, the 'woopsie' is not being accepted.  They deliberately killed seven aid workers.  It's an international outrage.  What the Israeli government did not grasp is that the horror has become personal.  The world watches the Palestinians attacked daily, murdered and wounded, starved.  And the world is horrified.  Aid workers go to assist the Palestinians and the world wants to believe that they can help but watches as the aid workers are murdered, watches as people who were there to help are instead murdered and it's outrageous.  It registers -- we can all imagine being in need of aid and wanting people to help us and to see those trying to help being murdered is outrageous. 


To understand why seven aid workers were killed by Israel earlier this week in Gaza only requires a short-term memory.

Their deaths were not a “tragic event … that happens in war”, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in a statement meant to blunt the “outrage” over the killings.

No, the seven souls, employed by World Central Kitchen (WCK) travelling in a convoy in Deir el-Balah after unloading 100 tonnes of food aid at its central Gaza warehouse, were casualties of a directive issued by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on October 9.

Gallant’s remarks were televised to convey to the world Israel’s uncompromising resolve and intent.

“We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything will be closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly,” Gallant said.

Gallant has kept his word. Famine is rampant in Gaza. Israel’s aim is to starve Palestinians into submission and capitulation. Anyone, from anywhere who feeds the Palestinians is, de facto, a legitimate military target and Israel has acted “accordingly”.




Israel has not yet provided a satisfactory explanation for the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

"We don't find the explanations to be satisfactory to this point," he told state broadcaster ABC.

"We need proper accountability, we need full transparency about the circumstances, and I think that is what the Australian public would expect."

Mr Albanese declined to say whether he would consider diplomatic sanctions on Israel should it fail to provide more information about the strikes.

Australia has appointed a senior former military official to study Israelis investigation into the killings, which it has called a "grave mistake". 



REUTERS notes the 'woopsie' from the Israeli government over the murders of the seven aid workers is not flying with a humanitarian group, "The Doctors Without Borders medical charity (MSF) said on Thursday it rejected Israel's position that an airstrike which killed seven aid workers was a 'regrettable incident', saying many humanitarian personnel have been attacked previously."  Of course, they don't accept it.  The murders of the seven -- Australian Lalzawmi 'Zomi' Frankcom, US-Canadian Jacob Flickinger, Polish Damian Sobol and British James Kirby, John Chapman, James Henderson and Paletinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha?  Those weren't the first aid workers killed by the Israeli government.  AP counts 224 aid workers killed in the last six months. Health care workers?  AP counts 484.  Journalists?  95.  Indiscriminate killings taking place daily.

That includes the murders of at least 13,800 children (that's the Save The Children figure).  

Over half a million children right now are sheltering in Rafah -- they were told this was where to go -- by the Israeli government -- and now they shelter in fear because Netanyahu now wants to attack Rafah.  BBC NEWS notes:



We’ve been hearing from some of the 600,000 children sheltering in the city of Rafah about their fears of coming under attack and the destruction that awaits them in their hometowns.

The Israeli military previously told people across Gaza to evacuate to Rafah, declaring it a safe zone, but now appears to be planning to enter the city, saying an offensive is necessary to eliminate Hamas.

Saad Ouda, 14, is originally from Khan Younis and told BBC Arabic that he hoped to return there, even if his house is no longer standing.

“Go to Khan Younis and you will find everything destructed, all our houses have been destroyed,” he said.

“And yet I would rather sit on the remains of my house rather than sitting in Rafah.

“My siblings are scared and crying. My only wish in life is to go back home and live in peace. Enough humiliation and enough bombardment.

“We sleep here in Rafah with our eyes open. The forces told us to go to Rafah [and] that it is a safe zone but it is completely unsafe.”

He said that, for him and the other children of Gaza, “life has been a constant war ever since we were born”.

“What can we do? We as children in Gaza didn't have the privilege to enjoy life like children in the rest of the world. Nothing, no games, no water, no food,” he said.

“We are always suffocating and trapped and our life is unlike the rest of the world. We have been at war for six months and not a single passing day was good.

“Everything is war. Our eyes don’t shut, nor do we sleep like other people, nor is their food, nor is this our life.”


Who is going to save these children?  Joe Biden?  Is that a joke?  He's not saying no to invading Rafah, he's saying have a plan.  These children are being terrorized and the president of the United States will not come to their aid.  Joe won't even cut off the weapon supply to the Israeli government. 




Sara Pequeño (USA TODAY) observes: 

Cameron Jones is a sophomore at Columbia University. He has family in Israel and has visited more than once, but he’s also a member of the college’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and a vocal opponent of Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

His family abroad doesn't know about the organizing he's done, nor do they know that he is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Columbia after the JVP chapter was suspended in November. 

Since Hamas strikes prompted Israel to begin attacking Gaza on Oct. 7, Jones and other students – mostly queer people, people of color and women – have been organizing to demand Columbia divest from companies and institutions that support Israel. 

“I feel as though I have more of a duty to stand up against what is wrong,” Jones told me during a recent phone call. 

Almost 33,000 Palestinians have died in the past six months. The images and information coming out of the Gaza Strip, like the Israeli airstrike that killed seven aid workers last week, have been difficult to see.

Calling for an end to the conflict is important to the nation’s youngest voters, and President Joe Biden needs to take a firm stance on the issue ahead of the election. He is one of the most powerful men in the world; what he says can impact how Israel is seen by its peers. If Biden called for a cease-fire, even a short-term one, it would likely be taken seriously by Israel. Biden has come out against the dangers that civilians in the region are facing, but it's not enough.


While Joe refuses to hear these voices and refuses to grasp how it is harming him in an election year, others in the Democratic Party who've been silent appear to grasp the voters are willing to walk away.  Over the weekend, In the US, even politicians are starting to say "Enough."  Australia's ABC reported:


US representative Nancy Pelosi, former House speaker and a key ally of President Joe Biden, has signed a letter urging a halt to weapons transfers to Israel.

Ms Pelosi signed a letter from dozens of congressional Democrats, calling on Mr Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to stop the transfer of weapons to Israel on Friday.


Julia Conley (COMMON DREAMS) adds:


U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine on Friday became the latest centrist Democrat to display a shift in tone regarding the Biden administration's continued support for Israel—and despite months of intensifying demands from progressive lawmakers and the international community for President Joe Biden to push for a change in policy from Israel, the newly minted critics have appeared to have more success.

The Virginia Democrat, who serves on both the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, cited the killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers this week in a lengthy statement in which he said Israel's "current approach is not working" and pushed back against the White House's opposition to an independent investigation into the attack.

"The United States should join in the call for an independent and international investigation into Monday's strike on World Central Kitchen volunteers, in which an American was killed," said Kaine. The senator also renewed his call for the administration to "prioritize the transfer of defensive weapons in all arms sales to Israel while withholding bombs and other offensive weapons that can kill and wound civilians and humanitarian aid workers."

Kaine's comments came a day after Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.)—said to be Biden's closest ally in the Senate—told CNN that the U.S. is approaching a point at which it must consider placing conditions on military aid to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

"If [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu were to order the IDF into Rafah at scale... and make no provision for civilians or for humanitarian aid, I would vote to condition aid to Israel," Coons said, referring to the southern Gaza city where Israel has threatened to start a ground offensive and where 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are staying in shelters and makeshift tents. "I've never said that before, I've never been here before."

Gaza remains under assault. Day 185 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes, "Thirty-two Palestinians were killed across Gaza in the past 24 hours, taking the total death toll in the enclave to 33,207, according to the latest update from the health ministry.  Another 47 people were wounded, taking the total number of injured to 75,993 after six months of war."   Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:








And the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."





The following sites updated:








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