Thursday, August 08, 2024

Matt Bevin adopted a child and then sent him overseas and refused to take him back

Paul Rudnick Tweets.


 

Another day, another disgusting Republican exposed.  Yesterday, it was "Stupid and crooked Andy Ogles" and now it's Matt Bevin's turn.   Kelly Rissman (INDEPENDENT) reports:


The adopted son of former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin claims he was used to boost the Republican’s public perception during his gubernatorial bid and was later abandoned, according to a report.


In 2012, Bevin traveled to Ethiopia and returned with four children — including 5-year-old “Noah,” a pseudonym used to protect the minor, the UK newspaperThe Times first reported. Noah, now 17, claims the Bevins sent him to an abusive troubled teen program in Jamaica.

When the Times asked Noah why he believed he was adopted by the Bevins, he replied: “Public image.”

Bevin served as the state’s governor from 2015 to 2019. After Bevin lost the governorship in 2019, Noah was sent to a facility in Florida and then was later sent to the Atlantis Leadership Academy (ALA) in Jamaica.

ALA bills itself as an “affordable, structured Boarding Academy serving young men who possess strong leadership skills, though they’ve taken some wrong turns in their lives.” However, the Times’ investigation of the facility revealed abusive practices and filthy conditions.

ALA was raided in February and the facility has since shut down. But no one came to pick up Noah, he told the outlet. So, a judge made Noah and two other abandoned boys wards of the Jamaican state.

Bevin’s alleged treatment of his adopted son comes into sharp contrast with his gubernatorial campaign focus: improving adoption and foster care practices in Kentucky.


These people are not just weirdos, they are disgusting.  You adopt a child and then you ship the child off to another country to some sort of torture camp and when the government shuts down the torture camp, you are called to pick up your child and you refuse to.


They were right, the foster home, that refused to allow this man to adopt -- that's why he went out of the country to adopt four children.  


These are the elected officials from the so-called 'family values' party.  

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, August 7, 2024.  Kamala Harris has announced her running mate Tim Walz and reactions are the news of the day as Walz brings even more energy into Kamala's campaign.



Yesterday, Kamala Harris, presidential nominee for the Democratic Party, announced who she picked to be her running mate -- Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.  

This morning, 5:56 EST, Kamala's campaign released the following e-mail blast.


 After careful, deliberate consideration of who is best suited to win this campaign with me and fulfill the duties of vice president, I’m pleased to share I’ve made my decision:

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will join our campaign as my running mate.

Tim is a relentless advocate for working families and a battle-tested leader who has cut taxes for working families, protected fundamental rights, and passed paid family and medical leave.

Now, would you pitch in $25 to welcome Tim to our ticket as my running mate? He will be a reliable partner in our fight for the future -- but our campaign relies on grassroots donations from supporters like you to defeat Donald Trump and JD Vance.

If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
$25 >>
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Other >>

Choosing Tim to be my running mate was not a decision I made lightly -- it was important to me to select a candidate with governing experience and with a proven track record of getting things done on behalf of their constituents. I know he will bring as much joy to our campaign as he will fight and grit.

Doug, Tim, Tim’s wife Gwen, and I are going to hit the road this week to campaign across the country. Our goal is simple: to meet with voters, introduce them to our new ticket, and remind everyone of what’s at stake in this election.

As our campaign ramps up in the final 90 days, you can support our efforts by adding a donation of $25 right now to celebrate Tim Walz joining the ticket.

It means the world to me, to Tim, and to our families to have you in our corner.

Thank you and take care,

Kamala

Kamala Harris
Vice President of the United States 












  Just 91 days away from the November election, Democratic U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday held a rally in Pennsylvania to introduce her running mate and "the kind of vice president America deserves," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

While blasting the policies embraced by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Harris stressed to a cheering crowd that she and Walz are not just running against the Republicans, but "our campaign, this campaign is a fight for the future."

"Since the day that I announced my candidacy, I set out to find a partner who can help build this brighter future, a leader who will help unite our nation and move us forward, a fighter for the middle class, a patriot who believes as I do in the extraordinary promise of America—a promise of freedom, opportunity, and justice not just for some but for all," she said. "So Pennsylvania, I'm here today because I found such a leader."

Harris took time to introduce Walz to the national audience—he is a political leader most Americans aren't familiar with, according to polling released Tuesday. Before becoming governor, the 60-year-old Nebraska native served in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Army National Guard, and as a high school social studies teacher, football coach, and gay-straight alliance faculty adviser.

Walz met his wife Gwen when they were teaching at the same school. As Republican policymakers across the United States have attacked reproductive freedom—including in vitro fertilization (IVF)—he has shared how fertility treatments enabled them to have their children, Hope and Gus. In Philadelphia, he recalled their efforts to grow their family and told those who try to limit reproductive healthcare, "Mind your own damn business!"

The vice presidential candidate also took aim at Trump—who he said "sows chaos and division"—and his criminal history. The Republican nominee was recently convicted in New York and faces dozens of charges for three ongoing cases, two of which stem from Trump's refusal to accept his 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden and another related to classified materials.

"Donald Trump would damn sure take us backward—let's be clear about that. And don't believe him when he plays dumb" on Project 2025, Walz warned, referring to a Heritage Foundation-led initiative that includes a sweeping policy agenda for the next right-wing president.

"His running mate shares his dangerous and backward agenda for this country," Walz said. The governor expressed his enthusiasm for debating Vance and called out the senator for "trashing" where he came from in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy.

"These guys are creepy and yes, just weird as hell," Walz said, leaning into a now-widely embraced descriptor. "That's what you see."


 
“Vice President Kamala Harris has made a great decision in picking Governor Tim Walz for her running mate to defeat Donald Trump. From his time in the classroom to serving in the National Guard and Congress, Governor Walz has delivered tremendous wins for working people in Minnesota. Under his leadership, the state legislature passed the most pro-worker package of laws in decades, the Minnesota Miracle, making it easier for workers to form unions, strengthening worker protections, cracking down on union-busting practices, and creating the nation’s first nursing home workforce standards board.

Governor Walz has been a steadfast partner to Minnesota’s working families. He walked a day in the shoes of home care workers and made record investments in public education, including unemployment benefits for bus drivers, food service workers, paraeducators and others who do essential work supporting students. He paved the way for record contracts between his administration and health care workers, raising wages to as much as $22.50 an hour. Governor Walz has championed guaranteed family and medical leave for workers and middle-class tax breaks for Minnesotans. He supported janitors and nursing home workers l when they were on strike in March, and we were proud to see him join UAW workers on the picket  line during last year’s strikes.



 
“Now the race is set. 

With Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, we have a team of proven fighters for women, fierce defenders of abortion rights, and accomplished leaders with a record of delivering for the people. 

Tim Walz has a record of championing women, economic justice, racial justice, ending violence against women – and an equality agenda that’s long overdue. 

The more voters hear about Tim Walz’s record and personal story, the more they will see the contrast between him and J.D. Vance. 

With former President Donald Trump and Senator J.D. Vance, we have dangerous policies built on the radical Project 2025 agenda, designed to deliver mainly for themselves, and a campaign based on racist personal attacks and blatant hostility towards women.  

Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are weird, dangerous, and out of control.  Tim Walz, like Kamala Harris, will be ready on day one to lead.” 



“The country’s educators and students have always been able to count on Vice President Kamala Harris. She has delivered once again for students, educators, and working families with the exceptional choice of Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.

“Gov. Walz is known as the “Education Governor” because he has been an unwavering champion for public school students and educators, and an ally for working families and unions. As a high school teacher and NEA member Walz is committed to uplifting our public schools. He has a track record of getting things done to make people’s lives better. Walz successfully passed legislation providing free school meals to every Minnesota student, ensuring no child will have to learn on an empty stomach. He increased education spending by billions of dollars, raised teacher pay, enacted paid family and medical leave for all families, provided unemployment insurance to hourly school workers, and expanded the collective bargaining rights of Minnesotans. We know he will be a valued partner to both Vice President Harris as well as educators and parents, advocating every day, so our students have the resources they need to succeed.

“Educators are fired up and united to get out and elect the Harris-Walz ticket. We know we can count on a continued and real partnership to expand access to free school meals for students, invest in student mental health, ensure no educator has to carry the weight of crushing student debt, and do everything possible to keep our communities and schools safe.

"There is so much at stake in this election for our students and our country. Donald Trump is a convicted felon who only cares about himself. This is the same man who entrusted Betsy DeVos, the least qualified secretary of education in history, to attempt to dismantle our public schools. Trump’s extreme, unprecedented Project 2025 agenda would fundamentally alter the American government and jeopardize our children’s futures and give Trump unprecedented power over our daily lives. He wants to ban books, take learning opportunities away from students, make educators pay more in taxes than billionaires, and eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Simply put, Donald Trump and JD Vance would be disastrous for the future of our country.

“The choice in this election couldn’t be more clear. The 3-million members of the NEA will show their power by turning out, volunteering and making their voices heard because we know that electing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz is the only way we can take America forward."



 “Vice President Harris couldn’t have chosen a stronger champion of workers to be her running mate, and the USW applauds her decision.

“From his many years of service in Congress to his time as governor of Minnesota, Gov. Walz has fought for working families every step of the way. A former union educator, he’s enacted some of the most significant pro-worker reforms in our nation’s history.

“Gov. Walz has given more workers access to paid sick and family leave; he has made major strides in protecting workers’ health and safety on the job; he has improved standards for patients and workers at Minnesota’s nursing homes; he has strengthened union organizing and collective bargaining rights; he has expanded unemployment benefits and taken steps to protect workers from wage theft and other abuses.

“In addition, Gov. Walz understands the importance of mining and manufacturing to the economy of Minnesota and to the future of this country, and he will never stop fighting for workers across all industries.

“American workers deserve leaders who fight for them every day. For four years, we’ve been fortunate to have seen exactly that kind of leadership from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. We have no doubt Tim Walz will continue that work to move our nation forward.”






"By selecting Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, Kamala Harris chose a principled fighter and labor champion who will stand up for working people and strengthen this historic ticket. We know that Gov. Walz will be a strong partner in the Harris White House, fighting every day to improve the lives of workers in communities across America. Gov. Walz isn’t only an ally to the labor movement, but also our union brother with a deep commitment to a pro-worker agenda.

“The labor movement stands united behind the Harris–Walz ticket, and we are ready to help lead the effort to defeat Donald Trump, JD Vance, and their anti-worker Project 2025 agenda in November.” 



  Two rights groups on Tuesday celebrated Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris' choice of running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, calling it the most pro-reproductive freedom ticket in history, while two other groups called on Democratic leaders to act boldly to establish new federal abortion protections.

Both Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF) and Reproductive Freedom for All (RFA) applauded Walz's pro-choice record and called him a "champion" of reproductive rights.

The ACLU and Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH) called for bolder action to secure abortion rights, with the ACLU pushing for a number of federal reforms, and PRH urging more fundamental protections for abortion and gender-affirming care that go beyond the standards once set by Roe v. Wade.

"Unfortunately, Roe v. Wade was never enough to ensure our communities obtained the care they needed," Dr. Jamila Perritt, PRH's president, said in a statement. "It was, in fact, barely a starting point."


The news of the selection broke after DEMOCRACY NOW! had completed its broadcast for the day but they did a special segment yesterday after the news was announced. 



AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. We have this late, breaking news. CNN is reporting that Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate.

We go right now to John Nichols, The Nation magazine’s national affairs correspondent, to respond to this breaking news and who Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is, the significance. It looked like it was down to him and the governor of Pennsylvania, Shapiro.

JOHN NICHOLS: Tim Walz is a longtime schoolteacher and a guy who was born in Nebraska, moved up to Minnesota, worked for many, many years as a teacher and a coach, served in the National Guard, and then, in 2006, decided to run for Congress. He got elected in a, actually, quite rural and Republican-leaning district. And he’s been in politics since then.

The thing to know about Walz, first and foremost, is he is the current governor of Minnesota and often seen as one of the two or three, perhaps the most progressive governor in the country. And so, with Kamala Harris choosing Tim Walz, she has recognized the need to have a progressive from the Midwest on her ticket. It’s a significant development and one that I think will be cheered on — and, in fact, is being cheered on in this immediate moment — by a lot of folks in labor, a lot of folks in economic and social and racial justice movements, because Walz has been quite a good friend to them.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about the candidates and what you think actually took place. There was Mark Kelly, the Arizona senator, the husband of Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head in an assassination attempt in Tucson. He is an astronaut. He’s a Navy pilot. And also talk about Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor, because part of the choice here — right, John? — part of the significance of this development is, as you have talked about, the campaigns that were run and what Kamala Harris was looking for, which says a lot about, if she were president, how she would govern.

JOHN NICHOLS: It sure does. I think that’s a really good place to focus on this. Kamala Harris has been on kind of a whirlwind over the last six weeks, since Joe Biden’s very difficult debate performance on June 27th. And it’s only been a couple of weeks since she’s been the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. In a moment like that, you can go one of two ways. You can say, “Boy, everything’s so chaotic. I’ve got to lock in on something immediately and, you know, pick a candidate to run with me, and just tell everybody to get used to it.” Or you can — I think the much more confident route — say, “Look, we’ve got a little bit of time. Let’s open this up enough to hear the people who would like to have this role, and let them, effectively, conduct a virtual campaign.” That’s what she did.

And at the start of it, if you’ll go back, there were six or seven people on the list, mostly governors, maybe even some other folks who weren’t governors, obviously, Kelly from Arizona. And then, slowly but surely, the candidates kind of came forward. They understood the, if you will, dance that they were involved in. And so, they went on cable TV. They made appearances around the country. Some of them really campaigned aggressively, like Andy Beshear out of Kentucky, who went around the country and made appearances. Others were much more subtle, like Senator Kelly. But at the end of the day, everybody communicated what they wanted. They wanted to be in this position as the running mate.

And the interesting thing about Tim Walz was that he chose a route of doing a lot of cable and, frankly, going into the campaign mode — right? — almost acting as if he was the running mate already, going after Trump, going after Vance, in very effective ways in appearances. And I think that’s what we come down to here. The other candidates did it. Shapiro did it, unquestionably; Kelly, to some extent; and others. But Walz seemed to come through most effectively. And the thing that he did very early on was identify the Republicans — Trump and Vance and those folks — as “weird.” And the word took off. It actually got a resonance of its own. It wasn’t Walz necessarily who was the first to use it, but he became very identified with that, that sort of Midwestern kind of reaction to the Republicans, being aghast at them.

Now, I think that goes to the heart of your question, too, because you asked about the other candidates. Shapiro is a very effective speaker and somebody who’s very closely associated with Barack Obama. He also is from Pennsylvania. He is from an eastern state. Obviously, Kelly is from a western state. Harris herself is from California. And so, there’s this question, I think, that developed early on: Was Harris going to look at somebody who was from the middle of the country — right? — from where a lot of the battleground states are? Now, Pennsylvania is clearly a battleground state, but so, too, are Michigan, Wisconsin, to some extent, Minnesota, and a host of other states. And I think Walz communicated that he could be that candidate, that he could be very effective in that regard.

And then, the last stage of this campaign, if we look at it as such, was the point at which people started to step up and raise questions about individual candidates. There were questions about Kelly, the senator from Arizona, particularly regards labor, because he had not supported the PRO Act, which is an effort to make it easier to organize, and his failure to support that was noticed by a lot of people in labor and, frankly, progressive groupings. With Shapiro, there were a lot of things that came up, one of which was his very aggressive stance as regards student protests against U.S. policy on Gaza, and a lot of people that thought that he went to a more aggressive position of criticism than some other folks. But another thing that came up that was really strong was —

AMY GOODMAN: Comparing the Palestinian — pro-Palestinian protesters or the peace protesters to the KKK at one point.

JOHN NICHOLS: Yes. And that — I think that was not only off message, but also something that was noticed. People spoke about that and with great concern. But that wasn’t the only thing. There was also concern about the fact that Shapiro has been a supporter of or sympathetic to vouchers in education, and that’s a big-deal issue across a lot of these battleground states. And then there were a host of other concerns that came up.

And so, what ultimately happened, Amy, was that you had the candidates making their positive message — right? — their positive point for why they should be in, and then also some effort to point out what might be the liabilities, what might be the challenges, if you nominated one of these candidates. And at the end of the day, I think what happened was that Walz was very, very effective in his positive message, and very few people came forward and said, “Oh yeah, but he’s a bad guy in this, so there’s this thing we don’t like about him.”

And I think one of the really fascinating things was the extent to which people who had not been Walz backers early on came to him. And it was fascinating. I had people who had been very ardent backers of Kelly, that thought having a former astronaut on the ticket was a great thing; people who had been very ardent backers of Andy Beshear because Beshear had a very strong labor record; people who had been backers of Shapiro because he came from a very important swing state, Pennsylvania. And over time, especially in the last few days, you started to hear them saying, “You know, I really like this Tim Walz guy. I saw a video of him. I saw an old thing he did where he signed universal free lunch and breakfast for kids, all these different things.”

And I think, to be very frank about it, at the end of the day, Kamala Harris saw that, as well, and over this period of time, she came to a conclusion that this was somebody she could run with, and also somebody who could contribute significantly to this campaign, because Walz has a very understated Midwestern style, and yet, at the end of the day, he has delivered some of the most devastating critiques of the Republicans and of Trump and of Vance.

And so, I think we saw a remarkable process take place over the last few weeks, and it has ended up with a ticket that was unexpected at the beginning, but very probably the strongest ticket that could have come out of this.

AMY GOODMAN: John, what isn’t talked about so much, if Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris become president and vice president, then the lieutenant governor of Minnesota, Peggy Flanagan, becomes governor, Minnesota’s 50th lieutenant governor, member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, currently the country’s highest-ranking Native woman elected to executive office. If you can talk about the significance of this?

JOHN NICHOLS: Well, you know, this became a big issue in considering all of the different possible contenders, because many of them were governors, and many of them had lieutenant governors. And one of the interesting things about the United States is that at this point the Democratic lieutenant governors across the country are one of the most impressive groups politically. They’re multiracial, multiethnic, many women, coming from all sorts of diverse and exciting backgrounds, frankly, people who really are kind of opening up a different politics. And so, there was a lot of talk about, you know, if somebody gets picked, then their lieutenant governor comes up.

Peggy Flanagan, out of Minnesota, has been a longtime active person in Minnesota. She’s been in politics. She was chosen to be the lieutenant governor candidate when Walz came up, because she was somebody who had risen to the statewide level and had a lot of support and interest in her politically. She is someone who comes from a background, an Indigenous background in Minnesota, and that’s a big deal, because Minnesota has a large number of Native peoples, as do many of the other battleground states. And so, Flanagan coming up is an interesting and exciting part of this development.

And here’s what’s really significant about it. She has been a real partner to Walz. They have been — they’ve worked very closely together. And so, her coming into the governorship at a point where Minnesota has a Legislature that is generally supportive of what the Democrats are doing, a Democratic Legislature, she’s going to herself be a high-profile governor very, very quickly, if indeed Walz becomes the vice president. And for Flanagan, I think — I’ve watched her, I’ve covered her over the years — she’s ready for this.

And so, we see this fascinating situation where so many things have happened, right? Joe Biden has stood down. Kamala Harris has stood up. Kamala Harris has selected Tim Walz. If Harris and Walz win, then Flanagan will become the governor of Minnesota, becoming one of the — becoming the first Native person to be governor of a state, also a woman, another woman leading a state, with a progressive Legislature. And so, when you put this whole scenario together, you realize that American politics is changing rapidly, and it’s happening in real time. And it all comes back to this amazing 2024 election cycle, which seemed just a few weeks ago to be so narrowly defined, right? It was going to be Biden versus Trump, and an awful lot of people were very disappointed by it. Now suddenly it’s opening up all over the place. Not only do we have a different ticket coming forward for the Democrats, you also have developments out in the states that are very significant, and Flanagan’s movement to the governorship is indeed very significant.

AMY GOODMAN: We will do, certainly, much more on this. There will be a big rally today. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s coverage. By the way, Democracy Now! will be broadcasting from the Democratic convention in Chicago, August 19th to 23rd. We will be expanding to two hours daily broadcast, as we did covering the Republican National Convention. You can tune in then and tell your friends and stations they can air Democracy Now!, the special expanded “War, Peace and the Presidency.” That does it for our show. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, for another edition of Democracy Now!, grassroots, global news hour.



Not all the reactions were positive.  The ugly face of today's MAGA GOP surfaced.  If I slapped Jon Voight every time he need slapping, my hand would have fallen off years ago.  When he recently trashed Angelina, I would've called him out because (a) he's garbage, (b) I knew her mom and she wouldn't have stood for that and (c) he's such a fake.  But there were other things going on at that moment and I forgot about it before I could comment here.


 
The actor went on to say that the left is trying to take away people's children and "turn them into non-binaries." Non-binary is a term used to describe people whose gender identity is not exclusively male or female.

He continued: "You all on the left, the ones who are my peers that preach—you all know who you are—what have you all learned in this life? Have you learned the lessons that will bring you to the higher place of eternity?



That's about as much of his garbage as I can endure.

Jon, Jon, your fear is that I know you.  Your fear is that your MAGA crowd doesn't know you and that truths will be told. 

Those of us on the left?  Yes, we are different than the right-wing you cozied up to as you grew more bitter with age.

We weren't bothered by your 'alleged' blow jobs.  Some of us pretended it was just 'research' for roles in MIDNIGHT COWBOY and DELIVERANCE.  Some of us just thought, "Well he was a womanizer where's the shock that he's also a manizer?"  You had looks then and Cassanovas are known for their homosexual leanings.  

The person who most likely is going to hell is you.  Not due  to any same-sex affairs but as a result of the way you destroyed people like Marcheline Bertrand.  Again, I knew her.  We were close, that's been noted here repeatedly over the years -- especially when someone tries to attack Angelina.  Her letters to me (and copies of mine to her) are stapled into my journals.  I know exactly what you are and you didn't fool me in the 70s, in the 80s, in . . .  You're  trash.  And you won't be forgiven for the manner in which you abandoned your kids, you betrayed your wife and the continued attacks that you launch upon Angelina.  Your not just a lousy man, you are a lousy father.


The right-wing may embrace you -- they're as bitter as you are.  But over here, on the left, we see you as a sad closet case who attacks his own daughter because (a) she's more talented than he ever was, (b) she has always lived her truth, (c) she actually achieved movie star status -- a feat you never pulled off -- and (d) she loves her children.

You tried therapy briefly in the early 70s.  It's time for you to restart it. In fact, by paying someone to listen to you, you might be able to find an appreciative audience at last.

In other words, back the hell off from attacking your daughter or I'm happy to start quoting from Marcheline's letters to me and it won't play well to your right-wing audiences.  

And that's the face of MAGA GOP -- a bunch of bitter and hateful pretenders who try to rewrite history and who live in fear that their new fans will learn the truth about them.



  For the first time in recent years, a majority of Americans oppose sending U.S. troops to defend Israel if it comes under attack by its neighbors, according to a nationwide poll released Tuesday.

The survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that 55 percent of Americans opposed sending U.S. troops to defend Israel if its neighbors attacked it, while 41 percent supported doing so. Republicans were more supportive of such a move, with 55 percent of them saying they favored sending troops, while 35 percent of Democrats and independents said the same. 

  The findings come as various threats loom over Israel, including a potential Iranian retaliation for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader, in Tehran, as well as the skirmishes on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon that have threatened to boil over into war.

The poll was conducted online from June 21 through July 1, before Haniyeh’s assassination and the subsequent Iranian threat, among a national sample of 1,056 American adults with an error margin of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. The sample was drawn through Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel, an ongoing survey panel recruited through random sampling of U.S. households. 


You can't spend 300-plus-days attacking and murdering children, adult civilians, United Nations workers, doctors, journalists, EMTC workers, and not see the world recoil. 

Gaza remains under assault. Day 306 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 rises to 39,677 with 91,645 wounded." 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."
 



The following sites updated:


Posted by at

Wednesday, August 07, 2024

Stupid and crooked Andy Ogles

Paul Rudnick.




Do you know Andy Ogles?  He's a member of Congress.  When asked where he stood on the issues, he most likely responded either "prone" or "on hands and knees."  WIKIPEDIA notes:

Media sources have characterized Ogles's political views as conservative[50][51] or far-right.[52][53]

Ogles opposes abortion and same-sex marriage.[54] In a 2022 interview, he downplayed the need for exceptions in an abortion bill, calling them "red herrings".[55] In June 2022, after the repeal of Roe v. Wade, Ogles said, "The next thing we have to do is go after gay marriage."[56]


As you can see, he isn't very smart.  That's also established with what passes for his academic record:


Ogles later studied at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), where he failed every course taken in the fall of 1995 and the fall of 1998; he returned to the university in 2007 and graduated with a 2.4 grade point average, with a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies.[3][4] The Washington Post described Liberal Studies as "a general education degree typically for those who cannot settle on a major"; NewsChannel 5 gave a similar description.[4][5] Ogles said in late February 2023 that his failed university courses were due to "an interfamilial matter" that led him to abandon his studies "to financially support my family during a difficult time"; and that he eventually completed his studies with online courses.[6][7]
After Ogles became a congressman in 2023, his congressional biography claimed that he received his degree from MTSU, "where he studied policy and economics."[3][4][8] Ogles' claim was questioned by NewsChannel 5 in February 2023, which published an investigatory report detailing that in a 2009 resume and also in a background check of unspecified date, Ogles claimed to have an MTSU degree in international relations, with minors in psychology and English.[3] NewsChannel 5 additionally reported that MTSU declined to confirm Ogles' degree, referencing a federal law allowing students (like Ogles) the ability to block the release of academic records.[3] Ogles later spoke to WWTN radio, calling for everyone to "lock down your transcripts ... so you're not a victim of identity theft."[4] In other comments to WTTN made on February 21, 2023, Ogles said that he does not remember "saying I had an economics degree … because I've been quite clear that I studied political science and international relations", while maintaining that he studied political science from "the economic perspective".[9]

On February 26, Ogles said that he was "mistaken" in claiming to have an MTSU degree in international relations, and claimed that he requested his college transcript the week before, and only learned then that his degree was actually in Liberal Studies.[4][6][10] NewsChannel 5 called Ogles's statement "apparently preemptive" because Ogles "ignored our requests for comment" after the media outlet obtained his MTSU transcript from an old job application.[4] On February 27, NewsChannel 5 published Ogles's transcript, which showed that Ogles took only one economics course at a community college, scoring a C pass, while he passed nine (and failed several other) political science courses at MTSU.[4] By February 28, Ogles's congressional biography was edited to simply state: "Andy obtained his degree from MTSU."[6]


What a liar.  It gets worse.

Back to WIKIPEDIA:


Ogles has repeatedly made public claims of being an "economist."[16][17] After NewsChannel 5 questioned how much formal training in economics Ogles had, he said he was an economist because when "you look at the body of someone's work ... I've spent the last decade working on economic policy and tax policy. "[3][9] During that time, Ogles had worked for roughly five years as an anti-tax lobbyist with Americans for Prosperity, and then for a year as the executive director of the Laffer Center, an organisation run by economist Arthur Laffer.[9] The executive director position seemed to involve mainly "administrative" work, reported NewsChannel 5, with Ogles not being named as an author of any economic reports uploaded on the Laffer Center's website.[3][9] Ogles' congressional website claims that "while working at the Laffer Center, Andy became a nationally recognized expert on tax policy and healthcare, having been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal and Investor's Business Daily".[3] NewsChannel 5 questioned this claim, being unable to find any articles in the publications independently citing him as an expert, only finding three columns written by Ogles in these publications, all of which were written when he was a lobbyist, before he worked for the Laffer Center.[3]

At a political debate, Ogles called himself "a former member of law enforcement, worked in international sex crimes, specifically child trafficking", while at a separate forum, he said: "I went into law enforcement. I worked in human trafficking."[3][7] NewsChannel 5 reported that Ogles was a volunteer reserve deputy with the Williamson County Sheriff's Office from 2009 to 2011, with his position revoked for failing to meet minimum standards, failing to progress in field training, and failing to attend required meetings.[3] The Williamson County Sheriff's Office said that records do not show Ogles trained or worked against international sex trafficking as a reserve deputy.[3] In 2011, Ogles worked as a chief operating officer for Abolition International, a non-profit organisation which described its work as giving grants to "holistic ministries".[3] Ogles indicated that since his stint at Abolition International overlapped his stint as a reserve deputy, "Maybe I created some of the confusion or maybe it was someone looking to write a story".[10] While Ogles claimed he was "heavily involved in the fight against human trafficking", NewsChannel 5 reported that Abolition International's tax records showed that Ogles worked in a part-time position that paid him $4,000 in total.[3] Ogles' congressional website originally claimed that Ogles was "overseeing operations and investments in 12 countries" for Abolition International; but NewsChannel 5 disputed that number as too large; the website later amended its claim to overseeing operations and investments in "several countries."[5][6][8]


Now karma has come to call on Andy.  Jon Michael Raasch (DAILY MAIL) reports:


A Tennessee Republican was searched by the FBI late last week, according to local reports.

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., who represents a portion of Nashville, was searched by federal authorities, local outlet WTVF reported Tuesday. 

Ogles had just won his competitive Republican primary election on August 1. 

The Tennessee representative is currently embroiled in a controversy regarding his campaign's finances.

The Republican's office did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment. 





FBI agents executed a search warrant late last week on Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles as the first-term Republican faces continuing scrutiny over fraudulent campaign financial reports that he filed, NewsChannel 5 has confirmed.
Following NewsChannel 5's revelation, Ogles posted a statement on social media admitting that his cell phone had been seized by the FBI.

"It has been widely reported for months that my campaign made mistakes in our initial financial filings. We have worked diligently with attorneys and reporting experts to correct the errors and ensure compliance going forward," Ogles said in the statement. "Last Friday, the FBI took possession of my cell phone. It is my understanding that they are investigating the same well-known facts surrounding these filings."



The warrant may have been limited to Ogles' electronic devices, says the report published Tuesday by Nashville CBS affiliate WTVF. Ogles is "now facing a criminal indictment" over an alleged campaign finance violation, the station said.


[. . .]

Earlier this year, watchdog group Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint against Ogles with the Office of Congressional Ethics, accusing the congressman of failing to "properly disclose his financial interests" and claiming that his financial disclosures "include over $1 million in financial discrepancies."

Ogles, who is currently serving his first term and won a GOP primary in search of a second term last week, arrived in Congress riding a wave of controversy in early 2023, due to a history of making late property tax payments and a report claiming that he had lied about his educational accomplishments while campaigning.

In an alleged fabrication that earned Ogles comparisons to disgraced former Congressman George Santos, the Tennessee Republican claimed to have graduated with a degree in economics. A WTVF investigation later found that he had instead taken a single economics class in community college, which he barely passed.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, August 6, 2024.  Convicted Felon Donald Trump is now accused of accepting a ten-million-dollar bribe from the government of Egypt, five US troops are injured in Iraq, Kamala Harris is set to name her running mate today, and much more.


Last week, two 23-year-old Americans died in Iraq.  Spc Travis Jordan Pameni and Spc Owen James Elliott's deaths are under investigation by the DoD.   This morning,  Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart (AFR) report, "At least five US personnel were injured in an attack against a military base in Iraq on Monday, US officials told Reuters, as the Middle East braced for a possible new wave of attacks by Iran and its allies following last week’s killing of senior members of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah."  Karwan Faidhi Dri (RUDAW) adds, "A local official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Rudaw that the rockets were launched from the industrial subdistrict of al-Haqlaniyah in Haditha district. The source added that the target appeared to be Iraq’s Ain al-Asad airbase, but the initial rockets failed to hit the site."  US President Joe Biden Tweeted the following:



For those who don't click on the link to expand the Tweet, here it is in full:


Earlier,
@VP
and I were briefed in the Situation Room on developments in the Middle East. We received updates on threats posed by Iran and its proxies, diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, and preparations to support Israel should it be attacked again. We also discussed the steps we are taking to defend our forces and respond to any attack against our personnel in a manner and place of our choosing.



In other White House and Middle East news, 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, as we turn now to a major investigation by The Washington Post into Donald Trump’s relationship with the Egyptian government, which reportedly tried to funnel $10 million in cash to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The cash weighed about 200 pounds when it was withdrawn from a state-run bank in Cairo at the request of an organization linked to the Egyptian intelligence service, just five days before Trump took office as president in 2017. The Post reports Trump earlier gave the same amount to his own campaign, and investigators suspected Trump expected to be repaid by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. But questions about the transaction went unanswered by the Justice Department under Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr, who closed the case, citing, quote, “a lack of sufficient evidence” — a decision one DOJ official called “jaw-dropping.”

For more, we’re joined in Washington, D.C., by one of the reporters who broke this story. Carol Leonnig is the national investigative reporter for The Washington Post who focuses on White House and government accountability. Her new piece is headlined “$10M cash withdrawal drove secret probe into whether Trump took money from Egypt.”

Carol, thanks so much for being with us. Why don’t you start off with how you began this story in The Washington Post?

CAROL LEONNIG: My colleague Aaron Davis and I began this work while we were doing research for a book about the Justice Department under Donald Trump and under President Biden. In that research, we discovered far more details than we expected about an incredibly secretive probe. This probe began in early 2017 with what investigators at the Department of Justice called “jaw-dropping intelligence.”

The CIA alerted the Department of Justice days after Donald Trump was elected that they had what they considered pretty reliable information from an informant indicating that the president of Egypt planned or wanted to or ordered $10 million injected into Donald Trump’s — then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign to help him get reelected. That would be illegal, and hiding that money would be money laundering. And if Donald Trump had taken that money, it would potentially be bribery and compromise of a sitting president by a foreign government.

DOJ investigators saw this as extremely disturbing and worrisome and eventually alerted top officials at the department who decided that Robert Mueller should take on the investigation. He had just newly been appointed in May of 2017 and was looking into foreign interference by Russia in the 2016 election, and now they wanted him to also look at this secret matter. Nothing about this was ever known to the public at the time.

What happened next, in the next phase, was that Mueller’s team, almost as they are shutting down their office in 2019, finally win a lengthy appeals court battle, a secret one, that closed down the federal courthouse in D.C. to sort of conceal the nature of the debate inside the hearing room. They obtain a record that seems to corroborate the intelligence. It shows that there was a $10 million cash withdrawal, very mysterious, people walking out of a bank branch near the Cairo airport with a large portion of all the U.S. bills then in the entire Egyptian banking system in duffel bags. No one signs for it. It comes out of a spy-linked account. And the reason this was so important, Amy, was, obviously, $10 million in cash walking out of a bank is a big deal, but it came out of the account linked to Egypt’s spy agency, essentially Egypt’s CIA. And that is what the original intelligence suggested, that el-Sisi, the president of Egypt, wanted to use his spy agency to get the money to Trump.

So, these things were lining up, but Mueller is leaving the building. He is now closing shop in early 2019 and hands off this investigation to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. The boss of this investigation ultimately is the new attorney general, Bill Barr. It’s run by the U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu, who tells her investigators, “This is pretty impressive stuff,” but she wants to brief Barr on the matter. An investigation of a sitting president has to be briefed to the attorney general. But she returns from meeting with him and reviewing the evidence at the CIA with a different posture. Investigators feel that she’s done a 180. She was supportive of them continuing this investigation, and now she is telling them she doesn’t want to approve their subpoena for Trump’s bank records. These records were key, in their view, to determine: Did the money from Cairo that was mysteriously withdrawn five days before Donald Trump was elected, did it somehow return in some form to any of Donald Trump’s personal or campaign accounts? And they were blocked from doing that.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Carol Leonnig, talk about the meeting that at-the-time presidential candidate Donald Trump had with Sisi on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly that took place in the fall, months before President Trump took office.

CAROL LEONNIG: Yes. This meeting was very interesting to investigators later. And here are the two reasons why. Donald Trump was trying to burnish his foreign policy credentials and bona fides. He didn’t have a lot of experience in government, as he has already acknowledged himself, and so he wanted to show that he could make deals with foreign governments and foreign leaders, he could establish important relationships.

He meets with el-Sisi on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, which is held each year, and it’s September 20th, 2016. At that time, Donald Trump’s campaign was cash-starved. He was running out of money, and his advisers were trying to convince him to cut a check from his own accounts to help fund the last little bit of media buys that the campaign needed to purchase in order to stay, you know, vibrant and alive in the race. And he did not want to put any more of his own money in the campaign, because he thought he was going to lose. But after he meets el-Sisi — and he does this privately, Amy; some of it’s public, but some of the meeting is just him, el-Sisi and an interpreter from Egypt. And investigators found that very curious, because then, on October 28th, a month later, Donald Trump does agree to write a check to his own campaign, after much, much pleading from his advisers. Investigators saw this as an important moment: why, if Donald Trump had been absolutely insisting he wouldn’t donate to his campaign anymore, he finally did.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Carol Leonnig, you write in the piece — this would be an answer to the question: Well, why would Sisi want to have sway over President Trump? You write, “Over the course of his presidency, Trump shifted U.S. policy in ways that benefited the Egyptian leader, a man he was called 'my favorite dictator.' In 2018, Trump’s State Department released $195 million in military aid … the [U.S.] had been withholding over human rights abuses — a move that had been opposed by his first secretary of state — followed by the release of $1.2 billion more in such assistance.” Carol Leonnig?

CAROL LEONNIG: You know, Donald Trump really flipped the switch on U.S. policy towards Egypt. You may and your listeners may know that el-Sisi was viewed by the United States as both an ally, but a worrisome ally. Egypt is very important to the United States’ position in the Middle East, but el-Sisi had risen to power through a violent coup, a military coup. And in the wake of his rise to power, it became known that he was suspected to have played a key role in the military killing of supporters of his opponent, who had been democratically elected. He was also viewed as very comfortable with a host of human rights abuses against opponents and critics in his country and trying to violently shut down that opposition, using military and spy power to do that. So the United States viewed him with a little bit of remove and had put a hold on this very valuable military aid and had asked him and pressed him numerous times to do better on human rights at home.

But when Donald Trump got into office, he didn’t have any of those restrictions. He insisted that one of his first officials that he was going to meet as president was el-Sisi, something his own advisers encouraged him not to do, because that was showing too much support to the Egyptian president. Rex Tillerson, his then-secretary of state, counseled Trump not to release this military aid, that it would be too generous, and el-Sisi had done nothing to improve his record on democracy and free and fair elections and human rights record. Nothing. And so, Trump fired Tillerson and ordered the release of this aid.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Carol, “In the years since the Egypt case was closed,” you write, “the Sisi regime’s ambitions to influence senior U.S. government officials have been laid bare by the bribery conviction of [New Jersey Democratic] Sen. Bob Menendez, the former [chair] of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.” Can you draw that line, a man who was about to be sentenced in October, just before the election?

CAROL LEONNIG: Well, the key thing to know here is there was a very full and expansive investigation, with no holds barred, to figure out: Was Senator Menendez a foreign agent of the Egyptian government? There were records searched, encrypted signals, communications gathered, and what they found was he was. He was receiving money from an Egyptian national who was doing the bidding of Egyptian spy and military leaders, and ultimately from the Sisi regime. He was giving information to the Egyptian officials at high levels, including information that was deemed secret by our U.S. government, about our U.S. personnel in the Egyptian Embassy.

And what is also, to me, really striking, Amy, is el-Sisi has relied on his Egyptian version of the CIA, called the General Intelligence Service, to push his agenda abroad in the United States and to tamp down criticism at home. And here, the General Intelligence Service was a critical feature of reaching out to and intervening and directing Senator Menendez. And it was the General Intelligence Service accounts from which the $10 million in the Donald Trump investigation had been withdrawn five days before Donald Trump was elected. The same agency, the same government account was, according to the intelligence, at work trying to find a way to get money to Donald Trump. But that investigation was not allowed to proceed.

AMY GOODMAN: Carol Leonnig, we just have 20 seconds. Could this bribery investigation into Donald Trump be reopened?

CAROL LEONNIG: The information could be gathered. There could be an investigation that looked more deeply and looked at the actual records the original investigators wanted to. But the chances for prosecuting anyone who played a role in this and committed a crime are extremely low. The statute of limitations is over, and it’s unlikely that that could change.

AMY GOODMAN: Carol Leonnig, national investigative reporter for The Washington Post. We’ll link to your exclusive report, written with Aaron Davis, “$10M cash withdrawal drove secret probe into whether Trump took money from Egypt.”


Aaron C. Davis was the co-author of THE WASHINGTON POST report and he discussed the revelations Saturday on MSNBC.



In other news, today the Democratic Party's presidential nominee Kamala Harris is supposed to announce her running mate.  






What idiot sees Shapiro as a candidate who will help the ticket?


We haven't even gotten to the worst of it.


There's now the issue of a column he wrote in college.  Mike Allen (AXIOS) mis-reports on that column:


A 31-year-old clip surfaced from Shapiro's college newspaper, in which he wrote that Palestinians were "too battle-minded" and "peace between Arabs and Israelis is virtually impossible and will never come."

  • The opinion piece, "Peace not possible," ran in the Campus Times at the University of Rochester on Sept. 23, 1993.
  • Shapiro told reporters Friday that the column doesn't represent his views today: "I was 20."


Before he wrote the column, he had already decided on a career in politics and already been elected student body  president at the University of Rochester so let's not pretend that he was some young, naive student.  He was a craven opportunist even back then (yes, Senator John Fetterman is correct about that).  Equally true, that 1993 opinion resurfaced in late 2023 as he once again began attacking Palestinians and those who publicly defended them as the government of Israel began the 300-plus-days assault on Gaza.


But more to the point, Shapiro is who JD Vance wants to debate, wants to run against. 


And a lot of people writing columns in support of Josh and a lot reporting on him grasp that which is why they write garbage like Mike Allen did -- garbage that ignores the explosive part of the column which, believe it or not, is not Josh Shapiro's hatred for Palestinians and his xenophobia.


No, the explosive part is when Shapiro wrote, "Despite my skepticism as a Jew and as a past volunteer in the Israeli army, I strongly hope and pray that this 'peace plan' will be successful."

 

Despite my skepticism as a Jew and as a past volunteer in the Israeli army?

 

Shapiro's team has rushed to insist that the 20-year-old mistyped and he was never in the Israeli army -- not even, they insist, as a volunteer.

 

He said what he said.


Unless you read AXIOS which has refused to cover that reality.  Not just the laughable 'journalist' Mike Allen -- the 60-year-old weirdo who has found in AXIOS another outlet to fail at.  

"Despite my skepticism as a Jew and as a past volunteer in the Israeli army"?  Shapiro wrote it.  But in AXIOS' coverage, they don't mention that reality even when allegedly reporting on the column.  April Rubin continues the refusal to report honestly in her AXIOS report on Shapiro.

Back to Ava and my piece:

And if you're not getting how that's a deal breaker, think back to JD Vance getting all pissy when called on his rude remarks about people without children.  He served! He raged that he served his country in the military!!!!

 

Now, as Elaine's pointed out, he's not really a combat veteran despite serving in war zones because he wasn't really serving as a combat soldier:

 

Let me get this right, Skidmarks Vance who tries to play combat veteran to the public, was actually in Iraq for six months as "a military journalist."  From WIKIPEDIA:


After graduating from Middletown High School in 2003,[19] Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in Iraq as a combat correspondent for six months in late 2005.[20] He was part of the Public Affairs section of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing[21][22] and said that his service "taught me how to live like an adult" and that he was "lucky to escape any real fighting".[23] His decorations included the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.[20]



He's not a combat veteran.  He's a joke.  He 'served' in Iraq . . . as a journalist.  What?  The USO was full? 

 

It's not necessary that Kamala pick a running mate who served in the military.  (Walz was in the National Guard and Kelly was in the Navy.)  It is necessary that she pick someone who won't provide easy ammo for the Trump campaign.


JD Vance will make the argument that while he was serving in the US military, Josh Shapiro was serving in the Israeli military.  And the weak comeback of: no, no, he didn't, he mispoke won't mean a damn thing.  Because Josh did go to Israel to serve.  Military or not, he went to Israel to serve.  (And let's note that we don't know what he did in Israel -- no one does.  With his own hands, he wrote that he served in the Israeli military.  From the mouths of his team, we hear that's not the case.)


He went to Israel.  This wasn't Peace Corps work, grasp that.  This wasn't helping a poverty stricken nation, grasp that.


He was an American citizen and he elected to volunteer to help a government -- a foreign government.


If you missed it, the US government is now wanting US flags to be made in the US.  It's a new fever of patriotism and the man who could serve the government of Israel but not his own country looks suspect. 


Is he wanting to be vice president to serve the United States or to serve Israel?


When he felt the need to volunteer, it wasn't for America.  When he felt the need to get married, America wasn't good enough for him then either.  He and his American bride got married in Israel.


Donald Trump is currently still questioning whether or not Kamala is Black.  Previously, he questioned whether or not Barack Obama was born in this country.


It's not a stretch of the imagination to picture Donald at one of his rallies yelling something like, "For all I know, he's a citizen of Israel -- an Israeli-American."

 

Josh's own actions and remarks have made himself the other.  He's far too tied to another nation to be seen by most Americans as someone who will put the United States first.

 

And we don't have time to waste, over the next two and a half months, putting aside the party's message, setting aside the issues, to turn into a 24-7 rapid response team for a lousy vice presidential pick.  Anyone with a brain should be able to grasp that Shapiro is.


Shapiro is a lousy choice.  Sam Seder addressed that on yesterday's MAJORITY REPORT.



Turning to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) writes:


A top Israeli official suggested on Monday that he believes it is “morally justified” for Israel to wipe out Gaza’s population through famine and starvation, in chilling statements that pro-Palestine advocates say openly indicate genocidal intent.

Speaking at a conference hosted by the far right Israel Hayom newspaper, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich complained about having to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying that international norms are stopping Israel from taking what he claims is the “moral” path of starving 2 million Palestinians to death.

“We are bringing in aid because there is no choice,” Smotrich said, Israeli outlets reported. “We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned.”

“Humanitarian in exchange for humanitarian is morally justified, but what can we do? We live today in a certain reality, we need international legitimacy for this war,” he went on.

His mention of 2 million civilians appears to be in reference to Gaza’s pre-genocide population of of roughly 2.2 million people, including 600,000 children.

Smotrich’s statement represents yet another brazen and horrifying call for the annihilation of Palestinians in Gaza, with Israeli officials repeatedly issuing public calls for mass death and ethnic cleansing over the course of their genocide.

The comment is indicative of Israel’s intent to commit genocide. Although Israeli officials have insisted in public statements that they are simply hunting down Hamas soldiers, many reports have indicated that the Israeli military considers any Palestinian — adult or child — to be a potential Hamas soldier. This is also evident from the vast civilian death toll of Israel’s indiscriminate extermination campaign so far.


The Israeli government continues to face international condemnation for its murder of jounalists.  ALJAZEERA notes:

The UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression has condemned Israel’s killing last week of Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi in Gaza, urging that their deaths be prosecuted as a war crime.

“I strongly denounce the deliberate targeting by Israel of two journalists in Gaza, which adds to an already appalling toll of reporters and media workers killed in this war,” Irene Khan said in a statement.

The two men were killed in a July 31 air strike by the Israeli military, which said al-Ghoul was a Hamas operative who took part in the October 7 attack against Israel.

Al Jazeera has rejected what it said are “baseless allegations”, saying that journalism was his only profession.

“Given Israel’s failure to heed earlier calls for accountability, I urge the International Criminal Court to move swiftly to prosecute the killings of journalists in Gaza as a war crime and call on the international community to urgently consider the use of international mechanisms to investigate crimes against journalists in Gaza,” Khan added.


The number of journalists killed in Gaza by the Israeli government stands at over 160.



Gaza remains under assault. Day 305 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's Health Ministry on Tuesday said that at least 39,653 Palestinians were killed and 91,535 injured in the Israel-Gaza conflict since October 7.  The latest toll includes 30 people killed and 66 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added." 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."
 


The following sites updated:



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