All purpose news and politics thread part VII: News & Politics Total Landscaping

[Tami]

A Times Investigation Tracked Israel’s Use of One of Its Most Destructive Bombs in South Gaza

During the first six weeks of the war in Gaza, Israel routinely used one of its biggest and most destructive bombs in areas it designated safe for civilians, according to an analysis of visual evidence by The New York Times.

The video investigation focuses on the use of 2,000-pound bombs in an area of southern Gaza where Israel had ordered civilians to move for safety. While bombs of that size are used by several Western militaries, munitions experts say they are almost never dropped by U.S. forces in densely populated areas anymore.

The Times programmed an artificial intelligence tool to scan satellite imagery of south Gaza for bomb craters. Times reporters manually reviewed the search results, looking for craters measuring roughly 40 feet across or larger. Munitions experts say typically only 2,000-pound bombs form craters of that size in Gaza’s light, sandy soil.

Ultimately, the investigation identified 208 craters in satellite imagery and drone footage. Because of limited satellite imagery and variations in a bomb’s effects, there are likely to have been many cases that were not captured. But the findings reveal that 2,000-pound bombs posed a pervasive threat to civilians seeking safety across south Gaza.

In response to questions about the bomb’s use in south Gaza, an Israeli military spokesman said in a statement to The Times that Israel’s priority was destroying Hamas and “questions of this kind will be looked into at a later stage.” The spokesman also said that the I.D.F. “takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, as well as 2017, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day posted profiles of Rick Brattin, a member of the Missouri House of Representatives who, in 2014, pushed for a bill that would require any woman seeking an abortion to first get the father’s permission, and when discussing rape exceptions for the bill, Brattin told the media that rape victims would be exempt, but only if they could prove that they were LEGITIMATELY RAPED. When the media asked him if he meant to channel Todd Akin, Brattin scoffed, and said that unlike Akin, he was using “legitimate rape” in the proper context. And believe it or not, that’s not the only insane moment from this guy. He’s also tried to nullify federal gun laws, pass laws to have intelligent design and destiny taught in schools as alternatives to evolution, voted for laws to make it legal for police officers to shoot fleeing suspects (a reaction to the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson), sponsored a law to revoke athletic scholarships from in-state colleges if they even voice support for protesters, tried to bring back firing squads as a valid method of execution, and pushed to impeach Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, just because. In October of 2015, Brattin began campaigning to force Planned Parenthood to have to build a "Vietnam Memorial" styled-wall listing all of the fetuses they've aborted (which would be hard to name them, because you don't name fetuses, you name babies when they're born.), adding his non-factual assertion that fetal tissue was "being sold on the black market", because he wasn't quite being deranged enough. In May of 2017, on the floor of the Missouri House of Representatives, during debate on a bill that would remove workplace protections for the LGBT community and allow employers to fire people for their sexual orientation, Brattin made the particularly bigoted statement that, “When you look at the tenets of religion, of the Bible, of the Quran, of other religions. There is a distinction between homosexuality and just being a human being.” Brattin was term-limited in 2018, and rather than run for a spot in either in the Missouri State Senate, or a run for Congress, he made a run for Cass County Auditor. We’re expecting him to resurface at some point in the future and make a move for higher office, once all the controversy regarding him blows over.

On this date in 2018, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Steve West, a conservative radio personality from Kansas City who in the 2018 elections, ran for the Missouri House of Representatives in District 15, and in August of 2018, crushed the competition in a four candidate GOP Primary to win with 49.5% of the vote. That left West set to face off against Democrat Dan Carpenter in the general election. Except… that never happened. Steve West’s radio show wasn’t filled with so much “conservative views” as it was borderline hate speech. Some of the things he said on his show included:

• On his January 23rd, 2017 program, West said, “Looking back in history, unfortunately, Hitler was right about what was taking place in Germany. And who was behind it.”
• West’s tendency to appear as an alter ego named “Hollywood Hymee”, an anti-Semitic stereotype.
• West made statements deriding Oak Park High School students for choosing a transgender homecoming queen.
• West called Islam “a problem for America” on his show, and on his campaign website.
• West also told a local newspaper that Islam “is a political movement masquerading as a religion and should not receive the benefits we provide religious institutions”.
• In answer to a question about the district’s greatest needs, he told the Gladstone Dispatch that school choice was top on his list: “Many parents and students don’t want to have to deal with alternative sex ed, and the LGBT clubs and staff at all the public schools today.”
• West’s website also mentions that “Vaccines should be optional”, for some anti-vaccer lunacy, combined with John Birch Society paranoia with his claim that
• The day before the 2018 Missouri GOP Primary, West spent time on his program further promoting fanatical conspiracies about “Jewish cabals” that were “harvesting baby parts” through Planned Parenthood, that torture and molest children.

West, of course, tried claiming his quotes were “out of context” and never apologized for any of them. Steve West is enough of a psychotic bigot that his own children warned voters not to vote for their father. It seems pretty obvious, although Steve West might have said his kids were only mad because often fails to pay child support. Steve West his hot, wet garbage, and lost in the 2018 elections.

On this date in 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Steve Baleshiski, who was a candidate for District 30 of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 2018. Baleshiski, a 22 year old college student, was hoping to knock off the sitting Democratic House Speaker of the Connecticut House, Joe Aresimowicz, who was aiming for his eighth term in the legislature. Alas, Baleshiski loves guns enough to void all sympathy, and he responded to David Hogg, who survived the Parkland shooting by getting on his Facebook page and saying Hogg should “burn in Hell”.
iBCNow, all this did was draw attention to Steve Baleshiski’s social media accounts, where people began to realize he had some monstrous views, and he openly literally demonized people who disagreed with him and admitted to being “full of hate” and saying that those who criticize him would “impose 1984 meets Brave New World meets the will of Satan on my family”. In other posts, he was also dismissive of climate change, bigoted towards Muslims by saying they “worshipping the Devil”, and advocated for shooting and killing looters during national disasters. Baleshiski ended up dropping out of the race on October 11th, 2018, because people were now aware he was a rage-tainted, ignorant bigot.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Angela Stanton-King, a 2020 candidate for Congress in Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, looking to unseat the late, great Congressman John Lewis, and using her own Dark Helmet-like relationship to one of Lewis’ leaders in the Civil Rights movement as credibility to challenge him. Yes, Angela Stanton-King is the goddaughter of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s niece. However, she is also an ex-convict who in 2004 went to jail for running a stolen-car ring, which she somehow parlayed into a gig on the reality show the Real Housewives of Atlanta. In early 2020, she was granted a pardon for her crimes by Donald Trump, on the same day he pardoned white collar criminal Michael Milken and Rob Blagojevich. Some nice company she’s got, there. We’re not even prioritizing profiling her because of that… we’re more focused on Stanton-King being the latest in a long list of Republican candidates for Congress in 2020 who supported the Qanon conspiracy theory. She was confronted with her support for it in an interview with the newspaper The Guardian and stormed out of an interview after admitting she believed it. Among the ridiculous and disgusting threads of the conspiracy she promoted were that the online furniture website Wayfair was aiding in human trafficking with items listed on its website that were actually sex slaves for sale, and her own positing that BlackLivesMatter was covering up “pedophilia and sex trafficking”. She tried lying briefly during the interview that her tweets about the Qanon “storm” coming were really a discussion of the weather in Atlanta that day, but the Guardian fact-checked and found it was hot and sunny, because of course it was. As long as we’re pointing out how desperate she was to attack non-existent pedophile rings, we’ll point out that just after announcing her candidacy for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, Stanton-King opted to get on social media and volunteer her opinion about how the LGBTQ community were in support of “pedophilia” and bizarrely chose to use a photo of NBA star Dwayne Wade’s transgender daughter in the insane homophobic attack before going on to claim that people were more forgiving of transgender people than they are of ex-convicts. She promptly then shielded herself from critics who called her out by hiding behind her 19 year old son, who identifies as gay, and an aunt she said was gay as why she couldn’t be homophobic (it doesn’t work that way). We were grieved when John Lewis passed away, and at first, were terrified that his seat in Congress might fall to this lunatic. Thankfully, Georgia State Senator Nikema Williams stepped up to fill the void Lewis would leave on the Democratic ticket and wiped the floor with Angela Stanton-King on Election Day. In the end, Stanton-King only got 15% of the vote. We are hoping that her political career is dead on arrival, and that her reality show celebrity status is not far behind it in line at the morgue.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Brian Kolb, who was a member of the New York State Assembly from 2008-2021 who, after his initial election, was able to run unopposed for over a decade. His final years in office saw him vote against measures to stop police officers from racial profiling, voted against a bill to prevent the use of 3D printers to make firearms, voted against a bill to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression, and voted against a bill to allow for absentee voting by all voters in New York in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Long story short, while Kolb rose to lead the Republican contingent in the New York State Assembly, he didn’t run for re-election in 2020 because after he posted a series of progressively damning things on Twitter in late 2019… it started with a reminder to not drink and drive on December 26th, and then four nights later on December 30th, yelling about how Democrats were “week on crime”. The next night, Brian Kolb crashed his car off the side of a road into a ditch, and police arriving on scene cited him for DUI. The New York media and Democrats covered the story and he apparently thought this would be enough to put a nail in the coffin of his career. We’ll wish him a “good riddance” salute and wonder how somehow, this is one of the least irresponsible things we’ve seen a Republican say or do, even though it still can get someone killed.

On this date in 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Rachel Hamm, a 2022 candidate to be the Secretary of State of California, and to thus oversee their elections who insists that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and that he actually somehow won California, rather than lost it by 30 points, because she saw so many Trump signs while driving around the state when she should have been socially distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as her abilities as an “empath”, who can feel the “vibes”. She also claims “Satanists” were secretly running the daycare she went to as a child, that said devil-worshippers also once had a blood sacrifice of a raven on her front lawn, and that she had a dream that someone was trying to break into her house murder her, but she prayed in her dream only to awake and learn that her neighbor had been murdered, but she was a witch, so hey, there’s the power of prayer at work. She also describes the Covid-19 vaccines as “the fruits of evil”, and supports the Qanon conspiracy theory, praising it for supposedly bringing its adherents to what she thinks passes for Christianity. We will set aside her profile at this time to profile another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1269-60, since this was established in July 2014.


Bruce Bostelman
Welcome to what is the 1269th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Nebraska State Senator Bruce Bostelman, who was first elected to District 23 of that body back in 2016, and is currently in his second term in office. While he is a bit of an anti-choice hard-liner, backing Gov. Pete Ricketts’ ban on teaching Critical Race Theory (which no one was teaching), and once co-sponsoring a ban on abortion at twelve weeks, we’ve got to just point out this guy has, for whatever reason, repeatedly flogged the same silly conspiracy theory.

You see, Bruce Bostleman believes that public schools are being overrun by an outbreak of Furries, and that school staff are enabling their lifestyle in class:

”If you don't know what furries are, it's when kids dress up as cats or dogs, during the school day... They meow and they bark and they interact with their school, with their teachers in this fashion. Schools are wanting to put litter boxes in... for kids to use.”

He continued to lie and claim that a child not supplied with a litterbox defecated on the floor in protest, and that other students were supposedly not allowed to attend school while wearing an American flag shirt.

Now, maybe… just maybe when this moron is up for re-election in 2024, someone is going to challenge him, either in a primary, or for his seat. Because it’s high time from coast to coast, a conscious effort was made by the voting electorate to rid our government of people who want to legislate over a fantasy world.

[Mister Mets]

So, legal eggheads are saying Trump is a major threat to democracy, but the specter of him being left off the ballot is also a threat to democracy. Christ on a crutch, which is it? The answer damn sure can’t be both. The REAL danger is what would happen to the country, AND to democracy if Trump were to win, and everyone knows it. In my mind, it’s not that hard a choice. I’ll take my chances with a constitutional crisis over having a sociopath with vengeance on the brain in the Oval Office.

It shouldn't matter that it's Trump. This shouldn't be a pretext to go after him.

Granted, there's an overlap between denying the results of an election and being the type of politician who is a threat to democracy.

Some people need to go back and watch the Jan 6 hearings. Trump denied the results of the electoral college, summoned an armed mob to D.C. and commanded them to march on the Capitol to halt the democratic passage of power.

And Thomas should recuse himself from this vote based on his wife's tweets during the events of Jan 6th.

The big question remains whether Trump engaged in insurrection.

Right now, this was all decided by one judge in an expedited hearing (The state supreme court ruled on her interpretation that the 14th amendment didn't apply to Trump and didn't investigate questions of fact.)

One criticism that seems flawed is that Trump was told in advance that members of the crowd may be armed. But there wasn't really brandishing a firearm inside the capitol.

Trump hasn't been found guilty of insurrection. He hasn't been prosecuted for it.

There is no serious evidence that Trump, or anyone in politics, knew in advance that the crowd would get into the capitol.

The main argument would be that he wanted something bad to happen, in order to take advantage of chaos. He didn't know what it would be, but that wasn't relevant to his plan. And when the attack on the capitol occurred, he waited to tell them that he loved them and needed them to go home.

But if it’s obvious that Trump committed specific crimes then he should be tried for them, found guilty, then not allowed to stand for President in any state.

It’s not an acceptable procedure for one state to just decide it’s “obvious” and to do it without a trial.

All my opinion, of course. (But people supporting the decision now need to remember that if it stands that at some future date somebody other than Trump will find themselves treated the same way.)

But I’ll make a prediction. It will go to the Supreme Court, and the Colorado decision won’t stand.

I agree that it's most likely the Supreme court won't agree with the Colorado court.

There are legitimate questions on whether the 14th amendment applies to Trump.

Engagement in insurrection is more difficult to establish than whether someone was born before 1990.

A counterpoint would be that two-thirds of the Senate can overrule a ban on someone declared to be an insurrectionist seeking or holding office, so that's the mechanism to avoid this being used too flippantly.

A counter-counterpoint would be that in today's political climate if someone used an excuse to kick a Democrat off the ballot (IE- claiming that humanitarian aide is aid and comfort to the enemy) there likely wouldn't be enough Senate Republicans willing to overrule it.

U.S. will support Gaza resolution in U.N. Security Council

Has there been an UN resolution telling Hamas to surrender? That would resolve the problem.

[Tami]

Hunter Biden Text Cited in Impeachment Inquiry Is Not What G.O.P. Suggests

In January 2019, Hunter Biden sent a text message to his daughter Naomi.

“I Hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro 30 years,” he wrote in the typo-filled message. “It’s really hard. But don’t worry unlike Pop I won’t make you give me half your salary.”

But a close examination of the circumstances surrounding the 2019 text message, along with others that have been cited by Republicans during the impeachment inquiry and elsewhere to suggest that Hunter Biden’s foreign income was shared with or benefited his father, shows the extent to which the contents of the communications have been misunderstood or outright distorted. And while it does not rule out the possibility that House Republicans could unearth evidence showing wrongdoing by President Biden, it underscores the flimsy nature of the material they have presented publicly so far.

Hunter felt dejected, and, while apparently under the influence of drugs, wrote a series of angry and often nonsensical messages to Naomi in which he threatened to cut her off financially.

“Find an apartment with Peter by next week,” Hunter instructed. “And send me the keys and leave all of my furniture and art. I love all of you. But I don’t receive any respect.”

Then he sent the text message that Republicans have used to suggest that Hunter’s foreign income was going to enrich his father.

The story behind Hunter’s allusion to handing half of his salary to his father can be traced back to his childhood, and to the family’s conflicted relationship with money and class.

The way Hunter tells it, he and his older brother, Beau, grew up in a middle-class family. But their father was drawn to grand estates, and they lived in a 10,000-square-foot mansion with its own ballroom in Greenville, Del. (To save money, Joe Biden did most of the home repairs and improvements himself, and in winter closed off large sections with drywall to save on heating costs.)

While the family occasionally went on ski trips to Vail, a winter playground for wealthier families, the Bidens made their own sandwiches so they would not have to buy the expensive lunches sold out on the mountain, recalled their host, Roger Harrison, a longtime family friend whose brother owned the condo where the Bidens stayed free of charge.

The elder Mr. Biden encouraged his sons to find weekend and summer jobs to help pay for their personal expenses. They mowed neighbors’ lawns. Hunter worked at the Brandywine Zoo, and they both got jobs at Delaware Cold Storage, where Hunter was responsible for unloading rail cars carrying frozen beef while Beau pushed papers in the front office.

“The boys had to pay for everything they had growing up,” said Brian McGlinchey, a high school classmate.

Ted Dziak, a chaplain-in-residence in Hunter’s freshman dorm, said, “He didn’t have the money that I would have thought that a U.S. senator’s son would have had, so he was always looking for funds, looking to find a job or doing things that would earn him a little bit of money for college.”

Hunter’s oft-told story about giving half of his salary to his father appeared to originate during his freshman year at Georgetown.

His roommate at the time recalled Hunter telling him and his twin brother “a million times” that then-Senator Biden encouraged him to work, saying, “You can keep half of the paycheck, but you have to hand over the other half for ‘room and board.’”

[babyblob]

The big question remains whether Trump engaged in insurrection.

There is no question of whether Trump engaged in insurrection. We all heard his speech and the speeches of his allies on that day and the days leading up to it. He refused to call the terrorists off after being begged to by many people, he refused to call in any form of help, he called them special people and he loved them.

The only people who seem to think it is up in the air are his cult or members of the GOP afraid to go after him for fear of losing the support of his cult.

Just because he has not been convicted in a court of law does not make him innocent.

[4saken1]

Why does Rudy owe Hunter Biden a sum too big to mention?
https://themessenger.com/business/gi...-mystery-debts

Hunter has a lawsuit against Giuliani which has not been resolved yet.

Hunter Biden has sued Rudy Giuliani and his lawyer, alleging “total annihilation” of his digital privacy through attempts to tie his legal and personal problems to his father, President Joe Biden, through claims about an infamous laptop and hard drive.


Filed in US district court in California, where Hunter Biden lives, the suit says the former New York mayor turned Donald Trump attorney and his own lawyer, Robert Costello, “are among those … primarily responsible for what has been described as the ‘total annihilation’ of [Hunter Biden’s] digital privacy.

“They also are among those who have been primarily responsible for the ‘total annihilation’ of plaintiff’s data.”

The defendants are alleged to have “dedicated an extraordinary amount of time and energy toward looking for, hacking into, tampering with, manipulating, copying, disseminating, and generally obsessing over data that they were given that was taken or stolen from [Hunter Biden’s] devices or storage platforms, including what defendants claim to have obtained from [Biden’s] alleged ‘laptop’ computer”.

[JackDaw]

Just because he has not been convicted in a court of law does not make him innocent.

Of course not. But it does mean he’s entitled to be treated as if he’s innocent….unless you’re happy to ditch that long established principle.

( “Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”….Robert Bolt, “A Man for All Seasons”.)

[4saken1]

I hope Giuliani's bankruptcy is resolved quickly so that Freeman and Moss can sue him again when he is unable to control his urge to lie again!

[babyblob]

Of course not. But it does mean he’s entitled to be treated as if he’s innocent….unless you’re happy to ditch that long established principle.

( “Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”….Robert Bolt, “A Man for All Seasons”.)

Removing him from the ballot in CO I am a little iffy on because he has not been convicted and it would be used to abuse in too many other situations.

But let us not pretend we didnt hear Trumps words where he sent them to the capital, where his allies said it was going to be a battle and to fight like Hell and say that he in part did not have a part in the insurrection.

[Jack Dracula]

Probably required by the Secret Service. Trump, based on Jan 6 Committee testimony, wanted to be with the insurrectionists but the Secret Service wouldn't let jim. He also pushed to let everyone in regardless if they were carrying weapons, but the Secret Service and Capital Police pushed back. Bottom line, I doubt Trump believed he was in any danger so the choice wasn't his.

Important to note that his protests despite some of the crowd being armed is an admission of the level of danger he knowingly put the police officers and everyone at the Capitol in that day. Proof it was never intended to be a peaceful protest.

[Mister Mets]

Important to note that his protests despite some of the crowd being armed is an admission of the level of danger he knowingly put the police officers and everyone at the Capitol in that day. Proof it was never intended to be a peaceful protest.

Did they use guns to commit violence?

[shooshoomanjoe]

Did they use guns to commit violence?

No. They used Blue Lives Matter banners to beat up DC cops. I love the irony.

[AnakinFlair]

I hope Giuliani's bankruptcy is resolved quickly so that Freeman and Moss can sue him again when he is unable to control his urge to lie again!

They already did.

[Jack Dracula]

Did they use guns to commit violence?

What specific argument are you supporting by placing that stipulation on the situation?