Thursday, May 30, 2024

Donald Trump and other GOP crooks

Donald Trump is now a convicted felon.




Thrilled with that outcome.  He was unethical, he abused his power and he broke the law.  Lock him up!  Lock him up!  Lock him up!!

Abuse of power is all around but, yes, it does seem to waft off the Republicans a little more strongly.   Vianna Davila (PRO PUBLICA) and THE TEXAS TRIBUNE report:


Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has repeatedly used the state’s powerful consumer protection laws to investigate organizations whose work conflicts in some way with his political views or the views of his conservative base, an analysis by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found.

Paxton has been particularly aggressive among an increasing number of attorneys general who are using consumer protection statutes to investigate not only predatory lenders or unscrupulous car dealers but also political targets, experts say. ProPublica and the Tribune identified more than a dozen instances in the past two years in which Paxton has used the state’s consumer protection office to demand records from organizations with which he disagrees politically.

It’s unclear how many similar cases might be underway in Texas. The attorney general’s office told the news organizations it hasn’t consistently maintained a list of the division’s demands to examine records. The agency is also fighting to withhold certain records, citing state public information law exceptions.


Read the whole article and marvel over he has used his office to bully and intimidate and repeatedly violate the rights of others.  He is disgusting and clearly a busybody.  Makes me actually wondering what's going on in his own bed that makes him so obsessed with others.  He reads like a perv.



A U.S. sailor has been dishonorably discharged and sentenced to 18 years in a military prison Thursday after being found guilty of espionage while working for the Navy in Japan.
Bryce Pedicini, a former chief petty officer fire controlman, was convicted of attempted espionage, failure to obey a general order and attempted violation of a general order through a court martial procedure. He was assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins in Japan when he was taken into pre-trial confinement last year.
According to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Pedicini delivered classified and national defense information for a foreign government official between November 2022 and May 2023. He engaged with the foreign official "under the guise of writing research papers." The Navy described this as a tactic increasingly employed by U.S. adversaries to obtain both classified and unclassified document.



Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Thursday, May 30, 2024.  Another US official resigns over the slaughter in Gaza, the pier to nowhere is down again, at yesterday's United Nations Security Council meeting the UN spoke strongly and the US government offered . . . nothing, and much more.


 
Tara Suter (THE HILL) reports, "Pop star Dua Lipa called for an immediate cease-fire in the war in Gaza again Tuesday, according to multiple reports."  Suter quotes the singer stating, "Burning children alive can never be justified. The whole world is mobilising to stop the Israeli genocide. Please show your solidarity with Gaza."  The world agrees but sadly too many leaders don't.  Last night, Geoff Bennett (THE NEWSHOUR, PBS) explained, "Israel's national security adviser says he expects another seven months of fighting in Gaza. The remarks come amid growing international pressure on Israel over its offensive against Hamas. It also raises questions about who will control Gaza after the war."  Yesterday, Amy Goodman (DEMOCRACY NOW!) noted, "At the United Nations, Algeria has proposed a new resolution to demand Israel halt its offensive in Rafah. Meanwhile, Mexico has become the latest country to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel."



Chinese leader Xi Jinping decried “tremendous sufferings” in the Middle East and called for an international peace conference as leaders from Arab nations visit Beijing this week amid mounting global concern over Israel’s war in Gaza.

“Since last October, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has escalated drastically, throwing the people into tremendous sufferings. War should not continue indefinitely. Justice should not be absent forever,” Xi said Thursday at the opening of a meeting between top diplomats from China and Arab states, also attended by several leaders from the region.

He also reiterated China’s call for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, as well as Beijing’s support for a “more broad-based, authoritative and effective international peace conference.”     

ALJAZEERA adds, "His remarks come as Israel deepens its offensive on Gaza, seizing the strategic Philadelphi Corridor on the border between the enclave and Egypt, while engaging in a renewed push into the northern Gaza Strip, Israel’s national security adviser indicated on Wednesday that the war is likely to continue for another seven months."  Meanwhile, THE NATIONAL notes, "Brazil withdrew its ambassador to Israel on Wednesday after months of tension between the two countries over the war in Gaza, the latest move from a South American nation in response to Israel's military campaign."

              

The United Nations Security Council held a hearing this week at the request of Algeria following the Sunday massacre of a refugee camp in Rafa -- a massacre carried out by the Israeli government.



At Wednesday's hearing, Tor Wennesland, the UN Special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, stated:

Over seven months have now passed since 7 October. The horrific terror attacks perpetrated by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups and the ensuing Israeli military campaign and relentless hostilities in Gaza have caused widespread suffering on every scale imaginable.

There are reports more than 36,000 Palestinians and over 1,500 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed, 125 hostages are still held in Gaza and tens of thousands of people injured, the vast majority Palestinian.

Nearly two million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in the Gaza Strip many of them multiple times, and some one hundred thousand Israelis have been displaced from communities in Israel’s north and south.

Agreement on a deal to achieve a ceasefire and secure the release of hostages is blocked and as Israel rolls out a significant ground operation in and around Rafah, the devastation is only intensifying.

The appalling incident on Sunday when a reported 45 Palestinians were killing and 200 injured as the tents they were sheltering in burned around them does not stand alone amid shocking numbers of civilian casualties. I remind all parties of their obligations to protect civilians.

At the same time, the occupied West Bank remains a pressure-cooker of negative trends. The risk of a regional conflagration is constant and is mounting every day this war continues.

This trajectory must change if we are to avoid further catastrophe.  

I urge all parties to return to the negotiating table immediately and in good faith. I reiterate my and the Secretary-General’s repeated calls for the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza and for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Mr. President,

Palestinians in Gaza face another round of mass displacement, with one million fleeing from Rafah, many being displaced multiples times. Overcrowded conditions and acute shortages of food, water and medicine have led to misery and the spread of disease. The humanitarian response is woefully inadequate to address these needs.

On 24 May, the International Court of Justice delivered its Order on the Request of South Africa for the modification of the Order of 28 March in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip, reaffirming its previous provisional measures and indicating new measures.

Humanitarians are heroically continuing to deliver life-saving assistance in an incredibly difficult environment. Unsafe conditions resulting from a dangerously deficient humanitarian notification mechanism are compounded by overcrowding, desperation and a breakdown of law and order, imperiling humanitarian operations and costing the lives of humanitarian workers – including some 200 UN staff. Just hours ago, this breakdown of law and order has resulted in a well-organized looting of the UNRWA Rafah log base, making it more or less inoperative.  This a key center for our operations. While we are investigating the circumstances, I condemn any violations of UN premises.

As I briefed this Council a little over a week ago, the opening of two crossings in Gaza’s north, alongside the entry of humanitarian goods arriving from Ashdod and from Jordan, as well as through the U.S. built floating pier via Cyprus – which is now under repair - are positive developments, but not sufficient. I reiterate the Secretary-General’s calls for an immediate re-opening of the Rafah crossing and for unimpeded humanitarian access throughout the Gaza Strip.

Mr. President,

Let me also focus on the occupied West Bank, where violence and other negative trends continue at an alarming rate. Large-scale Israeli operations persist, which are often met by lethal exchanges with armed Palestinians, as well as a spike in settler violence and attacks by Palestinians against Israelis. Friction points around settlements are getting worse as the settlement enterprise expands in a very well-planned manner.

I am particularly concerned by Israel’s lifting of the military order banning Israelis from entering three evacuated settlements in the northern West Bank, a policy in effect since the 2005 disengagement law was put in place, and I do take note of the subsequent military order declaring the area a closed military zone, effectively preventing the entry of Israelis and Palestinians.

Around the region, the threat of a serious escalation has intensified. Exchanges of fire across the Blue Line between Israel and Hizbullah and other non-state armed groups in Lebanon continued. In addition to the deeply concerning escalation between Israel and Iran witnessed last month, aerial attacks toward Israel from militants in the region and Houthi attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea persisted. This is a combustible mix.

Mister President,  

It is clear that all sides must urgently change course.

It is right that we are all focused on preventing a further deterioration or looking for solutions to the most pressing needs, yet without linking these urgent efforts to a longer-term political strategy, any solution will be short-lived or even counterproductive.

No attempt to address the humanitarian and security challenges will be sustainable unless it is part of a broader approach that addresses Gaza’s political future. That future is as an integral part of a single, unified Palestinian state, which is a crucial foundation for realizing a two-state solution.

This has been and will continue to be a key focus of my own efforts.  

Throughout the past months, the Secretary-General and I have engaged extensively with the parties, the region and international actors to encourage a common approach to addressing the complex humanitarian, security and political crises affecting not only Gaza, but the whole of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel and the region.

We must reach an agreement to release the hostages and put in place an immediate ceasefire.

There is absolutely no time to lose.

The UN remains in regular contact with the mediators and parties, and we are committed to support the implementation of an agreement. A sustained ceasefire will be critical to a full-scale humanitarian and early recovery response to meet the immense needs in Gaza.

At the same time, we should be putting in place the framework for Gaza’s recovery and doing so in a way that tangible for moves forward, rather than away from a long-term political resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I have previously outlined some of the key principles that should guide us in that work - allow me to reiterate and expand on several of them here: 

There should be no long-term Israeli military presence in Gaza, while at the same time Israel's legitimate security concerns, particularly in the wake of the acts of terror committed on 7 October, must be addressed. 

Gaza is and must remain an integral part of a future Palestinian State – with no reductions in its territory.

Gaza and the West Bank must be unified politically, economically, administratively. They must be governed by a Palestinian Government that is recognized and supported by the Palestinian people and the international community. If transitional arrangements are required, they must be designed to achieve a unified Palestinian Government within a precise and limited timeframe.

There can be no long-term solution in Gaza that is not fundamentally political.

Mr. President,

My message in Brussels  at the International Partners Meeting on Palestine was as follows, and it is the same message I am giving you here today:

– we must strengthen and preserve the institutions of the Palestinian Authority (PA) before it is too late, while rejecting any steps that seek to systematically undermine its viability, such as Israel’s withholding of the PA’s clearance revenues.

The fiscal situation for the PA is very serious, Mr. President.

I warned over a year ago that thirty years of state-building in Palestine were at grave risk. That is even more true today and the consequences are even more serious.

Affirming a path to the two-State solution means preserving and safeguarding the very institutions that are meant to govern such a state. Moreover, these institutions will be vital to the essential objective of ensuring Palestinian-led governance in Gaza.

The new technocratic Palestinian Government under Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, with eight ministers from Gaza - represents an important opportunity for us all to support tangible steps in the right direction, and in line with the principles for Gaza’s future as I just outlined.

The international community should provide support to, and work with, the new Government to address the PA’s dire fiscal crisis, strengthen its governance capacity and prepare it to reassume its responsibilities in Gaza and, ultimately, govern the whole of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Political, institutional and economic reforms will be needed – but they must be achievable, credible and financed. We should ensure that the Palestinian Authority is an integral part of planning for Gaza’s recovery and reconstruction.

I urge all actors to recognize the critical role of the PA and how that should play out in Gaza and work toward enabling its return because there is actually no other credible alternative.

We already know the scale of damage is immense - the World Bank and the United Nations, with support from the EU, conducted an Interim Damage Assessment of the impact of the first four months of conflict in Gaza - quantifying the cost of the physical damages to critical infrastructure like hospitals, housing and roads to be at around US$ 18.5 billion. The final cost will likely be multiples of this figure.

The massive scale of this effort will clearly require mobilization of the widest possible coalition of donors, private sector sources of financing, and significant improvements in how the necessary reconstruction materials should be able to enter Gaza.

We know already that donors and investors will not be forthcoming without concrete steps by the parties to find a political solution and ensure that Gaza is not rebuilt only to be destroyed yet again.

Let me be clear: The political framework and structures we establish now will play a significant role in the success or failure of what follows. This requires us to plan and act deliberately and thoughtfully, knowing that today’s decisions will not only shape the future of governance in Gaza, but also determine the trajectory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more broadly.

Mister President,

I am aware of the many challenges in trying to achieve these objectives while war rages in Gaza and while our attention is rightly focused on urgent needs on the ground.

But it is a time for making difficult political choices. If we neglect to lay the foundations of a lasting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and end the occupation, the price of failure will reverberate for generations.

These foundations will not only be laid in Gaza, but also in the occupied West Bank; and they must be set in place not just by donors and the international community, but by committed leaders on all sides of this conflict. The drivers of the conflict must be addressed, including violence, settlement advancements and militant activity. Israeli measures that undermine the PA must halt now. Without progress on each of these, we will begin the process of undermining what we have not yet even started.

After the horrors of the past seven months, and past days, Palestinians and Israelis desperately need a political horizon. Without it, there is no sustainable path out of the suffering and misery we are witnessing now.


We shouldn't forget that the US was present as well.  The United Nations noted the US representative also spoke, "We are heartbroken and horrified by the deaths of dozens of Palestinian civilians and the more than 200 individuals who are seriously injured, including children, following Israeli airstrike on 26 May."


What a proud, proud day for those of us in the United States.




Two days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to halt its military offensive on Rafah, dozens of displaced Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes. On Sunday night, the Israeli military bombed civilians whom it had previously ordered to move to the designated “safe zone” of Tal Al-Sultan in the northwestern part of Rafah.

Israel has bombed Rafah dozens of times since the ICJ ruling. But on Sunday, the bombardment of Palestinians in a tent encampment behind the UNHCR school in Rafah resulted in a large inferno and massive casualties, including children who were burned alive in a sea of flames. According to Al Jazeera, the Israeli airstrikes struck the camp at night. The fire from the bombs falling on the plastic tents spread rapidly, killing at least 45 Palestinians, injuring 249, and razing the tent camp to the ground. This was reportedly followed by an Israeli drone strike on the Kuwaiti Hospital entrance as medics were bringing in the dead and the wounded, killing two staff members.

Hospital director Suhaib al-Hams announced on Monday that the Kuwaiti Hospital would have to suspend services due to “the repeated and deliberate attacks on the hospital’s surroundings.”

The graphic images and cell phone video recordings that have been circulating on social media — a headless child, charred bodies of children, women and children frantically running in all directions trying to escape the fires — are painful to watch. They bring Israeli atrocities in Gaza to a new level of unspeakable cruelty and horror.

I don’t know how anyone can recover from this gruesome monstrosity. Do we mourn the dead infants or weep for those who have just been orphaned? Do we scream for those children who have been maimed, or for the parents who had to wrap their loved ones in white shrouds?

Israeli officials first said the strike was “based on precise intelligence” and claimed that the bombardment targeted a Hamas compound, killing two senior Hamas officials. After global condemnation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instead started calling the strike “a tragic accident.”

The U.S.-made bombs that were dropped on the camp in Tal Al-Sultan came after Israeli airstrikes hit shelters in northern Gaza and Gaza City, killing 160 displaced Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. In Jabalya, at least four people were reportedly killed when a missile hit a residential building during an intense night of shelling. Witnesses reported raging fires throughout the city. Elsewhere in the north, Israeli occupation forces continue to demolish residential neighborhoods, burying countless numbers of people under the rubble. Israeli soldiers were also seen firing on a group of Palestinians filling water containers in the Al-Faluja area.

Israel’s Rafah massacre has been widely condemned as a grave violation of international law, but there has been no clear criticism or outrage from the White House. As the Biden administration emphasizes the deaths of Hamas leaders and utters the same words we’ve become accustomed to hearing over the past eight months — that the U.S. urges Israel to protect civilians and minimize civilian casualties — its statements have become a farce. 

 
The killing is carried out with the approval the United States government.  There has been no effort by the White House to end the supply of weapons to the Israeli government despite the many War Crimes that are taking place.  As for Rafah, Edward Carver (COMMON DREAMS) notes:

Israel used U.S.-made bombs in its attack on a camp of displaced Palestinians outside Rafah that killed dozens on Sunday night, according to analyses from bothThe New York Timesand CNN.

Humanitarian groups had condemned the Israeli strike, which killed at least 45, mostly women and children, and injured more than 240. The attack left medical personnel dealing with charred corpses and missing limbs. An expert at the Council on American-Islamic Relations called it a "U.S.-backed massacre."

Using videos from the site of the attack, weapons experts identified remnants of GBU-39s, which are relatively small bombs designed and manufactured by Boeing in the U.S. One expert, interviewed by the Times and CNN, said that the tail actuation unit of the GBU-39 was visible, helping with identification of the weapon.

The news outlets indicated that at least some of the parts for the GBU-39s were also manufactured in the U.S., which experts were able to determine thanks to visible serial numbers and unique identifier codes. The Times cited Woodward, an aerospace manufacturer based in Colorado, as a manufacturer of one of the parts, while CNN cited an unnamed California parts manufacturer. 

Thanks to Joe Biden, we are the killers, the killers are us.  He's made that the case and continues to do so.


Where's the leadership, Joe?  Where did it go?  People have spent months wanting to applaud Joe for doing the right thing.  Thus far, his inability to stand up has prevented applause over and over.  


That's why so many people have publicly left his administration and continue to do so.  People such as 
Hala Rharrit, Tariq Habash, Anelle Sheline, Josh Paul, Harrison Mann, Lily Greenberg Call and Stacy Gilbert (we noted Stacy Gilbert yesterday). Julian Borger (GUARDIAN) reports on Gilbert and on another who has publicly resigned, Alexander Smith:

Two more US officials have resigned over the Gaza war, saying that the Biden administration is not telling the truth about Israeli obstruction of humanitarian assistance to more than two million Palestinians trapped and starving in the tiny coastal strip.

Alexander Smith, a contractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said he was given a choice between resignation and dismissal after preparing a presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians, which was cancelled at the last minute by USAID leadership last week.

Smith, a senior adviser on gender, maternal health, child health, and nutrition chose to resign on Monday after four years at USAID. In his resignation letter to the head of the agency, Samantha Power, he complained about the inconsistencies in USAID’s approach to different countries and humanitarian crises, and the general treatment of Palestinians.


The resignations mount, like the killings in Gaza.  THE NATIONAL reports this morning, "The Palestine Red Crescent has said that two of its paramedics were killed in an Israeli air strike on an ambulance in the Tal Al Sultan area in Rafah.  The two medics were identified as Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hassouna."


Starvation in Gaza was already an issue,  It's only getting worse.  CNN notes, "Aid entering Gaza has dropped by 67% since May 7, the day after Israel began its assault on Rafah, according to a UN report."
 Joe Biden had a plan!  Remember?  His pier to nowhere.  Saturday, it crumbled.  Yesterday, it crumbled again.  Kaitlin Easton (Australia's ABC NEWS) notes today:

Less than two weeks after its installation off the Gaza coast, a US-built pier helping to deliver aid to Palestinians on the brink of famine broke apart.

Officials say rough seas and stormy weather caused the damage and it will now take more than a week to repair.

The pier will be reassembled at a port in southern Israel and should be back in place and working again next week, the Pentagon said. 


Months after it was promised, the pier finally goes up and it is one failure after another.  THE NEW ARAB explains:

Aid organisations have criticised a US-built temporary pier in Gaza used to transport aid into the besieged enclave, after satellite images revealed it breaking apart.

The imagery showed the sea damaging the pier on Tuesday, with sections needing rebuilding and repairing.

The pier, which is made up of a narrow causeway and an area used to place supplies transported by ship, cost $320 million and went into use on 17 May.

US Department of Defense spokesperson Sabrina Singh spokesperson told reporters it will now have to be moved to Ashdod in Israel, where repairs will take at least a week to be completed.

According to CNN, the pier, known as the Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS), can only operate in good conditions.

Michael Selby-Green, a media spokesperson from Islamic Relief told The New Arab that his group and other aid organisations have repeatedly warned that the pier could not be a substitute for getting aid through land crossings that already exist.

"The damage sustained by the floating pier two weeks after it began operating exposes the structure for the distraction that it is," he said.

He clarified that even at full capacity, the pier only delivers a small fraction of aid that could be brought in by trucks.


Gaza remains under assault. Day 237 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, "At least 36,224 Palestinians have been killed and 81,777 injured in Israel's offensive on Gaza since October 7, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Thursday.  In the past 24 hours, 53 people were killed and 357 others injured, the ministry said."   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:

  



April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 

As for 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."




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