Trump's flying monkeys

Pathetic. You can cut the self-loathing of these obsequious toadies with a knife. Kind of sad to see Mike Johnson among them. I was beginning to believe he was a sincere person.

Get out?

Apparently, the US now believes Israel should "get out of Gaza".

This, after the US has done everything possible, it seems, to make sure Israel will fail in its war against Hamas ... the constant harping on humanitarian aid, the constant criticisms of Netanyahu, the constant investigations of IDF conduct, the nagging about what will come after the war, and now pausing the sale of weapons.

It seems the Biden administration cares more about the Palestinians than about the US citizens killed or taken hostage by Hamas. And now we're telling Israel they have to end the war?

Never has there been a war in which a country has been so scrutinized in its conduct while the war is ongoing. Certainly none of the wars the US has conducted has ever been. The US thinks the Israel/Hamas war has gone on too long? How long was/is our "war on terror"? And we think Israel has racked up too many dead? What about us? ....

The U.S. post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, and Pakistan have taken a tremendous human toll on those countries. As of September 2021, an estimated 432,093 civilians in these countries have died violent deaths as a result of the wars. As of May 2023, an estimated 3.6-3.8 million people have died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones. The total death toll in these war zones could be at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting, though the precise mortality figure remains unknown. Civilian deaths have also resulted from U.S. post-9/11 military operations in Somalia and other countries ... - Civilians Killed & Wounded

We can tell Israel to leave Gaza, but we sure as hell can't make them do that. The Biden administration knows this, but hey, doesn't this stance make Biden more electable? Huh? Is it working?

Condescension and hypocrisy and self-dealing on the part of the US.

The animals of Ukraine

I remember when the war started in Ukraine. Many Ukrainians fled and had to leave their pets behind. I heard a report of how horrible it was in the cities, where starving pets roamed the streets. This from the PBS NewsHour cheered me up a bit ...

Field hospital

On Meet the Press today, Kristen Welker and Tony Blinken perpetuated the idea that Israel is unable to rpovide services to Gazans who evacuate from Rafah to go to the designated humanitarian zone of Al Mawasi. But there are services there.

One such service is a field hosptal provided and run by the International Medical Corps. At their websire, you can read more, but here's a bit about their field hospital in the designated humanitarian zone of Al Mawasi ...

International Medical Corps has deployed two field hospitals in Gaza to help provide civilians with the healthcare they need.

The larger field hospital—initially deployed to Rafah in early January, but moved to Al Mawasi in early April—currently has 140 beds for patients with a wide range of needs, with beds to support the emergency room, beds in a Level 1 intensive-care unit, operating theaters, a fully stocked pharmacy, X-ray and ultrasound machines, a laboratory and blood-transfusion services. It provides care 24/7 and is capable of serving more than 1,000 patients every day ...

And this is not the only field hospital in the designated humanitarian zone. There are several more, run by different internationa groups, including the UK. Listen to the Daily Briefing to hear more about this ...

Happy Mother's Day

Fom left to right, my mom, my grandma, and me. Honolulu, 1981.

Wars kill civilians

Watching Meet the Press Now. They are talking about President Biden pausing weapons to Israel, and at about 13 minutes in, Kristen Welker says "The fact that President Biden acknowledged that US weapons have killed civilians ... that is a stark acknowledgement". She seems astounded.

Yes, the weapons we give other countries when they are at war do sometimes kill civilians. In fact, the weapons we use ourselves in our wars and lesser conflicts also kill civilians. Did she somehow miss the innocent civilians, including kids, who were killed by the US military as we pulled out of Afghanistan? How does she not know this stuff? Perhaps she can check out the Wikipedia page on Collateral damage to catch up.

But meanwhile, yes, let's hold Israel to a higher standard than anyone else in the history of warfare, including ourselves. That seems fair :(

I'm not saying that civilian casualties in war sre ok or acceptable. It's a bad thing. But to pretend that only Israel kills civilians in war is dishonest.

And about those dead Gazan civilians: we should be skeptical about the numbers. 1) the only source we have for the number of dead Gazans is Hamas. 2) that number does not differentiate between non-combatants and Hamas fighters. 3) that number does not discriminate between civilians killed by Israel and those killed through friendly (or unfriendly) fire from Hamas.

Biden's blunder

Bret Stephens in The New York Times ...

President Biden Just Made His Biggest Blunder

In announcing that the United States will pause delivery of 3,500 bombs to Israel, President Biden has the laudable motive of wanting to spare innocent Palestinians from the military consequences of Hamas using Rafah as its last stronghold in Gaza. Less laudably, but no less understandably, he also needs to shore up support among progressive voters who think that Israel’s use of American weapons implicates us in war crimes.

But motives are not results. And the consequences of Biden’s decision, if not soon reversed, will be the opposite of what he intends. How so? Let me count the ways ...

I wish I could put all the essay here for those who can't read the Times, but here are a few of the "ways' he mentions ... The munitions cutoff helps Hamas ... It doesn’t end the war. It prolongs it ... It diminishes Israel’s deterrent power and is a recipe for a wider war.

I agree!

Shroud of Turin

From The Hill

House GOP chairs lash out at Biden over pause in Israeli arms shipment

The top House Republicans with oversight of U.S. foreign and military affairs slammed the Biden administration Wednesday for pausing a shipment to Israel of an estimated 3,000 heavy bombs.

Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said the administration was weakening Israel’s position in the face of threats from Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon ...

Once again, on the subject of Israel, I find myself agreeing with the Republicans instead of the Biden administration. Must check to see if hell has frozen over.

This decision to stop an arms shipment to Israel ... one with the kind of heavy bombs needed to reach Hamas' deep underground tunnels .... seems like blackmail.

The Biden administration wants the Rafah offensive to just not happen. Why? They say it's because a lot of civilians might get killed.

But Israel does have a plan for the civilians ... they can move to a humanitarian zone only about 5 miles away to be safe. And there has never been any sign from Israel but that they need to go into Rafah to get Hamas and hopefully save the hostages.

That isn't some evil plot by Netanyahu to stay in power, it's the universal thinking of the Israeli war cabinet. And Israel will do that, whether we give them weapons or not. It may take longer, more civilians nay die, but I guess the Biden administration can then say, 'not our fault' (please still vote for us).

The patronizing attitude that we know better than they do how to run their country in a war. The gobsmacking hypocrisy of portraying ourselves as superior to them in the civilian casualty domain. Yep, we're all about saving those innocents. This from a country that dropped 2 atom bombs on civilian cities in Japan (129,000 - 226,000 people killed). Or more recently, an administration that abandoned countless civilians, some clinging to the outside of our planes, as we tore out of Afghanistan. How do they keep a straight face?

Stormy

I remember when the Stormy Daniels story came out years ago and had read excerpts from her book (I'll never look at toadstools the same way again - ugh!).

I'm glad this has been made public in this way. God knows how many other women Trump has taken advantage of ... I think this encounter was basically date rape. What is depressing is that the public has been aware of this for years, and still about half the country would vote for this creep again.

Differences

What to Know About the Gaps Between Israel and Hamas on the Cease-Fire Proposal

For those who are interested, there is indeed a difference between the deal the Israelu's submitted and the one Hamas says it accepted for a ceasefire and return of hostages, this despite the fact that US officials said there were just "minor wording changes".

Holy shit! Don't you think the average person would care if their loved one taken hostage was returned dead instead of alive? Don't you think a country that has gone to war to avenge its murdered civilians would care if they had to just end the war rather than only pause it? There are other differences as well.

Sometimes I wonder which side the US is really on. Oh right - our side.

Ceasefire

So what's up with a possible ceadefire? There's a detailed article at The Times of Israel ... Hamas claims to accept ceasefire, hostage deal; Israel: This isn’t what we agreed to

It doesn't look like the original deal that was offered by Israel has been accepted by Hamas. Instead Hamas has changed the terms, including a bit that says the ceasefire will be a permanent end to the war. That is a non-starter for Israel, and the war cabinet decided unanimously against accepting that idea.

Meanwhile, Israel has asked Gazans in the eastern part of Rafah to evacuate to a designated humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi, about 5 miles away near the coast, where field hospitals and aid tents have been set up.

Things keep changing, but it doesn't seem likely that a ceasefure will be arranged as long as Hamas demands a total end to the war, allowing the terror group to stay in power in Gaza

At the store

I seem to hear all the best music at the grocery store. :) Today it was this - Bee Gees, Nights on Broadway

Bill Maher

On the pro-Palestinian protests ...

Protests

The pro-Palestinian protests are spreading around the country and the world. The whole thing seems so dishonest and contrived to me, for a number of reasons ...

1) The protesters say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Neither the US not the ICJ agrees with that accusation. But "gemocide" has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

2) The protesters say they want a permanent ceasefire in the war, but they have nothing to say about the fate of the hostages nor about the continued existence of Hamas. They ignore the fact that there was a ceasefire on Oct 6, and that Hamas is responsible for breaking that, not Israel. They do not call on Hamas to end the war.

3) And speaking of Hamas, how did these politically liberal protesters end up supporting a rigid religious autocracy that poops on women, gay people, and religious minorities? Do they know how badly they and their protests would go over if they were actually living in Gaza?

4) The protesters say they want Gaza to be free, and they want Israel to stop occupying Gaza. Surely they know that Gaza has been free since 2005, when Israel left Gaza. It was then that the Gazan people voted for the terroist group of Hamas to be their leaders in an election in 2006.

5) The protesters say they want peace, but their slogans and signs are anything but peaceful - they call for an end to Israel as a state and for an intifada. Just for reference, the Second Intifada is an exampe of what that would mean.

Given all this, it seems to me that the protesters are either terminally stupid or willfully ignorant of facts. It also occurs to me that the protesters hate the idea of Jewish people having a homeland, and have used this war as a plausibly deniable excuse to call for an end to Israel.

But of course, the facts don't matter. What really matters is being part of the groupthink ...

Isn't it awesome and noble and relevant to be a protester, like the anti-war protesters of the 60s?

And isn't it emotionally satidfying to righteously hate a group of people that everyone else around the world has hated for all time?

And, you know, summer is coming ... boring ... and there's the need to remind Biden to forgive more student loans before the election.

Kittens

I just spent some time at my local animal shelter website for lost cats ... still looking for Mouse, my cat who disappeared a couple of months ago.

It is incredibly depressing to look there because now it is kitten season, and while normally there are about 3 pages of lost cat pictures to go through, now there are like 12. Tiny kittens, dozens and dozens of them, and you know that most of them will end up being killed. I pray for them but I know most of them will still die, alone and scared.

The Jesuits call in the cops

NYPD raids short-lived anti-Israel encampment at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus

[...] A letter from Fordham University officials released by police shows the university deemed the encampment “a clear and present danger to persons, property” and requested police “help clear all individuals from the encampment.” The school additionally requested a police presence on campus through May 22, when commencement ceremonies have been completed.

Meanwhile, The New York Times discovers the professional activist training the pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia how to "create a crisis" ... The 63-Year-Old Career Activist Among the Protesters at Columbia/

I found it somehow creepy to learn that these protests are not spontaneous and sincere, but contrived dispassionately to get a certain result. Ugh.

"Without love ...

Where would you be now?"

This song in my head tonight. Doobie Brothers, 1982, Greek Theater at UC Berkeley, Long Train Runnin' ...