Hell to pay

Trump Says There Will Be ‘Hell To Pay’ If Remaining Hostages Aren’t Released By His Inauguration

Not sure what that means, if anything ... I doubt Trump actually cares about the hostages ... but geez how long have we waited to hear the Biden administration threaten/promise Hamas that they will pay a terrible price unless they turn over the hostages now? I listen to the State Dept press briefings, and all I hear is concrn about the Palestinians, and vague hopes about the hostages someday being released if only we can offer Hamas the right incentives. Why haven't we done more?

Saw this at Eylon Levy's twitter ...

Keith Siegel is a hostage of Hamas.

His mother just died. She spent the last 14 months of her life in agony knowing her son was rotting in the Hamas Terror Dungeons.

His surviving family, including his wife, captivity survivor Aviva, want him free. https://t.co/rkAYGvx8U9

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) December 3, 2024

So who is Eylon Levy? You can read about him at Wikipedia, but there's this too ...

Honored to win the Bonei Zion Prize for Global Impact, but I couldn't do this without my amazing team

This #GivingTuesday, I'm donating the prize money to the non-profit I founded, @israelcitizenspox

💸 Please donate and help us speak up for Israel: https://t.co/NQ5ZevPeTy pic.twitter.com/QRMw3wjfG6

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) December 3, 2024

More on the pardon

Rachel Maddow on Biden pardoning his son ...



I've been listening to the news - all the Democratic politicians who are criticizing Biden for pardoning his son. What comes through to me is that they want to position themselves for their future elections.

Biden changed his mind about the pardon due to the circumstances surrounding his son's case and also the threats posed by the upcoming Trump administration. I believe that is understandable, and it is not Biden's job to make sure Democratic politicians won't be embarrassed. Suck it up, jerks, it's not all about you.

No little girl ...

... dreams of growing up to become a prostitute.

Belgium becomes first country to give sex workers robust labor rights and protections

Belgium made history on Sunday as the first country in the world to allow sex workers to sign formal employment contracts — granting them access to sick days, maternity pay and pension. The new law also guarantees fundamental rights for sex workers, including the ability to refuse clients, set the conditions of an act, and stop an act at any moment ...

I have two thoughts about this ...

1) it's way past time that sex workers have all the protections any other worker has.

2) Prostitution should be illegal.

You may think those two things are antithetical, but I don't. Of course everyone deserves work protections and rights, but being a prostitute is still a crap job - there really just isn't any honest way to dress it up.

At the end of the day, the "job" only exists because some people (mostly men) have a deep-seated belief that they should be able to screw another person whenever they want to. They believe they deserve this for all kinds of reasons, including health.

The fact that prostitution exists is not an affirmation of that tortured belief in entitlement, it's an example of the failure of our society from the dawn of time to treat women like people equal to men.

Some will use this law in Belgium as an excuse for why prostitution is fine, and they will tell thesmselves and others that most women become prostitutes because they love having sex with strangers and, hey, it's an easy buck. I don't believe those tropes.

Here's a scene from an episode of The West Wing, The Women of Qumar - the first part of the scene lays it out ...

First-hand view

🔴 I’ve just retuned from serving as a reservist infantryman in Gaza for a second time. Here are my ten takeaways from the experience👇

— Michael Starr (@StarrJpost) December 1, 2024

You can read his article in The Jerusalem Post. Here's the beginning of it ...

An IDF reservist's top ten takeaways after returning from Gaza

On Sunday, I returned to The Jerusalem Post after being drafted as an IDF reservist for almost 80 days for my second tour of duty in Gaza since the October 7 massacre. My anecdotal experience as an infantryman and perspective as a journalist in civilian life have given me a unique perspective on war issues, familiar and unexplored alike.

These ten takeaways from someone who has been in the mud of the battlefield should be considered by policymakers and citizens for whom much of the information about the war is second-hand or hearsay.

1. The IDF is winning, and needs to be allowed to win

Compared to their operations during my first tour at the end of 2023, there is a sense that Hamas is collapsing. The terrorist organization once fielded ambush cells that conducted frequent hit-and-run anti-tank missile attacks and ambushes from a wide network of bunkers and tunnels for a guerilla defense-in-depth strategy ....

The pardon

- Biden family, 1987

President Biden pardons his son Hunter Biden

Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Sunday night, a reversal for the president, who repeatedly said he would not use his executive authority to pardon his son or commute his sentence.

"I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice — and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision," Biden said in his statement ...

I guess some are upset about this but I understand it and I think it's ok.

But some Democrats are complaining that Biden has set a bad precedent for future Presidents. Seriously? After Trump in his first term pardoned everyone from his family to his crony Steve Bannon to war criminals? That precedent for Presidents ship had already sailed.

Nepotism +

- Charles Kushner

Trump Names Charles Kushner as Pick for Ambassador to France

President-elect Donald J. Trump announced on Saturday that he would name Charles Kushner, the wealthy real estate executive and father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France, handing one of his earliest and most high-profile ambassador appointments to a close family associate ....

Mr. Kushner, 70, pleaded guilty in 2004 to 16 counts of tax evasion, a single count of retaliating against a federal witness and one of lying to the Federal Election Commission in a case that became a lasting source of embarrassment for the family. As part of the plea, Mr. Kushner admitted to hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, a witness in a federal campaign finance investigation, and sending a videotape of the encounter to his sister ...

Yeah, I remember when that came out years ago. Why shouldn't Trump pick a felon as an ambassador, when he himself is a felon? After all, Trump, a convicted sex offender, has chosen an alleged sex trafficker and an alleged rapist for his cabinet.

And of course, with Jared's dad, it's nepotism. But the nepotism doesn't stop there ...

- Massad Boulos

Massad Boulos picked to be Trump’s senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs

President-elect Donald Trump announced that Massad Boulos, the father-in-law to his daughter Tiffany Trump, will serve as his senior adviser for Arab and Middle Eastern affairs in to a Truth Social post Sunday .... Boulos, a prominent Lebanese-American businessman, is the father of Michael Boulos, Tiffany Trump’s husban ...

I will never forgive the people who voted for the monster for their own gain. Our government under Trump will be a travesty.