Tuesday, July 16, 2024

That embarrassing Robert Kennedy Junior

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "He Sees The Death Angels" went up last night.

joe whisperer

 



The video of the Trump-Kennedy call is a little over one minute and 40 seconds long. It shows Kennedy standing close to a US flag in a dimly lit room, holding a phone and listening to Trump on speaker.

Parts of Trump’s remarks are hard to hear. But he can be heard speaking about a subject close to Kennedy’s heart: the supposed dangers of vaccinations.

A former environmental attorney, Kennedy rose to prominence before and during the Covid pandemic by spreading conspiracy theories about vaccines and their supposed effects.

Trump was president in the first year of the pandemic, a period of rapid development of Covid vaccines but also growing rightwing distrust of public health directives.
In his call with Kennedy, Trump says: “I agree with you, man. Something’s wrong with that whole system.”

Kennedy says: “Yeah.”

Trump continues: “And it’s the doctors you find. Remember I said, ‘I want to do small doses.’ Small doses.”

His words then take a bizarre turn.

“When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a, you know, 10lb or 20lb baby, it looks like you’re giving, you should be giving a horse this thing, and do you ever see the size of it? It’s massive and then you see the baby all of a sudden starting to change radically. I’ve seen it too many times. And then you hear that it doesn’t have an impact, right? But you and I talked about that a long time ago.”

Trump then appears to suggest the two men work together.

“Anyway, I would love you to do something and I think it would be so good for you, and so big for you.”



They are both crazy and unfit to serve.  By the way, did you catch "Bobby Kennedy III"?  Robert Junior has accomplished nothing with his pathetic life.  Between drugs usage and infidelity, he was already a disgrace long ago.  But he tries to use the "F" to piggy back on his father -- an actual hero.  C.I. stripped it out months ago and when she did, she noted he didn't deserve it and that Junior's own son -- Bobby Kennedy III -- doesn't use the "F." 


My friend Sunny asked me to note this from WIKIPEDIA:


On April 15, 1994, Kennedy married Mary Kathleen Richardson aboard a research vessel on the Hudson River.[317] They had four children. On May 12, 2010, Kennedy filed for divorce from Mary. On May 16, 2012, Mary was found dead in a building on the grounds of her home in Bedford, New York. The Westchester County Medical Examiner ruled the death a suicide due to asphyxiation from hanging.[318] Later it was reported that Mary had seen Kennedy's personal journal from 2001, in which he recorded sexual encounters with 37 different women.[319]


Meanwhile, Brian Slodysko (AP) reports on who funds Junior's campaign.  No surprise, it's right-wingers trying to chip away at the Democratic vote.  Junior's such a light weight that he couldn't raise money on his own.  No one wants him for what (little) he has to offer.  So he is dependent upon the money of people who just use him to chip away at another party's vote.



"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, July 16, 2024.  The slaughter in Gaza continues, Joe sits down with Lester Holt, and much more.



Yesterday, US President Joe Biden was interviewed by NBC NEWS' Lester Holt.



Let's deal with a few things.  He did better.  If he'd done this well in the ABC interview, he could have silenced critics.  He did what we said he should have done in "Media: It's Time For Joe To Go" but failed to do.  He made the points he wanted by taking the question and spin it to where he wanted it.  He thought 'on his feet.'  He didn't just sit there repeating the same thing.

It wasn't a great interview and there were major problems.  12 minutes and seventeen seconds in on the video above is one of the worst moments for Joe.

But my generic point is uhm -- 

And he wanders off.  Long pause with a nose whistle.  Six to seven seconds of a pause.  Then "Oh."  Then three second pause before "Based" the first word of his response since "oh."

The narrative is in place and he did nothing to defeat it.

He should step aside and he should do so soon.  In fact, Friday would be good in terms of the news cycle, ripping the focus off the convention in Wisconsin that would have just wrapped. 


I hope he steps aside, he's not up for the campaign.  If he doesn't?  I've stated I'd vote for the nominee whomever it is.  


If he doesn't step aside, he's making all of our lives more difficult.  

A crime took place on Saturday.


It was not, for most Americans, the end of the world.  Lester worded it well with, "It has shocked a lot of Americans."

It may have.

It may not have.

It's not the reaction to when JFK was shot and you can argue that he was shot dead so it was more traumatic.  But it's not even the shock it was when Ronald Reagan got shot (true though, Reagan suffered more than a flesh wound to his ear).  

It's not a shock and it's not a surprise.  

It's a crime.

It was a huge mistake because you don't kill someone.  You especially don't kill an ogre.  That allows their fan club to try to turn the ogre into a martyr.  

The way you kill an ogre is voting them out.  

And if the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in November -- whether it's Joe, Kamala or whomever -- is going to win, it's going to require a lot of work, a lot of talk and a lot of face-to-face with others.

"Has this shooting changed the trajectory of the election?" Lester asked Joe.

No, it hasn't.  On Saturday, when I heard the news, I feared it might have.

But by Sunday it was obvious and by Monday it was clear -- it's not that big of a deal.  Americans rolled with it.  There was no massive recoil though the media wanted it so that they could continue to talk about it and try to turn into a big moment in history that they covered.

Violence begats violence.  

This wasn't Mother Teresa being shot at or Ryan White or Doris Day or some beloved public figure.  This was a divisive politician who is a bully, who makes fun of the disabled and challenged, who speaks in gutter language and with poor grammar, a man who led a failed coup against our nation, go down the list.

The surprise just wasn't there.


Extremist rhetoric from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has helped “normalize violence” that led to this weekend’s assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, according to an expert on political violence.

“An awful lot of violence that has been unleashed by the MAGA faction has been unleashed against moderate Republicans,” Rachel Kleinfeld, an expert on political violence who is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, recently told Politico. “An attempted assassination on a presidential candidate was almost just a matter of time.” 

“Sadly, I am not surprised — given the reality of a tenfold rise in threats against members of Congress, increases in violence and threats against everyone, from people running for school board to state legislators, the doubling of serious threats against judges,” Kleinfeld added.

Both Greene and Boebert have both run campaign ads with violent rhetoric.

In a January 3, 2021 ad, Boebert said she would “carry my Glock to Congress.” In a September 2020 Facebook post, Greene shared an image of herself holding a gun next to a picture of the four Democratic congresswomen of color, who made up the House’s progressive group known as “the Squad.”





For days now, many on the left have held their tongue.  There's no point in that.  A bullet wound did not give Donald a soul.  More important the Bimbo Twins others in Congress have not stop their words that are intended to incite violence -- and intended to incite violence against people who do not have Secret Service protection.

This is an election that will determine the fate of the country.  Last week, Donald was lying and trying to distance himself from Project 2025.  His campaign is insisting that abortion talk be minimal from GOP candidates so that they can try to trick voters into thinking there's this wall between Project 2025 and himself.  There is no wall.  These were his supporters -- some of whom were part of the previous Trump administration -- and he gladly embraced them.

They want to use the shooting to shut you up so that Donald doesn't have to run on his record.

We're not going to let that happen.


PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Focus on — I mean, there’s — there’s a whole range of things. Look, I’m not the guy that said (CLEARS THROAT) I want to be a dictator on day one. I’m not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election. I’m not the guy who said that wouldn’t accept the outcome of this election automatically. You can’t only love your country when you win. And so the focus was on what he’s saying and, I mean, the idea.

LESTER HOLT: But have — have you s — taken a step back and done a little soul searching on things that you may have said that could incite — people who are not balanced?

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Well, I — I don’t think — look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything ’cause it may incite somebody? Look, I — I — I — I have not engaged in that rhetoric.

Now, my — my — my opponent has engaged in that rhetoric. Talks about there’d be a bloodbath if he loses. Talking about how he’s gonna forgive all the — actually, I guess, suspend the sentences of all those who were arrested and sentenced to go to jail because of what happened on — in the Capitol. I’m not out there making fun of — like, re — remember the picture of Donald Trump when Nancy Pelosi’s husband was hit with the hammer, going — talking about — joking about it.

LESTER HOLT: This doesn’t sound like you’re — you’re — you’re turning down the heat, though. You — you’ve talked about the — 

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Oh, no, no, no, no. Look, what I’m turning down — we have to stop the whole notion that there are certain things that are contrary to our — our democracy that we’re for. The idea of saying that you — “I didn’t win the election” when every court in the land — every court in the land, 120 appeals said — and including this conservative Supreme Court said we won, the idea about having — a loyalty pledge from all the folks who are in the Republican MAGA — not all Republicans, the MAGA Republicans saying that, “No, we lost the election,” inflaming the people to say — I — you — I mean — 

 LESTER HOLT: So — so what — what — what can you and what will you do, at — at least things you can control, to lower down the temperature, the rhetoric out there?

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Continue to talk about the things that matter to the American public. It matters whether or not you accept the outcome of elections. It matters whether or not you, for example, talk about how you’re gonna deal with the border instead of talking about people as being vermin and all — I mean, those things matter. That’s the kind of language that is inflammatory.


We're not going to be silent about Donald's record or how will ruin the country if given four more years.

That's what he wants, us to be scared into silence or concerned with this or that.  

I'm not an MSNBC fan.  Mainly because so many of them whore.  If you're in need of whoring, click here to watch Rachel and others whore.  This was an interview with implications about the fate of the nation and all they can do is try to spin and score it as a win for the personality of Joe Biden.

 

LESTER HOLT: Do you have — are you — are you — you have confidence in the Secret Service? Do you feel safe?

 PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I feel safe with the Secret Service. But look, you saw the — what we did see was the Secret Service who responded risked their lives responding. They were ready to give their lives for the president. The question is should they have anticipated what happened. Should they have done what they needed to do to prevent this from happening? That’s the question that’s — that’s an open question.

 LESTER HOLT: Is it acceptable that you have still not heard, at least publicly, from the Secret Service director?

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Oh, I’ve heard from him. I — I’ve — 

LESTER HOLT: But have you heard from her publicly?


"Oh, I've heard from him."

Him.

The head of the Secret Service is Kimberly A. Cheatle.


It wasn't as bad as it could have been but it wasn't good.    And that's really all you can say about that interview.  But watch them fill ten minutes with fluff and nonsense and do nothing of substance addressing issues that go to the very core of this election.

The crime took place.  We don't endorse crimes and most of us are aware that if you kill someone like Donald, it only makes them more powerful.  

We've covered that, let's return to speaking as we normally speake.  Let's not tone police -- the left really isn't the side egging on violence.  


One more thing on that interview.  Joe has enabled the deaths of thousands in Gaza.  Joe.  I'm not talking about Donald.



Let's drop back to yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, broadcasting from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Israeli warplanes and drones continue to bombard areas across the Gaza Strip, killing over 80 Palestinians in the last 24 hours. The continued assault comes in the wake of Israel’s attack on Saturday on al-Mawasi, an area in Khan Younis designated as a safe zone, that killed at least 90 Palestinians, half of them women and children, and injured over 300 in one of the deadliest attacks in Gaza in weeks. The U.N. and several countries condemned the bombing, which targeted thousands of displaced Palestinians crowded in tents.

The Israeli military claimed, without evidence, that it was targeting Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif; however, Hamas denies that Deif was killed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised news conference Saturday it wasn’t clear whether he had been killed. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant nevertheless praised the attack, saying Hamas was losing its ability to organize, arm itself or care for the wounded.

Also on Saturday, the Israeli military struck a makeshift mosque during noon prayer in the Shati refugee camp in west Gaza City, killing at least 20 Palestinians. Then, on Sunday, Israeli airstrikes on a United Nations school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed at least 22 and injured over a hundred people.

Meanwhile, rescue workers say they found at least 60 bodies under the rubble of the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City following Israel’s withdrawal from the area last week, after leaving it in ruins.

This weekend, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told a donor’s conference for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, quote, “Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse in Gaza — somehow, appallingly, civilians are being pushed into ever deeper circles of hell,” he said.

For more, we go to Muhammad Shehada, a writer and analyst from Gaza, chief of communications at Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, columnist for The Forward newspaper, a Jewish weekly in New York. He’s joining us from Copenhagen, Denmark.

Muhammad, welcome back to Democracy Now! First of all, talk about this safe zone that Israel struck on Saturday, killing 90, injuring hundreds of others.

MUHAMMAD SHEHADA: Thanks so much for having me, Amy.

Well, the first thing is that this is not the first time where they conduct such an atrocity, such a carnage, a bloodbath, with immense magnitude, and then claim there was a Hamas leader there, to cover it up. It was done dozens and dozens and dozens of times in Gaza. So, a few weeks ago — couple of weeks ago, Israel pounded an entire residential block in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City and claimed that Raed Saad, a commander of the Qassam Brigades, was there. We never heard any updates about that ever since, not even a confirmation or an allegation that he was killed. So, this has been done repeatedly.

The way the carnage unfolded is atrocious on every single level possible. So, Israel used what they call “fire belts,” which is almost like carpet bombing. They drop simultaneously about five bombs — each is about 2,000 pounds — on top of what they have designated themselves as Gaza’s only humanitarian safe zone. Now, they’ve been crowding hundreds of thousands of people there by force, and then bomb them to kill and wound over 400 people.

So, it didn’t stop even there. After the carnage unfolded, as soon as ambulances and firefighters came to the area, Israel started to bomb and target those, as well. They killed multiple firefighters and attacked ambulance crews to delay the rescue mission in that area.

What this reminds me of is, basically, if you remember in 2002, Israel assassinated Hamas’s top most wanted, most dangerous militant commander, Salah Shehade, the founder of the Qassam Brigades. Back then, the airstrike killed about 14 civilians. Seven of them were children. The Bush administration, George W. Bush, he came out and condemned Israel in unprecedented terms and said, “This is heavy-handed, and this impedes and prevents peace.” That was George Bush at the time. Now we are in a situation where it’s so insane that Biden was not only silent, dead silent, not a word on this, but he’s the one that provided all the weaponry, all the bombs that Israel very gladly obliged and rained down on the refugee humanitarian safe zone. You also had — at that time, you had about 27 Israeli pilots in 2002 that declared they will not participate anymore in reserve service in the IDF because of the human casualties, the high death toll — seven children. Only seven. At this point, what you have is near unanimity in the Israeli political and defense establishment of saying this was more than justified, this was a great operation, although they cannot until now confirm or provide any evidence that al-Deif, the commander of the Qassam Brigades, was even there.

So, we’ve got to a situation where Israel is being told, “You can do whatever you want, anything you want at all.” That’s basically the message they’re getting from the Biden administration and from the European Union, as well, from European member states. The only red line that Biden is implementing — and that’s something that I keep hearing from sources close to the White House — is that, just don’t engage in a regional conflict that involves Iran and Lebanon and bogs the United States down into that war; otherwise, carry on with whatever you want. We heard a lot of red lines about Rafah from Biden in May. And as soon as Israel went in, turned Rafah into what humanitarian workers are now calling a wasteland — nothing is left there. Almost virtually nothing is standing. They burned, destroyed homes on their way systematically, left dozens of bodies to rot and decompose and get eaten by dogs and cats on the street, and sometimes they scoop it with bulldozers and bury it with the rubble, if there’s a humanitarian mission coming in. We saw unimaginable, unique, unprecedented ugliness that violate every norm not only of international law, but of common humanity. And Biden is unwilling to put down a foot and say, “You violated any of my red lines.”

It’s the same message they’re getting from Europe. So, I was recently at a meeting with a top European official. He gave us his tablet, circled it around the table and showed us satellite imagery of Gaza before and after, the EU has been gathering. And he said, “Look at this. What Israel is doing, they are wiping out the place.” And he said, quote, “Their goal is to make Gaza unlivable, uninhabitable, so if the war ends, nobody can live there anymore. People have to leave” — so, in other words, to finish the Gaza question, take it out of the equation completely. So, those European officials, they know. But the same official said that he doesn’t have much to — that he’s incapable of doing much, because about 80% of European governments just want Israel to carry on and do whatever they want, without sort of stopping them or challenging this atrocity or genocide that’s unfolding. The only thing that they’ve been asking for — so, for instance, the German foreign minister went to Tel Aviv or Israel about eight times. The only thing she asked for was: Continue the killing, just kill fewer people. Spread the killing across time so it does not look spectacular. Occasionally, Israel violates that and kills over a hundred people. But as long as they keep it about a hundred people per day — again, I cannot imagine that this number is acceptable. A hundred people per day, this is OK for European and capitals in Western governments.

AMY GOODMAN: Muhammad Shehada, we’re here in Milwaukee covering the Republican National Convention. Can you talk about President Trump’s policy when it comes to Israel? Talk about his relationship with Netanyahu. Talk about what happened during the Great March of Return, moving the embassy, etc.

MUHAMMAD SHEHADA: Well, basically, Trump is — his second term is a nightmare for people in Gaza, because he’s been very clear during the Biden-Trump debate, the presidential debate, that Israel wants to carry on and continue this war indefinitely, and he’s willing to indulge in that, to let them finish the job, as he said. That is basically — when I talk to people in Gaza, they react with immense fear about a second term for [inaudible] for sure is that he’s going to empower every fundamentalist lunatic, extremist right-wing hawk, to put them in charge of Middle East peace, as he did during his first term. He put a messianic Israeli American settler, David Friedman, from Bet El — he put him as the American ambassador to Israel to take what was termed at the time the sledgehammer policy: destroy everything that would be there to enable a Palestinian state to be established, expand settlements, recognize settlements as not necessarily illegal under international law, remove the labeling of settlement products, recognize Jerusalem as —

AMY GOODMAN: Muhammad, we have 10 seconds.

MUHAMMAD SHEHADA: — and defund hospitals. But the problem is that Biden administration hasn’t been any better in many ways. The last three years have been the deadliest there is in Palestinian-Israeli relations since records began in 2005.

AMY GOODMAN: Muhammad Shehada, I want to thank you for being with us, writer and analyst from Gaza, chief of communications at Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, columnist for The Forward newspaper, a Jewish weekly in New York.

That does it for our broadcast. We have a job opening of development director, in charge of fundraising at Democracy Now!. Go to democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, broadcasting from Milwaukee.


Where's the video?  Use the link.  YOUTUBE's already 'age restricted' it. 




Gaza remains under assault. Day 284 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, "Gaza death toll climbs to 38,713 with 89,166 injured"  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."


THE NATIONAL notes this morning:

Israel's war on Gaza has killed more than 9,100 Palestinian students since October, Gaza's Education Ministry said on Tuesday.

About 9,138 students have been killed and 14,671 wounded in Gaza, with another 103 killed in the occupied West Bank.

Almost 500 teachers have been killed and 3,426 wounded.

About 353 schools and university buildings have been bombed, with 93 completely destroyed by the Israeli army.

Sixty-five UN-run schools have been bombed, it added.

More than 620,000 school students and 88,000 university students have been able to return to classes since the war began.

This includes 39,000 students who were unable to take their final high-school exams.




Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Bimbo Twins Destroy Right Wing Christian Values" and "He Sees The Death Angels"  went up last night.  The following sites updated:


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